Oxygen Deprived

Well, it's not really that much of an accomplishment but I'm pretty excited about making it six days straight into my abbreviated marathon training program. I still have some stuff to finalize and figure out but so far everything has been going well.

Pace: As the week progressed my legs started to feel a little tired but overall I felt strong, stronger each day in fact. Today was back and forth a little bit, I had a few miles that I had a hard time holding back at an easy pace and other miles that I could hardly manage my easy pace.

Mileage: I'm looking to hit 40 miles this week if I run about 6.5 tomorrow. I originally was going to start with 35 mpw and then increase to 40 mpw but since I'll soon be focusing on more intense workouts I didn't want to over due it and combine more intensity with an increase in mileage. I still may need to increase my weekly mileage later but there's a good chance that 40 mpw will get me threw 'till the end.

Stride Rate: After less than one week of focusing on increasing my stride rate from 152 to the 180s I'm now running consistently in the low 170s. Not too bad an adjustment after just 6 days. Occasionally it gets pretty hard to keep my legs turning over this fast but I think when I do hills seem much easier. Maybe it's because there's less ground to cover with each step - makes sense. Or maybe it's because I'm running at an easy pace. Regardless, I'm curious (not to mention excited) to see how picking up the pace will feel with a faster stride rate.