6/6/17

Week of 6/5-6/11

Mon 6/5 - PM 60 minutes very easy, 62 to Knox trail and then some bushwhacking around the former Grace (now Superfund) site before heading back home via Parker. Much more dinged up from yesterday's run than I would have liked or expected, although at least not in the right calf. Left piriformis and high hamstring a stiff mess, decreased range of motion and puttering the only option available. Also feeling quite pooped after staying up too late last night, all told made for a shambling slow putter. Another late start and more hideous conditions, ill wind blowing and drizzly at best.

Tue 6/6 - PM 55 minutes easy. More slow jogging on stiff legs. Another late start after another nap that dragged on way too long. Without doubt the worst weather day I can remember for this time of year. Continued gloom with rain and an ill wind blowing all day. Temperature topped out at 50 degrees. Gross. 

Wed 6/7 - PM 60 minutes easy. Flat and listless as per usual, incapable of putting forth any kind of hard effort as I'd originally planned for today. Left leg made it a moot point anyway as the hamstring remains stuck. Weather finally improved somewhat.

Thu 6/8 - AM 25 minutes very easy, shakeout with various stops. Finally some sun. No work today and able to keep from sleeping in until all hours. Worked on left leg after the run, rolled out some of the kinks in the piriformis.

PM 65 minutes, Lincoln woods incl. 4 laps around the field with 90 second recoveries. Splits of 3:37, 3:38, 3:32 and 3:35 alternating direction each time. I would have liked to do a couple more but got started too late and as it was, finished in the gathering darkness. Better than nothing.

Fri 6/9 - PM 45 minutes easy, Area 51. Took forever to get out the door, back to work and back to the pernicious death spiral I've been in all week since having such difficulty getting to sleep Sunday night. Get home from work, sleep for 2+ hours, feel groggy and listless running, go to bed late, struggle to sleep well, rinse, repeat.

Sat 6/10 - AM 50 minutes incl. 5k on Spectacle Island. One of my most lackluster efforts at this event, garbage in gets garbage out. Staying up way too late last night was the cherry on the sundae and left me completely unable to access whatever meager fitness I currently have. Packed it in on the second of two loops around the island, particularly in the last half mile. However I thought with the faster early pace the overall time would be at least a bit quicker than last year when the race was run in gale-force winds. Instead it was about the same which was depressing. Calf also feeling tight and sore after wearing the wrong shoes. Planned on a longer cooldown but couldn't muster the interest or energy for it. Hot morning with barely a breeze to cool us off until well after the race was done.

Sun 6/11 - AM Elliptigo arc approx. 90 minutes, run 30 minutes easy, aquajogging 20 minutes. Temps about 35 degrees warmer than earlier in the week. After originally planning to run in the woods I thought better of it and went for the first dorkathlon of the season instead. Tacked on some extra time to the trip over to Walden, with the elliptigo portion of the day serving as the aerobic heavy lifting. Pond was brisk bordering on frigid but just what was needed on gross conditions that I'm not the least bit acclimated for.

Week of 5/29-6/4

Mon 5/29 - PM 30 minutes elliptigo trainer with 8x1 minute pickups. The entire day off and this is all I could come up with, with a very late start to boot. Waste of a day, with more shitty conditions outside to boot.

Tue 5/30 - PM 55 minutes incl. 2 sets of 100-200-300-400-300-200-100 on the track. Recovery jog equal to the distance just run. First track workout in a good long while, too soon probably to be doing such a thing but I was in need of a test to see if the calf could hold up to any kind of speed. "Speed" being a relative term as the splits were nothing to write home about, all hovering around 5 minute pace. Confirmation of just how unfit I've become doing little besides jogging slowly the past 8 weeks thanks to the calf. The calf did seem to hold up all right, the CH's wooden neck/spine roller seems to be doing the trick as a massage tool for getting direct pressure on it. Another super late start like yesterday, not a great re-entry to the work routine in fact after the holiday weekend.

Wed 5/31 - PM 40 minutes easy. Calf a bit tweaked from yesterday but more rolling on it afterward was helpful. Some break to the gloomy overcast garbage weather of late.

Thu 6/1 - PM 55 minutes incl. track mile. Terrible performance, not that I should have expected anything different. Calf held up fine which is the only positive, although I was understandably nervous about it and eschewed wearing spikes as a result. Totally flat and listless while warming up, something I wasn't counting on and which carried right over into the race itself. Combined with the lack of fitness and sharpness and the garbage time was inevitable. Laps of 73/78/79/77 for a time as slow as I've run since 9th grade.

Fri 6/2 - PM 45 minutes incl. track DNF. Knew this was a terrible idea but went through the motions anyway. Two track races scheduled on consecutive days would have been a tough ask were I at all fit and close to 100% health, in my current compromised condition it was nothing doing. Further compounding matters was the fact that an already thin field was missing the guy I was counting on to run as slowly as me. Made for a lonely and pointless exercise in being the caboose and as such stopped at 500m. On the plus side I did get to watch the meet without paying for a ticket, a chief motivating factor. I also feel like the worst of the recent bout of calf issues is over, have to wonder how much quicker I could have put it behind me with earlier use of the wooden roller.

Sat 6/3 - AM 45 minutes very easy. Back and forth with lots of stops. A good scrounging run and little else. Dead tired.

Sun 6/4 - PM 95 minutes, Lincoln. After yesterday's lighter than expected day I had more in the tank for today, moving at a decent clip pretty much from the outset. Looped down to CCHS back to the field next to Mt. Misery in about 50 minutes. Proceeded to run 8 laps of the field loop in 32:30, with relatively consistent lap splits of around 4:03-4:05 until the last one which was under 4 minutes. Told myself this was an uptempo long run but it was more like a tempo run period in my current dull fitness state. Put off the run to late afternoon in order to yard work in the morning, in so doing able to avoid running in the sunnier hotter time of day.

Week of 5/22-5/28

Mon 5/22 - Off. Not planned, way too tired upon getting home from work. Also awful weather.

Tue 5/23 - PM 70 minutes very easy, Lincoln woods. Calf is a wreck, Sunday's effort left much more of a mark than I was expecting. Ugh.

Wed 5/24 -  PM 65 minutes easy, Maynard. Many stops. Calf somewhat better than yesterday but still a mess. Reduced to easy jogging, again.

Thu 5/25 - AM 40 minutes easy with many stops PM 45 minutes easy. Half day at work.

Fri 5/26 - PM 50 minutes easy. The old "took forever to get out the door" routine.

Sat 5/27 - AM 80 minutes easy, Area 51.

Sun 5/28 - Off. Again, not planned. Had a narrow window of time to get in a run and no energy in which to pull it off.