Thu 6/26 - double, 70 minutes total incl. 3x(1000,200)

AM - 20 minutes very easy, Swellesley. Much cooler this morning after strong showers moved through overnight. Still quite humid. Still quite creaky at this hour.

PM - 50 minutes incl. 3 sets of 1000-200j-200-200j. Teetering on the fence up until the final 5 minutes of the warmup jog over whether I would even attempt to do any kind of workout and if so, what form it would take. Indecision mostly due to the crappy way the right hammie feels at the moment. In the end decided to soldier on in the hopes of proving to myself that there's some kind of fitness available for track racing. In fact the pace, while modest, was relatively controlled and a bit faster than I was shooting for (84 pace on the kilos). Recovery jogs got slower toward the end but still well under a minute apiece. Had the leg felt a little better I might have gone for a fourth rep. Still feeling the weight of fatigue as well, much more active at work the past few days with the end of school and attendant moving everything from building to building. Overcast conditions, much cooler than yesterday thankfully. Humid but bearable. Splits:

3:27.3 (53.0)
38.2 (52.6)
3:26.9 (51.1)
38.6 (55.6)
3:24.5 (55.8)
38.1 (30.3)
last 100 19.0
total time around 17:30

Wed 6/25 - PM 30 minutes plus 24 minutes in Walden

Walden woods. Too tired to do much of anything and disgusting heat and humidity on top of it made for extremely low motivation when late afternoon rolled around. Went from work to Emerson field with the idea of supposedly doing some kind of track workout but I knew I was fooling myself given how gross the weather was. With the fatigue from doing donkey work all day on the job and the right thigh and butt feeling vaguely suspect, there was no way anything of quality was going to happen. Heavy air, striking how much difference it makes in making the heat feel penetrating. The pond beckoned with magnetic force, I would have spent an hour in there if it were feasible. As it was I got such a late start thanks to lolligagging around a slightly extended dip was all I could fit in.

Tue 6/24 - double, 80 minutes total plus 16 minutes in Walden

AM - 20 minutes very easy, Swellesley. Adventures in digestion, or rather the end result. More than enough said.

PM - 60 minutes easy, Lincoln woods with drills on Pine Hill plus 16 minutes in Walden. Feeling much better than yesterday after taking it super easy and getting slightly more sleep last night. Right hammie is maybe feeling a bit better with more stretching of late. Long stretch of dry weather appears to be at an end, air getting thicker.

Mon 6/23 - double, 70 minutes total plus 20 minutes in Walden

AM - 20 minutes very easy, Swellesley. In all likelihood this will be the last week of being able to run before breakfast until the end of summer. I'm not entirely sure what if any beneficial effect these shakeouts have at this point other than enjoying the scenery and cool morning air.

PM - 50 minutes very easy, Lincoln woods plus 20 minutes in Walden. Started out with every intention of doing hill drills today but found within 10 minutes of hitting the trail that I was not going to be up to it. In fact the lethargy was palpable, not surprising given the activity of the past two days. Went into straight recovery mode instead. Calf continues to feel tweaked from Saturday, DOMS at its finest.

Sun 6/22 - AM 1:40 plus 20 minutes in Walden

Lincoln woods. At the risk of digging myself into a deeper hole I wanted to get in some kind of longer run, i.e. longer than the 75 minutes or so that even longer runs have defaulted to over the past few weeks. Thinking ahead to longer races on the horizon. Of course, the right leg had something to say about this especially after yesterday's misadventure. In fact it got progressively tighter and more wound up over the first half of the run. At this point I had a very worthwhile break along the side of the trail to stretch out the calf and hamstring. The leg felt better the rest of the way, although soreness in the calf is more than I was expecting. Dip in the pond came at the 70 minute mark, the final half hour after that was marked by increasing heaviness in the legs from fatigue but still able to rally somewhat over the last 10 minutes. More excellent weather. After lunch went for a meandering bike ride around the aqueducts of Wayland, scouting out training locations for the fall.

Sat 6/21 - double, 1:40 total incl, 10k race plus 20 minutes in Walden

AM - 65 minutes incl. 10k race on mostly trails. Hoping to train through this and sandbag a win, based on previous years' results. In hindsight I picked the wrong race as the 5k that started at the same time and shared the same course for 2 miles was much less competitive. While not knowing who I was racing against until the courses split was annoying as hell in the end it didn't matter as I was already gapped by the eventual winner and would be dropped by another kid soon after 2 miles. From there it was a slog and a chore, with the right glute/piriformis/hamstring tightening up to an alarming degree. Did just enough to hold off the next guy behind me who as it turns out was my competition for the old fart consolation prize $. The whole thing was fairly dismal and disappointing. Did myself no favors by staying up too late last night for no good reason. Not sure if the unpaved and slightly uneven surface had anything to do with the leg stiffening up so much but it ended up feeling worse than expected. Right ankle continues to be really stiff and tight as well. Fantastic weather continues unabated, dry warm sunny morning.

PM - 35 minutes very easy plus 20 minutes in Walden. Easy shakeout after the morning fool's errand. Far too nice a day not to take advantage. Ankle not quite as stiff after doing a lot of stretching. Marked the solstice by bringing along the camera and taking a few quick shots from the back corner:

Fri 6/20 - double, 80 minutes total plus 20 minutes in Walden

AM - 20 minutes very easy, Swellesley. Crisp cool morning which was nice, right leg and particularly ankle stiff and creaky which wasn't.

PM - 60 minutes, Lincoln woods plus drills on Pine Hill plus 20 minutes in Walden. Spectacular weather continued into the afternoon. Short pickups on the way in. Actually did the stretching/core routine later in the evening for the first time in at least a couple of weeks. Hopefully it'll help with the right hammie and calf which feel tight and vulnerable at the moment.