Step by step, mile by mile

AM - Abridged version - couldn't sleep at all, so at 4 I set out for my run. Got the Strava course record for University Blvd by about 30 seconds with a 10:26. The course is a tad short of 3000m, with 75 ft elevation gain. I ate something bad yesterday and I felt really bad on the run today. I should have broke 10 at least. Was sure I'd throw up the last couple minutes. Finished with a couple strides. My shoes were literally soaked with blood in the toebox area once I was done, not sure what from.

PM - trail run with UA run. The first mile I got pushed behind a couple guys started off ham and died off. One of them basically tripped me, and I hurt myself pretty bad. AT 2 everyone turned around but me, I went about a mile farther. I got hit by a thorny branch that made me bleed a bit. I did 3x30 second strides until I had to stop, my right foot was wet(from blood, AGAIN). Finished up the hill hard. Once I got back to the dorm I could see my right big toe got messed up pretty badly.

Not a good day for me.

With 12 days until the CC, here's the plan. Medium workout tomorrow. Some 200's on Tuesday. Not sure on the workout on Wednesday. For now, let's call it 3x mile repeats on the grass. 3x2400m on Friday. Longer run with a couple hill strides on Saturday. a few tempo 800's on Sunday. 1200, 800, 400 on Tuesday. Besides that the mileage is going down, the taper is going up, and sub 26:20 is in the books. I've done the 100-mile weeks. I've done two a day workouts. I've worked for this, now let's get it done!

6 easy miles. 4 up to the rec/ around the fields, stretched and did core, 2 back. Was busy today with classes and didn't sleep well last night. I didn't stretch after either of my runs yesterday because I was hurting from falling off the trail, so my legs were the first four miles. After stretching I felt a lot better for the last 2.

I guess I'll do a daily review leading to the CC. 11 days. Legs felt flat for the most part. 14 miles yesterday made for my highest mileage in a while, so I guess not stretching/falling down a trail will do that. For breakfast I had fruit/granola, lunch was refried beans and rice crispies with protein powder mixed in. Dinner was jasmine rice with fish and some peach cobbler. Popcorn & baby carrots later tonight. Also had a few apples throughout the day, and my first(and second) cup of coffee ever. Wasn't too bad.

2-mile warmup. 2x2000m going 600 hard, 100 easy, 400 hard, 100 easy, 300 hard, 200 easy, 200 hard. 500m recovery between sets. Not all out on the hard, but keeping a good pace. I had about 20oz of black coffee after breakfast before calc(2 hours before), and another 20 oz during material engineering(<1 hour before). It was hot out, and I just kept feeling worse as I went on. First set the times went 1:49, 72, 49, 32. Next set 1:50, then had to sit down for about thirty seconds. I was sure I was gonna hurl. I felt really sick. Tried the 400, hit a 75 then bagged the workout. Cooled down for 7. I was sure I was gonna throw up, but I didn't. Coffee might have health benefits, but I'll stick to my normal tea for now.

3 mile shakeout and drills before dinner. Still felt sick, I'll talk about that in the daily review.

10 days to the CC. Legs felt a bit tired when I woke up, but after getting up and walking to the dining hall and drinking some coffee I felt better. Felt real sick on the faster stuff today. Would've been nice to finish it, but the workout isn't easy normally, and conditions weren't great. Breakfast I had peaches and blueberries with some whipped cream, and a bowl of oatmeal, with coffee. Coffee before the run. Salad for lunch. I also got some rice but it was really wet and gross. Later to compensate I had some popcorn(topped with hot sauce), then went to get tea from the dining hall, where I had a very hearty portion of peach cobbler. On my shakeout run, that stuff had its vengeance. Felt like I had a knife in my gut. Felt too sick to even eat dinner until around 7. For dinner, I had some Vietnamese noodles with pork and veggies mixed in. Some rice crispies when I got back to the dorm.

Next ten days of entries are gonna be long fyi. I'm gonna try to roll out, drain my legs, and take a hot shower for my legs before bed(9-9:30).

2 WU, 2-mile failed tempo, 2 CD. I felt alright on the warm up with Ethan. Plan was 2-mile uphill tempo from the lowest area of campus to the highest, 2-mile back down, and 2x1 mile's at the bottom. We started, and I had to jump on and off the sidewalk for cars pulling out(Ethan ran on the road). Got a half mile in on a pretty good pace, but just got hit with waves and waves of relentless sickness. I was so sure I'd puke, my stomach felt just awful. Managed to barely survive in an 11:40 for 2 miles. I (once again) ended the workout short, and jogged back to the dorm. My HR was weird for the run(the hard part), it got up to 190, which is over 20bpm higher than I've ever seen it. It's been 20 or so minutes since I finished and it's still near 100(my resting HR is 30-40)

Did plyometrics in the afternoon. Felt really flat at first, but better by the end.

Daily review - 9 days. Still felt sick to my stomach. Legs didn't have much life in them before the plyometrics. I think I'm gonna do some more of it in the afternoons in the next few days to get some pep in my legs. I think it was more of a mental thing, though. I'm gonna do a short speed thing tomorrow, and I'm gonna feel good, so it'll go well. I just have to be there mentally. Breakfast was granola w/ fruit and yogurt, potatoes, and half a bagel w/ tea. Lunch and dinner were both peach cobbler and an apple/granola/yogurt mix, with some rice crispies between lunch and dinner. Last time having peach cobbler for a while. I had so much of it these past couple of days I don't think I'll have fond memories of it though.

15 min warmup, 3, 2, 1 fartlek, 15 CD. Made sure to be running a manageable pace, not going too hard. Hit about 910m, 615m, and 330m on the hard. Fun fact, the pace is inaccurate(quicker) when running on a track normally, but when running the opposite way, the pace is slower.

Daily review - 8 days. Ran to my chem mid term in the evening. Coming back my knee hurt. Ate a ton after my test. I feel sick. I need to eat less

4 to the rec/on the fields, core/stretching, 2 back. When I was running on the fields the track/xc team was doing some grass repeats. I sped up around them. 6:37 avg pace.

Daily review - I've started reading "Born to Run". Great book. Geez, I can't remember the last time I actually finished a book(probably AP English of junior year). My stomach hurt a little on the run today, but something tells me I should be fine by tomorrow. My knee hurt for about 5 seconds on mile 5, but besides that it was fine. I felt pretty good on the run, mile splits were 6:20-6:50 and none felt hard, heat was bugging though. I want to get a good lactate threshold workout tomorrow, but I'm not sure what to do. I'm gonna do speed on Sunday, and some 4/8's on Tuesday. If any readers know a good workout to help keep a 5:15-20 pace down for 5 miles, I'd appreciate it.

Breakfast - granola w/ fruit

Lunch - Salad w/ a TON of olives(like 2 bowls) and a bit of rice

Post run - more olives and some 3 bean vegetarian chili

Dinner - 

AM - 5.5 easy with a fast 1k on the grass in 2:55 

PM - 2.5 shakeout

Daily review - 6 days. I woke up today with the intention of running a 5k on the track @ 8k pace or faster (16:25). I warmed up 2 miles to the track, but there was a football game going on so I was going back to the dorm when I saw the fields and figured "well, I have my spikes here, let's do something". My legs felt a bit tired, and it was really windy and the grass was quite wet, so I figured I'd only do a kilometer. Held a steady pace the entire time, didn't slow, and came in with a pretty nice time that didn't feel too hard, probably could have held it for a mile if I didn't start having a stomach issue towards the end. Ran to the rec restrooms and back to the dorm for 5.5. Gonna try the 5k tomorrow. I felt pretty good on the shakeout, except I had some chia squeezes before my run, which are pretty high in fiber count!

Breakfast - 1.5 bagels w/ an apple and some tea

Lunch - Salad, apples/peaches, omelet

Dinner - big salad