A good week of training, hit my objectives for the week. Here is the breakdown:

8/04 – 8 Miles
8/05 – (Long Run 2) – 14 Miles @ 7:36 Pace, felt tired and I was really hungry after a few miles, since I ran right after work, should have eaten a powerbar.
8/06 – Off
8/07 – 3 Mile warmup, 6*1200 with 400 recovery, VO2 Interval Workout, VO2 Goal = 4:36
Actual Intervals – 4:38, 4:33, 4:34, 4:31, 4:35, 4:38, 1.25 cool down, 9 miles total
8/08 – 5 Miles (Easy, AM run)
8/09 – 5 Miles (Easy)
8/10 – (Long Run 1) – 20 Miles @ 7:35 Pace, Avg. Heart Rate = 154bpm

61 Miles Total

I feel good, strong and motivated. I also feel healthy, generally once I creep up to the 60 mpw mark, I start to get nagging injuries such as IT Band, shins, etc. but right now I would say that I am at 98% healthy, so things are lookin’ up! I think the reasoning is that my progression in weekly miles has been steady, where as in the past I ramped up my miles too quickly and often times suffered an injury.

I hit the track on Tuesday for some intervals. I headed over to the state of the art Denver North High School Track to tackle the 1200′s. It’s actually pretty sad to see that track, it’s in sorry shape. The sad thing is that location would be fantastic for an all weather track; it has some stellar views of the downtown Denver skyline. I kept thinking that it would be sad had you gone to school there and ran track 15 years ago and you visit it today and see grass growing on said track. Anyway, I don’t mind it, its asphalt now and I like the consistency of running on a track and didn’t feel like driving to one when I can run over to Denver North High School.

The intervals went well, with the exception of the last one, where I got a bit lethargic. Last year I ran intervals with RMRR every week, but in hindsight when I get into a group setting, especially on a track; I get competitive and start running faster than goal pace, thus negating the workout. Generally when I do intervals alone, I can hit my target times consistently. The track alone generally makes me run fast, I imagine it’s years of psychological conditioning from my high school and college days. The track is not a place where you do long slow runs, so I think it’s natural that when you step on the track you run a bit faster.

I ran my 20 mile long run on Sunday night, literally. It was completely dark when I finished, ran The High Line Canal. Felt good, took it relatively easy, the average heart rate of 154bpm is also a good sign.

Goal for this week is 65 miles. I’m also going to do a 5k this Saturday, just trying to decide between the Fit to Fight 5k or the Run the Rock 5k. I’d probably prefer to do the Run the Rock 5k, which is a trail race, but I may be leaning towards the Fit to Fight 5k, as I’d like to see if/how much my conditioning has improved since my last pathetic 5k performance!