Great dane miles

Day 8: Today's run was something unique in that I had every excuse in the book to not run.  First off I technically had the day off, but I knew that my threshold workout scheduled for tomorrow would be difficult to complete in Jerusalem so I had to get it in today.  Secondly my shoes were stolen at the Arab place yesterday so I would have to use my Brooks which had been "retired" for a long time now.  Thirdly I woke up extra early to shit my brains out as I had a ten something that didn't agree with me so I felt a little off. And fourthly the bike trail I was anticipating to do this on was straight quicksand as my shoes clumped with mud and it became clear if I wanted to do this it would have to be on the road.  I wanted a good start to the new year so I sucked it up and hammered down the mountain for my first rep of a 2 x 2mile 2 x 1mile workout. For a practically all downhill 2 mile rep I hit 11:10 in the rough wind / rain.  I took a minute rest then climbed back up which was rough.  I hit 6:10 for that first uphill Mile, then around 6:45 for the 2nd for about a 13 minute 2 mile for uphill I considered alright.  The next single mile was 5:10, followed by another at 5:19.   I cooled down back the 2 miles up the hill for a total of an 11 mile day.

We went right into Jerusalem to the old city where we went to the Jewish Quarter. The weather was rough.....very windy cold and rainy as we made the hour walk/tour to the wall. When we arrived the sun came out and I put my small note into the wall and said the Shema.  I was surprised to see a small synagogue next to the wall where many rabbis were praying.  We didn't stay for too long and headed back to the bus.  We then drove to a nearby mall which was packed.  I got some bomb Subway type stuff and walked around and got some ruggala from a really good bakery.  The mall closed quickly and we headed to the hotel: The Jerusalem Gardens.  The hotel was much nicer than what we had been staying in.  We did a few Shabbat activities and I worked out for the first time in the gym they had since I got to Israel.  Dinner was amazing, so much food.  Afterwords spent some time doing a couple activities and then everyone went down to drink at the bar, I just hung out and then went to bed early.

Day 9:  It's Shabbat so this is the first relaxing day in a while, Woke up around 8 to go see if the gym was available for the treadmills, since they weren't I just went to breakfast which was pretty decent. We had several activities and then Lunch followed by my first Treadmill run in years.  Ran 7.5 at a fastish pace, had another group activity and then straight back.  We later went to a smaller mall where I got some inexpensive pasta which was awesome.  Came back to the hotel to relax 

Day 10:  Last run of the trip: Long run on the treadmill, not as bad as I would've thought.  Got to the gym at 6 on he button, I started up the first couple miles at low 7's to get into it, brought pace down to 6:40's by the 4th Mile where I cruised until about 50 minutes in when I dropped it to more of a 6:20 pace.  The Treadmill was in Kilometers so I was going off of that for distance.  Around 70 minutes in I brought pace down to around 6 flat, Just as I hit 20K (around 12.5 miles) I was kicked off for being on it too long, I only had about 10 mins left anyway, which may have brought be to 14 miles, but I'll take what I can get. 

Quickly got to breakfast Androcles we were off to MT. Hertzel right away.  The memorial of fallen Israeli soldiers was one of the most moving of the trip.  Our own soldiers knew personally people buried there.  It reminded me of Arlington National Cemetery in the US except more personal because of the age of the kids buried here.  Afterwords we said goodbye to our soldiers which was sad, but I hadn't really formed any super close relations with any of them so it wasn't particularly tough for me.  I had a massive salad at some nice restaurant, then we went to the holocaust museum.  I already had knowledge of most of the stuff they talked about but it was still interesting to see such a beautiful place.  We headed back to Nev Shalom , had a great dinner and a good chat with John and AJ, and a nice closing program where I got some candy which Illl be giving to my siblings (I don't need any more of that shit in my body) and a T shirt.  I couldn't have asked for a better group to spend these last 10 days with.

Day 11: Off day from running, hip is feeling a little sore probably from running in bum shoes these last few days, so it's a good idea that I give myself the next day and a half off.  Said goodbye to the rest of the group that's extending, found my long lost GoPro stuff, and Hopped on the plane, that's all she wrote, until next time Israel.

Woke up early, (Jet Lag), got in 3 miles that felt great. Later went to practice to do a few miles with James, Julio and the team, little tempo at the end had me feeling rough.  Got in some quality weight room time for the first time in a while.

Rough workout, 6 x 800's with 400 jog rest.  I'm currently still Jet lagging hard and have developed a sore throat, feeling sick.  I blew the first couple in 2:29 somewhat easily, however once I hit the 3rd one it began to feel a lot tougher than it should've as I consistantly hit 2:30 for the remainder of the reps.  Even working hard those last couple I just couldn't push past 75 pace.  If I was healthy I would have hoped to drop down into the lower 2:20's, but afterwords I went to relax at home for awhile.  Need to recover from this quick.

A sick couple of miles around Boyce, feeling better than yesterday, but still not quite up to par.  

Quick 8 miles in the morning around the King Street area, suprisingly felt really great, moved at a 6:40ish pace the whole way despite the hills.  I've pushed my mile repeat workout to tomorrow.  Just because of this whole sickness.

Workout day early on the DHS track:  5 x mile with 90 seconds rest in Bradley's T7's, followed by 6 x 200's in the Matumbos.  I started out the first mile in 5:24 pretty comfortably, hit 5:24 again for the 2nd, 5:22 for the 3rd, 5:19 for the 4th, and 5:23 for the 5th.  This is a slight imporvment from where I was before break doing these at 5:30, especially alone.  The 2's were a bit more rough on me, I started slow at 34, then another 34, then 32, 32, and my last 2 I pushed for 31 high, then 31 low.  I'll admit I've lost some speed over this past break, but I have a solid base and I'm feeling good going into the season.  

I was initially going to get this done in the AM in New Milly, but had a good time cooking with my close friends who I went see for months until late at night, some of them slept over, so I decided to just move the LR to the evening after I arrived in Albs.  For some reason I felt really really good.  My first campus loop was quick under 7 minute pace off the bat,  I floated through the next 7 miles around 6:30 pace, and then once I hit 10 miles I started really moving at a sub 6 pace.  In total I hit around 14 with the last few miles around 5:40 pace.  Great first run back.

Todays workout caught me way offguard, coming off of a workout 2 days ago, and then a fast long run less than 18 hours ago, my legs were understandably tired.  12 x 400's every 2 minutes, something that's not incredibly hard for me to do normally, but in these circumstances it was rough.  I kept with the group for the first few hitting 69-70 for each one.  I was really starting to feel fatigue around the 5th one from the past two days work.  On the 7th a small noticeable gap formed between me and the other guys as I hit 71.  The 8th that gap grew as I dropped down to 72.  The 9th was tough mentally at this point i think I was somewhere around 73-74.  I decided that the 10th would be my last, as going any further would this would do no benifit to my fitness if I were to drop to a slower than 75 second pace.  I hit the last in 74, obviously not a workout to be proud over, but considering the circumstances I'd day I'm content that I was able to keep up for as long as I did, and although I fell back, it wasn't by more than a couple seconds, had I kept going would have done me no real good.  

Solid paced long continues run through Colonie and back, felt great, first easy day in a while.

Rough workout on the track pretty much solo, 6 x 800's on a very windy, slippery track with 200 meters rest.  The goal would have been to start around 2:30 pace and drop down from there.  However given the circumstances, things did not go to plan.  I started up around low 2:30's and could never push past that, hitting as slow as 2:38 for a later rep.  Afterwords, went onto the indoor track for 200's at 33, 32, and 31.  Still recovering from a cold, but not feeling 100 % right now, looking to train lighter and smarter over the next couple of days.

Finally easy running with Liam around campus, Achilles pain from last couple days is still felt, hoping this does not evolve into something serious, sought treatment before and after the run.

Ran through straight pain today, Achilles really flaring up, while that isn't a smart thing to do, I have gone through pains like this in the past, and after running a mile or twop they go away, not this one.  I may not race if this persists tomorrow, I really want to race, but I may be restricted.

Well, after much realization to my situation, I made the decision that running today wouod not have been smart.  It absoluely sucks to be at a meet all day and not run, but I firmly believe that its for the best.  It especially sucks to not do any sort of activity all day either.  I now have a new appreciation for a spot on the starting line.....

Interesting trip downtown to the local YMCA where I swam about 2 miles in their small 3 lane pool.  I first did a mile at an easy pace but after looking at my low heart rate of not much more than 100, I knew I had to raise it to get anything out of this session.  So I did a mini workout of 2 x 5 laps, 2 x 3 laps, 2 x 2 laps, 2 x 1 lap.  I managed to work the heart rate up to 150, which isn't very high for running, but in the pool getting it high is difficult.  I was in there for around 90 minutes, in total it took 4 hours of my day from when I left my room to when I returned, thankfully that should be the only day i have to do this.  Also it cost $10 to workout, i don't intend on paying that again.

Came back to Joe in the trainers room to prep for what would hopefully be my return to painfree running.  I spent some time warming uo my foot and doing various stretches, 10 minutes on the bike, and then tried to run.  After about 3 minutes the achilles started flaring up and this time I made the wise decision of not working against myself, so I stopped, and walked all the way back.  I finnished off with 30 more minutes on the bike, and the diagnoses that I need a week off from running.  Not a great way to start the semester, and how this happned is nothing but obvious from

-moving Sundays Long Run from the morning to the evening on hard concrete, 

-  Doing a workout about 18 hours later

- Going right into a 10.5 mile "Continues run", right after that

- And then hitting another workout the day after that.

Mistakes were made, but the best thing I can do now for myself is simulate what I would be doing outside on the bike, and in the pool swimming.  I have my heart rate moniter to help me with checking my effort.  First exteneded period of time not running since I started this blog at the beginning of last summer, should be interesting.

Hopped on the bike to simulate a 5 x 4 minutes hard with 3 minutes rest.  The thing about the bike is that you start sweating almost instantly, and by the end of the 15 minute WU I was drenched.  How I went about this was moving the "Workout level" on the bike up 1 for every rep, keping my RPM over 100.  The first 4 minute segment was at a 6, and my HR reached a little over 150.  The 2nd segment was at a 7, my HR hit the lower 160's towards the end of the rep.  the 3rd segment was at an 8, I was hitting 170 by the very end of the rep, and staying over 160 for practically the whole thing.  The 4th segment I started at 8 again, then bumped to a 9 with a minute to go peaking at 174.  The last segment I started at an 8 for 2 minutes, then bumped to a 9, and the last minute pushed to a 10.  I hit a HR of 180 at the end.  I did a cool down of 25 minutes afterwords at a 140 HR.  The bike is high quality and should be excellent for my heart rate, but I can't do it all the time as it kills my back, I don't want another injury resulting from this, so to the pool it is tomorrow.  

Spent some time in the pool doing laps to simulate 5 x 600's, follwed by 4 x 200's.  Gave a hard effort, but the difficulty of getting my heart rate over 120 while swimming is a huge factor.  considering just aqua jogging next time.

Did a mile swim followed by a 20 minute aqua jog, on the aqua jog was able to get HR at a steady 140, so from now on when I'm on the pool I'll be aqua jogging rather than swimming.

Hopped on the bike for 45 minutes, really chaffed up my inner thighs but was able to hold a continues 140 for the first 15 minutes, then bumped up to 150, and finally for the last 10 minutes I was hovering around 160 which is a good HR for a fast paced continues run.  Probably going to get some sort of a moderatley hard effort in the pool aqua jogging tomorrow.  

Workout of 10 x 2 minutes hard in the pool, had to be quick as I didn't have a ton of time to get this in.  My first few were at an HR of high 150's / low 160's.  Around the 6th one i hit 170.  The remainder i managed to get to 170 about a minute into the rep and hold it for the next minute.  I peaked on the last one 176.  Next time I do this workout I think I'll cut this rest down from 1 minute to maybe 30 seconds.

Hopeful last day of no running:  Started with 45 minutes really easy, too easy, of aqua jogging but I wasn't getting much out of it, and kyle and tyler were heading out of the pool for some extensive core so I joined in.  I came back to the gym later at ight to get in 45 minutes on the bike, holding an HR over 145 the whole way, and towards the end hitting around 160 which is good for a nice tempo pace.  

Well I tried to get back at it today, and about 5 minutes in I started to feel pain.  By the end of the 10 minutes I was in just as much pain as I had been when I stopped running 9 days ago.  I had a feeling this was going to happen by the slight nagging pain I'd been feeling all this past week when I walk down stairs. Scheduled an appointment with Joe to see a Professional for an MRI on wednesday.  Also now doing this Ultrasound thing in addition to the other treatments for the achilles.  This is very frustrating and it absolutely sucks not being able to do what I love most, but I've been through shit like this before, and handled it properly, so this is no difforent.  I'm going to do everything I can to keep fit through the biking, the aqua jogging, and the swimming.  Therefor, I did 30 minutes hard on the bike right after treatment.

While I can't make gains on land, I can still make them elsewhere.  Weight check in this morning at a new low of 143.6.  I was 152 at the end of cross country, and around 148 when I got back to Albany 3 weeks ago so I've made incredible progress with my eating habbits that i aim to continue as the semester progresses.  Todays workout was a ladder of 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute, 4 minute, 5 minutes hard with a goal of 30 seconds rest in between each rep.  I started up the first couple reps barely scratching 160 on the HR.  By the 1st 3 minute segment I was up to 168.  After this segment I actually decided to extend rest to a minute, which I later regretted.  The 1st 4 minute segment and 5 minute segment I hit 170 midway through each rep and held.  After that 4 minute rep I dropped back down to 30 seconds rest.  I hit 174 for a minute on the 3 minute, then 176 for a minute on the 2 minute, and then on the final minute I peaked at 179, a new pool best.  As boring as this aqua jogging talk is I have to act like its exciting or the thing will just get depressing.

After waiting about 2 hours at the doctors office, I finally got my answer to whats been bothering my achilies:  Achilis Tendonosis.  Translation, its nothing awfully serious, but it will put me out for the next two weeks.  The doctor who, himself is an experienced runner, did an ultrasound on my heal, and showed me visiby how my right Achilles is swolon, something that probably developed over a long time.  I'm going to take Ibuprofen for it, 600 milligrams with breakfest, and then another 600 with dinner.  I'm also going to be icing 3 -4 times a day, which will probably require me to get an Ice Gel pack like I have at home.  I'm continueing the Ultrasound therapuidc treatment, and of course the aqua jogging and biking will be keeping my fitness.  Today Joe reccomended to take it light so I just 30 mins on the bike.  

Tried another test type of workout :  2:30 on at a hard pace, with 30 seconds rest x 8, with 4 x 1 minutes hard at the end.  My first couple of reps I was barely hitting 160, but I was moving up slightly every rep.  By the last one I hit 172, holding 168 for most of the rep.  On the 1 minute reps I reached up to 174.  This actually wasn't super ideal as I wanted to reach my typical max of 178- 180, so the next time I do a rep based workout (Tuesday), I'm going to adjust a few things.  

60 Minutes on the bike reached about 25 miles, good long effort, HR was gradually moving up from around 145 the first 15 minutes, 150 around 30 minutes, mid 150's around 45 minutes, and the last 10 or so minutes was at 160 or slightly over, very very sweaty.

90 Minutes aqua jog, wasn't actually as bad as it sounded, Kept a good moniter of the HR which stayed around 145 -150 until the last 10 minutes where it actually started to drop more towards 140.  I would give this a good effort, patience is key to this recovery.

Today was more of a lowkey relaxed day of swimming, I did a mile in the pool, got my treatment, pretty basic day.

Today the goal was to get a hard workout in on the bike, and I was successful in doing so.  I wanted to do 12 x 2 minutes at a very hard effort with 1 minute rest.  I monitered my RPM's to remain over 100 the whole time, and the resistance level to stay at an 8 for the rep and 5 for the rest unless I felt it needed to be moved up.  My HR hit around 164 for the first rep, and moved up 2-3 beats every rep.  By the 4th rep I hit 170.  5th rep was 172, 6th was 174, 7th was 177. 8th was 178, as was the 9th, and on the 10th I cleared 180 and peaked at 182, most of the rep was holding over 175.  I decided that ending after this was sufficient, as my butt was getting super uncomfprtable on the seat, and this was a new HR PR while cross training, the guys are also doing a longer rep based workout tomorrow, but I think I'll move that to Thursday for myself since I'm obviosly not racing Saturday.  

40 minutes in the pool jogging, worked up to a high 150's HR that I held for the entire second half of the duration, started to feel really sick afterwords, feverish.

Felt really sick today, bad fever and nausius and sick in general, going to take first day completely off in awhile.

Still feeling bad symptoms of the sickness I had yesterday, mostly tighness in my abdomin and nausia.  I threw myself onto the bike for 45 minutes anyway, kept a good HR of almost 160 for most of the duration.

Tried the pool, didn't go so well, after 15 minutes of jogging I just felt too sick, so I did another 15 minutes swim, not an agressive day, but better to let the illness pass through than try to be agressive with it.

19th Birthday Status.  Still Hurt?  Yup  Still sick?  Yup.  Yet I did go in for 30 minutes aqua jog, which just felt terrible, but I got through it, this was mostly my fault due to the large amount of breakfest eaten this morning at the diner the guys took me out to.  So I would certianly not regret doing that again.

30 minutes on the bike, 15 in the water, Should be going back in the pool for a workout tomorrow.

Sped into the water from class and got right into an upbeat warmup at 145 HR, planned to do 4 x 3minutes, 3 x 2 minutes, 2 x 1 minute with 60 seconds rest between each rep.  On the first couple reps the HR easily went over 160 hitting around 167.  I hit 170 on the 4th 3 minute rep.  On the 2 minute reps I would hit 168 halfway through and peak at around 173-4.  The 1 minute reps were about 174, I cut rest for those to 45 seconds since I felt my HR was dropping too much (Down to as low as 135 on the rest) where as when I do workouts on the bike I hardly ever drop below 150.  Overall good workout, its like a prison in that pool, but my motivation won't crack.  Tomorrow I see the doctor again after 2 weeks.  Hoping for the best.

Hopped on the bike for a long continues session of 60 minutes, roughy 25 miles, and almost all at an HR of over 150.  Achilles is actually feeling much better, met with the dotor today, we figure its safe to just wait a week longer since my Indoor season doesn't exist anyway.  Baby steps.....

Another Hard -ish continues session in the water this time:  45 Minutes at HR of 145-150 with a 15 minute swim afterwords.  Probably going to do a workout tomorrow.

Workout day:  I figured I would do the ladder again ( 1 minutes, 30 seconds rest, 2 minutes, 30 seconds rest ect to 5 minutes ).  Unfortunatley when I do this workout my HR doesn't go as high as the shorter rep, longer rest workouts and that was especially true for today.  I couldn't even hit 170.  However my HR never fell below 150 after the third rep due to short rest, so it was alright, not the best of workouts.  Probably going to take the weekend on the easier side, and then Hammer a workout either in the pool or on the bike where I'll shoot to set a new HR record (Currently that's 182 for the bike, 179 for the pool.)  That should also be my last hard workout before returning to land and running again....

Easy 40 minutes on the bike, Treatment prior and afterwords.

Felt like I needed a long day in me, so I went for 90 minutes on the bike in the Sefcu gym.  Normally on the training room bikes I can easily hold 22 - 24 MPH but on this one 20 MpH takes just about as much effort.  I split the session up into three sets of 30 minutes taking a couple minutes in between to stretch out.  In total I hit about 31 miles, Quality.

Toned down easy mile swim, saw Bradley and mom for first time in 5 weeks, it was a good day.

Another classic 10 x 2 minutes hard with 1 minute easy on the bike.  There was something off about the bike today though:  Every 10 seconds or so during the reps, the resistane intensified for a few seconds, and then went back to normal.  This made it slightly more difficult than normal so i nothched the resistance down to a 6.  I still managed to increase hr by a few every rep, and nothign was sweeter than hitting the goal of 180 at the end of the last rep.  Joe has me waiting to run until Saturday, which is techically when the doctor had me coming back, so close...so close. 

40 Minutes in the pool aqua jogging, went by very slowly, dull day.

Squeezed 40 minutes on the bike in between classes, felt strong, workout tomorrow in the pool.

Aqua jog workout of 10 x 2 minutes with 30 seconds rest.  Struggled to pull past 170 HR but gave it a great effort, was limmited in space due to many people swimming around me....

Haven't taken an "Off day" in quite awhile so this was it, outside of my first run in a month of course, .75 miles on the track, with a little core afterwords, It's going to be a slow progression to full on running again, but I'm anticipating it.

90 Minutes on the Bike, long, but worth the effort, same drill as last week doing three sets of 30 minutes stretching in between.

Running attempt round 2:  8 Minutes on the treadmil continuesly, I think I still feel something in my achilles, but that could probably be me just over focusing my attention on the spot, did 30 minutes on the bike afterwords just to get a good session in.

Hard Aqua workout:  5 x 3 minutes, followed by 4x 2 minutes at a solid effort.  HR went up smoothly from the low 160's to peak at about 173 on the last rep, felt really good, ideally one of my last workouts like this in the pool. 

Biked 15 minutes to warm up, then tried a 2 minutes on, minute off approach to toal around 12 - 15 minutes of running.  Felt good, again not sure if the feeling in my achilles is just mental, but on Friday I plan to extend my distance to 20 minutes.

Bike Workout:  4 x 4 minutes hard, followed by 4 x 2 minutes at even harder.  Worked the HR uo to 178 on the final rep, probably could have went for another rep looking back at it, but regardless a good workout it was.

Very careful day, I did 15 minutes on the bike to warm up, and then a soft on and off two miles around Indian Pond, going about this whole thing very slowly, but can't afford to dig myself deeper into this rut.  Went down to Passaik in the evening and had an amazing dinner.

Aside from the morning stroll I took here in Passaik NJ, today was very much an off day, and a cheat day from my longstanding diet while celebrating chabbat with a great family.  The food was incredible, some of the best I've had in a long time, probably since Israel.  Great day overall.

Today was a huge day for progress. Had a smooth 30 minute ride on the bike to get myself warmed up (10 Miles), then went out to run.  Impressively I did 15 minutes straight of running at a decent pace around the campus loop.  I stopped for a few minutes to stretch, then went for another  5 - 10 minutes, it was a little over 3 miles, This is still baby miles, but it's incredible progress considering 8 days ago I could barely do 3/4 of a mile.  I did some core / another 15 minutes on the bike afterwords to finnish the morning off.  Patience......

50 Mins on the bike, Achilles appears to be doing fine after the run yesterday, looking to running two days in a row tomorrow and wednesday.

First Off campus run in over six weeks, did 20 minutes, running to and from the Pine bush, ran with Liam on the way back, achilles began to tighten up towards the end, talked to Joe, going to spend some time on the ultrasound again and introduced some new stretches, trying to be as careful as possible with this.  went out to the mall and got an orthodic to help with the pressure when walking.

Killer workout in the pool: 8 x 3 minutes hard with 60 seconds rest.  HR only went up, I hit 170 on the 4th rep, each rep that followed I moved up a number or two until peaking at 175 on the last one.  this was the highest I've hit in the pool in a while.  Afterwords had a meeting with Jonsey regarding outdoor buisness which is still very much TBD.  10 minute run followed, felt wierd.

60 Minutes on the bike before heading back home for the weekend.  Looking forward to coming back after nearly two months locked away in Albs.

Over to the Rec center in Ridgefield for a 25 minute aqua jog, followed by 25 minute run around the area,  18 minutes straight, walked for 5 minutes, then went for another 7 minutes for a  guestimated  3.5 miles.  

Mixed day in Ridgefield:  Solid bike workout:  10 x 2 minutes hard with 1 minutes rest.  Bikes in the rec were actually much better than I expected, seat was adjustable to a good height and I had a TV right in my face to serve as a distraction from the grind.  Easily hit 170 by the 3rd or 4th rep, the rest of them I slowly climbed up the lower 170's and on the 8th hit 180 according to the bike itself.  The last 2 I was pushing 182, the highest i saw my watch at was 180 which is a new HR record for me.  Took 10 minutes to stretch and change then did a 10 minute run arund the rec, mostly soft, achilles feeling good.  Sucks that I couldn't get treatment this weekend, but I'm glad I was able to get the job done where it was needed.  Tomorrow will likely be an off day to give the achilles and body a rest.  I went from 4.5 miles last week to almost 12 this week.  Next week should be something around 15 - 20 assuming all goes well.  New shoes will be purchased at the end of the week, I'm still considering my options for what would best suite me. 

Day of rest, visited UJC to help out for first time in a while, good drive home with mom, ready for a tough week of finals.

Back in Albs, tough week of finals ahead, talked with Joe and he gave me the idea that running before aqua jogging / biking is a better idea than vise versa.  So after treatment I went for a campus loop + Indian pond loop straight, (About 26 minutes).  This is a huge step forward, this weeks mileage hopes to be around 18, next week probably 25 -30, and we'll see what happens from there.

Treatment followed by campus loop, broke it down running first two miles straight, stretched out, then hit the last mile.  Initially I planned to bike afterword, but I'm going to take on a phillosophy that getting back to running is the prime goal right now, not neccisarily my hollistic fitness.  Therefor from now on any day that I put in 3 or more miles, will not include any other cardio, giving my body a chance to relax and heal, I will be working out in the pool tomorrow.  

No running today:  Hard workout in the pool 8 x 3 minutes with a minutes rest, HR steadily brought up into the low 170's and then on the last one hitting 175, tomorrow I'll be going for a longerish run.

PROGRESS!!!  A whole 5 miles run at a smooth 6:40ish pace couldn't have made the week any better, practically pain free, this was my first somewhat real run in awhile, almost two months.  trying to keep this momentum into tomorrow and do another 3 or so miles, and then try for 5 again on Saturday.  Very critical I stay smart with the treatment going forward.  

A few miles with the guys at practice before their workout, glad to be going home, healing going well, tomorrow will be first day of 3 in a row.

Long morning in Ridgefield, warmed up and hit the roads for 18 minutes on, a few minutes walking, and then another 7 minutes so I'll call it 3.5.  Afterwords did a 30 minute bike to solidify the day.  Went to Woodbridge to pick up some new shoes as my mileage becomes real again, (Nike Pegasus Zoom 32).  Looking forward to starting things off right in them,

70 Minutes on the bike (25ish miles), kept the HR between 150 and 155 for a good long effort session.  

Another new PR in run length, 37 minutes on the roads in Ridgefield in the new Nike's.  Felt fast and smooth, started to tighten up a little towards the end, but no real pain, I'm going to still take it day by day this break, but ideally I'd like the mileage this week to be somewhere around 25, or somewhere near 50 % of my goal training mileage.  Afterward I did a strengthening routine in the WR.

Another day in Ridgefield:  4 miles on the roads felt pretty good, afterwords came in for a reduced workout on the bike, just 7 x 2 minutes hard, which was good wnough to get me up to a 179 HR.  Going to take some caution and likely take off from running.  

Beuatiful day biking with Zach over in Brewster, nice change of scenery from the stationary, did a good 20 miles at 14 MPH.  Going to take the day off from running, when I woke up my achilles was a little tight from yesterday, going to try for 6 miles tomorrow, and then another 4ish before I leave for Boston on friday, and then another 4 - 5 on Saturday for a grand total of 25 on the week.  

On another note, I recieved my official notice that I've been cut from the Outdoor roster for this coming season, although this doesn't come as a suprise at all, it wasn't easy having to sign off on my being cut from the team.  I'm still just as driven to work towards getting some good races on the roads (and maybe unnatched on the track) in later May / June, to prove that I still deserve a spot on the Cross team.  I will be back, and it's going to take a lot more than a hurt achilles to take that away from me.

Very tiring run through the King Street area, combo of the somewhat long bike ride yesterday, and my general lack of running shape.  However, the 42 minutes at a pace of 6:40ish made for my longest run since injury, so it's progress regardless.  Tomorrows goal is to throw down another 5 or so.  

Woke up early to get in some miles before leaving for a great day in Boston, went for about 35 minutes, started tightening up towards the end, after driving for two hours and walking with Justin and Oscar a lot in the city the Achilles is really aching so I'm going to take tomorrow off. However I will count Sunday's mileage for this week as its within 7 days. 

Off day, great relaxing day with the guys at BU and Uconn, very much needed to relax the stress in the Achilles 

Short solid run with the Bradley partially, felt better than yesterday, but still keeping high caution.

A little bit of a beat down run with Liam around the field, felt really tight but got the appropriate treatment I lacked all spring break.  Tomorrow the guys have a workout, I intend to do the warmup and then potentially do a fartlick style run around campus to see if my body / achilles is ready to handle some faster stuff, otherwise I'll hop on the bike.

Well due to some outside pressures today ended uo being my first workout back, which had me pumped yet a little uncertain as far as the achilles is concerned.  After running about 2 miles warmup I hopped into the 5K / 10K groups workout of 5 -6 x 1K, although considering I'm coming off of practically no hard running in two months, I cut it to four.  I rolled into the first one feling pretty smooth and hit  3:13, (About 5:10 pace.).  The next was slightly slower in 3:15, then hit 3:18, and then 3:15 again.  I didn't throw everything into this simply because that would have made no sense for a first workout back, but I gave it an honest effort.  I probably could have went for another, but doing this workout in the first place is risky, didn't want to risk more.  cooled down for a mile, and then iced / rolled aggressivley the remainder of the evening.  I'll find out tomorrow if running is a smart thing to do, but as of 7 PM when writing this, it seems the achilles is feeling fine.  Can't wait to start this training block.

40 Minutes total today, although I should have been more cautius, I went out on the run with cook at a fast pace to the Pine bush and turned around at 15, on my way back the Achilles started to really flare up so I walked in some places to avoid really hurting myself.  Tomorrow I'll go back on  the bike, and then Friday I'll try to go at it again, but staying on soft flat ground.

stationary bike workout of 7 x 3 minutes hard, was basing my HR off the bike itself rather than a watch, so it could have been inaccurate, but I peaked at 173, which I considered alright for this bike, and considering my legs are starting to feel really sore from the running lately, it's going to take some getting used to.

Quick two campus loops, achilles felt fine, pace was around 6:40, feeling very sore overall, rolled out significently afterword.

Morning practice, easy miles first half with Kieth, then alone, started tightening up towards the end but overall smooth.  Did 8 Accelerations on the grass afterwords, tomorrow I'll either run easy or bike in prep for what I aim to be a 35 - 40 mile week ahead.

Intended on Biking, but apperently everything is closed on Easter, ended up spending a good day at the bookstore and then got in a glorified campus loop, Achilles started to tighten up towards end, but iced / rolled later on so not feeling too bad.

Longish day:  After a good warmup went for a Pinebush pickup run with the guys:  5 x 1 minutes with 4 minutes easy.  I was able to stay up with them through the pickups, and little achilles feeling at all.  Afterwords they had 6 x 2's starting at 33-34 with equal rest.  I did 5 hitting 33, 32, 31, 33, 32, with those first 3 being right up with the guys.  It's good to know that I'm starting into this new training block with at least some speed.  Tomorrow the guys have an interval workout, which I really don't think would be smart of me to attempt, but I'm going to see how I feel tomorrow, might just do a run with Ryan, might cross train, TBD.

After Yesterdays 2's my achilles is feeling very tight today, so cross training was my best bet.  Just did 8 x 2 minutes hard on the bike getting the HR up to around 170, 15 minutes up, and down.  Really hoping to be able to get in a solid continues run tomorrow, and then hopefully a tempo workout on Thursday.  One of Friday and Saturday will be another cross train day, with the other being a continues run, and sunday aiming to long run.  Total weeks mileage should ideally be between 40 and 45.

Cook park and back with the guys, awesome weather, felt really good both in the achilles and overall.  Looking at a 3 x 2 mile effort on the track, thinking about pacing myself for 5:20 pace, but with the wind that may have to be adjusted. 

First long workout in quite a long time:  The workout was diagnosed as 3 x 2mile (2 minutes rest), with 4 x 200's afterwords.  I decided to skip the 2's just for today considering I'm still in this long process of transition with the Achilles.  The wind was rough, so I did stuff on the campus loop.  I was a little excited the first mile of the first rep crossing through in 5:22ish, the wind slammed me on the 2nd mile and I hit 10:59.  2nd rep was in similer fashion, went through in 5:24, and finnished in slightly over 11:00.  I split up the last 2 miles individually to hit 5:30, then 5:28.  Todays work let me know that my fitness is at a place where I can work with.  Regardless of wind, I felt really good on the first mile of those reps, I just need to build up my lungs to the long stuff again.  I won't enter myself in any road race regardless of distance until I'm confident I can do this workout several weeks down the line at 10:30 pace or faster.  

keeping it on the safe side today with 45 minute bike, feeling very stiff.

Fartlick "workout" but I may consider this my long run considering it was over 60 mins in duration, 2 X 4 minutes, 3x 3 minutes, 3x 2 minutes at hard effort.  Went in the Pine bush direction took me all the way to Colonie Rd.  Towards the end of the cool down started to stiffen up, so when I got back to the dorm spent nearly 40 minutes aggressively Rolling, stretching and Icing. Felt incredibly sore in my legs as a whole today, but I ran through it. I don't think it would be smart at this point to jump into a 12 mile long run the day after a volume like today, I will definitely try to run, but probably around 40 minutes, clocking 40 miles this week, 45ish if I count tomorrow.

Shorter Long run today, just 60 minutes very easy and relaxed trying to knock out a lot of my soreness.  achilles felt fine on the run, but afterwords later in the day I felt lots of tightness, hoping to rest up rest of the day and prepare for a week of ideally 45 - 50 miles.  

With all the snow on the ground and the roads bad, coach had everyone cross train inside, and with all the bikes taken, I decided that it would be smart to just take the day off, first one in a long long time.

Did the "Mid week Long Run" with Cal and Matt, felt just oike a run should be, my body feels good.

Very mixed feelings about how I approached today, the workout was 9 x 6's with 400 jog rest, I decided going for 7 would be safe for me, I had been feeling a little tight today, but figured I'd be fine.  After warming up and progressive, I did the workout hitting 1:52 - 1:54 through the wind for all of them except the last one I hit in 1:51 all alone.  After jogging about a mile cool down, I started to really feel it in the achilles.  I went to the training room for treatment, but upon waking uo and walking around the next morning the tightness is really bad, almost to the point of pain.  Perhaps speed work can hold off for another several weeks, I'm really worries about setting myself backwords.

Achilles was really feeling it today.....Teamwide cross training day so I just 45 on the bike, caution is very important right now.

I took a leap of faith today and decided to do a portion of the workout, 3 x 2K's on the track with 2 minutes rest.  I woke up feeling excellent so I thought i could do this.  workout itself was alright, as expected I was dropped hard on all 3 I did hitting 6:50, 6:52, and 6:54 (High 520's pace).  however afterwords I was barely able to get a cool down in as my achilles started to really flare up.  It may have been a very dumb decision to run this workout, but i really wanted to get some fast stuff in, this weekend will likely be litle miles.

Day off in Monsey....Amazing food and people to be around for a day and distract me from running for a day.  The Shabbatones never dissapoint.  Although I woke up in a limp from doing yesterdays workout, I'm trying not to think about that too much for the weekend.

Just to stay on the safe side, I biked 90 minutes early this morning, really worried for the recent pain I felt after the workout Friday, figured taking the weekend off is my safest bet right now.

Well the guys had Pre-Meet for VT today so I just did some easy stuff on campus with them plus a little extra, still not feeling 100%, this week will likely be a down week.

Today sucked, plain and simple.  After some treatment I went over to Eagle Hill area for what I intended to be a nice spring run, and about 20 minutes in started to tighten up bad.  This was followed by a long walk back to campus, as I found it stupid to continue to run on it.  As I walked I had plenty of time to reflect on what my situation as of today, and where I'm headed:

It's been nearly 3 months since the onset of this injury.  It started in Mid - January as what the Doctor said would be a, "Small Blip", in my running season that would only result in me takign 3 weeks off.  Well, it knocked me off my feet for a grand total of 6 weeks, followed by another 3 weeks of slow transitioning, and then another  weeks of attempted workouts and mind gameson how healed it actually was.  The injury has been on the forefront of my mind for all of the last three months, and at times has had me in a more sad and frustrated state than I ever have been in.  And here I am, about to enter what I thought would be a rebuilding phase, and it's still sucking me into a deeper and deeper pit.  No, I don't belive I'm at square one again, but the thought of going backwords once again is cringeworthy.  But it's the unfortunate reality.  I love this sport, and running as a whole more than almost anything, and the last thing I want is to lose my ability to do so (Which I think is a possibility with this never seeming to heal).  Mocing forward my main goal has transferred from getting out and doing workouts as soon as possible, to ensureing that this thing just go away for good.  Therefor I see it fit that I take the next week or so off.  and then gradually build into it again, with no workouts.  If I enter the summer still in any sort of tightness or pain, I'm going to see another doctor and I'll move from there.  If I could ask for anthing right now, it would be for a summer full of long miles, and no pain, that's it.

Bike workout of 10 x 2 minutes reaching 170's HR, back to this bike workout grind for awhile, stying away from aqua jogging for no other reason than that I hate it.

Just becaue I won't aqua jog doesn't mean I won't swim, Lifeguarding coming up within a month, so figured i'd start the groove of things, 1 mile swim, 36 minutes or so.

Biked a good quick workout at an agressive effort getting the HR nice and high, however, with all these achille struggles I'm starting to understand that maybe biking is not doing me so well considering I'm still putting substantial pressure on the foot...

Off Day as I head up to Uconn to watch my team race en route to heading up to Boston on Sunday.  Good day, but for future personal refernce, Bruggers Bagels is terrible and it makes me want a good bagelman bagel from home.

Swim Workout at Uconn using Stemps card, total was around a mile, doing 10 x 50's.  My form could use a hefty amount of developing.

Off Day in boston to watch the marathon, trully an amazing experience.  The guys did not do as well as they wanted, but conditions were rough with the heat, I can see myself being in this race someday, hopefully not too far in the future.

Easy mile swim cut short, I'm developing better at swimming and think it's a good cross training tool while this achilles finally gets the time off it's been begging for.

Swim Workout, 2 x 250 Yards, 2 x 150's, 2 x 100's, and 2 x 50's.  Starting to work on my form.  I think my apporach to swimming was wrong before.  While my heart rate technically isn't raised as high as aqua jogging, and maybe I don't burn as much calories as biking, but I think it's effect on my body as a whole and lungs is super benificial.  I feel better in general after swimming than I did aqua jogging.

Easy Mile Swim

Swim Workout involving 200's, 100's and 50's, its been a few days since this day, so I can't remember exactly, but it totalled a mile.

Early morning mile swim out at the rec in Ridgefield, awesome day cooking for passover, food came out great, first real time cooking from scratch for a large group of people, quite a memborable Passover.

Off day, relaxing sunday departed Danbury, achilles actually feeling better, Biking was the culprit all this time I think...

Lengthy swim workout:  400 Yards warm up 4 x 200 Yards, 6 x 100 yards, 8 x 50 yards. and then 200 yards cool down.  The 2's went 3:26, 3:30, 3:26, 3:27 with 45 seconds rest, the 100's were all between 1:35 and 1:38 with 30 seconds rest, 50's were all 45 - 47 with the last one at 44.  Afterwords my knuckles were killing me, going to adjust how I cup my hands, but overall this was a solid workout, felt smooth, my breathing is really improving.

Just short of a mile swim, practiced eith the buoy a little more before pool closed, first ten page collegiate paper completed.

Very long intense workout in the pool.  Used the internet for some inspiration to a little bit of a difforent workout:  400 Yards warm up easy and relaxed, 3 x 300 with seconds rest, and then 2 sets of a ladder of 25, 50, 75. 100, 100, 75, 50, 25, with 15 seconds between each rep, and 90 seconds between the sets.  300's were hit all in 5:24-5 (About 54 seconds per 50 pace).  On both sets of the ladder my first 25 was 20 seconds even, the 50 going up was 44-45 seconds, 75's were 1:11, and all four of the 100's were between 1:40 - :42.  Going back down the ladder both times I slowed up with the 75's at 1:14, 50's at 48, and 25 at 22.  Breathing technique is improving, but most of all my achilles is actually feeling incredibly better, but I still need some more time off to ensure I don't make the same mistake again.  

Mile swim, "Trial", for 36 laps (Later to discover that a mile is only 33 laps), but for the 36 laps I swam about 34 minutes even, meaning my mile time was likely 31 minutes and change, which is incredibly faster than I used to be able to do it.  Sometime over the weekend I'd like to get a nice long session in and try to go for two.

Workout, very similer to Wednesdays except placing the 300's in between the ladders, so total yardage for the day was still 2500 yards.  first 300 was 5:19, on the first ladder I went :21, :47, 1:14, 1:40 and pretty much identical back down.  2nd 300 was 5:13, 2nd ladder in :21, :46, 1:13, 1:40, 1:39, 1:12, :46, :21, last 300 in 5:10.  Realkly good day, especially on the distance side of things, probably going to take tomorrow off, followed by an easier long day on Sunday, and then the same Mon - Wed - Friday workout schedule for next week.  Achilles is actually really feeling better, but I know that I need more time, I can't be even the slightest bit risky with coming back.

Off day, but a lot of walking around down to Washington Park beutiful  day, Hillel semi - formal, nice day. 

Crazy dramatic Hillel elections day, wasn't able to swim, but can't really do much about that considering the pools hours are only a narrow three hours in the middle of the day...

Workout of 6 x 300's with 4 x 50's thrown in after the 2nd and 4th rep.  Hit 5:12, 5:09, 5:04, 5:20, 5:14, last one I shortned to 200 hitting 3:20.  The 50's were all between 45 and 48.  Tiring day, but nonetheless solid.

Did sort of a mile, "Time Trial" today.  I recently learned that the mile in here is actually 33 laps not 36, I did it in 30:52, really impressed with that.  In other news, I've started to focus down my diet / food lifestyle a little more than previosly.  I now have cut out breads / grains (Mainly granola) and I'm already feeling better, lots more fruit and vegitables.

Long Workout day:  Big ladder of 400, 300, 200, 100, 50, and then back up agin.  I was smooth on the 400 hitting 7:00 exactly, 300 was 5:14, 200 in 3:26, 100 1:40, 50 at 45.  Going back up I was slightly slower at first with :46, then 1:38, 3:26, 5:20 and closed it off in a gutsy 7:01.  With warm up and cool down this day exceeded 2500 yards, feeling good.

Easy swim and Lift day, I think I'll call this the last day of "Cardio", for a week.  Going to throw in this next full 7 days of rest without swimming to ensure that the Achilles is officially gone.

Well It's been quite awhile since I've updated here (About 2 months).  As one might expect, a lot has gone down since early may in regards to my training.  After I stopped blogging in early May, I decided to take about two weeks completely off from any sort of aerobic activity.  It was time to give my body a real rest, and enjoy my last two weeks of school.  Now of course, I couldn't be satisfied with doing totally nothing, so I did do core / lifting every other day with AJ.  Once I got back to Danbury in mid may, I went to see the doctor, who then pointed me in the direction of a reallly great physical thereapist over by the hospital.  I was told that I had Achilles Tendonitis not Tendonosis as I was originally told back in February.  This was good news, Tendonitis is less of a chronic issue.  Anyways I made several trips to the PT from mid may through Mid June all the while getting back into my cross training which mainly consisted of swimming, and using the elliptical.  On Saturday June 10th I went for my first run:  2 miles on the track, walking 200 meters in between each 800.  From there I ran every other day, increasing my miles of continues running just abit each time.  After one week I hit 14 miles, then the next at 28ish.  After two weeks of every other day I began to run every day in later June.  I have stayed doing the PT excersises and always roll out and stretch before and after runs.  My mileage is making significent jumps, however I am still keeping on the side of caution just a but.  I have never felt better about going for a run in my entire life than I do now.  Being hurt these last several months has opened my eyes to how much of a gift being able to run really is.  It has also reminded me of my own perseverance, and how proud I should be of that.  I will continue to update this as usual going forward.  This calender week will be about 45 or so miles, next week will be slightly ovr 50, I have a goal of reaching 70 and staying at that for 3 or so weeks from late July through early August.  I am sticking to my plan of little to no concrete workouts, however I might throw a road race in as early as two weeks from now just to keep my sharpness. I'm more than excited for Cross, which is now just under two months away,  Looking towards great things.  PS:  Today is my frist day off from running in a week, so the "0" for today is a little outlier of what progress I've been making.

Early morning Terrywile gathering with Julio, Jack and the high school guys.  The guys had a "Long Run" scheduled with a 20 minute tempo in the middle portion of it on the track.  Although I'm not doing anyworkouts this summer, I did allow for some tempo work so I can get used to flirting with 6 minute pace.  Did 3 miles straight, fet suprisingly fine for most of it, but my fitness has a long way to go.

Joined Parker Timmerman, Tyler Manion, Gabi R from NF, James, and Matt D from NF for a nice long run at Bridle this morning.  My first LR over 9 miles in months.  Felt very stale, likely from yesterdays fast running.  Pace overall was around 7 minutes, but from mile 5 - 7 we were averaging near 6:30, hopefully within a month I'll be able to do a run like this and not be as tired in the legs. This weeks total mileage (Monday - Sunday ):

-Monday: Coney Island day, 5 in the AM, 4 in the PM = 9 Total

- Tuesday:  6.5 alone in the hot sun.

- Wednesday:  6.5 with the high school guys.

- Thursday:  8 Miles in heat of the morning at Terrywile.

- Friday:  OFF,. lifted at the edge. 

- Saturday:  8 With the high school guys

- Sunday:  12 mile Long run at Bridle:

-Total:  50 Miles

Long Work day at both Ridgefield and Woodbridge followed by really feel good run around NY9 loop.  Legs feelin great.

AM:  Today is double day, first run, about 4 miles down to the King Street trails and back, felt exhausted after standing cooking for the fam.

PM 5.5ish miles in the eve, cut it back a half mile because of pure darkness, felt especially great today. 

VERY tiring 7 miles in the morning, took it easy as my legs were just very tired, the plan for the rest of the week is to either take tomorrow or Friday off and the other day do a 5 mile tempo @6 mins pace on the track. Saturday will be 8ish miles, and Sunday will be 13 miles. Total week will be 

Much needed off day, weight room lifting.

Tempo with Rob and Julio on the track in the morning, goal was to go 5 miles straight at 6 minute pace. Heat was a huge factor, but tried not to let it get to me, Rob led us first Mile in 6:02, I took over and kept it smooth for next two miles crossing through 3 in 17:59, at this point both Rob and Jukio were dropped off and I was starting to feel it.  Hit last two miles in 6:10 to have a total of 30:20, not bad for a first long tempo session, probably going to do this next week and try for slightly faster than 6:00 pace.

Met up with the fellas for an 8 Mile CR, very traily terrywile run legs feel dead.

Long Run in the early morning with some of the alumni and Coach's company at Bridle.  Legs felt super tired / heavy the first few miles, but around 4 miles starting rolling into an honest 7 minuteish pace.  James and I turned at 42 minutes, came back in 39 minutes as we were rolling at around 6:20 pace for a few miles.  Threw one last mile in afterowrds for 13 total.  This marks a week of about 54 miles, goal for the coming week is to be around 60, and still manage to take a day off, we'll see what happens.

Double day:  Morning 5.5 on Ball Pond, legs feeling especially shot.

PM:  4.5 over down to state line, legs feeling slightly better but still pretty tired from yesterday.

Last minute workout call from Rob last night, 3 x 2k @5:30 pace. Doing this workout on very tired legs, first time running anything this fast in awhile.  First rep was smooth, 6:55, then another 6:55, final one should have probably cut in half but went though anyway in around 7:05, not bad for tired legs.

Day off, very needed, Pat Healeys funeral today, he was trully a testamate to my encouragement.

Morning run for breakfest around Ball pond and state line area, legs feeling smooth after 48 hours off.

5 Mile tempo again with Rob and Julio, this time we went out a tad faster in 5:54, going through 2 miles in around 11:45.  I felt relaxed, but its tough to focus with so many laps, Rob relaxed the pace down to 6:00 again for the third mile, early into the 4th mile I started to fall off Julio, but remained within 10 seconds of him for the remainder of the duration.  Topped off the last two miles in 6:00 each to hit 29:45, a whole 35 seconds faster than last week, and felt much stronger too.  Looking towards a high mileage weekend.

Met up with the high school guys for a clean 11 miles in Newtown / Monroe.  First run with new GPS Watch Garmin Forerunner 25, pace was kind of all over the pace bouncing around from 6:40, to 7:10, and then back, but overall feeling great.

Long run with James and Julio at River road.  Didn't get the GPS going until we turned around at 6 miles, last 8 miles was a nice average of 6:50 with a few miles around 6:30.  This closes off a 60 mile week for me.  Can't be anything but thankful to be capable of being able to do this so relitively soon.  This marks just six weeks since my first run, and about 4 weeks since my mileage has been over 40.  The plan for next week is to run the New Milford 8 Mile road race to get some of my competitive juices flowing again.  Setting up for the week:

Monday:  8 Miles in the morning EASY

Tuesday:  Another Threshold session wih Rob and Julio 8 miles?  Potential Double easy afternoon run of 6 miles.

Wednesday:  OFF

Thursday:  Potential Double day to total 12 Miles.  

Friday:  Easy 7 Miles

Saturday: 8 Mile Road Race + 4 miles of warm up / cool Down 

Sunday:  No more than 13 Miles LR.

Week Goal total: 65ish,  But I'll be fine with 60 again.  

Very easy 8 miles in the hilly and hot roads of ball pond, legs are tired so pace was kept around 7:30, little workout planned for tomorrow with Rob and Julio.

Simple 1K repeats on the immaculate track with Rob, Julio and Fratz. The goal was to keep it 3:15 -3:20 which is 5:20 pace, a little faster. This is my first time playing with this pace is awhile, and I'm coming off a high volume week so naturally I knew my legs were going to be tired.  First two felt surprisingly comfortable, 3:19 or so each. 3rd one I took the lead on, started to feel the heat but kept it smooth 3:16. 4th and 5th ones I really started to feel he heat, but held onto pace without any major problems. last one was a bit of a throw away as I really felt wiped and didn't feel like going to the well this early on, so I was a bit back at 3:30. Taking a good 48 hours off and taking a great day at the outlets with the boys.

Off Day, giving myself a nice 48 Hours to recover in prep for saturday.

Double day:  

AM:  6 Miles around the neighborhood, pretty quick run despite hills and heat.

PM:  Another 6 with the guys at Terrywile, legs feeling very very tired.

Very Low Mileage day in prep for tomrrow's New Milly 8 Miler, legs are feeling tired, but taking a nice 24 hours to relax should be all set for tomorrow.

New Milford Road Race:  Today was my first "Race" since NCAA regionals a whole 9 months ago.  The goal was to keep ir comfrotable for a majority of the race making for a smooth tempo effort.  First few miles were a little fast for comfort, and a pack of New Milford high school kids and a few college alums pulled away from me but I kept my effort consistant.  After several hills in the third and fourth miles I began to get into my groove, setting me up for my fastest mile at mile 5.  I ended up passing most of the guys in that pack ahead of me including my old teamate Eric, who ended up catching me back at about mile 6.  We worked the massive Canterbury hill together and flew down the last 1200 meters of downhill quick.  My Splits were:

5:50, 6:02. 6:22, 6:13, 5:47. 6:05, 7:03 (Monster Hill), and the last mile was technically .13 short of 8 miles, but I was going at about 5:40 pace.

Overall great effort, can't be more thankful for being able to run like this again.  

Deciding not to long run this week with the race yesterday, and plans for a very high mileage week next week.  10 Miles with Rob, Julio, and Corey. Julio took this one out hard, especially on the way back, going sub 6:20 pace for a few miles.  It was a bit tiring for me, but nothing too out of control.

Week total was short at 55-56 miles, Next week I plan on raising volume no days off, hoping to reach potentially 70.

Fresh start to the week with a nice morning 9 around the ball pond area, felt smooth picked up pace towards the end, looking towards a goal of 70 miles for this week...my longest ever.

Double Day:  Morning was rough running 4 miles with Ro at Terrywile right after my morning lift, certainly not ideal but good to prepare the body for running under all types of conditions.

PM was 7 miles at a bisk pace, felt much better than this morning.

Progresssive run from Terrywile with Zach and Tim, pace dropped progresssively down to 6:30, but felt very comfortable, 8 miles no longer feels like a longer type run as it once did.

Tempo day at Immaculate alone, went for 5 miles with a goal of 6 minute pace.  Was able to hold even faster hitting 29:20 (According to Garmin), and 29:40 when crossing the line (I had to swerve for some walkers in lane 1 which may exlain the 20 second offset.  Felt much better than previous tempo's, and I certainly didn't slow down much those last two miles as I have in the past.

Fam was at Ocean City for the day, so I got my run in on the nice and flat roads on the beach island, in direct heat the entire way, kept it a smooth 6:40ish pace most of the way.  Very fun day.

Big day in DC today, but first, I did my run around the hotel we are staying at in Loudon County, stumbled upon a massive rail trail / bridle trail that will be perfect for tomorrows long run of 15.  Decided to cut today short two miles feeling extra tired. from last few days training.

Hit the big 15 on that rail trail today!  Calves were tightening up in the middle of the run, likely from all the walking done yesterday, but I held up and finnished it a smooth, but not speedy pace of 6:30.  This caps off a 68 mile week for me, which means a much needed day off tomorrow (48 hours of relaxin total).  Next week will be my last full week before going back to Albany, it will likely be around 60 - 65 miles, with the day off that's still quite a lot.  Will probably do two doubles.

Much needed off day filled with mostly working.

EZ 9 miles proceeding a fun day with Justin, Oscy and company, legs feelin tired as expected, looking at a week that should be around 65 inclding next Monday.

Morning run in New Milly with Jake, Rob, Julio Fratz, started bossing on the way back, solid paced run.

VERY humid day in Ridgefield.  Actually was feeling decent for the first few miles getting down to a 6:23 for the 4th mile, but after turning around the heat started to hit me and I slowed down, still averaged 6:50 for the whole thing tho

AM:  Morning with Rob, Jake, Fratz and Julio at Bridle, 8 miles, felt stale on the way out, started rolling on the way back averaging around 6:20 for a few miles.

PM:  Just threw in 4 easy ones for mileage purposes tonight around the neighborhood.

Workout with the high school guys, their goal was to run 4 miles at 5:40 pace, my goal was to do that and then add two miles at whatever pace I could reasonably hold.  We went out fot the first two miles at 5:40 a piece, felt very exhausting in this heat wave humidityy.  3rd mile I was really srtarting to feel it and dropped back to 5:50 pace, and finally hit around 6:05 for the last mile.  Not quite the goal, but had to make do with the conditions.

Long Run in New Milford with the old man, averaged a clean 7 minute pace, legs feeling just fine, went on a new trail at the end of the road.

Smooth 8 Miles in the king street area with strides afterwords, caps off a 67 mile week, tomorrow will be an off day , and then quick morning run Wednesday before heading up to Albany, thinking of transitioning my blog over to sweat mobile, so if I stop using this, that's where I'll be.