Training 9/20 to 9/26

9/20 Monday: 8.3 miles in 62 minutes

Easy running on the cemetery route. Legs felt a little heavy and tight!

9/21 Tuesday: AM: 10 miles in 73 minutes PM: 5 miles in 39 minutes

AM: Rattlesnake Hill Road loop. Legs are feeling better than yesterday.

PM: Running in the dark around Haverhill High and local roads

9/22 Wednesday: 10 miles in 74 minutes

Easy running on the Shawsheen River / AVIS trails. Did 6 x 20 second strides during end of run.

9/23 Thursday: 12.5 miles in 84 minutes

Warmed up for 4.25 miles and then hit the track for 2 x 2 miles with 400m rest. Went 10:59 and 10:59 (goal pace was 5:30 per mile) and then did 4 miles of cool down. Legs felt good, but I was having some stomach cramping issues which made the workout a bit more difficult than I wanted.

9/24 Friday: AM: 5.1 miles in 40 minutes PM: 6.2 miles in

AM: Easy early morning run. Legs felt pretty good.

PM: Easy running on the power line trails

9/25 Saturday: 8 miles in 63 minutes

Easy running with Heather in Connecticut. Felt pretty heavy and slow!

9/26 Sunday: 10 miles in 70 minutes

Run with Heather in the afternoon. Started out easy and then picked it up. Last three miles went 6:40, 6:38, 6:17. Heather hung in there and had a good tempo run for herself!

Total Miles: 75.1

Training 9/13 to 9/19

9/13 Monday: 8.4 miles in 59 minutes

Felt surprisingly good today. Thought I would feel pretty bad after spending 2 days hiking in the mountains.

9/14 Tuesday: AM: 5 miles in 38 minutes PM: 8 miles in 60 minutes

AM: Easy morning run.

PM: Easy running out towards Andover Center.

9/15 Wednesday: 12 miles in 82 minutes

4 miles of warm up, then 2 x 2 miles in 11:01 and 10:58 (goal was 5:30 pace), 400m rest in about 2minutes, 3.75 miles of cool down.

9/16 Thursday: AM: 10 miles in 74 minutes PM: 5 miles in 40 minutes

AM: Easy run up to the center of Andover. Felt OK, the legs were a little heavy after last nights workout.

PM: Easy running in the rain with Heather.

9/17 Friday: 9 miles in 70 minutes

Easy running with Heather. Did the Jericho loop.

9/18 Saturday: OFF Hiked 19+ miles in the Presidential Range

Heather and I parked at the Pinkham Notch Visitors Center and took the AMC shuttle to the Appalachia Trailhead. We headed up to the summit of Madison and made our way across the ridge over Adams, Jefferson, Washington, and Monroe. The weather was awesome and the views were incredible. We ended the day hiking out past Tuckerman's Ravine and made our way out of the woods under headlamps. It was an awesome day!

9/19 Sunday: OFF

Rest and recovery from the day before.

Total Miles: 57.4

Solid week. Would have liked to get in more miles. But I was hurting pretty good on Sunday. I figured playing it safe and taking the day off was the right thing to do. The hike was awesome! One of my favorite hikes ever.

Friendly Kitchen 5k 9/10

On Friday 9/10 Heather and I went up to Concord NH to run the Friendly Kitchen 5k. This is a relatively small race run on the NHTI campus and benefits the Friendly Kitchen in Concord, NH. I decided to run this race because I had not raced in a while and I felt like I really need to get in a hard effort. I figured that a smaller race would give me the opportunity to get in a good workout and to build back some racing confidence. Heather and I pulled onto campus at about 4:30 pm and hustled to get ourselves registered and warmed up for the 5:30 pm start. We ran over the 5k course for our warm up and then headed for the starting line. My plan was to run a strong tempo effort and increase the pace throughout the race. I was hoping this kind of effort would put me near the front of the race and put me in position for the win. After a few quick instructions we were off and running.

The race actually went out very controlled with a large group of guys right at the front. This included many runners from NHTI and other colleges in there conference. As we made our way towards the trails I was anywhere from 1st to about 5th as I just tried to keep a controlled consistent pace. As we got to the trail I made sure I was in the top three so that I did not get caught in traffic. We hit the first mile in 5:20 and the group had really thinned out as there were only three or four of us at the front. We made our way across the field and towards the road, just before the road someone went down right besides me, the runner who went down never finished the race. Once on the road I decided to pick up the effort a bit as we ran into the wind and towards the Delta Dental Campus on the other side of Rt 93. I opened up a gap pretty easily and soon I was on my own. I hit the two mile mark in 5:17 (10:37) and made my way through the root canal (tunnel on the Delta Dental Campus). I got a good look at those behind me at this point and I had a decent lead of maybe 15-20 seconds. I made my way back over Rt 93 and I was on my way back towards the finish line. I picked it up a bit more and made sure I kept my lead. I made the last turn into the quad and Coach Walton yelled me my third mile split of 5:14 (15:51). I kicked in in a bit and finished up first in 16:24.

Heather also took home first place in 19:02. Overall it was a solid run for both of us. I got in the hard effort I was looking for and felt very strong doing it.

Results

Training 9/6 to 9/12

9/6 Monday: 4 miles in 32 minutes

Very easy early morning run. The only time I could sneak some miles in today.

9/7 Tuesday: AM: 10 miles in 74 minutes PM: 5 miles in 39 minutes

AM: Rattlesnake Hill Loop, felt OK, left hamstring feeling tight.

PM: Easy running around Philips Andover trails and fields.

9/8 Wednesday: AM: 8 miles in 60 minutes PM: 5 miles in 40 minutes

AM: Treadmill run.

PM: Easy treadmill run.

9/9 Thursday: 11.3 miles in 81 minutes

Easy running and 6 x 20 second strides

9/10 Friday: AM: 5 miles in 38 minutes PM: 9.1 miles in 63 minutes

AM: Easy running on the Shawsheen River trails

PM: 3 miles warm up, 3.1 miles in 16:24 good for first place at the Friendly Kitchen 5k in Concord, NH, 3 miles cool down.

9/11 Saturday: 6.7 miles in 49 minutes

Early easy run. Legs actually felt pretty good. Now its off to the whites for a hiking adventure, hitting Zealand and the Bonds! Hiked 8+ miles hit Mt. Zealand and into the Guyot Shelter. Caught Sunset from the summit of Guyot.

9/12 Sunday: OFF Hiking in the Whites

13+ miles of hiking. Hit Mt Bond, Bond Cliff, and West Bond. Saw a moose just after passing Zealand Hut on the way out. A great weekend of hiking with Heather and Ben.

Total Miles: Running: 64.1 miles Hiking: 21+ miles

A very good week of running and hiking. The hike was just awesome.... no words to explain the views and feeling of being in such a remote place.

Training 8/30 to 9/5

8/30 Monday: 8.2 miles in 62 minutes

8/31 Tuesday: 10 miles in 69 minutes

Rattlesnake Hill loop. Felt OK, better towards the end of the run.

9/1 Wednesday: AM: 9.3 miles in 69 minutes PM: 4.8 miles in 36 minutes

AM: Trails along the Shawsheen up to Andover High, where I got a big surprise in the woods. I thought it was to hot out for that kind of outdoor activity, but these two seemed to be enjoying themselves. Did 6 x 20 second strides.

PM: Easy running from home.

9/2 Thursday: 10.4 miles in 73 minutes

Ran out to the Crystal Lake area with Jim Johnson, I felt pretty good.

9/3 Friday: 8 miles in 58 minutes

Easy running towards Andover Center. Did 6 x 20 second strides. Felt OK.

9/4 Saturday: 8 miles in 62 minutes

Awful run today. I was going to go long, but I felt pretty bad right from the start and I just turned around at 4 miles after things failed to get better.

9/5 Sunday: 10 miles in 65 minutes

Started out easy for the first three miles, then at the 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 mile marks I did 1 minute hard. I also finished up the last two miles in 5:57 and 5:24. Felt good to run hard at the end.

Totals: 68.7 Miles

Solid week and a step in the right direction. Felt better towards the end of the week. Got to keep it up now.