Week 6: May 30 - June 4

Monday:
AM - 3 miles easy on track and 5x80m strides
PM - 1 mile warmup, 4x1200m repeats with 1 lap rest, 1 mile cooldown

Tuesday:
I went out with Jake again today. He took me out to Michigan Bluff along the Western States Trail and made a good day out of it. We started at Michigan Bluff, went down into Eldorado Canyon (2.5 miles to the bridge), up to Deadwood Cemetery (3.5 miles up to the cemetery) and back. So that was 6 miles of climbing and 6 miles of downhill. We had some good conversations and I didn't have any trouble keeping up, although he was set on his all-day pace since he kept going after we finished the first 12 miles. He was going to be running 10+ hours. I'm still not sure if they've found the body yet.

Wednesday:
AM - 3 miles easy on the Track and 4x80m strides
PM - I decided to take this run off since my achilles tendon was complaining. Oddly enough my calves were fine even after all the climbing yesterday, but the tendon was sore so I iced it and gave it a little time off.

Thursday:
AM - 3 miles easy on the Track then iced the achilles tendon
PM - 7.2 miles out from home and around the lagoon twice. It started off as an easy run that was going to be 5 miles but turned into a 7 miler and a tempo run about 2.5 miles into it. I was feeling good and there was nothing wrong with my achilles. I also was running the opposite direction around the lake as another guy so I picked it up to tempo pace to get around faster than him and ended up holding it for the last 4 miles of the run. It felt good.

Friday:
AM - 4.5 miles easy on the Track
PM - 5.3 miles easy out and around the lagoon

Saturday:
AM - 5 miles easy on the Track and 4x80m Strides
PM - 10 miles from home out to Radio Tower Hill, up it twice, and then back home. Ran past a biker riding up the hill and had a humorous encounter with him joking around. My legs were a little tired because I didn't take care of them very well Friday night after my run. I sat down to play cards not letting them circulate and didn't eat very much.

All in all it was a good week. Its the highest mileage I've put in so far for the week. I'm starting to do 5 miles in the mornings to get at least 30 minutes of time in for aerobic benefit, which is going to increase my mileage to over 60. Next week will be a little erratic since I'll be heading back up North, but thats okay, I've increased my mileage for two weeks, I can do with more of a rest week and then lay on the miles again the week after. One thing that Saturday morning has reminded me is that I really dislike running more than 3 miles on the Track for many reasons, but mainly for the monotony and trying to keep track of laps. Its not as bad when I'm timing it, but without a watch the laps blur into each other. I much prefer running out on trails among trees and brush in God's creation than on the man-made surfaces or roads or tracks.

Running Toward God,
Jason