Craig Mac on the Track

Finis

2011-10-10T15:14:00.002-04:00

Well, I haven't kept up with this thing for a while now, and it's not entirely because I've been too busy. The fall is always a tough time for me because my allergies combine with my asthma and my running tends to drop off. I can control either one of those exogenous factors with medication, but when they're both bad at the same time, I'm little better than "entirely useless."

I'll admit, too, I've grown tired of keeping the blog up. I never intended it to be a mere reposting of my training from logarun, and I haven't run well enough to offer any real insight to anyone looking for it.

To very briefly (by my standards) share where I'm at: I've got this semester left of college, and then 2 classes to talk in the spring, then I'm graduating from BU with a BA in Economics. After that, well, who the hell knows? I don't have a job lined up yet and I've got some solid student loans hanging over my head. I still have PRs left in me, though, so I'll be squeezing in as much running as I can regardless of where I end up working. Until we get a hard frost this fall, my running will be reasonably touch-n-go, with good days and bad days dictated by pollen counts. Fortunately, my new apartment is a lot less moldy and damp than my old basement apartment, so I'm doing better than I would be otherwise.

Also, after more than 3 years of waiting for my younger brother to turn 18, my family and I have decided to go back to using my mother's maiden name, McMahon. It was obviously a long process (and we still have to settle everything legally and officially) but we all felt it better reflected who we were, based on our familial situation (upon which I don't really see appropriate to elaborate here). So, since my "clever" blog title is no longer accurate and the pleasure I take in blogging has largely waned, I figured now was as good a time as any to wind this thing down.

Anyone who has interest in seeing what I'm up to are welcome to check out my training calendar on logarun.com. My username is Craig McMahon, so I'll be easy to find. Lastly, I just wanted to say thanks to anyone who reached out to me over the years. It's been an interesting exercise to have to analyze myself a little bit every week. At times, it was comforting and clarifying to write everything down; at others, it felt like a self-indulgent and masturbatory act of ego. Maybe, if after graduating, I become some stud road whore or ultra-marathon geek, I'll feel the need to start something bloggy up again. Maybe I'll get a job at runnersworld, and you can all read about my tips to your best half-marathon on 10 miles a week (please for the love of god, I'm kidding, don't believe that).

Regardless of what happens, I'm sure it'll be an adventure to find out. Take it easy, everybody. Happy Running!

-Craig McMahon

The Drought Ends

2011-08-21T20:29:00.003-04:00

You know, internet, I didn't mean to take a long hiatus from this thing. I ran a good 10 miler a few weeks ago and was all set to write a content blog that weekend. Then I missed it, then it was finals for summer classes, then I started a new job. . . and here we are. I'll give a nice long update now, but first, I want to mention that Johnny Kelley the younger is no longer with us. A legend in the New England road racing scene, Kelley won the 1957 Boston Marathon and represented the USA twice at the Olympic Games. He was also an alumni of my school, Boston University. I walk by his picture every time I go into the track locker room. His other highlights are too numerous to mention here and his influence on more than half a century of runners in the area is too vast for me to truly do him justice. I refer everyone who reads this blog to Amby Burfoot's wonderful reflection on Kelley, which you can find at http://footloose.runnersworld.com/2011/08/john-j-kelley-rip-1930-2011-1957-boston-marathon-winner-americas-first-modern-road-runner.html

As for my last month, it began very promisingly after the heatwave and unfortunately went south from there. I ran a ~70 second PR to win the Blessing of the Fleet 10-miler in Narragansett, RI (running 52:08) and thereafter had trouble with my left piriformis and sciatica-like symptoms. I got the troubles under control in time to run the Falmouth Road Race without any pain whatsoever, but fell apart after two miles and ran 37:13, which was some 10 sec/mile slower than I averaged for the 10-miler. It was, as usual, a fun weekend, but I was disappointed to run poorly. Fortunately, the real racing hasn't even begun yet, so I'm focused on making this last collegiate cross country season the best it can be.

Here's what I got up to:

Monday July 25: 2PM- 5.5 mi: up to the BC Res, around once, and home at a sad, crawling short of shuffle. 9PM- 7mi river loop also pretty slow and easy. I wanted to go at 7 but it was rainy and I ate dinner instead. 6.5 total (the loop is short)

Tuesday July 26: 4:45PM- 4mi easy in NH (doctor's appointment, routine checkup)
9:30PM- 3+ up, 3xmile with 800 jog, 3+ down. I did this workout kinda weird(ly?). I did the whole first mile "hard" (about 5k effort) then jogged my 800 in ~3:10, then did the second mile with the first and last laps at ~tempo-y type pace and the middle 800 in 2:24 for a time of 4:59, then jogged another 800 in ~3:10 before finishing the last mile going 77, 75, 70, 67 for 4:49. The workout was 4 miles total in 20:59. It was 70 deg out and windy, so much more comfortable than it's been lately. I gotta get in the habit of running at like 7:30am so mornings stop getting away from me.

Wednesday July 27: 11:30AM- 4mi very slow, felt tired, heavy, but mostly hungry.
6:30PM- 10mi easy with Joey, some with James and Peter. All dizzy and stuff because I didn't eat enough today, but I ground it out.

Thursday July 28: 6:30PM- 81min easy tending toward moderate with Peter, Joey, and guest star Teddy V of Northeastern. I did not intend on running this far or averaging 6:20 pace, but I felt good and it wasn't hot out, so whatever. We ran all around the downtown and saw some attractive ladies. 12+ miles

Friday July 29: 9:30AM- 3mi at about 9min pace, with the middle 2 barefoot on the track. 5:30PM- 22min up, strides, 10-mi road race, 20min down with Joey and his HS teammates. The race went well- after about a half-mile, the pace slowed as people settled in. I felt fine at the initial pace, so off I went. I ran the first 5 miles pretty aggressively for my fitness level and the wheels came off at about 6 miles, but I was able to hold on for a 7 second win after being ~25 seconds up at 5mi.

Splits I remember:

5:04 (5:04)
10:16 (5:12)
15:20 (5:04)
20:35 (5:15)
25:47 (5:12)
31:06 (5:19)
36:20 (5:14)
41:32 (5:12)
46:58 (5:26)
52:08 (5:10)

Miles 6 and 9 had these ~100y long gradual hills, which felt like friggen mountains at that point. Sub-52 was right there had I been tougher on the hills.

Saturday July 30: 11:30AM- 4mi easy with Sean and some with James, ran really slow. My calves were fine, surprisingly, but my quads felt like I had tried to and succeeded in squatting the world. 5PM- 7mi easy with the Trethewey, still felt like my quads had gotten electrocuted.

Sunday July 31: OFF, tired, covered in blisters, and sore- but mostly lazy

Tot- 82

Monday August 1: 2PM- 4mi easy after class, hot out, quads still pretty ugly, but my blisters felt much better. 7:30PM- Fresh Pond once from the house with James, really slow. Quads still sore, stomach upset.

Tuesday August 2: 7PM- Joey, Peter, and Rob were doing a workout, so I ran up to the BC Res and around it a bunch of times while they worked out. Still felt sore, but today was under 7:00 pace. 11mi total

Wednesday August 3: 11AM- 4mi nice and easy before class. 6:30PM- 10 mi easy with Peter and the first half with Eric, 67min total. Left butt/hip was really sore. This was the beginning of the piriformis that hated me.

Thursday August 4: 7:30PM- 10 with Rob on the Fat Cat loop then a short addition to get 11 on the day. Left hip still sore, but not as bad as yesterday. I thought it was cause I was limping on my blister foot, but who knows these things.

Friday August 5: 6:30PM- 3.5 up, 8x~500 section of hilly trail on the Pinkerton course with jog back, 3+ down. My left hip/piriformis was really going nuts today; the cooldown was miserable. Running uphill seems to be good for it (more range of motion = more stretching?) so I did some net uphill surges on trails.

Saturday August 6: 11:30AM- 7mi moderate on a hilly loop, had some pain in the butt/hip but mostly it was just tight. 7:30PM- 8mi moderate on more or less the same course (I went home a different way to get in another mile) with only the odd spike of pain and mostly just moderate tightness in the butt/hip. Going to town on my ass with a tennis ball (. . . ladies) seems to have been helped. I didn't get any numbness or "oh god the white hot pain is making me buckle" feelings and after the run it didn't hurt much at all, so I was pretty hopeful at this point.

Sunday August 7: Did 2, hip killed, turned around and limped home. Sad panda.

Total: 79

Monday August 8: 5:30PM- 13.5 miles: 3 laps around Fresh Pond with Peter at a good clip (6:20 or so for the whole run, I think). After one lap we ran into a runner from Brown and rolled with him for a while. The hip mostly behaved, so that was cool. Today, also, was my 22nd birthday.

Tuesday August 9: 8:30PM- 2 classes, work orientation, didn't have time for shit til late. River loop with Rob, 15min at 2mi, then 6:15 pace the rest of the way, more or less.

Wednesday August 10: 11AM- 7 mile river loop pretty slow. My piriformis doesn't feel "injury" hurt, but it is "holy crap all that rehab" hurt. I looked up some exercises that are supposed to be "challenging" if you have a weak piriformis, and I could barely do more than a few reps. Nice weather, though, and no nerve "buzz" or numbness. 6PM- A lap around Fresh Pond, flying today. 8.5 miles with no watch, but I was wailing on it.

Thursday August 11: OFF. One of those days that sneaks up on you with stuff spaced out so that I could have been late to some stuff and squeezed in two 5-6 mile runs at various points about 3 hours apart, but I never did. Rats.

Friday August 12: 12PM- 6.5 mi easy with my younger brother on the river, nice weather. Last lingering hip stuff was GONE baby! 7:30PM- To JP around and back with 6x2min hard, 1min moderate in the middle just to turn the legs over a little. I went back kind of a different way for a little add-on. 9mi total

Saturday August 13: AM- 4mi easy before driving down to Falmouth with Peter, Rich, and Cordaro the Born Again. PM- 10mi easy, some with Peter and Kev, the other bit with Max Darrah, with whom I stayed that evening before the race. My teammate Rich Peters was one of the pacers for the Elite Mile the day before and therefore I say all the credit for the 10 sub-4 performances belongs to him.

Sunday August 14: Falmouth Road Race- 3 up, 7mi race 37:13 for God knows what place. I hit two miles in 10:10 with one of my teammates, but while Peter went on to roll a 35:45, I fell well off the pace and got picked off by the top two women finishers several miles later. I have yet to beat the first woman at this race, and I suppose I have to wait another year to try. 3mi down. Again, though, Falmouth is too fun a weekend to let a bad race ruin it- but a run like Peter's would have been just the icing to make it perfect. C'est la vie, right?

Total- 84 miles

Monday August 15: 7PM- 10mi very slow, 75min, on the river through a downpour with James. I was in an extremely bad mood, but James refused to allow me to stay that way the whole run.

Tuesday August 16: 6:55AM- Usually I round up to the nearest 15min, but I wanted to brag about getting this one started before 7am. 4mi easy, quads still sore. 6:30PM- Two laps around JP from the house with a stop at the TTC to do 4x150 and a 200 fast. Hip a little sore near the end, very tender after when I was stretching. Quads still sore, but I hit a good pace regardless.

Wednesday August 17: 6:30PM- 4+ up with James, 3x4x200 with 200 jog between reps and an 800 jog between sets. I averaged 31.4 for the first 10 and then ran the last two in 29.3 and 28.1. It felt good to open up a little and to know how easy this workout was, despite the fact that my legs were still rocked from Falmouth. 3+ down.

Thursday August 18: 6:45AM- 3mi easy, mostly barefoot on Nickerson, no time for more because I had to take a dump during the run and it killed like 10min. 8PM- 10mi moderate solo, felt good, last few reasonably hard.

Friday August 19: Woke up late, no time for a morning run. After work I took the bus to Derry. 8PM- No legs or light for a workout (friggin Derry barely has street lights) so I just wailed on it for 9 hilly miles.

Saturday August 20: 3:30PM- 4mi barefoot on Hood Field, 28:24, with Kevin, who is leaving for the University of Portland out in Oregon in 3 days. We had a barbecue for him and I didn't get out to run again, which was fine because frankly, my allergies were going nuts and I didn't want to deal with them.

Sunday August 21: 12PM- 7mi moderate over a hilly course in Derry, crushed the last 4mi without really meaning to, but I didn't have a watch on it. 7PM- 6.5 easy on the river, tried to keep things a little slower today because most of my runs this week have been quite fast.

76 miles, not a great week, but I started tutoring at a summer enrichment program and missed some doubles. This week will be better.

Take it easy, everyone, and rest in peace, Johnny Kelley. You will be missed.

Who Touched the Theromstat?

2011-07-25T12:58:00.002-04:00

So America got hit with a pretty nasty heat wave yesterday. I think except for Seattle and its environs, the entire continental US of A was a furnace for most of last week. I'm told that New England, with real temperatures "only" in the mid to hi-90s and dew points in the 70s, got off easy. I mean, fair enough, but during runs this week, I wasn't thinking "theoretically, this could be worse." I was thinking "AAhhhhhhh! My brain is bubbling out of my ears!"

The horrible wet heat aside, I had a decent week of training. I set a personal record for "latest start of run" at 11:30PM. I saw Captain America (I have a weakness for superhero movies). I finished 3rd place at a mini-golf night (of 3 people total). I got a two-week gig teaching summer school in the middle of August. I think that's about it.

Le Log:

Monday 7/18: 1PM- 4mi easy in my new trainers (Asics Hyperspeed IIIs, if anyone is curious). I didn't wear socks and got a big blister, but I still love the shoes.
7:30PM- 3.5 up, 12x32 seconds barefoot on a turf soccer field at Harvard with an 88 second recovery run at a steady pace. After the 4th and 8th reps I took 5min total total. Cool down to 11mi. This was the day the humidity set in, so I was drenched 10min into the warmup.

Tuesday 7/19: AM- Had to get a bunch of work done, no time to run, boo. 7PM- With James and Rob to JP, 6:10-6:25s the last 7 miles or so, started very easy.

Wednesday 7/20: 11AM- 5mi at a snail's pace, 94 deg out but dry. No morning class! 7PM- To Fresh Pond and around (16:17) with Peter and James, add-on at Harvard plus 5x120y strides with jogback. 11 total, felt pretty good, 6:20-6:30 pace.

Thursday 7/21: AM- Two midterms today, studied all morning. Shoulda got up earlier. 9PM- Still 88deg with a 74 dew point. Holy ballsack. 3 and a third up, 4x3min hard, 2min easy + another 1:47 hard at the end to finish 4mi in 21:47, 3 and a third down. The weather was so gross that I decided to do something easy and really baby the 2min easy sections. At least I got something in. I think I counted this as 10 in the log, but it was closer to 11.

Friday 7/22: 4PM- I was up at like 9AM today (no class on Fridays) but spent the whole morning and early afternoon cleaning, organizing, throwing stuff out, making a list of books I'll sell and books I'll keep, etc. Since it was 103 out (109 heat index) I went over to the track and ran 35min indoors for an easy 5mi. 11:30PM- Rob, James, and I headed out for an easy 10 miles around the waterfront and back through Quincy Market. It was still like 93 when we started, and I wasn't sure I'd make it back with like 3mi to go. Yech.

Saturday 7/23: 9PM- 10mi real easy, no watch. Totally fried all day. However, James and I finally got an apartment for next year, so at least I won't be homeless.

Sunday 7/24: 7:30PM- The heat broke! It was about 78 and breezy for this run. I ran about 10mi easy with James, going from about 7:20 for the first 3mi down to 6:20 or so by the time we split, then added on 6mi at about 6:15/mile including an 800 on the track in 2:26 to finish things up. Felt. . meh. It would have been an awful run if the weather wasn't perfect, so I'm thankful that the weather was, in fact, perfect.

92 miles, 10 runs

Oh yeah, I did core most days after the longer run, too (ladies).

Karma

2011-07-17T21:28:00.002-04:00

Things had gone too well for too long. After my long run last Sunday, I experienced an interesting injury. You ever get a charlie horse? You know, when your calf just suddenly CRAMPS and turns into a ball of pain and stiffness for like a minute? I experienced, over the course of several hours, a slow-motion charlie horse. Very slowly, over about two hours, my left calf clenched up and stayed clenched/cramped/whatever until bed. Since I was all limpy the next day, I got into the trainer's office and them show me some stretchin' techniques. I ended up talking two days off: one because I was limpy, and the other because it felt mostly better, but it's the summer and I have the luxury of time and used it to nip this in the bud. Other than a little achilles tightness today, I'm fine, and when my new shoes come in tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll be even finer.

Anyway. . .

Wednesday July 13: 10mi easy, 65min, with Peter. Felt good, but a little weird from the double days off.

Thursday July 14: 11mi hard solo, felt too good out the door to take it easy. I knew I'd pay for this later in the week, but I just wailed on this one the last 7 miles. Kinda makes me wish I had run with a watch today. . .

Friday July 15: 1PM- A real crack a'dawn morning run, 4mi slow. 7PM- 10mi easy, last 5mi moving along petty good.

Saturday July 16: 4PM- 7mi easy with Rob and an incoming freshman who was in town for orientation. It was HOT out, but we had fun taking our new teammate down to the Boston Common. 9PM- Hadn't planned on running again today because I was so bushed, but Matt was running an easy 3mi and I decided to join him.

Sunday July 17 7PM- 14mi moderate, really hot out. I felt like crap today, yech. I'm not too upset with this week, though, because the calf thing could have been ugly and instead all I did was miss two measly days.

Now, if you'll excuse me, internet, I have to finish up some Spanish homework and go to Shawes to buy some dinner.

59mi, 5 days, 6 runs. Take it easy, everybody.

AAwwww yeah double update STEEZ

2011-07-10T22:17:00.002-04:00

Things I really should do right now:

1) Put away my leftovers so I have lunch tomorrow
2) Study for my Spanish exam

Things I'm going to do right now instead:

1) Update this blog
2) Watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on ABC Family
3) Eat my leftovers
4) ???
5) Profit.

Here's what happened during the week that went from 7/4-7/10

7/4, America's Birfday: 7AM- Roll off the air mattress I crashed on last night, stumble to bathroom, cripple jog to downtown Keene, register for 4 on the 4th, cripple jog another 2 miles. 4mi race in 20:03, splits 5:01, 5:01, 5:00, 5:01, 5th place. The thing about racing in the Keene area is that even for the rinkiest of dink races, there's a damn good field. I got dropped like a pregnant lady's cigarette habit after the mile and ran the last 3 miles alone, other than two stragglers I picked off. Still, I wasn't displeased with the effort. 30min cooldown with a big group. 3PM- 5mi easy with Trethewey before we started barbecuing.

7/5: AM- travel back to Fitchburg then Boston, didn't have time for a run before my Int'l Finance class. PM- 11mi easy with James, felt good, ran slow.

7/6: AM- 4mi easy, didn't feel like running today and let some school stuff distract me. I'm such a good student. . . unless I feel like running.

7/7: AM- 4mi easy, felt good. PM- With a big group of BU teammates to Fresh Pond and back from the TTC, started easy but ran most of the back half around 6:20 pace or so. After I added on with a few people to get a solid 75min and 11+ on the evening.

7/8: 1PM- 3mi easy, I hit snooze a bunch of times this morning and waited til after my first class to run. 7PM- 3mi w/u with Sean, my gainfully employed and retired from competitive running roommate, then on the track for a long, solo workout. I decided to do mile repeats with a steady 800 run again and just figured I'd stop at some point after I did 4 of them. I felt so good I didn't call it quits until after 7 of them, which, when you add in the 6 preceding half-mile recovery runs, adds up to 10 miles on the track. While the miles and the jogs (and thus the overall pace of the 10mi) was fast, what was really awesome about this workout was how easy it was. I didn't really feel like I was working until after the 5th hard mile. I only cooled down a mile, though, because 14mi on the afternoon and 17 on the day was quite sufficient.
Mile (800 run)

5:02.9, 3:04.3
5:06.6, 2:59.6
5:05.4, 3:01.9
5:06.1, 3:01.7
5:04.9, 3:01.3
5:03.2, 3:01.6
5:01.8, (53:40 at 16k, 100m in 22.0 seconds to make 16k a real 10miles) in 54:02.8

Avg: 5:04.5, 3:01.4 and 5:24.4 per mile overall.

Saturday 7/9: Noon- 4mi super slow, no watch. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I would, but that's probably because I kept it REALLY easy. 6:30PM- 10mi easy solo on the river, kept it really easy again, over 7:00 pace for the splits I checked. I got rolled up by a friendly but competitive pair of gentlemen who informed me they had been on my trail for over a half-mile. As I told them, it's good to get rolled up every so often. Keeps the old ego in check, y'know?

Sunday 7/10: 6:30PM- 17mi starting easy but the last 11 miles were definitely on the steady side of things.

Total- 94 miles with a 4mi day, not bad, not bad.

Ahora- Yo tengo que estudiar para una prueba en Espanol.

Very Overdue Update. . . and there'll be another one this evening!

2011-07-10T15:20:00.002-04:00

When I'm a day with the blog, I go "hmm," I should do that. After three days, I tend to think "meh, might as well just do a two-weeker in a few days." After nearly a month with no updates, I think "I have a blog?!" with mild indignation. Anyway, the longer I put this off, the longer the update will be, and the greater the likelihood that I write a Teal Deer post.

It's been a fun, busy, and at times frustrating couple weeks. My first session of summer classes ended, and I missed a B+/A- in my Economic Policy class by like 2 points (there were only 13 in the class, so the curve was murder). I went to Long Island with one of my roommates and took a sweet tour of Theodore Roosevelt's mansion, Sagamore Hill. Hmm, what else. I didn't manage to procure a short term job, so until mid-August, I will be surviving off savings and whatever odd jobs I can find helping people move furniture or whatever. It's not the end of the world, but not an ideal situation either.

Anyway, I have a Spanish exam to study for and I still haven't done my long run yet (waiting for it to cool down a little) so I gotta get caught up on this thing before I do this week's entry after my run.

From where I left off:

Monday 6/20: I woke up today with a fever, so I guess it wasn't just allergies that messed up my long run the day before. I decided to run through it, did a 6.5 mile morning run, then decided running through it was a dumb idea and slept through my afternoon run. Class today SUCCCCKED.

Tuesday 6/21: 11AM- 4mi pretty quick between classes. 5PM- 10+ miles, 66min or so, with a group of BU folk. We were moving along well, which is always nice.

Wednesday 6/22: 11AM- 6.5mi easy between classes, gross day out- it was really warm and humid with that half-assed warm rain that feels like a camel drooling on you. Felt slimy the whole time, yuck. 9PM- 3 up barefoot, 2x(5x200)avg 31 with 200 jog between reps, 14:20 for 4k total, 4ish down. It was downpouring out the whole time and I had basically zero fun, despite spiking up.

Thursday 6/23: 3:30PM- 9mi easy with James, to Mayor's Park in Cambridge. Didn't feel like going out that night and running again.

Friday 6/24: AM- 8.5 miles, one lap of Fresh Pond from Ashford. Drive to Long Island with James, got stuck in traffic and was trapped in the car for 7hrs. PM- 7mi with James in Long Island with some 30 second easy surges near the end to get the car out of my legs.

Saturday 6/25: AM- 3mi easy around the Roosevelt Estate. I highly recommend the tour (it's like 5 bucks) if you're ever in the area. PM- 10 miles moderate with James and Billy on Billy's trails in East Sachem, truly delightful.

Sunday 6/26: 11 miles moderate, with the last 4mi especially moderate (ha!). Allergies pretty bad today, must be all the rain.

Tot- 84.5mi

6/27-7/3

Monday 6/27: AM- Economics Presentation. My topic was on the possibly damaging effects the imposition of a minimum wage COULD have on the people it's supposed to help. I think the whole class got a B, so that was a little irritating. 4:30PM- 4mi quick before work, 6:15s after the mile or so. 9PM- 3+ up, 4mi tempo on the river in 20:49 (5:12, 5:16, 5:12, 5:09), 3+ down. I was kinda crampy and tired on the warmup, so I was satisfied with this workout.

Tuesday 6/28: 9PM- Between finishing up the paper that was the basis for my presentation, work, allergy shots, and Spanish, this was the first hour I had to run. 10mi steady/moderate on the river, 63min, but I was about 8min at the mile and 15 at 2, so the last 8mi were pretty solid.

Wednesday 6/29: 3PM- 7mi easy, up to the BC Res, around twice, and home. It was warm out and I felt like craap. 9:30PM- 8.5 easy on the river, full of pizza (boss's last day at work).

Thursday 6/30: 3PM- 9 easy, not sure if it was hot out or what, but I had planned 12-13 easy and felt too shitty to finish it out. 9PM- Hadn't planned on doubling, but I was pissed off about earlier and decided to belt out 4 miles without no watch. Ran mostly barefoot on the infield of the track.

Friday 7/1: 4.5 up, 8xKeene 400s, 2.5 down. Warmed up and cooled down with Peter and James. Keene Quarters, which Nate Jenkins mistakenly calls "Aussie 400s" just because the Australians invented them first, are when you run a 400 somewhere between 2-mile and 5k pace, then run a 200 around 6min pace for recovery. The whole session is 4800m/3mi and you want to average something in the realm of a hard 4-6mi tempo run pace for the 3miles. Target: 71-73 for the 400s, 45-46 for the 200s. I started too fast and the session ended up being ~15-20 seconds faster than I wanted. Oh well.

69.0, 45.0
69.2, 46.8
70.4, 45.7
70.9, 48.0
70.1, 47.0
70.9, 47.6
71.5, 46.8,
70.7, 45.1

15:34.0 total, just about 5:12/mile. It wasn't so bad, but I would have preferred to be a little slower on the 400s and a little quicker on the 200s. Good workout, though.

Saturday 7/2: I kinda forgot what I did today- my log indicates I did two runs of 6.5mi and 9 miles each. Good to know.

Sunday 7/3: AM- 4mi easy before I took the train from Cambridge to Fitchburg, where Trethewey picked me up. PM- 5mi easy with Trethewey in Keene, couldn't be bothered to run more.

Tot- 87.5

That's it for now, but after I go running, I'll update this week's training. I raced a 4-miler on Monday, but for those of you who aren't good with The Google, you'll have to check back to see how I did!

DOUBLE the Update- DOUBLE the HW Procrastination!

2011-06-19T21:20:00.002-04:00

Hello internet. Sorry for the lack of the update last week, but I had some summer class midterms and things kinda got away from me. I also gotta get another job, because my normal school year one is about to end and I'd rather have a couple weeks of overlap than a couple weeks with nothing coming in. Anyway, all that's neither here nor there. Here are my last two weeks:

6/6: 11mi easy, took an unplanned detour to find a bathroom and got kinda lost. I ended up feeling pretty good once I got about 5mi in, though.

6/7: AM- 4 easy PM- 8 easy, doctor's appt, pretty sure I did this run around the outdoor track barefoot.

6/8: 7mi easy, still 84 and humid at 9PM after work. I really did not feel like running today, but I know it was more because of the weather and the fact that I put it off so late.

6/9: 2:30PM- 5mi easy, 94 deg or so. 10pm- 10mi steady after work, last 8 pretty damn fast. Got caught in a downpour with a 1mi to go, and of course I was wearing a ratty old pair of white nylon shorts. Good thing I was running at night.

6/10: 4PM- With Joey and Petah on the river, ~4mi up, 5x3min hard, 2min easy, then 20min down or so with a mile added on at Nickerson. We averaged under 5:30/mile including the rest, so we were getting in some good running on the hard parts. Great weather- the heat finally broke. All in all, an enjoyable day. 10PM- River loop, belly a little sloshy from lemonade

6/11: 1PM- 4mi easy, rainy and 50deg, which was awesome after the week we had. 6:30PM- 2 laps of Fresh Pond easy from the house, 11mi, felt good.

6/12: 5PM- 15 miles, kind of a shorter but harder long run than I've done the last month or so. I was clipping along at about 6:15/mile after the mile and ran to the Arb, did about a half-hour there, then ran a pace-check lap at JP (9:06) then came home via the Muddy River through South Campus. The total 1:42:30, but I'm being pretty careful on the distance- I bet I could have added 2:30 and called it 16. Oh, the games we play.

90 miles, 11 runs

Next week:

Monday 6/13: 4PM- 4mi easy with the Gilmore Twins. A mile into the run we stopped at Harvard so Kevin, who hasn't really run in 3 months, could do an 800 time trial. He ran 2:11.3! 8:30PM- 8 miles moderate solo on the river, too full from dinner still.

Tuesday 6/14: OFF, hadn't had one in over 60 days.

Wednesday 6/15: 2:30PM- Perfect weather, good day to tempo. 3+ up, 6mi tempo on the river in 32:08 (two mile splits- 10:52, 10:50, 10:26). I had only planned on doing 5mi, but I felt so good at 4.5 I figured I might as well keep going. 2+ down for 12. 9:30PM- 4mi easy to break in some new shoes.

Thursday 6/16: Back to Derry, 4pm- It was 88 degrees and I picked an obnoxiously hilly route, so this ended up being a very unpleasant 10 miler in just under 70min. After a much needed shower I headed to the Verizon Center in Manchester to watch my brother graduate from high school.

Friday 6/17: Noon- 4mi easy out-n-back: I put a watch on it to see what was up, surprised to head back under 7:00 pace after going out 14:30 at the turnaround. 28:17 total. 5:30PM: 3 up to the Pinkerton track for a nice little workout. I repeated my 6xmile workout, but cut the rest from an 800 sustained run to a 600 sustained run. I wore my new Streak XC 3s and while I like the shoes a lot, I can't wear socks with them and tore my heels pretty good. As usual, everything is rounded up to the nearest tenth, so totals might add up. Dammit, Jim- I'm a doctor, not an accountant!

5:08.6, 2:21.5
5:10.8, 2:20.3
5:07.4, 2:18.6
5:08.1, 2:17.4
5:06.9, 2:15.8
5:05.0, 1:02.2 for 300m and 8 miles in 43:23, or just over 5:25/mile. I'm pretty pleased with this one, it was easy as pie.

Saturday: 1PM- 4mi easy out and back, 28:49 8PM- 10 miles slow, picked another obnoxiously hilly course, 71:03. Tired, heavy. Long day yesterday.

Sunday: 6:30PM- Allergies still all jacked up from being in NH, ran after work, felt pretty good. Last 8-9 miles pretty fast, 15mi total around Fresh Pond, etc.

Another good week

2011-06-05T21:43:00.002-04:00

Hey there, internet. I had a pretty good week of training, except for my first ever "bonk" on a long run. I've had bad long runs because of heat, stepping in a pothole, getting lost, and a myriad of other reasons, but had never bonked before today. I didn't eat or drink much all day, and about 14 miles in, I got all dizzy and wobbly. I made the 4 miles home with any major problems, though, and after some GENERIC SPORTS DRINK (can't have the NCAA think I'm endorsing anything) and a snack, I was feeling more or less like my usual chipper, totally-not-sarcastic self. I'm going to squeeze this update in before I do some Econ homework, though, so if you'll excuse me, internet. . .

Monday 5/30: To Jamaica Pond, one lap, and back with James. Hot out again, 87 according to the weather service. My stomach was all kinds of messed up, so it was tough to gauge if this was a shitty run from the long run yesterday or a shitty run because of my stomach. I was absolutely shocked when James said we ran the 9+ miles under 63 minutes. I assumed it was 7:30s tops, and almost told James to truck on without me.

Tuesday 5/31: 4PM- ~3 up to Fresh Pond with James, two lap tempo (just under 5mi, I think one lap is 2.45 mi?), ~3mi cooldown with James. I still didn't have a watch, so I don't know what my time was, but I ran with a little more "urgency" in my stride than the 10k last week, if that makes sense. It was a good hard-but-controlled effort. 9:30PM- 4mi easy after work, tired.

Wednesday 6/1: 4PM- 8mi slow before work, quite tired today. There was a severe thunderstorm warning during this run, and the sky was dripping with anticipation. The rain held off during my entire run, which was surprising, during my bike ride to work, which was frankly astounding, and during my ENTIRE SHIFT, which is a goddamn miracle. Unfortunately, my luck ran out on my way home. The storm blew in from the west, which is the same direction I travel toward from work. During our shift it was upgraded to a tornado warning and I read about how Springfield, MA (maybe 2 hours southwest of Boston) got hit pretty hard by a tornado. All this is a roundabout way of saying I didn't so a second run that evening.

Thursday 6/2: 3PM- To the Arnold Arboretum in Brookline with Rob and James, Rob turned back for 60min, James stuck with me for 75min. We were running pretty honestly the whole time and ran the last 30-40min or so at just under 6:00/mile. James claims I push the pace on the hilly Arb trails, I say he doesn't enjoy the scenery enough! 9:30PM- 5mi easy including 10x15 second hill sprints up Summit Ave, felt quite good again.

Friday 6/3: Noon: 3mi very slow, wanted to prepared for the workout I had planned.
6PM- 4.5mi warmup (a little longer than I wanted, but I was looking for a track that wasn't being used), 6xmile avg 5:11.5 with an 800 at a moderate pace for recovery (avg about 3:06, I think) for 14.4k (basically 9mi) in 49:51, which is about 5:35/mile or 3:28/kilometer. I only cooled down half a mile because that was quite enough, thank you. I was pleased with this workout, since it was the first real quality session on the watch. I was recovering quickly despite running the rest at close to 6:00 pace, which is a good sign for where I'm at right now. Right now my general idea is to revisit this workout a couple times this summer but aim toward reducing the distance of the recovery jog and speed up the pace of the recovery run a little rather than try to hammer out 4:55 miles.

Saturday 6/4: AM- 4mi easy with Terence, who was visiting from New York.
PM- 9mi with James and Joey, with the middle 8.5 or so at 6min pace to Jamaica Pond, around, and back. I felt like trash while Joey and James toyed with me for about 3.5 miles, then my legs kind of woke up and I was the one-stepper for the back half of the run.

Sunday 6/5: 4:30PM- 18 miles moderate, first 9mi easyish with James and Rob, next 9 solo, 6:20-6:30 pace. Like I said above, not eating/drinking much = bonk. I don't much want to repeat that experience again.

Tot- 97 miles, another good week.

I think after next week, I'll probably take a day off or at least really light. I think it's been close to two months since I had one, but I'm not sure.

First Week of Summer Class

2011-05-29T22:31:00.002-04:00

Hey, Internet! Like the title says, this past week saw my first week of summer classes. Thus far, I'm impressed with both the teachers and the class. I'm taking Spanish 2 (sorry, "Espanol Dos") and Economic Analysis of Legal Policy (which I love saying because it sounds so fancy, when really, it could be called "Do Laws Do What They Intend To Do?"). I think it's going to be an enjoyable term.

I was pretty tuckered out this week, so the mileage took a slight overall hit, but that's part of listening to what the body is saying. I also lost a few miles when I traveled to NH on Friday/Saturday to watch my brother's last State Meet, but that's neither here nor there. It was another solid week of training overall, capped by the longest run I've ever intended to do (as opposed to getting lost or knuckling under the peer pressure exerted by certain Foss counselor). Also, the Bostonian Spring occurred this Monday, from the hours of about 10am-6pm. Then it was summer. Lastly, one of my teammates needed a place to store his bike for the summer, so we worked out a deal: he can keep it at my apt if I can use it, which seemed fair. My commute is now cut in half, but I'm learning there is surprisingly little carryover from running to biking. I hate to use a cliche, but I was sore in muscles that I didn't know existed! I'm viewing it as cross-training that'll pay off a lot, especially since I'm perpetually running late and hurrying.

Anyway, here's the logaroo:

Monday 5/23: 9:30PM- 7mi, pretty tired and unmotivated all afternoon after giving a friend of mine a walking tour of some of Boston's more historical areas.

Tuesday 5/24: 7:45AM- 3mi, earliest run in a good while. First day of summer classes. 3:45PM- 2+ up to the Res, 10k on the lighter side of hard, 2+ down. Didn't buy a new watch yet, so this was purely by effort. Hot and humid today, blech. Pretty tired, all my never-used biking muscles in my quads were pissed.

Wednesday 5/25: 11:45AM- 4mi easy/moderate. I gotta figure out my schedule better and leave more buffer, missed my 7:30 alarm today. 4PM- 10 miles easy with Pistol Pete Gilmore.

Thursday 5/26: 1PM- Up Comm Ave and back down Beacon from the house; I had planned to stop off and do 10 sprints on Summit, but I hadn't eaten all day and was too hungry. Sucks to suck. Pretty dizzy the last 3 miles, but I was booking it to make the run end quicker, 4.5 total. 9:30PM- 2 laps of the Not-Quite-7-Mile river loop from Ashford. From about 5 miles on, I was booking it. Felt pretty good, but it was still like 75 and humid out.

Friday 5/27: 11:30AM- River loop + mile barefoot on Nickerson, hot out- 88.6 when I finished. 8PM- After my brother's Divisional meet, 5 hard miles with random surges and short jog breaks before going out for dinner and a few drinks with my old high school coaches.

Saturday 5/28: 3:30PM- 4mi easy barefoot on Hood Field, allergies very bad, decided to go back to Boston a night early to try to get some relief. 9:30PM- (not-quite) 7-mile river loop. Reallllly didn't want to run. Not tired or anything, just unmotivated.

Sunday 5/29: 6:30PM- 3 laps around Fresh Pond from the house, back to Ashford, then the not-quite-7-mile river loop. No watch, but I ran hardish for the last 4-5 miles. The first ten felt quite slow. It was about 85 when I started and about 80 when I finished, so not too hot but enough to work up a pretty good thirst. It's funny how 85min at a pretty hard effort doesn't really phase me, but a little over 2hrs even at an easy pace is one hell of a trip.

Tot- 92 miles

Have a good week, everyone!

Summer 2011!

2011-05-23T22:49:00.002-04:00

Internet, let me be clear. The title of this post does not come from the fact that it was the first week after my last final exam and thus the first week of my summer vacation for 2011. The title of this post is because it WAS Summer Vacation 2011. I did some math and figured out it would be cheaper for me to take 4 summer classes (two classes during each of the two summer sessions) and reduce my course load in Spring 2012 to two classes, which I could take through BU's "night school" and be billed at a discounted/part-time rate, which would save something along the lines of 12,000 dollars. The tradeoff is that I have 5 hours of class 4 days a week all summer, in addition my job, so I'm basically a "real person" in that I will be occupied about 9 hours a day, plus running, at least 5 and possibly 6 days a week. Since if I hadn't transferred I would have graduated this spring and been a "real person" anyway, I don't see it as a raw deal, since I've traded my vacation for ~12,000 fewer obligations to the federal government.

Anyway, my summer vacation was AWESOME. I ran a lot, slept a lot, ate whatever I wanted, still worked a few hours to mitigate my guilt over the money I spent, and visited Keene NH to revisit some of my favorite training runs (ok, and a few friends who still live there).

Here's what I got up to this week:

Monday 5/16: 11:30AM- River Loop from the house, solo, nice and easy. 2PM- Harpoon Brewery Sample-thing with the Ashford Family and Senor Joel. 7:30PM- Did Sean's Loop with Sean, then the same loop as earlier today, good for 9 or so. Cool and rainy, a little sore but not bad.

Tuesday 5/17: 2:30PM- 1mi at a cripply-yog, then right into 10 miles medium, 60:51. Felt kinda tired, misty and 50 deg out. Fresh Pond was muddy and I took a few bad steps, which made my left knee sore by the end. Quads heavy, but that's to be expected 9:30PM- To Harvard from the TTC, barefoot drills, 8 strides with jogback barefoot on the infield, back. Left knee pretty sore.

Wednesday 5/18: 3PM- 8mi on the River with James and the Dawwg. Same 50 deg and mist it's been for a while now. Pace check mile about 25min was 6:51, for reference. Left knee sore, tired overall. 9PM- 4mi river loop easy in a downpour, knee didn't hurt!

Thursday 5/19: 12:30PM- From the house to the Muddy River around JP once and back the Goody way, felt quite good today, didn't have the watch going but I was moving along at 6:00/mile or so most of the way. Knee didn't get sore til the last mile and even then it was very slight, so I think it's more or less licked. 9PM- 19' easy to Summit Avenue, 5x15 second all-out hill sprints with walk down recovery, 12' down. Not a knee pain in sight. Rainy out, though.

Friday 5/20: 11AM- 4 miles mit Herr Weider on ze River. 12:30PM- Travel to Fitchburg, MA on the commuter rail, then rode to Keene with Jeff's girlfriend, Eliza. 7PM- In Keene with Trethewey and George for the first bit. George came about 3, Geoff about 4. Hit two laps of Robin Hood Park, which was fun, then got to Keene State's gym and kind of decided to tempo an outnback 5miler like a mile into that section of the run- 6:23, 5:23, 5:03, 4:57, 5:00. The entire distance is legit/measured, but the middle three mile markers are approximate. The first/last mile is measured. I was frankly pretty surprised to be able to put together something like this- my last 4mi were in 20:23. 1mi easy back to Jeff's apt after the tempo. Apparently, my watch wasn't ready for this kind of effort either, because about 10 minutes after I got back from the run, I

Saturday 5/21: 10AM- Ran to the KSC gym with Geoff, did Yale 7 with Amy and Andrea, ran back to Geoff's place. As a sidebar, Amy had run 4:29 for 1500m the day before this run. We ran a loop that's at least a quarter-mile short in nearly 54 minutes. It was delightful. Amy and I used to do all our recovery runs together when I was at Keene, and it was downright nostalgic jogging through the trails again. Felt good, ran real easy. 7PM- From Geoff's place to Robin Hood park, 5 laps of Robin Hood, back. God, I love trails.

Sunday 5/22: 12:30PM- Two hours moderate (calling it 18 miles) in Keene, first 27' with Jeff, then the last 80min or so at 6:00-6:20 pace on mostly singletrack trails and railroad beds. For any Keenyans who are familiar with the area, I did a run through the railroad beds that bisect the golf course, into the woods on what Pete calls HS Ten, around the HS, through Wheelock Park, and back through the path by the Ashuelot River before adding on some miles on the KSC railroad beds. I was pretty miserable the last 30min or so, I was running too aggressively for sure. I felt more or less normal within an hour or two, though- amazing what a shower and a quart of chocolate milk can do.

Total- 101 miles

Have a good week, everyone! I'm going to bed.

Summer Training and the backlog of missed time

2011-05-16T21:09:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone. I'm now one week into summer training. It was a pretty uneventful week, just mileage and some drills/strides. Last year I kinda rushed into workouts again and didn't have much of a progression of fitness as the summer went on, so I'm in less of a rush this year. This week is my summer vacation- I'm taking summer classes all summer and working at least (hopefully two, but I'm still working on the second) to the tune of about 50-60 hours of stuff to do per week, so I'm going to enjoy the crap out of this week.

April 11-17
M- Off, achilles.
T- 10 easy, 66:18
W- 12 easy
Th- 3:30PM 10mi, 9:30PM- 4mi including 8x100 around 15 sec w/45sec
Fri- 3 up, 6x800 (avg 2:17) w/400 jog (avg 1:50) 6k in 20:40, 5:32/mile, 3 down. No achilles pain, finally.
Sat- AM- 5mi easy PM- 7mi easy on the trails in Keene. Lupe Fiasco concert.
Sun- 7mi easy, BU Track Banquet, good times.
Tot- 65

April 18-24
Marathon Monday- 12mi pretty fast on the marathon course with the team.
T- 3:30PM- 3 up, 4x400 with Rob and the 800 guys in 62, 63, 64, 62, with 2min jog, extra 2min (4min tot) after the 4th 400, 4x150 in 20.7, 20.2, 20.5, 20.2 with 90 sec jog, alternating leads with Rob, 4 more 400s in 62, yelled at by Bruce, 64, 64, 64 (target for the 400s was 64), 3mi down.
W- 3:30PM- 9 easy 9:30PM- 4 easy
Th- 4:30PM- Princeton NJ, 7mi with Rob on the canal, 4 strides.
Fri- 11:30PM- 3mi easy 8PM- 3 up, 1500 in 3:58.79, 3 down with Andrew H from Sacred Heart. Led til 1100m, 62, 2:06, 3:12 at 1200, 46 last 300, got dusted by like 5 guys.
Sat- 8.5 easy
Sun- 8 back in Derry, last couple miles fast.
Tot- 69 mi

April 25-May 1
M- 3 up, workout fail bad allergies, 1 down.
T- 3PM- 9 easy 9PM- 4 easy, some barefoot.
W- 3up, 8x200 in 30-31 200 jog, 2mi bf. Allergies bad.
Th- 11, last 4mi good, allergies bad.
Fri- 9 mi easy, no motivation, allergies bad.
Sat- 10AM- 3 up, 3x(800, 600, 400) plus one more 800, indoors, no watch, 2 laps in the green lane jog for recovery. Worked out indoors to try to avoid allergens, it kinda worked. 3mi down. 6PM- 5mi easy with James, lot of barefoot at Harvard.
Sun- AM- 3mi easy. 6PM- 10 easy with a group, 6min pace most of the way.
Tot 74

May 2-May 8
M- 3:30PM- 9mi moderate, 58min, 9:30PM- 4mi including 8x100 going 15.2 to 13.4. Allergies bad.
T- 3:30PM- 3 up, 3 sets of (500, 400, 300) avg (81, 63, 45) with 90sec, 90sec, 3min jog. 1mi down (team meeting).
W- 10mi easy, first 7 with Matt. Rainy out. Allergies bad.
Th- 3mi easy, 4x200 in 29, 200 jog, 3 down. Leave for Baltimore.
Fri- In Baltimore. 7mi easy with the team on some sweet trails. Allergies truly terrible.
Sat- 3 up, 1500m prelim in 4:01, no c/d. Allergies scary bad. Top 4 from each qualified, I just ran in 3rd as long as I could hold it. 64, 2:08, 3:12 for intermediates, thought I was going to pass out around 1000m, almost caused a crash because I was all wobbly. Fuck.
Sun- 4 easy with Eric on the trails.
Tot- 54

May 9-May 15

Monday- 11 mi easy/moderate, allergies very bad.

Tuesday- Allergy doctor appt, got some new meds. 3PM- A lap of JP plus an add-on to the house and back to grab a textbook. I thought I was running pretty slow, but my pace check near the end was under 6:20/mile. 9:30PM- 2mi easy, drills, 8x100 strides with a short walk rest, another couple miles down.

Wednesday- 12:30PM- To the BC Res up Comm Ave from the house, two laps, back. It was moderately rainy for the first 35min or so, then it got sunny.9:30PM- 3mi after work, very full from second dinner because it was my boss's last day and we had a going away party for her.

Thursday- 3:30PM- 9 miles with the first 4 easy with Ken and the next 5 increasingly hard, ending up at about 5:35-5:40 pace the last 2.5 or so. Great weather out. 9:30PM- To Harvard, barefoot drills and 8x100 strides on the grass with jog back, and back. A good time was had by me.

Friday- 5PM- 11mi to Fresh Pond from Ashford, around twice, back. Eric came with me for the first half. We were about 7:00 pace the first bit, then I ran the last bit at maybe 6:20-6:30 or so.

Saturday- 10AM- 4mi easy after my last final. Whoo. 6PM- 9mi solo, standard run- start a little over 7, end around 6:20 or so the last 25 minutes.

Sunday- 6:30PM- To the Arnold Arboretum with James, lots of hilly, steady running there, back via the Farm Loop in Brookline. Last 45-50min were like 6:15 pace, but running up crazy steep hills hard is still probably like 8:00 pace, so even though I ran for 2:06, I'm calling it 18. It was about 60 and misty, which was pleasant enough. This went way better than I expected, I kinda expected to struggle more after 90min. Longest run since I did 20 with Shamus/Seamus Nally (naaame drop!) at the end of summer 2007. I had a great time running at the Arb, there are lots of crazy/impossible hilly single track trails there.

Total- 89 miles.

A good start to summer, I just wish I had been able to get the new allergy meds earlier in the season. Oh well, time to prepare for my last year of collegiate competition!

I'm not dead! (sorry, anyone who was shining up their dancing shoes)

2011-05-11T11:25:00.002-04:00

Phew. It's been a long time, Internet. I'm sure you've been fine in my absence. As for myself, I've been in a state of business so profound it makes you forget that other people and things exist. I'm getting to the point in my Econ classes where the fact that I have a very weak math background is getting to be a huge obstacle as opposed to just inconvenient. To combat this externality, I've been trying to teach myself calculus in my spare time (ha, spare time!) and it's going about as well as you'd expect being taught calculus by a burned-out ex-English major would go. Add some final exams into that mix, a search for a job and a new apartment, and travel to some meets, and you've got yourself a long-winded way of saying "I haven't blogged because I've been really busy."

I'll provide a more comprehensive update/summary in the next few days, but a short summary of my outdoor season goes like this: my allergies have been terrible, which means my asthma has been terrible, which means I'm about as athletically useful as Piggy from Lord of the Flies. I ran 3 1500s outdoors, each slower than the last. It's always upsetting to have an absolute, balls-to-the-wall, maximum effort yield times I used to hit on my third race at some rinky-dinky 2nd-rate track meet. Such is life- I'm still getting a handle on the allergies/asthma thing and my expectation is that I'll do better next time. No sense in getting overly worked up some abysmal 1500s when all I can change is how I run in the future.

I will post my training the past couple weeks (summary: ran X, allergies bad, felt shitty, couldn't breathe well) but probably not until my final exams are over. In a couple hours yo tengo una prueba en Espanol and tonight I have a macroeconomic analysis final (blech). In my manic, caffeine-fueled study rampage, I came across a joke that I found funny and will post:

A chemist, a physicist, and an economist, all with phds, get marooned on a desert island. Luckily for them, half the ships rations washed up on shore with them. The bad news is that the food is all in cans. "Let's make a fire and heat the can until the food explodes out of it," the chemist suggests.

"No! We should drop it from one of those palm trees onto the rocks blow; it should accelerate enough to break when it hits!" the physicist says.

"Guys, guys, there's a much simpler solution here," says the economist. "First, let's assume we have a can opener. . ."

Maybe no one else will laugh, but as I'm struggling with all kinds of bullshit functions and assumptions and models, I howled like a coyote last night at about 3am.

Ok, study break over. Gotta squeeze in a run before my Spanish exam (which, due to more pressing exams, I'm only just realizing I have barely studied for, damn). Here's a fun song I was just listening to on the youtube machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HHgedNNQco

Whoops

2011-04-18T22:14:00.000-04:00

Too much marathon craziness up in my neck of the woods, I didn't do any HW all weekend. My achilles is better, I got in a good track workout this week. I'll do a full update next week, crazy busy right now.

Valete, omnes!

Goddamn achilles

2011-04-10T23:02:00.000-04:00

So I had some minor achilles flareups all week that were going away after about 5min of jogging. I even got in an entire workout on the indoor track with spikes (4x400, 4x150, 4x400) without trouble.

Then I headed to Lowell to race a 1500, got about 600m in, and things started to get ugly with regards to my left achilles. I ended up dropping out at 800 because I was afraid something serious was about to happen. After sticking my left leg in a bag of ice on and off for an hour or so, the pain more or less went away. I took today and will probably take tomorrow off before giving an easy Tuesday jog a shot.

Obviously, I'm less than pleased with this result. The last year has been pretty much an unmitigated shitshow. It's pretty tough to keep a rosy fuckin' outlook when every time I get into half-decent shape, something blows up on me.

Still, the achilles felt pretty good today, and I am fitter than I've been in a while. Two days off won't impact my fitness, I just need to get my head right so when I can race again, I'm mentally ready to do so. I'm not typing up my week of training because I'm pissed off and cranky and don't want to whine and make excuses for any more paragraphs than necessary. Weekly total was 59 with a day off and a 4mi day on Saturday, if anyone is curious.

Things will get better, they have to. Fuck.

Florida Relays 1500

2011-04-03T20:24:00.002-04:00

Hi there, Internet. While New England was still in the grips of winter's death throes, a few of us Terriers were given the opportunity to fly down to Florida and test our fitness against all comers. Unfortunately, as fun as the trip was, my performance in the 1500 revealed two things: 1) my racing legs are definitely rusty and 2) my left achilles is acting up. I'm not worried in the slightest about #1, because it has the funnest solution possible- race more! I'm a little more concerned with number 2, since if I'm not careful, it might impede on my ability to race more. However, I've had minor achilles things before, and it's almost always due to running in old shoes. My Asics piranhas hit the 1000 mile mark a week or two ago, and I'm pretty sure everything will be fine when my new shoes get here. As proof of how long-view I'm being, I didn't race on the Distance Medley on Saturday (which was tough to swallow, since it means my air fare went to one so-so race) and took today OFF from running.

Here's what I got up to:

Monday 3/28: 3:30PM- 3 up with the Melon, then a solo track workout.
600 1:36 (2:30jog)
400 63 (2min jog)
800 2:14.5 (4min jog)
600 1:35 (2:30 jog)
400 61.5 (2min jog)
800 2:13 (4min jog)
400 61.5 (2min standing)
400 60.2 Great workout, just felt like I was cruising through. Bruce said that I looked like I was in "MacPherson shape." I don't know what means. 3mi down with the Melon.

Tuesday 3/29: 3:30PM- The Up Run with Rob, Melon, and Brian for some. Great run, plenty of running uphill (duh). We headed up Comm Ave and whenever we came to a hill, we ran up the hill. Pretty innovative, huh? Pace was pretty quick, despite the hills.

Wednesday 3/30: 2:30PM- 4mi up, 2 sets of 6x150 with a 250 jog, 800 jog between the sets, 3mi down with Rob. I ran on the outdoor track with no watch, so I couldn't tell you how fast I was going. Well, I could: pretty fast, but not too fast.

Thursday 3/31: 8PM- 9mi easy with Billy, some with James, from the hotel in Florida. We had a pretty easy travel day; we didn't have to leave BU until 9:30, we only had one connecting flight, and the layover was long enough so we didn't have to rush but not so long that we had tons of time to kill. My left achilles was pretty sore on this run, but it seemed to ease as we ran on. We didn't intend on going 9, but got a little lost on the way back.

Friday 4/1: 10AM- 3mi easy to shake the legs out and see how the achilles was acting. It seemed to be ok, so I didn't mention it. 7PM- 3 up with James, long delay with dozens of strides because the meet was behind schedule, 1500 race in 3:58.43, 3 down. My achilles didn't bug me warming up, but it was pretty tender cooling down. Like I mentioned, this race revealed my racing legs were rusty. I got out fine and settled against the rail in about 5-6th in my heat of 17. I was through 400 in 63.0 and then the pace got glacial. I was around 2:09 for 800 and at that point kinda sighed and tried to position myself for a good last lap. I got the bell in about 2:58 and made a decent move, but at that point I had been boxed too long and wasn't able to get involved in the race itself. It stung that the winner of my heat was an athlete in my conference, but what can you do? Assuming my achilles tendon is ok, I'll jump in the 1500 at the George Davis Invite in Lowell, MA on Saturday and try to chip away at that time a little.

Saturday 4/2: 11AM- 3mi jog with James to see how my achilles held up, and while it didn't hurt, it was tight and tender, so James took my 1600 leg on the DMR for me. 8PM- We were a little shy on room in the van, and rather than try to squeeze in, James and I just ran the 4mi back to the hotel. I was pleased to note my achilles wasn't bad at all heading back, but when I talked to Bruce on the phone, I said I'd take Sunday off just in case.

Sunday 4/3: weren't you reading that last sentence?!

Total- 57 miles plus a season-opening race. Hope everyone has a good week!

"Believer" Article Response

2011-03-29T22:09:00.008-04:00

If you haven't seen it, writer Mark Oppenheimer decided to offer his brilliant insight to the mind of a high school male cross country runner in an article written for Believer magazine. Since his characterization was so off-the-mark (and, being entirely based on his own experiences, pulsating with arrogance) I decided to write a short response to the article. Any of you who know me personally know that "short response" does not compute with my brain. I emailed the response to the editor of the magazine, but I certainly don't expect anything to come of it (what use does a magazine not focused on running have for a rambling refutation of an article? I'm guessing it'll get put into the "file cabinet" with a basketball hoop fixed above the rim. . .) I decided to post it here. I tried to split it up a little better because its length isn't exactly blog-friendly, but anyone interested in reading the whole thing might be better served cutting and pasting it into a word file or something.

Link to Original Article:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/201103/?read=article_oppenheimer

Here it is:

Don't Speak For Me: A Response to Mark Oppenheimer's Projection of his Cross Country Experience

It isn't often that distance running is mentioned in a mainstream publication. Outside of our niche publications and the sequestered communities of people who hold court at running websites, the rest of the world doesn't seem to have much regard for distance running. While I won't presume to speak my fellow athletes and followers of the sport, I can say that, for me, this is not a problem. Endurance athletes will occasionally capture the public imagination, and, during the Olympics, polite homage will be paid to any gold medal winners before the public largely turns its eye away from distance running again. The polite acquiescence with which many of my fellow athletes regard being ignored by the public has led to the propagation of the stereotype that distance runners, and high school distance runners especially, are by and large a passive, lonely bunch. Mr. Oppenheimer, certainly, falls among the population of distance runners who came to the sport because they could not jump high enough to play basketball or sustain the agility necessary for the various ball sports. No one should be surprised, then, that Mr. Oppenheimer, in an attempt to give meaning to his own experience as a harrier, projects his own feelings and motivations into the hearts and minds of all runners in his essay “The Race That Is Not About Winning.”

With respect to Mr. Oppenheimer's feelings and memories, I insist on politely asking Mr. Oppenheimer to butt out of group psychology. Perhaps it was his experience that running is some personal struggle for identity that transcends sport and achieves some level of art with which mere victory cannot compare; perhaps Mr. Oppenheimer fears that a majority of runners had the same tepid and lonely thoughts define their careers as harriers as surely as it apparently defined his.
Unfortunately, no matter how many actors and books and mediums of creative outlet Mr. Oppenheimer cites, his thesis ultimately commits the logical fallacy that presumes one or a few cases can be used to draw a broader conclusion about every member of a population. While I'm sure there are runners who can identify with the life of the harrier as Mr. Oppenheimer defines it, I'm equally sure that there are many of us who do not. Ultimately, Mr. Oppenheimer settles for the easy way out; he insists on the stereotype as the frightened, cowardly loser running for something more significant than mere honors in a footrace.

I was compelled, then, to write this response not out of an emotional denial of Mr. Oppenheimer's conclusion, but a need to refuse to allow a fallacy of a conclusion to be perpetuated when there is a more complex truth that deserves to be heard. Yes, Mr. Oppenheimer has a point when he says that running lends itself to self-reflection It can be an incredibly lonely experience, and every runner I know can discuss a time when he felt lonely. The mistake, then, lies not in the observation but in the conclusion Mr. Oppenheimer draws from it. There is a dirty secret that unites a vast majority of high school cross country runners, but it isn't what Mr. Oppenheimer, or the press, or public opinion, or even a few runners themselves would have you believe. Despite what the press and the public believes, despite what a vocal minority of runners themselves insist, and despite what Mr. Oppenheimer posits in his essay, the secret is not that runners are at heart cowards, or otherwise useless athletically, or at heart loners with social anxiety.

The Dirty Secret of which I speak is perhaps only surprising in its absolute banality: male high school cross country runners are nothing more than a population sample of male high school students. Contrary to what so many want to believe, the truth of the matter is this: we are typical adolescents, which is to say we are as nonboringly average as any other high student.

I understand this is as hard a truth for many of my compatriots to accept as it is the general public. To the non-runner, it is inconceivable that any well-adjusted high school boy would choose to go out and run for six or seven or eight miles after school, only to end back where they began, merely sweatier for the journey. To the non-runner, it is inconceivable that, in an age where shorts ending above the knee are considered to be a sign of homosexuality, a sport whose nature encourages a shorter short preference in the name of comfort would not attract the most effeminate boys in school. Perhaps most unforgivably of all, though, is that running is not only a physically miserable experience, it is also the hallmark of the coward. A group of boys who would rather run away than fight must be effeminate, passive cowards desperately seeking acceptance.

It is a convenient narrative, revealing not only of the absurdities of assumptions people will make (exactly what is so latently homosexual about a partially-exposed quadricep muscle, but not, say, a bare bicep?) but also of Western values. Success in distance running is primarily dependent on two factors: the steady, unyielding application of effort over prolonged periods of time, and an ability to disregard challenges and discomfort while pursuing a goal. What could be less sexy than the lesson that success is more based on those two factors than the ability to pour one's “screaming machismo,” as Oppenheimer calls it, into short, glory-punctuated moments? It's true, cross-country races don't often present many flashy moments for the highlight reels.

More important than the highlight reel, though, is the Dirty Secret that high school runners are hardly different, as a group, than high school boys. I too ran cross country during high school, and I don't remember any of us being teenage anti-heroes more concerned with “beating their own 'personal best[s],'” than with beating our opponents, as Mr. Oppenheimer boldly insists. Like any group of competitive young adolescents, we wanted to beat the other teams we raced, whether our goal was to finish top 10 in the state or win the whole shebang. Mr. Oppenheimer unfortunately makes the same mistake so many Americans do: “beat” might carry connotations of an actual physical beating as much as it means a victory, but just because the physical connotation doesn't apply to running doesn't mean the victorious connotation is also invalid. Make no mistake about it: the runner holding the 16th position in a cross country race wants to overtake 15th as desperately as the runner-up strains to catch the winning runner in the final straight.
Unfortunately, many of those who aren't familiar with a racing career don't see the achievement in finishing 6th or 14th or 31st. One runner wins the race, and second place is also the first loser, yes? Ultimately such a reduction is just as convenient as Mr. Oppenheimer's hypothesis and just as absurd. Something even many runners don't want to admit is that sometimes, 25th place can be an excellent result. A runner who is pleased with 25th or 45th or 75th isn't a runner who has resigned himself to mediocrity or reduced to using only an internal metric as a yardstick for improvement. The runner who disgusts sportswriters by being thrilled with a 42nd finish is likely a runner who, in the same race last year, couldn't even muster up a finish inside the top 100. He is now better than almost sixty boys he could not beat a year ago. A year of training out in icy winds, driving rain, and the sticky humid heat of high summer has resulted in two classrooms full of boys who could not match one runner's fierce determination or competitive instinct. Who is Mr. Oppenheimer to say such a result is mediocre? Who is Mr. Oppenheimer to reduce the boy who makes a suicidal surge to drop a pack of pursuing runners with more than a mile of racing left to a coward because the brave and magnificent effort the athlete is making involves running instead of, say, a desperate last-minute shot from half-court.

This isn't to belittle other sports, of course. I just posit that the desperate buzzer-beater attempt or the no-time-on-the-clock fake punt is no more heroic—but no less heroic, either—than the boy heaving himself forward at the finish line, risking a mouthful of mud, to please-God-finish-one-place-higher. Just because Mr. Oppenheimer's cross country team didn't seem to seem to understand that while 40th place is not a winning position, it is still superior to 41st, which is better than 42nd, and so on ad infinitum doesn't mean that other, less self-pitying runners, do not. I know that my cross country team was full of adolescents who desperately wanted to be top-100 if they had finished 110th the week before, or top-50 if they had placed 60th, and so on.

When I joined the team as a sophomore, we were a group of teens from varied sports backgrounds. I had played soccer in the fall and run track in the spring before deciding I preferred running to soccer and made the switch to a full-time runner. Of my closest friends, we had a teammate who planned on leaving us in the spring for baseball before we convinced him to stay with us. Our captain, one of the most friendly and extroverted people I knew, wrestled in the winter and occasionally ran track in the spring, though he disliked running on the track, preferring the undulating terrain and unpredictable nature of cross country races. During the fall, we were united not by our sense of isolation, or our inability to have girlfriends, or our social anxiety, but our mutual affinity for running and our shared desire to win.

As impossible as it is for some of our number to accept, we weren't outcasts or noncompetitive spirits who viewed the races as tests of the spirit. To paraphrase John Parker, author of the cult running novel Once a Runner, we didn't saunter into the woods for crypto-religious reasons. We trained to win races. We trained to cover the ground faster than we thought we could, faster than anyone else we raced. It was as uncomplicated as the football team's ardor to win their games, or as any team's desire to win. We didn't do it while screaming like berserker warriors; we did it one mile at a time, methodically preparing our bodies for a contest of endurance, will, and courage.

We sure as hell weren't an athletic Dead Poet's Society, and neither were the many teams we came to know in our time as harriers. To the short-sighted like Mr. Oppenheimer, it is a difficult concept to process, but just because we were friends with runners from other teams, just because we hung out with them on the weekends and sneaked into their dances and invited them to our spaghetti suppers didn't mean we weren't trying with every fiber of our being to crush them into the dirt when we raced. And likewise, just because we were crushing them in a footrace doesn't mean we were scared of them. Spectators who take the woods during a cross country race are often shocked to see the supposedly cowardly, mutually-respective-of-one-another pansies driving a bony elbow into the gut of a runner who tries to pass on the inside of a turn. I've had dear friends take swings at me during a race, only to have us both laugh about it after the fact.

I believe Mr. Oppenheimer that the anti-heroic waifs who fall into running due to failure at everything else do exist. I also have never met a single one in my years of association with running. The old stereotypes, like most stereotypes, fall away when you meet the individual runners. Runners don't have girlfriends? Most of the ones I know don't have trouble meeting girls, nor did they in high school. Unlike the young ladies in romantic comedies, most real adolescent girls will respond to a boy they find funny, or smart, or worth talking to in any way. Runners are socially awkward and invisible to “normal people?” My cross country team provided my high school class with its Vice-President, Secretary, and one of four Officers-At-Large, and this wasn't a particularly rare occurrence at the schools against whom we competed, either. The football team and the cross country team are natural opposites, and the runners harbor some desire to be football players themselves? Perhaps in the world of “Grease” or Happy Days, but in the world I lived in, most football teams provided a few shot putters or sprinters to the track team in the spring, and both teams had a mutual respect of what the others were capable of.

I'm not saying every football player wanted to hold our hands and sing with us, but in general, the shot putters who played football in the fall held a deep respect for the distance runners as they watched them run lap after lap on a track shimmering with May heat, their faces contorted in discomfort but their gazes far away, breaking imaginary tapes and setting hypothetical untouchable records. Likewise, as we distance runners stopped by the weight roomm to knock back our paltry pushups and chinups, we cheered as our sprinters exploded upwards from under barbells that would take three or four of us to lift. We didn't always get along, but we never got stuffed into trash cans or lockers, either.

The bottom line is that rarely do reductionist stereotypes tell the full story of any community. Rarely, if ever, does poetic license present a complete story. This response, then, is ultimately a boring and inconvenient reminder that people are more complicated than amateur group psychology and the projections of the overly self-reflective. It's telling that Mr. Oppenheimer so whole-heartedly agreed with Alan Sillitoe's characterization of the runner in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, because Sillitoe, despite his brilliance as an author, gets it wrong, because he was not nor ever was a runner. Sillitoe's characterization is a great hypothesis, but it isn't factual and even it if was, it would say nothing about the actual thousands of American boys who join the ranks of harriers every year.

Ultimately, elevating distance running to some higher plane than mere sport while dismissing distance runners as lost souls, cowards, and anti-heroes is a convenient but useless reduction. The truth, however, is far more boring and uncomfortable. Who are these runners? Why, we're you. We're in your math class, we went to the prom with your cousin, we had trouble with geometry, and last weekend, while the soccer team had Sunday practice from 8am-10am, we did our long run. After practice, both teams went home, showered, did some homework, mowed lawns, ate dinner, went to bed. We're not more or less noble than any other high school student. Like all adolescents, we're figuring ourselves out, and while there's social anxiety and anguish that go with that, we don't have any more of an identity crisis than the kid who dyes his hair black or starts pretending to be a rapper.

However, we are so sorry if you think our shorts are homosexual, or our sport is inherently cowardly, or you think we're trying to make statements about being independent. Whatever you may think of us, the truth is that we're just as boringly average as the rest of you.

Late Blog/Date Blog

2011-03-28T14:15:00.002-04:00

Sorry, Internet. I broke my on-time streak- but it was for a good cause! I had a date last night and then had to do my homework like a good student and go to bed at a reasonable hour like a responsible runner, so the blog suffered (besides, who reads these things, anyway?). I had a pretty good week, again. I'm stringing 'em along pretty good, now. I hadn't take a day off in a while, mostly because I hate taking a day off. I don't mean that to imply I think a day off means anything in terms of loss of fitness or anything like that, only that the day AFTER I take a day off, I often feel like shit- all tight and sore and whatnot. So, in an effort to avoid that, I just ran 4mi really really slow on both Monday and Wednesday. I got in some nice recovery, but never had to deal with post-day off stiffness. I'm flying out to Florida on Thursday (I think at like 3am, woof) to run the 1500m Friday night at the Florida Relays, then the 1600 leg on the DMR on Saturday. I'm excited to race again in the BU uniform!

Without further delay, the log:

Monday 3/21 8:30PM- 30min super slow indoors. Tiired.

Tuesday 3/22 8:30AM- 3mi shakeout in the morning, felt pretty tired (like sleepy, not fatigued) despite a good night's sleep. 3:30PM- 3mi up, strides, solo track workout.

1000 2:51 (jog 3:30)
800 2:13 (")
600 1:37 (jog 2:30)
400 61.5 (jog 7')
1000 2:51 (jog 3:30)
800 2:17 (") (Bruce told me to slow down)
600 1:36 (jog 2:30)
400 60.8 Didn't feel good, like I was stuck in 2nd gear the whole way. 3mi down.

Wednesday 3/23: 4PM- 4mi nice and easy, didn't feel too sore at all.

Thursday 3/24: 10:30AM- 5mi, standard trip to the allergy doc. 3:30PM- Fresh Pond with the lads. 16:15 around the pound, Harvard-Ashford mile in 6:20. Felt pretty good today, had to hold back the last 3-4mi. I was two-stepping the group something fierce, but I wasn't called on it.

Friday 3/25: 3:30PM- Another solo workout. . . forever alone. . .

3mi easy, plenty of strides, 5x400 with 1:40 rest, mostly jogging, in 62 avg, extra 3:20 rest after the 5th one, 4x150 in 20.8, 20.8, 20.7, 20.3 with 1:20 jog (3:40 extra after the 4th) 4x400 in 61, 62, 61, 62 with 1:40 rest, some jogging. Tough workout to do alone, but I was running quicker than the assigned paces by a little, so I'm happy. 3 down.

Saturday 3/26 12:30PM- Spent a few hours helping a friend of a friend with a film project, which entailed me and a teammate doing a series of ~50 yard dashes from the Boston Aquarium to the Mass Ave Bridge on the Charles. It took about 3 hours to get all the camera angles, and it was freezing/tiring. 8:30PM- 11mi indoors, after spending an afternoon freezing my ass off, I desperately wanted to run shirtless and get a good sweat going, so I did. 4mi in the warmup lane, 7mi on the treadmill. Kept things around 6:40/mile at the fastest, 7:00 pace the first 5-6 miles.

Sunday 3/27: 12PM- 4mi easy with James while he warmed up for a workout. My calf was quite sore the first 10min, then it went away. 5PM- First half-mile was really sluggish, so I just turned off my watch and resolved not to worry, but by ~10min in, I felt amazing. I ran to JP from my apartment and decided to pace check the JP lap, which was 5:40/mile. While it felt easy, I slowed down because Bruce told me to keep Saturday and Sunday relatively low key. I'd put the conservative estimate at 10mi at ~6:00 pace, including 5x150 strides in spikes at the track.

Total- 71 miles

Less than a week til I race! Hope everyone is doing well!

Spring Break and Musings about WXC

2011-03-20T22:09:00.003-04:00

Good evening, internet. Before I talk about myself AGAIN, I have some observations regarding this weekend.

Shalane Flanagan proved yet again just how good she is in picking up a bronze medal at the World Cross Country Championships. The United States showed good its female distance runners are by putting 4 women in the top 20 and nabbing a team bronze medal. Lisa Koll, in an uncharacteristic off day, STILL placed 40th in the deepest distance race in the world. Without a doubt, this is HUGE for American running. I hope that their performances are given the credit each one deserves. Unfortunately, I think professional cross country gets a bum rap in America and I'm not entirely sure why. Rarely do the very best Americans elect to go, but today is an important insight as to what cant when they DO decide to show up and the chips fall just right. I obviously have no way of knowing this for sure, my wager is that if you asked the US women what they thought of their experience at World Cross, none of them would say "sweet Christ, I wish I had run a road race."

Don't get me wrong, the NYC Half is a great event. I don't think a single American athlete "owes" it to anyone to compete at World Cross. I'm just saying that, as a fan, it would be COOL if the best Americans (men and women) made it a habit to compete there. World Cross is the single deepest race in the sport; what better measuring stick can there be for an athlete? We know that Solinsky, Teg, Bumbalough, and Rupp are all in amazing shape right now. I believe Salazar has already said that his plan this year was for a late spring racing period followed by another rest/buildup cycle for the World Championships. I get that Rupp probably made some serious scratch for showing up to the NYC half, but how sick would it have been to see a ~27:10 shape Rupp (his spring was focused on getting the AR in the 10k) duking it out in the lead pack at World Cross?

Anyway, I understand that elite athletes have their racing schedules for a reason, I just think that it would be awesome to put 5 of America's top 5000m and up guys on the line at World Cross, fit as hell, and see what would happen. (note: I didn't leave Lagat out of this discussion out of ignorance. I just think that as a track focused 1500-5k specialist, he might not have the same XC chops as, say, Tegenkamp).

Enough grasping at what-could-bes, though. I still have some Spanish homework to do and I want to get to bed early, so on with the blog. Wait! One last thing- local yokel Ruben Sanca ran 65:23 to win the New Bedford Half Marathon today. Not too shabby! He's running the Rotterdam Marathon and I'm very interested to see how it goes.

Monday 3/14: 3:30PM- Fartlek on a flat stretch of Lane Rd in Derry, NH. 2.5 up
Run (jog)
2x (80" (80") 65" (80") 46" (3'))

4x 22" (80")

extra 3:40 after the 4th one (so 5min total jogging)

2x (80" (80") 65" (80") 46" (3')), 4.5 down. I was assigned sets of 500, 400, 300 and 4x150 followed by two more sets of 5-4-3, so I had to improvise a little due to a still-snowed-in track. I went back and measured my 80" and 46" segments since both of them began and ended at conveniently distinctive driveways. I got 518m and 312m for each segment, so I was moving pretty fast for wearing a borrowed pair of spikeless XC racers on a road. (total 14mi) Longer cooldown because I ran into an old HS teammate.

Tuesday 3/15: 2PM- 7mi easy with Trethewey, very tired, sore. 8PM- 4mi easy, planned on 7 but cut it short- dark, cold, tired, hungry, whiny. Got a new pair of glasses though! This was much-needed, since my old pair were about 4 years old and barely held together by tape and good intentions.

Wednesday 3/16: 7:30PM- Back in Boston, managed to get into the TTC despite it being closed. 3 up, 2mi on the treadmill, 10:36, half mile jog, 8x100 FAST with 200 jog, 1/2 mile jog, 2mi on the treadmill in 10:36, 1/2 mile jog, 3mi cooldown. Tot 13 Since the workouts were pretty close together, Bruce had me keep it easy.

Thursday 3/17: 4:30PM- 2 laps of Fresh Pond from the house, I had only planned on running 8-9 but it was about 65 and sunny out and therefore too nice to run short. I cooked a traditional New England boiled dinner for some friends and my roommates, and we all concluded that "thank God we're not expected to eat boiled corned beef every Sunday."

Friday 3/18: 11AM- 4mi easy with Amy, who was on her own spring break and came into town for St Patrick's Day. Beautiful out again, 65 and sunny. 4PM- 11mi easy, first 3 with the T-Dawwg, last 8 solo at about 6:30 pace meandering around Brookline until I found JP. I was originally scheduled to work out today, but when I got the Brookline Reservoir, Bruce looked at me and said "I had you work out Monday and Wednesday? What, was I living in a fantasy land? Work out tomorrow, that's makes more sense." I record his exact words because they struck me as funny.

Saturday 3/19: 10:00AM- Nearly overslept for this one, which is impressive considering I was asleep by 11:30PM the night before. 3mi up to the Brookline Reservoir, then surges of 4:00, 3:30, 3:00, and 2:30 with 4:00 normal training pace rest. It was a little different than a normal fartlek in that each hard part was sub-divided into three parts: the first 1:00-2:00 of each rep was at the normal fartlek "hard" level (maybe about 4:30-4:45/mile if I had to guess), the next 45-90 seconds of each rep was at a fast but not so hard gear (maybe 5:20-5:30 pace) followed by a 45 second segment at 1500m pace to end each rep. This was a pretty tough workout, and Bruce gave me the option of doing 0-5x30 seconds at a very fast pace with 90 seconds jog afterward. I did 2 of them and figured enough is enough. 3mi down, 11mi on the morning. 7PM- 4mi easy, 1xlarge cheese pizza, 1xviewing of The Fighter with Sean.

Sunday 3/20: 2PM- 3mi on the fast end of easy for heading out the door with Peter and Joey (both of whom can hit 6:35 pace from stride 1, something I've always been envious of) who were warming up for a workout, then about 6 and a half miles working it pretty good on the river. I was a little grump about 5mi into the run because it was windy and it cooled back down to the low 40s, but I split my watch to get a pace check going and was surprised to see I was running 5:35/mile, which cheered me up. I added on a few minutes inside to get 10 on the morning. 8PM- 4mi at a super slow Kenyan shuffle pace, partly because I was full from dinner and partly because I misbehaved and ran basically 10mi under an hour this morning after 3 workouts in the preceding 6 days.

93 mi on the week. This will be my last "up there" week for a while, since it's time to start focusing on doing some workouts near 1500m speed and preparing to race. I've averaged over 80 miles a week for the last six weeks and have really only had 1 or 2 bad workouts, so I'm feeling very fit and ready to get down to business.

I'm going to get a stern email for this

2011-03-13T21:04:00.002-04:00

Ok, internet. After 3 weeks (a month?) of late entries, I'm back on schedule. BU is this week, and I'll be working on my tan in Derry, NH until Wednesday, when I'll be off to L.A.! (Lower Allston, that is) for my last week of high-mileage conditioning before it's time to get down and dirty with the 1500 again.

The big news this week is that two of my BU teammates, Dickie Peters and Katie Matthews, competed in the NCAA D1 Indoor National meet in College Station, TX. Rich had a rough run, just missing the final by a few hundredths of a second. He'll be back harder than ever outdoors, though, and if I know Rich, he's more motivated than upset. It was kind of strange to see a guy I run and work out with duking it out with the nation's finest on the live stream, but I don't want to gush too much, since I have to see Rich in the dining hall after practice. Katie, on the other hand, ran a great race to grab 6th in the 5k and her first All-American award! If you can catch the race, Katie is the one who stays pinned to the rail the whole way and picks off athletes as they fade rather than go into lane 4 in an attempt to pass as many athletes attempted. Of course, now, until I knock about 10 seconds off my mile PR, I'll have to be patient as she tells me "this one time, at nationals. . ." Proud of both of you!

I'd also be a fool if I forgot to mention my former teammates at Keene State, who traveled to Columbus, OH for the DIII Nationals this weekend. The women's distance medley notched a 3rd place finish, followed up by senior Amy Knoblock's 3rd in the mile and a near-miss 9th place finish by junior Paige Mills. Amy and I were the same class at Keene and often ran together on easy days, so congratulating her on double All-American weekend is something I've looked forward to doing for a long time. Paige is a raw talent who has been bitten by bad luck worse than any runner I know, so for her to make the meet and anchor a 3rd-place DMR in a PR is both a great achievement and indicative of greater things to come.

I had a great week of training complicated only by an annoying little cold. I didn't alter my training any because of the cold, but I felt like crap for a few days and will probably get a talking-to from wiser men than I about skipping a double-run to sleep when one is sick. I know, I know, I know- but this time, it didn't bite me in the butt!

My log:

Monday 3/7- 3:30PM: Decided to give my achilles one more day to rest, even though I felt fine. 9mi moderate, started with the group but just couldn't hold back, 55 and chance for a run that's closer to 15k than 9.

Tuesday 3/8- 3:30PM: Bruce assigned an easy workout on purpose today with the instructions not to hammer it "or you'll be useless for a week." 3 up to the BC Reservoir, 10min hard, 5min easy, 5min hard, 5min easy, 5min hard, cooldown til I was back at school (11mi). I averaged roughly 5:30/mile for the 30min of the workout, figure I was just a touch slower than 5min/mile for the hard parts. Boring workout, since it was so easy, but Bruce knows a thing or two about a thing or two. 9:30PM: 4mi easy on the treadmill after work.

Wednesday 3/9- 3:30PM: 10mi easy around JP twice with Eric. Woke up sick, very sore throat but no swollen tonsils or white spots, so I figured it was just a cold. Vitamin C, tea, etc. 9:30PM- 4mi easy on the treadmill after class.

Thursday 3/10- (still sick, a little worse than yesterday) 3:30PM- To Fresh Pond and back with the group, 7:15s down to 6:15s by the end, 4x150m strides and a 200 in 29.6, plus a short cooldown for 10mi. Billy made a Galaxy Quest reference and I didn't even need 13 seconds to think about backing him up. 9:30PM- 27:23 light progression on the treadmill, 7:30/mile down to 5:30 for the last one.

Friday 3/11- Amber Day! (whoa-oh) Rest all day as much as possible, today was the peak for the sore throat, headache, and congestion. 3PM- 3.5 up, 5x3min on, 2:30 off, 2.5 cooldown. I might have been sick for this workout, but it didn't hurt me as I split 21:06 through a measured 4mi during the course of this workout. That puts me through 5mi at what, 26:30? I'll definitely take it, since I didn't feel like I was pushing above 7.5/8 on a 10 scale. Good day, sir.

Saturday 3/12- 1PM- 7mi easy, Slums to Mass Ave, everybody left Boston :( Ran slow, felt fine, not quite as sick today. 9PM- Same loop, same comments, feeling better as the day wore one. Tired, though.

Sunday 3/13- 12:30PM: 12 mi easy building to moderate. Ran to JP from the house and did 3 laps and came back, just under 78' for a healthy 12. I'm still not sure if Bruce is going to have me work out tomorrow or if I was supposed to do a longer run today, so I hedged my bets. 8:30PM- 4mi out and back in Derry, with 5 good strides incorporated into the run.

Total- 93 mi

No one get in trouble over break!

Catastrophe Averted!

2011-03-07T20:22:00.002-05:00

I'm late again, Internet. I've been on quite the streak lately. School has been merciless lately, so I guess I'll have to use that as a blanket excuse. I had what began as a very solid (if notably sluggish) week of training and tapered off when I tweaked my left Achilles tendon a little. It wasn't anything serious, but I cut my running way back for two days and that patched things right up. I ended up with fewer miles and a canceled long run on the week, but things have been going really well for a few weeks now and an easier week is probably for the better in the long run. I had a fantastic run this afternoon and will be working out tomorrow, so I'll chalk this one up in the WIN category.

Here are some specifics:

Monday 2/28: 9PM- 3mi shakeout indoors, tired, but needed to get some junk out of my legs. Definitely settling into that "hard training" mode. 3PM- 3.5 up, strides, two sets of 600, 600, 800 and then two extra 600s with one lap in the green lane (236m, I think) after the 600s and two laps after the 800s. I was pretty tired today and didn't press very hard. Yesterday's triple wiped me out. 3mi down. Bruce kept asking if I was ok to work out, and I was, but boy was I tuckered out.
600- 1:39
600- 1:40
800- 2:20
600- 1:41
600- 1:40
800- 2:15
600- 1:39
600- 1:38

Tuesday 3/1: 9AM- 4mi easy indoors, very tired and heavy, but better as the run went on. 3:45PM- Downtown run with Ken, Chris, and Rob. Felt suspiciously excellent today, given how sore I was when I woke up and how sluggish the morning run was. 6:20s all day after the first 2mi, 57:30 total after a minute or two indoors for padding.

Wednesday 3/2: 7:30PM- 75' easy indoors, some around the track, some on the treadmill, some more on the track but more barefooter. Felt pretty good, the 24 hours off wasn't planned (skipped a morning run and practice to study for a macroeconomics midterm) but it was nice regardless.

Thursday 3/3: AM- Doctor's office for shots and back, like normal. 3:30PM- With Rob and Ken for the first part. 20' up, 6x75 seconds HARD up Summit- Bruce said run the hills "moderate" but you can't run up Summit Ave "moderate." You can't even walk up Summit Ave "moderate." Anyway, Ken ran the hills with us. Then we jogged back to the TTC and Rob and I spiked up for 6x500 avg 81 with 1:40 jog rest. We both thought this workout would be harder than it turned out to be. The first 500 was the worst, but then we were fine. Great to have someone to push with for once. 1mi down since I was rolling in miles today. Walking home from work that night at 9PM, my left achilles started whining a little. I iced it and begged God for mercy, and didn't feel it the rest of the night.

Friday 3/4: 12:30PM- 7mi before traveling all day. Sweet Jesus was I sore and tired from yesterday. Left achilles was complaining, uh oh. 9:30PM- 4mi easy with Owen from his place, achilles was quieter, but still wimpering.

Saturday 3/5: 4mi easy from Owen's place with his roommate, Eric, for some of it. The achilles was still whispering, so I didn't run my planned 14 miler, but I was pretty certain that it was doing better. I've never really had achilles trouble before, so I wasn't too worried as long as I didn't do something dumb.

Sunday 3/6: 36:30' easy from Owen's place again, solo this time. My achilles felt 100% and was displaying no creakiness before or after the run, so I figure I'm good to go. Like I mentioned, today's run was very good, so I'll probably go for some quality running tomorrow. My cautiousness cost me a long run and a one-day workout delay, so, overall, a tiny tiny cost for what could have been a big issue if I had let it. I swear I'm learning- it's only the rate that's questionable.

Total- 74 miles

Ok, everyone, time to start petitioning the weather to begin the en-spring-ening.

Keep it in the Family

2011-02-28T20:02:00.002-05:00

Hello, Internet. The big news this week relates to me only tangentially. My teammate, junior Joey Greenspun, executed a well-run tactical race to win a New England Intercollegiate title in the mile. The time (~4:12.8) doesn't tell the story of a race that went out in 2:10.x and saw about 8 guys in it with a shot to win with ~150 to go. Once Joey made his move down the backstretch of the last lap, though, it was the Greenspun Show on every channel. I was kidding Joey earlier this week about "keeping the title in the family" since I won it last year, and the fact that a teammate won somewhat mitigated the sting of being unable to attempt to defend the title. Perhaps next year we'll a battle of two NE champs! (if we do, I'm going out fast- Joey's last 200 was like 27.9, I'm pretty sure, all in the last 135m)

My week was solid- plenty of running, a good workout, a bad workout, and an unplanned mishap that resulted in three runs totaling 18 miles on a recovery day (whoops). Here we go:

Monday 2/21- 3:30PM- 3 up, 4xmile w/3min jog indoors: 4:46, 4:46, 4:44, 4:45. 3mi down. I was just floating today, couldn't be bothered to go any slower. Tot 11

Tuesday 2/22- 10mi moderate, 62:30 with Peter and Eric, mostly. I had planned on running slowly, but we were having a good conversation and I didn't notice we were moving along pretty good.

Wednesday 2/23- 14mi easy solo around Fresh Pond 3 times from the track, no watch because I wanted to keep things easier. Verrry tired today, sluggish.

Thursday 2/24- 3:30PM- 7 miles easy including a pitstop at 5.5, 4x150 strides, 200 in 28.3, half-mile jog. I thought I was gonna to pass out on this run, had no idea how I could feel so bad running 6:45 pace, but after I stopped to use the bathroom, I suddenly felt like I could run all day 6:00 pace. I didn't, of course, but I was relieved to know I wasn't that tired, just. . . burdened. Too much information? Yes.
9:30PM- 4mi easy on the treadmill after work, felt really good but I was disciplined and kept the treadmill on 7:24/mile because the last 3 days hadn't been particularly easy.

Friday 2/25- 3PM- 4mi easy on the treadmill, started my planned tempo run at 3mi, ran a mile at 5:25 pace, felt crappy, figured I'd do it after the meet. (Day one of the New England Championships) 8PM- 3 up, 3mi tempo 15:4? (forget what it was, hit "Delete" instead of "store" on my watch- yes, I'm an idiot), 3mi down. Too tired to tempo right today, I was really hammering and you're not supposed to do that on a tempo. Long day, stressful week, yadda yadda yadda.

Saturday 2/26- 1:30PM- 3mi easy with the newly crowned NE mile Champ, didn't intend on doubling today but couldn't resist the shakeout. 8PM- 8mi easy, some with James indoors while he warmed up for a workout, last 40' or so solo on the river. Cut my planned 12 way back since I doubled and yesterday was a stinker, kept the pace real easy too.

Sunday 2/27- Ok, so here was the shitshow day. I did 6.5 or so with James and Ken on the river at about 1PM. It was perfect winter temperature, about 38 with minimal wind, but there was all kinds of snow on the ground due to a late night storm. It was well packed and not slippery at all though, so it was a nice run. Later that evening, I had planned on running about 7 miles to meet up with a friend of mine from Northeastern for dinner. It took me about an hour to get to her apartment, but I figured ah, no big deal, now that I know where it is, I know it's not much more than two miles from my place as the crow flies. Well, about three hours later, after dinner, I figured it'd be an hour on the bus to get home, 75 minutes on the T, or a 15min jog. I figured I could jog really slow and not be too affected. Well, I got all turned around leaving the Northeastern campus and ended up way the hell down on Mass Ave. I wandered around for a while before I found some direction signs to Fenway and made my way back to my apartment some 28min after leaving my friend's place. I ran at least 18 miles on the day, which is what I logged it as. I was shooting for 13 in two runs, but sometimes, things happen. In this case, "things" was my combination of confidence in my sense of direction and ignorance as to what Mission Hill looks like at night. Whoops.

Total- 89 miles

I am so very tired now, even a day later. And before anyone asks, I didn't go to dinner in my running clothes. I carried regular people clothes with me in a plastic bag, which was both annoying to carry and appreciated by my friend.

Conference Meet

2011-02-21T18:57:00.002-05:00

I'm in the middle of midterm season, and the fact that I'm not a diligent studier is biting me in the ass right now (hence the late blog). I have a Microecon exam tomorrow that's like 35% of my grade in the class, blech. Anyway, the last week was very good to me. I got in two good workouts and a moderate long run and got to watch most of my teammates set personal records or otherwise compete with distinction. BU placed third on the men's side and the 141 points my teammates racked up were the most ever scored by BU at the indoor conference meet. The women were a little more plagued with injuries than the men's team, but I do want to mention my friend Katie's solo 16:06 win and automatic qualifier for indoor nationals. Our coach summed it up perfectly when he called it "the perfect example of mind over matter." I don't want her getting a swelled head, though, so I won't say anything further :)

Here's what I did this week:

Monday Feb 14- 8AM: 30min easy indoors, outside pants were in the wash. 3:30PM: 3mi up, 4mi tempo on a measured two-mile section of the Charles, 20:13, out in 10:20 into a 20mph headwind, back in 9:53 same effort, but with the wind at my back, 3mi cool down. It was like 50 degrees out and I figured I could run a little under 5:15s if I was feeling good. I felt so good that I was sure the course was about 100m short (200 total, obviously, since I ran it twice) but a re-measure on mapmyrun confirmed it. It felt great to have some nice weather.

Tuesday Feb 15- 9:30AM: 4mi easy indoors, tired. I was more sleepy tired than fatigued tired because the heat in our apartment obeys no commands but its own whim, and so I didn't sleep much because the heater was imitating a wounded animal and keeping my room at a balmy 50 deg. Anyway, 3:30PM- 9mi to Fresh Pond and around with Rob, felt pretty good.

Wednesday Feb 16- 3:30PM: Too much homework for a morning run (worked Tuesday night and didn't get any school work done). A lap around JP with the Melon and Colin, plus two laps outside for 9, then 4x150 and a 200 in 28.9 with a few more minutes of jogging for 10 total. Felt tired on the strides, but that's to be expected.

Thursday Feb 17- 10AM: ~2 and 1/2 to the doctor's and back for my allergy shots. 55 out and you all better believe that no force of man or nature could wipe the shit-eating grin off my face all day today. I didn't have class, it was beautiful and sunny out, and I had not yet found out about the D on my Spanish exam (no me gusta). 3:30PM- 3mi up to Fisher Hill in Brookline, 8x60 seconds HARD up the hill with jog down rest. I ran to a convenient landmark on the first one, right at the top of the hill, in 63 seconds, and got down to 57 by the last one. Today was just one of those days, so I ran hard. 3mi down.

Friday Feb 18- America East Day 1. Lots of good performances. I did 10mi easy after the meet, mostly with another redshirt teammate, but some with cooling down DMR folk, too. Night runs are all well and good, but I wish I had woken up a little earlier to run before going to class all day.

Saturday Feb 19- America East Day 2. Even more good performances, which got me fired up to rejoin my friends outdoors. 3:30PM- After the meet I nipped out for a progressive 17mi long run. No watch, but I ran with some of the mid-D guys on their cooldown, pulled Bhatt along for about 10 and a half, then did the last 6 and a half solo, running increasingly faster as the run drew to a close. Part of it was coming home with the wind at my back, but it was funny how once I got to 13 miles, I just wanted to HAMMER. I've had some trouble with recovering from runs like that, though, and I tried to keep a lid on things.

Sunday Feb 20- 11AM: Snuck in 4mi before I had brunch with my mother, brother, and sister, who came down to visit me. We were celebrating my brother's 18th birthday and his decision to attend the University of Portland out in Oregon next year. As an approximately 4:30y/9:40y kid, he's not going to be having too much one on one time with the coach, but Kev met him on his visit and should be able to walk on. Hopefully he won't run afoul of roster limits or anything. I like what Connor has done with his athletes, and I hope my brother ends up one of those scrubs-made-good stories you hear about on occasion. At least it gives me an excuse to go out and visit him and run in Forest Park. 5:30PM- 8.5 nice and easy with James. There was a tennis match going on at the TTC, so I didn't get to do my strides or the short add-on I had planned to do, but I was hungry anyway.

Total- 90.5

A good week. All my best to all you folks readin'

Sniffles and Valentine

2011-02-13T21:31:00.002-05:00

How can I start this post with anything other than a reaction to Rich's destruction of the 4 minute barrier yesterday? Sweet Jesus, kid does a few 2:10 800s and keeps up with the strides and all the sudden he's running 3:58.2 indoors! Even stranger to consider is that the two guys in front of him are also in the America East conference. I picked a bad time to be out of shape and on the sidelines. Side note: the rabbit for the race was my roommate, James Weider, and his 1:58.1 half-mile was a personal best for him. Almost (but not!) lost in the shuffle was Rob Gibson's 14:18 5k PR near the end of the day.

My week was unfortunately not as stellar as many of teammates'. I mean, it was nothing terrible, but I picked up a little cold from my trip up to the mountains and had to take it real easy for a couple of days to nip it before it got worse.

Anyway, here's my log:

Monday 2/7- 5mi easy, partways with Matt and Eric, pretty stuffed and tired, but no fever or chest congestion yet.

Tuesday 2/8- 5mi easy on the treadmill after work, more fatigue, mild chest congestion, but feeling a little improved.

Wednesday 2/9- Nearly better, decided to take a day off to kick this thing before it got any worse. Chest congestion clear, not too stuffy, just tired as all get out.

Thursday 2/10- 10 hours of sleep later, woke up feeling like a million bucks. 3:30PM- 8mi easy/moderate, first 7 with Peter out and back on the river in around 45min, 52 min total after an easy indoor add-on. 9PM- Got sent home from work early, which was sweet, so I celebrated with 4mi on the treadmill at the indoor track, radio a' blarin'.

Friday 2/11- 8pm- God awful treadmill workout in the indoor track garage while the Lady Valentine meet was going on. 3mi up, 1.5mi avg 5:15/mile (going 2:40, 2:37, 2:32 for each half-mile), half mile jog, 4x400 at 4:39/mile with a quarter jog at about 6:00/mile, half mile in 2:40, stepped off the treadmill with a mile to go in the workout. Wasn't quite ready to push like that, oh well. Cooldown # 1 with my fellow Terrier Bree Potter after her 3k, then another cooldown after my old Keene teammate Paige's 5k. Bree didn't have the race she wanted, but Paige showed 2 weeks of running after being in a boot for 6 weeks was all she needed to dip under 18 with a 17:58. Unfortunately, Paige miscounted the laps and stopped at 4800, otherwise, she would have run about 17:52-3 easily. I watched almost the entire meet with Pete, the Keene coach. 11 on the day.

Saturday 2/12- 12:30PM- tried to do some homework before the guy's meet started. I failed, so I set out to do an easy 4 by myself. 7PM- 9 miles easy with Billy after most of the meet was over, with various teammates tagging along for various distances. Ruben Sanca was with us for a good bit, but didn't like my choice of route (mostly because I picked a route that was entirely ice, and a busted ass doesn't lead to any PRs).

Sunday 2/13- 3PM- 15mi easy, first 4 out and back with James, last part out to Fresh Pond and around twice solo. I didn't run with a watch, just started nice and easy and felt myself get going pretty good toward the back half of the run. I felt surprisingly good when I finished-- a little hungry, but not particularly tired. I debated going 17, but I had only planned on 15 and I think I'm tempo-ing tomorrow, so I decided against adding on.

Total- 61 in 6 days, one mediocre workout. I did core one day too, but, as per usual, didn't record which day. Wednesday, probably?

Anyway, have a great week, everyone. Also, I missed out on a bunch of great Terrier performances, and so I apologize to my teammates for not listing them all here.

Progress and a trip up North

2011-02-07T20:21:00.002-05:00

Another late entry, internet. Here's what I got up to:

Monday 1/31 3:30PM- 8mi, out in 27min, back in 25:40, with Peter, Eric, and Matt on the river. 9PM- At the TTC. 2mi easy, 8x100 in spikes avg ~14.5 w/100 jog, mile total in 5:58, 1mi barefoot in the green warmup lane. Felt good.

Tuesday 2/1 3:30PM- 3 up, 3mi treadmill tempo 15:27, 3mi down. 9PM- 36min indoors with Krinjak, felt good.

Wednesday 2/2- 3:30PM- 7mi easy indoors with the gang, felt terrible, absolutely terrible. Not sure why, but the weather wasn't cooperating much. 9:30PM- Strength circuit at the track.

Thursday 2/3- 3:30PM- 8mi out and back with Rob on the river, terrible footing, but good run regardless, 59:20. 5x150 strides in spikes after, short cooldown for 9. 9:30PM- 4mi on the treadmill in the TTC, first 3 at 7:30 pace, last one in 5:50, last half-mile 2:40 or so.

Friday 2/4- 3PM- 4mi up, solo workout indoors. 6x1000 avg 2:55, 2:00 jog rest. I felt much better than expected and was pleased to get in 6k of quality. I ran the last kilo in 2:49, closing in 29.5, just for the joy of it. Otherwise, I was only looking at the watch at the end of each interval, because I hate knowing intermediate times. 3mi down, ending at Harvard to watch the Battle of Beantown. 9:00PM- 3mi easy with Joey after his race. BU lost to the Battle of Beantown (the track version of the Beanpot) to Northeastern by a single measly point. You better believe stuff like that keeps a redshirt up at night.

Saturday 2/5- 10AM- leave for Keene, NH with James. 3PM- 10mi in Keene with James, some with old teammates George and Adam. I ran James up Drummer Hill and around town for 72 minutes- we got caught in an ugly hail/freezing rain storm, and James was introduced properly to Keene winters. It's funny, on our way out to Drummer, I got a familiar "oh, shit" feeling in my stomach. It was an ugly kind of foreboding I almost didn't remember- the old "on your way to Drummer" panic. I laughed when I recognized it.

Sunday 2/6- 10AM- In-Town 5 easy (39:40) with Pete, Andrea, and James. It was really good to talk to Pete again. Funny how quickly we slipped back into old rhythms and jokes, but when you spend the better part of two years working with someone every day, maybe it isn't so curious after all. 9:30PM- 2mi easy, 4x200 on, 200 off in spikes on the track, 5:44 total, 31.2 avg for the on parts, 2mi easy barefoot, finished just as they turned the lights out on me. Looong travel day, felt a cold coming on, which I woke up to deal with full force today.

81 mi
12 runs

Back to the grind. . .

Good Step Forward

2011-01-30T21:58:00.002-05:00

Hello there, Internet! What a difference a week can make. There isn't much to editorialize about this week, so I'll just skip to the log.

Monday 1/24- 3:30PM- 4mi easy indoors, some with Elliot, 3mi moderate outdoors, ran into Bree with a little more than a mile to go, ran in with her and added on another mile inside. It was 0 deg out and well into the negatives with windchill, so I wussed out. Still mad about Sunday's debacle, but what are you going to do?

Tuesday 1/25- 2:30PM- 3 up, 10x400 avg 63.0 w/1:40 jog rest, 3mi down. Tough workout to do solo- I did 3 at 64, 3 at 63, 3 at 62, and the last one in 61.0. Bruce said "oh, let's just be generic today and copy Roger Bannister." 9:30PM (after work)- 4mi shakeout on the treadmill at the TTC after work. Felt pretty good, probably the best I've ever managed on a treadmill before.

Wednesday 1/26- 61:30 out and back through Cambridge with Peter, Eric, and Matt. Snow storm made the footing increasingly bad, but we ran a decent clip regardless, to say nothing of the snowball fights.

Thursday 1/27- 6:30PM- I think I made my peace with the treadmill today. With the radio blaring classic rock and my T-shirt covering the display for the first 5mi, it wasn't so bad. Nice to run faster and keep my shoes dry, anyway. 10mi in 59:54. First 5mi in 31:50 (didn't look until 4mior so, just started off at 6:45/mile and increased the speed every 3-4min or so, ended up at 6:00 pace for the 5th mile).
45 sec pee break (yeah I timed it) 2nd 5mi in 28:04, running roughly 5:55, 5:55, 5:45, 5:30, 5:10. That doesn't add up, but that's because I accidentally reset the treadmill with when I stopped to piss, and it took whatever the remainder was to get up to speed. 1mi down after to get rid of that weird treadmill-leg.

Friday 1/28- 5mi easy with the guys around the slums, kept things light for tomorrow. Lots of great performances by various friends at the womens' Terrier Invite, but the one I have to mention is my teammate Katie Matthews took an even 60 seconds off her 5k PR, running 16:13. Wish that happened more often to all of us!

Saturday 1/29- 3 up, 1000m race at Terrier, 2:30.68, good for 8th I think. If I were in really good shape, I wouldn't be pleased with a 2:30 kilo, but to be honest, I'm not really in any kind of decent shape right now. I ran about as fast as I could have run (had I avoided making a dumb move in the middle of the penultimate turn I might have dipped under 2:30, though) and more importantly, fought through the frankly horrifying mental state I had slipped into after Sunday's "race." It's amazing how you can know something academically (like bad races happen and they certainly don't necessarily mean all that much) and yet how mentally/emotionally jarring a shit show can be. I was practically hyperventilating on my warm up and to be honest was pretty sure that I would end up DNF-ing my race. Once the gun went off and I got about two steps in, though, I was like my old self, and focused solely on placing as high as my fitness would allow. I didn't notice any splits, only my rhythm and the movements of the pack. Longer cooldown after most of the meet was done, because I had too many friends and teammates racing to stop watching for any real length of time! 8mi on the day.

Sunday- OFF.

Total- 60
Had a strength day in there somewhere, probably Wednesday? I gotta start logging that so I remember what I did.

What's next? Well, Bruce observed after the race the same thing I was thinking: I'm just not in particularly good shape right now. My speed workouts compare favorably with past-Craig, but I don't have the conditioning for those workouts to be particularly significant. Now that my mind is over that horrible mile race, it's time to put in more significant mileage, focus on the very painful 3k-5k type workouts that condition and strengthen, and prepare for outdoors. That doesn't mean I won't race again indoors, just that I haven't planned any out yet. If things are going well, I'd like to convince Bruce to let me race the Valentine Invite and maybe take a crack at my 3k PR. On the other hand, if he thinks I shouldn't race, I won't press the issue, because, well, what good is a coach if you're not going to listen to him?

Here's the link to the video of my race: http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/238264-2011-BU-Terrier-Invite/video/442082-M-1000-H01

Thanks, flotrack! I usually wouldn't want video evidence of an out-of-shape, carrying-about-5-extra-lbs MacMonster, but I want to point out my choice of uniform. I doubt you can see it, but I'm wearing a University of Delaware singlet. One of my teammate's has a twin brother who attends Delaware and asked me if I'd like to rep the program. What kind of Jackalope would I be if I didn't jump at the chance to show some solidarity to runners who were screwed over by an AD too cowardly to address the team like a man? The Jackalopes are with you, boys, if you want a club to run for!

Hope everyone's seasons are progressing as planned. So many friends of mine scored big PRs this weekend, and I'm afraid of missing anyone, so congratulations to everyone who ran well!

SH*T SHOW

2011-01-23T22:46:00.004-05:00

These entries are never fun to write. I ran my first track race since last May's series of disastrous dropouts today at Harvard. Today's race was technically better than those races in that I finished this one, but when "I finished" is the most positive thing you can say about a race, well, you're not going to be looking forward to writing any blogs, that's for sure. Enough with the suspense, though. I ran 4:28.70 for a fresh mile on a banked track with great competition. I was rested, had had some good workouts, slept fine, and did things sufficiently right to leave me without any real reason for running so bad. I guess I'll just have to leave it at "I had a really bad day, and it sucked, and now it's over, so I'm going to go forward from here."

Where's forward from here? Well, I ran unattached today because Bruce was unsure if my fitness was better than last year's, and wanted to preserve my eligibility for my 5th year if I was unfit. While I know my fitness is not as bad as today suggested, I think it's safe to say I will be keeping my BU uniform safely folded in my room until outdoor track begins. On the other hand, I do believe that it would be a mistake to go find a cabin and exile myself to more training. I haven't done much racing over the last 8 months or so, and I think I need to get back on the horse rather than avoid it.

I ran pretty awful today, and that's bound to happen sometimes. On to the next day, since all the ability at my disposal is powerless to undo today.

Monday 1/17- 13mi easy with Ruben Sanca the whole way, with the team for some. Cold and icy out, took a digger on the 2nd of 4 laps around JP, Bill Rodgers style.

Tuesday 1/18- Roads were terrible, so I asked Bruce to let me work out today. He was fine with it, so I avoided another slipfest AND the dreadmill. I wanted to get in something a little longer at mile gear, so Bruce gave me a relatively short, light workout after I did a 1000 at mile gear. 3 up, 800 worth of striding
1000- 2:36 (62, jumped in behind Eric and Rich, who were doing a 400, ~2:04.5 through 800)
5min jog
500 1:19 (with Ken for the first 400)
2minjog
500 1:23 (these were supposed to be 1:22, but I got out a little too quick on the first one and Bruce said get this one under control)
3min jog
800- 2:16 (69.x/66.x)
2min jog
400- 63.3
1:30 jog
400- 62.2
Pretty good workout, I was very pleased to run 2:36 at the appropriate level of effort. This workout had me thinking breaking 4:10 was in the cards on Sunday. In retrospect, I should have just continued on and run a 1600 time trial in 4:08. Ah, hindsight. 3mi down, tot 9.

Wednesday 1/18- 9 mi easy to JP through some wet snow, JP was clear, ran 9:16 for the lap there, ran into Rob on the way back and ran back with him.

Thursday 1/19- 1PM- 7mi steady on the river, 4x150 in spikes, a 200 in 28.8 relaxed. The guys had a multi-meet Thursday afternoon, and most everybody ran well. 8PM- 37' easy inside after the meet, some with the Melon, who was getting over being sick.

Friday 1/20- 3:30PM- 4 up, 2x5x150, 1:30 jog b/t reps, 5min jog/set. Bruce told me to keep things in the 22 range, and I did. Felt fine. 3mi down outside, sick of indoor laps.

Saturday 1/21- 3PM- 7mi easy with James to JP and back with no lap, drills inside after. I was looking forward to Sunday's race a lot on this run.

Sunday 1/22- 1:30PM- 3up with Rob, 1mi shitshow, 4:28.7 for last in the fast heat, splits I got were 62.5, 2:07.0, 3:15.x, 4:28.7. Yup, that's a 73 last 400, and it was all-out. The only thing I can possibly think of is that I had zero appetite on waking up, and had to force myself to eat two tiny things of fat-free yogurt so I wouldn't be racing on an empty stomach. I don't think that should be worth ~15 seconds in a mile, but with the way I fell apart, I'll grasp at any straw. 1mi down, felt dizzy and shaky.

65mi, 8 runs.

Hope your weeks were all better than mine. Here's to better times and not dwelling on off days.

Adding Quality

2011-01-16T20:54:00.002-05:00

Well, internet, no need to dress it up in a fake happy voice. The Patriots played sloppy today, and they lost to Rex "the Podiatrist" Ryan. It stings like a heavily salted paper cut. I wouldn't have been that pissed if the Pats had gone out in the first round to Colts, but I can't stand Rex Ryan and the kind of trash-talking, moron football he delights in.

Anyway, enough about foozball. Foozball is the devil anyway. I had myself a nice little week of training over here. Most of the BU guys were back for training camp week, which was good, and I cut back my volume a bit to make sure I don't get in over my head with accumulated fatigue while adding in harder quality sessions.

Here's what I was up to in between crying over sloppy post-season play and another blizzard:

Monday 1/10- 5mi nice and easy to recover from the Big Week. Sunny run with some newly returned teammates, 34min.

Tuesday 1/11- 2pm- Unplanned moderate run, ran 5mi at ~6:30 pace with a group, then ran the last 5 harder at 5:30-5:40 pace, 60:27 total for 10. I was pleased with the pace of the 2nd half of the run, because the footing was pretty crappy. 4x150m buildups in spikes indoors after, a 200 relaxed in 28.8, then a short cooldown for 11.

Wednesday 1/12- 3PM- 3 up, lots of strides, mixed bag workout. I did:
600- 1:39
400- 63.4
800- 2:14 (led that one)
600- 1:38.8
400- 63.2
4min rest
4x150, 20.hi for all of them, 1:30 rest.
4min rest
800- 2:12.4
400- 62.5
400- 62.0 3mi down. A good day. Felt smooth running 62 and 63. Recovery for all the other intervals was between 2-3 minutes, depending on how many questions Bruce asked. 8:30PM- 3mi easy with my roommate Sean through the blizzard. Kid's a trooper. Total for the day- 13

Thursday 1/13- 3pm- 60' easy/steady downtown with most of the team, 5min indoors at ~6:00 pace for 10 miles. 2 and a half sets of strength after, my heart wasn't in it at all.

Friday 1/14- 3PM- Fresh Pond once from the TTC with Billy and Colin, plus a few min indoors, 4x150m buildups in spikes, 200 relaxed in 29.6, felt flat and crappy. 10 total.

Saturday 1/15- 3pm- 4 up, strides, ladder workout with Eric- 1600 4:32, 3min jog, 1200 3:25, 3min jog, 800, 2:15 3min jog, 400 63.4, 5min jog, 8x100 between 13.4-13.8 with 50 walk, 50 jog, 3mi down, 11mi total. Felt great today, guess yesterday was just a fluke.

Sunday 1/16- 8mi very easy with James, first 4 with Sean. I was planning on running twice today, but I went to the track after the Game That Shall Not Be Mentioned Hereafter ended to find it locked. Me, being a genius, had locked all my running clothes there, leaving this double wasted.

68 miles
8 runs
one session of strength, pushed today's session back to tomorrow.

Happy running, everyone!

Big Week to Start on an Up Note

2011-01-09T22:45:00.003-05:00

Hullo there, Internet!

I just finished up the 2nd Annual Big Week, which is something my roommate James and I started last year. When we both came back from school last year over winter break, we were alone in the house and bored, so we ended up running a bunch. We accidentally got in even better training than usual, had fun, and passed the time. This year, we were a little more formal about it, in that we said "we should do another Big Week!" and ran a bunch in order to save our brains just a little more from hours and hours of TV or Internet or video games. That being said. . . we got in plenty of that, too.

Anyway, here's what I got up to this week:

Monday 1/3: 3:30PM- Out and back toward Spy Pond but not there, 64min, with Matt and James. Felt tired, heavy. 9:30PM- 4mi easy indoors with James, drills, 6x150 buildups with 50jog, couple minutes down for 5. Running 7:15-7:20 pace felt like a walk, and I felt particularly awesome on the strides.

Tuesday 1/4: 3:30PM- 3mi up, 4mi dreadmill tempo, 21min (5:15/mile, 1% incline), felt crappy, mostly because I sweat like a whore in church on those things. Did the first and last half-mile on the indoor track (both in 2:36) because it saved me a mile on the damn thing. 4mi down.

Wednesday 1/5: 10:00AM- 4mi easy with James. 4pm- 10mi easy on the River with Matt and Eric, 66:30 + strength routine at Fit Rec afterward.

Thursday 1/6: 2PM- 12mi easy/moderate, first 9 or so with Matt and Peter, working from 6:45 to 5:45/mile, ran to Jamaica Pond a different way because of the iciness of the paths, then slowed down to about 6:10-6:20 pace with James and added on 21 min for a conservative 73min. Felt good, decent weather. 9PM- 5mi easy, first half with Sean, one of my roommates (out to fight the retired-from-running-lethargy), whole thing with James.

Friday 1/7: 3:30PM- 10mi easy with James, started with Peter and Matt but they were feeling salty, so we kept things around the 6:30/mile range and rested. On the way home from Fresh Pond, we ran into a high school buddy of mine who goes to Harvard and was finishing up his own run, so our 9mi became 10mi in order to run with him a little. 6x150 buildups in spikes indoors, plus a short cooldown to make it an even 11. Felt really good on the strides. 9:30PM- 5mi easy with James indoors, time went by really quick. I don't like running indoors, but it was pretty icy and crappy, so I gave in.

Saturday 1/8: 3:30PM- 3mi up, 10 strides of varying lengths, 1000m total, drills, 6x800 avg 2:16, recovery 2:30 jog. This was my first track workout in 5 weeks and I was pleased to get it under my belt with nothing particularly worthy to note. It wasn't too hard, but it wasn't particularly easy, either. 3mi down, 10 on the afternoon counting the ~7:00 paced jogs in between the 800s. 9:30PM- 2.5 easy with Sean and James, then I added on another 18min solo. I felt good during the solo part, so I crushed it, which means it was probably just shy of 3mi as opposed to 2.5. Call it 5mi anyway.

Sunday 1/9: 2PM- 10mi, first 9 with James, first 400m of the run with Peter and Matt, but we got dropped like bad habits. We still hit about 58min for 9, though, so I guess we weren't jogging too hard. I added on a mile inside and was bored doing those laps, so I ran it in about 5:30 to minimize the monopoly. 3 sets of strength after with Matt, Peter, and James. I've been doing 2 sets for a while, so it was good to bump things up. 9:30PM- 6mi moderate solo, felt really good after feeling like a slug all afternoon, ended up working things down pretty hard the last 2mi or so. Ran out and back on the river, because it's lit at night and free of cars.

Total- 105 miles
13 runs
2 strength days

Not bad, Internet. Lest some of you think I'm being foolish, let me reassure you: tomorrow I'm running 5mi in about 40min, and that's IT. I doubt I'll be above 80mi again for a couple months. Also, since I had literally nothing else to do (no work while school isn't in session, no class either) I was sleeping about 11 hours a night and more or less constantly eating delicious healthy food, since cooking was also a good way to pass the time. For example, today, I've mostly subsided on Leftover Soup, which is exactly what it sounds like. I took the remaining carrots, potatoes, green beans, onion, and red pepper I didn't use this week, cut them all up into little pieces, added about half a cup of rice, threw it in a crock pot, covered it in water, added chicken bullion and assorted seasoning, and ignored it for 4 hours. Voila!

Have a great week, everybody.

Last Week of 2010, Year in Review

2011-01-02T16:59:00.002-05:00

Well, here I am, watching the Giants/Redskins game (one of my roommates is from Long Island, but don't hold it against him) and struggling to write this week's blog. I want to do a review of my year, and yet, no matter how I slice it, the last 9 months have contained some of the crappiest running I've done since first lacing up a pair of sneakers. Fortunately, I'm a pretty optimistic guy, so I can say this about 2010: at least it's over, and now that 2011 is here, things are looking up already.

The year started off promising. I had bounced back from a terrible Fall 09 much better than expected and was really, really fit. I opened up the year and my track career for BU with a mile win at our Multi-team Meet vs Sacred Heart and Umass Amherst. I set a then-PR of 4:08.61 at the Terrier Invite that seemed to suggest even better things in the near future, since I had gone out in around 2:32 through 1000m before fading. Unfortunately, it was there that things started to unravel. A persistent hip/low back pain started cutting into my training, forcing a DNS at the Battle of Beantown vs Harvard, Northeastern, and BC and a DNF at the Valentine mile. When the back/hip behaved, I found I could run quite well despite the interrupted training. After an uninspired 5th in the mile at the conference meet, I surprised even Bruce with a 1:53.6 4x800 leg, contributing to a BU win in the event. My hip was doing much better, my training was coming together, and my PR and win at the New England Championships (4:08.57) was among the easiest races I have run yet, despite the ~2:01 last half-mile. Unfortunately, I remained snakebit, coming down with a bad fever and bronchitis, which kept me out of the IC4A meet.

At Bruce's suggestion, I redshirted outdoor track, and figured that would be as good time as any to explore the 5k a little more. Bruce started preparing me with a modest 14:35 goal in mind, and my first outdoor race--an 8:26 win over 3000 with a very fast last 400--seemed to indicate I was right on race. That ended up being the last race I finished outdoors. I dropped out of races the next two weeks in a row, feeling horrible and strangely unfit. It wouldn't be until the fall that I discovered I'm allergic to just about EVERYTHING and the spring and fall are the absolute worst times for me to be running.

Summer went fine for me; Bruce had me take a day off every other week to try to avoid getting stale. I was working out pretty well, running about 80 miles a week, and ran a comfortable 53:38 ten-miler at the Blessing of the Fleet race in Narragansett, RI. We showed up late, though, so our times were all screwed up. . . oh well. Looking back, things went to shit for me really badly as soon as ragweed season began in early August. I shit the bed at Falmouth (running about 15 seconds/mile slower than I was capable of) and was left, yet again, wondering why the hell my perceived exertion went out of control on some days.

The invisible raincloud peaked in the fall, where I wheezed my way to a 26:24 8k at Franklin Park (my slowest race there since my freshman year of college) feeling like an asthmatic smoker the whole way. Finally, after getting bronchitis so bad I had to call it a season and exhausting every other option, I went to see an allergist and found out (surprise, surprise) I have allergy-induced asthma to just about everything that grows under the sun, especially through the fall and early spring (which, ever since I was a little kid, usually coincides with when I get bad viral infections, colds, chest colds, etc). I started once-weekly shots after a few frosts calmed my lungs down, and began again the process of pulling myself into shape.

But for a week-long bout with viral tonsillitis in mid-December (which coincided with finals week. . . ugh. . .) things have gone ok since then. I'm rounding into form fine, and once I start track work, I'm rarely more than 3-4 weeks away from peak shape.

Now, after all that bitch bitch bitch moan moan moan, there are a lot of bright sides to the year. The biggest silver living is that I finally figured out WHY my springs and falls have been punctuated with lethargy and wheeze instead of fitness and fast times. Ok, it'll be a good 8 months before the shots have any discernible effects, but I don't need to be on an inhaler on a regular basis and my lungs didn't seem too scarred to the allergy doc. Considering that it could have been MUCH worse, I feel incredibly lucky that I got things figured out and the solution is only a few irritating injections once a week. The other bright sides include having a pretty good time when I was healthy, becoming close with my teammates here at BU, and enjoying my first year of supporting myself instead of leaching off my mother.

It'd be easy to mischaracterize this as a "depressing year" when in fact it was, aside from running, a great one. I still had some good runs, so it wasn't like the year was entirely a wash on that front either. All in all, at the start of 2011, I consider myself an extraordinarily fortunate guy. I hope everybody out there reading had the years they wanted, and that 2011 brings us all fast races and good times.

Yearly totals:
3620 miles
331 days of running (34 missed days, mostly in October)
9.91 miles/day avg, including time off, which works out to be 69.42 miles/avg for any given 7 day span. I don't think this is the most I averaged in a year, but I'm pretty pleased with it given the amount of time I missed.

Anyway, here's my log for the last 5 days of 2010 and the first two of 2011:

Monday 12/27: 3PM- 9mi easy with my younger brother in Derry, roads very bad from the blizzard yesterday. This was an annoying run because I don't mind sloshing through snow, but I DO mind morons who drive 4-wheel-drive SUVs yet are terrified of driving more than 5mph in two inches of snow. 9:30PM- 4mi easy solo, about 9deg with the windchill, blech.

Tuesday 12/28: 3PM- Really sick of the crappy footing and idiot drivers today. Ran 7mi over a hilly course in Derry and hammered the clear portions of the run while running more cautiously on the icy parts. I got in about 3-4 miles of good hard running, though it likely wasn't that fast, since "clear footing" was a relative description.

Wednesday 12/29- AM- Brunch with the family, since it was my sister's 19th birthday. PM- 87:30 easy but good clipping around downtown and the North End with Matt and Eric. Plenty of plyometrics (to avoid puddles and leap snowbanks) on this run.

Thursday 12/30- Noon- 10mi easy/moderate over rolling hills up Beacon and back Comm Ave with Eric and Matt, 64min total, then 6x150 buildups in spikes indoors and a short cooldown for 11 on the day.

Friday 12/31: 9AM- Tried to warm up for a Heartbreak workout with Kev Gilmore, Matt and Eric, but the top of my foot was killing me. It tends to bruise a little running in flats on concrete all winter, so I kept the run to 5mi to avoid doing anything serious to it. After the run, Bruce insisted I take up a pair of cushioned Nike shoes, and I obliged, because running in crappy shoes > no running.

Saturday 1/1/10- 3PM- Rang in the new year with an easy 9mi with DTP Cordaro, Terence, and James, over to Fresh Pond from the house and back, plus a short on add-on. The terrain at Fresh Pond wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it'd be. It was also 61 degrees out today! 9PM- 4mi easy with James, still 50 out, and only like 5 days removed from a blizzard that dumped a foot of snow and temperatures that fell to like 15 degrees.

Sunday 1/2/10- AM- Worked the last mini-meet, where this time, the timing system worked and we didn't have to rely on hand-timing. 2:30PM- 14mi moderate/hard, started with Matt, Eric, and James, but Matt and Eric dropped us and then James fell off a little. We ran a good, rolling course past Faulkner Hospital. I covered 14mi in 83min with the last mile (measured) in 5:29. I felt pretty "meh" but figured it was better to just roll with it.

Total- 76
9 runs
(at some point I did an ab workout with Matt, but I forget what day because I didn't write it down)

Overall, a decent note on which to end 2010 and begin 2011. First race is around Jan 20th, I think. Let's goooooo!

Christmas

2010-12-26T21:30:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas, Internet! I hope everyone had a relaxing holiday. For my part, I was something of a blockhead and figured "Oh, sure, week off for a virus that knocked me on my ass, I can just jump back into running and do two hard workouts and a long run." I was dead wrong, of course. I spent all week struggling to train hard and wondering why my body wasn't going along with the plan.

So, genius that I am, I swiftly figured out I should just let things ride until I'm ready to go. . . this afternoon, after 7 days of feeling like shit.

At least I had a nice week at my mother's house in New Hampshire and pulled a B in my Applied Statistics class. Not bad for a guy who skipped two levels of statistics and made it through the first midterm on bravado and dumb luck!

The log:

Monday 12/20- 7mi, some with Matt, all of it with Peter. We headed out on the river in a snowstorm. The wind sucked, but it wasn't too bad otherwise. Mostly it just good to be running again.

Tuesday 12/21- Fresh Pond solo, started clipping along pretty good by the end. Not particularly smart. . .

Wednesday 12/22- Back in Derry, in a mild (1-2inches) snowstorm. I did 10mi easy, ran into my younger brother who had left from the high school for practice, did most of it with him. Good run, steady effort but slower pace due to the snow.

Thursday 12/23- This is when things started to pile up on. Felt weak and dizzy all day, frigid wind, no legs for my planned tempo run. Ended up just calling it at 2.5mi and shuffling home.

Friday 12/24- Stubbornly, I went to North Shore to do some hills. As a refresher, this is about a 1/3rd of a mile of merciless climbing. I managed 4 at an increasingly pathetic effort, then jogged home wondering why on Earth I felt so bad.

Saturday 12/25 Christmas- 10mi easy with my brother, Kevin. Again, felt dizzy and weak for the first 3mi, decided to do 6mi, then got really pissed off at myself, thought about Steve Jones, and vowed to finish this 10 miles or else. Ok, it was a really dumb decision, but at 5mi, I started feeling pretty good, and the last half of the run was great. My brother and I got to spend some time together and by the end, I was really glad I stuck it out.

Sunday 12/26- Drove into Boston in the AM with my brother and Ryan Busby, a high school teammate of mine who runs for Bryant now. Ryan and Kev raced and I was a good little Terrier and volunteered my ace timing skills when the FAT broke down and we had to do things old-school (sorry, anyone who ran today, for any mistakes- we did what we could with what we had where we were, like Teddy Roosevelt recommended). We got back to Derry before the snow hit, but I realized 1) I was bushed and 2) I had been a moron all week. I resolved not to run until the mood to do so struck me, and would run no farther or faster than I wanted. After a coma-like nap, I ate a nice dinner, spent time with my family, and headed out for my run in the middle of the blizzard at 8:30. I had a great 6mi run high-stepping through the snow drifts. My old high school is large enough to warrant a campus, and that campus is always lit. The snow wasn't the slippery kind (any Eskimo readers, help me out- what's the word for snow that's powdery and loose?) and I had solid lighting, so the risk of injury was low. Anyway, it was a great run. Things will turn around soon, and I'll PR this season.

Again, merry Christmas to everyone. See you all next week!

You've gotta be freakin' kidding me

2010-12-20T20:16:00.002-05:00

Internet, the title of this week's entry was also my reaction when I woke up Monday morning to find that my tonsils had swollen so badly overnight that they were essentially touching, making swallowing and breathing nearly impossible. I tested negative for strep throat, and the doc decided I had some kind of viral infection that could last anywhere from 1-3 weeks and might be mono. After about 4 days of horrible pain (no other symptoms, either- just the disgustingly infected tonsils, which were covered in puss you could see if you looked into my mouth (hope you didn't picture that)) the doctor gave me some Prednisone (call the drug testers!) which shrank my tonsils to human size again. By Saturday I had regained the will to live and by Sunday I felt good to run. I gave it an extra day, though, and waited until this afternoon to run. I'm pleased to report that it went well, and I got in 7 chilly, snowy, windy, enjoyable miles with Peter and Matt for a little.

Guess I got a little too greedy claiming I could no longer use the "out of shape" excuse last week. Finals are over, thank God.

Have a merry Christmas, everyone!

-Craig

Last Week of Classes

2010-12-12T21:01:00.002-05:00

Well, another semester is over but for finals. I just wrote that and got a little melancholy, but it is what it is. I won't have time to wonder where time goes when I'm buried in an Economics-coma over the next few days. Blech. Anyway, I had a pretty good week after somewhat of an ugly start. I felt like a zombie all day on Monday, then bonked hard on my long run that afternoon. After that, things got much better, so I'm not too worried. The log:

Monday- 10mi that sucked, planned on 14, got dropped by the group at 3, struggled back home and still averaged under 6:30/mile (so how fast were those first 3?).

Tuesday- River West but in a special Rob Gibson kind of way with Rob, Matt, and Peter. We clipped along pretty good and I felt much better than yesterday. Strides in spikes indoors after plus a short cooldown for 10 on the day.

Wednesday- ~4mi up, 8xHeartbreak Hill with the guys, avg 81 seconds (not that that means anything to anyone who doesn't know BU's secret start/stop point) with jog down in about 2:00, ~4mi fast down + strides and jogging indoors because the warmup/cd is actually a little less than 4 miles. 80 seconds is about the gold standard for this particular version of Heartbreak, so averaging 81 for 8 is a fine workout. Cap'n Peter told me that as a result of hanging with him and Matt without exceeding the effort limit Bruce imposed, my go-to excuse of "I'm out of shape" is hereby retired. Don't tell anybody, internet, but I was getting sick of saying it anyway.

Thursday- 10mi nice and easy with Ken and Terence for all of it and Peter and Rich for some of it. It was cold for this run, first time all I year I wished I had gloves. Weak-ass strength circuit after work.

Friday- Joey's Best Run Ever (sadly, without Joey) with most of the guys through Cambridge, clipping along nice and steady most of the way. We added two miles on the Harvard track (a duel-worthy offense, should we have been caught. . .) and got a pace check of about 6:10/mile. Afterward, we snuck in some strides and a short cooldown to get 10 for the afternoon, then watched the BU Red vs. White intrasquad meet. A few of our mid-distance guys engaged in a race over the classic metric distance of a nautical half-mile, with the title going to Billy Whelan in who knows what time. As low-key as it was, it got my blood boiling from some indoor races.

Saturday- 2:30PM- Short run to Harvard with Kev Gilmore to watch our buddy Cordado compete in the 3000m. Unfortunately, I missed my friend and old Keene teammate Amy provisionally qualify for D3 Nationals with a 5:02 victory in the mile. It cut 9 seconds off her previous best, though hopefully I'll catch her next big mile at Terrier or Valentine. Short run back for a very bootleg 3 miles. 7PM- Got a late start on this one, but so did everybody else. The last week of class was rough on everyone, so we all slept in pretty late. Anyway, after I warmed up for 3mi, Bruce had me do 4mi on the treadmill at 5:10/mile at 1% incline, with the option of increasing the incline each mile as opposed to the pace. For those of you who don't know, when it comes to treadmills, I complain high, loud, and repeatedly. I've run on one maybe twice in my life, and I manage to almost fall off every couple minutes. I tend to either run up the front of the thing or drift to one side and kick the railing. This time, however, I got through the whole thing, sweat, boredom, and a few close calls notwithstanding. 2mi cooldown for 12 on the day.

Sunday- 11:30AM- 10mi easy with Matt to JP twice (9:30, 9:20) and back for 63:48 total. Terence and Rich came for the first lap and headed back. It wasn't too cold out, but man was it rainy. Afterward I did two sets of Bruce's strength circuit with Matt, then made a giant pot of chicken soup from scratch. Every time it goes on sale, I pick up a 3-4lb bird at Star Market and roast it. I usually get 2-3 meals out of it the first time around, then boil the carcass for soup and get another 2-3 meals out of that. It's time consuming, but it beats the hell out of ramen. 6:30PM- I wasn't planning on doubling, but needed company for his rainy, rainy, dark run, so I tagged along for 4 easy miles.

Total miles- 78 in 9 runs
Strength circuits- 2

I'll take it. Good luck with finals, fellow college kids.

Case of the Sniffles, but it's ok

2010-12-05T21:54:00.002-05:00

Good evening, Internet! I hope this post finds your tubes unclogged and all the people using you to read this in good health. I had a solid week of training that demonstrated I'm not quite as dense as my second-grade teacher and numerous friends feared. See, I came down with this cold Sunday night, and by Tuesday, felt real ragged. Rather than letting the stupid little sniffle linger and potentially get worse, I just took Tuesday off from running and work and napped before going to bed early. I was rewarded for my bare minimum of common sense with a clean bill of health Wednesday morning. The modification to my week ended up costing me a tempo run and a steady long run, but I was healthy enough to get in a good hard fartlek on Thursday and come back with a solid track workout with the guys on Saturday.

Anyway, here it goes:

Monday- 9mi easy with Elliot, Ken, and Terence, felt pretty sick and was content to just jog today. Strength circuit with Peter afterward.

Tuesday- OFF, as mentioned. At least I made it to class!

Wednesday- 8mi with the first 4 easy w/Rich and the second 4 increasingly moderate through the rain solo. Felt 90% better, still phlegmy and snotty, though.

Thursday- Solo, 3+ steady to Fresh Pond, then a fartlek of 8min hard, 3min float, 4x65 seconds harder with equal rest, 5min starting between 5:10-5:20 pace and increasing intensity every minute until the last minute was pretty much all out. Averaged about 5:30/mile for the whole thing including rest (27:30 for 4.9 miles/2 laps of Fresh Pond, of which the last 3:30 was probably less than a half-mile) then 3mi easy down. I covered just over 12mi (I added on when I got back, since that loop is like 11 and 1/2) in 73min. I knew I hit this one pretty hard when I got jelly-legs doing 7:00 pace on the cooldown.

Friday- 3:30PM- 9mi + with the guys, to Fresh Pond, around once, and back. We were after it pretty good today, since the guys had last worked out Wednesday. We got out to Fresh Pond about 6:20 a mile, ran the lap around in 15:10 (2.45mi) and slowed back down to 6:20/6:30 pace on the way down because we remembered we were working out tomorrow. 700m worth of striding afterward indoors in my milers plus a few min jogging to nab 10 on the day. Unfortunately, I struggled sufficiently with my Applied Stats homework to cause me to miss my Macroeconomics class, which is annoying because Stats is a required class I don't particularly care for and Macro is a class I enjoy a lot. What's an ex-English major taking his first math class since HS to do?

Saturday- 12:30PM: Bruce let me rejoin on the group today as long as I agreed to modify the group workout of 3x(600, 600, 800) however I needed to in order to keep the effort at 8/10. What I ended up doing was 8x600 at the same pace the guys were running (34/lap, or 1:42) with 1:20 jog rest after the 600s and 1:50 after the 800s. I was pleased to be able to handle the paces and stay within the agreed-upon effort limits, though, to be fair, I got an extra ~34 seconds rest after the 3rd and 6th 600, since for the rest of the group was doing 800s on those ones. I figure I was running right about 3k type gear, which demonstrates continued improvement. As much as I dislike missing time, the sharp improvement curve that comes during the first month or two of a comeback is pretty fun. Three weeks ago I'd have been hard-pressed to run 9:00 for 3k; now I think 8:30-8:35 is about where I'm at. In another 2-3 weeks of consistent running, I should be close to PR shape for the 3k, and by the time we start racing in mid-January, I'd like to think I'd be in shape to take a crack at my mile and 800 bests, just like Bruce planned. I just have to avoid holiday pounds and keep using 5th-grade level common sense. . .

Sunday- 2:30PM- 8 mi very slow with James, felt nice to jog along and chat. Beautiful weather for running: high 30s, sunny, no wind.
8PM- After work, 4mi easy with Ken and Peter, then strength before a well-deserved hot shower. Needed gloves tonight!

Tot- 62 miles in 6 days (7 runs) with 2 strength sessions, a good hard fartlek, and an encouraging short interval session. I'll take it over a lingering illness any day. Now begins my last week of regular classes before finals. . . yikes. Have a good week, everyone!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T23:36:00.003-05:00

Hello, Internet!

This week saw a) Thanksgiving b) my reintroduction to workouts and c) my internet go down, which is why this is late.

Since this is so late, I'll spare the editorial jacknobbery and get right to the log:

Monday- 9 miles steady with Matt, 54min, felt good.

Tuesday- 3 up, 7.5k tempo at the BC Res with the guys. The group was assigned 10k at 5:20-5:30 per mile and Bruce instructed me to go 5k-7.5k at the same pace. I was pleasantly surprised to manage 7.5k (3 laps) at 5:20/mile quite easily. I was 24:55 for the whole thing, going 8:20, 8:20, and 8:15 for each of the 2.5k laps. This was a good step forward, since prior to this I had been doing mostly moderate running and strides. 9PM- Back to Derry after work.

Wednesday- 10mi on the railroad beds back in Derry, out in 35 and back in 31 (I did what I'm pretty sure was a 10 and 1/4 loop I measured out back in high school). Last 3mi were 6:00 pace.

Thursday- 9AM- 62min easy with friends warming up for, during, and cooling down from the Derry Turkey Trot, which had over 1500 runners this year! I think the first year I ran it, we had maybe 200, so it's really exploded in the last few years. 1PM- 4mi real quick before dinner, since I realized there was no way I'd be running after dinner.

Friday- 4PM- 3+ up, 5x1/3rd of a mile steep hill (for anyone from the area, I did repeats of the hill in the second mile of the Turkey Trot, beginning on Beaver Lake Rd and ending where it hits Old Chester) with jog down recovery and a 3.5-4mi cooldown. Not sure why, but I felt great from the first step out the door today, and ran the hills real hard. 10 tot

Saturday- Noon- 10 mi easy with my younger brother and some of our old teammates from Pinkerton. Strength circuit at the Pinkerton track after.

Sunday- Noon- Back to Boston. 3PM- 14mi easy/moderate by myself from the house. I did 3 laps of Fresh Pond (15:56, 15:28, 15:10) and back, stopping at Harvard to add on a half-mile to make it 14. I ran the last mile hard in 5:28, which was fun because it was way easier than I thought it'd be.

Tot- 75

A good week! I'm rounding into decent form and am looking forward to the end of the semester. Take it easy, everyone!

Mild Progress

2010-11-21T22:04:00.002-05:00

Hello, internet! I've been running for three weeks now, and I'm starting to feel like an athlete again. I haven't been up to anything too fancy, just plenty of medium-range running around 6:00-6:30 pace with strides and a strength routine. Unfortunately, my allergies have been bad enough to warrant discontinuing the allergy shots for a few weeks while we wait for a few good frosts to kill off enough of the ragweed and mold to calm my lungs down. The nurse practitioner who administers the shots said we'd be doing more harm than good if we inject more allergens into my system now. However, since I haven't been bad enough to take days off, I'm not too worried about it. After my reaction to being back in New Hampshire last week, though, I'm a little apprehensive about being home for Thanksgiving for 5 days. If I can control the outbreak, I might jump in the local Turkey Trot and see where my chips fall. If I have another really bad reaction, I'll just have to work the finish line or something.

Anyway, here's my log for the week:

Monday: 7mi on the river with a group, 47min, felt good.

Tuesday: 3:30PM- 9+ on the river, ran the last half with Matt and Peter at about 6:20 pace, felt good. 9:30PM- 20min strength circuit after work, really crushed it.

Wednesday: 3:30pm- 11mi hard in 66:08 with Rob, ran to the Arboretum and really drilled the last ~7mi or so. The last mile was 5:34, and I don't think it was much faster than the previous 6 miles. Afterward I put on my spikes and did 5x150 hard on the track. My legs were tired after the hard run, but it was a fun day.

Thursday: 9am- Squeezed in 5mi before class and my allergy shots. I did the last mile on the track striding the straights and floating the turns in 5:26 (8 strides total). When I found out I couldn't get shots and could have run with the team, I was pretty annoyed. Buuut I did see the Deathly Hallows at midnight and it was awesome!

Friday: 2PM- Squeezed in 4mi before Sean and I were supposed to take a bus to his folks' place in New York. We were planning on crashing there, then driving into the city Saturday morning to watch our second squad race the IC4A XC Championships, but it turns out you have to buy Greyhound tickets at least two hours before departure. I screwed that up, but I wasn't too sad about getting to go to bed early and sleeping in.

Saturday: 10:30AM- 9 miles with Eric, Rich, and Matt around JP (9:35) and back, plus an add-on in Allston. Afterward we went to the gym and did a general strength/core circuit Bruce made up for us. It was tough, but that kind of crap is always easier in a group. 7PM- Indoors: 2mi easy, 4x200 w/200 float (31, 31, 30, 29, 5:37 for the mile including rest) in spikes, 1mi easy.

Sunday: 2PM- 9mi easy solo to Fresh Pond, around, and back from the house, plus a little bit when I got back, felt pretty good and got clipping along toward the end. Got pretty groinchilled out there. 8PM- 4mi easy on the river after work, dressed better this time.

Tot- 62 miles, 2 strength/core circuits, 3 good stride sessions of varying lengths, one hard run. I'm going to talk to Bruce tomorrow about getting in on some workouts. Have a great week, everyone!

2nd Week Back- Reality Sets In

2010-11-14T23:50:00.002-05:00

Ok, as happy as I am to be running again. . . getting back into shape stinks. I feel like the 5 or so pounds I probably gained are more like 30, my lungs still aren't totally back to normal, and everything hurts. However, it's a hurt much preferable to the restlessness that comes from a month of couch sitting. The highlights of the week were traveling back to my mother's house in NH for a night, then watching my brother run the race of his life for the third week in a row to snag 17th at the New England Championship.

On Wednesday, I went to the allergist to get scratch-tested for a host of different allergies. As it turns out, I'm EXTREMELY allergic to just about everything they tested for. The allergies that are relevant to my ability to run include ragweed, dust mites, alternia (a family of molds that peak in the late fall), cats, dogs, and cockroach poop. The doctor's theory is that my yearly fall "pneumonia/ breathing illness" is mostly allergy-related, since ragweed and alternia peak at about the same time (mid-October to the first frost). I'm glad I've got a definite diagnosis, but it's irritating to have mistreated it for about five years. It could be worse, but damn, that's a lot of wasted cross-country. I started allergy shots on Thursday, and for the next 8 months, I'll be getting three injections (for the worst of the allergies: ragweed, alternia, and dust mites) one a week. For those of you keeping score at home, that's 96 separate injections. I'm told that I "might" feel a difference in 5 months, but it will probably be next fall before I notice anything. With the cold nights, I find that my lungs are probably about 90% of normal. Once we get a real hard frost I'll be even better.

Unfortunately, going back to New Hampshire for about 24 hours reminded me how much worse my allergies are up there than in Boston. If slept more than hour on Friday night, I'd be shocked. It was worth it to see my brother's last high school cross country race, though, even if it did feel like someone was stepping on my face and making me breathe through a straw. I missed a day of running Saturday because there was just no way I was going to be able to do anything productive through that reaction.

Anyway, here's what I got up to this week:

Monday- 8 mi easy with my friend Beth, ran at night through some gentle rain.

Tuesday- 8mi easy with Ken in a cool rain, around Jamaica Pond in 10:00, which is awesome, because I figured we were running 7:40 pace and instead we were closer to 6:40.

Wednesday- 4:30PM- Weak workout with Ken. I think the scratch-testing at the doc's office caused a mild reaction, because I was wheezier on this run than I had been in more than a week. Ken and I warmed up, then he did a 4mi tempo run at the BC Res, averaging about 5:25/mile. I ran the first 11min with him, then jogged in the other direction for 6min, then finished up the last 5min or so with him. 2+ c/d, almost trampled some sleeping ducks.

Thursday- 5mi easy- went out 18min on the river with James, then turned around because I couldn't breathe at all. This run scared the crap out of me because I thought I was getting worse. Allergy shots in the afternoon.

Friday- 3:30PM- Fears of a relapse put to rest. I was wheezy for the first half of the run, then everything seemed to open up. The group of us who didn't run Regionals went out to Fresh Pond nice and slow, ran around Fresh Pond moderate (15:56, just under 6:30/mile) then coming home I felt good and figured if I was going to run, I might as well get after it, so I ran the last two-and-a-half or so at about 5:40 pace. My last mile was 5:34, and it felt good to run hard and honest again. 45min on the T to South Station right after, then an hour on the bus.

Saturday- As mentioned, off due to a really bad attack up in NH. I might be exiled from there until I advance along in immunotherapy more. It was awesome to see my brother run a smart, tough race to finish off his senior season though!

Sunday- Noon- Mayor's Park with James, shocked that we ran the measured 9mi in under 63 minute, because we were just chatting and shuffling along. 8PM- 23minutes of gentle strides and jogging on Nickerson with James.

Tot- 50 miles, plus pushups, core, and a strength circuit most days after running.
I'd like to get in another two weeks of building mileage and plenty of easy striding before getting down to some serious work after Thanksgiving. Part of the reason I want to take my time is that once I get under 6:00/mile, I start wheezing again, and I think at this point, interval work would only discourage me. Plenty of strong, aerobic running is in order while I wait for a hard frost.

I couldn't end this week without mentioning Boston University's 7th place at the Northeast Regional meet, only 7 points behind Robert Johnson's Cornell team. It was a solid end to a season that saw the team take several large steps forward from last year. Next year's team will miss Eric, but we return our 2nd through 8th men, and I'll be added to the mix, hopefully free of my inability to breathe in October.

Best wishes, internet!

First Week Back and the NYC Marathon

2010-11-07T22:26:00.002-05:00

I think I got a little too used to the hiatus I took the last month. I nearly forgot to write this week's (oh-so-exciting, edge-of-your-seat) entry!

There's nothing very interesting to note about my running this week, but I'm very happy to be running again. My left side is doing its standard out-of-whackiness that it does whenever I build up mileage-- it's a weird weakness/pain in my left lower back, butt, and hip-- but it'll go away in around a week. I think most of it is just from sleeping on it funny.

Before my (hilariously inadequate) log, some comments about NYC:

I hope Geb's retirement proves to be more Favresque than a real retirement. His career as a runner is unparalleled and his decision to use his money to create sustainable middle-class jobs in his home country is a model for other runners from developing nations to follow. The reason I hope his retirement pronouncement was premature isn't because I believe he's going to pop a 2:02 marathon, or because I think he owes running fans anything, but because it's sad to see such a storied career end on such a bitter note. A teammate of mine asked me "Did you see the flotrack video? Did you hear the news?" about Geb's retirement like the Emperor had died (Geb the Emperor, not Palpatine. . .).

As for the Americans, well, look- there's a reason the 2:05 marathoners who come to New York run 2:08-2:10. I hope Meb makes the most of the years he has left, Ritz doesn't get too discouraged, and that Tim Nelson hits a flat marathon on the spring and cuts a couple minutes from his time. On another note, my fellow Pinkerton alum, former national champ, and on-again off-again mentor, Matt Downin, ran 2:20 in what has to be his eight millionth unretirement race.

Anyway, I'll spare the rambling. Here's my first week back:

11/1- 30min easy, 15min out with the team.

11/2- 35min easy, first half with Sean. Ran early in the cold, which was great, because the colder it is, the more allergens die.

11/3- 40min easy with Matt and Eric, including 4x100 strides. We did a loop Eric said was at least 5mi in 34min, and I was conversational, so I'm happy about that.

11/4- 45min easy easy in the rain (sensing a pattern, yet?) after a microeconomics midterm, got down to about 6:20 pace on this one without really noticing it. Pushups and situps after.

11/5- 50min moderate/hard mostly with Matt and Rich on the river. We ran the first mile in about 7:00 dead, then settled into low 6:00 pace until about 5 miles, then ran the last three harder. I went through 8 in about 47:30 then finished off my 50min. My lungs still aren't 100% once I get under 6:00 pace, but the adjustment is only about 10-15 seconds/mile. It felt good to run hard, though, even if it was awkward and not particularly fast.

11/6- 55min easy solo in the early evening, including 3x400 on, 400 off on Nickerson, with the "ons" in 74, 71, and 67 and the offs around 7:15 pace. The loop I did was shorter than I thought it would be, and I needed to add some laps on the track, so I figured what the hell, mix it up a little.

11/7- 8mi easy on the river after work, cold and rainy, left hip pretty annoying on this one. The first 2-3 weeks back are always the roughest, so I'm not displeased with this week being not too bad.

Tot- 45mi

Don't Call it a Comeback! (ok, call it a comeback)

2010-11-01T17:04:00.003-04:00

Hello, Internet! I'm back after an (almost) uneventful hiatus with mostly good news.

The first and most important piece is that the Boston University Men won our first America East Conference title in 10 years! It had been far too long since Bruce got a new trophy for his office, and we're all pumped to have reversed last year's injury-wracked 6th place finish. The negative corollary to this is that, unfortunately, I did not get my health issues sorted in time to directly contribute to the victory. The rough order of missed diagnoses went something like this:

1)It's a sinus infection, treat with antibiotics (didn't work)
2) It's viral bronchitis, wait it out, in the meantime, use this albuterol inhaler to breathe well enough to get out of bed (didn't work)
3) I have secret, magical asthma that appeared one day- take 5 days of prednisone and breathe in this nebulized albuterol (didn't do anything except make me hungry and feel like I was cheating, since prednisone is a steroid).
4)Hang on, you say you get weird lung/sinus infections like clockwork almost every fall and beginning of allergy season in spring? Just take this advair inhaler. (also didn't work- but gave me an idea to see an allergy doc)
5) This morning- allergy doc tests my lungs with a spirometer, says I'm at 78% of what the avg sedentary male my height, weight, and age should be at, then says because I'm a runner, it's probably even lower. She scheduled an allergy test for me next week, but observed I fit 100% of the symptoms and timeframe for a ragweed allergy. The next course of action is immunotherapy, aka allergy shots, which likely won't take effect before the frost kills off all the ragweed, but will (hopefully) prevent me from having another spring and fall ruined by allergies.

So, while it stunk that I didn't get to run Conference, I think I've finally got a handle on something that's apparently been ruining my cross country seasons especially for a couple years now. Almost every October, I notice I seem to lose a lung overnight, and all the sudden my pace at every level of effort slows by about 30 seconds a mile. The doctor, who had some experience with runners and undiagnosed allergies, guessed correctly that in the fall and spring I go through weird "funks" where I just stink at running for a month, and that my most consistent, best results are in the mid-summer and winter. She nailed it. Fortunately, my absence didn't make a lick of difference in the team score, because my teammates ran fantastic on Saturday to sneak off with the title. I would have felt horribly guilty if we had lost by a point or something. As it were, it was a little tough to watch the race knowing that in a fair world, I'd be out there, but any frustration or jealousy on my part was more than mitigated by how proud I was of my friends and happy I am for their victory. Since life, of course, isn't fair, I'm glad it was only unfair in my favor, especially after my absence last year cost us dearly.

I can't overstate how well the guys ran, though. Of the 10 BU men who raced, 7 of them set personal records at Franklin Park. I think Eric tied his time from New Englands (he was within one second either way, I hope I didn't shortchange him a slight PR), Peter, our 5th man, managed to come within 2 seconds of his PR despite being a little under the weather (I hope I'm not embarrassing him, but he was like a vomit-zombie after the race- it was an impressive performance) and our 10th guy, Mike, was the only one of us who had off day. I do want to say, though that Mike's "off day" was still about 90 seconds faster than he ever ran for 8k last year, so I hope I haven't sounded like I'm trying to call Mike out. He's improved by leaps and bounds this season, and won't one off race affect him.

With regards to finding out I have an allergy that's bad enough to have kept me from running for about three weeks, I'll say that I have been, in the past, both skeptical and critical of severe allergy sufferers. My foot is now firmly in my mouth on the subject. My best friend, Geoff, used to barely be able to run in the winter due to asthma worsened by exercising in the cold. I used to impatiently tell him to tough it out. Now I feel like a horse's ass, as well as wondering if karma has anything to do with allergies. If I'm going to get anything from the allergy shots, I hope that it's a better capacity for consistency. Looking over my running logs, my best training and racing almost invariably comes in the depths of winter and summer, when allergens are at their most dormant. If controlling the allergies better allows me to carry some of that momentum further into the spring and fall, I'd like to think some good racing results are just around the corner. The colder weather of the last few days has left me feeling a little clearer, and I managed 31 reasonably wheeze-free minutes today. In another 2-3 weeks, I'd like to think I'll be on my way to a nice set of PRs over 800m and the mile.

Lastly, because this entry is 1) disgustingly long and 2) consists of far too much whining/excusing, let me end by saying how proud of I am of my younger brother, Kevin, who finished in 4th place at the NH Division I Championships on Saturday with a time of 15:55 for the Derryfield Park 5k. Not only did Kev's time tie my high school PR on the notoriously difficult course, it also bested my best finish at the meet (4th as opposed to 9th) AND came at a much more significant time in the season (the Division Championships, where his team got 2nd place, as opposed to my early-season performance at the Manchester Invitational). Relative to his 800/mile performances, Kevin is a much better cross country runner than I ever was in high school, and this performance only further supports that observation. He has two cross country races left in his high school career-- the New Hampshire Meet of Champions and the New England Championships-- and I hope to make it to at least one of them.

Regular, less verbose, running-related related posts will resume on Sunday. Best of luck to everyone as they enter their championship seasons!

Goin' Incognito

2010-10-10T14:34:00.002-04:00

Just a short little post this week. Here's what you need to know:

1) I have a chest cold at best case scenario, so I didn't race yesterday. I won't be able to get to a doctor until Tuesday. Obviously, I'm upset that I didn't get to race, but sometimes, even when you get your sleep, eat your vegetables, take your vitamins, say your prayers, and give to charity, you can still get sick. Not much I can do about that. The team ran great without me, I hope to rejoin my guys as soon as possible.

2) I'll be taking a hiatus from posting until after the America East meet. Don't forget to check back on Halloween!

Hoist On His Own Porktard

2010-10-03T21:51:00.002-04:00

Hello, intertubes. This week was a study in the vagaries of New England weather. We started the week with more or less temperate, late-summer/early-fall weather, transitioned into a weird perpetual near-rain humid agony, and ended up with crisp, cool, dry weather perfect for a good hard long run. My week tended to follow the weather patterns: it started fine, got absolutely terrible for a while, then picked up at the very end to leave me more or less ready for another week of school.

El logo:

Monday 9/27- 3:30pm- 11mi on the quicker side of easy, 70:20, mostly with Matt and Peter around Jamaica Pond twice and an add-on down Ashford St. Felt good!

Tuesday 9/28- Woke up ragged with a sore throat; figured my first day off in 5 weeks wouldn't cripple me too bad.

Wednesday 9/29- 3pm- 4.5 solo, 4mi easy with the team, mile on the track with Peter and Rich including a 100m stride once a lap, jog home, good for 10+. I started a half-hour early today to make time for work before dinner. I got Peter a job, so I got to train him up.

Thursday 9/30- AM- Microeconomics midterm! Turns out I got an 81.5 on the exam, which is .5 higher than the median. I had really hoped to crush this exam, but totally sissied out of studying for it after my unscheduled shift at work the night before. Excuses, excuses. PM- 3mi up, 6x20' strides with 40' jog, 7.5k tempo around the BC Res, 24:52 (5:20/mile). I finally did a tempo run right. I went out just a tad slow, then ran strong the rest of the way, as opposed to going out around 5:05 pace and hanging on. My average pace was slower than last time, but I accomplished a lot more today. Splits- 8:23, 16:41 (8:18) 24:52 (8:11). It was also about 80deg with a dew point of 68-70 (ew, right?) so I was very pleased. 6 more strides and a cooldown for 12.

Friday 10/1- PM- 11mi easy with Ken, James, and Terence. It stayed 80 deg with a similar dew point through the night (which means I did not sleep for more than two or three hours) but when the storm opened up around 2pm, things cooled off and cooled off fast. It was only about 68 and rainy for the run, which was perfect. Also, I cooked up some pork chops for dinner. Though delicious at the time, this proved a poor decision around 3am, when I awoke to be violently ill in all ways it was possible to be violently ill. It was around 7am, empty and still cramping, that I was able to sleep until about 9:30am.

Saturday 10/2- I didn't manage to keep any fluids or solid food down for the day, so I wasn't expecting much for a run. I was shocked at just how bad I felt running 4mi at probably close to 9min pace. I had to stop a couple times on the way back. Fortunately, the run seemed to flush the rest of whatever poison I had fed myself out. After another small nap and hot shower, I was able to keep down water and even managed some dry toast before bed.

Sunday- 10/3 9:30AM- Bruce drove us out to the Minuteman trail in Lexington for a longer fartlek. We did a 21min fast warmup, then 3-6-3-2-4-2-1-2-1 minutes hard with 3min steady between each bout. We covered right about 12mi in 69 minutes, then jogged 9min for a cooldown at called it a very conservative 13. I was pleased to feel ok. My appetite still isn't quite back to normal, but I've gotten some food down today and what feels like gallons of fluid. Now is not the time to push things and get sick.

Tot- 61, plus pushups/core work most days (except Saturday for sure and maybe Thursday), in 6 runs, including a 4mi day. Not a bad week of training considering the circumstances involved. New England Championships 6 days from today!

The Author Considers Buying Property Near Franklin Park

2010-09-26T14:09:00.002-04:00

The infinite abyss of cyberspace. . . we meet again. I shout my blog post into the merciless void, only to have my roommates wonder why I'm shouting at a laptop. I had a pretty good week. I've got school under control, had some good workouts, and even managed to squeeze in some Red Sox. I've lived about 2mi from Fenway from over a year now, and this Wednesday was the first time I made it to a game! Shameful.

Anyway, here's the log:

Monday 9/20- AM- 3mi easy, solo, plus pushups and core work. Middle two miles barefoot on the turf. PM- 8mi slow on the river with the team, felt pretty sluggish mostly because I was still not pleased about my race. More pushups and core after.

Tuesday 9/21- 8AM- Had stuff to do this afternoon, so I ran by myself on a cool, sunny morning. I ran over to Fresh Pond from the house with a small addition at Harvard, did the 5mi around Fresh Pond moderate in 30:08, as per Bruce's direction, then ran back to the house with the small addition at Harvard to make the run 12 instead of 11.

Wednesday 9/22- Fresh Pond once, easy with the team, plus 6x100m fast strides in my milers on the track. Felt a little tired on the run (it was pretty warm) but great on the strides. A bunch of us went to the Sox game that evening, and who should we see there but Jenny Barringer, who was in town to do some promotional work for New Balance. We didn't want to bug her too much, but we got a picture and talked with her for a few. If she likes the Sox, she's ok by me. A non-runner friend of ours who was there says we were worse than fawning girl scouts over Bieber, but screw you, Polley.

Thursday 9/23- 3:30PM- At Franklin Park with the team. 3mi up, 8x1000m on a 5min cycle; we all ran hard for 3:10 and jogged for 1:50 so we'd all be on the same page. I worked out mostly with Peter and Rich; we went through the 1000 on each rep in about 3:03. I felt good and worked pretty hard. 3mi down.

Friday 9/24- 3:30PM- 10mi on the faster side of easy, because we did one of Rob's Runs and those all include 1) faster paces 2) hills and 3) cool, cool places. This one took us through a bunch of fancy houses in Brookline.

Saturday 9/25- 9AM- 63' easy to and around Franklin Park to watch Kevin Gilmore and the rest of his team race at the Codfish Bowl. Since it was New England cross country, we all saw about a dozen people we used to be on teams with, raced against in high school, knew at camp once, etc. Congratulations to all racers who survived the unnecessary heat of the morning! 6:30PM- 4mi shakeout + core/pushups.

Sunday 9/26 9AM- At Franklin Park again with the team for a little more controlled workout of 5x5:00 hard, 2:30 easy. I hit within a second or two of 5:00 miles for each, and felt like I was holding back quite a bit more than the workout on Thursday. Bruce said I looked like I was moving pretty easy, so that's encouraging. 3mi c/d, feast at Dining Hall, 1xblog post, 1xwork shift.

81 miles, 9 runs, bunch of core/pushups, and the Sox won! A good week, hope you all can say that same.

Cobwebs (OR: In which the intrepid authors refuses to make a litany of excuses)

2010-09-19T19:59:00.004-04:00

Ah, hello, my infinite audience of, um my high school coach and maybe the WayBack Machine. This is one of the tough blog posts to write because I had a great week of training up until Sunday, when BU had a dual meet against Florida State. I guess I was a little rustier than I thought, because I really dropped a stinker this morning- 26:25 for the Frankin Park course, one of the slowest 8ks I've raced in college. I could go on about my shoe coming untied, or feeling the sniffles, or the capricious whims of the Western wind, or the stars being all crappily aligned. . . but eh, then my blog title for the week would be all inaccurate and stuff. Instead, I'll say that I ran a slow race, but ran my hardest, which was tough to do knowing how slow I was running. Next time, it'll be the same max effort, but faster. If it's not, well, there's always the time after that. That's the best thing about running! I know training is going well, sometimes races don't click. It sucks, but I'll get another shot at the New England Championships in a couple weeks.

The log-

Monday- 9mi easy on the river with the guys, felt fine once I got going.

Tuesday- 12mi moderate/hard with Rob, Ken, and Peter to the Brookline Arboretum and up all the hills Rob knew of, then back. Really great run today, just cruising along. I really love doing these good hard runs.

Wednesday- 10mi very easy; I would have guessed 75min, but apparently, we were under 70. Who knew?

Thursday- 3up to the BC Reservoir for an easy pre-meet workout. Most of the team ran together and did 4(2)3(2)2(6)4x1:00 (90) min hard (recovery jog). We still averaged a little under 5:40 pace for 3 laps of the Res, so not a bad effort. Had to hammer the 3mi home because I was almost late to work.

Friday- 10mi easy on the Brookline Farm loop with Rob, Elliot, and Terence, felt good; it was almost "chilly" out today, and I love that weather.

Saturday- 8mi easy with Ken and James, including 4x100m fast strides on the track. Felt kinda blah, didn't sleep great Friday night.

Sunday- 10AM- 3up, 8k @ Franklin Park, 26:24.5, 7th BU, not sure what I was overall. In addition to what I said above, it's a starting point- nothing more, nothing less. 3mi down with special guest runners, U-Mass Darmouth's finest.

Tot- 71

I think a day off is in order this week, since I haven't taken one in a couple weeks. Now that I think about it, this was a pretty rough week in terms of non-running stuff; in addition to class, I worked every night this week, meaning I was gone from my apartment from 8:30am-9:30pm most every night. Not sure it meant anything for the race, but I gotta ease back on the 13 hour days before I get sick or something. Another annoying side effect of the busy days was that I didn't have time to do "real" food shopping, so I ate a lot of poptarts and take-out Chinese food. Again, it meant nothing for the race, but I spent all week feeling like a greaseball was growing in my stomach. Fortunately, I got to the supermarket yesterday and picked up all manner of my favorite "not going to make a nutritionist cry on sight" foods- yogurt, fresh green vegetables, unpolished rice, lean meat, bananas. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I'm going to go make a giant salad and eat a frozen banana (try it- it gives 'em the consistency of ice cream! just peel it first, or it's a bitch to get the banana out). Have a great week, everyone!

Feel the Vibe

2010-09-12T23:22:00.002-04:00

Hey there, Internet. Has a been a whole week already? I suppose, technically, no, it's only been six days. Splitting hairs won't get you anywhere, though. Lots of fun stuff happened this week: good moderate runs, a date, class, work, some good solid workouts, oh, and BU's first cross-country race of the season. Bruce sat out a rough estimated projection of our top 6 or so, and raced the rest at the BC Invitational over at Franklin Park in Boston. The results were encouraging; our so-called "7-10" runners all scored big personal bests and ran faster than our 4th man ran on this course about the same time in the same weather last year. I also don't think for a second that our "3-6" guys are orders of magnitude faster than the "7-10." What's likely, I think, is a deep pack and varsity spots changing rapidly.

If we throw out the watch entirely, this was a fantastic week of training for me. I feel strong, fast, and fit, but smart enough to balance those feelings out with gentle recovery running as needed. If we consider the watch in evaluating this week, then the work I did combined with how I feel is very encouraging. I'm fit; my primary concern now is taking care of myself and ensuring I'm ready to go when it's time to race. I'm excited to open up a week from today at Franklin Park; I also want to master that excitement and direct it appropriately. Slowly but surely, I'm learning, ha!

The log:

Monday Sept 6- 11AM- 3mi slow shakeout with my friend Beth. Beth goes to Northeastern, so we met at Audubon Circle near Fenway and jogged nice and slow for a while. 4PM- 11mi moderate at Minuteman Trail in Lexington, MA. We went out in a group for 32min or so, came back in about 29min, then I added on some with Peter to get a cautious 11. I was tempted to really blast it on the way back because I felt awesome and the weather was perfect, but Matt, Peter, and I stayed controlled and capped our pace around 5:45/mile. The best part about van rides is that Bruce brings gatorade.

9/7 Tuesday- 8mi very easy on the river, plus some strides at the track. Good recovery day.

9/8 Wednesday- 3mi up to BC Res, 7.5k tempo (3 laps) with Rob and Peter, 24:20, (~5:12/mile) 6x100m strides, 3 down. After last week's awful tempo, I was a little apprehensive about today, but my concern was proven to be unnecessary. I felt great from the first step. The perfect weather got us going out a little too fast (8:00 through one lap, 5:09 pace) but we settled into a more appropriate pace for the middle lap (8:11) before Rob and Peter lit out like crazymen (ok, Crazy Fit Aerobic Monsters) leaving me to run a controlled solo 8:09 final lap, feeling very satisfied with how the watch compared to my effort.

9/9 Thursday- 70' easy, 9 with the team, rest of it solo to run straight home, jump in the shower, and get to work only 3 min late. Felt entirely neutral: neither tired nor fresh, neither good nor bad, neither fast nor slow.

9/10 Friday- My mother's 11th consecutive 39th birthday (heh heh). Rob took Billy, Peter, and myself on an 80min adventure through some awesome trails in Newton. We ran about every pace/effort there was over about every terrain there could be; we had a great time tearing through the woods. Call it 12; call it Steve. It's a run, it can't hear you.

9/11 Saturday- 1PM- 62' easy doing loops (and loops and loops) around Franklin Park with most of the guys who weren't racing today. Another neutral day in great weather to run. So proud of the guys!

9/12 Sunday- 9:30AM- At Franklin Park for some grass repeats. 3mi up, 4x2k in ~6:10 with 3:50 jog, last two repeats in spikes. I packed up with Peter, Matt, and Elliot, and even though morning workouts are often my nemesis, today was surprisingly smooth, easy, and satisfying. I'm really enjoying the vibe on the team this year, as well as the fact that I have yet to run any workouts with less than two people right with me. We eased into the workout a little bit, as per Bruce's orders, and were rewarded with strong work throughout. 3mi down.

76 miles
core/pushups are most runs

Have a great week, everyone!

HOT HOT HEAT

2010-09-06T14:38:00.003-04:00

Well, internet, I was late with this week's post. I don't have a good excuse, so I'll make one up: I was running through the woods last night, came across a 70 year old Brad Pitt wrestling a bear armed only with a knife, and took advantage of their mutually weakened states. After sending both of them off to the taxidermist, I called up the Legends of the Fall people to negotiate some tuition payments, and ended up not being able to write my entry.

So, feats of nascent beard-fueled excellence aside, here's what I got up to last week:

Monday- AM- 9mi steady with the team, ran early to beat the heat, which we did. 7PM- 36' easy shakeout with Joe, Peter, and the Melon (my favorite freshman) around Comm Ave.

Tuesday- 7:30AM- 3mi up, 5k tempo, 17:20, 3mi down. The assignment for today was 7.5k (3 laps of the BC Reservoir at 5:20/mile + or -) but it was already low 80s with a dewpoint around 72 when when we started. Heat + Humidity + Early is the same combo that did me in at Falmouth this year, so I simply stopped when "medium effort" we were assigned became "extra medium" to euphemize.

Wednesday- AM- Had a chat with Bruce regarding balancing volume/intensity. He suggested I keep the volume on the recovery days less aggressive, since I seem to have trouble converting training to racing at > 90 miles a week. PM- 9mi easy with Ken and James on the river, in accordance with Bruce's suggestions.

Thursday- 4PM- 95 degrees out, but very dry, so it wasn't actually that uncomfortable. I ran a moderate 9miler in 56:37 with Peter, Matt, and Billy, and was surprised at how good I felt in the heat. Class for me started today, but I only had one class since there are no discussion sections yet.

Friday- 3:30PM- 11mi easy, first 10 or so with the team. Rainy but very warm, so it kinda felt like getting drooled on for 75 minutes. Certainly a strange sensation.

Saturday- 11:30AM- 3mi up, "mile repeats" at Franklin. I put mile repeats in quotes, because Bruce had us run hard for 4:55 and then recover for 3min, regardless of how much ground we covered in that 4:55. We alternated the first (30m short, flat) mile of the course with the 2nd (30m long, hilly) mile of the course, and I'd say I averaged covering a mile for all 4, even though some were less and some were more. The team looked great out there today; we rolled in a big group most of the time, working hard but not competing. If things keep up, I could PR for 8k this year and not make the Regional squad- which would be bad for me individually, but great for the team, since last year I was our 2-3 man! 6PM- 3mi shakeout with James, "Kenyan Shuffle style" + pushups and pullups.

Sunday- 6PM- 7mi easy with Ken, again in accordance with Bruce's instructions. I didn't feel a hint of soreness, which was surprising.

Tot- 73, core after pretty much every run

I feel lazy only running once a day most days and for only about an hour or so at a time, but looking back over my logs, this seems to be my "sweet spot" in terms of balancing volume, intensity, and consistency. I don't think 70-80 miles a week is an inconsequential volume for someone who fits the mold of the miler a little more naturally than the long distance runner, so my aim is to get in 2-3 very quality efforts a week, let the easy days be, and keep my legs reasonably fresh throughout the season. I'm actually very excited to see everyone race in the coming weeks, because as I said, the way things look now, I could PR and not make the travel squad for Conferences/Regionals. If that happened, I'd be a little irked at myself, but beside myself that BU has such a strong team. I'm hesitant to share all this, lest I reveal too much information, but why engage in mind games? We're doing well now, hopefully we'll all keep that momentum going. For anyone who is racing us, we'll see you out there and see who's better on the given day!

The weather has calmed down now, and I'm off to get in a run. Have a great week, everybody!

Last Week of Summer and 100th Post!

2010-08-29T23:39:00.003-04:00

This marks my 100th blog entry. What a milestone to have reached, internet. When I started this thing back in January of 2009, I had no idea I'd still be hangin' around. This week concluded my summer training, which proved an enjoyable, fruitful cycle of building new fitness. I think my mistake last year was that I tried to do too a little too much summer intensity, which left me sharp for my summer races and a little flat by October (and sick as a dog by November). This year, I'd like to think I'm being smarter about preparing for the real races this fall- the America East conference meet and the Northeast Regional 10k.

Here's my training for the week. After will follow some fun number crunching for people who hate soggy numbers.

Monday 8/23- 10:30AM- 4mi easy in cool, pouring rain. But for my glasses getting all wet and making it difficult for me to see, it was a great run. 6:30PM- 2 laps of Fresh Pond from the house, to the TTC for 4x150m strides in spikes, back home for 12 tot. Ran into my buddy Brian Harvey on the way home and ran with him for a bit.

Tuesday 8/24- 1:30PM- Pouring rain continued for my mixed bag of a workout. I did 3mi up, then a lap of the BC Res (2.5k) in 8:52, which was slower than what I expected but right into a 30+mph headwind. I went right into a sustained moderate pace over to Heartbreak Hill, did 4xHeartbreak, right into a sustained run back to the Res, where I finished off by doing 3' 2' 1' HARD with 1' easy in between each section. That lap was 8:35 or so, including rest and contending with the wind. I ran a very slow 3mi cooldown back home and immediately marinated in the shower for a half-hour or so. A good, moderate workout in awful conditions (the novelty of which made the workout kind of fun).

Wednesday 8/25- OFF, as per "Stone Cold" Bruce Lehane's directions. I think during the season I'll put my rest days at every three weeks, since Bruce will be able to better monitor my intensity level.

Thursday 8/26- 11AM- Heat came back with a vengeance. Ran with half the team to Jamaica Pond for a decent 9 in about 58min. 5:30PM- 7mi easy with most of the other half of the team, plus 4 strides indoors. Felt good, it was just a touch cooler out.

Friday 8/27- 9AM- 9mi easy going West on the Charles with the team, felt good. Beautiful weather. 5:30PM- 9mi easy with Billy, who missed the morning run. I had intended on doing 5, missed my turnoff because we were chatting, missed the 7mi turnoff because we were having a good conversation, and ended up doing the full 9 with him. I got in a lot of miles today, but they were easy and I felt fine.

Saturday 8/28- 10:30AM- 4mi easy on the standard morning loop, solo. Felt good! 5:30PM- 3 up to the BC Res with most of the guys, then 6x3min on, 2min off with about half of them (we split into 2 groups to avoid crowding the path). We took the offs very slow and hit 26:50 through 7.5k, which is a touch over 5:45/mile. Since not all of us were cleared yet (our medical paperwork got done kind of last minute, due to forgetful clowns like me not having our insurance cards on us) Bruce couldn't assign and supervise the workout, so we had to self-police. 3mi down- I think it went well for most everyone.

Sunday 8/29- 11AM- HOT OUT. I'm talkin' 97 degrees when we got going. We all paid the price for sleeping in today. We had a large group of guys and Nikki going anywhere from 6+ to 12+ miles out around Fresh Pond. I went just under 12, but was too dehydrated and destroyed from the run to add on the 3-4 minutes I needed to call it a safe 12. Gross run!

90 miles, six days

Number Crunching:

Summer training period: 84 days (12 weeks, 6/7 to 8/29)
Total miles: 1010
Avg miles/day: ~12.02
Avg miles in any given 7-day span: 84.14
High Week: 112
Low Week: 72

A good summer with some minor setbacks. Time to have a good cross season!

Good luck to all cross country runners beginning seasons!

Lord of the Flies

2010-08-22T23:35:00.002-04:00

Hey there, internet. Why, don't you look lovely tonight. I hope you had a great week. Mine was nothing special or awful, which I'll take. I finished up my teaching assistant position at the A+ College Prep Academy (it's like a voluntary summer school that was run out of BU this year). I had an 8th grade English class, and we spent our two weeks reading and analyzing Lord of the Flies, which provided me with a convenient title for the week.

A+ Academy was pretty good as far as jobs go; I could wake up at 7:30am and still get to work on time, but since it's a solid 35min walk (fast walk, since I was usually running a little late) I wussed out and didn't wake up at 6:30 to double any of the days. Aside from the low volume, it was a pretty good week for training.

Here's what I got up to:

Monday 8/16- PM- 8.5 moderate; realized I was too frustrated from Falmouth to run slow so I cut the run short of my planned 13.

Tuesday 8/17- PM- Still frustrated, so I let myself go the last 8mi of my 10-miler, then held back around 5:40/mile. I ran 59:30 for ten, with the last 8 around 5:45 avg. I was pretty tired from Sunday + Monday, but it felt good to run hard.

Wednesday 8/18- PM- 3 up, 5xmile w/400 jog at MIT's track since BU's was in use, 5:02 (1:48) 5:07 (1:46) 5:08 (1:50) 5:07 (1:48) 5:05. I wanted to run 5:08-5:12 (77-78/lap), but went out in 2:28 the first half of the first mile, then found my cruising rhythm. This workout felt exactly as hard as it should have, no more or less.

Thursday 8/19- PM- 9 very easy with Joe, wanted to make sure I didn't dig myself a hole in a poorly-thought-out attempt to "make up" for Falmouth.

Friday 8/20- 3PM- 7mi easy with my friend Amy, who I used to run with at Keene. I did most of my easy days with Amy at Keene (Amy is a 4:35 1500m runner) because she would let me go as easy as I wanted. It was really out hot out, but we managed. 10PM- 7 miles solo on the Charles, including 6 strides over the course of the run. Note to self: on beautiful summer nights, hobos like to meet at the Charles to have their fight clubs and cheap wine tastings.

Saturday 8/21- 11AM- Slept in til 9:30, made myself steak and eggs for breakfast, snuck in 4mi solo before my friend Matt picked me up for his graduation party back in Derry. 4:30PM- After a few adult sodas and a game of wiffle ball, I stole away from the party to get in a tempo run at Pinkerton's track. 3 up, 4mi tempo in 21:19 (5:28, 5:23, 5:20, 5:08) ran clockwise on the track for no good reason, quick mile c/d back to the barbecue.

Sunday 8/22- 9PM- Wasted the morning sleeping in, spent (not wasted!) the afternoon with Matt, his girlfriend, and our friend Kevin playing Mario Kart on the wii, got back to Allston at 8:45, watched Russell Crow kill Joaquin Phoenix at the end of Gladiator, then hit the roads for a moderate 14 in 90 minutes (I logged it as 13.5, though, since I wasn't sure on the distance.

80 miles
9 runs
Mini-core after each run this week

Until next week, friends!

Falmouth Road Race

2010-08-15T22:06:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, I don't have good news this week. I dropped a real stinker in the race this morning- I knew things were going to be ugly about a mile and a half in, made it through 4mi ok, then really blew up and ran about 17min for the last 3 miles. My final time was something like 37:35, about a minute slower than the last year. Had I squeaked under 5:20s for the last 3 miles, I would have easily beaten my time from last year, which shows up how bad I blew up.

So, what does All This Mean for my training, my season, my approach? Absolutely nothing! Of course I wanted to run well today. I rested up a little for the race, went into it with a good, tough goal, and gave it shot. I bombed. Obviously, on the ride home, I went through the little mental checklist of What Went Wrong (and mapped out what not-quite-random phrases to capitalize in this entry). Here's what I came up with:

-training has been going well in terms of balancing volume, intensity, and rest.

-my weight is down, but not too down, and is down because I've been eating healthier as opposed to doing something dumb like cutting out water and weighting myself after hot runs.

-my diet consists of a lot more fruits, vegetables, and lean meats and less candy bars. I won't give up ice cream. You can't make me! If I'm honest, I probably haven't been eating enough red meat (someone show this to some New York vegan!) because it hasn't been on sale lately, but I've making amends with a giant piece of barely cooked cow on my plate right now.

This was all a long-winded way of saying I think everything is going fine, and I was probably a little tired from my big ol' mileage week last week. I dropped a huge stinker of a race, and hopefully it won't happen while I'm wearing a BU singlet this year. Life's tough, get a helmet, right?

Anyway, the non-race part of Falmouth was just as fun as last year. Peter, Trethewey, Pat MacAllister, and I stayed with a high school friend of Peter's. I'm not sure how they are on anonymity, but this friend of mine's mother is a SAINT. Every year, she hosts at least one elite runner for the race and a crowd of local scrubs her son befriends. She cooks massive amounts of astoundingly delicious food and makes everyone feel like her kids, then runs the race herself, comes home, and does it all again with a massive barbecue. I can't say enough good things about them. If it weren't for the whole hoopla (does anyone still say "hoopla?") around the race, I'd probably be in a worse mood than right now.

I started a two-week gig tutoring at an on-campus summer enrichment program for middle- and high-schoolers. I have two classrooms of rising 8th graders (who volunteered to go to school for two weeks in the summer!) and we're reading William Golding's "Lord of the Flies." The reason this is relevant is because I've been getting up at 7am and not doubling (boo, sissy, I know, I know). This worked out perfectly, since I wanted to take this past week a little easier to recover from my big week and rest up for Falmouth (some plan, eh?). Tomorrow, though, I'll be setting the alarm and stumbling out the door. At least it won't be hot it!

Here's what I got up to last week:

Monday 8/9- PM- 12mi easy to Spy Pond and back with James, Peter, Joey, and Joe, good clip today- 79min.

Tuesday 8/10- PM- 10 miles easy with Joe and James, touch over 70min.

Wednesday 8/11- PM- 30min up to the Brookline High track to meet Eric for a light workout. We did 3x(800, 600, 400) with (400, 200, 400) sustained jog rest at 74/73/72 per lap, respectively, and hit the times despite being bothered by a bunch of punks throwing rocks and cutting in front of us on their bikes. The cops showed up because a nearby football coach called them, so hah! We ran the sustained jogs between 6-6:30/mile, and ran 8k over the course of the workout in 26:55 (including rest, not including the last 400j). 25min down.

Thursday 8/12- OFF, as per my schedule from Bruce.

Friday 8/13- PM- 11mi easy, first 8.5 or so with Joe and Eric.

Saturday 8/14- 9AM- 4mi very slow shakeout, solo. Felt really great on this run, which proved to be a red herring. 4PM- 50min easy plus strides with Pat and Peter on the trails by Falmouth High School. We watched New Hampshire native Russ Brown beat Nick Willis in the Falmouth mile!

Sunday 8/15- AM- 2mi up, Falmouth Road Race, ~37:35. 4:57 at the mile, 10:07 at 2, 20:36? at 4, explosion, shame. 20min cooldown to the car with the guys. 8PM- 4mi easy with Pat from my place in Allston to shake out the long traffic-y ride from the Cape.

Total- 72

Have a great week, internet!

NEPXC Week 2, 21st Birthday

2010-08-09T22:50:00.002-04:00

This blog is late, because I spent the weekend turning 21. Why turning 21 takes longer than a normal birthday, I'm not sure, but I'm told I had a wonderful time. That's all I have to say about that.

I spent the early part of this week in Northfield, MA for a cross country camp. I was assigned roughly ten high schoolers roughly between 17-18min in the 5k. It was a great time leading them through the trails, telling them stories, and watching them try to dance with varying degrees of success. I got in a LOT of miles this week, mostly because my morning runs with the kids were very slow. I made up for it somewhat by running my afternoon runs mostly a pretty good clip.

Here's the log:

Monday- AM 6 PM 11, last 60min HARD, got really dehydrated near the end.

Tuesday- AM 7 PM- 13 including a bunch of short strides and 30-40 second hard surges. Last 20min barefoot on the grass.

Wednesday- AM 5 PM- 14 including a 25min progression run pacing my kids (7:30 down to 5:30 pace, roughly, probably ran just a touch under 4mi) and the last hour or so with Jenkins and Brian, one of the other counselors.

Thursday- AM- 5min up, 10mi over a really hilly course good and hard with Zac Hine, 20min down with Zac and my teammate Colin's high school coach. Brian came with us for the first 12k or so, then cooled down. We ran 55:48, but the loop is a little short. Felt great, but it was 80deg out with a 75 deg dew point. . . so yeah, it was pretty nasty out.

Friday- AM- 8mi easy, back in Derry. PM- 10 easy solo, back in Allston.

Saturday AM 6.5 easy PM 10 easy with James and Joe

Sunday PM- 3up, 7x2min hard, 1min easy, 3 down. Note that the fartlek took me 21min on my 21st birthday!

Total- 112, highest ever by 7mi. Not bad!

Also, I did strides, drills, core, and pushups with my kids each morning, but I didn't want to write it over again 4-5 times. Have a great week, internet!

New England Prep XC Camp, Pt 1

2010-08-01T22:50:00.002-04:00

Hello, friends. I'm posting from a dorm room on the Northfield Mount Hermon Prep campus, having just finished my first full day as a counselor for the camp. So far, things are going awesome- I have charge of the 2nd cohort of roughly 10 high school cross country runners, named "Team Craigslist" in what I'm told is my honor. I have a bed, free food, great trails, and people to run with- what more could a broke-ass, mediocre college miler want?

Most of the early part of this week was taken up be me making extra careful I rested up from my ten mile tempo, then the latter part of the week was taken up by travel from Boston to Derry, then Derry to Northfield. My mother, brother, and I drove through Keene for the first time since I transferred, and even though we only stopped for about 15min at the Walmart to buy me socks, a razor, and one of those travel-shampoos, it was still kind of a strange experience to be back. I'd like to hit up some of the old trails at some point, but we'll see how it all fits into the fall schedule.

I think I had something of consequence to say (zounds!) but I've forgotten what it was. Here's what I put in the bank last week:

Monday July 26- 8:30AM- 5.5, first 3 with Eric up Comm Ave and around the Res. Great weather! 5:30PM- 8.5 easy around Fresh Pond from the house, tired but not sore. Saw Inception with Joe. DAMN.

Tuesday July 27- 9:30AM- 5mi easy, stop at FitRec for 45min of strength/core. 7:30PM- 10mi easy + strides + drills with Jeff, started with Eric. Felt great!

Wednesday July 28th- Noon- 4mi easy, hot but dry. Studied Latin in the morning to try to weasel my way out of a foreign language requirement and save myself 4 classes. 7:30PM- Studied microecon all afternoon to get a leg up on being a late start to econ. Studying in the summer? Gross. 3mi up, 8x3min hard, 1min medium around the BC Res, + 2:17 after the last one to finish up 10k (4 laps). Ran 34:17 for 10k, which is 5:31/mile including the rest. Good workout, but I ran the first 3 hard bouts WAY too fast. D'oh! 3mi down.

Thursday July 29th- OFF, because the Boss Man commands it.

Friday July 30th- AM- 4mi easy with Billy "the Grizzly Bear" Whelan. Noon- Bus back to Derry. 7:30PM- 10mi easy progression run on the Dbl Lane Road loop. Roughly 3.5 easy, 3.5 steady, 3mi a little faster. I averaged ~6:50 for the warmup, ~6:10 for the steady part, and ~5:35 for the last 3mi. I always thought this run was right on 10, but I measured it for kicks and discovered the last 3mi is actually 5k, so my regular 17:00-17:30 finishes are a little faster than I thought there were. 63:12 for the loop.

Saturday July 31st- AM- 6mi easy on the r/r beds in Derry, didn't wake up early enough to do more and pack. PM- 4mi easy on the trails in Northfield, Mass with the other counselors, didn't eat all day, very dizzy.

Sunday August 1st- 10AM- 35' easy with my campers, had to run a little shorter to return a lost youngin' to the track. Call it 4.5 to be safe. 4:30PM- 77' easy with most of the other counselors to start after our camply duties were attended to, then the last 52' with Brian Fuller of Springfield College, who is a veteran counselor and knows the trails. We got down to a pretty respectable pace for the last half hour.

84 miles, one day off
1 strength/core session

Not bad, not bad. This next week will be pretty low on quality, so I'm just going to accumulate plenty of slow miles.

Traffic: the Casanova Frankenstein to my Greg Kinnear

2010-07-25T21:27:00.002-04:00

Hello, everyone (ok, hello mom). Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do the complete fitness test I had planned for the Blessing of the Fleet 10-miler. As it turns out, there is occasionally TRAFFIC in Providence at 5pm on a Friday. Last year, we drove a different way, and being 7 confident young men, we were sure we could make the 90min drive in two hours. How wrong we were. Our goals, as we languished on the highway, changed from "ok, we'll still have time to jog 15min, get our numbers, and get going," to "ok, we'll still have time to jog 10min and run the race, we can deal with the numbers after" to "ok, hopefully we get there before the gun goes off."

Ultimately, none of those things happened. We got there 13-14min after the gun sounded, and had to park about a mile away. We ran pretty hard over to the starting line, intending to just time ourselves over the course, when the race director told us to get our numbers, which contained our chips and determined overall finish. I asked if he was sure that the awards/final places were done on chip time and not gun time, and he assured me our times would reflect our late start. We pinned on numbers and off we went, only to find out the next day that most of us didn't end up in the results at all, and my "chip time" just happened to match up perfectly with my gun time. Hmmm. It proved impossible to race while weaving our way through the crowds of runners, so Peter and I settled on trying to run as close to 5:30/mile as we could. It was frustrating to waste the opportunity to crush one of my weaker PRs, but encouraging that I ran a very similar time to last year's blood-and-guts struggle with very little fuss. More on that later, though.

And now for something completely predictable. . . my log for the week!

Monday 7/19- 8mi easy with my younger brother, Kevin. Schedule said 10mi plus strides today, but my digestive system obeys no schedule but its own. Would the words "photo finish" be too descriptive here?

Tuesday 7/20- 11:30AM- 5mi easy from the house, pretty nice out. 7:30PM- 3+ up, 8x1min hills, 3+ down. My schedule called for 6x80 second hills, but Derry didn't have a good Heartbreak equivalent that I could find easily, so I figured 8x60 was close enough.

Wednesday 7/21- 7:30PM- 10mi on the river with James back in Allston, felt good.

Thursday 7/22- AM- Travel to Hanson, MA with James and Joey. 6:30PM- 7mi easy + strides in Hanson with Peter, Kevin, James, and Joey. We crashed at the Gilmores' place and got treated to a delicious pasta dinner by Peter's mom.

Friday 7/23- 12:30PM- 3mi shakeout with Peter and Trethewey, who had work last night and had to show up this morning. 6:00PM- 1mi pretty hard warmup to the car, stop for a second to put on our numbers, 10mi hard tempo. We went out as a group in 5:08, then ran into the back end of the pack of runners and realized racing the whole way was not going to happen. Peter and I ran together until 9.5mi, when he pounced on the chance to set a 10-mile PR (I would have done the same thing, make no mistake!). My splits, from what I could remember: 5:09, 10:38, 16:07, 21:33, 26:53, 32:30, 37:45, 43:??, 48:14, 53:38. It rained a little bit the whole way, thought it really got torrential around mile 7, which was our fastest mile. Going into this, I thought 52:30 was in the cards, and running a pretty comfy 53:38 confirmed 52:30 would have been a reasonable goal. Oh well, though- at least tempo-ing won't interrupt my training too much. 3mi c/d with Peter and Joey.

Saturday 7/24- 2PM- 4mi easy, solo, very hot out. 8PM- 8mi easy, mostly with Eric on the river, quads very, very sore- but more like I squatted lots of weights than racing sore. No broad, system-wide fatigue today- but for the quads, I was about as tired as I usually am after a 5mi tempo.

Sunday 7/25- 7PM- 11mi easy from the house, two laps around Fresh Pond. Felt pretty good, but again, very sore quads. Bruce told me to take tomorrow easy to ensure I'm fully recovered. I think that's a touch on the conservative side, but that's been the name of the game this summer. I'm healthy, fit, and fresh, so no complaints on my end!

Tot- 81mi

Final Results of the Flying Jackalope 10 Mile Time Trial:

Peter Gilmore: 53:30 (PR)
Yours Truly: 53:38
Joey Greenspun: 54:35 (debut)
Kevin Gilmore: 54:58 (debut)
GeoJeffrey Trethewey: 55:20 (debut)
David Krinjak: 57:29 (debut- also, Bruce told him not to race it, since Dave is more of a 400/800 runner)
James Weider: 50min (through 9, then he cooled down the last mile)

Last Full Week in Derry (maybe ever?)

2010-07-18T19:51:00.002-04:00

Call me crazy, but I seem to be adjusting to the heat. I had a bunch of runs in 90-95 degree weather this week, and either I'm no longer too soft and doughy for the heat (unlikely, since my mom keeps the house stocked with ice cream. . .) or I'm adapting well to running in it.

Since TrackTalk is brand new and still working out the kinks, my column over there still isn't quite up and running. Have no fear, though! It'll be up soon enough, and I have a couple of pending interviews floating out there on the intertubes. If anyone has any non obvious ideas for interview (hey, I'd love to talk to Salazar but c'mon, like I wouldn't think of that on my own?) feel free to shoot me an email or a comment.

Training went pretty well this week, especially since the heat didn't destroy me and, as per Bruce's orders, I took a non-negotiable day off.

Here' are the Hallowed Secrets (ha!) for this week:

Monday 7/12- 8PM- 10mi easy around Beaver Lake, nice and hilly, chafed up real bad.

Tuesday 7/13- 12:30PM- 5mi easy, put off the tempo I had planned because it was about 95 out. I really, really need to get off my "workin' nights" schedule and start going to bed/waking up at a reasonable hour. 7:30PM- 3 up, strides, 5mi barefoot tempo at Pinkerton's track in 26:33, 2 down. Splits- 5:28, 5:17, 5:20, 5:17, 5:09. Just ran the same effort the whole time and let myself go faster as I warmed up. A very satisfying run, since I ran close to the same pace I raced 7mi at Falmouth last year, only this time, it was a good, steady effort instead of a killer race.

Wednesday 7/14- 10AM- 9 miles easy with the Tretheworm, Dave Berube, and Baby Sears at the Massabesic Trails, felt pretty good. It was cooler and humid, about 75, which was a nice change. 6PM- 5mi easy from the house, felt fine.

Thursday 7/15- OFF as per Bruce's instructions. I'm on a 14 day workout cycle (which is an interesting experience, since I've generally been very much an "improvisational trainer," so to speak) that mandates one complete rest day within the cycle. After my disastrous spring, Bruce wants to be very careful with monitoring my fatigue. I'm just glad one of us is putting our foot down, since I don't take many off days on my own.

Friday 7/16- 11AM- 4mi easy from the house. 1:30PM- Travel to Boston for an on-campus job interview with A+ Academy, a summer enrichment program for 6th-12th graders. I got a job being a tutor/teacher's assistant for the English portion of the program, so that's two weeks of employment in August taken care of. 6:30PM- 6mi very easy in Boston with my friend Beth, who, since beginning running about two years ago, has gotten her normal easy pace from about 11min/mile to 8:30 or so.

Saturday- AM- Travel back to Derry for a friend's high school graduation party/going away party. Best of luck at Seattle, Kopetz! 7:30PM- 4mi up, 4mi barefoot tempo at Hood Field in 21:11.5 (5:18/mile), 4mi down. The tempo was a touch faster than it needed to be- Bruce wanted 4 miles at 5:20-5:30 pace, but I have a thing against looking at my watch during a tempo. Afterward, I looked at my splits and got 5:24.5, 5:18.5, 5:17.0, 5:11.5. Just like Wednesday, I ran with a consistent effort throughout, but ran negative splits as I warmed up and stayed relaxed.

Sunday- 11AM- 4mi easy around Derry, had to turn around early from my planned 5 because some cops had blocked off the road due to a fallen power line. Afternoon- I helped my buddy Owen and his brother-in-law move some furniture around. Always good to see Owen and his family. 6PM- Owen came with me for the first 3-4 or so, but he had run 7 in the AM and I hadn't, so I continued on for an easy 8mi. Hot again, but a pretty good run regardless. My left IT band shut down, though, which it's prone to do. It hurts and it's annoying, but it always goes away with some extra stretching and a little babying.

Total- 73 in six days.

Good quality, good rest, good training week. I'm racing the Blessing of the Fleet 10-miler again on Friday, so that should be a fun time. This year, we have even more BU teammates and random Jackalopes showing up, so it should be a good race and a hilarious carpool there and back.

Kancamangus Cruisin'

2010-07-11T23:01:00.002-04:00

Just my luck. The heatwave that started the day before the 4th of July (aka the 3rd of July) followed me from Allston and into New Hampshire. It was HOT the first couple days of the week. I mention this despite the fact that most of New England knows it's hot, and the rest of the country, knowing that it's July, can probably guess that it's HOT. Regardless of the redundancy, it was REALLY HOT, and you can tell how serious I am because there are capital letters.

Anyway, here are the great secrets of what I got up to in New Hampshire:

Monday July 5th: AM- Travel to Derry. PM-Out and back, 8mi easy. Heat index over 90 at 8PM.

Tuesday July 6th: 8PM- Still 90 degrees at 8. . . 12mi over a hilly course, pretty easy. Upset stomach.

Wednesday July 7th: 12PM- 5mi easy. Guess what the weather was like? 6:30PM- 8mi easy with Peter Najem, a guy I ran with in high school and for my first two years at Keene. He's joining up with this post-collegiate group in Syracuse, so congratulations and good luck to him!

Thursday July 8th: 1PM- 5mi easy, I think this was my new record for sleeping in. 12:30? Damn! 8PM- 2mi up, 6x(4min hard, 2min easy), 2miles down. 10mi in 63:00, 5:40 avg for the fartlek. Did this run on a hilly 3mi loop located two miles from my house. Generally, I prefer to warm up longer, but I forgot I was doing a longer fartlek today and cut my normal warmup in half to keep today from being an 18-19 mi day. A little cooler today, but hot enough to keep my "2min easy" segments very slow instead of their normal ~6:00 pace. Still, worked pretty hard and had a good workout- despite dragging ass through my two-mile warmup in near 16min!

Friday July 9th: 12:30pm- 5mi easy, much nicer weather today. 6:30PM- 8mi easy with Najem again, over a hilly course. ~6:20s or so for most of the back half.

Saturday July 10th: 7:30PM- Barn run! 4mi easy, 4mi moderate, 4mi hard over the hilliest course I could make up around Beaver Lake. Last 4mi avg 5:37s over some monster hills, great run. 75 deg and mist for this run!

Sunday July 11th: 1PM- 30min easy on the Kancamangus Highway. Two friends and I drove up north to screw around on the Swift River. We hiked upstream, fell a bunch of times on rocks, rode the river downstream, smashed our butts on more rocks, I went running, we had lunch, I took a nap on a big sunny rock in the middle of the river, we tried to build a dam across the river, then it started downpouring and thunderstorming, we we left. 8PM- I wandered around town nice and easy for ~65 minutes.

Total- 86 miles, no strides, drills, or strength. I know, I know. Next week I'm doing the Blessing of the Fleet 10miler!

234 Years and Still Kicking!

2010-07-07T13:38:00.002-04:00

Well, this entry is pretty late, eh? In my defense, it's because I've recently gotten started on another project. TrackTalk, located over at www.tracktalk.net, is up and running for the most part. I've been working on setting up my column over there, which mostly consists of me emailing anyone in the running world whose email I can find and asking if I can interview them. Also, I headed back to Derry for the week, and the internet here is pretty lame.

Anyway, here's what I got up to the week leading up to America's 234th birthday:

Monday 6/28- 10AM- 30min lifting with Eric, 30min core. Yech. 9:30PM- 4mi barefoot on the turf with Joe after work.

Tuesday 6/29- 7:30PM, waited til it was a little cooler out. 3 up, 5mi tempo 27:30 (first half 14:00), 3 down, felt fine aerobically but TIRED and SORE.

Wednesday 6/30- 3:30PM- 9mi easy on the river James- the weather was beautiful but I was too tired/sore to really enjoy it. 9:45PM- 5 mi easy barefoot on the turf, plus core.

Thursday 7/1- 10AM- 4 mi morning loop, solo. 5PM- Mini-maintenance run on the river, partway with James. First mile in ~7:20, 9th mile in 5:31, last mile as a cooldown. I felt pretty heavy and shitty through ~4miles, but when I switched into ~6:00 pace, I actually felt really good. 63:43 total.

Friday 7/2- 10AM- 4mi morning loop with James before he went back to Long Island. Sloooow this morning. 6:30PM- 20min up, 8x3min hard, 1min medium going West on the river, 9min cooldown. Good, hard run.

Saturday 7/3- 11AM- 4 mi morning loop, meant to stop and lift, but FitRec was closed for the weekend. 4PM- Lap around Fresh Pond from the house + a short add-on to make it 9. Planned on 10 plus strength, but got I got real tired/dehydrated halfway through the run.

Sunday 7/4- 9:30AM- 9 mi moderate with Eric, Paulson, and Krinjak from the house. HOT already. Ran much faster than I wanted to today, but that's mostly because Eric had to get to work and we dallied getting out of the house. Karma. . .

Buster Poindexter, You've Never Been So Right

2010-06-27T21:51:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm getting deeper into the swing of the summer now. It was hot out earlier in the week, which made all the Ashford residents lazier than usual (except for those who work at 6am. . .). I didn't get too much quality in during the hottest days, but I got in a pretty good hill session one night after work. The week ended with Ken leaving for South America for two months and my first epic bonk of the summer. Other than that, not much is going on here. I should try to get into more trouble next week, so I have something to write about!

Monday 6-21: 1:30PM- 4mi easy solo, hot out again. A bird DIVE BOMBED me between the bridges on the river, though! Was it the same bird as the one that tried to get Peter yesterday?! Or is a sparrow conspiracy?! 10PM- After work, slums to Mass Ave on the river, mile barefoot on Nickerson, drills, 6x(100 stride, 300 jog). Felt pretty darn good on the drills and strides.

Tuesday 6-22: 10AM- 4 easy solo, decided to skip my planned tempo today because I was just plum tuckered out. Sparrow dove for me again! 3:30PM- 8.5 around Fresh Pond once from the house with Ken, Jeff, and James. Tired still.

Wednesday 6-23- 9AM: Fresh Pond once from the house with Eric, Ruben Sanca, and Ahmed + a short, solo add-on to make it 9. 3:30PM- 4mi shakeout with Ken and Joe + strength.

Thursday 6-24- 10AM- Heat index of 90deg at 10am. Double you tee eph, mate? And I got dive bombed AGAIN. 10PM- 3.5 up to Heartbreak Hill, 6x Hydrant to Hydrant (82, 82, 80, 79, 79, 77), 3.5 down. Felt pretty good- ran at a good, honest effort with Ken and Eric. The usual standard for the hill is 80 seconds, so this was a good workout. Jeez, though, it was still pretty hot at 10pm!

Friday 6-25- 10:30AM- Late start with Ken today, 4mi easy. Senor Sparrow had no response to my bringing Ken for backup. 6:30PM- 9 miles easy from the house, going west on the river with a huge-ass group. Tired again.

Saturday 6-26- 10AM- 4mi easy from the house with Trethewey and Peter. Eric came with us for the first 3, then did 10. 7:30PM- 8+mi on the river with Peter from the house, then an add-on at Nickerson to make it 9, then drills, then 4x(100 stride, 300 jog) for 10 on the evening. Felt pretty good.

Sunday 6-26- 9AM- First Bonk of the summer. 12 miles with Ruben, Peter, Eric, and Rob- we were about 6:30s through 6mi, then the lads took off and I bonked. Rob had worked out the day before, so he stayed back with me. I was still 77:30 for 12, so whatever. . . just annoying to get dropped.

Tot- 91 mi
2 drill sessions
1 strength session

More Money in the Bank

2010-06-20T22:51:00.004-04:00

Whether it's all the economic textbooks I'm reading in preparation for the fall or just good, old-fashioned American preoccupation with dough, but I could never get the "money in the bank" metaphor out of my head when thinking about base mileage.

I think it was Salazar (but don't quote me on it) who said "Every steady mile [an athlete] runs is like putting a dollar in the bank. Every mile [an athlete] races is like making a $10 withdrawal."

I like summer training, except for the "summer" part, haha. I'll admit I am a HUGE wimp about running in the heat. Usually I can plan accordingly to do my primary run either before it gets hot or after it cools down, but even then- I'll bitch about 80 degrees. Ken and James don't seem to mind so much when I complain, and since Eric's been working like a madman lately, he hasn't had to deal with my whining too much. In all seriousness, though, summer training is always a fun part of the year because no particular run has any great significance.

By that, I mean that if I happen to feeling good, or get caught up in a good running daydream, or get drawn into another teammate's feeling good, I can hammer all I'd like and there's nothing to worry about, because there's never anything tomorrow that's too important to jog through. I appreciate the freedom, even though I'll be missing racing by July.

Anyway, here's the log for the week:

Monday 6/14- 10AM- Out the Riverway with Ken, James, and Eric, around Jamaica Pond, and back, then barefoot drills and 4x(100 stride, 300 jog) with Eric on Nickerson for 10. 9:30PM- 4mi after work with Joe, James, and Ken.

Tuesday 6/15- 1:30PM- 79 deg, low humidity, slight wind. With Eric- 2+ up to the BC Res workout spot, 10k (4lap) tempo in 34:38, 2+ down.

Distance---------- Time---------- Split
2.5k ---------- 8:42 ---------- 8:42
5k ---------- 17:30----------- 8:49
7.5k ---------- 26:09---------- 8:38
10k ---------- 34:38---------- 8:29

Good, solid progression under a very strong sun. We were planning on 15k going 6:00, 5:45, 5:30 pace per mile for each 5k segment, but I screwed up the pacing and took us out the first lap 40 seconds too fast, so we figured 10k was good for today. (11mi tot)

Wednesday 6/16- 10AM- Morning 4mi loop with James, plus a stop on Nickerson to do the strength circuit I skipped last night (blaming the Celtics for the this one). 9:30PM- 8.5 on the river with Ken after work, tired, but glad we beat the heat.

Thursday 6/17- 11AM- 4mi easy, then travel to Derry, NH. 5PM- 10 miles at a good, hard pace through steady rain on one of my favorite rolling loops back home. 31:28 at 5mi, 27:40 for the back 5, 59:08 total- great run, I felt very refreshed afterward.

Friday 6/18- AM- Watched my younger sister graduate from high school. 5:30PM- 5mi nice and easy on the railroad beds, then I turned around and did 1min hard, 1min medium until I covered 4 miles, then ran the last mile nice and easy. I was tired from sitting in the sun all day, and it was 88 degrees for my workout, but the railroad beds offer a little shade and I just ran at an honest but not excessive effort.

Saturday 6/19- 11AM- 8mi out and back on the railroad beds with Trethewey, nice and easy, no watch as usual. Hot out again, decided to take a nice recovery day today and skip doubling.

Sunday 6/20- AM- travel back to Boston. 3PM- 9 miles in brutal heat and humidity (94 deg, according to the thermometer on the porch). Peter was up, and so was a HS buddy of Ken's, so the pace was pretty fast. I had planned on doing 14-15 in one go, but I was just flat out toast by 7mi in the heat. 9:30PM- 5mi barefoot on Nickerson, plus the strength circuit I should have done Friday or Saturday (I let graduation festivities interfere, I admit it).

Total- 83.5
1 session of drills/strides
2 strength/core sessions

All in all, a very solid week. I'm starting to see a little improvement in my general strength stuff and I recovered from the tempo and then the hard run/fartlek combo very well. Also, Saturday afternoon marked a very crucial Meeting of the Minds.

Back to Basics

2010-06-13T19:44:00.002-04:00

No word yet on my bloodwork. Not sure what the delay is, but it's getting annoying. It'd be unbearable if I was still feeling terrible, but my running has taken a turn for the better. My "empty well" issues fortunately don't affect my normal base running, since normal base running requires no dipping into the well. Now if only I can get my "normal base running" down to 4:30/mile. . .

Anyway, nothing really special to report on this week. I'm waiting on my blood work, done with my Census work, making a killing on Telefund commissions, and enjoying the beginnings of the conditioning period. I'm also trying to eat healthier and less. I know "eat less" sounds stupid, but by that, I mean eating healthy, good food when I'm hungry, as opposed to eating half a bag of sour gummy worms at 1am because I'm bored. Thus far, though, I'm still less-than-svelte.

The log:

Monday- 9PM- 3miles easy, got back to Boston late and ran with Joe and James on the infield of Nickerson sans shoes.

Tuesday- 10AM- standard 4mi morning loop with a stop at Nickerson for a 30min core/body strength routine. It included a laughably small amount of pushups, lunges, dips, squats, and various core exercises. 4PM- Pretty quick run with James- ~6:20s for the 3mi out to Fresh Pond, did the lap at a good surge (13:32, ~5:25 pace), then went home at ~6:20 pace again, adding on a little at Harvard to make it 9 instead of 8.5.

Wednesday- 10AM- 4mi on the river with Ken. 4PM- Mayor's Run with Ken and James (and Joe for the first 15min), 8mi.

Thursday- 10AM- Maintenance run on the river, by myself. I spent the first 5mi waking up, then got into a really good gear for the back half. The last mile is measured and except for having to sprint through an intersection to make a walk light, I kept the pace as similar as I could to get a gauge on my effort. I was 5:37 for the last mile, so I think I can safely say I was 5:45s or so for most of the last 4mi. 61:44 tot, good strong run in rainy, cool weather. 4PM- 4mi easy on the river, partway with Ken and James, who were doing their primary run. 20min of running drills on Nickerson afterward with 4x100m flat out.

Friday- 5PM- 10mi easy on the river with Ken and the Born-Again Kevin DTP Cordaro, 67:40. Strength routine at the indoor track afterward. Legs very tired today.

Saturday- 5PM- 12 miles down Comm Ave, through the Common, past Faneuil Hall, into the North End for a while, then we wound around the waterfront, through the Financial District, and back home via Comm Ave. Got that? 79 minutes a decent clip through rainy, cool weather.

Sunday- 10AM- 14mi at a decent clip with James, 92:07. We did the first ten on the river in 66:27, then ran from the house to the BC Res and back in 25:40 for the last 4. We were 7:23 at the mile and 14:25 at 2. . . that's all I got for intermediate marks.

Tot- 78 miles, 10 runs, one day basically off, 2 sessions of strength/core, 1 session of drills/leg speed. A solid start to summer!

Lastly, thanks to the couple people who emailed/facebooked me with well wishes. It helped!

The Hiatus Is Over

2010-06-09T12:11:00.002-04:00

I'm sure my hypothetical readers were wondering what I've been up to. You know that saying "no news is good news?" Well, it doesn't apply to a blog. I haven't written in a couple weeks because I've been too demoralized to rehash how crappy running has been going. Getting through the last two weeks was bad enough, typing it up again was nothing I wanted to deal with.

I'm not sure what's up with me, but my tank, so to speak, is empty. You know when you're about 2/3rds of the way through a race and things start to suck and you can either dig down or slow down? I get to that point, and it's like I'm stuck in neutral. I can hit the gas all I want, but I'm not going anyway. I dropped out of my last two races- a 5k and a 3k. I was running slow as death in each of them, and worse, felt more than maxed out doing it.

Bruce and I talked things over and both agreed I should get back to basics. I also need to get a little leaner and stronger- I've joked before about being a soft miler, but seriously, it's time to do some pushups and situps. I've got probably 7-8 pounds of fat on me that I don't need, despite decent mileage and a good diet.

My mileage for the two weeks I didn't blog were 69 and 61, respectively, with a day off this past Sunday. To spare a little redundancy, here's how most of those runs went: "9 miles slow, felt terrible."

I got blood work done a week ago, so hopefully, I'll be hearing from my doctor today or tomorrow. He tested me for just about everything from ferritin reserves to abnormal hormonal activity. If nothing else, knowing that I don't have any chemical problems will be a huge relief.

Anyway, I hope the end of everyone's seasons was much better than mine. I'm very frustrated, but trying to keep my chin up. At the very least, I can send a congratulations to my younger brother, who just finished his junior year of high school with a 9:36 3200, which was a 13 or 14 second PR.

When Bloggin's No Fun

2010-05-23T21:26:00.002-04:00

This is one of those weeks where writing this thing is a damned drag. That's because I dropped out of my 5k on Saturday after going through 3k ass-slow and feeling absolutely terrible doing it. It didn't feel different than any other race day until I started warming up, but from step one, I just felt terrible. I wasn't dehydrated or unfed or anything, but within a few minutes into my warmup, I was sweating buckets and just felt out of it.

The race went out and a 70 sec opening quarter just felt straaainy. I'm afraid I can't be more precise. I traded laps with a Dartmouth guy for a while, but even then, hanging on to 72s was like life or death. I got through 3k in 8:57 and thought "fuck it, it's not worth it to run 15:10 or worse." I hate dropping out, but I'm sorry to say I'm not one of those guys who puts this huge premium on finishing no matter what. I mean, I'm guessing I could have jogged in, but to what end? I don't think running slow on purpose and just trying to finish makes me any tougher. Perhaps I'm being overly defensive; who knows.

I think I'm going to take another crack at the 5k on June 5th. Bruce's hypothesis (in general, not what he believes led to my troubles today) is that I'm trying to do traditional 5k/10k training, but that I've neglected developing my speed, and could in fact be more competitive at 800/1500 than the 5k. I think the strongest point in his favor is that I can run a much "better" (comparatively) mile than a 3k or 5k off high mileage + tempos with no speed work. Obviously, you don't change horses in mid-stream, so we'll finish out this season according to plan, but it's food for thought for next November when it's time get in gear for track.

In any event, I'm going to do my best to call yesterday one of those shitty days that doesn't have any implications darker than bad luck. Redemption is only two weeks away ;)

Log:

Monday- 7:30PM- Fresh Pond from the house with Rob, Eric, and Ellie- felt dehydrated and kinda sick. 8.5.

Tuesday- 10:30AM- River Loop with James, felt ok. 3:30PM- 8mi easy with Joey on the river, drills at Nickerson, short cooldown + back to house for 9 tot.

Wednesday- 12:30PM- 3 up, 1200 in 3:26 (splits 70-63-73, Bruce wanted to go 70-66-70, but I overestimated the 66, then underestimated the 70), 1200 jog, then 5x400 in 66 with an 80sec jog. Easy workout, ready to roll. Windy. 2mi down. 9:30PM- 4mi easy after work, rainy but warm, so I got pretty slimy.

Thursday- AM- 4mi easy solo. PM- Marky Mark with a JP lap with Ken and James. Hot out.

Friday- 3:30PM- 10mi easy down Comm Ave, through the Common, along the waterfront, and back. Perfect weather- I was dying to get at that 5k after this run. I felt ready to knock it out of the park. Guess I should have just done it on Friday!

Saturday- 6:15PM- 3 up at Bentley, 3k in 8:57, nothing after that. The DNF was compounded by Bruce driving out to Bentley to witness the ignominy in person. Just one of those days I hope doesn't happen often, or at all, actually.

Sunday- 7 easy with Ken and James, kept it short as Bruce instructed.

Tot- 69 mi, lots of thinking to do.

Hope your collectives weeks were better than mine!

Whoops, Spaced This One! First Race

2010-05-17T10:23:00.002-04:00

I woke up today thinking, "I know I forgot to do something yesterday. . . Let's see. . ." It took about ten minutes before I remembered there was probably a tiny group of bored track nerds who had to waste extra time at cracked or the failblog yesterday because I didn't put this up!

It was a good week of training and racing, as I predicted last week. I eked out a close win over 3000m at the New Balance Boston Twilight Meet held at Lowell in 8:26.33.
They put the video of the race on Flotrack, which you can find here: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/237092-new-balance-boston-twilight-meet-1/334683-mov00b

Ignore the splits given, not sure why, but they were way off. From the video, I hand-timed my last 400 in 61.5 or so; they announce it as 57 with a 26 last 200. I wish! Things were windy and slow, but I'll take a win any day of the week.

Here's the log for the week:

Monday- 1PM- 10mi easy with Eric and Ken mostly, ran up Beacon through Newton and came back Comm Ave. 8PM- 4mi solo with 8 strides ad hoc over the course of the run.

Tuesday- 1:30PM- 2mi up, 2mi on a measured course on the Esplanade in 9:40 (4:40, 5:00) goal was 10:00 but I was out too fast; managed to find the right gear in the 2nd mile. Still, this was a very easy run. 2mi jog to MIT, quick bathroom trip, spikes, then 4x800 w/400j, taking turns leading with Ken and Eric. 2:13avg, last one in 2:11. I think finally getting to work out with people really helped me today, because I felt effortless. 3mi down, 12 on the day.

Wednesday- 10AM- 4mi easy with my buddy Owen, an old high school teammate of mine who just got back from a semester in Europe. 3:30PM- One lap around Fresh Pond from the house with Ken and James, something between 8.5 and 8.9. Logged it as 8.5.

Thursday- 3 up, 8x200 w/200j, 33.0 avg, nice and easy, 3 down. Ran the whole thing with James.

Friday- 2PM- 4 easy solo, muggy. 9PM- 7 easy solo again, muggy again. I was about 150 yards from my front door when a drunk clown down the street hucked a beer bottle at me. It missed, but landed at my feet and exploded, splashing me with beer. Cheap beer, from the smell of it. Yech.

Saturday- 11AM- 4 mile shakeout. 6PM- NB Twilight Meet, 3000m, 8:26.33 for 1st. Slow pace, windy day- from 1200-2600 it was truly slow going. Surprised, though, how quickly I recovered and how good I felt overall. After my race, I spent most of the evening in the booth with Steve Infascelli, my old counselor from running camp. Infa did a bangup job with the announcing, despite it being his second track meet of the day. I also met a fellow dyestatter IRL, and no one was assaulted or abused, so remember, kids- the internet is a great place to make friends!

Sunday- 2:30PM- Fresh Pond solo from the house, perfect weather again. Is this Boston or the Bay Area?! A safe 8.5 miles. 8:30PM- The standard 4mi shakeout loop solo. Sometime in the intervening hours between runs, my hamstrings and calves tightened up a little, but I'm not concerned.

Week total- 82mi

Somewhere in there, I did pushups and core work and drills. . . but for the life of me, I can't remember which day! I think I have a long way to go with core/drills- the video shows quite a bit of wasted motion in my form which I think I can mostly get a handle on with stronger core muscles. Being the softest sub-4:10 miler I know is a dubious honor at best.

Anyway, hope everyone had as good a week as I did! Next up for me is another NB Twilight Meet, but this time I'll be running the 5000. I'd like to take a crack at 14:40, but we'll see how things go.

Careful, but better

2010-05-08T20:38:00.003-04:00

Not a lot of commentary this week- but overall it was an encouraging week of training. I say "encouraging" instead of "good" because my workouts weren't anything special in terms of pace, but what's more important is that I felt strong again. I felt like I could push if I wanted to and that I was running with elements of control instead of just hanging on for dear life and trying not to bonk.

Before I do my log for the week, a special congratulations is in order for Ken "Kid Cudi" Haltom, my roommate and fellow miler, who ran 3:50.55 today the New England Championships to qualify for his first ever outdoor IC4A Championship! Ken's been on a roll with PRs this outdoor season, cutting his 1500 best from 3:54 to 3:51 at America East last week, and now down to 3:50.52. It was also his birthday on Friday, which is why he gets an extra-special mention.

Anyway, here's what I got myself up to this week:

Monday- 2:30PM- 4mi with James and Eric in the heat, absolutely miserable. 8:30PM- 8mi easy in the cool dark, much nicer out. Did a mile on the track with 100 on/100 off in 5:39

Tuesday- 3:30PM- 3 up, then a fartlek at the Brookline Reservoir- 2.5 laps, .5 lap off, 1.5 laps, .5 lap off, 1 lap. Ran between 5:00-5:10 pace for the hard parts and averaged 5:35s for 9k total. Jogs were really slow, but I was finally feeling like I could work hard without bonking.

Wednesday- 9:30AM- 4mi easy on the river, quads TRASHED. 5PM- 8 on the river solo, plus drills + abs + pushups after.

Thursday- 3:30PM- Rob's Farm Loop with Peter, mostly, some with Billy and Colin. Peter and I ended up running the last 6mi or so at 5:45ish pace. I say ish because it isn't measured, but we ended the run with a control lap on the track at 5:35 pace and it didn't feel any faster than the previous six miles. Drills afterward- quads still awful, but I started to get some bounce back in my step.

Friday- 11AM- 3.5 up to Brookline High's track, mile in 4:30, 800 jog, 800 in 2:16, 400 jog, 400 in 71, then stopped the workout because my quads were really trashed. I was actually really encouraged by this- 4:30 pace was easy, I just didn't want to push my quads.

Saturday- 5PM- 10mi solo on the river, through rain, muggy sunshine, and more rain. My patience yesterday paid off- quads weren't sore, just really heavy.

Sunday- 1PM- 9mi easy with Eric and his girlfriend, Emily. 8PM- 4mi easy solo, more or less out of my funk.

82 cautious miles- 6 days until my 3k at Lowell! Have a good week everybody!

Long Week, Short Week, Hard Blog

2010-05-03T12:28:00.002-04:00

Well, this week was nothing if not eventful across a broad scope of topics. Personally speaking, it was an awful week- I had Enumerator Training for the US Census (my brief little summer job) which ran all day Tuesday-Friday and killed consistent sleep and decent training. I had very little time to run and felt awful most of the week- my workout on Tuesday was crap and I got about 1500m into a workout on Friday before I canned it and jogged home. I even had to take Sunday off because I was just spent. However, I'm hoping this week with much better sleep, I'll bounce back fine.

From a team perspective, things went well. We had the America East Conference Champs this weekend at the U of New Hampshire. Since that's only about 40min from my house, Peter, Mike, and I drove up to watch. We were treated to watching Eric lead the whole damn steeple until the last backstretch, then rallying to finish 2nd in 9:02.7, Elliot come back from injury (he's done like one workout in the last three weeks, and maybe half a dozen easy runs) to nab 3rd in the 10k, and Katie make her own successful 10k debut for 2nd. That was just the first day!

On Sunday, our 800 crew ran well, with four of our six entrants setting big personal or seasonal bests. Three of roommates ran the extremely deep, competitive 1500, with Ken leading the way in a 3:51.3 PR, Eric coming back from the steeple, running 3:52 out of unseeded heat with a ~2:01 last half, and James running a PR of 4:03. Rob won a disgustingly hot/humid 5k in 14:48. To give you a hint of how bad it was, Riley Masters, Maine's sub-4 miler, had what I think was a heatstroke and was taken to the hospital. He's ok, fortunately- but it was scary nonetheless.

Of course, I'd be a self-centered fool not to mention the Payton Jordan 10k on Saturday night. I'm sorry it's being used more as a means to bash Rupp than give credit to Solinsky's incredible race. The fact of the matter is that American distance running is better than its ever been. Two Americans just broke Meb's 27:13 standard. Rupp is 23? Solinsky is 25? 24 and 26, maybe? Either way, its fantastic for American running.

Marathon Week

2010-04-25T21:17:00.005-04:00

Hi there, internet. I had a good week of training, starting off with an awesome run on the marathon course early Monday morning/team brunch afterward.

Before the log, however, I have a brief topic to discuss. As many running internet nerds know, the message boards at dyestat.com are getting transferred over to the ESPN RISE format, which I believe was designed in 1993, then put on ice until now. In addition to being vastly inferior boards from a user standpoint, the RISE boards will damage a very important community dyestat has built.

Now, I'm not going to get on a soap box and try to inspire the 41 people who read this blog to make some grand protest to ESPN. The fact of the matter is that they don't give a shit about running and they don't give a shit about dyestat. Fair enough; they bought dyestat fair and square.

Instead, I just want to let anyone know who would be interested in a new running site that some of dyestat users have created a new site to fulfill dyestat's purpose: www.tracktalk.tk . This is an entirely user-driven, user-created site for the dyestat exiles and anyone else interested in running. Right now, the message board is the only working part, but the people behind the site are working on a content-, coverage- and news-driven front page, much like dyestat of old. Yours truly has been asked to become a regular contributor to the site, so once the front page goes live, don't be surprised to see a weekly column or two!

There are already several hundred users signed up for the site, but we've got a ways to go before it's a truly national community. Head on over and check things out; if you don't like the buzz there, make your own buzz!

Without further ado, my log:

Monday- 7AM- 11 mi fairly steady over the last part of the marathon course. We got dropped off by our support crew (aka Sean Gallagher, who also cooked brunch, Jeff Trethewey, my old roommate from Keene, and Chris Mercurio, a Terrier on the injury comeback trail) somewhat before the 30k mark and ran to the finish, then ran back up Comm Ave to the track house for the race coverage and a delicious brunch, cooked by Sean. All in all, an exhausting but fun day.

Tuesday- AM- 4mi easy, felt fine. PM- 3 up, solo track workout, 2k-1k-1k-2k with a 600 jog. Goal pace was 70-72, no pressing.

2k- 5:53
1k- 2:55
1k- 2:54
2k- 5:59

After the last 2k, I added a 200j to make the entire workout, including rest, 8k in 26:24 (~5:18 a mile including rest jogs). 3 mi down. All in all, a very tiring but satisfying workout.

Wednesday- AM- 5mi easy, felt tire/tight. PM- 10mi easy- felt inexplicably fantastic and had a real tough time running slower than 6:20s. I forced myself to keep it firmly out of the 6:1xs, but barely.

Thursday- 12PM- 7mi easy after a 2hour walking tour of Boston for a class, felt tired. 9:30PM- 7mi easy after work, very tired, then 8x100 in spikes with 100 jog.

Friday- 3:30PM- Squires Fartlek- I'm beginning to think these runs will be the death of me. Workout was about 20min up and down, with the hard part being 1-3-10-1-3-5 minutes hard (with the 10min section and 5min section being harder than the others) with 5min of steady running in between. In the 48 minutes, I covered about 8.5 mi, or something like 5:40 pace. Very tired/heavy today, glad I wasn't doing anything measured. 14 tot.

Saturday- AM- 4 easy solo, shocked at how awful/heavy I felt. PM- 10mi very easy with Rob and his girlfriend, Marita, who is also a Terrier-ette. We did a nice variation of the Farm Loop through Brookline.

Sunday- AM- 10 nice and easy on the Charles with Ken and James, feeling much better. PM- 4 mi easy, some with James, after work- definitely feeling human again.

Tot- 98mi

This next week will be a busy one. I got a job with the US Census (cheaaaa $22.75 an hour!) and the job training goes from Tuesday-Friday this week from 8am-6pm. The good news is I get paid for this! The bad news is it means running at 7am and 7pm for 4 days, which will include two quality workouts. So it goes. The end-on-a-good-note news is that the America East conference meet is this upcoming Saturday and Sunday, and it's at UNH, so I'm going to head home early Saturday morning, then watch the guys and gals of BU kick ass!

My first race is 20 days from today. . . things are getting close, and I'm getting excited!

Have a nice week, everyone-
and visit tracktalk!

A Pain in the Butt

2010-04-18T19:50:00.002-04:00

This week was my last week of my prepracticum, so it was awesome to get that out of the way. The reasonably tough training of the last few weeks started to sink in this week- I went into zombie-mode for a couple days, then came away from a longer run with a really bad left piriformis. I ended up taking a just-to-be-safe day off, and I think I'm all back to normal now.

The next couple weeks are going to be tough ones- in addition to needing to maintain the training load I've built up to over the last few weeks, I have a bunch of papers due this Thursday, then my job-training for the Census the week after (which runs 8am-6pm, Tuesday-Friday), then final exams the week after that. It'll nice to celebrate being done with school for the summer by opening up with a 3000 at Umass Lowell on the 15th.

I also got a chance to go to the Boston Marathon Expo this weekend with a teammate. We just happened to stumble in on a panel that included, at various times, Bob Larsen (Meb's coach), Bill Squires, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, and Catherine Ndereba. It was AWESOME to hear Rodgers and Meyer reminisce about their training and to hear Squires talk about the way he used to structure workouts and why he did things the way he did. He had some interesting comments on group training and why he wasn't particularly impressed with American marathoning today. He said that while America has some very top-quality talent up front, the depth is pathetic compared to the late 70s, early 80s. As Squires observed, "There were guys running 2:12 and 2:13 who couldn't even get shoes, much less a contract! I had 2:12 and 2:13 guys paying club dues to be in the Greater Boston Track Club. They paid for the uniform and we had two group workouts a week: the speed work on Tuesday and the long fartlek on Sunday. Good things happen in a group; there were local-yokels who were working full time and running 2:15 marathons and weren't even on my varsity squad for xc. We gotta get more guys training in groups like that if we wanna see a hundred US runners go under 2:20 in one year."

All in all, it was electric listening to Squires hold court. It was also a little eerie in the sense that Bruce has inherited a lot of Squires' mannerisms (the good ones!) and points of view. It was funny to see either Keith or Kevin Hanson sitting on the floor of the crowded room, listening raptly to what Squires had to say.

Last thing before the log, I had some unanswered comments:

Ben- Do you need the late-season sharpening stuff yet? How far out is your state meet? Seems to me that it's pretty early in the season to be doing that kind of stuff. For the early and mid-season conditioning, I like to use short intervals at mile pace to start getting a little pace familiarity going, with longer intervals at about 3k type gear to really do the bulk of the conditioning word. Bruce calls these "Marshmallow Workouts." Ex- 4x200 (200j) at mile gear, 4x800 (400j) at 3k gear, 4x200 (200j) at mile gear. That's a solid 3mi worth of work, which is a good work volume for a high school guy.

JJ- Like all things, it takes time and patience. The longer you're an active runner doing training, the more lifetime fitness you'll have. The more lifetime fitness you have, the more consistent you'll be able to be. Just keep training hard and keep your chin up. Sorry I don't have anything sexier to tell you.

Finally, the log:

Monday- 5PM- 3up to Brookline with Eric after a long day, then had to modify the planned workout of 2.5, 1.5, 1 lap(s) of the Res. Instead, I did 2lap, 1lap, 1lap with about a 5min jog rest. Just not my day out there, today- temp was great, strides felt sluggish, wind noticeable but not too bad.

3000- 9:05
1500- 4:29
1500- 4:27

Solid workout, regardless, but it would have been nice to get the whole thing in. Jogged to the bottom of Summit with Eric (who had a good workout and did the whole thing to boot) and 6x15 seconds hill sprints up Summit with a jog down rest, then headed back to the TTC. Time for a down week. Tot 12

Tuesday- AM- Very slow on the River, 4mi, complete zombie mode. PM- River Loop again + 20min barefoot on the turf.

Wednesday- PM- 13mi steady, most of it with Rob, some of it with the guys- ran through Brookline on one of Rob's secret runs. This was the run where my left piriformis just about exploded, which destroyed my stride and tightened my whole left side up.

Thursday- OFF, trying not to push the piriformis or stay in zombie mode too long.

Friday- AM- An easy 3mi that only occurred because I had a class that's about ~1.5 away, I woke up very late, and had to turn in an assignment. Running was faster than taking the T, so my double was born. PM- 4 up, 8xHeartbreak with no watch, 4 down. Left piriformis blew up again, but not during the hills. It shut down exactly when it shut down on Wednesday- just about the 65min mark of the run. It responded well to stretching and didn't blow up as bad as it did on Wednesday.

Saturday- 12:30PM- 8mi easy with Krinjak, then off to the marathon expo. No secondary run today partly because I wanted to baby the piriformis a little and partly because when I was debating going out for the 2nd run, Ken, James, and Sean were leaving for McDonalds. That ended that debate.

Sunday- 11:30AM- 13mi with the first ~10mi very slow with Ken and James, then the last 3 faster, ending with a mile on the track in 5:21. Felt pretty good the whole way, piriformis didn't go at all; hopefully, I've beaten it.

Tot- 72 mi
8 runs
No strength, core, drills, or strides. Bad, bad, Craig.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL BOSTON MARATHONERS TOMORROW!

Good Luck, Allison!

2010-04-11T23:34:00.002-04:00

My boss, Allison, is running the Boston Marathon a week from Monday. Since she's such a nice lady, I thought I should mention that.

Anyway, I had another very good week of training. The volume was solid, the quality was good, and I only had one particularly bad run, which I'm pretty sure was due to the fact that one day we randomly had a 91 degree high.

There isn't much to go over this week, but before I get to the log, Bruce and I figured out, roughly, what my racing schedule will look like this spring. It's a pretty compact series of races, which I'm glad of, since I'll be able to take a couple shots at some PRs, then move right into summer training without needing too much of a break.

Tentative, tentative race schedule:
May 15: 3000, NB Twilight Meet, Lowell.
May 22: 5000, NB Twilight Meet, Bentley.
June 5: 1500, "
June 12: 5000, "

Hopefully I can take down some of my PRs, especially my very weak ones at 3000 and 5000.

Log:

Monday- 3 up, 4mi tempo at the Brookline Res (19:27 through 6000, added on 93 seconds to ensure I went 4mi), then a couple minutes of jogging, then 8 strides with equal jog rest, then 3mi down, 11mi total. It was fairly warm out for this one and perhaps I was just feeling the increased volume particularly, because I felt like dogshit on this one the whole way. Absolutely no smoothness at all in my stride; I tried not to fight it and just run the correct effort. Ideally, this baby would have been closer 5:00 pace than 5:15, but whatever.

Tuesday- AM- 5mi easy PM- 9 very easy, first 56min with the Lady Terriers, then a barefoot 2k on the turf to finish off the run.

Wednesday- 6PM- 91 degrees out, tried to go long and bonked hardcore. Managed to get in a very healthy 12 (85min at ~6:40 pace) but good God, I forgot how much I hate running in heat like that. Student teaching didn't help; I'm glad I've only got 2 days left.

Thursday- 3:30pm-BC Res - Beacon - Comm Ave with James, Joey, and Eric. Added on a couple minutes indoors to make it 10, then did 5x150 in spikes indoors and cooled down 5min for 11mi. Spent most of the run at a good clip, maybe 6:20s or so. 9:30PM- 4mi easy on the Charles solo after work, felt pretty good.

Friday- 3:30PM- 3mi up with Eric in a downpour; rain tapered off toward the end of the warmup, so we decided to work out on the outdoor track. By the time we spiked up and strided out, it started pouring again, but we figured, ah, screw it, we're out here and already soaked. I did 2x(1000, 800, 600, 600) with the 1000s and 800s at ~5k type gear and the 600s at ~3k type gear. Kept a continuous 2:30 jog rest in between everything.

1000- 2:53
800- 2:18
600- 1:41
600- 1:40

1000- 2:53
800- 2:15
600- 1:37
600- 1:40

Very good workout, given that I recovered very quickly in between each hard bout. The 600s felt fast, but I think that was more because of the pouring rain and winds than anything. 3mi down with Eric indoors.

Saturday- AM- 10mi easy, 68:30, with Eric on the Charles, very windy coming home (40mph gusts- it was like we were walking!) PM- 5mi easy after work with Eric and his girlfriend, Emily, who is a merciless pace pusher but an all-around nice gal :) Last mi barefoot on the turf. 36:30 tot

Sunday- 1pm- A reasonably-paced 9mi to Jamaica Pond with an add-on at the outdoor track in 59:11, then some barefoot strides and a short cooldown for 10mi. Legs were dead after this run, I was probably a little dehydrated going into it. 8PM- 4mi on the Charles solo, felt much better for this run. Foodshopping afterward, then some homework, and now a failed attempt to be asleep by midnight.

Tot- 93 mi
11 Runs
0 core/strength

I know, I know, I gotta stop talking about core/strength work and start DOING it. Have a good week, everybody! If you're running Boston, good luck!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-04T18:53:00.002-04:00

Hello, handful of readers. The weather turned this week, and I hate to admit it, but so did my mood. It's funny what a couple days of nice weather can do to an attitude. I'm writing this blog while I watch Mr. Holland's Opus. I have to write a review of it from a teaching perspective from my education class. I'm not sure why, but it's been really tough to do schoolwork the last couple weeks. I'm starting to feel a little disconnect between what I'm learning and what I want I do. For whatever intelligence I've been given and developed on my own, I don't think I'm a particularly academic type. Reading about Gardner's Intelligences and Rothstein and Payne and looking at theoretical case studies doesn't give me any particular satisfaction. I like being able to look at a problem, solve the problem, evaluate my solution, do something better, and so on, etc. I don't really know where I'm going with this- other than expressing a little burnout with theory and background. I don't mind doing a lot of reading, or the constant flow of papers and deadlines. I like sitting down and working hard on a challenge that requires intellectual rigor; I don't like working in the hypothetical.

Anyway, no one wants to hear an undergrad whining. Cathartic as it is, it doesn't have anything to do with running!

Here's my log from the week:

Monday: 12:30PM- 7mi east in some miserable-ass wind and rain.
9:30PM- 5mi easy indoors.

Tuesday: AM- 30:30 shakeout indoors, downpouring again. 3:30PM- Bruce and I decided to switch up the tempo and intervals this week so I could work out with Eric instead of tempoing in crappy weather alone. 3 up, 2xmile with Eric, 4:43, 4:41 with an 800 jog (led the 2nd 800 of the first mile and the first 1000 of the 2nd mile) then paced Eric through the 1000 of his 3rd mile (2:54) then jogged 3min, gave Bruce some feedback, and in the end, he told me to run another 1000 at 3:00 and stay in an "easy gear." I ran 2:58 and was surprised at how easy the whole workout went. Bruce originally wanted me to shoot for 4xmi at ~4:45 or so, but I got a little out of hand trying to help Eric out. Still, it was a good, solid 5200m of work at ~5k gear. I'm pleased with the way my fitness is progressing. 3mi down.

Wednesday- PM- 8mi solo after student teaching. The kids were taking exams today, so I got to sit in the back of the room and pretend to read a book while sneakily making sure no one was cheating. I caught a couple texters but no major offenses.

Thursday- 4PM- 10mi easy on the River, got down to ~6:15s or so for a lot of the second half of the run. The weather probably had a lot to do with it! Drills on Nickerson after.
10:30PM- 4mi easy on the River alone, tough to get going but glad I got it in. Core/strength

Friday- 1PM- 6mi easy with Eric to Brookline Res and back. Took the T to the bus station then the bus back home. 7PM- At Hood Field, my old summer standby for workouts. Continuous run with a 4mi tempo section included: 3mi up, 19:46, 4mi tempo, 20:55 (5:26, 5:16, 5:11, 5:02) nice and easy. The field has seen a lot of rain lately, so I ran barefoot and got to splash through the mud in the puddles, which made it fun even if it slowed me down quite a bit. It was pretty dark by the time I finished, so I jogged a mile and headed home for dinner. I averaged 5:14s through the mud, compared to 5:22s two weeks ago for a tempo at the perfect firm dirt of the Brookline Res, so I was pleased to see yet another solid indicator of progression.

Saturday- 12pm- 5mi easy on the railroad beds, warm out. 5:30PM- 10mi easy, through some monster hills on the backroads of Derry.

Sunday- 14mi easy around Beaver Lake and Cross St a couple times, warm with a strong sun. I didn't drink enough (or anything, actually) before this run, so I paid for it.

Tot 92mi
12 runs
1 core/strength session
1 day of drills
0 strides

Getting better at incorporating at the nitty gritty stuff. This week I want 2 of each extra session in addition to continuing the momentum I've built up. On the docket for this week is a harder tempo tomorrow and then some kind of interval work on Thursday, I think. Hope everybody's outdoor seasons are going well!

Turning it Around

2010-03-28T21:54:00.002-04:00

Hi, all. Running went much better this week, which made it easier to stomach how crappy school, student teaching, and work is going. I don't have anything to say, really, so I guess I'll just include the log and leave it at that.

Oh, I did witness a hit and run accident walking home from work. The guy who got hit drove after the dude who hit him, screaming murder. I'm not sure if I hope chased got away or got brought to justice for hitting and running.

Anyway, here's the log:

Monday- 12PM- 7mi moderate, felt good after ten minutes and just starting squeezing down the pace. Ended up at about ~5:30 for the last 8min or so, then added on a 2:30 half on the outdoor track (78.x/71.x) for the heck of it. 8:30PM- 4mi easy on the river, felt good.

Tuesday- AM- 29' easy indoors, downpour out- I was going to do a hill workout in the morning but decided to put it off til the afternoon in case the rain tapered off a little. PM- Rain tapered off just barely, did 3+ warmup, then did 6x80 seconds up Summit Ave in Brookline (which is a ridiculous hill!) and would have died of bootylock but for a small booty. Ran steady back to the indoor track (about 8min the way I went) then did 6x200 cutdowns with a 200 jog, starting at 33 and cutting down to 30 (200 rest jogs in 50-55). Pretty solid day, short c/d.

Wednesday- 3:30PM- 9mi easy after a day of student teaching and napping through the start of my afternoon class (whoops!). Felt pretty good after the nap, felt like trash covered in crap before the nap. Ran to Jamaica Pond with a nice big group, averaged about 6:40s.

Thursday- AM- 4 easy, very stiff first 10min but good thereafter. PM- West on the Charles with a big group, was very surprised to run 6:40s and have it feel so slow. Had just enough time to rinse off and hightail it to work.

Friday- 3:30PM- Bruce took a page right out of his own book (Speed With Endurance, which he co-wrote with Bill Squires) and assigned me a "Long Run with Movements" which is Squires' way of saying a long ass fartlek. 20min easy, 15min moderate, then 2-4-6-6-4-2 hard with equal steady rest. I ran laps around Fresh Pond (~2.45mi) and ran the one I looked at in 13:20 including rest. The trail was soft and muddy with all the rain, so I'll conservatively say 5min pace on the ons and 6min pace for the rests. All in all the fartlek took 48min, or something just over 8.5mi. Ran an 11min steady cool down for a 15+ mile run in 94 min, tired but too hungry to run slower. Felt pretty good about this workout- my weak little aerobic capacity is slowly getting better.

Saturday- AM- 4 mi very slow, some with the guys as they warmed up for their interval work. Heavy, heavy legs. PM- 51min very slow, most cooling down with Peter and Eric after their workout. Heavy legs, especially quads.

Sunday- 1mi easy, then met up with Eric for ~9mi easy with Eric around Fresh Pond (17:40) legs pretty heavy still. Eric stopped once he had done 9, I pressed on and built the pace the last 4mi, ending at 6:03 for the last mile and running harder than I thought 6min pace required. Last 4mi in ~25:30. Very, very tired after this, despite a great night's sleep on Friday. Ate and ate and ate then went to work and ate and ate some more.

Tot- 88mi
11 runs
Two very solid workouts
0 core/strength sessions
0 drill sessions

Goal for next week: Maintain volume/quality but be more diligent about doing some drills, strides, and finishing two 30min core/strength circuits.

A Busy Week

2010-03-22T17:15:00.002-04:00

Hello, readers. It seems to happen that college happens in bursts. By that, I mean work across classes tends to bunch together, employment weeks go in cycles of nothing followed by extreme business, etc. I had one of those weeks last week (hence the late blog). Last week, I had 1) work most every day, 2) two papers 3) a group project 4) an educational policy seminar and 5) re-implemented quality running back into my training.

None of those things are particularly bad, but in conjunction and combined with some really crappy sleep, last week really kicked my ass. This week should be marginally better and hopefully as a result I'll start feeling better on runs and maybe even get some decent sleeping done.

Log:

Monday- 5mi easy in between classes. I could have run later in the evening but chose dinner and studying instead.

Tuesday- AM- 4mi easy, solo- didn't wake up quite early enough to get my tempo in before lecture. Felt pretty good, though- the weather turned from cold and rainy to warm and sunny, so I was happy. PM- 3mi up with some of the guys, then a solo 4mi tempo at the Brookline Reservoir, a 1500m dirt path. I ran 20:05 for 6k (starting at 5:05 and cutting down gradually to 4:54) then added on 90 seconds to make sure I covered 4mi. It was a pretty easy effort except for my back got increasingly sore throughout the tempo- I had slept on it funny the night before and the faster running made it act up. Stopped for a minute to stretch my left quad, which was a little tight, then ran 3mi home.

Wednesday- 12:30PM- Snuck in 9mi to Fresh Pond and back between a policy seminar and my afternoon class. Missed lunch and a meeting with my adviser, but it was 65 out and sunny! I was surprised at how sore the front of my quads were, though. 10PM- Hit up the river loop after work, 4mi easy. Quads still pretty sore.

Thursday- 3:30PM- River West loop with a pretty big group of guys. Nicest weather in a long time- about 65, sunny, slight breeze. Quads still pretty heavy, which I didn't expect, but the weather more than made up for it. Most of the guys did 7, Peter and I did the full loop.

9:30PM- River loop after work again, felt pretty good, but quads still heavier than I'd prefer.

Friday- 3:30PM- 3mi up to the BC Res, then a random fartlek- 9min @ tempo pace (split 8:15 through the lap, which is ~5:18 pace), 2min jog, 4x75sec w/1:45 jog, then a 5min run starting at tempo and building the pace until the last minute was close to all out. Covered well over 5mi in 28min- stopped for a minute to catch my breath, then jogged home very slowly. It was sunny about ~75 and I was definitely unused to that kind of heat. Not a particularly good workout, but not awful either. Probably 11mi but I logged it as 10. Killer core session with Peter afterward.

Saturday- 2pm- 10 mi easy, first 7 or so with James. Felt like timing the run today- 66:37 for the somewhat short 10mi version of the river loop. The sun was beating down a little, but I was loath to complain about the heat after being so sick of winter. 7PM- 3mi easy with some of the guys cooling down from their workout on the track.

Sunday- 9AM- Attempted a 14miler but felt so tired and awful (really bad sleep, school stress, bathroom issues) that I just called it at 9miles with everybody else. Ran with Peter, James, and special guest star Kevin Gilmore, Peter's twin.

Tot- 77 mi
11 runs
1 core session
No drills
No strides

Not a great week, but not an awful week given the outside interference. This week will be better- or so I keep telling myself!

Yup, It Was Bronchitis

2010-03-14T20:48:00.002-04:00

A visit my doctor back home on Monday confirmed what I suspected. Bacterial bronchitis, a pretty bad case. The doc gave me an in-office nebulizer treatment, where you put a mask and breathe this gas that makes you cough up all that crap in your lungs. Then he gave me an inhaler (which I think I used once, because I was afraid of benefiting from the steroids) and some antibiotics. It took a couple days of nice easy jogging, but I finally feel back to normal and I'm looking forward to getting back into real training this week.

Here's my log:

Monday- 8mi jog back in Derry, NH on some muddy, muddy trails. Ran a measured 8 without the watch- but it was laughingly slow.

Tuesday- Measured road 8 through some of Derry's hillier backroads. No watch again, but felt considerably better today. Going up the hills triggered some wet hacking, but, as my doctor pointed out happily, it was a "productive cough" which mean I was spitting up neon green crap from my lungs. Too much info?

Wednesday- 1PM- Back in Boston, ran the 8mi river loop solo, felt like I had progressed by leaps and bounds overnight. The beautiful weather probably helped! 7PM- 4mi river loop solo again, beautiful weather again, felt great, again!

Thursday- 8mi easy up Comm Ave to the BC Res, ran two laps (5k), ran back, added on 5min indoors. Afterward, did a strength circuit- pushups, a bunch of core, some body-weight squats (normal and one-legged), lunges, some back exercises, etc. The actual amount of exercise was so paltry that the soreness I suffered over the next two days was more embarrassing than anything.

Friday- 10am- 9mi out and back with Eric on Comm Ave. Joke as you will, but my ass and quads were DESTROYED from those circuits! 5PM- 4mi barefoot shakeout on the infield of the outdoor track, chilly and windy but not so bad. Did some drills and light strides after to try to work some range of motion back into my protesting butt and legs.

Saturday- 11AM- 9mi easy, some warming up with the guys doing a workout, some on the river with Peter.

Sunday 6PM- Total downpour in Boston! I went to the St. Patrick's Day Parade with two teammates and got soaked and miserable. James, Eric, and I decided to run inside at FitRec with the civilians. We had to choose our poison- Eric ran the whole time on the dreadmill, I ran on the 1/7th of a mile indoor track for 63' min, and James did half n' half. No one particularly enjoyed themselves :)

Totals:
67 Miles
9 runs
2 Strength/Core Circuits
1 Set of Drils

Onto Outdoor track!

Not with a Bang, but with a Fever

2010-03-07T19:59:00.002-05:00

I guess I should apologize to T.S. Eliot for mangling some of "The Hollow Men" for the sake of a half-clever blog title. At least I didn't write a novel-length blog post replete with classical allusion, footnotes, and absolutely impenetrable meaning. On an unrelated-to-running note, I once got into huge trouble with an English teacher for suggesting that "The Waste Land" was actually intentionally impossible and actually meant nothing other than that ol' T.S. wanted to prank all the literary nerds who would spend hours and hours trying to decipher the poem. My other theory is that Eliot was secretly an engineer and wanted to punish all the worthless English majors by writing something so obtuse they would waste months on it.

Anyway. . . unfortunately, after feeling pretty damn invincible after my New England title and subsequent light workout on Tuesday, I woke up Wednesday with a pretty bad fever and what I suspect might be the beginnings of a sinus infection and/or the recurring bronchitis that has been my bane since my senior year of high school. I'll spare the bare summary of the week, mostly because it's depressing to write "off, fever" several days in a row. The long and short of it is that I ran 42 miles in 5 days this week, my fever broke about 4am on Thursday, and my cold has begun to settle into my chest, leaving me a little wheezy and short-winded even during easy runs. I'm not sure weather the wheeze is allergies or bronchitis. Since I'll be home in Derry for Monday and Tuesday, I might try to sneak in a visit to my doctor and get him to listen to my lungs. Ever since I had pneumonia my senior year of high school, my lungs have been particularly susceptible to bronchitis.

In terms of the upcoming outdoor season, I will be redshirting. Due to credit transfer from Keene and my enrollment in a dual degree program at BU, I have to stay at BU until the spring of 2012 anyway. Bruce and I figured we might as well spread my eligibility around a little. We're hoping to get this past XC season back with a medical appeal (since there was about a 3 week period where a cardiologist told me in no uncertain terms that my heart was no condition to run). Redshirting this outdoor season will allow me to save it for my 5th year of school and allow me to get back some much needed consistency and aerobic development.

One of the disadvantages to putting all this stuff out there is I run the risk of not letting my results speak for themselves. I said it many times I wanted to run 4:04 or better this season. I think, physically, I was reasonably close to that kind of shape. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to do that- so it goes. In the end, I PR'd twice in the mile this year, by a combined total of .05 seconds. I lowered my 800 PR by .6 in a one-off relay run, which was nice. I do intend to race outdoors, just, obviously, not for the team.

Here are my goals for the upcoming season:

Process Goals:

1) Establish a consistent core/strength routine carried out 2x/week. This is an area I'm very weak in.

2) Carry out some easy range of motion type drills after my main run each day (skips, high knees, lunges, etc)

3)Stay healthy for an extended period of time by sleeping 8 hours per night and eating 2-3 helpings of vegetables every day (right now I average about 5-7 hours a night and probably 2-3 servings of vegetables every other day).

Performance Goals:

1) Work more on the aerobic side of things by increasing the quantity of my quality work (so, say 5-7 miles of aerobic quality per session instead of 3-4 miles with more intensity) while maintaining a sustainable level of volume.

2) Run a 5k that I consider to be roughly on par with my mile performances thus far.

3) Run one longer road race (8k+) at a higher competitive effort that I've managed to put out thus far.

I think that should be all for now, other than the necessary congratulations that are in order for two of my roommates. Ken Haltom ended his indoor campaign with a 4:09.93 mile in the IC4A prelims, his first sub-4:10 mile. More importantly, he ran an excellent tactical race and ran a strong third quarter- two things he has been working on lately. I think with his speed, the 1500 will hold great things for him outdoors. Second, Jeff Moreau, another resident of 15 Ashford, ran a .01 PR in the 800 in the final of IC4As with his 1:51.47. When I'm down for the count, watching my teammates and roommates excel is one of the few things that brings my spirit up. Since Ken and I were training for the same event, I got to hear all his thoughts about this race unfold over the week (well, until I got too fevery to run). I wish I had a tape recorder of Ken talking about how he wanted to run, because he excelled in every aspect he said he needed to improve. I wish things had gone according to plan for me, too- but I'm glad it worked out for SOMEONE!

I'm on spring break now, which means no student teaching this week, which means I'm going to sleep like I'm gettin' paid for it. Goodnight, internet!

New England Champion

2010-02-28T20:38:00.002-05:00

Well, I had a pretty good week. On Saturday, thanks in large part to the ACC meet being this weekend and Riley Masters chasing a fast mile time in New York, I was able to win the New England title in the mile over a still pretty darn good field (just not quite as excellent as it might have been had Masters and Tim Ritchie from BC been there). Still, though- you can only race the people who show up.

The race was a pretty good competitive effort- I tucked in and just tried to stay out of trouble. The pace wasn't anything particularly hot- 63.8, 2:07.0, 3:08.8, 4:08.57- a .04 PR and my second little shave of the season. I had to make one defensive move in lane 2 just after 800 to tuck into a good spot, then waited until about 150 to go to kick for home. I ended up winning by a handful yards, about .6 up on Pat Fullerton, who hopefully got his mark for DII nationals with his 4:09.19.

I watched the race on flotrack afterward, and the commentators mentioned this blog. It's nice to know I'm not just shouting into cyberspace :p It was a relief to finally win a damn race-- I was 3rd in the NE mile two years in a row. Besides, after a season of running backwards in the last half of the race, it was satisfying to run a significant negative split PR (2:07.0-2:01.5). Next week is the IC4A mile, and I'm hoping to PR again- maybe even by more than fractions of an eyeblink!

Unfortunately, non-running stuff isn't going quite as well. My easy fall semester has reared its karmic fangs and bit me firmly where my butt would be if I didn't run as much as I did. I swear, too, that professors plan to make their papers and projects due on the same day. Bah, who am I kidding- I procrastinate like I work for the government. Right now I have a paper on Plato's philosophy of learning I need to write for 9am tomorrow. What am I doing? Writing this blog and watching Family Guy.

I guess it goes to show you can't take a college kid's complaint at face value. Well, screw it. I didn't do any homework this week, but I got to win a race, set a PR, and my mom and siblings got to see it!

Here's the race:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236628/310046

Here's the interview flotrack did after the race:

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/236628/310053-craig-macpherson-1st-mile-new-enland-championships

Log-

Monday- Noon- 4mi solo shakeout in between classes, right hamstring pretty sore, decided not to double.

Tuesday- 10mi easy with Ken, big group for the first 3mi, Eric for 7. Felt much better today.

Wednesday- 7:30PM- Busy day student teaching and afternoon class. Downpoured all day. 30 minute walks to and from class sucked. 25min up, 3-2-1, 1-2-3 with 300 jog rest, then 6min jog, and 4x150.

300 45 (target 45)
200 30 (target 29)
100 14 (target 14)
100 14 (target 14)
200 29 (target 29)
300 43.3 (target 45)

4x150- 20.2-20.9 (target 21)

3mi down. Felt good, ran with James, who also had class.

Thursday- 3:30PM- 9mi easy in a cold, windy downpour with Ken and some of the freshmen. Not the funnest run I've had in a while. 9:30PM- 30min solo shakeout indoors. Sick of being perpetually damp all day.

Friday- 11AM- 5 miles, some with Erin, strides, two miles with Peter and Andrea. 7 tot. Watched my self-appointed press secretary, Kevin Gilmore (Peter's twin brother) ran an 8 second PR in the 5k- 15:20 with a 29.x last lap. Then he hacked my dyestat account. Then he spilled maple syrup all over his pants like an ass. Who gets in the way of maple syrup? It spills in slow motion!

Saturday- All Division New England Championships- 3mi up, mile race 4:08.57 PR, win, 4mi down with Ken. Later that afternoon- 4mi shakeout with Ellie, who lied and ran fast.

Sunday- 7 easy with Ken before work. I thought about going longer, but my season has one more week, then I'm getting back into mileage. I think at this point staying fresh and sharp is the name of the game.

Tot- 63 miles.

Thank you to everyone who reads this! Hope everyone has a great end to their season!

Conference Championships

2010-02-21T17:24:00.003-05:00

Well, it wasn't difficult for this week to be better than last. We had the America East Conference meet, which ended up being pretty fun. I took part in a very nervous, jostle-y, fartlek-y kind of mile- everyone and their dad was making moves at random times and I would bounce to the front of the chase pack to the back without feeling like I had changed pace at all. The mile field was quite good- there a sub-4 miler in Erik Van Ingen (whose beard impressed this facial hair aficionado almost as much as his seemingly-effortless 4:04 victory), two jumped 800 meter runners from Albany who had run in the 1:49-1:50 range for 800 and in the 4:06 range for the mile, and Alex Felce, a former English Schools 1500m champion, who Eric tells me has run 8:53 in the steeple at one point. I actually felt terrible from the gun and had one of those "grit your teeth and grind it out one lap at a time" races. It was a very good effort on my part- but, unfortunately, the best I could do was 5th place, behind all the very talented gentlemen I just mentioned. My time was 4:09.8, which was disappointing, but I was glad I "hung in there" mentally when I felt terrible, especially after the way I folded like a bad poker hand like week. I actually believe the race played out fairly close to the on-paper seedings, which is neither good nor bad. On one hand, I would liked to beat some of the guys who on paper were faster runners. On the other hand, at least I didn't run worse than "expected." Bruce keeps telling me (because I seem to have trouble getting it through my thick skull) that the only thing you can control on race day is your own effort. Even though the time wasn't quite what I hoped for and my place less than what I wanted, my effort was good, so I'm taking this as a positive step.

The real money of the weekend, though, was the 4x800. I ran 2nd leg and surprised myself with a 1:53.6 split, significantly faster than my open PR of 1:54.11. My legs felt pretty awful after the mile, but as soon as that baton hit my hand, I knew it would be a solid leg. My opening quarter of 56.4 was the fastest 400 I've run in over a year, haha. Also, the splits are from Bruce, so they're more accurate than F.A.T. timing. Since I won't be doing any open 800s for a good while, I'm counting it as an asterisk'd PR! That we won the relay in 7:38 made my PR leg all the sweeter. Relays are always fun, especially at meets like a conference championship.

Anyway, the log-

Monday- 70' easy with Ken and James, more than 10mi but eh, who wants to measure things.

Tuesday- 5PM- Solo workout after class- 3 up, 2x(800, 600, 400) then 4x200, all with about 300 jog (90 seconds or so).

800- 2:14 (target 2:16)
600- 1:38.5 (target 1:39)
400- 63 (target 63)

800- 2:14 (target 2:16)
600 1:39.0 (target 1:39)
400- 62 (target 63)

4x200- 29s (target 29s)

All in all, a good workout- somewhat shorter rest than normal, but the paces were much less aggressive. I love doing this type of work, it makes me feel strong and easy. 3mi down, mostly with Fish. ~10mi tot

Wednesday- 11AM- No student teaching today because Mass has winter break! 9mi easy, first 7 or so with Eric. Nice weather, felt good. 9PM- 31' shakeout indoors, definitely more than 4 but who cares.

Thursday- 9PM- 56' easy indoors, really busy day! I signed some forms to pursue two degrees simultaneously (Secondary Education and English Literature) so that was fun. Felt pretty good.

Friday- 7mi easy before Day 1 of the meet. Felt ok.

Saturday- America East Day 2- 3 up, mile race 5th place 4:09.8 (2:04.9 at the half, but that doesn't do the very uneven, pace changey nature of the race justice). Decent last quarter to avoid getting too buried. 2mi down. 1 hr rest. 2mi up, 4x800 leg 2- 1:53.6 (56.4/57.2) lost contact with the guy I was racing, but came back a bit in the last 50m. Good competitive effort, nice PR. 3.5 down, 12 tot.

Sunday- 13 easy with Eric, some with Ken, James, Peter, and Tom Osbourne. Felt ok, but my quads were really heavy by the end.

tot 73

Next on the horizon is the mile at the All-Division New England Championships- I'm still optimistic about a good mile in these legs!

Valentine's

2010-02-14T14:19:00.002-05:00

Well, I'll get right into it. I DNF'd the Valentine meet. I felt like crap from the gun, got gapped early, was out faster than I had hoped, questioned myself, got down on myself, and stopped. I don't have any excuses, explanations, or commentary beyond that. No amount of bitching or whining is going to undo it, so I might as well stop mewling and focus on making sure the rest of my season goes well.

Log-

Monday- AM- 4 easy with Eric. 5PM- 3 up, 2x500 76, 76, 2x1000 2:47, 2:47, 2x500, 76, 75 with a couple minutes jog in between. 3 down- felt pretty good.

Tuesday- AM 4 easy PM- 10 easy with Rob and Peter mostly, ran out to the Country Club and ran around the golf course for a while.

Wednesday- PM- 8 easy, solo. School got canceled because of an impending blizzard that turned into a sissy storm, so I got to sleep in.

Thursday- 3 up, 2x(5x150) untimed with Ken, 150 jog between each, 800 jog between the sets, 2miles down, 8 tot.

Friday- 7 miles easy, some with Eric.

Saturday- 3 up, Valentine Mile DNF, 2:01 at 800. 4 miles down.

Sunday- 9 miles easy around Fresh Pond with Eric, Peter, Elliot, and Tom Osbourne. Felt ok, nice weather out. Trying really hard not to get down on myself.

There you have it. An uninteresting blog entry. At the very least I've given some people in New Hampshire something to delight in.

Scritch, Scratch

2010-02-07T16:37:00.002-05:00

I'm leaving for a Superbowl gathering with the lads soon, but I've got a fair bit to say this week, so pardon the rush in posting this:

Log-

Monday- 60min solo regeneration run after class, we can call it a healthy 8mi.

Tuesday- 3:30PM- 3 up, then into the milers for the "MacPherson Workout" which Bruce made up on the spot and named after me. Why? Who knows. 2min jog rest between everything.

"MacPherson"

500 1:18 (target 1:18-19)
300 45 (target 44-45)
300 44.7 (")

500 1:22 (target 1:22)
400 62 (target 63)
300 43.7 (target 44-45)

150 20.2 (no targets given)
150 19.4
150 19.7
150 19.0

(extra 2min jog)

500 1:16 (target: "run it without a care in the world, and marvel at how slow it feels after the 150s") 2min standing rest on this one to marvel sufficiently.

300 44.0 (target 44-45)
300 42.8 (target 43-44)

25min cooldown with Peter.

All in all, a pretty good workout. My gears are slowly coming back. 11 mi tot.

Wednesday- 58min easy River Loop at night with James, 8mi. Pretty nice out, not too windy and warm- about 25deg.

Thursday- AM- 4mi easy indoors, some with Kat, a grad student/volunteer. PM- 3 up, 10x150 in spikes with Ken and James, avg 21.5, took an easy 200 jog for rest. It was after this run that my lower left back, left hip, left groin, and left hamstring all started to crap out on me. They had been a little sore for a few days, but things really made themselves known when I was expending a little more energy to turn over with good form. 3 mi down.

Friday- 7 miles easy with a huge group, 47:30, left hip/back very bad until about 3mi in, then it felt ok until I did 8x100 strides w/100 jog after the run.

Saturday- Scratched from my planned 1000 and 4x800 double at the Battle of Beantown against Harvard, BC, and Northeastern. Team did really well- 2nd to Harvard and a thrilling 4x800 relay victory. Bruce said not to worry about my back and hip yet and just rest it.

Sunday- Ok, going this far might not have been the greatest idea I had, but I ran for an easy 90min with Eric (with a nice collection of teammates with us for varying lengths as well). I barely felt my back and didn't feel my hip at all- so I'm glad I didn't push things yesterday when Valentine and the America East Championships are in the next two weekends. I'm confident of my fitness and that my results will be very good in the coming weeks.

tot- 59 on the week.

Other stuff:

So on Saturday night, I got to attend the Boston Indoor Games with most of the BU guys and gals. It was awesome being about 10ft away from the pros. The 5000 was a truly impressive race, with Lagat leading early and Rupp trying to steal the show with a K left. Rupp tossed in like a 60-61 400 and really strung things out- for a guy who looked like he was about to throw up, I thought he made a really impressive bid to win the race. Lagat's last 400 was quite impressive as well- he just looks so damned effortless when he's running. What was especially awesome was that we just happened to be sitting next to marathon coach and US legend Bill Squires, who provided commentary for us the entire time. We even got to host a Kiwi miler (not Willis. . . but a friend of his!) at 15 Ashford St because he needed a couch on which to crash. All in all, it was a damn fun weekend that not even a bad back and a missed race could ruin.

Ok, this is enough- I'm off, now, and I'm sure I'll regret saving a bunch of homework until after the Superbowl! A nap will be in order tomorrow after class.

Have a great week, everyone- run FAST!

-Craig

By the Slimmest of Margins

2010-01-31T17:26:00.003-05:00

Hello, all. This week was marked early on by lethargy and frustration, got stressful towards the middle, then ended on a pretty darn promising note. Since I have no advice this week nor philosophy to natter about, here's what I did this week:

Monday- 3:30PM- 50 degrees out, downpour. Ran a very easy, regenerative 5mi with Madeleine, a miler on the women team and my roommate Sean's girlfriend, 40min. Good set of strides and a couple minutes of jogging to make it 6mi on the day.

Tuesday- AM- solo River Loop from the house, 4mi, felt good- it was 40deg and sunny out! 8PM- Long day of trying to figure out class schedule/degree requirements/class. 3 up, 3x(500, 400, 300) in (1:19, 62, 46) (1:19, 62, 47) (1:22, 64, 45) with about 90sec jog rest. Felt terrible, hit the times (barely) then couldn't maintain the pace at the requisite effort. Huge hit to the confidence for Saturday. 1mi down, too hungry and tired to care about doing more.

Wednesday- OFF- workouts weren't clicking, I wasn't sleeping well, and I was feverish for a couple days. I hadn't taken a day off in about 30 days, so I figured, ah, what the hell.

Thursday- 3:30PM- 3 up, 8x150 in victories with a minute jog rest. Felt good and ran fast! 19.9, 19.9, 19.1, 19.4, 19.5, 19.5, 19.4, 18.7- all hand timed, standing start, rounded up to the nearest tenth. 3mi down. It felt GREAT to run quick but easy. This made me think I was coming out of my funk, just in time to toe the line at Terrier.
10PM- 38min shakeout after work indoors, definitely feeling stronger/less feverish/excited to race.

Friday- 5mi easy indoors with a big group (ok, it was like 0 deg out and windy and we all wussed out. Sue us!) then a bunch of strides in victories, then a 10min cooldown for 7mi on the day.

Saturday- 12:45PM- 3 up, 1mi race- 4:08.61 PR by 1/100th of a second- which is the reasoning behind this entry's title- ~7mi down with the Gilmore twins. Bruce thought I was ready for the fast heat, which was encouraging, because he doesn't believe in putting runners way over their ability level and hoping for the best. I decided before the race that there was really only one way to approach a race like this: I was going to commit to the pace and just try to ride the train as long as possible, get dragged to a PR, and try my best to relax at a much faster clip than I was used to. Given that my workouts had gone very poorly (that 64 last 400 I ran on Tuesday was about as tough a 400 as I have run lately) I could have probably asked Bruce to move me down a heat, go through 1200 in 3:08 and kick to run 4:07 or so. However, I saw that as counterproductive. Terrier isn't a scored meet, I didn't have anything to lose by taking a risk, so I committed aggressively. My splits, courtesy of Eric, were 60.5, 2:01.4, 3:03.7, then 4:08.61- yes, that's a 64.9 second last 400.

However, I'm encouraged by the result instead of dissatisfied. I've never run quite that fast a pace in the mile before. I essentially just attached myself to the back of the pack and made several moves to go around fading runners and keep myself tethered to the group. Bruce had some encouraging observations as well- he said I displayed good instincts in making the moves to get around faders, that I made the most out of my last 400 even though I was clearly drained, and that while I went out a little too aggressively for my fitness at the moment, it was good to make the commitment, experience the pace, stay up as long as I could, and fight hard the last quarter without flailing and slowing myself down. I think I'm about 2-3 weeks away from the fitness to tolerate a 3:03 1200 and have enough left to close it down.

The race actually reminded me of one Eric ran last year. In the first mile he committed to a fast pace, he went through the 1200 in about 3:03-3:04 and ran 4:10. 6 days later, he went through 1200 in 3:03-3:04 and ran 59.x to set his PR of 4:03.0x. Obviously, not much changed in those 6 days in terms of his fitness- but the 2nd time around, he was better prepared to handle the pace. Eric and I tend to be fairly similar runners in terms of our racing results, and so I take encouragement from the fact that he was able to rebound from a rough last quarter off a 3:03 pace with a large PR not long after that. I'm confident I am physically capable of a 4:03ish mile in the next month or so. My task in the next month, then, is to stay on top of things like sleep and schoolwork so I can continue working hard and recovering.

Sunday- 12:30PM- 90min easy up around Fresh Pond with a huge group including guest star and BU alum Dave Proctor, fresh off his 8:03 PR in the 3k the night before. Always nice to have Dave visit!

Tot- 62

Adieu, for the week- there were a lot of great results from Terrier- check 'em out! I'm off to get started on the massive pile of homework I put off til after Terrier.

Reintroduction to Mile Pace

2010-01-24T14:02:00.002-05:00

Hi, everyone. No rambling philosophy blog today. The plan for the week was to 1) reintroduce mile-paced stuff into the training mix and 2) cut down on volume by a little bit to accommodate my class schedule and keep the legs fresh for workouts and racing. I did both of those things, but forgot an important component of in-season training. During your base building periods, there's nothing wrong with running at a fairly moderate effort most days because there's nothing to recover from. In other words, because the aerobic fartleks and the like don't take too much out of me, I can run 6-6:30 pace and have that be a pretty easy run. However, in season, when the workouts are more specific and challenging, my easy days need to reflect that increase in intensity. Peter Snell, for example, has said that his weekly 22-miler over mountains might be 5:45-6:15 pace in the base building phase but that he would cover the exact same course a minute per mile or more slower when he was doing it during the hill and coordination phases.

This lengthy explanation is a long-winded way of saying I got caught up in a commonality of large group training, which is to say that due to a combination of cutting volume a little bit and a large group of guys to run I ran too fast on my rest days this week, and am paying for it now. I was able to run 6:20 pace or so on my "recovery days" (keep in mind the footing in Boston is pretty bad right now- on firm ground it was probably more like 6:00 pace) and hit the workouts fine, but the tank is empty now. I pushed my workout yesterday back to today and still had to cut the workout short. Bruce isn't overly concerned. With some extra sleep, a few good meals, and a couple days rest, I'll be fine for Terrier in 6 days.

The log:

Monday- 3:30PM- 8 miles easy indoors, forgot my winter gear and wasn't too sad that I got to stay wahm and dry.

Tuesday- 7AM- 4 easy before class. 3:30PM 58:34 easy/moderate with a big group through Cambridge. Added on a little indoors for insurance, but probably covered 9mi in about 56 minutes. Didn't feel too good doing it, either.

Wednesday- 5pm Long day of class, then to the track for a solo workout. 3 up, then 2x600 4 min rest, 2x400 with 2 and 3min rest, 2x500 with 3min rest, 2x200 with 2min rest.

600 1:31.7
600 1:29.6

400 59.7
400 61.0

500 1:18
500 1:18

200 29.5
200 28.0

3+ cooldown. Pretty tough workout to do solo! I felt ok, relaxed a little too much on the 500s but it's better to be slightly conservative, I think. Bruce said I looked pretty good, so that's something. It was nice to feel that acidy burn in the arms again.

Thursday AM- overslept til noon (went to bed at 12:30). 3:30PM- 60:22 easy, Marky Mark loop plus add on. Didn't feel so hot. 9:30PM- 31min easy with James indoors after work. Felt good to run slow- wish I had been as disciplined on Tuesday and Friday.

Friday- 3:30PM- 10 easy/moderate downtown, 65min total for what was likely, again, 10.1-10.2. I had planned on running a slow 90 min, but after running pretty hard from 40min to 65min, I just gave up on adding on.

Saturday- 11am- Slept 10 hours, warmed up 20min and had no legs for a workout. Just felt terrible- kind of achy, sluggish, sore all over. Talked to Bruce, who told me to push it back a day, then jogged a few minutes for 4mi.

Sunday- 9:30AM- slept 9 hours, felt pretty decent when I woke up. Warmed up and didn't feel good or bad, did some strides, didn't feel fast or slow. The planned workout was 1200 at mile pace + 2 seconds/400, 800 at mile pace, then 1000 with the first 800 at 2 seconds slower /400 then close the last lap in the 29-30 range. Bruce gave me conservative targets for "mile pace" based on how I felt and I still felt like I was pressed too hard through the 600, so I stopped and jogged a little. Then I asked Bruce if I could run some 600s at 34/200 with the longer distance guys. I did 2 of them and even those felt too tough for appropriate workout effort, so I just stopped. 5 tot

Week tot 63

So, basically, if I were to email myself with this week's log, I would fire myself back an email scolding me for getting caught up in my teammates' "feeling good days" and running too steady during recovery, especially given the increase in intensity of the workouts. I think the hole I dug for myself isn't very deep- my last two days have been very light. Tomorrow afternoon, I'll decide whether complete rest or a slow 45min shakeout will benefit me more, then do a nice easy day Tuesday afternoon after student teaching, then try a lighter workout on Wednesday. I'm not particularly concerned because unlike my past reactions to this crap, I'm listening to my body this time and playing it safe. I'm definitely going to lose the "most impressive log" this indoor season, but I'm hoping some good races are the consolation prize ;)

Good luck to everyone who's racing this and next weekend! If you're going to be at Terrier, say hi!

-Craig

Rust Buster

2010-01-17T19:22:00.003-05:00

Well hello there, internet. Has it been a week already? Between classes starting, a rust buster race, and a unexpected taste of spring, I hadn't noticed.

In light of my attempt to be more interesting, here are some thoughts that may or may not digress from running. But hey, come on- I'm not a running machine, tiny audience!

Please excuse, then, this brief digression. Much like Derek Zoolander, I'm not much of a philosophizer, especially when it comes to running. I'm not much one for analysis and I generally avoid questioning things too deeply. I think Kenny Moore and John Parker said most of what there was to say about motivation and analysis, but occasionally, something (usually outside the realm of running) strikes me as related to this hobby of mine. With your patience, I continue:

I came across this quote at the beginning of an MGMT video and it didn't take long for me to connect it to running and runners. Mistakenly attributed to Mark Twain, it was written by Friedrich Nietzsche, who isn't one of my favorite thinkers because he's so damn smug about his atheism. Generally, I don't have a problem with people whose religious views differ from mine, but I dislike evangelicals- whether they're baptists or ardent atheists. Anyway. . . the quote runs thus: "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster, and if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

This might be the long-winded English major in me, but this struck a chord with me. Readers of Parker might make the connection between the monsters in Nietzsche's quote and the demons from which Parker's Quenton flees. There's a measure of fear and mortality in distance training, I think. Tom Derderian wrote an article years ago about the connection between death and runners. It does seem strange that the kinship should exist, especially when so much of being a good runner is control, relaxation, and acceptance. I think if you had to pinpoint the connection, it would be in the acceptance both attributes require. It's easy to see how becoming too preoccupied with the demons that impel us to train like we do would be disastrous. It's why I've always said the existential angst put forth by many of our number should be reserved for high school sophomores and musicians. I certainly don't consider it daily or even monthly, unless something like Nietzsche's quote makes me confront it.

However, it is the second part of Nietzsche's sentence that got me going. ". . . if you gaze for long into an abyss, the aybss gazes also into you." I think the solitary nature of training changes us. As others have noted, we devote huge amounts of time and energy (mental, physical, and emotional) to improving fractionally. We stare into the abyss of infinity more often than most citizens of this republic of ours, and we're confronted with our limits whenever we give forth a truly maximum effort. I think the annealing or the callousing of distance runners occurs during this unblinking gaze into infinity.

What, pray tell, does all these mean? I'd be bullshitting everyone if I said anything other than "I haven't a goddamned clue." So, for honesty's sake, I haven't a goddamned clue what all this means. It was just something that occurred to me as I was walking home from the dining hall. I don't have the capacity for greater insight that any reasonably serious runner doesn't have, save perhaps a certain shamelessness in wondering out loud. I should stop, I think, before I give the impression that I'm a cerebral nutcase. The 99.99% of the time I am not writing here, I think very little about my running. When I'm actually running, I don't think I think about it at all.

You know what? Here's the log for the week:

Monday- Noon- 3 up, 8x400 indoors with a huge group, trading the lead, avg about 63.6, with 1:40 jog rest, 3 down. Bruce gave us the option to do up to 10, but with my workout two days ago then a decent long run, I decided caution was the better part of valor. Wore my milers, did hurdle mobility with Eric and Peter after. Very easy workout, felt really good.
7PM- 36min indoors solo, a conservative 5mi.

Tuesday- 3PM- 10mi River Loop in 69, first 7 with James. 9PM- 36 minutes easy indoors with James, probably closer to 5.5 but whatever. Insurance mileage!

Wednesday- Classes started today and of course I didn't wake up early enough to run before my first class. 1PM- Misjudged the loop I was doing from the house, 58min solo, pretty easy pace, meant to do 45-50min. 9PM- A pizza-stuffed 46min post work run + 4x150 buildups indoors in milers and a less-than-smooth 200 in 29.7. A cautious 15 on the day.

Thursday- 4:30PM- 3 up, mile race in a Multi-Team meet vs Umass Amherst and Sacred Heart. I ran 4:12.94 to just barely eke out my teammate Rob Gibson for the win in a very good rust buster. They started the clock by the track late (the timing clock was correct) and while I usually don't look at the clock when I'm racing, I snuck a peek as we went through the 400 and was surprised to see 60-61 since the pace felt very easy. I figured if I stayed smooth and didn't press, I'd stroll through the half about 2:03-2:04 and have myself a pretty decent race. Unfortunately, the reason the "61" felt so easy was that it was really a 65. After a half-mile in 2:11 (which I of course didn't know after the race) a Umass guy took over and drastically stepped up the pace. I waited until we were through 1200 then took the lead and moved hard. I paid for it a little in the last 150, but actually felt really, really strong until about 50m to go when the rig set in. Rob came up on me in the stretch but I was able to barely hold him off, with Rob getting a nice 4:13.00 PR for his efforts. Rough splits (gotten after the fact): 65.5, 2:11.5 (66.0- taken at 805m) 3:14.0 (62.5) 4:12.94 (~59.0) last 805m was 2:01.5, which is a pretty solid close. Last year around this time I ran a 4:11.7, but went through the 800 around 2:04 and rigged. 3 down. 9PM- 4 easy with Peter, Elliot, and Terence, who all set PRs in the 3k (8:25.7, 8:46.9, and 9:05, respectively). Peter looked real good winning from the front.

Friday- 3PM- 8mi River Loop with the whole team for the first time in forever, 53min. 9PM- 4mi River Loop with James, forgot to bring my watch, calves sore near the end.

Saturday- 13 easy with Eric and James through Brookline and Chesnut Hill, mostly, 87:40. Plenty of solid 6:20-6:30 miling here, felt good. 45 DEGREES OUT! That's t-shirt and shorts weather for the first time in a long time!

Sunday- 2pm- Indoor track workout with the middle distance guys. 3 up, 2x(600, 400,800) then 400, 600, 400 with 2:20 jog after the 600s and 400s and 3:20 jog after the 800s.

600 1:34
400 62
800 2:09

600 1:36
400 61
800 2:11

400 61
600 1:32
400 60.5 (Note: Bruce told me to make sure I "stayed well in control" for these last 3 intervals, to which I responded by promising not to go a tenth faster than 60.5. True to form, I hit a controlled 60.50, so there.) 3mi down.

Tot 90

All in all, a great week of training. Before the mile race, running under 33/200 didn't feel hard, necessarily, but it felt both fast and awkward. It was nice to open up just a little today and run a little faster than I have been, and it was equally nice to have that faster running be as easy and in control as it was. I think my next race will be a mile at the Terrier Invitational on the 30th. The rust buster was quite good in that I recovered from it very quickly and closing in 2:01.5 for ~805m didn't feel like anything out of the ordinary.

Well, congratulations! You've made it to the bottom of an obscenely long post! I apologize for any eye strains reading this much on the computer might have caused. I hope everybody is having fun out there!

Change of Plans (Or: Blogs Multiplying like Rabbits)

2010-01-10T19:00:00.002-05:00

Hmm, well, before the log, I think some notes are in order. In the last couple weeks or so, there's been an explosion of runner blogs on the interwebs. A few of my teammates and a bunch of the Cortland guys have given into the temptation of the digital age and started blogging.

First, like the xkcd author noted in a comic, the word "blog" is itself ridiculous. I keep expecting it to grow on me, but I don't think I'll ever be able to take something called a "blog" too seriously.

Second, a common complaint I've heard about these online logs is that they serve only to satisfy the ego of the writers. Keeping in mind that my opinion is a little biased, I think that runner blogs aren't inherently self-serving. The cool thing about runners is that we might try our damnedest to smash each other into the tartan during a race, but most runners are happy to cool down with guys from other teams, invite them to functions, train with them in the off-season, etc. I think blogs are a way not only to keep in touch with these friend/rivals but to spread information.

I've never understood the idea that training should be some kind of secret. I'm certainly not foolish enough to think that the workouts that took me to 4:08 are these magical, secret rituals that, if revealed to the world, would result in every 4:20 miler out there dropping down to 4:05 and relegating me to sad anonymity. I don't want to get all John Parker here, but there aren't any secrets to running faster. There are, however, as many specific ways to improve as there are people trying to improve. I've said to questioners from the beginning that if one kid reads something on here, applies it to his or her own running and sees a positive result, then the year of blogging I've done would be entirely worth it. While there might not be "secrets" to improving, there are a lot of passionate, dedicated kids out there who think hammering 30mi a week with 4 interval workouts is the way to the top.

Likewise, I've learned a lot from the running blogosphere over the years. On one hand, we oftentimes tend to view the elite athletes as talented, inhuman freaks. The few elite athletes out there who keep a blog get points in my eyes when they dare to be vulnerable and complain about how they feel. On the other hand, the blogs that I've always found the most useful blogs are the ones kept by the athletes that have clawed their way to respectability. I might not take a specific workout from Ruben Sanca or Shamus Nally, but seeing what they have to say about running or getting to look at a six month block of their training is extremely useful to a guy like me.

I suppose, in short, I've never much worried that someone I race would read what I have to say on here and "figure out how to beat me." It's not tough to "figure out" how to beat someone. Get in the best shape you can, race to the best of your abilities and in accordance with your strengths, and the rest will fall into place. I am a 20 year old running nerd. I don't pretend to have all the answers, or even most of them. In distance running, I've read a lot, figured out some on my own, and been lucky to have some truly great minds to pick. Whether this blog will someday be an early look at elite runner's development, a detailing of a guy who had the tools but crashed and burned, or of just another running nerd whose dreams exceeded his talents is impossible to say now. But thus far, it's been great fun to figure out how fast I can run in circles. I've met some really cool people, done some cool things, and I'm committed to see this thing through for a while. I hope that no matter what my lifetime PRs end up being, the journey I detail helps a couple people.

I guess what all this rambling means (I'm shuddering to think of the email I'll get from Kevin about being long-winded) is that I want to be better about blogging and not just recording what I did for the week. So, in one eensy bit of news, I'm not redshirting indoor track. Bruce and I had a chat and we agreed this was better- and I'm pumped! After my cross country season, I was a little disappointed that it would be April before I could put on a Boston singlet and contribute directly to the team. I mean, I wasn't upset about getting the chance to train hard through the winter, race a couple times, and come out swingin' in the spring, but I'm much happier to be racing in a Boston uniform.

Anyway, FINALLY, here's the log:

Monday- AM- Easy River Loop with James, 4mi, 30min- slippery. PM- 65:38 moderate, calling it 10 but it's likely that it was a little longer. Ran the 9th-ish mile on the outdoor track in 5:55, closed down with a comfortable 5:31 on the indoor track. Felt great- 6x150 buildups in spikes afterwards.

Tuesday- 12pm- Indoor track with Eric, Elliot, and Peter for a workout. Elliot's been having a little knee trouble, so he did something else. Eric, Peter, and I did 3k, 1500, 1500, with 5min jog after each interval. Our targets were 9:00 and 4:20s, we went 9:04, 4:21, 4:15. 3 miles easy, then did hurdle mobility with Eric and Peter. Great workout- felt easy, wore spikes the whole time and had no trouble at all just coasting through the workout. 6PM- 28min easy indoors with James, felt great.

Wednesday- AM- River Loop + a mile on Nickerson with James. PM- 34min out on Comm Ave away from the City with James, back in 33 to make it ten. Can't seem to get tired this week.

Thursday- AM- 11miles downtown via Comm Ave with James, 74min. PM- Took a bus back to Derry, then some friends and I drove to Farmington, Maine, to visit our friend Dave. I tell you. . . why anyone would want to live that remotely is beyond me.

Friday- 4PM- 50min around a basketball court in Farmington, then about an hour's worth of pickup basketball. As if I needed to be reminded, I'm not very good at basketball. We were playing half-court, which sucked for me, because I couldn't put any endurance to use. My best moment was when my friend Matt (who was on the other team) bumped into me and my bony knee gave him a charlie horse, hobbling his jump shot. Sigh. . .

Saturday- AM- Back to Boston. PM- 3 up, solo workout indoors. Workout was 1200, 600, 600, 1000, 500, 500, 800, 400, 400 with 3min jog after odd-reps and 2min jog after even reps. I hit the targeted splits but felt pretty crappy from travel. Ran 3:29, 1:43, 1:42, 2:52, 1:24, 1:22, 2:13, 66, 62. I felt kind of "stuck" at about 34.5 a lap, but I didn't strain.

Sunday- 2:30PM- 14 easy, solo, 95min. Cold, windy, bad footing- so decent pace. 4x150 buildups in spikes indoors after- the first one was 5:00 pace, maybe, but after that one I loosened up and ran 21-22s comfortably.

Tot 87 miles, 10 runs with one 7mi day. All in all, a very good week with two good workouts. My first race is a mile this Thursday- the meet is low-key, but the competition should actually be pretty good. I'm not sure about what kind of shape I'm in, so my goal is to just put on the spikes and race hard.

Have a good week, everyone!

Down Week and Yearly Totals

2010-01-03T16:39:00.002-05:00

Down weeks are never fun to write about. To avoid the issue for a few paragraphs, here are some fun numbers from the year of 2009.

Total Miles:

~3590 in 365 days

An average of ~9.84 per day and ~68.9 miles in any given 7 day period. This includes 38 days of missed training, mostly due to illness and my much-needed vacation after running stopped being fun this spring.

~24 competitions ranging from 400m to 10mi, ~15 of which (I might be missing a few relay performances) occurred during Jan-March.

I set personal bests in the 600, 800, 1000, mile, and 3000 meters. This entry actually marks the one year of this blog. Ultimately, 2009 proved to be one of the most difficult and most rewarding years in my running career. I upended my life by changing schools and put in a great summer of training, the full benefits of which I don't think I've seen yet. I set personal records over almost all of my primary distances despite a variety of health setbacks. Anway, that's about all the stats I can handle- I've never been much of a numbers guy.

Unfortunately, the log this week isn't very noteworthy. I'm still adjusting to the idea of "down weeks" not brought on by illness or injury. However, my history as an athlete is marked by my feeling good, putting week upon week of hard training in, starting to feel crappy, continuing forward stubbornly with the hard training, and then getting sick and missing 4-10 days of running. I'm trying to make it through to June healthy, so when I woke up feeling crappy Monday morning, I resolved to just run by feel and accept the fact that I would likely not run as far or as fast as I would like to run. Even so, I felt guilty all week for doing less. I'm working on getting better about doing the optimum training, not the maximum.

Monday- Off

Tuesday- Had a workout scheduled- 3mi, 2mi, 1mi- but it was 0deg with 30mph winds in Derry and I figured getting in a quality workout would be tough. Did 10mi moderate on a hilly course instead and was disappointed to see 66min on the watch when I returned. Cold, dark, miserable out.

Wednesday- AM- Drove back to Boston with bad traffic. 6PM- Thought I was too tired to work out, then felt ok after 3mi of running indoors, then decided to try the workout anyway. 3mi tempo in 15:48, felt awful- after this I regretted even trying to work out and just walked back to my apartment. 6 tot

Thursday- 9AM- easy River Loop, solo 3PM- 10mi, 67:30- decent clip, considering I was running through 2-3inches of snow.

Friday- PM- 10mi easy with Peter, portions of it with James, Rob, and Peter's buddy Nick, 71min, very slippery out.

Saturday- AM- worked the Mini-Meet, got to watch Rob and James open up their indoor seasons with 8:26 and 8:51 3k performances, respectively. James won his heat in a PR and Rob cracked a 7month racing hiatus with a 3k that was only a second or so slower than his PR. Great stuff! PM- Another damn snowstorm rolled through, so Bruce nixed the hills we had planned and had Peter and I repeat the 668, 668, 66 workout we did a few weeks ago. He cut the rest from 1:40 to 1:30 after the 600s and 2:10 from 2:20 after the 800s and told us to stay consistent with 34sec laps as opposed to running the last two reps quicker. Targets were 1:42 and 2:16- we alternated leads and went 1:42, 1:42, 2:16, 1:41, 1:41, 2:15, 1:41, 1:38. I felt sluggish on the warmup and after leading the first 600, almost called the workout- but by the first 800, I was running really easily and just strode through the rest of the workout feeling great. Longer c/d to make it 12 on the day. With the rests, I was still averaging about 5:20 for 4-4.5 mi.

Sunday- ANOTHER snowstorm! Roads were awful, and this time, James and I decided we'd rather run 6:40 without slipping instead of more shuffly 7:20s and did our 13mi run in 88:17 entirely indoors. A boring run around the track, sure- but it was nice to run at a reasonable clip.

Tot- 65

I started to come out of my funk mid-way through the workout on Saturday and woke up today feeling like I hadn't worked out at all. My first race got pushed back to the GBTC Invite at Harvard on the 24th, and will probably a mile instead of a 3k.

Hope everybody is staying healthy and adjusting to the cold!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-27T20:15:00.002-05:00

Hi, everyone- hope you all had a nice Christmas. It's always tricky training over break because I seem to have a severe allergic reaction whenever I come home resulting in wheezing, congestion, and sinus issues. Fortunately, they weren't too bad this time and I adjusted to being here relatively quickly. Christmas was good- I got a copy of Running to the Top!

Log-

Monday- AM- 29min easy with Ken, felt good. 12:15PM- Realized I was going to be late to my last final! Booked it, took the final (aced it) ran back for 3mi total. PM- 8mi easy, solo, slums to Mass Ave bridge and a few minutes indoors with Ellie. For my last run of the day I wore my new Nike Marathoners and one of the eyelets bruised the crap out of my right ankle because the shoe was so stiff.

Tuesday- Noon- 65 real easy minutes with Ken downtown and back, snowy out. 5PM- River Loop + a mile on Nickerson solo in the dark, felt really good- would have hammered if not for the really bad footing on the river paths. ~14 on the day.

Wednesday- Back in Derry! 25min up to pick up some of the long distance Pinkerton kids, then 27min of pretty hard tempo over really hilly roads, 18min down. Felt fairly good and ran at what I thought was a honest, hard tempo effort. It was tough to estimate pace on hills, but I would think I covered 5mi or so during the tempo. Chilly out! About 15deg with the wind factored in.

Thursday- 2PM- 10mi untimed over a really hilly loop. I didn't necessarily mean to not time this run, but I must have missed the start button on my watch with the thick gloves. 9PM- Snuck in another untimed 4mi after I felt guilty for sleeping in.

Friday- (Christmas!) 10AM 12mi easy, 85:47, hilly, hilly course. Dressed for the 20deg start to the run- did not expect the temperature to climb to 45deg by the finish. Got hot and felt awful.

Saturday- 4mi up, 8x90sec hills hard intensity, 4mi down. Snowy and slippery out- I decided to sacrifice a little speed for better footing- still got a great workout in.

Sunday- Noon- 12 easy with Geoff, same course as earlier, 84:45. It was 45deg and raining, shorts weather! Then watched my former Keene and Pinkerton teammate Peter Najem crush the field at the Millennium Mile (a downhill road race the next town over) in 4:01! 7PM- 4 easy with Geoff to cap off a solid week of hilly running.

Tot- 94mi. I'm feel like I'm rounding into very good shape and right now I'd like to just build on that momentum and keep training well but not at an unsustainable level.

Hope everyone's winter break is going great!

Finals Week

2009-12-20T23:17:00.002-05:00

Hello, all. This was the bulk of my finals week (I have one tomorrow but that's it). It was nice to have a lot of extra time, but sad that all my teammates drifted away from Boston one by one over the course of the week. I'll be going home on Tuesday for a week (my younger sister's birthday is Dec 29th, so I have to at least stay for that).

Training wise, it was a good week. Mileage wasn't much, but it was good mileage- I'm looking forward to my upcoming 3k. Other than that, nothing too monumental happened.

Log-

Monday- Noon- 9 easy with Eric, out to Fresh Pond and back, 64min + strength work. 7pm- River Loop plus a mile inside, felt good, 5mi tot.

Tuesday AM- slept in, whoops! PM 9mi steady (checked the Coolidge mile- 6:18 except for Peter who has an inaccurate watch) + 6x140m strides in spikes + a few minutes jogging in spikes, 10 tot. Then walked to work.

Wednesday- PM 3mi up to Brookline Res, 5mi tempo in 26min- split 24:20 through 5 laps then added on 1:40. 3 down, then some 140 buildups in spikes. Peter and Eric were having good days, so it was tough to run my own tempo effort instead of running with them, but I think I did the right thing. Traveled to Worcester after to see about a girl.

Thursday- 10PM- Got back from Worcester just in time to take an exam, then finished my last lab of the season, then worked a shift, then came home and ran with Ken. Fit in the 7mi version of the River Loop very easy, untimed. 2deg with windchill and the wind was blasting us in the face the whole way back from the Mass Ave bridge.

Friday- 3pm- 95min easy, with James and some with Ken- did two laps around Fresh Pond (Ken did one, still recovering from his hamstring issues) then ended up with 15min indoors or so. Tuckered out towards the end but not too bad.

Saturday AM 25 easy indoors, then helped at the BU mini-meet. Mostly just worked the finish line and cracked jokes with Bruce. PM 10mi River Loop with Ken and James after dark again (too many dark, cold night runs this week!) in 69min, then 6x150 strides in spikes all in 22-23sec.

Sunday- 3pm- 25min up, then 2x(600, 600, 800) with 1:40 rest after each 6 and 2:20 after each 8, then 2 bonus 600s.

600 1:42
600 1:41
800 2:16

600 1:41
600 1:40
800 2:17

600 1:38
600 1:32.0 (31.8, 30.2, 30.0- smooth progression, felt very easy. Didn't see the sense in hammering, so to end quickly without hammering was nice. Peter did a good job going quick without racing or positive splitting, too).

1mi down, hungry. 9:30pm- 4mi River Loop with Ken and James- really snowy and slow going but an enjoyable run.

Tot 84

All in all, a good week. I'm pleased with where my fitness is right now. I didn't expect a 1:32 600 to be that easy, but it was. I'm very tired, though, and my sleep schedule is all out of whack from being able to sleep in late and all the night running. As soon as this is posted, I'm showering, eating, then bed by 1! (Which will be the earliest I've been to bed all week, haha!)

I hope those of you dealing with winter weather are coping ok. For me, the first week or two of bad winter weather always sucks really bad, then I adjust. Right now I'm definitely in the adjustment phase and I've done quite a very grumpy, windy runs. Fortunately, it's impossible not to crack up on runs with the guys.

Have a nice week, everyone!

-Craig

PS- I can't believe Christmas is 5 days away. I already got my mom her stuff, but I need to get the ball rolling on gifts for my younger brother and sister. . .

Sorry this is late

2009-12-14T15:52:00.003-05:00

I'm sure there were hordes of runners unable to sleep last night, ha. I had a very very busy week academically, and so yesterday I sat around like a bump on a log and fell asleep before I remembered to write the entry.

It's funny what a difference a week makes. Last week I had to take a bunch of time off and I was worried my cuboid might be developing a stress fracture. This week, I've been 100% structurally. Here's the log-

Monday- PM- River West with the lads, 61min- this run is in the 9mi neighborhood.

Tuesday- AM- River Loop, ~29min, with Eric and Senor Ken.
PM- Ran to Jamaica Pond via South Campus and the Muddy River with a solid group including Teddy and his Northeastern guys, did the JP lap in 9:19, then headed home via Marky Mark, did the Coolridge Corner mile in 6:06, then added on inside til we got to about 58min. Good moderate run, couple tenths longer than 9. 6 strides on the track in spikes after, then 2x200 with Eric and Peter- 28.3, 27.7, smooth.

Wednesday- PM- 3 up, stomach issues. 2.5 in 12:40 on the treadmill (.5% incline), stomach issues, 5min jog, 2k in 6:17, 15min down. The plan was 2.75mi, 3k a touch faster, 1500 a touch faster. With all the essays I was writing and stomach issues I was having, I was just stressed, dehydrated, and feeling like crap. I cut it 2k into the 3k and while I felt pretty miserable about stopping short, it was just one of those days. Doesn't mean anything.

Thursday- 9 solo, didn't bother timing it- ran easy but not necessarily all that slow. Didn't feel great. Finished all my school work, finally.

Friday- Faulkner Hospital loop with Eric, Peter, Caputo. Started real easy and got it down into the 6:20 range by about halfway, then just stayed there. First cold day of the year- windchill of about 15. Still balmy compared to Keene. Added on a minute or two indoors to feel better about calling it 12- 80-81min tot.

Saturday- AM- River Loop backwards with a stop at Harvard to pick up Geoff and Kevin Gilmore. They were racing at Harvard at like 5:30 so Petah and I hung out with 'em all day at the house so they could relax. Peter and I did 6x~130m buildups on the track, then a relaxed 200 in 29.3. PM- Ran back to Harvard with the aforementioned + Krinjak and ran around the fields at Harvard with Krinjak and Peter. Peter went 4, Dave and I went 50min. Watched Geoff and Kevin race a 3k (Geoff 8:41.8 FTW, a pr, Kevin 9:00.02- I think that was a PR for him but he's too hard on himself) then jogged back to the house for roughly 8mi tot.

Sunday- AM- Ran to Heartbreak Hill on Comm Ave (26min) then did 8xhills with a decent sustained jog down. Ran more or less with Eric and ran between 79.x-80.x on all of 'em. Slight tailwind. Then ran to the BC Res (~10min), did 4x20 second strides pretty damn fast (or at least, after the hill it felt fast!) and then ran home. 12 tot.

Tot- 78 mi

All in all, not an awful week of training. Bruce called the bad workout on Wednesday ahead of time, then gave us 3 days of rest as opposed to 2 so we could do a restorative long run. Worked like a charm, I felt good on Heartbreak. I'm trying to be a little more cautious, a little more conservative with building volume and intensity back up. I'll probably try to run no more than ~85 this week. Jan 2nd Mini-meet is still penciled into the schedule.

Cuboid Issue

2009-12-06T23:06:00.002-05:00

Hi, all. Sorry for the brevity of this entry- I proved myself an impatient moron yet again. After hurting my foot last Friday, I took Sunday off, felt a little better Monday, then tried to force a workout. I made it through 6 of the planned 8x800 and averaged 2:23s with Peter and Elliot. I ended up having to take Tuesday and Wednesday off, then did a pitiful 4 on Thursday. Since then I've just added one mile a day, so I got through 7 today pain free. Everything is fine now- the trainer at the school, Brian (who is AWESOME, by the way) tells me I did something that sounds serious but is much less scary than it sounds. What's most likely, in his opinion, is that I slightly dislocated my cuboid bone, and the pain in my foot was the cuboid resettling back into position. That sounds pretty exotic though, so let's just go with "I stepped on a rock funny and hurt my foot, and it was fine a couple days later."

In terms of racing, I believe I'll be redshirting this indoor season. Between the credit transfer from Keene and my courseload here, I'll be here through the 2012 academic year anyway. Nothing is final yet, of course, but as things stand right now, this is what Bruce thinks is best. I'll likely open my racing season up January 2nd with a 3000 at the last BU developmental meet, then run a mile or two before finishing up at Valentine with perhaps a 3k, 5k, or mile. Basically, the goal of this cycle is to get some great training in, race sparingly, and really focus on taking significant chunks off my PRs. This will allow me to get another solid block of training in through March and come into the outdoor season with formidable fitness and some new personal bests. However, I don't want to look too far ahead. Right now, my immediate goals are (in order):

Stay healthy
Get in good training
Survive finals with a respectable GPA
Get my Christmas shopping done
Avoid starving to death due to lack of funds

Wish me luck on the last 3 things!

Have a nice week, everyone.

-Craig

Thanksgiving/Jackalopes at NXR

2009-11-29T17:04:00.003-05:00

Hi, everyone- I hope everyone's Thanksgivings were great! Mine was nice and quiet- just the 4 MacPhersons at home, gorging ourselves. In terms of training, the week proved tough- but it was nice to get home and recharge a little.

The log:

Monday- AM- overslept, then skipped class to watch NCAAs.
PM- 13 easy, 86:33, last 3-4 miles about 6:15 pace, just easing along.

Tuesday- AM- overslept again, went to bed late.
PM- 3 up, 2 sets of (1600, 1200, 800, 400) with a 400 sustained jog between everything (about 7min pace) for a total of 7miles on the track in my ventulus 2s. Had a nice big group to run with- Eric, Peter, and I traded laps. Bruce said keep it around 72-73/lap and feel good, so we did that. Splits:

1600- 4:51
1200- 3:33
800- 2:21
400- 68

(extra 400 jog)

1600- 4:52
1200- 3:31
800- 2:23
400- 62 (~28 last 200, decided to close down the last 150 fairly good- didn't press, stayed smooth)

7 miles total in 37:39 (~5:24/mile) (no stops- just right into each interval). 3 down. Felt great in the spikes- did some mobility drills over hurdles after with Peter and Ken, then caught a ride back to New Hampshire in the evening with my friend Owen.

Wednesday- AM- Squeezed in 3 before an early dentist appt. Stayed out til 2am again- really need to cut that out. PM- 14 easy, cold, rainy, windy, miserable out. Felt terrible because I didn't eat all day, then felt like an idiot for not eating all day.

Thursday- Thanksgiving- 12 easy before dinner, felt absolutely awful with allergies/cold. Getting 5-6 hours of sleep about 5 days in a row was idiotic, as was not eating any real food for two days. Also, I'm allergic to the family cats and it takes me about a week to get adjusted to them again. These short trips home are killers to training. Cut the planned 14 and hill sprints short to eat.

Friday- AM- Travel to Wappinger's Falls, NY, for the Nike Regional Meet. My Pinkerton boys ran for the Flying Jackalope track club, so my high school coach, Kevin McGrath, and I chaperoned them. I've gotta say, those Nike guys do a first-class job with stuff- Anna Willard and the author of A Memorable Run spoke at the dinner and they were both fascinating speakers. Plus, it's always a good time to hang out with Kev. Anyway, did a workout at the course- 3 up, then 3min, 5min, 10min, 5min, 3min @ tempo effort with 4min jog rest in between, then a few minutes down. Let me tell you, that Bowdoin Park is not an easy cross country course! Twisted my foot on one of the trail's and it hurt pretty bad.
PM- 4 miles easy from the hotel at night, ran around the lit parking lots doing about 10x10-30sec surges for variety. Left foot KILLED.

Saturday- AM- 3 easy at Nike Regionals, foot hurt too bad to run so I stopped and figured I'd just let it rest. The boys didn't do quite as well as they would have liked- 12th place when their regional ranking was 10th. It was a long season, though, and their coach wasn't necessarily into preserving their conditioning for post-season meets.

Sunday- Off, foot felt a little better, but why rush things?

Tot- 73 (70 miles in the first 5 days). Not an awful training week, but not ideal, of course. I think I'll be back to normal by tomorrow, and if all goes according to plan, I'd like to average about 15-16 miles a day for the next 60 days or so. We'll see, though- if I get in solid quality and am racing well, the volume is of secondary importance. Overall, except for the stupid foot twist, I'm pretty happy with the way my fitness is progressing. I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but I forget what it was. Anyway, hope everyone had a nice holiday and is ready to attack the end of the year with renewed vigor.

Have a nice week!

-Craig

Back on the Track!!

2009-11-22T17:18:00.002-05:00

Well, the big news this week is that I had my heart MRI'd (is that a word? it is now) and it was found to have no congenital defects, major structural abnormalities, or permanent damage. This means (cue the fireworks, marching band, and appropriately decorated cake) that I am allowed to run again! I still have to go through the formality of going to the cardiologist's office and getting officially cleared, but the MRI technician assured me that if there was anything worrisome, he wasn't allowed to let me leave the hospital. The whole process actually wasn't too awful- they piped in some Beatles music and I feel asleep for a fair bit of it. Keeping your eyes closed in the MRI machine keeps the claustrophobia away and it can be quite relaxing. The "worst part" was the slight bruising my arm endured as a result of the contrast injection. Not bad at all!

Log:

Monday- AM- River Loop solo, 30:37, felt good. PM- 13 easy, first 53 min with James, Mike B, and Balint, then turned around on Comm Ave when we saw Ellie and ran for about a half hour with her. My strides afterward went pretty good for a 17 mile day, ha.

Tuesday- ~4miles to Heartbreak Hill, 6xHydrant to Hydrant with jog down at a fairly good intensity (untimed) then ~5mi back to BU, changed into spikes, 4x200 easy with 200 jog (31, 30, 30, 29), hurdle mobility with Rob and Billy, short c/d jog. Felt pretty good out there, but it'll be nice to rejoin the group. I also learned something I already knew- I have TERRIBLE hip flexibility. Rob was shooting over those babies like he was born to do it, and Billy has the approximately build of the Jolly Green Giant. In comparison, I could barely do hurdle walkovers. I have a looong way to go if I want to steeple in the spring.

Wednesday- AM- River Loop solo, 30:32, felt pretty good again. PM- Fresh Pond 12, felt unnecessarily good and did the ~5mi section around Fresh Pond at a little steadier an effort (just under 31min), 79min tot.

Thursday- AM- off for MRI appt. PM- Decided to celebrate my freedom by jumping into Elliot's workout with him! 3 up, 8x800 avg 2:19 with 400 jog, felt great, didn't bother spiking up. 2 miles down. It was awesome to work out with a teammate!

Friday- AM- River Loop with Eric- 28:30, got downpoured on.
PM- River West 9 in 59:38 with a big group + the famous Kevin Gilmore, felt good but held back from running steady or doing a progression run. Too hungry to add on and do 12. :(

Saturday- 2pm- Res to Res via Beacon + a lap around JP, ~12mi- run was 86 min. Left quad really sore- woke up in the middle of the night with an awful charlie horse.
7pm- 4 miles easy with Colin, Billy, Dave K, and James indoors, 30min + light strength after. Left quad pretty bad.

Sunday- AM- 5 miles slow/easy by myself. Bruce had originally planned for me to do a 5-6mi steady section during my run today, but my left quad is still sore and tight. I think it feels a little better than last night, so hopefully a very light day will leave me ready to go for the workout on Tuesday. I have a loooong way to go til my first race, which means I have enough time to get scary fit!

Tot- 92mi in 11 runs, one day basically off.

Secret Miles

2009-11-15T20:42:00.002-05:00

Hi, everyone. Veteran's Day this week proved the perfect break from school and allowed me to get a jump start on getting back into shape. I'm almost up to my preferred level of volume and intensity. As I already mentioned, the Jackalopes are official now. Helping out at Regionals and cleaning up today took more time than I would have thought, so I don't have the Jackalope information up yet. It's coming, though!

This Thursday I have the MRI of my heart. I'm a little apprehensive about the procedure, but if I get cleared, at least I can stop the secret miles sham of the last few weeks. Anyway, here's the log:

Monday- River Loop, 32:20- hit the mile in 8:26! Ha, I felt good so I don't care. PM- Fresh Pond 9+ in 63:42, strides after in my spikes including a relaxed 200 in 28.2. Core/strength circuit after. I gained weight on that layoff! Got like 6 lbs to lose.

Tuesday- 12PM- 3 miles up to the BC Res, 10k tempo: (8:42, 17:28 (8:46), 26:08 (8:40), 34:44 (8:36). Felt good, didn't feel the need to press. Breathing was fine but my quads/ass were rocked from the strength circuit yesterday. ~3 down. 7PM- Slow 30min shakeout with James indoors, felt good but tired.

Wednesday- Big River Loop with Eric, 68min, felt a little sluggish but not dreadful.

Thursday- 13 miles easy, 90min, first 38 min with Eric, then 5x15 second hill sprints afterward. Felt much better than last Sunday's 12 miler.

Friday- 3 miles up to the Brookline Res, then 2x3laps+ a little to make it 2x3mi instead of 4500. Averaged about 4:58/lap (just under 5:20/mile) and ran for 16min each. Took a 3:30 rest jog after each- covered about 7mi in 38:50. Very good workout- it was real windy at the Res and it got dark out near the end of the second 3mile. 3miles down, almost got hit twice.

Saturday- AM- 45min slow indoors before Regionals- I knew I was going to be out in the cold/rain all day, so I wussed out and ran indoors. PM- 45 minutes slow indoors with Billy after Regionals. Cold, miserable, muddy day. Did a bunch of strides in my spikes afterward.

Sunday- 14 easy, 1:37.43, first half with Ken. Felt tired, hungry, and thirsty the whole way. Body still isn't used to being on its feet for more than an hour or so. The same thing happened to me at the beginning of the summer, I'll come around.

Tot- 91- not a bad week for bootleg training.

There was other stuff I wanted to say. . . if I remember it, I'll do a new entry. Hope everyone had a good week!

Welcome the Jackalopes!

2009-11-11T16:26:00.002-05:00

Ladies and Gentlemen,

(ok, ok. . . Fellow Track Nerds,)

Today was a momentous occasion. At approximately 12:00pm, local time, the Flying Jackalope Track Club became an official USATF-recognized Competitive Club! We are registered with the USATF New England Association, but the Club remains open to all who can agree to the Jackalope Tenets. I would like to transition this blog to a forum for the Jackalopes as well as my own personal thoughts, and part of that would be a roster, some news about current members, etc.

If you'd like to be included in our membership, please email me (see the previous post on Jackalopes for the "qualifications") and I'll get you up on the roster! I hope to have the new content ready by Sunday night, when I post the week's entry. I'm excited to have made things official!

Happy Running, Everyone!

Warning: This is a Bitch Session

2009-11-08T14:47:00.000-05:00

Hello, all. Last week, I took a break from whining about my own medical issues in order to rant about jerks. I wish I could tell you that everything is sunshine dust and rose petals now, but unfortunately, there are unresolved medical issues still. The issues stem from the EKG the cardiologist took before my stress test. While I got through the stress test with flying colors, (maintaining a heart rate of 195 beats per minute for 4-5 minutes and still carrying on a conversation) the cardiologist decided that while my EKG's variables are all within the normal ranges, he wants me to get a goddamned MRI of my heart. He signed me up and billed my insurance without getting my consent for the procedure and then told me I was at risk to just keel over and die during a run when I asked him if athletic hearts could give abnormal EKGs (which I knew could happen, since that's exactly what my old cardiologist back home told me the last time I was tested). Well, this esteemed graduate of Harvard Med (which I knew because every surface in his office is emblazoned with the Harvard crest) frowned when I asked that and said "look, I'm on your side here- your coach needs to back off." As if the only reason I could possibly want an unnecessary, expensive, and time-consuming procedure was because Bruce was snarling at me to run in one of the mini-meets! All in all, it's been an extremely frustrating process dealing with this office. Once I accepted that the doctor was going to hold the clearance letter over my head until I get the damn MRI, I asked him about the procedure and was relieved to hear that it would take about a half-hour, tops, and then as long as they didn't find a giant hole in my heart, I would be fine.
Welllllll that's not exactly how the process works. The hospital where the procedure would be done called me to go over the procedure- it's an all day thing. First, they inject you with this radioactive dye to make the heart show up better on the display. Now, I know some friends who have had this dye injected in for bone scans, so while I'm not thrilled, that's not a huge deal. The huge deal is that I spend TWO HOURS in the MRI machine. Not 20min, as Dr. Rice estimated. Not a "half hour, tops" as he threw out. TWO HOURS in one of those stupid metal coffins. I was told "oh, it's not that bad- they let you listen to music." Oh, I can listen to music? Well, never mind. In fact, I often lock myself in a wooden box, throw on my ipod, and lie there motionless for hours!
I realize that this sounds like I'm bitching about a procedure that very well may save my life. Well, I'm not. The recommendation for this procedure came on the basis of an EKG that is a little abnormal for the average person. It was not compared to EKGs taken of other athletes doing approximately 2 hours of reasonably challenging aerobic exercise a day. I would imagine that if I was a nonactive 50 year old, my EKG would be troubling. Then again, if I was a nonactive 50 year old, my resting pulse of 48 and the amount of ice cream I eat in a wek would probably be troubling too. Doesn't mean I have a hole in my heart!
What does all this mean about my running? Well, nothing much, actually. I am not cleared to compete. Dr. Rice, the cardiologist, doesn't even want me to get my heart rate up for any reason because he's concerned I'll up and die on him. However, I know that he has to cover his butt. I also know that my abnormal EKG is 99.9% likely to be because of my activity level and not any secret defect the stress test and sonargram they did of my heart. Thus, I have a delicate line to toe: I'm going to push ahead and train full time and try to avoid getting any of the very supportive and understanding coaching staff here at BU in trouble, because they have been great about this whole situation (especially Bruce, who has had to deal with me raging in his office too many times) and have exerted no pressured on me whatsoever to do anything but make sure it's safe for me to train. I'll confess: the week of my negativity rant, I ran 32 miles, including a very easy fartlek. All, of course, unauathorized and on my own. This past week, I hit 61 miles, including a secret, late-night 3xmile session averaging 5:00 or so (total workout, with rest included, was 4mi in 21:24, so not a bad aerobic effort) and a solo 12-miler this morning before work. I feel reasonably back into the swing of things now- the last two weeks, unfortunately, where full of midterms and papers and other stressfull school related things, but with this week's Veteran's Day breaking the week in two, I plan to start doubling and expect to hit about 90 next week.
Bruce has said that once I am cleared and allowed to train again, he'll wait to race me until either the Terrier meet at the end of Janurary or possibly the week before that. Thus, I have basically a huge block of time to cash in on my cross country fitness and get scary, scary fit for late indoor/outdoor track. Now I just need to get this stupid MRI out of the way so I can stop the sneaky sham!

Healthy hearts to all!

Nattering Nabobs of Negativism

2009-11-01T15:00:00.000-05:00

I want to take a moment from my own irritations with my cardiologist to write for a moment about the title of this week's blog and the role it has in running. For whatever reason, our sport seems to be rife with pessimists. Rather than support our elite athletes, so many so-called "fans" of running love to trash on our elite runners and predict doom and gloom no matter what an athlete has run. What's worse is that these arm-chair coaches seem to be more than a very vocal minority (though, of course, it's likely the amount of hatred stirred up on a place like letsrun is a few people using many different handles).
Take, for example, Meb's stunning upset victory in New York this morning. In the pre-race coverage, all I heard about Meb was how he was too old, washed up, and a drain on the fragile economy since he wasn't doing anything "of value to society." It's an attitude I've never understood. Likewise, most of the predictions I saw regarding Jorge Torres' debut suggested that not only would Torres fail to debut under 2:18, it was unlikely that he even had the capability to run under 2:12! Jorge was the first guy-ever- to qualify for the Footlocker Championships all four years of high school. At Colorado he was a National Champ in cross country. Since college, he's run 13:20 and 27:42. His coach, Steve Jones, is the former world record holder in the marathon and has recently resurrected the career of Jason Hartmann. Who on Earth could believe that a runner with the talent, resources, and mental toughness Torres has displayed since he was 15 years old wasn't capable of breaking 2:15! For that matter, since when did failing to hit a goal become so shameful that as runners, we set these tiny little wimp goals and mercilessly trash on people who try to do great things?
Ron Clarke once said something to the effect that it was important for young athletes to try to do something completely over their heads and not feel like they've done something unforgivable if they failed or lost. The greater shame, Clarke insisted, was that an athlete become so afraid to lose that he not even bother trying. And yet, how often does Clarke get trashed for "never winning when it mattered?" We've all seen the quote from Teddy Roosevelt about those who dare to fail greatly. Why is it that, as runners, we have such a hard time taking that to heart? The sub-culture among runners is a culture of shame and absolutism.
You see it all the time in race previews- "well, so-and-so should win, and so-and-so has no chance because he's only done x lately, and we're not even sure why so-and-so is even bothering, because he hasn't run well in a year," and so on and so on. As it was once explained to me, a good runner is like an old-timey steam locomotive: if you know what to look and listen for, you can see one coming from a long way off. Yet great performances get labeled an "upset" because, hey, the guy wasn't supposed to win. The odds said this, the results from past courses said this, the other competitors were too this. But the reason we run the races is because competition is not a math test. You can't factor in which athletes will have a career day, or what guys will react to the cheering crowd or, honestly, who is just going to get damn lucky. All 17 guys in the lead pack at the halfway mark of New York today had a chance to win. If you run the 2nd half of that race ten times, there would be ten completely different outcomes. Does that cheapen Meb's victory? Of course not. Yet, if we reduce Meb's situation to the kind of message board pleas we're all familiar with, how likely is it that he would have gotten any kind of encouragement whatsoever? Here's what it might look like:
"Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone could help me. About two years ago, I fractured my hip during a marathon. I couldn't walk the next day and I had to take off 14 months from running. I've been slowly getting back into it and over the last year I've gotten my mileage back up to where it was before the injury. I've been feeling great in workouts but I'm a little worried about running a marathon again-- do you guys think I could break my old PR, set a year before I broke my hip? I'm in my early 30s and haven't PR'd on the track for about five years."
How many positive responses would that post get? Maybe a few, but then someone would feel the need to "be realistic" and let the guy know that he's too old, too broken down, too injury prone. Maybe he did too much mileage and he's permanently damaged, maybe he's just a wimp. Fortunately for American distance fans, our elite runners don't feel the need to consult our nabobs. In fact, I'll say that in my limited experience with talking to world-class athletes, the number one thing that sets them apart from the rest of us is the confidence they have in their abilities. Perhaps the biggest embodiments of this confidence are the handful of Kenyans I've met. If one of them bombed a race, he would smile broadly and say "It is ok, I'll do better next time." If one of them ran well and still lost, he would say "Oh, I must train harder- but it is ok, next time I will win."
In the past, I've been criticized for setting very ambitious goals. The thing is, though, I would rather fail because I dared greatly then be happy to settle for tiny, incremental improvements. I will use my junior year of high school track as an example: as a sophomore, I had ran 4:32 for the 1600. When people asked me my goal, I said "oh, under 4:20, for sure." A few teammates tried to explain to me that taking off ten second chunks from your PR just wasn't realistic, that I should focus on breaking 4:30 first, and so on, and so on. Well, I ran 4:20.22 that outdoor season and, technically, failed. But if I had run to break 4:30 and run 4:27, would I be expected to be praised for my "success?" It's only a very little example- my point, though, is why be realistic? It never occurs to some people that they might fail- because it shouldn't matter. Just for another example, one of my teammates, Eric, knew last winter he could break 4:05 in the mile. How did he know that? He ran a mile the week before in 4:10, going through the 1000m in 2:31 and dying horribly. Did that race tell him that he couldn't handle a fast pace? Did it suggest his kick was poor, or he was mentally weak? Nope- although he could have drawn any of those conclusions from his race. Instead, he decided that with competition to pull him through and going out closer to 2:34, he could run 4:04. 6 days later he ran 4:03, a seven second personal best and his first sub-4:10 mile. Again, I'm not saying that either Eric or I are by any means special in this regard- I just want to emphasize the importance of belief is. As Bruce once told me, "you know, it's not the worst thing in the world to have a terrible race- sometimes, you learn valuable things."
Since I'm sick of writing about my own medical issues, I'll leave it at that for this week. This entry is long enough as it is!

Comebacks, Chemical Burns, and INTERRUPTED ALLITERATION

2009-10-25T15:59:00.000-04:00

This week has proved a frustrating one in many ways. My workload in school has been reasonable all semester-- then this week I had two-midterms and two papers. As if that wasn't enough work, I shot myself in the foot by being a moron and not writing the papers ahead of time. Then I spent what felt like half the week bouncing back and forth between different doctors and my health insurance to continue attempting to figure out what the heck was going on with me. Despite my pneumonia-scarred lungs, propensity for chest infections, and past respiratory difficulties, the doctor I saw is concerned that it's some magical underlying defect that got totally missed in my last full cardiac workup three years ago. I understand wanting to leave no stone unturned, but getting the referral approved by my primary care guy so that my insurance would cover it was probably enough of a hassle to GIVE me a heart condition. Suffice to say, I'd be down for any healthcare reform that cuts down all this hoop-jumping, no matter whose idea it is.
Anyway, what the cardiologist decided to do is put on me on a halter-monitor for 24 hours and test my blood for every condition known to man and a few only Wookiees are supposed to get. When I went into the office on Friday (this is one huge positive to this situation: the cardiologist's staff was very helpful and were able to get me in to see them on only about 24 hours notice) I was hooked up to the monitor (sadly, this mechanical implant had no impact on my ability to dance the robot). They drained out what felt like about half my blood to test and then told me I'd have to redo my cardiac stress test on Monday. I was also told they'd have to shave patches in my chest hair in order to place the electrodes. Thinking myself ahead of the game, I asked some teammates into depilation what methods were best. Well, 6 coats of Nair later, I had a patchy, stubble, itchy chest with a few chemical burns and a slight rash. I realize that might be crossing into the TMI category of blogging, but for any young males out there thinking they're going to go smooth- DON'T DO IT. If you have some medical reason to get patches shaved, GO WITH THE PATCHES!
On the plus side, I'm feeling much healthier than last week. I have a solid wheeze going still, but I think that's mostly seasonal allergies. I can breathe deeply for the first time in weeks and I have tons and tons of energy (too much, in fact- without any physical exercise I find sleep very difficult). BU alum Dave Proctor came to visit this week and was a temporary resident of 15 once again. Dave and I never got to run as teammates, so it was nice to hang out with him. I'm looking forward to seeing his post-collegiate career take off!
Lastly, and perhaps the brightest spot to my week, my friend and old high school teammate Owen Graham emailed me to let me know he had quit his college team. This would usually be cause for disappointment, but Owen's former coach was one of the most irrational, irresponsible, and plain bad coaches I have ever seen in the sport. Owen went from a promising, undertrained HS prospect to a chronically injured and demoralized runner who began to wonder if his high school performances would remain his lifetime PRs. Now he's dealing with the last of the injury issues he suffered under his former "coach" and is on the comeback trail. I was very flattered that he sought me out to write him a training plan and advise him through his road to competition. I forsee the biggest issue in the short term being lingering injuries from years of abuse and in the long term, Owen's tendency to be too tough for his own body and neglecting to take the proper steps to avoid injury.
Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, my heart will be found healthy and in fine working order and I will be cleared to begin training again. Hope everybody out there is doing well!