6/11-6/17

Monday 6/11 - 8 miles - Ran on the Seneca south towards Riffle Ford Rd (sp?) which would have made 9 miles. I thought I got there as I passed under some road but I kept going. Eventually I got to a four-way intersection in the trail and I decided that was a good time to turn around. Upon looking at the maps Riffle Ford was probably a few hundred yards ahead.

Tuesday 6/12 - 9 miles - Ran on Seneca north to Wightman/Brink and back. Unbearably humid today (95%).

Wednesday 6/13 - 7 miles - Summer decathlon series today with the event being the 600m run. I didn't really want to push it too hard today, mainly just have fun and finish strong. Hopefully that would mean I would avoid unecessary interruptions in Catoctin training due yo soreness. The race was pretty uneventful. I was in last until about 300m to go until I passed about half of those infront of me with a strong finish. I also did plenty of other warm up/cool down. My calves felt shredded after the running.

Thursday 6/14 - 9 miles - Seneca north to Wightman/Brink and back.

Friday 6/15 - 6 miles - Seneca north to Brink and back. Contemplated doing this twice but decided to be conservative in my training.

Saturday 6/16 - 20 miles - Ran on the Catoctin blue trail with Tim Hugen to the Manor Area and back. Felt strong the whole time, and I probably could have gone to the Tea Room and back as well but again I want to be conservative this week. Another similar-length long run tomorrow and I will be well on pace for my rough goal milage this week. No need to overdo it...

Sunday 6/17 - 17 miles
AM (08:00) - Ran with the Steeplechasers 11 miles. The "5 miles loop" and then out and back on the Catoctin Trail to Delauter Rd. Followed up by a fun time at the anual FMO (Fathers, Mothers, Others) cookout at Mike O's house.
PM (19:00) - Ran on the Seneca Greenway Trail from 355 to Brink Rd. Legs felt quite tired after the long week but I was happy to get in a few more miles on my way back to Gaithersburg.

Total: 76 miles

This was a great week. It was by far the most miles I have ever done in one training week and at the same time this milage felt sustainable and I don't think I was overdoing anything. Next week I am hoping to get up over 90 miles, Catoctin awaits...

5/28-6/10

Monday 5/28 - 6 miles -Ran from 355 to Brink Rd. and back on the Seneca Creek Greenway trail. Foot still hurting a bit.




Tuesday 5/29 - 6 miles - Ran 355 to Brink Rd. again. Foot still slightly sore.




Wednesday 5/30 - 7 miles - Steeplechasers decathlon event #1 (1600m) in 5:06. Plenty of other running for warm up/cool down. Foot felt good but not perfect.




Thursday 5/31 - 6 miles - 355 to Brink Rd. once again. Foot still somehow a bit sore but I do feel like it is healing.




Friday 6/1 - 6 miles -  Thunder storms started to roll in around 5 and by the time I got to the 355 trail access point they were really starting to pick up. Most of the run to Brink Rd. and back ended up being muddy and rainy but still enjoyable. Unfortunately about a half mile out I fell again and scrapped the scabs clean off the same knee I fell on last week. This was very painful and I am sure I will have a nasty scar. Foot feels about 99% which was a good sign. I ran in the MT101's which I think somehow helped.




Saturday 6/2 - 0 miles - Decided to rest today to try and let my knee heal up so I can get in a good run tomorrow, and I figure it will be nice to make sure my foot is fully healed.




Sunday 6/3 – 0 miles – Rest

Total: 31 miles

Monday 6/4 – 0 miles – Rest

Tuesday – 6/5 – 6 miles - Felt good to be back running again. My knee had healed enough so it was not an open oozing wound so I felt fine running with it. My knee was a bit tweaked though after limping around for three days to minimize the pain to my scrapes while wearing long pants at work/around simply walking around the house.




Wednesday – 6/6 - ~9 miles – Steeplechasers decathlon series #2. This week’s event was the 1000m. I didn’t really have particularly high hopes for this race as I thought it might require more speed than I have, given that I have not done any speed workouts since last summer. I did roughly 5 miles warm-up here and there prior to the race. I hung with Chad C. for the first lap but we went through in 66/67, which was a tad fast so I let him go and focused on running my own race. At the 800m mark I believe I went through in ~2:20 and I was able to finish strong in 2:54, avoiding getting outkicked by anyone and gaining a ton of ground on Chad. The workout afterwards was an 8x200m relay, which I tried to put a lot of effort into so it could help me pick up some speed. I did a little cool down around Frederick for somewhere around 9 miles on the day.




Thursday – 6/7 – 9 miles – Ran on the Seneca Creek Greenway to the Brink Rd. crossing and back. Legs felt a little sore from the previous day but not too bad.




Friday – 6/8 – 0 miles – Strangely enough my calves were extremely sore today, rather than yesterday as a result of the hard 200’s on Wednesday. This was disappointing but nothing to get too upset about. I might have been able to run through it but the key is to feel good for the weekend where I was hoping to get in some long runs.




Saturday – 6/9 - ~5.5 miles – Ran from Hamburg Rd. to Delauter Rd. and then took Gambrill Park Rd. back to Hamburg. Calves still somehow sore…




Sunday – 6/10 – 16 miles – Ran with the Steeplechasers from Hamburg Rd. to the cliffs overlook above the manor area. According to Larry they are called “Rattlesnake Cliffs”, not as I had previously referred to them. This was a good run. I definitely could have done a good many more miles and I felt strong the whole time, running all the uphills. I decided against running a few extra miles due to 1) being very dehydrated by the time I finished and 2) wanting to feel good for tomorrow so I can put together a strong and consistent week of training.




Total: 45.5


Despite a setback beyond my control (ok, so maybe I could have decided not to run during a thunderstorm…) and overindulging on 200’s this was a pretty good week. The foot soreness mentioned previously seems to have abated enough so that it is a non-issue and my motivation and confidence is strong. This next week rather than set a specific mileage goal I will just try to get in ~9 miles each weekday and then do what I can on the weekend. A Catoctin 50k course run would be nice.