Fri 9/24 - PM 40 minutes easy plus 20 minutes in Walden

Laying low for tomorrow. Left heel less stiff than yesterday but still not in a great place. Hip stuck, for a change. Disgusting heat and humidity all day, which made it possible and desirable to get in the water. Bracing and very refreshing, usually when it's this warm outside the pond is warmer because it's the beginning of August.

Thu 9/23 - PM 60 minutes easy

round trip to 10 Spencer. Run was fairly nondescript, stayed on 27 for much of the trip back as it was getting dark. The big news was how sore my left ankle was all day at work, painful to walk up stairs, the whole bit. Did some direct pressure on the area just above the talus and lateral to the achilles, the issue feels more peroneal than achilles. Loosened up some after 10 minutes of running, hopefully will feel better tomorrow. Cooler today but still fairly humid.

Wed 9/22 - double, 90 minutes total incl. 6x1600

AM - 25 minutes easy/very easy. Left leg has felt better and felt worse. Much warmer this morning as compared to yesterday morning, no surprise with SW wind blowing since last night.

PM - 65 minutes incl. 6x1600 back and forth on the first mile of the Longfellow loop. Recoveries just over a minute. Very down in the mouth beforehand about how this would go in terms of the adductor locking up on me, but it wasn't an issue in the end. Splits all between 5:30 and 5:34, which is what I was going for, but I was also going for 8 reps not 6. Relatively comfortable and relaxed most of the way, but I could feel myself running out of gas on the fifth one. Decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Saving myself for Saturday mainly, a seventh rep would have been ugly never mind 8.  Unseasonable warmth and humidity didn't help, but still an underwhelming session on the whole. Feeling tired and beat down right now.

Tue 9/21 - double, 90 minutes easy total

AM - 30 minutes, most of it very easy. Chilly weather, under 40 degrees for the first time in a while. As a result I overdressed. Better safe than sorry. Left leg stuck, ankle and hip both.

PM - 60 minutes easy, Area 51. While at work, did a lot of work on the ankle, found a big adhesion in the lowermost soleus between peroneal and achilles which felt much better after some hands-on work. This in turn made the ankle feel better on the run, although the adductor and psoas are still plenty tight and sore. Actually got some stretching done after the run today.

Mon 9/20 - double, 90 minutes easy total

AM - 30 minutes very easy. Haven't been able to run before work in a long long time, now a possibility since I don't have to be there at 7 AM everyday. Silver lining and all that. Left thigh predictably stuck in a knot. Not stretching nearly enough lately.

PM - 60 minutes easy, to and from 10 Spencer. Headed out via rail bed all the way to Stow Road, back via Martin Street. Leg locked up most of the time, paying the price for the weekend. And the lack of stretching. Cool dry day with a strong NNW wind blowing pretty hard at times.

Sun 9/19 - AM 90 minutes incl. 3.6 mile road race

The back end of the ill-advised weekend double went better than expected. Sluggish and unmotivated warming up, hobbling around on the left hip which was tight and sore after yesterday. Some last minute direct pressure on the TFL area ended up being a life-saver as it released the worst of the sticking and opened up my stride so that I could run halfway comfortably. The area remains an ongoing mess though. Lingering fatigue and tiredness left me feeling quite vulnerable on the starting line. In the end though ran alone from the gun, felt relaxed if not particularly quick. Splits of 5:15, 5:30, 5:16, and 3:14 for the last bit. The location of the second mile marker seems to vary a bit from year to year, this year it seemed a bit further down the road. Easy relaxed 45 minute cooldown in Area 51. Feeling pretty satisfied with myself for pulling this one out of the fire until I looked at previous years' results. Hard to believe I cruised through 3 miles in under 15 minutes on this thing three years ago. I could have done the same three months ago when I was fit and running track races, but even that now feels like it was three years ago, before the left adductor and iliopsoas started plaguing me in August. Avoiding any fast stuff, even strides, of course leads to no sharpness in the legs at all right now as a result. Weather conditions generally favorable if a little on the muggy side.

Sat 9/18 - AM 60 minutes incl. 5 mile road race

My sandbagging plans went for naught in Greenfield today, based on prior results I figured I could cruise the flat 5 mile course at a sub-maximal pace, slower than what I ended up doing, and take the win. It was not to be. Them's the breaks, of more concern was how terribly sluggish I was throughout and how crappy the left leg felt pretty much from the start. Left ankle, which has been stiff at the outset of many runs lately, was more so today, made for an awkward warmup. For no good reason, I tried keeping up with second place for 1.5 miles which just put me deeper in the hole and aggravated the leg. Gave up that charade and dialed it back from there, but the effort still didn't match the pace and not in a good way. Cooldown was a lot shorter than planned because I couldn't muster the interest to do it quite frankly. The two races in two days gambit looks like it could be a big miscalculation, not looking forward to tomorrow at all when I should be excited for the hometown throwdown.