Sat 1/5 - double, 90 minutes total

AM - 45 minutes easy, Levittown to Rockland Ave. Typical morning putter, right hammie feeling sore high up. Sunny but still sub-freezing temps. SW breeze feels like a tropical caress after the midweek cold blast.

PM - 45 minutes easy, edge of Longfellow loop. Didn't get very far on this run, still feeling tired from yesterday and spending all afternoon today out and about. Right hammie a bit better after some compressions.

Fri 1/4 - PM 60 minutes RLTAC incl. 4(600,400)

Made it through the workout in one piece but not without some effort. Tired and run-down even though it was a short work week, Tuesday's effort followed by three days of not sleeping enough caused it. I knew after the first set the workout would be a chore and I would only be doing four sets. That proved to be the appropriate time to jump ship. Aiming for 600s in 1:43.5 and 400s in 68 with 90 seconds rest before each 400 and 2.5 minutes after. The numbers ended up as follows:

1:44.5, 68.8
1:44.2, 69.5
1:44.2, 67.2
1:43.7, 67.0

overall most reps felt relaxed and fairly smooth, but tired. Workouts like this will go better with more rest in the 2-3 days prior, which comes as no surprise. Warmed up outside, cooldown was a very easy 15 minutes on the floor.

Thu 1/3 - double, just over 60 minutes total

PM - 20+ minutes, South End prior to kiddie meet. Abbreviated somewhat from the 30 minutes or so I was planning on. NW wind blasting away all day, temp never got above 10 degrees, miserable. Balaclava an absolute must. Not moving very quickly at all.

later PM - 40+ minutes, Fenway to Brookline back via Longwood. Feeling tired and flat, kind of ran out of steam the last 15 minutes or so. Still bitterly cold but the wind started to slack off while I was running, first sign of a change in the weather that will eventually lead to much warmer temps.

Wed 1/2 - PM just over 60 minutes easy/medium

Loop from Coolidge Corner along the river and back via Allston/Comm Ave. Spent the first 30 minutes running into an increasingly vicious WNW wind which was not pleasant. Face frozen without the balaclava, not the item to leave at home today. As I turned away from the wind the pace coincidentally picked up, finished moving relatively well given yesterday's effort. Legs not that sore, at least not today.

Tue 1/1 - AM 80 minutes incl. 10k road race in 33:20

Ran a race in Salisbury for the first and last time, it was nice to see the water but the wind coming off it was something else entirely. The strength of the gale increased as the day wore on. Course was a a pair of out and backs along the shore, with the SSE wind direction this meant half the race the wind was in our faces--most of the first mile and the last 2.5 miles in this case. As I was legitimately worried about my hat flying off, I'd say it slowed me down. The stretches with a tailwind didn't feel as easy as one would hope OTOH. First split time feedback was at 2 miles which was 10:30, next mile 5:18, then 5:22, 5:30, and 6:40 from mile 5 to the finish. Feeling especially worn-down and vulnerable the 4th and 5th miles as I was being stalked while we turned back into the breeze. Mustered a great deal of focus on the sixth mile and pulled away from the stalker, but the 5:20 pace level was definitely the upper limit. I wish I could say it was tempo but the effort was beyond that the second half of the race. Somewhat peaked after the past few days' mix of intensity and volume. Warmup and cooldown were both in the 20 minute range. Wind-driven mix of rain and snow made the cooldown both very slow and very unpleasant.

Mon 12/31 - double, 75 minutes total

AM - 45 minutes easy, Levittown. Snow overnight, thankfully not as much as was forecast. Temps warm enough that it was already turning to slush, some sloppy footing as a result. Went directly from running to shoveling.

PM - 30 minutes on the treadmill, 4.3 miles. 7.9 to 9.3 mph. No desire to go out on the roads as side streets were starting to freeze over. Left hammie a bit sore but felt better after some direct pressure.

Sun 12/30 - AM just under 1:40, easy to medium

The loop I ended up running went like this and included some of the nicer stretches of road in Concord and Sudbury. I don't know that I'd be saying that if it were windy olut but it wasn't and in fact conditions were quite mild. After the past two days of harder running I held back somewhat on today's run, although I was able to fit in six strides in the last mile. Some soreness in right hammie but it didn't affect my stride noticeably.