Start of XC- Weekly Log: August 21 to 27

Unfortunately, the summer offseason is over. While I have 2 weeks before school starts, running freedom has (mostly) ended and now I am chained to the boring schedule that my coaches create: hills, track, school runs, and not much else.

Monday: 5 Miles

Went to Bradford preserve and got in an easy but enjoyable singletrack run. Ran the cross country course first before adding on the pumpkins section. Had a lot of fun running hansel and Gretel (although when is that not fun?).

Tuesday: 7 Miles

Was supposed to have Monday and Tuesday workouts, but was never informed of what they were so made up my own: 4x800 @5K (2:30 target/5:00 pace) w/400m recovery. Ran over to Avondale pretty late in the day (6:40 PM) as a warm-up, before doing the workout on the Avondale road loop. Did not realize how windy it would be, but the workout went smoothly. Each one felt uncomfortably fast, but went by quickly and for the most part, I was under target pace. It got tough at the end as I started to hit the wind in the final 200, so 4 seemed like enough this time. Splits: 2:29/2:27/2:28/2:25. Difficulty: 3/5. Cool-down back home hurt as I was pretty heavy and exhausted by then.

Wednesday: 10 Miles

Went to practice expecting an easy 6 mile distance run before heading over to Stonington to get in a decent effort at the new fun run, but was surprised to hear that I had a timed mile. I was feeling especially weak before and on warm-ups, so I wasn't too thrilled. Ended up doing surprisingly well. My goal was to crack 4:40, but I wasn't confident I could do that. Ended up going out in 70, which felt good but seemed awfully slow. I had to pick the effort up and was no longer comfortable going through in 2:20. I gave it what I could the last 800 and somehow closed in 2:14 to run a 4:34, a big surprise and within 10 seconds of my actual PR. Huge surprise to negative split it, I usually go the other way around. Felt much better, but trashed on the cool-down.

The fun run after was pretty awesome, but my legs were not. Hung with the leaders for a little bit but my heavy legs were not reacting so well, so I fell back, recovered mile 2 and then did what I could to pick off people in the last mile, which felt mostly good. Ended up moving from 6th to 2nd, finishing only behind Chris who had a good lead on the whole field. Loved the whole thing except the track start/finish. The two way traffic was a little annoying, but understandable to make the 5K distance without sacrificing trail running.

Thursday: 7 Miles

Narragansett hill workout, 5 repeats. Legs were not so great but I felt better than expected and put in a consistent, solid effort that wasn't too slow. It got tough starting with the 3rd one, but fortunately I didn't let up too much. Difficulty: 3/5. Longer CD to make 7 for the day.

Friday: 8 Miles

Went to Boston for some college tours and squeezed in a run on the Charles River bike paths next to BU. It was interesting to see the amount of path there available for running in the city but I wasn't very impressed as they were always so close to a road and usually pretty crowded. I can't imagine biking there. Once again legs were a bit crap. Added on an easy 3 miles at home later, which felt much better as I took it pretty easy.

Saturday: 6 Miles

10x400 on the track w/90s-120s recovery @69s each. Was terrible with the pacing on this one, ranging from a 64 to a 71. Can't remember the exact splits but they were something like: 71/68/64/67/67/67/66/65/67/66. They felt okay- since it was only one lap it was never brutally hard but each was somewhat tiring and didn't feel that great. The longer recovery really helped. The last three hurt. Was dead on the cool-down and didn't run much extra.

Sunday: 0 Miles. First off day in a while. Wanted to run, but probably best to take a day off now.

Weekly Total: 43 Miles
YTD Total:  1,558 Miles

I have my first meet next Saturday. Hopefully that will go well, but not looking forward to it. Not proud of this weekly total, but I simply do a lot less in season with less freedom and motivation.