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