JRags - Week 8 - Learning how to roll again/Coogan's training

Sunday...

Monday:
AM - to work. a little quicker, but felt pretty good after long run.
PM - barefoot on the baseball field for 4 of 6. felt really good today. a little stiff (esp outer ankles) at first, but warmed up well and felt really strong and smooth. speedstars arrived.

Tuesday:
PM - pretty decent first uptempo with nick jerzy and corey. reverse belmont-ish. felt really good, more splits and everything to come.
http://connect.garmin.com/player/8215290
7:34 7:08 6:44 6:31 6:04 5:45 6:49 6:41 6:51 7:01
middle 2.45 miles (14:30) were 5:53 pace

Wednesday:
AM - home to work very easy. shins a little beat up. ran into the lovely dan darcy.
PM - got lost along the muddy river/jamaica pond from work/fenway. meant to do ~6 at a moderate pace, but ended up hammering the last 4 or 5 miles of the 8+

Thursday:
AM - home to work. beat up at first, but felt good after 3. 4 hills strides up beacon. stretch in the lounge.
PM - very good work today.
3+ barefoot on the turf, 2+ along short 05, quick 10 minutes pooling, a lot of drills, stretch, and pedemyrtle. lots of recovery drink.

Friday:
PM - another great uptempo. felt good. ran with nick and cliff until cliff dropped off at 4 or so. fire house to fake horn pond, back some new parts of the fells. splits are rough, nick will send me his watch soon.
8:15 7:08 7:32 7:19 6:19 5:49 5:49 6:18 8:06 8:20
drills and strides and a quick stretch, some of pedemyrtle. recovery drink.
middle 2.59 at 5:48 pace, 4.01 miles at 6:00 pace.
http://connect.garmin.com/player/8523911

Saturday:
AM - harvard really easy with nick and ana. felt pretty good after yesterday. 4 hill strides up electric. thats a really nice hill for strides. nothing hurt today either.
PM - to the baseball field, then barefoot around with jerzy and brunk. felt pretty good. very hungry by the end, so skipped strides. did some this morning though. it will be an adjustment doing so many strides every day.

Sunday:
AM - ive had the streak going for a few weeks now, so all things considered, i'd give today a "great long run today." revere beach with nick and brunk. terrible route.
7:30 7:10 7:07 6:46 6:41 6:30 6:34 6:31 6:36 6:40 6:50 6:48 6:38 6:36 6:48 7:22
upper left ankle (post tib) hurt all the way through, as did shins from time to time. decently hydrated and fueled the whole way. hot as fuck though.


82 miles on the week. Very good week I think. Hit up-tempo pace 3 times between Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday. Did pedemyrtle a few times, once with Jerzy. Felt very much less injured and banged up than I did in the last 2 weeks, part of that being from the barefoot running. I'd like to keep this up maybe in morning runs during the year since I wont have to run to anywhere like I do now.
I can already feel myself improving at the uptempos after two. The first felt a little foreign running that fast just out on a run, but the second one felt more relaxed and was on much harder roads (up to the west of the fells).
I'm sure we all have reactions to the summer training we got so I'll give mine. Overall, I like it. Yeah, it's fairly generic and broad compared to last year's, but there were two things I found interesting.

First, the tempo runs in August. I have very similar ideas to Coach Coogan's when it comes to the tempo run progressions, but maybe at higher intensities. His "training runs" are analogous to my uptempos and his tempos in August correlate to the tempo runs I have in mind as well. I've always thought we should take down the intensities from our old tempo runs, but maybe not quite as much as Coach Coogan recommended. If I'm a 26:00 8k runner (which is still 59 seconds faster than my PR...) my tempo runs should be 5:57-6:12 pace according to the 45-60 second rule. The paces I had in mind were a little faster, maybe 5:40 or so, but as he said, these workouts are still a base building exercise. The real work is yet to come, and I want to be ready for it.

Second is the surprising large emphasis on strides during summer. I think this is a great idea for every one of us. No one will ever get slower by doing more strides, and I think it's unreasonable to thing that building up to 8-10 strides will significantly fatigue you for the next day's run. As Brunk has explicitly said, "nothing will come instead of mileage." For a 10k runner, I agree, but no one should feel as if these strides are going to wear you down so much that you need to take a short recovery day the next day because of them. Strides don't have to be all out tests of top speed, most of them should be just enough to stay in touch with mile/3000m speed. True, I am looking at these strides from a miler's perspective, but I'm fairly certain there is no track event that CAN'T come down to a fast finish. You guys saw the 10k at NESCACs and DIII NE's. Sure, 10 strides can be time consuming, but so is everything we do in running.

One last plug. Here's another way I decide whether to go the extra mile in running or not:

Would you prefer that the Williams guys do it instead?

JRags - Week 7 - 4 Time Freedom Run Champ.

Sunday UpDizzle.

Monday:
AM - home to work. felt pretty good, but had to rush a bit to make it to orientation on time.
PM - 30 minute pool with stoner. bluffed at going longer, but didnt feel like it.

Tuesday:
AM - started running to work, but R foot hurt. didnt really feel like running anyway. adizeros def make it worse.
PM - easy with nick. worst route ever. felt alright though after the first 3 or 4. 2 strides (awkward) and pedemyrtle.

Wednesday:
AM/PM - Complete off day. first one during a season since last outdoor other than one day in May. Right foot was hurting.

Thursday:
PM - lake pretty easy, foot felt a lot better.

Friday:
PM - easy with greg and tim back home. foot felt ok, even in a few strides.

Saturday:
AM - 3 up, 3 race, 3 down, 2x he-man breakfast at orems diner. got out pretty fast, but let the pace slow after the first plate of french toast and eggs. lost concentration and started doubting myself half way through the 6th and final french toast. knew i had it in me to get through the finish, but had to regain focus to get over the last eggs. one the eggs were gone, it was a piece of cake. actually just a piece of bacon or two. felt good in the race too, ran 16:02 to win.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2974436

Sunday:
AM - great long run with danny joining me on the bike. felt miserable for the first 2 miles or so, but oh well. pretty hot out too.
early splits a little fuzzy
~8:00
~8:00
7:30
7:15
7:00
6:45
6:40
6:40
6:15
6:07
6:25
6:25
6:48
7:10
didnt feel like i was pushing at all, but thats probably because danny was biking. felt easy until the hill on evergreen. rigged hard from there back, about a mile and a half. one nature valley bar at about 6 miles. right foot still achey all around after. i want to see pat about that. outside dorsal flex tendon sore.
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2976241

Major downweek. Felt a few injuries creeping up on my right foot. Thought I had some tendonitis, but iced that away. May have some alignment issue that is pushing and pulling on the wrong things. Random parts of my ankles hurt a lot at the beginnings of runs, but felt better by the end of the week. Nothing really to highlight, except my road race on Saturday. Smoked it again, not particularly fast, but felt good. Very much more in control than recent years.

I've gotten pretty lazy with my running related non-running activities lately, with the exception of pedemyrtle (could be better there too). I havent been stretching much, I rarely ice, and I haven't been very consistent with strides. Starting my next upweek today, I want to make sure I'm firing on all cylinders by staying religious about all those things.

BADGER ME TO DO SHIT!!!

kthnxbye.

Week of June 28th-July 4th

14.0 mi Run
Did twin peaks with Corey. Started out with Brunnq, Jragz, and Nick, but they broke off after two peaks. Still feel weak- I wish they didn't take so much blood from me!
Posted on Monday, June 29

MondayJun 29
4.0 mi Run
Ran past Gantcher and did reverse 0-5 with Corey to backwards C-loop. Felt okay.
6.0 mi Run
Ran at the track for a bit with Corey waiting for people to show up then ran for a bit with the crew along the way to the fells, then turned around and did 2 miles barefoot at the track. Felt good, though we were running really easy.

TuesdayJun 30
4.0 mi Run
Did lakes with Corey. Felt okay. 28:40
10.0 mi Run
Ran after painting with Corey. Ran up the Muddy River to Jamaica Pond to Larz Anderson where we did a few laps and ran home via Brookline Res., the high school, and the Muddy River. Did 3 strides after. Felt better than I have since the blood drawing but still tired. I've eaten red meat the last 2 nights and have gone heavy on the iron supplementing so hopefully that will help.

WednesdayJul 01
10.0 mi Run
Ran to the indoor track because it was raining and did a few miles there then ran back to Ossipee and met up with Corey. We ran around Alewife and added on a bit up Broadway after running back through Porter. Felt good! 6:40ish pace. I slept a bunch last night.

ThursdayJul 02
4.0 mi Run
Ran around the alumni fields. Felt pretty good.
8.0 mi Run
Did bike path to Belmont with Corey and Nick (Brunnq went further). Ran 6:30 pace average. Nick just wouldn't stop pushing the pace (just kidding Nick). Felt pretty good. Did 5x10 second hill sprints after.

FridayJul 03
4.0 mi Run
Ran around the alumni fields with Corey. Felt pretty good.
9.0 mi Run
Mid-res from Ossipee with Corey and Brunnq. Felt pretty good

SaturdayJul 04
8.0 mi Run 2 up Needham 5k Road Race- 2nd place, 16:05. Pretty happy with the race. Drove over with Burnstein and Corey. Went out with a pack of 5 through the mile in 5:00, which got widdled down to 4 by the 1.5 mark, and 3 at the 2 mile mark. Burnstein surged with about 800 meters to go and finished 6 seconds ahead of me. 3 down Didn't push too hard.
3.0 mi Run
Shakeout to Stew's house alone.

Total- 84 miles

A good week overall. I felt bad to start the week, but I've been feeling a lot better recently as I've distanced myself from the blood drawing, slept well, and gotten used to the mileage. I'm happy with the race because I have done anything faster than 6:30 pace recently aside from hill sprints, but 5:00 pace actually felt comfortable. I had a really good long run today with Brunnq and Corey so things are looking up!

More than just running

My summer thus far summarizes as follows:
-a few weeks of just running to stay in shape, following track season. During this time I hammered almost every run. I think maybe I was trying to get ahead of myself and figured since I wasn't running many miles, they should be quality miles. Soon I found that I was constantly tired (even during 30-50 mile week). I found out pretty quick that I had to slow down and allow my body to recover

-around 5 weeks ago I started trying to build a base. I took a day off almost every week, but still managed 60-70 per week. I felt good--almost as if I was in the shape I was in during the end of last summer--so way ahead of last year's training.

-last week I hurt my knee. It is the same kind of injury I had during indoor, although I hurt my other knee this time. I was playing a casual game of pickup basketball and was in a good amount of pain afterwards. I'm pretty sure this was the onset of the injury and it has hurt on every run since then. The pain is tolerable, although I have really toned down my running over the last week. I think that with normal volume the pain would be worse.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have mixed feelings about what is going on with me. Of course it sucks to not feel great, or even good on runs. I've had some awesome runs this summer, and all I want is to be able to replicate that feeling every time. However, I've learned that just running is not going to get me where I want to be. For some people that works, but I'm starting to think I have to do more. As soon as I hurt my knee I resumed the PT exercises I had been doing in the winter. I also started lifting, and I want to maintain a regular lifting schedule (something I have never done, unfortunately). I think my body needs to be stronger to support the beating it takes when I run. As much as I'd like to think I'd pick this stuff up anyway this summer, I'm starting to think that this injury was my wakeup call towards actively improving my strength. I cannot wait to run pain free, and that is my motivation right now. I will not stop trying to get healthy and once I am healthy, I will not stop trying to stay that way.

JRags - Week 6 - Phase 1: Complete...

The one-day-late Sunday update:

Monday:
AM - home to BI easy for once.
PM - T to home to the track, west med, back rev lakes to the burren 5k fun run, slow 2 miles, then slightly sub 6 last mile, jog back to the track with nick. felt really good this run. burren 5k was a joke. averaged right around 7 for the whole run.
pedemyrtle after, not getting any easier, but its been a long 2 days in miles, so that could be it.

Tuesday:
AM - home to work very easy. nick fucking threw a banana peel at my eye.
PM - to the track, then bike path with nick cliff and ana. some strides, then pedemyrtle. felt a lot better than yesterday. post tib bothering me.

Wednesday:
AM - davis to BI. post tib is hurting again, icing at work.
PM - long res from the fells very easy with steph. post tib felt way better after icing.

Thursday:
AM - home to BI with steph. ankle alright. icing at work.
PM - short res from baronian (6.44) with nick, and a couple 200s on the track. felt very tired most of the day, didnt eat much other than 2 pieces of cake at work. felt a lot better once we got 3 miles in or so. pedemyrtle back at the track, felt a little bit easier.

Friday:
AM - home to work a little faster.
PM - mid res from the fells with steph. felt alright. amazing steak and rice bowl with veggies for dinner.

Saturday:
AM - easy around kraft field by baronian. its fucking hot.
PM - cloop at night. felt really good after a solid nap. i was peaced the fuck out as greg would say. fast pace probably because of adizeros. 2 strides.

Sunday:
AM - great long run on triple peaks. both soleus pretty tight and painful for the first 5 or so miles, but once they loosened up, i felt awesome. obviously went short yesterday.
7:20
7:20
7:00
7:14
6:52
7:25
6:25
7:22
6:52
6:53 70:50
6:26
6:22
6:13
6:04
~7:30 66:54 last 10 miles
felt awesome, but need to sleep well.

Biggest week of the summer so far, 83 total with a 7 mile give-up on saturday. A pretty large proportion of junk though. A few really easy runs in to work, some running with Steph (her first week back), and a very easy short res with Nicolas. A little banged up in my ankles and lower shins, but nothing too bad. Awesome Sunday run I'd say. Averaging 6:40 pace for the last 10 miles of triple peaks is nothing to scoff at regardless of what time of year. With that, I finished the last week of Phase 1: Getting fit at 7:00 pace. After a down week this week going into a 4th of July race, I'll start Phase 2: Getting fit at 6:00 pace.
I'm famous for drawing connections between running and car engines, just ask Steph. Here's how I see my "phases" for the summer and fall.
Phase 1 - fuel efficiency - pretty much what I mean by getting fit at 7:00 pace
Phase 2 - building a big engine - also known as getting fit at 6:00 pace (these numbers are all round estimates, of course). Once I have the fuel and recovery efficiency from June, I can start working on the minimally invasive aerobic base development. I don't really consider 7:00 pace day in and day out as "base" per se, I think that's more just getting your body used to running so you can handle the year's work load. "Base" development (base training) in my mind revolves around those handful of runs we have every few weeks when things just click. We feel fresh, we started the run slow, we're well fueled, and we get rolling about halfway through and hit a smooth just-slower-than-tempo pace (perhaps half-marathon for us longer guys) stride for the last 2-5 miles. If there's any "workout" to focus on at this point in the year, this is it. Track workouts can cloud our vision of what we're trying to do in running. Largely, the goal is to get oxygen to our legs and use it efficiently in order to run fast. No workout (at this point for an 8ker) is as effective as HM pace uptempo running, in my opinion. It's gentle enough on the body (if done right and conservatively) that you can safely work up to touching your uptempo pace 3, maybe even 4 times a week. It's also the most sustainable workouts we do. You can't do an 45-60 minutes of repetitions, intervals, or even tempos in a given session. The "bigger aerobic engine" developed from HM training trickles down to make really anything easier. Mechanically, it will improve efficiency at near-top-end speed, it will slightly improve VO2 max, and prolongs the high end effort you can sustain without tiring. Basically, that's what's going to comprise my July. Starting with 1-2 and progressing to 3 days a week, roll into a progression run by starting very easy for the first 3 (my calling card), dropping to 6:00-6:15 effort (slower in the fells) for 4 miles to start, 8 or 9 miles by August, and backing it down to coast in for a landing the last 2 miles. That's Phase 2
Phase 3 - maximize aerobic output - incorporate shorter faster tempo runs and tempo intervals to pick up on the intensity where the HM up tempo's left off. I think this phase has been either overlooked or overworked a lot in the last 2 years. In cross country, we crush the tempo runs and the mile repeats on and off the track (Franklin Park, Fresh Pond), then during track, this zone doesn't exist. We never run between 6:30 and 5:00. What about a 4 mile tempo run or 6-8xmile off 60 seconds rest both around 8-10-mile race pace, maybe 5:20-5:30? We'll figure it out.
Phase 4 - touching on the aerobic/anaerobic threshold - these are the workouts around 8k race pace or a smidge faster. For example, 5xmile at race pace as both and indicator and confidence boosting workout, and something like 8x800 off 60 sec jog rest at 5000m pace. The benefits of race pace training are obvious, mechanical developments, finding a pace, dealing with how you'll feel running that pace when things start to go back door just in case. Workouts can get a little faster near the end of the year, like the COMFORTABLE 800s we did near the end of cross last year around 2:20-2:22 or so for our group. I don't even know if training this fast is necessary for a strictly cross country runner. We spend like 5-10% of our race running this fast (<3000m race pace), and by that point in the race, there are so many other factors affecting how we will be running. These reps are at least good for mechanics though.
Anyway, that's sort of how I've seen in lately. I've just finished phase 1, and phase 2 involving mostly uptempos and easy runs starts next saturday. Before then, though, I have a very important classic Wilton road race to focus on. I've won it three times in a row, but I have no intention of letting the streak end this decade.

Keep Running.

Week of 6/21-6/27

Sunday
Jun 21

14.0 mi Run

Ran with Burnstein for 9 miles around the Chestnut Hill area then ran up the river to the BU bridge by myself and home through the fens loop and muddy river. Felt good!

Monday
Jun 22

4.0 mi Run

Did lakes. Felt okay.

6.0 mi Run

Ran for a mile then met up with Corey and did ex-Porter Square then ran for another mile. Did 3 strides after- 2 downhill 1 uphill on Ossipee. Felt a little tired but still pretty good. Strides were nice.

Tuesday
Jun 23

4.0 mi Run

Ran around Alewife with Corey and back up the bike path through Davis. Felt pretty good.

10.0 mi Run

Did long-res with Corey backwards. Felt good! 71:00

Wednesday
Jun 24

9.0 mi Run

Ran home from work to Ossipee and met up with Corey and did Cemetery pretty quick. Felt real good. Did 4xhill sprints after and 1xhill bounds (about 14 seconds)

3.0 mi Run

Ran around the Alewife area after class. Felt really good.

Thursday
Jun 25

7.0 mi Run

Did Glamorville with Corey then continued alone up through Medford Square to reverse 0-5 then around C-loop. Felt poopy because it was early in the morning and really hot and humid.

Friday
Jun 26

10.0 mi Run

Drove out to the fells with Brunnq and Corey and did a bunch of random runs including reverse long-res and firehouse. Felt absolutely horrible, close to the worst I've ever felt on a run. Luckily, I know the reason for my struggles. I only managed to sleep for a few hours last night, I got a lot of blood drawn this morning, and I ate too soon before the run (I had to stop to relieve myself at one point). That being said, my legs felt pretty good.

Saturday
Jun 27

4.0 mi Run

Did the Alewife loop with Corey. Felt fine.

9.0 mi Run

Ran with Stew to Ghetto Pond and back, then added on. Still felt anemic from the blood drawing but a bit better.

Total: 80 Miles

Good week of running until the last couple days but I should bounce back pretty soon.

Running, the scariest thing I've ever done...

See saturdays post for an interesting story:

Sunday (0) was a very long day in Paris and had spent 4 hours on a train coming home after walking the streets for 4 hours also, decided to take off in light of all the walking.

Monday (5) Decided I wanted to do a real nice long run after some easy down time but 3 miles out I rolled my ankle and was forced to turn around and walk back.  Later in the night I decided to try and run a little more so I did another 2 before I gave up.

Tuesday (7) With ankle feeling a little better I wanted to get a real run in but not get too far in case it began hurting too bad.  Not an easy run, had trouble going downhill at decent paces but took uphills hard.

Wedsnesday ( 16.0) Woke up late feeling great, and had decided the night before that I would go long today.  It was very hot however, and I had done little hydrating.  For some reason I decided I would just run for two hours so I ran an hour out and an hour back. The last hour went by pretty slowly as I was feeling pretty bad.  Not a very fast run because I decided to run pretty long.  Additionally, after getting home my friend convinced me to go biking with him, so we biked around the lake, about 25 miles and after went for a little swim make a quarter mile.

Thursday ( 16.71)  After a rough night of little sleep caused by pain in my lower calf I woke up and went for a slow 6.5 and it felt pretty bad.  After classes and lounging by the beach I felt loads better and did a run in the evening for 10.2 miles and felt a lot better.

Friday ( 8)  Taking an easier day as tomorrow I agreed to do a nice little trail race with my host dad, or so I thought.

Saturday ( 10) The hour and 44 minutes between 830pm and 1014pm were probably some of the most scary moments of my life.  Allow me to explain, the beginning of the race, which was advertised as 14km with 900m of elevation change, was decently flat and just a trail like any trail in the fells. It didn't start out very fast and I hadn't planned on racing, just running with my host father. At like 5 minutes in he began to pick it up and beckoned me on, so I followed.  We began to pass many people until the crowd started to thin into a single broken line.  We hit the first real hill at about 10 minutes and it seemed to me that everyone else pretty much stopped.  The two guys in front of me started walking up the hill.  Needless to say, I was confused.  I continued to climb at a crawling pace, but compared to the rest of the field I was sprinting.  I lost site of my host dad behind me, and pretty much everyone behind me and there ceased to be anyone in front of me.  I wasn't winning but I was close.  At the peak of the first hill, or mountain I should say, after 6 minutes of straight up, I ran into a course volunteer who told me congratulations youre at the top.  I was very happy, I love downhills, it was time to open my stride and destroy everyone of those silly french walkers.  WRONG.  No one told me that the downhills had steeper inclines than the uphill, which make bunker hill look flat.  I am running along when all the sudden there is a cliff to my left and the course shrinks to less then the size of a single track lane and is riddled with rocks and tree roots.  It was then my turn to start walking down the hill in fear of death by falling down a rocky mountain side.  This was the point were all the tricky french bastards closed the gap. And by close the gap I mean that by the time I was at the bottom of the mountain I went from third to 20th and it got more serious as my host dad passed me.  Down the hill I was crawling and everyone else was literally flying with no concern for life at all it seemed.  Finally, flat ground again.

   A very short lived flat ground as the next hill came out of no where.  Again, surprisingly to me, I was now passing everyone again and by the top of hill 2 a spectator informed me of my position: 5th.  Yet sure enough that which goes up must come down and be passed by many frogs too.  To make matters worse, we were now consumed in darkness as the race started at 830pm and trees provide little light. Go-Go-Gadget Head Lamp! Yes head lamps were required and I had one, boy did I feel cool. Bottom of hill 2 a nice field of long grass, yet even that proved to be tricky as it had also proceeded to begin raining while I was in the trail and while I let my guard down I tripped on a log and then slid on the grass for about 20 feet before being able to regain control. At this point about 35 minutes in the course made a trip through the city where it began and the spectators went crazy and my host family was surprised to see I was just 15 meters behind good old dad after some major work on the flat ground.  I soon realized I was just halfway done if not a little less.

   Mountain 3 had a few more tricks up its sleeves than I ever expected.  After again passing all of my new friends up the slow decent of #3 we suddenly hit trail again and this time there was no running up, there was only crawling.  The hill was so steep I was pretty much rock climbing.  After 3 minutes of climbing the hill starts to level off and I was able to stand erect while running and the first thing I notice is a sign.  It is big and red and reads "Presence de Loups" and at first I don't think much of it until I realize that it means there are wolves in the area.  Wonderful.  As I begin to run just a little faster, I realize darkness is now complete and the moon is blocked by rain clouds which are pouring down on me.  Guided only by sights of headlamps in front of me and an occasional course marker every 5 to 10 minutes I occasionally found my self not on the trail anymore and had to make my own way back.  The first time I realized I was not on the trail however, I learned that sometimes the course went through barbed wires, or at least I did...  Through hell and high water and almost to the bottom of hill three and then there course dissapears.  There is only rock face to my left, cliff on my right and 20 meters inbetween me and the trail on the other side of the gap.  Could this be right? Then I discover a little metal cord that is bolted in to the rock.  Here goes nothing I thought, I grabbed the cord and began essentially horizontally across the rock face. Shortly after real ground appeared and I found myself on a road again.

   Hill was not such a great feet as the ascent was not as steep as the others and the descent likewise and so I made up ground on the rest of those in front of me.  However, at this point I was about 75 minutes in and expecting finish line at any moment and I began to experience tunnel vision.  There were some points were I literally felt like I had blinders on.  After the gentle beast that was hill 4 there was however a short drop where there was two options, run 200 meters out of my way and take some stairs or jump down 10 feet, everyone else was jumping I followed not knowing the pain that would ensue.   As I  hit the ground a searing pain went through my leg.  I quickly limped it off and began running again in thoughts that we were going back into the city to the finish.  I was right about one thing we were going back into the city, but not to the finish, just next to it. So much for sprinting but I did catch dad at this point.  Just one more hill he told me.  Okay, I thought, just one more

   For the last time I climbed, again actually climbing at some points.  Ambiguous trails at some points so again I just followed lights up the hill.  At the top again a race volunteer was stationed and he told me be careful it is dangerous. Oh, so now its actually dangerous you say! Swell.  He was right.  The entire course was now wet and good footing was pretty much impossible to come by.  This descent pretty much amount to me backpedaling as much as possible and running into trees in order to stop my momentum from throwing me down the side of #5.  For the last time super host dad passed me yelling "Allez Brendan!"  I tried to stay with him but he slowly gapped me.  I lost the glimpse of his headlamp and made a left turn to early and ended up riding my butt down a 30 foot dirt drop.  No rocks thank god but some roots which I now have to thank for some nice bruises.  But at the bottom of this near free fall I was back on trail and could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I put on my finished speed in hopes of catching some people in front of me.  The crowd went wild as the say me sprinting powerfully through the city as no other finisher had but just as I turned the last corner I realized I was to late too beat Dad as I saw him finish just ahead of me.  Good job he said to me you should come back next year and do it again.  Yea, sure, of course. He thinks we were in the top 15 out of about 170 or so people who started the race.  One hour and 44 minutes later, I was done, some minor cuts and bruises and a tenderness in my achilles to show for it but I was done.  A down week is in order as I finally head into finals this Wednesday and come back to the States. 

 Bon courage mes amis!

JRags - Week 5 - Fuck Lynn Reservation, Go Pedemyrtle!

Another sunday. The log:

Monday:
AM - home to BI, to public safety to FINALLY get my fucking ID. i look like a murderer in the photo. back to BI.
PM - home from work, ended at kirstens house. back to packard and did 3 hill strides. felt pretty tough. dehydrated.

Tuesday:
AM - home to BI. hammered. felt pretty good, but was landing farther back.
PM - great run with nick! drove up to the fells and ran a slightly fucked up version of people eater fire house from near tower. started easy, but rolled fairly fast for the last 3 or 4 miles. felt great. first time ive been to the fells in quite a while. some drills, 2 strides, drove home, did core, stretched.

Wednesday:
AM - home to bi. faster second half. pretty good legs. we need milk. 3 hill strides and 2 flat.
PM - drove to lynn reservation, got out of the car as the trail race was on the line, and ran 32:20 for 5.31 miles of the hilliest trails ive ever seen. bates course on steroids. felt pretty tough going up the third tower. very easy day tomorrow, probably just running to work. 2.8 cool down

Thursday:
AM - playing it safe. 5 very easy to work. didnt feel too bad except tensor fascia latta i think in my right hip just behind and above hip bone. just sore.

Friday:
PM - terrible terrible run. went into work from 12:30 to 4:00 last night, slept 4 hours, and went back in. terrible idea. ate cereal right before the run, terrible idea. ran people eater with nick from the fells exit. back on roads. should be fine once i get some sleep and not-milk in my system.

Saturday:
AM - lakes with an extra mile out on mile 5 of long lakes with nick. felt much better than yesterday.
PM - 3 back from harvard after shopping with nick. cruised.

Sunday:
AM - great long run in the fells with nick corey billy and that tyler kid from U of R. woke up really late, so didnt eat anything. ran out to 1500 meter pond, around, back to far tower almost, then around north reservoir. back mountain bike trail and reg fells finish. felt awesome. pretty easy last few days on the legs after not sleeping thursday night. got down a nature valley double bar around 55 minutes. i think that helped stave off empty-tank-itis. quick stretch and ball square cafe.
PM - (probably going for an easy 3 soon)

75 on the week, most of that coming in the first 4 days. Took it easy thursday and friday after a pretty hard effort in the lynn reserve trail race. easy double saturday, and a pretty solid long run today.

FINALLY I get the chance to highlight core stability and strength this week. For the last 2 weeks or so, Nick and I have started organizing what we want to focus on this coming year in terms of "core" strength. We have been talking about it for months, and we finally came up with a routine of 2 days of "upper core" and 2 days of "lower core" a week, give or take. I'll explain.

As distance runners, I think we've focused way too much of "upper core," especially upper ab strength. Keeping your hips under you isn't really an upper ab issue, its more lower abs and hip strength. To really improve your running strength outside of your legs, I think you have to develop your hip strength, lower abs, and back.

The "upper" core I'm talking about is the area of muscles more or less from the top of your hip bone to your sternum, 360 degrees around (upper and lower abs, obliques, and back). For this, Nick came up with the routine of 3-4 x (4x45 seconds) where each set of 4x60 seconds is an upper ab, lower ab, oblique, and back strengthening exercise, in that order. For example, 3-4 x (60 sec crunches, 60 sec straight knee flutters, 2x30 sec side crunches, 60 sec superman). This way, we focus equally on all directions of strength, and you don't really need to take a rest interval, because the rest for each zone is built in by not working the same muscles every exercise. That's 12-16 minutes of upper core, which is much easier than it seems because the motions aren't repetitively doing the same excruciating sit-up every time.

The "lower" core is something we have ignored almost entirely with the exception of the multi-hip. In my mind, "lower" core refers to the muscles from the top of your hip bone down to your mid femur, again around all 360 degrees. The routine I came up with for this zone is a combination stolen from Jay Johnson, the Colorado University mid-distance/distance assistant coach. Here are a few videos of his workouts:
Pedestal
Myrtle
Why do core
Here's what I came up with, called Pedemyrtle...
Warm Up Set: 10 trail leg, 10 donkey kick, 10 donkey whip each leg from all-fours. (mostly from myrtle)
Strength Set: 10x single leg lifts from each of the 3 positions (flat, then elbow support, then hand support) of bridge (front, left, right, back)
Cool Down (mobility): Hurdle walk-overs. 2-feet-in once leading with each leg, and over-unders.

There's another video in there with Brent Vaughn talking about how bad he was at pedestal when he started and how much it has done for his running, so its a good look. Let me know what you guys think or if you have any questions about what everything is.

Peace, bitches.

hutch week 6

so the past two weeks were pretty bad. i rolled my ankle running trails and then to make matters worse went to the beach and got my vagina filled with sand! after milking my rolled ankle for the better part of a week and a half i decided it was time to do something about it. after cleaning all the sand out, i got out this week and hit the ground running (hah hah...hah?). Anyways i was shooting for about 60 this week. didn't quite get there, hit 53 in 6 days. pretty pleased with how it went. probably my best week of training so far this summer, i had times where i actaully started to catch glimpses of being in shape.

sunday: 10-bit rainy, tried a run i hadn't done in a while. not as bad as i remembered it being. didn't feel great though.

monday- 9 ran at like 2AM after work. really peaceful and quiet out. started out hammering 3 miles on the track before i left. ended up running the 3 lit roads in my town wayy too many times each. still a really good run, probably one of the best i've had this summer.

tuesday- 8.5 came back and ran at noon just 10 hours after the run the night before. felt better than expected, except on the way back up tuttle road where there are two big climbs. those were not fun

wednesday- 8.5 ran after playing basketball for 2 hours. felt a lot better than i expected. pretty boring run other wise

thursday- off

friday- 9 easy run in the rain. i can see why the US Open got suspended. it was VERY wet out

saturday- 7.5 uptempo most of the way. felt harder than i was hoping it would

week #2 of real training/week #5 of getting off my ass

I got a pretty slow start to summer training coming off of reading period/finals week, running in the 20's my first week back. The next week I ran around 30 in 5 days, followed by another week a little over 30 in 6 days (I was in Florida for a few and felt really crappy running there). After that week, though, I decided to get to work. I was shooting for around 45, but wound up hitting just under 40 for 6 days. And that brings me to last week.

Sunday - 9.4
I started off the week by making the trip from Newton out to Somerville to run mid-res with Billy, Erik, and Q. We ran from Ossipee to the Fells ending at the track, where I added on about half a mile barefoot on the infield.

Monday - 7.2
I ran from my house down to Echo Bridge and followed the aqueduct through Needham into Wellesley, then took some trails back into Newton and ended at a field around the corner from my house where I added on another half mile or so barefoot, followed by strides. Afterwards I headed over to the Newton South gym to get in a lift/core.

Tuesday - 6
I ran the aqueduct in the other direction this time, going into Newton Center and then running back via Comm Ave. I finished at the same field and did around 3/4 barefoot, followed by some drills. Did core and pull-ups when I got home.

Wednesday - 7.5
It was the first day of the 2009 Newton Summer Running Project, so in the afternoon I headed over to NS to lift and do core with my friend James (who runs for JWU in Providence) a few hours before the 6:30 run from Cold Spring park. For the run, we ran trails into Wellesley again, this time with Jon Waldron (ex-Newton North coach), Noah Jampol (NN/Hopkins), Brecher (NN/Bates), Donovan (NS/Brandeis), and Chebot (NN/Bates). I finished with about half a mile barefoot on the field.

Thursday - 6.1
I'm pretty sure this one was just through West Newton/Newton Center, not particularly notable.

Friday - 4.9
Ran the old 5 mile loop at Newton South that I ran like every day freshman year with my friend Marcus whose going to Bowdoin next year. He likes to take runs pretty fast so we wound up taking it out pretty quick, slowing down a little in the middle, then picking it up again at the end before an all out kick when we got back to the school. Afterwards I lifted again and did some core.

Saturday - 5.9
Ran on some trails and finished again at the field near my house for another half mile barefoot.

Total - 47 Miles, lifted 3 times, did core 4 times

Overall it was a pretty good week; I was shooting for 45 but wound up doing a little more and felt good doing it. I'm also starting to feel a lot stronger again as a result of the lifting, so now that I've gotten into better shape I'll probably just lift upper twice a week and focus more on core and maybe adding some lower stuff. This coming week I'm gonna try to stay around where I was last week and add some cross training and hill sprints. Next week I'll get up into the 50's; I'm already way ahead of where I was in past summers, so from here I want to take it a little slower and make sure I'm ready to maintain 60's when I get there.

Different Thoughts/ Whatever # week of training my last week was

Summer running? A novel idea for me I guess. In high school it really never occurred to me that maybe it would be a good idea to run during the summer. Coming to college and starting to run with you guys enlightened me on so many different aspects of running that I had never seen before. I never used to run long on sundays, look at running blogs, track my runs, challenge myself to do more than expected, run during the summer, take it easy on weekends etc. But now my mindset has changed. When asked this year by Jesse why I ran my answer was because it kept me and good shape and from getting ( more) fat but now after looking back on the past year I really feel like I keep running to see what I am actually capable of. I need to stop looking at our sport in the short run and look for how to imporve the long run.
I feel now like I had a long year of let downs and after every race I was dissapointed and just wanted to put every saturday in the past as if it were some fluke. But the dissapointments continued. Were my expectations too high? Was I doing something wrong. I tried many different things that I thought would help me race faster but nothing seemed to work. However, looking back on all the days this year that were not saturdays a lot of them showed massive improvement on my part that makes me feel better. Every workout was several times better (longer, faster, more consistent) My mileage was more consistent, I was able to push mileage to higher levels than ever before and I felt good, until saturday. So lets forget about that now. Now we all look to build a store of miles for the next 2 months before we have to get back into the competitive modes where we worry about how well we perform.
This will be new for me, running consistenly over the summer. Last year I tried, but was unable to bring my self to sacrifice other things like sleeping or seeing friends. It seems weird however, not having that competitive drive. I am working but the ends are not really in sight right now. However, I have been looking torwards to XC 2009 since the beginning of Outdoor this past season where after a season of sprinting and middle distance workouts like I had never done before I all the sudden came out and started doing distance. At first I thought this will be a drag and I wont see any good times, but right out of the gate just in tempo work out I saw amazing results. After a year and a half almost of being on the team and fighting to break 30 minutes in the 8k race or even a long lakes tempo, all of the sudden 2 weeks into outdoor distance training I had dropped two minutes on the 5 mile long lakes hovering just about 20 seconds over 28 minutes.
This is were I get my drive from, the thought of what level I could perform at after really establishing a strong base of miles this summer for the first time ever. While I dont neccesarily strive to be on the top 7 or second 7 for that matter just wanting to be the best I can. Not setting specific time goals for where I think I should be will hopefully save me from another year of dissapointed yet at the same time I hope to be pleasantly surprised with how I will improve. I guess I sort of now have the same feelings as corey does on this subject.
I feel as though I have also begun to ramble and as Im sure we have all seen we all have lots of feelings about training that are hard to place on the blog. Long story short I guess is that I guess I wanted to thank everyone for bearing with my lack of real running experience and that I hope in trying new things e.g. summer base I will eventually catch up.

On a lighter note, does anyone know detailed information about this 2 mile time trial cut that people have been talking about?


Last week was an interesting week.

Sunday- Super Sprint Triathlon (2.01)
Just a reminder for how much I suck at swimming and biking.
400 m swim 10min
12K bike ( on a mountain bike that was too small) 25 minutes
3k run - 12min.
I was so happy to be running after the swim and bike but by the time I realized I could open up I was already 2k into it.

Monday- Sick for the second time in a month, wonderful (16.01)
a.m.ish-Today I decided during my 830 am art history that I wanted to run for long time after words. So I ran about 1hr and 55min not too fast, and felt great, until I had to sit through a 3 hour class afterward. (Unsure of distance, gmaps has messed up routes out here i think 14.5 - 15ish probs)
p.m. - Got home and ran barefoot for 1.5 miles.

Tuesday (6.5)
Nice little hilly loop felt sick still and fatigued from yesterday

Wedsnesday (6)
Feeling better, but still heavy legged

Thursday ( 10.75)
Went out thinking only 8 or so but felt good and decided to keep on going.

Friday ( 4)
Woke up early to run before a 4 hour train to Paris. Planned on running at night but had no time after touristing with my class

Saturday (0)
Again had to do stuff with my class and ended up walking for about 5 hours throughout paris so ended up not running...

Overall 45 plus some extra on sunday. Felt pretty good and had planned to kick it up a notch this week but then I twisted my ankle 3 miles into a long run yesterday so I may have to rethink depending on how I feel tomorrow. Sorry for such a long post.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

Nick made a pun. At least for distance runners.
Get it? Distance makes the heart grow fonder...
As in, the more I run, the more I enjoy running.

Anyway, it made me think about my running. And we have a blog, so I guess I'll write it down.

This past indoor season I placed intense pressure on myself to perform: I had invested too much energy and time to waste opportunities. I had to fucking kill this race. I had to prove my training to myself. I had to break through that next wall. I needed to suck up more pain. Grit my teeth harder. Swing my arms faster. Drive my knees higher. Make more disturbing, anguished faces.

But then, that's all bullshit. I didn't train so that I could break 1:59. If I did, what do I do after I broke/break it? And I don't train so that I can break 1:50, because then I'd never be happy. And running for that 1:59 made me quit on races, sunk me into a funk, and never fulfilled me. I came back happier after a 9mile run that turned into an uptempo a few days ago than after I finally split 1:59! (All I could think was, I should have run 1:58... )

And all those ways I went into workouts and races were just godamn stupid. Gritting my teethe will not get me to the line faster. Fighting the pain has only made me forget to race, or stay smooth, or stay fast. It's only ruined my running economy, fucked up my stride, and killed the last 150m of my race. And making funny faces just isn't aerodynamic or aesthetically pleasing.

Yeah, I am training to be fast. But I think I find more joy in my running simply by being fit and knowing that I am damn fit. And I think redefining my goals has lead me to relax and train a bit better, will lead me to race a bit faster, and has already made me enjoy the whole experience a bit more.

Distance makes my heart grow fonder, because there's nothing I love more than a good, long progression run that is farther than the last one and faster than before and feels easier than I used to think possible. The fitter I get, the happier I am. And when the leaves start to fall, and I'm on the line, I'll relax: Instead of being crushed by the responsibility of all the miles I've logged, clawing for that 28:00 or 27:30 or 27:00 I've been spending so much time preparing for, I'll be comforted by the distance I've run to get there, ready to run with whatever fitness I have earned.

Celebrate ...!

Feeling shitty and loving it

I decided I’d wait until I didn’t feel completely like shit on runs before writing anything about my running on the blog. The time has come.

I now feel only moderately to significantly like shit on runs. As JRags once said, quoting a great wise man: “So Hutch was right, apparently this sport is pretty hard when you feel fat and out of shape” (Hutch 14:3).

In all seriousness, though, after a couple weeks back I’m finally starting to feel less like I have two cement pillars for legs and like the old stride is returning to me. After a healthy two week break (with a fun trail 10k with dad in the middle) where I spent 5 days in a car and then had a great week at home, starting back up did indeed feel quite bad. Why did I suddenly run like Charlie Finn? I asked myself. The pavement felt foreign, the trails made me clumsy, my footstrike was sloppy, and Harvard felt like a long, long way to run.

But that was exactly what I wanted. As I've joked with a few guys, it's easy to build up slowly when your body is telling you three miles is plenty far to run today, thank you. It certainly doesn't feel good to be a bit rusty, to have the legs feel like bricks. But summer is long, and with the eagerness I know we all feel for the upcoming season, it's all too easy to do too much too soon. I remember I wrote a little about this last summer on the blog, about that hard-to-find balance during summer training between not enough and too much. In short, you don't do enough and you're not prepared for our workouts. Alumni Run hits you like a brick wall. You spend September getting fit enough to workout, and before you're there it's NESCACs. Et cetera, et cetera. On the other end, you do too much (which for most of us is the biggest danger) and you're worse off than not running a step all summer. I don't think I've ever crossed the line to such an extent that my season was ruined, but the summer after my freshman year I definitely overdid my training. I pushed the tempos about as hard as we ever do, even in mid-July. After two weeks off after outdoor (which I had definitely needed) I built up mileage in control, but still too quickly, and I never felt like I caught up with it, the fitness was always a step ahead. Last year was perhaps a testament to exactly why this balance is good to find, as I spent most of June running off and on when I was in South America. My training was hardly training, and I came back in July a bit worried that I was behind where I wanted to be. But I still ended up being pretty fit come September after just six weeks of real base. (Which has also caused me to think: where could I be with 12 weeks of real base? Where could we all be? Exciting...)

I know that for the most part this is old hat to all of us, that everyone understands the principle of not doing too much, nor too little. In reality, that's the boiled down essence of running training in general and in all situations. In my mind, summer is the time for the following things (and please feel free to doubt, disagree with, or better yet discard everything I say here). First: get used to the mileage. If your goal is 70 a week, then even if you've been at that volume here and there in the past aim not to run 70 miles a week every week of summer, but instead to feel really good as you approach 70 so that when you add in workouts and races in the fall it won't be such a shock. To phrase it another way, a 70-mile week needs to stop being a "new stress" or "new stimulus" by the end of the summer so that we can add the new stress of tempos, workouts, races. I mention that you may have been at 70 in the past for a week here or there because a mid-season week at 70 amongst many weeks in the 50s doesn't really adapt your body to that volume. To make it personal, I'm aiming to be consistently around 90 miles a week for August. If I don't feel good as I get there, I'll cut it back. Ideally, I want 90/week to feel like 80 often did this past year: where reaching the mileage for the week was hardly a concern, it just happened, without added stress. In all honesty, though I have so often fallen into the trap of focusing way too much on the number at the end of the week--especially in summer, I really do believe in going so so so much more by feel than numbers. Provided you aren't giving your body a reason not to feel good (by treating it like shit or like "leading the witness," i.e. are you sure you don't want to skip this uptempo run, legs? I mean, you haven't been feeling so good lately...) then listen to it.

Ok, second: build good habits. Most of us have more free time in the summer than during the school year. It may not feel like it when you work (sorry Corey) eight hours a day when you normally only have class for two, but it is definitely a less stressful period of time. All things are easier once their are habitual, be it masturbation (Hi, I'm Nick, and I'm a masturbaholic) or core. We all run everyday because it is essentially a habit. It is understood as a daily routine, by our minds, by our bodies, by us as a team. I never used to stretch until stretching moved in my mind from the "something extra" category (where drills lived for a while, and where mental training continues to) to accompany running in the "daily habit" category. This is maybe a stupid metaphor, but you get the idea. The easiest time for me to add something to that habitual category is summer. The more you can add, the more will stick with you during the year when it probably counts more and is definitely harder to begin.

Third: train your brain. I wasn't sure how to put this since I kind of have two contradictory ideas going here. I think what they share in common is the idea of working on your mind, your mental attitude. Here are the two sides to that coin. If you're someone for whom running tends to occupy of lot mental energy during the season, which is likely a lot of us, summer can be a great time to...take a long deep breath. We get to step away from always being six days from a race, we live somewhere new, or go home, or travel, or get a dishwasher, but no matter the case it's a break from competition. I think it's important to enjoy this break, to relax and remember there is a lot more to life than racing (I'm saying this mostly for my own benefit if nothing else). For me, it's all to easy for me to cross the line of the last outdoor race and have my June schedule mapped out and filled with in my mind and filled with workouts before we get back to campus. I don't mean don't run, but I try to do with a more relaxed mental attitude. It's sort of one of those "distance makes the heart grow fonder" kind of things. Let time away from competition be just that--time away from the mental strain of competition--and you enter the next season with rejuvenated intensity.

The second side is kind of the opposite. I find summer to be where I draw a lot of my...passion, I guess, or inspiration, later in the year. Nothing can substitute the confidence and drive that comes from standing on the line in November and knowing you have worked for this since June. You're both reminded of the tons of miles and work that you've put in the bank for six months, and motivated by knowing that you've proven to yourself how bad you want this by what you've already done. As much as I just said run without mental strain (this is really going to be a complete contradiction) something I'm going to try to do this summer when running is always to be conscious of my goals for my senior year. And my priamry goal is simple--no regrets--and a lot of that hinges on the next 10 weeks. I know I'm able--or rather, will be able--to avoid regret when I can say to myself that I've done everything I could to run fast, win, and inspire others. So I think keeping those long term goals somewhere in the back of your mind, or picturing the starting line of Regionals, or reflecting on the DMRs of last indoor--all these things train your mind to be sharp and strong and to have the confidence that I think so much of success in running depends on.

Forgive the apparent contradiction. I think of it more as a spectrum, where most of us need both of these approaches to our summer training, just in varying degrees. If you need to work on being relaxed so you can bring all your fire to next fall, great. If you know you have room to improve your mental approach (who of us doesn't) even better. Think back over the past 12 months and take the most intense, passionate, successful, or maybe disappointing moment you experienced with TUXC or TUTF and let that be a sort of backdrop to all your runs.


I'm not too sure any of this has really made any sense. As is true with most things (and all things running) I'd love to talk about any of these ideas more. There is one thing, though, that I'm very sure of and think I can clearly express. I'm more excited than ever to be getting ready for this fall, and knowing the rest of you are too makes it exponentially stronger. This is a special time for TUXC. After each year that we've been here I've felt like we're on the verge of breaking through to a new plateau, not just in terms of performance but also with the spirit of the program as a whole. Nothing compares with how strongly I feel that way going into the 2009-10 year.

Jerzy's Week 5

Sunday-
13.0 mi Run

Ran Firehouse with Corey and Brunnq (and Jeff for a little) pretty fast. Great run. Probably running 6:30ish effort wise.

Monday-
8.0 mi Run

Did Menotomy Park with Corey and Brunnq. Ran pretty hard the whole time even though I didn't want to and then raced the last 400m for fun back to Ossippe. Brunnq won. Somehow the run only worked out to 7:00 pace when we mapped it but we were sure it was in the 6:20s. Maybe it is because of the huge hill or we mapped it wrong. Easy tomorrow.

Tuesday-
4.0 mi Run

Ran around Alewife with Corey.

6.0 mi Run

Ran up the bike path with Brunnq easy. Felt tired.

Wednesday-

9.0 mi Run

Did mid-res with Corey from Ossipee in 65 minutes. Felt okay.

3.5 mi Run

Did Porter Square with Corey and stopped at Liberty Hill. Did 4x15 second hill sprints and 2xhill bounds. Felt really good.

Thursday-

4.0 mi Run

Did Lakes with Corey easy. Felt good.

7.5 mi Run

Did short-res. Started out with Corey, Brunnq, Nick, and Billy, ended with just Billy. Felt tired because I played an hour and a half of basketball before the run. After the run raced housemate Ed in a 200. Ran 29.0 and lost. I think if I'm fresh I can beat him.

Friday-

10.0 mi Run

Did reverse no-hill with Brunnq (started out with Marcelo as well). Felt tired, probably because of all the running and basketball yesterday. Split a mile at the end on long lakes and was surprised to see 6:36.

Saturday-

9.0 mi Run

Did fresh pond to two-cents. Legs felt pretty good but it was hot and I felt tired. Ran with Nick and Brunnq.

74 miles on the week
I'm going to take a down week either this week or next week because I've been feeling lousy. I'll decide after my run today whether I'll go down this week or next.

JRags - Week 4 - Let the onslaught of morning runs begin.

Sunday afternoon update. The Log:

Monday:
AM - first run to BI!! many more of these to come. tried out forefoot planting but wasnt feeling it.
PM - lakes after an absurdly clusterfucked commute back home. ran forefoot most of the way. felt nice and less jarring each step. 2 strides.

Tuesday:
AM - home to work. forefoot striking.
PM - 2 up, 1000 800 600 400 with steph in 78-80. equal rest. 2 down. least taxing of all the workouts ive done with her.

Wednesday:
AM - davis to work. calves starting to hurt from the different footstrike.
PM - home from park street. why did i go to park street in the first place? would have been shorter from work. ran into ryan lane! good to see he's in boston for the summer.

Thursday:
AM - home to mail services, picked up new ghosts, back home, then to work. averaged 6:30 on the way there?
PM - lakes with steph. pitch fucking black. felt good, especially with the new ghosts. more new shoes should be coming in about 2 weeks?

Friday:
AM - davis to work. 3 or 4 hill strides, and a flat stride. felt good. finally a lot of sleep, maybe 8 and a half hours.
PM - lakes to bike path with nick. felt pretty good once we got going. fairly fast for the second to last mile. 4 strides and solid pedestal.

Saturday:
PM - 4 around the prospect hill park in bentley. hilly as fuck.

Sunday:
AM - great long run. couldnt fall asleep until 4, but woke up at 9, oatmeal and lots of water.
first run around horn pond. started easy, but picked up to high 6s pretty soon. started up-tempoing on and off from the pond back. started cruising with brunk when we turned onto route 3. averaged 6:13 for 4.5 miles from rt 3 back to the left turn by the alewife parking structure. felt awesome. mile+ cool down, recovery drink, and stretching and core back in baronian with nick. did the hip strength workout i wrote the other day. some of myrle to all of pedestal. very good workout. starting to get better at it.


Very solid week of training this week. Commuted to work on foot everyday. FINALLY got a second pair of shoes, terrible planning on my part running ~12 runs a week in the same pair of shoes. one more pair of trainers and road flats should be arriving this week.
I suppose i'll highlight forefoot planting this week. from the first time i ever went running I've always been a somewhat heavy heel striker. up until junior year of high school, i heel planted as low as the 400m. after reading a few articles, how-to's, and running clips, i decided to give it a try this week. at first, it was very uncomfortable landing on my toes every step. by the second run i did forefoot planting, the new stride was beginning to feel more and more natural to me. after maybe day 3 of fore/midfoot planting, my calves were really aching on the outside top ridge of both gastrocnemii (thick upper calf muscle). its been about 5 days since i switched, and i now run naturally with a more midfoot plant directly under my center instead of hitting my heel out front, collapsing on it, braking, then pushing off forward. I think this has already cured some of the problems ive had with my core falling out of alignment. if you try to heel strike very hard, you will notice that your core is forced to go to shit (figuratively and literally i suppose). meanwhile, its very difficult to midfoot plant without your hips up and under you. the benefit of proper posture along with a lack of "braking" in my stride will hopefully lead to, you know, running faster or something.
yeah. thats been my week.

i think next week i'll talk about the core strength and stability nick and i have been working on lately. its a fairly intensive blend of every aspect of what we should view as our "core." its a hip/ass/lower abdominal circuit, an abdominal circuit, and a back circuit. i might combine the ab and back circuit into one if they arent too long. anyway, that is to come next week. if any of the on campus guys want to learn it and start doing it with me this week, let me know, i'll be doing at least some part of it every day after 6:00ish runs.

most importantly, 83 Ossipee has internets!!!!!!

JRags - Week 3 - I think this is what they call "getting into a groove"

Another sort of boring Monday to Sunday update. The log:

Monday - two cents with jerzy and brunk around 9. felt pretty good after the first 2 miles. a little beat up from yesterday.

Tuesday - 2 up, 3xmile 3x200 with steph, 2 down barefoot.
5:17
5:22
5:19
34
35
32
felt fine, not very taxing. barefoot felt good.

Wednesday - lakes with corey and jerz. felt ok.
lakes. again? wtf. corey brunk billy. felt better and faster this time around. maybe i'll do it again.

Thursday - warm up, 6x400 in 70 with 2 mins rest with steph, cool down.
70.09
70.10
70.20
70.15
69.xx
67.xx

im an unbelievable rabbit.

Friday - real deal from ossipee. started with Q erik and cliff. broke off from them at the harvard bridge. up tempoed the river out to BU and back to second bridge. averaged 6:00 for the middle 3.5 or so. felt alright, stomach issues most of the way and felt hypoglycemic from about 2-7 miles. need to eat more at work.

Saturday - 4 through bentley and 2 cooling down with steph. felt pretty good. nice to finally have an easy day.

Sunday - didn't sleep too well after going to the lab late last night. short res with steph pretty slow, 52:00 at probably 7:30 pace (7.0), half a mile up and back on ossipee trying to get down as much lemonade as i could (.5), followed by a swift short res in 50:00 around 6:45 pace/effort (7.4). i think the drink was about 15-20 ounces with 15-20 grams of sugar. worked pretty well, didn't feel it in my stomach at all after. oatmeal and water 60 mins before starting.
good long run. felt waaaay easier when not melting and dehydrated. definitely fueling on the run from now on.

A solid week overall. 65 miles, but a little too much intensity. Really dehydrated from sunday run last weekend, so easy monday, paced steph in 3xmile on tuesday (not as easy as i sounded in my log, i was fairly cooked. she's in good shape), medium run wednesday, pilsener-smooth 400s at steph's 1500 pace thursday, decent uptempo friday, really easy saturday, and LSD today.
This week, I'll highlight my uptempo and fueling long run.
Friday's workout was awesome and terrible at the same time. I ran it after work and was horribly undernourished because I don't have much food in my locker yet. Hypoglycemic for the first 5 miles or so. Same thing happened to me at the beginning of a long run last summer, but it passed and I had a great run. Eventually, it did pass, and I uptempoed around 6:00 from about second bridge out to real deal, up Comm Ave, across the bridge, and back up the Charles to second bridge again, about 3.75 miles. These workouts will get longer once I'm better fueled and more calloused to the workload. Ideally, these will morph into a 10-12 mile run with splits something like 7:30-7:15-6:45-6:15 as a warm up, (3 to 5)x(5:40-5:50), then 3x7:30 cool down.
Long run this morning was pretty interesting. Got up and killed me some oatmeal an hour before the run and hit the water. Ran short res with steph fairly slow, then ran up and down Ossipee sipping down yee ol' country time lemonade for a half mile, and ran short res again with corey brunk and jerz. Felt awesome through 80 or 90 minutes, but started feeling a little heavy at 100 minutes. I think getting fluids down played a huge part in feeling so good 11 miles into the run though. Especially since this was my first run over 12 since early April. I'll take it, and I'm hoping to do the same most long runs from now on.

If you're not first you're last

This time my friends I was not last... I was first.  Yesterday was the annual Tufts in Talloires race.  According to gmaps its a short 1.73 miles thats about 600 feet of net elevation change.  Its pretty much just a bitch to run.  Anyway, according to the heads of the program its had a long tradition of xc runners winning the race which would make sense.  I asked for some of the names of people who ran it and the lady named a few names, Brian Macnamara holds the record apparently, and then Ted.  I tried to explain that Ted is not a runner but she didn't really understand.  

Lucky for me Mr. Lena was away for the weekend so it was my time to shine.  Except, I dont really feel good for winning because I was the only real runner there but more I would have felt really dumb if I lost.  The closest person behind me was one Nick Gang but he was about 30 seconds behind.  It felt good to throw on a pair of flats and put the wheels into gear for the first time in a while and I look forward to starting some legitimate workouts in the next couple weeks.  Training has been going well for the most part.  I have been doing a lot of swimming and biking in addition to my running which has been interesting as I am not used to my upper body being sore. 

Look for more stories soon about my second attempt at the Triathlon as tomorrow I attempt a sprint distance triathlon with my host brothers.  It will be 400m swim, 12k bike and a 3k run.  Overall I am hoping to be in the range of 35 to 40 minutes but I am not really sure how hilly the course is.

Oh yea, heres the run mapped out http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2891502, my time was about 12:49. Lena says hes gonna try and time trial it so we can get a better reference point.  I have heard Macnamara's time was middle 11 minutes or so.

two steps forward, one step back

quick recap of the last few weeks and maybe a thought or two:

things had been going really well training-wise i was starting to hit the groove and finally feel good like i had wanted to. this came to a peak sunday. best run of the summer i've had. i thought it was gonna be really shitty because i had been at a family barbeque all and had eaten wayyy too much. i put off running as long as i could but finally had to go out or else it was gonna get dark. first few miles weren't great, i had some cramps and stuff but then i got rolling and negitive splitting mile after mile, felt great. had to cut it off after a little over 10 becuase it was starting to get dark. after that though i've felt like shit the last few days. i've had a few days with real poor planning where things came up and i didn't get one in and the other days i think i tried to make up for the off days by doing too much. as a result today was one of the worst runs i've had in a while.

i guess the moral of this story (if i have one) is that you can;t make up for missing a day by drushing the next day. if you miss a day, oh well, sucks, but take it and adjust your goals accordingly. if you try to crush the next day twice as hard its probably going to have negitive repercussions down the road

JRags - Week 2 - Brushing the cob webs off

So Hutch was right, apparently this sport is pretty hard when you feel fat and out of shape.
Fairly unexciting week of running, 49 miles of Pallotta's-log-esque "ran xxxx today, felt ok" which actually means "cried as i put my shoes on, dreading feeling like a 40 year old fat mom lugging my ass around CT at 8:00 pace." That's a little overexaggerated, but didn't feel particularly good any day. Drove up to Boston for an interview on thursday, and paced The Chef through 6x800 in 2:36 with 2 minutes rest. She's running a 1500 at Boston High Performance this weekend and a 5k next weekend. Other than that, just a bunch of 7-9 mile runs. I'm back in the swing of things and will probably start up with an uptempo every week pretty soon.

Living the dream up in 83 Ossipee with Jerzy Corey and Q. We're pretty fucking fly. More exciting updates later. Work starts tomorrow though!

Random Story

So Im kinda bored and though I might share a story. I woke up this morning around 930 ish, France time, to find that my host family is no where to be found. This is not unusual as they are a very active family and I figured they might be out playing tennis or riding bikes. I was not planning on doing anything major running today becuase yesterday I biked 26 ish miles and the day before I swam about 3/4 of a mile in addition to running. So I sat out and read my book for a while and went and took a shower and fooled around on the internet like I usually do and finally my host dad comes home and he has just gotten back from a run and he sits down on the couch and he cracks open bottle of Hoegarden. We begin to talk and it turns out he just got back from a 3 hour run up in the mountain trails around our town. I knew he was a runner but that kinda of amazed me. First that he did that, and second the first thing he did after was drink a beer on the couch. We got more into talking about running which is difficult as my French is bad but he speaks a little english so it works. I have already agreed to compete in a Sprint Triathlon with them in a week and today he asked me if I wanted to run a marathon with him the weekend after. I said I couldnt because I am going to Paris to which he replied that was ok and that I could still do the next week. I again respectfully declined but somehow he got me to agree to a half marathon trail run instead.
Little did I realize that my host dad is actually a ridiculous ultra distance runner. Every year he runs a 50 or so mile race through the mountains around lake annecy and also another race that goes around Mt Blanc that he says is 300 kilometers and took him like mid 40 hours to run I think.
Long story short I was inspired slash felt kind of guilty for not running more and went out for an actual run and now I feel a lot better about myself.