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.