Thanksgiving/Jackalopes at NXR

Hi, everyone- I hope everyone's Thanksgivings were great! Mine was nice and quiet- just the 4 MacPhersons at home, gorging ourselves. In terms of training, the week proved tough- but it was nice to get home and recharge a little.

The log:

Monday- AM- overslept, then skipped class to watch NCAAs.
PM- 13 easy, 86:33, last 3-4 miles about 6:15 pace, just easing along.

Tuesday- AM- overslept again, went to bed late.
PM- 3 up, 2 sets of (1600, 1200, 800, 400) with a 400 sustained jog between everything (about 7min pace) for a total of 7miles on the track in my ventulus 2s. Had a nice big group to run with- Eric, Peter, and I traded laps. Bruce said keep it around 72-73/lap and feel good, so we did that. Splits:

1600- 4:51
1200- 3:33
800- 2:21
400- 68

(extra 400 jog)

1600- 4:52
1200- 3:31
800- 2:23
400- 62 (~28 last 200, decided to close down the last 150 fairly good- didn't press, stayed smooth)

7 miles total in 37:39 (~5:24/mile) (no stops- just right into each interval). 3 down. Felt great in the spikes- did some mobility drills over hurdles after with Peter and Ken, then caught a ride back to New Hampshire in the evening with my friend Owen.

Wednesday- AM- Squeezed in 3 before an early dentist appt. Stayed out til 2am again- really need to cut that out. PM- 14 easy, cold, rainy, windy, miserable out. Felt terrible because I didn't eat all day, then felt like an idiot for not eating all day.

Thursday- Thanksgiving- 12 easy before dinner, felt absolutely awful with allergies/cold. Getting 5-6 hours of sleep about 5 days in a row was idiotic, as was not eating any real food for two days. Also, I'm allergic to the family cats and it takes me about a week to get adjusted to them again. These short trips home are killers to training. Cut the planned 14 and hill sprints short to eat.

Friday- AM- Travel to Wappinger's Falls, NY, for the Nike Regional Meet. My Pinkerton boys ran for the Flying Jackalope track club, so my high school coach, Kevin McGrath, and I chaperoned them. I've gotta say, those Nike guys do a first-class job with stuff- Anna Willard and the author of A Memorable Run spoke at the dinner and they were both fascinating speakers. Plus, it's always a good time to hang out with Kev. Anyway, did a workout at the course- 3 up, then 3min, 5min, 10min, 5min, 3min @ tempo effort with 4min jog rest in between, then a few minutes down. Let me tell you, that Bowdoin Park is not an easy cross country course! Twisted my foot on one of the trail's and it hurt pretty bad.
PM- 4 miles easy from the hotel at night, ran around the lit parking lots doing about 10x10-30sec surges for variety. Left foot KILLED.

Saturday- AM- 3 easy at Nike Regionals, foot hurt too bad to run so I stopped and figured I'd just let it rest. The boys didn't do quite as well as they would have liked- 12th place when their regional ranking was 10th. It was a long season, though, and their coach wasn't necessarily into preserving their conditioning for post-season meets.

Sunday- Off, foot felt a little better, but why rush things?

Tot- 73 (70 miles in the first 5 days). Not an awful training week, but not ideal, of course. I think I'll be back to normal by tomorrow, and if all goes according to plan, I'd like to average about 15-16 miles a day for the next 60 days or so. We'll see, though- if I get in solid quality and am racing well, the volume is of secondary importance. Overall, except for the stupid foot twist, I'm pretty happy with the way my fitness is progressing. I'm sure there was something else I wanted to say, but I forget what it was. Anyway, hope everyone had a nice holiday and is ready to attack the end of the year with renewed vigor.

Have a nice week!

-Craig