Weekly Log: October 10 to 16

Just one meet this week, Thursday at the Avenger Invitational. No brown invitational as previously planned. As I'm really late with this log, I'll keep it brief (and because I don't really remember any of the details).

Monday: 8 Miles, Pawcatuck Loops. Last day of the three day weekend. Felt really tired on a relatively hilly route.

Tuesday: 6 Miles, Seven Narragansetts. Not an extremely difficult workout, but wasn't feeling great and the large amount of repetitions was getting quite boring. Gradually slowing down as I got weaker. Difficulty: 2/5.

Wednesday: 10 Miles, Greenhaven Loop. Since I'm running out of options for new routes, I've been wanting to run this one for a while. It's too long to run if I'm not instructed to run for an hour, so I haven't been able to in the last few times. I broke my PR for longest school distance run at 9.1 miles. The several miles on route one were not pleasant. Ran a little too fast and was feeling more worn out pre-meet than I wanted.

Thursday: 7 Miles, Avenger Invitational. I really didn't want to race this, and it certainly wasn't helping that I would have great competition up front and wasn't running until 5:20 (waiting around for 2 and half hours). I later found out that two possible up-front contenders dropped out and only the fastest of those three remaining. Even though I enjoyed the course on the warm-up, I was really nervous about facing him.

The start was absolutely awful. The EG coach was telling us directions, but no one on my end of the starting line could hear him because he wasn't talking loud or into a megaphone and was on the other end. When he finished, he walked into the middle. I figured he'd give louder directions, but instead raised his arm and suddenly the race was started. I had no idea this was coming and lost a few seconds, not having the usual great start. I quickly took the lead, but noticed I wasn't feeling very strong. I kept pushing until the mile, but started to feel incredibly weak. I noticed half a mile in that there were many people in the lead pack (but there were only three). I led up until the mile in 4:45, where Jackson Cronin passed me.

I was feeling really awful and didn't go with him when he started to pull away. Eventually, the gap stopped opening but he had too big of a lead for me to close it. I never really made a move to try and catch him. I didn't feel strong and I felt like I was slipping on the terrain. Mile 2 in 10:04 gave me a little confidence that I could pull out a big PR, but my lack of effort and strength made mile three slow. I felt like I was slightly gaining on him at the end. I saw the clock ticking just over 16:00 and tried to sprint to get a PR. My strong kick at the very end only showed how much I really left out on the course. The clock disappointingly ticked up and I crossed in a PR tie of 16:09. I actually ended up slightly PR'ing as this time was 0.6 seconds faster than my time at Ocean State Invitational.

Time-wise, I ran decently but nowhere near what I'm capable of. For place and toughness, a weak race on my part and confidence-hurting.

Friday: 9 Miles, ran the distance run really hard because I was feeling bad about Thursday's race. Not a great move as I became quite tired and it wasn't that enjoyable. 6:11 pace.

Saturday: 5 Miles, hard track workout. I really hated the track workout on 10/1, which was very hard mile repeats. I first heard we were doing a timed mile, then easier and shorter stuff which didn't seem so bad. I was sore from not taking Friday easy and a little nervous I might not be strong. The mile was enjoyable because I got to chase the others by starting 30 seconds behind. I cranked that out in 4:31, which is close to projected 1600 PR and was an actual 1600 PR. I went out in 64, so I was a little disappointed I slowed down so much, but I guess that was inevitable. Felt really strong. 5 minutes recovery, than a mile closer to 5K pace. My target was 4:52. It wasn't too bad, and I ran a 4:54 somewhat comfortably. We were told we were done with the workout there, but coach was upset at a comment made by someone on the team and we were doing 4x400. I would've preferred to be done, but it didn't seem too bad. Then we switched to a mile, same pace as last time. That one was really tough. Coach yelled to me to hammer the last lap, and I was able to do that and run a 4:44. Pretty happy with this effort and happy that I felt good. Difficulty: 4/5.

Sunday: 13 Miles, long Sunday run in Portsmouth. 11 and half miles on the Sakonnet greenway trails, which looked awesome based on reviews, pictures and the trail map. I feel that it may have been fun in other circumstances, but it didn't live up to my expectations. 1.5 miles at the glen after to preview my Thursday course (East Bay Challenge). The 11.5 had almost no elevation gain, yet the glen had about 75 feet of gain in just over mile. Brutal run, one of the hardest of the week, because my legs were so sore from the pervious three days.

Weekly Total: 58 Miles
YTD Mileage: 1,856 Miles