Start of Summer- Weekly Logs: June 12 to 18, June 19 to 25

Week: June 12 to 18
First week since end of track. Finishing up my week off, then starting up summer running.

Monday-Thursday: 0. Felt nice being able to go home and nap when tired, but at the same time fat and lazy.

Friday: 8 Miles. Ran woody with Dad and Muddy. Felt very good at first, but legs tired along the way. Absolutely soaker as it poured from start to finish. Very light on pace, which made this an easy transition to begin again.

Saturday: 10 Miles. Wanted to run in Jamestown for a while, and looking at the 6 mile Beavertail segment, I thought it may benefit me to get into some Tempo miles as I would be racing a 10K in one week. It happened to be a super humid but I never expected to feel as awful as I actually did. Plan was: 2 mi WU, 6 mi tempo @6:00-6:10 pace, 2 mi cool-down. First couple were way too fast, about 6:30. Legs weren't great but pace didn't feel too hard. Got down to the low 6s which felt okay at first but suddenly at mile 4 (2 miles of tempo) I started to feel super weak and after another I was feeling so terrible I decided to stop at Beavertail park and take a moment to recover. Considering running a mile easy then finishing up with 2 more at tempo, but just felt so completely drained that the rest of it was a brutal survival back to the car. Barely managed to keep it sub-7 and the last two were about 7:30. Not enjoyable or encouraging, but perhaps I went too hard after the 5 days off and didn't properly acclimate to the humidity.

Trying out a second pair of NB Vazee Pace v2.

Sunday: 8 Miles. Run for Sam Luzzi XC 5K Fun Run @Bradford Preserve. Treated it like a Westerly fun run: run it moderately but not all out and get the miles in during warm-ups and cool-down. Wanted to run with teammates, but all were lazy and didn't want to do anything fast. Huge group for an easy first mile about 6:30 then I ran in the front with Tom 10-20 meters back for the rest. Kept it about 6:30 pace, felt much harder than expected. Legs felt horrible with knee and thigh stiffness/tight and the cool-down was exhausting. Super sore after.

I packed too much in just a couple of days back and suffered for it. I was planning on doing a easy workout, some fast 400s on Tuesday but after this set-back/tiredness I decided to take Monday off, skip the workout and instead do the fun run Wednesday at 10K pace.

Weekly Total: 26 Miles
YTD Total: 918 Miles

Week: June 19 to 25
Full week of training. Racing a 10K for time Saturday, but not exactly sure what to expect. With only a week to prepare, I won't be able to get in much specific training for it.

Monday: 0. Totally feeling it from the weekend and extreme soreness convinced me I needed a rest day.

Tuesday: 9 Miles. Made a decent looking route in Groton. Got out of school at 10:30 post-exam and after eating, I wanted to get a run done as soon as possible, even it meant running in the hottest time of the day. Plan was a Jupiter point out and back from Bluff Point (a parking lot just outside there). It was 85 and my entire route was sun-exposed but somehow I felt decent to keep going without a problem. There was some wind, which helped me not overheat but at the same time made it pretty tough to push through. I planned 7, but forgot some of the road names on my turnaround (added a small loop to get 7) and headed in the wrong direction. Had no idea where I was for a while, but looked for Groton-New London signs and eventually got back to where I needed to go (after a 2 mile detour). Super hot in the last few, but surprisingly walking around after in shade really helped cool me down. Glad I felt good on this longer run. Legs were heavy but a huge improvement from the weekend/Monday and no soreness at all.

Wednesday: 9 Miles. Got in a lot of warm-up miles pre fun run. I had about 4 before actually going for it. I wanted to do about 5:20 pace as that would be my actual race pace Saturday. I took preparations seriously, hydrating well and taking pre-race routines as I wanted to feel smooth doing 10K pace and get some confidence before Saturday. Just being a fun run/mild workout for me, I was pretty relaxed until about 5 minutes before. It was a little hot and I wasn't sure how it would feel. After a while, we were off. As usual, I did a terrible job at controlling pace and went out way too fast. I can never get the first mile what I want it to be at the fun run and usually screw the whole pacing up. My watch showed about 5 flat for the first half mile. There was a kid a few meters back from me and it was surprising that he never dropped off. It was little annoying when he used me to block wind on Atlantic and was trying to pass me on the narrow inside on the next road, but after a mile a gap opened. By bayberry, I was alone. I went through the mile in 5:08, feeling decent but not really wanting to settle. Mile 2 was definitely kinda tiring as those few hills are in there, but I kept the effort up without making it all-out. Second mile was 5:19. In the third mile, I stayed smooth on Crandall, feeling okay- not great and ready to go, but not ready to give up either. I saw that I had about 5:13, 5:14 average pace and was thinking I would be around a course PR. I didn't want to make this last mile all-out as that wasn't the intention of the run, but at the same time I felt that if I had gone this far at a faster pace I figured I might as well not let up and get a course PR under 16:46. I felt pretty tired in the last half mile with wind and many turns, but managed to pick it up a little. I wasn't really thinking about the CR of 16:30, and finished just outside of that in 16:34. Had I known I was going to be so close I probably would really hit the Crandall portion to try to take it.

I was pretty happy this. Obviously went out too fast but the effort was there and it felt good. Probably more like 4-mile effort than 10K, but close enough and a definite sign that I could take that CR. The only downside of this was that I did go too fast and will have to restrain myself in the actual race. Nice breeze on a short cool-down with Sam to make 9. Overall, a very good day.

Also debuted a new pair of racing flats, the NB 1400v4. Other than initial lack of traction and overheating (that may be any shoe), they were excellent.

Thursday: 7 Miles. Charlestown roads. Once again hot, not as bad as the previous days but not ideal either. Once again headed off after finishing exams at school (last day for me). This time I didn't eat/drink much as I wanted to be done ASAP and I suffered for it. First couple were okay, but after that I felt super weak and wondered if I could even make 7. Took a long break at 4 and decided to run back, get a drink then go back again. Skipped the drink and instead did a few out and backs to the get the 7, but I was tired and it was unpleasant. Pretty much running on empty, but glad I finished it.

Always enjoyable to take trips to the Granite State.

Friday: 4 Miles. Left Thursday evening for Southern NH. This was for a UNH visit, as well as the 10K race in Concord. Woke up pretty early and ran in Henderson-Swasey town forest in Exeter near our hotel. Ran pretty easy on trashed legs. Confusing at the end, but a short run before the tour.

Debuted a new trail shoe for me, NB Vazee Summit. I loved my old Saucony Peregrines but it was time for a replacement and they were almost double the price.

Saturday: 8 Miles, Capital City Classic 10K. Another brutal summer racing where I fell victim to the conditions, this time at 90% humidity. Wheels came off at about mile 1.5 and the rest of the race was a struggle as my pace dropped and dropped. Still got a 4 minute PR, but time of 34:42 wasn't what I was hoping for. Basically the same happened to everyone (go out fast around 5:10 then die and run 5:40 for the rest) so it would have been hard to do much better. Full write-up coming soon.

Sunday: 5 Miles. Late B-game recovery. Really fun trails, but kept mileage low as I was still tight from the race.

Weekly Total: 42 Miles
YTD Total: 960 Miles

Seeing as it's the halfway point, only now have I started to actually look at mileage total. I'm a little worried and haven't really put any thought to this before, but will hit about 1000 miles at the halfway point while last year I got a total of 2300. Am I really this far back at matching the total? Or does it even out in the summer running?