I'm going to get a stern email for this

Ok, internet. After 3 weeks (a month?) of late entries, I'm back on schedule. BU is this week, and I'll be working on my tan in Derry, NH until Wednesday, when I'll be off to L.A.! (Lower Allston, that is) for my last week of high-mileage conditioning before it's time to get down and dirty with the 1500 again.

The big news this week is that two of my BU teammates, Dickie Peters and Katie Matthews, competed in the NCAA D1 Indoor National meet in College Station, TX. Rich had a rough run, just missing the final by a few hundredths of a second. He'll be back harder than ever outdoors, though, and if I know Rich, he's more motivated than upset. It was kind of strange to see a guy I run and work out with duking it out with the nation's finest on the live stream, but I don't want to gush too much, since I have to see Rich in the dining hall after practice. Katie, on the other hand, ran a great race to grab 6th in the 5k and her first All-American award! If you can catch the race, Katie is the one who stays pinned to the rail the whole way and picks off athletes as they fade rather than go into lane 4 in an attempt to pass as many athletes attempted. Of course, now, until I knock about 10 seconds off my mile PR, I'll have to be patient as she tells me "this one time, at nationals. . ." Proud of both of you!

I'd also be a fool if I forgot to mention my former teammates at Keene State, who traveled to Columbus, OH for the DIII Nationals this weekend. The women's distance medley notched a 3rd place finish, followed up by senior Amy Knoblock's 3rd in the mile and a near-miss 9th place finish by junior Paige Mills. Amy and I were the same class at Keene and often ran together on easy days, so congratulating her on double All-American weekend is something I've looked forward to doing for a long time. Paige is a raw talent who has been bitten by bad luck worse than any runner I know, so for her to make the meet and anchor a 3rd-place DMR in a PR is both a great achievement and indicative of greater things to come.

I had a great week of training complicated only by an annoying little cold. I didn't alter my training any because of the cold, but I felt like crap for a few days and will probably get a talking-to from wiser men than I about skipping a double-run to sleep when one is sick. I know, I know, I know- but this time, it didn't bite me in the butt!

My log:

Monday 3/7- 3:30PM: Decided to give my achilles one more day to rest, even though I felt fine. 9mi moderate, started with the group but just couldn't hold back, 55 and chance for a run that's closer to 15k than 9.

Tuesday 3/8- 3:30PM: Bruce assigned an easy workout on purpose today with the instructions not to hammer it "or you'll be useless for a week." 3 up to the BC Reservoir, 10min hard, 5min easy, 5min hard, 5min easy, 5min hard, cooldown til I was back at school (11mi). I averaged roughly 5:30/mile for the 30min of the workout, figure I was just a touch slower than 5min/mile for the hard parts. Boring workout, since it was so easy, but Bruce knows a thing or two about a thing or two. 9:30PM: 4mi easy on the treadmill after work.

Wednesday 3/9- 3:30PM: 10mi easy around JP twice with Eric. Woke up sick, very sore throat but no swollen tonsils or white spots, so I figured it was just a cold. Vitamin C, tea, etc. 9:30PM- 4mi easy on the treadmill after class.

Thursday 3/10- (still sick, a little worse than yesterday) 3:30PM- To Fresh Pond and back with the group, 7:15s down to 6:15s by the end, 4x150m strides and a 200 in 29.6, plus a short cooldown for 10mi. Billy made a Galaxy Quest reference and I didn't even need 13 seconds to think about backing him up. 9:30PM- 27:23 light progression on the treadmill, 7:30/mile down to 5:30 for the last one.

Friday 3/11- Amber Day! (whoa-oh) Rest all day as much as possible, today was the peak for the sore throat, headache, and congestion. 3PM- 3.5 up, 5x3min on, 2:30 off, 2.5 cooldown. I might have been sick for this workout, but it didn't hurt me as I split 21:06 through a measured 4mi during the course of this workout. That puts me through 5mi at what, 26:30? I'll definitely take it, since I didn't feel like I was pushing above 7.5/8 on a 10 scale. Good day, sir.

Saturday 3/12- 1PM- 7mi easy, Slums to Mass Ave, everybody left Boston :( Ran slow, felt fine, not quite as sick today. 9PM- Same loop, same comments, feeling better as the day wore one. Tired, though.

Sunday 3/13- 12:30PM: 12 mi easy building to moderate. Ran to JP from the house and did 3 laps and came back, just under 78' for a healthy 12. I'm still not sure if Bruce is going to have me work out tomorrow or if I was supposed to do a longer run today, so I hedged my bets. 8:30PM- 4mi out and back in Derry, with 5 good strides incorporated into the run.

Total- 93 mi

No one get in trouble over break!