Monday: 10 miles - roads in the Quidnessett area alone. Late fall/early winter feel. Gray. I just wanted to run an easy ten and somehow ended up here. Way too many cars on these neighborhood roads. I didn't check my watch until 8 miles in and saw that I was at least keeping a peppy pace. Is this my normal non-hilly road pace? Total time: 1:08:15.
Tuesday: 9 miles - solo bike path workout. Crappy weather day - a little rain during my run. I knew I wanted to do speedwork today, but didn't have anything in mind until I saw Ryan Davenport's workout on Strava in the morning: Mile/2x800/Mile/2x400/6x100. Seemed fun. His results looked to be in line with what I would look for so I used them as a guideline. Miles at 5K pace (goal?), 800's at I pace, 400's at R pace, and 100's fast. I knew this was ambitious, especially being on my own. I warmed up for two miles throwing in the shortest strides ever. I then jumped right into it. The first mile went okay. I was wearing too many clothes and a bathroom break seemed like it was in my future. 5:26 - perfect. I briefly stopped to use the port-o-potty but it was occupied. I dropped off a layer at my car and got back to my 2 minute jog. I then went for the 800's. Faster paced than the mile and they felt good, at least for a while, then they seemed long. 2:37/2:40 with a minute jog between. So far so good, but I was not looking forward to another mile repeat. So I skipped it. I decided to do 400's now. Again they felt great for a short period and then seemed long. I did two (75/75) and then figured I would finish with a mile of sprint-float-sprint. I kept the floats spicy and completed this mile in 5:31. That surprised me! The end result was a pretty good workout overall. Total time: 1:00:43.
Wednesday: 10 miles - hilly dirt roads "recovery" run. I know it doesn't make sense, but I wanted a nice and easy recovery run on a forgiving surface that also included some hills. I don't want to quit my elevation habit. It was another crappy day with occasional rain. My legs did not feel great with the first immediate climb (on the New London Turnpike). I then slowly descended forever (about 2 miles) and finally reached the next hill - also on the NLT - this one is bigger and "unimproved". This hill was never ending and not fun with the uneven footing. I then headed over to a unpaved portion of Old Ten Rod Rd. Big hills on both ends. I ran the west side hill (up to intersection with Rte 102/Rte 165) twice before heading up the steeper east side. My body felt way better on these. Total time: 1:18:43 with 902' of climbing (according to my watch).
Thursday: 8 miles - real recovery run in Ryan Park. My body is now beat. I wasn't even sure how long I would bother to run (late start). It was so incredibly windy and unappealing out. I figured the woods would give me some protection. The run itself went well. I zigzagged the west side trails and decided to keep going. Brutal wind at the end of the run (on the road) back to my car. Total time: 1:04:06.
Friday: 8 miles - OMF trails with Galoob. We wandered around the trails checking out conditions and Mike was brainstorming ways to make the race harder. Oh, and there is a bum camp on one of the trails. Lots of fun climbing the "mountain" repeatedly. Total time: 1:08:19.
Saturday: 5 miles - Westerly hills while the kids were at karate class. I was hoping for a longer run early in the morning, but it didn't happen. My wife had to leave for work at 8am which meant a sunrise run. Frankly, since I've been getting up at 5:40am on weekdays for middle school, I have no desire to roll out of bed early on weekends to run. So, what to do? Run during karate, which is a shorter class on Saturday. I decided to drop them off and run nearby hills from there. This was a fun, but draining hill workout. 7 hill sprints in all, some long, some short. All high intensity that left me gasping for air at the top. I took a couple of the longer segments, had a close call on another (looks like the speed was there but I stopped early? or GPS issue?). Finished up just as class was getting out. 35 minutes with 453' of climbing.
Sunday: 8 miles - rushed roads with hills in North Stonington. Another nice day, but another busy one. I really wanted to run 2 hours, but I ended up just happy to fit anything in. This time I ran during my daughter's horseback riding lesson which gave me an hour. I scoped out a run beforehand that was a loop that included one very big out and back hill (250') in the middle. My plan was to run on the faster side - similar to yesterday, but I immediately got carried away and just went with it. I guess this was another workout run of sorts. Up and over Jeremy Hill (nice views!) and then I reached Wintechog Hill Rd. My average pace at this point was 6:27. I then climbed up the road for a mile and kept my average pace at 6:28! This was very challenging. I really fought hard on this one. I then backtracked down the hill, watching my ave. pace creep lower. I knew it was basically down hill all the way back, but nearing Rocky Hollow Rd, there was one last hill to conquer. Fast down hill finish to the horse farm. Total time: 49:58 (6:16 average pace) with 563' of climbing. 6:10 GAP.
Overall: Not the mileage I was looking for, but I seemed to make up for it by picking up the pace. This seems to happen every December. Too busy! Oh well. Feeling strong and fast.
Weekly Total: 58 miles
Last Week: 63 miles
Year to Date: 3271 miles
November Total: 277 miles
December to Date: 48 miles
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