12/6/15 to 12/12/15: Good Week of Running & Assault on Mt Hood Race Report

This was a pretty intense week of running, capped off with a very poor performance at the Assault on Mt Hood cross country race in Melrose.  To start off, Sunday's long run went well, with Elizabeth joining for a good chunk of mileage once again (and getting in some good prep for next the 2016 installment of the NERunner Pub Series).  Then on Tuesday my improvised mile workout went very well.  I was on tired legs to start the workout, and ran a controlled 5:01 mile on a crowded track.  The remaining reps were vanilla, but I ended up feeling good about the workout.  A 5:01 as a controlled effort...2 years ago I ran roughly that time in an all out effort on the springy BU track.  Will I be running 4:50 in a controlled effort in two more years?

Speaking with Terry during the cool down, I mentioned that this year's mile training has been mostly improvised and after looking through my past few months of training I hadn't realized quite how true that statement was.  Last year I planned out three months of training with weekly mile workouts, and this year each time I've shown up to the Harvard track with no plan in place.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I have been focusing more on mileage than workouts, so I suppose it makes sense.  The lack of a pre-planned workout has also helped keep away from the mindset of "this is the workout on the calendar therefore I must do it," which is always a dangerous game to play.

Thursday's workout at BU went well, but it was certainly challenging.  The 400s were a grind, but the good news is that the 800s at 5k pace felt totally in control.  And I capped the workout off with a crisp 200 where Danny smoked me...a good sign for the mile relay on Saturday (for him!).


Finally, the Assault on Mt Hood XC race went...poorly.  Elizabeth and I showed up later than I would have preferred, but I was still able to get in a reasonable 2 mile warm up with strides and drills.  Unfortunately, I felt like I had no energy in my legs during the strides.  That has happened in races before, but this time around it seemed to carry more weight.  At the start Terry, Kevin, and I found a good spot on the line with a straight route to the bottle neck.  With a quick sprint at the gun, I felt I was in good position, and I didn't have to battle any elbows or suffer a slow down from anyone in front of me.  As we entered a section of single track, I was moving well enough with space ahead and behind.

The course quickly narrowed once more during the assent towards Slayton tower, which in post-race recaps with my fellow competitors, Elizabeth somehow had no memory of the tower.  Kevin's theory is that she was so focused on the rocky footing that she didn't notice the tower...now that's focus!

I was hurting already at this point, and the subsequent steep downhill was very uncomfortable.  The descent started out so sharp that I felt like I was going to slip on the pavement even with the good footing.  In years past I had no hesitation bombing the downhills, but this year I was cautious and I likely paid for it.  I hit the first mile in about 5:45/5:50 and I was ok with that considering the hills up to that point.  Unfortunately, there would be more hills throughout the course and my complete lack of hill training was bright light of pain for the rest of the day.

After ascending "nutcracker hill" I was crawling, and soon passed by Kevin.  Wallowing in agonizing oxygen debt, I never recovered.  I kept Kevin within shouting distance until the final hill where I lost about 10 seconds in a span of 10 meters.  All in all, I was ill prepared for this race.

Oh well, they can't all be PRs.  Here is the stuff.

6-Dec		Long Run		2:19:49		18.08		Battle Road.  Good run.
7-Dec		Easy/Moderate		2:11:37		17.19		AM: 7+ commute at 7:45 PM: 10+ at 7:30.  I saw a raccoon along the charles, and I stopped to try and take a picture but it waddled away, then got in the charles and started to swim across the river.
8-Dec		Easy/Speed		2:36:34		19.63		AM: 7+ at 7:40. PM: ~7 to Harvard.  Then, Mile/200x2/400x4.  Mile at 3k pace, everything else at mile pace.
9-Dec		Easy/Easy		1:41:57		13.2		AM: 7+ at 8. PM: 6+at 7:40.
10-Dec		Easy/BU Track		2:42:00		25.63		AM: 7+ at 7:50. PM: Commute home and to BU.  (800/400x2/200)x3 at 5k/mile/faster paces.  Really taxing workout and was close to bonking on the unexpected run home.
11-Dec		Easy/Easy		1:19:54		10		AM: 5+ commute at 7:45 PM: 4+ commute home in whatever, then a Christmas Celtic Sojourn.  Good stuff!
12-Dec		Mt.Hood		0:46:45		6.34		Assault on Mt. Hood.  Felt a little sluggish on the warm up, and it carried through for the entire race.  Lack of hill work really showed, and Kevin blew past me midway through.

Tuesday Splits:

Mile-5:01.9

Rest-2:35.42

200-34.45

Rest-2:44.73

200-34.53

Rest-3:05.84

400-1:12.61

Rest-2:30.29

1:12.69

Rest-2:34.42

1:13.13

Rest- 2:16.61

1:13.87

Thursday Splits:

800-2:38.67

400-1:11.83

400-1:12.52

200-34.85

800-2:37.27

400-1:13.19

400-1:13.74

200-34.36

800-2:36.28

400-1:12.73

400-1:10.63

200-31.52

Total: 110.07