Feel the Vibe

Hey there, Internet. Has a been a whole week already? I suppose, technically, no, it's only been six days. Splitting hairs won't get you anywhere, though. Lots of fun stuff happened this week: good moderate runs, a date, class, work, some good solid workouts, oh, and BU's first cross-country race of the season. Bruce sat out a rough estimated projection of our top 6 or so, and raced the rest at the BC Invitational over at Franklin Park in Boston. The results were encouraging; our so-called "7-10" runners all scored big personal bests and ran faster than our 4th man ran on this course about the same time in the same weather last year. I also don't think for a second that our "3-6" guys are orders of magnitude faster than the "7-10." What's likely, I think, is a deep pack and varsity spots changing rapidly.

If we throw out the watch entirely, this was a fantastic week of training for me. I feel strong, fast, and fit, but smart enough to balance those feelings out with gentle recovery running as needed. If we consider the watch in evaluating this week, then the work I did combined with how I feel is very encouraging. I'm fit; my primary concern now is taking care of myself and ensuring I'm ready to go when it's time to race. I'm excited to open up a week from today at Franklin Park; I also want to master that excitement and direct it appropriately. Slowly but surely, I'm learning, ha!

The log:

Monday Sept 6- 11AM- 3mi slow shakeout with my friend Beth. Beth goes to Northeastern, so we met at Audubon Circle near Fenway and jogged nice and slow for a while. 4PM- 11mi moderate at Minuteman Trail in Lexington, MA. We went out in a group for 32min or so, came back in about 29min, then I added on some with Peter to get a cautious 11. I was tempted to really blast it on the way back because I felt awesome and the weather was perfect, but Matt, Peter, and I stayed controlled and capped our pace around 5:45/mile. The best part about van rides is that Bruce brings gatorade.

9/7 Tuesday- 8mi very easy on the river, plus some strides at the track. Good recovery day.

9/8 Wednesday- 3mi up to BC Res, 7.5k tempo (3 laps) with Rob and Peter, 24:20, (~5:12/mile) 6x100m strides, 3 down. After last week's awful tempo, I was a little apprehensive about today, but my concern was proven to be unnecessary. I felt great from the first step. The perfect weather got us going out a little too fast (8:00 through one lap, 5:09 pace) but we settled into a more appropriate pace for the middle lap (8:11) before Rob and Peter lit out like crazymen (ok, Crazy Fit Aerobic Monsters) leaving me to run a controlled solo 8:09 final lap, feeling very satisfied with how the watch compared to my effort.

9/9 Thursday- 70' easy, 9 with the team, rest of it solo to run straight home, jump in the shower, and get to work only 3 min late. Felt entirely neutral: neither tired nor fresh, neither good nor bad, neither fast nor slow.

9/10 Friday- My mother's 11th consecutive 39th birthday (heh heh). Rob took Billy, Peter, and myself on an 80min adventure through some awesome trails in Newton. We ran about every pace/effort there was over about every terrain there could be; we had a great time tearing through the woods. Call it 12; call it Steve. It's a run, it can't hear you.

9/11 Saturday- 1PM- 62' easy doing loops (and loops and loops) around Franklin Park with most of the guys who weren't racing today. Another neutral day in great weather to run. So proud of the guys!

9/12 Sunday- 9:30AM- At Franklin Park for some grass repeats. 3mi up, 4x2k in ~6:10 with 3:50 jog, last two repeats in spikes. I packed up with Peter, Matt, and Elliot, and even though morning workouts are often my nemesis, today was surprisingly smooth, easy, and satisfying. I'm really enjoying the vibe on the team this year, as well as the fact that I have yet to run any workouts with less than two people right with me. We eased into the workout a little bit, as per Bruce's orders, and were rewarded with strong work throughout. 3mi down.

76 miles
core/pushups are most runs

Have a great week, everyone!