Mileage increase

Last week my mileage cranked up quite a bit. I ran five days last week and ended with a long run of about ten miles, my total for the week was 37 miles. My feet were a bit sore yesterday after the long run, but overall I feel pretty good. I did however take the day off today in favor of a rest day. I think this was a really good idea. This will negate my fast start to the week, but I think that is ok. The last couple of weeks I have run on Mon and Tues, even if it is only a psychological difference (say from running Mon and Wednes), it has made me feel like I have been off to a great start in terms of running miles and frequency (which I have!) This week I'll just have to make do.

I do think that I ran too much last week. For me I would like to keep it around 30 miles for the week. I think that is the optimum amount of running for me to do to keep the weight in check as well as a nice level of conditioning. Three base runs plus a long run on the weekend will give me those miles. I do still like going out five times though. One last thing on increasing miles, be careful! A safe increase is 10% on a weekly basis.

My run this weekend was really good. My running partner and I put in about eight miles running along the Willamette from Downtown to Sellwood and back. Our plan was to time our run to finish as the Portland marathoners were crossing the finish line. The last 30 mins or so we stewed and fretted about making it. We got there 30 seconds before the winner crossed. Great timing!

We did another slow run this time. It is funny how one might not think a slow run would work you as hard, but in actuality it is even tougher. I guess it is because you are taking more steps? The goal of the run is to keep your heart rate down so you are running in the "fat-burning zone." The pace is supposed to be about 2 minutes per mile slower than marathon pace. I have heard advice to the contrary, but I know after doing these workouts a couple of times now that they are great workouts.

Once we were done with our run it was awesome watching the runners. There were some notables, one a Japanese man who had "Tiffany" on his race number (Portland Marathon lets you put your name or apparently someone else's name on your number.) He was funny. We got some great smiles from folks who where only blocks away from finishing. Some runners looked terrible, some looked like they just started. We where about four blocks from the finish, when the first woman passed us, she was about forty feet ahead of the second. The woman is second looked a lot stronger and ended up passing the woman in first place with 200 yards to go (how disappointing for her).