Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

AM1:  73F, 94%.  Track fail workout.  Felt like crud from the moment I woke up and tried to do some 400s but only got through 4, then quit on the 5th one.  Then I walked to my car having only logged 4 mi.

AM2:  when I got to work, it wasn't even 6am yet so I figured I'd hop on the TM at the gym.  I felt a lot better, picked up the pace as I went and did 4.5 more (about 32 min).

77F, 90%.  Forgot to look at the pace, probably around 8:00.  Stomach is doing weird things but felt otherwise ok.  A little annoyed that it's still July.

It was pushing 80 this morning, so I decided to hit the treadmills at work again since I had mild success the other day.  It worked pretty well, as I did 8 miles in ~58 min with the last 2 averaging close to 6:30.  Much easier than it would've been outside today.  Good news is that it looks like it will be cooler next week (finally) so the TM will no longer be necessary.

Kind of a repeat of yesterday, felt good again.  Next week I should be back outside full-time.

30 min easy on the TM.  Cold front arrives tonight, and I will be attempting a workout in the morning

55F, 7:13 AP.  Hello fall weather!  Goal today was 7 slow, 7 @ MP effort.  I would have been happy with 6:50-7:00 based on the shape I'm in, but the cool air let me do a little better.

7 MP miles @ 6:39 AP; (6:50, 6:51, 6:46, 6:39, 6:33, 6:29, 6:22). 

I still have some catching up to do, but I am much closer to my old self than I thought I was.  Definitely closer than I deserve!  Good news is that I felt pretty strong through all of it and never felt like I was struggling.  Maybe I will actually set some PRs again this winter/spring.

52F.  8:34 AP.  Nice cool morning on the trail.  Track workout tomorrow, before it starts heating up again.

55F.  7:00 AP.  Track workout today was 10 x (2 min @ 10k, 1 min recovery run).  To approximate it I did 10 x 600m, with 200m recoveries.  Averaged 2:14 for the 600s with brisk recovery paces (60-63 sec).  Definitely held back a lot, which was the point - this was one of those workouts to set up more difficult workouts in the future.  Still a good effort though.

I'm especially happy with how the legs recovered from Sunday.  My major weakness as a distance runner is that I have trouble recovering from harder efforts.  Sunday was my first try using BCAA powder.  I'm usually not the type to go out and try all these supplements, but I did some research on recovery supplements and this seemed worth a try.  I'm taking it with a big gran of salt right now since I'm only running ~50 mi/week at the moment (low mileage obviously should help recoveries).  But results are promising so far.

55F, 7:44AP.  Enjoyed more perfect running weather.  It's going to heat up again soon though.

67F, 87%.  Slow zombie miles...sleepy...

Hot and humid again so I took my business to the treadmills at work again.  Workout was 3 x 1.5 mi @ HMP.  I did them @ 9.3, 9.4, and 9.5 mph, with the last half mile of the last repeat between 10 and 11 mph.  In between the repeats was .25 @ 7 mph.  Effort felt about right; of course it's like running with a 9-10 mph tailwind since it's on the TM but I got the turnover I wanted.  Hopefully summer will be over after this weekend and that'll be the last TM workout (I keep saying that...)

77F, 84%.  Garmin was out of batteries but I'm pretty sure this was slow.  This little heat wave will last through Wednesday, so my workouts will be Thursday and Sunday next week.  Somehow gained 3.4 lbs on Saturday; I wish I could say I was surprised as to how that happened.

72F, 98%.  7:56 AP.  Sticky slog/swim, slowly suffocating.  Sigh.

73F, 94%.  7:54 AP.  Just biding my time until it cools off again (soon...).  It looks like Thursday will be better than Wednesday, so I'll probably have one more easy day before hitting the track.

I think I got hit by a flying bat while running under a bridge this morning.  I think my heart stopped for a second or two.  I thought those things had sonar or something...

57F, steady rain.  7:25 AP.  Something about a nice cool rain makes the legs wake up.  Tried to show some restraint since I'm hitting the track tomorrow.  Today would have been a good track day but lane 1 always seems to be underwater at that track every time it rains.

55F, 6:56 AP.  On the agenda was 7 x (3 min on / 1 min off) with the "on" portion @ 10k pace.  So I did 7 x 800m with 200m easy between reps.  Averaged 2:58.6.  I had a very tight range with no rep varying more than 1 sec from the average.  Good, tough workout; it feels like there is no rest as that 200m goes by really quick!  I'm guessing that pace is faster than I could actually run a 10k right now, but the stimulus was great.  The last 2 reps took twice the effort to keep cranking out 90 sec laps.

This morning I did a "boot camp" at work from 4-7 am.  That was a dumb decision.

can't move - ahhhh that was dumb.  I'm supposed to be doing a workout tomorrow and the weather will be perfect.  It's like post-marathon soreness, but all over the body instead of concentrated in the running muscles.  Maybe I'll still be able to run - might try to jog tonight.  Seems doubtful though.

61F, 8:22 AP.  Hobbled through a few miles.

58F.  7:29 AP.  Today was the first day I semi-felt like running since "the incident."  By the end I was on a nice runner's high.  Time to hit the track tomorrow and make up Sunday's missed workout.

47F.  Down to the track for 3 x 3200m @ HMP.  400m recovery between reps.  As a fitness indicator, this was pretty disappointing.  Here's what I did:

12:44 (6:23, 6:21)

12:50 (6:22, 6:28)

12:57 (6:29, 6:28)

I went back and looked at similar workouts in the past; this is definitely a far cry from where I was this spring.  The bright side is that I got a great stimulus from pushing through at the end.  After the 2nd rep, I spent the entire recovery lap debating whether to quit the workout.  With a few meters to go I decided this is where you really make the fitness deposit, when your legs are full of lactic acid already.  I ran the pace I thought I could handle in my depleted state and survived it.  I will definitely need to earn back my fitness, and this workout will help.  Hopefully the remnants of the boot camp debacle will be gone next week and I can redeem myself!

47F.  Garmin died but it was slow.  I do felt like I had a pretty good recovery though, despite nearly maxing myself out yesterday.

PM - 75F; got in 2 miles or so jogging around the soccer fields while Elle was at practice.  It would have been more but on my last pass I saw her sitting in my chair while everyone else was practicing.  Apparently she was goofing off and got in trouble...so had to correct that and keep an eye on things after that.

53F, 7:56 AP.  Weird week physiologically.  I've been tracking my weight for the last month or so and Monday was the highest reading so far - I think the reason was every muscle in my body was trying to heal from boot camp and there was probably a lot of fluid involved.  Today was the lowest I've recorded, and I think I was either dehydrated or glycogen-depleted or something because this run felt really bad.  I think the moral of the story is to pay better attention to hydration and eating the right things...

67F, 90%.  7:42 AP.  Nice Sunday run, with about 8 solid strides on the way home - just a bit short of max effort.  Looks like the humidity is back this week.  Joe angry.

70F, 90%.  Slow run, snoozer..

Hot and humid his morning so I went to the treadmills at work for my mid-week workout.  I did 4 x 0.75 with .25 recoveries.  Speeds were 9.8, 9.9, 10.0, and 10.1.  After the last quarter mile recovery, I did half a mile @ 10.6.  I was trying to get some 5k turnover for this workout and probably could not have done it outside today.  I have a real, actual, no kidding race on Saturday - a free 5k at work!  We'll see what happens...

75F, 94%.  7:47AP.  Good and drenched with sweat this morning.  I ran right after it rained so I got the sauna effect.  Probably will finish off the next two days with easy runs, then the 5k on Saturday and a workout on Sunday.

73F, 97%.  8:16AP.  I always thought Leon creek was a dry creek but apparently when we get an inch of rain, it turns into a raging river.  Anyway, my trail was pretty flooded in both directions so I did a little back and forth and ventured into a nearby neighborhood that had an unusual amount of traffic for that hour.  Then back to the trail and I stopped there.  Good enough - it'll be better to be nice and rested for Saturday anyway.