Hm, Days Past?

Strange. It's not like I've been doing all that much.

I did have my last 4x400 workout yesterday before I move up to 4x600's starting tomorrow, which went quite well. I can now say I can officially run as fast as I did in high school, sort of. The sort of being I was running the sprints with 200 yard rests in between, whereas in high school as part of the mile I would have ran the 1600 all at once. But my times are comparable. So once I build up the endurance, wahoo. That was the first workout I ever really cramped up afterwards, like it even hurts to sit down because your hamstrings are just dying. I've been doing really good stretching sessions both before and after the workouts though, so there isn't any soreness. I still get occasional soreness in my shins, but almost always because I'm running on pavement for long periods rather than the track. Either that or at the very beginning of the warmup, before I've properly stretched and such. I'm very happy about my progress.

Upcoming weeks get pretty ugly. The setup is Tuesday Thursday Saturday Sunday, with Thursday and Sunday being the heavier workouts of 4x400 for example last week, and Tuesday and Saturday being shorter speed workout such as 1x400, 1x300, 1x200, 1x100. Sounds easy, but if you're really bookin it, it's still pretty draining. That and you have to tack on a mile or two afterward as a warmdown, which is really good for getting used to running while absolutely dead. It doesn't really leave any time for seeing how my 1.5 mile time improves as I go, but it should be pretty obvious as the workouts lengthen. This week I go to 4x600, and then as the weeks pass it goes to 4x800 (this should be bad), 4x1000 (this should definitely be the worst one), 8x400, and 8x600 (um, gasp). The final two weeks of the schedule I've been working at actually tone down the workouts, maybe to just maintain the level of endurance rather than overdo it. Basically has you run the first rep at top speed, literally race pace, and then still do a few more lengthy reps after that, such as 1x1000, 1x1000, 1x300, or the final one of 1x1400, 1x1000. One thing I should mention is in these later weeks the rest period between the reps is a mere 25 or 50 meters, whereas in previous weeks such as the 4x1000 the rest was up to 400 meters. Basically as the distances increase, the rests decrease. Easy way to build endurance I suppose. So somewhere down the line in about 7 weeks I should be in pretty awesome shape when it comes to running the 1x2400 (1.5 mile) I'll be scored on.

Hm, have I babbled enough about running yet, yeah I suppose.

Meanwhile I'm sticking to my reading schedule, although I have a bunch to catch up on this weekend. I felt pretty trashy today, think I missed a day of Centrum a couple days ago and got your typical common cold. Did get some sun in, and got a really funny squarish shaped sunburn in the middle of my back where I guess I couldn't reach with the lotion. It's small though, just kinda funny.

I went over and bought all the graduation stuff required, including announcements, the cap and gown rental, the diploma cover, and all the stuff they end up basically forcing you to buy with it. I also decided to splurge on a ring, for as I also said in high school when I bought that one, I'll probably only buy three rings in my life, one of which I won't even get to wear, so I might as well buy the other two. It's dang spiff if you ask me, but of course won't get shipped until just before graduation, so I can't enjoy it just yet. Hearing all the workers over there say congratulations to me like eighty times for graduating sort of caused it to start sinking in, but given how much work I have left to do, I don't think it'll be until the end of that last final that I can truly enjoy it. Meanwhile, rise, run, rep, eat, class, read, sleep, repeat as necessary.

Man, I slept like ten hours last night, took at least a three hour nap, and am now probably going to easily sleep through the night again. I really need to get better and get back into eight hours a day and feeling great.