What a mature training week looks like

So now that it's mid-July I finally got around to getting a really good week of training under my belt. 2 hard workouts that were really big mileage days, a decent long run but for the heat and humidity and as much easy mileage as I could handle. Most importantly for me, I had the self-discipline to take a mega easy day yesterday between two big days when I was feeling trashed. I've heard it before, but it really is true: the hardest thing to do as a dedicated athlete is hold yourself back when you need it. Too often we get sucked into an obsessive-compulsive mindset and feel like we have to hold to a mileage schedule that we wrote out weeks or months in advance. Always remember, train to race, don't train to train.

Here is what I would call an ideal week at this point:

Monday - Recovery day: 9 + 6 double, core
Tuesday - Workout (hills, long intervals, long fartlek, tempo) + easy run (20 total)
Wednesday - Recovery day: 7 + 7 double, core
Thursday - Recovery day/easy mileage: 9 + 6
Friday - Workout (whatever I didn't do on Tuesday) + easy run (20 total)
Saturday - Recovery run: 8-10 easy jog + core
Sunday - Long run (Ideally around 2 hours, went a little shorter today due to heat/humidity)
Total = 110 +/-

I'm thinking about doing a hard-easy-easy schedule, with long runs and workouts being hard days. This would be a 9 day cycle, which I could do since I don't have a job yet so I don't have any reason to cram all of that into a week. The benefit of keeping a 7 day schedule is that it's what everyone else does so I would have company on the harder days, which always helps.

I'm also looking at some races in the near future, stay tuned.

A transition period, and a trip to Maine to ease it in

At the beginning of this training cycle, I said that I would focus my efforts on Philly Rock and Roll half in mid-September. Counting back from then, I figured that starting workouts in July would give me enough time to get a bit of mileage under me and to get in really good shape by September. Now that it's July, I'm going to stick to it and get some workouts in. I'll probably do two weeks of transition (tempos and hills, nothing strictly timed) and then move into some hardcore half-marathon stuff like I did two summers ago. Two endurance workouts a week and a solid long run is the recipe I want to follow until September.

Even though I just said I would start buckling down and getting my twice a week workouts in, I still want to enjoy myself and make some memories this cycle. To that end, I decided somewhat on a whim to go up to Maine this past weekend to visit my friend who is up there for the summer on a pseudo-internship. I went up with another mutual friend and we stayed in his Once-A-Runner-style cabin in the woods. We stayed on a tiny island, which sucked for running (lots of loops, heat wave) but was a nice change and a very fun and relaxed few days. 

Now that I'm back from that little vacation, I really will get down to business, I promise. I'm also still working on getting a job and hopefully will hear back from somewhere soon. I'm actually still optimistic and think that I'll get the job I'm looking for eventually, but it might just take a while. In the meantime I'm looking around for some running-related part time jobs to pay the bills. I'll definitely be assistant coaching somewhere, maybe in two places, so that will be a cool little job on the side.