Given the strong cold symptoms last week, I decided to take this week conservatively and skip the first two runs (those are Tuesday and Wednesday since Monday is always a rest day). Turns out I probably overshot the resting because I felt as strong as ever during the first run. Despite that, I decided to follow the advice from The Uphill Athlete and do only Z1/Z2 runs during this week. In retrospect, I feel like I could’ve probably run this week as prescribed in the training plan–barring, perhaps, the uphill intervals.

I’m now left with an interesting choice. According to my training plan, the next week is going to be another high volume week. Then, the plan prescribes a rest week, one super high volume week (relative to my standards as always) and then a two-week taper. However, because I have just effectively rested for two weeks, I feel very fresh. Therefore, my current plan is to skip the rest week and forge ahead with three consecutive high volume weeks. I’ll then go directly to the taper.

This is a calculated risk considering that each of the three weeks is going the be among the highest volume weeks I’ve ever done. That being said, I still feel zero aches or pains anywhere. If I start to get any pain that is suggestive of, say IT band issues, I’ll be ready to dial it back. I feel like this is a way to make the remainder of the training block interesting. After all, my primary goal in signing up for Black Canyons 100K was to push my limits in training, and I don’t feel like I’ve truly done that yet.