Tough Training Week (2/09-2/15)

Sunday (2/09): 7 miles
Last day at Homochitto for the weekend. This morning Kyle, Grits, and I did the Mills Branch trail. It was such a great weekend with perfect weather for trail running. It was great to spend the weekend in a single track state of mind. Core strengthening at home.
Monday (2/10): 10 miles
Went up to Tunica for some hill repeats. Two mile warm up then 16X300 meter repeats. Two mile cool down. Avg: 1:36 min/repeat. These hurt, really hurt. I think my legs were exhausted from running hilly trails all weekend. After this workout, I don't want to see another hill for at least a week. This workout was particularly exhausting as it was lightly raining and about 36 degrees. This day I was really questioning what I have been doing to myself, then I realized I'm not just chasing the dream but living it.
Tuesday (2/11): Day off.
Wednesday (2/12): 12 miles
Two mile warm up. 7 mile tempo. Total time: 41:46, Avg pace: 5:57 min/mi. I was pretty happy with this workout, as I wasn't far off last week's pace. Even though I started off feeling rough, I found my stride after a few miles, which seems to be the trend with these workouts. Three mile cool down.
Thursday (2/13): 8 miles
Another grueling workout that was tough to finish. No barefoot drills as I have been having a nagging knee and the drills don't help it. Core strengthening at home.
Friday (2/14): 5 miles
Did an easy five on Hooper trails with Maureen as part of our Valentine's date. Our love of plants and running brought us together so it seemed fitting to go an trail run date since we haven't in so long. Still felt rough today, the knee was particularly sore.
Saturday (2/15): 20 miles
Today was a pretty solid run. I intended on doing three Beast loops and then some but the late start forced me to run only two loops then the remaining mileage on the flats. My knee felt decent throughout the run; however, there were some technical spots that hurt it but on the flats it was fine. Over all today, I felt really tired and didn't have my usually pep in my stride. Today also made me realize while I run a lot of flats to increase my speed, I also need to focus on maintaining my technical trail skills.

Weekly Total: 62 miles
While I'm happy with making it through another week, I'm not so happy with how my body is handling everything. This week I only had two "green" days and three "yellow" days in a row. I really think I'm breaking down which is what I want to happen, but I have some parts hurting that are borderline injuries so I think its in my best interest to back off a little. So, next weekend I may take a few days in a row off and give my body some much needed rest.