Weekly Starter

Time: 56:37
Distance: 13.09 km
Pace: 4:19/km
Map

Got in a nice run this morning to start off the week. Can't remember much beyond the basic stats.

Saturday Morning Long Run

Time: 95:10
Distance: 24.33 km
Pace: 3:55/km
Map

I must have been feeling pretty good on this Saturday morning as the pace and distance are pretty solid. I ended up taking a loop around the Marblehead Neck and then looped through town before coming back along West Shore Dr. I think I was trying to protect myself from the wind and this route provided the most neighborhood coverage.

McAlpine with the Ladies

Time: 68:41
Distance: ~9.5 miles

If I were really interested in remembering where this run took place I would log onto Caitlin's Athleticore, but I'm being lazy. I have the time and know the day. I believe I ran with Meagan, Caitlin and Heidi out at McAlpine, but I'm not 100% certain. If it was this run, the trails were soft and mushy in sections. It also would have been the day that I was being really productive at Dilworth Coffee Shop. I hammered the emails and phone lines for my accounts which made me lose track of time. Eventually I met up with the ladies, but it was almost a solo effort.

???

Time: 62:38
Distance: ~8.5 miles

I totally forget where this run was done. It probably was a Medium Loop, but I'm not sure. Oh well, I have the time and can calculate the distance.

Morning Loop

Time: 59:26
Distance: 8.57 miles
Pace: 6:56
Map

How terrible am I? Well, I can't remember this run. I don't know why I didn't double back in the evening either. Probably because I felt terrible here and needed some time time to recover. I know that Meagan wasn't on the run because she is still injured. The pace wasn't fast either so that tells me something to, but I don't know what. Time on the feet. Check.

Ambitions Stalled

Time: 48:20
Distance: ~8 miles

W/u: 18:49 for 2.38 miles
W/o: 3 x 2 miles in 5:10 to 5:15 (3 mins rest)
C/d: 22:12 for 2.63 miles

Today I had these great ambitions to crush my second workout of the week. The session on Monday was a great motivator and I wanted to keep things rolling. My stated goal of 110 miles is for no real reason other than training really hard this week. It doesn't help when the average daily temps are 90+. That was a huge factor in today's workout.

I showed up to the Old Bell parking lot at McAlpine knowing I had 3 good efforts of 2 miles each. The pace wasn't anything unreasonable, but the heat index was already pushing upper 80s. I planned well and brought a water bottle that Meagan was going to drop at the start of the Footlocker Course.

Splits:
5:13, 5:11 (3:01);
5:19, 1:36 at 5:30 pace so I stopped.

It wasn't going to happen today. Too hot. And, I just wasn't on. The opening 2 miles in 10:24 felt like I was sprinting. Aerobically I felt relaxed, but the legs had a difficult time turning over that quick. Since I'm posting this over a week late, I've had the time to think about what went wrong and to link to a post by Stephen Spada. He tells a recap of a workout when he was just feeling it. It's that feeling when the workout can't seem to get hard enough. You're hitting the splits and could go faster if necessary. That's a great feeling that gives one confidence for the next race. It's something that wasn't taking place during my workout. I wasn't necessarily "off," but I certainly wasn't "on."

The 800 workout on Monday took more out of my legs than I thought. I was pretty wrecked afterward and trying another hard workout so soon probably wasn't the best idea. Jeff Gaudette has created a cool, informative diagram that explains the purpose of a training cycle. I was working out when I should have been recovering. I recommend taking a look at the link and actually listening to the process.

New Week, Same Run

Time: 58:26
Distance: 8.72 miles
Pace: 6:42
Map

I got out the door for some easy miles through Freedom park. I don't recall much on this run so I'll keep the details brief.

Run Ballantyne

Time: 54:36
Distance: 8.16 miles
Pace: 6:41
Map

Wow, this race seems so long ago. I guess I really better get going on some blogging.

I remember getting up early and heading down to Ballantyne with Meagan so that she could set up a booth on behalf of RFYL. I had no interest in racing this morning, but I still needed to run. I decided to jump in the race about 30m behind the starting line and slowly work my way up. Around 2 miles I was catching Allen Strickland as I wanted to help him out the rest of the way. I think my biggest help on the day was telling him that he was running off course. The volunteers were very ambiguous in their directions and sent a few of us the wrong way. When we realized that it was a mistake about 10 runners had managed to pass.

Allen stayed composed and moved up nicely the last part of the race. He finished around 42 minutes and probably would have been a minute faster had he not been sent the wrong way. Allen's recap is more thorough as I'm just trying to spew out some words.

I will say that the course started and finished in an ideal location. It was cool being surrounded by a business park and tucked in near a putting green. However, the course was depressing at best as in wound through empty parking lots and streets that are only used during the week.

Short Loop

Time: 38:04
Distance: 5.25 miles
Pace: 7:15
Map

I did a short loop this morning and I don't remember much else. Trying to get caught up on this bad boy.

Miles with Caitlin

Time: 43:04
Distance: 5.77 miles
Pace: 7:27
Map

This evening I apparently ran with Caitlin. I know it was slow because I ran a mile breakdown workout. Other than leaving from Caitlin's and running slow I forget most of this run. It's not a knock on her, I'm just lazy.

Testing the Leg

Time: 56:36
Distance: 8.58 miles
Pace: 6:35
Map

I tested the achilles out this morning on a medium loop around Freedom Park. It felt okay but not great. Since I'm writing this a couple of weeks later, I can see that this run was a bit ambitious. I remember feeling slight discomfort in the calf/achilles that never really improved or worsened during the run.

Another Medium Loop

Time: 59:45
Distance: 8.55 miles
Pace: 6:59
Map

I hit the roads this evening again for some more miles. They were nice and easy to allow the body to recover. After thinking about it for awhile I think this might have been the first run where I felt the slightest niggle in my achilles. I remember it getting dark and running up one of the hills on the Booty Loop and thinking that my left achilles feels a little off. Not a hurting pain, but slightly off.

Tonight I packed up my stuff and drove to Durham in order to pick up my former teammate Mike DeCoste who's interviewing at Fuqua School of Business. It will be a long drive and late night, but great to catch up with "Coste." Hopefully we'll get to chat about some boring stories of glory days.

Week in Review

Time: 274:01
Distance: 38.63 miles

The two big highlights of this week were running in the Izumo Ekiden and getting massively sick. The race was fun but definitely a disappointment. I put a lot of time and effort into my training and never really saw the benefit. I didn't race well at CVS and had an awful performance in Japan. The trip is always fun, but it would have been that much better had we finished in the top 10.

October 15, 16, 17

Time: none
Distance: none

There was no running on these days. The night before leaving Japan I got sick sick sick. I had terrible aches, a clogged nose and horrible cough. Nothing about flying back double digit hours in a plane made it better. I took a few days off and tried to recover as best as possible. I landed back in the states in Washington D.C. for a good friend's wedding.

Morning Route

Time: 30:33
Distance: 4.44 miles
Pace: 6:52
Map

I threw on the boots this morning and put in some time up to Queens University. This run has firmly become my morning route that ends with breakfast in the dining hall. As far as I can remember the body and legs handled this run well. (I'm posting a few days late and need to get caught up.)

Week in Review

Time: ~75 mins
Distance: ~11 miles

Run

Time: 56:07
Distance: 9 miles

I'm not totally sure where I did this run. Even though this post is going to say I ran on 12/2, it's really 12/16. Two weeks ago is waaay too long to remember. Perhaps I ran Lloyd Noble with an add on past the elementary and middle schools. In fact, that's what I think I did. If I'm correct, the pace was pretty steady. This was one of the few runs in the month of December before finals.