Training 10/31-11/6

10/31- Plan was to run 10 miles on Lakeshore with the first 7.5 at marathon pace then pick it up at the end. I covered the full distance in a strong time of 71:17 (7:08 pace). If sustained over a full 26.2, my time would be 3:07. I have now run 34 miles in 3 days, all at 7:30 pace or under. That seems awfully fast and it is but I will have 2 days off following the prolotherapy. Speaking of which, the groin felt pretty good today but it's not 100%. Quarter splits were 17:56-18:04-18:07-17:10. That's a 6:52 pace over the final 2.5 miles. I like that. The Lunar Elites are getting a bit worn so on a MLR run, I went with the Brooks Cadence. I wore black, LOL. I feel like I may be peaking too soon but I'll have some slack time after Arkansas.
Grade:A/2 credits/distance=10.0

11/1- Forgot to mention that I passed 1,750 miles on the year yesterday. Barring disaster, I will finish well over 2,000.
AM run- Today was not one of my better efforts. Not a big surprise considering the training that I've done over the last 3 days. Believe it or not, I don't think that was the problem. I took 2 pills in the morning, which was too much. I'll need to take 1 pill three times/day or 1.5 in the morning and 1.5 in the evening. Also, I did not have enough to eat. The workout was the Trak Shak 5. From the beginning, I wasn't feeling it but I did pass 3 miles in 20:47 (6:56 pace) then shut it down and jogged to the finish because I was out of energy. Headed up to Nashville for prolotherapy in the afternoon.
Grade:C/1 credit/distance=5.0

11/2- Forced day of rest.

11/3- I had 9 shots in the hip/groin area on the afternoon on 11/1. Based on how I felt this morning, I can either take a 2nd rest day or do a junk run in the evening. I'm leaning towards the former. I'll be ready for a basic easy 5-6 tomorrow and hopefully long on Saturday or Sunday at the latest. Mileage should still be in the 40s.
PM- Opted for the junk run. 2 miles indoors in 16:16 (8:08 pace). No cause for alarm. This is just about what I expected at this stage of treatment. I should be nearly normal in 2 more days.
Grade:Pass/0 credit/distance=2.0

11/4- AM- 2.5 miles in 18:51 (7:33 pace). I cut it short only because I wanted to get to work on time. I took 1.5 pills this morning and felt good. I will try to run again this afternoon without any more pills and see how that goes. I am unsure if I can go long tomorrow and that's okay. I can do it Sunday without a problem.
PM- This will be my last workout after work in the daylight until the end of February. I decided to run the Trak Shak loop and finished it just before it got dark. I covered 4.5 miles in a solid 33:21 (7:25 pace). Slowed just a tad toward the end but still pretty strong. I should be up for a LR tomorrow but it will be solo in the daylight.
Grade:A-/1 credit/distance=7.0

11/5- Skipping the 10K was probably the right call but I know that I would have done well in a race today. Instead, I did the best long run of my life. 18 miles in 2:12:08 (7:21 pace) with pretty even splits and a 6:43 closing mile. AMAZING! Route was (Trak-Shak to Lakeshore, up Green Springs then the remainder of the 5 mile loop) times 2. Fairly flat route but this is BY FAR my fastest pace for this long of a distance. This is 3:12 marathon pace and even if I slowed to 9 minute pace over the final 8.2, I still would have run a 3:25, which is a 10 minute PR.
Grade:A+/2 credits/distance=18.0

11/6- Easy 8 on South Lakeshore. 2 extensions plus trail. Time was 61:35 (7:42 pace). Sluggish start but I was fine after the first quarter mile. I actually had to force myself to slow down. Miles 4-8 were all 7:45-7:50. I needed a flat route after yesterday with the sore quads. Solid performance. I hope that this was easy enough to recover by tomorrow.
Grade:B+/1 credit/distance=8.0

Weekly summary:
Unbelievable to hit 50 during a prolotherapy week. I believe that's an even 1800 on the year. I will cut back just a hair next week with a race coming up on 11/19. Good call to skip the 10K. Strong MLR and LR but no quality speed or tempo sessions. That also changes next week. I've got a tough stretch of training in December and early January but if I can survive that, I'm golden. If I can manage to sustain this for 7 weeks, I've got PRs in my first 2 races of 2012. I will NOT normally push my LR quite this hard in the future.
Distance=50.0/GPA= 25.6/7= 3.66