January 7 - January 13

• Monday
  • 8.1 miles in 1:03 - A very early morning run before work due to having a full work calendar of meetings today. Legs felt surprisingly good after the big workout on Saturday and LR on Sunday. Cruised around on the hills by our house and stretched out the legs with a moderate last mile. 
• Tuesday
  • 8.2 miles in 1:01 - Weirdly warm January day in the 60's, I was feeling good and had a frustrating meeting prior to running so ended up running slightly quicker than normal for an easy day. Luckily I didn't go that overboard and kept my HR in the 150's so nothing too strenuous before a workout on Wednesday.
  • 20 minutes in the Normatec boots later in the day. 
• Wednesday
  • 3 mile WU in 23 + 6.9 in 0:45 + 2.2 CD in 0:17 - Big temp swing, winter is back. The plan was a 15 x 2:00 on / 1:00 off fartlek, the weather was less than ideal however. We had strong consistent winds around 18 mph with gusts up to 30. I strongly considered doing this on the TM but I hate doing workouts with quick changes of pace based on effort on TM. I opted to go outside and just run as hard as I could in the wind. The on segments were in the 5:50 - 6:15 range and the offs were in the low 7's for an average of 6:32 for 45 minutes. Not bad for the wind and doing this in trainers. Not as fast as I wanted but the effort was good. 
    • This workout is a lighter session after last weekend to make sure I keep recovering for the big long run this weekend. This allows me to work on some turnover and get some aerobic work in without being too taxing. 
  • skipped a strength session to go to a happy hour instead... not my proudest moment but sometimes you need to relax right? Doing strength work after a couple of beers didnt seem wise with the amount of balance work I include with the weights. 
  • 20 minutes in the Normatec boots later in the day.
• Thursday
  • 9.35 miles in 1:12 - Ran very easy today by HR, only looked at pace at the mile splits. Kept my HR in the low 140's and was pleasantly surprised what the overall pace ended up being at the end because the effort felt like I was running a lot slower.  
  • 20 minutes in the Normatec boots later in the day.
• Friday
  • 7.3 miles in 0:57 - Another easy run, legs were pretty tired today as per usual for the second day after a workout. I spent most of the day anxious about the forecasted snow overnight because I had a long workout planned Saturday morning and wanted to wear Vaporflys. If you read last week you know I've had traction issues in them before. 
  • 20 minutes in the Normatec boots later in the day.
• Saturday
  • 20 miles in just under 2:16 w/ a goal of 15 miles at 90% MP - We got a decent amount of snow overnight but they had salted pretty well and it was more slushy than slippery except a few tricky spots. I got to wear an older pair of Vaporflys and took a bottle of maurten. I'm trying to work on taking in a whole bottle in 12 miles or less so I can dump the bottle sooner in a race. 90% of MP is right around 6:50 I think but I had 6:40 in my head and so I guess I ran faster than I should have initially and then progressed. However, the effort felt good and I was cruising around without forcing anything so I am not afraid that I overdid it. I had it in my head that I might close with a mile or two at MP if I was feeling really good so opted for a last mile at 6:15, which also felt relatively effortless considering it was mile 18. Easy 2 mile cool down to finish the day, felt workout tired but not destroyed. Very happy with the day, think I'm in a pretty good spot near the start of the cycle. 
    • This is a Canova special. The idea being you start doing long runs about 85-90% of MP and work on extending the distance and getting faster / closer to MP as the cycle progresses. The distance and pace are the two stressors, you should try to only increase one of the stressors at a time regularly.   
      
       
• Sunday
  • 8 miles in 1:03 - Easy run by the house on rolling hills. Legs were a little stiff initially, once I got warmed up I cruised around a bit smoother. Just a tiny bit of soreness, nothing crazy but I do expect to have the fatigue hit me tomorrow. 

Very good week 2 of training with 73 miles on all singles after a first week of 72. I've completed 5 very good workouts so far and felt like I was finally recovered from CIM this week. I'm currently debating whether to start doubling soon or just go all single runs this cycle since I typically feel better. I think I can reasonably get up to 90 miles on singles without killing myself so I might just go that route. Week 3 should allow me to get some pop back in my legs with a slightly lighter set of workouts. I have 16 x 400 on Tuesday, an 8 mile tempo on Friday and an Easy 20 on Sunday that I should have a friend to run some of it with. 

I tried to include some information about the what/why of each of the workouts I'm doing, let me know if there is anything else that would be helpful to include or any other feedback. 

Happy training all.