No room for ego

I forgot where I had first heard that, but somewhere along the line I had picked up the phrase, "There's no space for your ego at the gym". It's a crazy true statement, especially given where I'm at right now. Having not seriously or consistently been in the gym for almost half a year now and nursing this back injury meant that I had to be okay with what almost felt like going through the motions at the gym. Wanting to do everything the right way and the safe way meant there wasn't much pushing (and to be honest, the combination of it being early and me being not super pain adapted right now meant I didn't really want to push that hard anyways) and a lot of generally being weaker than I want to be. Had to check my ego at the door and just work smart today, gotta trust in the long-term plan and be patient. Despite not being as strong or as healthy as I want to be, it was a good way to start the day and I know it's just another starting point. I'm going to try and get back into the gym more regularly, at least once a week, so I can start building back some strength and so I have an opportunity to do more work on stability and movement efficiency. Here's the run down of my hour.

Today's Workout: Gym, full body, compound focused, stability-focused lower body work

• Flat bench: WU 12 @ 45 lbs, working 3 x 8 @ 75 lbs, burnout 12 @ 55 lbs
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 @ 6 plates (I don't know these weights...) alternating wide/narrow grip by set
• Squats w/ band around knees: 20 bodyweight, 12 overhead w/ small bar (25 lbs?), 20 bodyweight
• DB shoulder press: 3 x 12/12/8-3 @ 20 lbs/side
• DB row: 3 x 12/side @ 35 lbs
• Step ups: 3 x 12/side @ 15/side (DBs) - focus was on keeping hips even throughout movement (stable lower spine)
• Incline bench: 3 x 12/10/8 @ 55 lbs
• Stretch cord butterfly: 3 x 20
• Back extensions: 12 w/ 10 lbs, 12 bodyweight

Hit Rate: 3/3 (100%)

In other news, today I changed my first flat! Which was an adventure and harder than I thought it would be, but I did it, and I'm immensely proud. I then took my bike to the post office so I could mail something and made sure that it was in fact functional, and it is! So I will be taking it out tomorrow morning to swim practice very early in the morning. Time for me to clean up the cookware from dinner and hit the sack super early so I can be up super early! Yay!

Much love,

Jess

Accepting your limits

There are a couple of big factors that I think have really shaped my mentality and the way I approach life nowadays. I grew up with Asian parents who were big on telling me exactly where I stood both in terms of my abilities/talents/limitations and in terms of my work ethic. I was smart and not very hard-working when it came to school, I had a moderate amount of musical ability but again no work ethic when it came to piano, I had no talent and an average amount of work ethic when it came to dance, I had a tiny bit of talent and a lot of work ethic when it came to swimming. Unlike a lot of parents, my parents weren't really "process" parents. They didn't see it as my job to try my best on everything. I think they knew that if I were to throw myself at everything 100%, I would burn out super quickly because I have the capacity to invest myself in things too fully. At the same time, they also made it very clear that in the arenas of life where I was capable and fell short because I didn't work hard enough, that was on me. I think the message at the end of the day was always to set goals and know exactly where I want to be and balance the talent/work division in such a way that I got there without wrecking myself.

The other big factor is that I grew up as an endurance athlete. I lived within the confines of a sport that rewards the kind of work ethic that doesn't stop for anything. It's hard to be successful as a swimmer. You put in a lot of hours, your easy days are few and far between because the sport is so low impact, you're sore pretty much all the time because the sport is year-round and even with periodization, you don't really get many real breaks from the grind. A few big things that I took away from those years are that (a) accomplishing what you want to accomplish can be really difficult and (b) you are deeper than you think (as is everyone else, so if you want to keep up, you'd better be working).

I think all of this has put me in a place where I honestly believe that when my dreams are big (by my standards) and are the kinds of dreams that require a lot on the work end to make up for a lack of talent on the talent end, I feel like I always have to be working at the edge of what I'm capable of. And the biggest problem I have with that right now is that I can't define that edge very clearly, and even when I can, I don't necessarily want to acknowledge it. One of the things you learn from going to practice day in and day out is that your brain always wants you to quit before your body really will, so it doesn't matter how much it hurts or how hard it is, you just have to suck it up and keep pushing. It's never been okay to just stop and rest, because even though that might make things easier or the rest of your workout faster, it's going to stall your progress in the long run.

But then real life steps in, and strangely enough my earliest interactions with physical exhaustion have all come in the form of swim practice. So when I'm exhausted in real life and I have a list of things I should be doing but I just want to take a break and recharge a bit, I'm really uncomfortable with the idea of letting myself do that because it's like quitting in the middle of a set. Physical exhaustion always feels like something I should just be able to push through and when I can't do it, it makes me feel like I've really failed.

Why am I here writing this thing? Yesterday was a tough day. It ended really rough for me and I ended up just staying up really late crying over how exhausted I was and how I really couldn't face this day up ahead because there was so much to do (including an early morning workout). Logically, all that says is that I should take the day off and cut myself some slack for not being perfect while taking recovery more seriously than I am right now, but in my heart it just feels like I've failed. It feels like I stopped pushing and let go in the middle of a set I should have fought through.

Regardless, I guess the point is this: I slept in this morning. I will not be working out today. I'm pushing the gym session back to tomorrow and making a few adjustments to the rest of the week. I didn't have a rest day planned this week so it really doesn't hurt to take one (so no hit against the hit rate), especially since I haven't actually taken a full day off since the half and this will probably be good for me in the grand scheme of things. I thought these thoughts were worth the update. I'm sure I'll come back to them at some point in the future and they'll ring true for another day later in the cycle. Wish me luck with the rest of the day. I'm going to try to be the best that I can be, even if I didn't get off on as good of a start as I had wanted.

Much love,
Jess

Letting things not go according to plan. Being bigger than the fear.

So the drafting of the training plan from now until the Hot Chocolate 15k is well underway and my life has already thrown me enough curve balls that I've had to modify my first week plans about three times. It's a funny reminder to just keep focused on the big picture instead of getting caught up in the details. I guess it's really the only way to make training work alongside everything else in my life (by which I really just mean med school). Flexibility is key and flexibility is not detrimental to my progress so long as I do it right. Gotta remember to keep that in mind over the course of this training block.

Yesterday I went for a swim in the evening with Victoria. I don't know why I decided not to take a day off (I'm actually not planning on taking a day off for a while, just planning on doing a lot of active recovery) but that's what I decided, so I rode my bike out to the Athletic Complex and took a swim! I blew a flat on the way out which was a bummer because (a) I had to ride half the way there and the whole way back on a flat, which was rough on my legs and also likely rough on my bike and (b) I was planning on going to masters swim on Thursday morning but it seems like that won't be happening until I get my new tubes in the mail (thus more plan readjusting!).

In any case, the swim itself was alright. I had been planning on just chilling it but ended up doing some real work because Victoria was there with a friend and they were actually working out so I hopped in and out for parts of their set. I was extraordinarily slow and it really hurt to be swimming intervals that should have realistically been easy. I'm sure it was a combination of having been out of the pool for a while (and not really focused on the swimming in recent months even when I was getting pool hours in) and having run a half marathon the day before. There was also a lot of dawdling and chatting during the workout so I spent about an hour and a half at the pool but only maybe 50% of that was real swimming. It was fun though, I got to hang out with my friend and meet someone new and make a new friend, and I got some swimming in. All in all it was a very enjoyable experience.

Monday's Workout: PM rec swim

• WU: 1000 SKIPS
• Main Set:
• 2 x (2 x 100 free @ 1:30) w/ copious amounts of rest in the middle (I just butted in during parts of Victoria/Thomas's workout)
• 8 x 75 @ 1:15, odds 50 swim easy/25 kick fast, evens 50 kick fast/25 swim easy (this was particularly rough on my already roughed up legs...)
• WD: 100 easy
• Total Distance: 2100 SCY

Hit Rate: 1/1 (100%)

Today, after quite a long day in terms of general life, I took a short easy run just to shake out the legs. Nothing fancy. I had this entire conversation with myself while I was out there about the upcoming training block and how it's crazy that my PB in this recent half marathon has really made me feel like if I worked hard for it, I could improve my running by a lot. It makes me want to be really focused and disciplined and structured about my training and it really makes me want to chase speed rather than just chasing more endurance. That's also really tough though, I find intensity a lot more mentally challenging and intimidating compared to distance so I know it's going to be a struggle to really get myself to commit to something that is in reality just going to hurt a lot and be really difficult. But now that I think I have the ability to improve, I can't just let that go to waste, I feel like I have to pursue it. And I guess more importantly, I really really want to pursue it. So it's all very scary and I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to rise above that fear and get what I need to do done. I have no answers, but I figure if I tackle it one workout at a time the way I tackled the race one mile at a time, I'll end up getting to where I want to be (or at least I'll be however many steps ahead of where I am right now, even if I do ultimately fall short). 

Today's Workout: PM easy recovery run

Summary: 3.13 mi, 30:35, 9:46 pace.

Pace splits by mile: 9:40, 9:54, 9:44, 9:38.

Hit Rate: 2/2 (100%)

As you can see, I'm starting up the hit rate measure again. I'll keep this up until the race in December and see if it continues to serve me well. In the meantime, the current update is that tomorrow will be an early morning gym session, the contents of which I will be flexible about pending how my body feels when I wake up. I'll hopefully be reporting back more frequently than I have been the past few weeks as well. I think I'm off to a pretty good start. Excited to start on this new block! Yay! (:

Much love,

Jess

PS - I signed up for next year's Rock n Roll St. Louis Half Marathon yesterday! Presale pricing was too good to pass up, can't wait to run this race again in a year and hopefully scrape off some more time! (:

Race Report: Rock 'n' Roll St. Louis Half Marathon

I've been saying this for weeks now but I swear at some point I'm gonna get it together and get back to logging on this blog regularly. But again, I find myself here playing a game of catch up. So. Quick skim through the two weeks leading up to the race first, then I'll do my race recap!

The Final Workouts:

• 10/07 Wednesday: short trainer ride, sprint intervals, ~45 mins
• 10/08 Thursday: OFF
• 10/09 Friday: trainer ride, under/over threshold intervals and single leg drills, ~1:25
• 10/10 Saturday: long run, 10.47 mi, 1:35:16, 9:06 pace
• 10/11 Sunday: easy run w/ Henry, 4.08 mi, 38:17, 9:23 pace w/ two legs of fast pick ups in the middle
• 10/12-10/14: OFF (med school midterms)
• 10/15 Thursday: tempo run, 7.07 mi, 1:01:05, 8:38 pace
• 10/16 Friday: tempo run, 4.79 mi, 41:38, 8:42 pace
• 10/17 Saturday: OFF
• 10/18 Sunday: RACE DAY!

A couple thoughts about the lead up two weeks:

• I'm glad I did my longest run a little further out than I had originally planned. Getting comfortable with the distance more than a week out was pretty key.
• I'm not really sure why I was doing trainer rides, I think it was a matter of convenience more than anything because I was busy and trainer rides are quicker. Also there were some rough days thrown in there where I couldn't get a run in during the day and my only options after dark are indoors, so the trainer just ends up being a good default. I also had some knee pain in that time span so I thought maybe less impact would be helpful.
• The tempo runs I took just before the race blew my mind. I was feeling great because I was rested from not training during midterm studying and the weather had cooled down, which was super key. Between those things, I busted out some pretty quick runs and was feeling pretty good going into the race yesterday. 
• As per usual, I had a ton of phantom pain the night before the race and I had a really hard time sleeping. Luckily I got a lot of good sleep two nights prior, so I definitely had the rest reserves I needed. 
• I think I put quite a bit of pressure on myself to do well, because my running has been improving and I've been seeing it come through in the training, so I really wanted to come through in the race as well. It made me really anxious and it made the experience a little bit stressful, but on the other hand, "it hurts because it matters", right? Or at least that's what I told myself. I care. It's not bad to care, that's how we get to where we want to go.

Race report time!

5:10 AM - Woke up, ate breakfast (a breakfast sandwich, a banana, a bottle of water), got changed, headed out. Took a 6 am metro train down to the venue, consumed half a bottle of Vitamin Water in the process.

6:30 AM - Arrived at the venue, used the porta-potty, took off all the layers keeping me warm (it was 30 F out and I had made the decision to race in shorts and a t-shirt) and packed it away for bag check. I took a gel 15 minutes from the start w/ half a bottle of water and stayed warm with an old mylar blanket from the Philly Half Marathon. Got in my corral and waited for the start gun!

7:00 AM - The first corral was off! We were off about a minute after that. The pack I was in took off at a nice leisurely pace which I needed. I pinned my eyes on two guys who were running about the pace I wanted in front of me and just relaxed into that pace. I was getting passed by a fair number of people in the earlier miles, but those two stayed right on track in terms of how fast I wanted to be running so I calmed myself down that way. The first 4-5 miles felt really easy. According to my watch, the first set of splits were: 8:14, 8:19, 8:22, 8:00 (mostly downhill), and 8:28. I was enjoying some great cover bands and music from the 80s/90s every once in a while and just cruising along fairly happily. To be fair, I was hoping to start out in the 8:30s range in terms of opening pace, so I did genuinely take it out too fast, but the effort had felt smooth and I decided to take the risk of crashing in order to maybe be rewarded with a big PB. Who knows, I thought it was worth it and I went for it. I really don't regret that, despite the fact that there were tough times ahead in the rest of the race.

Then there came a stretch with a little bit more elevation variation (the entire course was super super super flat, I'm just saying there was a little bit more less flat in this section than in others) and the effort started feeling a bit harder. The guys I had kept my eyes on before ran away from me as I assume they started picking up the pace, as a lot of people around me had. I just kept my eye on my watch and tried to stay the course. The splits from miles 6 to 9 were: 8:08, 8:23, 8:36, 8:36. As you can see, the pace started slipping a bit on miles 8 and 9. It's also worth noting that my feet really started to hurt around this point. I guess I normally train on softer gravel and the combination of the pavement and my shoes being way past their shelf life was really wearing on my feet. I just ignored it for the rest of the race though because it wasn't a problem I could solve, so I just put it out of mind.

After passing the mile 9 marker, I started picking it up knowing there were only a handful of miles left. At mile 10, there was a clock showing a little after 1:25 (gun time) and I knew that it would take a big push to get under 1:50. Honestly any PB was my goal, but a sub-1:50 would have been amazing, so I really tried to step down on it and push hard. The next round of paces (miles 10 to 13.1): 8:13, 8:23, 8:02, 8:02. I was really hurting all those miles. I got through it by just repeating to myself "Who do you want to be? What are you willing to fight?" and I knew I was willing to fight through it to get to my goals so I just kept pushing. My face must have looked terrible but that's just a part of racing for me: I can't keep what I'm feeling off of my face ever. My effort is probably better expended on trying to run faster. 

I could usually tell when I was slowing down because my posture got more and more upright and my head tended to lean back. Every time I noticed that I would just reset and look down and lean forward a bit and focus on just driving and I would feel the pace come back up. It sucked, but it was getting me closer to where I needed to go so I went for it. I tried really hard to do the thing where I kept my eyes on someone ahead in those last miles and would reel them in and pass them. I got a couple girls that way, although one fought her way back and ended up crossing the finish line just seconds before me. 

The finish involved a rather long uphill into a turn into a quarter mile "home stretch". My brain was so ready to quit by that turn and my pace was definitely slowing down. Then I hit my Garmin and switched it over from giving me lap paces/times (I wanted to focus on one mile at a time while I was racing) to giving me the cumulative time and I saw that it was around 1:48. I didn't want to miss that sub-1:50 so I really busted it out and ran hard into the finish and managed to make it under! I was insanely proud of that. 

All in all, I think the pacing and the racing went of as smoothly as I could've asked for it. I didn't wear gloves, which was a mistake, because my hands were going to freeze off, but otherwise I'm glad I went the t-shirt/shorts route because the weather was perfect for it in my opinion. I do best in cold weather races anyways, so I'm glad the cold front came blowing through. And now I have a huge PB to show for it!

Here are the official race result details:

8:50 AM and onwards - This was around when I finished. I picked up my bag, bundled up, found a med school friend randomly and went and watched my M2 big finish his first race! (He killed it, it was awesome.) Then I headed home (and ran into an M1 friend who had just finished his first race) and proceeded to spend most of the rest of the day lamenting the physical condition my body was in. I was lucky enough to not feel super terrible after my half at home this summer, probably because my mom drove me home (I didn't have to walk) and immediately put me in a bathtub full of ice for 20 minutes. I had no such luxuries yesterday, I was really hurting the entire day. When I got home, I took a bath/shower, ate lunch, and just laid in bed for a while (eventually I fell asleep and took a nap). The nap helped give me some energy back but my body was still pretty wrecked. I did end up taking a shopping trip in the afternoon (got new running shoes and socks and swim suits at Sports Authority because I had a coupon from the race and then groceries) and that helped shake out my legs a little bit which was nice. The rest of the day was just dinner and errands and PATRIOTS FOOTBALL and then bed!

This morning I woke up way more sore than I was expecting to be, which, again, is a bummer (the surprising parts of that include how sore my obliques and my forearms are...) but I'll get by. Next up on the calendar is the Hot Chocolate 15k in mid-December! I'll be back with an update on what the training plan will be for that soon hopefully and hopefully that will help keep me accountable these upcoming months. Yay!

Other comments on the race: 

• The course here is super flat, aka super fast, which is really awesome.
• Rock 'n' Roll events are really well organized. Most big races are, and it's fantastic because everything runs so smoothly.
• There were so many photographers on course! I hope there are some good photos of me. Although I sort of doubt it because I was definitely riding the struggle bus. 
• Cold weather races = ace. T-shirt and shorts is fine, but wear gloves.
• St. Louis is definitely a smaller city. There was nothing like the crowds of the Philly Marathon Weekend, but I guess you can't expect that kind of turnout for every race. The people who did come out to cheer were awesome though. As were a lot of the volunteers and staff and safety personnel who were so positive and amazing. 
• I am so insanely proud of myself: I wanted to think that I had a sub-1:50 in me but I really didn't know and the fact that I've come so far in the past year or two of running just really blows my mind. It also gives me so much hope and motivation towards continuing to get better and I can't wait to chase getting faster and improving as a runner and as an athlete. 
• I can't wait to do this again next year! Woot woot!

That's all for now! Time to grab noms and go to anatomy. (:

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

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