Week of 11/27-12/3

Mon 11/27 - PM 50 minutes easy. Back and forth a couple of times on a scrounging expedition.

Tue 11/28 - PM 65 minutes easy, Levittown. All over and back and forth on a fairly epic scrounging run. Pace remained mostly low key throughout.

Wed 11/29 - PM 55 minutes incl. 3 (400-300-200-100). 300-200-100 recoveries to make each full set the even four laps around, with ten minutes between the start of each consecutive set. Revisiting the same workout from six weeks ago. At that time it was a somewhat terrifying plunge into the unknown after many months of not doing anything at a higher speed on the track. The numbers were encouraging overall and showed some signs of progress in fitness which is always nice to see. Still lacking in anything approximating a top end of turnover. While chilly, the lack of wind helped make things go smoothly as well. Splits:

74.3 (82.9) 57.6 (58.0) 37.5 (29.2) 18.6 - 5:58.1
75.5 (84.6) 55.9 (60.0) 36.8 (30.5) 18.3 - 6:01.6
73.2 (84.1) 55.8 (58.5) 36.8 (28.7) 18.3 - 5:55.4

Thu 11/30 - PM hamstring and piriformis are sore from yesterday, as I knew they would be.

Fri 12/1 - PM 45 minutes easy, Area 51. Later start than I would have liked. Hammie/glute feeling somewhat better than yesterday. Something of a tummyache.

Sat 12/2 - AM 65 minutes incl. 5k road race. Final sandbagging expedition of 2017, and successful if not particularly impressive. Which describes most of my road racing for the year in fact. Tummyache from last night turned into stomach issues this morning with multiple visits to the toilet before the race started. Course included one rather steep hill a little after the 400m mark, then flattened out until the mile mark when it went down the other side and back along mostly flat terrain with a bit of a gentle incline in the third mile. My place in the standings was secured by about the 3 minute mark and after that it was hard to resist the temptation to put it on autopilot the rest of the way even though I had wanted to get a fitness check out of this effort. The course didn't really lend itself to that however. Cold but thankfully not too windy. Wandering cooldown around downtown Clinton.

Sun 12/3 - AM 65 minutes incl. 15k threshold effort. The hair of the dog for sure and the last thing I needed after yesterday's effort and feeling under-rested the past few days. Agreed to fill on on a leg of this road relay as a favor and was told I could go as easily as I wanted but unable to contain the competitive juices and went at a controlled but still to hard clip from the get-go. Didn't see a mile marker until mile 3, from there I was fairly consistent in hitting around 6:30 but it sure felt a lot harder than that. Realized by halfway that I had bitten off more than I could chew but soldiered on despite there being no reason for it. Except to get off the graceless stretch of road where the race was being held. Fully exhausted by the time I got home. Long weekend.