Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

AM:  74F, 88%.  6 @ 8:35 AP.  Sluggish.  Also, yesterday I got the results of some bloodwork and it was pretty much crappy across the board.  Last test was ~15 months ago and I guess I've just gone downhill since then.  Weeeeeeee!

AM:  73F, 85%.  7 miles.  Track today, intending to do 8 x 400 @ mile pace.  I ran 75, 78, 81, 83, quit.  Last year I did this workout 3 times and averaged 75.xx every time.  So I was pretty surprised to start falling apart 200m into the second rep.  Well-rested for this, with decent weather, so I don't know.  The good days seem to be few and far between lately.

PM:  3 mile TM plod.  Usually I do a mini-workout after a workout fail, but I was barely hanging on at 7.0 today.  Some days you gotta just throw in the towel.

AM:  74F, 87F.  6 @ 8:58 AP.

AM:  76F, 86%.  6 @ 8:36 AP.  This has been a long, rough work week...had to skip a couple PM runs, and my AM runs have all felt like death.  Hopefully I can look back on this later as a low point, and bounce back from here.  After my failed long run tomorrow, I'm going to try and get lots of sleep on Sunday and Monday, so that should help.

PM:  4 on the TM.  I did manage to get through my 6 x 1 minute stride routine, so that's something.

79F, 86%.  21 @ 8:16 AP.  I didn't want to have too much time between long runs so I planted this one in the middle of this 5k cycle.  Original plan was for 24, so I set it up as 3 x 8 mile out and backs so I could easily quit once I inevitably bonked (still plagued with that overall fatigue from this week).  It finally happened on the last out and back so I turned around early and crawled back.  Tough 75-degree dew point today which is on the high side, even for us, but it's not like I was trying to run hard.  Just a nasty cycle this whole summer of having one or two good days followed by weeks in a hole.

AM:  77F, 90%.  6 @ 7:59 AP.  Workers were out there on my coveted neighborhood construction trails.  Toiling away, and besmirching the sanctity of Labor Day!

Anyway.. I took the day off running yesterday, and got 8+ hours of sleep both of the last 2 nights.  I feel pretty rested.  The work week will reverse all of this, of course, but at least I can start off on the right foot.  No booze in a month either (that's impressive for me).

PM:  96F.  4 miles, some with daughter #1 and some with the dog.  Ran around sunset which made it feel pretty decent.

AM:  77F, 86%.  6 @ 8:29 AP.

PM:  95F.  3 @ 7:39 AP.  Finally had some time just after sunset with the dog.  Picked up the pace a little - sub-8 seems so fast for a non-workout now.

AM:  77F, 83%.  6 @ 8:28 AP.  My oldest daughter Elle joined the blog (I finally gave in).  She's really into it (for now).

PM:  no.  Might have to start adding a few miles in the morning as a hedge against long work hours.

AM:  76F, 89%.  10 miles.  Hit the track for a set-the-bar-low workout at 5k effort.  I went with 6 x 800, 1 lap recovery.  Back in June, I averaged 2:46 for this one, but set the bar today at 3:00.  Ended up averaging 2:53 (2:57, 2:55, 2:54, 2:54, 2:51, 2:48).  Mediocre, but I think I'm on to something with the easy targets...you never fail!  Anyway, as crappy as running feels right now, plus cruddy conditions, I'll definitely take it.  We are getting a couple days of cool air soon and I'm thinking mile reps on Sunday.  If that goes poorly, THEN I can press the panic button, which usually includes some kind of drastic, overreacting changes to my training.

No.  Wife out of town, failed VPN, deadlines...no.

6 on the home TM with a few pickups.  Wife comes back to San Antonio tonight, and so does the cold front!  I rarely let one of those slip by without jamming in a workout...track time tomorrow.

65F, 76%.  14 miles total.  Alright, I guess most of my recent running problems were just heat-related...this was a really solid workout.  I did 6 x 1600, 400 recovery.  I averaged 5:59.8 per rep (6:06, 6:05, 6:05, 5:59, 5:57, 5:47).  My fitness has been a grab bag lately so I had no target - just be conservative enough that I don't quit.  It took 3 reps before I trusted myself enough to let loose a bit.  Always a positive sign when you can just about hit 5k pace on the last rep of a 6x1.  So maybe all those miles this summer counted for something (I had my doubts).

AM:  65F, 74%.  6 @ 9:02 AP.  Tired legs, but I don't mind when there's actually a reason for it.  Cool air again today - unfortunately, by the time I recover from Sunday (estimating summer 2017) it will be gone.

PM:  no

AM:  73F, 87%.  7 @ 8:12 AP.

PM:  no

AM:  76F, 87%.  6 @ 8:30 AP.  More missed runs.  Really stretched thin this week, but next week looks better.

AM:  75F, 91%.  6 slow, forgot to look at pace.

PM:  4 on the TM with long strides....happy to get in a double today, but really tired on this one.

AM:  76F, 88%.  8 @ 8:01 AP.  zzzzzzzz

PM:  91F (H/I 94F).  4 @ 8:35 AP.  Haven't gotten in a good vitamin D heat slog in awhile.  #stillsweating

76F, 89%.  6 @ 8:31 AP.  Neighborhood construction run.  Lots of work going on today though.  On one block it was like a competition between work sites as to who had the loudest tejano music.

AM:  70F, 91%.  13 miles.  I've missed/failed so many workouts in this 5k block, that I wasn't sure what kind to do today...so I did the pu pu platter - a little of everything.  First about an hour of easy running, then hit the track:

1600 in 5:53

1200 in 4:16 (5:43/mile pace)

2 x 800 (2:46, 2:44)

2 x 400 (75, 76)

2 x 200 (33, 33)

Recovery was a 400 after each rep, except after the 400s and 200s (200 recoveries there).  Also the second 400 and the second 200 had a few extra meters in them - 2 ladies showed up toward the end of my workout and decided they would own lanes 1 and 2...and they looked like they could easily beat me up so I just went around them.

Glad to get in another solid weeekend workout.  I wish I could run like this during the week, but it has been pretty stressful lately and it's pretty much all I can do to just get in a little exhausted slogging.  Fortunately I should be able to finally just lay around today, and after Monday, the work week looks lighter as well.  So hopefully I can get the mileage and sleep levels back up.

PM:  90F.  4 @ 8:46 AP.  Sunset with the mutt.

AM:  73F, 90%.  6 @ 8:49 AP.

AM:  68F, 83%.  6 @ 8:43 AP.  Getting cooler!

PM:  4 on the TM with long strides

AM:  68F, 91%.  8 @ 7:32 AP.  On the way back, I did 7 x (2 min on, 1 min off), then a harder quarter mile to finish it.  Most repeats around 5k pace.  Not quite a workout, but definitely harder than just doing strides; that's about right for what I felt like I could handle without killing myself this morning.

PM:  4 on the TM.  A little more uptempo than usual, on account of the fast shoes and higher-than-usual caffeine levels.

AM:  65F.  6 @ 8:42 AP.  I ran with a shirt on this morning.  It was kinda weird.

PM:  4 ez on the TM.

AM:  70F, 72%.  14 @ 7:12 AP.  Last 10 @ 6:53.  My wife is having a birthday weekend away from the kids, so I needed to move up my normal harder weekend run, which I decided would be aerobic in nature.  It's not really in the SlowJoe repertoire to do a workout without at least 2 easy days preceding it but I figured I could just go a little slower at first and ease into it, which I did.  Felt pretty good considering there is some sleep debt this week again, but it took a really long time to catch my breath after the run.  This weekend I should be able to get 2 pretty good nights of sleep, and minimal running.

AM:  67F, 87%.  6 @ 8:24 AP.

PM:  no.  This is supposed to be mileage liftoff week but I don't know if I can get in any doubles.  So it looks like earlier wakeups and longer morning runs.  Need about a 26-hour day and I think I could do it all (be a good dad, husband, employee, runner and still get enough sleep) but running and sleep keep getting squeezed out.

14 @ 7:43

6 @ 8:15