8 miles outdoors

 Having been posting as much recently, partly due to injury and partly due to winter doldrums.  At this point I think the injury is behind me but I'm still taking things easy with my buildup to avoid reaggravation.

The big news is that I got in an 8 miler outside on Sunday.  I started out at 7:50 pace and ended in the 8:40s, so it wasn't exactly pretty.  The effort was definitely more than I expected and my legs were tired by the end but I ran the whole way and I didn't any pain besides the normal pain of running 8 miles while not being quite in shape.  8 mile is not great for a long run but hopefully with no regressions, I can build from here and be back in the double digits for January.

I thought I played it smart after my marathon but in retrospect I guess I ramped up too fast.  It's just hard to let go of marathon fitness, going from 20 mile long runs at 7:30 pace to 8 at 8:15 pace :( ...  the good thing about the injury (maybe) is that now I've been forced to have a hard reset and build back up.  I attributed this years success from building back up so I'm hoping this layoff results in more improvement.  

Mileage may be down but cross training is up.  16 rides on the bike in the last month with just about all of them at fairly high intensity.  I've now exceeded last years total time on the bike and last years Calories/Min. 

2021 Goals Update

1. 10,000 pushups:  9815 pushups... that's 185 left with 10 days to go.  I know I should really just knock these out, but it just hasn't quite happened yet.  

2. 7500 10,000 pulls ups: 9793 pulls ups... 207 left with 10 days to go.  207 pull ups are a lot harder than 185 pushups.  I don't think I could know those out in one session but I could easily know them out in 4 sessions.  It really would be prudent to finish all this up during the 4 days I have off for Xmas.

3. 26  38 Hours on the Bike:  I'm now at 39:10.  Not going to adjust my goal again.  Just going to count this one as complete.

4. 2021 miles:  I'm now at 2231.  Looks like I'll end up somewhere between 2250 and 2300 which is about 200 miles more than last year.  Would have been more if I didn't get hurt but overall can't complain.  

5. 12500 steps a day:  Still hitting this.  Some days have been harder than others.  I'm a lot less active during the winter.  On days that I bike instead of run I don't get any steps from the workout so I have to make them up walking.  With Covid I stay at my desk a lot more than I used to.  There are some nights where I get home from work still needing 6000 steps and have to walk for an hour on the treadmill with minimal motivation.  But despite it all I've got it done.  550 more steps today and then 10 more days to go.