I woke up Monday morning and did a 4 mile jog. Then, I did my first run under the discretion of Coach Gary Gardner. My rather impersonal schedule (Gary what am I doing today; "Whatever the team's doing") called for 10 miles. Had I not gone 13 the day before and had I given one shit as to how difficult this training would be, I might have been worried when he said that. However, when one approaches a destination for an extended time, the arduous feelings of the difficult journey tend to subside upon arrival; I didn't care if Gary killed me.

Later in the week I asked Gary if I should continue doing my morning runs, and he told me I shouldn't do them for now, especially if I was exceeding my normal weekly mileage (which, going 50 miles over 4 days, compared to my usual 60 over 6 days, I significantly was.) Now those 4 days were the bulk of a span of 80 miles over 7 days, the highest mileage week of my life, going from last Wednesday to this Tuesday.

M/13    14   
AM 4mi 42:51 (10:43) shakeout on riverpath       
PM 10.2mi 1:21:20 (8:08) woods w/Carlos

T/14    11   
AM 3mi 36:42 (12:14) shahakeout on riverpath. slow; tired from last several days.   
PM 8mi 1:03:15 (7:55) rourke+path

W/15    6   
PM 6mi 62:03 (10:20) easy in woods. solo. shins hurt. decided to cut short run and save the legs for the rest of the week.

T/16    8   
PM 8mi 52:16 (6:32) medium in woods w/Carlos. shins hurt a little. biofreeze after. Posted a blog about this day earlier.

F/17    0    shins dead.

S/18    0 ^

S/19    5       PM 5mi 42:48 (8:33) easy on Webster Main St.

Week Total= 44 miles.

That week total looks quite pathetic and usually I'd be disgusted with it but in reality, as I mentioned in my post prior to this one, I have made a major breakthrough and losing mileage in order to keep my shins working is a sacrifice I will readily make right now. I do not want the chronic problem I had in high school to return. Hopefully I can get a good M-S mileage for the upcoming week and continue to get in quality runs like the one I did on Thursday, without doing harm to my shins. Good luck Ryan and Kara!