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"We know very well that absolute perfection cannot be attained but we will never stop striving for it." - S.N. Shure

(Saturday, December 5th - Saturday, December 12th)

Whelp, looks like I've already divereged from last week's plan to cover Saturday to Friday by covering an eight day week (Saturday to Saturday) this week.

Let's stick with how I did on the process steps I’m focusing on this cycle.

Run and recover from my key workouts

• Relative to my goals, my workout paces were much slower than my 1:13:30 half marathon goal. I'm not ruling out my goal just yet, but it's definitely disappointing to come up short.
• On the recovery side, I’m proud of myself for skipping a second run on Friday because I was feeling pretty tired (it helped that it was also pretty rainy and cold). Even skipping it seems like my recovery has been so-so this week. This could be due to two mid-week workouts or adding an additional strength workout on Tuesday (in addition to my regular Friday morning workout). I also think I may need to eat more protein which I tried to do the second half of the week.

• I should have gotten out earlier to allow for a proper warmup prior to my tempo on Tuesday. A good reminder to have good discipline even with shorter or easier workouts to maximize the benefit. I ended up averaging 6:0X/mi when I probably could have done at least 5:50/mi if I had warmed up better.

• On Thursday, I allowed myself to be a little more relaxed than I should have been. Up until the last couple 400s, I was probably about 5-10% below the effort I should have been. It was a good workout, but definitely frustrating to feel like you’re missing.
• On Saturday, 12th December, 2020, I ended up putting together a pretty good run. I miscalculated where I needed to turn around to arrive at the waterfront by mile 10, sloppy preparation on my part, so I had to start my half mile reps on the roads. My first one was a little slow, but my second one was right around 6:00/mi and didn’t feel too bad so I decided to try to do a make-up rep, bringing my total to seven half mile “on,” half mile off reps. These “on” halves were supposed to be around half marathon pace which I’m still sort of feeling out. I don’t think I could have run much faster than the 5:55-6:05s I ended up running for context my goal HM pace is 5:36/mi so I'm a long ways off still. I also miscounted and ended up with eight reps including my “soft” first rep.

Where does this leave me? I’m going to keep striving to be more disciplined with my warm ups and workout efforts, for more perfect training. As Mr. Shure said, absolute perfection isn't attainable, but that doesn't mean we don't try!

1) No mindless miles, consider strength (20-30min strength sessions twice per week, 20 pushups daily) or flexibility/mobility work instead. 2) Grow enjoyment and desire to fuel and hydrate well, specifically, two servings of greens and eight glasses of water daily. 3) Grow in disciplined seven hours of sleep daily. 4) Daily flexibility and mobility following runs.

1. I chose to rest more on Friday which is a win and I intentionally did a second strength workout in addition to my regular Friday (outdoor) group workout.
2. I tracked my hydration and it definitely improved, but I’m still lagging behind. In particular, it seems there are days I allow work to completely run my life including hydration. I gotta keep in mind that I’ll be a better friend, coach, and employee if I stay hydrated.
3. My sleep seems to have gotten a bit better. I think hydration and diet have helped a lot. Again, gotta continue to prioritize my basic needs.
4. Daily flexibility and mobility continues to go well and be a positive addition. I am going to add daily R8 or foam rolling as I’ve been pretty sore this past week. Otherwise my legs are feeling pretty healthy.

Here are some other random things I wanted to share from the week.

I went to Hmart this week and got some Chinese greens to diversify my daily green grind. Here's some yu choy with tofu that I made this past week.

Things I'm listening to:

• Hardcore History - Supernova of the East, a podcast by Dan Carlin about the Japan of the Asia-Pacific War of 1937-1945. I ended up watching several documentaries on aircraft carriers and carrier fighter planes as a result of the third episode in this series.
• CHIKA, got turned on to the work of this rapper, model, and actor from Alabama by Spotify's Best New Artist playlist, her lyrics are powerful and I love her take on artistry in this RollingStone interview, check out her latest album "Industry Games."

How was your week?