100 mile week

Time to reflect on the training in the attempt to go sub 3:00 at the Snickers Marathon, in Albany, Georgia on March 5th. This week I should be racing to see where my fitness lies. Instead, the prior week I ran the most miles ever, 102.5 miles in one week. That number was achieved by a 22 mile double of Percy Warner Park on Sunday, roughly 10 miles per day afterwards and followed by 31 miles on Saturday, January 1, 2011.

Doubling the 11.2 at PWP is something I've used in the past to gauge my fitness level. I would like to make the trek to Nashville for this run, about every 3-4 weeks. This trip was complicated by about a half inch of snow that covered everything. Luckily, no ice under the snow, but slippery enough to be left wondering how we didn't manage to fall even once on that outing. The fast master hung around with me for the first 14 miles or so before I told him to go ahead. I was slowing him down. Found some new soreness afterwards as well because of the slippery road. Note to self: Trail shoes next time in the snow. But, wow PWP is great covered in snow!

In hindsight, going over 100 miles was primarily just a silly stunt. The part that I didn't count on was the recovery needed afterwards. I ended up breaking the little running streak I had going. Only 14 days or so, but that had only been interrupted by a single day off before the 40 other days of streaking. Streaking is another silly stunt. Though I do seem to run better without days off or minimal days off. Probably should have done a taper before the 31 miler. Next time.

My fitness has improved, just wish I could find a race to gauge by how much. Attempted a speed workout on Tuesday. That really showed how much recovery is needed after such a big week. I only needed 5 x 2,000 meters at tempo pace. I started struggling to maintain pace on the 3rd repeat and decided to try the next one at marathon pace. Couldn't even get to marathon pace for the 4th repeat and the 5th was even worse. Very long morning.

It wasn't until Thursday that I finally seemed to have the old spring back into my stride. Friday's workout went extremely well. I think my body has recovered from the previous week. The fun part of this workout was starting out with most of the guys and then chasing after them for the entire workout. I was doing a 20 x a minute on and a minute off at about 5k pace, chasing the Wich's who were doing a steady state run. The fast guys were ahead of us, doing their own workout, after we'd all warmed up together. Never did catch the fast guys, but did get close enough that we thought we'd be able to reel them in. The Wich's and I did the yo-yo thing we'd done before with this workout. I'd reel them in, and then do my recovery as they sped away. Then I'd chase them down and repeat. Fun stuff, breaks up the workout anyway.