40 mile week, finding my stride, and getting back on track

I ran my first 40 mile week since August last week and am already 20 miles into this week.  My loosely formulated plan to cut back a bit and then start base building again seems to be working out.

Peaking and the subsequent drop in fitness has been mentally hard for me to handle.  A couple months ago I was ripping 7 minute miles and now I'm closer to 8... and it's not like I ever stopped training, but dropping from 200+ miles a month to 100+ miles is quite a difference so I guess I just need to have faith that the process is working.

2 weeks ago on Sunday I ran 11.03 miles at 8:32 pace with a 148 avg HR. A few days ago on Sunday I ran 12.50 miles at 8:09 pace with 146 avg HR...  neither run was anything special when taken individually, but the comparative jump in fitness in just 2 weeks is encouraging.

I've ripped out 331 pull ups over the last 9 days and am quickly closing the gap on my goal pace.  

Today I dropped 7.5 miles on the treadmill at 8:30 pace.  I think that's the bread and butter type of run I need to be hitting as I build my base up.  I've been probably running a bit too fast for a lot of my runs, chasing the fitness I recently had.  

One day, I need to be more disciplined about my blogging/documentation for future Ethan's sake... For now I'll just ramble through it, much like my training :)

Yearly Goal Update

With 42 days left in 2020, its time to take a look at how I'm stacking up on my yearly goals.

1.  2020 (or 1560) miles run:  1801.93 to date (which is almost 1000 more than last year).    I've already met my original goal of 1560 miles i.e. 30 miles a week and am currently 13.73 miles ahead of pace for 2020 by the end of the year.

2.  5000 Pull ups: 4238 (188 behind pace)… I really fell off for a while between travelling and a motivation dip.   I think the rest was needed though and now I'm playing catchup.  Can still whip out sets of 15 pulls ups without much issue so I shouldn't have a problem catching back up if I can stick with it for the next week or two.

3.  5000 Pushups/Bench:  4151 (275 behind pace)… Even more behind on these but it's really easy to whip out 100 pushups in a day so I'm not worried about this at all.  Need to get back to benching at some point.  

4.  50 hour stationary bike:  37:39 hours... I'm pretty much giving up on this one.  At the beginning of the year I had planned to do more cross training but as my running mileage and goal increased, the biking took a hit.  I also figured I'd get hurt at some point which would lead to more biking.  That never materialized so I guess I could spin it that being under my biking goal is a good thing... when it really comes down to it, I prefer running so I'm not too concerned.

5.  12500 Steps a day:  Still haven't broken this streak... 881 days and counting.  Lately, the count has been a lot closer to 12500 then I'd prefer but with Covid  I'm pretty much stuck at my desk all day and with the weather getting cold. I'm outside a lot less.  Hopefully I can keep squeaking by until the end of the year.

OFF SEASON

Looks like I last posted about 2 months ago.  Don't worry, I'm still here.  I have just been having a bit of an off season.  After peaking in August thru mid September, my motivations starting waning.  My mileage dropped quite  a bit and I took some days off here and there and even a few days off in a row.  Never really quit running though.  Through it I started traveling for work again which messed with my consistency and then I got sick (not Covid), which eventually went into my lungs and totally slowed me down.  For a week or two I was jog/walking and out of breath.  Eventually I took some Prednisone and everything cleared back up.

Exiting August I had run 13 weeks of 40 to 50+ miles.  Entering September I ran 33, 21, 32, 22, 31, 23, 30, 27, 14... The last 2 weeks I've started picking it back up again, running 35 and then 37.  

I was amazed at how fast I got "out of shape".  Going out running suddenly felt tough again and my heart rate was back up near 150 for paces and efforts that had been in the 130s a couple months ago. 

Yesterday, I finally had a breakthrough run of sorts.  11.6 miles on the treadmill in 1:30:05.

I started at 7 MPH for the first mile, then bumped it up by .2 for each mile.  

Mile 1:  7  (8:34)

Mile 2: 7.2 (8:20)

Mile 3: 7.4 (8:06)

Mile 4: 7.6 (7:54)

Mile 5: 7.8 (7:42)

Mile 6: 8.0 (7:30)

Mile 7: 8.2 (7:19)

Mile 8: 8.4 (7:09)

Mile 9: 8.6 (6:59)

Mile 10: 8.0 (7:30)

Mile 11 and 11.5: 7 (8:34)

Getting under 7 for the 9th mile was a real effort... My HR approached 170 by the end but it didn't really "hurt" at least not in a bad way.  It felt smooth and natural.  

At this point offseason is over and I'm ready to start building my base back.  I hope to be able to run a half marathon in February but I have my doubts on if it will actually occur.  Without a tangible goal, I'll just keep training and building and hoping I can stay healthy so that when the time finally comes when I can use my fitness I will be ready.