Another day, another 70-mile week

Where did the time go? When I posted last, I had just finished my first-ever honest 70-mile week. Now, 10 days later, I'm two days into my next 70-mile week.

To review: Last week was a bit of a break, a 49-mile week which featured a 6-mile tempo run and and a 22-mile easy long run. The tempo was fun; I paced Heather on a 10K time trial, which was a good tempo pace for me. Then on Saturday I became a member of the Mangum Track Club by completing their coveted shirt run. What is the shirt run? It's a run at the crack of dawn, from the middle of nowhere to a spot 15 miles east of the middle of nowhere, near Ellerbe, NC. About 50 people showed up, and they make a party out of it, ordering about 30 pizzas and a couple coolers of coke, which they consume in the middle of the road at the end of the run. Here's me with Sarah and my new friend Michael on the run:

And here I am with my new MTC mates at the finish line:

Why do I look so tired? Because I added an extra 7 miles to get 22 miles!

This was a fun run but a serious commitment because Ellerbe is about 2 hours away from Davidson, so I woke up before 4 am just to get there on time! Here's the official DART photo of the five new MTC members who made the trip:

From left: Me, Sarah, Chad, Dave, and Todd

This week, as I mentioned before, I'm stepping the mileage up to 70 for one last time before Richmond. Yesterday and today I did two 9-milers with DART but tomorrow is when the real fun begins: a 19.9 mile run. The plan is to run 8 easy miles, then 40 minutes at marathon pace, then 5 min at tempo pace, then 20 min at marathon pace, 5 min tempo, 5 min marathon pace, before finally slowing down for a 2-mile cooldown. I'm tired just thinking about it. I think this time I will stay out on the road the whole time for a nice long run. Here's the plan:

Actually, this is backwards, but you get the idea

The route takes me on a grand tour of Davidson, Cornelius, and Huntersville, and finishes with the big hills on Shearer Road and Grey Road. If all goes well, I should complete it in just under 3 hours. Wish me luck!