March 24, 2021

Distance: 1.79 miles

Avg Pace: 9:08

Time: 16:33

----

The run this morning felt ok. Upper legs were a little sore starting out. Achilles started feeling a little warm coming down the last hill back to start. Felt strong though.

----

Trying to take advice and ease back into running. Did 4 last week and that aggregated my achilles. So 1.2 on Monday, 1.5 yesterday and 1.7 today. Trying to keep it around 1.5 this week. Next week I'll bump it up to 1.75, etc. I've been wanting to do at least a mile a day. But until this achilles gets better, I might have to give myself a couple of true rest days.

Rocky Week

If you have a plan, stick to it. I got thrown off my schedule by a day and it put a kink in things. That and doing boot camp workouts throughout the week are proving to be a bigger challenge than I originally anticipated. Overall though I only ended up being a little over one mile short in my weekly goal.

On Thursday, I got in 6.4 slow miles. For some reason, my heart rate was higher than normal. Maybe I didn't drink enough water the day before. Maybe I wasn't breathing right. I ended up walking the last half mile.

It was also raining for part of Thursday, so I got to test out my new watch. My old watch would act up if it was raining, sometimes cutting out in the middle of a run. This one had no problems at all.

On Sunday, I went for a trail run. I hadn't been trail running in a long time, and it was a good time. I really enjoy being out in the woods, and the uneven terrain keeps you on your toes. I might make that a regular thing.

---

Weekly stats:

• Total Distance: 23.75 miles
• Longest run: 5.68 miles
• Avg Pace: 13:17 (might need to start excluding workouts)

Winter is here... sort of

Monday through Wednesday were pretty chilly (low 30° F) in the morning. Fall is giving way to winter. Came up short on mileage on Monday, but made up for it on Tuesday. I knocked out the Strava 5k and 10k challenges in the first three days. The later part of the week was more comfortable in the morning. Some really nice sunrises and the trees still have a lot of their fall color.

Wednesday, the group ran Crossway, which is a very hilly 3-mile out-and-back stretch. I think I like climbing hills more than trying to achieve a fast pace on flat ground. Maybe it makes me feel better that I'm doing a 9:30-10:00 pace.

I miscalculated my mileage plan for the week. Saturday was a "Magic Half Mile" day, where the half mile lap is run at a high level of effort. I didn't take into consideration that doing the magic half mile would be pretty intense and that I probably wouldn't want to run another 5 miles after that. So I ended up doing 3.15 miles on Saturday (1.5 run followed by 0.5 magic mile at 7:20 pace with warm-up and cool down on either side). Made up for the milage deficit today with 3.49 miles, ending the week with 25.77 miles. On track for 100 for November.

Ran into some of the running group on the run today. I had been going kind of slow on my own, partly because today is supposed to be a rest day. I noticed that, while I was running with the group, I kept up a good pace and then eased back down once we parted ways. I usually like running on my own but running with a group definitely helps motivate me to keep it up. Plus it is nice to chat on longer runs.

---

Weekly stats:

• Total Distance: 25.77 miles
• Longest run: 6.41 miles
• Avg Pace: 10:13
• Weight: 188.6 lbs

100 Miles for November

I might be going overboard with ramping up my running. I decided to go for 100 miles in November. It's a little bit ambitious, and I'm not going to beat myself up if I fall short. It'll be interesting to see how running six days out of the week goes. I'm also interested to see if the short runs will get any easier by the end of the month (not sure if that's enough time to tell a difference).

In light of upping my weekly mileage, I've started to do "extra credit" at some of the workouts. Showing up early and getting one or two extra miles in before continuing with the workout or run. The biggest day was yesterday (Saturday) with 7.6 miles. I think that's the longest I've ever run.

I also signed up for the "Blue Ridge to The Beach" 475-mile challenge (virtual). Six months to complete 475 miles. If I'm already doing 100 in November, I think I can swing another  375 over the next five months. A bucket list item for me is to finish the Mountains to Sea Trail. This won't be quite the same, but it'll be fun to track the mileage along the route.

Lastly, some "housekeeping." I'm going to make it a point to do one post here a week on Sundays (rest day). It's easier to tally up the weekly stats that way. The consistency would be good for keeping track of progress/changes too.

---

Weekly stats:

• Total Distance: 27.7 miles
• Longest run: 7.66 miles
• Avg Pace: 10:35
• Weight: 189 lbs

Goal: Half Marathon

I decided to run a half marathon. 

I've been running off and on for a little over a year now. It's grown on me. When I started off, and I couldn't even run a mile. I hated it. I won't say that I love every minute of it now, but I definitely don't hate it as much. 

Currently, I run 10-15 miles a week. My average pace is around 9.5 minutes. My goal for training for a half marathon isn't just to do a half marathon but to become a better runner all around. I'd really like to breeze through 5-mile runs and do a couple of 8-10 milers a week. And, of course, not be so winded at the end. 

The impetus for going for a half was that I got a new watch. A Garmin Instinct (it was on sale and a step up from my previous watch). I had been meaning to up my running game and saw that they had a training program featuring Jeff Galloway. He's a Raleigh native like me and his program made sense, so I went with it. 

---

Weekly stats:

• 11 miles
• 9.17 avg pace