Fri 6/15 - AM 50 minutes easy

Walden woods. Day off from work so as to travel up to NH for tomorrow's Mt. Washington race. Easy run around the pond and nearby. Cool morning, very nice conditions. Calf stiff from the early start but not overly bothersome. I dearly wanted to jump in for a quick dip as well but started too late, not enough time before the eye exam I also scheduled for today. Said exam took almost 3 hours. It didn't go well, I suppose this goes without saying. This pushed everything back for the rest of the day and delayed the departure enough so that I got stuck in the most miserable hideous traffic imaginable, all roads leading to NH were backed up for miles. Fucking hideous, added over an hour to the trip and I was even more exhausted than usual upon finally arriving. At least this year I'm not sleeping in a leaky tent during torrential downpours.

Thu 6/14 - PM 90 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Started easy, pace progressed gradually from there. Looking forward to this run all day, the muggies  cleared out overnight making for excellent conditions to be outside. Went with thick-heeled shoes in deference to the right calf which has a significant knot in the upper reaches. This continues to be quite annoying, in large part because it came seemingly from out of nowhere and also since it threatens to blow up into something much worse at any moment with a misstep. Doing plenty of work on it meanwhile which feels productive at the time but who knows if I'm overdoing it.

Wed 6/13 - PM 45 minutes easy

Area 51. Super late start combined with low energy level makes for a short run. Pushing my luck with the deer flies as they're well on their way to taking over the woods for the summer. Warm and muggy after a day of rain showers followed by the clouds breaking up. Big issue now is the right calf which I somehow someway is at the edge of being strained again. I can run on it fine, but the unmistakable tightness is there. Did a fair amount of compressions on it which feel like they're having great effect but then it stiffens up over time afterward. Mystified as to how it got to this point, perhaps the low profile shoes I started breaking in on Monday on top of wearing the spikes twice last week. Shouldn't be a big deal though, and wasn't for months. Very frustrating and I feel like I'm suddenly whistling past the graveyard here.

Tue 6/12 - PM 70 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Somewhat pressed for time or else I would have gone longer. Like yesterday the pace was a bit quicker than expected, only without the stuck right adductor. Right calf feeling tight though, and at times like it might strain again. Where this came from I'm not sure, although the track running in spikes last week of course didn't help. Yesterday's partly cloudy conditions became today's mostly cloudy conditions, still warm enough to get in the pond but probably not tomorrow.

Mon 6/11 - PM 85 minutes plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods. Feeling better than I thought I would, had to rein it in a few times to avoid any possibility of frying myself more than I already am. Legs still a bit rickety, right adductor sticking which was annoying. Unlike yesterday though, no stiffness in the high hammies in the latter stages of the run. Still warm and sunny, although some cloud cover rolling in which brought the temp down a few degrees from yesterday.

Sun 6/10 - AM 90 minutes easy plus 20 minutes in Walden

GMNWR. Hoping I can climb out of the rut by taking it easy until further notice. It's been successful in the past. Things didn't get off to a great start last night as the caffeine I took for the race kept me awake for what seemed like forever. Took a little while to get going as a result. No problem taking it easy of course. Calves are more wrecked than I had realized, did some work on them later in the day with mixed results. Towards the end of the run both high hammies got stiff which was a bummer. Fantastic day to be outside, warm and sunny without tons of pollen. As ever the pond was a highlight.

6/9 - 50 minutes incl. 3200m (5k DNF)

Ahh, the ignominy. First DNF for a good long while, although there has been at least one DNS that I can remember. As it turns out, not nearly recovered from last week's travels, and probably not as fit as I would have liked to delude myself into thinking I was either. The last two days of afternoon exhaustion were ample evidence that I'm currently in a rut in terms of being well-rested. Slept in this morning, 3 hrs. later than normal, but as ever this is fool's gold and doesn't address the underlying problem. On top of that, felt every ill-advised step of Wednesday's far too strenuous track session which in the clear light of hindsight was nothing more than piling on. Should know better by now of course. What it all added up to today was a stinker. Settled in near the back at the start and to my chagrin found that the pack was running embarrassingly slow, to the tune of a 79 first lap. Made a couple of moves to get near the front, next 3 laps in 3:40 or so. Soon after this I found myself in the lead, even though I was cranking out nothing more than 76 second laps by this point. Two laps of that before I was passed just before 3k. Kilo splits of 3:10, 3:06, 3:08 FWIW. 200m later I heard a split of 10:02 and decided right there it wasn't worth the effort to flog myself for another 4 laps just to run 15:45. In truth it likely would have been 15:50 or slower had I soldiered on. Who the fuck cares about doing that. Surprised myself a bit at how quickly I went from contesting the thing to calling it a day but it was truly pointless. Some wind, kind of warm, but not nearly enough of either to explain the slow slow pace from the field. Felt the underlying exhaustion on the puttering cooldown, and the long time it took to muster up the motivation to even do it. Felt the effects of all the crazy excursions and idiotic track session in my legs, esp. calves which are both shredded at the moment. Also, the left QL muscle just above the SI joint has been stiff for a few days now. It had bothered me a bit before the trip to AZ but not so much during the trip. Now it's back, and I have to think running a track has something to do with it. Overall, I've certainly bit off more than I can chew and find myself in a noticeable hole. The track 10k a few weeks back left more of a mark than I'd like to admit given how slow it was. The trip in and out of the canyon and up and down Humphreys Peak are self-evident in their effects but still well worth it for the experience. It feels like I can count the number of good nights sleep I've gotten in the last month on one hand. Certainly compared to a year ago I'm nowhere near as fit as I was, or at least unable to access the fitness due to exhaustion.