This is the the daily run, which is the start of a larger plan to improve the individual holistically (another post will eventually cover this). My goal with this post is to update it every single day with what I ran, thoughts on the run, and other miscellaneous ideas. Records can be accessed on strava here.
Update on 01/13/25: This page will most likely be changed to a 6 days run and 1 day strength workout per week (no longer a “daily” run), but the intent is still the same. Run faster, get fitter, build habits.
04/25/25, Day 78: 3.07mi easy. First day back after the half. Honestly don’t know what to feel. It’s been a bit weird, but running again feels good. I have been thinking a lot about what I want to do about running going forward, and I am still in a limbo.
Sometimes it is just better to not think and just do. In this case, I believe that I can continue running daily or close to that without taking up too much time in life. Life is made up of a whole bunch of decisions, and I am able to shift that to my advantage to not only run more but be more productive than before. See you tomorrow i guess
04/18/25, Day 77: 13.26mi ALL OUT! 1:48:24, Beijing Half Marathon, what a ride. So many people, which was a good and bad thing. I think overall this sort of race environment is the best to bring out the best in anyone. Great atmosphere, cheering, support, big crowds, clogged paths, weaving through people. This race had it all.
The pacing went absolutely amazing, apart from around mile three. Took a tight turn into a busy road, so all the runners were confined to a side lane. A single lane supporting tens of thousands of runners is definitely not ideal, and I had no choice but to slow down. With everything said and done though, if I had gone out at my original pace before this, I might have blown up by the end. So maybe in the end it was a good thing for my pacing. Ultimately though, literally perfect negative splits coming out, mile by mile. Cannot be more proud of myself and I definitely put everything out there for this race.
Before the slowdown, all I was thinking about was hitting 5:30km splits. Worked out not bad, and when I found myself with room to breathe I was only around 20 seconds behind that. I continued to aim for 5:30 splits, but as the k’s went by I started doing some 5 minute kms, so I switched to aiming for that. By the last 5km, I started to hit some 4:30’s and last km I gave everything I had. Worked out perfectly, and shoutout to Alex and Alice for being at the finish line to support me. Extremely grateful for them taking the time out of the day for me.
What’s in store for the future? I have thought long and hard about this, and I feel that overall, running is too much of a time sink at the moment. Very unfortunate to say this but it is the truth. Right now I am studying abroad, and to take 2 hours of my day every weekday in the gym is just removing time from other things I want to accomplish.
The thing is, as I have mentioned earlier, is that running is more than just the time spent exercising. It seeps into your life in so many different ways: Consuming running content, recovery, injury prevention/stretching, watching what you eat with running in mind, thinking about workouts, the list goes on. What I am saying is that there is time spent outside, whether that be actual time spent doing stuff or time spent mentally. The idea of stress, of allostatic load.
I am the type of person who wants to do something good, something thorough if I commit to it, and I felt as if preparation for the half marathon for the past 3 weeks took so much out of me. Yes, now that I have done it it will not be as all-consuming if I do it again. But in China? While in school? While looking for a job?
In my current scope, I have things more important to me at the moment. Learning Chinese, research, exploring. I have realized that above all, I cannot mentally balance all of these things. In the broader scope, I also have things that I deem more important, mainly research and jobs.
That being said, here is the plan moving forward: No more races until I figure out my life. However, I will still try to run. While I feel I cannot live without exercise, I will not let it take over my life. Imagine if I had the mental effort to put in 1, 2 hours to research/job hunting. Thus, I will slowly figure out a schedule where I can incorporate running/exercise, but not make it a main priority.
Just realized that today is day 77 of this post, a lucky day I guess. At this point I honestly don’t know when the next day will be, but so be it. Maybe more posts will come with diary entries and no running, who knows? What about new post, the daily blog? We shall see. Thanks to anyone tuning in.
04/18/25, Day 76: 3.22mi easy. Further taper, and tomorrow just going to get in some walking.
Picked up my half marathon kit today, pretty exciting. Got a picture on the name wall, and I love the shirt they gave us. Overall very hyped, but need to keep shifting my sleep schedule.
04/17/25, Day 75: 4.36 mi easy. On the taper now, not much to say.
04/15/25, Day 74: 8.90mi workout. Around 6 miles at first half marathon pace and <2 miles a bit fister (~8:30/mi) pace. Last workout before the marathon, feeling really solid. Stomach a bit wacky after the run, hopefully that doesn’t happen 10 miles in on race day…
First time getting subungual hematoma. Honestly surprised I haven’t gotten it earlier, but now my right second toe kind of stings if I put pressure on it. Not the most optimal, but glad I know this now. Going to trim the nail and obviously have a very easy day tomorrow. Looking at 3-4 miles only.
Getting rid of the consecutive days counter. Just watched a video on the importance of recovery for not just running, but for managing overall stress in the body, or allostatic load. It kind of introduced me to the idea of stress not as a psychological state but an actual biological condition that can be measured by cortisol, hormones, or other substances in the body.
Ultimately, all the consecutive days counter does is promote an obsession instead of building a healthy habit. Now this does not mean that removing it is a sign of slacking in any way; I don’t plan on resting any less than what I do now, at least for now. I think that when people acknowledge this scientific grounding and understanding they start to make more excuses just because they believe they are more knowledgeable. I am no expert in this, so I don’t plan on changing anything right now.
04/14/25, Day 73: 4.72mi easy. Felt not bad today, was doing a bit of nose breathing not out of any intent but it just felt natural. I don’t know the full reason, but partially maybe because the pace is getting easier, not just physically but mentally.
Tomorrow I am going to run a moderate long/tempo type run, most likely 9 miles with 6 at marathon pace and 3 miles pickup. Maybe 8 miles, but I just want to simulate the start of the race until after halfway in order to test gels. Very late in training and from what I looked up I should already be tapering, but I don’t care to be honest. Work harder not smarter I guess.
04/13/25, Day 72: 6.50mi easy. Great day, I think I am more rested than yesterday. Heartrate was extremely consistent and low. I also believe that I will listen to music on the run, specifically one song called “Endless Torture” by Wayne Bergeron on repeat. I feel really good and I’m excited for the race, my gels just need to come in so I can test them.
04/12/25, Day 71: 5.50mi easy. Very confusing day. The body felt very lethargic and slow, but cadence was fine and heartrate was surprisingly low. In part probably because it’s cooler now due to strong winds in the area, but I felt good about it. 141 bpm average but it is still on a constant rise on the graph, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing. I thought threshold is where you can maintain a certain heartrate for about an hour, but maybe slowly rising is fine too.
04/11/25, Day 70: 5.82mi easy. When easy doesn’t feel that easy what do you do one week out from your race? Pray I guess, and get the miles in.
Getting very windy and apparently going to have a huge dust/wind storm coming into Beijing these next couple of days. Was hoping to get my final long run in on Sunday, but most likely have to move it to Monday, and even that might not be possible. The problem is that I want to get this long run in outside, preferrably at the Olympic Park. I need to gauge how pacing really feels with mile/km markers and not just relying on watch pace or treadmill pace. I cannot do the long run on Tuesday, that is just too close the the race.
After searching up some stuff, I realize that it is actually closer than I think. Apparently a long run exactly 1 week out from the race is too close and I should already be about to start a taper. Honestly though I don’t care about that so I’m just going to run it. If the wind is bad I will do it on the treadmill instead.
After running for 50+ days on a treadmill, I can confidently say that I am still confused about the treadmill distance. In theory it should be exact because it should be very simple to calculate the distance as a function of rotations of the tread over a certain period of time. Of course this is not the case and I realize that calibration errors can completely alter paces.
Going to add a section about how I feel on this blog after watching a little video on habits. I have been kind of doing this already, but I want this to be like a nighttime relaxing routine in a way. Today was a very uneventful day. I feel like I got a couple things right as in getting random stuff I have been ignoring done, such as washing clothes, buying stuff from my list, getting a haircut, cleaning up. Other than that though, nothing notable apart from my morning run. Tomorrow should be a full study day for me, no slacking.
04/10/25, Day 69: 6.82mi cut down workout. 2 miles 9 pace, 2 miles 8:45, 1 mile 8:30. A good little workout before my half marathon next weekend. Tried to simulate a bit the latter half of the race, where I hope to pull off a negative split after the first half at 9 minute pace. Definitely my last workout before the race as well. One more long run to go and a bit of taper and then the race! Need to remember to order final gels and stuff.
Been running a harder because of the upcoming race obviously, but another big reason is just to forget the pain. My mind just feels so clear and free of everything else in life. Youtube videos are are good edition as well. Been an emotional rollercoaster couple of weeks and hopefully everything will be over come racetime.
04/09/25, Day 68: 6.53mi easy. Going harder now. Yep. Half marathon training, yep. More like further not necessarily harder. Yep…
Avengers are starting to break up :( Feels bad but that is just the way of things. Just realized that some friends have planned a trip to Korea, and I want to go to Korea too, but I don’t want to go with them. Feels bad
04/08/25, Day 67: 9.94mi long run + marathon pace miles for last 30min. We are so back. Did not do any running in 西安 due to other reasons. I keep making the excuse that traveling is higher priority than running and therefore do not end up running on weekends, but it is the truth. I feel like as a person, I am growing so much emotionally during study abroad as well as learning so much about China and its culture, which definitely takes precedence over running.
The run felt really good today. Getting in a longer session is important, as well as trying new gels. The honey stinger seems like a pretty good candidate for the half marathon. Although my heartrate was kind of high, I have confidence going into the marathon for at least a reasonable goal such as sub 2 hours. Going to go with one more long run probably on the weekend, around half marathon distance. One more speed session will probably help as well, but something more chill like tempo miles. Other than that probably going to run mostly easy next week before the marathon.
04/03/25, Day 66: 4.31mi easy. Felt really happy today for some reason. Partially because I was stretching and felt considerable progress. Not much else to say buy I’m constantly thinking about training, which is a good and bad thing, and I am also worried about injury.
Not sure what I’m going to do when it comes to training while in Xi’an but we’ll see.
04/02/25, Day 65: 6.20mi tempo, including fast mile to end it off. Crazy fast workout today, my heart was absolutely racing compared to all the miles I’ve had on the treadmill. Shoutout to Jeston. Running with someone definitely does make you faster, but I also feel that running outside is so different than on the treadmill. My heartrate was going crazy at similar paces I have done on the treadmill, but that also just be because I am considerably sick today. Running with someone else was the only reason I pushed this hard, in that case.
I did not finish the update from yesterday, but mainly just wanted to say two things. First, I cannot find a way out of this constant cycle of half-sickness and constantly rolling the dice due to all the traveling over the weekend. I end up not running, and I also have a chance to get sick, like yesterday and basically today.
Second, I got into the Beijing Half Marathon! Got lucky through the raffle, but I did not expect this much excitement going into the race. I’ve started planning out race kits, fueling, and thought more thoroughly than ever before about training leading up to it. The race is on April 20th, so I barely have any time to train, and I am seriously worried about treading the line between the most amount I can improve by training and the increased risk of injury. I have always wanted to do training the right way, but the lack of time is dissapointing. In a way it is a bit toxic; I shouldn’t treat this race as the final destination, but something that’s a part of the journey to becoming a better runner. I think amateur runners get stuck in a mindset of aspriring for a lofty time and a perfect marathon race. I should just be glad to run it and have a fun time.
Just wanted to mention that this post is officially 4 months old. With officially around 65 days of running, I think so far my progress has been a succes. It’s crazy to think that on average I have been consistently running for around half the days of the week. Unfortunately, it does not feel like I have progressed. I am going to work on making a stats section at the top of this post, automatically recording average mileage as well as other metrics.
04/01/25, Day 64.5: No running today but I wanted to jot down a little update.
03/31/25, Day 64: 5.18mi easy. Tragedy strikes yet again. Long weekends out traveling, no time for running unfortunately. I just have so little sleep that I cannot transfer any more of my time to running while traveling. Honestly feels so detrimental to the progress that I make during the weekdays. That being said, there is a priority that I maintain while studying abroad, and exploring comes before running. I am therefore confident in my decisions and don’t regret the lack on consistent running.
There are ways to improve, though. First of all, I have to be sure that my weekdays are dialed in to whatever I need to do outside of traveling. That means healthy food, proper rest and recovery, academics, and of course running. There is a lot of both mental and physical effort to get that done.
03/27/25, Day 63: 4.85mi easy with strides. Feeling not bad. I think there is progress, but it is very slow. Makes sense though. I see all the videos of people running at 6 something easy pace, and it literally blows me away how many levels there are between us. The body is an amazing thing, and the only way to get to that level is to constantly work.
03/26/25, Day 62: 5.55mi workout. 5x1k at around 8min/mi(5min/km) with 2 min rest in between. 10 min warmup and 5 min cooldown. I kind of just made up the workout while warming up beforehand. It’s good that I got this session in. Honestly I feel like a bit more intensity in my runs, and just doing a daily 40 minute run at around 9:30 pace won’t cut it. Obviously I should not ramp up too fast; I am honestly not as worried about getting injured, but more about investing too much time too early, making me feel burned out and thus stop running. Sometimes motivation causes one to become to excited too fast and thus not be able to pace themselves for the larger picture.
Workout felt ok, definitely was not running at an all out effort, which concerns me somewhat? I think workout sessions should take the most out of someone and even more so if they are doing it by themselves. I will keep that in mind for later, since now I think one harder session plus a long run is more than enough to accelerate my aerobic gains.
03/25/25, Day 61: 4.97mi easy. Ok I am finally back. Took a long trip to Suzhou for the weekend. I need to be better when it comes to running while on trips. Yesterday, I also fell into the trap of doing homework last minute, preventing me from going on a run. Three days away from running and I was already itching to get back out there.
I finally understand why I don’t have a training status, and that’s because the runs have to be recorded outdoors with GPS tracking. Honestly that does not really make sense, I am going to look more into why this is the case, since the only reason I can find is that they don’t trust the data recorded indoors. I am thinking about switching to Coros once I do get a new watch anyways.
Going to Qingdao starting Thursday, so I am going to have to find a way to run starting on Friday while I am out. Gonna be very fun.
I have also been mildly sick for a while now. I think that I contracted something starting late last week, like Thursday, and it is just not going away. One of those stubborn sicknesses that won’t leave your system. Symptoms include stuffy nose, irritated throat sometimes, and that’s about it.
03/21/25, Day 60: 4.41mi easy. Another easy day in the books. No workout today though, nor any for the past week.
One thing that I have made progress on in the past week is being consistent. Before, I was skipping runs because I had homework due on that day, but I think I am currently more responsible in that aspect. Part of it is also ignoring my work though and just going to run. It gives me a good sense of urgency in a way.
Right now I am working on having a clear cut workout schedule for the week. Currently most of my runs have been just easy running for around 40 minutes plus some strides. I think that with all the other things going on in the day, especially this past couple of days, I have not had time to think about the kind of workouts I would incorporate in the week. When I have homeworks, a quiz, and a trip to plan for, I just want to go to the treadmill and run for a bit without thinking. There is also the factor of not wanting to be tired for the rest of the day, expecially when the day is extremely busy. But of course, if I need to get faster, I need more stimulus. That will be the plan for next week.
I recently watched a couple of great videos from a professor at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. They are fairly obscure, with only a couple thousand views max, but I got a lot of great insight. One thing he quoted was that people tend to overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in 10. He said that you first make a broad goal for the future, such as a publication by the end of the year. But from this goal is where you derive your small decisions. Your small decisions are guided by your greater goal.
This makes so much sense in any sort of context. Whenever you make a decision, it should be thought through. If I have a goal to run a half marathon, why would I decide in the moment to eat McDonald’s? Change is derived from the accumulation of many tiny decisions. So if I want to write a paper, I have to constantly decide to take those small steps to get there.
03/20/25, Day 59: 4.65mi easy. Pace was 12:01/mi because I forgot to stop my watch. Still don’t know why there is no current training status on my Garmin app. I have been going consistent for a while now, so I need to look into that. It also is a good thing at the same time because there is proof on this blog of me complaining about the training status being stupid. Now that I am being consistent though, I believe that it would show good results.
03/19/25, Day 58: 4.95mi easy. Sore today, my glutes definitely felt sore but not that much during the run. Mostly stretching afterwards was an experience. Triad to do some strides today, but as soon as I increased speed, but right knee started complaining. I immediately stopped the run after that. Sometimes you can’t risk any more, especially after heavy squatting the day before.
Heartrate was a little high as well. I will attribute it to an ongoing mini cold I have at the moment. Dry throat and stuffy nose at the moment, hopefully I get better soon. A lot of people are getting sick in China right now and I hope to avoid the worst of it (even though I got food poisoning already).
Going to EDC this weekend; The strength workout was partially for this, as I wanted to benchmark my squat strength and consequently just work on everything else as well. However, I also have a homework, quiz, and research proposal due before the trip and another homework due after. I feel like going on trips on the weekend is a good plan while abroad while locking in on academics throughout the week. Easy to say but tough to do.
03/18/25, Day 57: Gym workout today. Basically a full body workout, including tris, bis, pull ups, bench, pec flys, shoulders/lats and squat. This might become somewhat of a norm now. It seems pretty worth it to add a workout day and decide to take a rest day from running. If not, I can still do a workout + short run day as well. I am thinking Saturdays/Sundays are best, so I don’t have to worry about the 10am limit. I can do a condensed full body workout/strength and conditioning for legs plus a short 30 minute easy run or something. The problem is that I don’t want to do the workout before my long run, so I can only do long runs on Saturday into workout Sunday. Doesn’t seem like the most flexible schedule but we will see.
03/17/25, Day 56: 4.86mi easy with strides. Felt really good honestly, better than expected after a long run. Muscles are noticeably fatigued, but my heartrate was feeling really good.
Maybe I should write these posts at the end of the day. I usually have more to say when the day is over, not just about running but about miscellaneous things. Posting right after a run in the morning means I can’t think of more to say, especially when the previous day’s events have already long passed.
03/16/25, Day 55: 8.50mi long run. As expected, I had to skip yesterday due to too long of activities. In the end, I think it’s a good thing. Running should definitely not stop me from having some fun, at least in this stage of my running. I also got a lot of walking in yesterday at Universal Studios Beijing. Also, a single day break is pretty good right now to prevent overtraining.
Overall very good first long run. I felt locked in the entire time and my heartrate was pretty steady throughout. I ended up increasing the speed just by a couple miniscule increments. I don’t know if others are doing this, but I am just limit testing how much I can push while keeping a steady heartrate. Of course, the long form videos are helping so much to pass the time. I watch a great podcast interview of Jake from Ran to Japan, which kept me going.
Since it’s a Sunday, I had complete freedom for how long I could be in the gym as opposed to the weekday 10am cutoff due to the class in the gym. As such, I spent a longer amount of time stretching and rolling. Rolling honestly helps more than I originally thought, and on the way back home, my muscles felt very loose and relaxed. Hopefully my stretching journey is progressing.
03/14/25, Day 54: 4.39mi easy. I am on my fourth consecutive day! Doing good this week, especially around all the homework and other stuff. However, this might end tomorrow due to club tonight into Universal Studios early tomorrow morning. We shall see if I can squeeze a run tomorrow evening.
Today did not really go as expected. Just an easy run at around and less than 9:30/mi pace. My heartrate started at 150 and climbed up to 160, which made me really worried. Not a good look for such a slow pace for me. There could be many things wrong, like I have said previously, but right now I will just get good rest, eat good food, and go easy on the runs until the long runnnnnnn
03/13/25, Day 53: 5.86mi, 5x4min at 8:30/mil threshold with 20 min warmup and 10 min cooldown. Wow these posts are finally looking like a running plan. I’m planning to do a 5k time trial as soon as there is a clear day outside; Right now the AQI forecast is not looking good until Monday. This worries me because I want to get in a long run, which is probably Sunday, and I don’t want to be exhausted on the day of the time trial. Can’t move the long run to Saturday most likely as well because of plans to go to Universal Studios or Zhangjiakou. We shall see.
In terms of the workout today, definitely not my best effort, but we are taking it easy today. 6:30/mi pace on the treadmill seems so fast that I couldn’t keep up at all. That is also why I want to go out on the track and time some runs. Anyways, that’s it for future plans.
03/12/25, Day 52: 4.32mi easy with 2 strides. Felt like my heartrate was abnormally high today for the pace. That’s fine, maybe it is just recovery from the shock of yesterday’s workout. It could also be a variety of other factors such as bad sleep, the alcohol I drank last night, etc.
Thinking about doing intervals tomorrow. A lot of factors have to go right, including the air quality as well as me finishing my homework. Most likely shouldn’t though. Shouldn’t add too much intensity at too fast of a rate.
I just realized that the half marathon was from last year (2024) and there isn’t actually one this year. I’m just wondering if I should sign up for another race; it seems that my commitment to training will increase if so.
03/11/25, Day 51: 5.22mi with 2x5min threshold at around 8:30-8:40/mi. Feeling good about my “first” workout. Probably should do longer periods for threshold since it was very slow. However, my heartrate didn’t really return to the previous level after which is interesting.
It just seems like I am doing random runs and workouts based on hearsay or whatever I want. This is probably fine for now because of how bad I am at running at the moment, but I need to find a systematic approach to building my running plan. I am starting to read a book on marathons called Advanced Marathoning by Pete Pfitzinger. So far I like the approach a lot more than Daniel’s book, but maybe that is just because of the format on the pdf book. Sometimes I wish I have the physical book; I feel like it is so much better for learning purposes to have a book that I can actually mark and take notes from more efficiently.
I am thinking of signing up for a half marathon starting next month. Registration opens up tomorrow, and some of my friends say I definitely should do it. However, I am worried about a couple things. First of all, I am worried about the air quality in Beijing. I won’t be able to predict how bad the air quality is on race day, but it will most likely be over 100. However, this is only a single race and I don’t think it will be too bad, especially since all of my training so far has been indoors. Second, I also have this perturbed idea of secretly improving and not racing/meeting others to improve my running. This idea of not racing until I have improved to an unreachable level is definitely not the most efficient way to improve, and it’s a boring way as well. Part of the reason for why I feel like I am not consistent enough is that I lack the community or running friends to keep me accountable. But at the same time, I also have the feeling that if I can’t personally keep myself accountable, am I really invested? Do I have the mental sharpness to build a single contructive habit?
Tough things to think about, but at the end of the day, one just needs to stop thinking as much and get things done. That’s what any of us should do, especially in during modern times.
03/09/25, Day 50.5: Ski weekend. Pretty fun. I was jumping on some hills, but it was probably just a few centimeters max. Anyways I’m glad I didn’t get injured, and I also did a black diamond labeled route. Snow here is definitely a lot different than what I am used to. Completely groomed runs, very icy. Could be because it is March already, but I don’t know.
03/07/25, Day 50: 4.75mi easy. New shoes are feeling a lot better today. I think it’s finally been broken in. Stretching is still progressing slowly, but I think I see progress. I have been trying out the one leg good mornings/elephant walk hamstring warmups, which are known for the “nerve flossing” for better stretching. I’m now also looking into a marathon that is in mid-April, and sign-ups start next week. I have some time to think if I really want to commit to something that big. I’m the type of person who wants to do something thoroughly if I commit to it. Sometimes this is a bad thing, as it prevents me from just starting outright. Sometimes starting is 50 percent of the job.
My watch has finally calibrated to the point where I see consistency across runs. Glad that is over with.
Tonight I’m heading out to go ski in Hebei, so I don’t really know what the plan is for runnning. I am also fairly scared about my right knee especially after the scare I had a couple days ago doing squats. Definitely going to focus on taking it easy on the slopes and being mindful.
03/05/25, Day 49: 5.60mi threshold workout? Or tempo, don’t really know the exact name. This is based on heartrate though, and my watch said that I was at threshold level which I assume is LT1. A pretty good workout today fueled by lingering anxiety over a girl…
I also happened to meet Ding Ning, a multiple time table tennis world champion. Crazy that I saw that she went to Peking University after retiring, but I didn’t know she stayed to teach. Really awesome moment.
03/04/25, Day 48: 4.38mi easy. Chill day today. I was basically very careful on my right knee since yesterday I felt it pinch a little bit while squatting. After that I immediately stopped squatting and tested out my knee. Today it is still going good, seems like I stopped before anything bad actually happened. Next time I need to be more careful going into an exercise too quickly, especially if I have previous experience and believe I can do more than current me’s strength.
Watch seems to be fixed which is nice. Need to make sure to enter statute units from now on.
03/03/25, Day 47: 4.41mi easy. Garmin watch is still messed up even though I tried resetting the recording units on both my watch and my app. Maybe this has to do with the lap recording, I heard somewhere mention that. But it suddenly just changed to recording kilometers which is very odd. I also added a consecutive days counter, which I think I mentioned before that I didn’t want to add. I’m just going to try it out for now.
I was going to implement a long run into my weekly workout, but Sunday ended up being an entire day outing. However, yesterday I was able to buy a new pair of running shoes! I got the Adidas adizero evo sl, which is a good daily trainer/tempo running shoe. It will be a good shoe for a 2 shoe rotation with my previous Saucony guide.
Also did a little leg/ab workout today.
03/01/25, Day 46: 5.03mi easy. Or so I believe. The Garmin is having the glitch again where it tracks the run in kilometers, but once the activity is saved the Garmin app shows the same numerical value but in miles. Today it put around 8 miles instead of 8 kilometers, so I had to delete today’s Strava again. A solution is to maybe go to the app and change the measurement units to metric and then back to statute. Hopefully this will work; I will see tomorrow.
02/26/25, Day 45: 3.51mi easy. Almost skipped out today. After yesterday’s workout I went to a boxing free trial lesson which was surprisingly exhausting. In hindsight it makes sense though. Today the strava got even more messed up. On a basic level it was the same mistake; basically I entered the kilometers into the manual input for miles. However, this time for some reason the garmin was recording in kilometers during the run. When I went to do the manual input, the only difference between the garmin time and my time seemed to be 500m. Yet, when I inputted it all the tracking software changed it to miles. As such I just took this run off my strava since I was getting PB’s on a couple distances. Hopefully by tomorrow I can figure out the solution.
Sometimes I feel no motivation to get up and run. Today I gave in, but later in the day found motivation to complete the run. This is definitely not sustainable for the future, especially as classes get more hectic and I have other priorities that I will need to attend to (more on this later).
02/25/25, Day 44: 3.84mi easy. Felt super good back from recovery. Still have a little ankle niggle that I will need to pay attention to again, but it is something I’ve seen before so not surprising. Accidentally put like 6.18 miles on my strava since the input in garmin is miles for the treadmill calibration, and the run was 6.18km, so I made a mistake and cannot change it. No worries though, it just seems like I ran 6.18 miles at 6:34 or something pace oops.
02/23/25, Day 43: Small workout today. Got food poisoning on 2/21, so yesterday didn’t do anything. Only did bench and tri today, just realized how bad the gym is apart from the treadmills.
Crazy how Haidilao can give food poisoning, but at this point I shouldn’t have any expectations about China. What also confuses me is that I was the only one who got food poisoning out of the group of 5. Must have just been a singular piece of something bad. Feeling a lot better today but yesterday was a mess. Hopefully I can get back to running by 2/25, but tomorrow seems like a bit of a stretch.
02/21/25, Day 42: 4.60mi easy with strides. 100th activity on Strava, that’s nice! When I watch a good video, time just flies by while running. Today I finished up Moonchannel’s video on why you always kill gods in JRPGs. I love his channel because it is a history channel disguised through the process of explaning the manifestations history has through modern culture and society. Pretty awkward way to explain it, but I feel so much more knowledgeable about why society in South Korea and Japan are functioning today through such an engaging and informational medium.
One collegiate runner and part time youtuber I watch, Yaseen Abdalla, really inspired me to do this. I was watching his vlogs leading up to the Paris Olympics, and I loved his treadmill he had in his house. He explained a little about the stigma around training on a treadmill as well as how he loved to watch TV shows while doing his easy runs. While I love TV shows, with no real way to watch it in China without paying, I am shifting mine to more constructive media. I hope to transition into listening to audiobooks as well as watching Chinese content to increase my Chinese input further.
02/20/25, Day 41: 4.14mi easy. Definitely easy this time. After a harder day yesterday, I really wanted to tone it down, especially to emphasize the idea of easier and hard days as I transition into a more systematic approach to training. Also, I had a little feeling of inflammation on the outer part of my left knee. Felt better after running more today, but obviously a good idea to take it easy.
Got to remind myself of the slow and steady pace of stretching. I have never held a habit of stretching because it is somewhat tought to record incremental progress; there are only big milestones that you realize after you achieve it. I try to convince myself that everyday I’m getting more flexible, but I can’t see the difference between one day and the next. That’s why building the habit is so important!
Went to probably one of the coolest classes today. A research seminar course with a semester long research project culminating in a student poster session involving various faculty. No one can hope for better in terms of talking to professors. Looking forward to that class but not all the other work from other classes.
02/19/25, Day 40: 4.13mi easier. Tried to monitor heartrate, but I slowly realized that my heartrate was climbing even though I was going at such a slow pace. Such is running at the early stages. Anyways, tried to keep heartrate low, then ended with some hill sprints. I find ending the run with strides or short hill sprints on the treadmill is great because running for long periods at a very specific pace lacks the variation that you find by running outside.
I am also stretching a lot more. I realized that one thing that I actually want to make headway in is flexibility, and it is something that will take a while to achieve. It makes sense that to actually enlongate the tendon/muscle, basic changes have to happen in a slow but steady process.
I also want to read more into structuring a running training plan. Anyyone can go online and see what the 2:05 marathon athlete is doing for his training in a day, but actual understanding and insight in building your own plan is a lot more complex.
02/18/25, Day 39: 3.78mi easy. Need to settle in and build some base/injury resistance. I accidentally reset the treadmill, so I did not do the save & calibrate feature this time, but tomorrow I will for sure. I have been focusing a lot on stretching both before and after the run for mobility and injury prevention as well. Feels very refreshing.
Classes are somewhat of a mess right now. I came here to learn Chinese, but I realized that I can’t take a class taught in Chinese. Today I just came out of a Chinese taught class without knowing a single idea explained in that class. However, hopes are there are extra classes released by the School of Chinese as a Second Language in which I can enroll in soon. Otherwise the entire learning process is on me, yet again. I find that over here it is still extremely easy to fall into a complacent lifestyle, surrounded by international students and taking classes taught in English, having little time for language learning. Working on that.
02/17/25, Day 38: 2.53mi easy. Everything just easy… for now. Having wifi in the gym is nice; I can watch anything I want on my phone while running. I have finally found a nice place with all good facilities, but still need to figure out the watch distance delta. 5.01km = 3.11mi, so why 2.53? Compared to last time, .813 vs .834 proportional difference, which is somewhat consistent.
Just looked it up and apparently there is a “Save & Calibrate” option to manually save after every run. Going to try that out tomorrow.
02/16/25, Day 37: 1.31mi easy. Finally back. Will still have to settle in for a bit before this can become a consistent, everyday thing again due to classes and adjusting to China. 北大 is great. Cool friends, nice campus, and I finally got to go to the gyms and see the ping pong places. Hopefully that will work out. Basically a lot better emotionally and hopefully physically soon.
In terms of the run, I feel like the Garmin is miscalculating it. In San Diego, I thought it was a bit off. In Chengdu, I disregarded the one time run due to a run-down treadmill. Finally, in Beijing, now that I have tested one of the new treadmills I will be most of the time, it still seems off. The treadmill said 2.52km, which is 1.57 miles. Pretty inaccurate. Will probably have to recalibrate my watch.
New update: I’m not going to put it at the top since traveling abroad is temporary, but while I am here I will probably treat this as somewhat of a blog if I am feeling up to it. It would be fun, and I think it is best that this place is pure, unadulterated thoughts in contrast to my other posts where I go back and edit stuff.
02/06/25, Day 36: 4.20mi easy. Wrote the previous run just now for reference. Things are a lot different out here in China, and it really tests my drive to continue running, which so far I have failed miserably at. Not much else that I want to say on the matter but I have lost a lot of fitness, and once I reach Beijing things will stabilize. Going to have to remove the “Number of Days Missed” section, RIP. I feel that I made it at a time where I knew that my streak was slipping away (leaving for China). Also, I feel like it is an unhealthy way to approach trying to run more, as touched upon in a previous post about building habits. See you sometime soon.
01/27/25, Day 35: 3.44mi easy.
01/18/25, Day 34: 2.04mi hills. Early run today because no one is up yet. This has definitely been the slowest run I have ever done. 14.55/mi is almost walking honestly. Also, I could not actually run up the hill for a mile straight. I had to stop near 0.8 miles because there was a little ache that started on the back left of my right foot which I probably attribute to a lack of ankle strength for running up hill.
I recently watched a video on the Western States 100 and was confused on why they were running so slow. Trail runners are truly built different.
01/17/25, Day 33: 1.25mi hills. Felt extremely tiring on the way up, which is expected.
Also expected, but somewhat surprising, was how hard it was for me to actually run up here. Got some people on the retreat acting like my mom (im mad). The run tomorrow will probably better due to the light.
Short run today. Running this steep of hills in the dark is not safe, especially when the ground is extremely uneven. Also got lost twice on the run and ran into a rv van with what I swear was a man breathing inside. Overall a great experience because new experiences are always nice. Hearing dogs howl in the night is both a surreal and scary experience. Honestly felt like urbexing; you are always on your toes and looking around you for signs of movement. Maybe it makes me weird that I find excitement in the fact that there could be an animal waiting to attack me. But makes for a great experience. Looking forward for tomorrow morning when it is light.
01/16/25, Day 32: 4.32mi threshold? I don’t know, it seems like the treadmill times are a lot slower than the time recorded on my watch, and I don’t know how to update it. I went around what the treadmill said to be 10:30 to 10:10 pace, however, my watch is saying 9:18/mi. I don’t know if this is cheating or what.
Anyways today it felt as if my knee was about to flare up, but then it subsided and I felt fine the rest of the run. Excited to see what I run out in a new environment (secret) the upcoming days.
01/15/25, Day 31: 4.25mi threshold. Still having this new problem with my right knee. This time, though, I started feeling it, and then it slowly subsided. Very odd and also a bit scary. I’m not sure yet if I should just keep running and see if the problem dissapears. I’m making sure to warm up properly and go through a thorough stretching routine afterwards.
01/14/25, Day 30: 2.32mi easy road/treadmill. Very dissapointing day to say the least. So I have been working on treadmill lately mainly to the efficiency of the gym as well as the environment for both prerun warmup and postrun stretching. However, since running on a treadmill provides no draft against the air, my long hair ends up bobbing in front of my face instead of flowing behind like on a normal run. Naturally, I forgot to bring my hat to the gym, so I ran back to my apartment in hopes of grabbing my hat and coming back to the treadmill. Low and behold I forgot my keys while on my way back to my apartment. Not wanting to mess up further, I just turned around and headed back to the gym to complete my run no matter my hair status. 2.32 miles in, and there arises a very acute stabbing pain on the back right of my right knee, near the hamstring. At that point I just stopped running. I know my body and my pains. Some say that pains that are familiar are good since you know what they are. This was definitely something new, so I just had to stop running. I wouldn’t say I’m extremely surprised; I have expressed worry over my right knee. Hopefully this is not a persistent problem.
After getting off the treadmill I decided to do some strength and conditioning work to finish off my workout. You might say, why would I work out my knee when it is in pain? The pain was like a stabbing sort of pain on impact with the ground. Working on leg strengthening exercises will not put that sort of sudden impact on the joints and tendons so I deemed it ok. Overall horrible workout today but we will bounce back tomorrow. hopefully.
01/13/25, Day 29: 3.86mi threshold on treadmill. Very weird run today because it felt so tough. Heartbeat was definitely higher than my previous run, and I ran about the same amount of time but less distance. Very weird but can most likely be explained by two things. First, I ran on different treadmills. The second treadmill was in a gym with a lot more people, so I think the temperature difference is a factor. Second, I actually feel a bit sick right now. When running, I could feel my throat hurt every time I swallowed. Hopefully will be better soon. I also need to buy a pair of running headphones, I think that paired with treadmill will be a great way to get miles in, especially studying abroad.
Anywas still have DOMS from yesterday’s workout which is nice. Something upset my stomach and hopefully it is not the increased amount of protein powder and milk intake recently.
Good progress overall and although I don’t feel noticeable improvement, this is a first step. Also stretching which is goood
01/12/25, Day 28: No run today, but I will still count it as a day in the streak, and here is why. Today I worked out in the gym. I think that it is necessary to do workouts in the gym even as a runner. Today I did all upper body, but I want to definitely focus more on the lower body for strength and conditioning purposes.
That being said, as a “casual” runner I think it takes too long to do both running and gym in one day (at least for now), thus skipping a day of running. I still want to add this day to the streak though because it is part of improving running and becoming a better athlete.
01/11/25, Day 27: 4.23mi progression run. First time doing a real training run on the treadmill, and it’s not as bad as I thought. As an avid Yaseen follower, I shall enjoy treadmills. A lot of people hate running on a treadmill, but I think it is convenient and a very efficient way to train. I honestly do not get why people say that running on a treadmill is too easy or is not the “same” as outside. It definitely does feel longer than running outside in a sense that I keep checking times and paces and things seem to progress slower. This is probably just a matter of perspective, and as Yaseen says one will get used to it over time.
01/10/25, Day 26: 4.43mi threshold effort with Strides. Running with others makes you faster…
Skipped the previous way due to lack of time on the way to school. A good restart to running in a different environment.
01/08/25, Day 25: 1.18mi classic. But the reason is that I am fairly busy at night, so I need to get the run done earlier today. What I didn’t expect was the effect the sun has on my running. Usually I run earlier mornings or nights, and I believe at this time the sun shining affects running to a very noticeable amount. Thus my low mileage. What is more crazy is that the temperature seemed to be the same as when I would run at night: Low 50’s. However with the sun out it felt so much worse. Note for future runs
01/07/25, Day 24: 4.19mi easy. True to my word and increasing mileage. Introducing very brief warm up along with stretching afterwords. Today my lower calf area still felt very stiff. Maybe there is lingering soreness from skiing but that was 3 days ago sooo. Knee is also causing concern; I think there has been aggravation also due to skiing; will have to work on a solution.
01/06/25, Day 23: 3.00mi apparently unproductive, and apparently detraining now… Garmin training status is harsh. I am sad. and bad. A lot of people focus too much on small details. It is easy to be caught up in the numbers of things when in reality you need to spot trends. Instead of constantly looking at your training status day by day, look at the monthly: If there is an upward trend, you are doing something right.
My case seems to be different. Today the run was somewhat physically draining, in the sense that I’m not used to running 3 miles. Yes, I have taken 2 days off my bad (1/2 due to skiing). However, I realize that there is one simple solution, at least kind of. I just need to run more.
There are two different ways to introduce progressive overload, and therefore, more efficient improvement overall. First is running for longer. The second is running at a higher intensity. It is somewhat obvious that the best indicator of your current performance is what you have been displaying most recently. As such, I have been doing horrible. One 12 mile run, then a bunch of 1-2 milers. Seems pretty telling, huh
Obviously need to put more time/effort into running to improve. However, I have also identified two areas that can only be a detriment to training. First is my lack of mobility. Flexibility has always been one of my worst areas, and any sort of athlete needs it. Second is what seems to be runner’s knee. My right knee starts to ache periodically, and more often the longer a distance I run. I believe it is due to an imbalance of muscle; my left leg is relatively stronger due to extensive racket sports. Therefore I believe it is in my best interest to incorporate some pre-run activation exercises, stretching, and strength and conditioning for my knee.
Cya tomorrow (please)
01/03/25, Day 22: 1.18mi easy. sound familiar?
01/02/25, Day 21: 2.12mi super easy. Garmin says I have been either maintaining or unproductive in running. I don’t know how accurate that is but it definitely is demoralizing. Maybe I am running to slow..
01/01/25, Day 20: 1.19mi easy. what a way to start of 2025 (just kidding). After playing sports, I hate to have to run on the same day, which has been the case for two days now. However, sometimes you just need to go the extra mile.
12/31/24, Day 19: 1.21mi easy today. There goes my streak again? One thing I believe and am still working on is the idea that breaks and entertainment should be productive. In this way, it is not seen as something bad when you are having fun, or something frivolous. But instead, taking a break is for the purpose of being more efficient in productive areas. The fact that you take some time to relax your mind means that entertainment will help you refocus on more important tasks. In that sense, having fun is part of productivity. With this mindset, I believe one can change the approach to self improvement in any area. Or maybe I’m making excuses for missing a day of running :|
12/29/24, Day 18: 12.02mi at 9:50 pace. Insane to say the least. This run went from an amazing run in the first half to a harrowing experience in the second. It was like turning back at the halfway point was a switch that turned the run from good to bad. Maybe it has to do with the gel I ate at the halfway point. Upset stomach so bad to the point that I had to walk for a bit. Then a certain pain in my knee that seemed unbearable. Safe to say this was not exactly the right decision to go on such a long run at this point. But sitting at home, doing nothing, and also a certain video from Ran to Japan prompted me to do more. Running 1 to 2 miles a day during a break, when I have infinite time, is like a creeping itch working through my conscience. One needs to believe in the hard work the the progress that they can achieve. In the end I just hope that these shocks don’t affect my long term running goals, as is usually the case when someone starts something new with too much zeal.
12/28/24, Day 17: 2.11mi easy. Either fairly low condition right now or just had a long day outside before I ran. Something seemed to be fatigued, and hopefully it was not just the 4 mile run at 10 minute pace that made me like this. If it is, no worries, I’m just at a worse position than I thought. There’s just too much good food at home maybe.
12/27/24, Day 16: 4.15mi at 10:00/mi pace. forgot to write it down
12/26/24, Day 15: 2.22mi easy. too rainy today
12/25/24, Day 14: 1.56mi easy. merry christmas. leave me alone
12/24/24, Day 13: 3.63mi tempo? Most exciting run so far! Christmas Eve, exploring many small neighborhoods, and just enjoying all the holiday lights in the area. All around one of the best runs you can ask for. I got to go through so many little light arches too. Everytime I saw lights I felt like running faster, and I didn’t feel tired. Probably a combination of adrenaline and the fact that I have been taking it easy recently. Go one more ^
12/23/24, Day 12: 1.21mi easy. Almost didn’t run today since it was so late in the evening after a big meal. Might start running in the morning again tomorrow. There seems to be a constant conflict between wanting to run in the evenings and the mornings. Running evening into next day morning seems like such a short period in between runs, and sometimes I procrastinate the run into the evening even though I have been on a morning streak, which makes it hard to go back to morning.
I’ve also looked into a book called Daniel’s Running Formula, by Jack Daniels. A lot of people say that the book is good for incorporating structure and accurately predicting race day pace, but so far I have just been intrigued about his approach to running. There are so many aspects of running that I seem to overlook, and when applying a science to the training I’m starting to understand the purpose of different aspects of becoming faster. Anyways, I hope to eventually become more knowledgeable on what I can do by myself to improve myself.
12/22/24, Day 11: 1.19mi easy, super gassed. Just played basketball with some friends beforehand, and the run felt like the last mile of a 5k. There is something to say about continuing the streak in ratios; I’m just getting something in no matter how much I don’t want to run that day. Hopefully I can keep up this mentality though.
12/21/24, Day 10: 4.98mi moderate pace. Day 10! Wow, it seems like such a good start but so little at the same time. Also, what better way to have a day ten then to receive some supporting words from a fan (a good friend lol). Ultimately, I write these posts for myself, but if just one other person reads this post and is left with a positive impact, I would be extremely happy and more motivated myself. I ran around the neighborhood and past my high school today, and there were some great renovations to the tennis courts. They look amazing. Great run, and the weather was interesting because there was expected to be rain, but when I ran there were only heavy clouds, and it seemed like the temperature was almost warmer. Not so cold of mornings are always great.
12/20/24, Day 9: 4.29mi super easy. This is probably what easy should feel like, but it is extremely slow. Able to talk to others with no extra effort. So slow, however, that after the run my knees feel somewhat irritated or inflamed. Must have been just the amount of time on feet; still not used to running for long periods. Anyways, it’s a lot easier to run with other people. Should try doing that more often.
12/19/24, Day 8: 4.74mi mentally easy, but according to my watch heartrate, threshold. Probably never going to run through big street areas again, especially during morning traffic since the traffic lights are extremely annoying. The run seemed almost like a weird fartlek with a lot of complete stops. Still don’t know whether i should completely stop the watch or just record a lap at each stop to save the pace. Glad to get it done early in the day though. Quads are also relatively sore, I’ve definitely not been exercising well before this and still getting back into stride.
12/18/24, Day 7: 2.40mi easy. Running at night has grown on me. It is great to run around the neighborhood and reminisce about all the people and see all the bright Christmas lights out there. There are some crazy Christmas setups around. Maybe should still try running during mornings.
12/17/24, Day 6: 2.80mi at 9:43/mi. Honestly only did this because I saw the daily run and needed to keep it up again. Currently getting back into the habit, especially since I have nothing to do right now in particular. Eventually going to switch to morning running hopefully, and I also want to stretch more. Need more places to run around home, seems fairly boring around here.
12/16/24, Day 5: 2.12mi easy, 11:09/mi. Using a Garmin Forerunner 935 today, obtained a used one. I have mixed feelings about it, but I know it will be more helpful in the long run.
Break due to finals
12/05/24, Day 4: 3.17mi workout, 1 mile threshold at 7:36. Not much to say today, and I honestly thought that I could do a bit better. I feel like 8:27 pace for 10k sounds a lot better than this. Only way to improve is to keep going.
12/04/24, Day 3: 1.90mi easy, 9:05/mi. A couple ideas came to me today. First of all, this run today is a testament to the detriments of procrastination. I had time this morning, yet I felt too lazy to get up to run. Come evening, I still had homework to do, and in the end didn’t run until after 10pm. Not a good situation, especially if I’m in a situation at the end of the day where I can’t run because I am out somewhere, and therefore a big waste of mental energy and time. Second, I mentioned before about the idea of no zero days. However, one can only greatly improve at something by spending time doing it. Therefore, it’s a matter of perspective. If you go into something thinking that you just need to get a bit done consistently, will you make leaps and bounds? Probably not. Consistency is just a foolproof way to rack up time spent. However, the driven will enjoy the process and in turn greatly progress. Two sides of the same coin. Lastly, I was thinking of this idea of habits. Consistency is the basis of habits, and habits constitute change. But why is it so hard to form? Many people say that if you consistently do something for 2 weeks/1 month/X amount of time, it becomes natural. But the problem is, one can’t dedicate so much time to something new everyday without considerable effort. Not only are you trying to form a new habit, this extra block of time needs to replace something else you have been doing before then. Some might say, yeah, there’s so much time people waste daily on their phones, entertainment, etc. But this “waste” of time is a habit, too. It’s just a bad habit. And so when people say a habit becomes natural after a certain amount of time, how many days have you spent building up a “wasteful” habit? It’s hard to just drop that for something new, even if you know it is unproductive. Anyways, I hope no one else is running at 10pm.
12/03/24: 2.98mi kind of tempo. Strava says 9:19/mi, and based off my recent 52:29 10k, which is 8 minutes 27 a mile, seems a little slow. I was breathing hard. Need to configure garmin watch that I have, so I can get more insight into data. Finals are coming up, so hopefully I can keep up the daily run. Seems to me that there is just so much time in the day in which I can be more productive, yet it’s tough to change out of bad habits, like being on the phone or youtube. I have to say this log is partially in inspiration of Brock Kelly’s (youtuber) the daily mile. Also, building on top of that, habits don’t need to be so black and white. Believe that, in this case, I have to go out and run a certain distance every day seems to only put more inertia on habits your are trying to build. I read a great blog post in which the author described an idea of no zero days. “Not to look at streaks as a binary sequence of 0s and 1s, but as a sequence of floating point values.” I don’t feel like running X miles today. Try just running 1. I don’t feel like running in general. Maybe just take a walk outside. Just avoid staying at zero. And in the end, what you are trying to achieve is consistency of effort, not the perfect streak of runs.
12/02/24: 2.30mi easy pace. Simple run today, the point of it is to be consistent. No focus on structure or pacing, just running. Been out for many weeks, so I just need to be back on my feet building mileage. Excited to get back into running, especially since now I want to focus more time doing actual research in building a training plan.