Weekly Summary – 102 Miles in 14 Runs. Lower total mileage w/ the upcoming Monday race. Felt pretty bad for the first half of the week and finally glimpsed some sense of feeling decent w/ short hills/prog on Saturday. Feeling more optimistic.

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Lunes, 27 de Agosto, 2018 – 09:00: Ran easy down past Harvard. Up late last night so a bit tired this morning but running felt much better than yesterday. Overdressed quite a bit and it was already humid and in the 80s so felt pretty well smacked by that. Finished at the track and did 4x strides which finally felt decent and then 200m into the wind in 32.x. Jogged back for 15km in 64’.

XT: Pedestal (7’ w/ 10x lifts) and pull-ups: 8, 8, 7, 5

16:30: Normal afternoon run around the sci museum loop. Felt pretty good and ran quicker last 1km 3’47 and then 4x strides which felt good. Hot close to 90F and wore tights and long sleeve and light jacket. Hope it pays off this weekend! Total run 10km+ in 41’.

Martes, 28 de Agosto, 2018 – 08:30: Explored the Riverway across the charles. Extremely hot today w/ low of like 78F and high at 97F. Still wore warm tights and a jacket which was in retrospect excessive as it was already well into the 80s and very humid at 09:00. Felt okay for a few km but started feeling pretty bad after 40-50’. Route is okay but no better than the chuck as it’s still quite flat but way more street crossings. Pretty frustrating run. Slow last few km as I was just fried from the heat. Planned to do longer but no point. Finished at the track and barely made it through 4 strides. Felt like I was going to pass out after each one. Weird. Total run 17.5km in 77’.

16:30: Ran shirtless as it was 94F, feels like 104F. Gotta love the extreme temperature variation of the northern US. Ran science museum loop w/ an extra 1km out/back on Boston chuck to get to the track right around 10km in 41’. Felt pretty good running despite heat but legs were fried when I tried to do strides again. Weird. Total run 10.5km in 43

Miercoles, 29 de Agosto, 2018 – Sparknotes: 10x400m @ 70-77 (botched). Hot and humid and felt awful.

07:15: Left early to try to get this in before a record-setting hot day. Felt okay on warmup but already warm and humid in the upper 80s. Normal running felt decent enough but drills and strides didn’t feel great. Plan was to do 3-5 sets of 4x400m w/ 50-60” jog b/w reps and longer b/w sets. First one was 70.x which would end up being the fastest and after that they were all slower, like 72. I was hoping to run 68-70s. Took 3’ to cool off w/ some ice water and jog and then second set was much worse like 72-76.

Actually jogged home to change shoes quickly as I thought maybe that’s an issue as I haven’t worn these shoes to run fast yet (carbonX), but came back in tracers and still ran poorly. Like 72-77 and then just stopped as there was no point in continuing.

Really frustrating addition to an already frustrating month.

Cooled down around the fields and then easy home. Total run 15km in 66’.

XT: Pedestal (7’, 10x lifts), pull-ups (5,7,7)

16:00: Easy run on the sci museum loop. 97 feels like 107F. Took it purposefully very easy as I want to see if slowing down my easy runs helps at all. Surprised to see pace under 4’30 as it felt very slow. Got to the track and did 4x strides which felt okay but were pretty slow. Total run 10km in 44’.

Jueves, 30 de Agosto, 2018 – 10:00am: Slept late after being Mar’s arm candy on the grad student welcome booze cruise last night. Hot again. Ran purposefully slow and relaxed, 4’40s on the way out, 4’20s on the way back. Did the normal river loop and then tacked on around the fields loop which is about 900m around on grass. Finished w/ 4x strides and 200m in 31.x. Felt much better. Thank goodness the weather is breaking.

XT: Glute meds (10x), toes

16:30: Ran down to prospect hill park to scout out a short hills location. Ran very slow as I didn’t really know where I was going and felt pretty bad. Got to the park (about 3km to Union Sq) and found at least one good option – Boston St. – Mostly a lot of traffic lights, cars, pavement, ugh. Missing metropolitano on a day like today.

Finished at the track w/ 4x strides which felt quite good. Total run 10km in 47’.

Viernes, 31 de Agosto, 2018 – 06:50am: Ran early to meet Tim Gill from WMDP. Felt okay despite the early wakeup and nice to have company. Ran on mem drive side crossing over longfellow and back. Started off nice and relaxed and was moving decently by then end. 4’0x down to 3’5x. Finished at the track w/ 4x strides and 200m in 31.x.

Total run 13km+ in 55’.

XT: Glutes (10x), toes

15:30: Easy run around the fields only. Nice to just run on grass. Hopefully I don’t get kicked off once the school year starts. Did 4x strides in the parking lot after since track was occupied with soccer game. Total run 6km+ in 25’.

Sabado, 1 de Septiembre, 2018 – Sparknotes: 10x short hills + 2km prog @ 5’55 (3’02/2’52)

08:00: Nice and cool again this morning, only in the upper 60s. Ran over to prospect park about 3km and did drills and a few light accelerations. Legs felt pretty good.

Did 10x short hills on Boston St. which is a nicely steep hill maybe 90m long to a corner and then proceeds another 100m+ to the top of the hill. The grade is constant and has several easy landmarks for starting stopping – I used the manhole at the bottom and the change in asphalt color just after a telephone pole before the corner. This took around 14 seconds at full effort.

Recovery was full walk/slow jog as needed for HR to come down below 120. Didn’t time the rest, just took as much as needed.

Ran the last one around the corner and then up just about to the top (stopped at about 35 seconds). I thought there was quite a bit left of the hill but really only another 20m or so, so I’ll probably try to go all the way next time.

From there, jogged back to MIT track another 3km and then did 2 strides to open up the legs and then 2km continuous.

Tried to accelerate each lap starting from marathon pace and was surprised to see 73.x. Still managed to bring it down running 73.8, 72.9, 71.5 (about 3’03 at the 1K), 68.2, 68.7. Might have had another gear to make that last lap a 64-66 but didn’t want to touch it today w/ a race in 2 days. 5’55.1 the total.

Overall, this was the best I’ve felt running here since my 31’40 10K fartlek the week I got back from Peru. A very good sign that the fitness is still there even if I’ve been struggling w/ some things over the past few weeks. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new epoch w/ the beginning of the new month.

Cooled down around turf and home 1.5km for 11km total in 44’.

Splits

400 m 1’13.8 (1’13.8)
800 m 2’26.7 (1’12.9)
1200 m 3’38.2 (1’11.5) (1K @ ~3’02.x)
1600 m 4’46.4 (1’08.2)
2000 m 5’55.1 (1’08.7) (2nd K @ ~2’52.x)

XT: Pedestal (7’ w/ 10x reps) and pull-ups (8,6,4,5)

16:00: Easy run down and around the fields. Felt pretty good and really over-dressed w/ tight, jacket, hat/gloves. We’ll see if these two weeks of over-dressing have done anything on monday as it’s supposed to be 75-80F and very humid. Ran 4’30->4’0x. Finished w/ drills and 4x relaxed strides. Total run 6km in 25’.

XT: glues (8x), toes

Domingo, 2 de Septiembre, 2018 – 08:00am: Ran solo on Sci Museum loop before taking the train to NHV. Felt a bit sore from hills yesterday in the glutes/hipflexors so actively ran nice and slow. Finished back at the house and then did 4x long strides, 2 in tracers and 2 in carbonx to see which I wanted to run in. Will run in the Carbons and see how they go. Total run 9km in 39’.

15:15: Ran w/ Matt Rand in New Haven. Easy travels here. Taking the train is great. Got a nap in and a lot of work done. Ran backwards on the last 9km or so of the course. Didn’t plan to run that long but felt good and nice to run w/ company. Last day of over-dressing! At least there’s that. It’s going to be a hot one tomorrow. Wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a 61’xx winning day and I’d be very surprised if anyone broke 60’00. I’m hoping to run smart and work up and catch the carnage in the second half.

Finished w/ 4x strides on the nice gravel along the side of the park. Total run 10km+ in 43’.