Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 5. felt like someone had taken to my legs with a meat tenderizer, but felt better by the end once i got some blood circulation in the legs. 

PM - 5. shook most of the mileage out of the legs. glad they feel good because in retrospect going straight from a great fartlek on tuesday morning to 75 miles in 48 hours with no recovery was pretty dumb. not that i don't think it's doable; just need a week or two of straight mileage first. def think i have a decent shot of going 5-straight with the 30's next week.

sotd: waves of fear - lou reed. the only exposure i'd had to him prior was the velvet underground and nico, hard as i try i just cannot enjoy that album for the life of me. but, i respect him as an artist, so i was happy to find something of his i liked

AM - 5

PM - 5 after work. tired legs but felt good to shake some life into them. ready to crush some mileage

sotd: no one is ever going to want me - corey giles. discovered this 2011 gem of an album the other day and oh boy am i in love. it's like "yellow house" by grizzly bear meets "doolittle" by the pixies sonically, with the darkly potent lyrics of "closer" by NiN, with just a touch of the ambient genius of william basinski's disintegration loops on top. def would have cracked my top 10 albums of the decade list last year if i'd found it sooner

AM - 5. slept in and woke up at 6:45, since it'll be another few weeks before it's cool enough to run between 9am-6pm that's it for the AM

PM - 15. had some stomach issues as i went on but overall felt okay.

AM - 5-mile shakeout

AM2 - 10. just felt really tired; didn't get much sleep last night. watch died towards the end but i'm sure the pace was slow.

AM - 8. decided to add base workouts in a little early so took yesterday off to reset the legs, so to speak. put in a modicum of effort to find out what my non-jogging easy pace is, which came out to about 7-flat, which is around what i was expecting

PM - 12. ran the first 6 miles at the same effort/pace as this morning, then eased up the latter half to let the legs breathe for tomorrow's workout. i don't really know what to call the pace, going off heart rate it's where the high end of easy and low end of aerobic meet, but closer to easy. i'll call it fit pace until i think of something cooler

AM - 5 shakeout. threw in some effortless surges the last 2 miles just to loosen up the legs.

AM2 - 4 mile w/u, 8 x 200m flat in 34, 33, 34, 32, 32, 33, 32, 32, mile jog to the hill, 8 x 200m hill in 48, 45, 44, 45, 45, 45, 43, 43. 200m recovery jog back to start after every repeat. CD for 13.

ran this at Sandy because it has some crazy hills(>8% slope on the one i ran). i'm naming this hill after my ex jamajah because it's gonna make a man out of me. being a remote country road it isn't a place to run super fast, and i'm pretty sure the 200m's are actually a few meters long, but i'm happy with it.

PM - 12, fit pace first 4 miles. felt really strong, especially in the first 7. next week i'll probably just do 7 instead of 12 on workout days. one of my best 30-mile days ever!

sotd: alberto balsalm - aphex twin

AM - 5 very easy.  counting mileage weeks from sunday-saturday this marks the only time outside of that 13-week 100+ mile streak i've ran 4 straight triple-digit weeks. they've all had quality stretches, but i've yet to have a week where i'm on the ball all 7 days. hopefully, that's what this next week will be.

sotd: you ain't coming back - zeal and ardor

AM - 8, last 5 at fit pace.

PM - 12. felt great, besides the repercussions of drinking a cup of espresso 90 minutes beforehand. i'm switching to hot tea for my caffeine fix

fell in love for the first time today; not with a redhead southern bell but a new place to run. discovered a gravel backroad about 8 miles from my apartment in the middle of the boonies, it's honestly perfect. 3 miles of relatively flat straight road between cornfields before ~1200m of uphill, followed by rolling hills the rest of the way. the long hill is a little too steep to bomb down after the turnaround, but gives you some good momentum to finish strong. mostly shaded by trees too, and only saw 2 cars in the 90 minutes out there. 

in the past 10 months i can count on one hand the amount of times i've done a run anywhere but the turf field loop(.2 miles), intramural loop(.7 miles), or hilton loop(.75 miles). mostly hilton. going over a quarter mile without a 90-degree turn felt super weird, let alone 6 miles. i'd take the loops over asphalt any day, but i can tell it does a number on my ankles and hips, plus even if i've managed to get accustomed to the absolute suck of running 20 or 30 of the same 5-minute loop every day, it still sucks so i'm ecstatic to have a new running spot.

sotd: unhealed - maenad veyl. industrial and electronic go together like a mid-20's social media and false portrayal of lifestyle

AM - 5 easy.

PM - 15. having a lot of fun right now; i'm almost at the point where i can run a 15-miler every day and once that happens things are gonna get scary. had "a gringo like me" stuck in my head the entire run

AM - 6-mile shakeout. hell has frozen over, cats are marrying dogs, the cuban hitmen that framed O.J. have been found: all because i did a morning shakeout that wasn't 5 miles. i was gonna do 10 and do a workout in the evening, but decided to move it tomorrow after 3 miles. felt great, i just figured i'll be doing MWF workouts soon enough so might as well start that 48-hour recovery adapting early. i'll shave a mile off the 15 in the evening because having my mileage not be in multiples of 5 gives me hernias

PM - 14. beat a crazy storm by getting to my car just a few seconds before it hit; 2020's easily been the craziest year of storms i've been part of but it's been years since i saw one like this. type of storm where driving home i could barely see 10m in front of my car. was a little worried that a faster finish and not getting a chance to stretch before the 15-minute drive home would hurt my legs but i think i'll be okay.

AM - 10. nothing like 80 minutes of tough hills and 100% humidity to wake the legs up. slowly learning to bomb the ~1200m hill running back down it so doing that on mile 7 jumpstarted the legs those last 3 miles.

PM - 5 mile w/u, 4 x 200m relatively flat in 32, 34, 34, 32, half-mile jog to hill, 4 x 200m hill in 43, 40, 40, 39. 200m rec. c/d for 15.

had to cut the workout in half since there was a storm coming in and if it was anything like the one last night i didn't want to be 5 miles from my car when it hit. felt a bit sluggish on the flat 200's and much better on the hills. since the course was different i wouldn't compare these times to last week's; that hill is way tougher than jamajah. i'm naming this one after my ex regan because it be leavin me breathing heavy lol

AM - 5 miles of the white kenyan jog. left achilles was a little tight in the post-workout way but otherwise didn't feel half bad.

PM - 15. legs weren't hurting but still a bit tired from yesterday so this run embodied one of my favorite sinatra songs(nice n' easy). was going to do 10 but it's supposed to rain all day tomorrow so figured i'd get some mileage insurance. saw a huge snake around mile 9, thing had to be 30 inches long with a head wider than a half dollar. didn't avoid it until i was like 5 feet away because i thought it had to be a tire remnant or something with how long it was

AM - 5. jogged it, but legs felt great.

PM - 15. rained hard. third straight 15 where i saw a snake. 

sotd: flamingo - todd rundgren

AM - 10. started off slow but picked it up around mile 8.

PM - 15. felt pretty good. highest mileage week since i hit 200; i keep wondering how the hell i ran 50 more miles in a week and then remember i did more 4 run days than 2 run days that week. still, happy about it.

sotd: i ain't got time! - tyler, the creator

AM - 10. felt good. despite all my trashing of running laps last week, ran at hilton. like a toxic relationship, i just keep coming back. i should contact the city to rename this park after my ex olivia. mainly ran here because i don't have to wait until the sun comes out to run like i do on the trail

PM - 15. felt better than usual at the start, which was a trap because with all the uphill before the turnaround i'd used up all my feel-good miles by the halfway point. luckily i'm in good enough shape that the last half wasn't much harder; the downhill helped too. last week i'd take these PM runs a little harder but doing 10 in the morning instead of 5 probably means i'll have to take it a bit easier.

sotd: thousand shot mac - westside gunn

AM - 10. taking the pace easier today to let the legs recover a bit

PM - off. gonna try a triple tomorrow to see how it feels and didn't want to preface that by finishing 15 miles at 8pm when i'd probably be starting the first run around 2am. running crazy mileage was so much easier last november when i could start a long run at 8am or a shakeout at 3pm. still, feel really fit, body isn't really broken down despite running more miles in the last 7 days than i did in march, april or may(more than april and may combined!)

AM - 8. gonna add some distance to my usual 5-mile shakeout and give myself a little extra rest before the next run. ran the first 10 minutes or so on the road, achilles didn't love that but once i hopped on hilton felt better.

AM2 - 15, 7:08 pace. felt amazing, relaxed on the pace a bit after 7 miles

PM - 10 easy. felt better than i expected; went to buy coffee grounds before the run and i think walking around the market helped. 

AM - 8 real easy. just working through the kinks from yesterday's running and loosening up for today

PM - 12. felt a bit stiff at the start but loosened up throughout.

AM - 8

AM2 - 15. felt good

PM - 6. wanted to do 10 like tuesday and felt i could have, but it started storming at the start and only got worse as i clicked off the miles. when i got worried for the first time in my life about getting struck by lightning is when i bagged it. at least i got the AM runs in. i have a topical aggression towards this tropical depression

was raining too hard this morning and knee's been a little sore the past day or so, so i saw the chiropractor and i'll take tonight off to let it settle.

sotd: against all odds - trae tha truth

AM - 8. legs felt a bit lethargic from ~36 hours off but besides that, fine. i got 3 hours of sleep thursday night and blew a tire last night and had to spend forever changing it because the jack that came with my car was total ass, so pretty tired. i'll get in a solid nap later today

2 miles running home from where i'm getting my tires changed. went home, took a nap, got woken up by a call that it was done like an hour later, and ran 3 miles back. my legs really hated running on the roads, funnily enough the second i started running by hilton and hopped on the grass they went away instantly

PM - 10 easy. legs felt overcharged from a couple weak days of training. realized during it i ran a 162-mile week last week if you measure it from friday to thursday, which is good for 5th on my all-time list, just 3 off from a 3rd place tie with the two 165's i ran last september. hopefully the tropical storm AND hurricane approaching the south doesn't cap my mileage too hard because i'm gonna be royally pissed if i don't break my monthly mileage PR before it turns a year old

sotd: spiritual healing - dalek

AM - 5. slept through my alarm, breaking a ~3-week hot streak of waking up by at least 3am. almost back under 150! haven't been under it since may

PM - 10. tried a new gravel road out, i liked it but it ended up being only ~2000m long so had to run up and down it a few times to hit the double digits. work this evening so had to run during the hottest part of the day, plus my left calf was tight from running mostly hilton loops the past week and stomach was hurting. still, didn't throw the towel in so can't be too unhappy about it.

AM - 5. woke up to empty the tank at 2am and saw the day-long storm hadn't hit yet so went and got probably the only miles i'll get the chance to do today. felt much better than either of yesterday's runs, even though it was very wet and very windy almost immediately. 

AM - 4 during my lunch break, around 1 since i'm working night shift today and tomorrow. was gonna run after i got off at 6:30 but would rather just go to bed afterwards. left calf/achilles was pretty tight for about 12 hours after tuesday's morning run so i decided to take a little time off; not as much as i did but oh well. felt great on the run; not rusty at all. will probably do another hour before coming back into work this evening

AM - off. didn't run before work because i woke up to the most wicked charlie horse of my life in my left calf. looking back, probably could have. was going to run during my lunch break again but the hospital got a bs bomb threat and we've been on lockdown since 10PM(now 3AM) and i doubt it'll end before i get the chance to run. i'll probably get a PM run in if it isn't raining too hard, if not tomorrow i'll get back in the swing of things

PM - 2.5, all i had time for before the storm rolled in. got woken up charlie horse in my other calf 

AM - 5. felt kinda like i was gonna lowkey throw up but otherwise good