Test Results: Good

Aside from the 14 I ran on Sunday, almost every mile run this week (70) has been on natural terrain. It's been awhile since I've been fortunate enough to do that. It was another good week...

On Thursday I ran 8 with CTR in the trails around Lake Frank. I feel like I finally have a good, non-repeating, loop to do when I go there. We saw a barred owl.

On Friday I ran 8 with Luff at Cabin John. Note to self - running up and down dirt trails for 8 miles feels like 9-10 on the roads.

On Saturday I ran from the GRC over to TR Island with Murphy. We ran 8 miles of loops there before heading back across the bridge to Georgetown. The wind was wicked. 10.

I woke up feeling awful on Sunday morning. I hadn't eaten much on Saturday and by the time dinner rolled around that night I was ravenous. I gorged myself on an entire large spicy meatball pizza from Matchbox. I washed the pie down with a couple of bourbon-tinis and some suds while sharking pool at Hank's Tavern. By morning, my tummy was upset at me. I met some of the guys running the Boston Marathon at B-CC and hopped in part of their workout, but for the most part I ran solo. I never ran a mile over 7:00 and much of it was run under 6:30 pace, but aside from that there was nothing much to report.

I haven't missed a day of running since returning from Africa over 4 weeks ago. During that time, I averaged 68 mpw or about 9.7 mpd. Based on what I was doing while I was overseas (nothing) and what I was doing prior to leaving (25-50mpw) this was a considerable jump. I've made jumps like this before, sometimes with undesirable consequences. I wasn't sure whether this risk would reap any rewards (and it is still too early to tell), but I am happy with where I am right now. I am running consistent weekly long (14+) runs and hitting the track at least once every 7 days. Although I am tired and my step doesn't have much of a spring, I can tell that deep down inside my legs are getting stronger. I finished up this week with 70 miles. After running 70 last week (67 the week before and 65 the week before that), I wanted to uptick, but I am reminded of my injury that still creeps in the shadows. Seventy, maybe seventy five, is all the mileage I'll be doing in a week for the foreseeable future. Instead I'll focus on getting faster in workouts and running longer/harder on Sundays - all within that 10-mile-a-day cap. 

Cherry Blossom is 34 days away. Although I will be far from peak shape, I will certainly peak and taper for it, which means I really only have about 4 more weeks of training before it is go time. It is far too early to make time predictions, that'll come in the final week before the race.

So far, so good. 

Onward.