http://log.shmk.org Ben Schmeckpeper's Online Training Log en-us http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week04 Fake Fresh backwards. Out the door just before 6am this morning, it was nice to wake up and not feel totally wiped out. Maybe taking iron pills and eating more beef has been paying off. Knowing this would be the last "long" run before tapering for Alumni made motivating myself out the door a bit easier. I felt good the whole way, though I wasn't running terribly fast. I was just under 7:00 along the river and that felt pretty close to the run's average pace. Pretty uneventful this morning, tired at the end but that was just general fatigue, I think. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week04 Fells with Midge. An uneventful drive out to the Fells this morning, and we headed out on the usual trails avoiding the Skyline Trail. Ran mostly around the Reservoirs and since I tried to run a loop instead of an out and back we wound up running in circles for a bit. Got back to Bellevue Pond early again so we climbed up to Wright's Tower like last week. Midge hung in the whole way, but I could tell she wanted to go back to the car instead of climb up that hill at the end. Aside from a sore ankle at the beginning I felt good the whole way and would have gone a bit longer except I'm still working on Midge's endurance. Definitely needed a good run today after the big dinner at Redbone's and too much ice cream at Tosci's for dessert last night. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 Slowly starting to get some degree of training in. Had a decent string of runs to start off the week but lost momentum by the end. Finally managed to run a workout, mostly just to get a check of my fitness before the Alumni meet, and I was predictably slow. Also starting to work on my speed in anticipation of the 400m race with Harvey, though I'm going to try and not focus too heavily on it. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 1M-1M-1.5M in 5:31-5:29-7:44, with 800m in 3:30 rest between intervals. Finally put in a "workout," and while it wasn't impressive I thought it went well. Warmed up over to the Science Museum and added on around the Galleria canal. Got to the 4M mark in 12:30 and just jumped right into the workout. Wanted to get a feel for 5:30s and hopefully feel good enough to convince myself to run that pace at Alumni next weekend. Getting around the construction on the drawbridge was a bit tough, but luckily traffic was very light. Hit the half in 2:47 and managed to speed up a bit from there. I felt great after the first mile, my legs were decently fresh and I wasn't out of breath. Holding 7:00 pace was easy for the half mile rest and I felt good enough to start out the next mile with a 2:42. Predictably slowed over the next half mile but still managed to hit 5:29. Another easy half mile and 7:00 pace felt comfortable. My legs were tired at the start of the final interval but I knew I could get through it. Came through the mile right on 5:00 and tried to push the final half mile but only managed to run 2:43. 5:30s felt good enough, though, that as long as I'm patient early and willing to suffer late I should be able to average that at Alumni. Cooled down to the MIT track to watch the xc team's 5k time trial and run some strides on the infield. After standing around talking for a bit I headed home to finish off the cool down. Pretty wiped out when I got home, and had to deal with sore legs the rest of the day. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 400-200-200 in xx; xx, xx. There was an open house at Nate's day care this afternoon and on the way home we stopped at the Medford track for a bit. I ran 2M on the track as a warmup, and then tried a little bit of speedwork. Cooled down 2 laps with Kathryn, pushing Nate in the stroller. Really hot out this afternoon. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 No running. So much for momentum. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 Castle-Bunker Hill with a 400m time trial in the middle. Out the door a little after 6:30 this morning and felt pretty decent. I had been planning on stopping at the MIT track to get a sense for my 400m speed and so I tried to keep things easy at the start. It felt like I was continually speeding up as I was running down Comm Ave. Headed right to the track after crossing the river and ran xx in trainers on a wet track. Got right back into the run, though I didn't feel back to normal until I got to Central Square. A pretty normal run the rest of the way, even though I hit nearly every red light on Prospect. Interesting note: I've run on Washington Street 3 of the past 4 days, even though it's one of my least favorite streets to run on. Tried to run a bit harder up Bunker Hill but was pretty wiped out and had absolutely no speed on the strides at the end. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 Inman Square. Up at 6:15 and out the door at 6:30 or so, into the rainy, sixty degree weather. I felt pretty decent, though there's really no reason to feel bad, and really enjoyed the fall feel. Just an easy 37 minutes, but I've got a little momentum building here. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week03 Fells with Midge. Woke up around 7:15 this morning and headed out to the Fells by 8am. Things didn't get off to a good start, though, as Midge took a dump in the backseat of the car while we were still on I-93. Then I tried to get creative with our route early on in the run and we wound up rock climbing on the Skyline Trail. Finally got onto the Bike Trail and actually had a good rest of the run. I was pretty fatigued, though, and was happy to finish up at just 40 minutes. Had a headache and upset stomach to deal with (thanks to Bernie's quasi-bachelor party last night) and progressed from bad to tolerable throughout the run. I probably wasn't running very fast, though the fatigue made it feel like I was working hard enough to run 6:30s. We got back to the car early so we finished up by climbing up to Wright's Tower then a long stride on the path to the car. (I managed to drop Midge, who's probably at least as fast as Harvey, so that was a good confidence boost.) http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 The best week I've had in awhile, but still missed a good number of days. The trip to MN really took it out of me and it took a few days to feel back to normal. Nathan's schedule is somewhat returning to normal, so Kathryn and I have been starting to figure out a schedule for running in the mroning. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Highland Ave out and back. Felt a little tired at the start of the run and kept things easy on the way out. Turned at 27:3x and made it back in 25-low. Made a conscious effort to speed up on the way back but didn't full on hammer. I did make an effort to run hard up the hill and on the whole I felt good. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Back Bay loop Managed to get out the door just before 6am and had wanted to run Docks, but forgot that the walkway under N Washington St was closed. Kept it very, very easy at the start and sped up to just 7:00 pace for the mile along the river. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Charlestown Loop. Slept in far too late to get in a full run, but did manage to at least get out the door. Pretty dejected when I got home, I was really tired and felt terrible the whole way. Hard to believe that it would be so hard to get through a four bomb. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Day off. Had every intention of getting out the door today but it never happened. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week02 Day off. Got back from MN last night at 11pm and woke up around 7:30 this morning and had to pick Midge up from the kennel. Got back with the dog and spent the majority of the day running errands and doing chores. Way too tired and hungry this morning to get out for a run and then the next thing I knew it was about 5pm and I was still tired. Hopefully can get back into a routine now that the trip to MN is behind me. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Ran more than I have in the past few weeks, but this certainly wasn't the week I was hoping for. I'd like to just make an effort to get out the door 5 times next week and see how that works. I'm still struggling to fit running into the new daily routine. I'm running out of time to get in shape before it's time to settle these two bets. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Big Rivers Recreational Trail. Same route as yesterday, back out to I-35E. Early on I could feel myself starting to push it a bit like I did yesterday and didn't want a repeat of that run. I forced myself to keep it easy on the way out and got to the turnaround in 30:00, a full two minutes slower than yesterday. Turned around and immediately started pushing, harder than I was yesterday. Didn't ever feel great but wanted to just keep working hard and not back off. Made it back to the hotel in 26:00, I didn't think I was running quite that fast and the last ten minutes felt pretty terrible. Just kept telling myself to hang in there and deal with it instead of backing off. Would have liked to feel a bit more comfortable running 6:10s, but at least I was working hard and showed a bit of mental toughness. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Big Rivers Recreational Trail. Luckily there was a bike path not far from the hotel, so after a not-so-good night of sleep I headed over to the trail at 7:30am. I felt really good early and seemed to find a quicker than normal pace. Headed out for 28 minutes which took me all the way to I-35E, then turned around and came back the same way. Made it back in 27:30-ish, though it felt much worse on the way home. Finished up with an extended stride, about 40s, and felt pretty slow and heavy legged there. I now have 2 bets set up about racing, so I really need to get in shape. Racing Fivos at Alumni will be tough, if I'm too optimistic at the start the course will take it out of me and Fivos will eat me up at the end. And only having a 5 second headstart against Brian at 400m is just totally unfair. Really humid this morning and I just felt awful at the end of the run, not at all confident about those 2 bets. (Based on the maps I saw on the trail I figured this was 4M each way, measuring it online says 4.2M.) http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Day off. Very busy day, up at 6am and things didn't settle down until Kathryn, Nate and I got to the airport at 9:30. After the flight to MSP we almost immediately headed out to Julie's house and didn't get back to the hotel until 10pm or so. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Had originally planned on meeting the guys for some tempo action this morning, but a meeting was scheduled for this morning at work so I didn't have time to make the workout. My motivation from Sunday hasn't really translated to results. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week01 Lincoln with a big group. Ran the standard 10 mile route, spent most of the run hanging out in the back of the pack, but the pace was easy and comfortable throughout. I felt great and reluctantly split off after Walden when most guys were adding on for their long run. Mark G and I headed back to the lot, I probably could have gone further but this was my first double digit run since Nate was born. Good to run with guys again, and I convinced Harvey to up the stakes of our NFL bet. I've been going back and forth on motivation and thought about retiring, but I think I've finally decided that it's time to get serious about getting back in shape. So I'm back to counting miles for real and focusing on cross (with a brief stint of 400m specific work.) http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Fells with Midge. Headed over to the Fells around 7:30 this morning, the gate was closed so I had to park further on up Border Road. We ran a solid 45 minutes, started easy and sped up as the run wore on. Midge kept up the whole time and even wanted to chase after a mountain biker who passed us around 30 minutes in. My legs felt great throughout the whole run and I would have made it an hour but wasn't sure how Midge would have held up. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Despite leaving the game early last night I didn't get to bed until after 11pm and was really tired when I woke up this morning. Going to start taking iron supplements again, can't figure out why I'm so tired despite sleeping 7-8 hours every night. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Had to get to work early to finish up before going to Fenway in the evening. Nate made it through 5 and a half innings, better than anticipated. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Docks-Greenway. Headed out the door at 6am this morning, really tired when I woke up but managed to lace up my shoes. I still fail to understand why I'm so tired each morning despite 6-8 hours of sleep and little to no exercise during the day. I felt decent enough, though by the end my legs were more tired than they should be after six miles. Good morning to run, though the humidity was starting to climb by the time I finished. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Another day off. Had a routine physical, the doctor says everything's normal. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Another day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Didn't have time to run before heading to Newburyport this morning. Watched Harvey and Chorney race the mile, then spent the next few hours walking around with Kathryn and Nate. Great day, a lot of fun, pretty tired by the time we got back home. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Freedom Trail-Orange Line-South End. Felt good enough to get out the door around 6:30 this morning, the only time of day I'd ever attempt to run the Freedom Trail. I felt good the whole way and was running a bit harder than normal, probably about the same effort as the 6:40 on Thursday. Wound my way through the South End, then skirted Chinatown and took the Greenway home. Was running for 55 minutes, a solid 8 miles, but a bit longer than I was planning. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Back Bay Loop. Had tentative plans to meet Bernie, but he wound up working late so I headed out on my own at 5:15 this afternoon. Pretty warm out, but not terrible. Every time I run in the afternoon I'm reminded at how much easier getting around the city is at 6am. Ran 6:40 for the mile along the river, which was surprisingly quick, and felt good the whole way. It took a while to cool off after this run, but I was happy to have put in some miles today. With Terry's hamstring acting up, I need to be ready to get in shape quickly. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Was really tired at 5am, so I stayed in bed and the next thing I knew it was 8am. Don't understand how I can be this tired every morning without doing anything substantial the day before. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Very tired again this morning, so I slept until 7am instead of getting up 5:30 for a run. I did manage to motivate myself to do a short workout before going to bed. I did 1 minute of planks, 25 pushups, 200 situps, 25 pushups and then another minute of planks. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. Really tired at 5:30 this morning and did not feel like getting out of bed. Nate's been sleeping longer recently, so I'm no longer getting out of bed to change a diaper early in the morning. That's good for sleeping, bad for running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Fells with Midge. Headed out to the Fells again with Midge, we got there around 8:30 and got right into the run. Roughly the same route as last week to start, then made our way to a reservoir and followed the Orange Trail for a bit. Turned around at 25 minutes but took a shorter way back and had to tack on a few extra minutes at the end. Finished up around 44 minutes, didn't really feel the effects of yesterday's workout, felt pretty good throughout. Midge ran off leash the whole way, she's got a lot of energy for the first 10 minutes, then just trots along behind me the rest of the way. She didn't even bother trying to stay with me when I ran a few pick ups at the end. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 2M "tempo" in 10:55 (5:30-5:25.) Wanted to get a feel for how I'd handle running hard and decided I'd jump in for a bit during the guys' workout this morning. Warmed up over the river and ran into Bernie, ran with him up to the 3M mark, then doubled back to the 3.5M mark. Had plenty of time to loosen up and run strides since the guys got a late start. Let the guys go past and then joined in at the back with Terry and two guys I didn't know (Terry calls them Alex and Colman, but who knows if those are nicknames or real names. I'm out of the loop for 1 month and everything goes nuts.) Felt pretty comfortable early, Terry said they ran 5:30 for the first mile and I was happy to have that pace feel easy. Felt good to be running hard again and actually felt pretty natural running that pace. Hit 5:30 for that mile and then was itching to really hammer the second mile, Alex and Colman had a 5m gap on Terry and I. We sped up a little bit but kept it under control and it turned out that running 5:24 was hard enough. Turned around there and cooled down back home (though cooling down is impossible when it's 85 degrees outside.) Heading towards the MOS I noticed the drawbridge going up, so I crossed Storrow at MGH and headed home along Staniford. Of course, by the time I got to the locks that same boat had them opened, but I got there just as the locks were closing. Got home and went out on the deck to lie down and sweat for a bit. Took a good hour or two until I felt recombobulated. There was a big group of guys running hard this morning, a very motivating sight. Really want to get back in shape. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Day off. My resolution to exercise every day lasted exactly 2 days. Absolutely wiped out this morning and slept in instead of running. Then I didn't realize I hadn't worked out at all until I was getting in bed. Maybe a more realistic goal for now should be to have more days of exercise than days without exercise. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Inman Square. Nate woke up around 4:45 this morning and I got out of bed just after 5am. Took my time getting out the door but was running by 5:40. Really nice weather, it must have rained overnight and that cooled things off. My legs felt good, not sore at all after yesterday's return to running. I felt a bit worse as I was finishing the stretch on Cambridge Street, but I think I was just a bit tired from staying up until 11pm last night. If I'm going to keep waking up at 5am I'll have to stop staying up so late. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Cambridge Street-Longfellow. Woke up at 5am to change a diaper and managed to stay awake. Laced up my shoes at 5:30 and headed out for an easy, short run. Headed over the locks, up to Cambridge Street, across the river on Longfellow and then home. Felt great the whole way and ran early enough that the weather wasn't an issue. I decided that I'm going to try and get in some kind of serious exercise every day. Now that Nathan is in a bit of a routine, I can hopefully start fitting a run into the schedule. The days where I can't, I'll do core work, or lift after work or figure something else out. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Fells with Midge. Felt motivated to run this morning, so I put Midge in the car and drove over to the Fells. Ran with her on the leash for the first 7 minutes, then unclipped her and carried the leash the rest of the way. Nice morning, we didn't see anyone after the first 5 minutes, running mainly on the mountain bike trails. Turned around at 15 minutes and picked it up on the way home, making it back to the car in 13. Felt good the whole way, pretty hot by the end, though. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Absolutely dead tired today. Took a good nap in the afternoon, but spent most of the day in a haze of fatigue. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Busy day. My parents are in town and the whole day was pretty much booked solid. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Same old, same old. Tired when I got up, but even still, no real time in the day to run. Back to work for good today, no more breaks scheduled. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Visiting with Terry got me psyched up to try and join the new Tuesday am progression run, but I was so damned tired when I got up at 6:30 to change a diaper that I just went back to bed. I'm gradually getting used to the routine, but I'm still really tired first thing in the morning and it's upper 90s and really humid in the afternoons now. No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Charlestown Loop with Midge. I've been thinking that I'll get back to running at first by taking Midge out in the mornings, so this was something of a dry run. (That pun's for JMark.) Really hot out for just 8am, especially running down Medford right into the sun. Midge was okay for most fo the way, but threw on the brakes as usual around Eden Street. I feel bad dragging her behind me down Main Street, but she snaps out of it after a few blocks. Legs felt great after yesterday and my hip didn't bother me at all. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Olmsted from BU. Drove over to the BU Bridge and parked on Vassar. Got to the bridge early and had a few minutes to wait around before Will, Terry, Brian and Luke Meyer arrived. Somewhat surprised people were expecting me to go 2 hours today, I was planning on just 30-45 minutes. I felt awesome, naturally, all the little aches and pains from before Nate was born have gone away (for now.) We kept it easy (at least it felt easy) and headed out the usual route along the Riverway. Turned around at Olmsted after 20+ minutes and headed back to BU solo. After 30 minutes or so, my right hip started to tighten but didn't get too bad. I finished up back at my car in 45 minutes, including a short pick up down Vassar. Felt good to be back running, especially running with people. Hearing Harvey's plans to watch the fireworks in an inflatable boat was easily the highlight of the run. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Another day off, but I'm hoping to make the Sunday run tomorrow. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 More of the same. Day off. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Back to work today. Strange to get back to things after all the changes. I'm certainly getting the itch to start running again, but I still can't see any way it will fit into my schedule any time soon. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 I'm still really tired when I wake up, and even though the weather was gorgeous when I finally got up this morning there's no way I would have been able to run. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Slowly getting adjusted to waking up every 2 hours during the night, but it's pretty rough. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Another day off. Haven't even thought about running, though I've watched a lot of TiVo'd track with Nathan. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 Brought Nathan home today. Things are going great, but I'm certainly looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. A bit less sleep last night than Thursday. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. Pretty achy from sleeping on the pull out chair in the hospital room, but Nathan did a great job of sleeping most of the night. Another busy day. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 No running. Woke up this morning and things progressed quickly, Nathan was born at 11:04am. Busy day all around, a lot going on after he was born. http://log.shmk.org/postkid01.html#week00 A long, long day at the hospital. Woke up early for a walk with Kathryn and Midge, then was at MGH by 8:30am and things progressed slowly. I had no plans to run today and certainly had no opportunity.