Fri 6/17 - AM 65 minutes easy

Area 51. Easy relaxed run before heading up to NH for Mt. Washington. Cool with rain steadily increasing in intensity for most of it. Rain a dominant theme for the day in fact, "on and off" showers more on than off from central Mass. to northern NH.

Thu 6/16 - PM 85 minutes easy plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods, with drills on Pine Hill. Moving slowly throughout, left ankle stiff much of the way. Woke up with QL much more stiff and tight than I thought it would be, spent a good chunk of the morning working it out with the lax ball. After a week of abnormally cool weather the high temps returned, but relatively dry. Still a relief to get in the water.

Wed 6/15 - PM 75 minutes incl. 12k threshold run

Longfellow Loop. Curious to say the least to see how this run compares to previous efforts earlier in the spring, despite lingering soreness from the weekend's misadventure (Sunday, not Saturday). Took a few minutes to get in a comfortable rhythm, held something back for the first two loops. Extended it on the final lap, up to but hopefully not over the edge but I was fairly spent by the end. Splits:

5:52/5:54/2:49
5:47/5:49/2:49
5:42/5:41/2:42

by the standards of a controlled effort of this length, the last lap qualifies as moving. Left ankle stiff on the very slow cooldown. Cloudy again much of the day today but it was breaking up somewhat by the time I got out there, warm but not  oppressively hot.

Tue 6/14 - PM 75 minutes easy

Lincoln woods. Slightly longer and quicker version of yesterday's run. Quite pokey for the first half hour, pace gradually picked up from there. Continued gloomy overcast, although the sun tried to break through at one point.

Mon 6/13 - PM 70 minutes very easy

Area 51. Fully expecting to do a glacially paced jog which is certainly how it started. Towards the end of the run pace picked up a bit but not by much. Caught myself picking it up at one point, slowed it right back down to keep the effort relaxed. Calves have the tight solidified feel that can only come from racing in spikes. Cool overcast gloom continued for much of the day although there were some breaks in the afternoon just before I headed out.

Sun 6/12 - PM 60 minutes incl. track 1500

One too many bites of the apple, not surprisingly. Looking for some "speedwork" but too flat to do anything from the word go. Had a sense of it during the warmup, took forever to shake the cobwebs loose, but became much more apparent after 300m of the race itself. Lap splits of 68, 71, 72, and a final 300 run at the same pace that I averaged for the 5k last night. Won going away, that is to say I finished ahead of the two other people who completed the race. Very inspiring circumstances needless to say. Shortened cooldown so I could eat a late lunch. Legs not too sore today but tomorrow will be another matter I'm sure. Continued cool, overcast, and breezy conditions, temperature fairly favorable but the wind was not. 

Sat 6/11 - PM 60 minutes incl. track 5k

Better than expected, 15:13 with the goal going in to run as close to 15:20 as possible. Had my doubts during the warmup thanks to a vaguely heavy feeling in the legs and an obnoxiously gusty ill wind, a trade off it seems for the comfortable temperature. The wind in particular had me scale back on expectations to 74 pace instead of possibly 73. Once the race started, fell in line with a group that was running between 73 and 74 and it was a no-brainer to follow the train. Each of the first three kilos at 3:04 or so. At this point the train had fallen apart but one guy was keeping the pace and I simply hung onto him. Feeling frisky until 1500 to go, actually had plans of dropping the bomb in the last two laps and kicking from far out but it became clear that I would do well simply to be able to hold on. Pace was dropping anyway, with the last last 2k going in right around 6 minutes. Unable to muster much of anything on the final lap, heavy feeling in the legs beforehand wasn't an illusion as I nearly stumbled and fell with 300m to go. Still, much of this race was definitely under control and the pace progressed noticeably. I now have delusions of taking a crack at the vaunted 15 minute barrier in a month's time.