May 26 — June 1
Yesterday, I ran a 5:20 at the Marin Mile. It’s a fun, local race. There aren’t many opportunities to race on the track at this age, so it’s nice to have an event to help focus on the mile PR. While I managed to win my heat, I went out way too fast (lap times: 72s, 78s, 84s, 84s).
Better pacing and track spikes I think should give me another 10 seconds. Then another cycle of speed work will hopefully bring the rest.
I’ve gotten the idea that I would like to:
- Run a sub-5 minute mile
- Re-qualify for the Boston Marathon (sub 2:55)
This is in addition to continuing to lift roughly 5 days each week.
Training
I took things a bit easier this week in preparation for the mile. I wanted to be sure that I went into the race with fresh legs.
My last major effort before the race was Monday on the bike. I’ve been cycling a bit more often after re-reading How to Skate a 10k by Olympic Gold Medalist Nils van der Poel. Nils was a speed skater, but he shockingly did not spend much of his training time skating. Instead, he worked up to 33 hours of cycling each week (mostly on a stationary bike!) to build a massive cardio base.
This week also marks the completion of my 4-week heavy lifting cycle. This is the final part of a 3-month lifting program that progresses from 10-15 reps at lighter weight in the first month to 6-10 reps at heavier weight in the final month. I will be restarting the program on Monday.
Health metrics
This week was not the best for sleep, but not too bad. I had a few days around the 7.5 hour mark that brought down the average.
Languages
I am currently on Unit 8 of 22 of Section 2 (A1) of Duolingo’s French course. I completed 16 lessons to finish Unit 7 this week, but it was generally a lighter week for me.
What I read
A post about getting Terraria and Celeste running in the browser.
An interview with a cinematographer on Andor. I’ve only seen the first few episodes, but this encouraged me to continue watching.
Waymo has allegedly overtaken Lyft in San Francisco.
Japan Post launches a way to enter a seven-digit code for shipping instead of an address.
For fun, I’ve been reading Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series. This week, I finished Gardens of the Moon and started Deadhouse Gates. I did not make any progress on non-fiction books this week.