10/10-10/16

I was supposed to run a race or two this weekend but I hurt my calf and had to take the weekend off. It seems like when I read about other people's injuries I get that same injury a couple days later. I have never had PF before but read about JJ's struggles with it and ended up with PF at the end of this week and two days after finding out about DD's calf tear I hurt my calf. I am going to stop reading other peoples' blogs ...

Monday: 8.1mi (58:36)
Tuesday: 10mi (70:45)
Wednesday: 10mi - Track workout, 4x1 mile
Thursday: 0 - I am feeling a little PF flare up so I took the day off to let it settle down.
Friday: 10.8mi (77:00) - This was a real easy run and I wore a new pair of shoes. About 6 miles into the run the lateral side of my left calf started hurting and by 8-9 miles it was quite painful. I am pretty sure that it is because of the new shoes and am hoping that it is not a tear or strain, but I am going to take a few days off from running to give it a chance to heal.
Saturday: 0 - off, calf hurts.
Sunday: An hour on the bike (20ish miles) Calf is better but still hurts.

Total: 38.9 miles + 20ish miles on the bike

4 x Mile @ 10km Pace

I felt a bit better tonight than last week so I was hoping to run well. We were actually supposed to run at HM pace but I decided to run at 10km pace and take a couple more seconds of rest. My goal was between 5:00 and 5:10 with 2:30 rest. Splits and rests were:

5:10 (2:31)

5:04 (2:36)

5:06 (2:36) - I got forced to lane 4 on two turns here

5:05

The workout went well but there was a lot of traffic on the track that made running in lane 1 a little difficult. I suppose working through traffic like that is good training for a race like Mayor's Cup. I started the workout with a 3 mile warm-up (21:30) and finished with a 2.2 mile cool-down (19:16) and 4 easy strides. Total = 10 miles.

10/3-10/9

Not a great week overall. I had a couple good runs and got 64 miles but I bailed on my workout and did not race. I considered going over to the Great Island 5k in New Castle, NH or to the Wayland Cross Country Festival but did not really feel like driving for 2-3 hours to race in 80 degree heat. I drive 2 hours every day for work so am really reluctant to drive that far on the weekend. I wish there were more races closer to Nashua. Next week I am heading up to Manchester for the Footrace for the Fallen for a tune-up before the Mayor's Cup race on October 23rd.

Monday: 10mi (61:27) I wanted to get in a harder effort today but was not sure how recovered I was from my cold so I did a progression run. I figured I could work into the effort and see how I feel. I started out at about 7min/mi pace and worked my way down to 6:10 at the halfway point (32:19). At this point I was feeling good so I decided to keep pushing a bit and ran as quick as 5:35min/mi on the way back and finished the second half in 29:08. Good effort.
Tuesday: 8.2mi (58:55) Easy run to recover.
Wednesday: 7.5mi - Track workout. Supposed to do 8x800m @ 10k pace but I am definitely not recovered from my cold yet and bailed after 3. I went 2:25 (2:25), 2:28 (2:25), 2:31 (2:25) and quit. Each one was getting slower with the same effort and I could not breathe because my chest was pretty congested. Rest up the next couple of days because I would like to race this weekend.
Thursday: 10mi (68:35) Easy run.
Friday: 10mi (64:18) Nice weather and I felt good so I went with it.
Saturday: 5.5mi () Easy run.
Sunday: 13mi (84:55) Did an easy 7 mile warm-up (47:52) and then 5 miles @ 6min/mi pace (29:59) and 1 mile of cool down. Wanted to get something hard in but it was really hot.

Total: 64.2 miles

9/26-10/2

This week did not go exactly as expected. My plan was to race the Applefest Half Marathon on Saturday morning, assuming that the weather cooperated, but this did not happen because I woke up with a horrible chest cold Thursday morning. I threw every vitamin, Airborne, fluid and as much rest as I could with no success. I held off judgement about racing until Saturday morning to see how I would feel, but I could not walk up the stairs with out getting tired so decided to bail and live to race another day. Kind of a bummer. I ended the week with just over 40 miles. I have some fast races coming up the next 3-4 weeks, so hopefully I can pull things together and run some good times.

Monday: 8.2mi (56:24)
Tuesday: 9.2mi (63:07)
Wednesday: 10 miles with track workout
Thursday: 0 - sick
Friday: 0 - sick
Saturday: 0 - still sick
Sunday: 13.5 - no time because my Garmin died.

Total = 40.9 miles