Adarq.org

this morning woke up wondering whether the achilles discomfort is linked to the knee thing. would make sense.

@adarq, i don't think it's surface- or shoe-dependent. does the same thing on grass, track, or asphalt, and whether i'm wearing running shoes or no shoes. for whatever reason it's tended to bother me less while playing ultimate, even when sprinting flat-out, but it would act up sometimes then, too. it just seems like something is out of alignment, or not activating properly in my hip or something to keep the knee tracking properly when my leg swing gets past a certain amplitude. might be worth taking my spikes to the track just to see, though. hadn't occurred to me before to experiment like that.

the mile-pace intervals were pushing my right knee, which is a little out of sorts today. haven't been able to really sprint for many years now and i guess that's also true for a fast (for me) run. never been able to tell what exactly is wrong. i remember asking for suggestions on lyle mcdonald's mean forum* back in maybe 2014 and his response was, "OP should not sprint." couldn't see a good argument against that, there was no reason i HAD to be sprinting.

the discomfort comes and goes and never bothers me while jogging - it's something to do with the amplitude of the leg swing on sprints, or maybe the amount of knee flexion on the front end (peak knee lift is when it's most noticeable; second-most is peak flexion on the back end). anyway, i'd love to sort that out at some point, it sucks to think i wouldn't be able to test a mile or 800 because my knee wouldn't like it.

*RIP monkey island, i hadn't been on there in years but went to check on it a couple of months ago and it'd disappeared. there were some hilarious people on there.

last night

- SMR t-spine, feet

- mobilization t-spine, shoulders, hips

- stretch hips, calves

this morning

- run 10.04 km in 50:41
T+DI 161 (88+73). legs stiff to start out with and this felt like a struggle, to the point where i noticed myself slowing down toward the end and cut it off a km early; had meant to do 11 and ended up adjusting my route and walking the last 500m or so.

- stretch

also, elbow is still messed up for gripping. i've been testing it out a bit with sets of 2-3 pull ups, trying different grips. but it was bugging even while i was wringing the sweat out of my shorts earlier, smh.

- run 18.02 km in 1:41:42
brutally hot, hardest run i've done in a long time despite also being the slowest (5:39 average pace). T+DI 170 (98F/36.7C temp, dew point 72/22.2). by the time i got home i'd overheated to the point where i was breathing hard and had to ice my neck and chug cold water, and i feel slightly out of it. i pushed too hard today. should have dialed the target distance back given the conditions. not dizzy or faint and i wasn't getting chills or anything, but very fatigued and slightly out of it. lesson learned.

- stretch

ETA: 5:39, adjusted for T+DI, equates to 5:14 pace. perfectly alright for a long run. 

gonna follow the DC road runners track workouts for the next couple of weeks. the one i did last weekend is from them, today will be the next one in line. their coach wrote that he's deliberately designed them to be short and with extra recovery because of the heat and humidity, which seems smart. the workout last week felt pretty easy, but i think that's okay for now. i'm setting pace targets relative to an 18:59 5k, adjusted for T+DI.

- warm up x 1 km; intervals 6 x 500m @5k pace (1:54-1:58), 300m jogging rest; cool down x 1 km
T+DI 158, very hot and sunny. this was a little bit tougher than last week but very doable.

- stretch

total distance this week 57.78 km, 35.9 miles. that's around PR territory.

non-training-related update: kind of by accident, it seems like i'm starting to work as an independent consultant. a gig fell into my lap through one of my professors at school, who recommended me the head of this disability-rights organization for a bit of research they want done. proper research is a bit of a stretch for me but i've started working on it and it is FUN so far. gonna work on my interviewing and analytical skills and hopefully make something interesting and useful. that'll take me through mid-september. and i've got an interview sunday night with a small UN agency to develop their fundraising strategy (they're in tokyo so it's their monday morning). who knows whether i'll get it but it's nice to get a call-back. and that work is much more in my wheelhouse, at the very least i will know how to sound smart during the interview.

pretty surprised by both: the first i didn't go looking for at all and the second (UN) was totally cold. gives me some hope that i'll be able to make a living while i look for a job and figure out what the hell i'm gonna do with my life.

it also addresses one of the big things that was driving my ex and me apart: her desire to be ultra-mobile for a while and my worry about making ends meet once school is over. we'd have other shit to work out if we decided to get back together but if i can really string a meaningful amount of consultancies together then why not hit the road for a little while?

Feeling burnt out

ice cream, TV, sleep.