Another record week of mileage

Final mile in Scotiabank Half Marathon

This week I stuck mostly to the training plan I mapped out at the start of the week. The main change I made was to what I had planned to be a key session, the 10-mile run at marathon race pace on Thursday. My body felt tight and tired on Wednesday evening, and I didn't feel ready, mentally or physically, to tackle this tough workout.

Overall, it was an awesome week, most importantly because I'm enjoying getting the mileage up to a volume I have not run before. On Tuesday I did a session of five 1-mile repeats, at 2 minutes rest, and averaged 6:38/km. That session felt comfortable, and I was pleased with it. In the evening I did a trail run with the Squamish Titans, at a very easy pace, covering about 8.5km according to my Garmin.

Wednesday I did had a 17km run that included a big hill in the afternoon. Thursday had a 15km run, including 5km at 4:30/km. Friday was a 10km run in the morning, with six striders at the end. Initially I'd planned to do a 6km run on Friday afternoon as well, but adding up the mileage I saw there was no need so decided to rest my legs for the long run the next day.

I woke to steady rain on Saturday morning, which turned out be nice for running as it was warm. Tim joined me on the session and we did an out-and-back course that is mostly flat. The goal was to stick between 5:00 and 5:30/km pace, with the first half closer to the latter and the second half closer to the former.

With the thick cloud cover, my Garmin needed time to get a signal. By the time it found one we'd been running for six minutes, so I think it is safe to say we missed a kilometre there. We did a course that allowed Tim to bow out about 5km early, as he hasn't been running as much as I have.

Running at a similar pace, it was great to settle into a comfortable rhythm and my legs felt great. On the way home, after turning around at the halfway mark, we lifted the pace slightly and found we stayed reasonably comfortably around 5:00/km. As Tim wisely decided to stop at 25km, I maintained the pace for the final 5km. A solid session.

In the afternoon, Tim, doggy Luka and I went for an easy 7km recovery jog. That brought my mileage for six days to 100km (including Monday as the rest day). Today I am meeting a friend for an easy 45-minute trail run around beautful Alice Lake, and I'll probably be keen to round up the volume for the week to 110km.

Next week I'll aim to run a similar volume, before then taking a rest week, both keeping in mind three consecutive weeks of more mileage than ever, as well as a mini-taper for the Squamish 10km on July 31.