1/30/16

Fri 1/29 - PM 35 minutes easy

Edge of Area 51. Some icy patches on the trail but the recent spell of warmer weather is making a good dent on the small amount of snow on the ground. Some icy patches but even in the dark I was able to negotiate them without any drama. Once back on pavement and heading home I threw in some short pickups even though I had been feeling flat and sluggish all afternoon. The short length made them doable, I needed the turnover desperately. Took forever to get out the door, obscenely late start after spending far too long, again, lying around in bed after getting home from work. A symptom of not getting nearly enough sleep at night but what else is new.

Thu 1/28 - off

The hits keep coming, as this zero was thanks to the car dying while running errands on the way home from work. A scant 3.5 hours after the call for assistance was made I finally got the fucking thing to the local repair shop 2 miles away. In between were multiple attempts to jumpstart the piece of shit, each one with the same result. No nap this afternoon, because I had no chance, not that it meant I got to bed any earlier or slept any better than the usual. This week is a lost cause from the point of view of getting any training done, regrettably not the first time I've said that since coaching season ended in November. Not a great winter at all for my running, despite milder temps and generally more favorable conditions than I could have asked for.

Wed 1/27 - 50 minutes easy

Rockland Ave-Levittown-Summerhill. Like Monday, another trip into the city, plans made long ago that seemed a good idea at the time. Under some time pressure to get the run out of the way as a result. Not moving well at all really at any point, unsurprisingly.

Tue 1/26 - AM 55 minutes incl. mile, 400, 1200

Failure of an attempt at a track workout, mainly because I picked the wrong session for reasons of ego-driven insecurity. Got home extremely late last night after going to a concert in town with the CH, which was worth the duress. Took the day off from work today as a result, figuring I could sleep in a bit and get a workout done in the late morning at Harvard. In hindsight the choice of workout, a cruise mile followed by 3(3x400) shooting for 71-2 the first and last sets and 76-7 the middle set, was asking far too much given the late night and having raced less than 48 hours ago. One would think I would recognize this by now but no. Shooting for something in the 5:20-25 range for the mile, rolled through the first lap in just under 40 then dialed it back to 41 for each of the next three laps. Second half went in just under 2:40 for a 5:22 overall time that felt reasonably good. I should have done two more of these with some short sprints afterward, instead I tried running 400s at mile pace. Got through one in just over 72, feeling like I was right at the edge, then ran a float recovery for two laps in just under 93 seconds before trying a second. Pulled the plug after 100m of this as I could feel the fatigue accumulating far too rapidly. At this point I had to choose between bagging it entirely and going out for a long cooldown or trying to change things midstream. Of course I went for the greedy option and decided I would do 3x1200 since running full mile reps seemed a big ask after that one hard 400. Thought I could run around 3:55 for a 1200 with relatively short recovery and make it work. Instead I got stuck at 40 second laps and ended up at 4:01 feeling like gravity was increasing with every lap. While not sick like last year at this time, I wonder if this current fog/malaise is any better as it feels roundly unsatisfying. Haven't felt like anything other than a tired ass piece of dog crap for months, mainly because I'm continually incapable of getting a decent night's rest. Same old garbage.

Mon 1/25 - off

Missed the narrow window of time I had to go running lying flat on my back in bed. Not exactly motivated after yesterday's stinker.

1/29/16

Sun 1/24 - PM 40 minutes incl. track mile

Disappointing performance that I had a feeling might be coming. Feeling tired from the moment I woke up, a feeling which stubbornly persisted of course throughout the morning and into the early afternoon when time came to get ready to race. Ingested as much caffeine as I thought prudent before and during the warmup, which was plenty thorough, to little avail. After perusing last year's results I thought the old fart mile would actually be a competitive race, unlike some prior editions. Instead it reverted to form, with the fastest folks deferring to the open race and leaving me to lead from the gun, unwillingly. Ran the first two laps on adrenaline and maybe the aforementioned caffeine, knowing full well I was straining too hard to hit 35 second laps. Tried to get into a more sustainable rhythm without cratering too badly, instead the pace dropped off the shelf after hitting the half in about 2:23 or so. Next quarter was in the 77 range, soon after that the 50+ guy who was using me as his personal pacer finally went by. I was hoping to latch onto him for the last 350m but he passed with sufficient speed and authority that I knew it was just a holding action. Picked it up somewhat at the bell simply due to smelling the barn door, as well as trying not to get caught by anyone else. Meanwhile I was lapping people left and right, something that didn't happen last year as they had two sections of masters. Cooldown went by the boards as it was already late for lunch and only getting later.

1/28/16

Sat 1/23 - PM 30 minutes treadmill

in fact just under 30 minutes, got to 4 miles and turned the thing off. Started at just over 6 mph and ended up at 10.3. The last few minutes I was working harder than I would have liked. Weather steadily degraded through the day until there was horizontally blowing snow by evening, which I wanted no part of. Got up earlier than the workaday norm with the idea of seeing five planets with the CH, but overcast skies put paid to that idea. Eventually went back to bed and wound up lounging around until far too late while not feeling that refreshed for it.

1/27/16

Fri 1/22 - PM 65 minutes easy

Rockland-Levittown-Summerhill-Tiger Drive. With a few attempts at "pure speed" reps of 50m on the clear part of the track before heading in. Not sure how successful that was but worth the effort anyway, as turnover has been lacking otherwise. Not as cold as yesterday, mainly due to the lack of wind.

Thu 1/21 - PM 80 minutes easy

Longfellow loop with a visit to McMansionville with the CH. Relaxed effort but ruined somewhat by my underestimation of how cold it was and wrong glove choice. Turned into the wind the last 15 minutes which led to frozen fingers, uncomfortable enough that I picked up the pace to get it over with.

Wed 1/20 - PM 60 minutes incl. mile-1320-880-440

Cutdown session on the track, after actually warming up outside for once. Originally the plan was to take float recoveries of 5, 4, and 3 laps between the reps but after counting up all the laps that would entail I decided to cut the rest to 4-3-2 instead. Pace progressed in highly regular fashion, starting at 82 pace and dropping by 2 seconds roughly for each rep after that. Not that I planned it quite that way but it became clear that was how it would go by halfway through the 880. With the relatively quick recoveries the final rep, while not that impressive, certainly took some effort. Splits:

5:28.4 (3:03.5)
4:00.4 (2:16.0)
2:36.8 (92.9)
76.8 (49.0)


1/25/16

Tue 1/19 - off

Unable to muster any motivation to get out the door in miserably cold and windy conditions. Too tired, too flat after the past two days. First complete zero in a while, although there have been plenty of less than impressive days of late.

Mon 1/18 - AM 80 minutes easy

Area 51. Chose to brave the trails despite last night's snow, which was about three inches of the fluffy dry stuff. With the wind rising and blowing it around as well as the sun coming out, it got compacted some. Overall not perfect footing and not quite as easy an effort as the pace might have indicated but worth it to escape the roads for a day.

Sun 1/17 - double, 85 minutes total incl. 5x400, 4x400, 3x400, 2x400

AM - 35 minutes very easy jog around Maynard with the CH. A nice way to start the day.

PM - 50 minutes incl. 14x400 in four diminishing sets. Similar though not identical to a session done a year ago, with the requisite "new interval" twist in that the recoveries within each set were floats not jogs, a lap for the first two sets, two laps for the third set. For the final pair I chickened out and did an easy jog 90 seconds instead. 3.5 minutes recovery between sets. Hoping to start at 10k pace, then 5k, then 3k, finally mile pace. Overall I'm pleased with how it all went, although it would have been nice to do a final separate repeat by itself to make it 15 total. Time was running short and I could feel myself tapping the bottom of the well by that point. Splits:

83.4 (47.6) 81.4 (47.2) 80.9 (46.8) 82.3 (47.2) 82.6 (46.1)

79.8 (45.7) 77.3 (46.9) 77.8 (46.8) 77.9 (46.6)

73.8 (93.9) 74.3 (95.0) 76.3 (96.1)

70.4 (1.5R) 69.6