Week 9 complete - Another 50 in books - on to London today

The 50-mile weeks are becoming standard for me. This is my 3rd consecutive 50-mile week. Picking up since Tuesday's post...

Wed 8/16 - 14 miles EZ - I think this is the most mileage I have ever done before putting in a full day at the office. Not bad. I did these in 8's most of the way and finished strong. Total time was about 1:51. I felt decent considering I was still recovering from Sunday's 1/2 marathon race.

Thu 8/17 - Nike Run Hit Remix 5 miler - What an awesomely fun race! Nike sponsored this super fun race downtown right at Balbo and Columbus in Grant Park, which started at 9PM. Really fun environment. I ran by Young MC, Digital Underground, a U2 cover band, bag pipers, some sort of drum corps, Elvis. I could feel that my legs were tired. Conditions were really humid. I warmed with about 1/2 mile or so of running. My time was 34:30 or 6:54 per mile. I ran a half marathon earlier in the week at about the same pace.

Fri 8/18 - Rest. Flew to Pittsburgh in the afternoon

Sat 8/19 - 20 miler at Pittsburgh's North Park - I met up with Steve and another Chicago Trainee named Aaron at 6:20 AM ET (which felt like 5:20 for me). Aaron gunning for 3:10 with me, while Steve has hopes of a 2:59. North Park is a popular running course locally because of its 5-mile running/bike loop and relatively flat pavement.

We knocked out 20 miles with really only short 3 breaks. We did btw 8 to 8:10 pace for the majority of the early miles and our pace crept up to sub 8 for the late miles. This was a very good workout for all of us - and our FIRST 20-miler of the program. Total time: 2:40:00. My average HR was in the low 140's.

So Steve does a 20-miler with us and heads straight to the golf course to start his bachelor party. I told him no way was I going to play golf after the run. I needed to rest. So he plays all day with some other guys. Then we meet up with the extended group later that evening for dinner. He's half in the bag already and the night is just starting. We do dinner at Ruth's Chris, then booze at a Cigar Bar and then onto one of Pittsburgh's finest gentlemen's club -- all with a constant flow of drinks. He's the first person I've known to run 20 miles; play 18 holes of golf; drink all day with probably a min of 5-7 jager bombs in the evening; and also get a number of lap dances -- ALL in the same day.

The miles will drop down this week 10 upcoming. It's a recovery week. I fly to London today and have flights to Geneva and Hanover mid-week.

My hope is to get a total of 16 miles in during my trip - in any combination I can. I just don't know how, when and where I will do them.

I land on Friday 8/25 back in Chicago at 2:40 PM. I will be running with the CARA group on Saturday to do the 19 miler. I figure I'm OK to do this even though I'm supposed to step back slightly on the long run because my mileage will be down mid-week.

I hope to get 40 miles in during week 10. The following week will bringing my all-time high of 55 miles.

Run strong this week all...