overtaking haynes

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.