Ethan Cannon

Went skiing today and wasn't able to run

Did my last run in medford and last run with Adam. He was doing a workout so I did it with him since I figured it wouldn't do me any harm. We ran 5 by mile with 2 minutes rest on the relatively flat in 5:40, 5:39, 5:41, 5:42, 5:56. He hasn't worked out in a few weeks so it wasn't his best workout.

Ran at like 8:30 tonight. It has snowed over 12 inches in the last day or snow, which was an additional reason going outside was out of the question. After having traveled for 11 hours today, I actually felt pretty alright. 

I didn't run as far as I wanted to because I had to get back. It has been a rocky return to routine here. For example, I spent nearly an hour unburying the car after the storm. I guess it was nice to run in the afternoon because I don't love doing a morning run following a night run. Actually snuck in 6:57 pace because transitway was very clear. The sidewalks were not, but thankfully I felt very good about running on the road because there were very few busses presumably because it is break. I definitely don't regret running outside, though I would have if I had twisted an ankle on talmage. 

7:16 pace. Lots of slipping around on the run again today, though of course transitway was fine. 

Woke up with a sore throat an the AQ outside was also kind of bad (120) and of course it being -1 degree with lots of snow didn't help (though as of last night, I knew about those latter items and was still planning on going outside). So I ran on the treadmill. It was probably only my second LR ever on the treadmill. My heart rate seemed to be decent. I took it twice, once at 138 and once at 150 near the end of my run (and probably a little faster since I had stopped). Still, I didn't feel like I had run 16 miles when I got home so I didn't know what to make of that. 

7:02 pace, west river road. Was a very nice morning other than the bad air quality. Underneath my face covering (for warmth) I wore a K95 mask (for my lungs) which was made less comfortable because my sickness has caused me to have lots of snot. All those things together weren't the best but it could have been worse. 

6:57 pace on west river road north. 

Freezing rain last night so I couldn't run outside this morning, though I'm sure I could have later. Apparently I did a 4 mile tempo run at 5:00 pace. I say apparently because I don't know how grounded in reality that was. It felt hard but not hard like a normal tempo run would be. 

7:18 pace. I did not select the best route for avoiding ice. It was nice to run outside without a mask though!

7:02 pace. I looped around to do transit way because the snow has gone away and its just ice on the dinkytown greenway so I didn't want to run that way twice. 

6:25s on the way out, 6:02s on the way back, 6:14 overall. Included transitway and then on to como. 

Just over 7 minute pace. It was a lovely, rainy January morning. Some areas that had melted yesterday became icy and slippery this morning, so it might have been a good idea to run inside, but I couldn't resist such nice weather. I couldn't go down Talmage so I ran east on Como to the lake instead. 

Had to run on treadmill due to an inch of slush despite it being warm outside

The ground was clearing up from the slush the other day by this afternoon when I ran, and its supposed to snow tonight so I took advantage of this window and ran not only a run outside but a workout. I did the 3 on 1 off deal again. Originally I intended it to be 20 minutes total but I decided to finish running around Como lake. This turned out to be 19:40 total, or almost exactly what I had intended, not the 24 or so minutes I thought it would be mid-workout. I calculated that I was doing about 4:56 pace on the hard assuming the easy was about 7:25 pace. I don't feel too bad about that given that it was windy and at times snowy while running on Como avenue to get to the lake, though the lake loop itself was fine. 

Snowed last night. Had a nice little slip which sealed the deal that it was wise to run inside. It wasn't too bad today. Maybe I'm getting used to it? 

Somehow I ran 7 minute pace despite going backwards on some parts. I think it took me like 6:30 to get off of talmage. I was happy to run outside though! Went over to transit again.

5:54 pace overall. That's what happens when you get to run most of the way (but not all) on actual pavement. Partway through my run on east river, I noticed that part of the bike path was clear, while the path I was running on was iced over. There also wasn't much traffic so I was even able to run in the road sometimes. 

Baby was born this evening, so didn't go for a run. 

About 7 minute pace including some ice on Como. Decided to run outside even though it was dark last night because we have a really cold spell coming so I will have plenty of time to run on the treadmill. I'm glad I went outside.  

Was a little slippery with a bit of snow today, but once again I wanted to get outside this afternoon before it gets bad. Only did 6 since I am still not getting much sleep. And sure enough my achilles tendon did feel a bit twingy again. Might be a good idea to rotate in a new pair of shoes. 7:02 pace, did the first half part of Como classic despite the sketchy conditions for my ankles on the soft surface areas. Was fine though. 

Started at Roseville library and ran around, eventually through the Villa park/Resevoir Woods area. I don't think I've ever done that when there was snow on the ground. 7:07 pace. It would be impossible to run a barn burner there, but it wasn't bad for running easy pace. Snow was pretty manageable. 

Ran over around the fairgrounds to check something out. It was quite the slop shop for much of the way and windy as well, so I have a hard time believing 6:55 pace but oh well.

Wore my new shoes. I was pretty dissapointed by them. The 39s seem to be very firm underneath. I felt like it made a big difference towards promoting injury and discomfort. Its sad that I have three pairs of those that I got on black friday. I really tried to do the research on them and am very dissapointed with the reviews I looked up that neglected to mention this very extremely obvious difference between the 38s and 39s. From now on I will not buy shoes I have not personally tested. I hope my legs can be ok. But I feel like I should switch in even really old 38s for a break.  

6:26 pace on a 0 degree morning on west river road. The trail wasn't fully clear but was pretty good. 

9 miles on treadmill, it was like -10 outside this morning or something

6:38 pace? Surprising. It was -8 (-23 windchill) when I started my run which might be a record (-3 or so by when I got back). But I had come back from the airport that morning and the sunrise was beautiful which provided additional motivation to go outside. It was really not that bad.  

Another sub-0, quick (6:41 pace) day. I went on east river road which was a little icy but ok.

6:58 pace, Boom Island. It was a day to be remembered- my first time falling down this season. I had had a bad slide on the way out, then on the way back I didn't really think about it and plummeted. Thankfully it was not a major issue. 

I think it was really cold yesterday so I ran inside

1.25 mile warm up to Bierman, then later a 3.5 mile or so warm up on the Dakota rail trail (I think) in Minnetonka. It was a lot like what I remember of Minnetonka LRT. Then a 6 mile tempo at 5:11 pace. Started in the low 5:20s then progressed. Overall I do think we lost a decent bit of elevation. I haven't run miles that fast in a bit and it was in the teens outside which I don't do well in, so I was hurting by the end. I just barely got dropped by a bit which is too bad. It was good to run with three old teammates- two from UMN and one from BYU who might transfer. 

6:42 pace. For some reason I have always run fast in these new shoes. Was a nice warmer morning to run to Como lake.

It was a nice morning and a great day but the ground was exceptionally slippery after a light snow yesterday. At one point I took like five consecutive steps and slipping on each one! So I ran inside, and for a certain reason I wasn't quite able to finish the mileage I intended. However I was going a bit faster than normal, I really do feel like these shoes are fast. 

6:43 pace on same route as monday. In spring, minnesota goes from being the land of 10,000 lakes to the land of 1 million puddles! Despite it being 40 degrees and sunny when I ran this afternoon (which I did specifically so I could enjoy running outside rather than slipping on ice and maybe having to treadmill it), I actually checked a bucket list item and walked on (the edge of) Como lake. I saw a guy out there in the middle with his dog. Seems kind of crazy because I kept running and saw that the north end of it was completely thawed. 

7:02 pace on west river north, despite lots of bothersome ice. You pay a high price for a warm day in the winter with all of the snow that it melts and refreezes. 

Sub 6:40 pace, which means I must have been really cooking on the faster parts of the run since there were some areas in the Como neighborhood I ran on that were really bad.

Ouch. That hurt terribly. And I had a whole nearly 8 mile warm up to suspect it was going to go bad. Was going to do 3 by 2 mile on a route on transit that I had mapped out. Did the first one in 10:09 feeling bad. The wind was awful. Then on the way back, the wind was still bad and it was uphill. Did it in 10:26 and called it (partway through that rep). Felt absolutely horrible. Think it is the sleep deprivation. Reminds me of March 2021.

6:51 pace on west river. Sunny morning and 24 degrees or so felt great and the birds were chirping like it was spring! 

Not sure exactly how fast I ran. But if I ever say "I am wondering if I should run the diagonal today, it might be too icy though" somone should definitely talk me out of that. That's all I'll say. On the bright side, it was high 30s and raining. 

Apparently 6:42 pace? If the shorter classic east river route is 9.36 miles. Some slipping, but overall definitely worth going outside. 

9 miles treadmill though I'm not sure that was necessary

6:46 pace. Ran to the far side of Como lake as I have done a couple times recently. 

Wow! I guess it was a nice morning for a run because I probably saw 200 people out on west river road. I think one of the running clubs was going or something. After last week and a bad sleep last night, I wasn't expecting much other than a 95 minute run, but I was able to feel pretty strong running 5:43 pace! There was a little but not much ice. I knew things were going well when I got to the two mile mark in 12:20. 5:32 pace on the way back even though I didn't feel like I was going faster. 

A snow storm blew in this morning. I made it a whole mile before I decided to turn around and run indoors, mostly because the snow was so strong. But I slipped several times on my way back, and the sidewalks are now very slippery. 

Specifically tried to go slower today becasue of my aching outer heel. Also some places there was snow on the ground. 6:57 pace to Como park. 

Treadmill run after the snow yesterday.

Another day at the office, and by office I mean treadmill. 

Another day on the 'mill. Hoping to run outside tomorrow. 

Glad I ran outside though. West river road had snow the whole way (and como ave was worse) but it was relatively workable. 6:46s on the way out. Then I ran on the road the first ten minutes of the way back and in general tried to pick the pace up more than I had been on the way out and did 6:22s. So 6:34 is what I'd guess overall. 

Apparently this ws 6:48 pace. Have a hard time believing that. There were a couple times when I stopped (which I had to do frequently because of the massive sleet puddles) and may have not pressed the start button hard enough such that my time was actually longer than I recorded. I went in the afternoo and had really wanted to run outside. It was a rough day to do that. The university area was fine though. 

Somehow despite the snow I did 6:42 pace again? Hard to believe. Ran in the afternoon again because of a meeting this morning. That choice did allow me to run outside though because it was nice and warm out and the ice had melted a good amount. Did a big loop around campus (from dinkytown greenway and back on the other side) to maximize running on clean areas. 

Found yet another reason to run this afternoon, which meant I could run outside. And with it being wednesday, I realized I should do a workout.

Did 6 by 3 min on, one minute off on west river. I've done that workout before. I read recently an article that changed my view a bit about training. I think the idea is to just do as much work as possible at your lactate thresshold or otherwise to stress your body, even if it's not at a specific pace or whatever. It looks like today I was hovering around 5 minute pace (very rough estimation) for the hard running. Given the major patches of ice/snow, that is not a problem.

Really nice to have my feet get less wet today and have less ice to slip on. Maybe the mostly dry road combined with the fast shoes and the afternoon time to mean I ran 6:36 pace. 

I ran further than intended, and since I saw some old teammates doing a hills workout, I joined them for the last 5 reps of 40 second hill repeats. Now my achilles tendon feels sore so I'm glad I saw them but shouldn't have probably run quite that hard on a whim. 

Very conscientously relaxed on the run today to accomodate my sore achilles tendon, which I felt at times but never turned me back. That ended up looking like 6:23 pace on west river road, including many minor patches of ice. 

I know its not a big deal, but I'm proud of this being my longest week in a while. 

Snowed again last night, so back to the treadmill for my morning run. 

6:45 pace. I went around the long way to get to east river, then switched over to west river on franklin ave. But there were probably more routes I could have taken. I'm surprised how quickly the snow dissapeared after the storm the other day. 

6:54 pace running on Boom island for the first time in quite a while, despite keeping my watch running for all of the soft surface which was icy. 

6:46 pace. Snow started coming down pretty hard, so I'm glad I decided to take some respite by running an extra loop around the stadium going each direction. 

9 treadmill miles in the morning after the snow. 

Well that was that. I went out on east river road and did the first half of my run without any particular goal, but at 6 flat pace. At almost the halfway point, it started to lightly snow. The snow picked up a bit on the way back. At the St Thomas jut, I had a huge slip and landed on my back. My elbows were a little scraped but most of the issue was my right glute. Thankfully nothing worse happened. I lay there for like a minute or so before slowly getting up. As I started running, I felt kind of traumatized each time I would slip on ice, which would happen frequently since it was invisible under the snow. Eventually I got off and ran on the road. "Ran" is a strong term to describe what I was doing. The whole way back before the fall I averaged 7:24 pace, including the sub 6s I was probably doing the first third or so. I was surprised it contiued to bother me and keep me going so slow. Honestly I wonder if it even helped my cardiovascular fitness, I felt like aerobically I might as well have been walking! haha. Oh well. Be warned- don't move to MN if you have osteoporosis but like to go for walks in the winter. You're going to have a hard time. 

6:48 pace this afternoon around campus and across Franklin ave bridge.

6:53 pace transitway. Was cold outside but I bundles up and was not chilly at all. 

4 mile tempo on east river road starting at Franklin ave bridge. 5:06 pace. Good to be huffing and puffing like that. You can't get fit without working out. 

6:53 pace on an rainy morning around como lake. Felt tired from yesterday.

I think this was a treadmill day

Woke up to a new dusting of snow on the ground and wasn't interested in falling down again, so I went to the treadmill. Ran for about 100 minutes with no breaks. I ran 16 miles according to the treadmill plus getting there and back, but I've long suspected that it overstimates how fast you are going at higher speeds, so I am rounding down to 15.75. 

Hard to say exact mileage. I lucked out and saw some old teammates and was able to do a workout with them. Just a little thing, a fartlek with equal recovery and 3, 2x2, 3x1:30, and 4x1 minute hard, but the faster pace was good for me, and so much easier to workout with teammates. We went on transit. 

6:48 pace on west river road. 

Yes, you are reading this right- I just did my second workout in one week! It's like I'm a college runner again. The thing is, the summer racing season is coming up and I'd like to actually be in shape for it. I have a 10K in Minneapolis planned as well as a half marathon in Duluth. I'd like to add in some other events as well. In order to do well at those, I need to get some legit training in. I used to consider my hard long runs sufficient, but especially during the winter they often ended up at 6 flat pace, or even slower. That does not cut it for training for a 10K. So today I did 4 by mile with 4 min rest on a windy day on Como ave (from Raymond ave to almost Snelling). 4:53, 4:53, 4:51, 4:52. It's a start. 

7 flat pace. I was ready to do east river flats, but it wasn't ready for me. I fell down on the ice for my third fall of the year. Wasn't too bad. 

About 6:48 pace on west river road. 

I tried a new route today. I continued past Reservoir Woods and onto the Roseville "chain of parks". It was not a bad run. I felt still depleted, presumably because of the workouts this week but I'm not sure. 6:05 pace, including 5:55s on the way back. I was pushing it harder that direction. There is still a lot of snow on the ground, and when it melt onto a path and then freezes, it means there was more ice than I expected. I'm not sure if the ice will end because the snow will melt, or because it gets consistently above a point where it ever freezes and just remains as puddles. It might be the latter. This route, particularly the way I did it going via Hoyt avenue, is one of the hilliest routes I can think of to do. 

My left hip felt a little aggravated today. That was a bit concerning. Time to get new shoes fast or at least alternate with a newer pair I guess. Amazingly, the track is like 95% melted! I'm stoked to be able to work out on it, provided I feel ok. Didn't get pace because I saw some teammates and forgot to re start my watch. 

On a cold morning, somhow I ran 6:42 pace in a pair of very old Peg 38s around Como lake despite having hip issues. Hope that feels better but for now I am not planning on doing my workout tomorrow. 

If my recording is correct, these are the first non-Hoka shoes I have run more than 700 miles in in a long time. I didn't intend to wear those shoes and will wear newer ones tomorrow. 

Cold day to run around the bridges. Thankfully, my hip felt ok. But I wasn't able to do a workout on the track because there is actually still ice on it. For about 300 meters it was pretty clean but the other 100 it wasn't. 

Did a workout in the cold this morning. I went to Como avenue again, and this time ran half miles from transitway to the fair entrance. I intended to make it a relatively easy workout, aiming for 2:30 800s. Running east was definitely not that. You had a headwind but mostly my legs just felt sapped so much because of the hill. And I'm embaressed to say that because it is not that steep. But the way back felt good. I had considered just doing 6 but did 8. 90 seconds rest. These were half miles, so you can take a second off for the 800. 2:31, 2:26, 2:29, 2:23, 2:27, 2:23, 2:28, 2:22. 

6:51 pace, I tried to go chill. It was a nice rainy morning. I wore shorts to celebrate the nice weather on west river. Hip was a little sore but not bad. 

We got 8 inches of snow last night! So I trudged through said snow to get to the exercise room. I ran 14.45 miles according to the treadmill, but for reasons previously described, will round it to 14.25.

6:45ish pace on the roundabout loop to east river. There was some patches of ice but nothing major. 

8 by 1K w/ 1 minute rest. I did it sort of making a box around the football stadium. In each direction, you started out going uphill and into the wind. 3:08, 3:01, 3:05, 3:01, 3:00, 3:00, 2:58, 3:00. So it was 3:01-3:02 average. Not dissapointed. 

6:50 pace out to Como lake this afternoon. The wind was super strong and it was flurrying snow, so it was one of those ones that you just get it done. 

6:48 pace, east river road, hip still sore

6:50 pace, east river road. Feeling kind of tired still. Hip also still sore. Hope tomorrow goes well. 

Warm morning run down to the end of Minnehaha park. I did a 4 mile tempo on the way back. I was kind of bummed that it was only 5:07 pace, including the final half mile going down "the hill". Oh well. 6:01 pace overall. I tried to reign it in on the way out. 

6:45 pace on a beautiful sunny morning. Today there was a few firsts. It was my first time running a whole lap around the track this year. It was also my first time doing the whole east river flats run this year. And, it was probably my first time this year I regretted wearing gloves on a morning run. 

Pretty typical windy April morning for a workout, but it was very warm which was nice. First I did a 3 mile tempo along Dinkytown greenway. Ran 15:10. Could have been more like 5:05 pace since I may have miss measured a bit. That felt hard. But then I went to the track and did 4 by 800 with equal recovery. Because it was in a different setting, you almost forget that you've already worked out. I did 2:20, 2:19, 2:18, 2:13. My goal was 2:20 so I'm happy with that, but I know I still have a long way to go. 

6:46 pace? Didn't feel that fast. I tried to do farmers fields. It is MOSTLY ready to run on. The fields and Falcon heights park are fine, but the path to get there is still a river. I'll have to wait at least another week for that, in my estimation. Felt kind of banged up today after the workout. 

Probably about 9.5. I was blocked by the river on east river flats. I think its risen about 3 feet since monday. Shouldn't be surprised with it being so hot. Felt fatigued still. 

Boom island.

East river road on a beautiful, rainy morning. Felt nice and easy going out at 6 flat pace because I had the wind at my back. Miles 10-16 were a workout of sorts. It was supposed to be alternating miles at 5:15-5:45 pace. I didn't have mile markers obviously which made it suboptimal. However, with a little bit of a kick during the last "slow" mile, I was able to finish averaging 5:30 pace, so technically on pace. 

Cold and windy morning on west river. 6:43 pace. 

I got kind of nervous for my workout today, then felt pretty junky in my 2 mile tempo in 10:20. After that, I took more rest than I had planned because my coach and a UMN runner were doing a workout, so I ran a rep with him. I ended up doing 800, mile, mile w/ 2:30-3 min rest, in 2:19, 4:55, 4:44. The first mile was at 5 minute pace through 1k fyi. Overall the tempo was not great but I felt pretty capable during the track work. 

I estimated my mileage. Ran in the rain around east river flats. The flooding is crazy right now, part of west river road is underwater. I felt tired and my hip felt janky at times.

Intended to run like a half mile with my daughter then take her back. But she kept on wanting to go further, even though it was like 40 degrees and overcast outside. So we kept going and going. I thought that west river road north would be a good route with the new jogging stroller. It was very fun, like a dad-daughter date. I ran essentially normal pace. My shoulders did start to ache a bit at the end. Also, one thing about toddlers is that they don't calculate the return journey in their requests, and she wanted to get out with like 1.5 miles to go so I had to kind of push it to get home. But overall it was so easy, it made me really interested in trying out breaking the WR mile. its apparently down to 4:32 by now. I think I could maybe break that even with a double stroller. 

Pros of today:

-Hip didn't really hurt I think

-I NAILED my pace like never before. I was right on target with all 3 800s, only checking at the 400 meter mark.

-I got home at 8:57 and was able to take a shower before the water was scheduled to be turned off at 9

Cons:

-That did NOT feel as easy as it should have been to run 3x800 w/ 2:15ish rest in 2:30, 2:25, 2:20. Not a confidence booster in my last workout pre race. 

I (unintentionally) celebrated earth day with my first run of the year on the gateway trail after the temple. It was a cold run but still nice to be out really in nature. I ran a relaxed 6 flat pace, which is not that hard on that route. Prepping for race next week. 

Ran with the fam, then ran up to farmers fields. I was trying to relax so I was surprised to have gone 6:41 pace. Maybe its because I had already gotten my warm up out of the way. 

6:46 pace, down on east river flats and around because river still very flooded.

6:43 pace on boom island, even though I tried to go slow.

East river road. Ran with the fam to start out, so all I can say for pace is 6:50s on the way back. 

Tried to keep it nice and slow. Went fast than I wanted, just over 7 minute pace. Strides. I'm really looking forward to a nice race tomorrow, my first in six months (I'm telling myself it's a workout in company so I don't get nervous). 

First race in 5 months. It was a beautiful overcast spring day for a run on river road. Additionally, it wasn't rainy and the wind was really minimal for this time of year. Based on the clocks I saw, my splits were: 4:50, 9:42, 14:38, 19:32, 24:26. 

The race: a pack of 4 quickly dwindled to three, which made me happy because I wanted prize money (especially after dropping 64 stinking dollars on this race). The mile splits I saw built my confidence because they were pretty fast but I felt under control for the first couple of miles. Before mile 3, Danny Docherty and the other guy leading dropped me. Apparently at 5K I was 4 seconds behind them. But then Danny dropped the other guy, who wasn't really getting further ahead of me. My mental game is pretty bad, I was definitely consigning myself to 3rd place for a lot of the race. Probably the smartest thought I had was: "just keep running, and see how things shake out". Turns out, I eased past the other guy, and on the bridge coming back, someone said I had 15 meters on him. On the home straight, I heard him coming but did that thing where you find strength our of nowhere to sprint to the finish. I beat him by one second, and was 13 seconds off the winner. Based on my workouts, this was a pretty good day. It's a lifetime PR for a road race 10K. I'm also excited because I think the door is definitely open for a half marathon PR in a couple months. I'm assuming that I'm better at longer distances, and that I'll be in a bit better shape then. I'd be really happy if I could still run decent times (I consider 66 mid for a half marathon to be decent) after a year with no teammates, plus a surgery and a new addition to the family thrown in. 

Update: finally mapped it out. Trying to be very conservative (taking turns as tight as possible), it still looks like a 6.32 mile race. Overall that means I may have run 29:58 for 10K. Sounds good to me!

7 flat pace on farmers fields. I tried to keep it easy as I recover from my race. Windy today.

9 miles with my daughter again. She woke up at 6 so I decided to take advantage. Probably should wait to do this again until its warmer. I did make a good call to bring a phone to distract her when she was done. 

Beautiful morning on west river road, 6:48 pace. First time this year on the lower trail, and first run on WRR since the flood receded. It was nicer weather out this morning and tbh it was less stressful just to run on my own.

Was booking it apparently at 6:40 pace on boom island. 

6:50 pace in the afternoon since I had a final this morning. It was rainy/sunny, the trees were in bloom, and was really nice! I had some reflux, probably due to what I had eaten earlier. It reminded me why I like running in the morning. 

Second longest run ever. One of the more painful ones I've done, too. I ran 20.12 miles, running over the Minnesota bridge then down along west river and making it a good way on the trail that goes to the fort Snelling park area. Just under 5:44 pace overall, so I'll call it a tie for my fastest/longest LR ever. It was a super beautiful overcast, quiet Saturday spring morning. It rained last night so it felt humid for the first time in a while. I didn't enjoy the run quite as much on the way home when I was on the pain train (mostly just fatigue as you'd expect), but overall it was still quite nice. I stopped once to use the restroom, but I intentionally didn't stop to take my GU. Honestly it wasn't that hard. I feel like it's a lot easier around 6 flat pace then when I've tried to do it at like 5:20 pace. 

Update: apparently last year my gateway run was only 20.1 miles, not 20.3. Therefore, this was (barely) my longest run ever. 

Farmers fields. 6:51 pace, but I definitely felt tired after my effort on Saturday. That is not something to do every week. 

Really pretty, overcast morning for a run with the fam to the train tracks and then along east river. 6:50 pace for the part I ran on my own, even though I felt kind of tired still. Need to decide whether to work out tomorrow or Thursday.

6:57 pace after breaking off from the family. I was going to do a track workout today but had a bad sleep and thought maybe I could use another day of recovery after my long run workout so I postponed. 

Humid, wet morning for a track workout. As you might suspect, my plan to do 10-12 reps of Ks with 60 seconds rest was settled on 10 around the sixth one. In fairness, 12 would be a big workout. I read Kipchoge does 15, we'll see if I get there. I didn't go through a "warm up" phase- things just started easy and got progressively harder. It's kind of interesting to see that happen to yourself over the course of a workout. 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 3:04, 3:05, 3:05, 3:01.

6:57 pace. Went down to east river flats- it is so close to being ready. I should be be able to do the whole thing next week. Hopefully some rain will clean it up though, right now some of it smells like dried up river. I did feel a titch of inside left knee pain. Very minor but it does feel like one of those ligaments you never want to hurt. I wonder if it comes from all the track running I did yesterday. I meant to do half of it going the reverse way, but only did one rep because I felt a little off balance at a time when I was struggling to keep pace, therefore running 22.5 laps in one direction. I'll try to chill on my run tomorrow and hope it is better by the time I am supposed to help people move on Monday. 

Today was a super fun run. For the third straight Saturday, I enjoyed overcast weather and this time ran east river road, which looks super pretty this time of year. I was trying to go nice and easy (ended up around 6:11 pace) to take care of my knee (which felt pretty ok) but it also made me able to enjoy things a little more. The run felt even easier in contrast with my 20 miler at 5:44 pace last week. Kinda crazy how quickly the same route can go from awful (when I slid on the hidden ice) to really amazing. 

Boom island. I'm writing this a day late so I'm not going to try to see my pace. 

Just under 7 minute pace I guess? Ran around Como lake and made a loop of it. 

6:54 pace on St A parkway. First time on that route in like 7-8 months I would guess. Lots of construction getting there- I don't think I'll plan to go back anytime soon unfortunately. I also felt tired and my inner knee kept hurting. I am greatly looking forward to buying some Hokas to dilute my time in the Pegs. I just feel like I have kept getting these little injuries since I bought them. Although I have done some intense work the past few months, it is nothing compared to what I did last year for example. 

Knee felt on the run, although it's been sensitive since then. I bought a pair of Hokas today. Sadly, I didn't think they felt as nice as the clifton 7s at least in the store. Hopefully they will help me feel better. 6:53 pace. I did the complete east river flats which was nice. They were in the process of mucking it out though so I ran on river road to come home. 

Nice run on west river. I would've shook things up but my family came for a run so I wanted to just keep going that direction. From 18th Ave to the veterans home I ran 5:57 pace apparently. Then on the way home I probably went a similar pace, but I also did a lot of running on Winchell trail which was nice but hard to keep track of mileage with. I felt a little banged up and tired but my knee wasn't in terrible pain. I'm continuing to do split squats and stuff. Today was my first day in Hoka 9s. They were ok. They felt pretty heavy, but in fairness, I have been wearing Pegs for quite a while. They don't feel as cushy as the 7s but hopefully they still help me recover and get back on track. 

I think I ran about 8 miles. Shockingly, this run went ok. I ran with my daughter on a warm early summer afternoon after coming home from camping and we were both content for the entire run despite plenty of reasons why things could've gone worse. It was actually a really pretty day. 

Did the full east river flats run. Map my run isn't working right now so I am not sure what my pace was. My knee still feels a little locky at times and it seems to be coming from the outside. Not too bad though. 

6:41 pace, east river road. That felt pretty comfortable, other than my knee which is still not up to scuff. 

Ran 6:44 pace on the way back from Boom island park. It's not there yet, but my knee does seem to be doing better today. So is it the shoes, or simply giving it time without workouts to heal? I don't know. But I should plan to mix in old shoes in the future along with my newer ones so I don't end up with a bunch of pairs of old shoes I need to wear out. 

Knee feeling better. I tried to take it easy in preparation for the race. I think I did so. 

Ran with fam for the fourth time this week. Then I kept it nice and slow and did strides at the end. They were still at the park when I came back. 

I'm a little embaressed to admit this was a race. Unfortunately, the race is a straight shot southward and there was a headwind coming north, but I thought it would be pretty mild. Was nice weather. You could tell it was really humid out there, but it was sunny and not super hot. I think I assummed I would win it by so much that I felt the need to run the first mile faster than I would if I should have. Unfortunately, this was another race with wonky mile markers- I hit 1 mile feeling a little gassed in 4:42, but that made me stoked to see what I could do. Apparently my next mile was 5:11, which ruined that excitement. When Mile 3 was a 5:00, I realized M1 had indeed been too early. Anyway map my run says it was 250 feet of elevation gain. That felt like a lot for me, near the end when most of it was at least. I kind of gave up a bit. You link up with the 5K runners (I was passing the walkers at first) on a bike path. Normally I love bike paths, but I don't like dodging and weaving through clueless walkers on an already windy, hilly, bumpy path. 31:15 is not the time I wanted. The 10K they planned didn't consider taking the bike path, so it may have been closer to 30:50 for 10K in my calculations. Not the confidence booster I wanted prior to the 1/2, but it was still fun to hang out in Stillwater after with my family. I solidified a few conclusions: A) The east side is my favorite part of the metro to go to. You can get all the way to Stillwater on a chill highway in 30 minutes. B) Stillwater>Duluth. The former is much prettier than what I saw of Duluth last week. Also, I know people go up there to go camping, but if we go camping next year, I'd like to try something around Stillwater because I think it could be just as fun in some ways, and a lot closer to home.  

Nice easy run. 6:57 pace on way back. West river. Today was memorial day so it was super quiet out. 

6:58 pace nice and easy again, felt tired but not in a way that bothered me when running slow. Was humid out this morning. I went out on east river flats but decided to come back on east river since the rain had made mud from the areas that had dirt on them from the flooding. 

Went with my daughter today again. It wasn't as nice for me as it has been previously. We did west river road which involved some hills that seem really tough when you are pushing a stroller. Also, my shoulder got sore from keeping the stroller straight since it would keep curving right. I wonder if that's because she was on the right side of the stroller. Oh well. 7:05 pace on the way out. 

Ran east for the first time in a while. They are doing some crazy construction over by the st paul campus/the Bell. I wonder what its going to look like. I don't know my pace because something crazy happened: my watch died. Yep, my most consistent running partner of nearly 6 years is gone. Kind of sad. I hope that's how I die- one day I'm plugging along just fine, then the a few hours later, I'm gone. I realized I could probably just replace the battery for cheap. but I also have this other watch I got from the UMN team. Of course that was nearly 2 years ago and its battery is likely well through its life too. It's literally the same exact watch except with a different design and on a black background, which unfortunately makes it harder to see. 

East river road. 6:42 pace on the way back, and could have been even faster since I took all the side paths. Maybe it's part of my extreme temperature running phenomenon, where I run suprisingly fast cuz I'm uncomfortable when it's very cold or hot (it wasn't too bad today though).

Even though this was going to be a good opportunity to run the Gateway trail, and the first time I've done it in 2023 since the trees bloomed, I planned a shorter long run since I thought my effort would be best spent on something faster and quicker in preparation for my race. Also, the forecast called for hot weather by the time I left the temple. Thankfully there were some cool volunteers raising awareness of the Gateway trail so very conveniently I got to take a whole bottle of water right after finishing my workout when I had 3.5 miles to go. Then after that I enjoyed running back nice and slow and really taking in the beauty. And at the end, more volunteers gave me more water and transcribed my answers to a survey about the trail (I was lathered in sweat lol). It was cloudy at the end and smelled great so it was very enjoyable. 

However, the mile markers are really questionable. My warmup splits were 6:23, 5:55, 6:08, which felt amazing, really like a quick jog, even though the latter two miles have traditionlly been fast. Then I ran 5:20 for my first of alternating recovery-tempo miles. After that I felt like I gave appropriate efforts, but the splits were all over the map because of the trails weird markers. Overall miles were: 5:20, 5:07, 5:50, 4:32, 5:09, 5:23, 5:49, 5:10. Assumming that overall the mileage was correct, that's like 5:17 pace I think. The 4:32 mile was hilarous, that was where I had supposedly run a 4:55 during my longest long run. 

Another warm, buggy morning run. The heat didn't bother me though. 6:50 pace on the way back from east river flats. 

Also, I looked up my commute today. It looks like it is about 2.8 miles to bike the long way, and 2.6 miles when I bike the short way.

Today's workout wasn't anything crazy, but I think it is the biggest thing I'll do before my half marathon next Saturday. I felt tired and didn't really want to work out today, but it was kind of today or never. I'll probably do something small during my medium long run on saturday, and then limit it to strides after that. 

3 by mile with 75 seconds rest. I did a new loop around the fairgrounds. 4:49, 4:48, 4:48. Small hills are kind of nice because you can kind of separate out the workout. In this case, it was like the first half was downhill and you can kind of relax during that and get read for the uphill at the end. 

I kind of wound my way back home after running with the fam around Como lake. 6:50 pace for the latter part of the run. 

6:51 pace on west river. Felt tired but I went quickly ish anyway.

6:39 pace on the way back from east river road. Felt very tired today though. 

6:21 pace overall on resevoir woods. I did 3 pickups intended to be 5 minute mile pace on the way back. The idea was to get something fast but not something that would wear me out before the race. Felt tired today but I did have a great sleep. Some of that was just due to hypoglycemia at the beginning. 

Boom island, 6:53 pace. I didn't go the whole way, I'm trying to keep my mileage just a tad low the first few days of the week.

Starting to get nervous for the race this weekend, but I know i'll enjoy it the most and be the most successful if I can just relax and try to have fun this weekend. 

6:51 pace on the way back from east river flats. 

6:43 pace on the way back from east river road. It got really really smoky after my run today, I'm hoping things will be better tomorrow or i'll be making a surprise summer trip to the treadmills. 

Yuck. 8 miles in the smoke. I hate the smoke. I wore one of those nice masks. 

I didn't get to run until afternoon, so I decided to run even shorter than planned around Duluth

Two nights ago I was camping and barely slept at all. This morning I had to wake up at 4 am for the race but slept like a brick from 9:15 until then, so I actually woke up feeling ok, and I did not feel the negative effects of sleep deprivation during the race. The weather was great. Of course I got really sweaty but I never noticed the temperature during the race, and my warmup wasn't too cold either. I don't think we really had a tailwind but there was not a headwind either. It was fun being part of such a big deal race. I get excited when there is a pace bike, but this one had a pace car! The race itself went well. Although I had never run the course before, if you've driven through Duluth as I have, you know a lot of the course. The hills were present but moderate. There is a hill at mile 9 that I thought was way overhyped, but of course it depends on how fast you are going and whether you're doing the marathon or just 1/2. The worst part in my opinion, was that after going in a straight line for 12 miles, your last 1.25ish miles are in a loop around town. I kind of started to kick a bit with 2 miles to go, and so each turn we made I was expecting to see the finish line, but didn't. I seriously looked at my watch and was dismayed to see less than 1:30 had elapsed since mile 12, and I was thinking the end was about to come. Although that hurt, tbh I feel like this race was easier than the last one I did, for better or worse. 

It took me like a couple minutes to pass the fastest woman out of the start, and I was thinking "what are you doing? You are getting way over your head!" Turns out she ran 69, a new CR and was being reasonable. The first pack I got into was a little hot for me, but I ran with someone the whole time. My roommate was actually the constant through that, we ran from miles 1-11 or so together. It really worked perfectly because for a while we were a group of 3, and it seems like one of us would lead while the others would hang on, then all of a sudden someone else would put in a burst and keep the pace going. Splits: 5:01, 9:58 (missed mile 2), 5:03, 5:04, 4:58, 5:09, 5:06, 5:04, 5:06, 5:08, 5:01, 5:40. My attitude most of the time was to try to stay under 5:06 pace to PR, and by mile 10, I think I knew I had one coming. 

Overall, I'm happy with it. It's nothing spectacular, as it is probably an equivalent performance to last year's given it is a better course with more competition, but I'm glad I get to head home with a PR. I had that thought that there will be very few days in the future when I will get to say I ran a lifetime best in an event that day, so I should be grateful. And I definitely plan to come back next year! I can take a bus again using the travel money and make is a quick, fun trip. 

Felt sore and fatigued but nothing to out of the ordinary. Just a hair over 7 minute pace on west river road. 

East river flats. 6:54 pace on the way back, I was going quicker for no reason in particular. I think I am slowly shagging off the post-race fatigue. It'll be interesting to see when I am up for a workout. It should be a good two weeks according to the equivalency rule, but I feel like it will be before then. 

6:43 pace on the way back from east river road. Surprised to have gone that fast, maybe its the warm weather. 

6:43 pace again apparently , this time coming back from boom island. I'm sure my overall pace was significantly slower. I just don't calculate it on days when we go for family runs anymore. 

I felt something bother me around my toe today, and now I have a sizeable blister. Idk what it was, but it didn't make me love the Hokas any more. 

Yet again, I felt tired. And my blister was very annoying, I could not figure out how to fix my shoe. And yet again, I went 6:43 pace, this time for the whole of farmer's fields. 

The plan was to not have a plan, but just to enjoy the gateway trail on a warm, overcast day. For mileage I was thinking 17-19. So the fact that I ran 5:46ish pace all the way to Pine Point and back should be a good thing, especially considering that I ran a half marathon last week, I forgot to bring my GU, and despite the clouds, it was humid and 77 degrees when I left, 84 degrees when I came back, so, very muggy. However, I actually came back from that feeling a little ominous. I enjoyed the run on the way out (beautiful day, the trees smelled great too haha), then during miles 12-15 I'd say there was a transition from rolling to pushing, and around the last 3 miles or so, the wheels really started coming off. This is concerning because I've never raced more than a half marathon, and I need to remember that nothing is guaranteed in marathons. Even if a marathon I run isn't as hot, the additional effort may expedite issues. Any race related fatigue I felt today is ammendable, but I know how I felt those last few miles, and that is probably due to my body heating up as I experienced dehydration, and potentially low fuel. These are things that need to be well planned and executed for a 26.2.

Here are the mile splits, although I think the overall pace is probably more useful: 6:20, 5:43, 5:48, 5:38, 5:43, 5:55, 5:06, 6:15, 5:19, 5:23, 6:02, 4:59, 5:44, 5:38, 5:43, 5:58, 5:34, 6:05. 3:06 and 2:43 for the first and last 1/2 mile, although they are probably less than that. 

6:51 pace on east river flats. It was a super beautiful wet, cool morning. Got just a little sprinkle during the run. The air felt really fresh and clean, which was nice in comparison to it being smoky again now. Felt tired as expected. Between Saturday morning and this morning, my blister got a lot better. Benefits of taking a day of rest I guess! I don't know what the future will hold for my toe. I definitely know to not get the wide version of the Clifton 9s, if I ever buy them again. #bringbackthe7s

I didn't mean to run that short. Oops. Bad air outside, but the mask I wore today was much more pleasant than the one I did last time. It's definitely construction season here. Como classic. 7:05 pace. 

6:47 pace on a modified farmers fields due to construction. Another smoky day to mask up. I'm surprised to see hardly any people wearing masks. People in the metro were very dedicated about doing that with COVID, I personally see the smoke as a much more immenent threat to my respiratory system. Oh well. 

7:00 pace on a humid day on west river road. Day 3 of masking while running; I was very dissapointed to see the air was still bad when it was supposed to improve. Oh well. Still felt tired, although the weather and mask may have played a role.  

There's nothing like a summer morning run on east river road. I really love that route, and am grateful that two years into living in MN, I really have not gotten tired of my routes the way I did in Mapleton. 6:46 pace somehow. I feel tired. By a huge surprise, I saw Aaron, who will be on the team this year. 

Today I did something I've always wanted to do which is run point to point home from Oakdale on the gateway trail. It worked because Sarah had gone to the temple while I was with the girls. Thus, it was my second time every on certain portions of the trail. It was nicer than I remembered it. I love the sights and smells of it. I didn't get going till 10 and it was very hot and tiring. I hope I will be ok to race next week. 6:15 pace. 

6:54 pace, east river flats. Another toasty day for a run. Still, I have never had a day that felt quite like a couple days last year. 

Ran an actually hilly run at hyland hills and park with Aaron L, who just moved in. It was really nice out. For the second straight July 4th, it dumped rain, but this time it was after my run rather than during it. 

6:47 pace on the way back from east river road. 

8 miles and strides. Had a horrible sleep and did not feel good today. I just couldn't fall asleep last night. 

Pre meet. Tired. 

I'm grateful to have run that race. It's been a bad week in terms of getting rest. I can't tell if I was fatigued from that or just the altitude, but in my first day at altitude since 2021, I definitely felt it. I was warming up and did a hard minute like always, and when I did an uphill part, I was immediately drained. Only got like 1.5 miles warm up and was waiting for the bathroom at 5 minutes till race time- yikes! I got to run  with a few people I knew from my BYU days which was fun, although one of them had an issue and had to drop out early on unfortunately. I don't have mile splits because they didn't have them. I was going to take a gel to practice doing it in a race setting, but my stomach and the rest of me hurt so bad that I didn't. The uphills didn't feel so bad, it was just the last few miles running through Mapleton on flat that hurt a lot. I'm glad to have won the race and some prize money, as well as to have run faster than my PR, even though I don't consider this a legit half PR with the ~1100 feet elevation drop. Course was well marked and I had two lead bikes though which was awesome. 

Thankfully there was a gym and a treadmill for me here. I hurt my foot (tendons I think) pretty bad during the race. That plus the soreness made me not interested in a hilly run. The treadmill said I ran over 8 minute pace, and I believe it. I gradually sped up as I went though. 

Treadmill run

More treadmill. According to it, Mile 1 was 9:16 and I averaged close to 8:10 by the end by cranking it down to a scorching 7:35 pace. Just trying to take care of my foot. 

Ran in the late morning so I went a little faster as my foot was warmed up

Ran a little further today.

6:55 pace on west river road via franklin ave bridge to avoid running on hills for my foot. Overall it was a good day for my foot, but I coul tell that my achilles was bearing more weight as a compensator which isn't good. Training-wise, it's good to be home, although I can tell how effective altitude training is. Wore a mask because of smoke.

6:55 pace on boom island. My foot felt the best it has since the race, but is a long way from 100%. 

6:51 pace on east river flats. My foot felt better still today, not really bothering me at all till towards the end of the run, but still a long ways to go. 

Wow, 6:34 pace back from east river road. That's the fastest I've gone (completely unintentionally) on that course since I can remember, and I took all of the offchutes. It was a beautiful morning, having rained last night and was overcast by the time I got back. I think east river has taken over this year as a favorite run after west river held the title last year. Foot pain still not resolved all the way. 

Felt a little tired today. Another nice day for a run on west river road (roundabout route). 6:51 pace. Can still feel the foot. 

6:35 pace back from west river north. Foot still hurting unfortunately, so will have to go easier on long run tomorrow. 

For a second there I almost checked the "race report" box. Today was a hard run. Rather than go super long, I planned to do 16-17 miles, and race pace on the way back if I felt good. You see, I signed up for the marathon yesterday and need to start getting ready for it. But I was worried about my foot as well. 

I went out on Como ave, and at the bottom of the windy hill I turned left and ran past McCarrons lake area. 6:02 pace on the way out. I wasn't running easy, but did feel pretty comfortable. I was also very sweaty by then- it was 65 degrees or so when I left, but somehow 77 degrees when I got back, and very humid. I turned around and started pushing it pretty hard, hoping I was going very fast, because the idea of holding the pace I was going at for 26 miles seemed impossible. As I got closer to home, I realized it was going to be "close" (in terms of meeting my goal or not) so I kept running hard even though I was very tired and finished just under 5:30 pace for the way back. I took a couple of stops at lights and stuff but overall they weren't long enough I think to be a help. The course isn't easy, but I don't imagine it is too much harder than the race will be either, other than the sharp turns I was doing maybe. I'm grateful my foot didn't hurt. At the end I felt super overheated and my stomach was churning. I'm hoping in the race that cooler weather will be a huge help, and that other factors will make me capable of holding that pace for much longer. 5:47 pace overall.

Smoky outside, that was frustrating. So I ran on the treadmill for the first time in Minneapolis since the snows. Thankfully there was an AC unit but I still got really hot.  

6:48 pace coming back from east river flat. Very humid run today but it was nice to be outside again, the air was ok this morning.

It was a beautiful overcast morning and had just finished raining when I went out. It was great timing to not have the sun because the heat and humidity were for real. The past few days I've had to wash my shorts out in the shower cuz they are soaked through anyway and they might as well not smell like sweat. 6:46 pace. 

6:44 pace approximating Como classic. I ran onto the dock there. It was about 76 degrees when I left and 80 when I returned. The humidity was by far the worst of it. Despite it being an easy run, I started feeling blisters coming on near the end from the sweat. Still, the run wasn't the same level of suffering as the memorable one from last year. Sadly, yesterday on my run was the first time I remember seeing an animal (squirrel) get run over by a car. Today was the first time I remember seeing an arrest. There were two guys who had their hands behind their head at the fairgrounds. Other trucks seemed to be just going about their day which made me almost think it was a practice. One of the guys starting running away in my general direction but seemed to give up kind of easily. Weird, and scary. 

Boom island. It was still >70 degrees and very humid when I woke up today, but not as bad as yesterday. I felt tired on my run (which was maybe a bit under 7 minute pace going on; I forgot to stop my watch at the end). I can't think of any reason why that would be other than the heat. Hopefully I'll feel better when it cools down a bit. 

Yep, you read that right. This was my longest run of all time, breaking the record by about 1.75 miles. I tried to think of it as merely a little extra running around at the end of the gateway trail, and as I ran back, not to think about how far I had come. at 2 hours, 5 minutes, this was not the longest run I've ever done in terms of time, I believe that honor goes to a 2:10 run I did in the snow in Leesburg. After doing a workout last week, the goal today was to try out going far, and to remain in control / to actually enjoy the run the whole time. As I went out, my splits looked pretty fast, but I can honestly say I was doing fine. I realized though that the same pace that feels fine on the front half of a LR may not feel fine on the back half (that being said- when does the back half of a LR ever feel good?). It was a pretty run, mostly sunny. 68-73 degrees, so a lot better than last week, but still, a race should be much cooler than that, and you would consider a marathon in that weather to be very poor conditions. I knew I would need water, and looked desparately for it. They had some at pine point which was nice to learn- I had some on the way out and then a few miles later coming back. Taking my GU went fine. I got more fatigued but still felt really ok coming back. I decided to run hard on my last full mile. That was very painful; I ran 5:30 (although that mile I think is long). It was clear I had not much glycogen left to do something with. Still, I'm proud that I felt good enough to do something like that- I wasn't just slogging back at the pace I had been going. 5:46 pace overall is really exciting. Had I not run that last mile hard that would have felt not bad at all. Including untimed sections total distance was about 21.80 miles. "Mile" splits: 6:20, 5:44, 5:53, 5:45, 5:46, 5:58, 5:11, 6:21, 5:20, 15:56 past the end, 5:19, 6:03, 5:05, 5:54, 5:46, 5:41, 5:58, 5:28, 5:30. 3:05 and 2:51 for the first and last little segment.  Only stopped briefly for water. 

7:06 pace on west river road. Obviously I was tired and not feeling the need to hurry at all. 

Felt better today but still apparently only 7:02 pace coming back from east river flats

East river road. 6:45 pace coming home. Humid. My extensor tendons had gradually calmed down since my race. I think a turning point was when I did my hard LR two weeks after the race and got through it fine. But I still noticed it occasionally when I put my foot in weird positions. Unfortunately it felt a tiny bit painful today, a little higher on the foot. Hope it goes away. 

6:56 pace coming back from boom island. I think the humidity made me feel very tired. Foot didn't feel terrible nor was it all the way better. 

6:42 pace on west river road north? Seems hard to believe but oh well. 

Congrats to me for running Luce Line for the first time finally. It was really cool! The crushed limestone was really good for lessening impact (and sure enough, at the end of my run I added on a couple miles, a lot of it being on paved trail, and it felt very firm). The downside of this is that I felt like we were going really slow. Just going sub 6:30 felt like an effort. This is particularly relevant as my marathon includes a few miles on this type of surface, and I'm worried it will slow me down a low. It was a great day for this though, cloudy outside and we got a little rain. Ran with my old teammate Aaron. 

SIDE NOTE: sometimes I feel that I overuse river road for long runs. But the facts actually don't line up with that. Interestingly, the last time I ran a long run on either river road was friday, May 19!! I've done a lot of racing, pre-race long runs on resevoir woods, and Gateway running since then. 

6:54 pace coming home from a park a bit past the church, after I pushd the stroller for a few miles at the park. Not worth explaining why. Heading to Maryland tmrw and hoping they have good running. 

57 minutes in deep creek maryland, distance approximated. Probably less than that but equivalent effort. This is a very hilly but beautiful place. It's just like a quiet, thick forest and there were some nice evening clouds.

Yikes, I guess I was going slower than I thought. Today I actually mapped it out and it looks like I was only running about 7:43 pace. I mean, there was over 400 feet of elevation gain in the 4.2 miles so I feel like that is for a reason. But I was trying to keep it calm as well because of my foot. Super pretty though. Another quiet cloudy morning running through beautiful woods with only occasional cars. 

7:36 mile pace in the rain, similar route to last time. Felt ok, though these hills clearly put strain on my hips, feet, and knees, etc. 

Once again I'm not sure how far I went. Ran nice and slow, but my hip started hurting. I'm grateful that my achilles tendon and feet have been fine, but I'm definitely ready to get back on the flat. 

Looks like I ran even slower today, so I only got aprroximately a  measly 9.5 miles out of my 74 minute run. Thankfully my hip didn't feel terrible. The plan is to do a long run on monday.

LR today since I didn't do one last week. A couple of good news': a) my body felt pretty ok, it will really be a great blessing if I am able to ride the wave of the hills I have run this past week. B) maybe due to long and hard LRs in prior weeks, 16.86 decently chill miles on the W&OD seems extremely manageable.

Less good news: A) This run felt much more difficult than 6:16 pace. I would have pinned it as sub-6. B) I used some gel my father in law gave me. The copyright date was 2015, meaning it likely expired in 2016. I specifically took the one with caffeine in it. It tasted fine, but during the end of the run and afterwards I felt some cramping and a little other abnormal discomfort. I hadn't considered the fact that after taking a caffeineited gel, it wouldn't be easy to discern between discomfort that is simply a normal part of the back end of a long run on a humid day on the W&OD vs. something due to caffeine that will impair my race performance. Before the memory gets hazy, I'll say right here that I really don't think I normally get those type of cramps. Who knows what would happen when taking 2-3 gels over the course of an hour or two. C) Less importantly, it's funny how the W&OD has lost a good amount of its luster after I've become accustomed to the gateway trail, which overall I prefer to this. It's still nice to come to, but it's not the experience it once was. 

So now I have an important decision to make about what to do on race day. One option would be to wear my grey shorts and pack two of my gels with me, then maybe to take a caffeineted one near the end. Its kind of frustrating prepping for the marathon beacause unfortunately it's no longer as simple as "who's the fastest, toughest runner" and instead involves who has the time, money, and stomach to perfect the ideal nutritional concotion to keep glucose going without upsetting their stomach. 

6:58 pace, east river flats. It wasn't particularly enjoyable, but wasn't bad either. I'll give myself credit for having done an LR yesterday, traveling all of today, and running in 80 degrees (not much I know but I'm not used to it). 

6:55 pace coming back from west river but almost certainly slower than 7 flat pace overall. 

Wow, 6:58 pace on east river road means I must have been running backwards. Seriously though, I'm a little concerned that my pace has continued to stay slow. Then ran an extra bit around Como, not on purpose. 

6:46 pace coming back from farmers fields. They are *still* working on the road, so I got my feet pretty wet from the dew. I was grateful, it was kind of smoky air but more so in downtown than it was to the east, so I definitely felt good about running that direction. 

Once again, I didn't quite go 17 miles, this time hitting 16.78. There was a heat warning today but my run, which started late at 8:00, was honestly not that bad (the worst part was when I was in the porta potty, those are so hot). I enjoyed running east river road (which it has been quite a while since I did an LR on), although it drew quite the crowd today. 6:12 pace going out, 5:51s coming back. 6:01 overall. Yet again I wish that was faster given the effort. I stopped for a drink once near the start of river road. My marathon training aspect today was to take 2 GUs in my grey shorts (I only consumed one of them though). It wasn't ideal but was maneageable. I had one of them, and definitely felt less in the way of cramps today as suspected. But I still don't know if the GU caused how I felt last time; these shorts also start feeling uncomfortable when I get sweaty, and I'd rather wear my black ones if it wasn't for my concern about the caffeine GU. Hopefully I make a good decision.

Note that this is my highest mileage week since probably April of 2022 which is interesting. But I'm not really counting it as anything special since it only happened because I switched last week's LR with this monday. 

Other note: I am not at 2007 miles this year and have crossed the 2K thresshold! I'm grateful to be able to run. 

Nice cloudy and cool morning. I ran Boom island to save some shadier routes for the hot days coming up. Only 7 flat pace. 

Very surprising, and again a little concerning. 7 flat pace today- coming back from east river flats. It was a one of those really hot and humid days, but normally under those conditions I run faster, not slower. Not sure what's up. 

Gross. When I came home it was 84 degrees with a dew point of 74. I got water twice on the east river flats run. 6:34 pace coming home and it felt so hard. My shoes started squishing with the sweat. The past couple days have been quite the adventure lol. 

About 6:52 paec on west river. Very humid again and 70 degrees but overcast and felt much better. 

6:48 pace. I went longer because I met my family on a walk and walked away from the house for a while. 

This one was pretty hard to believe but I double checked it on map my run. Apparently I was hitting 5:54 pace down to SF canal trail and back, and hit 16 miles on the dot. It just seems a little funky because I only ran one mile split faster than that (mostly stayed near 6 flat) according to the trail markers themselves, which should have been some of my fastest miles, as I was well warmed up but not dealing with hills or the amount of too much wind. Oh well.

I know it wasn't very far, but I was pretty thrilled to take what I could get- I got a solid night of sleep, got to go for a run, and got out the door by 8:15 for the airport. I didn't think I would be able to run in the morning. 6:39 pace to the end of the lateral and back to the pond. Tbh I was in a bit of a hurry with us getting out on time and all, so the fast pace isn't surprising. 

6:51 pace on farmers fields. I was going to do Como classic before I remembered its fair time. Felt a little harder today, I woner if the humidity really does make a difference. I legit saw a lean fox on the soft surface. We stared each other down before it left the path. 

6:42 pace coming back from boom island 

6:52 pace coming back from east river flats

Wowza. 23.24 miles @ 5:52 pace. 2 hours, 16 minutes running. This will be my longest run in preparation for the marathon. It was really nice weather, in the low 60s, so yes I was definitely rewarded for avoiding the heat by going today instead of tomorrow. I even got a splash of rain. Crosby farm park was quiet and beautiful. It's near pike island and the scenery is very similar. You wouldn't expect either locations at the heart of the metro to feel like such untouched forest. Next time I go I'll take a different path, as I went on a closed path where I ran on an overgrown/broken boardwalk. Took 2 GU and 2 (small) water breaks. Here are some thoughts from the run: 

-I will definitely say I felt daunted at the beginning when thinking of the distance I had to go and had a lot of negative self-talk. I hope to combat that with a couple thoughts: first, break the marathon down into smaller chunks. For example, "the race starts the last 13 miles" as my friend told me. This time, I realized that going halfway to the turnaround, about 35 minutes, wasn't too scary. I can also remind myself that everyone else is getting worn out by those early miles too.

-Even my non-caffeneited GU made me feel a little sick. The harder you're running, the less my stomach likes it. Hopefully I can work around that because not taking fuel is not an option. In fact, once concern about the marathon I have is that I always race faster than I train, but if your out of glycogen, you're out, and you're going to bonk no matter how tough you are. So I want to prevent that. Even if my stomach feels fine, today was my first time taking 2 GU and as yummy as they are, they begin to leave a salty, yucky taste in your mouth. It made me not want to have more, so I should probably take one as soon as I feel up to it during the race. 

-Hopefully my shoes/socks combo during the race will be less prone to blisters than these were. 

-Going on east river was a specific choice. I'm not sure if it is better or worse to run a course you are familiar with. I could see it going either way. In this case, it was nice to be able to just turn my brain off and run. Or for example when I got back to hidden falls, I could basically treat it like a normal long run home. 

Well, it was hard but I feel fine about it. The course wasn't easy. 240 feet gain going out, 420 feet coming back (for 11.5 miles that actually sounds pretty flat). 

7:25 pace on west river road. Felt sore, tight hip, etc. This is why I do long runs on saturday lol. I didn't have any intention of trying to run faster though, gotta let the body recover. 

7:07 pace coming back from east river flats. It was pretty hot outside but must have been less humid cuz I didn't get terribly sweaty which was nice. 

Felt a lot better today doing my construction-modified farmers fields loop on the last hot morning of the year I believe (>75 degrees at the start). Clouds were nice. 6:58 pace. This loop is exactly 9.50 miles if you go to the end of rosedale. 

6:57 pace on the way back from west river. Today was sooo nice. Fall came overnight. Overcast, cool, and clean air. Great day to run winchell trail. 

Apparently 5:13 pace on my 4.75 mile tempo from the CVD research building past the stone arch bridge. It has been too long since I did anything faster than race pace. Glad I got this in, even if it wasn't as fast as I would have hoped for the effort, and I was super bummed to see the CVD bldg is not card access only. Grateful to be healthy though. I took a GU to practice doing so while going fast. That was quite uneventful. I have to say that those things are a lot less enjoyable when you don't "need" them. 

6:45 pace on east river road. 

5:58 pace on gateway trail. It was the furthest I've ever been on Brown's Creek trail. I love that area. It's interesting how you can see something on a map but it turns out looking a lot different than you thought. I didn't bring GU on purpose which was probably a good idea. I felt the wheels come off a bit the last few miles or so, and just let it happen. I just worked out two days ago and did a mega LR last week so I was just trying to enjoy the run. It was so nice today, just like 70 degrees a partly cloudy. The air smelled so good I almost died and went to heaven. Splits: 6:39, 5:47, 5:54, 5:49, 7:37 (getting on to Brown's creek), 5:39, 5:43, 5:39, turn around stuff, 5:51, 5:56, 5:46, 7:51 (getting back), 6:00, 6:15, 5:40, 6:23. 3:16 and 2:45 for the start and end. It's kind of a steady uphill most of the way back, from 820 to 1050 feet. 

I decided to take my daughter for a run today, so we did west river road north. She's having a week full of toddler emotions so I thought it might be nice. She actually did great on the run. Maybe I'll take her again later this week/ 

6:53 pace coming back from east river flats. Nice cool day. 

Como classic. Somewhere under 6:50 pace. I wore gloves and a long sleeve today, it was like 45 out. Crazy that just over a week ago it was so hot. 

Felt tired but ran fast. 6:37 on east river road. 

6:53 pace in a light rain on west river road. Was nice weather but some bad smells. Marathon is really coming up. 

The best part of this morning's LR on west river road was going on the Winchell trail near Minnehaha park. The worst part was calculating that on my 3 miles tempo on the way back (from Lake street to the end of the Minnesota bridge) was at 5:25 pace. That's probably about what it was which is a little terrifying because that was not easy. I thought I was going way faster, even considering the hills. There was one other time when I ddi that route and was really surprised how slow I went. 6:07 pace for the whole thing, including 6:14 on the way out, which was all just running, whereas the way back included the tempo as well as the cool down, along with more trail running. 

6:49 pace farmers fields. 

6:44 pace. East river road. 

It was a very warm and humid day for a late september track workout. Predictably, this was harder that it should have been. 4x1600 w/ 45 seconds rest, and 3:30ish rest before the last one since I talked to my old coach. 5:21, 5:16, 5:01, 4:56. Had intended to do 5:30, 5:20, 5:10, 5:00. Well there is definitely a major difference between 5:00 and 5:30 pace. That means there is probably a major difference between the 5:45 pace I have run in long runs and the 5:30 pace I want to do the race in too. We'll see what happens. 

7:01 pace, east river flats. Another humid morning, it's like still summer on the first day of fall haha

6:53 pace on west river. Felt tired today. 

6:14 pace. I was getting worried because I was under the impression this run was more like 12.5-13 miles, not 13.67. Oh well. Felt tired again, hopefully I am ready for my race next week. This was running home from the temple-ish.

6:50 pace, east river road on a drizzly morning after a rainstorm. It was cool outside but the air was just saturated with water; it was really wet!

Trying to go nice and slow. Just under 7 minute pace on the way back, including three strides. Legs feeling pretty tired and my hip is tight. Hopefully those can feel better soon. Ran on east river flats on another nice, drizzly day.