Weekly Log: May 14 to 20

Pretty quiet week. My only "easy" meet of the season on Monday, the St. Germain Invitational with a week of training. Class was supposed to be Saturday but was moved to the 21st.

Monday: 5 Miles

St. Germain Invitational. Was considering the notion of hammering a (likely solo) 1500 for a sub-4 attempt but instantly gave up the goal once I was put in the 4x800. It was a pretty hot day and I wasn't feeling it on warm-ups.

4x800
Was so happy to be a second leg for once rather than have to face the state's best 800 as an anchor. The competition here was Hope, the indoor 4x800 state championship. Jon put us in 2nd on the leadoff with a 20m deficit. I stayed patient and opted to slowly work for the small gap, rather than hammer it out and get in back immediately. I closed it over the lap and was thinking about making a move at 500m, but the Hope runner had a good kick. I stayed right behind him until the last 50m where he made a strong push. Felt much better in this 4x800 than I did at Division, especially on lap 2. Split 2:01.7, tying my PR. The rest of my team did not do so well, and we finished 2nd in 8:31, 18 seconds slower than we ran a division.

1500
Was really happy to not have to run all-out here, using the race to pace my teammate John Walker for a 4:10. Tried to run 67s the whole time and did not feel good at all. Was really weird being the race for 2nd the entire time (Conor Murphy had a good lead on us) but not actually bring racing for it. We went 5 and 6, running 4:13 and 4:14, a PR for John. Weirdly, felt almost worse than running 4:05/4:06.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Went to springbrook for the first time in a while, but the heat combined with racing the previous day made me feel pretty awful. Just as I was about to stop/totally bonk on the second half, I ran into another group of guys and was joined by John and Tanner on the way back. It was good company and kept me from cutting it short and running really slow.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

Looped down to the tennis courts via Beach Street and came back on East Ave. Forgot my GPS watch so I had to use my phone which was such a pain to carry. Felt pretty heavy and tired, not a great run.

Thursday: 5 Miles

First track workout in a while. Had 5x400 at 65s with 90s recovery followed by 5x400 at 70s w/45s recovery. Screwed up the first one for each set then was spot on. The first set wore me out and I wasn't feeling great on the second. For the last one I was supposed to just keep pace with Tanner who had a hard 400. 61/65/64/65/64/66/70/69/69/61. Difficulty: 3/5.

Friday: 8 Miles

Picked a hilly route around Pawcatuck neighborhoods. Super tight.

Saturday: 5 Miles

A bit of a weird day. Class was cancelled fairly last minute and there was no practice either. My friend Sebastian was running a marathon on Martha's Vineyard and once I knew I had to the availability to go, I started to look into that. I planned everything out late the night before, but arranged to go over there to watch him, biking around at certain spots.

Planned to make the 7AM ferry at Woods Hole, MA to get to Martha's Vineyard at 7:45. This included a brutal 2-hour drive at 4:30 AM that sucked the life out of me. Made it to Falmouth at 6:30 but didn't realize there was no parking at the ferry and parking was 4-miles away. Had to bike the 4 miles and barely made it on time as I was literally the last passenger to board the ferry and I only made it by mere seconds. Biked around the island at the different spots to see Sebastian at the start, mile 3, mile 11 and mile 13. Sebastian finished in 3:36. Also saw Steve Brightman there who was 2nd. Got bored/tired and decided to go back, barely making that ferry as well. Got 29 miles in total biking, which was a record high for me and left my legs pretty beat. Stopped my Myles Standish State Forest on the way back to go for a trail run. Was so exhausted and only mustered up 5, completely bonking the last 2. I was okay with taking just 5 because of the cross-training I got in.

Sebastian and his weird running gear at the halfway point.

Sunday: 7 Miles

Weirdly had practice on Sunday instead. Went for a shakeout, trying to keep the pace easier and even cut off a mile. Felt a bit heavy but otherwise good. A little out and back to Stonington High School running on campus there.

Weekly Total: 46 Miles
YTD Total: 661 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Pretty quiet as I said, but it was nice tying my 800 PR at a unimportant meet and I had a solid workout on Thursday.

Weekly Lowlight: Nothing major, just didn't feel as good as I wanted on Tuesday and Wednesday. I felt worse on Saturday's run than I have in a long time.