AM: 11 miles with Holly in addition to a decent sized group (Jake, Jon Kotter, Josh, Rob, Kramer, and one of Rob's other athletes whose name I didn't catch). HHS to Tanner to Wasatch to Zoo loop, to Foothill, back to HHS, finishing with a little loop to get it up to 11. Holly stopped to poop about 20 seconds into the run, so I started by playing catchup and didn't get back to the group until almost the mile mark, after losing a full minute. When up on Wasatch, Holly stopped to poop again right as the guys were picking it up a little bit. This time, her poop bag had a hole in it, which I didn't initially realize, so I ended up finishing the run with dog crap on my hands. This was not pleasant. Also, I lost another minute+ here and ended up having to drop the pace into the 5:40s on a long flat section to catch up. My legs were pretty tired from last night's workout, but it was nice to see that I could comfortably get it going that fast. Overall pace was 7:04 for the 11 miles with 775' of gain (775' of both gain and loss is only enough to slow the run down a hair over 2 minutes, but that's still significant), so probably not as easy as it should've been after the workout, but whatever. Taper starts now, so I have 2 weeks to recover. :)
Looking back at the last 14 weeks, I've only had one week lower than 70 (the week of my dissertation proposal), giving me a total of 1 week in the 50s, 9 weeks in the 70s, and 4 weeks in the 80s. I think this has been perfect for me. I've averaged 73.5 miles/week for 14 weeks, 75.3/week discounting the one down week, and have been remarkably consistent from week to week. My biggest week has been 87 miles, so I've avoided the temptation to overdo it. This week, I saw myself going over 90 if I didn't take a day off, so I made the smat decision to take a day off. Overall, this is both the smartest and most consistent training I've ever had for a marathon, so as long as I don't do anything stupid in the next 2 weeks (which I won't) and as long as I show up healthy at the starting line (will be washing my hands a LOT over the next 2 weeks to avoid a repeat of last year), I should be ready for a very nice PR. My legs were tired after today's run, but they just feel strong and I have the sense that they will be ready for something special as soon as I get to the starting line in 14 days.
PM: Ski day #33 of the season. Legs were really tired and the snow was really heavy due to high temps, so it could've been better. Only stayed there for like 90 minutes.
Later PM: 3 mile hike/walk with Holly in City Creek Canyon.
Really tired now. Time to watch Olympics. :)
| 