week of 14 December

Mo - 79' running (7.5 miles); 40' out and 39' back
Tu - 78' run 8-mile work loop
We - 76' run 8-mile work loop
Th - 76' run 8-mile work loop; just a little fatigued last mile
Fr - 51' run 5.3-mile work loop mid-day; tired. very easy. 3 x ~30m a little faster w/equal rest
Sa - 41' treadmill 4.0
Su - 26' treadmill 2.5

Total 7h08' with 43.3 miles

ART on Mon and Wed.

Discovered that if I swing my leg from 1:00 to 7:00 (on a clock face) at stop lights I can stretch my groin and piriformis and stop the painful, knee-tweaking transition from walking to running after I stop.

I sped up over Tu through Th over the same course without trying. I really didn't even look at my watch until I was done.

Interesting to see how fatigue accumulated over 4 days at the same distance. I cut back on the Friday to recover. Maybe I should have taken even more rest? I'm enjoying this feeling my way through things. On my run Friday, I thought about what the base of the training pyramid should be. Obviously there's easy mileage, but (now this sounds cliche) recovery and injury prevention (stretching, core strength) is below that -- can't run if you're hurt. On top of easy mileage I'd put drills and strides (and maybe hills -- could be considered core strength also). For a creaky old guy like me, it's important to get those legs used to turning over. Only after all of that I would just start to consider tempo pace and then faster stuff (e.g., 5k intervals).

I spent hours and hours (seriously) shoveling snow on Saturday and Sunday. My back hurt, my head hurt, and I didn't much feel like running plus I was afraid I'd mess myself up running with my sore back.