Training Summary: September 11-17

Week 6 of my build up to Cross Country Nationals in San Francisco went really well. 12 more to go! These past 6 weeks I've averaged 53 miles a week and have managed to run some really solid strength workouts. I'm feeling really good too even with the mileage increase (prior to August I was averaging more like 35 a week). Last week I brought it down to 46 after two weeks at 62 and 59. Josh wanted me to be fresh for two key workouts: a negative split 12 mile run on Tuesday and a quality hill session on Friday. Both workouts were spot on. I averaged 7:01 pace for the 12 miler (about 1:00 per mile slower than current 10K race pace), doing the first 6 at 7:15 pace and the last 6 at 6:45 pace, finishing in 6:38, 6:31 -- felt great. Two days later I did 10 repetitions of a pretty tough 400 meter hill running them at race pace with easy jogs down the hill for recovery. This week the focus will be on mileage with my first race in nearly two months taking place on Sunday, Sept. 24. The race is a 5 miler on a pretty tough hilly course. I'm not going to taper as the focus is on Decmeber but I expect to run pretty well just the same.