Monday, May 16, 2011 – AM: I slept really well again last night, not waking up at all until about 5am and then still sleeping naturally until about 7:45am. I got up and got dressed and headed out for my morning run. It was pretty cold (for this time of year). It felt more like late season cross than late season track. It was only in the mid 40s and overcast, threatening to rain.
I ran the normal morning run on Harrington. I usually run this route in about 32:40 but this morning ran over 34 minutes. I’m not sure if it was that I was wearing a lot of layers and was over-working or if I was just still recovering and tired, but wow! That is slow! It’s fine because I was simply running by feel – I didn’t look at my watch until I got back – but I didn’t feel like I was running that slowly.
Anyways, despite running like 9minute pace, I didn’t feel that bad. It was just a nice shakeout.
The total run was 4M+ EZ s/o in 34:24
PM: I took my last final at noon – about freaking time! – and used the rest of the afternoon to pack up a bit and relax before jogging over to Gantcher at 3pm to run. It was pretty nasty out, in the upper 40s and drizzling, so we had decided to meet in Gantch so we’d have a place to stash our stuff and keep it dry. I had sent out an email in the morning seeing who was around and only Matty had replied. Our numbers are dwindling even more. I think there are only 4 or 5 distance guys still running.
As we headed out, it was overcast but not raining, though it seemed the skies could open at any minute. We ran to the fells and came back on short res. I felt pretty good and it was nice to have company, even if there isn’t much conversation. As we turned onto Payton Street, less than a mile from Gantcher, the skies really opened up and poured onto us for a few minutes. It was pretty poor timing. Once we got back to Gantcher, though, it had eased up a lot and since I was already wet, I decided to just stay out and tack on outside. Matt then went inside and I ran a random loop up towards winter hill and then back on Boston ave to get it to about an hour of running.
Once back in gantch, I did FULL-full foot drills on the blue mats. These felt pretty good and I was actually feeling good and loose by the end. I think I’ll probably try to work out tomorrow morning unless the weather looks really terrible.
The total run was 8M++ EZ in 62:00.
PM2: After the run and drills, I did core – 100s, 50s, 30x side dip, 30x bird-dog, 50x cherry picker, 30x suitcase, 50x leg lift, 8:00 plank. This felt good. I had planned to do core last night as well, but was busy studying and it was getting too late. I’m trying not to be too lax about the little things, especially now that I have no school responsibilities.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 – AM: I slept pretty well again last night and woke up naturally before 8am. I had a nice breakfast of supertoast on an English muffin and some fruit and then drove into town for my workout. The weather was looking iffy all day – showers on and off and only in the 50s. As I drove into town, it started POURING, but by the time I got to Emerson, it had stopped and it was just cool and a bit drizzly.
I warmed up on the road loop I had planned to use later for part of the work out and then around town for a bit. I ran for a total of about 25 minutes back to the car before switching into my Bear flats and doing drills. I did my full drills and then a couple of strides in the flats on the track. I then did 300m on the track in my flats (it was quite windy into the home straight, so I wanted to see what the difference would be on each side). This was a bit quick in 51.x.
The workout was: 2x800m @2:24, 3M @ HMP(~5:20), 2x800m @2:24 (or a bit quicker) with 3:00 rest between everything. The idea was to get some good paced running it at 5k pace and some more steady running at half marathon pace and then move back to the 5k pace to simulate the fatigue at the end of a race. The volume of this workout was a bit high compared to what I’ve been doing lately, but with 3M of it at 5:20 pace, it seemed reasonable. I would be doing the whole workout in flats (most recent workouts have been in spikes) and the 3M section would be run on a 1.5M road loop adjacent to the track.
The workout started out well. I ran very consistently for the first two reps, running 2:23.8, 2:23.8 and splitting evenly. The laps themselves were probably a bit uneven because it was quite blustery on the home straight, but overall, the effort seemed consistent.
I then jogged out to the road and took my 3:00 before starting the HMP section. I had mapped out a few intermediate splits so I would have an idea of if I was on pace (~300m, ~1000m, ~1500m, ~2000m). I was a few seconds ahead at the first split, probably since I was just over-eager from running 5k pace. I then slowed down and came through the next split right about on schedule. From there, I made up time on the next two splits and came through the 1.5M in 7:47, 13 seconds ahead of pace. The purpose of this interval wasn’t to kill myself and run hard, but to learn the pace and feel relaxed doing it, so I actively slowed down and tried to focus on just running relaxed. I was more consistent on the second lap, still running a bit fast (7:54) for 15:41.5 for 3M. This comes out to be 5:14 mile pace, so it was significantly faster than my goal HMP. I think that part of the reason is that most of the HMP work I’ve done in the last few months has come at the end of long runs. This is the first time that I was really rested and prepped to run quickly. It’s important to know how easy that pace can feel for 3M, though, so that I don’t go out way too fast come next Sunday.
I took 3:00 again to jog back to the track and finish the workout. The 800s felt a lot harder now than they did at the beginning, but this was the point. I ran the first one a bit slower (2:24.5) running a 73.3 second lap, but felt better starting the last one. I decided to take the first lap easier, as I’d rather run 74-72 than 70-74. This went well – I ran 72.9, 71.0 for a 2:23.9.
I jogged back to the car and did a short cool down around town before driving home. The rain had stayed just a light drizzle and as soon as I got into my car, the skies opened again. Looks like I got lucky today!
Overall, this was a solid workout. The 5k paced stuff felt good and given that I was in flats and alone and the weather was a lot worse, I think the times are comparable to last week’s really good workout on Tuesday. The HMP was quick, but it felt really good doing it. I was a bit nervous about doing a full workout like this the Tuesday after a 10k, but I think I took my recovery a lot better this time and I actually felt fine. I’ll take the rest of the week easy and hopefully have a solid race on Saturday!
Splits: (NB – workout in Bear flats)
3M warm up
Drills in flats, 4x strides, 300m in 51.x
2:23.8 (71.9, 71.9)
2:23.8 (72.0, 71.8)
15:41.5 (7:47, 7:54)
2:24.5 (71.2, 73.3)
2:23.9 (72.9, 71.0)
2M Cool down
PM: I did an easy warm up on the elliptical machine, about 5 or 6 minutes just to get the heart-rate going before doing core – 100s, 50s, 120x squiggle, 30x side dip, 120x flutter kick, 50x cherry pickers, 30x Kenyan, 50x leg lift. Had dinner with the rents after and then joined by Duncan later in the evening for some champagne to celebrate our making it half way (!!!) through college.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 – AM: I slept well and woke up naturally around 7:30am. It was another pretty ugly day, about 48F and drizzly. I put on a bunch of layers and headed out for the normal Harrington loop. I felt about the same as Monday, but ran about 90 seconds faster. Weird how that happens.
The total run was 4.2M s/o in 32:57.
PM: I had a productive day and got a lot of the little organizational things accomplished that have been on my list of things to do before I leave. I was feeling pretty tired when I headed out for my afternoon run, so I didn’t have too high expectations. I had planned to take today pretty easy after a good effort yesterday, anyways, so I was mostly just looking to finish feeling better than when I started.
I drove into town to pick up my new glasses and then parked at fairy land and ran from there. I headed out on monument street to Great Meadows and then ran one lap around there before heading back and cutting over to 62. I felt pretty tired for the first couple miles, but actually felt pretty good once I got to great meadows. It was pretty spooky since the fog kept visibility quite low. I could barely see the other side of the pond while I was on the little jetty. It was also pretty cool again – only about 54F. It’s been grey and cool for a few days now. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll be like this next Sunday…
Anyways, I ran back on 62 and through the center and back past the car. I ran these 7.3M in about 50minutes (6:48 pace). I was surprised at how quick it was given that I felt pretty lousy at the beginning, but I guess I was feeling fine by the end. After this, I ran up to the CC turf field and did a bit of jogging around barefoot and then did FULL-full barefoot drills on the turf. It felt really nice to have my bare feet on the cold turf ground. Their field is also really soft, so it’s super nice to run on.
After drills, I did one longer stride (still barefoot) before putting my shoes back on and jogging back to the car. Everything felt pretty good today. I’m surprised not to feel yesterday’s workout more than I do, but I’m not complaining. I’ll go easy tomorrow and then just a shakeout or two on Friday before the 5k on Saturday.
The total run was 8M++ (8.4M) in 57:09 (6:49 pace) with FULL-full barefoot drills and 1x barefoot stride.
Thursday, May 19, 2011 – AM: I woke up before 8am naturally again and headed out for my morning run. I ran the usual route. Gil is back! And he has a new flock of goslings! I think there are 3 or 4 little yellow fluff-balls. Very cute! I felt good and ran a bit quicker than the last couple days.
The total run was 4.2M in 32:00.
AM2: After the run I did Core – 100s, 50s, 50x cherry pickers, 8:00 plank, 30x Kenyan, 30x side dip, 30x suitcases, 50x leg lift. Pretty pooped after this – very ready for a big breakfast.
PM: I had a busy day, driving all over the place to get a lot errands in. I stopped by marathon sports in the early afternoon to try to figure out which shoes to bring to Peru for base training. I ended up getting a pair of Asics Speedstar 4s and a pair of Asics DS racers. I tried on a lot of shoes, so I actually got in a good amount of jogging and a couple of stride-like things in various trainers and flats.
After this, I drove over to Danehy so that I could run from there and then do some barefoot drills on their turf field (it was also on the way to REI, my next stop). I ran to Fresh Pond and ran a lap around there in about 16:15 (~6:45 pace). I felt like I was going much slower than this, so that was actually pretty nice. I ran back to Danehy and then finished up the run on the turf field.
After this, I did FULL-full barefoot drills on the turf. These felt good and then I put on my last new pair of piranha flats and did 4x long strides on the turf. Finally, I jogged up to the asphalt path around the track and did a simulate start and ran for about 30-35 seconds at 5k effort (probably a bit fast). I love how these shoes feel on pavement. I really wish the still made them…
Anyways, I then jogged back down to the car and headed off to Reading to REI and then to Peabody to my first aid course. I got home at about 9:15pm – long day!
The total run was 6M EZ in 42:21 with FULL-full barefoot drills, 4x long turf strides in shoes and 1x ~35 second stride on pavement in shoes.
Friday, May 20, 2011 – AM: I woke up this morning at like 5:30am and was really hungry, so I had a fruit/nut bar to hold me over. I then was able to sleep until about 7:45am, when I woke up naturally and headed out for my usual pre-race shakeout around the neighborhood.
I ran without a watch and just took it easy. I felt a bit tired, but not too bad. Just a shakeout this morning. I’ll jog and do a few drills this afternoon, but mostly a rest day today.
The total was 4M shakeout, untimed.
PM: I relaxed most of the day and drove into town around 5pm to run a few errands and then decided to stop at the CC turf field to shake out a bit. I parked at fairyland and jogged up to the turf. It was the first time the sun had been out in probably a week, maybe more. It felt nice to have the sun on my face and I took off my shoes and jogged around barefoot before doing some drills. I did full-full drills up to the explosive stuff and then stopped. I did a bit of core (below) and then jogged around the fields once more before heading back to the car.
I had a smaller dinner after a large lunch and then a snack around 8pm when Mr. C got home of some apple sauce with fruit and pretzels and hummus. I was in bed before 10pm.
The total was ~1M of Jogging, with non explosive barefoot drills
PM2: On the field, I did some light core - 100s, 50s, 20x side dip, 20x super man, 20x toes to sky, 30x cherry pickers, 30x leg lift. It felt so nice to be outside in the sun that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to stay out a bit longer!
Saturday, May 21, 2011 – AM: I slept okay last night. I had to get up a few times and pee, but other than that it was all right. I woke up naturally to pee around 6am and decided to have my breakfast then, since I had brought it up to my room for that reason. I had two pieces of super-toast on half a bagel. At first, I tried to make it in my bed, since I was planning on going back to sleep, but I ended up spilling shit all over my floor. Oops. I ended up getting out of bed and just making breakfast at my desk. I was afraid I’d just be “up” at that point, but once I lay back down, I managed to doze off for another hour or so.
I got up for real a bit after 7am so that I could bid farewell to my parents who were off to the city. I had a chewy bar with some peanut butter and otherwise just sipped on Gatorade and water for the rest of the morning. I packed everything up and left the house around 8:30am to make the drive up to Bedford. I got there in less than an hour and as I headed inside to get my number, it was announced that the leader had just passed the 5M mark. I looked at my watch and it was about 9:27am. I wondered if they were really going that slowly or if they had started a few minutes late. I got inside, picked up my uber-patriotic shirt (they seem to be getting better every year!) and used the bathroom before heading back outside to try to catch the finish. The 12k here is usually a very fast race, but for whatever reason it hadn’t gotten selected as a Grand Prix race this year, so it was MUCH slower. I missed first place, but 2nd place came in at about 42 minutes (for perspective, I ran one of my best races last year here and ran 39:11 for 11th place).
I walked back to the car and just sat in the back and read for about a half hour. Around 10:15am, I got up and used the port-a-potty across the street before starting my warm-up. I ran the course to get a feel for what it’s like. It was already pretty warm, around 70F, and sunny. There was a lot of that “fluff” pollen (cotton-wood tree) floating in the air too, which was a bit worrisome. The course looked fine. I’d describe it as rolling. There was a significant hill around 2k-3k, not steep but continuous, and then a hill near the end, probably about 800m out from the finish. The first mile was marked, but I couldn’t find the 2nd.
I felt really good on my warm up and jogged back to the car and switched into my new piranha flats. I did some drills in the parking lot and took some water before jogging down to the start. It was pretty hot at this point, probably between 70 and 75F, so I took a bottle of water with me to keep sipping and wet my hair before the start. I did 2 strides on the road and then headed to the start where we were actually starting on time.
I quickly sized up my competition and determined that no one here was going to pose a threat to me. There was a tall, probably high school kid in training shoes, and a shirtless dude next to me. No one serious races without a shirt.
Thus, I was a bit surprised to find myself in 3rd place about 100m into the race. Trainers and t-shirt boy had taken a gusty lead to take us out at like 4:40 pace through the first 200m or so. I ducked behind him and let him go ahead and block the wind for me. Unfortunately for him, his glory was short-lived as shirtless man and I took over the lead within a minute of the start. I was similarly surprised to see shirtless man continue to follow me as I took the race out at what felt like about 4:50-55 pace. As we came to the first couple turns, he was still on my shoulder, and I thought I might actually have a race on my hand. I was almost disappointed to see him drop off before we even reached the 1 mile marker. I passed this in 4:56 with him a couple seconds back at that point.
From there, it was just me and my police escort. After the mile, the course makes two quick lefts and then proceeds up a not steep, but steady hill for about 600m. From there, there’s a nice coast down to the 2M mark, which I passed in 9:59 (a college PR and my first time under 10 minutes in a road race!) I was feeling good at this point and I thought that a PR wasn’t out of the question. I was feeling mentally positive and I figured I could probably PR and maybe even hit that 15:32 mark.
As we turn right onto Country Road (gotta love NH…) it was a straight shot back to the track where the finish line was. I pushed up the second to last hill and then actively switched gears as I came down the other side before the final climb up to the track. As I made the final climb up to the track, I was sure that I was going to run a great time and get the win and course record. However, as I entered the track with 300m to go, I looked at my watch which was about 15:03-04. I had calculated out that a 15:48 meant coming through 300m to go in about 14:50, so I was confused as I entered the track. I tried to close pretty well and really tried to push once I came around the last turn towards the finish line. I was mostly just really confused as I watched the finish clock click through the 15:50s. Suddenly, what I thought had been a great race was frustratingly reduced to ANOTHER 15:5x, further cementing my identity as a 15:5x 5k runner – a label I do not want associated with me.
I grabbed a freezepop – one of my favorite parts of this race – and jogged back down to the car. Trying to do some mental math in my head, I calculated that to run 16:00 would mean that I ran the last 1.1M in just about 6:00 – which had got to be close to 5:30 pace. This just seemed absurd. I called Jon, who managed to put my mind at ease a bit. He said there was “no way” that that was possible, and that the course must have been wrong. Part of the reason I chose this course was because it was USATF certified, so I didn’t really think that was an option I could fall back on.
I cooled down on the course again and then ran up to the school building to get some free food and whatever silly medal or prizes they had. They had some good food, so I snagged a bunch for the long bus ride and got a free massage. I talked to shirtless-guy (who had ended up 2nd in 16:xx) who said that his 3rd mile also seemed way slow (though this could be due to his going out a bit over his head for the first km or so).
I headed back out to the car and drove down to South Station where I parked and then got on the 2:00pm bus to NYC (the first of many multi-hour bus rides in my immediate future!). Once on the bus, I did some research and looked up the certification maps. It looks like there are two 5k courses certified on this route – one before and one after Gault Rd. was re-routed. The re-routing makes the course slightly longer and so the start was moved up about 120-130m. My hypothesis is that they started from the older start line, thus adding those 120-130m onto the course. If they had used that older map for their start line, they also would have used it for the 1M and 2M markers, which would explain why they seemed accurate. This means that that last 6:00 really covered more like 1910m (5125-3208) which comes out to 5:03.6 pace. This makes sense given that I didn’t feel like I really slowed down in this section and I thought I kicked somewhat decently. Overall, this would bring the total to 16:00 for 5120-5130 which means going through 5k in 15:36-15:38. Given the effort, this sounds about right and makes me feel a whole lot better about the day.
Overall, I was really bummed out about this race, but now looking back on it, I can tell that it was a good performance. I ran what may have been a life-time PR (including track), and definitely was a road PR on a rolling course, by myself, on a decently warm day. I also ran it pretty well; I positive split 4:56, 5:03, 5:05, but it wasn’t the disaster of blowing up after 2k that I saw indoors (and outdoors). This is why I was more confused than disappointed when I crossed the line. I had come through 2M feeling good in 9:59 and I just really couldn’t believe that I had slowed down almost 30 seconds per mile on what wasn’t even the hilliest mile of the race. I guess I need to learn to trust my intuition and not let some numbers determine how I feel about a race. I felt great about that race and my effort until I looked at my watch. I think there’s something to learn from that.
Cliff notes:
3M+ warm up
5100m: 16:00
1M: 4:56
2M: 9:59 (5:03)
3M: ~15:04 (5:05)
5k: ~15:37
~5125m: 16:00 (CR)
3M++ cool down
PM: The bus to NYC stopped at a burger king around 3:30pm, so I got out and jogged around the parking lot for 5 minutes or so, just to loosen up. I felt pretty good and did a few drills before getting back on. Luckily I got a seat with a decent amount of leg room, so it’s not too bad.
PM: After dinner, I jogged back to the hotel from the restaurant.
The total was 3M shake out in 25 minutes
Sunday, May 22, 2011 – AM: I slept pretty poorly last night on a crappy sofa-bed and woke up not feeling too well rested at 6:30am to my alarm. I got dressed and had an apple before heading out for my last long run of the block. I left the hotel right around 8am and headed up towards Central Park.
This was my first real experience running in New York City and despite my general dislike for the city as a whole, this run wasn’t as bad as I expected. I didn’t really have to stop between the hotel and the park, since I could generally cross one way or the other and I had to go both up and over. It was a bit over a mile to the park and I took it pretty easy. I was feeling pretty tired and today was really just a day to get some easy mileage in.
Once I got to the park, I tried to run a perimeter loop, which quickly ended up taking me into the bowels of the park itself. I was somewhat disoriented, but tried to continue heading “up” and staying alongside the “right” side of the park. A couple of times, I pulled up along someone who was running about my pace, but people here were not very friendly. Every time I tried to join someone, they would ignore me and then turn away or actively slow way down or speed way up. All I wanted was some company!
I finally found one older guy who looked like he was moving pretty well, so I pulled up next to him and just started talking. I asked him if he was from around here and knew the trails. He immediately stopped and assumed I wanted directions. I told him that, no, I was just hoping to run with someone for a little while. I stuck with him for a couple of miles and we had a nice chat – he was a Haverford alum. He was only running a couple more miles, though, so I was then on my own again.
I made my way up to the gravel path that encircled the pond at the top of the park and ran around that a few times. I timed myself around it so that I could later get an idea of my pace. The path was about 1.7M around and I was covering the loop in about 12:00, so ~7:00-10 pace at that point.
After a few of those laps, I decided I’d had enough and headed back to the bottom of the park. From there, I ran back on vaguely the same route to the hotel and then tacked on a quick loop around the block to reach 90 minutes. I then headed back up to the room and did a bit of stretching before taking a quick shower and getting dressed and heading out for my meeting with the Strive folks!
The total run was 1:30:16 for 12M+++ (~7:00-7:15 pace).
PM: I ended up spending a lot of time on my feet today. After the morning run, I had a brief walk to the subway and then another brief walk from the subway to Sarah’s apartment for the meeting. I got out of the meeting early, though, and so I took the subway back to Manhattan and got off of one train, instead of switching trains, which gave me a good bit longer walk back to the hotel. That was probably about 30 minutes and I was carrying my bag, so it was actually pretty tiring.
I dropped my bag off at the hotel and then walked back across the city to the street fair that was going on where I got a bunch of delicious street-food (shish-kebob, crepes, yum!). Finally, I met up with the VC and we walked back to the hotel. That whole time was about two hours of walking. I was actually pretty spent by the time we got on the train headed for home. A long couple of days. Time to rest up.
The total for the week was 74 Miles in 10 Runs
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