Falmouth/Birthday Weekend

Hello, my small cadre of running fans who remain interested in the ramblings of a long-distance-never-was!

This was a solid week of training for me, which is great when there's 10-12 of them in a row, but most be increasingly boring to read about. At the same time, the few emails I've got that say "hey, I like what you have to say and it's helped me" keep me going. Maybe someday, if I get legitimate, these posts will be an interesting study in the development of a guy who clawed his way from mediocrity. Anyway, here's the log:

Monday- AM- At Hood Field with Geoff, 3mi warmup (19:45) 3mi tempo 15:56 (5:18, 5:19, 5:19) 1mi jog, 1.5 mi 7:48 (5:11, 2:37), 1mi jog, 1mi 4:58 (2:31, 2:27) 1.5 mi jog. Felt pretty crappy- my back muscles were really tight and crampy.
PM- 4 easy, felt great.

Tuesday- 1PM- 5 easy to work, 32:56. 6PM- 8 easy, 54:30, cut it short because I felt sick. Sitting in the sun all day at work without drinking anything was probably a bad idea. The laps around the lake I do are hilly as they come, so at least I'm getting in some challenging terrain.

Wednesday- 1PM- To work again, 4 easy in 26:12 (probably slightly short). PM- 12 easy, 79:39, hilly terrain again. Felt pretty good today- probably because I pounded water like it's my job.

Thursday- AM- 4 easy- 28:42 + 5xhill sprints. Goddamn rednecks were up early to heckle me. PM- 3 up, All-Comers Mile at the Greater Derry Track Club Fun Run, 69, 70, 70, 59 (that 59 was the last 409m). I was pleased to close under 60 so easily and was pretty confident I could run at least 14:40 for 5k right now.

Friday- AM- 4 easy barefoot, 28:56.
PM- Travel to Allston, 9 with Eric, Geoff, Gibson, and James- 59 min. Ran up around JP and enjoyed the ghost of Bill Rodgers' footsteps.

Saturday- AM- Drove to Falmouth with Petah, Kevin, and Geoff. Worked for an hour or two at the expo for the Strands Booth (Matt Downin has done more for me than he knows, and God knows I owe him more than a few paltry volunteer sessions could make up for). I got my first edition of Kenny Moore's Best Efforts signed by Frank Shorter, Meb, Bill Rodgers, and Joan Benoit Samuelson. We were near the front of the line so the Olympians weren't burned out from a million autographs yet, so they all chatted with us for a few. I had trouble not blurting out to Shorter that it was his autobiography that inspired me to try to become the best runner I could. Shorter is my hero, and yet I think I avoided looking like a fawning idiot, haha.
PM- 7 easy with Petah, Geoff, Kevin, and Chris from Falmouth High. We wandered around on some trails then watched the Falmouth Mile. I don't want to sound like a fanboy, but it was really cool watching a sub-4 mile in person, especially since there were maybe 200 people at this rinky-dink little high school track with no rabbits or anyting. The women were equally impressive- all 4 women ran within spitting distance of their PRs and Erin Donohue ran from the front, winning in an American soil PR of 4:27. I was lucky enough to get to stay with Max Darrah's family and get totally spoiled by his mom instead of having to book a motel. Again, I don't want to sound like some obsequious fan, but Will Leer was hosted at the same house and it was cool getting to hang out with this guy I'm a huge fan of (as an ex-d3er, Will Leer is even more of a legend to me). Max's mom made a TON of food and I enjoyed it even more than the trash-talking/wii bowling experience with Leer, Petah, Geoff, and Max afterward.

Sunday- AM- 2 up with Eric, Marisa, Mike, and Peter. John Carroll treated us no different from the professionals- he let us start up front, was extremely kind to us, gave me access to the infield of the track at the Mile the night before to take pictures for Letsrun (which they didn't use! booooo wejo!), etc. The whole "Falmouth experience" was entirely world-class and top-notch and I can't wait to come back next year. 7mi race in 36:38 for 37th? 5:15, 10:27, 15:42, 20:55, 26:09, didn't catch the 6mi split. I saw roughly 32:35 for 10k, though. 4mi cooldown with Peter.

Tot- 91.

Race: I'm more of less disgusted with how my race. Now, I have been over every inch of silver lining and every half-baked platitude in the book: it's August, Regionals is in November, this is only my 2nd race over 5mi ever, Regionals is only a 10k not 7mi, it was hot out and I'm a huge wimp about hot-weather running, etc, etc. Blah, blah, blah. The trouble is that this is the 2nd race in a row where I've run 5-8 seconds/mile slower than I thought I was in shape to do. I'm chalking these efforts up to unimportant summer road races and hoping that after a few more months of 13-14 mile days I'll be rolling. I've told countless runners that mileage isn't about instant gratification, that it's about consistency over time and sacrificing short-term goals. Now I'm facing that same lesson in patience and I'm dealing with it extremely poorly, haha. On the other hand, the miserable race was more than mitigated by a fantastic birthday weekend (I turned 20 on Saturday) and the hope that better things lie ahead of me.

I just barely got this in time to count as Sunday!