Sunday August 31 (am) - 3M

Easy run with CA to Great Meadows and back.

Day 3M
Week 41M
Summer 506M

Stats:

12 weeks = 84 days
506 miles = 42M/week = 6M/day

Days off = 3
Longest day = 13M (7/29)

Saturday August 30 - 6M

From Concord Academy, ran 3M to Fairyland Pond and back, then added on 3M after practice running the course at a good clip.

Karina's strength workouts will either make me tough as nails or kill me before the season even starts.

Day 6M
Week 38M
Summer 503M

Friday August 29 (pm) - 6M

Ran from Concord Academy, 6 miles along the course, up and down the hills and exploring possibilities for interval workouts through the woods.

Day 6M
Week 32M
Summer 497M

Thursday August 28 (pm) - 7M - RACE

Raced at Fresh Pond (2.45M). I wanted to have a good effort for several reasons:

1) Wanted to see progress after 12 weeks of training and now several weeks of speedwork

2) Wanted to compare this week to two weeks ago

3) Wanted a race-like effort before the USATF-NE 5M Race on Sept. 7

The race met my expectations, and was pretty successful, I thought. Two weeks ago I tried to stick with Terry, Jonathan, et al., and ran a hard but under control 14:13. This week, everyone was racing hard, and although I went out harder, I was languishing in about 7th after half a mile. I think I did a good job of managing the race, and caught several people. I ended up racing the last half-mile with old friend John Blouin, and had enough of a finishing sprint to avoid being caught. Ran 13:51 (5:40 pace), and felt good. We'll see how that translates to the 5M.

Summer training is almost over, as I bear down on 500 miles.

Day 7M
Week 26M
Summer 491M

Wednesday August 27 (noon) - 6M

Ran from work -- down to Horn Pond and around. Felt better than yesterday, and had to hold myself back to be eager for tomorrow's time trial at Fresh Pond.

Day 6M
Week 19M
Summer 484M

Tuesday August 26 (pm) - 6M

Ran from home, almost robotically, the six-mile Johnny Kelley loop. Started slow and felt sluggish and uncoordinated. First mile was about 8:00, but eventually I must have sped up to near 7:00 pace, although it seemed as though the whole run went by in slow motion. Finished in 43:08.


Day 6M
Week 13M
Summer 478M

Monday August 25 (pm) - 7M (Intervals)

Drove around looking for a track, but Belmont Hill was being used by football players, and Belmont H.S. had just painted theirs (what's up with that?). Finally decided to run 800m intervals around the pond in front of Belmont High.

2M warmup + 2 x strides
6 x 800m @2:49, 2:49, 2:47, 2:48, 2:47, 2:45, with approx 1:40 rest in between.

Felt pretty good, all things considered. 10 min cooldown.

Day 7M
Week 7M
Summer 472M

Sunday August 24 (am) - 10M

Felt a little better this morning, with a lingering sore throat but almost no congestion. I had made a date to run with Franca, and we ran a very nice, very leisurely (8:00 mile) 6M through Weston along the Fuller Brook Trail and Aqueduct.

After getting home, I actually decided I felt good enough to run a little more, so I added on four miles at closer to 7:00 pace. I felt better after running than before. Hydrated crazily afterwards.

Day 10M
Week 41M
Summer 465M

Saturday August 23 - Day Off

Only my second day off of the summer, and with the end in sight.

I woke up feeling sick, and also had to face a drive out to Amherst and back. I decided to minimize the stress of trying to get a run in and focus on the trip, and drink a lot of liquids and keep other medicines handy. It was a long day, and I had a headache and sore throat that wouldn't quit.

Day 0M
Week 31M
Summer 455M

Friday August 22 (pm) - 7M

Started to feel like I might be getting sick (headache, scratchy throat) during the day. I haven't had a cold for a long time, but maybe I was coming down with something yesterday, which is why I felt so tired and achy.

Anyway, I was also stuck at work without a car (long story - Loren needed it), and it was getting late, so I caught a bus and rode it to Mass Ave in Arlington, then jogged the 7M or so home at 7:30 pace.

My legs felt fine, but the run probably didn't help my cold (might not have hurt, who knows?)

Day 7M
Week 31M
Summer 455M

Thursday 8/21 (pm) - 6M

Really felt tired on this run. Not enough sleep last night, no energy today. It would have been a good day to take off, but I'm too much in the habit of the daily run to do that. My quads were also very sore, probably left over from Tuesday. Ran the last 4M at slightly over 7:00 pace anyway. Seems to be my pace these days.

Day 6M
Week 24M
Summer 448M

Wednesday August 20 (pm) - 6M

Final NSRP run of the summer. Ran with Terry, Doug, Jamie, and Seb for about 5M at 7:00 pace and then headed back while they added distance.

Felt surprisingly ok after last night's track workout.

Day 6M
Week 18M
Summer 442M

Tuesday August 19 (pm) - 6M - Track

The plan tonight was to run 2.5M of intervals, mixing longer intervals into the workout and keeping everything at 5K pace. If all goes well, next week I'll run 3M of intervals -- almost a normal track workout.

2M warmup + drills + 4 strides

400 @ 85 (to shake things out)
600 @ 2:04
1000 @ 3:29
1200 @ 4:15
600 @ 2:05
600 @1:59

200m recovery between everything, except 400m after the 1200.

1.5M cooldown


Day 6M
Week 12M
Summer 436M

Monday August 18 (pm) - 6M

Easy 6M at Cold Springs with Henry and Ankit. Needed an easy run.

Day 6M
Week 6M
Summer 430M

Sunday August 17 (noon) - 10M

A beautiful day -- sunny, warm, dry, with a nice breeze. There have been so few this summer...

Ran out Comm Ave to Cleveland Circle trying to stay on the grass as much as possible. Felt good for most of the run, but my legs -- especially quads -- were kind of rubbery by the end. I think this has to do with the last three days rather than today. I tried another "ice" bath, but I don't think I'm getting it cold enough.

Day 10M
Week 47M
Summer 424M

Saturday August 16 (pm) - 7M

For the second day in a row allowed myself to be dragged through a quick run by a youngster entirely untroubled by the effort.

Ran 7 miles with Matias starting at Brookline High and heading over to the Arboretum. I'm sure the entire run was at 6:50 pace or better. Tough.

Day 7M
Week 37M
Summer 414M

Friday August 15 (pm) - 5M

I drove to Concord to run with Tyler, but it looked for a while as though we would be swimming instead. The rain was falling so heavily at 5 p.m., that I feared my car would stall out in the deep rivers of water sluicing down Route 2. Once I got to CA, we checked the radar and decided to wait for a while. I think we finally got out the door around 6:00, an hour after we had planned.

And after all that, the run was fine. Wet, but nice. A little fast, perhaps, as Tyler is very comfortable running a minute faster per mile than me, but really it was a very nice run. And as a bonus, David accompanied us on his bike.

Day 5M
Week 30M
Summer 407M

Thursday August 14 (pm) - 7M - Tempo

This was the most encouraging run of the entire summer.

For several days now, I've been doing relatively solid runs: 10M on Sunday, fairly quick daily runs, and a track workout on Tuesday. So it wouldn't have been surprising if I felt really dead-legged tonight, heading over to Fresh Pond for a little tempo work with the boys.

Instead, after a long 2.5M warmup, I felt pretty good. I ended up running the not-quite-2.5M loop in 14:13, running with Tom and Jonathan the whole way. Even felt like pushing a little bit up the hill. Thats better than 5:50 pace. And it was quite humid. and I was wearing normal shoes (not race or tempo shoes).

Last night I tried a cold water bath, I was feeling so good.

Day 7M
Week 25M
Summer 402M (500 is definitely within reach!)

Wednesday August 13 (pm) - 6M

Ran the Johnny Kelley loop at a good pace, averaging about 6:50 for the last three miles, which is especially encouraging since I ran hard last night, and in the past few months that has been a recipe for disaster.

Day 6M
Week 18M
Summer 395M

Tuesday August 12 (pm) - 6M - Track

First real track workout in a long time.

Warmed up for 2M, did a few drills and strides, then ran the following modest workout:

800 @ 2:44, 2' rest
4 x 600 @ 1:58-2:00, 3' rest

Felt fast and slow at the same time. Fast because running at 5:20 pace is, in practice, almost 40s faster per mile than my recent 5K pace (and faster than I have run for a while). Slow because, well, because my brain still thinks I SHOULD be running at < 5:00 pace. stupid brain.

Cooled down about 2M, and felt ok afterwards.

Day 6M
Week 12M
Summer 389M

Monday August 11 (pm) - 6M

An easy 4.5 with Henry, followed by a much harder and much muddier 1.5 around the Cold Springs loop. By the time I finished, the heavens had opened and I stretched in a drenching rain.

Day 6M
Week 6M
Summer 383M

Sunday August 10 (am) - 10M

Ran 10 miles through Winchester with Jon Wyner at about 7:30 pace. Generally felt ok the whole way, although legs were quite tired going up the hills.

Day 10M
Week 41M
Summer 377M

Saturday August 9 (pm) - 7M

Ran at about 4 p.m. in sunshine. Amazing! Felt a little soreness from some of the exercises I did last night while waiting for the rain to subside, so I was pleased to feel fairly good on a seven-mile loop out Washington Street, up Lowell, over to Cold Spring for a loop on the trail, and back via West Newton. Finished in 50:24, running pretty well.


Day 7M
Week 31M
Summer 367M

Friday August 8 (pm) - 4M

This had all the makings of an unwanted day off. I ended up staying later at work than I wanted, and then as I drove home, the lightning started. By the time I was in my running clothes and stretching, the heavens had opened.

I did a bunch of strength exercises at home, which was good, all the while hoping that Ann wouldn't convince me to go out for dinner. Finally, I got out the door for four miles, running the Comm Ave/Chestnut loop. My legs felt a bit stiff from yesterday's small amount of speedier running, but I was mostly ok.

Tomorrow might be a good day to do a long run.

Day 4M
Week 24M
Summer 360M

Thursday August 7 (pm) - 5M

It felt like it was time to get back on the track, so on my way home I stopped at the Belmont Hill school and did a shake out, mini-workout to test the waters. I jogged for a couple of miles, did a few easy drills, and then ran 5 x 400m, trying not to strain and monitoring my right hip for any pain or stiffness.

The first one felt strange and was a slow 83; still, that's faster than I've run for a long time. Over the next four, it felt progressively easier to run fast, and I hit them in 80, 78, 76, 77. Even though my stride opened up and I started running faster, I felt fatigue lifting my right leg, and didn't want to overcompensate and put too much stress on the hamstrings. So I quite at five, and did a light cooldown

We'll see how it feels tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll do a little more next Tuesday, and then try to add a track workout to my weekly schedule.

Day 5M
Week 18M
Summer 356M

Wednesday August 6 (pm) - 6M

Six miles with Liz Gleason from Cold Springs.

Day 6M
Week 13M
Summer 351M

Tuesday August 5 (pm) - 7M

This was a pretty solid run, 7M on the Minuteman Trail.

After a shake-out first mile of 7:50, hit successive miles of 7:09, 7:22, 7:03, 7:01, 7:04 (included long uphill), and finished with a 6:59, plus about 30 seconds for a total time of 51:30.

Legs felt mostly good. Somewhat shocking to realize that only a couple of years ago, I was regularly running the same course in sub 49.

Day 7M
Week 7M
Summer 345M

Monday August 4 - Day off

Entertained cousins Larry and Carla on their East Coast Swing, and didn't manage to get a run in. Too bad -- I felt ok after Sunday's long run.

Day 0M
Week 0M
Summer 338M

Sunday August 3 (am) - 10.5M

After staying up until 2 a.m. eating Hungarian pastries, dancing with Hungarian women, and drinking "Palinko", got up early to run 10 miles through the New Jersey suburbs with Noah. It was a beautiful morning, and we started slowly. After five miles, we picked up the pace and ran the last 5M at about 7:05-7:10 pace.

I jogged an obsessive half mile at the end so I wouldn't have to have an uneven number at the end of the week.

Day 10.5M
Week 44M
Summer 338M

Saturday August 2 (pm) - 5.5M

In Passaic, New Jersey for David Polgar's wedding.

Drove down from Newton with Dan, Noah, Jesse, and Evan, and everyone but Jesse went for a run when we arrived. I ran for 40 minutes with Evan, while Noah and Dan continued to make their run an hour.

I felt better than yesterday, despite the long drive. Plan is for a long run tomorrow; we'll see.

Day 5.5M
Week 33.5M
Summer 327.5M

Friday August 1 (pm) - 6M

Ran my usual 6-mile route -- clockwise -- in just under 42 minutes. It felt a lot harder than it should have. I think it has been a long week and I haven't fully recovered from Newburyport.

Day 6M
Week 28M
Summer 322M

Thursday July 31 (pm) - 4M

This was the closest thing to a "generic" run I've had all summer. I worked late, arrived back home around 7 p.m., and didn't really know if I'd have time or inclination to run at all. I sat down for a few minutes and figured, "well, what else do I have to do?" So I put on my running stuff and jogged out the door with no plan and no expectations. I ended up running about 4 miles without timing it.

Day 4M
Week 22M
Summer 316M