Getting back to training after realizing most of my track fitness evaporated with the two big down weeks and what remained doesn't carry over to longer/soft surface stuff at all. Workouts were rough this week but it's a work in progress.
Monday: 7 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Slow recovery in Burlingame with the first post-run dip/swim of the year. Feels great. Still sore from Pinelands.
Tuesday: 10 Miles- South Kingstown, RI
Goal is do one aerobic workout a week to stay in decent shape for end of summer road races and into the fall as well as one hill workout to get ready for the summer mountain races. Weekends will be used to get used to technical/mountain trail running again and/or to race.
Today was aerobic day so I figured it'd be good to start with something simple and go for 4 miles tempo at 5:45 pace. I figured that would be conservative and doable. Chose to run the Kerri loop for this. Unusually warm day near 80 degrees, but good heat acclimation. Tempo was not great- felt off from the start and really had to work for 5:40s which is disappointing since I've felt strong doing 5:30s for longer in the past. I also haven't done much for summer workouts in the past, so it certainly could be the weather. Went 5:45, 5:43 and then 5:53. Totally fell apart on the small incline and was over 6 for much of the last mile, decided to call it at 3 but close harder to get the last mile under 6. Felt really rough all around- certainly hoping it gets easier. 5:47 average for just 3 which should be my target pace for my first marathon so not exactly a confidence booster.
Difficulty: 4/5. Should be a 1/5 but struggled today. Felt really heavy and weak on the cooldown.
Wednesday: 9 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Burlingame VG lollipop with some roads in there. Felt good today for the most part. Much cooler than yesterday.
Thursday: 10 Miles- West Greenwich, RI
Hill day. Yawgoo is a decent hill but isn't long enough to simulate the longer climbs (500-1,000ft) that I'll be doing in the actual mountain races so we did Plain Meeting House road instead. Not as steep but 8% grade for .75 miles and 300ft makes for a longer continuous climb. It was a really humid day and a struggle from the start. I figured 6 would be good, but completely died on the end of the second one and felt like quitting there. I started conservative going forward and accordingly it felt better. Started around 7:30 average (about 5:30 gap) then mostly low 8s/low 6s GAP after. Ended up doing 5 but adding on a hard downhill at the end which was really fast at 4:14 pace and felt out of control. The whiteface downs are super steep so any kind of simulation is good. Difficulty: 5/5.
Friday: 8 Miles- Westerly, RI
Grills perimeter. Pretty slow at 9 minute pace but just felt terrible throughout.
Saturday: 12 Miles- Amherst, MA
First mountain run of the year. There was a route I had wanted to do in the Catskills and was liking the cool weather over there, but I felt the route was a bit tough especially given the last of proper trail/mountain work this year. I decided to use the Western half of the Holyoke Range as kind of a tune up to get my legs used to steep climbs and technical descents again without having the full 4,000 feet of gain and being out there all day. Last year this weekend, I ran 17 miles with over 4,000 feet of gain in the heat of the catskills and struggled a lot.
Woke up at 5AM, was hoping to be on the road around 5:30 but ended up leaving at 6. 2 hour drive got me there around 8AM. Filled up the pack, I brought a gel and energy waffle and was off. The route was 5-6 miles on the Metacomet-Monadnock trail traversing the Western portion of the range and return on less traveled side trails to make a loop. One nice thing about this route I had made was all the tough parts would be in the first half, meaning if I tired out later in the run, I would have to deal with fatigue over tough terrain.
The first climb is pretty tough around 20%. Walking hadn't really been under consideration while mapping it out, so I forced myself to run through it but tightened up terribly and felt so uncomfortable continuing to run. The first summit was a little crowded so I continued on through the second summit and just past the mile mark before taking a break. Caught my breath, stretched out my legs which were super tight and continued on. The following climbs and descents felt a lot better and before I knew it I was approaching the final summit of the range- mt holyoke. The seven sisters are certainly tough terrain but all the climbs are so short it's not too hard to get through. I took a good break at the Mt Holyoke summit house, soaked in the view and fueled up as best I could. I only filled my bladder 2/3 of the way given this is easier for a mountain route.
Descended off the ridge and turned onto the side trails, which were mostly empty compared to the popular M-M/NE trail. One observation I had was that there were very few pine trees up high on the near-1,000ft ridge, yet many down here at the base level. Would certainly expect more up high. The dark was pretty dark in the dense woods. The route was intuitive enough for a while but then I didn't notice the blaze went two different directions and went .75 miles the wrong way to a trailhead. I got tired the last 2-3 miles but the terrain was easy enough to get through without feeling too bad. Busy road climb at the end was a bit tiring. Final stats- 2 hours of running, 2600ft of elevation gain, 12.5 miles, 10:00 minute pace.
I had done a traverse of the full ridge in 2020 and my performance there seemed much better- multiple segment top 10s, feeling stronger generally and similar pace despite not having a big chunk of it on non-technical portions. But I had much more experience at that time with technical/mountain trails that year and at least slightly better aerobic fitness. Other than not being quite as trail fit as my 2020 self, everything else was a positive- I felt good for the most part, enjoyed being back out in the mountains, my ankle which was very unstable in 2021 felt strong and one thing I did better than 2020 was proper fueling: I finished with extra water and a gel whereas multiple runs in 2020 and 2021 I ran out completely which is a miserable feeling. Good first run- downhill ability seems okay right now and uphill has a ways to go but a lot of time to work on that.
Awesome park- Mass DCR does a great job with their state parks and this is always a fun place to go. It's a nice mountain training ground with steep climbs, technical terrain and nice view while not being a full day mountain commitment of a long, brutal route and 3+ hour drive. Mt. Tom and Mt. Toby are nearby and I'll likely want to explore them at some point. Places like these are great for early season (March/April) when snow is still covering any big mountain and a good introduction to technical/mountain running again as well.
Sunday: 8 Miles- Groton, CT
Haley-Bluff. Slept in and ran around noon but the weather felt comfortable in the shaded trails. I was going to do the usual fire roads loop but decided to run on the bluff middle and outer singletrack instead and it was much more enjoyable. Pretty sore from Saturday.
Weekly Total: 65 Miles
Just building fitness right now. Getting to used to running hard again and running technical trails in the mountains. Not expecting to be too fit at any point this month which is fine.
Bringing back weekly highlight/lowlight/movies watched!
Weekly Highlight: Return to mountain running with a healthy left ankle.
Weekly Lowlight: Struggling a lot with return to workouts.
Movies Watched: Top Gun: Maverick, *The Last Samurai, *Only the Brave, *The King, Ambulance
*Rewatch
All pretty good movies
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