Week One of MY Training Schedule: Complete

I just finished week one of MY OWN training schedule: i.e. the one that I wrote for myself after having read a few books on the subject. This week I had 15 miles to run, and I am pleased to note at the end of it all that I feel like I could still run more miles! Apparently my new running technique combined with an easier pace seems to be just what I need to get in more miles. For the next few weeks I'll up the number of miles I run until 17 at which time I'll drop it back just to let myself do a rest week (somewhere from 12-15 mi) and then up it again until I'm at 20 miles a week. I am really hoping that I can work on the miles and not have any shin pain from here on out. I really have been feeling pretty good shin-wise since starting this program.

The downside to running slow miles is, and always has been, the fact that my KNEES don't really like it. Anything above about 9:30 min/mi pace and my knees and upper leg mechanics rebel (hams, IT band, quads, glutes). Hopefully the strength exercises I am doing will help with that.

I've also been paying special attention to my diet. (Richard will be surprised if he is reading this). Not that I am really changing too much about the way I eat, which, I know, is not incredibly healthy, but just that I want to know how many calories I eat a day. I have observed, after about a week of keeping track of calories, that I go in 2-3 day waves: I have a couple of days where I eat maybe a few too many calories and then days where I don't get enough. I can tell those days because I'm sort of hungry when I go to bed and then REALLY hungry before I get up in the morning. I'm going to try to be more balanced. I have tried, however, to eat more fruits and vegetables than I have in the past. Hopefully by small things great things will be brought to pass.

No speed work is on the slate for another three weeks or so (minus the injury-preventing hill sprints), so I have that to look forward to once I get there. Hopefully once I do, I'll be comfortable running more miles than before and my drive train will have adjusted to taking the impact off my shins.