Week of 5/14-5/20

Mon 5/14 - PM 60 minutes easy, Brookline/Boston. A good chunk along the river path and back through Allston. Not feeling terribly energetic. Sunny and quite warm compared to what we've endured most of this spring.

Tue 5/15 - PM 45 minutes easy. Late start after waiting out the thunder and lightning that swept through late in the afternoon into the early evening hours. Dropped the temperature about 20 degrees and made for somewhat clammy conditions.

Wed 5/16 - PM 45 minutes incl. 3(3x300). 1R between reps and 4.5-5R between sets. First set supposed to be 3k pace, then mile pace for the second set, and finally at least that quick for the final set. Plateaued on the last set which I could feel coming, a bit ambitous at the start and overbaked the third and fifth repeats. Average HR not dropping much if at all by the third set. Still, this session went a bit better than many previous ones recently. Splits:

57.1(152) - 1R(148) - 56.8(155) - 1R(147) - 55.8(156) - 5R(129)
54.1(156) - 1R(152) - 53.8(159) - 1R(154) - 54.5(161) - 4.5R(132)
53.8(156) - 1R(156) - 53.9(160) - 1R(156) - 54.2(163)  max. 174

Thu 5/17 - PM 70 minutes, Lincoln woods. Took a while to get out on the trail, slow start with some stiffness from yesterday but eventually felt decent enough.

Fri 5/18 - PM 45 minutes easy, rail trail to S. Acton and back. Not terribly motivated to run this evening.

Sat 5/19 - AM 75 minutes easy, if not very easy. Rail trail to S. Acton and then on to Lower Village via Liberty/Red Acre, back via Pompositicut/Summer Street. Longer than I probably should have gone, although took it easy throughout. Mugginess has rolled in and rain started just as I was wrapping things up.

Sun 5/20 - AM 90 minutes incl. half marathon. Uninspired effort on maybe 3.5 hours sleep. My pipe dream goal of running something close to 6 minute pace went by the boards after the first 3 miles. From there after shedding my annual nemesis/barnicle who glued himself to my back from mile 1 to a bit after mile 3 the focus was on winning the old fart prize. Even that wasn't to be as I was stalked and taken down soon after the 8 mile mark and left to spend the last third of the race in full on get it over with mode. Surprised that the last 3 miles went in under 21 minutes, it was that bad. A good 8 minutes slower overall than my first try at this course four years ago. As an added bonus developed a serious hot spot on the bottom of my right foot, similar to every time I try to run a long hard effort it seems. Rain came just after I finished which would have been nice during the race but what can you do. The true punch in the nuts came when I realized that the generous prize structure of the past had been yanked by the race director. Which means I spent five hours driving and ran a hard 13 miles for nothing. On the bright side, I won't ever have to bother with this event again. With the carrot of the prize money it was worth the trip but otherwise something of a chore. Never again will I have to run around the depressingly decrepit Berkshire Mall parking lot so there's that. Splits:
5:59 (big mistake)
6:20
6:01
6:20
6:17
6:24
6:30
6:21
6:35
6:51
6:38
6:32
7:02