Weekly Summary – 101 miles in 14 runs. A great first race at the Falmouth Road Race (7 miles in 34’53 for 20th) despite two botched workouts on Tuesday and Thursday. Getting used to this heat!

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Lunes, 13 de Agosto, 2018 – 09:00am: Easy run solo on harvard river loop. Felt pretty good once I got moving and so tacked on pass smoot up to longfellow and back along the Cambridge side. 4’30 down to 3’50s. Finished w/ 4x strides + 200m in 33. Total run 18km in 73’.

XT: Glute med, toes

16:30: Easy run out/back to science museum. Felt pretty good and ran quicker, 4’20 down to 3’50s. Finished at the track, 4x strides and home. Total run 7km++ in 28’.

Martes, 14 de Agosto, 2018 – Sparknotes: AM: 8x 1K @ 3’06.1 avg (2’57-3’15) w/ 90” jog on long lakes (road). PM: 5x200m @ 30.0 avg (29-30).

09:00am: Jogged to central T stop and then jogged from Davis to Long Lakes to meet Jon for the morning’s workout. About 6km in total w/ a few strides and 200m in like 33 (garmin). Legs felt very good though I did have a lot of caffeine. Drills and then off.

Workout was 6-8x 1K on the road (on the imfamous “Long Lakes” loop which Tufts uses as their Tempo course from back in the day). Figured I’d shoot for around 3’00 avg though it was quite warm (80F and sunny and humid at the start), so I wasn’t sure how it’d go.

First rep felt extremely good. Running 2’52 pace or so through the first 500m and then a nice little uphill at the end brought the pace to 2’57 overall which is very good on an uphill rep. Second km felt good as well but was the most uphill of the bunch so I expected it to be slower (3’06).

From there though, things just got harder. The next rep was mostly downhill and I only managed 2’59 (thanks to a nasty little climb in the last 200m). The next rep was rolling and I ran 3’11 – yikes! The last 3km are nice and gentle and downhill, though, so I figured I should really be able to cruise. Ended up just having nothing – no turnover at all. Just couldn’t move my legs fast enough. Ran 3’10 again and then 3’15 (!!) and almost called it but decided to do one more and have Jon try to lead me on the bike and set the pace at 3’00 and see if I could stop being a baby. Definitely went harder but still wasn’t what it should have been (3’05).

Overall this was a pretty awful run. Felt crappy, ran slow, etc. Great to have Jon there w/ me but wished I hadn’t embarrassed myself. Long way to go.

Drove over to fresh pond and then ran home via the river.

Total run 21.5km.

(2’57.2)
(3’06.7)
(2’59.5)
(3’04.7)
(3’10.6)
(3’10.1)
(3’15.0)
(3’05.3)

4:15pm: Easy run out/back on river and then to the track for some light speed after the morning’s session. Stopped and did drills and spiked up (for the first time since probably like February). Just did 5x200m w/ 1’ walk/jog back across the infield. All right around 29.x-30.x. Legs didn’t feel fantastic but nice to know that this still isn’t too hard even on a poor day. Total run 8.5km in 36’.

Splits:
(0’29.2)
(0’30.1)
(0’30.1)
(0’29.9)
(0’30.8) – relaxed

XT: In the gym
Pedestal (7’)
Pull-ups: 7, 6, 5, 3, 3 (last 3 sets from rock climbing holds)
Split squats
Single leg squats (10 lb)
Single leg deadlift (10lb)

Miercoles, 15 de Agosto, 2018 – 9:45am: Slept late and ran solo on Harvard River loop. Felt pretty tired and ran SLOW – 4’26 at halfway only down to 4’23 at the track. Stopped and did 4x strides and then 200m in 33.6 – not feeling fantastic. Tried to keep it easy. Ran in tights and a long sleeve to try to boost the acclimitazation. Total run 15km in 65’.

XT: Glute med lifts

5pm: Easy run in new CarbonX prototypes. Great shoes – really poppy as were the older ones. Out/back to science museum and then to the track. Finished at the track, 4x strides which felt much better than this AM. Total run 7km++ in 28’.

Jueves, 16 de Agosto, 2018 – 08:45am: Jogged down to the track w/ not a ton of time to spare as I was meeting Louis at 09:30. Planned to do 12x200m in two sets of 6x w/ short recovery. Did drills and strides and ran the first one in 31.x, jogged 100m in about 25 and then ran the next two in 33.x – oof. Decided to do 3 sets of 4 and took 90 seconds after #4 and then ran #5 even slower (34.8). Started number 6 but just bailed after 150m or so as I was just eating shit. Just felt tired and didn’t have the turnover today. Listen to the body.

Jogged out onto the river and stretched a bit while waiting and then met up w/ Louis and ran out/back on the mem drive side past the bridge. Nice to run w/ company. Very warm and humid today but felt pretty good and going a decent pace ~4’00 for the most part.

Pretty tired by the end just from being out in the heat for so long but overall a good run despite the shitty workout. Total run 18km+ in 72’.

17:00: Ran w/ Nic and Rob. Started out very slow and then a bit quicker w/ Nic only after 2km or so. Ran sci museum to smoot loop. Felt pretty good. Nice to run slow and w/ company. No strides but did figure out how to cut through the field area instead of going back up Mass Ave. Total run 9km++ in 45’.

Viernes, 17 de Agosto, 2018 – 08:00: Paced Nic’s workout. Planned to just run easy but he just went right into it at 3km so decided to run his first 2K rep and felt pretty comfy at 3’45/3’35 and so just ran w/ him. Did 2k, 2k, 1k, 1k w/ 1’ jog rec. Probably avg’d around 3’35. Felt good. Nic ran well as it was already in the 70s. Lovely morning. Finished w/ 4x strides on track. Feeling much better today. Total run 12km in 51’.

15:45: Ran w/ Rob very slow in Concord. Felt good and nice company. Very humid as t-storms passing through. Around hood up to stacy circle and back. About 5km and then 4x strides on rd. Total run 5.2K in 27’.

Sabado, 18 de Agosto, 2018 – 09:45am: Ran w/ STRIVE CSRP kids from Emerson on easy 5km loop on old CA cross course. Felt a bit sluggish but not bad and nice to run w/ some new faces. Came back to the track and did drills w/ the gang and then 4x strides in both the new Carbon X shoes and the 119s. 119s feel so good. Did 200m trying to run really relaxed and ran 33.x. Then ran 1km – goal was to run ~race pace (72 ish) and then progress each 200m. Ran 72, 68, 31 for 2’51.x. Very good running especially given how badly my workouts went this week. Easy around the grass to cool down. Total run 8km++ in 35’

15:45: Ran from Falmouth expo after driving down w/ Jon and getting number. Nice and hot – 80s and sunny. Ran out/back on one stretch of road. 6km out/back and then 4x strides and 200m in about 33. Total run 7km in 30’.

Domingo, 19 de Agosto, 2018 – Sparknotes: Falmouth Road Race – 20th, 34’53 (3’05/km).

08:10am: A bit of a cluster getting to the start. Jon drove me over to catch the 07:00 elite bus which looked fine until waze said it was going to take us 30 minutes to drive the last mile (due to traffic). Got out and jogged at that point and got right onto the first bus leaving even though I missed the elite bus.

Got to the start-line w/ plenty of time – probably 07:50 or so. Hung around and then went to warm up w/ Jonas, Tim Ritchie, and John Busque. Felt good and ran very slow on the warmup to stick w/ the crew. Nice to chatter a bit before the run.

Came back and did drills but was pretty early. Didn’t really have a good space to do strides as we were penned in until the women started at 08:50. At that point we were kept to about 100m stretch of road which was also difficult to do strides in but good enough. Got in a few. Legs felt pretty good. Found a spot on the line about 2 rows back. Deep race!

Got off the line well and was tucked into the back of the lead pack for about 200m but then quickly backed off as we went up the first big hill. Was in a bit of no-man’s land but figured things would settled out in the first 1km.

Jonas came up on my shoulder at some point near the top of the big hill in the first mile but then I think he dropped back on the downhill. I was feeling good and not looking at my watch but they had clocks at the mile and I saw I was right around 4’50.

I looked back a couple times but couldn’t see many people behind me. I passed one guy who had gone out hard early but other than that I was just chasing down Hasan Mead who had about 200m on me but had dropped off the group.

I really expected a lot more guys to come back to me or for guys to catch up from behind. But I guess I was fairly even as was everyone else.

The first 5km the wind wasn’t too bad as it’s mostly sheltered but right around 5km (15’13) you get spit out onto the beach and the wind was right in our faces and around 15mph. Lovely! I looked back but it looked like the guys behind me were quite a ways back so just tucked in and focused on keeping effort good.

Passed 5M in like 24’50 which I knew meant I’d slowed down a bit as expected due to wind but was also faster than I’d averaged for my 8x1K workout that week. Ha! Passed Ty McCandless somewhere around there but otherwise was just focused on Mead but he was running consistently just at the same pace.

Passed 10km in 30’54 and then tried to work up the last 1km+. Pushed up the steep hill as I knew it was all downhill from there after and got passed by Everett flying down the other side. Went w/ him and we both passed Alex Monroe just before the line but Everett had me by a few meters.

Finish time was 34’53.

This is over a minute faster than last time I ran this race (35’59 for 21st in 2014) on a day which was cool but very windy. Moreover, I’ve just felt really strung out this whole last few weeks and this was a great performance coming off of that. I had two really awful workouts this week so to race well in a deep field is really great. Very pleased overall!

Finished w/ a nice cooldown w/ Jonas, Everett, and John on the beach road. Had a great time talking w/ Josh Cox and got to meet Desi after and then drove back w/ Tyler McCandless who needed a ride to Logan. Long drive and day but overall great.

Total run 21.5km.

19:30: Easy shakeout solo down to Harvard Sq and back along mass ave. to pick up my laptop charger. Met up w/ Rob and Nic and got Eritrean food which was delicious. Total run 3.5km in 17’.