6/22 - 6/28

Mon - 430pm - 5m (34:53) ugh! Felt tired and legs were pretty tight. Seemed to be loosing motivation all day.

615pm - 1hr Massage - glad to get back to these. Surprisingly half my body wasn't bad, right calf and hamstring where horrible!

Tues - 530pm - 10m (1:06:55) got out between storms and tried to keep it relaxed. I caught myself a few times getting going and was able to back it down.

Wed- 730pm - 7+ (51:15) had a long one today - 11+ hrs of being out in the sun, I was pretty spent when I got home. Overall felt good for the run, and more recharged when I got home.

Thurs - 0 no motivation, laid on the couch for a while with the intention to go out for a run. Turned into - falling asleep on the couch and going to bed.

Fri - 450am - 3+ (24:45) sweet rd loop. Knew I had to be up early for work and woke up prior to my alarm. Felt great getting a morning run in.

7pm - 6m (41:41) easy through the neighborhoods.

10pm - Beer mile - holy hell! Tons of fun, hurt like hell. We all decided afterwards to do a 4x4 and had a 2 team race, we had some added spectators as someone called the police about a large group on the track. They were cool and took splits on the relay.

Sat- 415pm - 11+ (1:21:30) Met Renee at the Y. It was deciding if it was going to rain or just stay cool. We went out and did a loop I used to do when living in Clifton park.

Sun - 830am - 5m (35:40) neighborhood loop, wanted to get something in before heading to the bday party.

4pm - 8+ (58:35) Bday party was still going strong but it looked to be a break in the rain. I hoped out to my car to change and run some trails at Thatcher state park, very relaxing to be on rolling trails. The rain on the other hand came right back as I started to run.

Summary - 58m in 6 days, no formal workout this week. Just never got it in, had a fun week of training along with some added motivation to get the miles back up.

6/15 - 6/21

Mon - 630pm - 7.5m (53:27) checked the weather before the run as it was calling for rain at 7. Decided I could get a small loop out on the main roads before ducking into the neighborhoods. Overall a good run and a nice change of loops, sadly no rain.

Tues - 545pm - 10m (1:12:34) went up to  SPAC and did the 5m course first time in the normal direction then in reverse. It's a nice open loop with some rolling hills, great place to enjoy the run and get on some soft surfaces.

Wed- 515pm 7.5m (track) went up to Saratoga high for my workout today. Finally a day with low humidity! Didn't seem to really matter as I just couldn't find those gears today, no pop in the legs!

Workout - 2x800/2x400/5x200

235/234/77/76/36/33/35/34/33

Initally I wanted to do more 4's but the legs wouldn't go, even in the 2's I was fighting to hit those times. On a plus side the 8's felt pretty smooth.

All in all not a great day but I have had worse.

Thurs - 715am - 3+ (nt) normal sweet rd loop. Legs didn't feel bad, always a bonus to not be beat up after a sub-par workout.

615pm - 7m (49:34) sweet road loop with Macknight. Legs still a little beat up from yesterday.

Fri - 330pm - 5m (34:40) neighborhood loop. Legs feeling better but still have some tightness.

Sat - 8m (greenfield dragon) this is a hilly course and also a low key race (rust buster) usually less then 100 ppl show each year, it's a good place to test yourself both mentally and where the legs are at. Today added a slightly new factor, I met up with some friends for a small bday get together. Ended up having a later night then planned. Needless to say the stomach wasn't to settling this morning. I warmed up the course in reverse, got changed up and to the line. The first 1/2m is the only true flat part of the course (and people tend to push that too much) I had some company for that first part of the course once we hit the hills I was on my own. Despite feeling like shit, I was surprised how locked in I was able to get. I felt smooth up until the final 1/2 mile, this was the only fight I had was to keep pushing when I felt it falling apart. Overall I got the win (unfortuantly no one was there to push with) 18:25 a little slower then last year but that was with Gavs last time. The most impressive part of the day was 2nd overall was a 13 year old girl who ran 19:50 for the course!

Sun - 915am - 13m (1:42:23) went up to Galway with Renee and KQ. We did a loop from Renees parents camp, they were looking for a hilly run and we sure found it. Legs we still a bit tight but the rolling course helped a bit. Afterwards we aided Kevin as he did his swim (training for iron man) I decided to give some company towards then end and swam 1/  2m with him...my thoughts afterwards are simple..I'll stick to running 

Here the elevation map from today's run.

Summary - 61m overall a good week 1 subpar workout and a decent race. I'm feeling some fitness coming back, and looking to have a good day in 2 weeks.

6/8 - 6/14

Mon - 645pm - 7m (49:51) got stuck in traffic in the trip home. Was a bit stiff after slacking on stretching.

Tues - 6pm - 10m (1:07:16) did my normal lake rd loop. Felt good thru 7-8 miles before I started to feel some fatigue, I needa get back on my hydration.

Wed - 645am - 3+m (NT) felt good to get out for a morning shake out.

5pm - 7+ track workout planned (3x2/2x4/8/2x4/3x2) met with Shaun for this workout. Decided I would try to roll with Shaun and see how my legs would respond. Overall felt pretty good, bailed on the 800 after the first 200 felt like I was struggling to recover and needed a little more of a break.

Times: 35/35/35/72/73(2min break) 72/72/33/33/31

Happy with the workout, no lagging issues from VCM. Hardest thing is to adjust to the heat/humidity and some speed work.

Thurs - 1030am - 7.5m (53:29) Worked from home this morning and wanted to get a run during some early morning "warmer" temps. Legs were a bit tired from yesterday's workout.

7pm - 1 hr Hot Yoga

Fri - 8am - 5m (40:05) Normal morning loop, surprisingly I missed this loop a bit. Was pretty humid out this morning.

7pm - 5+ (41:53) Met Gavs down at Shen for an easy run, we got there and both noticed the alerts on our phones saying sever weather and "tornados" haha. We did get caught in the storm after about 15-20min of running. The high winds didn't come until late at night.

Sat - No motivation to run in the morning, went to Addie's birthday party. Got home around 9pm and was spent.

Sun - 5pm - 11m (1:17:58) legs felt good, for some reason my stomach wasn't feeling great. Decided to cut the extra 2m off of the run and call it a day. Stomach seemed to calm down after the run, not sure if it was my lunch or something else.

Summary - 56m up a few miles from last week even with the day off. I also registered for some of my Fall races, looking forward to the process with those (New Haven 20k and Hartford Marathon)
I have a few others planned in but these will be 2 of the bigger races that i'll be attending.

6/1 - 6/7 back to work

Mon - 545pm -  7+ (49:28) met up with Gavs and Alex for a run in Albany. The first mile or so is steep down hills, the pace was hit from the start (took me till the bike path to catch up) once on the bike path it was still a quick pace, I was surprised by this but also intrigued to see how long my legs would hold up. To my surprise I never faded, climbing back to the house was pretty. Good 2nd day back!

Tues -5pm-  8m (3xmile) met KQ at the track and paced her track workout. Legs felt good. (604/609/601) 

Wed - 3pm -  7m (49:32) went up to Spac for a run on the trails. It was fairly quite up there and nice to get on some soft surfaces.

Thurs - 5pm - 5m (35:07) did the normal neighborhood loop.

730pm - 1hr hot yoga

Fri - 530pm - 7m (48:30) Met with Shaun at Spac. Did some variations of the XC course and trails.

Sat - 9am - 7m (@ OK 5k) did the warm up and cooldown with the group. Then ran around to cheer.

Sun - 4pm - 10m (1:18:20) on the bike path with Renee. Was a bit tired from all the traveling and going out in Keene last night.

Summary - 51m good first week back and feeling pretty strong and recovered. The yoga helped loosen things up, might keep that in the rotation.

5/25 - 5/31

Taking this week as a recovery week to rest from Vermont and the training before. Overall my body feels ok considering this past weekend. The first couple days I did nothing but rest and hydrate. As the week went forward I started to add some light stretching in.

Mon - Fri. - 0m

Sat - 2+ running (sprinting) around Albany at the Freihopers run for women. Legs felt surprisingly good.

Sun - 5m (37:28) on the bike path with Renee and KQ. My feel for pacing is a bit off but otherwise felt easy.

Summary - almost a full week off..main thing is I feel recovered and feel ready to get back to training.

Vermont city marathon

VCM- I made the decision early in the winter that I would chase this race again this year. Last years race was a combination of things, not fully trained and not fully health. Going into the race this year I was trained (best training block to date and health). I felt really good about where my fitness was at, and had a pretty solid plan.

Race day - woke up around 540am and immidiately got a drink and back to hydrating. Ate some breakfast, rolled out and tried to keep off my feet. A little after 7 I drove down to the start, got in a light warm up then to the line with Macknight. Was greeted by a crew of Albany people that come out to watch! It was awesome!

I was able to see a few people before the start and found Jim, Joe and Dan at the line and tucked in with them. Off the line I was right with Jim and we cruised together for a good portion of the course. Jim was looking for sub 2:50 and I was thinking 245, we decided to work together and stay under control. We locked into a rythem pretty quickly and we're just clipping away. After the turn around on the highway we began to separate a little, I wanted to try and get up with Joe around 10m or so. The next couple miles I moved thru some crowds but never really dropped the pace down. My main concern was to continue to get fluids in, I was trying to get 2 cups per water stop. Once back into town I was able to catch Joanna (formerly from Albany) we chatted for a min and noticed we were shooting for the same time and trying to get with the same group. We were able to cruise together for 8-9m , once I knew we had 10m left I began to get a head of steam and started working to close the gap with the group infront of us. At this point my legs felt refreshed and I was thinking just one mile at a time start to lock in. Somewhere between 19-20 I felt some real tightness in my quads and calfs, I'm still questioning the split decision I made but saw an opportune place to get a quick stretch and keep moving. It's hard to say weather the cramping would have gotten better had I left it alone or not. The next mile I was trying to get back on pace and back into the groove of things, coming up on 22 you have a short steep down hill then a little pop up to the bike path. This seemed to be the final dagger, my legs immediately locked up once I got on the bike path. I tried to walk it off and keep jogging to finish up but they continued to get tighter. The final straw was around 23m I was trying to fight thru and keep moving, I started to feel a lot of stain near my achilles I have dealt with those injuries before and have no desire to do that again. I finally pulled the plug and knew I wasn't finishing, it was a long 3m walk back but it gave me time to think and clear my head before seeing anyone. I was not happy about dropping but was happy the way everything was going till that point. 

Seems me and the spring marathon still have something's to workout. 

Splits:
1 - 6:23
2 - 6:12   (12:36)
3/4 - 12:24 (25:00)

5 - 6:12   (31:13)
6 - 6:23   (37:36)
7 - 6:19   (43:55)
8- 6:22    (50:18)
9 - 6:28   (56:46)
10 - 6:08 (1:02:55)
11 - 6:25 (1:09:21)
12 - 6:23 (1:15:44)
13 - 6:23 (1:22:08)
14 - 6:32 (1:28:40)
15 - 6:23 (1:35:03)
16 - 6:49 (1:41:53)
17 - 6:25 (1:48:15)
18 - 6:17 (1:54:36)
19 - 6:35 (2:01:11)
20 - 7:25 (2:08:36)
21 - 6:49 (2:15:26)
22 - 6:53 (2:22:19)

As for what's next: I am going to enjoy my 2 weeks recovery before getting back to running. I think there are some small things that I need to add to my routine over the summer months, but nothing major. The main focus will shift to some shorter stuff for a little before coming full swing to prepare for Hartford.