A Giant's Foray

Did eight miles on the treadmill to celebrate finishing my first law school final. Went 7:30, 7:10, 6:50 and 6:30 two mile chunks, incorporating some incline. I hate the treadmill, but the time I got out of school, it was already dark and cold, so I avoided the outdoors. Felt good, might have pushed it a little hard on the last mile, but didn't really pay for it after in the legs.

Recovery, from the apartment to Green Lake, around the outer ring, and back. Clearly have to start working on my form to eliminate heel striking, but its going well. Went about an 8:15 split,  heart rate was at ~135 or less the whole time, which was nice to see. 

Was planning on doing two-mile intervals around the track, but I had another final today, and dusk was approaching when I finally left the confines of Sullivan Hall. Seattle's been in a bit of a cold spot as of late, and while it wouldn't be an unseasonably chilly set of temperatures for much of the rest of the country, my spoiled sea-side bones have had trouble adjusting to the oncoming Winter.

 So the treadmill it was, where I decided to just put in some good miles at recovery and be done with it sooner rather than later. Set the clock for 45 minutes, and adjusted the pace as my heartrate fluctuated; goal was to be stable from 130-135, and I was able to keep this pretty consistently until the last half mile, where didn't want to slow down. Had a good chat with the guy next to me in the gym about our collegiate sport exploits (he played b-ball, I rowed), and enjoyed myself as much as possible on the treadmill. Watch read 5.67 miles at completion (via foot pod). Did a 5 minute spin cool-down, and hit the showers.

 Was able to go out to dinner with the family (bro/gf, sis, mom and dad) to celebrate Mom's birthday. Costas Opa in Fremont has tremendous Greek food, with huge serving sizes; I've got enough for lunch tomorrow!

Can't wait to get done with finals, so I can properly focus on setting training up. Tomorrow I'm going to make up my missed track date for today, so that should be good times! Love going faster.

Did 3x2-mile around the track at Nathan Hale. Started off with a half mile warmup, did a few drills and a little stretching, and quickly got started, as it was freezing cold outside. I just got arm warmers in the mail today, and despite wearing a singlet and arm warmers underneath a tech shirt, I was really feeling the chill. Got started a couple hours later than I had wanted, as well.

 Here's the raw data: 

Interval 1 (7:14, 7:16, 14:30 total): Goal was 7:20/mile, so started out a little fast, but close enough that I wasn't really worried about anything.

 Interval 2 (6:56, 6:58, 13:54 total): Was aiming for 7:00, got reasonably close. Was feeling really limber after these miles. Now that I have a long-term goal that allows me to improve gradually, I'm not feeling pressured by calendar days to push myself beyond what I should. 

Interval 3 (6:31, 6:07, 12:38 total): Well, out goes that whole not pushing myself thing. While it felt great to push myself a little (it was the first time I've broken 13:00 on two miles, though the last time I tried was 5 years ago), it was stupid to do. Thankfully I realized with a lap left that I was being unreasonable, and slowed my pace. Glad to see I can run that fast while still having a decent amount left in the tank!

 Then it was home for shower and a nice burrito dinner, self-prepared of course with brown rice, lean ground turkey, a little sharp cheddar, and some great  homemade salsa from mom. Time to hit the books for a few hours and prep myself for Property on Monday! Easy run tomorrow, and I'm swimming ~5000 yards with my friend and classmate David. Should be a good day!

Really basic treadmill run, 45:00. Spent 15 straight hours in the law library, and didn't feel like freezing outside. Felt smooth, forgot my heart rate monitor, so the 5.7 is an estimate (the treadmill estimate is way off). Looking forward to a 10+ mile run tomorrow, though!