Adarq.org

the sky is falling in my industry, thanks to trump. hope it's a temporary fall and things are stable by april. but right now things are looking bleak. our CEO just sent an email out to everyone saying, in part, "our first priorities are funding the salaries and benefits of our staff worldwide." so i'm not staring down the barrel of an imminent furlough or reduction in LOE, which is a little bit comforting. but that is NOT a sentence you want to have to read.

obviously, a lot of his EOs and other actions in office are worse: more violent, or targeted are more vulnerable people, or with more dire long-term consequences for the world. but the one about foreign aid, and subsequent decisions from the state department, is the most personal to me and my wife. we're all in for a really, really bad four years, and that's if we get lucky and he and his henchmen and hangers-on fail to fully shred the constitution.

still getting in ~3 workouts per week, though!

- dreadmill intervals
-- warm up
-- 5 x (3 min @ 6:22, 2 min @ 10:54)
-- cool down
more intervals next time.

considering doing a 10k on saturday morning to get a baseline for my threshold heart rate. also racing practice is generally good.

- run 2:09:03, 22.53 km
didn't mean to go quite this far but got turned around coming out of the trails i was running on in rock creek park. oops! 22.53 km is 13.999 miles, so i'm calling it an even 14. same pace as last sunday, approximately. conversational the whole way (although i was alone this time), HR averaged 129 bpm with a max at 146, i assume on some trail climb.

brought two nutri-grain bars and a packet of fig cookies to practice fueling, and also forcing myself to take walking breaks, both of which are suggested in all the ultra guidance i've read. lessons: i tolerate these well digestion-wise, no stomach issues at all. but they're dry, especially the nutri-grain bars, so they require a bit of chewing and they're kind of hard to swallow without water. no way to eat them without walking, because i have to slow my breathing to get them down. need to try with some gels. once it's warmer out i'll also be carrying water with me on long runs.

- dreadmill tempo
-- warm up
-- 4 x 5 min @ 6:40/mile, 2 min @ 10:54
-- cool down
lowered the working pace to sub-HM target pace (equates to 4:08/km pace) and slowed the rest pace accordingly. this was good, i didn't feel great going in but i ground it out and will keep lowering the pace on these workouts bit by bit. no more 14 second/mile jumps.

the dark up that far north was what i remember really killing in the winter. so little light, so little sun.

- tempo
-- warm up
-- 6 x 4 min @ threshold (4:20, 4:16, 4:14, 4:11, 4:05, 4:08), 1 min walking
-- cool down
pretty cold. the track is still frozen over in places so i did this as laps around the block with some of the other members of the running group. not as fun when you can't all see each other but still ok. the rx was for eight reps but that feels like too many at this stage. i'll get there. good workout.