The Next Few Months of Training

Last week was my first week at 80 miles. I plan to hit 80 miles 12-15 times between now and the beginning of April. I've done 60 for extended periods before, but dispite the diminishing returns of running more and more miles, I strongly believe the extra 20 miles a week will help me run MUCH faster than currently. -Others have seen it when moving from 60 to 80 miles per week and so will I.

-my average week should look something like this:
Monday: run to/from work (15 miles for the day/15 miles total)
Tuesday: run to/from work, maybe some more with Sabrina (18 for the day/33 total)        
Wednesday: decent warm up, 400-800 meter repeats, decent cool down (10+/43)
Thursday: 20 minutes running in the sauna before going out for a few miles (8/51)
Friday: off*
Saturday: 15, once a month some of these miles with come from a trail race -from 5k to 12k (15/66)
Sunday: whatever I need to run to close the week out at 80, hopefully not much to allow myself to recover from races when I do them (14/80)

*Most "serious" runners don't take too many days off, but I take one each week. It helps me stay hungry -nothing makes me wana run more than knowing that I can't. Also, taking one day off means I have only six days to run as much as most people spread over seven days, which makes my days bigger. So taking a day off means better training days AND better physical and mental recovery.

400 meter repeats

i chose, on an impulse, to do something fast thursday night. after having such a great trail run the night before, i wanted a good, fast road run, and 400s are my favorite -i love um!
i don't feel that ultra- or trail marathon- runners have any reason to do conventional, track-style intervals (with a set period of non-active rest between them). since the ultra running motto is 'relentless forward movement,' why would you ever stop moving in a workout? -repeats for any runner who's event lasts longer than four hours should never stop or walk during workouts, period.

so the workout went down like this:
>800 meter WU(warm up)
>12X 400 meters slow: 400 meters at sub-5:20 pace
>2 mile CD (cool down)
-since I'm going to race a 1.4 mile halloween run at Clement Park Lake on the 28th, i did the workout entirely on the 1.4 mile loop that the race is going to be run on. breaking 8 minutes would be great in a costume...
-my Garmin 405 made this workout possible for me: its relentless beaps told me when to sprint and when to jog. i feel way better knowing that there isn't any human error in my workout.

i felt great with the effort and remembered fully why i love the short-lived pain that comes with fast running. looking forward to Moab, i should have the aerobic capacity to do very well, but that still seems far off