David Taylor Gonzales

8/21

I rested today. It’s been a slow ramp up coming back from sickness. To reward myself for actually taking a day off, I’m gonna do a threshold workout tomorrow after work. I haven’t done enough high aerobic work recently and I want to train in a higher zone. My hope is that doing so will improve my body’s ability to clear lactate from my bloodstream in the higher paces and heart rate zones.

8/22

I completed my threshold workout Friday evening. Here’s the basic structure: 1 mile warm up in Zone 2, 3 x 8:00 @ 7:00/mi pace and a cool down. I felt fully recovered from sickness which is a great sign. Unfortunately I had GI issues during my cool down. I planned to run a mile or 2 at the end but dinner didn’t sit well with me. I’m glad it didn’t affect me during my intervals but my mileage will be a little lower this week. That’s okay. I’m trying to be okay with not being perfect.

8/23

I did my long run, 10 easy miles during the kids nap time. I mixed in marathon pace at the end but it wasn’t a structured part of the run. I put on an absolute clinic on how NOT to fuel for a run. I had a high protein, low carb breakfast, too much coffee, not enough water, and leftover pasta too close to the run (about an hour before). Thankfully I didn’t have any GI issues but I felt heavy, sluggish and thirsty for much of the run. It hasn’t been as hot recently and it’s going to cool down even more later next week.

I completed 19 miles, my lowest weekly total since February which is WILD to think about. I went into this year, before I started marathon training, hoping to average 15 miles per week. I’ve been well above that this year, a significant shift from even last year. I’m really proud of the work I’ve put in. Hopefully it translates well on race day. Fueling is still my main area of weakness right now, I really want to have that more dialed in when these long runs start to get longer. It’s going to become a necessity once these runs approach the three hour mark. I’m committing to doing all my long runs in the early morning going forward so I can practice fueling with plenty of time before I take off.

8/24

Today I completed 45 minutes of strength training. I tried to take short breaks and do high intensity load so that I could get some anaerobic benefit. I enjoy some of the anabolic training because I sometimes get paranoid about injury risk as I increase mileage. I focused on legs like usual with 3 sets of barbell back squats, trap-bar deadlifts, walking lunges with dumbbells, weighted calf raises. I mixed in some arm, shoulder and core work as well. I am attaching a video showing some of the workouts I did, specifically the pull-ups and leg work.

I am going to do a speed workout tomorrow even though the legs are tired. I think it’s good to do those workouts when I’m fatigued because it forces me to go off of relative perceived effort (RPE) instead of pace.

8/25

I woke up at 6 AM to run. Okay well, technically that’s a lie. I actually woke up at 4:50 AM to put John back to sleep. The kids have been sick and it was a rough night. Lane was with him multiple times overnight so when he woke up a little before 5, I decided to go in there so she could catch a couple Z’s before it was time to get breakfast ready for the kids. I nodded off in the rocking chair while holding him until 5:55 AM. I didn’t feel great so I only did 4.3 miles. Nothing about my recovery and readiness was optimal for this run but I’m really proud of my cadence. I felt like my mechanics were really dialed in. We kept this one moderate, just sustained marathon pace.

8/26

Today was a 7 mile progression run. I did a better job of getting enough sleep last night. The kids are finally starting to recover from sickness so we weren’t interrupted in the middle of the night quite as much. I started at 9:20/mi pace, and completed the last mile in 8:11. The MSU XC team was out this morning and I found myself glancing over as they ran in the grass alongside me. College athletes run like deer. It was mesmerizing to watch. These morning runs are really good for my training. I feel great throughout the day after and I end up eating better and hitting my macros because I’m not paranoid about overeating before an evening run.

8/27

This morning was a 6 mile tempo run. 3 intervals x 10:00 @ 10k pace (~7:30/mi pace). I did not want to wake up for this one. I had to tell myself, “you don’t do this because it feels great when you start, you do this because it feels great when you finish.” That helped me get out the door. I was worried about some pain in my heel when I woke up but it went away almost immediately during my warm up so that was encouraging. I ran into my New Testament professor from college and I said hello to him. That was a fun blast from the past.

This workout was a sweet spot for me. It was challenging, but not impossible. It wasn’t built to run my legs into the ground. A year ago, the idea of running at 7:30 pace for more than a minute or two would’ve been unimaginable. But as my fitness has increased and I’ve continued to lose fat, I’ve definitely gotten faster. I thought going into this run that 10 minute intervals at 7:30 pace would be touching close to my lactate threshold but I noticed how “flowy” the intervals were and how easily I was able to stay in range without obsessively looking at my watch. I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying myself during the 2nd interval.

My Garmin tracked this as a tempo workout so it was certainly more intense than a base run, but I was proud that I was able to keep my heart rate in the 150-165 range during each interval. I’m working on adding more high aerobic exercise in this build cycle, something I’ve been neglecting this last month. The goal is to do 1-2 high aerobic workouts per week depending on how I recover from each weeks’ long run. That should put me in a good range if I commit to keeping my easy runs easy.

I don’t have any profound reflections from the week. My bible study started last Wednesday and I’m really thankful for the group we have. We’re studying Mark and taking things back to the basics: reading the words of Jesus and learning how to live more like Him. I’ve said it before, I really think running teaches us about spiritual endurance in a way that very few things in life can. As always, I’m thankful for good health and God putting the desire in me to be a good steward of the body He gave me.

Keep Going!