Fri 3/27 - PM 45 minutes

Back and forth along and near 117 in Maynard, including Tiger Drive of course. A placeholder of sorts, pace was quicker than it has been but right hammie still bothersome although not as much as yesterday. Feeling rushed and time-pressured all afternoon, had to ditch stretching yet again. Not a good pattern, and of course directly linked to why the hammie (more like piriformis really) continues to bug me. Found plenty of cans though. Still somewhat mild with high temps approaching the average for this time of year. While it lasts.

Thu 3/26 - PM 75 minutes easy

South Acton to Lower Village like last Thursday, but instead of going down White Pond I instead turned up Pompositticut as the pace was dawdling and I wanted to get it over with. Feeling flat and tired yet again, the consistent pre-waking in the wee hours of late not helping a bit with that. Too late bedtimes making it worse as well. Warmer with rain showers passing through, such that it didn't necessary feel that much warmer.

Wed 3/25 - PM 70 minutes very easy

Along the Charles. I figured the legs would feel like crap after yesterday's quite intentional pounding, but all in all not as sore as I was expecting. There were some twitchy spots but not what I expected, i.e. medial quad attachment area. What wasn't surprising was how little effort I felt like putting forth which made the run into something of a dreary exercise. Just shuffling along in fact. The blahs were further emphasized by the blustery overcast. Being next to the water made it feel all the worse of course, tradeoff for the flat terrain. Warmer than recent days but the windchill wasn't helping matters. I really don't know how the city slickers deal with running here day after day, it would rapidly get quite old for me.

Tue 3/24 - PM 65 minutes incl. 4x1.5 mile hill loops

First of the up/down hill simulator sessions in preparation for next month's half marathon. The neighborhood including George, Rice and Paul roads seemed the best suited for packing in the most bang for the buck in terms of getting up and down. Hit all three roads in both directions to make a loop that the online mapping tools tell me is 1.5 miles. Felt exceedingly crappy on the jog over, with very low expectations. As such, kept it quite conservative the first one and was rewarded with a 9:30 split. Decided more or less on the spur of the moment to go on a 12 minute cycle, i.e. 2-3 minutes rest. With some sense of what I was in for, the next one went in 9:08, and the third one 9:07. Squeezed out more effort on the final rep and came in at 8:52 which was something of a surprise. Overall not very impressive numbers at all but it wasn't a speed course for sure. Trying to stay smooth on the downhills as much as anything. Overall a good loop for the intended purpose. Somewhat warmer today than the past two days, which isn't saying much. Very little wind thankfully.

Mon 3/23 - PM 90 minutes easy

Tiger Drive to Longfellow loop/McMansionville. First visit to Balcom/Ruddock/Willis in a long long time thrown in for good measure. I had wanted to put in something of a longer run after yesterday's short one. Realized after 10 minutes or so that the mojo wasn't there and on top of that, the right piriformis/hamstring area was gummed up to an unexpected degree. This predictably led to a relaxing of the pace from what was already pretty mellow to downright slow, and a shuffling jog the rest of the way. Somewhat frustrating but in hindsight not exactly surprising. The other source of frustration, as it has been for what seems like forever, was of course the frigid temps which required the full winter kit yet again. When--if--the pattern that has us stuck in the deep freeze will let go for real remains a mystery. Some warming in the forecast, to seasonal averages at least.

Sun 3/22 - PM 40 minutes easy

Tiger Drive to Bowker via Old Marlboro. Not exactly the length of run I had in mind. After spending a good chunk of the late morning and early afternoon snowshoeing in the refuge (the only way to access the trails at the moment without experiencing endless frustration), there wasn't time or inclination to do much more than an easy short putter though. Sunny and cold, yet again, with a brisk wind blowing all day.

Sat 3/21 - double, 1:40 total incl. 35 minute threshold run

AM - 60 minutes, Longfellow loop incl. 35 minute threshold run. Original plan was to do 10k threshold/progression on the loop, but a lovely snowstorm put paid to those plans. Enough accumulation to create slippery garbage footing on the untreated roads, all but Longfellow and Ford basically. Upon realizing this after slipping and sliding around Munnings, Darvell and Belcher  cut out the Munnings/Belcher stretch as well as Bowker for the rest of the way. This ended up being three loops, the first including Munnings/Belcher and the next two on Longfellow/Ford/Greenwood. Terrible footing aside, felt flat and tired from the jump, with a sparkling 6:08 first mile split. On the second and third loops, rolled through the 800m mark in right around 3 minutes. Took far too much effort to hold this pedestrian pace. Part of the increasing difficulty was the stupid snow which wouldn't stop falling. Even the treated roads started to get slippery by the end. Beyond done with this fucking winter.

PM - 40 minutes including 10 short pickups on River road. The original plan was to make this a double workout day with some kind of shorter timed pickups for the afternoon session. Legs far too fried for that following the morning's exercise in frustration. As such, it became an easy shakeout around Levittown, hoping the legs would loosen up to do some strides near the end. At least that came off, and felt reasonably good. On the weather front, the sun came out, air dried out and temps actually approached seasonal averages. Thus, by mid afternoon the same roads that were a slippery mess were bone dry. Nice but left me wishing I had flipped the workouts around for today.