Training Log: June 3 - 9

Monday, June 3: 10 Miles
AM - Reservoir Trail – 5 miles – Ran out and back on the Rez trails before our flight back to Atlanta. The trails were a little wet from the big thunderstorm we had overnight but it was nice to not be running in 90+ degree weather. Side note: Amanda and I found two of three geocaches around the Rez on Saturday. One of them was in a paintball pod, which I thought was cool. It was funny how close to the trail they were and I’ve never noticed before despite running on the trail like 15 million times.

PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Out and back on the greenway after we got back from the airport. Nice and easy stroll with Amanda riding next to me on the bike. We stopped at Fresh Market before we got home and grabbed some prime rib kebabs for dinner, so good. I love that place. It’s like a Trader Joes or a small Whole Foods.

Tuesday, June 4: 12 miles
AM - Gravel Spring – 7 miles – A little bit of a slog this morning. I think my legs were tired from the travel day yesterday.

PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Ran with Amanda riding next to me on the bike. Standard post work run. After the run/ride we made dinner then I headed over to George Pierce Park for our first slow pitch softball game. We got worked. 23-1. I went 1 for 2 and narrowly missed a couple of outfield assists but it was a tough loss. One the other team took far too many pitches for softball and two, we were trying to smash the ball and hit too many pop ups. Better luck next week.

Wednesday, June 5: 15 miles
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles – Big time struggle bus day for me. I think it was because I was tired from getting home late last night (the game started at 10pm aka my bed time) and running around for an hour that night.

PM – Robin Hood (south) Workout – 8 miles – Two mile warm up on the greenway then 4x1200ish (.83 miles) on the homesite loop behind my apartment, followed up by two more miles for the cool down.

I had originally planned on doing 4x800, because that’s what the trail sign says the distance for one lap is. However on the first repeat, I noticed it was only about .4, so I ended up doing 1.5 laps for the first repeat. After that little fiasco, I decided to go with two laps per repeat so each one would be about 1200 on the trail.

Splits: 
4:12 (1.5 laps)
5:09
5:18
5:18

I went with roughly 2:30 rest per rep (a little shorter on the first).

Not a great workout, but I’m glad I got out there and tried to run a little quicker than my normal slog. Cooled down two miles after for eight total.

Thursday, June 6: 12 miles (recovery day)
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles – Nice and easy seven mile recovery run.
PM – Greenway Out & Back – 5 miles – Another easy recovery run with Amanda riding next to me on the bike.

Friday, June 7: 10 miles
AM – Gravel Springs – 7 miles
PM – Greenway – 5 miles

Saturday, June 8: Buford & Hamilton Mill Roads - 11 miles – Ran out to gravel springs then up to Hamilton mill road then back to south Bogan and back up to the GEHC and down to the house.

Sunday, June 9: Rocking the Suburbs - 15 miles – I’ve found a good solid long run on the roads from my apartment. I headed up to the GEHC and then out on Woodward Mill road to old Suwanee road. From there I ran up to Roberts Road the out onto Buford highway. I dipped into George Pierce Park and ran on the greenway for about a mile and half then up Martin Farm road to Town Center park, back on the greenway, through the Morning View neighborhoods and then back on old Suwanee and back up to the GEHC and down to the house. Good solid 15.

Weekly Total: 85 miles on 12 runs – Great week of mileage and one decent workout. I do want to get back to trail running though. I haven’t been doing much of that lately. I’d also like to jump in a 5k in the next couple of weeks before the Peachtree.

Training May 27 - June 2

Monday, May 27: Currahee Mountain – 10 miles (3xmile workout) – Being Memorial Day and all, I decided to take a ride up to Toccoa and run up the mountain made famous by the men of Easy Company (check out the first episode of Band of Brothers). I ran out to the base of the climb then did three mile repeats on the final climb, then headed back to the car.

 

Splits:
Mile 1 – 9:23
Mile 2 – 9:38
Mile 3 – 10:05

 

I felt like I probably could have run a little faster on the first and second one, but I was completely toast by the third. Either way, it was good to get out and challenge myself on some terrain that I struggle with. (more to come)

 

Tuesday, May 28:
AM - Gravel Springs Loop – 7 miles – Nice, easy recovery day. My legs were a little beat up from Currahee, but I cruised in under 50 minutes, which has been a struggle in recent weeks.

 

PM – Greenway (w/Amanda) – 3 miles – Amanda had a really long day at work so we decided to cut things short and turn around at the first bridge for three instead of the normal five. I was completely okay with that, but happy I still got in 10 for the day.

 

Wednesday, May 29: Gravel Springs + Waterworks Rd. – 9 miles – Ran the normal morning loop then ran up waterworks to get an extra two miles in. We are traveling back home to visit my mom today, so I had a little bit of extra time. I originally planned on shaking out when we got back home but ended up bagging it.

 

Thursday, May 30: Topsfield-Wenham-Danvers Rail Trail (w/ Amanda) – 10 miles – We headed over to Topsfield to check out the new (to me) linear common rail trail that connects to the Danvers rail trail. Amanda rode my dad’s old Gary Fisher mountain bike and we ran out five miles to Danvers high then turned back. It was super hot. 90+ with some humidity. I’m definitely not ready for that yet. The trail was great though, even though it was an out and back we both enjoyed being able to get off of the pavement for a bit. The trail is nice and wide and has some cool town line markers, man I would have loved racing for those town lines when I was in high school.

 

Friday, May 31: Peabody Street to Masco XC (aka the old stomping grounds) – 11 miles – Another scorcher…I dropped my shirt a mile in due to the heat and made a couple of stops along the Ipswich river to dunk my head and cool off, yup that’s a townie move, so what? I ran from the house up to Essex street, then over School St, down liberty to Peaboby St then out on the old Masco XC course (90 percent road) then back to the house. Glad to get it in early as it just got hotter as the day went on.

 

Saturday, June 1: Rail Trail (w/ Amanda) – 10 miles – Woof…super hot. I was absolutely dying, so it was good to be able to run something easy and flat. Unfortunately, I had to miss the XTERRA final race, but my 500 points held up so I am the 2012-13 XTERRA Georgia Trail Run Series Champ (25-29). Check out my sweet certificate. 

 

 

 

Sunday, June 2: Peabody Street to Masco & Back – 11 – Ran the same run as Friday and it was another scorcher. Nothing too special about this run, I kept it nice and easy and made a couple stops at sprinklers and once at the Ipswich River, again complete townie move. Hung by the pool for the rest of the day.

Weekly Totals: 73 miles on 8 runs – I was happy to still get in 70+ miles despite having a travel day in the middle of the week. I was pumped to get a chance to do the Currahee workout. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a while and haven’t had a chance to get up there. It was also nice to get 70+ miles on only 8 runs, normally I’m doing 12 runs a week. It was good to get in a bunch of hour-plus long runs. I thought about going to the Bretton Woods Fell Race on Sunday, but decided to pass and stay near home. Next up is more workouts and I need to find a road race to jump into to see where I’m at before Peachtree. I’ve also got to do something on the trail to get ready for the final two Dirty Spokes race.