March 30

PM: 9 miles easy

I ran for a little over an hour at dusk in Rock Creek Park after work. No morning run due to some work on my car.

March 29 (92 miles/week)

AM: 18 miles easy/moderate

PM: yoga

I jogged from my place to the Line for the GRC run this morning. We started off fairly relaxed, though I strode up the hills on Tilden and Ross a little bit, focusing on relaxing my stride. One weakness I have is that when I start to strain, my shoulders tighten like someone poured ice water down my back, and that doesn't do me a whole lot of good when racing. The run felt great overall with weather in the 60s by the time we finished.

March 28

AM: 10 x 2:00 on/1:00 off, 9 miles

Quick workout on the Al Buehler trail near Duke before more graduate school preview, looking for apartments, and driving back to Maryland.

March 28

AM: 6 miles easy, treadmill

PM: 4 miles easy

Recovery day. I got in a quick treadmill run before Duke's Nicholas School admitted students weekend all day Friday. This is probably where I'm headed in late July for school for my master's, so let the countdown clock on my days in Maryland begin.

After a day full of meeting people, listening to speakers, and reconciling how I'm coming to Duke despite 3.5 half years as an undergrad at Maryland, Valerie and I went on an easy run around a popular path that surrounds the Duke golf course, the Al Buehler Cross Country trail: ~3 miles of packed gravel dust with rolling hills. If life goes in the direction I think it's going, I'll probably see a lot of this place over the next three years.

March 26

AM: 12 miles easy

I took a slow, muddy trip through Rock Creek Park before driving with Valerie to Durham, NC for the admitted students weekend at Duke on Friday and Saturday.

The only highlight of the run was passing a friendly horseback rider. The trails in the park get narrow in places, so there isn't always a lot of room to pass. As a runner, I always do my best to announce my presence, walk past them, and say "hello" so I won't spook the horse. Today may have been the first day that I actually got an amicable response from a rider, and I normally just get cold glares from the person on the horse as I tiptoe past.

I've never totally figured that out. "Sorry I just accidentally kicked over that neat mound of poop your horse left on the trail?" I'm not sure why riders are usually so ornery.

March 25

AM: 6 miles easy

PM: 2 x 2 mile @ half-marathon to 10-mile pace w/ 2:00 jog recovery, 2 x 800m @ 5k pace w/ 2:00 jog recovery, 4 x 400m w/ 2:00 jog recovery, 12 miles

I felt surprisingly good during my morning run, only to feel a little stale for the workout.

P. Murphy and I ran this workout on our own at B-CC this week with a lot of people opting to lighten their loads with races this weekend. I still have more than a month before I start to back off, so I still want to get in a few more solid efforts.

The only downside to today was a windy track and my uncooperative rollin' colon, which forced me to take an unplanned and extended break between the 800s and 400s. 

Splits: 10:40, 10:30, 2:27, 2:27, :68, :68, :68, :68

March 24

AM: 10 miles easy/moderate, 7 x :10 hill sprints

PM: gym

I ran yesterday's run a tad quicker and threw in hill sprints again at the end. I'm loving hill sprints right now: they seem to both help my knee pain/tightness and make me feel incredibly strong.

After work, Valerie and I went to the gym, where I did the usual routine plus core work and leg extensions for my knee (per Jarrin's recommendation).