7/13 to 7/26: Finding the Time vs Making the Time

"Finding the time" and "making the time" are two different things...I think. Finding the time, for me, is usually commuting to work by foot. It's an efficient way to get in 4 miles in the morning, and allows me to still get a good nights sleep. Sometimes I have an early morning meeting and I don't run to work; I am unable to find the time. Consequently, if wake up earlier, I sacrifice sleep and I am "making the time" for a run. During the summertime, "making the time" usually involves avoiding some sort of fun social activity. With no big race on the schedule, I've leaned towards "finding the time."

From 7/13 to 7/19, I couldn't find the time to run. I was on vacation and driving around, golfing (when do I do that? Answer: once every two years), helping celebrate my brother's 40th birthday, and in general - visiting family. All fun things, and all priorities. So I ended up with two days off completely from running. Primarily due to an inability to find time, and I wasn't willing to make time at the expense of family. I did other things that got the heart rate up too, so I didn't get worked up on missing the 70mpw.

From 7/20 to 7/26, I found the time to run. It was still a very busy week with two ultimate games (no mileage for either game, but that's hard running and great cross training), and another night out with friends on Wednesday. Still, I was able to run five doubles, and the week was sandwiched with the East End Pub 5 Miler and a Fresh Pond 1-lapper. Getting to 70+ miles for the week was a challenge without a long run, but that's where the doubles come in, and my social life and sleep didn't suffer for it.

Anyways, I don't know what the point of that was, so here's the good stuff. The numbers. The miles:

13-Jul		Long Run		0:07:56		11.54		Just did my best to get in a longer run. I was pretty tired though as yesterday's effort + the heat left me worn out.
14-Jul		Easy/Easy		0:07:35		9.12		AM: 5+ pretty quick, then did some clamming. PM: 4+
15-Jul		Ultimate		0:07:30		13.46		AM: 5+ in the afternoon with Elizabeth and Raleigh. PM: 8+ total to and from Ultimate. Played a lot and felt good.
16-Jul		Easy		0:08:00		4.01		I don't even know.
17-Jul		Moderate/Moderate		0:07:20		10.18		AM: 4+ PM: 6+
18-Jul		Rest				0.00		Drove down to Plympton. Hit the house playing wiffleball homerun dirby. First person to EVER do so. A nice consolation for the zero miles.
19-Jul		Golf/Pahtay/Rest				0.00		Played golf in the AM and family party from noon on.
20-Jul		East End Pub 5-Miler		0:05:46		8.82		The race went ok. It felt like too much of a struggle though. Still only 36 seconds off my PR though on a tougher course.
21-Jul		Easy/Moderate		0:07:27		14.15		AM: 4.12 in 30:18 PM: 10.03 in 1:14:44
22-Jul		Easy/Moderate/Ultimate		0:07:50		12.29		AM: ~4 in ~32 PM: 8.29 in 1:03:40
23-Jul		Rest/Easy		0:07:39		5.09		AM: Rest PM: Quick around the Charles before a nice dinner out.
24-Jul		Easy/Moderate/Ultimate		0:07:25		14.39		AM: 4+ at about a 7:40 clip PM: 10+ at about a 7:20 clip with some quicker miles in there.
25-Jul		Easy/Easy		0:07:45		10.08		AM: Easy commute to work. PM: Easy commute home.
26-Jul		Fresh Pond				5.77		Fresh Pond in 13:57, and 1-lapper PR. My second mile sucked, but I'll take it.

7/13 to 7/19: 48.31 miles

7/20 to 7/26: 70.59 miles

Still no speedwork...oh how I miss it.

East End 5 Miler Race Report

This was a solid day all around. Terry, Kevin, Phil, Gordon and me all piled into the Subaru - which was actually pretty comfy (at least for the driver!!). And the pre-race talk heading up to Lowell got me pretty pumped to hit the starting line.

The previous two days were busy and fun for me, visiting the family in Plympton for my brother's 40th birthday extravaganza. Lots of fun, and no running - which is the first time I've taken two days off in a row in quite a while.

Anyways, after a couple miles warming up, we hit the starting line. After a pleasant rendition of the national anthem from a trumpeter, the runners packed together tightly at the starting line. The gun went off and there was a little bit of jostling due to the narrow starting line and quick turn, but once we rounded the corner everyone had enough space to get into a comfortable rhythm.

I quickly found Terry and I tried to settle in, but I felt I needed to push the pace a little bit early. Terry had grabbed a large lead after the first two miles at the Ribfest 5 Miler, and I wanted to try and dictate the pace a little bit more if I could.

We ran a quick 5:33 first mile, and Terry was right on my heals. Not too long after the first mile marker, or thereabouts, Terry and a few other guys passed me. I hung onto that pack for a bit, but I started to hurt pretty early on. During that second mile, I ended up getting gapped a little bit and was yo-yoing back and forth from ~3 meters back to ~15 meters back. Around the halfway mark after trying to hold steady through a hilly section I found myself hitting a rough patch and I ended up on the wrong end of that gap. Thankfully, we were hitting the 'other side' of the hills. I was still in a rough spot, but I knew I could gut out a hard push to catch up to the back of the pack so I made a hard surge and was right back in the mix. I was pretty gassed, but I was back on Terry's heals.

During that 4th mile I saw that we were catching up to Paul Hammond and Chris Lotsbom, two guys who are sandwiching me in the Pub Series standings. I passed Terry and the other runners in that pack as started an attempt to close the gap. Terry was right there with me in the chase, and he passed me any time that I let off the gas at all, and somewhere between 3.5 and 4.25 Terry took control and dropped me.

I ended up letting a gap develop with two other guys in the group at that spot as well, but Terry had dropped all of us and I found myself adjusting my sites on the two other guys as Terry was just about reaching Hammond and Lotsbom.

I kept my eyes out for the quarter mile mark, which I had measured out during my warm up. And once I was within site, I looked down at my watch to get a quick time (27:36) then started my hard kick. I closed the gap on the two guys ahead of me very quickly then kept the pedal down to finish in 28:48. A very strong final quarter mile, if I do say so myself.

Splits:
5:33
5:48
5:56
5:58
5:33

Dang, miles 3 and 4 sucked.

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/14/ma/Jul20_29thAn_7_set1.shtml

Looking at the results, Phil had a very solid finish before moving off to San Jose. And Kevin is on his way back from what is apparently his typical post-marathon lull. He hammered the Doyle's 5 miler then ran very well at Boston, only to have a dip in performance (by his standards!) during the last few races. I have a feeling that come the fall he'll be hit some PRs though. With that being the case, I need to get my ass in gear and start hitting my summer mileage goals again!

7/6 to 7/12: I Miss the Track

The hamstring still lingers ever so slightly, but I'm sure I could handle track workouts and I miss the faster paced running. With the next installment of the Pub Series coming up, the East End Pub 5 Miler in Lowell, I would have liked to have the confidence that goes along with hitting 1k repeats at 5k pace (or whatever mix that Terry chooses for Track Tuesdays).

Even while missing those workouts, I think I'm still heading in the right direction. It really sucked having to reduce my mileage last week, but I'm back feeling healthier and that's more important. I've still had some good tempos recently as well, so hopefully those translate to the 5 miler.

6-Jul		Long Run		0:07:39		18.08		Battle Road with the gang. I've been meeting with Albert too much on these long runs. Need to eat better the night before.
7-Jul		Easy/Easy		0:07:35		10.20		AM: 4+ in 30:43 PM: 6+ in whatever
8-Jul		Easy/Easy/Ultimate		0:07:40		10.00		AM: 4m in ~31+ PM: 6m in ~45
9-Jul		Easy		0:07:34		6.25		PM: Around the Charles
10-Jul		Easy/Tempo				13.92		AM: 4m commute PM: Commute home, + 5 mile tempo in 31:27
11-Jul		Easy		0:07:21		4.04		AM: 4m commute to work
12-Jul		Longer Tempo		0:06:44		8.01		Was thinking something like a 6 mile tempo, with a 2 mile cool down, but since I could cool down in the ocean water…why not?

One other thing to add - getting in an 18 miler felt great.

No splits!?!?!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

6/22 to 7/5: Hard Training, Perhaps Too Hard & an Injury

As of today, I'm a tad injured. I was forced to take my first day off in over two months last week, and my goal of 70+ miles per week throughout the summer fell short because of it. Both of these things are mentally difficult for me to deal with (I just wanted to run!!!), and caused me to have a some poor sleeping habits (restless) - but it is obviously for the best to rest and recover.

Playing ultimate last Tuesday night, I was trying to run down the disc, when I felt a twinge in my upper hamstring where it attaches to the bone. I was able to play sparingly the rest of the game, but I could feel that while it wasn't a major injury, it wasn't a minor injury either. It has required me to back off a bit. I've noticed some aching pain here before, but it has been fine to run on and never got worse. This time it caused discomfort in a multitude of positions and was fairly painful.

Looking back, between the races, the workouts, and ultimate - I'll need to be careful of the quality each week. I've been running a bit harder than I should, considering the basic goal of mileage & health.

Anyways, I think this mild injury sucks, but I'll take it as a sign to refocus on the overall goal: hit mileage and stay healthy.

Here's the stuff:

22-Jun		Long Run		0:07:04		14.10		Felt really good, and after the first ~3 miles, I just started going with the flow…which turned out to be ~6:40s.
23-Jun		4-hill route/Easy		0:07:35		14.00		AM: Early lunch run on the 4-hill route. 8m in 1hr PM: 6m, first 2+ with Raleigh. Easy.
24-Jun		Easy/Easy/Ultimate		0:07:45		8.00		AM: Commute to work, slow. Tired. PM: Commute home, still tired. Bees game after that.
25-Jun		Easy/Intervals				15.08		AM: Commute to work, slow. Still really wiped. PM: Commute home, then intervals. Commute sucked, then the workout was cut short because I was just totally cooked. 1000x2/400x4/400 - middle 400's on 1min rest.
26-Jun		Easy/Easy/Ultimate		0:08:00		9.15		AM: Commute to work PM: Commute home + ultimate
27-Jun		Battle Road/NH Travel		0:07:37		8.09		AM: Battle Road pretty comfortable pace. PM: Travel to NH
28-Jun		New Hampshire		0:09:47		4.67		AM: Easy running PM: Fun
29-Jun		New Hampshire		0:07:05		4.23		AM: Quicker run + a decent amount of swimming
30-Jun		New Hampshire		0:07:42		12.62		AM: Drive. PM: Longish run, included Raleigh on the tail end.
1-Jul		Intervals or Ultimate		0:07:30		12.31		AM: Commute to work. PM: 8+ commute home plus hard running to Ultimate. Strained my upper hamstring during the game. Was able to play through it, but not a good idea to do so. DANGITALL!
2-Jul		Resting the Injury				0.00		So the hamstring issue yesterday caused my first day off in over two months. It was similar to the injury on May 21, but worse.
3-Jul		Easy/Easy		0:07:55		9.71		AM: 4+ commute to work. PM: 5+ home
4-Jul		Easy		0:07:27		8.01		Just ran based on feel, and by the end I was going at around 6:55 very comfortably. Hamstring stayed the same throughout the run.
5-Jul		Easy		0:07:08		4.46		Easy around the Charles, though it ended up being quick.

Splits on 6/25:

1000-3:26.85

1000-3:25.52

400-1:17.84

400-1:17.46

400-1:19.62

400-1:23.83

400-1:18.45

6/22 to 6/28 Total: 73.09

6/29 to 7/5 Total: 51.34 (WTF!!!!)