WEEKLY SUMMARY (July 15-21): 63 miles (95% at E/L, and 5% at 5k paces)

  Sunday: 9 miles at 7:46/mi. on a hilly course

  Monday: off

  Tuesday: 9 miles at 7:45/mi.

  Wednesday: 3E, 5 x .6 miles around 6:00/mi. (.4 miles jog), 2.2E (10.2 miles total)

  Thursday: 8.4 miles at 8:00/mi. on a hilly course

  Friday: 18 miles at 7:41/mi. on a hilly course

  Saturday: 8.4 miles at 8:05/mi. on a hilly course

Well, I didn't get over 70 miles this week, because the hills got to me. On Sunday I chose a route that started with a moderate-to-steep hill right from the beginning that is over a mile long. It was a rude way to start an easy run, but I felt recovered enough after halfway to resume a normal pace and then to coast a 6:35 final mile back down the same hill. Afterwards one of my lower calves started hurting progressively more throughout the day. That night around 2am my son woke up with a fever and my leg was throbbing, so running in the morning was off, and morning is really the only time I can run here. My leg recovered the next day (although my son is still a bit sick), and for my easy run on Tuesday I avoided hills as much as possible, even when it meant running back and forth on the same stretch of flat road. That enabled me to measure out a place for some nearly 5k-pace intervals on Wednesday. I found a relatively flat stretch of road about .6 miles long and 3 miles from where I'm staying. So that was my interval length on Wednesday. Once I stretched out to around 6:00 pace my legs and back felt tight, but I could hold the pace pretty well and recover quickly. Running faster was out of the question, though. I'm glad that Daniels has more 5k intervals on the schedule next week, since I need to do more of them to keep my legs from tightening up on these hills. On Thursday and Saturday I did my best impression of what a truly easy run might look like up here. I didn't avoid hills but ran very slowly up them and didn't let myself coast too quickly back down. By now I finally have the right form down for hill running: a straight back, looking up the hill, arms pumping, and legs pulled up high in front of me. That's the way to avoid lower back trouble, and it should help me run with better form on level surfaces too. By Saturday, a very easy day after a long run, I was surprised to find that I could run slowly up a very steep hill about half a mile long without breathing very hard. The big run of the week, and my only steady long run in Greece, was Friday's 18-miler. I chose a route whose toughest hills were near the beginning in miles 4-6, so I was tired early on and nearly spent by halfway. But I rallied after a gel and some flat and downhill running for a few miles. My pace at halfway was 7:53, which means that the second half averaged 7:29. The last 5 miles averaged 7:15, and for much of that time I was running in the 6:30's on the downhills and 6:40's on flats (my provisional marathon race pace is 6:45), but my climbing legs were shot so I was creeping slowly up hills. I'd say that effort was worth an average pace in the mid/high-7:20's on a flat DC course, but it's difficult to make such comparisons. Surely all this hill running has been good for strengthening my muscles, but I need to get back to flats soon to translate it to speed and endurance on the sort of course that I need to be training for (the MCM is almost totally flat). That'll have to wait another week, though. Next week we plan to visit a nearby island that I've never been to but that no doubt is equally hilly, and then we'll head back to Athens towards the end of the week. I'll shoot for 72 miles again, my original goal for this week, with an interval session and another one of those tempo interval sessions with an hour-long easy run tacked onto the end. 

WEEKLY SUMMARY (July 8-14): 68 miles (92% at E, 4.5% at T, and 3.5% at 5k paces)

  Sunday: 3.5 E, 3 x 1 mile T (1 min. rest), 7.3 E (13.8 miles total)

  Monday: 8.2 miles at 7:39/mi.

  Tuesday: 8 miles at 7:48/mi. on a hilly course

  Wednesday: 3 E, 3 x .75 miles hard (.5 mile recovery jog), 2 E (8.3 miles total)

  Thursday: 9.4 miles at 7:33/mi. on a hilly course

  Friday: 9.3 miles at 7:38/mi.

  Saturday: 11 miles at 7:46/mi. on a hilly course

This week I was running in Athens and on two different Greek islands, yet I managed to hit my mileage goal for the week and to do both of the quality workouts on Daniels' schedule. I was in Athens on Sunday and Monday, on Spetses (a Cycladic island) Tuesday through Thursday, back in Athens on Friday, and then on Lefkada (an Ionian island) on Saturday. On Sunday my lower back was still killing me. I was having real difficulty even putting on my shoes. Daniels' schedule says to do 5 x 1 mile intervals at tempo pace and then to run easy for an hour. I figured I'd try four of the tempo intervals, but I had a muscle spasm in my back shortly after beginning the fourth one. So I walked for a bit and then was fine, though soaked, for the nearly hour-long easy run afterwards. Later that day I identified the cause of my back trouble: pushing a stroller while walking around. The stroller we brought is low and I have to bend over very slightly to push it. I never use it for very long at home, but we spend a lot of time walking around here using the stroller. Somehow that was enough to really mess up my back. So pushing the stroller became my wife's job starting on Sunday, and over the next few days my back gradually loosened up. Tuesday was my first run this trip in Greek hills. Most of Greece is mountainous, including the islands (which, of course, are mountains sticking out of the sea). The flat coastal road I run on in Athens is unusual even for Athens, most of which is very hilly. It was a shock trying to tackle the hills on Spetses that first day, since there are very few hills where I usually run in DC and nothing like the terrain in Greece. But that first run in the hills on Tuesday was made better by a local dog who tagged along with me the entire way. He was panting pretty hard by halfway, so I gave him some of my water. Then he almost got into a fight with a sheep dog whose territory we were passing through, but their standoff ended without incident. Greece has a lot of stray dogs everywhere, and I guess they run around all day long. But I was still surprised that this one could run eight hilly miles apparently with little difficulty. On Wednesday I found a mostly flat stretch along a harbor in Spetses for some 5k-pace intervals, but there were a lot of sharp turns and the surface of the road was very uneven. Plus I brought only one pair of running shoes to Greece, some moderate-weight trainers, and I had never tried running fast in them before. So I got really tired without actually running very fast: 4:33, 4:34.5, and 4:43.5 for three .75 mile intervals. Thursday's run, however, was glorious. I ran the same hilly course as two days earlier, except that I pushed up a long, steep hill that I had turned around before the previous time. For some reason I was much stronger on the uphills this time and was also able to glide faster on downhills. After that run my legs were jello, so I was happy to get to run on a flat course back in Athens on Friday morning. The rest of that day we spent driving to Western Greece, where my wife's parents have a house up in the hills on Lefkada. On Saturday I was stiff from driving the previous day and still tired from running on Spetses, so I maintained a slower pace on a circular route that passes through several villages on "the mountain," as people say here. There is simply no such thing as a true easy run up here in these hills, because there are hardly any flat stretches of road anywhere - unless I run about six miles down the mountain, by the shortest route, to the coast, after which I'd have to run back up again. So I just have to adjust to running hills all the time and go slowly when I'm tired. We'll be based here for a couple weeks, though at some point we may take another short trip somewhere nearby. Next week I'll try to get over 70 miles for the first time ever. Daniels' schedule has an 18 miler and some more 5k-pace intervals on tap. 

WEEKLY SUMMARY (JULY 1-7): 45 miles (100% at easy pace)

  Sunday: 6.5 miles at 7:59/mi.

  Monday: 8 miles at 7:38/mi.

  Tuesday: 7.5 miles at 7:47/mi.

  Wednesday: off

  Thursday: 8 miles at 7:34/mi.

  Friday: 9 miles at 7:35/mi.

  Saturday: 6 miles at 7:56/mi.

This was an overdue recovery week with low mileage and only easy running. During the first half of the week we were packing both for being away for a month and for moving when we get back, so I was happy keeping my runs slow and relatively short. We left in the late morning on Tuesday and arrived in Athens on Wednesday morning, not having slept at all. The rest of the week we were recovering from traveling, which left me with a surprisingly stiff back, and from the seven hour time change. Apparently there is a record heat wave in DC right now, which I'm glad to be missing. It's hot in Athens too but not as hot as DC right now, and the humidity in Greece is always much lower than in DC. I've been up and running here by 6am, so heat has not been a problem and the low humidity feels great. There is a very long, flat coastal road about a half mile from where we stay in Athens (in the apartment of my wife's parents) where I run. It's easy and familiar. Next week we'll travel around a bit, but probably only to places we've been to before (since this is our first time being here with a toddler). It should be possible for me to fit in Daniels' workouts and to get my mileage back up.

WEEKLY SUMMARY (JUNE 24-30): 65 miles (90% at E/L, 5% at T, and 5% at 5k paces)
  Sunday: 3E, 2T at 6:20/mi. (2 min. rest), 1.25T, 2E = 8.25 miles total
  Monday: 9 miles at 7:37/mi., plus 4 hill sprints
  Tuesday: 9 miles at 7:30/mi.
  Wednesday: 16 miles at 7:34/mi.
  Thursday: 7.3 miles at 7:59/mi.
  Friday: 7.7 miles at 7:48/mi.
  Saturday: 2.7E, 5k race in 18:26, 2E

This was a more interesting running week than the previous one. I reached 65 miles, which was my volume target before taking a recovery week next week; and I got in each of the main types of run I need to be doing right now. For my tempo run on Sunday I intended to do 2 x 2 miles at 6:20/mi. with 2 minutes rest in between. But I got up late and started the tempo intervals around 11am when it was 85 degrees and humid with no wind. I felt strong at that pace on the first one, but the sun got to me after the first mile on the second one. So instead of pushing it out and wearing myself down when increasing volume is already wearing me down enough, I stopped after 5 laps on that second interval. Tuesday was suddenly cool and dry, but the heat and humidity started coming back already on Wednesday. My long run that day was fine, which surprised me since I was feeling worn down beforehand. I ran a negative split but less of one than last time (7:37 pace for the first half and 7:31 for the second), and I didn't push things in the final miles. That night my left quad ached enough to wake me up a few times, and it bothered me the next day as well. I had tweaked it on the downhills of last weekend's four mile race but thought it had recovered, but apparently my long run this week (which should have been a recovery week) was enough to re-aggravate it. So I ran very easy on Thursday and iced it a few times. I planned to run pretty easy again on Friday but ended up having no choice, since it was 96 degrees when I finished running at 10:15am and it reached 104 later that day. Apparently that was the hottest June day on record in DC. Similar conditions were forecasted for Saturday, but a freak storm blew through around 11pm on Friday night, knocking out power to more than a million people (not us, though) and cooling things down about 10 degrees more than expected in the morning. So it was (only!) perhaps 80 degrees at 8:15am when the Semper Fi 5k started. That's hot with humidity and bright sun, but I was expecting outright dangerous conditions that didn't materialize. Still, I was just looking to get a good workout in without running all out, and somehow that resulted in my running one second slower than my current 5k PR. I've now run 18:25, 18:26, and 18:27, which is similar to the cluster of races I ran just under 19 minutes last Fall before suddenly busting out a 30-second PR in January. If I can run 18:26 in this weather at the end of a 65 mile week (my heaviest week in 9 months) on significantly less than a 100% effort, then clearly another 30-second or so PR is on the horizon, though I don't expect to run another 5k race for months. Next week I head to Greece for a month, and anyway it's marathon training time now. I'll take a day or two off next week while traveling and probably end up with around 45-50 mostly easy miles, hopefully with a tempo run in there somewhere. After next week, I'll try to run three weeks in the 70's (or maybe one in the high 60's and then two in the 70's), with Daniels's tempo and 5k intervals each week, before taking another recovery week when we return to the US on August 3.

WEEKLY SUMMARY (JUNE 17-23): 63 MILES (94% at E/L and 6% at 8k paces)
  Sunday: 2E, 4-mile race in 24:08, 2E
  Monday: 8.5 miles at 7:37/mi.
  Tuesday: 12 miles at 7:25/mi.
  Wednesday: 9 miles at 7:46/mi. plus 4 hill sprints
  Thursday: 9 miles at 7:28/mi. on a treadmill (PM)
  Friday: 6 miles at 8:08/mi.
  Saturday: 10.5 miles at 7:38/mi.

Pretty boring running week mainly because of a heat wave, but I managed to continue increasing volume a bit. It was still cool the first couple days of the week, and conditions were good for the Dash4Dad race on Sunday. It annoys me when a race billed as mostly flat turns out to be quite hilly and in fact not flat at any point on the course. But I went into it with a relaxed attitude and ended up enjoying the hilly course along with the general atmosphere and competition from a small group of guys right around my ability level. Running down a steep hill near the end (which we had run up on the way out) trashed my quads, though, and I was feeling that for the next couple days. So I decided against doing a tempo run on Tuesday before things really heated up, which would have been pushing it anyway. Instead I did a medium-long run in which I dropped the pace below 7:15 for the last four miles. The temperature and humidity were already rising on Tuesday, but by Wednesday we were in the midst of our first full-blown DC heat wave of the summer, with highs near 100, lows around 80, and dew points in the low-70's. I wasn't acclimated to that yet after the cooler than average weather we've been having here lately, and my easy run on Wednesday was a struggle even at a slower pace. Thursday would have been no different, but my son kept us up for much of Wednesday night with a fever, so I didn't manage to get up early on Thursday morning to run. Luckily, it turns out that the fitness center on campus is open weekday evenings this summer (unlike in the past, when it has been closed all summer). So I ran on one of their treadmills on Thursday evening, which is only marginally less unpleasant than running outside during a heat wave. Having run on Thursday evening, though, and not being accustomed to doubles, on Friday morning I could handle only a very slow and shorter run, which is why I barely missed my mileage target for the week. The weather started improving a bit today (Saturday), so I ran slightly further than my usual easy run but not enough to reach 65 miles for the week. I wanted to save my strength for a tempo run tomorrow. We're supposedly in for some nice weather again next week starting on Tuesday, so in addition to tomorrow's tempo I hope to get in another negative-split long run next week before a 5k race on Saturday, by which time it looks like the heat may be back. I'll aim for mileage in the mid-60's next week and then take a recovery week the following week.

Week of June 10-16: 60 miles (93% at E/L, and 7% at T paces)
  Sunday: 5 mile family jog pushing a stroller at my wife's pace
  Monday: 8.5 miles at 7:38/mi. plus 2 hill sprints
  Tuesday: 8.5 miles at 7:34/mi.
  Wednesday: 3E, 4x1T at 6:23/mi. (1 min. rest), 2E
  Thursday: 8.5 miles at 7:39/mi. plus 2 hill sprints
  Friday: 15 miles at 7:35/mi.
  Saturday: 5.5 miles at 8:11/mi.

This week went well and according to plan. It was hot the first half of the week, and I needed to recover anyway from the 10k race last Saturday. So I did a slow family jog on Sunday and kept it easy the next two days as well. On Wednesday I got in some solid tempo intervals with short rests, or cruise intervals in Daniels-speak, at something close to my actual tempo pace. They felt good but hard, and I was having difficulty imagining how I'm going to do workouts like this in a few weeks that are twice as long. Happily I found a new track that is open to the public, or at least was that day, around 2 miles from where I live, which is perfect for a warm up and cool down. If it turns out to be closed in the future, apparently there's an entirely public track that's open 24 hours just a few blocks further that I can use as back-up. So I won't have to waste any more time getting kicked off, locked out of, or locked in (!) the track at the university where I work and next door to where I live. The weather turned quite nice for the latter part of this week, and that helped my long run on Friday. It had been 3 weeks since my last longish run of 14 miles, but I still felt strong and ran negative splits: 7:40's for the first half, 7:30's for the third quarter, around 7:20 for miles 12-14, and the last mile around 7:00 until I decided to relax for the last fifth or so. After that I was tired and did only a slow recovery run today, which is sometimes necessary without days off. Because of the nice weather, I decided to run a 4-mile race tomorrow, since this may be my last chance for a long time to run a race, let alone a short one, in non-oppressive weather. I don't expect to run particularly fast but will simply use the race in place of an interval workout. Since it's supposed to heat up again around mid-week, if possible I may try to get in another tempo run on Tuesday this coming week and then wait until the heat subsides somewhat before hazarding another long run. In any case, I'll try continuing to move the mileage up to 65 next week and also continue two other small but important things that I started doing this week: hill sprints and supplementary strength exercises. I got the idea of hill sprints - 8-10 second all-out sprints up a steep hill with full recoveries - from Brad Hudson's book, and in the past they've helped me become less injury-prone. Now I've got a weak glute/upper hamstring area on one side that has given me trouble for some time. I've read stuff on the internet about high hamstring tendonitis and the hilariously named dead butt syndrome that describes many of my symptoms. Since it's not bad enough to keep me from running, some good old strength training is probably the best medicine. So I'm returning to a form of targeted strength training that has worked for me in the past, hill sprints, and also adding some basic "core" exercises (as people say these days) that I've rarely done before. In the next few weeks I'll try to establish a pattern that has me doing hill sprints twice a week on easy days and supplementary exercises maybe three times. This is the time to establish such a pattern, before my mileage gets bigger and the workouts harder.

Week of June 3-9: 50 miles (80% at E, 8% at T, and 12% at 10k paces)
  Sunday: 8.5 miles at 7:35/mi.
  Monday: 8.5 miles at 7:31/mi.
  Tuesday: 2E, 2T, 1E, 2T, 2E (T=6:35)
  Wednesday: 8.5 miles at 7:39/mi.
  Thursday: 5 miles at 7:41/mi.
  Friday: off
  Saturday: Lawyers Have Heart 10k in 38:49

Running some more miles again this week felt good, but the 10k race at the end of it wasn't so good. I had been wondering whether I'm in a funk. But then I looked back over my training log for the past few months and realized that I've simply tried to extend my shorter-distance racing season for too long. My best races this year (not counting the 5k in early January, which really belonged to the previous year) were the Cherry Blossom 10-miler and Pike's Peek 10k, which came 7 and 10 weeks after I started doing speedwork again in late February. Shortly after that I ran an ok 5k, at 12 weeks out, but even then my speed was beginning to fizzle. Today's race wasn't a disaster, but it was a minute slower than my Pike's Peek time, and the course wasn't especially slow (as illustrated by my friend Patrick, who ran a PR by nearly 2 minutes). From the beginning it was clear that I wasn't going to run a fast time, but I stuck it out and ran as hard as I could. In the future I should start speedwork a bit later and plan my target races within the next 12 weeks. For now my focus is shifting toward marathon training anyway. Since I can't run very fast right now, I'll run more instead. Let's see whether I can get in 60 miles this coming week, and no more planned days off. I'll continue getting some speed in about once a week in order not to lose what little speed I have left (though not this coming week). But, as I mentioned in a previous post, my focus in the near term will be primarily on gradually increasing volume, and also on tempo runs that gradually become more difficult. This week's tempo on Tuesday was a slow and short version of the sort of thing Daniels has in store for me later.