Time: 37:00 (?)
Distance: 5 mi.
Annual Amherst High School cross country alumni Thanksgiving run from the Keene residence. We did a loop on Mill Lane, the bike path and back through the South Amherst common. I'm turning the corner on being sick.
Time: 77:00
Distance: 11 mi.
I headed up to Northfield Mountain for a run and to watch the Western Massachusetts High School Cross Country Championships, which has taken place there for decades. I had enough time to get in 45 minutes of running before catching the guys for their 2+ mile warmup and then I tacked on a few more minutes before the race started. The beginning of my run was basically straight up the mountain, so while it was slow I was working pretty hard. It felt good, though, and despite being misty it was a beautiful morning up there on the cross country ski trails. Even the hills didn't seem to get my hamstring too badly, which was nice--I think I'm making some progress on it even while building up the mileage again. During the race I ran about a mile to watch from a few different places, but I managed to stay off the hilly section of the first mile of the course.
The Amherst guys ran well and captured the win, which was the first back-to-back win since we won every Western Mass title between 1998 and 2002 and secured Amherst with eight titles in the last 10 years. The guys ran under control to save themselves for next week's state meet at Franklin Park in Boston and still came away with just 40 points, beating next-up Northampton by 42. For more, check out the full results at CoolRunning.
And for shits and giggles, here's a picture from the 2001 Western Mass meet (taken by Alison Wade), where we scored a near-perfect 17 points before capturing the state title the next week:
Time: 36:00
Distance: 5 mi.
I showed up at the high school to help out with an elementary school meet that Chris Gould puts on. Instead I was immediately roped into a workout with Atticus Brigham who missed the beginning of practice with the team. Despite just putting down some Wheat Thins with hummus and no warmup, I threw down 800m in 2:30, 600m in 1:50, and 400 in 68. After that I ran with Bob Rosen, Atticus, and some of the other high school guys on a slow loop through UMass. Western Mass is Sunday!
Time: 64:00
Distance: 9 mi.
This is an old map
Easy afternoon run with the Amherst High School guys. They have a meet tomorrow, but nothing too competitive so the top guys are "training through." We ran down to the main entrance of Amethyst Brook and took the trails to North East Street. From there we ran back up Strong with a detour through the Wildwood Cemetary. I did a few field loops while they did a few "green monster" hills, and I finished up with 6 strides barefoot around the football field.
Time: 75:00 (approximate)
Distance: 11.5 mi.
Target: 5 x mile starting at 5:20-25, descending with 4:00 rest, more intervals?
Workout: 5:21.7, 5:20.2, 5:19.9, 5:25.0, 5:14.2; rest between 4:00 and 5:00
Afternoon workout with the ARHS guys. This workout is a staple, going back to before my time in high school. The guys set out for five by one mile loop on the Amherst College trails and I figured that this wouldn't be a decent back-to-it workout, maybe with more miles or some 300s on the track added on. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but some combination of the lingering cold and workout stomach pretty early made me lethargic and I was only good to hang in (and help push) the guys for their target paces. It was also humid and the afternoon. It looks like they've got a pretty good top 3-4 for sure, but will need someone to step up for the 4-7 spots.
Left this not feeling great about where I'm at, but I just need to get rested and get better.
Time: 9 mi.
Distance: 67:16
Since I'll be in Amherst for a little while, I've decided to help out at the Amherst Regional High School cross country practices when I can. Despite the cold feeling a bit worse, I figured I could meet the guys for an easy run and see what the scene is. We ran very easy down to Puffer's Pond and then through the trails to Flat Hills and back. The good part of this run is that I couldn't hammer at all, the bad part was that I couldn't really cut it short. My cold is definitely getting worse.
