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i don't know about the slippery slope argument. he wasn't doing sports, it was more akin to trying to climb a mountain that no one has ever climbed before, or to give a specific example like alex honnold's free solo ascent of el capitan. there's no competition involved, it's a team with specialized roles behind an athlete, with corporate sponsorship.

the technology involved -- shoes, phalanx of pacers, timing guide projected on the ground -- make it a very different thing than a competitive race. no comparison, really. it's a great athletic achievement but it doesn't have any larger meaning with respect to running. the whole difference between his actual WR and 1:59:40 is the shoes and the pacers/screeners and the flat unidirectional course.

my $0.02.

last night

- extensive tempo/progression: warm up x 2 km; 3 km in [4:21, 4:12, 4:04]; cool down x 1.5 km
this felt tougher than it ought to have, not sure why.

- stretch

today

- run 11.16 km in 55:34
did not check watch except once, ended up at easy <5:00 pace. nice. very windy around my place, which is up kind of high (for london). once i got into the canals, much less wind.

- stretch

it rules. come to london in the spring and experience the briskness.

no workouts since wednesday because i was moving and doing school stuff and that took up all time and energy from thursday morning until about 6 PM today.

- run 15.28 km in 1:22:56
on the plus side, forced rest meant running far and light felt very easy. on the minus side, had to poop for roughly the last 90% of this run, which sucked. also felt a little something in my left shin in the first km or so but it went away quickly and didn't recur.

- stretch
low back a little tired.

cool, yeah, just keep me posted. we'll make it work at some point!

- extensive tempo (treadmill): run 2km @ 11kph; 2km @ 15.1 kph; walk x 5 mins; 1.5km @ 15.1kph; 1.5km @ 10kph

- stretch
got a bit deeper into hip opening than i have in a while. some work to do there if i'm going to start lifting again. stiff.

race pace training on the treadmill between classes today. was a bit too close to lunch so i had to run through a minor side stitch. no big deal, good to know.

- run 2 km; 30s sprint w/4 min walking rest x 5; run 1.8 km
peak speed 36.0 kph, distance on each interval was farther* than last week and did one extra as planned (per garmin: 280, 240, 220, 210, 200).

- stretch

*i'm skeptical of the accuracy of the garmin on these, especially the first one. the first interval definitely felt fastest but 280m in 30s translates to a world-record 400. unlikely. still, for week-to-week comparisons it's okay.

What is the recovery between them fast kms? Stand in place, walk around, jog? Is it defined by duration ( e.g. rest 5 ' ) or by distance ( e.g. walk around 500m )?

they were continuous, no rest. basically 80% of a 5k at ~90% effort.

when i do faster intervals rest can be either time or distance, depending on the workout, but i guess i usually use time. for example the 4x30s all-out workout i did last week was with 4 minutes (walking) rest, more akin to a sprint workout. ETA: i'm planning to do that again on saturday, but with an extra interval and a bit more warm up and cool down to keep the distance up.

forgot to log yesterday:

- run 10.11 km in 51:31
pace dipped a little in the second half before i picked it up again at the end to make sure i was coming home as fast (or faster) than i went out. legs a little tired.

- stretch

plan was to run tue-wed-thu but i'm going to rest today and run tomorrow (friday) instead. will try using the gym at school for the first time. if it's raining that'll be on the treadmill. if it's not raining then just the locker room.

yesterday evening i went to check out the branch of the gym i was considering joining out here. it sucks and is not very convenient. so i think i'm just going to join the school gym for now. once gf and i have moved into our new place and get our routine down a bit i'll consider adding another gym closer to home.

- run 14.1 km in 1:17:52
long and slow. puts me right at 50km for the last seven days.

- stretch

- run 7.01 km in 36:45
first 3km w/gf, hence the slightly slow overall pace (5:15). final three km were run in 4:30, 4:55, and 4:45 to make up for it a bit. kept it short to keep overall weekly increase modest: total for last seven days is 45.9 km, which i'm pleased with. to 50 next week.

- stretch