Tues 2/5 - 4.2 miles - 35:01 - HILLS
1 - 8:38
2 - 8:07
3 - 7:57
4 - 7:59
4.2 - cool down

Wed 2/6 - 4.0 miles - 32:17
1 - 8:28
2 - 7:53
3 - 8:09
4 - 7:58

Fri 2/8 - 5.0 @ 8:38 pace
Sat 2/9 - 4.9 @ 8:55 pace

It's occurred to me that I might be doing some of these training runs too quickly (Tues+Wed?), at least relative to my intended sub-2hr half marathon goal (to keep the arithmetic simple, 9:00 pace x13.1 is 1hr57m59s.)

Funny enough, I haven't felt much soreness or tightness until last night, when WALKING around for ~1.0-1.5 miles finally made me want to sit down for a breather (eh, it was after midnight). My former fat self (eh, I'm still kinda skinny-fat, but we're working on that too) might have said "ok let's take a rest day Saturday", but today I was happy for an excuse to slow the pace and really do a legit "easy run".

2/12 - 4.0 @ 8:57/m
2/13 - 8.0 @ 9:08/m
2/15 - 3.5 @ 9:35/m
2/16 - 5.0 @ 8:43/m
2/18 - 4.2 @ 8:28/m (hills)

Splits for most of those were pretty even. Feel pretty good/k. New lady friend told me I had great legs. Yay.

2/19 - 4.1 @ (9:40, 9:20, 8:50, 8:45)
2/21 - 4.8 @ 9:00
2/22 - 3.1 @ 8:40
2/24 - 6.0 (1st 3 @ ~9:00, last 3 at ~8:30)

2/26 - 4.0 @ 8:45
2/27 - 2.0 @ 8:50
3/1 - 1.7 mile jog

3/2 - 13.1 miles
1st six: ~8:55/m
7 - 8:44
8 - 8:27
9 - 7:58
10 - 8:16
11 - 8:15
12 - 8:21
13 - 8:22
Final 0.1 - hardly anything left in the tank.
Final time: 1:53:xx (8:39/m). Crushed it.

Nice time!

You're probably running most of your training miles way too quick. They all seem to be around HM pace or slightly slower.

Thanks! Agreed on adjusting speed in the future - I’m probably going to start increasing the weekly mileage for the next few weeks, and it’ll be best to slow the pace for those extra miles (otherwise I likely open myself up to all sorts of issues)

3/3-3/4 - 2 day rest
3/5 - 3.5 @ 9:45
3/6 - 2.6 @ 9:30
3/7 - 4.0 @ 9:30
3/9 - 8.1 (9:10 miles 1-2, 8:45 miles 3-8)

3/11 - 2.8 @ 9:30
3/13 - 5.0 @ 9:40
3/14 - 4.2 hills @ 8:45


Two more races on the horizon. 5 miler on Sat 3/30, 10 miler on Sun 5/5. Planning to PR both of those -- hopefully something like 40:00 (8:00/m) for the 5 miler and 1:25:00 (8:30/m) for the 10 miler.

3/15 - 5.0 @ 9:12

Second time this month I've strung together 3 consecutive running days. Feels good. Helps that it's f*cking beautiful outside. Just need to remember to not increase the weekly mileage TOO quickly, and obviously won't forget to cross train

3/5 through 3/15 have been a success for adjusting training runs to slower paces. But the past week has not been great H&F-wise. Terrible diet, inconsistent workout schedule, terrible sleep schedule (I'm posting at 2:20am my time). (But, this has been a consequence of successes at work and fun stuff with friends+gf, so, yea, strive for balance, yadda yadda.)

Stepped on scale to see 168.8, but I honestly would not have been surprised to see ~172. Equilibrium weight still might be ~2 pounds heavier than 168.8 because water & weighing immediately after working out.

I can probably still pull together sub-8:00/m for the 5 mile race in 9 days, but it'll be tough.

I'm recalling reading a few months ago someone else's running blog here, and either tron or PokerRon suggested that after you meet a race goal, it's easy to get off the wagon if you don't have another goal to look forward to (if we're being honest, such goal setting is true for so many other aspects of life, so, no surprise that stuck with me.)

So, while I might not perform as well as I'd like for the 5-miler race in 9 days, this has been a nice wake up call to get my sh*t together for the 10-miler in 6 weeks (which happens to be the race I care more about).

3/17 - 3.2 @ 8:05
3/19 - 4.1 (9:10, 9:40, 9:40, 9:10)
3/20 - 3.5 @ 9:10
3/22 - 8.7 @ 9:37

3/24 - 2.5 mile easy jog

3/25 - 4.1 miles, final "hard" run before 3/30 race:
1 mile warmup @ 9:00
2.5 miles of HILLS @ 7:41/m (19:13 total for this segment)
0.6 cool down @ ~8:30


Feel pretty good. After rereading my half-marathon splits and doing some gorilla/chimp arithmetic, I realize 5 of my best miles from that 13 mile race would have been good enough for ~41:00, so, aiming for sub-40:00 for the 5-mile race seems like a near certainty now. Sub-39:00 is now my goal. (Obviously I want to do it as fast as possible, but some prudent planning is necessary to do so).

3/30 - 5 mile race - 37:2X (7:29 pace)
1 - 7:51 (flat)
2 - 8:02 (up hill)
3 - 6:4X (down hill)
4 - 6:5X (flat)
5 - 7:1X (flat)

Pretty happy with the time, but this was (for the most part) not fun. Slept well Thursday night but not well last night. Stomach was tingling during the first mile and the tingling was there for most of the race. Pounded a gatorade cup after the first mile, which I never do that early in a race, but I was hoping it would stop/help whatever was in my stomach.

After mile 3 I was afraid I did the downhill too fast and that I wouldn't have enough in the tank to do 2 more miles; I decided after ~3.1 miles that this would be the last time I ever do this race, so I might as well do it fast. After 4.5 miles I could do some gorilla arithmetic to determine that I was definitely going to break 39 minutes, and *MAYBE* I could break 38. After mile ~4.7 I had a wave of calmness rush over me, because I knew I was leaving it all out on the course. Was that wave of calmness and subsequent satisfaction worth it? Maybe...I'm still thinking about it...

4/1 - 4 miles (9:30, 9:50, 9:30, 9:45)
4/2 - 5 miles in 47:23

You crushed your goal. Yes, all races you should feel like shiet. It's an all out effort. You have two solid data points. Half marathon at 8:39 pace. And a 5 miler at 7:29. And now you have a 10 miler coming up. Sweet, let's see your training zones soon. You can use Mcmillan calculator by inputting your race times.

I have my exact training zones from the blood lactate test. Which is a scam, since you can recreate with your races.

4/4 - 7.2 miles in 1hr3m
miles 1-2 @ 9:10
miles 3-4 @ 9:30
5 - 8:37
6 - 7:34
7 - 7:52

4/5 - 4 mile easy jog, ~9:45ish pace




After the 10-miler I think I'll find a flat 5k to race (my 5k PR is ~23:30ish from age 17, so it'll be nice to crush that too), and at some point soon I'll hit the track to see what my best mile time is these days.



That'll be five solid data points (even allowing for knowing that there's potential to improve my HM time, assuming I can even up my splits there). Even if the zone stuff is noisy, simply marking-to-market those race times every few years should be informative.

4/7 - OHP, neutral grip pull ups, curls, BW squats
4/8 - 4 miles @ 9:05/m


4/9 - same hills workout as 3/25 (4.1 miles) - intended to do the warmup and cooldown stretches slower (~9:20/m) and the hills faster than last time. After halfway through the hills I knew it would be cutting it close to my previous time (19:13 per Strava for 2.5 miles)....this time I clocked this segment at 19:26 per Strava (good enough for a "silver medal PR" for that segment) and 19:40 per my stopwatch.

4-11-Thu- 8.1,1hr9m (8:43/m)
- 1-2: 9:30
- 3: 9:00
- 4-5: 8:30
- 6-7: 8:10
- 8: 8:30

4/12-Fri- 4.0 (9:40 first 3, 8:30 4th)

4/13-Sat- 5.1
- 1: 8:40
- 2: 7:50
- 3: 8:40
- 4: 9:08
- 5: 9:22

4/16 - 6.2 easy pace
4/17 - 4.0 fast-ish
4/18 - 4.5 easy pace

4/20 - 2.0 easy pace (wanted to do 4)
4/21 - 4.0 easy pace

4/24 - 5.0 easy pace
4/25 - 4.4 hills (wanted to go fast, didn't happen)
4/26 - 10.4 miles - hell yea -
First 5.7 miles: listened to podcast at easy pace & took ~750 words of notes, then:
mile 7 - 7:30
mile 8 - 8:22 (slowed down to type something during this mile)
mile 9 - 8:02
mile 10 - 7:49
final 0.4 - 8:18 pace

Saturday 4/27 is 8 days before race day (May 5, 10 miles). Past weekend and beginning of this week were not ideal...imagine having fitness not being your #1 priority/purpoise! Well, no excuses, still going to log all of it. I recall writing this previously for the 5-mile race, but, might as well voice it: I'm about 3-4 lbs heavier than I want to be. Sounds nitty, but since the start of 2019 I've noticed a huge performance difference for when I'm ~165 versus ~168; even if that difference is mostly in my head, that mental stuff and the mental game matters.

Still, I'm a solid favorite to break 1hr25m (= 8:30/mile, which was my goal a few months ago), but after crushing my recent half marathon and 5-miler goals, I'm hungry to smash more PRs, and part of me will be disappointed if I don't break 1hr20m. I realize those 5 minues are a huge difference.

8 days is plenty of time to flush my system of recent bad habits; already been eating plenty of greens and 150+g protein yesterday & today. Want the engine to be running clean - not just for a silly f*cking race, but all of the time, for the rest of my life.

Sleep schedule might be the only thing that doesn't get fixed in 8 days, but the easy hack for "sufficient race day rest" is to get a lot of sleep TWO nights before race time (more important than the night before, at least IME).

Going to do one more "hard" run Tuesday-ish, and finish the rest of next week with tapering easy runs.

4/28 - 3.6 miles easy

4/29 - 4.0 miles: 1st 2 easy, 3rd 7:35, 4th 6:58. Exactly what I needed; feels good.

5/2 - 4 miles easy
5/4 - 1.8 miles easy
5/5 - 10 mile race

Splits (from bib tracking, not clunky apps)
1st 3 miles - 8:07 pace
Miles 4+5 - 7:51 pace
Miles 6+7 - 7:49 pace
Miles 8+9+10 - 7:21 pace
Final time- 1:17:xx - 7:47 pace

Pretty f'n happy with this.

Nice time! Really well done. I did a 10 mile race in October in 1:24 (on 12 miles a week or so). I think we are at pretty similar levels now!

Thanks arjun!

5/12 4.0 miles
5/13 5.7

5/15 4.0
5/16 5.0

All easy paced. Took a vacay the week after the race; was a bit stiff starting back up Sunday but I feel back in the groove now. Got roped into doing my first spin class tomorrow (TIL lots of dude-bros do spin nowadays), heh I’ll try not to be *too* much of a show-off.

backlog of (mostly) easy-paced runs:

5/18 - 4 miles
5/19 - 2.5 (hills)
5/21 - 3.6

5/24 - 3.7
5/25 - 3.3
5/26 - 4.0

5/28 - 5.0
5/29 - 7.6

MPW has fallen a bit, but those previous two runs (the 5 and 7.6) felt really great...feel like I haven't lost much of a step. Summer is time for early morning running (otherwise it's too hot, and f*ck trying to use the treadmill), so it'll be nice to sync myself into that routine.