ROLLING WEEK = 68M |
SEASON MILES = 2456 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 26 12/3-12/9 |
Disappointing week overall. I had done a lot of work over the summer and early fall and felt like I had gotten myself into great shape but just wasn't able to put things together at the race I had been focusing on. I'm looking forward to the end of classes, they really seemed to interfere at the worst possible times, but in a week or two I'll be done with that forever. The only thing to do now is to move on and pick out a new goal to shoot for. Hopefully I'll be running well enough this time next year to get another shot at Clubs. Last year was 41st and this year was 40th, at least I'm moving in the right direction. December Miles : 94 | 68 |
| Saturday | Club Nationals. 31:42 for 40th place. We got to the course about 1:15 before our race and had some time to sit around. Finding a spot to sit was tough because the ground was wet and muddy, but I was able to find a decent spot under the tent. Sean and I started warming up with 45 minutes to go and my legs were feeling a bit tired. I felt okay on the pickup at the end though and was expecting a good race. The women finished up their race and warned about the right hand turn 300m after the start. I lined up behind Pat and Mark and managed to get to the front of the race, probably a bit harder and faster than I should have. After the mile I found myself in a good spot, probably around 20-30th place and sat there through 5k. I felt like I was moving up and closing on Pat, but the stretch out and back from the horse track to the starting line just killed me and I put in a bad 2k stretch, not focused and just going backwards, before finally grabbing hold and racing one or two guys over the final mile and half. Disappointed in how things turned out, I was in a good position at 5k to move past 5-10 guys but instead fell back about 10 places. Cooled down 20+ minutes with JB, Josh and Sean then stopped at the ocean before heading home. | 11 |
| Friday | Club Nationals course at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. We drove out to Golden Gate Park around 12:30 today and put in two of the 4k loops to check out the course. Things are in pretty good shape, but it did start raining near the end of the run. I put in a good number of strides on the horse path then jumped in the van without much stretching. | 5 |
| Thursday | Reservoir plus Summit. I'm flying out to San Francisco this afternoon so I got a ride to campus this morning and ran from the lockerroom around 7. Things went pretty well, I kept the pace nice and relaxed the whole way, everything seems to be coming together at the right time. I didn't have much time after the run, I had a lot of stuff to finish up before leaving town. | 10 |
| Wednesday | Jamaica. I was planning on running Bunker Hill this morning but when I got started I opted for Jamaica instead. I was feeling pretty good, but was probably running pretty slow. Yesterday's snow made today's 40 degree temps much easier to handle. | 9 |
| Tuesday | 3x(600-200-400). 1:38, 29, 65; 1:42, 29, 65; 1:41, 29, 65. Decided I didn't feel like running this morning, so I didn't. MP emailed yesterday asking about moving the workout to 5:30 tonight, but I never heard any follow-up and assumed I'd be running alone. I warmed up over to the track planning on 4x800, 4x400, 4x200 but when I got there I discovered JB and Sean were just finishing up, since MP meant start the workout at 5:30, not the warmup. I hadn't run any strides but JB was going to run an extra 600, so I jumped in and trailed him. We came through in 65 which felt fast then he pulled away as I felt like I was tying up. That was a lot of speed to just jump into, but I used the 200m rest to get focused and put together a solid 200m, I felt really good running a 29. On the first quarter I got distracted and thought I was already running the next 600 and didn't realize until 150m in that I needed to pick it up. I hit 200m in 33 and then got rolling through the finish. I got out in 33 to start the next set but slowed on the second 200 coming through in 68 and really felt like I was forcing the rest of the way. The 200 felt great, it was easy to run fast, I got out really well for the 400, around 31-mid, but slowed again going to the line. The last set was basically the same, the 600m split the same way, the 200 felt quick and the 400 had a slow second half. I cooled down with a Science Museum loop, I was feeling pretty good, the workout went by pretty quickly and I had some pretty good speed. | 8 |
| Monday | Fresh Pond. Woke up and it was snowing today, which made for an interesting start to the run. It was huge snowflakes falling for the first half of the run, but at least the weather wasn't very cold. I got pretty well soaked by the time I hit the Pond, but the snow stopped and I was left with a wet shirt for the rest of the way. | 12 |
| Sunday | Walden with Nolan. We were supposed to meet up with Jake this morning, but he bailed so it was just Sean and I. Walden/Lincoln was a popular place today, we ran into Terry and Mark LaRosa early on and then Matt Ely near the end of the run. We kept the pace pretty conservative and put in 1:30 on the trails. It felt good to get the whole run in on soft surfaces, they really made it easy on Nolan's body since he kept falling. Starting to cut back to get ready for this coming weekend. | 13 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 25 11/26-12/2 |
Finally managing to get back on track mileage-wise. My hectic interview schedule has ended so things should get back to normal from here out. Running with Nick while I was back home really helped to jump start things again. I'm looking forward to cutting back this coming week and running fast at Club Nationals. I've done a lot of work to get ready for this. December Miles : 26 | 84 |
| Saturday | Docks backwards plus Old Ollie. Got out the door around 10am today and headed down Comm Ave to the Common then over to Southie. My left knee was bothering me a bit at the start, but once I got into it everything was loose and feeling good. I was thinking about running extra in Southie and coming back down Mass Ave, but I didn't bring my watch and had no idea how far that would wind up being, so I just climbed G Street then went back to the Harbor. | 13 |
| Friday PM | 5M tempo along the river. First 2.5M in 13:22, second 2.5M in 12:50. It was pouring rain when I left the lab and I was soaked by the time I got home. I actually was getting really excited about running, but I wound up eating a bit when I got home so I sat around until 6pm or so before finally getting started. I was worried about it being too dark along the river, but I didn't have any problems. I warmed up over to Mem Drive and then down to the mile mark after Longfellow. Took a few seconds walking around then just jumped right into it. I got out in 2:42 or so, but didn't catch any more splits until I turned around. I was feeling great on the warmup, my legs were really loose and turning over easily. I was running easily at the start and then around the Hatch Shell my legs really came around and I felt like I was running a bit faster. Kind of surprised when I was just 13:22 at the halfway point, I ran the next half mile in 2:38 and then really started hammering. I felt great the rest of the way, running fast without having to force anything. Hopefully that means things are coming together at the right time. Took a few minutes to catch my breath and then cooled down the 2M back home. I was pretty satisfied with how things went today, I would have liked the first half to be a bit faster, but I still averaged 5:20s on the way out and 5:08s on the way back. It was fairly windy today, it was in my face on the way from Science to Mass Ave but at my back on the second half of the run. The last stretch from Science to the finish was pretty bad, the wind really started blowing then. My thinking here was that I'd get in a hard effor similar to a Regionals race the week before Nationals, then a short and fast workout during next week and then be ready to go at Clubs. | 9 |
| Friday AM | Orange Line backwards. Everybody knows that whenever you get a chance to run in December without a shirt you have to take it. Temps were in the 60s when I woke up this morning, a very nice way to start the month. Nice and easy trip to the Common, planning on a hard effor this afternoon. | 4 |
| Thursday | Docks backwards with Fivos. Fivos wanted to run early before his flight to CA, so he came over to Clearway at 7:15 and we put in a nice easy trip around downtown. No watch again, just cruising and probably running fairly slowly. It's nice to have somebody to run with, though. Probably should have doubled up today, but I got home from a long day and just wasn't feeling it. At least I can chalk this up to tapering and not worry about it. November Miles : 351 | 9 |
| Wednesday | Fresh Pond. Running late again, but today's Kathryn's birthday and we're going out to dinner tonight, so I had to get the mileage in this morning. Not running very fast today, glad I didn't bring a watch. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Summit Ave. I guess I just wasn't feeling it today. I wasn't that excited about getting out the door, I finally dragged myself out for a shorter than normal run. Took Beacon to Summit so I got the long side climb in and coasted the rest of the way home. | 7 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line. Wasted a lot of time this morning and just ran out of time to run. Felt decent on the short one though. | 4 |
| Monday | Minuteman Trail with Fivos, Nolan and Yermie. Flew back to Boston this morning, so no time to run. I made plans to run at 5 with Sean and Fivos, then Fivos' meeting got cancelled and we moved the run up to 4pm. Yermie came with us and we headed up Mass Ave along the usual route. Got to the trail in 30:00 or so, we were running pretty slow, and the first mile on the path was about 7:15. We ran through Arlington Center to the second mile marker by Arlington HS and turned around at 46:00 or so. Didn't speed up much on the way back, another 7:00+ mile leaving the trail. Stopped for a quick pit stop on the way home, otherwise things went smoothly. Got burned by Fivos on some strides up on the indoor track then watched a few 400s as the team was going through testing. | 12 |
| Sunday | Lakefront then to Nicks then to Back Bay along the bike path then home. Nick ran over to my house this morning and we set out along the Lakefront again. Nick didn't feel like running along the bike path again, so we cut up LaFayette and then took Lake Drive back to Kensington and to Nick's house. I screwed up my watch, but Nick was at 70:00 when we stopped, so I figured I was at 64:00 then I went to the bike path planning to run down to LaFayette and come back along the Lake. That wound up being a bit longer than I anticipated though. I saw some mile marks painted on the bike path, I don't know if they're accurate but they had me running 6:40s. I left the bike path somewhere on Prospect and headed up to Lake Drive, which spit me out right at Back Bay park. The time and distance were getting pretty high, so I ran stopped just after Edgewood (after a 3:10 half) and ran a few strides to get home. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 24 11/19-11/25 |
Nice to be back at high mileage.November Miles : 293 | 93 |
| Saturday | 2x1600, 3x800, 4x400 in 4:46, 4:48; 2:18, :19, :18; 65, 66, 65, 64. Standard rest of 400m, 200m, 100m. I woke up around 8am and was out the door warming up at 8:30. I got to the track around 8:45 after running to Edgewood along Lake, down to Oakland, then to Capitol along Wilson. I was stretching out and Nick wasn't around, so I was thinking I might have to run alone, but he showed up as I was starting strides. We're in different places fitness-wise, so I wound up leading the whole workout. I got out comfortably, but too fast, coming through the first 400 in 69 before slowing to 73 for the next lap. Then I got things evened out and hit 3:34 and 4:46 for a pretty solid interval. I was feeling good and the rest went by pretty quickly. I was way too relaxed at the start of the second mile and came through in 74-2:26. I managed to get moving a bit after the slow first lap, hit 1200m in 3:48 and somehow managed to close with a 70. My legs were pretty tired at the end of that one, though. The 400m rest didn't really seem long enough and I was still feeling bad as we got into the 8s. I came through in 68 but then slowed on the second lap and hit just 2:18. On the second I decided to stay more relaxed through the first 400, coming through in 69, but then I wasn't able to speed up at all on the second lap, hitting just 2:19. Since it was almost 50 degrees by this point and I needed some help I decided to lighten the load by taking off my shirt. Since I'm obviously missing something and able to only close in 70, I just got out hard again on the third 800, hitting 68 again and then tying up, again. I was getting decently frustrated and angry at myself by this point, so I was looking forward to just running hard for the 400s. Got out in 32-mid as usual then slowed a bit coming to the line. Tried to run the next one "smoother" which translates to slower, it seems, coming through 200m in 33-low and working hard to finish. Then I went into full Nolan mode, got out in 31.9 on the third but still tied up a bit, then got out in 32.0 and managed to maintain the rest of the way. Nick and I jogged 800m on the track then he changed shoes and we ran down to River Park where we got on the bike path and took that back to his house. I added on 2M more by running home from Nick's. Not the greatest workout ever, I would have liked to run the miles a bit quicker and I really wanted to run the 800s a lot better. Haven't been able to run those well for a few weeks now and I'm starting to wonder why. Really happy with my turnover on the fours, though, seems like I'm getting a bit of speed at the right time. I don't normally complain about running surfaces, I pretty much just take whatever there is and it doesn't really bother me, but I really noticed how hard the track was today. The surface got put down over 10 years ago and hasn't really been maintained that well, so it took some getting used to. My shins were hurting at bit during the second mile, but either they stopped or I stopped noticing them, since they didn't cause a problem the rest of the workout. | 11 |
| Friday | Lakefront to the Art Museum, back along the bike path. I made plans last night to meet up with Nick for an easy 10M this morning, but slept through my alarm and woke up at 8am, right as he was heading out the door. That gave me 15 minutes to wake up and get ready, which I was kind of surprised that I was able to do. We kept things pretty relaxed today, it felt like we weren't pushing as much as we were yeseterday. We stayed on the west side of Lincoln and jumped on the bike path at the base of the hill below Juneau Park. We took that back to Wilson and dropped Nick off right around 70:00. I headed up Kensington to Lake and back home for a nice 67 or 68 minutes. I stretched out a little bit better this morning, my back stopped hurting but my right hip/IT doesn't feel quite right, which is probably what was causing the back pain in the first place. Nick and I were tossing around workout ideas for tomorrow, we're in slightly different stages of training and fitness, so we'll see what we're able to come up with. The mileage is high enough through today and Clubs is close enough that I decided not to double, I'd like to stay 90-95M, doubling would probably push this week closer to triple digits. Especially given the low volume of the last few weeks, that's not a place I should be going. | 10 |
| Thursday | Bender into Kletzsch, plus Snake Hill. I headed over to meet Nick at 9am today and we set off down Wilson on the standard route. Not much has changed around here, but it was nice to catch up with Nick and hear about his life in Rochester. We kept it conversational the whole way but it felt a bit faster than I've been running recently, I think we were running 6:20-6:30 down Lake Drive, but I didn't pay that much attention to it. The original plan was to turn around at Kenwood, but Nick convinced me to run down Lincoln Memorial and take Snake Hill back up. Finished up in 1:38, a really solid run, one of the better ones recently, and made plenty of room for turkey. Later in the day my lower back started aching, I think I probably didn't stretch out well enough and my hamstrings were tight. | 15 |
| Wednesday | Fresh Pond. Hell on square wheels. I waited until almost 8am to do this once since I started doing a little bit of work when I got up. Things haven't warmed up that much, still in the mid 30s. I was tired and sore from the start and just never got into the groove. Today felt like a 12 mile cooldown run and was about as enjoyable. To make matters worse, my stomach started acting up around Harvard Square, the only Port-A-John I saw was locked so the pace slowed even more back to Building 7. No watch on this one, so I can't say exactly how slow it was, but today was easily my worst run in a long time. I've stayed up late the past few nights doing work, so hopefully this holiday weekend will give me a chance to get my legs back under me. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | 4x800, 2x1600, 4x400 in 2:20, :20, :18, :17; 4:45, 4:44; 67, 66, 65+, 65. 2:00 rest between the 8s, 4:00 after the 16s, 1:00 after the 400s and 3:00 between sets. Things hadn't warmed up much from this morning, so I headed over to MIT in a long sleeve shirt and warmed up just 2M, running down to Next House along Mem Drive then cutting up to Vassar and heading to the track. It was just Sean and I today since most guys are racing on Thursday. Some brief stretching then the usual warmup lap and strides and we were ready to go. I was cautiously optimistic that today would turn out better than last week's debacle, but coming through the first 400m in 73 dashed those hopes. I was in the lead and managed to get my legs moving well enough on the second lap to more or less salvage things. Sean took the next 800, and even though we got out in 35 again, we came through in 74. We started picking things up and hit 66 on the next lap to manage a 2:20 again. I was contemplating scrapping the workout during the second 800, but lead the third one and brought us through in 69 and was able to maintain that on the next lap, so things were looking up. I was forced to take off the longsleeve shirt after the second 800, earlier than I wanted to, because I was starting to sweat and I didn't want to wait and then have to run in a wet t-shirt later in the workout. Sean lead the final half, getting us to 400m in 68 high and maintaining the rest of the way. Looking back on it my legs were feeling okay, I wasn't running all out and just going slow, I simply wasn't able to focus enough to run faster. I suggested to Sean we shoot for 4:50-4:52 on the miles, but as we were about to start them, MP told us to hit "low to mid 4:40s." I led the first one and got after it a bit, figuring my legs will either come around or they'll blow up. Split 70+, 2:22, 3:34, 4:45 feeling relaxed and cruising the whole way. My legs were pretty sore after that one and I really shuffled through the rest. Sean took us through the next one in 71, 2:23, 3:34, 4:44. I struggled to stay with him throughout, it felt like he'd surge across the line at the end of each straightaway and I was playing catch-up through the curve. I was on him at 900m telling myself to just relax and hang, but at 1k he put a small gap on me and I had to really work the last lap to bring him back. The first 400m after 4:00 rest is always fun, I got us out in 32.5 and then rigged the rest of the way to the line. sean got us out the same on the second 400, but I was a step or two behind him at 200m and then he broke the rules by not slowing down on the second 200 and finished a second ahead of me. I was thinking about telling him to just lead the rest if he wanted to keep running fast, since I didn't feel like I could maintain through a 400, but then decided to just man up and do it. We got out in 32.5 again and I managed to keep things together through 350m before I started feeling my form fall apart. Sean led the last one so I was able to just sit on him through 300m then move up next to him down the final straight. We put clothes back on and starting cooling down pretty quickly, no longer warm enough to hang around chatting after the workout. We ran the customary Science Loop pretty slowly, my stomach was killing me by the time we got to Mass Ave, so I wound up walking part of the way home. My legs were pretty shot by the end of the day, but I got a nice dinner of pasta with a salad, so hopefully I'll be feeling recovered tomorrow. Given the way things started out, today could have gone a lot worse. I'm still not able to get myself running fast/hard, but it feels like today was a step in the right direction. | 11 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line. I woke up expecting a nice and easy shakeout since the workout is tonight, but wasn't expecting to be greeted by 31 degree temps. I guess the nice weather is starting to leave and it's time for long sleeve shirts. The run itself went fine, short and sweet. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Reservoir. Fivos and I got a late start tonight, so we headed out on Commonwealth in the dark. I was feeling pretty good and we kept the pace pretty quick the whole way. We've each been flying all over the place for interviews, Fivos a lot more than me, so each of us appreciated running in Boston with somebody else. We climbed up Summit pretty hard, I haven't been doing much in the way of hill climbing recently. We hit the Reservoir and it was way too dark to head down to the path, so we took the old route around the Reservoir. On the way back we made a quick stop at a Port-A-John by Vinny T's, but other than that we kept things moving. Finished up with some strides and stretching on the indoor track before calling it a (long) day. | 10 |
| Monday AM | Longfellow-BU. Normally I'd be going longer this morning, but I'm planning on meeting Fivos for a run this afternoon, so I got to keep it short. It's definitely starting to cool off, temps were probably down in the upper 30s when I took off this morning. My legs were feeling pretty good once I got started, I switched to a new pair of shoes yesterday and all the aches and pains have pretty much disappeared. | 6 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. I got up around 8am after sleeping nearly 9 hours but waited until 9:15 or so to get started. I felt pretty good from the beginning but tried to keep things easy on the way out to the Arboretum. No watch so I'm not sure whether I was running fast or not. It was a nice, crisp day, great fall weather. Temps were in the mid 40s so I was able to run in just a t-shirt still. I didn't really get tired on the way home, I was a bit leery about what would happen once I left the Arboretum, since 14M is unfortunately a bit longer than I've been going recently. I kept it pretty steady over the final few miles, no big pick-up today. Kathryn and I walked over to Kate's in the afternoon to watch the Packers get their butts kicked in High Definition, and I started getting pretty sore on the walk home. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 23 11/12-11/18 |
Not a great week mileage-wise and the only hard effort didn't go that well, either. The early part of the week was trying to adjust and catch up from travelling to Oracle and the later part of the week was in Madison interviewing with Epic, but all that's over with now. School work has been picking up steadily but I feel like I'm starting to get ahead of the curve and hopefully will be able to start catching up on sleep. Thursday's workout was a big disappointment, my legs were heavy the whole time, I wasn't able to get in a groove and I wasn't able to maintain a fast pace on tired legs. November Miles : 200 | 83 |
| Saturday | Jamaica. I woke up around 9 this morning, but after eating a few pretzels, paying some bills and helping Kathryn clean up a little, it was after 10:15 before I started running. Normally that wouldn't be an issue, but I had to be ready to start dog-sitting around noon and didn't want to be late. I kept things short today since I didn't have much time, but I made sure to get the most that I could out of the run today. I haven't been feeling too good recently and today I just let my legs dictate things for the first 20-25 minutes. When I got to the Pond I started picking things up, but the pace slowed back down when I hit the trails after the Pond. Once I got to the Riverway, however, I sped back up and kept things fast back to Clearway. Glad to finally start feeling better, hopefully now that things are going back to normal and I'm sleeping more. Not quite the mileage I was looking for, but hopefully I'll just wind up being more rested and able to get the mileage back where it should be starting tomorrow. | 9 |
| Friday | Picnic Point in Madison. I consulted the WI running braintrust (Jacobson, Wollmer and Chandler) and the consensus was to head out along Lake Mendota to Picnic Point. I got up at 5am and started the run at 5:40. Temps were down in the low 30s though, and it was still dark, so today was the first day in longsleeves. I ran up to the Capitol then down State Street to Medota where I picked up the path. It took a few minutes for my eyes to get adjusted and to get comfortable running on the path in the dark. There were a few gravel sections, but it was packed fairly hard and not much softer than asphalt. I got to Picnic Point but it was still dark and it looked pretty woodsy and I didn't feel like risking it. So I continued on the bike path until I hit Shorewood Hills, wandered around those streets for a bit and then headed back to Picnic Point. I put in about 15:00 on the trails there, then headed over to see the UW track, site of the only sub 4:00 effort on Wisconsin soil. The gates were locked so I wasn't able to run a lap, I just headed back to the hotel, picking things up gradually as back to State Street. I relaxed over the final 10 minutes though, my legs were getting sore and my stomach wasn't that great and I didn't feel like forcing anything. Things really haven't really been going that great recently, but this is my last recruiting trip, so hopefully once my life gets back to normally things will start to fall in place runningwise, too. | 12 |
| Thursday | 6x800, 4x400 in 2:20, :22, :19, :20, :20, :20; 67, 66, 68, 65. I got a ride to campus, started warming up around 7:05 and met Sean at 7:30 for this one. My legs were feeling pretty heavy during strides and Sean wasn't feeling that great, so I didn't come in with very high expectations. Sean led the first one, we got out in 34+ and I was fighting to hang on. I eventually managed to latch on with him but missed the 400m split, I assume we ran pretty even the whole way, though. I led the second one, we got out in 70+ and I had a small gap on Sean which turned into a big lead even though I slowed on the second lap. Sean decided to call it a day then, so I was on my own the rest of the way. I got out fairly well on the third one, coming through in 69, but then slowed on the next lap. I kept thinking my legs would come around, but they never really did. I got out in 70, 71 and 70 and never really managed to put it together for a full 800m. The quarters were a little bit better, I got out in 33+ and 32.9 for the first two, but then got too relaxed and got out in 34.5 for the third. I finally managed to put together a solid interval on the last one, getting out in 32-mid, surging around the curve and hammering through the line. Still, it was far too hard of an effort for just a 65. Pretty disappointing workout, not quite sure why I was dragging today. Sean had been jogging around the track while I finished the workout and he didn't want to go another 4M, so I cooled down with a Science Museum loop before stretching out briefly and getting breakfast. I flew to Madison in the afternoon for an interview tomorrow and didn't have any time to run once I got there. | 10 |
| Wednesday | Fresh Pond. I got up and put in twelve easy miles this morning, I got out the door right around 7am and was feeling pretty good. No watch on this one, so I kept things easy and probably was going pretty slow. I was planning on doubling today, but I spent the afternoon out in Burlington interviewing with Oracle again. By the time I got home I was pretty tired and hungry since I didn't really have lunch, so I just made dinner and stayed home. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line to Freedom Trail, back along Charles Street. No workout this morning but I didn't really feel like running long so I kept things short. I ran down the Orange Line to the Common where I met up with the Freedom Trail. I followed that all the way to Old North Church and down the hill to the Charlestown Bridge. Instead of crossing over I headed back past the Fleet Center to Cambridge Street then back along Charles Street. The run wound up being around 45 minutes, my legs were kind of sore the whole way and over the last 20 minutes I really had to take a leak. No strides at the end of this one, not the greatest day. | 7 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line. MP wasn't going to be able to make it to Wednesday practice, so there was talking of running it tonight. I kept it short and sweet this morning in case the workout winds up happening. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Fresh Pond. I met Jake in the lockerroom at 4:15 to put in some miles with the nationals qualifier. It was raining but not that cold, so I naturally took the shirt off. It was a bit dark going around the Pond, but we didn't run into any problems. I was feeling alright, the pace was a bit quicker than I've been running recently but it didn't affect my legs that much. The run went by pretty quickly, as they always seem to do when I get somebody to run with. I put my shirt back on when we got to MIT so I could warm up a bit, then we ran some strides on the indoor track and my legs managed to hang with the young gun, more or less. We stretched out a bit and talked to Coach before the track team got into their conditioning. Pretty good day, aside from riding home in the pouring rain afterwards. | 10 |
| Monday AM | Science Museum. I forgot to set my alarm last night so I wound up sleeping until almost 7am. I got out the door around 7:40 and headed down to the river. I kept it short this morning since I'm meeting up with Jake this afternoon for a longer one, so sleeping in wasn't a big deal. I felt pretty good, kept things slow and no watch, but my legs were feeling pretty fresh. Finished up with a handful of strides down Clearway, still have some pop in the legs. | 5 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. I woke up about 9:30 this morning but didn't start my run until 11:30 or so. It started raining between the time I left the apartment and got to the street, but I was too lazy to go back upstairs and take off my shirt. I regretted that laziness pretty quickly as it started pouring before I even got to Landmark Center. So 10 minutes into the run my shirt was wet, heavy and cold, and doing me absolutely no good. Outside of that things went pretty well today. I was just running easy and didn't take a watch with me, so however my legs felt is how I ran. The only rough part was climbing the hill in the Arboretum by the railroad tracks since it was so muddy and slippery. It had stopped raining about half an hour into the run and by the time I left the Arboretum I had pretty much dried off. However, the intersection at Park Drive and Longwood was completely flooded and I had to wade through a puddle up to my knees, which was freezing cold and pretty uncomfortable. On the whole my legs felt pretty good, even though I was running easy I haven't been going this far recently and was expecting things to get rough after 10M or so. Hopefully I can put together a full, solid week, which I haven't been able to recently. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 22 11/5-11/11 |
November Miles : 117 | 80 |
| Saturday | Out and back along some water behind Oracle. I woke up pretty early this morning, but I didn't get out the door until 6:30 to let ths sun rise. It was about 50 degrees and slightly raining when I left, not too bad for running. The path ran for a long time along some body of water, some sections were paved and other were crushed gravel. I kept things easy on the way out, turned around at 42:00 and made it back in about 40:00. I was feeling good most of the way, but my legs started getting tired over the final 10 minutes. I picked things up as I got closer and put in 1:00-2:00 of uptempo at the very end. I was forcing things most of the way but managed to relax a bit and my legs came around a little bit. | 12 |
| Friday | El Camino Real. I got up about 6am and was running by 6:40 this morning. I didn't have a lot of time to work with since I had to be at Oracle to start interviewing at 9am, but I managed to put in a solid hour of running. I felt pretty good at the start but kept things easy since I didn't really feel like hammering. I had looked at Google Maps and saw some large parks in San Carlos, but wasn't sure of the distance to those parks. I ran from the Hotel Sofitel up to Marine Parkway and over Hwy 101 then down Ralston to El Camino Real. I went left on Camino and spent the majority of the run there. About 22 minutes in I got to Brittan and turned right, which I took all the way to Alameda and turned at just over half an hour. The watch said I sped up a little bit on the way back, but nothing which was noticeable to me. I had thought about getting in a second run after my interviews, but it was a long day and it was dark out and things around here aren't very well lit, so I just went to dinner with Imran. | 9 |
| Thursday | Fast-ish run along the Charles. I had Kathryn give me a ride to campus early this morning since I'm going straight from class to the airport. I changed in the lockerroom and then realized I had no ideas about where to go. I decided to try and get a bit of a hard effort in so I ran down to the starting point of the 10M route along the river that I ran over the summer with Terry, et al. That was only half a mile, so my plan was 2 easy miles as warmup and then 8M hard, with "hard" rather poorly defined. I started out with 7:20 and 7:00 before speeding up. It had rained all yesterday so the path was wet and it was foggy/misting out, so althogether it was fairly wet weather. I dropped down to low 6:00s and stayed there through the 5M turnaround. Heading back my legs started to come around and the fast pace started feeling easier, so I managed to drop to 5:45-5:40-5:40, but then slowed over the final 2 miles to 5:50-5:55. Not quite what I was hoping for this morning, but I'll chalk it up to unpreparedness and the early morning. Finished up with a few strides on the turf then showered and headed to my Raytheon interview. I flew out to CA to interview at Oracle later in the day and by the time I got to the hotel it was dark out and there wasn't anywhere which looked good for running, so I got dinner and went to bed. | 11 |
| Wednesday | Jamaica. The weather was actually pretty nice today, from a temperature standpoint. It was warm and even though it was raining a bit the running was good this morning. I headed out to Jamaica and my legs were doing alright, didn't do anything ridiculous, just put in some easy mileage. I decided yesterday not to run the workout tonight since my legs were trashed for the past two days, although I felt good enough this morning to think I could have run the workout. I had a phone interview with Google at 6:30, though, so I couldn't have gone, anyways. After the interview was over it was 7:15, dark and rainy and I was pretty tired, so I just called it a day and made a frozen pizza for dinner. | 9 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. Just the usual stuff, feeling pretty junky the whole way. Right around the Public Gardens I got extremely tired, just one of those things where I stop at a light and once I start up again my legs are heavy and my head feels disconnected from my body. I finished up with a pickup down Clearway which actually felt pretty fast and hopefully smoked things out a bit. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. Got started around 7:30 this morning and was feeling okay for the first few minutes. Once I got past the BU Bridge, though, things started going south. Nothing was that rough, but climbing Summit took a bit out of me and the rest of the run was just long. I haven't been able to find a good rhythm since Sunday, I feel like I'm forcing things if I try to run fast and I feel like I'm just crawling if I run how my legs feel. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Harvard Square with Yuval and Sean. Yuval's in town for a conference so I met up with him and Sean and we ran the 4M Harvard Square loop, since nobody had any bright ideas on where to run. I was feeling okay, but it was short and slow so no real way to gauge where my legs are at. We finished up with some stretching on the track, but that was more just sitting around telling jokes. Felt like it was 2002 again. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. My legs felt horrible today, the whole run was hell on square wheels. I was tired and sore from the start and things just got worse as the run went along. I didn't think yesterday was that hard, maybe not taking my usual post-race nap screwed things up. Anyways, I felt like death coming back along the Riverway but somehow managed to get home. What can you do? | 9 |
| Sunday | USATF New England Champs. 30:57 for 6th place. Warmed up 2M with Sean and Yuval and some of the BAA guys. I was feeling decent, but mentally was expecting today to suck since I didn't sleep much at the end of last week. Got out in the front and led through the first mile with Pat, controlling the pace and hit an easy 4:48. I surged a bit on the downhill before Bearcage but didn't run the hill well and found myself at the back of the lead group. I managed to cover Miller's move at 2M but fell off the pack at 3M. The gap grew slowly over the second 5k, I managed to latch onto Miller and we ran together through 9.6k then he kicked away. Definitely not my greatest run, too many negative thoughts and I just took myself out of it by expecting to get dropped. In actuality, nobody was blazing today and I could have easily stayed in the lead pack had I been a bit tougher mentally. Finished up with 3M around the course with Sean and Ferenc then some stretching and joking around with Sean and Yuval. Disappointed in how things went today, I feel like I'm wasting all the effort I put in over the summer. I need to get things turned around and put together a good one at Clubs. | 11 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 21 10/29-11/4 |
Not the greatest week. Put in a good long run in DC on Sunday but then my knee started acting up so I took Monday off. I ran easy on Tuesday and then put in a pretty quick workout on Wednesday. However, starting Wednesday night I managed to get just 3-4 hours of sleep until the weekend, so I was really dragging ass by the end of the week. October Miles : 37 | 63 |
| Saturday | Orange Line. I spent the whole day working and ran out of time to get the run in. I put in a quick four bomb and felt pretty good, especially given the recent lack of sleep. I finished up with a few easy strides down Clearway. We'll see how things go tomorrow. | 4 |
| Friday | Castle-Bunker Hill. Same deal as yesterday, up until 3am or so working on 6.828 and then I woke up at 6:30am. Headed out to Castle-Bunker Hill and kept things pretty easy. They've still got the monument closed off, it was supposed to open September 1, then November 1 and now April 4. I'm really tired and pre-occupied from all this work, just trying to squeeze in the mileage when I can. | 10 |
| Thursday | Jamaica. I was up late doing school work last night and only got about 3 hours of sleep. My legs were pretty tired from the combination of the workout yesterday and not much sleep last night. I got things loosened up eventually and the run wound up being not so bad. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | 3x(400-800-400). Roughly 68, 2:18, 67; 66, 2:15+, 66; 65, 2:13, 64. I warmed up over to MIT and ran into Sean at the bridge. He turned off at Vassar and I ran the 2M warmup loop backwards to make it a 3M warmup. Stretched out a bit on the track then put in some strides to loosen up. I was looking to get my legs turned over and put in some speed. I got out behind JB through 200m then got up alongside and picked things up slightly to the finish. I led the 800, we didn't get out too quickly but managed to speed up on the second lap. I led the next quarter, got out a bit slow through 200m and had to put in a hard last 100m. The 3:00 rest between sets was more than enough, put in an easy lap jog and toed the line with fresh legs again. I got out behind Sean and we covered the lap pretty easily. I took the 800 and it was split more evenly than last time. Sean took the next 400 and we cruised to the line together. The 3:00 rest got me fully recovered and things got kind of crazy on the first quarter of the last set, I got out in 31-mid with Sean right behind me, then we backed off and cruised to the line. My legs were kind of trashed after that one, but I got out behind Sean, went around at 600m and drove pretty hard to the finish. I took the last 400m, we got out a bit more respectably but finished pretty hard. Solid workout today, I got my legs turned over really well and I'm feeling really good about this weekend. Cooled down with Sean on a Science Museum loop to finish off the day. | 10 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. Nice and easy trip to the Common to get loosened up for tonight's workout. Not much going on. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Fresh Pond. October Miles : 370 | 12 |
| Monday | Took the day off to give my knee a chance to recover. Kathryn and I flew home this morning, got home around 11:30 and had class from 12:30 to 2pm. I was planning on running, but on the bike ride to and from campus my left knee was really killing me. It was hurting going up and down stairs, and standing up out of chair, right around my kneecap/patellar tendon. So I decided to just take a day, stretch/foam roll, ice and ibuprofen and hope I'm feeling better tomorrow. | 0 |
| Sunday | Wandered around DC this morning. I got started by 5:20 this morning, despite the end of daylight savings time it was dark for the first hour or so of the run. I was just going to run on the bike trail by the hotel, then decided I'd try to follow the Marine Corps course. Of course, I had no idea where the course went, so I ran up Wilson to the Courthouse area then back down to the Rosslyn metro stop. I found the finish area and jogged around there for a bit before going back to the hotel and crossing over Key Bridge into Georgetown. Whatever street I wound up on became Pennsylvania Avenue and I rode that all the way down to the White House. It was pretty cool to all of the sudden wind up next to the White House in the early morning. I went to the Mall, ran down to the Lincoln Memorial and thought about going up to Congress, but decided I didn't have enough time. I headed back to Key Bridge the way I came and finished up right around 1:40. I had hoped to put in 15M this morning, but just ran out of time. I got home, showered and then headed down to the start of the marathon with Kathryn. I ran with her at a few different spots, not for very long, but my left knee was getting really tight and painful. I was pretty wiped out by the afternoon and took a nap during the late football games. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 20 10/22-10/28 |
October Miles : 344 | 88 |
| Saturday | O&C Canal Path in Washington, D.C. After some problems with our flight Kathryn and I got down to D.C. around 11am and were checked in around noon. Kathryn went to lunch with her parents and Ashley while I laced up my shoes. Brewer recommended I hit the Canal, which was great advice. After crossing the Key Bridge I was right on the canal and it was crushed gravel the whole way. I took my time at the start and things were pretty slow, just trying to work out the kinks after sitting in the airport and on the plane. I started noticing mile markers about 35:00 into the run and confirmed that I was running 7:00 pace. I turned around right at 45:00 and kept things easy for the next few miles. I haven't run longer than 10-12M in awhile and was expecting things to get rough as the miles wore on. Coming back I was 7:00 and 6:50, then dropped down to 6:35, 6:35, 6:25 for the last 3M along the canal. I waited until 66:00 into the run to start picking it up, and my legs were pretty shot at just 6:30 pace. I didn't force anything, just kept the pace fast but under control. Finished up with an easy 5:00 from the path back across the Key Bridge to the hotel and then some plyos in the parking lot to try and loosen up my dead quads. | 13 |
| Friday | Run to Remember course. I wasn't too excited about the 35 degree temps this morning, but I got out the door and got going by 7:30. I wanted to keep things short this morning since I had an interview at 10am on campus. My legs were feeling okay at the start, but about a mile into the run I got really tired for some reason. Heading through Downtown Crossing my legs started feeling better again and the rest of the run was easy and relaxed. I managed to get by in just shorts, tshirt and gloves, but thankfully it looks like the weather is going to warm up slightly over the next week. And the end of daylight savings time will actually help me out by letting the sun rise a bit more than normal. I got home from the lab in the afternoon and was just dragging, so once I got home and sat down I decided not to run again. | 7 |
| Thursday | 2x1600, 2x800, 4x400 in 4:48,4:47; 2:17, 2:18; 65, 65, 66, 66, taking the standard 400m, 200m, 100m rest. Sean is getting soft; he pushed the workout back to 7:30am and cut us back from the much nicer sounding 2x16, 3x8, 4x4. I started warming up at 6:45 this morning, headed across the bridge then ran the 2M loop backwards for a 24 minute jog. I was feeling good at the start but as I was running down Albany my legs got really tired and heavy for no apparent reason. I took my time stretching out then hit the Port-A-John and ran some strides with Sean and Fivos before being ready to start at 7:30am. Sean led the first mile, we got out in 72 and then worked the second lap to get down to 2:23, but it felt like we were working a lot harder than that. We hit 1200 at 3:35 and 1400 in 4:12 then I went around Sean at the top of the homestretch and finished a step ahead. I wasn't feeling all that great, the wind was blowing down the backstretch and it was starting to feel like today was going to be a long day. I took us out in 73-2:24 then ran a slow third lap and really had to bust my ass on the last lap just to get back to 4:48. I was glad the miles were over and was focused on hitting two good halves, which were the real focus of the workout for me. I think Sean summed things up though, after the second mile, responding to my comments on the wind with "When you're tired, you're tired." He took us out pretty quick through 200m then I went around him at 300m and came through in 67high. I really started to tie up despite my best efforts and had to regroup for a strong last 100m to save a decent time. I led the second 800 and had a slow second 200m, coming through in 69. I had to fight to get my legs going and keep Sean from running away and managed to salvage the interval somewhat. Starting the 400 was a real shock, I had to put in a second effort 10m off the line to get back on Sean's ass. I ran behind him through 250m and pulled away to the line, and would have been content to call the workout right there. Instead we made the most of the short 100m rest and lined up for the second one. I led us through fairly even, fighting the wind to a 33 and then hammering the homestretch to just dip below 65. Sean took the third and it was more of the same, getting out fast and then I passed him on the curve. I led the final one but got out too slow for Sean's liking. I closed hard and ran a decent time, but Sean wasn't happy with the slow early pace. I was tired, what can I say? We all cooled down with a Science Loop, my legs were more dead after this workout than they've been in a long time. I can't really say how much of an impact (if any) the wind had, none of us really had good legs today, and even with still weather I doubt it would have been a quick one. The highlight of the morning was the homemade breakfast sandwich once I finally got home. I wound up going to a software company's open house in Kendall Square at night and didn't put in a second run. | 11 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. A wonderful 40 degree morning greeted me when I started the run at 7:30am. First day wearing gloves, although I'm still getting by wearing a TShirt. Once I got over the bridge I was feeling good, into the run and the temperature wasn't a big deal. I got to Sommerville pretty easily, but at the bottom of Prospect Hill I noticed my legs weren't feeling so fresh. I relaxed and kept things slow the rest of the way, managed to climb Bunker Hill easily enough, didn't try to force anything. Not a bad run this morning, my legs eventually came around, or I slowed down enough for them not to bother me. The first few days in the cooler weather are always great for running, I'm not sure that I'll still feel that way in the middle of January. | 10 |
| Tuesday PM | Franklin Park. Drove the team out to the park at 4pm so they could run their Wilderness Relays. Craig, Bruce and I wandered around for maybe half an hour before Bruce turned off to watch the whole workout. Craig and I continued on to 45 minutes in order to put in a solid 6M, then Craig continued on a little bit more. We went up Bearcage twice, once forwards and once backwards, and my legs were feeling good the whole time. I ran a few strides on the stretch from 2M to the Wilderness starting line and was feeling pretty good. Spent another half an hour watching the workout and was pretty cold by the time they finished. My left hamstring is still pretty tight, but otherwise things are okay. | 6 |
| Tuesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I slept in a bit later than normal, so I was out the door just after 7:30 this morning. My legs were feeling better than yesterday and my left hamstring wasn't bothering me that much. I kept things slow the whole time, didn't bring a watch with me today. The only part I ran hard was climbing up Summit, but I didn't blast away at that, just picked up the effort a little bit. Everything else was just slow and easy. My right hip has started hurting a bit again, I guess that means it's time to re-focus on the foam roller. It seems like I say that every other month. Not much else to write, but I'm driving the team out to Frankling this afternoon, so today will probably wind up being a bit longer than normal. Sean and I have finalized the workout for Thursday morning, 2x1600-2x800-4x400, more on that when it happens. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. We started around 5:45 today, kept things nice and easy the whole way. My legs are still feeling a lot better than last week, which is great. My left hamstring was really sore at the start, but eventually loosened up. Coming out of the Common and into the Public Garden my left calf started getting sore and felt like it was going to cramp. It bothered me the rest of the way, which wasn't cool, but didn't get any worse. Hopefully it was just a fluke. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Fresh Pond. Wasn't feeling that great today, yesterday's race was still in my legs. I was sore and tired from the start, especially my left hamstring. I didn't bring a watch today, just let my legs do what they wanted. Things felt pretty slow the whole way, coming back past MIT I felt like I was forcing things so I slowed down some more. Even though my legs felt like crap today, it was one of my better runs recently. I wasn't looking for ways to avoid starting this morning (I was running by 7:15am) and I felt natural running again, my legs weren't out of whack like they were last week. I'm looking at today as a step in the right direction after I was all discombobulated last week. | 12 |
| Sunday | Mayor's Cup. 24:44 for 22nd place. I got out up front and came through the mile in the back of the front pack in 4:38 then slowly slid back a couple of spots going at Bearcage. I slowed way too much, coming through 2M in 9:49, then basically maintained where I was over the final 3M. Had to throw in a big kick from before the backstop trying to hold of Mark Miller, but he went past about 10m from the finish. Cooled down 3M with Sean, Josh and Mark, then ran a few strides trying to get loosened up. My legs were decent today, I think I was ready for the fast first mile and could have handled it, but I wasn't ready to hang in immediately following the mile split, and the stretch from 1600 through 2k pretty much decided things. I managed to hang on decently well, despite the fast start. I think in previous years I would have fallen apart a lot more, but I managed to basically maintain and hold my position on tired legs. When I ran 24:44 at All New Englands my sophomore year I was out in 4:44-9:53 but had a big push through the second Wilderness and hit 4M in 20:01. This year I was 4-5 seconds faster through 2M, but wasn't able to make a push this time. I had hoped things would go better, but now it's time to get ready for New Englands in 2 weeks. Hopefully going out a bit smoother through the first mile, not necessarily slower, can get me to 8k in 24:45 feeling ready to move. Time for more consistency on running strides and some shorter intervals to get comfortable with the pace. | 10 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 19 10/15-10/21 |
Not such a great week. All of the travelling last week seemed to knock my legs out of whack and I never got to where I was feeling good. I managed to put together a good workout on Wednesday though, mixed a bit of speed with some steadier pace work and thought that might jump start things. Just coasted through the rest of the week but never got to feeling good. Maybe should have started running strides a bit earlier than Saturday. October Miles : 256 | 85 |
| Saturday | Run to Remember course. Got started around 10am and my legs were feeling a bit better. Didn't take a watch today, just ran by feel. The weather is steadily getting cooler around here, but with the sun up things weren't too bad. Finished up with a few strides on Clearway, I was forcing things too much and didn't ever get into a groove. | 7 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line. I got home from lab and sat around for a bit before leaving for a short shakeout. The skies were a bit dark and the weather was talking about a big storm moving in, but it seemed pretty tame when I got started. My legs were feeling tired and a little bit out of whack. Coming down Comm Ave the skies opened up and poured really hard for a minute or tow, but nothing too serious. Hopefully things come around by Sunday and I start feeling a bit better. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Docks backwards. Feeling pretty good at the start today, temps were in the 60s but there was a mist throughout most of the run. Not much happened today, the run actually went by very quickly. Actually was kind of boring this morning. | 9 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. I got home from lab around 4:30 and we got started more or less right away. Nice and relaxed the whole time, my legs were feeling a bit tired, still not quite back in the swing of things after all of last week's travelling. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | 2x(800-2000-800) in 2:17-6:14-2:17; 2:18-6:13-2:17. 1:30 rest after 800m, 3:00 after 2k, 3:30 between sets. I warmed up over to campus, down past Next House then up to Vassar and back to the track. Stretched out a bit and talked to MP and Jared, then put in another lap and a few strides. I wasn't feeling that good on the warmup jog, but had a good rhythm going from the start of the strides and was feeling pretty quick. Jason took the lead on the first 800 and even though it felt like we were really hammering at the start we came through in just 69.5, then things picked up and we got the second lap moving. The rest went by pretty quickly, just under 200m then I took the lead for the 2k. I was thinking 3:05-3:10 per 1k, but wasn't sure how that broke down to 400m splits, so after trying to figure that out for the first 200m, I just decided to settle into 75s. Wound up running 75-2:29-3:44-4:59-6:14, pretty comfortable and even the whole way. It felt like I got a little gap halfway through, but JB closed the up as we went into the last lap. Took a lap rest then went to the lead for the 800. Felt like we got out hard but only came through in 69, then worked the 3rd 200 pretty hard and finished side by side with JB. Crossed the line and went straight to the Port-A-John, where the rest between sets was spent, unfortunately. Settled in behind JB on the first 800, I came up next to him down the straight and hit 400m in 69. I didn't have the legs to go around, so I tucked back in behind JB and we rode around to the finish. JB led the first 1k of the 2k, we were 75-2:30 then I went to lead down the backstretch to 1k. Came through 1200m in 3:36-3:37 and had to kick it down a bit from there. Started working a little bit more and came through the mile in 4:59 then found a good rhtyhm and cruised the last lap in 74. Led the last 800, the first 200m was a little relaxed and pretty comfortable, then JB came up alongside and we started really hammering. Hit 400m in 68.8 and I had to work around the curve to stay out front. Managed to find a bit of a rhythm the rest of the way, but was breathing pretty heavy at the end and my legs were pretty shot. Talked a bit with MP, who told me that Webb's racing Mayor's Cup this weekend, then cooled down on the 2M loop with J-Mark and Matt Carter and headed home. Today went pretty quick and was relatively painless, tried to find an easy rhythm on the 2k and simulate the middle of an 8k-10k race. Switching gears from interval to interval was hard, and it feels like I don't have much speed in my legs right now anyways. I think this workout was pretty much what I was hoping for today, got my legs moving a bit without working too hard. I ran a few strides down Clearway when I got back, but started getting some tightness in my left hamstring, up by the top of my femur. I cut the strides short, walked a bit and then went upstairs to stretch out. Finished off the night with some chicken and rice soup, salad and bread. | 10 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. Just a nice little shake out this morning. Nothing too fast or very hard, wasn't feeling that great but the run was too short to really get into it. Weather was a little bit warmer this morning, which made things nice. Finished up with a quick stride down Clearway. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | Grass Loops. The plan was an easy 4M before the team started their workout, but I left the lab late and then the fire alarm was going off at the Z Center and I had to wait 5-10 minutes before I was able to start. I ran a couple grass loops, debating between 3 and 4M, eventually convinced myself to run 4M but had to cut things short to get back to a toilet, wound up being just 23:30 this afternoon. | 3 |
| Tuesday AM | Fresh Pond. Got out the door before 7:30 this morning, temperatures were a bit cooler, down in the 40s at the start. I wasn't running very hard today, struggling to feel good, just feeling a bit out of sorts. I clocked the half mile at the Pond in 3:35 and kept things steady the rest of the way home. Finished up just under 80 minutes today, the route's got to be a bit short. Not feeling so great recently, trying to remind myself that I've still got the legs that ran 50:38 for 10M at 6x4:45 recently, even thought they're not feeling like that now. It feels a bit like Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smiley. | 12 |
| Monday | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 18 10/8-10/14 |
October Miles : 171 | 69 |
| Saturday | Lakefront Path in Chicago. 60:00. | 9 |
| Friday | Treadmill at Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | Short workout along the river. 1/2M in 2:45, 4x2:00, 1M in 5:15. | 7 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Wednesday | Travel. | 0 |
| Tuesday | Seattle morning run. | 5 |
| Monday | Arboretum. | 14 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. I woke up about 7:45 this morning after 9 good hours of sleep, but didn't get started until about 8:45. I was feeling good and running pretty quick from the start, I ran the mile from Royal Sonesta to MIT in 6:30, still relaxed and just letting my legs dictate the pace. Crossing Mass Ave I ran into Jake, who was just starting, so we ran together out to Arsenal, where he turned off. The pace was considerably slower with Jake, he had the post race shuffle going, which is probably a good thing. I didn't need to be out hammering an 18 miler this morning, which is definitely what would have happened. We kept it probably 6:45-7:15 the whole way, slow at the start and built into it, just talked the whole way, disecting what happened at All New Englands yesterday and making predictions about the rest of their season. I picked the pace back up when Jake left and made the turn at 68:45. I made it back to Arsenal, which is roughly 2M in 13:10, but then my legs started getting a bit more tired. Just coasted back to JFK, River, Western etc. but the pace must have stayed a bit quick still. I ran the final mile along in river in 6:10 and was 1:51:42 for the 17.1M along the river, pretty much 6:30 pace even with the stretch with Jake. All in all a solid effort out there this morning, 1:59.30 for 18M. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 17 10/1-10/7 |
A pretty solid mileage week, got things started off with a good race out in Harvard, a whole lot faster for ten miles than I anticipated. I took my time after that race, though, just some easy mileage days to let my legs recover. I was still pretty amped up though, and was running a bit faster than normal on Monday and Tuesday. Another rough week of school though, and I was dragging by the end of the week. Put in a very solid workout with Sean early Friday morning, that was a pretty good way to get the day started. Finished things off with a steady fifteen miler out to the Minuteman trail. The mileage wound up right where I was shooting for, not much longer until I get to back off a bit. October Miles : 102 | 102 |
| Saturday | Minuteman Trail. For some reason I was pretty tired last night, I took an hour plus nap after school and still slept from 11:30 until 8:30. I out the door by 9:30 this morning and feeling pretty good. I didn't want to hammer at all though, so I just relaxed all the way through Cambridge to the start of the trail. Got there in just under 35 minutes, then ran 6:35-7:00 for the first two miles on the trail. I still think that second mile is long because of going through the intersection in Arlington Center. I tacked on about 3:45 past the 2M mark then coming back I was 6:30 for the second mile (I stopped my watch for part of the way through Arlington Center) and 6:20 back to the end of the trail. I hit the Port-A-John in a park not long after leaving the trail, then kept things steady the rest of the way back home. Made it back in 32:30 for a total time of 1:40 this morning. Not a very fast one this morning, but some solid mileage. | 15 |
| Friday | 6x1M with 400m rest with Sean in 4:45, 45, 44, 45, 44, 44. Got a very early start today, woke up at 5:45 after about 6 hours sleep and headed out for the warmup at 6:30. It wasn't my choice to go so early today, but I do like being out running as the sun comes up. Sean decided on starting the workout at 7am; he builds airplanes and is a lot smarter than me, so who am I to argue? Ran over to campus, then down Comm Ave to Next House, up to Vassar and back to the track for 14:30. Stretched out a bit, hit the john and then started running strides. Didn't feel very loose during strides, I felt like I was forcing it and my legs weren't all there. Sean led the first one, he was feeling better since he's used to these 7am workouts, and I managed to just hang in there and more or less stick on his hip. Very even splits, 71-2:22-3:33-4:45. By the end of the first one I was feeling better, my legs were loose and I felt like I could actually lead one. The 400m rest took us about 3:00, we lined up and I took the lead but struggled to find the pace. We started 72-2:24, I relaxed too much on the first lap, then felt like I got it back on the next lap, but clearly didn't. Then I started tightening the screws, came through in 3:24-4:45 to finish things up. Sean and I were both feeling the effects of closing so fast and I promised to run even splits the next one I led. Sean took us through another set of even splits, I was tucked in behind him and the first two laps felt like we were jogging. On the third lap Sean picked it up a bit to get us down to 4:44. I led the next one and went a bit better, 70high-2:22mid-3:34, I slowed up a bit on the third lap because there was a cart on the track and I couldn't tell if it was moving out of our way or not. Picked it up on the last lap and came through in 4:44.95, but there's no way not to round that up. At that point my legs were getting a bit wobbly, I didn't feel quite as relaxed and was starting to run right on that edge. I felt like I was pushing hard the whole way, but I could tell that I'd be able to keep the pace as long as I stayed focused, my legs weren't going to tie up. Sean took the lead on the fifth one, brought us through in 71high, my legs were feeling tired and I was losing my sense of pace. It felt like we were slowing down the whole second lap, we came through in 2:23mid and I decided it was time to go. Coming around the curve I hit the backstretch next to Sean and had the lead by the next curve. We got rolling a bit on the third lap, running something in the 69-70 range, then slowed a bit on the final lap. I probably reacted a bit too soon and should have let Sean do his thing, but I was having problems thinking clearly at the time. We had to swing wide when the guy painting the lines on the soccer field backed up onto the track with 200m to go, we saw it coming though and it didn't slow us down too much. Kept things steady through the line, no kicking on this one. I really started feeling my legs on this one, I didn't feel like I was running all that fast, but my legs moving as fast as they'd go and I was holding things together with both hands. That same old feeling when you're basically red-lining, even though you're telling yourself that everything's going to be all right, there's still that feeling that everything's actually going to fall apart. Took our time to get back around for the last one, I wanted to keep the splits even but that didn't really happen. Came through in 71high-2:23 and then Sean went around with 700m to go. I held him off for a bit, but then decided that he let me go around on the last one, so I backed off a step, he went to lane one and I followed him for the final 600m. A little dead at after crossing the finish line, but my legs came back around fairly quickly, very solid workout but at the same time it was very controlled. Probably could have run a bit quicker, but it's hard at 7am and it's hard to cut loose on the second or third interval when you've got 3-4M ahead of you. Sean and I cooled down to Science, then I headed home and he crossed the bridge back to MIT. I put in a 31 minute cooldown and then ran some strides in front of the Church and one full speed down Clearway. Very happy with how things went this morning, there can't be too many guys around here able to run a workout like that, I'm just lucky to be going to the same school as one of them. I wouldn't have been running quite as fast had I tried that on my own, I was able to latch on to Sean the few times I started falling off the back. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. Pretty tired when I got back from the lab and wasn't sure I was even going to run, but after taking a little break I was feeling better and managed to put in an easy four bomb. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica Pond. Nice and easy around the Pond this morning, didn't get going very fast. My legs were feeling pretty good, but I'm still pretty tired. Just trying to get the miles in, the only interesting thing was the hawk swooping down right in front of me trying to kill a squirrel around the Pond. | 9 |
| Wednesday | Arboretum. Got started at 7:15 this morning and decided it was early enough to put in a longer run this morning, which was good since the rest of the day is going to be pretty busy. My legs are still feeling good, took a few minutes to get into the run but after that I was locked into a comfortable pace. Didn't push things at all, more or less just cruised through. The run went by pretty quickly, the weather was warmer than recently which helped, and getting some mileage on soft surfaces was nice. I got some bonus distance on soft surfaces in because the sidewalk was torn up along the Arborway. 33:10 on the way to the Arboretum, 29:50 inside and 32:30 on the way home for a TRT of 95:30. Good start to the day. | 14 |
| Tuesday PM | Franklin Park. Ran with Sean and Craig today, we ran the course in just over 34:00 while the guys were warming up for their workout. When they started running their workout we just looped around the course to be able to catch them halfway through their interval and then again at the finish. We picked up CWong when he dropped out of the workout and then Jake when he stopped, all together Sean and I put in 70 minutes. No strides afterwards, just some stretching out by the Wilderness while getting eaten alive by mosquitos. Wound up being a pretty long day, waiting around for the guys to finish cooling down. | 10 |
| Tuesday AM | Run to Remember course. Got started around 7:30 this morning and things were quick from the start. I was feeling good and managed to keep things quick the whole time. I was 31:00 for the 5M course and around 45:00 for the whole run. Must still be getting the benefit from two good nights of sleep this past weekend, unfortunately it looks like this is going to be another rough week. Able to keep things short this morning since I'm heading out to Franklin this afternoon. | 7 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. Stayed a bit later in the lab so didn't get started until 5:30, even though I ran pretty much as soon as I got home. Heading out past the Church I saw a woman walking two ferrets, which was pretty unusual. My legs were feeling pretty good, not tired at all and just coasting through the run. Kept things pretty slow and easy, didn't put in any pickups at all. The only exictement was on Comm Ave and Hereford where a car was flipped over in the intersection and they were trying to cut the driver out. I watched for a few minutes but I couldn't really see what was going on, so I just headed home. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Fresh Pond backwards. Only got 6 hours of sleep since I was up late trying to get ahead of the curve for this week's homework. I slept pretty well, I think I was kind of tired last night. I wasted some time this morning and didn't get going until 7:45 or so. I wasn't able to cross over Mass Ave conveniently, so I just stayed on the east side of the street and ran Fresh Pond in reverse. I was feeling surprisingly good this morning, not much soreness and pretty pumped, so the pace was quicker than normal. The plan is to keep the mileage 95-105M for the next two weeks then back off to 90M for Mayor's Cup and New Englands, but I'd like to make an effor to run a bit quicker than I usually do on my mileage days. My legs got a little tired going around the Pond, but when I got back to the River I was feeling good again and cruised the rest of the way home. Just 74:00 today, the loop from campus was about 60 or 61. Not much time for stretching since I got a late start, but I did squeeze in some foam roller action, since my right hip has been bothering me for awhile now. (A link to the profile of Sunday's course is now up in the races section, I'll write a summary eventually.) | 12 |
| Sunday | Apple Harvest Ramble 10 Miler, 3rd place in 50:37. Today wasn't supposed to be as fast as I ran, but I was feeling good at the start and decide to let it ride. We had some cool and rainy weather to run in, I warmed up 2M solo, stopping at the nicest Port-A-John I've ever used. It looked normal from the outside, but had a sink AND a flush toilet. Had plenty of time to stretch and run strides, the line was pretty crowded for the start but I managed to get up front. Got out hard to avoid the crowd and found myself next to Joshua Kemei until Pat went into the lead. Tucked in behind Pat, Kemei and John Mortimer, just trying to cover ground and put some time in the bank. I was a little cautious since I didn't want to get out like it was an 8k and then have the wheels fall off later, but we came through the mile in 4:51 with a 10 second gap over the rest of the field, so it was either stick with the leaders, try to run 9M in no-man's land or drop back to the pack. I wound up sitting with Pat most of the way, Kemei broke away over the second mile and Mort over the fourth. I gapped Pat from 6-8M but he came back on me and we fought it out to the final climb where I broke away slightly. Cooled down 3M afterwards with JB and Mortimer. Pretty hilly course, but not as bad as I was expecting. A lot of rolling climbs but no huge, terrible hills. The plan originally was to sit in the pack and just cruise through 5-7M before taking off, but I had unintentionally cut mileage last week and was feeling good after a mile, so I kept it rolling. I was happy that I was able to put my nose up there and hang around with a 2:17 marathoner and sub-8:30 steepler. Good start to the week and an encouraging step towards Mayor's Cup. (Splits are on the races page.) | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 16 9/24-9/30 |
Tough week. I knew that the mileage wasn't going to be very high since Sunday was a pretty short day, but then things got rough with homework and I wound up not sleeping very much. I cut back on my mileage to compensate, and after a good night's sleep on Friday night I was feeling a bit better. Wednesday's workout wasn't a great feeling workout, but I at least managed to get my legs moving a bit more than normal. I'm not quite sure what to expect for Sunday's 10 miler. September Miles : 419 | 89 |
| Saturday | Jamaica. I slept about 12 hours last night, a much needed rest, and felt a lot better this morning. I waited about an hour before taking off, felt a lot fresher and more rested. Kept things very easy, my legs still weren't feeling 100%, but I could tell they were moving in the right direction. Never ran very fast, a slow jog the whole way. One short acceleration at the end, but other than that a low-key day. | 9 |
| Friday PM | Fens-Riverway. I was pretty tired when I got home from the lab today, I didn't have a very big lunch either, so I didn't really feel like running. I laced up my new pair of Boston Classics and got right out the door though, that was the only way this run was going to happen. Kept things pretty slow and just trying to get the run over with. My legs came around a little bit near the end of the run, hopefully I'm feeling better than this by Sunday. The new pair of shoes made a big difference though, all the aches and pains I had been dealing with earlier were gone. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. Pretty typical run today, got started just before 7:30am and put in about 65 minutes. Kept things pretty easy, just covering ground. Nothing special about this one, my legs were okay, but I'm still pretty tired and glad the week is basically over. | 10 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line plus Longfellow. Wound up staying in the lab a lot longer than I had anticipated today and was pretty tired by the time I got home. I ran Orange Line with Kathryn pretty slowly, then sped up slightly along the river. My legs aren't feeling that tired, I'm just generally fatigued and not excited about running right now. | 7 |
| Thursday AM | Orange Line. Only got about 4 hours sleep last night and had an early class, so I opted for a shorter run this morning. Wasn't feeling horrible, but I have no idea how I managed to live like this on a semi-regular basis a few years ago. | 4 |
| Wednesday PM | Fartlek at Franklin Park, 3x4:00, 3x3:00. Drove out to Franklin at 4pm today and got right into this one. I started out with 2M warmup along the course running pretty slowly and hit the Port-A-John in the middle. The plan today was something a litte easier, just to turn the legs over and work some things out. At the 2M mark I started the first interval, trying to find a good rhythm without blowing things out. I made it to roughly the 4M mark before the end of the interval, I was at the 3M mark at 5:20 and kept the rest pretty quick. I put in roughly 3:30 between the 4:00s and 2:30 between the 3:00s, and started the second interval at the turn into the Wilderness. I was running pretty fast and probably a bit harder than I should have been. I kept the rest aggressive and started the third one after coming down Bearcage. I turned around at the finish line and headed out running the course backwards. I felt pretty tired climbing up the backside of Bearcage, that's a lot longer climb than I thought it was. I was feeling pretty bad, my legs were a lot more tired than I wanted and I didn't feel much speed during the last 4:00 session and decided that if things were the same on first 3:00 interval that I'd just go 2x3:00. I felt a lot better on the next interval though, got some good speed going through the Wilderness and my legs were nice and loose again. Same deal on the next interval, I started at roughly the same point, right around the 4M mark, and still had some good speed. On the last interval, I wound up going up the back of Bearcage again, which just trashed me and I had no speed going at all. All in all a decent workout, but the two intervals with climbs did not go well at all. I cooled down with another 1.5M to finish off the course and make it 10M in 61+ today. Ran a few strides afterwards to try and stay loose. I had hoped to feel a bit fresher than I did today, hopefully things will start feeling better by the weekend. | 10 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line backwards. Just a short four bomb, the plan originally was 2x(1200-2000-800) with the BAA guys, but then I got invited to a recruiting dinner tonight, so it'll be a fartlek at Franklin instead. I finished up with a stride or two in front of the church, but wasn't feeling very quick. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | BU-Science from campus. Didn't leave myself as much time as I probably should have, I ran 42:00 along the river, with the mile from the Sonesta to Mass Ave in 6:50. I was feeling kind of tired during the day, but the run went pretty well. I finished up at the Z Center, then showered, changed and was on the track in about 5 minutes to help time the team's workout. | 6 |
| Tuesday AM | Docks backwards. Had to squeeze it in this morning, got a little bit later start than normal. My legs were feeling alright, I'm kind of concerned about getting mileage in this week. It seems like it's going to be a busy one, I got off to a bad start and am going to keep things short on Saturday in preparation for Sunday's race. Not much time for stretching today, class at 9:30am is making things rough. | 9 |
| Monday PM | 70 minutes in the Arboretum. I felt like death this afteroon, running with Jake, Fivos and Sean. I can't figure out why, but my legs were tired from the start and I was checking my watch when we were just 25 minute in. We climbed up Mount Wushu twice and up the Big Green Hill once. We just kind of wandered around and ran on the pavement more than I would have liked. I stopped pretty much as soon as we got back to the gate and didn't bother running any strides. | 10 |
| Monday AM | Run to Remember course. Trying to compensate for yesterday's short mileage, a little bit longer this morning and then 10-12M this afternoon at the Arboretum. My legs were feeling good, even after yesterday's race, I think 7M is a great distance, long enough to really get into the run but not so long that it takes up a lot of time or is daunting at all. | 7 |
| Sunday | Striding For Smithfield 5k in 15:21, second place. Warmed up about 2M with Kathryn and was feeling decent. I knew my legs weren't going to be entirely there, but was hoping there wouldn't be much competition, or that I'd be able to hang with anybody who was up front. Got out fast and tucked in behind a guy who looked pretty fast and turned out to be Pat Tarpy. He gapped me after 3:30 or so, I hit the mile in 4:44 and faded from there. I tried to keep him close, but dropped back to 4:54 and then 5:04. I wasn't feeling too bad, I just couldn't keep my legs moving. Pat wound up running 14:35, so he didn't really come back to me at all and there's nothing I could have done differently to get the win today. Cooled down 3M by running the course again, stretched out a bit before heading home. Was thinking about tacking on a second run later in the day, but watching football was more enticing. Put in a good effort today, slowed a bit near the end as I wound up in no man's land, but I wasn't expecting much after a 107M week and two days after a 20M day. Plan is to crank up the mileage for a few days, keep the Wednesday workout relaxed and put in another solid effort at the Apple Harvest Ramble next Sunday. | 8 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 15 9/17-9/23 |
My mileage this week was right where I was hoping to put it, the 20M Friday helped that out, though. Sunday was a solid long run without too many ill effects from the hard effort the day before. Kept things pretty easy Monday and Tuesday, just standard mileage days and then hit a very solid workout on Wednesday. I felt very relaxed and in control the whole way on Wednesday, ran 4:46-45-45-45 without too much effort. Hopefully Saturday did a good enough job of loosening me up for a good race on Sunday, but I'm not too concerned with running a fast time. Probably should have thrown in some strides to clear things out a bit more. September Miles : 330 | 107 |
| Saturday | Jamaica. Spent the morning running errands and doing chores, got out for a little shakeout around 5pm, kept things slow and easy the whole way. My legs were pretty sore at the start, I was really tired and dragging ass and thought about cutting things short and only going 5M. I eventually decided to go the whole way, since I'm not too concerned about running fast tomorrow. Glad I decided to do the whole thing, since my legs really loosened up around the Pond and by the end I was feeling loose and a lot better. | 9 |
| Friday PM | Docks. Carlos was in town for the Career Fair and suggested we get together for a run, so I headed over to campus at 5pm, thinking I'd put in a few miles. I got there at 5:13, just before Carlos, Fivos, Sean and Craig were about to leave. We opted for Docks so I could pull off in the Back Bay, but it still wound up being 63 minutes this afternoon. Wasn't really planning on 20M today, we'll see how it leaves things for Sunday. The pace was kind of uneven, Sean and Craig started hauling through Downtown Crossing and my legs were trashed by the end of it. It was good to get a run in with Carlos, I wasn't able to in DC over the summer and can't remember the last time I ran with him. | 9 |
| Friday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. For some reason I wasn't motivated at all to get out the door this morning. I wasn't too tired when I got up but just did not want to run. I finally got started at 8am and was feeling okay. Kept things nice and easy, didn't work the climb up Summit at all and was pretty slow around the Reservoir. Sped up slightly on the way home, but I certainly didn't get rolling at all. Finished up around 73 minutes, didn't run any strides but probably should have. | 11 |
| Thursday | Short Docks plus Old Ollie. Got started at 6:40am so I could get a longer one in before 9:30am class. I felt pretty good but wasn't running all that fast. Climbed up G Street decently but didn't try to hammer. Coming back home I realized that I wasn't going to have quite enough time so I cut down Charles Street instead of taking Longfellow over to Memorial Drive. No time for a double today, since I've got Sox tickets tonight. | 13 |
| Wednesday PM | BAA Workout at MIT. 4x(1600-400) in 4:46,68; 4:45,69; 4:45,68; 4:45,67. Rest was 3:00 (a lap plus 0:15-0:30) after the mile and 2:00 (200m plus 0:30) after the 400s. The Harvard track is being resurfaced, so the workout got moved over to MIT for this week. The warm-up was a lot easier, ran over to campus and then ran the 2M loop. Got back to the track for some stretching and strides then got into the workout with Jason, Jared and Alasdair. JB led the first mile, we got out in 73 feeling comfortable then really picked it up on the second lap to 2:23 and then I got into a groove and cruised home. We were starting at the 200m mark, so we had the wind with us for the first 200m and in our face for the second 200m. We got out in 33-34 to start the 400 and then cruised the second half. Jason wanted to run closer to 4:50s so I took the lead shooting for 4:45s and Alasdair tucked in behind me. We got out in 71-2:22-3:34 and brought it through strong on the last lap. I was feeling relaxed the whole time and basically just cruised, hitting the "backstretch" a little harder than the rest of the lap. Came through the first 200m of the quarter in 34 and then backed off a bit when the wind started hitting us. Got out in 70 for the start of the next mile and then relaxed way too much on the next lap, coming through 800m in 2:23+. I was feeling really good and was kind of thinking I was slow, because it felt a little too easy. Picked it up a lot on the 3rd lap, came through in 3:34 and then kept things rolling on the final lap. Felt great the whole way, didn't tie up or back off at all. Out in 33-high for the 400 and slowed again on the second 200. The last mile was more even than the third, Alasdair stopped after 3 sets but JB was right on me the whole way, which helped. Splits were 71-2:22-3:34, I started tying up a bit after 1000m, but managed to stay relaxed and kept things together. JB led the final quarter, we felt fast from the start, but were still 33-mid, we just kept the intensity up on the second half. Chatted with MP a bit after the workout, agreed on going out to Harvard, MA for a 10 miler next weekend for one more good effort before Mayor's Cup. Cooled down along the 2M loop with J-Mark then headed straight home since it was already after 8pm. Really great workout today, very excited about how it went. Running 4:45s was right where I wanted to be, but this workout still felt easier than I was expecting. We had a great group going tonight, everybody seemed to be having a good one and we were all pretty close throughout the whole workout. Felt fine after the workout, came home to a big salad with chicken, not a bad way to finish off the day. | 11 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line backwards. Temps were a little bit cooler this morning, and there was a breeze through the apartment which made it feel even cooler, so I headed out wearing a shirt this morning. Since I was "decent" I decided to go the other direction and run some strides at the Church at the end. Felt pretty good, kept the pace decent, wasn't shuffling this morning. Ran four strides at the end, the grass is too uneven to really get rolling, but I had a decent one in the middle then a good cooldown and stretching. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | Fresh Pond plus a Grass Loop. I ran from the Z Center around 4:15 this afternoon, putting in a few miles before watching the team's workout. I felt pretty good the whole way but kept things easy and tacked on a Grass Loop to bump things up to 6M. I finished up with some strides on the turf before stretching out on the track. Felt a bit quicker this afternoon, trying to get a bit of speed back for this weekend's race. Showered up then helped timed the guys run 6x1600 before heading home around 7pm. Long day. | 6 |
| Tuesday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I got going at 7:15am this morning and kept it a bit quicker than normal the whole way. Feeling pretty good and in a rush to get this one finished before classes. Nothing amazing, just the usual 6:30-6:40 pace with a forced stride down Clearway at the end. Didn't feel that fast on the stride, I was forcing it too much and never really found the right rhythm. Only had a few minutes to stretch before eating, showering and leaving for campus. | 10 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. Got home from class and waited for Kathryn to get back from the gym before running. We left at 6pm or so and kept things nice and easy. My legs were getting pretty tired by the end, but after picking it up down Clearway I felt a bit better. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Fresh Pond. Got going about 7:30am this morning, I haven't been out to Fresh Pond in awhile, so it seemed like a good route. Skies started out overcast but things cleared up about halfway through and it got pretty warm by the end. Ran into Sean as I got to the Pond, he was finishing up a short one. The path is still closed off, apparently until this Friday, so I just looped around the other direction. Felt pretty good and the pace was decent, but because of the detour the time doesn't really mean anything. Not a bad start to the week. | 12 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. Got started just after 8am today, feeling pretty good but kept things easy at the start. I wasn't really looking to hammer today given yesterday's run, just wanted a long run at a decent pace. Let my legs dictate things at the start, clocked the mile from the Royal Sonesta back to Mass Ave in 6:40, which was quicker than expected, and decided to leave things alone for most of the way. Things went by pretty quickly, just kept it easy and let my legs go. I made the turn at 68:20, a little bit faster than last week, but didn't hammer the way home as much. Made it back in 43:40, so 1:52 for the 17.1M along the river. Hit the mile from BU to Mass Ave in 6:10, tried not to pick it up at all, but who knows. Regardless, I averaged just over 6:30s for this one. The sun was up and it was pretty warm, like yesterday, I was caked it salt by the time I made it home. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 14 9/10-9/16 |
Pretty decent week, but the mileage came up a bit short still. Little bit short on Monday through Wednesday, but being off bit just a bit makes it hard to get the total up by the end of the week. Solid long run on Sunday, now that Terry showed me the mark by Mass Ave I think the final mile was more like 5:55-6:05, but a good final 6-7M. Tuesday's fartlek in the Arboretum felt quick and easy, Coach said it looked like we were running closer to mile pace than 5M pace, but I didn't feel like we were going that fast. Rest of the week was just mileage, but I'm still getting adjusted to classes, wasn't that excited throughout the back half of the week. Put in a good trip to the Arboretum on Friday though, not very fast but just a good run that got me enjoying being out there. Saturday's 10 miler went much, much better than anticipated, I showed up hoping to just hang on and not implode like last time and wound up leading the Moultons through the final 3M and closed with a 5:04. Some days you're just feeling it. September Miles : 223 | 104 |
| Saturday | Hard 10M along the river. I left my apartment around 8:15 and headed across the bridge to the starting mark, but the guys weren't anywhere around, so I stopped at Building 2 for some water then headed back across the bridge to meet everybody finishing their Science Museum warmup. We took 5-10 minutes for stretching and changing shoes, then Terry, Ryan Carrara, Casey and Pat Moulton and I took off, aiming for 5:22s. Terry lead the first 2M, we came through in 5:30ish for the first mile then dropped to around the prescribed pace. I just tried to sit in the back for awhile and not get in anybody's way, I wasn't really sure what to expect from this one. After Mass Ave I moved up alongside Casey and Pat who were doing the pace setting and lead from 4M to the turnaround past BU. Ryan clocked that mile as 5:18, then on the way back Casey took the lead and he and Pat gapped Terry, Ryan and I by a little bit. After going under the footbridge I decided to run with the Pelham boys and bridged the gap to them. It turned out to be the right decision, but given how this run went the last time I tried it, I wasn't too confident. I sat behind the two guys until 6.75M or so, heading back towards the Fairfield bridge. I got to the front and kept the hammer down a bit, I wasn't concerned with holding marathon pace at all, I just wanted a hard run. Both Moultons stuck around over the final 3M and we got down to around 5:10s and finished up at 5:04 for the last one. I was pretty hazy on where the marks were precisely, but I knew the 9M mark. Terry took splits for the first 5M, but starts with a half-mile split for some reason, but he had us at: 2:48-5:25-5:15-10:39-2:41, then the Moultons and I came back in 5:17-5:13-10:25-5:08, running the two 5M halves in 26:50 and 26:03. We may have started about 0:04 behind the actual start line, so first half was 2:44 and last mile was 5:04. Regardless, a good effort today, I was really happy to be able to hang with the Moultons the whole way, keep the pace hard and not crack at 9M. We cooled down up the river to River Street then I turned off at Mass Ave to head home. Stretched out a bit before cooking a breakfast sandwich, not nearly as devastated as I was expecting, last time I was essentially incapacitated the rest of the day. Casey was really getting on me to move up to the marathon now, but I think I'm okay with the short stuff for a while still. | 16 |
| Friday | Arboretum. I slept a solid 8+ hours last night but was still a bit tired when I woke up. I waited longer than usual to get started today, but I spent the time getting my JOS kernel to print in color. I got started just after 8am, which was good because the rain and clouds had all left, so it was bright and warm for the duration of the run. Got to the Arboretum in 33:30 and ran the usual loop in just over 30. Feeling okay, my legs are still a bit tired and I really didn't want to push today, since tomorrow is 10M hard with some of the marathoners. Kept the pace easy on the way home, made it back in 32:30 for a total time of just under 97. Nice and easy longer run today, hopefully my legs are feeling good tomorrow. | 14 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line backwards with Kathryn. I got home from the lab about 4:30 and was thinking 7M, but as I was getting ready I decided that I was far too tired and just wanted to run short. I think it was a good decision because I just shuffled through the run and wasn't ever feeling very good. Much less work to do tonight, though, so it should be early to bed. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I was up until 2am last night finishing a lab, but slept until almost 7am, so I was feeling decent when I woke up, not as tired as I was expecting. I got started just after 7:15 and was feeling okay. Temps are back up a bit, it wasn't in the low fifties this morning. Felt okay for this one, my legs were tired at the start but I got loosened up, ran the hills decently and wound up feeling pretty good. Not much time to stretch before my 9:30am class, my knees are starting to ache a bit at the start of these runs since I haven't been very diligent about stretching and foam rolling recently. I was originally thinking about 7M this afternoon, we'll see if the late night catches up with me though. | 10 |
| Wednesday PM | Franklin Park, the course twice. Drove out at 4pm and got rolling right away with the old guys. Fivos, Sean, Craig and I shuffled through the first few miles on the course before picking things up slightly. Nolan peeled off at 5M since he ran a tempo this morning, but Craig, Fivos and I ran the course a second time. We ran into Bruce and Yermie one time up Bearcage and worked the hill harder than normal, but otherwise we were very casual today. They put down some new surfaces, so the gravel on Bearcage is still pretty loose and there's a 6 foot patch of pure sand on the Wilderness hill, just like running on the beach. Didn't run strides or have much time to cooldown before heading back to MIT. | 10 |
| Wednesday AM | Fens-Riverway. Didn't feel like running, waited until 8:15 or so to get going. The plan was a longer run this morning to get the mileage kickstarted, but I wasn't feeling it. I woke up at the usual time and wasn't tired at all, I just wasn't in the mood to run and found a lot of ways to waste time. I finally had to get going so I wouldn't get to the lab incredibly late and just headed out to Huntington via the Emerald Necklace. Feeling okay once I got going and had I brought my watch and had more time I probably would have added on through Olmsted. Just one of those mornings, I guess. | 5 |
| Tuesday PM | Fartlek. 6x2:00 with Jake and Fivos. Drove out to the Arboretum for this one, but I got a late start and didn't have time to hit the head. Great day for running, a bit warmer than recently with the sun still up and clear skies. We got started with about 13:00 jog through the park and hit the first pickup along the railroad tracks. We spent the rest of the time running in the main section of the Arboretum, hitting a bunch of hills and turns. The 2:00 sections went by quickly and we may have gotten going a bit quicker than we were supposed to. The workout was over after maybe 20:00 which felt really short. My legs were still really fresh, but my stomach wasn't cooperating. We looped over to the back section, Fivos and I climbed the Big Green Hill and Jake turned around. As Fivos and I were coming back by the train tracks my stomach really started bothering me and I stopped once or twice. We took the most direct route back and I eventually told Fivos to just run back on his own. After a few minutes walking I was able to slowly jog back to the gate listening to my stomach slosh around. Obviously no strides, and just 60:00 running, so only 9M today. I'm going to have to put a longer day in somewhere this week to compensate. | 9 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line. Since Jake needed someone to run his fartlek with this afternoon I took it easy this morning and put in just a short one. Worked out well since I have class at 9:30am on Tuesdays and Thursdays now. Not much happened, just ran. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Fens-Riverway. Nothing remarkable, just stretching out my legs after classes/work. No watch, another run wearing a shirt. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. Felt okay this morning, just some easy mileage on the trails. My legs were still a bit sore from the race Saturday, the long run yesterday and the lack of stretching/cooldown after each. Naturally, I rushed through stretching after this one, too. The tentative plan is to ramp back up to 105-110MPW through September, cut back a bit for Mayor's Cup in October. About 53 degrees this morning, first run in a shirt. Fall's coming. | 9 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. Hit the bridge at 69:40, pretty slow, made it back to Mass Ave by 1:53. Got started a bit after 10am and wasn't feeling the greatest. Took a few miles to get loosened up and work out the kinks from yesterday. I didn't feel like pushing at all, so I just let my legs do what they want. One positive aspect of this summer's huge mileage is that a 2 hour run doesn't seem that long anymore. I looked up and all the sudden I'm back at the BU Bridge and it feels like I just got started. Wasn't all that fast at watertown but apparently got rolling a bit on the way home, although the effort didn't feel that bad. My legs were feeling pretty tired on the way back around Arsenal or so, but by the time I hit JFK either the soreness had worked itself out or I had slowed down and it was feeling easier. I got rolling pretty good without working too hard, the rough mile from BU Sailing Pavillion back to the stone railing after the Storrow underpass was around 5:35-5:40, but I don't know the exact marks and was just glancing at the watch. I got home and had about 5 minutes to stretch before having to shower and get ready for Yuval's wedding. My legs won't like me tomorrow. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 13 9/3-9/9 |
Pretty decent week, defined by Saturday's race. I don't know how many times I have to teach myself this lesson before I learn, but for me to race well I have to back off the mileage, I can't just try and "run easy" for a few days. Tried to keep the mileage up and run slower before Alumni, no dice. Backed off for Ollie and put together a pretty good race. Started off with some solid mileage out at Walden and then just kept things medium-long through Wednesday, then just one run Thursday and a shakeout Friday. Wednesday's workout went pretty well, especially when I didn't try to lead and just sat on Levi. No more big races until Mayor's Cup on Oct. 22, so I won't have to back off the mileage for a few more weeks. September Miles : 119 | 95 |
| Saturday | Ollie plus Yuval's FunRun. Ran 24:54 to get 4th at Ollie then immediately drove out to Newton and ran 6M with Nolan, Feldman and some of Yuval's friends. It was pretty warm today, around 80 I'd guess. I got down to the Harbor with plenty of time, sat around with Miller, Ferenc and some other Keene State guys. Warmed up along the course with Miller and Ferenc, everything was timed well and I got to put in plenty of strides and had a good spot on the line. We were wearing the chips you velcro around your ankle, and I couldn't get mine to feel good, so I kept adjusting it before the start. At the "gun" I got off the line in the lead and figured I wasn't going to get many chances to lead Mark Carroll, so I kept it rolling for a bit. He overtook me pretty soon though, and quickly gapped the rest of the pack. I was slipping a bit, but settled in well enough to hang on. I just coasted down to Castle Island before making my planned move at the crosswalk before the statue. By this time the winner and Carroll were pretty well gone, but I broke up what was left of the chase pack. One guy dogged me over the final 1.5M though, and kicked past about 200m from the line. I tried to catch him, but when he noticed me coming he kicked again and I just packed it in. Crossed the finish line, jogged over to my back and changed shoes, to discover that the velcro on the chip had cut up my right Achilles a bit. I grabbed my bag and jogged down to the Courthouse where I was parked and jumped onto the MassPike to Newton. I got lost slightly after missing the turn off Route 9, but made my way to Newton South just in time to meet up with Yuval and Melissa's run. Ran 6M through Newton with Sean, Feldman and some of Yuval's friends from Newton. Felt pretty good, given I had just raced an 8k. Got back and ate a bagel and some muffins while just hanging out. Didn't bother to stretch out at all. Eventually headed home and then went back to Carson Beach with Kathryn for an hour or two. Pretty busy day, but really made the best of the great weather. | 13 |
| Friday | Fens-Riverway. Just a short shakeout this morning. Nothing remarkable, feeling good and looking forward to racing tomorrow. I was thinking maybe I'd be able to put in another 4M or so in the afternoon, but got back from the lab late and had to head out to Yuval's bachelor party. Wound up staying out pretty late but everything was pretty tame and I should be okay for tomorrow. | 5 |
| Thursday | Short Docks backwards plus New Ollie. Two problems this morning. 1) I got started too late and had to cut it short so I could get back in time to make it to class. 2) My stomach was bothering me and I had to cut it short. I started out running Docks backwards and then peeled off onto New Ollie like normal. Everything went fine, got a good look at the course and found a few things to watch out for and decided where to make my move. Coming back past the hotel I started to realize how late it was getting and couldn't afford to cross over to Mem Drive for the finish. Then around the Fleet Center I realized I couldn't bother with going down to Charles, my stomach wouldn't let me. I cut straight over Beacon Hill to the Common and made it home with enough time to eat, shower and leave. No stretching today. | 13 |
| Wednesday PM | BAA Workout. 2x(1600-800-1600). 4:52, 2:20, 4:52; 4:49, 2:20, 4:50. 3:00 after the 1600, 2:00 after the 800, 4:00 between sets. The usual routine, warm up to Harvard just before 6pm. MP cautioned me to keep things somewhat under wraps today so I'd have something come Saturday, I don't think I could have run much faster the way my legs felt today, but I definitely could have worked a lot harder. I only was able to run about 2 strides before getting going. Levi, J-Mark, Wayne, Jason Bialka (maybe some other guys, I don't really remember) were all there tonight, so a decent sized group. I took the lead and was 35s at the 200 but backed off too much and came through low 74, then another 74 for 2:28ish at the half. It felt like my legs loosened up after that first half, not enough strides beforehand. I was able to pick it up and find a better rhtyhm for the back half, got down to 70-71 on the last lap. Took 400+m rest and then got out quick on the next one, came through just under 70 and cruised the second lap. Got out a little better on the mile, came through in 73-2:26 or so and kept it there the rest of the way. Feeling really fresh after the 4:00 break and got out a little too fast at the start of the mile. Settled down through the 800 then JB went around me and I sat on him for a lap. This was his last interval so he got rolling on the final lap and opened a pretty big gap, but we got rolling enough on the third lap that I hit a good time. Levi offered to lead the half so I sat on him the whole way and we got moving pretty good. I came up alongside him down the final straight and we finished up together. Same start to the mile, Levi led and I sat behind him for 300m then took the lead on the second lap, he led the third and I led at the end. (I think that's how it went, I know we traded laps but I might have had the odds.) Chatted with MP a bit about D1 vs. D3 then headed home along the river. Pretty good workout, ran better when I was following Levi than when I was leading. Legs weren't tired at all on the way home, which is a good sign for Saturday. Hopefully these workouts start coming around a little bit more and I start capitalizing on this summer's work. | 12 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. Just a quick shakeout in the morning to loosen up for the day. First day of the semester, so I've got class this afternoon before I can enjoy the BAA workout tonight. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | Arboretum, 8 by Big Green Hill with Sean. After the way Saturday's Bearcage climbs went, I decided on Sunday that today was going to be hills. Sean was kind enough to come with me for today's 4 figure eights. We swapped leads going up the hill, I took the odds he took the evens, which made counting a little bit easier. Nothing crazy today, but my legs were feeling it by the eighth time up. No hills to deal with for Ollie this time, but I don't like feeling weak on the hills. I think I'm forcing the issue too much as I'm climbing. I feel like I'm not able to climb as well anymore so I work harder, instead of just relaxing up the climb and working the top like I used to. I've got a month and a half (roughly) to Mayor's Cup, hopefully I'll figure something out. | 10 |
| Tuesday AM | Run To Remember. Heading out to the Arboretum this afternoon so no need for a big morning. | 6 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. Almost forgot I had to run a second time, but made it out the door around 4pm for a few miles before dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. Labor Day so today felt like the weekend, but I got up early and ran anyways like I'm used to. Felt decent, legs were okay, just covering ground and putting in mileage. | 10 |
| Sunday | Walden. Got up early and drove out to Walden with a decent sized group this morning: Fivos, Sean, Bruce, Wong, Brandon and Johannes. We stayed together through the first 35-40 minutes then decided to split up, Johannes came along with Fivos, Sean and I so we could show him how to get back to the car. Cold and rainy the whole time, but after 10-15 minutes my feet were wet and I was used to it, so I didn't notice things the rest of the way. We traded off the lead and just wandered around the whole time. The pace was quicker than last week the whole time, and at 1:35 I went to the front and picked things up a bit more. I wanted to finish hard and did my best to keep it consistent, although it felt like it was bouncing around a bit. We took the long way around the Pond on the way back to bump the time up, wound up at 120:43 which I'm rounding up this week. My legs were pretty sore the whole time, I could feel the fatigue from yesterday the whole way, which may have made me think I was working harder than I actually was. Never imagined I'd be running two hours with Fivos. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 12 8/27-9/2 |
September Miles : 24 | 101 |
| Saturday PM | Alumni. Third place in 25:47. Warmed up 2M with Fivos, Sean, Yuval and Craig. My legs were feeling dead the whole way, even I was pretty sure they'd feel better after strides this morning's shakeout clearly didn't work. I got out well at the start, led across the field, hit the first mile in 4:48 with an 8 second lead. Got a little tired climbing Bearcage and maintained the 8 second lead at the second mile over Fivos and Sean. I was losing the rhythm and Sean made a big push through the Wilderness and we came out together. I was feeling good around the field and got a step on Sean occasionally. We hit 5k in 16:03 and then my stomach started acting up. I had a big bubble or something, it was hurting with each step and I wasn't able to push through it. Sean pulled away through the Wilderness and then things just fell apart. My legs weren't feeling that bad, I just couldn't get moving at all. I knew Fivos was coming, I did my best to hold him off but he passed me at the top of Bearcage and that was it. I more or less coasted to the finish, knowing the Has Beens were going 1-2-3 and were going to get the win. Almost threw up after crossing the finish line, was able to put in just a 20 minute cooldown before my stomach made me stop. Not what I was hoping for today, at least the Alumni got the win. | 10 |
| Saturday AM | Short Orange Line. Woke up around 8am and went straight out the door for a quick shake out. The Alumni race isn't until 5:45 this afternoon and I wanted to wake up the legs a little bit. I cut down Berkeley to Comm Ave and came home. No watch, but I'm guessing it's about 3M. | 3 |
| Friday PM | Grass Loops. I was helping my sister move today and the traffic was horrible as we were trying to return the UHaul, so I got to campus at 4:20pm and the guys had already left. I just ran some grass loops by myself, my quads were pretty sore from biking fast across the river trying to catch the guys before they left. I ran pretty slow but didn't get times for any loops. I ran into the Yermie, Wong, Joe Roy and Tyler about 10 minutes in and ran a loop with them then added on a few more minutes on my own. Wound up being 26+ minutes, finished with a long hard stride down the homestretch before stretching out with the old guys (Nolan, Fivos and Khatch.) I ran a bunch of strides to try and clear out my legs somewhat before heading home. Not a bad day, I think my legs will be feeling pretty good tomorrow, I felt nice and quick during strides. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Science-BU. I was originally thinking I'd hit the Run To Remember course this morning, but changed my mind on the way downstairs and ran along the river. I slept in a bit this morning, got almost 9 hours sleep last night, but still got out the door by 7:30. I was feeling pretty good, my legs were fresh but I kept the pace pretty slow. I ran through parts of tomorrow's race in my mind throughout the run and am feeling pretty confident about it. I'm trying to balance my desire to feel fresh for tomorrow with my need to keep the mileage high for the week. So I've got 36 hours to recover from this run, and I'll tack on a four bomb this afternoon just to loosen up a bit. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | Arboretum. We caravaned out to the Arboretum at 3pm today and Sean and I got started after Coach finished talking to the team. We decided to go it alone today and let the groups have a chance to come up with their race plans for tomorrow. We hit all the major parts of the Arboretum today, including trips up the Big Green Hill and Mount Wushu just for the fun of it. We kept things pretty slow and easy the whole time, my legs weren't feeling that great to begin with. We finished up with a climb up Corkscrew because Sean called it "the only place we haven't run yet." Wound up being 72 minutes, so maybe a little bit longer than 10M. I ran a few strides and was feeling better, then took my time stretching out before the drive home. August Miles : 498 | 10 |
| Thursday AM | Orange Line backwards. Since I'm driving the team out to the Arboretum this afternoon it was just a short one at 7:15am. I felt good from the jump but kept things pretty slow the whole way. I ran the loop in reverse so I could finish up with some strides in front of the Church, but after my second I got kicked off because I wasn't wearing a shirt. That's the first time that's happened to me, so I guess I'll have to stick to running strides on the road until it gets cooler. Temps were only in the mid 50s at the start today, but the sun was out and it warmed up pretty quickly. It looks like it might be raining on Saturday, I don't think that will really affect things much, though. | 4 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. We started as soon as I got back from campus and put in a nice and easy four miler this afternoon. I felt pretty good but we were running slow and it was kind of hard to tell. The weather finally seems to be coming around, I had forgotten what blue skies looked like. Finished off with some stretching and then a big plate of pasta. The ice bath from last night really seems to have helped out, I didn't tape my arches at all today and didn't feel the Achilles once. Almost out of the woods. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I got started a little later than normal, didn't get going until 7:20am and wanted to get rolling. I was feeling good at the start and was moving pretty quick down Comm Ave. I hammered up Summit, the steep part really got to me but I kept the hammer down all the way to the top, which wiped me out. I got to the top and realized that it's Wednesday and I should be taking it easy, so I coasted the rest of the way. The gnats were out in full force around the Reservoir today, if they'd just hover a foot higher we'd get along beautifully. Somewhere after the Reservoir my legs started loosening up again and it was relaxed and comfortable back home from Cleveland Circle. Wound up being 72:00 this morning. | 11 |
| Tuesday | Grass Loops plus Ocean plus Grass Loop. I slept in a little bit this morning and headed to campus at 8am. I got started running at 8:30, hit the grass loops and waited for the guys to show up for their 9am practice. I put in 33:00 on the grass, running 5+ loops all right around 6:00 per lap. I had to wait a few minutes for Coach to stop talking and then a few more minutes while Brulois changed, then took off south on Mass Ave with Group A (Brulois, Bruce, Brandon Pung and Jake) plus Spencer. I was pretty loose and feeling good, but pulled back on the reins and kept things easy to let everybody else wake up and get into the run a bit. We didn't hit too many lights and managed to keep a pretty good rhythm going to the Ocean. Brulois stopped at Carson Beach to use the bathroom, but most of us (including me) didn't notice and we didn't wait for him. Climbing G Street was a bit rough as I was 8-9M into the run already, but I managed to stay relatively close to Jake and the billy goat. We got rolling down Broadway and under I-93, kept things fast but under control down Newberry and back over the bridge. By the time we got back to MIT it was Bruce, Jake, Brandon and myself and we all went around Briggs once to bump it up to 10M. We ran for a total of 67 minutes, so right at 100 for me today. I felt pretty quick on strides afterwards, things seem to be coming together at the right time. It was upper 50s and cloudy the whole morning, and it started spitting rain near the end of the run, but still pretty good for running. I stretched out a bit and talked to Khatch who had run with Group B today then rushed through a shower and breakfast because it was about 10:45 and I had to get to the lab. Pretty good way to start off the day, even as we were picking it up on the way home I was feeling comfortable and running easy. | 15 |
| Monday PM | Fens-Riverway. Waited until almost 6pm to get started tonight, just took it easy on the dirt of the Fens and the Riverway to Huntington. I think I got started pretty slowly, I made it to the turn around in just over 19:00 and sped up a bit on the way home, making it home in 18+ minutes. My legs were kind of tired throughout the whole run, but I didn't do anything to try and loosen up, I just tried to get through the run. The plan is no more hard efforts, a longer run tomorrow and then relax up through Saturday. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica, twice around the Pond. The usual routine this morning and out the door at 7 on the dot. Last night I was thinking about a hard 10 miler along the river, but I wasn't that excited about it and my Achilles was nagging at me by tht end of yesterday. I woke up and my Achilles was a little bit tight, so I stuck to the dirt and took my time getting into it. Everything was feeling good but my Achilles was a more sore than it has been recently, so I kept things easy until that loosened up. I've been cutting back on the Ibuprofen recently, but still icing a lot, so hopefully it's just my body getting recalibrated to fewer drugs. Whatever the reason I loosened up by the time I got to Huntington and didn't have any problems the rest of the way. I hit the Pond and started cranking a little bit more, I had a good rhythm going and was clipping along maybe just under 6:30s. A full loop around the Pond is roughly 1.5M from what I could measure online and my extra loop was 9:45ish. In order to bump things up a bit more I ran back to the stoplight where I got to the Pond, instead of taking the usual route leaving the Pond. On the way home I added on a bit through the trails by going around that small pond just across the street from JP. I really started cranking on the trails and back to Huntington, but the pace then slowed a bit on the first stretch of the Riverway. On the last stretch back to Landmark Center I picked it back up and pretty much kept it going through the Fens, after pausing because of the stoplight. I turned off at Westland Street instead of going up to Boylston to force myself to hit the Church first and run strides. I figured I was running so well today that I'd take advantage. I ran 4 or 5 strides, but the grass there isn't even enough to really get rolling. It was 57 degrees when I started the run and 58 degrees when I finished, the ground was damp but not muddy, great for running. Comfortable temps the whole way and too cold for any humidity. Only 68 minutes this morning, but I was flying pretty well at times and yesterday gave me a bit of a buffer, so I'll round up. Good way to wake up. | 11 |
| Sunday | Walden. Kathryn and I picked up Jake at 7:30am and drove out to Walden where we met up with Nolan for today's long run. Kathryn ran 12M around the Pond while Jake, Nolan and I headed over to the Lincoln Conservation land. I was feeling pretty good today but we kept things relaxed the whole time. We just wandered around, hit most of the usual spots and whomever was leading made a decision when the trail forked. We picked things up a little bit after we passed the hour mark and dropped Jake off at the Pond at 1:40. Sean and I tacked on another 15:00 in Lincoln before heading back to the car. We wound up running 2 hours on the nose, which was a solid 17M, maybe a bit north of that. Temps were in the mid 60s this morning which felt really cool and was perfect for running. There were enough hill climbs scattered throughout the run to get my legs sore by the end, today was a solid effort but didn't leave me reeling at the end. We stretched out a bit in the parking lot before driving back to Boston, when I got home I iced down my Achilles, which has been behaving very well, even with the reduced Ibuprofen intake. Great way to start off the day, and the week. | 17 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 11 8/20-8/26 |
This week went a lot better than last week. I got things off to a good start with a solid 17 miler, even if it was a bit slow. I kept the mileage up through the rest of the week and my Achilles issue has been kept pretty much under control. By the end of the week I wasn't even noticing it during my runs. Wednesday's workout was decent, looking back on it I should have started out faster on the thousands than I did, and I would have liked a better 800m to finish the 2M. I think it's still a process of getting accustomed to running hard again and also understanding that this summer's mileage has started to pay off and I need to start expecting more. The workout didn't really hit me until Sean and I were running at Franklin the next day, and that was just some general fatigue. I like where this week's mileage ended up, I think the 105-110MPW range is where I should be staying for a while now. August Miles : 421 | 111 |
| Saturday | Extended Jamaica then Science Museum. I got up early this morning and planned to leave at 6:30am but stomach issues delayed the start and I didn't get going until 6:45am. The MIT team was starting their time trial at 8:20 and I had been hoping to get out to the Arboretum and back before they started. I got to the Arboretum in 33 and decided there was no way I could run the whole loop, so after running the stretch along the Arborway I turned around and headed back to Jamaica. The decision was a lot easier because I needed to use the Port-A-John at JP anyways. I was feeling good after the pitstop and sped up on the way back to MIT. I took the usual route back to MIT, crossing the T tracks and over the BU Bridge. I wound up making it to the track in 72:00, 5-10 minutes before the TT started. Sean and I watched the guys run then I headed over to the river and tried to loosen up. Thankfully my Achilles hadn't tightened up, just my quads were sore. I took it easy to Longfellow and once I got loose I got into it a little bit more. I picked it up some more after Science, I was feeling good but didn't get too crazy. When I got back to Mass Ave I ran into Yermie who must have cooled down via BU, so we ran the footbridge together then I headed south as he headed across the bridge. The loop wound up taking 28:00, so I put in a broken up 100 minutes this morning. I felt pretty good the whole time, aside from the stomach issues at the start, and the weather was great for running. I got home and iced while eating some breakfast then took a nap for an hour or two. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Out and back down Comm Ave. Kathryn's car was at the dealer for service, which is right where Comm Ave and North Beacon Street meet. We left together and ran to the dealer in 19:45, then she picked up the car and I ran home. I picked it up a lot on the way home and made it back in 15:30. I was feeling good the whole way, finished with a few strides up and down Clearway. Not much to say. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. Got started at 7am on the dot, it had been raining when I woke up but the rain had stopped when I got started. Feeling pretty good from the start, no Achilles issues, but the back of my left knee was sore when I woke up this morning. No pain while running, it feels like something I just need to stretch out really well for the next few days. I felt good heading down Comm Ave, had to pick it up early to get past a jogger who was trying to hold me off, but settled into a relaxed pace after the BU Bridge. The rain started coming down hard at the car dealership, it's been awhile since I've run in the rain. I felt good going up Summit but didn't hammer at all, just covering ground for the first part of the run. There wasn't anybody on the path around the Reservoir, not too surprising since it was overcast and felt like 5pm in mid-October. I started rolling a little bit on the way home, speeding up a bit after going past Vinny T's and picked it up a lot at the Holiday Inn. The rain had stopped earlier but picked up again around Coolidge Corner and kept coming the rest of the run. I backed off after going through Kenmore and made it back in 74:00. | 11 |
| Thursday PM | Franklin Park. I drove out to Franklin with the team today, Sean and I took off on our run as the guys were trying to figure out their groups, so we got a bit of a headstart and ran the whole way by ourselves. We ran the course twice, but didn't bother checking any splits. The first 3-4M was a lot of joking around, then we quieted down and just put in mileage the rest of the way. I started feeling yesterday's workout about 3M in, my quads got pretty tired the first time through the Wilderness Loop, I just tried to maintain from there. As the run went on things loosened up, the pace sped up slightly and I felt a little bit better. We picked up Wildman for the last mile, finishing around 66 minutes. Sean and I ran strides in right field as the guys worked on their downhill strides. Stretched out briefly before having to drive home. I didn't feel anything from the Achilles today, which was good. I didn't ice down until I got home around 6pm. As I was heading over to Johnson before the run the back of my knee was sore and tight walking down the stairs, I didn't feel it all during the run but it tightened up again in the shower. Doesn't feel like anything serious though. | 10 |
| Thursday AM | Run To Remember course. Usual routine this morning, I was running by 7:15am but forgot to tape my arch before I left. Things were a little bit sore at the start, but by the time I got to the Public Garden everything was loose and felt great the rest of the way. Running the whole way on pavement wasn't so great, but didn't aggravate my Achilles at all and I'm driving out to Franklin Park with the team this afternoon, so I think I'll be okay. Nothing really happened this morning, I picked the pace up a bit after I left Charles Street, but otherwise things were slow this morning. Finished up in 51:00, not a bad way to start off the day. I iced while eating breakfast, as usual, and it seems like I've got this injury on the run. I'm going to keep icing the way I have for at least another week to make sure it doesn't try to come back, and hopefully I'll be able to cut back on the Vitamin I, also. | 7 |
| Wednesday PM | BAA Workout at Harvard. 5x1000m; 2M on dirt path in 2:58, 2:57, 2:57, 2:54, 2:53; 9:56 (4:56/5:00.) I headed up the river to Harvard around 5:50 this afternoon not quite sure what to expect from this workout. My Achilles had been feeling good and I mainly wanted to test it out, and get used to running hard again. I wasn't sure what kind of effort my legs could handle and decided to shoot for 3:00-3:05 for the thousands. I ran into Friedman at the Weeks footbridge so we ran back to the track together and he told me about some 36M trail race he tried at the end of July. There was a big group of guys running the workout today: both Moultons, Matt Ely, John Dudley, Wayne Levy and Chris Magill, with a few more guys running different workouts or just stopping by. We got started and I let the Moultons pull away, but they still pulled me through a fast first 200, opening in 34. I backed off and came through in 71, then found a good pace and split 2:23 before finishing hard. Pretty much the same story on numbers two and three, the Moultons were going out in 65 and running 2:50 for their ks, I got out in 34-35 and came through in 69-70 and then right around 2:22 at 800. On the fourth one I thought I was running a good pace and not chasing down Casey and Pat, but came through in 33. Matt Ely went around at the start of the straightaway and we came through in 68. I just tucked in behind him and decided to just go along for the ride. We hit 800m in 2:18 and then I got up on Matt's shoulder for the last 100m. I was starting to feel it after that 2:54 and told Matt that if he wanted to run that fast I'd do my best to help out, but didn't think I could lead it running that fast. We got out hard and came through in 67, then Matt worked up to Pat as I fell off a bit. John Dudley and I wound up running together, hitting 2:17 and tying up slightly. We had 2:00 rest after each interval, which was a little more than the 200m jog back to the start. After the fifth we had 5:00 to get to the start of the mile loop and I was feeling pretty recovered by the time we got into it. Pat didn't know the loop so he said he was just going to run with us for the interval, I got out hard in the front right next to Pat and Casey. We hit the mile in a big group, the Moultons, Magill, Ely, John Dudley and myself all together in 4:56. I hung right behind Magill and Pat back past the start line to the right hander where I surged into the lead and tried to drop the pace. I got a step on Pat and then Matt came up on the left and I was running well for a few hundred meters. I had wanted to really push the second mile, but there was a bubble in my stomach all workout and I started burping a lot as we ran down that long straight, and as we turned right and headed towards the turf field I thought I was about to throw up. I slowed down a bit and the group gapped me, but after a second or two I was feeling better and managed to group back up, which I was pretty happy with. But on the right hand turn at the end of the fence I wound up losing a few seconds, and that's where things stayed. The group finished up at 9:54 and I was 2 seconds back. I took my time to catch my breath and wait for everybody to change out of their flats, then we headed out towards the river and I headed home as they went over JFK. The run home went by very quickly and my legs were feeling good the whole way. This workout was a bit easier than I was expecting, I'm realizing that I'm in better shape than I think that I am, and right now it's my mind and my expectations that are holding me back. Running 2:53 on the last one felt as comfortable as running 2:58 on the first one. I've made a leap in fitness thanks to the past few weeks in mileage, now I just need to make that same leap mentally, so I can start training and racing like I have. The warm-up and cooldown runs were pretty long, 26+ on the way out and 28+ on the way home, so I'm going to call them each 3.5M for a 7M total. I didn't feel my Achilles at all throughout the workout, which was very encouraging. I stretched out really well when I got home then strapped some ice to my ankle while making dinner and used the ice bath later in the night. | 12 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. You almost wouldn't know there was something wrong with me the way today's run went. I woke up and did my usual log reading then laced up my shoes for a short shakeout at 7:15am. I ran out of tape yesterday so I wasn't able to tape my arches, I didn't stretch and nothing ached as I went down the stairs. I started running without any pain/soreness and started to remember what it felt like to run without worrying about injuries. I quickly reminded myself that I am still injured, because it seems that whenever I start thinking I'm healhty, something goes wrong. I felt pretty loose the whole ran, but kept things relaxed (meaning slow.) Eventually my left ankle did start to hurt a little bit, just a small ache. The pain is getting close to the ankle bone, which has made the worst case scenario now a stress fracture. I tried not to think about that and just focused on feeling good as I ran down Comm Ave. I saw Aaron Wippold at Gloucester and stopped to say hi for a few seconds, otherwise no excitement. Wasn't brave enough to try strides for the second day in a row, but I'll get my legs moving tonight as the workout is 5x1000m; 2M. When I got to campus I stopped at the trainers to say hi to Tom Cronan and pick up some more tape and prewrap, then I taped up my arch when I got to the lab. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Fresh Pond + Grass Loop + Longfellow + Grass Loop. I woke up at the usual time but biked over to campus and started my run just before 8am. I headed down Vassar to Mem Drive and picked up the usual route out to the Pond. My Achilles was a little bit sore at the start, but not as sore as it's been the past few days. I wasn't running very fast, but my legs felt alright and I didn't have any trouble with the lights. Heading down Mt. Auburn there was a little bit of pain in my Achilles, but nothing terrible. Around the Pond my Achilles started feeling better, they have the road blocked off again, so I ran down to the golf course then back around to the usual jumping off spot by the Sunoco and left the Pond around 40-41 minutes in, which I think is pretty typical. Coming back my legs started to get really tired around Harvard Square and didn't really loosen up at all, which is weird. That's the second day in a row that they've felt really heavy and dead. I stopped at the track and said hi to Coach, who was about to start talking to the team about nutrition, so I headed out and tacked on a grass loop, then some laps around the soccer field and stretching while waiting for the lecture to end. We headed off to run Firebox as a big group, I mainly stayed in the back and caught up with some of the guys I haven't seen in awhile. The pace was comfortable and slow the whole way, but we sped up a bit near the end. I headed off for another grass loop as the guys went to run strides, but Jeremiah, a freshman, came along with me for the bonus lap. I wound up right at 1:45, so I'll call it a long 15M, because there's no way I can explain it being 16M, especially since Castle-Bunker Hill yesterday was short. From the time I hit the Pond through the end of the run I barely noticed the Achilles, even stopping and standing around for 10-15 minutes didn't bother it. I ran 6 barefoot strides afterwards and felt pretty quick, but maybe that's just because I haven't tried running fast in awhile. I stretched out for a bit before realizing how late it was. I took a quick shower, grabbed a breakfast sandwich and headed to the lab. No chance to ice this morning, but since I'm not running in the afternoon I'll spend a little extra time tonight taking care of things. I'm feeling good enough to give the BAA workout a shot tomorrow, I think. | 15 |
| Monday PM | Science Museum. Another good run without much Achilles pain. I headed down to the river just after 5:30 this afternoon for a change of scenery without completely abandoning soft surfaces. My legs were feeling pretty good but I ran slow again. At the very end though I had to sprint across Boylston as the light was changing and kept it quick down to Clearway without any problems. No excitement today, but it feels like things are on the right track injury wise. I got home and stretched out before an ice massage and shower. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I've gotten sick of heading out to Jamaica, actually I just didn't feel like dodging traffic on Huntington again. I slept without my arch taped and felt okay when I woke up, I got started with the run around 7:15 this morning and taped up my arch before I left. My Achilles was sore at the start and hurting pretty badly for the first few minutes, but once I got across the bridge it loosened up and didn't really bother me again. After going past 77 Mass Ave, just 8:00 into the run, my legs got really tired for no apparent reason and the prospect of running another 8.5M was not enticing. I just kept my head down and my legs eventually came around. I felt okay climbing up Prospect Hill but took it easy on the stairs. Heading along Washington my Achilles started tightening up a little bit, but nothing too bad. Some guy stopped me to ask for directions to MGH by the Scraft's building, so I stood around for a minute or so before heading up Bunker Hill. Luckily, nothing tightened up and I felt okay climbing. I kept things slow the whole way, nothing exciting on the way home, but running on the grass of the Comm Ave Mall felt great. I finished up around 65:00 (the route is definitely short,) so a minute or two slower than normal. I stretched out when I got home then iced down while eating breakfast. | 10 |
| Sunday | TriPeaks. It was 69 degrees when I woke up, but it was raining so I decided to wait a bit before running. I ate a little and then read some more of The World Is Flat before finally leaving after 10am. My Achilles had been feeling good all morning (I slept with my arch taped) but heading down the stairs it started to get a little sore. I kept things slow and easy at the start, got out to the Arboretum in just under 34:00 and was still debating whether to go short or long. I decided that as long as my Achilles didn't get any worse, it was just a little sore, that I'd run the long route. I felt good all the way through and actually after climbing Wushu my Achilles was feeling great. I was the most worried about that climb, since it's really steep and you essentially bounce on your toes, but I guess it stretched things out somewhat. I spent 53:00 in the Arboretum and felt good on all three climbs. I did my best to keep things under control back from the Arboretum, I wasn't hammering but I had a good pace back from the Pond and along the Riverway. I had to stop back at Landmark Center because of traffic and then my Achilles tightened up and stayed somewhat painful over the final 10 minutes. That was 1:50 into the run though, so I guess it was a combination of distance and stopping. I worked it out a little bit through the Fens, but it tightened up again waiting to cross Mass Ave, so I just shuffled the last few minutes home. Today wound up being a full 2 hours for this slightly long 17M route. Just a few minutes slower than usual, which I was pretty happy with. There were three big milestones I paid attention to today: 1) 66 minutes, which is when I got the bad spasm yesterday, but it came and went without incident today; 2) the spot on the Arborway where the spasm happened, thinking maybe the uneven sidewalk triggered something, again, no problem; 3) 1:38, which is how long I ran yesterday, and everything beyond that was uncharted territory. Happy with how things went today, felt like I'm on the right track again. The ice bath yesterday felt really good, so I did another when I got home. I put a gallon of water in the freezer while I run, then dump that, a tray of ice cubes and another 1-2 gallons of cold tap water into the bucket and stick my foot/calf in there for 15 minutes. Also, I started massaging and using The Stick last night, which felt like it helped a bit. I think the problem isn't actually the Achilles, but instead the "flexor hallucis longus," which is the big toe flexor, because whenever I'm really digging into it my big toe moves up and down. The treatment is the same, though, still no miracle cure. | 17 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 10 8/13-8/19 |
This week was all about two inches of gristle behind my left ankle. I was cautious with mileage and speed at the start of the week and things were getting better, but I probably let things get a little too crazy too soon and Wednesday/Thursday felt like a big setback. I got a new pair of shoes on Friday and that coupled with taping my arches made a noticeable difference. Saturday was a good 14 miler, aside from 10-15 minutes of bad pain after 10M. I would have liked for this week to be about 10M higher, but what can you do. It's hard to tell what direction this injury is going in. At times I think I'll wake up feeling fine and then other times I think this might take some time off to fix. I'm not expecting any miracle cures any more, but hopefully I can keep chipping away and wear this sucker out. This whole saga has overshadowed the end of the Mileage Chase Of 2006. Final totals were 761M in 72 runs, with maybe 16M left on the boards because of Brewer's wedding and another 5-10M missed because of the injury at the very end. If you want to count all the runs when Kathryn was out of town it comes to 787M on 74 runs, since I ran 12M the day she left and 14M the day she got home. Hopefully I can work through this Achilles junk and reap the benefits of all that work. August Miles : 310 | 103 |
| Saturday | Arboretum. I woke up at 6:30am to get some water and my Achilles was killing me, it wasn't quite as bad when I woke up for good at 9am. I spent a few hours working and icing, then warmed up my Achilles and started the run at 11am. I didn't bother taping my arch, but I probably should have. The first hour or so was pretty good, I got out to the Arboretum in just under 34:00 and ran the usual loop in just under 31:00. I wasn't lighting it up by any stretch, but I was feeling good and enjoying the run. I wanted to try running a hill hard to see how my Achilles would react, but forgot to on the main hills, so I put in a surge up a small hill near the end of the loop and felt fine. I left the Arboretum and was thinking how well things were going, there was a slight pain but it was right next to my left ankle, not my Achilles. Of course, on the way back to Jamaica, just 2 minutes after leaving the Arboretum, I had the worst twinge in my Achilles that I've had this week. It felt like I was stabbed or something, a very sharp pain as I lifted my foot, I didn't even put my left foot back onto the ground, I just hopped on my right foot. I immediately stopped and walked for a bit then stretched out my calf/Achilles but it was still sore. I stopped again to stretch out after leaving the Pond and things were still sore. I was in a pretty bad mood and resigning myself to likely taking some days off. Crossing Huntington I ran into J-Mark and he turned around and ran back along the Riverway to Landmark Center with me. I was feeling great on that stretch and back through the Fens, which is just really confusing. This thing seems to be coming and going randomly and for no apparent reason. I'd like to think that the new shoes are helping out, I'm planning on walking down to City Sports for a new pair of walking around shoes, so I can get rid of this old pair of running shoes I've been wearing around. I got home and stretched out then did a little ice massage before lunch (clementine, vegetables, burger.) I'm planning on going over to Economy Hardware this afternoon and buying a big bucket so I can do an ice bath that will cover my Achilles and calf. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Jamaica. I took my time getting started on this evenings run and was pretty full from snacking when I finally got out the door around 6:30. I got a new pair of Boston Classics and spent the day with my arches taped, and my Achilles felt a lot better out there this afternoon. Also, I soaked a washcloth in hot water and used it to heat up my Achilles before starting, but it didn't seem to make a big difference. I managed to get in the whole run without many issues though, which was encouraging. I was fighting my stomach all the way out to the Pond and decided to hit the Port-A-John, which turned out to be the right choice. The usual "better safe than sorry" option was a little more difficult because I didn't want my Achilles to tighten up, but I felt a whole lot better on the way home. My Achilles did tighten up for a bit, but by the time I was back to Huntington it was loose again. I got home and took the tape off my arches, which felt good since they'd been taped for about 10 hours and then cooked up a big plate of pasta. After dinner I put some ice water in Kathryn's foot bath and soaked my feet and the bottom of my Achilles, which felt good but didn't really get much of my Achilles, so I iced my calf/Achilles afterwards. I somehow managed to put in 18M today and felt decently good the whole way. Hopefully this weekend will give me a good chance to ice/massage and make some good inroads on this thing. Otherwise I may have to resort to the gallon of milk treatment (see Outdoor Track 2005.) | 9 |
| Friday AM | Jamaica. I waited until Kathryn left for the train station before running this morning, so I got a bit later start, just after 8am. I was feeling pretty good at the start and headed over to the trails through the Fens and along the Riverway. I had the genius idea to tape my arches this morning, thinking that might take some stress off of my Achilles. After a few minutes my Achilles was still sore and I am starting to accept the fact that there probably won't be a miracle cure for this one. Still, the first few miles were pretty painfree and I was feeling good. But after crossing Huntington on the way home the Achilles started to tighten up and got a bit painful. I semi-limped the last two miles home then stretched out very well before icing down during breakfast. | 9 |
| Thursday PM | Fens-Riverway with Kathryn. I came home early from the lab and iced a bit this afternoon, my Achilles was killing me all day. I think using The Stick after the morning run might have thrashed my leg more than I was expecting. We started around 5:30, went over to Blockbuster to return a movie and then took Westland to the Fens. I was feeling pretty good and kept the pace a little bit quicker than yesterday to keep my Achilles loose. We stopped at Huntington for a few minutes and I stretched out my calf before we headed home. We sped up near the end, but I didn't try a stride at the end like I did yesterday. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. My Achilles was sore as soon as I woke up this morning, which was kind of frustrating. I started a little after 7am and headed straight to the Fens. I could feel my Achilles from the start but it wasn't ever that bad, although it never loosened up the way it has the past few runs. I'm starting to regret running hard on pavement the past few days. Things had been going in the right direction earlier this week, but this thing seems to have gotten worse over the past two runs. It didn't screw up my stride or make me stop and stretch at all, and going around the Pond it felt like it loosened up a bit. It wasn't as bad on the way home, but it was definitely still there. I'm not willing to start cross training yet, but I'm also not willing to give up on the mileage I've run over the past two months, which isn't necessarily the best combination. I figure I'll keep heading out to Jamaica/Arboretum for awhile and hopefully things start feeling better. I was actually able to relax and not think about it over the last few miles of the run, started thinking about next year's XC Alumni meet. I officially signed up for this year's race and Coach told me that this year will be our last shot at winning it for awhile. Fivos has managed to keep his weekly total 2M ahead of mine so far, I wonder what he's got planned over the next three days. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. Pretty short day at work, we headed out right after 5pm. My Achilles was hurting basically the entire way, which wasn't very encouraging. I don't know if it was because we were running slower or because I hadn't stretched much today or because I hadn't been taking Ibuprofen throughout the day, but it was there the whole time. It wasn't anything bad enough to make me want to stop, but it wasn't something that I'd want to spend a lot of time running on. Needless to say, I'll be heading out to Jamaica tomorrow, and probably do that pretty often for the next week or more. Otherwise everything went well, my legs felt really good and the weather was great for running. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I don't need to be at the workshop until noon today, so I had some time to sleep in and took my time getting started this morning. I slept a solid 8+ hours and woke up feeling great. I started running just after 8am, didn't stretch out much before starting, but there was just a dull ache at the start, not a sharp pain, which is good. My legs were feeling pretty good but I kept the pace relaxed and just tried to get into the run for a bit. Nothing really happened until turning onto Summit, when I had a pretty bad twinge in the Achilles. It went away quickly but made the decision about whether to hammer the hill a lot easier. I didn't have any other problems with my Achilles the rest of the run, and given the whole run was basically on concrete that's a good thing. It seems like the situation is moving in the right direction. I got to the Reservoir and decided to speed up a bit and make the most out of the only part of this route that's on dirt. I may have gotten a bit carried away and started hammering a bit too hard, I relaxed when I left the Reservoir and my legs were aching a bit as I coasted from Cleveland Circle to Coolidge Corner. Around Coolidge Corner, though, I found a pretty quick rhythm and sped things up a bit for a few blocks. My stomach started acting up just after the Holiday Inn though, which threw me off a bit. I stopped just before Park Drive for a quick stretch and to give my stomach a chance to settle down and then just coasted back to the apartment. All in all not a bad day, pretty solid mileage this morning and no real injury issues despite a long run on the sidewalks. | 11 |
| Tuesday | Arboretum in 1:35, 5 minutes faster than Sunday. I slept just under 6 hours last night but jumped right out of bed and was feeling great. I got started at 6:45 this morning and remembered to stretch out my Achilles before I left. It ached for the first few minutes, but it wasn't as bad as it was at the start of yesterday's run, so hopefully that's improvement. By the time I got to the Fens and onto the dirt it was feeling fine. I had a few twinges throughout the run, but the last one was next to the railroad tracks in the Arboretum, about the halfway mark. The back half of the run was pain free. I had started out pretty relaxed, I wasn't forcing anything and was just covering ground. I got to the Arborteum in 33-flat and spent 31:00 running the usual route. It was raining from the start, so the ground was soggy in some places but it hadn't rained enough to soak the ground or make running difficult. When I hit Jamaica on the way home I started to speed things up, I wanted to finish off the run decently hard. I was moving pretty well back to the trails and kept the pace relatively quick on the trails too. I slowed down back to Huntington before picking it up to Landmark Center and through the Fens. I backed off over the last few minutes but threw in a slight pickup at the end and didn't have any problems with my Achilles. I got home and went straight to the bathtub to wash off, because my legs were caked in mud, but still but in some good stretching after I got clean. | 14 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. Spent a long time at the workshop today and then went to dinner at Harvest afterwards. Got home just after 8:30, laced my shoes up and headed right out the door as soon as I got home. I don't know why, but I felt like I was floating along today, my legs were so fresh and turnover came very easily. Maybe the 3 Ibuprofen I had 45 minutes earlier were starting to kick in. I was cruising at the start and kept the pace pretty quick to the Common. I don't really know quite how fast I was running, because running in the dark always feels faster, but my legs were feeling good so I wasn't afraid to crank. Really picked it up when I hit Hereford and was cruising when I hit Clearway. My Achilles was feeling great, I only felt it once when I stepped on the edge of the curb and stretched out my calf a little bit. I was really encouraged with how this evening's run went, hopefully it's an indication of how I'll feel now that I'm dropping back to 100MPW range. Stretched out really when I got home and did an ice massage while eating some fruit. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I did a good job of getting started shortly after waking up, I was out the door by 6:20 this morning because I have to be at Harvard for a workshop by 9am today. I don't know if I turned too quickly when I left or started too soon after hitting the sidewalk, but I tweaked my Achilles somehow and it was sore for the first few blocks. Then I remembered that I had been awake for only 15 minutes or so and didn't stretch at all before starting, by the time I got to the bridge I was feeling a bit better. I kept things easy and tried to avoid stretching/straining my Achilles, things were fairly slow to Castle. Climbing Prospect Hill started to aggravate my Achilles, so I stopped at the top and spent a few minutes stretching, got a really good stretch by standing on the edge of a step and letting my heel hang down. Felt a lot better once I got started again and sped up when I got back to Washington. Coach Taylor advised me to speed up my runs as I start cutting the mileage back down to the 100MPW range to avoid an early peak/taper. It's basically conservation of effort, fewer miles requires greater speed. I didn't want to hammer the hills though, so I backed off for the climb up Bunker and to the Monument, but picked it back up again going across the Charlestown Bridge, past Faneuil Hall and down the Comm Ave Mall. I was feeling really good today, even though my Achilles was still nagging at me a bit. Today's run was 100% concrete, I'll probably wind up running out to Jamaica pretty often this week to avoid that. I felt like I put in a very solid effort today, my legs were getting a bit tired coming down Comm Ave. Last night I felt like I had slacked off by only running 14 miles, it was strange to be watching the Sox without my legs killing me and I wasn't all that hungry at dinner. I don't know if that's a good sign that I'm getting into decent shape, or a bad sign that backing off to 14-15 miles a day isn't going to do much for me. Yesterday was certainly the end to the mileage chase, I think my body was trying to tell me something on Saturday. Today was going to be the last day anyways, so I'm only missing out on around 10 miles. I got home and stretched out really well then strapped some ice to my Achilles while eating my corn flakes. Found out this morning that Fivos, taking advantage of my semi-injured state, is ramping up his Sunday mileage to get his weekly total above mine. | 10 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. I spent the rest of yesterday icing my calf and Achilles off and on, and I hit the Ibuprofen pretty hard, so I was hoping not to feel it today. Unfortunately, shortly after I woke up my Achilles was pretty sore, I used the Stick on it, which made it ache even more, and then got a pretty good stretch which helped out a lot. I was a bit anxious when I started at 10:30am, but I couldn't feel anything over the first few steps, which made me relax and get into the run a bit more. I guess the key to getting out the door early on the weekends is to be injured, because I wasn't trying to come up with any excuses for not running early today, I wanted to know how bad the Achilles was. I think that the combination of ice, drugs, running on dirt and going back to my old shoes all played a part, but I put in the whole run without being bothered by the Achilles. It was one of those situations where had I not been monitoring it closely the whole time I never would have thought there was anything wrong. The plan today was to head out to the Arboretum with the option of turning back at Huntington or just going around Jamaica, but nothing longer than 14M, regardless of how things felt. I took all the hills easy so that I didn't stress the Achilles much and I felt pretty good the whole time. I was running a bit slower than normal, I didn't want to get up on my toes at all and was admittedly a little gun-shy the whole time, expecting things to fall apart. I got to the Arboretum in 34:20, spent over 31:00 on the normal loop there and made it back home in just a bit under 34:00. Once I got to past Huntington on the way home, which came right around the 80 minute mark, where I started feeling the Achilles yesterday, I relaxed a bit and stopped worrying about the injury so much. I got home and stretched out really well then foam rolled a bit before icing and some Corn Flakes. The plan for today is just ice and drugs, avoid poking and prodding it, just let it rest. I'm going grocery shopping, too, so I'll get some Dixie cups for ice massages, so far I've just been using a frozen Gatorade bottle and one of those things you put in a cooler. Maybe tonight I'll take a little walk to warm it up a bit and then do some stretching and go at it with The Stick again, but if it's getting better on it's own I don't want to interfere. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 09 8/6-8/12 |
Pretty decent week, another small increase in mileage and my legs are still feeling good. Got the week off to a great start with a long 18 miler through the Arboretum and just kept after it the rest of the week. Added in some hard stuff on Wednesday, very happy with how the first 4M of the workout went, not quite focused enough over the final two miles. Still, it's good to get used running hard and dealing with that kind of pain before the Alumni meet. High mileage doesn't directly translate to hammering over 5 miles. I think it took a few days for me to get past that workout, I was dragging a bit on Thursday and Friday and not very excited about getting out the door in the afternoons. My legs came around on Saturday though, I was really enjoying the run through Southie but on the way home my Achilles started acting up and I had to cut things a little bit short. Hopefully that's just a one day blip on the radar. August Miles : 207 | 124 |
| Saturday | Docks backwards plus Old Ollie plus New Ollie. I got started just after 10am today, the temperature was still pretty cool, after it dropped to the mid-50s overnight. I was feeling pretty good at the start and was running pretty comfortably. The run went by pretty quickly, I headed into Southie along L Street and took the normal route to the G Street climb, but I stayed on Broadway down to the ocean instead of turning onto L. I ran out and back along the boarwalk to Castle Island then the route back was right on Farragut, left on First Street, right on L/Summer. Instead of heading back to the convention center I turned into the Marine Industrial Park and wandered around there until I found my way out. I'm pretty sure I didn't follow the race route, but there weren't any street names on the map, so I just made something up. After running past the docks and through the hotel my left Achilles started hurting a lot, it felt like it was getting pinched. I stopped at the baseball diamonds along the water, got a drink from the bubbler and spent a few minutes stretching out the Achilles/calf. I couldn't get a good stretch of the Achilles though, but it didn't hurt after I started up again. But heading past the Garden it started hurting again and it got pretty bad going down Cambridge St. I decided to be cautious and took Charles Street back to Comm Ave and went straight home, instead of heading across Longfellow like normal. I wound up right at 100 minutes, so a solid 15 miler, no strides or anything when I got home. I figure the run would have wound up as a long 16M had I taken it across the bridge. I think that's going to be the end of the Supernova Cushion experiment, I took them off as soon as I got home and put them as far away from me as I could. Maybe it's just a coincidence that my Achilles started hurting right as I switched shoes, but that's the only thing I've changed in the past few days and I'd been running a lot with no problems in the Boston Classics for a long time. I didn't take a misstep anywhere and didn't tweak it at all, things just started acting up out of nowhere. Hopefully an aggressive I-squared treatment today will have me running pain free tomorrow. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line. Even though I got home from the lab just after 4pm today, I was so tired that I sat around until after 6pm before finally running. I got a new pair of adidas Supernova Cushion's today, so I laced those up to try them out. I'm used to running in the Boston Classics, so I'll be paying pretty close attention to how the shoes feel for a few days. They were a little bit loose down in the toebox, but otherwise felt good. My legs certainly appreciated running in a new pair of shoes. Absolutely no desire to tack on an extra mile at the Common, I just wanted to get this run over with as soon as I could. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow after sleeping in. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Fresh Pond. Got a little bit later start than normal, got out the door at 7:30 this morning. Shuffling a bit at the start, my left Achilles took a few minutes to get stretched out, which is a new thing. Temps when I woke up this morning were in the mid 60s, which made running a lot more enticing. Once I got across the bridge I was feeling a little bit better and the stretch to the Pond slipped away pretty quickly. I was running just over 7:00 pace based upon the half mile split at the Pond and started picking things up slightly down Brattle Street. As I got closer to MIT the pace started slowing, though, and I was debating taking a pit stop in Building 7. I opted against it and finished up in 82:00, a pretty slow run this morning. Only a few more days of the crazy high mileage, hopefully my legs will start feeling better when I bring things back down into the 90-100M range. Also, I only slept 6.5 hours last night, which couldn't have helped things at all. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line plus lap around the Common. I got going around 6:30 tonight, I probably should have waited a while longer but I didn't want to be running late in the day. One good thing about running at lunch is that I wound up staying later at the lab and felt more productive, even though I had taken an hour or so out of the day to go run. I was pretty damn sore at the start and was thinking about cutting back and going just 4M. I was pretty set on that until I got near the Common. I had loosened up enough and felt like going longer, so I headed around the perimeter when I got to the Common. Finished up down Comm Ave, but my legs started getting tired over the final 2M or so. I guess the triple isn't such a great idea, I'd rather just run 19M in two runs, but it was worth a shot. | 5 |
| Thursday Noon | Grass Loops. I thought today I'd see what this whole "running in the middle of the day" thing that Fivos and Jake have been doing. I left the lab at 1:25pm, headed over to the Z Center and was on the grass by 1:30pm. I was feeling pretty good, my legs were fresh and it was nice to run in some warm temps. I spent most of the run trying to remember how I ever ran 9-10M worth of loops out there, I barely made it four-plus loops before a short stride down the track and then straight to the lockerroom. I picked up a chicken cutlet from LaVerde's on my way back to the lab, running in the middle of the day isn't such a bad idea. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica with Jake. Biked over to PKT to meet Jake at 7:15 this morning and we headed back to the Fens then out to Jamaica along the Riverway. My quads were damn sore at the start, but I wasn't sure if that was from biking over or from the workout last night. We started out pretty easy, but after a few miles it was clear that Jake wanted to get rolling. I did my best to keep up, we didn't get going crazy at all but kept a pretty good pace the whole way, and finished up through the Fens and down Comm Ave faster than we started. The run went by pretty quickly this morning, after a few minutes my quads loosened up and I wasn't sore at all from yesterday. We spent pretty much the whole time talking, which is a nice change from running alone in the mornings. Just 61 minutes this morning, but I've put enough in the bank to get by with calling it 10M. When we got back to PKT I helped Jake climb through the window since he forgot his key, then he opened the front door for me so I could pump up the tires on my bike, which have been flat for months. I found out this morning that entrusting a one run lead to the Sox bullpen isn't always the greatest idea, but I didn't expect Papelbon to blow it. | 10 |
| Wednesday PM | BAA Workout at Harvard. 2M-1M-2M-1M in 9:55; 4:45; 10:02; 4:47. Ran the 2M as two loops of the dirt road along the perimeter and ran the miles on the track. I headed out to Harvard along the river just before 6pm, got to the track with enough time to hit the john and run a few strides. I was feeling pretty good and looking forward to running hard; knowing that you're about to kick your own ass is a strange feeling. The group today was Wayne Levy, Matt Ely, Terry Shea and John Dudley; Wayne, Matt and Terry were planning on running around 5:10s so I went straight to the front from the start and John was right with me. We pretty much stayed like that the whole interval, we came through the mile in 4:55, pretty much where I wanted to be and the second mile started getting long. About 400m into the second mile my legs were getting pretty tired, not accustomed to running that fast for that long. I managed to keep things together, stayed relaxed and finished up the second mile in 5:00. We had 6:00 rest before starting the mile and I put in a lot of jogging but could have used a bubbler. Billions of dollars in endowment and Harvard can't afford to put a freaking bubbler on their track? This afternoon was a lot hotter than I was expecting and I had a feeling it was going to be a long day when I was thirsty by the time I got to Western Ave on the warmup. I got out a bit too fast to start the mile, 33-high, I'm not adjusted to running on a track, and came through in 71-2:23-3:34-4:45. I was happy with how the mile went, I ran hard the whole way and wound up running the whole thing by myself. During the 3:00 rest period I went straight over to the softball field where I ran through the sprinklers they had going in the outfield, but those suckers are hard to drink from. I at least got cooled off and a few of the drops hit my mouth, so I was feeling a little bit better. John said he was only going to run 1-1.5M on this one but he'd stick with me, which really helped me out. We got out together and basically ran side by side through the first mile in 4:56. I wasn't expecting it to be that fast and once John stopped the pace slowed a bit. Heading along Soldier's Field Road I heard the footsteps of somebody closing in on me so I just focused on staying ahead. Turning right and heading towards the gate my legs started to come back around and I closed decently well, but ran just 5:06 for that mile, a really rough half-mile stretch or so in the middle. I ran over to the sprinklers again to cool off before the final interval. The workout was going by very quickly by this point, just 4 laps of the track left. Terry and Wayne had called it a day, so Matt, John and I were all that was left. Matt offered to take it out in 72-73 and then I could pick it up from there, but I wanted to hit straight 71s so I told him I'd just go from the start. Got out in 35-high but then slowed a bunch and came through in 72 high. From there we were 2:25 with Matt and John closing in on me. With 600m to go I knew the finish was going to be rough, I did my best to stay out front and keep trucking. We hit 1200m in 3:37 all bunched up and I spent the last lap trying to hold the two of them off. Coming around the final turn I felt John getting a run on me so I went to the outside of lane one to let him slip past on the inside if he wanted. Matt went to my right and the three of us charged down the homestretch together, all finishing in 4:47. I was prett spent after that finish, but I think it was more from the fast last lap than the 6M of work, because once I got my legs going again I was feeling okay. I chatted with Pieroni for a little bit then took off down the river. I wasn't nearly as tired as I anticipated being when I got home, I expected to be wobbling around, etc. but my legs felt fine after the 25+ minute jog home. I ordered a much-deserved pizza from Little Steve's and watched part of the Sox game. Around 11pm I started getting really tired, trusted the 4-3 lead to the bullpen and headed to bed. | 12 |
| Wednesday AM | Science. I slept in a little bit this morning, woke up at 6:45 to temperatures in the mid 60s, a great morning for a run. I was only looking for a little shakeout though, so I headed down to the river at 7:15. Everything was nice and easy the whole way, pretty much the definition of a shakeout. Nothing was hurting, which made the run even nicer. I forgot to mention yesterday that as we were heading down Mt. Auburn just after Harvard Square we ran into Todd Chamoy who has apparently just moved back to town. | 5 |
| Tuesday PM | Fake Fresh. I headed over to campus just before 5:30 and met up with Nolan and Wildman for this afternoon's run. El Peludo was planning on meeting us, but he hurt his calf yesterday and is taking things easy for a few days. We don't have many choices for routes from campus, so we ran the tried and true Fake Fresh. There were a few stretches of surges in there for stupid reasons like passing people running on the other side of the river and trying to get away from a bus that had extremely loud brakes and kept stopping right as we passed it. We got back to campus and my stomach was unsettled so I opted out of strides, Wildman had to leave right away and Nolan didn't feel like strides either, so the two of us just sat around shooting the bull for awhile before I headed home to finish things off. The plan for tomorrow's afternoon workout is 2M-1M-2M-1M. Should be fun. | 7 |
| Tuesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. Headed out to Comm Ave around 7:10am, my hip was pretty tight and sore for the first few minutes but by the time I got to BU I was feeling fine. Pretty boring run this morning, things were more or less slow today, didn't feel too fast climbing Summit, but didn't feel too tired from climbing, either. Finished up in 69:00, there's really nothing to say about this morning's run. Just mileage. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Jamaica. It was a little bit longer than normal day in the lab so I didn't get going until almost 6:30 this evening. I've really started to like running this loop, it's a pretty easy way to put in nine miles, because once you cross Huntington you're almost instantly to the Pond, the lap around the Pond isn't very long and then you're back on the trails to Huntington, after which it's just 2.5M home. The whole thing breaks down into very manageable chunks and it doesn't really feel like I'm out there very long. Nothing was hurting today, just a very relaxed run to finish off the day. Didn't bring a watch but I doubt I was running very fast, just let the legs do what they wanted to do. | 9 |
| Monday AM | Arboretum. My alarm went off at 6am but I didn't get up until 6:20 and managed to leave for the Arboretum by 6:45. I drove over there this morning to get the whole run in on soft surfaces and hills, I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, it took me 15 minutes to get there and I was running at 7am. I was running very slow at the start, very stiff and still half asleep. I ran the usual route to the back half and ran the perimeter there, which put me 20+ minutes into the run. Then I started running hill repeats, for lack of a better phrase, on the Big Green Hill. I'm reluctant to call them hill repeats because I wasn't attacking or hammering the hills, I just wanted a 10-12M run with plenty of hills, instead of the usual route with just one big hill, like Summit or G Street. I climbed up Big Green Hill and turned right at the top and ran clockwise along the perimeter back to the bottom of the hill. Then I climbed up Big Green Hill and turned left, running counterclockwise along the perimeter back to the bottom of the hill. One of those circuits or figure eights with 2 hill climbs took 12:30, so I ran four of them and then took the usual route back to the gate. I was feeling okay after the first climb and didn't really have any trouble climbing the hill eight times. I realized on the second circuit that it was the monotony of running the same thing for 50 minutes that was daunting, not climbing the hill. Near the end of the second circuit I was heading back by the train tracks and there was a small collie with no owner in the path. I went around him and he started running next to me, but then started trying to bite me so I stopped and tried to juke him. I tried that about three times and each time he went straight at my foot, biting it pretty well once. I tried outsprinting him for 10 seconds but couldn't get away. So I wound up stopping and he just stared at me until I started yelling and clapping and got him to leave. As I was running away I heard his owner calling his name and almost went back to yell at the guy for not keeping track of his dog. That was probably as close as I've come to hitting a dog. Nothing else interesting happened for the rest of the run, the sky was getting pretty dark but it never rained. The temps were very comfortable, all in all a great 83 minute run, a very solid 12M this morning. | 12 |
| Sunday | Extended TriPeaks. I was out the door before 8:30am today and not feeling too great. I felt fine when I woke up, but by the time I made it downstairs and to the sidewalk I was tired again. I slept almost 9 hours last night, so I'm not quite sure why, but my legs were okay once I got started. My hip and knee didn't bother me at all but my right ankle was really sore at the start. I was running pretty slow through the Fens but felt a lot better along the Riverway and around Jamaica. I got to the Arboretum in 34:30, I was surprised at how slow that was, but I got to the Riverway in twelve minutes, about a minute slower than normal, so it seems like it was just the start of the run that slowed me down. I felt good through the Arboretum but wasn't too excited about climbing the three hills. I actually felt great up the Big Green Hill, the climb felt effortless, so I'm either getting better at climbing, getting stronger or was just running very slowly up the hill. I made it from the bottom of the Big Green Hill to the top of Corkscrew in 25:40, but since I've never timed that before I don't really know what that means. I tacked on an extra 6:10 by going around the backside of Mount Wushu and then came back along the paved path at the base of Wushu. When I got to the path running parallel to the Arborway I started speeding up and left the Arboretum 59+ minutes after entering. I tried to keep things rolling the rest of the way home and actually was feeling pretty good. I had decent turnover back to Huntington and really got rolling over the last stretch of the Riverway and through the Fens. I got home in 31:15 for a total running time of 2:05 today. Since TriPeaks is normally 17M and a bit long I figured the 6:10 would be enough to bump it up to 18M, but today was probably closer to 19M. I wasn't really expecting to be out there for over two hours, but I felt really good the whole way. 18M means 6:56 pace and 19M means 6:35 pace, so it's probably somewhere in between. I'll round down for today and then just know that I've got a little leeway for the rest of the week. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 08 7/30-8/5 |
Another week, another mileage record. There was some heat to deal with in the middle of the week, but nothing as bad as the news reports predicted. Running early in the mornings helped beat the heat, too. Things got off to a good start with 17M on Sunday and then a 22M day on Monday, but I spent the middle of the week dead on my feet. Hopefully it was more a function of the heat than the mileage, my legs came around by the end of the week and I put in a pretty good effort for 5k on Saturday. It would have been nice to get in a workout on Wednesday, but I guess you don't mess around with threats of temperatures in the 100s. I didn't back off at all for the race at the end of the week and still put it a sub-15:00, so things seem to be progressing well. The whole race felt fast, but I felt like I could have tacked on another mile or so holding that pace. Not a surprising situation, the mileage is to be paying off on the strength side, but there's a whole lot of sharpening to do if I want to run fast. There's nothing on the schedule between now and Alumni; no plans for a formal taper then, put the day before certainly won't be 15M. August Miles : 83 | 122 |
| Saturday PM | Jamaica. I had originally planned on a 15M day for a solid 120M week, but I was pretty bored and falling asleep during Bad Boys II so I decided I might as well go for a little bit longer run. I spent some time replaying this morning's race in my head, I should have never let Nephi Tyler gap me and then once he did I gave up a little bit which lead to Nolan bridging the gap up to me. Both of those thoughts kept me pretty motivated and the pace was aggressive pretty much the whole time. Around the Pond I heard somebody closing on me really quickly and didn't have it in me to hold him off, but it turned out to be Jared Markowitz doing a workout around the Pond. He was moving pretty good when we passed me and we didn't get a chance to say anything more than "hi." The run went by pretty quickly and was pretty much over before I realized it. I was feeling great at the start of the run, but I must have gotten distracted around 7.5 or 8 miles in, because somebody switched my calves with a pair of rocks for the last 10:00 of the run while I wasn't paying attention. The fatigue from this morning really just hit me all of a sudden, but I managed to push through and finish off the run at a decent clip. I didn't bring my watch because I didn't want to worry about how fast or slow I was running, I just wanted to put in the miles. | 9 |
| Saturday AM | 5k in 14:56. Drove down to New Bedford with Nolan and Wildman, after getting a little lost on the way we only had 35 minutes to warm up. I managed to get in about 10-12 minutes of running before hitting the bathroom. My hip was a little sore for a few minutes at the start of the run, but after that neither my hip nor my knee gave me any problems once I got loosened up. I was a little concerned about it since the strides on Thursday bothered me, but no problems at all. I had a few minutes to stretch out before taping my arches and heading over to the line. The temps weren't too bad but the sun was up in the sky with no clouds so I dumped some water over my head, but that had pretty much evaporated by the start. I got out in the front with Nephi Tyler and John Mortimer just behind me. We were running a pretty decent clip and I got tired of leading, so at first turn I tucked in behind Mortimer, but that turned out to be a bad decision as he started hammering at the same time. Mortimer, Nephi Tyler and I stayed together through 5 or 6 minutes, the Mortimer started working and gapped Nephi and I. Nephi and I went back and forth for a few hundred meters before he pulled away, too. Around 10:00 in Sean came up on me and that jump started my legs again. He nearly gapped me once but I managed to hang in there since I had a feeling I could outkick him. I cut loose about 800m from the finish and beat him to the line by :02. I cooled down for 3+M doing my best not to cramp up, and then spent some time chatting with Jim Dandeneau. After a bit I grabbed a hot dog and soda and headed home. I was a little disappointed in how things went today, I was hoping to hang with Mortimer for longer than I did and would have liked to finish about :10 faster. However, given that I'm in the middle of a big block of base training and back to back 120M weeks without backing off for this one, so all in all I think it went pretty well. | 8 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line with an extra lap around the Common. I waited until 6pm to get started this afternoon and originally was planning on going 4M at the start but I got to the Common and decided to run an extra mile around the Common. I was pretty full the whole time so the run wasn't the most comfortable and by the time I got home I didn't feel like running any strides so I just went upstairs. I was feeling okay the whole way, not very fresh but not completely dragging ass either. We'll see how things go tomorrow. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I was up and ready to run by 7am but started washing some dishes and didn't get started until 7:30. My right hip was tight and painful down Mass Ave to the bridge and then across the bridge my hip stopped hurting and my right knee started hurting. By the time I got off the bridge I was feeling fine, I guess it just took a little while to loosen up. From the time I stepped out the door there was a misting rain that kept up until I hit Bunker Hill. I felt fine the whole way, at the start I was consciously holding back and keeping things easy but after climbing the hill there wasn't any need to hold back because my legs were tired enough to keep the pace slow on their own. I finished up with a few strides down Clearway. | 10 |
| Thursday PM | Fake Fresh. I met Nolan and Wildman at Johnson for this one, we headed west on the river at 5pm. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for a run, the skies were blue but the heat and humidity has disappeared, probably mid 70s with a cool breeze. I had been dead tired since about 3pm and even though I took a half an hour nap in the library I wasn't that excited about running this afternoon. Thankfully, once we got started I woke up and wasn't feeling tired at all. We kept things real easy, I don't think anybody really wanted to get rolling today. On our way down Mass Ave we saw George Hanson and as we stopped to say hi, Matt Lehman biked by, so we had a small reunion just outside of the People's Republic. I finished with some barefoot strides on the infield, ran decently fast but felt like I was forcing everything and by the end my right hip was aching. I don't know if the mileage is starting to catch up to me, or if I'm not sleeping enough, or if the heat is getting to me, but I've been feeling pretty tired for the past few days. Hopefully that will go away by this weekend. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Docks backwards plus Old Ollie. I had a meeting early this morning so I got out the door at 6:40 to get a headstart. It took a little bit of effort to get out of bed this morning, but once I started running I felt fine. It's still pretty hot and humid, just a real pain in the ass to deal with. I got down to the convention center in the usual time but forgot to time the Ollie Loop. I was running at a decent pace through Southie but didn't get a great start on climbing G Street. I managed to really hammer the last quarter though and then let the pace slip as I looped around, and got so distracted I forgot to turn left onto G Street, I almost headed back down to Carson Beach. There was a pretty nice breeze along the Harbor which made that section of the run much easier. My right knee had been bothering me from the start of the run until I got to around the Courthouse, when my knee stopped hurting and my right hip started. I haven't been diligent enough with stretching and icing, hopefully this doesn't develop into anything serious. The Marriot had their AC cranking so high that the hotel felt like a meat locker, definitel the highlight of the run. Heading up to Cambridge Street at 70:00 my legs started getting tired and they pretty much left me completely when I hit Longfellow at 75 minutes. I slowed a bit, running 7:00 along the river and back across Mass Ave. There was a long line of traffic on the bridge, so instead of a nice crosswind off the river I had heat and exhaust blowing into my face all the way to 200 Smoots. Too tired and rushed to get any strides in today, I'll get some this afternoon and definitely tomorrow. | 13 |
| Wednesday PM | Jamaica, with an extra loop around the Pond. I found out around 9:30 this morning that the workout was cancelled because temps were supposed to climb above 100 degrees today. I got took off through the Fens at 6pm tonight and wouldn't have known it was dangerously hot today if it hadn't been the #1 story of the day, all day. It was a little warm at the start but the sun was on the way down and a cool breeze was picking up. On the way out to Pond I was convinced it was going to start storming, all the usual signs were there (wind blowing hard, sky unusually dark, temps dropping, etc.) There were a few flashes of lightning in the sky, but everything was south of the Pond, the sky back above downtown was still blue, so I figured I'd be alright. I stopped at the Port-A-John (I keep using the one that rocks, which has to hurt my lawsuit chances, but it's the handicapped one and I like the roominess) and right as I was finishing up the wind really picked up and the Port-A-John started shaking. I was feeling much better and ran the extra loop in 10:30, in retrospect I should have kept going back to where I get to the Pond, instead of following the standard route home, that probably would have added on enough distance to make today a true 11M. I felt fine most of the way home, but once I hit the Fens my stomach started killing me. I struggle-catted the rest of the way home, finishing up with 74:00 for what was probably a short 11M. Not the best run today, but at least I got in the mileage. | 11 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line backwards. Got going at 7am on the dot for just a quick shakeout because I'm planning on going to the BAA workout tonight. Temps were only in the low 80s this morning, but the dewpoint must have been 78 or so, it was incredibly humid. I ran the route backwards because I wanted to make sure I hadn't gotten a parking ticket and it worked out well because I finished with a few strides on the grass in front of the Church. After the second stride I was feeling pretty good, I wanted to loosen up a bit in anticipation of tonight's workout 2x(1M-800-1M) and also to recruit some speed for the 5k I'm running on Saturday. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | BU-Longfellow. I ran over to MIT at 5pm and met Sean and Wildman there for some afternoon mileage. We kept things easy the whole way, just chatting it up and my legs were feeling pretty good. On the way over to MIT my right hip was aching but that loosened up by the time I got across the bridge. It was stupid hot out today, but it didn't really affect things as much as I had been expecting. By the time we got back to MIT my shorts were pretty well soaked. We stretched out and talked some more on the track and then I headed back across the bridge to get home. I wasn't that tired during the run, but my legs really started aching after I got home and stretched out again. | 7 |
| Tuesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I was really tired this morning after 7 hours of sleep and had to drag myself out of bed. After sitting around for a little bit I got out the door at 7:15 and it took a few minutes for my legs to wake up again. By the time I was heading out of Kenmore on Comm Ave I was feeling pretty good though. I was surprised that I wasn't very sore from yesterday's mileage, I guess I'm just getting used to it. My legs started to gradually get more tired and I wasn't feeling so chipper anymore when I got to Summit. I climbed the hill pretty aggressively though and my legs were feeling alright. I saw Nolan just before the Reservoir but he was going the other direction. I kept things pretty easy around the Reservoir and then slowly started pushing things on the way home. Didn't ever get rolling though, just wanted to keep the pace from slowing to a crawl. My legs weren't really holding me back, I just didn't feel like running fast at all today. I saw Liyan riding his bike just after Cleveland Circle, it took me a second or two to recognize him with his helmet on. I basically just cruised the rest of the way home, not a bad run to start off August. Rumor is that the weather's going to get insanely hot again, but things were nice this morning. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I got out the door sans watch at 5:30 this afternoon really dragging some ass. I timed the runs pretty well today, since I saw the 3 Tufts guys in the morning and then ran past Adam Fitzgerald just before Central this afternoon. I just tried to relax and not think about the rest of the run and as I was heading east on Prospect my legs started feeling better. I got pretty tired climbing up Prospect Hill but started feeling better when I got down to Washington and I managed to climb up Bunker Hill pretty well. I pretty much just coasted the rest of the way home, but my legs were feeling really good and I didn't feel the effects of the 22M I ran today, maybe I'll feel it in the morning tomorrow. I went to Shaw's afterwards to get some fruit and vegetables, it's been awhile I've had those. I came home to another big plate of spaghetti, left over from last night. July Miles : 510 | 10 |
| Monday AM | Fresh Pond. I got started right at 7am but it took a few minutes for my legs to fully wake up. I slept about 7.5 hours and was feeling okay when I got up, but I guess my legs weren't awake yet. Anyways, I shook that off pretty well and started moving when I hit the bridge, I saw Brigham, Bromka and Kaye running the other direction, I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen them more often, living just a mile away from them. I kept things moving along the river to Mt. Auburn, I wasn't hammering at all but I had a good rhythm going. I clocked the half mile at the Pond at 3:20 and picked things up a little on the way home. I was getting a little bit tired as I came down Mass Ave but it wasn't anything serious. I finished up in 76:00 today, a pretty good run to start off the day. The weather wasn't too hot this morning, which definitely made things easier. | 12 |
| Sunday | TriPeaks. I should have gone right at 8am when I got out of bed, but wound up sitting around and then ran some errands and didn't get going until after 4:30 this afternoon. Luckily the weather had been pretty cool all day, so even though the sun was still up in the sky it was really comfortable weather for running. I took the normal route through the Fens and along the Riverway, the only exciting thing was the guy driving the wrong way in the rotary by Jamaica. He clearly didn't know what he was doing, but had Mass plates on his car, how anyone from MA can be confused by a rotary, I have no idea. I got out to the Arboretum in 32:50 and was feeling pretty good. I wasn't running that fast but I was expecting my legs to be sore and tired from yesterday's effort, but there weren't any ill effects at all. I felt like I was running the hills in the Arboretum pretty well, I went up the Big Green Hill really well, picked a bad route up Wushu and pretty much had to hike over the top. I was fine climbing the Corkscrew but on the way out of the Arboretum I started to feel a little tired. I wound up spending just over 50:00 climbing the three big hills and then pretty much just tried to get home. Pretty standard run home, made it back in 32:30. The inside of my left ankle had been hurting from the start of the run, I'm fairly sure it's just tendon/ligament/flesh and not my bones, which I was happy to discover. Running over the rocky parts of the Arboretum it wasn't hurting, so I was getting concerned that it was bone-related, but climbing the parts of Wushu where you shin is almost touching your toes it was really hurting, so I think it was just a matter of finding what position would make it hurt. Near the end of the run my right hip started getting tight, so there'll be some serious icing tonight and if my body doesn't get in line I'll up the dosage of Vitamin I, also. My diet slipped a bit over the weekend, which probably partly explains why I was getting tired near the end of the run. I ran out of fruits and vegetables on Friday and am planning on heading to Shaw's tomorrow, but I might jump over there tonight, depending upon how the Sox game is going. Dinner tonight was a big plate of spaghetti, so hopefully that does a little something, too. | 17 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 07 7/23-7/29 |
Highest week ever, which is good, but ended the week with a major bonk at the end of a hard run along the Charles. Things got off to a good start with a relaxed long run through the Fells with some of the MIT guys and Sean, and then just settled into some days of big doubles, but only got up to 20+M one time. Just a lot of consistent 17-18M days and it showed at the end of the week. I was certainly dragging ass some of the days, around the middle of the week my rolling week had climbed to 125M but that slid back down to a more reasonable number by the end of the week. I finished things off with a hard 10M along the River where Terry broke me. My T:E ratios are probably going to be through the roof on Sunday. July Miles : 471 | 120 |
| Saturday | Progression Run along the River with Terry and Pat Callahan. The plan was to meet those two guys at Mass Ave and Mem Drive at 9am for 10-12M hard with Terry, the first bit of which Pat would run with us. I got going a little later than I had planned on and only managed to squeeze in a 14 minute warmup. Going from sitting around, to jogging two 7:00 miles to heading down the river at 5:50 pace was a bit of a shock, but I recovered by the time we got to Longfellow. Those two guys knew the mile marks along the river, and this was really their workout, so they ran side by side and I was tucked in right behind the two of them, so we ran along the Esplanade in a little "V" eating up all the Saturday morning joggers and tourists. I was feeling good and just covering ground, not working too hard for the first 4-5M miles. Shortly after we went under the footbridge just before the BU Bridge we shuffled things up and I switched places with Pat. Terry and I then started pulling away, dropping into the 5:40s. We got rolling on the way back, hitting 5:25 for the split from BU to Mass Ave and I was still feeling good. We kept rolling but by the Hatch Shell my stomach, which had been a little uneasy from the start, began to express it's displeasure. It didn't disrupt anything, but then right around Longfellow Terry went to work on dismantling me. We had been running side by side for a few miles but suddenly I was covering gaps of a step or two every quarter mile. We crossed back over to the Cambridge side and I informed Terry that I would be stopping at 10M, he said he'd be doing the same. Just after the Royal Sonesta and just before the 9M mark I cracked and Terry was gone for good. I hit the 9M mark in 50:00 and felt like I was struggle catting the next mile. I somehow managed to keep my legs from falling off and keep my stomach in check well enough to run the last mile in 6:15 and then cross Mem Drive to hit the bathroom in Building Two. Terry and I cooled down back around Science and peeled off at the Arlington footbridge. Terry headed into Beacon Hill and I somehow managed to make it home down Comm Ave without my legs exploding. I stretched (or really just lied on the floor) for a little bit before taking a shower and then a nap. I ate some lunch then watched the rest of the Sox game lying in bed waiting for the pain to go away (the beers I had during the game may have expedited that process somewhat.) Since I didn't know where any of the mile marks were, Terry emailed me the splits afterwards. (For some reason they check the first half and then get into miles, I guess to get in sync with the markers.) Splits: 2:56, 5:55, 6:00 (5:25 but the mile is 30-35s short because of construction,) 5:48, 5:42, 5:39 (2:49 to turn-around, 2:50 back,) 5:26, 5:21, 5:27 (4:57 plus 30s because of construction,) 5:52 (2:42 with Terry to 9M mark, then cracked and ran 3:10,) 3:05. | 16 |
| Friday PM | Mass Ave-Science Museum. Temps were still above 90 when I started at 4:30, but my sister is in town and I was going out to dinner with her so I needed to get the run (which I originally wasn't going to do) out of the way. As I got to the river I decided that I felt like running it in the opposite direction, so I crossed the bridge and headed east on the Cambridge side. Turned out to be a good decision because I ran into Terry Shea and we talked for a few minutes about the long run we've got planned for tomorrow morning. I made it through the rest of the run okay, a little knee pain but nothing serious. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Fresh Pond. I had originally planned on running TriPeaks this morning, but it's a lot easier to motivate myself to get out the door for a 12 miler than a 17 miler, so I scaled back and added an afternoon run to the plans. I was feeling pretty good from the start and felt like I was being a little bit aggressive on the way to the Pond. I wasn't hammering though, by aggressive I just mean that I was turning my legs over a little quicker than normal. I slowed down a lot when I hit the Pond though and just kind of cruised around the path. The half mile split was 3:30, but I felt like I was slowing down to avoid getting a split faster than I had been running. As I neared Harvard Square I was glad I had opted out of TriPeaks because my legs started leaving me right at the sixty minute mark. I upped the pace slightly and tried to just shut my brain off and hold the rhythm as well as I could. I generally find that it's easier for me to hold a fast pace in situations like that, if I try to shut my brain off as I'm slogging through 6:50-7:00s I just start feeling worse and slowing down more. In any event, I managed to cover ground quickly enough and my legs came around a little bit. I wound up finishing in 78:00, which I was pretty content with. Even though I ran early it was pretty hot and humid this morning, my shorts were pretty well drenched by the time I finished. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line. Once I got rolling I actually was feeling good and probably could have gone longer, but I didn't have any good ideas for routes. I got started at 4:30 this afternoon, getting home at 5pm is always good. Nothing much happening, it was about 90 degrees outside which wasn't too comfortable. My legs were feeling good, I guess the two easy days in a row are paying off. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Docks backwards plus Ollie. Took my time getting started this morning, didn't leave until 7:20. I got through the Downtown Crossing/South Station area without incident and was feeling good 20 minutes in as I headed into Southie. They've actually changed the Ollie course, I was looking at the map yesterday and we go left on Broadway and then down to Fort Independence, nowhere near G Street, so I guess I should start calling this Old Ollie. In any event, I attacked G Street like usual and was reeling a bit when I got to the top. I ran the Ollie Loop in 25:00 and then headed down to the Harbor. There was a big crowd of people outside the World Trade Center for some reason and I hit the Docks right as the Water Taxi was unloading, so even though I got past South Station easily there was still a lot of people dodging this morning. After cutting through the hotel my right knee started tightening up, pretty much exactly 60 minutes into the run. I decided that it's time to start up the I-squared treatment for awhile, I don't want this knee thing to become a problem. Kept things pretty much relaxed the rest of the way, finished up in 84:15, pretty much 6:30 pace throughout I'd guess. This afternoon will be 4-7M depending upon how my legs feel when I get home. | 13 |
| Wednesday PM | Reservoir plus Summit. I got going at 5:30pm today and obviously decided not to go to the workout. Throughout the day I was thinking I would wind up going, but then I spent the last 1.5 hours in the lab reconciling a CVS conflict and wound up tired, frustrated and just wanted to get the run over with. My legs were feeling okay at the start, I got a little tired on the small hill before the turn onto Summit. I climbed Summit decently, telling myself it was the only part of the whole run where I needed to work. It was significantly hotter than it was this morning, this afternoon just reinforced why I try and run in the mornings now. My stomach was giving me problems the whole way, nothing horrible but just uncomfortable. Wound up running 78:00 for the loop, but I wasn't feeling as tired as I was yesterday, hopefully my legs are coming around. | 11 |
| Wednesday AM | Longfellow-BU. I was feeling a lot better this morning and headed down to the river sans watch. I decided to go short this morning in case I felt like going to the BAA workout tonight and also I wanted to get to the lab a little early today. The run went pretty smoothly, not nearly as tired as I was yesterday. My right knee/IT was tight at times but no pain and I foam rolled pretty well when I got home. I spent most of the run debating whether or not I should run the workout this evening. It's a long one (4x1M then 2.5M) and the kind of base/strength/etc. workout I'm looking for, but there's a chance that I'll run a 5k time trial with Khatch on Saturday, which would make 3 hard days in one week. Also, my legs have been really tired, but then again, how much worse can it get? Really though, I'm hoping to get out of the lab early and get my afternoon run over with and don't feel like getting home at 8:30 from a workout. We'll see. | 6 |
| Tuesday PM | Jamaica. Got started around 5:30 this afternoon, I was feeling decent but the pace was pretty easy and relaxed the whole way. At the start I was feeling like trash, but told myself that once I got to Huntington things would get easier and they did, somewhat. Since I wasn't in the middle of a good one I decided to play it safe and stopped at the Port-A-Johns at the boathouse. | 9 |
| Tuesday AM | Fresh Pond. I got going at 7am again today, I was dragging ass from the start. I got up at 6:30 and never really woke up. My legs were pretty tired, I never got into a groove and just kind of stumbled through the run this morning. I checked a half mile split around the Pond (really the only split that's possible to check given the route around the Pond,) and it was 3:33, not very surprising. I forgot to stop the watch when I got back, but it was most likely around 82:00 this morning. Just didn't have it going this morning. | 12 |
| Monday PM | Science-BU. | 7 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. Got going at 7am this morning, I was feeling pretty good from the start. I slept about 7.5 hours last night and wasn't very tired when I woke up, which is good. I settled into what felt like a pretty quick pace right away, but I didn't bring a watch so my legs might have just been fooling me, I don't know. Turning onto Prospect I got really light-headed for a few steps, which felt really weird because I couldn't really feel what my legs were doing, but that passed pretty quickly. I kept the pace honest the whole way but didn't hammer at all, except climbing up the big hill where I started racing a front end loader, until he turned on a side street and cut me off. That was about halfway up the hill and I had to break stride to avoid getting hit, so I backed off and just cruised the rest of the way up. The construction by Haymarket is finally getting completed so it's a lot easier to run through there, only now the traffic is bad by the tunnels because of recent problems there. Sometimes I think this city is never going to go back to normal. Finished up down Comm Ave at probably 6:30 pace. Pretty good run this morning. My hips were sore last night probably from the rocky terrain at the Fells and the side-to-side running needed to avoid falling on my face when running there. Neither hip gave me any trouble on the run, though, but my right hip was getting a little tight as I ran through the Common, I need to remember to keep foam rolling that for another week or so. | 10 |
| Sunday | Middlesex Fells. Drove out to the Fells at 8:30 this morning with Rocco, Grant and Jake. We met Nolan at the Sheepfold and got started just before 9am. I was feeling pretty good from the jump, no soreness from yesterday's tempo effort, which was good. We got on the Mountain Bike trails at the start and made our way to the Reservoirs and spent 63 minutes looping around them back to the Sheepfold on the fire roads and the Orange trail. We were running about 6:45s I'd guess, but dealing with the Orange trail made the pace fluctuate a bit. The only real excitement was getting headbutted in the left hip by a rottweiler somewhere out there. When we got back to the Sheepfold we decided to follow our fearless leader Sean Nolan on the Skyline Trail, knowing it was going to be slow going because that's more of a hiking trail and very rocky. We got to an outcropping of rocks with a good view of downtown after about 10:00 and Rocco and Grant headed back to the Sheepfold since they wanted 12M. Sean, Jake and myself found the Green trail which had much better footing and was much wider. We took that north pretty much following I-93 and jumped off the trail just before it was going to dead end. We wound around a bit on some side trails before winding up back on that same trail, which we took back to the Sheepfold bridge. Jake turned off there since his legs were getting tired, so Sean and I tacked on a few more minutes going out and back. We wound up at 103 minutes, a pretty solid 15M. I was contemplating going for a second run later in the day, but didn't get motivated enough to get out the door. I was thinking it would be nice to avoid 20M days during the week, but I've really got nothing better to do, so why avoid them? | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 06 7/16-7/22 |
This was a great mileage week, despite starting off with just a 9M Sunday. I figure that I could have easily added 10M to this week with a longer Sunday and Saturday. I got back from DC on Monday and put in a good long run through the Arboretum. Tuesday didn't go so well, it was stupid hot at the beginning of the week, but then I managed to put two 20M days back to back, which really made the week. Friday was just a usual distance day, nothing amazing there, and Saturday was a solid hard effort at Fresh Pond tucked in the middle of a 15M run. I'm really happy with how things have been going, 3 good mileage weeks in a row now and I'm still feeling good. I was afraid that I'd be a little sluggish with all this mileage, but I held a good pace through the whole tempo on Saturday and felt like I could have easily dropped the pace down had I needed to. My right hip/knee got a little tight on Thursday and Friday, but I think it's just a matter of taking care of it and not slacking on stretching and foam rolling. July Miles : 351 | 114 |
| Saturday | Tempo at Fresh Pond. Terry Shea invited me out to Fresh Pond for a tempo this morning, a group of the marathon-minded BAA guys were going 5-6M at 5:40 pace or so. I was pretty hungry when I woke up, so I ate a tortilla with peanut butter and that filled me up. I mistimed the routine of getting out the door though, and wound up getting to the Pond about 5 minutes late. I knew I was running late and ran a little quicker than normal through Cambridge trying to get to the Pond before they started. The guys had already took off, though, so I just started in the opposite direction and met up with them just before Little Fresh Pond. We ran in a tight group through the start line, which I hit in 10:45. We seemed to keep the group together during the next loop, too, starting off with a 5:35-5:40 mile. I pretty much just tucked into the pack and tried to find a rhythm, it was a good effort but the pace wasn't taking that much out of me. We came through the next mile in 5:30 and by then it was myself, Ian, Levi and Terry. When we got back to the line Terry said he was going to shoot for 5:40s on the next loop and Ian was looking for someone to run another mile with, so I said I'd keep rolling with him. We worked together pretty well, one guy would get a step and the other guy would cover pretty quickly. We kept it pretty smooth though, we weren't attacking each other, and came through in 5:30. We backed off a bit after the mile, Levi and Terry caught back up. Going up the small rise heading towards the buildings I hammered a little bit and pulled away slightly. Ian closed the gap and we finished the mile together, but I didn't catch the split. Ian pulled off then, I stuck with Terry, we kept the pace going but cut the loop short because Terry had some mile repeats to do. I ran with Terry down to the Sunoco and called it a day there, after tempoing for 39:00 around the Pond. I kind of shuffled my way back home from the Pond, but my legs weren't that tired, I think I just relaxed mentally once I finished the tempo and didn't feel like kicking it back up for the cool down. I had left my bike on campus because I didn't feel like riding home through a monsoon yesterday, so I stopped at the track and ran some strides then biked home. I felt really good on the strides, decently fast and no aches anywhere. Throughout the tempo my left hamstring tightened up occasionally, as it had on the Minuteman Trail a few weeks ago, but I just stayed relaxed, made sure I didn't take any weird strides while it was tight and it would go away. But it didn't give me any troubles during strides, so hopefully it's nothing. I averaged 5:30-5:40 throughout the tempo, so I figure I put in about 7M at the Pond, and the 30:00 to the Pond I'll call 4.5M. Since I stopped at campus that's a mile short on the way home, so 3.5M for a total of 15M today. I got home and ate some oatmeal while waiting for the replay of the Tour's time trial, then promptly fell asleep for the first hour of the coverage. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Fake Fresh with Nolan. That's right, Nolan's running doubles, just to maintain his boyish figure. I may need to bump up to 130MPW to stay ahead of him now. We ran from campus just after 5pm, hit the usual 5M route. Pretty laid back run, just catching up and telling stories about Brewer's wedding. It was pretty humid the whole way and threatening to storm. It started raining when we got to Johnson so we opted to skip strides and just head inside. Turned out to be a good decision, because as soon as we stepped inside the skies opened up and it started to pour. My legs were feeling much better this afternoon, which makes me think I was just a little sleepy this morning, not necessarily fatigued. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I got going at 6:50 this morning, I was pretty tired when I woke up and my legs reflected it. I struggled a bit for the first 10-15 minutes but loosened up eventually. I couldn't figure out if it was from the back to back 20M days or from not enough sleep last night, or a little bit of both. Also, yesterday I got a blister on the little toe of my right foot so it took a couple minutes for that to stop aching. Heading towards Summit I ran past Nolan, he seems to be running a lot recently. I climbed Summit Ave pretty well but the pace slacked after that, including around the Reservoir. After leaving the Reservoir and heading back on Beacon some guy went sprinting past me and then settled back into his regular pace. He wasn't running slow, but he certainly wouldn't have passed me if he hadn't started sprinting. I got pretty upset about that and gave it a block or two to make sure he wasn't just ending his run with a stride. Once I was sure he simply sprinted to pass me I kicked it into gear and went past him. He tried to hang on so we got rolling for a few blocks, I eventually pulled away and settled back into my regular pace. On the way home my right hip and right knee started getting tight, my right hip had been hurting slightly yesterday, so I need to remember to foam roll for the next few days and I should probably ice, too. | 11 |
| Thursday PM | Arboretum. I wound up watching Floyd Landis' phoenix-like ride this morning, then took a short nap and woke up to discover the Sox were playing a make-up game. So I watched that while working and made a quick trip to Shaw's once they won and bumped into Ed Baker as I was walking home. By the time I got around to running it was almost 6:30. I got to the Fens and found a good rhythm, wasn't trying to go nuts though, just clipping off miles. Ed commented that I looked thinner, so I tried to figure out why people always say that to me after they haven't seen me in awhile, even though I've weighed between 160 and 165 pounds since I was a junior in high school. I decided that people somehow develop a mental image of me being this big guy, when actually I'm normal sized. Anyways, I got to the Arboretum in 33:00 and was feeling pretty good. I ran the usual loop there and that wound up taking 31:00 because I started shuffling near the end as I needed to get to a Port-A-John. Thankfully there's a few by the Jamaica Pond boathouse, I chose the handicapped one, but it wasn't the most stable. So I started wondering how much I could sue for if the thing happened to fall over and roll into the Pond. I decided that I'd get some money for the inevitable injuries and maybe a little bit for embarassment (if that's not possible, it should be). But the big money would come from mental anguish, because much of my ability to recreate and stay healthy relies on my ability to use Port-A-Johns, and if this scarred me to the point where I'm afraid to use them, then I can't run as much, which means I'm less healthy and I don't have the daily release and distraction of running. I was feeling a whole lot better for the final stretch home and wound up running 33:00 for that leg. I think going around Jamaica the other way doesn't really add on much distance. All in all a solid run, I've managed to get my mileage pretty high this week despite starting off with just 9M on Sunday. I got back home just in time to see Pedro strike out Alfonso Soriano to end the 7th inning of the 2003 ALCS. Remarkably, Grady Little took Pedro out in the eigth with one man on and the score 5-3 and the bullpen managed to record the next 5 outs without allowing a run (NESN was showing a "What If..." simulation). I managed to make a salad while watching that, then showered a made a big plate of pasta while watching the actual Yankee-Blue Jays game. | 14 |
| Thursday AM | Run to Remember course with Jake. I got an earlier start than normal, headed over to PKT at 6:30am and we went down to Boylston and then through Downtown Crossing. I was feeling pretty good this morning, we started out easy but got into a good rhythm on the second half of the run. We added on the stretch down to the Start/Finish by the World Trade Center and it was around there that we started moving. We weren't hammering at all but the pace was honest down Cambridge Street and along Charles. We split up at Fairfield, I went home and Jake kept going down to BU. I got to 50:00 at Boylston so I ran a couple strides the rest of the way home. Pretty good opener for the day, hopefully I'll be feeling as good this afternoon. | 7 |
| Wednesday PM | Science-BU. I got started just before 6pm and the temps were a reasonable 77 degrees. I was feeling good down to the river and kept things pretty relaxed the whole way. My legs didn't feel affected by the mileage this morning, probably because of the (relatively) low mileage recently. The only bad part of the run was a little bit of indigestion that kicked up over the final 10 minutes or so. Came home and stretched out briefly, then ate a salad while watching OLN's coverage of the Rome Golden League meet and cooked a couple burgers on the George Foreman when the meet was over. | 7 |
| Wednesday AM | Docks plus Ollie, with the Docks part backwards. My least favorite part about Docks is the stretch from South Station through Downtown Crossing that's always so crowded and it finally occurred to me that running the loop in reverse would get me through that section before it gets really crowded. I was feeling good at the start, I got out the door before 7am and found a pretty good rhythm early. Somewhere in Southie my stomach started acting up though, so I relaxed a little bit and waited for G Street. I climbed G Street pretty well, opposed to how I struggled up it just a few weeks ago. Coming back into Boston my stomach calmed down enough for me to lock back into a good rhythm for the rest of the way home. Nothing amazing today, I ate a salad and had a big plate of pasta last night, then slept 7.5 hours so I was feeling pretty fresh today. I was debating whether or not to go to the BAA workout tonight, but yesterday's debacle in the afternoon makes me want to just get in some mileage today and OLN is showing the Rome Golden League meet at 7pm tonight, so I don't think I'm going to go. Tentatively the plan is for another 7M tonight and then 20M again tomorrow. | 13 |
| Tuesday PM | Out and back into Cambridge. The plan originally was to run Castle-Bunker Hill and make today 22M, but it's so damn hot out and after turning onto Prospect I needed to find a bathroom, so I made my way down some side streets until I hit Main Street and cut through campus to Building 2. I felt a lot better after that, but had already made up my mind to go short and didn't feel like changing my mind. Kind of disappointing because today was supposed to be a big day, hopefully things will go better tomorrow. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Fresh Pond with Jake. The heat convinced Jake to run in the morning, so I ran over to PKT at 7am and we headed over to Fresh Pond. I was feeling pretty good, but Jake took his time in getting up to speed and we took things pretty easy at the start. The weather was warm but manageable, near the end of the run it was clear that it would be getting hot again today. We stopped at Mt. Auburn because Jake needed a quick pit stop, but otherwise everything went smoothly. We built into a decent pace and kept things honest all the way back to MIT, where Jake needed to stop at Building 7, so I finished up across the bridge by myself. I was pretty happy with how today went, I stayed up until 11:15 last night because OLN was showing the Gaz De France at 10:30pm, so I watched until they showed Bekele win the 5k then I went to bed. I had hoped to get to bed around 10pm, though, and only got 7 hours last night, but I managed to grab a short nap after I got home while watching the Tour head up L'Alpe-d'Huez. | 12 |
| Monday | TriPeaks. I got back to my apartment just before noon today and spent the afternoon finally enjoying some downtime. I had a pretty drawn out lunch, I took my time grazing on what little food is left, since I haven't been home in over a week. Also, it was 97 degrees outside so I waited until 5:30pm to run, when the temps had dropped to a more reasonable 94 degrees. I felt fine heading out to the Arboretum and got there in 32:30 or so. I ran the same route as Friday, but pretty soon after I got to the Arboretum my stomach started sloshing around. It was manageable, just annoying. I climbed all three hills pretty well but was feeling it at each summit. I started slowing down as I was leaving the Arboretum, I wasn't very sore I think I'm just getting really run down and these long runs might be too much at one time. Anyways, I went the other direction around Jamaica in order to hit the Port-A-Johns by the boathouse and get a drink at the bubbler, since the one in the Arboretum was stupid warm, as warm as bathwater. The rest of the way home was just covering ground and trying to make it home at a decent pace with as little effort as possible. I wound up running 35:00, I don't know how much going the other way around the Pond added and how much of the slow time was just because I was running slow. There were a few times when I found myself shuffling along and forced my legs to turnover at a respectable pace. Today wound up taking almost two hours to finish, thankfully the sun was going down and the temps were getting cooler as the run went one, but I was still really thirsty when I got home, I hadn't done a very good job of hydrating while in DC. | 17 |
| Sunday | Custis Trail. I got up at 5:30am to get the mileage in before the crunch of getting ready for the wedding today. I headed right out the door and onto the Custis trail, running the same direction that John and I went just 5-6 hours earlier. Surprisingly, I felt good, but if the mile markers were correct I wasn't running that fast. I started out above 7:00s and managed to make my way down to just under 7:00s by halfway. Things didn't get any faster on the way home. The run went by pretty quickly, we're far away enough from DC that I didn't get to run by any of the landmarks, but I did run from VA into MD. I got back in right around 60:00 and ran a few strides in a park down the street from John's apartment. I was hoping to have a chance to get in a second run after the wedding, but thinking about the logistics of getting from Arlington to BWI for an 8:50am flight made me decide to spend the evening riding the Metro out towards Baltimore so I could crash at Carlos' place. | 9 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 05 7/9-7/15 |
I knew it was going to be tough to get mileage in during this week, especially with the wedding at the end of the week. I managed to keep the mileage pretty high while I was in Wisconsin for the workshop, even if I wasn't sleeping as much as I should have been, and put in a much better run at Lapham than I was expecting. Everything else was just regular mileage days, I didn't run too hard this week, just did my best to get out the door and put in some miles. I did my best to frontload the week because I knew there wouldn't be much mileage once I got to DC, but after 2+ weeks of serious mileage I welcomed the break. It was nice to be able to end the week with a run with John, it was kind of like those few evening runs I convinced him to do when we got home from meets in college. July Miles : 237 | 105 |
| Saturday | Out and back along the Custis trail, plus some extra around Arlington, VA. I got to DC last night and woke up this morning in no shape to run. We spent the day running errands to get ready for Brewer's wedding and then went to the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. Got home around 11:30 and convinced Brewer to put in a few miles with me while he was still a free man. There was actually a window of about an hour earlier in the day, but it was so freaking hot I decided to wait until after the dinner. I was pretty tired but my legs didn't feel that bad, surprisingly. Brewer hasn't run in a quite a long time and was continually pushing the pace, which led to us sprinting up a hill just before the turn around. We spent just over 32:00 on the trail and then dropped him off at the apartment. I ran around on some random sidewalks to bump the mileage up, I wound up being out for 47:00, so I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt and call it 7M. | 7 |
| Friday | TriPeaks. I landed at Logan around 11pm last night and am heading back to the airport this afternoon, so I managed just under 6 hours of sleep but was feeling fine when I woke up. I took off at 8am and headed through the Fens and Riverway to the Arboretum. I wanted to get all the mileage in this morning and set things up so that I don't need to run too much this weekend because of Brewer's wedding. I got to the Arboretum in just over 33:00 and headed out on the usual route. I couldn't remember the exact route I ran when I did this in the fall, but I ran the perimeter of the back section and then headed up Big Green Hill. I managed the steep part fine but kind of wore down during the long gradual climb to the top. I got myself back together and crossed over to the main part of the Arboretum. I took the usual route but then cut down to the base of Mount Wushu and climbed that sucker, which is always much steeper than I remember. I came back down near the gate and took the usual route back towards the Arborway. Instead of heading out, though, I wound my way up Corkscrew and then picked up the usual route back to the entrance. I spent 51:40 in the Arboretum and was feeling good when I left. At the start of this three day segment I was expecting to be walking dead by today, but somehow the mileage and lack of sleep haven't taken their toll, yet. I made it back home in 32:00 for a total time of 1:57. I felt good the whole way, I wasn't dragging ass like at the end of yesterday's run, even at the end. This was a toss-up between 17 and 18 miles, I'll err on the side of caution with this one. All three climbs went decently well, I just relaxed and climbed, not trying to hammer up and over. I still can't tell what kind of climbing legs I have, Lapham wasn't nearly as rough as I anticipated and I've put in 3 hills runs over the past 5 days without wrecking my quads. Who knows. | 17 |
| Thursday | Usual 16M route. Due to the details of today's itinerary, I was forced to get all of my mileage in this morning. Thankfully the workshop was only a mile away today, so the commute wasn't going to take half an hour, which gave me a little more time to sleep. After almost 7 hours in bed I got up at 5:30 and was running by 5:45. I was running pretty slowly at the start, the first mile was about 7:10, but from there I dropped things down to 6:50-ish and then 6:20-ish, coming through 3M in 20:30 or so. I was feeling surprisingly good this morning, the run at Lapham clearly didn't take as much out of me as I had anticipated. Even climbing up the hill after Klode went smoothly and I was clipping along fairly well into Fox Point. I turned onto Churchill at 42:30 and the section along Santa Monica went well. I felt like I was running a decent pace and hit the halfway mark in 52:30. Turning around I was hoping to keep the rhythm going and make it home about 2:00 faster without really hammering. Unfortunately, as I got back to Lake Drive my stomach started acting up and my legs started getting heavy, which wasn't a good combination. I couldn't figure out which one was causing the pace to slow, but I definitely lost the pace I had been settled into. I made it back to Klode just fine, only to find out the warming house was still locked, despite the park being open from 6am until 9pm. I was at Klode at 31:40 and back to Lake Drive at 35:00, so roughly 3:20 for the half mile there. I felt like I slowed a lot back to Big Bay, where I finally decided to just make a push over the last 1.5M. My stomach wasn't giving me any problems but my legs were feeling pretty tired. I did my best to relax and after making it up the long gradual climb I started to find a rhythm that was working. I covered the last mile in 6:30, but split it 3:20/3:10, I felt like I was running faster over the first half mile than I actually was. Wound up making it back in 52:30, a solid enough time but not what I was hoping for. After recovering from a slow start to run 52:30 on the way out I figured I would have been able to reclaim a minute or two on the way home, but things didn't quite work out that way. Still, I feel like my legs were just fatigued in general, it wasn't that today's run was too daunting, just that the volume of the past 10 days or so is accumulating and I can't be as casual about holding a fast pace. I felt strong enough to hold a fast pace when I was really focused on it, like over the final half mile, but didn't come in expecting the run to demand that much focus. I'm plenty happy to have averaged 6:30s over the run this morning, it's just something to keep in mind over the next few weeks as this stuff continues to pile up. I do feel like the mileage has been paying off already after not even two weeks of this stuff. Maybe I'm just being overconfident, but I feel like I'm the strongest I've ever been. Bad news for everybody else at Alumni. | 16 |
| Wednesday PM | Lapham Peak, two Black Loops. The workshop was back at CESA #1 today, which is already more than halfway to Lapham, since today ended early I took off for Lapham at 3:30. I got to Lapham, changed in the bathroom and was running before 4pm. I was pretty sore and tight at the start of the run and wasn't feeling all that fast. I made it to the top of GutBuster in 9:20, which really surprised me. I kept things easy all the way to Roller Coaster, mainly because my quads were pretty tight and I couldn't really put in a full stride. There were some numbers spray painted on trees, which seemed to be at mile marks but also seemed a little short. I hit 3 at 19:20, 4 at 26:00 and 6 at 39:00, but I didn't believe I was actually running 6:30s. The first time through I didn't run any of the hills particularly well and certainly wasn't running the downhills fast. I came through the first loop in 46:00, which really surprised me, I wasn't expecting it to be that fast. I got right into the next loop and didn't climb GutBuster quite as fast. That hill the second time is always the worst part of the run, and this time I was 9:50 at the top, :30 off the pace of the first loop. My left hamstring was tightening up as I neared the top and I kept things easy on the following downhills. My legs weren't feeling too bad, surprisingly, but I didn't want to stretch my stride out on a downhill and then have my left hamstring give out. I just covered ground until the big hills on the back half. I was at #4 at 26:15, so just :15 off pace now. I just told myself to keep moving and handled Asthma Hill and Tower Hill decently well and got to #6 in 39:05, basically back on pace. I attacked Two Tier, the only hill I really got after today, made it to the top and then coasted down to the parking lot. I ran the second loop in 46:00, I was much quicker on the whole today than I had been anticipating. At the start of the run I took the approach that I might not have the best climbing legs right now but I'd be able to hang in there off of the strength of my recent mileage. That's pretty much how I ran the whole way, I just did my best to keep my head down and keep coming. I was glad to get out here for at least one run, I've been too busy to get out here more often this week though. I stretched out for a few minutes after the run and waited to cool off somewhat before heading home. The best way to run these loops fast is to stress the downhills, which I wasn't doing at all today, so I assume I was holding a solid pace the whole time, despite feeling like I was jogging along. It's hard to compare this one to previous runs because I normally come out here and hammer with Nick, but today I wasn't really pushing it at all. Still, I put up some decent times and was feeling fine at the end of the run, but we'll see how things are tomorrow. | 14 |
| Wednesday AM | South on Lake Drive, same route one more time. I managed to get about 7 hours sleep again, but I was still pretty tired when I got out of bed. I got started right around 6 again this morning and after a few minutes I had loosened up well enough and my legs were feeling good. Threw in a stride at the end but my right hip flexor is still upset. The plan is to drive out to Lapham this afternoon, which will probably knock me on my ass, and then I have to run very early tomorrow because I'm flying back to Boston in the afternoon. Hopefully I'll get a chance to catch up on sleep sometime soon, I'm starting to feel a bit rundown again. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | Bender Road backwards. I got home from the workshop around 5:30pm and was starving and exhausted, so I decided to put the run off until after dinner. I knew that was a dangerous decision, but I was too tired and hungry to want to do anything else. I wound up not getting out the door until 9pm, 2 hours after dinner. I started out North on Lake Drive, thinking I might just have to run a few times out and back to handle stomach problems. I got to Klode without any problems and decided to just push on. I started out with about a 7:15 mile and then dropped down to just under 7:00 and never really got rolling any more than that. I felt as though I was moving pretty quickly, but that was probably a function of running in the dark. I felt fine, my legs weren't that tired and I wound up running 69:00 for the loop. I was a little concerned at the start that I wouldn't put in the whole loop, but I managed to get the miles in today. | 10 |
| Tuesday AM | South on Lake Drive, same route as yesterday morning. I was able to sleep about 7 hours last night, but was more tired than I was after 5 hours the night before. I managed to drag my sorry ass out the door at 6:15am and after a few minutes of trudging along I loosened up and stopped feeling sorry for myself. The last 3.5M of the run were actually pretty good, I held a decent pace and was feeling good. No aches or pains this morning, just a nice relaxed jog to start off the day. By the time I got home I was woken up and in a pretty good mood. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Hill Loop on the Lakefront. Stayed after the workshop for a meeting, got home at 4:30pm and waited until 6:15pm to run. I was feeling a little sluggish at first but climbed Snake Hill pretty well and that shocked the legs enough to get me moving. I didn't hammer any of the hills today but I put in a pretty solid pace from Brady Street down to the Art Museum and back. It would have helped to be running with Nick End, there wasn't anybody to contest the polka dot jersey today so I wasn't climbing as hard as I should have been. Today wound up being 71:30 on the dot, and I finished up around 6:20 pace, so it was probably a little short of 11M but I had to take a leak when I got home and it didn't make any sense to tack on a few extra minutes. I just stretched a bit, showered and called it a day. Hopefully I'll be able to put in a little bit more mileage tomorrow, and also sleep a little more tonight. | 11 |
| Monday AM | South on Lake Drive through Lake Park. Earlier than usual this morning because I had to be at a workshop at 8:30 out in Waukesha. I flew back to Milwaukee last night and got to bed about midnight. I was up at 5:30 and out the door by 5:45 for a quick four banger. I was feeling pretty good, not really tired at all which was surprising. I went out to the bubbler and continued on to the Water Tower before turning around. It was only 59 degrees outside and great weather for running. Because of the schedule for the next few days I'll be going short in the morning and long in the afternoons, just like old times. | 4 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. The same thing happened again this morning and despite my best attempts to sleep in I was out of bed at 7:30, 8 hours after going to bed. I spent some time cleaning up before heading down to the river at 9am. I kept things pretty slow at the start, just jogging along and covering miles. The Esplanade wasn't all that crowded this morning and there weren't very many stops at all today. I didn't try to force the pace at all, just kept things relaxed and let my legs find a rhythm they liked. I went past the 5M mark from the New Charles River Race at 63:00 and crossed the bridge at 68:30, a few minutes slower than normal. I hit the 3M mark in 76:00 so I was running about 6:30s, and made it to where I think the 1M mark was in 89:00. Right after Arsenal I started getting some chafing, which really killed the mood and broke up my rhythm. I didn't have any real injury problems though, a little tightness in my right hip flexor at the start but nothing that bothered me. My legs were tired at the end of the run, like they have been lately, when my stride is fine but there's no energy there. I wound up running 1:52:30, averaging just over 6:30s for the 17.1M along the river. After a slow start I got into a decent pace and came back from Watertown in 44:00. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 04 7/2-7/8 |
Biggest week ever. Not much in the way of hard stuff, just a lot of consistent mileage. It's a good week where you can finish up with a 14M run and have that be your short day. I managed to put in 7 high mileage days this week, starting with a solid 16M at Walden on Sunday and following that up with a 21M day on Monday. The rest of the week was just a lot of doubles, nothing earth-shattering just consistent mileage and a little longer afternoon run than usual. My legs were feeling great through Wednesday and then everything seemed to start catching up to me. My diet has been good but I need to work on getting a little more sleep. I don't have any plans to deviate from this formula for a little while, but I'll be travelling a lot next week and might not be able to hit the same total. July Miles : 132 | 117 |
| Saturday | Arboretum. I guess my body has become so accustomed to getting up early that it's become harder for me to sleep in. After going to bed at midnight last night, I woke up at 6:30am and then struggled to stay asleep until 7:30 when I just gave up and got out of bed. I had offered to drive out to the Fells today, but since none of the guys took me up on my offer (surprise) I had not impetus to get going in the morning. That led to me watching the whole stage of the Tour this morning, which turned into an anti-climatic TT, and I didn't get going until noon. I hit the usual route through the Fens and along the Riverway, made it to the Arboretum in 31:45, a little quicker than usual, and was feeling good. I had found a good rhythm on the way out, and even though I had my watch I didn't check any splits on the way. I kept things moving on the usual loop through the Arboretum, didn't hammer anything but tried to focus on running the hills well. I spent 29:00 in the Arboretum, so I knew I had locked into a pretty good groove. When I hit the Huntington, though, my legs started leaving me. I started getting really tired and just didn't feel like I had my legs under me. I guess I didn't slow down much, I ran 31:00 on the way home, but I didn't feel that great over the final 15 minutes. It wasn't normal struggle-cat though, because my stride wasn't affected, I just didn't feel like I had any pop or any energy to put into my legs anymore. Still, I made it home without incident, so I finised off the run with a pretty good one, 92:00 for the loop. My right knee was bothering me at the start but somewhere in the Fens it loosened up, but started tightening again when I hit Jamaica on the way home. It didn't turn into anything, which is good, but I should keep an eye on it. Foam roller, stretching, etc. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Science Museum. Got going about 6pm again today, I was feeling pretty good at the start, my legs were loose and decently fresh. About the time I was going under Longfellow on the Cambridge side I started getting really tired. I managed to make it back home without things getting much worse, thankfully I can sleep in tomorrow. Nothing else really going on, I got a new pair of shoes though, the old ones were getting pretty worn down and I could feel some aches coming on, this should prevent them from turning into anything, though. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Fresh Pond. I slept almost 9 hours last night and actually felt awake when I got up, but I still felt "oddly fatigued" over the first few miles this morning, to quote the great Terry Shea. Somewhere around Magazine Street I found a good rhythm, my legs loosened up and I grooved the rest of the run, pretty much. I left the Pond at 46:30, which is a little bit quicker than usual, and even though the small hill before Brattle Street tired me out a little bit I managed to keep things going the rest of the way home. Didn't think to check the split at MIT, I wound up running just under 74:00 for the loop, which was a lot faster than I was expecting. I guess I'm not as tired as I feel, if that's possible. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Longfellow-BU. I got out the door around 6 tonight and was actually feeling pretty good at the start. Like yesterday the first 4M went by very quickly, I saw Wayne on Mem Drive across from New House but that was about the only highlight. Coming through BU though I started to get tired, right around the statue of the flock of birds I really started feeling it. I managed to make it home without struggle catting though, I'm still holding things together. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get to bed early tonight. | 6 |
| Thursday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I had been planning on driving out to the Fells this morning, but nobody else was interested in going and it was raining pretty hard when I woke up this morning, so I decided not to bother. I got going just before 7:30 and put in the usual 62 minutes for this loop. I was feeling like trash when I woke up and really struggling for the first few minutes of the run. I was hoping that last night's pasta and vegetables along with 8 hours of sleep would help me out, but I guess I was wrong. I did my best to ignore it and by the time I got to the Kentaco Bell I was loosened up and in a good rhythm. I worked pretty hard going up Bunker Hill but otherwise was just coasting through this one today. I put in a single stride down the street at the end and was feeling okay. The rain had cooled things off so it was a very comfortable run, and the rain had stopped by the time I started so it was an all around good run. | 10 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line. I was close to skipping this one tonight, but managed to get going just before 7pm. I had a pretty small lunch today and was starving and tired when I got home, so I ate some pretzels and watched some of the Tour and got out the door just after the stage ended. My legs were pretty tired but this run went by very quickly, it felt like it was over in about 5 minutes. The walk up four flights of stairs in the un-ventilated hallway got me sweating worse than the run did, but it just made the apartment feel even cooler. I got a quick stretch in before a shower and then a salad with a big plate of pasta for dinner. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I was pretty tired when I got up this morning and took my time getting out the door, wasn't running until 7:15 or so. Today was the first time that my legs were genuinely tired and sore throughout the whole run. I never felt like I was running that fast, I did climb up Summit pretty well, but the rest of the time I was just covering ground, more or less. I actually brought my watch on this one and wound up running just under 74:00 for the loop, but I don't really remember if that's a good time and I'm too lazy to look it up. I wasn't sweating as badly today since it's not as warm in the morning, but still didn't stretch that vigorously when I got home. I really need to sleep more. | 11 |
| Tuesday PM | Mass Ave to River Street. The only good 5M routes I have are Science Museum and Fens-Riverway. Having just run Fens-Riverway this morning that was out and the Esplanade was going to be crowded and likely blocked off towards Science because of the stuff for the Fourth. The mileage chart says it's 4M from Mass Ave up to River Street and back and with the jog to and from the river it would give me what I needed. I took off just after the Germany World Cup loss, timing it to get back before the Sox game. I was feeling pretty good and kept pace honest, but no watch today. It was only mid 80s temp-wise, but it was humid as anything and by the time I got to the BU Bridge I was sweating pretty good, but it started raining right then, so it wasn't such a big deal. I came back through Kenmore to avoid the mess on the Esplanade at Mass Ave. The Sox game got bumped up 3 hours somehow, despite the NESN schedule saying 7:15pm, so I got back just in time to see Schilling give up another HR in the 7th. | 5 |
| Tuesday AM | Jamaica plus Orange Line. I ran over to PKT at 9am and met Jake. He wanted some soft surfaces so we ran back to Boylston and ran through the Fens to the Riverway. We started out pretty easy but the pace picked up by the time we hit the Riverway. We kept things honest the whole way but neither of us wanted to get rolling. We were back at PKT in 62 so Jake ran another 3:00 down to the Garden with me before turning around. I cut the route through the Common a little short and came back along the usual Orange Line route. I was getting tired around 60 minutes into it and the last few minutes were a little slow, but I ran a few strides down Clearway and my legs loosened up a little bit. I was sweating pretty bad by the end of the run, so I just kind of laid around waiting for the sweating to stop when I got back upstairs. | 13 |
| Monday PM | Fresh Pond backwards. I wound up messing around with some more FreeBSD stuff after I got back from lab, so I didn't take off until almost 6pm. Knowing that you won't be eating dinner until 8pm isn't too fun and it's why I really prefer running long in the mornings now. I guess today it wouldn't have mattered, since I didn't have a short one. I wasn't able to get across Mass Ave before the bridge, so I just stuck on Mass Ave and decided to run the loop backwards. Mt. Auburn Hospital would be in good position if I needed a pit stop. Around Harvard Square my left hamstring started acting up again, it feels like it's about to either cramp up or just give out. I tried experimenting to see if there was anything specific causing it like stride length or turning, but it seems to be completely random. I got to the Pond in about 30:00 and the hamstring didn't bother me the rest of the way, but I need to stay on top of that. I felt good all the way around the Pond, used the poor man's outhouse on the trail leaving the Pond and kept it easy the whole way back. I had hoped to get back to MIT before feeling any kind of fatigue, but the wheels started wobbling around Magazine Street. I didn't have any trouble holding things together though, and finished up just fine. Honestly, it was only an issue when I thought about today being a 21M day. When I just thought of it was a 12M run and ignored what I did this morning I felt fine. I ran just over 76 minutes for the loop, which is a pretty good time for running it as relaxed as I was. I was actually expecting to feel a bit worse at the end of the day. I came home and did some light stretching then grabbed a shower and ate a decent sized salad and some chicken. Definitely need to get to bed early tonight. | 12 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. I keep staying up too late, the History channel had an interesting series on the Revolution playing last night, so I almost got 7 hours sleep last night. I got up right away but spent some time figuring out how to get FreeBSD to deal with a wired NIC and a wireless interface, and I think I finally got it figured out. Anyways, I got for this morning's run just before 8am and decided that going 12M was going to take too long, so I scaled it back and hit the trails through the Fens and along the Riverway. I was feeling great, which was really surprising since I didn't eat too well yesterday and have been upping the mileage for awhile now. No watch for this one and I backed off when I got to the Pond, but I was getting some pretty effortless turnover and was tempted to blow the doors off. Nothing special happening today but glad I was feeling good for this one. | 9 |
| Sunday | Walden with Jake. I picked Jake up from PKT around 9am today, he and I were the only guys interested in going out to Walden today. We got rolling a little after 9:30 I'd guess and headed straight to the Lincoln Conservancy. We spent the whole time talking and neither of us felt like running hard so it was a perfect fit. We just wandered around the place, hit most of the main places and eventually headed over to the Mt. Misery area. Jake commented that this was his first hilly run in awhile, up to that point I hadn't thought it was very hilly, but we were going up and down some small hills pretty consistently. Had to take a pitstop about 80 minutes in, then were heading back to the train tracks when I saw Matt and Brett Ely, so we ran them down and chatted for a few minutes before splitting up. They told me about a different place to park, the Lincoln Mall Train Station, I think it was. Apparently you don't have to pay on Sundays, so that's $5 I could have saved today. We made it back to the beach in 1:48 which was about all I had. My legs were getting tired and my stomach really wasn't cooperating, which is a pretty bad combination. Very solid run, I think that 6:45 is a good approximation of where we were at, it feels good to get a long run in, especially to start off the week. | 16 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 03 6/25-7/1 |
Great week, I think it went really well. I came in off of a pretty big introductory week and managed to make a 15M jump without any issues. In fact, I think I felt a lot better this week than I did last week. I didn't have any problems getting out of bed and onto the road early in the morning. Put in a good hard effort on Sunday along the river and then grabbed some easy mileage on Monday with Fivos at Walden. The rest of the week was just mileage days until Saturday when I put in a good effort on the Minuteman Trail. I was able to drive the mileage total for the week up with some 16M days by doubling pretty consistently, but moving up from here is going to take some serious effort. July Miles : 15 | 102 |
| Saturday | Minuteman Trail. I slept until about 8am this morning, got up and headed out to Arlington Center pretty quickly. I wanted to try and run this as a progression run, 6:20-6:40 for the first 5M, 6:00-6:20 for the next 5M and sub-6:00 for the final 4M. I parked right by the trail and jogged the half mile to the 2M mark by the Arlington High School and got down to business. I hit 6:38-6:17 for the first two miles, I was feeling great, the trail was a little crowded and I wound up chasing after some bikers more than I should have. I missed the 3M marker so the next two miles were covered in 12:53, I was still feeling good and trying to keep things under control in the early sections. I'm not too confident in my fitness above 10M right now and didn't want to go out too hard and then struggle cat home. The last mile of the first 5M stretch was around 6:25 but I don't remember it exactly. The first 5M were covered in around 32:15. I was feeling really good then and dropped the pace right away, hitting 6:06 for the next mile and then 6:05 for the seventh. I turned around and kept the rhythm going, hitting 6:03 and then let myself speed it up slightly, closing out the second 5M stretch with miles of 5:57 and 5:54. I got to 4M to go and had to dodge some traffic, which got me moving pretty well and I just tried to keep things rolling. There were points along the final four miles where I thought I was going to run out of gas, but I managed to just stay relaxed and keep moving. I didn't drop the hammer at all and didn't force things, but still managed to close the day out with miles of 5:42, 5:42, 5:37, 5:33. Somewhere around the 8M or 9M mark my left hamstring had started acting up occasionally. I'm not sure of the best way to describe it, it just felt weak on random steps. It wasn't every step or I would have backed off and it might have just been threatening to cramp up, because I was sweating a lot and probably overheating. I jogged the half mile back to the car and spent some time stretching out. As I was doing that, and on the drive home, my left hamstring was spasming way up by my butt. It wasn't painful at all, it was just twitching over and over again. It doesn't feel like it's going to be anything and all in all it was a great run. Looking back on it I probably could have sustained a faster pace from the start, but I wasn't confident enough in my fitness to try it. I guess maybe I'm further along than I thought that I was. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Science-Mass Ave. I spent today working from home and got out the door sometime after 5pm. I was feeling pretty good but kept the pace nice and easy the whole time. I stayed as close to the river as possible again, which makes for a very nice run and a decent amount of time on dirt. I'm very happy with how my legs are handling the jump up in mileage, they're feeling a lot better at 100MPW now than they were early last week at 70MPW. The river wasn't as crowded today as I was expecting, maybe because it's Friday. Didn't run any strides afterwards, just a short pickup at then end and then some stretching. June Miles : 300 | 5 |
| Friday AM | Reservoir with Summit. I woke up at 6:30am but was kind of tired since I stayed up until midnight watching Monk and the House on USA. Now that I'm living alone I need to force myself to keep going to bed before 11pm. Despite waking up tired I was feeling good this morning, took my time getting started though and wasn't on the streets until almost 8am. I mailed some bills and then took the Fenway ramp down to Comm Ave, headed through Kenmore and started rolling a little bit. I'm hoping for a solid run tomorrow at the Minuteman Trail so I didn't get too nuts today, but I did my best to keep the pace honest and moving. No watch again but I could tell the pace slowed somewhat when I got near the Reservoir and I didn't speed up again until I was past Coolidge Corner. My legs felt fresh the whole time though, there wasn't any fatigue which I'm happy about since it looks like I'll be hitting 100M this week and seem to be taking it well. Nice morning for a run, temps were in the mid 70s and the sun came out for the second half of the run. | 11 |
| Thursday PM | Castle-Tufts-Mass Ave. I met up with Sean and C-Wong at 5:15 and suggested Castle-Tufts as a new route, since we ran Fresh a few days ago and I was planning on Reservoir tomorrow. We agreed to keep things easy and set off down Prospect to Castle. It's always nice to introduce a new training partner as it gives plenty of new discussion topics. After hitting the Castle we took Highland Ave all the way to Davis Square and then followed Sean to Tufts. We ran a loop around the perimeter of their campus and came back to Davis Square, which added on 14:00. We took Mass Ave home from there and were back at MIT in 69:00. We did one grass loop but had to dodge a bunch of softball games, so we added on a few laps around the track (including a 100m sprint to stay ahead of some girl sprinters) and brought the total time up to 81:30, which C-Wong and I deemed 12M. After a couple of strides and some brief stretching, I got dressed and headed home to a plate of pasta. For some reason I wasn't very hungry and only ate about half of it. My right hip was bugging me at the start of the run, I felt like my IT band was sliding back and forth over the head of my femur, and it was a problem again on strides. I wasn't smooth at all on strides, I could get my left leg turning over fine, but getting my right knee up and bringing my right heel to my butt wasn't happening, I was feeling kind of uneven. Kathryn left for Spain today, and then she's going home for awhile, so I'm girlfriendless for the next 46 days. I'm setting a guideline of 800M for the time when she's gone. I'm not going to call it a goal, since I think it's a stretch to average 122MPW, but it's a nice round number. I think 750M is a lot likelier to happen, which is roughly 50M every three days, but you might as well aim high. | 12 |
| Thursday AM | Fens-Riverway with Kathryn. We left just after 7am this morning for one last run in Boston before Kathryn goes to Spain for the next month. We jogged over to the Fens and ran along the Riverway for 19:00 before turning around. We didn't speed up much on the way home, running 18:30, probably around 9:00 pace, I'd guess. My legs were okay, but my right hip is aching a little bit. I need to get back to using the foam roller with regularity. | 4 |
| Wednesday | Docks-Ollie. I hit Mass Ave at 7:10 this morning, feeling pretty good and the weather was great. Today was a pretty uneventful run, I wasn't running that hard and again didn't bring a watch. I've been doing a pretty good job of getting out the door right around 7am this week, instead of waiting until after 7:30 like I had been doing. That extra half an hour makes a big difference. Running through South Boston was nice, there were a few people out heading to work but the streets were pretty much empty. Climbing G Street really killed my legs though, which didn't make me too happy. Normally I wouldn't be that concerned, but Chris "Billy Goat" Bruce will be coming back from Boulder at the end of the summer thinking Bearcage is flat and I won't be able to use Lapham to get myself in shape over the summer. I'll have to make a point of putting in some hill work this summer. | 13 |
| Tuesday PM | Fresh Pond. I met Fivos and Sean outside of Johnson around 5:30 and we headed off towards the Pond, debating whether the route is 7M or 8M. We kept things very relaxed the whole way, which I certainly appreciated. As we were coming down Mass Ave I felt like I was starting to get a lot more tired, but I think I was focusing on the 16M total for today too much, because once I relaxed I started feeling better. Nobody wanted to get rolling today, the three of us spent the whole run trying to find a way to stay upwind of the other two without speeding up, none of us were smelling very good. We got back to the track and "stretched" for a few minutes before going our separate ways. Fivos is probably heading out to Microsoft tomorrow, so I'm now down one training partner for the summer. | 7 |
| Tuesday AM | Jamaica. I'm planning on two medium length runs today, I headed toward the Fens just after 7am for the first one. I didn't take a watch with me, but had been thinking that I'd try and get moving a little more than usual, but that didn't actually happen. Heading past the MFA I sped up and kept it sub-6:30 pretty much all the way to the Pond. The pace bounced around a little bit along the Riverway and then I started slowing down around the Pond. I was feeling fine, it wasn't that I was tiring, I just got distracted and started thinking about random things. I pretty much coasted the rest of the way home from the Pond. My legs are still feeling pretty good, and I feel like I could have really cranked had I been focused on it, but I wasn't that interested in it when I got into the run. I'm going to try and hit 100M this week, with hopefully a solid 14 mile progression run on Saturday. | 9 |
| Monday PM | Longfellow backwards with Kathryn. I came home from the lab and we waited awhile before starting, it was about 6:15 I'd guess before we got rolling. Kathryn was pretty sore from the race yesterday, so we took it easy for the first mile or so before working our way down to around 8:00 pace maybe. I didn't bring a watch, so I don't have any clue, really, it was an easy run and my legs are still feeling good. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Walden. Fivos drove he and I out to Walden at 7am today, we put in a pretty solid 10 miler, running for 68 minutes, mainly in the Lincoln Conservation area on the other side of the train tracks. Fivos invited the other guys living in Boston this summer, I guess it takes experience (age) to understand that running in the morning on soft surfaces is the way to go. All this rain has raised the level of the Pond so much that there's no beach at all any more, and some of the lower trails by the Pond are underwater, also. The rest of the trails were fine, only a few muddy patches, but the trail running right along the water through some houses' backyards was underwater, too. Surprisingly my legs were feeling fine, there wasn't any fatigue from yesterday's effort. The run went by pretty quickly today, Fivos and I haven't run just the two of us in a long time so there was plenty of catching up to do, he finally got authorized to work this summer so he'll be leaving for Seattle in a few days. The pace wasn't crawling but we weren't moving very fast either, just getting the legs moving and a nice, relatively early morning run. We got back to MIT around 9:30, I headed to the lab after a shower and Fivos went home to watch World Cup. | 10 |
| Sunday | New Charles River Run. 7.5M in 39:05 for second place. We drove over to the American Legion post around 8am, parked and sat in the car until 8:30 or so. I ventured out into the rain and ran back to Eliot to find a Port-A-John, but the line was 75-100 people long. I bumped into Casey Moulton and we warmed up about 2M, running over to Mt. Auburn Hospital to use the bathroom there and headed back to the starting line. Casey was shooting for 5:00 pace today and I wasn't sure I would be able to hang with him, but I told him I'd help out if I could. We got out well and it was just he and I for 600m or so. Right by the Legion Post he gapped me and had a lead as we headed over Eliot. I was surprised to see a sub 5:00 split at the first mile, I didn't feel like I was running that fast. Casey was about 7 seconds up on me at that point, I started telling myself to stay relaxed, try to get to 5M around 25:00 and I'd be able to take a shot at him. That was true, but I wasn't able to get to 5M in 25:00. Went through 2M a little bit slower and Casey had a serious gap. I tried to stay relaxed, I got a Jimmy Buffet song stuck in my head, but it was just one line from Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season, and the line was "I can't run at this pace very long." Not the most motivational. Today wound up at least being a good tempo run, I got rolling on the 6th mile but then I guess I settled in over the last 1.5M and didn't finish as hard as I would have liked. I finished in 39:04 and Casey kicking my ass by 1:30, running 37:30. I walked back to the car and lost the singlet, then jogged back along the course a little ways and found Kathryn, then jogged the last 1M with her. I stood around for awhile then jogged back to the car to get a shirt for me and some stuff for her, so I managed to put in a splintered 2M cooldown. I had thought they were paying out to the top four places today, but at the awards ceremony they said they weren't paying this year, so PerformanceRunner was wrong again. Splits: 4:59 / 10:14 (5:15) / 15:27 (5:13) / 20:43 (5:16) / 26:04 (5:21) / 31:05 (5:00) / 36:26 (5:20) / 39:04 (2:38). |
12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 02 6/18-6/24 |
Not a bad first whole week back. I looked at last week as a 65-70M week, the total was just low because I only ran four days, so I came into this week shooting for 90M, ideally. If I had tossed in a four banger on Tuesday evening like I normally would then this becomes a 91M week, so I'm happy with how things went. Started out with a rough fourteen miler, I was feeling good through about 10 or 11M but then the heat and distance got to me. Started hitting some doubles near the end of the week and then wrapped the week up with a few longer runs. I was able to get back in the rhythm of waking up relatively early and starting my run at 7am, but I was dead tired a few of those mornings. I'm looking at this week as a decent mileage week and a good starting place to build from. June Miles : 213 | 87 |
| Saturday | Fresh Pond. I didn't feel like running when I woke up, but I did manage to get out the door around 11am and headed to the Pond. I kept things under wraps on purpose today, because I'll be running a 7.5M race along the river as a tempo run tomorrow and wanted to be feeling fresh for that one. It was pretty easy to keep things slow today, my legs weren't that tired but I wasn't excited about running fast today. It's been raining pretty hard all weekend but I managed to get my run in between rain storms and stayed relatively dry. | 12 |
| Friday | Arboretum. I got going nice and early at 7am or so, my legs were feeling okay but I could tell that I wasn't running that fast, even though I didn't bring my watch. Nothing remarkable happening today, but I was feeling a whole lot better today than I was on Sunday. I'm sure it helped that it wasn't as hot as it was on Sunday, but coming home down the Riverway I wasn't falling apart like I was at the start of the week. Hopefully that means my legs are remembering what it's like to run again. | 14 |
| Thursday PM | Longfellow. I got started pretty quickly after getting home from the lab, I was heading to the river at 5:20pm. I normally avoid running on the river, especially when it's nice weather because it gets so crowded, but I'm sick of Orange Line, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Today was really enjoyable on the stretch from Mass Ave to Longfellow, I was running right next to the river, instead of my normal route along Storrow, and I think that made a big difference. My legs felt fine, I probably would have headed up to BU had I not had dinner plans with Kathryn. Didn't bother with any strides today, I need to get on that soon and start stretching a little bit more, too. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. I was originally planning on going to the Arboretum this morning, but it took me about 15 minutes to get out of bed I was so tired this morning, I decided it would be best to split things up. Also, I wound up wasting a bunch of time before I got out the door, and 90 minutes of running would have really made me late. I felt pretty good the whole way and coming home down the Riverway I was thinking that it would have been a good day to go 14M, but coming through the Fens I started getting pretty tired and maybe today wasn't the day to go 14M. I guess we'll never know. A lot cooler this morning, the whole run was comfortable and I wasn't dripping wet with sweat when I got home. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | Docks from campus. I met Fivos, Jake, Khatch and Nolan just after 5:15 and we headed off for the Harbor. We started out pretty easy up Cambridge Street and past the Fleet Center. It was nice to have some company and we spent the first half of the run cracking jokes. Heading back towards downtown from the World Trade Center both Fivos and I commented that this was the first time our legs felt good since starting back up again. I was pretty sure that we'd get moving before the end of the run, the only question was when. During the section through Downtown Crossing, the Common and the Garden the three old guys, Sean, Fivos and myself, built a gap mainly from the experience of picking our way through crowds. We hit the Comm Ave Mall and the pace started creeping up and we quickly dropped Khatch and Jake. We kept the pace up until we hit the bridge, which was fairly crowded and we slowed a little. Sean started running his mouth though and all three of us wound up throwing in random surges over the last kilometer. We put in a couple of strides on the track before stretching out. I got home just in time to see Ortiz's home run against the Nationals before getting in the shower. | 8 |
| Wednesday AM | Fens-Riverway, turning around at Huntington. I was dead tired this morning and thankfully Fivos wanted to get together for a run. I was able to just put in a short shakeout, and actually was feeling awake by the end of it. It was nice to have lower temps today and not get back from a run drenched with sweat. Nothing very exciting with this one, just an easy run and my legs were feeling okay. | 5 |
| Tuesday | Docks. I did a better job of getting out the door this morning, about 7:20 when I hit the roads. I'm still dragging ass when I wake up, though, so hopefully going a little bit shorter today will help me recover somewhat. Today's run makes my first 7 days back a 75M week, which is pretty good, I think, especially with 2 9M days. Trying to run past South Station and through Downtown Crossing during morning "rush hour" isn't really the most enjoyable route. No watch again today. | 9 |
| Monday | Fresh Pond. Got started at 7:45am today, didn't take a watch, got home just after 9am. Still not quite adjusted to getting up early and running, but I managed to get through this one despite the late start. The sun was starting to come up and I could tell it was going to be a hot day, I got home drenched in sweat and just kind of laid around until I stopped sweating instead of stretching out afterwards. Nothing exciting today, I wasn't very sore from yesterday, just really tired when I woke up. | 12 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. Felt okay through 10-11M, then things got a little rough. No watch again today, my legs are starting to get pretty tired and I was hoping that no watch would help me keep things slow. I took my time getting to the Arboretum and felt good on the way there and on the usual route through the Arboretum. It was early enough today that the sun wasn't up too high in the sky and the temps weren't that bad, but it really heated up through the rest of the day. On the way back my legs started to get a lot more tired, especially back home along the Riverway. I think it was a combination of the distance, I was getting close to the 12M mark when things started getting rough, and the heat, I was sweating pretty good by the end of the run today. It wasn't anything terrible, and hopefully the "overdistance" helped out. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 01 6/11-6/17 |
Pretty low key key, took a few extra days off after I got back from MN and then got back into running with some shorter and slower stuff. My legs felt okay as I got back into it this week, but as usual I started feeling tired around 7-8M on all these runs. Just have to keep my head down for awhile and keep working until I get back into the rhythm of things. June Miles : 126 | 40 |
| Saturday | Castle-Bunker Hill about 8am. I didn't take a watch today, just putting in mileage and didn't want to know how slow it was. I think I'll purposefully avoid timing my runs for a little while as I start coming back. Today was the first day that my legs felt tired, just four days back into it. But maybe they're back to their normal fatigue level and the week off spoiled me and I got used to my legs not being tired at all. I guess it'll take a few days to recalibrate. I think there was going to be a parade or something around Bunker Hill, because I saw a police band assembling and a few guys dressed up in Revolutionary Era clothes. | 10 |
| Friday | Reservoir with Summit. Back to the morning mileage, I felt like I was hammering today but turned in this run in 72 minutes, so I clearly need some re-calibration. I was feeling pretty good, my legs were aching a little bit but it wasn't enough to affect the pace at all. It's good to be back running again, I did my best to keep things under control on the way home and avoid blowing it out. I want to keep things under wraps for the next week, approximately, and just put in mileage for a bit. | 11 |
| Thursday | Middlesex Fells with Fivos and Sean. We put in an easy and steady 67 minutes, mixing up some of the rougher trails with some of the trails which were more open. I jokingly invited these guys to head out to the Fells this morning and both guys were surprisingly up for it. I picked up Fivos from campus, dropped Kathryn off at school and met Nolan at the entrance to the Sheepsfold, but the gates were closed so we parked just outside. We got rolling just after 7:30am and headed straight for the rough trails. After picking our way down a riverbed or some junk we found some trails where we could actually run and things picked up. We kept things very easy the whole way, which I appreciated since I'm just coming back. If I were out here alone I probably would have hammered at the start and died, or nearly died, by the time it was over. We headed around one of the Ponds at 45:00 and I was concerned we'd spend a long time trying to find our way back, but we got to the Sheepsfold around 65 minutes, but I wasn't that diligent about stopping my watch when we were picking our way through parts of the trail, and we were running pretty slow at parts, so I'll call it 9M, maybe a long 9. My legs were covered in mud by the end, I didn't realize it was going to rain overnight when we made plans after yesterday's run. | 9 |
| Wednesday | Fresh Pond without the Pond. Left just before 5:30pm and headed over to campus. I met Jake, Fivos and Nolan at Johnson who were ready pretty much as soon as I got there and we headed off towards Brattle Street. Not the most original route but at least the company was good for this one. I was feeling great on my first day back, but naturally got fatigued as the run wore on. Hopefully I haven't lost too much and my legs come back quickly over the next few days. During my time off I started thinking how easily I could just stop altogether, but 5:00 into the run today and I knew I'm going to keep at this for awhile still. The run itself was pretty good, we started out easy and it stayed easy the whole way. When we got close to Brattle Street Fivos said he was okay with going Fresh, so we all agreed to run that. When we got back to MIT Jake headed home, Nolan tacked on a few grass loops and I hit the Port-A-John. Us old guys stretched out for 10-15 minutes and made plans to run the Fells tomorrow morning before I headed home, making it a nice and easy 71 minutes in total. Decent first day back, my legs clearly forgot what running 10M feels like as they were a little wobbly and I was falling off a bit as we got to MIT. I'm planning on jumping right back into the mileage this weekend after a few days of getting back into it, hopefully my legs don't protest. | 10 |
| Tuesday | My last day off. Got to the lab early again and got a lot of work done. Today is sure to be my last day off as I have plans to run with Fivos in the afternoon tomorrow and am going to run in the Fells Thursday morning. The past 5 or 6 days without running have passed by pretty quickly, I could probably keep this break going longer but it's time to get back to work. | 0 |
| Monday | Day off. I had a lot of work to catch up on after my short vacation and wanted to get right at it so I decided to take another day off. I'm feeling good and am itching to run again, so I think this break was a good idea. | 0 |
| Sunday | Day off. We got down to Dan and Julie's late last night and I slept from about midnite until 8am. Wasn't really in a running mood so I didn't. Took a shower and ate breakfast and then left for the airport. I flew from MSP at 1:05 and got back to Boston after 8pm, so no running afterwards, either. Another day or two of rest and then I'll get back to the mileage. It was pretty easy to get away from the daily mileage ritual, but maybe being on vacation had something to do with that. | 0 |
