Sun 5/15 - double, 45 minutes incl. 5k road race plus 45 minutes elliptigo

AM - 45 minutes incl. 5k road race. Got to bed far too late after a busy day and evening yesterday and felt it upon waking up. This was the least of my concerns however as yesterday's gusty breezes became a steady, punishing westerly wind overnight and made for particularly loathsome racing conditions. Spent the first half of the race getting blasted in the face by it, which I suppose is better than having this happen in the second half but still. To top it all off, I misjudged the competition and found myself in front of people I should have been tucked behind for that headwind-plagued first half. Those two patiently waited for me to sputter out and then passed and pulled away despite my best efforts to latch on. I may not have been able to beat either of them regardless of strategy but certainly did myself no favors running alone and getting blasted for a mile and a half. Overdid it for sure yesterday but that was compounded by the late bedtime and lack of sleep overall.

PM - 45 minutes elliptigo. Not as fast paced as yesterday's ride and with many stops as well. Tried unsuccessfully to take a nap after getting home from the race thanks to caffeine. Still despicably windy, bundled up to a ridiculous degree for this time of year.

Sat 5/14 - AM 40 minutes short intervals plus 65 minutes elliptigo

Rode over to Emerson field, disembarked for short intervals a la Igloi (the new training toy), then back on the dork bike to head back via rts. 126 and 117. Intervals were short sets with short rest, untimed and done on effort, slower medium faster or in the terminology "fresh" "good" and "hard." Mostly in the fresh/slower category though. Started and ended with 10x100 with 100 jog then 150 buildups with 50m walk then 4x300 progressing through all three levels of exertion. Interesting experience and one that bears repeating if not every day the way they used to do it in the 50s and 60s. Warm to the point of being hot for a change.

Fri 5/13 - off

Another unintentional zero. Simply too tired to get out the door upon getting home from work, and pressed for time as it is.

Thu 5/12 - 1:40 elliptigo

File under better late than never. A year ago I had been riding the thing for almost a month by this point but consistently gloomy conditions (esp. last week) made riding the dork bike an impossibility. Looking to tackle some hills and ended up in Littleton via Nagog Hill Road to Goldsmith. Eventually got my fill of climbing, finished off with much flatter riding in Stow to get back home. Delightfully warm conditions at long last.

Wed 5/11 - PM 80 minutes very easy

Lincoln woods. Easy putter after yesterday's workout. Legs took a while to feel less than really stiff.

Tue 5/10 - AM 70 minutes incl. 2x1600, 2x1200, 4x400

Day off from work meant I could sleep in a bit and still get out the door before lunchtime for a track session. Sunny and warmer finally but still the wind of course, although it has been worse lately. Original plan was to stepping down pairs of reps starting at 4 laps to 3 then 2 then 1, but it became abundantly clear after the second 1200 that attempting an 800 at any faster a pace would be inadvisable so I skipped directly to 400s and doubled the number of them instead. Recovery was 800 meters after each 1600, 600 meters after each 1200, and 400m after each 400. The numbers tell the not totally surprising tale:

5:34.7 (3:22.7)
5:34.3 (3:33.0)
4:01.8 (2:34.5)
4:03.1 (2:50.4)
76.6 (1:47.3)
77.2 (1:47.7)
77.2 (1:51.0)
76.5

I wish I could call the recoveries floats but they were too slow for that, and the discrepancy between the first and second interval for each of the longer rep pairs suggests I bit off more than I could chew. Of course not being able to progress to 800s as originally planned is suggestive of that as well. Did my best to negative split most of the reps, if only a little in some cases. With the recoveries it was 28 laps of running at an average of just a shade over 90 seconds per lap, which felt like an accomplishment in itself.