Training Log (5/14-5/20)

SUN - AM: 98 minutes, 12 miles. Rainy run at the Rail Trail, and a damn cold rain at that. Driscoll came down for some Sunday fun and we ran for 30 minutes before picking up Hodge for our weekly weekend tour of the Quinapoxet. Fun times.

MON - AM: 66 minutes, 10 miles. All over the place at West Hill with the one and only A-Ten. Recent rains washed out our rustic route, not to mention a small skeleton in the middle of the trail. The latter of the two washouts threw us for a bit of a loop. PM: 35:30, 5 miles. Did six Driscollian strides at the end of this lil jaunt, just to stretch the legs out a bit - and pay tribute to my fantastic friend, of course.

TUES - AM: 36:30, 5 miles. Cold, wet and the purpose of the run was to warm up my muscles a bit. No such luck this morning. PM: 69:35, 10 miles. Went out to Bentley in anticipation of hills-n-drills; ran through the woods with Adam Stu instead and finished up with four snappy 200-meter strides on the track. Oh wait, 37 seconds isn't exactly snappy. My bad.

WEDS - 85:50, 13 miles. Woke up this morning to a weird light in the sky. Ancient folklore commonly referred to it as the sun, I believe. Anyway, I made my way back out to the Rail Trail (surprise surprise) and ran 23 minutes worth of good fartlek, attacking five good hills in the process. Paid close attention to my form and focused on running with an Easy Gait, just like my good pal Ryan. Solid effort this morning.

THURS - 84:30, 12 miles. Felt about as alive as that skeleton that's still making its home on the trail at West Hill. The cheering high school girls along the canal did nothing to energize my legs, but the sight of A-Ten's ass sure seemed to give them a boost.

FRI - AM: 51:35, 8 miles. Went out to Lowell for a rain-soaked run in the woods with Nate and Kevin. We managed to stay on the side of the city that remains above water, but I definitely felt like I was treading water trying to catch those two while doing some strides afterwards. Top-end speed needs a major tune-up. PM: 36:35, 5 miles. Yep, dead-on 7:20 pace. Now that's what I call easy runnin'.

SAT - AM: 14 miles. Early morning misadventure up to Bedford, NH with A-Ten. The object of our journey was to do some tempo running at the Rotary 12K Road Race - which we ultimately (and successfully) achieved - but it wasn't without some driving drama. We arrived at our destination at 8:48 a.m., a mere 12 minutes before the gun was to go off. Adam, who wisely pre-registered, secured his number and took off on his warmup, while I forked over my entry fee, took care of some pressing GI issues and started my warmup with six minutes to spare. A quick four-minute jaunt, a few quick stretches and I was on my way. The idea was to run 5:25-30 pace through 5 miles, then "go" over the last two. I'll admit my legs were a bit dumbfounded over the first couple miles, but by Mile 4 I was comfortably clicking off splits in the mid-5:20's. My pace was a little quicker than anticipated, but the effort was right where it should have been, so on the whole I was happy with how things went. A definite step in the right direction.

Actual splits were as follows: 5:26, 5:18, 5:22, 5:35 (hill), 10:42 (6-mile split, didn't see 5), 5:15 (37:40 through 7 mi) and 2:57 for the last 0.4, apparently. The course was an "unsanctioned 12K", as the original layout was altered due to recent rains. Judging by my split for the last 0.4, I'd say the new course was a smidge longer than 7.4 miles, but whatever, it served the purpose. The adjusted average pace comes out to 5:23/mile, which was good enough to place me second overall, well behind the aerobic monster who drove up both versions of Route 3 with me, Adam Ten. The young stud averaged a touch under 5-minute pace for 7 miles and change, running all by his lonesome. He's fit as a fiddle right now, thanks to his terrific twice-a-week training partner. Or not.

WEEK TOTALS: 94 miles, 10 runs. Good week of training with a couple solid harder efforts mixed in there. I've been a little more aggressive in my buildup since coming off the Achilles injury, but I'm holding up pretty well and have been placing a very strong emphasis on rest and recovery, which I'm finding to pay huge dividends. What good are the harder efforts if you can't recover from them? Volume-wise, this is about as high as I'll go until I begin my specific marathon buildup for Chicago, slated for sometime in mid to late July. Until then, consistency will be key.

Quote of the day:

The world could end while Todd’s doing a workout, and he doesn’t care. He’s going to finish that interval in whatever time he wants to run the interval in, and he’s going to be right on the money.
- Anthony Famiglietti on Todd Williams