Monday, April 11, 2011 – AM: I took some Benadryl last night and slept like a rock from 9:30pm-8:30am. I woke up feeling a bit groggy, but glad to have gotten a good night’s rest. Right before heading into school, I realized that I had my course registration for the fall at 10:30am and I wasn’t at all prepared. So, I ended up scrambling my shit together and not having time to do my morning run before class.
Instead, I ended up doing my first run right after my morning class – around 11:45am. I felt pretty good and had a nice easy run on Lakes. I ran all the way to Boston ave basically and then turned around, so that I maximized my time on the nice dirt trail along the river. Essentially, 2x lakes. I was feeling pretty good by the end, especially since it was beautiful out – sunny and in the 60s.
The total run was 6M+ in 46:03.
PM: I grabbed a quick lunch and then headed to EMID where we had our presentations. One of our group members – who was supposed to do the demo - didn’t show up, so it was a bit of a cluster fuck, but it ended up okay.
After this, I headed down to Baronian for a nice run with the guys. It was really warm – in the low 70s and sunny. We headed out in a big group towards the Fells. I was glad to find that everyone seemed to be pretty tired and so the pace was very easy. We ran on Short Res and it was really beautiful in the woods. A really great day to be in there. I felt pretty good too – no limping again. I was a bit tired since I had run my first run only a few hours before, but it wasn’t too bad.
Once we got back, I tacked on a bit and then did FULL-full foot drills in my socks on the grass. These felt solid. I laid around for a while and then did some circuit work before heading out.
The total run was 7M+ in 53:59.
PM2: The circuit was 4 sets of [25-30 crunches, 10 pushups, 30x bicycles, 20x static lunge, 10x deep squat].
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 – AM: I slept pretty well last night and woke up naturally around 7:45am. The calve was a bit stiff, as it seems to be in the mornings, so I just did some core – 100s, 50s, 30x side dip, 30x toes to sky, 30x cherry pickers, 30x leg lift.
PM: I had a productive afternoon after a long morning of classes. I headed over to practice a bit before 3:00pm for a workout at Baronian. I jogged 1M easy on the infield to warm up and then headed out with a big pack to continue warming up through Porter. The total warm up was about 4M in 30 minutes back to Baronian. After this, I took a quick pee and then changed into my new flats (thus far un-named) and did full foot drills on the grass.
I was feeling pretty lousy as I was doing these final warm-ups and drills. I just felt a bit tired. I had felt decent on my warm-up, but I noticed that my heart-rate was quite elevated even a few minutes after I finished jogging (over 120bpm). I was trying hard not to go into the workout with a negative attitude, but there was definitely a lurking fear in the back of my mind that I was not ready to work out today.
After the drills, I did a few quicker strides and then a 200m with the first 100 @10k pace and the second at 5k pace, ~36.5. Finally, I got together with Nick and Matt and we headed off together.
The workout was 2 sets of [1600m, 3x800m] with 90 seconds rest between each rep and 4:00 between the two sets. The goal paces were ~75 for the 1600m and ~72 for the 800m. At the end, we would do 4x200m with 60 seconds rest.
The weather was decent: cloudy and around 60F with winds ~10mph into the back straight. The wind was noticeable, but not terrible.
I led us through the first mile rep and it was quite even. Matt was a second or so ahead of us by 400m, so it was really just Nick and I. The pace actually felt pretty reasonable and we ran 4:59.8, which I was pretty pleased with, especially given how lousy I’d been feeling a few minutes earlier.
The short rest before the 800s was pretty tough. The first rep felt fast – and it was for the first 200m. I followed Nick as he lead us through right behind Matt in 34-35 for the first 200m. From this point, I was feeling pretty cooked and struggled to maintain contact. I slowed down a lot on the second lap and was not feeling great. The pace still just felt fast. The next rep was similar; we were out a bit fast in 34.h and then I really struggled again, running the second lap in 75. The last rep was really disheartening, as I could only manage a 2:32 – slower than my 10k pace.
The 4:00 rest was long and very welcome. During this time, I changed from the flats into my Tumbes spikes. I felt much better going into the second 1600m and it showed as we ran the first lap in 73 and it felt more like a 75-76. From there, we settled down and I still managed to come through in 4:56. The 90 sec rest was short again and Nick led us through the first 800m, this time taking us out very slow in 37.x. Feeling good, I passed him on the home straight and led the next lap with Brunk – who had joined us – in 72. The next rep was similar, but a more controlled start, running 2:25. I really felt the short rest by the last rep and positive split 73/74 to run a 2:27. Much better than the first set, but still not great overall. Also, I really felt the difference between the spikes and flats – especially on the faster work. I found myself running much more up on my toes when running in the spikes, which could explain why the pace felt a bit easier.
After this, we took another 4:00 jog before starting the 200s. We would only be taking 60 sec rest between each, so we would alternate where we started each one. The first and third would be into the wind with the 2nd and 4th with the wind. We were supposed to run these controlled at “mile pace,” which Murner had said was about 33.
Nick and I ran these together, running 33.0, 30.6, 31.0, 30.2. It felt fast but definitely not all out sprinting. I tried to focus on keeping relaxed and keeping my form together.
I cooled down through Porter again with Matty and Nick and then tacked on a bit on the field to round it up to 3M.
Overall, this was an okay workout. I think it showed that I really need to let myself recover over the next couple of days. I think I’ve underestimated how much time my body would need to recover after Sam Howell and now I’m still feeling the lingering effects of that race and the following week.
I’m kind of frustrated that I can’t seem to run well at 5k pace right now, especially given that I’m supposed to race a 5k in 4 days. I’m hoping that I’m still just on the up-swing in terms of recovery and this workout didn’t catch me at my 100%. It’s frustrating to not be able to keep up with guys who I know I can run with. On a positive note, it’s pretty inspiring to watch Matt crush these workouts. He killed it today and ran like 4:50s and 2:20s looking smooth. The kid should run 14:3x and 30:2x-3x this year. Can’t wait to see it.
Splits:
4M w/u, drills, strides, 200m in 36.x
4:59.8 (74.8, 74.5, 75.6, 74.8)
90 sec jog
2:25.3 (71.6, 73.7)
90 sec jog
2:26.7 (71.8, 74.9)
90 sec jog
2:32.0 (no splits)
4:00 jog
4:56.4 (72.8, 74.1, 74.1, 75.3)
90 sec jog
2:27.6 (75.4, 72.2)
90 sec jog
2:25.4 (no splits)
90 sec jog
2:27.2 (73.1, 74.1)
4:00 jog
33.0
60 sec jog
30.6
60 sec jog
31.0
60 sec jog
30.2
3M cooldown
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 – AM: I had some trouble falling asleep and woke up frustrated to find my calf still pretty sore. I tried to stretch it a bunch and loosen it up before heading out. This seemed to help some, but there was definitely still a kink in my stride as I headed out. I told myself I’d give myself the jog over to Gantcher/alumni fields and if it didn’t feel significantly better by the time I got there, I’d just bike or elliptical instead.
It ended up feeling better – still not perfect, but significantly better – so I ran two big laps of the fields. I then headed back towards campus since I started hearing thunder and I didn’t feel like being out in a huge open field in the middle of a lightning storm. I ran back around the horn to Lewis which ended up being just right. After I got back, I did a good amount of stretching and rolling before heading to breakfast.
Total run was 4M+ s/o in 32:55
PM: After class, I headed over to Gantcher for practice. I tried not taking any advil today to see how I would feel. I’m not sure if it was that or the fact that I ran pretty hard yesterday, but my stride definitely didn’t feel quite right again today. It was a pretty miserable day in general. The temperature was in the mid 40s and it was pouring for most of the day.
I headed out with a big group towards the fells. The rain wasn’t too bad and I was dressed pretty warmly. We all stayed together until we got to the woods and then everyone split up. I ended up running off the back by myself after a few miles. I just felt pretty beat. It wasn’t a terribly enjoyable run, but I did feel better by the end, a continuing characteristic of runs recently, so that’s keeping me somewhat optimistic.
I came back to Gantcher and tacked on a bit to round up to 9M. After that, I rolled, stretched, and then talked to Ethan about racing. It looks like now I will be racing next weekend, which I’m much more pleased with. I’ve talked to Jon and he also thinks this is a good move. I’m hoping that if I take the next 10 days a lot easier than the last I’ll be feeling a lot more ready to race come next weekend. I’m feeling optimistic.
The total run was 9M EZ in 63 minutes.
PM2: After stretching and rolling, I did core with Murner and Nick. I don’t remember exactly how it went, but it was something like this: 2x30 sit ups, 60 sec x [legs up low, high, low, high], 50x crunch, side crunch, 100x bicycle, 60 sec x [front plank, side plank, one arm plank], 90 sec front plank. It felt nice to have a change of pace with the core. It wasn’t too hard.
Thursday, April 14, 2011 – AM: I slept okay and the calf felt a bit better this morning than it has. This was the first morning that I’ve been able to jog on it in the morning without a significant limp right after waking up. I wanted to play it safe, though, so I just jogged over to Gantcher and did 30 minutes on the elliptical before lifting. The elliptical felt alright, moderate effort, as did the jogging.
The total was 30min on Elliptical
AM2: In Gantcher, I did the phase III lift – 3 sets of [tricep dips (to failure, 30-36), row machine (10x, 40lb), pushups (10x), chin up (7x), single leg RDL (8x each foot), side crunch (15x), shooters (15x), lunge (20 each side, 20 fwd, 20 back), quad extension (8x @80lb), suitcases (15-20x), Leg Press (8x @ 150lb)].
Felt good, a bit pooped by the end because I was running on empty. Afterwards, I jogged back to Lewis before breakfast.
PM: I was lucky to get out of lab really early and made it down to practice before people left. I felt pretty tired and was not looking forward to another slog fest. It was a beautiful day though – sunny and in the 60s – so I headed off with a big group towards fresh pond and trying to feel optimistic.
We started out really easy, which was good for me. I ran up at the front of a pack and for the first time in a while felt pretty decent from the get-go – no limping and no pain in the foot/calf. I ran with Kyle and Brunk up at the front for a while. We maintained a pretty good group until we got to fresh pond. At that point, we started to break up as the front picked up the pace a bit and some people hung off the back. I stayed up front with Kyle, Brunk, and Broc and we headed out of Fresh Pond and up towards the river.
We were cruising pretty well along the river. It was a bit faster than I’d planned on going, but I was feeling pretty decent for the first time in a while, so I hung with them. At that point, the group was me, kyle, brunk, broc, and benji. We all stayed together at a pretty good clip until we turned to Harvard. At that point, we were still accelerating, and I decided I’d had enough and should back off. I let them go for a few minutes, but then saw Benji and Broc coming back, so I caught up to them. They’d also decided to let Kyle and Brunk go and so the three of us ran back at a more reasonable pace for the last few miles.
It was a nice conversational run for the last 20 minutes or so. I tacked on a bit of extra distance on the grass once we got back and then took my shoes off and did FULL-full foot drills. Everything felt pretty good and I was feeling pretty optimistic.
The total run was 80:24 for 12M. We were probably running low 6min pace for a while there between fresh pond and Harvard.
Friday, April 15, 2011 – AM: I woke up this morning with my calf again too stiff to run on. I walked on a bit and then had some breakfast and took some advil. I don’t even think the advil necessarily did that much, I think it was just the walking around on a bit, because after breakfast I felt pretty much fine and ready to go. I waited a bit, to let myself digest, and first did some good core – 100s, 50s, 30x side dip, 50x cherry picker, 30x toes to sky, 6:00 plank, 30x flutter kick, 50x leg lift.
AM2: After doing core, I put on my shoes and headed out for a nice easy run. I ran down to Lakes and looped around there and then came back the same way. I tacked on a loop around the horn and then back to Lewis. I felt fine, a bit tired, but okay.
The total run was 43:00 for ~5.5M.
PM: I went and saw the trainer before practice and got her to rub my calf a bit and check it out. She didn’t seem concerned which made me feel a bit better. After this, I jogged over to practice and headed out for an easy run with Murner, and a bunch of guys doing a pre-race shakeout. We ran on lakes again – a bit boring, but oh well. I tacked on a bit extra with Murner and then headed back to Baronian to do drills. I did Full-full footdrills again and it all felt pretty solid.
I borrowed Jerzy’s spikes after this because I decided to try and do a few strides. I ended up doing 4 with Matt, Sam, and Brosh. They felt a bit awkward; I didn’t quite feel like I had my top gear (or even top couple gears), but it’s the first quicker running I’ve done in a couple days, so kind of to be expected.
Finally, I spent a while stretching and rolling. I’m pretty tight in both my calves and my hips, so I’m trying to keep that under control. I’m feeling pretty decent going into tomorrow. I really hope it goes well. I’d like to feel good on a workout day for once!
The total run was 48:07 for ~6.5M.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 - AM: I slept pretty well last night and woke up naturally around 8:30am. My calf was feeling a lot better than it has in the morning, which made me feel pretty good. I did a bit of work and then did core (light) – 100s, 50s, 20x side dip, 50x cherry pickers, 20x superman, 30x leg lift. After this, I headed to breakfast before going over to watch the meet.
PM: I spent most of the day at the meet, which was pretty cold and windy. I was glad I went, though. I got a lot of work done before I left, so I felt fine about spending most of the day being social.
I left after the 800m race and got a ride back to campus from my parents, who were in the city. I got back a bit before 3pm and headed out to warm up from Lewis. Honestly, I had pretty low expectations going into this workout. After talking to Jon, he had warned me to “not expect to feel good for a few days.” Still, I really wanted to feel good in a workout, as I really haven’t felt 100% since Princeton.
Anyways, my warm-up actually felt pretty good. My calve had been bugging me a bit during the day, but once I started jogging on it, I didn’t notice it at all. I did ~20 minutes out and back from Lewis and then grabbed my shoes and headed over to Gantcher. I got there and finished warming up and then switched into my Tumbes spikes and did full foot drills on the indoor track. I was doing the workout inside mostly because of the wind. There were close to 20MPH winds outside, and I didn’t feel like running a hard 800m by myself on windy Baronian. So, I chose Gantcher.
After drills, I did strides. I tried to make them a bit harder than I usually do before a workout to try to get my body really used to running that fast pace. Instead of just jogging 100m back, I took a full 2:00 walking/jogging rest between each stride. This felt really long, but I think it allowed me to go a little faster. I did 4x strides and then did 200m in about 32. I took another 2 minutes after this and then started the workout.
The workout was: 800m hard, 75 seconds rest, 2x400m hard w/ 75 sec rest, 3-4 min rest, 5M Tempo. This is probably the big-volume, hard workout that I will do.
The 800m felt fast from the start. I wanted to run the first 200m controlled and I was amazed how fast a 32.x felt. I slowed down a lot on the second lap and ran a 34 and then tried to pick it up on the last two. I managed to negative split – which I’ve heard is not actually the most efficient way to run an 800m. For me, it was pretty good though. I was working very hard the last 100-150m and still only ran 32.9. Still, it was negative split (67.0, 66.8) for a 2:13.8 (PR). My previous best was only a 2:16 or 17 from a workout during cross.
The rest felt quite short after this and the next two quarters felt very hard from the start. My legs felt really heavy and I was working pretty hard to get them moving. I was a bit disappointed to only run 67.3 for the first, but I got under 67 for the second which is not too bad for me.
After the quarters, I changed shoes into my Bear flats (new asics piranhas) and jogged into the gym to do the tempo on the dread-mill. I don’t normally like doing runs on the treadmill, but today it seemed to make the most sense. I wanted a bit of help with pacing and it was really windy outside and I didn’t feel like running 40 laps of Gantcher. So, this was pretty much my last resort.
I started off at 5:24 pace and upped the pace every half mile until I was running 5:15 pace. This started to feel pretty fast, so I maintained this speed until about 3.5M. At that point, I started to try to really change gears again. I was running close to 5:00 pace by the time I got to 4M in 21:03. I tried to maintain 5:00 pace for the last mile but it felt a bit too hard for a workout, so I slowed a bit in the middle and then kicked it back in. I was almost under 5:00 anyways with a 5:00.6 last mile to bring me to 26:04.1 for 5M.
I was very spent after this workout. It was one of the harder efforts I’ve put out in a while. The fast stuff at the beginning really built up the lactic acid in my legs and I really felt that by the end of the tempo. Still, the pace progressed down ever mile. I ran the last 2M in 10:10 and the last 5k in 15:56. This workout makes me feel pretty confident about my fitness. I think I can safely say that I’m in better shape than during cross, as I ran an 8km tempo near the end of the season at 25:58 and didn’t have a split mile right before-hand. I am just hoping that it wasn’t too much of an effort. I’d like to continue feeling good for next weekend and then NESCACs.
Anyways, after the workout, I did a short cool-down back to Lewis, stretched and rolled a bit, and then tacked on another couple miles before heading to Dewick for dinner. The total for the day was 15M+/-.
The Workout:
1M shakeout jog
4M warm up
Full foot drills, 4x fast strides with long rest, 200m in 32
800m: 2:13.88 (32.8, 34.2, 33.9, 32.9)
60 sec jog
400m: 67.3
60 sec jog
400m: 66.8
3:30 jog
8km tempo: 26:04.1
5:23.4
5:16.8 (10:40.3)
5:13.4 (15:53.5)
5:10.0 (21:03.5)
5:00.6 (26:04.1)
3M Cool down
Sunday, April 17, 2011 – AM: I slept really poorly last night. I ended up going over to Sam’s suite in Latin way with all the other sophomores in the evening. It was pretty fun, but I was still pretty spent from the workout, so I only stayed until about 10:30pm and then headed back to Lewis as everyone else left for Brom. There was no way I had another hour or two of being awake and social in me.
I came back and was in bed by 11pm, but could not fall asleep for what seemed like a very long time. My stomach had not felt quite right since after my workout and I think that was bothering me. I felt bloated, but at the same time hungry. It was like my tummy was full volume-wise, but I was still hungry.
I got to sleep at some point and woke up naturally around 7:30am. I laid in bed resting until just before 8:30am and then got up. I had a small breakfast – a pear and a granola bar – and then got a bit of work done before long run. At 9:30am, I jogged down to the track and ran about 2M easy around the grass before everyone got here. My calf was a bit stiff and I wanted to try to warm it up. This was the first time that I’d really tried to run anything significant in the morning and I hadn’t taken any advil, so I wanted to be careful. I was limping a bit at first, but started to feel better once I warmed up. I rolled and stretched a bunch after these first couple miles and then left in a big group towards the river.
It was a pretty nice day out - ~60F and sunny when we started. It was very windy, though, which made it feel a bit cooler. I started out running with Brunk in front of the main pack but he picked it up to go chase down Nick and Kyle, so I decided to drop back and run with everyone else instead of sticking by myself.
We got to the river and headed down towards Boston. It was nice having a pack to break the wind; I was glad I’d held back with them. It was also nice just to have company on an easier long run like this. I feel like I would have just been really bored had I been alone because I didn’t want to run super hard. It was a nice conversational run and was actually quite fun.
The high point of the run was when we passed a group of very fast looking Ethiopians going the opposite direction along the river. Sam, Luke, Brosh, and I quickly turned around and ran after them and started talking to them. One of them spoke pretty decent English, who turned out to be 2:07 marathoner Bekana Daba. We talked to the three of them for a bit who were doing “40 minutes easy” – probably around 6:45-60 pace. We left them in peace after a few minutes, but it was still pretty cool.
We later found out that the other two runners were Abraham Cherkos (12:54, 61:42, 2:07:29) and Tadese Tola (59:49, 2:06:31). Pretty esteemed company
After that, we looped around by BU and crossed the river, heading back along mem drive to Harvard and then back to Tufts. I was feeling pretty tired the whole run, so I was glad not to push it too hard today. We got back and I tacked on 3 or 4 more miles to round it up to 16M total. My calves were both pretty sore by the end. I definitely felt yesterday’s workout. I didn’t want to over-do it today and dig myself in a hole again.
Once I got back to the track, I spent a while rolling out my legs and doing some static stretching. I did some light foot drills (the first half, less dynamic ones), but didn’t want to do all of the more jumpy-boundy ones because I thought that would put a bit more strain on my calves than I wanted. It was starting to cool off, so I decided to head over to Dewick for Sunday brunch.
The total run was 1:52:38 for 16M, plus some drills.
PM: After dinner, I walked over to Anderson to get some work done on the EMID project. It was relatively productive, except that I sliced my finger open with a pair of scissors. Ouch!
After this, I walked over to Gantcher to do an easy XT shakeout. I hopped on one of the bikes next to the track and did 40min at a pretty easy. I was feeling a bit stiff, so this was a nice way to just loosen up.
The total was XT40min on stationary bike.
PM2: After the bike, I did Core – 100s, 50s, 30x side dip, 30x bird dog, 30x flutter kick, 50x cherry pickers, 30x toes to sky, 50x leg lift. It felt pretty solid. I walked back to Dewick afterwards and got a snack before an early bed-time.
Total for the week: 94 Miles in 10 Runs
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