ROLLING WEEK = 63M |
SEASON MILES = 3468 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 51 12/2-12/8 |
Pretty big letdown at Saturday's race, was hoping to get in a competitive field and test myself but was simply unable to stay with people and race. The rest of the week was geared around the trip to OH, easy workout on Tuesday and just running the rest of the time. December Miles : 73 | 63 |
| Saturday | Club Nationals. The course was entirely muddy by the time we were set to race, we warmed up away from the course as the women ran, felt decent during the warmup and excited to race. Got out well but after a 5:00 mile my legs were tiring and I started slowing. Got to the point where I wasn't racing or competing at all, just trying to move forward and doing a poor job of that. Got passed continuously over the final 8k, wound up in 103rd at 34:21. Cooled down 4M with Miller, Ferenc and Weidman. Disappointing day but don't view it as an indictment of my effort or conditioning, today was largely about being able to handle the mud, I did a piss poor job. | 12 |
| Friday | Club Nats course in West Chester, OH. Flight was delayed an hour but otherwise uneventful. Changed at CVG and drove straight to Voice of America park. Ran 35-40 minutes around the course, just big loops in a field. Course was covered with snow and running took a lot of effort, my legs were tight and sore afterwards. Ran strides in the parking lot, the only open ground there was. We'll see how the course handles rain and then 4 races before us tomorrow. | 5 |
| Thursday | Fake Fresh. Nothing special, just a relaxed ten miler in the morning. Felt decent throughout, not running very fast though. The stretch of the River between Longfellow and the first boat house is nearly un-runnable. | 10 |
| Wednesday | L and First. Pretty tired from last night's workout and slept through the alarm this morning. Got started as soon as I came home from work, nothing special about this one. My legs were a little bit sore from yesterday but nothing terrible and I'm sure I'll be feeling better tomorrow. Had to take a pit stop at Rowe's Wharf on the way home, I hadn't noticed the public restroom before tonight. | 8 |
| Tuesday | 3x(400-800-400) in 67-2:17-67; 67-2:19-67; 66-2:19-66. MP was wise enough to move us inside for this final workout of the cross season. I wasn't too thrilled when I heard about it, but given the past few day's weather it was the right call. I didn't even leave the building tonight, warming up 2M and cooling down 3M with Matt Ely. Alasdair showed up in time for the start of the workout and the three of us worked together pretty well. Kept things fairly relaxed, getting out in 33-mid on the 400s and 68-69 on the 800s. Probably could have run harder on the 8s but stayed comfortable and the pace didn't slip too much. Wound up chasing down traffic a few times but mainly able to get in a groove and run our own pace. I felt like we could have added on a couple more sets once we finished, but near the end of the cooldown my legs started getting a bit wobbly. Stretched out and headed home, will have to be sure to get in some strides before Friday to loosen up and clean out the legs. | 8 |
| Monday | Castle-Bunker Hill. After neglecting to run this loop in the snow yesterday I paid my penance today after work. I got going around 5:30 and much of the snow from yesterday had iced over, which made the footing difficult in places. The only real trouble I ran into though was going downhill after Castle, the road and sidewalk were both pretty slick. Felt okay but was running pretty slowly, I screwed up the watch but was 56 minutes for the part I did time and didn't miss enough to really justify calling this 10M the way I was suffling around out there. | 9 |
| Sunday | Docks plus 4x150 at MIT. Finally got out the door at 5:20 as the first snow flakes started falling. Followed the usual route without much incident, the snow was sticking but it didn't really affect the footing. I had thought about going in shorts when I saw temps 29-31, but was glad I had on pants when the snow started falling. It was big, wet flakes that get in your eyes but don't hurt when the wind's blowing. After crossing the river I hit the MIT track for 4 laps of 150m finishes. I'd stride from the water jump to the finish line and then jog back around to the water jump. Felt pretty good, I built into them and the footing was surprisingly good despite the mondo having a layer of snow atop it. I felt like I got a little carried away and was running harder than strides ought to be, so after 4 laps I put in two easy strides on the infield before heading home along the river. Wasn't in the mood to do anything but jog home which lead to 7:20 pace. Finished up in 77 minutes which I'll generously call 11M. Glad I took the time to run strides as my legs were feeling tight throughout the run but really loosened up after my time on the track. | 11 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 50 11/27-12/1 |
A pretty disappointing week, missed two days and didn't run a very good workout on Wednesday. I had hoped to just build right on through Club Nats but lately that race has been giving me a good excuse to rationalize my lethargy. Nothing really special, 50M in 5 days isn't that great, but at least I've been feeling good when I do run. Saturday was somewhat encouraging, being able to drop to that kind of pace and hold it without much effort. I just need to make sure I don't fall into the comfortably cruising mindset during next week's race. December Miles : 10 | 50 |
| Saturday | Weeks Footbridge. Got out the door around 1pm, hoping that the wait would warm things up, but that didn't happen. Took me a few miles to get adjusted to running in the cold, but by the BU bridge I was feeling fine. I started out slow and easy but after crossing the footbridge I started slowly building the pace. The stretch from River to BU torn up but runnable and I started really speeding up there, despite the uneven footing. Once I crossed the new death bridge I hit mark 7 and started a 2M tempo effort down to mark 5. I wasn't quite sure how fast I was going to run, I was just looking to get in a hard effort and get my legs moving. I hit the first mile in 5:12 and tried to speed up from there. I ran 2:35 for the next half mile and debated with myself about what to do. I hadn't thought I'd be running low 5:00s and didn't know if I should really hammer or just keep the pace fast. I did a little of both I guess, I wound up running 5:07 for a 10:19 two mile effort. That got my legs pretty tired and I shuffled home not very quickly. This was the first really cold run of the winter and it took me a little while to warm up once I got indoors. | 0 |
| Friday | Goose Egg. Apparently staying out a bar until midnight watching the Packers is not conducive to running the next morning. Not able to get any miles in before work, then worked late and then went out to dinner with my family who is in town. Missed two days this week, despite my resolve to not taper for Club Nats, I seem to be tapering. November Miles : 264 | 0 |
| Thursday | L and First. 27-low out, 26:00 back. Really tired when I woke up this morning, not much time for running. Felt decent, despite the calf cramp which woke me up at some point last night. Nothing special about this one. | 8 |
| Wednesday | 3x(1200-600-200) in 3:38, 1:45, 31; 3:35, 1:44, 31; 3:35, 1:44, 32. The group was Ely, Alasdair and myself on this one, I didn't get in any strides before the 6:15pm start and it showed on the first one. Matt got a head start and looked to be running fast but we were only 73 at the split, I went around him but didn't really speed up as we were 2:27 at the half before kicking it down on the final lap. Had 200m jog to the other corner then got out in 70 on the 600 and held pace through the line. The 200 felt pretty fast and my legs were grateful for the 400m jog between sets. Alasdair was only running 2 sets and took over the lead on the second one, we were a little more evenly paced, running 71-72 on all 3 laps. Pretty much the same splits as the first 600, just finished a bit faster and then Alasdair blew us away on the 200. Stayed relaxed on the final set, Ely hung with me for the 1200, we got out in 71 but slowed a bit from there. Didn't try to kill the last two intervals, just made sure I got my legs moving. Cooled down 3M with Matt then stretched out for a few minutes before heading home. Not a great workout, but once my legs got loosened up I felt decent out there. | 9 |
| Tuesday PM | CTown loop. Came home a little early and got in 4M with Kathryn. Felt good to double, need to work more of these into the schedule. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Fake Fresh reverse. Was delighted to see the thermometer showing 60 degrees this morning, probably my last t-shirt, no gloves run in Boston until April. No excitement, aside from dodging traffic in Harvard Square. Still running pretty quick down the river at the end of these runs. | 10 |
| Monday | Docks after work, the last bit with JB. Slept through the alarm this morning so I had to run when I got home from work. Felt pretty good and the weather was decently warm, despite a thick fog/mist. Tried to run this one a bit harder to compensate for the off days and lack of workouts recently but didn't do a good job of keeping the hammer down. Cruising home along the river I hit 6:22, ran into JB just after Longfellow and ran with him back to the Monument before splitting up. Good run this afternoon, I'm feeling re-energized. | 9 |
| Sunday | Busy Day, no running. Went to bed early last night, slept in and was too hungry/tired/out of it to motivate myself out the door right away. Then headed to Home Depot and bought a Christmas tree and the rest of the day was spent putting it up and doing those types of things. Mentally I needed a break, or at leas that's what I'm telling myself. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 49 11/18-11/26 |
Not a bad week, despite travelling having an impact in the latter stages. Put in a great race on Sunday, really happy with how that turned out. I came in with a plan I thought would work, I stayed relaxed through the first 800 and I hit 25:00 like I wanted but barely ran out of gas trying to hold off Lutz. No hard running the rest of the week but my legs have been feeling great and I've been running a really quick pace even though it still feels like I'm jogging. Maybe Terry moved the marks around on me. Really tired by the end of the "vacation," but my legs haven't really been feeling it. November Miles : 224 | 58 |
| Saturday | Bender. I woke up early again to get the run in before heading to the airport and put in the standard 10 mile loop. Started out a bit slow, over 20:00 to the approx. 3M mark, but started feeling better as the run wore one. My legs came around and I wound up running fast with little effort again, consistently in the 6:10 range down Lake, even on the long half mile from Big Bay to 4676, and finished up with the last mile in 6:03. | 10 |
| Friday | Busy Day, no running. Exhausted after another late night yesterday and spent all day doing wedding planning stuff. Got home around 4pm with no desire to lace them up, I blame Nick for not being home to force me to go run. | 0 |
| Thursday | Lake Drive to Fox Point, Kensington to Wilson to Morris to Oakland to Kenwood to Lake. Kind of all over the place this morning, I got out the door before 6am, into 26 degree temps and icy patches on the sidewalks. I felt pretty good at the start and was running low 6:30s right away, but heading up into Fox Point I realized the out and back plan would have to change. With no streetlights it was impossible to tell where the ice was and after slipping and sliding for the third time I turned around. Headed all the way back Lake Drive then ran the perimeter of Shorewood. I convinced myself to head south on Downer to Kenwood which bumped the mileage up slightly. Heading home along Lake I was 3:05 for the half mile to Edgewood then ran a couple pick ups over the final few blocks. Felt really good and had the conditions been more conducive I think I might have gotten in the 16 miler into Fox Point. | 13 |
| Wednesday | Fake Fresh backwards. I worked from home today in order to get to the airport easily this evening, which let me wait until 10am or so before heading out for this one. I was feeling good and could tell the pace was quick but wasn't doing anything to keep it fast. Finished up around 6:15 along the river, legs were really good this morning. Still no firm plans for a workout given all the travel coming up, plus Nick won't be around to pull me through one. | |
| Tuesday | Docks-BU. Managed to get out the door early enough to squeeze in the extra distance this morning. Felt decent, running 6:30ish by the end without any effort. | 11 |
| Monday PM | CTown Loop. I headed out for 4M after I got home from work this afternoon. Legs felt pretty good, not very stiff or sore, almost as if I didn't race yesterday. | 4 |
| Monday AM | First Street out and back. 27:00 out, 25:50 back. Wasn't too sore this morning, surprisingly, and felt like I was running a bit faster than normal even. Nothing special about this one though, just the usual morning stuff. | 9 |
| Sunday | USATF-NE, ran 30:57 to finish fifth. Warmed up 2M with the whole crew, had plenty of time to switch into spikes and get in enough strides before the gun. Weather was cold but not too bad, I was comfortable without hat or gloves or 3/4 length tights. Got out even, which was the crux of my plan, and hung around the top 5 from the first Bearcage climb onwards. Was 15:40ish at 5k and 25:00 at 8k and spent the last 2k trying unsuccessfully to hold off celebrated 2 time war veteran Justin Lutz who got away as we rounded the far backstop. Put in a solid 4+M cooldown and even ran some strides at the end. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 48 11/11-11/17 |
Pretty good week despite the low mileage total. Got in 2 good workouts and a decent long day on Sunday. There was an injury scare early on but that disappeared after just a few days. Ran decently by myself on Tuesday, didn't hammer quite as hard, I was expecting the pace to come a little easier than it did. Thursday was a pretty good hard effort for 6am, still getting out a bit too fast and not able to finish quite fast enough. November Miles : 166 | 65 |
| Saturday | 1.5 CTown loops. Taking things easy today, just trying to get loose and feel good for tomorrow's race. Ran the usual Chucktown loop with Kathryn, then after the Monument lap I headed back Medford to Main and cut up Park Street. Around 45 minutes total, then ran a couple of strides to get my legs moving. | 6 |
| Friday | Docks. It was cold, windy and rainy this morning which made the run much less enjoyable. I got started around 5:50am and headed out along the usual Waterfront route. Time was passing fairly quickly which made the run easier, even though I wasn't feeling great or running very fast. The wind was really bad by the Convention center, really whipping the rain into my face, but once I got past that I was doing okay. My gloves stopped being helpful as I was heading down Comm Ave, but other than that I wasn't too cold this morning. I decided against the BU extension, giving my legs a little rest and getting me out of the rain a little earlier. I was about 7:10 along the river which sounds about right for the majority of the run. Went straight to the shower and warmed up once I got home. Got to take tomorrow easy and get the legs ready for Sunday. | 9 |
| Thursday | 5M decreasing pace in 5:47-8:23-2:38-5:11-5:06. When MP moved the workout up to Tuesday I immediately thought "Great, I can get in 2 workouts now." I took my time getting out the door, waiting until nearly 6am thinking that a few extra minutes would mean I'd be more awake and run faster. I warmed up over to Mass Ave, debating whether or not this was a good idea, but finally told myself that having 2 days of rest makes it just like a Wednesday workout before a Saturday race which has never been a big deal. The plan was 6:00-5:40-5:20-5:00-sub5, but I started out way too fast again. I was telling myself that 6:10 was much better than 5:50, but still came through in 2:45 before throwing on the brakes big time. I felt like I was jogging the next half mile in order to run a 3:02. Picked things up again and was 2:46 at where I think the next half mile mark is (I use the Museum of Science sign right after the crosswalk) but the 2M mark was covered with leaves. That's the one mark I don't have a good landmark for so I don't know what the second mile was. I was 8:23 at 2.5M and then ran a 2:38 to the 3M mark, so that's about a 5:37 from 1.5 to 2.5M. I was feeling good and kicked the pace down again, but clearly didn't get going fast enough as I split my next mile 2:36/2:35. I'm not sure where the exact mark is so I just used a crack in the path a step or two before the bench. I tried to put the hammer down on the stretch out to the BU boathouse and was running pretty hard but only managed a 2:34. I stopped the watch and turned around, then took off back towards the bench. I was pushing pretty hard by this point and was only able to manage a 2:32 which wasn't too encouraging. I don't know if it's from going out too hard or what, but I haven't been able to push myself down under 5:00 even though I feel like I'm running close to 4:50 effort. Wound up running 27:07 for the 5M which is a bit slower than last time, but I managed a more controlled first mile this time. I cooled down back home and took my time stretching out after this one. Hopefully I'm not too sore tomorrow, but I've still got plenty of time to get my legs loosened up for Sunday. | 11 |
| Wednesday | Run to Remember course. Tired last night and lazy this morning, I got a late start and rationalized my way into a short route. Felt okay throughout but wasn't trying to run fast this morning. Wound up being about 49 minutes, then some brief stretching when I got home. Was planning on doubling in the evening but spent 2 hours at the barbershop (long line) and didn't get home until nearly 7pm which made skipping the run easier. | 7 |
| Tuesday | 400-800-1500-1500-800-400 in 66, 2:20, 4:28, 4:30, 2:18, 66. Rest was 1-2-4-4-2 minutes. The workout got moved up a day to Tuesday and apparently I was the only guy that wasn't a problem for, as I was solo tonight. Felt pretty good throughout but was trying to cruise a little too much. The shorter stuff is making these workouts much easier, the first 400 flew by without me even noticing. I got out in 69 to start the 800 and relaxed a bit on the second lap, even though it felt like I was running hard. It was a little weird to run 15s in a workout, but MP was giving me 400m splits so holding pace wasn't too complicated. Got out in 71-2:22 and felt good, surprised to hear 3:35 at 1200 as I felt like I was still running hard. Picked things up over the final 300m to come through in 4:28. The second 1500 was where I really cruised too much, trying to find a comfortable fast pace instead of hammering. Got out in 71-2:23 and was 3:35 at 1200m again but didn't run aggressively the last 300m. I got out well to start the 800 but settled in too much on the second 200m. I was 69 at 400m and really worked the second lap. I was pretty surprised it was only a 2:18, I was expecting 2:16-17 the way I was working the second lap, guess I'm not as fast as I thought. The final 400 was controlled but fast, thankfully did have anyone to pull me out in 30s, got out in 32-33 and just ran hard through the line. Not a bad workout today, probably would have been a bit faster if there was a group working together, since I wasn't noticing when the pace slowed. I spent a few minutes talking with Mike about what the next big race should be, thinking about maybe moving up in distance this spring. I cooled down with a Harvard Square loop, feeling good at the start but the workout caught up to me by the time I hit Mt Auburn on the way home. My legs were a lot more wobbly than I was expecting after this short workout, I ran some good strides on the infield which ought to leave me feeling better tomorrow. | 10 |
| Monday | Highland Ave out and back. Didn't have much trouble getting out the door today, and only slight pain in my right heel. Kept things pretty slow the whole way, 29 minutes out and 28 minutes back. Nothing special about this morning's run, just logging miles. In the shower I noticed that the plantar tendon on my right foot is pretty tight, which might be related to this heel pain. I'll have to break out the tennis ball tonight and hopefully be diligent enough to get my foot in a bucket of ice water during Prison Break. | 8 |
| Sunday | Jamaica. I'd had an upset stomach since about 4am but forced myself to get out the door by 11:30 so that I'd be back for the start of the Packers game at 1pm. I wasn't feeling too bad once I got started and thankfully my stomach didn't give me any issues throughout. I took the locks to Causeway and the usual rroute to Commonwealth on the way out and was glad to get on the dirt when I reached the Fens. Kept the effort easy the whole way, still tight in spots from yesterday's activity. I took the old school route home, across the Green Line tracks to BU and back along Mem Drive. I didn't feel like I was running very fast today, but all along the river I was 6:30 pace and felt like I was jogging, so who knows. Wound up being around 96 minutes total today, so probably a long 14. Around the BU bridge, about 70 minutes in, the outside of my right heel started to hurt, I stretched out my calf and Achilles while stopped at lights and that made it manageable, but I'll need to keep an eye on it. It started as just an ache but morphed into an pinching pain on the bottom of my foot, not fun. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 47 11/4-11/10 |
Not a bad week, I'm getting better at hitting the mileage and my legs continue to feel stronger. I put in a really good 15 miler to start things off, the kind of distance I need to be running with regularity on Sundays. I got absolutely dusted by Carter on Wednesday but still ran as fast as I had been expecting too and got a lot out of it. Clearly need to work on my speed as I had no answer when Matt shifted gears. I slept through the morning run I had hoped to do on Wednesday and was too cold to try and extend the cooldown afterwards, so the mileage took a bit of a hit. Saturday's workout went pretty well, sleeping in cut the distances short and robbed me of a couple climbs, but I still got in a solid effort and was happy with how my made up workout went. Just one week until New Englands, but I don't plan on backing off very much, I'm hoping to keep building through the rest of the cross season. November Miles : 101 | 77 |
| Saturday | 36 minutes on Bunker Hill. Only two rules to this workout: 1) continuous running and 2) finish with a climb up Sackville. I overslept by about half an hour and didn't get started until almost 6:30 this morning. I ran the Charlestown Loop to Main Street and Bunker Hill, at which point I started running up and over the hill, then turning around and running back. I've never tried this before and didn't know how long the climbs would be, but it turned out to be a pretty good workout. I ran hard up the hill from the crosswalk at Main Street to Bunker Hill Ct, which was about 1:45. Then I'd jog down the other side to Green Street, turn around and run hard back to Mead (not North Mead,) which also turned out to be about 1:45. I got in 4.5 over and backs, then jogged down Belmont and finished with a hard climb up Sackville. I was taking the rest a little easier than I probably should have, but this still wound up being a really hard morning. I didn't check many of the splits, I was just trying to run each climb as hard as I felt I could at that time. I ran 2 "laps" in about 15:30 and finished 4.5 in something like 32:45. I tried taking a dead-end street down to Medford which extended the rest and Belmont is right next to Sackville so I didn't get a hard effort along Medford leading into the climb like I wanted. I finished up with about 36:30 spent on Bunker Hill, about 5:00 shy of what I was hoping for but I was running late and cut it short. I only had time for a 7 minute cooldown, twice around the Monument, in order to meet the caravan for the trip to Regionals. I did a fair bit of running around while watching the men's and women's races and was pretty tired by the time I got home. I wound up taking a well deserved two hour nap before a good dinner at G'Vanni's in the North End. | 10 |
| Friday | Docks, BU extension. I got going at 5:50 this morning, the thermometer said 32 but I'm starting to question its accuracy. I felt pretty good early on, I'm getting pretty accustomed to this pre-6am stuff. Heading through Downtown Crossing and down Commonwealth my legs started getting a little heavy, but I managed to keep things together without slowing too much. I headed through Kenmore and took the BU bridge over to Cambridge, I got to Memorial at 50 minutes exactly. Heading home along the river I was running 6:3-6:40 but probably running a bit harder than I had been at the start. I finished up in 73 minutes, I had been hoping this route would be 12M but there's no way I can justify that. | 11 |
| Thursday | Ollie Course. I fell asleep watching TV last night and didn't really want to get up when my alarm went off. It was just 35 degrees and it took me awhile to find my long sleeve shirt so I didn't get out the door until 5:50. Headed over to L Street via Docks and did the Broadway-Castle Island-First Street loop, which added on about 18 minutes to the usual Southie out and back-er. I was 69 minutes total but I'll keep this one a long 10 to smooth out some previous corner-cutting. I felt pretty good this morning, my calves were a bit tight but I really couldn't feel last night's workout very much. I wished I had more time to extend this one, the weather was still comfortable and I was feeling good. I've got a pretty good shot at cracking 80M this week. | 10 |
| Wednesday | 3x(1000-600-400) in 2:53, 1:42, 66; 2:55, 1:41, 64; 2:55, 1:43, 66. Rest was 2:00-1:30-3:00. Another day of horrible traffic meant I had just 20 mins to warmup and felt it at the start of the workout. I got out behind Carter in 70, then looked up at 500m and Carter had a 5m gap. Alasdair went around me and I felt like I was falling apart, but was 2:18 at the half and held on pretty well to the finish. Carter took off again at the start of the 600 and pulled away the whole interval. I came through in 66 and tied up a bit heading to the line. I got the feeling that I would be trailing Carter and Alasdair the rest of the night and tried to just keep running hard. The 400 went pretty well, but Carter and Alasdair had be by a second or two. I felt great at the start of the 1000, the pace felt easy after the faster stuff, and I came through in 68 but still trailed. I slowed on the next lap to 2:19 and felt out of sync heading down the last straight. I ran a little more conservative on the 600, going out in only 68 before closing hard when it started to look like Carter and Alasdair were tying up. Alasdair led the 400 since it was his last one and pulled Carter and I out to 200m in 30s. I slowed down a bit after seeing the split but Carter took off and put a good gap on me. I ran tough on the 1000, sticking right on Carter through 69-2:19 and then pulling next to him down the final straight. That must have woken him back up because he put a big gap on me over the final 200m of the 600, after we hit 68 for the first quarter. I managed to stick with him through 175m of the last interval before he surged away and built a 7m gap by the time we hit the last straight. I ran a pretty good workout, I felt, despite Matt waxing the floor with me tonight. I was a little tight on the first interval and couldn't respond to his surge, but I struggled with that even after I got loosened up. We cooled down with a BU loop and didn't spend much time stretching because it was getting below 40 degrees and I only brought a TShirt. First really fast workout and I think I handled it decently well, a lot more speed than I'm used to and it still feels early in the season but that's probably just due to my late start. I'm going to need to start running strides more often and bring a speedsuit on Wednesdays if Mike keeps giving up these miler workouts. | 9 |
| Tuesday | Summit Ave. Got started at 5:45 again this morning with temps barely cracking 50 degrees. I was running pretty slow at the start, just trying to wake up and get my legs loosened up. Started feeling better heading through Allston and Brighton, but didn't have a very good climb up the hill. Kept the pace pretty steady on the way back, but must have sped up a bit because the mile along the river was 6:23 (3:13/3:10) which felt pretty comfortable. It started to rain about the time I was crossing McGrath, which prompted me to pick up the pace the rest of the way back home. Wound up at 81 minutes overall, a pretty good start to the day. | 12 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh backwards. Apparently JMark wasn't interested in a morning run after his 2:40 NYC marathon yesterday, so I was all alone. Got out the door around 5:40, the extra hour didn't buy as much daylight as I was hoping for. TShirt and gloves again this morning, feeling pretty comfortable. I didn't push things at all today, just found a quick, comfortable pace and let it ride. Not shuffling along but not trying to force myself to run faster than my legs wanted to. I was 6:42 along the river which was probably among the fastest miles. Finished up in just under 70, then some brief stretching before getting ready for work. | 10 |
| Sunday | Arsenal. We came back to Boston last night and the extra hour of sleep from Daylight Savings Time ending allowed me to sleep 10-11 hours and still get up before 9am. I braved the sub-40 degree temps in just TShirt and gloves, confident it would warm up as the sun came up. I got out to a pretty good start, the first mile along the river was about 6:40 and I settled in at that pace for the majority of the run. I started warming up and wound up carrying my gloves for the second half of the run, it's not winter yet. I've clearly not been on the river in a long time as there is now a flight of stairs after the Elliot tunnel, which I found out about today. On the way back I had to cross over at River Street because the sidewalk was blocked off for DCR improvements until Nov 19. I crossed back over the BU bridge and took the first footbridge back onto the Esplanade. I hit the rest of the marks right around 6:30 pace and finished the 12.5M loop along the river around 82 minutes and was 1:40 for the whole thing. Ate a big batch of pancakes before settling in for another Packer's victory. | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 46 10/28-11/3 |
Not a bad week. Sunday's race didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but I rebounded quickly and put in the best workout to date on Wednesday. Thankfully the race didn't stay in my legs too long and honestly by the end of the week it felt like Mayor's Cup was a month earlier. The mileage took a small hit from not running Saturday, but the Trials race was quite an experience and quite worth it. November Miles : 24 | 63 |
| Saturday | Olympic Trials in NYC. Kathryn and I took the train down to New York last night and met up with Nick End in Rockefeller Center for the start of the race. Saw the field at the mile, also, and then a lot more in Central Park, as we were able to run back and forth to see them. I will gladly trade the goose egg for the chance to watch this race (great races from the New England guys,) but I'm tempted to call today 27M to match Fivos for the week. | 0 |
| Friday | Fresh Pond. I worked from home again today which let me wait until things warmed up before heading out for my run. I felt pretty good the whole way, felt like I was running a decent pace throughout. Nothing special about this one, but it is funny to think that just a few months ago I wanted to shoot myself as I was finishing up this route. | 12 |
| Thursday | Summit Ave. I was too wired after last night's workout to get to bed early (plus the sugar rush from Halloween candy) so I only slept about 5 hours and wanted to hit the snooze, but I finally managed to get out of bed for a morning run. Headed over the Charlestown Bridge to Causeway, then up to the State House, through the Common and Public Garden to Comm Ave then the usual loop over Summit and back along Beacon. Took the BU Bridge to the Cambridge side of the river and headed home that way. I keep underestimating this loop, I was running for 84 minutes this morning, with a 6:45 along the river, so a good 12 mile run. The weather is starting to cool off but it's still warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt, but who knows how much longer that will last. Felt okay this morning, running slow early but not too sore from yesterday's workout, it just took a little while to wake up. I need to get in the habit of doing this type of mileage in the mornings. | 12 |
| Wednesday | 2x(1600-1200)-2000. 4:45, 3:33; 4:43, 3:33; 6:03, with rest of 600m after the 16 and 400m after the 12. Traffic was bad on the way to MIT so I got a late start on the warmup. We started a few minutes after 6:30, though, so I was still able to get pretty loose. I wanted to be aggressive today and work on sustaining a hard pace throughout. I got out in the lead with Matt Carter running next to me in lane two and pretty much pressed the whole interval. We ran splits of 72-2:23-3:33-4:45 and my legs were feeling good the whole way. I was a little tired crossing the line but nothing that made me think I couldn't maintain that pace throughout the workout. The wind started picking up as we started the 1200, so Carter and I shared the work, I led the first 400 in 70, Matt got us to 2:21 and then I ran on his shoulder over the last 250. That interval felt a lot tougher, I don't know if it was from trying to force a faster pace or from the wind or what. We switched starting lines for the next 1600, going over to the official finish line so that we wouldn't be finishing into the wind. Carter and I agreed to each take an 800 and he led the first half. We got out really well, running 70-2:21 then I took us through a pair of 71s to finish in 4:43. I joked with Carter during the rest that the 3:33 we split for 1200 seemed easier than our 1200m interval earlier. Matt led the first 600 of the next 1200 and got us out well but I wasn't able to keep it rolling and we slowed a bit at the end. My watch said 3:32.90 which gets rounded up. MP gave us a little extra rest before getting into the 2k, and told us to run 74-75 for the first 800 then pick things up. I volunteered to lead the easy part, taking us through in 75-2:29 feeling like I was running a lot harder. Carter took over, we got to 1k in 3:06 and it felt like the pace was slowing so I passed him back at 1100m. I really started to hammer then, we came through in a 3:42 (73 for the lap) and kept picking it up. We were 4:54 at 1600 (72) and then Carter went flying around me on the turn. He got a little gap but had to part a sea of joggers which gave me a chance to catch back up. I got next to him on the final straight and we finished up in 6:03, running a 69 on the final lap, 2:57 for the second kilometer. I was really happy with how the workout went tonight, this was the first time that I really hammered an entire workout without falling off the pace or running cautiously, afraid I might fall off the pace. A good step forward, hopefully I can apply this to the USATF-NE race in 2+ weeks. Ran a BU loop cooldown with Carter then stretched out on the track a bit before heading home for a late dinner. October Miles : 298 | 10 |
| Tuesday | G Street. I worked from home today, which let me run at 2pm in 60 degree weather instead of 5:30am in 40 degrees. Not that I could have woken up at 5:30 after watching the Packers win in OT last night, but I'm done with late night sports now. I headed downtown, thinking I'd run Ocean backwards, but there were a lot of people around and some kind of parade going on... After watching that for a few minutes I did my best to dodge the crowds, but it was like running down Yawkey Way after a Sox game. I finally worked my way to Financial District then over to the Seaport and took Summer/L Street to Marine, then up and over G Street, back down Broadway to L and home along the docks. I screwed up my watch early on, but was 26:14 from L and First back home. Gmap-Pedometer has it as a short 10 miles, so I'll just be sure to round something else down later on. Stretched out for awhile when I got home then went back to work. | 10 |
| Monday | Docks. I was too tired to get up this morning after watching the Sox sweep, so I ran after getting home from work. I wasn't running very fast but I wasn't nearly as sore as I expected the day after a race. Probably indicative of not racing hard enough, but at least tonight's run was enjoyable. Nothing much happened, ran the usual route from the CTown bridge to Mass Ave and Memorial and then took Memorial to Prison Point Bridge, skipping the Longfellow section of the route. I was about 7:15 along the river, which felt pretty accurate. | 9 |
| Sunday | Mayor's Cup. 25:21 for 30th place. Not the race I was looking for today, got out pretty well but then simply was not able to run aggressively or make any moves when I needed to. Still, the problem didn't seem to be with my legs or my fitness, just that I'm not accustomed to racing. Not much I can do to remedy that now, but I didn't put a lot of mental preparation into this race, so that's something I can change. Warmed up 2M with Kathryn and cooled down 3M with a lot of the BAA guys. Came home and took a great 90 minute nap, hopefully that's enough to keep me awake during Game 4 tonight. | 10 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 45 10/21-10/27 |
Not the greatest week mileage-wise, didn't do a good job of getting out the door in the mornings and then got stuck doing shorter runs after work. Also, no automatic 13M at Lincoln on Thursday is going to hard to make up. Still, Wednesday's workout went really well, I was happy with how all the intervals went and that I felt a lot more comfortable on the mile repeats than I have in the past. Everything seems to be indicating that I'm getting into better shape, and at the right time, too. October Miles : 259 | 65 |
| Saturday | Short Castle. Got going around noon after sleeping in somewhat and sitting around all morning. Pretty wet, very humid and my legs didn't feel all that great. Ran over to Castle then took Prospect to Cambridge and took that back to 28. It was going to be a long 5M, so I looped around City Square Park and ran back to the Monument before ending right around 40 mins for a short 6M. Ran a few strides in the street but didn't feel very loose or fast or comfortable or good at all, hopefully tomorrow is different. | 6 |
| Friday | Fake Fresh backwards. Same deal as yesterday, couldn't even get up for a short one in the morning, hopefully the Sox win the series quick so I can go back to getting 7-8 hours a night. I wasted a lot of time when I got home since Kathryn wasn't around telling me to run. I almost skipped it altogether but got going at 6:45 and headed out in the dark. I was running pretty quick from the start, although it always feels faster when it's dark out. Heading through Central Square on a Friday night wasn't the best of choices but I made it out alive and didn't look back. I felt like the pace slowed a bit when I hit the river, but the mile from 3.5 to 2.5 was 6:09. That kind of surprised me, but I wound up running the loop in about 64:00, when JMark and I usually take 72 or 73 in the mornings. Felt pretty good to run quick, guess I did my best Casey Moulton impression tonight. | 10 |
| Thursday | Out and back to Southie. Stayed up late watching Game 1 of the World Series and couldn't get up for a run this morning. Headed out as soon as I got home and it was a pretty nice run. Kept the pace honest the whole way, about 27:00 on the way out and 26:00 on the way home. It's dark at 5:30am when I run in the mornings and it's dark at 5:30pm when I run in the evenings, can't win. | 8 |
| Wednesday | 2x800, 2x1600, 4x400 in 2:18, 18; 4:46, 46; 66, 67, 65, 66. Good group on this one, JB was back, along with Mike Chettle, Matt Ely and Alasdair. The usual 2M warmup but only a few strides and I was worried about how my legs would handle the quick early pace. I got out behind Mike, coming through in 67 and felt like I stayed aggressive despite slowing. Pretty much the same story on the second one, I was feeling good and knew the rest of the workout would go well. Alasdair had been right on my hip throughout both 800s but he stopped the workout there and it was mainly just Mike and myself the rest of the way. I led the first 800 of the mile in 2:21 (71-70) then Mike went around and put about 5 seconds on me in the second half. Pretty much the same story on number two, but I was feeling good and still felt like I was running the miles aggressively, something I hadn't been doing in earlier workouts. The 400s were short, I didn't try to run any harder than I'd been doing throughout the workout and they went pretty well. Mike led #1 and 3 and I took #2 and 4. | 8 |
| Tuesday | River with JMark. I actually got an early start today, so I took the locks to Causeway then up to Cambridge, across Longfellow and down to the usual meeting place this morning. That added on about 20 mins, then I headed up river until running into Jared. It keeps getting darker and I thought for a minute I might have run past him without noticing, but we found each other around the Sailing Pavilion. We headed up river at a decent pace, but I had to get to work early so instead of Fake Fresh we crossed at River St and headed back to Science. It felt like I was working harder than normal, but we were only 6:45ish according to the marks, so it wasn't from running faster. Still, not a bad morning and hopefully I can keep up the habit of getting out the door early for extra mileage. | 11 |
| Monday | Freedom Trail to Castle-Bunker Hill. It was a late night watching Game 7 and thankfully Jared didn't want to run this morning so I was able to sleep in a bit. Got to work early and got home by 4:30, was out the door by 5pm. Felt pretty good, running at a decent pace, and the weather was surprisingly warm for late October. Followed the Freedom Trail to the Common then took Commonwealth to Mass Ave, then north to Prospect and the usual route to Charlestown. Sped up a little through the Common and Public Garden to drop some drafters I picked up, but otherwise things were fairly relaxed. Did a good job of getting out the door soon after getting home and didn't talk myself out of running today. It's a small victory, but one of the first times I've managed to actually come home and run in the afternoon. | 9 |
| Sunday | Fake Jamaica. Went out to Porter's to watch the Sox last night, didn't get to bed until almost 1am and slept in until after 10. Got out the door at 10:45 or so, headed over the locks to Causeway, straight to the Capitol and then the Common to Commonwealth to the Fens. From there I followed the usual route but only went around the small pond, not full Jamaica because it was getting late. My legs were feeling okay throughout, not too sore from yesterday and no hamstring issues, which was very good. Wound up being almost 90:00 which I'll round up to 13M. | 13 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 44 10/14-10/20 |
This was one of my better weeks since I started working. It really helped to get out with Jake for a good long run on Sunday, that got the week off to a good start. Wednesday's workout went pretty well, I can definitely see improvement week to week and I'm getting back into the mindset needed to workout and race well. The only real negative was rolling my ankle on Thursday but luckily that didn't turn out to be anything serious. Finished things off with a really great workout on Saturday, it went much better than I could have expected, even with a slow first mile. Looking back at past seasons, the times are very similar to junior year which was a few weeks before I ran 24:56 at All New Englands. If I can get under 25:00 at Mayor's Cup next weekend I'll be very happy. October Miles : 194 | 71 |
| Saturday | 5xMile over Franklin Park 8k course. 5:03, 5:10, 5:02, 5:04, 4:43. There was a HS meet at Franklin again today, I got up at 6am thinking I'd get over there early enough to get the workout in beforehand, then spent 30 minutes debating whether it would be light enough to get the workout in. Left at 6:45 as the sun was coming up and didn't have a problem with the meet. The weather was pretty nice, but the ground was wet from rain overnight with a few puddles on the course. The plan was to just follow the formula, running 4:50-5:10-5:00-5:10-4:50 with about 4 minutes rest. Warmed up 2M and did a little stretching before starting the workout at 7:30. I didn't get out quite hard enough and despite a big push on the second half only ran 5:03. Wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but decided to stick to the windows and run like I did on the second half. The second mile went much better, climbed up Bearcage well, there's much better gravel there now, no more big rocks, and kept running hard after the hill, hitting 5:10 right on the nose. Took a little less than 4:00 rest before getting into the third mile. I didn't feel like I had a great Wilderness loop and the sharp downhill into the field was terrible, but I must have made up time somewhere because I was 5:02, just over the goal time. I started cutting the rest short as I didn't feel like I really needed it too much and got out really well on the fourth mile. My legs were feeling good the whole mile and I felt like I hammered the Wilderness a lot better, I seem to remember always getting tired on the back straight of the loop but not today. I was well under the window on mile 4, running 5:04 and again took closer to 3:00 rest. As I lined up for the last mile I added up the times for the first 4M and knew I needed a 4:41 to hit 25:00 but didn't think it was possible. Got out decently but really picked things up heading towards Bearcage. Ran the hill really well and kept the hammer down once I got to the top. As I rounded the backstop I saw the meet organizers chalking the finish line, so I knew exactly where to end the interval. I was really surprised to see 4:43 (actually 4:42.9) and my legs weren't as wobbly as I would have expected from that time. Of course, the fifth mile on that course is short, but I was thinking maybe 4:50 would be possible today. My left hamstring had cramped up Wednesday evening after the workout and was a little sore throughout the workout, but otherwise I felt really good and was really happy with how things turned out. I cooled down 20 mins and ran a few strides before heading home. The only bad part of today was that somebody stole my shirt as I was running. I had hung it up on the backstop thinking "Who's going to steal a TShirt at 7:30am?" The answer, apparently, is at least one person. I wish I had brought a shirt I didn't care about losing, but now my Boston06 shirt is gone. Not a huge problem, but my car was running out of gas on the way home so I had to fill up in just my running shorts, kind of awkward. Had a good breakfast then took a solid 2 hour nap when I got home. Good morning. | 10 |
| Friday | Charlestown Loop. I stayed up watching the Sox win Game 5 last night and I think the past two days caught up to me as I slept right through the alarm. Thankfully I wasn't supposed to meet Jared this morning. Got to work early and came home early for a run in the afternoon but started losing motivation and getting tired. Just ran an easy 4 miles with Kathryn around town. | 4 |
| Thursday | Lincoln. Same routine as the past few weeks, got to the parking lot at 5pm and went 3M with Carter and Jeff Caron, then met up with Justin Lutz and ran the 10M loop at 5:30pm. I rolled my ankle really badly about 3 minutes into the run and initially thought I might have to stop, but just ran on it until the pain subsided. I wound up rolling the same ankle a few more times throughout the run and it was really aching by the time we finished up. Things were feeling good and we kept the pace honest without running too hard. We knew there would be issues with daylight and didn't want to waste any time, which is probably why we ran a little bit faster than normal. Legs felt good the whole time, slowed a bit at the end as it got harder to see where I was going. Probably my last time out to Lincoln, I can't get out there any earlier and the sun is going down too soon now. Will have to try and find other ways of getting on soft surfaces during the week. | 13 |
| Wednesday | 3x(800-1200-1600) in 2:19, 3:30, 4:45; 2:19-3:30-4:48; 2:18-3:35-4:52 with 1:30-2:30-4:00 rest. The crew tonight was TShea, Michael Chettle and Jarod Shoemaker which made for a good group of guys for me to draft off of. Warmed up 2M with Terry and went into the workout a little wary of the pace Michael and Jarod were going to set. Got out in 71 and picked things up on the second lap which got my legs a little tired right away. Able to stay in contact the whole way on the 1200, running pretty much 70s the whole way. Got out in 2:21 on the mile and let a little gap develop, then Terry went around me and worked his way up to the front as I was content to hit 72-73 for the final 2 laps and not blow out my legs on the first set. More of the same on the next set, felt good running 69-71 for the 800 and 1200 but then got cautious on the 1600, a gap developed early and I did all I could to avoid slowing too much on the final 2 laps. That was the end for Terry, so it was down to 3 on the final set. Michael took us out in 67 which felt great until I heard it was a 67. I forced myself to hang in there though, I stayed tough and ran a pretty good 800. We got out in 34 to start the 1200 and I backed off a bit, I hit 70 but there was already a gap and I wasn't able to keep the pace fast, slowing over the final 2 laps. I started getting a side stitch near the end of that interval and tried to get rid of it the best I could during the rest. Michael stopped after the 1200 so it was just Jarod and myself finishing things up. He started a few seconds after me since I was only thinking 72-73s per lap now. I felt good at the start, got out in 73-2:26 but was a little too concerned with what was going on behind me and when Jarod would catch me. He passed me at 900m and that got my legs moving a little more, I was 3:38 at 1200m but couldn't keep it going on the last lap. Finished up with a 4:52 which isn't horrible, had a pretty solid workout tonight, the best I've run since I started up again, I feel. Able to run the shorter stuff pretty well but not able to really hammer the longer intervals yet. Still, 6M on the track and I didn't fall apart at the end of the workout as I have in the past. Cooled down about 2M with the guys afterwards, then a little stretching before heading home. | 10 |
| Tuesday | Highland Ave out and back. Got out the door fairly early this morning but had to be at work early also and couldn't extend the run, unfortunately. I headed out to Highland Ave taking it pretty easy on the way and building into things. Weather was pretty nice and my legs were feeling good, a pretty enjoyable run. Made the turn right at 28:00 and started picking up the pace on the way home. Didn't go nuts but was running much faster than I normally would have, made it back home in just over 25:00. Would have been nice to get in another 4M though. | 8 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh with JMark. Got up at 5am this morning thinking maybe I'd get 2-3M in before meeting Jared but couldn't get myself out the door. 45 degrees and still dark when I left at 5:50, by then I was pretty awake and feeling good and was running quicker than normal. Jared and I headed up river as usual and kept the pace a quick, but my stomach started acting up and I didn't want to push things too much. Managed to hang on back to MIT where Jared turned off and I ducked into Building 7. Felt better heading home along the river, was 6:35ish for the mile and kept the pace around there the rest of the way. I'd guess we were 6:30-6:50 most of the time this morning. | 10 |
| Sunday | Arboretum with Jake. After staying up until 1:15am watching Gagne\Lopez blow the game in the top of the 11th I got up a bit before 8am for a long run with Jake. Picked him up at PKT and drove over to the Arboretum for this one. Felt okay at the start, actually not too tired and not too sore from yesterday. Jake raced yesterday so neither of us was looking to press the pace early. There's only so many places to run in the Arb, so we eventually made our way to all corners, climbed up the three hills, etc. I screwed up my watch but Jake had us just north of 1:50 so it's pretty safe to call it 16M. Cooled down with some strides and a little stretching before heading home for a 2 hour nap before the Packers game. Good start to the week, my longest long run (not counting the workouts at Spot Pond) in awhile. | 16 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 43 10/7-10/13 |
This week went pretty well, not quite as far as I had hoped on Sunday but at least part of the run was on the old Fens/Riverway paths I used to run. Wednesday's workout was average, not great but at least I didn't completely fall apart and was able to right the ship a little after a 5:13 second mile in the second 3200. Got the mileage back to a decent level but it would be nice to get another 10MPW added on somewhere. Finished things up with a good workout solo along the river, wasn't as fast as I was hoping for but got me a few miles of running hard on tired legs. October Miles : 123 | 74 |
| Saturday | 5M decreasing pace. 5:33-5:40-5:20-5:10-5:10. I had wanted to get over to Franklin for a workout but there was a huge HS meet all day so I didn't bother. After running some errands around noon I got out the door just before 3pm for this one. Warmed up 2.5M over to Mass Ave, feeling pretty good, ran some strides and was ready to go. Using Terry "Boomer" Shea's expertly laid down marks along the river, the plan was pretty straightforward: 6:00-5:40-5:20-5:00-sub5. Wasn't sure how it would go, or if I could even get under 5:00 at the end, but I thought it was a pretty reasonable plan. There's no starting line yet, so I just went from the start of the grass/dirt and was a little too excited at the start, apparently. I think I'm not used to taking it easy at the start and building into things, got out in 2:42 then backed off to 5:33 at 1M. Tried to get back on pace and not adjust anything after starting out fast, I was 2:50 at the half and 5:40 dead on, despite people dodging by the Science Museum. The third mile was where I started to pick things up and could tell I was running faster. Had no idea where the half mile mark was and only a vague idea about where to expect the mile to be, I noticed it a stride or two after I passed, so 5:18 might be more reasonable. From there I tried to pick things up again but didn't really get moving all that well on the fourth mile. There isn't a mark at 4M yet, I guessed a some spot between the bubbler and bench and it came out to 5:10. (Terry says the mark is just before the bench, but I'm not sure in which direction.) Tried to pick it up from there but didn't have much success on the way to the boathouse. Was about 2:37 at the half mile and started speeding up after going under the bridge. I slowed a little bit after the split hit 5:00 and was 5:10 at the mark. The last 2M were 10:20, maybe 10:22 since I was late on the 3M split and could have been something closer to 5:14-5:08 but I'm going with what my watch said. 5M in 26:54 is decent, but opening with a 5:33 helped that a lot. Hard to say how much the fast first mile affected me, my legs didn't feel too tired throughout, it was more an inability to really push myself. Felt like I settled into a pace during the third mile and wasn't able to speed up from there. I used to run these all the time in HS and feel like the decreasing pace aspect is something I've gotten away from too much over the past 5-6 years. | 12 |
| Friday | Southie out and back. I woke up early this morning hoping to get in some extra mileage but didn't get out the door any earlier. I decided that the week total was high enough that a good workout tomorrow would bump things up enough. Ran the usual Docks route to Summer St and then out to 1st and L in 28:00 and back in 27:50. Feeling decent this morning but wasn't in the mood to push things. | 8 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with Carter and Lutz. I met Matt in the parking lot at 5pm and we put in 10 minutes running the route in reverse then headed back to the parking lot to meet Justin. The three of us headed out in a cool drizzle along the 10M loop, taking it easy and just chatting. As we got closer to Walden I decided a pit stop was necessary but told the guys to just keep going since it was getting dark pretty quickly. Running the last 25 mins or so by myself, the trail got increasingly harder to follow as I lost the light. I made it to the big field without incident and it was much brighter out of the woods, but the last stretch after the farm was nearly impossible to see and I half-walked half-ran back to the lot. Don't know how much longer the Lincoln runs can last. My legs were feeling pretty good today, not much fatigue from last night's workout. | 13 |
| Wednesday | 2x(3200-1600) in 9:54, 4:52; 10:11, 4:52. I worked from home today so I warmed up over to MIT just before 6pm. Small group, just Matt Carter, myself and a new guy named Michael. Pace was supposed to be 9:50-10:00 and 4:50, with 4:30 rest after the 3200 and 2:30 after the 1600. I sat behind Michael at the start, we went through in 73-74 and then really picked it up and were 2:24 at 800. I tried to pull back on the reins a little but probably shouldn't have been so cautious. Matt and I let Michael do his own thing, we hit 4:54 and then a 5:00 second mile. I led the start of the 1600, getting out around 73 then 2:27 at which point Michael went to the lead and got us to 1200 in 3:36, the 69 kind of took it out of me and I slowed a lot on the last lap. Matt led the start of the 3200 but I felt like we were going a bit too slow and kept surging on the straights trying to get to the lead, but couldn't get around him. I should have just been patient since we were running a decent pace. I started fading at 1500m, 4:58 for the first mile and then a horrible 5:13 for the second. Took the long rest to get my head back into it. It was just Matt and myself for the last interval, I let Matt lead and was just going to stay as close to him as I could. We got out well, running 73-73 for a 2:26 first half and then Matt started moving. We hit a 71 to get us to 1200 in 3:37 which is where Matt started pulling away. I managed to not blow up and got around the last lap decently in 75. Still fading too much during these workouts, not able to run as hard as I need to when I start getting tired. Took a few minutes to recover and talk to MP before heading home. Pretty long workout and 5 of the 6 miles went okay. | 11 |
| Tuesday | Docks. I got up a little earlier than normal this morning and wasn't feeling too tired. I was hoping to get out the door quicker than I did, though, and didn't have time to put in 12M like I wanted to. Still, I felt really good on the run and had to keep myself from running too fast. It's been awhile since I've felt this good on a run this early in the morning. I was only 6:50 along the river finishing up, but most of the run felt like 6:30-6:45 pace. I went back to the Boston Classics because I forgot to ice my ankle last night and didn't want to worsen things. Even in the old shoes my left ankle was a little upset at the beginning, but after 5-10 minutes it was fine and didn't bother me the rest of the way. Hopefully another good 7-8 hours of sleep tonight will have me feeling like this again for tomorrow's workout. | 9 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh with JMark. I regretted staying up until midnight watching the depressing Packers loss last night when my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning. Woke up to 60 degree temperatures, which wasn't too bad, but then realized it was raining pretty hard outside. One of the first real tests of my early morning routine and I didn't even think of not running. Of course, that decision was easier since Jared would be meeting me on the river and I didn't want to stand him up. Running at a decent pace this morning, I was feeling good enough to really hammer but Jared ran the BAA Half yesterday and I didn't think that would be fair to him, so we kept it easy. The rain wasn't a big deal, by the time I was finishing up it had all but stopped, but there were some heavy showers during the run. Jared turned off at Mass Ave and Mem Drive, I headed down the river by myself, a little under 7:00 pace. I've been trying out a new pair of AdiStar Cushions and the outside of the left shoe is a little too high and too stiff and my left ankle is being rubbed wrong on every step it seems. It's really bad on left hand turns and things had just added up throughout the course of the run to make the final mile or so not very fun. Hopefully I can remember to ice down the tendon (or whatever it is that's upset and painful) tonight. | 10 |
| Sunday | Fens-Riverway and Arboretum. Got up very early and drove over to Back Bay with Kathryn. Watched the start of the BAA half and then headed out along the Riverway trying to catch up to Kathryn and cheer her on. I ran with Charlie, who I had met at Matt Ely's party a few weeks ago, and we didn't seem to be able to make up much ground on the runners, the route along the dirt paths seems to wind a lot more than the road. When we got to the Arboretum I stopped to see if maybe we'd gotten ahead of Kathryn but when she didn't come past I just went into the Arboretum to run around. Came back out planning on getting to the 9M mark at JP in time to catch her and right as I got to the road she ran past. Ran back with Kathryn for most of the way, I turned off early because my foot was starting to get a bit sore. Kathryn finished really well (1:42:56) and we spent another 15-20 minutes stretching and eating before heading back home. Not quite as much mileage as I was hoping for this morning, just 78 minutes, but I was too tired the rest of the day to get out for anything more. | 11 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 42 9/30-10/6 |
The purpose of this week was to run easy and let my legs recover from the first month of serious training. I did that pretty well, ran easy and on the short side every day and even took Saturday off completely. Hopefully this strategy pays off and next week I'm able to get back into things and start running some better workouts. Nothing remarkable this week, just easy mileage. October Miles : 49 | 62 |
| Saturday | No running. The plan was to run a workout today, but I discovered that there was a football game at MIT at noon. I started doing chores and running errands which took up all day and I didn't have the energy/motivation to get out the door once everything was taken care of. Good way to finish off an easy week I guess. | 0 |
| Friday | Science-Mass Ave with JMark. I guess I got a little earlier start this morning, I made it almost all the way up to Mass Ave before meeting Jared. We ran the Science-Mass Ave loop together and then down to Royal Sonesta before he turned back. Might be a little generous to call this one 9M, about 4M loop and about 2.5M to/from MIT each way. I was 65:00 today, so it couldn't have been much shorter than 9. Didn't think to catch any splits along the river though. HR was 45-46 when I woke up this morning, probably a bit high because of running later in the day yesterday and only 6 hrs of sleep. I was feeling okay today, but things were easy and slow the entire time. Thinking I'll try a workout tomorrow, enough of this easy stuff. | 9 |
| Thursday | Lincoln with TShea and Matt Carter. I got out of work a bit early and made it to the parking lot by 5pm today. I knew Terry was only going 10M, so I figured it would be best to get in 3M first instead of tacking on afterwards in the dark. I ran 10 mins out and back, which basically got me to the school, and met Terry and Matt back in the lot at 5:22. We took off pretty soon after that and kept the pace easy the whole time. That was much appreciated by me and my legs. We were maybe 75 mins when we finished up, Terry and Matt extended the run a bit but I called it a day. We were done before 7pm but it was already pretty dark. Good run tonight. | 13 |
| Wednesday | Run to Remember course. Not a whole lot of time to run this morning, put in an okay run in what time I had. My legs feel like they're coming around a bit more, it's just a coincidence that Game 1 of the ALCS starts at the same time as the workout I decided to skip tonight. | 7 |
| Tuesday | Fells. Stopped at the Fells on the way home and got to run in some warm October weather. Felt okay, kept things slow and easy though. Started out on a pretty good route but then at 45 minutes I realized I was right back where I was last week when I got lost. I managed to take a little bit better route and wasn't worried about the run turning into a 12 or 13 miler. Decided yesterday to take things easy this week, I'll skip tomorrow's workout in the hopes that some easy mileage will get my legs recovered quickly. | 10 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh with JMark. A little bit of a late start this morning, took a while to get loosened up once I started and I met Jared by the Royal Sonesta. The usual Monday morning route, legs still feeling okay but we kept things easy. Wound up being nearly 75 minutes again this morning, but the pace didn't feel quite that slow. | 10 |
| Sunday | Walden. I met Sean and some of the MIT guys in the parking lot at Walden a little after 9:30 this morning. We headed over to the Lincoln Conservation Trails where Brian Jacokes and Trevor quickly separated themselves. I was looking to run easy and recover, it seemed like pretty much everybody else was looking for that too, as everybody else stuck together. Just the usual Walden wandering, nothing too exciting. Most of the guys headed back for 11-12M, Sean and I tacked on a little extra with Brian, I was 92 minutes back at the car. Stretched out for a few minutes then headed home. Good morning, my legs were feeling decently good throughout. September Miles : 282 | 13 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 41 9/23-9/29 |
An up and down week. I was happy with the race on Sunday, I did a good job of competing, especially at a distance much longer than I should really be racing. Unfortunately, that effort kind of left me in a hole I haven't been able to dig myself out of yet. Wednesday's workout was not good at all, my legs were dead the whole time and I don't have the mindset (or masochism) to force myself through a workout yet. I should have seen it coming, given how slow I was running Monday and Tuesday, but I just followed the routine and showed up at the workout without paying any attention to my legs. I started feeling better Thursday and Friday but Saturday's workout showed, I think, that I'm still not quite back to 100%. Had a solid start to the workout but the hill on the 3M section took it out of me and I never got back into it. September Miles : 269 | 80 |
| Saturday | 4M-3M-1M-1M around Spot Pond with Terry, Casey and Paul Ryan, 6:00 mile for rest between the hard miles. Terry, Casey and a big group of other guys started with 5M at 5:40s then Paul and I met them to go the rest of the way, supposed to be 4-3-2-1 at 5:30-5:20-5:10-5:00. I felt pretty good on the warmup and was expecting the workout to go pretty well, like the last time I was out here. Felt really easy at the start, Paul and I hit about 5:13 on the first mile, which is net downhill, before settling in to run 5:37-5:34-5:17 the rest of the way. My legs were a little tired after that but the 6:00 mile felt like a jog and I was good to go at the start of the next section. Took things out in 5:11, running easy, on the same downhill mile that we started the 4M section on. The guys gapped me going up the hill on the next mile though, I ran 5:19 a few steps behind and then gradually fell off over the last mile, running 5:26. Tried to gather myself on the rest and was hanging tough through the first 3:00 of the 2M section, but once Terry, Casey and Paul finished taking their water they started turning the screws and I couldn't hold on. I was 5:14 at the mile mark and going backwards, so I cut off the Sheepfold section and met them at the end of their second mile. Felt better on the rest and was ready to hammer the final mile but couldn't get my legs moving at all. Paul was falling off too, I went around him and caught Casey at about 3:15, but he then took off and it was all I could do to keep running hard to the finish. I managed just a 5:26 to finish things up, then spent a few minutes resting on the stone fence before jogging the 1M back to the lot with Paul. Disappointing to struggle this much at the end of the workout, but I got in some hard work which will only help. I believe that last Sunday's race is still lingering in my legs, plus this was the third hard effort in 7 days which is a lot to handle at the mileage I'm running, plus this week was a bit of a mileage jump, plus this workout was 13M of continuous hard work which is a long way. I think it makes sense to take a break from workouts and give my body a chance to recover. | 16 |
| Friday | Out and back to First Street. I resolved to start checking heart rate again, after Wednesday's abysmal effort, and since the batteries in my HR monitor appear to have run out I went back to the 30s timer first thing in the morning approach. I was surprised to find my HR was just 38bpm this morning, I was expecting it to be higher thanks to last night's long run. I finally got out the door at 6:20 though, since JMark cancelled on me I had nothing impelling me to leave on time. I cut the mileage back just a bit, hopefully that pays off tomorrow. Usual route along the Harbor and Summer Street barely into Southie, turning right at 28:00. Probably running a shade slower than 7:00s today, but it all evens out eventually. | 8 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with TShea and Ryan Carrara. I was debating between 10M and 13M for most of the run, early on I was leaning towards just 10M trying to save my legs a bit, but by the time we hit the train tracks I was feeling a bit better and I'm glad I chose the longer loop. My legs finally felt good, about an hour into the run, even though we kept things easy the whole time. The last mile or two it was getting pretty dark in the woods but luckily everybody made it through without injury. | 13 |
| Wednesday | 2x(800-1600-800) in 2:23, 4:57, 2:23; 2:23, 5:09, 2:27. I warmed up 2M with Matt and Terry then chatted with Khatch for 10 mins when we got back to the track. Mike couldn't make it tonight so Jeff had my workout and timed my intervals. Ran alone again, didn't get off to a great start, coming through in 72-73 but managed to pick things up a bit on the next lap. Wasn't feeling too great but tried to get after it on the mile, only was 2:29 at 800m though and not much faster the next 800. Same story on the last 800 of the first set, couldn't get any turnover going and felt like I couldn't hold a fast pace. I took my time on the rest and was thinking the second set would go better, but that didn't happen. I was okay on the 800, then started coming apart on the last lap of the 1600. Matt Ely was behind me for 3 laps, I was 2:30-31 at halfway, then I moved aside to let him past and couldn't stay with him, slowing down a lot on the last lap. Did my best to run hard on the final 800 but my head wasn't in it by then and I just wanted the workout to be done with. Looking back, I probably shouldn't have even started today, my legs weren't sore Monday and Tuesday but I was running very slowly and just didn't feel right. I think I haven't recovered from Sunday's effort yet, and I the masochism to force myself through a workout on tired legs hasn't come back yet. I cooled down 2M with Kathryn and headed straight home to frozen pizza and beer. I'm on the fence about a hard effort on Saturday now, we'll see how my legs do. I need to pay attention to the little things (fruits and vegetables, vitamins, stretching, HR) that I've been cutting corners on recently. | 8 |
| Tuesday | Fells. I wanted to get to work early today, so I planned on just running at the Fells on my way home, which worked out so well last week. Today's run didn't go so great, I was really sore at the start and shuffled along very slowly for a few minutes, taking my time to get loosened up. I wanted to check out the view from the tower near the pond where I park, but didn't want to climb that hill in the first 3 minutes, so I tried to run a short loop, which resulted in the half running/half hiking pace that only Nolan likes. The view was pretty nice, though, but after a 30s break I got back to the run. I mainly ran along the roads next the reservoirs which I don't know too well and about 50 minutes in I didn't know where I was or how to get back. Luckily I headed the right way and made it back to the car at 75 minutes. Not running very fast today, I had a steak quesadilla at lunch and it was not sitting well. Had I been closer to my car I probably would have called it quits around 45 or 50 minutes this afternoon. Couple that with sore and tired legs and this run was not enjoyable. Didn't spend much time stretching out when I finished, just headed home. | 10 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh with JMark. I actually wasn't feeling too bad this morning, I got 8 hours of sleep and didn't have trouble getting out of bed. Met Jared in the usual place and ran our usual Fake Fresh route, but wasn't going too fast today. Wound up running 75 minutes for the loop, had no desire to speed things up at all. My legs felt good the whole time though, not very sore at all. The only problem area was the cut on my left Achilles from the chip yesterday. | 10 |
| Sunday | Apple Harvest Ramble 10 Miler, 52:55 for third place. Kathryn and I drove out to Harvard this morning, getting to the Fruitlands Musuem at 10:30 with plenty of time to sit around before starting the warmup. I ran a short 2M with Kathryn and felt pretty good the whole time but didn't do much stretching as I wound up standing in line for the Port-A-John for 10-15 mins. I changed into my flats in line and luckily Kathryn reminded me to strap on my chip before I headed to the starting line. I only ran a few strides but wasn't too worried given the distance of the race. Got out well, moved from 5th to 4th at 3M and ran solo until the 9M mark. Terry and Avi Kramer caught me there, when we hit the base of the big hill I saw Ben Ndaya coming back so I just went hard and caught him halfway up the hill. Finished the day off with a 3M cooldown with Terry, Ian, Shad Miller and Magill. Pretty exhausted the rest of the day, went home and drank some High Life while watching football. | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 40 9/16-9/22 |
Another decent week, aside from Monday. Got in an okay run on Sunday, thankfully not feeling too bad after the tempo on Saturday, but couldn't keep the momentum going. Stopping at the Fells after work on Tuesday was great, hopefully I can get into the habit of doing that while the trails are still manageable. Wednesday's workout was nice and controlled and Thursday was a good run at Lincoln before finishing things off with normal runs Friday and Saturday. Feeling good, think I'm kind of getting back into shape. September Miles : 189 | 67 |
| Saturday | Somerville out and back. Actually got an early start today, around 9am, and headed out on the usual Highland out and back route, not sure how far I wanted to go today. I was feeling okay, aside from some of the hills, and the whole run went by fairly quickly. I took Highland to Davis Sq, then turned onto College and took that to Broadway. I turned around right at 35:00, by Powder House School or something, and came home along the same route. I was 34:30 on the way home, not much of a speed up. After some brief stretching I put on my new flats, jogged around and ran some strides to break them in a little bit before tomorrow. | 10 |
| Friday | Fake Fresh with JMark. Met Jared closer to Longfellow this morning and headed up river. Felt okay, wasn't too tired when I got up this morning. We kept the pace conversational the whole way though. Jared came along with me back to Science on the way home to add on distance, so I had company almost the whole time. Good run this morning, maybe I'm getting used to this early morning stuff. | 10 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Wood with Terry, Mark LaRosa, the Elys, Matt Carter and Jeff Caron. Traffic was bad on I-95 and I got to the parking lot at 5:37 with only Terry waiting for me. As we were about to leave Jeff Caron pulled in and the three of us took off, the Elys, Carter and LaRosa had apparently started a few minutes ahead of us. We took it easy at the start and the guys who started early had turned around to meet up with us just before the school. Had a good group for the majority of the run, feeling pretty good despite yesterday's effort. Started picking things up around the time we reached Walden and for awhile it was just Terry, Jeff, Carter and myself. We took the longer route after Walden and met up with Ely just before heading towards Mt Misery. Going through the farm on the way back Terry proposed a hard last mile, which sounded good to me since I'm still in a general hard work slash self ass-kicking phase and wasn't feeling too bad anyways. There was some confusion about the route and Carter got separated so it was just Terry, Jeff and myself running along the shoulder of some roads, dodging traffic. The middle of the effort seemed really long, but I finished up feeling good. 5:40ish for what Terry says is approx. 1.1M. A minute or two of light jogging, then pretend stretching before eating a banana and heading home. | 13 |
| Wednesday | 2k-1k-2k-1k in 6:12, 3:00, 6:08, 2:56 with Matt Ely. I warmed up the usual 2M route after talking with Coach Taylor for a few minutes, MP wasn't around yet and I hadn't heard anything about the workout, so I was planning on 5x1M. Bu MP showed up at 6:30 with a workout for Matt and I to run together. We got out very easy on the first lap, coming through in 77-2:33 before we started moving. We basically dropped down the 73s the rest of the way, coming through the mile in 4:59. The 4:00 rest was a long break and I was feeling really good at the start of the 1k, coming through in 34.5 before backing off to 71 at 400m. I held back a bit the rest of the interval and we were just 3:00 with pretty erratic pacing by me. Matt offered to lead a bit but was only looking to hit 75s and I was looking to go a bit faster so I just stayed in front. The 2k was much better paced, hitting the mile in 4:55. Another long break before the final interval, and stayed much more aggressive. Hit 71-2:22 then started picking it up around the curve. I felt like Matt was getting ready for another one of his workout ending kicks, so I put in 3 or 4 fast steps before hitting the straight. That gave me enough of a lead finish fast but not wind up racing. Spent a few minutes chatting with MP then did another 2M loop with the Elys. Finished up with a few strides on the infield, hopefully enough to leave me feeling good for tomorrow. Had some pizza and salad afterwards, then cried myself to sleep after Papelbon gave up the grand slam in the bottom of the eigth. | 8 |
| Tuesday | Fells. I didn't feel good enough to put in a second run yesterday, and when I woke up this morning I was too tired to psych myself up for a run. Instead, I went in to work early, snuck out at 4pm and stopped at the Fells on my way home. I parked on S. Border Road, by the pond, and put in a nice 70 minute run. Employed the usual strategy of getting lost for 45 minutes and then trying to find my way back to the car. I got pretty tired as the run wore on, much more than usual, which I blame on the rocky terrain and the hills. I finished up with a few strides and some brief stretching before heading home. Had a good time running today, I don't know why I haven't thought of doing this before. | 10 |
| Monday | CTown Loop. I was at the Sox game last night, great game with a bad result, and didn't get to bed until 12:30. I woke up at 5:30 and was pretty tired, but managed to get out the door. I was thinking about nixing the run because my stomach was pretty upset, but I put in an easy four miles and am glad I made it out. The plan is to add on 6-7M after work, and maybe even a sauna if there's time. | 4 |
| Sunday | Fens-Riverway. I got started around 10:30 this morning, took the locks to Causeway, straight up Staniford and past the Statehouse to the Common. From there it was down Commonwealth, where I bumped into Jake and chatted for a few minutes. Then I took a left on Mass Ave and a right on Boylston to get to the Fens. I haven't been over there since we moved and I was starting to forget how good I had it, living just 2 minutes from the dirt path. I managed to get across Huntington and turned back at the baseball diamonds. I felt decent today but didn't try to run fast at all, just let my legs do what they wanted. Wound up being 84 minutes, feeling good the whole time. Surprisingly not that sore after yesterday's effort. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 39 9/9-9/15 |
Not a bad week, had I managed to get out the door on Sunday it would have been in the mid-70s. I'm pretty much satisfied with where my mileage has been, I think adding a few doubles and extending a run or two is all the improvement I'm going to do. Wednesday's workout went really well and Thursday was a good long run, the sum of which left me hurting on Friday. Thankfully JMark has been good enough to arrange runs which gets me out the door each morning. Saturday's workout went very well, I was actually surprised at how well I hung in there and now have somewhat of a reference point going into next weekend's 10 miler. September Miles : 122 | 64 |
| Saturday | 10M around Spot Pond. Terry has a 5M loop marked out around Spot Pond and organized a 20M effort with a pretty big group of marathoners today, I met up with them for the final 10M and had a pretty good run. I showed up really early and wound up sitting in my car reading the Globe for half an hour before warming up. It was spitting rain when the guys going 20M started, but by the time I got going the rain had more or less subsided. Temps were a little on the cool side, but once I got moving it was actually really great weather for running hard. I put in about 10 mins out and back then took a pit stop at the gas station and headed over to the line to wait for the guys to come through. Paul Ryan and Casey Moulton were out front with Mark LaRosa, Avi Kramer, Jared Markowitz and a couple other guys right behind them. They were already down to 5:30s so I hung back a bit and took my time getting into it. We hit 5:4x at the first mark and then had a nice little climb up the driveway of the Sheepsfold, before coming right back down. The rest of that mile is downhill and we were 5:34 there but didn't feel like we were running any harder. I was sitting right behind Paul and Casey, content to let them set the pace and not quite sure how the rest of the run was going to turn out. I missed the next mark but we were 11:15 for the 2M and finished the lap with a 5:28, making it 28:01 for the lap. Casey dropped off there because he had developed a blister, so it was Terry, Paul and myself out front. We kept things under control at the start of the final lap, just 5:34 but then dropped down to 5:19, which included the short steep hill on the Sheepsfold driveway. We really started grinding from there, my legs did not like climbing during the third mile but I managed to get through it and was 5:22 there. The final 2M are basically flat and pretty fast and I was feeling good so I told Terry and Paul I was going to try and hammer the rest of the way. That worked well for maybe 3:00 then I started tying up and Terry went past me. I was 5:23 at 4M and made up my mind that I wasn't going to let Terry get away. He had a couple seconds on me there and for the next 800m the gap stayed pretty much the same. I managed to hold things together well enough to start bringing him back and we were even by the bridge at the zoo and finished up together, I ran a 5:11 to finish off the lap in 26:50. Cooled down 2M with Terry and Avi then Terry and Carly had almost everybody over for pancakes. I was happy with how things went today, ran just 51 seconds slower than at Ollie, on a harder course and after 5M of running. I wasn't nearly as dead as I expected to me, my legs felt fine the rest of the day but I did wind up falling asleep during the first few innings of the Sox game. | 14 |
| Friday | BU-River St. loop with JMark. Tired this morning. Didn't have a great night of sleep, I kept waking up every few hours and was still tired when I got up at 5:30. Met Jared a bit after 6am and we just stuck to the river. Pace wasn't anything amazing, I didn't bother checking any mile marks and forgot to look for the new marks Terry painstakingly put down last week. I felt decent at the start, once I woke up, but Jared turned off at BU on the way back and things started going downhill. I did my best to hold it together but I slowed a lot over the last 2 or 3M. Could be because I was out there running just 12 hours after last night's long run, who knows. I was 6:56 from Mass Ave to the new mark and 6:45-50 using the old mark, which was actually a bit better than I was anticipating. Hopefully I'm feeling better tomorrow morning for the tempo effort tomorrow. | 10 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with Terry and Matt Ely. I met the guys in the parking lot and we actually got an early start, which was a nice change. I felt good at the start and we took our time getting up to speed. The leaves have started falling which made the footing a bit more treacherous, but getting on soft surfaces is worth the risk. We got going at a good clip near the end and took a different route through the post-Walden trails to bump it up to 13M, instead of going to the Mt Misery area. My legs started getting tired near the end and I was glad when we made it back to the cars, just under 90 minutes tonight. Refueled afterwards with Kathryn's BBQ chicken pizza and 2 MGDs. | 13 |
| Wednesday | 2x(2400-1600-800) in 7:30, 4:49, 2:23; 7:34, 4:57, 2:23. I wound up parking at 6:15 and the workout was scheduled for 6:30 so not much of a warmup today. I headed out on the usual warm up route but turned around after a minute because I felt as though I had left it unlocked, which it turns out I had. I then just looped around campus and only put in about 10 minutes before getting to the track. I ran a couple light strides and decided to just take my time getting into the first interval. I was running solo tonight, but Ely and LaRosa were starting with 2400, so I tagged along. Mark led, taking us out in 72 which didn't feel very good, but then we settled in at 75-76s. I did some leading after 2 laps, we were just under 5:00 at the mile and I just kept things steady through the finish. I had a long 5:00 break which was more than 600m of jogging around then started the mile with Ely and LaRosa, felt a bit slow through 200m and then picked it up and pulled away from those guys. I was 70 or 71 at 400m and 2:23 at the half, then I found a good rhythm and hit a pair of 73s to finish. That was the best I've felt in a long time, smooth but still agressive and working hard. Got out well on the 800 after 3:00 rest, came through in 70 but then slowed, despite feeling like I was running hard, and was just 2:23. Just 3:00 before the next set and my legs still feeling the effort for the mile and 800. I was 75 for the first 400 but started slowing a bit, 2:31-5:02 and then Matt and Mark jumped in and were running a faster pace but at least I had some people to chase. I finished up with 76-76, feeling somewhat comfortable. Wasn't aggressive enough at the start of the mile, getting out in 74-2:30 but managed to pick things up slightly over the last 800 and finished with a 2:27. The 800 felt a lot faster than it actually was, but I was out in 71 and despite trying to kick home ran another 2:23. I took a few minutes to chat with MP after the workout then ran a BU loop to compensate for the short warmup. I finished with just a few strides on the infield before heading for home a few minutes after 8pm. Long day, but a good workout. | 10 |
| Tuesday | Run to Remember course. Slept past my alarm slightly, got out the door at 6:15. Felt decent on the run, would have liked to have had the time to extend it. The weather was pretty cool with constant fog, nearly rain, but great for running. I finished up with a stride down Chelsea, I'm going to try and work those into the routine a little more. | 7 |
| Monday | Fake Fresh with JMark. I met Jared at the Royal Sonesta on the river at 6am and we headed up to Mt Auburn Street before coming back along Mass Ave. I felt really good this morning, both hips were sore when I woke up but I loosened up quickly and had a good run. Things are so much easier when you're running with somebody, so thankfully Jared is willing to keep meeting me for some early morning runs. We split up at MIT, he headed west and I took Vassar east to Mem Drive. Tried to finish a bit faster but couldn't get my legs moving too much. I finished up at nearly 70 minutes, which I think is pretty safe to call 10M. | 10 |
| Sunday | No running. I was out way too late last night and when I woke up at 10am my stomach was bothering me. Beer and brats with the Packers game made it feel better but 6 hours on the couch watching football killed any chance of getting out the door. I was feeling pretty beat up after yesterday's race, so a day off probably did some good. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 38 9/2-9/8 |
Taking 2 days off because of travel and laziness really killed the mileage, but Tuesday through Saturday went really well. A decent workout at MIT on Wednesday, which went better than I could have expected and a well run race on Saturday, dipping under 26:00. I feel like I ran as well as the race plan allowed, I didn't put myself in position to be up front and not everybody came back as much as I had hoped they would. Not quite back though, I didn't have a good enough push over the final mile, unable to really turn the screws when I needed to. Things are progressing though, and I'm proving to myself that I can run well without 100 miles a week. September Miles : 58 | 46 |
| Saturday | Ollie Road Race, 25:59 for 6th. Very hot out today, I didn't feel like it affected my performance at all, but it likely did a little bit. I warmed up 2M with Kathryn, then did the usual stretching and strides before heading to the line. Was able to get right on the starting line without the usual pushing and shoving, got out cleanly and settled in to the second group. Miller lead a group of maybe 10 guys through the mile sub-5, I was right around 5:00 and started moving up from there. Did my best to catch guys coming back from Castle Island but couldn't move on the final mile. I was able to hold off Ferenc, though. Cooled down 2M with Kathryn and Mariko, who won the women's race. Good run, happy with how everything went and earned myself a nap in the afternoon. | 9 |
| Friday | Run to Remember course backwards, kind of. I got started about 6:15 this morning, the weather is cool but still great for running that early. I decided to be a little cautious so that my legs have a chance at feeling good for the race tomorrow and kept the mileage short. Once I got to Haymarket I entirely forgot what I was doing and before I knew it I was at the State Street station, so I wound up running the route backwards. Didn't feel like I was going very fast and the run seemed to be taking a long time, but I was feeling good enough that it wasn't a problem. Forgot what I was doing at the end of the run and took Staniford off of Cambridge, instead of New Chadron, so I finished up going past the Fleet Center and over the locks into the Navy Yard, not a big deal. One stride down Chelsea, felt decently quick. We'll see how things turn out tomorrow. | 7 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with Matt Carter. We got an earlier start today, which made a big difference in being able to see at the end of the run. It was just Matt and I tonight, I haven't run with him in awhile. My legs were feeling pretty good, we kept the pace pretty easy the whole time and being on trails is always enjoyable. We finished up in the lot at 83:00 and didn't feel like adding on so I'm just calling it 12M. | 12 |
| Wednesday | 5x1M in 4:57, 57, 57, 54, 58 with 400m rest. I got to MIT around 6pm expecting the BAA crew to be working out, but there wasn't anybody there. Thinking I may have gotten there too early I went back to my car to call MP, but no answer so I sat around until 6:30 then decided I was going to be running solo today. I warmed up on the usual 2M route and stretched out a bit on the track. Terry showed up expecting guys to be there so I jogged a few laps with him before running 2 or 3 strides and getting into the workout. Wasn't sure what to aim for, I figured if I could average 5:00 I'd be happy. Got out in 34 on the first one, though it felt like a 37, before backing off and coming through 400m in 72. I was 2:26 at the half and 4:56.90, which gets rounded up. The rest went fairly quickly, the lap took just over 2:00 and I was right back into it. I was 2:28 or 2:29 at the half and 4:56.80 and the third interval went the same, finishing in 4:56.88. I had decided that I'd use the FAT adjustment of 0.24, so both of those times got rounded up to 4:57. I was feeling good and running within myself, but I had hoped to get in some hard running today and not run as conservatively as I was. I got a little more aggressive on the next interval, coming through in 2:26 and doing a better job of running the second 800m hard. Unfortunately I lost focus before the final interval and wound up coasting through the first two laps in 2:31 before running the final two laps harder and hitting 4:57.97. At the end I felt like I could have run another interval or two, which hopefully will leave me feeling good on Saturday but wasn't the way I was hoping this workout will go. I ran hard and my legs were getting tired throughout, but I feel like for where I'm at right now I need some much harder workouts. I'm still waiting until the later stages of the workout to really start extending myself. I need to dig myself into a hole earlier and whip myself back into shape. | 9 |
| Tuesday | Docks. Felt good to get back into a routine this morning, took off just before 6am. I felt good on this one, which I had expected given that I didn't run 3 of the last 4 days. Parts on the run felt a little slow, but I was 6:36 along the river (3:19/3:17) without working at all, so it could just be that I got a bit screwed up by the few days off. The plan is still to run a workout tomorrow evening and race Ollie on Saturday, I feel like I'm in good enough shape to expect decent results. | 9 |
| Monday | No running. Poor planning by me. Busy all morning and early afternoon, then tired and fell asleep. Had an upset stomach when I woke up, spent the rest of the day on the couch. | 0 |
| Sunday | Travelling back from IN. Didn't get home until almost 10pm. No running. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 37 8/26-9/1 |
A really solid week, aside from travelling on Friday. I did a decent job of getting in mileage everyday and had I run Friday this week would have been in the mid 70s. Wednesday's workout didn't go so great, but I wasn't very prepared for it, either. I went early in the morning and jumped straight into the pace from the warmup jog. I do need to work on focusing though, I wasn't able to hammer and force myself to run a faster pace, even though I knew I could have been working harder. So it feels like my legs are coming around well, but I need to get my mind to accept the fact that I'm in shape again and will be running hard. Would have been nice to make it to Lincoln on Thursday and get off the pavement, but things didn't work out this week. September Miles : 12 | 66 |
| Saturday | Random route around Evansville. I drove down to the State Hospital, which has a decent size park around it, but only paved roads, no trails, and after wandering around for 15:00 I decided to head out onto the roads. I took Vann to Pollack then left to Green River and out to I-64 where the sidewalk ended. I followed the same route back to the hospital, another lap around the park and then opted to tack on enough time to get to 12M. That meant 10:00 out on Lincoln, turning around just past St. Benedict's. I decided to hammer on the way home and got into a decent rhythm, but it doesn't look like I got going as fast as I wanted, even though I was working pretty hard. It was 9:00 on the way back, and in the car the turn around was 1.6 or 1.7M away, so 5:20-5:40 pace. I was working really hard, though, and thought it would be a bit faster, even if it was at the end of a twelve miler. | 12 |
| Friday | Travelling to Evansville, IN. Our flight was at 7am and after getting to the hotel we went out for a big lunch and by the time I was feeling up for running it was time to head to the rehearsal dinner, plus a water main had broken so no showers, which pretty much ruled out running. Not the best ending to the month, but August went pretty well. August Miles : 272 | 0 |
| Thursday | Summit Ave. Couldn't make it to Lincoln tonight because I had to stay home and wait for the cable guy. I got started around 6:30pm, thinking this route was just 11M. Kept everything nice and easy the whole time, felt like I was running a bit slow, actually. The climb up Summit wasn't that great, my hill climbing should be much better, given that I live at the base of Bunker Hill now. I was about 6:50 along the river, and 83 minutes total, a solid twelve miler. | 12 |
| Wednesday | 5M tempo on Ollie course. 27:40. I got out the door a few minutes before 6 this morning and took the usual Docks route to the Pavillion. It was a 22:00 warmup and I just went straight into the tempo, no time for stretching, strides etc. I was just looking to put in 5M of hard running and get a preview of the course for next weekend's race, so I wasn't concerned about taking the first mile to build into things. I don't know any of the mile marks, or even the start and finish lines, so I'll need to pay really good attention next weekend. I got started right at the guardhouse just past the Pavillion and took my time building up the pace. I kept things honest the whole time, but wasn't really hammering until the final mile or so. The stretch out and back to Castle Island was probably the weakest part, long, boring and I wasn't pushing things at all there. I started picking things up coming down First Street, once I got close enough to the finish I was able to run harder, which was frustrating. I turned off of Summer at 24:00, the only time I looked at my watch, and tried to hammer the rest of the way. I was 27:25 at the starting line and I kept going through the rotary, which is where I think the finish is, and was 27:40. I walked for a minute or so and then jogged the 3M back home. Not really the time or effort I was hoping for, my legs felt good the whole time I just wasn't able to push myself to go faster. We'll see how much of a benefit I get out of competition and right of way on the roads when I squeeze back into the BAA singlet next weekend. | 11 |
| Tuesday | Out and back to Highland and West. Got going a few minutes after 6am and the climb up Bunker Hill almost sent me home right away. I was feeling pretty poor at the rotary, just 7:30 into the run. I started feeling better going past Prospect Hill and the out and back on Highland felt pretty good. Turned around at 27:45, didn't pick things up much on the way home. Felt slightly better climbing Bunker Hill on the way home, but didn't try to hammer at all. Good run this morning, would have liked to gone 10M or so, though. | 8 |
| Monday | Docks. I woke up at 5:30 this morning, hoping to get out the door a bit earlier, but wound up heading out just after 6am. I felt good again this morning, kept the pace relaxed and just put in the miles. Nothing much happened, I was 6:40 on the river without speeding up too much. Great weather this morning. | 9 |
| Sunday | Fresh Pond at 7:00 pace. I waited a little while to get started today, thankfully it wasn't as hot as yesterday but the sun was out and it was quite warm. I felt really good at the start, my legs weren't tired from yesterday's workout as I expected them to be. I got into a bit of a rhythm around Mount Auburn but just spent the entire run waiting for the distance to catch up to me. The half mile at the Pond was 3:30, which felt pretty accurate, and I assume I was 6:45-7:15 the whole time. Even as the run wore on I was feeling okay, it was just the pounding on my legs that I noticed. I managed to make it out of Central Square just before the Cambridge Carribean parade began, which was good timing since you can barely walk through there it gets so crowded. I didn't take the Vassar shortcut, went straight to Mass Ave and Memorial but didn't bother checking my pace on the way back. Really pleased with how the run went today, I was out there for 99 minutes without falling apart. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 36 8/19-8/25 |
Another decent week, I'm getting much more accustomed to the mileage and not thinking about skipping morning runs anymore. We had company all week which essentially eliminated any chance of doubling after work, but I didn't really feel like doubling at all this week. This is pretty much the template I've been thinking about, a longer Sunday run, go 10M instead of 7-8M one day during the week and one double will put me right around 80M. Nothing really stands out about this week, decent run on Sunday, put in mileage the rest of the week, Thursday was a good run but not too difficult and Saturday's workout didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. Things are progressing though, and that's good. August Miles : 218 | 70 |
| Saturday | 4M tempo on the river, plus 1M on the track. This was the last workout I ran before my hiatus and I wanted to see how I compared now. I warmed up 3M, with a quick stop in Building 3, and got going from the start line just before Mass Ave. I was a little too hyped up, I think, and my legs weren't feeling that great at the start. I was 2:34 at the half mile though, which was encouraging, but then slowed a bit and hit 5:13 at the mile. I still wasn't feeling great and was 2:40 at the Science Museum. Then things got worse as the drawbridge was raised and it was clear it wasn't coming down anytime soon. After maybe 30s of standing around I turned around and just ran the opposite direction. I decided to just run back to the start, which would be 3M, then down to the half mile and back. Everything was 5:20 pace but it was a big effort to hold onto that pace, a lot harder than it should have been. I kept running hard all the way to the track and got right into the mile. A little quick at the start, 72s on the first lap, but instead of trying to hold onto that momentum I started expecting to fall apart. I was 2:28 at the half and then ran 2:32 for the next half to save a 5:00 mile but was not feeling good. Wound up being 29:45 of hard running, so a bit longer than 5M, but certainly not 6M. I shuffled my way through 3 short Grass Loops and was feeling better after that. I ran some barefoot strides on the infield and watched the guys run their 5k time trial before heading home. Long, long morning, the workout didn't go as well as planned but at this point I just need to keep putting in hard work. | 13 |
| Friday | Summer and First. Another failed attempt to get up earlier, I headed out at 6:10am and crossed over the CTown bridge and picked up the usual route along the Harbor. No watch today, I felt good and ran at a reasonable pace the whole way. Not much to mention, just a typical morning run. I was really tired when I woke up but I didn't feel like last night's run was affecting me too much. | 8 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods. I showed up on time this week, but the only other guy to show up was Justin from New Balance Boston (not Lutz.) We started out fairly easy, my legs were feeling good and it was great weather for running. There was some confusion about which route we were running, so we wound up running the loop from the past few weeks in reverse. Justin was going 10M, so we ran together for the whole loop and then I ran over to the Mount Misery area to tack on some time. Things were low key the whole way, I kind of felt like hammering today but I was pretty tired by the end anyways. We had a few problems following the trails going in reverse, but we managed to get back in 70 minutes and I tacked on 10 minutes out and back to get up above Terry's magic number of 90 minutes. Headed home almost right away, got home in time to watch the second quarter of the Packer's exhibition game with my frozen pizza and Gatorade. | 13 |
| Wednesday | Docks. Tried to get up a little earlier today, but that didn't work so well. Got started at 6:10 this morning, weather was a very comfortable 55 degrees. I actually felt pretty good the whole way today, kept things relaxed and easy and my legs weren't sore or tired in the least. The mile along the river was a perfectly comfortable 6:28 (3:15/3:13) and I did't pick things up at all coming home. Good way to start the day. | 9 |
| Tuesday | Run to Remember course. Got a little bit of a late start again this morning, leaving at 6:25am. Headed over the CTown bridge and picked up the course at the turn onto New Chadron. Kept things fairly calm today, didn't have a watch and never felt like I was running very hard. Nice and relaxed the whole way, it was a pretty good run. Weather was great for running again, 58 degrees when I got started. I feel like I'm starting to get used to the early runs and also feeling comfortable with the distance. | 7 |
| Monday | Back Bay Loop extended to BU Bridge. Exhausted this morning, very busy weekend, can't believe it's already Monday. I got out the door at 6:20am and took the usual route to the Common, stayed on Commonwealth to the BU Bridge and came back along the river. Started out fairly slow and built into things, really picked it up along the river, even though I didn't mean to start chasing people down. The mile was 6:23 (3:12/3:11,) but didn't feel that fast. Finished up in 54 minutes, I thought it would be a long 8M, but gmap-pedometer says 8M exactly. | 8 |
| Sunday | Fresh Pond. Did not feel good on this one today. My legs were really sore at the start and they never got much better. I guess yesterday's effort stayed with me, I didn't exactly help things with my diet yesterday. It took a long time to get to where things were halfway manageable, I was never comfortable but I learned to live with it by the time I got to Mt Auburn. Pretty slow the whole way, 85 minutes total. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 35 8/12-8/18 |
Pretty good week, the mileage came up a little shy of 70MPW, but it would just take 1 double to get up there. Consistently building the daily distance, had a good run at Lincoln on Thursday and the first hard run in a long time went really well on Saturday. Getting a new pair of shoes seems to have helped with all the little aches and pains. August Miles : 148 | 65 |
| Saturday | 5M tempo along the river in 26:44 (13:40/13:04). I headed out around 10:45 this morning, I used the Galleria inlet to add on some distance, and ran down to Building 2 to use the bathroom before getting into this one. I felt pretty good at the start, but after half a mile I was starting to feel the pace. I felt like I slowed going past the Science Museum but got into a good rhythm on the Boston side. I hit the first half mile in 2:45 and made the turn at 13:40, essentially 5:30s the whole way. On the way home I started hammering, trying to get going a little faster. I wound up hitting 10:31 at 2M and managed to really hammer the final half mile, running 2:33. Cooled down up to Mass Ave then back to Prospect Street. Good workout, getting back into things. | 11 |
| Friday | Out and back to Highland and West. I got stuck taking care of some things this morning and didn't get out the door until 6:20. That meant I couldn't put in the 10M I had hoped to, settling for 8M instead. I ran over to Castle and then straight out on Highland towards Davis Sq. I turned around at 28:00, right at West and picked things up slightly on the way back. Not too tired for just 10 hours after ending last night's run, but I was worried about the time of day and not as relaxed as I would have liked to have been. Finished with a stride down Tremont, was just over 26:00 on the way home. | 8 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with the Cararras. I was late getting to the parking lot but thankfully Ryan and Christy Mae were still waiting at 6:10. I still don't know the loop very well and forgot to bring my watch, so I would have had trouble putting mileage in on my own. As we got started a firetruck came down the trail, there was a brush fire by the bridge over the railroad tracks. That was pretty much the only excitement today, just a nice and easy pace and good conversation the whole way. My legs were feeling good, although I was getting fairly tired near the end. Ryan and Christy Mae turned off for the 10M loop but by that time I knew where I was and managed to put in the last few miles on my own. By the time I got back to the bridge the fire was put out, the whole structure was black and the firefighters had it taped off. I didn't feel like slipping past the tape right in front of them, so I backtracked a bit and wound up trailblazing my way through the woods to the tracks. Having to make my way up and down the sides of the big ditch the tracks are in wasn't very fun and by the time I got back to the car I wasn't in the mood to tack on any extra. Obviously no watch on this one, but 12M is a safe bet, to compensate for the shorter runs earlier this week. | 12 |
| Wednesday | Run to Remember course. I forgot to set my alarm last night and woke up 20 minutes late this morning. Managed to get started at 6:25 but was definitely rushing through the run. It's pretty much a mile to get to the turn at New Chadron where I picked up the course, so today was a legit 7M run. I felt pretty good today and was running a bit quicker because of the late start. I didn't make it all the way to the Seaport, I turned around at E. Service Road, which probably cut off a quarter of a mile. I was just under 30:00 for the 5M loop and finished up at just over 43:00 this morning. Pretty good run but had to speed through stretching, etc. afterwards to get to work. | 7 |
| Tuesday | Back Bay Loop plus a little extra. Ran at 6:15 this morning and was feeling really good. Kept things easy the whole time, was 6:30 on the river without forcing things at all. Right after the Galleria there's a little inlet off the Charles that I've never checked out, but it turns out to be just a quarter mile long path, nothing very exciting. I picked it up coming back into Charlestown and down Main, then eased back after getting to the Training Field. Was only 42 and change this morning, so another short run that I'm rounding up. I should have added on a few more minutes to make this one legit. | 7 |
| Monday | L and 1st. I got started at 6:10 this morning and was feeling pretty good. My right Achilles has been bothering me off and on recently and was a bit tender when I woke up, but didn't give me any problems on the run. Hopefully just some proactive icing and a new pair of shoes will take care of the problem. I was 26:04 at the turn again, but I'm thinking this route is probably just shy of 8M, I should start going up to Broadway to be safe. Coming back I tried to just keep everything steady and hold things together. Got a bit tired and my legs felt heavy coming back past the Seaport, but once I hit the hotel I was feeling fine again. Really tried to hammer from the ice rink back to the pass through under Route 1 which wound up being just 3:50, I probably should have started back at the Coast Guard station. Good run this morning, I was 24:45 on the way back so not even 51 minutes, definitely a short 8, but it'll even out. | 8 |
| Sunday | Summit Ave. I finally got started on an early morning weekend run, taking off at 8:30 today. I crossed the CTown bridge and took the usual route to Commonwealth via Haymarket-Common. From there I just headed west on Commonwealth, went up and over Summit then came back on Beacon to Amory, where I cut over to the BU bridge and finished up along the river. Pretty relaxed this morning, just trying to get the mileage in. I was feeling decent the whole way, not that great while climbing Summit, however. I would guess I was 6:40-7:00 the whole way, although there were one or two stretches where I felt much slower. The mile along the river was 6:41 (3:23/3:18) with the first half a little more representative of the usual pace. I did my best to finish hard coming over the bridge and down Main Street. I certainly started working harder but I'm not sure whether or not I actually wound up going any faster. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 34 8/5-8/11 |
The mileage is slowly started to creep up towards respectability. Had a short Sunday and Saturday, and those are the days I'll really need to get the mileage in if I'm going to get up over 80MPW. Kind of a slow start to the week, but the long run at Lincoln on Thursday really got me energized and excited about training again. Hopefully the mileage will continue to climb over the next few weeks and I don't get ahead of myself. August Miles: 83 | 57 |
| Saturday | Docks. I waited until after 5pm to get out the door today, which resulted in me not going as long as planned, since I didn't have as much time to spend running. Things were pretty crowded around Long Wharf, but other than that it was pretty smooth sailing the whole way. The mile along the river was 6:33 (3:18/3:15) but I slowed after that due to the onset of some GI issues. A pretty good day, weather wasn't too hot and my legs were feeling good. | 9 |
| Friday | Morning Loop. I was pretty tired when I got up this morning and was debating on how far to go. I wound up wasting a lot of time and didn't get out the door until 6:30 which made the decision easier. Ran the standard 4M loop, no watch, and after a few minutes I loosened up and felt really good. Probably won't double tonight, as 12M tomorrow will give me 60M for the which, which I was aiming for. | 4 |
| Thursday | Lincoln Woods with Terry, Matt and Brett Ely and a guy from UNH named Steven. Managed to make it over to the Thursday Lincoln Woods run tonight, changed at the office and drove 20-25 minutes to the parking lot. I was a bit nervous about how things would go, but I wound up feeling great the whole time. We kept things nice and easy for the first hour, Matt and Terry both ran workouts last night, and even when we picked things up near the end we didn't get going very fast. I didn't really know where I was for the first 45 minutes, but we popped out by Walden Pond and then took some of the normal trails around there the rest of the way. When we started speeding up Matt and Brett dropped off, so Terry, Steven and I finished up together, we were back at the cars at 86 and Terry and I headed out and back along Lincoln Rd to get the total time up to 91. I was really, reall pleased with how today went, cooler temps, soft surfaces and having people to run with made a big difference. My legs were still feeling good and I wasn't very tired at the end of the run. As we were stretching out, Ryan Carrara and Justin Lutz showed up, we apparently started a few minutes too early. Stretched out and chatted for awhile then headed home to pasta and Gatorade. The effort finally hit me around 10pm, my legs didn't hurt too much but I was really tired and went right to sleep. | 13 |
| Wednesday | Out and back to Summer and First in Southie. I managed to get out the door a little bit earlier this morning and was able to bump the mileage up a bit. I was hoping that I'd be able to make it to Castle Island, but I didn't get started quite that early. I was feeling good and tried to keep the pace a bit quicker than just jogging around. I followed the usual Docks route to Summer and took that into Southie. I hit East First, the very first light, at 26:00 and turned around there. I screwed up the watch on the way home so no total time, but it felt pretty even. There was one rough patch around 35 minutes in, but by the time I got out of the hotel I was feeling better and the run finished up pretty well. The mileage is steadily climbing back up and I'm thinking 60M is a possibility this week. gmap-pedometer shows this one was just 7.5, but yesterday's loop was long so I'm okay rounding up a bit. | 8 |
| Tuesday | Back Bay Loop. Managed to get out the door by 6:15 today and put in a really comfortable 6M. Got almost 8 hours of sleep last night and I wasn't nearly as tired when I woke up this morning. I felt good the whole time, my ankle got a bit tight near the end but nothing that I'm too concerned about. It's probably time for new shoes, I've had this pair for awhile now. The mile along the river was 6:33 (3:18/3:15) and a pretty accurate representation of the whole run's pace. I finished up at 42 minutes, so about 6:30s for about 6.5M. Things have been pretty good so far this week, the mileage is climbing a bit higher and my legs are actually feeling better. Hopefully I remember to keep eating fruits and vegetables, that seems to be helping. I'm going to need to get started right at 6am if I'm going to get 8-9M in the mornings. | 6 |
| Monday PM | Morning Loop with Kathryn. Got home from work a little bit earlier today and showed Kathryn the 4M loop around CTown. We kept things very easy and relaxed the whole way, it was nice to put in a run and not worry about trying to work myself back into shape. Glad I was able to compensate for this morning's low mileage. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Morning Loop. I was really tired when I got up this morning and wound up wasting too much time again. Got started at 6:25 and decided to run hard to make up for my earlier laziness. Started at the Navy Yard gate again and tried to run hard all the way to the Monument gate. I did a decent job throughout, but I definitely slowed a bit around the end of Main Street. Climbing up Sackville got pretty hard but I used the downhill to keep my legs going and finished in 18:58 for what is about 3.25M. Averaging 5:50 sounds reasonable, I'd guess there were times I was closer to 5:30 and times I was closer to 6:15. Not at all even nor did I feel like I had a rhythm ever. Just a 1:00 warmup and about 3:00 on the cooldown. | 4 |
| Sunday | Docks. Got going about 10:15 this morning and the weather was much more comfortable. I crossed the Charlestown Bridge and picked up the usual Docks route along the Harbor. I was worried about how I was going to feel today, I was pretty sore last night but nothing was really bothering me too much. Kept things easy and just put in some mileage today. Not as far as I was originally planning for the weekend, but after my difficulties going 12M yesterday I didn't want to do too much and get myself into a big hole. I put in a 6:40 mile along the river, trying to get an accurate estimate of my pace throughout the run. I didn't bother with Longfellow-Cambridge-Causeway, just took Prison Point Bridge to Main Street, the usual route home from the river. 61-62 minutes total. | 9 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 33 7/29-8/4 |
Finally a step in the right direction. Not a great week by any means, the mileage was pretty low, but at least I got out the door every day. I'm hoping to bump up the daily mileage next week and crack 60MPW. Saturday's twelve miler was really rough, I don't know if it was the heat, the distance, the pounding or my old age, but 12M really took it out of me. Spent most of the rest of the day lying in bed trying to ignore my aching legs. I decided during Saturday's run that I'm still as masochistic as I used to be, I'm still able to force myself to do these painful things, but my body is just less willing to deal with them. August Miles : 26 | 45 |
| Saturday | Fresh Pond. I waited until almost noon before heading out the door today, which meant I was running in almost 90 degree heat with the sun directly overhead. That did not help. I was feeling decent at the start and got worse from there, gradually slowing the whole time, or so it felt. I didn't go around the Pond, but by the time I got there I was getting really hot and looking around for a bubbler. On the way back I started hearing sprinklers everywhere, but I think I was just imaging those. I finally found some by the church just before Harvard Square and took a few minutes to really soak myself. That helped for a little while, but I was dry by the time I got to MIT. I forced myself to suffle along home, but had to stop once as my back was getting really tight under my shoulder blades which made running difficult. Just glad to get this death march finished today. | 12 |
| Friday | Back Bay Loop. Got going at 6:15 this morning which let me bump the distance up a little bit. Crossed the CTown bridge to Haymarket then the Common to Commonwealth. Crossed the Mass Ave bridge and headed home. Felt pretty decent today, tried to just keep the pace even and regular the whole way. The mile along the river was 6:32 (3:16/3:16) which felt comfortable and easy. Looks like this week will finish up around mid 40s. | 6 |
| Thursday | Morning Loop. Another 6:30 start, I was pretty tired when I got up again and took my time getting started. Felt good once I got into it, didn't feel tired at all. Definitely need to start getting out the door by 6am so that I can bump up the mileage of these morning runs. Finished with a pickup down Tremont and was just feeling really awkward trying to run fast. | 4 |
| Wednesday | Morning Loop. Didn't get to bed early and was pretty tired when I woke up. Spent some time organizing things and wound up taking off a little late. Felt really good, I think it's time to bump things up beyond 4M. Climbed up Sackville and finished with a stride down Tremont. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Morning Loop. Got another late start, heading out around 6:30am after sitting around for awhile. Kind of foggy this morning but really humid. Felt good from the start and would guess I was right around 6:30s the whole way, but who knows. I was running faster than just jogging but wasn't pushing things either. Felt good climbing Sackville but then just coasted down Bunker Hill. I need to come up with a good hill workout to utilize the hill. Only had a few minutes to stretch out before getting ready for work. Felt good to finally run on a Tuesday. July Miles : 110 | 4 |
| Monday | Morning Loop. Almost talked myself out of going this morning when I woke up to a thunderstorm, but remembered that I have plans this evening and didn't want to put up another zero. The thunder was 10-12 seconds after the lightning, so I wasn't too worried, and it stayed that way throughout the whole run. Felt pretty good after I got going, took a few minutes for my legs to wake up. Actually would have liked to have kept going, but I had gotten a late start and was pressed for time. | 4 |
| Sunday | JFK Street River Loop. Didn't get started until around noon, by then the sun was up and it was pretty hot outside. Headed across Prison Point Bridge to the Science Museum and picked up the river there. Screwed up my watch somewhere along the line and was at just 8:00 at Mass Ave, which is 7-10 minutes off. I wasn't quite sure how far I was going to go, originally I was thinking Arsenal but then remembered that I have to calculate distances from Science now, not Mass Ave. By the time I turned at JFK Street the sun was really making things hard. Thankfully the way back was more in the shade, but by the time I made it home I was feeling really dehydrated. Coming back on the Boston side I clocked around 6:45 for the mile from BU to Mass Ave and then 3:20ish to the next half mile mark. I thought the bubbler at the new baseball diamonds after Longfellow was going to save me, but the water wasn't turned on, which was a huge disappointment. I slowed down a bit coming home through CTown though, I just wanted the run to be over. I wound up at 66ish, which would be 74-75 had the watch been accurate. The online chart has Science-Anderson at 8.6M and it's 1+M to the river from the condo, so 11M at 6:45-7:00 sounds reasonable. | 11 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 32 7/22-7/28 |
July Miles : 91 | 20 |
| Saturday | No run. Didn't get going right away and then got caught up running errands during the day and had plans at night. | 0 |
| Friday | Beacon Hill Loop. Crossed the dam and took Causeway to Cambridge Street. Crossed Longfellow and followed Memorial back to Prison Point Bridge. Looped around the Monument on the way home through Chucktown, just to get the time up a little bit. Wound up being 27:00, maybe a little short but the past two days were long 6 milers. | 4 |
| Thursday | Downtown/Back Bay Loop. Crossed the Chucktown Bridge to Haymarket/Faneuil Hall/Common. Took Commonwealth to Mass Ave and crossed the river there. Followed the Esplanade back to the Science Museum then took the bridge there (which I need a name for - Google Maps says John Gilmore Bridge, Charlestown Ave and Prison Point Bridge) into Charlestown. Feeling pretty good this morning but again kept it short so I could get to work. Surprised at the splits along the river, I figured I was running around 7:00 pace, especially since I don't feel in that great of shape, but I was 6:20 (3:11/3:09) without feeling like I picked it up at all. Good run. | 6 |
| Wednesday | Short Docks. Finally got in something slightly longer this morning. Crossed the Charlestown Bridge and picked up the usual Docks route. Concerned about getting to work on time so I cut things short, went from the Common to Charles to Cambridge to Stanhope and then crossed over the dam to get to C-Town. Wound up at 43:00 for this one, according to gmap-pedometer it was 6.5M. | 6 |
| Tuesday | I don't know what it is about Tuesdays, but they're not good to me. | 0 |
| Monday | Morning Loop. Decided to run hard today, took the 2 minutes to the Navy Yard as warm up and then started to build into things down 2nd Street. Was cruising at a decent clip, nothing too fast, back along the piers and down Warren, but the stretch along Main I feel like I settled in a little bit. Charged up Sackville and rolled down Bunker Hill, stopped the watch at the Monument steps and used the lap around and the 2 blocks back home as a cool down. I was 19:00 for the part where I was running hard, about 3.25M according to gmap-pedometer. | 4 |
| Sunday | No running. More errands today, getting this new condo set up takes a lot of work and time. Need to start getting back into shape. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 31 7/15-7/21 |
July Miles : 71 | 36 |
| Saturday | Castle-Bunker Hill with Craig and Tyler. | 8 |
| Friday | Morning Loop. | 4 |
| Thursday | Morning Loop. | 4 |
| Wednesday | Morning loop again. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Got up to run but was feeling pretty tired and got distracted. No run. | 0 |
| Monday | Morning Loop. | 4 |
| Sunday | Fresh Pond. Hot, long death march. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 30 7/8-7/14 |
July Miles : 35 | 25 |
| Saturday | Didn't get out the door this morning and then wound up doing a bunch of errands the rest of the day. | 0 |
| Friday | Morning Loop. | 4 |
| Thursday | Morning Loop. | 4 |
| Wednesday | Morning loop again. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Dead tired this morning after a LONG first day at work, slept right through my alarm. | 0 |
| Monday | Loop around Charlestown. Start by running down to the end of the Navy Yard, then come back along the piers. Leave the Navy Yard on Warren, take that to Main and out to Sullivan Square. Get on Medford and start heading home, cut up Sackville (best street in town) to Bunker Hill Street, down to Monument, then a loop around the Monument and home via Tremont-Prospect. Was about 28 mins this morning. | 4 |
| Sunday | Waited a long time today and then ran over to Castle and along Highland to Davis Square, then came home. Start work tomorrow. | 9 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 29 7/1-7/7 |
July Miles : 10 | 10 |
| Saturday | Finally got out the door for a run from the new place. Headed over the Chucktown bridge and took Causeway to Long Wharf to World Trade Center and then Summer Street into Southie. Ran Old Ollie to G Street, up and around Telegraph Hill then back down Broadway to L/Summer. Picked up the Freedom Trail at the Common and followed that back. Wound up being pretty busy along the way, nice day and a lot of tourists out. I messed up my watch near the end, but was probably around 66:00 for the barely 10M loop (according to gmaps-pedometer.) A very patriotic run, starting with Dorchester Heights (which Col. Knox fortified with artillery from Fort Ticondergoa in March 1776 forcing the British evacuation of Boston,) and finishing with the Freedom Trail. | 10 |
| Friday | No running. | 0 |
| Thursday | No running, I'm getting really good at sitting around. | 0 |
| Wednesday | No running, wasted the whole day. | 0 |
| Tuesday | No running, travelling back to MA. | 0 |
| Monday | No running. MN. | 0 |
| Sunday | No running. On vacation in Minnesota | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 28 6/24-6/30 |
June Miles : 270 | 35 |
| Saturday | Bemidji. Ran along the shoulder of some roads into town and then along Lake Bemidji out to Diamond Point. Tried not to look at the watch until I was ready to turn around, but cheated once or twice. Tried to really hammer from where I thought was about 2M out, but wound up being just 10:00. Ran pretty hard, at least for my given fitness, and took a little while to recover. Spent most of the rest of the day dehydrated. | 12 |
| Friday | No running, playing golf in Minnesota. | 0 |
| Thursday | No running, travelling to Minnesota. | 0 |
| Wednesday | No running, spent the whole day moving. | 0 |
| Tuesday | Fake Jamaica. | 7 |
| Monday | Science-BU. | 7 |
| Sunday | Jamaica. | 9 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 27 6/17-6/23 |
June Miles : 235 | 78 |
| Saturday | Fresh Pond. | 12 |
| Friday | Science Museum. | 5 |
| Thursday | Reservoir. | 11 |
| Wednesday | 2x3200, 1x1600 in 10:03, 9:58, 4:41. Solid workout. | 10 |
| Tuesday PM | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Tuesday AM | Science Museum. | 5 |
| Monday | Fresh Pond. | 12 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 26 6/10-6/16 |
June Miles : 157 | 67 |
| Saturday | No running, travelling back from Ohio. | 0 |
| Friday | Run to Remember course, early. | 7 |
| Thursday | Reservoir, twice around. | 12 |
| Wednesday | Approx. 5M tempo, total time of 27:50. Warmed up 3M over to MIT without knowing what the workout was today, I wasn't even sure there was a workout. My fallback was going to be 5x1000, but it was fairly windy and I was happy when MP told me we were getting off the track today. 4-5M tempo on the river and then finish with 1M on the track. Matt Ely, Matt Carter, Levi, myself and one other guy headed over to river and took our time getting into it. Coasting through the first half mile in 2:55, Ely took the lead and really kicked the pace down. We hit 5:30 for the mile, so a pretty large speed-up, and then held it more or less steady. 2:40 at Museum of Science and then 5:20 at the bubbler of the new diamonds, but I don't know exactly where that mark is. We were 10:13 at the mark by Storrow and were happy with that, just kept it steady across the Mass Ave bridge with a fairly stiff wind. We had been shuffling around the lead, I was normally up front but spent a little over half a mile sitting behind Ely. He took the lead when we hit the track and I settled in right behind him letting him block the wind. He brought us through in 74-2:28 and then I returned the favor by leading the final half. We were 3:32high and finished up in 4:55. Good, relaxed effort, wasn't ever straining, just holding a good pace the whole way. Sad to think that the last mile of this one was significantly faster than the last mile of my 5k on Saturday. Cooled down with a 2M loop and then headed straight home. | 11 |
| Tuesday | Fells. 65 minutes. | 10 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. Agressive. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 25 6/3-6/9 |
June Miles : 90 | 71 |
| Saturday | Boston High Performance 5k - 15:10. Ugly. | 7 |
| Friday | Fake Jamaica. I figured a little bit longer run than normal the day before a race would be okay since the race doesn't start until 7pm or so tomorrow, plenty of time to recuperate. I got going around 9:30 this morning, great day, bright and sunny in the low 70s. Took the usual route through the Fens and along the Riverway, my legs were feeling good and I just kept things nice and easy. Haven't been doing any strides recently, hopefully my legs will be able to handle some speed okay tomorrow. | 7 |
| Thursday | Science-BU. I stayed up late watching the Sox game last night and slept in until 9am this morning. I was in no rush to run since I didn't have anything to do and wound up not running right away. I kept putting off the run and then Schilling had a no hitter going this afternoon which meant I stayed in and watched the entire game, only to have it broken up with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. I finally got going a little bit after 7pm and was feeling okay. Not quite as tired from yesterday's effort as I was expecting, I just headed down to the river for an easy run this evening. Once I got into it I thought about extending the run, but opted to just play it safe and keep the mileage low going into Saturday. | 7 |
| Wednesday PM | Fake Fresh with Sean and Yuval. | 5 |
| Wednesday AM | 2x1200, 2x800, 4x400 in 3:34, 3:30; 2:14, 2:14; 63, 65, 65, 65. Rest was 4:00, 3:00, 1:30. I had thought the BAA workout was Tuesday and made plans for tonight, so I had to workout solo this morning. I had to take Kathryn to school insanely early this morning and then just stayed up for a few hours before heading over to MIT. The weather was pretty nice, with just a bit of a breeze. I was feeling very out of shape during strides and got out way too slow to start things off, hit the 200 in 38 and 400 in 73, but brought it around and was 2:24-3:34 to finish off the first 1200. The four minutes rest was a really long time and I felt completely recovered starting the next one. Hit even 70s the whole way just like I was trying to, felt decently comfortable throughout. I was hoping for 2:16-18 for the 8s, hit 200m in 34 then surprised myself by hitting 67 without much effort. Just tried to hold on without thinking about the pace and finished up with a very solid 2:14. The 3:00 rest was another long break and I was feeling fine by the start of the second 800. I was excited at how things got started and was just hoping to keep things going. Another evenly paced one, 67-2:14 but didn't check 200m splits at all, just wanted to run by feel. By the time I was starting the 400s there was an MIT day camp using the inside lanes so I had to run these in lane 7. Got out really well on the first one, I was still feeling really fresh thanks to the 3:00 rest. I was kind of surprised to see 63 on the watch, it didn't feel like I was running that fast. I backed off a little bit on the final 3, wanting to keep something in the tank for Saturday's race. Ran the final three evenly, getting out in 32-mid and just running comfortably. The workout started catching up to me on the final two, but I certainly wasn't falling apart on the homestretch at all. Very surprised with how this one went, I was not expecting to see 2:14s, I haven't really felt like I'm in shape for quite awhile now. I kind of wish I wasn't racing on Saturday and could have completely hammered this one, I feel like I could have hit 2:12s and 63s, at least. Warmed up and cooled down 2M, very good morning. | 8 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Sort Jamaica. | 7 |
| Monday PM | Science-BU Extended. I headed down to the river just a little after 5pm and wasn't really feeling all that good. Just 6 minutes in my legs were already fairly tired and I wasn't that into the run. I continued my exploration of the "new" Charles River Basin, going into the park on the other side of the Green Line tracks past Science. There wasn't much on the Boston side and the Cambridge side looked a lot bigger but was still completely fenced off and "under construction." I headed back along the Cambridge side, hitting 3:30 for the first 1/2M split and then dropped down to 3:10 to get past a guy ahead of me. I could tell that turning back at Mass Ave would be too short so I kept going up to BU and kept things at a decent pace, too. That's a lot faster than I've been running recently, I typically just settle into 7:00 pace and try to cover ground, but I think I should be running a little bit quicker than that normally. I was still tired at the end of the run but wasn't feeling as bad as I was at the beginning. Got dinner at Boloco afterwards. | 8 |
| Monday AM | Orange Line. Squandered a lot of time this morning, plus it was 55 degrees and rainy, not too appealing for a run. I got out the door for a short one, with the idea of saving a longer one for this afternoon. I felt alright and finished up with a stride down Clearway. | 4 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. Did a better job this morning, slept until 9 and was running by 10am. Felt good on the way out to the Arboretum but wasn't that fast, only 33 minutes. Ran the usual route around the Arboretum and the hills are still killing me. It's kind of pathetic how much strength I've lost, need to start working some hills in, and get above 60MPW. Made it back home in 32, not running too fast, had to take a pit stop at Olmsted, things were a lot easier after that. Finished things off with some pancakes when I got home. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 22 5/27-6/2 |
Trying to get back into it, the WI trip was a good excuse not to run. Would have liked Sunday's race to have been at least 30s faster, don't know what happened out there. Need to get better and holding on when things get rough. | 62 |
| Saturday | Orange Line to Freedom Trail, wandered around Navy Yard, home over Beacon Hill. Stayed out a bit too late last night and wasn't feeling too great this morning, plus I was really hungry and just ate breakfast. Kathryn and I ran some errands during the early afternoon and I headed over to Charlestown around 4pm. Followed the Freedom Trail through the North End which is always enjoyable, I don't run there enough, and then across the bridge and up to the Monument. Ran down Prospect to make sure our new condo was still there then cut under the Tobin into the Navy Yard. I ran out and around Flagship Wharf then back past the USS Constitution and into Paul Revere Park. That's still not linked up with the rest of the Charles River Basin yet, so I took the walkway over the locks to the TD BankNorth Garden, then up to Beacon Hill and home down Commonwealth. Would have extended today's run, I was feeling pretty good, but my stomach was giving me issues. A nice steak and some fresh corn for dinner. | 9 |
| Friday | Fresh Pond. May was pretty much a lost month, not a lot of running, a lot of energy wasted worrying about the thesis and not much in the way of races. That's all behind me now, so it's time to get back and buckle down. Spent most of today sitting around unwinding, got out for today's run in the late afternoon. Felt okay the whole way but certainly wasn't running fast, no watch though, so no splits going around the Pond. Held on pretty well in the post-10M range. | 12 |
| Thursday | Jamaica. May Miles: 280 | 9 |
| Wednesday | Travelling home from WI. | 0 |
| Tuesday | Lakeshore in Madison. | 9 |
| Monday PM | Wandering around Madison. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Sunday | Run to Remember, 25:01. | 10 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 23 5/20-5/26 |
May Miles : 239 | 65 |
| Saturday | Science. | 5 |
| Friday | Jamaica, turned in thesis. | 9 |
| Thursday | Docks | 9 |
| Wednesday | Castle-Bunker Hill | 10 |
| Tuesday | 3x(1k-2k) in 2:52, 5:55; 2:55, 5:57; 2:54, 6:05. With Matt Carter and Matt Ely. | 11 |
| Monday | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Sunday | Docks backwards to New Ollie to Old Ollie, Broadway to South End to home. Shorter than expected. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 22 5/13-5/19 |
May Miles : 174 | 57 |
| Saturday | Reservoir from the Toyota Dealership at Packard's Corner. A little shorter than I was expecting. | 10 |
| Friday | Rabbited the first 2M of the 5k at MIT's Last Chance Qualifier. 4:42-9:26ish then stepped off. Cold and rainy but the wind wasn't that bad. Warmed up 2M and cooled down BU with Fivos. | 8 |
| Thursday | Science Museum. Discovered this morning that the meet is tomorrow, not Saturday. Good thing I didn't go long like I was planning this morning. | 5 |
| Wednesday | No Running Today | 0 |
| Tuesday | 2x(800-1600-800). 2:16-4:43-2:18; 2:16-4:47-2:18. | 10 |
| Monday | Castle-Bunker Hill. | 10 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 21 5/6-5/12 |
May Miles : 117 | 70 |
| Saturday | Jamaica with Wildman. | 11 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Orange Line backwards. | 4 |
| Thursday | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | 4x(1200-400) in 3:30-66;3:30-66;3:29-66;3:29-63 with Alasdair. | 9 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. | 4 |
| Tuesday | Fresh Pond. | 12 |
| Monday | Jamaica. | 9 |
| Sunday | Westford 5k. 15:03, 3rd place. | 8 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 19 4/29-5/5 |
May Miles : 47 | 52 |
| Saturday | Run to Remember. | 7 |
| Friday | Docks. | 9 |
| Thursday | Fresh Pond. | 12 |
| Wednesday | Castle-Bunker Hill. | 10 |
| Tuesday | Jamaica, fast. | 9 |
| Monday | Fens-Riverway. April Miles : 282 | 5 |
| Sunday | No Run. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 19 4/22-4/28 |
April Miles : 277 | 31 |
| Saturday | No run. | 0 |
| Friday | No run. | 0 |
| Thursday | Penn. 14:55. Blech. | 5 |
| Wedesday | Fens-Riverway. | 5 |
| Tuesday | Jamaica. I slept about 8 hours last night and was feeling okay when I got up, not terribly sore from yesterday. My left calf was tight at the start of the run and took a few steps to loosen up but didn't bother me the rest of the way. The story today was really just tired legs, a general soreness everywhere but no specific pain. My legs were pretty heavy but there's plenty of time to recover so I'm not too worried. Kept things easy the whole way, just putting in some mileage and trying to work out the soreness. It's nice to wake up to 65 degree temps and be able to run without a shirt comfortably. The focus for the next two days is just rest and recovery. | 9 |
| Monday | 6x400, 2x200. 62, 63, 63, 63, 65, 65; 28, 29 with the usual 100m rest, 5:00 between sets and across the field for the 200m. I left the lab just before 4pm and headed over to Johnson to change and start the warmup. A lot warmer today than it has been recently, temps were probably around 70, if not higher. Did the usual 2M warmup and then stopped at the bubbler to wet down. By the time I started the jog I had completely dried off again, the sun was pretty oppressive this afternoon. The 800 guys finished their last interval as I was running strides, so I had the track all to myself for this one. The wind was blowing a little stronger than normal, but in the usual direction so it was at my back down the homestretch. I got out well on the first one, really well actually, coming through in 31-low and hammering all the way to the line in 62. That was a little harder than I wanted and my legs were still tired at the start of the second, but I still managed to get out in under 32 and hold things together to the line. Numbers three and four were fairly similar, but on the fourth I was over 32 at 200m and had to pick things up. I was getting really thirsty and the heat was getting to me after that one. I tried to cruise too much going into the wind on the fifth, came through in 32-high and wasn't able to pick it up over the second half. I took a longer rest over to the pine tree by the gate to get some water and felt a whole lot better on the sixth. The 5:00 rest was well needed and gave me a good chance to wet down and cool off. I didn't feel like I was running that fast on the first 200, just cruising through the line and was pretty surprised to see 28. I felt pretty much the same on the next 200 but wasn't quite as fast. I was going to an Oracle presentation at 6pm and wanted to make sure I got in a good cool down so even though I was originally planning on running Science for a cooldown I turned around just before Longfellow and just did 2M, but got in 6 quality strides and was feeling much better after some stretching. Really happy with how things went today, but worried that maybe I extended myself a little too much. I was working pretty hard on the 4s and couldn't really find a groove because I was fighting the wind. This was the same workout I did the week of outdoor nationals my senior year at MIT, only a couple seconds faster on the 400s. Hopefully Penn goes a little bit better than that race did. | 6 |
| Sunday | Longfellow-BU. The plan was originally just Science, but the Kevin Spacey movie was filming on the Mass Ave bridge and it was closed to pedestrians. I took Beacon down to the Fairfield Street ramp (which I haven't been on in a long time) and audibled to a 6 miler this morning. Great weather, first legitimate warm and sunny day we've had this spring, and my legs were feeling decent. Nothing special this morning, just a few strides down Clearway when I got home. No running in the afternoon, spent a long time at open houses in Charlestown and no energy, motivation or need to get out for more when we got home. I'm really cutting back on mileage before Penn, it seems like maybe more than normal but I feel like I'm getting in all the work I need right now. Last hard stuff is tomorrow. | 6 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 18 4/15-4/21 |
Didn't get everything I was hoping for out of this week, but I was feeling fast by the end of it which is all that really matters now. Comfortable 14 miler on Sunday then kept things light and slow the rest of the week. Tuesday's 2M time trial didn't go as planned, but that was only going to be a confidence booster, wasn't expecting to get any real improvement out of it. I was unsure of things for a few days following that, but running 6x200 all around 30s and feeling easy on Friday evening started turning things around. There's nothing more to do but get ready to race. April Miles : 246 | 74 |
| Saturday | Fake Jamaica. I had to be at the lab by 8:30 this morning for a demo of our software, so I got out just before 7am and headed along Fens-Riverway. I was feeling decent and trying not to run fast even though I was in a rush. Kept things pretty relaxed, certainly not running fast this morning. No time for strides when I got back to Clearway. Spent the morning at the lab and then a long afternoon at the track watching the invite, pretty tired when I finally got home from being out in the sun all day. | 7 |
| Friday PM | Science plus 6x200 in 30, 31, 30, 30, 30, 30. Got started just before 6:30 tonight, took things pretty easy the whole way. Headed down to Science on the Boston side, sticking mainly to the dirt paths, trying to give my quad a break. It's still painful and every once in awhile a step sends a jolt up the inside of my thigh. Things loosened up as the run went on though, and as I headed to the track it wasn't really bothering me. I stopped for a moment to stretch out and rub my quad, then jogged to the northwest turn and got going. The goal was to get some more turnover in my legs, get comfortable running fast since I haven't been incredibly diligent with strides recently. Perfect day on the track, the sun was going down but temps were still in the upper 50s and there was absolutely no wind. Very rare to see that on the track, they put the flag back up at the top of the home straight but it was hanging totally limp. Hopefully the distance guys get similar conditions tomorrow. I didn't feel that great on the first one, trying to go straight to speed after a few easy miles, but still managed to come through in 30. I was really expecting to see 32 or 33 on the watch when I finished. I just took 200m jog back around the track, running these more or less continuously. I felt a lot better on the second but backed off as I was approaching the line and hit the only 31 of the session. The next four were each in 30, getting out and finding a groove quickly and then cruising through the line. Felt really good, my quad didn't bother me at all and I was comfortable the whole time. Really not forcing anything, it helps to have fresh legs and not be coming off of a full workout. I walked through the parking lot and stretched out a little bit more before jogging back home across the bridge. | 6 |
| Friday AM | Orange Line backwards. I got started about 7:30 this morning, temps were slowly climbing above 40 and projected to get up to 60 today. Felt good to finally run in shorts and tshirt and be comfortable. My legs were feeling decent, the only lingering pain is the right quad. It gradually got tighter on me, but I put in a long, gradual buildup in front of the Church and even though I didn't get going very fast I didn't feel any pain. Hopefully things hold together for the next 6 days. | 4 |
| Thursday | Fresh Pond backwards. I left at 7:45 this morning and headed north on Mass Ave. I wasn't able to cross the street until after Mem Drive so I just headed up to Harvard Square and ran the route in reverse. My legs weren't doing very well at all today, the upper outside of my left calf was sore at the start and I was limping for the first few blocks until it loosened up. Worse than that, though, was the inside of my right quad, just above my knee. It's been bothering me for a while and today it was sore nearly the entire time, with pain shooting up the inside of my thigh occasionally. Needless to say, it was not a very fast run this morning. Things finally loosened up by the time I got to MIT, but by then it was really too late to enjoy it. I have a feeling this all stems from my right IT/knee tightness that I've been ignoring for too long. Just one week out from Penn so hopefully a large dose of foam rolling and The Stick takes care of things. I'll be starting the Vitamin I regimen just in case, though. No strides when I got back, partially because it was late in the morning and partly because I didn't want to screw my legs up worse. Since the race is on a Thursday next week I'm shifting things around slightly, so this was the "long run" at the start of the week. Then it's mileage for a few days, one last sharpening workout on Monday and then just easy runs and waiting. | 12 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line. Got started on this one at 9:30pm, right after Papelbon blew away the final two Jays to get the save. I was actually feeling pretty decent, kept everything slow and easy of course, but my legs weren't too bad. I'm starting to like running this late, it's pretty peaceful at night. I finished up with the usual strides on Clearway and even felt somewhat fast. Got back inside only a few minutes after Lost started. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Run To Remember course. I got started at 7:30 this morning and wasn't feeling too bad. Kathryn and I were out late at a dinner last night and I only got about 6 hours sleep. The weather wasn't too bad this morning, the usual 40 degrees and spitting rain that we've been dealing with recently. I kept things easy down Comm Ave to Arlington where I started picking things up. I was running a bit quicker than normal along Boylston and all the way to Atlantic but backed off again on the out and back stretch to the World Trade Center. I just covered ground for a while then, but started speeding up again once I hit Cambridge Street and kept it honest back to around Hereford and then eased up for the last few minutes. My legs were feeling decent once I got moving, I wasn't hammering at all, just holding a faster pace than I have been recently. I'm doing my best to not dwell on yesterday's 2M, there's really nothing more I can do between now and next Thursday but rest up and try to add some speed. | 7 |
| Tuesday | 3200m time trial in 9:41 (4:50/4:51). I got up at 6:30 and ate breakfast then sat around for another 90 minutes before jogging over to MIT to run this time trial. I brought my new Eldorets along to break them in, they've been sitting in a corner since I bought them in January since I didn't race indoors this year. I was feeling okay on the warmup, it was windy on the bridge but not too bad on track. It was spitting rain but temps were near 40 degrees and bearable. I stretched out underneath an overhang next to Johnson, laced up the new spikes, jogged around a bit and then ran some strides. I was looking at today as an indicator and hoping to hold race pace for at least part of this, but I never really came close. I was out in 35-71-2:23 and then only looked at the watch every half mile. The time trial went by fairly quickly, but was nowhere near the speed or effort I was hoping for. I wasn't exactly coasting, but there was certainly more in the tank and I wasn't pushing nearly hard enough. Still, my legs started getting tight at 300m and I was tired the whole time. I did manage to pick things up over the final half mile but still was very far away from race pace. Maybe I was expecting too much from a solo 2 miler, but I feel like I should have been able to run faster than that in spikes. It wasn't noticably windy on the track, conditions were actually pretty good. Splits on the watch (probably not exact, but the tenths add up): 71.6/2:24(72.5)/3:36(72.2)/4:50(73.5)/6:03(73.2)/7:17(74.4)/8:29(72.2)/9:41(71.4). Pretty rough from 2 through 6 (a 74) and then managed to salvage things slightly by finishing up with 72-71. I glanced at my watch at 3k and was 9:05, I was out of breath when I finished but I wasn't on my knees or anything. Changed back to trainers and jogged home. Not quite sure what to take away from this one, I was hoping for a good indication that I'm ready to roll at Penn and I can't even get on pace for the first 200m. On the plus side my spikes felt a lot better at the end of the run, so at least I got those broken in a little. I just need to forget about this one, worrying about what it means and what I could have done differently won't help anything. I basically ran that pace for 8k in March and I haven't gotten in worse shape, so it's time to just focus on getting in a good taper and things will come together in 9 days. | 6 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. After getting the laundry I squeezed in a four miler before the Hour of Bauer tonight. I was actually feeling pretty good, maybe I'm getting used to running later at night. I kept everything relaxed, although running through the night makes it feel faster. I finished up with a few strides down Clearway and was feeling pretty quick on those. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. Got started just before 9am today and I was feeling decent. The weather wasn't as bad as predicted, hopefully the marathoners get a break today. Only really windy going across the Mass Ave and Charlestown Bridges. Temps were up in the low 50s and the whole run was really comfortable. I put in just a pickup at the end of the run, saving strides for the afternoon run. | 10 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. Got started around 8:30am again this morning, taking things easy out to the Arboretum. My legs were feeling pretty good, I was just relaxed and cruising through the run. It was cold and raining, so not the most comfortable day and parts of the Arboretum were pretty slick and muddy. Nothing special about the run this morning, coming home along the Riverway it started hailing, which wasn't much fun, and by that time my gloves were wet and my hands were pretty cold. I wound up going straight into the shower once I got home to warm up and clean off the mud, skipping strides and stretching. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 17 4/8-4/14 |
Surprisingly high mileage total this week without any one day that really stands out as high mileage. Just seven solid days between 12 and 14 miles, I guess. Got off to a bad start on Sunday but managed to put in a long run on Tuesday to compensate. Pretty much just logging miles aside from Thursday's workout, which went pretty well. Still not running my 800s very fast, but I got my legs turned over for the 400s and 200s like I was hoping to. Of course, all that speed really trashed my legs for the next day, but I was able to work through that. As we get closer and closer to Penn, it's about that time to start dropping mileage. April Miles : 172 | 88 |
| Saturday | Fresh Pond. I got out the door around 8:30 this morning in order to get the run in before the meet at MIT. I kept things pretty easy the whole time, around 7:00 pace at the Pond and maybe a little bit quicker on the way home. Feeling a lot better than I was yesterday, and the weather was pretty decent. | 12 |
| Friday PM | Science. Just a quick little five miler, not moving too fast on this one. The weather wasn't as bad as yesterday and my legs were a lot looser than this morning. Added on a couple of strides afterwards, trying to loosen my legs up a little bit more. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Fake Jamaica. I was sore and achy in about 100 different places at the start of this run, maybe I'm getting too old for the "speed" work on the track. The worst spot was on the upper outside of my left calf, just below my knee. That was really sore and took about 2M to get loosened up. Pretty late start this morning, but I'm far enough ahead on the mileage that a bit shorter run won't be a problem. I never really got to feeling good, but I felt less awful as the run went on, which is all I was really hoping for. As bad as it was this morning, it would have been worse had I not run, sometimes you just have force things to get them loosened up. No strides after this one, though, I think my legs might have fallen of had I tried to run fast. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | 2x800 6x400 6x200. 2:18, 2:21; 65, 66, 64, 65, 65, 66; 29, 30, 30, 30, 30, 30. Standard rest of 200m, 100m, across the field and 400m between all the sets. I stayed at the lab until 6pm or so and then headed over to Johnson to change and get started. In the spirit of getting ready for a late evening race I was trying to get started with the workout later than normal. I think the worst of the storm was finishing up on my walk over, because by the time I started my warmup at 6:20 it wasn't raining too badly anymore. I did the usual 2M loop and then stopped back in the lockerroom to pick up my gloves since it was a little colder than I was expecting. I stretched out underneath the overhang outside Johnson for a few minutes then started strides. I had been feeling a bit rundown during the day but after a few strides I was feeling fast and ready to get rolling. I took off the jacket and was wearing just tshirt, shorts and gloves at the start. I got out really well, coming through the first 200m in 32.5 but then worried about going out too hard and backed off, hitting 400m in 68. But I backed off too much and only managed 2:18. I wasn't able to get out as well on the next interval, running 34-69-2:21. I was pretty frustrated with that effort, I don't know why I haven't been able to run good 800s recently. I took the 400m rest and cleared my head to get ready for the meat of the workout, the 400s. I got off to a good start on the first one, coming through in 31-high and then slowed a bit too much on the second half. The wind was blowing east to west again, which is really strange and the opposite of how it normally blows, so it was in my face down the homestretch. I didn't get out nearly as well on the next one, coming through in 33 but then really hammered the second 200 and was 66 for the interval. My shirt was getting annoying, just wet, heavy and chafing my nipples, so I took it off after the second 400m and ran the rest of the workout shirtless. Dropping that weight had a big affect on the next interval, I got out in 31-high and held on well for a 64.5. It felt really good to run that hard and that fast, I haven't done that in a long time. The next two intervals both went well, I got out in 31-high to 32 only the wind was worse on the homestretch and I hit 64.97 and 65.02. I lost focus at the end of the sixth quarter, the last 100m I was thinking about which way to run the 200s. I took my time on the lap rest and was feeling pretty good when I got back to the line. I ran the 200s finishing on the backstretch so I wouldn't have to deal with the wind and put together a pretty good set. The first one was a solid 29.8 running hard the whole way. The second I slowed about 5m from the line and was 29.99 (seriously.) The final four were all solid 30s, I got out well and then started tying up as I got to the finish. Where I started tying up got further and further from the finish as the intervals went on, but that's to be expected. I put my shirt and jacket back on and cooled down with just the 2M loop again. I came back to the track for a few strides but my ankle was hurting a little bit so I didn't run too many or too hard. I stretched out in a corner of Rockwell for a few minutes before heading home just in time to catch The Office and make some dinner. I was pretty happy with how the workout went, I would have liked to run 2:14-2:16 for those 8s but I haven't done that in a long time. I don't know why I'm getting so cautious on those, I'm always backing off too soon. But they served their purpose in getting me tired for the 4s and 2s, which were the real focus of the workout. I made all the travel arrangements for Penn this morning, so there's no going back now that I have a flight and hotel booked. | 7 |
| Thursday AM | Orange Line. Just an easy 4 miles, getting the legs loosened up before tonight's workout. Snuck this one in before the rains came. I ran the loop in reverse this morning, and saw the Kenyan athletes getting on their bus to Hopkinton as I ran past the BAA offices. Looks like the weather could make tonight's workout tough, hopefully the worst of it passes before I get started. | 4 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line. I ate an early dinner and got out for this one at 9pm in the middle of the Sox game. I felt decent for the first 2M or so, but my legs started getting really tired as I headed home along the Comm Ave mall. I finished up with some strides on Clearway and those felt a little bit quicker than they have been lately. I'm trying to get used to running later in the day since the 5k at Penn is at 9:45pm. I think I've still got some work to do since I was yawning in the middle of strides tonight. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Docks. A little bit later start this morning but not a big crowd to deal with by South Station. The run was pretty enjoyable, I'm feeling a little bit better and the weather's getting slightly nicer. After crossing Longfellow my legs did start to tighten up a bit, I just eased back and coasted home across the Mass Ave bridge. No strides this morning, I'll have to tack them on tonight. | 9 |
| Tuesday | Arboretum. I was going to get a late start this morning, so I decided to just start working and I pushed the run back to the afternoon. Things worked out pretty well, I got to see some of the home opener for the Sox and I put in the 14M I wasn't able to on Sunday. I was running a little bit quicker at the start than usual, I made it to the Arborteum in 32 and change, but then I just ran the usual pace, low 30 in the Arboretum and about 31 on the way back. I took Westland home from the Fens so that I'd wind up in front of the Church for some strides. Didn't feel too fast, but at least I got my legs moving. | 14 |
| Monday PM | Science. I felt okay for the first half of this afternoon's run, but then my legs just started leaving me. By the time I got back to Mass Ave I was really dragging and just wanted to get the run over with. I had been thinking about working out tomorrow, but that's going to get pushed back a bit until I'm feeling more recovered. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. I was still a little tired so I figured the trails would be a good way to help my legs recover a bit more. I was running pretty easily (slowly) the whole time and just trying to get loosened up. My ankle is just kind of holding steady, sometimes it bothers me, sometimes it doesn't. Pretty boring run. | 9 |
| Sunday | Arboretum cut short. A real waste of a day. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon sitting around watching TV and snacking and by the time I finally got out the door at 3pm my stomach was pretty screwed up. I wasn't feeling the greatest to begin with so things were slow on the way out to Arboretum and my stomach was giving me problems already. I got to the Arboretum and decided it would be best to turn around early since there aren't any Port-A-Johns on the way back. Turned out to be a good decision since I was really suffering the last 20 minutes of the run. Pretty disappointing, slow and short Sunday run. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 16 4/1-4/7 |
April Miles : 84 | 84 |
| Saturday | Todd's Trot 5k in 15:21. I picked up Fivos a little after 7:30am and we headed up to Durham, NH for today's race. We had enough time to pick up numbers, hit the john, tape up and sit around for a few minutes before heading out for the warmup. We ran the end of the course backwards for the usual 7:00ish out and back warmup. I was feeling decent but not too excited about the hill in the final half mile. We had a spot in the cafeteria to stretch out and stay warm, temps were in the mid 30s so I just wore the singlet but I learned my lesson at the US 8k and wore gloves, too. I was able to put in a few strides and my ankle wasn't hurting at all so I was expecting a good run today. I got away fast at the start and at the first turn, 200m in I had a lead that I would hold the rest of the way. My legs got a little tired just 600m in, which was worrisome, but I managed to relax and kept pushing. I hit the first mile in 4:50 and tried to speed up but was just 4:56 at the next mile. The course went straight into a hill after 2M and by that point I was just trying to get to the finish. The last 1000m or so is a big downhill then uphill then 400-600m flat to the finish. I didn't hammer the downhill as well as I should have and I relaxed too much climbing back up, I even started thinking about how far I needed to cool down to get my mileage right. I sped up at the top of the hill and kicked through the line pretty well, but was disappointed that I only managed a 15:21 this morning. The course was a lot hillier than I had hoped for, I definitely was not able to climb well at all today. Fivos and I cooled down for about 40 minutes out on the course and then finished up with some strides in the parking lot. Not quite the fast time I was hoping for, but it was a decent effort. I had been planning on getting out for a short run in the afternoon, but once I got home I decided that was the definition of junk mileage and there's no reason to tack on extra mileage for the sake of mileage when Penn is less than 3 weeks away. | 10 |
| Friday PM | Science Museum. I didn't get out the door until 7pm today, managed to waste an hour after getting home from the lab. I was feeling pretty good and the run went by fairly quickly. I rushed through strides on Clearway because I needed to take a leak. I felt like I was running pretty fast, but my ankle got tight and painful after the third. I think that slowing down after the stride was a bit too jarring. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Fake Jamaica. I didn't get up until 7am and managed to waste 45 minutes before starting this one. 26 degrees at 7am and only a few degrees warmer when I got started. I thought the hat and gloves had been put away for good, guess I was wrong. My legs were feeling decent and the weather wasn't really a big deal, so all in all this morning was pretty good. I kept things easy and stuck to the dirt paths the whole way. Coming back past Simmons my ankle tightened up and got painful for a few strides, I stopped to roll it and walked a little ways before starting up again. I decided to skip strides since pushing off seems to aggravate it. Guess I should have iced last night. | 7 |
| Thursday | Fresh Pond. I didn't feel like getting out the door this morning in the 33 degree weather. I worked from home today and then walked to the Back Bay Station for her train to NYC for the weekend. I got out the door at 6:30 and temps had climbed to 39 degrees. Penn is 3 weeks away and the race is at 9:30pm, so I'm trying to do some runs later at night so that the race isn't a total shock to the body. My legs were feeling pretty good, I doubt that I was running very fast though. No watch on this one so I don't really know, but I was relaxed and just trying to find a groove. Didn't put in any strides afterwards though, it was straight to the john for me. I stretched out during The Office and then ate some Progresso Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for dinner. | 12 |
| Wednesday | 6x800, 4x400. 2:22, 2:20, 2:20, 2:20, 2:18, 2:22; 66, 66, 67, 66. I took the usual rest of 200m between 8s, 100m between 4s and 400m between sets. I started the usual 2M warmup over to MIT at 7:45 this morning and was feeling pretty good on the way over there. I stretched out for a bit and then ran some strides to get ready and gradually started feeling worse. There was a bit of a wind in the opposite direction, into your face on the homestretch, but nothing significant. I felt like I got out hard but only came through in 34-high and then was 71 at 400m. I started getting tired around 600m and did my best to get to the line running hard but only hit 2:21.95. The next interval I got out better, came through in 34-70 and felt like I was in better shape. I couldn't get going any faster though, and managed just 2:20. I took off the longsleeve shirt in an attempt to get going faster, and even though I felt quicker the times didn't change. Numbers three and four were pretty much the same, out in 33-high to 34, then 70 at 400m and 1:45 at 600. After the fourth I started to realize that finishing into the wind wasn't letting me close quickly so I needed to really sell out from 400m to 600m. I got out in 35-mid and was 69 at the 400 and then really hammered to get to 600m in 1:43 before struggling home down the final straight. I managed to put up a 2:18 though, which isn't a very fast time but took a lot of effort. I was prepared to run the final 800 the same way but never got into, I was 35-71 and then put up another 71 to finish things off with a disappointing 2:22. And this wasn't 2:21-high that got rounded up, it was a legitimate 2:22. I shook that off and took my 400m rest (3:00 of slow jogging) and then tried to salvage things with some good 400s. I was hoping to run 31-32 for the first 200m and then force my way through the wind to a 65. I got out in just 33, however, and thankfully the wind wasn't bad and I managed to put up a 66. I was out better on the second one, 32-mid but the wind was a lot worse, especially over the final 50m. Or I was just more tired and it seemed worse, who knows. I was 32-mid again on the third but my legs locked up and I slowed coming to the line and hit 66.97, which gets rounded up. By this time my legs were getting pretty tired and I was shuffling through the rest, just trying to finish the workout. I was just 33-mid at 200m but found some strength and hammered through the line in 66-mid. Not quite what I wanted for this morning, I had visions of 2:14-2:16 and 64s, and there are probably many reasons why I didn't hit those times. I wasn't all that cautious this morning, I was running hard at near my limit for almost the whole workout, my limit just wasn't very fast this morning. Even though I was running hard, I didn't feel like I had any speed today. I've gotten away from strides for the past week or so, mainly because the ankle has given me a good excuse not to run them. Today should really hammer that point home, I need to be running strides all the time now, whatever speed I have leaves me too quickly without them. I jogged 2M home pretty slowly and then ran strides in front of the Church, with one full speed one where I felt pretty decent. My ankle wasn't a big deal today, except that I could feel it for the first few steps of every interval, pushing off at the start tweaks it a little bit. I felt it once or twice during the strides, mainly just on the uneven grass in front of the Church. Adequate workout today, good effort even though the times weren't there and I discovered something to work on over the next few weeks. From here the workouts only get shorter and (ideally) faster. | 8 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. Just a nice and easy four banger to finish off a good day of mileage. My stomach was pretty uncomfortable throughout, but my legs felt fine and my ankle didn't bother me. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Reservoir. I headed out to BC this morning, feeling decent but not running very hard. Nothing special about this one, didn't have many ankle issues but I iced it down while eating breakfast afterwards. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line backwards. It was still low 40s and raining and I did not feel like running across the bridge. I dropped some mail off at Boylston and then headed up the Comm Ave mall to the Common. My ankle was a little bit painful at times, but hopefully some diligent icing tonight will take care of this. Finished with a pickup in front of the Church, I wasn't up on my toes very much but felt like I had some decent speed. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. I got a late start this morning and opted for a little bit of a shorter run. I slept a solid 8 hours last night, I was tired from walking around to see open houses in Charlestown yesterday. I started out pretty quick, my legs were feeling good so I wasn't really pushing at all, I just naturally found a little bit of a quicker pace than I normally run. I think staying on the dirt was a good idea yeseterday, my ankle is feeling a bit better. Going around the Pond I started to slow down a little bit as my legs got increasingly tired. When I got home my legs were pretty sore and I was regretting not stretching out so well the past few days. I made a better effort to stretch out and hopefully will be feeling looser in the afternoon. | 9 |
| Sunday | Arboretum. I didn't leave until 8:45 and had to get back quickly in order to make it to brunch at 10:30 with my parents. I was planning on running harder than I normally do on Sundays, but I wanted to build into it. However, I really started moving as soon as I hit the sidewalk and kept things more or less around 6:30s, if not faster, the whole way. I took the usual route through the Fens-Riverway and past Jamaica, which was nice because I got to stay on trails more or less the whole way which can only help my ankle. I didn't really feel it much throughout the run, but I had to rush so much once I got home that I didn't get an opportunity to ice it. I felt alright throughout the run, especially given the workout I ran yesterday. Climbing the hills in the Arboretum really took it out of my legs and I was much more tired leaving the Arboretum than I was when I entered. I was a bit quicker than normal, 32 and change on the way there, 29 something for the usual route and just over 30 minutes on the way home. | 14 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 15 3/25-3/31 |
A pretty good week, backed off a bit on the mileage but was mostly consistent. Sunday's long run was just a slow and steady one, I'm not really looking to hammer those anymore. I did run two workouts this week though, and they both went pretty well. Wednesday's workout was a bit lighter than planned due to having to pit under green a green flag, but I came back with two solid miles to salvage things. I felt really good on Saturday morning and ran the last big workout before Penn really well. I hit all the times I was shooting for with just a little bit of error, averaged just a few tenths over pace per lap. March Miles : 413 | 90 |
| Saturday | Dellinger, 10:25(5:12/5:14)-10:10(5:05/5:05)-9:54(4:58/4:56), total time of 30:30 for 6M. I slept about nine hours last night and after a breakfast of Cherrios and some sitting around I headed over to MIT's track for a workout this morning. The plan was a more conservative 78-76-74, since the last one didn't go so well and right now I'd rather run a bit slower and feel good. I did the usual 14:00 warm-up but when I got to the track it seemed like the infield was set up for a lacrosse game, plus I saw Coach Alessi walking to Johnson, so I figured I should get started quickly to avoid any problems. I had temps in the low 40s for this one, much more hospitiable than single digits, and was running comfortably in tshirt and gloves. I got out in 38-77-2:35 and then basically ran 77-78s the whole rest of the way. Glancing at my watch I was 5:11 high at the first mile and then slowed down a little bit on the second mile. I saw 10:24 when I came through and was still feeling really good. I kicked the pace down to 38, actually a bit under, and was feeling great. It seems like this workout goes well when I'm able to get on pace early, as in the first 200m, and then just keep it rolling. The third and fourth miles went by quickly, more or less on pace the whole way and I ran back to back 5:05s. I hit 5k in 16:08 I think, but by this time the facilities guys had started setting up for the game and had a golf cart or two parked on the backstretch. It wasn't a big deal, I just had to swing out to lane three or four, and after a few laps they left and the track was all mine again. I hit 4M feeling tired, not sure whether or not I'd be able to hold 74s, I managed to get started right away, coming through in 36-mid and then just took things one lap at a time. I thought I saw 4:56 coming through the fifth mile and just did my best to keep my legs moving and not think. The facilities guys were back and setting up tables right in lane one, but this time there was enough room to really hug the line on the backstretch and essentially run where the rail would normally be. I was slipping a little bit behind pace and my legs were really getting tired but I hit 800m to go and started feeling the finish. Once I knew I'd be able to get there without falling apart I was able to hammer a little bit more without worrying. Of course, my legs were tying up and I didn't feel like I was running that fast anymore, I was just trying to get around the track and hold it together. I was 3:43 at 1200m and 4:19 at 1400m and did my best to get my legs turned over to the finish. I saw 4:55 on my watch and was really happy with how this workout went. I had thrown down my gloves and the watch at the finish, so I did the mental math with the times I thought I had run and figured I was 30:24 for 6M. Checking the actual times slowed me down a bit though. I was 10:24.95 for the first 2M, which gets rounded up, my fifth mile was 4:58 not 4:56 and I finished with a 4:55.93, which also gets rounded up. Still, it was 6M in 30:30 with a 15:36 or so for the last 5k. I would have been around 31:45 for 10k had I kept going, which would have been a PR solo in trainers, but I don't know if that says more about the effort or my PR. Either way, I was toast for a few minutes, but after some walking around I was able to start cooling down towards Science and really started feeling better. This was a good workout which really got me working but at the same time didn't completely bankrupt me. As I was shuffling along by the river I was already thinking about what's next, I always enjoy the workouts that leave you wanting more. Of course, the cooldown was hell on square wheels, never very fast and by the time I got home I was starving and ate 2/3 of a bell pepper then some oatmeal and raisins. On the warmup I felt my ankle a little bit but was pretty sure it wouldn't bother me during the workout. I completely forgot about it until the cooldown when I felt a few twinges. I iced it down when I got home and it didn't feel too bad. | 12 |
| Friday | Fresh Pond. I was up pretty late last night and slept in a little bit more to compensate. I was feeling pretty run down this morning, so I just ate breakfast and headed in to the lab. I came home a little after 5pm and had to get out the door in a hurry to squeeze this one in before going to dinner with my parents. I felt decent out there, I wasn't dragging ass at all but I wasn't lighting things up either. My ankle wasn't a big deal, it only hurt if I'd stretch it too much, like stepping on a curb the wrong way or surging to get across the street. I didn't have time to run strides when I got home, but I stretched out briefly and then gave myself an ice massage. Things are still looking good for the workout tomorrow, hopefully it won't be too windy. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Reservoir. I met up with Sean and Fivos this afternoon and we headed out to BC for a nice and easy ten miler. I am getting kind of sick of running with the Cypriot, but it was an otherwise enjoyable run. Climbing Summit was harder than I would have liked, but we cruised the rest of the way and aside from a pit stop at the baseball diamond things were smooth. We finished up on the track and ran some strides, but on the very first one my right ankle popped or did something and tightened up almost immediately. I ran another couple of strides but none of them were very fast, I wasn't feeling very quick to begin with and was afraid of screwing up the ankle even more. I did some light stretching and tried to loosen it up a bit more, but wound up going back to the lab and stayed there until 10pm, so I didn't have a chance to ice at all. My ankle didn't bother me at all walking around though, I actually forgot about it the rest of the night. | 10 |
| Thursday AM | Orange Line. I had a meeting early this morning and didn't have enough time to get in the usual morning mileage. I just put in a quick four miler, feeling decent and will get the rest of the mileage tonight. | 4 |
| Wednesday | BAA Workout at Reggie. 2x(2x1600) in 4:46, 4:52; 4:43, 4:44. There was a big group of marathoners who showed up today to run 5x1600m and I was planning on going 3x16, 4x8. I warmed up over to Reggie and spent some time stretching then ran some strides. I settled in behind Casey and Pat on the first interval and came around in 71-2:23-3:35 and then backed off slightly as Casey and Pat kept hammering. I was being a little bit cautious and didn't want to overextend myself today, just wanted a solid workout at an even pace. I got out slow on the next mile and ran into a guy who was playing soccer and came onto the track. I was 73-2:26 and did my best not to slow down, but couldn't get moving and my stomach really started acting up. I had to run to the bathroom right after crossing the line, I guess eating Ethiopian food for lunch wasn't a great move. I missed the third interval completely and decided to just run 2 sets of 2x16. I was feeling 100% better and my legs were a lot fresher. I settled in right behind Casey and Pat and we came through in 70-2:21. I took the lead at 800m and felt like I was slowing us down so I kept hammering and we came through in 3:31 then Casey and Pat went around and pulled away slightly. I was right with them at 1400m but tied up a little bit over the last lap and didn't try to push through it. There was a big pack chomping at our heels on the last one, Pat (I think) led us through in 71 and looked like he was tying up so I went to the front and led the next 800. A lot of guys went past on the final 400, I was just trying to keep things together and get to the finish. All together today was a good workout, I got in some good times without working too hard. Pat and I shuffled around the outside of the track for 20+ minutes just chatting. We really weren't running fast at all and actually got lapped by Terry and Casey. I finished the evening off running easily back home and after some stretching and a shower hit Roads again for beer and free pizza. | 11 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line backwards. The usual stuff, not running too fast, just covering ground. It supposedly got up to 60 degrees today, but by the time I got out there it had cooled off a bit. I finished the run off with a pickup down Mass Ave but didn't run any strides today. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Jamaica. I got a bit of a late start to this one, didn't get going until 8am. I stuck on the trails the whole way, which I've been looking forward to for awhile. Feeling decent, but I was rushing a little bit because of the late start. In any event, things finished up just fine, about 59 minutes for the route. | 9 |
| Monday PM | Started out Orange Line, caught up to Fivos and wound around Back Bay. I took off at about 6pm for just an easy trip to the Common. On Stuart Street where the Post Office used to be I noticed Fivos up ahead so I hammered for two blocks to catch up to him. I caught him right as he turned onto Arlington, so I ran down Newbury with him and then took Mass Ave to Beacon. It was a little cold and raining so I didn't feel like crossing the bridge when I'd just come back over right away, so we parted ways at Beacon. I didn't have a watch with me, I had to just guess at how to make it 4M, so I took Beacon to Dartmouth and then Dartmouth up to Huntington. I finished up at the Christian Science Plaza at ran some strides on Clearway. I was feeling really good on strides today, energetic and full of turnover. Measuring the route afterwards it came out to 3.8M, pretty good for coming up with the route on the fly. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Docks with Fivos. I met up with the Cypriot at Mem Drive and Mass Ave at 7:30 this morning and we headed down to Longfellow for a nice and easy nine miler. I wasn't feeling that great, we kept things slow and conversational the whole way. Nothing special this morning, I picked things up slightly after turning on Comm Ave, but that was basically just for the pickup down Clearway. | 9 |
| Sunday | Johnny Kelly. I got started at 9am and just took Comm Ave out to the Reservoir and picked up the marathon route. My legs were feeling decent this morning but I could tell I wasn't running that fast. The course was really crowded this morning and from BC to the statue I was passing people with just about every step. It took some restraint to keep from just hammering things, especially on the downhills, but I managed to keep things nice and easy the whole way. I made the turn at 52:00, which was slower than I was expecting, and made it back in about 49 and change. Really nice morning, felt great out there. | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 14 3/18-3/24 |
I was pretty happy with how this week went. The race on Sunday was clearly the focus and I can't complain about how it went. It would have been nice to dip under 24:00, but given all the circumstances I think running 24:04 was a pretty good time. I really didn't feel very sore the next few days which let me run the workout at Reggie on Wednesday. Despite basically doing it solo it went pretty well, the first good workout start to finish that I've run in awhile. Only putting in 93M allows for a lot more wiggle room, I had a 9M day and two 12M days and was comfortably in the 90s. A couple more weeks of work and then it's time to taper. March Miles : 323 | 93 |
| Saturday | Arboretum. I slept in this morning and didn't start the run until 12:30. I was able to take the usual route through the Fens and the Riverway without any issues. Glad to have nice weather finally, the trails are all pretty clear. I was feeling a lot better than yesterday but I still wasn't running very fast. 34:00 to the Arboretum, 31 and change inside and then 33:00 back. I ran a couple of strides when I got back, hopefully things start turning around. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Fresh Pond with Sean and Fivos. Felt like hell on square wheels today, we got started a few minutes after 4pm (since Fivos was late) and just never was feeling it. By the time we hit the Pond I was really dragging and glad I had Fivos and Sean pulling me through. I had the half mile at roughly 3:40, which isn't too hard to believe, and we wound up running just over 70 for the loop. I ran some "strides" on the track but felt entirely discombobulated and awkward. | 10 |
| Friday AM | Science. I did a good job of wasting time this morning and decided to cut my losses and just go 5M, get to the lab somewhat on time and run longer in the afternoon. Once I got out the door I was feeling fine and wished I had gotten started earlier. | 5 |
| Thursday | Jamaica with Fivos. I met up with Fivos at Beacon and Mass Ave just after 7:30 this morning (I was late, as usual) and we headed up Comm Ave to pick up the old Jamaica route. Things were pretty slow and easy the whole way this morning. Nothing very remarkable happened, we just put in the usual mileage and had to stick to the paths as there was still some ice/snow/puddles on the trails. Not too sore from yesterday's workout surprisingly. We ran back down Comm Ave to Beacon and Mass and by that time I was needing to hit the head, so I stopped at Newbury and ran strides the rest of the way back home. Wound up just over an hour before stopping. I got home from the lab a little late and after running errands I was too tired and hungry to get out the door at 7pm. | 9 |
| Wednesday | BAA Workout at Reggie. 3x(1000-1600-400) in 2:57, 4:48, 66; 2:56, 4:49, 67; 2:55, 4:46, 64. I was a bit tired this morning so I skipped the shakeout run and hoped I'd feel better in the afternoon. I warmed up over to Reggie at 6pm and spent about 10 minutes stretching once I got there waiting for MP to arrive. I ran to the bathroom and then didn't have time for many strides before getting into this one. There was a small group to begin with and a few of the marathoners decided to run 4x2M, so it was just Levi and myself for this one. I got out slow to start things off, coming through in 37 but then dropped down to 35s the rest of the way. The next interval I got out a little hard, coming through in 35, then backed off and hit 72, 2:24 and 3:36. I was feeling surprisingly good, last week it took a much greater effort to just run 4:52, tonight I was cruising along at 36 and feeling good. The 400 was fast without blowing things up too much, a nice even 33/33 effort. We had just 2:30 between sets, which was a lot shorter than I was expecting but turned out to be enough time to let my legs recover from the speed of the 400. Levi lead the thousand and brought us through in 34 and then more or less evened out at 35s. I lead the mile running fairly even 36s but the fractions added up to push us just over 4:48. The 400 was more or less the same as the first, only I tied up more on the second lap and didn't want to hammer too much. I was feeling really good still and the workout was going well, I just tried to not overthink things going into the last set. I ran straight 35s to a 2:55, even though I was trying to speed up over the final quarter. The mile was 72/2:24 and then I was feeling good and started speeding up. I came through 1200 in 3:24 but then started getting a stomach cramp and slowed back down to a 72, not feeling all that great. I got out pretty hard on the last 400, chasing after some guys who were running a 200, coming through in 31.4 and then tying up for a second lap of 33. I was really happy with how tonight's workout went, I was feeling really comfortable the whole way through and there wasn't any of Sunday's race left in my legs. It's some combination of lower mileage (last week was just 81M,) no morning run and being more disciplined with running strides. I talked things over with Pieroni after the workout and we agreed that getting the mileage back up over 100M isn't the best option, I'll be holding steady in my sweet spot of 90-95M for the next month or so. I cooled down about 3M along some loop through the Longwood area with Ryan Cararra, Justin Lutz, Matt Ely and Levi, then turned off when we got back to Tremont. No strides tonight, just a singular pickup in front of the church. I stretched out and showered before heading down to Roads for beer and free pizza. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Castle-Bunker Hill-Docks with Fivos. I ran over to campus just after 4pm and like normal I was late in meeting Fivos. We discussed routes for a few minutes before settling on this one. We kept things really easy the whole way, nice and relaxed and just talking. Heading towards the Docks my legs were getting tired and I thought about cutting the run short. I eventually decided to just push on, this isn't the time to make compromises. I ran a couple of strides on Clearway but nothing very quick. | 12 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line. I did a good job of wasting time this morning and it was 8:30am before I knew it. I opted to just put in a short run this morning and hopefully Fivos or Sean will be up for something longer this afternoon. My legs are still feeling pretty good, the weather was nice and I was wishing I had gotten out for a longer run. I finished the run with a pickup down Clearway and ended just after 9am. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Science. I felt decently good this afternoon, the weather was a bit warmer and I quickly got too hot in hat and gloves. I was content to just put in mileage but after crossing at Science a woman popped up on the Esplanade running pretty quick. I knew I probably should have let it be, but I couldn't and picked it up to get ahead of her. I didn't have to run that fast, maybe 6:30s, just quicker than I normally would have. My legs didn't appreciate the extra effort, though, but I held the pace the rest of the way. I finished up with a few strides on Clearway, which really helped to loosen up my legs. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I was originally thinking Fresh Pond this morning for something a bit longer, but decided that it was better to wait a few days on that and give the path a chance to clear up. I did my standard ten miler this morning and was feeling a lot better than expected. My calves were pretty sore after the race, I actually was afraid they were going to cramp up as I was cooling down with Nick, but I guess 8 good hours of sleep were all that I needed. The footing was pretty good the whole way, the sidewalks had basically all been shoveled. I kept everything easy this morning, although I did pick things up at the very end because I had needed to take a leak since Castle. No strides this morning, so I'll be sure to get some in this afternoon. | 10 |
| Sunday | US 8k Champs in Central Park. 26th place in 24:04. I woke up at 5:45 this morning and spent an hour or so eating breakfast and reading in the bathroom so I wouldn't wake up Kathryn. We got on the bus to Central Park at 7:15 and got to Tavern on the Green just before 8am. The gun was at 9am so I had plenty of time, I thought, and stood in line for the bathroom before remember I still had to pin on my number, all four of them (front, back, both hips,) which took a while, and then I had to get the chips on my shoes and was barely able to get all that done before heading out for a lap of the course at 8:15. I didn't have much time to stretch out in the holding room before having to lace up my flats and get ushered outside. I took my time getting into the strides since we had 15 minutes to the gun and I didn't want to get ready too soon. I got off the line well, tucked in, made a move just before the mile, came through in 4:42 then backed off too much. I was 9:36 at 2M then hooked up with Leo Kormanik for the next mile. I was 14:54 at 5k and then ran the final 3k solo unable to close the gap to the guy ahead of me. My hands were pretty cold at the end, but other than that I was feeling fine, took my time getting out for a 5M cooldown with Nick End (who would have been under 25:00 were it not for being tripped by Fernando Cabada.) Decently satisfied with today's race, I ran pretty hard but would have liked to duck under 24:00. I was pretty wiped out at the start of the drive home, but managed a short nap before lunch and then was feeling alright for my shift. It's a lot easier to drive when the highway isn't covered in an inch or two of snow. | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 13 3/11-3/17 |
Kind of an anticlimatic week as everything was building up to Saturday's race and then gets postponed a day. I scaled back the Sunday run to keep my legs a little fresher, even though this was the first really nice weather on a Sunday in a few months. I kept everything else normal until Wednesday, didn't really cut back on mileage that much at all. Tuesday's workout was pretty decent, the times weren't horrible and I was working hard, but I didn't come away from it satisfied. I feel like recently I haven't been working out as hard as I'm accustomed to, and then my mind starts thinking that I'm getting soft or getting old and losing desire. But really, I think it's just hard to run good (aka fast) workouts in the middle of 100+ mile weeks. That's probably why I'm able to run solid long tempos but can't get under 2:18 for an 800 with a gun to my head. Every year at the start of cross Coach Taylor would explain to us that when running long, mainly slow mileage you need to run strides to continually recruit fast twitch muscle fibers. I've started heeding that advice again and managed to put in strides at the end of at least one run every day this week. Hopefully that will not only give me a bit of extra speed for the 8k on Sunday but give my legs a little something extra in workouts. After Tuesday's workout it was all easy mileage, Wednesday wound up being a little shorter than planned, but I made that up on Thursday and didn't completely sell out on this week's mileage. My plan was to keep things around 90M, not cutting back too drastically, and that's probably where I would have ended up were it not for the race being delayed a day. Yet another reason why numbers alone don't mean much. Really though, this week went well just because nothing serious happened during the drive down to NYC in the middle of a snowstorm. March Miles : 230 | 81 |
| Saturday | Central Park. I woke up at 6:30 after a decent 6 hours of sleep and was ready to get some breakfast when I heard from Mike Pieroni that the race was postponed until Sunday due to the conditions in Central Park. I tried to go back to bed for a little bit but I was too wired and couldn't fall asleep. I got up and walked around outside a bit, where I bumped into Terry finishing up his 12M run who told me about an athlete's meeting at 9am. They told us then that the course had been changed to a a 1.7M loop we'd run almost 3 times, from the 72nd Street Transverse down to the end of the Park and back up. Around 11am I headed out for my run, it was about 2M to the Transverse so I got there and ran the loop once, the footing was pretty good the whole way around and I feel like we probably could have gotten the race in this afternoon. The roads were basically clear with some big puddles, but everything that I assume used to be snow and ice was now just slush. I ran back up to the 90th Street entrance and did strides there on some clear asphalt before jogging back to the hotel easy and stretching out in the gym. I was feeling really good today and wish we could have raced, but hopefully everything will be clear and ice free tomorrow morning. | 6 |
| Friday | Short Jamaica. I got started around 8:30 this morning and headed out on the usual Fens-Riverway trails. Instead of going around Jamaica I just turned around at that small pond across the street and headed back home. I wasn't feeling as great as I did yesterday, my legs were a little bit off this morning. I got through the run without a problem, though, and finished up with the usual pre-meet strides in front of the Church. The grass strip is still pretty soggy and too uneven to really run fast on, so I ran the full speed ones on the sidewalk and the slower ones on the grass. Hopefully they'll get FieldTurf installed for me soon. By the end of strides I was feeling good again, had a little bit of an edge back. I spent most of the rest of the day getting down to New York, the city so nice they named it twice (the other name is Manhattan.) It started snowing in Boston around 11am, Kathryn and I got on the Mass Pike just after 3pm and spent the next 9 hours slip sliding the 200+ miles down to NY. Pretty harrowing trip and very relieved to make it to the hotel in one piece just before midnight. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line. I got back from the lab around 6pm again and almost talked myself out of doubling. But I eventually convinced myself that I didn't want to drop mileage that drastically for this weekend's race and that I needed to run. Besides, Kathryn and I ordered Chinese tonight, so putting in a quick four bomb was probably better than just sitting on the couch waiting for the delivery. I was still feeling really good, floating along pretty easily, and finished with a single hard effort down Clearway. Quan's Kitchen was really efficient tonight and by the time I got back upstairs my sesame chicken was been waiting for me. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Docks. I got started around 7:45 originally thinking I'd go out to Fresh Pond and just run once today. But going across the bridge I decided it was a little too late in the morning to try and shoehorn in 12M, so I headed down to Longfellow and just ran Docks, planning to put in another 4M this evening. I was feeling awesome the whole way, my legs were really fresh, not tired at all, and I was getting really excited about this weekend's race. I kept the pace under control though, no point in wasting anything today. I did build into a pretty fast finish from Belvidere back to the apartment. Feeling good. | 9 |
| Wednesday | Jamaica. I put in an easy nine on the muddy trails out to and around Jamaica Pond this morning. I was feeling pretty good, trying to run a little bit quicker to keep my legs loose after yesterday's workout. A lot of the soreness I was dealing with on the afternoon run yesterday was gone, thanks to a solid 8 hours of sleep last night. I finished up with some strides in front of the Church, starting to back off and sharpen slightly for this weekend. I was planning on putting in another 4M this afternoon but didn't get back from the lab until after 6pm, I was pretty tired and didn't think tacking on mileage would be a good idea. | 9 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line with Kathryn. I got home from the lab at 5:30 and after some cleaning up Kathryn and I headed out for an easy four miler just after 6pm. My calves were really sore from this morning and I was just generally tired and not looking forward to the run. Most of the run was fairly painful and not that enjoyable, but I eventually loosened up before the end. I ran a couple of strides on Clearway afterwards which will hopefully smoke some of the junk out of my legs. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | 2x(1600-800-800-400-400) in 4:52, 2:18, 19, 65, 67; 4:52, 2:19, 20, 66, 66. Standard 400m, 200m, 100m rest and 5:00 between sets. I did the usual warm up over to MIT just after 7:30 this morning and bumped into Terry Shea for the stretch along Mem Drive. Temps were in the low 40s without much of a breeze, pretty ideal for this time of year. I was hoping to run mid 4:40s, 2:15s and 65s, but just wasn't able to maintain a hard pace when my legs started tiring. I got off to a good start going out in 71-mid/2:24 but only managed a 2:28 for the second half. I got out hard through the first 200m of the 800, but started tiring, came through in 68 and finished in 2:18. The second one was more or less the same, except I lasted longer on the first lap and was 67-mid then slowed even worse to 2:19. I really hammered the first quarter and hit a solid 65 but then coasted too much on the next, afraid to get into debt, and was just 67. I took my time on the 5:00 break but was too cautious coming back and didn't really get into it until the second half, running 2:28/2:24. I felt like I was running hard on the first 800 but slowed after coming through in just 68 high. I tried to get psyched up for the next one but started thinking too much about the second lap and came through in just a 71. I was getting pretty frustrated that I wasn't running faster and that I was slowing too much as I got tired, so I did my best to stay focused and hammer both 400s really well. I got out well on the first one but tied up right after 200m and struggled back to the line. I didn't check my watch but the first 200m must have been pretty quick because I was really hurting over the final 100m. On the last interval I was able to get a little bit of the intensity back, came through 200m pretty well (no split) and continued to hammer around the curve and down the straight. Things actually got better after going around the curve, which might be what I'm missing, getting through the initial fatigue of without slowing. I crossed the line and took a few minutes to catch my breath before cooling down to Science Museum to finish off the morning. Long workout today, I got started just after 8:15 and didn't leave the track until 9:05. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Fresh Pond from campus with Fivos. I met Fivos in the lobby of Johnson at 5pm and we headed out to Fresh Pond for an easy run this afternoon. Jake ran with us for the first part but turned off on Brattle Street. The pace was slow and easy the whole way, just relaxed and chatting throughout. The path around the Pond is basically clear now, thanks to a couple days of nice weather now. Finished up on the outdoor track running strides and stretching with Fivos and Khatch. | 10 |
| Monday AM | Science. I wasted a lot of time this morning and didn't get going until after 8am. I decided to just run short and save the longer run for the afternoon. Nothing special this morning, didn't feel particularly good or bad, just put in some miles. | 5 |
| Sunday | Minuteman Trail. I got started today before 8:30am and temps were again in the low 40s and was pretty comfortable in tshirt and gloves. I was dragging from the start, I guess yesterday's workout took a lot more out of than I was expecting. I got to the start of the trail in 37:45 or so and then spent 43:40 minutes running out to the 3M mark and back, pretty much 7:15-7:30s but the last mile was around 7:00 since I was chasing a really slow bike rider. I struggled a little bit to get back home, just over 36 minutes after leaving the trail. Not the greatest of days, I was really feeling sore from yesterday's workout and just struggled through the whole thing. The plan for this week is to not back off too much, still run about 90M and only cut back significantly on Friday. I'm moving the workout up a day to Tuesday am right now I'm thinking 2x(1600-800-800-400-400). | 16 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 12 3/4-3/10 |
From a mileage standpoint this week went pretty well. Fivos and I put in a good seventeen miler to kick off the week, and followed that up with a nice brunch at SidPac. I did a good job of doubling all through the week, so the total wound up above 100M easily. Unfortunately, the week was dominated by the workout on Wednesday morning, which didn't go as well as I had wanted it to. I was too aggressive with the times I planned on hitting, and after the first two miles I was pretty well spent and barely made it through the next four miles without falling apart. The cold temps and wind didn't help anything, but I think more than that, I'm just not in shape to run 77-75-73. Saturday's workout went pretty well though, which reassured me that things are still going well overall. March Miles : 149 | 105 |
| Saturday | 10M tempo along the river. First 5M in 28:26, second 5M in 26:30. I waited until after 11am to let things warm up a bit and it was in the low 40s when I got started. I was a little cold in just a tshirt, but I knew once I started running hard I'd warm up. The plan for today was to put in 5M at a decent pace and then 5M quicker but not to blow the doors off. I was just hoping to get some work in and not just run the usual mileage between now and next weekend. I was pretty disciplined about not looking at the watch, I only checked at 0.5M, 1M, 5M and 5.5M. I started out and was feeling pretty comfortable, I hit 2:45 and then 5:37 and then just tried to maintain until the 5M turnaround. I thought I had slowed down a bit was pretty much right on 5:40s at 28:26. I turned around and was 2:42 at the first half mile and then just tried to run hard without hammering too much. I was feeling pretty good but kept thinking I was slowing down. I was good through 3.5M or so, but as I turned after Science and headed back to Mass Ave I wound up running straight into a pretty swift wind. I wound up working harder to run the same pace but didn't want to back off since things seemed to be going pretty well. I wound up at 26:30, so averaging just under 5:20s. I cooled down over Longfellow and back home along Charles Street. Today went a lot better than I was expecting, but I was pretty tired afterwards and wound up napping during halftime of the Wisconsin-Illinois game. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line plus a lap around the Common with Fivos. The Cypriot came by my apartment a little after 5:45 this afternoon, after putting in the first part of his 11M run. We headed up Mass Ave and took Orange Line to the Common. I felt like going a bit longer so we looped around the perimeter before picking up the usual route to the Visitor's Center. We had to surge to get across Charles St. before the light changed, but otherwise we were pretty relaxed today. Things always go much quicker when you're running with someone, we finished up at Clearway after 34 minutes where Fivos dropped me off and headed back to MIT. My legs are still feeling pretty good and I'm starting to really get excited about next weekend's race. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I took off around 7:30 this morning and was feeling decently okay. Temperatures are still pretty cold, but there's no wind which made things easier, and I can see the end of the tunnel, since tomorrow it jumps to the mid 40s and stays there. I kept this run pretty low-key, just covering ground and trying to keep my legs somewhat fresh. I'm planning on an uptempo run tomorrow and then a workout of some sort on Tuesday to get things ready for next weekend. I stayed on the roads going around the Reservoir, but I probably wouldn't have had a problem on the path down there though. Nothing special today, although I did see a good sized rat in front of BU. | 11 |
| Thursday PM | Science. I came home from the lab a little on the early side and walked over to the BAA offices to get a new pair of shoes and talk things over with MP. Everything's arranged for NYC next weekend and we've got a little plan for pre- and post-Penn set up. I took off for an easy five miler around 6pm and my legs were actually feeling pretty good. I didn't bother trying to brave the elements, wearing long pants and two long sleeve shirts, I just can't get psyched up to deal with the temperatures in the teens anymore. When it's supposed to be cold like in December and January I'm okay, but I'm ready for spring now. The run went pretty well, things are always better when your legs are feeling good. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. Temperatures were in the teens this morning, better than yesterday but still frustrating. It looks like the end is in sight, though, as Saturday is supposed to kick off a solid week of 50 degree temperatures. Classic Boston spring though, dangerously cold on Friday and then straight to 50 degrees on Saturday. My legs were feeling alright, just running easy and putting in miles. Trails appeared to still be iced over, so I stuck to the paved paths and things went okay. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | Orange Line. Wasn't as tired as I expected to be, but wasn't feeling all that great. Spent most of the run reminding myself that one workout, whether good or bad, doesn't affect the big picture that much, consistent hard work is much more important. Came home and finished off a day of overeating with two big hamburgers, at least I got some red meat in my system. | 4 |
| Wednesday AM | Dellinger, 10:25(5:15/5:10)-10:14(5:05/5:09)-10:14(5:07/5:07), total time of 30:53 for 6M. I left my apartment just before 7:30 and did the usual 2M warmup then met Fivos in Johnson. For some reason whenever I'm running this workout I get single digit temperatures, but this time I double gloved it and was thinking I'd be alright. I ran in shorts again, which wasn't such a big deal after a few laps. The plan today was 77-75-73 for the 2M segments, with Fivos running the first 4M with me. I led the first 800, but got us out in 40 through the first 200m and never really got on pace. Fivos took over at 2:36 (I think) and led the next 800. It was nice to have somebody to work with, I just wish I had gotten us started on even 77s. I tried to pick things up after the mile, but should have known things weren't going to work out too well. I was pushing way too hard and didn't feel at all in a groove like I did last time. Fivos and I alternated 800s through 2M, but when I dropped to 75 for the first lap of the next segment I felt a gap growing right away. At 800 I slipped back to 2:32 but was on my own. I floated back and forth between 75s and 77s through the rest of the 2M segment, but was generally closer to 77 than 75. It was hard to tell exactly how the pace was going as the double gloves didn't help much, my hands were still freezing. With 2M to go I wanted to just hold 75s and salvage what I could, but I wasn't able to get off the 77s, despite feeling like I was busting my ass. Once I finished up Fivos and I sat in the lobby of Johnson for a few minutes to warm up then headed down to Science for a cool down. Heading back to Mass Ave just after Longfellow I started getting really tired and by the time we got back to Mass Ave I was falling apart. I made it home and stretched out while chowing down on some Gummy Worms. I don't know what went wrong this morning, maybe the pace was too aggressive, maybe the weather was too bad, maybe last weekend is still in my legs, whatever it was it went south early and I couldn't get back into it. I didn't completely bail on the workout, I worked hard the whole 6M but wasn't there physically or mentally like I wanted to be. I had thought about pushing this back until this weekend when it's supposed to be nicer, but the 8k is 10 days away and I didn't want to run something this hard any closer to the race. I really have no idea what to expect next weekend, running mileage I'm feeling fit and think I can run a good race, but then I run a workout and can't maintain a hard pace for whatever reason. I'm not going to change much between now and then, though, and just hope that being in an actual race instead of a workout makes a difference. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. I actually felt really good tonight. Most nights when I run Orange Line it's pretty non-descript, but my legs were fresh and full of energy the whole way. I was thinking about the US 8k next weekend and getting pretty excited about it. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Docks. Friggin freezin' today. It was something like 6 degrees when I got up and not much warmer when I got started running. I went with the double long-sleeve and even double gloved it this morning. The actual temperature wasn't so bad, but the wind was blowing ridiculously hard. I felt decent the whole way today, and was pretty smart because I crossed the Mass Ave bridge with the wind at my back. Looks like waiting until tomorrow to run this week's workout was a good idea. | 9 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. Nothing much to see here, just standard shakeout, afternoon mileage. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I'm still feeling pretty good, my legs aren't too tired or sore from the big weekend. I was pretty groggy when I got up this morning and naturally took my time getting started. The run went by pretty quickly, the only interesting thing was coming down Commonwealth right at Clarendon a hawk took off from a tree overhead with a pigeon in its talons. | 10 |
| Sunday | Out and back along Comm Ave to the 18M mark with Fivos. I drove over to SidPac and met Fivos at 9:30 this morning. After a short discussion of possible routes we settled on Comm Ave to the marathon course and took off. The Cypriot came out in t-shirt and gloves and my pride wouldn't let me wear a long sleeve when he did that, but the weather warmed up as we were running and wearing just tshirt and gloves turned out to be a good move. I was feeling good, didn't have any lingering affects of yesterday's hard run, which was surprising. We tried to use the bathroom at the Newton Free Library, but they don't open until noon on Sundays, so we just pushed on along Commonwealth. I spotted a Port-A-John at a house that was undergoing some renovations, but decided I could wait until we turned around. We turned back at 59 minutes, just after Exeter, which I knew was the 18M mark thanks to yesterday. We had to turn off onto a side street where I'd spotted a second Port-A-John, but after that it was smooth sailing. We picked things up slightly on the way home and made it back in 55:00. After standing in line for 35 minutes at SidPac we got to enjoy a big brunch, which was the whole point of meeting up this morning to begin with. Not a bad way to spend the first half of the day. | 17 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 11 2/25-3/3 |
This was a pretty decent week, my highest mileage total in a long time. Sunday's long run didn't go quite so well because of crummy footing along the river, but I got in some easy miles and maybe not hammering was a good thing. I did a good job of getting the miles in every day, I didn't really compromise at all and doubled Monday through Friday. Wednesday's workout got off to a good start but then I wasn't able keep hitting those times for the rest of the workout. I don't know what it is, I felt good and then I guess I just expected to be able to cruise through at the same pace and wasn't able to start working when I needed to. Thursday and Friday were nice and easy days, even though the weather sucked a bit on Friday. Saturday could have been a really great workout, and was still a solid effort, but stomach problems got the best of me. I think I'm building a good base with all these miles, but I'd like to see a little more in the workouts. March Miles : 44 | 105 |
| Saturday | Tempo/Fartlek along the marathon course. Since everybody and their brother is getting ready for Boston, if you want some company on a hard run you pretty much have to do marathon-style workouts. There was a big group of guys running 5M-4M-3M-2M-1M from Hopkinton to Newton this morning, which, at 20M, was a bit further than I wanted to go. Kathryn was kind enough to drive me out to Framingham where I met up with the first group of guys (Terry Shea, Ryan Carrara and Harry Stants) after they finished their 5M segment. We got into the 4M section with Harry leading through 2M at 10:44 then I led the next two running 5:19 and 5:23 and feeling pretty good. We were taking 1M easy between hard efforts and I was feeling good at the start of the 3M section, where I was going to be able to sit back and let the other three guys lead. The pacing plan was 5:20s for 4M, 5:15s for 3M, 5:10s for 2M and then 5:05 for the final mile. Terry led through the first mile and I was hanging on the back of the pack doing okay. Going past Wellesley we were dodging a couple cars and I fell off a few steps and didn't really group back up. Around 1.5M things started going bad and I knew I was going to need a bathroom. The other three guys built a pretty sizeable gap on me and just before the end of the 3M segment I stopped at a Mobil station. My plan was to just run the final two intervals by time, since I didn't know where any mile marks were. I came out of the bathroom to find John Friedman waiting, so once he finished up we continued on together, which was good since he knew all the marks. I ran the final two intervals decently hard (10:42/5:12), but certainly not as fast as had I been able to stay up with Terry, Ryan and Harry. We finished the last mile at the Newton Town Hall and then jogged back to the cars at the 20M mark. Days like today are bound to happen, and with the style of workout I was pretty much screwed since I wouldn't expect or ask those guys to wait on me. It's too bad, because my legs were feeling pretty good when I was running in the pack and I think I could have finished up really well. Still, this morning was a good, hard effort and Terry did a great job getting everybody organized for this one. I came home and cooked up some pancakes, which I had been looking forward to all morning, then took a nap and was feeling pretty good. | 16 |
| Friday PM | Fresh Pond with Sean. I met Sean at 4:15 at Johnson and we headed out to Fresh Pond. The rain had subsided and temperatures were pretty mild today, which made for pretty good running weather. The path down to the Pond was really iced over and pretty damn treacherous. There was a huge puddle across part of the path, but other than that it was smooth sailing. We finished up around 67 or 68 minutes, pretty easy and relaxed run this afternoon. | 10 |
| Friday AM | Science Museum. I was going to meet Sean this morning but he had a conflict come up and we pushed it back to this afternoon. It was cold and raining hard, so I decided to cross the bridge first and get it out of the way. By the time I got to Cambridge I had an ice cream headache on the right side of my brain from the wind and rain. I thought the worst was over, but turning east put me straight into the wind. I was just glad when this run was over, not the easy shakeout I was planning on. | 5 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Jamaica. Despite sleeping 7 hours last night I was feeling pretty tired this morning and took my time getting started. I eventually headed out to Jamaica, but the Fens-Riverway route was snowed/iced over and I was stuck to the paved paths, running the old school route. Obviously I skipped the trails, too, but the footing wasn't too bad out there. About 20 minutes in my legs started feeling really fatigued, then that subsided until the last 10 minutes or so when I started feeling pretty tired again. Maybe I should have had some vegetables last night along with the chicken and rice. I finished the run off with a half-hearted pick up over the last two or three blocks, but this morning was really just a run out the clock situation. | 9 |
| Wednesday PM | 2x(880-1M-880) in 2:18, 4:45, 2:20; 2:20, 4:53, 2:21. We were at Harvard for tonight's workout, so all the distances are yards, not meters, so subtract maybe 1s on the halves and 2s on the miles to get to 800m and 1600m times. I warmed up along the river, which wasn't a big deal until around the footbridge where there was black ice everywhere and I wound up running on the frozen snow next to the path. My legs were feeling okay and after a stop at the bathroom and some strides I was ready to go. I thought I was going to be the only one running this workout, since nearly everyone was running the marathoner's 4x4k workout, but Alasdair showed up at the very last minute to join me. I led the first two intervals and was feeling good, running 35s and 36s and feeling like I was just cruising along. By then Alasdair was warmed up and led the last half mile, which felt a lot harder than it actually was. I spent a lot of time in lane two getting around the line of guys running marathon pace and Alasdair built a decent gap. Starting off the next set I was going to lead but Alasdair cut me off at the starting line and I wound up running behind and watching him slowly pull away. It didn't feel like I was slowing down, but I just couldn't keep going fast. I led the first half mile of the mile and got us through in 2:22 and was feeling really good, then as soon as Alasdair went around I started slowing. I really did not feel like I backed all the way off to a 2:31, but the watch doesn't lie. I got out hard on the last one, 34-flat, but then faded and only managed a 2:21. Pretty disappointed in how the workout finished up, I wasn't looking to really hammer but I would have liked to hold a faster pace and run a bit more consistently. I was feeling great through the first two intervals and wish I could have kept running like that. I waited for the marathoners to finish up and spent some time talking things over with Mike Peroni, including plans for the US 8k coming up in 2 and a half weeks. Once everybody finished up we made plans for Saturday's workout on the course and then headed out for a cooldown. I took JFK to Mt. Auburn and then headed home, hooking up with Mass Ave the usual way. I finished the cooldown at Store 24 to pick up Gatorade to replace electrolytes and ice cream to keep me entertained during Lost. February Miles : 352 | 11 |
| Wednesday AM | Science. I got started at 8am and just put in an easy shakeout along the river. Not the best choice of route as all of yesterday's melting had iced over and formed slick patches of ice along the path. I escaped unharmed, though, so not a big deal. I skimped on stretching more than I should have, I always seem to run out of time so quickly when I'm just running short in the morning, I feel like I have all this extra time and then wind up squandering it. | 5 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. I came home a little early from the lab but did some chores and didn't get started until after 6pm. My legs were feeling a little bit better than they have been recently, I wasn't quite as tired throughout this one. Nothing out of the ordinary today, just putting in miles. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Docks. I was pretty tired this morning and it took a few minutes to actually wake up once I got out of bed, so when I left at 7:30 I opted for a little bit shorter route. I kept things slow the whole way, especially at the start, but the first 20 minutes passed by fairly quickly. As I was nearing the Docks I could feel some fatigue creeping in, which wasn't too good since I was running so slowly. I just tried to ignore it and kept things steady and it wasn't a problem again until after crossing Longfellow. The only rough patch footing wise was along the river from Longfellow to Mass Ave, which may have contributed to the feeling of fatigue. I stretched out briefly but had to get moving and get to the lab, so I'll try and spend a little more time this afternoon. Hopefully I'll get to bed early tonight, I knew I shouldn't have stayed up watching The Black Donnelly's last night. | 9 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. I got started around 6pm today, the route was all clear of this morning's snow, so things went pretty smoothly. My legs were feeling pretty good, although my stomach was a bit upset, but I was just wanting to keep things easy and get through the run. Entirely uneventful this evening, hardly even hit any red lights. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I woke up to decently heavy snow and had only one option when choosing a route this morning (though I've never really figured out why.) The temps were pretty decent, mid-30s, but there was just under an inch of the white stuff on the ground. It was packing pretty well, which actually made for pretty decent footing, even over the formerly icy patches. Everything was slow and relaxed this morning, I was in no hurry to get done and didn't feel like hammering, either. Once I hit the Common everything was pretty well cleared of snow, so I was able to just coast home. | 10 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. I took my time getting started this morning, sleeping in until 9am and getting out the door a few minutes after 10. I wasn't sure how the footing would be along the river, but decided to give it a shot. I kept things easy at the start as usual, just under 7:00s and feeling pretty good. There were only a few bad stretches all the way to Elliot, but then things got a little bit worse. There was a sheet of ice underneath Elliot, but I got across that without any problems, and saw Matt and Brett Ely in the Marsh Post's parking lot. On the way out to Watertown the shoulder of the road is wide enough that I was able to run on clear pavement without risking my life. After turning back, though, things weren't as nice. The stretch from Watertown to N. Beacon Street was as bad as normal, but there were a lot more cars than normal, so I was shuffling along for significant stretches. I never really got into a good rhythm coming back, and even though I felt like picking things up I wound up being just 1:59 for the loop, after turning in a slow 1:11:45. I ran the last mile in around 6:20, which felt pretty easy, but on the whole it was a slow day today. I'll have to start doing my long runs long the marathon course for the next few weeks. I thought about doing that today, but I was just out there yesterday and thought I could get by along the river. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 10 2/18-2/24 |
This was a pretty good week for me. Sunday's long run in Acworth was great, it's easier going long with other guys instead of trying to get out the door on your own. Most of the rest of the week was just standard mileage days, but I did a good job of getting the mileage in every day. Wednesday was a decent workout, I felt like I did a good job of holding a solid pace and did a lot of the work on my own. I managed to finish things up with a fast mile thanks to John Friedman and Matt Ely. Finished off the week with a good fifteen miler along the marathon course. February Miles : 291 | 102 |
| Saturday | Marathon course to Johnny Kelly statue with Josh Ferenc. Josh came down last night for All New Englands, and this morning we headed out along Beacon around 9am. I was feeling pretty good, it was a little on the cold side but only bad when the wind blew. There was a lot of traffic on Commonwealth from BC to the statue, I think it was Team in Training. We turned around at the statue, which was just over 50 minutes. On the way back we grabbed a couple of GummiWorms that Team in Training had out, which came at a pretty good time. We came back along Commonwealth instead of Beacon, just cruised home and wound up at 105 minutes, a pretty solid 15 miler. | 15 |
| Friday PM | Reservoir from BU. I drove over to the BU track to watch All New Englands with Fivos, and after the unseeded section of the 5k Fivos and I headed up Commonwealth to the Reservoir. The footing was a bit rough going around the Reservoir and slowed us down a bi, but we slowly sped up heading back down Beacon. We decided to head up and over Summit to get back to Comm Ave, the climb wasn't too bad and we pretty much just cruised back to BU to watch the rest of the meet. | 8 |
| Friday AM | Science. I'm running this afternoon with Fivos so I didn't need to put in too much mileage this morning. It snowed a bit overnight, so the river paths weren't too clear, but it was mainly just snow, not much ice, so the footing was decent. I felt better today than I did yesterday, not quite as tired. | 5 |
| Thursday PM | Docks with Sean and Fivos then a warm up loop solo. | 10 |
| Thursday AM | Orange Line backwards. | 4 |
| Wednesday | BAA Workout at Reggie Lewis. 5x1000m; 3x1M in 2:59, 57, 56, 55, 55; 4:54, 56, 45. Rest was 2:00 after the 1k, 4:00 between sets and 3:00 between the miles. I started my warmup a little bit late and only did 12 minutes over to Reggie and then stretched out and ran some strides to get ready. I laid back off the Moultons and came through in 37 then more or less pushed to get back on pace, but slowed slightly over the last 300m. On the next interval I took off with the Moultons and came through just under 34 and then backed off and never quite got back onto pace. The rest of the thousands I got out a second behind Casey and Pat and basically just tried to run even 35s on my own. Alasdair got up on my heels on the last one, but other than that I was all alone for the those intervals. I was typically 1:45 at 600m and then slowed to 2:21 point at 800 and would have to hammer the last lap to come through in 2:55. I'm not too confident on the times for the thousands, I know that I started with 2:59 and finished with back to back 35s, but I don't remember numbers two and three that well. I ran to the bathroom during the 4 minute break so I didn't have much time to loosen up my legs between sets. Casey and Pat kept on hammering me on the miles, so I just hung back and tried to run them at a good rhythm. I ran a mix of 73s and 74s on the first one, coming through 800m in 2:26 high, and the second mile was basically straight 74s. I wasn't feeling amazing and wasn't able to speed up over the final 400m despite trying to. Alasdair ran the first 1k of the first mile with the Moultons and then dropped out of the workout, so I was all alone on the first two miles. Before the start of the last one John Friedman said he was going to run with me, which was good news. I lead through 800m in 2:26 before he went around and started speeding up. Matt Ely was hanging right behind us and with 300m to go I felt him creeping up in lane 2 so I squeezed between John and him and started running hard. We really hammered the last 200m and put in a much faster time than I was expecting to run today. I mainly just wanted to run these intervals at a solid pace in a good rhythm, I honestly wasn't looking to run all that hard, but we really only started working the last 800m which actually felt pretty good. I cooled down 18 minutes around the outside of the track with Pat and then ran home and made myself a frozen pizza and watched Lost and some of the Tour of California. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Pleasure Bay with Fivos. I ran over to Johnson and met Fivos just after 5:15pm and we headed down Mass Ave to Ocean. It's been in the mid 40s all day and a lot of the ice has started melting. There were some puddles to run through, but that's a lot better than slipping and sliding around on ice. We kept things conversational the whole way and when we made it to the Ocean started talking about extending the run. We stayed right on the Ocean all the way down to Broadway, just before Castle Island, and then took Broadway to L and back to the Common along Summer Street. I probably shouldn't have put in 12M tonight since I'm running a workout tomorrow at Reggie, but I'll just have to make it work. I screwed up my watch fairly early into the run, but measuring the route online puts it at 12M. | 12 |
| Tuesday AM | Orange Line backwards. I slept through my alarm this morning and got a pretty late start. I ran over to the BPL to return some books and then headed down to the Common. Once I got there I decided to just go short this morning and save the longer run for the end of the day. My legs were feeling okay for this one, but I picked things up from the Mass Ave T stop back to Clearway and didn't feel so smooth, it felt like I was forcing things. | 4 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. I couldn't come up with a good excuse to not run, so I finally got started at 7:20 tonight. I really wasn't tired at all and felt good once I got out the door. The route is pretty much all clear which made things a lot easier in the dark. Pretty uneventful run, the only excitement was the guys using propane flamethrowers to melt the ice outside of Firefly, across the street from the Back Bay T stop. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. | 10 |
| Sunday | Acworth, NH. After some eggs and toast for breakfast, Josh, Mark and I, plus Dave Bridgewater, were ready to run at 11am. We headed out along some route that Josh had laid out and kept things pretty easy (above 7:00s) for the first few miles. We hit a 1+M long hill somewhere before 3M and just started climbing. By the time we got to the top we were all feeling it a little bit and the route went into some small rolling hills and I just hung back with Josh and covered some ground. The first time I looked at my watch was 50+ minutes into the run, which is always good. We hit one last big climb and I eased up it, thinking there was going to be more once we hit the top. But there wasn't any more climbing, we started dropping downhill and it was easy going the rest of the way home. Josh and Mark took off sprinting up some small climb for no apparent reason, until Dave explained to me that they were racing to the Acworth townline. I almost let that go, but decided that wasn't cool and I started hammering. I was running alone for a little bit, then Josh caught up and we kept it rolling for another mile or two and then eased back for the last 1.5M or so. We wound up being 127 minutes for this one, a pretty good effort. We took our time stretching and showering then hit a Chinese place in Vermont for lunch. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 09 2/11-2/17 |
Not quite the week I was hoping for. I got off to a great start with a solid 18 miler on Sunday, finishing up pretty hard and not straining too much. Tuesday's workout went really well, it was actually a lot easier than I was expecting. I was able to just hit the pace and even finishing up with the two 5:00 miles felt pretty steady. Then the mileage suffered on Wednesday through Friday a little bit because of the snow/slush/ice debacle in Boston. The trip to New Hampshire was timed pretty well since the footing was a hell of a lot better up there. Februay Miles : 189 | 86 |
| Saturday | Keene, NH. I drove up to Keene this morning and got to Mark Miller's house around 10:30. Josh showed up a little bit later and after shooting the bull for a bit we headed out on some route in the area around Keene. There was a big climb in the first 15 minutes but things were more or less easy from there. I was feeling fine despite spending about 2 hours in the car and it was nice to get away from the ice and snow of Boston. We were 78 or 79 minutes for the loop and it felt pretty easy the whole way. We stretched out for a bit then hit Price Chopper for lunch. | 12 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line. I ran with Kathryn this afternoon, the footing was pretty much the same as this morning and we took Newbury back instead of Commonwealth. My legs were feeling alright, the past couple days have been fairly easy. I'm glad that I'm getting out of town tomorrow morning, the footing around Boston is way too screwed up right now. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Laps of Boston Common. I ran Orange Line to the Common and the sidewalks were mostly clear on the way there. The footing around the perimeter of the Common was pretty good, there was only ice on the corner by the Boylston T stop. I put in 5 laps around the Common, running 7:55, 7:45, 7:35, 7:27, 7:22 for the 1.1M loop, so starting around 7:20 and working down to roughly 6:40 by the end. The Public Garden wasn't nearly as clear, so I had to shuffle my way over to the main path on my way home. The Comm Ave Mall looked clear, but it was just sand on top of the ice, so after 1 block I cut over to the sidewalk, which was also iced over. At Clarendon I went up to Newbury where the businesses had all cleared their sidewalks pretty well and was able to make it back to Clearway without any footing problems. | 9 |
| Thursday | Treadmill at FitCorp. I was going to try and run this morning, but the slush from yesterday froze everywhere and it was too treacherous to bother trying. I worked from home and when Kathryn got back from school we walked over to FitCorp. I put in 5M on the treadmill and then had to use the bathroom. I managed to put in another 2M before becoming completely frustrated. I can't handle running on those things, way too boring. Kathryn and I went to an ab class after running and then headed home. Today wasn't such a great day, the week had been going pretty well until this weather came in yesterday. | 7 |
| Wednesday | Minuteman Trail. The weather forecast all week had us getting hit with a big storm today, so I was planning on going early before things got out of hand. Besides, today's Valentine's Day and I didn't feel like doubling anyways. I skipped the standard snow route of Bunker Hill and headed out to Alewife. The way out to the trail was mostly snowed over with the inch or two of snow we got last night, but there were a few shoveled spots already. Things were definitely slow this morning, over 37 minutes to the trail. The trail's not plowed, so the first mile was 7:30 and just not enjoyable, so I turned around and headed for home. Not much quicker the rest of the way, a pretty tiring 12M, much more effort because of running through the snow. | 12 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. I got home from the lab around 5pm and started running at 5:40. I felt pretty good at the start, my legs were surprisingly fresh after this morning's effort. As I was heading home down Comm Ave, however, I started to get much more tired and could feel my legs leaving me. Just happy to get the run over with and the miles logged. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Dellinger, 10:42(5:20/5:22)-10:21(5:11/5:10)-9:59(5:01/4:58), total time of 31:02 for 6M. I read about this workout in Bowerman and the Men of Oregon, it's what Bill Dellinger ran when getting ready for the Trials before the Tokyo Games, so it must work. Believe it or not, the thought of running this workout in single digit temperatures didn't have me sprinting out the door this morning, I wasted a lot of time before finally leaving at 8:05. I jogged a 2M warmup over the river, down to New House and back to the track along Vassar. I didn't spend much time stretching out and only ran a few strides before stripping down to my shorts and getting into it. I tried to get Fivos, Khatch and/or Sean to join me today, but Sean's got a foot thing, Fivos is just getting back to building a base and Khatch wasn't interested. It was only about 8 or 9 degrees, thankfully without much wind on the track, but certainly not ideal to be doing this workout. I didn't have much choice, though, as we're predicted to get 5 to 10 inches of snow overnight, which will put the track out of commission for awhile. My legs were pretty cold when I got down to my shorts, but I just couldn't see myself running a workout in long pants, too heavy and they were catching a lot of wind during strides. I ran one more stride to try and get my legs warmer and then took off. The idea here was to run a continuous 6M with every 2M at a faster pace. Today I wanted to run 80-77.5-75 (5:20-5:10-5:00), and I came through 100m in 20 and 200m in 40, right on pace at the start. I held between 79 and 81 the whole way, hitting 2:40, 5:20, 8:00, then put two 81s back-to-back as I was trying to find a way to keep my fingers from freezing off. I was really comfortable through the first 2M and spent most of the time trying to guess whether or not I could hold 5:20s for 26.2M, and whether or not I actually want to find out. I kicked things down after coming through in 10:42, starting off with a 77, but then relaxed too much and went back to an 80, coming through 800m in 2:37. I got on track after that, finishing off the mile in 5:11 and getting to 1.5M in 7:46. I saw 10:20 at 4M, but after the fact I discovered it was 10:20.96, which has to be rounded up. My legs were getting fairly tired but I threw myself into the final 2M segment and just tried to hang on. I wasn't sure what to expect and decided I was just going to string together as many 75s as I could. I was 74-mid through 400 and then right on pace through the mile in 5:01. I kept hitting 75s and was 8:46 "at the bell" and just did my best to get around the track one more time. It didn't feel like I started hammering but I managed to finish things off with a 73. My legs started to feel like they were going to give out on me coming down the final straight, but I managed to hold things together through the line. My thumb wasn't warm enough to stop my watch, I had to just look at the time as I crossed the line. I was feeling bad for maybe 5 minutes walking around on wobbly legs, but by the time I started jogging home I was doing fine. I had a coughing fit after I finished, but I blame that on the cold air. I put my pants back on as soon as I was able to sit down, but running in shorts really wasn't a big deal. 700m into the workout I thought I made a big mistake as it felt like my legs were about to freeze up, but that feeling passed and once I hit the second 2M stretch and started working harder I didn't notice my legs being cold at all. That said, jogging home in pants was certainly much more comfortable. Dellinger started with 80-77-75 and eventually worked his way down to 77-75-73 before running 3M solo at 67s to qualify for Tokyo. Of course, he was running on a cinder track and I had nice frozen Mondo this morning, but he also was switching off 800s with Kenny Moore and probably wore flats, too. | 10 |
| Monday | Reservoir plus Summit from MIT. I got a ride over to campus this morning since I had left my bike there last Friday. I changed in the Z Center and took off down Vassar by 7:15. I had a McArdle moment heading up Summit, for parts of yesterday and today's runs I could have sworn that my shoe was making a squeaking noise, liek how a popped air bubble sounded when I used to wear Nikes. Halfway through today's run I figured out that when I turned my head a small tag sticking off my new hat was rubbing against my shirt collar and making the noise. Kept things slow and easy around the Pond and back towards MIT. I picked things up from Pfizer back to the track, which is always a lot longer than I anticipate. Didn't spend too much time stretching out, just showered and picked up a LaVerde's breakfast sandwich. I came home from the lab a little tired but with a slightly upset stomach from snacking on Lucky Charms all day, since I was still hungry after lunch and there was nothing else to eat. I probably could have put in a couple miles but wasn't feeling it and decided to rest up for tomorrow's big workout. Can't afford to slack off the rest of the week now, though. | 10 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown. I was pretty hungry when I woke up so I took my time and ate a little bit. I didn't get started until nearly 11am. I had to get out the door by then in order to get back in time for the Tyson Invite on TV. I headed down to the river and knew it was going to be a warm day. The sky was free of clouds and it almost felt like a spring day. My hat stayed on for just the first 15 minutes and then I wound up carrying it most of the rest of the way. I was pretty excited at the start of the run but slowed down heading towards Science. I ran the mile back to Mass Ave in 6:45 and then did my best to ignore the watch and just get to Watertown. My legs were feeling pretty good but I tried to just cruise at a comfortable pace. I crossed the bridge at 68 minutes, which seems a bit slower than some of my previous runs. On the way back I made more of an effort to speed things up, though. Just after Arsenal my legs started getting tired, and I made a point of pushing there and not backing off. By the time I went past JFK I was settled into the faster pace and my legs weren't feeling as tired anymore. I did my best to keep things steady the rest of the way but probably sped up a bit over the last mile. I was 5:54 from BU to Mass Ave, but I was expecting to see something closer to 6:15 based on how fast I felt I was running. I finished up at 1:51.30 along the river, which is roughly 6:30 pace. Pretty solid effort today, and I made it home just in time to watch the Tyson Invite and cook up some hot dogs. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 08 2/4-2/10 |
It's strange to think that at the beginning of this week I was racing in Ireland, that seems so long ago. Sunday was my best race in a very long time, probably since Ollie, if not Rhody. I got out decently hard, managed to move up the entire race and ran strong the whole way despite really hurting the last kilometer or so. I think both the races in Ireland coupled with flying back across the Atlantic wiped me out more than I was expecting. I took Monday off because I was exhausted from travelling but jumped back into things on Tuesday. Wednesday rolled around and I was entirely apathetic and basically took that day off. But the break turned out to be a good idea and by the end of the week I was back running well and motivated. February Miles : 103 | 70 |
| Saturday | Arboretum. 32:45 to the Arboretum, 29:45 along the usual route and 31:00 back home. I woke up at 8:30 but was pretty hungry and ate two PB&J sandwiches before heading out along the Emerald Necklace at 9:30 this morning. The good feelings continue, I'm motivated and running is fun and easy again, a lot different from earlier this week. I made it to the Arboretum in 32:45 which is much quicker than I've been running recently, and headed out on the usual route. The Arboretum was more crowded than normal today, lots of people out walking their dogs. I spent 29:45 on the loop and then headed back home. I really focused on the miles from the Arboretum back home since most of my runs don't get up beyond 10-11M. I didn't get hammering at all, I just made sure to keep things steady and held together all the way back. Finished up in 31:00, again much quicker than recent trips out to the Arboretum. | 14 |
| Friday | Fresh Pond, around the Pond. Got started on this one right away as I wanted to get to the lab a bit earlier this morning. Pretty uneventful the whole time, my legs are feeling pretty good still, which is encouraging. I felt like I was running at a decent clip, but was only 6:50 or so going around the Pond, which I'll attribute to slipping and sliding around on the icy paths. Wound up just under 80 minutes this morning. No afternoon mileage since I watched some of Valentine's at BU and then drove out to Springfield to watch Kathryn's brother play volleyball. | 12 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line to MIT with Fivos. Fivos stopped by at 5:30 this afternoon for an easy run since he's racing at BU tomorrow. We ran around the Common a little and headed back to Mass Ave down Commonwealth. I headed across the bridge to Amherst Alley with Fivos, then turned around and ran back home alone. Might have been a bit over 5M as it was 35:00 total but it makes me wonder about whether Orange Line is actually 4M. I should time that route again. My legs were feeling pretty good on this one, the run went by fairly quickly. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I was feeling a lot more into things today than yesterday, didn't have any problems getting out the door and had a great attitude throughout the whole run. I don't know if it was the big plate of pasta for dinner, that I started taking vitamins again after forgetting to bring them to Ireland, another night's sleep in my own bed or what, but I'm cautiously optimistic that yesterday's funk has dissipated. Today's pace felt a little bit faster than I normally run easy distance days, I was probably pushing a little bit since I was feeling good again. Finished up with an easy stride down Clearway, I need to start finishing these runs harder if I'm not going to be disciplined enough to run strides regularly. I checked out the entries for BU tomorrow, 102 people in the 5k and my seed time got me 17th and into the fast heat. Too bad I won't be racing. | 10 |
| Wednesday | Science. I was ready to get running at 7:30am but waited until almost 8:15 because I just wasn't feeling it this morning. I forced myself to get out and put in 5M though, my legs have a dull ache going and my mind was not in it today. I got home and did some situps and stretching then just kind of sat around spacing out for maybe an hour. I don't know what's up with me, I think maybe the two races last week took more out of me than I realized. This is kind of like last year when I ran a 5k on Saturday and Ollie on Sunday and was messed up for 4-5 days following that. I got home from the lab around 4:45 but couldn't get myself out the door for the mileage I had been planning on. Wound up just sitting around, apathetic and unmotivated today. | 5 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. Came home a little bit early from the lab but didn't start running until just after 5pm. I'm feeling fairly adjusted to the time, but was just out of it most of the day. The run went by fairly quickly but my legs weren't feeling all that great. Just put in my time, getting back into the swing of things. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Jamaica. Last night I fell asleep before 24 started and slept without waking up from 9pm until 6:30 this morning. As I was bracing myself for the 14 degree temps I discovered that I had left my hat and gloves in Ireland. Thankfully over years of running I've accumulated extras, although nothing as good as my Wigwam hat and Lowe Alpine gloves. It just took a few minutes to get acclimated to the weather again, but my legs were feeling so good at the start after yesterday's day off that I didn't even notice the weather. Most of the run went by without me noticing and I was back home stretching out and still feeling good. Parts of the trails were iced over but I didn't slip around much at all. It was really comforting to have cars doing what you expect them to do again, crossing streets isn't nearly as death-defying. | 9 |
| Monday | Travelling for a long time today, absolutely spent when I got home. We got back to Belfast from Dunleer at 10:30 or 11 on Sunday night and had to drive back down to Dublin at 3:30. I stayed up watching the Superbowl on ITV, then went down to the bus as Peyton was celebrating his win. I managed to sleep a bit on the bus, the floor of the Dublin airport and on the flight and was actually feeling pretty good when I finally got home. Kathryn and I went to CPK because I had been jonesing for a BBQ Chicken Pizza the whole time I was in Ireland, and by the time I finished eating I was falling asleep in my chair. | 0 |
| Sunday | Ras na hEireann, 6k cross race in 19:08 for 7th place. We left Belfast at 9:30 and drove the 90 minutes down to Dunleer and the course. They had a room set up for the international athletes, so we had a place to sit down and relax during the few hours we had to kill before the race. Mark and I walked the course, it was a 1500m loop around soccer/rugby fields and fairly wet and soggy. The course wasn't muddy like Mayor's Cup in 2005, but the ground was wet and torn up, so instead of being dirt there was mud. I warmed up with two laps around the course and my legs were pretty tired afterwards, it was really hard to push off the ground and lift your legs. I didn't have a firm strategy for the race, I thought about going out with the leaders and hanging on but it really felt like you'd pay for going out over your head today. I was out in 10-12th after the first lap and moved up over the next two, passing mainly Poles who fell off the lead pack. With a lap to go I was up front in a pack of 4 that was 20-30 seconds behind the leaders. I surged from 1200m out which was far too soon and the ground was far too soft to get any kind of useful surge. I fell off the pack of 4 and was killing myself just to hold where I was. Kicked in hard since I was having nightmares of Mark Miller sprinting past in the last 100m. Afterwards Mark, Ian and myself cooled down 40 minutes mainly out by the ocean along some highway. All three of us managed to swap shirts and gear with the other international athletes, then we headed to the final banquet in Dunleer and really laid into the Guinness. | 11 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 07 1/28-2/3 |
This was a good week, even though I was feeling really bad at the start. I made it through 18M with Sean on Sunday but enjoyed that far less than normal. I kept Monday short and then went 15M Tuesday in preparation for the trip to Ireland. Travelling more or less knocked out Wednesday, but I managed to squeeze in a run with Mark and then put together a pretty solid 14:38 on Thursday in Armagh. I would have liked to have kept the 2:54 pace (I was 8:42 at 3k) instead of dropping to 2:58s to finish up the last 2k. That would have dropped me to 14:30 and 10th place, but for where I am it went pretty well. Friday Mark and I put in a solid long run and then on Saturday I kept things real short but felt good after sleeping half the day. One more race in Ireland and then a long trip home. February Miles: 33 | 85 |
| Saturday | Around Belfast. I slept 11-12 hours last night, finally had a chance to sleep in and I must have still been adjusting to the time change. After eating lunch and walking around a little bit of Belfast, Mark and I headed out for an easy 5M between 6 Nations rugby games. We kept things really slow and just ran out and back, then tacked on a bit around the hotel to get to 34 minutes. I threw in an acceleration as we got back to the hotel before realizing we were just 30:00 in, but I felt pretty good on that. Hopefully the solid night of sleep (I don't think I woke up at all) helps out on this 2 races in 4 days thing. | 5 |
| Friday | Along some roads outside Armagh with Mark Miller. We got up around 8:45am after going to bed at 1am and were out running by 9am. We headed out along A29 until the sidewalk ended, about 20 minutes into the run. This wound up being a bit more dangerous than we expected, as the road was incredibly narrow and people had no problem driving 50-80mph just 6-12 inches away from us. We ran back into Armagh and headed out on the same road we ran Wednesday. My legs were feeling fine at the start, surprisingly so given yesterday's effort. As we got out into the countryside the hills got rolling a bit and I could feel my legs starting to leave me. We turned at 70:00 and headed back towards Armagh and by 82:00 my legs were getting pretty wobbly. I managed to stay on Mark's shoulder as we picked the pace up through the town and back to our hotel. After stretching out a bit and eating a banana I headed down to the gym in the hotel's basement and spent a solid 20-25 minutes in the sauna. | 14 |
| Thursday PM | 5k at Armagh Road Race. 14:38 for 16th place. Spent most of the day hanging around the hotel room with Mark, we finally headed down to the Mall around 7:30pm. We got started on the warm-up at 8pm and I was feeling pretty good. We put in 15:00 by running around the inside of the course loop and then hit the Port-A-Johns. I felt pretty confident while stretching out and put in some good strides from the starting line. The start was pretty crowded and I wound up a person or two off the starting line and was pretty concerned about getting shoved at the start. We got away pretty fast and after stumbling once or twice I got to some clear space and found myself 5-10m off the front. I moved up well through the first 3k and eventually was leading the chase pack. I faded a bit over the last two laps and got passed by probably 5-7 guys over the final half-mile which was pretty frustrating. I cooled down 5M by looping around the course with Christian Hersch, Mark Miller, Ian Marcus and Leroy Riley. By the time the cool down was over I was feeling better about the race, it was a decent time for all the work I've been putting in recently. I was pretty sore and my hamstrings were tight, so I took some time stretching out and lingered in the shower a bit. The post-race buffet at The Marketplace Theater was pretty good and Mark and I enjoyed a few pints of Guiness afterwards. | 10 |
| Thursday AM | Around Armagh with Ian Marcus and Mark Miller. I slept 9 hours without waking up last night, and then went down and ate a big breakfast to compensate for missing two meals yesterday (I only ate dinner.) Ian mentioned that he wanted to get out for a shakeout, so I said I'd go with him. Mark was up by the time we left at 10:45 and the three of us ran around a field behind the hotel for 10-12 minutes and then Ian headed back to the hotel. Mark and I wandered around the city some more, trying to get close to one of the cathedrals with no success. I put in a 20 second surge to escape a dog guarding "his" sidewalk, both otherwise today was pretty uneventfuly. My legs are feeling pretty good while running, but a bit sore and tired when I finish. This morning was just under half an hour and hopefully enough to keep me loose for an 8:45pm race. | 4 |
| Wednesday | Out and back on some road in Armagh, Ireland with Mark Miller. We landed in Dublin at 7:15 this morning and I only managed a few uncomfortable hours sleep on the plane and 2 hour drive to Armagh in Northern Ireland. Mark and I both got to our hotel room and took a solid 4-5 hour nap, waking up around 3:30. I ate some pretzels while watching some TV and at 4:30 Mark and I headed out for a run. I was still fairly tired despite the long nap, but didn't want to sleep so much this afternoon that I wasn't tired tonight. We headed down to the course, which is just 1k loops around a small park in the center of town. We ran a lap and a half there and decided we'd seen enough of the course and headed out into the countryside along the least congested road. Neither of us are accoustomed to cars driving on the opposite side of the road and crossing streets is a dangerous activity right now. We eventually got out in the hills amongst some small farms and it was quite a nice run. The weather is markably warmer than Boston and I was comfortable in shorts and TShirt. We turned back at 30:00 and finished at the hotel after 45. I figure the extra fatigue from travelling easily rounds this one up to 7M. January Miles : 402 | 7 |
| Tuesday | Minuteman Trail. I got up and out the door pretty quickly this morning. I headed out to Arlington for a longer run since I'm flying to Ireland at 7pm tonight and won't be able to double today. I was running pretty slowly on the way out, I got to Alewife in 35:25 but things slowly picked up from there. I ran 6:47 for the first mile and then 7:00 for the long second mile, then went 3:30 out to make it a for-sure 2.5M from the station. On the way back I dropped down to 6:50-6:30 without forcing anything, and kept the good feeling all the way back home. I made it back in 33:30, so hopefully I'm moving out of this recent funk. I wasn't feeling too bad at the end, either, my legs weren't dead and I wasn't crawling up the stairs to the apartment. I loaded up on breakfast and then started packing things up for tonight's trip. | 15 |
| Monday | Fresh Pond. I did a good job of getting out the door quickly this morning, hardly any waiting around. I took a watch with me today, but probably would have been better out without it. I felt a little bit better than recently at the start, but as I crossed the bridge that feeling left and all I could do was contemplate the next 11M on tired legs. I meant to check my pace going around the Pond, but completely forgot about that until I was way past the mark, so who knows how slow it was today. I made it back in around 80 minutes, although the route is probably a bit short. I stayed late in the lab to finish up before going to Ireland and even though I was sure I was going to run as I was heading home, it was too late, there was too much to do, I've been too tired recently, I'm racing on Thursday and there were too many excuses to not get out the door. I just did the laundry and cooked some rib-eye steaks for dinner. | 12 |
| Sunday | Science Museum-Watertown with Sean. Standard meet at 8:30 run that we've done for three weeks in a row now. I was feeling decent at the start, plus the temps were up and I was wearing shorts again, so I was hoping today would be a good day. We started slow as usual and even headed down to Science first, but I never got into the swing of things. Today was pretty much just a straight grind, by the time we got to Elliot on the way out my legs were already tired and if Sean wasn't there I probably would have turned back early. We crossed at 74:00, really slow, and things only sped up a bit on the way home. We stopped at McDonalds for Sean but other than that were pretty uninterrupted. The mile from BU to Mass Ave was right around 7:00, so we must have been slower earlier since it was about 2:04 along the river today. I wasn't sufferring too bad, my legs were just shot and I had nothing today. The string of bad days following last Wednesday continues, hopefully I get everything out of my system before Ireland. The day got better when I got home though, as I made pancakes for breakfast when Kathryn got home from her run. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 06 1/21-1/27 |
A good week of mileage, but really dominated by the poor workout on Wednesday. I think I may have been rushing things a little bit, trying to ramp up the mileage and run workouts, so maybe taking some time to just log miles will pay off. Sunday was a solid long run with Sean and everything else was pretty much just standard runs. After Wednesday my legs really left me and the weather got cold, double whammy. January Miles : 350 | 100 |
| Saturday | Arboretum. I got out the door around 9:30, the weather was still fairly cold, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. My legs weren't feeling that good throughout today's run, I got to the Arboretum in 34:00 and spent 31:00 running the usual route. By the time I left I was fairly tired, but felt like I was running a bit faster than at the start. I couldn't have been much faster, since I was 33:40 on the way back. Ever since Wednesday's workout the upper outside of my left calf has been tight and it takes a good 5-10 minutes to loosen up. It doesn't really seem to be an problem once I get into the run, though, but climbing some of the hills in the Arboretum hurt a little bit. I got made it back home around 11am and showered before heading over to watch Fivos and Khatch race at BU. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Fake Fresh with Fivos and Sean. Fivos is racing at BU tomorrow, so we met up for an easy little shakeout this afternoon. Still frigid outside, I wore the same gear as in the morning but was actually fairly comfortable. Ran some strides when we got back but wasn't feeling that good. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Docks. It was frigging freezing today. When I woke up it was 2 degrees and when I left at 7:30 it had warmed up to 3 degrees. Went with pants, naturally, and even broke out the rare double long sleeve shirt. I thought about just running Jamaica because of the weather, but finally convinced myself to man up and deal with the temperature. By the time I got to the Common my face was frozen, but things didn't get much worse from there. In fact, the stretch from South Station to the Convention Center was actually pretty nice, straight into the sun, no wind and pretty warm. Of course, down by the Docks proper was another story. My legs are still pretty trashed and it was a struggle just to get home from the Boston Garden. | 9 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line. It's supposed to get really cold overnight and into tomorrow, and I think it got here early. I was doing okay early, but when I was waiting to cross Charles and head into the Common the wind really got me. Kept things slow and just tried to recover, still not feeling that great. It's just going to be mileage from now until Ireland, no workout on Saturday, and hopefully that will bring my legs around. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I was pretty damn tired for this morning's run after yesterday's workout. I headed out Commonwealth, climbed up Summit and then suffled around the Reservoir and headed home. I was really feeling it by the time I was heading down Beacon, just really worn out from yesterday. | 11 |
| Wednesday PM | 1k-2k-3k-1k in 2:51, 5:57, 9:23, 2:55. I headed over to Reggie at 7:30 tonight and my legs were feeling pretty good. Small group today, myself, Friedman, Alasdair and Jarrod Shoemaker. I hit the bathroom and didn't get to run very many strides before we got started. We were supposed to run the 1ks at mile pace and the 2k-3k at 5k-8k pace, so I was shooting for 33s, but held back too much and came through in 35. Then I buckled down, came through in 69-2:17 and had Jarrod on my shoulder the whole way. I led the start of the 2k, running 35-36s through the 1000 then Jarrod and Alasdair went around me and were consistently sub-36. I sat behind them and just covered ground, then went to the lead with 400m left and clipped off two 35s to finish things off. I was pretty tired after that and wasn't too confident about the 3k coming up. At the start I just got out behind Jarrod and followed him to 2:22 at the half and 2:57 at 1k. Then going around the turn he either surged or I slowed, but either way he got a gap on me which just continued to grow. I was about 4:11 with a mile to go and just under 4:50 8 laps in, then started slowing horribly. I hit 2k at 6:0-something and pretty much was running 38-40 the rest of the way. I don't know what it is about these long intervals, but I just have not been running them well. I spent most of the 5:00 rest just feeling sorry for myself, then tried to salvage something on the last 1k. There was some confusion as to what the workout was and Jarrod thought we had a 2k, so he and Alasdair took it out on pace for that, and I came through the first lap in 35. Then I went to the front and I felt like I was really running hard, but only got down to 34.8 or so and wound up finishing in 2:55. That was a pretty slow time for the effort I felt like I was putting in and I wasn't too happy with how the workout went. MP calmed me down, pointing out I raced last Saturday and then went 18M on Sunday and I'm probably flat anyways since I'm just now getting my mileage back up to triple digits. He's probably right, and we're focusing on late April anyways, but it's just frustrating when I can't run hard and I feel like whenever my legs get tired in these workouts I automatically back off and run slow. I cooled down back to the apartment with Friedman who was running over to Central Square, so today wound up being somewhat short since I didn't put in a long cool down. | 8 |
| Wednesday AM | Orange Line. I somehow wound up cleaning and doing other chores this morning and didn't get running until after 8:30. It was nice and bright out with temps in the low 30s, which made for a very comfortable shakeout this morning. Tonight's workout is 1k-2k-3k-1k, my legs are feeling pretty good so hopefully I can finally put in a solid workout from start to finish. I skipped stretching when I got back because I was running so far behind. | 4 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. Took off just after 6pm again today, temperatures in the low 30s are noticeably warmer. I was feeling good through about halfway, but coming down Comm Ave my legs started getting a bit tired. More or less just coasting through this run, I've been feeling good for a couple days in a row now. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill backwards. I got going at 7:30 this morning, I was surprisingly awake when I got up at 6:30, but still managed to waste an hour (including reading Mario Fraioli's great new article.) On my way downstairs I decided to do things a little differently and ran the route in reverse. There was a covering of snow on the ground, not enough to make things difficult though. Kept it slow and easy the whole way, just another decent mileage day. | 10 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. I wound up staying in the lab later than I anticipated and didn't get started on this one until 6pm. It had been snowing for about an hour and there was a light dusting on the ground, so this evening was one of the few times I've run in snow this winter. My legs were feeling alright I guess, really too short to notice anything substantial though. No strides at the end as my shoes don't handle the slick ground very well. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. I was up at 6:45 but waited until almost 8am to get started today. I headed out to Jamaica and although it took 10 minutes or so to get warmed up and get into the run, things went pretty well today. My legs were feeling pretty good, I didn't feel any fatigue from the past two days, which was nice. Once I got across Huntington on the way out I managed to get locked in somewhat and the rest of the run went by without me noticing. I sped up over the last 5-10 minutes because I really needed to get home to take a leak, but my legs felt good the whole time and the fast pace came to me easily. | 9 |
| Sunday | Science-Watertown with Sean. Same deal as last week, we met at 8:30am but this time went to Science first. Pretty cold weather this morning, temps were down around 12 degrees when I left. Thankfully the wind from yesterday had died down, so things weren't as bad as they could have been. We kept things fairly under control the whole way, we got to the Watertown Bridge in 71 minutes and made it back in just under 48:00. We ran 6:40 for the mile from BU to Mass Ave, so we must have been above 7:00 for parts of the run, since we didn't speed up significantly on the last mile. I felt a whole lot better this week than I did when we ran last week, so that's encouraging, especially the day after something hard on the track. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 05 1/14-1/20 |
Glad to get the mileage back up into triple digits this week, even with skipping the double on Tuesday afternoon. Started things off with some steady, long mileage on Sunday and then hit a good hard workout on Tuesday by myself along the river. Tried to maintain mileage the rest of the week, but I backed off a bit on Friday to avoid being entirely dead for the 3k on Saturday. I got what I wanted out of the race at MIT, not really a fast time, but I got into a racing mindset somewhat and turned my legs over at the end pretty well. 8:39 was a decent time, I don't like to make excuses, but to put it in perspective I ran by myself on that paperclip at the end of a hundred mile week. Hopefully this sets me up well for Ireland, and possibly the Valentine's meet when I get back. January Miles : 250 | 100 |
| Saturday | 3k at MIT in 8:39.24. I got to the track around 11am and starting warming up just after 11:15. I wound up having some time to sit around since the women's 3k took longer than I was anticipating. I ran some hard strides and felt pretty good on the line. I was one of only four guys lining up, since it was a non-scoring race, I got off the line in the lead and stayed there. I came through in 35 with at least one guy behind me, then dropped to 33 and started breaking away. I didn't have any idea about time or pace until after the 1k, since they hadn't gotten the clock started, but afterwards Fivos had my splits at 2:17 and 2:51 for the 800 and 1k. I hit the mile in 4:35 but had been slowing to 34-high and 35s, coming through 2k in 5:45. The 35s continued and I started trying to feel the finish line, which didn't work so well. I hit one lap to go at 8:06 and just wanted to get under 8:40. There was one Williams kid just ahead of me, so I started kicking, went around him at 150m to go and kept kicking to the finish line, Fivos had my last 200m in 32 point, one of the few good parts to the race. I sat around for 45 minutes or so to watch the mile, then Fivos and I took off for a Fresh Pond loop to get some mileage in. We kept things honest but never really got to hammering, running the loop in 67:40, fighting the wind the whole way. Finished the day off with some strides on the track while watching the men's team prevail over Williams. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Fake Fresh. I met Fivos and Sean at 4:45 and we headed out for an easy and slow five miler. Really nothing going on this afternoon, just getting in some easy mileage and catching up with the guys. Fivos just found out he won't get an extra outdoor season, so he's starting to think about other options. We ran into Wildman in Central and he ran back to MIT with us, then those three guys added on some extra mileage when I went upstairs for strides and stretching. My strides felt pretty fast, even though I haven't been running them regularly and I'm feeling pretty good about tomorrow. From what Coach says it sounds like I'll be on my own for more of a time trial type effort. Stopped by Sports Med afterwards to pick up some new tape and pre-wrap and say hello to Tom. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Run to Remember course. I was up at 6:30 this morning but started doing stuff and didn't get running until after 8. The rain/snow of last night had frozen on parts of the sidewalk, which I wasn't expecting, so I was running cautiously at times, especially on brick sections. I was actually feeling pretty good this morning, the heat wave has continued and temps were above 32 when I started which makes it a lot easier to get out the door. The bridge over to the World Trade Center was really icy, so after 10 or 20 steps I gave up and shuffled back to Atlantic. Just cruised the rest of the way home, figuring out pacing for tomorrow's 3k. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | Orange Line. I got home from the lab a little before 5pm and spent almost an hour sitting around reading before I got going on this run. Just a short little shakeout, I was feeling pretty good and kept the pace honest. There was actually a little bit of snow falling when I started, but just really little flakes that didn't accumulate anywhere. I finished fast down Clearway but didn't put in any strides, hopefully I won't regret that on Saturday. The pair of Ventulus Plus I ordered from EastBay showed up, but a size 14 is way too big. They were on clearance and didn't have anything smaller, so I'll probably just wind up buying a pair of Eldorets, but Saturday I guess I'll be racing in my regular spikes. | 4 |
| Thursday AM | Reservoir plus Summit. I took off at 7:30 this morning, enjoying the recent heat wave with temps in the upper teens. It felt good to be back running in shorts, even though I wasn't completely comfortable until I got to the top of Summit. No watch again today, just cruising at how my legs felt and things went pretty well today. Nothing very exciting throughout the run, picked things up slightly near the end of the run mainly because I needed to get home and take a leak. | 11 |
| Wednesday | Arboretum. It was 9 degrees when I woke up at 6:30 and 7 degrees when I headed out for this morning's run at 7:30. I felt like I was running fairly quick for the first 10-15 minutes as I was just trying to get warm. I ran in pants this morning, it was too early to try and get psyched up to run in shorts. There were a couple of times early on when my legs were tired and I thought about just going around Jamaica and then doubling in the afternoon, but it was so damn cold that I didn't want to have to run a second time, so I just kept going. By the time I got to the Arboretum I was feeling fine, the sun had come up a little bit more and it didn't seem as cold (of course, it was just 8 degrees when I got home.) I ran the usual route without much excitement, the ground was so frozen that it didn't feel much softer than the pavement, though. No watch today so I'm not sure about the time, but it felt like a typical day, probably 6:45-7:00 pace. | 14 |
| Tuesday | 5x5:00 along the river. I got going about 7:45am and was feeling decently well on my way down to the river. It was a bit colder crossing the bridge than I expected, but I was warm enough the rest of the way. I warmed up all the way down to the usual starting spot just past Western Ave, so about 3M. I felt pretty good through the first 5:00 piece, timing the light at JFK perfectly, and kept things nice and quick on the recovery. I took 4:00 recovery after the first 3 intervals and did my best to keep the pace honest the whole time. I wound up getting stopped at two lights during the fourth interval, but the others went by without any problems. I felt like I managed to hammer each interval pretty well, I was getting really tired on the last one but managed to run hard through the end of the 5:00 stretch, but I wasn't necessarily running that fast. I purposely decided not to run this on the 10M stretch with mile markers to avoid paying attention to speed and just run as hard as my legs would let me. I took just a 3:00 recovery before the last one, so that I would be able to start before the BU Bridge. I finished up just before the Storrow overpass and shuffled home for about a mile cooldown. No strides after this one because I was exhausted, hungry and needed to get to the lab. Another solid hard effort today, I've been feeling pretty good the last few days. | 11 |
| Monday PM | Orange Line. After spending the day more or less on the couch I got out for a few more miles around 5:30 this afternoon. The rain had thankfully stopped, with temps just above 30 degrees. After a few minutes of getting warmed up I was feeling pretty good the rest of the way. | 4 |
| Monday AM | Fresh Pond. I got going around 7:30 this morning, I slept a solid 8 hours and was feeling pretty good this morning. The weather wasn't very nice, upper 30s and raining, but the trip across the bridge made the rest of the run seem not as bad. At the start I felt like I was running pretty aggressively, but by the time I got to the Pond I was fairly sure that I was just running 7:00s. No watch today so I don't know for sure, but I wasn't feeling that great by the end. No strides because I just wanted to get inside and warm up. I made plans yesterday to race at MIT on Saturday in an unseeded 3k at the start of the track team's home meet. That means I'll run a longer fartlek tomorrow morning and skip this week's workout at Reggie, then run next week's Wednesday workout and maybe something next weekend before leaving for Ireland. | 12 |
| Sunday | Watertown-Science with Sean. I met Sean at Beacon and Mass Ave at 8:30 this morning for a nice and easy jaunt out to Watertown, which is where Sean drove in from, ironically enough. We ran this one the hard way, heading out to Watertown first, which meant we had to cross Mass Ave after 14M and head down to Science and avoid the temptation to cut the run short there. We kept it at a steady 7 minute pace at the start, even though I was itching to get rolling. It's a good thing we kept it easy because heading back after JFK or so my legs started getting really tired at just holding 7:00s was an issue for a few miles. As we got back to MIT I managed to get into a bit of a rhythm and things got a bit better for me. We spent 1:57.58 on the 17.1M loop along the river, we were 7:00 at the mile from Mass Ave to BU Bridge at the start and 3:30 for the half from Mass Ave to the last boathouse on the way back. Good to finally get in a real long run, even though I was crawling back up the stairs to my apartment at the end. | 18 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 04 1/7-1/13 |
Not such a bad week, given that I didn't run on Sunday. I got the mileage up in the 14s consistently, with the exception of Friday. The workout on Wednesday wasn't the greatest, but given that it was 7+M of intervals I'm not too surprised. I was steady through the first 6k and didn't really fall off until 9k into the workout. I was pretty tired for the next two days after that effort, but managed to put in a good 10M tempo to finish things off. The best news of the week was that I'm going to be racing in Ireland at the start of February, which I'm still pumped about. I think that with a Sunday run this would have been a 95M week or so, which is a decent step up from the mid 80s I've been running. January Miles : 150 | 79 |
| Saturday | 10M tempo along the river. 5:35-11:10-11:00-10:59-10:42-5:20. I woke up at 8am, but ate a little bit and didn't start running until 10:15. The thermometer said 42 degrees, but it was raining and felt a bit cooler than that. I ran over to the starting line by MIT, then down and back to the half mile mark to make it a 2M warm-up. After standing around for a few minutes I took off and hit 2:47 then 5:35 for the first mile. I might have been a bit slow on the next mile but I'm not really sure on where the mark is over by the baseball diamonds. I hit the 3M mark in 11:10 and then started clipping off 5:30s pretty consistently. I felt good all the way to the turn and then tried to start dropping the pace a bit. The next 2M weren't much faster, but I eventually made it down to 5:20s for the last 3M. Not a bad effort today, I felt like I was running pretty steady the whole way and I wasn't forcing things. I was pretty wiped at the end, though, and didn't feel like going the full 4M cooldown I had planned on. I ran down to the 1/2M mark, where I ran into Chris Fidkowski, then ran back to Mass Ave with him and headed home for just a 2M cooldown. | 14 |
| Friday PM | Orange Line. Stayed at the lab later than I wanted to and didn't have much time to run when I finally got home. Just put in a quick trip to the Common and back. Hopefully today at least gets my legs feeling better, since the mileage isn't good for much. | 4 |
| Friday AM | Science Museum Loop. I really screwed up this morning, sat around for far too long and finally got started at 8:30am. No time for anything substantial, so just a quick trip down to the Science Museum. At least the weather is warmer than yesterday. | 5 |
| Thursday PM | Science Museum Loop backwards. Got home from the lab and headed over to the BAA offices to pick up a near pair of shoes and a new shirt. Still really fatigued, yesterday's workout must still be in my legs. Decided to push the tempo run back a day and run it on Saturday morning. The plans for Ireland are pretty much finalized, leaving on Tuesday the 30th. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I was exhausted this morning and finally got my carcass out of bed at 7:15, then sat around and didn't get running until 8:15. January weather has certainly arrived, it was a gorgeous 21 degrees this morning and I didn't see anybody else out in shorts. After maybe 10 minutes I had remembered what it's like to run in the cold and it wasn't an issue the rest of the way. I wasn't feeling that bad at the start, but I doubt the pace was quick at any point during the run. After crossing the Charlestown Bridge I started to notice that my legs were getting more tired and by the time I hit the Comm Ave Mall I felt like I was crawling. No pick up at the end of this one, although I probably could have used one. | 10 |
| Wednesday | BAA Workout at Reggie. 2x(1k-2k-1k-2k) in 2:59, 5:57, 2:58, 5:59, 2:59, 6:04, 3:04, 6:20. Had 2:00 after the 1k, 4:00 after 2k and 5:00 rest between sets. I warmed up 2M over to Reggie and then stretched out a bit before starting the workout. Had a pretty good group tonight, both Moultons, John Mortimer, Jason Bialka, Jim Dandeneau, Levi Severson. Jason led the first one and Pat took the second interval. I was feeling pretty good, running right on Jason's shoulder for the first one and then comfortably in the pack through the second one. Mort took the next thousand, but he went out in 33 or so, I was high 34 and wound up leading the "chase pack" until we finally caught him on the last turn. Then Casey and Pat hooked up and started running away from us on the final 2k. I was ahead of JB and Mort, but Mort was only running set and he picked things up over the final few laps and pulled away. I was feeling pretty good after that set, but looking back my legs were getting tired and another 6k of intervals is a long way to go. Casey and Pat pretty much just took off and did their own thing for the next few intervals, I was able to work pretty well with Jason, though, and we were running okay. Casey ran with us through 800m of the 2k, then he went after Pat and I went around Jason to chase him, hitting 1k at 3:00 but wound up slowing and Jason passed me back near the very end. That was basically where the workout really went downhill for me. I had been feeling sluggish all night and wasn't able to be aggressive and get my legs and lungs to keep up with what I wanted to do. I did my best to hang tough through the next thousand, but wound up getting spit out the back as Jim really started working. The 2:00 rest went past very quickly and I wasn't in the best mental state for the final interval, but I got out in 36 high right behind JB and just wanted to get in a groove and ride them around the track, but by 400m I was starting to fall off. Not a very impressive finish, I was 5:05 at the mile and only managed a 75 for the final quarter. I jogged 3 laps around the outside of the track to regroup and recover then finished up the 20:00 cooldown with Mortimer and the Moultons. After a little bit of stretching I ran down Tremont to Mass Ave with JB then made some rice and put some chicken on the George Foreman before crawling to bed. I think going 14M yesterday probably wasn't a good idea and 12k of work, especially on the track, is somewhat outside of my comfort zone right now. But I did manage to avoid completely tanking, even though the final 2k was slow I felt like I was pushing the whole way, so maybe today's a step in the right direction. Before heading over to Reggie I found out that I have a chance to fly over to Ireland and run the Armagh Road Race on February 1 and Ras na hEireann, a 6k XC race, on February 4. That means I probably won't be running Terrier, since that would make 3 races in one week, not to mention the trans-Atlantic flight. | 13 |
| Tuesday | Arboretum. I tried to make a concerted effort to get started earlier this morning and was running by 7:30. Headed out along the Riverway as usual, it was a lot drier than I was expecting after yesterday's rain. Temps were down in the mid 30s, I think mainly because the sun hadn't been up for too long, since it felt a bit warmer on the way home. Haven't been out to the Arboretum in awhile, it felt good to get mileage in on trails again. I stayed up until 11 or 11:30 last night watching the BCS Championship Game, but at the end of the 3rd quarter decided OSU wasn't going to make it interesting so I went to sleep. My legs were a little bit tired on the way out to Arboretum, but I made it through the Arboretum without noticing much fatigue, and I actually felt fresher when I hit the Riverway on the return trip. Pretty good way to start off the day. | 14 |
| Monday PM | Science Museum backwards. I got home from the lab around 5:20pm and headed out for an easy 5M along the river by 5:45. Everything seems copacetic now, I'm glad I took Sunday off though. I started out fairly slow and only sped up slightly heading down river towards the Science Museum. It gets pretty dark fairly early, but there's enough light to see along the path. Wore short sleeves for this one, probably one of the last chances I'll get as it looks like January weather is going to be making a comeback. | 5 |
| Monday AM | Jamaica. I got up around 6:45 but managed to waste some time this morning and didn't head out until almost 8am. Temps were in the mid 40s which wasn't too bad, but it was raining the whole time, which just made things uncomfortable. My legs felt fine after the day off, actually no soreness from Saturday's race at all. By the time I got home my feet were soaked and my legs were covered in mud, so it was straight into the shower before some brief stretching and breakfast. Feels good to be back on the train after taking yesterday off. | 9 |
| Sunday | Day off. I decided last night to take today off and let my body coalesce. I slept about 10 hours, which felt really good. I probably could have gotten out and ran, I was planning on meeting Terry and Ian Nurse at Cleveland Circle for a long run, but skipped that. I ate brunch at 11am with some old guys and then had to run some errands before watching the playoffs/napping. I'm looking forward to getting back into it tomorrow. | 0 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 03 12/31-1/6 |
This week went pretty well, despite a slow start mileage-wise. I was pretty focused on running well at the Alumni meet, Jake always gives me a tough race over the mile and I was hoping to get a good gauge on my fitness. Wednesday's workout got off to a pretty good start, but I ran into some pacing problems, given that it was my first track workout in awhile, and I started running out of steam about 4.5M into the workout. It's clearly time to get back to basics and start putting in some serious mileage again. I think that Saturday gave a fairly good gauge of where my fitness is, I was very surprised to run 4:23 and really happy with how that went. I don't have the speed or mindset to just jump into 800s anymore, so 2:06 was a pretty good time for me. The 15:19 was slower than I had hoped, but I'll take it. I've clearly found my body's limit, as running that triple has screwed up my body both years I've tried it. This week, especially Saturday's meet, seems like a good base to start building upon. January Miles : 71 | 83 |
| Saturday | Indoor Alumni Meet. Mile in 4:23.50, 800 in 2:06.79, 5k in 15:19.21. I warmed up 2M with Fidkowski and Carlos before the mile and cooled down 2M with Khatch and Terry McNatt after everything was finished. The mile went really well, Jake got out to a 10m lead by running a hard first 800, I laid back and closed over the final 3 laps. I was right behind him at 100m and coming around the curve I went around and pulled away down the final straight to win by six tenths. I jogged a couple of laps and ran some strides before putting my feet up and waiting for the half mile. I had over an hour between the mile and the 800, which was plenty of time to recover. I got out a bit slow at the start of the 800 but surged down the back stretch and was in third behind Matt B. and Bill Phipps, with Jake to my left on the rail. We came through in 30 flat and coming at 400m I slowed a bit to hit 61 which is where Monty and Jake went past. I ran a pretty slow third lap before regrouping enough to pass Monty over the final 50m. I had a pretty long time to recover before the start of the 5k and my legs weren't that tired at the start. My spikes had given me a blister on my left heel/Achilles, so I switched to the Nike Streaks for the 5k, which I was probably going to do anyways. Sean wasn't able to make it today, so it was just Eric and I alternating thousands. We were roughly 3:03/6:04/9:06 through 3k. I was feeling a bit tired at that point, Eric took the lead and I just did my best to hang with him. It felt like we were slowing a bit, so I went around Eric at 1500m to go and pulled away over the last 7 laps. We were 10:25 with a mile to go, so I finished up with a 4:54. The 5k wasn't quite the effort I was hoping for, we weren't able to hold 36s very well, but given my earlier races I'm satisfied with where I'm at right now. The rest of the night wasn't so great though, we had a pizza dinner after the meet and my stomach started feeling unsettled. I felt worse as the night went on until my body finally decided to "purge," and then I just went to sleep. Since the same thing happened to me after the same triple last year, I don't think I'll be trying this at next year's meet. | 9 |
| Friday PM | Fake Fresh. I met Khatch and Sean at 5pm in Johnson and we headed out for an easy five miler. My legs were feeling decent, hard to tell on a short run like that, though. We kept things fairly slow the whole way, I felt pretty fast on the pick up at the end and then we ran some quality strides on the indoor track before stretching out. We'll see how things go tomorrow. | 5 |
| Friday AM | Fake Jamaica. I slept 9 hours last night and managed to get started by 7:50 this morning, so that was pretty good. I headed out through the Fens and along the Riverway and took the usual trails to Jamaica. Instead of going around the Pond, I stayed on the trails and just looped around that small pond across the street from Jamaica and headed home. My legs started getting tired about 30:00 into the run, but I managed to make it home without things getting worse. I ran four or five strides in front of the Church before going upstairs to stretch and those really seemed to loosen up my legs. So ready or not Alumni is tomorrow, it'll be interesting to see what I'm capable of at this point. | 7 |
| Thursday PM | Science Museum Loop. Kathryn and I got started just after 4:30, we headed down to river in 50 degree temps. I was feeling decent, my legs weren't that tired, and we kept the pace slow which helped. Kathryn crossed at Longfellow and waited for me to loop down to Science and come back on the Cambridge side. By the time we got back to the apartment my stomach was churning and I had to skip strides again. I have no idea why my stomach is still messed up. | 5 |
| Thursday AM | Docks backwards. I managed to get out of bed before 7am, slowly getting back into the routine. I did sit around until 7:50 trying to wake up, so there's still some ground to cover. I shuffled up to Commonwealth and through Downtown Crossing before my legs caught up with me. I got to Longfellow without feeling too bad, but coming across Longfellow and back to the apartment was just a long, slow stretch. I need to start going to bed earlier to get a full 8+ hours of sleep now that I'm getting up there, age-wise. My stomach started giving me problems around MIT, I made it home without incident but had to skip out on strides. Something wasn't sitting right, because I had stomach aches all morning and wound up lying down for about 15 minutes trying to feel better. I ate a couple slices of pizza and had a Gatorade after last night's workout, but my stomach was hurting then, too, and I think I didn't actually get full, so part of this morning's problems was just that I was hungry. My right ankle has been giving me some grief early in the mornings, it cracks and pops after I wake up and it takes a while to get loosened up when I start running, so I started icing that as I was lying down this morning. I doubt it's anything serious, just another sign that I'm an old man now. | 9 |
| Wednesday | BAA Workout at Reggie. 2M 1M 2M 1M in 9:52, 4:44, 9:52, 4:48. I headed over to Reggie around 7:30 this evening and ran into Jason at Tremont, so I had someone to warm up with today. I wound up standing in line to get my account renewed so I only got the 11 minutes it took me to run to Reggie and maybe 2 laps around the track in my legs and a few strides before getting started. Jason took the lead at the start and said he was planning on 74s, which sounded good, so I sat back and rode his even pacing through the mile. We hit 4:55 and I went to the front to help out, but just wound up bouncing the pace all over the place. It was pretty obvious that this was my first one back on the track because my laps were between 36.5 and 37.6, but I managed to keep things more or less together and hit 4:57 for my part. I was feeling pretty good and didn't want to blow things wide open, so I was trying to find the right gear and just couldn't get it going. We had 5:00 before the mile, Jason led at the start again, I was behind him through maybe 600m, I don't remember that well, hit 800m around 2:23 and opened a bit of a gap over the last half mile. I was all amped up after that one and was planning on 73s for the 2M, which Jason said I'd be alone on. I got out in 35 and overreacted, coming through 400 in 72 and clipping off a couple more 37-mids before straightening things out. I came through the mile in 4:53 which was good but then the wheels started coming off. I didn't exactly fall apart, I just wasn't able to hold pace on the second mile. I was at 8:00 with 3 to go, fought back with a 36.5 but then slowed back down to the 37.5s I'd be running most of the way. My stomach wasn't sitting that well, but luckily it didn't give me any real problems. I was hoping to close things out with a fast mile, but didn't want to go nuts on the first lap like I did last time, so I came through in 36.5 and never got on track. I led through 1k then JB went around and slowly pulled away. I didn't have any speed to close over the last lap, but I did put in a good 50m around the first curve. I hit the john immediately afterwards then put in 14:00 around the jogging lane with Matt Ely, Terry Shea and Jim Dandeneau. After talking with MP for a few minutes and doing a post mortem on the workout I headed home and ran 5 good strides on the grass in front of the Church. My legs were good through about 4.5M today, which isn't a big shock, but I really wish I could have closed things out with a better last mile. Still, this is a good one to have under the belt and not a bad place to be starting from. Going forward after Alumni I'm thinking it will mainly be 2 workouts and 1 long run a week, but I may start alternating weeks to run indoors, just so I'm not on the track a lot. Preliminary racing thoughts are the two BU meets and the US 8k champs building up to the 5k at Penn at the end of April. | 11 |
| Tuesday PM | Orange Line. This afternoon's run almost didn't happen, as I spend too long finishing Bowerman and the Men of Oregon after coming home from the lab. I managed to get started by 6:15 though, and the first half of the run went pretty well. However, coming home down Commonwealth my legs started getting really weak and I was a little light headed. This happens every once in awhile and I have no idea why. Anyways, I finished up with a stride down Clearway then went straight upstairs and ate a little bit while stretching out/lying on the ground. I felt fine the rest of the night, I have no clue why my legs felt so weird tonight. | 4 |
| Tuesday AM | Castle-Bunker Hill. I slept in until about 7am after trying to stay up watching the Fiesta Bowl. I went to bed at the start of the fourth quarter, clearly a mistake. I took my time getting started in this morning, I eventually headed north on Mass Ave at 8am for an easy ten miles. I was feeling okay at the start but by the time I made it to Prospect Hill my legs were pretty tired. I managed to get through the run without things deteriorating, just running on tired legs today. I didn't bother to put in any strides when I got back to Clearway, but I'll make a point of doing that after the PM run. | 10 |
| Monday | Ocean backwards to Old Ollie backwards to New Ollie to Docks. I slept until 11am, which was entirely necessary, then spent the afternoon running errands and doing some chores before finally getting out the door at 4:30pm. I headed out to South Boston by running Ocean backwards to Broadway. From Broadway I turned onto G Street, looped around Telegraph Hill and took G down to Marine (running that downhill is a whole lot easier.) From there I went back to L, took that to Broadway and ran the new Ollie course from there. When I got back to the Convention Center I decided to just take Summer back to the Common and home down Commonwealth, since it was getting kind of late. I wound up running 75:00, and even though I wasn't crawling I can't really call it a dozen. So I start the new year with just eleven miles, but the doubles begin tomorrow. No real resolutions to speak of for 2007, although I did manage to keep last year's by running over 4000 miles in 2006. | 11 |
| Sunday | Fresh Pond. Kathryn and I flew back to Boston at 7am, so there wasn't any running before the flight. We got back to the apartment and I made a couple quesadillas, because all we had in the refrigerator was tortillas and old cheese. Anyways, after some sitting around I hit the road in the late afternoon and headed over to Fresh Pond. I was a little worried about being able to see going around the Pond since the sun had set, but there was almost a full moon and no clouds, so it wasn't an issue. Running around the almost deserted Pond in full moonlight was pretty cool, but the snow that apparently fell yesterday had packed and frozen, so footing wasn't that great. Leaving the Pond I was thinking how much chopping your stride to keep traction kills your quads, but then realized that maybe yesterday's hard 10M had something to do with the fatigue. I finished up decently well, kept the pace honest the whole way. No time for strides and just some basic stretching before we had to head out for the New Year's Eve party. December Miles : 285. 2006 Miles : 4578 | 12 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 02 12/24-12/30 |
Hopefully this week kicks off an upward trend in my training. Last week I wasn't so enthused about getting back into it, but running consistently with Nick this week really got me refocused and re-energized. I'm excited about the races I have coming up and think I can really get into good shape for them. I put in a decent 15M long run on Sunday (that needs to start creeping upwards) and also two very nice hard efforts, a great 5M decrease/tempo with Nick on Tuesday highlighted by back to back 4:55s to finish it off and a very solid 10M effort averaging right at 5:30 the whole way to close the week on Saturday. Things are coming around, my legs are feeling good when I'm running and they seem to be recovering well. However all this holiday food isn't treating me so nicely and I'm tipping the scales at upwards of 170 lbs, how far above 170 depends on how far removed from my most recent meal I am. I'm flying back to Boston tomorrow, where my poor graduate student stipend can't support such lavish meals, so I think I'll be okay. December Miles : 273 | 84 |
| Saturday | 10M tempo north along Lake Drive. 27:31 out, 27:17 back. Nick was sick this morning so the trip to Lapham was cancelled. I sat around most of the day reading and snacking until I finall marshalled the energy to get out the door at 3pm. I had wanted to run a hard 10M this week, and today seemed the perfect opportunity. I warmed up down to Kenwood and back to Capitol before jumping right into it. The plan was to run 5M out based on time, take my first mile split multiply that by 5 and that was how long I'd run before turning around because I don't know any mile marks past Klode. I came past 4676 in 5:30, which I more or less held the rest of the way. I was 11:03 at 2M and 16:30 at Klode, then tacked on 11 lonely minutes into Fox Point, almost making it to Bell before turning back. I was 11:03 at Klode and 16:30 at 3M but the long half mile from Big Bay to 4676 hurt me and I was 22:09 with a mile to go. I managed to get focused and speed up over the last mile while still avoiding hammering full out and finished the run off with a 5:18. Pretty solid effort today, after the first mile I was a bit unsure of whether or not I'd be able to hold 5:30s the whole way but managed without much incident. There were a few occasions where it felt as though I might be slowing down, but that was largely out in Fox Point where I have no landmarks and no basis for judging my speed. The last mile was a nice gut check and I managed to run aggressively without becoming desperate or red-lining. Both hamstrings were somewhat tight after I finished, so I forced myself to jog back to Beverly and then ran 5 good strides, even getting up to full speed on the fourth. I was happy with how things went today. Anytime I feel like I'm slightly out of shape but can still manage to hold a respectable pace without working too hard gets me thinking marathon, but I still think that's not a good idea. | 12 |
| Friday | Art Museum, with some extra along the Lake, bike path back to Hampton, Hampton to Lake Drive and home. Nick and I ran somewhat early today, but I made him run over to my house to give me 15 extra minutes in the morning. I felt decent at the start, even though Nick claimed to be tired we started out at 6:40s along the Lakefront. We cut over to the pier behind Veteran's Park after going past the Yacht Club, and after dodging some dogs we managed to tack on a few extra minutes by taking a longer route to the Art Museum. We headed back to Shorewood along the bike path, which is where my legs started getting heavy, too many MGDs with Mr. Kenney last night I guess. We were originally thinking 16M this morning, but I had to beg off and we cut it down to 14. Nick didn't complain at all, he said the week was getting to him too. We took the bike path all the way to Hampton, coming out behind the DQ then ran east on Hampton. Nick turned off at Marlborough and I was on my own up to Lake and back home. I had us at 6:40-6:50 based on some mile marks painted on the bike path and I finished up with a 6:30 from 4676 to Capitol. Threw in a two block surge after that to get to Beverly and then shut it down. I wound up at 91:00, so probably a little short, but I did not have it in me to tack on the extra 4 junk minutes so I'm rounding it up and will round something else down later on. | 14 |
| Thursday | Bender with Nick. Had to squeeze this one in early since I had errands to run the rest of the day. I got up at 7 and was heading over to Nick's place by 7:45, which was easier than I was anticipating despite going out with Dom last night. We just ran the usual 10 mile route and kept things fairly laid back. When we got to Lake Drive we were running 6:30-6:45s and things felt easy and relaxed. It feels like now that I'm 2 weeks back my default pace is moving from 7:00-7:15 down closer to 6:40. Not much time for stretching afterwards, which I paid for the rest of the day. Went over to the Kenney's in the evening with Kathryn and Nick, had a good time catching up with him and reliving the golden age of SHS running. | 10 |
| Wednesday | Bike Path and River Trails. I ran over to SHS at 7:30 this morning and met up with Nick. We ran down to the bike path by Baker's Square and ran out and back down to Locust before heading back to SHS. Then we met up with Dom and some younger SHS XC guys. We headed west on Capitol and got on the trails on the other side of the river. We were shuffling along at the start and I was way in the back, but I eventually worked my way up to the lead and just before Locust some of us started pulling away. It wound up being four of us, Nick and I along with one of Dom's friends and Dennis Walsh. We went out past North Ave and crossed over on some new bridge then headed back on the east side of the river. The trails on that side are really nice, someone has smoothed them out and put down gravel, put on the west side we were still winding around, dodging roots, etc. It felt like we were moving pretty fast by the end, I'd relax for a few seconds then look up and realize they had a 10m gap on me and I'd have to bust my ass to catch back up. By the time we got back to SHS the total time was at 71, which I guess I can call 11M and then after some stretching and a bagel I jogged home to make it 12M for this morning. I'm going to try and get in a second run this afternoon, but I'm not sure if that will actually happen. | 12 |
| Tuesday | 5M decreasing pace with Nick. 5:30-5:18-5:18-4:55-4:55. Nick drove over and picked me up at noon today, then we drove down to Kenwood so we could warm up in pants and then strip down and put clothes in his car before starting the workout. We ran a St. Mary's loop in about 20 minutes for a nice 3M warmup and I was feeling pretty good, though Nick said his legs were heavy. We spent maybe 10 minutes stretching out and Nick changed into flats before going over to the line. The plan was 6:00-5:40-5:20-5:00-sub5:00 for the 5M run, put that fell apart pretty quickly. We got started and it felt like we were jogging along, but then we hit the half mile in 2:40 and were both surprised at how fast that was. We tried to back off to 3:00 for the next half, but came through in 5:30 for the mile and had a decision to make. Nick wanted to run 5:30-5:30-5:30-5:15-5:00 but that seemed too easy for me after running 5:30 with no effort, so I suggested we shoot for 5:30-5:30-5:15-5:00-sub 5. We hit the next half at just under 2:45 and split the second mile in 5:18. We were both moving really well from there, Nick was a step or two ahead but wasn't trying to pull away. The third mile always seems to be the longest, we were 2:38 at the turn and then 5:18 again. From there we really started going at it. I surged through the 3M mark and had the lead for a little bit, the Nick came back and really dominated the rest of the mile. It was all I could do to just stick on him, with 1.5M left I was sure he'd kick my ass and I started getting cramps in my side, so I just did my best to relax, breathe easily and let my legs keep me on Nick's left shoulder. We were about 2:26 at the half and then 4:55 at Capitol and then my legs came around and I threw down a big surge at the start of the last mile. Up until today I had been concerned about whether I'd be in 15 flat shape by Alumni, but by the time we hit 4M I was sure things were going to be okay. I just got into a good mindset and did my best to pull away from Nick. I put in a really good 600m and hit the half mile in 2:23 but then I started slowing and Nick really came back on me. I was about 13 seconds up on him at the half, but he closed to just 4 seconds behind by the finish. My legs were fine over the last half mile, but I was getting cramps around my heart and started losing focus. I managed to hold things together through the line and then commenced coughing up a lung as Nick puked in the street. We both slowly regained our composure, put our pants back on and cooled down with another St. Mary's loop. I was really happy with how today went, 25:58 for 5M, 20:28 for the final 4M and around 15:45 for the last 5k. I would have liked to close out the last mile better, I think I could have gone under 4:50, but it's not as though I completely fell apart. Nick dropped me off at home and I loaded up on some leftover turkey and stuffing. Really pleased with today's effort, I guess I was exaggerating the affect of taking a week off after Clubs. | 11 |
| Monday | Bender with Nick. I was up until 12:30 or so last night, but Nick needed to be done early today since it's Christmas, so I got up at 7:30am and was heading over to his place at 8:15. I was still feeling pretty fresh despite a long run yesterday, so Nick and I got moving pretty quickly. Just the basic 10M Bender loop, finishing up at 6:20-6:30 pace down Lake Drive. Thinking about getting out for a double, but things were pretty busy and then I ate far too much food for dinner and spent the rest of the evening laying around trying to digest. | 10 |
| Sunday | Bender plus Kletzsch plus down to Kenwood. I ran over and met Nick around 10 this morning and we headed out to the Parkway as we usually do. Dom was going to ride along with us, but he's apparently sick and didn't want to give it to us. I was looking to put in 14-16M, as was Nick. We ran through Kletzsch, up and over the sledding hill and out to the turn around near Good Hope. We then turned on Bender and took that up to the Lake. Coming back to Capitol we were running around 6:30s, we headed past Capitol and out to Kenwood, running closer to 6:20s and feeling comfortable. We just turned back at Kenwood, my legs were close to being shot, and I peeled off at my house around 100 minutes after I started. I was in a pretty good mood after such a good run, so I wound up running 5 strides out in the street in just shorts and a t-shirt. It took a couple to get my legs loosened up again, but I got moving pretty well on the third and fourth. | 15 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 01 12/17-12/23 |
This wasn't my most diligent week about getting the miles in. I kept putting off my runs and then had to compromise on the distance just to get myself motivated to get out the door. Managed to put in a longer run on Friday and my legs felt pretty good, so maybe I'm exaggerating the affects of taking one week off and one week of lower mileage. Still, Alumni is just 2 weeks away and I'm not sure what kind of shape I'll be in if I keep this stuff up. December Miles : 189 | 72 |
| Saturday | Art Museum. Nick was still waiting for his luggage and I missed his call once he found his stuff, so we wound up running separately today. I waited far too long to get out the door and was pressed for time once I finally started. My gloves were still soaked from running in the rain yesterday, so I headed out along the lakefront in 38 degree temps trying to use my sleeves to keep my hands warm. I started out around 6:40s and finished up around 6:30s, not a bad run despite the distance. On the whole I'm happy with my first week back running. | 8 |
| Friday | Milwaukee River Parkway with Nick. I flew back to Milwaukee early this morning and met up with Nick around 2pm for some easy mileage. Nick's luggage hadn't made it back with him, so he dug up some old shoes and soccer shorts for today's run. I headed over to his house then we just followed the bike trail through Estabrook and Lincoln and then along the Parkway almost to Good Hope before turning around. We put in 35:00 out past Nick's house, so it was a pretty solid distance day for me, since it's 2M from my house to Nick's. It felt good to finally get some real running in, I'm really hoping a week here training with Nick will jump start things. | 14 |
| Thursday | Castle Bunker Hill. I finally got out the door in the morning, heading over to Cambridge at 7:45am. My legs are starting to feel better, most of the run was comfortable and felt pretty natural. The climb up Bunker Hill was easy, but coming down Commonwealth my legs started to tighten up. I finished up with a pickup from Boylston back to Clearway but that didn't help to loosen things up at all. This afternoon I took my last exam ever and was planning on tacking on another 4 or 5M when I got home, but I just never got up off the couch. I'm flying back to Milwaukee tomorrow, so hopefully having Nick around will get things kickstarted. | 10 |
| Wednesday | Fresh Pond. I decided to spend the day studying at home, which would let the temperatures warm up and I was originally planning on running out to the Arboretum. I headed out around 2pm, but felt like going a bit shorter than 14M. It's still taking 15-20 minutes before I'm into the rhythm of things and I kept things pretty relaxed the whole way, my legs are still pretty tired/sore/fatigued. When I hit then Pond I clocked a 3:20 half, which was quicker than I was anticipating. I tried tp keep things at about the same pace the rest of the way but I'm not really sure if that happened. My legs felt sore the whole time, I'm still waiting for the run where everything feels natural again. | 12 |
| Tuesday | Jamaica. It's taking me a little longer to get back into things than I anticipated. I didn't feel like running this morning, so I waited until 4 this afternoon to get some miles in. I headed out to Jamaica, thinking about going around the Pond twice, but decided it was going to get too dark to run home safely on the trails, so I kept it to just 9M this afternoon. I need to just commit and get back to 14-16M days by the end of this week. My legs felt okay, they're still not as used to running as I would like them to be. | 9 |
| Monday | Orange Line then Longfellow-BU. I flew back to Boston this morning and spent some time running errands before finally leaving for the run at 4:50. I did my standard "get the miles in" route, because it was getting dark and none of the usual routes sounded that interesting. I unfortunately brought my watch along, which means that I know I was running 7:00s along the river and just 60:00 total, so I'm only able to call this one 9M. My legs are starting to come around, I think, running is starting to feel a bit more natural. | 9 |
| Sunday | Bender. After driving back from Iowa last night I was pretty tired and slept until 10am or so. I got up and ate breakfast then watched the abysmal GB-DET game before going out the door. I brought my watch because I wasn't quite sure where I was going to go and just headed down to Bender by default. I wasn't feeling altogether great, but you have to make the most of these balmy Wisconsin Decembers when the temperatures are mid 40s. I pretty much just coasted through the run today, still trying to get my legs under me. I finished up around 7:10-7:20s for the last few miles. | 10 |
Day |
Round Up |
Miles |
| Week 00 12/10-12/16 |
December Miles : 117 | 23 |
| Saturday | Iowa River Corridor. I flew to Milwaukee yesterday and immediately drove to Iowa City since Emily's graduating today. One of the reasons I decided not to run this week was that I didn't want to feel like I had to force myself to run this weekend while travelling. Sitting in Culver's yesterday eating my BBQ Bacon Burger and fries I decided that it was time to detox and get back to it. I woke up about 6:45 this morning after 8 hours of sleep and was on the IRC path before 7:15. There were markers every quarter mile but on the way out I didn't look at my watch at all. The path ended after almost 3M at a park full of baseball diamonds, but nobody was around for my great "Is this heaven?" joke. I ran down the sidewalk until it ended then turned into the Sandhill Estates, hitting the main drags like Covered Wagon Drive and Oxen Lane. I took a dirt construction road to a different subdivision and wandered around until just after 30:00. My legs started feeling shaky after 35 minutes or so, but I managed to hold things together. Coming back along the path I checked a few miles and ran 7:00 then 6:40. I finished up a minute or two quicker on the way back than I was on the way out. I figure I'll take a few days to get into things, but there's not that much time before Alumni. | 9 |
| Friday | Thought about running this morning, but instead I just ate breakfast and went to the airport. | 0 |
| Thursday | Thought about running this morning, instead decided to get to the lab early and get back to my research. | 0 |
| Wednesday | Pretty much done with classes now, I'll start running fairly soon. | 0 |
| Tuesday | More work. Feels good to not run. | 0 |
| Monday | Trying to finish up work this week, so no running. I could use a break anyways. | 0 |
| Sunday | Golden Gate Bridge. Sean and I met Mark and Josh in the lobby at 7am and we headed out along the water towards the Golden Gate bridge. Temps were in the mid 40s, I'd guess, with an occasional bit of rain. I was feeling pretty good from the start, but the rest of the guys were groaning and aching, so I just kept my mouth shut. It took a long time to get across the bridge, once we finally made it we stopped at the observation point for a few minutes then headed back to the hotel. Josh and Mark took us over to Lombard Street and we climbed that for fun then finally headed home. Pretty good run this morning, the bridge was a popular destination. | 14 |
