Sun 2/7 - AM 80 minutes easy

Levittown with the CH for the first 50 minutes or so, then another half hour tacked on to Greenwood/Turner/Old Marlboro before heading back via Tiger Drive. The twist today was that I did the run with 30 second walk breaks every 2 minutes. A long time since I've done this particular Van Aaken twist on a recovery run but it seemed like the thing to do. While the pace picked up some for the final part of the run I did on my own, at no point could it be considered fast. As such didn't feel like I did any further damage to the calf, although it's stiff from last night of course.

Sat 2/6 - 70 minutes incl. track 5k

Not at all triumphant return to racing 5k indoors. Didn't realize the possibility existed of doing this event today until quite recently. With hopes of racing in the old fart olympics next weekend having faded to nothing I figured what the hell. In my mind the 5k from a month ago wasn't truly a race but rather a high-end aerobic workout. Wore road flats that day and tried (unsuccessfully) to progress the pace from one km to the next. This was meant to be a full-on effort, spiked up and hitting the edge of fitness from the get-go which I judged to be 39 sec/lap. Found out to my chagrin that my fitness level was in fact at 40 sec/lap which is roundly unsatisfying when compared to both results of the not so distant past and even last month's glorified tempo. The meet as a whole was massively behind schedule but this had no effect on my performance, in fact it gave me more time to both digest lunch and warm up for the race. Had to hold back the first km, which went too fast anyway, then hit the unsustainable 39 groove for the next five laps. By just before halfway I no longer had anyone to race with and was time-trialing. It became readily apparent that the pace was slipping and I was powerless to do anything about it. In fact, every lap leading up to halfway was under 40 and every one after that slower than 40 which is as clear and obvious a dividing line as one could ask for. Having someone to race with the second half might have been worth a few seconds, five at most. Not that it matters, just not fit for this distance.

Adding injury to insult, the right calf started twinging to an alarming degree starting right at 4k, to the point that I considered dropping out. I had noticed some stiffness on the warmup and thought little of it. In hindsight, a slip I took while checking the depth of snow outside the kitchen door yesterday was the culprit, as the calf hasn't been bothering me like this at all this year. Stubborn ass that I am I pressed on, hopefully not doing any lasting damage. While I wasn't DFL, I was lapped once by every single person that finished ahead of me, twice by more than a few, and three times by the winner. A pity clap would have been appropriate, better yet the Sandman from the Apollo with his broom.

Splits, thanks to the CH whose attention was as ever unflagging and much appreciated:

38.5/38.3/38.9/38.7/39.1 - 3:13.5
38.6/39.1/39.0/39.2/39.2 - 3:15.1
39.3/39.3/39.8/40.3/40.5 - 3:19.2
40.6/40.3/41.0/41.1/41.1 - 3:24.1
41.2/41.3/41.6/42.2/41.2 - 3:27.5

Fri 2/5 - off

The day began with a call from the big boss informing us that school was out. It didn't seem that bad outside but I was feeling unmistakably tired and needed little excuse to go back to bed. In hindsight it was the right call as the weather went downhill fast and the ride home would have been a horror show. The unexpectedly intense snow, of the heavy wet variety, led to three rounds of shoveling. After the last one I knew that would constitute the day's exercise, with roads in terrible shape and the treadmill not exactly beckoning.

Thu 2/4 - PM 50 minutes very easy

Puttering back and forth, and back, and forth around Maynard with many stops. The bill came due from the past two days for sure. Taking a long time to get out the door lately.

Wed 2/3 - PM 75 minutes

Area 51. Started relatively slowly but picked it up in the final half hour or so of the run, to an extent I wasn't expecting. This may have been due in part to a desire to get out of the weather as I timed the run perfectly to coincide with two separate waves of passing rain showers. Temps unusually warm for this time of year but not warm enough to make a driving rain enjoyable.