Only 14 more miles and I would have achieved what I thought impossible a few years ago: triple digits. It still seems daunting. Those last 14 miles would be the hardest (not unlike the 26th 6:52 in an attempt to break 3 in the marathon), but then I think back to that first marathon I did in 2005 and how I think I only topped 50 miles in a week a couple times, and those rare times only barely. My prior record was 78 miles, though 50 of those miles came in one go (White River 2009). This time the crux of the miles came on Sunday (17 miles), Tuesday (18 mile double day) and Saturday (30 miles at Cougar Mtn). That’s 65 miles already right there, and out of curiosity I looked up my mileage dating back to late 2007 to see how many times I’d even topped 60 miles in a full 7 day week. This latest week was only my 17th time in about 2.75 years. Or about 135 weeks. Maybe in another 5 years I’ll look at 85 weekly miles the way I now look at 50 weekly miles, with a snort of disdain and contempt. Considering I’ll be a 35 year-old with the body of a 63 year-old, I sorta doubt it.

The 30 mile run was obviously the big one, and I’m fairly satisfied with how it went. I formulated the plan earlier in the week, wanting to end the week on Saturday with over 25 trail miles that were respectably hilly, but with family in town I wanted to keep the preparation/commuting to a minimum, so I kept it near home (~25 minutes away) and on trails I already somewhat know (the Cougar Mtn 14 mile loop, which I’d do twice). Greg Crowther supplied me with his and Uli Steidl’s painfully detailed description of the loop, which included the sad information this was actually only a 13.6 mile loop. All week I’d been burning “28″ into my head. Now it was suddenly a precipitous plummet to 27.2. I figured if I simply *had to*, I could add 4/5ths of a mile afterward somehow.

As it was that was not necessary. Despite Greg’s handiwork, I found myself twice absentmindedly getting off the loop, adding 23:11 to my total time. Ignoring those detours, my loops were 2:08:44 and 2:10:17. I have no idea what I covered in those 23:11 but since it was all mostly flat, I just gave myself 2.8 miles so I could have the nice round 30. Sue me.*

*Please don’t sue me. I have no money, honest.

How the week broke down:

Day  Miles   Cmltv
Sun   17.0    17.0
Mon    6.5    23.5
Tue   18.0    41.5
Wed    8.6    50.1
Thu    6.0    56.1
Fri    off    56.1
Sat   30.0    86.1

The Wednesday run was a PM track workout (4 x 6:00 at ~5:35-5:40 mile pace), but Monday and Thursday were very easy 6ish milers and Friday was a whole lotta me splayed on the couch, so maybe there’s room there for 14 more miles. Check back in five years. 86 miles, for many ultra guys, is packing peanuts. But considering I seem to always get injured when getting into the 70-75 range, I’m both happy with the milestone and terrified about what lies in the weeks ahead.

Tomorrow I leave for a long weekend in Dallas (wedding), skipping out on Seattle as it *finally* starts to behave like summer. I’d pass it off as “heat training” but I think it’s actually going to be hotter here, at least Thursday & Friday. Looking forward to tanning my chest hair though.