WEEKLY SUMMARY (December 16-22): 50 miles (90% E, 8% T, and 2% I paces)
  Sunday: 3 E, 1 x (1200m I + 800m E + 500m I), 1.5 E in Florida (6.1 miles total)
  Monday: 8.2 miles at 7:25/mi. in Florida
  Tuesday: 6.7 miles at 7:22/mi. in Florida
  Wednesday: 2 E, 4 x 1 mile T at 6:18/mi. (1 min.), 2 E in Florida (8 miles total)
  Thursday: 6 miles at 7:24/mi. back in DC
  Friday: 7 miles at 7:23/mi.
  Saturday: 8 miles at 7:26/mi.

Finally, a week with no days off and cracking 50 miles. Not everything went to plan this week, though. On Sunday, my first full day in Longboat Key, Florida, I tried and failed to do my first VO2 max interval workout in some time. I attempted to do 3 x 1200m I (800 E) in 4:15-18 for the 1200m, which is low 5:40's pace. But the 96% humidity on Longboat Key left me huffing and puffing after only 400m and I only managed to cover 1200m in 4:27.5, which is 5:56/mi. pace. I started a second interval but aborted after just over 400m. My easy runs over the next couple of days confirmed that the humidity and sun were largely to blame this, especially since I had just come from cool and dry DC. But on Wednesday the weather was mercifully a bit cooler, and perhaps I had acclimated a bit by then. I managed with little difficulty the basic tempo interval workout that I had been doing before the MCM, then hopped on a plane back to DC. The plan had been to run a 5k club race on Saturday, but several converging factors led me to skip it: I didn't really feel like racing, there was a high wind warning and the race course was very exposed, and my son came down with a cold the night before. So I ended up doing three easy runs in a row at the end of the week. Next week I hope at least to do a medium-long run and to attempt an interval workout a second time. Since I've now done a couple of repetition workouts and one tempo, that will put me back on track towards establishing a regular pattern that incorporates all four of those elements. Soon I hope to be doing something like a (medium-)long run, a tempo (or marathon pace) run, and a track (i.e., interval or repetition) workout each week, with shorter races replacing the track workout and longer (up to half-marathon) races replacing the tempo run about every third week. I'll have to be flexible for the next couple of weeks, because of the holidays and another trip (this time a road trip to Atlanta via Raleigh). But the goal is to get in each type of workout so that they begin to build on one another and so that, after New Year's, I can establish a more regular pattern. Right now I'm still hoping to do the full instead of the half marathon in mid-March, which is only 12 weeks away. And I was accepted in the lottery for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks after that. So if I start getting serious now, then I'll have some fun races ahead of me beginning in early Spring. But my attitude right now is the same as it was right after the MCM: I want to train for the long term, not for any specific races. I want to establish a more balanced routine that will enable me to improve at every distance from 5k through the marathon. I'm thinking of running some short race or other the week of January 6-12, depending on weather - possibly the BRATS Frozen 5k on 1/6 where last year I set my current 5k PR, such as it is. Then, between the half-marathon on January 27 and the marathon on March 16, I'll probably run one or two shorter races TBD - possibly including the GW Classic 10k on 2/17. Anyone local who reads this is welcome to sway me towards one race or another, and of course to join me at any of them.