ASICS GT-1000 USA edition 🇺🇸
SUNDAY
The run was tied to the $50 challenge that I talked about last week. The idea was that anyone who showed up would run on the trail & inevitability get a picture on the bench. That would enter them into the drawing. Luckily for my shoes the rain from the night before closed the trail. Street run it is!
MONDAY
Hope for the Holiday is this weekend. So today is a REST DAY! Plus I took vacation all week!
Here’s a quick tip for keeping your feet loose. After every long run I use the Trigger Point massage ball to roll my feet. Starting in the middle, moving back & forth. Roll all areas on the bottom of the foot; heel, toes, instep, etc. Pay special attention to the sore areas. Try to loosen the muscles up. I usually spend about 5 mins per foot.
TUESDAY
Mostly short easy miles this week, but it’s Track Tuesday. The plan called for a progressive ladder. As the distance shortened the speed increased.
It starts out with a 400m warmup. That’s one lap on the track or a quarter mile. Then the ladder begins. 1600m, 1200m, 800m, 400m. My plan was to start at 10mins/mile & increase 30s/mile each phase.
I know all of that sounds great, but I over slept & none of it happened. I was supposed to get up at 4:15a. I woke up at 6:20a. The rest of the guys still put in work without me.
Even though I missed out this morning I got in the progressive workout on the street. As usual I started out a little fast, but laid down some solid splits. The last quarter I was definitely sucking wind. There was plenty of it too with an 18mph breeze.
On a related note, I sure hope the ASICS break in. I’m not digging them yet. My feet were, what I call, clopping the entire run. I couldn’t get in the groove. I felt very awkward running. I may use them for easy runs until I get some miles on them.
That is one thing about the Nikes they just glide. They wear out too fast, but they run so good! I need to find a middle ground shoe. I was hoping the ASICS were the ones. We’ll see...
WEDNESDAY
Another 4:15a alarm for some hump day miles. I met Raphael for an easy 3. Work schedules had other plans for Leonardo & Donatello.
We did a quick out & back on the pi route (3.14). I didn’t go to .14 because Garmin & Strava never match on mileage. I couldn’t name it Pi if they both weren’t 3.14. I know I’m a weirdo. Any way... chilly run with a slight headwind coming back. After looping back to the store with me Raphael went back out for 3 or 4 more. I went home, showered, & took a nap. Ahhh, glorious vacation...
THURSDAY
One more easy pace run before Hope for the Holiday on Saturday. Everything started out pretty well normal, floating around a 9:45 pace. About a mile in my right shin started flaring up. I haven’t had any shin issues in over 6 months.
For several years I have had what I call shin flare ups off & on. My soleus muscle will start to swell. It’s like getting a muscle pump when lifting weights. The problem is that it would continue to swell until it was painful to flex my foot at all. Eventually if I didn’t stop my feet would go to sleep. I never have really figured out what causes it. I had decided that it had something to do with my extra weight. Typically when my weight comes back down it would quit.
So now I’m perplexed again. Since I’m sitting at 180lbs & have been doing XT. (another theory was weak lower leg muscles)
Yet another theory was muscle adhesion. Which was why I bought the Roll Recovery R8. To pull the muscle fascia away from the bone. That’s very painful by the way. I still use the R8 everyday. So yeah... perplexed.
Anyway back to today. I downed about half my bottle of water during my second mile. That’s one of my crutches. When I’m struggling during a run I drink water. Not sure why. Nonetheless, with about a mile to go my shin relaxed & I went on cruise control. That last mile was so effortless. It felt awesome! So maybe it’s the water. Who knows...
FRIDAY
Drive to Batesville, AR from Dallas, TX for the 4th annual Hope for the Holiday half marathon & 5k in memory of Garrett Yeager.
SATURDAY
RACE DAY! My last race I went out too fast. So this time I decided to take it easy out of the gate. The first five miles of this course is several rolling hills. If you’re not careful you’ll destroy your race going out too fast. I made sure to slow down on the uphills & speed up on the downhills. It was a good plan for me.
You got the technical trail section at about 5.5 miles. It was downhill, but required a slower pace. Once through the trail it was a few miles on a nice, peaceful gravel road. I was feeling good after the trail, so I resumed my target pace. The turn back onto the street had a slight uphill followed by a generous down. The course was flat for a bit after that which was nice. Mile 10 started another uphill climb & then a glorious downhill through 11.
Seeing the Mile 12 sign only meant one thing... The punishing last mile back up to the top of Eagle Mountain. The first half mile is a gradual climb. The last half mile is virtually straight up. It’s a punishing finish. I made it part of the way up & realized that at this point I could actually walk faster. Once I made the last turn & could see the finish I started some semblance of running again. It’s a tough course, but man it feels awesome to finish it. My official finish time was 2:10:38. Nearly 14 minutes faster than last year.
Now its time to rest for a few days!
Check out the elevation map at the bottom!
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