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.

First Week in College- Weekly Log: August 20 to 26

Finally making the move up to UNH, starting out with a fairly easy week as I won't have any classes.

Monday: 7 Miles

Last run in RI. Ran with Dad from the house and did a mix of local roads and trails. Didn't eat too well so felt sluggish but not terrible. 8x100m strides afterwards, felt much more relaxed than the last strides.

Tuesday: 5 Miles

Not thrilled to just run 5, but ended up being late to the run as I had to go back to my dorm to get my running gear. Everyone was gone at that point, and I had limited time to fit in a full run. Ended up just exploring locally solo in college woods and some roads, but I had no idea what I was doing.

Wednesday: 13 Miles

Started out with practice in the morning at 9am. 10 minute warm-up followed by dynamics on the track which felt weird as most were new to me. Finished up with a 2 mile CD around campus, I think the upperclassmen did a little bit more. Forgot to bring my watch, estimated 3.5 total so going to call it 4. Seemed to function as an easy morning shakeout before real practice at 3.

Ran 9.5 later in the afternoon to make a pretty solid 13 for the day. Started with the same 10 minutes (1.3 mile) warmup in college woods and dynamics again which I guess is the typical warm up routine here. 8 mile loop with most of the freshman plus a couple of other guys, the same loop I did on my official visit. Pace wasn't too fast but wasn't slow either and my legs were beat.

Thursday: 14 Miles

Another double day, this time with the longer run in the morning which I preferred. A couple other freshman went with my group but it was mostly a mix of guys as most freshman ran easy on trails. Explored some more roads for a longer and faster loop than the previous day. Felt really good and ended up getting 12 miles in during the morning session, with the 10ish mile road loop at 6:33 pace. Legs/feet were still tired but felt significantly better than yesterday.

Easy 2 mile shakeout/jog through college woods in the afternoon. At first I didn't think it seemed necessary but actually shook out a lot of my leg fatigue so glad to do it.

Friday: 7 Miles

First workout here. 10 min warm-up in college woods, dynamics and then on the track. Since it was longer, slower stuff no one really bothered with spikes and I just went with my 890s. It was a 6K time trial; we were all given paces to hit. The first, bigger group of more experienced guys had 77s/lap, I was in the second group (all freshman except one sophomore who led us) at 80s/lap and the third group was at 82s/lap. We went single file and I was in the 4th spot. Dylan did a really good job with the pace as we were hitting dead on 80s pretty much every lap. I felt super comfortable. Some guys started dropping with 4 to go and it was just freshman Tyler McLaughlin and I for the last 3, where I took over pacing duty. Pretty happy with the workout, felt awesome the whole time. Difficulty: 2/5.

Saturday: 9 Miles

Ended up missing morning practice due to some mandatory freshman meeting, so ran with my roommate Andrew in the afternoon. 8 miles trails. Neither of us knew where we were going so we just explored most of college woods with some overlap and got around 8, plus 12x100 strides at the end. First run this week where I felt exhausted energy-wise rather than my legs. Had some calf tightness which was worrying.

Sunday: 10 Miles

Was expected a long run, but just did an 8.5 mile loop. Combined with warm-ups and 4 fast 100m strides at the end, this made 10. Pace felt pretty comfortable. Started out slow and worked up 6:30s. Calf tightness wasn't there today, but I accidentally wore some of my older running shoes which made my feet and legs pretty tired. Did a route called pudding hill, I guess today was an easier day but usually the guys do repeats on that. All freshman plus one senior so we knew where we were going.

Weekly Total: 65 Miles
YTD Total: 1,365 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Getting to run with a new group of guys rather than solo all the time. Got in a very solid week of training and looking forward to my 4 years here.

Weekly Lowlight: Had some calf tightness issues during the week, but it seems to be mostly gone although it was somewhat worrying at some point.

Next week should be less mileage with a workout or two thrown in there. Track workout Tuesday, mile repeats w/short recovery. Monday off and probably some easy days later in the week to rest up for Saturday's opening meet.

Wahaneeta Trail 5K

Wahaneeta would be a bittersweet race for me. On one hand, few things in life are more enjoyable than racing a local trail 5K, especially with a challenging single-track course. I had felt some regret in not pushing the pace more last year as I really wanted to go under 20 minutes but didn't. Now I was very excited to come back, run more aggressively and have fun racing good trails with some friends. The bitter side of the race was that it would be my final event of the summer, and unlike previous summers, I won't be around after that as I head off to college. While I am more than eager to finally make this transition, it still will be sad to leave the running community behind for a while.

Until race day, I had no plans or expectations of what I would run. I knew Chris Garvin was running, which meant the win would not come easy and I was going to have to push the pace at some point. There wasn't much of an option of sitting and kicking or running only a moderate pace in the front. Having not raced Chris before on trails and with his close finishes to me in the last two road races, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to win this one. I knew Chris wasn't going to be one to dog it and wanting to both defend my title and annihilate the CR, I decided at some point to race it pretty hard.

I didn't get much sleep the night before and waking up early to volunteer at the race was a little hard. I believe this impacted my normal eating routine slightly. I only had a small oatmeal before heading out and it wasn't until 30 minutes before the race that I realized I had completely forgotten to eat the rest of my breakfast. Since this was a fun, carefree race I didn't care too much. Got down half a bagel. Helped mark part of the course before heading off for another small warm-up with Aaron, helping him preview the course. Like last year the course was soaked, making a number of obstacles (mainly rocks and bridges) much more difficult to deal with as well as it being pretty humid out (if I can remember right).

I had zero nervousness at such a friendly race, which is why I had no worries when I was doing things like putting on race shoes (wore my XC spikes) and going to the bathroom minutes before the race started. Got the line next to Chris on the far right when I realized I'd be running more distance than necessary and moved over with Colby and Aaron who had a shorter path, closer to the wide trail opening. I was only half-paying attention to the starting directions, chatting with Colby and Aaron before the start when suddenly Pete from SNERRO was giving us race directions and about to shoot off the gun. The next thing I knew the race had started. I wasn't really prepared for this, and my response was shoot out as fast as possible. It was there when I went from having no plan to deciding to push the pace on Chris, trying the method of going out fast and trying to maintain it so he won't catch me. I feel the push the pace whole time strategy or put in a big surge 2/3 of the way into the race are my two shots of winning in any race. The latter was a safer one, but potentially slower and Chris might be more likely to counter that and outkick me. It felt fast going out but I was surprised Chris had followed me out and wasn't too far behind. I was going to have to keep going to completely shake him.

Felt smooth going into the singletrack, chose my steps wisely and got through without any clumsiness or lost time. I looked back approaching the first major marked intersection and saw that I had a decent 150m gap on Chris. I slowed a little going through the stream and the brief but steep uphill yet felt strong and relaxed enough that it went by quickly and didn't take too much out of me. I was displaying a sub-6 pace on my watch, but it was definitely slowing as I was now running much harder terrain than I had started on. There are two very tricky technical spots in Wahaneeta and as I began the lollipop I quickly encountered one of them. The first section is a small 50ft rock garden, followed by a very slippery bridge followed by two giant rocks completely in the way. I later thought about what makes a good trail runner, as I took the cautious road runner method of slowing down greatly so I would avoid a fall or bashing my knees into the rocks, as I did last year. I got out unscathed and started to get back into my rhythm, but definitely lost some time there by taking the cautious method. The risk vs. reward in running technical single-track brings an entirely new element in trail racing, one that demands successful trail runners to throw themselves at obstacles and try their best to remain upright. I really wanted to stay smooth to avoid a fall here so I chose the slower option. The rest of the trail went by quickly and I passed Eric the course marshal right around the mile mark in 6:00. I half expected Eric to say "Chris is coming to beat you", but it gave me a little confidence that based on Eric's lack of saying much, he likely couldn't see Chris yet.

The first mile had gone well, but I still had a lot of trails ahead of me. This section of the lollipop had seemed very long on the warm-up and I was hoping it wouldn't drag on in the actual race. Got it through it pretty quickly here which was nice especially as this would not be a section I would have to repeat. I was starting to tire out towards the end especially with a couple of hills in there. I wasn't sure how the out and back section would work as I didn't want a whole lot of people coming my way, but just one lady went by right before I entered and I was fine. The pace was certainly slowing here especially in the small stream crossing with a tight, twisty path. I got a little boost from the downhill but I wanted to start wrapping things up. The trail back to the start was short and easy enough that it went by quickly. I was feeling pretty tired going through the field and like the second loop wasn't going to be so great. Coming around, I was worried about how bad I feeling and was thinking about the possibility of Chris' smarter conservative tactics getting me. I figured if I got all the way to the cabin and he was just getting out of the woods, that would be a comfortable enough cushion that I probably had the win in the bag. I had about half that as I got to the turn towards the cabin and saw him turning onto the dirt road. This was a little worrying and I tried my best to keep the pressure on. I was significantly more tired and more scared in lap 2. The pace continued to slow and I couldn't do much about it. Hit Mile 2 in 6:24, definitely slower than I wanted. Mile 3 wasn't going to be much better, based on how I was feeling.

My feet had been bothering me the whole race because I had tied my shoes way too tight. This made dealing with fatigue even harder as I had several problems that were making the race unpleasant. I wasn't very smooth in the second lap. I didn't choose my steps well and was now sloppy and slow rather than relaxed and fast. Got through to the major turn and it was here where the two way traffic section would be a problem. The trail seems to get really narrow in one spot, the tight curve around the stream and of course, it was here where I encountered a mass of people. There was hardly any room to move and pretty much no one gave me the courtesy of moving over. It was extremely annoying weaving my way around this and certainly made the section a lot slower and more tiring. There were enough people at the actual stream that I stepped in it rather than jumping like before. I was relieved to get past this disaster and move on. The hill really tired me out the second time around but I stayed focused on finishing and not my fatigue. Took the left again, once again slowing down tremendously to be cautious on the technical section. When I took the left at the Eric this time without sign of Chris immediately behind, I was pretty sure I would take the win, but I still remained on alert. I was very cautious on the drop onto the bridge coming up to the field and definitely lost time there. Swerved around the field and made my way towards the final turnaround. This went by quickly even though I was pretty uncomfortable at that point in the race. Made a the loop turnaround, not very efficiently and was wondering how far behind Chris was. Saw him halfway up the trail which was more than expected. I went past a muddy section where we took the bridge and despite having them too tight, one of my shoes came off. I noticed this but was so close to the finish that it wasn't worth going back for it. Finished up strong, getting just under 19 in 18:59. Chris also went under the CR (and grabbed my shoe for me while racing) but wasn't as close as I thought he was, finishing in 19:40. Mile 3 was a 6:26.

Overall a fun race. Was happy to get the win and CR, but not thrilled about how much I let up in the last two miles. I felt sluggish and incredibly slow in lap 2 and lost time taking the cautious approach on very technical sections rather than plowing through them and hoping for the best. I was surprised to feel so crappy, but not getting enough sleep and not eating my full breakfast may have contributed to that. Feel like an 18:30 would have been possible on a better day. This is such a fun course nearly all on challenging single-track, which made me pretty disappointed (even though I'm not the race director but just a participant) that only 50 people came out and honestly, Chris and I were the only fast trail guys out there. For what I think is one of the very best WTAC courses, it baffles me how low the overall turnout, the "elite" turnout and even the club turnout is. This is a perfectly enjoyable trail race that no one really seems to care about. Was also surprised that two people cut the course despite very obvious and large trail marking signs. It takes a special kind of idiot to go straight past a right turn sign (although I'd likely be that idiot in another race). Full results here. Will be back next year for sure.

Run 4 Kerri

Summer road racing is hard to resist, with many races going on. I try to limit myself not to overrace but at the same time, there are some I just feel I have to do. After missing out on the Run 4 Kerri last year, it was one of the first races this summer I decided to do. I pretty much never run 4 milers outside of this race, and it was good time (2 years) to update the PR.

I felt that my fitness was pretty good going in, even if my races hadn't turned out exactly as planned. I had run 5:00 effort/pace at the fun run, so I thought 20:30 (5:07 pace) would be a good goal for the extra mile. Of course, the extra mile also gave a bigger chance of blowing up so not going out in 4:50 would probably be in my best interest. I wanted to run a smart efficient race with target splits of 5:00/5:10/5:15/5:05. I hadn't planned it out exactly like that, but given the course's fast and slow sections, this would likely work out best to hit my goal time. When I had signed up, I emailed race director Scott Bessette about receiving a spot in the elite field, which was granted to me. I was looking forward to have an "elite status" at what is a local but very competitive road race (rarely every elite field at that kind of race). I also enjoyed my personalized bib, although I would have preferred to have my first name on it rather than my last.

Awesome bibs! Didn't care too much for the shirts.

Fast forward to race day and I was feeling less certain about hitting my time than before. I had gone on a fun but exhausting camping and hiking trip to maine over the last 5 days and hadn't had the opportunity to do my normal running routine or get proper sleep. I was feeling a bit fatigued from this, more than expected. Ended up warming with TNT which I felt weird about at first (Keith dragged me along) but it was nice to have a group and just tuck in the back. They kept the pace much lighter than I would have, so that was good. I realized it was insanely hot as usual and I was hoping this wouldn't have too much of an effect on my race. There was also an elite room with space for the athletes to stretch out and get some complimentary drinks from the cooler, but I felt it wasn't my scene (the only one I knew well was Keith) and opted to hang out with my former teammates before the race instead. Headed over to the start line. The field was especially deep this year and while I was originally hoping for a top 5 finish, suddenly I wasn't sure if top 10 would happen. Like usual, this was one of those "I don't really want to be here" races right before the start, but I assured myself that based on 5K fitness I would be able to get it done.

Lined up next to Chris in the second row, which I was okay with given the quality of the field ahead of me. Shot out over the crest and found myself in the top 10 almost immediately. The goal was not to overdo things and keep a steady 5:00 pace rather than going in 2:20 and ending up hitting a 4:50 first mile. I panicked a little when I saw 5:30s on my watch (likely due to the incline at the start) and put in a surge to get the momentum going. I was in a good position pretty much instantly, ahead of some top runners like DJ, Sam Alexander and Bronson Venable. John Busque and Amos Sang battled a good 60 meters ahead with some other guy. I wasn't far back from Liam Hillery and Nick Ross either, which was a little worrying. Sanders was somewhere between the leaders and the chasers; he seemed to be sitting back and slowly closing on them for his first mile bonus. I passed some idiot who flew out like it was a mile and was breathing like he had never run before. This put me in 7th, much higher than anticipated. I more or less forgot about most of the people behind me for the next few miles and focused on reeling in the ones ahead. Nick and Liam ran as a duo, putting about 50 meters on me by the mile. The straggler who had gone out with Amos and John was also dropped and the next guys were reeling him in. I hit the mile in 5:02, feeling pretty good and like I could keep it going.

I stayed comfortable and relaxed in the next half mile or so. Most people ahead of me were set at their much faster pace and I didn't have a chance at catching too many of them. The guy who had gone out with the leaders was coming back to me soon and I kept a steady pace to go by him, moving into 6th. I felt pretty good on the short stretch of moonstone beach road and was glad my watch displayed an average pace of 5:02 that entire stretch. I thought that was a great sign and if I kept it going long enough, I was going to have a great race. Made the turn onto Cards Ponds road and embraced myself for a long, hot open stretch of boring road. I kept the pace quick until 1.5 miles where it suddenly started dropping. I hadn't decreased the effort, but my pace was starting to slip. I wasn't too worried at this point- I was still feeling decent and it was only natural for the pace to slow a little. Hit the second mile in 5:12, which put me at 10:24 for 2 Miles, still on target pace.

Mile 3 is where everything fell apart. I was okay with the 5:06 average pace as that would net me about at 20:30. Suddenly I was starting to feeling terrible as the long, long stretch of road dragged on. I passed Sanders somewhere around the 2 mile mark who didn't put up any fight. This put me in 5th, unknown to me at the time. Ahead, John and Amos were gone and Liam remained in the distance. Nick had fallen off his pace, but still had a 100m gap on me. I was somewhat glad to eventually turn off Cards Pond, but my pace had taken a huge hit. The third split wasn't going to be pretty as I was around 5:10 average pace and it was only going up. I wasn't looking forward to the curvy neighborhood roads and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Came up the hill which didn't take too much out of me and saw my official three split around 15:50ish. No longer on pace to even break 21 (which shouldn't even be all-out). I realized around here that my race had gone out the window and now my goal was just to finish up as fast as I could. Mile 3- a sloth 5:25.

The neighborhood section dragged on and even though I was pushing hard, I felt absolutely terrible and the pace was only getting slower and slower. It was so hard to focus on these slower feeling roads and I was concerned I had fallen off so much that I wouldn't even PR. I kept thinking that I was almost out, but this section was a good .7 miles long. I very much wanted to drop out. I was surprised that in my slow and fatigued miles that no one had passed me. I ended up looking back on one of the turns and saw Chris just 50 meters back. This was pretty concerning as I didn't want to give up a position and Chris is usually pretty strong at finishes. I was confident I could hold Chris off at Sailfest, but the gap here was smaller and I was running much slower. I prepared myself to get passed. Finally exited the neighborhood. I knew this was my last shot to keep my place and I got back into a faster pace on the much smoother downhill paved road and went for it. Had a pretty good kick. Unfortunately it was nowhere near enough to save my race. Saw Nick Ross cross the line around 20:50 and wasn't sure if I'd sneak under the 21 minute barrier, Just missed in disappointment in 21:04. Still a PR, but no sub-21 and nowhere near my goal.

Chris later told me I placed 5th, which was a pleasant surprise. A lot of fast guys either DNS, jogged it or had bad races. Very happy with my placement, even if my time wasn't really good enough to match the pace. As for my race, I was pretty disappointed, perhaps for the first time this summer. I definitely had the fitness to hit that time and feel like I raced the first 2 miles perfectly. 5:02 first mile for a 5:07 target is definitely not too fast, especially compared to going out in 4:48 for the fun run and following it up with 5:10/5:06. Just didn't have it in the last 2 miles and was way off. Would have liked to run much faster. I want to run Beach to Beacon 10K next year (same weekend as Kerri) but if I don't get in, I will definitely be back at Kerri for redemption (or I'll just do both and hope for the best). Full results for the race.

Another summer road race sufferfest where I came out with a pretty garbage result nowhere near the time I'm capable of. It certainly could have been worse and I don't regret racing, but certainly a much weaker performance than anything else this summer. I suppose it was a good workout either way, but since it took a lot out of me, it seemed to be enough for the summer for really hard efforts. Back to a few weeks of solid mileage before Cross Country.

Last Week in RI- Weekly Log: August 13 to 19

My life will undergo a massive change next week when I head off to college. While I feel somewhat nervous doing something so different, I'm extremely excited to step in a new era of running and explore the collegiate scene. Wrapping things up this week with more solid training and some fun local events, The Bottone Mile and Wahaneeta.

Monday: 6 Miles

Easy run from home. Went out pretty late but it was weirdly very cloudy out so I felt pretty comfortable. Tried to keep things controlled and relaxed and managed an over 7:00 pace. A bit heavy but felt good otherwise. Had some weird ankle pain which was a little worrying, but fortunately it went away in the second half.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Had the choice of either running a hilly route or doing a hill workout, so chose the latter because I'm used to that. Wanted to incorporate the final Stonington Fun Run in somehow, so went to Mystic around 5 and did 8xMistuxet Ave which was very steep in the middle. Gave it a steady, moderate effort without pushing too hard. Remembered I had Bottone the next day, which made me glad I wasn't racing. Did the Stonington Fun Run easy with Dad as a CD, but felt exhausted. Difficulty: 2/5 (likely a 4/5 had I really pushed it).

Wednesday: 11 Miles

Needed 10 and since Bottone was just 1 mile, I didn't feel like doing 5 WU, 4 CD later in the evening, especially as I was going moderately hard. Did 6 in the morning pretty late. Kept things easy/relaxed like Monday and while I did have any pains, unlike Monday it was pretty hot out. Kept things peaceful going only on neighborhood roads, but was insanely heavy from the hill workout (despite feeling fine Tuesday) and was somewhat worried about Bottone. Went by pretty quickly and felt decent for an exposed 80 degrees.

Ran the Bottone Mile later which was fun but it was really hard to adjust to running that fast on roads, especially in a moderate effort. There's something completely different when I'm in a racing attitude versus a taking it somewhat easy attitude. I actually went out slower the first quarter mile than I did in my fun run CR attempt (and felt worse). The contenders were basically Nick Fitch (URI 800 runner, 1:52 PR), Chris Garvin, Tommy 5K and Keith McAteer. Maybe Aaron. Keith shot out as I tried to be more conservative/relaxed. Nick Fitch led the whole way and didn't seem to be pushing the pace. It seemed like he wanted one of us to pass, but that wasn't happening. Sat 5-10 meters back from him and tried to keep up. The effort was definitely harder than expected but the pace was about right in the mid to high 4:30s. Garvin stayed right behind me. Nick started to pick things up with 600m to go and I kept my pace steady, letting him go. Chris passed me soon after that. Everyone started to kick going down Uzzi and Nick was pulling away. I kept about 15-20m behind Chris and stayed there, finishing in 4:39 for 3rd place. Full results. Pretty good effort. Right around the time I wanted, even if it felt harder than expected. I think I could have cracked 4:30 had I gone all-out.  2 Mile CD with Keith to make 11 for the day.

Thursday: 7 Miles

Schedule called for a day off, but taking Thursday off seemed to weird and I wasn't going to be able to do the full 12 on Saturday because of my race, so I figured I'd get in an easy 5-7 miles on trails for recovery. Ended up running earlier than usual with Keith and Dad in Burlinggame. Pretty relaxed on mostly easy trails but I was dead from lack of sleep. Nice dip in the pond afterwards.

Friday: 7 Miles

Ran with Dad later in the afternoon. Had a lot going on in the morning that made it difficult to fit in a run. Ran from Watch Hill and local, mostly flat roads taking it easy at low 7s pace. Felt okay.

Saturday: 7 Miles

Wahaneeta Trail Race. I guess I'll do a separate race report, because I technically did race it. Not sure if I went 100% but definitely a really hard effort, just not sure if I held back on loop 2. Was glad to get the CR and W in 18:59 even if I would have liked to run a bit faster. Not very focused/strong in the back half.

Sunday: 13 Miles

Was a little skeptical about this because I had just raced and I had been exhausted from sleep deprivation for the last twoish days (including during and post Wahaneeta). Slept 10ish hours and headed from the house at a late 11 start time. Fortunately the weather was decent in the lower 70s, no sun. Felt okay but pretty sluggish for the first 5 miles at low 6:50s then start to hurt going into a tough headwind for 3 miles on Atlantic Avenue. Was just dead after that and even though I got into the 6:30s for the last 5 miles, my legs were starting to kill and I was hurting badly. Tough run, but glad to finish it up to get in an LR this week and hit 60.

Weekly Total: 60 Miles
YTD Total: 1,300 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Getting in some racing Wednesday and Saturday before heading off to college. Nothing beats local WTAC races.

Weekly Lowlight: Feeling pretty tired the whole week, especially dying on my long run. Was by far the worst feeling LR of the summer.

Coming Up: Run 4 Kerri Post, Wahaneeta Post, Summer Wrap-Up Post, (maybe) College Expectations/goals post, (in a while) high pointing 2018 wrap-up post