2021 in Review

2021 is finally over, and with it comes the obligatory review blog post. I'll just come right out and say it: 2021 was not a good year for me. It wasn't all bad, but the combination of some really bad injuries, only racing one full season, and generally leaving unsatisfied made this a tough year. Interestingly while 2016, 2018, and 2020 weren't perfect, they had their fair share of highlights and I was injury-free for most of it. Yet, the odd years, 2017, 2019 and 2021 I struggled big-time with staying healthy and lacked good, consistent seasons. Hopefully this means I'll crush 2022. 

Goal Review

At the end of last year's write-up, I posted the following three goals. Did I meet them? (Really I should be posting goals season by season or even month by month as I don't know my expectations until later in the year and the reality of running means altering and changing your goals frequently).

Break 15 Minutes in the 5K. Again, this will be something on my list until it happens. I can really feel the potential for it now, I'm not far off and in the right race, can definitely do it. FAIL: Interestingly, only 1 of my 13 races was a 5K. I was injured/out of shape in the time to do it (Outdoor Track) and never got an opportunity.

Break 31 Minutes in the 10K. I've been wanting to make my debut in this distance for a while now, but due to injury in 2019 and COVID cancellation of outdoor in 2020, it's been delayed two years. I'm very much a rhythm runner who can do well running a pace I'm comfortable with for a longer period time, and I think I could do very well in this event. FAIL: I never ran a 10K on the track/roads.

Run in the 6 New England States + New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Maybe I should separate this two, but I failed to get Vermont this year and have to go back for it in 2021. Connecticut and Massachusetts are local enough that they should happen, and of course I'll run in NH. Plenty of routes to do in Maine as well. New York isn't far and there's some FKTs/trail I want to do in the Hudson Highlands. New Jersey and Pennsylvania aren't far either, but will be a little trickier. I haven't run in either state in a while, and have destinations of interest in both. PASS: Done.

1/3 on these goals, but that really doesn't mean anything to me. I didn't get the opportunity to race either of those. The year was more disappointing from a healthiness and race perspective rather than not running super fast on the track.

The End of a Streak

On May 28, 2016 I broke 9 minutes in the 3K for the first time (Warwick, RI). On March 10, 2017 I broke 16 minutes in the 5K for the first time (New York, NY). Every year since then, I broke 9 and 16 at least once. Until this year. While little things like this are ultimately meaningless, it was a small nice streak to have going. I thought about it for a while and thought my opportunities would come in the form of the December meets. I ultimately got hurt and while I'm running now going into January track, I wasn't healthy enough to race those. I had a five year streak of breaking 9 and a 4 year streak of breaking 16. I ran one 3k in terrible shape in 9:30 and one 5K in Cross in 16:10. Not quite.

Race Rankings

Over the course of the year, I raced 13 times across the New England States. This continues the trend over the last few years of racing sparingly. I also only raced 7 of the 12 months of the year. There wasn't really a single impressive race of the bunch. Like the last few years, I'll stick with a race ranking rather than a top 3/bottom 3. Unfortunately, unlike last year I didn't have those few races that I felt I did well. 

13. UNH Track Meet #2

Durham, NH- April 11th

I was really disappointed to lose what I felt was excellent fitness at the end of 2020. I sat out nearly all of January to a mysterious foot injury, then immediately transitioned into achilles pain that I unsuccessfully tried to come back from. I finally caught a break with the injury cycle thanks to PT in March, but rushing back into racing was a poor move as I faded horribly and ran a very slow 3K in 9:30. Based purely off time, this was an extremely poor race. My college 3Ks now go 8:56-8:51-8:56-8:52-8:51-9:30. There were basically no expectations or pressure on this, so it wasn't a disaster. But it's been a while since I've been that slow.

Grade: C-

12. America East Championships

Durham, NH- October 29th

This one was tough. After a mediocre regular season, I felt ready to send this one and finally do something decent in Cross Country. Instead I woke pretty sick, and had nothing out there. The end result wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good at all either and it didn't feel great from being no worse than the 4th guy prior than this to the 9th. 

Grade: C

11. Providence College Friar Invitational

Attleboro, MA- September 10th

While this was still a better performance than the past two, this was by far the most disappointing race of the year. I've mostly learn to accept and take in defeat, but this was the one race of the year where I felt like just leaving to sulk and cry after (I didn't). Every other poor or lacking performance I somewhat saw as possibility of a poor/mediocre performance. This one, I felt I had built up well in the summer, done well in workouts, and was ready to run very fast. Instead, I struggled from the start and crossed the line over 27 minutes when I was expecting to break 26. 

Grade: C+

10. Catamount 25K

Stowe, VT- June 26th

This is probably one of my weaker races of the year in terms of pure performance, but it doesn't quite hit bottom 3 as there was basically no pressure/expectations around it. I woke feeling pretty sick and performed about as expected as one does when they are sick. Added about 12 minutes from my Pinelands Performance when the course is probably only 6 or so minutes slower (???). This was a race where I crossed the line knowing I didn't run well very out there, but it's not something that will stick around and bother me either. 

Grade: B-

9. CCSU Mini Meet

New Britain, CT- October 22nd

This is a strange entry here as I had very low expectations leading up to this one. I had missed two weeks of workouts due to sickness and this was my first hard effort back. I ran about as well as I expected, terrible race tactics as well. Hard to evaluate such a low expectations effort- it was fine and that's about it.

Grade: B-

8. Coast to Coast Battle in Beantown

Boston, MA- September 24th

This was another XC race like Providence College where I came in with big expectations and didn't really deliver at all. I at least felt like I raced well tactically- got out fairly hard, moved up throughout and finished hard. While the result was underwhelming, I at least learned something and took into account what to work on going forward. 

Grade: B-

7. Mt. Washington Road Race

Gorham, NH- June 20th

The night before this race, I wrote down goal splits for every mile. I then proceeded to be a minute plus slower on every single one aside from the first and over 5 minutes slower on goal time. A weird experience being totally locked into one pace and having zero response to people passing me. The result wasn't anything to write home about and shows how much work I have to do to be successful in this kind of race.

Grade: B-

6. Ascutney Mountain Run

Windsor, VT- June 12th

I was excited to enter the world of uphill mountain road racing and assumed I would naturally crush it given all the hard mountain climbs I had done in 2020. Instead I struggled big time, getting passed throughout the race while passing no one myself. This was a weak showing, but I'll give slightly more points than Mt. Wash as it was my first uphill road race ever and overall I don't think I bombed either as I'm still a total rookie.

Grade: B-

I've now gotten past this mediocre group of performances. Most of these were weak performances where I wasn't competitive at all, but most were in types of races I'm not great at, wasn't properly trained for or had an off day. I'm glad I did them as it helps me gain more racing experience which is valuable, but I can't really look back and be proud of any of these.

I wish I could unveil a fantastic top 5 races to even out these "meh" ones, but that just wasn't the kind of the year I had. These top 5 I was all somewhat pleased with, but none of these were fantastic races or anything to celebrate, just solid running.

5. Appleman Triathlon

Littleton, MA- July 25th

After a 5 year hiatus from the sport of triathlon, I decided to jump back in this year and surprised myself with a solid performance that is certainly a step up from what I've done in the past. Except for a clumsy T1, I met or exceeded my expectations on every leg and am pleased with the results. Given I didn't put too much effort into training for this, I still have a great deal of improvement if/when I really want to train for all three sports. 

Rating: B

4. Shad Bloom 10K

New Shoreham, RI- May 8th

I wasn't in great shape coming into this, so it felt nice to take the win in one of the faster times that's been run on the course. That being said, I still struggled quite a bit out there and like Appleman, there's a lot of improvement in store when I have more training under my belt. 

Rating: B

3. Bottone Mile

Westerly, RI- August 11th

For my expectations and fitness going into this race, this was fantastic. I've lost much of my speed in the series of injury in 2019 and never recovered that/trained for shorter stuff. I was doubting my ability to even break 4:40 and got pulled to a 4:33, 5 seconds faster than 2020 and one of the few things I did better this year than last. From a long term standpoint, 4:33 is fine but far from exceptional. The "out of shape, good stepping stone to something greater" performances just can never match the satisfaction of the ones that go really well at peak fitness.

Rating: B+

2. New England XC Championships

Boston, MA- October 9th, 2021

This was the single good performance of my Fall XC season, and was a big step up from the slow stuff I had put out there in September. I was probably tactically less sound than Coast to Coast, but rallied really well the second half to finally PR. It's disappointing that this ended up being an anomaly rather than the start of a comeback, but I can't really fault or be upset with anything that happened here. 

Rating: B+

1. Pineland Farms 25K

New Gloucester, ME- May 29th, 2021

This performance was the surprise of the year. I was worried about lack of endurance over the longest distance I have ever raced. I was worried about a lack of fitness. I was worried about instability in my ankle and achilles doing a longer race. None of that really came to fruition as I took the lead immediately, then cruised high 5s/low 6s for the next 10 miles, feeling smoother I ever have in my life. I eventually wore out, but never slowed significantly and sprinted in for a 5 minute victory. While this result is ultimately meaningless and difficult to even interpret, it's the only one that I'm actually proud of, whereas everything else seemed like a stepping stone to something better. 

Rating: A-

Takeaways:

Instead of writing an overall recap, here are the takeaways of this year that essentially recap what happened in running for me. 

1. Just about every running aspect of 2020 was better than 2021. This was a difficult step down after doing well in 2020. While I didn't crush races or PRs in 2020, I generally felt fit, ready to race and healthy while also improving strength and mileage immensely. All that fitness was lost right away into 2021 with injuries that kept me out for 3 months, then annoyed me the remainder of the year. I was generally not healthy or fit enough to do longer runs. I felt my fitness was disappointingly lacking often and I could never ramp it up due to all the injuries I had.

2. I failed miserably at mountain/trail running. The one benefit of the pandemic cancelling races as I got to explore technical trails, FKTs, and mountain running frequently in 2020. I did a lot of fun mountain and trail running throughout the year and naturally expected to that to continue in 2021. It simply didn't. I never got in good mountain/trail shape. I injured my ankle terribly which has generally caused me to avoid trails. 

3. My Ankle is in Horrible Condition. This is one of the biggest running-related issue of the year for me as it's almost completely kept me off trails. In 2019, I had a bad sprain that kept me out for while but recovered okay with no rerolls. This year, I had an uncomfortable roll in May which wasn't painful but lead to a lot of instability in the joint and me re-rolling it several times throughout the year which never allowed my ankle to full heal or run trails without extreme caution. It's been sad as I've pretty much given up real trail running at this point with no clue when or if I can expect to return. Running technical trails through the mountains is probably my favorite activity and this injury keeps me away from that. The ankle brace is a solution, but the heaviness and tightness isn't really worth for me.

4. My Achilles is my Greatest Enemy. My achilles completely blew out in 2019 and I couldn't walk without a boot for two weeks. I've been dealing with the issue ever since then as reoccurrence comes back every few months or so. Usually, I'm lucky enough that loosening my calves and massaging the achilles can keep a serious injury at bad when soreness comes on. I caught a bad break in March/April 2020 when I had to take 5 days off and generally keep it on the easy/low mileage side of things for a month, but came back okay and strong in the fall. What was much worse was when recovering from a foot injury in January/February, my achilles became quite sore. For the next 6 weeks, I proceeded to try and run through it with constant painful days and growth of large bumps on my Achilles. I eventually got out of the cycle of pain and reinjury due using athletic tape to support the achilles, but ended up relying on that tape just to run until late October. This is a tough chronic injury to deal with, and I'm sure I'm far from done with it.

5. Returning from Injury/Time Off is a very scary phase. I used to think doing hard workouts/high mileage was the riskiest part of training, but I now find the first few weeks/days back from time off is quite difficult to get through healthy. The body is so vulnerable in this state, being weak as it's not used to running. Once my muscles and joint strengthen and adjust to all the pounding, I feel good to proceed forward. But starting up, it's so easy to get really tight and either reinjure whatever was hurt in the first place or something new. The achilles injury this year happened only through easy running, but after a month of not doing much. I then hurt my knee after a break post-XC season also running easy.

6. I was never really healthy. I ran 39 miles in January due to terrible foot pain, then struggled the next two months and barely ran at all due to achilles pain. I got back into running in April, but continued to have achilles pain/discomfort for the next two months. In the summer, my ankle felt terrible on trails and I had some foot pain return. During Cross Country, I had very painful aches in my legs that really bothered me on warm-ups/beginnings of runs. I've had a bad/weak knee in this last phase that caused me to reset. I probably did 5-10% of my runs without pain/discomfort and it just takes all the fun out of running.

7. I got very sick. Minor one in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to injury, but I got a terrible cold on the day of conference and felt wiped out for several days. When I did return to running, my breathing was way off and I struggled quite a bit. Minor point, but usually a cold is a minor setback/feeling bad on a few runs and this one hit me hard.

8. I'm not very good at Cross Country. I can do decently in track and roads, but am just so slow on the grass and dirt surfaces of XC. Tactics aren't there and I'm never really competitive. I was hoping to redeem myself with a great last XC season, but didn't come close. More on this point here.

9. I'm also not very good at uphill Road Racing. After feeling strong on trail uphill and technical downs, I was surprised to struggle so much on the auto roads of Mt. Ascutney and Mt. Washington. Like XC, it's definitely something I can work on and get much better.

10. I rushed myself into Outdoor, and it wasn't worth it all. I really wanted to race outdoor, so I had Coach B enter me in the 3K as soon I felt I could run all out without breaking. It led to one of my slowest 3Ks ever and a showing that is very poor on the D1 collegiate level. I'm a lot better than that and rushing into things without more training and strength is never worth it. I don't want to race in terrible shape again. Having no base or training behind you leads to not only disappointing results, but is a high injury risk. I don't believe in racing into shape unless it's absolutely necessary.

Onto the aspects of 2021 that went well...

11. I got the Southern Appalachian Highpoints Done. After not having anything materialize in 2020, I drove to the south, finished the Appalachian highpoints and got Ohio and Indiana as well. This makes my highpointing list feel more legit (at 20/50 now) and pushing out of my comfort in driving/planning/setup etc. is a great step forward to many future planned highpointing trips. No excuses this time, I went out and did it and am very satisfied with that aspect of the year.

12. I got around in New England. After not going to Vermont in 2019 and 2020, I made sure to go and get all New England states this year. I was happy with my exploration and got to return to my favorite place, Bar Harbor/Acadia. 

13. Decent year of Hiking. A disappointment of 2020 was that I only went on two hikes, opting to do mountain running instead. This year I got quite a bit more hikes done, in all the northern New England states and around the South as well which a nice diversion.

14. Exploring Big Cities. I never want to live in a huge city due to the congestion and noise, but I find the urban skyscraper environment to be fascinating with some cities having numerous attractions and great visual stimulation walking around the big buildings. This year I went to Boston multiple times, down to Philadelphia and finished out the year in New York City. Each city is different overall, but all are a lot of fun to walk around and see the big city life/attractions.

15. Setbacks are tough, but I move forward. It's no secret haven't run a major PR or done very well in running in the last 3-4 years. My body breaks down frequently and causes delays in what I'm pursuing. Breaking 15, doing well in longer road racing and having fun on mountain trails have been are on the top of my goal list for a long time and I intend to continue to try to pursue these goals. 

Stats

(Copying 2020 format/statistics)

Total Mileage: 2,370 Miles (Almost 1,000 miles less than 2020, but still my second highest ever)

-Side Note: I'm glad I hit 3,000 last year because years like this one show it's hard to do with injuries and down periods. I don't think I'll have a yearly mileage PR for a while.

Highest Week: 74 Miles (August 2-8)

Lowest Week: 0 (x4)

Longest Run: 18 Miles (August 8, 2021)

Highest Month: August, 289 Miles

Lowest Month: January, 39 Miles

Monthly Mileage Chart 2018-2021:

Monthly Mileage PRs for May, June, and August

Didn't have the consistency of 2020

# of Days Running: 284 (77%)

# of Days Active: 326 (89%)

# of Days Off (No Exercise): 39 (11%)

Elevation Gain: 142,000 ft (running) + 21,000 ft hiking

Most Elevation Gain in a Run: 5,561 ft (July 17, Acadia Traverse)

# of Mountain Runs: 6 (+14 hikes)

# of Mountains Summited: 33 (Solid but down from 51 last year)

Highest Mountain Summited: Mt. Mitchell, NC (6,684'), PR

# of New White Mountain 4000 footers: 2, bringing the total to 23 (Whiteface + Passaconaway)

# of New High Points: 8 (VA, NC, SC, GA, TN, KY, IN, OH)

Longest Running Streak: 27 Days (July 20-August 15)

Longest Non-Running Streak: 19 days (Foot injury in January)

Coldest Run: 15°F, feels like 0°F (January 29th- Newfields, NH)

Hottest Run: 91°F, feels like 104°F (June 28th- Plainsboro, NJ)

# of Races: 13

Road- 1

XC- 5

Trail- 3 (all double-track non technical)

Mountain- 2 (classifying road mountain races into mountain)

Indoor Track- 0 (first year without an indoor race since 2014)

Outdoor Track- 1

# of Countries Run In: 1 :(

For this year, I counted bike rides, and longer walks + hikes in the state/municipality count. I didn't count shorter walks or hikes (probably 4 or 5+ miles to count).

# of States With Strava Activities: 12

This is likely the most strava activities I've had in a year for: New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts although I had more activities in Rhode Island and Connecticut last year.

New Hampshire- 156 Activities (50%)

Rhode Island- 97 Activities (31%)

Connecticut- 14 Activities (4%)

Maine- 14 Activities (4%)

Massachusetts- 13 Activities (4%)

Vermont- 4 Activities (1%)

Virginia- 4 Activities (1%)

Pennsylvania- 3 Activities

North Carolina- 3 Activities

New York- 2 Activities

New Jersey- 1 Activity

South Carolina- 1 Activity

# of Municipalities With Strava Activities: 58

1. Durham, NH- 108 Activities

2. Charlestown, RI- 42 Activities

3. Westerly, RI- 26 Activities

4. Dover, NH- 18 Activities

5. Groton, CT- 10 Activities

6. Exeter, RI- 9 Activities

7. Richmond, RI- 5 Activities

7. Rye, NH- 5 Activities

9. South Kingstown, RI- 4 Activities 

9. Madbury, NH- 4 Activities

9. Newfields, NH- 4 Activities

9. York, ME- 4 Activities

9. Boston, MA- 4 Activities

Municipalities w/3 or Less Runs:

Rhode Island- Hopkinton, Middletown, New Shoreham, Newport, Warwick, West Greenwich

New Hampshire- Albany, Barrington, Claremont, Conway, Lee, Lincoln, Newington, Newmarket, Nottingham, Peterborough, Portsmouth, Wolfeboro

Maine- Bar Harbor, Camden, Cape Elizabeth, Kennebunk, Kittery, Mt. Desert, New Gloucester, Portland, Yarmouth

Massachusetts- Attleboro, Canton, Ipswich, Lincoln, Littleton, Manchester by the Sea, Newbury, Westminster

Connecticut- New Britain, Stonington

New York- Jewett, New York City

Vermont- Huntington, Stowe, Windsor

New Jersey- Plainsboro

Pennsylvania- Philadelphia, Union

New Places Ran (Listed in Chronological Order): Plum Island (MA), Kittery Roads (ME), Castle Neck (MA), Ponkapoag Pond (MA), West Side Trail (ME), Pineland Farms (ME), Windham-Blackhead Wilderness (NY), Mt. Ascutney State Park (VT), Trapp Family Lodge (VT), Delaware and Raritan Canal Trail (NJ), French Creek State Park (PA), Shenandoah National Park (VA), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (NC), Littleton Roads (MA), York Water District Trails (ME), Cranmore Mountain (NH), Wolfeboro Roads (NH), Highland Park (MA), Stonehouse Pond (NH)

Furthest Run from Home: Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NC

# of Segment CRs: 41 (Down from 115 last year)

# of FKTs Set: 3

# of FKTs Failed: 2

Movies Watched: 94

My Top 10 Movies of the Year:

Keep in mind I still have a handful to see and that I thought this was a weak year for movies overall (usually the 1st and 10th movie are much, much better).

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. F9

3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

4. Dune

5. No Time to Die

6. King Richard

7. Jungle Cruise

8. Judas and the Black Messiah

9. Army of the Dead

10. The Suicide Squad

Update 4/22/2022 After seeing more movies

1. Spider-Man: No Way Home

2. F9

3. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

4. Dune

5. Wrath of Man

6. The Last Duel

7. The White Tiger

8. Encanto

9. No Time to Die

10. King Richard

Video Games Completed: 6

Miles Biked: 869 Miles, PR (mostly stationary)

Longest Ride: 38 Miles

# of PRs: 1 (XC 8K) + a bunch of random new distances/obscure PRs (25K, MWRR, Ascutney, Road Mile)

2021 Heatmap:

Pictures

Here were my favorites I took over the year. Unfortunately I don't have anything for January or April. I am definitely pleased with the places I got to explore, both urban and natural environments. This will be the end of this post, I find the goals don't make much sense to set now as my goals/fitness/healthiness is constantly changing and goals makes the most sense to do season by season or in the moment. I may post a 2022 races/overall preview and expectations of the year in a separate post.

February: Plum Island (MA)

March: Portland Head Lighthouse (ME)

March: Castle Neck (MA)

May: Mohegan Bluffs Staircase (RI)

June: Black Dome Mountain (NY)

June: Camel's Hump (VT)

June: Shenandoah National Park (VA)

July: Wild Ponies of Grayson Highlands State Park (VA)

July: Mt. Mitchell, Highest Peak in Eastern U.S. (NC)

July: Jordan Pond view from N. Bubble (ME)

August: Mt. Passaconaway (NH)

September: Boston Public Garden (MA)

October: Odiorne Point State Park (NH)

November: Downtown Philadelphia View (PA)

December: Billionaire's Row from Central Park (NY)

Weekly Log: December 20 to 26

Monday: 5 Miles- Westerly, RI

Usual Christmas light run from Tom's house big group. Didn't make the time for my usual pre-run stretch and roll, and really felt that today. Just super tight and uncomfortable all around, was glad to be done. Do not enjoy running the dark at all and it'll be a tough adjustment if/when I have to do it when I get a real job.

Tuesday: 8 Miles- Westerly, RI

8 miles with Keith locally, good talk but was stupidly tight again. This time I did take the time to stretch and roll out. We went a bit quicker than I probably would have liked but that usually happens. 

Wednesday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Got my workout of the week (ideally would do two, but held off due to discomforts on Thursday). 8x2min on/2off on the Ninigret bike path. Criterion is a little quicker/smoother for fast running as there some tight turns on the bike path, but the Crit is also very exposed and it happened to be quite windy. I was hesitating to do this at all after feeling terrible in the morning one day post booster shot, but felt okay on the warmup. Was once again tight, loosened up a little stretching but just dealt with it and didn't feel too bad. I tend to struggle with solo workouts as I go out way too fast, make myself work really hard early on and then quit/modify the workout to make it easier. Goal today was to do 10ish reps with a break in the middle. I didn't want to force anything too hard as this is obviously considerably more difficult than last week's track workout so I just wanted to be 5:40 or quicker on the ons, 7:00 or quicker on the offs. This would mean no slower than 6:20 average pace for each block which is fine. I ended up going a bit quicker, especially on the offs. Took the break at four then repeated for 8. Tied up on the last one. Ended up averaging 5:22 for the ons (x8) and 6:18 for the offs (x6) which is solid. Didn't feel like I was super tough but didn't feel like I quit either. Difficulty: 4/5.

Thursday: 8 Miles- Warwick, RI

Goddard morning run. Bundled up as it felt frigid next to the bay, ended up feeling very sweaty/warm. Feel like I sometimes dress for the first mile rather than the full run then up getting too warm. This was an unfortunate run all around as my knee hurt for the first time since injury. I ran through it for a while then decided it didn't feel right. Turns out stretching my IT bands really helped as it only felt mildly uncomfortably after. I then stepped on frozen mud and my ankle completely gave out which was sudden and excruciating. Similar reaction as an ankle sprain in June where it was really hard to function/think as the shock and pain of this hit me really hard. Like most sprains this year, after stopping and moving it around it wasn't too painful but very unstable and I slowed up to reduce risk of retwisting. We finished up at 5.

I ended up tacking on another 3 at the airport waiting for Mark. Knee didn't feel as bad as earlier but decent amount of discomfort. Pretty boring but glad to finish out the 8 and not have to seek extra mileage somewhere. Certainly not a long-term injury despite extremely high pain. 

Injury Recaps/Thoughts (written Thursday Night):

The knee discomfort is definitely ramping up. The post-stretching and airport run discomfort was an acceptable amount, the beginning of the run was too much. I can feel the increases in mileage and the new workouts definitely straining it. During the 30 and 40 mile weeks with no workouts, my knee felt awesome. It doesn't feel terrible or reinjured now, but it's a little disappointing that it's getting consistently worse and worse. I know some discomfort is expected while trying new things but I'm concerned about having that pain occur more often and become more intense as that could lead to me shutting things down and not having an indoor season. I also stopped doing my knee strengthening exercises for a little bit due to the trainers closing during finals and not having the proper materials to do them myself and generally having a strong knee/feeling good. I've ordered my own bands to replicate at home and have started them up again, but not sure if this is a factor or not. 

As for the ankle sprain, this is really starting to crush me mentally and emotionally. I can't step foot on any moderately technical trail without risking I resprain my ankle. The alternative is to wear an ankle brace which I find really uncomfortable and the tightness on that can strain other parts. If it came down to doing a mountain run or race I really wanted to race in, I'd do it, but mostly likely it's a safer call for me to stay off trails. This was the 7th or 8th major sprain of the year. I felt my ankle was getting there and probably around 90% strength, but each subsequent re-roll is not only very painful but sets back the healing process quite a bit. The surface I run on doesn't really matter. I've managed to keep it healthy going over rocky parts of the trail. The last two sprains were on a leaf covered trail and the frozen mud, two places I couldn't really plan out my steps. It's not about the technicality of the trail, it's about knowing I have a secure step in front of me. I've pretty much stayed off singletrack, even gotten through several technical singletrack runs fine, but still can roll it badly and push my healthy ankle back more and more. I could probably even sprain it terribly on the side of the road if I'm not on guard. 

My theory was that when my ankle does get to 100% healthiness which I test by inverting my ankle and pushing it against the ground. My healthy right ankle feels very strong and there's no discomfort. Within the first few weeks of a new ankle sprain like this, I feel not only weakness but quite a bit of pain. Before this new ankle sprain, I felt some weakness and slight discomfort but no pain. It's easy to feel the signs of the progression in ankle strength which also leads to a much smaller chance of rerolling it. I rolled it for the first time in late May, and I'm hoping that each subsequent re-roll since then was because I never got my ankle back to 100%. If I can avoid future rolls, I think this would take 2-4 months to fully heal. I'd like to see how my ankle responds if I can get to 100% and then get back into running technical trails easy without having my guard up the whole time. I haven't run hard on singletrack since the initial roll in May and I'd certainly like to get back there. It's just getting to 100% is hard as even if I avoid singletrack, there's so many obstacles out there that one wrong step can cause bad sprains like that. The other concern is that I get back to 100% ankle health and I still reroll it. My thoughts against this happening are that when I first sprained my ankle in August 2019, I slowly got back into trail running that winter and never had an issue with sprained ankles again until this May despite running technical trails frequently. This 2019 sprain was also a much worse ankle sprain than any this year as I didn't run again for 6 weeks. The thoughts towards it potentially respraining at 100% health are that I never resprained it again after August 2019, perhaps the resprains are the issue not the initial sprain. A few other problems are that I didn't step foot on a trail for 4 months after the initial sprain (I 100% allowed it to heal from that initial sprain) and I devoted a lot of time to strengthening my ankle immediately post-sprain to get back running while I don't spend much time on it now as I can still run. 

The bright side is my next planned trail race isn't for 10 months or so, so there isn't a rush to fix my ankle immediately or get trail fit, but this is an injury of great concern and sadness for me. Having both knee pain for the first time in a while and this constant cycle of pain and disappointment with my weak ankle makes me really frustrated with the lack of resilience in my body. All the injuries combined with the lack of results over the last 3 years make it very easy to quit running for a while. Right now, there's probably 10 times as many reasons to quit running as reasons to continue but just trying to stay positive and move forward. I didn't achieve much in 2020 either, but I didn't have injury struggles nearly every day and I could at least turn to the trails when I was feeling down. 

Friday: 8 Miles- Exeter, RI

Wanted soft surfaces so went to do the usual Arcadia dirt road loop- from midway: N/S trail-Frosty Hollow-plain rd-N/S + optional Mt. Tom rd/Mt. Tom trail for add-on. Intended on doing the last bit but got really lost and couldn't find my usual connector over to Mt. Tom road. Okay run, the roads were hard and slick from people driving over the snow so my traction or actual movement wasn't great. Some knee discomfort in second half, which might just be something I have to get used to.

Saturday: 8 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Usual easy shuffle around Ninigret grass + gravel and through the wildlife refuge. Knee felt a little better but isn't perfect. Had some very mild achilles discomfort. Seems to always be rainy Christmas day here.

Sunday: 8 Miles- Newport, RI

Cliff Walk/Newport roads loop. Felt pretty good for six miles or so, then my entire body seemed to start falling apart, especially at the end. Always fun to run here though. 

Weekly Total: 56 Miles

Glad to move up the mileage up slowly, but frustrated to only get in one workout due to knee discomfort. Maybe just shooting to get something hard at least once a week while maintaining/slightly increasing mileage. It's not the optimal route to get fit, but my body will only allow so much.

Weekly Log: December 13 to 19

First 50 mile and actual training week. Overall the knee recovery is going well, but noted increases in discomfort with the increasing mileage and intensity.

Monday: 0 Miles

Figured I could use some extra studying time and only planned a 6 day week anyway.

Tuesday: 7 Miles- Durham, NH

2 miles Warm-up, 4x800 w/2:50 target on around 1 minute jog rest. Was surprised Hopp gave me a workout as I wasn't planning on doing one until at least later the week, but figured my body felt strong enough to start a little earlier. I didn't do a great job pacing but that's not surprising given the slow target splits and lack of indoor workouts in a very long time (February 2020). They ended up feeling very smooth on the indoor track, but I started to feel the effort towards the end and my breathing was never great. Got a long way to go from this, but happy with the start. Difficulty: 2/5. Didn't feel like doing a 4 mile cooldown, so was content with 7.

Wednesday: 8 Miles- Durham, NH

Last run in Durham for the year. Got 4ish hours of sleep studying for finals, yet still felt pretty good after a mile or so. Solo run as practice is optional and people are running at weird hours. Stayed mostly on the trails.

Thursday: 10 Miles- Lincoln, MA

Slept in very late (11:30) to recover from the lack of sleep the previous night, then drove over to Minuteman for a nice crushed gravel OAB. Really enjoy the runs here and doing the full trail OAB is right around 10 miles. I felt so weak in the first few miles but the route doubled back to the car where I took the opportunity to have a quick snack. Felt pretty good after that.

Friday: 8 Miles- Charlestown, RI

On Burlingame campground roads, great place to workout as they're closed and empty in the winter. Intended on doing 5x3mins on/2off with 5:30/6:30 pace target but was struggling quite a bit and tying up horribly on the second one. Took a quick break, then switched to 4x2on/2off with slightly slower pace goals of 5:40/7:00. Felt much better on this second set and under control, although not easy. Ended up closer to the 5:30/6:30 anyway. Good first workout on roads, which will be the case until I go back to Durham. Probably going to stick with easy fartlek workouts for now. Difficulty: 4/5. Like usual, my knee feels pretty good for most of the run, then I'll have some discomfort towards the end and post run.

Saturday: 10 Miles- Groton, CT

Usual 10 mile Bluff-Haley fire roads. Decent amount of knee discomfort on this, but expected after a workout. Felt fine, not stellar.

Sunday: 8 Miles- Charlestown, RI

Charlestown beach roads w/Tom and Dad. First half uncomfortably fast then second half sweating like crazy as I really overdressed. Knee felt better though.

Weekly Total: 51 Miles

Last Month

This post will cover the last month as I don't really feel like writing up the last few four weeks.

It's been a tough end of cross country season into November as the following events have happened surrounding my running:

1. I woke up sick the day of Conference

2. I ran poorly at Conference

3. I felt extremely sick the day after and took 5 days off (more as a planned break although this would have been a tough sickness to run through)

4. I really struggled to get back into a rhythm and feel good after returning to running 

5. I had sudden knee pain out of nowhere that I was unable to run through and ended up taking another 5 days off

I thought the advantage and bright side of the first two points was that I had time to take off, then build back into and be strong for the indoor December meets. Now, due to the last three, I'm mostly likely going to sit those out and be behind the other distance guys in fitness for a while. 

Starting from the beginning:

I was excited for conference and absolutely felt ready. I regarded CCSU as more of a workout kind of performance as I wasn't quite race-sharp. My September wasn't great but really just getting used to cross country racing again. New Englands was solid and showed some promise, but I knew I had a lot more in me. After getting sick and feeling incredibly flat, things came around this week. My legs/knee issue bothered me less. I felt smooth and ready to send it. I visualized myself getting out well, moving up throughout and hammering the last 1K. 

Fast forward to race day and woke up with a very, achy tight throat that was somewhat difficult to breathe out of. It was 3am or so, went back to bed for the final part of sleep. Woke up with a much more mild sore throat but some mucus and feeling a little sick. I was concerned and definitely upset, but didn't know for sure if it would affect me and all I could do was go out and there and race. It wasn't until the warm-up where I began to have concern. I felt truly terrible. Absolutely nothing in the tank. I'm used to some sluggishness and weakness but this was just at at concerning level. I wasn't really expecting to run well at this point.

The race went about as I expected- I got out very poorly. A big part of this was due to starting in the back row and just getting swallowed up very quickly. It wouldn't have mattered if I had the ability to run 3:30 pace for the first quarter mile that day, there was simply no room to move up. UNH definitely isn't a great place for the start of a conference championship with a narrow bottleneck for a big number of participants. I saw Kenney, Jeff and Brayden ahead. Eventually there became room to move and potentially go with them, but this would use a big surge and it seemed better to move up when there was more room. I ended up getting just behind Kevin and ran with him through the mile or so. Tactically, I thought I'd pass him and start moving up once it opened up, but instead I sank back and had difficulty keeping pace with those around. The rest of the race was just sad as I struggled to breathe, and had very little in the tank. I still beat some people and died less than other people around me, but it wasn't much of an effort as I got 9th of 10 on our team when I think I could have been 4th on a good day (realistic) and 2nd or 3rd on an awesome one (not realistic). 

The combination of me finishing 9th and getting immediately very sick afterwards pushed me off the regionals roster. I would have liked to run regionals in shape, but that wouldn't have been a good meet for me so I'm okay with missing another go at Franklin Park. 

In the end, I never broke 26 in the 8K in college. I finish up as one of the slowest guys on the team (I think only 3 have a slower PR) and not having scored at a conference championship. It's disappointing for sure. I definitely underestimated the effect of doing more maintenance mileage style training (respectable mileage/base building, but few serious/focused workouts) going into cross. After getting injured for 3 months, I think I needed more development in both intense racing situations and hard running on grass/dirt. I also think Cross Country is just as tough sport. For people who don't naturally excel at it, the more experience, the better. Continue putting yourself in races and slow improvement will happen. I saw it in the races where I wasn't sick. I just needed more time and having the cross country season sophomore year to develop tactics and strength absolutely would have helped coming in. Given my early season results, this was never going to be a season where I crushed it. I think I still could have had a solid season and realistically run around 25:50 on the fast course at conference. I'll never know though since I did get pretty sick. 

Ultimately, I'd give this season a 4/10. 2 poor performances, 1 mediocre one, 1 solid one and 1 weird rustbuster kind of race that meant nothing to me don't amount to much. Conference was really the target and this could have been a 7/10 season had I crushed the key race. I'm simultaneously disappointed not to reach or come even close to my goals while also accepting that this was just reality. I wasn't that fit. I'm not very good on grass. I got some unlucky setbacks. There wasn't much I'd do differently and felt the race outcomes weren't really determined by me failing out there but getting sick at the wrong time and my fitness on grass not being developed enough to run very fast. 

I'm not done with cross country. This was a sport I definitely enjoyed for much of high school. I felt I was good my sophomore year and ran consistently all season. I felt I got great junior year but really fell apart in the championships. Senior year started my decline at the sport as I ran mediocre for the regular season before running horribly at States and New Englands. I didn't get it back Freshman year, I was too injured to race Sophmore and Junior year and then I put together a mediocre and unsatisfying season this year. It wasn't the worst, but there wasn't anything impressive about it. Cross country has become a very weak point for me and I'm not really happy about it at all. On the track and roads, I can usually run about what shape I feel like I'm in, just been lacking some breakout performances in the last few years. In cross country when I run reasonably well and do things right, I get dropped hard, struggle and run unbelievably slow. I think I was fit enough to run around 26:00 on the roads early in the season, but can't even break 27 on cross country. It's gotten to the point where it's just ridiculous how bad I am at cross country and I can't really explain the results (or lack thereof) that I've had over the years. 

The positive side of my season is I had never once had to miss a competition or workout due to injury. This was my first season since Indoor 2018-2019 (2.5 years), and it was a full season. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great one but getting through a season in one piece definitely makes it easier to be healthy and successful in the next. I have to take this positive with a grain of salt because during most of the training, I had small pains that were never enough to take time off, but often were painful enough that they took all the fun out of running and I'd have no confidence I'd be able to get through weeks without injury. This is especially frustrating given how relatively easy and low mileage the training was. I wanted to do more and go harder at every stage but never once voiced that since I was really struggling to be healthy even at the current workload. 

The plan was to break 26 and be done with XC for life. It's become a sore point struggling so much in cross country and just breaking that small barrier would feel nice and I could be done with this sport that's been so tough for me. Instead, I didn't do it. I'm not okay with just quitting after running a 26:33. It's not a time I consider to be good, it's certainly not a time that was competitive anywhere on the collegiate level (even at new englands, the least competitive meet of the season I still finished around 80th) and it isn't something I can be proud of. I'm planning on putting together an XC season of open meets in Fall '22. I'd like to break 26 at franklin park and hopefully run faster on some quicker courses. 

That's a wrap on cross country for now. I'm finished collegiately. It's disappointing but there will be more to come. 

College XC results/comparison (4 of my 6 8Ks have been at Franklin Park)

I was a little sad for maybe a day or two about then shifted my mindset to indoor/outdoor. Yes, I really wanted to have a great XC season, but track is much more important to me and far easier to get confident about. First, I had to deal with getting quite sick. Lots of mucus, congestion and coughing and took quite a while for this to improve. It finally came around and breathing/heart rate was brutal at first. Running was really difficult as I just felt super flat and in terrible shape. I almost started to come around a little then woke up with knee pain out of nowhere. Given that 1) I took 5 days off, 2) I had averaged around 6 miles/day (not much), 3) I hadn't done anything hard or even moderate (fastest run in this week was 6:58, and 4) I took the time to stretch and roll out for 10 minutes before every run, this seemed like a random pain rather than an overuse injury. But the knee hurt on the run. Took the next day off, and the next run felt mostly fine. The pain came back quickly on the next few and it was time to shut it down for a little bit. 

I'm frustrated with this injury, given that I don't think I did anything risky or challenging at all. Overuse means did too much, but this was a very low-risk period where I was careful not to get too tight and I still got hurt. I don't really get this one and am frustrated with the lack of resilience in my body.

I ended up taking 5 days off under coaches orders, only light cross training (one day of biking, several long walking days). It seems to have worked as I had light discomfort on the first run back today but nothing concerning at all. I'd expect to have moderate discomfort almost to the point of pain at first but not enough to stop running, so this is certainly much better than that. The training room has been much more helpful/focused this time around so hopefully the additional treatment/exercises there has helped and can get back to full strength. I'll expect to run 20-30 miles this week if the knee feels pretty good and slowly work my way up. This week will be tough but crucial to get through. Every subsequent week will be easier and less worry about reinjury, so around this time next month I will back to respectable mileage and some workout if this goes well. Unfortunately, I'll likely miss the December meets but if I don't have more setbacks I can be still be very fit and ready for sub-15 in february. I'm somewhat bummed to likely miss the Maine meet but this is really because I want to run at as many venues at possible and not because it's a missed opportunity. Racing the December meets doesn't really impact success later in the season given the 5 week break from racing after them. 

That's where I am right now and hopefully can continue moving forward. I'll probably continue the weekly logs once I get back to 50 mile weeks. Hopefully racing in early to mid january. 

On one final note, I have once again destroyed my ankle in another sprain. It's pretty disappointing as after the initial frequent spraining of early summer, I had no significant/painful sprains after early July. This gave a lot of time for ankle to heal and feel a lot strong but it wasn't quite 100% and just landing in the wrong spot without being back to normal made for a big setback in the ankle healing. Fortunately, I don't need to run trails for indoor and outdoor track but would certainly like to get back to trail racing/mountain running/FKTs at some point.