And so it begins...

Uh oh.... News from my coach:

Conditioning Period (8 weeks 7/3-8/27):
Weekly Training Schedule
Sun: Easier long run (20-25% of weekly mileage)
Mon: Easy Recovery run + 6-8 x 100 strides at current 1500 effort.
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Tues: Maintenance run
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Wed: Short intervals or hill reps
Second run of 20-40 min easy
Thur: Hilly longer run at strong pace on up-hills and final stages of run. (12-15% of weekly mileage)
Fri: Easy recovery day of 30-40 min easy or day off.
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Sat: Longer, moderate tempo run (ie 6-8 miles at MP + 15-20 sec/mile working down to MP by end of period) or fartlek with hard section in a controlled tempo effort – NO FASTER!!!
Optional second run of 20-40 min easy.
Substitute race for workout if desired. Races during this stage should be CONTROLLED!

Hm... Well, right now, my Mondays and Wednesday's are longer easy runs, Tuesday seems equivalent to the Friday above, Thursday is a nice run with Dev. Too bad my running commute doesn't have hills. Hm. At least I have one week to think about it. The goal is to fit a negative split day, a hill repeat or short spurt day, and a hilly run day in my week. I guess I could make Monday my negative split day, either Thursday or Friday my hilly run since Dev kicks my rear on hills, and I could probably just fit in a short spurt on any of my other runs. I'll probably do drills and strides at the end of some other run. Why does it seem like I have fewer days in my week than my coach? It always seems that way.

Next week is a nice easy week of I'm guessing 40 miles. I'm going to take Tuesday or Friday off. At least this is in the training outline as well: "Easy weeks: 7/24-7/30 & 8/21-8/27", so that's good. I want to be able to run 60 miles in a week by the end of this period: August 27th. I need to remember that it is OK to miss some of these goals. That is what got me into trouble last year. For the next 9 weeks I will be listening to my body and adding miles when it feels good to. Fortunately, being at 45 miles a week right now feels nicer than I thought. I only have to do 4 tomorrow and I'm there! I think 60 will be a breeze.

Today, I went to the lunchtime CORE(abs) class at my gym and almost passed out. It was painful and sweat reaping. I could barely move toward the end. My head was in a fog until half-way through my run in the evening. Tomorrow and Sunday will be VERY BAD. I'll be walking around like a stick figure.