Keene State Invite
disclaimer: sorry for the angry tirade.
ok keene state today, 8k (5 miles), of pure terribleness. goal going into the race was to break 27 but because of the shitty condition of the course (really sloppy and like a 15 foot puddle over ankle deep) I knew that the time probably wasn't gonna happen. First mile was ok and I sort of lost touch with the main pack of dartmouth runners because I didn't want to go out too fast. too bad i hit the mile in 5:12 which pissed the shit out of me because i wasn't feeling as good as i would have liked and i wanted to hold the rest of the miles in the 5:20s. went through 4k (2.5) in 13:46, hit 3 miles in 16:46 and by this point i was really depressed because i knew i wasn't going to run well, i was far back and not feeling that great. did my classic de-kick at the end of crappy races until this bastard with a goofy ponytail passed me and i was like, is this kid serious? so i went with him and then mike lynch on my team passed me so i went with him. we ended up having a kicking duel which ended with me beating him in 28:23; worst time ever. i really feel like i'm in good shape in terms of just general running and fartleks and what not but really don't feel like i'm in solid 8k racing shape. maybe i'm just a huge pussy and can't sack up for cross races but i am seriously pissed off. it's just been too long since i've run well and i'm sick of running slowly and being depressed. i thought this was going to be a breakout year for me but it seems like i'm just going through the motions of last year's shittyness. maybe i just need to give it time for things to click. as of now i am confused and depressed so i'm going to have a talk with barry on monday.
-warmed up 3, raced 5, warmed down 3, 11 on the day, 50 in 6 days so far.
note: we won this meet easily with our jv team and our varsity team won a big invite in maine today. it's tough to train with and workout with guys who are racing so well when it seems like i'm the only one not doing so.

Pine Park Plus
easy 5 before the race. slow pace. legs a little tired but felt ok. decent strides after.

reverse highercoaster
pace started out really easy and i assumed pacing duties. ended at a decent/avg pace and legs felt pretty good today. did strides in my new spikes which felt awesome. 7+ on the day. 34 in 4 days. def the lowest mileage i've been at in a while.

Sachem fartlek
warmed up 2.5 to sachem for an easy tune up fartlek for saturday. did 3 sets of 2 min hard, 2 min easy, 1 min hard, 1 min easy. led the slow group with jeff and felt good and was pleased with the effort. warmed down 2.5 back to campus for 8.5 on the day. my mileage this week is totally ruined because of monday but i think i can still hit assigned 60 for the week if i run long on sunday. 26.5 in 3 days so far. my new spikes came in today so i'm pumped to try them out with my strides tommorrow. they're the old polka dot ventulus, sweet.

PM highercoaster
since this run is new in its development i'm not sure how long to call it. did it in 48:28 today so i guess i'll call it 7 but the other day i did it in 50 so idk maybe 7+. started with ian and jeff but jeff turned off to do pine park and ian then stopped to drop one like it's hot so i ran most of it by myself. felt good though. so i guess at least 12 on the day. did a core strengh and lifting circuit with the cross guys and then quickly went to do plyos with the 800 guys. it really sucks being a fringe guy. talked with barry and basically mapped out my cross season. it was a good talk.

AM mink brook/cemetary
Barry's recovery run at 8:30 this morning. it was really good to get out of bed this early today because it forced me to not waste my no class tues/thurs with sleeping. really easy debatably 5 mile run (37 mins). felt good. trying to forget yesterday. good strides after.

skinripper
wow. no excuses today. in my opinion, the hardest workout of the year. did the first one in 4:50 and was feeling ok for the second. i think there's something about that fucking hill. dropped out on the second interval after twisting my ankle. i pretty much hate myself and i think i would have dropped out of the workout on the next interval anyway. i really am scared for keene state this weekend because i have negative confidence in my training. i've basically been just doing relatively easy mileage with one easy fartlek a week. i don't really want race this weekend because i'm scared that if i run crappy it'll just hurt my confidence even more, which is the one thing i'd really like to keep up this year. calling it 6 bogus miles on the day, that'll really help out the weekly total.

Pine Park Plus + Michigan mile
easy 6 for my sandbagger sunday run. went easy and felt ok, not too good though. did some bogus strides afterwards and my hammy was a little tight which is annoying. 70 miles for the week. that puts me at 7 consecutive weeks (aside from my week of wisdom teeth extraction) of 70+ mile weeks or 6 day equivalents.
goals for this week: do well in tommorrow's skin ripper workout. i dropped out last year after only the 3rd interval. break 27 at keene state.

easy sampler
did a bogus and easy 9 mile run that included 3 cemetary loops, sachem to boston lot, and barefoot laps of the hanover high track. pace was comfortable and my legs and breathing weren't so great but pleased with the day. 64 in 6 days.

Highercoaster
did the mile with owen on the track and then went off for a highercoaster by myself because the cross guys were doing a 40 min tempo run and barry said i shouldn't do it and the 800 guys were running 3 miles. i hate being the fringe guy. my legs were a little tired and my breathing wasn't all that great but i still did highercoaster 2 mins faster than i did yesterday and then finished on the track for a mile and a half in 9 minutes with the last mile a pretty relaxed 5:53. good run. did some drills and bush league strides. 10 miles for the day. 55 in 5 days.

Highercoaster
recovery run with dartmouth alum tom coogan who showed us a dif version of rollercoaster which i liked better. i think that something has happened to the team's distance pace because i was leading most of it and nark accused me of hammering. i call bogus, the run was slow as crap and i felt really good for some reason and tacked on a little more on the track to call it 8. had a meeting with the md guys and then went through some easy ploys. did strides after. 45 in 4 days.

Oak Hill fartlek
First day of classes today. i think i might stay in only 1 of them so that's always a good thing. took a short nap before practice. i was a little nervous for my first cross workout with the team but it went ok. warmed up a shitty 3+ miles up to oak hill for the fartlek. did 5 sets of 3 min on, 2 min off on the long loop. i was in the slowest group obvs but i was glad because i didn't want to get in over my head for this workout. it went well and i stayed with the pack for all but the end of the last one where i faded a tad. after the 5 sets, we went back to the start for a short loop so barry could watch us and i did it in 4:12 where pat martha and i broke away from the group. warmed down 3+ again. 12 on the day. 37 for the week so far. not the best workout but i guess i did a little better than i thought i would for my first workout.

PM Boston Lot
after taking a long nap this afternoon, I wasn't sure if I should have doubled today and i sort of wish i didn't and just ran a little longer in the morning. wanted to do around 6 but there were very few people at the afternoon practice and the consensus was to do boston lot which i hate. what a surprise, this 8 mile run did suck and i really hope my legs aren't tired for tommorrow's workout because this is my first test of fitness in front of barry and the team. did some good barefoot strides afterwards where i really rocked the no-speed distance runners just to remind myself that i'm an md dude. 13 miles on the day. 25 in 2 days.

AM recovery
titled, Coach's recovery run, the cross boys did a Pine Park Plus with barry this morning. very easy pace to start and finished easy/avg. 5 miles or so. not really sure what sort of aerobic activity i'll be doing later.

quasi long run
long run today with the team. the team was going either 16 or 10 so i went with the 10 guys and tacked on 2 afterwards. did a big country with ben true and nark and some others. the pace in the trails was rediculously slow and i was like wtf mate? we picked up the pace towards the end and the last mile was respectable. my calibration on the track was under 6:30 so that was good. felt fine but it's tough because i'm not really accepted by the 800 guys because i'm running a lot more miles and i'm not really with the cross guys cuz i haven't been working out or racing. hopefully i'll get into a decent groove soon.

Pine Park + randos
first run back in hanover. was out pretty late last night so i was pretty tired for today's run. i didn't run yesterday, not by choice though, because of packing in the morning and then getting to school late. did pine park (around 5 miles) with '08, Mike Carmody who is a 1:49 800 guy. the dude def has a ton of raw talent. added on a food stop and half mile on the track to do only 7.5 on the day. did 4x100 meter strides after on the track. 61 miles for the week in 6 days.

run at the rock
well since andrew's meet was moved to sunday because of the rain, the rents decided it'd be best to go back to school tommorrow instead. unfortunately, today was my last run at the rock for the year. i felt really good and andrew and i did ended up going down to the hudson. he was taking it a little easier because of the meet and dropped off, i kept the pace pretty honest and got into a controlled picking up of the pace aka a relaxed hammer at the bridge on the way back. finished harder when i realized i was near pr pace so i just nipped the course record of 11:10 to make it 11:07 (although i def think i could have dummied this if i hammered the whole time.) anyways, andrew was waiting for a while at the car so i didn't do strides or drills. 10 miles on the day. 52.5 in 5 days. good last run at the rock.

run at the rock
easy day for me and andrew. it's the first time i haven't run by myself in a while and it was good because usually when i go easy i feel like a huge sandbagger and convince myself i'm running way to slowly. i felt really sluggish and tight in the beiginning and then things started to be ok. the pace was easy and once my legs weren't so crappy the run wasn't so bad. did 9 miles. 42.5 for the week so far in 4 days. did a couple of strides with really dead legs. walked around like a lazy bastard and went apple picking afterwards, in case you were wondering what i did after my run.

PM Greeley
the team sold me out to do this workout so i obvi ran by myself today. i really hate running by myself now because i have no one to key off of and base how fast or slow runs are. so i did a leonard park which is about 6 and then did 5 laps on the track. last mile 5:04. yeah that's a pr for an end of run mile but i'm still really pissed and depressed. i really feel like i'm in a rut and am running really shitty. also it's been really hard not running cross country because my goals are too far off. i have no way of measuring fitness and i'm really losing faith in my training. if this year is the same as last year i don't know what i'm going to do. anyways, 7.5 on for the afternoon. 13.5 for the whole day. did hard strides afterwards with some drills.

AM run at the rock
easy 6 miles. didn't really feel that good. aerobically i feel like shit and this was not fun run. i got my blood test results back and my ferritin is 36 on the new scale so i can't really relate to it. my iron binding capacity is 411 and the highest it's supposed to be is 400 which means that i have a lot of cells that aren't binding with any iron. my dad says this doesn't mean too much but i really think that there's something wrong here. i'm basically really pissed because i hate when there's nothing explicitly wrong but i keep running and i keep running shitty.