65 miles is a lot

This week I've been wearing my Garmin every run to get an accurate count of my typical weekly mileage. It's not that the actual number of miles I run is all that important, but I want to make a push for a big week next week and counting my miles this week will give me some basis for comparison.

Saturday I managed 16.5 miles in about 1:55, averaging 7:10/mile at 155 bpm. (Side note: I'm curious to see how much faster that'll be once the snow/ice on the path melts.) That run thrashed my legs enough that Sunday became a 4.5 mile jog (~8:00/mile). Monday was just an easy/steady aerobic run: 10.5 miles at 7:30/mile (hovering around 145 bpm). Today I planned on some harder running, but my legs still aren't fully recovered from Saturday.  Instead, today becomes an off day where I just go for an evening walk.

Halfway through a decent week, and I'm only at 31.5 miles.  65 miles will be a reasonable weekly mileage, but it sure feels like a lot of running. I think my legs will require a steady build-up to higher mileage, or I need to keep my long runs to 145-150 bpm, max. At any rate, my build up to high mileage weeks will be slow. I might hit 80 next week as a one week high mileage experiment keeping the effort low.

While I haven't trained with much structure over the past few months, I plan on reading Jack Daniel's Running Formula (for the second or third time) over the next two weeks to begin planning my training a little more formally. I've also got Lore of Running, but that book is so intimidating that I've barely peaked through its pages.
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I was reading Running Times the other day and noticed that the 2012 US Snowshoe National Championship takes place in Frisco in February. The qualification standards look pretty lax, so maybe I'll jump in a race and see if I can hit the standard. Hmm...
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Tebow!?!? Two weeks ago I became a fan. This week didn't disappoint, either. I'm afraid Brady, et al. will be too much this coming Sunday.
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The best thing about the end of the year are all the "Best Album" lists. I'm mentally planning my own list, but right now only a few artists come to mind. In the meantime, here's a new-to-me track that I really like:

For some reason, all the records I've bought lately are instrumental. First Explosions in the Sky, then Godspeed! You Black Emporer, and recently Mogwai. Is "good background music" a compliment?