SUMMARY: NOVEMBER 21-28, 2011

Daily Quote: "A down week is a planned rest week, with mileage reduced to a certain percentage of your peak mileage. The majority of runners find it most beneficial to drop mileage to somewhere between 50 and 90 percent of highest mileage, typically varying depending upon the frequency with which down weeks are taken. Rea's athletes work -in threeweek cycles and run 15 to 20 percent fewer miles during their down week. For example, if they'd been running 100-mile weeks, they would run 80 miles during a down week. Chapman's runners also cut back by 15 to 20 percent. Hall reduces mileage even further and runs approximately half the total volume of his highest week." --Kristin Barry, Running Times Magazine, June 2011 issue.

Last week was my recovery week, or cutback week, from my running, which is my first recovery week since I've returned from having cancer.  It was quite opportune to have a recovery week during Thanksgiving week as my wife had Thursday-Sunday off from work.  My mileage last week was 10 miles, which was a cutback from the previous week's high of 17 miles:

SUMMARY: NOVEMBER 21-28, 2011
Monday: Run 2.5 miles. (treadmill, 10 minute miles)
Tuesday: Run 1 mile. (treadmill, 10 minute mile) & weight circuit training.
Wednesday: Run 3.0 miles. (treadmill, 10 minute miles)
Thursday: Thanksgiving. NO RUNNING. Weight circuit training.
Friday: Run 2.5 miles. (treadmill 10 minute miles.)
Saturday: Run 1 mile (treadmill, 10 minute miles.)
Sunday: Rest Day.  NO RUNNING.
Total Weekly Mileage:  10.0 miles.


Felt great to have a cutback week and now feel eager to continue raising my weekly mileage next week!

I continued to weight circuit training which consisted of no cutbacks on weights.  The following was last week's weightlifting:

1. Abdominal Crunch. 3 sets of 15 reps on a incline board.
2. Leg Press. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 95 pounds.
3. Leg Extension. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 65 pounds.
4. Leg Curl. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 65 pounds.
5. Chest Press. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 55 pounds.
6. Shoulder Press. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 25 pounds
7. Tricep Extension. 1 set of 15 reps. Weight: 35 pounds.
8. Lat Pull. 1 sets of 15 rep. Weight: 80 pounds.
9. Bicep Curl. 1 set of 15 rep. Weight: 35 pounds.
10. Low Back Extension: 3 sets of 15 reps.


My current weight is 177 pounds on a six foot frame and is a gain of two pounds from the previous week, not surprising as last week I cut mileage and ate more due to Thanksgiving...I would have thought I would have gained even more weight last week!!  Oh well, I'm not too concerned about the additional weight as I have no race goals, but will continue to eat healthy foods and continue slowly adding mileage.