June 30th-July 6th Training

Monday: 9.1 miles (7:00ish); 4.5 miles (7:14)

Tuesday: 7.7 miles with 4xhill blasts (7:24). Absolutely died on these.  After 3-4 seconds on the first one, my legs were already smashed. I should have kept these around; 6.8 miles (7:24)

Wednsday: 9.6 miles (6:58); 5.3 miles (7:14)

Thursday: 10.1 miles with bombed workout.  Goal was to run 8ish miles, starting at 6:00 and working down to 5:40.  My GPS messed up at the start, so I didn't know how fast I was really running.  I manually split it at the usual mile marker and it was a 5:43. Too fast. Ran 5:48 and 5:55 for the next two miles and I was struggling, so I stopped a little bit into the fourth mile.  Legs are insanely sore from the hill blasts but I was really struggling aerobically with what should be a moderate effort.  Blood levels have dropped even more since last time, so maybe that explains it; 6.8 miles (7:16)

Friday: 8.1 miles (6:54); 5.4 miles (7:15)

Saturday: 9 miles with 5k in 17:49.  Course was long but I just ran to win.  Opened in 5:30 and then went 5:40, 5:41.  Pretty moderate effort but I honestly think I would have struggled to break 16 today; 4.5 miles (7:20)

Sunday: 20 miles (6:29). Felt pretty decent and quickly got down to 6:30 pace but my first sub 6:20 wasn't until the 17th mile.  Started to get insanely thirsty then, so I had to stop and use the rock quarry hose, even though I was only about two miles from home.  The good news is that it was water.  The bad news is that the water comes directly from the quarry and is used to hose down the trucks. I was so thirsty that I didn't care. Also saw the two smallest deer I've ever seen, 18 rabbits in a kilometer long strip of grass and the third Tesla I've seen in town.  Long runs can get boring.

Week Total: 106.9 miles.  Good volume but frustrated with the intensity.  I was insanely sore from the hill blasts until Friday and Thursday and Friday were much tougher than they should have been. My hct/hgb has dropped even more and I finally get to see the hematologist on Tuesday, so hopefully they can figure something what the deal is.

Strides jacked me up a few weeks ago when I tried them, so I kept out anything faster than a normal easy run, which I now feel is a mistake.  The hill blasts were way too hard on me because my muscles have gone from being lazy with no muscle tension to maximum contractions.  I feel the lack of faster running made Thursday and Saturday tougher as well.  It's hard to run under 6:00 pace when you haven't been doing it at all.  Hopefully it's a result of my iron-type issues so it will be an easy fix.

I really missed not being able to race at Peachtree this year.  The weather was perfect and Newton teammates, Stephen Pifer and Tyler McCandless ran really well to finish 6th and 8th overall.  Being that it's my first year on the team, I wanted to have a breakout year, but it hasn't been in the cards yet.  I'm also glad it was an American only race.  Foreign competition makes everyone go faster and I don't have a problem with it but if you're going to have a race be the US Championships, it needs to have just US runners in it. Other people effect the dynamics of the race too much.

I also started tracking my food on a website which has been helping me keep more accountable.  Before, I would just chow down on a cheeseburger.  Now, I have to answer to that and see how it effects my diet.  Ended up averaging just under 3000 calories a day with a 50% carbs, 32% fats and 18% protein breakdown.