Thursday, September 18, 2014

Weekly Log: 9.15.14-9.21.14

And now begins three weeks of high mileage and hard training.  Suddenly it feels like fall and suddenly I feel completely unprepared for the Bimbler's Bluff 50k which is only five weeks away.  No point in worrying about it now.  I'm going to try to run as much as I can up until the NipMuck Marathon on the 7th and then I'll take my foot off the gas and coast all the way to Bimbler's.  Here we go!

Monday - Providence, RI - 5 miles

I had been meaning to incorporate some hill repeats over one of the College Hill roads for a while but I knew it meant driving closer to the hill in order to fit it in at lunch.  The east side of Providence is a goddamn mess with construction that's been going on for months - you never know which road will be ripped up and shut down.  Anyway, I finally drove over there and after a mile warm-up I reached Jenckes Road which has a pretty gnarly hill and a popular Strava segment.  I didn't think I had a shot at the segment so instead I just focused on honest efforts on this tough hill.  I had intended to do five but threw in one extra.  The first couple weren't bad but the 4th and 5th hurt.  I ended up 7th out of 37 for the Strava segment - there's definitely room for improvement there.

Tuesday - East Providence, RI - 7.5 miles

37 pull-ups w/ assists (4/3, 6, 6, 5/2, 7, 5/3, 4/4)
Ab Ripper X (15 minutes)

Big improvement with the pull-ups this morning - I tried to do them quicker which helped keep me from tiring.  The tricky part was avoiding too much momentum in my legs which pushed them closer to kipping pull-ups.  I didn't bother with assisted pull-ups for some of the sets since I was getting in so many real pull-ups.  Good stuff.

At lunch, I hit the roads with a vague idea of the area I wanted to explore.  Legs felt good and the pace was just over 7 minute miles.  Mostly I just ran through a bunch of East Providence neighborhoods, stopping briefly at a gas station to pick up a cliff bar.  Very positive run for me and an indication that Crutch and Greg were right a few weeks ago when they blamed the heat/humidity for bringing me down.  Upon review on Strava I learned there's a new mile segment near the office on a fast stretch of road.  I placed 5th.  This will not stand.

Wednesday - East Providence, RI - 5 miles

I wanted to run trails so I went over to the 10 Mile River Bike Path, intent on avoiding the path and only running trails if possible.  No issue with that, there's enough trails that run along and near the bike path to make it possible to reach Slater Park while barely touching pavement.

Thursday - 0 miles

220 push-ups (standard/military/wide) 40/30/40/40/30/40

Boss decided to buy us lunch to celebrate a colleague's birthday.  I can't say no to mexican so it looks like today'll be a zero.  I'm going to try to cram a shitload of miles into the next two days to see if I can hit 50 and take Sunday off.

Friday - Charlestown, RI/Seekonk, MA/Providence, RI - 18.7 miles

48 pull-ups (standard/chin-up) 6/8/5/8/6/9 - No assists!

Early morning dog jog in the dark.  Oliver wanted to stop and pee a lot.  Headlamp kept crapping out on me.  Otherwise fine.  Stretched it a little further since today's a big running day - 3.5 miles.

At lunch time, four easy miles in Caratunk Preserve.  Saw several couples wandering the trails, including a couple ladies deep in the swampy section.  You normally don't see any other folks back there.

After work I planned out a longer loop that took me through the East Side of Providence, up into Pawtucket and then back down into East Providence.  I had my eye on a couple segments.  The running path along Blackstone Blvd has several and while the top times were out of reach I still put in a hard effort on the path which netted me 7th out of 248 on a 1.6 mile segment.  Then I ventured over to the Riverside Cemetery and put in another hard effort on the nearly mile loop around the perimeter.  The cemetery dropped down towards the water which made the second half incline painful.

After that I was winded but kept the pace in the low 7s as I entered Pawtucket.  After I crossed the river and made my way back into East Providence I picked up the pace a bit.  I saw that my average pace was under 7 minutes and wanted to keep it that way.  I explored the roads on another cemetery before completing the run on familiar roads.  Fun run and the hard segments and overall snappy pace resulted in a great workout.

Saturday - Arcadia, Exeter, RI - 19.1 miles

Met up with Muddy at the Ranger Station at 6 AM to explore the trails of south Arcadia.  After 18+ miles yesterday and 5 hours of sleep I was just hoping to hang on and get through the whole 2.5 hour  run.  It was still pretty dark when we set out and as soon as we entered the woods the sighting was tricky.  I nearly bit it on a rocky section but stayed vertical.  After 15 minutes or so the visibility improved and we stayed on the North-South trail for a while, enjoying the rocky boulder section.  We explored a side trail that ran along Route 95 before returning the North-South/Yellow trail.  Then we took the long wooden walkway to the Browning Mill Pond Loop.  This was a fun loop - I had never been to this great little spot and will definitely need to bring the girls.

We returned to the Yellow trail and took it up to Route 165.  We were 1.5 hours in and I was still feeling pretty good.  But for how long?  We decided to set out on the Mt. Tom Trail and then take roads back down to the cars.  We followed the Mt. Tom Trail to where it crosses Route 165 and then took 165 back to Mt. Tom Road until we hit Blitzkrieg Trail (really a dirt road.)  We were at 15 miles and I was tired.  The next three miles of dirt road were at a sub 8 minute pace but I was ready to be done - my quads and hamstrings seemed prepared to revolt at any moment.  The last mile was Arcadia Road pavement but exhausting.  I was so glad to see the Smokey the Bear sign and our cars.  Fun run with great conversation though the last few miles were a grind.

Sunday - 0 miles

Calves are very tight after yesterday's long journey.  No running today for sure.  We went to see the Black Keys up at the Boston Garden.  Good show but getting home at 1:30 AM on a Sunday night is no bueno.

Weekly Mileage: 55.4 miles

Year to Date:  1,429.9 miles


Good week although cramming in 38 miles over two days really wore me out.  We'll see if I can keep it going for another week!

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