Finished my 5th 60-mile week. Today I ran threshold mile intervals, goal was 6:20, but I averaged 6:18. They felt pretty easy all along. After the 6th interval I felt my legs got tired, but my cardio system felt just fine. I finished with 4 x 1/8 miles, which were supposed to be 40 seconds each; I was about 1/2 second too fast on average.

Next week is going to be haphazard; I may just run what I feel like each day.

Very miserable workout on December 24th in cold steady rain. 6 x (200 + 200 + 400) with some recovery jogs. Gusting winds so strong that once it blew me out of my lane! 1/8 miles average at 39.8, and 1/4s at 1:21.6. Given the imperial track and the soaked shoes and wind, these are more than fine. (Daniels wants me to run 40 and 81 seconds respectively, but on metric track.)

Looking back at the training log, I see that I had a running streak from 11/26 to 12/15 with at least 4 miles every day. It wasn't intentional; in fact if anything, it was the result of not being able to do long enough runs, so I had to run on my rest days to get the mileage in. In any case, that is 20 days or running every day. Maybe that's why I feel guilty even on my scheduled rest day now.

I finished my 4th 60-mile week in a row: I've never had this consistence high mileage in all 2014, in fact I'm not sure ever.

Week 5 of Phase II

Sun: 8 E
Mon: 15 L
Tue: Rest
Wed: 2 E + 6 x (200 R + 200 jg + 200 R + 400 jg + 400 R + 200 jg) + 3 E = 11 miles
Thu: 8 E
Fri: 2 E + 6 x 1 T w/1 min + 4 x 200 w/200 jg + 2 E = 11 miles
Sat: 7 E

I did my second hard workout (oh my #2 below) today instead of Saturday, because I felt good, and sun was out. Though it was cold, it is always better for me work out in the sun during winter - somehow it works for me psychologically. Also, I knew that if I did the workout on Saturday, it would be unlikely that I could do a long run on Sunday, which is actually quite desirable considering the approaching Christmas week.

Anyway, I nailed my paces, and the workout didn't even feel very hard. I constantly had to hold myself back. Probably the best part was a 4800 meter tempo in the middle, which I did in 18:57. This was after 4 x 200 repeats, and before two more tempo intervals and 4 x 200 repetitions!  That would have been a 19:44 5K, and it felt truly easy. In fact I cruised the last lap telling myself that there are more intervals ahead.

With this in hand it's a bit of a puzzle why I couldn't run faster than 19 minutes in my clinical trial TTs. That was all out effort. Maybe the circumstances did work against me big time.

Only 7.13 easy tomorrow and another 60-mile week with three quality workouts is finished.

I ran 2 x 200 plus 10 x 400 last evening on the track. I also wanted to finish it with 4 x 200, but I ran out of time. It shows that you are training hard, when 90 minutes is not quite enough to finish your workout. Anyway, I ran 4 x 40 seconds of acceleration on my way home.

It was cold, and the 9th and 10th 400s were definitely unpleasant. But I still nailed the splits. As a positive surprise, a soccer team was practicing, so I had light! As a negative, the soccer players dumped their bags on the track (inner lane, of course). I didn't say anything, just ran around the bags. It's their field after all. I was hoping they would notice my inconvenience and they would move their bags, but no.

4 more days of darkening, and then we will get more light!

I finished week 3 just fine, handled the repetitions today well, though they felt harder than in previous weeks. At least the paces were spot on.

Week 4 of Phase II

Sun: 8 E
Mon: 15 L
Tue: Rest
Wed: 2 E + 2 x 200 R w/200 jg + 10 x 400 R w/400 jg + 1 E + 4 x 200 R w/400 jg + 2 E = 12 miles (oh my!)
Thu: 7 E
Fri: 7 E
Sat: 2 E + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 3 T + 3 min rest + 2 x 1 T w/1 min rest + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 2 E = 11 miles (oh my #2)

I managed to run worse this morning than last week. 19:02. I ran the first 1600 in 6 minutes exactly, and then essentially just managed the same pace as last time, but 5 seconds behind all my splits. I think the timer guy said 18:20 at 200 to go, but I was unable to run a finishing 200 is 40 seconds. That's really bad.

I certainly started with zero motivation, I felt zero adrenaline at the start line, and I was also 0.8 lbs heavier than last time. Which already explains the 5 seconds difference. I thought I had some good training, but apparently it is not helping me in this phase.

It's still getting colder and darker. I'm in my winter slump. Running sucks.

Surprisingly to myself I was able to run 10 miles at 6:43/mile tonight in training without too much discomfort. I changed to a 2-1 breathing pattern for the last two miles, but even that wasn't painful at all. My 10-mile PR is 1:06:49. Tonight I hit the 10-mile mark at 1:07:17, and the effort was definitely not race effort. Another comparison that I hit the 10-mile mark in the Urban Bourbon Half at 1:04:39. Not a whole lot faster than tonight, and that was definitely race effort, tapered, perfect temperature, (though with some tough hills). In any case, it seems like I at least maintain my form. Good signs all around.

Jack Daniels says that the psychological value of marathon paced longer runs is important. I get it. It's nice to know that I can.

I had a fine track workout today. 5 x 1 mile repeats at LT pace (6:20), and 6 x 1/8 mile repetitions (40 sec). The miles averaged a little below 6:19 (I spent all of that part trying to talk myself into slowing down), and the 1/8's were average of 40.8 - that may seem too much, but I always ran into the (fairly strong) wind, so it's perfectly fine. I was surprised to be able to do this only two days after the 5K time trial. Especially after I was so sore on Friday that a fart would send around waves of lactate in my body. :)

Week 3 of Phase II:

Paces: M - 6:43/mile, 200 R - 40 sec, 400 R - 81 sec

Sun: E

Mon: 1 E + 10 M = 11 miles

Tue: E

Wed: E

Thu: 5K time trial + E afternoon = 9 miles

Fri: E

Sat: 2 E + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 8 x 400 R w/400 jg + 4 x 200 R w/200 jg + 2 E = 10 miles

The four easy days will get a total of 30 miles as time allows. Try 10 miles each to be able to rest on Wednesday.

There was a 5K time trial this morning in the clinical trial with the most adverse conditions possible...

1) We showed up at 5:00am. On December 4. The sun didn't even start to consider rising.

2) It was freezing (0 Celsius).

3) We were not allowed to consume any calories starting 5pm the previous day.

4) And no caffeine!

5) Work is busy and stressful. I had no time to run all day Wednesday, so I did my daily run (only 6.6 miles) after 9pm, already fasting for 4 hours. I wasn't allowed to eat anything after the run. Just 8 hours later I ran the time trial. And I only slept 4.5 hours.

6) They draw blood before you run.

7) They messed it up and so they played around in my vein for a while before they decided to use my other arm.

8) There were only 8 runners, and they are almost all faster than I.

I wanted to run 18:45 at 1:30 per lap. Went out a bit fast, but I still ran at last place for a few laps. Then passed one guy, who slowed a lot. I ran the first 1600 just under 6 minutes (that's fine), but started to melt down for the second 1600, and I arrived to 3200 at little over 12 minutes. I continued fading and I arrived to 4600 at 17:30. I pushed for a last lap to get in at 18:57. In my penultimate lap I got lapped by the winner, and I finished 7th out of 8 runners.

The plus side is that it seems like I can run sub-19 in the worst circumstances. The minus side that it is a whopping 1 minute slower than my goal time by the spring... I hope at least it was good training. We're up for a repeat next Thursday. Conditions will be pretty much the same.