Monday, December 31, 2012

Last run of the old year. Left the house at about 4:00 pm, and did 8 and a half at just under 7:00/mi. pace. Felt a little tired; tomorrow try to run earlier in the day. Roads still narrow from the inch and a half of snow we got on Saturday night.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Got out just after sunset (4:18 pm) and headed out on the somewhat snowy roads. Ran 6:18's ten and a quarter miles, motivated by the headlights of oncoming cars and icy roads with no shoulder. Felt really good to get this in today; hip is fine after a few days of consistent running, convincing me further that the worst thing for short-term "injuries" is taking days off.

Thank you, Jesus!

Saturday, December 29, 2012

9 and a half this afternoon with light snow starting, which turned to rain, which I think just turned back to snow. Spent the morning in Rockport walking around with family.
Checked on mini meet three results, still looking for 4 x mile...

54 miles for the week on 5 days of running. Hopefully this week will be a little more consistent.

Friday, December 28, 2012

10 this morning in just about 70 minutes. Got out the door just after 7:00, to be back to spend the day with family.

Yesterday went for 12 in the wind and (light) rain in an hour and 19 minutes.

(45 so far this week on four days of running.)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

After another day off Tuesday for Christmas (despite my early AM alarm clock - the snooze reflex is becoming way too good) and a continuation of my poor holiday eating choices: so much pie, cookies, chocolate...anyway,

Yesterday went out feeling like I should get in as much as I could, so clipped along at 6:20's for 13 miles. Nice out and back into Topsfield with some good hills. Today with the milder weather I'm looking forward to another 10 or so.

My left hip is sore from too many hard days on with the following day off, and I'm looking forward to some post-Christmas consistency. I'm off from work until next Wednesday, so finding the time shouldn't be a problem.

Monday, December 24, 2012 (Christmas Eve)

Children are nestled snug in their beds, stockings are hung, presents are wrapped...

Did 9.64 in 58:02 today. (After no run yesterday, travelling home from NJ), started out in 6:46, then 6:24, 6:18, 6:13, 6:01, 5:56, 5:46, 5:38, 5:36; 3:24 for last .64. (a nearly Navas-like second half)

Had a nice (almost) 15-miler, very hilly, with Heather's brother Andrew on Saturday afternoon in NJ.

12 on Friday first day there. Heather's parents love on the middle of a huge hill or small mountain. Left at the end of their driveway is about a .9 mi. climb; right takes you down for about a mile.

Thursday morning I did 7 before work; we left for New Jersey at noon.

Last week (Sunday-Saturday) I was around 75 miles for the week, which is my highest week in a couple months, I think.

Not sure about the mini-meet this Saturday or maybe a race on New Year's Day.

What's Happened?

Since April, a couple big changes. First, our daughter Emma was born on May 21st (two days before her big sister Grace's third birthday). She has been a real joy, the easiest of our three children at this age. I also got a new job as head Cross-country / Track & Field Coach at Gordon College, a small Christian liberal arts college in Wenham, MA. I hung up my tool belt and am relishing the opportunity to coach full-time and really invest in my athletes here and the program as a whole (something I was never really able to do at the high school level - usually I was changing in the car from my construction clothes into my running gear and trying to come up with an appropriate workout on the ride to practice). My new schedule allows for some more time with my family, which is nice, since my son, Benjamin, started kindergarten this fall, and now I can bring him to school every morning. It also means I'm not completely wiped out at the end of the day, which my wife appreciates. And I have ample daylight hours to train. I've been favoring the midday run so far this fall, since the light is short and the mornings and evenings are cold. I can hardly remember what it felt like to get up and run before 5:00 am, like I was doing last summer and fall; now I usually hit snooze at 7:15.

My training has been consistent this summer and fall, if not exorbitant. I had a nice 3k on Saturday at BU in 8:40.80 (about 6.5 seconds better than my previous best). It makes me think there might be a sub-15:00 5k coming some time this winter if I can make it a priority.

Other highlights from the past few months:

winning the Essex Turkey Trot 8k, for the fifth time since 2006, in 25:51 (my third fastest time there);

winning the Scot Trot 5k at Gordon College in October in 15:49, proving to my college athletes that they can still get faster for a lot of years;

winning the Around the Goose 7k in Gloucester in September in a course record (?) 23:05;

finishing 9th at the Yankee Homecoming 10-Mile in Newburyport in July in 54:32.

Catching Up (The Last 9 Weeks)

Since February 12th, my last update, I had a little setback in terms of mileage, from which I've recovered, and feel pretty good about where I am now. I raced once, at the April Fools' 4-Mile in Salisbury, where I came away with a win, albeit the slowest winning time in recent history (20:33.7). I had company most of the way from Nick DeSouza (in fivefingers) and CMS teammate Tim van Orden. My dad ran, too, and cooled down with TiVo, DQ, and me. That was nice. The new picture at the top of the page is from the Newburyport Daily News story the following Monday.

My weekly mileage since the last time I posted:

Week 7 (Feb. 12 - 18): 72.41
Week 8 (Feb. 19 - 25): 76.4
Week 9 (Feb. 26 - Mar. 3): 10.19 (six days off)
Week 10 (Mar. 4 - 10): 39.38
Week 11 (Mar. 11 - 17): 50.44
Week 12 (Mar. 18 - 24): 61.41
Week 13 (Mar. 25 - 31): 71.46
Week 14 (Apr. 1 - 7): 67.64
Week 15 (Apr. 8 - 14): 77.59

The rest of the details can be found on my log here. It's called "Coach's Running Log" because one of my former runners at Ipswich High School created the document a couple years ago, and I've gotten used to using it. If you're wondering about all the thank you's, look for an explanation here shortly. (It's there now, by clicking the tab marked "a piece of my Story".)

Hopefully, I'll get this week up soon. I've been mostly running once a day, although I did get two runs in today. I'm hoping for the grace to stay around 70-80 miles for the rest of the spring and run a few fast races at different distances. Maybe the 5000 at the first NBB Twilight meet.

2012 Week 7 (February 12-18)

Tuesday - 10.05

3:08 PM - pineswamp and back w/ mike and jimmy, quick bathroom break then did it again by myself with a little excursion into willowdale (1:15:01)

Monday - 11.5

3:09 PM - 2 mi. warmup on IHS outdoor track (14:41); 3 x 2-mile w/ 800m recovery (10:41.3/3:50.9/10:34.2/3:54.2/10:34.5/3:54.4); 2 mi. cooldown (14:15)

Sunday - 11.28

1:18 PM - out grove to highland, waldingfield, 1a south to cutler to highland and home w/ a little loop in the grove (1:18:16)

2012 Week 6 (February 5 - 11)

Week Total: 73.99

Saturday - 16.19

2:44 PM - 16-mile loop through Hamilton, Ipswich, Essex and Wenham (1:46:36)

Friday - 12.43

3:07 PM - 50 laps on the outdoor track, some w/ sarah k.; 10th lap was a 69.3; had to run in and use the bathroom after 22 laps (1:28:16)

Thursday - 11.74

3:15 PM - out back of school and out around neck counter-clockwise plus little neck w/ mike r. and jimmy p. (1:31:57)

Wednesday - 6.22

4:10 PM - ran around at Patton Park and in trails at Devon Glen Farm and Pingree after work (45:00)

Tuesday - 7.67 (this was a little questionable counting the 1+ miles I did on the track at Reggie Lewis before our league meet)

1.37/11:17 on track at reggie w/ tina and suprin

5:11 AM - out and back on morning loop, beautiful morning (6.3/43:53)

Monday - 10.89

3:12 PM - wharf loop warmup (3.72/29:34) w/ zach and jimmy; 4 x mile on outdoor track w/ 809m recovery (5:12.6/4:02.4; 5:19.6/4:08.6; 5:16.5/4:12; 5:03.9/4:04); 1.17 mi. cooldown (8:27) - ok, felt better than last week's workout, didn't really feel capable of going much faster today

Sunday - 8.85

1:47 PM - out skinner thru sharon rd to highland, waldingfield, 1a south to asbury st and home, temps in low 30's (59:14)

2012 Week 5 (January 29-February 4)

Week Total: 76.1

Saturday - 14.04

12:09 PM - nice run, pretty much stuck to 6:30's the whole way, with a couple around 6:20, nice temps (low 40's), little wind, down highland 14-mile loop (1:30:11)

Friday - 5.11

2:22 PM - 1.12 mi. warmup (9:08); 10 x 200m w/ 200m recoveries - 36.2, 34.9, 34.6, 34.2, 35.5, 35.5, 35.3, 35.4, 34.7, 35.1; 1.62 mi. cooldown (13:57)

Thursday - 10.3

3:30 PM - out pineswamp and back w/ mike riddle (4.8/37:47)

5:10 AM - out and back on morning loop, no garmin again, went to end of cedar street and back (5.5/43:30)

Wednesday - 10.8

out to neck and around counter clockwise w/ zach (1:21:11)

Tuesday - 11.65

3:13 PM - 1.5 mi. warmup on outdoor track (12:28), 5 x 1200m w/ 400m recoveries, not all out, just wanted something a little faster (4:01.8/3:53.7/3:53/4:02.8/3:54.1), 1.6 mi. cooldown (12:22)

5:15 AM - out and back on morning loop after trying to fix furnace (3.6/28:53)

Monday - 10.28

3:49 PM - 40 laps on IHS outdoor track plus distance from school to track and back

Sunday - 13.92

2:36 PM - long, slow recovery run; the back of my lower left leg was stiff and sore when I started out, so I stuck mostly to the trails of bradley palmer and willowdale, barely kept the pace under 8:00/mile, achilles was sore from yesterday's race effort and the long run late in the day. (1:46:26)

2012 Week 4 (January 22-28)

Week Total: 76.96

Saturday - 20

2:57 PM - long cool down/recovery - out of grove down highland toward ipswich, goodhue, waldingfield, 1a north, lakemans, fellows, candlewood, chebacco/choate, belcher, story, western, martin/essex (22)/larch row, 1a south, highland, asbury, skinner, home - saw dave sawyer in downtown wenham and stopped to talk for a minute (16.37/1:53:56) - 6:57/mi.

10:15 AM - short warmup, part w/ greggers on bu track, few strides, then 5k on track in 15:14.12 (59th/114) Link to flotrack video of race

Friday - 4.22

2:28 PM - long wharf loop w/ zach and vicente before jv meet (31:46)

Thursday - 10.12

3:06 PM - ran out pineswamp and back, then repeated after a short trip inside (1:12:28)

Wednesday - 10.26

3:18 PM- great run out to the neck w/ jimmy, casey, mike r, and zach, then zach, mike, casey and I continued up to the water tower and down bunker hill past greggy's and back jeffreys neck all the way to school, except for a slight talking to I had to give some middle schoolers (1:13:18)

Tuesday - 14

3:06 PM - 2 mile warmup on track (14:10); 3 x (4 x 400) w/ 200m recoveries, then 400m recovery after every 4 (1:11.5/1:11.9/1:11.2/1:10.9; 1:12.6/1:11.8/1:12.8/1:14.3; 1:12.3/1:12.5/1:12.7/1:10.1); 2-mile cooldown (14:13) total: 8.7/59:10

5:06 AM - out and back on morning loop (5.33/41:51)

Monday - 12.3

3:06 PM - out and back from IHS, started out 7:40's with a few kids, dropped down to 6:40's before turn around, couple 6:20's and a 6-flat on the way back (1:22:49)

Sunday - 6.03

11:00 AM - ran up burnt mtn (maine) for the second day in a row while staying up at my parents' condo at sugarloaf; made it up in about 38 min. (took 40 min. on saturday afternoon), and I spent a little more time looking for the trail going down the other side, but it was hard to find any markings with the snow cover

2012 Week 3 (January 15-21)

Week Total: 81.28

Saturday - 5.66 (2000' vertical)

3:43 PM - left my parents' condo on caribou mtn road on sugarloaf mtn and ran in snow shoes up to the summit of burnt mtn (3600'), then ran around at the top a little looking for the trail down, but ended up coming down the same way I went up

Friday - 11.81

2:38 PM - pineswamp w/ tina and sarah (4.75/35:50)

4:57 AM - out and back on morning loop (7.06/51:54) in the snow

Thursday - 16.25

3:01 PM - down to wharf w/ tina, paige, jimmy, casey and zach; 5 x ring-dings (.86 mi. roads) (4:35/4:33/4:29/4:25/4:19) w/ long recoveries (to newmarch), then ran long wharf loop back to school afterwards

5:05 AM - out and back on morning loop (14 degrees); (5.41/40:03)

Wednesday - 16

3:15 PM - ran from Ipswich High school out to great neck and around the neck and back w/ zach and kieran (10.8/1:20)

5:00 AM - out and back on morning loop; forties and very windy (5.25/40:38)

Tuesday - 9.6

1.5 mile warmup on the track w/ kieran; 3 x (4 x 400) - 70, 70, 71, 71; 71, 71, 71, 70; 73, 70, 68, 66.7; 3.5 mile cooldown (wharf loop)

Monday - 11.76

4:30 PM - roads of Ipswich w/ Kieran (6.07/46:49)

5:03 AM - treadmill (5.69/42:31)

Sunday - 10.09

5:12 AM - out and back on morning loop; very cold (1:12:17)

2012 Week 2 (January 8-14)

Week Total: 69.78

Saturday - 17.64

1:44 PM - around Hamilton and Ipswich, met Kieran in downtown Ipswich (1:56:42); thank you, God, for the strength and the time for this run!

Friday - 12.28

8:44 PM - 6.72/48:10 on treadmill

5:05 AM - out and back on morning loop (5.56/42:03)

Thursday - 8.7

down to wharf in wind and light rain; 4 x ring-ding (4:36/4:31/4:30/4:32); back to school w/ al

Wednesday - 11.5

3:33 PM - out to neck w/ kieran, around little neck and back by myself, tummy ache

Tuesday - off

Monday - 6.72

3:08 PM - pineswamp, willowdale, mile ln, 1a w/ al and kieran

Sunday - almost 13

2:20 PM - ran w/ kieran through ipswich, essex, hamilton (7:05 pace)

2012 Week 1 (January 1-7)

Week Total: 78.56

Saturday - 11

before all-day freshman-sophomore meet at reggie lewis; out and back on morning loop

Friday - 12.25

6 at practice; roads/XC course

6 early AM

Thursday - 11.7

7.4 at practice w/ 4 x ring-dings (.86 mi.) in 4:28/4:26/4:28/4:27

4.3 early AM

Wednesday - 11+ at practice

Around Great Neck and Little Neck w/ Greg and Kieran

Tuesday - 8+ early AM

Monday - 10+ at practice

Ran wharf loop then pineswamp and through willowdale w/ reed s.

Sunday: 14

Progression run the day after a hard 3k effort indoor. Started with a 7:10 first mile, then all sub 6:30 (6:28, 6:25, 6:20, 6:21, 6:21 - 45:26 halfway - 6:07, 6:05, 6:04, 6:08, 6:00, 6:05, 5:49 coming back)

Last 6 weeks of 2011

The last 6 weeks of the year have been pretty good, with fairly consistent training, a few short races and a view toward 2012.

Weekly Mileages:

75, 65, 83, 85, 66, 79

Races:

Gabe's Run 5k XC, Hamilton, November 25 (day after Thanksgiving), 16:06, third overall out of 404 in the men's race, $150 prize and saucony technical long-sleeve; this race continues to grow and draw some of the top younger runners from the state and region (this year's winner, Rich Peters, a sophomore at BU from the UK, broke 4:00 in the mile last winter at the Valentine Invitational)

Jay Carisella Invitational, Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, Boston, December 3, 15:09.49, 9th/35 in men's 5000m, 10 seconds faster this year than last, good step toward breaking 15:00 this winter

Indie 5k, Austin, TX, December 9, 15:54, 12th/360, part of The Running Event, ran into Reno Stirrat at the start for a warmup

BU Mini Meet #3, December 31, 8:48.16, 20th/87 in the 3000m; race started a little slow (which was still faster than I'm used to running) 2:57 first 1000m, was hoping for sub-2:55 first km and sub-8:45 total

Other Highlights:

Had a couple nice long runs in Austin in early December (a 19 and a 16)

3 good "ring-ding" workouts in Ipswich (7/8 mile repeats) alone and w/ Greg K.

3700 miles for the year which I'm sure is a career high, also PR's at 5000m indoor, 10000m outdoor, 5 mi. road, and the marathon.

A great year to remember and build on...