David Taylor Gonzales

9/11

Today is the usual rest and active recovery. My training readiness is 89 as of this morning at 10 AM so I’m going to be very fresh for the weekend. I am running my distance PR on Saturday so I’m going to fully rest and stay out of the garage today. I went on a short lunch walk to keep the blood flowing. My parents are getting into town tonight to help me with the kids this weekend while Lane is in Charleston with her sister. I am a little stressed about her being gone and working a full day Friday while my mom watches the kids. I know she’ll do great but this is uncharted territory for our family. It’s a good opportunity to learn how to trust God with my kids and wife.

9/12

Lane left early this morning. Mom picked her up at 5:30 and then I went out for 5 miles when she got back from the airport to watch the kids. Today was all easy. My training readiness was very high, 98 this morning. Even so, I kept the miles very easy today to prepare for the long tomorrow morning. I completed 5.17 miles at a 9:54/mi pace. I’ll be sleeping on the couch tonight so it’ll be important to get to bed as early as possible just in case I don’t get full rest. If things go the way I hope, I should be in bed by 9 PM and asleep before 10.

9/13

I woke up at 5 this morning. I felt pretty fresh but I got just under seven hours of sleep so it was a bit less than optimal. Still, my training readiness score was a 83 so I wasn’t super concerned about performance. Similar to the last two long runs, I ran the first nine miles easy, right around 10:06/mi pace and then ran the last seven miles at an average pace of 9:00/mi. My average heart rate on this run was a tick higher than usual (137 BPM). That wasn’t a huge surprise since almost the entire second half of the run was uphill. The weather was PERFECT today and I am enjoying this route I’ve done for the last two long runs so I think I’ll keep that going as we creep closer to that 18-20 mile threshold.

After the run, I showered and worked on hydration before heading to the Pregnancy Care Center for the Walk for Life. The PCC is a really special organization in Springfield and my wife is going to start volunteering there next year. She’s really excited for that and I’m happy that she has found a cause she’s passionate about that she can devote some time to outside of the kids.

The turnout for the walk was awesome! I thought last year’s walk was big but this year felt even bigger. There’s nothing online about size of the event which is a bummer because I’m curious if it just felt bigger or actually was. If it was, it makes me wonder if the increased attendance was related to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. We’ve all had time to reflect on that this week. I’m heartbroken for his wife and kids. What a horrible tragedy. I didn’t consume a lot of Charlie Kirk’s content online but as a conservative father, I agreed with a lot of his views on parenthood, Christian virtue, his pro life stance and his politics. I admired from afar his willingness to talk with people who disagreed with him. I think we would do well to talk with people outside of our ideological bubbles just like he did. I certainly would benefit from it.

I completed 38.7 miles this week. Next week is going to be a bit lighter which I am looking forward to.

9/14

This week is a structured de-load so we’re only going to hit 30 miles. My long run is 11 miles on Saturday so I should feel really fresh as we get closer to peak week. I’m looking forward to more “off” time and taking it easy with the family. We’re having friends over on Friday night so I’m glad I won’t have to go to bed right at 9 PM like I have been recently.

Today (Sunday) was my last full day with my parents so I spent most of the day in active recovery mode, just walking around and being with the kids. At the end of the night, Mom left to run a couple errands and I worked out in the garage while the kids slept. I did pull-ups, barbell back squats, trap-bar deadlifts, calf-raises, shrugs, and hammer curls. I just wanted to get the heart rate up a bit. It peaked at 155 BPM so we got some anaerobic benefit even though it was only 35 minutes. When she came back, she had Andy’s custard so we ate that together and chatted. It was really nice to talk about the future and business together. Having her and Dad in town has been really great this weekend. We had a lot of fun together.

I miss my wife. She flies back tomorrow at noon. I am so excited and I can tell the kids are too.

9/15

Today is an easy progression run. I woke up at 6:10 and headed out the door almost immediately. No warm up, no nonsense. The first mile was easy so I used that first ten minutes of the run to wake myself up and sped up from there. Total stats: 5 miles at 9:07/mi pace. My heart rate stayed pretty low (134 BPM). It’s a little higher than I’d like for that pace, but I’ll blame it on muscular fatigue due to the weight training yesterday.

Lane flew in a little before 12 PM. I texted her and she said that when she got there, John gave her the biggest smile she has ever seen from him. Joy was super excited to see her too. If you know her, you know she screamed the moment Mama came out of the terminal.

My legs feel really fresh so far this week. I’m excited (and nervous) about my high aerobic run tomorrow morning. I know I CAN execute the pace goals tomorrow but it’ll depend on how I sleep and if I have any DOMS in my legs.

9/16

Happy Threshold Day! I woke up around 6:10 AM and spent some time reading the bible before I headed out. I am trying to read the Bible in a year so I’ll keep this blog updated with how that goes as well.

This was a great run but it was not a great start. I did a quarter mile warm up, thinking that’d be enough to get my legs underneath me. It wasn’t. From there, I did 4 miles at 7:00/mi. I was feeling very unsure of myself for the first ten minutes. I wasn’t sure if holding seven minute miles was going to be possible but once we got through that first ten minutes or so, my legs warmed up fully and I found the pace to be challenging but manageable. Around the twenty minute mark, I thought I was running too slow but my watch showed 7:05/mi pace. I realized I can run this pace and stay in a good flow state which is really awesome. It’s further proof that my aerobic fitness is improving. When I’ve run this pace in the past, I’ve had to obsessively check my watch to make sure I’m in the right pace zone but on this run, I was able to trust my legs. I finished the run with a quarter mile cool down. Total stats: 4.5 mi, average pace: 7:20/mi, average heart rate: 155 BPM. My heart rate peaked at 171 BPM which is at the lower end of my Zone 5 heart rate. I accomplished the goal of keeping my average heart rate predominantly in Zone 4 which is perfect for high aerobic training like this. It’s 12 PM now and I feel quite fresh. The training volume is lower this week which probably explains why my legs don’t feel as fatigued as they usually do on Tuesdays (Monday and Tuesday runs are usually 5.5-7 miles each).

9/17

It is Wednesday my dudes! I did my anaerobic sprint workout. Here’s the structure: 10 minute Zone 2 warm up, 10 x 0:40 @ 5:00/mi pace with 2:30 recovery in between (10:30/mi), 10 minute cool down (8:50-9:50/mi range). I haven’t done one of these workouts in awhile but I felt pretty fast. I’ve said this before when it comes to my high aerobic training, a lot of these pace zones (anything faster than 7:00/mi) used to be very difficult for me to control earlier this year but ever since we started ramping up marathon training a couple months ago, my aerobic fitness has really improved. I found keeping my pace in the 5:00-6:00/mi range was manageable without having looking down at my watch constantly.

This week, because of all the varied speed training workouts, I had a lot of opportunities to see quantifiable proof of my growth as a runner. I’m really proud of my consistency. I was so nervous about getting injured during training but God has protected me all year. I’m so thankful for that and for a wife who lets me train hard and run fast.

At bible study tonight we’re going to read Mark 6:1-13. There’s two stories in those verses, Jesus being rejected in his hometown of Nazareth and Him sending out his disciples to preach and perform miracles. We’ve been structuring our study around everyone bringing in questions which has really enhanced our discussions. I’m excited to hear everyone’s thoughts about what it means to be a “new creation”, why Jesus was unable to perform as many miracles as he could in other areas around Capernaum and Galilee, what it looks like to be “sent out” and how we are called to relate to people and the world around us. I’m thankful for our group.

We still have six weeks to put hay in the barn before race day.

Keep Going!