Sunday. I was primed for a well executed long run. I backed off mileage earlier in the week to ensure that I had sufficient energy to run 14. Despite accounting for the equator-like conditions (86*, 70% humidity at 7am), I still came up on the short end. The plan was 14 and I ended up with 12 at 8:31 pace. It was messy. I went back and forth between feeling semi-decent and like hot garbage. At the end of the day, hot garbage was the clear victor. While my breathing was not labored (indication that pace was adequate), I had zippo energy. I GU’d, grabbed Gatorade and drank water seemingly every 3 miles. It was just a grind. Not satisfying at all. Total mileage for the week: 49 miles.
Sunday was not a complete waste. I scheduled a deep tissue massage at a health club (not a member, just close to the apartment). My last massage (only one as a runner) kind of freaked me out in the sense that the therapist kept repeating “your hamstrings are really tight.” The last thing I need to be doing is pulling a hammy. With NYC training underway, I figure I should get “regular” massages. As these things are criminally expensive, I figure every 6 weeks + regular stretching might do the trick. Anyway, my previous experience was positive so I decided to book the same guy. Unfortunately he was not available at the time. Therefore, I took whomever I could get on short notice. The therapist resembled a 4th grade teacher in appearance and demeanor. Her size belied her knowledge of pressure points. The pain progression is as follows (I am not embellishing):
- Acute / Seering
- Actively tearing up / crying
- Blackout
- Giggling
The pain was so severe at the end that I involuntarily giggled thru the last 15 minutes. I didn’t notice it at first as I was fully occupied biting the pillow. However, when the therapist asked, “Are you okay?” I snapped out of it and whimpered something. A rational response would be to tell her to ease up, however, she already knew when to back off when I started convulsing as she worked my legs. Bottom line is that I had no spare energy to talk. She should conduct interrogations for Homeland Security.
Monday. Rest day. Miraculously, the medium run on Sunday and the brutality of the massage left me feeling great. Completely rested and not sore at all. The woman was a genius.
Tuesday. Track night. Normally, I’d be more excited about hammering on the track but when I saw the first part of the workout it left me feeling bleh. 3x1k @ 5k pace w/ 200 recovery. Bleh. I’ve done enough track to make the following statement (leaving room to be revised later): if the distance is more than 800, I generally don’t enjoy it. Why? Pace management and more likely ability. It’s a bit more work lugging around 182 lbs at a 5:45 pace for 1k when your actual 5k pace is 6:56. Also, it may sound silly, but I lose concentration on anything more than 2 laps. All was not lost though. The back half of the workout was more to my liking: 3×300 @ 3k pace w/ 100 recovery. Hammertime! Not really since I do have a race coming up on Saturday. The results:
| Distance | Time | Pace |
| 1.79 | 13:55 | 7:46 |
| 1000 | 3:40 | 5:49 |
| 1000 | 3:39 | 5:47 |
| 400 | 1:26 | 5:44 |
| 300 | 0:56 | 4:58 |
| 300 | 0:52 | 4:37 |
| 300 | 0:51 | 4:31 |
| 2.25 | 20:48 | 9:14 |
Meh. First the good. I bagged running to the track from the office. That type of warm up was not getting the job done. Instead, I took the subway to a nearby spot and jogged 1+ miles to the track. Upon arrival, I started doing strides … probably 4x100m. It seemed to help as the first 2 1k’s were decent. The problem with the 1k’s is by the time we hit the 3rd, I was tired and bored. Normally, I would try to muscle thru the former, but the latter was really annoying me. Hamstering around a track for distance is just not in me yet. Maybe that will change. Instead of pulling out entirely, I took a longer recovery and jumped in for a slow 400. Meh.
The 300s felt fine. My confidence seems to increase at the shorter distances. I ended up pacing our group on the final 2. I’m glad I had enough left to give others a break since they were really carrying me on the 1ks. A cool down slog with @mpatent and another teammate ended a decent night. Total 6.6 miles.
Wednesday. I’m not sure why, but I had it in my head that I wanted to run 10 this morning. With the weather on my side (break from humidity) and a relatively early start (6:20), I thought I might have a shot at it. The limiting factor was getting home in time to get read for work. I was feeling great for the morning after a night workout. Granted, Tuesday was a short night with only 6 total intervals. Still the combo of relatively pleasant weather and feeling kind of fresh yielded a solid run. I cruised around on the soft surface for 8 miles at a 8:16 clip. To be honest, it’s been so long since I’ve had a run under normal conditions I started questioning why I didn’t feel like a puddle after 3-4 miles. Regardless, I’ll take it.