Back to UNH, for the first "official" week of outdoor training. Probably in decent shape right now, just trying to tune up in the next three weeks to be ready to run fast times.
Monday: 8 Miles
The usual hill workout we sometimes do on Monday, 5xCoe and 5xBus Stop. The combination of me getting sick (cough, lots of mucus in chest) and everyone going unusually really fast today made for a tough time. After two coes, I got dropped early and hard on every single one (and was the only one to get dropped). Definitely not encouraging, but at the same time it's not like there was much I could do. Difficulty: 5/5.
Also I better get into the habit of logging these before I forget completely. Trying to do some light lifting (squats, arm stuff) and for the first time ever consistently, ab workouts. Hoping to do these 3x a week, only dropping off for races. I probably won't lift in the summer but can hopefully maintain/continue ab workouts so I'm not super flabby come fun run time.
Lift, abs.
Tuesday: 7 Miles
Jenkins 5 mile tempo, this time the pace was much more controlled as Tim paced and not Dean. Was feeling really crappy on the run, a lot of head pressure then went straight to the back and basically hung on the entire time. Glad to never get dropped, but pretty much was struggling/hurting after half a mile. 5:40 average, the slowest but by far the hardest tempo I've done yet. Difficulty: 5/5. Kinda annoying to do these low key workouts that should be pretty easy and have such a hard time with them. Note to readers: don't get sick.
Wednesday: 9 Miles
Bennett. Rumors of a hard track workout going on, so really glad that wasn't the case. Either way, on this "easy" run, I still felt pretty awful. Was thinking of dropping off, so when we went from 6:30s to 6:10s and Mike dropped back as well (also sick with the same thing), I dropped back with him. Felt a little better after that.
Lift, abs.
Thursday: 10 Miles
Getting into real workouts now. 2 mile warm-up followed by a gate-to-gate tempo (2 mile road). These are usually really tough as we go from 5:20ish to sub-5:10 but today's was a lot slower and moved from about 5:55 to 5:30. Felt super comfortable although my legs felt horrible and not controlled at all. Weirdly gapped everyone by like 50 meters even though I wasn't pushing it all. Came back for the track session. Workout was 2x(2K/1K) with 3-4 mins rest in between and 2K at 6:15, 1K at 3:04. This was pretty tough as it was a ton of laps indoors, I was still feeling pretty crappy from sickness and Dean paced the first two, which meant they were way too fast. 2K was brutal, hanging on for 12.5 laps. Not a super hard effort, but really tiring and jumped into the back afterwards for the remaining distances. 1K felt super fast, then a tough transition back to all those laps, fortunately it was a little slower. The last 1K was a buildup, I was hoping just to hit the 3:04 again and surprised myself by going under (although I still got absolutely destroyed by everyone else except Ryan). 6:08/2:59/6:12/2:57. Difficulty: 5/5. Another tough one.
Friday: 8 Miles
Pudding Hill. Started out with a huge group. Billy went to the front and ran his easy pace, which is 6:10 and sure as hell is not my easy pace. Strung the rest of us along (apparently the entire back half of the group dropped off immediately and ran 7:10s the whole way, but i missed that) for some difficult sub-6:20 miles. Broke off with a couple guys halfway in yet still ran pretty fast but definitely much more comfortable after that. 6:17 average.
Lift, abs
Saturday: 9 Miles
Short Snell into Gables, slower pace today but I felt really weak out there. Very windy out for a lot of it. Started to feel better in the last few miles.
Sunday: 9 Miles
Unexpected track workout, probably my first ever Sunday workout. We ended up going on the outdoor track for the first time since October (?) and it was really nice to finally get outside and not run so many laps/tight turns for a change. Really long workout this morning, kinda weird too.
Everything below is at 5 min pace (75s/400) and 2 min rest between reps, 5 mins between sets.
Set 1- 400/800/200/1000
Set 2- 1000/800/1200/1000
Set 3- 800/400/200/1000
Some wind and some spots with snow (very short) that was hard to avoid but mostly pretty good conditions. It felt fast and pretty hard at first, but I gradually eased into it and felt a lot better, although it never got easy. Main group was Tim, Davis, Nick and I. Ryan and Phil fell off the pace pretty early and never got back with us on the longer reps. I tailed in the back and tried to stay close.
Splits:
Set 1- 74/2:29/38/3:07
Set 2- 3:06/2:31/3:43/3:10
Set 3- 2:33/73/35/3:06
Definitely pleased with how this workout went. Felt tough, but doable. Always tired and working hard, but never dying or about to drop off. Probably felt a lot more like my normal self than in any other workout this week. Also feel like this will be good endurance work for the 5K/10K. Difficulty: 3/5.
Weekly Total: 62 Miles
YTD Total: 656 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Really rough week as I felt terrible on so many runs, but overall, a great week of training. Obviously would have liked to feel better and take some more easy days, but considering I got in a couple of quality track workouts plus some other stuff while never feeling too beat up (body-wise, I felt terrible energy-wise) this week should do a lot for my fitness and get me closer to being race ready. I would say the highlight besides just having a good training block would be Sunday's workout as I felt not great, but decent for the first hard effort probably in over a month and half.
Weekly Lowlight: Really struggled with some really easy/light workouts like the hills and tempos. These are workouts no one really gets dropped on, but I did as I just felt really terrible. Never fun to have such a hard time with things, but I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing as I was partially sick and I'm still training and working to get into great shape/feel great and am certainly not there just yet.
Hoping for another group of quality workouts next week, but am hoping to take it slightly easier. Feeling like crap or not, this week was still a bit much. It doesn't take much for me to get into shape, and I think I'll be ready to compete in two weeks from now. First 60 mile week in a while, just wish I could be more consistent with mileage.
Movies Watched: Our Idiot Brother, *Minority Report, *Lord of War, *Brawl in Cell Block 99, *The Edge of Seventeen, Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
*Rewatch
Also, I am working on a highpointing recap of 2018 now that I finished and published all my youtube videos on them. It's long and hard to remember all the details, so I really can't say whether it'll come within the next couple weeks or not until the summer (or later!). It's hard to find motivation to write so much on things that were so long ago and I find that I'll write huge sections at one time but then not revisit the post until weeks later.
Sunday, March 24, 2019
Sunday, March 17, 2019
Spring Break- Weekly Log: March 11 to 17
Week of spring break with the rest of the florida trip and some running at home.
Monday: 7 Miles
Morning run in Key West, tried to explore the area east of the hotel this time which was less exciting and scenic. Found a shaded path but still 80 degrees and I felt pretty awful on this run. Would have liked to do more just having a rough time even getting to 7. Several stops where I just wanted to call it a day. Funny how running on vacation is tougher than running back in New England.
Tuesday: 4 Miles
Finally went to Miami and crossed it off the bucket list. Not a city person but this has always appealed to me, and I really enjoyed running here. We got to a really late start and had to shorten this run significantly. Ran from Margaret pace park, a green area on the water downtown (near Biscayne Boulevard, route one) to an out and back on Venetian causeway. Great water views and views of the city, great run overall. Brought my phone on this one, hopefully the photos will make this log more interesting.
Plan was to double back later on trails but I randomly got really sick in the afternoon. Got back from a (hot) day in Miami beach with an upset stomach and as soon as I exited the car at the hotel, I threw up multiple times. Felt increasingly terrible after that (a lot more throwing up too), probably the worst pain I've ever been in before (for just 2-4 hours or so). Slept from 5pm-7am the next morning (while waking up every 15 minutes with aches and stomach pain). Terrible night, bummed I had to miss the run.
Wednesday: 3 Miles
Is 3 miles better than 0? Wanted to get in a run, we went to the trails we had missed the previous afternoon. I felt extremely weak and achy, and while I didn't have the horrible stomach pain of the previous day I felt really horrible. Slogged around, called it at 3. Everything hurt and ached.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Ninigret Park, disappointed about missing mileage and seeing cool venues but felt good, and ran a normal distance and pace, so that was good enough for me. Definitely a quick turnaround from feeling like I was about to die to normal running. Pretty usual route, trails were muddy. Kinda sluggish but overall solid. Got the last couple miles sub-6:30 even though the effort felt like 7:00. Can't remember the last time I went to Ninigret and had a run that was anything less than good, it is by far my favorite place to run.
Friday: 7 Miles
Burlingame, felt really sluggish and clumsy but fun to get back out the trails as I haven't been in a while. Scrambled for mileage in Kimball and Kettle Pond, fun trails but got kinda boring/repetitive after a while.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Another enjoyable local route, parked at Green Hill and we ran the Kerri Loop as well as the Trustom Pond trails which are always fun. Prepared for just an easy pace again, felt really good and ran effortless 6:30s. Legs felt terrible although it wasn't enough to keep me from feeling smooth. The trail broke things up really nicely and made getting to 10 go by a lot quicker. Last mile coming back on Mautunuck Schoolhouse seemed really long but I still felt good and picked it up for a 5:44 last mile. Enjoy fast finishes on easy runs, its too bad I can only do them during low effort/high mileage periods. Great weather, although pretty windy in spots.
Sunday: 12 Miles
Richmond road/trail mix, trails in Carolina which was nice because I hadn't run there in a while. Felt similar to yesterday- smooth but heavy. Ran much slower though and it was much colder. First two miles felt really cold into the wind then felt smooth for the rest of the run. Had to do awkward out and backs to get 12, hate coming up short.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 594 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Pretty solid week overall. Went by way too quickly, but I enjoyed most of the runs back in RI and obviously a highlight to get down to Florida (even if it was way too hot) and cross Miami and Key West off my bucket list. Tuesday's run was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Weekly Lowlight: Getting sick, feeling terrible and the lost mileage that comes with it. Not thrilled to take a combined 7 miles for two days, especially when I was looking forward to exploring new places. Wish my weekly mileage had been a little higher overall.
Going to introduce a new item to the weekly log: movies watched. Haven't been on top of my movie watching game in a long time, but I enjoy watching them as much as possible in my free time, so I figure it's something worth adding and should vary things up from the strict running only format.
Movies Watched: Mile 22, Bad Times at the El Royale, Hotel Artemis, The Old Man and the Gun, *Bridesmaids, *The 40-Year-Old Virgin, *Knocked Up
*Denotes a movie I've seen before
Following up from getting into Mount Washington Road Race, I also got into the Beach to Beacon 10K which is in Early August. This one didn't have the same lottery chance but rather a general registration that you needed to sign up for right at 7AM Thursday or miss signing up entirely. Waited patiently, pressed buttons when they popped up and eventually was confirmed to be in. Not the great joy I experienced upon received the Mount Washington email but excited for this one as well.
Monday: 7 Miles
Morning run in Key West, tried to explore the area east of the hotel this time which was less exciting and scenic. Found a shaded path but still 80 degrees and I felt pretty awful on this run. Would have liked to do more just having a rough time even getting to 7. Several stops where I just wanted to call it a day. Funny how running on vacation is tougher than running back in New England.
 |
| White Street, Key West |
Tuesday: 4 Miles
Finally went to Miami and crossed it off the bucket list. Not a city person but this has always appealed to me, and I really enjoyed running here. We got to a really late start and had to shorten this run significantly. Ran from Margaret pace park, a green area on the water downtown (near Biscayne Boulevard, route one) to an out and back on Venetian causeway. Great water views and views of the city, great run overall. Brought my phone on this one, hopefully the photos will make this log more interesting.
 |
| Start of run, Margaret Pace Park on left. |
 |
| Views on and along Venetian Causeway. |
Plan was to double back later on trails but I randomly got really sick in the afternoon. Got back from a (hot) day in Miami beach with an upset stomach and as soon as I exited the car at the hotel, I threw up multiple times. Felt increasingly terrible after that (a lot more throwing up too), probably the worst pain I've ever been in before (for just 2-4 hours or so). Slept from 5pm-7am the next morning (while waking up every 15 minutes with aches and stomach pain). Terrible night, bummed I had to miss the run.
Wednesday: 3 Miles
Is 3 miles better than 0? Wanted to get in a run, we went to the trails we had missed the previous afternoon. I felt extremely weak and achy, and while I didn't have the horrible stomach pain of the previous day I felt really horrible. Slogged around, called it at 3. Everything hurt and ached.
Thursday: 8 Miles
Ninigret Park, disappointed about missing mileage and seeing cool venues but felt good, and ran a normal distance and pace, so that was good enough for me. Definitely a quick turnaround from feeling like I was about to die to normal running. Pretty usual route, trails were muddy. Kinda sluggish but overall solid. Got the last couple miles sub-6:30 even though the effort felt like 7:00. Can't remember the last time I went to Ninigret and had a run that was anything less than good, it is by far my favorite place to run.
Friday: 7 Miles
Burlingame, felt really sluggish and clumsy but fun to get back out the trails as I haven't been in a while. Scrambled for mileage in Kimball and Kettle Pond, fun trails but got kinda boring/repetitive after a while.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Another enjoyable local route, parked at Green Hill and we ran the Kerri Loop as well as the Trustom Pond trails which are always fun. Prepared for just an easy pace again, felt really good and ran effortless 6:30s. Legs felt terrible although it wasn't enough to keep me from feeling smooth. The trail broke things up really nicely and made getting to 10 go by a lot quicker. Last mile coming back on Mautunuck Schoolhouse seemed really long but I still felt good and picked it up for a 5:44 last mile. Enjoy fast finishes on easy runs, its too bad I can only do them during low effort/high mileage periods. Great weather, although pretty windy in spots.
Sunday: 12 Miles
Richmond road/trail mix, trails in Carolina which was nice because I hadn't run there in a while. Felt similar to yesterday- smooth but heavy. Ran much slower though and it was much colder. First two miles felt really cold into the wind then felt smooth for the rest of the run. Had to do awkward out and backs to get 12, hate coming up short.
Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 594 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Pretty solid week overall. Went by way too quickly, but I enjoyed most of the runs back in RI and obviously a highlight to get down to Florida (even if it was way too hot) and cross Miami and Key West off my bucket list. Tuesday's run was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Weekly Lowlight: Getting sick, feeling terrible and the lost mileage that comes with it. Not thrilled to take a combined 7 miles for two days, especially when I was looking forward to exploring new places. Wish my weekly mileage had been a little higher overall.
Going to introduce a new item to the weekly log: movies watched. Haven't been on top of my movie watching game in a long time, but I enjoy watching them as much as possible in my free time, so I figure it's something worth adding and should vary things up from the strict running only format.
Movies Watched: Mile 22, Bad Times at the El Royale, Hotel Artemis, The Old Man and the Gun, *Bridesmaids, *The 40-Year-Old Virgin, *Knocked Up
*Denotes a movie I've seen before
Following up from getting into Mount Washington Road Race, I also got into the Beach to Beacon 10K which is in Early August. This one didn't have the same lottery chance but rather a general registration that you needed to sign up for right at 7AM Thursday or miss signing up entirely. Waited patiently, pressed buttons when they popped up and eventually was confirmed to be in. Not the great joy I experienced upon received the Mount Washington email but excited for this one as well.
Now having gotten into these two prestigious and exclusive races, I think my three hard efforts of the summer will be Mt. Washington, Blessing and Beach to Beacon. There's plenty of room for other races in there, specifically some early Mtn races I'll have the chance but most other stuff will be low-key or moderate efforts.
Sunday, March 10, 2019
Weekly Log: March 4 to 10
Another week of relatively easy training.
Monday: 8 Miles
Pudding Hill again. Normally hate running the same route again so soon (did this saturday) but due to the change in the group size (at least 5 guys on this) it wasn't bad. Also been running pretty slow/relaxed recently that running sub-6:30s at the end felt really fast.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Was planning on running easy until after spring break, but I guess other people had different ideas. Everyone else was doing a tempo, so I decided to just go with it. 4-mile tempo with a 2-mile warm-up. Went out very comfortably before slowly getting out of my comfort zone. Mile one was a 5:53, which is definitely slower than tempo pace. Dean (likes to push the pace) started getting a slight gap on the rest of us so I decided to go with him and immediately after catching up to him, he started really pushing the pace and dropped me after what felt like a really fast mile (it was, a 5:15). I was probably running way too hard effort wise at that point but didn't want to embarrassingly be caught by everyone else (after I had made a move around them) so I kept a hard but not all out effort. Dean opened up about a 12 second gap that mile as I ran a 5:21 (he was likely sub-5:10). We both kinda slogged it in, I ran about a 5:32 and the gap didn't seem to increase at all. 2 mile cooldown. Stupidly hard effort, but the pacing was obviously pretty bad (going 5:53/5:32/5:21/5:15 would have been much better) and I'm still a little rusty anyway (probably still in very good shape, just not ready to push it). Difficulty: 4/5.
Wednesday: 7 Miles
Short rose in faculty. Cold run, felt kinda weak but not too bad overall. Pace was 6:40 and felt really comfortable.
Thursday: 8 Miles
An exact repeat of yesterday's run except I tacked on another mile, felt really good today after a weak start. Last run in Durham, going to be nice to get out of here.
Friday: 7 Miles
Got off the train in Mystic and we went to the Y after for a run. Ate pretty horrible throughout the day (pretty much just ate snacks) and was expecting to feeling pretty terrible, so it was a pleasant surprise to feel very controlled and relaxed throughout.
Saturday: 7 Miles
The complete opposite of yesterday, felt tight and tired the entire time and was just glad to be done. Charlestown roads to the beach.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Was probably looking for a little more but no great window to squeeze in a run on this Florida. Lots of time in the car, finally got to Key West and ran from the hotel. Very hot at 82 degrees and plenty of open sunny spot. Despite getting 4ish hours of sleep the previous night and not eating a whole lot during the day, I felt pretty solid throughout the run and mostly avoided heat exhaustion. Started off with Dad and Brady but we split ways after 2. Hugged the coastline and ran on piers, state parks and beaches before moving back to roads for sidewalks and crosswalks. Got back to the hotel at 6.5, so had to find a little mileage where definitely was feeling the heat. Very enjoyable run, liked exploring this new place. Also ran decently fast, average of 6:23 which didn't feel too difficult other than the heat factor.
(Sorry, no photos. Saw a lot of cool places but no phone for pictures. Also navigated back without any phone.)
Weekly Total: 54 Miles
YTD Total: 542 Miles
Weekly Highlight: While brutally hot at times, definitely enjoyed doing something totally different and running in Key West. Awesome scenery and environment throughout.
Weekly Lowlight: Nothing huge this week, just kind of itching to get going on training. Felt like total crap on Saturday too. Also felt like both my eating and sleeping schedules got really messed up towards the end of the week.
Monday: 8 Miles
Pudding Hill again. Normally hate running the same route again so soon (did this saturday) but due to the change in the group size (at least 5 guys on this) it wasn't bad. Also been running pretty slow/relaxed recently that running sub-6:30s at the end felt really fast.
Tuesday: 8 Miles
Was planning on running easy until after spring break, but I guess other people had different ideas. Everyone else was doing a tempo, so I decided to just go with it. 4-mile tempo with a 2-mile warm-up. Went out very comfortably before slowly getting out of my comfort zone. Mile one was a 5:53, which is definitely slower than tempo pace. Dean (likes to push the pace) started getting a slight gap on the rest of us so I decided to go with him and immediately after catching up to him, he started really pushing the pace and dropped me after what felt like a really fast mile (it was, a 5:15). I was probably running way too hard effort wise at that point but didn't want to embarrassingly be caught by everyone else (after I had made a move around them) so I kept a hard but not all out effort. Dean opened up about a 12 second gap that mile as I ran a 5:21 (he was likely sub-5:10). We both kinda slogged it in, I ran about a 5:32 and the gap didn't seem to increase at all. 2 mile cooldown. Stupidly hard effort, but the pacing was obviously pretty bad (going 5:53/5:32/5:21/5:15 would have been much better) and I'm still a little rusty anyway (probably still in very good shape, just not ready to push it). Difficulty: 4/5.
Wednesday: 7 Miles
Short rose in faculty. Cold run, felt kinda weak but not too bad overall. Pace was 6:40 and felt really comfortable.
Thursday: 8 Miles
An exact repeat of yesterday's run except I tacked on another mile, felt really good today after a weak start. Last run in Durham, going to be nice to get out of here.
Friday: 7 Miles
Got off the train in Mystic and we went to the Y after for a run. Ate pretty horrible throughout the day (pretty much just ate snacks) and was expecting to feeling pretty terrible, so it was a pleasant surprise to feel very controlled and relaxed throughout.
Saturday: 7 Miles
The complete opposite of yesterday, felt tight and tired the entire time and was just glad to be done. Charlestown roads to the beach.
Sunday: 8 Miles
Was probably looking for a little more but no great window to squeeze in a run on this Florida. Lots of time in the car, finally got to Key West and ran from the hotel. Very hot at 82 degrees and plenty of open sunny spot. Despite getting 4ish hours of sleep the previous night and not eating a whole lot during the day, I felt pretty solid throughout the run and mostly avoided heat exhaustion. Started off with Dad and Brady but we split ways after 2. Hugged the coastline and ran on piers, state parks and beaches before moving back to roads for sidewalks and crosswalks. Got back to the hotel at 6.5, so had to find a little mileage where definitely was feeling the heat. Very enjoyable run, liked exploring this new place. Also ran decently fast, average of 6:23 which didn't feel too difficult other than the heat factor.
(Sorry, no photos. Saw a lot of cool places but no phone for pictures. Also navigated back without any phone.)
Weekly Total: 54 Miles
YTD Total: 542 Miles
Weekly Highlight: While brutally hot at times, definitely enjoyed doing something totally different and running in Key West. Awesome scenery and environment throughout.
Weekly Lowlight: Nothing huge this week, just kind of itching to get going on training. Felt like total crap on Saturday too. Also felt like both my eating and sleeping schedules got really messed up towards the end of the week.
Sunday, March 3, 2019
Weekly Log: February 25 to March 3
Restarting somewhat physically and mentally. Very easy week, a little time off before easy and low mileage. Trying to keep indoor and XC in the past and get ready for the 5-7 meets of the outdoor season.
Monday- Wednesday: 0 Miles. Intentional rest days. Feels so nice not to go to practice at 3 like usual.
Thursday: 6 Miles
Short rose into Gables with Tim, Dean and Nate. Probably my favorite route. Felt mostly solid but had very sore calves that got worse as I went on and some chest heaviness/pain.
Friday: 7 Miles
Jenkins with a group of guys, I think Ryan, Dean, Mike, Davis and Cody. Felt decent, legs were somewhat tight. Still some leftover soreness but none of the chest problems.
Saturday: 8 Miles
Andrew and I did Pudding Hill, very enjoyable loop at a nice and easy 7:05 pace. Felt heavy and wobbly at the start but eased in and felt relaxed for most of it. Suddenly had to poop 5 miles in, it was somewhat of a disaster.
Sunday: 9 Miles
Bennett with Andrew again. Pretty enjoyable, we ran pretty slow today as well and I felt really good, easily the best of any run this week. Got kinda weak the last mile but it didn't really ruin the run at all.
Weekly Total: 31 Miles
YTD Total: 488 Miles
Not real highlights or lowlights this week, but...
Weekly Highlight: Kinda nice to have a real down week, stress levels were pretty low.
Weekly Lowlight: Definitely still somewhat hard to stomach the failures of the indoor season. It's nice to take a break from racing when hard work has paid off and I have performances behind I'm happy with, but when hard work has led to absolutely no results, I only want to race more to redeem myself. In that regard, it's going to a brutal 5-week wait to race again. Just hoping the conditions can be right for each one and I'll be ready to go by then.
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