Total Distance: 27.5 km (17 miles)
Total Time: 2 hr 45 min
Comments: First week back after the post-race layoff. More than a few mornings I spent quite some time awake but not willing to move and further aggrivate the aches my body was suffering through.
After three damn good runs, I feel a lot better about my progress. I have a lot more strength than before and my recovery time is a hell of a lot shorter. The best news is that my knee hasn't been much of a problem at all. Which isn't to say I feel confident that problem is solved - but I do feel rather optimistic for my ability to accomplish my goal.
But there are still serious concerns to be dealt with. While I clearly have the endurance for the distance I don't seem to have much speed right now. My pace is steady but not spectacular by any means. It's clear there is going to have to be some speed work involved as the training goes further along.
I also intend to start doing gym work again on the non-running days. I considered it this week but I felt my body was busy enough trying to get back in the running groove. I will be focusing on upper body but with some quad work in order to build the strength there I need to keep the knee issues at bay.
The schedule this week is to follow the guru's plan. Although he suggests 5 mile runs each day, I have felt good with the hour long jaunts so far. So I will keep at that level for three runs and shoot for an hour and a half or so on the weekend long run.
That said, I will feel completely fine pulling the plug on any days run if there are any disturbing developments in the danger areas like the knee. And I'll make an assessment of how I feel Saturday before heading out for the long run as well.
In addition, my aim is to start the upper body gym work back up as well on the "off" days. I would have liked to do this last week but I felt it was better to abstain from any real exertion on my off days to get a sense of where my body was at.