Bottone Mile- Weekly Log: August 9 to 15

 Monday: 7 Miles

"Easy" duval run. Ran slow but felt pretty tight and struggled with the technical and hilly profile of the route. Poor choice for recovery.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Easy run around Ninigret. Decided to still do 8 here and 4 in the morning as Bottone isn't really a key race and mileage is probably more important right now than truly tapering.

Wednesday: 13 Miles

AM: 4 miles around 10AM. Seriously struggled in the heat and humidity, felt truly awful on this. Somewhat concerning the morning of the race.

PM: 9 Miles

2 mile warm-up. Didn't feel as bad as this morning, but not great. That being said, I rarely feel good on warm-ups. 

Bottone Mile race. This was a pretty low expectations events, given 1) the key races are in September and October for cross country and 2) I'm in not in good mile shape at all right now. Last year, I went out hard and struggled my way to a 4:38. I haven't done any kind of speed work or even mile pace stuff since early 2019, and my top end speed hasn't been there since then. I felt it last year and didn't expect to fare much better this year. I figured I'd shoot for sub-4:40 or at least faster than last year, but probably wouldn't be shocked if I could only manage 4:43. I had so little confidence in my ability to perform here that I briefly considering just doing it as workout, but after seeing Joe Dos Reis, Tim Champlin, and Chris Garvin signed up, I'd have some great competition and there was no reason to at least put myself in it.

Joe DosReis was a no show, but Jake Serra and Nick Cozzolino, the current top WHS runners were there and would be good competition, especially Jake. Pre-race strides felt rough and uncomfortable, not a great sign for a mile race. It didn't take long to get going. I'm pretty sure Jake and Tim false started, as within a second they already had a few meters on me. I think having a gun rather than "go" is just a natural way to kick off the race.

Jake absolutely flew off the line with Tim right on his shoulder. I initially caught up and covered the pace, but after 200 meters or so, it didn't feel sustainable at all and I let a small gap form. Nick Cozzolino was right on my shoulder and seemed to want to chase the leaders. I looked at my watch which showed sub-4 pace and almost thought to tell him that we were fine and they were too fast, but didn't really want to waste energy on talking in a shorter race. The first pair of turns go quickly but are pretty sharp. The next stretch on Crandall is really where the race is. I ever so slowly closed a 20meter ish gap over the stretch of Crandall. Looked at my watch .4 in which showed 4:40 pace there. Not surprising given how quick we went out. When I did close the gap, I realized Jake was slowing and I had more in the tank. Made a hard move around him just before the penultimate turn, which Tim instantly covered. Was questioning my move as I suddenly felt drained whereas before I was semi-comfortable. Definitely expected both to pass quickly and drop me. Tim did so just before turning onto Uzzi for the final stretch. I put what I had into the last bit, it wasn't much and it felt hard. Just too fast of pace, especially on roads, for me to have a big kick on. Tim ended up putting over 7 seconds on me to win in 4:25 high, good kick from him. I hung for second in 4:33, despite initially thinking it was 4:31ish, Jake was just behind in 4:35. 

After running 4:38 last year and doing zero speed development since then, I was pleased to run 4:33 today. I think I was probably in better mile shape at Bottone 2018 but there doesn't seem to be a huge difference. Definitely most lacking in the kick/sub-4:30 ability right now though. Would be nice to get that back for indoor 3Ks.  It'd be nice to do a road mile without any turns, I'd like to run the 5th Ave mile one year.

6 mile cooldown with Tim, Jake and Nick. Surprised people wanted to go this far but nice to have company. Didn't have my leg taped for this and it held up pretty well. Unfortunately this was the only untaped miles of the last two weeks, it's just too awkward to stop mid run and untape it. I don't do enough doubles either to just do one of the runs untaped. Unfortunately, I'm probably stuck with taping my leg for cross. It'd be nice if my achilles was this strong in a downseason where I could just run only untaped and slowly build the mileage up.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Yawgoog technical trails. Picked this out, but really regretted as I struggled on the wet technical stuff. Felt extremely tired on this and was really dragging. Also had this frustrating issue where my ankle brace was too tight around the side of my foot and somewhat reactivated my plantar fasciitis from January. Much more mild, but some concerning sharp pains when jumping off rocks. 

Friday: 10 Miles

Heat wave day, with Westerly in upper 80s and interior areas all the way to high 90s. Ran with Dad around Bluff and in Groton fun run. Despite a real feel over 90, I held up very well and never felt bad or overly hot. Think the evening heat is less brutal with more shade and less humidity considering I've struggled here running mid-day when the temperature was 10 degrees cooler. Fortunately only had a little bit of discomfort with yesterday's foot issue, but this summer's foot issue (pain posterior to the ball of foot after Mt. Washington road race) was bothering me towards the end.

Saturday: 10 Miles 

Beach WTAC group run. More people than I expected which was enjoyable. Felt sluggish going out in humidity, but much better on return. Really nice dip in the ocean at the end.

Sunday: 14 Miles

Road loop with some dirt road from Arcadia YMCA. Got weak and had leg fatigue really early on and realized around 10 miles that I was going to be miserable if doing a full 15. Cut to down to 13.7 which helped as I didn't have much the last few.

Weekly Total: 71 Miles

YTD Total: 1,417 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Pretty good race at Bottone and 3 straight weeks of 70+. Feel like fitness is decent and I'm in a good place heading into cross country.

Weekly Lowlight: Many runs this week where I felt very low on energy. Think my sleep schedule was really messed up from watching Olympic track early in the morning then late at night every day last week. Also, these small injuries in foot are pretty frustrating. Doesn't seem like anything serious, but it's nice not to have any pains/discomforts when running and that hasn't been the case lately. 

Weekly Log: August 2 to 8

Poor sleep and late starts this week due to waking up early most morning to watch olympic track action.

Monday: 6 Miles

Easy solo ninigret. Monday is my easy do whatever I want day with no mileage goal, so when I got warm in the open sections, decided just to finish up there.

Tuesday: 11 Miles

Grill course with Dad + Brady. Some bad overgrown sections that led to scraped up, itchy legs. Overall was tired on this, 10 mile trail singletrack can feel long sometimes. Not too hot but still felt warm at the end.

Wednesday: 10 Miles

Did my usual Mystic road loop, except came back on Hewitt instead of cove to cut off a mile. Felt smooth running 6:30s on river roads and kept progressing, but heavy legs at the end. Still 6:36 average so a solid run.

Thursday: 11 Miles

Big River loop in the rain w/Dad + Brady. Actually enjoyed the wet weather and splashing in puddles after so many hot days this summer (was actually cold before and after the run). Did some loops and stuff, ended up being out there for a while as it's tough to run fast on these twisty, hilly trails. Felt really good on this, didn't have the leg fatigue like I did for grills.

Friday: 8 Miles

Haley-Bluff fire road loop. Some hot open sections but felt decent regardless. 

Saturday: 10 Miles

Ran local at 4pm after waking up early to watch the last day of Olympics for track then napping to recover from that. Near 80 degrees but felt surprisingly good. Went out to watch hill, then returned on beach where I totally misread the tide charts and struggled on a sloped soft sand. Legs tired for the rest. Got stung by a yellowjacket in the front yard at the very end, itchy for days.

Sunday: 18 Miles

Planned a decent looking 16 mile loop on Arcadia dirt and paved roads. Plan was to start from Browning Mill pond, run singletrack for a mile to connect to summit road, then do my usual loop around Frosty Hollow/Plain road/N-S, and finish up on Blitzkrieg-Arcadia-KG ranch. Botched that route very shortly in as I missed the trail towards summit road, and accidentally went nearly all the way around the pond. Was confused, thought I got on a trail/dirt road parallel to summit heading the right direction but ended up going under I-95 and onto route 3. Decided just to keep going on rt 3 into 165 just to get back on track and not double back to the car and have to figure out another 10 miles. Route 3 was fine with a big shoulder, 165 pretty terrible for running with a very narrow shoulder. Ended up on those until 8-9 miles in the run but felt decent. Took a right onto Frosty Hollow, but came back on Brookie Trail. Bathroom stop at 12, felt quite tired and weak for the remainder. Mental battle on the return as I was running on empty. 

Weekly Total: 74 Miles

YTD Total: 1,346 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Good, consistent mileage. Any week over 70 is a step towards better aerobic fitness. Think this will help greatly going into cross county season with few hard efforts, I'm not burn out at all either.

Weekly Lowlight: Totally feeling the Arcadia long run, miserable last 6 miles.

Weekly Log: July 26 to August 1

Monday: 7 Miles

Burlingame North easy miles. Greatly prefer the Southern sections. Felt surprisingly good post-triathlon. Swarms of the mosquitoes on the dirt road loop.

Tuesday: 10 Miles

Early road run around the pond into a newbury loop.

Wednesday: 10 Miles

Attempted a 4 mile tempo in Ninigret, body didn't have it all as I was typing up badly running 5:30 and feeling super weak. Bailed out after 2 miles in roughly 5:25 pace on the criterion, jogged over to the bike path to attempt another 2 where I could only manage 1 just under 5:40. Warm-up and cool-down felt terrible as well.  Difficulty: 4/5

Thursday: 10 Miles

Usual OAB beach run, felt good on this.

Friday: 10 Miles

Did Arcadia dirt road loop from last week, fixing a wrong turn. I enjoy this loop greatly, it's similar surface to bluff fire roads but with pretty much no people versus the always crowded bluff. Plan on making this a regular route.

Saturday: 16 Miles

+ 0.5 swim

Long run with Dad in Newport. Fun being back here. Felt fantastic aerobically running easy pace which felt effortless but legs started to get tired at 9 miles. Makes sense as this was the first road long run of the year. Stopped at 12 miles to use bathroom and take tape off, then went moderate for last four in the low 6s.

Evening half mile swim in Burlingame, was pretty tired but at this point I was still planning on doing a tri.

Sunday: 10 Miles

Vin gormley plus burlingame trail.

Weekly Mileage: 74 Miles 

YTD Mileage:  1,272 Miles

Appleman Triathlon- Weekly Log: July 19 to 25

Changed it up this week and did my first triathlon in five years. A lot of fun and eventually, I'd like to put in serious training for each discipline and maybe do a half ironman. Actually planned this as a tune-up for Block Island and Niantic Bay triathlons but decided not to do those in the end.

Monday: 0 Run

.5 mi swim, 18 bike

First swim of the year. Felt surprisingly smooth, only trouble was arm fatigue. Did the usual buoy to buoy swim in Burlingame, and a few minutes than my last swim. Followed it up with a decent ride making a loop with Rt 1, klondike, wood river at 17.7mph which is one of my fastest rides.

Tuesday: 11 Miles

Late Carter run in the heat. Just uncomfortable conditions out there, so I did 8 instead of 10. Doubled backed in Avondale in the evening, randomly hammered the last half mile at 5:10 pace.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

Duval easy, around all the trails. Haven't been to this place in a while, seemed so technical.

Thursday: 12 Miles

+.5 mi swim, 9 bike

Up early for a full triathlon simulation to get some practice in before Appleman Sunday. 4 mile warm-up before doing the buoy to buoy swim, right into a hard hilly bike followed by a short run.

All in Burlingame as that's where I've been swimming. Swim was significantly rougher than Monday's, some small waves that really threw me off and a glare on the way back that made sighting really difficult. Was only marginally faster than Monday despite going much harder. Had a T1 set up on the beach with some towels and my shoes. Felt I got swim gear off and shoes on pretty quickly then ran up to the parking lot where I got on the bike. 

The bike was my best leg of this practice tri as I averaged 17.9 mph for a rather hilly route. It was tough and I was feeling the swim as my stomach was in knots. Kept pushing well and keeping a good effort on the downhill helped a lot.

Took no time to get running, but this was a rough leg. Very high effort to high even 6:00 pace off the bike, then after taking a wrong turn, getting a bad side cramp and my shoes being too loose, just bailed after 1.5. 

Met up Dad + Brady for a 6 mile cooldown.

Friday: 10 Miles

Ran a new loop on Arcadia Dirt Roads: (from midway parking): Frosty Hollow-Plain Road-N/S trail-Bald hill road-mt tom road rd-blitzkrieg-mt tom trail. About a 9 mile loop then had to add on the last bit. Despite being really hot on the drive over (ran midday) the temperature was high 70s here and the shade and breeze kept it from ever feeling too hot.

Saturday: 7 Miles

Just an easy run in Ninigret pre-triathlon.

Sunday: 8 Miles

+.5 swim, 10 bike

Appleman Triathlon: Littleton, MA. Drove up to Dover apartment the night before as the drive is much shorter from there and I could meet up with teammates who also were doing the race (Matt Adams, Kenney, Andrew). Picked up our packets the day before since it didn't add much to the drive, got to scope out the venues a little. 

Early 4:30AM wakeup as triathlons are usually pretty early. 8AM start with a little over an hour drive. I was bummed that it was raining there as I don't usually feel comfortable biking in those conditions. Kind of just a steady on/off rain, never pouring but more than a drizzle. Got the absolute perfect spot in transition that was the closest to the bike in/out and was on the direct path from the swim to bike and bike to run, no inconvenience or going out the way (if you were on the opposite end, you'd have to go out of the way to get back to your spots). 

Warmed up a mile with Kenney then another mile with Andrew before stripping down to my tri shorts and heading over to the start. I feel like we were kept at the start for a long time. There were no waves, but rather you'd seed yourself and 2 people would off every 5 seconds. Andrew and I figured we were decent swimmers and lined up around 20th to 30th from the front while Matt and Kenney stayed back. 

Swim venue (taken the day before)

All of a sudden the race had started and people were running into the water starting their swim. It took me another 4 minutes to get going. Felt I had gone out a bit hot, but settled into a good rhythm in the swim. The problem with the self-seeded start is that, while no chaos at the beginning, I'd come up on people that I was going faster than that would get in my way and vice versa as faster swimmers than me would pass me. Would probably prefer a wave start as the faster swimmers would get away from me and while there might be kicking and punching at the beginning, it's not something you have to deal with once the group spreads out. Instead multiple I'd start swimming into people or vice versa due to having intersecting paths. Sometimes I'd have to change my path so I wouldn't crash into them. Felt I did a good job swimming the shortest distances as I'd be so close to the buoy I'd almost brush against it while everyone else seemed to go very wide. After the first buoy, the swim cruised by and it didn't take long to get to the second, then the third, then spotting the beach for the end of the swim leg. Got out of the water and started running again.

Swim start format (photo stolen from a local newspaper article)

52nd on the swim in 12:54. I remember estimating I'd take about 15-16 minutes on a good swim based off my Burlingame swims so I was pleasantly surprised at this and definitely happy with this leg. A little surprised it only got me 52nd. Getting over to my transition spot was easy enough, but I struggled to get each clothing item on and nothing went quick and easy like on the practice day. Seemed to take twice as long to get on helmet, shirt and shoes than anticipated. I did pick up some quick tie laces the night before which helped. 19th for T1 in 1:55. 

The first road of the bike leg was annoying as I couldn't push due to being boxed in by two people, the guy in front having trouble getting his feet in his shoes. Once I got to the main road, I was able to go around and start pushing. The guy went by me once he had shoes in. I felt similar to the practice run in that my stomach was all messed up from the swim. I still was able to keep a strong effort going with the only slowdowns being from some tight turns and having to go slow in and out of transition. The course was a rolling loop with some good ups and downs but only one tough uphill. I got passed by a lot of people but also passed quite a few myself. The wet roads and rain didn't end up affecting anything as it wasn't really slick. I had anticipated passing Andrew here, but eventually realized I must have passed him on the swim. Enjoyed this course quite a bit, mostly quiet roads including a section by a nice lake. Absolutely no point where cars got to close to you or few points where there would even be cars, can't say the same about Block Island. Finished up the bike in 31:48, 18.8mph average, and 28th overall on the bike. Feel like my uphill effort is no different than easy/moderate rides or past triathlons, but I'm doing a better job pushing the downs. Fastest ride I've done (last few hard efforts plus Block 2016 were 17.9mph) so can't complain. 

T2 was pretty good, but assisted by having such a great transition spot. I accidentally put my bike the wrong way and slammed it into the transition bars, before flipping it around. Lost a few seconds, but still 1st for T2 in 23 seconds (this probably sounds impressive but note I don't have bike shoes and the distance from bike in to transition spots to run out was very little). 

I started hammering on the run instantly and surprisingly was hitting 5:10 pace just a quarter mile. Not than 5:10 pace is ever easy, but this just felt brutal. Was having the hardest time breathing (felt like I was hyperventilating) for the next half mile as I slowed on the hill. My body/breathing kind of clicked as I slowed as I felt much better at one point and got into a groove. 5:43 for mile one, about 70ft of uphill and downhill. There were water stops every half mile but I just got one around here. Got back in the low 5s on a slight downhill on the next road. Turned onto a trail 1.4 miles in. It was about as I expected for the next .4 miles, a wide mostly runnable trail. It was quite wet and muddy from the rain so I could only manage 6:30 here. What I didn't expect was the following section of trail was technical singletrack, a steep 100ft climb up a rocky/muddy trail. Over 10 minute pace and some of the people I was passing were walking. Turned onto the roads at the top. The final mile was super fast with a steep downhill back to the water then pancake flat to the finish. Sub-5 pace for this last bit, being able to push hard with the downhill and being almost done. Absolutely hammered into the finish, which was a challenge with a sand finish. 

1st on the run in 17:04, which was 3 miles. Andrew 2nd and Kenney 3rd on the run. Not a super fast pace but probably could be closer to 5:20/5:30 without the tough trail section. Placed 9th overall in 1:04:06. Glad I closed strong as 10th was only 3 seconds back, and 11th only 6 seconds. Full results here.

Pretty happy with all the legs and the overall result. Think T1 was a little rusty, but I did about as well as I could expect with the other legs. I'm a little surprised my swim placed me so poorly yet my bike was top 30, I thought I was a better swimmer than biker. Could be a swimmer-friendly triathlon. It's worth noting I was the slowest biker in the top 20 but only the third worst swimmer (despite being 52nd on the swim). Matt beat me on the bike, but I was just ahead of Kenney.

3 mile cooldown then headed home in the rain.

Weekly Total: 56 Miles

YTD Total: 1,198 Miles