Recovery weeks are awesome: Feb. 6-12, 2012

Recovery week was supposed to be last week. But I raced instead, and (conveniently) swapped last week for this. Looking back, it was a lot of easy running on generally the same route and minimal hills. That must change!

Monday: Off
Fighting a cold that started on Friday (pre-race). Felt like death after long work day.

Tuesday: 5; 47:00
Cold miraculously lifted. Life is clear again, but slow. OOB to Mt. Kato.

Wednesday: 6.5; 54:00
See original note -> OOB to just past Mt. Kato.

Thursday: Off
Wife was back from Cities for first time in several nights. Stayed home with her after I failed to run in the morning.

Friday: 5.4; 45:00
Same route as Tuesday.

Saturday: no running, but lots of walking
Worked at scout camp over weekend, walked maybe 8 miles? Maybe?

Sunday: 11.8; 1:30
Awesome long (Q1) run for the week, especially post-scout camp headache. Loop around Sibley and Mt. Kato (trifecta!). Took it at a quicker pace because sweat plus wind means evaporative cooling at an excessive rate - and one I didn't appreciate. 

Totals: 29.05 (goal was 30); 3:56:40
YTD: 216.8; 30:51:24

Up next: A real week, 50 miles, and still in phase 1 base building. How this week goes may well affect the remainder of my season. It is the first 50-mile training i.e. non-race week, and I generally start to slack off a little bit when the mileage goes about 50 mpw. This ends up with massive runs on Friday/Saturday/Sunday to hit the goal mileage and little work on the front end. The plan this week is to run about an hour at a time every day except Saturday or Sunday so as to get off on a good foot - so to say - on Monday.

The above is also part of my mental strategy for the season. Every week, I am rededicating my self to two of my 2012 goals: finish Sawtooth (well); and run what I planned to run for that week. Each week, without thinking about what is beyond that. I do that, by keeping rolling seven-day and three-week averages (see 2012 training plan, at right), but not to any high degree of importance. This week, with 50 mpw and a 12.5-mile-plus long run, I need to bang out between 6.5 and just over 7.5 miles/day, depending on how many days I run (six vs. seven, and hopefully not five - the last of which puts those non-long day closer to nine miles/day).