Fri 4/1 - 60 minutes easy

Area 51 to White Pond Road, back on Pompositticut. Slow going on the trails as yesterday's snow kept going through most of the night and into this morning leaving a few inches of heavy wet stuff. Runnable but sloppy, and doing the left hip and butt no favors to run through it. Sections on the road felt much better thanks to no slipping. Well-nigh impossible to pull myself away from trails at this point though now that I've had a taste.

Thu 3/31 - PM 80 minutes

Lincoln Woods. Started out easy, very relaxed, and gradually worked the pace down. Last 15 minutes substantially faster than the rest. Leg twinging at the infamous high hammie attachment "pinch point" and lateral aspect of quad as well, stopped at 45 minute mark again to do some work on them and again, felt better for it the rest of the way. Uneven terrain puts an added stress on the area of course. Started out in spitting rain and ended in driving snow.

Wed 3/30 - PM 70 minutes easy

Track Road to Area 51. Surprisingly tired, especially in the middle portion of the run. Took a break at the fishing dock at the 45 minute mark, did a few minutes of cross fiber friction on the IT/vastus lateralis and came away from it feeling a lot better. To the point that I did some semi-strides on the way in that felt better than I would have expected going in. Cautiously optimistic that yesterday's adjustment has set in. Keeping it that way is of course the tricky part. Mild afternoon, temp started to drop though by the time I got out there. Not as windy at least.

Tue 3/29 - PM 70 minutes

Walden woods. Kicked off the afternoon with another visit to the PT, who released the SI joint which of course was stuck again. All the sore and strained bits in the left leg still felt sore and strained of course, plenty of twinging and feeling locked up posterior to knee as well. Took a break at the hour mark and put direct pressure on the enormous butt knot that's developed since the weekend, which had a noticeable effect and the last 10+ minutes felt much better overall. I keep meaning to do this before heading out for runs but forget to do it. The decision to try the trails at Walden was somewhat last minute, but glad I did it as they're 98% clear. Lots of leaves but still worth the trip. Continued cold and windy although not quite as bad as yesterday.

MOn 3/28 - PM 80 minutes easy

Area 51. Considering what I did yesterday, the left haunch was in better shape than I could have hoped or expected. Still stiff and sore to start and noticeable in some form or another most of the way. Pace got a little exuberant from about 40 to 55 minutes, slowed it down after taking a break at the fishing dock do compressions on the hammie. Discovered a large spasm in the heart of the gluteus maximus after finishing the run, direct pressure on that seemed very productive. Continued windy and colder than normal, red flag conditions in fact. Despite this and the fact that the Petapawag trail shows minimal signs of the snowpack disappearing, I enjoyed being out in the woods.

Sun 3/27 - AM 70 minutes incl. 15k road race

Made it through first sustained "hard" effort in weeks in one piece, but only barely. Very doubtful about the advisability of this race esp. after Thursday's failure of an attempt at doing a workout. Decided to go in with low expectations, very low in fact. As in make it through without having to stop and stretch/massage the leg. Cruised along at around 6:00 pace the first 6 miles of the race, getting blasted by the wind most of the way. Leg got a bit tight over the first 4 miles, then up the only hill of consequence before the turnaround on the out and back course. Coming back down that hill put far too much stress on the "pinch point" and I could feel it with every step. From there on out it was strictly getting it over with, leg getting worse with each step. Pace slowed accordingly. Hard to say how much the incessant wind slowed things down but even so, this effort is depressing confirmation of how much the fitness has slipped in the last few weeks with the diminished training volume and inability to do anything of substance. Not technically injured but I might as well be. Adductor stiffened up after finishing, not as bad as last August but plenty bad enough. Some quality time with the lax ball was very helpful in dealing with this in the short term. After getting home, the QL tightened up to such an extent that it was impossible to take a nap even though I was quite tired by that point. Again the lax ball saved the day, and wiped out the adhesion. Continuing to work on flexibility and core strength, hopeful that there will be results soon but perhaps I'm kidding myself. Time will tell.

Sat 3/26 - off

not exactly planned, but after tromping around in the woods setting up cameras and running errands it ended up being a no-brainer.