I started following the Pfitz plan recently. I've been making a running comeback and am up to 60-70 mile weeks, and am loosely following one of his plans.
Right now, I'm still in the early stages where he calls for two mid-week long runs and a long run.
I usually run these as progression runs, where I start out easy (often very slow if I'm tired) and then gradually pick up the pace. If I'm feeling good, I push it especially the last 1-2 miles. I try to take the recovery days pretty easy.
I've started noticing a pattern here. My weekend long run will start out easy (being cautious in the initial stages), then pick up, and by the end I'm often going at a good pace and feeling good.
I do an easy run the next day which I purposely take easy, but I notice it's often actually not that slow - perhaps because I still feel exhilarated from the day before and the fatigue hasn't set in yet.
It's my next two days that are the slower ones where I feel fatigued. The first mid-week long run ends up being the hardest run of the week for me, where I definitely feel fatigued. I start out very slow and then still gradually pick it up, but I'm running slower compared to the long run and second mid-week long run.
Finally, my best run of the week is the second mid-week long run, that's slightly shorter than the first. I always start feeling good more quickly and start ramping down the pace, and by the end am pushing it but feeling good.
My question is: Am I doing these runs correctly? And has anyone else noticed this pattern of the first mid-week long run being the most tiring, but the second being great, and the long run also not being bad?