February 23 - March 1 Training

Mon: AM - 9 miles with 6x30s pickups (6:58); PM - 5.1 miles easy (7:57)

Tue: AM - 11.5 miles with 10x3:00 on/1:00 off. It was freezing cold (1 deg) and after one mile I thought about turning back home to hop on the treadmill.  I probably would have if it was just an easy run, but I had a quality session that I needed to get done on rolling hills. Ran the 3:00s at half-marathon effort and progressed down to 10K effort;  PM - 5 miles easy (7:35)

Wed: AM - 11 miles easy (6:52); PM - 5.1 miles easy (7:51)

Thu: AM - 4.5 miles easy (7:44); PM - 5.7 miles easy (7:28)

Fri: AM - 5 miles easy (8:03). Plan was to run a 20x1:00 on/off fartlek, but it snowed so I pushed the workout to later in the day; PM - 9.1 miles with 20x1:00 on/off (6:04 overall avg). Goal was to run the "on" at ~5:15 pace and the "off" at 6:15-6:20 pace.  I ended up averaging 5:12 and 6:20 pace for the on/off, respectively, and 5:43 pace for the 40 minutes.  Tough and good workout.

Sat: 22 miles long run on rolling hills (6:44). Really good long run on somewhat tired legs.  Averaged 6:50 pace for the first 11 miles and 6:38 for the second half.  Didn't take in any fluids or fuel during the run.  

Sun: AM - 8 miles easy (7:18); Legs felt surprisingly good with no soreness/tightness; PM -  2.5 miles easy (8:02).

Weekly Total: 103.6 miles on 13 runs/7 days
Another solid week of training in the freezing cold.  Friday's fartlek was a confidence booster because in the past I've struggled to maintain the moderate recovery pace for similar workouts.  Additionally, I was glad to knock out a really good hilly long run the following day on somewhat tired legs.  It's this kind of work that's going to pay off in Boston.  One more week of hard training and then I'll run my Boston tune-up race at the Rock 'n' Roll DC Half-Marathon on March 14.