52 Mile Week!

Of all of the 50+ mile weeks I have ran in the past 2 years, most of them have actually been in the month of February. I think that's kind of crazy considering how icy and cold it gets in Illinois during the second month of the year. In fact, for a good portion of the 16 miles I ran this past Friday, a lot of them were spent dodging icy patches east of campus in Urbana. One of my resolutions this past year was to run more efficient miles on less volume, so knocking out 52.07 miles in the second week of February really doesn't seem to follow that plan. In my defense, this has got to be the most rested and recovered I have ever felt during a 50+ mile week. The easy treadmill running between 7:30 and 7:50 pace has dominated a large portion of my mileage and has allowed me to get good quality recovery miles with low impact to mitigate any chance of injury early in the season. Also, I've been getting a lot of sleep this week (minus having to get up before 5 AM for my long run this Friday). I'll review the workouts I did this week.

Alarm clock for an icy and windy morning long run




Monday: Rest day (crazy how I got to 52 miles this week after taking the first day off!)
Tuesday: 6 mile tempo with 1 warmup and 1 cooldown (8 total)
Wednesday: 6 easy
Thursday: 6 easy
Friday: 1 warmup, 14 long, 1 cooldown (16 total)
Saturday: 8 easy
Sunday: 1 warmup, 7 at goal marathon pace ( 8 total)

Tuesday's workout was awesome. I started off with an easy 7:50 mile, and then I followed that with 6 miles tempo at 6:36 pace. I definitely was not tapping into lactate-threshold type effort for the first couple of miles, but my last two miles in the mid to high 6:20s definitely felt like LT type work. I had John Coltrane's A Love Supreme and My Favorite Things dialed up for a good portion of that run. Tempo work is not possible for me without John Coltrane.


Main quad at 6:20 AM

Friday's workout was humbling to say the least. I went to bed before 10 PM on Thursday night, so I felt like I was adequately rested for the run. The early morning shift gave my internal clock some troubles as I dealt with stomach issues for probably 85% of the run. After an easy mile warmup to the Union, I started the planned 14 miler feeling pretty good. My running buddy and I were going through  the first several miles between 7:28 and 7:32 without any effort. The wind was somewhat of a factor on the run but not as much as the ice. We had to take very short strides on large portions of the run that had pretty icy surfaces. It was not fun, but it will serve as good training for the April race where the surface will be no issue.


14 of the 16 miles run in icy conditions with stomach issues this past Friday

It was around mile 4 in which I started to have pretty bad stomach issues. I have dealt with stomach issues on long runs before, but never have I had them in such cold conditions with ice and wind. It felt like I was running with an extra set of weights on my small intestine. As a result, I had to take a bathroom break at mile 7; however, I never really recovered from the pain during the run. I struggled through the remaining 7 miles and the 1 mile cooldown back home. Well, if it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you. I closed up the week with 8 miles easy on Saturday and then a more focused 8 mile run today with 7 miles at my goal marathon pace (between 3:09 and 3:10).

I sure don't think I will hit 50 miles again for this following week, but then again, who knows. 76 days left until the Illinois Marathon!

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