Ethan Cannon

6:51 pace, Como classic. For being around 20 degrees when I left at 9:00 and after another bad night with sick girls, this was actually a really nice run. I wasn't cold, wasn't tired, wasn't hurting, etc. Surprisingly, I saw two people out on the lake, which I am surprised was frozen at all. I wasn't going to do what they were doing, but I did decide to for the first time ever stand on the lake, just barely in the shallows.

5:56 pace coming back (similar pace going out except the beginning) from Resevoir Woods all the way around the Alexander nature center. At Res Woods, I saw people playing hockey on a lake. Wow. Hard run. Nice outside though. 

6:56 pace on east river flats. Should be grateful I'm still able to run that route on a misty morning. Some guy was running behind me; I didn't much like being followed. I'm not used to that feeling and I guess my speed qualifies me to not have to feel it very often. He kept running off on the shore by the end of the trail- I should explore that next time. 

A light dusting of snow made it icy, even though it was a warm 30 degree morning. I've had the idea to count all of the days I run on the treadmill this year, as well as the number of falls I have. Those two things are in direct competition with each other, and I'd like to minimize both. Tentatively I'm aiming for less than 20 treadmill runs this winter season, assuming I am healthy enough throughout the period to be running 6 days a week.

Treadmill Days:

12/5

12/11

1/15 (due to cold, not snow)

1/16 (cold)

2/15

2/28 (cold)

3/22

3/25

3/26

3/27

Apparently 6:46 pace on Boom island. 

6:47 pace returning from west river road (didn't get overall pace for route issues)

6:50 pace, Como classic. Against all odds, shorts season made a reappearance this late in December. 

Notes from today:

-5:54 pace based on MapMyRun. Mile splits: 6:12, 6:03, 5:53, 5:54, 5:54, 5:46, 5:52, 5:55, 6:06, 5:52, 6:00, 6:04, 6:03, 5:52. 

-The previous note should alert you to something very grave. The mile markers at gateway trail have been changed. I think they are actually accurate now. No more 5:45 3rd mile, no more 5 flat pace on long runs. Just boring reality, lol. The first marker is about 0.75 miles into the run. 

-Overall it felt pretty tough, not unlike any long run I usually do. I may have been underfueled from that morning and the previous night, idk. 

-Felt super grateful to be able to run Gateway today, when I would have guessed my last shot would have been a month ago. It was sort of snowing on and off, but it was hitting the ground as rain essentially. 

-I think MN is as pretty as anywhere during the winter. The thing is that I don't like the snow. Without snow on the ground, winter on the gateway is still really cool. 

-Wore shorts and didn't regret it but I did start to get pretty cold during the drive home just sitting in the car wet! 

Another day on the treadmill, icy outside. 

6:38 pace on east river road (wow!). Just a few small patches of ice. 

7:02 pace, west river road north

6:50 pace, farmers fields. Going to be warm today but windy this morning. 

Just before the halfway point today, I hit 3000 miles this year!! Yay! I'm proud of myself but also really grateful for my health. This is the 5th consecutive year I have hit the 3K mark. 2019 was my first year doing so and despite a few injuries, I've managed to cross that plateau every year since then. My 3rd and 4th best years are right around 3170 though so it looks like this will remain my 5th best year. 

East river flats. I felt a bit flat. 

Rainy morning run. Ran pretty directly to Minnehaha and then along a bike path by a creek to Lake Hiawatha. Reminded me of winter in Oregon. This would actually make a solid "mega long run" if I'm ever interested, as that then connects to Lake Nokomis which is even larger. 

5:55 pace overall. That includes a 5:49 pace workout, where I ran 20 minutes alternating 1 minute hard and 1 minute of what ended up being easy (faster than pretending to run but slower than floating). I figured that overall I wasn't going much faster during that than the rest of my run. But I feel good about that decision. I feel like I've gotten into a rut where every long run is the same. Something I read this week also convinced me that this type of effort would do more for my fitness than a long slog would. I think it was a success on all counts: more mentally relaxing (especially the first half), better for my fitness, and the overall pace was no slower than I would've hoped. 

Wasn't able to track time because of how I ran. Crossed Franklin bridge and ran around the Winchell trail on west river this evening. 

6:45 pace on an afternoon run to Como lake. 

6:44 pace, east river road

6:51 pace, east river flats. 

6:46 pace on a drizzly day of Como classic. I know I did this run a few days ago, but this is my last day in the cities for a couple weeks and I figure that when I come back, "winter running conditions" will finally have set in and blocked me from running some of my routes, including this one. 

This has been a very fast week. I am happy to see that I've been going quicker on my easy runs. 

6:20 pace on the W&OD? In fairness, I tried to do a hefty number of the hilly side trails. Also did 2 reps of 1/2 mile on, 1/2 off but stopped after that because my hamstring felt a little tweaked. Still, that felt hard for the pace overall. 

After running surprisingly slow Saturday, was surprised to run 6:55 pace today given that I went mid morning right after the snacking / breakfast routine so my tummy was topsy turvy for quite a while.

Beautiful warm christmas headed east on W&OD

7 minute pace. Went on W&OD headed east again. Was planning on going elsewhere but plans change. Really nice rainy morning. 

Another rainy run. For the first time I ran down this road towards Banshee Reeks. The idea was to test it out as a potential long run before committing to it on Saturday. It was in some ways one of the nicest runs I've been on, especially for it being winter. 6:58 pace on rolling hills through beautiful countryside and some nice homes. The issue was that the road I went on had no shoulder or sidewalk. I counted 19 cars that passed going what I thought was the less busy side of the road. So I don't think I'll run it again, at least as an easy route, which is too bad. A simple sidewalk would make all the difference. 

Another great run. Went to Morven park for the first time this year. Just really serene and pretty out here. It was almost 60 degrees and I didn't wear a shirt (that part was not intended, but it was perfectly comfortable). 6:48 pace. 

W&OD westbound. Really slow pace, like 7:18? Probably a little faster than that in reality. It was a really nice morning but on the way out I felt very hypoglycemic and otherwise trashy. Things got better on the way back. 

Last run of 2023. 6:15 pace east on W&OD. Felt tired, but I should probably wait to be worried till I'm doing my normal runs and normal routine. Started to feel better at some point and did 4 x half mile on, half mile off on the way back, with the hard stuff close to 5 minute pace and the easy stuff close to 7 minute pace. I really feel like that's the type of thing I need to do to benefit from long runs in terms of fitness. The other LR I've done in this direction was in lots of snow. This time I made it further (also because I took a more direct route to get there) and I passed by a place I recognized, after passing my previous turn around point. I realized that was the turnaround point when I came from the previous direction nearly 4.5 years ago on my wedding day in 2019. Kind crazy that I still remember that and all. 

Notes: I fell 1/2 mile short of having my first "organic" 70 mile week since finishing college running (on one previous occasion I did it by having two long runs in one week after skipping the prior week). Also, I finished <3 miles off what I did last year and 5 miles off what I did in 2019, I believe. So technically 5th highest year ever, but close to 3rd. (Even though 3165 sounds a lot less than 3500, it's still 60.7 miles per week, compared to 68 or 69). This year was marked by the most consistency I've ever had: my lowest mileage week was in the 30s (last year I was healthy but took time off for surgery, 2021 was also very healthy). It was also my first year that was 100% free of college running, which is why it isn't higher given my health. Anyway, I'm grateful to be able to run.