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!

Apparently old people blog...

Why did I start this blog?  Well, as I mentioned before I started a training plan with Frisco Running Club. For 35 bucks you get a training plan, coaching, workouts, a t-shirt, & 15% off at the Frisco Running Company store. There are also links to the club & store are at the top of my page. 

When I started that program I also started a weekly Facebook post with photos from the week. Pictures of whatever I encountered that week of training. So for 6 months I’ve been journaling by photo. There were many times that I wanted to share more about the individual photos, but didn’t want to be one of those long posters... My Facebook Album

A blog seemed like the natural progression. I can type it out & you can read it or not. My oldest daughter said I was old for starting a blog. “We vlog now.” I could vlog I suppose, but it would be more labor intensive with the recording & video editing. Been there done that.  That’s a story for another time. 

This week has been light week. 3 milers on Monday & Tuesday to start the week. Both of which I wore the Bluetooth shoes from my previous post. 

MONDAY

I'm an early morning runner.  It works best for me.  It doesn't interfere with family life or work.  But, on occasion, when the weather is cool I'll sleep in & go for a lunch run.  Monday was one of those days.  I tried out a route through one of the newly opened neighborhoods across the street. Ended up with an odd distance, but it was a nice loop.

TUESDAY

Run-crastination led to me joining an impromptu FRC evening run from the store. I really enjoy running in groups. It’s one of my favorite things about running. 

It was a pretty small group. Since covid came to town it’s been pretty low attendance. I remember last year we would have 50+ on some runs.  This time of year it's nearly dark before we start.  

**Always make sure that you have some sort of lighting when running in the dark.**

WEDNESDAY

Mid-week brings us to my guys, The Ninja Turtles. That’s what we’ve named ourselves. There are four of us.  We're not ninjas, & we’re not fast either.  Typically we run together every Wednesday & Saturday. We all met through FRC. Our pace group originally was larger & had men & women.  Over the course of 6 months of training & the aforementioned covid we dwindled down to the four of us for the most part.

One of the quad was going out of town this week. So you just get 3 of us. 

We did 10 miles with threshold pace intervals. 2 miles easy pace, then 2 miles threshold pace. Alternating to 10 total miles.  It felt pretty tough.  Especially the 2nd threshold section.

THURSDAY

Cross-training day (XT). This weeks workout had a name. Annie on the Run. Sit-ups, jump rope, & running pyramid style.  

Man, I used to be terrible at jumping rope.  Back in May I could barely get to 5 before I was missing a jump.  Now I can do 50-60+.  Back then I also cut all of the workouts in half.  I just wasn't in shape enough to tackle the full workouts.

Moral of the story... Anyone one can do this stuff.  Modify the workouts as needed & get it done.  Consistency is key.  Keep at it & you'll get stronger!

FRIDAY

The best day of the week!  REST DAY!  

Nothing happening but foam rolling & hydration today.  Getting the body ready for tomorrows long run.  I like to sit in that chair & look at my running wall.  It reminds me that it all started with a guy in his mid 30s that wanted to lose a few pounds.  I would go the the high school track every morning.  I would run as far as I could.  The first day I could only make it half a lap.  Run 1/2 & walk 1/2.  No watch, no tracking.  I just ran till I was tired, rested a bit & went again.

That big ole G also reminds me that it's only a couple more weeks until Hope For the Holiday Half Marathon in memory of Garrett Yeager.

SATURDAY

Nothing like waking up at 4:30am on Saturday to run with your friends. Some say we’re crazy. Maybe, but that’s what we do. 

Once again, 3 turtles strong, we took on the streets of Frisco, TX.  What was supposed to be 15 Easy turned into 10 Easy, 3 terrible, 2 miserable. 

I’m not really sure what happened. The humidity was pretty high & it was in the mid 60s. Either way, not every run is good. Some are just not. 

Everything seemed to be going fine. The first half of the route had some solid hills. Around mile 11 I ran out of water. I ran into the Golden Arches & refilled one bottle. That gave Leonardo (name changed to protect the innocent) the perfect opportunity for a pic. Typically I’m the photographer, but today I just wanted to be done. I literally look dead...

Only 4 more miles to go. Shortly after the pit stop I noticed my left nipple burning. Which was odd because I was wearing band-aids. A quick peek revealed a major wardrobe malfunction. I guess with all of the extra humidity & sweat ole lefty fell off leaving one raw nipple. Ouch!  I did not enjoy the shower later. 

Anyway I pulled my shirt off & slugged on. Which brought comments about me just wanting flex for the passers-by. 2 more miles to go. This is where a few brief walk breaks were added to the program. My feet & lower legs were just done. Not sure if it was all the jump ropes Thursday or if my shoes need replaced. 284 miles seems a little low for the Nike Pegasus. Nonetheless I pressed on & finished it up. The other turtles kept looping back to make sure that I had not died. That’s what friends do. They hang around even when your having a rough day. Runners are good people.  You should be too!

So that’s it for the week. I hope it wasn’t too much.  Check back with me soon for another week in the life of an average runner.