Capital Crescent Loop

Time: 125:17
Distance: 20 mi.
Map

Target: progression steady long run, getting down just below 6:00 pace and going 20 miles
Run: 4.65 miles north through RCP in 33:27 (7:11 pace); 15.35 miles around Capital Crescent Trail in 92:00 (5:59 average with measured miles on the CCT--from miles 7-14--in 6:20, 5:57, 5:52, 5:51, 5:48, 5:49, 5:52)


The Dalecarlia Tunnel over the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda, MD

I started off running with Rosen from Pierce Mill. He ran with me for the first 30 minutes and then turned back to do an out-and-back. This great loop, which measures exactly 20 miles, connects the full length of RCP on Beach Drive with the Capital Crescent Trail. Once I crossed the Maryland border, just beyond 4.5 miles into the run, I started picking up the pace a bit. Because I am probably running the Manhattan Half Marathon (or a half marathon simulation) next weekend, I wanted to do a steadier run than last weekend without going to the well. I got down to about 6:20 pace by the time I got on the CCT and then tried to keep the rest of the run just a bit below 6:00 pace. My legs were beat from the get-go (I really need new shoes... are you reading this Jordan?) and got sore and tired as it went on, but I felt fantastic aerobically. Despite being tired at the end, I recovered very quickly.

Super Rosen Loop Steady Run

Time: 112:46
Distance: 18.25
Map

Target: 2-3 miles warmup, 12 miles steady, 3-4 miles cooldown
Run: 2.75 miles, 12 miles averaging ~5:45, 3.5 miles

A mediocre long hard effort of 12 miles on the 7 mile Rosen Loop. My watch lost the splits somehow, but my splits ranged from 5:35 to 6:30 (a seriously uphill mile that included a GU, water, and a shirt change). The majority were in the mid-5:40s (with a few faster), so I'm going to call that the average. This loop is much more hilly than my last steady run and despite feeling great aerobically throughout I my legs felt pretty dead from the get-go. Oh well, it's another long and hard effort. I should be much better rested by the next steady effort in two weeks.

Chesapeake and Ohio Steady Run

Time: 107:14
Distance: 17.5 mi.
Map

Target: 3-4 miles warmup, 10 miles steady, 3-4 miles cooldown
Run: 3.75 in 24:20; 10 miles in 56:33 (28:45/27:48); 3.75 in 26:20

To make sure I got my long harder effort in this week, I decided to do it this morning. I also knew that the Chesapeake and Ohio Towpath would be the a great place to get in an out-and-back long run with measured miles, as I really had no idea how to pace this run based on effort. The goal was to get in 3-4 miles warming up and getting into the pace, 10 miles with the general target of working down to about 5:40 pace, and then running straight through with the same 3-4 miles cooldown.


The towpath runs between the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (on the right of the path here)

I started from where I parked near M Street in Georgetown and got worked down to about 6 minute pace by the time I hit the 4 mile mark on the path (~3.75 miles from the car, 24:20). I felt very comfortable running the first mile of the steady section in 5:50 and kept bringing it down from there. I ran the first 5 miles up to the turnaround point (which, while flat, has a consistent slight uphill grade) in 28:45 (5:45 average). I kept pushing the pace a bit on the way back, running 27:48 (5:34 average) with a few of the middle miles under 5:30. The total time for the 10 steady miles was 56:33 (5:39 average). I was fairly tired, and ran the cooldown 3.75 miles in 26:20.


These 9 mile markers indicated my turnaround point

I was generally happy with how I felt given that this was my first effort like this in my training cycle. I got into a good rhythm (despite hopping over two trees over the path) and was able to run through a side cramp in the 7th mile of the steady section. I didn't go to the well and stayed aerobic throughout the run. With a bit more sleep and better nutritional preparation I would've felt okay to go 2-3 miles longer hard without too much trouble. That is the pace I will have to average for the whole 'thon in order to run under 2:30. Yikes.

Prospect Park

Time: 71:30
Distance: 11.5 mi.


The boathouse at Prospect Park


The stately Brooklyn Museum, which I ran past on the way back to Eliot's place

Eliot and I ran in the afternoon from his house in Brooklyn. We ran over to Prospect Park and looped around on some trails and fields in the park for about 20 minutes before getting back to the entrance. He headed home and I kept going, this time on the ~3.5 mile road loop that runs around the park (check out the new "automatic" line drawing on gmap-pedometer... very cool). Now, I was planning on doing one loop, adding on a little more and calling it a day, but once I saw markings every 1/4 mile I took my general boredom out on the soles of my shoes and started to hammer. I did the first loop at 6:00 pace and just a bit under and went right into a second loop at 5:45-50 pace. I was over 10 miles by the time I got back to the entrance again, and starting to get pretty tired, so I headed back to his place.

My body felt okay, overall, though the pace did feel like a bit of an adjustment. When I finished I had some soreness behind my right knee, which I suspect is an extension of the right hammy issues.

Quabbin Trails

Time: 64:40
Distance: 10 mi.
Map (approximate)



Near the north west corner of the Quabbin Reservoir in Shutesbury there are a few miles of bicycle access trails. While I had heard of these before, I have never explored them. Without knowing them at all, an out-and-back run was in order, but I could have easily gone farther and gotten lost, which would have been nice. The trails are fairly wide and well-maintained in most areas and, for some reason, are in some places listed as real roads on Google Maps. I took New Boston Rd. from Cooleyville Rd. up to Rockwell Hill Rd. and then came back, according to this MA DCR map.

I ran decently hard out in 34:00 and then hammered back in around 30:00. Honestly, this could easily have been over 10 miles.

Bike Path, Rosen Loop

Time: 115:42
Distance: 18.5 mi.
Map

Target: 5 miles steady warmup; 10 miles averaging 5:45; 3 miles recovery
Run: 6.5 miles steady warmup; 10 miles in 56:39 (5:40 pace) starting at 6:00 and working down around 5:30; 2 miles recovery


The wetlands along the bike path

I started this run pretty early so that I could get back in time to catch some Olympic track action on sketchy live online TV from Denmark. Eliot is in town for the weekend and volunteered to bike along for the run, which was particularly nice for this hard session. After running up to his house, we headed to the bike path near Amherst College. I was shooting to start 3 miles out and got to a decent pace, but missed the first mile mark (or there isn't one?) so I really started with 2 miles from Station Road.

The first few miles on the bike path were just getting into it, 5:59 and 5:52. Once I got onto the 7-mile Rosen Loop starting on Station Road I got a bit more on pace, even over the hills. I then did four miles in 22:45 (5:41 pace), two miles in 11:04 (5:32 pace) and the Station Road mile in 5:21. Because I missed the first bike path mile I was planning, I went back onto it for a final mile where I relaxed the pace to 5:38.

Overall, I was happy with how comfortable I felt, though it would be good for these runs to more steady throughout and less progression. I was able to take some water during the run, again, and some GU around 5 miles of the hard effort. My knee felt great, so hopefully the new shoes have saved me there.

Rosen Loop Progression Run

Time: 75:00
Distance: 12 mi.

Target: Rosen loop (just shy of 7 miles) in 5:50 down to 5:20
Workout: Felt fairly comfortable running 5:40s down to 5:20s with the last mile in 5:05

I woke up early this morning to do the hard run that I should've done yesterday. It felt relatively cool, but the humidity was pretty serious. I started at the railroad tracks headed east up the first big hill and did the loop clockwise. This way I hit the high point of the entire hilly loop just after the first mile. I felt relatively comfortable the whole time, with some leg soreness bothering me more than aerobics. This was a much better workout on a far hillier course than last week's tempo.

The whole loop is less than 100m (20 sec) shy of 7 miles, so I've adjusted the splits accordingly. The first three miles were 17:00 (5:40 pace), the next 3 miles in 16:20 (5:26 pace), and the last (slightly downhill) mile in 5:05 for a total of 38:25 (5:29 pace for a full 7 miles).

Moody Bridge, Bike Path Loop

Time: 105:42
Distance: 16.75
Map


Bridge over the bike path near Amherst College

Looking to get going with more steady-paced long runs I did a loop that included 7 miles back towards the house on the Amherst Rail Trail bike path. To get out there I ran out on Moody Bridge Road to Bay Road and across Route 9. I was shooting to connect with the bike path on West Street, but went one road early by accident and had to head up Route 9 one block to get to the right spot. I thought there were mile markers all the way out on the bike path, but could only find the last three. Once I turned onto the bike path I also tried out eating a Clif Shot Gel packet over the course of about 5 minutes, which went surprisingly well.

The first part of the run, to the bike path, was 8+ miles averaging 6:32 pace. The second part on the bike path, exactly 7.0 miles, was 6:04 pace (last three miles in 5:58, 5:56, 5:49). Finally I jogged up the steep hill on Station Road and finished the last mile in Amherst Woods under 6:10.

Also, Jilane sent me a LetsRun thread with some Duckberg All-Stars shout-outs.

Town Lake, Infield

Time: 105:00
Distance: 17 mi.

Target: 105 minute run with a 4 mile tempo in 5:35s in the middle
Workout: 48:40, 4 miles in 21:36 (5:24 avg), 34:51 (including 8 diagonal strides)

I met the guys for their Sunday run from the track. Apparently they have been doing this mid-long run tempo for a few weeks (not including last week). This worked fine for my "get Wednesday and Sunday hard efforts" plan leading up to the half. We got rolling on the east side of Town Lake, down to close to 6 minute pace before starting the tempo at 0.0. It didn't take long to get into the pace, as the first mile was about 5:28 and the rest were faster. They have finally cleared out the construction near the South First and Congress bridges, so we could do the "normal" (i.e. 80m long) 4 mile tempo. I felt fantastic aerobically the whole way, but my legs got tired.

The guys finished up on the infield for about 5 minutes when we got back at around 85:00, and I added on another 15 with some diagonal strides with a quick jog in the middle.

I also got back in my Elite 2s for this run, my right peroneal still hasn't warmed up, so to speak, to the Elixir's.

Mt. Bonnell, Scenic, Town Lake, Track

Time: 120:00
Distance: 18.75 mi.
Map


Mid-way up Mt. Bonnell (View Larger Map)

I met the Texas guys at the track for a bit of an easier Sunday run than Vig usually has planned. It was a recovery day for a bunch of them, so the long group was just 90 minutes at a fairly easy pace. We ran Mt. Bonnell and Scenic, skipped Stratford and headed to Town Lake on Lake Austin. It was a beautiful day and everyone seemed it good spirits. My knee is still stiff, but it loosened up.

When they finished up at 90 minutes, I got on the track to try to get a bit of an uptempo effort in. I was shooting for 3 or 4 miles depending on how I was feeling. I ended up running 5:26, 5:27, 5:26, 5:18 (21:37). Birdsong ran the first two miles with me and then I ran the rest on my own. I finished up with an easy mile on the infield.

The most inspiring race of the weekend had to be Darren's 3:59.99 in the mile. He's been on the cusp for a while, and I think has felt a lot of pressure to do it, especially as he was trying to make his father and him the first American father-son sub-four duo. Hopefully he'll be able to have a breakthrough now that breaking four isn't his day-to-day focus.

The Full Town Lake

Time: 92:00
Distance: 15 mi.

Target: 10 miles in the 5:30s
Workout: 5:44, 5:38, 5:37, 11:22 (2 miles, around construction), 5:34, 5:32, 5:30, 5:33, 5:22 - total: 55:54, average: 5:35.4



I was looking for a long, hard and steady run that I could push without going to the well. Town Lake is obviously the place to do this, with soft surfaces, measured miles and few breaks. Unfortunately the city is in the middle of tearing up part of the area between miles 3 and 4, which threw this off a little bit--I had to run down some stairs and through another intersection to keep the distance correct. The first few miles were a little tough adjusting to the pace, but I felt pretty good by halfway. I was definitely within myself throughout the run.

Safari

Time: 111:00
Distance: 17.5 mi.
Map

A square-ish long run with Jordan from his place on my last morning in Norman. We began with 4 miles directly into an unrelenting 15+ mph wind. As soon as I was about to start hating him and running in general, we turned east and got out of the wind. It was fairly nice out there, with very straight rolling roads and farms abound. We got down to a steady pace, which was definitely good. It has been really nice to run with Jordan, who keeps the pace honest and the mood light. It has been a very nice change of pace (literally and figuratively) training with him the last few days. He posted the splits and the rundown:

Hit splits of: 6:59, 6:43, 6:38, 6:35, 6:26, 6:26, 6:09, 6:21, 6:07, 6:07, 6:04, 6:12, 6:05, 6:02, 6:05... We were trying to come up with a name for the run and some ideas were: "Rusty Tractor," "Rusty Wheel," "Midget Horse," "Wild Dogs," and "Dead Squirrel."

I've decided on naming the run "Safari." For one, we were a bit in the middle of nowhere. For two, there were a lot of animals: more dogs than I could count, squirrels (including a dead one), a dead skunk, turkeys, cows, hawks, horses, and yes, in fact, two miniature horses.

Bobcat

Time: 85:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

I headed up for a long weekend in Norman, OK last night and met Jordan at his place in the morning for a run. We headed out on his "Bobcat" run. I'm not sure what makes this a standard run for him, as he has it listed on his log ranging from 12 to 20 miles, and many things in-between. After a few miles we got into a fairly steady pace, just over (and one mile apparently just under) 6 minute pace. It was a little bit windy and there are some rolling hills out in the country outside of Norman. The streets out there are also in one square mile grids, so you can split almost everything. This would make me hammer most of my runs... wait a second...

My legs felt a bit dead... I probably need new shoes relatively soon, but I just calculated that I've got about 375 miles on these, so they should last another week.

Town Lake Lollipop, IF

Time: 125:00
Distance: 20 mi.
Map

Solo long run, which I was actually fairly happy about. It was nice to have a little space. Because I only worked out once this week, I wanted to make sure that this was a decent effort. I figured that I could run down to Town Lake (4.5+ mi.) do the whole loop (10 mi.) and come back for close to 2 hours, focusing on running steady through the middle 10 miles. I got out the door fairly quick and was running just over 6 minute pace by the time I was on Town Lake. I did the loop in 61:00. I was over 19 miles into the run when I got back to the house at 118 minutes, so I added on a few minutes on IF just running easy to get myself over 20 miles.

Hip flexors and hamstrings were pretty sore by the end of this, but I got in our cold-ass pool afterwards, which will hopefully help.

Scenic, Stratford, Town Lake

Time: 120:00
Distance: 18 mi.
Map

Early morning long run with Joe. We met near his house and made up this loop as we were going. I was pretty tired and my legs were a little beat, but I was able to get rolling along after we got off Stratford. It felt good to get back on the 2 hour train. I was very dehydrated.

Update: I forgot to mention that my right hip was sore near the top of my IT band at the beginning of the run and seemed to loosen up. By the end of the run I seemed to have some soreness on the top/inside of my left foot.

Town Lake East, Hancock Loop

Time: 105:00
Distance: 17 mi.

Met the guys at the track for their 80 minute taper long run (Big XIIs is next weekend). We ran easy down to Town Lake (1.5 mi), then ran 30 minutes out and back at 6 minute pace or under (10 miles) and back up to the track easy (another 1.5 mi.). I then did a 25+ minute add-on up around Hancock and back on Speedway (4 mi.).

I didn't feel too settled at the uptempo pace on Town Lake, but it will take a few of these type of runs to get back on it so I was happy to ease into it with only one hour really hard. It was easy to run 6:15ish pace for my solo add-on.

Town Lake

Time: 100:00
Distance: 16.5 mi.

Solid, hard Town Lake run with the boys. Got off at a decent clip quickly and headed out into the woods past Pleasant Valley Rd. We turned around at 50 minutes and then really started rolling... we were under 6 minute pace by 5 miles to go and ran mid-5:30s the last 3 miles. I tried to help Rob out who was hanging tough in the last mile and Erik, Leo, Kyle and Jake took off on us a little bit. Finished at 0.0 in 95 minutes and then jogged 5 more minutes easy.

Mt. Bonnell, Scenic, Stratford

Time: 91:00
Distance: 14.5 mi.
Map

Good hard effort on the classic hilly run 'round here. Decided that given that this was a bit of a down milage week and that I really need to start focusing a bit more on intensity that I would do what the guys were doing today. It took a little bit to get settled in, but overall I felt good. The only time I was in a little trouble was on the last hill on Stratford, which I got dropped a little bit on. Felt good after that, though, keeping the pace well under 6 min pace the rest of the way (~3 mi.) back. The first few miles were slower than I've often done this run, which means the end was pretty honest.

Mt. Bonnell, Scenic, Town Lake, Track

Time: 120:00
Distance: 19 mi.



Met the guys for a run from the track. They were pretty giddy out the gate (and only going 90+ minutes) and it didn't take long for Hanley, Joe and I (the OBTC) to start bringing up the rear and decide that we didn't want to kill it for two hours. After Scenic we got on Town Lake for a bit and then headed back to the track at about 100 minutes. We ratcheted it down for 10 minutes under 5:40 pace and then 10 minutes barefoot recovery. I felt okay the whole way... a bit tired and my stomach was a little bit off, but this was one of the better efforts I've put in for the last few weeks.

Santa Ana River Bike Path

Time: 90:00
Distance: 14.5 mi.

Target: 45 minutes out, steady sub-6 minute pace for 6+ miles.
Workout: 5:40, 5:34, 5:40, 5:39, 5:31, 5:36, 5:30 (5:35 avg)



Jilane took me over to the Santa Ana River Bike Path for a flat out-and-back run. Once I started to head out and saw the 1/2 mile markers, I got to thinking... when am I going to work out this week? Sooo... I decided to make it a steady/tempo run and try to roll out a bit once I turned around. The first half was around 6:30s and I didn't really know what to expect on how I would feel on the way back. Overall I was happy with it as I felt controlled pretty much the whole way. I didn't feel great, but my cold is lingering.