Day 369 -- Push up Day 3

• 3.42 miles
• 6:46/mile pace
• 1820
• S. San Francisco, CA
• Pretty fired up after the end of my golf binge (another 36 holes today, too many of which were bad), felt like running hard, which I did.  
• 50 push ups -- 1 set before run, 1 set after...I think the pre-run push ups got me into the run hard mode, plus the poor golf helped.   Did these push ups in the hall outside my hotel room...not even sure why, just felt like it.

Day 343

• 6.56 miles
• 7:38/mile pace
• 0630
• From/To Home
• Felt harder than the numbers may lead you to believe.
• When my summary comment is like that one it means it's been too long between run and posting comments...

Day 342

• 1.82 miles
• Slow
• 0645
• From/To Home
• Difficult, but enjoyed, trip around the 'hood with Finn and Case -- Case gets me to go off road as often as possible, for his entertainment, which makes the effort significantly harder, but more fun too.   Thankfully the Burley stroller can handle it pretty well...but yeah, I wish I had a "Bob."  

Day 321

• 1.98 miles
• 8:04/mile pace
• 1625
• From/To Arrowhead CC
• Difficult.   Definitely in the top 20 hardest runs of the streak to date.  Everything hurt (body aches from cold I have, plus head ache pounding with each step), but at least it wasn't hot.  Arrived from HNL at 7am, went straight to work, then left work at 4pm so I could get this run in before going home for fear that if I waiting until boys went to bed there would be a chance that I would fall asleep and end the streak.   As it turns out it is a good thing I did so as I fell asleep next to Case after reading him books and didn't wake up until a little before midnight -- I still had over 10 minutes, so I could've still managed, but I was glad I didn't have to try and had I not run earlier, who knows, maybe I wouldn't have woken up until after midnight.   Anyway, by the skin of its teeth the streak goes on.   Yeah, I do realize I'm the only one who cares, but hey, I care.
• Decided not to do treadmill simply because my minimum treadmill distance is 2.5 miles and I wanted this one over with even if I had to deal with the heat...again, thankfully that wasn't a problem as it actually rained a bit on me during the run.

Day 307

• 5 miles
• 8:10/mile pace
• 0650
• From/To home
• Super easy 35 minutes followed by hard 5 minutes. 

Day 302

• 8.19 miles
• 7:20/mile pace
• 0555
• From/To Home
• 11 minute warm up, 5 x 5 minutes hardish with 2 minute recovery between, 14 minute cooldown/return-home.  This turned out to be a hard day.

Day 225

• 7.08 miles
• 7:33/mile pace
• 0627
• From/To Home
• Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible two's.   Yesterday I received a training plan that a friend purchased, which I plan to also follow, because, well, it turns out that maybe I'm a mooch.  Since I haven't had a moment to read/study/understand the plan I decided that this week would be my last week of making up whatever I feel like before starting that highly structured plan in earnest...which meant that I had to think up some torturous work out for today since it's supposed to be a day that I include some sort of speed effort, per me.   So, naturally I didn't come up with anything, instead I just asked Becca...she suggested another round of the terrible 2's, I asked how many, she said some absurdly high number (I hope she was kidding), to which I responded that I did 7 a few weeks ago, so she said, "do 8."   I complained a bit, but knew then that 8 terrible 2's would be the work out of the day for me.   Here is how they played out, in mileage, after a 1 mile warm up and then followed by a 1.69 mile cool down return home:
• .33
• .22
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .34
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .21
• .33
• .23
• Basically almost exactly as they looked last time, with maybe a little slower running between terrible's...perhaps I'm getting weaker.   Anyway, that is done, a few easy days then 17, broken up in 2 peices, with IronChad on Sunday, followed by starting the aforementioned plan...if I can understand it.

Day 202

• 4.41 miles
• 7:40/mile pace
• 0635
• From/To home
• A very small volume of interval work today -- I call this work out the "Terrible 2's."   I do slow warm up jogging for about 10 minutes and then go hard for 2 minutes followed by easy for two minutes and repeat etc.   Today, as I am just starting to try to run with any speed to speak of, I decided I would do 5 terrible two's.  They were hard as I expected, but not too horrible.  I was probably too conservative with them, which I didn't feel bad about since it was my first time doing them in years.  Here's how they played out from a distance covered perspective:
• .33 mi
• .22 mi
• .33 mi
• .22 mi
• .33 mi
• .22 mi
• .33 mi
• .23 mi
• .33 mi
• .22 mi
• Adding the warm up and short cool down results in the overall mileage.   The interval figures (or "Terrible 2's") equate to roughly 6 minute per mile pace during the hard two minutes and 9 minutes per mile during the easier two minutes -- per my Garmin 305 watch there was some fluctuation in pace, but at such short distance/duration those were not enough to have much affect on the distances covered as you can deduce from reviewing figures above.   I will need to greatly increase my speed during the hard minutes and ideally also during the easy minutes I guess, but we'll have to see how that goes after monitoring perhaps monthly or so.  
• Yes, I should have run hills this morning instead, but I piddled around for too long after waking up and as a result only had time to do the above, which I've wanted to be able to convince myself to do for a while, so I guess it is better than nothing...and extended the streak, of course.

Day 196

• 5.83 miles
• 7:59/mile pace
• 0611
• Thunderbird Park
• Above listed pace is very fast for me considering the paths taken -- this may be the hardest I have run in a long time, which is good, except that I am still experiencing shortness of breath some 2 hours later as I type this.  Believe the pace overall is greatly assisted by the fact that I pushed on the flat portions more than usual, but also by the fact that I maintained focus and pushed on most other sections as well...I guess I'm happy with that.   [Additional details:   2 loops, one each direction, plus effort to mid station plus hard running finish in parking lot]

Day 165

• 3 miles
• 7:50/mile pace
• 2258
• Treadmill Holiday Inn Express, Baltimore, MD
• Hardest run in quite a while, guess the day just wore on me even though I didn't do much other than sit on various airplanes and deal with delays etc. -- well, I guess I did a significant amount of worrying about the presentation I was working on, but hard to think that's anyone elses fault :).   Anyway, as I was lost (f'n google maps) driving around looking for the hotel I seriously thought that to continue the streak I may have to stop, put on running shoes, run for 1.2 miles, then resume my vulture method of finding the hotel, but then I found it so I really had an hour to spare to get the run in.  The streak goes on...

Day 156

• 5.14 miles
• 7:13/mile pace
• 0707
• From/To home
• Felt harder than it should have, a bit congested probably due to recent sleep pattern irregularity -- actually spit on myself twice???   Anyway, felt like pushing just a little today so I did...still lost focus and slowed down through middle of run etc., but whatever.   Headed towards 6 months now...

Day 151

• 4.03 miles
• 8:27/mile pace
• 1115
• Arrowhead CC
• Another treadmill run, this one short on time due to child care only being offered until noon.   Tried to really simulate some climbing today, so increased .5% incline every .25 of a mile, while maintaining the same speed throughout.   End result was a feeling of having done a pretty hard effort and believing I maximized my 30+ minutes -- treadmill gave me credit for climbing 910 feet, for whatever that's worth.

Day 123

• 12.32 miles
• 8:08/mi pace
• 0655
• From/To home
• Ran from home to T-bird Park, 3 loops and then returned home -- ran much harder than I anticipated, but really enjoyed it.   I woke up with sore throat symptoms, which worried me and still does, hopefully it will pass quickly or turn out to be nothing at all.   Considering the first 3 miles were slow, I ran very well thereafter...had earphones on and that may have helped, also took down 1 GU, which seems to always help as well.  Need to run more hills, definitely believe in the "speedwork in disguise" mantra associated with hill running. 

Day 105

• 5 miles
• 7:08/mi pace
• 0745
• From/To Home
• Ran hard this morning, hardest I've run during this latest comeback -- happy with the pace, though had to run last mile in 6:40, which I'm pleased with, but does mean that the average up tempo pace other than that mile was close to the 7:20+ range...feel like I may be getting there though, which is good.   Probably fastest I've done that particular 5 mile loop (to Utopia, to 67th, to Union Hills, to 75th, to Beardsley, to 67th, home via Utopia/68th), which is both good and bad.   Went to bed at 7:30pm though, which is an indicator that I was pretty tired and or sick -- feel better today though, had some body aches a little last night, but not like a flu, more like lingering effect from the Tough Mudder, which is shameful considering it was 3+ days ago.   Anyway, was supposed to do 8 miles today, per Bec's training schedule, but just ran out of time to get it in...perhaps I'll do 8 tomorrow, when I was scheduled to do 5, we shall see.  

Day 97

• 4.2 miles
• 7:21/mile
• 0721
• From/To home
• Ran hard, didn't feel fast, but happy with the average pace -- got to breathing hardish on final mile, as intended.   30:51 total time.  Didn't stretch as well as I like to after, but hopefully that won't be a problem.  

Day 88

• 10.61 miles
• 8:05/mile pace
• 1135
• From/To home (through T-Bird park and over hill at 59th)
• Ran hard, it was hard...hot day, felt like I was doing about 8:45 pace, but guess the return must've been faster than expected.  First time I've hurt like that in a while, must take water with me next time, and a gu etc.