Ethan Cannon

6:41 pace, east river road. I definitely felt my knee, but somehow felt lighter on my feet like the pain wasn't weighing me down so much which was nice.

I wanted to do a chill workout because of my knee and tbh that's just what I felt up for. So I planned on doing 6K alternating hard and float more or less around the stadium. Despite being a really windy morning, things just felt very easy. So I decided to take a 1 minute rest and do one more hard K at the end. My times were also way fast and I knew I must have been off with mapping. Turns out that was the case and the times below are adjusted by 5-6 seconds from what I timed myself at. Overall, I really feel like this is an effective type of workout, where you increase volume by doing "float" reps in between harder work. Other examples would be a Michigan and my alternating miles workout. You get in a lot of volume, and your only "rest' is at ~5:30 pace in this case. Laps: 3:22, 3:04, 3:26, 3:02, 3:25, 3:01. 3:04.

6:45 pace, west river road. Knee hurt pretty bad but I didn't feel very tired for the day after a workout, even a small one. 

6:50 pace with an old teammate around west river north and boom island. 

The conference long run tradition continues. We ran as a family to Van Cleve and I split off from there to do west river. It was my first time there in a while I think (including doing the side trails) but also one of my only long runs recently. I've mixed in a lot of shorter things on Saturdays, and it felt weird to have that heavy feeling in my chest afterward. Today there is a crew race on the river, a football game, and tomorrow is the marathon, so plenty of sports going on around my route. For the sake of my knee, I waited till the end to do a little workout. It was just 4-3-2-1 with 3-2-1 rest. I already made one major miscalculation but it still seems hard to beleive I ran 3 miles in that time. That would be like 4:30 pace on the hard. Oh well. Nice sunny fall day for a run. If the mileage is to be believed, I ran 5:51 pace coming home. As I ran over the veterans home bridge, I saw some paths I want to explore next time. 

Apparently just over 7 minute pace, Como classic for a nice birthday run

Another slower day at just under 7 minute pace on east river flats. 

Run with the fam then a workout on west river road. 2x2 miles w/ 4 minutes rest. I felt fast, especially on the way out. But I only ran 9:57, 9:58. Not amazing but not terrible either. 

Ran with an old teammate. 

Ran to Como park for potentially the final family stroller/bike of the season. I doubt it will be 60 degrees again when we go for a run and another thing is it's getting darker too. Pushing that stroller is tiring.  

Reservoir woods is always a slow route for the effort. 6:21 pace today. 

6:48 pace, east river road. Not sure why I seem to be running a little slower recently.

6:55 pace, farmers fields. Left before 7 am which is not crazy early but it was quite dark at first running up the hill. 

West river north, then a hard 2:30, 1:15, and 1:15. Those really left my heart pumping so I'm glad I got in something hard before the race. 

Bad sleep last night, for reasons I won't go into. This isn't the preparation you'd want for your last race of the season but oh well. Leaf-catching season got its start with my first grab on the diagonal trail. 

I had an early appointment so I ran in the afternoon. There is definitely some appeal to that but I don't think I will be switching to afternoon runs anytime soon. 

And there's a wrap on the 2024 season! Last year was warm and this year was even warmer- 55 degrees, cloudy, and the wind didn't make me cold during warm up. The trees were really pretty and with the warm weather it was quite enjoyable. On my warmup I saw the MN Distance Elite guys and knew I would be locked out of the prize money (although I almost wasn't). I think I actually enjoyed the race more knowing I could just worry about running as fast as I could, and that if I ran fast or slow I would have someone to run with. This race was definitely nicer than last year when I felt fatigued. It was good to get back under 31 minutes in a road race 10K for surprisingly only the second time in my career. I hadn't thought the wind was super strong but I ran a negative split and definitely felt pushed along a lot coming back north, presumably due to the wind. The last 2 or 3 miles was kind of a stalemate where a guy behind me wasn't catching up and after closing in on third place I couldn't finish closing the gap.

Splits: 4:51, 5:00, 5:06, 4:55, 4:55, 4:56, 58

2024 placement: 2nd, 26th, 1st, 1st (if you count that one), 4th. 

Just a short and slow run up to Falcon Heights and then directly to Falcon Heights park. I'm not urgent to beat this knee injury because I'm worried about getting in shape for the Get in Gear 2025. I just want to nip it because I want to run pain-free. So my plan for this week is to do so with short runs, stretching and strengthening. 

No run today. It was warm outside but won't be like that forever so after getting my bike fixed yesterday I decided to go for a ride this morning. One lesson I learned is that a good running route isn't necessarily a good road biking route. I took east river road and then went down the hill at Hidden Falls on the way out, but the bumps and cracks prevented me from staying fast and enjoying myself. So on the way back from Crosby Farm I just biked right back up to river road. I went 21-22 miles overall and was hitting 19 mph from the top of the hill at Crosby Farm to the entrance of university area on Oak. I could've gone that fast the whole way but the terrain wasn't good for it. Crazy to go that fast and have it feel that easy. 

Another easy run to Falcon Heights. Great cloudy fall weather. Knee felt better than Monday but I still feel something down there, so I'm not sure what to do next.

24.5 mile bike ride. It was 45 degrees out but with a long sleeve shirt and gloves I felt fine everywhere except more poor toes. One more reason why running is superior to biking. The ride went great until I actually got to the gateway trail, which was very bumpy. This was annoying and made me go slower. I hooked a left onto the Bruce Vento trail and followed it north to where it ends. I averaged about 17 miles per hour, though my cruising speed on a smooth runway was much higher. It feels weird to go on running routes so fast, taking half the time to get from point A to B. 

Run in Bloomington as the sun rose with a guy I met who against improbably odds ran three of the same races as me this year: Garry B, Paavo, and the Spinal Sprint. Especially those last two are so random haha. Knee tightness unforunately. 

This might be a record for slowest run at a distance of >10 miles. 7:09 pace. Great run around Como lake. Knee pain still there. 

Left my apartment just after 6:00 for a unique exercise. I ran to the St Paul gym and swam 26 laps there, alternating breaststroke freestyle and backstroke. Then I extended my run on the way home to get 5 miles on my feet. It was a fun novelty to go to the pool and I feel like it gave me a decent workout for the time spent. This was made possible because it was oddly warm outside (50 degrees), I wrapped my goggles around my wrist, and because I had my marathon half tights which keep coming in handy, not only for racing and long runs but now bike rides and swimming. Afterwards, I dried them off in the machine and they felt fine on the run, also helpfully storing my ID card in the pocket. I've been hesitant to put cards in my shoe ever since I crushed a hotel key doing so. 

Tried some new exercises for my knee today. I'm way out of shape for swimming. I timed one lap at 46 seconds (~20 for the first length). 

26 more laps in the pool and 6 miles this time on an even warmer 60 degree morning. I could've felt more sore so I'm grateful for that but I did feel tired I think from yesterday. 

Long story but another run in the darkness, which I prefer to do in Falcon Heights. More knee pain despite going just under 8 minute miles :(

What a run. It was light out by when I ran but I did the same route up Doswell to Como classic as a rain route and to shorten the run. 7:15 pace overall so, faster than yesterday, and my knee felt better too. But maybe that was because I had other things on my mind: 38 degrees by when I came home (warmer earlier) and dumping rain almost the whole time. It was a pretty morning but also pretty painful.