A Busy Week

Hello, readers. It seems to happen that college happens in bursts. By that, I mean work across classes tends to bunch together, employment weeks go in cycles of nothing followed by extreme business, etc. I had one of those weeks last week (hence the late blog). Last week, I had 1) work most every day, 2) two papers 3) a group project 4) an educational policy seminar and 5) re-implemented quality running back into my training.

None of those things are particularly bad, but in conjunction and combined with some really crappy sleep, last week really kicked my ass. This week should be marginally better and hopefully as a result I'll start feeling better on runs and maybe even get some decent sleeping done.

Log:

Monday- 5mi easy in between classes. I could have run later in the evening but chose dinner and studying instead.

Tuesday- AM- 4mi easy, solo- didn't wake up quite early enough to get my tempo in before lecture. Felt pretty good, though- the weather turned from cold and rainy to warm and sunny, so I was happy. PM- 3mi up with some of the guys, then a solo 4mi tempo at the Brookline Reservoir, a 1500m dirt path. I ran 20:05 for 6k (starting at 5:05 and cutting down gradually to 4:54) then added on 90 seconds to make sure I covered 4mi. It was a pretty easy effort except for my back got increasingly sore throughout the tempo- I had slept on it funny the night before and the faster running made it act up. Stopped for a minute to stretch my left quad, which was a little tight, then ran 3mi home.

Wednesday- 12:30PM- Snuck in 9mi to Fresh Pond and back between a policy seminar and my afternoon class. Missed lunch and a meeting with my adviser, but it was 65 out and sunny! I was surprised at how sore the front of my quads were, though. 10PM- Hit up the river loop after work, 4mi easy. Quads still pretty sore.

Thursday- 3:30PM- River West loop with a pretty big group of guys. Nicest weather in a long time- about 65, sunny, slight breeze. Quads still pretty heavy, which I didn't expect, but the weather more than made up for it. Most of the guys did 7, Peter and I did the full loop.

9:30PM- River loop after work again, felt pretty good, but quads still heavier than I'd prefer.

Friday- 3:30PM- 3mi up to the BC Res, then a random fartlek- 9min @ tempo pace (split 8:15 through the lap, which is ~5:18 pace), 2min jog, 4x75sec w/1:45 jog, then a 5min run starting at tempo and building the pace until the last minute was close to all out. Covered well over 5mi in 28min- stopped for a minute to catch my breath, then jogged home very slowly. It was sunny about ~75 and I was definitely unused to that kind of heat. Not a particularly good workout, but not awful either. Probably 11mi but I logged it as 10. Killer core session with Peter afterward.

Saturday- 2pm- 10 mi easy, first 7 or so with James. Felt like timing the run today- 66:37 for the somewhat short 10mi version of the river loop. The sun was beating down a little, but I was loath to complain about the heat after being so sick of winter. 7PM- 3mi easy with some of the guys cooling down from their workout on the track.

Sunday- 9AM- Attempted a 14miler but felt so tired and awful (really bad sleep, school stress, bathroom issues) that I just called it at 9miles with everybody else. Ran with Peter, James, and special guest star Kevin Gilmore, Peter's twin.

Tot- 77 mi
11 runs
1 core session
No drills
No strides

Not a great week, but not an awful week given the outside interference. This week will be better- or so I keep telling myself!