August 28

AM: 10+ miles easy

I met Liam in Old West Durham. We ran down Ninth Street, across Central and West Campus, and then hit a loop on the golf course with the side trail extension. Today will be just one run for me on account of driving to Maryland this afternoon, and because I'm pretty set on hitting my goal mileage this week.

August 27

AM: 14+ miles with 6 miles progression

PM: 4 miles easy

I met Liam at his place in Old West Durham in the morning, and from there we ran the 2.5 miles or so to the American Tobacco Trail. Every morning we've been out there, these same 2 or 3 old townies, who are possibly homeless or just don't have much else going on at 7:00 in the morning, hang out sitting in lawn chairs in exactly the same place cheering on runners. It's become a real morale boost for us. One guy always asks how far we've run, and another tells us to "pick it up," basically every morning we're there. They've definitely become one of the signature pieces of running life in Durham.

Once we got there this morning, we put in a small out-and-back progression run, hitting 6:12, 6:01, 5:52, 5:39, 5:42 (stopped briefly at an intersection for a car), and 5:26. Like I've mentioned before, the trail has one false flat after another, and running on it you can really start to feel them. I managed to stay fairly relaxed. We ran back to Liam's place through downtown, where I reversed course and added another loop to give myself 1:37 total for the run.

After classes, I went back to Durham Academy for a short shake-out run. I've been tired lately. I fortunately also feel like I've gained a lot of ground on my fitness in the last few weeks. While I'm not sure I'd be ready to bust out a fast mile at the moment, I do feel like I've gotten stronger. That's a good thing with Annapolis coming this weekend, which has a course that epitomizes a need for strength.

August 26

AM: 10 miles easy

PM: 1500m swim

The morning run was easy through East Campus and on the ATT from Liam's place.

After classes, I hit the pool because I have, maybe foolishly, signed up for a short triathlon in less than two weeks. I'm slow, but capable. Rumor has it we swim with the current. That would be amazing.

August 25

AM: 6 x mile with 200 jog recovery, 4 x 200 strides, 12 miles

PM: 6 miles easy

I met up with Liam at the Golf Course, and we jogged to the Duke Football Stadium. I'm 99% sure this is the only football team in the ACC that still has a track around it, just like in high school. It still felt cool working out in a big stadium. We had cooler weather this morning, though it was still stupidly humid.

The short rest (1:20-1:25) for this workout made it tough. It wasn't aerobically that taxing, but the legs felt downright heavy in the last two reps. The plan was to start at date 10-mile race pace and work down to goal 10-mile pace. I accomplished that much, though Liam totally blew my doors off on the last one, taking us out in :73. He pretty much kept that pace. I did not.

Splits: 5:18, 5:17, 5:15, 5:12, 5:10, 5:10

After my first day of classes at Duke, I went for a shake-out near me to a local high school (Durham Academy). I discovered that they have their own XC course, and since it's about a mile from my apartment, it will be a perfect place for shakeout runs.

August 24

AM: 8+ miles easy

PM: 5 miles easy

Met Liam in the morning for a run around Duke Gardens. Felt OK.

After spending all day in front of the computer working, I felt like hell on my second shake-out.

August 23 (108 miles/week)

AM: 12 miles easy/moderate

PM: 4 miles easy

Valerie drove to Umstead State Park where I got in a solid 12 with Liam. I'd never been there, but this is easily the best place I've run in NC so far. We stayed on the main dirt road with long, rolling hills, but the park had countless side trails just waiting to be explored. I'll be back. At the final climb of the day, I started feeling fatigue in my quads but held together just fine.

In the late afternoon, I went for a short 30-minute shake-out to explore a small trail near my apartment

Strong week this week and my highest mileage so far of 2009. Given that I was considerably busier than I thought with orientation, I'm pleased. There was a fair amount of easy/moderate running on account of the heat, but I'm feeling good and think I'm ready to run well at Annapolis next week. I'm going to stick with the 2 up, 1 down mileage cycle, which seems to keep me from getting too flat during higher mileage periods, so next week will be a recovery week of 90-ish miles.

August 22

AM: 21+ miles easy

I slept in a little bit this morning and set out just after 10:30. I ran to the Al Buehler trail and looped around West Campus before heading north on Campus Drive for a loop on East Campus with a detour through the Duke Gardens. About 10 miles in, the sky opened up and dumped rain for the next 45 minutes. This actually felt amazing as it's probably the coolest weather we've had since I've been in North Carolina.

At about 1:15 in, I tried to stop for water at the West Campus athletic fields, only to see chalky liquid pour from the fountain: despite the fact that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth at this point, I passed. I finished up with a few more loops on the golf course trail (aka the Al Buehler Trail, where I finally got water) for 2:28 total. Given that I only took water during the run, I felt pretty strong today during my longest run in quite some time.