Week Six is in the bag, and for the third time in four weeks, I've set a mileage PR! It was a goofy weather week...extremely cold temperatures much of the week, finishing up with 60 degree weather today.
Monday: 6.25 easy miles.
Tuesday: 10.12 miles, including 7 tempo miles. I ran this entire run on an indoor track, 8 1/2 laps to the mile. After 86 laps, I was finally done. It was not fun.
Wednesday: 8.12 miles. Hey, I just finished 86 laps last night...why not do another 69 this morning? The best thing I can say is that it was done.
Thursday: 9.18 miles, including a pyramid of intervals on the Clayton HS track. 800/1200/1600/1200/800...overall, a pretty consistent performance. I had never run on this track before, and I guess you could say I still haven't, because it still had several inches of hard-packed ice and snow on it. My shoes never touched the track itself. Unlike my usual track, however, it did not appear to be used regularly, so the surface was flat, if not fast. I ran in the dark, and on occasion I'd feel my left foot step on something soft (the infield) or I'd release that I'd swung wide on the dark turn into the fifth lane. It was an unusual workout.
Friday: 8.12 easy miles. The air temperature was about 10 degrees this morning, but the windchill was brutally cold, hovering at or below zero. I didn't cover my face, and I regretted it.
Saturday: 26.60 miles in three loops of the Lewis Trail. I had a 24 mile run scheduled, but I screwed that up when I decided to run my second loop on the 8.2 mile Lewis Trail in reverse...only to make a wrong turn onto the shorter Clark Trail. It's a bad habit I need to kick, but then again, I'm out running in the woods without any signs. Oh well. It was a beautiful day--temps were in the low 50's--but the trail was still an icy mess. I took my time, finishing each lap in about 90 minutes. I don't know for sure, though, because my Garmin battery died less than two miles into the run while I was fixing my Camelbak strap that broke. I obviously didn't have a good start.
This run had two highlights. The first was running into a four high school-aged hikers about 2 1/2 miles into my run. They asked how far it was to the start, and I told them a bit over 2 miles. Groans all across the group. I was back to my car putting on dry clothes and drinking a gatorade, about 5 1/2 miles later for me, when they emerged from the woods. I asked if they were okay, and they groaned again...when I hit the trail again, one of the boys asked me what I was doing. I said, "Two more laps." They laughed and said, "You're crazy, man!" If they only knew.
The second was on my final lap. I met up with a guy who was running with his dog. We started chatting, and he mentioned befoer I even told him why I was out there that he'd paced a friend several times in Western States! Needless to say, Bert and I had a lot to talk about over our 4 or 5 miles running together. If you're out there reading this, Bert, shoot me a note hello! It was a pleasure running with you!
Sunday: 14.12 miles. This one hurt. I wore shorts, which was great, because temps rose to about 60 degrees. The goal had been 14 miles, 10 at tempo. I hit miles 2-11 in a range of 6:55 to 7:31 (it was a BIG hill!), and while my legs felt okay, they didn't hate me when we got home.
Total Week Six: 82.51 miles. This was a huge PR, by over 10 miles from last week's previous high of 72.05. I certainly will enjoy this week's cutback week. And of course, the big question is when our little one will arrive! 132 days till race day, but only 10 days until the due date!
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