Good Week of Running

I had a good week of running. Counting the week from being Monday through Sunday, like dailymile (the site I use to track mileage) does, then I ran 43 miles this week, my second-highest weekly total ever.

• Monday -- 10 miles in 1:36:33 (9:39 pace)
• Wednesday -- 10 miles in 1:37:21 (9:44 pace, also this one was a different route than the other 10-milers)
• Friday -- 13.1 miles in 2:08:48 (9:49 pace)
• (Saturday 12 mile bike ride)
• Sunday -- 10 miles in 1:40: 30 (10:03 pace)

At first, I wasn't thrilled that I got slower throughout the week, but I think that's just a meaningless artifact of looking at one week of running in isolation. I usually run every other day, so I'm not normally more well-rested at the beginning of a week than I am at the end of one.

Last Saturday, I ran the 10K race instead of a longer "normal" run. It was a tough race, but maybe I was more rested than usual on Monday. However, 1:37 for 10 miles is right about where I've been this spring and summer so far, so it wasn't like I was blazingly fast due to extra rest. Wednesday is a tougher route and I ran 3 extra miles on Friday, and they weren't too far off my norm, anyway. The 13.1 was quite a bit of my half marathon race times, but faster than I usually am when I train at that distance around here.

I'm going to chalk up this morning's slower than usual 10 to the return of some really high humidity after two beautiful mornings as well as likely being less rested than usual, since I ran longer than I have in months on Friday and biked yesterday. Oh, and maybe the four Yuenglings, 2 burgers, and 2 hot dogs I consumed at Lake Meade yesterday may have had something to do with it, too.

(A pirate's life for me.)

I'm getting pretty close to the point where I should probably stop "just going out and running" without any sort of plan and get on a program to train for the Philly Marathon. I think I'm going to go with Hal Higdon's Novice 2, since it doesn't require me to run more often than I'm doing now, so I know I can fit it into my schedule. If I were training in the winter, when running at lunch or right after work is more within my temperature comfort zone, I would probably bump up to one of the Intermediates, but I still feel like a Novice right now.

I'll probably make a few modifications:

• In terms of mileage, I'm ahead of where I need to be to start, so I think I'll shorten the program and begin with Week 5.
• Higdon doesn't have any speedwork in the program, which is great since I hate speedwork. Since I wouldn't mind getting at least a little faster, though, I'll probably run one of the midweek runs back and forth on the hills between Manchester and Mt Wolf.
• Lastly, if I feel up to it, I'd like to bump the 18 and 19 mile runs up to 20 miles. The longest training run for Shamrock that I was able to complete was 18 miles, and I think that was part of my downfall. That would give me three 20-mile training runs.
  

I'm not looking for a BQ, but I would rather not walk four of the last five miles again.