Fall Speedfest, Week 2 of 18: trendy strava ennui + workouts are hard

Happy Monday!

This week was my highest mileage week since Boston training at 48.5 miles. I did ramp things up fairly gradually but still definitely felt the increase towards the end of Sunday's long run--no pain or injuries or anything like that, but definitely some general fatigue in the legs in those last few miles. Which, hey, is the whole point, so.

Happily, this week tapers off a bit for Race to the End of Summer. I know I won't be able to taper for everything I run this fall, but I want to try to use RTTEOS as a kind of fitness gauge, so I'm trying to get there as fresh as possible.

Now. Let's talk about Strava for a moment.

You know how it's kind of trendy to every few months write a paragraph-long post about how Facebook is making you unhappy and ruining the world and you are officially taking a Hiatus "for the foreseeable future" and your "real friends" will know how to contact you?

It seems like recently something similar has begun to happen with Strava (or maybe it isn't new at all & I've just begun to notice it). People will post things about how they've gotten "disillusioned" with it or "just [aren't] motivated" by segment PRs or KOHs or whatever anymore & are just gonna "disconnect" for a while by unlinking their Strava account/running without GPS/running without any watch at all.

Which, hey! You do you. But honestly, how "illusioned" were you with Strava to begin with, and why? Like, what did you expect it to do for your life besides announce your every workout to the world? Creating profound and lasting satisfaction/deep and meaningful inner happiness out of your hobby is a lot to ask of an internet app, guys.

Old Shoes, Young Love

Back in 2014 I was having a bit of a footwear crisis. In 2012 I had downgraded from the super built-up stability-oriented Brooks GTS to the lighter, svelter-but-still-fairly-traditional (though neutral) Brooks Launch, which I happily ran in for a couple of years (and still do, sometimes). In fall 2012 an emergency shoe purchase turned me on to the Saucony Kinvara (like the Launch, but moreso). I was pretty happy with this shoe but still felt like I wanted something just a *bit* lighter, more flexible, & with a little more ground feel and roomier toebox. Thus began a tireless search for the perfect "performance trainer."

In late 2013/early 2014 people were raving about the Pure Drift 2. I had tried the original Pure Connect and absolutely hated it, but when I saw a pair of PD2's on clearance for like $40, I thought I'd give it a shot.

The Great Shoe Reckoning of 2018

It's been kind of a normal-ish few weeks around here - not much travel, not too many crazy social obligations or weekend plans, which has meant plenty of time to 1) get the miles in & 2) make some progress on settling into the house.

Don was traveling for work this week, so while he was gone I took all the junk off our new built-ins & tried to make them reasonably attractive:

Fall Speedfest, Week 1 of 18: Let the Fall Season Commence!

Well, I went back to the track for the first time in four months this evening, so I suppose that means my fall season is underway!

Three Days in the Life

So some people are super into these types of posts & I've never done one, so I thought I'd give it a shot? I don't really have typical days, though, so I picked a three-day stretch with a bit of variety in it.

Wednesday, July 25

• 5:30am - Alarm goes off, I get up, get dressed, grab my stuff & drive to the gym near my office. This time of morning the commute only takes about 35 minutes or so, as opposed to the hour-plus it can be during rush hour. During the drive I listen to Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor, which (spoilers) is AMAZING and definitely worth the read/listen.
• 6:25am - Throw my crap in a locker, get after the strength work (still listening to Deena). Today I do deadlifts (2 x 15, 2 x 12 w/ 95#, don't laugh), 8 supersets of 10 wide-grip lat pulls and 10 weighted (15#) static lunges with rear foot elevated, 8 sets of 10 weighted (24#) reverse lunges off a block, and a smattering of core exercises (clamshells, supermans, one-leg marches in a bridge position, crossover crunches, transverse abs reverse crunches).
• 7:20am - Shower & get dressed