Vestige

Was reminded of this fine website by a kindly bloke who tricked me into running on this very day.  The trails were good to me, less good to the bloke.  3 grind, 3 less grind.  Later ate my soul into oblivion and then observed a cabin late into the night.

Jogged so hard.  Ran up a mountain to the rock called big.  Saw snow, saw Winter, saw my life flash before my eyes.  A superp hour and a half with the one called beej. 8.69/10, may attempt again.

Hike for recovery. 2.5ish miles trying to motivate a herd of tired manchildren. Was challenged to a downhill race by a friendly soccer man.  Foolishly dropped 2:20 800 at the expense of my knees and feet. Still counts as recovery.

Attempted an easy run, still felt like a grind. 7:20 pace 'round town.

Running in circles with good ol' BG Benny Boi. 5:28, 5:30, 5:00. Intermediate yogging for recovery. 1 mile warmup/cooldown.

Beautiful day to dodge 40+ bikers and tiny hiking humans.  Quarantine is driving the masses to even the most boring of trails.  Long slow grind of pretty high effort. Underground race has been confirmed and is slowly growing in contestants.  Time to ramp up the training to avoid a lifetime of shame.

Moderate speed left turns on the red oval. 4:52, 5:17, 5:00.  Full recovery of hobbyjogging in between. 1.5 mile warmup + cooldown.  Knee be tweaking slightly, need to pull back on hard runs for a bit. 

6 miles to the dump park and back, 6:45 pace.  Landfills are gross and depressing places, but it's hard to think of another option for the tons of trash we all have... always fun to think about the feasibility of living off-grid.  Finished with 3 20-second hill strides and some yogging. Now I'm off to see the biomechanics wizard in hopes he can cast a spell on me.

Short mountain yog with ol henny hunny buns.  Nothing like some flashy pink gear to brighten a day.  Lil bit o climbing and heavy breathing and reminiscing. May attempt round one of spellcasting tonight, we'll see if that enables another run on the morrow.

Was granted a 91-minute taste of Hell for running on the sabbath.  3 miles of grinding up to the trails.  Borderline heatstroke, dehydration, extreme fatigue, chaffing, and then... caught my second wind.  Blasted through the trees at light speed for roughly 69 seconds then popped my left ankle real good...  Hobbled 2 more miles to the trailhead at 12-minute pace, hit the roads for the last 4 miles at only a half-hobble.

Takeaways from today: don't run in the afternoon, ever. Purchase nut-butter.  Stop stepping on unstable rocks. Amen.

5 x 1k repeats on the track with good ol' BGBennion. 1-mile warmup, 600m recovery walk/yog between reps.  3:02, 3:02, 3:04, 3:01, 3:02.  1-mile cooldown + strides.  Felt like sweaty garbage after first 2... Blake took the lead on the last few for maximum pacing efficiency.  Good workout, though definitely not something I could reproduce in an actual race...  Ankle was 97% good, aside from jumping a handful of fences.  That was a mistake.

Evening stroll along the highway.  7:40 pace.  I've decided more miles are in order if I'm to pop a 3rd place finish next month. Gotta fight for that bronze, baby.

10 miles 'round the old stompin grounds of PV. 3 mile tempo in 17:26 to finish. Brought the average pace down to 6:37.  Felt good after about mile 6.  First non-trail long run in a very very long time... New training objective: sleep more + early. May the power of Mantz be bestowed upon me.

12 hour update: the 20lbs of weight I've gained in the last 3 years has gone straight to my thighs and resulted in unbearable chaffing on every long run... Something needs to be done.

8 miles at 7:15 pace - mostly on roads... Road running is insufferable, but luckily I had some Audible credits to cash in.  "Talking to Strangers" - Malcolm Gladwell.  Thus far its been pretty dark and depressing, but interesting enough to get me through a boring run so I'll take it.  Got a wild nosebleed about 4 miles in, took a pit stop to stuff some grass up there and get chased by an old dude and his RC supercar.  

Finished 8 miles on the paved trail system, did 8 x 20 seconds hill "sprints" (pretty dead, not much speed there), with jog/walk down recovery.  That ended up being exactly a mile, then a mile cooldown home.  

Good day.  Starting to feel my legs coming back.  The race has been upgraded to put 3rd place well out of reach and a top 10 finish as a much more reasonable goal. Just gotta keep my head down and embrace the grind.

12 x 400m workout with the mates.  2 miles warmup, 200m walk/yog recovery between reps.

74, 73, 71, 73, 73, 68, 68, 69, 71, 70, 71, 57.99.  Couldn't really get in a rhythm this workout.  Legs felt good, but we probably took too much recovery on most of these.   I should've done 16 but didn't want to finish by myself (lame excuse, I know).  Last rep felt good to open up, still got some speed there.

1.5-mile cool down to bring total to 8 for the day.

PM: 1 mile to the park, 2 miles barefoot laps in the grass, 1 mile home.  7:10 average pace.  Super tired all day.  2 hour nap helped a little, but still exhausted.  Maybe it's just adjusting to more mileage, but I haven't felt this wasted in a long time.  Hopefully it passes soon.  Tomorrow will be a true rest day.

Dragged through the mountains by the Taliban.  8:06 avg pace, 2200 ft elevation gain.  Was hoping to be slightly more impressive for my captor but it'll do.  Had many very close calls with the ankles, but no incapacitating injuries this time around. 3 weeks till showtime.  According to the Garmin, I'm gonna need 46 hours recovery.. but we took a post-run ice bath in the river which should bring recovery time to like... whenever I run next.  Onward to victory.

Super easy day. Still feeling a tad beat up from my Taliban encounter. 2 miles to the park, 2 miles barefoot laps, 4 x 100m(ish) strides, 1 mile home. 7:38 avg pace, 140 avg HR.  Got some spellcasting in later, trying out some new magic I picked up during my time in captivity.

Reality check.

1 mile warmup, 5k time trial (16:43), 5 mile cooldown. Basically just got brutally spanked and realized where my fitness is actually at.  I've lost my knack for downhill running, uphill running, and fast running. 16 days to find some performance-enhancing drugs to give me a fighting chance.  LETS GO BABY

2 mile warmup, 15 x 1 min hard, 2 mins easy.  Averaged 5:03 pace for the pickups, felt good up until about 13.  Ran to Layton HS, did a few laps around the park and some barefoot pickups in a grassy area by the track.  3.5 mile slow cooldown.   7:16 avg pace for the whole run.

Recovery day. Left ankle been feeling a tad janky of late.  1 mile to the park, 2 miles barefoot on the grass + 4x100m strides, 1.5 miles home. 7:45 avg pace.

Convened in a parking lot where countless drug exchanges have undoubtedly taken place. 2 miles warmup trying to clean the rust from the hinges. 5 mile tempo "with" good sir Taliban. 5:55 avg pace, windy both ways, so that blew.  1 mile grandma pace cool down. Happy to be sub 6 but did not feel good at any point... should probably put more time into mobility drills... and also sleep. 

Drove to the land of Pokemans and Pokewomans to catch me a beefy fella. Fortune smiled upon this quest, as 3 beefers were caught. Also ran 3 miles barefoot nice and slow while hunting, with 2 800s (2:34, 2:33) thrown in the middle so it felt more like real mileage.  Feeling something like Osgood Schlatter giving a beating to my knees, but unless a very late growth spurt is kicking in, it must be something else. A day or two of rest and recovery is called for at this point. God bless my tibial tubercles.

4 miles to the Layton track, 3 x 1 mile @ 5k pace, 1 mile easy (5:24, 5:22, 5:18).  Felt just ok.  Goal is sub 5:20 pace for the race, which would shave 30 seconds in about 2 weeks.  Maybe a stretch, but on a good day I think it's possible.  Average pace 6:54 for 10 miles.  Caught some pokemans at the park for a short breather then 4 miles home at 8:00 pace.  Legs felt much better than earlier this week, but will still need some ice.  Looking forward to an easy week next week.

1 mile to the park, 1 mile barefoot on grass. 3 x 100m strides. Timed one with the bass drop and got a 100m PR (unmeasured, just a rough estimate). 1 mile home.  Legs feeling better after taking most of the week off.  Was a little concerned about stress fracture/shin splints, along with ongoing knee/hip/ankle whatever... but all seems to be well today. Ready to send it Saturday.

Race day baby.  Had the majority of the crew show up, only 4 unplanned DNS so about what was expected.  1 mile warm-up on the canal. Hit the start line at 8 for a toasty morning race and sent it.  Started off way too slow, hit the first mile in 5:26, but I was staying pretty close to the top dudes which made things confusing.  Picked it up on the downhill bit of mile 2, still got dropped, but got back on pace with a 5:06.  Hill at the start of mile 3 went much better than the time trial round, but still pretty rough. Got some momentum back on the flat stretch, closed hard down the last hill, hit mile 3 in 15:57 with a 5:23 split, opened up a little coming into the finish, but not much of a kick. Ran most of the race in no-man's land.  Finished 37 seconds behind 5th place, 16 seconds ahead of 7th place.  1-mile barefoot cooldown back to the cars.

25 runners started, 25 finished, nobody got lost, I'll count that as a massive success.  Round 2 next month, maybe I can go sub 16 on a good day. Fingers crossed.

Today was one of those days where the legs just wanted to go. Plan was to hit the park for some barefoot laps, but I was really feeling it so I stuck to the roads and ran past the park. Ran a 5:14 mile (2:15, 2:59) and then ran back up to the park for some laps. 4 miles, 6:24 average pace. Left shin hurting after the fast mile, jogged it off and it went away.  Just paid through the nose for a gym membership, so I'll be hitting the bikes soon and pulling back on mileage.

Drove to the park with Sir Bennion, 4 miles at easy pace but high effort, then hit the track for a horrible idea.

Chicken Sandwich Mile: a derivative of Nick Symmonds' "Big Mac Mile" that looked fun in a twisted way.  Despite our sandwiches being half the size, our times were still slower... so kudos to them.

Ate a Wendy's Chicken Sandwich before each lap, rules were unclear about swallowing until a few near-death experiences convinced us swallowing before starting the next lap was necessary.

No idea what the sandwich splits were, but it was slow. 400 splits were 80, 70, 84 (choked on sandwich twice), 60. Blake bested me by about 29 seconds but struggled to hold much down post-race.  May attempt again next weekend with a more exciting food item and bigger group.

3.5 mile warmup to the park (6:44 pace). Stepping stone workout barefoot on the grass (5 hard, 5 easy, 4 hard, 4 easy, etc.).  1 mile cooldown home.

5 Hard - 5:23 pace, 4 hard - 5:54 pace, 3 hard - 5:20 pace, 2 hard - 5:00 pace, 1 hard - 4:20 pace. 

Felt decent. Been eating and sleeping like garbage lately, definitely need to work on that. Pulled way back on mileage this week and last per an abundance of niggles.  Hopefully back up around 20-25 next week with some biking.

In Idaho. Hurt a lot. Not fast.

1.5 mile warmup around the park, then emerged victorious in the great donut battle.  Infinitely better than high-speed chicken.

https://youtu.be/2CGhJr94QQk 

AM - 2.5 miles to the park with plans for a barefoot grass run, then had to reroute to the gym to finally get my crap sorted out. Bikes are now available. 1 mile home then 2 hill sprints to finish.

PM - Hunted some mighty pokemans then was challenged to a mile race by some imbecile who thought just because I was barefoot I would be slower.  Half mile warmup then ran a 4:55 (on the track) with minimal damage to my feet and maximal damage to Mr Bennion's pride.

Later PM - consumed roughly 11 slices of dominoes pizza and sold my soul to the devil for a food coma. Certainly been in a slump lately... low miles, little sleep, lots of food.. Definitely need to make some changes.