Chasing my Dreams

Easy miles with Tom to start off. The hamstrings and calves were a little sore and tired, but overall not bad at all. I did a few more miles after that, and picked the pace of a little. The run felt really long and boring today though, probably because I was struggling to get the miles I needed with my route. 

Had a hard time waking up the body and getting the bowels flowing the way I wanted before running. I felt decent once I got going, but I did have the poop pains. Since it was dark it was hard to spot porta potties, but I luckily the one I knew of was still there right when I really needed it. 6:46 average, so decent pace. It's pretty hard to guage pace when it's dark and you can't really anything. The feet gave me a little problem the first mile, but beyond that I was fine. The legs still feel a little tired, but overall pretty good. 

This workout ended up going a lot better than I had thought it would, especially now that I've had some time to analyze the metrics from it a little. I probably did 10 to 14 minutes of running to somewhat warm up, and then did 20 x 1minute on/off, basically completely by feel because it was dark. I did not feel very strong on the uphill parts, which shows me that is something I need to work on. For the most part my fast parts were between 5:20 and 5:40 pace, most of them around 5:30, and my off segments were actually a little faster than I had anticipated, most not dropping below 6:35 pace. I was consciously making sure I didn't slow down too much on those. My very last rep was uphill and I was starting to really feel it, so it ended up only being around 6 minute pace, but I also had taken the previous off segment slower as well. I had about two miles of an easy cooldown around 7 minute pace. The average heartrate for my run was 176, so I was definitely working. I wore the heart rate monitor for the first time, and it gave me a bunch more metrics. My vertical oscillation is kind of high considering how quick my cadence is, which tells me I probably need to hit the weight room and get a lot stronger in my core and hips, as well as work on better mechanics with my arms. 

Overall very happy, especially considering that 10k is probably lingering in my legs a little. 

I tried to pay attention to my effort today to keep things in control and get the recovery I needed. I can't run super slow on my own very easily though. I averaged 6:57 pace, with pretty consistent 6:50s, with the uphills being slower. I ran out to the no man land farm land, and it was extremely dark. I wished I had a headlamp. Average heartrate was 159.

Nice and relaxing miles this morning on the trails with some cooler weather and rain. I did almost get attack by some dogs roaming the woods in the dark while doing my 3 mile warmup. Did 6 miles with Tom on the shoreline and highline trails. The run was really exactly what I needed today. 7:20 average, 158 average heart rate

6:40 average. Did the first 7.5 by myself at a decent clip. Cooler morning, so perfect running weather. Did the rest of the run with Tom. Felt good, was mostly going for the time on the feet more than anything. Nothing was really hurting though.