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.