Weekly Running Review (12/7/09 — 12/13/09)

Observations: By far the highest quality week of running I’ve had to date.  I’m very encouraged by the pace.  Last week was lower at 8:18 but skewed by only 4 running days with one of them being intervals.  This week was certainly more meaningful (5 days, no intervals).  A few lessons learned.  After 3 heavy weeks of running (40+ miles), my body demands a lower mileage week to recover.  It’s happened in consecutive months.  Therefore, I take that to mean I need to listen to my body.  Also, I need to put the ego aside on number of days run per week as well as the “magical” 50+ mpw.  While I am sure there is benefit to both, I am responding better to 5 run days and mileage in the mid 40’s.   The end of my most recent 50-mile week felt junky.  I don’t like that feeling.   It kind of defeats the purpose of running … miles for the sake of miles is silly.  By comparison, this week each run was solid from the first mile to the last.  When I am in full on marathon training (12-16 weeks out), I can work towards ratcheting up the weekly miles age.  Otherwise, if I average 45 mpw, I’m still ahead on pace for an 1,800 mile year.  This calendar year I’m on pace for ~1,420.  However, considering that I didn’t turn it on until August, that is still decent mileage for a beginner.  Good bounce back week, except I need to get core exercises back up.