[163] Miles in the bank

The hay is in the barn. The money’s in the bank.

Whichever hackneyed phrase you want to use, the point is the same – the work of this training cycle is done. Yesterday’s speed session marked the last “hard” workout of the 16-week block. All that’s left is some marathon-pace work, some easy miles and a handful of short intervals to keep the blood moving.

The deposits have been made over the past 14 weeks in the form of miles – 559.3 of them. Cold miles, rainy miles, gorgeous miles, hilly miles, fast miles, tired miles. Deposits have also been made in other forms almost too numerous to count: the hours of ancillary strength work and foam rolling, the constant close watch over my diet, the attention paid to the specifics of clothing and nutrition. And let’s not forget the 482 miles of cycling – the cross-training component of the FIRST training plan that I’m (sort of) following.

Now the hope is that my deposits earn a little interest over the next 11 days, growing into the amount that I’ll need to withdraw on race day – when I plan to clean out the account. OK, OK - I’m done with the analogy.

Today I ran an easy 3 miles in the neighborhood. It was my shortest workout in months – my day’s workout was finished in 22 minutes. Having this kind of free time is both refreshing and unsettling at the same time. I need something else to fill my head before nervous thoughts of next week’s race completely consume me. Maybe I’ll catch up on yard work. Or reading. Does anyone have any interesting (non-running) reading to suggest?

Bike: 38.2/334.5 miles

Run: 32.2/398.1 miles

About these ads