In the world of marathon training, there are a few common practices: run progressively ridiculous-er distances, eat exceedingly cornucopia-er amounts of food, and (ideally) dreamier hours of sleep. But with all this excess there is some moderation to be found. Week 6 is what I call a cutback week: after weeks of incremental increments, weekly mileage is decremented to offer some refuge from the battery of fatigue-inducing pavement pounding.

I shifted a few things around to accommodate the Hottest Half recovery without needing to take any days off, which is why I started the week with a recovery run. Tuesday and Thursday I ran the exact same route. It’s rarer than you’d think. The Thursday run was exactly 2 minutes faster and felt a lot easier. No real reason I can think of other than before Tuesday’s run I had raced a half marathon and then ran a recovery run, versus before Thursday was a rest day. Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Let’s go with it.

On Friday Hazel asked me to join her on her 1.3 mile run. Unable to say no to her puppy face (literally), we cranked it out at a good recovery pace. She’s great on the leash, and I certainly needed to reel her in a bit. She takes after me always trying to push the pace, but it caught up with her as she seemed pretty tuckered out by the end. I have a strong feeling we’ll be keeping each other company on my recovery runs, eventually getting her up to the full 4-5 miles. A boy can dream!

The Saturday Sunday long run was… interesting. I needed a route change as the scenery was getting a little monotonous, so I started mapping with the only focus on going somewhere different. In retrospect, not the best idea. I did see 6 deer while running through neighborhoods, but I also found a 1.5 mile stretch of shoulder-less, sidewalk-less, three-lane-each-way mini highway. Oh, and that stretch also consisted of one of the steepest

hills I’ve ever run. So it wasn’t monotonous, but it was mountainous. Good times. Next time Google Maps Street View will be consulted. But I made it!

Next week we get to unleash the 50-mile week. Prepare for exhaustion!