Adarq.org

- run 56:19, 11.33 km; 4 indiv km @ 4:24, 4:11, 4:14, 4:22
first interval was entirely uphill, middle two were mostly downhill, last one was mixed.

a few hours later

- run/hike/scramble x 1:29, 6.00 km
went out to billy goat trail with wife, ran the out on the towpath and then hiked/scrambled back.

yesterday

- run 41:47, 6.41 km
wife feeling sick, this was extra slow. toe felt normal.

today

- run 52:55, 8.46 km
wife still under the weather, ran the last km without her at more like my normal solo easy pace.

Why?

welcome back! and congrats on the third (and final, lol) kid. my wife and i are starting to try to have our first and i'm trying to pack in some races and other stuff this year before that takes and we've got a little whippersnapper around to take care of.

it is amazing that this place is still going. adarq hasn't signed in since august 2023. as vag once put it, it seems like he's "loved up" and living his dream life on his little farmstead in florida. although, i stopped using instagram and facebook a while ago so i'm not even sure how he's doing. should check in, come to think of it. anyway, huge shoutout to him for letting us keep coming here.

one thing to try, in terms of pushing yourself and also learning better pacing, is to try to hit the intervals with descending times. you want to have a negative split in any race over like a mile, from everything i've read, so it's best to practice that way. instead of 4:55, 5:01, 5:05, try to do 5:05, 5:01, 4:55. or better yet, 5:01, 4:55, 4:51.

- hike/scramble x 4 hours, 14.8 km, ~710m/2300 feet of elevation gain over the first 5.5 km.
climbed old rag mountain for the first time since i was a teenager. there's some class 3 scrambling at the top, which was fun. we went with our packs and trekking poles as a kind of warm up climb for the mount washington attempt next weekend.

signed up for a 5k race on 23 march and a 10k on 14 april. i think one of the problems with my training last summer was a lack of races to practice really pushing myself. the latter is two weeks out from the 10-miler that's my main target race at the moment, so i will not absolutely kill myself in it, but it'll be good to at least shoot for a pace that's under my target 10-mile pace.

the 5k will be a good gauge of how fit i actually am, as well. based on that, i'll see how realistic my imagined target time of <1:10 is for the 10-miler. we'll see if i'm still in sub-20:00 shape.

agree with joe, and also why not try swimming? hard to imagine a better activity to get you moving your shoulders through a big range of motion. also repeating the suggestion of feldenkrais. these people might have suggestions about where you could take a class near yourself: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1469132926443860/. there are lots of free resources online, as well.