What an amazing week of running for me. Coming into this project, I guessed that week 4 would be where the accumulated mileage (175 on the week, 410 for the month) would have my legs completely thrashed and I’d be really struggling just to get the miles in each day. In reality? Not so much.
- Day 22 – 22.10 miles, 12:00 pace, 39%/61% run/walk
- Day 23 – 23.08 miles, 12:00 pace, 43%/57% run/walk
- Day 24 – 24.11 miles, 12:00 pace, 42%/58% run/walk
- Day 25 – 25.11 miles, 12:00 pace, 42%/58% run/walk
- Day 26 – 26.11 miles, 12:00 pace, 43%/57% run/walk
- Day 27 – 27.15 miles, 12:00 pace, 42%/58% run/walk
- Day 28 – 28.09 miles, 12:00 pace, 35%/65% run/walk
I ended week 3 with a couple 12 minute paced runs. This was a very easy effort level for me; maybe 10% quicker than my hundred mile pace. So very, very chill. I chose this pace as something I hoped would be sustainable as I progressed through the month. I don’t have any experience with massive weekly mileage outside of races so guessed this might be slow enough that I would be able to recover from the effort before the next day.
I started tracking the run/walk split of my runs towards the end of week 3. I needed some way to determine how the accumulated training load was impacting me. The heart rate sensor on my watch is jacked up right now so that wasn’t going to work. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) would be one way to track this, but I have no clue how to average out an RPE over a 4-5 hour workout. So I settled on run/walk split with the thinking that this would trend up at a given pace (i.e. 12 minute) as accumulated fatigued slow my running and walking paces forcing me to run more. Every day I have been pleasantly surprised not to see it start to creep up. Today I was borderline shocked to see how much it dropped. I was really fighting all run to keep my pace from going too low as I felt really strong. Guess it was just one of those days.
This Calendar Club project is now a full time job for me. I wake up, run for 5-6 hours, spend the remainder of the day resting, then go to bed early so I can get 10 hours of sleep. Rinse, repeat. You may not believe this, but the conservative pacing actually makes these runs fun. My legs feel good to start each run. I’m not anxious or stressed about what’s still to come. I’m just rolling through the miles, listening to my tunes, and enjoying the time spent outside.
Fingers crossed I can keep this up for three more days.