Rain, Soup, & Another 40+ Mile Week (Kaiser Half Week 11 of 13)

It's been a wet one here in the Bay Area! On the other hand the temperature has remained solidly in the mid-50s, so we really cannot complain too much considering what a lot of the rest of the country is going though.

We've also been big into soup-making over the last couple of weeks, which will maybe prompt me to resurrect Road Warrior Kitchen sometime soon. This week's soups of interest included chicken mushroom farro; smoky miso chicken; sausage white bean & spinach; and turkey chili with ayacote morados. There is nothing like making a warm, cozy soup on a rainy day.

I am feeling incredibly grateful to get another 40+ mile week in the books while still feeling pretty good. I know those fitness graphs in Strava aren't everything but I am still pretty happy to see mine trending consistently upward rather than kind of bouncing around all over the place like it did for most of last year.

For reference, the highest number I've ever seen on this little doohicky is like 54 (at CIM 2016). But 26 is the highest I've seen since May 2022, so let's lean into that.

Just two weeks to go!

 ~*~*~ 🎡 🎡 Kaiser Permanente Half Week 11 of 13 🎡 🎡 ~*~*~

Grand Total: 43 miles

🐌 Easy: 37 miles
🏃🏻‍♀️ Moderate: 5 miles
🐎 Fast: 1 mile

⚖️ Easy miles vs. fast/moderate miles: 86% vs. 14%. 

Monday 1/15: Rest. More mentally needed than anything else.

Tuesday 1/16: 6 easy + 8 x 0:30 strides 2.5 warm up, 5 tempo, 2.5 cool down = 10 total. My schedule got switched around this week and I found myself home on Tuesday with no morning strength session and a sweet 91% recovery score, so I decided to take advantage of it and get my longest, hardest week-day session done. It felt great and I was pleasantly surprised by the paces (7:51/7:50/8:08/8:03/7:30, GAP = 7:44/7:49/8:00/7:58/7:36)!

Wednesday 1/17: 8 easy 4 easy. Recovering harrrrrdddd today friends. Yesterday's awesome tempo run boomeranged back with a vengeance. 🤣 The assigned run was 4-6 & I'd initially planned on 6, but quickly decided 4 was plenty (and a rest day might have been better still, but sometimes you don't know until you actually start running). Thankfully nothing too serious, just the legs feeling a bit tender & fatigued.

Thursday 1/18: 2.5 warm up, 5 tempo, 2.5 cool down 8 easy. In retrospect 6 might have been a better choice. I felt MUCH better than Wednesday but boy this run felt long, and with two miles left to go I was kind of sad about it.

Moody skies pretty much every day this week

Friday 1/19: 4 easy 6 easy + 8 x 0:30/0:30 strides = 7 total. Thankfully feeling significantly better! Legs still a bit tired & tender so I wasn't sure how the strides were going to go, but they actually felt surprisingly good. If there is one little fly in my ointment these days, it's the top part of my left ankle, which has been on and off a problem for close to two years now. It doesn't seem to be getting any worse and usually doesn't hurt during runs, but every time it flares up a bit towards the end of a run, I start getting nervous

Saturday 1/20: 14 long. In the plan this was just "long, slow, distance," no workout miles, and that's exactly what it ended up being. I'd originally toyed with the idea of throwing in a few fast miles towards the end, but WOW, it became clear soon after I started that that would not be happening. Definitely one of my slowest long runs in a while. Kind of felt like the last 14 miles of a 21-22 miler to be honest--just super fatigued legs. 

Sunday 1/21: Some much-needed rest.

Does it get much better than a rainy day snooze with The Gibbles? Survey says no.

🎧In my ears this week:🎧

• Five Bad Deeds by Caz Frear. Suburban wife, mother, former teacher, and part-time tutor Ellen Walsh is, like most of us, basically a good person. Not flawless, but no horrific skeletons in the closet, either. But some anonymous person out there has decided that Ellen has ruined their life, and it’s time for her to face the consequences. The timing simply could not be worse as one tiny thread after another begins coming loose in her life.
• Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. In 1990s Mexico City, talented but marginalized sound editor Montserrat and her best friend/washed-up soap star Tristán are muddling through. Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, who believes he's cursed due to a film he worked on decades ago never being finished. Urueta strides a deal with Montserrat and Tristán: If they help him finish the last unfinished scene and lift the curse, he'll do an interview about the magical film that could help Montserrat out financially. But soon eerie things start happening, and the pair begin to wonder if Urueta is right about the curse after all.
• Search Engine: Why are there so many chicken bones on the street? (Part 1) PJ attempts to solve a mystery that's been terrifying NYC dog owners: Why are there so many chicken bones on NYC streets? The crew comes up with a few different theories and makes plans to test some of them out. To be continued in part 2.
• Search Engine: When do you know it's time to stop drinking? PJ interviews veteran internet writer/content creator A.J. Daulerio about his experience deciding to get sober and quit drinking, ostensibly in the context of "dry January," which is kind of funny because asking a recovering alcoholic's opinion on "Do you think I should try dry January?" is sort of like asking a professional marathoner, "What's your professional opinion on whether I should do a Turkey Trot?" But an interesting listen nonetheless. 
• Pro Running News: How Important is vO²max? Have I mentioned how much I love this podcast? No bells and whistles, just smart running talk. As a data/science nerd I'm always up for some nerdy running science talk. Nothing new to me about vO²max in general, but it's always interesting to hear things explained in new ways and different contexts.