Training Summary: October 9-15

54.5 miles in 6 days with one much needed rest day. That makes 10 weeks in a row averaging 53 miles a week. Last week's training included a 16 mile run on Monday and a really tough interval session on Wednesday, where I ran 4 x 2 mile with 2:00 rest between each rep in 12:47, 12:33, 12:11, and 11:54 for an average of 12:21. Doing workouts like that as cutdowns (i.e. running each rep faster than the one before) is a great strength builder. You start out at a managable pace but the short rest begins to catch up with you after a while and it gets tough going at the end. A great race simulator. My other 'key' workout of the week was a hard 8 mile run on dirt trails on Saturday. Everything else was relatively easy aerobic work.