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Week 17
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Greetings all, providing a weekly demarcation for those that like a more weekly feel.
I actually got out and ran every day. More than I expected to, and probably more than I ought to have. My daily mileage totals were: 7.5, 7, 6.5, 7, 5.5, 6, and 7 for a total of 46.5 miles (two days were not singles). Probably should have stopped at 40 and taken Saturday off, but it is so hard to not run on a glorious weekend day, especially not knowing what might transpire during the week that will keep me from running. I did tempo a couple of miles at about 6:15-6:20 pace during the first run of the week, and on Friday, I did two miles of .2 on, .2 off...basically a mini-interval workout to get my legs used to going faster. The .2 ons were all in the 5:15 pace range, while the .2 offs were at about a 6:40 pace. The knee's feeling pretty good, and I'm happy to say, this was the first week that I actually felt like a runner again. All previous weeks since returning to running I looked forward to them ending; this week's runs felt much more comfortable...although I am a little sore today, but it's a good sore. :-) That being said, I'll probably back off a bit this week. With any luck, I'll be able to hit a few fall races before the weather turns.
Still working on loosening those hamstrings as Desert Rat suggested, and in the process, I now must acknowledge that I am a stretcher. I really envy those people that can run day in-day out and not stretch...what a time-saver. I realize that there is no conclusive evidence that stretching does any good, so I tried not doing serious stretching for quite some time. But I now know that I feel better when I stretch, and especially after runs, the more I stretch (both static and dynamic), the less stiff I feel the next day. I think this is another one of those personal things that must depend on your body and how it responds to stresses, so I suspect that there is no hard and fast rule. So who stretches? And how much, and when?
Lots of good discussion again last week and thanks to those who contributed. While I realize that there are still a few "bugs" with this system, I think the good far outweighs any bad, either real or perceived. There are probably a lot of things that we all don't agree on, but personalities aside, we do share two common bonds: (a) we've all passed the half-century mark, and (b) we love running. I'd love to hear what's going on in your running life in celebration of those uniting themes.
Hope everyone is having a great week.