The Michigan
ok the Michigan workout is back. just to clarify what this workout is; it's a two mile, with a mile at "6 min pace" recovery, a mile, then the 6 min mile recovery again and then an 800. so i did this workout today and was hoping for my first sub 10 2 mile considering that the only time i ever run the deuce is during Michigan workouts. i was with the pack for the first mile (4:52) but fell off because i started to go too anaerobic too early and dropped a big 10:12 (5:19 last mile) bomb. note: i ran 10:15 last year. i think the recovery is one of the worst parts of this workout and i went straight into the recovery mile and then immediately into the next interval. i tried to stay with the pack but fell off at around 600 meters and ran 5:04 and i was really tightening up by the end. note: i ran 5:09 last year. went right into the recovery again but went a little easier. i loved the 800 because i felt so at home. i was right on the leader's (jeff) shoulder for the first lap (65) and made a move into the lead with 200 to go and tried to surge off the turn but jeff caught me in the straight and i finished right behind him in 2:08. note: i ran 2:17 last year. people were annoyed that i really rallied that last 800 saying that i sandbagged the rest of the workout to run well the last interval. bullshit. i just am terrible at the longer stuff and i am an 800 runner unlike these slow twitch assholes. i'm out and depressed. 10.5 on the day.

pine park plus
really shitty run. took yesterday off because my knee was really bothering me from the fartlek. it's the first time i've ever really had knee pain. was feeling really good on the run but had to stop 3 times for bathroom breaks. twice at the roth center. holla. so a terrible 5 mile run for the day.

fartlek on the track
ok i've been sort of depressed about how shitty my running has been going so i didn't really enjoy writing up miserable entries every day. i've got 1 week left in my cross season so i'll post that at least. did a fartlek on the track today with carballo and tucker. tucker was supposed to do 20 x 1 min on and off while carballo and i were only supposed to do 12. we did them in lane 6 so we couldn't get accurate splits but the workout was pretty tough by the end. i really am not in good shape right now, and i'm not just saying that because of my usual self depricating nature. i got a blood test this week and i found out my ferritin levels were a little low. hopefully that's it. i don't think i'm going to go for barry's mileage goal of 60 this week and i'm gonna start my taper about now. i'm not really peaking for cross country because i did my first real interval workout this tuesday but i would like to pr and run under 27 at franklin park next weekend. got the big michigan workout on monday, so hopefully i'll snipe my terrible 2 mile pr in the process.

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.