Step by step, mile by mile

AM - 4 on the treadmill at just over 10 mph. back was noticeably sore waking up, likely originating yesterday morning from the fast running on a treadmill. the cure for such an ailment is obviously more fast running on a treadmill

AM2 - 6 on mural, 5:59 pace. after another night of heavy rain it was very sloppy on mural. frigid and windy as well.

PM - drills and strides on the turf. spent the entire ~15 minutes trying to think of the dumbest acronym possible for this routine so i can start putting that instead on my entries. still very windy; the backward strides i do towards the end of the routine undoubtedly looked like pure comedy. running tail-first into a tailwind, that's a new one. 

AM - 4 on the treadmill at the gym at 8.0 mph. among the many choice terribly produced and uninspired remixes of bland pop songs that circulate the speakers at my gym, during the shakeout a trap remix of cotton-eyed joe played and i think that exact moment was the closest i've ever been to living my own personal hell

AM - 7 on the hilly texas backroads, "6:28" pace. my butt was sore from a 9-hour drive yesterday, my head wasn't there because my porked sleep schedule the last couple weeks had me waking up at midnight and unable to go back to sleep, and had a bad stomach cramp. also was 31 degrees, extremely foggy and quite muddy. does it get better? you know it does. the quotations around the pace are because TWICE i was chased by territorial dogs far out from their actual territory, both times i spent 30+ seconds yelling at them while backing away with eye contact. both times i forgot to pause the watch. 6:15 might be a little too optimistic but the pace was definitely under 6:20. 

all my bitching aside, the fact that it was freezing out and i still mentally committed to getting out there makes the run a success in my book. that's usually the trump card for bailing a run for me. it's warming up in a couple days but the trade off is 15-25 mph winds constantly for the rest of my time here. because it's never that easy running here

PM - 5 on the backroads, 5:41 pace. pretty sure i've never broken 5:55 pace for an entire run on this course so that's a nice bounce back from the AM run, even if it's only a half-hour of quality. spent most of it thinking about the level of fitness i was at a year ago. looking back my mileage was mostly 6:30 at the fastest and anything under 6-flat would have me losing my mind. i've been far from consistent this year, but i've still come a long way. hopefully this time next year i'll have the same sentiment sans the inconsistency caveat. enjoy this next week all, my reign begins next tuesday. now watch me somehow tear my achilles in my sleep lol

if you were wondering, yes i was chased by the dogs again. the way out i did the same routine of assertively yelling at them to step off, however when one of them started chasing me on the way back i suddenly stopped, turned towards it, put my hands on the knees and hit him with the "who's a good boy" dogspeak. it about jumped out it's skin and high-tailed it away. hilarious. i would have tried petting it too, but alas

AM - off, aside from stretching and a little body-weight strength stuff. the family is going to dallas early today so didn't have the time. should probably get a run in the afternoon, although we're going to the alamo drafthouse to see a film and i wish i could have burned some extra calories to really push their "bottomless popcorn" on the menu to the test. kept the breakfast small so i should still get my fill; although i have a sneaking suspicion at the last minute the athlete in me will just order a salad instead

also got about 11 hours of sleep which was nice considering i don't think i've even slept 6 hours straight yet this month. athletes needing sleep is a lie conceived by one of those mattress companies that are clearly a front to money laundering

PM - 5 on hilly backroads, 5:54 pace. shawn carter once said "men lie, women lie, numbers don't". well, the pace was good, the avg HR was 146, but i'd be lying if i said i felt anything better than terrible. the uninitiated among you may think it's a byproduct of dead legs from sitting in a car for 2.5 hours to sit in a movie theatre for another 2, only to spend another 3 driving back just to immediately hop out the car and run before sundown. however, you and i both know the only reason the pace wasn't 4:54 instead was that it was fueled by a cobb salad(without bleu cheese or ranch, come on. it's a salad, not a milkshake. that's like driving to the gym just to smoke crack in the parking lot) instead of bottomless popcorn. a true shame.

AM - 7 on hilly backroads, 5:58 pace. nothing noteworthy besides another night of 4> hours of sleep. not only that but i couldn't get more than 30-40 minutes in without waking up again praying it was at least 4am(last time i did this it was about 12:30am and i gave up). my body is rejecting sleep like it's a cadaver, it's quite odd

PM - 5 on trail de paris, 5:34 pace. wasn't planning on running today on account of the wind being 20+ mph from sunrise to sunset(22 mph at the time of the run), but i think i was subconsciously working to alleviate the guilt i'll be feeling after partaking in the gingerbread french toast bake i'm making for christmas breakfast, and to a lesser extent the amaretto bread pudding my wonderful mother is making to go with dinner(although i should get a run in between the two, assuming a sugar coma doesn't knock me out)

on the topic of the run itself, felt good despite the crazy wind. this week is basically a taper to afford more time with family, but getting to a point where i'm regularly dropping controlled 5:20's like i did today... that's a scary thought :) hope i can get there soon.

happy holidays. spent basically all of christmas day doing work on my parents' house. got the closest i've ever been to death without drawing blood when a ~200 lbs window we were installing fell out the frame while i was standing under it. managed to catch it with very quick reflexes but another half-second spent stagnant i might have had my neck broken.

anyway by 4pm i'd been outside working for about 8 hours in a sunny 80F christmas, because what the hell is winter. felt terrible once we finally finished the work but forced myself out for 6 because i knew i'd feel better after, at least mentally. if it were grass maybe the legs would feel better too but all the asphalt texas miles haven't been kind to the stilts. all my available pegs being far past their expiration mileage doesn't help either. no watch; wasn't quick anyway