David Taylor Gonzales

8/1

Friday 5 mile run at marathon pace. This was a perfect weather day. Couldn’t believe how good I felt. This was my second run in a row with no chest pain which was encouraging. This is my last ramp up mileage week before a rest week (32 miles this week, 27 miles next week). The increasing mileage hasn’t bothered me (yet). I think I’m going about it the right way by not increasing my long runs too drastically.

8/2

Today was my long run. I ran 12 today, my first time running that distance since May. I ran the first nine at easy pace, last three at marathon pace. This one was great for a couple reasons. I started at 6:30 AM. I love the early morning, waking up with the rest of the city and watching the neighborhood come alive. It was 65 degrees when I started. When I walked outside, I nearly shivered just from shock. at the temperature difference. That was a welcome change after the last 2 months of brutal humidity. I ran downtown for the first 4 miles and it was cool to see the sun come up over the industrial park. The middle portion of my run took place in Rountree, one of the most beautiful historic neighborhoods in town. I finished things off by stopping at the house for water and a Chia seed pouch and then ran the last 3 miles in my neighborhood. I came home feeling pretty good overall. Last week was about defining the easy run and I feel like I’m getting the hang of it. Mixing in different paces is also helping me improve. Picking up the pace on already fatigued legs is a very unique sensation and probably a helpful one for running a marathon.

When I got home Lane was making pancakes with the kids so I hopped in the shower and then helped with family breakfast. I’m always on egg/bacon duty for our family breakfasts. I’ve really started to love cooking in the last 6 months or so. Saturday family breakfast is my favorite day of the week.

8/3

Nothing significant to report here. I ran 4.5 miles easy. I like doing some sort of shakeout or easy run the day after my long run just to keep my body in check and monitor my body’s overnight recovery after the high mileage day. I meal prepped 4 pounds of bacon wrapped jalapeno cheddar venison patties for lunches this week. I also broke my garbage disposal. I’m extremely frustrated about that. I might hire someone to fix it but I really would rather save the money if possible and just knock it out myself.

8/4

After doing some research I decided to go to Home Depot and buy the disposal and give it a shot myself. It took a couple hours because I had to pause and help with bath and bedtime with the kids. We got it fixed around 9 PM and I went to the garage for a short 15 minute back and leg workout. I did enough for the quads to get them sore. with a barbell back squat. I did 3 sets of 5 pull ups. I’m proud of myself for how much I’ve progressed in that area. I couldn’t do more than 3 pull-ups in a row when I first set the rack up. Lifting has taken a backset with the increased mileage but I still want to shoot for an hour of weight training per week for maintenance and injury prevention.

8/5

3.5 easy miles tonight. I just needed to get moving again. This week is much lower mileage which is giving my body some time to recover and prepare for longer runs and more intense workouts going forward. I’m going to do a tempo or threshold workout at some point this week, maybe Friday with Travis.

8/6

I’m running with Sam tonight after work. We’re gonna do 5-6 easy miles together. The original plan was to run to Drury University and do a 1 mile time trail. I’m curious what my PR could be (current best is 6:24/mi). I think I can get it under 6 minutes if I go all out. Sam texted me saying he’s pretty beat up from a long run he did on Sunday so we’re going to keep this one low and slow.

Update: we kept this one low and slow (kinda). We both felt good going into mile 3 so we started mixing in some strides on the hillier sections of our route to get the heart rate up. We ended our run with an all out sprint down the street. My sprint speed got up to 3:24/mi pace which is easily the fastest I’ve ever run in my adult life. Total stats: 5.6 miles @ 8:47 average pace.

I assumed that my increased mileage would mean less running with friends. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that so many of my runs, even some of my higher intensity workouts, have involved other people in my life. We’ll see if that continues as we get deeper into marathon training. 13 weeks to go!

Keep Going!