Weekly Log: March 25 to 31

Injury strikes again.

Monday: 11 Miles

Was just looking for an easy 8 or so, but I guess today was long run day since we worked out Sunday and I just went with it. Got to do a new route, Stepping Stones which was pretty cool. Took me a little while to warm-up and start feeling smooth but once I did, the rest of the run was a breeze. We ran decently fast too with an average pace of 6:31. Had some lower shin discomfort throughout that was constantly annoying but never painful. Little did I know that it was not just another random ache.

Lift, abs after.

Tuesday: 10 Miles

Bennett with a big group but today I was tight and tired so a sub-6:30 felt pretty difficult. Shin felt significantly worse which I wasnt expecting and while after a few moments of pain, it switched to discomfort again, having that pain in the first place didn't feel so great. Iced both my legs from the knee down for 10 minutes in the cold tub (not sure what the name is) after, figured that would do the trick.

Wednesday: 0 Miles

Woke up with some pretty bad shin pain, a lot of wincing. Biked for 20 minutes as the decent bikes with displays (mileage, time) and better seats were taken so I had to go on a really crappy one. Couldn't really take it, so 20 mins was my max. No idea on mileage, maybe 6 or so. Iced that night.

Lift, abs.

Thursday: 0 Miles

Nothing today. Coach was in Raleigh, NC for the Raleigh Relays so I couldn't really talk to him about the injury. Went to see the athletic trainers who did some things that were supposed to help. Still a lot of pain today.

Friday: 0 Miles

Still painful but a decent amount better. Got more treatment there but opted not to cross train because cross training is a boring grind (and I figured I'd get better sooner).

abs

Saturday: 0 Miles

No exercise today. Went to Odiorne Point State Park on a Bio field trip, so that was kinda cool.

Sunday: 3 Miles

Pain was pretty much gone although still some discomfort so I decided to run. 3 miles, faculty. Super uncomfortable for a mile then felt okay for the remainder. Immediately after- very high levels of pain. Probably the closest I've come to limping. Obviously a big mistake to run today, but how I can possibly know what I can run on and what I can't?

Weekly Total: 24 Miles
YTD Total: 680 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Going to pass on this one.

Weekly Lowlight: Just as I was getting into good shape, this happens. It's not hard to see why- last week was way too hard with not a whole of easy days and that was immediately following a couple of very easy/down weeks. Wish I had a little more input on my training, I feel like this could have easily been prevented just by dropping a couple hard sessions from last week or even taking Monday off. Either way, I'm injured now and just have to deal with it.

It's pretty clear this isn't an injury that I can just run through and unlike past injuries, it responds the same to easy short runs as it does to harder or longer runs. I feel the treatment was almost completely useless, guess I'll try to figure out the optimal rest time while icing and getting in some cross training. This could either be a season ender or a temporary setback, but the last thing I want to do is run when I'm not ready to run yet (like Sunday) and make it worse than it previously was.

Movies Watched: Apostle, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Question of the week: How long will it take me to get a six pack doing 3 8-minute ab workouts a week?

Weekly Log: March 18 to 24

Back to UNH, for the first "official" week of outdoor training. Probably in decent shape right now, just trying to tune up in the next three weeks to be ready to run fast times.

Monday: 8 Miles

The usual hill workout we sometimes do on Monday, 5xCoe and 5xBus Stop. The combination of me getting sick (cough, lots of mucus in chest) and everyone going unusually really fast today made for a tough time. After two coes, I got dropped early and hard on every single one (and was the only one to get dropped). Definitely not encouraging, but at the same time it's not like there was much I could do. Difficulty: 5/5.

Also I better get into the habit of logging these before I forget completely. Trying to do some light lifting (squats, arm stuff) and for the first time ever consistently, ab workouts. Hoping to do these 3x a week, only dropping off for races. I probably won't lift in the summer but can hopefully maintain/continue ab workouts so I'm not super flabby come fun run time.

Lift, abs.

Tuesday: 7 Miles

Jenkins 5 mile tempo, this time the pace was much more controlled as Tim paced and not Dean. Was feeling really crappy on the run, a lot of head pressure then went straight to the back and basically hung on the entire time. Glad to never get dropped, but pretty much was struggling/hurting after half a mile. 5:40 average, the slowest but by far the hardest tempo I've done yet. Difficulty: 5/5. Kinda annoying to do these low key workouts that should be pretty easy and have such a hard time with them. Note to readers: don't get sick.

Wednesday: 9 Miles

Bennett. Rumors of a hard track workout going on, so really glad that wasn't the case. Either way, on this "easy" run, I still felt pretty awful. Was thinking of dropping off, so when we went from 6:30s to 6:10s and Mike dropped back as well (also sick with the same thing), I dropped back with him. Felt a little better after that.

Lift, abs.

Thursday: 10 Miles

Getting into real workouts now. 2 mile warm-up followed by a gate-to-gate tempo (2 mile road). These are usually really tough as we go from 5:20ish to sub-5:10 but today's was a lot slower and moved from about 5:55 to 5:30. Felt super comfortable although my legs felt horrible and not controlled at all. Weirdly gapped everyone by like 50 meters even though I wasn't pushing it all. Came back for the track session. Workout was 2x(2K/1K) with 3-4 mins rest in between and 2K at 6:15, 1K at 3:04. This was pretty tough as it was a ton of laps indoors, I was still feeling pretty crappy from sickness and Dean paced the first two, which meant they were way too fast. 2K was brutal, hanging on for 12.5 laps. Not a super hard effort, but really tiring and jumped into the back afterwards for the remaining distances. 1K felt super fast, then a tough transition back to all those laps, fortunately it was a little slower. The last 1K was a buildup, I was hoping just to hit the 3:04 again and surprised myself by going under (although I still got absolutely destroyed by everyone else except Ryan). 6:08/2:59/6:12/2:57. Difficulty: 5/5. Another tough one.

Friday: 8 Miles

Pudding Hill. Started out with a huge group. Billy went to the front and ran his easy pace, which is 6:10 and sure as hell is not my easy pace. Strung the rest of us along (apparently the entire back half of the group dropped off immediately and ran 7:10s the whole way, but i missed that) for some difficult sub-6:20 miles. Broke off with a couple guys halfway in yet still ran pretty fast but definitely much more comfortable after that. 6:17 average.

Lift, abs

Saturday: 9 Miles

Short Snell into Gables, slower pace today but I felt really weak out there. Very windy out for a lot of it. Started to feel better in the last few miles.

Sunday: 9 Miles

Unexpected track workout, probably my first ever Sunday workout. We ended up going on the outdoor track for the first time since October (?) and it was really nice to finally get outside and not run so many laps/tight turns for a change. Really long workout this morning, kinda weird too.
Everything below is at 5 min pace (75s/400) and 2 min rest between reps, 5 mins between sets.

Set 1- 400/800/200/1000
Set 2- 1000/800/1200/1000
Set 3- 800/400/200/1000

Some wind and some spots with snow (very short) that was hard to avoid but mostly pretty good conditions. It felt fast and pretty hard at first, but I gradually eased into it and felt a lot better, although it never got easy. Main group was Tim, Davis, Nick and I. Ryan and Phil fell off the pace pretty early and never got back with us on the longer reps. I tailed in the back and tried to stay close.

Splits:

Set 1- 74/2:29/38/3:07
Set 2- 3:06/2:31/3:43/3:10
Set 3- 2:33/73/35/3:06

Definitely pleased with how this workout went. Felt tough, but doable. Always tired and working hard, but never dying or about to drop off. Probably felt a lot more like my normal self than in any other workout this week. Also feel like this will be good endurance work for the 5K/10K. Difficulty: 3/5.

Weekly Total: 62 Miles
YTD Total: 656 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Really rough week as I felt terrible on so many runs, but overall, a great week of training. Obviously would have liked to feel better and take some more easy days, but considering I got in a couple of quality track workouts plus some other stuff while never feeling too beat up (body-wise, I felt terrible energy-wise) this week should do a lot for my fitness and get me closer to being race ready. I would say the highlight besides just having a good training block would be Sunday's workout as I felt not great, but decent for the first hard effort probably in over a month and half.

Weekly Lowlight: Really struggled with some really easy/light workouts like the hills and tempos. These are workouts no one really gets dropped on, but I did as I just felt really terrible. Never fun to have such a hard time with things, but I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing as I was partially sick and I'm still training and working to get into great shape/feel great and am certainly not there just yet.

Hoping for another group of quality workouts next week, but am hoping to take it slightly easier. Feeling like crap or not, this week was still a bit much. It doesn't take much for me to get into shape, and I think I'll be ready to compete in two weeks from now. First 60 mile week in a while, just wish I could be more consistent with mileage.

Movies Watched: Our Idiot Brother, *Minority Report, *Lord of War, *Brawl in Cell Block 99, *The Edge of Seventeen, Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot, Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
*Rewatch

Also, I am working on a highpointing recap of 2018 now that I finished and published all my youtube videos on them. It's long and hard to remember all the details, so I really can't say whether it'll come within the next couple weeks or not until the summer (or later!). It's hard to find motivation to write so much on things that were so long ago and I find that I'll write huge sections at one time but then not revisit the post until weeks later.

Spring Break- Weekly Log: March 11 to 17

Week of spring break with the rest of the florida trip and some running at home.

Monday: 7 Miles

Morning run in Key West, tried to explore the area east of the hotel this time which was less exciting and scenic. Found a shaded path but still 80 degrees and I felt pretty awful on this run. Would have liked to do more just having a rough time even getting to 7. Several stops where I just wanted to call it a day. Funny how running on vacation is tougher than running back in New England.

White Street, Key West

Tuesday: 4 Miles

Finally went to Miami and crossed it off the bucket list. Not a city person but this has always appealed to me, and I really enjoyed running here. We got to a really late start and had to shorten this run significantly. Ran from Margaret pace park, a green area on the water downtown (near Biscayne Boulevard, route one) to an out and back on Venetian causeway. Great water views and views of the city, great run overall. Brought my phone on this one, hopefully the photos will make this log more interesting.

Start of run, Margaret Pace Park on left. 

Views on and along Venetian Causeway.

Plan was to double back later on trails but I randomly got really sick in the afternoon. Got back from a (hot) day in Miami beach with an upset stomach and as soon as I exited the car at the hotel, I threw up multiple times. Felt increasingly terrible after that (a lot more throwing up too), probably the worst pain I've ever been in before (for just 2-4 hours or so). Slept from 5pm-7am the next morning (while waking up every 15 minutes with aches and stomach pain). Terrible night, bummed I had to miss the run.

Wednesday: 3 Miles

Is 3 miles better than 0? Wanted to get in a run, we went to the trails we had missed the previous afternoon. I felt extremely weak and achy, and while I didn't have the horrible stomach pain of the previous day I felt really horrible. Slogged around, called it at 3. Everything hurt and ached.

Thursday: 8 Miles

Ninigret Park, disappointed about missing mileage and seeing cool venues but felt good, and ran a normal distance and pace, so that was good enough for me. Definitely a quick turnaround from feeling like I was about to die to normal running. Pretty usual route, trails were muddy. Kinda sluggish but overall solid. Got the last couple miles sub-6:30 even though the effort felt like 7:00. Can't remember the last time I went to Ninigret and had a run that was anything less than good, it is by far my favorite place to run.

Friday: 7 Miles

Burlingame, felt really sluggish and clumsy but fun to get back out the trails as I haven't been in a while. Scrambled for mileage in Kimball and Kettle Pond, fun trails but got kinda boring/repetitive after a while.

Saturday: 10 Miles

Another enjoyable local route, parked at Green Hill and we ran the Kerri Loop as well as the Trustom Pond trails which are always fun. Prepared for just an easy pace again, felt really good and ran effortless 6:30s. Legs felt terrible although it wasn't enough to keep me from feeling smooth. The trail broke things up really nicely and made getting to 10 go by a lot quicker. Last mile coming back on Mautunuck Schoolhouse seemed really long but I still felt good and picked it up for a 5:44 last mile. Enjoy fast finishes on easy runs, its too bad I can only do them during low effort/high mileage periods. Great weather, although pretty windy in spots.

Sunday: 12 Miles

Richmond road/trail mix, trails in Carolina which was nice because I hadn't run there in a while. Felt similar to yesterday- smooth but heavy. Ran much slower though and it was much colder. First two miles felt really cold into the wind then felt smooth for the rest of the run. Had to do awkward out and backs to get 12, hate coming up short.

Weekly Total: 52 Miles
YTD Total: 594 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Pretty solid week overall. Went by way too quickly, but I enjoyed most of the runs back in RI and obviously a highlight to get down to Florida (even if it was way too hot) and cross Miami and Key West off my bucket list. Tuesday's run was probably my favorite of the bunch.

Weekly Lowlight: Getting sick, feeling terrible and the lost mileage that comes with it. Not thrilled to take a combined 7 miles for two days, especially when I was looking forward to exploring new places. Wish my weekly mileage had been a little higher overall.

Going to introduce a new item to the weekly log: movies watched. Haven't been on top of my movie watching game in a long time, but I enjoy watching them as much as possible in my free time, so I figure it's something worth adding and should vary things up from the strict running only format.

Movies Watched: Mile 22, Bad Times at the El Royale, Hotel Artemis, The Old Man and the Gun, *Bridesmaids, *The 40-Year-Old Virgin, *Knocked Up
*Denotes a movie I've seen before

Following up from getting into Mount Washington Road Race, I also got into the Beach to Beacon 10K which is in Early August. This one didn't have the same lottery chance but rather a general registration that you needed to sign up for right at 7AM Thursday or miss signing up entirely. Waited patiently, pressed buttons when they popped up and eventually was confirmed to be in. Not the great joy I experienced upon received the Mount Washington email but excited for this one as well.

Now having gotten into these two prestigious and exclusive races, I think my three hard efforts of the summer will be Mt. Washington, Blessing and Beach to Beacon. There's plenty of room for other races in there, specifically some early Mtn races I'll have the chance but most other stuff will be low-key or moderate efforts. 

Weekly Log: March 4 to 10

Another week of relatively easy training.

Monday: 8 Miles

Pudding Hill again. Normally hate running the same route again so soon (did this saturday) but due to the change in the group size (at least 5 guys on this) it wasn't bad. Also been running pretty slow/relaxed recently that running sub-6:30s at the end felt really fast.

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Was planning on running easy until after spring break, but I guess other people had different ideas. Everyone else was doing a tempo, so I decided to just go with it. 4-mile tempo with a 2-mile warm-up. Went out very comfortably before slowly getting out of my comfort zone. Mile one was a 5:53, which is definitely slower than tempo pace. Dean (likes to push the pace) started getting a slight gap on the rest of us so I decided to go with him and immediately after catching up to him, he started really pushing the pace and dropped me after what felt like a really fast mile (it was, a 5:15). I was probably running way too hard effort wise at that point but didn't want to embarrassingly be caught by everyone else (after I had made a move around them) so I kept a hard but not all out effort. Dean opened up about a 12 second gap that mile as I ran a 5:21 (he was likely sub-5:10). We both kinda slogged it in, I ran about a 5:32 and the gap didn't seem to increase at all. 2 mile cooldown. Stupidly hard effort, but the pacing was obviously pretty bad (going 5:53/5:32/5:21/5:15 would have been much better) and I'm still a little rusty anyway (probably still in very good shape, just not ready to push it). Difficulty: 4/5.

Wednesday: 7 Miles

Short rose in faculty. Cold run, felt kinda weak but not too bad overall. Pace was 6:40 and felt really comfortable.

Thursday: 8 Miles

An exact repeat of yesterday's run except I tacked on another mile, felt really good today after a weak start. Last run in Durham, going to be nice to get out of here.

Friday: 7 Miles

Got off the train in Mystic and we went to the Y after for a run. Ate pretty horrible throughout the day (pretty much just ate snacks) and was expecting to feeling pretty terrible, so it was a pleasant surprise to feel very controlled and relaxed throughout.

Saturday: 7 Miles

The complete opposite of yesterday, felt tight and tired the entire time and was just glad to be done. Charlestown roads to the beach.

Sunday: 8 Miles

Was probably looking for a little more but no great window to squeeze in a run on this Florida. Lots of time in the car, finally got to Key West and ran from the hotel. Very hot at 82 degrees and plenty of open sunny spot. Despite getting 4ish hours of sleep the previous night and not eating a whole lot during the day, I felt pretty solid throughout the run and mostly avoided heat exhaustion. Started off with Dad and Brady but we split ways after 2. Hugged the coastline and ran on piers, state parks and beaches before moving back to roads for sidewalks and crosswalks. Got back to the hotel at 6.5, so had to find a little mileage where definitely was feeling the heat. Very enjoyable run, liked exploring this new place. Also ran decently fast, average of 6:23 which didn't feel too difficult other than the heat factor.

(Sorry, no photos. Saw a lot of cool places but no phone for pictures. Also navigated back without any phone.)

Weekly Total: 54 Miles
YTD Total: 542 Miles

Weekly Highlight: While brutally hot at times, definitely enjoyed doing something totally different and running in Key West. Awesome scenery and environment throughout.

Weekly Lowlight: Nothing huge this week, just kind of itching to get going on training. Felt like total crap on Saturday too. Also felt like both my eating and sleeping schedules got really messed up towards the end of the week.

Weekly Log: February 25 to March 3

Restarting somewhat physically and mentally. Very easy week, a little time off before easy and low mileage. Trying to keep indoor and XC in the past and get ready for the 5-7 meets of the outdoor season. 

Monday- Wednesday: 0 Miles. Intentional rest days. Feels so nice not to go to practice at 3 like usual. 

Thursday: 6 Miles

Short rose into Gables with Tim, Dean and Nate. Probably my favorite route. Felt mostly solid but had very sore calves that got worse as I went on and some chest heaviness/pain.

Friday: 7 Miles

Jenkins with a group of guys, I think Ryan, Dean, Mike, Davis and Cody. Felt decent, legs were somewhat tight. Still some leftover soreness but none of the chest problems. 

Saturday: 8 Miles

Andrew and I did Pudding Hill, very enjoyable loop at a nice and easy 7:05 pace. Felt heavy and wobbly at the start but eased in and felt relaxed for most of it. Suddenly had to poop 5 miles in, it was somewhat of a disaster. 

Sunday: 9 Miles

Bennett with Andrew again. Pretty enjoyable, we ran pretty slow today as well and I felt really good, easily the best of any run this week. Got kinda weak the last mile but it didn't really ruin the run at all. 

Weekly Total: 31 Miles

YTD Total: 488 Miles

Not real highlights or lowlights this week, but...

Weekly Highlight: Kinda nice to have a real down week, stress levels were pretty low. 

Weekly Lowlight: Definitely still somewhat hard to stomach the failures of the indoor season. It's nice to take a break from racing when hard work has paid off and I have performances behind I'm happy with, but when hard work has led to absolutely no results, I only want to race more to redeem myself. In that regard, it's going to a brutal 5-week wait to race again. Just hoping the conditions can be right for each one and I'll be ready to go by then.

February 11 to the 23rd

Really haven't been motivated to blog recently, just find myself being weeks behind and having no interest in going back and doing write ups. Had a week off after racing at URI with a decent workout in there. Got sick and had a couple rough days. Never 100% got rid of the cold but mostly returned to normal right before my big race at conference. Was all excited and felt very ready/confident to destroy 15 minutes in the 5K and potentially double back with a solid close to 8:30 3K the 2nd day. Totally bombed both of them in a very disappointing and honestly extremely depressing weekend. Running used to have so much reward and generally with a few exceptions, if I put in the work, I got out results. Now everything is a struggle and its stressful and frustrating to put so much effort in and be faced with random annoying problems instead of feeling good while blowing up in major races that should have been excellent for me.

Definitely feeling down after two pretty terrible seasons in a row. Indoor was still a lot better than cross country but after getting to such a good point in fitness with a good number of solid races behind my back, it was really disappointing to have all four of my last races end in poor results. The biggest disappointment, however, was not breaking 15 minutes in the 5K. Given my fitness level and excellent workouts, it seemed very doable to get under 15 as long as the pace wasn't too fast or slow. Both races (New Englands and Conference) were perfect pace-wise (Conference was a little slow, but was perfect for those feeling good at 4K) and while I was spot on through 2K, I felt terrible after the halfway point in both and never recovered. The 5K is definitely a tough event and will take some guts to run a fast time, but it's also felt way harder than its supposed to.

Outdoor will be a weird season, its hard to feel too optimistic as the opportunities are extremely limited and the racing window is very short. April is basically 4 weeks of noncompetitive races then conference and new englands, which are both good opportunities but it'll honestly be hard to prove myself worthy by then since I won't have any/many chances to run fast. The one best shot is going to either the very competitive Larry Ellis invitational on April 19 (at Princeton, although I highly doubt I'd go to that) or the Jay Carisella Coaches Invitational (Northeastern's track at Dedham). I definitely have a chance to go to that one, although whether or not there is good competition will remain to be seen, as there wasn't last year. They did add a 10K to the list of the events for this year, so I'm guessing they have more confidence in having stronger fields this year. It's a shame how many great opportunities there are on the schedule that I won't be going to. I could potentially run in only competitive meets and skip all the noncompetitive ones as there's one of each every weekend. The fast runners have Raleigh Relays, Colonial relays, providence invitational, larry ellis invitational, penn relays, conference and new englands wheres the first five of those for me will likely be replaced with dual/tri meets for every single one. My goals are to run fast in every possible distance, including 800, 1500, 3000, 5000, and 10000. While I'm sure it won't be exactly like this, I would like to race something like this:

UNH Dual/Tri #1 (April 6)- 1500, goal of 4:02 (double back in 5k?)
UNH Dual/Tri #2 (April 13)- 3000, goal of 8:30 (?)
Larry Ellis or Jay Carisella (April 19-20)- 5000, goal of sub-15 or faster
Holy Cross Dual/Tri (April 23)- 800, goal of 1:58 (not sure if coach would let me race an 8 though)
UNH Pre-Conference (April 27)- 1500, goal of sub-4 (double back in 5k?)
America East (May 4-5) 10000/5000 double, goal of 31:30ish and maybe sub-15
New Englands (May 10-11) 5000- goal of 14:45 or faster
Battle Road TC #2 (May 18)- 800, 1500, 3000 or 10K

Obviously this is all subject to change but these are my goals/target races for now. The battle road track meet would only be a week after and seems pretty competitive, so if I was feeling healthy/racing well I'd jump into whatever distance I was least satisfied with. There are more battle road meets after, but not until june so I'd probably call it a season there. I'm not expecting to hit all these, I would be satisfied if I broke 4 in the 1500 and 15 in the 5K.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on both past and future races, back to the weekly logs.

Week: February 11 to 17 

Monday: 9 Miles

Did Bennett with some of the distance guys, felt really comfortable at 6:45 pace. Really nice run, went by quickly. 

Tuesday: 8 Miles

Short rose as a warm-up then a mini workout of 20x160m in 25s-27s (probably 31s-33s for 200s) on 80m jog rest. Felt mostly fine, just an easy and relaxed session. Tim led them all, so never had to worry about pacing. A little break inbetween. Difficulty: 1/5.

Wednesday: 9 Miles

6x800 at 2:18 w/3 min rest followed by 4x400 at 65 on 2 min rest. Really tough, was getting sick around this point and just felt weak and tired throughout. Felt like I was about to get dropped but never did, so definitely still a solid session. 2:19/2:17/2:18/2:18/2:15/2:16/64/65/64/62. Difficulty: 5/5. 

Thursday: 7 Miles

People were being annoying so I just pushed ahead (pace was pretty slow too) and ran by myself for peace and quiet. Felt kinda weak, just kind of a boring run. 

Friday: 4 Miles

Felt pretty terrible thursday night through Friday. Worked out with Phil who apparently was also sick. Supposed to be 5x160, 3x1000 at 2:57 on 3 min rest, 5x160, buildup 500. 5x160 felt okay, the 1000s were brutal, which was kind of frustrating considering they would be pretty relaxed had I not been sick. I actually mostly hit the splits but felt awful doing so and was inconsistent in the pacing. Phil paced the 2nd one, which was a little off but I felt way too terrible to pass. Coach ended it there, I didn't even cool down. Difficulty: 5/5. 1Ks were 2:55/3:01/2:57.

Saturday: 7 Miles

Went home, 7 miles at Ninigret with Dad. Felt weak and out of it but it slightly improved towards the end of the run. Very congested. 

Sunday: 10 Miles

Pawcatuck mix of roads and trails, felt much better but had trouble breathing and still felt weak and congested in points. 

Weekly Total: 54 Miles

YTD Total: 418 Miles

Week: February 18 to 24

Monday: 7 Miles

Short rose into gables, snowing pretty hard which made for a slower and more difficult run but a pretty fun one. Followed up with 6x200 in 31-32s on 120m jog recovery. Had trouble breathing on those. 

Tuesday: 7 Miles

Faculty into cow barn for 5 plus strides and a short cool down. Felt okay during the run but really tight during strides. 

Wednesday: 6 Miles

Garrity at 6:35 pace, felt faster but comfortable plus some strides again which felt much more comfortable. 

Thursday: 4 Miles

Emerson short run for a pre-race shakeout, pretty tight on strides again which was annoying. 

Friday: 10 Miles

Conference 5K, don't have much to say about this that I haven't said on strava or above. Showed up with ambition and hope for a big performance, left pretty unhappy. Really nervous pre-race, felt terrible during the race (after halfway). Got lapped my teammate who broke 15 for the first time and finished 2nd to the last in the whole race. Long and reflective cool down. 

Saturday: 5 Miles

Decided to do the 3K anyways, did just as bad if not worse. Got 3rd to last this time. Race was near perfect with a 4:36 first mile that actually felt solid but for whatever reason I really faded from there. Never even felt terrible, but somewhat tired and off. Seemed fitting to run terrible again, it'd almost be weird at this point if I started raced well. Almost got lapped by Nico who won the heat in 8:27.

Sunday: 0 Miles

Weekly Total: 39 Miles

YTD Total: 457 Miles

Pass on highlights/lowlights this week, obviously a really bad week. 

To end on a positive note,

...really excited and happy to get into the Mt. Washington road race for this year. Been on my bucket list for a long time. Still figuring out hiking and racing plans for the summer, but unless I'm injured or something, I definitely will be racing this. Will give some kind of update on summer racing/hiking before outdoor starts.

Weekly Log: February 4 to 10

Meet at URI. Trying to return to normal after an awful week and run a fast mile.

Monday: 10 Miles

Short Snell into Gables plus 5x160m strides. Felt really smooth and relaxed the whole way through.

Tuesday: 11 Miles

Wednesday Hill with a 3-4 mile fartlek session (30s on, 1 min off). Pretty relaxed and easy, felt a little tight. Did a build up mile (supposed to be 5 min pace through 1200, fast last 400) on the indoor track after. Felt tired but still smooth and relaxed- 3:42 through 1200 then 63 the last 400 for 4:45. Difficulty: 2/5.

Wednesday: 8 Miles

More speed-oriented workout, legs were totally trashed today so I was thankful for that. 8x400 at 66s w/2-3 min recovery. Dean, Tyler and Michael. They felt kinda fast but since there were so short, they weren't that difficult. Legs felt horrible throughout. Difficulty: 3/5. 66/66/66/65/62/65/63/62.

Thursday: 7 Miles

Jenkins run. Don't remember much about this except that I felt really tight and uncomfortable.

Friday: 6 Miles

Pre-meet Garrity run. Really tight again, thinking there is something wrong with my shoes as it did improve when I loosened them. Dropped off and ran slow solo. Really locked up during strides.

Saturday: 8 Miles

URI Coaches Tribute Meet, 1 Mile.

Was looking forward to something fast, in the low 4:20s range. Field was pretty decent, I didn't even make the fast heat with a 4:23 seed. Felt surprisingly pretty good on warm-ups, almost zero tightness. Race went off. Boxed in for the first three laps or so but the pace seemed solid so I didn't mind. Nick Celico made a huge move at 600 and really spread out the field. I tried my best to counter it and went with my teammate Nico. Looked like 2:11/2:12 through 800 so I was happy with that. It felt fast but I was feeling pretty good. Came around in what looked like 3:20 which was a little worrying. Didn't feel great in the last 400 but felt like I was still pushing it. Couldn't hang with a PC guy but did manage to pass Nick Celico at the end. Thought I was in for at least a decent time, so was shocked to barely break 4:30.

Really disappointing race, felt like I put in a solid effort and while I may have lost a little time with a not-so-great last 400, literally every stage of the race ended up being significantly slower than I expected. Ran an awful 4:29, but it honestly felt like a 4:24 which I would have been okay with. Two bad races in a row, but I should ready for some fast times at Conference.

Sunday: 13 Miles

Tiring but solid long run with Dad on Mystic roads. Feeling pretty weak in those last few miles.

Weekly Total: 64 Miles
YTD Total: 364 Miles

Weekly Highlight: Not much of a highlight, but I do feel like I'm starting to feel more like normal.

Weekly Lowlight: The race was pretty disappointed and the way I felt coming into it.