Holiday Running

Saturday is my long run day, so I'm taking Christmas Day off from running.

Yesterday was the end of another easy week of training, where I typically back off mileage by about one-third. While I do back off on mileage, I'm not backing off on everything during marathon training. I used to make all 'easy week' runs easy and slow-paced. This time, I did intervals Wednesday and a ten-miler yesterday with eight miles at 8:15 pace. I was actually able to hold closer to 8:05-8:10 pace, and a few half-mile splits were under four minutes. 20 ounces of Powerade at 5.5 miles really helped. Felt great to get out there on Christmas Eve and do something really good for myself. 33 miles for the week.

This week's agenda includes the same ten miler (Wednesday) and an 18-miler as the long run on New Year's Eve Saturday, with a projected 42 miles for the week. Both the 18 and the 42 will be new highs for mileage.

My wife and I are planning a trip to Texas just after the first of the year. Driving to Dallas to see old friends and to watch K-State play Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. Then we fly to El Paso to see my parents and help them celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

I won't bore you with details of the trip, it's just that the weekly mileage is set for 43 and 44 for the two weeks that follow the one upcoming. And with all the travel and fun we have planned, I won't make every run. I hope to get a few runs in, but my second 18 miler will have to get rescheduled. There will still be two 20-mile runs scheduled when we return. So I don't think it'll cost me much.