Milestone

This was a good running week! I am glad that I took the previous week off. And as of today, 2010 is officially my biggest mileage year ever! (peanuts to some of you, but I'm currently sitting at 1051 miles--1692km--for the year... and it's only September!)

Wednesday
Mile repeats at the track. 4 repeats plus warm-up, cool-down, and recovery laps gave me 8 miles.

Friday
12 mile trail run with the puppy. One bear spotted (just a baby but mama was nearby, as verified by a walker I spoke with a few minutes later). I added in an extra steep switchback in the interests of not being lazy!

Sunday
20 mile long run, paved. It started out rough, with shin splints, side stitches, and general exhaustion. I wanted to turn around at the 1 mile mark... and the 2 mile mark... and the 3 mile mark... but I pressed through and by the 5th mile started to feel a lot better. Ended up with a great negative split and several miles done at marathon pace. 3:42 overall, which I'm quite happy with.

Total: 40 miles. Only three runs, but they were all high-quality and I'm feeling good. :)

Here is a pic from my long run today... it was pouring the entire time, but really pretty and peaceful in the valley: