Training Recap: Week 11, Jan 30 - Feb 04

44 miles total this week, another successful one in the books that I am very thankful for. Unfortunately I received some surprising and sad news that one of my friends from my basketball group has recently passed away. I learned about this on friday and so decided I would dedicate my 16 mile long run to him, including improvising a running course that passes by the gym where we have played together for the last several winters. While a 16 mile run most people would assume is a big achievement I consider this only a very small token of respect I can offer him.

M: off (used the "no training partners" excuse, but also my body really needed it after saturday's 20 miler that included 4mi tempo intervals, and another run on sunday)

T: 8mi tot with 1000m tempo intervals: 1.4mi warmup + 6x {1K @ 6:20-6:30/mi, 2min recovery}, 1.4mi cooldown. For the final 1K interval I turned on the jets (relatively speaking) for a 6:04/mi pace

W: 8mi starting at recovery pace then progressively working to sub 7:00/mi in final 2 miles

T: 7.5mi tot: 5.75mi at brisk paces down to 6:27/mi for the last 3/4 mi. Then, 12x 20sec uphill sprints in 4 sets of 3 (starting with left foot forward, right foot forward, facing backward & spin & go, prone position & jump up & go)

F: off

S: 16mi in 1:55 for 7:15/mi pace overall. Did this one solo, so I had to work on the mental edge to not quit early (the route needed some tweaking at the end to make it 16 tot). Glad I did not, especially on this day. Worked this one pretty well I think with a consistent pace, faster than planned (would have been 7:30 working down to 7:20 for final miles).

S: 4.5mi @ 7:10/mi pace

Summary after 12 weeks of training for Boston (we're past the half way mark)!