Week of September 19, 2011

A much better week. Feeling better, but mechanically not perfect yet at high speed. Still, a good step in the right direction.

Lunes, 19 Septiembre, 2011 – 7:30am: Easy shakeout on grass, first 2M with Sam, then solo. A bit stiff, but not bad for first thing in the morning. Total 40’50 for 5M+.

3pm: Easy-day run with Brosh, Sam, and Peter Lewis. Ran menotomy from Gantcher to fields and around to round up. Very easy, comfy, conversational pace. Fun run. Felt good. Right hip a bit tight at end, but not too bad. Longer than I’d planned, but felt fine and no hitch again. Quote of the run, from a group of~14 year old girls “Nice short-shorts! Can I rub your Penis??” Total 11M+ in 83’00

5pm: Light lift (upper body). 3 sets of [8x Horizontal Pushups, 10x Pushups, to fail (16-20) Dips, to fail (~4) Pull-ups]. Wow arms felt weak…

Martes, 20 Septiembre, 2011 – 7:30am: Easy shake out with Sam from Chet. Ran lakes and then finished on the grass. Felt fine. Total 5M++ in 41’00.

8:30am: Back PT at home.

3pm: Ran from Gantcher with the guys to Fresh Pond for an easy, unstructured 30’00 tempo. Stopped to use the potty and change into flats once there, a few drills and we were off. Ran with Matt, Kyle, Connor, Shap, Ben, and Jerzy. Felt really easy for first lap (2.5M), talking and stuff the whole time. Ran 14’21 (5’45 pace). After that, decided to pick up the effort a bit since Ethan had said to get a good effort. Ran pretty hard for about a mile by myself and then got swallowed back up by the group and felt pretty dead the last 5 or 8’. Still negative split, but was losing ground at the end. The 30’00 covered about 5.35M (5’36 average), but felt harder than it should have. Still, given where I was last Tuesday, this is a big step in the right direction. Cool down back to Tufts 3M. 11M+ total for the afternoon.

7:30pm – Core at home, 25’00 with 5’00 plank.

Miercoles, 21 Septiembre, 2011 – AM: Rest

2:30pm: 1M easy run to Gantch as warm up and then did some drills with the trainer before running. Felt pretty good. Ran with Kyle, Connor, and Ben on Smoot. A bit longer than I’d planned, but felt good for the most part. They picked it up the last 3M or so, and I hung back a bit, but not too bad, still under 7’00 pace probably. Smoot was 12M+ in 1’22’45 (6’50 pace), so about 1’30 total for 13M.

8pm: Light core at home, about 20’00.

Jueves, 22 Septiembre, 2011 – AM: Felt stiff this morning, so decided against a shakeout.

3pm: Jogged over to Gantch and headed off in a big group to do an up-tempo. Felt good and was running at the front with Nick but we missed a turn and I fell off the back of the group as I tried to catch back up. Very frustrating as I felt I could have run with them fine if I had just been in the pack, but I couldn’t get myself to work back in. Ran back to campus and ran on the fields before doing 6x barefoot strides on the grass. Felt pretty awkward, first strides I’d done in a while. A bit more on the fields and then back to Gantch for abs/lift. Total 10M++ in 70’06.

4:30pm: Team abs and lift – felt pretty easy, but right hip flexor is still pretty sore, so that was a bit rough. Lift was same exercises as Monday but at a slower rhythm. Felt fine.

Viernes, 23 Septiembre, 2011 – 7:30am: Back PT at home.

8am: Good core session. 27’00 with plank and side planks.

10:30am: Ran easy down to fields and then did foot drills barefoot on the turf and then 8x diagonal strides on the turf field. Felt pretty awkward still, but getting better. Cooled down on the grass and then around C-Loop. Total 6M+ in 47’03.

12:30pm: Appointment with Dr. Tim again. Some good ART on the hips/calves, back.

3pm: Ran to the fells with Ben and Matt. Felt okay until we got there, then the terrain really irritated my back and hips. Ran really slow in the fells, but felt better once out. Finished with some extra on the fields. Lots of stretching, rolling, and then ice bath after. Total 63’00 for 9M.

Sabado, 24 Septiembre, 2011 – 9:30am: Woke up at 7am to have some breakfast before driving over to Franklin park for a workout. 3M+ warm up, felt a bit tired. Some light drills and strides but didn’t have much time as we had to finish before Codfish started. Workout was 1-minute on, drop a flag, jog for 45 seconds, return to flagged spot and repeat. Thus, the total “on” time would be 8km of work. I was originally supposed to run with Luke, McGlock, and Benji, but I didn’t have that today. I felt like mechanically I could run much faster than I was running, but aerobically I was recovering very quickly. Ended up at the back of the pack, but still running close to 5’00 pace for the “on” sections. I think I was fairly consistent, but hard to tell. Felt like I could have kept going for a while longer, just couldn’t make my legs turn over any faster. A bit frustrating to be running at the back. Total was 24’39 for 8km(-) of work, since I was trying to catch up with the pack on a few of the rest cycles. Not too bad, though. I guess it’s a good starting point. 3M cooldown with the team and then watched Codfish. 11M++ total.

5pm: Very short, easy shakeout with Sam on the grass. About 20’00 total.

Domingo, 25 Septiembre, 2011 – Long run Sunday! Woke up around 8am after a fun night with Sylvia and Aaron Someroff and had a bit of breakfast before jogging to down Baronian. Ran with Kyle at first out to the Charles, quickly separated from rest of pack. Brian caught up to us on the river and we were going pretty fast until about the science museum bridge. We ran into a bunch of charity walkers there, so had to slow down. Kyle turned off at Mass Ave, so I continued on solo. Tacked on a few miles out and back past Harvard to make it a bit longer and then timed the last 5km in 19’06 (6’08 pace). Felt pretty good, but a bit tired from the hard first hour or so. Also got really nasty chafing, no fun. Total run 17.2M in 1’51’16 (6’28 avg).

Splits: 8.1M: 52’ (6’27 avg)

12M: 1’19 (6’36 avg)

14.1M: 1’32 (6’32 avg)

17.2M: 1’51’16 (6’28 avg)

7pm: Core, 25’00 with 5’00 plank and side.

Weekly Total: 100 Miles in 10 runs

Week of 9/5/2011 and 9/12/2011

I've been a bit busy and haven't had a chance to post the last two weeks. Unfortunately, they were pretty terrible, until this past weekend. I was struggling a lot with my back and hip pain, which appeared to have been an alignment problem in my SI joint. I saw a chiropractor this past Friday and since then have been feeling great. I did my first (pretty slow and easy) workout on Saturday and then had a solid long run on Sunday. I've been feeling good since then, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm on the other side of this injury.

Now, I just need to get my legs back under me and get used to running fast with the boys again. Our team's first race was this past weekend and we had an amazing showing, putting 4 guys in the top 10 against some good schools, with 5 guys between 25'05 and 25'45. I can't wait to get in there with them. It's a pretty special year.

Anyways, I'll be using this week to build and get used to some lighter workouts and strides and then hopefully be back in the mix as normal with the varsity guys by next week. Ethan has the top 10 or 12 sitting out Codfish at Franklin Park this weekend, so my first race won't be until Open New Englands at Franklin Park on October 8. I feel like this gives me plenty of time to get back in the saddle. Still 8 weeks to Nationals.

Lunes, 5 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Slept for a long time last night, woke up naturally around 7:30am. Did core around 8am for 25’00.

11am: Had height/weight this morning for NCAA. Still below the BMI cutoff despite pounding water this morning (119lb, 5’8”), which is surprising because this is actually heavier than I usually am… Anyways, took morning off and did a bit more core with some of the team before lunch.

4:30pm – 5M easy shakeout on fields, barefoot. Back/ right hip still not perfect.

Martes, 6 Septiembre, 2011 – 7:30am: Non-optional day-off from Ethan. Got up early and biked over to Gantcher and did a bit of XT on the stationary bike 50’00 on the “hills” setting. Pretty good effort. Didn’t bother the back/hip at all. Better this morning.

3:30pm – Mandatory day-off. Just core with the guys, lots of stretching, rolling.

Miercoles, 7 Septiembre, 2011 – AM: Rest

3pm: Ran about 2M on treadmill and then around gantch. Back/hip still sore but getting better. 80 minutes on elliptical after at moderate intensity.

Jueves, 8 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Back better this morning, 25’ core session.

3pm: Team core. Lots of planks. Fun.

3:30pm. Ran outside towards the river with Matt and Kyle. Got dropped after about a mile. No limping, but still pretty painful. Slow, but longer than I thought once mapped, so not as bad as I thought. Total 7M in 50’40. After, lots of rolling/stretching and about 10’00 cooldown on bike.

Viernes, 9 Septiembre, 2011 – 10:30am – Ran down to Alumni fields and ran around the perimeter. Felt pretty stiff at first but had a really good moment about 25’ in when my body seemed to just “remember” how to run. Form felt a lot more smooth and felt like I was running, not jogging, for the first time in a while. Felt good. Ran to Gantch, back to Chet to grab my ID and then to Dewick. Total ~40’00 for 5M+.

3pm: Ran 30’00 solo before meeting up with the dudes. Ran another 30’00 or so with them as they warmed up for Kenyan run. Felt pretty sore at the end.

8pm: 25’00 of core. Felt good.

Sabado, 10 Septiembre, 2011 – 9am: Back a bit sore this morning. Biked to Gantcher and then did 60’00 on elliptical. Pretty boring, but good effort.

10:30am: A bit of core on the grass with the guys while watching the women’s time trial.

3pm: Ran solo from Chetwynd to Long Lakes. Felt decent. First 2M in about 13’30 and then ran progressive once at long lakes. Started around 6’45 and went down to about 6’00 pace by end. Pretty good effort. 3M pretty slow after at about 7’00 pace back to campus and on grass to get to 10M++ in 70’02 (5M of LL in ~32’30).

Domingo, 11 Septiembre, 2011 – 10am: Woke up around 7am, had a bit of breakfast (2 bananas with manjar and a plum), took some advil and did work until heading over to Baronian. Longish run with the guys. Ran with Matt, Luke, Sam, Connor, and some freshmen to the river. Much better long run than last week. Started out very slow (7’30+ pace) and then brought it down to probably about 6’40 pace on the river. Stride felt pretty smooth for about an hour. Back started to bug me a lot at that point and I slowed down a bit, but not too bad. Total run 1’39’04 for 14M+ (7’00 pace).

7pm: Core, 25’00 session.

Weekly Total: 51 Miles in 8 runs

Lunes, 12 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: A bit stiff this morning, but still better. Biked over to Gantcher and did 35’00 on the elliptical. Moderate effort. Bike back.

12pm: Easy run from Chet down to alumni fields and around 4 big laps on grass and back (5.25M). Felt good. Total 39’00 (7’26 pace).

3pm: Easy run with Luke, Sam, Scott, and Ben on slut bias. Felt good, a bit stiff at end, but better still improving day to day. Very slow, easy pace. Total 67’05 for 9M (7’27 avg).

8pm: Core session 25’00.

Martes, 13 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Woke up feeling good. Did light core because planning to workout this afternoon ~15’00.

10:30am: 30’00 on elliptical. Felt good. Back/hip felt very good afterwards.

3pm: Really bad afternoon. Felt really stiff/awkward. Jogged to Gantcher and then over to fields on rt 16 to watch workout, but was in a lot of pain. Very frustrating. Walked back to Chet and then biked back to Gantcher. Stretched and rolled a bunch there.

8pm: Felt a bit better, jogged over to Gantch and a big lap of Alumni fields and then met up with Liam to do some aqua jogging. In the pool for about 30’00. Last 5’00 pretty hard. Better than nothing, but not where I want to be…

Miercoles, 14 Septiembre, 2011 – 12pm: Went and saw the trainer. Did about an hour worth of supervised stretching and PT exercises, focusing on hips and low back.

3pm: Ran out towards fells with big group. Felt fine until got into the fells where uneven ground really bugged my SI. Turned around and came back and tacked some on around roads. After, did 50’00 on stationary bike pretty hard. Total about 95’00 with about 6M run.

Jueves, 15 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Back/hip exercises. 3 sets of 15 bridges, side leg lifts, clam shells, and stretching.

10:30am – 5M+ easy around campus in ~40’00. Felt pretty decent.

2:30pm – Back PT exercises with resistance bands/weights.

3pm: team abs, about 10’00, not too hard.

3:30pm – ran with Murner out to ex-harvard and back with an extra loop around campus. Felt quite good. No limping/hitch. Total 53’14 for 7M++.

4:45pm – After run, stationary biked for 30’00 to get total time up to 80’00 for the afternoon and 2’00 for the day. Pretty good effort.

Viernes, 16 Septiembre, 2011 – 7:30am – Back PT exercises at home.

8am: 6M- easy in 41’45. First morning trying to run without advil pre-run. Pretty stiff and slow.

10:30am: Appointment with Dr. Tim at Tufts. Got some massage/loosening and then chiro adjustment of the SI/hip. Felt immediate relief! Much better walking around.

2:30pm: 40’00 on stationary bike, good intensity, before heading out to run.

3:15pm: Ran on C-Loop with Matt and Ben and then on the fields with Ben and Jerzy. Felt pretty good. No limp until last lap or so on the grass, so stopped there. Total 41’32 for 6M.

Sabado, 17 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Back PT exercises at home.

8:30am: 6M very easy on Alumni fields in 45’05. Second morning of running without advil before the run. Pretty stiff, but no limping.

1:30pm: At Bowdoin for Bowdoin Invitational 8k. 3M+ warm up, a couple drills, strides, and then work out. Ran with Jerzy and Brosh on the course for 8km of fartlek. Pattern was 3 sets of 3-2-1 on with half rest and 2’00 rest between sets. Felt really good! Strides felt smooth. Running felt smooth. No hitch at all. Felt a bit awkward to be running fast again, but hopefully that’s just because I haven’t run fast in a while. Still, feeling cautiously optimistic. Total including rest was 8km in ~29’30. After, did about 30’00 cooldown barefoot on grass to watch the girls race and then on the super nice turf field! Really good day – team killed it out there, with Matty taking the overall. Great day. Total 11M++ for the afternoon.

8:30pm – Back PT exercises at home

Domingo, 18 Septiembre, 2011 – 8am: Back PT exercises at home.

8:30am: 25’ of core with plank/side plank at end.

10am: Long run from Baronian with a big group out to Jamaica Pond. Another really great run! First 12M or so were very easy with group. I stuck in the pack mostly because I didn’t know where we were going. Nice run, though, with a good portion on packed dirt trails on the way back to the river. Once we got to the river, I picked it up and ran hard-long-run effort for the last 4M+. I felt very good – smooth and relaxed. Felt more like I felt in mid-August than I have in a long time. Ran the last 5km back to campus in 17’47 (5’43 pace) feeling smooth. Total run 1’49’12 for 16M (6’35 pace). Not bad given that we were running over 7’00 pace for probably 10M. Very good run and good day!

7pm: Back PT at home.

Weekly Total: 83 Miles in 11 runs

Week of August 29, 2011

Lunes, 29 Agosto, 2011 – 11am: 30’ core session with 5’00 plank. Felt pretty good.

2pm: 3M easy with Mr. C around 8’00 pace and then quicker solo 9M. Felt a lot better than yesterday. Much smoother and more energy. Probably still dealing with lingering fever yesterday. Total 12M in 1’24’10.

9pm: 4M++ shakeout from Chetwynd after moving in the last of my stuff. A bit stiffer in the back/hip, but still better than it has been. Hope to be moving back to normal. Total 34’08 for 4M++.

Martes, 30 Agosto, 2011 – AM: Still feeling a bit sick, stiff. Just rest.

2PM: Light core to warm up the back. 20’ total.

3pm: Terrible workout. Warm-up 4M solo and then with the guys. Afterwards, ran weird 6M loop on bike path around Arlington. Ran first 800m in ~2’40 and it felt super hard. Got dropped going up the hill around spy pond and came through 2M+ in 11’40 (5’44 pace from map). Running solo by then and just ran moderate for a couple miles. Guys caught up to me on the way back and I ran the last two miles back a bit harder, not sure of pace. Pretty awful overall. Cooldown back to campus and around. Total 13M.

Miercoles, 31 Agosto, 2011 – AM: Back stiff, but better than yesterday. Played it safe and no double today. Did nice long core session in the late morning, though. Felt solid.

4pm: After a nice meeting with the coaches and then Connor and then a nice introductory meeting with everyone (new frosh included), we headed out for our first run as a whole team. I ran with Brosh, Jerzy, and Dan on Long Res which got lost and turned into far (fire?) tower. Hip/back felt really good except on rocky footing on the longer downhills. Bunch of downed trees from the storm. Brosh and I ran longer, going back around C-Loop to tack on another few miles. Everyone was gone when we got back, so I ran back to chet with a few laps around the field to round up. Total was ~15M in 1’45’26.

Jueves, 1 Septiembre, 2011 – 10am: Back better this morning but still stiff. Woke up at 8, breakfast, and then stretched/rolled before a very easy 5M shakeout on Lakes/C-Loop. Felt pretty stiff at first. Stopped to stretch at bridge and felt better after.

3pm: Team abs – pretty easy but painful on the hard track. Lots of scraped up backs.

3:30pm: Ran with Jerzy, Matt, Sam, and some freshmen. Two bridges back through prospect hill with just Jerzy. Felt better again. Hip/back didn’t bug me at all during run. Some bad #2 cramps at the end, stopped in Anderson. Tried to do a couple strides but those felt pretty painful so didn’t push it today. Getting back worked on tomorrow, feeling cautiously optimistic. Total 10M+ in 73’10.

Viernes, 2 Septiembre, 2011 – 10am: Back better than yesterday, again. Jogged down to track and then ran an easy 30 minutes with Connor, Jerzy, and Brosh barefoot on the grass. Felt nice to be on the grass. Total 5M+ in 42’00

12pm: Appointment with Sam Peck (http://www.soarbody.com/) in Somerville. Great guy, very knowledgeable and helpful. Really dug deep into my legs and back, pretty sore afterwards.

3pm: Easy run on Mid res with the team to fields. Right hip was really tight interestingly enough, took it pretty easy. Sam said not to do anything intense, so I laid off the strides today. Total 9M+ in 67’28.

Sabado, 3 Septiembre, 2011 – 10am: Out in Grafton for Alumni 5k. Did warm up with team but felt really sore/stiff from massage yesterday. No race, just ran a bunch extra with Andrea. Jogged around during the race to watch and then cooled down 4M with the team. Felt quite good by cool down. Total ~10M in 70-80’.

3pm: Core, 25’00 with 5’00 plank.

5pm: Shakeout down to track and then barefoot on fields with Jerzy, Erik, and Rags. Total 43’12 for 5M++.

Domingo, 4 Septiembre, 2011 – 8:30am – woke up early at 7am to try to give my back time to warm up. Did 25’00 of core to try and warm up. Felt good.

9:30am – Pretty disappointing long run. Warmed up for 30 minutes solo and then a quick meeting before heading out. Felt decent for first 30-40 minutes of the run, but still not great. After that got really hot/dehydrated and back/hip started acting up. Slowed down a lot and got some water. Finished with Nick. Total 17M+ in 2’02’22. Time for a down week.

Weekly Total: 105 Miles in 11 runs. Tough week, frustrating that the back/hip isn't getting better as quickly as I want. I will take a real down week this coming week so I can hopefully put this behind me and get back to solid training.

Summer Training in Review

Monday, 6/20/2011 to Wednesday, 8/31/2011 (73 days)

Total Mileage: 1090M in 123 runs (14.9M/day average)

Days at altitude (7,000’-20,000’; most at ~9,500’): 68

Days under 10M: 3

Mode: 15.01 (double)

Longest Run: 22M

Highest 7 day total: 124M in 12 runs (sea level), 122 M in 13 runs (Altitude)

This was a pretty big summer for me. I had a great “off” period between 5/30 and 6/20 (about 3 weeks), where I was able to pursue my love for the outdoors through hiking and climbing in the Andes of Peru. I built up pretty quickly, running mostly on dirt and grass at 7,000’  above sea level in Arequipa, Peru. I did a few fartleks, but mostly was doing moderate running, picking it up when I felt good and taking it easy when I was tired. Some days I would finish my regular training runs under 6’00 pace for the last few miles, which was pretty good given the altitude.

From Arequipa, I moved to the higher elevation of Cusco, where I suffered a brief stomach bug, and then down to Pisaq (9,500’), where I would make my home for the majority of the trip. Pisaq was a great place to train; there were ample dirt roads, few cars or dogs, great food, and few distractions. Even during Strive when I was quite busy, I found my training going really well in Pisaq. This was also when I started to plateau my mileage at around 110-120 miles per week.

After a few big weeks in Pisaq, I traveled to Quito for a few days and then back to the States. My first week back in the states was a rough transition, but once I caught up on sleep from the travel, I felt great. I ran the hardest run of the base block on 8/14/2011, a hard “uptempo” run on my hilly 20M loop in Concord. I’ve done this near the end of each base phase for the last few seasons. I ran 2’04 last summer, 2’00 in the winter, and this year ran 1’57 (5’51 pace). I was hoping to run under 2’00’00 (6’00 pace), so this was quite a good run for me.

Since then, I’ve been running in Concord and Somerville, either by myself or with the team. Things were going well until I strained my back moving furniture about two weeks ago. It’s been frustratingly slow to heal, but hasn’t hampered training too much and does seem to be improving.

Now, September has arrived and it’s a time for transitions: the calm of the summer to the chaos of the start of classes, the routine mileage of base phase to new speed in strength phase. The next few weeks will be the introduction of some faster running, with less of an emphasis on mileage. We have our first race at Bowdoin a week from Saturday, but our first competitive race isn’t until mid-October at Open New Englands. Plenty of time.

I’m excited to see what the team can do this year. A ton of people have put in awesome summers and I really can’t wait to see us all in a race together. Base phase is just the beginning, though. The road to Oshkosh starts now.