60 ...

Last week was the final peak week of this training cycle. As of today, I am officially tapering. But, like I said, last week was a peak week, which meant lots and lots of running. I had 56 miles on the schedule (plus five sessions of P90X Ab Ripper X). And a husband who was out of town from Monday until Saturday. Fantastic!

On Monday, I rested. After a weekend filled with lots of excitement, little sleep and a new half marathon PR, I needed a break.

On Tuesday, I hit the treadmill for six miles. Easy pace. Nothing special. Just wanted to shake the post-race soreness I was experiencing.

On Wednesday, it was back to the hamster wheel for the now infamous 22 miler. I knew that if I didn't get my long run in early in the week, I was going to have to spend my first day with J in over a week running and recovering. So, I did what any less than sane individual would do and ran three and a half hours on my treadmill while watching NCIS.

Most of Thursday was spent debating whether or not to run. I had a rest day to play with, but I wasn't sure if I would "need" it later. I opted not to take it, and ended up logging four miles before I was interrupted.

Friday was definitely going to be a rest day. Definitely. Well, it was until I logged onto DailyMile and realized that thanks to the four miles that I had run the night before, I would be able to hit 60 miles for the FIRST TIME EVER as long as I completed the rest of the miles on my schedule. I had to channel my inner Katie A.

I mean, how could I say no? It's not like I was going to stumble upon this opportunity again any time soon. After National, I plan to bring my mileage back down to the 38-43 miles per week range. I NEEDED to do it now. There really was no choice.

So, with that, I scheduled a date with my treadmill for the fourth day in a row. And 1:35:43 and 10 miles later, I was done. 42 miles on the 'mill in four days.

J FINALLY got back on Saturday and I was able to sneak out for a late afternoon run with my friend, Earth Momma Mer.

She wanted someone to join her on the first six miler of her training plan and I REALLY wanted to run outside. It was perfect. And we took this really sweet action shot ...

Cool, right?

Then, yesterday, I was scheduled to run 12 miles with the Posse. It was supposed to be extra rainy, but instead it was just extra humid. It was totally one of the worst runs I have had in a long time. And to top it off, the last mile was straight uphill. Like bring you to your knees, uphill. It sucked. But, it kind of ROCKED too. Because, no matter how much it hurt at the time, once I was done, I got to post it to DailyMile and saw this as a reward ...


6 days. 60 miles. 100% sheer awesomeness. And to think, this time last year I would have told you that running 30 miles in a week was impossible ...

p.s. Are we DailyMile friends? Because we totally should be. Just click HERE