Monday Mileage Report

Last week, running finally started to feel good again.  My weekly total was 12 miles and the legs held up just fine.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
31 3.2 mi @10:57	1 20 min elliptical 30 min strength	2 3.5 mi @10:40 incl. fartlek	3 Physical Therapy	4 Rest	5 6 mi @11:40	6 20 min bike 30 min strength	12.8 mi

The highlight was my Saturday morning long run.  Only six miles this week, but it's a start!  Saturday was a beautiful, sunny fall day and it felt great to start getting back into my old training routine, including spending the rest of the day in compression socks and ordering Domino's pizza and breadsticks for dinner.

I also put together my tentative training plan for the D.C. marathon in March.  I'm doing a slightly modified version of Hal Higdon's Intermediate I plan with a goal pace of 10:45.  I'm starting a week early to accommodate the Disney's Princess half three weeks before D.C., a weekend that would normally be one of two twenty milers.  Given my previous experience, I'm also hoping it will be good to have a few extra days between the most intense part of training and the race so that I have plenty of time to get in quality taper runs even if I have to take a few days off.  I'm also replacing Thursday easy runs with cross training for the first two weeks so that I don't increase my mileage too drastically coming off marathon recovery.

Here's the plan for this week:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
7 Cross	8 Easy: 3 mi Strength	9 MSD: 5 mi	10 Cross Strength	11 Rest	12 Pace: 5 mi Strength-Light	13 LSD: 8 mi	21 mi

I couldn't stand the idea of being stuck inside the gym or the pool on the second beautiful fall day in a row, so I decided to try a brisk walk as today's cross training.  I put on my vibrams and tried to walk on the grass/dirt next to the path as much as possible to try to work on some of the small stabilizer muscles in my feet and ankles.  I have pretty terrible balance, so I figured it couldn't hurt!

I'll post an update next Monday about how this first week back in training goes.