Slacking, Already

Fortunately not in my running, just in recounting it.  In my defense, I was pretty beat up after my longest-run-of-the-cycle on Saturday, and completely forgot on Sunday.

So, training for the week of of March 28-April 3.  I was coming off a 21k (~half marathon) that turned into something closer to a 23k (14.3 miles) trail race on Saturday, but wanted to push things a bit since this was week 1 of a 3-week peak period in which I'll basically bury myself and become a sleep-craving zombie until taper, when the process will reverse itself.

Mon - 8 miles @ 7:36 pace.
Tue - 8 miles @ 7:47 pace.
Wed - 15 miles @ 7:48 pace.*
Thu - 5.3 miles @ 9:02 pace + four 10-second hill sprints in the morning, 2 very easy miles + 1 mile around MP in the afternoon.
Fri - always an off day.  Dug up ~150ft^2 of the lawn to make room for a new vegetable garden addition.
Sat - 22.6 miles @ 8:21 pace.**
Sun - 7 @ 8:47 + five "strides"/hill sprints.***

Total - 69 for the week (longest Mon-Sun week to date).

*Wednesday's run started in just under 70 degree weather and ended in the low 80's.  The last four miles were definitely a gut-check.
**Something about this run really, really hurt.  It didn't help that my back was pretty sore from Friday's yardwork.  Aerobically, it was a cakewalk.  But it really tore up my knees and miles 17-20 were really tough.  Not to mention that I had to pee for the entire first hour and there were no public bathrooms on the route...  This is the Newport Back Bay loop, by the way.  By mile 20, I was dehydrated, having trouble keeping cool, in a lot of pain, but the body just went on autopilot and brought me home.
***Strides are an exercise in which you gradually (over the course of 100m or so) accelerate to a near-maximal effort, hold that for 5 seconds, then gradually slow down again.  It teaches you to increase your turnover and gives your legs some zip without tiring you out.  Hill sprints are an 8-10 second maximal effort up as steep of a hill as you can find.  The purpose of these is to strengthen joints/stabilizing muscles while greatly decreasing the amount of impact on your legs in a sprint, since you're going uphill.  

Aside from the beating I took on Saturday, the entire week was a huge confidence booster, especially after the race on Saturday.  More about that in the next post, though; I'm waiting to see if more photos get posted online from it.