Adaptation

  The last two weeks have been brutal.  Changing around my stress and recovery pattern has put me
at the edge of exhaustion.  I am now working on a 7 day on two day off training pattern.
In the past I would take a day off mid week and one or two off at the end of the week.  I am trying my best to use nutrition, and sleep to my advantage, but am just about at the point where I need to bring my mileage back down for two weeks so that I can fully adapt to my training.  Nothing about training while tired feels good except knowing that after my body adapt to all this stress and strain I will be able to ask more of my body in the future.. Its all about adaptation..

 This Monday I am running my first race of the year to see how things are going with my training.  Having done limited speed work for the past couple of months racing will give me an idea of how my baseline fitness is coming along.  Running sub 6 minute miles will be painful at this point in the year but thats the fun of racing.  More..  Excited.
Excited for more.

What it takes to get back in shape

After that brutal Midwestern winter it has taken me 10 weeks of conditioning to get myself back into shape again.  I am in that ready to start training shape.   Its amazing how fast you fall out of shape even more amazing how hard it is to regain your lost fitness.  On memorial day I will be running my first 5k of the year to test my fitness level and put down a baseline to build from.  The idea of running sub 6 minute miles right now seems painful, but as I have learned over the last 5 years of training, put your trust in your training and your body will respond.  My mileage has returned to 50 miles a week or more, and as of right now we are steadily building up to 60 miles plus for the start of marathon training.  Lots of goals for this year.  Staying healthy, racing more, and setting some new post 40 PRs in the process.  2014 will be exciting.
MY MILEAGE