Training Week 3/19-3/25: No Screwing Around. OK, Maybe A Little

M- AM: 3.6 miles in 46:05 with Tim on the Wal-Mart singletrack. Trails 95% clear. I couldn't believe it.

PM: 2.1 mile warm-up, then 9.7 mile fartlek (3:00 on, 3:00 moderate) with the blogger formerly known as Double J. Covered the loop in 58:09 (6:00 pace). Solid workout. It was great to have someone to do a workout like that with. Jim actually pulled us along on the last 6.

Tu- AM: 5.4 miles in 1:02:42 with Tim and Sarah on the Rec Trail Loop. 6 strides after.
PM: 5.0 miles in 55:53 with Roger Marcoux. Lunge routine after.

W- AM: 6.0 miles in 1:04:46 with Tim on Corridor 19. Felt good.

Mid-AM: 2.0 miles wu, drills and strides, then up the Mt. Washington Auto Road to the finish in 1:17:05, 1:17:51 to the summit. I was looking for a 45-60 minute hard climb today, and figured I would run hard until the conditions wouldn't allow it. I made it past 4.5 miles before the snow got deep. The road was completely runnable up until that point. Splits: 7:20 8:46 9:20 9:24 5:46 (0.6 miles). Pretty solid workout. The first time on the auto road for the year is always a ball buster. It was all about getting in a good effort. That being said, I would have like to had been faster, but it's March and not June, so I have some time to get some more work done. After stopping at 4.6 miles, I decided to run easy to the summit, as the road was in great shape and the weather was awesome. 7.6 miles down, 1:05:39.

PM: +/-5 miles in +/-55 minutes with Jim at Purity Springs. The rare triple. This run was not exactly flat, but my legs were.

Th- AM: 3.4 miles in 40:31 with Tim and Sarah on the Audubon Loop. I called this one short. I was a little tried. I wonder why?

PM: 8.9 miles in 1:32:41 with Jim on the Upper Moat Brook Loop. I was surprised to see that the trails were 95% clear. What a weird winter/spring. Got a little dark near the end, so Jim dropped the hammer on the dirt road part.

F- AM: 3.7 miles in 47:55 on the Wal-Mart singletrack with Tim and Sarah. 6 strides after.

PM: Was planning on 8-10 miles after some work stuff, but I gave Jim a hand moving some stuff and getting rid of some "junk" from his house. Probably needed the rest anyways.

Sa- I was supposed to do a 12 mile tempo, but wasn't really in the mood, so I talked myself into doing something on Black Cap. Started with a 1.0 warm-up, then 3.0 miles up Black Cap via Hurricane Mtn. Rd. doing 1:00 on, 1:00 off. Interesting doing a fartlek up a 10+% grade. Hit the summit in 25:25 (8:28 pace) , a 1:03 PR up Black Cap. How I ran that fast I don't know, especially in a fartlek. The other times I have run this route hard, I had done a 5 mile tempo right before, but to still run faster while doing a fartlek must mean I'm getting in shape. 32:11 down the Red Tail Trail which was 95% clear.

Su- 16.1 miles in 3:02:42 with Paul (full 16), Tim, Peter and Sarah (9). A little wet, but a great day to be out on the trails. The trails on the flats still had some snow/ice in spots, but nothing to keep me from going back soon.

Totals: 93.6 miles, 15.80 hours. That was a pretty good week. I was trying to hit 100 miles, but it's just a number. My goal all winter has been to get out twice a day M-F and a longer workout Saturday and a long run on Sunday. That's pretty much what I did this week, just with more miles on a lot of the runs. I feel pretty good right now. I'm going to try to do something similar next week while I have the time.