Well, if a 73 mile week with an exceptional workout and another good quality long run is low enough to help me rest up from a fantastic/hard-effort 4 hour trail race, that is a good sign. I'm really happy with how this week went and I'm excited to push the envelope this coming week.
Sunday: 5 miles, easy, recovery. Felt a new form of extreme confidence about my running abilities that I've never felt before, thanks mostly to my really great result the previous day. Legs weren't feeling spritely, per se, but I was just really excited and happy to be running, even more than normal.
Monday: 6 miles, easy recovery. Another easy day, with Holly. Blew off grad school for the afternoon to ski, did the run afterwards. :)
Tuesday: 9 miles, mostly easy, except 1 mile (the 6th one) at marathon effort. Up to the U, to Sunnyside, lapped research park, and back. Didn't actually get out the door until 11 tonight, so it was freezing cold and super windy. It sucked at the time, but I'm glad that it wasn't more pleasant, because I probably would've run farther out if it had been. My legs just felt a little stiff and tired during the last 10 minutes or so, so I'm glad that I finished when I did. My marathon effort mile was mostly coming down foothill and partially on 1300 east, so I had a bit of an angled tailwind for 80% of it and a bit of an angled headwind for the last 20%. Still, the downhill carried me nicely and I somehow split a 5:59 mile with ease. Everything else was slow (maybe a 6:55 next fastest mile with a 7:58 slowest mile running up foothill into a headwind). Running at 11PM sucks, by the way. It's way too late and quite tiring.
Wednesday: 11 miles, easy, 79 minutes. My place in the aves to 3rd east to 33rd south, to 7th east, back to my place. Cold (mid 30s) and quite windy, not super fun, but legs are feeling better everyday after the marathon, so I'll take it.
Thursday: 17 miles in 1:46:40, treadmill. First 4 on one treadmill with a fan behind me, felt super easy (essentially treadmill + tailwind), but at about 3.8, the belt started slightly skipping and I could smell smoke, so I hopped on another with a fan in front of me after 4 miles, which felt only marginally harder, but noticeably so (basically, a headwind). First 8 miles at average 6:20 (~MP), alternating 6:18 and 6:22, next 2 at 6:00 flat (just a hair slower than tempo), next 3 alternating 6:18 and 6:22, 1 at 6:00 flat, and then 3 more alternating 6:18 and 6:22. Really freaking hard workout, but I probably had 2 or 3 miles worth of MP left before the wheels would have come exploding off, and even on mile 17, I felt in control. What makes me happiest about this is that it came 5 days after the BOSHO Trail Marathon race. It took until the Wednesday for my legs to feel pretty normal again, but for this run, they felt great. On Wednesday, I felt like doing a long workout on Thursday would be a gamble, but I definitely made the right call. If I can hit 5 more super clutch workouts like this before Utah Valley, keeping my average mileage at roughly 80mpw and, most importantly, not beating myself up, I will be ready to rock.
Friday: 7 miles, easy. My boss gave me a free pass to Brighton that was about to expire, so I skied in the afternoon, and then ran. With Holly, to, in, and from City Creek. About 3 miles worth on trails. Legs felt pretty good after yesterday's workout, but I had a pretty typical altitude reaction (not feeling all that great, energetically) while running after spending time at 10,000'.
Saturday: 18 miles. 2.99 miles to get to Jordan River Parkway, 6.01 miles down the path, and then back the same way First 9 mostly around 7:10, with one 6:45 thrown in (mile 8, just shy of marathon pace at altitude, sort of by accident). On the way back, I split 6:29, 6:23, 6:21, 6:19, 6:21, 6:21 for my miles on the parkway (10,11,12,13,14,15). The intent was to run about 6:35-6:40 for altitude adjusted marathon pace, but I kind of just got into a groove faster than that, so they wound up more on the tempo side of the tempo / MP continuum. Did the last 3 back in 21:1x, all uphill, but not feeling hard. Legs felt great for the whole 18 miles, although a pretty heavy rain (with a slight bit of hail at one point) opened up a few times (maybe 3 times for about 10 minutes each time), once at the start, once near the middle, and once near the end of the hard miles. Not super fun in super short shorts and a technical heat gear muscle shirt, but I dealt with it. Nutrition was one gel right before the turnaround, no water, no anything else. Pretty cold out, so I was OK without hydrating.
Totals: 73 miles, with 62 in the last 5 days. If I can run this much, with such an exceptional workout, while still fully recovering from a hard 4 hour race effort, that's excellent news. I'm starting to feel very confident about the fitness that I'm building for Utah Valley. 237 miles so far in the last 3 weeks (79 a week average so far) and it feels very easy to sustain and build upon, even with high quality days.
This coming week is likely to be either the biggest or the 2nd biggest of the 9 week plan. I did an easy 13 today to start the week and felt great, so I'm going to hammer out a solid workout and put in some good mileage.
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