[Scratch]

A 6.55 mile run this evening. Felt nice with the warm temps, although my legs were feeling a bit sluggish and tired.

[Scratch]

10 miles tonight. Legs felt really good. Maybe the extra rest has helped them a lot, when I stopped at 10 I was on pace that if I'd kept going to 13.1 miles, I would have beat my half-marathon time from November.

[Scratch]

Broke my miles up today into 2 runs, one this morning of 6.6 miles and just a litle bit ago I did 4.8 miles. I'm finally feeling a lot more motivated to go out and run. It's a pain in the arse sometimes trying to make sure the blood sugars and insulin are all in check to go out and do the runs, but that feels more like something to conquer right now over letting them stand in my way.

[Scratch]

The week went a lot different than I might have expected at the beginning of it. I ran every day that I use for running and did the time and miles. I would have been happy to get up around 25 miles, effort like that would be up close to where I've been wanting to get to and would have been a good intermediate step.

On the other hand, I've been wanting to push my base weekly mileage to around 30 mpw, I have enough time and distance in on the legs to get around 30 mpw safely. I did that this week with 31.8 miles.

[Dan Gato]

Hi Scratch,

At what time do you prefer to run? (At what time do u get up?

What kind of clothes do you wear when is cold?

Thanks.

[Scratch]

Hi Dan, I don't really know if I have a prefered running time. It's nice running in the mornings, can put a good start on the day, but then running in the evenings after work can often be a good way to end up feeling more relaxed. Most days I usually get up somewhere between 5 and 6:30. The tough part about that right now is the wait for it to get light. I was happy this morning to get out there before 8 in the morning. It was cold but was also about the warmest it was going to be all day. A cold front has come through with lots of wind and arctic air.

The coldest temps I've run in so far have been mid 20s, I think. On that time, I wore a couple of long sleeve tops and a tee shirt, a hat, and gloves. Shorts too that time. A couple of times when down below freezing and running really easy, I've worn sweatpants too. It's not too tough to stay warm while running, the body generates a lot of heat when doing so.

I don't like wind though. Wind is the worst to run in. I think if it were upper teens and calm conditions, I could get by wearing shorts. Wind would change everything. It would take someone a lot tougher and better acclimated to cold than me to get me running if the temp was below 25 degrees and windy.

For whatever it's worth, I'm always trying to remember that in spite of some trouble with the self-motivation to start the year, the 124 miles I've got so far is 124 more miles than this time last year. This day last year I was still 5 days away from having my leg freed from the cast.

[Scratch]

Finally, some decent weather. I went out and did 5 miles tonight, will try for about the same tomorrow and Saturday, then go long on Sunday. Yeah, I'm going to try to run 4 days straight for the first time ever. The weather Monday through Wednesday was awful around here.

[Scratch]

5.85 miles tonight, took it fairly easy seeing how I want to run the next two days.

[Scratch]

5 really easy miles today. You know, yesterday was the first anniversary of the cast coming off the leg. That was kind of cool to be able to run yesterday because of that.

It'll be interesting to see how the legs do tomorrow. Today was the first time ever that I've run 3 straight days.

[Scratch]

I did it. 4 straight days of running, ran 5.85 today. Legs were better than I expected, although definitely not rested. I hope the weather cooperates more this coming week, I'd prefer to spread the 4 days out over the whole week.

[Scratch]

Ahhh wind. Yuck wind. I had wanted to go around 7.5 miles yesterday but the wind was terrible. Every time I'd reach the bottom end of the park, I'd come around into that wind from the northwest and that would hurt. I settled for 5 miles, then heading home to a microwave and heating up a bowl of the chili I made on Sunday.

This week's forecast isn't helping much. I had hoped to see about doing up around 33 miles. Now I'm thinking if I get 25 in that'll be acceptable.

[Scratch]

Cold but no wind. Shew. Did 7.5 miles. My legs are feeling some effects from the squatting and deadlifting I've been doing, a good effect in how they feel strong, a tough effect in how everything seems a bit tired right now.

[Scratch]

I haven't done a run yet, waiting for things to thaw out some although I did some weighted pull ups and roll outs with the ab wheels a little bit ago. It's also been a lot of progress since my last birthday -- I was in a darth vader boot a year ago, had begun working on upper body strength while in the cast but had some fitness goals in mind.

I ran my first half-marathon last year in November and I'm pretty happy about that. I just want to continue making progress with the running and overall strength. The big lesson I think over the past year has been that I need to be willing to accept that progress happens in slow increments if I consistently do the work. That's the big thing. Work consistently and the progress will happen.

[Scratch]

Did 6.2 miles today. Will try to run farther tomorrow, I'd like to do at least 9.

[Scratch]

I had to shorten my run yesterday and take it very easy. The legs just didn't have much of anything to them. The past 3 weeks have been pretty hard work on my body, not with just the most miles I've ever run in a 21 day period, but also for strength training which now includes doing squats and deadlifts.

The plan for this week is to take it easy. I won't be doing any squatting or deadlifting, and will try to have around 15 miles of running through Saturday before going into Sunday when there's a 5-mile race in the area that I would like to do. I hope that'll be enough cut back to get the legs nearly fully rested by Sunday so I can give a complete and full effort, and maybe get a measure of how much progression there's been since my last race, a 5K back on the 30th of December.

I had hoped to make today a complete off day from any or all training, but the weather forecast for tomorrow is horrible. I'm going out for a run tonight, I'll try to go real easy and whatever the legs can handle I'll do.