I had the best workout of my life last Saturday, hands down. I was feeling very excited about the prospect of running some fast times in the coming weeks. I left town for a wedding immediately following my workout and was gone until Monday afternoon (the wedding was out-of-state). Upon my return, my training partner informed that he had to take a few days off due to a slight injury. In his absence, I did not do much at all.
My average week has been in the 75-85 mile range for the past year. I count my weeks Monday - Sunday and I am looking at a 50 mile week after my run this morning. I didn't do anything hard and never went longer than 7 miles. I did double one day to get a 12 mile day in (11 is usually my standard morning run). My previous low week in the past 12 months was 65 with a speed workout and race thrown in there.
Can you lose fitness that quickly? It seems like the answer should be no, but I have gained 5.5 lbs and feel like a useless slug.