January 31

AM: XC workout/long run, 18+ miles

I met a bunch of guys from the GRC who are racing next weekend at the USATF Cross Country Championships at the site of the course, the Agricultural History Farm Park near Gaithersburg. We found half of the course still covered in ice an impossible to run on. After three reps of our fartlek, I got uncharacteristically frustrated while losing my footing (plus we were taking really long recoveries because of the ice) and joined a few other guys that were running on the road. I finished with them running 4 x 3'on/90" off on the asphalt, but I feel like we were running them pretty quickly (between 5k and 10k pace). 

I finished up with a long cooldown of just over an hour en lieu of a traditional long run this week. I might have time for a long run tomorrow, but I'm traveling to San Diego for work and didn't want to risk trying to fit it in between landing, working, and the Super Bowl. Today's lightened workout may have been a blessing in disguise per next week's big race. Wednesday's workout was tougher than I thought, and I could feel it Thursday and Friday.

January 30

AM: 10 miles moderate, treadmill

PM: 7 miles easy

Ran inside because of icy roads in the morning, gradually upping the the pace to 6:00 by the end. Treadmill runs are boring, but Nadal was in the middle of a brutal 5-set match in the Australian Open that passed the time.

After work, the roads were decent enough for another run.

January 29

AM: 10 miles easy, slow

Slow morning run. I am no longer questioning the validity of the treadmill workouts like the one from Wednesday night. There was ice everywhere from freezing rain last night that covered the snow from Tuesday; I didn't bite it, but I had a decent skid-out on Western Ave.

This is the worst kind of winter storm that essenitally turns the landscape into a giant creme brulee. Running on snow is fine, and running through ice is manageable (I've worn old XC spikes on runs before), but when a thick layer of ice covers a blanket of snow, it creates ankle-breaking conditions that basically makes navigating unplowed trails impossibe, limiting any running to the asphalt (where there's still ice to contend with).

I worked a little later, so no evening run....just some push-ups and core work.

January 28

AM: 5 miles easy, treadmill

PM: 6 x 5'on/1'off, treadmill, 11 miles

An ice storm today killed both my morning run (anywhere, really...even the parking lot at the gym was an ice rink) and my usual Wednesday track workout. By the evening when the temperature rose to the high 30s, I was at least able to warm up on the roads. I bit the bullet and ran some cruise intervals, again on the treadmill.

I pulled both the workout and the treadmill setting from Jack Daniels. For the "on" sections, I set the treadmill for  7.5% grade @ 8.1 mph, which is ~5:15 pace, or what I hope to run for 10 miles later this spring. Because few treadmills go past 10 mph, running faster than 6:00 pace requires "equivalents" using adjusted inclines. 

The legitimacy of all this still seems dubious to me,  so I cranked the last interval a little bit for good measure. In any event, a treadmill workout is better than no workout. Saturday's XC workout should make up for it.

January 27

AM: 11 miles easy

Ran through DC's first snow of the winter. Started up Chevy Chase, came down Western Ave, and finished in Rock Creek Park. The park started to get slick by the end as the snow piled up, but it wasn't anything too crazy.

After work, I had to take a little work home with me, so I scrapped the gym and just did some core work.

January 26

AM: 9 miles easy

PM: 6 miles easy

Nice and relaxed on both runs...morning in RCP, and evening run in the neighborhood and Connecticut Ave. I could definitely feel my 

I'm watching "No Way Out" on Discovery Channel right now as I type this. The host is crazy; my initial reaction is that I love this show.

January 25 (98 miles/week)

AM: 20 miles moderate/progression

PM: yoga

I met a large group of the GRC team out at Edward's Ferry for my longest run since Marine Corps to end my longest week since then as well. The route consists of two 10+ mile loops that we generally do twice.

Klim jokingly calls this run the "Duel Ferries" because while we run past two, dual ferries, there is inevitably some sort of faster slugfest at the end of the run. For me today, this run was more like a torture rack, for several reasons. (No, not "the torture rack." I mean a torture rack...) For one, the pressure and pace of the run gradually increased until we were stretching thin throughout the run, but my back was also killing me. Somewhere around mile 9, both of my lats seized up and never really loosened up. I figured I'd be fatigued today from skiing, but I assumed it would afflict my quads, not my back. I didn't have much choice but to deal with the discomfort, so I stretched it out some at the turn and pressed forward.

The first loop was pretty relaxed, but the first five-mile section of the second loop crept down to 6:10 pace with Matias, P. Murphy, Klim and Chris (PM was running shorter and turned off before the run got "interesting.") By the time we turned at White's Ferry after a couple of bathroom breaks, the implied plans to increase the pace became reality. All of a sudden, we were flying past the open fields of River Road, and I was holding on by the seat of my pants and praying my back didn't turn into salt water taffy.

This is where skiing yesterday killed me. My legs just wasn't responding, and to make matters worse for me, it was obvious that Chris was feeling pretty damn good while Klim and I did our best to follow. For about 20+ minutes where the pace whittled down from MP to the low-5:00 territory, Klim and Bain and I started pounding on each other. Last summer, I pushed the pace too early on this same run, bonked hard, and these two guys ended up destroying me. I thought for sure I was on my way to this again, but I rallied, and we all finished together at the loop's last turn and mutually agreed that we'd had enough.

Obviously, runs like this aren't good to do too often, but they definitely have their place. This was more of a test of character and mental toughness. I didn't want to give an inch out there, and I could tell that neither did the other two guys. In that regard, it's probably good that I wasn't feeling my best, if that makes sense.

Though I felt stale overall, this was still easily the best long run I've had since before MCM. It's also a great example to why training with other runners is so helpful: it would have been much harder any of us would have pushed this hard on our own. 

I peeled myself off of my bed from a nap to trudge down to the gym for yoga, which made my back feel better.

Overall: good run, good week.