Let's call it a cut back week, shall we?

When I am marathon training it seems like all my mileage weeks are around 40 miles, give or take, whether it is a long run week or not. I rarely go over 45 miles and it would be unlikely to go under 35 miles.

This last week was a good example, with total mileage of 38 miles, despite running five days instead of four (you'd think it would be higher) and despite this being a cut back week on my schedule (you'd think it might be lower). Well, it's not higher because my longest run of the week was nine miles. And it's not lower because I did run on five days rather than the typical four.

I'm pretty happy with how everything went this week, though. I don't usually do a weekly recap, but in brief...

Monday
7.01 miles general aerobic/recovery. This was the day after my 20-mile run, but my average pace was a speedy 9:19! I felt the long run a little, though, as my legs were feeling tired after only a few miles, like 4-5. I plugged through, though, and my last full mile was a surprising 8:35! I'll take it.

In the evening I did about 35 minutes on the elliptical and also had yoga.

Tuesday
This is my lighter day, just a stint on the elliptical (about 75 minutes). That evening I went and had a massage. It hurt so good! The massage therapist was great and more sports oriented than most.

Wednesday
Speed work, I wrote about it here. 8.02 miles total.

I skipped an evening workout and yoga to have dinner with my parents at Lombardi's. I got a free dinner (from the restaurant, not my parents) for my upcoming birthday!

Thursday
Bonus run, 6.02 miles in exactly 60 minutes. (That's a 9:40 pace, perfectly fine for an uplanned midweek run on the day between speedwork and pace training.) I felt like getting a little extra running in because I had weekend travel plans which would put a damper on excessive running and also lead to a lot of eating.

I did skip an evening workout and yoga so I could pack for an early departure on Friday morning.

Friday
Pace run! Two miles warm-up (20:04), four miles half-marathon goal pace or better (8:25, 8:22, 8:36, 8:26), two miles marathon goal pace or better (8:48, 8:52), then one more mile at faster-than-HMP (8:22). Total mile 9.04, 1:20:20, 8:58 average pace overall.

Left on trip to North Central Washington at 9 a.m.!

Saturday
Rest day. Swam about six laps in a pool. Wore me out.

Sunday
8.21 miles in Waterville. 9:59 average pace, which I think was great considering that I was out of town and running hilly. I ran from the Waterville Hotel toward the Badger Mountain Ski Hill, which is about five miles out of town. As you might guess, this route is largely uphill, although on my way out there were definitely rollers. I knew I didn't have time for the entire round trip, so I turned back at about 4.25 miles. I took an alternative return road (the P Road) which appeared to be a gentle downhill all the way (and it was!). Everything looked so near (I could see Waterville in the not-so-far distance) that I thought my distance would be way shorter than planned. But apparently the eye deceives and my "shortcut" was still almost four miles long (cutting only a quarter mile off, which was perfect for my total distance and the time allotted).

While running on the P Road I saw this awesome old house in the middle of the wheat fields.

Then I couldn't resist taking a shadow self portrait!
Here is a creative and decorative use of old farm machinery!
We left Waterville around 9:30 a.m. and I was home by early afternoon. I took the opportunity of an open afternoon to walk down to the Everett Sunday Farmer's Market. It was a nice walk down (and I do mean downhill). I left carrying six pounds of cherries and maybe ten pounds of vegetables and the walk home was not quite so nice!

I think that this was a good cut back week in between 20-milers (another one scheduled this weekend!). None of my runs were overly long but I got some good quality work in all categories--speed, pace, and hills. My Monday run yesterday was a little difficult, 7.02 miles at 9:44 pace, but today is a total rest day (due to some unforseen circumstances). Hopefully that will leave me fresh for some quality speed work tomorrow. I had hill repeats on the schedule but I am pretty sure I am going to switch things around, considering I did a hilly run on Sunday.

Friday is my birthday and I have some crazy challenging fun running plans for the weekend. We'll see how it all plays out!