Found my current upper limit

RUN Treadmill 6.2 miles, ran 5 miles of that
STRENGTH 20x 1-minute intervals, upper body, increased weights
NO COMMUTE! More over night snow

I'm back to my habit of early morning, happily! And it's working even though LA is not going into work early. That's what started this habit - I was getting up early with him. 

My goal this week is 15 total miles of run/walk, with 10-12 miles running. After last Saturday's left ankle injury I was hesitant to put a longer run this early in the week, but after realizing that my weekend might be disrupted with travel my plan of a 3+5+4+1.... checking my file in the Drive...

Ooh last week was supposed to be a 15 total miles, but I only reached 12.5. So hmmm.... how do I alter this week for that, cuz now this week was gonna be 18 miles....and I rest next week.... thinking. 

Let's do this: 6 today, 5 Thursday, and 5 Saturday for a total of 16 miles. And run 5+4+4 for a total of 13 running miles. See how it goes. If Saturday feels great, walk another 2 miles to get to 18. That seems like a good plan, since I only ran 11 miles last week. 

Today felt great, I did the first interval as 2 miles, varying the speed from 5.0 to 6.0. The next 3 miles were 1 mile intervals. I really felt the fatigue in the last half mile of the last interval. And a sharp niggle appeared in the left foot. So I slowed wayyyyy down to 4.0 speed. Couldn't bring myself to walk the last 0.2 miles of the interval??!!

So 6 miles is my current "long run". 

The right ankle felt OK, a bit stiff the rest of the day. I'm still noticing that my right and left legs feel different on the treadmill, but I can't pinpoint how or why. Sometimes the left leg feels heavier. 

H100: Set Your House In Perfect Order

Right before leaving for Nashville Turkey Week, I received the registration email from Hennepin. It had my 2019 credit waiting to be used, and now I again had the chance to sign up and prepare.

This isn't the email I had in mind for this - my hands are nervous for some reason, hard to type.

Well anyway, I waited on clicking the Register link until I'd decided that I was mentally ready to commit to this. Not commit to the race, but commit to me. Because until I change me, 2019 can happen all over again. That was hell. 

The pull towards that hell is still there, but the chaos of it is gone. 

So I waited a few days. Did the run in Kenlake and fell, and right after I fell of course I'm mad at myself. And I'm talking out loud to no one but me. Cursing myself. Frustrated and upset and hurt. 

I told myself, that Gawd only left me because I left myself. In 2019, I lost myself and I left myself. As the song goes, I know the pieces fit 'cuz I watched them fall away.

2019 H100 was lost to injury, because of that hell.
2020 H100 was a COVID year, and I was too injured then too, not recovered. Not changed.
2021 H100 was COVID and injury (ankle), and I'm still not recovered. But I'm changing. 

In the midst of my cursing and frustration, I realized - I need to set my house in order.

To finally get to this race, to finally see the start line and before I can even think about the finish line - I need my house in perfect order. 

Balrog 914 days.
Monster 10 days.
Azuc 14 days. 

Still Blerch. Still Sabotage. Still the urge and the desire and the pull. A black hole pit into Moria. 

I've done this maybe a million times. Telling myself - this is it. Back in ...October...?.... I started this "one year thing" and gawd dammit I'm not starting it over, but I'm still on it!

What's next? December. In October I got the habit back of being a gymrat, got my mileage up to a nice 7 miles of running. In November I was up/down on the Moria habits but I kept up and got to 11 miles of running.

December: The goal is 20 miles total a week of walk/run/jog. I don't have a specific run mileage goal yet. 

That's great and all, but what about the rest of it? Keep going. Just keep going, one day at a time. 

Turkey week: As if Gawd had left me....

 Monday RUN 4 miles out of 5, 
     STRENGTH 20 mins of upper
Tuesday ELLIPTICAL 1 hour (this was different shoe day, haha)
     STRENGTH 20 mins of core
Wednesday nothing? 
Thursday RUN most of 5 miles in Kentucky trail, fell!
Friday Does waterpark count as a swim?
Saturday RUN 2 miles of out 2.5 treadmill, up to 6.0!
       SWIM haha maybe 100 yards of play
Sunday again nothing, barely 2500 steps

And when I say 20 mins, I mean 20x 1 minute intervals, with 1-20 seconds of rest. I keep debating, do I say it's a 30 min session when I only did 20 actual minutes? 

Turkey week retrospective, all travel and making the best that I could of it.

One note - I was running in Kenlake Park, planning an easy walk-the-hills 4-5  miler before we started travel again. I'm alone on the trail, light rain and jewel-raindrops on the leaves around me. My mind is tumbling over kids stuff, and the conversation I had with AB and VL the night before. Around 3.5 or 4.5 miles (I forget) in to the run, over absolutely nothing I could see, I tripped and fell. All the way down. Right elbow, right knee, left ankle. 

The stupid part of it, my mind was wandering on how to say something to the kids, and my stupid shit head had a thought of "I felt as if Gawd had left me" (referring to the 2018-2019 era) and I fucking kid you not it was as if Gawd fucking tripped me right at that moment. Shit you now, right then and there. Of course he didn't, but geez if I were him - I woulda tripped me!

Left ankle didn't bruise or swell, but later that night I was outright limping around Opryland and to the Thanksgiving dinner. Thank you Gawd (haha) that the next day it was an almost-nothing minor issue. Today, on Monday, there's a minor niggle on the lateral ankle that is probably some damage. Hopefully I can let it heal, or Gawd will leave me. 

No M 10 days. No Azuc 14 days. None. 

M is out. Azuc is out. Rice had to go out. Turkey is in! Haha.

 Quick summary of last week - 6:05 hours and

SWIM ZERO
BIKE  zero
RUN 10 miles out of 12.6
COMMUTE 21 miles
STRENGTH almost an hour
ELLIPTICAL 2 hours

Nice! All feels good. See title. 

Day of Rest. And end of LA's surgery weeks. Will my routine change? Full Moon day!

Driving to MO today, won't get a workout in. If I'm lucky, I'll get steps. If I'm still lucky, I'll get the short 3 mile run in tomorrow that I "need" for a 13 mile week.

The past 8-ish weeks I've settled into my routine: Up early with LA at 4am, some time with him until he leaves then chores. Around 530 I leave for the gym, I'm there until 7-730, then home for brekkie, shower, dog walk. If I'm on mental and physical schedule, I get to work by 9. If M is here, it's later. Ugh. 

Speaking of which, no M yesterday. Full moon today. And a partial eclipse.

I don't want my schedule to change, I'm into the early-gym thing and want to keep it going. 

Treadmill run 4.2 miles out of 5.4. Garmin says Unproductive!

RUN 4.2 miles in ~1 mile increments with a short rest between, total 5.4 miles
STRENGTH 20 mins of chest, back, arms (20x 1 min exercises)
COMMUTE 7 miles

I looked at the definition of "Unproductive" and instead of meaning just being lazy or junk miling, it can also mean doing way too much? But isn't that Overreaching? Whatevers. Tuesday's run and today's run were pretty similar in pace (about 5.0 mph today) and time and distance. The difference was that I wore the chest HRM today and got ave HR of 124. On Tuesday the run was the wrist HRM.

So I deem the wrist HRM to be the Unproductive partner in this. Not me. 

The run felt great, but a few niggles. The whole left hammie/hip niggle is gone, it came on after a leg strength training session about a month ago and haven't seen it since. But now that mild discomfort at what I would call the place were the plantar tendon attaches to the calcaneal bone. That's just my best way to explain it, that might not be the right thing. Now this isn't new. This hurt earlier this spring the same way - a mild pain now and then - and I feared PF or a stress fracture or a bone spur. I thought the surgery recovery would take care of it. But it's still there, I wouldn't say it bothers me or anything, until it does what it did today. 

Around the end of the 1st mile, it pinged enough that I thought I should walk! I kept it slow, waited, it went away. Now hours later, sitting here, it's fine. Last night going to bed, I was aware of it. And that's where it stands right now. Classic Niggle. 

No other niggles, no other issues. Unless I want to count the fact that the bottoms of my feet hurt lately, and walking barefoot is distinctly uncomfortable. 

Strength session was great! I'm feeling yesterday's core workout this afternoon, and given the shaky feelings I had in today's session I might feel that tomorrow too. I didn't push heavy weights, it was more the repetitive 3-4 minutes of similar exercises that accumulated fatigue. 

As for my feet hurting, I'm doing something like 17-20K steps a day, between elliptical or running and walking through the day. I've been talking a long lunch walk a lot lately. So keep an eye on this! And do I need new shoes for cushioning? My feet don't hurt during the run though. I looked yesterday at Brooks Adrenline 21's and learned that the 22's are coming out "soon". So the 21's might be discounted if I'm patient. 

M0 A1; 4 miles run on treadmill

RUN 4 miles out of 4.5, WU and CD 5 min walks, then short walk between the miles
COMMUTE 7 miles (assuming LA doesn't give me a ride home again

No Azuc yesterday:1
M today yesterday: 0 But no honey. Wraps n mix.

The run felt great, I sped up a little bit to 5.0, a little even at 5.3 mph. My stride rate was great at low 170s. I didn't wear the HRM so I only have wrist data, which means I don't have good data. 

The rest of the day - felt OK, and I didn't feel the run. I just felt the normal tightness I get after sitting awhile. All good!!

Except the M.