Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 12 miles at rodeo, 6:23 pace. worked down from a 6:45 first mile to 5:55 last as i loosened up. plus about a mile jogging to and from rodeo

PM - 5 easy, 6:46 pace

PM - 5 at 5:59 pace. i drove my foot into a thick branch sticking out of the ground on the run last night, it was blunt and thick so it didn't pierce the skin, but jabbed my foot hard enough to tear the shoe and leave a decent bruise. was very sore waking up so took off the morning workout in case it was something serious, but felt better throughout the day. also scratched my throat pretty badly so it's been a fun day. at least the pace was quick without being taxing.

PM - 5 miles at 5:52 pace + strides and drills. didn't run this morning bc as i was rolling forward in my desk chair i clipped my heel with the metal wheel guard extremely hard and was afraid i'd hurt my achilles, after a few hours i think it's just an abrasion though. average HR 126 for sub-6 pace is dope, even if it's mainly from my legs being overcharged from (subjectively) shit mileage. if the 18-year old me that thought 110 miles in a week was insane could see me now

AM - mile w/u + dynamics, 7 miles in 39:19, short c/d for 10

was going to be a long run today, but my watch was about to die at 5 miles and i'd gone out kamikaze pace anyway so i went for broke and closed with a 10:25 2-mile and called it a tempo.

splits: 6:00, 5:50, 5:42, 5:40, 5:38, 5:17, 5:08

avg pace 5:37. would have done a longer cooldown but my peroneal tendon felt a little sore. ran this at rodeo; probably can't do that anymore. it's a 1/3rd of a mile dirt/gravel loop made to run fast but it's shaped like a teardrop and that sharp turn isn't good for the legs. i've been running it clockwise since watches overmeasure loops run CCW, so rest assured the paces i ran last week were legit. anyway there's a 1.5 mile stretch of straight flat pavement close by that i can still hit up for fast repeats though. icing the tendon right now, didn't feel too bad but i'll give it a little rest

PM - core and hips + pushups and dips before work. ankle feels better; probably just a 48-72 hours off type thing

AM - 5. ankle felt mostly good; probably 90% back to normal. might need to give it a little more rest; at least i won't feel that bad since the 2 trillionth hurricane is hitting us the next few days so it's not like i'd be running much anyway. i'll play it by ear but probably not doing 2 shakeouts today like i originally planned

4.5, 6:56 pace. think i started back up like a day too soon so i'll probably need another few off. sucks but i'm about to go to the gym to re-up my membership so i'll get in some good biking and lifting to minimize fitness lost

AM - upper body lift + russian curls and overhead barbell lunges + a short high-intensity fartlek on the stationary bike. i'll never do a triathlon in all of my days because i find biking dreadfully boring; i'll come back tonight to get another bike session in though. felt good to lift again; havent had a gym session since febuary. i've been doing pushups and dips at home occasionally so i at least had a little strength coming in. just a few more days and i can get back out there

was gonna go to bed early after i got off work at 9 since i'm hitting the gym early tomorrow, but listened to daytona 500 by ghostface killah and got hyped enough to head to the gym to get sweaty. did an interval workout on the bike; warmed up for 2 minutes then did 10 sets of minute hard, minute easy at high resistance. averaged a bit above 26 mph on the hard portions and hit 7.5 miles in the 20 minutes. hurt like running 60-flat on 400's. then biked for another 40 minutes while looking at the braves and dodgers series(my braves going to the world series!!) and messed around on tinder. biking's easy; i just need to forget i'm biking. hopefully will be back running thursday. ankle felt fine; not sure if this would irritate it to begin with though

3 miles at about noon. lungs were burning and my stride felt shorter than normal, but i was splitting mid-6's on very conservative effort and my HR never got above 140. plus, ankle was cash money. time to climb that stairway to high mileage once again

AM - 5, 6:49 pace. honestly totally forgot to worry about the ankle until a couple minutes to go, which is a great sign. hate how much longer runs seem to take the first week back from a break until you get the mentality back; 2 weeks ago a 5-miler would be over before i knew it. nothing wrong with it feeling longer if it's something i love to do though

PM - was gonna run 5 again but i'm a little sore and i am NOT missing this braves v dodgers game 7

edit : pain

PM - 5 miles, 6:45 pace. still pissed off about the braves blowing a 3-1 series lead. they'll get that first world series appearance of the millennium next year

AM - 8 miles at sandy, 7:04 pace. been a while since i ran here, hoping to do it more often the rest of the year. nearly all my easy runs the past few months have been flat loops so it was nice to do a hilly out-and-back. felt good. 

AM - 12.5 at sandy, 7:06 pace. parked after the first big hill yesterday and split off the path before the second one so i missed to full sandy experience, got that today. very happy with the pace for such a brutal route; a year ago when i was running 10-15 miles there 5 times a week i was lucky to see the pace get under 8:30. how far i've come. my left quad is pretty sore but the other one feels fine, weird. also my ankle feeling fine for nearly 90 very hilly minutes of running means it's probably safe to assume i'm past the tendonitis. still, probably need a few more days to shake the rust and get the legs reaccustomed to the mileage before i'm ready to run fast

AM - 8 hilly miles, 6:22 pace. stomach was hurting badly all of yesterday so i went a bit harder on the run to compensate; the difference between that pace on 8 flat miles and 8 hilly miles is palpable. last two miles in 6:04 and 6:05 with no downhill to assist me. i'll probably run again tonight

PM - 5 miles at 6:45 pace + gym. 4th mile focused on form and pace dropped from 6:50 to 6:20 with basically no change in effort. easily the best lifting session i've ever had; did a full-body lift but on legs i did explosive box steps, push press to overhead lunge, front squat to knee-drive step-up, and dumbbell single-leg deadlifts to step-up. those lunges and deadlifts require crazy balance. i would not be that surprised if i can't walk tomorrow morning.

sotd: runnin - 21 savage

AM - 5 on the treadmill because of the rain. wasn't nearly as sore as i thought i'd be; this was just 12 hours after the lift though so maybe that isn't enough delay for delayed-onset muscle soreness. was planning on taking this morning off but figured getting some blood flow in the legs would probably help. hope the rain clears up fast enough that i can do a long run on intramurals tomorrow without it being a swamp

PM - off. a little worried not loosening up my legs tonight means i'll wake up tomorrow immensely sore and the long run will be a crapshoot, but i only wanted to do 5 today and already got that. i'll stretch and roll out before bed

sotd: venom - little simz aka best female rapper since missy elliot

AM - 7, 6:53 pace. soreness faded away after a couple of miles on the macro but i assumed it'd come back full force after i finished(i assumed correctly) so decided towards the end of mile 7 i'd stop at that and skip the long run this week. shame because 6:50's felt super easy but i'm sure it'll feel even easier next sunday with a real week of mileage in the legs.

sotd: LA leakers freestyle - freddie gibbs(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MTKoeyLEU8U). smooth as big L and Jay Z on the stretch and bobbito freestyle from '95.

gonna run in a minute. a friend was doing a study and asked me to make a list of my 100 favorite albums so i figured i'd post it here. made this off the top of my head in an hour so i'm sure there's some stuff i overlooked, but oh well.

PM - 5, 6:24 pace. legs are still tired from that first lifting session, but mostly past the soreness. did a surge the penultimate lap. just kept going faster the longer i went, felt great despite the legs being heavy. ran the 3/4 mile lap in 3:58.

sotd: valley of the pagans - gorillaz. not even that huge of a beck fan but his feature here is amazing

AM - 8 hilly miles, 6:53 pace. did a sharp 180-turn a little over 7 miles in and tweaked my right calf. nothing serious but since it wasn't fading away i decided to call it once i finished the mile and jog another quarter mile to my car. double shame because i felt good and def could have hit 15 like i wanted, plus the 5 trillionth hurricane this year is hitting tonight so won't get many chances to run until friday. i'll at least get a treadmill run and a lift in after work tonight, and my calf felt completely fine as soon as i started jogging so already probably past that

PM - 5 + full body lift, 6:38 pace. opened up my stride for a 5:50 final mile

AM - 5, 7:30 pace. just easy jogging to recover from last night. feel much better than i did after friday's weight session; even if it takes a few more hours for the soreness to kick in it'll be storming until tomorrow night so the only run i'll do until then is probably a treadmill 5 tomorrow morning(it's going to be storming crazy all PM today so not driving to the gym). haven't had a lazy day in forever, i'll make the most of it

AM - 5 miles on the treadmill at a slight incline, 6:46 pace. sped up a few ticks on the mph every few minutes which gave me a 5:56 mile to close the run off. pretty good for running 2 hours earlier than usual on an empty stomach

PM - 5, 6:43 pace. went from 80's yesterday to 40's this evening, body was not prepared. overdressed and felt like i had a furnace under my jacket by the end of it

AM - tripped over a tree root and ate major shit 3 miles into my 12. impact would have been nothing on the other 99% of the loop but it was in the 40 ft of hard dirt instead of grass. landed on my right shoulder then slid about 5 more feet and scraped up my knees, hands, and chest pretty bad. the legs will be fine by tonight but it's the shoulder that worries me(edit; it's ballooned to the size of an apple but i think it'll be okay. PM run pending)

oh, and it was 6:41 pace. felt easy too

PM - stretching and core, no run. could have done 5 and felt fine but i also think i'd recover faster if i just pick things back up tomorrow. shoulder feels 90% back to normal because i iced it as soon as i got home this morning; the bigger problem is my hands. one has a blood blister that kept bleeding throughout the day and the other absorbed some of the fall and is extremely sore in the lower palm. anyway; should be good to run that 12 back tomorrow and get a good long run in on sunday to start off a good ass month of training. bet on it!

AM - 12 miles, 6:14 pace. honestly didn't even really try to run fast; the pace just kept dropping as the sun came out and i loosened up. ran the last 10 miles in 61:32, the last 5 in 30:02, and the last 2 in 5:51 and 5:52. definitely see why weight training is important; those last couple miles i was starting to get a little tired but my form stayed strong so the pace kept dropping. 140 bpm avg HR to reassure myself i wasn't out of my depth this morning

sotd: faaip de oiad - tool. giving the title to the most terrifying song i know of in honor of halloween. i've heard it probably 100 times and it still gives my soul goosebumps every listen