Long run (:

[Day 130]

Today's Workout: PM long run, 10 mi
Summary: 10.46 mi, 1:41:46, 9:44 pace average, 176 spm
Pace splits by mile: 9:47, 9:53, 9:42, 9:49, 9:48, 9:23, 9:50, 9:42, 9:50 9:41, 9:24
Hit Rate: 4/4 (100%)

Still marveling at the fact that I can take this distance at an easy pace and have it actually feel comfortable nowadays. There was a time where every 8+ mile run hurt simply by virtue of it being long, no matter what the pace. It's kinda cool to find progress in how far I can run comfortably. Legs are feeling it now, but in general I'm doing pretty well today. I was really hungry the last 3-4 miles though which was rough. Was really just thinking about running home so I could eat. Food = life.

Easy run on the books for tomorrow morning. Will probably take 4 miles but we'll see how I feel. Happy Monday everyone!

Much love,
Jess

PS - I just stretched! Yay good job Jess (:

"Will you destroy what destroys you?"

[Day 76B]

Today's PM Workout: Long run, 12 mi, easy effort (two clockwise loops of Forest Park, didn't run up/down Skinker hill the first lap because there was grounds work being done but I did on the second lap)
Summary: 12.70 mi, 2:04:42, 9:49 pace, 174 spm
Pace splits by mile: 9:52, 9:51, 9:49, 9:53, 9:27, 9:37, 9:51, 10:02, 10:04, 9:55, 9:50, 9:44, 9:41
Hit Rate: 81/89 (91%)

Notes/thoughts:

• The goal today was to make 12 miles easy and surprisingly enough I felt pretty successful with it. Definitely the best I've ever felt after a 12 mile run, and the best part is that it wasn't even much slower than my last 12 miler 2 weeks ago. Worth noting that it's always hard to compare these runs because of differences in the lead up workouts, but still cool nonetheless to feel like I have this distance in the bag.
• Worth noting there were a few rougher feeling miles in the middle there, miles 8 and 9 didn't feel super great, partially terrain related, partially wind related, but also probably because that's the point where I sort of get beyond the usual time/distance that I train so my body was probably wondering why we were still going. It picked back up though and I felt pretty relaxed going into the finish so I did rebound.
• It was windy. Let that be noted. 
• I ran with music for the first time all year today (well if you only count outdoor runs, because I usually use music on the treadmill) and it was really nice. I think it definitely helped me keep calm and relax. I kept my watch set to clock time instead of pace and I did check my pace at every mile interval when it gave me the split, but otherwise I really tried to run off feel and feel alone (I told myself I'd be happy with anything faster than an 11 min mile average). The whole goal was to see if I could cover the distance at an easy effort or if the distance would inevitably break things down, so it was important to keep effort in check today. Surprised at how well things turned out, especially in terms of split consistency and all. I should run by feel more often, I get caught up in the pace times sometimes and some days I think it's productive but I think some days it detracts from what I'm really trying to do.

Packing for a morning swim tomorrow and a looooooong day of physio review. Happy Hump Day!

Much love,

Jess

Friends make you better (:

[Day 71]

It's late so we'll keep it brief today.

Today's AM Workout: CSP Practice, IM day
Summary:

• WU: 
• 400 swim
• 4 x 150 fly/bk/br by 50 @ third person rest
• 1 - kick (w/ board)
• 2 - 25 kick/25 swim
• 3 - drill 
• 4 - 25 drill/25 swim
• 300 free pull w/ paddles
• Main Set: straight through, breaks indicated
• 3 x 100 IM @ 1:45/1:40/1:35
• 3 x 100 free @ 1:40/1:35/1:30
• 3 x 100 stroke @ 1:50/1:45/1:40
• (break)
• 2 x 100 IM @ 1:40/1:35
• 2 x 100 free @ 1:35/1:30
• 2 x 100 stroke @ 1:45/1:40
• (break)
• 1 x 100 IM @ 1:35
• 1 x 100 free @ 1:30
• 1 x 100 stroke @ 1:40
• (break)
• 3 x 200 kick w/ fins @ 3:30 (I think we did more like 3:00/3:15, it was sort of arbitrary)
• 1 - 25 fly/25 free
• 2 - 50 fly/50 free
• 3 - 100 fly/100 free
• I did the fly kick on my back, free mostly on my side with some lengths on my front
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 3800 SCY

Hit Rate: 75/83 (90.3%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I didn't feel like going when I woke up this morning, but for the first time in a while, it was a very normal kind of lack of motivation. It wasn't catastrophic or devastating, I didn't feel too emotionally over-involved, I was just tired and I didn't wanna go. I wanted to stay in bed and sleep. Obviously I didn't, but it was interesting to just feel a normal emotional response instead of the overblow emotional responses I generally have. I feel like I have a much better handle now on the difference between my mentally low days that I should try and push through and the mentally low days that are probably indicative of bigger things at play that I should probably respect and rest through. It was an interesting perspective shift.
• It took me a long time to get ready to swim fast today. I really went in with the attitude of, "I have made it here, that is the most you can ask from me today, if I swim poorly then whatever", but because the set eased into the faster efforts, I found that by the time we got to the end of the main set and had to be swimming seriously, the rest of the set had already prepared me for that and gotten me fired up to go and hit those repeats fast. It was good. (:

Today's PM Workout: 10 mi building long run

Summary:

• The pattern was 3 mi @ 9:30-9:45, 3 mi @ 9:00-9:15, 3 mi under 8:45 pace, 1 mi easy
• 10.14 mi, 1:32:34, 9:08 pace, 172 spm

Pace splits by 1.5 mi: 9:21 (14:02), 9:39 (14:29), 9:11 (13:46), 8:58 (13:27), 8:37 (12:55), 8:33 (12:50), 9:45 (1.14 mi in 11:04)

Hit Rate: 76/84 (90.4%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I ran w/ Brian and Tsehay today! Having friends was super key for the pace in the fastest 3 miles, I think it was much easier to mentally attack those miles with friends who were fasting than me leading the way. Just focusing on keeping up instead of focusing on pushing harder makes a lot of difference for me mentally. I guess this is part of why I have an easier time racing than I do training. 
• Cadence was a bit low today, definitely felt that happening but also couldn't do too much to fix it. Just gotta keep working on it more. 
• The paces were all pretty on target, a few of the earlier splits were a bit faster than the target range but it all played out okay today. 
• I honestly put out a much better run than I thought I was going to. My body didn't feel great and I was exhausted today so I actually took a nap in the afternoon that I think helped give me enough juice to get through this. The fastest 3 mile block was rough, but I definitely managed it way better than I thought I would and I didn't drop off over 10 minute pace for the warm down which makes me pretty confident that it was a good effort level and I wasn't over-extending or anything. I'm really happy with how this particular run played out, I think I'm gaining more and more confidence in my running with every workout of this nature that I manage to hit well in terms of pace targets. 

CrossFit experiment happening tomorrow, along with looooooooots of studying. Happy Friday! (:

Much love,

Jess

Well that was mildly unpleasant...

[Day 64]

We did end up doing core stuff last night! Along with that timed 100 push ups challenge. And watching the 16.2 announcement, which was freaking insane. Made even more insane by the fact that one of the judges counted Dan Bailey's reps wrong and he's probably gonna have to do the workout again. Ouch.

Anyways, if you don't know what the 100 push up challenge is, it's basically a thing that Henry and I do because I enjoy winning at stuff where we take turns doing 100 push ups for time. Not continuously, because honestly I have a hard time linking together push ups past 20 reps. But you know, broken up however you want until you get to 100. Henry went first yesterday and set the bar really high and put the fear of god in me and I subsequently crushed it. 6:57, best time yet by a lot. I broke them up pretty similar to how I usually do but I was able to stay in the 5 rep range for longer and I think my reps were faster and my breaks were shorter. I was very very happy about that. Then we did some core stuff, and since we were sort of on a challenge streak, we started with some max reps stuff. Literally unbroken reps until I failed out of one, which was fun. (Yes, this is the kind of thing I find fun.) Unfortunately, fun doesn't always mean productive? I mean it was a great workout, but I also definitely didn't focus as much on form as I typically try to and blah blah blah. A good thing to do every once in a while, but probably not something I should get in a habit of. Also I need to plank, which we skipped yesterday because of the push ups. Here's the summary of that.

Yesterday's Core Work:

• 100 push ups for time: 6:57
• 128 sit ups (unbroken)
• 92 leg lifts (unbroken)
• 200 Russian twists, broken twice (at 96/179 if I remember correctly)
• 35-18-12 V sit ups (was aiming for 35-25, but the reps got ugly and I reset and tried to hit good ones)
• 10 x 10 second leg lift negatives

Then I swam this morning! Henry gave up some of his life yesterday to make sure he could be home and support me so I could make it out to the pool this morning, so when I woke up and felt pretty crappy and didn't wanna go, I sucked it up because of him and got my butt out the door. The workout in and of itself wasn't bad, but I felt pretty terrible. Even not hard things felt hard today, I just didn't have it. We got through though. The lane sort of opted out of deciding on pace times, we just swam. There are like 5 of us girls that are virtually the same speed so it does work out in the end, but it was kind of weird for me to be like, I don't know what the send off is gonna be but as long as I come in some reasonable amount of time after Emily it'll probably be fine (I went third in the lane). The ride back was terrible and very slow. I was very tired. Biking while tired is slightly dangerous. I kept feeling like I was veering and not very steady (probably because I was veering and not very steady...). Here's the summary:

Today's AM Workout: CSP Practice, IM day
Summary:

• WU: 
• 300 swim
• 300 drill
• 250 alt. 50 kick/50 drill (was supposed to be 300, but idk what my lane decided to do...)
• Pre-Set:
• 4 x 200 IM
• 1 - drill, 2 - swim, 3 - kick w/ board (no fins), 4 - swim 
• 5 x 100, odds IM descending 1-3-5, evens free
• Main Set: 3 x 
• 125 double up IM (first round 50 fly, second round 50 back, etc.)
• 50 weak stroke (breast)
• 100 free
• 50 strong stroke (back)
• 75 IM no free
• WD:
• 200 kick (free w/ board no fins)
• 100 swim
• Total Distance: 3650 SCY (3700 SCY as written)

Hit Rate: 68/75 (90.6%)

Had a pretty productive day, ended up taking a nap in the afternoon though because the exhaustion from the morning never really cleared up. Ran right after my nap, opted for a 12 miler instead of a building 10 miler today because I've done more speed work than I typically do this week and I knew I had no kick in my legs today (based on the swim/ride). So long and steady it was. 

It was actually pretty nasty in terms of how it felt. I was honestly aiming to be just under 10 minute mile pace, I figured something nice and leisurely would do for the longest run of the year to date, but it just didn't feel nice and leisurely. By about mile 8 or 9 I was struggling with the focus and the pace and my legs just felt shredded. I got through though and held on for the finish. It's weird because these long days used to really intimidate me, but now I almost feel like I can compare it to any other run when I just don't feel so hot. Sometimes I take easy 5 milers and they feel horrible. You know you're gonna get through it, it's just gonna feel horrible. I could tell myself the same thing about today's run, except it was 12 miles. I don't know where that confidence of "oh of course I can run 12 miles, there's no question about whether or not I'll finish, I just have to decide to do it and go out and do it" came from, but it's nice. Progress. Even if today's run in particular ended slowly and with me in a lot of pain, I can see the progress hidden in it.

Today's PM Workout: Long run (12 miles), easy pace

Summary: 12.65 mi, 2:03:19, 9:45 average pace, 176 spm (Nailed that! Didn't realize it til just now but I'm real happy about that)

Pace splits by mile: 9:48, 9:52, 9:43, 9:44, 9:30, 9:47, 9:38, 9:53, 9:44, 9:46, 9:47, 9:48, 9:45

Hit Rate: 69/76 (90.7%)

I've been a huge lump since I've gotten home though. Don't feel so hot, haven't really been able to stomach much real food so I had a smoothie and have been munching on random snacks that don't upset me (tomatoes eaten as if they were apples because tomatoes are amazing, hummus and pita chips, roasted potatoes, yeah I'm random). It's late so I'm gonna stretch now and probably hit the sack. The real planned day off is tomorrow. It's interesting, that'll be the third day off I've had in seven days, which is way more than is typical. The workouts this week have been longer and higher intensity though, so I feel pretty justified with the extra rest. xD Maybe I'm just making excuses. But right now my body definitely doesn't feel that way. It'll be nice to have the day off. TGIF!

Much love,

Jess

The bad and the good (aka turning things around)

[Day 57]

I have a lot to say but it's late so I'm gonna keep it brief. The day started real bad. Sort of a carry over from last night. I wasn't very productive in the evening, which was upsetting and kept me up late and made me really emotional. I was just dissatisfied with myself, I had wanted more out of myself and wasn't getting it and it was upsetting. I ended up deciding to skip morning practice today because I didn't get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning and it meant I really started the day on the wrong foot. It felt awful to start your day by not doing something that you feel is important to do and feeling like all the blame for that rests with poor decision making from the prior day. It was hard to see the rest of the day as even worthwhile because I knew no matter how well I did with it, the best it could turn out to be was an average day and I wanted more than that. So that was rough.

But then things got better. I went to a doctor's appointment and got a well-woman check up which is something I had been meaning to do for a long time but never got around to. It made me feel like I was being a responsible adult and honestly just the act of taking care of yourself in some way always feeds positive behaviour. Things sort of made a turn for the better from there. I reviewed for my quiz in the afternoon, I hung out with some friends, I attended and paid attention in lecture, it was all good stuff. Then I decided that instead of just taking an easy long run today, I would do my long run with a few pick ups to try and get back into running a little faster than my typical slow. Here's the summary.

Today's Workout: PM long run, 10 mi, counterclockwise loop + Wydown
Summary: 10.44 mi, 1:32:47, 8:53 pace

• The structure was 1 mi warm up, then 3 x 2/1 mi @ under 8:30 for the efforts and under 9:30 for the recoveries.

Pace splits by mile: 9:15, 8:42, 8:33, 9:13, 8:39, 8:27, 9:26, 8:37, 8:31, 9:18, 9:19 (effort miles are bolded)
Hit Rate: 62/68 (91.1%; this includes the missed AM swim)

Notes/thoughts:

• I'm getting back to that place where 10 miles feels like a pretty average day. It takes a toll on me afterwards for sure, but during the run I don't feel like I'm struggling to cover the distance, so it's good to feel really controlled and at peace with the distance.
• 176 cadence average today, killed it. Actually really enjoyed moving faster in general, had a little bit more hang time in the air on my strides and it felt like flying. It was more effort, but it was really worth the feeling of moving faster.
• Third round got rough but I knew going into it that I was going to hit them. I just felt it in my body and I knew it was probably gonna hurt, but I knew had it. It did hurt. I couldn't keep it off my face which made me feel kinda bad but whatever.
• It's worth noting that there was more net elevation loss on the effort miles and more net elevation gain on the recovery miles, just the way the terrain played out, which may have gone into why these paces look the way they do. I definitely charged the downhills to get as much out of them as I could and it played to my advantage today. Maybe running the route in reverse will change these things. 
• A bit of R ankle pain on the downhills, knees feel solid though.
• Honestly I wasn't expecting to be able to pull this run off as solidly as I did. I guess I'm in better shape than I thought and the loads of recovery time between my last workout (Thursday AM) and this one (Friday PM) helped a lot.

Long ride w/ Brian and maybe some other people (????? idk) tomorrow morning. It'll be the longest ride I've ever been on by close to 20 miles so uh...wish me luck...Bringing all the food. Okay bed now!

Much love,

Jess

Clearing that 10 mile mark

[Day 52]

Today's Workout: 10 mile run w/ Tsehay
Summary: 10.07 mi, 1:34:29, 9:23 pace
Pace splits by mile: 9:48, 9:40, 9:18, 9:10, 9:29, 9:36, 9:16, 9:16, 9:17, 9:03
Hit rate: 57/61 (93.4%)

Notes/thoughts:

• Started slow today, wasn't feeling too great, but got into it by about mile 4 and held pretty steady the rest of the way. Proud of how that effort went down, finally getting back into those double digit miles after the ITBS issues. Definitely was easier with a friend next to me, never had to battle doubts (especially in the earlier miles) which was a blessing. She also kept the pace honest going home, which was nice.
• Unfortunately I have had some anterior knee pain in my R leg as the day has gone on. None during the run, although I had some ankle/hip pain on the R side during the run, nothing atypical though, that kind of thing does have a tendency of happening to me. Hopefully the knee pain will clear up. I'll be stretching and rolling out right after I publish this post and tomorrow is a day off so it should have some time to clear up before I hit another run on Tuesday afternoon.
• The only problem running w/ Tsehay that I have sometimes is that she keeps to a naturally lower cadence. I much prefer higher cadence running so sometimes I have to recalibrate in my mind so I don't sync up too much with her in terms of strides. It was a 171 spm average today, which is barely lower than it typically is, but I generally spend a higher proportion of my runs above 175 spm than I did today so it's just another thing for me to keep my eye on.
• Not really a workout related note but I've started to let loose a lot more nutrition wise. I've just been eating more in general and it's improved my quality of life if nothing else. Unsure how things will play out in terms of effects on fitness/weight, but whatever. High life quality is more important lol. 

Day off tomorrow! Yayyyyyyy!

Much love,

Jess

Making peace with the distance

Woohoooooo took that long run yesterday, went for 12 miles instead of 10, did them all slow instead of mixing in some faster efforts. Originally, I had planned to go for 10 today and then 12 on Saturday and another 10 on Monday, but I figured if I just made peace with the distance earlier and if I could do it on tired legs (the mileage these past four days have been 10 mi, 3 mi, 6 mi treadmill intervals, 12 mi) then there really was no reason for me to continue pushing the volume into the next week. So I bit the bullet and went for it.

It was the first time I've ever taken two laps of the park, I had been really worried about my mental status but actually it wasn't that hard to just keep going onto the second lap. I really focused on just holding that nice steady sub-10:00 pace every mile and working through it mile by mile made it a lot easier. I also stopped twice for water at fountains, which I don't usually do, and that was probably much needed and very helpful. All in all, it was slow but I'm proud of how it went. It was by no means easy even to hold the slow pace I was going, probably a product of tired legs and midday heat. I finished feeling fairly put together though and even though my legs were definitely achey the rest of the day, they've also definitely had worse. The running has come a long way. And I'm glad the highest of the volume is behind me now. Here's the summary!

Yesterday's Workout: 12 mile long run (easy)
Summary: 12.68 mi, 2:04:42, 9:50 pace.
Pace splits: 9:38, 9:54, 9:53, 10:03, 9:53, 9:51, 9:57, 9:54, 9:44, 9:45, 9:47, 9:44, 9:50.

So some changes in plans for the rest of the week: I had been planning on swimming today but a bunch of personal things kept me up a little later than expected last night and put me behind a bit on the rest of life, so I'm probably going to take an interval trainer session on my bike this afternoon instead (have a fun/terrifying sprint set lined up). Tomorrow is a day off and now I'll be dropping some of the volume from next week, meaning my longest run will probably be Saturday for 10 miles with some fast efforts mixed in and everything else will be single digit mileage, specifics TBD (and probably quite flexible depending on how I feel). I really need to start focusing on studying for exams though! Must pass.

That's all I've got for now!

Much love,
Jess

A little step back, a little step forward

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night so I ended up calling off this morning's swim and just sleeping in and resting instead. I think it was the right call, but it does mean I have to give myself a tick for missing a workout. Hit rate: 35/38 (92.1%). This afternoon, I wanted to take a long run since I had the time and I thought I wouldn't be able to because of rain, but it cleared up and I went for it!

Today's Workout: Long run
Summary: 10.59 mi, 1:44:44, 9:54 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:34, 9:57, 10:06, 10:08, 10:07, 9:28, 9:54, 9:42, 10:04, 9:55, 9:58.
Hit rate: 36/39 (92.3%)

I took the loop of Forest Park but also added an out and back through Clayton. The intention was to just go down and back on Wydown but I ended up turning early and did the first half on Forsyth. There are some not very steep but longer in length hills that run along that road that I wanted to expose my legs to. I was really proud of how my body handled that.

As the splits do tell, I think I turned on the gas a little too early and the last couple of miles were a mad struggle effort wise. I wanted to quit so badly at around the 8.5 mile mark and take a shorter route home but I made myself push through it and do the route as planned and I was so proud to get the rest of the way (and in decent time too!). Actually I'm remarkably impressed by the pace today. It's been the farthest and fastest I've gone in a run since getting back to St. Louis. It was also pretty warm today so I think my body is adjusting slowly to the heat and humidity. Having a very salt heavy lunch at school and having two glasses of water (one normal, one with Nuun) pretty close to when I left for the run was probably also important. The 8.5 mile crash still indicates that my body needs a little more to keep going though. A sugar source probably would have helped, but I want my body to learn to deal without it so I can hopefully avoid this situation during racing, even though I will be racing with fuel.

All in all, I'm very proud of today's effort. I really strive to make every workout count for something and today was a day where I knew I was getting better and every step I was taking and every hill I was pushing through was making me a better athlete. I'm really proud of that and will be glad to finally take my tired body to bed soon. Gonna try to actually get up and swim tomorrow! That will probably be my only workout though, I have a long school day tomorrow and I want to prioritize that and feeding myself in the evening instead of worrying about squeezing in another workout. Yay!

Much love,
Jess

Rest day and long run

I totally started to write a blog post yesterday and failed to complete it...So let's try this again. Sunday (yesterday) was a rest day, which was fairly uneventful and actually quite restful and nice. I spent a lot of last night freaking out on Skype to Henry just with pre-race jitters and he did a great job of calming me down about everything. I'm not building anymore fitness this last week, it's just a recovery/maintenance week and my focus should be on my sanity more than anything else. Everything sort of goes out the window on race day: I'll be in a completely different place in terms of mindset and there's no way for me to be prepared for racing other than by racing frequently. We decided that it would be best if I took my eyes off of goal times and paces during the race and focused instead on just running the best race I can by feel. So I'll wear my watch in order to get data for later on, but I'm going to tape a piece of paper over top of it or something so I'm not tempted to look for splits. It will take a bit of pressure of in terms of hitting certain paces and it'll prevent me from psyching myself out in case I think I'm going too fast or too slow or whatever. I have a pretty good understanding of my body, this distance, and my pacing, so I really need to trust that come race day.

This morning I took a long run, basically fasted. I woke up, drank a bottle of water and downed a Clif Shot, then headed out for my run. Details below:

Today's Workout: Long run (10-12 mi)
Summary: 11.27 mi, 1:50:29, 9:48 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:43, 9:58, 9:51, 9:54, 9:55, 9:55, 9:49, 9:50, 9:40, 9:43, 9:38, 9:27.
Hit rate: 14/16 (87.5%)

Thoughts about today: The back end (3-4 miles) were much rougher than I was expecting, and I had taken the initial 6 miles at a very relaxed effort, so it's all just a great reminder to stay in control on the way out during the race and err on the side of too easy rather than too hard. That having been said, the last couple of miles were still quick without me maxing out on the effort, which makes me confident that I'll be able to push harder than that and pull out a bigger sized negative split during the race so long as I stay relaxed during the first half.

The cadence today was fantastic. I was up above 170 consistently the first 4-5 miles and never dropped below 165 even in the later parts of the run, which is exactly what I want. I focused a lot on turnover today every time I felt myself slowing down and I think it was really important. Ideally, this is how I want to run my race on Sunday, but with a bit more edge in all my efforts. At the very least, I now know that I will be able to finish under 2:10 even when running not so seriously, so that's comforting.

I also tried not to look at my watch today, and checked only at 3 miles, 6 miles, 8 miles, and 10 miles onwards, and I still managed to hold a nice steady consistent pace, which I'm really happy with. It gives me a little bit more confidence about this whole running by feel business.

Tomorrow will be a swim only day in order to give my legs some time to recovery. Only 3 more runs left on the schedule between now and race day!

Much love,
Jess

Long run and short swim

Yesterday afternoon/evening was an interesting adventure in varying states of exhaustion. I went for a long run during Coen's hockey practice. I was aiming for closer to 12 miles, but there came a point on Old Tecumseh when I would have had to cross the road, which was sort of busy, and then run a bit and come back and cross the road again, and I was at mile 5 and tired and just turned around. So I only got 10 miles. In the evening, when I was talking to Henry about it and voicing my concerns that I hadn't run far enough, he just sort of laughed like literally nobody thinks, "Man I ran 10 miles today I don't think it was far enough". And I guess he has a point. I finished fairly strong (my last mile split was much quicker than the rest, which was fairly smooth paced throughout) and I didn't feel like I was going to collapse or die at the end, so I think I have the extra distance in me if I go for it. It was a sort of slow run though which worries me a little bit because I am definitely going to try to take it out around 9:00 pace during the race and for some reason I have no confidence in whether or not I'll have the ability to hold that. We shall see...

Yesterday's Afternoon Run Workout: Long run, 10-12 miles.
Summary: 10.09 mi, 1:38:39, 9:47 pace.
Pace splits by mile: I didn't turn my auto lap timer on until about 2 miles in, so the first two mile splits are the same pace value. 9:37, 9:37, 9:57, 9:58, 9:52, 9:47, 9:56, 9:57, 9:52, 9:18, 8:54.
Hit rate: 9/11 (81.8%)

So in hindsight I realized that I took a slightly different route than what the race course will be, but it's close enough to be a good preview of what race day will be like. The nicest thing about Windsor running is that it's super super flat here, which makes holding a pace much easier. The course interestingly felt very long on the way out and significantly shorter on the way in. When I'm racing I'll have to remind myself not to get intimidated by how long things feel on the way out, since everything seems to move quicker on the way back in. Otherwise, it was a solid run. My legs were hurting from the very beginning, but settled into a rhythm and even though it was a slow one, it was one I was happy with given that I had a hard track workout the night before. Fingers crossed that things continue to feel good going into next week. And maybe the back half of my long runs might even get a bit quicker? We'll see.

I felt okay immediately after my run but honestly the more time went on the more exhausted I got. I even fell asleep for a bit while Skyping Henry. So I figured if I continued to be this exhausted I would just skip the pool this morning and take my easy recovery run in the afternoon. But I woke up with enough time to go to the pool, so I did. My left shoulder is really aching, I think it's because of how Coen slept on my arm last night, which sucks. It was giving me a lot of problems during backstroke and kick and so I didn't push it too hard. I was also feeling generically lazy so I kept the set short and easy. It was sort of a cop out swim to be honest, but I'm happy enough about having just showed up when I really didn't want to that I'm willing to accept it.

Today's Morning Swim Workout:

• WU: 1000 SKIPS
• Main Set:
• 10 x 75 free pull @ 1:30
• 6 x 75 free swim breathe 3/5/7 by 25 @ 10SR
• WD: 100 swim, 200 kick
• Total Distance: 2500 SCM (55 min)

Hit rate: 10/12 (83.3%)

I'm slowly crawling my way back up to 90% in terms of hit rate. Above 80% though which is nice. I'm altering my schedule to cross out tomorrow's morning swim. It's a function of two things, I want to give my shoulder time to get better and I also want tomorrow's run to be high quality and focused. I have to sacrifice the extra training volume for the quality because Coen doesn't have hockey on Friday so I don't have a solid period of alone time where I can take my run unless I do it after dinner (which generally sucks because I don't usually have enough time to put enough time between dinner and my run) or in the morning before everyone is awake. And I generally swim in the morning. So the swim is probably going to be sacrificed in the interest of making sure my run workout remains high quality. And the priority right now is the running, so I don't feel too bad making that call. I'll try to get a few swims in next week as well. As of right now, the swimming is just some base work before I try to commit to very early morning masters practice once I'm back in STL anyways so I'm not going to stress too much about missing a single swim.

On the calendar for this afternoon is an easy recovery run. I'll aim for somewhere in the 3-5 mile range, nice and slow and even 9:30-10:00 pace (or slower). (I'm setting these standards now to make sure that I don't end up running a negative split 6 miler that finishes with sub-9:00 paced miles because I feel like working harder. Today is an easy day, it has to stay easy so that I have fresher legs in the tank for tomorrow's workout. It's important that I get tomorrow's run right, which means I have to commit to doing less today in order to recovery properly.) Yay! (:

Much love,

Jess