Monday, April 25, 2011 – AM: It was a rough weekend, topped off by the fact that I found out last night that I didn’t get the job I’ve been applying for since December. Despite an inordinate amount of interviews and time put into my application and the fact that they pretty much told me that they wanted to hire me, I was denied. It turns out that the organization is small enough that they simply didn’t have enough demand to require my position, so I guess that makes me feel like slightly less of a failure. Here’s to a fresh start this week!
Anyways, I slept for like 11 hours last night and woke up around 7:30am naturally. I biked over to Gantcher and, once there, realized I had forgotten my ID. The dude there wouldn’t let me in, so I had to bike back to Lewis, grab my ID, and then bike back. Frustrating…
Once inside, I did the Phase IV Lift in the gym. The lift was: 3 sets of [Seated row@40lb x12,10,8; Incline DB press @10lb free weights, 10 reps; Horizontal Pushups x12,10,8; Lateral Raises @5lb, 10 reps; Hamstring curls @ 90lb, 8, 6, 6; Bicycle Crunch x30, Dynamic lunges 12,10,8; Overhead DB Press @10lb, 12, 10, 8; Crunches x25]. I felt a bit groggy from taking Nyquil, but felt okay otherwise.
AM2: After the lift, I did an easy-moderate 30 minutes on the stationary bike in Gantcher. I wore my sweats. I’m hoping that one of these days I’ll have a race where it’s above 40 degrees so that some of this heat training will pay off…
Total was XT30 on stationary bike +10 minutes bike back/forth to Gantch (2x)
PM: After class, I headed down to practice. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to run; I really just wanted to play it by ear. I really just want to start feeling good this week. I’ve been feeling sluggish for a while and I’m really hoping that a few more easy days will help me get over that.
I left around 3:10pm with a big group headed out towards Alewife. For some reason, most people were running really short, only 4-6M, and so they headed back through the Fresh Pond Mall parking lot. At that point, Matt – who had said he wanted to do about 8M – and I continued straight towards Fresh Pond and Harvard. We ran the short way around Fresh Pond and then down to Mem Drive and along the river path. From there we cut through Harvard and came back on Mass Ave.
I was feeling quite good on this run. I felt like my form was much more relaxed and the pace felt much less forced than it has recently. I felt comfortable running at an easy-moderate pace for the first time in a while. It didn’t feel like I was hammering just to keep up. I had told myself that the most I would run was 10M if I were feeling good, so I tacked on a bit out and back on the grassy part of C-Loop before looping back around the horn to Baronian.
I did some static stretching and rolling out and then did some abs before having a talk with Murner about race plans.
The total run was 10M EZ in 72:04
PM2: I did “Murner Abs” with Dan and Nick after the run. It felt pretty good, not too hard.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011 – AM: I slept really poorly last night. I just couldn’t fall asleep. I laid in my bed for what felt like a really long time and I just couldn’t turn my brain off. Once I fell asleep, I slept pretty soundly, but it felt like a long time they I just laid there and wasn’t getting any closer to falling asleep.
I woke up to my alarm at about 7:30am. I’m trying to get up a bit earlier each night to prepare for the early race on Saturday (9am start). Once up, I did Core (light) - 100s, 50s, 20x side dip, 50x reach up, 20x toes to sky, 30x leg lift. After this I had breakfast and then off to class.
PM: I had to do my workout a bit early today because I have my final presentation in alpinismo tonight and I needed to get ready for that with my partners beforehand. I started my warm up at 1:40pm and ran an easy out and back on C-Loop. The day had turned from (yet another) nasty gray april morning to a sunny and warm spring afternoon. I had lunch and then headed out a bit early to get my workout in before I had to work on my presentation for alpinismo. I left around 1:45pm and warmed up out and back on soft C-loop/lakes.
I felt pretty good, still a bit stiff, but not too bad. I got to the track and finished warming up before changing into my Bear flats for the workout. It was pretty hot by this time, so I changed into just a tech short-sleeve and shorts.
I did full foot drills in my flats and then did 4x strides, followed by a 200m at workout pace (39.0) which was tempo effort. Finally, I got ready and started the workout.
The workout was the usual pre-race shakeout: 2M @ tempo pace with the last 400m at 10k effort, 2:00 jog rest and then 5x400m at a RELAXED pace (Murner said the goal was 72.5) on the 2:00 drill.
The tempo felt fine. As usual, the first lap was a bit fast in 78.3 (aiming for about 79.x). The wind was a bit of a problem, probably about 15MPH and it was cross wind, so it kind of always felt like it was blowing into my face. Anyways, I still felt pretty good and comfortably ran the first mile in 5:15. After that I relaxed a bit and ran 79.x for the next 3 laps before picking up the intensity a bit on the last lap, running 74.8.
I took two minutes of jogging and then started my 2:00 quarters. The all felt pretty comfortable. It’s a bit tough to run this quick in strides, especially after all these workouts in spikes. Anyways, it seemed pretty relaxed, even with the short rest. The average was 71.6, so a bit quick even with the wind.
Afterwards, I did a bit of jogging around the grass while waiting for everyone else to show up for their workouts. I then headed out with them on their warm-up, which the end of my cooldown. It ended up being pretty long, about 5M, which I figured was fine since it was a pretty short workout.
Overall, this was a pretty good workout. As usual, it felt very short and easy. Just enough to get my legs moving, but not enough to really wear me out.
Workout:
3.5M warm-up
4x strides, 200m in 39.0
3200m tempo:
78.3
78.4 (2:36.7)
79.0 (3:55.7)
79.0 (5:14.7)
79.6 (6:34.4)
79.9 (7:54.3)
79.0 (9:13.3)
74.8 (10:28.2, 5:13.5)
2:00 jog
5x400m relaxed @ 2:00 drill (goal of 72.5)
71.8, 70.9, 72.5, 71.6, 71.3 (71.6 average)
5M Cool down with team
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 – AM: I slept quite well last night and woke up around 7:30am for my morning run. I decided to layer up, since it looked like it might be warm this weekend. I wore tights and sweatpants and an underarmor top, a cotton longsleeve, and a windbreaker. I felt a bit sluggish – as was expected – but felt better by the end. My calve hasn’t bugged me at all in the last couple of days, which is very, very good.
I ran pretty easily and ran on soft C-loop/lakes. I did feel better by the end, though, and got back to Lewis in plenty of time to do core before breakfast and class.
The total run was 4M+++ shake out in 35:00
AM2: Core – 100s, 50s, 50x cherry pickers, 30x side plank, 7:30 plank, 30x reach up, 120x squiggle, 30x toes to sky, 50x leg lift.
PM: I got a nice little nap in today after lunch before heading to EMID. After class, I had an incident with my bike and a car which ended up with me flipping over my handlebars. Luckily, I landed on my hands, so I mostly just scraped my palms up a bit. Uncomfortable, but no lasting damage. I managed to still get to practice on time, though I was in a pretty crappy mood.
Once there, I headed out in a group with Murner and a bunch of the guys. Murner was going out for a progressive run on Science Museum and most everyone else were doing easy runs out towards Harvard. For the first time in a while, I felt really good and springy, right from the get-go. Murner and I broke away from everybody within a few minutes and were cruising pretty well by the time we hit Mass ave. Brunk stayed with us until Harvard, but then he turned off.
We were running probably 6:20 pace or faster at that point, but it wasn’t hard at all. We were maintaining conversation the whole time and for the first time in SO long, I just felt good and smooth. Once we got out to the river, I crossed over and ran to the first bridge before turning back by myself as Murner headed on solo.
I felt good and continued to make good time. I split my watch as I turned off of the river so that I could see how fast I ran the last 5km. I had to double check when I saw that I ran the last 5k in under 19minutes. I really didn’t feel like I was moving that fast. Still, for those first 7M to/from the track, I averaged about 6:15 pace.
Once back, I did FULL-full foot drills in my socks on the grass. After this, I put on my Tumbes spikes for some strides. I did 4x 100m+ strides on the track with 1-2:00 jog rest. I felt very good on these and they were quite quick. I timed the last 2 in 13.6, 13.4. I jogged one final lap with Curtis Yancy – which apparently looked pretty funny. Then, I called it a day.
This was a great run and really helped boost my confidence. Even after the run and later in the evening, I just felt a lot better – there was more spring in my step and I just didn’t feel as tired as I have recently. Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve been eating a bit more the last few days, maybe it’s just the fact that my body is finally feeling the drop in mileage. Who knows. Whatever it is, I’m glad that I’m finally starting to feel good just in time for the race!
The total run was 50:15 for 8M+ with 7M in 43:16 (6:11 pace) + full barefoot drills + 4x fast strides.
Thursday, April 28, 2011 – AM: I woke up at 7:30am again this morning after a pretty good night’s sleep last night. Also, I finally bought my plane tickets for the summer! Yay! I’m going back to Quito (and going to Peru)!
Anyways, I got up and it was already in the 60s, so I just put on a long sleeve tech shirt and shorts. I headed out and felt pretty decent. I ran an out and back on soft c-loop/lakes, running about 3 minutes faster than yesterday. After that, I ran around the horn and headed over to Gantcher to lift (below). Finally, I ran back to Lewis to roll/stretch before breakfast!
The total was 6M EZ in 44:24.
AM2: In Gantcher, I did the Phase III lift. 3 sets of [tricep dips (to failure, 30-40), seated row (10x, 40lb), pushups (10x), chin up (7-9x), single leg RDL (8x each foot), side crunch (30x), shooters (15x), lunge (10 each side, 10 fwd, 10 back), suitcases (15x)]. Everything felt very good. The chin-ups are more than I’ve ever done (7,8,9!). Only half reps on the lunges and no heavy leg lifting.
PM: After a productive afternoon in Anderson working on our ME1 project, I headed down to Baronian for practice. It was weird weather, warm in the 60s and very humid, but a bit of drizzle and very windy. It was very ominous, as if a huge storm was blowing in.
I headed out with Sam, Luke, Connor, Scott, Brunk and Ben towards Boston Ave. We had to stop briefly while Luke ran into Brom to get shorts and socks since he was locked out of his room… oops. After that, we headed down Boston ave in a big group to run Lakes. It was a very easy paced run, pretty fun. Everything felt good, nice to run easy again.
We came back on the other side of C-loop and then looped around to the track. Afterwards, I did some stretching and rolling and then headed back to Lewis with Sam so that he could cut my hair. The last time I cut my hair was some time during cross season – might have even been before xc. There was a lot of hair.
The total run was 4.5M EZ in 32:53.
Friday, April 29, 2011 – AM: I went home last night and had a good night’s sleep in my own bed. I was asleep by 9:30 or 10:00pm and woke up a little before 8:00am. I got p and got dressed and then headed out for a nice easy shakeout with Mr. C.
It was a beautiful spring morning – about 55F and sunny. We ran out and back very slowly on the usual loop through the neighborhood. After that, I dropped him off and then ran another couple miles by myself. I picked it up a good bit and ran one mile a good bit quicker, probably 6:00-15 pace. I then ran pretty easily back home.
I didn’t wear a watch, but it was about 45 minutes.
The total run was 6M s/o – EZ in ~45 min.
NB: This is my first day where I’ve run less than 10M since 11/25/2010 (156 days, 2172 miles). This is basically the entire block of this track season. I guess that means I’m now entering the true competition phase. The previous longest I’ve gone over 10M/day was 61 days during cross.
Saturday, April 30, 2011 – AM: We got to CT around 8:30pm last night and spent the time hanging around in the room. I had a snack around 9:00pm – some fruit and a granola bar. I tried to go to bed a bit after 10pm, but I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I tossed and turned for a really long time. I was sharing a bed with Matt and between him twitching a lot in his sleep and having some trouble controlling the temperature, I just couldn’t get to sleep. My mind was really racing and I couldn’t turn it off. I ended up falling asleep at some point, but woke up pretty often and never really got a good night’s sleep.
I woke up at like 5:50am and had breakfast of a wheat bagel, a big pear, and an orange. A bit later, I also had a chewy bar. We packed up our stuff and left the hotel around 7:30am for Wesleyan. Once there, we put our stuff down and hit up the bathroom before getting ready to warm up. We left to warm up around 8:15am.
The four of us – me, matt, Brunk, and Bellet – headed out together with Murner. We ran a nice easy loop around the Wes campus and then tacked on a bit out and back. I was feeling pretty good on the warmup, but I could tell my breathing was a bit harder than normal. We ran for about 25 minutes and then I came back to my stuff and switched into my uniform and my Tumbes spikes. After that, I did full foot drills on the track. I noticed right as I stepped onto it that it was a very hard track. This was the first time I’ve ever noticed this upon immediately walking onto a track. It was basically a basketball court with a millimeter of synthetic on top.
I did a few strides, still feeling pretty good, and then got to the line. It was nice to be the first event since it meant that we were pretty much guaranteed to start on time. I took my spot on the line, and then the gun was off.
For the first time in recent memory, I got off the line quite well. Within a few meters, I found myself at the front of the race, leading the NESCAC 10k – somewhere I wasn’t exactly thrilled about being. I looked around and tried to slow down, but no one was willing to go around me. So, I said “fuck it” and tried to relax and just go with it. The first few laps felt like a jog. We were running 79-80s and came through the first mile in 5:18.h. We started to pick it up a bit during the second mile, running 77s instead of 79s. Somewhere in this 2nd mile, a Hamilton runner came up on my shoulder and I motioned for him to go ahead and lead for a while. At that point, shit started to get more real as the pace quickened. The second mile was about 5:10 and the third about 5:05. This brought us through 3M in 15:39, about 16:18 through 5000m.
Somewhere between 2 and 3 miles, Schmitty or Lang decided that the pace was dawdling a bit too much and moved up ahead and started to bring the pace down. I hung on with them for a bit, but let them get away a bit before 5000m. There was a pack of maybe 6 or 7 which included Schmidt, Matt, Lang, Wright (conn), the Hamilton runner, Tully Hannen from bates, and maybe one or two others. I hoped that I would be able to work my way back up to them or at least be able to catch a few as they would fall off the back.
By the time I got to 4M, it was looking like it would be tough to catch up with the lead group, as they were pretty far ahead of me at that point and not looking like they were slowing down any time soon. A Williams runner had caught up to me and was now sitting right behind me. He would stay there until about 800m to go.
The last couple miles just didn’t go that well. I caught one or two runners who fell off the lead pack, but I just couldn’t seem to accelerate. I was only running like 77s or slower, so it shouldn’t have felt fast or hard, especially given how slow we started out. I just felt like I couldn’t make myself go any faster. It started to feel pretty tough with about a mile to go, as expected. I tried to really pick it up, but I just wasn’t.
Finally, with 800m to go, the Williams kid passed me for the first time in the last 8 laps or so. I tried to use his surge to stick onto him and accelerate, but I only lasted about 300m-400m. This was pretty pathetic as we were probably barely running under 5:00 pace, if that. By the time we got to the bell lap, I was a few seconds behind him and he was moving forward while I seemed to be moving backwards. I tried to kick as well as I could, but the last lap was only a 76. Pretty bad.
I finished in 32:29, so not a great time. My immediate reaction after the race was a kind of “eh…” In retrospect, I felt like I should have been able to push myself harder, but at the time, I didn’t feel like I had any higher gears. I also had some serious breathing difficulty as I stopped running and tried to catch my breath. Historically, the week around mothers’ day and my birthday (this week) has been the peak of my allergy season, so I’m thinking that that may have been a contributing factor. It could explain why my breathing and effort felt so hard, but my legs didn’t feel too bad and I was still running slowly.
After the race, I cooled down about 3M with Bellet on the same loop on which we had warmed up. My legs didn’t feel anywhere near as badly as they had felt after Princeton. I think this was another sign that I had really not worked as hard as I had expected.
After the cool down, I had some food and drink and then spent the rest of the day watching the meet. It was a great day to be outside (other than the pollen) and there were some great races (Wilf in the 1500m, Liam, Scott, Kyle, and Nick in the 5k). It was a long and pretty exhausting day, but pretty fun.
Around 3:30pm, I did a shakeout run with Liam and Scott while they warmed up for the 5k. I didn’t actually feel that bad, surprisingly, but it was good to shake the legs out a bit before the long bus ride back to campus.
We ended up getting back to campus around 8:30pm. I had a snack and then just crashed pretty early. Long, long day!
Splits:
5:20
10:34 (5:12)
15:40 (5:06) (16:18 at 5000m)
20:49 (5:09)
26:01 (5:12)
31:13 (5:12)
31:29 (76)
Sunday, May 01, 2011 - AM: I woke up naturally before my alarm which I had set for 9pm. I still ended up sleeping for 10+ hrs, though, so I felt pretty good. My body felt pretty decent. My calves were a bit stiff from sleeping, but not too bad. I took a hot shower to loosen up and then rolled out and stretched and they felt a lot better. Before heading to practice, I had a long conversation with my parents where I was trying to figure out summer plans.
Anyways, I headed down to Baronian and it was a pretty beautiful day for a run. Temps in the 50s and bright sun! I headed out in a big group with Brunnq, Connor, Sam, Erik, Matt, and Brosh who were all planning to do Hoover Sucks – only about 9-10M. I wasn’t sure how long I’d want to go, but I figured I could handle at least 9-10M at a pretty easy pace.
We started off Kenyan style at like 8:00 pace but eventually worked down until we were going at a pretty easy conversational run pace. We looped up through Fresh Pond and then up through Brighton to the River. From there we ran along the river for a while until we got back to Harvard where most of the group turned off. Brunnq and I continued and ran out/back on the Cambridge side of the river for another couple of miles before heading back. We had picked up the pace a bit, but still felt very comfortable. I had our last 5k back to campus in 20:xx.
Once we got back, most everyone had already left, so I just did a bit of stretching before heading to Sunday brunch with Murner.
The total run was 13M+ in 1:35:45.
PM: After dinner, I did Core – 100s, 50s, 30x side dip, 50x reach up, 8:00 plank, 50x cherry pickers, 30x toes to sky, 50x leg lift.
Total for the week: 81 Miles in 9 runs.
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