Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 10 on mural, 7:30 pace. phone died during mile 6 but had some low clouds roll in and the light pollution gave me just enough depth perception on the grass to not roll an ankle. love running on mural in the middle of the night; closest thing i can get to meditation.

technically started this run at like 11:40pm yesterday, but counting the mileage towards the day i stopped the watch. had some long but light rain clear up about 90 minutes earlier so while the grass was extra slick the humidity had also melted away. probably the nicest it's felt since april. also probably the first time i've ran 10 miles without dying of heat stroke and needing several 20-30 second breathers throughout since april

also as the resident braves fan i wanna say i am disgusted we traded pirates legend jesse chavez for rasiel iglesias

AM - 10 on mural, 7:35 pace. basically a carbon copy of last night's run except i actually started the run on the date i'm logging it(at 12:01am), and that the evening showers earlier had gave way to clear night sky so when my phone/flash once again died about halfway in i had a lot less visibility with the moon not being out. 

AM - 10 on mural, 7:24 pace(started at 11:50pm thurs night). copy of yesterday's run down to my phone/flash dying at the exact same point of the run. once i put my phone away i dropped the pace a good bit despite needing to focus most of my attention on making sure i didn't sprain an ankle

PM - 10 on mural, 7:27 pace. started at about 9 instead of midnight. last half felt much better than the first despite phone dying on mile 8. first 20 mile day in a long time, even though it's technically not

AM - 5 on mural at 5am, 7:45 pace. couldn't fall asleep until about 1 because my HR was jacked from the night run, then woke up about 3 hours later despite having not set an alarm and having been asleep at that hour most of this past month. didn't intend to run more than 10 a day this week(with last night's run being today's 10), but i felt good, so i drove out for a light ~40 minutes on some very wet grass.

AM - 5 on mural at 1:30, 7:42 pace. yesterday was supposed to be a day off, but ended up running 15 instead(sort of). slotted the off day to today and managed to make it a whole 90 minutes in before that went out the window. kept the first 4 very easy

AM - 6 on mural, 7:20 pace. dark out.

PM - 4 on mural, 7:20 pace. also dark out!

AM - 8 on mural at 3am, 7:52 pace. decided to run without a flash and hope my eyes could adjust to the dark, but clouds shrouded the moonlight pretty early on so i had to take it slow to make sure my footing was solid. out of my last 25 runs i'd say for maybe 2 of them was the sun out in any way shape or form. i've also been sleeping in a coffin 

AM - 8 on mural, 7:22 pace. ignore that i started this run at 10:45 monday night and finished before midnight. regretted having cayenne powder seasoned with eggs as part of my pre-run food. at least it rained earlier so it wasn't too humid. wanted to go for 10 but phone/flash died once again after about 30 minutes, as was foretold by the village elder many generations ago

AM - 3 on mural, 7:12 pace. ignore i actually ran this at 11 tuesday night. was gonna go for 8 but i didn't eat much before and had some preworkout powder that just ended up making me sick on an empty stomach after about 15 minutes. 

AM2 - 6 on mural at 2am, 7:11 pace. threw up during it and didn't even break pace to do it; would have rather it happened during mile 6 than mile 1 though. damn cayenne. on a brighter note this past day might have been the last 90-something day of the year, if we're lucky. also the last half-mile was ~5:30 pace because it started raining and i had my phone in my hand and nowhere to shield it(1" shorts). haven't ran that fast in a long time and it felt very good to do so. even if i could see my shadow from the moonlight and my form looked awful :)

PM - strength workout at the apartment. mostly core + push ups dips and a little resistance band work. been doing it every 2 or 3 days the last couple weeks

AM - 6 on sokol at 6am(finally slept like a normal person for once), 6:18 pace. i knew i was putting on the metaphorical restrictor plates by doing all of my runs in the middle of the night the last month or so, but i didn't think i'd drop a full 60+ seconds off the pace at the same effort just by adding sunlight into the equation. maybe i'm not as washed as previously thought. would have liked to go longer but it was very humid and by the 30-minute mark i felt like i was on fire. thus you see why i've been running on grass fields at 1am(and why i don't try to avoid getting hit by the sprinklers when i do). the good news is i'm in the ~15% of the country that's not going to be experiencing a warmer than normal autumn this year, so hopefully i only have 2-3 more weeks until running outside isn't a pressure cooker simulator

AM2 - strength workout again. about 30 minutes compared to the usual 10, mostly because i did about 10 different hip stretches/exercises during it. 

AM - 8 on mural, 6:49 pace. ignore that i started at 11:50 thursday night. also ignore i'd been up for 20 hours by the start of the run. i had to breathe through some rough chest cramps for most of it but considering how my legs were moving i'd say it didn't matter much.

AM2 - strength workout. feeling better and looking fitter every time i do this workout shirtless in front of a mirror like the narcissist i am. ended up waking up naturally off 4 hours of sleep like i have for most of the month; i swear i want to sleep more but here we are

AM - 6 on mural, 6:57 pace. ignore i started at 11:58pm friday night(so close). part of the rubber sole tore off my left shoe as i was stretching, it obviously affected the shoe and how it landed but it's my only water-resistant pair so i still ran what i could in them. lightning on the horizon.

AM - short warmup on the track + stretches at 5:30am. got over 2 inches of rain last night so my options were down to hilton or the track/asphalt bike trail by sokol. should have done the warmup on the asphalt instead of the track; felt a sharp pain in my left ankle and stopped there to stretch. the ankle didn't bug me again but decided to stop there. i wore half tights and they got caught on the top of a chain link fence as i was leaving the track; not only did it take 30+ seconds to fix as i awkwardly straddled the fence, but it still ripped the tights anyway. basically sums this morning up. 

AM - 6 on hilton at about midnight, 6:57 pace. basically all asphalt. lots of puddles were hopped

PM - 6 on hilton at 10:30, 6:52 pace. my back(and really entire body) was very sore today, at first i blamed the asphalt mileage but i remembered a did a bit of shadowboxing in my daily strength workout yesterday, considering my palms are sore too that's probably it. i can't tell if the hamstring soreness is from the running or the shadow-roundhouse kicks

pretty sure this is the first time i've ran 12 miles of asphalt in a day since 2017. crazy to think.

AM -  drove to the turf field at like 3am because i was wired after the late night run yesterday and was in the middle of a load of laundry so couldn't sleep yet. jogged a few minutes then did dynamic stretches, drills and about 12 or so hard 100 yard strides

PM - single lap on hilton just after sunset, 5:56 pace. felt good but my calf was a bit tight on the turns so i stopped to stretch it but within maybe a second my vision was gone and i was more nauseous than i've ever been in my life. luckily i'd stopped where i started so i was maybe 20 feet from my car. leaned on the hood for a few seconds hoping i could catch a second wind but i just started feeling more sick so i managed to get in the driver's seat and after a few minutes gain the wherewithal to turn the AC on. after that i felt okay and even debated trying again but if 4 minutes of running knocked me out for 10 there's something wrong here, at least in the moment. 

honestly no clue what the cause was here. i got about 5 different ideas but i'd probably say the safest guess was that i donated plasma right about 4 hours prior and it was still very warm out. i also had cayenne prior too. knowing me i might be on mural at midnight trying to get a re-do

AM - 6 on mural at midnight, 6:39 pace. that's pretty good for no flash, not to mention nearly dying about 4 hours earlier. felt much better than that run, except i once again regretted having cayenne prior. i have this funny feeling when i stop only running on dark fields in the middle of the night and eating extremely overspiced food before all my runs like a psychopath it'll be more enjoyable to train. can't back that up though

AM - 5 on hilton at 5, 6:29 pace. didn't bother checking my watch during because it was dark out and it didn't feel like i was running anything faster than 7-flat(plus with running in the dark you usually feel like you're running faster than you are anyway), so nice surprise. would have gone longer but all those turns add up on the hips fast; i have no idea how i used to run 15-20 miles on that single loop every day for months on end. 

AM - 5 on hilton at 5, 6:32 pace. felt decent enough.