Run from apartment in Dover. Planned on doing an OAB on the dover community trail (paved bike path) which I haven't run much of yet but got kinda of lost. Was able to get back on some other roads and ended up being a perfect 6 which I was looking for.
Tuesday: 12 Miles
Longer workout with a good group. Mostly easy stuff so felt good. Mile tempo on Garrity road in 5:20, 10xboulder field strides (180m), 5x bus stop hill, 2x(200/200/800) on 200 jog, 1200 jog between the 2 sets. Hit 33/34/2:25/36/36/2:19 buildup. Felt good and smooth for all of it, bus stop hills were a little quick. Difficulty: 2/5.
Wednesday: 10 Miles
Dino farm with Jamie, Aidan S and Andrew, then 2 mile loop solo to get 10.
Thursday: 9 Miles
Mile repeats on the track, 4:55 target w/400m jog, 4 total. Felt extremely flat from the start, aerobically not too hard but legs felt very heavy/tight towards the end of each rep. Paced in the first one in the faster group, felt bad. Hung on for the second one which didn't feel good either then dropped back in the second group, paced the 3rd one in 5:00 (their split supposed to be 5s slower), 4th in 5:00 sort of hanging on again. First 2 were 4:56/4:55 i think. Overall pretty hard, 4/5 difficulty.
Friday: 10 Miles
Easy jenkins with a bunch of people, add on with Aiden and Andrew. Shin pretty tight towards the end, these injuries always resurface when I do hard workouts when I'm tight, not surprising but disappointing.
Saturday: 10 Miles
Long Snell, got moving with a 5:4x mile 9 split and some 6s before. Realized that was way too fast and my fault (kind of just got going when I felt Trevor breathing down my neck), so backed off in the last mile. Still 6:35 average, pretty solid. Shin getting a little worse.
Sunday: 14 Miles
Went soft surface on rockingham rail trail because I was concerned about my shin. OAB with Andrew and Slants, was feeling really good and ready to close super hard at the end but decided to only go moderate the last 4 or so since my shin was hurting a little. Legs felt kind of crappy anyway. Low 6s the last 4 for 6:30 average, Andrew went with on the pickup. Felt very under control and not too hard.
Weekly Total: 72 Miles
YTD Total: 2,907 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Felt good in Tuesday workout.
Weekly Lowlight: Felt bad in Thursday workout and messed up shin a bit. Honestly thought I might have a stress fracture after Sunday's run.
Indoor workout with Matt because it was really windy out. Coach wasn't there so Matt made up the workout. 1500 in 4:40, followed by 8x400 in 70s on 2 min rest. I paced the 1500 pretty evenly, felt smooth but long on our 160m oval. 400s were uncomfortable for me, legs felt weird and had breathing/chest issues, not smooth at all. Went 4:40/70/69/68/69/68/68/68/69. Not a very smooth workout overall, was a little concerned how hard this felt but it all ended up being fine. Difficulty: 4/5. Hordy hill warm-up and cool down.
Wednesday: 10 Miles
Jenkins with a group, then 2 mile loop in college woods solo to get 10.
Thursday: 7 Miles
Easy 6.5 with Matt doing a short rose into faculty. Slants told me in the morning that all the Manchester city courses got changed, with the 5K being turned into an out and back on a paved bike path. I whined and cried about it like a baby and made the last minute decision to switch the team time trial, securing a 66% credit/refund towards other Millennium running events. Felt great on the run, but pretty flat on strides.
Friday: 7 Miles
5K time trial, had planned on targeting 73s per lap which would be 15:13ish for 5K. Coach said just two groups, 72s or 75s (basically 15:00 or 15:35ish). The 75s were a bit too slow for what I wanted but the 72s was a huge risk and I could potentially blow up big time, so the 75 group was the safe and easy decision. Kinda of twisted my ankle and nearly fell on the warm up like an idiot, but no real damage done.
Dynamics and bathroom break before getting spikes on. I think I only did one stride but whatever. The best part of this "race" was the team dynamic, very low stress and cool to be the atmosphere just racing our team but everyone taking it seriously. Our outdoor track is great and being under the lights in low 60s was another plus (I thought it would be hot but without the sun, it wasn't). Coach actually called my name for the first group at 72s, fortunately he was fine with me running in the 75s group. 72s were Spenser pacing, Matt, Tyler, Dylan, Jamie and Aidan sullivan. Tyler and Matt were in-between guys like me but decided to go the riskier route of running a little too fast.
I assumed we had a pacer, but seconds before going off Nate said he was going to stick in the back even though most of us thought he was going to pace. Kenney was just kind of pushed to the front at the start and stayed there. It annoyed me that we couldn't get someone to pace as Kenney was racing but I figured I'd stay in a position to take over if he wasn't comfortable doing so. The first mile couldn't be much smoother, hit some 74s and 75s, felt extremely relaxed. I was in 4th or 5th for the first lap, then moved up to third as I didn't feel like I should be behind some of the guys ahead of me. I think I was behind Kenney, Trevor, possibly Earl as well through the mile, I felt Aiden move up with me behind. Was kind of impatient early on but realized that it felt easy and now wasn't the time to make absurd moves so I fell in and tried to relax. Kenney's lap after the mile was fairly slow and Mike yelled out a 3:10 2nd K split, which was definitely way too slow. I surged to second to get the pace back on track, planning to take over but Kenney picked it up a little so I stayed there. I tried to pass Kenney towards the end of the 6th lap, but he aggressively surged each time. This was frustrating as I was now surging and wasting energy mid-race just to try to help out with the pacing. I told Kenney I was just trying to help him out and he finally let me by. I ever so slightly picked up the pace every lap from there, trying to negative split the race and drop everyone in the group. Hit the 3K in 9:20 with Kenney and Aidan O'Hern right there, but was able to get some separation soon after. I actually felt quite good here and was able to continue picking it up. However, my legs felt quite terrible and were getting increasingly worse every lap. Some of the guys in the back of the first group were falling apart and I was able to chase some of them down. I finally felt the 5k pain with 600 to go, and while I held it together there was no magical 64s kick like I had in the 3K the prior week. I closed in maybe 70s this time and it hurt. Finished in 15:21, behind only Aidan Sullivan (15:00) and Jamie (15:17).
Pretty pleased with the performance and nice to pick up a PR. Huge difference in how I felt today and basically every other track 5K I've run. Today I felt strong through 4400m, at NBNI (15:35) and Dartmouth Quad Meet (15:28) I felt strong through maybe 3K, bad races at New Englands (15:44) and America East (15:33) 2019 I only felt good through 2K. I negative split today for the first time ever with 3:06/6:16/9:20/12:23/15:21 splits which is 3:06/3:10/3:04/3:03/2:58. While I still don't think negative splits are the perfect way to race, I'm starting to believe in it much more and have definitely realized some of my races I just went out way too fast. For example, I went out much slower in this race than any of the track 5Ks I've run, today I ran faster than any of those race because the final 2K was so much faster. See table below for comparison of splits:
Saturday: 10 Miles
Kingman trails, felt really lousy, no surprise there. Upper 60s on the run, felt uncomfortably warm.
Sunday: 16 Miles
Watched the Manchester City races then met Aiden at front park in Auburn to run roads around Massbessic lake. Felt okay for 10 miles or so, then not much energy after that. Got dropped. Poor sleep coming into this.
Weekly Total: 60 Miles
YTD Total: 2,835 Miles
Weekly Highlight: 5K PR
Weekly Lowlight: Feeling pretty bad in the workout and on the weekend runs.
Planned team 5K time trial pushed back a week due to snow and cold Friday, ended up changing it to a 3K with 5 guys instead Saturday morning. Fun exploring Portland Maine for the (?) first time Sunday.
Monday: 0
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Had an interview at York Hospital (ME) for a volunteer position, so I figured I'd just run from there after. Felt a little sluggish starting but a nice loop along the coast, felt good not great overall. Reminded me a lot of the Middletown RI coast.
Wednesday: 8 Miles
Jenkins with the freshman at practice + Andrew, added on a mile of trails with Trevor. Wanted to do 10 but it was raining out and my soles were slipping around in my shoes which was really annoying.
Thursday: 11 Miles
Workout with the whole team, longer one with mix of roads and indoor track. Raining again. 2.5ish mile tempo on Short Rose (1.5 mile warmup prior, tempo at 5:35), 6xCoe Hill, 5xBus Stop Hills, 3x800 indoors at 2:30 (equal rest?) with the last one a buildup. 800s were 2:30s for the first two then I went 2:17 on the buildup. Overall a very smooth feeling workout, was pleased with this. Heavy on the last 800 picking it but for the most part everything felt easy and controlled. Achilles (?) was tight which was a little worrying but something I thought about.
Friday: 7 Miles
Pre-meet short rose into faculty, turns out it wasn't my achilles that was tight but another tendon/muscle (posterior to fibula). Hurting a bit towards the end which was really worrying and I was doubting the intelligence of racing the next morning when being in pain during the run. Rolled it out and did a single stride which felt okay.
Saturday: 6 Miles
3k time trial, leg wasn't feeling terrible so I decided just to go for it. I figured I'm not in great 3K shape with the lack of faster workouts this year and thought running 3:00s for the 1Ks would be a good strategy and put me in position to break 9. Coach told us 30 minutes before that we'd be doing it as a buildup and running 73s through 2k then trying to close. We discussed it and decided we'd rather go 72s then try to close from there which would give a much better chance of sub 9. Andrew was coming back from injury and would serve as a pacer. It seemed really cold (32 degrees) at first but after warming up fairly comfortable and I made the last minute decision to not wear armsleeves (short sleeves, gloves).
Andrew was slow from the gun which was disappointing. What was also disappointing was that it wasn't set up as a proper time trial at all. There were a stack of hurdles in lane 1 and 2 after the first turn which was really annoying to deal with. I hopped into the back with Aiden behind me and everyone else ahead. It was a pretty good position just sitting in the back and I was able to get into a groove. The 1K was pretty slow in 3:05, mile in 4:55ish. Slants noticed the pace was the lagging and moved to the front to get it back on track.
The next lap was picked up a bit and the increase in pace was a little uncomfortable. The pack was split up a bit as I had to pass Trevor to stay with the top guys, which in order was Slants, Matt Adams, Kenney, me. Hit the 2K in 6:03. Pace felt a bit quick and uncomfortable, felt like I was hanging on. As we approached the end of the race, I realized 1) I had just hit 800 to go, and 2) I still had another gear. Approaching 500 left, I made a big move on the turn and passed into the lead with a massive surge. I could feel Matt go with me and was worried I had gone too early and would be unable to sustain this kick for a full lap. Neither ended up being a problem as I had a lot left and pulled away. Was hurting the last 200 but never slowed and ended timing my kick perfectly. Finished in 8:51, meaning a 2:49 last 1K. Basically all of that was in the last 600 which I apparently ran a 1:37 (sub 65 pace), which is probably one of the best kicks I've ever had.
Pleased with running well under 9 and being able to close like that. I definitely got lucky being able to just hang out in the back most of the race, but it's probably the best way to run a race, even if others are doing the work for you. Matt ran 8:56, Slants 8:58, Kenney 9:02, Aiden 9:08, Trevor 9:10ish. Very solid effort I can build some confidence off of.
Sunday: 12 Miles
Haven't been going too long on Sundays with important races these weeks, and decided to the same today as well as be cautious with my new leg issue. Aiden wanted to run in Portland, so we did that with Kenney and Matt. Really nice on gravel paths around back cove, paved paths through the city and along the ocean (nice views from the hill on top of the promenade). Got off the paths after that and ran on some okay roads to Yarmouth, over some bridges to Mackworth Island which was pretty cool. My legs didn't feel great picking up the pace going back and I allowed to Aiden and Kenney to gap us when they decided to close hard. Fun run in a really cool place, definitely a city well designed for running/recreation.
Weekly Total: 54 Miles
YTD Total: 2,775 Miles
Weekly Highlight: A pretty good 3k where I had a really good kick
Weekly Lowlight: These random aches and pains that bother me every few weeks
Race week. Oktoberfest 5K in Manchester on deck for Saturday.
Monday: 0 Miles
Tuesday: 10 Miles
Ran an easy Jenkins with some trails, Coach had me do 6x200m hard on 200m jog when I got back. All 30s-32s, felt pretty hard with my lack of speed right now.
Wednesday: 10 Miles
Easy trails at afternoon practice with 4 or 5 guys. Chain and back to some loops around Madbury soccer fields and I added on to get 10 on the track.
Thursday: 10 Miles
Same run as Tuesday except without the trails and with 10 200s instead of 6, a bit slower though. This time with Matt. Breathing felt hard during the 200s, so they weren't comfortable for me despite being run in 34-35s which isn't too aggressive at all.
Friday: 7 Miles
Pre-meet run with Matt and Trevor, who are both doing the race. Strides after which felt pretty smooth.
Saturday: 9 Miles
Oktoberfest 5K. Woke up at 5:40 or so to have my breakfast and get my race items ready before picking up Trevor and making the hour drive over to Backyard Brewery in Manchester. Unlike the upcoming 5K Time Trial, this wasn't a big race for me and I hadn't heard of it until Nico told the team about it. I was surprised I never saw the race despite several extensive searches to find races, but there was a reason for that. Millennium running basically created the event on October 13. I signed up without hesitation once I heard other teammates were doing it. If there's competitive races happening, I'm going to do them.
Looking at the course profile, there was about 200 feet of elevation gain, quite hilly for a 5K. I didn't really have a set goal coming in other than beating my teammate Kenney. I figured sub 16 would be a good time goal but wasn't sure how realistic it was given that I'm not a great hill runner.
Arrived at Backyard Brewery at 7:40, 6 minutes earlier than the suggested time sent out via email. Picked up my bib and was disappointed and even mildly upset that the nice drinking glasses were not being given to those under 21. I understand they can't give out post-race beer to those under the drinking age, but I would have liked to get a glass.
Waited around for a little bit, used the bathroom a few times and headed out for a warm-up with Matt on the first mile of the course. We discovered a few things: 1) the start is awful. It goes across a parking lot, over a cement sidewalk between parking spots with limited to running space due to streetlamps on the sidewalk. After the brief sidewalk portion, there are two very sharp turns to get off the sidewalk and then to get out of the parking lot. I was very frustrated with this as I believe the organizer to be runners themselves, so I'm not sure who thought this is acceptable. 2) After a fast slight downhill on the main road, there's a 120 foot hill just past the half mile mark that averaged around 5% grade. This would be a tough hill and I was doubting my ability to get out hard the first mile due to these two factors. We knew the last mile was nearly all downhill and would be very fast.
Got the final bathroom use out of the way, changed into race gear and got a few strides in. We went in the start corral and awaited the beginning. The interesting format for this race was a time-trial start with 10 second intervals between each runner. I figured it would be an advantage to be seeded behind people slightly slower than you as you would be able to run them down versus running scared trying to hold someone off. We had quite a few teammates racing, who would serve as the primary competition today.
The competitors:
-Jarrod Ottman. A unknown distance runner occupying the top seed. His college track times weren't anything too impressive but upon looking at his strava profile, he had some solid time trials lately (1:08 half). I figured he'd likely be ahead of me but wouldn't have a massive advantage.
-Nico Sevilla. 2nd seed. Our top distance runner by a lot, 8:13 3K probably his best PR. There were rumors going around he was out of shape and the training he was posting on strava was questionable. However, Nico is very consistent and one of the best racers I've ever seen. Always toughs it out and puts 100% out there. It was very likely he'd win.
-Scott Mindel. Massachusetts long distance runner with a low 2:20s marathon and solid half as well. I knew he didn't have the track speed some of us did but it likely wouldn't matter in a hilly road 5K. His strength should carry though and he'd likely be ahead of me.
-Matt Adams. Our best mid-distance runner with a 1:50 800 PR. Matt was a big question mark as he's never run faster than 16:20s before but absolutely has the talent and range to do well in longer distances. I thought I had a slight advantage on him and would attempt to run the 10s gap he'd have on me.
-Trevor DeMarco. Freshman on our team, distance runner with 8:50s PR but no sub-16 5K. Really unsure of his abilities as I hadn't seen him race but I expected to be ahead of him. With a 10s deficit from me, I was hoping not to hear him behind me at any point during the race.
-Aidan O'Hern. Sophomore on our team, inconsistent racer but some very solid PRs and has looked great in workouts recently. With a 20s start behind me, I'd be shocked if he caught me but not if he beat me overall. I consider my fitness level to be equal to him on this terrain.
-Kenney McElroy. Another sophomore on our team, barely beat him at the Newport Sunshine 5K three weeks. With a 30s start ahead of him, I wasn't expecting to catch me but was definitely hoping to beat him overall and figured I'd have a slight advantage.
The Race
Jarrod and Nico went off as expected, as Scott, Matt and I moved up. Three of our teammates were supposed to race today and occupied spaces ahead of Matt and I, but weren't able to come as one of their roommates had been in contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus. Due to this, there were 3 empty spaces. I thought people would wait until their name was shown on the board, but Scott and Matt went immediately in the next two spots, making it a bit frantic. One of the race organizers seemed to notice this and stopped me from going until my name showed up. I took my mask off (I noticed others started with the mask), walked up to the line and sprinted off at the beep. While this had given me time to relax as I thought the 10s gaps would be a little tight, it also completely removed my advantage of being able to chase as I started 50 seconds behind Matt (see below for video).
I was completely wrong about the start being hard to go fast on as I got out very well. The sidewalk and turns were awkward but it was so early on, it didn't slow me down much. I was sub-4:40 pace on the fast downhill road section, which of course, (the pace) plummeted upon hitting the hill. The hill was very tough but I had built up momentum from the downhill and fast start, and tried my best to power through it. I could feel my legs getting heavier from climbing the hill but it was early enough that cumulative fatigue didn't slow me down too much. I was able to cruise on the short downhill after and get back on pace before slowing again for the last part of this uphill. Hit the mile in 5:11 as the road flattened out which seemed slow.
I could see Matt ahead having passed Scott which was surprising to me. I wasn't sure whether or not Scott wasn't running well or if Matt had gone out extremely hard. The second mile was tough. The road wasn't particularly smooth (cracks) and it was tough to maintain pace solo. I was disappointed as my average pace continued to tick up, which happened at a greater rate as the road turned to dirt, which was completely unexpected and we climbed the second hill, about 70ft. My average pace ticked all the way to 5:19 after a slow 5:24 second mile. I thought my race was over but was thinking I could still run maybe a 5:15 average pace if I can pick it up on the downhill. Steep downhill to the main road was uncomfortable. I took a look back at the sharp turn and saw Trevor, thinking he was 15s or so behind me meaning I only had a 5 second gap.
The third mile was kind of crazy as it dropped 100ft. I was tired at this point in the race so I wouldn't say I pushed myself to my limits to finish, but I was able to get going at a fast pace, and a sustain hard, very uncomfortable effort that I was just looking forward to being done. I could see Matt ahead, having dropped Scott and I was slowly closing on Scott myself but didn't have the room to get him. I kept the pressure on the whole way, never running slower than 5:01 pace at any point in the mile. 4:48 for the final mile. I kind of forgot to kick as I was too focused on monitoring my average pace which was going down significantly more than expected. I saw my watch in the middle 15s in the final stretch and was surprised to have a shot at sub-16. I accelerated slightly but definitely not as much as I should have and finished 4th (ahead of Scott, behind the other three) in 15:55.
I look really smooth here and not weird at all.
I was pretty happy crossing the line, knowing I had broken 16 on this tough course and closed the last mile pretty well. Matt had an awesome race running 15:48 and Nico destroyed with a 15:07.
Kenney finished 5th behind me in 16:10, Trevor was 6th in 16:27 and Scott 7th in 16:28 (apparently recovering from injury but also had a bad day). Full results. Looking at the course profile, the 200ft gain, bad start and 25% on a dirt road, I estimate the course is about 20-25 seconds slower than a perfectly flat and fast road 5K. Looking at the GAP splits above, I clearly got out very well and ran the first hill strong with a 4:51 GAP for the first mile. I also ran the last mile strong with a 4:57 GAP, a good 5-10 seconds ahead of where my last mile has been in other races. I closed okay, 4:34 GAP is far from excellent but it's not terrible either. The weakest part was clearly my second mile, which makes sense. I was fatigued from the first climb, struggled on the second climb without having the speed/momentum going into it that I had in the first mile and slowed slightly on the dirt road. A 5:24 split is poor, a 5:14 GAP is certainly better but definitely mediocre considering my average GAP was 4:59 and my average pace 5:06. Looking back on how I distributed my effort, I was definitely pushing the most in the first mile then let up a little too much. I pushed the last mile mostly well but had I needed something faster or had I been racing someone, I think I could have found enough to drop another 5 seconds off. Overall, these are very minor errors as I think I ran very well overall. Every single race this year has been disappointingly mediocre where I either made too many mistakes during the race or simply wasn't at the fitness level I needed to be to run a great race. This race was a significantly better performance than any other in 2019 or 2020. Hopefully, it marks a return to form after a long, long struggle with overtraining and injury. I set a road 5K PR, the first PR I've set since January 2019 (easily the longest I've gone without PR'ing).
4 mile OAB cool down with Nico and the 2nd placer Jarrod.
Sunday: 12 Miles
Road loop around Bow Lake with Aiden and Kenney. Nice weather and very scenic route, but was very much feeling the race.
Weekly Total: 58 Miles
YTD Total: 2,721 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Having a race come together really well for the first time in a while.
Weekly Lowlight: Feeling off in Thursday's workout.
Movies Watched: The Trial of the Chicago 7, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
