Week in Review

67-68 miles
3 doubles
4 days in Ft. Lauderdale
5 AFDs

Remember when I advised myself during last week's Week in Review to tone down the mileage this week? Apparently I interpreted that to mean just the opposite. Instead of backing off from last week's ambitious 55 miles, I instead increased to 68 to round out my third week back to running. And the result, fortunately, is that my foot feels completely fine and the rest of me feels about 75% normal. I'm still huffing and puffing a bit on longer runs and I'm not yet confident enough to try a workout, but otherwise the abrupt jump in mileage seems to be inciting no ill effects. If anything, I found myself for the second week in a row surprised to tally up the week's miles and see such a steep number staring back at me. I guess when 75-80 is the norm, anything less seems a bit lenient.

One other encouraging development is that I just learned the results of a blood test I took last week. Specifically, I wanted to see how my CBC, serum ferritin and vitamin D levels looked after a month of no running and diligent supplementation. If you'll recall, when I first got tested while running for Queens in early 2009 my ferritin was a paltry 18. Over the next year and a half it steadily climbed to 24, then 36, then 44 most recently in May. Since then my goal has been to top 50, no easy feat when training hard in the throes of a Carolina summer. Needless to say, both Coach Simmons and I were shocked to read that my current ferritin number is 82! I can't remember ingesting any nails or other construction materials recently and thus can attribute this meteoric rise solely to the recent time off and the aforementioned supplements. My vitamin D is also on the high end--68, which according to Simmons is just a few ticks short of being dangerously high--which also bodes well for overall bone and blood health. I realize that these figures will wane slightly as my training volume increases, but for now I'm thrilled to use this as a starting point.

This week finished as all great autumn weeks should, with a group long run at McAlpine followed by a group brunch of pumpkin pancakes at our place. Life is good.