Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 4 on hilton real early, 5:48 pace. stomach felt off and it was very windy, couldn't tell from the pace though.

AM2 - 3 w/u, 2 miles of striding the straights and jogging the bends in 12:40, c/d for 7

you've heard of workouts to simulate race conditions, but let me introduce you to... a workout to simulate workout conditions! groundbreaking stuff i know. with how weak training has been since christmas i didn't trust the legs for a real workout, and after waking up too early and impulsively doing a fast asphalt shakeout i was worried i'd overdo an aerobic run on short rest and strain myself. so used this as an opportunity to try a workout drink idea i've had for a bit in a scenario that's basically fail-proof since it's just a short easy fartlek. the drink is a mix of a "healthy" energy drink, coconut water, tart cherry juice, and BCAA powder, it was 80 degrees out at 5am so needed those electrolytes by the end of the warmup lol. also was good to get in a good volume of (short) intervals, re-affirming that i can still count to 16 during a run at my advanced age isn't guaranteed

PM - turf routine followed by some very easy jogging on the field, like 7:55 pace i think. knew from the first few steps of the turf routine if i was gonna get anywhere close to 5 miles i was gonna lose my lunch(technically dinner since this was like 8pm), and, after not even a half-mile of running, i was on the side of the field projecting what seemed to be battery acid with a recently consumed granola bar somewhere in there. felt a bit better after that. we got the last of the violent storms hitting tonight and you could really tell; 15+ mph winds the whole time 

weighed in under 145 for the first time since high school. lol.

AM - turf. ankle felt a little iffy from running ~40 minutes of loops on a 100-yard field last night(he typed, feigning shock). i did switch directions every 10 minutes, but regardless. if conditions had been dry i would have done 11 without a second thought, but it rained heavy last night and my options were running on very flooded grass, asphalt, or the treadmill, none of which i thought the ankle would take kindly to. the storms hitting later today probably mean my only option for running until tomorrow afternoon are the treadmill anyway, so better to let the ankle breathe if it's reeling. might add a weight session in tonight too to make up for the morning malaise

AM - off. had a brutal last ~18 hours. went to take a nap at 2pm yesterday because it was supposed to snow late that night and i wanted to run in it(it ended up being more of a blizzard than mere winter snow with the 15-mph winds and all so probably would have ran on the treadmill anyway), but woke up from the nap very nauseous once again. threw up a bit and went to bed that night probably dehydrated and woke up at 6am sick once again(with nothing in my system to rid myself of) and the most splitting migraine i've ever expereinced. 6am-noon was nothing but me sitting/lying down in a dark room with a sleeping mask on. it was hell, i couldn't even keep down coconut water or a banana until like 10am. typing this now(1pm), i feel a bit better, although my body aches and i have the fear if i go outside i'll recreate this:

https://c.tenor.com/dlMPygkeZfwAAAAC/my-eyes.gif

but it's whatever. i'll get in some kind of exercise tonight, but man this sucks. my breathing is fine outside a sore chest from all the vomiting, and i'm not congested or anything so i don't think i caught this omnibot virus twitter keeps talking about

PM - managed to work up the strength to go out to buy some cans of soup but got lost on the way back and accidentally spent 40 minutes in the gym trying to get rid of these damn aches. started with static stretches, moving up to dynamic stretches and a couple drills before doing leg extensions and calf raises at like 30% of my max. just stimulating the legs, i'd have tried some stationary work but i don't know if i could have done it for more than a couple minutes, honestly. i had to take a breather trying to put on my shoes before i left the apartment, for god's sake. still, i crawled in there and walked out feeling pretty good so that's a plus. also, campbell's bean and bacon soup after! probably my most nostalgic food, i hear nostalgia doubles as an anti-inflammatory so extra bonus there.

AM - 3 on the treadmill, 8.0 mph. below freezing out!! body didn't feel 100%, but probably as realistically recovered from yesterday as it could have been, so i see that as a positive. legs felt extra bounce on the drills beforehand but also had very little control over them. weird feeling.

PM - 5 on mural, 5:55 pace. passed my litmus test for being "fit enough" by clearing 5 miles in under half an hour comfortably, so any training skimped out on from here is just me being terrified of running in 20-degree mornings. first time's always the hardest, gene of tomorrow!

PM2 - turf routine. chilly! i felt like i was absolutely flying on the strides. need to test the legs out in a workout soon

AM - 3 on hilton, 5:34 pace. i believe this breaks my record for pace on a middle-of-the-night(1am for today) shakeout by 14 seconds(the previous 5:48 pace was for 4 miles, but still), funny thing is i skipped the turf routine i normally do before the asphalt miles to make sure i'm loose for my hated running surface. god forbid it had been any faster.

AM2 - 3 on mural, 6:03 pace. sometimes i get to look good pulling off the AM double, other times i show up dead to run #2. so was the case today, although mural was soggy, cold, and i desperately need new shoes(flys work for short runs but aren't that guy. trust me buddy, they aren't that guy(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FNHSiPFtvA), especially on mushy grass where traction's hard to come by. the shoes i ordered last week are projected to come in today, so i'll let it slide.

AM - 6 on mural at 1am, 6:50 pace. hoped that taking it easier meant less strain on the legs from overcooked shoes, but alas. sure running on mushy grass in the dark didn't help either

AM2 - 6 on mural at 7am, 6:30 pace. got some rain in between runs and my shoes somehow didn't repair themselves into better condition in the just under 6 hours i spent between runs. managed to spend a good portion of it sleeping, at least.

AM - 6 on the treadmill. started at 9.0 working up to 10.0 pretty naturally by the end. finally got some new kicks, can never truly know how worn out your old trainers are until you put on a new pair

PM - 3 on hilton just past noon, 5:42 pace. would have gone for 4, should have gone for 4, deserved to go for 4, didn't go for 4 because it was very windy and very cold; just a tick above freezing. shades of utah out there today

PM2 - upper weights n core

PM - 5 on mural just past noon, 5:52 pace. very windy. first 10 minutes i was reminded my past two weeks of training have been shoddy, although to be fair i caught two seperate stomach viruses to start both weeks(the more recent one was about 50 times worse. if i had even a sniffle i would have been certain i got got by covid), although after that the last 3.5 miles started feeling more comfortable and the pace started dropping to where the last mile was nearly sub-5:30, relatively comfortably. did i mention it was absurdly windy? because it was

AM - 5-mile w/u on mural + turf routine, then drove to the gym because it was somehow the most favorable place for a middle-of-the-night workout considering the wind and lack of visibility, plus my ankles/knees have been a bit off from those two faster hilton runs last week. i don't know how i used to run 30 miles a day and have 20 or more of them come off that .75 mile loop, it's favorable in theory but anything faster than a jog it just kills me nowadays. something about the bends.

anyway the workout was 6 x half-mile at 0.5 incline in 2:24 w/ 2' rec shuffling around the gym, plus the 20-30" it took to ramp the treadmill back to 12.5 mph. found out the treadmills at my gym don't go any higher than that speed, i wager very few members have dared find that out and lived to tell the tale. felt like it got a little easier as i went on, if not that at least not harder. those last 30 seconds were nothing but praying i didn't stumble and go flying across the gym for all 6 though.

AM2 - lower weights n core n sauna

PM - 6 on hilton, 6:24 pace. remember this morning where i said running hilton was bad for my knees/hips? yeah me either. in all seriousness it rained heavy all day until 4 when i set out for the run, so my options were drive 30+ minutes to run gravel trails, hit the dreadmill again, or hilton. even if 6 miles of asphalt after a morning workout and lift had me terrified it went pretty alright. felt like the longer i went the more my stride adjusted to the more compact surface, and the more comfortable they were able to get. been a long time since i got a nice easy run in at hilton, the bends are a lot more kind on the ankles/knees/hips when you aren't trying to tell yourself 5:50 splits are reasonable to try to hit for basically every mile on every run lol. also got some steeplechase work in with all the puddle hopping i was doing! a 10k steeple, dear god

AM - 7 miles on sokol, 6:22 pace. was trapped in my worst hell of running conditions: being cold enough out with a strong enough windchill that i couldn't strip off my sweats, but also was way too hot in the sweats, to the point where it was clearly anchoring the pace down. should have just waited another 45 minutes to run, i have the time considering i got extremely lucky with my class registration and don't have to be on uni until 11am. will note for future runs, i hope.

that aside, legs felt pretty good considering i threw a lot at them yesterday. quads ached a bit, but that's it. talk to me tomorrow to see if i really avoided the wrath of DOMS, though

PM - 5 on hilton just past noon, 6:09 pace. absurdly windy. felt like i've mentioned the wind every entry so far this year

AM - 6 on sokol, 6:13 pace

AM - 6 on sokol, 5:59 pace

PM - 3 on hilton, 5:53 pace. got like 3 hours of recovery between runs oops

AM - 10 on sokol, 5:58 pace. mentally something's been off ever since the workout sunday, every mile has just been a slog(physically i've been fine. didn't even end up taking a hit from the first lower body weight session in months later that morning). desperately needed a relaxed hour or so at a decent clip to get my mentals re-aligned, and i'm very happy to have gotten that in this morning

PM - turf routine

AM - 5 w/u on mural including the turf routine, then drove to the gym for a 3-mile tempo on the treadmill in 15:47(11.4 mph). c/d for 10. 

pretty decent, nothing spectacular. was hoping for the first 3 to go exactly how they did and close with a 5:10 for what i'm 90% sure would've been my first sub-21 4-miler, but got caught lackin from treating aerobic exercise the past business week as nothing more than funny business(pun also considered: "business week, more like business weak"). tragic. i'm hoping to get some fast short track intervals sunday afternoon but we got some very rough storms hitting us from like noon today to noon tomorrow and the wind is supposed to be like 20 mph+ all day sunday. could substitute for some hill sprints(in theory a steep enough hill would block the wind)... we'll play it by ear.

AM2 - 4 on mural just before noon, 5:57 pace. did NOT want a treadmill double today so ended up only getting about 5 hours recovery between runs so i could get back on a grass loop before the storms flood it. knew it'd be easy to strain something by getting too excited with the pace but 5:57 felt pretty lax. not a jog, but you know. wasn't keeled over immediately after with the hands on the knees or anything. the "prostate exam run" as we in the know call it. did cut it a mile or two shorter than i would have had it been an evening mural run though.

PM - upper weights n core n sauna

song of the day is back! today it's "what's the difference" by dr. dre

AM - 5 on the treadmill at just a tad under 7-minute pace. legs felt... better by the end. think that was mostly because it was a treadmill though, was raining far too heavily for any other option

PM - 5 miles just a tad over 7-minute pace. legs(mainly calves) still felt a bit strained from the workout yesterday, no doubt amplified from the slightly different absorption from landing on your forefoot on a conveyor belt rather than the real world(he said, totally not bitter). we'd been getting hit with constant freezing rain all day so around 3PM i'd resigned to the fact the weatherpeople probably weren't wrong for once and began a treadmill streak that'll unfortunately likely get continued tomorrow because of a cold snap. wouldn't have done the sprints with how my legs felt anyway

PM2 - lower body weights. barbell squats w/ step-up, rotational lunges w/ a medicine ball full reached out(these were brutal), and toe-walks with kettlebells. not a lot of exercises but each set had lots of reps, and also they incorporated a ton of balance too so a lot of stuff got stimulated.

AM - 5 on the treadmill, tad under 7-minute pace. started at 8.0 mph and i think by the end i'd upped it to 9.3. felt pretty good! for a treadmill run ~8 hours after a weight session that's a huge boon. helps when i keep it mostly around a jog.

AM2 - 5 on sokol just before noon, 6:16 pace. very cold, very windy. first 10 minutes i felt like i had no coordination and pace reflected it, then suddenly felt a lot better and spent the last 20 minutes toeing the 6-minute line on the pace. it's rare the conditions permit me to go that quick in sweats. i reiterate, it was very cold

ran today, don't remember a detail of it though

AM - 2 on sokol around noon, 6:04 pace. felt like i strained my calf on the stretches beforehand

off for the calf

AM - 3 on hilton, 5:48 pace. below freezing without factoring a brutal wind, plus a fair amount of ice on the pavement. fun times. least the calf felt better.

finished reading "again to carthage" this morning, took about 6 months between reading the first half and starting the second half if that gives any indication of what i thought of it("again to carthage", more like "again to unneccesary tangents", am i right). the last third of "once a runner" is so good that john parker gets a pass though.

AM - 5 on the treadmill, right around 7-minute pace. first 2 minutes or so my ankle had me concerned i'd have to bail before i even burned 50 calories, but after that it loosened up pretty quick and had nothing else to say the rest of the run.

AM - 5 on the treadmill at about 6:30 pace + lower-body weights

PM - 5 on hilton just past noon, 5:54 pace

AM - 5 on hilton, 5:49 pace. mid 40's with no wind right at sunrise: perfect conditions. 

PM - 5 on mural, 5:58 pace. gym after for core n upper weights. felt like my achilles was gonna explode by the end; not hurting but wasn't feeling super great. probably would have been fine had i not gone straight from the run to the gym. i got my sets in, at least.

AM - 5 on the treadmill at about 6:30 pace. spent the first 10 minutes at 8.0 mph then bumped it up by 0.5 every few minutes until i was moving pretty good(wasn't coordinating the pick-ups with mile splits but most of the last mile was spent at 10.5). achilles felt fine, was a little worried there after last night. hopefully it just needed to get loosened up.

AM - 7 on sokol, 5:57 pace. as indicated by literal tears streaming down my face before i even got 100m in, it was very cold and windy.

AM - 6 on the treadmill at about 6:15 pace. started at 9.0 for the first mile and ended up at 10.0 by the end.

AM - 4 on hilton, 5:50 pace. felt like i strained my calf on the turns after a weekend off