Step by step, mile by mile

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