Week 7: February 17-23
Monday: BOMF 9.3 miles in 80 minutes
Tuesday: 5k in 28 minutes on treadmill
Wednesday: 6 Easy in 48 minutes, Yoga
Thursday: SEAC Speed 11.84 miles in 90 minutes
Friday: Off/Rest
Saturday: 5.44 miles in 45 minutes
Sunday: 8 miles in 70 minutes
Total Mileage: 43.3
Couple bumps in the training road, Tuesday I planned on getting to Speed Central but the weather was absolute garbage so I ran on the treadmill for the first and hopefully the last time in 2020. SEAC Speed we went to the common and did some hill work and tempo loops on the triangle. With Monday and Thursday being higher mileage days, I was still able to log 43 for the week despite a long weekend in North Carolina that limited my time for running. Well worth it though as we had a great time seeing the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill/Carrboro area and sampling a lot of delicious restaurants and breweries. Walker gave me a nice running tour of UNC Chapel Hill on Saturday and Sunday I explored the Carolina North Forest which had a ton of awesome single-track trails. Not the volume I was hoping for but the reality of a 28-week training block is that there will be weeks when running is not priority number one.
Week 8: February 24-March 1
Monday: 6.1 easy in 49 minutes
Tuesday: 9.65 total in 77 minutes
Wednesday: AM 4 miles in 41 minutes, Yoga, PM 7 miles in 60 minutes
Thursday: SEAC Speed 12.5 in 90 minutes
Friday: 2.3 mile XC Ski in 44 minutes
Saturday: AM 2.1 XC ski in 39 minutes, PM 3.7 mile ski in 74 minutes
Sunday: 2.35 ski in 48 minutes
Total Mileage: 40 miles running, 10.5 XC skiing
Welp, another week that was lower running volume and I am very okay with it. Monday, I skipped BOMF due to getting in late from NC Sunday night and I got in 6 easy miles to shake out the long weekend of eating, drinking and traveling. Tuesday, I went to the Reggie for a great workout with better people. The workout was 16 X 400 and I felt pretty strong and smooth on just about all of them. This was broken up into sets of 4 (10k, 10k, 5k, mile) and without looking at my watch at all, the effort felt right on all of them. I pushed it a bit on the last set and other than being outkicked by Mick, I had a real strong last 400. Oh and I also faceplanted during the warmup laps around the outside of the track in what would appear to be a very flat section.. low moment of the day. Wednesday, I took Sadie (Our friends Sabrina and Mitch’s dog) on a nice run in the Fells, we got a bit lost and ended up around 4 miles. Running with a dog who is off leash will certainly give perspective on what it means to run with joy. Sadie is a pleasure to run with as she is very obedient and always stays within sight. She loves chasing squirrels but lucky for the squirrels she did not manage to catch any today. In the afternoon I joined Chris Knighton and his pack of Lions for a run in Allston/Brighton area that started and finished at a nice brewery/restaurant called Brato. Good to meet some new people and chat with some familiar faces, plus I will run many miles to try a vegan grilled cheese, would recommend. Thursday it was back to the South End for SEAC, we did tempo loop around the perimeter of the common, 4 X 30 sec hills, tempo loop around the common and 4 X 30 sec hills to finish off. Got some bonus mileage in with Erik along the river afterwards and finished with about 12.5 miles on the day. Friday through Sunday we were out in the Adirondacks with a bunch of Nicole’s classmates and friends. I took the weekend off from running and did 4 cross country ski treks ranging from 40-80 minutes. I would have liked to have gotten one longer effort of around 2 hours in but it is what it is, we spent a lot of time relaxing inside by the fire, making music, playing games and having a grand old time. Great weekend with an awesome group of people in snowy NY State. I did manage to stream the Olympic Trials Marathon on Sunday. Did not see Johnny or Jordan on TV but did get to watch a fascinating race unfold that ended with some huge surprises. Jacob Riley came in second for the men which not many people saw coming and truly when he first came into the screen I thought he was a 45 year old man with a beer gut.. I was very impressed with Jim Walmsley though he did not factor into the race too much he hung with the lead pack for a long time and finished in 2:15 on a tough course on a really tough day. For a gu
y that specializes in the 100-mile distance to prove he could be a 2:10-2:12 guy on a fast course on a good day, pretty remarkable range. On the women’s side it was great to see Aliphine Tuliamuk get the win, not many people would have predicted that and maybe even cooler was to see Molly Seidel take second in her first marathon!! Mind blown.
Week 9: March 2-8
Monday: BOMF 9.33 miles in 80 minutes
Tuesday: 4 miles in 46 minutes
Wednesday: 7 miles in 59 minutes, Yoga
Thursday: SEAC Speed 12.65 miles in 96 minutes
Friday: Off/Rest/Rock climb
Saturday: 20-mile HB long run in 2 hours 20 minutes
Sunday: 12.3 miles in 1 hour 42 minutes
Total Mileage: 65.4
Back to the 7-day grind for a week, mileage was back to where I want it to be. Got in some good mileage at BOMF on Monday. Tuesday, I took it easy and joined Nicole for her PT prescribed run/walk. We did 3 X 5 minutes walking, 10 minutes running on a really nice evening. Last summer was the last time we ran together and on a 4-mile loop she had to stop at mile 3 because of excruciating pain in her knee. After a lot of PT and diligent strength training exercises it was really nice to be able to finish this one with her feeling strong. Wednesday, I hit the museum of science loop for an easy stroll. Thursday was SEAC Speed at the common, we did a really tough workout and I was VERY happy with how I did in this one. We did a 20 min tempo on the triangle loop, this felt really long but I kept it steady for the first 12-15 and then finished strong in the last few minutes. Then we did a tempo loop around the outside of the common which is about a mile, Coach Dan let me take the lead up the hill and the first downhill before taking me to school in the back half of the loop, clearly not his first tempo loop on the common! Did a nice cool down along the river with Erik, we exchanged podcast recommendations and had good conversation. Friday, I took a much needed off day and did a little rock climbing at BKB which was a great change of pace. Saturday, I joined a ton of other heartbreakers for a long group run at the Newton store. I linked up with Erik for 20 miles, we ran a bit with Johnny at the beginning and heard all about his experience at the Olympic Trials. We joined Hilbert for about 10 miles from Newton along the course into Boston and turned back just before the finish line. Erik wanted to do a progression run so we pushed it a bit on the way back but truly we went out too hot for much of a progression, this whole run was FAST. By the end of the 20 miles my clock said 2:20 and right around 7:00 pace, the fastest 20 miler I have ever done outside of a marathon. Not the speed I am used to on my long runs of late, but was happy to join Erik for a really awesome workout that I am sure he will draw a lot of confidence from in his last few weeks before Boston. Sunday, I went up to fresh pond and looped my way around until I knew I would hit the 12 miles I had pegged for the day. The best thing about running at fresh pond is the dogs, so many happy dogs of all shapes, size and breeds, really great for morale.