Half Marathon, Baby

long run, felt pretty good after 50 hours of rest lol. but i overdid it.. pretty sure about 7 min pace average, if not faster. it hurt afterwards.. may have sabotaged tomorrow's workout, but whatever. saturday is supposed to be a race to test fitness, and tomorrow is supposed to be a tempo. i'll just run tomorrow's workout wednesday and take tomorrow easy prolly.

9 easy. heavyyy

am: 36 min = 4 miles, on treadmill

pm: 7 easy

ugh, terrible run. supposed to do 5 mile tempo, shooting for 5:55 pace or something under 6. i felt tired and bad before the run and during the warmup. napped a little to attempt to put off the fatigue, didn't work. 1st 800m at 3:00, 1 mile at 6:12 (ew), 1.5 mile at 9:17 (ew but better), 2 mile at 12:31 (ewew), and i just stopped after that. it wasn't that i was pushing super hard and not getting results, i was just really tired in my muscles. my breathing was fine, but my legs were not. i figured i was not going to get much out of running 5 miles at a pace i have run 8 or 9 miles at before, so this tempo will just have to wait or else be skipped. just ran the rest of the 10 however i felt, which ended up being a decent pace after awhile, prolly like 7:30 or 7:45.. i followed some guy and didn't want to let him pull away since he was in reach. silly pride.. anyway, sunday really wooped me i guess. i took it lightly at the time, but i really felt it after that run. not so much in the fatigue category, but my body just felt off. for one i was pooped a lot right after the run and the next two days. i felt pretty broken down in a strange way, like little pains here and there and less general aches. i felt heavy in my chest, like i had been breathing a lot, but efficiently, for a long time, like after hard workouts. i dunno. sunday was probably more like a 14 mile tempo and i couldn't even tell with no watch on. but i certainly pushed the whole way, trying to finish up to hang out with friends/girlfriend before the end of the night. it's easy to get motivated to move fast when it's dark and when the run takes you past bars and people at night.

am: 4

pm: 6.. supposed to be 7 but i was gonna play frisbee and call it at least a mile. unfortunately, they didn't meet up today so i didn't get in that last mile

day off, Lollapalooza!

am: 5

pm: 5

15 long run, very hot out, ugh. 90s for sure

8 easy, feel better than i expected to after yesterday..

noonish: 4, loosening up

6pm: 7, felt alright, still easy

owwwwwwwww. workout was supposed to be 5x1mile with 5 min rest (replacing a 5x5min fartlek w/ 5 min rest). lotta rest, i know.. goal pace was 5:20 though. weather: 85, warm and humid, feels like 91. and that was at the end of the workout, 7:50 pm... it was hotter at the start, around 6:15 pm... anyway i ended up doing 4x1mile with about 5 min rest, but more rest towards the end.. i'd just chill on the line a second after the 5 min were up. times were:

800m: 2:38, mile: 5:25

800m: 2:38, mile: 5:22

800m: 2:38, mile: 5:26 (i was really hurting)

800m: 2:40, mile: 5:32 or something..

it is important to note that these were 800 out and 800 back, so there was a turnaround time of at about 2 seconds that also just killed my already weak momentum... after the fourth my head ached and it sucked.. not upset with the workout, but not greattt either

this may be a sketchy 8, but whatever. 4 miles to a beach, met up with people, played 4 games of frisbee over 2.5 hours. called it close enough lol. i was surprised i was able to move decently despite yesterday's workout. i felt better after the games than i did yesterday. it loosened me up some i think, while getting in a little speed at the same time.

noon-ish: 33 min easy = 4 miles

pm: 7 easy. the pizza and ice cream at lunch for the celebration of my last day of work did not sit well. hate lactose intolerance... i'm pretty sore lol. gonna make this 70-mile week though!

8 easy around the lake in michigan. 70 mile week! first in my life lol. i feel broken down, but the run was alright. either i'm in better shape or it was because today was nice and overcast, but this run was much nicer than it usually is. i think it was both, but the covered sun was a biggg help.

highlight of the run: the back stretch is a two-lane highway with dense fields of 8-ft corn stalks on both sides which is pretty cool. i'm running along and there are no cars in sight. on my right, across the street i hear a sound and look over to see a SKUNK. i'm like okkkk, coolll. then it starts walking over to me. then it raises its tail. i'm like HELLLL NOOO lol, and pick up a little to put a gap between us. but when i look back, the thing is scampering after me! wtf?? lol. after a few seconds it stops and walks into the corn fields lol.. it was an interesting encounter lol

i also realized that i used to think of interesting things during my runs to tell people when i got back, and now i get to just throw them up on here, which is nice.

i hate running here in michigan. way to hot. very little shade. one loop, which makes running any farther very difficult mentally. ended up scrapping today's long run for now.

3-4, ran with jake, he injured himself last week after rushing his run the morning after the mile repeats. we were gonna do ten but he had to stop and we just walked back home. busy day so i didn't get around to running the rest. we did 10 down pushups (10, 9, 8, 7, etc, with rest equal to the time it takes the other person to do their set) and later i finally did a pillar core workout

workout day, first workout from the actual half marathon plan from my high school coach. workout was 4x1.5 mile, 3 min rest, 80% race pace. i just decided to shoot for 6 min pace. i realized again today that i hate being lactose intolerant. last night's jameson irish whiskey did NOT help. first rep i took way too easy since i didn't take the workout seriously. i thought it would be easy for some reason. anyway, i go through half, then mile, then 1.5 in 6:20 pace, finishing in 9:30. it was easy the first 800, then i'd try to go faster but just wouldn't. mostly because i probably held back. it's like i said at the start of the summer, can't run workouts as if they're easy days. it'll just hurt more. anyway, i realized at that point that i HAD to get to a bathroom. since my first rep kinda blew and my rest was also screwed with the bathroom stop, i started over. this time, things went better:

9:02

9:00

8:49 (gah)

8:46

i guess i woke up after number 2 and started going out a little faster and pulling back to 6 min pace by the end. i would not have expected that, since after that second rep i got pretty lightheaded and felt badd. i still had some of the earlier issues in between sets, and i thought i wouldn't make it to the bathroom after the last one, but it worked out. also, i sweat so much that it got in my eyes and i couldn't open them for awhile until i got to a fountain to rinse them. my hands were too covered in sweat from wiping my face or adjust my pants to be of any use. on a better note, the weather was perfect.

10 easy, felt pretty good. idk what was up with yesterday.. whatever though, moving on. last 1.5 miles i did 4 scattered X-meter sprint/strides

11 easy. not much special about this run lol

wow, the weather made this workout VERY hard. right now at 5:50pm it is 87 degrees out, feels like 90. at 4pm when i left the house it was probably 5 degrees hotter. ughughugh. then, going one direction was extremely windy, which threw off my times. goal workout was 2 mile, 2 min rest, 1.5 mile, 1 min 30 sec rest, 1 mile, 1 min rest, 800, 30 sec rest, 800, 30 sec rest at 5:45 pace. on a day like today, that would have destroyed me. actual:

2 mile: 11:29 or 11:30. this was good. wind was behind me though. 800 splits were silly: 2:44 (wtff?), 2:55 (5:39), 2:54 (8:33), 2:57 (11:30). i would have liked to actual run a 2:52 or 2:53 (5:45 pace), but i guess 2:54-55 is ok.

then 2 min to 2 min 30 sec rest.

1.5 mile: 9:06! SUCKED. hard wind the whole way. but surprisingly even splits, even when i felt like total crap. 2:59 (i knew it was gonna be bad), 3:03 (6:02), 3:04 (9:06).

here i was going to use a nearby fountain, but i when i got there it just sprayed everywhere. i felt terrible, even walking in the wind toward the fountain was hard. the heat was a huge factor. so i ended up walking/jogging to another fountain about 600m away, towards the next half-mile marker on the path. got some water, went to the closest marker and did the next bout from there. probably 7 min rest. ugh.

1 mile: 5:45. plenty of rest will get you there... so will wind essentially at my back. this part has a weird little ditch thing in the path that slows you down a little, but ended up ok. splits were 2:47 (wtf is this. wind.), 2:58 (5:45). guess i sort of kept dying down to 6-min-ish pace.

2 min rest

800m: 2:51. good. wind behind again. just squeezing them out now.

1 min rest? maybe 1 min 30 sec. i don't remember.

800m: 2:55. into heavy wind, up slight hill. feel like this was good, considering.

i ended up finishing the workout about a mile from where i had started it, where my shirt was. i was like, "screw that," and did a 1 mile cooldown instead of a 2 mile cooldown, and just left my shirt on the path. i can literally say i left a small part of myself on the path after this workout. several pounds of water and a white bit of cloth...

nice shakeout 8 in michigan. overcast and cool, finally! so nice. also reallyy helped that my girlfriend was biking slowly with me while i ran, definitely made it easy to get motivated and helped me loosen up. probably actually went a decent pace, with hills in there too.

off day. my sister's boyfriend wanted to run a timed mile since he hasn't run one since 8th grade. he's going into his freshman year of undergrad and is a soccer player. we didn't warm up enough, but oh well. i was supposed to pace him a little bit and help him go close to or under 5 minutes. we did 800m warmup, which he probably thought was a long warmup, but he wasn't warm enough. i led him through 300m before wind and soreness from friday took me out of it lol, ugh, but he was at 75 seconds for a lap + 9 or so meters to make it a mile. i did the last lap with him to get him motivated. final time of 5:13. not bad for someone who doesn't run-run and a weak warmup! 800m warmup plus 2 laps = 1 miles lol.

i didn't entirely expect to do a workout today, but i realized i probably should about 2 or 2.5 miles into my run. i woulda done a 3 mile warmup, so that's what i ended up doing. felt somewhat recovered but still heavy-ish. this week is my last one in chicago, so there will be/already have been some nights of little sleep. makes working out tough. anyway, this was a repeat of last tuesday's workout, but faster this time. 4x1.5 miles, 3 min rest, 5:45 goal pace. times:

8:43: into wind, splits were something like 2:52, 2:56 (5:48), 2:55 (8:43)

8:47: spot turnaround at 800m, still into wind for at least first 800. splits were 2:52, 3:03 (5:55), 2:52 (8:47) yeaaa! got that last 800 in fast. i was chasing some little kids. it hurt lol

8:42?: i think this one is short. probably closer to 8:47 or 8:50. don't remember the splits, but i think the first "800" was like 2:44, which i think was short

8:38: finally hit my time... i used the new mile markers for this, ones i'm less used to, but they should be no different from the old ones except that these ones are all shifted south about 200m on the same path... couldn't find the first 800m marker because of unfamiliarity, but the mile was 5:37 if it's the right distance, followed by a 3:01..

my times weren't that even, but a mile and a half is a long way to go for a repeat. very easy to fall asleep then wake up a few times... weather was probably low 80s, wind was a good temperature. much better than last friday, when the wind was as hot as the rest of the air, ugh. like a sauna at the start..

5 easy, not much time today, heavy

10 easy, still heavy

10 easy, feeling much better. tried out something where i slightly straightened my body vertically, mostly in my legs, which seemed to help me use the balls of my feet more (and my hamstrings) and seemed to better keep my motion in one plane. it was the end of the run, so whatever, we'll see. probably going to do a cutdown 10 miler tomorrow, last 3 are supposed to be sub-18 min. think i'm going to go for 6:35, 6:30, 6:25, etc., or start a little faster and level out at the end.

3x20 pushups

i'm writing this on Wednesday. these next days are not impressive. last days home/first days at school though. whatever.

pillar core workout

pillar and pushups