Week Log January 19-25

Monday: run 21.0 miles, 4:52 Appalachian Trail North from Trindle Road.

Tuesday: Core work (~40 minutes)

Thursday: run 5.5 miles, 49 min. A great, fast run. My quads were still a little sore from Monday, but it didn't seem to slow me down at all.

Saturday: Core work (~40 minutes)

Total: run 26 miles

This week is sort of a semi-easy week. I still got 26 miles in - 10% more than last week - but because my long run landed on this week I had plenty of time to rest up this weekend. Which is helpful, because my next scheduled easy week isn't until after my next scheduled long run on February 7.

The HAT run is less than two months away, so I'm now headed into the real "blood and guts" of the training time for that race. Peak training time generally begins eight weeks before an event and ends at the start of the taper, about three weeks out.

It's during that time that real fitness gains can be acheived in time for that event. If you peak too soon, you're in danger of over-training and burning out and if you peak too late the fitness gains don't solidify until after it is useful for you.

That being said, now is the time for me to head for the hills. It wasn't until my post about Monday's run that I realized there were 9800 feet of climbing at the HAT run. In my mind the number had been more like 3800, so it is actually far hillier than I thought (and hillier than my run over Blue Mountain). (The HAT course doesn't go over any mountains, but there will be many shorter climbs that have the potential to completely wear me down.) So I really need to train my quads to push me up over those hills, or I could be in for a potentially long and painful day come March 21.