A Year Long Streak & a New FRC Season!

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” – Margaret J. Wheatley 

“We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

Reflection time.  Finishing up June will be my 12th month in a row in with 100 or more miles.  Prior to this streak I had only ran 100 miles in a month twice my entire running career.  I may not be running a 7 min mile, but I'm out here crushing it!  Here's a recap. (more for me than you)

2020 was a terrible year, but it was my best year of running!  Of the previous 7 years my highest mileage year was 2017 with 585.9.  I ended 2020 with 912.8!  After my 5 miles tomorrow (to hit 100 for June) I'll be just over 663 miles!  Already about 2/3 of the way to my 2020 mileage.

Using the first 6 months to calculate an average, I am on pace to hit 1,326 miles this year!  That right there is why we reflect!  Why am I getting faster?  I'm running more.  My highest mileage years were the years that I was the fastest (2014, 2017, 2020).  It makes sense now that I'm looking at it. I PR'd my half marathon time in January after logging the most yearly miles ever.

Now here I sit in the midst of my most epic year of running yet!  I did half marathons on back to back days.  Capping a 3 in 9 days adventure.  I am signed up to run up Pikes Peak in 8 short weeks.  I am signed up for my first full marathon in December.  Bringing my 2021 totals to 8 halfs & 1 full for 2021!

So I'll end this little parade with...  Consistency is key!  

Now we're in a brand new season of the FRC training plan & I'm a pacer this year.  We'll have workout as a group each week.  Tuesday Track, Wednesday Social, Thursday XT, & Saturday Long Run.  Depending on what mileage you're targeting there are multiple plans to follow. The weekly mileages are 25, 35, 40, or 50.  Super excited to see what the plan does for me & through me this year!

Until next time...  Here are some shots from the last few weeks!

Shoes from Atreyu in Austin, TX.

Had some fun with a T-Rex costume at Track Tuesday!

It was was also pouring down rain the whole time...

1,500+ ft of AR gravel elevation at Love Hollow.

A small cave at Waterloo Park in Denison, TX.

Conquered Salado Mtn twice in AR.

Sometimes you have to change it up

If we don't change, we don't grow.  If we don't grow, we aren't really living. - Gail Sheehy

A very thought provoking quote.  Living things grow that's what they do.  If something is not growing most often it's dead or at least unproductive.

As you know, I have been back & forth about where to go next with my training.  Sometimes options open up that help with your decision.  It did for me.

Some friends of mine invited me to go with them to run Pike's Peak.  Being the psychopath that I am, I said yes.  There are several of us planning to go, rent a house, stay the week and run the 14,115ft mountain race.  Being my first trip, I'll just do the Ascent.  That's a half marathon to the top.  Some of the others are doing the full marathon which includes the Decent back to the bottom.  Registration opens on March 1st.  I just have to hope that I can get a spot.

Now I need to start looking for some hills & trails.  And trails with hills.  It has been suggested that I run with a weighted vest.  Let's make sure that I get in first.

MONDAY means it’s a new week!  I took a nice little out and back. I didn’t intend to run negative splits, but I’ll take it. 9:16, 9:09, 8:49. 

It seems like a lot of my Monday runs end up being negative splits. 

THURSDAY and it's XT day again.  I've taken a few extra days off this week.  I've been having some pain in the arch of my right foot.  I've been rolling it with the touchpoint ball & hitting it with the impact massager.  This morning it feels better.  So, I guess I have no excuse not to do the workout this week.  I mean I did win another prize last week.  I could recuse myself to let someone else have a chance.  That wouldn't be any fun.  Besides its just a little 3 mile run. Oh and 20 burpees every half mile!  I'm going to feel real empowered after this one.

I put on my USA ASICS.  They’re a little more stiff in the arch. No issues during the workout. Maybe these shoes aren’t so bad after all. 

The workout was tough, but I felt stronger than I thought I would. I’m sure the people passing by though that I was insane. I did manage to keep all of the running sections under 10min/mile. I can remember last year not being able to do 5 burpees without being completely out of breath. If it’s hard just keep doing what you can & eventually you’ll get better & stronger. 

SATURDAY it's time for something a little different. Trail running.  I wanted to spend some time on the Squircle this year. That begins today.  What's a Squircle?  It's a squared loop. Not a square & not a circle.  A Squircle.

So I arrive at Erwin Park & there are tons of mountain bikers everywhere.  I quickly find a parking spot & head out toward the park entrance to begin the Squircle.  It's about a half mile to the gate.  Going left out of the park, it's a short run to the first turn onto gravel.  After another mile starts a pretty decent uphill.  Honestly, I can't remember a whole lot about the course except that there were several rolling hills.  I was trying to make sure I didn't miss a turn.  It was my first time & I was alone.  One section had some new homes & land being developed.  The rest was just like being out on Miller Creek Road in Arkansas.  It felt almost like being back home, passing farms & livestock..  The last thing I remember is the gradual uphill back to the park entrance.  I make the final left turn & finish the half mile back to the car.  There was definitely an added degree of difficulty.  The Nike Pegasus Trail 2 made for a nice run as well.  Ended up with just over 5 miles on my first trip around the Squircle.

It's SUNDAY and I'm back at Erwin Park for more.  I haven't ran a long run this week.  So I decide on a double Squircle.  One loop to the left like yesterday & one loop in the opposite direction.  I won't bore you with too much repeating the course report from yesterday, but I'll tell you this.  The Right Squircle is definitely tougher than the Left Squircle.  About 2 miles after starting the Right Squircle there is a massive hill.  In the opposite direction obviously it's a nice downhill. So I didn't notice it.  Yesterday I saw once person.  Today there were probably 8-10 other people on on the Squircle.  Looking at my final pace, I could tell that it was tougher today.  Nonetheless, I got it done.  Final tally was 9.5 miles.

Eight Days a Week w/ race recap

My week usually starts on Monday. Last week I posted my blog on Saturday not realizing that we had a social run planned for Sunday. Which would work out good since my clearance rack shoes came in late on Saturday. They need a test run. 

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! 

Bluetooth Shoe Test

A month or 2 back I bought some Under Armour Velociti HOVR shoes on the clearance rack at Frisco Running Company. They looked & felt good. Plus they were 40% off!

So who cares. You bought some shoes. Wow. 

Hang with me here... these shoes have Bluetooth!  That’s right Bluetooth!  They connect to the Map My Run app. 

I had them for a month or so using them for cross training. I was out for a 10-miler with my buds & they suggested that I try the function out & see how it compares to my Garmin watch. 

Truth be told, I had tried the shoes out on a couple of short runs. After both runs my knee bothered me. So I designated them as cross trainers. Since then I’ve learned that I had an IT band issue & it had nothing to do with the shoes. 

On my next short run I tried it out. 

I have to say it’s pretty cool when you open the app and the shoes get connected. 

I had mapped out a new route to try. So off I went. 

About every half mile the app would announce through my headphones whether I was on the target zone for cadence. That target was determined by my height, weight, & pace. 

Since I’m a data nerd, the best part was the post run analysis. It gave me not only my cadence, but my stride length, ground contact time, & foot strike angle. 

I still have to figure out how to use that information, but it’s cool nonetheless. 

As if that wasn’t enough, there were also coaching tips based on my performance. I still need to log a few more runs to see my trends, and I excited to nerd out!

Well, I’ve got to get ready for tonight’s group run with some of my people from Frisco Running Club. 

Till next time... Run for fun!