Thu 1/23 - PM 60 minutes easy

Levittown to Summerhill. Legs felt fairly terrible, right calf in particular. Basically picked up where yesterday's cooldown left off which isn't a good thing. Took it slow as a result, not that I wouldn't have done so anyway. Spent some quality time with the foam roller and lax ball afterward, hopefully to some effect. Very cold with a nasty breeze blowing, and me forgetting how to dress for it after the recent warm period. All in all made for a less than enjoyable experience.

Wed 1/22 - PM 55 minutes incl. mile, 2(440,330,220,110)

Harvard. The day off was more necessary than I had realized, feeling better for it. That being said, the fatigue still lingers to a degree, not something that goes away in a day. Dragging enough early on in the workout that I considered ditching the second and final set of 4-3-2-1 but thought better of it. As for the workout itself, after running with the herd for the past few weeks I needed a return to the type of workouts I'm more comfortable with, i.e. not screamingly fast, and with a relatively easier start with the threshold rep. That was supposed to start out in 82 for the quarter and get progressively faster, instead I hit the first lap in just under 40 and was unable to get faster than 78.5 over the final half. During the first set of cutdowns, legs felt awkward and clunky, somewhat ameliorated by putting on spikes for the second set. Still, not exactly smooth and still feeling Sunday's race in the legs. Splits:

80.5/78.7/78.5/78.5 - 5:16.2 total

4.5R

72.2 (80.9)
54.5 (53.8)
36.8 (29)
18.3
5:45.5 total

4.5R

71.3 (80.6)
55.0 (55.4)
36.0 (31.0)
17.7
5:46.9 total

Having forgotten the numbers from when I did this same session a month ago I was surprised to find the overall time for each of the cutdown sets was significantly faster, on the order of 20 seconds. Completely from the recovery intervals. Not sure what this augurs for Saturday but certainly some form of fitness, or at least ability to recover from bouts of fast running, has developed over the past month. Hip flexors felt terrible while cooling down, stiffening up with each step.

Tue 1/21 - off

Much needed zero as it turns out. I had intentions of going for a relatively short run and following that up with an even shorter progression on the treadmill, but after spending two hours at the doctor's office (almost all of it waiting of course) got home to snow beginning to accumulate in bitter cold and wind chill. Took a nap and woke up spectacularly unmotivated. Couldn't bring myself to do even just a treadmill run. Feeling very flat and strung out in fact, hopefully the day off will help.

Mon 1/20 - AM skiing, PM 50 minutes easy

AM - Skied for a bit over an hour on the refuge. Not sure how much of a workout this was given my rudimentary grasp of technique and no heavy breathing but at least I broke a sweat. Got the following shots in as well:

 Petapawag trail

 otter tracks and belly slide trails on Puffer Pond

 more otter

more tracks on the pond, coyote or fox or maybe just somebody's dog

PM - 50 minutes easy, near end of Levittown to Summerhill and on to Winter St and Tiger Drive. Started too late in the day to go any longer, a bit pooped from the morning as well. Right calf tight. Relatively mild conditions during the day pretty much held despite a predicted cold front passing through. 

Sun 1/19 - PM 40 minutes incl. mile

Harvard. Fought the good fight but their was an air of inevitable mediocrity (if that) to the proceedings as I just barely nipped under the magic 4:50 barrier. A month removed from my last crack at this distance and I'm no better for it. Certainly there were gains in fitness over the first 2.5 weeks since the first indoor race of the season, but overdid it (incl. not sleeping well enough) and put myself in the fatigue hole. If nothing else, I'm certainly capable of finding 4:40 pace, as that was the first three laps pretty much on the nose. Totally incapable of holding that pace once things get interesting. In fact this race was another 2:21/2:29 effort (2:28 high in actuality but who cares). 70/71/73/75. Although this time the last lap took something between 37 and 38 seconds instead of the 39 back in December so I suppose that's progress. Like last time though I was staggering on the final lap instead of sprinting. Also like last time I thought I could certainly get to the mid 4:40's right up until the bell. In depressing fact the second half of the race was an extended flail, slowing down with each step in all likelihood. Tried to dig deep but nothing was there. Had an inkling of what was to come warming up, not nearly as fried as Tuesday thanks to less running and being able to sleep in the past two nights. Of course, sleeping in can result in feeling the blahs as well and that may have played a role as well. Right leg not perfect but better than it has been, calf held up reasonably well to wearing spikes. Warmup and cooldown both too short to be effective really. One more bite of the apple next weekend but I have my doubts about getting into the old fart olympics this time around. More damage control between now and then.

Sat 1/18 - double, 50 minutes total

AM - 30 minutes very easy. Pre-breakfast shakeout, very relaxed putter around town. Flakes just starting to fly as I finished up. Within an hour of that the ground was covered. Yippee.

PM - 20 minutes, treadmill. I had planned on a quick jog up to the track and some drills and strides maybe, but an unexpectedly heavy storm that dumped 4 inches of white lead put paid to that. Roads once again utter shit as the plows hadn't yet touched them (if they ever will). Multiple rounds of shoveling to keep me occupied. Instead of slipping and sliding went to the treadmill for a somewhat extreme progression, from 6 to 11 mph in under 17 minutes. Ticked up the speed .1 every 20 seconds to do it. Not a bad way to approach running on the treadmill actually, something I'll maybe do more often. It got difficult of course but still manageable and of course smooth thanks to the uniform surface and footing.