June 29

AM: 10 miles easy

PM: 4 miles easy

Both runs were ridiculously slow today. Summer workouts, especially hard long runs like last Saturday, seem to require more recovery than they do during the winter. I guess this makes sense.

June 28 (96 miles/week)

AM: 11 miles easy, 6 x :10 hill sprints

PM: gym

Feeling strong going into Peachtree next weekend. Today capped off a solid week of running with a GRC group run from the Line. Hill sprints, drills, and a eventually pancake breakfast (courtesy of Valerie) followed afterward, the latter bringing back memories of college and Terprunners.

After watching the heartbreaking US-Brazil soccer game, I sulked down to the gym but managed a good lift.

June 27

AM: 18 miles moderate/progression

I went down to the GRC to meet a solid group of 10 for a Saturday long run. We started down the towpath before heading up "Ernst" hill and back down the zoo. At the bottom of the zoo, we stopped for water and Gatorade. Klim had indicated to me that he wanted to push a little when we got back to the park, so I took it upon myself to do that: I had wanted this run to be a solid, honest effort today, anyway. I gradually picked up the pace over the next 30 minutes, save for one stopping point when we regrouped at the waterfront before crossing the Memorial Bridge into VA (where I ran straight into someone making the turn...whoops). Klim finished with me running up to the Key Bridge, and we both concurred that today was indeed an honest effort. I'm not sure how fast we were going. It's tough to gauge the pace in the heat, but I felt strong regardless.

June 26

AM: 12 miles easy/moderate

PM: 4 miles easy

I met Dirk in the morning for an out-and-back on the Capital Crescent, finishing in Rock Creek Park. We took it out pretty leisurely and gradually picked up the pace on the way home.

After work, right after I thunderstorm, I got in a sluggishly paced shake-out run.

June 25

AM: 8 miles easy

PM: gym

Easy recovery day. I was still whipped from last night's workout when I woke up this morning.

June 24

AM: 5 miles easy

PM: 3 x 2k/1k @ 10k pace and 5k pace with 400 jog recovery, 2 x 200m, 12 miles

The only thing to report from the morning run is that finally some of the mud is beginning to clear from the Rock Creek Park trails.

After work, I met a decent-sized GRC group for a track workout. We had two newcomers: one was pro triathlete Desiree, a native Marylander who I was later told was runner-up a couple of years ago at the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii and raced at the marathon trials in Boston last year.*

The second B-CC workout newcomer was Jake, who in a small world story ran in college with a brother and sister I went to Westminster with, the Hagedorns, and then subsequently lived with a couple of guys in Baltimore that I went to Maryland with (McGrath and Prada).

This was by far the warmest track workout we've had since last fall. It was 90 degrees outside when we started our warmup. Consequently, it's difficult to compare times of this staple workout to those from a mild February evening, for example, but the effort was definitely solid. Dirk helped me share the pacing workload, and when I wanted to cut off the last 1000 and turn it into 200s, he very politely said, "OK, I think I'm still going to do it." This made me feel both guilty and weak, so after a 200m walk recovery, we pretty smoothly hit the final rep before adding a couple of 200s with the rest of the group at the end. Though they weren't the fastest splits in the world, which I blame mostly on the heat, we managed to hold the 1ks even and drop the 2ks steadily. I'm happy with the effort for a summer workout.

Splits: 6:28, 3:04, 6:23, 3:04, 6:17, 3:04

*Sidenote: Normally I don't like it when people first introduce themselves or others as "This is so-and-so who ran for ABC University and ran XX:XX for whatever distance"...but second in the world is pretty solid and worth noting.

June 23

AM: 10 miles easy

PM: 7 miles easy

I met Dirk for a morning run in Rock Creek Park. We've been getting lucky with the weather; it hasn't been too rough so far this summer as far as the heat and humidity goes.

After work, I ran and out-and-back on the Capital Crescent with Valerie while she ran a progression run.