January 25 (98 miles/week)

AM: 20 miles moderate/progression

PM: yoga

I met a large group of the GRC team out at Edward's Ferry for my longest run since Marine Corps to end my longest week since then as well. The route consists of two 10+ mile loops that we generally do twice.

Klim jokingly calls this run the "Duel Ferries" because while we run past two, dual ferries, there is inevitably some sort of faster slugfest at the end of the run. For me today, this run was more like a torture rack, for several reasons. (No, not "the torture rack." I mean a torture rack...) For one, the pressure and pace of the run gradually increased until we were stretching thin throughout the run, but my back was also killing me. Somewhere around mile 9, both of my lats seized up and never really loosened up. I figured I'd be fatigued today from skiing, but I assumed it would afflict my quads, not my back. I didn't have much choice but to deal with the discomfort, so I stretched it out some at the turn and pressed forward.

The first loop was pretty relaxed, but the first five-mile section of the second loop crept down to 6:10 pace with Matias, P. Murphy, Klim and Chris (PM was running shorter and turned off before the run got "interesting.") By the time we turned at White's Ferry after a couple of bathroom breaks, the implied plans to increase the pace became reality. All of a sudden, we were flying past the open fields of River Road, and I was holding on by the seat of my pants and praying my back didn't turn into salt water taffy.

This is where skiing yesterday killed me. My legs just wasn't responding, and to make matters worse for me, it was obvious that Chris was feeling pretty damn good while Klim and I did our best to follow. For about 20+ minutes where the pace whittled down from MP to the low-5:00 territory, Klim and Bain and I started pounding on each other. Last summer, I pushed the pace too early on this same run, bonked hard, and these two guys ended up destroying me. I thought for sure I was on my way to this again, but I rallied, and we all finished together at the loop's last turn and mutually agreed that we'd had enough.

Obviously, runs like this aren't good to do too often, but they definitely have their place. This was more of a test of character and mental toughness. I didn't want to give an inch out there, and I could tell that neither did the other two guys. In that regard, it's probably good that I wasn't feeling my best, if that makes sense.

Though I felt stale overall, this was still easily the best long run I've had since before MCM. It's also a great example to why training with other runners is so helpful: it would have been much harder any of us would have pushed this hard on our own. 

I peeled myself off of my bed from a nap to trudge down to the gym for yoga, which made my back feel better.

Overall: good run, good week.