Blessed with good weather

The past two weeks have been solid weeks of training,
this week so far I've run 30 miles in 3 days total, last week was a 64 mile week, with my first week of training being 56 the week before.

Every Tuesday and Friday has been somewhat nice so far, we've been working out outside on the outdoor track under welcoming temperature and the sun's rays.

This past Sunday I had a wonderful (definitely the appropriate adjective) long run up comm. ave. Ran about 13 miles, it was just one of those runs where I was logging away without really feeling much. We got up slightly before 10AM, and headed to the gym. It was raining pretty heavily outside, temperature was about 40 degrees, but most of us opted to wear as little clothes as possible so that the rain wouldn't soak our clothes and add extra weight.

I wore no gloves, just a light rain-proof new balance jacket over my t-shirt and a pair of shorts. After a few miles we reached the part of Comm Ave by the Newton fire house where the marathon takes a turn from Washington St. Plenty of runners were out in the rain, and we got a lot of smiles, even a few waves and high fives.
I made it almost to BC before turning around. Felt pretty great, one of those runs where I didnt know how fast I was going but I knew my miles were going by pretty quickly. I ended up running through 12 miles in about 1 hour and 19 minutes, and finished the 13 in a little less than 1 hour and 26 minutes. Overall a good time in the rain.

Today we ran a 600,400,200,200,400,600,200,200 progressive workout.
Ran it with Chris, Marc, Mike Stone, and Devon.
To add a little bit of info on these guys;
Chris is a freshman who has run 4:22 this indoor even with taking time off to go to Rome with his family for a week where he basically didnt have time to train.
Marc is also a freshman who ran a 1:56 800m split at his last race which was at UAAs in New York City.
Mike is a senior, who ran 4:17 for the mile last year. Looking to get a solid final track season at Brandeis.
Devon is one of my roommates, a sophomore, who ran a 4:14 mile at BU this indoor, and split a 4:13 1600m in the DMR at UAAs a few weeks back.

Pretty good group of guys to work out with. Back to the 6,4,2's --
The rest varied, there was 2 minutes to 2 1/2 minutes between most intervals, in some cases it was more like 3 minutes.
Pretty quick stuff, our 600s were done in ~1:37-39, 400s in 62-65, and 200s in 27-29.
Felt pretty solid, worked out in my Nike zoom streak xc flats

Pretty good stuff.

This Saturday is the Stonehill Invite, only 2nd annual. It'll be a good meet to get some opening times and see how fit we are in early April. I might be running the 800, but I could also be entered in the 1500m which I would definitely like to race. I'll probably be running plenty of 1500s this spring if all goes well. Looking back on some of the workouts I did indoors, I ran a pretty similar workout as I did today near the time I ran the 3:08 1200m and 4:22 mile on a flat track. I'm definitely feeling fresh and ready to get more work in. Peace March.

Tempo

Ran a solid workout yesterday.
~4 mile tempo, I only ran for 20 minutes, Our first 3 miles were all around 5:20 and went down to 5:10 for the last 3/4 mile. Probably the best I've felt doing a tempo since coming to Brandeis. It felt a lot smoother than some of the tempos I ran last fall. Looks like the miles I put in this winter are paying off.

We run our tempos in groups, usually in a single file line. We have someone lead for a lap then head to the back of the pack, it's a pretty nifty way of running a tempo since everyone usually gets to lead a lap or two if the group isn't too big. We had a group of about 10 guys doing it yesterday, really solid stuff. Paul continued to run another mile at slightly faster pace after we finished our 20 minutes.

It's been a good week getting back. Runs have felt smooth and I've been getting a good amount of sleep each night. Ran 56 miles this week. Gonna get to some studying. I'll leave another update soon, hopefully after a few workouts and before my first outdoor race this year.

Gearing up for outdoors

What the indoor season proved to me is that my body is capable of running pretty fast.
I had a really long streak of workouts and got pretty tired, but after having taken almost 2-3 down weeks with almost no workouts I ran 1:57 at the Armory in NYC.

So, I'm starting run gear up for outdoors. I've been running about 8 miles every day this week with guys on the team. I've talked to John and a few of us will probably work out by the end of the week.

I'm excited to workout on the outdoor track. The track is still new, we've had no meets on it, but it's been around for only a few years.
Pic I took in the winter:


So with outdoors starting, I have this dilemma with my training.
I've talked with John, and we agree that I can have a pretty good outdoor season if I train well and know when my body needs some down time. It looks like I'll start running around low 60's for miles per week and try to get a few fast 1500m races in.

So that's the plan as of now, run some fast workouts without too many doubles and get some good races in.

I'm okay with that, but there's another part of me that is looking more long-term.
Part of me wants to run about 70 miles per week and double twice a week consistently this outdoor season.
The reason for me wanting to do this is that it will help me in terms of training this summer and next year. I feel that if I run higher mileage then my body will adapt to this level of training eventually and I will have fewer tired streaks.

From looking at what guys on the team have done to become successful, it seems that consistency in terms of training and running higher mileage brings really positive results. Paul ran 60-75 miles per week most of his freshman year and went from a 25:50 8k/ 15:08 5k runner his freshman year to a 25:01/ 14:40s 5k runner this year.

So I have that bargain with myself. If I started doubling and running more miles this spring then I probably will have fewer good races in the spring, but that's a bargain I'm willing to take if I can reach a whole new level of running next year.

I haven't had a good cross country season since high school, I've come into the fall of my freshman and sophomore year either tired of messed up from sporadic or ineffective training. Which has been completely my fault, I ran too fast on some of my runs in the past few summers.. and I had a job at a summer camp that kept me on my feet and tired on my runs.
I feel that a spring of running the miles would help me reach my potential as a cross runner as well as with track running next winter.

So those are my thoughts on that, I'd like to run a fast 1500m... but I think it's more important for me to start running the mileage and train smartly. I've been lucky that I've been consistent with my training this year.. I've been training at 60-65 miles for most of the winter, I even ran 80 miles last fall with no much time off. I am thankful for not having serious injuries that I have had in the past few years.

Anyways, we'll see what happens. Maybe a fast 1500m time after training with 8 miles every day/solid workouts and a longer run on sundays will make me change my mind.

Wrapping up the indoor season

Yesterday concluded what has been a season of consistent training that definitely produced a lot of positive results.

I started indoor training in the beginning of December and ran a few 60 mile weeks with some good workouts. Ran a 3:08 1200m on a flat track, a 1:58 at bowdoin the following week in January. Following that was the 4:22, 2:01 double at the Brandeis Meet. I put a 70 mile week in January. Really solid training. I got a tired streak towards the beginning of February, ran a few (what I think) sub par races including a 2:36 1000m and 4:25 mile. Took some down time, got ready for UAAs, started feeling like myself again.

We left Thursday morning for the UAA meet in New York City, did a short run at the Armory, and hung out at the hotel. Watched the Celtics beat the Cavs which was nice, not too nice was Glen Davis' flagrant foul on Varejao. Big Baby should've known better, that was a dirty block. VID: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95jPUwuU8ZM

Well, we got up Friday and were pretty excited to get things rollin. The 800m trials started off the distance events, Julia Alpaio ran a PR of 2:19 to qualify for the finals.
Next came my race, I was feeling pretty solid going into the race, did a few strides and felt like I was ready to get going. Race got out quick, I was at the back of the pack that went out in 27 for the first 200m, then 56 at the 400m.
I tried to move up but found myself still following 4 guys in front.
I ran 1:57.4 which ties my PR. Pretty solid, but there were 8 guys overall who ran 1:56 or better. I didnt make the final, in fact two of the guys who ran 1:56 didnt make it either, so that concluded my indoor season.

Solid run, I was sore the next day, so I know I can run faster. Our Womens DMR won, our Mens DMR got 2nd to Carnegie Mellon. Pretty good stuff, Matt Jennings 3:06 1200m (off of almost no training since he injured his quad a few weeks back), Ming ran a 52, Marc Boutin ran 1:56 (a big PR), and Devon anchored us with a 4:13.
Paul got 2nd in the 5k with a 14:50. Kate Warwick got 6th in 18:30.
Good stuff.

My 1:57 would have gotten 2nd overall in the UAA last year, this year it's not even top 10. Nothing I could do, the field was loaded this year. Those guys made my 1:57 look silly...
It's a good motivator, I want to come back next year faster and stronger, ready to make other racers in the UAA look silly.

My plan now is to relax for a week, take some days off, not run too many miles, and then start training well for outdoors and even for cross. I want to get my mileage up consistently. I think that will help me out next year, as long as I also stay healthy.
1500m outdoors... I haven't given it my best shot yet since last year I was coming off injury and didn't really race many 1500s.

This has been a great indoor season, it's really shown me that I can take my racing to a new level.

Championship time

This weekend is our conference meet, and for most of us the end of our indoor season. A few people, maybe a relay, might be going to nationals on the guys and girls side.

But for the most part this meet wraps up the winter season. It's the final goal of all from all of our training that has included below-freezing runs, and countless laps around the indoor track.

The UAA Championship will be in New York City at the Armory indoor track, which some think is the fastest indoor track in the world. Pretty exciting stuff. We leave thursday morning, and the meet is a 2-day meet scheduled from friday night to Saturday afternoon.

To give a recap of last weekend at All New Englands at BU,
Chris Brown ran a 4:22 mile.. but that was after getting shoved off the track with 500m to go. He was on pace to break 4:20 by a good couple seconds, so he'll get another shot this weekend.
My suitemate Devon ran one of his best races to PR in the mile by about 5 seconds. He ran 4:14 in a really solid race. His pace was pretty even.. went through 800m in 2:07.
He'll have a good shot at placing in the mile this weekend.
Paul ran the 5k, and got 4th overall with a time of 14:50, an 18 second PR.
Also the Girls DMR ran 12:12 to qualify provisionally for nationals.

We have a good crew going in.
I dont have John's official word, but this is what it looks like people will be running:
DMR: Matt Jennings 1200, Ming 400, Marc Boutin 800, Devon 1600
800m: Me and Aaron Udel
1 mile: Chris Brown, Devon, Marc Boutin
3k: Mike Stone, Paul, Dan Anastos
5k: Paul, Zack Schwartz

Although the UAA is a pretty competitive conference, we have a bunch of guys that could probably score.
The 800 will be interesting, they only take 6 guys into the final on Saturday. The trials are run on Friday. I'm pretty confident that if I run close to my PR in the trial I will make it into the final. The conference has 10 guys sub 1:58 according to the performance sheet. http://raceberryjam.com/uaamenindperf.html
My PR is 1:57.. but I ran 1:58 at Bowdoin on a flat track earlier in the season so I think I have a good shot at making it into the finals.

We ran a short workout today,
6x300. We kept it pretty chill and ran from 47-44 pretty relaxed. I felt good and I'm gonna try to run easy the next 2 days until the meet.
Gonna get pumped for the armory!