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.  

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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.