Week 11: March 13 - 19, 2017

Monday: 9.7 miles, 650', 6:59 pace. Shrugged off some inertia to get out the door for a run on my lunch break. I can usually tell how things are going to go within the first few steps and this one felt great before I made it past the end of my building. The effort:pace ratio was good and I never felt strained.

Tuesday: 9.8 miles, 591', 7:54 pace. I was able to sneak an easy pre-dawn run in before the forecast blizzard. Snow was falling hard enough the last 3 miles that I was blinded by my headlamp when cars passed by. I usually leave the light off and let my eyes adjust to the dark, which is more than adequate for road running, and just turn the light on when a car is coming. Luckily there's little traffic on my morning route, and even less on snow days.

Wednesday: Zero. 18 inches of snow, the sidewalks were buried, and the roads a sloppy mess. I almost went out mid-day but a well-timed lunch invite from coworkers sealed the deal.

Thursday:
     AM: 9.8 miles, 591', 7:33 pace. Easy morning run with a bright  moon to see by. The stark shadows of leafless trees on snow is one of my favorite things about running at night in winter - something I would have missed had I stayed in bed. There's still a lot of snow on the roads but it's well packed and grippy, even with road shoes.

     PM: 6.1 miles, 1092', 8:32 pace. 10 x 60 second hill repeats on Harrison Street - with an 18% grade, it's a favorite for short, early season interval work to season the legs.

Over the weekend I listened to an Andy Wacker interview on Ultrarunner Podcast and heard him make a comment to the effect of specific hill work being unnecessary. His claim was that that uphill running performance is simply determined by running fitness and that flat intervals are adequate preparation for hilly races. While Andy is a champion runner across multiple surfaces and distances and I'm just a recreational putz, I'm not buying it because Andy also said that he prefers races with smooth footing and moderate grades. I'll continue to do hill repeats on the steepest, longest hills I have available to build specific strength for climbs that are steep and rocky enough to require hiking. Nothing against Andy, he's got a good thing going, but there are so many schools of thought out there that it's impossible to get any training done without rejecting some successful person's approach.

Friday:
     AM: 7.5 miles, 350', 8:45 pace. Recovery run, sore ass. I guess that means I'm doing it right.
     PM: 7.1 miles, 395', 8:18 pace. Easy run, still sore. With most of the Manchester sidewalks covered still covered in snow I explored some North End neighborhoods. There's some swanky architecture tucked away in corners of this kinda dumpy city.

Saturday: 10 miles, 300', 10:43 pace. Mashed potato snowmobile trails with the dog.

Sunday:
     AM: 4 miles, 131', 8:17 pace. Pre-dawn jog trying to work out some lingering soreness. My stabilizer muscles got a bit of a wake up call from running in sloppy snow yesterday.
     PM: 14.2 miles, 873', 7:30 pace. Run home from kids' swim class.
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Totals: 78.7 miles, 4951', 10h 47m. Right about where I'd like to be for volume. I'm finding that I need to rely on doubles nowadays to get my mileage up. It used to be that the bulk of my volume came on weekend long runs, often back to back trail 20+ milers, but that's doesn't really fit with my responsibilities any more.