Weather - 55 degrees, cloudy, windy. Reality returned and I felt the effects of the previous 3 days of racing and training. Feeling tired and lacking energy I ran an easy 6 miles. During the run I thought about how I was going to give myself a chance to break 19:00 in a 5k race. My ideas came into rare focus and I was able to map a plan. Since I have no meaningful races to run until March, I decided that during January and February I need to work specifically on increasing my endurance through consistent daily and weekly mileage. I can forgo speed work during this time, so that should give my body a chance to remain healthy while I attempt to slowly up the mileage. My current weekly average is between 30-50 miles. By mid March I would like to raise the average to 40-60. It would be easy enough to will myself to run 7 miles a day 6 days a week, and run 12-14 miles for the one long run, but that would most likely lead to a physical breakdown. I need to be cautious and patient, and when I feel my body asking for less instead of more, I will need to heed it. Perhaps 2 1/2 months is not enough time for a moderate increase, but I will do my best to push my body safely to new mileage limits. I believe that if I can increase my mileage, the endurance I will have gained will then allow me to pursue speed work with more aggression. In April and May I will move into hill running and repeats, and in early June do some long intervals. By late June I should be ready to run a 5k in good fitness, and then I will see what I can do with it. | 