Game On!

The last two weeks began the start of my training surge and gave me my first 20 mile of the schedule and my first 40 mile week. I was happy to see that I got through both milestones and felt pretty good.

I knew last week's 20 miler would be tough to squeeze in due to do all the rain that was scheduled for the weekend. I was checking weather.com and accuweather almost every day to see if there would be any break in the rain all weekend. It was supposed to rain on both Saturday and Sunday, with the worst of it coming on Saturday. I usually don't like to leave my long run to the last day of the week because if something comes up on Sunday than I have no other day to reschedule and I wanted to make sure that I was able to check off my first 20 miler. With the wind and downpours scheduled to come on Saturday, I had no other choice but to go on Sunday. While I was worrying about the weather all week, I was also trying to wrangle together some other runners to go out least part of the way with me. I was really looking to avoid going 20 miles all by myself. I needed someone else to help shoulder the load with me. Luckily, I got Jon B to run with me at the last minute. He was going to run the first 10 miles and then I only had to go 10 miles by myself. The weather held out for the most part. I started at 12:45 on Sunday which is much later that I usually like to start but the other alternative was to run in the rain for most of the run. I ran down to the 72nd St transverse and met Jon on CPW and within about 2 minutes it started to rain hard. We took cover hoping it would stop and luckily it would only last about 5 minutes. Once the rain ended, we headed on over to the WSH and ran along the West Side, along the southern tip of Manhattan and over the Brooklyn Bridge. Having a partner makes a huge difference. We were cruising at a pretty good pace and I was feeling really good - like I could go on like that for miles. Once we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, Jon took the subway home and I was off on my own for the rest of the run. I turned around and went back the same way that I came. Without the help of a running partner, I did feel myself slow a little bit and the soreness in my legs began to get a little worse, but that is pretty much expected at the end of a 20 mile run. Cardio-wise, I felt good but I was ready for the run to be over by the time I reached mile 18 or so. I ran 20.4 miles at approximately and 8:45-8:50 pace. One 20 miler down and two more to go.

After my 20 miler was over, I found myself engaging in my usual post long run routine - sitting back in my reclining chair watching TV, then slowly closing my eyes, and then falling asleep and waking up 2 hours later. This run definitely wiped me out and carried over into the beginning of the next week. I still found myself pretty exhausted on Monday and decided to take a rest day. On Tuesday, I still felt tired but knew that I had to keep going. I gave my body a bit of a rest by going on a 5.2 mile recovery run on the bridle path. I wasn't sure if my fatigue was too due the 20 miler or the fact that my training is catching up to me a bit but I knew that I had to be careful. I still had about 7 weeks to go and the start of 3 consecutive 40 mile weeks had already begun. I felt more awake by Wednesday and went out to Bridgerunners - my weekly kick in the butt. The people who do these runs are considerably faster than me but they push me to go alot faster than I normally would on a weekday and I feel that it has definitely helped me. I use these runs as my interval runs/speedwork and I think they are paying off and increasing my speed.

Since the schedule called for a 40 mile week, and only a 14 mile long run, I knew that I was going to have to run 5 days this week and not be able to do a cross training day. I hate to do that but I want to make sure to always have two rest days during the week. In order to accomplish the 40 mile goal, I ran on consecutive days to end the week - I got in 7 miles on Friday (all on the Bridle Path to give my legs a rest), 14 miles on Saturday with Jamey A (overall pace of 8:31 and I felt good) and 6.6 miles on Sunday (again on the Bridle Path). My first 40 mile week came and went and now I am on to the second one.

I will be able to get in a cross training day this week - I have a 20 miler this weekend and will split the remaining 20 miles over three days. Only six weeks to go! I have a few goals in mind but once put them down on paper until training is almost over and I have a good sense of how I am feeling.