Merry Christmas!

I just finished the second week of the Pfitz 18/55 plan. I missed one 13km run so far, unfortunate, and hopefully with the holidays (I'm home in the US with lots to do and lots of people to see) I won't miss any more.

I'm doing the first 6 weeks essentially by HR, except for the tempos I'm basically doing all easy paces under/around 155 bpm (about 195 is my max). That was my compromise in starting before being fully recovered from a little ankle tendon injury thing, and not feeling so hot about my Cognac marathon in Nov. With 18 weeks I think it'll be good.

Hope everyone is doing well over the holidays and getting those runs in! I'm certainly enjoying holiday dinners after running 5-15 miles!

Nice weeks, kestrou and joplus.

Su: 23 trails (14min mile pace)
M: rest
Tu: 9 E
W: 5 E
Th: 7.5 E
F: Rest
Sa: 20 Long run (8:22 pace)

64 miles total. Developed some knee pain over the weekend. Must be do to an aggressive increase in weekly miles in the past three weeks (40/50/64.)

This week I'll rest and evaluate the knee.
Still 16 weeks out from goal race.

Merry Christmas All!

Nice 20 miler kestrou. Good luck on the taper, joplus. Hopefully you won't get a sauna for your race next weekend. Good to see you racking up the miles again WI MTP.

As for me, I had a good, but transitional week. Good overall, but I just got my brand spankin' new orthotics. They seem great, but will definitely be a transition getting used to them. My guess is that they will have to be adapted a bit, but just in wearing them daily I can feel changes . . .

M - core workout, elliptical

T - 8.5 miles with 8 striders. Did first 6 miles at an easy 9:22 pace. Then did 8 striders, at least 4 were up big hills:
5:36, 6:10, 6:31, 5:39, 5:58, 5:56, 5:24, 5:29

W - core plus .15 miles barefoot on the treadmill. I will fix these crappy biomechnics if it kills me!!

R - 5.02 - rainy and cold (38 degrees). Feelin very sub-par and wishing for snow....

F - 5.39 - still rainy and cold. This was supposed to be an off day, but since I was scheduled for 10 R and only did 5 due to feeling sick, I decided to get out there. The wet stuff in this cold sucks. First ride in the new orthotics.

Sa - 13.01 - This was the hardest run for me in a long time - both mentally and physically. My husband did the first 3 with me. The wind was brutal (20 mph) and my HR was very high the entire time. I would get out of the wind and it would drop, but once I turned it went over the top again. I did 1.5 in the school prairie, which is very uneven, grassy terrain. It was tough, but I know it will help strengthen my ankles. Incorporated some very big hills. I could definitely feel it in my hips and knees - must mean those orthotics are doing their job. Of course, I did not wear them yet for this run, but I could definitely feel it.

Su - I wanted to do 5, but was pretty sore in the hips - decided to enjoy a little holiday cocktails and not worry about it.

Good running all and merry christmas!! I hope you all had a wonderful, joyous holiday. I know I did.

I had big plans for this week, but got sick early on and it was not to be:

M - AM, 8 easy 6:51 avg. PM, 10 easy 6:40 avg w/6X100m strides
T - AM, 10 easy 6:48 avg. PM skipped run, sick.
W - 11 hrs driving + 3 hrs other, still sick. SO no run.
R - 12 miles. 3 mile warmup 6:45 avg, then 3X2mile tempo w/7min mile recoveries. Paces 5:24-5:13-5:14. 1 mile cd. Felt ok.
F - AM, 10 easy 6:51 avg. PM, 10 easy 6:45 avg. Made myself sick again.
Sa - AM, 10 easy 7:04 in high winds. Sick in PM
Su - Finally gave up and skipped long run to get better.
Total for week: 80 miles

---Thursday's workout felt good and was a decent sign of fitness, though I have a month to be avging under 5:10 for the workout. Every time I ran hard or long I got sicker though, so I'm hoping I do better this week by taking Sunday off.

Hi everyone, and merry Christmas.

Some cold, dry weather here all of last week, which made a nice change... and helped me get out there every day. Taking a rest now for a couple of days, with a little seasonal over-indulgence. Good running, all.

M: 8 tempo
T: 10 easy, w/ 200m strides
W: 9 hills
T: 7 easy
F: 2 easy
S: 10 easy
S: 14 easy

It strikes me how fast everyone in this thread is. Everyone who listed a goal time is far above average. I did the LA Marathon one year in 5:25 and still finished almost exactly mid-pack. I'm hoping to run my spring marathon this year almost exactly twice as fast as that!

Mon - 9.5 easy to moderate, 6:48 pace
Tues - 5 recovery, tight and sore, 7:01 pace
Wed - 2 ez, 5K tempo in 18:30, 2+ ez
Thurs - 5 easy, 6:35 pace
Fri - 12 long run, 6:43 pace
Sat - 5 easy on hills
Sun - 6 easy

Total: 50 miles

This was a great week for me. I haven't done a higher mileage week since July, and that was my longest "long run" since April. Things are really coming around, as I was able to do a 5K tempo run in 18:30, when as recently as October I couldn't break 30 minutes for 5K.

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Hi everyone! Last week was a planned cutback and a switch to my new schedule where monday starts off my training weeks.

Last Sunday I did 16 on a flat dirt trail. I averaged 8:42 pace.

Mo - 6 very easy.

Tu - off (I had to travel for work)

We - 6 easy

Th 6 easy

Fr 6 easy (are you sensing a pattern yet?)

Sa 6 easy

Su 12 easy

Weeks total was 42 easy miles and a much improved muscle strain.

Good weeks to everyone and of course Happy Holidays!