Thu 4/15 - PM 70 minutes easy

Area 51. It may have been more time than 70 minutes, I wasn't keeping a close eye on the watch. As is sometimes the case on recovery runs, forgot how long it takes to cover a certain amount of ground and found the loop I chose took longer than planned. Still quite tired of course. Sunny but chilly day, blustery ESE wind which was odd and not particularly welcome.

Wed 4/14 - PM 70 minutes incl. 3x 3200m

Short warmup up the road to Longfellow loop and right into the workout as I had no desire to drag things out. Three controlled efforts, gave some thought to shortening the workout but as has been the case lately, got through the entire thing as planned. Most of the worries about handling the longer sessions derive from being so tired after the endless grind of really long days. Splits were 10:59, 10:59 and 10:54, with recoveries of just over two minutes. Nice enough day, some wind but it's been more of an issue in the past. Moving much more slowly on the cooldown than the warmup.

Tue 4/13 - PM 40 minutes

Another post-HS meet jog around downtown Wellesley, concluding with pickups on the track. Made a conscious effort to give myself more time to recover between each one of those, felt better for it overall. Right knee not nearly as sore as it was yesterday, a good sign. Did a fair amount of work on it during the day at work.

Mon 4/12 - PM 65 minutes easy

Area 51. Right knee soreness didn't go away as I had hoped it might. More pain with more flexion, consistent with something being stuck and/or inflamed further up in the quad area I'd guess. Definitely something that was brought to the fore, if not directly caused, by yesterday's hilly race, and more specifically the long downhill stretch in that race. I'm also wondering if the short steep downhills at Elm Bank last Wednesday weren't so good for it--there were only four of them but they sure felt awkward. Lack of stretching lately not helping matters any either. Did some direct pressure on the lateral quad area afterward, helped somewhat but who knows what it will feel like tomorrow. Hopefully just a blip overall. Other than that drama a pleasant enough recovery run in pleasant enough conditions, maybe a bit on the cool side but I'm not complaining.

Sun 4/11 - PM 85 minutes incl. 8 miles in 45:00

8 mile race in ever-scenic Northampton, mile splits as follows:

5:34
6:03 (uphill and into an obnoxious wind)
5:48
5:31
5:44
5:20 (downhill)
5:36
5:16 (a tad short)

course wasn't as hilly as I was expecting but had one decent climb in the second mile. Spent the first 2+ miles tucked in behind the early leader while we were getting blasted by the wind. Getting quite tactical, I was planning on holding back until second half of the race but took the lead just before 3 miles. Although it seemed like there were few spots on the course where it wasn't in our faces. Ran the last 5+ miles of the race alone. Controlled effort overall, the uphills didn't treat me especially well after the first main climb in the second mile but I got through. Overall I'll take it given the wind-blasted conditions and stubborn tiredness which has bordered on exhaustion at times this week. Right knee became tight and surprisingly sore in the last half mile, persisted somewhat through the cooldown. Related to something stuck in lateral quad, did some work on the area afterward and it wasn't as much of an issue but at the time it was definitely worrisome.