feeling pleased

Week of April 11-17

Monday: up seven bridges to strand & down lester river; 9.25 miles
Tuesday: out-n-back to The Ledges; 7.5 miles
Wednesday: met Henry for a lakeside neighborhood tour; 8.1 miles
Thursday: finished my taxes so I could avoid the P.O. rush; 0 miles
Friday: went up thru Congdon Park & Hidden Valley to reach Skyline; 7.5 miles
Saturday: DRC tent sale via superior but returned on lakewalk & london; 10 miles
Sunday: loops of rock hill w/Tony & Gregg; 11 miles

Completing this month block, to me, was more for my psychological benefits than anything else I believe. In the past, I've tried the build, build, build, & rest periodization of training and either got injured or was unable to keep my head in the game. Going back & forth w/easy and hard weeks made everything more manageable in terms of noting how my body is responding to a workload. Depending on the time of the season I'm wanting to use a mix of both as each method serves a purpose.

Another element was frequency but this was specific to this moment. I've been able train on my bike REALLY HARD for months on end taking no days off and absorb it entirely while staying healthy. On the other hand.....pounding my feet to the ground has been more of a challenge. So, to accomplish a few weeks straight of six days/week of running while increasing mileage from mid to upper 40's and ending in low 50's sends many positives. Having very little desire to run much further than a marathon seems accurate for what I can handle. As a runner, sometimes I'm affected by a fraudulent sense of belonging at the start line. Currently, I'm back to my usually ways of running twice/week(one intense day & one long day) and getting the bikes ready to fill in the remainder. However, running my normal 7.5-mile lollipop course w/fartlek in the middle yesterday had me appreciate the previous three weeks. I was doing this run in about an hour on average but did it in 54 minutes minus all the other junk miles pre & post. I guess they served me right because my RPE was the same even though my time came six minutes faster!! Being peppy is nice, however, I'm thinking and hoping my confidence will improve for the duration too. There's something about running beyond two hours that I really enjoy.?.?.