Half Marathon, Baby

feeling better than yesterday! yesterday was rough

6 fast with Jake. Went out about 7:04? Came back around 6:30... Looking into doing the Quinnepiac summer training plan but with slower easy runs, more miles, and no lifting.

4 easy after Jake left. Felt good.

Haynes, you won't be happy with me, but I'm gonna try to keep it up! I might scratch the extra miles on harder days like today... This was "7 steady," which is supposed to be 6:15-6:30 pace. We meant to do 6:30 or 6:40, but went out fast and stayed fast, like 6:20ish pace... Final time was 43:58 for 7, I'm told that's 6:17 pace. It was rough, but aerobic. Hard towards the end, but not impossible or race pace. Felt like a tempo I guess. We were very even apparently, only had a fast mile towards the start and picked it up the last mile.

Tomorrow on his schedule is easy 5. I'll probably add on a few more there. The rest of the week is easy runs.

Slow, recovery. Probably like 7:30-8 min pace.

6 easy with the guys (Jake and Derek)

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww it's SO HOT OUT today.. Jake and I left at like 12:45, too.. so hot.. we stopped some on the way back, for water twice and at street lights close to the end.. when we were running averaged a very inconsistent 7:10 (apparently three seconds above 7:10 exactly).. i lost 3-4 pounds of water weight on the run.. weather, for reference: 86, feels like 90

two stops, kept running into friends. but otherwise felt good, decent pace while running, probably 7:10-30 but wasn't overexerting or anything

7:05 out, 6:50 back (averages, not that consistent though)

workout tomorrow!

supposed to be an 8 mile continuous run with the tempo in it, but it was more like 2 mile warmup, 3 mile tempo, 3 mile cooldown (mostly because my bowels went south about a mile into the cooldown). but we did pretty good. the watch said 17:25 for 3 miles, but two of those miles were long (they were the same mile repeated because it was the turnaround for the 8 mile) so we think the actual time is closer to 17:15, which would be the 5:45 pace we were shooting for. it was tough, i was tired, but it woulda been easier without a full large intestine...

taking it easy. tomorrow's tough again.. gonna be 8 miles, prolly 6:30 pace

steady run

overall: 50:58

each half: 25:29

average pace: 6:22

feel gooddd

we started at 6:30, pulled down by accident, slowed some at the turnaround but picked back up again. it wasn't thattt consistent but it was still a good run. i think we unconsciously pick up to test our abilities, then sometimes overshoot and pull back, kinda oscillating till we get a feeling of what we can do. running a 5k next weekend the day after a long run... this sub-17 is lookin gooddd haha

i measured this off time. it was super hot again (why always hot on the long days??? bah). i was out for about 1:22:30, figured i'd call it 7:30 pace and i'd get in at least the 11. but it sucked, i ended up doing 3 out and 3 back for 6, stopping the watch, getting water and cooling off for a bit, and then going out to do the remaining 5, starting the watch from where i left off. Oh! and the worst part was i had spent the day throwing a frisbee and hardcore tubing behind a jetski in the sun, so i was tired.. my friends napped, i ran 11 miles lol

5 easy, no watch

6 easy-ish, 41:40

fartlek day with jake: 3x4min on, 4 min off (off being regular run pace, not slower than 8-min)

pace at half-mile for first and third (and probably second, but we didn't get to start at a half-mile marker for that one) was under 2:40; that's sub 5:20 pace for 4 min intervals XD... pro lol.. anyway, the first was hard, wasn't quite warm, but the other two were decent.

probably going to double on saturday instead of do one long run so that the Sunday race isn't totally screwed... originally the two days were reversed, but because of the timing of the public race we made the change...

just got the half-marathon plan from my HS coach; much more distance-oriented than what i'm doing now, which is probably good. poor jake will have to run the workouts by himself after this week prolly lol (as will i)

supposed to be easy with hills, didn't have time for hills though because of traffic coming home and dinner plans. ended up running it a little fast too.. i'm tired today, but that's just because of a lack of sleep. Friday is off, get to recoup

AM: 8 easy, nice weather, light rain

PM: 4, easy again

race tomorrow morning!

2 mile warmup, race, 2 mile cooldown

i did not feel good today lol, but it turned out alright. twice during the race i thought i was going to poop myself or something, really think i could have done better without the bowel issues. either way, pretty tough week, 12 miles yesterday, i'm definitely happy with the time.

edit: official results are up, the rando kid that outkicked Jake and I turned out not to be registered... 4th overall! 2nd in age division since Derek (the other guy I ran it with) is 20 and the divisions were 14-19, 20-24! Derek, Jake, and I took 2, 3, and 4 overall haha

supposed to be easy, but we (jake and I) picked it up because somehow we felt kinda good. not loose, but decent. 6:55 average, 6:46 average second half... basically a little over 28 min going out and 27:16 or something coming back lol, rawr.. tomorrow is supposed to be one of those 7 steady days where we go like 6:30 or something, but we're going to ease up some. it's been a pretty intense week or so. then thursday is 3 tempo in middle of 8 mile run again. at some point i have to figure out how to switch over to the actual half-marathon plan i have now... it's nice running with someone though

originally on the calendar this is a steady run. we decided we were going to go easy though because we wanted to recover more before thursday's tempo. what really happened was we averaged 6:52? pace by going out "easy", getting warmed up and stuff, and then cutting down on the way back, so that by mile 5 we were at 6:35 and mile 6 was faster. Halfway through mile 7, jake cramped up a lot in his ribs and we slowed down, got water, ended up running into derek, and went home at a not fast/not slow pace for the last half mile. overall time was 48 min.

slow.. i was pretty tight

wow so i just typed a longass thing about two modes of nonrace running and then comand+left key went back on the browser. bullshit. anyway mode 1: sleeping. mode 2: awake. people try to stay in their comfort zone on workouts, and just underperform, they sleep. we slept today. also we agreed that our easy runs, regardless how good we think we feel or how fast we think we can go, are not recovery runs, like they should be. so we are no longer bringing a watch on the runs, going to go by the feeling, and save it for the workouts, where we will really put in the effort. we thought we would be able to cruise through 3 miles at 5:40 and just flopped.

2.5 warmup, 3 tempo, 2.5 cooldown

17:23 overall, not bad, not good enough though. 5:49, 5:51, 5:41. we were really surprised that the second mile was still slow, but we must have still been asleep. mile 3 we thought would be like 5:30, but it was just what we were supposed to do all along. we went out the first half at 2:52, about right, a little slow, feeling good. but from there we didn't turn it on at all to fix the pace, just kept striding. anyway, learning experience.

holy heat, batman, this run sucked. at least we kept it slow.. did 4 strides afterwards to open up after the trudging

nice long run. i think i need new shoes lol

easy, 8 small hills in the middle (as hills go)

originally supposed to be a steady run. jake and i were tired so we thought about easy running so we could do a public track meet thursday. then we decided to off a mile, on a mile, hitting like 6:30, 6:20, and 6:10 for our ons. we did that for off on off (first 3 miles), ran like 6:15 in that mile and were going pretty fast on our rest, so we decided to just do the steady run, which ended up being fast. final time around 51:30 or 50:30, idk, last 5 mile times were: 6:20, 6:15, 6:13, 6:18, 6:15

easy, recovery

this was actually more than 6.5.. ran 3.5 to a beach, met friends, played 2 intense games of ultimate frisbee with semi-random people for like 2 hours, semi-injured my already-sore groin/hip flexor area, ran 3 back, after which the groin felt better. rough day lol. jake went to the track meet today, haven't heard his results yet. there's a tempo for tomorrow, but we may alter that, having both had decently hard days today.

edit: Jake ran 4:53. said he wasn't feeling great though from tuesday still. (he ran 4:46 before we started training).

i'm feeling like our training is getting inconsistent. a lot of it is probably recovery issues. the plan has been pretty much workouts while building up mileage 3 weeks in a row with a 4th week that drops down to recover some, then repeat. we did two 46 mile weeks instead of a 50 followed by 40 mile week, though i don't think it should be that big of a deal. i don't think that the early success in the workouts was just from being semi-fresh. i had still been running awhile before the workouts started. and i think that i have gotten something out of the workouts we have done so far. the turning point was the 5k race that we followed up with runs that were too fast for recovery and then some (sub-par) workouts. i think we have started to get back on the right track since last thursday. frisbee was probably a mistake, though. it will basically screw today's (Friday's) workout for me. the up-side is that it could be seen as sort of a speed workout. thoughts? anyway, easy days will be very easy for awhile, then i'll hitch up the mileage more. this week will be like 59.5 miles or something (since i plan to run on the 7th day). maybe i'll just make it 55, and go to 60, etc after a reduced mileage week next week. more thoughts? lol

edit: i'm calling this 8 since i want my weekly mileage to look right and want today to reflect the "frisbee mileage" lol

dropped the tempo today, definitely the right move. did 8 easy, and went from being extremely tight to normal tight. a few more days i think the tightness will be gone in my hip flexor. groin seems good.

also, i know why jake didn't run as fast yesterday. he got drunk during/after the cubs game we went to on wednesday, then got more (brown-out) drunk and stayed up till 3 am and got 4 hours of sleep before the race thursday. lolcats

easy easy shakeout 3, very hot out at 2 pm. i iced my groin and hip flexors and glutes last night. once i started going today, everything felt fine, but i was going slow. good signs though i think. no longer an injury worry, more like the muscles just need to recover a lot.

today was an uber failure. it was supposed to be a long run of 12, but i was so hung over all day that i couldn't get the run in before dinner, and then after dinner when i finally got out, i felt sort of weak after the first half, and it was late, so i stopped (i was going to do two 6 mile loops starting from my house). i don't want to drink for a long time lol, ugh. i'll make up the mileage during the week though, at least.

easy run, my groin is almost fully healed!! i did strides and did my best not to compensate, like get over the subtle fear of leaning on my right leg, and i had no pain, still just not a full stride yet. just in time for tomorrow's workout! lol.. i might ice tonight. during the warmup today i felt it as like a pulled muscle going from my groin down the inside of my right thigh. but it feels better now. i ran with nimrod today (for those not haynes, yes that's his legal name; he's israeli, it means great hunter lol, biblical) (for those haynes [lol], he did that one 400s workout with us when he came to visit and didn't finish because he's in "frisbee shape, not distance [running] shape"). pro sentence lol

4x4min fartlek, 4 min rest, about 5:20 pace average (fast first one, prolly slow on third one, never over 5:25 i think). overall run in about 56:14. MY GROIN HELD OUT!!!! YAAAUSSSSS!!!! lol. this was good. hot hot hot day though, mid-80s, agh. first one was tough, especially since it was kinda faster. jake led that one, derek and i followed. i led the next one, probably was also fast, got into the leading mentality and definitely felt like i was moving. number 3 was tough, in the sun (so was 2 actually), and then the end up was up a small hill... i think we hit a wall on that one. but the last one we still were able to power out pretty well. i actually felt strong on the last one, kinda led, coulda picked it up or gone the full mile! but it was hot as hell out, stopping hurt... just glad that's done! easy week now, and 5k on saturday lol

easy run, prolly a little bit fast sometimes but was ok. AMAZING SCENERY, SHIT! lol.. it was POURING before we left, subsided once we left, stopped raining but kept up INTENSE lightning during the run, then some clouds cleared, the sun was setting, and everything looked golden/sepia, plus there were TWO rainbows in the sky. it was like a dream lol

easy, probably a little fast, ugh. i realized that driving so much is causing discomfort in my right hip flexor and glute.. cruise control has been awesome, but it doesn't work for everything unfortunately.. so i'm sort of tight in that area, bargh

easy, 6 strides afterwards

I THINK I BROKE!!!! yessssssss lol.. beat jake, who ran 17:20, bad race for him, and i caught derek for the last bit. i had him really worried until we got to the kick and i was done... partially cuz of my lack of energy, mostly my lack of speed and his being an 800 runner. but i was happy with it. derek's time was 16:55ish. since derek got top 3, he didn't qualify for age division awards, and i got first there. also, the 3 of us and nimrod (who ran to fill the team, 19:06, not bad for such little running) ran as a team and got first there too. two medals! i was just telling myself over and over, don't go to sleep now, go away pain, not right now, just staying awake. it was tough

edit: official time is 16:58! derek was at 16:57 and jake at 17:21

no run... i swapped monday's off day and sunday's long run around because of being out of town.. it was dark and i was tired, and i was pressured to see people who were in town for 2 days.. i feel bad not running the day after a race, argh, but whatever. this is supposed to be a lighter mileage week.

2 strides and a few drills afterwards. coincidentally ran into jake while with nimrod since jake didn't run yesterday, went to the cubs vs sox game instead. pretty crazy that we left at the same time and met at the halfway mark between his house and mine! he hasn't been feeling so good for a long time, thinks it's from the lifting he has to do. he emailed his coach who told him to not do workouts this week, just mileage. i decided i want to take advantage of this to run a speed workout tomorrow with nimrod. does 5x200m, full rest sound right? prolly gonna do a tempo on saturday, this time 4 miles, gah.

run will be in the afternoon. for now, did a core workout. gonna start doing these a couple times a week.

afternoon: 8 miles, ran to a track with nim, did 5x~200m with 5-6 min rest. i'm not sure how accurate the 200m were, but the times were 31.5ish, 32.8ish, 31.low, 30.08, 29.52. i didn't start looking at the decimals really till later in the workout. afterwards did 2 strides. my tendon from my groin to down the inside of my thigh is sort of acting up again, probably from the sprints and sharp turns on this weird track. bargh.

ran with jake, so you know it was prolly a little bit fast, but not too bad.

afterwards did "10 down" pushups, where basically he does 10 pushups, then he rests while i do 10, then he does 9 and i rest, i do 9 and he rests, etc, and from 3 down you just hold in the up position. the groin/hip flexor area was ok during the run, but still can feel it, definitely not great yet.

afterwards i showered, and at the end of it i gradually cooled the water to only cold water (it got SO cold! no reason for a shower to get that cold except for this purpose), then used the water as like an ice spray for my legs for awhile. before getting out i warmed the water up a little bit and thawed out. i think that helped some, we shall see.

ran 5 to frisbee, played frisbee for 3+ hours, ran 3 home. what a day! leg was feeling fine during the games! unfortunately, on the way home i noticed an achy bump on my right ankle, right below that bone that juts out on the outside. i'm icing it now though, and i was able to uncomfortably still run on it, so it should be fine

i swear to god if this is a fracture...

edit: ok, almost certain now that it isn't. the swelling and pain respond to icing, making walking no problem. walking before the ice was difficult/painful. haynes, what is that ibuprofen dosage you always suggest? i'm gonna ice/drug the shit outta this thing. not running today though. i hope i'm ok tomorrow.

did "the pillar" core workout and 2x20 pushups

okkkk, so tried out the run since most of my pain was gone by the time i went to sleep last night. the start was a little shaky, but after a few miles things were good and we actually ended up picking up the pace a lot for the last 3. decided to let it go today, whatever. no pain when i finished running, or almost none. the pain i did feel was not in my foot, but was instead up in my hip flexor again. what a relief! took some ibuprofen and going for the long run tomorrow. also did 5 min core with jake.

very very hot, rough run. something like 90 degrees out with very little shade

easy run, first time in a longg time that i have started a run feeling good. no injury pains, muscles not too heavy, light step. i guess that's what happens though when the mileage drops a little like that lol. i made sure to stay easy though so that i can channel this into tomorrow's workout, 6x3 min with 3 min rest, continuous over 9 miles. 

6x3min fartlek with 3 min rests. start around 5:20-5:25 pace, pulled down to sub-5:20 by number 3 or 4, and even close to 5:10 on the last one. great workout. felt aerobic pretty much all the way through. the last one was definitely a push, though, and i started crossing the threshold i guess. still, happy with this.

pillar core workout after dinner

noonish: easy 4 on a treadmill at work

6pm: 6 miles easy with nim, 6 strides after

beginning with yesterday and today, it looks like things are going to pick up a bit! oh boy

easy run. pretty heavy throughout, but felt a little better at the end i think.

6 easy instead of an off day. still heavy, yeesh. 8 steady tomorrow. also a MTG prerelease lol.

8 mile tempo. damn, that was a run. we coulda/shoulda warmed up, but whatev. overall jake and i did 49:35 (cab blocked towards end, shoulda been like 49:30-33). roughly 6:11 average. miles were:

6:19

6:03 (ow)

5:59 (ow, warm now, getting control)

6:10

6:10

6:13

6:16

6:20 (blocked by a cab at 6:15 pace)

it wasn't the MOST consistent run, but it was still decently consistent I think. never felt like i was racing, breathing was under control, muscles were where i felt it. i'm happy with it though!

nothin like a long run in the morning to shake off the grogginess (read "hangover").. 60 mile week last week! i think that's my first one haha

beast. 9 miles with 4 mile tempo in the middle. i wasn't feeling great, but not terrible either. goal was like 5:52-5:53 pace, so 23:30. we ran 23:32, which i am super happy with after the past two days, yeesh. the run was weird, we ended up going 5:56, (jake and i then ran into derek, who ran the next two miles with us) 5:57, 5:49!, 5:50! bringing in the goal time. again, not super even splits, but the first half was even and the second half was even after we picked it up (much thanks to derek; i definitely was cursing him for leading us out when he was so fresh). i must also say that the weather was pretty perfect by the time we started. the sun was basically covered, and the temperature was prolly mid-70s. next two days will be easy easy easy. thursday is fartlek, 7x3min on/off

followed up after dinner with pillar core workout

am: 4 easy on treadmill at work

pm: 7 easy, 4 strides with jake. had some momentary lower calf discomfort while stretching, but i think i was just over-doing the stretch. back to normal now.

8 easy, hottt 94 degrees out, finished with a stride lol

whattt a sloppy run.. 90+ degrees out. started the 7x3min on/off workout by myself and it just failed. i got through 1 at like 5:46 pace and most of another before i realized that it wasn't happening. from there i just sorta picked up when i felt it and slowed down whenever. it was pretty pathetic. basically a slightly faster easy run...

noon: 5 easy on treadmill at work

pm: 6 easy/moderate with jake

off day. core workout

2 days off in a row, FAIL... couldn't run in morning, was busy, during the day it was 95 out and i was busy, when i wasn't busy i had to decide between running or seeing Inception first and then running when it was dark. i decided to see the movie, then got home at like 9:45 and was like no way i'm running 14 starting now when i have work tomorrow. wtf. so i'm gonna double a bunch this week to hit the same mileage, minus a long run. blah. wtfever. first 2 days off in a row since May. at first i was gonna run at 5 am before work, then have 8 easy afterwards, but that didn't seem like a great idea... i had dreams about telling people i missed my long run! lol.. gotta take a step back and get over it, do the miles throughout the week, and keep going. two days with so little running made me realize i like the breaks. but no time for that yet...

11am: 5 easy on treadmill. beginning of make-up miles for the missing 14 from yesterday. i'm sure this treadmill moves faster than it says it does, but whatever. i did it's "8 min" pace and it helped me work on my turnover sort of.

6pm: 8 easy/moderate

6 strides

9 steady at 6:30 pace became 9 cutdown-ish... prolly overdid it but whatever. first mile was sort of a warmup at 7:00. after 2 miles or so, i just started looking at the half-miles and shooting for (under) 3:15. starting with mile 4 or so things got faster somehow. i probably just got warmed up finally. then i tried to keep it fast etc. anyway, overall time was 57:29, which is about 6:23 pace average. last 8 miles were in 6:18 pace, and last 7 were like 6:17 pace, and last 6 were 6:15 pace. the first 3 miles (mostly the first one) throw off the time a little, but whatever. bowels didn't like this run, so i felt a little sick afterwards, especially after downing wayy too much sushi. but it was ok. i felt tired and crummy before the run, so i am glad that this turned out with a decent time. i've been tired and heavy since last week's shenanigans and i think this finally broke down the wall that was building. i hope it doesn't build another one by wrecking me for the week. i didn't feel thatt good doing it.

meant to split this 10 into a double, woopsss. i forgot my shorts at home though when i went to work.. then i left my shoes at work lol, so i just used old shoes to run in. gonna double the next two days to finish making up for sunday. anyway, today felt pretty nice once nim and i got going. 4 strides afterwards. these strides are my speed work, for now at least lol

11:30am: 8 easyish on treadmill. i still think that thing goes fast, or else my form is off when i'm on a treadmill. doing the longer run early today since i have to make it to a dinner with family and guests tonight.

6pm: 5 easy. with this doubling, if my week was Monday through Sunday, i'd be doing a 74 mile week lol

edit: by 74 i mean 80... ba-bam

decided not to double today. i'll only miss 4 miles, which isn't a big deal in the long run, and the recovery/not overtraining will do more for me than the 4 miles. 9 miles at 5:30pm, 8 miles with 4 mile tempo tomorrow.

9 easy in the evening with jake and his friend mike levine from his school. apparently mike is very fast lol, but he's out of shape right now. darn genes! lol.. the run was kinda crazy, started hot and muggy, then the storm rolled in and things cooled off and there was lightning all over the place! lol. it was sweet

4 mile tempo with 2 warm up and 2 cooldown. we weren't feeling great, my knee was hurting me.. jake wanted to at least go under 24, which i was sure we'd do. jake's friend mike was with us too. we ended up running 23:29, and mike went ahead the last mile to do 23:10. the time is fine by me, but the way we ran it was silly. 5:58, 5:58, 5:58, last mile some asshole driving doesn't want to stop for us and slams his brakes, even though we had stopped already to let him go and even though 2 other cars were already stopped for us; this causes a shouting match, i flip him off, mike moons him (LOL), and we take off to run 5:35 (mike does like 5:16...)

moderate pace, had a couple of stops, but probably averaged about 7 min pace, with a few miles under 7

9 steady. usually these are supposed to be around 6:30 pace, but that's tough to pull out when it's a 9 mile run and 9 mile day, so no warmup sort of. it's also kind of lenient. after the past two days i decided not to run this one as fast as last time. this whole short tempo long run, long tempo stuff is tough, so i think turning it down a notch was a good call. ran it in 59:57 (6:39.67 pace) with the first mile in 7:12 to start warming up (last 8 miles in 52:45, 6:35.63 pace). a couple miles after that were around 6:45, then finally got to 6:30 around 4 miles in and kept it there, plus or minus 3 seconds. felt pretty good i guess, even for being tight-ish at the start. i'm beginning to think that miles 3 to 6 of this run are marked wrong though. 

noon: 40 min = 5 easy. i don't trust treadmills anymore

evening: 7 easy-moderate, mid-low 7s, maybe under 7 for some. we ran with a girl who was this year's illinois state cross country champion (she ran 17:11 for 3 miles at State). she's going to wisconsin next year and hasn't really trained much yet, so she and mike got to jump-start their training with jake and I lol.. anyway, we went faster than we shoulda, and today was supposed to be 4 and 7 but i was gonna do 5 and 6 to make an early-ish dinner till jake called... it worked out though lol

9 easy/moderate.. been doing the easy runs kinda fast lately and i can feel i'm not getting as rested as i'd like. also prolly because of a lack of sleep. i dunno. but once this run got going, things were better. we picked up the second half a bit.

originally this was 10 with 6x4 min hard with 4 min rest, but in the interest of time and because of my own fatigue/frustration at the time, I decided to do 9 miles (did an extra one two days ago) with 5x4 min with 4 min rest. i also haven't done one of these workouts in a few weeks, and i'd like to build back into them. this went much better than the last time i attempted it. first 800 of first bout was 2:48, kinda slow, 5:36 pace, so i picked up a little. no time on the next two, but they were considerably faster than the first one. probably mid 5:20s for the second bout and low 5:20s or maybe dipped under 5:20 for the third one. fourth one i had a time on, 2:36 at the half, 5:12 pace. last one, i didn't have an exact time, but at a half-mile marker i took the time (1:36) and then wanted to see how close to 800 meters i would get in the remaining 2:24. i was pretty close, maybe 50-75 meters away. the calculator says that 750m in 2:24 is 2:33.6 pace, 5:07. i felt kinda crappy (mostly sleepy) before the workout, but the 2-mile warmup was fast and helped. by the end of the second bout i felt good. at the end of the workout i felt like i could have run another one, but was breathing heavily. i'm happy with this workout, despite the lack of accuracy for some of the times. 1.5 mile cooldown

easy 8, swapped tomorrow's run with today's off day. pretty uncomfortable, weird places hurt. like my knees.

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

very hot. ran with a (slower) friend. gonna get myself back together.

pillar

pillar

pillar

8 kinda moderate/fast

8 with the club, beginning of return to consistent running!

8 with the club, new guys like going fast

8 with the club

8 easy in the morning with Dan