Training Jan. 18-24

1/18- 4 mile recovery jog. Started out fine but broke down halfway through then decided to cut it short by a mile. Early pace was 8:00 but faded to 8:30 then worse. Should not be anything more serious than natural fatigue.
Grade:C/1 credit/distance=4.5
1/19- 9 miles easy. Started too fast then gradually and deliberately slowed down. Pace was around 8:40 by the time I finished but overall, it was below 8:30. Better than yesterday but my body still feels a bit beat up from the training. Off day tomorrow then a long tempo coming up.
Grade:B-/1 credit/distance=9.5
1/20-planned rest day. I needed it badly. Cold and windy outside so I picked a good rest day.
1/21-Long tempo. Bounced back strongly. Covered 10K in 45:05 (fastest of '09), which is better than I ran in all of '07. Could have broken 44 in an all out time trial. 1st 5 miles were 7:15-7:22 then picked it up to 7:04. Amazingly refreshed when I ran my cooldown and almost felt like I could do it again. 41 miles in 5 days. Can I do 14 in the next 2?
Grade:A-/2 credits/distance=7.0
1/22- 8 miles easy. Uneven pace that ranged from 8:15-8:40 while maintaining a pretty even effort. Overall pace was a hair below 8:30, which was right on target. Slight muscle soreness became evident 6 miles in and finished with very stiff calf muscles. 49 in 6 days.
Grade:B-/1 credit/distance=8.0
1/23- 6 miles easy. Again, my pace was quite uneven but the overall effort was less than yesterday despite continued stiffness in the calves. Again, the overall pace was slightly below 8:30 and this mileage is just about my upper limit at this time. Bonus point for setting a new 7 day high with 55 miles. Yes! I don't care about the pace tomorrow but I do want to finish that long run to give me back to back 50+ weeks.
Grade:B+/1 credit/distance=6.0
1/24- 16 miles in 2:07:41 (7:59 pace). This goes in the books as one of my best workouts ever and considering how sore I was coming into it, I can't believe it myself. This is sub-3:30 marathon pace and I know that I could have gone even faster if I ran less than 55 miles in the previous 7 days. I'm getting stronger and stronger and the time spent in training is absolutely worth it regardless of what happens on race day. I'm not sure which of these splits is most impressive: last 13.1 in 1:44:12, just over 90 seconds away from a PR at that distance, last 10 miles in 78:37, last 8 miles in 62:38, last mile in an amazing 6:36, final lap in 88 seconds. All but the 400 are my fastest times of 2009. I'd give myself higher than an A+ if I could.
Grade:A+/2 credits/distance=16.0
Weekly Summary: Great finish to the week. Performed very well on the quality sessions but not as well on the easy days. I want to be in the mid-upper 40s next week and am unsure of what workouts to do. I'm almost speechless about the 1/24 workout. Let's see how I feel early next week and go from there. What is certain is that it will be my last week over 40 until the Mercedes half on 2/15. Back to back 50 mile weeks and how about 71 in 8 days? Still, as I wrote earlier that I will focus on quality over quantity. I haven't run anything slower than 9:00 pace overall and most are 8:30 or below. I could go well over 60 if I slowed to 9:00+ but I don't want to see my 5K and 10K suffer as a result.
Distance=51.0/Weekly GPA= 26.7/8 credits= 3.338