Training Log: March 4 - March 10

Monday, March 4: Vermont Roads w/ Josh Ferenc – 7 miles – I spent Sunday up in Vermont with Josh and we decided to wake up early on Monday morning to run before he had to go to school and I had to drive back to Mass. We stuck to mostly roads for this run after yesterday’s post-holing session. We ran out on VT 121 then down 35 before finishing out the run by coming back to Josh’s house on some snowmobile trails. It was a nice relaxed run, but I snuck up and took a town line in the early going. It was a little cold, but that’s because I’m soft now when it comes to weather. Overall though it was awesome to be able to run with Josh for an hour. Afterwards we headed down to Josh’s school where he showed me his classroom and I did a little bit of work. I was a little sketched out going into the school but got a visitor’s pass so that helped me relax a little.

After leaving Bellows Falls I stopped by Keene State and hung out with Pete (my old coach) for about an hour. He was getting ready to head to DIII National’s so he told me about the team and asked about work and life. It was good to get a chance to talk to him for a bit. Before I drove back home I stopped at the bookstore and scored a sweet dri-fit Keene State t-shirt which I be wearing with pride around Georgia.

Tuesday, March 5: Loon Mtn. - Zero – I didn’t run today but Amanda, my brother and I headed up to Loon Mountain for a day of skiing. I actually used my Garmin and my Strava app to track our progress though. In total we covered over 25 miles with our average speed hovering around 10 mph (including lift rides up). I think my max speed was almost 44 miles an hour. Bluebird day too, one of the best weather day’s for skiing that I can remember. Sunny, low 40’s, no one on the mountain.

Wednesday, March 6: Masco Out & Back – 11 miles – From my parent’s house, I ran up Essex street, over school street, down liberty to Peabody street then out to Middleton Road in Boxford. I ran the old cross country course back around to Masco then over the highway and back home the way I came. This was a really good run, considering the fact that we skied all day on Tuesday. I ran 1:13 for the entire thing and averaged 6:40 pace, not blistering by any means but after skiing for the first time in a year yesterday I will take it as a solid effort.  

Thursday, March 7: Loon Mtn – Zero – Technically another day off from running, but Amanda and I decided to hit up Loon again since they have a Tuesday-Thursday deal where you can get lift tickets for 20 bucks off if you by the day before. It was another great day on the mountain, a little cloudy and slightly cooler than Tuesday, but again no one on the mountain and the snow was a little bit better.

Friday, March 8: Middleton Roads – Snow Run – 8 miles – This was a day that I probably should have gone to the gym and hit the treadmill, but I was feeling a little stressed out and despite the foot and counting of snow that we got I wanted to go outside. I do feel like I redeemed myself in terms of being soft to the weather with this run though. I started out with the idea of running around the reservoir trail but that was quickly squashed as the snow was knee deep. I decided to stay on some of the back roads around town, which turned out pretty well. It was a ton of fun running in two and three inches of soft powder and I had a stupid grin on my face for the entire run because I had a blast just being the only person outside not shoveling or snowblowing. There were a few spots were the wind made it a little tough but all in all it was an awesome run.  

Saturday, March 9: Middleton Roads – 7 miles – Ran a similar route as Friday but I cut out a couple of the cul-de-sac neighborhoods, which made it a shade over seven instead of eight. I took it easy and stayed right around seven minute pace. It wasn’t as fun of a run as yesterday but it’s always nice to get out on the roads around my parents’ house. I definitely miss the quiet roads around 

Sunday, March 10: Day off – With today being a travel day I decided to close out “vacation” with another day off. I probably could have gotten out for a few miles when we got back to Georgia, but I decided to be lazy and relax on the couch.

Weekly Totals: 33 miles on four runs + two full days of skiing – This was a little bit of a weird week with traveling back home to Massachusetts, spending a day in Vermont then spending two days skiing in New Hampshire, oh and running in a massive snow storm on Friday. It was nice to take it a little bit easier, but I was glad that I was still able to get something active in with the two days of skiing. I’ve got to step it up next week though. It will be nice to have some more daylight in the afternoons, but the sun is going to come up later which is going to make it a little bit tougher to try and run in the morning. The next Dirty Spokes race is coming up next weekend. They moved the Gainesville State race up a month, so I won’t be in as good of shape as I normally am for it but it will be nice to run a flatter course vs. the hilly Olympic mountain bike trail course that has been this weekend in the past.

Training Log - February 25 - March 3

Monday, February 25: Barbed Wire Road – 8 miles – Easy run from the office, down past the fire station to JM Turk (Barbed Wire) road then back up cash road to the middle school and back to the office. I thought about taking the day off but the weather is supposed to be miz tomorrow so I decided to get out and get something in. I hopped in the ice bath afterwards then headed home. We are supposed to get rain tomorrow hopefully it’ll dry out by Wednesday as I’d love to get on the mountain bike to cross train a little.

Tuesday, February 26: Stationary Trainer – 12 miles – Again, I thought about taking today off but I wanted to get something in. It was cold and raining so I decided to hop on the trainer for 25 minutes just to spin the legs for a bit. I stretched, foam rolled and got in the ice bath afterwards, so far so good as my hamstring hasn’t been nearly as bad this week.

Wednesday, February 27: GEHC Trails + Stream Eco Loop – 5 miles – We had some stuff going on a work today and I ended up getting out late. I figured this would be the day that I wouldn’t get a run or ride in, but the weather was amazing (high 50s/low 60s) and I had to hit the trails behind the apartment for something. I ran up to the backside of the creekside trail, along the creek then back up to the Cherokee trail to the GEHC building. From there I added a loop of the stream ecology trail then looped back around to the sweetgum trail, back onto the homesite trail and then did a loop around a couple other buildings to make it a full five. It was slow going, but that’s because of how hilly this run was. Nothing crazy in terms of length but there was a ton of short steep climbs.

Thursday, February 28: In Town Five – 5 miles – Another later day at the office, but I was able to sneak out for a quick five through Flowery Branch. Amanda and I had a massage scheduled for 6 so I didn’t have a ton of time but I was glad to get something in. Taking it a little easier this week is definitely helping my hamstring. It’s been much better this week. I think backing off and getting a new pair of shoes has been the key. The massage helped too. Great way to kick off our upcoming mini-vacation.

February wrap up: February was a solid month for me, 235 miles (261 according to Strava, which includes two mountain bike rides and Tuesday’s ride on the trainer – 31 hours in 28 days) – I got my mileage up a little bit but I will need to increase it more next month. Additionally, I ran two races, both solid efforts on the trails. The big things I learned from the two races were 1 – I need to run more miles and 2 – I need to do more workouts. 

Friday, March 1: Little Mulberry Park – 8 miles – I got out a little early, so I hit Little Mulberry Park for a run after work. It was chilly (mid 30’s) especially with the wind but once I got off of the lake loop and onto the equestrian trail it wasn’t too bad. I ran from the Hamilton Mill side parking lot, counter clockwise around the lake for a little over a mile and onto the trail. From there I ran the Dirty Spokes race course (6 miles) then back onto the lake loop back to the car. I finished up with an up tempo last mile of 6:05 on the paved path. Nothing crazy but it was good to open up my stride and run a little quicker.

Saturday, February 2: Zero – Amanda and I traveled back home to Massachusetts on Saturday. Our flight left around 11 so we had to be out the door at 8 am. After getting up to do clips I just didn’t have time to run. I thought about running when we got home but I decided to take it as a day off and give my body a little bit of a rest after a long day of travel.

Sunday, March 3: Vermont Snow Trail Run w/ Ferenc, Greg, Najem and Goup – 5 miles – I woke up early to get some work done then dropped Amanda off at her mom’s before heading up to Vermont to meet Ferenc, Greg, Najem and Goupil for a trail run in the wilds behind Josh’s house. For a lot of the run we were breaking through some frozen snow and Najem and I ended up having our ankles shredded, lesson learned, long socks next time I run with Josh and Greg. It was a great run thought. I had a blast running with the guys and catching up. We even got to run the infamous switchbacks behind Josh’s house. They lived up to the hype. We had a crazy decent since there was a little trail that had been carved out by Josh from running and snowshoeing that had iced over. It was a little treacherous but a lot of fun. Josh and Greg told me they call this run nine miles but according to my Garmin it was 5.2 miles. I doubt the Garmin got every twist and turn and considering the fact that it took us an hour I’d say it’s probably closer to seven. Granted according to Strava it had two category four climbs…KOM baby!

Weekly Totals: 31 miles on five runs – I set out with the goal of taking it a little bit easy this week after running the half marathon and being a little bit beat up last week. I’m glad I still got 30 miles in and five runs, plus I had the one day on the stationary bike at work, so I still had a good week of activity just not a ton of running. Next week will be more of the same. I’ll be at home but don’t know how much running I will do because of all the things we have planned. Hopefully I’ll at least get in 30 or so miles again then I can start ramping up when we get back to Georgia.