Summer Training Blog: Evan Luecke - You Can Go

Evan Luecke Summer Training - 1st Edition - "You can Go!"

Monday - 6/22

Monday morning at 6 am the alarm goes off and I'm struggling to get out of bed. There is one good reason about this morning's run; my training partner Brock is back in town and we get to run again! The morning's run was a fartlek with 2 minutes on and a minute off for 30 minutes. Before I did a 15 min warm up, stopped and did my stretches, then continued playing catch up with Brock. During my fartlek I was hitting 7:01 while I was off and then went to 6:20 pace on. After the 30 min, I did a 15 minute cool down. Finishing the run was the harder part cause I lost track of the reps until I saw the lap split on my watch when I actually looked at it.

The total run was an hour long with the cool down and warm up, it was a total of 7.5 miles. Feeling a little drained after, a good ice bath then a massage never hurt.

Tuesday - 6/23

Today's run was a lot easier and more of a recovery run! I went at 7:01 pace for 42 minutes and ended with 8 miles including cooldown and warmup. The run sucked overall cause I didn't get to run till the evening because me and my family are taking a vacation to San Francisco and I didn't to get to do a run before we left. So I was just sitting on a plane thinking only about my run. As well as it was on a treadmill. That's the worst part. Always avoiding the treadmill even during snow days I would always find a way out. This time I couldn't find a way out. We are in the bad area of Oakland and there really wasn't many places to run at anyway.

Wednesday - 6/24

aka day 2 of running on death which is known as a treadmill. The morning though me and my family went to San Fransico and walked around 3-4 miles around the Bay Area. Seeing a lot of cool things and all, the weather was perfect for running outside but there was no trails in the area. Concrete was the only thing available and even that is better than running on a treadmill. The run was at night and was a 45-55 minute run. Before the run I called Coach Reed. My new coach at A&M Commerce. He told me that if I was feeling good I would be able to pick it up the last half of the run. So I dropped from the 7:01 original pace to a 6:15. So I did 3 miles for the first 21 minutes then, 4 miles for 25 minutes. Ended with 8 strides. So overall I did a 7 mile run for 46 minutes. Of course doing a cool down with a mile. So I did 8 miles total. Feeling good after I still continued to do my stretches and then iced in the pool. Man California is Great!

Thursday - 6/25

Today we went to San Francisco again and this time I was gonna find a place to run, running on the treadmill wasn't tiring but it started bothering my shins a little bit. So I was gonna cross train when we got back, but when I saw a dirt road I couldn't help it. I ran with my camera to the top, the trail was only about 150 meters uphill. Where we were was a place not many people knew about. It was a lowkey spot to get great pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. So we spent about 20 min in the area. Then I see we can walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I knew that this was my chance for a run. So we spend about 20 min trying to find parking and as soon as we were about to give up, I spot a lot. It was full but I saw a jeep get ready to leave. So we get that spot. I wait for my watch to get ready and then my dad says "You can go!" That moment I took off. I couldn't believe I was running on the Golden Gate Bridge. It was really windy and more difficult than I thought. I get halfway and realize that I had a 60 min run. My coach lets us split up work outs based on how we feel. I was going to do the full 60 but knew my family was waiting on me, so I only ran once. It was 1.6 down and 1.6 back. So I ran a 5k on the bridge and finished at 6:40. A easy and comfortable run. I cooled down by slowly jogging to my dad telling me I can go walk down again and take pictures.

We get back to our hotel and I called Coach Reed asking if I could cross train. He gives me the workout and it was to swim the small hotel pool for 30 minutes. Felt good and I got to see a California sunset. Which are beautiful must I add. So total for the day

3.2 miles for 20 minutes and 30 minutes swimming.

Friday - 6/26

We continued our vacation In California by taking trips to Sonoma and Napa valley, there were tons of trails to run by the winery and grape gardens. Up hill and curvy the trails were long and spreader through the valleys. Unfortunately I couldn't run them, since they are private property. After that we take a trip to UC-Berkeley and drove around campus. The campus is Beautiful. Tons of trees and lots of open land. It's also very expensive though. So we got back to our hotel just in time so we can watch Team USA take on China. So I go for my run during the game. The workout was a 50-60 minute run. So I went around 56 minutes at my 7:01 pace. The 7:01 pace is the pace I was set to in June for my long runs. So 8 miles today for the workout with a mile cool down. Total today was 9 miles.

Saturday - 6/27

The last day of Cali. It was a fun trip and probably one of the best trips I've been on. Today we decided to explore Oakland. We went to downtown Oakland and explored, then we decided to go to the beach. After eating at Panera, my parents told me I could run the beach for a little bit. Originally we were going to go hike some trails at Red Forest. Them we just decided to be chill and laidback. So I originally thought I was going to get a good long run on some pretty trails. So I put on my running shorts and packed a running shirt. I found a cool trail right by the beach so went running. Only did 2.5 before my parents said lets go. I didn't get a full run in, but I was happy i got to get off the treadmill. So after the little short run, we want to the hotel, I decided to switch long run Saturday to long run Sunday. Mainly because I refuse to do a long run on the treadmill. I will be flying majority of the dayon Sunday, so when I get back I will do my long run then.

Back to today after my run on the beach I decided to go to the pool and do cross train. I swam for about 20-30 minutes just playing around. Then I grabbed the bouy and sort of treaded water for about 5 minutes, then I got my dad to put a timer on and i treaded harder for about 15 min, then continued slower after for about 5 minutes.

So total I did about 55 min of cross training and 2.5 miles of running on the beach. It's been fun Cali.

Sunday - 6/28

We flew back home today and it's sad! California was a great trip and I sort of wanna move out here when I graduate college. The flights took most of the day as we flew from Oakland to Denver, Denver to Dallas. We got back home around 7. I put my bags down unpacked real quick, and went for a run. It was amazing to get back to free open land. The long run was 10 miles at 7:00 pace. I felt real comfortable and sort of didn't want to change pace. I just took in the run and enjoyed the nature and Texas Sunsets that I missed. So total I ran around 12 miles with a warm up and cool down. Man I missed Texas!

Week in Review:

This week was a good one. Getting to do some things I never thought I would be able to do. Got to Run the Golden Gate Bridge, and run some beach off the bay coast. I felt real good on some of my runs. The ones I never thought I would feel good on. The treadmill experience wasn't completely terrible. I guess I had a pacer when I set the pace. So I knew If I was off or not. Cross training in a hotel pool wasn't terrible. I had my brother and my dad they're sitting pool side. I realized not to take running in Forney for granted. I always try and to mix things up from running our forney trail we have. Overall it was a fun experience. If you want to see more pictures from San Francisco check out my Twitter(@igorl97) and Instagram (@evanluecke).

Total mileage this week: 45 miles.

I should've been around 55 but I cut the day when I ran the Golden Gate Bridge short. Mainly because I was feeling a little tired and my shins were starting to bother me. Trying to stay away from shin splints.