Week ending 28NOV2021

Monday afternoon - delightful weather but not the kind of stuff we ought to be experiencing in late November ... 70 plus degrees.  9.1 miles, interrupted with too much work stuff (I let that happen).

Tuesday AM - 9.2 miles around practice - super easy.  Dumb sore still from Sunday.

Wednesday AM - 4 miles with a few strides.  

Wednesday night ... had a gig at Mother Tucker's.  

Thursday AM - the obligatory Turkey Day 5k.  I was not feeling overly confident in this, so I had low expectations.  Given I hadn't raced until this past Saturday in over 2 years, and that I was racing twice in a week ... well, I started to line up excuses:  it snowed the night before, it was cold, and I was still (!) feeling a bit sore from Green.  

But it went ok.  6:27 for the first mile.  That is as quick as last week, but I started it a lot smarter in the first couple of minutes (and it is slightly down to start).  I was feeling soft in the second mile which seemed to climb way more than I remembered - 6:47 (with about a quarter in there over 7, ugly).  Got going a bit on the downhill back into town for a 6:22.  I had 19:57 on the phone as I crossed the line but it took me a bit to get it to stop/register.  But - nearly everyone agreed its probably 100 meters short (I had 3.07).  I averaged 6:30 so I just chalk that up as an improvement over last week.  8.7 miles on the day.

Pace calculators put that pace at about 20:10-15 for 5k.  That would have been a nice improvement over last week's 20:50.  Age grading that puts that at 73.3 percent, also a bit of an improvement over last week.  All that said, I need to get back at least into some 19s so PB talks a bit less shit.  

Friday - up at ABC.  Day got away with various work on things.  Thought about a jog at the tail of the day but was sorta fried and gave myself the "this won't advance fitness" excuse.

Saturday AM - 8 miles easy with GW around practice.  

Sunday AM with Syd Kid and GW.  11 for me on total.  I was tired.  Right leg felt wonky, more worked than the left.  Just did 11 to get 50 and to get in a bit more a longer run than I have been getting.  

Week ending 21NOV2021

Monday - full day on a local engagement.  Didn't get out until the near evening, dark.  5.1 miles.  

Tuesday AM - 5 miles easy with GW and Syd Kid before heading into work.

Tuesday PM - 5.1 miles on the sunset on the Ditch/Lake Link loop. Meant to be easy, and it sorta was but I was moving unexpectedly quicker than I thought.  

Wednesday AM - 8 miles around practice.  Super easy.

Thursday AM - chilly (20 degrees).  5 miles easy.  

Friday AM - 6.1 miles.  Jumped in a lap or so every once in a bit of Syd kid's workout.

Saturday AM - been toying with the idea that I have to actually get back to some sort of racing so I headed over to Park Run this AM.  Good news:  I raced.  Bad news:  I am not that fit.  Good news:  I am not as bad off as I thought I might be.  Bad news:  I am sorta mentally soft right now.  Good news:  Nothing completely fell apart for me.  Bad news:  I was an idiot and went out too fast.

20:50.  Told myself going into the race I'd be super chill the first mile and them figure it out.  A group of guys made for a little pack at 100 yards in and I told myself to hang with them.  But 200 yards later I dropped because I had convinced myself they were going to slow.  And they caught me at 2 and quarter miles.  Good stuff.  Some things don't change.

Parkrun does really have their shit together.   You register, show up with your barcode, they scan that post your finish and its good to go.  Nice little email and results are sent over and they keep a database of your results over the years.

They also send age graded results.  While, I am not a proponent of age group ratings to identify who "won" a race outright, I recognize some value in considering those metrics.  When I consider my best times at various distances in my very late 20s, I would have posted a 80+% for those performances.  My Parkruns here (3 prior to the Saturday effort) ranked at 73% and my performance yesterday was at 71+%.  It gives me a bit of a pseudo objective view of where I was, how age versus focus may have shifted that some.  And a bit of a something in addition to times to chase.  

Oh yeah, first Parkrun since December of 2018, and first race since Pikes 2019.  It has been a while.  

10.2 miles on the day with the race, warm up and cool down.

Sunday AM - two super easy flat miles and then over to Green Mountain.  I think it has been since July of 2020 since I did a round trip on this.  Again, it has been a while.  I ended up going up ASG and then down the backroute.  Whole thing was slow but I expected that.  8.1 miles on the day.

56 miles on the week - a good one for me for sure with a Green, a Parkrun and some fair miles along the way.  

Crazy light lately on the bookends. 

Week ending 14NOV2021

Monday AM - with Syd Kid and GW for some sunrise miles.  8 easy.  

Monday afternoon - just weight work in Eagle gym.  I'm done in there after 15-25 minutes ... just worked over as I am generally weak these days.  Mixing in a variety of weight exercises.  

Tuesday AM - got a few kids out to start building for the spring.  It is great to see kids out at 35 degrees at 6:20 in the morning - it just shows that they are on it.  6 miles with 100 and 200 strides - definitely feeling some of the squats/lunges/kettlebell swings from yesterday.

Oh yeah, got the vax for shingles.  That one leaves a hurt on the arm worse than most.

Started a bit of yapping the last couple of days that I need to consider the 2022 season.  Yesterday it was musing on doing the GoG 10 miler, BTMR and PPM.  Today it is a Parkrun 5k.  But I still haven't signed up for anything really.  

Wednesday AM - 5.6 miles with the over achievers doing work.  
Wednesday PM - 3.7 on the ditch, moving pretty well - sorta thresholdy.  

Thursday AM - 6.2 jogging with GW.  
A little later in the AM another 3 miles.

Friday AM - down in the 20s now in the AM.  9.7 miles with 8 x 150 in under to just at 30 secs.  

Saturday AM - meh.  8 miles.

Sunday mid AM - 9 miles.  3 mile something warmup and then 5 x 800 on a quarter jog.  First "real" workout in a looong time I think.  I thought 3:15s would be appropriate but did it by feel.  The first was 3:03 so that set the pace.  They were all that with the last being 2:59.  Wind picked up in the second half.  Wasn't super hard but wasn't easy - mostly the self chatter in the 6 inches between the ears.  

Workout told me that I am not in great shape, but not nearly as bad as I thought.  I was thinking breaking six for a mile would possibly be not in the cards at current.  I would guess I could do it, but it would be ugly.  Sub 20 in the 5k is a stretch so I'll have to line something up on that soon too.  

Pretty good training week on whole - fair volume (59 mi), and a couple of workouts spinning the wheels.   

Some recent covers:

Week ending 07NOV2021

Monday AM - 8.5 miles super easy.

Tuesday AM - dark and with SB and GW. 8 x 300 at mile pace ish on 200 jog with SB to help her along.  5.5 miles.

Wednesday afternoon - 8.2 miles, coaching some post season kids.

Thursday AM - 8 miles with GW, super easy.

Friday AM - early and dark with the post season kiddos.  7.4 miles with some strides.

Saturday AM - Post season kids, 8.6 miles.  Hopped in some of Syd Kid's repeats and then fartleked back home.  So, sorta backed into a workout day when I was not feeling it.

Sunday AM - 9.8 miles, slow to start and carved away well at getting to an okay pace.

56 miles on the week.  Still sorta messing around with kinda exercising and kinda training but kinda not.  Pikes was making some news with a change for its schedule in 2022 (moving from August to September ... man that would have shifted a lot of age group stuff for me years ago), so I was thinking about that but it has been nearly 3 years I think since I have raced anything.  I might need to consider a 5k before I really jump back on a mountain marathon thing.