doing well!

 Reflecting on some things I've done well in training this Fall

-not taking down weeks. This one maybe doesn't matter too much but because I wanted to hit 3000 miles for the year I couldn't really afford to do down weeks so I've just kept my volume at 67 miles per week for about 13 weeks now. I feel like my fitness has only gone up. 10 miles a day with one long run and a day off isn't too hard for me to manage. What I think has happened is that as my body has gotten more and more used to the mileage, my pace has increased and my workouts have gotten harder. Which is what you want. So, maybe taking those down weeks was just missing out on mileage that I could have been doing.

-doing race specific workouts. I went to race at 5:30 pace so most of my workouts have been around that pace or at race effort given my current fitness. Last year my training wasn't specific enough. A lot of it was probably too slow to be really helpful on race day.

-doing a double on Friday. Two 5 mile runs feels like a rest day compared to one 10 mile run and I usually work in some faster paces for fun. It's a double win

-track workouts on Sunday. I only recently started doing this but I immediately liked it. Normally I'd do a 15 mile run with anywhere from 8 to 10 miles at a moderately hard pace but now I'm doing high quality track workouts when my legs tend to feel their best. That gives me more confidence.

-working on the hips, hammies, and buns. This one has been pretty huge. I forgot why I decided to do some glute activation but I noticed a difference right away. It's hard to describe. It's kinda like if you've been driving on flat tires for a long time and then you finally inflate them. There's a float to my stride again that makes running way more enjoyable and fun. It's like I thought I was enjoying running but really I was riding on the wheels and not the tires. Or something.

Anyway doing well.