Training: July 9 - July 15

Monday, July 9: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Status quo for the morning run. I felt a little bit sluggish after slogging away in the heat on Sunday. It was brutally hot today so I opted for one run. As much as I want to keep my mileage up this week it is going to be a little tough traveling back home.

Tuesday, July 10: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Ran the normal loop. I ran the last mile or so a little quicker than normal today. After feeling a little sluggish yesterday and only running once I wanted to try and turn my legs over a little bit.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 5 miles – Out and back on the greenway. The weather was actually pretty nice for this run.

Wednesday, July 11: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Today is a travel day. Amanda and I are flying up to Boston for our vacation. I wanted to go longer today but I had to stick around the house in the morning to do a couple of work things before leaving for the airport. I also had hopes of running as second time when we got back to Middleton, but Dad made burgers so I feasted instead.

Thursday, July 12: Hamilton Falls, Vermont – 12 miles – Awesome run on an awesome day with Josh Ferenc up in Vermont. I drove up early and met Josh after he got out of teaching summer school. We jumped in his truck and drove up to Hamilton Falls where we ran down to the dam, went up and over the dam then down around to a campsite. We ran through the campsite trails back to the base of the falls then climbed to the top and swam for about 30 minutes before heading back to Saxtons River.

On the way back to his house we stopped at an ice cream shack on a farm that ran on the honor system. It was really cool. We grabbed some ice cream, I went with peanut butter cup, and hung out for a little bit before heading back to the house and tooling around on Josh’s scooters for a little bit. We even traded some guy an old bike seat for a pair of clipless pedals. I have no idea if they are any good or even if I’ll be able to find a pair of shoes and cleats to match, but for free it’s worth a shot. We hit the Vermont country store then I drove home to meet Amanda to hang out for the night.

Friday, July 13: Middleton Roads – 11 miles – In an attempt to avoid the heavy horse and deer fly population in my hometown this time of year, I elected for a road run this morning. I ran down maple street/62 to the old Danvers state hospital (fun fact - Arkham Asylum from Batman was based on Arkham Sanitarium, which HP Lovecraft based on Danvers State Hospital and it is now an apartment complex.) ran down Gregory street then back roads to Rt. 114 down to River St. all the way to Boston Street and back home.

Saturday, July 14: Middleton Roads – 11 miles – Same run as yesterday. I’ve never done this run before but it’s not bad. The section along 114 is kind of shitty and the first 35 minutes or so has you out in the sun quite a bit, but overall it’s not a bad route.

Sunday, July 15: Zero – Today was a day off from running but I went to OSG and played paintball all day with Danny and Chris, so I definitely got some exercise in. After getting home and showering, I drove down to Old Lyme, CT to meet Amanda and her family to hang out at a beach house for a few days.

Weekly Totals: 63 miles on seven runs – This had to be one of the first weeks I have had without doubling in about four months. I wanted to run more, but when we go home it’s tough to get a ton of running in unless I do it all in one run because there is so much we want to do. I got some good runs in including an awesome day up in Vermont with Ferenc, and my road runs at home weren’t bad either my mileage just suffered a bit without the secondary runs or the one really long day that I’ve been getting in lately. I’m not overly worried about only getting 63 miles in this week and I don’t mind backing off a little bit going into the Dirty Spokes series finale next week. I am going to have to back off during August because of work and while I am sad to see my 70+ mpw streak end, I could definitely use a little bit of a break.

Race Report - Dirty Spokes Central Park Trail Race

This race report is a few weeks old...It was sitting in my dashboard as a draft...whoops.

This was a big race for me personally. After struggling at Mt. Tabor and then having a miserable experience at the Sutallee Trace I kicked my training up a notch to try and get ready for this race. I logged five weeks over 75 miles and put in 72 miles the week of this race. I know that’s not a crazy amount of mileage but with my schedule it’s what I can realistically get in without feeling tapped out. I also think that, for me, 75-85 miles a week is my sweet spot. I’d love to ratchet it up and run 90-100 mile weeks but that’s not realistic for me.

Heading into this race, I backed off a little bit and only ran a couple of doubles in the week before. I still ran my monster mileage/workout day with my 8 mile/11 mile double on Monday. My workout (11 miles w/ 10 sets of 30-60-90s) went really well. It was faster than what I did the week before and had me feeling confident early in the week. I was also coming off of a road PR in the 10k (even though it’s still soft), which was a big confidence booster, but I was on my feet and out in the sun all week at work, so I was a little nervous about that.

Saturday morning I woke up early (5:30 am) to do clips, which wasn’t bad because I was up early all week with minicamp at work, ate an English muffin with some peanut butter then headed out the door to get to Central Park around 7:30. When I got to the rec center at the park and walked over to get my number I tried to figure out where and how we were going to get on the trail, as there is no trailhead at the rec center. Apparently last year there were too many cars at the trailhead parking lot, which also serves baseball and softball fields so Tim was forced to move the race to the rec center and reverse the direction of the course.

I grabbed my number and met up with Mitch to head out for a 2.5/3 mile warm up where we went over most of the course. Getting a third loop on it before the race was definitely beneficial. The race was two laps on a 2.5 mile trail (which I’m pretty sure was a little longer than that). I knew that the last section of the loop was going to be tough. It was tight with lots of twists and turns and from my experience last year I knew it would be chalk full of lappers.

After the warm up, Mitch and I headed over to the start line and tried to find a little bit of shade as it was really starting to warm up. When we got to the line I saw Jesse Rappolle from Big Peach and a Steve Wilcox from Atlanta Track Club and knew that those guys would most likely be upfront at the start. I got in a few strides, talked with Jesse for a minute then toed the line. From the gun I wanted to get out well because I didn’t know how we were going to get on the trail and didn’t want to get stuck in a bad spot like I did at Olde Rope Mill.

At the start, we ran through the parking lot then around the backside of the rec center before climbing a fairly steep hill and making a hard right onto some power line trails. Once we hit the power line trails I tried to open it up a little bit and see if I could stretch it out a little. Jesse settled in behind me and we ran the down and up a switchback hill. At the top of the hill I knew it leveled off and then was slightly downhill until you hit the woods. I put in another short surge, just trying to use the downhill but keep a relaxed effort. I ended up carrying this surge into the woods and ran well for the next mile or so. We came out of the woods and jumped onto a single track trail (in the truest sense of the word…the trail was maybe eight inches wide). At this point, I felt really smooth so just tried to keep it rolling, knowing that I had a slow section coming up. Before we hit the last section of woods, I took a peek back and didn’t see Jesse. I brushed it off, figuring he was closer than I thought rather than further back.

The final section of woods was tough. It was a roller coaster with a ton of tight turns and it killed my pace. I was really worried about getting caught or giving back a lot of time here. When I came out of the woods I tried to get back into a rhythm on the flat power line trail as I headed out for my second lap. I struggled a little bit climbing the switchback but settled down again on the downhill afterwards. I tried to maintain that pace all the way back into the woods, but with about two miles to go I was starting to feel like I went out too fast.

My legs started to get really, really heavy. My lungs felt alright, I wasn’t gassed but I felt like I was running in cement shoes. I tried to battle through it, hoping it was just a rough patch but the further I ran, I kept feeling like I couldn’t settle in without slowing down. After rough half mile, maybe three quarters of a mile I finally started to get back into a rhythm at a faster pace. I put my head down and grinded up the short uphill past the water station where I dumped two cups of water on my head to try and combat the heat, and focused on finishing the race strong.

I rallied really, really well on the next stretch, which was single track trail cut into the side of a hill. Any ground that I lost during my little pity party mile, I made up on this stretch. Knowing that the last half mile was going to be slow due to the terrain, I really pushed to try and finish strong. Once I got back into the woods it was nightmare city. I ran into a ton of lappers and about 600 meters from the finish I was completely exhausted from yelling “on your left” at the people in front of me. I stole a couple of glances back and didn’t see any sign of Jesse so I eased up and cruised through to the finish. I crossed the line in 31:43, which was about 1:07 faster than I ran last year. I’m definitely in better shape than I was last year and that’s why I think this course is a little long. It was my second win of the series and my fourth win of the year (all have come since joining the Saucony Hurricanes) and in 12 Dirty Spokes races I’ve managed to finish in the top three 11 times.

I guzzled about a gallon of water and had some Herbalife lemonade, which was really good, but it was like 25 bucks (no thanks) for the powder. I waited for Mitch to come in, hung out and talked with a couple of the usual suspects and grabbed my winnings, a box of cliff bars, a pair of Tifosi sunglasses, a coupon for the Treetop Quest (SCORE!), Montrail water bottle and a medal. Mitch and I ran about a mile and a half cool down before I headed out to Nitro to play some paintball. Good day all in all, but man was it scorching out.  

I’ve got about a month before the series finale at Sawnee Mountain now. My plan is to continue to hit right around the 75 mile mark but add in a few hill workouts. I’m thinking Chicopee Woods or the hills around the GEHC should be a good primer for the Sawnee race. I’m also traveling home for about a week just before the race, so I might taper a little during that time, but it will be good to get in a few runs back home.

Training: July 2 - July 8

Monday, July 2: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Status quo for the morning run. I’ve been locked into this 8 mile run pretty much every weekday for the last few months. It’s automatic at this point.

PM Run – Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles - I originally planned to try and get a longer run in the afternoon but it was just way too hot, mid to upper 90s. I ran out and back on the greenway to get in five. It was kind of nice to ditch the hillier three mile run I normally do for the flatter five mile route, but it was sweltering.

Tuesday, July 3: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning run. The mornings have been getting really humid lately, which is not doing good things for my running wardrobe. As soon as I finish and can finally get the sweat away from my body everything is completely soaked. Yeah, it’s gross.

PM Run – Suwanee Greenway – 10 miles – This was originally supposed to be a hill workout, then I decided to change it to a tempo run, and then it became a survival run. I got out of work a little bit later than I would have liked, so I decided to just try and get in a good solid tempo run, but it was still really hot out. Before my “warm up” was done I made the decision to bag the workout and just get in 10 miles at a slightly raised tempo. I wasn’t really happy with his, as I’ve stuck with every other planned workout I’ve had this year. When I got going I just felt awful and I didn’t think I’d get much out of a bad workout, besides being pissed off at a bad workout. I struggled through the 10 miles called it a day.

Wednesday, July 4: Ivy Creek Greenway/Mall of GA – 5 miles – Four the fourth, Amanda and I planned to meet Matt and Kat early to bring Matt down to one of the MARTA stations so he could head to the starting line for the Peachtree while we drove down to the finish at Piedmont Park. I woke up around 5 to try and get five miles in before we headed out. I ran out on the greenway with my headlamp and then decided to jump up on the mall road to run in the street lights. It was about 75 with 94 percent humidity, so this was more of a ‘let’s make sure we don’t take a zero today’ kind of run.

After running we picked up Matt and Kat, dropped Matt of at Doraville (I think) then drove down to Piedmont park, which I found without the GPS after only being there once and having no clue how we got their the first time. (I love shutting off the GPS when I know I am close to a destination and know the way. I always feel like Luke Skywalker and say to myself ‘Luke you turned off your targeting computer, is everything alright?”)

We got to the finish in time to catch the men’s and women’s overall winners (the men’s winner ran 27:30 something…feeding) and then watched the stream of 60,000 people come through the line on 10^th street. We saw Matt finish and regrouped, he got us some phenomenal peaches and we jumped back in the car to head home. I was a little bummed that I didn’t see any King of Pops carts, but with what I ate the rest of the day that was probably for the best.

After dropping Matt and Kat off, Amanda and I headed out to Buford Dam to do a little hiking, just a few miles though nothing crazy. We soaked in the Hooch for a few then headed back to the car. Amanda was a trooper. It was really hot and we ran into a slow moving group, so naturally I put on the burners to roast them up the ridge trail and Amanda hung right with me despite feeling like she was going to pass out. We got some Gatorade and water then headed home to make a 4^th of July feast of hot dogs, burgers and Summer Shandys.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 3 miles - I got out the door for three in the afternoon because I was disgusted by myself after eating lunch. I could smell hot dogs the whole time and I’m not sure if it was because people were cooking them or because I was sweating them out.

Thursday, July 5: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – I was hurting after yesterday and I really wanted to sleep in, but I fought it and got out for my standard AM 8.

PM Run – Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Battled the heat to grind out five in the afternoon before trivia. I was a little bit late meeting everyone because it took me about 35 minutes to cool down enough to take a shower. I’m glad I got the five in though, because I’ve got Brian and Amy’s wedding this weekend, so it’s likely that I’ll have to take Saturday off.

Friday, July 6: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning run. Nothing out of the ordinary.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 3 miles – Managed to squeeze in a quick three before heading up to Chateau Elan for Brian and Amy’s wedding rehearsal. It was really nice, quick rehearsal, nice dinner at the winery and then a fun mixer. Amanda was able to make it up for a couple hours too.  

Saturday, July 7: Zero – Day off – Not pumped about taking a zero, but we got home late from the mixer then I had to be back at Chateau for golf at 8:30, so there was no time for me to get it in. After golfing I took a quick shower then drove back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.  

Sunday, July 8: Ft. Yargo State Park – 14 miles – I finally got to sleep in a little bit, which was vital after we got home around 1:00 am after the wedding. I milled around for a while and watched the Tour then Amanda and I grabbed some breakfast. She headed to work and I drove out to Ft. Yargo for a run. I went with a double loop of the hiking trail so I could stop half way and grab a water bottle for the final seven miles. This turned out to be a really good call, as it got hot fast. My first lap was pretty normal but my second lap was a death march. I drank most of my water and stopped at both bathrooms where I turned on the shower to try and cool myself down. Needless to say it was brutal, but I’m glad I got it in. Barberitos for a burrito after.

Weekly Totals: 77 miles on 11 runs – I'm really happy that I hit my mileage goal despite taking a day off. I feel like I’ve kind of hit the plateau for my training were it is at right now. I definitely feel like I need to mix things up a little bit if I want to keep improving and running well. I don’t know if that is added miles or adding another workout or if it just feels that way because I haven’t raced in a couple weeks to see where I am at. It will be good to get a change of scenery as I am going home for a few days and will be able to get some different runs in back in Massachusetts. I am also planning a trip up to NH/VT to get in on the Keenyan Summer for a day with some friends which will probably be a wake-up call but it’s always fun to get it in with those guys. I might even throw in a random race while I’m up there for spits and whistles.

The next race that is definitely on my calendar is the Dirty Spokes Series Finale at Sawnee Mountain on the 21^st. I have the points title wrapped up at this point, provided I don’t lose to Mitch by 20+ spots, but I would like to close out the series with another win. Sawnee Mountain will be my last race for a little over a month as training camp begins at work the next week. That means the next week I will try to hit 75 again then back off a little for the final series race then I will have to play it by ear as training camp is an incredibly difficult time for me to train. My goal is to maintain 20 miles a week during camp and then try to run between 20 and 40 miles per week during the football season, while running a couple of fall races. It’s really odd to think that I have to get in the majority of my running from January until August when my favorite time of the year to run is the fall, but that’s how it goes. I am still planning to run as many Xterra races as possible and I’d like to use the fall as a chance to run some 5ks. My hope is that putting races on my calendar will help get me out the door.

Training: June 25 - July 1

Monday, June 25: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning eight miler. I was expecting my legs to be tired yesterday after racing on Saturday and playing paintball but I felt fine. Today was a different story. My legs were dead from the get go. Just tried to grind through it and get the miles in.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 3 miles - Afternoon shakeout. I ran up and around the GEHC. Boy was it really hot. Not looking forward to the triple digits they are predicting at the end of the week.

Tuesday, June 26: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning eight miler. Uneventful.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 3 miles - Afternoon shake out. It was nice to get out of work a little early and relax before running. I waited till 7 pm to run and the weather was really nice. It was starting to cool off a bit, even though the sun doesn’t go down until close to 9, it still dips below most of the trees around the environmental center to make for a nice shady run.

Wednesday, June 27: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning eight miler. Took it nice and easy and cruised in just over an hour. I have a hill workout planned for this afternoon.

PM Run – Chicopee Woods – 10 miles - Warmed up 3+ miles then did three repeats on Grandma's climb. The climb is about a half mile long hill that has two levelish sections. I went 3:31, 3:29, 3:27 and 3:25. The last one was a little tough but it was a good workout overall. I was happy to go negative on all four. At first I thought I could have run a little bit harder but I’m not sure if I could have gone negative for all four if I’d started out at 3:25 or faster. 3+ mile cool down, calling it 10 even though it's probably a little longer.

Thursday, June 28: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Standard morning eight miler. Nothing special, but my legs felt okay after yesterday’s high mileage day and workout.

PM Run – GEHC Trails – 3 miles - Afternoon shakeout. I ran up and around the GEHC for my second run of the day. Good to get the legs moving again in the afternoon. I waited until 6:30 to run in the hopes that it would cool off a little. Afterwards I met Amanda, Matt and Kat for trivia. We need to step up our game.

Friday, June 29: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – This will be my one and only run today. It was already in the 80s by the time I finished my run at 8 am...oooosh. I toyed around with the idea of maybe running again but it was in the mid 90s by lunchtime. It was a good day to run once.

Saturday, June 30: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – Probably not the best idea I’ve ever had but I woke up around normal time (6:30) and got in 8 miles to try and beat the heat. It was warming up quickly again today. After my run I hopped in the car and drove out to Nitro and played paintball for a couple of hours. I was smart and brought plenty of water. By the time I left it was over 100 degrees. When I got home, Amanda and I settled on going Taco Mac for some wings and beers then to see Ted because according to my car it was 114. Woof. Ted was pretty fun, definitely similar to Family Guy. Amazingly there were people behind us that had two little kids with them. Really? It was not that kind of teddy bear movie bro.

Sunday, July 1: GEHC Trails – 8 miles – I Waited too long to run. It was a huge mistake. I was absolutely dying it was so hot. Probably around the high 80s, plus it didn’t help that ate a ton of wings and drank zero water yesterday afternoon. Detoxed with a trip to whole foods to get some stuff for the week and Amanda made fruit salad with yogurt for dinner. I may have had a piece of oatmeal toast with peanut butter and nutella also.

Weekly Totals: 75 miles on 11 runs with one good workout. I was happy with the week, obviously I would have loved to have gotten a long run in on Saturday or Sunday but I decided to take it a little easier with the heat since I knew I was going to hit my mileage goal. I was happy with the workout. It didn’t seem like a ton of volume but it was good to get some hard hill efforts in, since the next Dirty Spokes race is up and over Sawnee Mountain. This week I’m hoping for more of the same, but it might be tough with Brian and Amy’s wedding rehearsal dinner on Friday and then the wedding on Saturday. I am thinking I’ll be up early to run on Wednesday since we are heading into the city to watch the Peachtree and then I’ll be up early again on Saturday to run before golf. Hopefully I can hit Ft. Yargo for a nice long run on Sunday.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. I bought a Nathan water bottle for some of these longer runs when it is really hot. I’ll let you know how it goes.