Fri 1/30 - PM 55 minutes

Full tour of Levittown to Summerhill. I think I may have turned the corner finally today, after yet another night of staying awake until midnight after yesterday's dismal non-workout I was expecting to be completely flat and only capable of a very easy jog but the energy levels were better than that. Even capable of doing 5 strides on the way in. Left tib still stiff but not as sore as it has been lately. The whole thing came as a welcome relief. Roads are in fairly terrible shape from Wednesday's storm, not warm enough to melt the ice off esp. in shady sheltered spots.

Thu 1/29 - PM 30 minutes

mostly on the RLTAC treadmill, followed by the most listless set of warmup drills I think I've ever done. The planned workout was subsequently canceled, second miss in a row. So tired right now, incapable of falling asleep before midnight and it's gotten really old. No energy. To top it off left tib continues to be obnoxiously sore, just not getting better. Just like last year, completely fried when the heart of indoor season rolls around.

Wed 1/28 - PM 50 minutes on the treadmill

2 progressions of 25 minutes with a brief break to change CDs. Without the treadmill I think I would have taken a zero today, as the daylong snow/sleet/rain event made the roads a complete disaster. The rain that capped things off in particular made for roads that were impassable w/o wearing plastic bags on your feet or something. The weather did allow me to take the day off work and thus sleep 2-3 hours more than I would have otherwise which was much-needed at this point. Run itself was fairly smooth, left tib feeling better than yesterday, hopefully it marks the beginning of a trend.

Tue 1/27 - PM 70 minutes easy

from RLTAC, over to the river via SW corridor and back through Longwood. Originally planned on working out tonight but I knew driving in it wasn't going to be. I really needed a good night's sleep last night, instead I woke up at 2:30 and that was that. Dragging as the afternoon progressed through the tenth and eleventh hour of the workday (i.e. coaching time), part of which I spent outside freezing my ass off. I've had my fill of January. Left tib not progressing the way I'd like, in fact if anything it felt worse today than it did yesterday. I'm starting to rethink how and when I might have strained it originally, possibly while staggering on that last lap of the 3k last weekend.

Mon 1/26 - double, 1:40 total

AM - 50 minutes very easy/easy. Low-key effort in bitterly cold conditions. Thankfully there was little wind to deal with. Various areas of inflammation not an issue at these slow speeds. Not as tired as yesterday after a decent night's sleep (finally).

PM - 50 minutes easy, Levittown. A little bit quicker, a little bit warmer outside but not much on either count. Right p.a. tendon somewhat sore. Run was needed brain dump after yet another day of dealing with multiple coaching-related issues.

Sun 1/25 - AM 30 minutes on the treadmill

4 miles, from 7 to 9 mph. Avoiding the bitter cold outside. Left tib took a while to loosen up. Right adductor not nearly as much of an issue. Skipped the planned PM run due to feeling an abiding tiredness, such that it caught me by surprise but I suppose it shouldn't. Piling on another run wasn't going to help matters but getting to bed at a decent hour certainly would, I chose this route instead. Let the healing begin.

Sat 1/25 - 50 minutes incl. 5k in 15:17

The culmination of a week of frustration and exhaustion. Running late from the moment I woke up having realized that my alarm wasn't set properly, so it was a frantic scramble to get to the HS meet. After that was over, instead of getting a much-needed nap between meets I spent 2+ hours at the Brookline library. Got to the meet to find they were running ahead (not so much actually, but that was the rumor at the time) and so the warmup, such as it was happened entirely indoors. It's difficult to express how jangled my nerves were at this point, or how aware I was of my own deep-seated exhaustion. In this atmosphere of diminished expectations the tactics changed to hitting 36 second laps until I couldn't do it anymore, and hope to hell that I could for the entire race. As recently as six days ago this wouldn't seem too much to ask but that was before this shitshow of a week. As it was, the race ended up being another "smooth, relaxed, tired" effort to throw in the pile. Unlike a local yokel road race though, once the edge is lost on the track it gets old real fast. I ended up lasting 2k at 36s which felt very smooth, but then started slipping. Slowed in earnest by halfway, 3k in 9:04, 4k in 12:10. It was strictly autopilot for the second half of the race, punctuated by a serious (if momentary) thought of dropping out at two miles. Certainly there was nothing to prove by pressing on. In the end the decision to keep going was basically a "fuck you" to all the circumstances, both within and beyond my control, that contributed to this inevitable state of affairs. The various aches and pains in my legs that had been afflicting me all week disappeared in a surge of pre-race adrenaline, but afterwards they felt like garbage. Cooldown was a glacial 15 minute crawl.