Today’s 5-mile run brought an end to my 7th week of training.  I ran 43 miles for the week which is a new high…..I’m going to be reporting new weekly mileage highs quite a bit over the next few months

This week started well with my 15-mile run on Sunday.  I’m amazed that I’m always nervous before my long runs, especially when it’s a distance that I’ve never run before.   But somehow, I manage to get through them pretty well, and a matter of fact, they seem to feel easier than my mid-week 9-mile runs.  I suspect it’s because I rest on the Friday and do an easy 5 miles on the Saturday so I’m fairly well rested.

My mid-week runs are another story.  This week was tough.  especially the 9-mile run on Thursday.  I think the problem with these runs is the constant tiredness I’m feeling.  After running long Sunday, running 9 miles on Tuesday followed by 5 on Wednesday, Im tired on the Thursday.  I’m pushing through as best as I can, but only time will tell if I can maintain this for anohter 17 weeks.

I have another business trip planned to South FL in 2 weeks time.  It’ll be interesting keeping my running schedule while in FL.  I’m not looking forward to the higher humidity levels.

Todays marks the end of my 6th week of training and it’s also means I’m 1/4 of the way through my 24-week training plan.

I bought a new pair of running shoes which I received yesterday. It’s same model New Balance shoes that I’ve been running in recently. I did my 5-mile run today in them and it felt great. My other pair of shoes now has 347 miles on them. I’ll continue to use them, but just for the shorter 5-6 mile runs. I’ll use the new shoes for the longer runs.

Seeing that I’m 1/4 of the way through my training plan, it’s a good time to evaluate how I’m doing and feeling.

For the last 6 weeks, I’ve run 209.4 miles for a total of 34 hrs 40 mins. My longest run was a 14-miler medium-long run…Pftizinger reserves the nomenclature of “long run” for runs 17 miles or longer . My weekly mileage is in the table below.

The following charts shows all my runs for the first 6 weeks:

Overall, I’m quite happy with how my body feels. I had a bit of a concern with some knee pains a few weeks ago, but nothing ever materialized out of it and my knee feels great. I think I’m getting used to the 40-mile weeks and I certainly don’t feel as constantly tired as I used to when I ran a couple 40-mile weeks before I started the marathon plan. It’s just as well as from now on, my lowest volume week until I start to taper will be 43 miles!

This week was a recovery week.  I ran so little that it seemed as though I hardly ran at all, but for the recovery week, I still ended up running 33 miles.  It should have actually been 35 miles, but I cut a 7-mile run on Tuesday down to 5 miles as I just wasn’t feeling right.  I think I was still a bit tired from the 14-miler on Sunday.  Plus the weather on Tuesday was 4-5F higher than normal and much more humid.

As a matter of fact, the weather this whole week was more humid than I’ve been used to.

I ended the week strong today with a easy 5-mile run, but I ran it at an average of 9:22 min/mile.  I actually did the first 3 miles at a 9:00 min/mile pace. When I go back in my logs, the last time I ran faster than 9:22 was a 7-mile run about 6 weeks ago which I did at a 9:18 pace.  Even going back 5-6 months, today’s run is the top 4-5 fastest runs I’ve done, excluding races.  The 9:00 min/mile pace I ran for the first 3 miles is significant as that is my marathon goal pace.  Now I just need to be able to hold that for 26.2 miles.

This coming week is a 38-mile week, but I suspect I’ll probably eck out an extra couple miles to make it a 40-mile week.  After next week, I wouldn’t be running less than 43 miles per week until I’m within 2 weeks of my marathon.

Today marks the end of my 4th week of training.  I ran a mile more than the plan called for and finished the week with 40 miles.  This is the 4th time I’ve ever run 40 miles, the last time being about 5 weeks ago.

This was a pretty good week.  All my runs were at a sub-10 min/mile pace.

I’m starting to feel a very slight pain in my knees.  It only lasts for a very brief time and I’m not concerned about it as yet, but it’s something I need to keep a close watch on.

This coming week is a recovery week in the Pftizinger plan.  I’ll be running a mere 35 miles.