Monday, February 9: 7:00 PM - 20 min w/u, Track WO @ Reggie, 23 min c/d
WO w/ JD and LK - 6 x 800m w/ 1minR
2:27, 2:25, 2:24, 2:24, 2:21, 2:16
Tuesday, February 10: 7:00 PM - 4 Miles, 30 min (treadmill) - sick
Wednesday, February 11: 6:00 PM - 0 Miles (sick)
Thursday, February 12: 6:30 PM - 9 Miles, 60 min (forced)
Friday, February 13: 7:00 PM - 4 Miles, 29 min (sick)
Saturday, February 14: 7:30 AM - 0 Miles (sick)
Sunday, February 15: 0 Miles (still sick and moving all day into the new house)
Week Total = 27 Miles, 4 Sessions
(not a good week)
Monday, February 16: 0 Miles (worked all day, still not feeling well)
Tuesday, February 17: 10:30 AM - 3 Miles, 22 min (shakeout before attempting WO tonight) 6:00 PM - 22 min w/u, Track WO w/ Mario, 22 min c/d
3 Mile Tempo - 15:21 (5:14, 5:11, 4:56), 4 minR
4 x 400m @ 67, 68, 68, 67 w/ 1.5 minR
Wednesday, February 18: 1:30 PM - 8 Miles, 56 min
Thursday, February 19: 12:30 PM - 8 Miles, 53 min
Friday, February 20: 11:30 AM - 21 min w/u, Track WO (solo), 21 min c/d
6 x 1000m @ 3:00 w/ 2.5 minR
3:03, 3:00, 3:00, 3:01, 2:59, 3:00
Saturday, February 21: 10:30 AM - 6 Miles, 45 min w/ Rupp, Lansing, Guerette
Sunday, February 22: 11:30 AM - 7 Miles, 48 min
Week Total = 52 Miles, 7 Sessions
(better but still not great)
I don't even know where to start. There's been so much going on in the last two weeks. I've been having trouble keeping up with everything, including this blog. This may be a long post, but really I have no idea how much I’ll divulge.
I started last week (Feb 9) with the same plan as I've had in the past few weeks: show up to practice and do whatever Jenn is doing. Since Jenn and Laura were starting to wind down their season at this point, they only had 4 x 600 and 4 x 200. I still wanted to help out with the pacing, but thought I should do a little more at this point in my training. With the permission of Kevin, I decided to make these into 800s and just take less rest so I could start each one with Jenn and Laura. They went well and I added on two more on my own. Since my pacing duties were done and I was feeling good, I decided to crank them down a bit and see how it felt. Getting down to 2:16 on the last one was a good confidence builder for me. It certainly won’t turn any heads in the competitive world, but at this point, I was thrilled.
The next day, however, I felt horrible. I was coming down with something bad. By that night, I was curled up in my bed, my entire body was aching and I had cold sweats throughout the night. The next few days were anything but pleasant as I had a range of symptoms from light headedness, to stomach issues, to allergic reactions, to coughing up stuff I never thought would come from my body. I don't usually get sick and I couldn't remember the last time I felt this bad. I usually pride myself in having a good immune system and never getting sick, but since everyone I knew was sick and I hadn't been taking care of myself lately, I was asking for it... and sure enough, I got it.
Needless to say, that training week wasn’t very good as you can see in the numbers above. I skipped the workout on Saturday and worked a 12 hour shift instead (didn’t help). By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was still feeling lousy but wanted to attempt the workout just the same (mostly because I’m stubborn, but also because I was starting to get in okay shape and didn’t want to lose any more time). The warm up didn’t feel good and I was pretty sure the workout wouldn’t either. My workout buddy this week was Mario (yes, I’ve graduated to male training partners now) and Mario has had a version of the black plague as well, so neither of us knew what was in store. We had the option of doing 2 or 3 miles of tempo effort depending on how we felt. About 800m in, I felt like the pace was doable, but I didn’t think I’d go past 2 miles. After hitting about 1.5M of 5:10ish pace, I was actually feeling pretty comfortable and decided to go the full 3M. Mario stepped off at 2M and I started to wind down the pace a bit, finishing the last mile in a surprising 4:56. The 400s afterward felt a little aggressive for me, but not terrible. I figured this workout was a fluke and maybe some of the cold medicine I’ve been taking just gave me an extra boost.
Sure enough, reality set in and my second workout of the week felt terrible. I was set to do 6-8 1000s and by the 3rd one, I didn’t think I’d make it to 6. I was able to hit the times, but had to work pretty hard to do so.
I’ve been working a sporadic schedule (now at the Framingham OG) and trying to get settled into the new house so I’ve had a lot of adjustments to make and just haven’t been taking care of myself. This illness is just about gone, but it's still lingering somewhat and is telling me that I need to do a better job with sleep, nutrition, and rest.
I would like to write a lot more on here about how well my friends and teammates have been doing this season, but this post is already getting long enough, so I'll just send you in other directions to read about them. NBB's Jenn Donovan and Roland Lavallee have been over in Ireland on the same trip that I attended last year and doing great things over there. Check out the coverage on Flotrack here and here. They were joined by several Zap athletes including former NBBer, Jess Minty. Read about them here. Kirby Davis ran a nice 5K PR (14:23) out in Washington. Watch that race here. Mark Driscoll and Katie Gwyther are shaping into great form down in Asheville, NC. Read about how that's going here. And as for everyone else, just scroll down the side bar on the right and check out as much great training as you want. As for this blog, you might have to wait a few more weeks before you see some great training on here.
On a side topic, in the middle of writing this post, I received some news about a close friend and teammate of mine from UMaine which made me want to rewrite everything I wrote above. Carly Bunyan was a year older than me in school and was a very strong triple jumper and high jumper on the track team. After getting to know Carly during the beginning of my freshman year (2001-2002), she chose to go home to Nova Scotia to spend time with her family for a while. We eventually found out that this was because she was diagnosed with brain cancer. After months of struggling through surgery and chemotherapy, Carly bravely survived this battle with cancer and returned to Maine in 2003. She was able to rejoin the track team and was competing again like nothing had ever happened.
In her remaining years at UMaine, Carly achieved so much! She eventually qualified for the Canada Games in 2005 and was selected to be the honorary Flag Bearer in the Opening Ceremonies. She was also one of only four athletes in the country to receive the Wima Rudolph Student Athlete Achievement Award. She was on the America East All Academic Honor Roll and graduated with us in the spring of 2006 before returning to Nova Scotia.
In these years, I knew Carly as one of the most positive influences in my life as a teammate and as a friend; and I was so inspired by everything she did. I’ve kept in touch with Carly since graduation through email and facebook, but since we live 10+ hours apart, I haven’t seen her in quite a while.
This week, I found out that the brain cancer had returned from remission and Carly had begun to get very sick in the past weeks. In this time, doctors told her and her family that there was nothing they could do and her time was very limited. On Monday evening, while surrounded by family and friends, Carly left us and moved on to her next life. It’s such a sad ending to such a wonderful life, but I’ve learned from her and so many others the right way to live. I have to remind myself everyday to cherish the good things in life, don’t focus on the little inconveniences we often complain about, fill your life with whatever makes you happy, and surround yourself with people that love you.
I’ve had some rough stretches over the past months and years, but I have so much to be thankful for and so much more to look forward to in the future.
Thank you Carly for showing us a life filled with so much love and happiness!
WO w/ JD and LK - 6 x 800m w/ 1minR
2:27, 2:25, 2:24, 2:24, 2:21, 2:16
Tuesday, February 10: 7:00 PM - 4 Miles, 30 min (treadmill) - sick
Wednesday, February 11: 6:00 PM - 0 Miles (sick)
Thursday, February 12: 6:30 PM - 9 Miles, 60 min (forced)
Friday, February 13: 7:00 PM - 4 Miles, 29 min (sick)
Saturday, February 14: 7:30 AM - 0 Miles (sick)
Sunday, February 15: 0 Miles (still sick and moving all day into the new house)
Week Total = 27 Miles, 4 Sessions
(not a good week)
Monday, February 16: 0 Miles (worked all day, still not feeling well)
Tuesday, February 17: 10:30 AM - 3 Miles, 22 min (shakeout before attempting WO tonight) 6:00 PM - 22 min w/u, Track WO w/ Mario, 22 min c/d
3 Mile Tempo - 15:21 (5:14, 5:11, 4:56), 4 minR
4 x 400m @ 67, 68, 68, 67 w/ 1.5 minR
Wednesday, February 18: 1:30 PM - 8 Miles, 56 min
Thursday, February 19: 12:30 PM - 8 Miles, 53 min
Friday, February 20: 11:30 AM - 21 min w/u, Track WO (solo), 21 min c/d
6 x 1000m @ 3:00 w/ 2.5 minR
3:03, 3:00, 3:00, 3:01, 2:59, 3:00
Saturday, February 21: 10:30 AM - 6 Miles, 45 min w/ Rupp, Lansing, Guerette
Sunday, February 22: 11:30 AM - 7 Miles, 48 min
Week Total = 52 Miles, 7 Sessions
(better but still not great)
I don't even know where to start. There's been so much going on in the last two weeks. I've been having trouble keeping up with everything, including this blog. This may be a long post, but really I have no idea how much I’ll divulge.
I started last week (Feb 9) with the same plan as I've had in the past few weeks: show up to practice and do whatever Jenn is doing. Since Jenn and Laura were starting to wind down their season at this point, they only had 4 x 600 and 4 x 200. I still wanted to help out with the pacing, but thought I should do a little more at this point in my training. With the permission of Kevin, I decided to make these into 800s and just take less rest so I could start each one with Jenn and Laura. They went well and I added on two more on my own. Since my pacing duties were done and I was feeling good, I decided to crank them down a bit and see how it felt. Getting down to 2:16 on the last one was a good confidence builder for me. It certainly won’t turn any heads in the competitive world, but at this point, I was thrilled.
The next day, however, I felt horrible. I was coming down with something bad. By that night, I was curled up in my bed, my entire body was aching and I had cold sweats throughout the night. The next few days were anything but pleasant as I had a range of symptoms from light headedness, to stomach issues, to allergic reactions, to coughing up stuff I never thought would come from my body. I don't usually get sick and I couldn't remember the last time I felt this bad. I usually pride myself in having a good immune system and never getting sick, but since everyone I knew was sick and I hadn't been taking care of myself lately, I was asking for it... and sure enough, I got it.
Needless to say, that training week wasn’t very good as you can see in the numbers above. I skipped the workout on Saturday and worked a 12 hour shift instead (didn’t help). By the time Tuesday rolled around, I was still feeling lousy but wanted to attempt the workout just the same (mostly because I’m stubborn, but also because I was starting to get in okay shape and didn’t want to lose any more time). The warm up didn’t feel good and I was pretty sure the workout wouldn’t either. My workout buddy this week was Mario (yes, I’ve graduated to male training partners now) and Mario has had a version of the black plague as well, so neither of us knew what was in store. We had the option of doing 2 or 3 miles of tempo effort depending on how we felt. About 800m in, I felt like the pace was doable, but I didn’t think I’d go past 2 miles. After hitting about 1.5M of 5:10ish pace, I was actually feeling pretty comfortable and decided to go the full 3M. Mario stepped off at 2M and I started to wind down the pace a bit, finishing the last mile in a surprising 4:56. The 400s afterward felt a little aggressive for me, but not terrible. I figured this workout was a fluke and maybe some of the cold medicine I’ve been taking just gave me an extra boost.
Sure enough, reality set in and my second workout of the week felt terrible. I was set to do 6-8 1000s and by the 3rd one, I didn’t think I’d make it to 6. I was able to hit the times, but had to work pretty hard to do so.
I’ve been working a sporadic schedule (now at the Framingham OG) and trying to get settled into the new house so I’ve had a lot of adjustments to make and just haven’t been taking care of myself. This illness is just about gone, but it's still lingering somewhat and is telling me that I need to do a better job with sleep, nutrition, and rest.
I would like to write a lot more on here about how well my friends and teammates have been doing this season, but this post is already getting long enough, so I'll just send you in other directions to read about them. NBB's Jenn Donovan and Roland Lavallee have been over in Ireland on the same trip that I attended last year and doing great things over there. Check out the coverage on Flotrack here and here. They were joined by several Zap athletes including former NBBer, Jess Minty. Read about them here. Kirby Davis ran a nice 5K PR (14:23) out in Washington. Watch that race here. Mark Driscoll and Katie Gwyther are shaping into great form down in Asheville, NC. Read about how that's going here. And as for everyone else, just scroll down the side bar on the right and check out as much great training as you want. As for this blog, you might have to wait a few more weeks before you see some great training on here.
On a side topic, in the middle of writing this post, I received some news about a close friend and teammate of mine from UMaine which made me want to rewrite everything I wrote above. Carly Bunyan was a year older than me in school and was a very strong triple jumper and high jumper on the track team. After getting to know Carly during the beginning of my freshman year (2001-2002), she chose to go home to Nova Scotia to spend time with her family for a while. We eventually found out that this was because she was diagnosed with brain cancer. After months of struggling through surgery and chemotherapy, Carly bravely survived this battle with cancer and returned to Maine in 2003. She was able to rejoin the track team and was competing again like nothing had ever happened.
In her remaining years at UMaine, Carly achieved so much! She eventually qualified for the Canada Games in 2005 and was selected to be the honorary Flag Bearer in the Opening Ceremonies. She was also one of only four athletes in the country to receive the Wima Rudolph Student Athlete Achievement Award. She was on the America East All Academic Honor Roll and graduated with us in the spring of 2006 before returning to Nova Scotia.
In these years, I knew Carly as one of the most positive influences in my life as a teammate and as a friend; and I was so inspired by everything she did. I’ve kept in touch with Carly since graduation through email and facebook, but since we live 10+ hours apart, I haven’t seen her in quite a while.
This week, I found out that the brain cancer had returned from remission and Carly had begun to get very sick in the past weeks. In this time, doctors told her and her family that there was nothing they could do and her time was very limited. On Monday evening, while surrounded by family and friends, Carly left us and moved on to her next life. It’s such a sad ending to such a wonderful life, but I’ve learned from her and so many others the right way to live. I have to remind myself everyday to cherish the good things in life, don’t focus on the little inconveniences we often complain about, fill your life with whatever makes you happy, and surround yourself with people that love you.
I’ve had some rough stretches over the past months and years, but I have so much to be thankful for and so much more to look forward to in the future.
Thank you Carly for showing us a life filled with so much love and happiness!
