Progress not Perfection

To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle. ~ William Penn

Well, I seem to have failed in my 3rd resolution. I could say work had got in the way. While partly true. I chose to sleep in & it cost me. At the end of the day I didn’t want to workout. Soon have finished this week with one XT workout. While it was a doozy, it was 2 short of my target.

If you thought you were reading the blog of a guy that’s always successful now you know different. As I say, I am just an average guy trying to get better. This isn’t one of those fake, life is always perfect blogs. This is my journey. A real training journey.

The important thing is this. I will not beat myself up. I’ll take it in stride & keep doing my best. I will get better. I will run more, run farther, & have fun. 

TUESDAY

After our extra long run on Saturday, I took off Sunday & Monday. After the rest I had a fleeting run on Tuesday, a reverse lap on my neighborhood route. It was rather uneventful. Between conference calls I ventured out for a lunch run. Around mile 2 I ran past a guy repairing his fence I gave a friendly wave & journeyed on. I passed by the neighborhood school. On lunch runs the kids are usually out at recess I always imagine that they’re wondering why I’m running so slow. Luckily I have my 90s rock blasting in my headphones & can’t hear if they are actually heckling me. I’m sure they’re not. To add to my being out of sync, I forget to take a post run picture...

WEDNESDAY

I woke up at 3:45. A full 15mins before my alarm. Might as well get up & start my long run routine. We are scheduled for another, as we call it, a 2 by 2 by 2 by run. You’ll recall it’s 2 (2E, 2E), 2E. 10 miles with thresholds.

Another trip around a familiar route. It starts up Legacy swinging by the Track Tuesday track. We make the three sides of the block, down through a neighborhood & onto the trail. I’m always lost at this point. I’m pleasantly surprised when we’re closer to the end than expected. Into the 2nd set of threshold miles & I’m sucking wind as usual. At this point I’m alone. Leo & Don have turned on the afterburners & are out of sight. I can just barely see Raph. The last couple of easy miles we gather back up and finish together. I am happy to learn that I have ran my fastest paced 10-miler in years, averaging 9:32 per mile.

THURSDAY

XT day doesn’t disappoint. The club has initiated a 4-week XT challenge. A prescribed workout to be performed once between Thursday & Sunday. Participants have the chance to win prizes.

Race entry to Big Star Half, Race entry to Bluebonnet Half, plus shirts & hats from Big Star & the FRC store. So naturally I’m in.

This first workout is tough. 3 rounds for time. It starts out with an 800m run (1/2 mile). Then you start an 8 min AMRAP (as many rounds as possible).

The rounds are as follows: 8 burpees, 12 alternating lunges, & 18 sit-ups.

You repeat the 3 exercise routine for 8 mins. Once you complete the 8 mins you take a 1 min rest & start over with the 800m run. You repeat this process 3 times.

This was extremely difficult for me. Round two brought on the dry heaves. I’m not in nearly as good of shape as I thought. Nonetheless I kept going & finished the workout. To put it lightly, I’m completely trashed when it’s over. Total time 41 mins 17 secs.

FRIDAY

REST DAY!

In the past I’ve felt like I’ve been running out of gas on the long runs. I use Huma energy gels throughout the run, but still get gassed. Leo uses Karbolyn, a carbohydrate complex that fuels you in endurance workouts. He always seems to be strong at the end so I thought but was worth a shot. It came in today! I’m excited to give it a try on Saturday. I’ll put a scoop in my water bottles & hope that it fuels me at the end of the long run. Stay tuned.






SATURDAY 

Today we’re looking at 2E, 2(2T, 3min rest), 3E. It’s 31 degrees, but it feels colder. We set out on one of our old routes in reverse. We head up Main passing the FC Dallas soccer stadium. After 2 miles we we start the first threshold section. We make a left just before the Dude Perfect building. We’re pushing the pace pretty good. I look down & we’re right at an 8:30 pace. I’m thinking that I feel pretty good. So I keep pushing forward. 4 miles down & we’ve made it to the 3 min rest. Thank the Lord! I was breathing pretty hard. After walking for the shortest 3 mins in history we start the second threshold section. I’m really not looking forward to it, Back up to 8:30 we go. About a half mile in we run by the speed work track. Now starts a slightly downhill & this is the part where Leo takes off. I’m still holding an 8:30 & he’s walking away from us. Finally we finish the thresholds & start the rest minutes. We walk 2 mins & start the last leg of easy miles back to the store. We cut through Cottonwood trail & snap a pic by the pond. With about a mile to go we realize we’re running a pretty quick, 9:10 pace! In typical Leo fashion, he says let’s finish it out! Engage the afterburners! I don’t know how fast we were going I didn’t want to know. Nonetheless we ended up averaging about 8:45 for the last mile. After Wednesday’s run I mentioned running my fastest pace 10-miler. Well, we bested that today by 12 secs per mile with a 9:20 average pace!

I feel like the Karbolyn helped. It could have been the placebo effect. We'll see. I'll keep testing and report back soon.

SUNDAY

It’s an off day, but I feel like going outside. So I take a walk around the neighborhood. I take some time to think about the coming work week & the race on Saturday. In the process I make up another 5k route to run on another day.

That’s a wrap!

Ice Ice Baby

  Here we are.  Another glorious week of running.  We're about a month out from the FRC Half Marathon.  I'm getting a little tired. So I took yesterday off.  I'm going to try and dial back a bit after the race and do a little recovery time.  I've been on a rigid program for 31 weeks. Yes, I said try.  You probably know by now that I'm an all or nothing guy.  So I'll probably run the same amount & just try to dial back the intensity.  Keep your fingers crossed for me...

TUESDAY

It was beautiful day.  Mid-60s again  This time of year is perfect for lunch runs. Plus I can sleep in a bit too!  My plan for today was to run my little 3-mile loop.  I was planning to go a little faster than easy, but not go all out.  I settled into a nice 9:30ish pace.  It's nice to run & enjoy it.  That's why I was talking about dialing back.  I love running & I want to continue loving it.  If I go hard all the time I start to not enjoy it & eventually dread it.  I've seen a lot of people fire off out of the gate, running hard & fast every run.  It's almost impossible to maintain that kind of intensity.  So my advice to you, slow down & enjoy some of your runs.

I read this in a post by Run4PRs Coaching.  It talked about easy running. Here's a snippet.

"Bottom line: running slow gives you the ability to recover for your harder effort running days.  If you don't run slow enough, you body can't properly recover to be ready for hard running. If you never stress your body with harder running day, you will never be able to run faster.  Easy running should be 80% of your weekly mileage.  Easy running is 2-3 min per mile SLOWER than 5k pace."

I don't know how you feel about that, but I agree.  It also lines up with the VDOT paces for me.  Additionally, I think it ties in to the enjoying running that I mentioned.  You're not getting mentally drained & if you're running easy you're definitely having a good time! 

WEDNESDAY

It's long run Wednesday again!  It was 60 degrees at 4am on December 23rd.  Welcome to Texas!  Being this warm it doesn't feel like Christmastime to me. I'll realize later this week that making that statement was a total jinx (*).  While it sounds like pretty good weather for dark morning running, Mother Nature decided raised the difficulty level... 16mph winds.

On the plan for today intervals!  Intervals are short intense efforts followed by a recovery time.  The workout is written like this: 5E, 6(.6T, 1min rest) 1.5E.  Can you decipher it?

5 easy miles followed by intervals of 0.6 miles at threshold pace coupled with a 1min rest and wrapping it up with 1.5 easy miles.  The 1min rest can be whatever you want.  It can be stopping, walking, or running slower.  We choose to walk most times.

We started out the 5 easy with the wind to our backs targeting a 10min/mile.  We held that pretty good except for mile 2 we averaged 9:39.  As the first interval began I was thinking let's target 9min/mile.  I was feeling very smooth in my stride at the quicker pace.  So smooth that the 2nd & 3rd rounds were 8:41 & 8:29.  By number 5 I was gassed.  As is my custom, out too fast.  

During the 5th round we started to separate a bit from our formation.  That's not uncommon as we are close in pace, but not an exact match & like I mentioned I was getting gassed.  So, Leonardo & Donatello got ahead of us, but still in sight.  At the same time I was ahead of Michelangelo. (I should mention also that Michelangelo ran 26.2 miles on Saturday) Anyway, we were on a new part of the trail for me.  At the end of #5 we exited the trail to turn back towards the FRC store.  A few seconds passed and no Michelangelo...  We walked back down to the trail, but no sign of him.  Leo was familiar with the trail.  We decided that Mike must have not seen us exit & kept going. Back on the trail we went. After about maybe a mile we spotted him!  Whew!  I was getting nervous.

In the commotion we ended up skipping the 6th round of intervals & just headed back to the store.  I was completely out of breath & struggling to keep up.  They made a turn which looked like was going to be another block around.  I kept on chugging to the store.  A few minutes later they made it back as well.

After recalculating my workout, it was actually 5E, 5(.6T, 1min rest) 1.79E

CHRISTMAS 

6hrs of driving to see our families in Arkansas on Thursday, Christmas Eve. Dinner with my family that night followed by some time with my wife’s family on Christmas Day. 

Also, I remembered that I had signed up for a Strava challenge that required 4 days of activity for 4 consecutive weeks. This week was the last, only scheduled for 3, so I suited up for a quick out and back mile. Temps were in the 20s & the sun was shining. 

On my short jaunt I realized I was passing the Pleasant Plains population sign.  I thought that would be a good picture I could take on my way back by.  As I came back by the sign I realized that I didn't have my fuel belt since it was a short run.  That meant I didn't have my phone.  When I finished up the run I got my phone & walked the tenth of a mile back to the sign for my photo.  Hi, my name is E & I have issues... 😂

Merry Christmas to you & yours!  

SATURDAY

*weather jinx realized* 

It was cold in AR this morning. We met up at 6am and it was 22 degrees. It was cold & dark. Off we went. The plan was to run 14-15 miles.  Starting out on Harrison Street we ran most of the 10th & 11th mile of the Hope for the Holiday Half Marathon course in reverse.  People in Batesville have been running this out & back route for years.  From Batesville to Sulphur Rock and beyond.  Which also contained the Boring as Crap Half Marathon course from several years ago.  The shoulder runs out at one point so we always swing through Quail Valley to avoid that section.  At about mile 4 I took a drink of my water & it had ice crystals in it. It was an out & back plan so we decided to turn back at mile 5. The elevation in the next half mile jumps about 100ft.  Which meant a nice cruise back down.  As we turned back into Quail Valley at mile 7 I tried to take another drink of my water & it was frozen. The nozzle was blocked, but there was a little water still in it. 

This is where I tell you that my 2 year old fuel belt bottles are both cracked. So when I squeezed & the nozzle was blocked it squirted out all over my hand. Being a genius, I tried the other one.  Same result.  By the time we reached the cars my hands were hurting from being wet & in nearly frozen gloves. 

It was brutal & probably a little dumb, but we got in 10 miles and some great conversation on my coldest run of the year... so far.

SUNDAY

Time to head back home to Texas, but first I decided to make the loop around the Hwy167 by-pass and right through the heart of Pleasant Plains.  I had never ran that loop before & was curious what the mileage would be.  I was guessing about 5 miles.

Going north from the in-laws I hopped on the by-pass.  It's a wide 5 lane highway with a generous shoulder.  Rolling downhills until I hit the 2 mile mark.  Then its a pretty healthy uphill to 2.5 until you make the right turn onto Main Street.  The return back through town is nearly a mirror image on the elevation map.  So, a half mile down hill & the rest was rolling uphills.  I passed by my old high school, the road my wife lived on, and a lot of memories. Some people still live in the same place since I was in high school.  Sometimes it's hard to fathom.  Especially since we have lived in 4 states in the last 5 years.  It could be nice though.  I bet their mortgage is paid off.

Anyway, I reach the only 4-way stop in Pleasant Plains signifying the middle of town. From a previous discussion with my father-in-law we determined that this was a mile from the house.  If that was correct, I would be short of  my 5 mile estimate.  I guess we'll find out soon enough.  Passing the population sign from my photo on Friday I finished up the last tenth of a mile.  Official distance of the Pleasant Plains Metro bypass... 4.62 miles.

Luckily I ran today because in the 4x running challenge that I mentioned earlier, each of the activity times had to be 30mins or more  So the mile that I did to save the challenge didn’t count. 😂

With that being said, it was a pretty eventful week of running!  Thanks for tagging along!