Back to CMSC (:

[Day 152]

Today's Workout: AM CMSC practice, mid-distance free day (test set day)
Summary:

• WU: 400 free, 3 x 100 free
• Pre-Set:
• 300 as 25 kick/25 drill/50 swim
• 4 x 150 free @ 10SR, 50 easy/50 build/50 cruise 
• Main Set:
• Test set of 10 x 100 free @ 1:40 (made them, yay!)
• 100 easy
• 2 x 200 free @ 3:30
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 3200 LCM

Hit Rate: 17/22 (77.2%)

Went to master's! Swam a lane down from where I usually swim, but will probably be moving back up tomorrow because I led the lane and I think they normally swim on a 1:45 base pace which feels a tad slow (even though 1:35 or 1:40 would be super challenging based on where I am right now, I think it'd be worth it to go back up a lane and try and hang with the faster swimmers). I don't feel as out of shape as I was expecting to, honestly the stroke felt strong, my legs which are completely non-functional on land presently actually did pretty well in the water, all in all I'm really happy with it. Long course will take some adjusting to, the pool feels endless and sometimes I don't stay focused the entire length and my form really drops off towards the end of each 50. I'll just have to figure out a way to cue myself back into focusing on my swimming since there's no wall at the 25 to help me reset. But yeah, it was a good way to get back in the pool. Hopefully I'll keep that up.

The plan was originally to take a tempo run today but I think I'm gonna swap today's run for tomorrow's because my legs definitely aren't up for it yet and I want to hit that workout right. Will take something short/easy with Henry today and try and hit the tempo run tomorrow instead. Trying to keep quality the priority. 

Much love,

Jess

Falling off the radar

[Day 151]

Exams will do that to you! I am pleased to report that I did in fact survive exam week. As of yet it is not officially known whether or not I actually passed all my exams, but I think I did fine, so I will just pretend that I did pass and that I am done with first year of med school for real. I came out to Boston on Thursday after my last exam and have been mostly adventuring with Henry. We went paddleboarding on Friday, hiking on Saturday, and ran stadiums with Tony and went to a movie yesterday! It's been good. I'm not gonna bother logging paddleboarding and hiking here, although it's up on Garmin Connect if anyone really cares. Here are the rest of the updates:

Yesterday's Workout: AM stadiums (~1/2 of Harvard stadium) + dryland circuit (5 rounds)
Summary: dryland reps

• Push ups: 19, 16, 14, 14, 15 (78 total)
• Sit ups: 14, 15, 14, 14, 14 (71 total)
• Dips: 24, 21, 22, 24, 23 (114 total)
• Squats: 21, 21, 21, 22, 22 (107 total)

Hit Rate: 15/20 (3 skipped exam week workouts; 75%)

Today's Workout: PM easy run, 4-5 mi

Summary: 4.88 mi, 43:38, 8:56 pace, 175 spm

Pace splits by mile: 9:21, 8:56, 8:45, 9:00, 8:34

Hit Rate: 16/21 (76.1%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I'm really sore today. Really hoping that fixes itself by tomorrow because I have a tough tempo run on the books (and I'm planning on swimming in the morning, so it'll also be a double day) and I'd like my legs to be functional for that. 
• The Harvard stadium is brutal. They were not kidding. I'm gonna try and work on that while I'm here, good way to try and keep some power/kick in my legs for the cycling while I'm away from my actual bike.
• For some reason my body was like, RUN FASTER RUN FASTER my entire run today. I was gonna go for an easy 9:30-10:00 paced run and the entire time my brain/heart/lungs were like ew this is too fast what are we doing but my body was like, nah this is good let's keep going. It was bizarre. But I guess that instinct is also exactly why I do what I do. Sometimes I think at the core of who I am is just this sort of crazy inexplicable desire to go faster all the time. I guess that's why I keep at it. 

So yup, master's swim practice in the AM tomorrow and a tempo run in the PM. Wish me luck! (And happier legs!)

Much love,

Jess

Easy run

[Day 142]

I think this may be the last workout I get in before I head to Boston. Things are getting real crazy with exam week stuff, so good luck me...Took an easy 6 miler today, ran with Brian, he was struggling a little bit (maybe b/c it was warm? maybe because it was early? idk) so we took it slow. He made it though, which is good and fairly impressive because he didn't sound like he was doing too hot. I also honestly wasn't feeling great the first 3-4 miles, but things settled down for me in the last 2 and they felt real smooth and real easy, so I don't really know what the deal was with that either. In any case, here are the deets.

Today's Workout: Easy 6 miler
Summary: 6.13 mi, 59:41, 9:44 pace, 175 spm average, not gonna worry about the splits today b/c it's late and they don't really matter lol
Hit Rate: 14/16 (87.5%) - this is about to plummet...loooool

Beeeeed time. Happy Saturday! (:

Much love,
Jess

Sometimes I run fast!

[Day 141]

Took an interval run today. Needed more sleep last night lol. Opted to walk the 1/4 mile recovery intervals, no regrets on that front because the running was spectacular. I'm finally starting to see run training sort of like swim training and things are falling into place in a way I really wasn't expecting. Details first, then thoughts.

Today's Workout: Interval run, 4 x 1/2 mi @ 10k-5k pace descending (under 7:45/7:40/7:35/7:30) w/ 3 mins rest (jogging), 8 x 1/4 mi @ 5k pace (7:05-7:20) w/ 1:30 rest (I walked these)
Summary:

• Totals: 9.05 mi, 1:27:09, 9:37 pace
• 1/2 mile splits: 3:51.9 (7:44), 3:47.7 (7:35), 3:44.1 (7:28), 3:39.7 (7:19)
• 1/4 mile splits: 1:47.7 (7:11), 1:49.2 (7:17), 1:48.4 (7:13), 1:48.6 (7:14), 1:48.9 (7:16), 1:49.2 (7:17), 1:47.3 (7:09), 1:48.2 (7:13)

Hit Rate: 13/15 (86.6%)

The half milers felt real relaxed today. The pace just came real easy and I tried to ease into all the repeats so that I picked up speed as the interval went on. I also tried to channel the kind of focus I have during races into my running today and really worked on feeling smooth and strong instead of thinking too much about effort. There's a huge difference between trying to run hard and trying to run fast and I think focusing on the latter is what made my run today so good. For the first time I'm starting to see how this crazy pace I'm working around could be do-able for an entire 5k. It doesn't feel like I'm fighting the will of the universe every time I try to get up to that pace, it feels like a good aerobic pace instead of a push push push push push kind of pace, the breathing is much more under control now than it had been when I first started doing these interval runs. It's all coming together and I love that I'm finding a comfortable, smooth, AND quick stride. It's something I'm familiar with in the pool, that the key to swimming fast is feeling fast in the water. Turns out the same thing applies with running on land. In any case, been really excited about the progress I've been making with the running. Have no idea if this will translate in race conditions yet, but just knowing that I can hit workouts like this and throw around speed I definitely thought I didn't have makes me happy. Time for more studying!

Much love,

Jess

What is training fasted...

[Day 140]

It's been the first time in a while that I've literally gotten up, thrown clothes on, and went for a workout. When it was routine, it never felt as good as a fed afternoon workout, but it didn't feel terrible either. Now that it's not so routine, my body was rebelling against me as hard as it could this morning. I swear I was half asleep the entire run. Everything felt hard, my legs didn't feel like turning over, it was short and slow yet somehow still real rough. Glad I got out and did it though, another full day of just sitting around studying would've probably killed me. (My schedule didn't allow for an afternoon run break so I opted to just get something short in in the morning before things picked up for the day. Case in point: I'm writing this from lab at 9:30 pm. Yeah it's been one of those days.)

Today's Workout: AM easy run
Summary: 4.58 mi, 43:29, 9:30 pace, 174 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:26, 9:42, 9:35, 9:34, 8:56
Hit Rate: 12/14 (85.7%)

Officially speaking I think I'm gonna try and get that interval run in tomorrow afternoon. I also have a lot of studying to do though and some errands to run and I have to cook for lunch which may turn out to be a major time suck...we'll see how productive I am and play it by ear. If I don't have time or the mental energy for something hard and heavy, I'll just take another easy to moderate 4-6 miles and live with that because I'm in med school and exams are a thing and what are you gonna do right?

Gonna head home and do core work and stretch and hit the sack now. Happy Thursday! (:

Much love,
Jess

And there goes the dropped ball, but it's okay

[Day 139]

I go to med school. Sometimes I think I can suck it up and be exhausted and get on fine doing what I do but that's just not true. Opted to nap in the pm today because I was entirely non-functional. Chose to focus the rest of my time on school work rather than on squeezing in a workout. It was the right call. It's nice to not be training super seriously for something and have the ability to just axe workouts when I have to prioritize other stuff. I spent a lot of the past few months feeling torn between all of these different things that I wanted to accomplish. It's nice to have a single clear priority that I can put above other things and not constantly feel so conflicted about. Gonna try and run in the AM tomorrow if I can. No promises lol.

I'm tempted to drop the hit rate count because I know it's not gonna look good, but I'm also really curious about what the hit rate will turn out to be if I continue tracking it and choose to just live my life instead of constantly trying to work my life around training. I think it'll be an informative number honestly so I'm going to keep tracking it, even though I think there's a chance it might make me feel a little bad. The knowledge is worth that risk. Besides, I finished that last training block on a stellar 91.6% while still managing to do med school, so I'm allowed to drop the ball however much I want now. xD

Hit Rate: 11/13 (84.6%)

Send me good vibes for a good studying day tomorrow, I'm really needing it for the upcoming exam week. (:

Much love,
Jess

PS - Still going strong on that daily core/stretching! So proud! (:

Rainy days

[Day 138]

Today's Workout: PM easy run
Summary: 4.90 mi, 46:40, 9:31 pace, 173 spm average
Pace splits by mile: 9:31, 9:38, 9:23, 9:37, 9:25
Hit Rate: 11/12 (91.6%)

Ran with Brian in the rain today. Took the bike path so we were a little short of 5 miles but whatever. Interval run on the schedule for tomorrow.

Much love,
Jess