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.