overtaking haynes

4x5x400m @ 81s with 100m recovery between 400s and 400m recovery between sets.

First blog entry...I ran 14x200 today at ~32 seconds with my training partner Haynes. Sprinting is my least favorite workout as I used to only run trail races 25 miles and over. I'm going to attempt to break the 5 min mile this coming Wed, something I failed to come close to doing in h.s. My best time was a 5:13 and it was only 1600m. After several months of serious training I was able to run a 5:03 mile in a time trial with Haynes leading. He went just under 5 and I couldn't stay with him during the last mile. The first lap + 8m was 72 sec and was way too fast. I could only do a 78 sec final lap. I felt fine until that but couldn't find enough courage to push any harder. The mile has haunted me for so long. It may seem silly why I would care so much since it is such an arbitrary time. It just seemed to be the perfect barrier to separate the real runners from the scrubs, at least in high school. I actually have full confidence I can do it now for the first time. I've decided to do a 14 mile trail race on sunday which won't be ideal for a wed mile. There will be another chance though the following week. After that goes down. It better...then I can get off the track which i'm ready to do after the last 4 months or so and focus on marathon training for the Cape cod marathon in October and also an ultramarathon trail race in iceland in July! It's only 34 miles but I'm really looking forward to it as well as climbing iceland's highest peak. Although my travel guide books haven't come yet and maybe i'll change my mind about that one.

I must say, I was a little disappointed with Haynes' speed today. I thought he'd be able to pull away from me but couldn't even pass me on the last 200.  

easy 8 mile trail run with haynes. Beautiful day. Haynes wanted me to take pictures of him running so he could look fast. the thing is, he's not fast on trails, only on the road. do not be fooled!

Going to a 14 mile trail race tomorrow. Should be fun!

 

Today was pretty awesome. I was sort of on the fence about whether this race was a good idea in preparation of the mile on wed but I simply love trail racing too much, especially when I predicted that the competition wouldn't be as stiff as most of the other races in the grand tree trail racing series. I was hoping for top 5 today and ended up 2nd. Haynes admittedly raced today and I still beat him by 3+ minutes which was sweet. He did scare me though running with me and actually catching up to me and perhaps even taking a 1/3 stride lead around the 15 minute mark. He was dropped on a steep uphill in which walking was required. Little did I know but the two guys who are way better than me got lost and I was actually leading at mile 8 or 9. One of them caught up to me and passed me like I was nothing but I rather that happen than get passed by someone else. I was running with a guy for almost the entire race and I was worried about him. He let me lead and was nice and offered me cliff blocks but I was nervous he would outkick me. Especially after what Haynes did to me in our last 5 mile race in the last 100m. I started feeling good for some reason, maybe the expired cliff shot I took but more likely the nuun I was drinking and was able to pull away on a downhill. I always feel better when i sense weakness in my opponents. I wonder if that is natural and other people feel the same way. I felt good cause I felt like I could keep pushing the entire race today despite burning in my calf muscles after the first 40 min. With only about 1.5 miles to go I took a horrible fall on some rocks. Cut up both knees, one of them swelled up to the size of a golf ball (below the knee) but doesn't really hurt. The most annoying thing was my hand. It was oozing for a couple hours in the car and is still full of dirt I couldn't get out but has stopped bleeding. It was all totally worth it though for the cool rock trophy I got! The food was awesome at the end of the race too and they had veggie burgers. I ate 3.

I also wanted to say good job to Haynes who did really well today! Without his coaching I would still completely suck instead of be respectable. There are now like 6 2nd place finishes...will I ever win one?

I can't wait for the 5 min mile to be behind me. I really hope I don't have to wait another week and can do it this wed.

legs hurt from where i fell. nothing too tight or not moving right though. feel like wed should be good for the mile attempt.
 

Ran easy today 8:05 min/mile in prep for mile tomorrow. Weather may bring rain. Not sure if that makes much difference on a track. I'll just stay with Haynes until the last lap and stay as close to him as possible...hopefully he's planning on a 4:53-4:54 which I'm sure he's capable of.

 Hopefully the motivation of never having to do this again will inspire me to dig deep!


 

Today could very easily have started one of the worst days of my life although for some reason i didn't really care. The story doesn't matter but unjustly and unexpectedly my ex-boss forced me to leave the lab and turn in my computer with my life and data and everything on it. As you can imagine that was pretty upsetting and having to deal with what is going to go down is not going to be all that nice. All of this occurred without warning only 1 hr before Haynes and I were planning on leaving for the mile race up in Boston (~1hr+) away. 

 There had been some chance of rain the day before according to weather.com so i was nervous that it would slow down my time. Haynes said he thought rain was 4 sec in a mile but i disagree. The sky was a clean blue on the drive up there. About 20 min before the race, the rain started pouring, getting my racing flats soaked, and not only that gusts of 40mph winds started. Keep in mind that my primary running goal since h.s. until i had all but given up was to break the 5 min mile. I knew I was properly trained for it, but could the elements prevent me from doing it. Haynes and I just drove 1.5hrs up here for this? Luckily the rain and wind stopped minutes before the race. The track was completely soaked though. 

 I was going to go through with this...

The meet was immediately sketchy as we started on the wrong side of the track with no mile marker. The race directors just kind of guessed but that was too sketchy and I wanted there to be no doubt that i could break a 5 min mile. We luckily found a measuring tape and measured out the extra 9 meters.

The gun went off with no warning and before i expected. We were off. I was purposely in pole position. No one looked all that fast at the meet so I led, knowing that if Haynes led, the speed would be much too fast. I felt nervous the entire first lap. Went through the 409meters in 74.7, about a 73 sec 400. No pain, surprised I wasn't challenged. The second lap I still felt nervous...the track was soaked and i was splattering Haynes who was behind me, I didn't know who else but I noticed one less pair of feet behind me as I went through the first 200 of the second lap. I came through the half way point in 2:28, still felt fine, and nervous but by the start of the 3rd lap, i began to lose the nerves, i think due to fatigue. I kept thinking, when is Haynes going to pass me. He is using me for drafting...just like last time in the 5 mile race. Haynes made a surge with about 600meters to go. This was welcomed as I now had something to focus on. I thought maybe I can hang on with him. This wouldn't be the case. Although Haynes claimed that the pace was lagging, it was not. My first 3 laps were quite consistent and lap 3 was 73.4 sec. I came through with 1 lap to go in 3:41! All I kept thinking was how much slower I could go and make my goal. Haynes was at that point 1 or 2 sec ahead of me. It was weird the uncomfortable feeling and anxiousness. I began feeling the lactic acid in my arms for the first time when Haynes passed me but it came and went. Why the arms? 

I felt like I was tanking it the last lap and was concerned that somehow i would lock up  and fail. I wasn't that pleased with my effort although could I have gone faster, who knows? Last lap was a 76+ and I came through in 4:57, 5 sec behind Haynes.

 I noticed a previous comment in his blog about how he was getting good at beating me...I did beat him by 3 min and 20 sec in the 14.4 mile trail race on sunday! In 3 trail races I have about 20 min on him while he has about 1 minute on me in 6 road races. Oh well! I guess he has a more loyal fan base than me. He's a great guy and deserves it.  

 I wonder how fast we both could have gone in ideal conditions. I think my fitness would max me out at 4:54 if everything was perfect. Tapering especially. racing the 3rd day after a 2hr trail race is surely not ideal. Nor were wet feet.  

I had a picture taken of me immediately before and after the mile. Wish i had a computer to look at it. I wish i had a video so I could see what it looked like to break the 5 min mile. I have no idea how pathetic or not pathetic my running form looks. Maybe i'll run it again but if i don't stop here, when will it stop? 

Easy 2hrs and 8 min trail run. I am now on a paid vacation till the end of June and am wishing I was already at more than 62 miles per week in my training so I could just go out and run 100 miles a week to have something to do. I started reading the Daniels' book in which Haynes gets his mad coaching skills. It was kind of depressing having it be so clear how no training can overcome talent. That I can train three times as hard as someone with more talent and not ever run as fast. That idea was what originally led me to ultra running and the idea that i could be super competitive just due to hard work and ridiculous mileage. Not many people have "the talent" to want to run a 50 mile trail race over mountains. Running goals are kind of anticlimactic after they're achieved and the goal doesn't seem like it was really that amazing after and 5 months of training for 6 sec in a mile seems absurd looking back, although i would have done it every time. For me, doing as well as i can do in a race was a sense of self worth and achievement. And when a goal that took me 10 years to conquer like the 5 min mile is done and over it is a weird feeling and i can't help wondering whether i have worse than average talent or better? 

Another easy trail run 1 hr 41 min at arcadia management area in RI. I kind of like it here slightly more than gilbert hills in Foxboro, MA. It is more wild and more options (40,000 acres) and there are a few old cemeteries. I'm still psyched i haven't seen any snakes yet this year! I like pretending they are all dead. The narrow trails were kind of disgusting as i was covered in spider webs and had 2 inch worms on me when i got back to the car. Haynes and I are going to go up to the white mtns in NH tomorrow for a 2 day trip although i kind of just want to go home after the horrendous week at work and do nothing.

Although he doesn't know it yet, I've picked out what I hope will be a pretty exciting and fun two days. Day 1 will be across the street from mt washington, we'll be getting a late start so just ~8.5 miles out and back with 5, 4000ft peaks. The next day will be across the street going up mt washington on the alleged most difficult hiking trail in the white mtns. I'm terrified of a lot of things and heights are one of them. I'm predicting the huntington ravine trail will be cake and not exposed or dangerous. Then we'll summit and take a side tour to mt isolation. maybe 15-20 miles total. I should probably check the weather...kind of hate camping, hope i can find a reasonably priced hotel nearby. 

Got up to Mt Washington, NH and started hiking around 4pm. Kind of cold as we ascended
2000+ vertical feet in under 2 miles. Got to the top of wildcat mtn and summited the other 5 wildcat summits. Had to negotiate an annoying 2 feet of snow trail which was at least solidified. Unbelievable how only 250 miles away there could still be that much snow. A fun highlight was running down wildcat mtn on the ski slopes from the very top. Blues were too steep, greens were just right. The next day we would most likely change our plans of summiting washington due to snow and ice.
 

Ran the inner loop of the pemigawasset wilderness. I had run the outer loop the previous year over the high peaks which is beautiful but due to snow and our lack of long distance training as of late were excited to be able to run most of the day. The first 8 miles were gradual uphill and almost free of roots/rocks as the trail was previously an old railroad. Got up to 13 falls campsite area in only about 1.5hrs and had fun with the falls and the swift river current. Little did we know that the next 3 miles of trail would be nonexistent. At least we knew the trail followed the river. Bushwacked for 1-2hrs and finally found the trail and the turn off for owl's head, which would be a 1500 foot climb in ~1 mile. I felt slightly nauseated today for some reason. Once down from owl's head we kept up a strong pace for the last 7 or so miles which was all slightly downhill. good day, but right around and above my achilles tendon started acting up. hopefully this will go away in a couple days

thought about not running to recover but couldn't say no to Haynes. achilles still hurting. didn't get worse during the run but probably take the next day off. there is a trail marathon looming next sunday so more rest is probably better anyways. 

Was nervous after my first day off in at least a month. Was glad I did. Felt pretty tight and slow and decided against driving somewhere for a technical trail run. Just ran the normal route on the dirt path. It was disheartening not passing people with ease at first and i wondered how i've ever run a 5 min mile and i can't even blow by recreational runners. running is so mental. i initially thought of turning around but it turned out to be good and i loosened up and felt faster by the end. anytime i think i have a serious injury i think about quitting the sport forever but i know i'm just feeling frustrated. The achilles feels no worse than before the run and 2 days of no running i don't think i could handle. Also, if i need to take more than a day off for an injury it's probably going to be a lot more and i may as well run on it and see if it gets better anyway. it's kind of funny how i didn't believe in icing until last year when after going to physical therapy for a couple months with little improvement he asked me if i was icing and i said no. after that i decided to give it a try and i now ice instead of doing physical therapy with 10x better results. who would have thought! An ice bath every day is probably the way to go. 

Today was my first ever win in any running race! Not super exciting since it is a 24 week series race but still...at least I can say i've won a "race" although it wasn't really a race as Haynes told me he would let me win today. I'm pretty sure I would have beaten him if we were racing though :) I've only ran 7.5 miles in the past 2 days before while haynes ran 22 or something.

 We planned on running right around 31 min for the 5 miles. I was kind of nervous that I would be slow even though we ran a mile race the previous week with pretty good ~5 sec PRs. When we were doing 3 workouts a week there wasn't anything to be nervous about because i knew how each workout was going to feel like. i always wonder if suddenly i forgot how to run and will just be weak and slow. we went out in 6:09, then 6:14 on the only uphill mile, then 6:03, and I felt really good at this point and felt like i was just in the zone. my left hamstring felt tight like it did a couple weeks ago after a few miles and i was worried about it again, but like the last race, it just lets me know i have a muscle there and then goes away by the end. hopefully i won't have any real problems with it. i don't know if it's just my body or if other people's act up. my shin hurt during warmup,  then  my foot. then they just go away. So mile 4 was 6:01 and during this mile Haynes was complaining about the pace. I felt like I wasn't straining at all so decided to keep it there and actually accelerate to ensure that Haynes wouldn't have a change of heart and outkick me at the end. The last mile was a 5:54 which felt pretty easy. Averaged 6:04. My second fastest 5 mile yet on probably my least effort of the season. It's hard to taper though as i feel like i'm going to get fat because i like eating too much. I'm feeling pretty good and excited i may be injury free going into the marathon.

how do people normally taper? There is probably a great deal of differences of opinion. Do they run the day before? I plan on running maybe 4 miles or so to stay loose and an easy 7-8 2 days out. The two races i really care about are a 34 mile trail race in iceland on july 12 and the cape cod marathon on oct 27, although i don't see the point in signing up for a race if i'm not going to race. it's kind of a pride thing.

ran my pre-race day 3.3 miles on the dirt path in town. felt weak, tight and got my weird shimmering vision and dizziness thing going on. it's all anxiety related. finally figured it out. It didn't progress to spots and losing vision though which was good. For some reason easy runs do that to me. Never in a race or hard workout cause i'm distracted from myself. i'm kind of nervous about doing well at nipmuck tomorrow. I have all these expectations for myself since i came in 2nd place at my last trail race. I just want to feel good and not bonk tomorrow. I have no idea how conservatively i need to start but if i don't push myself as much as i can i'll be disappointed. a marathon, especially a trail marathon is a strange distance because you can't keep a steady pace due to the terrain and it is impossible to know what that steady pace should be. i'll be psyched when it's over although i'm looking forward to it. 

After a night of binge eating to prepare for the marathon today I felt fat and bloated. I foolishly ate food i didn't normally eat and went to a mexican place and thought cactus salad was a good idea. it wasn't but i ate it anyway. the burrito and chips were really good though. After we decided to go to ben and jerry's. I got a large ice cream cone with peanut butter cookie dough and bananas on the rum. can't say enough good things about the latter. wow i felt fat. anyways i ate lots in the morning. bowl of cereal, tea, then pre race egg and cheese on a plain bagel at dunkin donuts. ate a chocolate chip cliff bar immediately before the race...

maybe i'm weird but i find confidence in knowing i have more fuel than anyone else. i have an extremely strong stomach and can handle large amounts of food without feeling sick. Got a good bit of last night's food out before the race.

Race director was absolutely crazy but the race was extremely well done so no complaints. Started out comfortably in 8th place. The course was 2 out and backs, 10k out and 10k back and then about 7 out and back the other way. Haynes was way too close to me at the first 10k but i decided i was going to push it only in the last 10k if i could hold my place which i felt good about. one guy pulled away over the next 10k i was with but i had beaten him in previous races and felt strong so i was hopeful i could reel him in when the time was right. i ate consistently shot blocks. went through 3 bags. brought gu along but it was too gross. had some potatoes with salt at the aid stations. drank a lot. felt full the whole race which i kind of like. i hate the empty feeling. after about mile 18 i saw the guy that pulled away earlier who now seemed disoriented like he was delirious and couldn't follow the trail. I passed him and then almost immediately a guy who was originally in 2nd place. he made excuses that he hadn't trained properly and told me how he was in 2nd earlier. (for like the first 6 miles!) not too hard. I had also passed another guy not too long before without any effort. Didn't feel like i was struggling or pushing too hard and felt excited to be in 5th place in a field of close to 250 I think.

The turn arounds can be either good or bad. You can either feel comfort that you have a solid lead on your competitors or be very afraid. I ended up forgetting the top to my water bottle and would have gone back but a guy who i know finishes strong was only ~30 sec back. Not a fun time with no top. I just guzzled it Amazingly it was brought to the next aid station by the volunteers which was absolutely incredible and made my day!

So I decided it was time to push. I hadn't pushed yet and actually ran the 7 miles back 2 minutes faster than I ran it out. I kept looking back but no one was there. When I saw only 2.2 miles left and the time I was at I felt confident that I could stay away since i felt so good and strong. I bonked though with 0.4 miles left but luckily it was mostly downhill. I finished in 3:36.50 which is sadly my fastest marathon time since i've only ever run mountain trail marathons or a marathon as part of an ironman. One of the guys just in front of me about 5 minutes ran a 2:43 at Boston this year. This gives me hope that I might be able to break 2:50. I'll be happy with a 2:54 though. I feel like I need to be disappointed soon, the season and training are so far going far too well. The next big race is July 12th in Iceland. 34 miles. I'm kind of scared how expensive it's going to be, but excited!

Will definitely not run tomorrow! For the first time I didn't get a headache after a long race. I was almost hydrated. You really can't seem to drink enough.

Also, beat Haynes easily by ~9 minutes for anyone interested :)

Couldn't sleep well last night. After the marathon when I got back home on sunday I was rubbing the top of my foot and i was nervous that i was feeling a pressure point on my 2nd metatarsal. It also looked swollen the next morning. I had felt no pain at all during the marathon and it didn't hurt to run but I thought it may be 50:50. So no running yesterday and this morning I decided to go run 6 and see. My left foot/ankle has been problematic for some time. For the last 1.5 yrs i've had to chronically ice my ankle to enable me to run every day. It's just an extremely tight foot. My arch was shooting with cramps too yesterday. 

 Anyways, the run didn't hurt my foot anywhere so a stress fracture is pretty much ruled out i hope. it would have been devastating with the iceland ultra only 6 weeks away now. i'm definitely going to buy new shoes today or tomorrow! Since I had stress fractures in h.s. and college i always worry about them and i'm kind of afraid to build mileage and push my limits. This season i've done that and taken the risk and have been really happy but i don't know what i would have done if i had to take 8 weeks off at this point.

 I'll probably not build mileage this week and stay around 65. Surprisingly neither Haynes nor I had any soreness yesterday or today from the marathon, I felt just used up. Guessing i'll be back to full operation on thursday and hopefully will do the 5 mile training race. 

 Anyone know the standard/smart procedure for recovery from a marathon if it's done in season?
 

new shoes....felt awesome, pouring rain was cool and nice. i think i ran 9 because the run took 1hr 19 minutes but seems like it should have only been 8. Haynes will have the definitive answer when he runs later with the GPS. Feel pretty good for the first time after the marathon. Haynes is in trouble i think...

 i kind of went out of control, bought 3 new pairs of brooks shoes. one was last years model so half price and i got a big discount on some marathon racing shoes that felt good.

 

Did the red rooster ramble today solo (meaning without Haynes).  A couple people were asking about him and why he wasn't there, kind of disappointed they wouldn't have the opportunity to defeat such a great runner! I had to tell them that he was being lame and that school came before running for him, which is in my opinion unacceptable. Haynes wouldn't have been able to keep up with the pace this week. This guy Eric was there who comes about once a month but has defeated Haynes and I handily each time. Today was no exception as he ran a 29:50. I just wanted to do a solid under 31 min but ended up surprising myself with my 2nd fastest 5 mile time ever feeling pretty good again despite the sunday marathon. Let Eric and this other guy who i knew was going to fall off pace dictate the speed. Mile 1 was run in 5:58 for all of us. Didn't feel that good but not horrible considering we usually go out 10 sec slower. The next mile is the slowest due to the hill and i ran a 6:05, Eric put on about 8 sec on me this mile as i just settled in. The other guy was gone. Next mile was a 6:02, felt pretty good, then a 6:06, then a 6:00. The worst part was my blister on the sole of my foot started acting up, should have put on body glide but was running late/too lazy. Glad I went, feel pretty confident running a 30:11 as a tempo run 4 days after a trail marathon. It's going to a shame not staying around the providence area this summer to do that race and also have Haynes as a training partner. I feel like i have good momentum. This weekend i'm moving all of my stuff. This sat i'm getting a truck and hiring movers to help me load it and then that will be that. A good week for moving as i don't want to trail race this weekend and i probably would if not moving. just can't help myself, there's just simply nothing i'd rather do. Don't know why Haynes didn't come since he ran 9 miles anyway today. I was going to do more mileage after but my stomach was acting up and the blister was no fun. Goal is to hit 65 this week. We'll see. 

still cool and cloudy so pretty nice. so sick of our 9 mile out and back run in town. will be exciting to get new terrain starting in 1-2 weeks. about 8 min/mile pace today. felt ok, not great.

got up early to avoid the heat and to be done in time to go get the moving truck. pathetic 9 min/mile pace, got passed on the boulevard by a girl! She was just doing intervals though but then there was this other footsteps behind me. thought it was the girl speeding up again but was actually some guy. held him off for 3/4 of a mile before my turn off. for some reason i can't let people pass me if i can hold them off even on an easy run. may do a 5k tomorrow near my parent's house in CT. Supposed to be hot so def no PR, but maybe the competition will be weak and i can sneak in a win at sub 18? i'll see how i feel tomorrow. 

Decided to do a 5k race today. wasn't planning on racing it since there really was no point as it felt like 98 in the sun and was at least 88 degrees at race time. I was also feeling pretty tired after a long week of 65 miles which is a lot for me at this point. also ran a trail marathon previous weekend and did a 5 mile fast tempo on thurs. More than anything else i was hoping to meet some people i could maybe run with but no one was that friendly. there looked like a bunch of reasonably fast h.s. kids too. probably should have just done a trail run earlier but decided i'd tempo this and see what happens. The course was surprisingly hilly which was annoying. i ran the first out in 8:41 at the turn around. A PR pace!? Didn't feel that fast, was in 4th place and the leaders weren't far away. Ended up running 18:41 and a guy sprinted by me at the end but didn't care to push it. Maybe will run 5 or 6 miles this evening when the sun starts to set so i can maintain my mileage (2-3 mile per week increase till 75 or 80, don't know yet).

 ran another 1.8 in the evening, felt horridly pathetic.
 

last night i had my right achilles tendon act up again. i think for sure i have a mild form of achilles tendinitis. A week or two ago I had this same problem, took a day off and then was fine completely after icing a bunch. I read that i should stretch more...so moving all day, to it being 100 degrees to resting i don't even feel that guilty about the no running. 

 when you don't ever take a day off it feels awkward to not run, but take one day off and it seems like it would be so easy just to not be serious anymore. i really hope stretching will stop this and not be chronic. i think this could get serious if i'm not careful. i never do anything preventative, just enough to make the problem go away. i wonder how close to the edge of completely falling apart i am  :)

 time to stretch for 10 min and then ice for 15....that will be my running related workout for the day.

 

walked 2 miles with two bags uphill from the train station. maybe shouldn't count as miles but 35 minutes in the heat with weights counts this week, esp when my mileage has started out so poorly. ran 8.1 (the stupid cemetery was closed so didn't get 9). hopefully the achilles will behave and i can run early and longer tomorrow. felt pretty good though...

not as hot today, body felt ok, always tight in the morning. nothing hurt too bad. achilles fine...50 miles now on new shoes. ran 11.65 miles...maybe i can still hit 65 for the week.

spent 6 hrs cleaning the apt up then decided to run again. felt much looser and went a good bit faster although still not under 8 min pace. afternoon run 5.15 miles
 

wow, kind of weird to actually feel a little sore...right hamstring sore, decided that hitting 65 miles this week after starting the first 2 days of the week with only 6 miles total is not going to be worth it. i think i'll just use this as an excuse to race again. don't think i've missed a week. i'm going to go up and do the mt greylock half marathon trail race. i think i'll go up the mtn afterwards since it is the highest mtn in mass. unfortunately the race was rerouted because of road construction....we'll see maybe i'll not race since it is almost a 3hr ride with gas prices and all being ridiculous...if only i was haynes and wasn't too cool for buying books on tape. maybe this will be a first. 

 so anyways, i have a great 0.9 mile dirt road loop in a state park i ran on today. kind of short but really nice. i'll have to figure it out. super hilly here. it will be no easy mileage anymore. 65 miles a week here is probably equiv to 72 in providence...
 

trail run in huntington state park. 1hr 59 min. felt fairly good today. much better than yesterday. shoes now have 73 miles on them. so hilly here. the trails are pretty well maintained and most of them are like dirt roads so i don't have to worry about snakes. i'm psyched i have yet to see one this year...will only run a few miles tomorrow in prep for the half marathon trail race and the post race summit of mt greylock which should be a good workout. over 2,000 feet climb in 2 miles. a part of me just wants to run 14 tomorrow and hit 65 again....oh well....last race for sure before iceland.

ran/walked with dad at huntington. legs feel kind of weak and i should stretch more but icing and stretching the achilles has prevented any strain there. should have tapered more but whatever...it will still be fun hopefully and worth the drive.

Was feeling kind of bad about my running as of late. All been slow trail runs around 10 min/mile pace and last weekends 5k was a disaster. I know i had a trail marathon the week before and ran one of my highest mileages of the season but i've just been feeling sluggish lately. I knew i'd be upset if i didn't drive the 2.5hrs to the greylock trail race today. I just didn't want to get blown away and maintain my good race record.

The first 4 min of running are flat as we make our way to the base of the first climb of about 1000' or so in 2.5 miles. I started slow as i was determined not to go out too fast and be conservative. i didn't feel that bad during warmups which was a good sign and felt like i had some fight in me maybe...This one guy ben nephew almost always wins easily unless there is a true elite racing so he was gone, then the next pack were 2 guys, one of whom i had beaten by a very slim margin a couple of races ago for the first time. I was content to be in 4th place after 10 min of climbing. There were a lot of guys though, you could see on the switch backs not too far back. One guy kind of passed me and blew by me so now i was in 5th place. Another guy in the next 5 min barely went by me and didn't get too far away. Another guy was right on me. We crested the hill with me in 6th place and it was time for the long 2.5 mile downhill to the turnaround. I ran kamikaze like i usually do and easily passed the guy in front of me and almost caught up to the guy who had passed me easily earlier. The guys in 2nd and 3rd were within striking distance as well at the bottom but i knew my climbing skills are relatively weak to theirs. I just wanted to hold my position.

I now had at least 1min maybe 1:30 on the people behind me at the 5.1 mile mark. time for the 2+ mile uphill. I felt pretty good, aided by being in 5th place. i always get this spirit when i know i'm doing pretty well for myself. I held my position and then annihilated the downhill...i was 15 sec back with 5k left of 4th place. The downhill was over though. The next part was more technical and i felt tired and exhausted but i knew everyone else was too. I finished it out in 5th, minutes ahead of 6th and about a min back from 4th.

Good confidence booster today! Last year i finished 18th, and was over 10 min slower than this year. I also rather foolishly decided i'd climb greylock (highest mtn in mass) after. I decided on my way up i would do that and one of my friends said he'd be up for it too, but after racing bailed. smart! It was only 2.2 miles to the top and ~2200 feet up. I chose the steepest trail and it took me 1hr 21 min. I was sucking it on the way up, feeling my breath in my ears, couldn't get my heart rate to chill out. about halfway up i thought i might kill myself but fought on. The top was awesome...i met a girl who was doing the entire appalachian trail...she had started from georgia! Pretty cool. Ran down a slightly longer way 2.8 miles in 40 min.

Tonight i ate tons! it was awesome. Total exercise time today 2 minutes shy of 4hrs....
north west CT and western mass are beautiful. I enjoyed the drive lots!

only major complaint was my left achilles/calf started acting up today...doesn't feel bad now, will ice it. the right one which has been troublesome is fine at least...will probably rest up tomorrow. will hopefully have a better mileage week than last week.

ran 6.2 with my 12 year old brother at huntington. did a little exploring...very slow pace, he was complaining a little bit at the end but i made him go a mile longer than he wanted :)
i think huntington may be my favorite place to run right now...perhaps just because it's new. the mtn bikers made all this fun windy single track that is just awesome. great glacial rock formations everywhere and super hilly.

got back, ran repeats of the 0.55 mile dirt road at the bottom of my driveway, which is kind of nice...1.1 miles round trip on dirt. will be a great place for doubling and running only 3 or 4 miles in the morning or evening. although there is probably 100 feet of gain. can't escape the hills here.

 felt real sore when i started up, loosened up. hopefully will feel good tomorrow and not have to babysit. i much prefer getting the run done early.
 

easy trail run, super slow and comfortable. 1hr 59 min.

took new montrail hardrocks out of box for the first time...i love those shoes,
should probably get something lighter for racing but whatever...

 ran 1.65 miles out and back with brothers in the evening. was challenged by my middle brother who attempts to run circles around me since i'm not usually fresh or rested i have no explosiveness. On the last big hill he tried to kick me and he blew himself out by the top of it and he stopped. it was awesome...

slow am trail run with dad...nice and cool out. will run more later...going to race a 1/2 marathon on sunday. not the marathon...because i'll go too hard. will hopefully increase my mileage to about 67 this week instead of 70 like planned and take sat off or only do 3-4 miles.

got home, decided to just go back out and get the run over with. nice morning. ran another 7 miles (outer loop of park) in a slow 1hr 16 min... left ankle a little achy for first time in a while...left achilles not bad but noticeable.

1hr 54 min trail run...it was fun today cause there is some mtn bike race tomorrow so there were multiple loops marked with arrows. one really sketchy section where you could easily die...felt the best i have all week. maybe adapting to the long runs and the terrain. easy run tomorrow, about 4-5 miles then the trail 1/2 marathon on sunday...should be fun. excited to run fast again!  hopefully at least

trail ran 55 minutes, felt pretty good, on and off feeling tight in the knees, left achilles felt ok, but a little concerning at times. 

I found out about this race in NY last weekend at a trail race in MA. There was a 10k, a half and a full marathon. I thought about doing the full marathon in prep for the 55k in iceland in 3 wks but thought better since i would probably run too hard and get worn down. My tapering for the race was virtually non existent as i built to over 68 miles exclusively on trails,
or about 2hrs a day. No speed at all except racing once a week. I'm probably not as fast as i was several weeks ago but i guess that's ok.

So the race...went out, there was one really skinny tall guy who took off and i was kind of pissed because he was wearing surfer shorts...apparently my dad overheard him telling someone he died at the end cause he's only been running 15 miles/week. grrrrr! so there was that guy and then i was alone in 2nd, i thought i pulled away from a guy who was behind me who looked like he could lose some lbs...(not sure why he was shirtless). so around the 50 min mark this guy comes up behind me and it was another shirtless older guy (47) and we ran together for about 35 minutes, he struggled to keep up with me on the downhills but not anywhere else. i was feeling pretty bad when he caught up to me. totally went out a little hard trying to keep the skinny guy around but failing. He decided to take the lead and i stayed with him and it felt better than running in front by myself. i thought i could stay with him and did until there was 1.5 miles left. he just pulled away. I ran 1:39, he ran 1:38 and the skinny guy up front ran 1:37. I need to get some trail racing shoes. it's retarded to race a half marathon in shoes that are meant to run 100 mile races (montrail hardrocks). I just think they're so comfortable i haven't changed. i feel like that may have made a slight difference today. the course was beautiful though and i had a good time. my 12 yr old brother did the 10k and won the 19 and under age grp cause he was the only one in it. my dad was proud of himself for coming in 2nd to last instead of last. some woman was lost out on the 10k course when we left. hope she was found.

 i should probably start incorporating speed again into my workouts although i'm not sure for a 34 mile race the best way to train. i'm definitely going to run 25 miles sometime in the next week (slowly). but i wonder if speed is really going to play a factor? It's so simple training for road races and a specified distance. This race will take at least 6 hrs probably and maybe up to 7.

 

1hr 21 min easy trail run. explored a new trail. pretty awesome single track. 6 miles one way according to sign from inside the park i run at. Ran about 2 miles out, came upon a long stretch of tall grass, decided to turn around and not deal with pulling deer ticks off me. i know they're out there...81 miles on road shoes. 

Went out early for a 5.56 mile easy run for 52 min 47 sec. It was beautiful out.
Going to go big tomorrow in prep for the 55km trail race in iceland. Will hit 25-27 miles.
Definitely will go easy and just do a few winding loops at my new running haven. With all those miles my chances of seeing a snake are moderate!

I felt pathetic the other day with my lack of flexibility. I couldn't even kick someone above the waist. I'm going to be stretching a bunch-probably won't do any good. i just think i'm doomed. I seriously don't think i could do any other sport with my lack of flexibility besides chess and running.
 

i was planning on doing this long run earlier but i have been slightly freaking out about having everything i need for iceland. i agonized over what tent to get etc...and making reservations for activities and places to stay. I booked a guided climb up iceland's highest peak for July 8th. It should be exciting. 

 Anyways, I didn't get running till around 1pm and i didn't eat lunch. This lack of nutrition would be my downfall. I started out the first technical loop in the park before getting some food and drink at my car. 4.8 miles. I then ran out another longer loop and back to the car at 13.6 miles. I refueled. Ate 2/3 of a cliff bar and a quarter of a gigantic chocolate chip cookie and wished i was done. i had a lot of gatorade too and one apricot fruit chew thing which only had 45 calories. I didn't feel like i needed to eat more. I was good up until mile 21. holding just under 10:30 pace without too much effort. Then i started to approach the 4 hour mark and around mile 22 i started to fall apart. my legs just started hurting, especially my stupid tight left one. Decided to cut the run short at 23.5 miles and 4hrs and 8 min. Lack of calories i think led to my downfall. I wanted to hit 25.

The worst part of the run is always before you get to the 10 mile mark. Knowing how long you have to be out there for. I need to get a book on tape, the ipod with year old songs isn't cutting it anymore.

 I lost a little confidence in myself i guess after this run, but know that i felt great in a marathon earlier this month when i ate properly. This was just something i needed to do. Will start the taper i guess...will hit 70+ miles this week and then i don't know drop down to 50 and then the following week i'll be in iceland doing a couple really long hikes and that will be that!

 I wish i wasn't going by myself, but i think i'll have a good time.

Was going to take today off but decided i wanted to go explore a new 1009 acre nature preserve one town over from where i live. I only ran 3 miles there with my dad at a pace slow enough for the flies to eat you. I never understood why people put on bug spray when they go running. Now i know why :)

Tomorrow i'll explore more of the park...there are over 20 miles of trails there. I definitely heard a snake today...didn't see it, but it was no chipmunk.  

 Today shouldn't really count as a run but i will say that i didn't walk...felt very fresh despite yesterday, if only my left ankle didn't have to be iced every day. oh well...maybe in another several yrs it will be normal. As long as i ice it is fine...if i don't ice for more than 2 days, it's bad news. Kind of weird i guess. The achilles problems are gone due to this new stretching device i found at my parents place in my closet. it's way better than wall stretching.

 admittedly way too lazy to stretch on a regular basis....pathetic!

iceland itinerary is now completely set...my biggest fear is not waking up in time for things. I will be tested 3 separate times with the worst being a 4:30 am bus departure for the race...it would be so ridiculous if i can't wake up. Will buy at least 1 or 2 more battery powered alarm clocks.

 

Was planning on just a run at faster than normal pace but felt really good during the 1.5 miles of warmup going 8:30 pace, which is much faster than my normal easy 10 min pace on the trails. After running so slow yesterday with my dad and Haynes telling me how i must be so scared of him, i decided i would tempo for 3 miles. I started out in 6:51, having no idea what kind of pace to expect...i've done enough tempo runs that i kind of know what the exertion level needs to be. Next mile was 6:55, and the 3rd mile was 7:34!?! which was pretty atrocious but i had a huge rocky 1/4 mile hill to go up which i'm sure hurt me. Came through the 5k in 21:55 and decided i would go back to where i started for a net elevation of zero. it was only 3.67 miles so i decided why not just hit 4. I finished in 28:18, a 6:58 last mile. The terrain was carriage road with some rocks but very hilly. Felt pretty good. Next time i think i'll be prepared to go under 7 min pace, whenever that may be.

did a 3.5 mile cool down, running about 10:10 pace, went on some more single track trails.
good day, hungry, time to eat, maybe stretch and ice my ankle before it starts to act up.

 tomorrow will go back to the park i went to yesterday and explore and do 7-10 miles.

 

trail run 1 hr 53 min at new park. explored outer loop. absolutely awesome! i can't complain that i no longer live in providence...not sure how much speed i'll have though when i do any race on a road. 

i think this run should put me on top of haynes for weekly mileage :)
although this may coax him to step it up...
 

Ran at Huntington, ran 5.15 miles around 9:45 pace and then on a whim decided i wanted to push myself a bit and did 3 miles at tempo pace. Ran 7:32, 7:02, 7:18. Net uphill gain of 150 feet. Felt pretty good. I like running fast now. The 70 miles a week feels pretty doable and comfortable. Cooled down for ~0.9 miles and called it a day. 

weighed myself on the scale this morning for the first time in a couple months. didn't realize my parents had a scale. 167 :(

as i recall i was down to 164 or so on Haynes' scale, although i always weighed myself after running instead of before so i may have had some water loss. Whatever, i'm sure i'll lose weight in iceland cause the food is so expensive. it's just hard to not eat tons when you go out to eat with your parents and you don't have to pay for anything.  

ran 1hr 46 at huntington. Stupid GPS watch started counting the mileage backwards after 9.1 so I think i may have run more. I don't usually look at the watch but i wonder if i haven't been running more than the watch has been reading due to the signal going out. the next week i'll have to run roads i guess at cape cod...good to get a last trail run in. i keep forgetting to keep track of the mileage on my shoes. i have 119 miles on my road shoes and 70 now on my trail runners. 

was in providence so i ran the Haynes classic training run...1hr 15 min, it felt good to actually run under 8 min mile pace for the first time in weeks. 128 miles on brooks.  

Ran at nickerson state park in cape cod today. Mostly pavement but a few miles of dirt trails/roads. First mile was 9 min and then after that averaged 7:30 for the next 8. Pushed myself a bit, the run was fun on windy hilly bike trails. Tomorrow i'm going to go explore jeremy point, which is an ~8 mile round trip trail run i think. will go at low tide in the afternoon so i can go as far out as possible. Today I went out at low tide at the bay and was able to walk out 1.1 miles before turning around. Nothing above the knee. Could have gone farther but it was getting close to dinner time. 

Went to Jeremy point....at least i think so, it was hard to tell since i could have went out farther since i went at the lowest possible tide. It was supposed to be 4.1 miles to the point but it took me 4.45 and was entirely a sand path. I had a tick on me from a tall grass section but got it off before it could bite. There was no one there at all...i had 2 miles of beach all to myself and the birds. The running on the sand was challenging. many dead birds and shells and horseshoe crabs that were just shells. wish i had more time just to hang out there and relax. Running time 1hr 26. shoe mileage 146 on brooks.

1hr 25 min on mostly rolling bike trail at nickerson. some dirt. looking to do a longer run on sand tomorrow to reach 70. may go back to jeremy point as it was awesome...not liking the pavement. also not stretching or icing lately. extremely foolish. 

2hr 8 minute run on dirt roads and trails. 170 miles on brooks. 

I just got back from iceland yesterday and so i can say some stuff about the trip. I have never had a more enjoyable week in my life. Iceland is a great place. I didn't sleep well since it never got dark and i did a bunch of camping, but it is simply awesome.

The only running i did was the previous saturday i ran 13. On tuesday i hiked up the highest peak in iceland with a guide. I was on the largest glacier in europe. it was pretty spectacular. It was a 6700 ft ascent and total distance was 15 miles total. The trip took just over 12 hours. The day after I did another long 5.5 hour hike/tiny bit of running for 13 miles up a mountain with 3300 foot of vertical. Legs were a bit tired on thursday. On friday I walked around reykjavik that day and on sat was the race. The bus left at 4:30am and we didn't get to the race start until 8:40 or so and the race started at 9. Our bus was the last one in line so i barely checked in and got to the toilet in time. I didn't have time to discard my jacket or body glide in my pocket which was annoying. there was simply no time. I didn't feel all that well for the first 1.5hrs. i had some problems with my stomach and a woman was in front of me by a tiny bit as well as people who don't look fast. Then I farted a ton of times and felt much better. I picked it up and just kept getting faster. By the end I couldn't seem to get tired no matter how fast i went. I passed about 15 people in the last 20km and a satisfying last person in the last km that i couldn't even see. I just felt inspired and amazing. it was weird. The first 15km was quite difficult, and gained 1500ft. There was sulfur and boiling mud and snow fields. The weather was rainy, windy and a little cold. The last part of the race was sandy and very flat except for a final hill. There were several fun river crossings with ropes. After about 30km my legs were hurting a bit but as i slowly gained distance on the people in front of me i felt stronger and stronger. is running all mental? Physiologically how can i keep feeling like i have more energy and less tired and no pain anymore? Anyway i won my 18-29 age group (only 18 people) and came in 7th out of 242 people that started.

easy mileage on sand. felt ok. was barely sore the day after the race, nothing at all the day after. just feel a little drained.

ran around 8:15 pace on the cape cod rail trail. very flat and boring. felt like i could maintain that speed forever but did not feel super good. think by the weekend i should get back to almost normal. i need to seriously by the daniels running book and start following the training plan. as haynes is keeping track and there are 15 weeks to go. i think haynes will defeat me as i don't care as much about the race as he does and i will have another race to hurt me in a couple weeks, the escarpment trail run which is apparently a brutal 18 miles in the catskills with about 10k of elevation gain. would like to break 2:55 though and not just 3....and then not run another road marathon again. this last race has got me thinking about going back to ultras again...this is my default state with no training partner. it's easier for me to just go out and run long than fast....and also i feel like i have more potential in 50 mile races since fewer people do them and i seem to be able to keep going longer compared to most people, in part due to my superior stomach processing power and eating abilities.

brooks shoes have 187 on them. trail runners have about 150.

4.5 miles on beach sand. kind of annoying...felt ok. 196 miles on shoes. will be glad to be at home in the woods again in a couple days.

horrible sickness...tried running after eating general tso's tofu.....felt like quitting running

forever. hopefully next week i'll get back on track with miles and workouts....
 

good to be home again...felt a little better in the morning but ran in bad heat and

immediately got horrible stomach problems. ran on road with 3.1 miles of dirt roads

mixed in. 220 miles on brooks.
 

1hr 47 min trail run...felt horrible during the day but no matter what i'm hitting 70 this week.

I have a difficult 30k trail race on sunday so i want to go heavier early in the week. 210 miles on montrails... 

1hr 48:30. Felt kind of pathetic like it hurt a bit to run on the technical sections of the trails. 231 miles on shoes. hmm, contemplating not hitting 70 this week and taking two days before the race easy so i don't completely suck. excuse of not recovered yet after ultra. why does it take so long to recover? it seems lame. 

went out during the tour de france. the beginning part is always really boring and there is 3 min of riding 5 min of commercials for 5 hrs. so i decided to get in 3.3 miles by running out and back 3 times on the dirt road adjacent to my house. i got back exactly as the leaders were making their way up alpe d'huez. it was awesome to watch carlos sastre pull away! he probably still won't win though unfortunately. anyways, then i had a phone call i had to make at noon so i ran 1.2 miles down the road. Then i made the phone call and ran an out and back 7.1 miles, only 3.4 of that was on pavement. i like the out and back. there are 2 major climbs in it. and the dirt roads are really nice. i'm thinking this will be a good route for me to get maximum dirt in and stay off main roads. running on technical trails every day right now just hurts too much...not even just the legs but the feet. may do an am and pm 7 mile out and back to be on my way to getting 70 with a minimal day of running on sat before the race. i really need to stretch, i feel so much better and fresher when i do and it doesn't take me 5 miles to feel a good stride. am i beginning to get motivated again? a friend i talked to was thinking about going to hawaii in jan. the hurt 100 is in january. i would "only" do the 100k if i did it at this point which is enough suffering with the winning time of 17 hrs last year and 2nd place 20hrs. intriguing...it will be interesting to start working again in a week. i really miss having structure...it's amazing how i make time go by. i'm beginning to seriously question how anyone accomplishes anything with how little time there seems in a day. 

3.7 dirt, 3.4 pavement....was hoping to run in the morning too but wicked thunderstorm. 

according to my new advanced maratoning running book i should be recovering for 5 weeks anyway but i want to keep trail racing until people start beating me that i've previously beaten. once that starts happening i'll know i'm overtraining.

haynes disagrees and says he's fully recovered after 2 weeks. i also am recovering from a 34 mile trail race which is probably 50% more effort of a normal marathon.  

1hr 2 min run, probably around 7.4 miles with my pace as of late. gps didn't start

working for a while. ran to the post office with mail. will take tomorrow off for race on sun. i'm going to get destroyed by the terrain i think. i'm still excited though cause i've never been to the catskills. i heard it's only ok but looking forward to it.

247 miles on brooks

231 on montrails-i'm so bad at keeping track of mileage.

now that i live only a couple hrs from the catskills in NY i decided to give the escarpment trail run a try and see what was so difficult about it. this is hands down the most ridiculous course i've ever raced and i've raced many. it was really fun, there were no views despite running along a high mountain ridge the whole time. there would have been a couple if it wasn't cloudy and then raining and then crazy thunderstorms with hail by the end (thankfully i was in my car by then). I didn't know how i would feel. i had lost confidence in the last couple weeks since iceland since i hadn't been running that much trying to recover and didn't feel that great while running. There were 175 people who signed up and at the start we had to run through a mud pit up almost to the waist from the huge storm the night before. i settled in, i think in 11th place going up the first 2000ft climb. there is apparently 10k of elevation gain in the 30km race which i don't doubt. i hate the first climb more than anything because everyone is establishing position and you don't know how many faster people there are than you. it's just nice getting that settled after the first hr and then you know if you feel good you'll stay put and move up and if you don't at least you control you own destiny. so i got up to the top and there was all this poison ivy and shrubbery that was irritating my legs. after about 45 min i got to the top and i caught up to 2 guys who had passed me on the climb and annihilated them on the downhill which was especially sketchy because you couldn't see what you were running on. i'm not exaggerating. then the next climb wasn't as long but involved climbing with your hands and was sick steep for about a mile. one of the guys caught up to me who i found out ran a 4:08 mile last yr but apparently was partying more this year. i again crushed him on the downhill and would not hear his footsteps again. the rest of the course didn't bring any huge memorable climbs although it did go up still. a lot of sitting on rocks so you didn't slip and i caught up to another person and then in the last mile i passed 2 more. there was one place near the end in the fog where i could have easily fallen off a cliff if i wasn't careful. would have been nice to have a warning sign. i was talking to a guy who beat me this year who last year fell 10 feet off a rock only 100yds from the finish and broke 4 ribs. i'll probably do this race again. i felt pretty good and realize that i have really good endurance. i can just keep going, maybe not as fast as i would like. the winning time was 2:59 and i finished in 3:25 which i guess is respectable. overall i'm pretty satisfied. i'm glad all the big races are out of the way now and i can go back to the weekend trail racing series of shorter distances. just the cape cod marathon to go i guess to prove myself. 

ran up the road and across the street to the trails i ran when i was in h.s. there didn't used to be a development next to these trails and a couple hundred acres were destroyed basically and there was a good access trail. my brother and i didn't realize how overgrown the alternate access trail was and were sketched out about ticks and me about snakes but i beat him in a double rock paper scissors and not only did we do the trail but he had to lead. when i led i just farted on him at will which made him lead again. i didn't really feel tired at all from the race yesterday which surprised me. legs didn't feel dead or anything, just a slight soreness in my sides but barely. i won't be going back to these trails anytime soon although they would be nice in the winter but then i have to worry about bow hunters.

feeling very uninspired...wasn't even going to run but my two brothers were going to run out an back on the dirt road at the bottom of our driveway so i went. i guess recovery isn't a bad thing. i feel so unmotivated immediately after racing a long distance. i guess what i don't know is how long one should really take off or run easy for in order to not get worn down. everyone is probably different and i didn't feel like the race took a lot out of me. The downhills were much too technical to push it so i guess i only raced about 9 miles and some of that was using my hands so i'm down to 8 maybe. i don't really have any sort of plan this week. hoping i guess that i want to run...short 7 mile trail race this sat. will wear road racing shoes for the first time...my heavy clunkers meant for 100 mile races have got to go! it's hard picking out a new shoe though when you've had the same ones for years. i've gone through 8 pairs of them. I wonder if i'd gain minutes in races over 3hrs by wearing trail racers. i'd like to think it's that easy...only one way to find out. 

2hr 13 min trail run, felt fine, started to feel like i was locking up a little bit

by the end but was glad my legs felt fairly fresh. listened to a book on tape while running which made the time pass much better. i think this will be a new thing for me.

262 miles on brooks.  

did a 7 mile trail race today. didn't get to run yesterday cause couldn't wake up early enough in the morning (since i actually work now) and went to see my old dog who my brother is helping to take care of while his new parents are away. needless to say i felt pretty good today with the day off and low mileage. I decided to wear road racing shoes since the distance was so short and not my clunky trail runners. MUCH better, I felt so much more nimble and light. mentally it was good.

I went out kind of hard i guess although it never feels hard until after 3 or 4 minutes especially if the first 3 miles are climbing. there was this really fast road runner guy who beat the guy who wins all the trail races pretty handily last year and he broke his own record again this year and easily won by 4 min over him and 7 over me (who i just checked on and consistently runs 5 mile road races in the high 25 minute range). So i settled into 3rd place and lost site of the 2nd place guy after about 4 min which when it is Ben Nephew is pretty good for me. Must be the shoes :) I'm running alone until mile 2.5 when there is a break in the trail and no marker. i go left and then think i should just go straight which was the right decision thankfully. i lost probably 10-15 sec there and got passed in the next minute by a tall skinny looking guy who at least looked fast. I knew after mile 3 people said you could double your time and predict your finishing time so i was thankful that it would be a lot easier. There was a beautiful view i caught out of the corner of my eye but wanted to pull back the 15 sec that i now trailed the guy in front of me. As the trail got a little technical and downhill i completely recovered and caught up and passed the guy by mile 4. then there was a dirt road which we ran evenly on and some rollers. I couldn't shake him but i wasn't red lining yet...i was hoping that the trail would steepen and get more technical....with one mile to go it did and i accelerated as fast as i could on the downhill and sprinted the next uphill to get out of site and discourage my opponent. it worked and i ended up beating him by 50 sec. it was awesome to have a runner to push you...Luckily too cause he was my age and would have gotten the medal instead of me.

after the race we were lucky enough to have a clean and cold river to clean off in. Awesome race!

hopefully tomorrow i can get a nice long run in.

got a later start than i wanted today but it was pretty cool and not too sunny. i've started liking my road shoes more than my trail runners even on trails because they are lighter and my 2 year long chronic ankle injury seems to be disappearing. i forgot my 2 water bottle holder which was ok cause i did 2 different trail loops that i could go back to the car. the first was at 11.4 miles and i had won some peanut m and m's from the race and had those to snack on as well as energy drink. i went back out and at mile 16.5 and 2 hrs 35 min my gps lost the satellite signal and I kind of have to guess exactly how far i'd gone. I had averaged 9:24 up to that point and i was feeling my legs. I ran till the watch read 3:08 and change and if i had kept that pace would have run just over 20 miles which is what i'll give myself cause i tried to increase the effort slightly to keep pace. felt pretty good and refreshed. must have been all the low mileage weeks till now. no race this next weekend but a 20 mile trail race the week after up in northwest MA. i really want to put on a trail race and have become serious about it. i'll have to inquire with the town and see if it is even possible...

slow 10 min mile recovery run...11.6 miles on new shoes, really like them. 

1hr 32 min run in the morning. it's not pleasant adjusting to shocking myself with waking up 2hrs earlier than normal and running in the mornings. about 2.5 miles of trails...3.4 of road and the rest dirt road. i like my running route a lot. 20 miles on brooks. will see if i do an am workout tomorrow...i doubt it, highly doubt it! it's much easier to plan your schedule than to actual do it. if the closest track wasn't more than 10 min away maybe. 

26.6 miles on brooks...almost didn't go because waking up at 5:30 to pouring rain...and thunder isn't very welcoming. run 1hr 1 min....kind of fun though on the dirt roads. hopefully i can wake up early to get in more miles...will be tough. left inner ankle acting up the day after my 20 miler...just kind of tight...the outer ankle no longer hurts but has decided to move...definitely no time to ice or stretch anymore

7.8 miles am...about 3 miles on trails, only 3.4 on road.

was planning on about 5 or  6 in the afternoon...but crazy lightning storm with hail.

power line was knocked down right near house and closed our road. i got 0.3 on the treadmill before power went out...decided to risk running outside....but no sooner did i open the door i saw a lightning strike 20 feet from me which set our house alarm off. the previous day a large tree branch fell 10 feet from hitting me...
 

started running at 5:31 am, the earliest start of the year. i saw a bat right when i started which freaked me out cause i've had bad experiences with bats...having one fly into my lips a number of years ago. 47 miles on brooks. 

 5.4 mile trail run am...planned on doing a 5k race in the evening but for some reason i was feeling a little sick and my right testicle was hurting which i think had to do with a muscle strain.

 
4.26 trail run pm, took it real easy...so not to aggravate anything

10 mile trail run am 1hr 41 min. drove with my dad to the trails so didn't have time to do a longer run. super technical...i keep wearing my montrail trail runner shoes hoping they'll stop giving me blisters on the back of my foot. i don't understand it...i've had at least 7 pairs of these shoes and never had a problem...just on my right foot. i decided to toss them. 

 7 mile trail run pm...wore road runner shoes...1hr 10 min.
 

can't help watching the olympics at night so ran after work. 1hr 2 min trail run. was a cool 67 out. i'm thinking about purchasing an altitude tent to sleep in at night. they are 5-7000 dollars which is pretty steep but if it is like taking epo it seems like a good alternative. anyone have any idea how much this would improve a marathon time if i slept at 12,000 feet every night?

Between that and running in an ice vest....the running times could be almost elite high school...but that's probably pushing it  :)
 

1hr 7 min trail run. started with my brother and finished with him but he walked a little bit and i ran more. didn't really want to go out today cause i felt tired from watching too much olympics late at night. felt pretty good though out there. 

1hr 47 min trail run. i hate people with crappy dogs. i got snarled at not once but twice by the same dog. once each way on an out and back. seriously...when you have a crappy dog that runs at people gnashing it's teeth you can't have that thing off the leash. i was close to kicking it but it was wussy enough not to try anything. 

1hr 14 min trail run

I drove the almost 3hrs to this race across the road from mt greylock. it was a new course from previous years for some reason and consisted of two loops. i had no idea what to expect and decided to wear my road running shoes and not my heavy trail runners or worn out road racers because of the distance. I didn't enjoy wearing the road shoes at all as the course was extremely muddy and technical. In fact the trail was very overgrown. 4 of the to 5 people in the race got off course and lost at least several minutes including myself. I was no worse off than anyone else really. I didn't feel that great for some reason. I didn't feel like i was pushing myself or trying very hard but for some reason couldn't get myself to go faster. The winner wrote a blog saying how this race destroyed him and he wasn't sure he was going to finish and he is done with this type of trail racing. I feel like i'm getting back into good ultra marathon shape and losing my speed a bit but getting some good endurance . i'm hoping that next year i can improve even more with higher mileage. Glad i went but was a long day driving 3.5 hrs to philadelphia after the 6hr round trip drive.

2hr trail run in new trail running shoes from asics. pretty comfortable, my dad loves them and i'm trying to start wearing lighter shoes and i wasn't happy with my last pair of montrails. no shoe comes close to the rock protection and for some reason when i landed with my left foot on a root and it landed a certain way i got an excruciating pain in my foot. thought it was some sort of stress fracture for a moment but there was no pain when i just ran and didn't bend it so i'm not worried right now. glad to run again after 2 days in philly. 

did a tempo run on the trails today. hadn't done any speed in a while so was nervous about it. Did a 2 mile warmup and then picked carriage roads that were not too hilly. held 6:40 pace for the first 4 miles but then could only manage a 6:57 last mile as i tightened up and finished in 33:37. Cooled down another 2 miles. I love my new trail racers. They are pumas trailfox II. The size 12 could be a half size smaller but since i ordered them online i'm going to deal with it. Very comfortable and they feel very fast and responsive. will try them out in a 14 mile trail race this sunday.  

1hr 8 min trail run in asics trail shoes

easy trail run

Really enjoyed this race. I had people around me who pushed me through the halfway point which was up hill. A long probably 900ft climb was really painful. The run down I pushed almost too hard to enjoy as i tried to drop someone who beat me the previous week and saw there was also another guy 52 who beat me the previous week as well and passed me when i took a wrong turn. I was able to hold them all off. I love my new puma trailfox racing shoes and can't recommend them enough. Wish I was faster but am just not...the winner beat me by 15 minutes which is a really sick time for a course like this one that was mostly on a jeep road and not technical, but it climbed 1900ft total. Not sure if i'll drive the 3hrs to race next weekend. May do another 70 mileage week instead of the 55  I do during race weeks. I'm planning tentatively on a trail marathon 2 weeks from now.

this trail run took me 55 min! Felt sore for the first time in a long while...not super sore but had nothing...

1hr 53 min trail run. still recovering. Most trail races aren't on dirt roads so it was much faster speed than i'm used to i guess. Hoping for a tempo run tomorrow. we'll see how i feel. 

I'm really glad i took yesterday off....i just wasn't recovering from the past 2 weeks of racing. I decided i'm going to start doing more quality runs in prep for the marathon and not worry about mileage at this point 2 months out. I'll hit at least 55 a week but want to start incorporating more tempo runs and even VO2 max workouts in to get some speed back which i've surely lost since the spring. I repeated a 5 mile trail circuit i did last week. Last week I held 6:40 for the first 4 miles and then a 6:57 for 33:37 total time. This time I started out 6:58 and was scared i was all burned out and sucked....but then i hit mile 2 in 13:34 or 6:36 pace...better...then I hit 19:55 or 6:19 for the 3rd mile and then 26:30 or 6:35 and then finished in 32:59 barely! for a 6:29 final mile. So that felt good. 2 mile warmup and 2 mile cool down. have decided to do wapack 17.5 mile trail race this weekend because it's 3 day weekend that i didn't realize. It will be a good head to head against haynes after our 3 months of individual training. i must say that i don't think i've improved really. i think i've stayed the same....maybe i should be scared! i'll have to check what his time was at the 5 mile training race was tonight.

8.4 mile trail run in asics. 1hr 20 min

4.7 mile trail run, probably too many hills for the race tomorrow. inner left ankle has been bothersome all week. it used to be the outer part, go figure...

Woke up at 4:20am to get to this race on time...Was initially excited that none of the really killer fast guys were there and I had beaten all the people at least once this year who ended up beating me so I was disappointed that I was 15 min back, 5 mins at the turnaround. I just didn't have it today. The worst was getting passed at the end by a 54 yr old. He has now beaten me in the two longer races but I can barely take him in shorter races. He ran a 2:51 marathon at Boston last year and he is clearly better than me in endurance right now. He also weighs 113lbs. Oh well...at least I beat Haynes :)

I think the race every weekend is starting to take it's toll on me. 22 mile race then a 14 mile than a 17.5 mile and then this week a marathon trail race which doesn't look easy by the elevation profile. I was hoping that everyone is going to do the 50k the week after since this is the first year of the marathon. If only the 5 or so people that beat me every week aren't there i have a chance to win...although my running prowess is not there right now....

Haynes and i decided to switch to a marathon with a net 370ft elevation loss in order to get better marathon times...i'm beginning to worry that breaking 3hrs isn't going to be as easy as i originally thought after 4 months of track workouts earlier in the year.
 

went out with my brother...i did a couple add ons while he walked and i showed him the place where i had a zen moment last week. It's this really awesome downhill section that is probably a solid 1/4 mile with all different terrain. Probably a 150-200ft drop total. Starting to like my asics trail runners finally. As the sun was going down the orange glow through the trees was beautiful. 

2.6 mile warmup followed by a 5k tempo run on trails. The course is similar to what i've been doing for the 5 mile tempo runs but didn't feel like doing the full 5 was a good idea today. The long races are long enough and i wanted to start incorporating more speed. Not like i had much speed. My 5k was a 20:44. Definitely some good hills but I have been able to hold that same pace or even faster for a full 5 miles. Probably not fully recovered. Hopefully i feel pretty good this weekend. I sent in my application for the mount mitchell challenge (40 mile race in winter up and down mt mitchell in NC). It's really hard to get into because priority is given to people who have run the race before which makes entering for a first time difficult. Doesn't seem like a fair strategy but i guess it's the race director's call. 

ran at huntington...it is starting to get dark too early...may start going to work at 7:30 so  i can leave a half hr earlier. Today I'm 99% sure I saw a bear...i didn't stay very long to look twice but it was large, black, thick legs, bear walk, no collar, and no owner around...i was day dreaming and went down a path that said no trespassing...i've been near there before but never exactly at this place and i'll think twice about going there again. I then booked it up the hill and about 10 min later an owl swooped within 1ft of my head and landed on a tree just above eye level. I stared at it and it looked like one of the flying monkeys in the wizard of oz and it stared back intensely...and after about 10 sec it stepped forward one pace closer on the end of the branch and i saw electricity in it's talons as if it was going to charge at me and yes it won the stare down and i grabbed a stick which was rotten and fell apart in my hands and ran. I didn't let the animals get the best of me and i did another 2.5 mile loop as the darkness continued to engulf me. 

no bear sightings today...i was scared to go to the same place i saw the bear. I did run by where the owl was and got swooped at again...this time there were two of them! I wonder if they have a nest there. felt horrible at the beginning of the run i think it's mostly due to stiffness. By the end felt ok...definitely going to go back to taking the day off before a race. glad the storm is supposed to be bad on sat and not sun when the trail marathon is.

I'm definitely never running the day before a race ever again, I just feel so much better when I don't. I was hoping that no one good was going to be here but usual trail race winner Ben Nephew showed up and was in for the full marathon, but gave me a glimmer of hope when he said he may opt out for the 1/2. We started, and I was right behind Ben for the first mile or so but then the hill came and he pulled away. 3 others passed me on the first climb of 2000ft (a ski trail) but not by much and 2/3 of them were doing the half. Next was some single track and i got to the 5 mile aid station in 49 min feeling pretty good. More rolling single track and I got caught on an uphill by another guy who was doing the half and then i passed him on the downhill section but then we ran together.  A long steep downhill brought me to mile 8 which i dreaded having to climb on the 2nd loop which would be the reverse direction. The  course became ATV trails which were not in the best of shape but pretty good. Lots of up and downs to the aid station at mile 11, I had to poop which made me feel better. I think I need to stop eating dunkin donuts egg and cheese and the new flat bread egg thing before races. I like it though at 5am. Anyways, to get to the turn around point it was definitely longer than 2.1, probably 2.5 to 3 miles as the mostly downhill on good roads took a full 21 minutes. I saw Ben coming back and he was for sure about 12 minutes ahead at the turnaround which i got to in 2:05. I would have beaten the several people in the half marathon as I went out pretty easy and wasn't further back than a couple minutes on the winner of that. The second place guy was maybe 2 mins ahead of me and I was determined to catch him. I started very strongly on the uphill but became discouraged when i couldn't see him. I started to hurt a bit up the steep climbs but felt really strong again with about 7 miles to go. I was slightly nervous I could get caught since i was only ~6 mins ahead of the next people at the turnaround but knew i was running well enough that i should be fine. I ended up finishing 20 mins ahead of 4th place. I actually did catch up to the 2nd place guy in the last mile but it was only because he did a mini loop of ~1/3 mile cause he had his head down and missed the turn. He was too strong-a sub 3hr marathon runner according to his friends...hopefully not 2:59,  and he pulled away from me and kicked it in 2 mins ahead of me. All in all i don't feel too wrecked, haven't been getting sore from these weekend races but i think this week may be an exception...i definitely hurt a  little bit right now and waking up at 4:20am to drive to the 8am start doesn't help either....much better than last week. I only got ~6 mins slower on the return trip of 2:05 instead of 13 mins slower on the return trip of 1:20. 

Decided to go run at a place i hadn't been since h.s. It's on the way home from work in the hills behind a fairly large industrial park that is half empty. Kind of creepy actually in a way...I was only creeped out because i got lost and had to find my way back in the dark. I started running about 5:30...planned on running a couple hrs. I remembered the place being pretty hilly and remembered there being some vistas to explore. In looking for new places to run online this apparently is the start of a trail that runs 15 miles in one direction through 3 towns. I planned on doing an out and back...I ran about 2.75 miles to what looked like the trail was going to come out near a road and i decided to turn back and explore some of the side trails i opted not to take on the way out. I was at literally 35 mins or so, but the terrain was pretty awesome. I started at about 450 feet and got up to almost 900 and down and up several times. On the way back i took some side trails and found an unexpected beautifully made rock stairs and also cut out steps in rock, as well as a sweet bench with a good overlook. My downfall was taking another side trail and thinking i was somewhere i wasn't. I ended up getting down to what i thought was the place i needed to be but then i checked my gps watch as it was getting dark and i was like crap! Needless to say i had to climb a hill again and run back completely in the dark with the owls hooting. at least there appears to be miles of trails back here and i saw not a single person which i like. i'll have to go back soon. i think i'm going to try to hit the track tomorrow for a 5x1000 workout but we'll see if the track is open and also how my motivation is. Surprisingly i wasn't sore at all from the marathon. i don't really get sore anymore and i wonder if that means i don't push my body as hard as i can or if i'm just well trained for the races i do. 

went to the track today after work...wore the racing flats for the first time i'm planning on wearing in the marathon. of course my little left toe got hammered with blisters like it always does on the track. Anyways, i didn't really know what to expect. Haynes had cranked out a solid 5x1000 workout recently averaging between 3:20 and 3:25 but he had been doing some speed workouts in the past couple months while i had only done 3, 5k to 5 mile threshold runs in addition to trail racing 14 miles to a marathon the past 4 weeks. I felt fine on my run yesterday and also from the trail marathon minus the soreness on the ball of my foot. it doesn't hurt during the run but hurts to walk the next day. it went away so i'm not worried about it being a fracture...i bet it got bruised from the tortuous downhills...ok, enough of procrastinating with my times....warmed up 1.8 miles, stretched for the first time in forever and then it was judgement. I knew from the first 200 that i was not going to be hitting Haynes times today and ran a 3:29 1k. i then jogged 400m in about 2:30 and did a 3:32...looking week! then a 3:29, 3:30 and 3:33 for the last one. According to Daniels I went from a 60 vdot from my mile time back in may to a 57 vdot based on my interval workout today. What I would run if I could do a 5:11 mile. I do think i could have run much better with Haynes there too so maybe it's not fair to compare. I'm actually not disappointed, I didn't really hurt, just the speed wasn't there. I'm NOT going to race this weekend. I've said this before but i really think i'm going to focus on speed. Even with this workout i could hit a 2:50 marathon according to Daniels if i was properly marathon trained, which i'm most likely not! If i can drop these to all under 3:29 in a few weeks i'll have some confidence that i can break 3hrs going into the marathon. 1 mile cool down.

had an eye doctor appointment in the morning in the next town over and brought my running stuff because i wanted to check out some new trails. I thought the GPS in the car would be enough to find it but what should have taken 10 min took about 30 cause it would bring me to the edge of the state park but i would have had to go through people's back yards on dead end roads. the ball of my foot was hurting again but i'm sure it's from the new shoes i've been wearing...although i brought the same shoes again. The trail began overgrown but after about a mile turned beautiful and I got some good views after a good climb to 1,050ft which is impressive for where i live. did and out and back but the gps went out on the out at 6.1 miles and never really recovered. i wasn't feeling well for starters and i think a lot of that had to do with the pain in my foot and also that i had only had a light breakfast and was out there running for a couple hrs. ran about 10 +/-1 a mile a guess. Excited to explore the next segment of the Ives trail which unfortunately isn't quite finished yet. It's ~15 miles one way over all of the high points in the area. 

During yesterday's run i wanted to quit running i was so frustrated. Today I took an advil which i never do and switched to my cure all 1lb each montrail hardrock running shoes. Have no idea when the last time i wore these were as the tread is starting to come off but they have soft shock absorbing inserts i had put in. I remember wearing these during a track workout with Haynes when i had a toe blister so bad i could barely walk. I tried on 4 different pairs of running shoes but they all were really painful. i looked online and found what i had and no sight mentioned time off...it doesn't really help, it just remains tight. So i went with the hard soled montrails and i'm not running on any trails for the time being cause any root or piece of rock just kills me. I warmed up for 2.3 miles on the dirt road by my house at just under 8:30 pace and then decided to do a 5 mile loop at tempo pace. I started in 6:35, 6:45,7:00,7:00, 6:50. It was pretty humid and the loop is very hilly with elevations from 550ft to 800ft. There was actually little pain by the end of the tempo run and then i did a 2.5 mile cool down (another loop) and it started to come back. Overall though feeling much better. Will stick to the roads this week. Even the dirt roads aren't comfortable anymore cause they have tiny pieces of gravel in them. 

ran on the road today...some of it was dirt. Took 2 advil today, cause in the morning my foot hurt a little. loosened up during the day and then took another one right b4 running. Felt only mildly uncomfortable until i took the dirt road to the park...i stepped on a pebble and had excruciating pain for a few moments. ran it off and was fine. feels better than a couple days ago so i'll keep running. hopefully i'll be up for a decent track workout tomorrow. it's funny how these days the track is the least painful while a slow jog in the park is devastating.  

Went to the track today after work. i saw an older asian woman walking with her hands behind her back clasped together...i wouldn't have thought anything of it except there is an older asian man who i almost hit every morning on my drive to work that also walks like that. i wonder if it is genetic or cultural. it looks pretty cool though. 

 the weather was perfect for a track workout but i was a little bit unsure of my new running shoes. last workout was miserable but i put some body glide where i had trouble. unfortunately the skin on the side of my left foot came off today and is bunch up a couple mm thick. my skin isn't made for the track i guess.

i did 3x2 miles today and i was mistaken that i had thought Haynes said to run b/w 6:10 to 6:15 instead of 6:05 to 6:10. First mile 6:08, second 6:20. Didn't feel like i was trying really but was afraid of the workout. Took 2 laps around the track then did 6:10, 6:12. I could hear the blister sloshing around but it broke on the 3rd repeat. I'm amazed that it takes so little time to form a blister. 6:08 first mile, 6:11 second. Didn't lock up and felt like i could have done another 2 repeats at this pace but could only manage to do 2 cool down laps due to the pain.

 The ball of my foot was only felt during warmup and the track is really the best place to run for me due to the even surface. Only 3 more weeks really of training. I'm kind of enjoying the workouts again and the week off from racing makes me feel much faster.

 I also started taking endurox R4 after every run to see if it will help me recover better. it can't hurt.

 will take another crack at the 5x1000 in a couple days if the track doesn't have some sporting event on it. I think i need v02 workouts and speed more than anything else right now.



 

objective: deal with painful blisters and run through any additional foot pain before it gets dark.

 Used a liberal amount of vaseline to cover the blister which is 1/3 the size of my foot. not really a blister anymore but raw skin. didn't need the advil today for my ball of foot pain...felt yesterday's workout a little bit i guess since i didn't really feel like i had a good pop in my stride.

 decided to not add on any additional miles to avoid bats and not overdo it cause i plan on doing 5x1000 tomorrow on the road with the gps. No more track until the blister heals. i think the road is flat enough that it will be close to the track in terms of speed. not enjoying the road pounding. i hope that by this weekend i'll be ok to venture out on the trails again, at least ones that aren't too rocky.

objective met!

was going to do 5x1000 until last night when i saw a workout in advanced marathon training was 6x1000. not like i really read any of it...

i couldn't go to the track because my foot looks like it is bleeding so i had to go do the workout on the road. i went to the flattest place i know which is the road with the most traffic in my town. i almost ended up getting hit by drivers pulling out of side roads not expecting runners but i'm still alive. The course had 2 slight hills, not more than 10 feet or so each but enough to feel. I took 90 sec of rest in between. the first couple i jogged but had to walk at the end. splits were...

3:38, 3:32, 3:36, 3:36, 3:38, 3:41 

 i enjoy doing these on the road much more than the track. it was too dark to really do more mileage and my left foot still has a bad blister and just feels awkward cause i'm compensating a bit. i think by sat it won't be a factor.
 

5.5am, woke up at 5:30 only to find out it doesn't get light enough to see and have no chance of bats till 6:15. ball of foot pain is gone but red skin was dreadfully painful. loosened up after about a mile and was not too bad. pain is relative. 

 5.5pm same out and back loop. i like the 1.1 mile dirt road, there are only 3 houses on it and one of them is a farm.

 it's getting dark too early! am thinking about getting to work at 7:30 to get off at 4:30 to have more light.

 

was planning on running to some trails to run but after running down a dirt road thought better of it. my blister only was unpleasant for 0.5 miles and then was fine. It was a beautiful day and I actually enjoyed running on the scenic roads around town. I unexpectedly found a 1.5 mile dirt road that no cars can go on. Don't know why it's there but it was real pretty, especially the part that went by the swamp. Managed to do an 18.8 mile loop than did an out and back for an even 20. The hardest part was the 300ft climb in 0.5 miles at mile 18. Tightened up a little bit around mile 14.5 but nothing too bad. Could have cruised the flats pretty well but was in no condition to deal with hills. Averaged 8:30 which is fine considering the course. Not sure if i have more or less confidence about breaking 3hrs right now. i'd say this was a neutral run. 2hrs 50 min, wore some old trail shoes which were really quite comfortable on the road. maybe the advil i snuck in helped. 

ran to my brother's soccer game in town. was planning on taking a connector trail there but it was not a trail it was white paint on trees. i turned around after 1/10 of a mile. 8 years ago it was a trail. the game was really boring and i wished i wasn't standing out in the sun but i did at least stretch a bit which i wouldn't have otherwise. legs felt decent after the first couple miles. 9 miles on the road and 5x600 tomorrow at 5k race pace with 90 sec rest...i'm going to pretend i've been following the pfitzinger advanced marathoning plan all along.  

purposely got to work by 7:30 so i could officially leave at 4:30 but didn't end up
leaving till 5:30. Would have liked to have done a few more miles but all is well. My big legs felt a little unsure of themselves despite their massive size but I was psyched for the workout since i know there aren't too many more of them. My gps watch did not work until the last mile of my run so was no help. I knew that I should be running the 6x600 around 2:05 and figured that i'd run about 2:10-2:15 so on my first one on the road i started at a mailbox and ended at a mailbox that put my time where it should be.  2:14 for the first one. did 90 sec rest. 2:11, 2:09, 2:11, 2:13, 2:16. May have missed the order of the 2nd and 3rd but those were the times. Right quad was tightening up during the cool down. It takes me about 3 vo2 max workouts to feel decent doing them. They actually start feeling good. I'm all about staying off the track now. I actually like having lots of cars pass me, it is kind of inspiring to not look pathetic. The only downside is i can't hear my music as well due to the noise. finished just as it was getting dark. did a decent stretch and managed to pump out an insane 25 pushups and situps.

Ran 1hr33 min, legs felt tight but running on the road is so much easier than the trails. Holding 7:30 when it's flat feels comfortable whereas 9 min on trails s pushing it. Holding a 6:52 for 26 miles to go under 3hrs seems kind of daunting. 6:40 is 2:55, which seems impossible. I'll have an idea how it will feel after the 1/2 this weekend. I'm kind of nervous I won't be able to run a 1:23. I would LOVE to just break 1:23, but it depends how fast this course is and if the weather is cool. Apparently only a net rise of 100ft the whole race, despite it being in a hilly area.  Should be beautiful, i hope the leaves are starting to change up there! Legs were definitely tight today. Tomorrow I may actually go to the track on the way home from work if there isn't a sporting event on it to do 100's. I'm just going to run 6-7 easy. And no turns around the track for sure. Blister/cut still not close to being healed although today the pain was only a 2 on a scale of 0 to 10. Ball of the foot pain is almost non-existent. Still going to stay off the trails until after the marathon i think and a week off. That's the plan anyway.

 I did measure my 600 workout from yesterday and found that the intervals were actually 630m +/- 5m.

 Saw a fox for the 2nd day in a row. They're everywhere i guess.

 

Went to the h.s. track and there was a cross country meet going on. Even the leaders didn't look very fast. I'm curious how fast they ran. I mostly ran around the soccer fields there and the cross country course before and after the meet. did 8x100 sprints on the soccer field. Not really striders, but full sprints about 95%. Felt pretty weak today probably from the long run and the intensity of my runs increasing. Will maybe take tomorrow off unless I want to wake up early and run 5 in the dark. 

This race was supposed to be very fast according to the website. I originally thought to my surprise that there was only a net 100ft of elevation gain total but it was instead a net 100ft loss which really doesn't mean anything on a rolling hilly course. The hills weren't substantial, there were no big climbs but the course never did seem flat. I was really hoping for a 1:23 since i thought i was in better shape than in '05 when i didn't even have racing flats. I did however come from training in CO to sea level with lots of long tempo runs and the extra oxygen probably helped me a lot. 

Haynes was there and i really didn't want to lose to him by more than a minute. His track workouts he has been posted have seemed very strong and i thought he might run a ridiculous time. Haynes already posted a good race report so i'll just say that i felt tight holding 6:15 pace for the first several miles. Not sure why my hamstrings were tight...after about mile 8 i started to not be too happy....i held on till mile 10, it was funny to pass the parking lot of a state park where i had a trail race earlier in the year...that was unexpected. Came through 10 miles in 1:03:55 with Haynes holding an even pace till then.  i needed to pull through in 20:04 for my goal time but only mustered a miserable 20:43 for the final 5k. The last mile had a miserable hill. It was odd how there was no pain anymore after mile 10, i simply was shut down. Haynes maintained his pace very well and beat me by about a minute.

 The one depressing thing was that i found a 40yr old woman ran about 5 sec faster than me last year and went on 2 weeks later only to run a 3:02 marathon. i'm hoping the marathon course i'm doing is faster. I also hope that my body is more suited for maintaining paces not close to my threshold pace of 6:10. I'm wondering whether it's best to go out in 6:45 and try to hold on or closer to 6:50....

 

ran with my brother. i wanted to go up this mountain about a 5 min drive to my house. There is a bench at the top which is pretty cool. It took us 1.8 miles from the car and 26:30 to reach the bench. Will be a good route for time trialing to gauge fitness. The only real mountain climb around. Although the 450ft net elevation gain isn't very impressive. It does gain about 650ft total though. Unfortunately the two of us couldn't stay on the lofty 850ft summit because it has been raining for several days and the mosquitos were out in full force. I was happy my foot didn't act up at all and my legs felt pretty good. Total running time 56 min for 4 miles! Would be such a sick and technical trail race back there. It's kind of creepy how well maintained all the trails are but i never see anyone around. As i pulled in to the turnaround and the half abandoned business park there was a cop parked there i was worried that maybe we're not supposed to park there...it was odd that he drove away immediately as we were getting out of the car as if i was the cop and he was the one up to no good. 

easy run with my brother...towards the end there was a long downhill and my brother was pushing it so i picked up the pace. 

did a workout from pfitzinger....was supposed to be done on a thursday but my schedule is a little bit off. during the warmup 9 min miles didn't feel so great and i wondered if i should take another day off before doing 3x1 mile at 5k race pace. but i hate not finishing what i planned for the day and i decided to go for it and just take the times i got. i glommed on a ton of vaseline and body glide on my feet to try and prevent the 2 week blister again and it worked. Did 6 striders before i started and felt miserable. Mile 1 (really only 1600)...first lap i went out in an 80 and was already winded...i apparently had a fear of being weak and slow...the 80 did not feel easy. settled down and ran a 90sec 2nd lap and finished the first mile in 5:42. 5k race pace back in may would be 5:43 so surprisingly good. 2 min recovery and then i ran a 5:45....2 min recovery, 5:47. Started to slow each lap slightly but know i could have held if i had someone there with me. Wasn't terribly hard. Probably the last vo2 before the marathon. will do lots of striders and a couple marathon pace miles. 

58 min trail run...the trails were hard to see properly with lots of leaves on the ground. i have missed the feeling i get trail running compared to the road...there are different thoughts and it's easier to lose yourself. i'm glad my foot doesn't hurt anymore, but i feel it can come back if i run on too many trails. i'm thinking another 3x1 mile tomorrow. i want to get on pfitzinger schedule. i really don't see how an extra vo2 max workout can hurt over a week out. 

Was going to do a threshold workout but thought better of it after realizing that i was in no mood and probably condition to crank out low 6's today. First mile was 6:42 downhill, 6:46 downhill, 7:03 horrible uphill, 6:51 horrible uphill ran 3:40 for the first .5. finished off with a good stretch but sadly have seen no improvements in flexibility.

now just going to exactly follow the last 1+ weeks of advanced marathoning.
 

beautiful day today, the weather was crisp and cold and i had a runny nose which i actually liked while i was running today, who knows why...i'm really into this new place only 4 miles from my house. there was a go cart thing that i had to drive through though which was annoying. i was so surprised that i saw no one today. I averaged around 12 min/mile but the terrain is great. i feel like i'm far away from where i live in a more rugged and empty place. i explored more of the trails today and actually am pretty sure i found out how to connect to the next park so i can lengthen my runs. i also ran by an old dammed up pond. who knows who dammed is and why it is in the middle of nowhere. also saw a HUGE deer with very large antlers which is something i haven't seen before. i was really hungry by the end of the run and did not enjoy doing 10x100 striders on the pavement next to the go carts. 

ran to some trails and did 6 miles on the trails. 1.5 miles on dirt roads. my ipod decided to stop working which is lame. i've had two of them so far and the keypad always stops working. i feel comfortable with the ipod but am kind of not happy with their lack of durability. 1hr 59 min. 

5 miles am, actually wore gloves and a long sleeve shirt cause it was in the 30's.
i kind of had one of my old vision issues after about 20 min right when  another runner turned onto the road i was running on. of course i had to pass him. he looked reasonably athletic and rugged but the way he landed on his feet was not right. i'm glad i was able to pass him despite my vision problems. it was easy but not as easy as i wanted it to be.  

 5 mile pm, did a trail run with my brother across the street. the trails aren't as in good shape as they used to be when i was in h.s. due to the acreage being destroyed by huge fancy houses but it's really interesting terrain for a short run. it was getting dark and the trail that used to be a trail was blocked off by rocks and completely overgrown, almost impenetrable. we were near houses and could see the road 1/4 mile away but as we got close there sounded like a large dog was onto us and i decided to go back. we still short cutted and that entailed crossing a swampy area with a stream going through it. the stream was about 8 inches too wide for me to clear and i literally had my shoe eaten. it was removed from my foot and COMPLETELY submerged aside from a tiny speck of shoelace. it took 2 hands and about 10 sec of strong effort to remove it. good day. got out before dark and in time to pick up brother from soccer practice. hopefully 2 miles at marathon pace won't seem like such a burden tomorrow. not sure where i'm going to run them yet as the hills here are very annoying and draining. perhaps the track?
 

warmed up with 3.4 miles and then did 2 miles at marathon pace. 6:37 for the first mile and then 6:36 for the second. both miles had a slight net downhill so probably about right ~6:45-6:51 effort if it were flat. cooled down 1.8 miles. Just two more 5 mile days before the marathon. I wonder if it matters at all running a few miles the day before vs. taking the day completely off. psychologically i like the day off and just feel more confident that i am completely rested. not sure if this is logical or not though. the book suggests running 4 miles easy.

 i also found out that i got into the mt mitchell challenge in NC which i'm excited about. 40 miles up mt mitchell and back down in february. sounds like a blast! 

ran 8:15 pace and felt pretty good. will try to run 5 in the am tomorrow and then probably just walk around a little on sat. unfortunately the weather is not going to be as cool on sunday as it should be. about 10 degrees warmer than the avg temp. 

5 miles before work with 6x100 striders. no more running till the marathon on sunday. weather is starting to look slightly cooler. 

Drove up to the race the day before, arrived in Albany, NY at approx 4:15pm and picked up stuff at race expo. Walked around town looking for food but really didn't find anything so we decided to go to the next town over where we were staying at. Settled on ihop and then splitting a large cheese pizza after. Pretty great carbo load.

Race day: I was worried I might not be able to break 3, but felt confident that I had the ability to. The weather temp at the start was ~45F but quickly warmed up to ~65C by race end. Went without a shirt which was good but resulted in horrible chaffing under the arms which i knew might happen but after 7 miles of sweat the vaseline and body glide alternative (this other running lube stuff) completely was gone. I guess body glide is better! Still hurts two days later. I also got the onset of a blister around mile 8 on my little toe but it didn't get any worse which was fortunate. I took in liquid at every aid station as much as i could. I sometimes grabbed two drinks cause the cups are worthless until liquid only fills a third of them. They rest just splashes out. I carried 3 bags of shot blocks and 2 gu's in my hand which was a little annoying but the pocket is not an option. I lost one gu early but still had a total of 700 calories plus i took almost all gatorade at the aid stations. I also had to stop to poop just after the half marathon point but it was worth the 20 sec or so i lost.

Listed below are approx splits: Haynes and i decided to not warm up but start off slow.

6:48
6:52 (was surprised how slow this mile was and was a little concerned)
6:33 (unexpected but some downhills) left ankle was bothering me as it often does. it was the inner part, but the outer one is also known to hurt-a little concerned!
6:34
6:41(loosened up, ankle pain gone)
6:56 (ran with a group of people who were trying to hit sub 3) they were not concerned with going out in 1:30...because of the downhill at the end. I freaked out a bit when i saw this and told Haynes I was going to speed up a bit cause the pace was far too easy and weak)
6:48 (good pace again on the flats)
6:49
6:46
6:51
6:44
6:50 (starting to think about pooping)
6:54
half in 1:28:47
7:02 (includes poop stop in the bushes, pretty gross)
6:34 (course starts to have a nice sloping downhill for the next 4 miles)
6:53
6:35
6:36
6:51(off the bike path i think and on the roads)
6:43 (at this point i new i was going to break 3)
6:49 (felt like haynes wanted to push it)
6:54 (the hardest mile for me mentally, warming up and legs starting to feel every tiny uphill) luckily that was only inclines of 5 or so feet!
6:48
6:54 (felt like haynes was starting to hurt more than me which made me feel stronger)
6:52
6:48
1:30 last 0.2 miles

total 2:57:53 (including a photo finish victory over haynes cause he didn't have the vision not to hit a half marathoner who was finishing).

overall a really awesome experience! No complaints about the weather, the volunteers at the aid stations were great. I was really fortunate to be able to run with Haynes the whole time and feed off of his pace. Made it actually kind of fun. I also enjoyed that there were under 600 people. Finished with no aches or pains.

Not planning on doing a road marathon anytime soon. Not until i think i can go under 2:50. Don't think that will be next year...maybe more realistic is going under 1:20 in a half marathon, although also doesn't seem realistic right now, but it won't hurt the body to try unlike the marathon. I was luckily able to achieve all 4 of my running goals for the year. The sub 5 min mile, the sub 18min 5k, the sub 30min 5 mile, and the sub 3hr marathon. Not bad. I owe my improvement to Haynes and his teaching me about how to train properly. i almost forgot to mention that my goal of overtaking haynes and beating him in the marathon also came true despite having the same time...

I asked one of my old running friends the question: if we didn't ever age and could continue running and building up miles indefinitely...could someone without as much talent like a 2:55 marathoner ever run a 2:10 marathon with a 100 years of training in peak physical condition without aging? Or is there an absolute threshold that each person can't cross no matter what? I think there must be a limit but we don't live long enough i guess to reach it.

easy trail run. probably the nicest evening of the year! 

trail run...the only thing that happened was a black leaf fell down on me and i thought it was a bat and almost pulled every muscle in my body trying to avoid it. i couldn't figure out why it just kept falling...i had just passed a group of people and i hope they didn't hear me or see what happened. 

this morning was COLD! not that cold really if i were running but i had

no idea how to dress since i haven't been on a bike in a while. even

with mittens my hands were freezing. i need to figure out how to add

cross training miles to the blog, if anyone knows how i'd love to know.

went 29 miles with a road bike group. there were a bunch of dirt roads

we road on for some reason that were pretty though and i'd like to be

able to find them again so i can run there. did a total of 37 miles.

very hilly, i definitely need to buy bike shorts cause i was not very

comfortable in my super old ones. kind of fun though and i was glad

that i could keep up although i didn't feel too sure of myself with my

almost non-existent brakes.

3.6 miles easy with my dad and then about an hour later i explored a new trail system with my brother which was kind of ok for 5.1 miles. Did kind of a hike run. I wasn't really feeling too well today. I think i'm getting sick. Probably won't go back there. Definitely hilly but it just felt like it was a sketchy place across the street from a shooting range.

1hr trail run. felt really good. hated how dark it was with the rain and also it's just dark now. i think i will do a half marathon trail race this weekend. should be very well rested for it! 

5 or so mile trail run. forgot my gps.

1hr 4 min trail run. my left foot is feeling tight again. sometimes in the left ankle, sometimes the right, sometimes just the bottom of my foot. it loosens up after 15 min or so and doesn't bother me at all only to tighten up again and be annoying to walk around after about an hour. ice doesn't help that much but advil helps but it seems like i need to advil all the time. i must be doing something wrong to have this problem that's been chronic for 2 years. it doesn't get worse really but it never goes away or it will go away for a few days and then come back. i have come to accept that being a runner is simply painful.

4 mile trail run. then walked dog for 1.1 miles as i have almost every day since the marathon. i really enjoy walking, especially in the dark. it is quite relaxing.

4 mile hike with dad. beautiful day cloudy but no rain. great view at the top. excited to race tomorrow.

I've been running really light mileage the past couple weeks and was itching to have something to do this weekend. I LOVE the whole process of trail racing, except the going to bed early and having to poop 4-6 times before the race even begins, but in the fall it is much easier to bury :)

enough about that...i drove up about 2hrs 20 min to just west of albany, up this mountain to a state park. when i got to the race it was an exciting atmosphere, there was a halloween theme with halloween sounds being blasted in the parking lot and their were people in gorilla costumes and a sketchy guy with a chainsaw walking around. it was good to see some old faces at the races. There were SO many people out today. The race started off and we ran through a fake graveyard past the guy lunging at us with a chainsaw. I started out in 20th place or so and sprinted ahead to 4th place before a muddy single track and quickly realized
i was definitely beyond threshold pace. After 2 miles i was passed by a guy i had beaten earlier in the year and he would go on to beat me by 3 minutes today. What was irksome was not being passed by robin hood at mile 5 but by being passed at about mile 8 by this guy who i didn't even know what his costume was. It wasn't like the people who passed me went by me in a flash it was this long and slow inevitable pulling away. I settled into a rhythm and felt dizzy for a bit and my stomach was not bad but i regretted eating a full lb or possibly more of imitation crab meat the night before. i wonder why i do such foolish things. so the passing was done by mile 8 and i just hoped no one else would catch me and i started to feel a bit better. i had a good scare by the 3rd of the 4th gorilla that jumped out at me. it was quite annoying, especially the chainsaw guy. the course got 3 inches of rain the night before so the course was quite muddy and had pools of water but not annoyingly so. very fast course with few hills and my biggest goal was to finish in sub 7 pace which i just did in 6:58. Overall not a bad race, but not great. I helped my best of 6 race point total today which was my main goal, and will need to race next weekend to get over 1000 points for the whole series. we'll see. such a beautiful day though.

i did have a bit of a scare on the way back. i was kind of zoning out listening to a book on tape on the highway when a large stag came out of the corner of my eye, inches from the road about 20 feet in front of the car. I didn't get an adrenaline rush because the threat was gone before i could register it, but if the deer didn't pull up at the last second it would have been BAD news.

something else sketchy happened when i went on a "run" with my dad when i got back. it was close to getting dark on the way down the mtn and he noticed what looked like a large animal organ. i thought/hoped it was just some hugebut it was clearly notand it was fresh. we had not noticed it before about an hour earlier and there were no cars around at the parking lot nor was there any blood or bones around. there was a partial hide of a skunk but the organ was larger than the entire skunk. we were close to the car at that point then heard a substantial rustle in the leaves and that made things worse. who knows, i guess it's just an unsolved mystery. will think twice about running there towards dark alone.

trail run. 

trail run

road run

Hiked/ran in the catskills. More of a hike than a run due to the steepness and the surprising snow and ice that was there. Was out for 5hrs 10 min. Began at 1300ft and got up to the snow line around 2000ft. At 3.6 miles reached the first peak at 3800ft. Lots of slippery ice. Descended and then climbed to a second peak which i wasn't aware was on a side trail off of the main trail. I came to this point of no return section. There was a scrambling section with a V crack and it was definitely icy. I got up ok but i didn't feel like going down was an option. The out and back i was contemplating turned into a loop. I was then on to my final ascent of the highest peak in the catskills at 4180ft. I passed a group of snowshoers! I didn't really understand why the snowshoes since i was in trail runners but anyway there were 8 or so in number and the leader didn't really say hi he looked at me and just said "do you have a fixed line?" i said what? and he repeated himself until he stooped to my language and said if i had a rope. i said no and he said that there was a bad icy section up ahead. I told him that the way i came was also pretty horrible. he said that he would be fine because of their "fixed line". he really annoyed me-like he was some bigshot group leader telling me i wasn't prepared for what i was doing. Anyways, i get to the icy section and it really wasn't any problem, definitely easier than the other stuff i did. Going up the final summit was pretty fun, up to about a ft of snow but the trail was packed down pretty well. I got up to the peak and met some nice people. Headed down to the parking lot to complete the transect of allegedly the hardest dayhike in the catskills in 8.9 miles according to gps or 9.7 according to the sign at 2500ft. 3hrs and 37 min. I then had to take a road for a mile which was uphill. it was nice knowing there were a couple people ahead of me seeing their tracks. I had passed a couple groups of people who were doing the loop i was. I liked passing them. I caught up to the people in front of me (Germans) at about 11 miles. The trail was annoying due to all the blowdowns and non packed 6 inches of snow that was a little crusty. It felt good getting to the main trail again until i saw bear poop. lots of berries in it. I then passed some other foreigners who said they heard the bear but didn't see it. I found it interesting that there were as many foreigners as americans here. i didn't realize the catskills were a spectacular getaway for people. The trail was hard to find in spots but i made it back after hitting my head on a log i didn't see, and also dropping my camera about 10 feet and also having a scare that i lost my iphone which didn't get any reception anyway. an awesome day. very refreshing. i'm going to count mtn hikes as easy miles even though i probably shouldn't. It's good training for mt mitchell this winter anyway.