Thu 6/10 - PM 50 minutes incl. 5x400

Quick-hitter before the evening's dog and pony show. Yesterday's tiredness persisted right on through to today, to a surprising degree. Cup of maté cleared the cobwebs somewhat. Jogged over to Wellesley College, quick set of drills, then aiming to do 4-5x400 @ 72-3 with 200 jog recoveries. First two reps were in that range, the last three were all under 72 though. Definitely an effort, not sure how sustainable that would be over a 5k but we'll find out on Saturday. Much cooler today, overcast after last night's rain. Breezy of course.

Wed 6/9 - AM 35 minutes

Got to bed extremely late, thanks to David Stern and ABC. Drag-ass jog through town. Planned on a double but when I got home I was far more exhausted than anticipated.

Tue 6/8 - PM 50 minutes incl. 8k threshold run

Two Longfellow loops. Got right to it with the minimal warmup down Waltham St., no drills or strides beforehand. Feeling tired and stressed after getting home later than expected, not especially optimistic about how the workout would feel. While it was a bit of a chore, I tried to keep it from being out of control effort-wise. As ever with the curtailed warmup, the pace picked up on the second lap without much extra effort necessary, what with the first lap serving as a transition between warmup and workout. Splits as follows:

5:50/5:51/2:49
5:40/5:41/2:41

Warm, sunny, with gusty breezes. Some achy feeling in the core, thought it would be worse after running out of time to stretch yesterday.

Mon 6/7 - PM 60 minutes easy

Area 51. Kept it low-key after the exhausting weekend spent in humidistan. Thankfully, the sticky disgusting air mass is history and cooler drier conditions prevailed all day. Legs not as sore as I thought they might be after yesterday's descents. Also not as buggy in the woods as I was expecting, a pleasant surprise.

Sun 6/6 - AM 95 minutes

Hitting the highlights of Winchester, Staddle Hill to Burt Hill to Schofield Mtn. and finally up to Gunn Mtn. A configuration I actually haven't done before because I'm usually running longer when hitting the death spiral. Woke up earlier than I wanted to a driving rain that made breaking camp a miseable chore. Cooler today but the showers made me seriously consider heading directly home. Sooo tired after yestrday's overlong day and dealing with the unrelenting mugginess. Gave it a go anyway and though it took a while to feel awake, I eventually was moving pretty well on the climbs. Drove home, ate lunch, and collapsed in bed.

Sat 6/5 - AM 80 minutes incl. 10k road race

Not my day of days, even taking into account the fact I was looking for a controlled effort, i.e. a tempo run. Sharing the campground with the coyote that barked at regular intervals intul 4:30 AM didn't help. Considered bagging the thing, but I knew I wouldn't run a step all day otherwise. Barely awake even after caffeine ingestion. Heat was building as the race started, humidity of course always there. Went out at what I thought was a controlled effort but I knew after 2 miles I'd be slowing down significantly anyway. Just looking to get it over with at that point w/o damaging left iliopsoas too much. Splits of 5:44, 5:44, 5:56, 6:04, 6:15, 5:54 (what a rally), and a scintillating 1:40 for the last two tenths. The course was pleasant enough, relatively flat the first half with some roll after that, but I had stopped caring by that point. Very slow cooldown then off to find some relief from the crushing humidity before standing outside for what seemed like forever at the big kiddies' meet and included two cloudbursts. By the time that thing ended the humidity was at a truly obscene level. Good times.