Back to training for a while, Christmas week.
Monday: 0 Miles.
Took the day off. Usual lifting + 500 yard swim at the Y. Pretty tired on the swim, first time in a while.
Tuesday: 7 Miles.
Late from the house on Christmas with Dad and Mark's dog Brady. Easy mix of local trail and roads. Already wondering/worrying about how decent mileage is possible this week with such a small start.
Wednesday: 12 Miles
Got together a workout I've been wanting to do for a while. I'm usually all talk and no action, so it was nice to go for a segment I've been looking at for a while- the Newport Cliff Walk. I ran the cliff walk in Summer 2017 and ended up getting a really slow time on the segment due to stopping for pictures frequently. I remembered there were a couple rocky sections but it was mostly a smooth and paved path. Galoob CR's is 6:20 pace, so I figured that was very doable even with the slowdown. I'd just run a tempo 5:40 for the 3.5 miles and maybe it would be 5:50 pace with the slower sections. Ran with Dad the Newport county Y. Mile warm-up, then got things rolling on the cliff walk. Shoes were really loose but I decided not to restart and kept going. First mile was smooth and controlled, went through the halfway feeling good. Then the rocks came and they never seemed to go away. It took a lot of effort and mental discipline to push through extremely technical rock sections. The pace dropped way down and when I finally got past what was probably a full mile of obstacles, I made sure to hammer the last 400 to ensure I would get the CR. I knew it would be close, but I thankfully got the CR by 15 seconds. I now understand why the pace on that isn't blazing. Long easy run afterwards to the hills of the Pie Run Course. 3xParadise ave hill, then return for a nice 12 mile run. Brutal tempo, difficulty 5/5.
Thursday: 13 Miles
Two runs, met with Dad, Tom and Sam for an easy run in Ninigret. Pretty usual road/trail mix there. Felt tired on this one and like the run went by really slowly but nice to run some other guys.
Easy 5 mile run with Dad and Brady later, felt much better than on the morning and cruising around on the pumpkins course.
Friday: 10 Miles
Slept in pretty later and ran a modified around the pond loop for 10. Windy out, but fortunately had it at my back on Atlantic Ave so it only bothered me for the first two miles. Starting pouring halfway and I was cold, drenched and tired finishing up. Left achilles weirdly really hurt the last few miles.
Went to the Y later to get in lifting and a 1000 yard swim this time.
Saturday: 12 Miles
Met Keith at the South County bike path to jump in on his workout. He was doing a 12 mile progression run working his way down from 6:30 to 5:30. Effort was there the whole way, even the low 6s were not effortless. Wasn't planning on doing the whole thing, but legs got crazy tights at 8 miles and had to peel off. Splits were atrocious as we dipped under 6 as earlier as mile 2. This took a lot of me and I was feeling it later on. Not going to call this a workout (obviously a very hard effort) as it was just too chaotic and unfinished to be a workout. Achilles felt slightly uncomfortable at the beginning but then didn't feel at all.
Sunday: 15 Miles
Very late, went with Dad to Carolina and did a mix of trails and roads there. Ran pretty slow and relaxed for most of it, felt really good through 12 miles. Legs were dead after and it wasn't fun to tack on to get 70 for the week. My longest run ever by .2 miles. Almost 2 full hours of running.
Weekly Total: 70 Miles
YTD Total: 2,227 Miles
Weekly Highlight: The newport run was something different and it felt good to pick up a longer segment on a somewhat well-known route. Technically, I have the FKT for the Newport Cliff Walk.
Weekly Lowlight: Achilles worries. Hate these stupid random pains as they're usually nothing, but I was scared for a second there. Also felt more tired/bored than usual during the week.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Weekly Log: December 17 to 23
Back home for winter break, with a double at the BU Mini Meet #3 on Saturday. Keeping higher mileage but not a ton of hard work this as I have to back off for the race.
Monday: 6 Miles
Noanet Woodlands- Dover, MA. Was going to take the day off after my calves felt really tight at the end of yesterday's long run but didn't want to miss the opportunity to run in new (to me) trails. With Dad- his territory. We stayed on flat double-track for optimal recovery but the trail felt pretty boring to me. Was feeling weak and full on this run.
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Hill workout, first time back at Westerly High School doing a longer mix of some of my old hill workouts of HS. Decided to keep the effort light but add in a lot more hills than usual. 3xPark, 1xFingers, 3xNarragansett, 1xOak for a CR attempt. Kept the effort easy on Park but felt myself unintentionally increasing effort on the fingers and was going fairly hardly by the time I got to the Narragansett. The oak attempt was tough as my legs were heavy and I didn't feel very controlled at that point, but it did feel nice to pick up a CR. Ended up getting a surprising 1,000ft of elevation. Difficulty: 2/5.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Slept in a little more and headed to Burlingame to do a pretty normal recovery loop. Started from the picnic area and ran my usual loop out to the ocean path tower at Kettle Pond and through Burlingame trail to North-South, back through Vin Gormley. That usually gets me 7 so got an extra mile by exploring the pretty fun Kimball trails. Still got back at 7.5, pretty annoying to loop around the parking lot to just get half a mile.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Met up with Keith McAteer in the morning (he lives a quarter mile from me), and did 8 locally. We went faster than intended (average pace around 6:30) but ran on roads I haven't been on in a while. Normally, I get really bored of running local roads but was okay with it as I was running with someone else. Felt really smooth and enjoyed it.
Friday: 7 Miles
With Keith again, kept it easier than yesterday but still faster than expected. Similar route but felt pretty tired. Couple strides after.
Saturday: 8 Miles
BU Mini Meet #3, my first time of hopefully many at the BU track (my conference meet is held there annually as well as 3 invitationals my team participates in, which I should go to starting next year). 3000/800 double. Figured I might as well get in some speed work, especially as the 3K was first and 800 last. No idea what to expect for 3K, just doubted I'd hit a super fast time. Put an 8:45 seed time as that would be a great day but my goal was break 8:50. 2:00 for the 800 which is where I expected I was but not sure how doubling would affect that.
Got there just after 9 and warmed up with Keith. Between checking in and using the bathroom, we were doing warm-ups pretty late. Had a couple of teammates there as well, most of whom were running the 3K. 15 minute warm-up. Track felt so weird at first but I adjusted to it quickly and enjoyed the feel. Was feeling hot and weak, but I pretty much always feel that way on indoor warm-ups, so I wasn't worried at all.
Got my stuff together and headed over to the infield to get in last minute strides/warm-ups before my race. I just missed the fast heat, meaning I wouldn't race with Keith and a couple of my teammates. I was pretty upset at first but after seeing how fast everyone went out (except the leaders, the majority of guys went out in the mid-4:30s range), it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Watched their race, before making my way to the starting line. I knew 3 guys in the race, my teammate another freshman Max Ireland, 2018 Barrington graduate and current Brown club runner Eliot Laidlaw and classic Senior John O'Rourke. At first I figured I'd have to do all the work, but I was wrong. I wasn't nervous at all for this race, which is a rare feeling for me. It wasn't until I got on the line that it really felt I was about to race.
3000
Gun shot off and I found myself towards the front. Derek Jakoboski went right to the front and took care of pacing duties for a while. Went through the 800 in 2:21 which seemed perfect. Pace really lagged after that. Found myself getting swallowed up by the pack and slowly moving back but was really boxed in. Right behind Eliot for a while. He was running erratically as he would move to the outside and as I attempted to take the inside spot he freed up, he'd move back in and completely cut me off. He did this several times which was extremely annoying as I would have to put my hand out on his back to prevent him from crashing into me. Unfortunately, going outside wasn't an option either as it was a really tight pack and there was no way to get out without risking a fall or shoving someone. Eliot finally started behaving himself as we went through the mile in 4:47. I picked up the pace to move up and positioned myself behind the leader. I had been feeling sluggish yet definitely had plenty of energy. When I was in 2nd, I kinda said to myself "I feel good, why not go for it?". This impatience probably had to do with A) the slower than expected pace through the mile and B) lack of focus during the race (and nervousness beforehand). I went to the front, not slowly, but shot out with a big surge. That lap was probably a fast one. Came through 2K having no idea what the hell I was doing. I haven't been this distracted/wandering in a race in a while, if ever. Kept the lead and continued to push the pace through 2400 where I completely ran out of steam. No one passed me until 400 to go, but when they did, I had nothing and I got dropped by a lot of people.
The time clock was frozen after 5 minutes in my race, so I had no idea what my time was. I figured it would be somewhere between 8:50-9:05. Ended up running 8:56.1 for 17th place overall. Nothing remarkable and definitely slow, but at least I broke 9. I think I could taken a few seconds off had I not put so much out there in my move or at least waited a little longer. I definitely don't know what was going on with me or why I wasn't focused in the race.
Long wait with a couple warm-ups/cool-downs before the 800. Was feeling pretty weak before and not looking forward to it. Based on my fatigue I thought 2:00 was out of the question and 2:03 was more likely. Ended up in the 3rd heat, had no problem with that. I figured I'd run it like I was going for sub-2, go out with the leaders in 59 and hopefully not have too much of a positive split. I was feeling much more nervous for this as I hadn't done anything fast since June.
800
Went out right with the leader from the gun in a 29. It felt fast but not too bad and I knew I was on pace for 1:59/2:00. As expected, it was an instant struggle to continue at such a fast pace with my lack of speed right now. From lap 2, I was grinding to stay with him. Never before have I found it so difficult to run a 59 second 400. Eventually the guy started to drop me. I really pushed this one, putting everything I had into the last 400 and finished in a decent 2:02.40 which I'm pleased with considering my lack of speed and that this was my second race. I'm actually happier with this than my 3K.
Overall, the results were okay. Nothing very good, but nothing bad either. I feel completely indifferent to the race and considering I was just trying to get in some hard race anyway, I'm fine with the results. Couple of slow meet on the terrible UNH track in January, then the real races come in February. Would love to run a fast 3K (low 8:30s) but the focus is still on that sub-15 5K.
Sunday: 19 Miles
Two runs, started in the morning with 14 with Keith, local again. Went out to watch hill which was nice but pretty tired towards the end. Made a big loop out that way before tacking on a smaller one through Newbury. We split off there as Keith was looking for a little less, I went right into the trails and he continued on. Exhausted for those last 3.
As if 14 wasn't enough, tagged along with Tom and Dad for a Christmas light run from our house. Tired the whole way through this, dropped off towards the end. With so much mileage on Sunday, still got in a high week.
Weekly Total: 67 Miles
YTD Total: 2,157 Miles
Weekly Highlight: No particular highlight, just a solid week overall.
Weekly Lowlight: While I'm okay with the result, I can't believe how horrible that 800 felt. I've always felt very comfortable going out in a 59 if not faster and going out in that 59 was a complete grind. Definitely a wake-up call to get some speed work in, at least after winter break ends.
Monday: 6 Miles
Noanet Woodlands- Dover, MA. Was going to take the day off after my calves felt really tight at the end of yesterday's long run but didn't want to miss the opportunity to run in new (to me) trails. With Dad- his territory. We stayed on flat double-track for optimal recovery but the trail felt pretty boring to me. Was feeling weak and full on this run.
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Hill workout, first time back at Westerly High School doing a longer mix of some of my old hill workouts of HS. Decided to keep the effort light but add in a lot more hills than usual. 3xPark, 1xFingers, 3xNarragansett, 1xOak for a CR attempt. Kept the effort easy on Park but felt myself unintentionally increasing effort on the fingers and was going fairly hardly by the time I got to the Narragansett. The oak attempt was tough as my legs were heavy and I didn't feel very controlled at that point, but it did feel nice to pick up a CR. Ended up getting a surprising 1,000ft of elevation. Difficulty: 2/5.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Slept in a little more and headed to Burlingame to do a pretty normal recovery loop. Started from the picnic area and ran my usual loop out to the ocean path tower at Kettle Pond and through Burlingame trail to North-South, back through Vin Gormley. That usually gets me 7 so got an extra mile by exploring the pretty fun Kimball trails. Still got back at 7.5, pretty annoying to loop around the parking lot to just get half a mile.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Met up with Keith McAteer in the morning (he lives a quarter mile from me), and did 8 locally. We went faster than intended (average pace around 6:30) but ran on roads I haven't been on in a while. Normally, I get really bored of running local roads but was okay with it as I was running with someone else. Felt really smooth and enjoyed it.
Friday: 7 Miles
With Keith again, kept it easier than yesterday but still faster than expected. Similar route but felt pretty tired. Couple strides after.
Saturday: 8 Miles
BU Mini Meet #3, my first time of hopefully many at the BU track (my conference meet is held there annually as well as 3 invitationals my team participates in, which I should go to starting next year). 3000/800 double. Figured I might as well get in some speed work, especially as the 3K was first and 800 last. No idea what to expect for 3K, just doubted I'd hit a super fast time. Put an 8:45 seed time as that would be a great day but my goal was break 8:50. 2:00 for the 800 which is where I expected I was but not sure how doubling would affect that.
Got there just after 9 and warmed up with Keith. Between checking in and using the bathroom, we were doing warm-ups pretty late. Had a couple of teammates there as well, most of whom were running the 3K. 15 minute warm-up. Track felt so weird at first but I adjusted to it quickly and enjoyed the feel. Was feeling hot and weak, but I pretty much always feel that way on indoor warm-ups, so I wasn't worried at all.
Got my stuff together and headed over to the infield to get in last minute strides/warm-ups before my race. I just missed the fast heat, meaning I wouldn't race with Keith and a couple of my teammates. I was pretty upset at first but after seeing how fast everyone went out (except the leaders, the majority of guys went out in the mid-4:30s range), it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Watched their race, before making my way to the starting line. I knew 3 guys in the race, my teammate another freshman Max Ireland, 2018 Barrington graduate and current Brown club runner Eliot Laidlaw and classic Senior John O'Rourke. At first I figured I'd have to do all the work, but I was wrong. I wasn't nervous at all for this race, which is a rare feeling for me. It wasn't until I got on the line that it really felt I was about to race.
3000
Gun shot off and I found myself towards the front. Derek Jakoboski went right to the front and took care of pacing duties for a while. Went through the 800 in 2:21 which seemed perfect. Pace really lagged after that. Found myself getting swallowed up by the pack and slowly moving back but was really boxed in. Right behind Eliot for a while. He was running erratically as he would move to the outside and as I attempted to take the inside spot he freed up, he'd move back in and completely cut me off. He did this several times which was extremely annoying as I would have to put my hand out on his back to prevent him from crashing into me. Unfortunately, going outside wasn't an option either as it was a really tight pack and there was no way to get out without risking a fall or shoving someone. Eliot finally started behaving himself as we went through the mile in 4:47. I picked up the pace to move up and positioned myself behind the leader. I had been feeling sluggish yet definitely had plenty of energy. When I was in 2nd, I kinda said to myself "I feel good, why not go for it?". This impatience probably had to do with A) the slower than expected pace through the mile and B) lack of focus during the race (and nervousness beforehand). I went to the front, not slowly, but shot out with a big surge. That lap was probably a fast one. Came through 2K having no idea what the hell I was doing. I haven't been this distracted/wandering in a race in a while, if ever. Kept the lead and continued to push the pace through 2400 where I completely ran out of steam. No one passed me until 400 to go, but when they did, I had nothing and I got dropped by a lot of people.
The time clock was frozen after 5 minutes in my race, so I had no idea what my time was. I figured it would be somewhere between 8:50-9:05. Ended up running 8:56.1 for 17th place overall. Nothing remarkable and definitely slow, but at least I broke 9. I think I could taken a few seconds off had I not put so much out there in my move or at least waited a little longer. I definitely don't know what was going on with me or why I wasn't focused in the race.
Long wait with a couple warm-ups/cool-downs before the 800. Was feeling pretty weak before and not looking forward to it. Based on my fatigue I thought 2:00 was out of the question and 2:03 was more likely. Ended up in the 3rd heat, had no problem with that. I figured I'd run it like I was going for sub-2, go out with the leaders in 59 and hopefully not have too much of a positive split. I was feeling much more nervous for this as I hadn't done anything fast since June.
800
Went out right with the leader from the gun in a 29. It felt fast but not too bad and I knew I was on pace for 1:59/2:00. As expected, it was an instant struggle to continue at such a fast pace with my lack of speed right now. From lap 2, I was grinding to stay with him. Never before have I found it so difficult to run a 59 second 400. Eventually the guy started to drop me. I really pushed this one, putting everything I had into the last 400 and finished in a decent 2:02.40 which I'm pleased with considering my lack of speed and that this was my second race. I'm actually happier with this than my 3K.
Overall, the results were okay. Nothing very good, but nothing bad either. I feel completely indifferent to the race and considering I was just trying to get in some hard race anyway, I'm fine with the results. Couple of slow meet on the terrible UNH track in January, then the real races come in February. Would love to run a fast 3K (low 8:30s) but the focus is still on that sub-15 5K.
Sunday: 19 Miles
Two runs, started in the morning with 14 with Keith, local again. Went out to watch hill which was nice but pretty tired towards the end. Made a big loop out that way before tacking on a smaller one through Newbury. We split off there as Keith was looking for a little less, I went right into the trails and he continued on. Exhausted for those last 3.
As if 14 wasn't enough, tagged along with Tom and Dad for a Christmas light run from our house. Tired the whole way through this, dropped off towards the end. With so much mileage on Sunday, still got in a high week.
Weekly Total: 67 Miles
YTD Total: 2,157 Miles
Weekly Highlight: No particular highlight, just a solid week overall.
Weekly Lowlight: While I'm okay with the result, I can't believe how horrible that 800 felt. I've always felt very comfortable going out in a 59 if not faster and going out in that 59 was a complete grind. Definitely a wake-up call to get some speed work in, at least after winter break ends.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Weekly Log: December 10 to 16
Getting a really solid week of training with more mileage and a return to hard workouts. Dartmouth showed me I'm not in a terrible place to start, but I have plenty of work to do before I'm ready to break 15. Hopefully higher mileage (65-75 miles per week) and quality workouts will get me there. Running a fast 3K will be a bonus.
Monday: 8 Miles
Another hill Monday. Was still totally feeling the 5K and felt pretty heavy/tight on these. Most of the guys in the group weren't pushing which was nice as there's no one way I could have kept up with the fast guys today. Took the lead on the first few but felt really flat after the halfway on each hill and eased up for the rest, letting others take over. Like the previous week, I felt like my legs were wobbly on the bus stop set, very uncontrolled. Difficulty: 3/5 (normally a 1/5).
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Wednesday Hill with Andrew. Was feeling extremely tight in my calves and my right foot felt extremely constricted/painful for 4ish miles. Finally stopped and loosened my shoes, turned out that was the cause as I felt mostly smooth for the rest. Breaking into a new pair of 890s on my runs this week. Haven't done this route since August, turns out it was a pretty nice one. Some good hills in there too, which I guess you would expect from a road with hill in its name. Cruised at 6:50 pace overall, felt just right.
Wednesday: 11 Miles
Solo today, felt a lot tighter than yesterday for no reason at all. Kept the pace pretty relaxed, pudding hill with a couple add ons. Run went by quickly. Finally loosened up after 8 miles and actually really good and wanting to do more. Strides after, 5x160m. Still feel so off balance and awkward trying to fast on a 160m oval.
Thursday: 9 Miles
Short Snell. Like Tuesday, I felt really tight for the first portion then after adjusting my shoes felt very smooth. Not sure why these shoes are taking so long to break in/why the fit is so weird but its annoying. Picked it in the low 6s for the last couple miles so slightly faster overall pace today. Legs were feeling tired towards the end so I was okay with 8. 5x160m strides again.
Friday: 9 Miles
Workout today, and the only run of the week I would do in the afternoon. I was not looking forward to working out on the 160m oval as I'm so not used to the extremely tight curve and awkward splits/number of laps. I wasn't thrilled either to find out I was the only one working out. 3 mile warm-up, felt very tight. Workout was 1500/1200/1000/800/600. Pace was 72s per 400 or 28.5 for the 160. I had no idea about the number of laps/where to start for any of them because of the weird 160m measurement but Coach let me know all of that and track my splits. Went out a little fast for the 1500 but it evened out towards the end. From about 4 laps in, I was feeling it. Was pretty much dead and extremely tight/heavy after that. The amount of laps were ridiculous and having 5+ to go when I was ready to die did not feel good. Kept pace for part of the 1200 and 1000 but faded badly in the final portion. Was feeling all done and ready to throw in the towel (threw up after the 1000), so it was nice that Coach had Cody pace me for the first 400 of the 800 and the entire 600. Cody paced the 800 perfectly and I didn't fade off when he dropped off. Despite it being at the same pace, Cody ran the 600 much faster and I mostly held on. Was going to try a longer cooldown but my calves were absolute toast and I just didn't have much in me. Absolutely brutal one, definitely a top 10 hardest of all time made 100 times worse by being on an indoor 160m track. Difficulty: 5/5.
Saturday: 11 Miles
Long Snell, another relaxed run with just Andrew. Was expecting to have a really rough time after the workout, but felt surprisingly smooth. I guess a good nights sleep is always a good thing. Did feel somewhat fatigued and legs were tired finishing up.
Sunday: 13 Miles
Expected to run with a small group, so was surprised to have 9 guys come out. At first, I was worried that everyone would want to run really fast but fortunately we cruised again. Felt pretty exhausted at the beginning, not a great sign for a 13 miler but felt gradually better the whole run. Group split up around 10 miles and I found myself in the front of the group pushing the pace into the low 6s. Felt really good and ended up finishing alone. Final run in Durham till January.
Weekly Total: 71 Miles (PR!!!)
YTD Total: 2,090 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Saw a shot to break my weekly mileage PR of 67 from summer 2017 and went for it, doing no less than 8 a day and 10+ 4 days of the week. Most of it was pretty fun and just reaffirms that I'm much happier running 60+ then I am running 45. A little more than I should have but feels nice seeing that 70 for the first time.
Weekly Lowlight: I think it was a solid, balanced week overall but I obviously didn't feel 100% with plenty of fatigue and tightness going around. It's all part of where I'm at in training and I think a month from I'll be feeling awesome almost all of the time (other than general fatigue/tightness from hard training). Of course, the workout is the low light. 5/5 workouts are no fun, and the feeling of being in them/finishing up is indescribably worse than any race or regular run makes me feel.
BU Mini Meet #3 next week. Going to race the 3K and the 800. A bunch of my teammates are racing as well as a few others I know so I won't be alone in either race. Great competition there and obviously a great track. Never raced on BU before (raced on Reggie Lewis, Yale and Armory for banked tracks) and am excited as that will be a major venue for me in the next four years. Not in a great shape but will still race hard and will be shooting for 8:45 and sub-2 but will be happy with slightly slower.
Monday: 8 Miles
Another hill Monday. Was still totally feeling the 5K and felt pretty heavy/tight on these. Most of the guys in the group weren't pushing which was nice as there's no one way I could have kept up with the fast guys today. Took the lead on the first few but felt really flat after the halfway on each hill and eased up for the rest, letting others take over. Like the previous week, I felt like my legs were wobbly on the bus stop set, very uncontrolled. Difficulty: 3/5 (normally a 1/5).
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Wednesday Hill with Andrew. Was feeling extremely tight in my calves and my right foot felt extremely constricted/painful for 4ish miles. Finally stopped and loosened my shoes, turned out that was the cause as I felt mostly smooth for the rest. Breaking into a new pair of 890s on my runs this week. Haven't done this route since August, turns out it was a pretty nice one. Some good hills in there too, which I guess you would expect from a road with hill in its name. Cruised at 6:50 pace overall, felt just right.
Wednesday: 11 Miles
Solo today, felt a lot tighter than yesterday for no reason at all. Kept the pace pretty relaxed, pudding hill with a couple add ons. Run went by quickly. Finally loosened up after 8 miles and actually really good and wanting to do more. Strides after, 5x160m. Still feel so off balance and awkward trying to fast on a 160m oval.
Thursday: 9 Miles
Short Snell. Like Tuesday, I felt really tight for the first portion then after adjusting my shoes felt very smooth. Not sure why these shoes are taking so long to break in/why the fit is so weird but its annoying. Picked it in the low 6s for the last couple miles so slightly faster overall pace today. Legs were feeling tired towards the end so I was okay with 8. 5x160m strides again.
Friday: 9 Miles
Workout today, and the only run of the week I would do in the afternoon. I was not looking forward to working out on the 160m oval as I'm so not used to the extremely tight curve and awkward splits/number of laps. I wasn't thrilled either to find out I was the only one working out. 3 mile warm-up, felt very tight. Workout was 1500/1200/1000/800/600. Pace was 72s per 400 or 28.5 for the 160. I had no idea about the number of laps/where to start for any of them because of the weird 160m measurement but Coach let me know all of that and track my splits. Went out a little fast for the 1500 but it evened out towards the end. From about 4 laps in, I was feeling it. Was pretty much dead and extremely tight/heavy after that. The amount of laps were ridiculous and having 5+ to go when I was ready to die did not feel good. Kept pace for part of the 1200 and 1000 but faded badly in the final portion. Was feeling all done and ready to throw in the towel (threw up after the 1000), so it was nice that Coach had Cody pace me for the first 400 of the 800 and the entire 600. Cody paced the 800 perfectly and I didn't fade off when he dropped off. Despite it being at the same pace, Cody ran the 600 much faster and I mostly held on. Was going to try a longer cooldown but my calves were absolute toast and I just didn't have much in me. Absolutely brutal one, definitely a top 10 hardest of all time made 100 times worse by being on an indoor 160m track. Difficulty: 5/5.
Saturday: 11 Miles
Long Snell, another relaxed run with just Andrew. Was expecting to have a really rough time after the workout, but felt surprisingly smooth. I guess a good nights sleep is always a good thing. Did feel somewhat fatigued and legs were tired finishing up.
Sunday: 13 Miles
Expected to run with a small group, so was surprised to have 9 guys come out. At first, I was worried that everyone would want to run really fast but fortunately we cruised again. Felt pretty exhausted at the beginning, not a great sign for a 13 miler but felt gradually better the whole run. Group split up around 10 miles and I found myself in the front of the group pushing the pace into the low 6s. Felt really good and ended up finishing alone. Final run in Durham till January.
Weekly Total: 71 Miles (PR!!!)
YTD Total: 2,090 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Saw a shot to break my weekly mileage PR of 67 from summer 2017 and went for it, doing no less than 8 a day and 10+ 4 days of the week. Most of it was pretty fun and just reaffirms that I'm much happier running 60+ then I am running 45. A little more than I should have but feels nice seeing that 70 for the first time.
Weekly Lowlight: I think it was a solid, balanced week overall but I obviously didn't feel 100% with plenty of fatigue and tightness going around. It's all part of where I'm at in training and I think a month from I'll be feeling awesome almost all of the time (other than general fatigue/tightness from hard training). Of course, the workout is the low light. 5/5 workouts are no fun, and the feeling of being in them/finishing up is indescribably worse than any race or regular run makes me feel.
BU Mini Meet #3 next week. Going to race the 3K and the 800. A bunch of my teammates are racing as well as a few others I know so I won't be alone in either race. Great competition there and obviously a great track. Never raced on BU before (raced on Reggie Lewis, Yale and Armory for banked tracks) and am excited as that will be a major venue for me in the next four years. Not in a great shape but will still race hard and will be shooting for 8:45 and sub-2 but will be happy with slightly slower.
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Indoor Season Opener- Weekly Log: December 3 to 9
Backed off on the mileage a bit this week to finally both workout and race again, for the first time since Mid-October. Racing a 5K at dartmouth on Saturday, will open my season and be a good test of where I'm at. Really just trying to get my legs back, hopefully an improvement over the previous week.
Monday: 9 Miles
Hills, same as last Monday. Felt decent until the bus stop set where my legs just felt heavy and uncontrolled. Not sure I could have done more. Tacked on a mile cool down to get 9.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Last Tuesday, my calves got extremely tight after doing the light hill workout. I was worried about this especially as my legs were feeling wobbly towards the end of the previous day's run. Very chilly out, Coach ended up giving a 5 mile tempo (2 mile warm-up, .5 mile cooldown). I wasn't looking forward to running fast at all and was sure I would tighten up/feel terrible. Brutally cold warm-up then switched gears into the tempo. Took a half mile for me to adjust to the faster pace comfortable (legs felt heavy at first, 6:00 felt blazing fast) but then got to tempo pace and felt comfortable for 4 miles. Somewhat heavy and breathing hard, but controlled and nowhere nearing as taxing as expected. Coming back on mill road (2 mile stretch of road with many turns and hills) eventually got to me and I was spent that last half mile. Overall, 5.2 miles around 28:50 (5:32 pace) so some solid stuff and definitely happy to feel good. Mile splits: 5:39/5:35/5:32/5:33/5:24. First real workout since October 16th. Did 5x160m strides afterwards which didn't feel so great. Difficulty: 3/5
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Was once again worried I would replicate the extremely tight calves from last week especially with a real hard effort not just some light hill sprints. Definitely felt tighter today but the legs were still shockingly decent. Workout on the indoor track. 3x1500 @4:34 (3 mins recovery) with Davis and Ryan, the other guys on the team in the 5K. Sat in the back for a brutal one. Super tight on the first one plus the pace just felt really fast and I was immediately gassed. Only got worse for the next two. 9.5 laps on our 160m track, so many I lost count on the first one. After two I thought I was the only one who was dying, but both Davis and Ryan said they were feeling similarly terrible. Ryan dropped back a little on the third. While I was happy with my legs not feeling too awful and getting in a workout, I was pretty disappointed how terrible this felt. I remember telling Ryan that if I had run a 5k just now, it would be a 16:00 based on how I was feeling. Started to think my race had been thrown out the window. Definitely did not feel ready to race, was only doing it as it was my only opportunity to run a 5k to qualify for New Englands. Difficulty: 5/5.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Decent recovery on a road loop, my legs felt pretty good!!! Must have been a random turning point this week where I feel good after 2.5 workouts in a row whereas last week I feel awful after a small workout. Went a little fast but just felt really comfortable and cruised.
Friday: 7 Miles
Felt tighter but we went fairly easy for a similar route. Got in a couple strides before the meet but feeling somewhat tired.
Saturday: 7 Miles
Dartmouth 5K. Wasn't sure whether or not to do a separate post for this one but feels like training/training thoughts flows well into the race report so I'll leave it here. So as I stated before, while I finally got my legs feeling good again, I felt so fatigued in the workout that I had little confidence for my race. I felt so out of shape that racing seemed like a terrible idea, but I need to have the chance to go sub-15 at New Englands, and this would be the only meet up to that point that would have a 5K (need a qualifying time for New Englands). Basically I didn't feel ready to race yet, but if I didn't it would cost me a valuable opportunity in February.
Based on legs feeling solid and a quality tempo effort, I thought 15:20 seemed like a reasonable goal. Dartmouth is a flat track so I wouldn't get the advantage of a bank so dropping 15 seconds off my PR seemed doable. I completely lost all confidence in my abilities after feeling so terrible in Wednesday's workout and adjusted my goal just to get a New England qualifying time. The qualifying time is technically a 15:02 but only a small portion actually makes that so they'll accept a certain number of entries (for example: my teammates Dean and Davis qualified for New Englands by 15:27 and 15:28 at the Dartmouth meet last year). I felt like a PR would be somewhat satisfying and would probably get me in.
Was extremely for nervous this meet. Just didn't feel ready to race again with just one track workout under my belt (which I felt terrible on) and it didn't help that the race would be 25 laps, something I'm not at all used to doing. Tried to go to bed early but was awoken at 3:30AM by my neighbors playing an extremely loud game that involved chanting numbers before blasting music. I felt completely awful and just dead, but it was so loud and just one room over, I could not fall back asleep. Eventually, I did but not after laying there in pain and misery for an hour. Pretty early 6am wakeup, breakfast at 6:30 before boarding the bus.
Got maybe another hour of sleep on the bus but sleeping on the bus is no fun. Cool to see both mountains and snow on the ride up. Got there and got settled. Decent wait for the race but I felt cold and nervous and just wanted to hurry up. Felt really weak on warm-ups which only made me more nervous. Had to visit the bathroom annoyingly often, the consequence of staying well-hydrated. About 20 minutes out from the race, I felt more nervous than I have in a very long time. I did not want to race. I felt pretty terrible, and I felt it would be a brutal/miserable experience that I would only come out of with a terrible result. I get nervous for all races, but rarely so nervous I just want to DNS.
Despite the meet being against Maine, Dartmouth and Vermont the field in the race includes just us three UNH guys: Ryan, Davis and I and 5 other vermont guys. Davis, Ryan and my coach all talked about how the vermont guys go out ridiculously fast every year and that worried me a bit with my pacing. The plan was to run as a pack, going through 3k in 9:10 and taking it from there.
Got on the line. I thought I was seeded dead last but turns out there was one vermont guy to my right. I didn't shoot off the line but eased out. All the vermont guys went out and instantly formed a pack with quick separation. Basically after just a lap, there was a vermont group a 20m gap then our UNH group with Ryan leading, then me, then Davis. We went through in 36ish, which surprisingly felt fast. Davis went to the front of our group after 400 and led us through the 1000 in 3:04 while the vermont guys only opened more of a gap. Davis saw the 1000 split and promptly took off, saying it was too slow. I didn't know how to react but since the pace felt fast (even though it wasn't) and my legs were feeling heavy and stiff, I stuck in dead last with Ryan for another kilometer. I wasn't enjoying the race at that point and was thinking if the first 1000 felt difficult, I was in for a really tough one. Davis was gone and soon Ryan and I were the caboose, well behind any one in the race. This was somewhat discouraging but since I was feeling so flat, I just hung right behind him. It wasn't easy at all and I already felt like I had to hang in there.
Went through the 2K in 6:10, already way off the projected pace but I hadn't done anything about it because even this pace felt so demanding. I felt like a bit of a scumbag letting Ryan doing all the work and reminding myself that this was a race, I threw in a small surge at the 2K mark to pass Ryan and slowly work our way back into the race. Coach had been giving us splits, which had slowly been dropping with a recent 38. Not feeling great wasn't a legitimate excuse to run slowly and making the pass allowed me to do a share of the work while getting the pace back on track. It took what seemed like a ridiculous amount of effort and my legs still felt heavy and stiff. However, the next lap was a 36 so I was doing something and I did feel like I was very slowly gaining on the next guy. Ryan and I switched off leads through 3K, but it was extremely uncoordinated as he would try and tell me when we would switch but I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Went through 3K in 9:15, almost having reeled in the next guy.
I started to feel extremely lousy (weak) with a mile to go. Ryan and I finally caught a vermont guy and Ryan picked it up to go around him. I was feeling it at that point and hung right behind the guy, falling behind Ryan. After maybe 50 meters of that, I forced myself to make a big surge, passing both of them and picking up the pace a lot. I felt pretty horrible in the last 1200 meters but kept forcing myself to make surges past vermont runners which kept a solid pace. Came up on another vermont guy with 400 to go. I didn't think I'd be able to pass him but put in another surge and did my best to hammer the final 300. I hadn't put much thought into what my time would, only that it would probably be around 15:40. I saw 14:54 hitting the bell lap and knew I had a shot at a PR. Dug deep and ran a 34 for 15:28.60, holding off 5th place for a PR.
While 15:28 is nothing special, I will admit I did feel some joy of finally running a 5K PR after nearly two years. I'm surprised my last 1000 was my fastest, but that's likely because I went out slower. I was definitely expecting to fade badly after 3K but got tough enough to make moves, which ended up getting my me a PR. I felt like my race was over when I started to fall behind Ryan, but making that move there was undeniably what turned a likely bad race into a pretty good one. Still lots of work to done especially with me feeling heavy and feeling the pace was fast when it wasn't. Hopefully workouts over the next month and a half can get me into better shape so I can be more relaxed in my 5K next race and really destroy the last 2K.
I ran this the complete opposite way I ran my 5K at the armory in March 2017. In that effort, I went out fast in 9:05 for 3K then faded very badly finishing in 15:35 (6:30 last 2K). I basically felt great for 15 laps then absolutely horrible for 10. In this one, I went through the 3K in 9:15 then finished in 15:28 (6:13 last 2K). So despite going out 10 seconds slower for 60% of the race, I still ran 7 seconds faster because my second half was so much faster. The funny thing was that I felt pretty crappy with the pace feeling fast and my legs feeling heavy at Dartmouth versus feeling smooth and comfortable at the armory, yet I was finish decently at Dartmouth and not the Armory even though I wasn't feeling good.
Here are the kilometer splits for all the guys in the race. You can see the vermont guys fading so I could catch them and that Davis and I were the only ones in the race who ran our final 1000 the fastest.
Sunday: 6 Miles
Feeling more or less dead and decided to take a short, easy day and skip the long run for this week. No official practice but some other guys showed up at the same time and they had the same idea. 6 miles, mix of dirt roads and trails which was nice. Felt pretty awful at the start but gradually felt better.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 2,019 Miles
Weekly Highlight: The best week, hands down, since early September. After so many awful weeks, this is the first week where I felt good doing solid workouts and races. Every other week I had annoying tightness the majority of the week that didn't go away until two weeks ago only doing easy efforts. A light workout sending me into extreme tightness last week wasn't a good sign, yet somehow everything aligned this week that I did a lot of hard work and still came out with functional legs. Tired legs and heavy legs, but functional. Been out of it as a runner for three months and have just been waiting to officially come back, and I thinking I'm finally back. 5K PR feels nice for now, but if everything goes right this should just be a small slice of what's to come.
Weekly Lowlight: I could complain about things like lower mileage, being pretty out of shape and feeling that in workouts and races but I can definitely take that if it means I'm restored to normal.
Looking to back to solid mileage next week, maybe get in a workout and definitely a long run.
Monday: 9 Miles
Hills, same as last Monday. Felt decent until the bus stop set where my legs just felt heavy and uncontrolled. Not sure I could have done more. Tacked on a mile cool down to get 9.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Last Tuesday, my calves got extremely tight after doing the light hill workout. I was worried about this especially as my legs were feeling wobbly towards the end of the previous day's run. Very chilly out, Coach ended up giving a 5 mile tempo (2 mile warm-up, .5 mile cooldown). I wasn't looking forward to running fast at all and was sure I would tighten up/feel terrible. Brutally cold warm-up then switched gears into the tempo. Took a half mile for me to adjust to the faster pace comfortable (legs felt heavy at first, 6:00 felt blazing fast) but then got to tempo pace and felt comfortable for 4 miles. Somewhat heavy and breathing hard, but controlled and nowhere nearing as taxing as expected. Coming back on mill road (2 mile stretch of road with many turns and hills) eventually got to me and I was spent that last half mile. Overall, 5.2 miles around 28:50 (5:32 pace) so some solid stuff and definitely happy to feel good. Mile splits: 5:39/5:35/5:32/5:33/5:24. First real workout since October 16th. Did 5x160m strides afterwards which didn't feel so great. Difficulty: 3/5
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Was once again worried I would replicate the extremely tight calves from last week especially with a real hard effort not just some light hill sprints. Definitely felt tighter today but the legs were still shockingly decent. Workout on the indoor track. 3x1500 @4:34 (3 mins recovery) with Davis and Ryan, the other guys on the team in the 5K. Sat in the back for a brutal one. Super tight on the first one plus the pace just felt really fast and I was immediately gassed. Only got worse for the next two. 9.5 laps on our 160m track, so many I lost count on the first one. After two I thought I was the only one who was dying, but both Davis and Ryan said they were feeling similarly terrible. Ryan dropped back a little on the third. While I was happy with my legs not feeling too awful and getting in a workout, I was pretty disappointed how terrible this felt. I remember telling Ryan that if I had run a 5k just now, it would be a 16:00 based on how I was feeling. Started to think my race had been thrown out the window. Definitely did not feel ready to race, was only doing it as it was my only opportunity to run a 5k to qualify for New Englands. Difficulty: 5/5.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Decent recovery on a road loop, my legs felt pretty good!!! Must have been a random turning point this week where I feel good after 2.5 workouts in a row whereas last week I feel awful after a small workout. Went a little fast but just felt really comfortable and cruised.
Friday: 7 Miles
Felt tighter but we went fairly easy for a similar route. Got in a couple strides before the meet but feeling somewhat tired.
Saturday: 7 Miles
Dartmouth 5K. Wasn't sure whether or not to do a separate post for this one but feels like training/training thoughts flows well into the race report so I'll leave it here. So as I stated before, while I finally got my legs feeling good again, I felt so fatigued in the workout that I had little confidence for my race. I felt so out of shape that racing seemed like a terrible idea, but I need to have the chance to go sub-15 at New Englands, and this would be the only meet up to that point that would have a 5K (need a qualifying time for New Englands). Basically I didn't feel ready to race yet, but if I didn't it would cost me a valuable opportunity in February.
Based on legs feeling solid and a quality tempo effort, I thought 15:20 seemed like a reasonable goal. Dartmouth is a flat track so I wouldn't get the advantage of a bank so dropping 15 seconds off my PR seemed doable. I completely lost all confidence in my abilities after feeling so terrible in Wednesday's workout and adjusted my goal just to get a New England qualifying time. The qualifying time is technically a 15:02 but only a small portion actually makes that so they'll accept a certain number of entries (for example: my teammates Dean and Davis qualified for New Englands by 15:27 and 15:28 at the Dartmouth meet last year). I felt like a PR would be somewhat satisfying and would probably get me in.
Was extremely for nervous this meet. Just didn't feel ready to race again with just one track workout under my belt (which I felt terrible on) and it didn't help that the race would be 25 laps, something I'm not at all used to doing. Tried to go to bed early but was awoken at 3:30AM by my neighbors playing an extremely loud game that involved chanting numbers before blasting music. I felt completely awful and just dead, but it was so loud and just one room over, I could not fall back asleep. Eventually, I did but not after laying there in pain and misery for an hour. Pretty early 6am wakeup, breakfast at 6:30 before boarding the bus.
Got maybe another hour of sleep on the bus but sleeping on the bus is no fun. Cool to see both mountains and snow on the ride up. Got there and got settled. Decent wait for the race but I felt cold and nervous and just wanted to hurry up. Felt really weak on warm-ups which only made me more nervous. Had to visit the bathroom annoyingly often, the consequence of staying well-hydrated. About 20 minutes out from the race, I felt more nervous than I have in a very long time. I did not want to race. I felt pretty terrible, and I felt it would be a brutal/miserable experience that I would only come out of with a terrible result. I get nervous for all races, but rarely so nervous I just want to DNS.
Despite the meet being against Maine, Dartmouth and Vermont the field in the race includes just us three UNH guys: Ryan, Davis and I and 5 other vermont guys. Davis, Ryan and my coach all talked about how the vermont guys go out ridiculously fast every year and that worried me a bit with my pacing. The plan was to run as a pack, going through 3k in 9:10 and taking it from there.
Got on the line. I thought I was seeded dead last but turns out there was one vermont guy to my right. I didn't shoot off the line but eased out. All the vermont guys went out and instantly formed a pack with quick separation. Basically after just a lap, there was a vermont group a 20m gap then our UNH group with Ryan leading, then me, then Davis. We went through in 36ish, which surprisingly felt fast. Davis went to the front of our group after 400 and led us through the 1000 in 3:04 while the vermont guys only opened more of a gap. Davis saw the 1000 split and promptly took off, saying it was too slow. I didn't know how to react but since the pace felt fast (even though it wasn't) and my legs were feeling heavy and stiff, I stuck in dead last with Ryan for another kilometer. I wasn't enjoying the race at that point and was thinking if the first 1000 felt difficult, I was in for a really tough one. Davis was gone and soon Ryan and I were the caboose, well behind any one in the race. This was somewhat discouraging but since I was feeling so flat, I just hung right behind him. It wasn't easy at all and I already felt like I had to hang in there.
Went through the 2K in 6:10, already way off the projected pace but I hadn't done anything about it because even this pace felt so demanding. I felt like a bit of a scumbag letting Ryan doing all the work and reminding myself that this was a race, I threw in a small surge at the 2K mark to pass Ryan and slowly work our way back into the race. Coach had been giving us splits, which had slowly been dropping with a recent 38. Not feeling great wasn't a legitimate excuse to run slowly and making the pass allowed me to do a share of the work while getting the pace back on track. It took what seemed like a ridiculous amount of effort and my legs still felt heavy and stiff. However, the next lap was a 36 so I was doing something and I did feel like I was very slowly gaining on the next guy. Ryan and I switched off leads through 3K, but it was extremely uncoordinated as he would try and tell me when we would switch but I couldn't hear a word he was saying. Went through 3K in 9:15, almost having reeled in the next guy.
I started to feel extremely lousy (weak) with a mile to go. Ryan and I finally caught a vermont guy and Ryan picked it up to go around him. I was feeling it at that point and hung right behind the guy, falling behind Ryan. After maybe 50 meters of that, I forced myself to make a big surge, passing both of them and picking up the pace a lot. I felt pretty horrible in the last 1200 meters but kept forcing myself to make surges past vermont runners which kept a solid pace. Came up on another vermont guy with 400 to go. I didn't think I'd be able to pass him but put in another surge and did my best to hammer the final 300. I hadn't put much thought into what my time would, only that it would probably be around 15:40. I saw 14:54 hitting the bell lap and knew I had a shot at a PR. Dug deep and ran a 34 for 15:28.60, holding off 5th place for a PR.
While 15:28 is nothing special, I will admit I did feel some joy of finally running a 5K PR after nearly two years. I'm surprised my last 1000 was my fastest, but that's likely because I went out slower. I was definitely expecting to fade badly after 3K but got tough enough to make moves, which ended up getting my me a PR. I felt like my race was over when I started to fall behind Ryan, but making that move there was undeniably what turned a likely bad race into a pretty good one. Still lots of work to done especially with me feeling heavy and feeling the pace was fast when it wasn't. Hopefully workouts over the next month and a half can get me into better shape so I can be more relaxed in my 5K next race and really destroy the last 2K.
I ran this the complete opposite way I ran my 5K at the armory in March 2017. In that effort, I went out fast in 9:05 for 3K then faded very badly finishing in 15:35 (6:30 last 2K). I basically felt great for 15 laps then absolutely horrible for 10. In this one, I went through the 3K in 9:15 then finished in 15:28 (6:13 last 2K). So despite going out 10 seconds slower for 60% of the race, I still ran 7 seconds faster because my second half was so much faster. The funny thing was that I felt pretty crappy with the pace feeling fast and my legs feeling heavy at Dartmouth versus feeling smooth and comfortable at the armory, yet I was finish decently at Dartmouth and not the Armory even though I wasn't feeling good.
Here are the kilometer splits for all the guys in the race. You can see the vermont guys fading so I could catch them and that Davis and I were the only ones in the race who ran our final 1000 the fastest.
Sunday: 6 Miles
Feeling more or less dead and decided to take a short, easy day and skip the long run for this week. No official practice but some other guys showed up at the same time and they had the same idea. 6 miles, mix of dirt roads and trails which was nice. Felt pretty awful at the start but gradually felt better.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 2,019 Miles
Weekly Highlight: The best week, hands down, since early September. After so many awful weeks, this is the first week where I felt good doing solid workouts and races. Every other week I had annoying tightness the majority of the week that didn't go away until two weeks ago only doing easy efforts. A light workout sending me into extreme tightness last week wasn't a good sign, yet somehow everything aligned this week that I did a lot of hard work and still came out with functional legs. Tired legs and heavy legs, but functional. Been out of it as a runner for three months and have just been waiting to officially come back, and I thinking I'm finally back. 5K PR feels nice for now, but if everything goes right this should just be a small slice of what's to come.
Weekly Lowlight: I could complain about things like lower mileage, being pretty out of shape and feeling that in workouts and races but I can definitely take that if it means I'm restored to normal.
Looking to back to solid mileage next week, maybe get in a workout and definitely a long run.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Weekly Log: November 26 to December 2
Back to normal training, except still not working out. Another solid week mileage-wise, but unfortunately was really tight more often than not.
Monday: 9 Miles
Short rose with hill repeats (5x) on Coe and Bus Stop (leads up to field house). That actually 3 miles and combined with strides at the end (5x160m), made for 9 on the day. Felt pretty good. Was a little nervous putting in a decent effort on the hills, but actually felt really smooth running with the group. Strides didn't feel so great, felt really uncontrolled/fast.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Really rough solo run on Jenkins. Calves were ridiculously tight the entire time and it was so uncomfortable that I stopped twice for almost 10 minutes total. Absolutely hate the final 2 miles of mill road, feels so long with endless turns/hills. Just an awful run, especially after feeling so good for 9+ days. Unbelievable that a light effort will do this to me.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Short snell with a group. Not too fast. Calves/entire legs felt awful like yesterday for about half the run, then they loosened up somewhat and only felt tight on uphills afterwards. Not great, but an improvement for Tuesday's run.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Pudding hill backwards, which I guess is called Evans. Decent sized group again. Similar to Wednesday, felt super tight until halfway but the second half was so much faster that I was still struggling. Finally felt good the last mile, but still a disappointing run.
Friday: 9 Miles
Finally felt good after three days of being really tight for at least part of the run. Some tightness, imbalance but overall solid. Everyone was shaking out for their respective meets (dual meet at Maine for most, BU season opener 5k for Tim and Billy), so went with them and tacked on three solo afterwards on campus roads.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Most people had gone to the meets, so a smaller group today. I find that more often than not, my teammate will take off on runs and it's never controlled/slow enough. Today was complete opposite, as we didn't run any miles over 7:15. Felt really slow until I hung in the back for a while, then I adjusted. Was considering adding on, but legs were feeling tired so I called it a day.
Sunday: 14 Miles
Wanted to get 60 for the week but would be okay if I didn't. 2 mile on the track warm-up plus dynamics before heading out for a solid 12 miler. Started with 9 guys, dropped to 6. Pouring rain and cold which made the legs heavy (but calves felt fine) for 4ish mile before I loosened up and felt great the rest of the run. Very nice route. Longest run here (if including the warm-up). Awesome run overall, blows any other run this week out of the water and brings my decreasing enthusiasm/confidence up a lot.
Weekly Total: 63 Miles
YTD Total: 1,967 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Overall, this week was a mixed bag trending towards the bad side of things but as a mixed bag, there were some good things. Put in my first real "effort" (even though it was basically a mini-workout) on Monday and felt mostly good doing so. The biggest highlight was hitting another 60+ mile week. Despite my struggles, I feel like going longer in the weekly mileage is something is helping out and continuing to run higher mileage should eventually get me back to normal. Sunday's run was one of the best runs in a long time, and for 12+ miler, it's probably the best since July.
Weekly Lowlight: I expected I may still have some tightness coming back on the roads and running faster, but just wasn't expecting to get maximum tightness levels/severe discomfort in calves just by doing a light workout. Barely did anything, and yet tightness was on par with my worst days in September. By sunday it was gone, but Wednesday and Thursday were still difficult and Friday-Saturday weren't perfect.
Hoping to get another 60+ next week. My future in racing is undetermined. Based on my reaction to even a short hill workout (tight for 3 days), it seems unlikely I could race Saturday the 8th at Dartmouth. On the other hand, Sunday's felt so good that maybe there is a chance. I'd like to run the 5K, which I believe will be my only chance to qualify for New Englands (other meets I'm going to don't have the 5K), so it's a dilemma on whether I need to do it because it's my only shot, or whether I'm not to race quite yet. Our next official meet after Saturday is January 19th, so I really don't want to wait that long. I feel like I should be able to race at BU Mini Meet #3 (on my own, as break will be in effect by then) but I'll have to wait and see on that.
Monday: 9 Miles
Short rose with hill repeats (5x) on Coe and Bus Stop (leads up to field house). That actually 3 miles and combined with strides at the end (5x160m), made for 9 on the day. Felt pretty good. Was a little nervous putting in a decent effort on the hills, but actually felt really smooth running with the group. Strides didn't feel so great, felt really uncontrolled/fast.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Really rough solo run on Jenkins. Calves were ridiculously tight the entire time and it was so uncomfortable that I stopped twice for almost 10 minutes total. Absolutely hate the final 2 miles of mill road, feels so long with endless turns/hills. Just an awful run, especially after feeling so good for 9+ days. Unbelievable that a light effort will do this to me.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Short snell with a group. Not too fast. Calves/entire legs felt awful like yesterday for about half the run, then they loosened up somewhat and only felt tight on uphills afterwards. Not great, but an improvement for Tuesday's run.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Pudding hill backwards, which I guess is called Evans. Decent sized group again. Similar to Wednesday, felt super tight until halfway but the second half was so much faster that I was still struggling. Finally felt good the last mile, but still a disappointing run.
Friday: 9 Miles
Finally felt good after three days of being really tight for at least part of the run. Some tightness, imbalance but overall solid. Everyone was shaking out for their respective meets (dual meet at Maine for most, BU season opener 5k for Tim and Billy), so went with them and tacked on three solo afterwards on campus roads.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Most people had gone to the meets, so a smaller group today. I find that more often than not, my teammate will take off on runs and it's never controlled/slow enough. Today was complete opposite, as we didn't run any miles over 7:15. Felt really slow until I hung in the back for a while, then I adjusted. Was considering adding on, but legs were feeling tired so I called it a day.
Sunday: 14 Miles
Wanted to get 60 for the week but would be okay if I didn't. 2 mile on the track warm-up plus dynamics before heading out for a solid 12 miler. Started with 9 guys, dropped to 6. Pouring rain and cold which made the legs heavy (but calves felt fine) for 4ish mile before I loosened up and felt great the rest of the run. Very nice route. Longest run here (if including the warm-up). Awesome run overall, blows any other run this week out of the water and brings my decreasing enthusiasm/confidence up a lot.
Weekly Total: 63 Miles
YTD Total: 1,967 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Overall, this week was a mixed bag trending towards the bad side of things but as a mixed bag, there were some good things. Put in my first real "effort" (even though it was basically a mini-workout) on Monday and felt mostly good doing so. The biggest highlight was hitting another 60+ mile week. Despite my struggles, I feel like going longer in the weekly mileage is something is helping out and continuing to run higher mileage should eventually get me back to normal. Sunday's run was one of the best runs in a long time, and for 12+ miler, it's probably the best since July.
Weekly Lowlight: I expected I may still have some tightness coming back on the roads and running faster, but just wasn't expecting to get maximum tightness levels/severe discomfort in calves just by doing a light workout. Barely did anything, and yet tightness was on par with my worst days in September. By sunday it was gone, but Wednesday and Thursday were still difficult and Friday-Saturday weren't perfect.
Hoping to get another 60+ next week. My future in racing is undetermined. Based on my reaction to even a short hill workout (tight for 3 days), it seems unlikely I could race Saturday the 8th at Dartmouth. On the other hand, Sunday's felt so good that maybe there is a chance. I'd like to run the 5K, which I believe will be my only chance to qualify for New Englands (other meets I'm going to don't have the 5K), so it's a dilemma on whether I need to do it because it's my only shot, or whether I'm not to race quite yet. Our next official meet after Saturday is January 19th, so I really don't want to wait that long. I feel like I should be able to race at BU Mini Meet #3 (on my own, as break will be in effect by then) but I'll have to wait and see on that.
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Trails for Thanksgiving- Weekly Log: November 19 to 25
Back in RI for a little over 8 days, and 9 total runs. Didn't plan on it but for whatever reason ended up doing trails 7 of my 9 runs (6 of 7 this week). Would have liked more of a mix, but at the same time it gives some balance to my nearly all-road running UNH training while also providing a softer surface to aid my recovery. Very solid week. While this is the first time I've had a race-free November, I think the easy return will help me get back where I need to be. Still haven't worked or raced since October 19 which is normal for some people I know but almost unheard of for myself. Should be getting to that point very soon. Kept runs varied this week, with all 9 runs starting in a different place. Also had a trend of feeling somewhat lousy at some point in all my runs, just didn't fuel well at all.
Monday: 8 Miles
Ninigret, always a pleasure to run here. Normally do more a mix but except for the first mile, ran almost exclusively on the refuge/golf trails with a little on the soccer field. Very comfortable weather with temps in the 50s. Felt great on this run, and cruised in the 6:40s.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Felt much worse on this run than monday's, just a weak slog the entire time as well as getting really tight halfway in. Got it done but wasn't very enjoyable. Did the usual 7 mile carter preserve loop, nice trails but more hilly/technical than I've doing.
Wednesday: 9 Miles
The rest of the runs this week were with Dad. Worked out as we were both looking to run decent miles without killing the pace. Bluff Point with a little haley, felt really great for about 2 miles before getting pretty tight after that. Tightness went away but then fatigue started to set in. Still never felt awful so another solid run completed. Good mix of both very easy and more challenging terrain. Picked it up the last mile.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Thanksgiving run, got out really late for this. Very cold run (I think 16 at start) on mostly twisty or technical trails in Burlingame north, was absolutely feeling it at the end of Sammy C's. Felt heavy but decent.
Friday: 10 Miles
Black Friday group run with Dad, Tom and Muddy. Very cold again (14 at start) but got really warm about 2 miles as I bundled up for this one. Didn't love it as many trails were overgrown as I was constantly getting up or awkwardly trying to avoid thorned plants. Still nice to run with some fellow WTAC guys though.
Saturday: 9 Miles
Grills run. Don't enjoy these trails as much as the other locations, but liked it more than expected. Got very weak and tight around 3 miles but after a short break, I felt decent enough (still tired, but tightness completely went away) to get through the rest. Even picked it up to sub-6 at the end without feeling any tighter.
Sunday: 11 Miles
Another good mileage, very rural roads in Richmond that I had never run before but my Dad frequents. A little slower than expected with most of the miles in the low 7s, but I was okay with that. Earlier start. Got really weak around 3 miles (and very out of breath) before regaining myself and feeling mostly good for the rest of the run. Eventually the pace became more natural and rattled off a few 6:30s at the end. Calves were a little tight in the last two, but overall good.
Weekly Total: 61 Miles
YTD Total: 1,904 Miles
Weekly Highlight: After many awful, awful weeks where I couldn't even lie to myself that any part of my running was a highlight, this week was pretty great. Not only did I feel mostly good, but I enjoyed most of it. I got a nice little tour of southern RI/CT trails as well. My mileage was probably higher than I should have but considering I took every run easy, I am very pleased. Highest week since September 3-9.
Weekly Lowlight: Nice to have lowlights now be minor things. Just felt lazy this week mostly from running later than expected. Wish I incorporated more roads, but not a huge thing. I'll make up for it back in Durham. Fueled poorly on many runs and felt weak because of it.
Very pleased with 61, even if was a huge jump up. I think I've officially beaten the hip injury, I haven't even felt it on 7 of the last 9 runs or so and even then it was nothing compared to how I felt on previous runs. Hope to keep the higher mileage going, but with slower increases. I think my sweet spot will be somewhere between 65-75 miles. It seems like I've (mostly) gotten my legs back for the easy runs and even longer runs. Time to get them back for racing and workouts, and then everything should fall back into place.
Monday: 8 Miles
Ninigret, always a pleasure to run here. Normally do more a mix but except for the first mile, ran almost exclusively on the refuge/golf trails with a little on the soccer field. Very comfortable weather with temps in the 50s. Felt great on this run, and cruised in the 6:40s.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Felt much worse on this run than monday's, just a weak slog the entire time as well as getting really tight halfway in. Got it done but wasn't very enjoyable. Did the usual 7 mile carter preserve loop, nice trails but more hilly/technical than I've doing.
Wednesday: 9 Miles
The rest of the runs this week were with Dad. Worked out as we were both looking to run decent miles without killing the pace. Bluff Point with a little haley, felt really great for about 2 miles before getting pretty tight after that. Tightness went away but then fatigue started to set in. Still never felt awful so another solid run completed. Good mix of both very easy and more challenging terrain. Picked it up the last mile.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Thanksgiving run, got out really late for this. Very cold run (I think 16 at start) on mostly twisty or technical trails in Burlingame north, was absolutely feeling it at the end of Sammy C's. Felt heavy but decent.
Friday: 10 Miles
Black Friday group run with Dad, Tom and Muddy. Very cold again (14 at start) but got really warm about 2 miles as I bundled up for this one. Didn't love it as many trails were overgrown as I was constantly getting up or awkwardly trying to avoid thorned plants. Still nice to run with some fellow WTAC guys though.
Saturday: 9 Miles
Grills run. Don't enjoy these trails as much as the other locations, but liked it more than expected. Got very weak and tight around 3 miles but after a short break, I felt decent enough (still tired, but tightness completely went away) to get through the rest. Even picked it up to sub-6 at the end without feeling any tighter.
Sunday: 11 Miles
Another good mileage, very rural roads in Richmond that I had never run before but my Dad frequents. A little slower than expected with most of the miles in the low 7s, but I was okay with that. Earlier start. Got really weak around 3 miles (and very out of breath) before regaining myself and feeling mostly good for the rest of the run. Eventually the pace became more natural and rattled off a few 6:30s at the end. Calves were a little tight in the last two, but overall good.
Weekly Total: 61 Miles
YTD Total: 1,904 Miles
Weekly Highlight: After many awful, awful weeks where I couldn't even lie to myself that any part of my running was a highlight, this week was pretty great. Not only did I feel mostly good, but I enjoyed most of it. I got a nice little tour of southern RI/CT trails as well. My mileage was probably higher than I should have but considering I took every run easy, I am very pleased. Highest week since September 3-9.
Weekly Lowlight: Nice to have lowlights now be minor things. Just felt lazy this week mostly from running later than expected. Wish I incorporated more roads, but not a huge thing. I'll make up for it back in Durham. Fueled poorly on many runs and felt weak because of it.
Very pleased with 61, even if was a huge jump up. I think I've officially beaten the hip injury, I haven't even felt it on 7 of the last 9 runs or so and even then it was nothing compared to how I felt on previous runs. Hope to keep the higher mileage going, but with slower increases. I think my sweet spot will be somewhere between 65-75 miles. It seems like I've (mostly) gotten my legs back for the easy runs and even longer runs. Time to get them back for racing and workouts, and then everything should fall back into place.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Last Two Weeks
Got really behind on blogging for whatever reason, going to catch up now. Still trying to beat this hip injury thing, pretty much there.
Weekly Log: November 5 to 11
Monday: 0. Coach was okay with me running, but I wanted to be cautious and take another day off. 20 minutes on the bike.
Tuesday: 3 Miles. Coach had me do 3 miles around the track, which is just as boring as it sounds. I was pretty disappointed to find out that after feeling decent for a few miles, I tightened up both in my hip and legs in the last mile.
Wednesday: 3 Miles. Exact repeat of yesterday, including how I felt.
Thursday: 3 Miles. Got to run roads with some other guys who were going short/easy. Felt so much nicer than the track. Was feeling so good in the beginning, so very disappointed that I felt really terrible in both hip and legs in the last mile.
Friday: 0 Miles. Day off, hip starting hurt again from the run and didn't feel good to enough to go out again.
Saturday: 4 Miles. Went to go watch a really good race at HS New Englands which took up most of the day and made me pretty exhausted. Ended up running from home in the dark. Felt much better than the last three runs, although I was weak and it was super cold, so I kept short.
Sunday: 6 Miles. Ninigret with Dad, felt really good today.
Weekly Total: 20 Miles
YTD Total: 1,795 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Felt surprisingly good towards the end of the week with a nice Sunday run.
Weekly Lowlight: Those 3 mile days were not enjoyable at all, but worst of all, it felt like the most I could do.
Weekly Log: November 12 to 18
Monday: 7 Miles. Burlingame loop, didn't feel quite as good as the previous days. So much leaf cover that I didn't have great traction. Legs were heavy for sure.
Tuesday: 5 Miles. Short Rose solo, absolutely pouring. Hip felt okay, not good but not bad either. Went at a decent pace.
Wednesday: 6 Miles. Garrity, with a group of guys who were working out after. Wasn't expecting to go to fast (this was their warm-up) yet still managed low 6:30s. Very cold day (high 20s, but so windy that real feel was around 10) yet felt fine.
Thursday: 8 Miles. Short Snell, felt decent. Unexpectedly started dropping some fast splits at the end (just following a teammate's lead), running a 6:02, 5:57 and then a 5:27. The first two actually felt fine, last one I had to push and maybe should have backed off.
Friday: 6 Miles. Hip wasn't feeling that great coming in but surprisingly didn't bother me too much during the run. However, my legs felt just terrible, so bad I even had to stop.
Saturday: 7 Miles. Ran kinda late from the house to Avondale and back, mixing in some preserve loops with the grass trails. Felt terrible again, could not get the pace under control and way too fast. Zero hip discomfort for the first run in over two weeks.
Sunday: 9 Miles. Glad to feel like a normal and functional human being again. Not great, but much better than the last two days. Did a Rhody loop before race but adding in the 4 mile portion. Very wet and slippery. Got in a bonus mile running around during the race to film. Hip is good to go.
Weekly Total: 48 Miles
YTD Total: 1,843 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Building up mileage. Can't say 48 is a great number, but it is when considering it's only slightly less than the last three weeks combined. Nice to do some real runs, hoping to build slightly more until I get into real mileage (hopefully 65+). Seems like I'm no longer injured either, hip had huge improvement this week.
Weekly Lowlight: Just feeling like garbage until the end of the week including my hip issues. It's been a very long struggle to feel good during and hopefully I'm almost there.
Little Rhody Video- 2018 Edition
Very nearly missed this race this year, but fortunately due to some last minute changes in my schedule, I was able to make it down to RI a little earlier than planned. Figured I'd try to make another video. Absolutely hauled (both driving and running) to get to various spots on the course. Every time, I was nervous I'd miss the leaders go by but had more time than expected except at the finish where I literally sprinted to the finish and still barely caught Greg on video. I tried to vary things up from last year by going into the trail a bit more rather than staying out on the road. This made for more interesting shots but made much harder to get to other locations. It took about 12 minutes to get from my third location out near the rock scramble back to the road because everyone was running towards me. I was a little disappointed no one fell off the bridge (from a video standpoint), but it seems like I was just past the extremely slippery points.
Anyway, here it is below. I think the footage came out mostly good, so I didn't have to do much editing. It will likely pale in comparison to Seth's video, so I would check his out when he posts it (I certainly will).
Anyway, here it is below. I think the footage came out mostly good, so I didn't have to do much editing. It will likely pale in comparison to Seth's video, so I would check his out when he posts it (I certainly will).
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Weekly Log: October 29 to November 4
Trying to starting training again, but not quite working out.
Monday: 10 Miles
Wanted a little less but got thrown in with a big group of guys on a new route that I enjoyed. Felt okay but weird the first mile then everything got really heavy/tight again. Pretty disappointing to have this same result even after a week off.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Solo, as Tuesdays are usually for me. Slightly less, still went at a decent pace because it was within my low effort zone. Legs felt slightly better but were still extremely heavy. Hip suddenly started to hurt afterwards. Got my strides in, pain went away only for it to come back a few minutes later. Had really bad pain the rest of the day walking around.
Wednesday: 1 Mile
Coach showed a bunch of stretches for my hips/hamstrings/quad. After they felt difficult with my right but nearly impossible/extremely uncomfortable with my left, it made a lot more sense. Tried to jog around the track but got tight and made things worse.
Thursday: 6 Miles
Woke up feeling much better, pretty much zero hip pain or discomfort. Coach had me run on which I wasn't really expecting and I tightened up/had hip pain after just 2 miles.
Friday: 0
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0
Weekly Total: 25 Miles
YTD Total: 1,775 Miles
Weekly Highlight: None
Weekly Lowlight: Having an unexpected random injury is never fun, although now seems as good as any time to have it.
Thoughts: Getting a hip injury and doing a lot of stretching throughout the week has really just reminded how clueless I am about how to properly train for running. I felt significantly better although not great on my Thursday in leg tightness/heaviness and would assume I will feel pretty good when I start again. I have definitely neglecting stretching this whole season; it's just something has never seemed beneficial or necessary to me but now might be the missing factor in all of my recent failure.
Or maybe it's nothing and I'm feeling better as I start to return to things, or from time off. Either way, it definitely feels like it's helping with my hip pain as the once brutal stretches have now gotten a lot easier (although still hard on my left side), so I'll continue to do them for a while. I'd like to take tomorrow to be cautious. I'm in a pretty good spot getting hurt now as I have a whole month before indoor racing starts and a good 2 months after that until my target races. If I can put up a 45+ mile week with more consistent mileage next week, then I'll be happy with that. I want to work my way up to the 60s and beyond after that and if November brings me back, I think I can find redemption in the upcoming indoor season.
Either way, I'm itching to have success again. It's been a while since I put some good races that felt right, and I'd very much like to have that back. Hopefully I can start to learn more about what it takes to be a good runner, as I prove to be a complete idiot in that department more often than I should. I'm probably out for offseason racing, and that includes Little Rhody. While unfortunately that probably means I won't race it until 2022, it seems much smarter not to race considering I'm still trying to get back into regular training (and not even running right now). Looking forward to December 1st.
Monday: 10 Miles
Wanted a little less but got thrown in with a big group of guys on a new route that I enjoyed. Felt okay but weird the first mile then everything got really heavy/tight again. Pretty disappointing to have this same result even after a week off.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Solo, as Tuesdays are usually for me. Slightly less, still went at a decent pace because it was within my low effort zone. Legs felt slightly better but were still extremely heavy. Hip suddenly started to hurt afterwards. Got my strides in, pain went away only for it to come back a few minutes later. Had really bad pain the rest of the day walking around.
Wednesday: 1 Mile
Coach showed a bunch of stretches for my hips/hamstrings/quad. After they felt difficult with my right but nearly impossible/extremely uncomfortable with my left, it made a lot more sense. Tried to jog around the track but got tight and made things worse.
Thursday: 6 Miles
Woke up feeling much better, pretty much zero hip pain or discomfort. Coach had me run on which I wasn't really expecting and I tightened up/had hip pain after just 2 miles.
Friday: 0
Saturday: 0
Sunday: 0
Weekly Total: 25 Miles
YTD Total: 1,775 Miles
Weekly Highlight: None
Weekly Lowlight: Having an unexpected random injury is never fun, although now seems as good as any time to have it.
Thoughts: Getting a hip injury and doing a lot of stretching throughout the week has really just reminded how clueless I am about how to properly train for running. I felt significantly better although not great on my Thursday in leg tightness/heaviness and would assume I will feel pretty good when I start again. I have definitely neglecting stretching this whole season; it's just something has never seemed beneficial or necessary to me but now might be the missing factor in all of my recent failure.
Or maybe it's nothing and I'm feeling better as I start to return to things, or from time off. Either way, it definitely feels like it's helping with my hip pain as the once brutal stretches have now gotten a lot easier (although still hard on my left side), so I'll continue to do them for a while. I'd like to take tomorrow to be cautious. I'm in a pretty good spot getting hurt now as I have a whole month before indoor racing starts and a good 2 months after that until my target races. If I can put up a 45+ mile week with more consistent mileage next week, then I'll be happy with that. I want to work my way up to the 60s and beyond after that and if November brings me back, I think I can find redemption in the upcoming indoor season.
Either way, I'm itching to have success again. It's been a while since I put some good races that felt right, and I'd very much like to have that back. Hopefully I can start to learn more about what it takes to be a good runner, as I prove to be a complete idiot in that department more often than I should. I'm probably out for offseason racing, and that includes Little Rhody. While unfortunately that probably means I won't race it until 2022, it seems much smarter not to race considering I'm still trying to get back into regular training (and not even running right now). Looking forward to December 1st.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Weekly Log: October 15 to 21
Pretty late in posting this one, although you can probably imagine why.
Monday: 5 Miles
Garrity. Kept it relaxed yet still felt heavy/uncomfortable.
Tuesday: 9 Miles
Was nervous about working out again as it's been a long time since I had a good workout and my legs just don't function these days. Smooth/relaxed 2 mile warm-up, felt good. Hard/windy 2 mile road tempo in 10:33 (with Tim Kenefick and James Busi, Tim was about 5s ahead, James about 5s behind). Felt okay going out but the pace just felt super fast and I couldn't hang with Tim going up a slight incline almost halfway in. Felt like the back two mile of a road race; legs started out fresh but got tight hallway through although felt more normal than usual. Followed up with a relaxed/easy 5xbus stop hill, legs felt amazing. 3x1100 in the woods, around 3:28ish splits, legs felt mostly good except for the 2nd one which was hillier. Difficulty: 4/5. Tempo was really hard, hills were smooth/easy, 1Ks were smooth but I was just exhausted at that point. Best workout I've had in a while.
Wednesday: 9 Miles
Got to go with the long group again, which was really nice. short snell. Started out relaxed then everyone started to cut down. I tightened up a little but still felt pretty good/smooth as we ran some low 6s at the end. Was happy with how it felt, seemed like a huge improvement.
Thursday: 6 Miles
Pre-meet short rose with some strides after. Felt mostly good at nice, easy pace but legs were slightly heavy.
Friday: 6 Miles
CCSU Mini Meet. Not much to say here. I really thought I was back this time after three great runs this week, but as I having been the whole season, I bombed another race. Good thing coach didn't put me in varsity as I would have sunk as usual.
Wasn't feeling great at all on warm-ups and thought my chances at a sub-15:30 had evaporated when I heard I was in JV. Still even though my enthusiasm wasn't there any more (terrible course also, three laps with one third of each lap on pavement including stepping on and off curbs) it was race and I sure wasn't to going to dog it. Pretty nervous again. Got to line up in the front for the first all season being JV now. Like usual, initial takeoff was slowly but it didn't take long for me to get up there. I had one my best starts ever, picking my way to the front effortlessly. It took no time to get in a good position, but unlike HS where I would have continued to rocket the next half mile, I showed restraint and pulled just behind the lead PC group which included Sean Meehan. I felt a little wobbly and uncomfortable going over curbs and roots but overall I felt surprisingly great. I hung right at the back or maybe a few meters behind that PC group. Avoiding the pavement was really awkward as I was one of the few to wear spikes. Despite feeling great, my race was over before I knew it as I came back up to the starting field and approached the mile mark, my hamstrings suddenly got extremely tight. The lead group got 10 meters on me, and I didn't counter it. The rest of the field portion on even ground only felt worse as a few guys passed me. Hit the mile in 4:52. I was hoping I would regain motion on the slight downhill, but no such luck- my legs continued to feel worse the entire race. I was passed and passed again and had no response, finishing in 16:13.
Definitely wish I didn't race, easily the most disappointing and upsetting of the race. It's incredibly annoying feeling good earlier in the week when it meant nothing race day. Glad to be done at this point, simply too depressing for me to keeping through these stages of hope and then absolute failure. I was extremely disappointing at my race at New Englands, but I was just extremely depressed here.
Saturday: 6 Miles
Thought I'd be going home in victory, but I instead went home in failure. Woody hill, felt like complete garbage. Legs were really tight but eventually loosened up; just had no energy on this one.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Fueled worse and got less sleep than Saturday yet somehow felt great on this great. Slight heaviness but nothing disruptive and overall just a very enjoyable group run in B-game on quality trails.
Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 1,744 Miles
Weekly Highlight: No
Weekly Lowlight: Pretty much would be a yearly lowlight. It wasn't the week, so much as a day but just failed again when I was least expecting and it hurt the most this time.
Back to my legs feeling like crap. Time to call it a season.
Tuesday-Sunday: 0. Did some lifting though for the first time ever which was fun.
Weekly Total: 6 Miles
YTD Total: 1,750 Miles
Some thoughts
Just really sad and upset about this season went. Just took 6 days off so hopefully that will do the trick for my nonfunctional legs. Going to be getting up to higher mileage during indoor, if I can start feeling good again I will be very happy to leave to this 50 mile weeks and 5 mile runs behind, finally glad to do some real training.
Basically the focus right now is run a sub 15 5k by the end of February, preferably a 14:50. The UNH track schedule got released and after talking to coach, unfortunately I will not get to race at the fast and highly competitive invites at BU. That means I'm going to be racing at a lot of slow tracks without much competition, just like high school. I had big goals for a variety of distances but with such limited opportunities for fast races, I think it's more realistic to focus on one event. I wanted to run a low 8:30s 3K originally, not sure if that'll happen now. I'm basically going to slog through a bunch of crappy meets a few times in December and January (racing is kept in low quantities due to winter break) then the two target races will be New Englands at Reggie Lewis and America East at BU. The good thing is they are both multi day events so I may or may not get an opportunity at another distance.
As offseason racing, I don't know yet. I know the smart thing would be to get a solid month of training without killing myself in any races. I really wanted to run little Rhody, try to go for the CR in what will probably be a very competitive field this year (assuming the rumored top guys show up) but I'm being more cautious now after that disaster of a season. I'll see when the time comes. I'm probably out for any thanksgiving races though, road races will take a lot more out of me than trail. Maybe a 5k would work. I'd really like to run some of the BU mini meets (12/8, 12/15, 12/22, I could make the last two and definitely the third one) but I'll have to see what my coach says. Hopefully it will be good indoor season. Let me know whether you think it's a good idea or not to run Little Rhody (or a road race).
My mileage chart for the season (I'm not going to do a full recap for this one). I took out doubles because I only doubled the first week and the last week doesn't really count because I only ran once. 452 miles for 9 weeks= 50 miles average per week. Not great- average was 58 in summer.
Monday: 5 Miles
Garrity. Kept it relaxed yet still felt heavy/uncomfortable.
Tuesday: 9 Miles
Was nervous about working out again as it's been a long time since I had a good workout and my legs just don't function these days. Smooth/relaxed 2 mile warm-up, felt good. Hard/windy 2 mile road tempo in 10:33 (with Tim Kenefick and James Busi, Tim was about 5s ahead, James about 5s behind). Felt okay going out but the pace just felt super fast and I couldn't hang with Tim going up a slight incline almost halfway in. Felt like the back two mile of a road race; legs started out fresh but got tight hallway through although felt more normal than usual. Followed up with a relaxed/easy 5xbus stop hill, legs felt amazing. 3x1100 in the woods, around 3:28ish splits, legs felt mostly good except for the 2nd one which was hillier. Difficulty: 4/5. Tempo was really hard, hills were smooth/easy, 1Ks were smooth but I was just exhausted at that point. Best workout I've had in a while.
Wednesday: 9 Miles
Got to go with the long group again, which was really nice. short snell. Started out relaxed then everyone started to cut down. I tightened up a little but still felt pretty good/smooth as we ran some low 6s at the end. Was happy with how it felt, seemed like a huge improvement.
Thursday: 6 Miles
Pre-meet short rose with some strides after. Felt mostly good at nice, easy pace but legs were slightly heavy.
Friday: 6 Miles
CCSU Mini Meet. Not much to say here. I really thought I was back this time after three great runs this week, but as I having been the whole season, I bombed another race. Good thing coach didn't put me in varsity as I would have sunk as usual.
Wasn't feeling great at all on warm-ups and thought my chances at a sub-15:30 had evaporated when I heard I was in JV. Still even though my enthusiasm wasn't there any more (terrible course also, three laps with one third of each lap on pavement including stepping on and off curbs) it was race and I sure wasn't to going to dog it. Pretty nervous again. Got to line up in the front for the first all season being JV now. Like usual, initial takeoff was slowly but it didn't take long for me to get up there. I had one my best starts ever, picking my way to the front effortlessly. It took no time to get in a good position, but unlike HS where I would have continued to rocket the next half mile, I showed restraint and pulled just behind the lead PC group which included Sean Meehan. I felt a little wobbly and uncomfortable going over curbs and roots but overall I felt surprisingly great. I hung right at the back or maybe a few meters behind that PC group. Avoiding the pavement was really awkward as I was one of the few to wear spikes. Despite feeling great, my race was over before I knew it as I came back up to the starting field and approached the mile mark, my hamstrings suddenly got extremely tight. The lead group got 10 meters on me, and I didn't counter it. The rest of the field portion on even ground only felt worse as a few guys passed me. Hit the mile in 4:52. I was hoping I would regain motion on the slight downhill, but no such luck- my legs continued to feel worse the entire race. I was passed and passed again and had no response, finishing in 16:13.
Definitely wish I didn't race, easily the most disappointing and upsetting of the race. It's incredibly annoying feeling good earlier in the week when it meant nothing race day. Glad to be done at this point, simply too depressing for me to keeping through these stages of hope and then absolute failure. I was extremely disappointing at my race at New Englands, but I was just extremely depressed here.
Saturday: 6 Miles
Thought I'd be going home in victory, but I instead went home in failure. Woody hill, felt like complete garbage. Legs were really tight but eventually loosened up; just had no energy on this one.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Fueled worse and got less sleep than Saturday yet somehow felt great on this great. Slight heaviness but nothing disruptive and overall just a very enjoyable group run in B-game on quality trails.
Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 1,744 Miles
Weekly Highlight: No
Weekly Lowlight: Pretty much would be a yearly lowlight. It wasn't the week, so much as a day but just failed again when I was least expecting and it hurt the most this time.
Week October 22 to 28
Monday: 6 MilesBack to my legs feeling like crap. Time to call it a season.
Tuesday-Sunday: 0. Did some lifting though for the first time ever which was fun.
Weekly Total: 6 Miles
YTD Total: 1,750 Miles
Some thoughts
Just really sad and upset about this season went. Just took 6 days off so hopefully that will do the trick for my nonfunctional legs. Going to be getting up to higher mileage during indoor, if I can start feeling good again I will be very happy to leave to this 50 mile weeks and 5 mile runs behind, finally glad to do some real training.
Basically the focus right now is run a sub 15 5k by the end of February, preferably a 14:50. The UNH track schedule got released and after talking to coach, unfortunately I will not get to race at the fast and highly competitive invites at BU. That means I'm going to be racing at a lot of slow tracks without much competition, just like high school. I had big goals for a variety of distances but with such limited opportunities for fast races, I think it's more realistic to focus on one event. I wanted to run a low 8:30s 3K originally, not sure if that'll happen now. I'm basically going to slog through a bunch of crappy meets a few times in December and January (racing is kept in low quantities due to winter break) then the two target races will be New Englands at Reggie Lewis and America East at BU. The good thing is they are both multi day events so I may or may not get an opportunity at another distance.
As offseason racing, I don't know yet. I know the smart thing would be to get a solid month of training without killing myself in any races. I really wanted to run little Rhody, try to go for the CR in what will probably be a very competitive field this year (assuming the rumored top guys show up) but I'm being more cautious now after that disaster of a season. I'll see when the time comes. I'm probably out for any thanksgiving races though, road races will take a lot more out of me than trail. Maybe a 5k would work. I'd really like to run some of the BU mini meets (12/8, 12/15, 12/22, I could make the last two and definitely the third one) but I'll have to see what my coach says. Hopefully it will be good indoor season. Let me know whether you think it's a good idea or not to run Little Rhody (or a road race).
My mileage chart for the season (I'm not going to do a full recap for this one). I took out doubles because I only doubled the first week and the last week doesn't really count because I only ran once. 452 miles for 9 weeks= 50 miles average per week. Not great- average was 58 in summer.
Thursday, October 25, 2018
My Complicated Relationship with Cross Country
After putting up what is by far my worst season of running to date, my Cross Country career is exactly where I left it at the end of last year- the graveyard. I had killed off my high school turn at the sport with a string of mediocre performances culminating in the two worst races of my life. While incredibly depressed at the time, I was glad to move on to the track a few months later, knowing I'd have an opportunity to try again in the sport come fall 2018.
Well, fall 2018 has come and gone, at least in terms of my XC season and I somehow find myself in that exact same position. Except unlike last year where I produced a slew of mediocre but at least somewhat respectable performances, my races this year were truly atrocious. I only raced 4 times and had one good race, where the other three were a combination of being embarrassing, pathetic, and soul crushing. While the season was overall much worse than my 2017 season, I'm not quite as upset about it as the stakes were so much higher last year. But I am left scratching my head at why I'm so bad at cross country. I refuse to believe that I'm simply a terrible cross country runner and I don't belong out there, but there isn't much hard evidence in performances to back me up otherwise.
I once again am looking forward to track season and quite happy to say good riddance to another horrendous XC season. I'd be lying if I said that I accomplished everything I wanted to on the track in high school, but my Cross Country disappointments exceed my track ones by some margin. Over the last three years, I've run much more consistently out on the track, rarely ever bombing extremely important races the way I have time and again in XC. The idea of running laps around an oval is much more boring on paper, but having a place to run fast without any additional barriers (hills, terrain changes) over a variety of distances seems to be more of my strength. I should like cross country much more than I do, but I find it significantly harder to maintain a race pace after starts that demand an incredibly fast first 800m and over much slower terrain including hills. That doesn't exactly explain why I run horrible in XC but not in track, as I have put in a decent amount of great XC performances as well.
A common question in the world of HS running is Track or XC? Which one is better? Cross Country used to be the easy answer for me, but after putting up these kinds of races, I lose almost all interest in the sport. I then get through track without any of these disappointing races, so right now, track is highly enjoyable to me and cross country is not.
So what is my relationship with Cross Country? I used to have a strong XC experience, where like track/road racing, if I put in the work, I'd get good races out. After a tough end to my 2016 season, I figured these were just anomalies in a mostly great XC career. But after a disappointing 2017 XC season that just simply didn't have those good performance like before, my career wasn't looking too great. And now, after my worst season yet, it's a pretty even split between good seasons and bad ones, almost leaning towards the bad side.
It's incredibly depressing to continually go through this. I long to be good at Cross Country again, but I don't know when that will happen. It'll be nice to have almost 10 months to recover from the disappointment of this season. With three seasons left, I'm hoping next year will be a return to form.
Well, fall 2018 has come and gone, at least in terms of my XC season and I somehow find myself in that exact same position. Except unlike last year where I produced a slew of mediocre but at least somewhat respectable performances, my races this year were truly atrocious. I only raced 4 times and had one good race, where the other three were a combination of being embarrassing, pathetic, and soul crushing. While the season was overall much worse than my 2017 season, I'm not quite as upset about it as the stakes were so much higher last year. But I am left scratching my head at why I'm so bad at cross country. I refuse to believe that I'm simply a terrible cross country runner and I don't belong out there, but there isn't much hard evidence in performances to back me up otherwise.
I once again am looking forward to track season and quite happy to say good riddance to another horrendous XC season. I'd be lying if I said that I accomplished everything I wanted to on the track in high school, but my Cross Country disappointments exceed my track ones by some margin. Over the last three years, I've run much more consistently out on the track, rarely ever bombing extremely important races the way I have time and again in XC. The idea of running laps around an oval is much more boring on paper, but having a place to run fast without any additional barriers (hills, terrain changes) over a variety of distances seems to be more of my strength. I should like cross country much more than I do, but I find it significantly harder to maintain a race pace after starts that demand an incredibly fast first 800m and over much slower terrain including hills. That doesn't exactly explain why I run horrible in XC but not in track, as I have put in a decent amount of great XC performances as well.
A common question in the world of HS running is Track or XC? Which one is better? Cross Country used to be the easy answer for me, but after putting up these kinds of races, I lose almost all interest in the sport. I then get through track without any of these disappointing races, so right now, track is highly enjoyable to me and cross country is not.
So what is my relationship with Cross Country? I used to have a strong XC experience, where like track/road racing, if I put in the work, I'd get good races out. After a tough end to my 2016 season, I figured these were just anomalies in a mostly great XC career. But after a disappointing 2017 XC season that just simply didn't have those good performance like before, my career wasn't looking too great. And now, after my worst season yet, it's a pretty even split between good seasons and bad ones, almost leaning towards the bad side.
It's incredibly depressing to continually go through this. I long to be good at Cross Country again, but I don't know when that will happen. It'll be nice to have almost 10 months to recover from the disappointment of this season. With three seasons left, I'm hoping next year will be a return to form.
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Weekly Log: October 8 to 14
Trying to back in regular training, but still struggling.
Monday: 8 Miles
Short rose with a pretty big group. Spenser and Aidan were tacking on a little extra and I wanted to do a little more, so I hung with them. Unfortunately, Aidan had plans to run pretty fast and I wasn't really planning on that. Banged two uncomfortably fast miles until I decided that it was simply too much and ran solo easy for the remainder.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
Mini-workout with some of the recovering/injured guys. 3 Mile fartlek, 200m on/200m off w/target splits of 40s/50s. It wasn't too hard but it was hot out and I felt pretty tired so none of it was enjoyable. Ons felt pretty relaxed for a workout, offs felt pretty fast for recovery. Difficulty: 2/5.
Wednesday: 6 Miles
Another short workout, this time just with Jamie. 4x1000 @3:10 w/400m jog recovery. Should've been pretty easy, but struggled quite a bit. Felt pretty terrible and was totally dying out there. Just had no energy. Jamie finally dropped on the third one, then I was all done in my first ever incomplete workout. Super discouraging, might be the end of me. Difficulty: 5/5
Thursday: 6 Miles
Had a much better day, 6 miles homecoming loop in the rain with the mid-distance guys (I guess train with mid distance group now because of my leg problems). We went way too fast and I eventually backed off with Nate, but I felt really smooth the whole time at 6:30 pace. Rain felt nice.
Friday: 9 Miles
Pudding hill loop with a huge group, probably 20 guys. I think some split off but still a lot of people. Got extremely tight in my calves for the second mile but fortunately that eventually let up and went to on/off tightness. Mad dash for the town line, which I got but took way too much effort. Probably going to stop going for these. I got tight after that for a little but felt smooth the last mile or so. Okayish run, felt great for half of it, felt terrible for half.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Rockingham recreational rail trail, which goes 28 miles from Newfields to Manchester. We ran about 4 miles of it, incorporating a time interval (they called it a fartlek, but it wasn't really). On sessions were: 1 min/2min/3min/10min/3min/2min/1min with equal rest except for the 10 min which got 3min rest. Was feeling really good on the warm-ups, so I wasn't thrilled that my thighs got insanely heavy once we started to go. Calves never got at all though which was good. It was uncomfortable pushing through such heaviness, but everything else felt great. 1-3 mins were solid but the 10 minute was a bit harder as my quads/hamstrings only increased tension. Difficulty: 3/5. I imagine this would have been pretty easy had I not been so heavy/tight. We went in groups of 4-5, I was with Jamie, James and Andrew. Jamie got mad at me for leading for some reason so I had tuck in the back for some.
Sunday: 7 Miles
Supposed to go to mine falls park for a little meet preview (America East on 10/27 will be held there), but it ended up not working out and we just had late practice in the usual spot. Got put with the mid-distance guys again, looking to go pretty slow for recovery. Felt good for 3 miles cruising along at low 7s but out of nowhere, the guys in the front starting running 6:20s and my legs went to trash after that. Eventually they dropped me for good, which was actually nice as I was finally able to step back and run the pace I wanted (low 7s). Homecoming loop, tacked on woods loop solo. Not bad, but not good either. Definitely hoping to take it easy/feel fresh next week.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 1,696 Miles
Weekly Highlight: It felt good to feel normal again on Thursday's rainy run. Definitely not a great week overall, but I feel like things are (very slowly) improving.
Weekly Lowlight: Despite some slight improvement, my track workouts were simply atrocious this week when they should have been easy. It's hard to tell whether my fitness is there or not, but it sure didn't feel like it in those. The rail trail workout was much better in terms of comfort level, but that was the heaviest my legs were all week and it was extremely disruptive during the actual run. While the other runs were awful, they weren't very good either. To sum things up, I'm still seriously struggling to do basic runs and it doesn't bode well for racing next Friday.
I know if I don't break 15:30 at the CCSU mini meet, I'm going to walk away devastated. And unfortunately, it feels like the odds are stacked against me right now. Even worse, there's a good chance I'll be in the JV race as my performances have been far too slow this season to put me in the real top 7. We'll see how next week goes, hoping to finally feel like my normal self again, but if it doesn't, this may very well be the end of the season. I really don't have interest in running another 8K if it's going to be over 26 minutes.
Monday: 8 Miles
Short rose with a pretty big group. Spenser and Aidan were tacking on a little extra and I wanted to do a little more, so I hung with them. Unfortunately, Aidan had plans to run pretty fast and I wasn't really planning on that. Banged two uncomfortably fast miles until I decided that it was simply too much and ran solo easy for the remainder.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
Mini-workout with some of the recovering/injured guys. 3 Mile fartlek, 200m on/200m off w/target splits of 40s/50s. It wasn't too hard but it was hot out and I felt pretty tired so none of it was enjoyable. Ons felt pretty relaxed for a workout, offs felt pretty fast for recovery. Difficulty: 2/5.
Wednesday: 6 Miles
Another short workout, this time just with Jamie. 4x1000 @3:10 w/400m jog recovery. Should've been pretty easy, but struggled quite a bit. Felt pretty terrible and was totally dying out there. Just had no energy. Jamie finally dropped on the third one, then I was all done in my first ever incomplete workout. Super discouraging, might be the end of me. Difficulty: 5/5
Thursday: 6 Miles
Had a much better day, 6 miles homecoming loop in the rain with the mid-distance guys (I guess train with mid distance group now because of my leg problems). We went way too fast and I eventually backed off with Nate, but I felt really smooth the whole time at 6:30 pace. Rain felt nice.
Friday: 9 Miles
Pudding hill loop with a huge group, probably 20 guys. I think some split off but still a lot of people. Got extremely tight in my calves for the second mile but fortunately that eventually let up and went to on/off tightness. Mad dash for the town line, which I got but took way too much effort. Probably going to stop going for these. I got tight after that for a little but felt smooth the last mile or so. Okayish run, felt great for half of it, felt terrible for half.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Rockingham recreational rail trail, which goes 28 miles from Newfields to Manchester. We ran about 4 miles of it, incorporating a time interval (they called it a fartlek, but it wasn't really). On sessions were: 1 min/2min/3min/10min/3min/2min/1min with equal rest except for the 10 min which got 3min rest. Was feeling really good on the warm-ups, so I wasn't thrilled that my thighs got insanely heavy once we started to go. Calves never got at all though which was good. It was uncomfortable pushing through such heaviness, but everything else felt great. 1-3 mins were solid but the 10 minute was a bit harder as my quads/hamstrings only increased tension. Difficulty: 3/5. I imagine this would have been pretty easy had I not been so heavy/tight. We went in groups of 4-5, I was with Jamie, James and Andrew. Jamie got mad at me for leading for some reason so I had tuck in the back for some.
Sunday: 7 Miles
Supposed to go to mine falls park for a little meet preview (America East on 10/27 will be held there), but it ended up not working out and we just had late practice in the usual spot. Got put with the mid-distance guys again, looking to go pretty slow for recovery. Felt good for 3 miles cruising along at low 7s but out of nowhere, the guys in the front starting running 6:20s and my legs went to trash after that. Eventually they dropped me for good, which was actually nice as I was finally able to step back and run the pace I wanted (low 7s). Homecoming loop, tacked on woods loop solo. Not bad, but not good either. Definitely hoping to take it easy/feel fresh next week.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 1,696 Miles
Weekly Highlight: It felt good to feel normal again on Thursday's rainy run. Definitely not a great week overall, but I feel like things are (very slowly) improving.
Weekly Lowlight: Despite some slight improvement, my track workouts were simply atrocious this week when they should have been easy. It's hard to tell whether my fitness is there or not, but it sure didn't feel like it in those. The rail trail workout was much better in terms of comfort level, but that was the heaviest my legs were all week and it was extremely disruptive during the actual run. While the other runs were awful, they weren't very good either. To sum things up, I'm still seriously struggling to do basic runs and it doesn't bode well for racing next Friday.
I know if I don't break 15:30 at the CCSU mini meet, I'm going to walk away devastated. And unfortunately, it feels like the odds are stacked against me right now. Even worse, there's a good chance I'll be in the JV race as my performances have been far too slow this season to put me in the real top 7. We'll see how next week goes, hoping to finally feel like my normal self again, but if it doesn't, this may very well be the end of the season. I really don't have interest in running another 8K if it's going to be over 26 minutes.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Weekly Log: October 1 to 7
Glad to get back to more normal levels of muscle fatigue, but unfortunately not 100% normal. Taking it easy to get my legs back before my first real race in over a month on Saturday.
Monday: 3 Miles
Coach had me take a super short/easy day that consisted solely of a woods loop and a 2-mile loop in college woods. Felt really fresh on the first one, slightly tighter but not too bad on the second one. Ran pretty slow and felt relaxed. Raining out; kept warm-ups on as I wasn't going fast or long.
Tuesday: 5 Miles
Ran Garrity, once again in the rain. It was pretty cold and I wasn't feeling great on my way over to the field house, so I wasn't looking forward to this one. Definitely was nervous about going back out onto the roads again. Solo, but went by quickly and felt surprisingly very comfortable. Best run in a while, but I'd have to wait and see how the workout would go.
Wednesday: 12 Miles
Pretty decent workout. It sure wasn't easy, but I was just glad to get done. After a 4 mile warm-up, we did 5x150m strides on a dirt road section of the XC field. Followed that up with a pretty tough track session: 3x(800/400/200/1000), 4 mins between sets, 200m jog between reps. Target splits were: 2:30/70/33/3:10. Actual splits: 2:24/74/34/3:12/2:28/71/33/3:08/2:27/69/34/3:01. First one felt okay, got really weak towards the end of the second set and was holding on for dear life in the third one. Got it done though, pretty happy with the result. Difficulty: 5/5
Thursday: 8 Miles
Reserve homecoming loop plus warm-ups. Varying levels of being comfortable, but generally the calves were uncomfortably tight again and it made the run far from enjoyable.
Friday: 7 Miles
Short rose pre-meet shakeout. Tried really hard to go as easy as possible to feel fresh in Saturday's race. I was happy that I felt pretty good. There was some lingering tightness here or there but for the most part, I felt ready to go.
Saturday: 9 Miles
New England Championships. Shooting for 25:40, ran 26:54. Wow. Simply unbelievable. Was feeling optimistic the entire week and race day but then this happened. Not going to bother with a recap on this one, this was one of the most disappointing races of the year and brought my rollercoaster of a season to a crashing halt once again.
Sunday: 6 Miles
Woke up feeling more sore than I have in quite a while. Legs were just plain messed up- a combination of tightness, heaviness and the soreness but it also felt kinda nice. Got my first town line as well.
Weekly Total: 50 Miles
YTD Total: 1,644 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Not sure what to say on this one. Writing this a week later, I'm feeling worse than ever and not sure I can salvage much of this season. It felt nice to at least think I was getting back to normal running, though. Not sure what will end up happening, just not feeling great about my immediate future right now.
Weekly Lowlight: Still in a major struggle, confirmed in the worst way by my terrible New Englands. Definitely hurts to walk away with a 26:54.
Monday: 3 Miles
Coach had me take a super short/easy day that consisted solely of a woods loop and a 2-mile loop in college woods. Felt really fresh on the first one, slightly tighter but not too bad on the second one. Ran pretty slow and felt relaxed. Raining out; kept warm-ups on as I wasn't going fast or long.
Tuesday: 5 Miles
Ran Garrity, once again in the rain. It was pretty cold and I wasn't feeling great on my way over to the field house, so I wasn't looking forward to this one. Definitely was nervous about going back out onto the roads again. Solo, but went by quickly and felt surprisingly very comfortable. Best run in a while, but I'd have to wait and see how the workout would go.
Wednesday: 12 Miles
Pretty decent workout. It sure wasn't easy, but I was just glad to get done. After a 4 mile warm-up, we did 5x150m strides on a dirt road section of the XC field. Followed that up with a pretty tough track session: 3x(800/400/200/1000), 4 mins between sets, 200m jog between reps. Target splits were: 2:30/70/33/3:10. Actual splits: 2:24/74/34/3:12/2:28/71/33/3:08/2:27/69/34/3:01. First one felt okay, got really weak towards the end of the second set and was holding on for dear life in the third one. Got it done though, pretty happy with the result. Difficulty: 5/5
Thursday: 8 Miles
Reserve homecoming loop plus warm-ups. Varying levels of being comfortable, but generally the calves were uncomfortably tight again and it made the run far from enjoyable.
Friday: 7 Miles
Short rose pre-meet shakeout. Tried really hard to go as easy as possible to feel fresh in Saturday's race. I was happy that I felt pretty good. There was some lingering tightness here or there but for the most part, I felt ready to go.
Saturday: 9 Miles
New England Championships. Shooting for 25:40, ran 26:54. Wow. Simply unbelievable. Was feeling optimistic the entire week and race day but then this happened. Not going to bother with a recap on this one, this was one of the most disappointing races of the year and brought my rollercoaster of a season to a crashing halt once again.
Sunday: 6 Miles
Woke up feeling more sore than I have in quite a while. Legs were just plain messed up- a combination of tightness, heaviness and the soreness but it also felt kinda nice. Got my first town line as well.
Weekly Total: 50 Miles
YTD Total: 1,644 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Not sure what to say on this one. Writing this a week later, I'm feeling worse than ever and not sure I can salvage much of this season. It felt nice to at least think I was getting back to normal running, though. Not sure what will end up happening, just not feeling great about my immediate future right now.
Weekly Lowlight: Still in a major struggle, confirmed in the worst way by my terrible New Englands. Definitely hurts to walk away with a 26:54.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
More Problems- Weekly Log: September 24 to 30
Thought this would be my comeback week, but heavy and extremely tight legs derailed my progress to the point where I wouldn't race. Definitely very disappointing, was questioning if my season was over.
Monday: 7 Miles
Went on a new route with 6 or so guys called Chain and Back. I was disappointed the trail were so wide they might well be dirt roads, but on the way back we took a detour for a twisty single-track with stuff to jump over. Actually felt good on this run and definitely enjoyed it.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
Missed practice as usual on Tuesday and did a solo short rose (5ish) plus two laps around the oyster river HS track. It was raining out pretty good but I enjoyed it. My watch did not; I skipped loading satellites after several minutes of waiting and the pace was off the entire run. On and off tightness this run, but overall uncomfortable.
Wednesday: 6 Miles
This was the run that ended me (temporarily). 3xMile workout @5:10 w/90s recovery. Should be really easy, but legs (both calves and quads) got so tight/heavy just 200m into each rep. Legs were like structures of cement that took so much extra effort to move that normal. Difficulty: 5/5. Tightness: 9/10
Thursday: 9 Miles
Warm-up plus Jenkins loop. I was tight going up it didn't feel too bad and otherwise I felt great. 3 miles in I completely seized up in my calves and I was so tight it was borderline painful. Tightness: 9/10.
Friday: 5 Miles
Ran the paul short course with the team. Somehow even tighter than the previous day, it probably was painful. So tight I had trouble keeping up at 6:50s pace and would have to push to stay with the group on the hills. The worst tightness I've ever had in my life. Tightness: 10/10.
Saturday: 2 Miles
Did the warm-up with the team and was still ridiculously tight, so that was it for my running for the day.
Sunday: 0 Miles
Did 6 Miles on the elliptigo which was a combination of fun, uncontrolled and tiring.
Weekly Total: 34 Miles
YTD Total: 1,594 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Seems like the foot pretty much healed up.
Weekly Lowlight: Just extremely uncomfortable tightness nearly all the time.
Monday: 7 Miles
Went on a new route with 6 or so guys called Chain and Back. I was disappointed the trail were so wide they might well be dirt roads, but on the way back we took a detour for a twisty single-track with stuff to jump over. Actually felt good on this run and definitely enjoyed it.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
Missed practice as usual on Tuesday and did a solo short rose (5ish) plus two laps around the oyster river HS track. It was raining out pretty good but I enjoyed it. My watch did not; I skipped loading satellites after several minutes of waiting and the pace was off the entire run. On and off tightness this run, but overall uncomfortable.
Wednesday: 6 Miles
This was the run that ended me (temporarily). 3xMile workout @5:10 w/90s recovery. Should be really easy, but legs (both calves and quads) got so tight/heavy just 200m into each rep. Legs were like structures of cement that took so much extra effort to move that normal. Difficulty: 5/5. Tightness: 9/10
Thursday: 9 Miles
Warm-up plus Jenkins loop. I was tight going up it didn't feel too bad and otherwise I felt great. 3 miles in I completely seized up in my calves and I was so tight it was borderline painful. Tightness: 9/10.
Friday: 5 Miles
Ran the paul short course with the team. Somehow even tighter than the previous day, it probably was painful. So tight I had trouble keeping up at 6:50s pace and would have to push to stay with the group on the hills. The worst tightness I've ever had in my life. Tightness: 10/10.
Saturday: 2 Miles
Did the warm-up with the team and was still ridiculously tight, so that was it for my running for the day.
Sunday: 0 Miles
Did 6 Miles on the elliptigo which was a combination of fun, uncontrolled and tiring.
Weekly Total: 34 Miles
YTD Total: 1,594 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Seems like the foot pretty much healed up.
Weekly Lowlight: Just extremely uncomfortable tightness nearly all the time.
Sunday, September 23, 2018
(Horrible) 8K Debut- Coast to Coast Battle in Beantown
One of the changes for blogging I've made this year is to try to write separate race reports for my collegiate races rather than incorporating write-ups into my weekly log (less racing, easier to do write ups). I told myself I wouldn't for my 8K debut because of how bad my race went, but I'm deciding to anyways. Normally, I don't do much of a recap for really bad races because I'm so disappointed/upset that any reminder of a race is somewhat painful to think about and writing about it brings me right back into that anger and frustration. However, this race was a little different. There were multiple reasons I ran terrible that were more acceptable excuses than usual and certain conditions of the race that make this not such a loss after all. Those reasons are...
1. Injury Recovery- Technically, I didn't race injured as I had zero pain during the race, but the fact that I didn't know for certain that I was racing until race day does lower expectations a bit. This was my first hard effort since hurting my foot and taking four days off while missing two workouts had certainly tampered with how I had felt over the last few days. I also wasn't 100% certain that my foot wouldn't suddenly flare up in pain mid-race, so it's definitely a good thing that didn't happen.
2. Trashed Legs- This is somewhat a result of #1, but as I stated in my weekly log, my legs had felt terrible leading up to the race and I was seriously worried this would affect me race day. And it sure did. I felt totally flat the whole time, my legs were 100% stiff and unresponsive. This combined with complete lack of strength gave me no mental drive to push past people. I've felt like this before, although rarely, and this is pretty much exactly how I feel when I run the worst races of a season.
3. Racing Flats- Another result of #1, but as a condition of letting me race, my Coach said no spikes. I'm guessing this is due to the lack of support and tightness it has to them; it's better not to risk worsening my injury than get optimal race conditions. I did however, get permission to race in flats, of which I only had road versions. I had no traction in the woods sections of the course (made up for at least 2 miles) and that definitely further contributed to my lack of response/overall slowness.
4. Insane Competition- I know I'm whining a little now as most of you are likely thinking "Competition makes a race much faster". I know it does and having great competition usually fuels awesome times. However, there is such a thing as too much competition. Sometimes in huge races I get overwhelmed with the amount of fast people and drop back. With just over 200 guys in the race, I was immediately in a congested crowd for the entire first mile with one of the worst starts I've ever run in. Everyone was pushing each other and my natural response was wanting to drop back to get some room, even though the intelligent thing to do is push forwards for more room. The second part of this besides being overwhelming is the sheer discouragement. In a field of 209, I only beat 6 people. It's extremely discouraging to see the majority of the field well ahead of you with very few behind. I've only finished in the bottom 20% in one other race (Loucks Games 3200, 26th of 29) and I finished in the bottom 3% this time around. This was something I was not prepared for, but played with me mentally in a bad way.
5. Lack of Pressure/Importance- This is not a reason for me doing poorly, but the reason for why I'm not that upset about it. Even though in terms of execution and overall pace/place vs.expectations this is one of the worst races I've ever run, it was virtually meaningless. I've felt similarly and run terrible at some very important HS meets but as a newbie to the college scene coming off an injury, it just isn't that big of a deal to bomb this race. After some initial massive disappointment, a lot of guys reminded of this, which is why unlike other bad races in the past, I have little problem brushing this to the side.
I know this is an odd recap, but with a big failure unlike most other races, but one that I'm okay talking about, it seemed more important to reflect on what went wrong and why it went wrong that just complaining and groaning. I will be back to normal chronological recaps in the future, however. Here's a quick recap though:
Brief Recap: Arrived at Franklin park around 1:30, giving plenty of time to relax. I was amazed at he quality of the runners around me and it was very cool to see some of the best teams and runners in the country. I had hydrated very well, but was worried about eating. Normally, I pack or eat a huge meal from home, but I didn't have much food up here. I ate a healthy but not super filling breakfast of oatmeal and half a bagel. I didn't have time for lunch after class and was hoping the provided lunch would do fine. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it merely consisted of a bag of chips, a cookie and a turkey wrap. The wrap was great but barely filled me, whereas I wouldn't touch the other two unhealthy foods prior to my race. I had two cliff bars, but this was not an ideal pre-race meal (probably another reason for my failure) and was worried about this. After the warm-up and dynamics, I put on my flats opting not to tie them in the same manner as before for more optimal flow, comfort and responsiveness. Of course, this lacked the benefits of the other tying method and could potentially mess up my foot. After some strides, my foot was hurting a little and I wasn't confident in the race at all. I felt good though, at least at that point.
As I stated before, the start was truly horrendous. So many quality runners converging as once instantly pushed me to the back of the pack. I nearly fell on a slight incline because I wasn't expecting it as I saw nothing but a sea of runners ahead. I ran in this horrible congestion for about a mile. I wasn't tired but my legs felt like total trash and had zero interest in picking up. The pace felt so fast. I hit the mile in 5:06, about what I wanted but knowing since that had felt really fast, I wasn't going to maintain. For our team, I was towards the back but ahead of the slower group. Everything went to shit in the second mile as I lost all my drive to stay in the race, my energy levels faded to zero, my legs filled up with cement and despite being way in the back, the remaining sea of runners passed me until I was in nearly last (unknown to me at the time) including all my teammates. I hit the two mile just under 10:40, knowing it was all over. The rest of the race was a blurred state of fatigue. I ran around the course with zero of my regular race tactics, completely out of the race. It was like I was running an easy tempo in the back but the unfortunate truth was that this was my all-out race effort. I literally had nothing after 2 miles. Passed through 5k in an atrocious 17:06. I slowly gained on Phil and eventually passed him. This felt like 9 minute pace yet I was so dead I couldn't do anything about it. My other teammate, Dylan wasn't far off in the distance but I certainly wasn't gaining on him. I knew I was running terrible and was surprised people were still cheering for me. I half expected some of them to completely disown any association with me and for coach to kick me off the team. I ran so slow up bear cage hill. It wasn't long at all or that difficult, but since I had nothing, it was like a mountain. People effortlessly gained on me and blew by me. I finally rounded the final turn. Ever since I passed Phil, I was expecting him to go by me again at any point, but it never happened. My finish was absolutely pathetic and I was barely even glad to be done since I had done so bad. I was honestly expecting the clock to show high 28s based on my second mile but was surprised to see 27. For some reason, I thought I had run 27:10 yet had actually run 27:31. Probably because I was completely unfocused at that point.
27:31 is horrible, especially considering my 15:44 5K and 55:30 10 Mile. But after some encouragement and some further thought, I realized it wasn't the end of the world. It's certainly embarrassing but when I bring all the reasons above together, I don't feel so bad about it. I didn't get kicked off the team and my foot seems to be near full recovery. I have another opportunity next Saturday and will certainly be looking to actually run fast. Until the next race...
1. Injury Recovery- Technically, I didn't race injured as I had zero pain during the race, but the fact that I didn't know for certain that I was racing until race day does lower expectations a bit. This was my first hard effort since hurting my foot and taking four days off while missing two workouts had certainly tampered with how I had felt over the last few days. I also wasn't 100% certain that my foot wouldn't suddenly flare up in pain mid-race, so it's definitely a good thing that didn't happen.
2. Trashed Legs- This is somewhat a result of #1, but as I stated in my weekly log, my legs had felt terrible leading up to the race and I was seriously worried this would affect me race day. And it sure did. I felt totally flat the whole time, my legs were 100% stiff and unresponsive. This combined with complete lack of strength gave me no mental drive to push past people. I've felt like this before, although rarely, and this is pretty much exactly how I feel when I run the worst races of a season.
3. Racing Flats- Another result of #1, but as a condition of letting me race, my Coach said no spikes. I'm guessing this is due to the lack of support and tightness it has to them; it's better not to risk worsening my injury than get optimal race conditions. I did however, get permission to race in flats, of which I only had road versions. I had no traction in the woods sections of the course (made up for at least 2 miles) and that definitely further contributed to my lack of response/overall slowness.
4. Insane Competition- I know I'm whining a little now as most of you are likely thinking "Competition makes a race much faster". I know it does and having great competition usually fuels awesome times. However, there is such a thing as too much competition. Sometimes in huge races I get overwhelmed with the amount of fast people and drop back. With just over 200 guys in the race, I was immediately in a congested crowd for the entire first mile with one of the worst starts I've ever run in. Everyone was pushing each other and my natural response was wanting to drop back to get some room, even though the intelligent thing to do is push forwards for more room. The second part of this besides being overwhelming is the sheer discouragement. In a field of 209, I only beat 6 people. It's extremely discouraging to see the majority of the field well ahead of you with very few behind. I've only finished in the bottom 20% in one other race (Loucks Games 3200, 26th of 29) and I finished in the bottom 3% this time around. This was something I was not prepared for, but played with me mentally in a bad way.
5. Lack of Pressure/Importance- This is not a reason for me doing poorly, but the reason for why I'm not that upset about it. Even though in terms of execution and overall pace/place vs.expectations this is one of the worst races I've ever run, it was virtually meaningless. I've felt similarly and run terrible at some very important HS meets but as a newbie to the college scene coming off an injury, it just isn't that big of a deal to bomb this race. After some initial massive disappointment, a lot of guys reminded of this, which is why unlike other bad races in the past, I have little problem brushing this to the side.
I know this is an odd recap, but with a big failure unlike most other races, but one that I'm okay talking about, it seemed more important to reflect on what went wrong and why it went wrong that just complaining and groaning. I will be back to normal chronological recaps in the future, however. Here's a quick recap though:
Brief Recap: Arrived at Franklin park around 1:30, giving plenty of time to relax. I was amazed at he quality of the runners around me and it was very cool to see some of the best teams and runners in the country. I had hydrated very well, but was worried about eating. Normally, I pack or eat a huge meal from home, but I didn't have much food up here. I ate a healthy but not super filling breakfast of oatmeal and half a bagel. I didn't have time for lunch after class and was hoping the provided lunch would do fine. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it merely consisted of a bag of chips, a cookie and a turkey wrap. The wrap was great but barely filled me, whereas I wouldn't touch the other two unhealthy foods prior to my race. I had two cliff bars, but this was not an ideal pre-race meal (probably another reason for my failure) and was worried about this. After the warm-up and dynamics, I put on my flats opting not to tie them in the same manner as before for more optimal flow, comfort and responsiveness. Of course, this lacked the benefits of the other tying method and could potentially mess up my foot. After some strides, my foot was hurting a little and I wasn't confident in the race at all. I felt good though, at least at that point.
As I stated before, the start was truly horrendous. So many quality runners converging as once instantly pushed me to the back of the pack. I nearly fell on a slight incline because I wasn't expecting it as I saw nothing but a sea of runners ahead. I ran in this horrible congestion for about a mile. I wasn't tired but my legs felt like total trash and had zero interest in picking up. The pace felt so fast. I hit the mile in 5:06, about what I wanted but knowing since that had felt really fast, I wasn't going to maintain. For our team, I was towards the back but ahead of the slower group. Everything went to shit in the second mile as I lost all my drive to stay in the race, my energy levels faded to zero, my legs filled up with cement and despite being way in the back, the remaining sea of runners passed me until I was in nearly last (unknown to me at the time) including all my teammates. I hit the two mile just under 10:40, knowing it was all over. The rest of the race was a blurred state of fatigue. I ran around the course with zero of my regular race tactics, completely out of the race. It was like I was running an easy tempo in the back but the unfortunate truth was that this was my all-out race effort. I literally had nothing after 2 miles. Passed through 5k in an atrocious 17:06. I slowly gained on Phil and eventually passed him. This felt like 9 minute pace yet I was so dead I couldn't do anything about it. My other teammate, Dylan wasn't far off in the distance but I certainly wasn't gaining on him. I knew I was running terrible and was surprised people were still cheering for me. I half expected some of them to completely disown any association with me and for coach to kick me off the team. I ran so slow up bear cage hill. It wasn't long at all or that difficult, but since I had nothing, it was like a mountain. People effortlessly gained on me and blew by me. I finally rounded the final turn. Ever since I passed Phil, I was expecting him to go by me again at any point, but it never happened. My finish was absolutely pathetic and I was barely even glad to be done since I had done so bad. I was honestly expecting the clock to show high 28s based on my second mile but was surprised to see 27. For some reason, I thought I had run 27:10 yet had actually run 27:31. Probably because I was completely unfocused at that point.
27:31 is horrible, especially considering my 15:44 5K and 55:30 10 Mile. But after some encouragement and some further thought, I realized it wasn't the end of the world. It's certainly embarrassing but when I bring all the reasons above together, I don't feel so bad about it. I didn't get kicked off the team and my foot seems to be near full recovery. I have another opportunity next Saturday and will certainly be looking to actually run fast. Until the next race...
Recovery, 8K Debut, and Return to RI- Weekly Log: September 17 to 23
This week was very interesting as it varied greatly. Fortunately, I started to run again after 4 days off for recovery. Easy at first, then a race on Friday in Boston at Franklin Park before getting in a few runs in RI (for the first time in a month) for a pretty short return.
Monday: 1 Mile
Continuing with the trend of solely doing the warm-up. My foot weirdly felt worse than yesterday for running, but better for walking. It wasn't clear if I was supposed to bike again, but after coach mysteriously disappeared, I decided not to give myself the boredom and discomfort of getting on the bike. Plus my butt was pretty sore from doing that the last few days.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
First run in 5 days! Foot felt mostly pretty great walking around and coach gave me the okay to go for a run. I didn't do the workout as it was my first day back but went with another group (Nick and Ryan) who are also somewhat injured, but in worse overall condition than I am. Run wasn't the greatest- I had to bang out a 6:14 first mile to catch them which felt super fast and tiring. Legs were so heavy, so most of the run was pretty uncomfortable. Foot felt okay- not good nor bad but definitely uncomfortable at times which was a little worrying. Never hurt though, which I felt was a sign I can continue running. Strides after, felt decent but slow.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
After my warm-up, the girl's coach tied my shoelaces in a different pattern so there weren't laces going over the sore/injured area of my foot. This seemed weird to me and certainly gives the shoe an overall odd tightness in different places, but helped my injury out a ton. I was feeling some discomfort on the warm-up, but it was pretty much gone after the shoe change.
Another easy day with guys recovering from yesterday's workout. Started out slow. I felt good and wanted to pick it up so when one of the guys (Mike) started to, I went with him. No idea what Mike was doing nor why he was doing it (he also was recovering from the workout), but we hit a 6:01 mile followed by a 5:35 which was completely unexpected. My legs got really heavy again and uncomfortable but I saw the run through at that pace. We did this diagonal strides on the field later with 5 mins continuous running, striding the length of the field diagonally, recovering on the width of the field. Got tired towards the end. Felt like I had made a mistake as my foot was bothering me significantly more than usual later than night.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Was really worried I had messed things up and would wake up with a burning pain and have to start taking time off again, so was thrilled that my foot felt more or less the same as the last few days. Warm-up was fine then we went for our shakeout run. My right calf was so tight it was borderline painful and it didn't help that this group thought 6:28 pace was a good pre-race run. I wanted to slow but didn't want to leave the group and I remained there. Of course, I later learned a bunch of guys in our group dropped off and took it easy for the rest of the run but since I was in the front, I didn't see them. More diagonal strides, taking my shoes off relieved the unbearable calf pressure somewhat but my quads were insanely heavy. My legs were feeling so trash, I was seriously considering asking Coach not to race me tomorrow. Of course, there was the chance that I wake up in the morning feeling great and ready to go, so I kept it to myself. Got rolled out after by Athletic trainers where the pressure they put on my calves definitely hurt a lot but also felt relieving/good. My calves were feeling less tight after but more beat up. Was definitely worried about racing the next day.
Friday: 10 Miles
Battle in Beantown, ran absolutely horrible. I told myself I wouldn't write a separate post for this, but I will. Likely shorter than usual, however.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Back in RI! Went up to Goddard park to watch various people race in the Ocean State XC Invitational, a meet I raced in all 4 years of my high school career. Dad and Tom ran in the open race at 8am, my former Westerly teammates ran at 10 and 11, whereas some really top athletes were in the championships races at 12 and 12:30, including Katelyn Tuohy running the fastest HS XC 5K of all time in 16:06.87, beating all but one boy. Did a mile or so before stopping to watch the open race, ran the rest of it with Tom, Shara and Dad with Dad running the rest of the it with me, Tom and Shara only running a mile or so. Nice and easy, felt like quality recovery. Ran pretty much all the trails, all wide, soft double-track. Foot started to bother me towards the end and walking throughout the day, likely because I raced on it.
Sunday: 8 Miles
WTAC group run in Woody Hill, a mix of Bradford preserve and other trails. Pretty fun- I felt surprisingly good despite being sleep-deprived throughout the weekend (I'm still pretty tired/weak when writing this) and fueless until the last two miles. Dad, Chris and Tom. Foot felt 100% so that was good. Had to leave for UNH pretty much immediately after getting back.
Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 1,560 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Really nice to get back into regular training and (mostly) beat this stupid minor foot problem. 49 miles isn't a ton but so much better than 0 or last weeks' 34.
Weekly Lowlight: The foot pain was still there from time to time and it's not a good feeling being scared to run. Fortunately, this wasn't a huge problem but for a few times, I thought I was back to more zeros. Obviously, the big failure was my race but for various reasons, I actually think the brief moments of pain, frustration and fear were much more of a low point this week than my awful race.
Monday: 1 Mile
Continuing with the trend of solely doing the warm-up. My foot weirdly felt worse than yesterday for running, but better for walking. It wasn't clear if I was supposed to bike again, but after coach mysteriously disappeared, I decided not to give myself the boredom and discomfort of getting on the bike. Plus my butt was pretty sore from doing that the last few days.
Tuesday: 6 Miles
First run in 5 days! Foot felt mostly pretty great walking around and coach gave me the okay to go for a run. I didn't do the workout as it was my first day back but went with another group (Nick and Ryan) who are also somewhat injured, but in worse overall condition than I am. Run wasn't the greatest- I had to bang out a 6:14 first mile to catch them which felt super fast and tiring. Legs were so heavy, so most of the run was pretty uncomfortable. Foot felt okay- not good nor bad but definitely uncomfortable at times which was a little worrying. Never hurt though, which I felt was a sign I can continue running. Strides after, felt decent but slow.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
After my warm-up, the girl's coach tied my shoelaces in a different pattern so there weren't laces going over the sore/injured area of my foot. This seemed weird to me and certainly gives the shoe an overall odd tightness in different places, but helped my injury out a ton. I was feeling some discomfort on the warm-up, but it was pretty much gone after the shoe change.
Another easy day with guys recovering from yesterday's workout. Started out slow. I felt good and wanted to pick it up so when one of the guys (Mike) started to, I went with him. No idea what Mike was doing nor why he was doing it (he also was recovering from the workout), but we hit a 6:01 mile followed by a 5:35 which was completely unexpected. My legs got really heavy again and uncomfortable but I saw the run through at that pace. We did this diagonal strides on the field later with 5 mins continuous running, striding the length of the field diagonally, recovering on the width of the field. Got tired towards the end. Felt like I had made a mistake as my foot was bothering me significantly more than usual later than night.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Was really worried I had messed things up and would wake up with a burning pain and have to start taking time off again, so was thrilled that my foot felt more or less the same as the last few days. Warm-up was fine then we went for our shakeout run. My right calf was so tight it was borderline painful and it didn't help that this group thought 6:28 pace was a good pre-race run. I wanted to slow but didn't want to leave the group and I remained there. Of course, I later learned a bunch of guys in our group dropped off and took it easy for the rest of the run but since I was in the front, I didn't see them. More diagonal strides, taking my shoes off relieved the unbearable calf pressure somewhat but my quads were insanely heavy. My legs were feeling so trash, I was seriously considering asking Coach not to race me tomorrow. Of course, there was the chance that I wake up in the morning feeling great and ready to go, so I kept it to myself. Got rolled out after by Athletic trainers where the pressure they put on my calves definitely hurt a lot but also felt relieving/good. My calves were feeling less tight after but more beat up. Was definitely worried about racing the next day.
Friday: 10 Miles
Battle in Beantown, ran absolutely horrible. I told myself I wouldn't write a separate post for this, but I will. Likely shorter than usual, however.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Back in RI! Went up to Goddard park to watch various people race in the Ocean State XC Invitational, a meet I raced in all 4 years of my high school career. Dad and Tom ran in the open race at 8am, my former Westerly teammates ran at 10 and 11, whereas some really top athletes were in the championships races at 12 and 12:30, including Katelyn Tuohy running the fastest HS XC 5K of all time in 16:06.87, beating all but one boy. Did a mile or so before stopping to watch the open race, ran the rest of it with Tom, Shara and Dad with Dad running the rest of the it with me, Tom and Shara only running a mile or so. Nice and easy, felt like quality recovery. Ran pretty much all the trails, all wide, soft double-track. Foot started to bother me towards the end and walking throughout the day, likely because I raced on it.
Sunday: 8 Miles
WTAC group run in Woody Hill, a mix of Bradford preserve and other trails. Pretty fun- I felt surprisingly good despite being sleep-deprived throughout the weekend (I'm still pretty tired/weak when writing this) and fueless until the last two miles. Dad, Chris and Tom. Foot felt 100% so that was good. Had to leave for UNH pretty much immediately after getting back.
Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 1,560 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Really nice to get back into regular training and (mostly) beat this stupid minor foot problem. 49 miles isn't a ton but so much better than 0 or last weeks' 34.
Weekly Lowlight: The foot pain was still there from time to time and it's not a good feeling being scared to run. Fortunately, this wasn't a huge problem but for a few times, I thought I was back to more zeros. Obviously, the big failure was my race but for various reasons, I actually think the brief moments of pain, frustration and fear were much more of a low point this week than my awful race.
Sunday, September 16, 2018
Injured?- Weekly Log: September 10 to 16
A seemingly normal week of training until for some reason, my foot started hurting. Not thrilled about this, but if I can put it behind me really quick and race next week, it won't have much of an impact at all.
Monday: 9 Miles
Ran one of the routes I did the most with a group of all older guys. Was feeling pretty beat up but we went slow so it wasn't too bad. Strides after.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Track workout. 6x1000 @3:10 w/60s recovery. Did an extra 400m jog between 3 and 4. Felt really nice to take the 600m off (from mile repeats) but I was feeling pretty heavy. Except for #3 solo (everyone's timing was off because I was late as I had class) all of them were smooth. The older guys led so I got into a nice groove behind them. Difficulty: 3/5.
Wednesday: 7 Miles
Foot was hurting walking during the day. Running didn't hurt at all or even feel uncomfortable. Legs were completely trashed though. Aidan started picking up the pace in the second half and I decided not to go with him.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Foot pain got worse walking. Decided to try to run. Felt uncomfortable but didn't hurt much so I went for the full run. Felt really smooth but it started to hurt at mile 4 for a little bit then went away. Short, easy enjoyable loop except for my foot problems.
Friday: 0 Miles
Woke up with the worst foot pain I've had all week, extremely painful to walk to classes. Definitely felt like I couldn't run on it so I took the day off. Pain gradually reduced throughout the day but still remained.
Saturday: 1 Mile
Pain much better than Thursday but still there. Warmed up with the team. Felt like an uncomfortable tightness/soreness but no pain. 25 minutes stationary bike indoors afterwards, 2 minute hard intervals, 1 min easy. Rolled out for a while.
Sunday: 1 Mile
Pain from the previous day had actually pretty much disappeared but foot still felt really awkward/uncomfortable. Did the warm-up again with the team, zero pain or discomfort, actually felt pretty much normal. Same thing as yesterday, on the bike.
Weekly Total: 34 Miles (extra mile somewhere there)
YTD Total: 1,511 Miles
Weekly Highlight: None. This was a pretty bad week.
Weekly Lowlight: Was not expecting to get hurt anytime soon and besides some general heaviness/tightness or the occasional weakness, I had been feeling mostly good this season so this injury really came out of nowhere. I highly doubt it'll affect my season overall, but am worried this will cause me to miss next week's race. Hoping to workout Tuesday, that would be a good sign.
Monday: 9 Miles
Ran one of the routes I did the most with a group of all older guys. Was feeling pretty beat up but we went slow so it wasn't too bad. Strides after.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Track workout. 6x1000 @3:10 w/60s recovery. Did an extra 400m jog between 3 and 4. Felt really nice to take the 600m off (from mile repeats) but I was feeling pretty heavy. Except for #3 solo (everyone's timing was off because I was late as I had class) all of them were smooth. The older guys led so I got into a nice groove behind them. Difficulty: 3/5.
Wednesday: 7 Miles
Foot was hurting walking during the day. Running didn't hurt at all or even feel uncomfortable. Legs were completely trashed though. Aidan started picking up the pace in the second half and I decided not to go with him.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Foot pain got worse walking. Decided to try to run. Felt uncomfortable but didn't hurt much so I went for the full run. Felt really smooth but it started to hurt at mile 4 for a little bit then went away. Short, easy enjoyable loop except for my foot problems.
Friday: 0 Miles
Woke up with the worst foot pain I've had all week, extremely painful to walk to classes. Definitely felt like I couldn't run on it so I took the day off. Pain gradually reduced throughout the day but still remained.
Saturday: 1 Mile
Pain much better than Thursday but still there. Warmed up with the team. Felt like an uncomfortable tightness/soreness but no pain. 25 minutes stationary bike indoors afterwards, 2 minute hard intervals, 1 min easy. Rolled out for a while.
Sunday: 1 Mile
Pain from the previous day had actually pretty much disappeared but foot still felt really awkward/uncomfortable. Did the warm-up again with the team, zero pain or discomfort, actually felt pretty much normal. Same thing as yesterday, on the bike.
Weekly Total: 34 Miles (extra mile somewhere there)
YTD Total: 1,511 Miles
Weekly Highlight: None. This was a pretty bad week.
Weekly Lowlight: Was not expecting to get hurt anytime soon and besides some general heaviness/tightness or the occasional weakness, I had been feeling mostly good this season so this injury really came out of nowhere. I highly doubt it'll affect my season overall, but am worried this will cause me to miss next week's race. Hoping to workout Tuesday, that would be a good sign.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Collegiate Debut at UNH Home Opener
It felt odd leaving the high school running stage behind as it had been my life for the last four years, but more than anything, it was a huge relief. Looking to college training, I would be running much higher mileage, running in insane competitions, running longer distances and likely training better. I was excited to officially be training as a collegiate athlete, but running in my first race still raised many questions. I wanted to start off my college career strong and work off that, but really had no idea what my fitness was, other than "good". We hadn't done anything all out here yet, so it had been about a month after my last race.
I had done well enough in workouts to earn a spot in the top 10 in the varsity race against Providence and Holy Cross. The other race was against Brown and Dartmouth, but Brown had their guys running a tempo and Dartmouth only had their freshman run. Apparently this race (somewhat of tradition, always opening meet held at UNH vs PC/HC) always finishes in the same fashion: getting destroyed by Providence but destroying Holy Cross ourselves. I didn't a have anywhere near the amount of pre-race strategy preparation as I normally do. There were no pressure or expectations on me as no one here had seen my race before, and this perhaps would be the only race where I received this. As a result, I felt zero nervousness and ready to go, a feeling I rarely held in HS. There wasn't a formal discussion, but apparently the plan for us 10 was run with the lead providence group as long as possible. Because no one had formally told me that, my plan was to run on feel and put in a strong effort. I wanted this to feel different than high school and eliminating an unnecessary fast start would make my splits more even. It was incredibly relaxed warming up with the team, doing dynamics and heading over to the line for last minute strides. Providence came over to the line and I recognized and talked to Sean Meehan (former Bishop Hendricken) who remarked this was just like old times (or something like that) as we would also frequently race in HS. It was neat to have him in the race as I actually knew him far earlier than any of my current teammates. And besides the UNH squad and him, I didn't know a single other runner in the race. It came time to line up. We were only allowed 7 guys in the front, so I made sure to take my rightful place in the back. I felt like it was already a privilege for me to get to race with the varsity guys when 5 of the 7 freshman ran in the slower race. The gun eventually shot off to signal the start of the race.
I got out quite well and comfortably. Providence had the advantage coming around the turn, but I found myself neck and neck with the top UNH guys. Jamie pulled ahead to run at the back of PC, but I stayed steady in running my own race. Brett also passed me and went to the next group while I began shuffling around with some UNH guys. We rolled through the first lap relatively quickly. It didn't take long for Providence to make a somewhat definitive move. I was in 4th for UNH behind Jamie, Brett and Nico, all of whom I expected to beat me. I could see Sean ahead a good 50 meters, right around where the gap remained for the majority of the race. The woods were crowded but felt smooth. There was a tight turn around the bend from the woods to grass which was difficult to maneuver. The worst part, however, was going from the lower grass field to starting grass field which went over a portion of dirt almost entirely covered by loose rocks. The footing was terrible and I immediately looked forward to getting onto more solid ground. I passed Nico moving into Lap 2 but Dean went by as well, so I stayed in 4th for the team. Dean was moving well and I couldn't latch on him. I stayed in no mans land right around there for the first portion of the lap.
I started to feel sluggish finishing up the second lap and some UNH guys passed me, Tyler (the other freshman), Davis and Nico slowly went by me. I felt that my race was starting to fall apart, but after some hestitation, I went with them and we had a train of guys working together for the third lap going into the woods. Towards the end of the lap, I went by Nico and Davis but stayed behind Tyler. I noticed that Brett was starting to come back to us. Passing Coach again, he let us know we had 1K to go. I thought I had a little more and made a push to go by Brett and Tyler before exiting the woods for the final time. I put in a decent surge spilling back on the field and tried to go for it. Shortly enough, we emptied back out on the track where Brett repassed me. He ended up passing Sean and I tried to make some kind of response going by Sean as well. With 200 to go, I put in a huge surge, passing Brett and going for next group of 4 others, also passing them. I was pretty tired but surprised to have an extra gear. I was coming up on a PC guy at the end, but he surged to hold me off (plus it was very awkward finishing on the curve). It wasn't until this moment that I started to get a glimpse of my time. I had felt sluggish and slow the entire time and wasn't expecting a great time. I was psyched to see 15:30s on the clock and come right in under 15:50.
Beat my goal pretty good and got third UNH while I was at it. Happy to beat Sean as well. I later found out I ran 15:44, which I was thrilled with, big XC PR and much faster than I was expecting. Full results here. Did what I never did in high school- which was break 16 minutes. Glad to start off on the right foot, hoping things go similar for my 8K debut. This was a blur, went by very quickly despite being 4 laps. I'm guessing this was due to stacked competition (now being in college, 15:44 only gets me 14th in what is essentially a dual meet).
I had done well enough in workouts to earn a spot in the top 10 in the varsity race against Providence and Holy Cross. The other race was against Brown and Dartmouth, but Brown had their guys running a tempo and Dartmouth only had their freshman run. Apparently this race (somewhat of tradition, always opening meet held at UNH vs PC/HC) always finishes in the same fashion: getting destroyed by Providence but destroying Holy Cross ourselves. I didn't a have anywhere near the amount of pre-race strategy preparation as I normally do. There were no pressure or expectations on me as no one here had seen my race before, and this perhaps would be the only race where I received this. As a result, I felt zero nervousness and ready to go, a feeling I rarely held in HS. There wasn't a formal discussion, but apparently the plan for us 10 was run with the lead providence group as long as possible. Because no one had formally told me that, my plan was to run on feel and put in a strong effort. I wanted this to feel different than high school and eliminating an unnecessary fast start would make my splits more even. It was incredibly relaxed warming up with the team, doing dynamics and heading over to the line for last minute strides. Providence came over to the line and I recognized and talked to Sean Meehan (former Bishop Hendricken) who remarked this was just like old times (or something like that) as we would also frequently race in HS. It was neat to have him in the race as I actually knew him far earlier than any of my current teammates. And besides the UNH squad and him, I didn't know a single other runner in the race. It came time to line up. We were only allowed 7 guys in the front, so I made sure to take my rightful place in the back. I felt like it was already a privilege for me to get to race with the varsity guys when 5 of the 7 freshman ran in the slower race. The gun eventually shot off to signal the start of the race.
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| Finishing up the first lap, just ahead of Nico. |
I got out quite well and comfortably. Providence had the advantage coming around the turn, but I found myself neck and neck with the top UNH guys. Jamie pulled ahead to run at the back of PC, but I stayed steady in running my own race. Brett also passed me and went to the next group while I began shuffling around with some UNH guys. We rolled through the first lap relatively quickly. It didn't take long for Providence to make a somewhat definitive move. I was in 4th for UNH behind Jamie, Brett and Nico, all of whom I expected to beat me. I could see Sean ahead a good 50 meters, right around where the gap remained for the majority of the race. The woods were crowded but felt smooth. There was a tight turn around the bend from the woods to grass which was difficult to maneuver. The worst part, however, was going from the lower grass field to starting grass field which went over a portion of dirt almost entirely covered by loose rocks. The footing was terrible and I immediately looked forward to getting onto more solid ground. I passed Nico moving into Lap 2 but Dean went by as well, so I stayed in 4th for the team. Dean was moving well and I couldn't latch on him. I stayed in no mans land right around there for the first portion of the lap.
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| Running as a train, at the end. |
Beat my goal pretty good and got third UNH while I was at it. Happy to beat Sean as well. I later found out I ran 15:44, which I was thrilled with, big XC PR and much faster than I was expecting. Full results here. Did what I never did in high school- which was break 16 minutes. Glad to start off on the right foot, hoping things go similar for my 8K debut. This was a blur, went by very quickly despite being 4 laps. I'm guessing this was due to stacked competition (now being in college, 15:44 only gets me 14th in what is essentially a dual meet).
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