Weekly Log: 4.15.13 - 4.21.13

Monday - North Kingstown, RI - 7 miles

I went apeshit crazy on the food, beer and desserts yesterday (all weekend really) and felt appropriately bloated and lethargic today.  Decided to begin the week on the right note with a trail run at Ryan Park.  I started from the Lafayette lot for a change of pace.  I had my minimalist MT20s and decided to run the trails west of the pond.  The trails are well groomed and mostly free of obstacles which make them great for the MT20s.  I checked out a few side trails and found the new trail everyone's been talking about (it runs between the open field trails and the power lines.)

After a few miles my ankles were starting to ache from the shoes and I decided to stop at the car and switch into my new Cascadias.  Then I ran down the rail bed and checked out the trails east of the pond (found a couple new ones here as well.)  I ended up running about 3.5 in each of the shoes and I didn't have much energy towards the end.  My birthday weekend of excess had caught up with me.

Later that morning I stalked....er, followed Gazelle's progress online as he ran the Boston Marathon.  Looks like he had a great race.  Then everything went to shit and I spent the afternoon following news of the bombings.  These events are always so depressing.  But the stories of those who immediately raced to help the injured are always uplifting and compelling. 

In the end the bastards won't keep us down.  People will run and races will continue.

Tuesday - 0 miles

P90X Legs & Back (60 minutes) / Ab Ripper X (15 minutes)

Wednesday - 0 miles

P90X Yoga X (50 minutes)

Worst Yoga session in a while.  I wasn't as flexible as usual with some of the trickier positions and my balance was terrible - fell over several times.  I didn't even both with Yoga Belly 7 as I wasn't feeling it.  My mind kept wandering throughout the workout which was no doubt part of it - couldn't get my head in the game.

Thursday - North Smithfield, RI - 11 miles

AM - 8 miles: I really wanted to get in a track session today but I was sure the girl's soccer team would be on the field at Bryant and I didn't want to deal with that.  Decided to head a bit further down the road to the North Smithfield middle/high school track.  Success!  Track was in mint condition and completely empty.  It didn't occur to me until halfway through the workout that of course it would be deserted - it's school vacation week. 

Warmed up for 2 miles.  I did 800 x2 / 400 x4 / 200 x6  with 400 / 200 / 100 cooldowns respectively.  I'll post the exact splits later but the 800s and 400s were right where I wanted them.  By the time I got to the 200s they were appropriately exhausting - my splits were all over the place and not consistent at all but I was spent by the end so I think they served their purpose.  A boy's lacrosse team was showing up just as I was finishing my cooldown.  Hopefully I'll be able to continue to make use of this track in the future as it's much nicer than Bryant.  Here are the splits:

800s - 2:57 / 2:57
400s - 1:22 / 1:20 / 1:21 / 1:19
200s - 41 / 39 / 31 / 36 / 42 / 35

PM - 3 miles: After work I took my co-worker Lisa on a tour of some of the Fidelity trails.   She's strictly a recreational road runner so we ended up doing more hiking than running but I enjoyed showing her what lay just beyond the standard Fidelity walking paths.  She seemed impressed by the variety and scope of the trails back there.

Friday - Johnston, RI - 6 miles

Back to Snake Den for more trail action.  Decided to run the reverse of my usual route and got the short nasty Route 6 section out of the way first.  I went directly back to those power lines and explored the trails branching off from the summit.  These were some of the best trails I've run here - pretty hilly but also really smoothed out by bikers.  I followed the trails until I approached someone's junkyard.  Mounds upon mounds of old tires and the burnt out husks of schoolbuses and Mack trucks.  Just a dirty, unpleasant place.  I hightailed it out of there and reconnected with familiar trails which I followed, completing a great overall morning run.

Saturday - Charlestown, RI - 8.3 miles

I was looking to do 10 easy miles so I stuck to the local roads.  I headed down to the Charlestown Breachway and as soon as I stepped onto the sand the wind blasted me in the face.  Running down the beach into the wind was the opposite of easy running but the waves were huge and I was enjoying being out there.  Turned around at the breachway and the return trip was much easier with the wind at my back.  Not long after returning to the road I started to get a twinge in the bottom of my left foot.  Tweaked a nerve perhaps.  It's happened before and it's more annoying than anything but it was getting worse so I decided to cut the run a little short.  Let's hope it's nothing as TARC is one week away.

Sunday - 0 miles

Happy Birthday to my beautiful amazing wife Amanda!

Weekly Mileage: 32.6 miles

Year to Date: 515.2 miles

Good running week with a return to the track and a fun run in the Snake Den.  Ran the mileage I wanted and next week I'll be taking it easy in preparation for Saturday's 50k punishment.  Tweak on the bottom of my foot is hopefully not problematic - I'll be monitoring it closely.