Training Week 23 Recap (13 days to go!)

Two weeks from now, another Western States Endurance Run will be in the books, hopefully this time with my name on the list of finishers. It doesn't seem possible to be so close to running a race I've been working toward for the past six months. Even worse, I'm pretty much in taper mode right now, so I'm starting to second guess my training, my preparation, my ability to run 100.2 miles in one day. If ever there was a time to have faith, it's now.

On the Wounded Warrior Project fundraising side of things, we're only a few hundred dollars from reaching the $12,000 mark. Remember, every dollar counts...please join me in supporting our wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan if you can!

Here's what I did in the 23rd week of my training:

Monday: 5.05 miles. Note to self: don't eat cheese at the charity board meeting you attend right before the race. Your stomach will thank you later.

Tuesday: 5.29 miles.

Wednesday: 5.15 miles. And the legs are still heavy...

Thursday: 8.11 miles. In an effort to break free from the lead leg syndrome gripping me since Memorial Day, I hit the track...four of them, actually, after the first one had a lacrosse game, the second one was torn up for football field construction, and the third one had a local running store's speed night featuring what appeared to be no fewer than half a million runners. I ended up on the blacktop track of the local middle school for 5x800s in 2:51, 2:47, 2:48, 2:49, and 2:44. It was hot, and even moreso, it was humid, but I knocked out the workout and reminded my legs that they in fact could run fast.

Friday: 5.15 miles.

Saturday: 17.18 miles. I ran from the house to a state park a few miles away, did a four mile loop on one of its trails, and then took the scenic route home. Overall, a solid workout.

Sunday: 14.12 miles. What a difference the cooler weather made! I actually felt like I could run for the first time in two weeks!

Total Week 23: 60.05 miles. I'll cut back about 25% this coming week, with one final track workout.

Two weeks to go. Unreal.