It's all relative

AM: 18 miles, 7 hard bridge repeats and 3 hard hill repeats at effort in Clearwater.  I am generally pretty pumped up for this workout, so it went decent.  Just wish I had someone to run fast with.  I live in the wrong state, I guess.

PM: 10.4 miles

AM: 10.4 miles.  3 of the miles were in the 6-6:30/mile range, but I wouldn't count those as fast or useful, they were just kind of there helping other runners.

PM: 10.5 miles, 3.5 fast at track with John.  Ran 4x1200, with 400 recoveries, and then immediately 4x200 with 20 then 40 second walking recoveries.  

Splits- (1200s)- 3:47, 3:49, 3:45, 3:48, (200s)- 31, 29, 31, 34

Overall, I felt fine.  I was definitely a bit worn out from Sunday's long run and hills, but I had a ton of strength still in me at the end of this workout.  I would have liked the obvious victory of being under 3:45 for the duration, but within 4 seconds isn't much off, particularly running the workout out in front.

PM: 10.5 miles

PM: 11.3 miles & some striders

PM: 5 miles

AM: 10.2 miles, 3.5 fast at Weedon Island- a 5k and 10 hard striders.  I had felt pretty beat up this week since the murderous Sunday bridge intervals, so I wasn't expecting to run fast.  I suppose I was aiming for sub 17, just to get another notch on the website, but I felt pretty good so I just kept running hard.  Broke the course record again that I had set last week.

The crazy news was my heartrate was registering very low compared to my normal hard efforts, so I think two weeks from now I'm going to run the course in sub 16.  

The course is definitely turning into home field advantage for me.  I was speeding up, slowing down, angling around turns, avoiding roots/branches, finding the more packed sugar sand, and turning it up at just the right locations.  It will be fun if I ever get another runner out there who is close in speed.  

PM: 13.7 miles 

A rare goose egg on a Sunday.  Busy busy.  Let me rephrase, I did not choose to make time for running today.  I chose not to do something that will help me be healthier.  I chose to focus on other things unrelated to my health.  Geez that stings to say.  

PM: 10.1 miles

AM: 11.6 miles, 3.5 of them fast at effort (no goal interval).  Workout was 6x800, 4x200, equal distance recoveries between each.  Focused on breathing, relaxing, and helping Dylan stay consistent.

PM: 7.2 miles, 3.5 of them fast with a time goal of 2:30.  Workout was mostly the same as this morning- 7x800 this time, but with a max of 2:00 between each interval.  I was solo, unfortunately, but this workout felt pretty easy, and I could have pushed more for sure, but I'm happy with the result especially after the miles this morning.  A pretty standard 16-flat 5k effort after a tiring AM set is pretty cool to see right now.  Ideally, I'll be putting in some interval days in the 2:20-2:25 range by Christmas, so I can really get a sense of whether or not I can hit my next goal.  Really wish I didn't have to do these solo.  The mental toughness is just challenging to have and show up with every workout.  The mindset I have is much more negative when I am solo than when I'm running next to someone else/a group.  I literally switch from a growth mindset to a fixed one when I run solo.  The discipline is all I have to fall back on, sadly.

Splits- 2:32, 2:30, 2:30, 2:31, 2:30, 2:30, 2:30

PM: 10.4 easy

PM: 6.2 recovery miles. 

PM: 6.2 miles.  Lost my keys.  I've run thousands of runs, and never lost them.  The chances of losing them are literally 0.1% maximum.  Today was the day.

Was planning on going for the course record today, but mother nature had different plans.  Complete rain out, and the course is a bit unrunnable (safely) when it even sprinkles.  Oh well.  

Early AM: 25.3 miles.  Just a perfect day for running.

PM: 10 miles

Late PM: 5.6 miles.  I was bored today, I guess.

PM: 10.3 miles with striders

AM: 12.1 miles, 3.5 of them fast.  It's supposed to rain today, so I wanted to go hard this morning.  Workout was 6x400, 4x400, 2x400, 4x200, with 200 jog recoveries between each item, 600 effort-ful jog recoveries between each set of 400s.

Splits- 1:08, 1:08, 1:09, 1:09, 1:10, 1:08, 1:09, 1:08, 1:10, 1:10, 1:09, 1:09, 34, 35, 35, 34

Super proud of this solo workout.

PM: 7.6 miles, 3.5 of them fast(ish).  Ran 3 miles with Jacob, Hannah, and John.  Then 0.5 with just Hannah.  Workout was 5x1000, 4x200 with 200 recoveries throughout.  Speed was mediocre, 5:10-5:20 pace per mile for the 1000s, and then the 4x200 went 31, 32, 32, 34.  This workout felt unbelievable easy and I just worked on my knee drive and shortening the pendulum with each stride.  

PM: 10.4 miles, only 61 miles to go until the big 4-0-0-0.

PM: 10.6 miles.  1 fast mile of striders with full recovery.

PM: 6.2 miles 

AM: Finally broke 15:59 on this course.  I almost sabotaged myself however- being cocky and going out too fast.  I know I was thinking to stick to the race plan for this course, but I fell apart that last 1000 meters and should know better given the lack of recovery.  I sloppily passed through the 4k mark at a very presentable 12:24.  However, I then finished with a miserable 3:32 final 1k, which is just... terrible.  My form was awful.  My finising kick is the only thing that saved the effort to make it under time.

Bittersweet end to my "A" goal for this course.  I am happy I was the first to crack it here, but I really wish I was able to enjoy the goal more than I am right now.  In the end, as Drew would say: 'feed this one into the woodchipper.'

PM: 2.6 miles

AM: 20 miles

Noon: 7.5 miles.  No reason, just a nice day.

AM: 10 miles.  4,000+ miles for the year!  First time ever, and definitely proud of it.

PM; 6.2 miles

AM: 10.6 miles, 3.1 fast. 5x1000.

None.  Merry Christmas!

AM: 12 very hilly miles

AM: 12 very hilly miles

AM: 12.5 very hilly miles

AM: 20 very hilly miles, with zero water or nutrition.  Not my finest logical moment, but it was a good run.

None.  Awful weather/snow.

PM: 10 miles in the hills.