As I was driving home from Maryland today, I didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to run in one of my favorite places to run — White Clay Creek state park, in Newark, DE just up 896 a few miles north of the University of Delaware. I love it there. There’s a scenic, moderately challenging 3.9 mile trail that circles the park and is constantly going up or down, not much flat. It’s hella fun. I got to the park lot around 10:30am, and took a little nap in my car because I didn’t get much sleep last night after going out in Baltimore with some friends and sleeping on a floor.

I had half an orange and left the other half in the front seat to eat with my half gallon of Gatorade after the first loop. I decided to video tape the first loop on my Flip and I’ll try to add that video later, not sure how it came out but it’s the entirety of the trail from my perspective while running. It decided to get pretty hot while I was running and when I came out of the woods to do the biggest uphill right near the end, the heat hit me hard. My achilles also started feeling… uncomfortable. It didn’t stop me from running and it didn’t affect my gait in any way that I could notice, but I was certainly aware of it and because of that I decided to cut the run at two loops. My fitness right now is absolutely incredible (compared to my fitness at any other point in my life that is) and if I can just maintain that while letting my leg get to 100% so I can run pain free and not have to worry about it anymore, than that’s what I wanna do. Even if that means not running the high mileage that I wish I were doing last week and this week and probably for a few more weeks at least. It’s worth it in the long run. I’m also happy with the pretty consistent pacing from start to finish.

Here's the damage:

7.8 miles in 1:07:29 (8:39 pace)

including:
3.9 miles - 34:15
7.8 miles - 1:07:29 (33:14)

I went down to Baltimore County, Maryland today to check out what will become my home for the next year (starting in October) and meet my soon-to-be roommates. I’m going to be on a crew at Gunpowder Falls state park and living in a house inside North Point state park with two other crew members. This is absolutely awesome for me. The house is nice enough — I’ve got my own room, the kitchen is really spacious, we have a gorgeous view of the water from the back deck, etc. But there’s also lots of trails to run on!

I didn’t do much exploring today though. I measured 1.8 miles from the parking lot next to my house to the front entrance of the park with my car. Then I ran it twice. It was mostly on grass/dirt which I liked. And despite feeling like I was going pretty relaxed, yet again the pace seems pretty quick (by my current easy runs standards which may need to be revised some). And I had a big negative split! Here's the damage:

7.2 miles in 55:27 (7:42 pace)

including:
3.6 miles - 28:27
7.2 miles - 55:27 (27:00)

I was thinking about doing another 2-3 miles but the park closed and I had to get to Baltimore to hang out with some friends. Plus my achilles was a little sore towards the end so I figured best not to push it unnecessarily.

Yesterday all I did basically was drive home from Boston with Jess. First to LI to get her car and then to Bryn Mawr where I’ll stay so that I have a shorter drive to Maryland tomorrow (dag yo, I’m quite the travelin’ man!). Today Jess planned on running for an hour, heading over to the Haverford nature trail so I decided to tag along. We did the 1.5 miles there pretty relaxed. I found my legs feeling really good when we got on the trail and I was slowing down some for Jess occasionally. Towards the end of the first loop, she told me to do another and she was gonna sit it out. So I did. It didn’t feel like I increased my effort much, I just felt warmed up on the second loop but man, apparently I was cruising! I did the second loop over two minutes faster than the first, and about as fast as my fastest loop the last time I ran the trail (and at that point it felt REALLY fast!). Today it just felt normal. Then we took it easy back to campus and ended right at the dining hall. Nothing like a good dinner right after a great run

Here's the damage:

7.5 miles in 59:36 (7:57 pace)

including:
Campus to Haverford Nature trail (1.5 miles)

1.5 miles - 12:43

Haverford Nature Trail (2.25 miles)

3.75 miles - 30:41(17:58)
6.00 miles - 46:36 (15:55)

Trail to campus (1.5 miles)

7.50 miles - 59:36 (13:00)

Today Jess was supposed to run a 4 mile race in the morning. I was going to go with her and run some miles during her warm up/cool down nice and easy. But then last night we dealt with some crap (primarily my car getting towed) and this morning she was underslept and sickish so she didn’t run. I headed to the river to run along the bike path again, wanting to go a little longer than yesterday but realizing I couldn’t go more than 5 or 6 miles because I still had to shower, put on my tux, and get to the wedding at 3pm.

I started where Talia’s race was held, near the Publik Theater. Marathon Sports is so awesome for providing a map of the river complete with all the distances for loops between various bridges along the Charles. The pace was kinda quicker than I had planned at the start. But I felt good, and my achilles felt good, and I decided to just cruise. So I did. The effort was probably slightly slower than a true tempo effort but it’s certainly the fastest I’ve run for any significant duration in a while. And I didn’t start out fast and crawl in, the pace was consistent start to finish. All told it was 5.7 miles in 38:51.

Afterward I did some wallball shots w/ my 25# medicine ball and drove back to the apt to get ready.

Here's the damage:

5.7 miles in 38:51 (6:49 pace)

Jess and I drove up to Baaahston this morning. We finally got around to running around 5pm. She had to do a half hour shakeout and I figured that’d be good enough for me. The beach running on Monday hurt my Achilles (the same one that I hurt back in May/June). I took Tuesday-Thursday off and it was feeling better, but not 100%, today. We ran a little ways to the Charles River near Cambridge St, ran along the river, and covered about 3.5 miles in the half hour. Good, not terribly challenging, my legs felt a little sluggish which is always the case for me after a couple days off it seems. Here's the damage:

3.5 miles in 30 minutes (8:34 pace)

So it appears that running almost 10 miles, barefoot, on the sand (which is significantly harder to run in than the track/grass) was not the greatest of ideas. I should have realized this sooner instead of trying to push it more each week. As a result, it seems I’ve aggravated my left Achilles again. It’s not nearly as bad as last time, and a bit higher up on my calf. I’m thinking I will not miss 3 full weeks like last time, but I’ve taken yesterday and today off and will probably do so until the end of the week at the earliest just as a precaution. I’m getting closer to dates that matter (3 races this fall, starting with the Baltimore Marathon Relay October 10th) and I want to be 100% for them, even if that means less mileage/speedwork than I had originally planned. This comes at an ok time and gives me a chance to step back and realize that I’ve ALREADY run more miles this month than the entirety of last September. Keep stuff in perspective, be smart, and don’t panic.

Did 4 miles around the neighborhood tonight at recovery pace. My left calf was kind of sore since the beach run, about midway between the gastroc head and the heel. As expected, some heat and Tiger Balm followed by a slow recovery run and it’s feeling much better. I’ll ice it now and then shower and massage it a bit before bed. With high mileage there’s always aches and pains, so this is not surprising or terribly concerning but I’ll be vigilant and address stuff before it BECOMES a problem. Cluck, cluck, cluck

Here's the damage:

4 miles in 37:05 (9:16 pace)

I biked down to Jones Beach a day earlier than usual to do my beach run. This week’s schedule is going to be a bit screwy with the traveling and wedding in Boston this weekend. I got down to the beach feeling pretty good, walked the boardwalk until I got to the West Bathhouse, where I was starting today. I decided to run east instead of west because it gave me the ability to run to Tobay which was a little further than my normal route.

This was a pretty fun and pretty tough run. There were really no spots where the sand was wet but firm. I was either running on the dry sand that caused lots of slipping or the wet sand where I was sinking in, occasionally up to my knees. I was soaked a couple times, although the water did feel nice. My splits were pretty even too, which makes me happy.

The only other thing of note about today’s run is… apparently if you go west of Field 5, it turns into a clothing optional beach. This would have been awesome for me if the beachgoers there were mostly young, hot women. However, I don’t think such beaches exist in real life, or I’ve not found them yet. 95% of the people were gay men. And about half of them were totally naked. I have absolutely nothing against gayness or nudity, but I was totally not expecting to see both so prominently displayed. After a bit of initial WTFness, I settled back in, ran to Tobay, turned around, and ran back. My right calf is a little tight/sore, but it’s not the achilles so I’ll just use some heat on it tonight and make sure to Stick it

Here's the damage:

9.6 miles, barefoot in the sand, 1:26:13 (8:59 pace)

There was some craziness in the house around dinner time and it caused me to alter my plans for this evening’s run a bit. I had planned on going up to the track for 6.4 miles around the fields, but by the time I headed out, I knew the lights would be shutting on me about 2 miles in. So I did my usual Wantagh Ave route with the extension around the soccer field. I felt a bit off mentally at the start. My pace was easy, but I was sweating quite a bit. I stopped around a mile in to re-tie my right shoe and then got caught at a light or two. Overall, the pace was on the slowish side but that’s fine. A good end to a very successful cutback week (successful in that I feel re-charged and have no weird/disconcerting aches or pains now). All told I ran 70.2 miles this week, pretty much right on for a 25% cut from last week’s 93+

Now I’ll be ramping back up, but I have to do a little juggling with the schedule because I’ll be traveling to Boston on Friday for my cousin’s wedding Saturday. Regardless, I WILL run 90 miles this coming week. Cluck, cluck, cluck.

Here's the damage:

6.6 miles in 58:27 (8:51 pace)

Went up to the track today to do an easy recovery run. After yesterday’s effort I had NO problem keeping the pace nice and easy. I did the whole thing barefoot on the track, and got to watch some little kid soccer games that were being played on the football field as I ran. Nothing much else to report, it was exactly what I needed and my legs feel much better. Now a hot shower and some Sticking/stretching before tonight’s run. Here's the damage:

5 miles, barefoot, 46:28 (9:17 pace)