The Road Warrior is Back + 9 weeks to Giant Race 10K!

 ...And weekly training journals are back!

I returned from vacation in the middle of the week so in addition to Week 1 of Giant Race training, I'm also including a **bonus** Week 0 training journal AT NO ADDITIONAL COST so that you know you're not missing A SINGLE MOMENT of my 9 (& a half) week journey to The Giant 10K. See how mama takes care of you.

Now friends, I'm sure you all know the struggle of returning to Regular Life after a long-ish vacation. I'm not gonna lie; those first few days were a bit rough. It's not that we were completely sedentary on our trip; we actually did quite a lot of walking, and even some pretty vertical hiking. That said, it was a specifically wine-and-food focused trip, and there was still a good deal of sitting on various planes, trains, and automobiles, and unlike on November's Portugal trip, I did not go running even once.

The day after we got home, I put on running clothes & went out for a nice, slow, easy, four-mile amble, just to flush out the legs and gently reintroduce to them the idea of moving at a pace faster than a brisk walk. We made it through okay but I'm not joking when I tell you I was actually sore the next day!

Not too sore to get in another four easy miles, though. I thought Coach would ease me back into training pretty gently, and, wellll sort of??? But not that gently! 🤣🤣

~*~*~ The Giant Race 10K Week 0 of 9 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 25 miles

* 22 easy
* 3.5 speed
* 5 tempo/threshold

Wednesday 6/15: 4 easy. Just easing back into things with a little jet lagged jog!

Thursday 6/16: 4 more easy.

Friday 6/17: Coach said "Alright enough of this, 7 easy, get after it!"

Saturday 6/18: Rest. OMG you guys. I had the option of three easy miles this day but I was legit sore from *all that running* after three weeks of vacay. So rest. I regret nothing.

Sunday 6/19: Coach said "Alright enough resting, 10-12 miles including 5 x 3 min baby tempo intervals with 2 min jog recoveries." I did 10 and that was PLENTY. It was hot AF and not gonna lie, I was still kind of sore. BUT BUT BUT! I can still run mid-to-low 7:xx's without too much trouble, which, after vacation, feels like a win.

~*~*~ The Giant Race 10K Week 1 of 9 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 38 miles

* 17.6 easy
* 3.4 speed
* 5 tempo/threshold
* 12 long

Monday 6/20: Rest

Tuesday 6/21: 1 hour strength + 6 easy in the shockingly hot sun 🥵. Friends I am not used to it being ninety-frickin-three in San Francisco at 11:00am. Just rude.

Wednesday 6/22: 3 warm up, 3 x (4 x 200m/200m)/2:00 min jog, 3 cool down 8 mile progression run. The track was closed for a soccer game (it's that time of year again!) so I improvised by switching today's workout with Friday's. I have to say I was pretty shocked at how comfortable low 8:xx/high 7:xx was feeling, which is not always the case! I finished miles 6 & 7 in the 7:30s and when I think back to how devastatingly impossible that pace felt in late 2020/early 2021, it makes me so grateful for how good I am feeling these days when I try to run fast (y'know, for me).

Thursday 6/23: Massage + 3 easy Post-vacation my right hip/lower back definitely needed some attention!

Friday 6/24: Chiro session + 3 warm up, 3 x (4 x 200m/200m)/2:00 min jog, 2.6 cool down = 9 total. Definitely not feeling the lightness pop in my legs that one likes to feel on track day, but Og didn't give a shit. My left hamstring was feeling a bit tight so Og was like, "Just not hammer so hard, focus on leg speed & turnover, interval times not matter so much." As usual, Og, you are completely correct. (For the record, the times were completely respectable, especially for not hammering them particularly hard and coming off of three weeks of no running.)

Saturday 6/25: Rest

Sunday 6/26: 12 long. The Road Warrior is officially #roadwarrioring again -- I had to catch a flight to Palm Springs in the early afternoon, which meant getting up a bit early Sunday to get my long run in before finishing up my packing and heading to the airport. The last time I ran 12 miles was May 8, and I could definitely feel it in my legs! Also my body is just really not a fan of hopping right out of bed and out the door and I started off feeling like I'd already run 15 miles. 😱 I honestly was not sure how I was going to get through twelve entire miles but just kept grinding away at one more mile until the thing was done.

~ * ~ * ~

I'm going to attempt to train through all my various upcoming work travel to the extent that I can, but we'll see how it goes. I have three runs to do over the next four days of work travel, so fingers crossed that I'll be able to balance it all with the work stuff. 🤞🤞🤞

Run Like A Pro (Even If You're Slow): Elite Tools & Tips for Runners at Every Level

Here's the thing: I'll probably buy and devour anything Matt Fitzgerald decides to write.

To me, reading my favorite running authors can feel a little bit like religious people reading their sacred text. Like, it's not that you don't already know what's in it. You don't read it expecting shocking new revelations, and you read it in part because you're already on board with the big ideas.

That said, coming back to those same ideas in different situations or at different points in your life can hit you in different ways. Sometimes something is phrased or explained in a way you hadn't considered and it's somehow just what you needed in that moment. Sometimes you read something you absolutely 100% already know and it just convicts you in your heart a little bit and inspires you to make a new commitment to walking the walk (or like...running the run, or whatever. Sorry not sorry.)

Earlier this year I grabbed Matt's newest title, which he co-wrote with Ben Rosario, then-head coach of the famous NAZ Elite running club. Interestingly, the original project was something different, another book called Running The Dream, in which Matt convinces Ben to basically let him come join NAZ Elite for a season and chronicles his summer training with and like the pros for the Chicago marathon.

Out of that relationship with Rosario was born this second book, which attempts to answer two fascinating questions:

(1)  Why, when decades of science and practical knowledge are so exceedingly clear about what works for distance runners, do adult recreational runners by and large continue to do things almost completely differently?

(2)  What should they be doing instead?

Summer Planzzzzzz....

 Hello friends!

I'm back from an amazing Iberian vacation (photos coming soon) and ready to run-ble (see what I did there? Sorry not sorry). Also please enjoy this photo I got from Stow Lake Stampede:

I have some I don't want to say *big* plans in the works, but let's just say, big-ger plans than I've been willing to entertain in a while. Why?