Random Banter

 It's been awhile since I've posted here, for just myself, but I thought I'd go ahead and get this down as it will help with my thought process as I move through this off season.   But first lets look back on this season.  This was probably our most successful season.  The biggest takeaway was the half marathon PR of 1:59.04 in late September.  I'd like to say that I knocked off some stuff in regards to the 5K distance but it just didn't happen (only 1 5K race!).  I'm fairly certain that it would go down right now, without a lot of specific training, but we will leave it as it is.  I also set a new PR in the 8 mile Antelope Trail race distance.  Just by a few seconds but a PR is a PR and I'll take it. For whatever reason that course always gets me! And now we begin the off season.  No races have been thought about or planned so I'm considering this the start of my off season and my big goal for this next year is to just get faster. And t...

Today was the day I had been thinking about for the past 5 weeks or so.  It was race day! My last race, to recap, was the trail race at the end of August.  It went well but I came out of that race kind of down due to expectations being set to high and it messed with my head a bit.  I did get over and it's helped me reframe how I think about racing. Racing shouldn't be worrying about what place you will get or even what time you should get (mainly for trails I've discovered) but should be about you versus the course. So that's how I went into this race.   As I mentioned in my post last week my critical power did go down but I thought that was a mistake.  However I thought about it all week and thought maybe it was correct.  On Monday I did a work out of 6 times 2 minutes with 1 minute recovery which was about half of what I had done the previous Monday and I have to say it felt relatively easy.  So heading into the race I told myself that I was goi...

If you read my post from last week you know that I was not feeling my best towards the end of the week. That continued at the start of this week and I decided to error on the side of caution and not do any running until Thursday.  So I only ran on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.   Thursday and Friday were very easy running.  Just 25 easy minutes on the treadmill.  I should also mention that I stopped following the training I was following from Stryd.  Being sick and this upcoming weeks possible disruptions I decided it just wasn't the best time to follow it.  I probably won't be following a program until the middle of October.   Saturday's run was a long run of an hour.  I had planned on doing closer to 70 minutes but my brand new treadmill started making a knocking sound when I went above 6 MPH and at a incline of 2.  So I cut it off at an hour and then spent the next hour or so seeing if I could figure out why it was knocking....

 So I only got in 4 runs this week. It should have been 5.  And I started to get down on myself for that.  However I had to keep reminding myself that I am not a professional runner and life gets in the way.  So let me explain.  My wife hadn't been feeling well on Wednesday and on Thursday, after a rough day, she decided to take a COVID test. Well it was positive.  All week long we had been going to bed early but I didn't think a whole lot about it because we had been up earlier than normally (for my wife's work!).  But when she tested positive for COVID things kind of fell into place. Even though Friday was a super easy day (just 20 minutes running with a couple of 10 second speed ups) I decided to call it and not run.  Saturday morning I also ended up calling my long run, and I really wanted to do it.  However by the evening I was feeling a bit better.  So this morning I did get on the new treadmill and have myself an easy 25 minute ru...

 I've done the easy running before and it feels great for a few weeks but then there is no progress!  You have to have some sort of speed in there.  Just running slow and easy does not make you faster no matter what people say.  I do believe that 80%+ of your time/miles should be slow and easy but if you want to get faster, and who doesn't, you need to have that 20% where you are throwing in some extra stuff. So after 2 weeks of easy running, or doing nothing for the first week, I'm going to be starting a program tomorrow to maintain what I have.  I'll run that for about 10 weeks and see where were are at.   This last week was the first time I've ran 5 days in a week.  Everything went fine.  There were a couple of times where I wondered about getting up so early but I did manage to get it done.  My right calf, at times, when I run gives me a bit of issues but I can't put my finger on it. So for now I'm using the massage gun on it and hop...

 I took this week off from doing mostly anything.  I did ride a stationary bike one morning and I did run on Friday morning because I woke up early but otherwise it was nothing.  Today, a week after my race, I did go out and do some easy running.  I suppose you might call it shuffling!  I think for the next 6 weeks or so 90%+ of my running will be easy as I work towards running 5 days a week.  One day I intend on doing some more speed work but since I don't have anything on my schedule I don't need to do anything serious.  If I get to bored I'll add in a second day.  One day will be short harder stuff and the 2nd day will be more tempo type of work. But for now I just want to be consistent with running 5 days a week! I don't know why but running 5 days a week just seems horrible but I also know if I want to run some of my longer races I need to start getting faster and running for longer.  So 5 days a week it is.  But that's it.  I ...

 Much like the previous week the Monday that I ran, with some strides, just didn't feel right.  I got in 8 strides vs the 10 I had done the previous Monday but I also decided that I wasn't going to do any of my "faster" work this week and see if I could get out of this funk.  So that's what I did and I think I might be out of this funk, after week 20. But we shall see.  Monday was a 36 minute run with 8 strides Wednesday was a tempo run/fast finish where the last 10 minutes were at a faster pace.  Friday was back to a somewhat easy run with 8 strides.  This one felt okay.  Saturday I ventured up to the park where my trail race at the end of August will be and I ran the course.  I also attempted to do some threshold on it and it was way harder than what I was doing on the road so I did one session of 7 minutes and then one session of 4 minutes and dialed it back!  Despite not being able to get a 2nd set of 7 minutes I think this was good becau...

 Another week completed.  I'd like to say that the feeling I had after completing my 5K continued on but it didn't.  It was a hard week on a couple of different days.  I don't know what the deal was but I think part of it had to do with lack of hydration.   Monday I did some strides and even though I was not hitting a ton of power and I felt like I was just dogging it. So for Wednesday's run I drank some sodium the night before and it felt a lot better.  I thought this was the key to having a decent run on Friday but nope.  It wasn't.  I felt off again.  Saturday's long run was okay but that one I'm fairly certain I didn't hydrate enough as I hadn't planned on running that day (had some work stuff to do and I thought I'd go running on Sunday).   So as you can see it was a mixed back.   I'm hopeful that this upcoming week, after getting used to some of the heat, will be a lot better.  We shall see.  Also this...

 After last weeks 5K race we went on a little vacation for the 4th of July weekend.  I decided that I was not going to bring any running stuff and just enjoy the down time. After all I'm not a professional athlete! As it turns out I could have brought my running stuff and been just fine but I think the time off was worth it for me.  When we got back into town on Tuesday, the 4th, I went out for a run and did some strides.  And my legs felt like bricks.  I think it was a whole combination of things.  Not having run since the race on Saturday, eat WAY to much food on the vacation and doing this right after a 2 hour trip Thursday when I went back out running, in the morning, my legs felt fine.  It was just an easy run for 33 minutes or so.   Saturday my legs felt heavy once again.  I'm not sure why.  It may have been because of the humidity or running at a higher power.  I did 2 x 5 minutes at threshold or high zone 2 for me with ...

 The day had arrived.  All week I had been thinking about this and getting nervous.  I don't know why but I was.  My thought going into it was this is going to hurt and be painful.  And I had resolved myself to that. However when the race was done...it wasn't painful and it didn't hurt.  It felt good and it made me want to run more which is quite the accomplishment.  Most races at the end I feel like shit and don't want to run anymore but since the race I've been thinking about all the running I want to do! But let me tell you about the race! I arrived at the race about 30 minutes early and found my friend who was doing the race with me.  Going into the race it seemed like we would be evenly matched and would be able to run together so that was good.  I asked if he wanted to go and do a warm up run.  He didn't but I went ahead and did a 6-7 minute warm up. The first half of it was just jogging easily.  The second half I threw in som...

 As I right this I'm feeling a bit burnt out and I need a couple of day break that I'm going to get.  I'll take Monday off from running and possibly go running on Tuesday but we will see.  But lets recap last week! On Monday of last week it was the hardest workout we've had so far.  It was 10x2 minutes with a 1 minute break in between.  This was supposed to be 400 meter repeats but since I don't have access to a track I did the 2 minutes (which is close to what I think my 400 meter time would be...it's a bit more 2:20 I think).  We did these in the 305 to 320 watt range (CP is 306).  It's been a few days so it doesn't seem as bad now but at the time I think I was starting to feel some pukiness coming on. Thankfully I didn't.   Wednesday was supposed to be a tempo run but because I was still feeling it (tired) from Monday's workout I just did an easy run.  Also this was my first run with my new Topo Cyclone 2 shoes (may do a review on the...

 This was the first week where we put in some specific 5K training.  I feel kind of foolish even saying this or even writing about it.  But I'm going to!   As I posted previously, my CP went up to 306, so my Stryd Race Predicted time has me racing at 312 (at the time) and I had 4 minutes at 5K pace with 3 minutes recover on Wednesday.  So that's what I did.  It was a lot of work but I'm hoping that as I get close to the race it will pay off.  This coming week I don't have any specific race pace stuff but I do have 12 strides (30 seconds with 1 minute rest).  On Monday we have "tempo" which is our half marathon pace...LOL!  But I really feel like running at something faster than what we have in the past ran at is helping us.  My pacing, so far, has been faster than it has been in the past and I'm kind of excited about that.  Now I'm not going to set a new 5K PR...I believe but I think my trail race in late August has a chance of...

 Another critical power test is in the books!   Week 12, or every 4 weeks, is only 3 days of running vs the normal 4 that I run (or attempt to run!).  I think it's important to take a step back.  However at the end of these 4th weeks I do a critical power test.  The previous 2 CP tests that I've done I haven't been very nervous about but this one, for some reason, I was pretty nervous about.  I decided to do a 3 minutes - 12 minute CP test.  I had never done one of these before and maybe that's why my nerves were a bit high.   Yesterday (Saturday) I set out on my CP test.  It was earlier than I normally run on Saturday but I had other stuff that I needed to get done so I was up early and had fueled like I have been doing.  After 10 minutes of warming up I went into my 3 minute test.  My goal for each test, based on some reason, is to keep the first 75% of it at the modeled ability on Stryd and then after that I push...or a...

 As the title suggests I wonder if I'm over doing it.  I felt pretty tired over last weeks up hill session (6x30 seconds up with 90 seconds recovery).  That was on Monday I believe and the rest of the week just felt kind of blah. And that was the case with today as well where I had another work out.  It's something I am definitely watching as I try to get back into some sort of shape.  I don't want to over work my thyroid or boost my cortisol levels to high.  Even though I'm staying with in that 80/20 realm I wonder if I need to be more of 90/10.  Or perhaps I'm just not sleeping as well as I thought I was.  I know I've said it before and I'll say it again...It's something I'm going to watch.   I think I'll switch to the 90/10 or at least 85/15 and see how that works for me.  Additionally I think I might make my workouts shorter and then just include some faster pace work in my long run.  I know it's not going to be easy but I'...

 As is typical for me I've dropped off on writing.  But I'm back for a short update.   Weeks 6, 7 and 8 all went well.  Week 8 was a lower volume week with a critical power test thrown in at the end of it.  I managed to increase my critical power from 261 to 296 which seems about right.  It might be a bit high but only time will tell.  Doing this 3 week build and then a lower week with a critical power test at the end of it seems to be suiting me well.  Now I'm under no illusion that my critical power will continue to go up and up and up but so far it's been nice.  I've only done one run at this new power and I think it's the right setting. Previously I knew that 261 was a bit low as when I'd do certain runs they just felt to easy.  However when I was attempting to run in zone 2 yesterday morning it felt like I was doing work and not just putting in the motions.  So I think that's a good thing.  We will know more in about ...

 Another week is in the books.  I'd love to say that I have lost a bunch of weight this last week but that is not the case.  While it didn't go up it didn't go down by as much as I had wanted.  The lowest weight that I saw on the scale was 214.6.  So it's still down from the 217.6 that I started at.  However today when I got on the scale I was at 216 which I've seen before.  Not sure why but that's what it is.  The lack of weight loss in the past would bother me, and it still does now, but I'm happy that I'm off of my blood pressure medication.  Numbers have been looking really good (this morning's was a bit higher than what I've seen however).  While the weight isn't going down I feel like I'm putting on some muscle, even if it's a small amount! I'm hopeful that at some point the weight will come off and I can begin to see onederland!  It's going to take time and some experimentation to get there.   A couple of things to ...

Week 2 starting weight: 212.8 (after running) Week 2 ending weight: 216.2 (WTF!) Starting waist measurement (8/29/2022): 40.5 Starting chest measurement (8/29/2022): 38.7 Waist measurement (9/12/2022): 39.9 Chest measurement (9/12/2022): 38.4 A big WTF stepping on the scale this morning.  It was lower than my starting weight on 8/29/2022 (217.6) but most of my weigh ins have been a lot less than what I saw this morning.  Not going to put to much thought into it and move on.  I will say that on Friday night I had my wedding anniversary and I did splurge a bit there, but it wasn't super bad.  Ate keto for the most part the rest of the weekend.  Just one of those mornings where things were up.   The measurements being down is nice.  I knew they would be down based on how my shirts were fitting.  My XL shirts are pretty lose and I should probably wear a large shirts but they are still just uncomfortable enough (ie: tight) that I'll stick with my ...

 Monday - Weighed in and took waist and chest measurements.  These are the two areas where I hope to lose some inches.  They have always been my problem areas.  Weight wasn't as high as I thought it would be but also kind of where I expected it to be. Also...MCT oil is the bomb...lots of energy! Tuesday - Weight higher than Monday but we aren't going to let that get us down.   Wednesday - Weight down 3 pounds from the weigh in on Tuesday.  Nice to see that.  However I was up twice in the night to go pee!  Also getting out of bed I got a major cramp in my leg.  I ended up taking a salt drink as I think that's the reason why I got it.  Hopefully there's not to much of this cause that cramp was painful. Worst I've had in my life! Thursday  - Weight down almost 2 pounds...but not quite.  This would be the lowest that I saw the scale.  While I kept keto during this time it was also when I didn't keep as good of records b...

 I hope that over the next few months I'll be good about documenting my journey as I try to transition to a low carb diet and continue to run and to top it off I've been diagnosed with hypothyroidism (I'm on medication).  Which might explain why it has been some damn hard to lose weight.  I probably won't be updating this blog every day but at least once a week I hope to.  As I've looked for information on hypothyroidism for men I've not found a lot so if at least one person happens upon this and it helps them it will be worth it.   So why low carb you might be asking?  There is a couple of reason's.  My wife is doing low carb to drop some weight and I'm going to be there to help support her.  It should be easier to make meals.  The other reason is that when you find information about losing weight with hypothyroidism a lot of it is low carb related or AIP (Auto Immune Protocol).  With AIP you are eliminating a bunch of stuff for a ...

 It's dark and cold outside. That's the reason why my running season has shifted to a treadmill season. And even that has had it's ups and downs...mostly downs.   I really don't mind running on the treadmill but for some reason this season it has been a lot harder to get into it.  I don't know what the issue is but I'm struggling.  I'm mainly down to 3 days a week of running...if I'm lucky!  Most of the time it's like 2 but I'm hopeful that I've found my motivation and I'll be back to at least 3 days with another 1 day dedicated to getting some strength work in.   There are 2 things that I hope will motivate me and keep me going thru these winter/colder/darker months.  That is spending a few weeks running at a lower heart rate and kind of ignoring power for the time being.  I think that may help me a lot.  Tomorrow that experiment begins.  I did that at the start of this year and I think aerobically I was in the best shape that...