Solid 29 mile-week, 19 weeks til Marathon Sunday

Happy to report a solid week. My pre-training for the 18-week Pfitzinger program is on track. We were blessed with some cool weather this weekend, which made for a productive training run.

I may be doing a hybrid btw the Pfitz and the Hal Higdon training plans, but I haven't figured that out just yet. Reason being is that I signed up for the Chicago Area Runners Assoc Training program, which follow's Hal's. But Pfitz's seems pretty convincing. I'll be going to a clinic on Saturday next week to listen to Hal and some other experts speak.

Friday, June 9th

No mileage scheduled for today.

Gym – Light cross-training
Stretching / Abdominal exercises.
Leg presses
10 minutes on bike
7 minutes on ‘gazelle’ machine

I purchased Amino Vital at the Vitamin Shoppe on the way home. I decided I would try it to prepare for long runs.

Saturday, June 10th

Easy 3 miles at recovery pace. Nothing exciting to report here. I ran a steady 8:30-8:40 pace, which was by design. Continuing to build the mileage base.

We went to a co-worker’s birthday party Sat eve. I ate too much dessert and drank a few beers, which I was hoping would not make trouble for my run. We did get home early enough to get a decent night’s rest.

Sunday, June 11th

Today’s 10-mile run was very productive. I ran north into Naperville and back to Plainfield. Main streets I took were Van Dyke to 135th to 248th (found a back street parallel to 248th near the train tracks). 248th up to 103rd and back down to Champion Drive - then the usual southbound trek home from there.

Plan was to stay about 8:30-8:50 pace for first 7 miles and try to pick up the pace little bit on the back end. Last 3 miles I did at about 7:35 pace.

Polar dist monitor is on the fritz. I ran until it read 10 flat, but I am sure it was closer to 10.3-10.4. Time was 1:25:58. Avg HR: 151.

The weather is very cool here this weekend. So it made the run easy.

This was my first double-digit run since Monday, March 5. This was a very good run. I feel very good.

SUMMARY OF WEEK

Mileage goal of 29 successfully achieved!
Great rebound after vacation.

Next week plan

Mon 4 easy
Tue 7 – Tempo run for 4 of these miles
Wed Rest
Thu 5 – general aerobic
Fri XT
Sat 4 recovery
Sun 10 - LSD

Total: 30 miles

I've got to go the Norwalk office this week so I'll be balancing some travel and work with planned runs. I may need to rearrange these runs depending on how the week goes.