Sat 11/3 - double, 90 minutes total

AM - just under 45 minutes in Area 51. Stiff-legged to start, no longer forced to run without knee lift but left hammie not whole again either. As has been the pattern for a few days now, things felt better after 15-20 minutes. Got the run in just before the rain started falling. Thought about extending the run to an hour plus but decided to save something for the evening to see if my legs feel better from the get-go.

PM - just over 45 minutes, Longfellow loop. Spent the day inside resting, and also got some work in on the psoas which felt tight as a drum. Legs felt better than in the morning, still not there with the left hammie but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Waited until the rain finally pulled away to start the run, blustery and cold but the worst of it was over.

Fri 11/2 - PM just under 70 minutes, Brookline/JP

Another day of easy running, although I think there may finally be some appreciable headway in terms of the left hammie. Still not entirely right, but I'm able to run with a little bit of knee lift w/o undue discomfort. As expected, going easy and leaving it alone (other than massage/compressions) have helped. Remains to be seen how and when I'm going to be able to do faster running and not reaggravate it. Breezy and cool, ill wind blowing all day as what's left of a hurricane churns its way up the coast towards NE. Tomorrow, lots of rain.

Thu 11/1 - PM 45 minutes, Area 51

Listless and tired, surprisingly so. Cut the length of the run short when it became apparent things weren't going to change in that department, fog never cleared. Hammie maybe just a bit better than yesterday, in fact I tried to run with a little actual knee lift the last 10 minutes. It may or may not have been a good idea, time will tell. Many many compressions afterwards plus some work on the lower back as well. I keep finding pinched spots and adhesions in the area day after day.

Wed 10/31 - PM 80+ minutes, round trip to TJs

Improvement in left hammie has leveled off somewhat since yesterday as compared to the previous 24 hours, as a result ran at the same shambling jog. Still unable to do anything faster without reaggravating problem areas. As it is, lower back just above ilium got sore on the return leg of the trip as I was carrying a few pounds of groceries. Warmer this evening than the previous two nights.

Tue 10/30 - PM 85 minutes, Track Road to Area 51

very easy once again, perhaps not quite as slow as yesterday's run but not much quicker either. Left high hammie feels better today than yesterday, not really saying much given how stuck it was yesterday. Still no knee lift whatsoever. Area around ilium and lower back feeling pinched and sore as they have since the last week of September. Can't put my finger on exactly what I did to the whole area at that time, but it's been a problem ever since.

Mon 10/29 - PM just over 60 minutes, Longfellow loop

very easy today, in fact superslow most if not all of the way, as a result of the high left hammie shriveling up into a ball of spasm overnight. I felt it tightening up last night but didn't think it would be as bad as it was in the morning. Limping around most of the day at work, I had doubts as to the advisability of running at all but that turned out to be overblown. So long as I didn't run with any knee lift whatsoever I was fine. Just a minor caveat there. I didn't see this one coming at all, as I didn't feel anything overly out of sorts yesterday. I suppose the leg issues could have played a role in the turdburger of a race I had but I doubt it. Now it's just easy easy running and waiting until it comes around. Hopefully a quick turnaround.

Sun 10/28 - PM 65 minutes incl. Mayor's Cup in 27:10

The time is a personal worst on the FP 8k, for whatever time comparisons in cross country are worth. In terms of quality of effort, a more valid measure for this event and course, today's comes in ahead only of the times I've dropped out. Woke up less than refreshed after hanging in until the end of another 4+ hour world series game, very stupid of course (and a big fuck you to Fox while I'm on the subject for the late start time, extended commercial breaks, inane taco talk, and useless commentators). After the mini-taper of the past few days, legs felt okay but not great, although the soreness in the hammies returned with surprising intensity afterwards. Splits of 5:00 (too fast but I didn't realize it at the time), 10:35, 16:47 at 5k, and 21:47 at 4 miles. People started passing me after the first trip up the hill and after two miles I continued to sink like a stone relative to the field despite trying to hang with various people who passed by at a rate slow enough to stay in contact. The split times indicate this, I never threw in the towel but was unable to muster any kind of stick-to-itiveness. Lit up by 4 people in the last 150m and utterly powerless to do anything about it, as the extremely shallow well was completely dried up by then. Of course, I was able to catch my breath and walk out of the chute while those four were still gasping with hands on knees, which says it all in terms of how I was unable to tap into whatever fitness I have developed recently. Further emphasizing how poor this race was is the fact that it was a relatively fast day, the course was firm and mostly dry with no traction issues although the wind was gusting strongly enough to slow the times a bit. Six weeks ago, with the same weather and course conditions as today, I would have run under 26.

The slide that started about a month ago continues unabated, each race since Labor Day has been worse than the one before. Unlike the half-marathon, there was no $300 check to serve as solace for running like a dog. The effort in the local yokel Maynard road race seems like it was done a million years ago by a different person. In truth it was a different person as evidenced by the fact that the two times we did the "classic" Lincoln tempo this fall I ran a faster pace with less effort than today. Coming home from the AZ vacation more tired than when I left helped grease the skids to exhasution, since then (and before then) it's the same old story of staying up too late. As ever, the tired strung-out mess I'm in is my own fault and things can be turned around, which begins and ends with getting to bed earlier. Although there's also the matter of the ill-advised pilates-type exercise I added to the stretching routine about the time things really went south, in hindsight it's making my hammies feel worse and it's past time to stop doing it.

Sat 10/27 - PM 40 minutes, incl. drills and strides

Easy shakeout ahead of tomorrow's race. Strides not as numerous or as intense as those from Thursday, after how sore my hammies were yesterday. Drills helped loosen things up. Massive slugabed morning, took forever to get going. Rainy, windy and warm all day.