Week in Review

90 miles
3 doubles
2 days in DC
3 medium-long runs (15, 14+, 13+)
6x10 mins. core

This week was bookended by several long-ish runs, beginning with a solid 15-miler in DC and culminating with a 1-2 medium-long punch over the weekend. On Saturday, Jordan and I joined our boss, who's training for his first marathon, for one of his early long runs. Despite plenty of hills and wind, he cruised at an 8-minute pace average for over 14 miles (during which I managed to injure myself while vacating a port-a-potty, but that's neither here nor there) and even saved enough energy to make us breakfast and cappuccinos afterward. On Sunday, we joined Emily, Jenn and Justin for another solid effort out at the Battle Road trails. The good news is the snow was almost entirely melted and the trails were quite clear. Unfortunately, we discovered the bad news halfway through the run--one big, open, low-lying section called the Great Meadow was more or less completely flooded. I immediately suggested we turn around, but once Jordan tromped through the first ankle-deep puddle the size of a long jump pit we all reluctantly followed. We finished the run looking like we'd survived one of those extreme obstacle races instead of just an easy 90 minutes, but even I had to admit the adventure was a lot of fun.

Showing Dad the "secret" monument on Teddy's Island

 

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Week in Review, or "That Time I Ate a Donut in the Middle of a Long Run"

85 miles
3 doubles
3 runs in Boston
3 runs with Emily

This post could've just as easily been titled "That Time I Ran 386 Laps Around the Harvard Parking Lot with the BAA," or "That Time Emily and I Found Out We Aren't As Out of Shape as We Thought." All three of these monikers are equally accurate, and all three effectively comprise the main takeaways from this week's key runs:

Sunday morning: 15-15.5 miles easy on the Boston Marathon course from Cleveland Circle with the BAA ladies (plus Jordan). About an hour into the run, the group had splintered into a handful of different groups, leaving Jordan and Emily and I standing in front of a Dunkin' Donuts somewhere in Newton. What can I say? Nature took its course, and the next thing I know the three of us were passing around a dense, gooey, double chocolatey frostedy donut while still running. It may have gotten a little messy, but no worse than when I clumsily try to rip open a gel packet during a race (and far tastier). Heartbreak Hill didn't stand a chance thanks to the ensuing sugar rush.

Saturday morning: ~13 mile progression run with a huge BAA crew around...the Harvard parking lot. Or, technically, the "Sheatock loop," so named for (or by, or both) the BAA's fearless leaders Carly and Terry. Given that the river path wasn't remotely frozen I'm still unclear as to why we insisted on spinning like an army of deranged hamsters around a 1200-meter loop, but at any rate the company was worth it.

Wednesday night:   
2 mile w/u
Target: 6x1000 w/1:30 jog @3:35 (5:45/mile pace); 4x500 @faster w/1:30 jog
Actual: 6x1000 @3:33, 3:31, 3:25, 3:26, 3:24, 3:21; 4x500 @1:39, 1:41, 1:38, 1:39
1.5 mile c/d
Total: 8.5 miles

Jordan pulled Emily and I through this workout on the Sheatock loop, and I think it's safe to say all of us were pleasantly surprised at how well it went considering we were basically dodging cars in the dark in the middle of a glorified parking lot. Excluding a baby fartlek last week I haven't worked out in over a month, and as per usual Emily claimed to be "terribly out of shape" after an extended trip home for the holidays. Fortunately we were able to average 5:30-5:40 pace on the 1000's with relative ease; only when I transitioned into the 500's at the end did I feel the telltale ragged breathing and burning legs that signify a dip into uncomfortably difficult territory. During one of our recovery jogs, Emily made me vow to hold her accountable and guilt her into working out for the remainder of the winter. It's always worth it once we're out here, she added. Tonight was a great start.     

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Week in Review

32 miles
3 days off
14 miles at Battle Road
1 AFD (new record!)

Autumn at Battle Road

I probably shouldn't have run 14 miles today, but there was great company (Jordan, Terry, Jenn and a BAA crew) and a great venue (the always pleasing Battle Road) and, well, the loop is 14 miles. I could've turned around by myself at the five-mile mark before the Great Meadow section, but what's the fun in that? However, by the final 30 minutes my legs were screaming righteous indignation and my hamstrings felt tighter than at any point during last Sunday's marathon. I need a day off and a massage, both of which are in the plan for tomorrow. And hey, if these are my biggest gripes one week removed from Philly, I can't really complain.

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Second Verse, Same As the First

2 mile w/u
Target: 5.5 miles @6:00-5:55 pace; 6 min. jog/rest; 5.5 miles @5:55-5:50 pace
Actual: 5.5 miles @32:30ish; 6 min. jog/rest; 2.5 miles @14:40ish
3+ mile c/d
Total: 14 miles

Two weekends ago, fresh off an extended trip to the left coast and a restless redeye flight, I dragged Jordan down to the Charles to join Jenn, Emily and some BAA dudes for what was intended to be a 12-mile tempo effort. Due to my general state of exhaustion and a gravely necessary bathroom break, that workout ended up morphing into something slightly less intense and significantly less impressive. This morning, with Jenn already planning to maintain a faster pace (5:50 was advertised as opposed to 6:00 like the previous run), I knew that even without a built-in jet lag excuse I wouldn't be able to hang on for 12 miles faster than my half-marathon PR. Instead, I planned to stop at essentially the same location where I made my bathroom detour last time, as this was almost exactly at 5.5 miles and would thus allow for a delightfully long recovery segment before the group turned around and caught back up with me. Hopefully by that time I'd feel refreshed enough to tuck in and tough it out for the remainder of the workout.

Within a few minutes of starting the warmup, however, I could tell the conditions would be adversarial. Unlike the cool, calm, overcast morning that greeted us several weekends ago, today the already-prominent sun radiated a dense, sticky heat. A warm wind whipped off the water, making it immediately obvious that we'd have to battle its gusts for several miles of both halves of the u-shaped run route. Don't get me wrong; things could've been much worse. In fact, for any purpose other than attempting a hard workout it was by all measures a beautiful morning. But these were hardly the weather conditions I'd pick to race a half-marathon, which is essentially what we'd be doing. 

As 8:00 approached, so did a trickle of runners to our meeting point from virtually every direction. By go time there were almost a dozen of us, mostly the usual suspects and including our favorite baby daddy Terry Shea. On his suggestion, I joined him and Emily for a 15-second head start on the group. Quite simply, neither she nor I wanted (or really needed) to hit 5:50 pace right out of the gate on a run of this length, especially since she was contemplating extending even farther beyond 12 miles. Instead Terry led us out in a calm, comfortable 6:05-6:10 (not sure the exact split as I intentionally avoided glancing at my watch) at which point we were absorbed by the chase group as planned. From that point onward I focused on settling in and locking my eyes on Jordan's back just as I've done countless times before. Jenn was situated at my left and seemed quite comfortable, but I could hear Emily breathing harder than normal just behind me. It clearly wasn't a fitness issue, seeing as she crushed me in the original workout two weeks ago, but for whatever reason I could tell that she was struggling to find her rhythm. The miles clicked by, and before I knew it we rounded the bridge that signaled the approach of the 5.5 marker. I slowed and trotted to the side as planned and was not entirely surprised when Em did the same. It wasn't her day and she knew it, so rather than force the issue she was content to jog with me for a few minutes and then shut things down. Emily is smarter about listening to her body than almost any runner I know, so I didn't question her decision. (Though I would definitely miss her company on the second half!) 

I shuffled along for a few more minutes until I could see the group approaching in the distance. At that point it was time for me to refocus and, unlike in the first segment, commit to pushing past my comfort zone. My breathing to that point had been surprisingly calm and relaxed but my legs were heavy. (As well they should have been, as I'd already logged over 90 miles since Monday.) I felt sure of my ability to lock into 6-minute pace or even 5:55, but if Jordan stepped on the gas like last time I'd be toast. Steady as clockwork, the group materialized around the bend behind me and I seamlessly fell in line. This time it was Jenn whose breathing sounded increasingly ragged, and every step we took into the wind seemed to sap a bit more of her strength. I, too, began to fall off the boys but was still maintaining some semblance of the intended pace, so when Jenn and a few others decided to stop at eight miles I continued onward for a few more uncomfortable minutes. I tried to stay focused on the backs of the guys in front of me (even as those backs grew increasingly more distant), but after one more mile I knew I was almost in the red. The heat, the wind, the dead legs--it was all too much to allow me to finish the entire distance feeling as strong and confident as I'd hoped. Instead I waited for Jenn to approach so we could commiserate and cool down side by side. It wasn't our best workout ever, but that certainly doesn't discount the effort or the fitness gains attained.

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Charles River Tempo

~3k w/u
Target: 12 miles @6:00 pace
Actual: 5.5 miles @6:00 pace; 5 min. bathroom/jog break; 2.5 miles @6-5:45 pace; 3 mile c/d
Total: 13-14 miles

Despite being fewer than 24 hours removed from a busy week on the west coast and a redeye flight (all of which I will recap in my "Week in Review" if you can stand the suspense until then), I was excited to get up early and head into the city for this run. The air was cool, the group promised to bring a positive vibe, and I would finally be reunited with Emily after a summer apart. Never mind the fact that this would be my longest tempo run attempt in many months by a healthy margin; I was game to fall in with the group and hang on for as long as I could. That said, as we drove toward the Charles and discussed the week's training, Jordan was insistent that I not "go to the well" in this effort. In addition to my general state of fatigue, I'd also run 90 minutes/13+ miles uptempo on Friday morning in Vancouver's Stanley Park and I was wear testing a brand new pair of pre-production lightweight trainers for Karhu R&D. In other words, all signs pointed to me not feeling fantastic.

And yet, from the outset, I did. I fell comfortably in line behind two male BAA runners, then Jordan, then Emily and Jenn Donovan. My breathing was comfortably even and my stride felt smooth and relaxed. We were tracing the "fast" tempo route, a new (to me) section along the Charles that felt more conducive to finding a rhythm to the 4.25 mile route I've always run with the group. I intentionally didn't look at my watch or try to deduce splits, as I wanted to neither feel emboldened nor intimidated by the numbers displayed there. I was simply along for the ride, feeling out my alleged fall marathon pace. All was going well until just past five miles when I felt some rumbling down below. No sooner did I begin to despair than we (literally and figuratively) turned a corner and I spotted a Dunkin Donuts tucked in a strip center across the street. Proving myself to still be worthy of the "Green Lightning" moniker, I stealthily slipped off the back of the group, darted across the four-lane road and into DD, took care of business, and was outside casually jogging toward the group by the time they reappeared from the opposite direction after the six-mile turnaround. I hadn't intended the break, but once it happened I was hopeful I could keep up with the group until the end. That plan promptly went out the window when Jordan hit the front and the pace palpably dropped. In the span of a few minutes I went from completely at ease to decidedly out of my comfort zone--a telltale sign of my recent lack of workouts. Sure enough, after the next symphony of Garmin beeps I heard someone mutter "5:45," and that confirmed what was becoming increasingly obvious: it was time for me to shut things down. Meanwhile Jenn had already dropped back a bit but was still chugging along faster than 6-minute pace, and Emily was doggedly matching the guys step for step. Part of me yearned to keep pressing and see how much farther I could go, but I reluctantly yielded to the more mature, sensible part that knew I'd taken on enough for this particular day. I slowed to a stop, gathered my breath for a few seconds, then set off on a loping jog toward our start/finish spot. By the time I arrived everyone had scattered off in the directions from which they'd originally come, leaving only Emily, Jordan and I to set off on a half-hearted cooldown jog before deciding it would be much more fun to stop running and go get breakfast. So we did. And it was.

All in all, not a bad morning.

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Battle Road Long Run/Uptempo

Target: 15-16 miles w/60 mins. easy, then 5-6 miles uptempo cutting down to 6:10
Actual: 15 miles incl. 8.5-14 @6:25, 6:18, 5:56, 6:05, 6:02, 3:00 for 1/2
(1:32 for 14 + 10 mins. easy)

When I got the invite for this run from Jenn Donovan earlier this week, it sounded right up my alley. I love the shaded soft-surface trails at Battle Road and was eager to test my mileage-laden legs with some forced uptempo running. Even better, the morning dawned with the coolest and least humid weather we'd seen in weeks. Despite some residual fatigue from Thursday night's quicker-than-expected 5k, I was overly confident from the outset that this run would be great--and, surprisingly enough, that prediction actually came true! By 40 minutes in, our group was already clipping along at sub-7:00 pace, but once we crossed the one-hour threshold Jenn instantly kicked things into a different gear. I should've known that her conservative "working down to around 6:10 pace" prediction was too good to be true; after all, the weather was perfect and she just ran 34:30 for 10k on the roads. My legs were handling the pace shift just fine until the third mile, when things felt palpably more difficult. I was quickly getting discouraged until my new friend Kevin's Garmin beeped and he simply laughed instead of reading off a split. Clearly we were rolling. The mostly uphill fourth mile found me steadily slipping farther behind the group, my legs sinking and spinning into several especially loose sections of dirt, but I was proud of myself for staying mentally tough and focused on their backs long enough to regain contact at the top of the hill. As our parking lot came into view, Jenn and I realized that we'd be finishing up in between miles, but we were tired and satisfied enough at that point to be okay with it. Jordan, Kevin and Jenn's fiance Justin continued on for another hard mile, while she and I paused to catch our breath before finishing out with an easy 10 minutes.

Overall, I was quite pleased with today's run. Finishing hard on tired legs is exactly the organic sort of workout I need to begin gradually incorporating into my high mileage summer training. And if I can do it with good company on fantastic trails, then all the better!

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