Anatomy of a 96 mile week

I was going to wait until I ran a 100 mile week to write this post, but since we aren't guaranteed tomorrow, here goes!  I ran 96 miles the week of August 12-18 (a.k.a. the hottest week of our summer so far), and it looked like this:

Monday 
AM run: 9.2 miles easy (7:50)
PM run: 4.2 miles, HR < 132 (8:14) in 108* heat index
Extras:  core work after AM run
Life: Worked 8:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. with no breaks, starting with driving to my company's Kansas City division for a 3-day stint in that location.

Tuesday
AM run: Track workout of 3 x (600 m, 30 sec., 600 m, 30 sec., 600 m) with 3 min. between sets in 2:07, 2:06, 2:08, 2:08, 2:08, 2:10, 2:11, 2:11, 2:11 - 10.5 miles total with warm-up and cool-down, in The Dew Point of Death (75*, air temp 78*)
PM run: 5.2 miles, HR < 132 (8:09)
Extras: strength workout after PM run
Life:  Worked 8:00 a.m.-5:20 p.m. in Kansas City, and after finishing my second run and strength workout I spent $28 at the Hyvee food bar and ate every bit of those 3.9 lbs of food before passing out in my hotel bed (did I mention I also got up at 4:30 a.m. most days this week?).

Wednesday
AM run: 9.3 miles, HR < 132 (8:32), mostly on gravel
Extras:  Glute yoga video (34 min.) following run
Life:  Again worked in Kansas City, and returned to Springfield to drop off the company car around 5:45 p.m. before happily going home.

Thursday
AM run: 12.4 miles total with an 8 mile workout, alternating 0.5 at tempo and 0.5 at marathon pace in paces of 5:56, 6:15, 5:55, 6:15, 6:04, 6:11, 6:03, 6:19, 6:05, 6:27, 5:58, 6:27, 6:08, 6:23, 6:21, 5:58 - 6:10 average for all 8 miles, otherwise known as 6:10 pace the hard way.
PM run: 4.3 miles, HR < 132 (8:20)
Extras:  core work at lunch
Life:  This was Albani's first day of the new school year, so I started my run extra early so I could be home by 6:30 a.m. since her bus now comes at 6:45 a.m.!  I worked a pretty normal 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. day in Springfield.

Friday
AM run: 7.2 miles easy (7:57)
PM run:  4.2 miles, HR <132 (8:34) - I ran this on my lunch break.
Extras:  strength workout after AM run
Life:  I worked 8:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. so got to use a little comp time from my work travel earlier in the week, although I went home and prepared for our weekend visitors instead of resting like I wanted/needed.

Saturday
AM 20.3 miles easy (7:49)
Extras:  Yoga for tight hamstrings video (36 min.) following run
Life:  My brother-in-law and his family (wife and 4 children, ages 18 months, 3, 5, and 8) visited us for the weekend.  Part of the group went to the movies on Saturday evening, and the other group (which I was part of) got take-out for dinner and went to bed early.

Sunday
AM 9.1 miles easy (8:10)
Extras: none, unless you count walking or spending the day in the heat
Life: We went to the theme park Silver Dollar City with our visitors, pretty much the whole time the park was open.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and had to get a Powerade to make it through the last few hours!  I think the upside is that when I run a 100 mile week, if I do not go to SDC and travel for work that week, it's going to be easier than this one was (not to mention the weather)!

What I did differently than my coach recommended:

Monday I split my runs 9 and 4 instead of 8 and 5, because there was an extreme heat advisory in the afternoon so I thought I'd appreciate one less mile.  I sometimes add a mile to my first run and take one off my second like this when my morning group is going a mile farther than I'm scheduled.

I was scheduled to run 8 and 5 on Sunday and for just one run on Thursday, but due to family plans (i.e. there was no way I was running after a full day in the heat at SDC), I ran a 4 mile double on Thursday and ran 9 in the morning on Sunday.  This is the first time I've made a switch like this in months; usually I try not to change days on anything (the exception to that is winter weather).

I'm pretty excited to hit triple digit weekly mileage at two points in this training cycle, God-willing, but I'm also pretty excited about this mileage PR and I will never forget how blessed I am to do this!