250!

With a nice 20 mile run today in 2:26 I hit 250 miles on the nose for the month. Mileage this week was 75 and it felt great. A little tired but no joint issues, soreness etc... One blood blister on a toe is all I have to show for my effort.

Total time running 30hrs, 52 minutes (averages out to a 7:25 or so pace). Some faster runs of 8-10 miles were done right around 7 minute miles, 'recovery' runs were done just under 8 down to 7:30, depending on how I felt that day. The increased mileage along with weight reduction really helped the pace. However instead of feeling drained/tired the fine folks at QT2 had me losing weight AND feeling great and energized for every workout thanks to their custom diet plan.

Now I get to enjoy the taper time, make sure I stick to my diet and two weeks from now I will put all the work to the test at Disney. Until then I feel like superman having ran so much and feeling so great. Josh agrees with me that Daddy rocks!

200 and counting.

So while I was at first worried about getting to 200 now I'm past that and am pushing towards 250. I'm at 224 right now with an easy 45 minute run scheduled for tomorrow so I should get around 6 miles in and a 20 miler scheduled for Sunday. That would land me on 250 on the nose, with three days to spare. I know I can get 250 by December 31st so my new goal is to hit 250 by Sunday the 28th. With taking the 1st of December off that will have given me 27 consecutive days of running and 250 miles in those 27 days. That will also give me close to 75 miles for the week, which is huge for me.

Two more days to go....

25 miles to go.

Ran 68 miles this week, that gives me just over 175 miles for December with taking December 1st off. That works out to 175 miles ran in 20 consecutive days. Funny thing is my legs feel better than ever. They are tired, but there are no joint issues and or soreness that I would have thought would come with running so many days in a row.

I should easily pass the 200 mile mark this week, in fact I should be able to hit close to 250 now by the end of December. 1 more big week then the taper for Disney starts.

1/2 way to 200.

Week 2 of the 200 mile in December challenge is done. Another good week:

Monday easy 7 miles on treadmill, varying incline, 50:35 for a 7:14 min/mile pace.
Tuesday run outside in rain/slush. 7.2 miles in 52:11 (7:21 pace)
Wednesday crappy out, 9 miles on treadmill, tempo run. 1:04:30 (7:10 pace)
Thursday easy run outside. 6.9 miles in 52:54 (7:40 pace)
Friday crappy out, 7 miles on treadmill easy, 51:30 (7:21 pace)
Saturday still bad out, 8 miles on treadmill in 58:40 (7:20 pace)
Sunday freezing rain outside. Long run, treadmill, 16 miles in 1:55:50 (7:14 pace).

Total mileage: about 61 miles for a total of 107.5 for the month so far.

Runs are starting to feel a lot easier. There was a little more treadmill running than I would have liked but unlike last year all runs are done with the machine set to random incline instead of a constant flat run.

Today's long run was also done differently. At coach J's suggestion my pacing consisted of 1 mile warmup (8 min pace), 7 miles at race goal pace + 30 seconds which equaled a 7:30 pace followed by 8 miles of goal race pace which was just a touch under 7 minute miles. I was surprised how easy the 7:30 pace felt and the 7 min pace was a little more work but still felt easy.

Two more weeks to get some big miles in before Disney on Jan 9th.

The Road to 200.

A goal has been set by John and I to have a big running month in December. This will allow me to build a nice big base for prep for the Disney Marathon Jan 11, 2009.

Also, it will be a good way to keep fitness up and weight down during the holiday season. As an added incentive I have signed up for the Slowtwitch challenge to run 200 miles in December. This is nothing more than a group of anonymous people that have banded together to challenge each other to meet this goal.

The winter conditions have made for an interesting first week of running. After taking Dec 1st off the rest of the week has looked like this on the way to 200 miles:
Tues: 6 miles in 45 minutes on treadmill, random incline. (7:30 pace)
Wed: 8.75 miles of rolling hills, one big long climb, 1 hr 7 minutes. (7:43 pace)
Thurs: 7.1 miles, first 3 uphill w some steep trails, 51 min, 36 seconds (7:16 pace)
Fri: Easy 6 miles on treadmill, 48 minutes. (8 min pace)
Sat:13 miles of rolling hills in blizzard conditions. 1hr, 43 minutes (7:58 pace). 20 deg temps.
Sun: 5.75 easy miles in 48min (8:20 pace). Near white out conditions, roads not plowed.

Week 1 total 47.3 miles. Legs felt good for all runs, recovery seems to be quicker too.
Now only 152.7 miles to go!