Weekly Training: December 13 - 19

(The graphic is from my page at dailymile.com.)

This week started poorly and ended well.  After resting Monday, I struggled through my midweek runs, experiencing lingering soreness from the December 11 half marathon.

I'm totally accustomed to the half marathon distance.  I run a similar distance almost every week in training, and it doesn't faze me.  However, after the half marathon race, I had considerable soreness deep in the lower abdominal muscles.  I attribute the difference to the hills on the half marathon route; I train in an area that is almost completely flat.  Because of the soreness, I ran Tuesday, Wedesday and Thursday comparatively slowly and never found a smooth running rhythm. Finally, after after another rest day Friday, I had a great 10+ miler Saturday, pushing the pace, calling it my "long-ish" pace run.  Sunday, I ran the same distance and route more slowly, calling it my weekly "long" run.

I had my fun.  I ran two races in the last three weeks.  In the process of extra pre-race rest and post-race recovery, my weekly mileage slipped from the 50 mile range into the 30s for four weeks.   Now, it's time to get in serious training mode, build miles, and get ready for my March 12 marathon race.

This marathon training cycle "officially" started in early November, with a modification of the same 18-week training plan I used for this year's marathon.  To date, I have not paid much attention to the schedule, because my routine runs follow the same general pattern, and my routine mileage has been higher than that in the first 6 or 7 weeks of the training plan.  The training plan builds mileage from week to week, so I intended to just pick it up when the plan's mileage caught up with my current in the 6 to 8 week range.

My plan will be a modified version of Hal Higdon's Intermediate 2 program.  I plan to add a few miles to it, to raise the peak weeks from 50 miles to about 55 miles, and to build to the 20-mile runs earlier, allowing me to put four 20 milers in the schedule instead of three.

Running miles- YTD: 1,836.9; Month: 98.7; Week: 40.4.