Stronger

I'm getting stronger. I can feel it. This week was The Big One in the Pfitzinger 18/55 marathon training plan. The "18" is for the 18 week duration of the plan, and the "55" is for the mileage in the peak mileage week. This was peak week. And it was capped off by a 20 mile run on Friday. I was a concerned about it, having already run two 12 milers this week, one of them including 7 miles at LT pace. Michele and I took off at 4:25 a.m. from my house on a route that she had mapped out the night before. It was cool and felt just right. We were careful not to start out to fast, and that's the way I like it. So when we hit the halfway point and was just shy of 10 minute miles, we picked up the pace. We had a negative split 20 miler, and I felt like I could have kept going. During the last 3 miles, I noticed a difference in how my legs felt. Instead of like dead tree stumps barely moving (like the last 20 miler), they felt strong. It was a great run. We ran into a fallen tree while it was still very dark (ha! I tried to take a picture of it, but it was just too dark), we saw a pretty sunrise, we ran by lots of road kill - including a deer that hadn't been there long, and we both finished strong on a route that came out to exactly 20 miles back to my house. I drank my chocolate milk for recovery, took an ice bath for 9 minutes, and then took a 1.5 hour nap that made me feel like a lazy, but well-recovered bum. Oh yeah.

Saturday was rest/cross training, and believe it or not, I cross trained. I had set my alarm for 6:45 a.m., and when it went off I had no idea what day it was, why I needed to get up, or where I was supposed to be. I finally figured it out, and I met up with Holly, Michele, Kevin, Tim, Jacky, Jacky's friend, and Eric (aka The Bionic Man) for a 24 mile bike ride in beautiful weather. I might be getting stronger on the run, but my bike legs have a lot to be desired right now. But man, it felt good to be back on the bike, regardless of the struggle. The bad news - my bike is rattling. And I can't figure out what it is. It's around the front wheel, but it's not the brake pads or anything that I can see. I'm going to have to take it to the bike doc.

Bo won his soccer game with J.T. filling in as coach for myself, and I took Briar to his first swim meet. He swam in the 50 yd freestyle, 50 yd backstroke, and 50 yd breaststroke. I thought he did well, but he was upset that he came in "last" in a couple of the heats he was in. I like the competitive spirit, but I think he was way too hard on himself. I told him he can't judge anything by the first meet. A lot of those kids have been swimming way longer than he has. He still swam the 50 yd free in 44 seconds, which is better than I could do right now. He later said that he did have fun, and that's what I was hoping for.

Sunday called for the second VO2Max run. 8 miles with 5x600m intervals w/90 sec jog between each. Finally about 1:45 I headed down to the rec center and ran from there to the middle school track where I squeezed through fence for the intervals. This time the times were on target. They are supposed to be 5k pace, which is around 7:30/mile, and here were the results:
600m Intervals:
1.7:18
2.7:23
3.7:23
4.7:21
5:7:25
Overall pace: 9:30/mile, Avg HR:161, Max HR:175

Tomorrow is 11 miles at 4:30 a.m. and I need to go get in the bed right now if I am going to survive it.