Still suffering from that pesky chest infection, I managed an impromptu 15.75 mile run home tonight. I didn't leave the office until 18:30 and it was past 22:00 by the time I got home. I had planned on 2 sessions today (midday and evening) but events elsewhere meant that my plans were scuppered.
Make no mistake, this was one tough run tonight. I had to dig very deep indeed when the heavy rain came and when that steady incline up the Derwent Walk demanded a bit of extra effort from my tired legs.
Despite a very slow run home lacking in any quality whatsoever, it tells me a lot about my overall progress when I'm able to put in such along run at the end of a busy working day. I hadn't taken a lot of fuel on board today either so I was running on borderline empty by the time I got home. I couldn't have even contemplated such an effort in previous years and given my breathing difficulties I can't really complain. Oh and don't forget about yesterday's 3 tough sessions.
So that's 30.25 miles for the week done so far. I'm going to have a good think about whether or not I will be able to manage 110 miles a week. At the moment, I'm constantly struggling for time to train and there isn't quite the balance to my schedule and work/home life that I'd hoped for. I've got some difficult decisions to make over the next few days but after having over 3 hours to think about it tonight I'm almost certain to reduce my weekly target to 90 miles. I never thought I'd say that with a hint of disappointment but yet again it's testament to how far I've progressed. I can't get too downhearted. I've been building the weekly mileage slowly but surely for almost 9 months. I've made some excellent progress. There's no doubt in my mind about that. I'm crying out for a settled schedule though and 90 miles of running a week, as I proved in week 31 on the back of a 120 mile bike ride, is well within my capabilities. Running 90 miles should take about 14 hours which will leave plenty of time for other things and bring a better balance. It goes without saying that family and work life are amongst those "other things". I think that the actual planning of the USA 2011 run is in there too. I expect that will start to take up more and more of my time as May 2011 gets ever closer.
So it's 90 miles of running every other week. I'm still aiming to have the average mileage per session up to 14 miles by December 2009. In the alternate "gym weeks", I'm still going to look to work harder and take only 1 rest day. The tweaks to my schedule that I talked about at the end of June still remain.
I'll take a good look at my progress and the training schedule again at the end of this year. I've got a few very tough challenges to attempt next year so I must be in the best shape possible for everything that 2010 will throw my way.
