11/23 to 11/29: Peaks and Valleys

This week started off well with my 5th Sunday in a row of 18+ miles out on Battle Road.  I expected the week to be a bit more low key with Thanksgiving on Thursday, but it was one of my more terrible weeks of running in quite some time. Monday was my typical easy/easy commuting double, but I followed that up with a really lazy Tuesday.

I knew I was heading to the South Shore to golf with Dave, Mike, and my father - and instead of waking up just a little bit early to get in an easy 4-6 miles, I slept in. Ok, not a terrible start since it's sometimes nice to get a bit of extra rest. Then, after the round of golf I had a few beers followed by a long drive in traffic (my brother drove, not me).  After sitting on 93 North for an extra hour, I skipped my planned evening speedwork at the Harvard indoor track...not the worst, because I was tired (it was my first day off in 37 days), and me and Eli also wanted to hang out and get our vacation started.  I was ok with this decision, all things considered.

Anyways, Thursday was supposed to be a kickass 5k race, where I went in nice in fresh and destroyed the field. But instead I had my shittiest race in months.  I ran only a few seconds faster than last year and I am MUCH better shape than I showed. I thought I should have been contending for the win, but after the first mile the GBTC runner began pulling away and I had nothing in my bag of tricks to respond with. With no one behind me to push me, his gap only widened.  If I wasn't such a f*****g p***y, I would have stuck on his shoulder the whole time and then tightened the screws when he started to fade. Instead I settled for second place. Ugh, what a shit race.

So, the last piece of the puzzle-of-crap goes to the Fresh Pond race on Saturday. This was similar to Tuesday in that I'm not too bummed about it - but it was disappointing nonetheless. I ended up running 30:32...which now that I look at it doesn't seem so bad, but it was a freaking struggle. I guess it didn't suck that bad, but I'm still annoyed by the shit race on Thanksgiving so this one can go ahead and be remembered as a suck fest too.

Go to about the 5:21 part. It's good. (Update: I had watched this after seeing Goat Rodeo Sessions on The Colbert Report, but I forgot that this was passed around due to the appearance of Brian O'Donovan's daughter Aofie during the third song. So there is a little bit of a CSU connection here kinda sorta.)

This isn't good though:

23-Nov		Long Run		0:07:30		18.13		Battle Road with the CSU gang. Felt a bit tired throughout, but the last 2 miles I felt good.
24-Nov		Easy/Easy		0:07:50		10.26		AM: Commute 4+ PM: Commute 6+
25-Nov		Easy/Intervals				0		Took the day off and went golfing with Dave, Mike and Dad. Lots of traffic getting home and frankly just pooped.
26-Nov		Easy/East		0:07:34		7.11		Just an easy run around the Charles and a bit with Eli.
27-Nov		Pilgrim 5k				9.89		What a friggin shit race. I don't know exactly what happened, but I sucked.
28-Nov		ADATTFG				10.34		AM: ~3+ around the track waiting for the ADATTFG to start. Freezing, but fun. PM: ~7 'getting in the miles'.
29-Nov		Fresh Pond				8.25		AM: Fresh Pond two lapper in 30:32. Felt like crap the whole time - just completely tired legs.

No splits...what a shame...

Total: 63.98 or thereabouts