The Training Week That Was… 8/23-9/2

The last week of Summer Break was a fruitful one. The "cycle down" portion of my new training plan has drawn to a close with the completion of yesterdays 13+ mile run and following today's "recovery day" another level of unrelated challenge will added to my plan: I'll be returning to work and therefore put in the position of finding time in my day to run.

In the recap below those miles was schedule to run appear italicized in parentheses. The total mileage I had been scheduled to run this week was 28 miles… and here’s how things went this went down week:

Legend: R = Running, R(T) = Running on Treadmill, Bicycling (B), w/A (with my wife, Anne). I've also noted increases (+x) or decreases (-x) from the previous week)

Monday: (Recovery Day)
Tuesday: (2) R 4.1 miles (2 runs = 2.7 miles solo + 1.4 miles w/A)
Wednesday: (2) R 3.4 miles
Thursday: (4) R 7.2 miles (2 runs = 4.7 miles solo + 2.5 miles w/A)
Friday: (8) R 8 miles
Saturday: (Recovery Day)
Sunday: (10) R 15.8 miles (2 runs = 13.1 miles solo + 2.7 miles w/A)
TOTALS--R 38.5 (+4.4 miles from the previous week)
Weigh-In*: 179 lbs. (-0.5 lb.) [* took place at 5:30 a.m. on 9/3]

The week ended with what I felt was the best race I have run yet. I base this not on my time, although it was good, but on the fact that I was able to set a race-pace and maintain it within a variable of one minute. I had set the goal of doing this rather than my previous "plan," which was no plan at all and I would often start too fast and peter out by the end.

Breathe in, breathe out... YOU AND I ARE ALIVE!