Fill 'er up

9:45 AM - 8 miles, 51:20 - RockPak 8.
Plan was for 10 x 1-minute hills, but too tired and sluggish from travel to actually go through with it so I improvised on the fly. Hit the first 3 miles in 7:21, 6:48, 6:26, then did 5 x 2 minutes @ 5K effort w/2 minutes float for recovery. Ran the last mile up and over Malvern Road in 5:28 - 1 second better than last week - and finished up with 5 x 10 second hill charges on Auburn Hill afterward. Good effort, but not great.

7:35 PM - 4 miles, 30:15 - Westboro.
Easy shakeout from the store with Casey after work. Felt good to stretch the legs out.

First full day back in Mass, first full day back to work and first full day of training for the upcoming fall racing season. I'm not gonna lie, it was a lot to squeeze in for one day, so hopefully I still have some room left for a few hours of much-needed sleep.

The good thing about this full-fledged dive into September is that I'm finally going to be back on a regular schedule with work and running, making everything else that much more manageable. This morning's makeshift workout made me realize 1. how much I really need the team right now to maximize the effectiveness of my harder efforts and 2. that I really need to be more diligent about getting a sufficient amount of rest so I'm recovering properly and getting the most out of said efforts.

So, taking these two key points into consideration, Tuesday night can't come soon enough. It will be my first workout back with the team since before VCM and I'm really looking forward to feeding off the energy of my New Balance Boston teammates and training hard again under Kevin's watchful eye. As Ryan and Jeff both alluded to in their own blogs, it's going to be an exciting season - full of long and short hills, explosive drills, up-tempo paces and kickass races.

Time to get psyched up, spiked up and ready to tear it up!

Quote of the Day

"And if you want to leap up to their level, no one's going to give it to you. You've got to work for it to make the jump."
- Peter Gilmore on what it takes to reach the next level.