Thanksgiving- Weekly Log: November 21 to 27

The summer is always a great period for running because I actually get a break from the frequent and stressful cycle of school running that many times has a complete lack of variety. After just half a week of running, this offseason is almost over. Indoor starts Monday, meaning the (mostly) boring cycle starts again. At least this week was enjoyable. After a fun little Rhody race, I had one more: the Pie run on Thanksgiving morning. I like racing on thanksgiving and this race seems like a good opportunity to update my 5-mile PR (I failed to do so in Bobby Doyle's brutal conditions), check out a good-looking course and hopefully enjoy another race.

Monday: 0 Miles

I wasn't sure what to do on this one, either a light short run or day off. I decided to take the day off because I was quite sore from the race the day before and I don't take many zeros during season, at least not in the second half.

Tuesday: 9 Miles

I hadn't run a road race since August and besides Little Rhody I also hadn't run any races over 5K, so I wanted to get some kind of a workout in to get a feel for what the target pace may feel like. I would've made it difficult but since it was only two days out, it was better not to go too hard. I also couldn't have done it Monday as it was the day after the race. I didn't like how tight this was (if the race was Saturday, I could've taken two days recovery from Little Rhody, run a hard workout Wednesday, then take two days recovery before Pie Run), but there were only three days between the two races. I also did enjoy racing on a weekday morning. Looking at Strava activities for the Pie Run, I also decided it would be a good idea to do some hill repeats in preparation for the 100ft climb at mile 3.5.

The workout was a short amount of descending intervals at the target 5-mi pace (5:20) w/short recoveries of 200m. 1000/800/600/400/200. I wasn't excited headed out as it had been cold and windy the whole day and my teammate dropped out of the workout (and ended up dropping out of the race as well) at the last second, so I was all alone. I planned on doing in this in the Misquamicut beach parking lot as I like to find a flat smooth and wide area when I do my track-style workout on asphalt. I've tried Ninigret and Avondale as well, both great options for workouts. What I didn't realize was how windy it was. The wind didn't seem bad heading down, but as soon as I started the 1K, it hit me hard. I had to work very to get past the brutal wind. Sometimes, I'd go with it which made the intervals easy, but I was pretty exhausted otherwise and for most of them I was against the wind. The stupid wind screwed the whole workout up and made it pretty much useless as it felt terrible and I wasn't consistent or smooth at all. I did hit all the splits close to 5:20 except the 200 where I was too fast. I guess the workout might be useful as preparation for a windy races. It was about 1.5 miles to the base of the hill (Ice Pond hill), where I planned to 4x50ft climb. I was surprised I had already gotten in 5 miles, but now was quite cold and not looking forward to it. The hills went quite well and I ran between 5:20-5:40 pace for all of them.  Difficulty: 3/5.

Wednesday: 5 Miles

Rockridge loop shakeout. Not cold today, but I didn't feel like doing this. Felt smooth and comfortable at 6:30s pace (too fast but I got into a groove), but didn't really enjoy it.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Race day. Newport Pie Run. The 8:30 AM start was earlier than I was used to (the school races usually start between 11-1, so I hadn't raced this early since summer) and I had to wake up much earlier than usual. I wasn't super excited for the race, but it ended up being great. I loved the course, set-up, timing and awards. In additional, race conditions were perfect. Felt terrible pre-race and post-race, but besides some heaviness in the first mile and weakness in the last two, I felt great. Completely flat mile 3 was awesome as I just coasted comfortably at a 5:10 pace. I was surprised I managed to stay very consistent and I actually hit my A-Goal of 5:20 pace (B-Goal was Sub-27). Big PR of 26:41 and 4th overall, so I was really happy with this. I've been suffering recently in races, but this was actually enjoyable.

Friday: 8 Miles

Carolina trails in the rain. Nowhere near as fun as the previous day. First few miles were fun as we explored some cool single-track and double-track through pine forests, but got cold and tired of the lack of marking towards the end. Also got very tired, which seems to be a trend on these long (but not very fast) weekend trail runs.

Saturday: 13 Miles

Very fun Wickaboxet/Tillinghast long trail run with WTAC runners. Felt really good during the first 8 mile loop, but the two add-on loops afterwards were exhausting as my legs were getting very tired. Glad to get in a long run.

Sunday: 6 Miles

Early morning rocky neck exploration. Some fun trails, others were boring. Great scenic views at many locations and also ran the boardwalk and beach. Ran most of the trails and got on a few segments.

Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 2,112 Miles

Back to practices :(