9 Weeks to London: Last Week's Training

This last week has been quite a challenge in Portland due to the weather. It is rare for Portland to get sticking snow, but when it happens, the city shuts down. There are very few snow plows so only the major and necessary highways/roadways get cleared, making it nearly impossible to run outside. Freezing rain and ice came next. Getting 8 inches is not a big deal in many places in the US, but Portland does not know how to handle itself. I also do not know how to handle myself, especially when I'm in the middle of a 150 mile week. My 3.5, 2.5, 1.5 mile workout was scheduled for Wednesday, but this was the start of the bad weather, and the forecasters were not predicting the accumulating snow over the next several days. I pushed the workout till Thursday thinking the weather would be much improved and I could go out and hit my times. Unfortunately it worsened, and I shuffled my way over to the indoor track at the University of Portland (240 meter flat track). I managed to get an excellent workout in, but the number of miles on a flat indoor track definitely took it's toll. The next day brought 21 miles in two runs on the same indoor track, followed by a morning on the treadmill Saturday morning. By Friday it was clear that the snow and ice would keep coming for at least a few more days, and I was already physically and mentally burned out from the indoor running. I made a last minute call to book a train to Seattle and hopped on Saturday afternoon (the roads were too bad for me to get my car up there). Seattle avoided the rough weather, and Brooks took care of me once I got here. I am still in Seattle and am actually writing this blog from the Brooks headquarters right now. I plan on getting my second run in here this afternoon, and then heading back to Portland later tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow the sidewalks/roads will be clear enough for a tough workout.

I'm sure there are plenty of mid-westerners laughing at my dire situation here, but I didn't have to miss any training, and I'm still healthy. A huge part of marathon training and racing is risk aversion. Getting myself out of a situation that required me to either run 20+ miles a day on an indoor track, treadmill, or thick snow and ice allowed me to avoid risk of injury and avoid the possibility of having to take multiple days off. I am very grateful to Brooks for setting me up for the last 4 days and the Brooks Beasts for letting me jump in. This allowed me to pull of a 150 mile week of training, and set myself up to bring the volume down slightly on my own terms over the next couple weeks as I gear up for a tune-up at the Gasparilla Half-Marathon. Thanks again for reading, and I'll be back with a post next week. To get training updates follow me here on Twitter.

Week 5	AM	PM	Strength/Drills	Mileage
Monday	14	7	40 minutes	21
Tuesday	14	8x200 meters on track		21
Wednesday	15	6	30 minutes	21
Thursday	6	Indoor track: 3.5 mile, 2.5, 1.5 starting in 72s and working down to 69s (rest 3 min, 2 min)		21
Friday	14 miles (indoor track)	7 miles (indoor track)	40 minutes	21
Saturday	11 miles on treadmill	3 mile w/u, 8x200, 5 mile c/d		21
Sunday		24 miles pushing 18-21 (starting 5:07 and finishing in 4:50)		24
TOTAL				150