Thu 6/12 - double, 65 minutes total

AM - 20 minutes very easy, Swellesley. Stiff stiff stiff.

PM - 45 minutes incl. 4 sets of 200, jog 300, 100, jog 200. Felt a lot harder than it should have, I think both from fatigue and from the right piriformis being stuck in a vise. As recently as a few days ago I was planning on doing some kind of more substantial track work today but I know before Tuesday's session was half over that glorified strides would be the upper limit of what would be appropriate. Even that was probably overdoing it quite frankly. Came home and got right on the lax ball to roll out some well-entrenched trigger points. Not especially hot but gross humidity.

Wed 6/11 - PM 85 minutes easy

Lincoln woods. Dragging the right leg along for the ride as the hamstring and glute/piriformis are a stuck mess. Not exactly surprising after yesterday but depressing nonetheless. Ruined what would have otherwise would have been a perfectly nice jog in the woods. More humidity but much cooler today. Pollen production a bit late this year but certainly doesn't seem at all curtailed based on the last week or so.

Tue 6/10 - PM 70 minutes incl. 4k-3k-2k-1k

Longfellow loop. Aiming for the kind of cutdown work I've done on the track but without all the running around turns. Feeling a bit frazzled going in thanks to yet another night of tossing and turning. Nothing as bad as last Thursday but I was quite ready to go to bed and fall asleep rather than go to bed and lie there. No caffeine to blame this time either. End result was that the nap was slightly longer than usual. Some stiffness on the warmup, right TFL and iliac crest had been bugging me at work and continued to do so. Felt better with drills and strides though and with that it was off. Some unexpected stiffness and soreness in the left heel/achilles that I wasn't expecting. Made a conscious effort to start out under control and leave room for improvement. This was fine through the first 400m of the 4k, but reaching the km mark in 3:35 instead of the 3:40 or so I had anticipated caught me by surprise. Perhaps my carefully measured marks on the road aren't that accurate or more likely I'm cutting tangents once the road starts curving back and forth. Regardless, the first kilo split was too quick for the progression I wanted to do. Felt just a bit too quick and I figured it might come back to bite me later on which it did. 3k was a very gradual deceleration from one km to the next. Hitting the first 200 in under 40 didn't help as I was forced to compensate after that. Knew I was cooked for the 2k and promised myself I would hold it back somewhat, instead the second km was 8 seconds slower than the first. Final rep was more controlled but by then it was just about getting it over with w/o putting myself any further in the hole. Sticky and warm conditions left me drenched, thankfully left the shirt behind at the start. Had I done this on the track the specific numbers might have been a little bit different but the overall pattern would have been the same. Between the humidity and overdoing it on the 4k I was quite spent by the end of the day. No problems falling asleep tonight.

3:35.8/3:33.4/3:31.6/3:23.7 (+10 seconds for the final 50m to make it a full 4k) - 14:14.5
4R
3:28.9/3:30.8/3:32.9 - 10:32.6
3R
3:28.3/3:36.6 - 7:04.9
2R
3:31.3

Mon 6/9 - double, 65 minutes total

AM - 20 minutes easy, Swellesley. Very rickety for a couple of minutes at the start, eventually moving reasonably well for an early morning jog.

PM - 45 minutes, Lincoln woods incl. drills on Pine Hill. Took a direct route both to and from the hill, though not the exact same route as variety is the spice of life. Wanted to keep the overall length of this run a bit shorter, it came in even a bit shorter than what I had expected. Not complaining. Did some short pickups on the way in which felt better than I would have expected given the usual stiffness in the hamstring and glute. Quite tired by the end of work, the nap in the car was no joke today. Sticky overcast conditions.

Sun 6/8 - double, 90 minutes total

AM - 45 minutes easy, Area 51. Relaxed putter, between snack and breakfast. Took a little while to get out the door. Another warm day like yesterday.

PM - 45 minutes, Area 51. Originally I was planning on running at and swimming in the pond, perhaps getting there via bike. All that went by the boards as the afternoon dwindled away, particularly after spending time redoing the marks on the Longfellow loop. Found myself with very little mojo at the start of the run, figured I'd be in for a waddle even slower than the morning run. The pace increased though as the run went along and I was actually cruising fairly well the last 10 minutes. This despite the right leg feeling fairly tweaked.

Sat 6/7 - AM 50 minutes incl. 4 mile road race

The sandbag tour marches on. In fact this was the best outcome I could have possibly hoped for given recent events, namely the white night Thursday into Friday. It seemed like a decent idea at the time I signed up for this race about a week ago but not exactly thrilled about it as I was driving in. Felt more like a fool's errand. Found myself unable to muster the motivation to warm up properly which meant I toed the line with maybe 3 minutes of jogging and a few half-hearted drills under my belt. Don't try this at home kids. Very nearly dropped in the first 100m by two youngsters, one of whom was wearing the fashionable and very large headphones popular with the kids these days. I was more concerned about the other one who looked like an actual runner. Thought I might be a dead duck but hung in there and hoped they would slow at some point. In fact this took less than five minutes to happen and I found myself sidling up to the lead before the mile mark. Given the course had a second mile that was relentlessly uphill, this isn't what I had in mind. Nonetheless, by halfway I found myself out in front and from there it was keep away. First and second mile both around 5:45, even though the second mile had significant climbing. Third mile supposedly under 5:30 although I doubt it, fourth mile close to six minutes. While I did slow up near the very end I think the third mile marker may have been a bit off. Not that any of it matters. Right thigh and hamstring started to twinge on the third mile and the downhill last mile didn't do it any favors. Cooldown was quite easy and took place well after the race itself. Very warm and sunny conditions, prelude to a fairly hot but dry day.

Fri 6/6 - AM 20 minutes very easy

Swellesley. Ordinarily a pre-breakfast shakeout like this would be the front half of a double, but ordinarily I would also have gotten some sleep the night before. Not the case this time alas. The caffeine I ingested yesterday afternoon before the race had no discernible positive effect on the race needless to say but it did manage to keep me awake for hours beyond any reasonable bedtime. At a certain point the teflon consciousness took over and that was that. I'm fairly certain that there was no sleep whatsoever for the entire night, if there was it certainly wasn't of any value. Not sure how I'd make it through the day but chose to try and stick to established routines which included the morning jog. Thought I might collapse after lunch or hallucinate or something but this didn't happen. When I did get home it was straight to bed of course. Woke up about 3 hours later not knowing what planet I was on. No idea how long it will take to recover from this particular indignity. I suppose caffeine is off the table for weeknight races going forward, although I've done it in the past.