Wake up at 5am

My right toe is sore. My left shin.

I sit down in front of the space heater trying to find the right angle to support, to heat up.

I do this for about 20 minutes. Including putting contacts in. Clothes on. Lace up my shoes.

Head out at about 5:34am

I’m starting quick. My legs get lactic build I slow down.

I truck along the run knowing I can’t be toooo slow because I’ve got to get back in time to shower and get my lunch finalized.

I’m testing the new lace lock. And this time really cranked over the toe box. Which I do think was better than previous runs. I think locking heel back even further cranking even more will be better.

The track I’m doing is mostly paved tho so it’s not super ideal for the shoe that I’ve got. It’s fine. They’re fine. I’m looking forward to some legit road shoes tho recommendation from Zach inbound.

I was feeling confident on May 24th. I ran for an hour with no issues. Then I feel like I regressed. I certainly didn’t have any consistency following that outing. Looking at my chart since then

The motivation is in filling it up. It practically doesn’t matter if those runs are short or long. I have more detail in Strava. For me. Getting that feeling of momentum comes from seeing me fill the days. Seeing the current streak I’m on. Not wanting to break it.

That’s where having all the habits in one, muddies it a bit. Would be nice to effortlessly break them out individually.

Sure it’s super satisfying to fill the entire thing. But that just doesn’t happen.

The key is the consistency using it tho. Updating each day regardless of how much I fill up. Which allowed me to get here in the first place.

It took half a year to get super consistent with my runs.

Interesting to see me get super consistent with my golf practice April and May tho. Leading up to my Victoria trip outdoors, and my weekend trip with the boys.

It’s nice to have the visual. Is the long and short of it. And despite my inconsistency at times up till now. I never dropped the tracking. The habits. Allows you to recalibrate. Recommit. And find your rhythm.

Carve the space time. Learn to show up. First it’s small. It’s just a dot on your screen which you build out from there. Needs to be planted like a seed in order to grow.

My run was solid. The toe pain was not there. Shin pain not there. Calf pain not there. Just kinda down to my quads maybe? I had a bit of lactic build that I slowed down and went away. Then just cruised. I think my quads were tired.

Feels like doing my foot exercises will be important. For toe strength. It was almost as if my foot was pulled such that it was pushing my pinky toe side down awkwardly. I wasn’t striding on my instep because the arch wasn’t working properly.

Point is, workout my feet feels important.

Workout my pinky toe spacing.

One thought. Waking up early is usually tough. But after a few minutes. Assuming you indeed got enough sleep. It’s usually no problem. You’re up and rolling. It becomes true that you should indeed stay in bed, if you’re running on too little sleep. There is always the pull. The draw. The gravity to go back to sleep. Crawl back in bed.

My strategy of using the watch in the adjacent room. Forces me to turn that alarm off. Forces me out of bed. It’s very effective.

Next thought. The feeling of accomplishment is always wonderful. I’ve completed something today already. The morning run. I knew would feel good. The lunch runs feel good too. The evening runs feel good too. The runs feel good when you’re completing these tasks. Filling in the chart. Mentally feels great when you can fill in one day. But then when you get to step back and see all the days start packing in. Filling up. It’s so good. Makes it easier to get another one in. And so forth.

Need to buy new road race shoes for my first half marathon everrr.

Need to buy new trail running shoes for the grizzly so I’m prepared for snowy sloppy wet conditions.

At lunch today I’ll go pick up some gels. This weekend I’m aiming to do my first big big run. New territory. Getting this run in this morning. A full day to ‘recover’ the. Tomorrow I’ll do something light plus maybe all I need to do is carry my bag. I want to pop something into Strava tho. To get the km. So I’ll do something either super slow or super short. Plus some mobility etc.

Will try and plan which day. Thinking maybe Sunday, maybe Monday. Will try to not drink too much Friday and sat. Do not like the after effect. I do like getting a little tipsy tho, especially social gathering with extended family

We’ll see. Looking forward to testing out some gels for the first time. Thinking that running belt would be nice.