Back on the roads

After taking a week off to heal the aches and pains and rest up after the end of a long racing season, I'm back to a winter base training phase. And yeah the weather has been pretty winter-like this week, low 30s (or colder) with lots of wind shooting off Lake Erie. Most of my runs are out and backs along Lake Ave. and Edgewater so I run into some strong winds and get sweet tailwinds on the way home. Today I did a moderate 5 mile progressive tempo on the one-mile loop at Lakewood Park and it felt good to work a bit. Made sure to be careful on the icy patches -- don't want to fall and dislocate my shouler again! The general winter plan is easy mileage with three key workouts each week: a long run (12 miles give or take), a fartlek session (i.e. 6 x 3 minutes on/2 minutes off or 4 x 5 minutes on/3 minutes off), and a moderate tempo. Nothing too streneous as the main goal for now is to build aerobic fitness and be in shape to tackle the faster workouts when it's closer to racing time.