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.