Week Five (December 27th to January 2nd)

Sunday (12/27): 18.1 miles in 2:00.30 (6:39/mi)

9:00am – Met up with Justin and Jimmy to do our LR. Ran some of the loops we used to do in high school which was pretty cool. Took it easy and was glad to do so as my upper quads were pretty tired from yesterdays little workout. As time went on I was feeling better, and once we all broke off I decided to start a push around 100min. Ended up doing a 21 min push for exactly 4 miles (5:29/mi). It was pretty progressive, as I was moving along well towards the end – probably around 5:10ish pace. I passed a cyclist and heard him mumble “are you kidding me”. That always helps the motivation. Good run and nice weather for it. I'm start to throw in a couple 20 milers a few weeks later - mainly when I hit my peak weeks for volume. As far as I'm concerned 17-18 miles every 7 days is good enough for me. I feel like if I want to start upping my LR's to 20 miles, then I should probably extend the rest in between to 10 days - anyways a LR every 7 days isn't completely necessary.

Monday (12/28): 13 miles in 1:28.00 (6:46/mi)

 Was at my dads with Rach. I joined her for her 4 miles of tempo, and then once she was done and went back to the house I continued on to run some more as she was only doing 7 miles or so. My upper quads were relatively sore, probably this time from the LR and no the secondary on Saturday. 6 strides towards the end of the run. The sun was setting towards the end of the run which was great because it looked really cool.

Tuesday (12/29): AM (Primary) -  11 miles in 1:03.20 (5:45/mi) PM - 7 miles in 43:30 (6:13/mi)

10:00am - Did a progressive 10 miler with Shamus, and Jared did 6 with us. The total run was 11 miles as we did a half mile warm up and cooldown to and from the 3 mile loop we ran on. It was just supposed to be a high end aerobic run, so more like a maintenance plus pace. At the end of the 3rd loop Shamus and I went a half mile out and turned back to make it 10. It was a controlled run and the whole time we were running faster than anticipated. Especially for the last mile which was 5:01-2. We were also talking the entire time, so it was obviously relatively relaxed. The wind was a steady 20 mph with gusts of 50 degrees bringing the wind chill down to -15*. Frankly, I didnt think it was all that bad aside from the frozen face, and we never encountered any terrible gusts.
Summary: 17:37.8, 16:54.4, 16:23.6, 5:01.6 = 10 miles in 55:57.4 (5:35.7/mi)

4:00pm – Just ran on my own. Started off easy and as I warmed up dropped the pace slightly. 6 quick strides towards the end as ins and outs. My IT bands were a bit sore in the beginning, but as I ran faster it sort of helped loosen them up.

Wednesday (12/30): AM - 10.6 miles in 1:04.30 (6:05/mi) PM - 7.7 miles in 56:00 (7:16/mi)

8:30am - I started off real easy since my legs were feeling pretty lethargic and stiff. Once I was feeling a little normal I threw in a 30s stride which felt pretty good. I then decided to do a 30s stride every 5 minutes to break up the run. It helped to make the run go by faster. I ended up doing 10 of them by the end of the run.
Note: Left foot thing was very noticeable for 20 minutes of the run, but slowly went away/got numb. This leads me to believe its not a neuroma as a nerve issue wouldn't numb like that (or that quickly).
4:30pm - Ran 6 miles with Rach then tacked on an extra 10 minutes. Nice to take it easy. Both achilles slightly sore to the touch after, gotta focus on making sure that they don't get worse. AI after and epsom salt bath which helped the achilles, soreness gone.

Thursday (12/31): AM - 12 miles in 1:22.00 (6:50/mi) PM - 6.1 miles in 40:20 (6:37/mi)

10:00am - Rach and I ran at the same time. It had started snowing once we started running, so there was a dusting of snow on the roads. This actually wasn't bad at all, until it turned in to slush. Nevertheless an okay run, sort of went by slow though. I tacked on more after Rach finished.
4:30pm - Ran with Jerry and Justin. An out and back on Brandle. The roads were better than in the morning. We just cruised and talked. Nice to run with people. Felt like the run was quicker than it actually was.
Note - previous 7 day volume @ 118.2 miles, highest ever!

Friday (1/1/10): 13.9 miles in 1:36.00 (6:54/mi)

10:00am - Started out a tad bit rough due to some sleep deprivation since I had trouble sleeping (and of course didn't get to bed until ~2am). Running with a group of guys I haven't run with in awhile sure helped out as well. Everyone broke off at different times, so I ended up doing about 20-30 minutes on my own. During this time I went to a hill and did 10x12s hill sprints, with active recovery to make it a circuit. I did 2 strides after on the way back to Justins house, but they felt awful after the hill sprints so I stopped.
 

Saturday (1/2): AM - 6 miles in 42:30 (7:05/mi) PM - 10.6 miles in 1:10.30 (6:39/mi)
10:00am - An easy run down Brandle and back. The roads were pretty bad at this point - Brandle had a couple snow drifts that took up the width of the road, were about 20-30m long and 2' high. Those were a bit rough to run through. The way back sucked since it was in to the wind which was a bit cold and...windy. Chose to do the shorter run early since Rach was leaving this afternoon and I wanted to have a little more time to hang out with her.
5:30pm - Didn't plan on running this late...This run was one of the more frustrating ones thus far (for the winter). Had to stay around town to run under lights since it was dark out. The wind was relentless, and it was about -5* out. The worst part was probably the first 10 minutes though, on account that after you get used to it, it doesn't really get any worse. Would have really liked to get a workout in today but there were a lot of setbacks leading to me not being able to get a workout in. The weather of course being on of these. I found myself thinking about how much better my training may be if I didn't live in the northeast - it got me frustrated so I stopped thinking about it.

Week Summary:

 Again, not a bad week. Highest volume for a training week thus far which is nice. I tried to make sure a few of my maintenance runs were decently fast, just because I'm running more doesn't mean it needs to be LSD (long, slow, distance). This week ended up sort of being a down week in terms of workout intensity, it wasn't planned but it could be helpful in allowing my body to absorb the training I've been doing. Next week the volume will be similar, but the intensity will be increased (in terms of workouts). This volume is still very manageable, which means I'll probably hit around 120 for my peak of the training block (with workouts of course). The whole purpose of this training block is to try and push my training to another level and see how I react. I hope to average around 105 mpw, with a large variety of intensive workouts. 85 mpw is the highest I've averaged for a season, and the workouts I'm doing now are much higher in volume, while still doing some at the same pace (since during the specific period most of my secondaries will be 5k/10k based workouts.

116 miles
12:47 hrs
Primary: 10 mile progressive AT
Secondary: None
11 runs

Yearly Review:
3921 miles in 2009
10.74 mpd avg
75.2 mpw avg