Eclipse! + Far too many time zones for one week (Eugene Half Week 6 of 8)

OK, so. Last weekend, I had to give a paper at a conference in Philadelphia, and being two weeks out from Eugene and really wanting one more chance to get on a starting line before then, I'd planned to Amtrak into Brooklyn on Sunday morning to run this 10 miler in Prospect Park.

Buttttt then the talk was changed from Saturday to Sunday at 1:15pm, and there was just no feasible way to run a 9:15am 10 mile race and get back to Philly in time for this talk. So.

What do we do?

We turn to the internet to see what else is around. And what do we find?

This cheeky little 15K race (that's ~9.3 miles according to The King's Mathematics) in central Pennsylvania on Saturday morning. 

Is it glamorous? No. But did I care about that? Also no! I really just needed to run a *sorta* long-ish tune-up race where I could practice HM effort and using all the mental stuff I've been working on in a situation that feels more formal than weekend long runs on my own in Golden Gate Park.

Race report coming soon!

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 1
Eugene Half Week 2
Eugene Half Week 3
Eugene Half Week 4
Eugene Half Week 5

 ~*~*~ 🦆🦆 Eugene Half Marathon Week 6 of 8 🦆🦆 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 30.85 miles

🐌 Easy: 20.35 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 9.3 miles
🐎 Fast: 1.2 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 66% vs. 34%. 

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery

Fatigue is piling up but so is fitness (Eugene Half Week 5 of 8)

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 1
Eugene Half Week 2
Eugene Half Week 3
Eugene Half Week 4

 ~*~*~ 🦆🦆 Eugene Half Marathon Week 5 of 8 🦆🦆 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 38.6 miles

🐌 Easy: 30.85 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 6 miles
🐎 Fast: 1.75 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 79.9% vs. 20.1%. 

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery

Big Miles + Radical Rest (Eugene Half Week 4 of 8)

Like most weeks, lately, this one was stressful and exhausting. Maybe not as much as some weeks. But still, I spent so much of the time feeling tired, both in terms of feeling fatigued (runs are hard, hard to motivate off the couch to accomplish basic tasks such as feeding myself) and sleepy (not always getting enough sleep, fighting off daytime naps).

By the time I finished Friday's 7-mile easy run, I was already thinking forward to Sunday's nontrivial long run workout (15 miles including 3 x 2 mile reps at half marathon effort) and strategizing about how I was going to make sure I got the most out of it. Thankfully, this past weekend was one of those rare and beautiful ones where I had absolutely no concrete commitments beyond keeping myself & the cats alive and doing the bare minimum necessary to keep our living space some basic level of functional/not gross.

The strategy I settled on was radical rest, which included the following pillars:

• After running on Friday evening, feed & hydrate self/cats ➡️ sit on couch & watch TV ➡️ go to bed early.
• Saturday ➡️ sleep in as much as possible ➡️ feed & hydrate self/cats ➡️ mostly sit on couch, feed/hydrate as necessary / carb load like a mother ➡️ go to bed early.
• Saturday ➡️ sleep in as much as possible ➡️ hydrate/consume moar carbs (& feed cats) ➡️ coffee ➡️ friggin' *crush* this long run workout.

Now, this *mostly* went to plan, though I cannot honestly say there were *no* deviations:

How Quickly Do We Lose Fitness? (Eugene Half Week 3 of 8)

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 1
Eugene Half Week 2

One of my favorite running podcasts as I've mentioned before is Pro Running News with Dave Lipman and Matt Fox; recently Matt Fox has also started doing his own separate podcast in addition to PRN called Sweat Elite (after his training/coaching company of the same name). 

In general Sweat Elite doesn't speak to me in quite the same way as PRN, but every now and then there is an episode or two that piques my interest. Recently Matt has been doing a series called "Training Talk" which is more focused on the nuts and bolts and fiddly details of designing good training and how a well-designed training plan creates the physiological adaptations (ie., "fitness") that make for strong performance. This week I listened to episode six in the series, entitled How Fast Do You Lose Fitness?, in which Matt interviewed Max Frankel, one of the Sweat Elite coaches and in fact the coach who has actually been designing Matt Fox's own marathon training. (Historically, Matt was/is a pretty high level middle distance runner who I believe even ran for some Australian national teams in his younger days.) 

Originally the episode was supposed to focus on a different topic but thanks to various Life Things, Matt had recently taken some unplanned days off from training, so instead they pivoted to discussing the role and impact of such unscheduled rest days. Ergo: How Fast Do You Lose Fitness?

Spring is Busting Out All Over! (Eugene Half Week 2 of 8)

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 1
Eugene Half Week 3

You guys it's like the time changed and suddenly it's summer 🌞🌞🌞😎😎😎💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻. Or at least some semblance of spring. How lovely to procrastinate one's afternoon run until 5:30 or 6:00pm and not have to worry about the light. Simply marvelous.

AND AND AND it's been kinda sorta warm-ish here??? Or like 65ºF-ish at least??? Honestly when it's 65ºF and full sun, we call it summer and live it up.

The view from Tuesday's run through Golden Gate Park

 ~*~*~ 🦆🦆 Eugene Half Marathon Week 2 of 8 🦆🦆 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 43 miles

🐌 Easy: 38.5 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 0 miles
🐎 Fast: 4.5 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 89.5% vs. 10.5%. 

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery

A Belated Look at Eugene Half Marathon Week 1 of 8

In case you missed it:

Eugene Half Week 2
Eugene Half Week 3

Eek, getting behind on these! Just about six weeks left until Eugene. If you cast back into your memory, you might recall that this was the week right after NorCal John Frank Memorial 10 Miler. The race was Saturday March 2 and I took the Sunday completely off for some much needed rest. Then on Monday, it was back to work!

(Also, look, sorry, no photos this week, it turns out when you're strapped for time & just living your life, you don't really remember to take a lot of photos. Sorry. 😬)

 ~*~*~ 🦆🦆 Eugene Half Marathon Week 1 of 8 🦆🦆 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 43 miles

🐌 Easy: 37.625 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 5 miles? (Counting anything 9:00 or faster at altitude as "moderate")
🐎 Fast: 0.375 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 87.5% vs. 12.5%. 

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery

A Hectic Race Week! (John Frank Memorial 10 Miler Week 4 of 4)

Well, race week has come and gone! If you want to know the deets, race report here. As for the week itself, it was kind of a stressful one with a short-but-intense work trip and some unfortunate travel woes. That plus a bit of insomnia earlier in the week (no real reason, just run-of-the-mill "HI HELLO THIS IS YOUR BRAIN LET US SPIN WILDLY THROUGH ALL THE THOUGHTS UNTIL THE WEE HOURS" brain stuff) meant that I unfortunately spent a lot of it exhausted and sleep-deprived, and checked off the first unintended zero day of the year (fortunately, just an easy four miles, nothing that tragic).

 ~*~*~ 🌁 🌁 John Frank Memorial 10 Miler Week 4 of 4 🌁 🌁 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 28.5 miles

🐌 Easy: 17.25 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 10 miles
🐎 Fast: 1.25 miles
(🏅 Race: 10 miles)

Blue = daily strain, red/yellow/green = daily recovery