We arrived home late last night from a three-day field trip to Boston with my wife's 6th grade class. It was a rousing success, both from Meg's perspective and mine: Finn loved the city and got to spend some quality time with my mom, and I got to run twice and see the Red Sox walk off against their 2013 nemesis, the Texas Rangers.

Thursday: 8 miles, with 7mi at MP. I ran on the "banks of the River Charles" (love that dirty water) for the first time in my life. The Boston side was nice and uninterrupted, but I wasn't too fond of trying to figure out how to access the bridge crossings or having to stop for intersections on the Cambridge side. I had a lot of pent up energy and the stop/start nature of the running made it easy to get caught up in a fast pace.

Friday: 6 miles, pushing Finn's city stroller (not the jogger) in the pouring rain with jeans, cotton shirt and jacket on, after only 4 hours of sleep the night before (and 14 in three nights). At least I had my running shoes! This was not the most traditional of runs, but walking 3 miles each way from the Common to Harvard Square in Cambridge wasn't going to be fun in the rain, so I decided I may as well get a run in. It was a blast.

Total Miles: 14mi (in two runs)
Weekly So Far: 28.5mi

Today was a fun return to speed intervals (done at 5k pace, as opposed to strength intervals at HM pace that I've been doing for a while now). A cool down jog to Keene Valley to meet Meg and Finn for tacos at Green Point was a great way to cap off the run.

Warmup: 2.5mi easy road.
Intervals: 400m/600m/800m/1000m/1000m/
800m/600m at 5:28 pace with 400m recovery jog after each interval.
Cooldown: 2mi easy road.

The mini-streak I have going of 22 straight running days will likely end tomorrow, unless I can motivate to go for a 9pm run in Boston. The good news is my mom is going to come in to take care of Finn for a while on Thursday, so I'll get to run on the Charles and see a Red Sox game!

No posts until the weekend, as I'll be off the interwebs while in Beantown.

Total Miles: 9.5mi
Weekly So Far: 14.5mi

Ran the Hulls Falls Loop, with a nice spring in my step for a Monday. Tight hamstrings made me skip the hill sprints at the end (I haven't done those in weeks and really should do them more, but I wanted to be loose for Tuesday's speed workout).

Total Miles: 5mi
Weekly So Far: 5mi

The Sunday long run is a runner's tradition, and I'm sticking with it! Up until this point in the year it hasn't been as important to my training as other workouts (speed, strength and tempo) because my first goal race was only 13 miles.

Today was one of those days where it's a struggle to get out the door and run. Early morning would have been the time to go but I woke up depleted from last night's run (down 2-3 pounds, so probably dehydrated). After a long Saturday of chores in the heat I finally worked up the desire to run, but wouldn't have been surprised if it turned into a 3 mile recovery run.

I felt like crap for the first mile, but after a brief moment of mind wandering I was surprised to realize I had picked up the pace and was feeling fine. I ended up doing 7 miles at my easy pace and feeling pretty darn good about it.

Before last summer (when I became a "runner") I never would have gone out feeling the way I did today. One of my biggest lessons has been that runners go running, every day unless there's a very good reason not to. It's a good feeling to have that kind of persistence pay off.

Total Miles: 7mi
Weekly So Far: 47mi

I didn't plan to run twice today, but my aunt offered to walk Finn down to the playground at lunch and I took the opportunity to go for an easy run on Grist Mill Road in Keene.

AM: 3 easy road.

It was over 90 degrees in the sun, so for my evening run I decided to hit the trails for the shade and breeze up high. The Nundagao Ridge isn't very runnable but it's close to home and I was OK with a slow pace. Still, every time I do it I forget how overgrown and not conducive to running it is. Better as a leisurely hike.

PM: 5.5 easy trail.

I'm psyched to be feeling this good in my "recovery" week. My mileage should end up being around 60, which is more than I'd planned, but with only two more weeks until the 10-day hiking camp I think I can afford to push myself.

Total Miles: 8.5mi
Weekly So Far: 40mi

My legs were a bit tight this morning: last night's run on the Lake Rd was probably a bit fast for an easy run and I didn't get a good cool-down or stretch afterward due to driving rain. Going for an easy 3mi with Finn this morning was a great way to start the day and get the blood flowing to my legs, as well as to get warmed up for a nice stretching session.

AM: 3mi easy with jogger.

I think this paid off, as my legs felt much better by the time I went out for the evening's tempo run. I planned to do 6mi hard but cut it to 5mi instead of pushing myself on a recovery week.

Warmup: 2mi easy road.
Drills: High knees, butt kicks, bounds, sideways jumping jacks, two strides.
Tempo: 5mi at MP (6:18/mile).
Cooldown: 2mi easy road.

Total Miles: 12mi
Weekly So Far: 31.5mi

I'm still sticking to the dirt as much as possible to give my legs time to recover, and with an errand to run at ATIS (a summer day camp based out of the Ausable Club) the Lake Road was an obvious choice. For some reason this has never been a favorite run of mine, but it's hard to argue with the view at the turnaround and the long steady climb is a great way to get a low-impact workout.

The legs are feeling good, so I think I'll try to get right back into my routine (a modified marathon training plan) with a tempo run on pavement tomorrow evening. It should be a good test of how my recovery is progressing.

Total Miles: 7mi
Weekly So Far: 19.5mi

I miss this run! The Loj Loop is an old standby that I don't run very often anymore as it requires driving (just 20 minutes, but that's 20 minutes that I could be running if I left from home). Grocery shopping in Lake Placid provided an excuse to visit the trails and I couldn't pass it up.

The loop starts from South Meadows Rd. on the way to the Adirondak Loj, then runs to Marcy Dam via the truck trail, out to the Loj on the Van Hoevenberg trail and back to the car on the road. Gently rolling terrain and decent footing on the hiking trail make this loop runnable the whole way, unlike many hiking trail runs in the Adirondacks.

I probably went a little too fast to call this an easy run, but it felt good to open up the stride a bit and let it go on the downhills. Maybe not the best choice three days after a race... but I'm OK with it.

Total Miles: 7mi
Weekly So Far: 12.5mi