A sneaky 75 mile week

Since I started training with SC, I have become less and less focused on weekly mileage totals. I dial myself into the assigned workouts for the day and focus most of the time on my heart rate rather than mileage or pace. This is starkly different than my mindset in college where weekly mileage seemed to be the ultimate measuring stick for one's fitness and ambition. Because of this shift in mentality, a 75 mile week snuck up on me without even expecting it. Actually, I did 75 miles in 5 days of running because I took Monday off and Wednesday went on a bike ride. There will be much more aggressive weeks to come, but this week was huge for me. I think I'll look back on this as the time when I really got my teeth back into my training. I feel like I control my own fate now.

The highlight of the week was definitely the out and back negative split 20 miler I did on Thursday. It felt so good to really roll like that and get some legitimate distance in at the same time.

On Saturday I did some "cruise intervals," aka some up tempo bursts of speed during an otherwise normal run. I had 4x10 minutes at 5:45 pace. Here's what that looked like:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/910590739

First off, I'm not sure if that link is going to work. If it doesn't work, that's ok. I hit 5:45 pace chunks right on, which felt pretty darn easy. My heart rate during those segments was 157, 147, 155, 160. There were some downhills on that second one, which would explain the dropoff there. I felt great and covered about 15.5 miles on that run, along with an easy four mile shake out later in the afternoon.

As an aside, the smell of the autumn air has to be one of the best things a runner can experience. The cool crispness is heaven to breathe in.

Day off tomorrow and a bit of a recovery week ahead. Thanks for reading everyone.

AH

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