Fri 3/6 - PM 55 minutes

Longfellow loop via Tiger Drive. Pace felt like it vacillated, or at least the perceived effort. Winding up in true manic style to the upcoming vacation, which made napping in the afternoon impossible despite pre-waking the alarm by a decent chunk of time. Not exactly firing on all cylinders as a result. However after moderating the pace a bit around the halfway mark I was able to do some short pickups on the way in. The first three felt pretty good, tailed off some after that as the right calf and hammie started twinging. Awoke to very cold temps, which moderated somewhat as the sun is getting noticeably stronger compared to last month.

Thu 3/5 - PM 90 minutes skiing

Area 51. With subfreezing temps today following yesterday's warmth, it was a given the tracks would be glazed. Slick enough for some sustained double-poling in spots. With the skis I'm using rated for >80 kg and thus minimal kick, sliding all over the place on uphills as well which was annoying. Overall moving fast while not working as hard to do it as the other day. For my purposes I prefer the slower snow. Right leg still feels off after yesterday's workout, schedule hasn't allowed much if any time for stretching of late.

Wed 3/4 - 45 minutes incl. 6x3 minute pickups

Levittown. Rushed for time, everything compressed as a result. Legs felt clunky and awkward from beginning to end, something I have to ascribe to yesterday's skiing expedition. Tried to squeeze out a little more effort in the last minute of each rep, may have been just a holding action. Two minute recoveries between each repeat. Mild temps all day, downright balmy in fact.

Tue 3/3 - PM 1:45 skiing

Area 51. Recent snow and warmer temps made for much better trail conditions, at least for my low level of skiing proficiency and less than ideal equipment. Snow soft enough to get a better workout rather than slipping and sliding. Also did two laps around the pond making fresh tracks in the drifted windblown stuff which was noticeably more strenuous, but in a good way.

Mon 3/2 - PM 60 minutes easy

Levittown. A run that felt worse and got slower the further along I went. Went out the door well aware of the need for active recovery after yesterday's dud, despite this I could feel things stalling out after 20 minutes. Definitely into very easy territory for the final third, shuffling in fact. The calf which had felt really good during the day after a massage session last night ended up with the same stupid knot as well. Mildly disheartening on the whole. Despite more snow that fell overnight the sun during the day was sufficiently strong to melt away much of it from most of the roads, including ones that were useless for running as recently as last Wednesday when I did the workout here.

Sun 3/1 - AM 75 minutes incl. 8k threshold run

Longfellow loop. Felt like garbage from the get-go and the splits certainly reflected it. Having gone through multiple possibilities for the specifics of this workout, I ended up settling on the original plan which was a 12k progression. Upon hitting the first mile in a sparkling 6:16 I knew the run would be curtailed, the only question was by how much. Gave some consideration to pulling the plug after one lap but in the end went through with it for two which felt like at least a token effort. While not the worst ever run on this loop, as there was another 31 minute 8k dud run in much better weather when I was dragging my right leg around, today's certainly makes the list of top stinkers. More frustrating than the slow-ass splits was how much effort it took to produce them. A sub 6 minute mile split today would have been a back-breaker. I can only hope the flatness is a temporary thing chalked up to the past three days of training. The training that came before that is not the least bit impressive. At least the second lap was faster than the first, small consolation only given how putrid the whole thing was. Weather continues to be absolutely horrendous, temps stubbornly stuck 10-15 degrees below average with wind chill conditions to deal with on top of that. Still some icy patches on Greenwood where the trees provide more shade. Nursed my wounded pride on an extended and quite slow cooldown of 30+ minutes. Calf quite stiff by the end of it, but at least the left hip didn't lock up again after some direct pressure on the area after yesterday's run. Splits:

6:16/6:12/3:00
6:06/6:09/2:56

Sat 2/28 - AM 85 minutes

River St.-Tempo Triangle-White Pond-Track Road-Tiger Drive. A bit overbaked on the whole. Thought I was taking it relatively easy at first but got a bit ahead of myself towards the end. Rather than have to run along 117 for any length of time I chose to take White Pond Rd. all the way to Track Road and take my chances traversing it. Packed snow for now which was okay taking it slow. Picked it up (or tried to) after that, probably inadvisably. Feeling quite divorced from an accurate perception of my own fitness at the moment, likely due to all the skiing vs. running of late. Inevitably the response is to force the issue. Sunny day but as usual, subfreezing temps and a breeze to make it colder still. Can't wait for this despicable month to finally end.