Don't be a wimp

PM - 5.5 miles

Late PM - 4.5 miles

Good start to 2015. Gotta start off the year strong! Body felt pretty good after the tough miles I did yesterday. Should be able to go 70+ for the week. I'd like to stay above 70 for a few weeks and see how my body adapts. Its been a long time since I've done 70/week for an extended period of time (since college 8 years ago!)

Well, I've got pink eye. First time ever...and it's awful. I won't get into the graphic details but it's pretty gross and had me laid up pretty much all day today. Only productive thing I really did today was my run. I took yesterday off yesterday when it started. It is better right now than yesterday and even than earlier today so I'm optimistic that tomorrow will be a better day.

On the positive side, my legs feel great after the day off. Disappointed not to do 70 this week, but maybe this week or def next as I should be 100% by then.

Got eye drops today for the pink eye. It has gotten better but going to work from home tomorrow because it still is not good. Throat is sore as well. Took it easy on the mileage today, felt ok, but not as good as yesterday. We'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow, maybe make up some of the miles. I'm just judging how I feel on my runs each day and going the appropriate distance to not kill my body while i's trying to recover from this illness.

Sick day from work for pink eye. It does seem to be getting better. Drops are helping. Going to go in tomorrow. Supposed to be ok/not contagious after 24 hrs of drops.

Run was good, felt strong. Eyes burned afterwards though.

Eyes are much better today and I went into work and was pretty much ok, though my voice is very hoarse. My throat is very sore now so I'll prob need to get some medicine for that now too. Even worse, I tossed and turned all night last night and probably only got about 3 hrs of real sleep. I never have trouble falling asleep so it was very strange.

Anyway, run was fine, but my throat was killing me immediately afterwards. It's fine now so I guess it doesn't like the running. Main focus right now is just getting healthy and not completely losing all my fitness.

Felt awful when I woke up today so called out of work and went to the doctor. Got a prescription for non-eye drop antibiotics to go with the antibiotic eye drops I'm already doing. After taking the pills, I feel WAYYYY better. It's amazing. I had a violently sore throat and now it's completely gone. So I should def be fine to go into work tomorrow and I'm optimistic that if I keep taking these mess that the worst is behind me.

Went back to work today and had a great day. The drugs have come through and have me feeling almost 100%. I'm supposed to keep taking them til they're gone which will about a week more, but there don't seem to be any ill effects on my running. I felt great on the run today, probably should have kept going. I'm going to take a shot at 60 this week, but at least I'll be in the mid 50s which is still a solid week considering everything that happened.

Felt great on the run again today and didn't feel sick at all today so the medicine continues to work amazingly well.

My legs and body actually feel fresh. Amazing how a 50 mi week can make you feel that way after a couple 60-70mi weeks. I'm torn whether to do some heavy mileage tomorrow and try to get to 60 or to just be ok with mid 50s. Carmen has to work so I'll prob be bored and end up going for 60.

Had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. I've had a few restless nights since I got sick which is really unusual for me. Usually I'm out before my head hits the pillow. I think it's prob just from the illness and medication. Carmen said DayQuil has stuff to keep you awake in it (thus why they call it DayQuil).

I looked at my mileage from the last two years and I'm actually off to a great start this year in comparison as far as my mileage. On pace for like mid 200s for mileage this month, never broke 200 in Jan since college. The illness hasn't really set me back at all. So I'm excited for a great year of running!

Slept in nice and late today, felt great. Decided to not go crazy and punish my body. Just get 50 for the week and get back to 60 next week.

Carmen and I had dinner with Geetha and Vivek at The Ivy and watched the Seattle/Carolina game. I had a pretty delicious burger. Good end to a week that started off miserably.

Slept in again and felt great on the run. Body feeling terrific, probably because I haven't done a double in a while. Plan is to go 60s this week and 70s next week.

Felt fatigued from a cardio standpoint at the beginning of the run but after about 5 or 6 miles I felt great. Happens to me sometimes, feel crappy at the start, but good at the finish. Never figured out why. Just takes some time to warm up I guess.

::EDIT::

Here's the historical charts of my running from my phone.  Good to post it here for reference.

Yearly Mileage Totals

Monthly Mileage Totals

Got off work late today (like 9:30) cause I stayed late to help out with some issues so by the time I got home, had dinner and had some time to digest it was pretty late. The dinner sat like a brick in my stomach on the run even though I gave myself a few hours to digest so it wasn't a great run. Oh well, try again tomorrow. At least my legs still really fresh.

Worked late again tonight but ate a much lighter dinner this time and it had no negative effect on the run.

I started out a bit sluggish today but by mile 6 I was feeling great and thinking about doing 10 or 11. Cardio felt great, legs felt great, everything felt loose and terrific. Then as I was approaching 8 miles, I felt a tightness in the back of my right knee, similar to one I had nagging me at the end of the year. I decided to cut the run short and not risk exacerbating it. Hopefully it'll be gone on tomorrow's run.

I think my cardio is at a really good level right now, def the best its been in years. I find myself wondering what I could roll a 10K at right now with zero speed work. I feel pretty confident I could go under 35, maybe even 34? I would be psyched to roll a sub-34. If I can keep it going for another month or so, I think I'll start looking for a road race to test it out.

Felt great on the run today. Another late one after a late day at work again. Best part of the run was no tightness in the right knee, really hoping it was a one day event. During the first mile I did have a weird tightness in my right foot though, almost like it was cramping or trying to cramp. I thought about stopping to see what was going on, but decided to run through it and it went away after a couple minutes. Maybe wasn't hydrated enough or something. Planning to retire my current shoes in a week or two, might be contributing to some of the pains that have been popping up.

Legs felt crappy on the run today: Very sore at the start (especially calves) and towards the end my knee felt a bit dicey. Will be interesting to see how the legs hold up next week as I try to get back to 70+ mpw.

Sluggish start to the run but got better as I went. Right knee was a problem towards the end again and a bit worse. Might need a day off soon. Good news: got some new running shoes today so I'll probably retire my current shoes tomorrow or sometime soon.

PM - 9.25 mi

Later PM - 3.75 mi

I wanted to go further on the second run to really set myself up with a good start to my 70 mi week, but the back of my right ankle didn't feel right so I stopped. Felt fine after I stopped running. Regardless, a 13 mi day is a good start to the week. Planning to do mostly 8-9 mi days during the week and then Fri and/or Saturday do a bit more to get me to 70 mi.

Disappointing run. Now my left ankle is bothering me in the inside back (Achilles I think). First time I've had any problems on the left leg. It felt really "not right" so I cut the run short. Might take tomorrow off as a precaution, haven't decided yet. Definitely done with these old shoes, will switch to the new ones on my next run.

Strategy is to choose health over miles right now. Nothing would be worse than suffering a major injury after we're only a few weeks into the year. I've got plenty of time to make up the miles and I'm actually well ahead of plan for the year anyway.

Off day to heal the weird pains

Switched to new shoes today (Nike Pegasus) from my Vomeros that had 860+ mi on them. I don't know if it was the new shoes or the day off yesterday or both, but my legs felt great on the run. No tightness in my knee or pains around the ankles/feet like I've had over the past week or so. Pretty exciting.

I'm thinking I need a better strategy for recovery. Honestly, right now I don't really have one other than take a day off when I feel an injury coming on. I think my body does best with a day off about once every two weeks. Need to make a schedule that allows me to get the mileage I want and still get that day off every other week. Prob just need to mix in one longer run per week or an extra two a day. I think it'll work better than no days off.

Great run. No issues. Guess I should have switched shoes earlier after all.

Slept til 2pm today! I guess I was tired! Felt great on the run today after taking the day off yesterday. Stinks to only get 43 miles this week, but hey, my body is feeling great and I've already surpassed my mileage for all of January last year...with a week to go! So I'd call that a win. I'm also ahead of pace to reach my goal of 2,500 mi this year.

Got lots of errands to get done tomorrow. Hopefully I can find some time to get some good mileage in!

Afternoon - 8 mi

Evening - 4 mi

Very productive day for me! Got a haircut, did laundry and grocery shopping, studied for two and a half hours for PMP class (I'm preparing to take the PMP exam), and cooked dinner and watched my Hawks win their 16th straight game! I'm trying to get tickets to the Golden State game in a couple weeks, that will be epic. Was hoping to do taxes as well, but couldn't find time. Oh yeah, and most importantly, got two runs in!

Felt really good on both runs. Only complaint is I've got some soreness in sole of my left foot. Doesn't feel too serious, hopefully just feet adjusting to new shoes. Legs feel great as well as cardio. Glad I got this week off to a good start. My 13 miles last Sunday allowed me to clear 40 mi while taking two recovery days. This week, I should be able to get 50 pretty easily and maybe take a shot at 60 if I'm feeling good.

Another one of those sluggish start/strong finish runs. Legs left great, left foot felt all better. Hopefully this bodes well for a good mileage week. I think 60 should be in the cards.

Felt great! Lots of pop in my legs and no pains anywhere.

Went over 200 mi for the month, making it my best January since college. Previous best was 198 mi in 2013. I'm on pace to have my second best month since college, second only to my mileage last month. So undoubtably, I'm in the best shape I've been in since college, almost 8 years ago at this point. Great feeling.

Good run, legs felt great again though I was a little fatigued. I need to start getting more sleep. Was a late night at work though so didn't get home until 8:30 and needed some time to eat and digest before my run. Def need to catch up on some sleep this weekend and then get in a better sleep routine.

Felt great! Prob the best run of the year!

Felt great. Tempting to go for the 70 mi week tomorrow. Maybe I'll see how I feel on the run and decide then whether to go the extra miles.

Decided to stick to the plan and just get my 60+ mi week. 5 mi today felt great and should allow to get in some good mileage tomorrow that will set me up for 70+ mi for the week. My whole body is feeling tremendous right now. Some adaptations have def taken place.

Had a great January of running to start the year. Well ahead of my goal pace, but also some other milestones:

-First back-to-back 200+ mi months (since college, all of these milestones have the caveat of "since college")

-2nd most miles in a month

-Most mileage in January and first time over 200 miles in January

-Increased longest streak of 40+ mi weeks to 14 straight weeks

I think the last one is the one I'm most proud of because it speaks to the improvement in consistency. Also, the resilience in the face of some adversity this month (sickness, some pain issues). Running every day is back to being a habit for me and that makes it much easier. Looking forward to a great rest of 2015!

Afternoon - 6 mi

Evening - 5 mi

Worst play call in the history of sports...that's all I have to say about that

Bad run today. Felt gassed from the beginning, no cardio. Still, I thought I'd gut out 7 or 8 but near the end the top of my right foot started bothering me, like I tweaked a toe or something so I decided to cut it short. Hopefully a better run tomorrow!

Much better run today. Started kinda tough but got a bit easier as I went. Best part was my foot felt 100%.

Best run of the year! Got off work early today so I got my run in earlier than normal and I think that helped. Still a little behind the pace for my goal mileage of 70 this week, but not much. Should still be able to get there.

Afternoon - 9.5 mi

Evening - 5 mi

Missed the last two days. First time missing consecutive days in months.

My excuses: spent all Thursday after work studying for my PMP midterm (got a 70 unfortunately, but mentor says that's good?). Friday, went to the Hawks/Warriors game with Carmen which was awesome because the Hawks won!

So excuses are crappy cause I could have done better planning to accommodate runs on both days. It is great to think though how far I've come when I'm dissatisfied with a 50+ mi week. Ok, tomorrow starts another bid for the elusive 70+ mi week!

Picture of Carmen and I at the game (apparently photo embed is not iOS friendly?):

https://flic.kr/p/r6rC7z

Afternoon - 9 mi

Evening - 5.5 mi

300 MILES! Earliest I've ever reached that milestone in the year by far. 29 miles in the past two days is the most I've done in two days in a while as well. Legs are feeling sore, but it's a good sore. No serious pains.

Off to a good start to the week. Let's see if I can avoid getting derailed this week and take advantage. Nothing on my radar right now that should get in the way.

Legs felt really sore at the beginning of the run but I felt better as I got into it. Definitely feeling the miles from the past few days though. That 14.5 mi on Saturday (which isn't part of this week's mileage) is not exactly the lead-in you want for your first 70+ mi week in a while. Hopefully later in the week that mileage will be far enough behind me that my legs will recuperate a bit. Still confident I can get 70, but I can already tell it won't be as easy as I thought yesterday.

Run was exactly the opposite of yesterday's run. Started out feeling great and it got tougher as I went. In the end though, same result, 9 more miles and still in good shape for 70 this week!

Tough run. Maybe feeling a little burnout from all the mileage. I've now done 56 miles in the past 5 days. That's probably the most I've done in such a short period in years.

Good news is I don't feel any injury type pain. It's all just fatigue/soreness type stuff or what I think of as "good pain".

I was also looking through my log and today is also 5 straight days of 9 or more miles. Previously this year, I have not had more than two 9+ mile days consecutively. So this is a good streak of higher mileage days for me.

I also went over 40 miles for the week already so my streak of 40+ mi weeks continues to 16 straight weeks. I never had more than 4 straight 40+ mi weeks in the previous 12 months.

Hawks lost a heartbreaker tonight in Boston on a buzzer beater. Couldn't believe it. They had a 14 pt lead with 7 min left and they blew it. So that sucked, but the good news of the day was Korver made the All-Star team because Wade is out with an injury. So now the Hawks have 4 All-Stars (no other team has more than 2). I'm really happy for Kyle cause he's an older guy and had never made it before and there's a good chance this could be his last chance. Plus, he's having an amazing season with 50%+FG,90%+FT, and 50%+ 3PT FG. Best shooter I've ever seen hands down.

Hell yeah! Felt great from start to finish on today's run! Like a completely different person from yesterday...and I have NO IDEA why!

Who cares! 6 straight 9+ mi days...I think my body is starting to adapt to 9/day as the status quo

Started out a little sluggish but felt good by the end of the run. 75 miles in the past 7 days and 7 straight days of 9+ mi! Only need 9.5 mi tomorrow to reach my 70 mi goal for this calendar week!

Also, today I booked a trip to Atlantis in Nassau for Carmen and I in June. Gotta keep working out and get that beach bod haha

Afternoon - 6.5 mi

Evening - 3.5 mi

70+ MILES! Hell yeah!

Good week last week.  Hoping to now keep the mileage in the 70s for a few weeks in a row.  Didn't get off to the best start to the week with only 9 today, but I felt a bit fatigued from the 85 miles in the past 8 days.  Decided to wait until a little later this week to do the heavy lifting in mileage.

I was pretty productive today otherwise though.  Did laundry, studied two chapters for PMP and went food shopping and cooked dinner with Carmen.  Carmen has tomorrow off for the holiday, I do not.  Very jealous.  Going to be a busy week at work I think.  Ugh.

Felt excellent. Tightened up a bit the last mile or so but otherwise a great run. It's so awesome how much stronger I've become. Really psyched.

So glad Leeza won on Apprentice. I think if Geraldo "won" I probably would have never watched the show again.

Felt great! I surpassed my Feb 2014 mileage today and I'm now averaging 9 miles per day in Feb. My legs honestly feel like I took the day off. Amazing.. Gotta keep this momentum going.

Felt terrible at the start but stronger as I went. Really glad I didn't wimp out at the start and hung in there cause it got much easier after the first few miles. Early to bed tonight!

Another great run. Feeling strong.

Worst run in the last few weeks due to working late last night and not getting enough sleep. Gotta get better about being disciplined with my sleep schedule.

Afternoon - 8 mi

Evening - 5 mi

Back to back 70 mi weeks! I'm psyched! Gotta keep it going!

Afternoon - 4.5mi

Evening - 6.25 mi

Felt pretty gassed on both runs, but sucked it up and got some decent mileage in. Went over 200 miles for the third consecutive month. Prior to 2014, I hadn't had a single month over 200 mi since college so three straight months is really saying something.

Carmen and I met with a realtor today. Pretty exciting. We're going to go look at houses next weekend. This has got to be one of the most "adult" things we've ever done! Hope we find something good!

Felt great on the run. I think the two a days were why I felt crappy yesterday. A good 24 hr recovery and I'm feeling great again.

Felt crappy on the whole run today, possibly cause I didn't sleep real soundly last night for some reason (didn't feel tired at all today though). I'm really happy though that I sucked it up and gutted out the mileage. Def a blog title affirming run today.

Evening - 8.5 mi

Late Evening - 6 mi

I got home around 3pm from work today due to the weather so I was able to get my run in much earlier than usual. I decided to take advantage of the unique opportunity and get some extra mileage on a second run later in the evening.

I felt pretty great on both runs. It'll be interesting to see how the run feels tomorrow after today's mileage. If it feels good, maybe I'll take a shot at 80 mi this week.

Felt great at first but got tough at the end. Will sleep well tonight for sure.

Run was pretty good most of the way but my right leg tightened up a bit towards the end and I tought it would be best to play it safe as stop and not push it. Anyway, big day tomorrow starting at 10am!

Great day! Carmen and I did our first house hunting! We found one that we really liked and actually made an offer! We'll hear back by 7pm tomorrow. Very excited. We also started Season 3 of House of Cards.

Run felt good today. Got my third straight 70+ mi week, third straight 200+ mi month and wrapped up my best month of training since college. It was my second most mileage for a month, but my highest mileage per day average for a month (since it's Feb, the shortest month). I only missed two days of running this month and I've on a 22-day streak right now and feeling pretty healthy and strong.

I'm going to start looking for a 10K race to test out my wheels. Would like to do it in the next couple of weeks. I'm hoping I can go sub-35 on the merit of my mileage alone. Haven't done any speed work. I'm thinking I'll prob do Peachtree this year too, its been a few years since I last did it so it would be cool to see if I can improve my time (need to look up what that was!).

Felt pretty good on the run but was a bit strapped for time between finishing all of House of Cards Season 3 and studying for PMP. Gonna be a busy week at work too so going to have to be diligent with my time management to keep this 70+ mi/week going.

Oh also, over 500 MILES! Pretty great total for the first 60 days. It was just a few years ago that I did 835 mi for the entire year! And I'm way ahead of pace for my goal of 2,500 mi this year. Already built myself a nice 90+ mi buffer on that pace. Gotta keep it going through March Madness (that's what we're calling this month at work due to everything we need to get done...but the bball will be good too).

Felt good but was rushing to meet Mike and Eric at the Bird.

Felt tired and almost didn't do a run at all. Need to get some good rest and have a better run tomorrow.

Felt great after several days off. Disappointed that my streak of 40+ mi weeks came to an end. Crazy stressful week. Hope to do better next week.

Not a great start to the week! Had a splitting headache and just didn't feel great. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Couldn't sleep well last night. Prob because I slept 11 hours on Saturday night haha and DST I think is messing with me a bit. Too much work stuff on my mind too. Anyway, I didn't feel tired at all today or I was just too busy to notice.

Run was pretty good, hopefully get myself back to my previous mileage soon. Work is super exhausting right now.

Felt great, one of the best runs of the year. Perhaps the day off yesterday helped. I worked really late and didn't have time to get in a run. Need to string together a few good days in a row now. Gonna be tough all this month with work.

Good run today, looks like my MO is going to be fewer runs with longer distance this month since I'm having trouble finding time to run this month. It's not looking good for my streak of 200+ mi months. I'm gonna have to step it up the rest of the way to try and extend it.

What a great day! The run was good, but the best part was Carmen and I went to an open house today, made an offer and got it! I'm psyched, just crossing my fingers it passes the inspection!

Yes, the wheels came off last week. Work just took it out of me. Hopefully just another week or so and things will stop being so crazy. Will try to get back in the saddle with my running this week!

Ugh I'm so out of shape. 5 miles yesterday and I was sore all day. Run today felt pretty good though so hopefully I can get back on track.

Ugh still so out of shape. So depressing how badly a couple crappy weeks can set you back! Oh well, just gotta start building back up!