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I took the weekend off from running when I was in NY, Ill get back into this week with my first workout of the year.

The Week Behind/The Week Ahead

I finished up the week with53 miles. It was another good week, with a good long run and 10 miler with a 3 mile pick up at the end. Todays long run was a little over 13 and the overall pace was under 6:30. Once I start running under 6:15 comfortably, then I know it is time to go. I did a 3 mile pickup in the middle of the week, which is something I picked up from Hudson's book. I usually scheduled workouts with no real easing into the workouts, so the first couple workouts are a shock to the system. With the pickups, I am gradually getting my body ready for tempos later on (2 weeks). The miles were approximately 5:59, 5:53, 5:36. The second mile was the most impressive given where I ran it.
The plan for next week is to take it easy. I will probably only run 6 days as I am heading to new york on Friday to meetup with some old teammates. No workouts, 80 minute long run, 3 days core, and two days of strides.

one week stronger

I ran a little bit more this week than I have been running recently. I finished up with around 56 miles for the week, with a couple days of strides and no workouts. I am hoping next week will be my final week of just easy running. I need to check out the schedule, which will be pretty much the same as last year before I got injured.

Canal

The canal is always my secret weapon during base phase. I do a lot of runs on undulating terrain, and as a result my pace tends to be slower on the whole. Every so often I head out to the canal to get a flat run and give myself a better idea as to where I stand. I headed out there today and got in about 9.5 at sub 6:20 pace feeling pretty solid.

Hopefully I will get in 12-13 this weekend and finish up the week in the mid 50s. I still think I am about 2 weeks away from starting tempos.

getting into shape

I am currently somewhere between in and out of shape. You can tell when you are in shape, when you stop worrying about pace on easy days. When you are out of shape and not quite in shape, pace tends to fluctuate between way to fast and embarrassingly slow. 

Yesterdays run was a good example of having to worry about pace, fortunately it showed not in the out of shape way. I ran the first mile in around 6:45, which is actually a quick first mile for me. The second mile was around 6:15, way to fast for an easy run; but nowhere near as bad as the 5:45 for the third mile. I was pretty sure I slowed down after the second mile, but somehow I picked it back up. I had to look at the watch a couple of times because I was pretty certain I read it wrong and had run a 6:45. It is kind of like when you are getting gas and instead of paying $40 to fill up, now you are paying $20 and you have to check to make sure you are using the 93 instead of the 87 or that the pump didnt just stop temporarily. I ended up stopping for a second to slow myself down after the 5:45. 

I finished the run around 6:30 pace with 6x100 at AU.