5 in the slow lane

Today was a recovery run day. I needed it after Sunday's redline.

This week is a big run week with 35 miles scheduled. Last week I put in a 5:58 training; this week I'll probably hit close to 7:00 with the 7 mile total run increase plus an additional workout that I didn't get last week due to fighting off a cold.

So I set a slow, recovery run pace today-meaning I kept it to a an even 8 min/mile. The first mile or two I could tell the muscles wer still recovering as my gate felt awkward and slow. By mile 3 I ran with something other than what felt like a drunken stumble. And by the last mile, the kinks were worked out and the muscles more relaxed.

So far I haven't talked much about the ride training. Mainly this is because the ride distances aren't that large. The significant issue is putting the run and bike together and building up endurance strength that's going to be needed for the combined 7 hour run/ride. So for now, most of the endurance building is in the run distance. The good thing for now is that I'm using the mountain bike for the ride portion of the training. This is good for 3 reasons: (1) I prefer mountain bike riding, (2) it's more effective mile for mile than road biking for now, and (3) I can more easily fit it into the training area I'm using now. Later in my training when run/ride distances go up again, I'll be switching to road biking.