Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Swan Lake Repeats 9/29

I did a tough WO at Rockefeller State Park in Sleepy Hollow, NY yesterday. Ran 10 miles around the park as a warm-up then proceeded to do .9 mile repeats (I measured it) around the longer sides of Swan Lake, rest was the short section of the lake.

10 mile warm-up
WO: 5*1450m repeats
Results: 4:45 (1:42), 4:51 (1:54), 4:47 (2:06), 4:50 (1:59), 4:45.
4 mile cool down (2 barefoot)
19 miles total

Overall very happy with effort and results. Beautiful, fun run. I fit it in between college fairs, mid-day before a night fair I had scheduled. Thus, no shower. I wonder if anyone noticed....

Wash 14/52 Upper Ridge (again)

New Record - (by only a second) - 9:58.

I was hurting from the prior week. Slacking on the Wash WOs, I need to do two this week as I did not do one last week. Also, yes, Upper Ridge every time is boring.

The Week 9/20-9/26

101 miles!

Great week. Felt great everyday... when I didn't feel great, I just ran until I did.

SUNDAY: Lone Gull 13 miles, 32:55 10k

MONDAY: 18 miles (3 barefoot)

TUESDAY: 12 miles (easy)

WEDNESDAY: 21 miles WO: 4 miles tempo, (sub 6), 16*100 sprints barefoot on astro turf

THURSDAY: am, 7 miles, pm 9 miles (2 barefoot)

FRIDAY: 7 miles (easy)

SATURDAY 14 miles, (last two miles Sub 5:30)

Happy with the week for mileage and difficulty considering how busy I was... Travelled all week in Manhattan and the Bronx, then went to Amherst, then Bristol RI for a wedding, then back to Amherst and NY for this week. Phew! Mission accomplished, somehow.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Lone Gull 10k 9/20

32:55 for 10k. Results below. CMS pulled through by a few seconds to get 5th ahead of Greater Boston. Thanks to Double J for telling me to run faster at mile 4. (Very helpful). I was happy with the race and effort. Last Grand Prix race is the Bay State Marathon. I'm thinking of running it, but doubt I could muster a performance to help the team.

Last week's results, a few good workouts, good mileage. 9/13/09 - 9/19/09: R86/1LIFT.


Thursday, September 17, 2009

WASH 13/52, Bear Mountain, NY

Randomly went to Bear Mountain park in NY, (I'm on the road for my job, UMass Admissions) and ran up the mountain. I've been feeling sick all week, so didn't know how far I would make it, but after a few miles I felt okay and decided to do a warm-up up and then down the mountain and then run it again at tempo pace for the WASH workout. After 3 miles and still not reaching the top I realized this idea probably wouldn't workout. It was fine though, as I made sure the "warm-up" hurt a lot. Also, to top off the day I did repeat 600s barefoot on the fields of the park below after the run down.

Total run: 14 miles
Elevation: 1300 feet
Ascent: 1135 feet
Average Grade: 4.5%

Here's the route, not bad off a whim. Beautiful view at the top. I could see the city.


Ollie Road Race and Josh Billings (WASH 12/52)

Back to back races this past week. - Ollie 5 mile Road Race (9/12) and the Josh Billings Run-a-Ground (9/13), a bike, canoe/kayak, 6-mile relay race. I ran the 6 mile leg. As did pal Andy, who also did the Ollie the day before.

Good overall week - 9/6 - 9/12: R83/B50/S1000 meters

I squeaked in a swim and even a track workout... in an attempt to copy Keenans Justin and Andy's week workout I did 8*400 with 200 rest followed by 8*200 with 200 rest. It was ugly, 70-72 for the 400s and 31-33 for the 200s. First speed in a LONG time. Also, I believe only a month ago I was having trouble running 30 miles a week. So overall, I was happy.

Results for Ollie below. Got 50th, which frankly, is pretty bad, but I felt great, just couldn't run any faster. Very strong, no speed is the conclusion. (Ollie was only 4.9 by the way).


The Josh results below. I felt strong again and a little faster than the day before. It's a very hilly course so I counted it as the prior week's WASH run, which basically meant that I had extra incentive to kill myself on the hills, which worked well. Our team got 6th overall, Andy's team was 5th. I had the 2nd fastest run time in 33:02, behind Andy's 32:32. Good day.


Finishing the Josh

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

WASH 11/52 - Mt. Greylock (+week)

SUNDAY: 18 mile run (Mt Wash. Trainer)

In Pittsfield for James Taylor concert Saturday. Sunday woke up and decided to spend the day running Mt. Greylock.

Total ascent in 8 miles = 1732 feet
Max elevation: 3488 feet (It was a beautiful day, beautiful at the top, great fun the whole way).
VC to Summit time: 61:20
Down: 53:58

Overall run with warm-ups and cool downs 18 miles in 2:06. Great way to spend a Sunday. It was easier than I thought. Next time I'll just run it faster.


MONDAY: 8 mile run, 34 mile bike, 4 mile run (2 barefoot)

TUESDAY: 11 mile run (3 barefoot)

WEDNESDAY 23 mile bike, 14 mile run (WO w/ Andy)

Randomly Andy emailed me to see if I wanted to do a workout (apparently his normal Keene Wed workout partner had to bail - Thanks Justin!) So Andy traveled down to Amherst to do some South West 1000 meter repeats. It was supposed to be my easy day...

Me: 3:05, 3:05, 3:07, 3:04, 3:04, 3:03.
Andy: 3:05, 3:05, 3:00, 3:05, 3:01, 2:58.

Andy looked great and was very happy, as was I. Also, I believe the 1000s were two seconds longer than we usually do them, so it was a good day - 1st time we did more than 5 SW 1000s since UM years. Elevation profile available below. It's a perfect grade for a nasty workout. Once you start to really hurt at the top of the hill, it's a slight downhill until the end that forces you to run faster than you A) think you can, and B) want to. Good stuff. "South West" is the name of the living area at UMass that we run around.


Great week thus far R55/B57. I'm going to probably take it easy tomorrow... I'm still injured!!!

UPDATE 9/6/9:

THURSDAY: Bike 34 miles, run 6 (2 barefoot)

FRIDAY: Run 10 miles (AM), Run 7 miles (PM) (3 barefoot)

SATURDAY: Bike 46 miles.

The Week: 8/30-9/5: R78/B138.

One of best weeks in a long time... I felt amazing except for Saturday when I went for a hard bike ride with no food or water in me. I basically crashed the rest of the day. Next week Ollie Road Race. I'd like to do another 70 if possible.