I thought not of the day's worries and sorrows but rather my mind filled with flurries of endless tomorrows.
As I sit in a seminar, contemplating how long it will take me to finish my experiments this afternoon, I waffle about whether to run 8 or 10 miles later today. My hip flexor felt a little tight this morning on my walk in, perhaps I should just do 8, my legs need a little rest. "Just do 8? Who is writing this blog?", you ask, perplexed. Certainly it can't be the quality-not-quantity middle distance runner you've grown to know.
"It is still me!" I exclaim, a newly minted mileage buff. The past couple of months I have been flirting just above and below 60 mile weeks, and partially adopted a naive sense of being part of the club. The club of long distance runners, marathoners, those undergoing the real trial of miles. I don't want to mislead you, I am very aware that I'm not running high mileage. BUT I have been running high Robyn mileage. In other words, I've (finally) figured out a training regimen that does not result in physical breakdown over 40 miles per week.
No, I'm not moving up to marathons (or 10Ks for that matter), I'm still focused on breaking 5:00 in the mile. August is wrapping up and I have just a few more weeks of my mileage base before I transition to lactate threshold and tempo work - sticking in the 50's for weekly miles. I'm not sure how my indoor track season will pan out, but it's fun to find new comfortable states in my training. Especially finding a way to reliably increase my volume by a whopping 25-30 miles per week. I still surprise myself when I think of an 8 mile run as an easy day, however, there are many training challenges to come... I'm just going to savor this feeling for now.
PS - Random destination run recommendation: Niagara Falls, Toronto side at 7-8am (before the tourists!) to the butterfly gardens
PPS - If you're curious, the main 3 changes to my training are:
1. Inhaler - controlling my asthma has drastically improved my recovery between training runs
2. Hip circuit - religious strengthening & range of motion exercises 3x per week has kept me moving relatively pain free
3. Dairy - this delicious food group makes me feel ill/fatigued, so now, sadly, I eat less of it. (<3 cheese forever)
