Week 20

Week 19

Week 18

Week 17

Week 16

Week 15

Week 14

Week 13

Week 12

Week 11

Week 10

Week 09

Week 08

Week 07

Week 06

Week 05

Week 04

Week 03

Week 02

Week 01

ROLLING WEEK = 52 M

SEASON MILES = 736

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 20 04-03 - 04-09	April Miles : 61	48
FRI	River-Beacon Street. Met Jared on the river, then Harvey and Dan Smith by the MIT Boathouse this morning. We ran down to Science and back up the river on the Boston side. Felt pretty good this morning and it was fun to have company on the run. Wound up going a bit longer than I originally planned and was tempted to go even longer with the guys, nice morning and good conversation. Turned back at 55 minutes, between the 6.5 and 7 mile marks, and ran back home solo, finishing at 83 minutes. Took the Fielder bridge to Beacon Street and went back the usual way. Left knee sore by the end of the run, but other than that felt good. Worked out what I think is a good plan for the next week: easy tomorrow, speed work Sunday, long-ish Monday, easy Tuesday, workout Wednesday, easy and strides the rest of the week.	11
THU	Day off. Was tired and behind schedule this morning, and once the thought of taking a day off entered my mind, a flood of reasons (excuses) followed. My left knee was pretty sore when I walked Midge, so resting that was probably good. I ran so poorly yesterday that a day off was probably a good idea.	0
WED	3x1M in 5:22, 5:16, 5:13. Headed over to MIT this morning for the workout, felt pretty good on the way over and legs felt like they had a lot of speed in them during strides. Wasn't sure what to expect pace-wise, my plan was to start out at 5:15 and cut down from there. Was expecting that 78-79 would feel very relaxed so was thinking the first mile would feel comfortable. Went out in 40, tried to pick it up and hit 80 at 400. Wasn't ready mentally to start hammering and wound up cruising to the 5:22 with splits of 80-81-80-81. Had a lot of negative thoughts during the first mile but did a good job of re-focusing during the 400m rest. Accepted the fact that I wasn't feeling great today and resolved to just work hard over the final two miles. Got out a little better to start the second mile, came through halfway in 2:39 and managed to keep working on the second half. Started off the final mile with a 77 and got excited, lost focus on the second lap and hit 2:37 at 800, but rebounded with back to back 78s. Took another 200m rest and then ran a hard 200m in 33 to make it a full 5k of work this morning. My legs felt decent throughout the workout, my hip flexor was sore at the very start but loosened up and there was nothing that affected the workout at all. The plan was to use this workout as a predictor for the 5k next week, but hopefully this is a poor predictor of what I'm capable of. Certainly came in too confident about my fitness and shouldn't have been expecting 5:15 to feel comfortable. Happy with how I responded, though, and instead of allowing things to spiral out of control I ran hard on the final two miles. I had a lot of negative thoughts during the slow first mile but stayed positive over the final two miles. I've had a string of workouts where I've felt really good, but that can't continue forever. I'm still unsure of what to expect for the 5k, but I know I won't run 14M the day before. I did my best to recover, had a big plate of pasta last night and even ate vegetables during lunch yesterday, and really I didn't feel sore or run down, but I suspect I was a little fatigued today. So the plan is to regroup, hopefully regain some confidence and do what it takes to get to the line next Sunday feeling good.	9
TUE	Fens-Riverway with JMark and Harvey. Met Jared and Brian along the river by New House this morning, we ran down to Mass Ave and took Boylston to the Fens. Ran out to Jamaica, but turned around instead of looping around the pond. Ran together back over the BU Bridge and then Jared came along down to Mass Ave. Got a little caught up in the conversation and wagering, so this wound up being longer than I had originally planned. My left knee was sore at the beginning again and I think I figured out why it's causing my foot to smack on the ground. I don't fully extend my leg because of the pain, so my knee is bent when my foot hits the ground and my heel doesn't hit the ground first. Things loosened up after a few minutes though and didn't give me any problems the rest of the way. A little tired at the end, but ran a 7:10 along the river and felt like I could have kept on going. Finished up at 1:45, which is 7:30 pace for 14M. Hopefully I'm recovered enough tomorrow that I'm still able to have a good workout.	14
MON	Docks-Greenway. Tired this morning and really struggled to get through this run. Felt good enough at the very beginning, but after two or three minutes my left knee was bothering me, which is a new development. The best way to describe it is that it's stiff and feels like I can't straighten it fully. The result was that I was really smacking my left foot on the ground, I wasn't able to roll from my heel to toe. Also noticed I couldn't change the direction my toe was pointing, but I don't know if I've ever been able to do that while running. Opted for Docks, knowing I could cut it short if need be. Coming into South Station it was clear that I needed to just head home. Nothing was hurting so terribly that I couldn't have kept pushing through, but I was lacking the energy to see it through. All along the Greenway it was left knee and right hip bothering me, and I felt like I was 1,000 years old. My left knee was really tight once I stopped and was actually pretty painful. Hard to isolate exactly what it was, it's the inside of the knee but not sure if it's quad or calf or what that's causing it. Slapped some ice on it while eating breakfast and it felt better. Hope I remember to do that again tonight. Had wanted to get some mileage in today to compensate for skipping the long run yesterday, so will try to get that in tomorrow.	6
SUN	3x3x300 in 54, 52, 52; 56, 52, 51; 53, 49, 50. Drove over to MIT this morning in case the track was locked and I had to go to Harvard. Ran the usual 2M warm up loop and then tried to really stretch out my hip well. Ran a couple strides to loosen up and then got into the workout. Must have done a good job of getting ready because my hip never bothered me and it felt fast and easy from the jump. Came in with a plan of 60-57-54 for each set and after coming through in 19 for the first 100 tried to ease off slightly. The wind was a little stiff on the backstretch, but not a problem on the curve, so even though I tried to ease off I wound up running faster and hitting 54. I wasn't sure what to do from there, that was as fast as I had come into the workout expecting to run, and it was so easy I knew I had a lot more. Came up with a plan of trying to run the next 2 faster, then starting off the final two sets a little slower. Felt great on the next two 300s, getting out in 17-mid on each of them and not pressing too much at any time. Had 100m between the intervals and 500m between sets and I appreciated the extra rest after the first 3. Purposefully held back to start off the second set and felt better speeding up from there to finish off the set. Nothing special on this set, though I did feel a little burning in my legs over the final 50m of the final interval. It's been a long time since I've felt that, but it was still completely familiar. Decided I'd try to get a little bit more from the final set and didn't hold back as much on the first interval. Still very comfortable to hit 54 and then did a great job of hammering the second without worrying about the last interval. My legs were pretty tired after running the 49, then got off the line well and tried to hammer final interval but couldn't quite get it going over the last 200m. Forced myself to cool down with a BU loop, managed to resist the temptation of cutting it short. Very pleased with how the workout went, it was significantly faster than I was expecting. In retrospect, starting out at 60 would have been terribly slow, given that I strung together 3 consecutive 80-82 second quarters at the end of each 3.25M interval on Wednesday. It helped that I have no concept of what a fast 300m time is, I felt like I was running great times and didn't realize until halfway through that 52 is still pretty slow. In my current frame of reference, though, running feeling good at 52 is a great development. Starting to think I'll be ready for BAA 5k.	8

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 19 03-27 - 04-02	Overall a mediocre week in that I skipped Monday and didn't get a true long run in. But I had a fantastic workout on Wednesday morning with Carly, much better than I could have expected and had good runs on Tuesday and Thursday as well. It feels like I'm right on the edge of a breakthrough, if I can only keep putting in the work. April Miles : 13	53
SAT	Charlestown Loop with Midge. We had to be out of the house at 11:30 for a walk-through, so Kathryn took Nate for a run and I took Midge. Ran the usual loop around Charlestown and finished up with 5 short sprints up the grass hill at the Monument. Midge wasn't really in the mood today and after we passed the Constitution she spent the rest of the run trotting behind me at the end of her leash. I felt great today and the weather was perfect, I was overheating in a long sleeve shirt and gloves.	4
FRI	Castle-Bunker Hill. Woke up to see snow on the ground, welcome to April. Able to get an earlier start because Kathryn's staying home, but after taking Midge out, etc. I didn't leave until 6:30am. The snow wasn't a big problem to deal with, some areas were clear, others had half an inch of snow and other places were just slush. Didn't have much of a choice in routes, had to run Castle-Bunker Hill on the final day of snow this winter (hopefully). My hip flexor was pretty sore by the end, almost certainly from slipping and sliding through the snow/slush. Another basic, boring run. Seems like a longshot to be able to put in speedwork tomorrow as planned.	9
THU	Fenway with JMark and Harvey. Met Jared and Brian along the river and convinced them to get off the river and we ran past Fenway since baseball season starts today. Had a good time running with those guys, but I was pretty beat up after yesterday. My right hamstring was pretty sore right where it hits my butt, for lack of a better explanation. Loosened up over the course of the run but was happy to be done when I got home. Wrapped up at 71 minutes, for what it's worth. Not much happened today, though I did get a glimpse of the field at Fenway through an open door. March Miles : 180	9
WED	2x5200m in 18:40, 18:25 via 5:58-2:56-2:51-2:49-82-82-80, 5:49-2:53-2:49-2:50-82-82-79. Paced Carly during her workout, she ran 2x(1600-800-400-400) and I just kept running during her rest periods. Took 3:00 between the two sets. Warmed up over to MIT at 7:30 this morning and was actually feeling pretty good and my legs felt quick during the few strides I ran to get loose. Started off with a 90 second lap and despite trying to speed up over the course of the first mile. Felt good at the end and comfortably sped up a little bit when running solo. Ran fairly even splits for the next 800 with Carly and handled the increase in speed well. Tried to speed up a bit when running solo but was a bit stuck on 84s and not sure how I'd do on the 400s. Got out well on all 3 400s, but didn't manage to close with any speed until the final one. Jogged an easy lap as rest and even though my legs were fatigued I felt confident at the start of the next set. Was a little too excited at the start and took us out in 40, the speed from the 400s made it feel pretty comfortable, but adjusted from there and ran an 85 for the first lap then hit 87-88 for the next three. Didn't feel that great on the 800s, I think the effort and distance was starting to get to me. I didn't have any problems maintaining pace, but staying focused and in the workout was more difficult. Also, somewhere in the second 800, with Carly, I noticed my right leg was much weaker than my left. I think my right hip flexor was just too tired and I felt very uneven the rest of the way. I had no problems lifting my left knee but felt like I was pushing my right leg forward instead of pulling the right knee up, if that makes any sense. There wasn't any pain (my hamstring never bothered me) and I managed to get through the rest of the workout without a problem, but I should probably be doing a little more stretching and icing. Shifting gears for the 400s was hard, my legs weren't hurting but I was pretty spent and didn't have a lot more effort to put into the workout. The hardest part of the workout was probably staying focused at the start of the second 400 as Carly was stopping. On the final 400, Carly followed me through 200 then I swung out to the outside of the lane and she started picking it up. Had to work to stay with her from 200-300 and then found a groove and felt pretty good over the final 100m. Pretty tired when it was all over, had a slow jog back home to cooldown and my right hip was pretty angry by the end of that. Very pleased with how things went, this was exactly the kind of workout I've been wanting to do and I certainly couldn't have done it on my own. Managed 6.5M at 5:40 pace and just two weeks ago couldn't run 2M at that pace. Spent a bit of time on the warm up thinking about not wanting the BAA 5k to be just a time trial and needing to get to where I'm able to push myself beyond what's comfortable. When I'm not in great shape and not up near the front of races, I struggle to be competitive and have a tendency to run as hard as I think I can and don't push myself beyond that. My goal is to go into the race with a recalibrated frame of reference and care deeply about beating the people around me. Today's workout didn't directly translate, since I was mostly cruising along at a hard but manageable pace, but I got to work on hanging in there as my body tired and I'll definitely be more fit during future workouts. Another brick in the road.	13
TUE	River-Beacon-North Station. Headed out along the river this morning and met Harvey by New House. I knew motivation would be an issue again, so I made plans to meet up with Harvey and it was very worth it. We looped down around Museum of Science, ran up to the 6.5 then turned around, ran back to the Hatch Shell and took Fielder Bridge to Beacon St. Parted ways with Harvey there and ran up the hill and over to North Station on my own. It felt good to get out for a long run again (85:30) and was good to catch up with Harvey.	12
MON	Day off. Pretty cold this morning and didn't want to deal with that. Just lazy.	0
SUN	Docks-Greenway. Completely apathetic and tired when I woke up this morning and very nearly took the day off. Somehow managed to get my shoes on and get out the door just after 8am. Felt a little better during the run and almost talked myself into going longer, but kept it short and easy today. Not sure what it is exactly, but for the most part I'm not that excited about dealing with the cold weather anymore. Just a blah day.	6

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 18 03-20 - 03-26	Missed a couple of days, including Sunday's long run, so this wasn't a great week mileage-wise, but ran two very good workouts (very good is a relative term) and am now feeling a lot more confident in myself. Very happy with how I felt on Tuesday, but thought I would have been closer to 5:20. Ecstatic, then, to start off Friday's workout with a 5:18, but wished the 800s afterwards had been quicker. Would have been interesting to see how the workout would have gone on the track. March Miles : 140	41
SAT	Fells with Midge. Got to Bellevue Pond just before 8am this morning, right as they were unlocking the gates. We got right into the run, starting out on the blue trail and eventually working our way over towards the Sheepsfold. We were at the base of Bear Hill around 30 minutes into the run and it was probably a mistake for me to run hard up the hill. That seemed to break Midge a bit, and she spent the rest of the run trotting along behind me. I felt pretty good, but my right hip and hip flexor were pretty sore. Not sure if that was because of the speedwork yesterday or just the rough terrain today. Had hoped to go a bit longer today, but ended at 55 minutes which was long enough with the way my hip felt and probably 10 minutes too long for Midge.	7
FRI	1M-800-800, 1M of 20s on, 20s off in 5:18, 2:39, 2:34, 5:45. Had planned to do this on the track at MIT, so warmed up over to there this morning only to find the track was locked. Who knew they started locking the track? I had to scramble a bit, but the workout translated decently to the stretch on the river from 2.5-3.5. Got more or less right into it once I got over to the river and it took a minute or so for my hamstring to loosen up, just like Wednesday. Still managed to get out hard, I think, and managed to keep pushing throughut the entire mile. Thought I saw 2:32 at the half, but I was guessing at where the 3 was (more on that later) and I know I didn't slow to 2:46 on the second half. Took 2:30 rest and got into the 800 with another hard start. Did a good job of working hard, but missed the 3 again and stopped at the crosswalk. Took 1:30 rest, most of which was spent looking for the 3, but I wasn't able to find it. Started at the crosswalk again, which I think makes the first 800 long and the second one short. Really started to struggle over the final minute or so and could feel myself extending my stride as I tried to speed up. Took enough rest to set up the timer on the watch and got into the mile of 20s/20s. Tried to focus on being efficient during the fast stretches and not jogging during the easy parts. I just extended the final 20s stretch by 5s to get to the mile mark. Took a couple minutes to regroup and then jogged home easily to finish up. Somewhat happy with this workout, but again felt like it should have been a bit quicker. Still, given where I was just last week, being able to run about 5:10 pace is a great improvement. Would have been nice to have done this on the track and gotten more feedback about pace during the intervals. Hopefully I'm moving beyond the "rust busting" stage and can get into some more serious workouts over the next few weeks.	8
THU	Day off. Wasn't excited to deal with the snow this morning and couldn't find a time during the day to run.	0
WED	2M-1M-1M along the river in 11:31-5:25-5:25. Warmed up over to the 4.5M mark and more or less got right into the workout. My right hamstring was pretty sore at the start but after less than a minute it started to feel a lot better and I was in a good rhythm. Excited to see 2:50-5:40 for the early splits but again lost focus in the third half mile. Came through in 8:37 (2:57), and was more focused over the final 800m but couldn't bring the pace back around and finished with a 2:54. Took just under 3:00 rest and got myself re-focused and ready to run the final 2 miles hard. Wanted to really get after the first mile and not be concerned about saving anything for the second mile. Started out great and hit 2:41 at the half. Really tried to hammer the rest of the way but slowed a bit and hit 5:25. After 2:00 rest was back on the line and got out really well again. Glad to see another 2:40 at the half and really felt like I was working hard on the final half mile. Completely expected to see 5:15 as it felt like I was redlining and doing a great job of pushing myself. I wasn't running as fast as it felt, apparently, because I finished up in 5:25. My form is definitely not very efficient, I was really slapping my feet on the ground instead of getting up on my toes as I tried to run faster. Went back and forth on how I felt about this workout afterwards. Had I known before that I would run the times I did, I would have been pleased as it was a big step forward from last week, especially after yesterday's mileage. But given how good I felt today, I came away disappointed that I didn't run faster. On the cooldown, though, I started to be happy that I was disappointed, since that means I'm raising my expectations for myself.	8
TUE	Elliot with JMark and Bedoya. Met Jared on the river just after 7am and started running up river, planning on Fake Fresh. Bumped into Bedoya just after JFK and we changed our route and stayed on the river. Crossed over at Elliot and headed back to Science where we split up. Felt good today, maybe because I ate a big plate of pasta last night. Didn't check too many splits, but we were running about 7:15 the few times I looked. Out there for 93 minutes, this was a long 12M, but I'll round down.	12
MON	Back Bay with 1M "time trial" in 5:34. Got a late start this morning, started the run around 7am, but my legs felt halfway decent from the beginning. Saw Harvey and Dan Smith on the Mass Ave bridge, but they were heading up river and I was on my way home. Tried running hard for the mile along the river, I felt good but wasn't running very fast. Knew I got off to a slow start and apparently I never got things in gear. Hit the half around 2:47 so it was fairly evenly split, despite feeling like I closed hard. Back to normal speed the rest of the way home.	6
SUN	Day off. Had a bunch of chores and errands today, plus my parents are in town and were coming over to see Nate. Very busy day, unfortunately no time to run.	0

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 17 03-13 - 03-19	Got off to a good start this week, working hard, but wasn't able to close it out the way I had hoped. Another 13M long run on Sunday and forced my way through a double digit run the next day. Ran a workout on Tuesday morning but didn't run all that fast. I made a mistake in underestimating myself and started off too slowly. Probably could have managed back to back 11:40s, but even that wouldn't be very impressive. Thought I had a chance to get to 70M this week, but that hinged on putting in 13M in Lincoln but the trails weren't clear enough yet. March Miles : 99	54
SAT	Run to Remember course in 32:23. Same idea as a few weeks ago, I ran easy over to New Chardon and then simply tried (unsuccessfully) to hammer for 5M. Felt like I got off to a good start, but lost focus after Charles Street and wasn't ever able to really get it back. Had spurts of being focused and pushing hard, but for the most part the final 3-4 miles were coasting at a "fast" pace. Disappointed to see this was 45 seconds slower than two weeks ago.	7
FRI	Broadway-Prospect. At a loss for how far and where to run this morning, so ran over the bridge to Memorial and cut up Broadway, following it to Prospect and took the usual route home from there. My legs felt terrible the whole way, finally felt halfway decent up Bunker Hill at the very end, but today was an effort to just put in bare bones mileage.	6
THU	Lincoln with the Elys. Got started at 5:30 and felt good early, though my right ankle and my right hip, a little bit, bothered me throughout. The run was a lot of fun, it was good to catch up with Matt and Brett, but the trails aren't ready for running yet. Not bad early, but there were a few stretches where the snow was 5 inches deep or the trail was iced over. Pretty bad along the road by Walden and also climbing up the hills on the way to the farm at the end. Got through the standard route, what we call 10M, in 90 minutes. Today was a "time on the feet" kind of day and I was actually pretty tired at the end of the run. Going to have to wait a few more weeks before trying Lincoln again.	10
WED	Day off. Had to be at home early because we had painters coming over, and wasn't able to get away from work the rest of the day.	0
TUE	2x2M in 12:03, 11:33. The plan this morning was 2x2M on the river, shooting for sub 12:00 on the first and then 20 seconds faster on the second. To avoid the construction by Science I warmed up over the locks to Staniford and took the footbridge by MGH. Stretched out my right hamstring briefly before starting, but that seemed to just make it tighter. Felt great early otherwise and came through the first splits in 3:00 and 6:00. Got too complacent, though, and ran a 3:07 on the 3rd half mile. Rallied really well though and closed with a 2:56. Gave myself 4:00 rest, which turned out to be much more than I needed, and had psyched myself up to run better on the second 2M. Got out well and came through in 2:55/5:50. Found even more in my legs over the final mile and closed with 2:52/2:51. Pleased with this as a first rust buster, but I made some mistakes with the plan. Just trying to break 12:00 was too soft a goal and I wasn't pushing myself after clicking off the first 6:00 mile so easily. Did a better job of running hard on the second interval and that just left me wondering what I could have done had I been more aggressive. I've got a lot more work ahead of me, but this was a good introduction to running hard again. I need to do a better job of stretching and icing my right hip and hamstring, I could really feel them affecting my stride and actually limiting how hard I could run. Felt like it would have pulled if I tried to get up on my toes and extend my stride.	8
MON	Fake Fresh backwards. A little tough to get started this morning, and we didn't get Nate out the door to daycare until nearly 7am. Pretty tired throughout the whole run, first back to back double digit runs in over a month. Just slogging through more miles, about 7:40 along the river at the end.	10
SUN	Ocean-Broadway. Same route as last week and pretty much the same speed. Started a bit after 8am, but felt earlier because of daylight savings time. Felt a lot better than last week, but wound up not running any faster. Was 59:20 to the base of G Street and felt good on the climb up the hill. Not much happened on the run, and wasn't dragging during the last section on the Greenway.	13

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 16 03-06 - 03-12	This week was better than the past few have been, but still not that great. Had a decent run on Sunday morning, glad I went long but had hoped to get a bit farther than 13M. Need to work on increasing the mileage of my long run. Then got overwhelmed by work for a few days but managed to get out the door on Wednesday and put in an okay 5:22 along the river. Friday was a good run with a group of guys and then tried to get a little bit of speed work, such as it is, done on Saturday. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel with work, finally, and the goal is to run every day next week. March Miles : 45	38
SAT	Out and back to MIT track, with a mile of ins-and-outs in 5:59. Had decided that today was a good time to start working on turnover, so headed over to MIT along the river for some "speedwork" on the track. My right hamstring was sore from yesterday's run, but I figured it would loosen up enough on the 3M over to the track and I wasn't too worried. It never really loosened up, though, and I had to force my way through the mile on the track. I didn't bother taking 100m splits, but ran laps of 84-91-92-92. I'm certainly not going to outkick anyone at this point, but this was fun and I've got to start somewhere. The rest of the run was boring enough, nice weather and my legs felt good, aside from the R hamstring. (There seems to be some confusion surrounding my first derivative comment from Wednesday. In my world, "decreasing pace" means getting faster and "increasing pace" means getting slower. On the y-axis, 6:00 pace is above 5:00 pace.)	7
FRI	River-Beacon-North Station. Got started around 6:50 this morning and headed over to the river to meet up with Harvey, DSmith, Bedoya and Friedman. Met them around the BU Boathouse and headed back down river to Science. Looped up the Boston side and turned at the 6.5M mark with Harvey and Bedoya. Ran back down to the Hatch Shell and took the Fiedler bridge over to Beacon. Harvey split off to head home and I ran up Beacon with Bedoya, who turned off at Park. Finished up back home alone. Stopped right at 89:45, averaging 7:30 for 12M. Was running 7:20 pace early on the river but didn't check any splits after that. Felt pretty good the whole way, having guys to talk too really helped and I felt worse once I started running alone.	12
THU	Day off.	0
WED	Back Bay, with mile "time trial" in 5:22. Now that the snow is largely gone, I'm getting to do all of the things I wanted to do but couldn't during the winter. Kept things easy to the 2.5 mark and then tried to really hammer the mile along the river. My legs felt good, but my turnover wasn't that great and I could tell I hadn't run fast or hard in a long time. Had resolved not to check the half mile split, but it wasn't an issue since I completely missed the mark. Lost focus around the half mile and was able to get it back on track, slightly, by Longfellow. Aside for that small section after the half mile, I'm pretty certain that first derivative of the graph of my instantaneous pace would have been positive for the whole mile. 5:22 was slower than I was hoping for, would have liked to be closer to 5:00, but not bad for a first effort.	6
TUE	Day off.	0
MON	Day off.	0
SAT	Boston Harbor-Ocean-G Street-Broadway-Chinatown-Greenway. Was really looking forward to running along the Ocean this morning and also hoped to put in 2 hours if at all possible. Followed the usual route along the Harbor to the start of Ollie and into South Boston. I wasn't feeling good at all and was tempted to turn back at Long Wharf, 15 minutes into the run. Ran backwards on the Ollie Course to Castle Island then took the causeway and followed the beach down to G Street. As bad as I felt over the first 30 minutes of the run, the second 30 minutes weren't any worse and maybe even a bit better. Was at the base of G Street at an hour, ran up G Street (without pushing it) and circled Telegraph Hill then took Broadway all the back into the city. By this point I had abandoned thoughts of running for two hours and was just trying to get home. Decided I'd take the Greenway, so I wound my way through Chinatown to South Station and followed the Greenway home. Wound up being 98 minutes and 13M, or 7:30ish pace, which is slower than I had hoped but decent given how bad I felt. Was really dragging by the end of the run, the thought of putting in another 22 minutes was pretty daunting.	13

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 15 02-27 - 03-05	Didn't do much this week as I was trying to hit a big deadline at work. There are times when I don't run and don't care about it, but I'd really like to get back into shape and wish I didn't have to miss all these runs. Thankfully things should be winding down with work, at least winding down enough to give me some flexibility in the mornings. March Miles : 7	16
SAT	Run to Remember course. After a long week at work I was happy to finally have time to run again. Headed out early, was feeling good and a bit amped up, so I decided to try and push things today. Once I got to Congress and New Chardon I started running hard and tried to maintain a good pace along the entire course. Hard to describe the pace I was running, I was trying to run fast but I wasn't forcing every step. Still, I was pretty tired when I finally got back to the New Chardon, running the "course" in 31:40. (I didn't follow the course strictly, as I cut off the one block out and back on Comm Ave and added on past the start/finish line to compensate.) Was hoping to get closer to 30 minutes, but averaging 6:20-ish isn't terrible at this point. Really tightened up on the easy jog back home.	7
FRI	Day off.	0
THU	Day off.	0
WED	Day off.	0
TUE	Day off.	0
MON	Day off. February Miles : 124	0
SUN	Davis Sq. Was really motivated to run long today, but woke up to about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Running through the snow was slow going but the footing was fine. Ran the usual route out to Davis Square along Highland but was losing motivation the whole way. Got to Davis, turned onto Elm and headed back home. Ran to Union Square, then took Prospect to Cambridge to extend things slightly. Was out for around 70 minutes and the route measured 9M online.	9

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 14 02-20 - 02-26	Not a very good week. Should have run much more than I did when I was in Florida, but I let my laziness control things. Had a good run on Saturday, though, and it left me wanting more, so hopefully I can build on that and get off to a good start in March. February Miles : 115	17
SAT	Castle-Bunker Hill. Got up around 6:30 this morning and was out the door by 8am, after playing with Nate and taking Midge out. Felt really good the whole way, I guess two weeks off has left my legs refreshed. After rain yesterday and snow overnight I was worried about ice, but the sidewalks were mostly fine and I opted to run in the street down Marlborough instead of taking the Comm Ave mall. Finished up right around 61 minutes and could have easily extended the run.	9
FRI	Day off. Had planned to get up and run early, since Kathryn is still on break, but wasn't able to get out of bed. Got a lot of work to do.	0
THU	Day off. Up early for a 6:20am flight back to Boston, then spent the afternoon running errands.	0
WED	Day off. Don't really have a good excuse. Should have gotten up and run, for some reason lying around reading all day is wearing me out.	0
TUE	Day off. Was heading to Red Sox spring training this morning and wasn't able to get up early enough for a run. Pretty worn out after and spent the afternoon reading and sitting at the pool. Broke up the excitement with a nap, too.	0
MON	McGregor Drive in Ft Myers. Got up and headed out the door before 8am, first run in a week. My legs were pretty unstable at first and I never felt great but I did settle into a little bit of a rhythm. Headed out of the Landings and turned right onto McGregor, then turned back at 32 minutes. Really enjoyed the run, probably high 60s with a clear sky, much better than what I would have been dealing with in Boston. Pretty worn out by the end of the run, unfortunately.	8
SUN	Day off. Really tired in the morning so I slept in and then was reluctant to head out for a run in the mid-day heat. Tried to re-fuel well after fasting for 4 days.	0

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 13 02-13 - 02-19	Terrible week. Off to a great start on Sunday with a solid long run and managed to force my way through a run the next day. Things went downhill from there, missed Tuesday to take care of Nate and spent the rest of the week sick. Hopefully will be able to put in some good mileage while on vacation in Florida. February Miles : 98	23
TUE	Day off. Flying to Florida in the afternoon, my stomach was still upset in the morning. Had my first real meal in 4 days once we got to Fort Myers.	0
FRI	Day off. Still recuperating.	0
THU	Day off. Still a bit sick and weak, barely ate yesterday and my stomach was pretty upset.	0
WED	Day off. Caught the bug that Kathryn had and spent the day in bed.	0
TUE	Day off. Kathryn was sick today, so I got up and took Nate to daycare then went to work. Unable to run at the end of the day, either.	0
MON	Run to Remember course. Really feeling yesterday's long run this morning, shuffled through the majority of this run. Kathryn was staying home again so I was able to get out the door before 6:30 this morning. Glad I didn't take my watch with me today.	7
SUN	Out and back on Marathon Course from Cleveland Circle. Met a big group of people at Cleveland Circle at 9:30am for a long run followed by Harvey's shirtless lap. Apparently Beacon is iced over so we started out on Commonwealth. Pace was pretty easy at the start but started picking up about halfway through. Ran out to the 15M mark and then came back. A little dicey at times after the firehouse, but really nice running on the carriage road. Hung in the back for the most part but Terry, Lutz and I put in an effort starting at Heartbreak to close the gap up to the leaders and I actually felt pretty good doing that. Really enjoyed working hard. Then ran an extra 1.5M with Harvey during his shirtless lap, along with McCalmon and JMark. The Reservoir path was iced over so we just ran the "lap" on the roads. Harvey claims we averaged 5:47, but it really felt like we were running 5:0x. That's easily the fastest I've run in 5 or 6 months.	16

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 12 02-06 - 02-12	February Miles : 75	37
SAT	Day off. Feeling more apathetic than normal.	0
FRI	Run to Remember course. Kathryn was staying home from work today so I was able to get out the door early. There's a big difference between running at 6am and running at 7am, and I really prefer going at 6am. A lot easier to run, much less traffic to deal with. Pretty boring run.	7
THU	Day off. Nate got sick yesterday so I stayed home to take care of him, which meant no time for a run.	0
WED	Day off. Feeling overwhelmed with work, skipped the run and got right into it.	0
TUE	Fenway with JMark. Met Jared on the river at 7am this morning to gloat about the Superbowl. When discussing where to go I mentioned that it was Truck Day, so we decided to swing past Fenway to see the truck. Another warm morning and it should have been three straight days in a baseball cap but I wussed out. Feet got very wet during the run, lots of slush and puddles to deal with thanks to the melting. Ran up to BU, crossed over the river and wound our way to Landmark Center, then down Brookline to Yawkey. Hooked a left on Van Ness and ran right past the truck. Made our way to Boylston, ran to the Common and then parted ways at North Station. This was almost 70 minutes and just short of 9M but I'm rounding up.	9
MON	Castle-Bunker Hill. Wasn't quite ready to run when Kathryn and Nate left, but I got out the door by 7am. Ran the standard route and didn't have too many problems with footing, things were much better than yesterday. Even the Mass Ave bridge, which I was quite worried about, turned out to be fine. Preemptively decided to try and run on a side street instead of Prospect, but gave up after a few blocks because even the side streets were busy. Turned out to not be too much foot traffic to deal with, though. Was running straight into the sun on the climb up Bunker Hill and the glare of the sidewalk meant I couldn't tell what was ice and what was water. Wound up running in the road where the glare was still bad but I knew there wasn't any ice. I've always called this 9M, so I'll do that again but imagine it's a bit short, since I was running for just 68 minutes, well faster than my recent 8:00 pace. Maybe I was just excited about back to back days wearing a baseball cap instead of winter hat.	9
SUN	Davis-Bike Path, amended. Another 7:30am start and another trip out to Davis Square. Really excited to run when I saw 40 on the thermometer, but the roads weren't in great shape and that made the run pretty tough. There was a lot of melting and rain yesterday which lead to a lot of ice patches that hadn't yet melted this morning. The worst was sections of packed down snow, they melted yesterday and froze overnight, leaving very slick ice that was impossible to run on. The good thing about running this early is that I was able to run in the street for a large portion of the time and there weren't many cars to deal with. Managed to get from Davis to Mass Ave on the bike path, though it was slow going, and decided against continuing on to Russell Field. Instead I took Harvey St to Clifton St to Rindge, which likely cut off some distance. (How strange is it that there's a Harvey St and Shea Rd so close to each other?) I gave up on the sidewalks after Porter Square and managed to run the rest of the way down Mass Ave in the street. No issue with traffic (even ran a red light in front of a cop) but I was running straight at the sun and the glare off the road was almost unbearable. Maybe should have worn eye black. I made up the distance I had cut off in Cambridge at the end, though, when instead of running over the bridge into Charlestown I crossed the dam at Science Museum and ran past the Garden to the locks instead. The bridge into Charlestown looked completely iced over and I'm sure it would have taken 5 minutes of shuffling to get over it. Wound up being a long 12M and about 96 minutes on the watch. Was getting really frustrated with the conditions by the end and was happy when the run was over. Glad to put in back to back 12 mile runs, though I was pretty tired by the time I hit Central Square. Felt like I was running at a good clip down Mass Ave and tried to match that speed on the river to measure it (always an impossible task) and hit 3:30. Maybe I'm starting to get in shape?	12

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 11 01-30 - 02-05	A pretty good week and definitely a good start to February. Would have been nice to run on Thursday, but 56M in 6 days is acceptable. Probably would have been 63M had I run 7 days, and my legs handled 9M/day average. Ready to step up to 70MPW, I think. February Miles : 38	56
SAT	Davis-Bike Path. Up early as usual thanks to Nate and headed out around 7:30 for this run. Had promised myself I'd do a longer run today and managed to live up to that promise. Things felt good and was surprised to see this run clock in at 96+ minutes. Timed the half mile on the river (running on the MIT side) in just over 3:30. I was definitely running faster there than I had been the rest of the run, but wanted to see how fast I could run without trying to run fast. It made sense to me at the time, basically trying to find my fastest "effortless" pace.	12
FRI	Memorial-River St-Cambridge St. Headed out around 7am this morning planning on another Harvard Sq-Broadway loop, but along the way decided I'd head up the river and hopefully bump into some guys on their morning run. No such luck, though, and didn't want to do out and back on the river, so I took River Street into Central Square. Sidewalks were pretty bad, but I was able to run in the road a fair amount. A lot of foot traffic to navigate around on Prospect Street, too, and if I had been thinking I would have gotten onto a quieter side street. Legs felt good the whole way and where the footing was good it felt like I was able to run with some speed (even though this was another 60+ minutes for 8M.)	8
THU	Day off. Was convinced the roads would be too icy this morning so didn't even try to run.	0
WED	Boston Common with Brendan. Out the door at 6:20 this morning, since Kathryn had a snow day I was able to start early. We were in the middle of another snow storm, so I naturally headed over to the Common. Bumped into Brendan on Tremont during the first lap and ran with him the rest of the time. Put in 4 laps before heading back to Charlestown, ran for a total of 64 minutes. All laps were 8:0x, so around 7:30 pace. Getting sick of dealing with all this snow and it's unclear when we'll get a break.	8
TUE	Fake Fresh with JMark and Will. Met Jared along the river at 7am this morning and we decided to do the old normal, running up to Harvard Square along the river. Bumped into Will around Western Ave and he ran with us the rest of the way. Running a bit faster than recently and though my legs were tired at times it felt good to be back at 7:00 pace (caught a quasi-split along the river at the end.) Ran all the way back to Science Museum with JMark and Will, then finished up into Charlestown alone. Dealing with a little bit of fresh snow, but footing was pretty good all around. 75 minutes for the whole run, I think I was normally in the 73s when I was in shape and there wasn't any snow.	10
MON	Docks-Greenway. Legs felt really, really good at the start, felt like I was running fast without much effort. That feeling gradually disappeared, though. My legs still felt good, but I no longer felt like I was running quickly. Not much of interest during this run, though my left ankle didn't bother me at all, so that was nice. January Miles : 197	6
SUN	Davis-Bike Path-Mass Ave again. This has become my Sunday route lately and got started around 7am this morning. Wasn't sore at all from clmbing hills yesterday but ran easy the whole way and didn't ever try to force the pace. At some point during the run the inside of my left ankle started hurting and wound up aching with every step the rest of the way. I didn't pay any attention to it at first because it's never given me any problems and I figured it would work itself out, but it never did. It didn't seem to be affecting anything, it was just uncomfortable. The worst part of the run was having the jingle from one of Nate's toys stuck in my head for half an hour. At least I got a good refresher on how to count from one to ten. Another slow long run, today was 95 minutes, and still no idea why I'm running so slowly.	12

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 10 01-23 - 01-29	Not the greatest of weeks because I missed 3 days of running, but I really enjoyed the days I did run and didn't mind being out for 60+ minutes each time. I've managed to (hopefully) move past the 4 and 5 milers, now I just have to combine that with 7 days of running. January is wrapping up and even though it didn't go quite as I had hoped (missed 5 days instead of 2, haven't gotten to 70MPW yet) I'm happy with the progress I've made. If I can build on that and keep running more through February, instead of plateauing, I should be ready to do some real work in March. If I fail to do that, though, and keep running 40-50 MPW and missing 1-2 days per week, it's going to be a long spring. January Miles : 179	36
SAT	Hour on Bunker Hill. Had wanted to get out early before traffic for this one, but slept in a bit and didn't leave until 7:30am. Still, there weren't too many cars to deal with during the run. Ran right over to the base of Bunker Hill and proceeded to just run over and back for about an hour. Wanted to get in a harder run without actually doing a workout, so I figured climbing hills would be a good idea. Plus, I was able to run in the street and not deal with any snow or ice. Felt good the whole way, climbing the hill wasn't much of an effort, though I didn't try to run hard at any point. I think I did 5 over and backs and then on the 6th and final one I turned onto Medford St after going over and ran hard up Sackville to finish the day. Didn't feel terribly smooth or fast when trying to hammer up Sackville, but the street wasn't very clear either. Nice change of pace but pretty bored by the end. Also, I somehow got the name "Nuke LaLoosh" stuck in my head, which was incredibly annoying.	8
FRI	South End-Chinatown-Greenway with Jared. Got a slightly earlier start this morning and got to Mass and Memorial before meeting JMark. Jared didn't want to run on the river (music to my ears) so we ran into Boston along Mass Ave and took Columbus into the South End. Wound our way through the South End, over the Pike and into Chinatown, then took the Greenway to the locks and into Charlestown. Good route this morning, but there's snow everywhere and we were running slowly. Another 8 miles in 60+ minutes. I continue to be frustrated with running slowly and would really like to try cranking for a few miles, but the footing just doesn't allow for that.	8
THU	Another day off, too much work.	0
WED	Day off. Was dressed and ready to run early but started to feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to take care of, so instead of running I just headed to work early. I suppose that's the way it goes sometimes, though it stinks.	0
TUE	Harvard Sq-Broadway with JMark. Met Jared along the river and did the same route out Mass Ave and back along Broadway as last week. I wasn't in a great mood at the start of the run and probably would have talked myself out of the run if I hadn't been meeting Jared. It was snowing a bit but footing wasn't too bad. Felt better by the end of the run, the exercise seemed to help my mood.	8
MON	Day off. Absolutely frigid this morning and I thought that waiting until later in the day would be a good idea. Wound up working right through the day though, and had no motivation after work.	0
SUN	Davis-Bike Path, same route as last weekend. Woke up earlier than normal for a Sunday but didn't have much motivation to run. After wasting time for 2 hours I headed out for a run at 8:30. Really wanted to go short but managed to make myself run to Davis Square and from there just followed the usual route home. I kept telling myself that to enjoy running this summer I need to put in runs like this in the winter. About 14 degrees this morning so I wore pants again, but I think I could have made it in shorts. Tried to pick up the pace once I got to Mass Ave, but wasn't able to stay focused. Also, the sidewalks were slippery in places and crossing streets sometimes meant navigating a snowbank, both of which killed any rhythm I had going. 93 minutes for the run, which is borderline embarassing.	12

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 09 01-16 - 01-22	Back to running every day this week but I still don't feel like I'm getting in great shape. Dealing with snowy/icy conditions all week has made footing less than ideal but I'm not even close to sniffing 7:00 pace on these runs. Trying to not get frustrated, but I feel like I'm putting in good work and would like to see some benefit from it. Nothing I can do, however, except keep working. January Miles : 143	53
SAT	Docks-Greenway. Up and out the door early this morning, but just for a basic six mile run. Not a lot of problems with footing but it was pretty cold. Didn't feel like dealing with it, so I just ran in pants. Felt good enough but still not great.	6
FRI	River with Bernie, JMark, BH, DSmith, Will and Chorney. Started snowing early this morning and Kathryn had a snow day so I was able to get out the door at 6:30 and meet Bernie at Longfellow at 6:45. We headed up the river which had somewhat decent footing since the snow was covering most of the ice. Met JMark at BU and the rest of the guys at River Street. Couldn't pass up the chance to intimidate Harvey by running in shorts in a snowstorm and by the time we met I had ice forming on my quads. Had a spirited debate about the date of the shirtless lap, I managed to convince the masses that 2/13 was the best date and my threat to exploit the pants clause forced Brian to capitulate. (I'm sure that makes no sense to my 5 readers.) We crossed the river at Mass Ave (couldn't see Boston from Cambridge) and then Bernie, Chorney and I headed down river as the rest of the guys turned west. Ran down to Longfellow and took Cambridge St up to Staniford then back home over the locks. Was really looking forward to a warm shower once I got home, but it turned out that just putting on pants was enough to warm up my legs. Hard to take anything away from this run (other than maybe I should have gone to law school) since we were running 9:00 pace in the inch or two of snow on the ground. At least I put in the mileage.	9
THU	Run to Remember course. Got going at 6:45 again this morning, today the sidewalks were icy in patches since the temperature dropped to 25 degrees. Had to shuffle a few times but it was still early enough in the day that I could safely run in the road when needed. My right hip was sore and stiff at the start of the run but loosened up over the course of the run. Otherwise things felt good, though I'm sure I was running slowly again. The good part about these conditions is that they give me a rationale to explain my slowness. If it was the middle of the summer there'd be no explanation other than I'm in really bad shape. Also, I'm itching to see how a quicker pace feels, though I should probably still stick to basic mileage. I'm not willing to go to a track or treadmill and the footing outside isn't good enough for fast running, so I have no choice but to run easy.	7
WED	Back Bay loop. After rain last night I was afraid the roads would be iced over, but it was 35 degrees at 6am and everything was clear. Headed out right at 6:45 and felt good, for the most part. My right hip felt more sore than usual, especially at my lower back, but other than that things were good. Very few problem areas, but I did run on the sidewalks down Commonwealth instead of the Mall due to gigantic puddles. I ran down the MIT side of Memorial again, and eyeballed the half mile from 2.5-3 at 3:40. The worst footing on the route came by the park just before the Galleria where the sidewalk had been snowed over and turned into uneven ice under a bit of water. Should have taken a detour around it, but wound up walking for half a block. Ran hard up Green Street at the end and other than tight hamstrings felt decent.	6
TUE	Mass Ave-Broadway with JMark. Met Jared along the river this morning and we headed north on Mass Ave trying to find some decent footing. It was snowing and even though the flakes were tiny there was a decent accumulation throughout the run. We followed Mass Ave into Harvard Square and then turned onto Broadway and followed it back to the river. Route measured out to 8.5M online and since I continue to need the karma, I'm rounding down. My legs felt good, nothing was really bothering me though my left knee was sore before the run. About 20 degrees and was pretty comfortable in shorts but already looking forward to spring.	8
MON	Inman Square. Able to start a little earlier because of the holiday, headed out just a little after 6:30am. Felt good the whole way, the inside of my left knee was hurting when I woke up but felt fine when running. Probably sore from chasing Midge around in the snow again. I think it's time to start increasing the minimum distance of my runs, I'm handling the 4 and 5 milers easily now. Thermometer said 12 when I started but felt good in shorts, probably because it warmed up to 13 as I was running.	5
SUN	Davis-Bike Path, back along Mass Ave. Headed out just after 7:30 this morning on a route I haven't run in awhile. Was tempted to just run over and back on Bunker Hill for 90 minutes since there was no traffic and the road was nice and clear. Pushed on and took Highland Ave to Davis and then onto the Bike Path which was nice and clear, too. No real issues with footing and the traffic was light enough to jump in the street when needed. Instead of getting on the river I took Mass Ave all the way back to MIT, which was a bit shorter but the footing was fine. My legs felt good the whole way, but I was running slowly again, 93 minutes for just 12M. Ran solo this morning because the usual crew was going at 8:30 and I didn't want to wait. Also, those guys seem to only ever run 3 routes: river, marathon course and Sheatock Loop. The toggle switch was set to Sheatock Loop today and I'd rather shoot myself in the face than run laps in a parking lot. I had plenty of time to rant to myself about the SLoD choice and, at the risk of excommunication, will list the reasons why the Common is a better place to run: 1. better topology, there's a nice climb along Park Street at the Common, the only elevation changes on SLoD are speed bumps 2. better scenery, 3. on a similar note, there's more activity (people walking around) at the Common, keeps it interesting, 4. a 1.1M loop is better than a 0.7M loop, 5. Common is closer (not always true, but the meetingplace was Mass and Memorial this am), 6. don't have to worry about cars. End of rant.	12

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 08 01-09 - 01-15	The week got off to a good start with a solid long run with JMark and I even managed to man up and run in the snowstorm on Wednesday. Got lazy/complacent in the aftermath of the storm though, and skipped Thursday and Friday instead of dealing with the snow. One of my goals was to run 13 out of 14 days, so to compensate I need to go 14 for 14 over the next two weeks. I feel like I'm getting back in shape, I certainly feel better during runs, but the watch still says I'm running slowly. No sense in pressing, though, I've only been back at it a short while. January Miles : 90	38
SAT	Back Bay loop. Back on the horse this morning, headed out pretty early for this run. Thermometer said 12 so I headed out in pants but probably could have made it in shorts. Legs felt great after a 2 day lay off and was thinking that I'd try an uptempo mile along the river but the footing there was horrendous. Didn't have any real problems until I hit the river, I wound up running down the MIT side of the street, since that was plowed and salted. About 50 minutes this morning, still running slowly.	6
FRI	Convinced myself that the roads would be icy this morning and I would wait until the middle of the day. Unsurprisingly, I didn't.	0
THU	Wasn't motivated to deal with the snow this morning and my hip was somewhat sore from yesterday (probably a result of chasing Midge around the park). I slept an extra hour instead of getting up, so I guess I was tired.	0
WED	3 laps of Boston Common. Kathryn had a snow day, so I was able to get a slighly earlier start, heading out into the snow at 6:15am. Ran the usual route over to the Common which was already being plowed. My legs felt okay, though I was certainly running slowly. Saw 8:25 for both laps, which is precisely 7:39.09090909 minutes per mile. It always takes a bit to remember the length of the Common and at first I thought it was 0.9M and I was running 9:00 pace. Thankfully I remembered the real distance before giving up and heading home. Always a lot of fun running around in a storm, I spent most of the run regretting my decision to wear pants. It was 30 degrees at the start and I was really warm the whole way, so shorts wouldn't have been too bad and probably would have put the fear of god into Harvey.	7
TUE	Fenway with JMark. Took off at 6:45 this morning and met up with Jared along the river. We didn't have much of a plan for where to run and as we were headed upriver towards BU I decided that running past Fenway would be fun. Took the standard route through Audobon Circle and headed down Brookline to Yawkey. Should have looped around the park, but just went up to Boylston and followed that all the way back to the Common. Standard route back from there, over the locks and parted ways with Jared at Chelsea Street. Felt pretty good the whole way, though my right hip and knee were tightening up at the end. Took a lot of ribbing from Jared this morning and not just because I was wearing shorts despite the thermometer saying 19. Glad I was able to mix it up a little bit and get Jared off the river today. Total time was 68 minutes which makes it a solid 9 miler (hopefully).	9
MON	Longfellow. Wanted to go short because I had been hurting so much yesterday but was getting sick of CTown loops. Ran over the locks and took Causeway and Staniford to Cambridge, then crossed over Longfellow and took Memorial to the bridge into Charlestown. Felt surprisingly good on the run and was tempted to head into Kendall Square as I was crossing the river, but resisted. Had to sprint through an intersection once to avoid getting hit by a car and my hamstring held up. Felt somewhat quick, actually. In the things to keep track of as I get in shape department, I weighed 176 lbs right after waking up this morning.	4
SUN	Watertown Bridge, starting from BU, with JMark. Saw Jared at the Alumni meet yesterday and we agreed to meet at 7:30am for a run today. Simple route this morning, headed up river to Watertown on the Cambridge side and back to the BU Bridge on the Boston side. Another dusting of snow on the ground but the footing wasn't slippery at all. Settled into a good pace, quicker than I've been running on my own, and I bored JMark with a long, rambling description of all of the bets I've had with Harvey. I was a little concerned going into the run because my right hip was really sore last night and stiff at the very start of the run. It loosened up after 2 minutes of running and nothing bothered me the rest of the way. I am certainly not in great shape as I was hurting at the very end and pretty wiped out the rest of the day, but we put in a solid 93 minutes. I had been convinced this was a 13M run, but both the mileage chart and online measurement say it's barely 12M. Ouch, I would have hoped that 7:45 pace wouldn't have taken so much effort. Maybe I can blame that on the snow. Didn't help to get home and not have much food in the house; after taking a shower headed to CostCo to stock up. Got a bad headache around noon that seemed to be mostly hunger/dehydration.	12

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 07 01-02 - 01-08	A solid week, I was shooting for a 7M/day average and came up just short. Somehow got into a short/long routine without really meaning, but felt good on all the "long" runs. (It is a bit ridiculous that I'm calling a 10M my long run.) My hamstring was tight throughout, but thankfully my massage at Sheatock Sports Therapy really helped. Not 100% healed, but Friday was a much better run. January Miles : 52	46
SAT	Charlestown Loop with Midge. Up early to get in a quick run before heading to the Alumni meet. Felt strange to be there spectating and not racing, breaking my streak of 9 straight years racing the 5k (and 8 straight years of scoring). Felt good during the run, the dusting of snow on the ground wasn't an issue, and I couldn't help but wonder what I would have been able to do had I raced. Realistically, I couldn't have competed and think there's a decent chance I would have screwed up my hamstring trying to run fast.	4
FRI	River with Terry, Bernie, Dobbie, JMark and BMBH. Balmy 22 degrees just after 6:45am and felt pretty comfortable in shorts, though the other guys had all opted for tights (including what appeared to be 3/4 tights for TPS). My hamstring felt the best it has since Thanksgiving, thanks to the massage from Carly yesterday. Near the end my right hip started to get tight, but my hamstring was never a problem. It's not back to 100% yet, but I'm not limping around like I was over the past weeks. Met the guys much earlier than I was expecting, around the western edge of the MIT campus. Ran down to MOS and up the Boston side to the 6M mark before turning back on my own. Felt good running with them, had a good conversation going the whole way. Once I was solo, though, it felt like I slowed down a lot and my legs felt worse (tired, not injured). Got home in about 77 minutes on a route that's maybe 10.5 but I need the karma, so I'm calling it 10. Disappointed that it appears the wording of the bet with Brian will allow him to avoid the shirtless lap.	10
THU	Charlestown Loop. Everyone was running a little late today, so I figured I'd keep alternating short-long days. Same old story, felt decent early and gradually felt my right leg tighten up.	4
WED	Murphy's Law. Out the door with Kathryn and Nate at 6:45 and felt pretty good at the start. Took the usual Docks route and then Summer Street but didn't bring a watch so no time on the way out or back. Hip and hamstring were tight again, not as bad as they have been but enough to make me still keep the pace easy. Doesn't feel like I could safely run fast right now.	8
TUE	Charlestown Loop. Everybody was running a bit late this morning and I didn't get started until after 7am. Decided to keep it short and easy this morning and try for an 8 miler tomorrow. My right hip was sore at the start but my hamstring didn't start to bother me until the second half of the run. I've neglected to mention that after Saturday's run I got my stretch rope out of the basement and have been using that to stretch my hamstring post-run. Seems to be helping, it certainly works better than any of my standard hamstring stretches.	4
MON	Inman Square. Was pretty much ready to run once Kathryn and Nate left, and my legs were feeling pretty good despite staying up to watch the horrible St. Louis-Seattle game last night. (That game, incidentally, bumped the odds of Brian doing a shirtless Reservoir lap in February from 68.75% to 93.75%.) Felt pretty good though my hamstring is still tight enough that I don't dare try extending my stride or accelerating quickly. Temperatures were back to normal, 30 degrees and a long sleeve shirt with hat and gloves.	6
SUN	Out and back to BU Track. Headed over to the BU Indoor Track around 9:15 to watch BH and TPS race a 3k at 10am. The sky was overcast but it was warmer than yesterday, letting me start the year off with back to back runs in shorts and a tshirt. Even the rain over the final 20 minutes wasn't a big deal. Got to the track in 37 minutes and though I was starting to get worried I was going to be late I had plenty of time to stand around before their race started. Only waited a few minutes after their race ended before heading back home, but watching those guys run fast only added to my motivation to get back into shape. On the way out I took the locks to the Common and followed Commonwealth but on the way back I jumped onto the river and crossed over to the Cambridge side at Mass Ave. 37 and change on the way out and 36 and change on the way back, plus 2 laps around the outside of the track trying to stay loose before the start of the race. This was a solid 10M run, measuring it online gives 5.14M on the way out and 5.08M on the way back, which meshes well with my 7:15 split along the river on the way back. Happy to see Brian get a PR, since the regular season portion of our NFL bet wrapped up with a disastrous loss for him later in the day.	10

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 06 12-26 - 01-01	Not really a great week. Got off to a good start with a 13M long run, but then had to deal with hamstring and motivation issues the rest of the week. I think the motivation will rebound once the hamstring improves and running becomes more enjoyable. Even easy runs are a bit of an effort right now. 2010 was a great year for me personally, but not even close to good for running. Had a below average race in Houston, then struggled to get motivated, ran decently well before Nate was born and then barely ran through the fall and into the winter. I intend to right the ship in 2011 and have a rough plan for doing it: 1. Spend a solid 6 weeks of just basic running. The goal is to run 13 out of every 14 days and get above 70MPW. 2. Introduce hard running over the next 4 weeks, starting in mid February, by just taking 1 standard 8-12M run each week and making a point of pushing the whole way, and possibly running part of my long run hard, if I feel like it. 3. In mid March start more structured workouts and possibly step onto a track. My initial goal is to run well at the BAA 5k, and right now the definition of running well is a course PR (15:15 from 2009). January Miles : 6	34
SAT	Shortened Run to Remember. I guess I was awake early this morning, as the streets were deserted at 8am. Add to that temperatures in the upper 40s and this was a great morning to be out running. I'm not sure the last time I was able to start off the year by running in a tshirt and shorts. Skipped the out and back to the World Trade Center, cutting off about a mile. I'm not really sure why, I didn't feel like running out that way, and my hamstring was still bothering me so I figured keeping it shorter couldn't hurt.	6
FRI	Day off. No good excuses, just lazy today. I look at it as resting up ahead of my New Year's resolutions. December Miles : 116	0
THU	Day off. Long day of finally travelling back to Boston. We landed around 11am and by the time I finished chores and did a little work the day had gotten away from me.	0
WED	LaFayette. Final run with Nick, we're flying back to Boston early tomorrow morning. The plan was to start at 8am since today's another working day for me, but my reliable alarm clock Nate decided to sleep in, so I woke up about 2 minutes before Nick got to the door. Rushed to get ready but actually felt okay throughout the run. A bit warmer than it has been and I felt very comfortable in shorts. Same route as Monday, but this time I felt a lot better, I guess the day off helped. We were only around 6:50 along Lake Drive at the end, but it was a pretty easy pace. Tacked on an extra few minutes with Nick at the end to bump this up to a solid 8M.	8
TUE	Day off. The plan was to run on my own because Nick was going to do a tempo, so I was thinking I'd put in just an easy four miles. We were supposed to fly back to Boston last night but changed our flights in fear of the east coast blizzard, so today was a work day for me. Should have run right away but thought I'd sneak out at lunch when it would be a bit warmer. Of course, random chores kept cropping up and I never got a chance to go and eventually lost motivation. A day completely off is probably just as good, if not better, than an easy run at this point.	0
MON	LaFayette. Another Lakefront run this morning with Nick. It was a little bit colder than the past few days so I thought I'd see if wearing pants helped my hamstring loosen up at all. It didn't. Today was definitely the worst I've felt since I started running semi-seriously again around Thanksgiving. I had low energy, just worn down in general, plus I was getting sick of limping along with my screwed up hamstring and hip. We were originally thinking of a longer run but I ran out of willpower and had to turn back at LaFayette. Measured the route afterwards and it turned out to be 7.5, which I'm rounding down to compensate for some runs I've rounded up recently.	7
SUN	Bender plus Good Hope add-on. Nick came over at 8:30 this morning and we headed out on the standard Bender loop. To be sure we didn't miss any distance we headed up to Lake Drive first then ran over to Capitol and down to Wilson. I felt decent enough on the run, but certainly wasn't able to finish with a few faster miles as Nick and I had originally talked about. It took a bit of an effort just to get down to 6:40s for the final mile. Still, putting in 90 minutes is a good run for me right now and hopefully I can keep building up my long run. Hard to believe I'm 28 today, that's nearly sub-master age.	13

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 05 12-19 - 12-25	Rough start to the week because of the weekend's sickness, but I recovered pretty well and put together a decent string of runs. My right hamstring is still bothering me though and really affecting my ability to run smoothly and efficiently. I'm really forcing it at times to get through runs. I keep mentioning how much work there is to do before I'm back in shape, but I think once my hamstring is back to normal I'll feel like I'm in much better shape. Putting in mileage is always a bit easier with Nick around, so running with him on the 24th was nice, even if he was blowing my doors off on the climbs. December Miles : 88	30
SAT	Breadstore. Headed out early on Christmas morning in advance of a busy day. Was hoping to get fresh bagels later in the day, so decided to check whether any stores were open. Ran first to Einstein's, which was closed, then headed out to Bruegger's on Silver Spring (also closed.) Ran on the backstreets and wound up taking Marlborough out to Silver Spring. After being confused about where I was for a few blocks I realized I was running the old Breadstore route from high school. Headed back to my parents house via Marlborough-Cumberland-Morris-Beverly. Tried a single stride at the end and my hamstring was far too tight, I was limping slowly along instead of actually striding. A solid 42 minutes for what turned out to be nearly exactly 6M.	6
FRI	Lakefront hills with Nick. Nick came by at 8:30 and we headed down to the lakefront for an easy workout. Did the usual route of winding up and down the bluff, running up Snake Hill, St Mary's, LaFayette, St Mary's, Snake Hill and Lincoln Memorial. We kept it very easy between climbs, so it wasn't a continuous hard effort, more of an easy run with short bursts of running hard. Nick routinely dropped me and I really had to labor on each hill. My right hamstring was tight most of the way and made it tough to open up my stride and run on my toes. It did loosen up as the run went on, but my form never felt quite right.	9
THU	Charlestown loop with Midge. It snowed a bit overnight so there was half an inch or so to run through at times. A little bit slippery but no real issues. My right hamstring was really tight at the start and didn't ever really loosen up. I limped through most of the run but managed to climb up Sackville without any problems. I certainly wasn't going fast on the climb, though; Midge turned around and gave me an exasperated look, she clearly wanted to run faster.	4
WED	Long run on the river. Headed out to meet the guys on the river after Nate left for daycare. Made it all the way to Strawberry's again, which was much further than I was expecting. Met TPS, Harvey, Pat Callahan, Ian Nurse and Bernie and ran back down the river with them. Crossed over at Science Museum and headed back up the Boston side. Finally decided to turn around, but Pat convinced me to go a bit further and turn around with him. We looped around the Esplanade and took the footbridge to Cambridge St. Ran straight up Cambridge with Pat and finally turned off at Sudbury, running down to Haymarket and back across the locks. Went 80 minutes total, a bit further than I was expecting, but felt good enough the whole way. Got caught up in the conversation and the company this morning. (After missing so many days over the weekend, I'm abandoning running days tally. It was getting embarassing.)	11
TUE	Day off. Probably should have run this morning, but my stomach was still unsettled and I was worried about having problems mid-run. Plus, it snowed overnight and I was thinking it would be easier to run in the middle of the day. That was true, but I didn't manage to get out the door. 5/9	0
MON	Day off. Went to bed feeling bad last night and woke up with an upset stomach. Apparently my stomach wasn't ready for a full meal last night. Decided to play it safe and give myself another day off. 5/8	0
SUN	Day off. Was only able to eat a bagel and some crackers yesterday and was far too weak to even think about running today. My stomach was still upset throughout the day and I didn't eat a real meal until dinner. 5/7	0

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 04 12-12 - 12-18	A decent way to restart the comeback, did a good job of getting out the door every day, up until I got sick. Definitely have a lot of work ahead of me, but it feels good to be getting at it again. December Miles : 58	33
SAT	Day off. Got violently ill last night, I guess I finally caught what Nate's had the past few days. Barely got out of bed today. 5/6	0
FRI	River with Harvey. Another early start since Nate's still sick and not going to daycare. Headed out at 6:30 and ran up the river until bumping into Harvey where Strawberry's used to be (it's a Starbucks now.) Pretty cold early on but I continue to build up my tolerance by running in shorts. Another run with sore hamstrings, felt pretty herky-jerky running alone but smooth enough when I was with Harvey (he may disagree.) We ran together down to MOS and then I headed home alone. Hit an hour on the nose, didn't check any splits but was clearly running faster with Harvey than without. When trying to figure out how far this was my first impulse was 9M, but I'm running much slower than I'm used to and decided I'd better measure. Not much further than 8M. 5/5	8
THU	Navy Yard with Midge, then Inman Square. I was up earlier because Nate's sick, and since he's not going to daycare I was able to run earliier. Headed out with Midge before 6am and ran through the Navy Yard with her. Warmer than yesterday but still pretty chilly along the water. Dropped Midge off at home and then headed out solo. My hamstring was tight again in the Navy Yard but I felt better right after dropping off Midge and though maybe I had warmed up. Turned out to just be residual heat from being inside, and my hamstrings stayed tight the whole run. I might have to resort to wearing pants soon, though I really need to build up my cold weather tolerance. Another so-so run, it feels good to be back out there, but I'm still very far from actually feeling like there's a purpose to what I'm doing. 4/4	7
WED	CTown loop with Midge. Another 7am start, I had been planning on a short one to rest up after 2 big days. The thermometer said 17 when I got started, it didn't feel that cold but it was bad. Was originally going to wear pants, but then remembered that in order to force Brian to run around the Reservoir shirtless in February I'll have to do the long run in shorts. So, wore shorts today to start building up my tolerance. I didn't learn much from yesterday, as my legs were freezing running along the water. Probably didn't help my hamstrings, either, as they were both decently sore/tight the whole way. Midge was raring to go the whole way and really killed me on the climb up Sackville. It seems like climbing hills is the hardest thing for my hamstrings to handle right now. 3/3	4
TUE	Murphy's Law. Same as yesterday, out the door around 7am after helping get Nate ready for daycare. Right hamstring was really tight and never really loosened up. I did manage to progress from obvious limp to no limp over the course of the run, though. Much colder than yesterday, low 30s, so running along the water might not have been a great idea. I guess my route selection is rusty.	8
MON	Back Bay loop. Helped Kathryn get Nate ready for daycare and headed out for a run at 7am. Nice weather for running, low 50s with maybe a hint of a mist, and I was really happy to be getting back at it. Decided that I wanted to see how it felt to run hard, so once I turned onto Memorial I picked it up and dealt with a tight hamstring and hip flexor, both on my right side. Managed a 5:40 and wasn't limited by my legs or my lungs, was subconciously holding back to try and not injure myself on my first real day back. I think I was on pace for something faster (I think the "3" is really faded as I completely missed it) but really struggled up the "hill" at Longfellow. Didn't feel that great the rest of the way, but my hip flexor stopped hurting as soon as I stopped trying to run fast. The comeback begins again.	6
SUN	Long day finishing the project. Everything is all wrapped up now.	0

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 03 12-05 - 12-11	This week didn't turn out as planned. Had a nice run with a good group on Sunday and made it through 10M without much of an issue. The rest of the week, however, was eaten up by the CS 265 project. Thankfully that's ending, so I no longer have an excuse to be out of shape. December Miles : 25	10
SAT	Day off.	0
FRI	Day off.	0
THU	Day off.	0
WED	Day off.	0
TUE	Day off.	0
MON	Day off.	0
SUN	JP with BH, Dan Smith, Wayne, Prindiville, Paul and Colman.	10

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 02 11-28 - 12-04	December Miles : 15	28
SAT	Day off.	0
FRI	River with Dan Smith and The Defecator.	9
THU	Day off.	0
WED	I feel like I ran today, but I can't remember what I did. It was probably a Back Bay loop.	6
TUE	Day off. November Miles : 58	0
MON	Charlestown Loop. This was Nate's first full day at daycare and Kathryn's first day back at work. Got up around 5:30 and had everything packed and ready to go at 6:45. Got out for my run shortly after that, kept it easy around Charlestown. Hoping to be able to put in some morning runs again, now that I'm back on a schedule.	4
SUN	57 minutes in the Fells with Midge. Nearly able to put in an hour but didn't really want to tack on at the end. Just the usual wandering around without much of a route today. Headed back to Bellevue down the hill from Panther Cave and the rocks were hard to navigate because the sun was in my eyes. Got to the bottom, said aloud to Midge "We made it" and immediately rolled my ankle.	9

Day	Round Up	Miles
Week 01 11-21 - 11-27	First serious week back, I should have more free time going into the winter and hopefully will be able to get back into decent shape again. For now I'm just trying to run regularly and get to a place where I can run hard occasionally without risking injury. November Miles : 45	45
SAT	Day off. Early flight back to Boston and a lot of errands to run once we got home. My legs could probably use a break, trying to be smart about this comeback.	0
FRI	Lakefront with Nick. Wound up waiting a bit for Nick due to some confusion about where I was staying, but we headed out before 9 for this one. I was insanely sore at the start and barely loosened up. Both hamstrings were really tight, probably should have stretched a bit after yesterday's run. A bit more than 6M in 47 minutes, enough to offset the short 13M yesterday. A bit slower pace today, just barely under 7:00 at the end.	6
THU	Traditional Thanksgiving run with Nick along the Parkway. Headed over to Nick's place around 8am and we settled into the usual routine. I had tried to weasel out of this run a few weeks ago but Nick reminded me of all the times he'd hung in with me while out of shape, so I owed him. Was looking forward to pushing myself again and got that today. Just short of 13M, I stopped around 87 minutes and couldn't talk myself into the extra 3 minutes. We were really moving at the end, I caught a couple sub-6:40 splits.	13
WED	Ctown Loop with Midge. Up somewhat early and headed out with Midge before taking her to the kennel. I was really tired but wanted to make sure I got my legs loosened up before grinding with Nick tomorrow.	4
TUE	River with TPS. Finished the draft of my CS265 paper before the run, glad the class is winding down. Ran over to MIT, met Terry at the track then ran up to River on the Cambridge side and back on the Boston side. Was pretty worn down over the final few miles and even saw an 8:0x split on the river. Can't remember the last time I've seen one of those (I've run plenty of 8 minute miles, but never time those runs.)	10
MON	42 minutes to Midas on Rte 9. Headed out along the Riverway in the middle of the day to pick up Kathryn's car. Wound up being a bit further than I had expected and my legs were definitely wobbly by the end. Had I been in better shape, and had more time, it would have been nice to head up to the Reservoir.	6
SUN	43 minutes in the Fells with Midge. Did the usual routine of getting to Bellevue a bit before 8am but this time followed the blue trail and discovered a new area on the other side of South Border Road. Enjoyed getting onto some different trails for a change. Midge is clearly in better shape than I am, she would climb up the hills with ease, then turn around to watch me struggle. Legs a bit tired after just 40 minutes, time to start getting back in shape.	6