I seriously cannot believe it is already Thursday.

My week is flying by – I won’t complain though the hardest part of my week starts tomorrow. Every week that passes also means we are one week closer to June 1st. That day will seriously be the happiest day of my life (aside from my wedding day of course)! 🙂

 

Thanks for all your comments on yesterday’s post. Like I said, I always welcome a difference in opinion as long as it is done in a respectful manner – and I will never claim to be perfect. I have made mistakes in my training in the past and I am working hard to come back from those mistakes stronger that I was previously.  I truly believe that we all “live and learn” and I have learned a lot over the past 6-7 months.

 

I also want to give a belated shout out to my Mom – her birthday was yesterday! Some of the hardest days of being away from family are those special occasions.  I miss being able to have our yearly birthday dinner for my family. Thankfully she has always been so supportive and I can’t express in words how important and sweet of a woman I have as my mother!

Mom

I haven’t talked much about my workouts as of late. I am happy to report though that yesterday’s workout involved JOGGING!

We started with an hour of pool running and then cut it short. We had enough.

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We went upstairs to do some walking on the treadmill and we ended up doing 15 minutes of walking and 15 minutes of very slow jogging. Wes had no pain and plans on slowly working his way back into it. I am really excited!

 

I was thinking a lot after yesterday’s post of my “happy mileage.”

I have some experience with just about every level of mileage, but have never really found the perfect amount. That being said I am not even sure if there is a “perfect” amount.

When I was training for my first two marathons I probably averaged around 40 miles a week. At those times I was training to complete and not training for a certain time so I didn’t really incorporate speed or tempo runs in there.

As I began running without a race in mind I stayed around that same point for a while, but after losing my job I ramped up the mileage FAST and was averaging between 70-80 miles per week for almost 2 months.

Workout Peak

My peak came at 86 miles. Yeah I was a little nuts. The walls came crashing down very quickly on that for me.

 

As I’ve said before everyone’s body is able to take different levels. My husband has average 100-120 mile weeks ever since he has attended medical school, but that isn’t for me. 

 

I’m not saying I can’t have high mileage weeks once I am at that point again, but consistently it is not the best for my body.  

I need to get my body to feeling strong and healthy. I will NEVER consider a high mileage week until I have gone 1 year without any injury. I know that sounds a little much, but my body needs to get used to real running again and I need to focus on getting healthy.

I hope to be at the point later this year to be running around 40-60 miles per week when training. I have to ramp my body up to get there and I cannot forget the little things. Strength training if NOTHING else has to be a part of my plan even if it is only 2-3 days per week. It has to be as much of a priority to me as getting my runs in each and every day.

 

I was reading Brad Hudson’s book Run Faster and he discussed training two athletes that were husband and wife. One of them ran a high mileage training plan and thrived while the other would shut down and have extreme body fatigue from it.  They both were incredibly fast and had amazing accomplishments but their bodies responded completely different and their training had to be different.

That is the thing I loved about his book is even his training plans say that they can be adapted depending on what kind of training your body handles best.

 

As I said I want to average around 50-60 miles per week when in training, and then after a year of being injury free we will see if I can throw in a high mileage week off and on.  These weeks WILL ONLY be during peek training.

 

My final random thought on training today, I need to remind myself what an “easy” day means.  I need to slow down and really take those easy days the way they are meant to be.  Easy running helps to keep your body healthy especially when you are looking to get faster. If you don’t take those days easy then you will increase your risk of getting injured.

 

What is your “happy mileage?”

Have you every tried high mileage?

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