Thu 1/29 - 90 minutes skiing

Area 51. Not looking forward to braving the slush and snow covered mess of Maynard side streets today, so I checked out the Old Marlboro Rd. entrance to the refuge on the way home from work and saw that there were in fact ski tracks left by previous visitors over the past two days. Bless their hearts for slogging through the deep snowpack as it made for a much more appealing prospect than if the whole place were still untrammeled. In fact, there are places that hadn't been touched including the entire Petapawag trail. Did a little bit of slogging in the virgin snow, a few minutes of that leg and lung busting was more than enough. Some slips and slides and overall relatively slow going but still preferable to jumping into snowbanks in order to dodge traffic. Plus I was able to enjoy the sunset from a much more serene vantage:

 drifted lumpy snow on the pond surface

how low can you go?

Wed 1/28 - PM 40 minutes incl. mile, 6x200, 4x200, 2x200

Approached this workout with no small amount of trepidation, thanks to the cough that stubbornly persists, albeit more productive by the day. On top of this, the right calf felt stiff and sore from the beginning of the warmup, much more so than I was expecting after a two day layoff. Overall feeling like something of a fraud and not at all sure of what I'd be able to accomplish. Aiming for a cruise mile of around 5:30, being somewhat conservative to say the least then follow that up with glorified strides. Rolled through the first lap of the cruiser in under 39 seconds. Adjusted the next three laps and ended up running 5:22 splitting 2:43/2:39. Five minutes later started with the 200s. Each set run on a 70 second schedule, with four minutes recovery between sets. Going in, trying to hit something in the 38-9 range for the first set and a bit faster than that for the second set of 4, then something mile pace or faster for the final pair. Had some difficulty holding back enough on the first set despite the short recovery (just over 30 seconds). Splits:

37.7, 37.0, 37.3, 37.6, 36.6, 35.4
35.4, 35.7, 35.4, 35.3
33.4, 34.0

The final set required a good deal more effort and focus than either of the first two. All in all came in ahead of schedule but whether these numbers mean anything worth a damn remains to be seen. Overall the time off seems to have allowed for feeling fresh rather than detraining, at least that's how I choose to see it. Warmup and cooldown both on the short side thanks to a late start.

Tue 1/27 - off

Snowing all day, as predicted. The only running I would have been able to do would have been on the treadmill and that simply wasn't happening. Four rounds of shoveling and the driveway still not entrely clear. The amount of snow from this one event is fairly soul-crushing given how long it will take to melt. Light and fluffy but that just means it's quite cold as well. Still coughing, productively, which means there's still gunk in my lungs that simply won't clear. Fingers crossed it isn't something more serious than the usual garden variety upper resipiratory infection.

Mon 1/26 - off

Slept poorly last night, in all likelihood thanks to yesterday afternoon's caffeine. This left me in a predictably exhausted state upon getting home from work. Options somewhat curtailed by the weekend's snow, skiing a possibility but the logistics involved were too much to bear. In the end the cold and gloom marking the arrival of the much-hyped blizzard killed all motivation anyway. Took a nap that ended up being almost two hours long and that was that.

Sun 1/25 - PM 50 minutes incl. track DNF

Should have known better. Instead, capped off a miserable week dominated by illness with an ill-advised attempt to better my SB in the mile. Locked into 4:40 pace right away, slowed down just a bit from the quarter to the half but I could feel the pace slowing while the effort was getting a lot harder very quickly. Pulled off 3/4 of the way through the fifth lap upon realizing that there was no way of running faster than I did two weeks ago in my current state. Had I stubbornly persisted there's no way I would have gone any faster than 4:46 or so. In fact I felt like absolute dog poo the first 5 minutes of the warmup jog but then I think the caffeine kicked in and gave me a false sense of being able to run worth a damn. I'd like to think stopping when I did minimized the damage but obviously, it would have been better still to take a pass. Still coughing, of course, although it is more productive and more productive still after today's running. While there's no doubt my breathing peak flow levels aren't optimal at the moment, in the immediate aftermath of the race it felt more like the overall lingering fatigue played much more of a role in foiling my competitive plans. Right calf feeling a lot more frayed than I would like, even taking into mind the running in spikes. Not like I overdid it in training this week but obviously related to the right hammie soreness the past few days. I'd like to think I can get it feeling better by next weekend, which now is crammed with racing thanks to today's DNF. At least I'm reasonably assured the accursed throat infection will be in the rear view by then. With the looming weather apocalypse bearing down on the area training is about to get a lot more problematic.

Sat 1/24 - AM 30 minutes, treadmill

4 miles on the treadmill between bouts of shoveling the driveway. 6-10 mph until 25 minutes then back down by .5 mph the last 5 minutes as a cooldown. As ever, the treadmill makes it smooth but still could feel the right hammie and TFL are somewhat tweaked. Rolled on the lax ball afterward which helped with that. Woke up in a much better state than yesterday morning, but still not out of the woods yet. Still coughing but it's more productive and overall feeling more optimistic about tomorrow.