July 23-29th: Squeezing in the runs.

This was a bizarre week as I spent most of it traveling. During the 1st part of the week, I attended a conference up in Saxtons River, hosted at the Vermont Academy. Southern Vermont is just gorgeous during the summer and the terrain was ideally suited for some really nice runs. I took advantage of several surprisingly crisp mornings to explore the surrounding areas. I even managed to squeeze in a track workout on an old-school cinder track The most memorable run was the Wednesday semi-long run. I set-off on Rte. 121 and ran through the hamlets of Cambridgeport, Athens, Brookline, and West Westminster, before looping back into Saxtons River. The run was relatively uneventful until I made the turn into the trails and made a wrong turn. Soon I was running on a road with makeshift sign reading, "Penis Rd." It was obvious I had made a wrong turn... I retraced and continued down a different fork and soon found myself going up at least a 20% gradient. This was a hill! I slowed to a walk and didn't resume running until I had crested the hill. The small trail eventually merged with a larger dirt road and I was assured I was back on track. I held on towards the end, but I have to admit I was feeling dehydrated by the end. All in all, there's nothing like spending a week in Vermont to get reinvigorated about running.



The latter portion of my week was spent in New York, getting together with my college buddies to celebrate a couple 30th birthdays. One friend in particular is notorious for throwing big parties, so it was an event not to be missed. He rented out the penthouse suite of the Hotel Rivington, and the party lasted into the wee hours of the morning. I can't remember the last time I stayed up late enough to see the sunrise. Ever since I started running marathons seriously, I've been living like a monk, so this was quite a shock to the system. Needless to say, Saturday morning's run was quite an adventure. The route itself would have been absolutely enjoyable on any other day, but the perfect storm of a hangover, lack of sleep, and hot and humid condition turned this into a real slogger. It made me wish for the cool shaded Vermont trails from earlier in the week, even with the steep hills. The weekend really took its toll on my body, and I was so tired after getting home on Sunday that I just bagged my usual run and slept for about 12 hours. What a week!

Week Summary
Mon: 2.4m (11:48), easy run in lieu of normal pool run
Tue AM: 5.2m (9:13), easy morning run
Tue PM: 4.5m, 3x1 mile w/ 3min. RI, 6:07, 6:09, 6:08
Wed: 12.0m (7:55), flat run except for a massive hill in the middle
Thu: 5.5m (7:54), easy run on trails
Fri: off, travel day.
Sat: 15.8m (8:23), hot and hungover, not a good combo
Sun: rest day
Total: 45.5 miles

I'm going to try and bump it back up to 50+ this week, but I'll see how it goes following the Yankee Homecoming 10 miler.

Marathon Sports 5 Miler Race Report - a new PR!

I felt pretty good going into the race, despite doing something very stupid last night. I was in lab late and wanted to squeeze in a run. I had nothing with me except my flip flops and since it was getting late, I strapped my backpack on tight and ran the 4.4 miles home. I suffered through some strange looks but otherwise got home without incident. No blisters, no chaffing ... miraculous!

Back to the race report. I entered this race last year, but since it was so close to the now defunct Stowe 8 Miler, I treated it as a tempo run. It was also my maiden voyage on a 5 miler and I really wasn't sure how to pace it. So I held back at the beginning, picked it up at the end, and finished in 31:10 (6:14 mile). The course itself is a unique one in that it starts off with a mad dash through the atheltic fields of Weston High School. After funneling through a narrow running lane into a parking lot, the course takes an undulating path through 3.5 miles of some of the most expensive real estate in Massachusetts. Then, you re-enter the high school campus and circumnavigate the campus by way of the athletic fields, with a 200m finish on the all-weather track. The terrain is no doubt difficult, but its fun to see how you react to the different surfaces.

Now that I have another year of running under my belt, I decided to go for a more ambitious time goal of breaking 30:00. I arrived and parked illegally along the road that runs along the back of the campus. I went to pick up my number and couldn't find my name on the list. Luckily, the race officials were nice and gave me another number free of charge. Ran into Josh on the way back to the car, who told me that he had had trouble finding his name. So, I went back and indeed found my name out of place. Even so, when I went to pick up my original number, someone had already picked it up. Fed up, I kept my new number and jogged back to my car to get geared up. As I was about to get warmed up, I bumped into Bruke Tadesse, Massachusetts attache to some of the best Ehtiopian runners in the world and himself not too shabby a runner. We took a couple easy loops around the grass, then went along some trails before returning for a final pit stop in the bushes. It was amazing to see so many BAA runners coming out of the woodworks, but not surprising since our club does pay for our race entry fee. I guess we're all suckers for a free race. I made my way over to the start line and settled in.

My plan was to take it easy while everyone made the mad dash, and then try to pick up the effort level on the roads, and just see what I had left for the last mile. I know with all the mileage I've been putting it in that I'm in vastly better shape than I was last year. The gun took ages to go off, and as expected people went barreling over the field towards the parking lot. I hung back, but almost had a very unpleasant encounter with a giant red foam-padded post entering the parking lot. After that, it was smooth sailing. I spotted a couple familiar faces from the New Charles River Run.

I felt smooth and in control passing through the 1st mile in 5:39. The 2nd mile turned out to be much tougher than I remember. Gmap definitely didn't pick up all the hills we were running over. As expected, I came through this mile in 6:06 and just hoped that this would be the toughest mile. Around this time, I spotted a pack of BAA runners that looked pretty strong, as well as Bruke hanging back by about 10m. I didn't feel strong enough to catch the pack, so I pulled up to within striking distance of Bruke and tried to hold the pace. In retrospect, I probably should have kept contact with him. By mile 3 (6:00), the two of us were in no mans land. The stronger pack had moved up, and I had passed a couple guys that had gone out too fast. I pushed hard through the 95 overpass and tried to open my stride on the downhill part leading into a long straight away. Up ahead, I could see the 4 mile time clock and was surprised to see I had to put together a very quick mile (5:43) and wasn't gassed. I was also gaining on Bruke and felt I needed to catch him before hitting the fields. However, I just couldn't find another gear over the last mile. He slowly pulled away and I was fighting to hang on. I couldn't believe how hard it was running on the grass! By the time I hit the track, I felt I had one last burst left in me, so let it all hang out, coming through the finish line with just 10 seconds to spare of my goal.

Overall, I was very happy with the effort, especially since I had cracked the 30:00 barrier. My last mile was god awful slow (6:22), so I know I have lots of room for improvement. Maybe I can take another crack at it next week. McMillan predicts the 29:50 to be an unthinkably fast marathon time of 2:55.