Monday lunch run (5.98mi)

With the forecast looking like rain for the next day or so anyway, Jim and I went out for a nice "stretch" run today at lunch. My legs were pretty sore from yesterday, but after a couple miles they started to come around. Appearances can be very deceiving tho, as I don't think I realized just how tired I must be, because since I got back to my desk, well lets just say the rest of the day has just been pretty tough going. I think I might need to find my bed soon...

DFMC Long Group Run (22.47mi)

Today was the climactic "long" group run for my Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team. So anyone who is somewhat following Jack's original "official" training schedule, this would be the longest run they would do. As I've somewhat discussed before, I don't believe (and Jack would say this as well) that there's really any one schedule that's correct for everybody, so I've basically been doing my own modified version of things. So the route was an out and back along the actual course, starting out from the Boston Sports Club in Wellesley, from which you run about 1.5mi to get out to rt. 16, just about at the 1/2 way mark along the marathon course. You then run backwards a little over a mile, turn around, and head back running all the way up over heartbreak hill, a little bit beyond Boston College, to where the final turn back point is, and then head back to the start point.

I picked Fred up at 7:15am and we headed out to Wellesley. Fred planned to do 16mi today, so that meant we would basically be running together out until the final turn back point just past B.C., where he would keep going straight back home, and I would turn and head back the way we came. The run started off a bit on the cold side, as temperatures had dropped down to the low 20's overnight, with a steady wind making it feel closer to the low teens. But by the time we got out to the Newton hills, the sunshine had come out in full force, and definitely started to warm things up. Fred and I maintained a great even pace through the first 12.5mi, and so when we parted ways, I was actually feeling fantastic. I slowly picked up my pace, and actually had negative splits over the last 10mi. In the end, I had a really great run today, and I'm feeling pretty confident heading into my taper over the next few weeks that come Marathon day, I'll be ready.

I had made the conscious decision even before we started that I would be really trying to simulate how I expect things to go on race day, so I didn't want to spend too much time at any of the water stations, eating my gel shots, or anything like that. I also busted out the "D-Trains" (my AWESOME kicks pictured at the top of this blog, that my wonderful girlfriend Nicole so graciously purchased for me) to test how they would feel on a longer run. I've been slowly breaking them in, using them at track runs, a few shorter runs here and there, all spread out over the past few months. I must say, they are pretty fantastic and I do love running in them. So I'm sure they also contributed to how well I felt today as well. And I also need to give a HUGE thank you to all of the awesome Dana Farber volunteers, who come out and man the water/gatorade/refuel stations along the routes we do for these group runs. They really do make *ALL* of the difference in the world. Not having to carry water or gatorade with you for these training runs is truly fantastic.

Friday evening easy (5.03mi)

With the longest Dana Farber group run scheduled for this Sunday, and knowing I had a few things to do on Saturday, I thought it would be best to get in some light miles on Friday... The weather felt it should make things difficult for me tho, so it decided to rain/sleet for the better part of the day. That was alright though, with the hard push from the night before, I figured waiting until later in the day wasn't a bad option. Around 5-6pm the weather finally let up, and so I was able to get in an easy jaunt around the neighborhood right after I got home from work. Nice and easy, it was actually pretty pleasant, with a cool moisture in the air. My legs were feeling pretty good, so I was looking forward to Sunday's run.

Crossroads! (8.84mi + 1.25mi)

I was feeling pretty fresh Thursday night for the Crossroads run, as continuing with my recent strategy of trying to be better about resting, I had taken Wednesday completely off as a rest/recovery day. So right from the get-go, I could tell it was going to be a faster paced run. Fred and Seth joined in the fun as well, and we moved along very nicely. The weather was actually awesome as well, with the temperature in the low 50's when we started! And now that it's staying light out later, it's kind of interesting to see how the course takes on quite a different look at dusk as opposed to the pitch black it has been for so long... It's pretty amazing to think back how dark it was for most of these Thursday night runs, and how that actually affects your state of mind, and the way you physically feel during the run. Before I know it, summer will be here and evening runs around the Charles will be back in action in full force... I can't wait!

Tuesday Track... err Hill? workout (7.03mi)

Jack (the DFMC team trainer) sent out an email yesterday to all of us who have been regularly participating in the Tuesday night track workouts letting us know that we were going to be changing things up a bit this week. Instead of going to the indoor track that we have been for the past several weeks, we would be headed over to a place actually not too far from my work, and doing a bit of a hill workout outside. The Healthpoint club in Waltham, aka Boston Sports Club - Waltham, or the Boston Celtics training facility, is located on a pretty hilly patch of land, where there are lots of office buildings and parking lots, all spread out over a very large area. So we all met up there and proceeded to do a rather interesting workout, following Jack's instruction as he followed us around on his bike.

I was actually already pretty familiar with the area, as it's really only a couple miles away from my office, and on some of the longer runs I've done in the past from work, I would go directly by this location. Having just done a fairly difficult hill workout yesterday, my legs weren't quite as fresh as I would have liked, but that's obviously to be expected given the scenario, and in my mind, it's all good anyway. It was a pretty nice change of pace, perhaps a little colder than I would have liked, but it was still nice to get Jack's take on a hill workout, and to have his vast knowledge and advice at hand is always a HUGE benefit. He really is full of so much good information, I can't begin to say how thankful I am to have the opportunity for this experience.

Afterward we all went out to Bertucci's down the street for some pizza, and I got to sit near Jack and pick his brain a little bit more and listen to him answer lots of questions everyone has about all sorts of things having to do with the marathon and their training and getting ready for the big day. It was all very informative and I just soaked up as much as I could. He also told some pretty intriguing stories about the history of the Boston Marathon, particularly through the 70's and 80's when the race was undergoing some very interesting times. All very good stuff.

Lunch run with Seth (6.50mi)

Monday's run was pretty awesome. My good friend Seth recently started working nearby, so since he knows I often run at lunch, we had been discussing meeting up and running together for a few weeks now. Yesterday we finally did just that. Turns out the building he is working in is actually adjacent to one of the parks (Prospect Hill) I often run one of my "hill" loops through. Prospect Hill park is an old park in Waltham that offers a spectacular view of the surrounding area from a fairly high vantage point up at the top. It offers a great almost 360 degree view of the greater Boston area from Waltham's perspective. I'm not sure how busy the park gets during the weekends, but during lunchtime on the weekdays, it's often fairly quiet, which personally adds to its appeal for me. (http://www.phpag.org/history.html)

I described the typical loop I do through the park in more detail in a previous posting (http://followthedtrain.blogspot.com/2008/02/prospect-hill-642mi.html), but I had Seth meet up with me at the base of the start of the first ascent into the park. Judging by his commentary, I think he was quite pleased with the difficulty of the loop: "Jesus Dennis... I didn't sign up for this!", I think was the exact phrase that caught my ear as we traversed up the old ski hill on the reverse side of the park... ;-) It's a pretty good workout, and I was glad to have Seth there with me. He's pretty aggressive when it comes to excercise, and as a moderately experienced tri-athlete, it's always good to have someone there to push with you.

Easter Sunday jaunt (7.35mi)

I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that my legs weren't completely run down on Saturday, after the long run from the day before, but I took the day off anyway and waited till Sunday to get back out there. I actually felt pretty strong on Sunday when I did tho, and was able to sustain a very nice pace throughout my run, without too much effort. I had set out thinking I'd keep it a bit short closer to 5mi or so, but when I got going and realized I felt pretty good and the weather was actually quite nice, I decided to take advantage and alter my route slightly adding in a little bit of distance. That's one really nice thing about running around the Charles river, is that you can easily adjust your route on the fly pretty much as needed, within a mile or two anyway, and still not really change your environment all that much. It didn't quite yet have that warm weather summer time feeling, but you could definitely tell that it's really getting close now, so it was a nice change of pace. I felt really relaxed and comfortable throughout the run and in hindsight I guess it just wound up being one of those days were things were just working.

Course review... (24.75mi)

How to properly train for a marathon I think is one of those things that everyone (at least amongst other runners) has an opinion on. There are about a billion different websites, books, and whatever else out there that offer a lot of really great information and insight into the topic. However, ultimately I think what it all really boils down to is this; while there are in fact some general governing techniques/approaches that apply for most people, exactly what is right for each and every person needs to be specifically determined by them. Everybody's body is different, and what they need to do to make sure they're ready for the big event, is all really a combination of a lot of different things, and one generic formula can't be applied to all.

One specific area that is often brought up in conversation is how far should a runner train up to, distance-wise for their "long run"? As far back as I can remember, my opinion on this has always been the same, at least, as it applies to myself anyway. Most current pre-designed training schedules will take you all the way up to a distance of 20-22 miles, for a long run, typically 3-4 weeks out from the actual date of the race. But I've always thought to myself that if I were to ever be training for a marathon, I would just assume why not at least attempt to run all the way up to 26mi as my "long" training run, in order to really ensure that I was ready. I mean, once I know I can go 22mi, why not work in another long run a few miles longer? I guess a part of it for me is really the fact that I just need to know ahead of time. I don't want to find out what my legs feel like at 24mi for the first time during the actual race. I'd much rather know ahead of time, what it's going to feel like, so that if anything isn't right, I have some time to try to correct it, or at least make adjustments to deal with it. Now don't take that to say that I think its absolutely necessary to run the whole 26miles for sure, but rather just that if I get out to 22mi and find that I am feeling ok and not really in any particular risk of injuring myself, then why not keep going? And if I can successfully go out and run the 26miles before hand, then that just gives me that much more confidence going into race day as well.

And so with all of that in mind, at approximately 8:16am Friday morning (I didn't actually get Good Friday off as a holiday, but I decided to use a vacation day), Fred and myself lined up at the official Boston Marathon start line out in Hopkinton, MA, and with a gusting 25-35mph wind mostly at our backs (thank God!), we set out on our trek back to Boston. The link below shows the exact route we took, courtesy of my Garmin GPS wristwatch:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=5217706

So as I somewhat alluded to before, while I wasn't 100% certain whether or not I was going to do the whole course or not, I figured doing this run would absolutely be really beneficial to me in several ways. And now after having actually attempted it, it definitely confirmed for me that it's a really great idea. If I ever run Boston again, I would definitely do this again, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone else training as well. Another topic that's often discussed (specific to the Boston course) is the Newton Hills (Heartbreak hill is the last of them) and the effect that the first 16-17mi of the course all being down hill, has on your legs. The course is essentially all down hill up until the 17mi point, where the Newton hills start. So while I've been doing lots of training on these "hills" over the past few months, I was very anxious to see exactly what they would feel like after having done the 17mi preceding them. Turns out, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. For sure there was definitely a distinct change in muscle usage, and of course it was a little more difficult, but I actually felt ok, and was able to maintain pace pretty much throughout the hills. In fact, Fred and I actually maintained a very consistent pace throughout the entire run. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Fred never intended to run the whole distance, and so he pulled up at BC to catch the train back downtown. While I was still somewhat in debate after coming through the hills, I had pretty much decided that the benefits of running straight to the finish line downtown didn't outweigh the advantages of just turning just after the 24mi mark, and heading back to my apartment. This would put me at a distance just shy of 25mi, and while I was definitely tired, I had satisfied my curiosity and I knew that if I had to, I could definitely go another 1.5miles.

Thursday easy run (3.58mi)

After feeling a little run down toward the end of last weekend, I sort of made the conscious decision to really try and work in an extra day of rest this week. So after taking Wednesday off, I was feeling pretty good and rested on Thursday. Going along with this tho, I also knew that I was planning a potentially very long run coming up the next day on Friday, and so I didn't want to do anything too drastic. So a little bit later in the afternoon, I went out and made sure I did at least just a few miles, just something to make sure my legs didn't tighten up too much and help keep things moving. It was nice and easy and felt good.

Tuesday Track Workout (9.0mi)

I was feeling particularly good for tonight's workout, with a little bit of time off my legs were feeling particularly fresh. During Jack's rundown of what the format would be for the workout, he mentioned that anyone who had run the New Bedford half marathon over the weekend should really throttle it back and limit themselves to about 80-85% of what their "normal" track workout would be, but anyone who hadn't could go ahead and feel free to really push their pace out if they wanted to. He actually specifically mentioned to Fred and myself that we could feel free to do an extra set, if we wanted, since he knew we had NOT raced over the weekend. Since I was already feeling good, that was about all the motivation I really needed.

The format for the workout was going to be 600m, 800m, 1000m repeats, but once Jack arrived and sort of picked up the vibe that people were still fairly tired and sore from the race, he opted to cut it back to 400m, 600m, and 800m repeats. So you run 400m (2 laps), take a 1 minute slow jog recovery, run 600m (3 laps), recovery, and then the final 800m finishes off the set. You take a full 2 lap recovery and repeat. I did a total of 6 sets of these. Fred and I ran together most of the way, but since I was still feeling particularly strong, I picked up the pace a little bit for the last 2 sets. Another great track workout.

Monday lunch run (7.22mi)

After having 2 out of the last 3 days off, today my legs were finally starting to come around and feel a bit better. I had run them down pretty good over the past 2 weeks, and so I had definitely felt it during my run on Saturday, but having the "light" weekend was definitely nice. So I'm thinking maybe I might try to work in one more day off during the week then I've been taking over the past couple but I guess I'll probably play it by ear and just see how I feel. With the big day exactly 5 weeks out from today, I really only need to get through the next 2-2.5 weeks and then the tapering will start.

Today's run was an easier paced lunch time run with Jim. We set out thinking we'd do 5-6mi, but whenever we arrived at a junction and I asked Jim which way to turn, he always seemed to choose the longer route, so it ended up being a bit more. In my mind, the more the merrier at this point, so it was all good. The weather was in the upper 30's and the sun came out shining over the latter half of the run, so all in all, it was again another rather enjoyable run. I'm feeling good for tomorrow's track workout.

Central park (16.24mi)

For my weekend long runs, I've *mostly* been trying to follow a pattern of 2 consecutive weeks up in distance, with 1 slightly back down. So after the past 2 weekends being 19mi, and 22mi, this weekend was time for a slight small step back down. Which actually worked out very well since I was away in NYC visiting with my wonderful girlfriend Nicole. But no matter how many times I do it, it seems that every time I run loops in central park, I always imagine it being easier than it actually turns out to be. One loop around the main road, central park dr, measures out to be roughly 6.05mi. I normally tend to stick to this route, simply because it involves the least amount of thinking/planning. By the time you start into the 3rd lap though, in general you're ready to be done with it. That sort of summed up my feelings toward the end of my run on Saturday. The run started off with the weather a bit overcast and breezy, but as the sun got up directly overhead and broke through the cloud cover, it started to warm up and was actually pretty pleasant by the time I finished. My legs were feeling pretty wiped tho, and I was very much looking forward to some much needed time off for the remainder of the weekend.

Crossroads! (8.89mi + 1.25mi)

Last week after the Crossroads run, Fred, Gordon, and myself tentatively agreed that we would all run together for the following weeks Crossroads run, and hopefully try to push the pace a little bit. So with that thought in mind, I hurriedly set out on my 1.25mi warm-up over to catch the T to the Woodland stop. My timing was spot on, and so Fred and Gordon were actually on the same train that I happened to catch. I had been a bit tentative about the whole pace pushing thing in general, as my legs were feeling pretty tired overall, and I actually had some significant cramping in my right foot on my way over to the train, which had me mildly concerned. In hindsight, I probably should have given myself a bit more time off throughout the week, esp after my 22+ miler on Sunday. So I wasn't sure if my foot was going to be an issue or not, but fortunately for me, Gordon commented on the way over that he wasn't sure what pace he was going to try keep either, so this set me at ease. Arriving at Woodland, we all started out a fairly relaxed, warm-up pace, all in a sort of an unconscious agreement. My foot cramping didn't come back again, and through the hills I was feeling pretty good. There was a bit of a headwind, but that didn't seem to hinder our progress terribly. As we made our way down Beacon st though, I could feel Gordon start to push the pace. I kept up as long as I could, but at about a mile and a half out from Crossroads, I had started to drift back slightly, and then got caught at a light at an intersection, and after that, well, the motivation to keep up started to dwindle. All in all tho, it was another really good run, and I finished about a minute behind Gordon and Fred.

Wednesday lunch run (6.12mi)

After having been raining all morning, I wasn't terribly excited to get out and go for a run yesterday, but I knew that I was most likely going to be taking Friday off this week, so I figured it would be best to just get out there and get it done. And sometimes that's just what you have to do. So while the run started off a bit on the wet side, a couple miles into the run the rain finally subsided to nothing much more than a light drizzle, and remained mostly clear the rest of the way. The temperature wasn't that bad either, in the upper 30's - lower 40's, which actually felt ok. We started out at a pretty easy pace, and then after a few miles Jim and I decided to pick up things up a little bit. Nothing too serious, but just a little more than the easy pace we were at, closer to my normal training runs. I felt pretty strong when we finished, and as usual at the end of a run, very glad I decided to get out there and get it done.

Tuesday Track Workout (7.0mi)

Last night's track workout was what's called a "pyramid" workout. The name comes from the fact that in short, the workout consists of basically running intervals, starting at a small distance, slowly working your way up, increasing that distance each interval, reaching a plateau, and then coming back down via the same pattern you went up, thus the reference to the pyramid. We started at a distance of 400m (2 laps), increasing by 200m every interval, all the way up to 1200m, with a 1 minute recovery in between each. Then when you get up to 1200m (6 laps), you take a 3-4 lap recovery, repeat the 1200m and start the process back down. This format I think was my favorite out of any track workout so far. I found it to actually be rather enjoyable... As I came back down the pyramid I found that I was able to push myself harder, because even though you're getting more tired, the distances are getting smaller and smaller.

Fred and I again ran together throughout, maintaining a relatively consistent pace of 46-48s per lap on the way up the pyramid, and then picking up the pace for each "interval" on the way down. We finished our last 400m in 1:21, or just over 40s per lap. I was quite pleased.

Monday stretch run (4.71mi)

Of course, my legs were still pretty sore from Sunday's long run, but nonetheless as I stated before, I think it's important to get back out there and at least do something the day following a long run in order to help accelerate recovery. If you don't, I think your muscles, joints, etc, all just actually tend to get stiff and tighten up, and you'll find yourself more sore in the end. We went slow and easy, so it was a pretty nice run, although compared to last week, the temperature seems to be dipping back down again... I'm anxious for consistent 40+ degree weather to hurry up and get here...

A bit windy, but feelin good (22.22mi)

Today's long run went much better than I thought it was going to. Even though I took yesterday completely as a rest day, my legs were feeling a little bit tighter than usual this morning, and that had me a bit weary. Nonetheless, after last weeks long run and not hydrating properly, I think I've finally learned my lesson, so I made sure that I was well hydrated before, as well as during, this weeks run. Unfortunately since I can only carry so much liquid with me (a 24 oz bottle of gatorade only gets u so far...), this means I have to stop at least once to replenish my sources. While this obviously adds to my overall time and slows me down, I think I've finally come to realize that the benefits far outweigh the negatives. I also brought along 2 energy "shots" as well, which I used at miles 10 and 16, and I think having the new shoes also definitely helped make a difference also.

I met up with Fred and Katie for this run also, which is always nice to have some company. We decided we wanted to stick to a mainly flat route, as we've already been running on the course quite a bit anyway, and we're definitely going to be running along it more in the coming weeks as well. Since it was a pretty sunny day (albeit windy), we decided to head to the river and run around that. The longest loop around the river measures 17.1 miles, going from the Galen st bridge in Watertown center, all the way up to the Museum of Science bridge. Leaving from my apartment, we headed down to the BU bridge to start the loop there. We faced a strong headwind as we made our way along the river down to the Watertown center bridge, but as soon as we turned the corner, we had the wind working with us all the way back to the Museum of Science. I felt pretty good for the majority of the run, and didn't really start to notice much fatigue until around mile 17. Overall I finished the run feeling pretty strong, and even though my legs were definitely getting tired, I think if I had to, I could have pushed on for another 4 miles. Which definitely eases my mind for marathon day, especially given the fact that we had run into a pretty strong headwind for a significant portion of the distance.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1686813

Friday lunch run (6.63mi)

Even though I've ran everyday this week, since it was a relatively nice day out and my long run this weekend is going to be on Sunday (which gives me Saturday to rest), I figured I'd get in one more run today. Nothing too difficult but again, just something to keep the legs loose. The relatively nice weather this week has been a real great welcome break to the cold/winter conditions that have prevailed thus far. It was a good run. Sunday to Sunday will definitely be an all time high in "weekly" mileage for me. I realize that's technically 1+ day extra for a "weekly" measurement, but regardless, it's still a lot of miles for me in that time frame. I think it all makes good sense though, as I "should" be hitting my stride at this point in my training, and I actually really do feel like I am. With the new shoes this week and everything, I've been feeling really good, and am just crossing my fingers and hoping everything continues going this well through the next 3-4 weeks, as this will definitely be the "thick" of my training. The 22 mile run coming up this Sunday will be a real good test and measuring stick to see how "ready" I am for sure...

I also just want to quickly say thank you to those of you who have left comments on some of my postings, as it's really nice to hear that there are people out there who are listening to my ramblings. Thank you all so much for your continued support, and I'm truly grateful to have this opportunity.

It's gotta be the shoes! (8.89mi + 1.25mi)

Thursday nights Woodland T stop to Crossroads pub run was pretty much everything I could have hoped it could be. Two things helped contribute to this. First, the roughly 7-8x ongoing streak of Thursday being the coldest night of the week was finally broken, with temperatures in the mid-upper 30's, and probably more importantly, I also finally got to wear my new sneakers. Sneaker wear is one of those things that I am constantly debating with myself. Through the past several years personal experience, as well as several discussions with many different "experienced" runners, I have pretty much determined that I should only really be putting 3-400miles on a single pair of shoes. I also try to have a working strategy of having 2 pairs of rotating sneakers, the ideal scenario being that they would be roughly 150 miles out of phase or so, such that you always have one good pair to run in, as the other pair is on its way out and you break in the new ones... Needless to say, it doesn't always work out that way, but it's still something to aim for. So regardless of the fact that I'm very aware of this, and no matter how many times I'm told, I'm continually amazed at how often I don't follow these simple rules, and instead end up racking up 6-700miles on a single pair, and then completely blow myself away at how great I feel when I finally break down and get new sneakers. This pretty much summarizes exactly how I felt last night. I got to Crossroads and felt amazing, mesmerized at how great I felt not only at the finish, but for the duration of the run, and how my legs never really got sore at all after, my knees felt fine, and I actually felt like I could sprint the last 1-2miles... Normally by the time I reach Crossroads, I'm *ready* to be done...

In any event, it was a really good night, the weather was much better than it's been in the past to say the least, and thus I was also able to NOT have to make the detour by my car to pick up my backpack of dry clothes either, which was a nice relief for my back, shoulders and neck as well...

Wednesday easy lunch run (6.0mi)

I woke up early thinking I'd perhaps try and get my run done and out of the way first thing, but a combination of not getting to bed early enough, looking out the window at 7:00am and seeing nothing but rain, and checking the weather to see that it should be clearing and warm in the latter half of the day, I decided to hold off and just run at work during lunch instead. Turns out that was probably the best call, as I was joined by 4 other co-workers and so we had quite the merry group, and the temperature had warmed up to near 50. Nothing too difficult, just a nice, easier paced run to hold me over until Crossroads tomorrow night.

Tuesday Track Workout (8.0mi)

I continue to be amazed at home many different variations of track workouts you can do. Tonight we ran I guess what's often referred to as "running 400's", which basically just means you are running some # of sets of 400m repeats, with a brief rest/recovery in between, in our case, 1 minute. We were to do 20 sets of this total. So you run 2 laps (in our case - 200m track) at threshold, and then a slower 1 minute recovery, and repeat. Once you've done 4 sets (1600m ~ 1mile), we also got a longer full 2 lap recovery period. I quickly made the decision to adapt a very systematic approach to this, such that I would try to slowly increase my pace for each set of 4, or every mile, by 2s per lap. So I ran my first 4 sets at a 50s/lap (1:40 per set) pace, and then my next 4 at 48s, working down such that my last mile would be at a 42s/lap pace (1:24/set - 5:36/mile) pace. Keep in mind there are rest periods in between, but still, I felt pretty good at being able to accomplish this. I was glad to be done running when I finished, but I definitely still had more in the tank if I needed it, so I felt pretty good overall. Another great track workout.

Monday stretch run (4.67mi)

Yesterday's run was a nice short and easy lunch time run with Jim and Bill. My legs were definitely still very sore from Sunday's outing, but this run was exactly what the doctor ordered. At first I was very stiff and things were slow going, but after a couple of miles I definitely felt an improvement and was able to pick up the pace, even if just slightly... I am 100% of the opinion that the day following a long run, it's absolutely best to get right back out there again and at least do a few miles, as I think this helps keep your leg muscles from tightening up, by forcing things to move around and loosen up, and helps speed things up for an overall shorter recovery time.

Sunday long run (19.01mi)

Today's run can be pretty much be described as utterly painful. It's not that it was a new route or particularly hilly or anything (the same route I've done for the majority of my long runs actually), but just that the last 6-7mi, especially the last 3 or so, I really had to dig pretty deep. I actually felt pretty good starting out, but I think I came out a little too strong, and definitely paid the price over the last 1/3 of the run. I also didn't hydrate as well as I should have during the early part of the run, as I really didn't feel like carrying anything with me, and didn't pick up a gatorade until around approximately the 12.5mi mark. Also, while I've ordered new sneakers over a week ago, they still haven't come in yet, and I think the ones I have are definitely starting to show their age. So I think this early speed/lack of hydration and old sneakers was just a really bad combination (and yes, I realize that's all very obvious, yet sometimes I do stupid things anyway...).

The route I took headed out down Beacon to Washington st (rt 16), and then simply follows the course (for the most part - I took a couple of minor detours today) back until Kenmore, where I then turned around and came straight back down Commonwealth to my apartment. When I got to the 12.5mi point (Cleveland Circle), I had been maintaining a pretty solid pace of 7:36/mi, but like I said, in hindsight, pushing hard early was def a mistake. Even though *EVERYBODY* and their brother will say this, it realy is something I'm going to need to be very conscious of and keep in my head come race day... And today's run definitely helped contribute to hammering that point home. I can only hope I listen to myself on race day, and don't let the excitement/anxiety take over... The last 3.5mi of today's run were really painful. I could feel both of my calves were really tight, with the right one really starting to cramp up anytime I headed even slightly up hill. I finished with a pace of 8:01/mi, which is all well and good, but I'm still pretty sore. I think I'll definitely take it a lot easier next weekend, which I'm hoping to be my longest run yet, at ~22miles.

Crossroads! (9.18mi + 1.25mi)

Hey, time for another crossroads run, and guess again what the temperature might be?! I swear, somebody can go back and check, but legit for the past 7-8 weeks in a row now, Thursday night has been the coldest night of each week. This weeks run was no different of course, again, dipping down well into the single digits with the wind chill factor considered. The run went off pretty much without a hitch tho, and it was the first time in a long time that Fred, Katie, and myself were all there for the run. We again opted to detour slightly from the normal route of sticking to the marathon course, and instead continue straight down Commonwealth ave as we came by Chestnut Hill ave (this would take us down into Cleveland circle), so that we could swing by my apartment/car and I could pick up my backpack to run with for the last 2.5miles or so, so that I could have some dry clothes to change into when we arrived at Crossroads. While annoying to have to run with the backpack, it's definitely very worth while and much appreciated/needed once we've gotten to the bar. I felt pretty good throughout the run, with no real issues to make note of.