I finished last week with 62 miles, which I think is probably a record, though it did take 7 days instead of 6, and I had larger 7 weeks periods before (but with two long runs at the two ends). But the bad news is that I had a bad tempo run on Friday. 4 fast miles with splits 6:16.40, 6:31.69, 6:29.59, 6:26.90. Works out as 6:26.15 average. Yeah, I lost some seconds because bad timing of cars at intersections, but it should not account for the total inability to run another really fast mile after the first one. I mean for God's sake, this should be my half marathon pace by now. And I was done after 4 miles.

I'm not sure what it is, maybe just the miles, maybe the bourbon I've been sipping more than one evening, including the one before this tempo run. But I didn't drink all that much and I felt no hangover. In any case, after this run, I made a new decision: no bourbon until race day. I still had like 3 glasses of wine last night, but I still had a good 15 miler today.

Speaking of which I'm planning another record volume week. I'm not sure how it will go, because last week I had trouble putting in all those miles. In particular I had to squeeze in another 3.1 mile run on Saturday, which was supposed to be my rest day. But I think that actually worked nicely. It wasn't long enough to tire me out, but it shook out my muscles to have a better recovery. I felt no effect of my Friday tempo by my Sunday long run.

Week -9: Total of 66 miles
.
Long runs: 15 miles and 10 miles.

VO2 max: 5 x 3:00 moderately steep uphill. I'm almost positive I'll replace these with 800s, maybe a 1000 thrown in, because the 800s will be slightly less than 3 minutes. I just trust the track more than those hills, and my race will be totally flat.

Average distance for days other than long runs: 10.25 miles. It doesn't matter how get those in, but it would be nice to run two 6-milers on some less busy days.

Week -10:

Total: 62 miles. That is pretty much all time high. I did run 66 miles withing 7 days last year, but it included two long runs, which shouldn't count for the same week, and the second one was a 17-mile run that ended in a death march jogging the last few miles over 9-minute pace.

Long runs: 14 and 10 miles.

LT workout: 10-mile run with long hills or 4-mile tempo run (but 10 miles regardless).

Easy runs: 9.33 miles on average.

I like whiskey. And in particular, I like a good Bourbon. You probably figured that I don't drink a whole lot, so it takes a lot of time to try many different Bourbons, and this hobby of mine only started when we moved to Kentucky. Bourbon is very cheap here, so I bought a bottle. The first one was Jim Beam - a whiskey I knew before, and didn't particularly like, but it was like $12 for 0.75 liters. And it was fine. But I saw all those much higher priced bottles on the shelf in the store and they made me wonder how they taste...

My favorites are the whiskeys produced by the Buffalo Trace distillery in Frankfort. I ran their 5K, too. The flagship BT is fantastic, George T. Stagg is even better.

Today I bought a bottle of Old Forester Signature. This one is produced by Brown-Foreman. The first sip was not very good, but now I'm at the 3rd glass (and it's 50% alcohol), and I have to say I really do like it. Now the only question is, how will work and my 9-mile run go tomorrow.

Bad thing in good thing is that my mileage sucks. Only 30 miles this week so far, in four days, including my long run. Since I'm working toward 58 miles, it should be like one 10-miler and two 9-mile days. Doable. I'll see if I can run tomorrow morning. If yes, I might do 4+6 or 5+5 or 5+6. So I can run less on Saturday. Because I'll have to jump into next week with no rest. I took the rest yesterday.

Yesterday I had a bad day. Working all day like a dog, and I didn't even have any time to run. I was dog tired in the evening, even though it turned out to be an unscheduled rest day (bad thing). I'll have to run on Sunday to make up for that.

Then turn around today, I had a killer workout. I went to the high school track to run 5 x 800 meters. After 2.2 miles of warmup, here are my splits: 2:56.69, 2:53.94, 2:54.03, 2:53.08, 2:51.82. Except for the first one, all are in the McMillan range finally for an 1:25 HM. I could also put the first one there, if I really wanted to, but I wanted to play it safe. It wasn't even all that hard. I could have done at least one more.

Several weeks from now, I'll have a track workout that is supposed to be 5 x 1200 m at 2 sec/lap slower than 8K-10K goal pace. If my HM goal is 1:25, the corresponding 8K goal pace is 3:47/km. That is 3:01.6 split at 800 m. Of course it would be one extra lap after that, but it doesn't seem all that hard. For an 1:23 HM, 8K goal pace is 3:41.5, and the 800 splits are 2:57.2. Even that seems possible now.

Log: Monday, 8 miles, 1:03:11. 47 F, sunny. Mizuno.

After the successfully finished 58 mile week, I'll have another of the same mileage this time.

Total: 58 miles.

Long runs: 14 and 10 miles.

VO2: Officially 5 x 2:30 moderately steep uphill. Recoveries are 50 to 90 percent of the duration of the interval. I may want to change this to another 5 x 800 meters, because that is more measurable, and I need VO2 max improvement.

Easy runs: Need to average 8.5 miles/day, which is a little over my comfort zone. So run 4 + 6 or 6 + 4 when possible, and just make sure we get to the total  mileage.

I ran to the Big Four Bridge opening yesterday. This is an old, former railroad bridge between Louisville, KY and Jeffersonville, IN, that is being converted to pedestrian and bicycle usage. The last train crossed it in the 60's, and after that they took down the ramps, so there was large, elevated bridge, not wide enough to build a road on it, but not worth to demolish. So this was the perfect thing to do.

Still, I thought with the way American society is, nobody would be out there. The news about the opening didn't exactly made the headlines. To my surprise, there was a crowd. Running was like when you line up at the back of the pack accidentally at a large race. Fortunately I wasn't in any hurry. The run was long, took me 10 miles to get to the far side from campus and back. You still can't get down to the ground on the Indiana side, because that ramp is still unfinished. I got somewhat dehydrated when I got back to campus, because it was fairly warm (a gorgeous day all in all).

I'm at 50 miles in 5 days. One easy run away from my weekly mileage.

I ran a very good tempo today. I'm afraid to say that "I'm back", because I'm afraid I would jinx it, like I did last time, but hey, it did go well.

2 x 2.5 miles tempo intervals, and the half mile splits were 3:06, 3:12, 3:16, 3:04, 3:08 (total 15:46.35), then after a half mile recovery, 3:10, 3:05, 3:05, 3:13, 3:13 (15:46.86). That means both bouts were at 6:19 average pace. With this run, I also finished 40 miles so far this week and it's only Wednesday.

Weather was quite nice though, 41 F and sunny.

Long run yesterday, 13 miles at 7:30/mile. I felt pretty good despite the fact that I didn't eat or drink anything. This is very unusual of me, but I only brought Gatorade, and I had some mild gastrointestinal discomfort, so I didn't want to risk drinking the sugary drink. This is probably the first time in my life of running this long without any fluid intake. But it was cold (around 32 F, 0 C), so I didn't sweat too much.

Plan for week -12:

Total: 58 miles.
Long runs: 13 and 9 miles.
LT: 2 x 2.5 miles tempo intervals. Start at 6:30/mile, then try to accelerate. I'm afraid I won't be able to.
Easy runs: either one 8-8.5, or do a double of 5 each or so.