Goals:

• Complete all scheduled runs
• Continue achilles recovery
• Take adequate time for rest

Schedule:

• Monday – Rest
• Tuesday – 7 @ 9:50
• Wednesday – 3 @ 9:17
• Thursday – 7 with 18 minutes LT @ 9:08 avg, LT @ 8:06
• Friday – Rest
• Saturday – 8 @ 9:06
• Sunday – 11 @ 9:15

Recap:

Another mileage increase in the books, so far I’m still feeling mostly good. Next week is holding at 36 miles, thankfully. My thighs feel fatigued sometimes, but that usually subsides when I eat something, so I think it might be more of a nutrition thing than a mileage thing. I did go vegetarian this week, so that might be my body adjusting to that somehow. I’m still getting the same amount of protein as I did before, but it’s a lot harder to get calories in for me without feeling over-full.

I’ve been having a little trouble with my plantar fascia this week, but I’ve also been lax with the compression socks after runs. I swear, I always thought they were such bunk until I tried them, but I was so wrong. I also picked up some resistance bands during Prime Day and plan on using them for foot, ankle and hip strengthening starting this week.

Despite the mileage increases, I’m still holding closer to 9:00 miles than 10:00 for most of the week. I’m hoping when it cools off I’ll see my easy miles in the 8:XXs for the first time in my life.

Looking Forward:

I am definitely glad to be staying at 36 miles next week. The fact that I’m running more than half of my weekly mileage over the course of two days is a little worrying. But I’m not going to raise issue with it until I start having trouble with these runs, and that is definitely not happening yet.

These weekend runs are the easiest runs of the week. I know part of that is that I’m getting up in the morning to run instead of having to wait until after work. I’m not complaining, though. The Katy Trail is less full, the weather is cooler, and I get the rest of the day to do whatever I want without worrying about mileage.

I think this pair of shoes is just about shot. I’m starting to feel the runs in my knees, so I’m going to try to finish out next week in them, and then move to the next pair. I’d like to get 250 miles out of each pair, which is about par for the course for Newtons and me. That would allow me to finish out the year with the pairs I have and hopefully start fresh next year in discounted models of this year’s shoes!