Training, Feb. 20 through Feb. 26

80 miles in 10 runs. I think that's actually the fewest number of runs I've done in a single week, regardless of mileage, in the past several months. As backward as it may seem to some, when I am coming back from a layoff, I tend to do a lot of shorter runs while building from lower to higher mileage as this seems to allow for easier recovery. Once I get to about 70 or 80 a week and stabilize there, I taper off the number of double days from maybe five or six to about three.

This is the first time I've made consecutive "training week" posts -- until now I've managed to insert some token whimsical jabber in between, but this week was busier than usual, and I've been plenty busy in my everyday life. I got to make a couple of multi-hour road trips to parts of Colorado I had never seen and squeezed in some running there, but otherwise I worked a lot, helped some friends with some computer-software-related issues that made me look like an expert in the eyes of these complete neophytes, edited some documents for a friend who's taking an online class with a semi-literate professor, and...wait, this is a running blog, right?

The most heartening thing about this week is that I'm continuing to make steady fitness gains without working especially hard to do it. I'm just being consistent and upping the tempo selectively and not dramatically and also getting my legs under me a little more now that I am doing a better job of distributing my food intake. I can too easily fall into the habit of waking up, firing up a cup of coffee or three and working up a storm until it's time for my "morning" run at noon or 1 p.m., at which point I at least get down a sandwich and some complex carbs. On double days, I might not do my second run until 10 at night sometimes, which I take perverse pleasure in. I've been in a pattern of eating my most substantial meal after this run, but unless I'm planning to run hard I can get away with eating something even right beforehand, and as a result I am feeling a little springier on almost all of my runs now. I found out this week that I have dropped a little under 140 pounds, and I don't want to go any lower than that. In summary I can't get away with the same unfocused nutritional habits I can when I'm in fitness-jogger or sitting-on-ass mode.

I also got two new pairs of shoes, one of which I am hoarding. This has made a big difference, too.

Overall the week was very productive but I reached an emotional nadir of sorts on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, when I was up until 3:30 a.m. finishing a last-minute assignment for a demanding and blinkered, but generous, client. (This sort of thing happens a lot.) It wasn't until today that I caught up fully on sleep -- I actually got nine unbroken hours and I virtually never do that, even when I'm a little short on Zs. Like most people with an annoying-but-not-crippling degree of insomnia, I find myself both needing more sleep and having an easier time getting it when I am training seriously, which to me means about 10 miles a day. Wait, I already said that. Almost.

I've got some other swell things in the works too. I am thinking of joining a band. I've always messed around with my keyboard, which is nothing special as befits the skills of its owner. but lately I've been delighted at my own mastery of formerly irksome songs and so I want to push this further. I also have a novel in progress but last week I came up with a great idea for another one, so I just need to find the time to work on both. I've also been asked if I can donate some time to helping a local youth running group, and to be the deacon of my church. Actually, that last part is bullshit, but no one reads this far anyway.

Next weekend I am going on a mini-getaway with my little friend, which is overdue and well-earned for both of us. I am also realizing that unless I hurt myself, I will be racing back East in less than five weeks, a fact that I'm in pleasant denial about even though I just typed it. But this trip has been a mainstay for me for a few years now and I can't wait.