Thanksgiving Week! (Kaiser Half Week 3 of 13)

This past week was a strange one. It probably all started when I was in Southern California for work last week and basically didn't sleep the night of the 15th, predictably sending my recovery score into the toilet. I recovered a bit over the next couple of days, but after a tempo interval workout Friday followed by a friend's birthday bash, it was back in freefall. I really tried taking it pretty easy those couple of days and was rewarded by a nice solid green spike on Monday just in time for a speed workout! But after that it was right back into the toilet. 🤣😭 

I didn't even look at the score before the Turkey Trot (because why), but later was happy to see that things are slowly once again trending in the right direction!

Anyone else determined to be an absolute sloth the day after Thanksgiving? 😅

 ~*~*~ 🎡 🎡 Kaiser Permanente Half Week 3 of 13 🎡 🎡 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 37 miles

🐌 Easy: 31.4 miles
🐎 Speed: 2.5 miles
🏅 Race: 3.1 miles

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 85% vs. 15%

Monday 11/20: 2.25 warm up, 10 x 200m fast/200m jog, 2.25 cool down = 7 total. I was so stoked to see that my recovery/HRV number had jumped from a deeply red 23% on Sunday 11/19 back up to a solid green 83%

Tuesday 11/21: 3 miles easy. Just a short recovery run, which was good, considering how tired I was feeling. I really took this run super, super easy, just shuffling through to get it done.

Wednesday 11/22: 3 mile shakeout + 0.5 strides = 3.5 easy. Rest. As you can see in the screenshot above, Wednesday the 22nd was the day that I woke up with a solidly red recovery score, in spite of doing nothing the day before but jog an easy three miles. I absolutely felt it and made an executive decision to not push myself through the usual shakeout routine and instead just put my feet up in hopes of feeling better the next day.

Thursday 11/23: 2.38 warm up, 3.06 race, 3.6 cool down = 9 total. And thankfully it paid off! I woke up really not feeling like I was in the mood to race a 5K, but I still drove my but to San Jose and made what I think was a respectable effort. Plus, it feels good to get all the Thanksgiving Day running done first thing. Race report here.

And of course, Friendsgiving Dinner was off the chain:

Friday 11/24: Rest. Absolute day of sloth. We wore pajamas all day, and only got off the couch to go get coffee.

Saturday 11/25: 12 easy. We were tailgating with friends in the early afternoon so I got up early to do this one, and let me tell you friends, I don't know why but those 12 miles went by in a FLASH. Like, it was just over before I knew it, and I returned not even feeling like I'd gone for a run. Don't know why but I'll take it. (On the other hand, I *absolutely* felt it later in the day when I was ready to crawl in bed and crash at 8:00pm.)

Sunday 11/26: 6 easy. Still feeling a little tired, but back in the green at least! My strength trainer is always reminding me that the biggest predictor of injury is level of effort over time--as in, most of your days should be RPE 6-7, maybe 8, and only ever harder than that if it's an intentional workout day, because those days put you at a higher risk of injury which is cumulative over time. That is to say, it really does not do anyone any good, ever, to push the effort on easy runs. You can run easy days really, really, really easy, much easier than people think, and get all the intended benefits. By all means push it on workout days but on easy days there is really, truly, no such thing as going too easy if you are in fact actually running. So this was one of those days when I was like, "Damn I'm super tired, I really am going to take this as easy as possible will still achieving a brief moment of aerial suspension with each stride."

As the kids say, hell yeah. #easydaybrags

🎧In my ears this week:🎧

• The Cousins by Karen M. McManus. Three estranged cousins are summoned to their rich grandmother's fancy east coast island resort for the summer--which is odd since she disinherited their parents decades ago with a terse note from her lawyer: "You know what you did." Now the cousins are determined to figure out a) why they are there and b) what their parents did to get themselves completely cut off from the family. More of a YA read but entertaining enough.
• The Wedding Scammer. Call me basic but I like a good true scam podcast. The creator of this one actually got scammed at a job by the antagonist at one point, but years later learns that that scam was far from this dude's first scammy rodeo! The series follows the crazy scam wedding/event/catering business this guy set up, culminating in the creator confronting said scammer. #eatingpopcorngif #iykyk
• Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. A twenty-two-year-old recovering addict gets a job as a summer nanny for the son of a rich couple near her hometown. But soon the boy begins drawing super creepy drawings that are well beyond the ability of a five-year-old, and things just turn darker from there. I don't think I realized when I picked this up that it had a supernatural element, which is really not my cup of tea. But by the time I realized that's where it was going, there wasn't that much left.
• Too Scary Didn't Watch--Hellraiser 2022. This is one of my new favorite podcasts, as someone who likes the idea of watching scary movies more than I actually like watching them. I've actually appreciated getting caught up on the plots of iconic horror movies in The Culture without having to actually watch them, and the three hosts (plus usually a guest host or two) are hilarious.
• Nobody Asked Us with Des and Kara--The Dead Horse Episode. This episode did not involve any actual dead horses, just Kara and Des sharing their viewpoints on the ongoing (and ongoing, and ongoing....) debacle re: the start time of the Oympic Trials marathon in Orlando. While it is indeed *sort of* a nuanced and complicated situation, I appreciated the ladies candidly laying their thoughts out there as a) a broadcaster and b) someone who will be running in the trials.
• Pro Running News--The USA Olympic Marathon Trials. Pro Running News is probably my favorite running podcast? Matt Fox (former Australian elite middle distance runner / still a pretty quick runner and coach) and Dave Lipman (ultramarathoner, medical doctor, exercise physiologist, podiatrist, and coach) are not here to entertain you, they are literally just here to give you the Pro Running News (and actually plenty of the recreational running news as well). I love love love their scientific and measured take on all running topics. It was interesting to hear their take on the issue with the trials back-to-back with Des and Kara's.
• The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz. A once-promising novelist now teaching at a third-rate MFA program hears of a sure-thing plot from an arrogant student. Years later when Jacob learns his student has tragically died without publishing the earth-shattering novel, he feels compelled to write it himself, and sure enough becomes an overnight sensation. But someone out there knows his secret and seems determined to torpedo Jacob's newfound success. Now he must figure out how or risk losing everything. One of my favorites so far this year.