Back Upto Double Digits

Another week in the books,three runs.....could and should've been four.......read on McDuff.....

Wed Jan 24th
8 Miles
I could've had 8s both Tuesday and Wednesday but for "Postman Pratt" on Monday.....
So I arrive home around 5.30pm,too late for a run but what I figured would happen,shock,horror probe mail delivered.....this was a shock since last week mail was arriving gone 6.30pm!!!!
Tuesday morning at 5am as I was leaving for work I find the time honoured "we tried to deliver" bullshit card through my door.......fuckin' seriously you had to have attempted delivery gone 5.30pm when I returned home and found mail sitting inside the door but god forbid you ring a fuckin' doorbell!!!!
The upshot of this ....and NOT for the first time is yours truly having to schlep to the "boonies" to collect my mail and getting home gone 5pm,I need a good 15 mins to change and stretch so Tuesday was shot,pity it was a mild evening
No such worries on Wednesday,home by 4.25pm changed,stretched and out the door by 4.45pm for an easy 8 miler
If last weekends 8s had seen me "huff and puff" a tad I had no such issues on Wednesday,more a result of running after I'd been upwardly mobile for the best part of 12 hours and not tackling a run of any distance not long after waking up
Back to back 8s would've been nice but I felt Wednesdays smooth outing meant I could bump back up to 10s next time out....

Fri Jan 26th
10 Miles
I figured Thursday was shot for a run thro work and wasn't disappointed by that guess....however I had scheduled Friday off and figured why not period but w/ the threat of rain in the forecast for Sunday it would be prudent to make the proverbial hay while the sun shone today
A rare Friday run to begin w/ muchless mid morning but I was happy to be out there period,sunny enough for shades but mild enough for gloves....ie typical January weather!!!
Only a month removed from my last 10 miler on Boxing Day the step up in mileage didn't phase me and while it was an unspectacular run it was at the very least  solid,I'll settle for solid right now

Sat Jan 27th
10 Miles
Out the door just gone 9am as I had a 12.30pm Spurs kick off to factor in, more of the same from Friday solid if unspectacular and even though I went w/out the Garmin as is my won't I'd hazard a guess it was a 1.20/1.25 time so give or take 8 min mile pace
Could've gone w/ a lighter base layer under my training top but hedged my bets w/ the conditions,working up a good sweat in Jan never hurts....and hurts less than under dressing and freezing out there period muchless running along the river
So at three weeks in I'd say I'm 2/3rds of the way back,speed is lacking but will come,strength and stamina are both there

So I'm back to 10 milers and in double digits again,this bodes well moving forward,also three runs not two.....if work ever settles the fuck back down I could forsee a return to 4 runs a week sooner rather than later......of course "old man winter" will still have some say over the next 8 weeks but fingers crossed a pair of 10 milers during the week and the potential for back to back 10s next weekend would have me back upto 40mpw.......easy tiger.....someone will mistake you for a real runner......

{Re}Building The {Im}Perfect Beast

So it feels like a while since I last blogged,quick recap going into the final week of the year I needed 5 x10 milers to round out a 1,000m season,notched back to back 10s Christmas Day & Boxing Day and promptly didn't run for two whole weeks due to temps never getting above freezing!!!!

How cold was it? last Tuesday when I logged my first run in two weeks as I crossed the South St bridge that links to the Schuylkill foot path and eventually the Schuylkill  trail I saw first hand that said Schuylkill River was frozen solid........yeah it was that cold for two weeks!!!!
My other takeaway from my first evening run in a while was at 5.08pm it was still daylight a small victory but none the less a valid one post Marathon training in late November by 4.50pm it was dusk so we're getting there little by little

The following evening I notched a second 6 miler,given my two weeks of in activity I felt it was prudent to ease my way back into things,6 miles felt comfortable and had I've gotten out again on Thursday I would have nudged it upto 8 miles w/ a view to making the weekend 10 milers.....cue "old man winter" sending another arctic blast that stuck a fork in that notion!
I did however hit the trifecta on Wednesday of an idiot runner,an idiot pedestrian and a idiot driver over my six mile jaunt so I guess things were returning to normal afterall......

While the weather improved this past week my workload was brutal,I finished the week 58 mins shy of a 50 hour week,glass half empty too late to go out and run each evening when I did finally get home,glass half full w/a couple of races coming up in March & April paying for them just got a lot easier!!!

Cue the weekend,not since Dec 23rd/24th have I been able to get out the door to run but yesterday lunchtime I was able to log an easy 8 miler and enjoy some quote/unquote warm weather training which I must say felt nice
Despite a 11am kick off today for a Spurs game I was up by 7am stretched,and out the door by 8am for a second 8 miler in reasonable conditions for January period muchless 8am

I'm 9 weeks out from the season opener a half marathon on March 25th at the Love Run so it's important to continue to up my mileage,fingers crossed this will be a less brutal work week and a few more midweek 8 milers would set me up for back to back 10s next weekend,anytime I get into single digits for training I know it's serious but b4 I can tackle a half marathon I need to get my baseline miles back to 10 milers b4 slowly tweaking it upto 12s and 14s