Spent the early part of the week in recovery mode after the 12 hour race over the weekend.  Never was all that sore, just super tired.  Felt much better from Thursday on.  So a fairly normal week, but scaled back a little.  Ready to get back at it and start ramping up for the next race.

Monday Run – 5 / :55 / 122avg Dreading this one.  Feeling very tired after running 60 on Saturday and then getting home at 2 in the morning.  Knew today’s run was a necessary evil, though.  I’d be better off later in the week if I got out for some active recovery today.  Not really all that sore, just feeling very well used.  Shuffled along for an hour and babied the legs while getting some circulation going.

Tuesday Run – 7 / 1:04 / 133avg Really tired today, but got out anyway.  Much better than yesterday.  I didn’t have anything on the hills, but was suprised at how cruise-y the rest of the run felt.  Recovery is going well.  I probably need to mix in a bike day soon, though.

Wednesday Bike – 17 / 1:09 / 117avg Rolled around for a while on the mountain bike in the 30-40mph winds. Not fun. Didn’t enjoy anything about this ride, but knew it would help my recovery so kept with it.

Thursday Run – 10 / 1:26 / 152avg Almost felt back to normal today.  Had a really nice run at the boneyard cruising lap after lap of hilly trails.  The wind was huge, but it was helping on 2 out of the 3 climbs per lap so no complaints there.  Couldn’t believe that just 3 days ago I was struggling with an 11-12 minute pace on the flats and now I held 8:45 for 10 miles of rolling trails while feeling pretty good doing it.  My heels felt sorta decent and my calves never tightened up on me like they usually do when I run here.  Me like.

Friday Bike – 27.7 / 1:27 / 140avg Rather than do a 20 mile push with a 20mph target on the mountain bike, or a 24mph target on the road bike, I opted to split the difference and shoot for 20 on the road bike.  This would be easily accomplished without taking too big of toll since I’m still somewhat in recovery mode, but would still keep me honest.  I ended up with a 21.2 average for 20 miles.  Which was probably a touch too hard – especially with the wind and hills.  I should have had a little more discipline and held it closer to 20, but the bike felt light and fast and I just went with it.  Still didn’t work me over too bad. Split: 20 / 57:42 (21.2mph) / 149avg

Saturday 16.1 / 2:41 / 139avg Out before dawn to run the Sharptail/Swallowtail loop from the house.  Nice long mellow climbs, just right.  Felt pretty decent.  Nothing too snappy, but strong.  Would have loved to stay out for another hour or two.  Happy to be moving as well as I was just a week out from the 60 miler.

Sunday 3 / :40 / 120 Dog jog-walk.

Total time – 9:26 Run – 41 / 6:48 Bike – 45 / 2:37

Pic of the week:

I wanted to get a look at my footstrike pattern from a different angle, so I put the camera on the ground and ran towards it.  I think I have a pretty good neutral midfoot landing, not much to tinker with there.  What stands out to me in the pics, and what I have known for a long time, is that I push off too hard on the takeoff.  I have been working on pulling my foot up with my quads and hips rather than pushing off so much with the ball of my foot.  Running in the VFFs or barefoot helps this a lot, but I have a long way to go in that department.  I have thick callouses on the medial side of my big toe and ball of my right foot.  I push off way too much there and need to work on that some more, along with getting my left leg/foot more involved instead of just dragging them along for the ride.