Patience

[Day 27A]

Took that test run this morning. Knee felt okay. It was a little bit sore honestly but it wasn't hurting in the IT band spot, was more diffuse anterior pain, which might just be residual stuff from Monday's ride and not too run specific? It wasn't bad enough that I felt like I had to stop, so I did the 20 minutes and just left it at that. I had been thinking about maybe taking a 20-30 minute row afterwards if my knee felt good, but it was super great so I thought I would just rest it seeing as it'll be getting some more action this afternoon when I take my trainer ride anyways. We'll see how it holds up as the day goes on, I'm making a trip to the grocery store today and that walk will probably tell me a lot about how things are going. Here's the summary:

Today's AM Workout: 20 minute easy treadmill run, testing the knee
Summary:

• 2% incline, 6.2 speed throughout
• Treadmill numbers: 2.10 mi, 20:36
• Garmin numbers: 2.19 mi, 20:09, 9:12 pace

Hit Rate: 27/28 (96.4%)

I honestly feel like I shouldn't even call that a workout, it was so so chill. But I know that if I don't count these workouts as legitimate workouts, I would get tempted to do too much too fast because I like to feel like I'm training, I don't like to feel like I'm rehabbing a poorly looked after joint. So I'm going to count them and legitimize them because it'll help me be patient with the process which will be good for me in the long run. The sad part of this I think is that this week is actually going to be strangely low volume since I'm planning on running again on Friday and both of these workouts are slash will be super short compared to my typical workouts and it was already a short week to begin with. The upside though is I got up at my usual time, finished super early, and go to shower and eat and head out to school and get some work done before my morning classes, which was really nice.

I pretty much spent my 20 treadmill minutes this morning thinking about the process going forward. I was really looking forward to doing more speed focused run training this year, since I got some of that in last October before my half and it made such a huge difference to my running. With the setback though, it looks like we'll be back to just focusing on getting the right kind of volume and building back up in a pretty purely aerobic sense to try and make sure I'm not taking on too much too fast. I'd rather play this a little safer and be a little slower than go all in and get hurt again. I tell myself that it'll be okay and I'll run slow this first half of the year and spend my month in Boston (when I'm away from my bike and the gym and will probably be swimming with CMSC there) trying to get back on the speed/strength/interval work bandwagon. If I can stay healthy that long, that'll be the plan. I just have to be patient. There's no cheating the process when it comes to building up the right kind of base.

Time for class now! I'll be back with the afternoon trainer update later in the day. (:

Much love,
Jess

Lol what are knees...

[Day 19A]

Today's AM Workout: Treadmill interval run (and some semblance of core work)
Summary:

• WU: 1.5 mi @ 6.0-6.5 
• Main Set: 5 x 800/400 @ 7.0/6.0, 7.5/6.0, 8.0/6.0, 7.5/6.0, 7.0/6.0 
• I had originally planned on doing 6 repeats (doubling the top 8.0/6.0 interval), but my right knee wasn't feeling so hot the entire time so I brought it down a notch
• WD: ~0.25 mi to reach total of ~5.5 mi 
• I should have warmed down more...I got lazy...
• Treadmill numbers: 5.56 mi, 51:06
• Garmin numbers: 5.44 mi, 50:48, 9:20 average pace
• Core: 2 rounds of 30 leg lifts, 30 wrist to knee sit ups, and 50 Russian twists (med ball?), no rest within rounds, some arbitrary amount of rest between rounds.

Hit Rate: 17/18 (94.4%)

Notes/thoughts:

• So in some strange twist of events, while I was stretching after the run, I popped my left knee (the one that's prone to doing that) even though it was my right knee that hurt most of the run...so now I have two knees that both aren't doing fantastic but also both aren't doing so badly that I feel particularly inclined to change anything about my plans for them. It's awkward. We'll see how they hold up the rest of the day. I took a Naprosyn and hopefully that'll calm things down? (Before you go off on me about how bad NSAIDs are while training, I know, I know, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.)
• I still do only roughly 50% of the core work I plan to do because it sucks and I have no discipline. ):
• The one upshot of this morning was that I didn't have breakfast planned or pre-made like I usually do, so I just threw some stuff together and actually had a super delicious wrap with cream cheese and cucumbers and deli chicken (with some eggs and chocolate milk) so that made me pretty happy.
• It's cold. Why is it so cold. It was literally warmer at Killington than it is here. Don't do this to me.

The status of the afternoon trainer ride is currently unclear. We'll see whether the knee issues resolve as the day goes on or gets worse. That'll probably be what decides it. I shall report back later. (Or if I don't, I will report back tomorrow, likely to tell you that I skipped the PM workout today. Hopefully that's not what ends up happening, but we shall see.)

Much love,

Jess

"It will settle"

[Day 13]

Title quote is from Chrissie Wellington, retrieved from a magazine I was reading over breakfast this morning. Pretty much sums up how things felt during the workout today so I thought it was fitting.

Today's Workout: AM treadmill run (one big long continuous hill) + core
Summary:

• Run:
• WU: 1.5 mi @ 6.0-6.2, 2% 
• Main Set: all at 6.2 mph, 1.0 mi @ 3%, 0.75 mi @ 4%, 0.50 mi @ 5%, 0.20 @ 6%
• WD: 1.0 mi @ 6.0, 2%
• Treadmill summary: 5.07 mi, 50:05
• Garmin summary: 5.24 mi, 49:56, 9:32 pace
• Post-run core: 
• 50-30-20 shoulder touch planks
• 30-30 leg lifts
• 10-10 PT lying leg extensions (R/L)
• Plank series: 1:30/0:45/0:45/1:30 w/ 30 SR b/w
• 10 four count sit ups

Hit Rate: 13/13 (100%)

Notes/thoughts:

• It will settle: every time I upped the incline today I had a moment where my brain was just like, ugh I have to do how much more of this? And then we're gonna bring it up again? But the beauty of endurance work is that you always settle into it, you just have to give it time. I really felt that today. It's a good mantra to keep in mind when things feel off kilter early on in any workout/interval/whatever it may be. 
• Definitely still overreaching every time I plan a workout. I was like, oh I've never really done hill work on a treadmill before (other than that one dabble into a preprogrammed hill run on the treadmill the one random day) so let's try something new today. Let's not do actual intervals because I don't want to be too aggressive. And I found this cool thing that was like a continuous hill pyramid and thought, yay perfect for the base weeks! Except I'm totally not a good enough runner to do this as a pyramid yet. xD Sooooo instead I took it as a ladder. Worked my way up today. Will hopefully be able to work my way down too next time? And then we can work on inching up that pace? We'll see. I've got things to work towards.
• I really need someone cracking the whip on the core work. I did some amount of it but honestly I didn't put in that much effort. Really lack discipline with the core stuff, especially when it comes to planking. It's one of those things where I need someone else to be holding the stopwatch and pestering me about form otherwise it just doesn't get done right. (Notice that I went for a 1:30 based set instead of the typical 2:00 based set...yeah...) It sucks that this is actually important to me being better at the other stuff because I dislike core work so much. I am trying and I guess not doing as much as I should be is still better than doing nothing...but I still really just need someone to glare at me and tell me to actually do the work when it comes to this. (Henry? Sunday after we get back from Killington? Just make me do it?)
• Henry had to do some work to kick my sorry butt out of bed this morning. I really just wanted to sleep in. But he made me get up and got me to the gym where I subsequently got to do my thing so that was nice. 
• My right knee was bothering me a bit today again during the run, and it's been intermittently painful throughout the morning, so that's something to watch out for. Especially seeing as I'm skiing over the weekend, the knee health will be pretty pivotal to everything.
• Did Garmin update their software? Because my accelerometer numbers this week have looked really different than they used to look and nothing has really changed about the treadmills or my running I don't think...we'll see if the change trends continue. I reserve judgment until a later time. 
• Cadence was still low on average today (169 spm). I had some good stretches in the middle of higher cadence running though, so that's a step in the right direction. Probably taking a run outside tomorrow so hopefully those numbers will give me a better indication of what the deal with cadence is right now. 

In other news, I took some time for myself this morning. Just like didn't do anything I was supposed to do, took a bath, watched some random videos (including this which got me real pumped about skiing over the long weekend), laid around in bed, it was fantastic. I haven't done much of that the past week and a half, low pressure me time was much needed. Some days I don't take well to needing down time and like spend the entire time fretting and being a little crazy. Today though, I felt like I deserved it and it was time well spent so I'm not living with as much angst as I usually am after blowing off responsibilities for an entire morning. Now I have to actually go address the realities of my life though lol. At least I'm already done with all the training I have to do today? And it was a short workout at that?

Two sessions on the books for tomorrow: a morning swim and an afternoon run (hopefully outdoors). Fingers crossed for warmer weather and NO WIND (because I have to bike out/back in the morning). Okay gonna go get my undercut trimmed up now. (:

Much love,

Jess

"Your fight to overcome defeat has set the skies alight for me"

[Day 11]

Go look up the song, it's awesome, came on at a pretty pivotal moment in my very boring treadmill run today and pretty much saved it. When I took yoga lessons back at Gratitude in Princeton, one of the things my favourite instructor would have us do was dedicate our practice to someone at the beginning of each class. That was my favourite part, giving the practice up as an offering to someone important to me. Henry (who probably makes up my blog's entire audience) has been through a lot this past year to try and help me live my dreams and I won't get into the details of it but that line and this person are a huge inspiration to me. I can overcome some boredom and tired lungs for that.

Today's Workout: AM lift + easy steady state treadmill run
Summary:

• Back squats: WU 12 @ 65 lbs, 3 x 8 @ 95 lbs
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, went for 3 x 10 @ 75 lbs but set 3 ended up being a 4/3 split to failure so I dropped down and just did another 10 @ 65 lbs. (Yes, I dropped the bar on myself twice. In one set. I'm impressed too.)
• Deadlifts: 3 x 8 @ 115 lbs
• Pulldowns: alternating wide/narrow grip @ 6 plates, 4 x 12/12/12/8-4
• Giant set: 3 x
• Box jumps: 12
• Push presses: 12 @ 45 lbs
• Bent over BB rows: 12 @ 45 lbs
• Treadmill run: 
• Treadmill numbers: 2.71 mi, 26:39
• Garmin numbers: 2.64 mi, 25:08, 9:30 pace
• Superset: 4 x 
• Resistance band fly pulls: 25
• Band squats: 20 (bodyweight)

Hit Rate: 10/10 (100%) <- okay this is blowing my mind, I'm usually down a workout and clawing my way back by like day 4, how are we off to such a good start this cycle?

Notes/thoughts:

• Squatting: Um was planning on going 3 x 12 @ 85 lbs with a double drop at the end (which is my usual set but on more weight) and then changed my mind and went for less volume because I woke up with my back a little wonky (probs from just poor riding position on some of the harder efforts last night, really gotta work on that) and I wanted to save my back because I wanted to up the deadlift weight today so...that was a thing. A 3 x 8 is normally pretty comfortable, I'm still learning to keep my back safe on those last reps, but nothing felt too off which was nice. My legs also just feel way better today in general in comparison to last week, so that was nice.
• Apparently I can't go an entire gym day without dropping something on myself? Today was weird though because honestly both times it felt so out of nowhere. And once that bar is sitting on my chest it's staying there. I know some people can take a moment and pick it back up, I can't. And 75 lbs is just at the point where I really don't enjoy rolling the bar off of me, so uh, that sort of sucked.
• Deadlifting: 115 lbs was the weight I hurt myself at, except I was doing 12 reps and like really not thinking about putting the bar down in a reasonable manner, which was really my problem. I can usually lift safe, but I drop into that natural curve in my back if I don't focus on it on the way down and that's not good. So opting for fewer reps, working on being gentle with the bar on the way down, probably gonna hold it at this weight until 3 x 10 is comfortable and then try to go up to the big plates and play around with set and rep counts. Honestly don't know that I'll make enough progress in the next three months for that to be a real thing, but we'll see. A girl can dream right?
• Bent over BB rows: went conservative with the weight today because of that whole back thing (first time I've done this in a while without it causing me any pain). I should really like use more weight on these? But at the same time they don't have marked barbells at my gym and I don't know how much weight the little ones are (I lifted with the Olympic bars today) so I don't really know how to set them up and I feel bad occupying two Olympic bars (not that there are enough people at the gym at the hour that I go for it to matter, but still) so idk. We'll see...
• There were a lot of people on the treadmills when I went over for my short run so I had to use one of the small ones today. It's actually a pretty comfortable treadmill, I didn't mind it so much for an easy run, although the display is low which would be annoying for interval work. The run was boring but fine. Interestingly enough, my Garmin numbers line up much better with this treadmill than with the big one. The pace felt harder than what I'm used to for the 6.0-6.5 mph range as well which makes me wonder if the two types of treadmills are calibrated differently. Unclear. All it makes me think though is I have to be consistent about using one or the other for pace based workouts otherwise things could get real wonky. 
• Biggest factor in the run not sucking today though was the fact that my legs weren't blown. By this point in the day last Monday I was really hurting and I felt pretty good today, which made a pretty huge difference.
• Benedict (a high school teammate of mine) would be proud of me and my resistance band life. I was doing them today and reminiscing about him trying to talk me into doing resistance band work with him because my fly sucked and I honestly just needed to be stronger and me vehemently resisting every time. I may not be doing sets of 100 the way we did in club swim dryland in college, but at least I'm doing them now?

I feel so good! I mean the arms are starting to settle in, I am starting to feel that, but honestly I was wrecked after last Monday and I feel pretty good today so that bodes well. Fingers crossed that the feeling good continues into tomorrow, because that'll set me up for a pretty kick ass week. (I'm also skiing over the upcoming long weekend, so keeping my legs in a good place is going to be super key for that.) The plan tomorrow is a swim in the morning and a trainer ride in the evening. It's a little unfortunate that I'm front-loading the riding this week and back-loading the running but you gotta do what you gotta do to make the schedule work right? Hopefully the temperature comes up by tomorrow morning because riding out to and back from the pool in -8 C won't be very nice (especially once my hair is wet)...Alright time for some immunology! (And a haircut? I need to go get a haircut...)

Much love,

Jess

Reach for the moon

[Day 7A]

Remember those elementary school posters that read, "Reach for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars"? I hated those things (not to mention that's just like scientifically wrong), but I do feel like it properly captures how workout intensity tends to go with me. I get really overzealous when I'm planning and think I'm gonna be really fit and do really well and whatever, then I get on the treadmill and I struggle bus through the entire warm up and am pretty convinced that I'm going to die and I'm like, whoops, I got ambitious. But I always tell myself that I have to try, and I can make adjustments if I honestly fail, so I gave it my best and ended up only having to down adjust one part of the planned run (the second mile repeat was supposed to be at 7.5 mph, but that wasn't happening today). Aiming high meant that my workout was pretty quality anyways, even after I had to adjust some stuff.

The same sort of goes for core work. I had more planned than what I ended up doing, but had I not planned on doing more, I probably would have done nothing and just went home. I was real tired but I felt bad cutting out that big a chunk of the planned workout, so I got some easy core/PT work in too (and stretched a lot, because my legs are still hurting me). Anyways, here's the morning report!

Today's AM Workout: Treadmill run + post-run PT/core/stretching
Summary:

• Run:
• WU: 1.5 mi @ 6.0 mph
• Main Set: 3 x 1 mi @ 7.0 mph, .25 mi @ 6.0 mph (recovery) 
• WD: .75 mi @ 6.0 mph
• Treadmill numbers: 6.10 mi, 56:44 
• Garmin numbers: 5.77 mi, 56:24, 9:46 pace.
• Post-run core/stability: stretching b/w every set 
• Cobra into extended plank, 5 x 10 second holds 
• PT leg lifts (R/L/B) x 10 
• Cobra into extended plank, 5 x 10 second holds 
• PT leg lifts (R/L) x 10 
• Cobra into extended plank, 5 x 10 second holds

Hit Rate: 5/5 (100%)

One of the things I was thinking about while walking out and walking back from my workout was that days like yesterday are hard because I always feel like I need validation that I'm doing enough or I'm doing the right thing. It was easy when I had coaches to fall back on, because you just trusted that whatever they planned for you was right and if they made adjustments, there must have been good reasons. I had lots of faith, I just went with the flow, and whatever happened happened. Now things are harder because I have to make my own decisions and they never seem like clear cut decisions to me and the athlete side of me thinks, well more is always better than less, right? Right? So if I'm not doing more I feel like I'm not doing the right thing, when objectively speaking, that's just false. 

And then I realized that I'm sort of like that about schoolwork too. My mom used to swing by and check in on me when I was working and if it seemed like I was banging my head against a wall about a certain thing for too long, she kicked me out of the house or made me hang out with my brother or something. Because she could see that doing more wasn't the answer, a little break would do me good. I'm much better about identifying that kind of thing with school than with training. With school I think I've always felt like there's a big difference between doing a lot of work and learning a lot of things. Endurance training is such a volume driven ordeal though that I have to associate some degree of volume/physical pain with progress, which makes it harder for me to step back when I should be stepping back. 

But then I was thinking about how a lot of people give advice about this kind of thing and they all say that we have to have self-awareness and be self-sufficient in identifying what we really need. That seems to me like such a massive hassle though. Like I have enough responsibilities as is, I don't want to take on the mental burden of being a self-awareness guru as well. I'm a big believer that you have to set your environment up in such a way that it maximizes your likelihood of success. A big part of that in my life is surrounding myself with the right people. When I was younger, it was coaches and my mom that kept me on track and reined me in when necessary. Nowadays, a large percentage of the time it's Henry that keeps me on track (and reins me in as well). I would like that to not solely be his responsibility though. I wish I had better environmental cues to help me figure out what the right thing to do is, outside of just someone straight up telling me. I'm gonna spend some time trying to figure out what those cues could be. I'll report back if I have any breakthroughs. 

Okay those are my morning musings. I just had a breakfast sandwich (bagel thin, egg, turkey), a post-workout smoothie, and an avocado for breakfast and I will likely need a pretty hefty snack for morning classes today. Gotta shower and change now and get some review done before 8:30 am genetics lecture. I have an afternoon trainer ride planned, another pretty boring base ride, and I will hopefully not be too jetlagged and still have the ability to report back after that instead of promptly passing out (went to be at 7 pm last night but was honestly totally blown by 6 pm). We'll see though. Have a great day! (:

Much love,

Jess

Slow and steady wins the race

Today I am working on being patient with myself and not forcing progress when it's not yet meant to be. I tackled the workout that I didn't see through last Wednesday and once again I didn't see it through. I got further today though and it felt like a better effort all in all, but it was still not what I wanted it to be. I think there are a combination of things at play. I think my body has the ability to crank out this workout but my brain hasn't wrapped itself around it yet. It's still daunting and scary and it feels harder than it probably is. But much the same way as how you can't force physical progress, sometimes you can't force mental progress either. It takes time for brains to adjust to the harder sessions and if I beat myself up for every day where my mental muscle wasn't where I wanted it to be, I would be a really unhappy person. (And honestly, there are times when I do get really harsh with myself about workouts like today's, but I'm trying to be a little easier on myself about it right now.) So here's the summary.

Today's Workout: AM treadmill run and short dryland finisher
Summary:

• WU: 10-15 mins @ 6-6.5 mph
• Main Set: 400-800-1200-800-400 pyramid @ 8.0 mph w/ 50% recovery intervals between @ 6.0 mph
• WD: 10 mins easy @ 6-6.5 mph
• Treadmill numbers: 6.05 mi, 53:45
• Garmin numbers: 5.54 mi, 53:18, 9:37 pace
• Dryland: 3.5 x
• Bodyweight squats w/ band: 10 wide stance 10 narrow stance
• Push ups: 10 narrow/elbows tucked, 10 wide, split as necessary
• ~ 10-15 mins

Hit Rate: 13/15 (86.6%)

The goal had obviously been to build the pyramid up to 1600 m and come back down, but that evidently did not happen. It's a step in the right direction though and we'll come back to this one sometime in the next two weeks and try again. I'm willing to grind to get to where I want to be, I'll just keep pushing at this workout until I crack it. It'll happen. I believe. And in the meantime, I'll accept that there's still work to be done and that today just wasn't the day yet. 

Much love,

Jess

Today, I was kind to myself

I'm not often kind to myself when it comes to training. I guess that's really not the point of training. Sometimes I have days like today when I think that maybe I should change that. Exercise is supposed to be a kindness to your body and a kindness to your mind and a kindness to your soul and it's so easy for someone like me to push all of that aside in pursuit of faster. But today, I was kind to myself, and I'm proud of that.

I had an interval set planned, a repeat of my October 1st treadmill interval workout at a slightly faster pace, and it was one of those days where I felt like from the very outset it wasn't going to go very well. I thought maybe it was just a matter of being slow to warm up though, so I gave myself a nice long warm up before launching into it and things really didn't feel much better. There are a lot of excuses I could make (and will talk about later in this post) for why I then decided to just axe the set and go home, but in reality all it was was that I didn't feel well. I had woken up feeling well, way better than what I was expecting given the combination of the load on my body and the work at school and the hours of sleep I've been getting (which have been acceptable, but not perfect), and I didn't want to give that up today. I wanted to feel good, and I listened to myself, and I was kind to myself, and I am allowing myself to feel good.

Now here come all the things that could be construed (if by no one else, then at least by myself) as excuses, but I want to remind myself that they're also perfectly valid reasons to make a decision. Not every decision to not stubbornly charge ahead at full speed at all times is the wrong decision. It's like Henry said, if life were a race, you would have to pace yourself to get the most out of it.

I could have probably gritted my teeth and gotten through the workout I had planned or down-adjusted the pace, but honestly I don't know what my body would have been willing to take from that experience. It would have spent the rest of the day exhausted and likely not gotten enough sleep tonight before I hit the pool for a workout early tomorrow morning. My body would be beat up and unhappy and I would be beat up and unhappy and the marginal physical gain I was going to get from that workout really didn't seem like it was going to be worth those consequences.

Also, there is the obvious and real issue of the fact that I was tired running today, which meant my form was sloppy. That can get dangerous on a treadmill, and even when I tried really hard to focus on correcting my form, my exhausted brain really couldn't keep up with both the physical effort and the mental effort. So in the end I just called it quits, took it as a short "easier" day, and will focus on trying to make tomorrow better.

Today's Workout: AM treadmill run
Summary:

• All at 2% grade
• WU: 2400 m @ 6.0-6.5 mph
• Main Set: 400/200, 800/400, 400/200 @ 8.0/6.0 mph
• WD: 800 m easy @ 6.0 mph 
• Total (machine): 3.55 mi, 32:41
• Total (Garmin): 3.33 mi, 32:40, 9:48 pace

Hit Rate: 8/9 (88.8%)

Notice that I still let it count towards my hit rate. I'm reminding my future self that it is acceptable to be kind to myself. Also, a shortened workout is different from a missed workout and if nothing else, I'm still moving in the right direction. Not every day has to be a destructively hard and impressive day. Some days are just average. Some days are less than average. But I got out there and followed the advice that every recreational athlete has been given: Do the first 20 minutes. If you're still not feeling it, you can be let off the hook. And usually in that time period, you get into it and you can finish the workout. But some days, it just isn't meant to be. On those days, it's worth accepting that you tried and that it's better to come back and try again tomorrow. I will try again tomorrow. (:

Much love,

Jess

Always a game of catch up

I'm starting to realize that I'm never actually going to be on top of what's going on, and for the most part that's okay. The problem with not blogging about my workouts daily though is that it sort of defeats the purpose of blogging. I'm not here just to spit my workouts back at the page, I do that when I log on my computer or on Garmin Connect. The point of the blog is reflection, and if I don't take time to reflect the day of a workout, it tends to generally just fade away by the time I get to writing about it...I think I really need to try to prioritize this on a daily basis. It doesn't take me more than 20 minutes to write one of these posts and I think it is really meaningful towards qualitatively assessing my training. Trying to do better. Here are the updates:

On Friday I took it easy after the pounding what was my first treadmill interval session of the year. Was planning on taking a 30 minute treadmill run in the morning, because it was the only time I was free, but ended up only doing 20 minutes and a small amount of lifting instead. The treadmill is do-able when broken into chunks but pretty tough as one slow slog so I took some of the mental load off and did something a bit more fun. Kept weight really low and reasonable for the lifting, trying to protect my back and my body more than I am trying to get strong.

Friday's Workout:

• Easy run:  treadmill, 20 mins broken as 5 @ 6 mph, 15 @ 6.5 mph, 2.25 mi, 21:14. (Garmin numbers: 2.1 mi, 20:53, 9:57 pace.)
• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, working 3 x 12/8/8 @ 75 lbs (legs up to protect my back)
• Pull downs: 4 x 12 alt. wide/narrow grip @ 6 plates
• Goblet squats: 2 x 12 @ 45 lbs + 5 squat jumps following each set. (Even this felt hard on my legs, funny how the run before hand really changes the game.)

On Saturday I took my weekend long run, which happened after a nap cut short by Henry waking me up because I told him to and me throwing a somewhat uncharacteristic tantrum and crying for a bit. I wasn't feeling too hot so I started really slow and just told myself to try and pick up the pace by :15 per mile every two miles and I ended up having a really great building run. I didn't think I had those kind of splits in me and I was really impressed by my own running. Unfortunately I also ended up developing a pounding headache after the run that lasted for hours and pretty much wrote off the rest of my day. Check it out though, I was really proud of this one:

Saturday's Workout:

• Long run: Forest Park and Wydown, 10.37 mi, 1:36:12, 9:11 pace.
• Pace splits: 9:40, 9:54, 9:41, 9:38, 9:13, 9:22, 8:58, 8:30, 8:39, 8:36, 8:38.
• Note: The weather was perfect, nice and cool and overcast, which probably played a lot into the quick pace of the run.

Sunday was another easy day. Sunday made my Monday sort of wonky because it was in reality a really unproductive day when it didn't need to be that way and it makes me feel really stupid for not having gotten more done because now I feel really overwhelmed. As far as the workout though, it was just to shake out the legs after a big day on Saturday. I took the opportunity to take some random roads in Forest Park and run through some grass and explore a bit, which was relaxing and fun. Apparently Toby saw me while he was biking and I totally didn't see him. Whoops!

Sunday's Workout: Easy run, 3.04 mi, 30:27, 10:02 pace.

Yesterday, I took another morning treadmill interval workout, this time it was a set that was sent to the tri team GroupMe last week and it was intended as a track workout, but I figured it worked well enough for this purpose. I kept the intervals at a similar speed as last workout but the recovery breaks were shorter, so I didn't know how it was going to play out. The set itself was also shorter, so that was another factor. The one thing I really like about treadmill intervals is that you're forced to keep up. You don't have to constantly be worried about making sure you're on the right pace, the treadmill does that for you, you just have to keep up. It takes that extra mental dimension out of it, and on one hand, I realize that it's important to train that mental dimension, but on the other hand, I know that this is one of the reason I avoid doing interval and speed work. If the treadmill removes some of the mental barriers and helps me get more speed into my training, I will take it and develop that mental resilience some other way or later down the line. 

In any case, it was by no means an easy run even though it was a shorter set than what I had done a few days ago. I got through it though and was very happy with how my body handled it overall. Also, my legs were a little rough in the morning but ended up feeling great the rest of the day. I don't really know what the deal with that is, but I'm not going to complain about it!

Monday's Workout:

• Treadmill interval run: 2% incline throughout, 6.02 mi, 54:08.
• WU: 2000 m
• Main Set: 3 x [1000, 600] @ 7.5 mph w/ 200 recovery @ 6 mph between each rep
• WD: 1600 m
• Garmin numbers: 5.57 mi, 53:53, 9:41 pace.

It's worth noting that I'm posting both treadmill and Garmin numbers. I figure both are pretty inaccurate, but whatever, they give me a sense for the range of what I'm doing.

As for the rest of the week, the plan was a long run today (10 miler, some tempo pick ups, not sure about whether I'll actually do those yet, we'll see how I feel this afternoon) and an easy run tomorrow (4-6 miles). I may actually scrap the run tomorrow though and go to morning swim practice instead, since I dropped out of some shadowing work this evening (need time to study) and will have the chance to hit the sack early and get up early for that. It's also IM day! Which would be fun. So we'll see what I decide in the end. Regardless, Henry gets here tomorrow evening, Thursday will be a day off, and we'll see what Friday and the weekend bring! Gotta go deal with the rest of my life now. Glad I finally got around to writing this post. (:

Much love,

Jess

Easing back in

I really have to get better about the updates. What happens is I miss one, and it sets off this chain of, "Oh well I'll have to blog that other workout at some point anyways so I'll just do them together later" and it lasts into eternity because the size of the post gets longer and longer and longer which makes me feel like I'll never have time to do it. In any case, I've got some downtime between now and class in the afternoon, so I'm going to take care of this before I fall too far off the wagon. Here's what I've been up to since the race!

9/21 - 9/24 Monday - Thursday: Off - part rest, part "I'm really behind and need to study like mad for anatomy" (which I passed, and P=MD, so yay!).

9/25 Friday: Easy run, easing back into it because I took a bunch of days off. Also it was early morning which put me in a bit of a time crunch. 3.3 mi, 31:45 total time, 9:38 average pace.

9/26 Saturday: "Tempo" run, by which I really just meant that since I only had time for short workouts, I figured I might as well take them quick(er than I usually do, because even though it felt like I was trying to run fast, I was still pretty slow objectively speaking). (Still studying for anatomy at this point in time, the exam was on Monday 9/28). 5.13 mi, 45:27, 8:51 pace.

9/27 Sunday: Off - studying, football, you know the deal with Sundays.

9/28 Monday: Post anatomy run! First full lap of Forest Park in a while. Took the counterclockwise loop. 7.04 mi, 1:07:16, 9:34 pace.

9/29 Tuesday: Still time strapped, went short, 1 mile easy, 2 fast, 1 easy. Aimed for under 8:30 pace in the middle two, which realistically should have been easy but wasn't (I think I missed it by a little bit on the second fast mile too, which I wasn't too happy about). 4.31 mi, 37:54, 8:48 pace.

9/30 Wednesday: It was an 8:30 am - 5:00 pm then need to go grocery shopping and eat sort of day so I cut myself some slack and just took it off. A couple late nights and budding cough made me feel like it was the right decision.

10/1 Thursday: Today! So the continuation of the late night trend did not end last night, but Henry convinced me it was worthwhile to power through my dread for today (it's a long busy day and it started earlier than I've been starting my days recently - habit is a powerful force) and just get what I needed to do done. So I did it. Took my first treadmill interval run of the year, it was an inevitable development as daylight hours get shorter and I'm really glad I just bit the bullet and did it. Now there's less novelty and I'm not going to dread having to put in treadmill time as much as I had been previously; I've already proven I can handle it. The set was as follows (all at 2% incline):

• WU: 1600 m @ 6.0 mph
• Main Set: interval pyramid
• 400 m @ 7.5, 200 m @ 6.0
• 800 m @ 7.5, 400 m @ 6.0
• 1200 m @ 7.5, 600 m @ 6.0
• 1600 m @ 7.5, 800 m @ 6.0
• 1200 m @ 7.5, 600 m @ 6.0
• 800 m @ 7.5, 400 m @ 6.0
• 400 m @ 7.5, 200 m @ 6.0
• WD: 800 m @ 6.0
• Total: 7.51 mi, 1:07:17
• Total by watch: 6.94 mi, 1:08:46 (forgot to turn this off at the end…), 9:55 pace.

So according to my watch I was going way slower than the treadmill said I was. In reality I'm guessing it's more of a midway between what my watch said and what the treadmill said. I feel like I was working at the right intensity though, the longest repeat hurt and so did every other repeat after that, I was definitely pushing just under threshold and that's where I want to be for now. Not being super aggressive with the speedwork, seeing as I haven't done much of it in the past few months, I don't have the best running base in the world right now, and I haven't seen a treadmill since I was in college. It was a good confidence boost though, just knowing that I can run intervals (which I'm pretty intimidated by still) and can handle myself on a treadmill for over an hour while staying focused and motivated (thank you for all the pep talks Henry) makes me feel like I'm in a better place and am moving in the right direction.

All in all, my plans to do a recovery week followed by two weeks of working hard are not really going that way. I took a "recovery" week but only because I was really busy and I think the ultimate result is that I'm not in a position to be doing really hard work. I'm adjusting appropriately and just focusing on finishing the Rock n Roll half in the best time I can given what I've got right now. So I'm focused on just preparing my body for the pounding and not worrying too much about the speed. I signed up for a December 15k, so I'll probably try to make a more regimented plan to build up to that race because I really do want to work on the speed side of things instead of just the endurance. That'll be a training plan I'll try to stick a little tighter to and will share once I've written.

As for the rest of the week, I'll be doing some morning stretching and dryland work (particularly stability work for my lower back) in the morning and taking a short run outside (3-4 miles, depends on what time and daylight allow) tomorrow, taking a long run on Saturday (probably around 10 miles), and taking a ride (24 mi) with Molly on Sunday. Still trying to figure out what the best plan is for next week, I'll post it up once I have it sorted out. Yay!

Much love,

Jess