Brick by Brick

I've run a lot of miles since I last posted about training. I gained a lot of fitness, lost some of it, and am now somewhere between not fit and really fit. My last training post came in July, after I had been using the Flotrack running logs for the previous month. In April through June of 2014, I probably averaged about 15 miles a week. In July, my weekly totals were 15, 17, 18, and 12. In August, 17, 17, 14, and 19. In September, 10, 19, 26, and 17. In October, 23, 30, 30, 33, and 26. In November, 40, 27, 26, and 27. With an 11 and a 13 in December. Then I took a break because my legs were way past beat up. Then I continued the break because it was the holiday season. Then my Mom passed away and there just wasn't any joy to be found in running for a while. Then I wanted to start back but felt ashamed I had stopped. But now I'm in the middle of my 11th week of running again. Weeks 2 and 3 were cut short due to a wisdom tooth extraction, but in the other 9, I've managed to get in 17, 14, 16, 19, 17, 19, 19, and 19 miles. I've increased my daily run length by nearly 2 miles now, but I went from 7 days of running to 5 days because of hectic travel and injury concerns.

Looking back on last years cycle, I am amazed to see I ran in the 30s several times and even managed a week of 40, but there was a no progressive build up to those totals, which I believe sacrificed my ability to maintain health. This time, I hope to be more conservative in my build up to peak mileage. One difference in this cycle from the last is that I am only doing easy running, as opposed to intermittent workouts like last year. I've also reduced the number of strides I do after a run, and not added in a long run yet, but I do surge up a 250m hill a couple times a week, as well as do a couple strides up the steepest 100m section.

While I didn't have many interval workouts last year, I have a few I want to try again once I end my base phase. First, I did a 4 x Mile session, averaging 7:27 with 2:15 rest, in mid-October. In early November, I did 12 x 700m averaging 3:13 (7:24 pace) off 65 seconds rest, and felt very strong, though it did make me very sore.

I look forward to posting more regularly about my training from here on out!