Sat 9/22 - 95 minutes including Lincoln tempo, plus 25 minutes in Walden

AM - 65 minutes incl. the "classic" Lincoln tempo in 24:24. Splits of 5:22, 5:22, 5:23 (that one felt a little slow), 3:12 and 5:05 (2:38/2:27). Despite the metronomic precision of the first three miles, a feat never before accomplished, and the fact that it felt under control, the effort overall was abit beyond tempo. I had neither the need nor the desire to force the issue from 3 miles to the finish, thus the 15 second rule for the last mile was broken. Woke up less than refreshed, morning pulse on the high side. A muggy warm morning to boot. Keeping up this kind of effort for 13 miles in two weeks' time is another matter entirely, I'll need to be better rested to pull it off. Abbreviated cooldown. Knee felt fine throughout the warmup and tempo, some soreness on the cooldown and then feeling the tightness afterwards.

PM - 30 minutes very easy to and from the pond with 25 minutes in the pond. Barely moving due to stiffness from the morning workout. Cross-currents in the pond a total pain, shoved me way offline. Felt more humid this evening than at any time during the day.

Fri 9/21 - PM 70 minutes, Walden woods plus 21 minutes in Walden

Legs still feeling stiff, likely DOMS from the hills Wednesday and not having time to stretch after yesterday's run didn't help. Knee soreness vaguely insinuated itself after 40 minutes but not to the degree that it did yesterday. Strides on the way in again like yesterday w/o undue discomfort. Tomorrow's effort will be the test of that. Not quite as warm today, took just a bit of the old courage to jump in the water. It's definitely gotten cooler.

THu 9/20 - PM 80 minutes, GMNWR to Walden, plus 25 minutes in the pond

Legs quite stiff to start as I had expected after yesterday. Easy was the only gear available almost the entire run. Waiting for knee soreness to show up, it took an hour today but that partly may be a result of running with minimal knee lift for so long before that. Still, I was able to do strides at the end without major discomfort, the issue remains manageable for now. My thinking is that how Saturday's workout treats it will say a lot more about how bad it truly is. Still working on the quad trying to find whatever's stuck that must be causing the tightness and soreness over the kneecap itself. Warmer today than yesterday, hot almost, but dry which makes it bearable. The warmer temp made the coolness of the pond more noticeable by contrast.

Wed 9/19 - PM 80 minutes incl. 8xhill repeats, Silver Hill road

Ran on a sinuous stretch of Silver Hill road that I'm guessing is around 550m, first two reps in 1:52, the rest between 1:48 and 1:50. Recoveries all around 2:25 except for the last trip down which was extended due to stomach issues on the seventh rep. Got to the top looking for a place to go but couldn't find anything suitable nearby. Ended up taking a longer rest before the last rep, like 3:30+, and dealing with it. Fastest reps were in the middle, found myself a bit overextended after the fifth one and had to control the effort more. As I had no desire to drive into and out of the city two days in a row, I cast about and found a hill near home that mostly matches the one on Comm Ave in terms of distance and slope. While the stretch of road I used leveled off in the middle, it served the purpose well enough. High Street would have been better, but too much traffic. Like yesterday, I was waiting for knee soreness to show itself, but given the nature of the workout I was also wondering if it would be worse or more debilitating. As it turned out it was the same deal, showed up after about 30 minutes of running and was manageable the rest of the way. A good chunk of my time tomorrow will likely be spent in the water. Warmer today, but still dry and sunny like it has been most of the last month.

Tue 9/18 - PM 70 minutes in Brookline

Ran relatively easy, although the pace picked up in fits and starts after the 40 minute mark. Started from Cleveland Circle and went off into the wilds of South Brookline, avoided getting hopelessly lost as I have in the past in this area. Spent all day at work expecting knee soreness to be a problem, it didn't show up until the 30 minute mark. While manageable, it was sore the rest of the way and particularly noticeable on hills. Still at a loss to understand what exactly I did to bring this about, only that it had something to do with Sunday's effort in flats. I'm thinking the root cause lies with the IT band tightening up. In addition to working on that area I've gone to the old standby of doing straight leg raises. Continued cool and breezy conditions today, third day in a row that felt very autumnal.

Mon 9/17 - PM 70 minutes, Walden woods plus 30 minutes in Walden

Not quite as easy or relaxed as I had planned, not that I forced the issue. Changed things up today by going in the water early, 10 minutes into the run. Not even planning on aquajogging at all originally, as it was a cool breezy day, but my legs were feeling stiff and sore to a degree that I felt it necessary to give them a break. A little chilly for a while after getting out of the water but nothing major. Yesterday's knee tightness was nonexistent in the water but about 20 minutes into the run afterwards it came back and was there to varying degrees the rest of the time. Not entirely certain of the root cause, has to be some tightness/pulling in the quad and/or ITB but it certainly bears watching. Whatever it is, I didn't notice it until the cooldown yesterday.

Sun 9/16 - AM 90 minutes incl. Josh Billings 6m in 32:45

Mile splits of 5:23, 5:26, 5:23, 5:47, 5:21, and 5:25. Mildly disappointing, I was fairly certain I would be around or under 32 minutes this time after last week's hometown throwdown. Conditions were near perfect and my legs felt good. However, the usual problems arose with getting a decent night's rest, and I felt flat and tired from the moment I got out of bed. Mile markers appeared to be accurately placed this time. Took splits on my watch but didn't look as I wanted to try to run on feel instead of possibly getting discouraged by what the numbers were. As such, I ran slower at the outset than in previous efforts and except for the horrendous uphill fourth mile, maintained a more even, albeit slower, pace. The even pacing I like, the slow part not so much. Aforementioned fourth mile buried me, dragged on forever and didn't recover nearly as quickly as I had hoped when the grade leveled off. This doesn't augur well for the half-marathon in three weeks that also features hills late and is more than twice is long to boot. Ran the entire race alone, started well behind the two leaders and well ahead of whoever was in fourth. Right knee alarmingly tight on the cooldown, worked on the quad afterwards and that seemed to make it better.

Josh Billings run leg