My weekly mileage for the last 6 weeks, since I started running again after taking two weeks off for a knee injury in the first half of August, has been: 14, 35, 42.5, 50, 55, 60. (Before my knee injury I was running 45-55 weekly miles consistently). So I have built my weekly volume back up to where it was and am now increasing it further. This past week was my first 60 mile week in a year, and I don't plan to stop there. The plan for next week is (surprise!) 65 miles, and then I might take a down week heading into the Army Ten Miler on October 9. If all goes well, I hope to go higher after the ATM. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Last weekend I also got my first taste in a while of what at least used to be my marathon pace. I had registered for the DC Half before injuring my knee and had intended to put in at least a race effort, expecting that the weather would probably not permit fast times. But a hard race effort so soon after my knee injury was out of the question. So instead I set out to run 3:00 marathon pace (6:50/mi.) for at least 8 miles, which I figured wouldn't be so hard, and maybe I'd hold the pace further or even speed up after that if I felt good. Well, those 8 miles (which I ended up running a tad faster than 3:00 pace) felt plenty hard, so I shut it down after that and just ran easy the rest of the way. My knee actually hurt a bit after the race for the first time in weeks, but I didn't notice it while running and it was fine a few days later. My coach, back when I had one, used to give me 10 miles at MP to kick off marathon training around 12 weeks out (the DC Half was 11 weeks out), and every single time that workout turned out to be much harder than I expected going into it. How on earth is this my marathon pace? Last weekend was no different, although now of course it's even less clear that upper 6:40s is a feasible marathon pace for me anymore. I'll give it a go anyway and adjust later to whatever the reality turns out to be. The weather dramatically improved a few days after the DC Half bang on the Fall equinox, so now (and at least for as long as this autumnal weather holds) running any given pace is easier than it was just recently. That'll help a lot. This is a major reason why I decided to run Rehoboth in early December: so that not only the race itself but also the hardest part of the training is in cooler weather. I hate summer weather and look forward to Fall and Winter at every moment during the rest of the year. And I look forward especially to running in it. If I can stay injury free, then I'll be doing plenty of that.
Mo: 6.5 miles with 6 strides
Tu: 7 miles
We: 3 x 1 mile (2:00 jogs) in 6:25, 6:18, 6:10
Th: 7 miles
Fr: 7 miles
Sa: 2 miles
Su: 17 miles with 8 miles in the high 6:40s at the DC Half
Week total: 55 miles
Mo: 5 miles
Tu: 8 miles
We: 10 x .25 miles (1:00 rests)
Th: 8 miles
Fr: 8 miles
Sa: 20 miles @ 7:35/mi.
Su: 2 miles
Week total: 60 miles
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