Weekly Training November 28 to December 4, 2016 Almost real training...

Monday AM road 4 mile with Uta, 30:07 tot. 4
               PM 8.3 miles, roads in 56:32. This was in a cold rain, of course it was dark as well. This was
                      one of those runs where you are kinda certain someone is going to run you over tot. 8.3

This is the start of my race Saturday.  If my form looked that good all the time I'd be a happy man. The gentleman on my left shoulder is the eventual winner John Schilkowsky.

Tuesday AM 4 miles in cold rain with Melissa and Uta on roads, 31:26 tot. 4
                PM 45 degrees and pouring cold rain.  I did a 3.1 mile warm up with Uta then toweled her
                       off before heading out again- this time spent socked to the bone not moving much was
                       not helpful to the warm up process.  I jogged a quarter mile from the house to my fartlek
                       loop, did drills- a skip, b skip , a+c skip, hops, both types of side skips fast exchange
                      with hold.  Then some strides.  Then did a half a Moneghetti Fartlek, 10mins- 1x90,
                      2x60, 2x30, 2x15 with equal rest.  I covered 1.87 miles in the 10mins that is 5:20 pace.
                      Interestingly in the 90 second rep I was in the range of how far I would go when running
                      Full Mona's that cover 4 miles.  Just keep in mind when I do that the recovery pace has to
                      be in the 5:20 per mile range and today I was averaging that pace overall. It was good to
                      get in a fartlek but humbling to see how far from full fitness I still am.  2.4 mile cool
                      down in 17:39. tot. 8.3 miles

Even though it was nice to get back to doing one of my favorite workouts if I'm going to be honest this half Moneghetti would definitely have to rate a Steve Moneghetti is not impressed. 

Wednesday AM 4 miles with Uta on the roads, not really raining just really foggy.  No time as I forgot

                            to stop the watch tot. 4

                    PM Road 8 miles solo in cold hard rain, 53:21, not an enjoyable run tot. 8

Thursday AM 4 miles with Uta in, you guessed it, a cold rain. tot. 4

                  PM at North Andover track, 2 miles warm up, 15:17, full drills. 15x200m with 2mins rest-

                         jogged 200m on most of the recoveries.  I did the first 4 with some of the 400/800 girls

                         from Merrimack College who were working out and on those ones I walked across the

                         infield with them on the recoveries. I averaged 31.74 for the 200's. Felt pretty easy

                         overall.  I wanted to do this 'on' 2mins not with 2mins rest but I took the chance to run

                         with some people at the start over my original plan as extra rest is not a problem on this

                         session because it is all about the muscular development, 3+ mile cool down 20mins 

                         tot. 8.6 miles

Friday AM 4.1 miles roads with Melissa and Uta in 31:26.  Holy crap it wasn't raining at all.  I mean it

                    was still dark and cold because well all my weekday runs in the winter are in the dark and

                    cold but no rain! tot. 4.1

             PM 8.2 miles on roads with Uta who wanted to hammer, particularly after we ran into and then

                    for a short stretch sort of with a group of deer. time-52:45 tot. 8.2 miles

Saturday 1pm 3+ miles warm up, bunch of drills, bunch of strides, Race Frozen Frolic 3.4 mile in Wakefield MA. finished 2nd behind John Schilkowsky who has run 4:02 and 8:06 in the past but I have no idea what kind of shape he is in now. I lead to about 2.8 miles or so and then he went by me and really buried me from there to the finish.  The course is very flat but it was super windy.  From about 600m to 2 miles most of the course was into a VERY strong head wind.  From 2 miles to the finish you had mostly a very nice tailwind.  Splits 1-5:03.02, 2-10:04.28 (5:01.26), 3- 14:57.35 (4:53.09), 1:53 for the last .4 (4:50 mile pace).  The good news was that I ran this course 2 years ago and ran 16:53.  That was a bad day at the time but to be back to a place where I am running faster on a good day than I was in the past on a bad day is a big step forward.  Back into the ballpark of my normal racing.  So I'm really happy with the run. I was also really happy that I was able to race hard been locked in a sort of 90% effort the last few races so it was nice to start to get tough again.  Did about 3 miles cool down mostly with two UML runners who did a tempo in the race.  tot. 10.4 miles 

This is me at the finish. Form isn't that bad.  Little forward lean at the waist, some collapsing in the hips but not awful. 

Sunday AM 14.1 miles on roads, 1:30:56, sadly this kinda felt like a long run, but hey its been a while so I'll take it.  I did hops, knees to chest jumps, box jumps 10x20in, 10x24in, 10x30in and squats, 6x6 starting at 65lbs and going up to 115lbs after the run. tot. 14.1 miles

Video of me doing the last set of box jumps

PM bikram yoga


Summary ~86 miles for the week, two workouts, one race.  Like I said that is almost real training.  The miles were a nice step up.  The workouts obviously pretty light but they were fine for where I'm at and the race was certainly a step forward and honestly better than I had hoped for.  My goal was to run 5:00  pace, which would have been 17:00 but with the wind I really thought there was no way that was going to happen so I was very happy to actually be under that.  Slowly, ever so slowly, I'm working my way back.  Unfortunately for the next 3 to 5 months the weather and darkness are going to make things harder so this is a rough time to be just getting my wheels under me but sometimes that is just how it goes. Hope your running is going well.