step by step, mile by mile

PM - 3 on hilton, 6:22 pace. felt easy, but conditions were terrible.

AM - 11 on sokol, 6:10 pace. felt way easier than the two sokol runs i did earlier this week. long run should be fun tomorrow if i'm feeling good. ready to hurt!

AM - 18-mile LR at mural, 6:12 pace. last 13 in 1:19:39.

quick complaint; this run definitely would have been faster at sokol or hilton, maybe even sandy. temperatures went below freezing last night, so at 6:30 the grass was wet and mushy which isn't the best surface for running fast. otherwise, perfect conditions. no wind, 36 degrees at the start and 48 by the end. also might be worth mentioning i went to the gym 30 minutes prior to bike on the stationary for a few minutes and do a bunch of dynamics and drills to warm up, mainly because it was cold out and i wanted to keep the pace honest from the start. might be worth doing even after it warms up. great run!

pictured below: why i immediately regret getting cool color schemes for running shoes 

PM - weights after work. mostly upper body and core, along with sled pushes and farmers walks. went heavy on the sleds and they killed

AM - 8 easy from northridge to sokol and back, 6:50 pace. then jogged to the track, did some drills, changed shoes and ran 6 x 100m strides with a 200m stride to finish it off. only timed the 200, that was a 30.0.

legs felt fine but i came up about 2k calories short of replenishing what i burned yesterday, and it bit me in the ass by giving me some serious hunger pangs during the run. strides felt great

also calling it now, i am 100% gonna lose at least one toenail this week. my middle 3 on my left foot have been on the precipace of falling off for about a month after a lot of trail running, and running in flats on a track isn't doing them any favors. onycholysis: a runner's best friend

AM - 4 w/u + drills and strides, then 4 x k w/ 2:45 rec in 2:59, 3:03, 3:04, 3:04. 5 c/d

nothing crazy on my first workout, but even the tower of babel started from the ground, right? botched that second k by coming through the first 200 in 31, surprised that didn't end up hurting me more but i guess calling 6:20's easy pace had to be good for something. kept the total work short since i knew my legs were gonna get shocked from actual hard running, but never tightened up or went over the red line, plus i felt pretty good on the cooldown, so i think i ran the times i was supposed to. happy with it all things considered! RIP to my index toenail

PM - 6 at hilton, 6:06 pace. obviously, i was still reeling from this morning ;)

AM - 6 on sokol, 6:24 pace. legs felt tired, but weren't hurting and really weren't all that sore either. however, what i said about not eating enough on sunday and it biting me in the ass, multiply it by 10 for this run. it's tough being a poor college student when you're burning over 5000 calories more days than you aren't, lol. ended up calling it at 6 because i was straight up starving, but also it's probably for the best i cut the 12 short this morning considering yesterday was basically all quality and i can't be getting greedy so early in training.

PM - 6, 6:18 pace. ankles felt a little stiff, i think that's more because of it being on hilton than anything else though

sotd: reptilia - the strokes

PM - 7 on mural, 6:17 pace. felt stiff at first, but the last 15 minutes or so i started feeling good. last 2 miles in 6:03 and 5:36. not too often that i'll dip under 5:40 to close out a run! hope to change that soon; bought myself an early birthday present in the form of a whole bunch of supplements after reading a book on them for endurance athletes. once i can add spirulina, beet root, and tart cherry extract to my pre-run shakes, it's over!

anyone else unable to comment on blogs? or am i being silenced for speaking the truth

AM - 4-mile shakeout, 6:43 pace. TERRIBLE run! i wore sweatpants for some reason despite it being 70 degrees out with full humidity, and by 10 minutes in my legs had overheated to the point they were completely lifeless. normally i'd be wearing running tights under, but i wasn't today, and couldn't strip the pants off and just run around in my briefs, so i was stuck in my own little slice of hell. those last two miles i just kept feeling crappier so i called it at 4.

AM - 8 on sokol, 5:59 pace. would have been longer(and probably faster considering the last 6 miles were 5:55 pace), but during that last mile my stomach was NOT having it. oh well, at least it felt a lot easier than 11 at the same pace last week.

AM - 4 miles on sokol, 6:11 pace. couldn't run this last weekend, isn't important why. felt good on this run(was already at 5-minute pace by ~10 minutes in), but since i hadn't run in 72 hours i cut it short since i could tell my legs needed a run to loosen up before i do anything else. in theory it should be back to the usual by tonight

AM - 8 miles on sokol, 6:07 pace. would have gone a few miles longer, but same issue as last friday where i really needed a bathroom but the park rangers hadn't unlocked them yet. it's kind of terrifying how controlled 6:00-6:15 pace has become for me lol

AM - 10 miles on hilton, 5:58 pace. kept it honest, but still relaxed. good run, hopefully 23-year-old me has a LOT more like it coming down the pipe :)

AM - 4 on sokol, 6:13 pace. watched the al davis 30 for 30 last night, it's a pretty good watch