Step by step, mile by mile

3 before my shift.

sprint sunday after the shift. i ain’t talking about details but today’s shift was just brutal. i don’t know if it’ll get harder than that. run went well though. about 4 miles warming up with the last 800m in 2:34 going 82, 72. it felt a lot faster than it was but it wasn’t hard at all, just felt like i was flying without any effort. i’m super bad about putting things in perspective, i didn’t even think “hey i worked a very tough 13 hour shift right before this maybe that means my legs were tired” until about an hour afterwards. i really thought it’d be sub-2:20, but my legs aren’t used to fast stuff so i’m still happy with that. then 8x100m, just timed the last one: 13.3. CD for 6. goal of sprint sunday is to get the legs fresh for the very tough 5 days following, i think i accomplished that because my legs felt very springy cooling down.

SOTD: Both Eyes Closed - Gucci Mane

3 mile shakeout at 5:10am. earliest i’ve started yet. after i got a fair amount of freshly brewed HOT coffee splashed on my right hand. that hurt like hell; 15 minutes later and it feels like someone peeled the skin off my middle three fingers

15 miles at 6:40am. now that it’s over my hand feels better. kept it honest on the uphills. it’s gonna be a fun week, i hope.

12 at 5:15pm. easy progression as opposed to the usual jogging. walked a fair bit grocery shopping, doing laundry and walking to campus to buy a textbook; when i got home i’d covered 36.5 miles and burned over 4000 calories, according to the garmin. probably closer to 34 miles, still, i make grocery money, but i don’t make THAT kind of grocery money!

SOTD: N.Y. State of Mind - Nas

morning shakeout at 5:15am. didn’t spill hot coffee on my hand after!

15 at 6:35am. body wanted to jog it so i jogged.

12 after my shift. 30 miles and a hospital shift in a day... the body is pretty wrecked. now to see if advil, protein bars and baked chips, and maybe 7 hours of sleep if i’m lucky do the trick.

SOTD: all things considered - andy laverne

3 mile shakeout right before 5am. actually woke up at 4:30 of my own accord(my alarms are set for 4:50). slow. next run will probably be slower.

15 miles at 6:25am. despite being 5 times the length and gaining 1,240ft of elevation more than the shakeout, my prediction of this run being slower was actually incorrect, miraculously.

12 at 5:50. as per the last couple days fastest run of the day.

SOTD: Conrad Tokyo - A Tribe Called Quest

also gonna include my daily time studying as I'm good when I do it but need to make it a better habit.

engineering studying: 5.5 hours

MCAT studying: 0 hours(might get an hour or so in if I can find time to study while cooking dinner and if I finish eating before 8:30pm). gonna catch up on some zzzs

3 right before 5am. light at the end of the tunnel... only 57 miles away

15 at 6:20am. assumed with every run this week i’d feel worse and get more broken down... maybe not the case! pace didn’t drop down from the previous day like it for every other 15 this week. hopefully yesterday was the low of the week, and if i can even get the slightest upswing going today and tomorrow like this 15 had, that’d make it so much easier. feel like i’m not even trying aerobically right now, just strengthening the legs.

12 at about 6:10pm. first 7 miles at 7 minute pace which was a mistake, my body told me to slow down and i slowed down a TINY bit and after mile 8 my left achilles said “no, you’re gonna stop, stretch, and absolutely JOG these last 4 miles or things get ugly” and so i did. had to stop a little before 10 to stretch again but besides that wasn’t really an issue. hopefully i can just sleep it off, and i’m definitely taking tomorrow very slowly.

SOTD: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free - Nina Simone

engineering studying: 5.5 hours

MCAT studying: 0 hours, again. Wish there were more hours in the day, or that there was a drug that makes your body no longer need to rest. I'm not depriving myself of sleep but I know I'm already getting the smallest amount I can without it affecting my body. Frusturating. At least I got some heat transfer and static components HW finished.

3 mile shakeout. with straining my legs a little bit too far last night and misplacing my advil as well, it looks like finishing today and basically this week isn’t gonna be any easier than anything else this week. i wouldn’t have it any other way.

15 at 6:30am. i’ll save my reasoning for these past few days after my last run today is done(knock on wood!) but ever since i decided to attempt to do this a few days ago i knew if i made it this far this would be the hardest run. sure, i have 12 miles left to run after a hospital shift, i’m sure that’ll be brutal, but this course is even more brutal, plus i’d imagine knowing it’s my last run before a very easy weekend will allow me to dip into some reserves i haven’t been able to use yet. i was right on it being difficult, but in a good way. achilles didn’t feel bad despite the massive hills which is a good sign, plus the weather was nice out. one to go!!!

12 at 7:20pm after a tough shift. 

on basically every PM run this week i was writing a post in my head for what i’d say, basically talk my sh*t, etc., even on the post-shift run i was. but now that it’s over i don’t really feel the need to say anything. however, for those wondering,

1.) yes i plan on doing this mileage next week too

2.) as i think my past couple of days of posts have outlined, i’m an extremely busy person. while i originally picked running back up as a means of getting more physically attractive, i was struck with the running bug once again and began putting more and more time into it, dreaming on my runs of doing great things in the running world. sure, i could have done less 30 mile days this week and built up to 150 in 5 days over a few weeks, but time is the only luxury in life and i have no plans on wasting it, so i jumped all in with the intentions of either surviving, or(as i was 100% sure i would), break down and get hurt, and i could be content with knowing i found my limit and move on from running. essentially it’s sink or swim; you may not swim well at first but as long as you don’t sink you’ll learn to get better at staying afloat. so in summary, i wanted to know if i was wasting my time with running, or conversely, if running was worth my time. i got my answer.

SOTD: Dirty Laundry - Danny Brown

3 before my shift at 5:15am. pure jogging.

3 easy after my shift at 7:10pm. faster than anything i ran in the past week aside from sprint sunday but i was sort of hoping out of nowhere my jogging would be 5-minute miles. i guess i’m lucky to just be able to run all that mileage and still work a 13 hour shift on my feet and somehow recover during it.

SOTD: Bound 2 - Kanye West

3 miles before my shift that’s gonna be some real bs, and i ain’t mean blood sugar. i can do the work but if they keep scheduling me as the only PCT on the floor when we’re completely full, meaning we should have 3 or 4 PCT’s on the clock, just because no one else wants to work sundays i’m transferring to physical therapy

sprint sunday after my shift at about 7:10pm. a little over 4 miles warmup with the last 800m in 2:20, came through 400m in 70.x so good pacing. then 8x100m with the last one timed in 12.9. wore old sprint spikes i found in my closet the other day, love the feel of them even if they’re a little small since i got them when i was 15 or 16. that 800m was excellent considering 1.) i hadn’t had any calories discounting the sugar with my coffee since about 6:30am 2.) the previous week is def still in my legs 3.) ran this right after a 13 hour shift 4.) i jumped straight into this after running 3.5 miles 5.) it was in trainers. so considering i haven’t ran anything at that pace in a LONG time it made me happy. the sub-13 100m was nice too. CD for 6.

SOTD: Murder - UGK

3 in the morning, 5:20am. fastest pace since last monday for this run. need to get weekdays off from work, i think i could probably do friday nights but i can’t do 5 shifts in a row and have time for school. it would make running a bit easier too, but that wasn’t a deciding factor.

15 at 6:30am. same as my first run, fastest pace since last monday for the 15. otherwise pretty uneventful, it’ll be nice if i keep consistent for a few weeks with this, these runs will be really fun when i can bring the pace down a bit.

12 after my shift. 7-minute pace, hopefully getting that out of the way means i won’t care about pace the rest of the week. did upper body and core at the gym after. knew i was lean but didn’t realize that i’m RIPPED! discovered lots of veins i didn’t even know i had, i’m pretty sure a paper cut would be the end of me. 30 miles ran, 8 walked, a four hour hospital shift, 3 hours of classes, and a gym session today... my suspicions of me being hyperactive are confirmed.

SOTD: horse with no name - america. can’t hear this song without thinking of the highway cop scene from breaking bad

3 at 5:15am. legs felt fine but mentally i was so tired, if i can get weekday shifts off i’m gonna start getting a couple hours of zzzs in the library around 3pm, then i’ll need less night sleep bc all it seems i have time for is 6 hours if i’m lucky lately.

15 at 6:30am. happy with the pace not dropping off like last week. if i work tonight at least i’ll get tomorrow off.

12 after my shift at 7:20pm. kept the pace past jogging and had some ankle pain right around 4. stretched for a minute and jogged the rest, at first i was frustrated that i’m in amazing aerobic shape but my legs aren’t at the same level, but after a couple miles i put things in perspective and realized i’ve worked ~38 hours the past 5 days and ran 30 mile days 8 out of the last 12. i’m lucky to even be on working legs. felt okay jogging after that; the fitness will come around, i just have to be patient. my legs are way stronger than they were just two weeks ago, it’s very visibly noticeable. core and upper body after. if i make it past the morning 18 tomorrow and survive i will keep the pace easy as a favor to my very forgiving body

SOTD: Monopoly - Danny Brown

3 at 5:10am. legs felt better than i thought they would. gonna bring a pillow to the library and take a couple hours of napping in between study periods, hopefully my body lets me do that because i’d be much more efficient with my time sleeping from 12:30-4:30am and 3-6pm than 10pm-4:45am. we’ll see.

15 at 6:20am. legs felt good, no ankle pain on either runs today. thanks for being awesome legs

12 at 6:00pm. took an hour and a half nap hunched over on the library desk and my body didn’t like that; my stomach hurt the first few miles and my legs were tight. as always they were awesome and allowed me to get in the mileage anyway. core and upper body

SOTD: take what you want - post malone. not a huge post fan but those features are 10/10. september 2019 has to gotta be the best month of my life and it’s only a third of the way done. a 165 mile week AND a Q-Tip-produced danny brown song drops and ozzy osbourne and travis scott on the same track. best life ever 

3 at 5:00am.

15 at 6:20am. weird run. i woke up better than normal for 4:45am so i had much less coffee than normal post-shakeout, and the next 45 minutes it’s like my mind was in a fog. i partially remember driving to sandy, i was dozing off a little at the wheel which really isn’t like me. i got to the start of sandy and i remember thinking “if i sit in this car without moving i’ll be asleep in 15 seconds max” so i got out and began the run. for the first few miles it felt like i was just on cruise control(slow cruise) and couldn’t focus my mind at all; normally i’m thinking about a lot on these runs but i swore i didn’t think anything besides the occasional “what’s wrong with me, why can’t i focus?” but by about 5 miles in the killer hill brought me back. watch was almost dead so i stopped tracking at the turnaround and just made a mental note of the time, came back about 5 minutes faster. very slow because of the first half, i’d be secretly disappointed but with 1k left i felt good and was already running fast because dogs were barking behind me, so i just sustained the pace, making another mental note of when i hit the “half-mile to go” mark, ran that under 3 minutes. felt good, moral of this story is always drink more coffee than you think you should 

12 at 7:00pm. felt pretty good. on days i don’t work i’m gonna try to split my sleeping into two 3-4 hour periods, so i slept 2-5pm, so i’d contribute the feeling of goodness to that.

SOTD: Testify - Common

2 at 7:20am. fastest pace in about 3 weeks. slept in, gonna take today easier to prepare for next week; i had an epiphany last night to make an alteration to my training. all ima say is if you don’t think “eugene’s lost his damn mind” reading my blog lately, well... :-)

also, if you look at training weeks from Friday-Thursday, i just did back-to-back 165 mile weeks anyway. 

3 at 7:30pm after my shift. legs a little tight from not stretching well after the am run. doing better on that rn

SOTD: flightless bird, american mouth - iron & wine

6 after a very rough night. tried to get extra protein by eating some canned tuna, i think it was bad though bc i was up until 4am on my knees over a toilet bowl :( still ran 6 miles before my hospital shift today bc eugene don’t play no games people!!! >:(

4 after the shift. slow.

SOTD: Pac Blood - Danny Brown

somehow my phone alarm, watch alarm, and alarm clock all didn’t go off :( so no AM run. ran a mile during my very short lunch break!

7 mile W/U, 8x100m w/ a 400m hard in the middle for sprint sunday. 400m was 60.8, last 100m was 13.3. got out good the first 150m of the 400m but that last 150m i lost focus. with no workouts this is just the starting point, so i guess i can’t hold a grudge against myself for not breaking 60. CD for 9.

SOTD: Passover - Joy Division

alarms didn’t go off again >:( !!! about to go buy a new LOUDER alarm clock. so i woke up around 5:40am and just chilled and ran 3 miles at 7am. ran on RV bc even though it’s tougher on my legs, i always run faster there and i wanted to get some feel-good miles before i jump back into high mileage again. 6:57 pace with some strides at the end. felt easy, i’m a long way from having legs strong enough to do that at my kind of mileage though. genuine question: is there any drawback to doing strides after every run?

PM : 15.5 miles, 3 at 8pm, 12.5 at 9pm. Wanted to go 15 and legs were up for it but stomach was seriously rebelling after a few miles, after I started running after the umpteenth bathroom stop and my stomach was already telling me it needed another pit stop I just stopped there. Also got wifi set up in the apartment, FINALLY. ik there's that whole conversation about being plugged into a virtual reality, etc, but I've never been huge into social media, but still was getting kind of depressed being at home without it, losing the ability to look up whatever I want whenever I want is like making my brain feel claustrophobic 

SOTD: Never Catch Me - Flying Lotus

sadly I went out for a nap at 3PM today and woke up at 1AM :// 3 miles shakeout in the morning tho

3 in the morning, 5.5 at night. Been rethinking how I want to move forward in training and it's hard to maintain focus and objectivity without removing yourself from the mileage. I wanted to run a 200 mile week next week, and let's be real, I totally could, everyone knows it, but I don't think it'd reap much down the line, it's probably better I just get workouts started. I mean I did just run no less than 100 miles a week for the past quarter year(wow), I think I'm just at the point where the foundation's been built enough and any more of it would just be me pussyfooting workouts. So gonna try to do 150 a week for the near future, with workouts. Crazy how this feels like easing up the effort! Ran 6:59 pace for the 5.5 because I can baby

SOTD: Jesus Is The One(I Got Depression) - Kenny Beats & Zack Fox. The actual youtube freestyle video is the funniest thing I've ever seen. I'd never recommend it to anyone though because of how wildly innappropriate it is, that doritos line makes me laugh my ass off every time though

AM: 6 mile WU, 4xk with equal recovery, 7.5 CD for 18. Ran the first 5 miles of the warmup up to Oakmulgee and ran the k's there, then cooled down going a bit farther up the trail to explore, then back. I say warmup and cooldown, but it was basically an 18 mile run on sandy with some faster running in the middle. k course was about 700m light rolling hills, then a 100m uphill that isn't too big of a deal, you can keep your pace up it if you focus but it's a challenge, then 200m flat. Not a good course for working on running fast but a good course for working on running strong. k's went 3:32, 3:40, 3:21, 3:18. I was fine with running 3:32's after the first one, and maybe one day I'll be happy to see a 3:40 kilometer, but seeing it got my head back in the game(I kept thinking of that "I got depression" song in the middle of the repeats and laughing). It'd be fun to run a whole bunch of repeats on this course, especially mile repeats because the course gets even more uphill right after the k mark, and then after a few months when I enter the next stage of training run the repeats on the grass or track, I'm sure they'd feel so much easier after these. Overall good stuff as we used to say back in the day. The last half mile this dog was following me so I stopped to see if it was tryna get territorial, but it just wanted some love so I pet it. Started running and this son of a gun kept butting into me because he was so excited to be pet, so I spent the last half-mile of the run doing my two favorite things, running and petting dogs. Got in my car after and had it follow me back to the yard he came from. I wonder if he'll do the same tomorrow.

PM: 10 miles with 5x300m. 6 mile wu, legs felt good but stomach felt real bad, I think I went too heavy on the vegan protein powder in my shake I had earlier in the day. Really wanted to throw up but like all my favorite ex's I got no gag reflex :// 300m repeats went 48.2, 47.0, 46.1, 44.8, 44.2. 500m jogging recovery in between, like the recovery with the k's it was less recovering and more getting in mileage. Happy with today, real happy.

SOTD: Glock 19 - Ameer Vann

AM: 3. Before the run I was trying to do some mental gymnastics on how I could finish my engineering homework and run 15 miles before classes and realized I couldn't so I turned around after death hill, I guess I'll try for a longer run tonight, I was gonna do my long runs Monday morning, but doing it after my shift on friday would be way more time efficient so I can study more monday morning. 

PM: 3 again. Car battery died while I was working and no homies were nearby so I just ran home.

AM: 6; 2 running to work in the morning, 2 back home and 2 back to work during my lunch break. if i can get hospital security to jump my car might run a little tonight.

AM - 3 running to work. kind of invigorating, just running to where you need to go... i hate the feel of sidewalks though so i’m running to autozone after to buy a new car battery. 

AM: slept in on accident... AGAIN. 3 miles at this park across from where I got my battery changed. could have changed it myself to refine my automechanic in me, but the change was free so I opted to save whatever energy I'd have used up. Felt good from a very lackluster past few days, so I ran a little faster. Third mile I picked it up a little but after about a 1000m lap I felt a twinge in my achilles so I stopped, I imagine the cause is a hybrid of taking a big deduction in my mileage and what running I did do on much harder surfaces than I ever do. jogged to and from Publix after as I went on a grocery run after I finished so I'm confident my patent-awaiting S.P.A.R.S.E. method of recovery will do the trick as always(stretch, protein, advil, roll, sleep, and something starting with "e"). In better news, I broke the Strava course record by 20 seconds, although it did say I ran the 1000m in 3:20, which sounds a little bit too fast. I'd say it was 5:40 pace at best. I was trying very consciously to run just under 6 minute pace. Cool park too, even if I probably won't run here again until I get tired of all the intramural/hilton laps I'll be doing the next few months and want a change of scenery for a morning run. The park seemed like a hybrid of this one park in atlanta my grandma lived by that I'd run at when I visited, and legacy park from vernal.

3 around noon. 6:40 last mile, no achilles issues. Had to cut back on running recently over midterms and work, but hopefully I'll be running some full mileage this week, def by next week. I think I needed a bit to step out of exhausting mileage and mentally sharpen up and get my head in the game, gas myself up and think of ways outside running to improve(lifting, balance drills, hops, maybe some circuit training), and plan out 10 weeks of workouts. Wouldn't be surprised if every one of them changes but I liked the outline - 6 weeks of simple stuff, mile/k repeats, tempos, etc, then 3 weeks with a harder Tuesday workout, then 10 days a bit easier, at which point I might drive up to Birmingham's track and see if I can crank anything out. might run before bed tonight if I have time, lots of studying tonight though so I'm not sure.

Tuesday night I realized the two midterms I had just started studying for were wednesday morning and not friday morning. Spent all night studying, did okay considering on the first one. Went to the second one, and it got moved back to next wednesday, when I have another midterm. So I didn't run yesterday. Today I realized that other wednesday midterm got moved up to tomorrow morning. So that's fun. Anyways 3 at noon, felt good, I probably need a few runs to limber up before I can be running 20+ miles a day again so don't expect nothing crazy from me for a bit. Might run tonight if I have time

Ran 3 at noon, got back to my car, as I was about to leave I got out and ran another 2. Even though I already planned on running after work I still wanted to get out again and run more as I drove off. Glad to see I haven't lost any fire

AM: 3 before work. Let's get this money

PM: 3 after I got that money. Felt really good; was gonna do 7 but I felt TOO good... was worried I might get excited and drop a 5:20 last mile and wreck myself. What a crock, me talking about playing it safe lol. Was gonna write a long post about how real training(more than jogging) begins tomorrow and how I'm gonna give it my all and do everything I can to perfect my ability, but I think Hov said it best in 2001:

"the takeover, break's over!"

All my midterms getting switched around bc of sucka professors, anyway on Friday a midterm got moved up to tomorrow, even though I had all weekend I had no time to study because of work. Well, until right now. It's only junior-level engineering so I'll be okay, still might have to spend all my remaining weekend energy on preparing for the sleep deprivation, might run later if I make a good dent in the material and wanna run off steam before bed. If not I'll be back tomorrow. Didn't realize how hard it is to balance all this life stuff when literally anything unexpected happens 

oh also in better news, I have my first weekend off in over 4 months in a few days :)

okay, one midterm left on Wednesday, so gonna start running again tomorrow. Not a terrible september of training, started hot and fell off but if I can pick it back up for October I see no reason to get hung up on it.