A few weeks ago I realized I needed to cut a week out of my training as I had miscounted the weeks leading up to my race. My plan alternates hard and “step-back” weeks, and it seemed to make sense to knock out a “step-back” week. This meant I would have one set of hard weeks back-to-back, and this was the second half of the set. I am now back on track, but I am also very tired.

This week also marked a switch from speed to strength workouts. This means my paces are a little slower but the trade-off is that the intervals are longer. This week it was six one-mile repeats. I thought that would be tougher mentally, but I liked the repetition after sprinting for the past seven weeks. Some of the strength workouts are longer, though, and I will have to decide if I want to keep those on the track or move to the road.

The tempo and long workouts did not go as well as my strength workout. I missed my target range in the tempo and bonked in the long run today. I didn’t stop to walk in either, but I wasn’t happy with the outcome. It was humid on both days and this was the second high mileage, hard week in a row but I need to keep an eye on my times this week to make sure I am not over-training. I don’t think I am, but we’ll see.

The highlights of the week were off plan. On Tuesday I ran an extra mile in the morning because my oldest son wanted to run. We hadn’t done that since the summer and it was his idea. I like watching him push himself and watching as he improves over time. The second highlight was a recovery run in Umsted yesterday. I did about half on single-track and tried a new trail, which i found invigorating. It was a little cooler I really enjoyed being off the pavement. I don’t plan to do that every week, but it was a nice reward.

I’m looking forward to this week and would like to focus on the tempo run. I need to change up my route and see if I can stay within my target range and hope this is achievable.