30 Mile Week in the Books...

Week 7 of training is now complete and I was able to get in my first 30 mile week since training for the Philadelphia Marathon in 2008. I consider this my first "real" week of this training cycle since the previous ones were only marginally different than my usual running workload throughout the year.

The weather gods treated all of us a little better this week with plenty of sunshine and relatively milder temperatures (but still cold).

I was happy to see that I felt really good and strong for the week. The Garmin is definitely helping me out. I haven't used the heart rate monitor yet, but being able to get a real time view of my pace throughout the run is a big plus. It allows me to adjust my pace on the fly and lets me know that I am usually going a little faster than I think I am. I started off the week with a 6.4 mile run as part of the downtown Flyer group. I like getting this run in since it gives my running week a jump start and allows for great flexibility later in the week. As usual, the first half of the run was a bit slower than the second half. Negative splits usually happen on this run which I am totally fine with. The straightaway along the Westside Highway gives me a chance to lengthen my stride and get in some tempo runs for a couple of miles. My pace drops considerably on this backstretch and it feels great.

I got in a 5 mile run on Tuesday and a spinning class on Thursday before preparing for my 15 mile run during the weekend. I was a little anxious for this run since it was going to be my longest one in almost a year and a half. I wanted to see how my body held up and I was happy to see that it felt great. It feels kind of weird to say that but the run seemed to go by pretty quickly with very few rough patches. I was watching the Opening Ceremonies late the night before, so I knew the only way that I was going to get in my long run in the morning was to meet the Flyer group at 9AM. Although it would be tough to wake up, I knew that it posed my best chance to get out of my apartment. I ran with the Flyer group for the first 6 mile loop, mostly with JB, and then did a 5 mile loop and 4 mile loop on my own. I even did most of the run (11 miles) without any music - that's a first. I did the run in about 2:12 (total mileage of 15.3 miles for a pace of about 8:40) and felt pretty comfortable throughout the entire thing. Again, the Garmin was a great companion to have and let me know when to speed up and slow down. Sunday was just a 4 mile recovery run at about 8:50 pace.

This week will be a little bit harder to get in all of my runs since I am heading down to Mexico for a friend's wedding on Thursday. The plan is to get a weights day, 5-6 mile run, and my 13 mile long run out of the way before I leave. Therefore, if I am not able to do any runs at all during my trip, my long run will not have suffered. The training schedule calls for 30 miles this week, so if I do what I planned before I leave, and get in at least one 5 or 6 mile run while I am away, my training will not have suffered much at all.