training 12/13-12/20

12/13- Nothing short of amazing today after my best 20 miler ever. Trak Shak 8.4 @ 7:38. On a hilly route, that's a course PR. I followed this with a 1.6 mile cool down. It's a new weekend mileage record of 30. I predict a 3:10 marathon by Fall 2010 if I can stay healthy enough to train at this level. This effort could cost me dearly tomorrow but I'll worry about that later and yes, I will slow down.
Grade:A/2 credits/distance=10.0

12/14- Easy 6.5 @ 7:50 on Lakeshore. Pretty even pace with almost no effort. Absolutely no ill-effects from the monster weekend. That's roughly a quarter marathon at 3:25 pace with no effort after running 30 miles in the previous 2 days. Even I am surprised by this. I could beat my soft marathon PR now without even pushing. I'm still 50/50 on a 5K this weekend. January will be 3M Austin or Red Nose (local 10 miler).
Grade:A-/1 credit/distance=6.5

12/15- Johnny's workout. Long warm up and cool down. Workout was 4x400 in 74-75, 2x800 in 2:40, 2x200 in 30. I got challenged by Clay in the 800 and but held him off. This was a good but not great workout. I need longer intervals for marathon training. Neither course is ideal for a 5K PR. Meadowbrook is a rolling course through an upscale neighborhood and probably similar to Elvis in terms of difficulty. Pell City will have very few entrants and thus a high probability of ending up in no man's land. I'm still not sure what to do.
Grade:B+/2 credits/distance=6.0

12/16- Trak Shak 5 @tempo effort. I was sore so I dialed it back a notch from last week. I ran with Adam's group and turned in a 7:03 pace with a 6:39 last mile. I think I will go with 3 taurine and zero SBF. Will that work next week let alone next month? Saturday's weather could be iffy. I am leaning towards a time trial instead.
Grade:B/2 credits/distance=6.5

12/17- A bit of a downer today. I was abnormally sore and had unexplained anxiety. I need more GABA and less taurine and must take the GABA with the taurine. Yes, it's complicated. This was a planned recovery jog anyway so I picked a good day to be off form. It was a weak performance but not a debacle. 5 miles @ 8:51 and yes that's acceptable on a recovery day. It was not much of a struggle but not effortless either. Chance of racing is 20% but tomorrow will be rest no matter what. Chance of time trial is 60%.
Grade:C/1 credit/distance=5.0

12/18- Rainy day so I picked a good one to rest. I felt quite sore when I woke up but got better by the afternoon because I didn't take the normal morning taurine. The weather tomorrow will be cloudy, cold and windy so that in addition to my uncertain health means no race tomorrow. I may still run the time trial. That way, if I get to 1.5 M and realize that I won't PR, I can still salvage a workout. I'm ready for Spring already and it's not even officially winter yet.

12/19- Good call on the no go. The time trial was a debacle. I knew that I would suck when I warmed up. It only took 200 meters to know that I would not sniff a PR so I would go long and easy instead and I couldn't even do that. I ended up doing the 5K time trial as originally planned and my time was a pitiful 24:55 (7:50-7:59-8:08-58). I am starting to get angry.
Grade:D/2 credits/distance=4.0
PM-Trak Shak 10 on a new course that was relatively flat. Even pace with good closing speed. Still a little stiffness and inflammation but my breathing was much better. The AM run ended around 10 and the PM started at 2:30 so all it took was 4.5 hours to go from awful to "good." For my new readers, this is nothing new for me. Time was 74:24 (37:13-37:11, 7:24 pace). This pace was too fast for a long run so I did not run the full planned distance. I did a 1 mile cool down to take me up to 49 for the past 7 days.
Grade:B+/2 credits/distance=11.0

12/20- BTC End of the year social run at Oak Mountain Park. As the Oak Mountain name implies, it was a hilly route. I managed to keep every mile below 7:45 despite the fact that 2 of the miles were nearly all uphill. I was the fastest one there so much of the run was alone and I finished at 11 mile with an average pace of 7:27. I still have some stiffness and inflammation but this was still a strong performance.
Grade:A-/2 credits/distance=11.0

Weekly summary:
Up and down week that turned out to be pretty solid overall. I've got a slack week ahead over Christmas then let the 2010 season begin. I will send in my medical test tomorrow. *Note: The distance was over an 8 day week. My 7 day average was a still good 52.5. From now on, my mileage will be reported Monday-Sunday so that way if I can't go long on Saturday, I can run it Sunday and it won't skew the mileage.
Distance=60.0(7/8)=52.5/GPA= 42.3/14=3.02