Sunday, August 11, 2013

Past & Present

I stumbled upon this video on my phone the other day. It was taken about 8 months ago. My dad's driving beside me as I run down a mountain in my parents' hometown in Taiwan. Please note my dad's enthusiastic cheering and my reaction to stray dogs...

Aaanddd I am a heel striker. Nothing new here.

Moving on to the present!

I finally did my first long run in preparation for my fall marathon. I've been putting it off since the beginning of summer, but with 11 weeks until race day it's time to get serious.

Here's a look at my week in running.

Monday- 4 difficult miles outdoors. Mentally and physically I was not there. Could have been attributed to a weekend of drinking and poor eating while celebrating my brother's birthday. <--- crummy food makes for sucky running :(

Tuesday- 11 miles split up into two sessions. 8 miles at 5:30 am on the treadmill before work and 3 miles outdoors after work. Random speed and hill work thrown in on the treadmill to avoid boredom.

Wednesday- 8 easy evening miles on the treadmill.

Thursday- 10 miles on treadmill.

Friday- 16 miles on the treadmill. I procrastinated a little too much and by the time I was ready to run, it was already 3pm and disgustingly hot outside. Wanting to avoid intensifying my tan lines, I resorted to the treadmill. I was a little nervous about this run because I had never run more than 15 miles at a time in the old, sweaty, hot-as-f* gym. Thankfully I was prepared with hydration and fuel. My setup shown below generated a few too many stares for my liking... In order to avoid a soul crushing blowup on this run, I started out with conservative 8:50 minute miles and slowly increased my speed for the first 5 miles until I reached a comfortable 8:30 pace.



Saturday- Off. "Cross-trained" at Disneyland by walking around and standing in lines all day.

Sunday- 12 miles outdoors by the beach.

Total= 61 miles. I still stick to my philosophy of running based on feel. I know that specific training plans with intervals/hill work/strength etc. will make me faster, but by listening to my body on a daily basis I am able to consistently run high mileage without getting injured.