A cool 68 degrees

 68 degrees felt absolutely perfect this morning.  I had to sneak in my run between the Olympic women's 5000m prelims and the men's 10000m final.  Tried to start off at decent pace but took a 1/2 mile to actually get going.  Hit the first mile in 7:52.  Kept my effort steady but the pace continued to pick up on each mile.  7:33 2nd mile, 7:15 for both the 3rd and 4th mile, 7:07 for the last 1.47 miles.  HR was in the mid 140s averaging 143 and hitting 147 by the end of the run.

Final stats:
5.47 miles

40:22
7:23 pace

My Garmin B.S. VO2 max "fitness score" went from 59 (from yesterdays hot and humid sufferfest) to 61... Wrist based HR instead of strap based but the wrist based one has seemed pretty close lately.

Really pleased with the pace and effort.  Tomorrow is supposed to be even cooler so I'm going to try to get a fast 4 miler in if I'm feeling okay.  I've been feeling good lately but my legs   

Hottest day of the year = more ear sweat

 76 degrees at 6am this morning and it was muggy as hell (I assume hell is muggy or is it more of a dry heat?!?).  

I remember when it first started heating up this summer it hit me particularly hard.  I think it was because I was coming off a really good training block and wasn't mentally repaired for the reduced speeds and increased efforts that come with the heat.  The good news is that I'm mostly acclimated now, but it's still not exactly enjoyable to be sweating your ass off.  

Also, for some reason I have been particularly mindful of my ear sweat.  I don't remember ever noticing this before but it's really been bothering me.  Forehead sweat is a close second in the annoyance category.  I used to kind of enjoy a deep purifying sweat so I'm not sure what's changed.  Maybe I need to shift my paradigm.

In spite of the heat (just about literarily in this case) I decided to run a 10 miler.; my 5th "mid-week" 10+ miler of the year.   My legs still didn't feel that peppy from my speedwork on Tuesday but I wasn't planning to run too hard in this heat anyway.  

Hovering around 8:20 pace for the first 5 miles...  at the 5.5 mark I got harassed by a dog and had to start walking to keep it from chasing me.  After that I picked it up for about a quarter mile and then I really started dogging with the pace dropping to 8:30 even though I was trying to maintain a decent effort.

I had talked myself into 9 miles but I had stopped my watch during the dog-walk portion of the run and subsequently my splits were a bit behind the usual points on my route.  Subsequently, when I got close to home I decided to do a short detour into the city park to make up the extra .05... I then continued into the park and soon convinced myself that the whole 10 was back on the docket.  I looped through the park, around the lake, then around the neighborhood and back home... as I entered my garage I heard the first roll of thunder in the distance... perfect timing.

Final Stats:
10.16 miles
1:25:10
8:23 pace

Good start to building back up the midweek mileage as I start to put a bit more focus on my potential upcoming marathon.  I still haven't signed up but with a good stack of 50 mile weeks starting to pile up and two 18 mile runs and one 16 mile run in July (included in four total 2+ hour runs) I'm setting up to be in at least a decent position to reasonably complete a marathon in October.  First focus is the 5K on August 14... once that's done, I'll start thinking Marathon.

Headline: Feeling good again (+Track workout 6)

Had to put this headline out there... mostly because in a few days when I'm inevitably feeling burnt out I can look back and remind myself of how training ebbs and flows.  Only have to look back at last Tuesday to see me complaining about being fatigued and delaying my track workout til Wednesday.  The catalyst for the fatigue was an extra hard 8 miler on the Saturday before which took several days to recover from.  I can see that looking back now, but in the moment of fatigue its pretty easy to start doubting your fitness and motivation.

This week I'm feeling good again though.  I followed up a pretty top quality weekend of work with a fairly solid track workout (on tired legs).

I either nailed the first set or went slightly too fast?  Does it matter that the second set got slower? .  I'm not going to harp on it and am happy with the workout overall.

The only rep I wasn't totally happy with was the first 400m of the second set at 86.2 which is still just about 18 minute 5K pace.  I wasn't too worried about the pace on that rep but I totally lost focus and zoned out... turning a negative into a positive, I guess I should be happy that I can "cruise" at this pace.  I followed up the 86.2 lap with a 2:51.5 which was 85.75 average for 2 laps (5:45 mile pace).

I definitely could  feel some residual tiredness in the legs from my 18 miler on Sunday.  Because of this I had trouble getting my HR up as high as I typically do during interval workouts.  Only getting into the 170s on the last 2 reps.

I've been alternating shorter faster speedwork sessions with longer more aerobic ones.  This was one of the shorter faster one (aka easy ones).  Next week will be my final "hard" track workout before my peak 5K.  

The thing I was most happy about was that after work yesterday I went with the kids to the park and played tag.  Last year it was a real struggle to be able to put forth that kind of effort on top of all the running.  I was always feeling too fatigued to handle the change of direction and sprint bursts required for that kind of play.  But last night I felt fine.

I was fatigued this morning, no doubt, but still got in 7 recovery miles at a 8:27 pace.  Plan to take it easy for the next day or two and then maybe hit a 4 mile tempo run on Saturday if I feel up to it.

Hope I feel this good in two weeks!

 

Picking up the pace

 Friday, Saturday, Sunday... 8.12 miles, 8.01 miles, 18.04 miles.. 7:47 pace, 7:40 pace, 7:47 pace.  Quite a few sub 8 minute work in a row for me as I continue to build fitness in my not quite official marathon cycle.  

It's been an interesting few months after my last race, starting with some downtime, running at altitude an a bunch of easy miles.  Followed that up with some extra track work in preparation for a 5K.  Plus the summer heat has been brutal on me this year.  All that combined has left me feeling a bit off but capping my 4th 50+ mile week in a row I'm finally starting to feel my body coming back around.  It's hard to explain really... I've had some good quality workouts, some solid long runs, and some to level endurance efforts as well, but I've never quite "felt" the fitness that my workouts indicate.  

These last few days it's starting to come together... Running 7:4X pace, in the heat, with not too much effort and no issues recovering.

The cherry on top was Sunday's long run:

18.04 miles
2:20:38
7:47 pace

I started out late on this run after sleeping in (around 9 am).  The temp was already at 75 degrees and climbed to 85 by the end of the run.  I decided to start off harder than usual, pushing the first 4.5 miles to my first stopping point.   My 2nd mile was my fastest of the day at 7:33 and my HR was close to 150 by mile 3.  There's a picnic table 4.5 miles into the trail, and I've been carrying a Gatoraid bottle that I drop off at the picnic table.  It's a good place to stop and get a quick drink.  This time I took my shirt off as well.

Running shirtless in the heat made a noticeable difference.  I slowed a bit after the 4.5 point running my slowest mile of 7:59 for mile 5.  By now I was cruising through.  I had originally been contemplating only running 14 miles because of the heat, but then decided to push it to 15.  At the 7.5 mile point I felt so good I kept going and by the 8 mile point I figured I might as well keep running until I got to the bathroom in Wyoming.  I made good use of the bathroom, cooling myself down in the sink with some water and drank a bunch more and took a goo.  Fueled and rehydrated, I jogged a 1/4 mile into Wyoming downtown to get to 9 miles and then turned around and started back to the start.  

Stopped one more time at the bathroom for one more splash of water and one more drink and then back on the trail.  I kept the pace going from Wyoming to the picnic table running 7:49, 7:41, 7:41, 7:42.  At the 13.5 mile point I stopped at the picnic table to grab my shirt and finish my Gatoraid.  Now only 4.5 miles left.  

I had put my shirt back on and immediately regretted it.  It was still soaked with sweat and the extra weight and temperature capture were doing a number on me.  After 2 more miles I stopped again to quickly discard my shirt at a point where a road intersects the trail.  The last 3 miles, the heat and fatigue started catching up to me.  I pretty much kept pace 7:42, 7:42, 7:48 but my HR took off towards the 160s averaging 164 by the last mile.

Overall, I'm very happy with this run.  I ran hard but never lost form and despite my HR creeping up at the end I never really slowed down or broke pace.  Not a single mile over 8 minute pace and I negative split the whole run, despite starting off strong and the heat... in fact it seemed that starting off strong helped.  

The only negative about the run was that I had about 10 minutes of breaks mixed in from 5 separate stops.  Probably at least 5 minutes was the one stop at the Wyoming bathroom and the other 4 stops were about 1 minute each.  Due to the heat, I think the stops were necessary to keep me fueled and hydrated and without the stops I probably would have at least slowed down or not have been able to run as far.  The last few days have been a confidence booster.  I think once the temperatures cool off and I hit a 50 degree day I'll be pleasantly surprised in what I can pull off.

Today (Monday) was my "off" day so I did an easy 4 miler.  First 2 miles were 8:26 pace then 8:07, 7:52 for the last 2 miles after I started loosening back up.  Kept the HR in the low 130s the whole time.

The daily grind

 8.12 miles at 7:47 pace.  Did my 7 mile course and then actually did 4 X Strides.  I always mean to do more strides... I'm so proud of myself.  Plus it wound up getting me an extra mile just from tooling around with the strides at the park.  First 6 miles averaged 7:55 pace, then 7:35 and 7:23 for the last two.  

Felt okay during the run but the haze and humidity are still killer.  The sweat on my ears was particularly annoying today... not something that typically bothers me but today it stood out for some reason.

Just trying to grind through the summer months...  

More than 5 miles

 The over/under on today's run was 5 miles.  Definitely, considered the 4 mile loop but went for the 5 miler.  Then tacked another loop around the lake for a total of 5.78.  Nice and easy recovery run at 8:21 pace.  Humidity seemed extra bad today but getting the easy miles in felt good on the legs.  Running less than 7 miles is a mental relief as well.

We'll see how I feel tomorrow, but planning on an easy 7.

Workout Wednesday (Track Workout 5)

Yesterday was supposed to by Track Tuesday #5, but I postponed track Tuesday to workout Wednesday due to fatigue.   Overall, I think I'm in good condition but my legs just don't have much pop in them and my hip flexors have been particularly stiff.  I think the combination of hard workouts, hot and humid weather conditions, plus 50+ mile weeks (which I'm better adapted to than last year but are still high mileage for me), is starting to wear me down a bit... a little more sleep could help too as I'm barely able to stay away as I write this... but I digress.

I didn't feel "great" heading out the door this morning either but I felt okay enough to be fairly confident that I could get a decent workout in.  

I started with my general warmup (2.63 miles) with 7:25, 7:05, splits for the first 2 miles and 7:08 pace on the last .63.  Takes a bit to get the legs going but once I do, low 7 pace feels pretty easy as a warm up.  

Today was a long interval day...  I never quite know what I'm going to do until I start running but I settled on 2000m, 1600m, 1200m. (considered an additional 800, 400 but felt a little tightness/knot in my right quad and figured I'd be better off leaving a little in the tank than doing too much).

The first 2000m was probably a bit too fast... I was hurting at 1600m and then really pushed the last 400m.  Strava gave me a new mile PR of 5:38.

The 1600m and 1200m were fairly evenly paced although a bit slower than I'd hope for.  I really just tried to keep it relaxed and get through them.  

I was sharing the track with another dude who was mostly walking.  He was polite and mostly tried to stay out of my way.  It was a little distracting which in some ways was a good thing and some ways was not.  During the last 1200, the grade school XC team showed up for training as well...  I was done before they took the track but generally I try to stay out of their way if I can.

Overall I got in 4800 meters at sub 6 minute pace....   biggest issue is that I wasn't 100% invested in the workout but I still got it done.  Being tired and the hot and humid weather got into my head... I think I could have bore down and focused a bit more.  I just keep telling myself that tot every workout is going to be the best workout ever and try to be content with the fact that I've been consistent and that all this work should hopefully keep adding up to improvements over time.

Plan to keep the rest of the week easy and hope to be feeling good enough to get a decent long run in on Sunday.

I still got it!!!... but do I still got it?

 Saturday I woke up to 60 degree temps (at 5am).  Knowing it would be short lived I got out the door early and feeling relatively good I took off fast for an 8 miler.  

After going a bit too fast on the first mile 6:38 I settled in... 6:49, 6:47, 6:48, 6:55, 6:50. 6:46 and then finished up with a 6:32... Averaged 6:46 for the loop which was one of my fastest but not my absolute fastest 8 milers yet.  It was a confidence boost to get in this hard effort after a couple month hiatus from this type of run.

But then Sunday, my legs were trashed.  I got in my long run but it was hotter and I only managed 14 miles and at a 8:37 pace (and struggled to even get through that).  I managed to average a 131 pace for thsi run which is very low for me but I really didn't have anything in the legs to give.

Monday still dead and I took the day off.

Tuesday (today)... still feeling it a bit and decided I'd postpone my track workout a day (track Tuesday becomes workout Wednesday).  Instead I ran 8 miles and averaged 8 minute pace (after running the last mile at 7 min pace).  It was a bit of a struggle getting out the door today even.

Hope I'm not burning out... at least I finished today on a good note.

Small injections of speed

7 more miles today except this time without rain.

Found myself running faster today than yesterday.  Then during the 4th mile I started adding in one minute bursts of uptempo running (1 minute per mile as it worked out) which really turned up my overall pace.

8:05
7:46
7:51
7:33
7:25
7:30
6:58

(7:35 average)

Reads like a progression run but really I was mostly at easy pace with 1 minute surges dropping the last 4 miles overall pace.

Feel it in my legs a bit more than yesterday and my hip flexors are still sore from sprinting on Tuesday but I'm recovering and don't feel like it's holding me back.  I'm weary to run a really hard workout but I think by next Tuesday I should be okay and hope for a decent long run this weekend.

Running in the rain

 7 miles in the rain today.  It was just a mist as I head out the door but it was a good hard rain by the 3.5 mile mark and on.  Never quite became a down pour but I was soaked and continuously wringing water out of my shirt.

I was right about being sore after my sprint workout on Tuesday.  Hip flexors (especially inner) and hamstrings too.  Funny, how after 4000+ miles of running over the last 2 years I could get so sore from sprinting.  Guess I should be doing those strides I'm always skipping out on afterall.

The soreness didn't bother me too much on today's run but I also ran fairly easily.  Aerobically it was easy but my legs didn't necessarily want to go much faster.   First mile at 8:27, mile 2-6 between 8:02 and 8:11, last mile at 7:31.  Averaged out to 7 miles at 8:04 pace.

Track Tuesday 4

 Today I tried something new.  After 2.5 warm up (7:47, 7:28, 7:12 pace) I hit the track 6 X 200m at near max effort (95%).  Took a bit to get my legs warmed up during the 2.5 miles... definitely still feeling it from the weekend but once I hit the track and started sprinting, it didn't seem to matter.  

I started at the 200m start point in lane 1 (far side of track).  I ran hard and controlled through the curve, hit top speed at through the straight away through the 150m mark and then start easing back towards the finish.  Followed that up with 200m walk/jog recoveries (mostly walk).

I rarely sprint these days, but it felt amazing.  Up on my toes and I could feel my quads firing, my arms ripping through the air and my legs gobbling up the track.  My cadence was in the 225-230 range.  

32s, 32s, 33s, 32s, 31s, 31s...  I got my HR up to 174 on the last sprint... not bad for 30 seconds of work.

after that I did a 400m jog and finished up with a 400m fast but controlled effort in 83s.  83s felt like really easy after the 200m sprints but overall my legs were pretty fried.

Then I jogged home at  8:12 pace, getting a total of 5.5 miles in for the day.

I really enjoyed this workout.  Awesome variety compared to my normal fare and its fun to run fast.  It would have been nice to break 30s on one of them but I wasn't going all out and I was tiring by the end so its at least probably possible.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  I wouldn't be surprised if some muscle group I'm not used to being sore is sore, but in the end it's still running so maybe not.

At least right now I feel pretty darn good.  Not sure how often I should try workouts like these since they seem like the way I might get myself hurt.  Much more explosive than my typical run.  However, this is my 4th week in a row with a track workout and I don't really have much in terms of pain or niggles to show for it.  When I did a few fast pace efforts last spring it resulted in a tight ITB but so far nothing to report!

Fastest and Longest

Saturday, I did some speedwork:  5K in 22:43 (7:16 pace), 2 miles in 11:29 (5:43 pace), followed by 5K in 23:03 (7:23 pace).  I ran 5:44, 5:43 for the 2 miles for very consistent splits.  It was my fastest 2 mile and tied my fastest mile.  I was hurting by the end but maybe I could have hung on for a 3rd mile in a race?  We'll see in about a month.

Sunday, I ran my longest run since July 20th, 2010 (when I ran 18.6 miles at 8:13 pace).  Sunday I ran 18 miles at 8:06 pace.  It was drizzle rainy the whole time and actually felt pretty good.  I ran on the rock island trail and mud was a bit of an issue but still beat running in heat.  I stopped a couple times on the run to fuel (Gatorade at the 4.5 mile point, water and gel at the 9 mile point, and more Gatorade at the 13.5 mile point).  I kept my HR averaged 137 and I kept a pretty close to 8 minute pace the whole way until the last 4 miles where I dropped to 8:15.  My legs were tiring but not terribly.  

After 6 weeks of long runs for 12 miles of less, I've run 15, 16, and then 18 miles the last 3 weeks at 8:26, 8:14, 8:06 pace.  Each run has gotten easier as I readapt to the mileage.  

So in one weekend I ran my longest run and my fastest run and feel fairly good about it... so hurray for me.

In other news, mid last week I took a trip to Pittsburg.  I took one day off running (Thursday) but then ran 7.3 miles on Friday.  I was longer than I normally run when I'm travelling so hurray for me again.

Track Tuesday 3

 Week 3 of 8 at the track.

Despite a good hard effort on Friday, 5 miles at 7:29 pace on Saturday, and a 16 mile slog in the heat at 8:15 pace on Sunday I actually felt pretty good today.  I had taken yesterday fairly easy with just 4 miles in the morning and mostly just a day of relaxing and recovery.

Temperature this morning was 70 degrees and humid but at least the sun was out instead of running through fog.  Today was going to be a hard workout so I went with the pink vaporflys.  Weather felt okay on the warmup as I ran a 7:22 and 7:06 for the first 2 miles before easing back to 7:22 pace for an additional .61 mile as I got to the track and wrapped up the warm up.  

I took the earbuds out and took my shirt off... it was time to get serious!  I made my way to the far end of the track, to the 200m start, hit my lap button, and took off.  

I focused pretty strongly on running by feel, making a point not to even check splits on the first interval...  The first one is always easy and I wound up running it a bit too fast (as usual).  One of these days I'll run the first one too slow and see how it effects the workout...  After the first one, I settled in and started hitting my splits.  After the 3rd one I was getting pretty fatigued and considered making the 4th my last.  The 4th interval was tough but I got through it and talked myself into running at least 600 more meters (knowing that I could push 600 to 800 and 800 to 1000 unless I completely blew up).  The last 1000 was rough but when I got to the 800m point I was able to dig deep and finish fast skimming a few seconds off the last interval in the process.  

Overall, I was very happy with the workout, especially coming off a pretty tough 16 miler on Sunday.  I made it through the whole workout as planned (after questioning if I should cut it short mid workout), got the HR up to 177 by the end, barely walked on the recoveries, in fact I nailed the recoveries compared to last week.  Partly I think I'm getting more acclimated to the weather but I should also be getting more fit (hopefully)... I'll get my true test in about 5 weeks.

Picking up the pace a bit

 It was a bit cooler today (60 degrees) and the sun was actually out (instead of running through a cloud) so I took advantage of the weather to push the pace a bit.

Started out 7:18 first mile and followed with a 7:12 and 7:20.  After the third mile I was eased into the pace and started to pick it up a bit running 7:07, 7:07, 7:11, 7:07.  Didn't really feel like I was pushing too much harder at this point but 7:07 seemed to be where my body decided to settle.  Picked it up a bit more on the last mile for a 6:44.

Totals:

8.01
57:14
7:08 pace

Felt pretty good and I wasn't straining too hard...  I don't exactly consider this a workout or anything but it would have started to hurt if I ran much faster.  I'm kind of considering this sort of effort marathon pace at the moment. Ultimately I would like to be able to run this effort and be just under 7:00 pace... Mostly kept my effort steady but I did have a few random pick ups and also attacked some of the hills.

Halfway there

Halfway through the year so time to review the progress I've made on my goals for the year.

Goals for 2021:

-12500 steps a day:  By the skin of my teeth on this one.  My current streak is over 3 years (1105 days to be exact) but I almost missed it during my drive back from New Mexico.  I was 11 at night and I was still at only 9000 steps and we needed gas so I stopped at a gas station/truck stop and after filling up I was at 9500 so Natalie gave me the okay to go for it.  I ran laps around the truck stop for about 15 minutes and made my goal.  It was somewhere off the Oklahoma toll way and temperatures were in the 90s... I made it though and have been going strong ever sense.   

-5000 pulls ups:  This was my original goal but soon into the year I decided to double it to 10,000 pull ups.  As of this morning I'm at 5044 pull ups, already exceeding my original goal and a bit ahead of pace.

-10,000 push ups:  These are easier than 10000 pull ups for sure but I also am less consistent.  As of today I'm at 7000 exactly so easily ahead of pace.  I can do 80 in a row fairly easily but its a push to do 100.  By end of year I'd like to easily do 100.

-2021 miles:  at 1241.39 so far.  well ahead of pace but injury is always the wild card.  Haven't got injured yet so we'll see.

-26 hours on the bike  (30 minutes a week):  I'm at 18:56 on this so seemingly well ahead of pace but I also haven't bike in months.  No reason I can't get in 30 easy minutes most weeks so maybe I need to refocus my efforts on this.

-52 weight workouts...  I totally forgot about this one.  I have done a few weight workouts but nothing lately.  I know I should but its hard to get started.  At least I've been doing the pushups and pullups which seem to cover most of what I need.  I know some leg work wouldn't hurt though.

-90 days of no junk food:  Didn't make it the full 90 at the beginning of the year but I have been gradually losing weight.  I'm down in the 162 range now which is about as low as I've gotten... in striking distance of sub 160.

Race goals original statement:  setting racing goals seems frivolous but I'd like to run a marathon this year if it works out (the Peoria marathon or maybe even CIM).  Also would like to run a OCR at some point, break 18 in the 5K, break 40 in the 10K, and break 1:30 in the half marathon.

Still targeting the Peoria marathon although I haven't signed up yet...  not so much CIM.   

Don't think I'll be screwing around with an OCR this year unless it falls into my lap.

Haven't broke 18 in the 5K but it's still on the table.  I've only ran one 5K in 18:32 but that was early in the year... the real target is Old Settlers days.  If not then, maybe something when the weather cools down.  

I have broke 40 in the 10K (38:18) so this is pretty much smashed.

Haven't run a half-marathon but definitely think I could break 1:30... however, until I actually do it, no dice.  My fastest one this year was 1:33:45 during a 15 mile long run.