Fighting allergies, colds, and zone 2
A very delayed weeks 3 and 4
Originally published 7/10/26
[author’s note: I started this draft like, 3 weeks ago and never finished it. hello to me from the past]
Remember when I said my cold was behind me?
Turns out my immune system didn’t get the memo.
Alas, not even two days after my last post, I ended up getting sick again. And again. And again. In fact, it wasn't until June 9 that I felt ready and healthy enough go pick up running full force. And not for lack of trying, either. I had actually run on May 19 and May 23 because I erroneously believed I was back to full health, only to fall sick later that day and stay sick for several days. A friend of mine had suggested earlier that my poor recovery time may have been a result of continuing to run before my body had properly healed, and after 3 weeks of this repeated cycle I decided to take their words to heart and completely rest for about two weeks, which was painful but necessary. It wasn't until I started receiving better sleep scores (and returned from a long anticipated LA weekender) that I finally strapped the Asics back on.
Of course, after a successful week of uninterrupted runs, I was now due to interrupt them with a week-long trip. Ah, life. We love it when it happens.
Training Updates
Good news and bad news on this front. Bad news: I have been utterly incapable of being consistent with pilates, and have not done so for over a month. Good news: I have found a new strength training schedule and regimen that I have thus far (1.5 weeks) been able to stick to and am cautiously optimistic in the trend continuing.
Two key differences are in play: 1) I am using a relatively short, 2 day sample workout pulled from a blog discussing the top strength exercises for runners, which I have screenshot on my phone, and 2) I am strength training on my run days rather than my off days. This last part is key, as after doing some light research (aka browsing r/running) I have come to the conclusion that I would likely fare better and prefer to keep my off-days truly “off” to give my body more time to recover. In practice, I am also finding it a little easier to remember to strength train in the first place when it happens 6 hours after the run rather than 24+. Each day only has 5 different exercises as well, making it easier to keep track of while still coming out to roughly 30 minutes. And I am definitely still feeling those 30 minutes.
A new development is the recent acquisition of an at-home rowing machine, courtesy of my fiance and his abundant Amazon points. Since I have also been abysmal about decent cross-training (can anyone tell me why it is so difficult to just roll the bike outwide for a ride) my second investment in optimism lies in taking up rowing to fulfill this last part of my training plan. So far, I have taken the machine for a spin once for roughly 40 minutes, and so far I like it.
Running Highlights
Since we last spoke, I have managed to accomplish a total of 6 runs. Two in the remaining weeks of May, and 4 in the last week and a half.
This is July Corinne taking over now. Unfortunately, I do not remember very much anymore of what happened in those 6 runs, and am now referring to my Garmin. The May 19 run I did 3 miles with an 11:12 pace which is not too shabby, especially since I would fall sick very quickly after. The next run was 5 miles at 13:51, which would have been the attempted zone 2 training.
Some hill training up to the cliffside parking lot. Note the straight line of 4 dots. Is it a bird? A plane?
It was planes
I wasn’t able to run again until June 9. This is another 5 mile zone 2 run, and at this point I really did try sticking to that metric. This produced an atrociously slow 15:44 pace, and many bouts of rethinking everything. Two days later I ran an ecstatic 10:52 for 3 miles. It’s funny, before I used to dread the fast, challenging runs. Now I look forward to them.
Fun fact, there used to be a boardwalk that led up to that ship
Saturday brings a 9 miler, and since it’s a long run, by default a zone 2 excursion. After fighting God and my Garmin (same thing really) for almost 2 and a half hours, I get through it with a 15:24 pace. And finally, before I first started drafting this blog, one last 5 mile zone 2 run, but this time with a dramatically improved pace of 14:18.
Never been happier to run a 14 minute pace before
Running Stats
Week 3 Mileage: 8 miles
Tuesday, 5/19 - 3 miles, 33:41, 11:12/mi
Saturday, 5/23 - 5 miles, 1:09:24, 13:51/mi
Week 4 (?) Mileage: 22 miles
Tuesday, 6/9 - 5 miles, 1:18:49, 15:44/mi
Thursday, 6/11 - 3 miles, 32:42, 10:52/mi
Saturday, 6/13 - 9 miles, 2:18:42, 15:24/mi
Tuesday, 6/16 - 5 miles, 1:11:37, 14:18/mi
Total Training Bloc Mileage: 50.8 miles
Total 2026 Mileage: 271.8 miles
