Still plugging along

 It has been a rough summer and frankly a rough 2022.  Just haven't had the consistency to maintain the level of fitness I would like.  I was either too busy or hurt or having breathing issues... definitely not what I had hoped for coming into the year but at this point I'm feeling more upbeat.

I've been dealing with breathing issues for months but I think I finally got those under control and with the use of an additional Advair inhaler will hopefully keep it under control.  

My other immediate struggle is with my right leg.  I royally strained something while moving furniture for my mother.  That was maybe 6 weeks ago at this point and it's still not at 100%.  At this point I'm not even exactly sure what the problem is... it's either Sciatica or some strained tendons or a strained hamstring or maybe all of the above.  The good news is that I never really felt anything pop or tear and it seems to be healing... just extremely slowly.  I'm able to run on it but it will then get stiff and tired and will bother me for the rest of the day.  

So for now, I'm just trying to get out there and get mileage in where I can.  Hopefully I can stay active enough so that when I eventually heal, I won't be starting from scratch.  

Burned down but not burned out

The last month has not been kind to my running.  I've battled through a 2 week bout of bronchitis that pretty much prevented me from running at all, I've overwhelmed with life obligations (family vacation, moving my mom, other household tasks) I've been exhausted, and I've been a bit burnt out.  Most of all, I just haven't felt good running.  I've had a weird tightness/pinched nerve feeling in my back and shoulders on and off dating back to March.  I'm not quite sure what is going on... not sure if it's something with my form or some kind of injury?  If it is an injury I don't think it's caused by running but has made running more unpleasant than it should be.  

All this has resulted in my running 12 times in the last month for a total of 37 miles.  Better than doing nothing I suppose.

Today I ran 5 miles at 8:20 pace and for this first time in a month I actually felt pretty good during the run.  The pace was easy, my cadence was good, and I didn't feel like I was suffering and forcing myself to take each step.  That's promising at least.

Definitely not in top fitness right now but I don't need to be.  I'm hoping that today was a sign that I'm getting back in the groove and will be able to build on this moving forward.

Monumental goals on the horizon

Just as I was starting to get fit, I seemed to have puttered out at the end of May.  

Travel for work and personal obligations led to multiple days off.  I was able to sprinkle in some runs here and there but the mileage is still down from where I'm normally at.  

It's June 1st and I'm going to use the turning calendar page to try to turn it around.  

Today I ran 8 miles at 6:58 pace.  Hard run on a hot and humid morning but I don't think I over did it.  

Then, this afternoon I signed up for the Monumental Marathon.  Plenty of time to but need to start building the long run back up.

Holding steady

Covid 19 acted like a hard reset on my training.  I feel really lucky to have zero lingering effects from my bout but my mileage has been down ever since.  

I've been hitting about 40 MPW since the end of March, been taking more days off, and have really been shirking on the long runs.  Not sure what it is but have not felt like running long runs which are normally my favorite and have limited them to 10-11 miles.  

On the other had, I have been running quite a bit faster.  I ran 10 miles at 7:06 average pace on Sunday (which felt relatively easy) and after an actual easy 7 on Monday at 7:55 pace I ran another 7 miles today at 6:47 pace...  first couple miles I was working kind of hard but once I settled in I started cruising and was able to cut it down the last 2 miles to 6:39 and 6:28 without straining too hard.

I feel like I'm gaining fitness again without overdoing it right now and I'm definitely way less fatigued with the reduced mileage which is good since I have a lot of other things going on besides running.  

My performances are starting to approach what I've hit at top fitness in the past so that's encouraging at least.  

I pretty much know what I need to do moving forward...  start working back in some longer runs and also run some shorter 3-4 mile tempo runs at a quicker pace (6:20-6:30).  Knowing is half the battle but executing is the other half.  I really prefer 7-8 miles at 6:50 pace vs 3-4 miles at 6:20 pace.  It just feels like more of an accomplishment.  I guess I need to get over myself.

TUESDAYS RUN > TODAYS RUN

 Tuesday I ran my 8 mile loop at an average 6:39 pace.  6:48, 6:42, 6:49, 6:41, 6:50, 6:31, 6:38, 6:20.

The weather was perfect and I felt really good.  I started strong and finished stronger.  It was the kind of breakthrough workout I had been hoping for and fairly close to being one of my fastest workouts ever (top 5 at least).

Today, after 2 fairly easy days, I did 5 miles at an average 6:49 pace.  6:51, 6:44, 6:55, 7:03, 6:30. 

the weather was hotter and more humid and I didn't feel very good.  My HR averaged 5 BPM higher (even though I went slower and shorter) and it was pretty much a struggle.

Don't know if it was the heat, fatigue, or maybe a TDAP vaccination I recently received or maybe it just wasn't my day.  

Still a good workout I suppose and I'll hopefully just build off it and hit it better next time.

Signs of improvement

 After being seemingly stagnant for most of the year I'm finally seeing some signs of improvement.

Today I went out and ran a hard 20 minutes/5K (3.17 miles in 20:00).  6:18 pace with 6:24, 6:17, 6:18 splits.  Not a full out effort but hard enough that I stopped at 20 minutes instead of running 4 miles.  

I haven't broke 20 minutes for a 5K since last fall so it was a good confidence booster.  After I was done I ran another 3.14 miles at 7:43 pace.

I've dropped my mileage and have been running with higher intensity for the last 6 weeks and it seems to be paying off (I've also been exceptionally busy at home and work which has distracted and detracted from my running). Next step is to maintain the intensity while reupping the mileage.  

The heat is on

 It's been a hectic few weeks.

Started with the River 2 River relay.  I would have loved to do a race report but I didn't and still don't have the time and now that we are approaching almost a month removed I don't think it's going to happen.  Quick summary is I had a great time running with a great team.  Ran all day, 3 legs of 3-4 miles and was able to keep each segment under 7 minute pace.  It was hot and hilly, and my fitness wasn't quite where I'd have liked it but overall I was satisfied.  Finished up the day with a massive kick that I was surprised I had.  

As soon as I was done with the River 2 River relay I pretty much headed straight to Southern Texas where it was hot, humid, windy, and dusty.  I worked long days on my feet in the sun and kept most of my runs short but still got in runs most days and was able to amply recover from the relay.

I got back home mid last week and popped off a few good runs.  5.18 miles at 6:59 pace pace Thursday, 5.19 miles at 7:30 pace on Friday, and 6.25 miles at 6:54 pace pm Saturday.

Sunday I did my first long run in a while with 11 miles in 1:30:51 (8:15 pace).  I was dragging ass and slowed down majorly at the end but overall it was a decent run.

I took Monday off so ran hard today.  It was the first really hot day of the year (70 degrees with 100% humidity at 6am) so that didn't help8 miles in 56:53 (7:06 pace).  I started off right around 7 minute pace but mile 6, 7, and 8 were 7:20, 7:12, and 7:13.  Pretty much crashed and burned and was hurting for the whole second half of the run.  I didn't really let up much though even as I slowed some and am overall proud for pushing through the pain and not stopping, even though I wanted to.  We'll see if it pays off or if I overdid it.  

.  

MR. BLISTER

 5 days out from my first big event of the year and I managed to get a blister on my toe. 

I was wearing my Hokas (that have almost 600 miles on them) and I was running on my treadmill (which I've done a ton so far this year), and 7 miles into an easy 8 miler the outside of my left big toe starts rubbing.  

I finish my run, take off my shoe, just to find that I had my left sock on inside out (I get dressed in the dark).  Who'd of thunk it would make such a difference!  

Good news is that I ran today (with my socks on properly) and I had no issue so crisis averted.

Today I did a mini-workout.  Started with 2 briskish miles of 7:17, 7:15 on my way to the track.  Then did 6 X 200m with 200m recovery. 

Then got another 1.5ish miles in at about 6:50 pace to finish up.

Wound up running 5 miles in 34:38 (6:55 pace) and didn't feel like it took too much out of me.

Kind of enjoyed the 200m workout with the combination of short bursts and a quicker than typical recovery pace.  2 sets of 12 of these would probably be a damn good workout.  

Today, I was just trying to turn the legs over while not overdoing it.  Mission accomplished!

Easy days plans for Thursday and Friday and then Saturday I should be ready to perform!

Solid day at the track

 Another one week progression... Last Thursday I was stoked to run 12 X 400m at an average 6:23 pace with 200 meter rest intervals at an average 7:37 pace.  

This Thursday I was able to run the equivalent amount of hard laps at 6:10 pace and similar paced rest but with much longer intervals.  I replaced the 400m intervals with 1600, 1600, 800, 400, 400 and I replaced the 200m rest with 400m rest to compensate for the hard intervals.

I didn't even feel that good going into the day (poor night sleep and some stomach issues) and I was still able to greatly exceed what I had considered a solid effort just a week previously.  

Its funny how progression is not always linear.  I've been training and training and training and yet have not been able to put together any significant efforts.  Suddenly the last 2 weeks I've been taking huge strides in fitness. 

At this point I've done about as much training as I can possibly do to get ready for the River 2 River relay.  I would have really liked to have 2 more weeks to get ready (basically what I lost to Covid) but nothing I can do about it now.  I might hit something short and fast tomorrow (like a hard 4 miler) and then maybe 6-8 200m intervals on Tuesday just to squeeze out a few more drops but mostly I just need to taper.

Easy 7 today at 8:28 pace.  

First "Good" run of the year?

 It's been an interesting year so far.  I've ran a lot of easy miles and my legs and low effort aerobic fitness has been as good as ever.  I've had hardly any tendonitis or inflammation anywhere and it seems like I've been recovering faster than ever.  

the only problem has been that I couldn't quite find that next gear.  I could jog around at 8 minute pace all day... I could go out for a 13 mile 7:30 pace run and it felt relatively easy.  But as soon as I tried to run anything faster than 7:15 pace I started to feel like crap.  My legs didn't want to turn over and things like my back, neck, shoulders, and stomach would start to hurt to the point where I could never really get my HR up above the mid-160s.  

The last couple weeks things have started to shift and today I finally started to actually feel fit.  I wanted to build on last Tuesday's 7 mile run at 7 min pace so exactly 1 week later I went for 8 miles.  

I started off relaxed but by the 1/2 mile point I was getting locked in and hit the first mile at 7:05.  Everything after that was sub 7.  6:55; 6:52; 6:52; 6:49; 6:54; 6:45; 6:32.  I was finding the extra gear climbing hills and was able to stay relaxed.  I pushed a bit at the end but nothing hurt and I even hit full sprint for the last 50 meters.  

I finished up with 8 miles in 54:49 (6:50 pace).  It was 10 seconds faster per mile than a week ago and actually felt easier.  This pretty much puts me close to my peak performances 2 years ago and closer in line to where I was at this point last year.

It definitely feels good to have tangible progression in performance again and I'm eager to see what I can accomplish with a 6-8 more weeks of solid training.

Work out Thursday

Easy 5 on Wednesday to set up for a workout today.

No more junk miles just for mileage sake alone... for the next few months I'm training with purpose!  

I've been formulating today's workout for several days and finally settled on a track workout for 400 meters on 200 meters off.  The 400 meters were to be controlled efforts between 6:20 and 6:40 pace and the 200 meter recovers were to be ~60s (8:00 pace).  

I warmed up for ~2.5 miles  ,7:43, 7:19, 7:33 and then went straight into the workout with no stop.

 After the last lap I did stop running for about 10 seconds but then resumed and got about a mile cooldown in at 7:39 pace.

Although it was a far cry from where I peaked last year, it was a good effort for where I'm at now.  Particularly please on how I stayed within myself and didn't push the pace too hard early.  I was able to keep the recovery paces just about exact even though it was pretty much all by effort.  

Gonna take it easy until my long run on Sunday and hope to start seeing fitness improvements by Tuesday for my next workout.

Back to real running

 Plenty of miles and no days off makes Jack a dull boy.  My obsession with mileage and my running streak was not as productive as I would have hoped.  Too many junk miles, and while I did do some treadmill workouts they just didn't seem to be enough.  

Maybe getting Covid was a good thing, as it forced me to recalibrate.  I'm about a week removed from my Covid bout and it doesn't seem to have caused any lasting damage.  

Saturday I went on a 4 mile tempo run in 26:56.  After a solid 6:33 first mile, I crashed for the next 2 miles running 7:03 and 6:57... of course some of that had to do with hill and a 20 mile per hour wind.  My last mile was downhill with the wind at my back and I hit that in 6:21.  Averaged 6:44 pace for the run which was okay but not great.  At least the effort was at the correct level.

Sunday was a beautiful day... sunny, no wind, temp in the 40s.  I ran 15 miles which is the most I've ran this year.  Was cruising at a 8:26 average pace.  Started out faster but slowed down and settled into a rhythm.   Again, effort was just where I wanted it.

Monday I took it real easy a jogged 5 miles at 8:34 pace.

Today I ran my first good steady state run in a long time.  7.01 miles in 49:04, averaging 7:00 pace exactly.  Again, I was happy with my pacing and effort.  First mile was 7:13 and second mile was 7:06.  I attacked the hills in the 2nd mile and got my HR up to 158 which I held for miles 3-6.  By the 2 mile mark I was hurting.  I had a cramp in my back on the left side.  It's been weird because my arms/neck/shoulders/back have been causing me more issues during hard efforts than my legs, lungs, or heart.  I fought through the pain and by mile 3 (7:08 3rd mile) I felt better and started to hit a groove.  I cruised the 4th mile in 7:01.  Slowed down a bit on the 5th mile in 7:07 but kept cruising.

Mile 6 I stated to push a little bit.  I figured the effort applied to mile 6 and 7 were the main stimulus for the whole workout.  Pushing the pace after 5 already solid miles. Mile 6 was 6:58.  Mile 7 I really started cranking it down.  By 6.5 I was hurting... I looked down and saw my average pace had dropped to 7:03.  No letting up now, I pushed harder.  By 6.75 I was starting to hurt bad.  At 6.85 I pushed harder yet.  By 6.90 I was kicking, forcing myself to push through the pain.  I counted the steps, waiting to feel that vibration on my wrist to know I hit the mile mark.  I finished doubled over but quickly recovered and walked it off.  

Really happy with today's run.  I pushed through the back cramp and settled into a good form.  By body adapted to the ~7 min pace and it got easier as the run progressed.  I didn't go out too fast and kept the effort right where I wanted it to be. I finished strong and got the HR up and the legs turning over.  And I finally had a day with decent temperature and not too much wind... running dead into the wind really screws with me mentally and overall just makes things miserable! 

It's been a disappointing year so far as I try to build back into shape but I'm hoping I'm finally turning the corner. 

  

81 and done

 The running streak died a bitter end on Saturday after 81 days.  My "step" streak of 1371 straight days of reaching 12500+ steps also met the same demise.  All due to an unexpectedly severe bout of COVID 19.  Overall I came through it okay but I felt really crappy on Saturday and Sunday and didn't get out of bed much.  By Monday I was starting to feel back to normal and by Tuesday I was ready to try my first run.  3.5 miles in 30 minutes (8:33 pace) on the Treadmill.  It felt good but it wore me out.  By Wednesday I was able to run an hour or rather 7 miles in 1:01:24 (8:46 pace).  

Thursday I woke up and cranked out 6.5 in 49:21 (7:35 pace), with 3 miles at 8.6 MPH.  This hard effort was a struggle but it also felt good and it really boosted my overall feeling of well-being for the rest of the day.  

Today I ran 5.5 miles at ~8:30 pace but 3.25 miles were at 5% incline and the other 2.25 were at 1%.  I covered over 1000 feet of climbing and 

At this point I'd say I'm fully recovered with the only remanence being a slightly sore and aggravated upper airway.  

3 days off shouldn't have much impact and might even be a net positive after 81 straight days of running.  

78

 Just came off my hardest week of the year.  54 miles at 7:48 average pace.  7 seconds a mile faster than my 2nd fastest average pace which was last weeks 60 miles at 7:55 pace.  Factoring in the previous weekend I had a 5K race on Saturday, a half marathon at 7:26 pace on Sunday, speedwork at the track Wednesday, a 7:23 10K Friday, a 7:03 10K Saturday, and a 7:58 14 miler on Sunday.  I can feel the fatigue but nothing too bad.  Did a really easy 3.5 miles on Monday which is one of my shortest runs of the year then 8 miles on the treadmill today at 8:23 pace.  Between rain and travel I'll probably be taking it relatively easy the next 3 days as well so hopefully it results in some good recovery.  

Plan to run another race on Saturday to see if I can improve off last weekends effort.  Of course Saturday morning is once again the coldest period in a couple week span, but at least it's supposed to be 32 degrees as opposed to 10 degrees.  Not going to purposely taper for this one either but based on my schedule I should hopefully be at least somewhat rested up.  At the very least I'd think I could break 20.

Overall I think my training is going pretty good.  Haven't gotten as much intensity as I'd ultimately like but the weather just hasn't cooperated.  I'm definitely not at the fitness I was at last year at this same point but I'm also I start shaping up faster and ultimately surpass last years peak fitness in the next month or two.

74

Was going to run easy today but ran harder than planned.  

Headed straight out the door at 6:30.  I was still dark so I looped through the park.  First mile I felt like I was pushing it but the split was 7:56.  It felt pretty hard for ~8:00 minute pace.  I continued through town on a slight uphill for a half mile before turning and running straight into a hard cold wind for 1 mile.  Split 7:36 for the next mile, 7:31 for a windy/hilly mile 3, and another 7:31 for mile 4.  Effort was fairly uniform but I was getting faster as I loosened up.  The last 2.5 miles were the easiest of the run, with more downhill than up and not too much into the wind.  I split 7:09, 7:05 for mile 5 and 6.  Then actually started to push it on the last .5 mile at a 6:26 pace.  

I finished up the run feeling fairly chipper and refreshed.  I was planning to do some kind of a real workout, so hopefully this run didn't take too much out of me.  I'm at least starting to get my legs to turn over better.  I signed up for another 5K next Saturday so hopefully better weather and results than last week.  Hopefully I can race myself back into shape.

73

 Running streak has reached 73.

8 miles today with 3 on the treadmill (8:30 pace, 1.5% incline), immediately followed by 5 outdoor 8:23 pace.  Treadmill miles while waiting for it to get light out.  It was 50 degrees at 6:30 am so shorts and t-shirt weather!

Was a little tired from my track workout yesterday but nothing significant.  Just about adapted to running outside now as well.  I still notice the extra impact and road camber occasionally but for the most part it's feeling natural.  The treadmill still feels natural right now as well so running has been fairly enjoyable.  Still not feeling "fast" but I feel "solid" and am putting in fairly big miles with no soreness and minimal stiffness. 

Plan to get some more easy miles in tomorrow and then go harder again on Saturday.

Recapturing my speed

 Hit the track today for some more rust busting.  Didn't feel great today... had a hard time sleeping (think that daylight savings time is still having some effect) and stomach wasn't quite right either.  Lets felt okay though.  

I feel like I'm in a bit of a rut right now where my body just doesn't want to go fast.  May just be cumulative fatigue from ramping up mileage or may be a bit of extra weight I'm carrying at the moment.  

I'm hoping it's just a matter of spending a couple weeks reintroducing some higher effort work.  I came into today's session without a clear plan.  I was thinking maybe mile repeats at ~6:15 to 6:20 pace but was worried about my stomach and decided at the last minute to do something shorter and brisker.  

Started with a 1000m in 3:41 (5:55) pace.  Jogged 400m then another 1000m in 3:43.  Jogged 400m, then a 600 in 2:14 (6:00 pace), 200m jog, then 400m in 1:29 (6:00 pace), then jogged home.

Ended up with 6.25 miles at an average of 6:53 for the total effort.  

Overall, I wasn't unhappy with the performance and while it wasn't a ton of volume it was probably a good start for ramping up my efforts and intensity.  I don't think it will take much time to recover from this workout and hope to get another hard effort in on Saturday.

Weekend Warrioring

 I'll kick this off with a short race report from Saturday's Blarney Blitz 5K. 

Weather was 10 degrees at race time with a 13 MPH wind.  If Strava weather is to be believed the "feels like" was -7.  I knew conditions were going to be bad and that made it hard for me to dedicated myself to this race.  

I woke up at my normal 5 am and had my first cup of coffee.  Then warmed up on the treadmill for 3.50 miles.  Had a second cup of coffee.  Got dressed (thermal tights, shorts, warmup pants, t-shirt, long sleeve thermal shirt, goretex jacket, 2 pairs socks, green hat, green bandana to cover the face, second pair of long green stripped socks, and my sketches Go Run racing flats).  Used the bathroom one last time and then headed to the race.  

I got there, picked up my packet, went back to the car for about 10 minutes and then ran another 1.5 miles outside to keep warming up.  I'd say I at least dressed okay for the conditions because although I was still cold, I wasn't miserable.  Finally got to the start line with about 7 minutes to go and tried to keep mobile while we waited for the race to start.  

They started the race and I was about 10 rows back from that fairly narrow start.  I wasn't planning to take off too fast anyway so id didn't matter.  I passed a bunch of people that first 400 meters and that was about it.  At the 800 meter mark I was right behind a woman.  I kept pace with her for about 400 meters.  I didn't want to shadow her but she wasn't really letting me get beside her either.  We came to a tight icy turn so I slowed down to give her the right of way.  After that, she started to slow and I wound up passing her and leaving her behind.  

About the mile mark someone passed me.  Other than that, I wound up staying in the same place for the rest of the race.  There was a guy in front of me I kind of tracked down but when I got on his shoulder with 800m to go he sped up and I didn't respond (just no drive to race in this cold!).  

I wound up running 20:50 for "5K" but I think the course might have been a little long.  According to the official splits I was at 6:26 for the first mile and 6:33 for the second mile but averaged 6:42 for the race.  I don't really think I slowed down in the last mile and my Garmin had me at 6:28, 6:37, 6:34.  This particular race organizer isn't great at getting course measurements exact so I wouldn't be surprised.  In this case it doesn't really matter but I wasn't very pleased with my time or performance.

I just don't think I run well in the cold and my mind just wasn't there.  I was running hard but not really race effort... but at the same time I didn't necessarily feel like there was an extra gear in my arsenal if I wanted to speed up.   My heartrate was in the mid 160s creeping up to 170 by the end so at least I got a good tempo workout in.  My only disappointment is that I wasn't really able to gauge my true fitness.  I though I would be able to run low 19 minutes at the very least so this result doesn't sit well with me.I wound up coming in 8th overall and winning the 40-49 age group even with my lackluster time.  For my efforts, I won a cookie and a green beer.  Can't complain!

first place cookie!

The good news about the race is that it didn't take that much out of me because I had a long run on Sunday.  I got out the door by 9 and the temp was already in the mid 30s and sunny.  It felt amazing and I took off at a decent pace of 7:39, followed by 7:23 and 7:21.  At that point my average pace was under 7:30 and I kept it that way for the rest of the run. I started wearing a bit on miles 8, 9, and 10 running 7:36, 7:32, 7:36 but bucked down for the last 3 miles and ran 7:21, 7:23, 7:15 even though they were mostly into a strong wind.  Finished up with a half marathon at 7:27 average pace to cap off a 60+ mile week.

Wound up being a fairly tough weekend of work and I took at 2 hour nap after my run.  Overall, I'm no worse for the wear and feel mostly recovered (or at least no more fatigued than usual considering all the mileage I've put in since I started my streak).

Speaking of streaks, today was day number 70.  I ran 5.5 miles on the treadmill at 8:45 pace.  I could have kept going but I really think I need to take some downtime and at least recover some.  It's really hard for me to process running a 20:50 5K but then running a 1:37 half marathon the next day.  I need to start doing some real intensity work... not sure how or when but it needs to be soon!

Day 67

Over 2/3rds to 100 straight days!

Ran 6.25 on the treadmill today as a "taper".  3 miles at 7:30 pace and average 7:53 for the entirety.  7:30 on the treadmill is feeling pretty easy these days.

Today's run put me over 500 miles for the year (504.08 to be exact), which puts me on pace for 2600 miles this year.  Based on 2020 and 2021 numbers 2500 is probably a reasonable total at this point assuming I don't get injured.

First race of the year tomorrow.  5K on the ice/snow at 10 degrees and 12 mph wind.  Should be some kind of fun!

Keeping things in perspective

 Just scrolled through some posts in December when I was coming back from my hip injury.   I was wondering how I was going to get back to 50 mile weeks when I couldn't run more than 4 or 5 miles.  I was at least slightly worried at that time that I might have something at least a little serious going on that would take months to fully heal.  Luckily I fully recovered and don't have any remanence of whatever was going on in my left hip at this point. 

Well, it only took me about a month to get back to 50 mile weeks... Last week of December 16.25 miles, first week of January 35.5 miles, 2nd week of January 48.12 miles, and then 50+ ever since.  I can sit and worry about all the fitness I lost but the numbers tell a different story.  It took me a year to first build to 50 mile weeks at a couple years to build from 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 to now 7 days of running a week.  I'm operating with a different body now so I should reasonably expect that I can build fitness fast.  

Today I did 7.6 miles easy on the treadmill...  well, not that easy.  I ran at a 8:45 pace but for the first 5 miles I varied the vert between  3% and 5%.  The 5% wasn't even that tough though.  At the 5 mile point I hit 1000 feet climbed so dropped the angle to 1% and then it was super easy.  By the end I was feeling great and would have kept going if I hadn't run out of time.  

Also, found out today that we have a 8th runner for our relay now so hopefully I won't have to cover extra.  I'll still increase my long run just in case (needed to do that anyway), but now I should be able to run faster with less overall impact to my training.

7+ PLUS OUTDOORS

 Back outside today.  It's getting light out by about 6 am right now which means that after this weekend it will be getting light out at 7 am (fucking daylight saving time!)  Racing on Saturday.  Forecast shows 10 degrees at race time.  That sounds awful but I'll treat it like an experience.  Will make sure I get good and warmed up before hand!  No planning on doing much tapering... will just show up and see how it goes.  

Bigger target is the upcoming River 2 River Relay.  It's 8 runners covering 80 miles over 3 legs each (about 10 miles total per runner).  Right now our team is down a runner so I volunteered to cover, meaning I'll run 6 legs, totaling 20 miles.  Should be okay but it means I really need to get my long run back up.  

I got 14 on Sunday so I'm thinking 16, 12, 16, 18 on the next 4 Sundays.

10 more miles

 Happy to get 10 more miles in on the treadmill at 7:37 pace.  I'm feeling fitter and fitter everyday (well, I mean that's how it's supposed to work... right?!?).  Not really even a niggle to speak of (knock on wood).  

Will try to get back outside tomorrow even though it's gotten cold again.  I really thought this cold shit was over :(... now it's showing a high of 24 for my 5K on Saturday... after that it's supposed to get warm again so hopefully this time it sticks!

63 days and counting... (9 weeks)

Running streak is now at 63 and I ended last week with my longest run of the year (14.30 miles @ 7:57 pace).  

I thought I needed 14.25 to get to 50 for the week so I pushed the distance long run a bit more than I might have otherwise. I started out feeling a little rough but 8 miles in everything clicked and I started feeling a whole lot better.  I was averaging about 8:05 for the first 8 miles but then dropped to ~8:00 for miles 9, 10, & 11.  Then finished with 7:39, 7:29, 7:42 without much additional effort.  

 

When I added up all my miles today I found that I had run 55 last week!  I used to count my week starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday.  I switched that up going into 2022 to better align with the apps I use to track mileage.  When I made the switch I was worried about having my long run at the end of the week because I didn't want to push my long run farther than I felt comfortable for the day just to meet an arbitrary mileage number... and then I wind up doing it! 

In this case it worked okay.  I needed to start getting those long runs back in anyway and forcing myself to get some more road miles in seemed to result in a breakthrough.  

The extra miles didn't seems to result in any added fatigue as I ran 7.25 miles today on the treadmill (at a easy 8:29 pace).  I ran the first 4 at a 2.5% incline so got 700+ feet of elevation in for the run to boot.  If anything I feel even more fit...  I don't think that I should gain fitness the day after a long run but I sure feel like it.  

I'm really settled into running everyday and I think it's going to pay dividends.  It's like running 9-10 extra runs over the streak.  Of course the intensity has been relatively low so we'll see how things go as I start picking it up.  In that respect, my legs have felt a little flat and I think maybe a day off could help with that.  For now the goal is 100 days.

Only 7 today :(

 Planned to do 9 on the treadmill.  Figured after 3 straight days on the road I'd run on the treadmill to lower my injury risk exposure.  I got in 7 before GI issues made me cut things short.   At least I was at home.  Haven't had too many issues lately so hopefully it's just an anomaly.  Hope to hit the track tomorrow so maybe the world was just telling me to simmer it down so I'd be ready for the real effort.  

Back outdoors

 Third day in a row outdoors.  Today I got in 8 miles at 7:57 average pace.  Ran ~8:10 pace for the first 5 miles (very consistent pacing).  Then 8:00, 7:36, 7:25 for the last 3.  Pretty much easy running and felt good for the most parts.  Hips are still stiff and I can feel the pounding in them but I actually started feeling better the last 2 miles.  

Its really nice to be getting back outdoors.  I mostly feel pretty good right now... only issue is that my legs don't feel "fast".  I plan to hit the track on Thursday just to get more accustomed to turning the legs over and build some confidence.  

56 days

56 days = 8 straight weeks of running streak.

I made it through the week with 54 miles to mark the 6st straight week of 50+ miles (and 7th straight of 48+).  I finished up February with 222.42 miles.  

The weather is finally turning and it looks like the last of the snow and ice should melt today.  I got outside yesterday and today.  Still working on getting my road legs back under me.  Yesterday I ran 8 miles at 7:22 average pace.  It was a lot better paced than last Sunday's run, and I kept the miles between 7:23 and 7:33 for the first 6 mile and then ran 7:19, 6:53 for the last 2.  HR was still in the 150s but aerobically I felt ok.  Legs still got tired (especially around my hips) and I haven't quite found my outdoor rhythm yet but I didn't have to stop and stretch out my hip this time either so that's promising. 

Todays 5 miles was at 8:10 pace and felt really easy (though still a bit of mild discomfort in the legs).  

I've been very consistent so far in 2022.  Only thing truly lacking is the long run.  I've had quite a few runs between 9 and 11 miles but haven't gone much farther (one time I hit 12.6 on the treadmill).  I don't want to get hurt as I transition, outside but I almost think I'm running into a bit of a mental barrier.  

One issue is that the few times I have been able to get outside I choose to run fast rather than slow down and run long.  Hopefully as I get out more out more this will resolve itself.

I feel like I'm starting to approach the limits on how many miles I can comfortably fit into a week.  50 miles used to be a push and now it's easy but to hit 60 requires better time management on my part.  I think I can get up to a steady 60 by getting out a little bit earlier and getting my long run back up.  After that I'm starting to get squeezed for time.   

Near time goal is to get 6 straight weeks of 60+ miles and see where that gets me.

Day 53... *only* 5 miles

 Slept in a bit and ran 5 easy miles on the treadmill at 8:24 pace.

5 miles feels like a day off these days so I'm brimming with energy.

I'm just short of 200 miles for the month so I'm basically back at my preinjury mileage level.  the pace has been slowly increasing as well.  Last month I ran 193 miles averaging 8:15 pace and this month I'm averaging 8:04... this isn't something I specifically target but it's interesting to see the time creep down as the exertion level stays the same.  

52 days

At the very least, I can now say that I averaged at least 1 day of running a week this year.

8.5 on the treadmill with ~ 4 miles at 6:40 pace and 3 of those miles at 2% incline.  I was working pretty hard with 20+ minutes of HR exceeding 160... tempo work basically.  The incline definitely made it more difficult to maintain... I feel like I got a good solid training effort in without overdoing it.  

Still just following my slow and steady plan of building mileage and fitness with almost all easy runs and then pushing the pace a bit once or twice a week.  

Today and tomorrow are highs of 27 and 29 but by Saturday the temp is up to 38 and after that we're seeing highs in the 40s and 50s for the rest of the 10 day forecast.  Got a race on March 12... Assuming no rain, I plan to spend everyday after Friday on the roads getting my legs prepped.  Hopefully in a good position by March 12th right before my yearly Day light saving F-over!

9 more miles

 Today I turned 43.  Last year I celebrated with a fast 5 miler and ran my fastest 5 mile to that point with a 6:37 average pace.  I was very happy with that effort but wound up running the same loop in 6:12 a few months later in May and ran a 10K at 6:09 pace soon after that.  

This year it was colder and I just ran 9 easy miles on the treadmill instead.  I'm not sure I'm quite as fit as I was last year at this point but hopefully I will be soon enough.  At least I'm getting the mileage in.  

50 is nifty

 I've now run 50 days in a row (assuming that you count treadmill running as "real" running).

Woke up this morning to a 53 degree day and was all ready to go outside and run at about 6:20.  Had my shorts and shoes on and was headed out the door when the lightning flashed and the thunder crashed.  The weather frickin' hates me!  So back on the treadmill and I only got in 7.5 miles because I started later than normally waiting for it to get light outside.  

Tonight the temp drops down to 13 degrees so I'm probably sticking to the treadmill for at least a few more days.  After wrecking my legs on Sunday running outside I'm really getting desperate to get more road miles in.  I was a lot better about at least getting outside on the weekends last year.  Next year I'm going to have to force myself outside at least once if not twice a week.  I wouldn't imagine it'll take too long to get accustomed to the road but I'm really jonesing right now for some fast paced 8, 9, 10 mile efforts.  

My initial streak goal was 50 and now that I've reached it I'm not sure how to proceed.  I don't really feel like I need to stop at this point and I'm more motivated than ever...  April 13 would mark 100 days.  Not sure I'm needing to do that but we'll see.

7 weeks straight (Day 49)

 Running streak has hit 49 days today... that's 7 straight weeks without a break.  

My last two days I've actually gotten outside for the forth and fifth time this year!

The weather was particularly cold this year and the timing of the weather patterns was fairly unlucky with the coldest and windiest days falling on the weekend and the tolerable days happening during the work week.  Right now I'm regretting not forcing myself out a few more times.  Last year I was out in 10 degrees when my treadmill broke so I don't have a great excuse... I was just being a wimp this year.  It's hard though when the choice is between suffering on the cold, windy, gloomy, icy roads or binging Ozarks in the comforts of your own home on a treadmill.

Now that I'm getting outside again, I'm awakening to the reality that while treadmill miles are a pretty damn close facsimile to running outside, they just aren't 100% the same.  Take yesterday, case and point.

The girls had some early basketball so I saved my run for the afternoon.  By then it was upper 40s and sunny.  I actually got to run in a shorts and t-shirt and felt great.  Almost perfect running weather really (minus the 15 mph wind which wasn't actually that bad since it was a warm day).

I was really excited to finally be out on a nice day and took off too fast.  Ran the first mile in 6:38.  I actually felt reasonably comfortable... like tempo effort.  Wasn't breathing too hard but my HR was fast approaching 160.  Kept pushing mile 2 and ran an even fast 6:33 mile... still relatively comfortable but HR was up to mid 160s.  By the 3rd mile I was starting to slow and pushed to hit 6:42.  After 3 miles I let up a bit but then picked it back up... I finished with a 7:04 split.  I kept going but kept slowing, 5th mile 7:14, 6th mile 7:31 HR still at 165.  At mile 6 I stopped and walked for about 15 seconds and tried to loosen up my left ITB and hip.  Nothing serious going on but there were definitely some muscles in my legs that were not used to working so hard. I walked a bit more at mile 6.5 and wound up with a 8:01 split for 7th mile.  Then rallied and ran a 7:08 for the last mile.

Final Stats:
8 miles
56:54
7:06 pace

Maybe I would have been able to run slightly faster if I didn't start off so hard.  Kind of sucked slowly dying (in all honesty I never felt like I was working too hard and my effort was consistent, I just kept slowing down and my legs felt like trash).

Got back on the road this morning for 5 easy miles at 8:22 pace.  Felt some general fatigue in the legs and hips especially but nothing alarming and the run went well.  It was 34 degrees but sunny and no wind so if felt pretty darn good.  

Right now I feel like I can run forever on the treadmill at low effort but I'm not used to the balancing and pounding of the road.   Looks like another spell of sucky weather coming... I might have to force myself out for at least one day during that time... really need to get my road legs back in order.   Got a 5K coming up in 19 days that I'm not totally optimistic about.  Would like to get an interval session in or two before then to get my legs ready for the pace but I'm not sure I'm up for it yet and also don't want to get hurt.  I think I'm mostly in pretty good shape right now though so maybe with a couple more weeks of work I'll surprise myself.  

DAY 45 mini-workout

 Yesterday I finally got outside.  4 miles on the treadmill then 5 outside.  I ran relatively easy but was still a little disappointed with the 8:07 pace.  Hopefully a week or two of consistently outside running will get me back in the groove.  Of course it's snowing and freezing again today so I'm still a week or two away from truly starting the transition back to outdoor running.  

This morning I felt fairly fatigued again.  I've actually felt pretty good the last few days but today the motivation was lacking. I wound up doing 7.02 miles at 7:46 pace.   Quite a bit of running was at 7:30 pace and I did 3 sets of 4 minutes at 7:30 pace with 6 degree incline.   This kicked my ass more than I would have liked.  It just plain hurt and not really in a good way.  Mostly in my gut, kind of like I was sick.  I did 3 minutes at 9.8 mph near the end of the workout and that felt a lot easier.  Maybe just too much easy treadmill running and I need to get used to higher intensity again or maybe too much easy treadmill running and I need some recovery.  

Need some rest tonight and an easy day tomorrow heading into the weekend.  At 33 miles so far this week with a goal to hit 60 again.

Day 43

 Medium effort run today as I begin to slightly increase the intensity.

9 treadmill miles at an average of 7:25 pace.  I started with a 2 mile warmup and then took the speed up to 7:30 pace and bumped it up by .1 mph every mile.

Cadence was in the low 180s for the whole run and I felt very efficient.  HR didn't ever get over 150 even as I got down close to 7 min miles.  When I really focus on my form I start to feel really efficient and my HR will drop several beats (i.e. 149 to 145 bpm for example).  The thing that I find strange is that I have to focus to hold that efficiency otherwise my form gets more sloppy and my HR will go up.  You'd think that if the running was more efficient then it would take less mental effort to maintain that form.  I suppose the more you practice it the more natural it becomes.  

It's starting to get light outside at a reasonable time... today I could have headed out at 6:25 am and been alright.  I might try to split a run between the treadmill and outdoors tomorrow morning.  I really am itching to get back on the road.  I'm starting to feel really fit so I need to plan my transition to the road so I don't over do it right away and get myself hurt.

6 straight weeks (42 days)

 6th straight week of running everyday.   Last week was a down week... I ran mostly easy and only 50.83 miles (down from 60 the week before).  This week, I'm going after 60 again and hopefully at least a little of that will be on the road.  

My plan right now is to keep the streak alive through my birthday, and possible February.  Then take a day or two off, slightly drop the mileage, transition of the roads, and up the intensity. 

For now I'm holding up but I'm also tired.  I haven't been doing my pushups and pull ups and lack the motivation.  My motivation still remains for the running part and I'm starting to feel really fit (besides the fatigue).  Winter is probably the biggest factor... once I can get some fresh warmer air and sun I think it'll all come together. 

39 days

 Another week, another work trip.  At one point I actually was resigned to the fact that I was going to have to lose my streak.  

Having to be at the mill at 6:30 am for safety training I didn't think I would have time to squeeze in a run.  being that I was already exhausted from driving and working long days I couldn't afford to sacrifice any more sleep in order to run.  I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to get my run in and after gettig over some initial disappointment I came to terms with it.  

The work day went from bad to worse and eventually I realized I wasn't going to be driving home that night but instead checking back into the hotel I had already vacated.  the good news was that I got off work at 5pm and it was 50 degrees in Kentucky!  So I got my run in afterwards... my 2nd outdoor run of the year.

I headed to General Butler State Park which has a huge elevation gain and ran 4 miles (2 miles out an back).  My watch measured 735 feet of gain... 9:30, 7:28, 9:09, 7:10 splits.  Pretty obvious which miles were uphill and which ones were down.  Tried to keep a steady effort.  Had to stop and walk on the hills a few times.  Great workout without working too hard though and good for the legs.  Last time I ran here was October 2020 and this run was almost 2 minutes faster and with less "relative effort" so that's promising.  

I woke up the next morning and did 5 on the hotel treadmill.  At first I was excited because the hotel had a Precor treadmill but I soon figured out that it was either on unlevel ground or someone didn't use all the bolts when putting it together.  The thing was rattley as fuck and I seriously thought I might break it.  I couldn't watch my iphone because it was shaking too much to hold the phone still on the sill.  I still got 5 miles in somehow.

Today, I'm back home and was able to get 8.25 in on my treadmill which was 50 times more comfortable.  It is good to be home and I'm now at 39 straight days of running.  

Of course it's back down to highs of 21 degrees for the weekend.  Hoping this will be the last super cold spell and then it will start to warm up enough that my soft ass will be able to convince myself to get out the door.

35 days

 I always thought I needed at least one day off a week to avoid injury and/or burnout.  Now 35 days in (aka 5 straight weeks) I've had a paradigm shift.  One really easy day (today that was 5.25 miles at 8:46 pace) has replaced my day off and I feel as fit as ever with no really injuries to speak of.

Last week I got my first 60 mile week in for the year.  Lots of easy miles but also some up-tempo as well, all on the treadmill.  My longest run was 11 miles, so it's all mostly steady mileage.  Only my 8th time eclipsing 60 miles for the week so not yet the norm but the fact that I can do it without a long run is promising... add in a long run and a mid-week medium long run and 60 seems pretty doable.

After building mileage the first 5 weeks of the year (35, 48, 51, 53, 60) I plan to step it back some this week.  

2^5 days of running

 My first year of serious running I worked my way up from 3 days of running a week (plus cross-training) to 4 days to 5 days.  I was at 5 days for a while as the distances started getting longer (3-5 miles became 5-8).  Last year it was mostly 6 days a week, but I'd still take that day off.  Now it's been 32 straight days and after fighting through some fatigue in the first couple weeks I'm handling it very well.  I know recovery is important but I can also see how running an extra day every week could definitely lead to more fitness.  

Another 9 miler today (3rd 9 miler of the week) at 7:55 average pace.  Not bad coming off yesterday's workout.  Quite a bit was at 7:41 pace.  It felt easy but wasn't quite recovery pace.  Probably would have run slower if it wasn't for time constraint so I'll try to go extra easy tomorrow.

Day 31: One full month of running

31 days... One full month of running, no matter the month.

Treadmill workout marked the occasion:

3 mile warmup, starting at 6.8 mph (8:49 pace) and working up to 8.3 mph (7:15 pace).

Then 2 miles at 9.8 mph (6:07 pace), .25 mile recovery at 8:49 pace, then another 1.5 miles at 6:07 pace. 

2.25 mile warm-down at 7 mph (8:34 pace),

Cadence was up to 190 during the up-tempo segments.  My cadence was only 180 when I ran a 10K at the same pace so the treadmill doesn't exactly match how I'd react running on the road.  I think the high turnover is probably good work and helps my overall form.

  

Day 30

 I made it an average month without a day off.  I can see how people get into these streaks.  After a certain point, there doesn't seem much reason to take a day off.   

7 miles easy today at 8:46 pace.  Shooting for a 60 mile week this week.  

Day 29

9 miles

1:07:00

7:26 average pace

Started at 6.8 mph and bumped up every .25 miles until I got to 9.0 mph.  Then bumped back down to 8.0 and held until the 9 mile point.

Solid effort didn't have to dig too deep.  Plan to work harder on Thursday but it's nice to mix it up and get some intensity in after all the super easy running I've been doing.  39 more days until my first 5K of the year. 

Still have only been outside once this year.  Snowstorm hitting tonight and then back to frigid conditions so that's not going to chance.  January and February so far have been a bitch!  20 degree highs and windy every damn day.  The few "warm", upper 20 and lower 30 days are never on the weekend.  Hopefully just a couple more weeks of this crap!

Day 28

 11.35 on Saturday, 9.3 on Sunday, and 5.5 today, all pretty much easy miles on the treadmill.

I rounded out January with 193.1 miles at 8:15 pace and finished out with back to back 50+ mile weeks.

After a slow start my mileage is back to a pretty typical level.  Plan to keep building to 60 miles and then hopefully winter will wane and I can start transitioning back to the roads and building in some more intensity. 

Overall I feel pretty darn good.  A little stiff/tendinitisy on the side of the legs around the knees but my hips feel better than they have in a while and I'm really happy with that because I was very sick of tight achy hip flexors.  My one issue is in my feet, particularly my right one.  It sometimes hurts really bad when I walk but feels fine when I run.  Doesn't seem serious but I don't want it to turn into something.

January has been a positive month and I've built back to a good base level.  I'm back to feeling fit and the easy, low HR running has been pleasantly enjoyable.  

Day 25

25 days in and I've finished up all the chocolate in the advent calendar.  Still going strong for now.

8 miles this morning at an 8:31 pace.  Average HR of 132.  I'm getting pretty efficient at running really slow and easy on the treadmill.  Hope that this eventually translates to running pretty efficient fast and steady on the roads.  For now, I keep building mileage with mostly easy runs and some harder efforts on Thursdays.

Day 24...

I may have missed a few days posting but I haven't missed any days running. 

I just got back from a work trip.  I left early on Monday morning to catch a 7 am flight.  This required me to wake up extra early to squeeze in a 5K on the treadmill before I left the house.  I had run 9 miles on the previous Saturday and 10.35 on Sunday to complete my first 50+ mile week of 2022 so I didn't feel too guilty about only running 3.1 on Monday.

2 Days at the steel mill on Tuesday and Wednesday didn't prevent me from getting in 7.5 and 5.5 mile runs in.  

And the cumulative fatigue from the trip and the 6 hour drive home didn't prevent me from waking up early and running a tempo workout today:

8.1 miles

1:00:17

7:26 pace  (including 3.1 miles at 9.5 mph aka 6:18 pace aka 19:34 5K.  

The only thing that did get disrupted was any kind of strength work so now I'm behind on burpees and pullups again :(

The treadmill work felt pretty damn good, getting my HR into the 160s fairly quickly and slowly climbing to around 168 by the end.  Right now treadmill running seems very manageable...  outdoor running is a different story.

Last Saturday I did 9 miles with the first 1 mile being on the treadmill to warm-up before I ventured into the cold (25 degrees and sunny but with a 12 MPH wind).  It wasn't exactly pleasant but it was manageable.  I started out pretty good at a 7:45 pace but quickly dropped to 8:10 pace after a few miles and wound up averaging 7:57 pace while working entirely too hard.  Not sure if it was the wind, the cold, the leg muscles not used to running off the treadmill, the fatigue from all the training, or I'm just still not in that great of shape?    

I wonder if I could run 6:18 pace on the road right now?  I bet it would be a lot harder than it was on the treadmill.   It's still only January though so I have time to keep improving.

Day 18!

 Felt good again today after yesterdays workout.  Another 7 miles at 8:22 average pace.  Varied the grade between 0, 1, 2, and 3% every .25 miles and wound up with 600+ feet of elevation when all was said and done.  Easy overall effort and I feel encouraged about how my body is holding up as I build fitness.

The only thing I need to improve on is getting my ass going a bit earlier in the morning.  I've been waking up at 5:10 but starting my workout at 6:15 which winds up either squeezing me for time and limiting the amount of miles I can fit in.  Just a winter motivation issue causing me to mill around a little to much.  

Another 50 push ups this morning has me at 1000 for the year (and on pace for 17380).  Last year I did just enough to hit my 10000 goal so this year I'm trying to be more consistent about how frequently I do them instead of fixating on the overall number.

  

Day 17 :)

 Felt a lot better today than yesterday so I guess 3.5 miles at a true recovery pace is good enough to keep me going for now.

Ran a workout today.  2.5 mile warm up (treadmill speed 6.8, 6.9, 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 8, 8.5 bumping up every .25 miles).  Then 3 miles at 9 mph (6:40 pace) and 2 miles at 9.3 mph (6:26 pace).  

Effort felt just about perfect.   HR got up to the low 160s by the end.  I was working hard but not too hard.  I felt good when I was running but once I stopped I was sweating hard and feeling exhausted (in a good way).  I didn't want to do my daily pushups, pullups, burpees at first but after 10 minutes I wound up doing them and felt fine.  

Only problem was some GI issues.  I had to stop briefly between the warm up and workout and then I didn't get a cooldown in.  At least I got my whole workout done without stopping.  Hopefully just a one off thing due to the fact that I haven't been working this hard for the most part. 

Overall workout averaged to 7.5 miles at 7:07 pace... fastest effort since my early October marathon.  I think 6:26 pace is easier for me on my treadmill than on the road but I also ran 6:09 pace for 10K last year so maybe not.  I don't think I'm in 6:09 pace 10K shape right now, but I've been feeling pretty good lately.  

I need to get outside and run and eventually I need to time trial something to get a better idea where I'm at.  It's 8 degrees today but it is supposed to be 28 on Saturday but with 14 mph winds... maybe I should suck it up but it sounds miserable.  Winter sucks!

Day 16 :(

 Seriously felt like I'm starting to fizzle today.  Legs are fatigued and am getting more and more tempted to break the streak and take a day off.  Instead I did 3.5 miles today at a 8:50 pace and average HR of 125.  I guess I'll see how ~30 minutes of really easy running compares to actually taking a day off. 

I've really only been doing easy running since last Saturday.  Tomorrow I'm planning to get in some sub 7 minute miles so that will be a true test of how I'm doing.  Might be good to stretch it out with some faster pace work... we'll see.  

With today's run I got my first 100 mile in for the year.  now I need to do that at least 19 more times plus hopefully a few more and we'll consider 2022 a success.  

Day 15 :)

 Another 7.5 miles in 1:02:33 (8:20 pace).  I'm mildly sore and creaky but it feels like normal training fatigue.  I'm curious... if I keep going at this rate will I start to get used to it and feel less tired or will I continue to get more and more tired?  

One thing I'm sure of is that an hour on the treadmill is a grind.  I try to think of these days as bricks (not like a triathlon brick but a literal brick).  One brick alone is not worth much but stack enough and you can build a house.  Just got to keep my head down, my mind right, and keep stacking those bricks through winter and see how it pays off come spring.

Day 14

 14th day of running in a row.  Followed up Saturdays long run with 5 easy miles at 8:40 pace on Sunday, averaging under 130 BPM for HR.  Then another 6.25 today averaging about 8 minute pace and squeezing 500 feet of vert out of it.  Goal was to run just hard enough to stretch out and get the muscles firing but not build fatigue.  Sprinkled a bit of pushups, pullups, and burpees on at the end to complete my daily fulfillment of punishment.  

I wound up with 48.12 miles for the week which was my highest since September.  Also, already eclipsed last months mileage.  Got some fatigue setting in but so far I'm fine once I get moving.  Not sure how long I should keep this up?  I suppose if the streak is important to maintain I can always just do one mile for an off day.   Not sure I love that idea though.   For now we'll just try to get through January?  

Day 12

 12.6 miles today at just over 8 minute pace.  Mixed it up by throwing in a sprinkle of uptempo work.  I had a mile at 6:07 pace somewhere in the middle and maybe 2 more miles at 7 min pace that was pieced out through the run.  Just kept going until the treadmill shut off at 1:39:00.

Longest run of the year.  Now I’m tired and a little sore.  Just gonna chill and I should be recovered for some easy work tomorrow.

Day 11

 5 more easy miles today at 8:27 pace.  Nothing too remarkable... planned on 4 miles and stretched it to 5.

After squeezing in another 40 pullups this morning I'm at 400 for the year that finally has me back on pace for 10000.  Did 50 pushups and 12 burpees as well.  I usually do my exercises after I get done running and mix them between packing my lunch, showering and getting dressed for work, and rushing out the door.  This makes it hectic to fit in but also means I'm getting this work done without sacrificing any precious time.  There's efficiency in this chaos!

My motivation is back for now so that's a plus.  Only thing lacking is that all my running has been on treadmills.  Treadmill is good for keeping things easy anyhow.  

I'm starting to think about mileage goals again so I looked back at 2021.  Overall I had 24 weeks logged of over 50 mpw with 7 of those weeks being over 60 mpw.  My weekly high was 65.18.

In 2020 I had only 13 weeks over 50 mpw and a high of 54.17.   In 2021 I had 12 weeks that surpassed my previous weekly high.

For 2022 I'll be looking to hit more 60 mile weeks and hopefully hit a few 70s.   Got to get those workouts in too but overall I enjoy the easy mileage and it's worked for me so far.   Also looking at 4 week blocks, my biggest 4 week block of mileage was 239 miles... nothing special about 4 weeks but consistent mileage is what seems to pay off so I'm going to target exceeding that.

Day 10

10 days in a row with 61 miles over that span.  

Today I upped the intensity a bit and had a bit of a workout.  7 miles in 53:03 for a 7:34 average pace.

I ran the first 2 miles easy, starting at 6.8 mph (8:49 pace) and bumping up by .1 mph every .25 miles running that last 1/4 of the 2nd mile at 7.5 mph (8:00 pace).  At the 2 mile mark I bumped it to 8 mph (7:30 pace).   At the 2.25 I bumped it to 8.5 mph (7:03 pace) at which point the workout officially began.  

2.5  8.6mph  6:59 
2.75 8.7mph  6:54
3      8.8mph  6:49 
3.25  8.9mph  6:44
3.5   9mph      6:40
4.5   9.1mph    6:36
4.75 9.2mph    6:31
5 - 5.5  9.3mph   6:27

Heart rate started in the low 150s and worked up to 165 by the end.  Never was breathing hard but got into a good rhythm.  I felt like I could have kept going for a while but was pushed enough that I was happy when it was done.  I feel like 6:30 pace on the roads would have been a lot tougher in my current condition but who knows.  The uptempo work got my cadence to around 180 and up to mid 180s by the time I hit 6:27 pace.  The faster turnover felt good and my form felt efficient.  All in all, about 20 minutes of the higher intensity work which should be enough to start easing my body back into performance mode without causing too much lingering fatigue.  

finished up with 1.5 easy miles to complete the 7.  

Similar to what I've experienced in the past, my legs actually feel better right now than they have been.  Oddly enough, sometimes a hard effort seems to reduce or eliminate tightness/soreness in my ITB and hips.  Not sure if it's endorphin related or maybe getting the right muscles to fire releases something?  No clue but I can't complain.  

I'll plan on going easier tomorrow as I head into the weekend.  Looking at the forecast it doesn't look like I'll be outside this weekend but you never know.  I might brave the cold one day if the roads are clear.  Otherwise, I'll at least try to get another 10+ miler in on the treadmill.

Day 9

 Felt better gong into today's workout than yesterday.  Planned to do an easy 5 and wound up doing 7 instead.  Easy pace of 8:49 per mile (6.8 mph) but I varied the incline as I went and wound up with 800 feet of vert by the end.  Wound up running for over an hour for the 2nd day in a row.  I was planning to run harder tomorrow so we'll see how I feel.

I'm also on a 8 day streak in terms of my secondary fitness goals.  I started the year with 5 consecutive days off so I've been playing some catchup. 

Pull ups:  currently on pace for 9733.  I've mostly been doing 36 of these a day.  3 sets of 12 with pullups, chin-ups and side-grip pull ups.  I've been extra cognizant of going all the way down, moving smoothly, and using the full range of motion.  These have been slightly harder than when I just crank them out but not bad and probably more effective overall.   The goal for the year is 10000.

Pushups:  Now on pace for 11860 with a goal of 10000.  Trying to keep good form on these but nothing crazy.  

Burpees:  This is a new one.  I'm currently on pace for 3072 with a goal of ????.  I haven't done enough burpees in my life to know how many is a good number... I'm sure I did some in high-school but I don't remember doing much since then.  The few times I did try I was dropping down onto my shoulders which I used to be able to do with ease in high school but now causes trauma. After watching a few videos I realized I should be squatting down first.  This eliminated the trauma and once I got the motion, timing, and breathing coordinated they are quickly becoming easier.  My original though was to do 10 a day for a goal of 3650.  Right now I'm working off that doing at least 10 and sometimes a few more as I play catchup for my 5 days off.  Currently a set of 12 seems like the right amount of effort but considering I've only done about 100 burpees in the last 20 years I'd imagine that number could grow quite a bit.  

I still can't quite get my diet in order and my weight quite where I'd like it to be.  Part of it is just the fact that my 40+ year old man's body composition and metabolism isn't quite the same as 20 year old me... Still, with all the work I put in I'd really like to wind up ripped at least for a little while... Being ripped would be cool but isn't necessarily the goal though... my real question is how much better I could potentially perform if I got my body fat down a bit.  Also, I can "feel" the extra bulk I carry and expect that I will "feel" a lot more fit if I ever shed it.  The problem is that eating clean takes 24/7 discipline and I just don't have it... so far this year I have been better about some of the snacking on junk food and I haven't been eating ice-cream every day so at least there's that.

Day 8

 Day 8 of my running streak.  Wasn't quite feeling it this morning when I got up.  Might just be mental... now that I mentioned a streak I immediately want to take a day off?!?

Legs are a bit fatigued but nothing too crazy.  The DOMS feeling is pretty much gone but has been replaced with some mild tightness in my ITBs...  Unfortunately this seems to be my new normal. Every time I take a break it's nice because that mild irritation goes away but it always comes right back after I start up again.  Not sure if there is any stretching/strengthening/mobility stuff I could do that would help.  Maybe I'll hit it with the foam roller.

Once I got on the treadmill I felt ok though.  Not as great as I felt over the weekend but I got the run in.  I planned on 6 and wound up doing 7.5 in 1:02:11.  Ran mostly at 7 mph but bumped the last couple miles up to 8 minute pace (7.5 mph).  Varied the incline between 0 and 1.  Overall an easy run with the only significance being that 7.5 is one of my longer runs in the last 2 month.  I don't mind running a bit fatigued but just want to make sure I'm not digging myself into a hole and getting more and more fatiged.

Seems like I'm rounding into form relatively quickly.  Haven't pushed too much but I'm satisfied with how my legs are turning over and how easy the effort has been at a reasonable easy pace.

Should plan on going a bit shorted tomorrow (4 or 5 miles) and pick up the pace for a bit on Thurday.

DOMS?, Streaks, going long, and recount

DOMS:  Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is something I've become familiar with over the years.  It hasn't been something I've had to deal with lately though.  Sure, I haven't been super consistent over November and December due to various reasons but I still averaged about 100 miles each month.  You'd think that would be enough to at least remind the legs to stay vigilant.  I took 6 whole days off between Dec 29 and Jan 3rd and I guess that was enough.  Now my legs are feeling a bit sore in that DOMS kind of way... not enough to impact movement... I'm just a bit surprised and don't completely understand the mechanisms that result in DOMS.

STREAKS: It's January 10th and I'm on a 7 day running streak.  Personally, I've avoided running streaks because I don't think they fit my personality.  For one, I can get obsessive and foresee myself hobbling around on a niggle and causing damage just to keep a streak alive.  Also, rest days are good and part of training.  I've worked my way from 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 and sometimes even 7 days a week of training but I can tell when I'm starting to feel worn down and will normally take a day off during the week when I need it.  This has been successful for me so far in terms of building performance and staying healthy so I don't want to change something that's working.

However, coming into the New Year, I feel like in this case a streak is in order to balance the inconsistency and to build my base back better.  I'm not setting any hard goals for the streak but looking back through my training, it appears my longest (unintentional) streak was 20 days in May of 2021 so beating that would be a good target.  Just need to be smart about it and if the DOMS continues or gets worse I may need to reevaluate.

GOING LONG: Yesterday, I knocked out a 10 miler.  My first double digit run since November 14th and only my 4th since my October 10th marathon.  It's amazing the impact a marathon can have on the body... it's no wonder I swore them off back in 2011... luckily I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm back at it now.  I'm hoping that the more training I put in, the better adapted I'll be, and the quicker I'll recover, otherwise I'll swear off the marathon again!  

But back to yesterday... 10 miles on the treadmill at 8 minute pace.  I started a 9 minute pace... bumped it up a bit, hit a rhythm for a few miles, bumped it up to 8.7 mph (6:53 pace) for 2.5 miles... then slowed back down to 9 minute pace.  I wore a heartrate monitor for the first time in a long time and it was helpful.  My watch HR has been really off lately.  It frequently shows HRs in the 150's even when I'm going at a low effort.  I was starting to believe the data so it was nice to have a sanity check.  Yesterdays data was a lot more palatable.... low 130s for the warm up.  into the mid 150s for the 6:53 work then back down under 140 with the cooldown.  

Most importantly, the run felt great!  I didn't start the day with the intention to run 10 miles...  my daily  mileage for the previous days was 4, 5.5, 6, 5, 5 so I was targeting 8 miles but I wound up feeling so good that I just kept going.  It's the best run I've had in months.  The 6:53 pace work was only going to be for a mile but it was so easy that I pushed it out to 2.5 miles.  Then once I dropped the pace back to 9:00 pace it felt so easy I could have gone forever.  I had the music going and was jamming and singing along.  I should have started on Prednisone a couple weeks ago I guess but I always try to avoid it when possible.  

RECOUNT:  I used the 6 day break between last year and this year, and the New Year to make a clean break and finally shift how I count my weeks.  I used to start my weeks on Sunday and end on Saturday.  I kind of liked this because I'd start the week with the long run and it kept me from adding miles to my long run purely for the purpose of meeting arbitrary mileage numbers.  However, my apps (Strava, NRC) count it from Monday-->Sunday so it's slightly more convenient to realign so that I can automatically track my weekly mileage.  At the end of the day it makes no real difference but I'm a numbers guy and like to hit my metrics even if its kind of silly.

Week one is in the books for 2022.  35.5 miles.  First time over 30 since the injury so not a bad way to start the new year.  Will probably target in the 40 mpw range for the next couple weeks and go from there.  Hopefully can be back to around 60 mpw by March just in time for the weather to allow running to be fun again.

OTHER THOUGHTS:  After a bit of a down period I'm finally feeling revigorated.  This past 7 days of running has been great.  My hip is completely healed and I really have no niggles to speak of right now.  The treadmill is no longer my enemy and I'm finding my rhythm.  Sunday has been one of my best runs in a long time.  I hit that flow state and though I ran for 10 miles I could have ran for more if I didn't run out of time.  I just can't stop raving about how great I'm feeling.  It's only been a week so I'm trying to keep things in perspective but if I can keep this up for the next couple months it should be a killer spring!

Stepping it up

 4th day of running in a row today.  We'll call that a streak.  5 miles at 8:11 average pace but the last half mile was at 7:03 pace (8.5 mph).  Even better, 7:03 felt pretty easy.  5 miles a day seems right for now but I plan on building on that through January.  One thing I do know... it's sure easier to get 12500 steps in for the day when I run 5 miles in the morning.

I signed up for my first race of 2022, a 5K on March 12, which according to the website is 2 months, 2 days, 18 hours away.  That should be plenty of time to get back into decent shape, right?  I guess it's too early to set goals but at least sub 19 I would hope.  I ran 18:30 at the same race last year with gas left in the tank... of course I was in a lot better shape at this point last year as well.  The real question is what's more important to running a fast 5K;   My fitness level 2 months before the race or the extra year of training I've had since last year.  

New Year, Same Story

I had a great running year for 2021 by most measures.  New PRs in the marathon and 10K and a masters PR in the 5K (finally breaking 18 minutes)... a new record 2248 miles run... some killer workouts and I was able to meet or exceed all of my goals.

Unfortunately I also got my first real injury since I started up again in 2019.  Didn't keep me down too long but after the injury finally subsided I got bronchitis which limited my training some more.  Add in the holidays and the results are an end of year fizzle out.  Not the way I like to build into a new year. However, being a New Year it's a great arbitrary point to start building back again.  

I got 4 miles in Tuesday on the treadmill at a 8:48 pace.  Then 5.5 miles Wednesday at a 8:22 pace.  It all felt easy and my breathing while not perfect is getting better now that I started a course of Prednisone.  6 miles today at 8:41 pace.  Just trying to rebuild consistency and get back into my rhythm at this point.  So far so good.

Ultimately this could work out well for me.  Build through January and February and start hitting it for real come spring.  That should put me in a good place for March, April, May where I have some races planned.

In review, I'd say that 2021 was a bit of a breakthrough year.  What I was able to achieve was approaching my potential.  I'd image I'll be able to continue to improve but I don't think I'm going to continue to shave minutes off my 5K time.  Definitely have some room to grow in the longer distances.

No glamourous plans this year, just more of the same.  Keep grinding and try to stick with it.