Training 5/23 to 5/30

5/23 Monday: 6 miles in 44 minutes

Easy running from Cedarland. Felt pretty heavy and slow today.

5/24 Tuesday: AM: 10.1 miles in 73 minutes PM: 5 miles in 40 minutes

Rattlesnake Hill loop, felt much better today.

5/25 Wednesday: 10.5 in 75 minutes

Andover Center loop with 6 x 20 second strides towards the end of the run.

5/26 Thursday: 8.4 miles in 61 minutes

Shawsheen River trails through the neighborhood and a cemetery loop for good measure.

5/27 Friday: OFF

First day off in a while. Rested up my legs for a weekend of racing

5/28 Saturday: 8.1 miles in 56 minutes

Ran the Sons of Italy 5k in Lawrence MA. Warmed up 3 miles over the course with Heather, then race 5k in 16:11 (splits 5:35, 5:12, 4:55, 30). Good for second place to Run's Joseph Koech. Warmed down 2 miles with Heather and Greg Ward (CMS). Heather picked up the win in 19:22. I was very happy with the effort today. Results

5/29 Sunday: 7 miles in 52 minutes

Easy running in Haverhill. Getting ready for another day of racing tomorrow.

Total Miles: 55.1

Training 5/16 to 5/22

5/16 Monday: 8 miles in 60 minutes

Treadmill run at home.

5/17 Tuesday: AM: 10 miles in 76 minutes PM: 5 miles in 37 minutes

AM: Run out past Crystal Lake

PM: Easy running in Andover

5/18 Wednesday: 11 miles in 75 minutes

Run from Cedarland with Jim Johnson. Ran over to the Bradford Valentine 5 mile course and did that loop and back. Solid run!

5/19 Thursday: 10 miles in 71 minutes

Rattlesnake Hill loop. Felt pretty good today.

5/20 Friday: 5 miles in 38 minutes

Easy running in Haverhill with Heather.

5/21 Saturday: 8.1 miles in 56 minutes

Ran the Reading Lions Club Journey for Sight 5k. Warmed up 2.5 miles with Heather, then raced 5k in 15:58 good for 2nd place behind a very strong Tom Davis. After the race I did a nice 2.5 mile cool down with Heather. Results

5/22 Sunday: 15 miles in 106 minutes

Ran alone.....I didn't get invited to the river run this morning :( Ran out past Crystal Lake and did the Hooker Farm Road loop. Felt pretty good except for my left foot really acting up in the last few miles. It made the end of my run a bit unpleasant.

Total Miles: 72.1

Training 5/9 to 5/15

5/9 Monday: 5 miles in 39 minutes

Very easy recovery day.

5/10 Tuesday: 10.2 miles in 78 minutes

Shawsheen River trails up past Andover High School and around the cemetery.

5/11 Wednesday: AM: 5 miles in 40 minutes PM: 10 miles in 67 minutes

AM: Easy treadmill running at home.

PM: Run from the Whirlaway with Jim Johnson. Solid run!

5/12 Thursday: AM: 10 miles in 74 minutes PM: 6.2 miles in 48 minutes

AM: Early morning running out past Crystal Lake.

PM: Very easy run with Heather.

5/13 Friday: 6.5 miles on the treadmill.

Very early run on the treadmill, then it was off to NH for a wedding. Good times!

5/14 Saturday: 5 miles in 40 minutes

Very easy running with Heather in Campton NH.

5/15 Sunday: 12.6 miles in 90 minutes

Ran the Manomartian 3.4 mile Road Race in Plymouth, MA. Warmed up 3 miles over part of the course to check out "The Hill". Discovered that this is a very challenging course and "The Hill" is a tough one! Ran 17:16 good for first place! My first win of the year! Warmed down 6.2 miles.

Total Miles: 70.5

Training 5/2 to 5/8

5/2 Monday: 10 miles in 71 minutes

Ran the Merrimack River trail with Jim Johnson from the hotel. Went nice and easy.

5/3 Tuesday: AM: 5 miles in 39 minutes PM: 10 miles in 73 minutes

AM: Easy running from home.

PM: Easy run out past Crystal Lake, first part with Heather. Did 6 x 20-25 second strides in the last couple miles.

5/4 Wednesday: 5 miles in 40 minutes

Easy running on the treadmill. I was going to run in the evening, but I decided an light mileage day was in order. Time to give the legs a little break.

5/5 Thursday: AM: 5 miles in 40 minutes PM: 10 miles in 64 minutes (Garmin)

AM: Easy running on the treadmill at home

PM: Ran from Cedardale. Did not intend on running hard but I ended up running a progression run. Started out easy but worked it down pretty quickly, miles 2 - 9 went 6:36, 6:46, 6:21, 6:10, 6:15, 6:05, 5:40, 5:30. Then I eased up the last mile as a cool down. The last five miles of up tempo I averaged 5:56 pace. It was also up hill on the way back! A nice solid run.

5/6 Friday: 9 miles in 68 minutes

Easy running along the Shawsheen River trails.

5/7 Saturday: 6 miles in 46 minutes

Easy running from home.

5/8 Sunday: 11 miles in 76 minutes

Ran the USATFNE Championships at the Medical Center 6k in Nashua, NH. Warmed up 3.5 miles with the CMS guys, ran 6k in 19:30 (13th place overall, CMS Open team 1st place), cooled down 6k with he CMS guys. Race report to be posted soon!

James Joyce Ramble

On Sunday May 1st I ran the USATFNE 10k Championships at the James Joyce Ramble in Dedham Mass. I came into this race having upped my mileage over the last few weeks and still dealing with some plantar issues in my left foot. So I wanted to be smart with my racing, but still run a good hard race. I figured if I ran a good race I could run around 32:50 (5:17 pace), so that was the goal! This was also a race my team, The Central Mass Striders (CMS), really felt like we had a chance to win if we put in a strong race. So the pressure was on! After a good warm up with my CMS teammates it was go time!

As the race went off I tried to stay relaxed and make sure I did not get in over my head early in the race. The first mile is fast as it has some downhill. So I wasn't surprised when we went through the first mile in 4:59. Although I still think I was about 5-6 seconds faster than I should have been. At this point I was near CMS teammate Greg Hammett. He is a very strong runner and I knew he would run a solid pace, so I tucked in behind Greg and went for the ride. We hit the 2nd mile in 10:11 (5:12 mile). We were in really good position, with three other CMS guys in front of us, Greg and I were 4th and 5th on the team. At this point no other team had more than 2 or 3 guys in front of us. As we got close to three miles a couple guys went past us and we hit the third mile in 15:33 (5:22). Around this point I went past Greg and I expected him to tuck in behind me. Little did I know that Greg was hurting a bit and actually falling off the pace. I didn't even realize this till after the race. At this point I ended up tucking in behind Michael Bunker of the Dirigo team and followed him for the next three miles. We hit 4 miles in 20:55 (5:22)and 5 miles in 26:18 (5:23). During this stretch nobody went past us, I think we may have past a couple guys, but I was just concentrating on hanging on and keeping the pace strong. Not long after the 5 mile mark I could hear some guys coming up from behind us. To my horror it was a pack of Whirlaway guys! I managed to hold them off through the 6th mile mark in 32:45 (5:24). With 0.2 miles to go I knew it was going to be a dog fight and my legs were already feeling like telephone poles! Michael Bunker pulled away from me and soon I was in a battle with Whirlaway's Keven O'Neil, Pat Ard, and Joe Navas. I ran as fast as my legs would let me go, but it was not to be. We all finished with in 3 seconds of each other, but I was the last one across the line.

At this point I was thinking that there was a good chance that we were going to lose the team race to Whirlaway. Those guys ran a great race and had five guys scored before we had our 4th (me) and 5th (Greg Ward) guys in. I left the race thinking we had lost, only to get a call later telling me we had actually won by 4 seconds! I was pretty excited that CMS was the 10k Mens Open Team Champion! What a tight race! Special thanks to Kevin Gorman who was out there on the course cheering us on. It was a great help to have all that support out there on the course. I am looking foward to doing it aover again this weekend at the USATFNE 6k Championships!

Results

Splits:

4:59

5:12 (10:11)

5:22 (15:33)

5:22 (20:55)

5:23 (26:18)

5:24 (31:42)

1:03 (32:45)

Training 4/25 to 5/1

4/25 Monday: 8 miles in 60 minutes

Easy treadmill running at home.

4/26 Tuesday: 10 miles in 71 minutes

Rattlesnake Hill Road loop. Felt pretty good today, the left foot was a little tight, but not too bad.

4/27 Wednesday: AM: 5 miles in 37 minutes PM: 10 miles in 69 minutes

AM: Easy running in Andover

PM: Merrimack River Trail from the hotel with Jim Johnson.

4/28 Thursday: AM: 4 miles in 32 minutes PM: 10 miles in 76 minutes

AM: Easy running on the treadmill.

PM: Merrimack River Trail from the hotel

4/29 Friday: 9 miles in 68 minutes

Easy running up to Andover Center

4/30 Saturday: 5 miles in 40 minutes

Very easy running on the treadmill.

5/1 Sunday: 13 miles in 88 minutes

I did 2.8 miles of warm up and strides with my CMS teammates. Then raced the USATFNE 10k Championships at the James Joyce Ramble in 32:45. That was good for 18th overall and 4th man on the 10k Champion CMS team! Did another 4 miles of warm down with the CMS guys. It was a good day and we squeaked out the championship by only 4 seconds over a very tough Whirlaway Team. Can't wait to do it again next weekend at the USATFNE 6k Championships!

Total Miles: 74