Ethan Cannon

Cool morning for the first run of September. 6:48 pace on east river flats. Knee could have felt worse. 

6:51 pace, west river road north with the family. Knee felt ok. 

Short distance, I know. But good. I was very sleepy this morning but eventually got out the door. Windy for a late summer day. The whole UMN team was having practice but not doing a workout. Plan was to do 2xmile, 2x800, and 4x400. I ran the first mile in 4:37 after opening in 65 high and 2:14 (the fastest 800 I've run this year lol). The second mile was 4:46 and was really just recovering from the first. However, I don't totally regret it, as cross country races kind of start just like that. Then I put on my flats and ran 2:16 and 2:14 for 800. I had wanted to skip an 800 but decided to just skip a couple 400s which weren't as important for my fitness I thought. So I put on my spikes and ran those. After the first I thought "that was pretty fast, I bet I ran 64". Turns out I hit 62! Fastest 400 in a long time. I followed that by closing in a 60. Rest was about 5 minutes between sets (changing shoes), 3:45 between the miles and 2:00 between the other reps. Overall I'm happy. Nice to know I can still run some fast stuff and I am optimistic that both my knee and my achilles tendons will be ok as a result of today. 

6:51 pace, farmer's fields. Achilles tendon definitely felt tight today, I am hopeful that it is not past the point of no return and that it will feel better, not worse tomorrow. It is sobering that I only ran 1.5 miles in not supportive shoes on a flat (admittedly, hard surface and very fast) and that I feel like this; I will have to take advantage of hopefully at least two more opportunities to wear flats in the coming couple days. 

6:50 pace, boom island. Knee discomfort still there and unfortunately my achilles tendon remains feeling loose. 

6:22 pace, reservoir woods. I really wanted to do something like a fartlek but it never felt right on my achilles tendon. Besides that though it was a great run. Sunny and the first day of the fall under 50 degrees to start (although it warmed up a lot) made for a really enjoyable run in clean, crisp air. If I could just get myself a pair of Vaporflies with spikes I wouldn't have to deal with training my achilles like this, but I think that wearing spikes will be important on that course. 

7:06 pace, Como classic. Just went chill.

Apparently 7:10 pace? Felt faster. I just did Como classic yesterday and had a workout planned but ended up going with the whole family. I thought my achilles could use one extra day anyway so it's not a problem. 

Workout at farmers fields. Its funny how cross country and the marathon are similar in the sense that for both of them, the race pace you need to run isn't very fast, and it's easy to convince yourself it will be easy. However, the marathon fatigues you in a way no other distance does, and the soft surface and hills of XC really slow you down. I only ran on the grass actually for a few seconds but it felt more energy sapping for sure than the gravel. I did 2x(mile,1200,800) with 2-2:30 rest between reps and 4 minutes jogging recovery between sets. I ran (4:55, 3:40, 2:15) and (4:53, 3:40, 2:12). I knew in advance that the 1200s were a bit long and the 800s were short (those were actually ~7 seconds short of a half mile). Felt kind of banged up with my knee, achilles tendon, and what felt like really tight hamstrings, but my achilles tendons did ok and I'm grateful to have been able to get that workout in. 

6:53 pace, east river road. Although that was slow, I feel ready to do at least a small workout tomorrow in terms of energy but worry that my achilles is not quite there. It's a close call. 

Ran around the diagonal. Don't know my pace coming back. Body felt ok. I definitely made the right decision not to work out today. 

Warm morning by September standards. I ran around the stadium area where they were prepping for a football game. I had wanted to get one more workout in to at least become more accustomed to running fast, even if unfortunately the timing was off such that this had to be on the track as opposed to golf course like I would have liked. My Achilles felt barely well enough to do the little workout- just 4x1k with 60 seconds rest. I ran 2:59, 2:57, 2:57, 2:53. So, not great but I got the work done. 

6:51 pace, farmers fields. 

6:48 pace, west river road. I ran a hard minute or so at the end to wake up my (achy :() legs. 

6:55 pace, river flats. Tired of knee pain.

Today something that happened that only happens once every couple of years excluding races- I got passed by another runner.

Nice run to Como classic, knee hurt again.

Just under 7 minute pace, just me and the girls on east river road. I haven't lived here for that many years but it's interesting that we've had like nonstop summer weather all the way until now. Things will finally change next week. 

Abotu 6:09 pace overall. This was my longest point to point ever- from my apartment all the way out of the twin cities to Sunnybrook apple orchard. The conditions were great for a really fun run, but unfortunately I did not enjoy it as much as I could have, because ominous clouds moved in from the northwest, and eventually a drizzle came, followed by a rain. I think I was sort of following the course of the storm. This was concerning to me as the reason for the point to point was to meet up with my family to pick apples, and I was worried as I had no phone or anything. At its worst, I was in Oakdale and there were rivers of water on the ground, saturating rain from the sky, and even some hail that came right when I was least sheltered by trees. Thankfully, my family still came, and the rain died down and completely soon thereafter so we could enjoy ourselves. It was cool to run so many miles on the gateway. 

Estimated to have run this far with an old teammate on a cold fall morning. 

6:48 pace, farmers fields

6:52 pace coming back from east river flats

Drove to Como park with the family and then went for a run around there and then home. 

Ran to Falcon Heights and then an area I've never run on near the highway in Roseville, except when I crashed my car. It's much nicer in the summer and when your car isn't crashed. 

I don't know about calling this a race. Today I ran the Spinal Sprint 5K in Bloomington with the purpose being to get in a workout and introduce the fam to Hyland Hills. It was hard. I ran 15:34 in my trainers and won by 40 seconds. It was very hot and humid for this time of year, but I wore a t-shirt, not a singlet. It was supposed to be like a hard tempo. It's been a while since I've worked out and didn't feel much pop; I'm not too dissapointed. My shoes were very slippery at a certain spot where it was wet- traction has always been the top weakness of the Triumphs. The mile splits were clearly way off- I supposedly ran 5:02, 4:30, 5:09, 51! Ha. It was just around a lake and back. Thankfully it was such a small race that the slower people weren't a major obstacle coming back. 

Minnesota is really incredible for having such massive park areas in the middle of cities. It is such a bike/ped friendly place. 

Probably one of our last family bike/runs of the year, again in very warm weather. Did an east river flats / east river road / stadium loop.