7/30 - 8/5

Mon - Am 5m (34:18) Legs felt heavy from yesterdays run. Rolled out my legs with a tennis ball hurt a ton.

Pm 5m Tempo (28:42) Legs felt a lot better splits (rough estimate on mile markers) 610/602/546/528/514. The only marker I knew was a true mile was the last mile, rolled out with tennis ball again not as bad as this morning.

Tues - Am 3m (22:58)

Pm 7m (49:18) Keep it easy knowing we had a workout the following day. felt really easy the entire run.

Wed - Am 3m (24:05)

Pm 13m Track workout 2m/4x800/4x400 (8/4/2 rest) @ half marathon pace

11:23/250/248/247/247/77/76/76/73

Was very happy with how today went, stayed relaxed and was happy that I was able to change gears on the 4's

Thurs - Am 3m (24:04)

Pm 7m (50:38)

Fri - Am 4+ (31:44) had it planned to go 5 but got out the door late and needed to be at contractor training by 730. Soon everyone will be able to teach solo and i wont have to do it...perks of being in-charge

Pm 7++ (52:25) Needed to make sure I got 12 on the day I mapped out my morning loop to know what was needed 4.3 am 7.7 pm golden another day down

Sat - Am 5m (31:31) Met with Derrick at Shen for a "easy" 5 we cruised a new loop through the neighborhoods. I was convinced it was 4.5 maybe a tad over but not a full 5. I decided to map it out when I got home to much surprise it was spot on.

Sun - 14m (1:36:44) The plan called for 15m starting at 715-600, this obviously didn't happen today. It was pretty humid to start the run which is never good for me, I felt good at the turn around but we didn't have any fluids on the run. I planned to get after it once we hit 10 and get 4m at the proposed pace, as we got to the 10m I could tell that the finish was going to be tough and decided to bag the pick up and just finish the run. This turned out to be the best call! With 1.5 to go my legs were toast, I slowly lost ground on the guys and ended up just jogging it in.

Total - 82m up 12 from last week with 2 good workouts, just need to get the long runs to come together..hopefully as the weather gets cooler i'll begin to feel better.

Blessing Of The Fleet

Friday 7/27 Myself and Najem headed down to RI for Blessing of the fleet 10 miler. We arrived around 4:45 for the 6pm start, met up with Eamon for a nice warm-up and to grab my bib. Right around this point it began to rain pretty hard, I was pretty pumped that it was raining I tend to run pretty well in the rain. At about 5:50 they announced the race would be postponed to 6:30, I was pretty pissed about that announcement with it being so close to start time. I continued to jog around waiting for the start of the race to happen, at 6:30 we were finally on the line there was still a lite rain. The first mile is downhill so I made sure to get out slow and not do anything stupid in the first mile, I felt really good and was rolling with a couple of guys after 2.5 I seemed to be out in no mans land trying to catch the pack in front of me. At this point we caught the walkers who started 30mins before us (which was dumb!) also the overcast broke, I missed the 3m mark I was still working on catching the group in front of me but was losing site of them with the walkers. Just after 4m you hit a long gradual uphill I had also cleared the walkers and noticed the group I was chasing had built a larger lead on me, over the next miles everything slowly fell apart I had hit the half way point at 28:49 (on pace for 58 low) The last 3-4 miles was basically a death march. I'm not sure why my races keep being so up and down, but I am pretty certain that had we started at 6pm like planned things would have been better. Instead of dealing with 5-6m of the sun I could have been 7-8 miles in before the sun broke out.

All in all it was a shitty day, Oh well!

7/23 - 7/29

Mon - Am 2m

Pm 8.5 (57:24)

Tues - 2m (11:03) Went to Colonie track meet. The meet was ahead of normal schedule which didn't give me any time to warm up, afterwards I had no motivation so I just called it a day.

Wed - Am 3m

Pm - 6+

Thurs - Am 3m

Pm 3m (21:42) In Keene

Fri - Am 2m with campers

Pm 15m Blessing of the fleet

Sat - 11m (1:20)

Sun - 15m (1:45:58) In Putney

Total - 71m

7/16-7/22

Mon - 0 Needed a day to recover from Stowe. Legs felt like junk all day, drank 4 Nalgene bottles later I almost felt like I was rehydrated.

Tues - Am 3m (23:50)

Pm 5m (34:48) Waited till 9pm to run trying to wait out the heat. felt like we were flying but I guess thats part of running at night

Wed - 11m track work out. 2x1200/3x1000/2x800 (400/200 rest) @ LT for 12/1k and 8's @ 10k

4:14/4:14/3:29/3:28/3:29/2:43/2:42

Was supposed to do 3x800 but noticed the group was waiting so I ended 1 early, when I got back to the tent I realized they had already left. oh well got 9k of running on the track and felt smooth and light, reassured that Stowe was just a tough day.

Thurs - Am 3m (NT)

Pm 7m (48:42)

Fri- Am 3m (NT)

Pm 9m (1:02:00)

Sat - Am 6m @ silks and satins (just watched)

Sun - 11m (1:16:12) waited till about 7pm before getting out the door, felt good and relaxed.

Total - 58m (6days)

7/9 - 7/15

Mon - 9m (Camp Saratoga fun run) Went up to Wilton for the fun run 3m warm up/cool down 5k trail race 18:13 5th overall. Just didn't have it on the climbs, just tried to stay relaxed and work the areas that I could work.

Tues - Am 3m (NT)

Pm 9m (1:00:27) Went to meet with Derrick but no dice.

Wed - Am 3m (NT)

Pm 8m (track) 6x600 (400 rest) 1:57/1:57/1:59/1:59/1:58/1:54

Felt like I could continue to run the times each set but couldn't go any faster with the group, just didn't have any pop in the legs. Oh well

Thurs - Am 4m (NT)

Pm 5m (35:30)

Fri - 8m (55:12)

Sat - Am 3m (NT)

Sun -14m @ Stowe - rough day

Total -69m

4th of July - AKA Great day

This morning was the Fire Cracker 4m in Saratoga Springs , NY. The plan was to get up at 645 and be on the road by 715, I was wide awake at 605 decided to lay in bed until 640 had some oatmeal and was on the road at 715 like planned. We got to Saratoga at 750 and hung out until 820 before going for a warm-up with the guys, got back and had to find a bathroom ( approx 3000 ppl) had to do some good recon. Found one in the city center, perfect got back to the tent and changed into flats before heading to the line. Got in some strides and tried to get to the line but people weren't moving, ended up in the 2nd-3rd row once the race went out I got pasted by a ton of people some kids wearing spikes (w/o the spikes in) Dick (ARE Coach) was at the half mile giving splits I heard 23x something but was more just trying to relax early with the heat. I came thru the mile in 5:17 (clocks on course didn't wear a watch) and started to move up pack by pack, at 2m (10:40) I caught up to teammates Eamon and Tony I started to work with them to close on the guys in front of us. A bit after 2.5 there is a nice down hill which I used to catch the final group I would get up to today, we rolled thru 3m (16:05) and I knew I needed to stay in contact and roll on the hill at 3.5 we also got a 5k split which was cool hit in (1640) PR on the year. When we hit the hill I was able to pass all of the people in the pack, in the final 500m one person came back on me but I was able to hold the rest of the group off to finish 23rd in (21:40) I was pretty pumped with the race we hit the course in reverse for a cool down and to cheer people in.

Afterwards we meet up with a co-worker grabbed some food and hit up the pool in saratoga, chilled there till about 5 headed back to saratoga to grab some dinner. At this point the wine bar next door to Jess's apt was open, and needless to say the hostess was smoking hot. We hit up a mexican joint for food then to plumb dandy for some frozen yogurt, we headed back to our co-workers to pick up our stuff from the race. Got a nice smile from said hostess and Jess hinted I should talk to her, made the decision I'd give her the digits. long story short....introducing myself to her was not the last time I talked to her that night...CA- CHING got her #....quite possibly best day of the year!

7/2 - 7/8

Mon - Am 3m (NT)

Pm 4m (32:08) Previewed the fire cracker 4 course with Eric and Lyman ( co-worker)

Tues - Am 3m (NT)

Pm 3m (NT) Just relaxed today with 2 shake out runs hoping to feel fresh tomorrow for the race.

Wed - Am 10m - Fire Cracker 4m 21:40 23rd overall (race report to follow)

Thurs - Am 3.5m (NT) W/Renee and Eric

Pm 10.5 (1:12:45) Felt pretty good, calfs were a bit tender today but overall felt comfortable.

Fri - Am (NT)

Pm 7m (50:21)

Sat - Am 5m (37:00)

Pm 5m (32:46)

Sun - Am 12+ (1:30:30)

Total - 69m

Good week with a solid race, next on the list will be Blessing of the Fleet 10m.