Streaking

Seriously, what were you thinking?? 

Week 12 ended with a little bit of a dud. I had a 21 day running streak going into Friday's snow/ice storm, my longest such streak of my short running "career". Actually, my body was quite ready for a break. During the 21 days, I have felt as strong and as weak as at anytime in my training. I also accomplished my largest monthly running volume to date - 181.45 miles. I was within reach of 200 miles for January had I gotten the Saturday long run in. It was only a 12 miler, but the missed 6 miler on Friday would have put it pretty close. No matter, the streak of 2 missed days was helpful, and revived my legs, even if only slightly.

Week 11 brings me to the 2nd "cycle" of the 18/55 Pfitzinger Marathon plan. The next 5 week cycle are the largest volume of training I will take on. I am not following it verbatim, and plan on substituting a lot of trail running during this cycle.

We have several great running groups in Middle Tennessee. The Nashville Striders and East Nasty Running group/gang have marathon and 1/2 marathon training group runs which I am planning on taking advantage of. I've, up to this point, been a "loner" when training. So training with the larger groups will be a new, but exciting aspect of this training period.

Today the snow is starting to melt, and I put on the trail shoes and got in a good, sloppy, slushy, wet 6 miles during my lunch break. I felt just like a kid running through the slush.