Training Log Archive: levitin

Out-and-back with the usual Sunday gang, but from Worcester State, rather than from Assumption, since two of the usual suspects most tightly connected to Assumption were running the Nipmuck Trail Marathon today. We had four of us, and once again the conversation was wonderful, the weather ideal, the pace comfortable for talking. I screwed up my HRM at the first traffic light so at the halfway point I claimed we'd run 5 miles in 8 minutes.

Hurried home to get the rest of the 3 hours of lawn mowing in before flying to San Jose tomorrow. This week I did once over the entire yard, requiring 6+ hours easily. Maybe it would only have been 5 hours if I'd mulched the whole time. Grrr.

Out-and-back from Daniel's karate studio. Few drops of drizzle. To relieve boredom, I took a detour around anew development in the making, that added half a mile. I also ran part of the route as a fartlek, alternating between 10K pace and marathon pace, 50% at each pace.

L shin complained a bit at the end, sensitive to pressure from the inside. I'm going to have to review my logs and figure out what alleviated this pain the last time. It's difficult to accept the notion that running 5 days in a row will cause this, or more than 30 miles per week will cause this.

Easy out-and-back along Salisbury St. Ran out of time to go longer. Salisbury looks much different now that the storm debris has been collected, and, in some stretches, the streets have been swept. Nice clean roadsides, much safer now.

13:51 outbound (uphill)
12:04 back (downhill)

1M w/u before club 5K race.

Club 5K, inadequate warmup, did little stretching. I beat the first woman :-), but did not beat the first person pushing a stroller :-(.

Race splits: 7:37(159,162) for 1st 1.1M (hill)
7:17 for next mile (164,167)
7:04 for last mile (168,174) (same hill again)

Really stretched out my stride on the downhills. The first time I was re-passing the 1st woman, who had passed me on the 1st uphill. 2nd mile felt lousy. In 3rd mile, the woman passed me again while I was flagging, but did not decisively move ahead. However, another older runner, who is usually really strong, but who was shaking off invitations at the starting line to start at the front, came bounding past first me and then the woman. I knew I couldn't go with him, but as the final downhill came, I thought I could catch the woman. I did so on the downhill, and then held her off to the finish.

AOWN: As I was driving out of Devens, I passed a gaggle of geese starting to cross the street. They were on the other side of the street, so they were not just about to block my lane of a two-lane road. I usually think of wild turkeys as aloof and uncaring about traffic along the roads. These geese certainly didn't appear to be concerned about the cars, but I didn't stick around to see them in my rearview mirror.

Around the CMS 5K loop at Worcester State w/ J., plus an ascent up the Zenith Drive lollipop. Ugh. This hill might be worse than Whisper Drive. Legs still felt a bit mushy, but at least my HR was up to normal levels today, unlike yesterday.

Out-and-back from Daniel's karate studio. Legs felt very tired, even though the pace was moderate. 22:16 out, 22:56 back.