Last Week

It was another solid week of training. 

On Saturday I laced up the spikes for the first time this decade for a workout at Cell Phone Field. Essentially the goal was to get use to running hard over grass during a given period of time. We started off by running two sets of twelve minutes "on". My GPS beeped off splits of 5:23 & 5:13 on the first rep and 5:12 & 5:14 on the second rep. Next, in an effort to switch up the pace, we ran 5 x 45 seconds "on". Aside from some stomach pain, the workout went swimmingly. Surprisingly my calves felt fine the next day, despite running almost 7 miles in spikes (rest between sets included of course). 

On Sunday I met a few dudes at Riley's Lock for a long run. For the most part, I felt good, but as the pace quickened (sub-6:00) my legs grew tired, likely as a result of the workout. Thankfully, everyone decided to back off. 

I finished up the week with 72 miles; the 7th week in a row averaging just over 10-miles per day. I'm very happy with how training is going. I'm getting both faster and stronger each week...and most importantly experiencing little to no pain. I'd like to think I am in better shape than I was this past spring, but it's too early to tell. From here on out, I'm completely focused on Army Ten Miler and need to work on getting comfortable running 5:05 - 5:10 pace for the next couple of weeks. This coming weekend I'm hoping to run 4 miles at pace on the towpath. Next weekend I have a hilly 5 miler I'll run in New Hampshire as a workout and the weekend after that, just 7-8 days prior to Army, I'll try to jump in a fast 5k. 

Army Ten Miler behind me, I'll try to uptick the mileage (85 mpw) and begin to focus more on strength-based workouts in preparation for XC Clubs in Lexington (December) and the marathon in Phoenix (January).