Classes, Tempos, Epic Fails

Between training, job interviews, and classes, this week has absolutely flown by. I'm all moved into my room and I finally got around to buying a mattress- unfortunately, the sweet deal I got on it (500 dollar mattress/box spring for $265!) means that I have to wait until Thursday for them to ship it from their warehouse to the Sleepy's I bought it at. Fortunately, my roommates have helped me save 90 dollars on delivery charges by agreeing to help me carry the mattress the two blocks home. 90 bucks goes a long way in terms of groceries!

I've been living "on my own" (or at least, no longer under the auspices of my mother) for three weeks now. That isn't a very long time, but it is long enough to appreciate just how often I eat in a day and what a pain in the neck it is to do grocery shopping. I've taken to planning out, meal-by-meal, the food I'm going to eat in the next week so I'm not reduced to wandering around the grocery store buying what looks good. For a very unorganized guy like me, this has proven to be an interesting exercise.

Log:

Monday- AM-4 mi easy with Eric, Nicki, and Sophie (two freshmen(freshladies?)) 33min
PM- Beacon St w/u to the Res, 24min tempo, 4min easy, 4x15 seconds fast, 45 seconds easy, 3 c/d. Ran with Petah the whole way, covered 7500m (3 Res laps) in 23:50. We used our recent 10mi race as a basis on our effort and tried to run this tempo at the same intensity. Our pace there was just over 5:20/mile but we averaged 5:07/mile at the Res. We were both quite comfortable the whole way and obeyed Bruce's dictum that we should be able to talk in halting but coherent sentences. Our splits were roughly 7:54, 7:58 (15:52 at 5k), 7:57. I should point out, though, that the Res is firm cinder trails and flat as a pancake- in other words, a lightning fast surface.

Tuesday- 9 easy, two laps around JP and home again- nice big group, 61min.

Wednesday- AM- 5 easy including a barefoot mile on Nickerson, ran with Ken and Eric from the house, 36:30. Slept awful and felt that a little.
PM- Somewhere between 9 and 10 very easy with Greg (65min). Felt really flat, dehydrated, and tired. Classes started today.

Thursday- 12noon- Had a class that interfered with practice so Bruce and I headed to Franklin Park for a workout of 7xk. 3 up, then a really weird workout. I ended up doing 4xk averaging 3:18s and 1:50 rest before Bruce pulled me and instructed me to take a day off. It was weird because I didn't feel like I was going slow, nor did I feel tire- but I was running slower for each k repeat than I averaged for the entire time on Monday's tempo. Obviously, the thick grass would slow things down a little (maybe from 4:50 pace on the track to 5:00 pace) but it shouldn't have been that bad. I slept terrible again the night before, but, again, didn't feel like I was running 5:20s. Bruce said it was an early sign of overreaching and instructed me to take a day off.

Friday- First day completely off since June, felt horrible about it all day. Napped and ate as much as possible.

Saturday- AM- 14 easy with Eric, wandered around Harvard then went out to Watertown and back, 95:30.

Sunday- AM- Another tempo, this time at Minuteman in Concord MA. Did 30min warmup including strides, then a 25 min tempo averaging somewhere around 5:15 pace and feeling controlled. My back was pretty sore (I've been sleeping on an air mattress for like a week now) but I think I did a good job of following Bruce's instructions not to push hard. It was tough not to go with Eric and Peter when they broke away, but I tried to be disciplined not to get caught up in stubbornly running with Peter.

Tota- 73 in 6 days (8 runs). I thought about doing an easy 3 later today but I might just take a nap instead.

All in all, I'm really happy with the way the team's been looking lately. Everyone has been all systems go and running strongly (but appropriately) in workouts. I'm sure that a few of the freshman are over their heads (but this is to be expected- they'll learn) but other than that, my shit workout on Thursday has been the only stain on the season thus far. My first race for BU is coming up in a week and I'm EXCITED to get out there and see what happens. Hopefully a few nights on my new mattress will get my back feeling good again by race day!

Have a good week, everyone!