Training Report: Week of Dec. 11-17

I took last Sunday and the first three days of this week off to rest and recover from the end of a long season. I originally intended to take the full week off, but I got restless so I decided to start on my winter base training phase. This week I ran 39 miles in 4 runs, including a tough 14 miler today where I ran 8 miles on horse trails and 6 on a hilly segment of the Rocky River Metro Park bike paths. The plan for the winter is to get in as much Lydiard style long steady distance work as I can handle. Emphasis on steady (i.e. 1:15-1:30 slower than 10K race pace) and not easy jogging. Josh wants me to aim for about 8 hours a week of running with a Sunday long run of 2 hours, which translates to about 60-65 miles a week give or take. I'd really like to be able to handle that because if I'm going to try to make a significant improvement at next year's nationals and in other races in general, I'll need to be able to handle more mileage than I have been doing without breaking down.