I just finished filling out my training log for the week, and can you believe that I did 62 miles this week? Unbelievable! More importantly though, is that it was probably one of the best running weeks I’ve had for many, many weeks (if not for this entire cycle). I can admit that there were some good runs throughout this cycle, but never did I have many good runs combined during the same week. Much of it comes to the effectiveness of the ‘step-back’ week. Again, I wrote a specific post about why I feel the benefits of a step-back week outweigh the disadvantages (search for step-back if you want to read it).

This officially marks the starting point for tapering for Steamtown, however I still intend to hit over 50+ miles this week. My big issue this week is that i have no time for a 20+ miler on the weekend, and will attempt to get in an 18 miler at least before I have to teach on Sunday. We’ll see how that works.

I managed to do just over 21.75 miles yesterday, although the weather didn’t care to cooperate until the end. I headed out at 6am, it was cool and rainy for the first 2 hours until the sun finally decided to start peaking out at around mile 17. I had chaffing issues, in that my nipples were bleeding on my shirt by the end (even after lubing up beforehand). It really was a good long run though, because I completed it at an average pace of 9 minute mile, which i’ve never really sustained over the full long run … basically I finished it in 3:18 (with a couple stops of course)…. what a great effort! The most important part is the fact that afterward, I wasn’t totally wiped out … generally on these long runs my legs are killing me, and I can’t move. Well, not after this run, it shows i’ve improved my longevity.

So today I had to wait a little bit before heading out on my 12 mile pace run … I actually ran it faster than I ran it on Wednesday (although I think the distance is approx). It was really cool out though, with temps in the low 40’s, but a good representation of what Steamtown will be like in 3 weeks, starting out cool and then warming up later on. I wore two long sleeve shirts and was cold at the start, but warmed up quickly as I got to mile 2 … no need to dress heavy, don’t make that mistake on Oct 7th!

So I head into a difficult schedule week again as we prepare to taper for the big race … I am a little more sore today then normal because of the pace I ran at this morning, but don’t think its anything to worry about…