Training January 23 – January 29

Monday, January 23: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – I could not get out of bed this morning. More wet weather and cold temperatures made me bag running in the morning, but after work the rain had stopped and I hit the greenway trail for five miles. My legs were a little tight from running 10 yesterday, especially my right hamstring (no more running in my year old Cascadia 5s!). I was a little nervous because that’s the hamstring that bothered me all fall, but it loosened up once I got going. I ran the flatter greenway trail because it’s paved and crushed gravel, which meant a lot less mud than the other trails near my apartment. I ran the out and back version and added one homesite loop to make sure I got in five miles.

Tuesday, January 24: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Couldn’t get up again this morning. I don’t know what my deal is, maybe it’s the weather, I don’t know but I’ve had no luck dragging myself out of bed to run before work. Today this worked out pretty well for me as it was one of the nicer days we’ve had in the last week or so, sunny and 60 when I hit the trail. Easy run, I tried to keep the pace honest since this is a 100 percent flat run. I added one homesite loop to make sure to get the full five.

After getting back to the apartment I officially signed up for the Dirty Spokes Heritage Park 8 mile trail race. This is the only Dirty Spokes race I missed last year and one of my goals this year is to run in all seven races. Now, this one is going to be ugly. I’m not in shape to race eight miles right now. I’d like to be able to hit six minute pace but even that might be a stretch at this point since I’ve only been running consistently since January 1 and I haven’t really done much mileage. My plan for the next week and a half is to keep getting in 35 minute/five mile runs in each day and get an 8 mile tempo run in early in the week. Right now I’m shooting for an hour long run on Saturday and Sunday and then a 30-60-90 workout on next Tuesday. I need to get in a longer run at a higher effort to prepare for the race, so that is my plan for Tuesday, well see what happens.

Wednesday, January 25: Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – Finally dragged myself out of bed in the morning for an early run. I left the house a little bit late but it was still dark, so I ran with the headlamp for the first 20 minutes or so before it was light enough to go without. The run started off sluggish but my legs felt better as I went along. My hamstring is still a little bit tender at times. I need to get better with stretching it out and get back to using the stick to massage it before and after I run. I should also probably invest in a foam roller. The times I’ve used them when running from work have really helped as I think loosening my IT band relieves my hamstring issues. It was good to get 10 in on Sunday without any major issues though.

Thursday, January 26: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Slow going this morning. It was nice and warm but really dark and the fog was very dense. Because of the weather I avoided the Sweet Gum trail and just ran the flat out and back five on the greenway. It took me nearly two minutes longer to get this run in then when I did it the other night. Most of that I attribute to how dark it was, the fog combined with the darkness made it difficult to see so I ran a little more carefully than I would have with better visibility. With that said, the fact that this run was so much slower than others has me a little worried about the upcoming race, but hopefully getting a workout in before then will give me a better idea of what to expect next Saturday.

Friday, January 27: Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – This was another sluggish run. Nothing really hurt and it’s not a difficult run but I’ve just been feeling really slow for the last few days.

Saturday, January 28: Sweet Gum loop + Greenway trail – 8 miles – I was a little bit sore after playing 18 holes yesterday so it was another slow day but I was happy to get in a little bit of a longer run than what I’d been doing the last couple of weeks. I want to get a few more runs of 45-60 minutes in before next weekend’s 8 mile race so it doesn’t seem like such a shock to the system to be running for that long.

Sunday, January 29: Homesite Loops + Greenway trail – 7 miles – This was my bread and butter morning run last year, especially when it started to get really hot in the late spring and summer. It is an easier, flat run that starts and finishes with two loops (each loop is .5 miles) on the homesite trail. I actually felt like I was running a more normal pace today, which was positive after having a couple of slower days to end the work week.

Weekly Total: 40 miles on seven workouts – Overall this was a good week. I got a couple more miles in this week and brought my total up to 40, which is right where I wanted to be at this point. Next week I am shooting for 40-45 miles, which will include one tempo run and one race. I’m trying to build up to the 50-60 mpw range where I will probably stay for a couple weeks before bumping up to 70+ mpw.

Training January 16 - January 22

Monday, January 16 – Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – I got the week off to a good start with five miles this morning. I slept in a little bit so I only needed the headlamp for the first few minutes before there was enough light to shut it off. Crisp morning, probably about 35 around seven when I left the house. I had originally intended to go up to Toccoa, GA to run up Currahee Mountain, but that plan got side tracked by having to go to the office for a few hours. I’ll have to devote a whole post to Currahee when I do get back up there for a run in the next couple weeks. It’s a six mile run along the Col. Sink trail that climbs to the top of the mountain. It was made famous by the men of E company of the 506^th airborne division who trained there prior to WWII. I ran it once last year and even though the summit has radio and cell towers it’s still a very cool run.

Tuesday, January 17 – Ivy Creek Greenway – 3 miles – I had originally planned to head up to the Chicopee Woods mountain bike trails after work, but since the trails close at 6:30 and I didn’t leave work until 6 I had to settle for a run from the apartment. Honestly I only got out the door to avoid a zero for the day. This was a headlamp run, but the light ran mixed with some fog because of the warm temperature, visibility was an issue. After about two minutes out on the paved section of the greenway I decided to turn this into an impromptu short tempo run. I hit end of the pavement (switches to gravel) in five-flat which is about a minute faster than I usually do. I kept the pace up until the turnaround at the first overpass then I slowed because I’m still not in great shape yet. I managed to pick it up again for the final 600 or so of the gravel path before bringing it home in under 19 minutes for what I’ll call three-ish miles. It felt good to put a little more effort into the run, even if it was just a result of being frustrated with having to run later and shorter than I wanted to, oh well at least it wasn’t a zero.

Wednesday, January 18 – Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – Chased the daylight on this run. I had originally planned on going to Chicopee or Gainesville state to hit the mountain bike trails, but it ended up being colder out than I had anticipated so I had to grab my hat and gloves and run from the house. Nothing special about this run, I was just glad to get five in after having to settle for three the night before. I did cut it a little close though and probably need to stick to AM runs until we get a little bit more daylight.

Thursday, January 19 – Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – Woke up at 6:15 and was out the door around 15 minutes later. Cold and dark, needed the headlamp for more of the run than I had expected but it was still a nice run. I had a few weird steps where the ground was a little lower than I thought but other than that avoided any disasters. I think running with the headlamp is actually going to help me with my trail racing this year, as its forcing me to adjust were I look when I’m running. Normally, my eyes are forward and slightly down, looking probably 10-15 feet ahead of me. Last year I noticed when racing on the trails I needed to look closer to where my feet were falling to avoid some of the roots and rocks on the tight single track trails. Because of where the light is most effective, I’m starting to have a similar change in where I’m looking on these headlamp runs. This may or may not make sense, but I feel like it does so I’m going with it.

Friday, January 20 – Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Miserable run…cold, wet and dark. I put on the headlamp and headed out on the greenway trail (paved/crushed gravel). The persistent rain made the sweet gum trail a little bit nasty for headlamp run so I decided to switch it up and go with the more consistent surface of the greenway. Sometimes you just have to get your miles in…even if its only five.

Saturday, January 21 – Sweet Gum out & back – 5 miles – I initially planned to go out to Heritage park to check out the course for the first Dirty Spokes race in a couple of weeks but we had heavy rain and thunderstorms all morning long. Since the race is on a mountain bike trail and most mountain bike trails close during/after rain and I didn’t want to get stuck in the middle of one of these bright yellow/red thunderstorms I decided to bag it and just run from home. Ran the standard out and back five.

Sunday, January 22 – Harbins Park x2 - 10 miles – After missing out on getting 10 in yesterday, I went to Harbins Park and ran two loops of the hiking trail to get 10 miles in before the Pats game. The loop is roughly 4.5 miles of trail with a half-mile of paved multi-use trail from the parking lot to the trailhead. This was a nice run, comfortable temperature and the trails weren’t too wet. I felt a little sluggish but it was the longest run I’ve done since, probably our trip to Seattle in the fall. I need to get a couple of 7-10 mile runs in over the next two weeks to get ready for the Heritage Park race. I’m not really in any kind of shape to race it up if I can get a couple of runs in to get used to running for 50 minutes to an hour to get my lets used to that I think I’ll be able to at least be in the chase pack depending on who shows up. I’d also like to get in a couple of tempo runs before then.

Weekly Totals – 38 miles on seven runs – Another good week. I know the mileage isn’t much at this point, but it’s about getting in the runs. Next week I want to keep my mileage around 40 but work in a tempo run either during the week or on Saturday morning. The first race is coming up quick and I need to start doing a few runs at a higher effort level. Last year I tried to run most of the trail races at or around 6 minute pace. I don’t think that’s going to happen over eight miles in just a couple weeks but we’ll see what happens. 

Training - January 9 - 15

Monday, January 9 – Off – Depressed after Sunday’s game and got home late. I set my alarm early but shut it off and ended up sleeping late. Oh well.

Tuesday, January 10 – AM – 3 miles – Ivy Creek Greenway - Headed out around 6:45 into a wicked fog. I couldn’t see anything. It was so foggy that when I turned my headlamp on it was a complete white out, but with it off it was pitch black. I ran across the bridge behind my apartment to the start of the Sweet Gum trail but there was no way I could have run out there until the sun came up, just too dark without a light and too foggy with it. I almost bagged the run but I decided to try the Greenway trail going in the other direction. This workout well because of the light thrown by the street lights and store lights by the mall. It was light enough to run without the lamp. I headed to the first over pass, which is about a mile and a half from the house. It’s a flat run but it was good to keep my legs moving after nearly bagging the run.

PM – 3 miles – Sweet Gum Loop – I got out of work while it was still light out, so I hit the Sweet Gum trail for a couple miles to make up for taking Monday off. Nothing special about the run, I’m just trying to keep getting out to run.

Wednesday, January 11 – Sweet Gum Loop – 3 miles – This was an uneventful run. I had a draining day at work, so I was kind of just going through the motions. I’m glad I was able to avoid a zero and my legs didn’t feel to bad, but having to drive to the office then down to the city and back to the office plus everything we had going on was mentally draining.

Thursday, January 12 – AM – Sweet Gum Loop – 3 miles – Despite a long day yesterday I got myself out of bed and got a quick three miles in. Again, nothing special on this run, typical a.m. headlamp run. The temperature has warmed up into the 50s, which has been nice.

PM Run – 3 miles – Sweet Gum loop – Ran the loop in reverse. It starts out with half of the homesite loop trail up to the GEHC and onto the creekside trail, about 200 yards on the paved Cherokee trail then into the GEHC and finishes with the Sweet Gum trail. Nice to mix it up a little bit.

Friday, January 13 – 6 miles – Harbins Park – Drove over to Harbins Park to run the hiking trail. This run is about 6 miles from the car to the car and most of it is on really nice double track trail. I’ve only run the loop twice after Amanda and I hiked it one day in the fall. The park also has a mountain bike trail that is something like 10 or 12 miles. I am looking forward to checking out once I am in better shape. The park also hosts one of the Xterra Georgia races, hopefully I’ll be able to run it next year.

Saturday, January 14 – 5 miles - Sweet Gum Out & Back – After running six miles yesterday I decided to be a big boy and run five today. I broke out the iPod nano watchband that Amanda got me for Christmas and hit the trail. I used the Nike+ on the nano for the first time and while it worked well as a stopwatch I’m pretty sure most of the other information was incorrect. I ran an out and back run and at the half-way point it said I’d run 2.7 miles, which I thought was a little longer that it really is. After turning around and heading back it told me my total workout was 3.99 miles, and I had run 8 something pace. I’m not sure how an out and back is 2.7 one way and 1.2 miles on the way back and at one point it said I was running 5:37 pace.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this run is a little shy of five and with that in mind I usually add on at little at the end (three or four minutes) to be safe. I also wasn’t expecting the Nike+ in the iPod to be 100 percent accurate, but I was still surprised at how off it was. It is a little bit of a hilly run, nothing crazy but it’s up and down for a lot of the run and I’m thinking that might be why it was off. I don’t know, I’m no scientist.

Sunday, January 15 – 5 miles – Sweet Gum Out & Back – Same deal as yesterday. Nothing too special just trying to continue to get miles in.

Weekly Total – 31 miles on eight runs. This was a good wee for me, especially the last couple of days. My goal for next week is to up my daily run to five miles. I’ve strung a couple good weeks of running almost every day together and now it’s time to start adding a little more volume. I am aiming for 35+ miles this week and then will go from there. Depending on how the week goes I might jump in a 5k road race on Saturday, but that will probably be a game-time decision.

January 2 - January 8

Monday, January 2 – Off – because of a late night at work on Sunday I didn’t want to get up early and head out for a run. I knew this week was going to be really busy and work and didn’t want to get rundown by not getting a decent sleep on Sunday night. I will try to make up for this on Friday with a double. This week is more about getting out and running everyday than running a specific number of miles. If I can run for 20-25 minutes per day for the rest of the week I’ll be happy with that.

Tuesday, January 3 – 3 miles – Sweet Gum Loop– Today was the first chance I got to break out my head lamp for a morning run. My running took a hit when the sun starting coming up later so Amanda got me a head lamp for Christmas. It’s nothing too intense but it throws enough light to see the trail at my feat so I don’t eat it (or at least I didn’t today.)

I ran the Sweet Gum trail loop this morning. It’s a common run for me that in 90 percent trail and runs through the Gwinnett Environmental Heritage Center connecting a couple of different trails. The run is about three miles and has some ups and downs which makes it a little more fun to run that the out and back gravel trail that I ran a lot in the hot summer mornings last year.

Naturally my first head lamp run took me home to Massachusetts, because it was freezing. It was a balmy 22 degrees at 6:45 when I headed out the door in the dark and didn’t warm up by the time I returned around dawn at 7:10ish.

Wednesday, January 4 – 3 miles – Sweet Gum Loop – Same run as yesterday. Once again it was freezing cold, 21 when I hit the trail. Thankfully I was able to pick up my new Saucony Rides at Big Peach last night. I was in desperate need of new shoes. A few months ago I decided to try the Brooks Launch because I’d heard good things about them and I like the Brooks Cascadia trail shoe, but I quickly found that they are too soft for my liking. That combined with a hamstring injury suffered in Friday football at work during the fall had caused some tightness in my IT band. The new shoes definitely helped alleviate some of that.

Thursday, January 5 – 3 miles – Sweet Gum Loop – Same run as the last two days, but it was much warmer today at 38 than the previous two days. Two runs in my Rides have definitely helped my IT/hamstring issues. I probably still need to be a little more vigilant with using the stick and stretching it, but I think the fact that I got a new pair of both running and casual shoes has helped.


Friday, January - 6 - AM - 3 miles - Sweet Gum Loop - Kept it the same this morning. I felt pretty good and even though I haven't been wearing a watch lately but I'm pretty sure today was faster than the last couple of days. I know I haven't been running a ton of miles, but right now I'm focusing more on getting out and running for 20-25 minutes a day just to get back into the swing of running everyday. I'm starting earlier than I did last year, so I am confident that if I can string together a few weeks of consistent running, I can ramp the miles up fairly quickly after that.

PM – Sweet Gum out and back – 5 miles - Added a second run this afternoon since it was a fast Friday at work. Ran out the sweet gum trail out to through the GEHC, down the creekside trail and back. My legs were a little bit tired and I probably didn’t drink enough water today, so the run wasn’t great, but it still felt good to get out for a second run today and run for more than 20-25 minutes.

Saturday, January 7 – Sweet Gum Loop – 3 miles – I wanted to run five again this morning but my legs felt miz and I had to be at work to get ready to head up to NY/NJ for the weekend. It was nice to be able to run in the sunlight (two runs in a row!) and the weather has warmed up a little bit. I’ve had Lonely Boy by the Black Keys stuck in my head for about three days now and it’s one of those songs that I don’t know any of the words to aside from the chorus. I might have to download it on my sweet new iPhone.

Sunday, January 8 – Office Park/Short Hills Mall loop – 3 miles – Short Hills, NJ - Woke up this morning to find that I didn’t pack my shorts or jacket for the trip up to New Jersey for the game. It wasn’t really all that cold so I was able to wear two long-sleeved shirts and I had my sporthills so I had enough to get out the door. Our hotel was in a small office park next to a mall so I ran through the park and around the mall. I found a golf course and a nice neighborhood behind the mall so I added on a few minutes winding through the labyrinth of huge houses. It reminded me a lot of Topsfield and Boxford actually. I didn’t have a lot of time so I ran for about 12 minutes and then headed back to the hotel. The run was probably a little longer than three but whatever.

While running I realized that I got my sporthill running pants my freshman year at Keene State. That was the fall of 2002, so I’ve had them for almost 10 years. I think it’s probably time to invest in a new pair.

Weekly Total

23 miles on seven runs – I know it’s not much mileage, but the theme of the week was run and I got that done. This week was really the beginning of my training for this spring and summer’s racing schedule. After yesterday’s loss the offseason for work begins. That means I will probably try to run a race in the next couple of weeks, mainly as a workout but also to give my training a little more incentive. This week I’d like to get another 20-25 mile week under my belt, then after that start building up to more mileage each week.

As for a race schedule, I’m going to try and defend my Dirty Spokes trail title. The first race in the series is in early February. It’s the lone race in the series that I missed last year and I’d like to run all seven this year, but we’ll see what happens. I think my loose plan for now is run a 5k either the 21^st-22^nd weekend or the weekend after that to see where I’m at go from there.

Welcome

I’ve been thinking about starting up a running blog for the last few months after seeing that a number of my friends from New Hampshire have been using them to log their miles and recap runs and races. Now that I feel like I’ve found a way to strike a balance between work and running and I’ve been able to say somewhat on track after my best spring and summer of running since, probably 2007 or so this seemed like a good way to keep myself honest and stick to the goals that I’ve set.

I’ve become a little more realistic over the last year and a half and I think that’s helped me a lot. Because of my job it’s difficult for me to run consistently during the fall/early winter (September to January). But it’s not impossible. I’ve been trying to keep myself in a place where when work slows down I can pretty easily ramp up and get my training going. Part of the reason it took me so long to figure this strategy out is that my professional career has had a lot of uncertainty and bouncing around. 2011 was the first time I knew that the job I had in February would be the same job I’d have the next February (provided I didn’t screw it up too badly).

Going from Massachusetts to Philly back to Mass, and then down to the Atlanta area made it tough for me to find a rhythm, but once I finally got settled in around this time last year I was able to plan out a direction for my running and get back on track. Now, I’m not going to be shattering any records but I want to remain competitive on a local and regional level and be able to hang with my friends back home, who typically rip up the New England road, trail and mountain scene.

When I was in Philadelphia in 2009 and back home for most of 2010 I ran but didn’t really do any races. I ran two 5ks in Philly but those were more because people from work were doing them and I was asked to jump it. Most of my running during that time was just to say in some kind of shape, get outside and enjoy running again. I’m not sure how I enjoyed my nightly runs through the Navy yard, maybe it was the Rocky effect or something but I was at least putting one foot in front of the other. I probably owe the fact that I’m still running to that time though. I was getting out to Ridley Creek State Park (one of my all-time favorite places to run) on a weekly basis and interesting enough, I read Born to Run, which didn’t make me convert to barefoot running but reminded me to enjoy running more and not worry about how fast or far I was going. Now I always try to remember to take the time to enjoy my runs, whether it’s freezing cold, scorching hot, I’m tired or I feel like I am running slow.

Honestly if I took the time to think about enjoying running more when I was in college, I probably would have run better. Oh well, as we mature I guess. I am excited for the new year because of the fact that I not only ran a good amount last year but I raced and raced pretty well all things considered. Luckily my apartment has an assortment of trails directly behind it, they’re not long but you can get 8 to 10 miles if you don’t mind adding an out and back to a loop, so that made it easier on me. I’ve always liked training on trails. With that in mind I found out that this area of Georgia has a plethora of mountain bike trails maintained (really well by the way) by the local clubs.

All the trails and county parks gave me a ton of places to explore and that helped lead me to my “epiphany” of a racing season. While I was googling all of the places to run in the area I found Ft. Yargo State Park and its 12.5 mile mountain bike trail. On whim and after not really running all that much, I decided to give it a go. The day I ran it was the same day of the Xterra Georgia trail half marathon and marathon. I didn’t run either race, just the trail, but I did notice the signs for Dirty Spokes Productions who put on the races. Dirty Spokes also puts on a seven race trail series in Georgia so after seeing that I decided that I was going to enter the six remaining races and see what happened.

First off Dirty Spokes is great. Tim puts on phenomenal events and everyone that runs the races make it a really fun experience. I’m actually hoping to race in one of the duathalons they put on at some point. The second race of last year’s series was my first race since running a prostate awareness race in October of 2009, I went about a year and half without racing or doing a workout. I just ran to run. Looking back I’m really glad I decided to go for it with the trail races.

The first race I ran was at the former mountain bike and equestrian center from the 1996 Olympics. I had absolutely no idea what to expect but I figured if I went out relaxed and tried to hang around with the lead pack I’d probably have a shot at finishing in the top five or 10 and maybe getting in the age group winnings. That plan went out the window pretty quickly and I had to learn a lot about racing on single track on the fly but I managed to hang on for second place. I actually finished three minutes faster than I figured after looking at the previous year’s times and Amanda missed my finish because she didn’t think I’d be done yet.

From that point on I went on to finish the series with the most points in the 25-29 age group and I even won the final two races. It probably would have been three of the last four but I invited Josh Ferenc down and naturally he smoked me. This was a great experience for me because it gave me a reason to keep running. When you are just running to run it’s easy to take a string of days off, but knowing I was racing every few weeks helped me add more discipline to my running. The one major goal I have going into this year is to run workouts. Last year I ran almost entirely by feel. I ran a couple of harder efforts but for the most part I just ran. This year I want to work in some tempo runs and even a few track sessions to go with my trail races and road races.