(Horrible) 8K Debut- Coast to Coast Battle in Beantown

One of the changes for blogging I've made this year is to try to write separate race reports for my collegiate races rather than incorporating write-ups into my weekly log (less racing, easier to do write ups). I told myself I wouldn't for my 8K debut because of how bad my race went, but I'm deciding to anyways. Normally, I don't do much of a recap for really bad races because I'm so disappointed/upset that any reminder of a race is somewhat painful to think about and writing about it brings me right back into that anger and frustration. However, this race was a little different. There were multiple reasons I ran terrible that were more acceptable excuses than usual and certain conditions of the race that make this not such a loss after all. Those reasons are...

1. Injury Recovery- Technically, I didn't race injured as I had zero pain during the race, but the fact that I didn't know for certain that I was racing until race day does lower expectations a bit. This was my first hard effort since hurting my foot and taking four days off while missing two workouts had certainly tampered with how I had felt over the last few days. I also wasn't 100% certain that my foot wouldn't suddenly flare up in pain mid-race, so it's definitely a good thing that didn't happen.

2. Trashed Legs- This is somewhat a result of #1, but as I stated in my weekly log, my legs had felt terrible leading up to the race and I was seriously worried this would affect me race day. And it sure did. I felt totally flat the whole time, my legs were 100% stiff and unresponsive. This combined with complete lack of strength gave me no mental drive to push past people. I've felt like this before, although rarely, and this is pretty much exactly how I feel when I run the worst races of a season.

3. Racing Flats- Another result of #1, but as a condition of letting me race, my Coach said no spikes. I'm guessing this is due to the lack of support and tightness it has to them; it's better not to risk worsening my injury than get optimal race conditions. I did however, get permission to race in flats, of which I only had road versions. I had no traction in the woods sections of the course (made up for at least 2 miles) and that definitely further contributed to my lack of response/overall slowness.

4. Insane Competition- I know I'm whining a little now as most of you are likely thinking "Competition makes a race much faster". I know it does and having great competition usually fuels awesome times. However, there is such a thing as too much competition. Sometimes in huge races I get overwhelmed with the amount of fast people and drop back. With just over 200 guys in the race, I was immediately in a congested crowd for the entire first mile with one of the worst starts I've ever run in. Everyone was pushing each other and my natural response was wanting to drop back to get some room, even though the intelligent thing to do is push forwards for more room. The second part of this besides being overwhelming is the sheer discouragement. In a field of 209, I only beat 6 people. It's extremely discouraging to see the majority of the field well ahead of you with very few behind. I've only finished in the bottom 20% in one other race (Loucks Games 3200, 26th of 29) and I finished in the bottom 3% this time around. This was something I was not prepared for, but played with me mentally in a bad way.

5. Lack of Pressure/Importance- This is not a reason for me doing poorly, but the reason for why I'm not that upset about it. Even though in terms of execution and overall pace/place vs.expectations this is one of the worst races I've ever run, it was virtually meaningless. I've felt similarly and run terrible at some very important HS meets but as a newbie to the college scene coming off an injury, it just isn't that big of a deal to bomb this race. After some initial massive disappointment, a lot of guys reminded of this, which is why unlike other bad races in the past, I have little problem brushing this to the side.

I know this is an odd recap, but with a big failure unlike most other races, but one that I'm okay talking about, it seemed more important to reflect on what went wrong and why it went wrong that just complaining and groaning. I will be back to normal chronological recaps in the future, however. Here's a quick recap though:

Brief Recap: Arrived at Franklin park around 1:30, giving plenty of time to relax. I was amazed at he quality of the runners around me and it was very cool to see some of the best teams and runners in the country. I had hydrated very well, but was worried about eating. Normally, I pack or eat a huge meal from home, but I didn't have much food up here. I ate a healthy but not super filling breakfast of oatmeal and half a bagel. I didn't have time for lunch after class and was hoping the provided lunch would do fine. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it merely consisted of a bag of chips, a cookie and a turkey wrap. The wrap was great but barely filled me, whereas I wouldn't touch the other two unhealthy foods prior to my race. I had two cliff bars, but this was not an ideal pre-race meal (probably another reason for my failure) and was worried about this. After the warm-up and dynamics, I put on my flats opting not to tie them in the same manner as before for more optimal flow, comfort and responsiveness. Of course, this lacked the benefits of the other tying method and could potentially mess up my foot. After some strides, my foot was hurting a little and I wasn't confident in the race at all. I felt good though, at least at that point.

As I stated before, the start was truly horrendous. So many quality runners converging as once instantly pushed me to the back of the pack. I nearly fell on a slight incline because I wasn't expecting it as I saw nothing but a sea of runners ahead. I ran in this horrible congestion for about a mile. I wasn't tired but my legs felt like total trash and had zero interest in picking up. The pace felt so fast. I hit the mile in 5:06, about what I wanted but knowing since that had felt really fast, I wasn't going to maintain. For our team, I was towards the back but ahead of the slower group. Everything went to shit in the second mile as I lost all my drive to stay in the race, my energy levels faded to zero, my legs filled up with cement and despite being way in the back, the remaining sea of runners passed me until I was in nearly last (unknown to me at the time) including all my teammates. I hit the two mile just under 10:40, knowing it was all over. The rest of the race was a blurred state of fatigue. I ran around the course with zero of my regular race tactics, completely out of the race. It was like I was running an easy tempo in the back but the unfortunate truth was that this was my all-out race effort. I literally had nothing after 2 miles. Passed through 5k in an atrocious 17:06. I slowly gained on Phil and eventually passed him. This felt like 9 minute pace yet I was so dead I couldn't do anything about it. My other teammate, Dylan wasn't far off in the distance but I certainly wasn't gaining on him. I knew I was running terrible and was surprised people were still cheering for me. I half expected some of them to completely disown any association with me and for coach to kick me off the team. I ran so slow up bear cage hill. It wasn't long at all or that difficult, but since I had nothing, it was like a mountain. People effortlessly gained on me and blew by me. I finally rounded the final turn. Ever since I passed Phil, I was expecting him to go by me again at any point, but it never happened. My finish was absolutely pathetic and I was barely even glad to be done since I had done so bad. I was honestly expecting the clock to show high 28s based on my second mile but was surprised to see 27. For some reason, I thought I had run 27:10 yet had actually run 27:31. Probably because I was completely unfocused at that point.

27:31 is horrible, especially considering my 15:44 5K and 55:30 10 Mile. But after some encouragement and some further thought, I realized it wasn't the end of the world. It's certainly embarrassing but when I bring all the reasons above together, I don't feel so bad about it. I didn't get kicked off the team and my foot seems to be near full recovery. I have another opportunity next Saturday and will certainly be looking to actually run fast. Until the next race...

Recovery, 8K Debut, and Return to RI- Weekly Log: September 17 to 23

This week was very interesting as it varied greatly. Fortunately, I started to run again after 4 days off for recovery. Easy at first, then a race on Friday in Boston at Franklin Park before getting in a few runs in RI (for the first time in a month) for a pretty short return.

Monday: 1 Mile

Continuing with the trend of solely doing the warm-up. My foot weirdly felt worse than yesterday for running, but better for walking. It wasn't clear if I was supposed to bike again, but after coach mysteriously disappeared, I decided not to give myself the boredom and discomfort of getting on the bike. Plus my butt was pretty sore from doing that the last few days.

Tuesday: 6 Miles

First run in 5 days! Foot felt mostly pretty great walking around and coach gave me the okay to go for a run. I didn't do the workout as it was my first day back but went with another group (Nick and Ryan) who are also somewhat injured, but in worse overall condition than I am. Run wasn't the greatest- I had to bang out a 6:14 first mile to catch them which felt super fast and tiring. Legs were so heavy, so most of the run was pretty uncomfortable. Foot felt okay- not good nor bad but definitely uncomfortable at times which was a little worrying. Never hurt though, which I felt was a sign I can continue running. Strides after, felt decent but slow.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

After my warm-up, the girl's coach tied my shoelaces in a different pattern so there weren't laces going over the sore/injured area of my foot. This seemed weird to me and certainly gives the shoe an overall odd tightness in different places, but helped my injury out a ton. I was feeling some discomfort on the warm-up, but it was pretty much gone after the shoe change.

Another easy day with guys recovering from yesterday's workout. Started out slow. I felt good and wanted to pick it up so when one of the guys (Mike) started to, I went with him. No idea what Mike was doing nor why he was doing it (he also was recovering from the workout), but we hit a 6:01 mile followed by a 5:35 which was completely unexpected. My legs got really heavy again and uncomfortable but I saw the run through at that pace. We did this diagonal strides on the field later with 5 mins continuous running, striding the length of the field diagonally, recovering on the width of the field. Got tired towards the end.  Felt like I had made a mistake as my foot was bothering me significantly more than usual later than night.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Was really worried I had messed things up and would wake up with a burning pain and have to start taking time off again, so was thrilled that my foot felt more or less the same as the last few days. Warm-up was fine then we went for our shakeout run. My right calf was so tight it was borderline painful and it didn't help that this group thought 6:28 pace was a good pre-race run. I wanted to slow but didn't want to leave the group and I remained there. Of course, I later learned a bunch of guys in our group dropped off and took it easy for the rest of the run but since I was in the front, I didn't see them. More diagonal strides, taking my shoes off relieved the unbearable calf pressure somewhat but my quads were insanely heavy. My legs were feeling so trash, I was seriously considering asking Coach not to race me tomorrow. Of course, there was the chance that I wake up in the morning feeling great and ready to go, so I kept it to myself. Got rolled out after by Athletic trainers where the pressure they put on my calves definitely hurt a lot but also felt relieving/good. My calves were feeling less tight after but more beat up. Was definitely worried about racing the next day.

Friday: 10 Miles

Battle in Beantown, ran absolutely horrible. I told myself I wouldn't write a separate post for this, but I will. Likely shorter than usual, however.

Saturday: 8 Miles

Back in RI! Went up to Goddard park to watch various people race in the Ocean State XC Invitational, a meet I raced in all 4 years of my high school career. Dad and Tom ran in the open race at 8am, my former Westerly teammates ran at 10 and 11, whereas some really top athletes were in the championships races at 12 and 12:30, including Katelyn Tuohy running the fastest HS XC 5K of all time in 16:06.87, beating all but one boy. Did a mile or so before stopping to watch the open race, ran the rest of it with Tom, Shara and Dad with Dad running the rest of the it with me, Tom and Shara only running a mile or so. Nice and easy, felt like quality recovery. Ran pretty much all the trails, all wide, soft double-track. Foot started to bother me towards the end and walking throughout the day, likely because I raced on it.

Sunday: 8 Miles

WTAC group run in Woody Hill, a mix of Bradford preserve and other trails. Pretty fun- I felt surprisingly good despite being sleep-deprived throughout the weekend (I'm still pretty tired/weak when writing this) and fueless until the last two miles. Dad, Chris and Tom. Foot felt 100% so that was good. Had to leave for UNH pretty much immediately after getting back.

Weekly Total: 49 Miles
YTD Total: 1,560 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Really nice to get back into regular training and (mostly) beat this stupid minor foot problem. 49 miles isn't a ton but so much better than 0 or last weeks' 34.

Weekly Lowlight: The foot pain was still there from time to time and it's not a good feeling being scared to run. Fortunately, this wasn't a huge problem but for a few times, I thought I was back to more zeros. Obviously, the big failure was my race but for various reasons, I actually think the brief moments of pain, frustration and fear were much more of a low point this week than my awful race.

Injured?- Weekly Log: September 10 to 16

A seemingly normal week of training until for some reason, my foot started hurting. Not thrilled about this, but if I can put it behind me really quick and race next week, it won't have much of an impact at all.

Monday: 9 Miles

Ran one of the routes I did the most with a group of all older guys. Was feeling pretty beat up but we went slow so it wasn't too bad. Strides after.

Tuesday: 7 Miles

Track workout. 6x1000 @3:10 w/60s recovery. Did an extra 400m jog between 3 and 4. Felt really nice to take the 600m off (from mile repeats) but I was feeling pretty heavy. Except for #3 solo (everyone's timing was off because I was late as I had class) all of them were smooth. The older guys led so I got into a nice groove behind them. Difficulty: 3/5.

Wednesday: 7 Miles

Foot was hurting walking during the day. Running didn't hurt at all or even feel uncomfortable. Legs were completely trashed though. Aidan started picking up the pace in the second half and I decided not to go with him.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Foot pain got worse walking. Decided to try to run. Felt uncomfortable but didn't hurt much so I went for the full run. Felt really smooth but it started to hurt at mile 4 for a little bit then went away. Short, easy enjoyable loop except for my foot problems.

Friday: 0 Miles

Woke up with the worst foot pain I've had all week, extremely painful to walk to classes. Definitely felt like I couldn't run on it so I took the day off. Pain gradually reduced throughout the day but still remained.

Saturday: 1 Mile

Pain much better than Thursday but still there. Warmed up with the team. Felt like an uncomfortable tightness/soreness but no pain. 25 minutes stationary bike indoors afterwards, 2 minute hard intervals, 1 min easy. Rolled out for a while.

Sunday: 1 Mile

Pain from the previous day had actually pretty much disappeared but foot still felt really awkward/uncomfortable. Did the warm-up again with the team, zero pain or discomfort, actually felt pretty much normal. Same thing as yesterday, on the bike.

Weekly Total: 34 Miles (extra mile somewhere there)
YTD Total: 1,511 Miles

Weekly Highlight: None. This was a pretty bad week.

Weekly Lowlight: Was not expecting to get hurt anytime soon and besides some general heaviness/tightness or the occasional weakness, I had been feeling mostly good this season so this injury really came out of nowhere. I highly doubt it'll affect my season overall, but am worried this will cause me to miss next week's race. Hoping to workout Tuesday, that would be a good sign.

Collegiate Debut at UNH Home Opener

It felt odd leaving the high school running stage behind as it had been my life for the last four years, but more than anything, it was a huge relief. Looking to college training, I would be running much higher mileage, running in insane competitions, running longer distances and likely training better. I was excited to officially be training as a collegiate athlete, but running in my first race still raised many questions. I wanted to start off my college career strong and work off that, but really had no idea what my fitness was, other than "good". We hadn't done anything all out here yet, so it had been about a month after my last race.

I had done well enough in workouts to earn a spot in the top 10 in the varsity race against Providence and Holy Cross. The other race was against Brown and Dartmouth, but Brown had their guys running a tempo and Dartmouth only had their freshman run. Apparently this race (somewhat of tradition, always opening meet held at UNH vs PC/HC) always finishes in the same fashion: getting destroyed by Providence but destroying Holy Cross ourselves. I didn't a have anywhere near the amount of pre-race strategy preparation as I normally do. There were no pressure or expectations on me as no one here had seen my race before, and this perhaps would be the only race where I received this. As a result, I felt zero nervousness and ready to go, a feeling I rarely held in HS. There wasn't a formal discussion, but apparently the plan for us 10 was run with the lead providence group as long as possible. Because no one had formally told me that, my plan was to run on feel and put in a strong effort. I wanted this to feel different than high school and eliminating an unnecessary fast start would make my splits more even. It was incredibly relaxed warming up with the team, doing dynamics and heading over to the line for last minute strides. Providence came over to the line and I recognized and talked to Sean Meehan (former Bishop Hendricken) who remarked this was just like old times (or something like that) as we would also frequently race in HS. It was neat to have him in the race as I actually knew him far earlier than any of my current teammates. And besides the UNH squad and him, I didn't know a single other runner in the race. It came time to line up. We were only allowed 7 guys in the front, so I made sure to take my rightful place in the back. I felt like it was already a privilege for me to get to race with the varsity guys when 5 of the 7 freshman ran in the slower race. The gun eventually shot off to signal the start of the race.

Finishing up the first lap, just ahead of Nico. 

I got out quite well and comfortably. Providence had the advantage coming around the turn, but I found myself neck and neck with the top UNH guys. Jamie pulled ahead to run at the back of PC, but I stayed steady in running my own race. Brett also passed me and went to the next group while I began shuffling around with some UNH guys. We rolled through the first lap relatively quickly. It didn't take long for Providence to make a somewhat definitive move. I was in 4th for UNH behind Jamie, Brett and Nico, all of whom I expected to beat me. I could see Sean ahead a good 50 meters, right around where the gap remained for the majority of the race. The woods were crowded but felt smooth. There was a tight turn around the bend from the woods to grass which was difficult to maneuver. The worst part, however, was going from the lower grass field to starting grass field which went over a portion of dirt almost entirely covered by loose rocks. The footing was terrible and I immediately looked forward to getting onto more solid ground. I passed Nico moving into Lap 2 but Dean went by as well, so I stayed in 4th for the team. Dean was moving well and I couldn't latch on him. I stayed in no mans land right around there for the first portion of the lap.

Running as a train, at the end. 

I started to feel sluggish finishing up the second lap and some UNH guys passed me, Tyler (the other freshman), Davis and Nico slowly went by me. I felt that my race was starting to fall apart, but after some hestitation, I went with them and we had a train of guys working together for the third lap going into the woods. Towards the end of the lap, I went by Nico and Davis but stayed behind Tyler. I noticed that Brett was starting to come back to us. Passing Coach again, he let us know we had 1K to go. I thought I had a little more and made a push to go by Brett and Tyler before exiting the woods for the final time. I put in a decent surge spilling back on the field and tried to go for it. Shortly enough, we emptied back out on the track where Brett repassed me. He ended up passing Sean and I tried to make some kind of response going by Sean as well. With 200 to go, I put in a huge surge, passing Brett and going for next group of 4 others, also passing them. I was pretty tired but surprised to have an extra gear. I was coming up on a PC guy at the end, but he surged to hold me off (plus it was very awkward finishing on the curve). It wasn't until this moment that I started to get a glimpse of my time. I had felt sluggish and slow the entire time and wasn't expecting a great time. I was psyched to see 15:30s on the clock and come right in under 15:50.

Beat my goal pretty good and got third UNH while I was at it. Happy to beat Sean as well. I later found out I ran 15:44, which I was thrilled with, big XC PR and much faster than I was expecting. Full results here. Did what I never did in high school- which was break 16 minutes. Glad to start off on the right foot, hoping things go similar for my 8K debut. This was a blur, went by very quickly despite being 4 laps. I'm guessing this was due to stacked competition (now being in college, 15:44 only gets me 14th in what is essentially a dual meet).

Summer 2018 Recap

The summer offseason officially ended for me last Wednesday (this post has been in the works for a while, so 3 weeks since then, not one) as I practiced with the team for the first time. This offseason is interesting as it completely varies from the regular season in training, racing and overall purpose. The fall and spring offseason seem to exist to give a break between seasons, with little running occurring. With an entire two months, however, the summer is the time to get lay down serious mileage to get in shape for cross country. I've always hit my highest mileage totals in the summer, so I'm excited to go to college and finally not back off. This summer was pretty typical 60 mile weeks similar to last summer. I took the middle road with racing doing 6 races as opposed to less in 2017 and more in 2016. I feel like I hit the sweet spot this year. I had huge breakthroughs in exploration/hiking goals and did many self-organized projects I've never even considered before. The smaller, more frequent summer goals I had including chasing segments and going to new destinations for trail runs mostly failed as racing, hiking, going on trips, working and maintaining higher than usual mileage really wiped me out and I need as much time to relax as I could get. As I've done in the last few end-of-summer posts, here is a ranking of the races I did.

6. Run 4 Kerri

August 5, 2018
South Kingstown, RI

Time- 21:04, PR

Place: 5th/456

It's hard to get through the summer without having that one race where the heat/humidity gets to me. That was run 4 kerri this year. Despite almost always having strong finishes at this race, my streak ran out is year as I barely improved on my time from 2016. Went out very strong with some of the best pacing I've done all summer before blowing up to mid-5:20s on the slower sections. Good place, but a good 40 seconds from what I'm capable of.

Grade: C
When will I be back?: Not sure on this one. Not having a great performance at most races makes me eager to come back the next year. I've had my eye set on doing beach to beacon 10k for a while (same weekend), so that could be a factor if I get in. Should happen in the next few years.

5. Sailfest 5K

July 15, 2018
New London, CT

Time- 15:58, Road PR

Place: 2nd/191

Another summer with brutal humidity/heat, although definitely hotter at Kerri. I've had good races here in the past, but like Kerri, this wasn't my year. This was pretty similar to Kerri with strong pacing in the beginning then completely blowing up in the middle miles. However, it was a stronger race overall as I only had one truly terrible mile and a fast first one put some time in the bank. I wasn't thrilled with the race but breaking 16 still felt pretty good even if I'm capable of much more. First time sub-16 not on a track is still something I had yet to check it off, so the race wasn't a complete disaster. 

Grade: B

When will I come back?: I would like to win this race at some point and given that this is a pretty dead weekend for racing, I see no reason (unless I have random conflicts) why I wouldn't run next year.

4. Wahaneeta Trail 5K

August 18, 2018
Westerly, RI

Time- 18:59, CR

Place: 1st/50

Wahaneeta was probably my least serious race this summer (and also, the least necessary to race all-out) but with a CR goal I figured I might as well go all out. Pushed the pace from the gun and fell off on lap 2 which was a little disappointing. Ran 66 seconds faster than last year to establish a new course record- a solid 18:59 showing, but definitely not unbeatable. Wasn't aggressive enough on the more difficult stuff and let up too much when I got tired.

Grade: B
When will I come back?: Definitely next year again with the goal of taking off as much time as possible.

3. Loon Mountain Race

July 8th, 2018
Lincoln, NH
Time- 1:00:22
Place: 33rd/449

After a somewhat underwhelming showing in 2017 where I only had slight improvement despite 2016 being my first mountain race, I took off a huge chunk off time and place-wise this year and stepped up the ranks in mountain running. I didn't quite match by ambitious goal of top-20, but I absolutely blew my old performances out of the water (ran significantly faster on every single portion of the course) and whenever that happens, it's a always a good race. There were a few mistakes here and there, but overall my best Loon (and best mountain race) yet.

Grade: A-
When will I come back?: The last few years I made the instant decision to run this away next year. It's a great, unique event that provides fantastic competition and is well done in every manner by the race team, Acidotic Racing. However, that doesn't mean that running up service roads and ski slopes for the majority of the race isn't pretty boring. I'm undecided at this point. I would rather run more trail focused mountain races or even something new.

2. Westerly Fun Run

July 11th, 2018
Westerly, RI
Time- 16:07, CR
Place: N/A (series)

There are few things that motivate me in running more than chasing times and after setting the official CR last year, I feel like I have an obligation to return every year and essentially defend my title, or make an attempt at a new best time. Going for a hard 5K always hurts and it did here, but besides an indoor track effort, I ran much, much faster than I ever have before in a 5K. The 16:07 official time doesn't tell the story, the 5:00 pace displayed on my watch does. My XC/road PR up to this point was a 16:01, so this made it loud and clear I was capable of much more.

Grade: A
When will I come back?: The fun runs have been part of my life for over 10 years now and are one of the best aspects of summer running. I'll figure out what dates work for a CR attempt for me next year, and make it happen.

1. Blessing of the Fleet

July 27th, 2018
Narragansett, RI
Time- 55:30
Place: 6th/2003

I've consistently laid down great performances at this race and have never once succumbed to the brutal heat and humidity here, but this year was an entirely new level. Not sure how I did it, but I went out there and hit every single split right at what I needed to make my goal of sub-56. I never once faded and even had the strength to hit a 5:17 last mile. It felt pretty good hitting this kind of time and a top 10 finish here for the first time ever, a huge indication of how much my fitness has improved in the last few years.

Grade: A+
When will I come back?: For some reason, I jump on and off the Blessing train but right now I'm on it and am excited for a potentially even better performance next year. Will 100% be back in 2019.

Overall Thoughts: For the most part, I was pretty happy with how this went. I feel like I got strong efforts on varied distances and terrains without overdoing it at all. I would have liked to run better at Kerri but I feel like that was my only poor performance all summer, which is probably better than normal. I also would have liked to do more mountain/trail races, but I ended up picking the road this year. 

Training: I put in a consistent 50-65 miles per week, which is exactly the amount both my coach and I wanted. I did a small number of workouts but kept most of it at a reasonable level that didn't demand too much effort. I feel like I have a very strong base from this mileage going into Cross Country but haven't overworked myself at all, making for great shape to start more rigorous training. I logged 525 miles in 2017, yet had two more weeks to do so (got out of season earlier and took less of break), so I think I averaged slightly more this summer. The big difference was the amount of doubles. Hitting mid-60s miles a week either requires 8-9 miles a day or slipping into the teens once or twice a week to allow for lower days. Being one to vary up the mileage per day, last year I hit higher days twice a week doing a double which would net me around 25 miles for those two days. This year, due to a change in training plan and have a stricter work schedule that didn't allow for doubles (worked from late afternoon into night), the higher mileage days were almost always longer runs. For example, 12 is usually a pretty long run for me (or at least a mileage I rarely ever hit). This summer, I was doing 12 milers back to back days on the weekend which was completely new territory as I rarely even run over 10 on a single day. 

Exploring: As I've stated many times, one of my favorite things about the summer offseason is the freedom. And with that freedom, I like to explore new places. I had a goal of going out and running new trails all the time and this was probably one of the most disappointing aspects of the summer for me as I pretty much never did this, outside of travelling. It just became very difficult to juggle working, racing and doing decent mileage which made it very hard to fit in time to drive to a new place. However, here are the places I ran in that were unique to me/enjoyable: 

-Cumberland Monastery: Cumberland, RI

-The Preserve: Old Saybrook, CT

-Mine Falls Park: Nashua, NH

-Penwood and Talcott Mountain State Parks: Simsbury, CT

-Burlington Bike Path: Burlington, VT

-North Elba and Saranac Lake, NY

-Camden Hills State Park: Camden, ME

-Acadia National Park: Mount Desert, ME

-Maudslay State Park: Newburyport, MA

Hiking: The big overall change in my 2018 summer was the addition of hiking. I've been much more avid about hiking in 2018 and with the summer freedom, I made sure to start cracking down on my goal of completing the 50 high points someday. I got up to 8, covering all 6 new England states plus New York and New Jersey. I did about 4 major hikes during the summer, all much more difficult, covering harder terrain and having a greater elevation gain than I've ever done in the past. I have big plans for next summer and beyond, but there's so many details, photos and videos of all this hiking that I'm going to have to save it for a separate post, likely in December due to how long it will take. I'm sorry about the huge delay on this, but it already takes a huge amount of time just to do these running write-ups. 

Segments: As I mentioned before, I failed big time on the segments. I figured with low amounts of workouts and not racing too much, running for some segment CRs would get me doing additional hard efforts. I was especially excited for some trail efforts but with so much going on, very few of them actually happened. However, here are the segments I did manage to snag. 

*Planned Effort

• *Bike Path Loop (Playground CW)- Ninigret Park (Charlestown, RI) 08/09/2018
• Jordan Pond- Acadia National Park (Mount Desert, ME) 08/02/2018
• Mountain Road Climb- Smuggler's Notch State Park (Stowe, VT) 07/16/2018
• Winnapaug 4 (Atlantic to Shore)- Westerly, RI 07/13/2018
• *Ninigret Path- Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge (Charlestown, RI) 07/02/2018
• *Fishing- Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge (Charlestown, RI) 07/02/2018
• *Cross Refuge Trail- Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge (Charlestown, RI) 07/02/2018
*Grassy Point- Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge (Charlestown, RI) 07/02/2018

I still would like to go after a few segments, although not quite as many as my original list. Here are the plans for the fall/winter/sometime in the future:

• Ninigret Bike Track
• Charlestown Chili 5K
• Arnolda Circuit
• Sammy C's Up
• All the Duval Segments (5)
• Newport Cliff Walk
• Beavertail

Upcoming (Non-College) Races: Everything right now is just a guess and things could massively change but of course I'm already thinking about what races I'm going to do in the offseason and next summer. I was thinking about the future and had some fun exploring options for the November, December and March offseasons. I obviously don't plan on running 3 races every offseason but wouldn't mind 1-2, at least in the longer ones. Plus, who can really resist local trail races?

November

Little Rhody is definitely a race I would like to return to ASAP as I feel its my time to win here and eventually (maybe not this year, but certainly in the near future) break Mike Galoob's 2014 CR of 44:33. At one point, I thought that would be ridiculous but it may be attainable, given my 2016 PR of 46:18 and greatly improved fitness now. My season likely ends 11/9 at the NCAA Northeast Regional and I should have room for adequate time off afterwards. However, it may be a problem depending on how long my rest is and racing immediately following time off probably won't go too great either. On the other hand, it would hurt to miss this great event for the 2nd year in a row. We'll see... 

On the other hand, Pie Run shouldn't a problem at all. Unless I had to take a 2 week break, which seems unlikely, I should be fresh and ready to go for this race. After a season of 8K, it'd be nice to take down my 5-Mile PR by quite a bit. I ran this in 2016 as well and greatly enjoyed it, so it would definitely be a treat to get in a race in my short return to RI.

Winter

Racing in the offseason definitely isn't necessary- I do it mostly for fun and for some sort of a hard workout. However, I have yet to face the month-long college offseason in indoor. Given that I'll likely only have a month to race after this, I feel it probably will be beneficial to run some track races. The BU Mini Meets and the East Coast Invitational Mile seem like good opportunities to get in a hard race. I'll almost certainly run resolution (assuming its still held) as my first 4th season trail race in three years and my first decent effort at one. I don't know any of these dates and while based on past years, it seems the first three are definite possibilities, I'm not sure about old mountain or chili 5k. There's a possibility these will fall outside my offseason, but I perhaps wouldn't even run these  hard (or at all) anyway.

Spring

 The spring is a big question mark on whether I race at all. Given a week off and the opportunity to run something in Rhody Island, I would definitely like to. The first three 5ks belonging to the Tour de Patrick series seem like a good place to go for a road PR or workout/tempo, and the Mystic Irish 5K would probably be an easy win. I would love to run Belleville Pond or Brr-lingame but I would have to get lucky with the timing. Don't be surprised if I don't end up racing at all in March, but I expect to in January and November. 

Summer 2019

I get really excited for every summer as it brings the opportunity to add a new race to my schedule. I ran zero new races this summer, opting to stick to the local classics instead and while it was nice to make returns to Sailfest, Blessing and Kerri I did miss the feeling of adding a new mountain/trail race to the schedule. This was the first summer I hadn't done this in over 3 years. Things will change massively next year with an extra month of racing (late may and most of june). I have some ambitious hiking plans in the end of may (again, will share in end-of-year hiking post), so that will mesh well with time off running but then I plan on racing from there. I'm keeping a good amount of Classics like Blessing and likely a return to Bobby Doyle, but have many plans to do all sorts of new races. I'm hoping to check off 2 big bucket list races: Mt. Washington and Beach to Beacon. Unfortunately both are lottery so I will have to get lucky. I'm also hoping to do Cranmore for the first time ever. Here's the incredibly early tentative schedule. 

College Goals

Of course, there's a reason these offseasons are short and come to an end quickly- to focus on Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track. I generally enjoy whatever season I'm in, and right now I'm excited for the rest of the XC season. While I did race once, I still have yet to run in competitive college-style races. I have my full season schedule posted. The first race gave my a decent indication of fitness and what's to come in the future, so here are the goals for my first season:

-Break 26 Minutes in my 8K debut at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown (9/21)

-Run mid to low 25s by the end of the season, likely at America East Championships (10/27)

-Run 15:20 (5K) at the CCSU Mini Meet (10/19)

-Score for UNH at America East Championships and NCAA Northeast Regional

-Run sub-33 in the NCAA Northeast Regional (11/9)

Hoping for a strong first season, feel like I'm in great shape right now and feeling good. Expect updates (longer, specialized posts) in the winter. I have some goals in the back of my mind for indoor and outdoor now, but will figure them out more in the future. 

Weekly Log: September 3 to 9

First normal week of training, now that I've settled in/adjusted to practicing, going to class and also have raced once.

Monday: 8 Miles

Easy loop. Started out slow and worked our way into the 6:30s. Started out a little sluggish but overall felt much better than the previous day. 6x100m strides.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

5xMile again. Ran with just Andrew today as we both had class in the afternoon. I will have to miss Tuesday's regularly so I guess he will be my training partner for those days. Coach slowed it down for me so we could meet in the middle (he ran 5:30s last time, I ran 5:20s), so 5xMile @5:25 w/60s recovery. Andrew had a 1200 for his last one as I'm more distance focused than him. It was super hot out. We were somewhat worried about hitting our splits as we haven't had to pace before but managed to be spot on and really smooth as well. First 4 were 5:22. The first three felt really smooth. Andrew paced the 1st and 3rd, while I did the 2nd and 4th. I started to get pretty weak on the 4th one but still got it done, however Andrew fell off the pace. I ended up doing the last one solo which felt pretty horrible but finished it up in 5:18. Difficulty: 4/5. Probably not that tough of a workout, but was feeling the heat today.

Wednesday: 9 Miles

Easy day on trails. Was excited to perhaps explore Kingman farm but unfortunately got the same usual Trestle lollipop loop. Some of the trail on this are fun, but since it's the only trail route I've done here, I wanted to try something new. Really hot out again but a little better than Tuesday. Nice jump off the bridge into the river in the middle was refreshing. Mostly freshman plus one junior to lead us.

Thursday: 6 Miles

Coach said we would have two trail recovery days so was pretty bummed out to go onto the road for this one. And even worse, we only did 5 miles. Pouring rain, for some reason ran much faster than usual although I was fine with that. Finished up with 6x80m stride/80m jog at the end on the indoor track, which is an odd 160m loop.

Friday: 11 Miles

Workout today. I had no idea what to expect and we ended up doing something completely foreign to me. Started out with 6x1200 with specific target 400s on the Cross Country course. Coach had put cones out to designate where to begin each 400. The 1200 split was 4:00 with the first 400 on grass in 75s, the 2nd 400 on XC trails in 90s, and the 3rd on grass in 75s. There was an additional 400m back to the start after that. I was not used to run that fast on the grass, especially in road trainer and my legs/lungs were feeling the faster pace, especially in the last 200 on the 4s. The trail section felt really nice though. Those were somewhat but not too bad. We followed that up with 2xMile on the track at 5:05 w/60s. And of course, the leaders decided they wanted to go faster. Those hurt, especially the last one where I was dying but held on. Overall 8 miles sub-5:50 pace, by far the longest workout I have done. Full splits: (75/84/79)/(73/1:45/65, distances were screwed up for this one)/(74/94/73)/(74/93/76)/(74/91/75)/(71/94/74), Mile Splits: 5:03/4:58. Difficulty: 5/5

Saturday: 11 Miles

Ended up with only running 4 guys on a new 10 mile route they call Long Snell (everything is based on road names here). Started out slow and worked our way to a 6:03 final mile, felt so smooth and comfortable. Route was nice and peaceful as well; one of my favorite runs of the season so far. 6x100m strides to finish.

Sunday: 10 Miles

Ran the pudding hill route again. Felt weird as the lead guys started out really slow (first mile was 7:30, then next two still over 7:00) but randomly started pushing the pace halfway in (next three were sub-6:30). I was okay with it because I felt finish. We eased up after that and ended up doing 6xBus Stop Hill which was a short, gradual incline. Took it moderately but pushed the steepest section. Not much a long run, was expecting more.

Weekly Total: 63 Miles
YTD Total: 1,477 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Felt like this was a really solid week of training and like 63 was a good number. Was expecting more at one point, but definitely okay with 63, a huge step up from last week. Felt good on most of the rungs.

Weekly Lowlight: Felt like I struggled with the workouts this week. Usually workouts are my bread and butter so I was a little disappointed not to feel great on them, especially Friday's where no one else seemed to have a hard time with.

First College Meet- Weekly Log: August 27 to September 2

Already pretty used to going to college practice. It's a big difference going from running solo most days to running with 6-10 guys every day, but certainly a welcome one. I have big goals for my first season, which is less time focused and more placement focused. I did well enough in the first two workouts to earn a spot in the faster Holy Cross/Providence College race (Dartmouth/Brown race aren't have their varsity guys run hard), but this weekend's opener at UNH will be my first real test. Looking forward to it, pressure is completely off yet I can still chase a fast time.

Monday: 0 Miles

Day off. Coach gave the option of taking the day off or running 30 minutes easy. Felt pretty beat up from suddenly ramping up the mileage last week and my calf had been seriously bothering me a few days before, so I wanted to make sure to go into the next week 100%.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

5xMile @5:20 w/60s recovery. Pretty similar to the 6K, except broken up by mile and going a little longer. Sounded so easy on paper (If I can run 15 laps at 5:20/mile and feel great the whole time, why can't I do it again with breaks?). Splits into the same groups with the top group at 5:12, middle group at 5:20 and last group at 5:30. We had a bunch more guys in our group this time, which helped with pacing. Got it done but somehow felt significantly worse than the last time. Felt sluggish, legs were flat (maybe from the day off) and breathing was off. Not terrible, but not great either. Still glad to get it in. Coach gave us the option of running a faster 800 for the 5th or just doing another 1600 at the same pace. Went with another freshman Max Ireland (15:37 XC PR in HS) to finish off the last one. Jumped into the faster group for 800, then cruised in. Weirdly felt much better on this last one, despite running much faster. Splits: 5:17/5:19/5:18/5:17/5:07. Difficulty: 3/5.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

Easy trail recovery day, did a lollipop that the guys call Trestle (no idea why). Explored a bunch of new to me trails that I had no idea even existed, so that's always a pleasure. Really good mix of (minimal) roads, dirt roads, double-track and singletrack. None of it was too hard but we did run on some twistier stuff than I was expected. Overall, I didn't love these trails. We ran on a long, boring stretch of dirt road/double-track. Some of the single-track was fun though. I was insanely hot on this run and I had nothing after just a few miles. A couple of guys decided to take this brutal recovery day hard for some reason and kept randomly pushing the pace which was super annoying (we spilled out onto the road and were suddenly running 6:15 pace). Jumped off a tall bridge into a river which was both scary, fun and refreshing. It didn't take long to start feeling terrible again. 93 degrees, 100+ real feel.

Thursday: 10 Miles

Tried something new to me, a fartlek which seemed like a mini-workout where it seemed to get the legs rolling with some decent speed but not hard enough that it would make the next day difficult. 40s on, 1 min off. Supposed to hit the on sections at 5:20 pace but we started out too slow and ended too fast (like 6:00 to 4:30). Felt pretty good. Previewed the course for Saturday which is an extremely boring 4-lap course.

Friday: 6 Miles

Easy course jog shakeout. Pace probably should have been slower but I felt fine once again.

Saturday: 6 Miles

First collegiate race! Providence College absolutely destroyed us, whereas we absolutely destroyed Holy Cross. Did very well, 3rd on the team as 9 of us broke 16. Happy to break my goal of sub-16 by a lot. 15:44.40, a 17 second cross country PR. Updated my PRs on my PR page, adding some terrain differences. 14th place of 44. Will do a separate write-up. Next race is coast to coast battle in Beantown in Franklin Park on 9/21, where I will make my 8K debut.

Sunday: 12 Miles

First long run here. We had the option of 12 or 16, and I wasn't feeling up for the 16, so I took the comfortable 12. Still a decent distance. We started out really slow at hit the first 3 miles at 7:30 pace. Not sure why, I wasn't feeling so great even going that slow. Started to hit more regular splits sub-7 and I felt terrible from mile 4. Even running 6:50s at the end, I had nothing and got dropped. Felt weaker than I have in a very long time, perhaps the worst feeling run (not including races) of the year for me. Definitely one of the worst long(er) runs I have been on. Refreshing jump off a bridge into a river at 8 miles, but I found it impossible to continue after that.

Weekly Total: 50 Miles
YTD Total: 1,415 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Definitely the race. Felt a lot better than I normally do in HS race even I still felt kinda sluggish. Crossed off the one thing I lacked in HS XC, a sub-16 time. This is the kind of race I wanted to run in high school, so definitely feel like I got in a very strong to the season.

Weekly Lowlight: Feeling awful on two runs and not that great on another was unexpected, especially feeling so terrible on Sunday. That was truly a struggle. I'm also not thrilled with just 50 miles, but to rest up for a 15:44, it's worth it. Hoping for north of 60 next week however.