Wednesday - 5 + miles

I just wore the HR monitor (Avg. 137) and kept it very comfortable, below MAF. Lucho sent me a nice simple weekly approach which he prescribes for all of his athletes regarding a rest week. I haven't done any of this in a long time. This just means taking a day or two off and then the rest of the week running much less volume below MAF. By the end of the week, test, and then back to normal. Sounds really good to me.

The run was still a little rough, but by the end, the body (the left leg for God's sakes!) felt much better. The little aches and pains I feel --as people have told me and I know from common sense and science--are all related (hydration, change in routine/volume, sleep, etc). This is such a learning process; I reflected the other day how bad I can feel during a week of training and compare that to how good I feel during a race week. Is it my flawless program, which has me peaking perfectly in every way imaginable? Yeah, right. Having short-term and long-term goals is very important as is a logical and flexible program to reach (some of) those goals. Even though I have a 50k sorta penciled in for late summer, I haven't registered for anything. Consequently, there is a kind of limbo occurring. Fortunately, I'm building. The training is connected to a sub-conscious of sorts and in that way "knows" what's coming. But I'm certainly not going bulls-eye on the known target ala JW. Despite all the fun he appears to be having, this is a guy whose focus is so defined. He knows exactly what he's up against and his program is constantly being tinkered to best facilitate the score. He is what we would call a true fiend. When the ends are healthy, the means are a beauty to observe. Watch and learn.