Weekly Log: March 19 to 25

Last Two Weeks Recap:

Took the first week off as usual after finishing up indoor. Wanted to start running early that next week but a combination of sickness, a snowstorm and a math meet I ended up not running until Friday. I ran 7 miles from Avondale on Friday and gradually picked it up, ending with around 6:20 average pace. Legs were feeling heavy but overall solid. On Saturday, I wanted to run the Little Rhody loop. Things were going fine but I took a wrong turn and ended up running 9 miles, which wasn't fun because I was just exhausted at that point. The trail was really muddy too. These were my first real runs (7+ miles) in a long while, and made me very sore so I took Sunday off.

March 5-11 Weekly Total: 0 Miles
March 12-18 Weekly Total: 16 Miles
YTD Total: 282 Miles

Starting up again with outdoor. Hoping for this to be a pretty good season.

Monday: 4 Miles

Started things off with a timed mile in what weren't very good conditions. It was windy and pretty cold and given that it was a Monday, consensus was that no one really wanted to do it. I guess I wanted to go under 4:40, but wasn't feeling it at all before hand. However, I remembered feeling similarly terrible before running a 4:34 mile at the beginning of XC. I only got the 800 split, but I went out and led most of it. Probably came through in 66/67 and then 2:16. On only the second lap, my legs started to get cold and heavy. I wanted to press on the third lap, but just started feeling really weak. John Walker sat on me the whole time which was somewhat expecting and because my splits were getting slow, he was able to keep up. With 500 to go, he went by me (on the inside) and as I felt completely drained, I let him go and he beat me by 3 seconds. 4:45 to 4:42. Really disappointed in this. Not did I get beat at a real distance event, but ran a huge positive split (2:16/2:29!), felt terrible doing so and my overall time was pretty mediocre. I have some legitimate excuses here, like not running for two weeks, not running distance since XC, being sat on/doing all the work, being sick and running in cold/windy conditions but none of them would contribute to a time that slow. At the very worst, I think I still should have beat John and run 4:40 but this just didn't feel right.

Tuesday: 6 Miles

Followed things up with a hill workout and I was once again feeling heavy, sore and tired. I felt even worse on the hills (especially the heaviness), but was still able to put in a solid effort (5 Narragansetts at 5:46 pace). John and I ran side by side, but I couldn't tell whether we were both pushing it (I certainly was) or whether he just stayed with me to be polite. Difficulty: 4/5.

Wednesday: 6 Miles

Snow day from school was nice; the run was not. Went pretty much from when I woke up and legs were really heavy again. Added to this was sudden stomach discomfort which let to a bathroom problem where there were no bathrooms. The entire second half was even worse as it was against the wind and snow was constantly hitting me the face, which stung. Glad to finish this up.

Thursday: 6 Miles

Another track workout, maybe the hardest of the week. 5x800 @2:22-2:25 w/2:00 min recovery. These seemed pretty fast, especially this early in the season considering I had done something similar in XC (5x800 @2:28) and outdoor last year (4x800 @2:20) but they were either slower or lesser. John wasn't there, which I wasn't how I felt about. Sometimes it's nice to have someone to pace with, other times I feel like it screws up the pacing. Jon Turano was supposed to them with me, which was strange because they would be really fast for him. The wind wasn't too bad and I was able to be comfortable. I was a little heavy, but felt smooth for the most part. I started to get pretty tired on the second laps of the last two, but overall it wasn't as bad as I expected. Splits: 2:20 (68/72), 2:20 (69/71), 2:22 (69/73), 2:25 (71/74), 2:22 (70/72). Difficulty: 4/5. I was pretty happy with this workout. It seemed much harder on paper than either Monday's or Tuesday's workout but just felt so many times better.

Friday: 7 Miles

Was pretty tired again and wasn't sure if I'd have to run a slow pace for my distance run. It ended up being fine, 6:27 pace for 6 miles but I felt pretty weak throughout. Once again, was glad to finish this one.

Saturday: 6 Miles

Was nervous for a potentially brutal workout. It ended up being a common one; 10x400. I can't remember whether we had 60s or 90s recovery, but it felt like 60s. John and I were supposed to run 69s-70s, but as usual we weren't very good at pacing. We got a break at 6 and despite feeling fine before that break, the last four were tiring. The final 100 was extremely windy which made the end very tiring. Splits: 67/68/69/66/67/67/65/66/66/66. Difficulty: 3/5.

Sunday: 8 Miles

Was looking to run trails on my only non-practice and like Carter's new trail additions and map, so decided to run there. Ran the perimeter trails from Kings Factory lot which ended up being just over 7 miles, so I had to tack on a little roads. The trails were really good- except for the first mile which went over some big bumps that screwed up my form/momentum and a open sandy area which slowed things down. Would definitely return here. Pretty cold at first, then I warmed up.

Weekly Total: 43 Miles (longest week by 8 miles since late November)
YTD Total: 325 Miles

Weekly Highlight: This was a very mixed week overall, with plenty of highlight and lowlights. The biggest highlight was probably that I'm training normally as a distance runner again, something I have waited nearly half a year to do (from when I first got injured). This resulted in the first week over 40 miles since November and my first 7+ miles runs (last week too) probably also since November. It feels good to finally run again, and I don't think I'm in bad shape either. Thursday's and Sunday's run were also much better than the others.

Weekly Lowlight: I was generally really tired this week, both general fatigue/weakness and soreness/heaviness all over my body. I still managed to have mostly solid workouts, but felt crappy 4 of the 7 days I ran. I guess there's always a few days of the week that don't feel great, but Monday's was the definite lowlight. It's the only all-out effort I have now on record since my return to distance running and it was nothing short of terrible. Up until now, I had never lost anything under 800 meters to a teammate, but now I got beat in a longer event and ran a pathetic time while doing so. I feel like this was just a bad day rather than indicating what kind of shape I'm in, but it didn't feel good regardless.