Last I posted, I’d had a wild couple of days thanks to the MRT Holiday Mileage Challenge – 39 miles for Saturday and Sunday.  Not the brightest move, fresh off the heels of injury, but I was being super-diligent about self-massage and foam rolling, etc.

My original intention for this week’s portion of the Challenge was to alternate 15 and 12 per day with 20mi on Sunday: 101mi for the week.  A lot, but by doing most of it in doubles (and slow as I needed to go to remain tweakless), I was confident I’d hold up fine.  So much for plans.

Folks were running some super thick runs so on Monday, what started as a shorter run in the morning, I extended to 16mi and I pulled an 8-miler later that afternoon: 24 miles on Monday.  Crazy crazy.  But fun!

However, that night on the mileage thread, a drama erupted between the lead guy (who was throwing some childish ego crap around) and a couple of us irritated participants, so the next morning, my run sucked.  The entire 15mi I kept thinking about the situation and having imaginary conversations in my head with people that did not deserve to accompany me on my run.  Over 2 hours of negativity.

Add to that, after Monday’s 24mi and the likelihood of me adding a few more miles here and there out of competitive stupidity, I would probably have ended up near 120mi for the week.  (as recap, last 2 weeks were 50mi, 79mi…120mi? Lunacy)

So I quit.  I had company though, a couple online compatriots were also annoyed by the vibe and quit as well.

Today I’m enjoying a day off which, after averaging 19.5mi/day for the past 4 days (104 mi in the last 7 days…a distance PR for me) is a good idea.  Physically, I held up just fine, a little tightness in one of my calves yesterday but it’s gone and I have a massage at 5pm, so that’s cool, too.

Positive Takeways
Despite the drama and silliness of the past 4 days, I came away super pleased with the running part of the experience.  Not just for confirming that I am indeed 100% healthy again but also…

1. Nice to know I can manage a solid amount of miles in a short span.  Not being an Ultra person (this was in no way Ultra-like, btw, doubles and recovery being of major importance) it was cool to go beyond anything I’d done in the past.

2. I was instantly transported back to my old mileage level and then some, so 90mpw from here on in will feel like a cutback.

3. Doubles!  You know I’ve been wanting to do more doubling experimentation and this was the primo opportunity.  One of my concerns for doubling in the winter was getting out on cold early mornings, but it was fine.  The trick is to wake up, have coffee and go.  Also helps to have my running clothes laid out, too.  It’s going to be great having shorter runs along with the medium and long ones instead of all long singles.

So in the end, a few days of a halted Mileage Challenge yielded a good amount of self-discovery that I can use for the next few months.  That’s a win.

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