Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 4 miles very easy - still recovering from the Austin Half
Wednesday: 7 miles easy + core
Thursday: 5 miles with 6 x 45 sec strong in the middle to test my legs
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 16 miles easy + light strength + core
Sunday: XT - 30 minutes stationary bike
Total Mileage: 32.1
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 2 miles easy on the treadmill to test my ankle (felt back to normal!) + strength + core
Wednesday: 4.2 miles with 5 x 1 min quick
Thursday: 2.1 mile easy shakeout + core
Friday: 3 miles easy
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: 13.1 - Austin Half Marathon (1:48:57)
Total Mileage: 24.6
A niggle in my left ankle combined with my upcoming Austin half marathon race on Sunday meant I ran pretty low mileage throughout the week. I was diligent about doing foot/ankle strength exercises after running through some discomfort in my long run last Sunday. The rest and strength work served me well. I was feeling fresh and excited for the race by the time the weekend rolled around.
Overall, I was very pleased with my results on Sunday. I woke up around 5:30am, scarfed down my new favorite pre-race meal: Picky Bars Performance Oatmeal, and made it to the start line with my boyfriend and our friend around 6:30. As the sun came up, the weather was shaping up to be as good as I could hope for - cool and cloudy, though rather humid. We assembled at the start line near the 4:05 marathon pacer. Looking back, I regret not starting further up in the field. I think I wasted energy in the first several miles weaving in and out of people.
The gun finally went off (the race unfortunately started a good 40 minutes after the official 7:00am start time), and I was filled with excitement to see what I could do on that day. I hoping for a sub-1:50 (and a PR), but given that I was having ankle troubles earlier in the week I relaxed my goal to sub-2:00. As each mile went by without any signs of worrisome discomfort, I grew increasingly confident and knew that a PR was possible.
How the miles played out:
Mile 1 (8:54): Taking it especially easy since the first three miles are uphill, just working on getting around the crowds
Mile 2 (8:38): Still weaving through hordes of people
Mile 3 (8:26): STILL weaving
Mile 4 (8:17): Finally starting to get into a rhythm, the downhill is feeling great after three miles of gentle but steady uphill
Mile 5 (8:05): Cruise control. I swipe up a salty banana from a spectator and get an energy boost.
Mile 6 (8:12): Feels like I’m flying
Mile 7 (8:16): Still soaring. Turning onto W Cesar Chavez St was my favorite part of the race. The spectators came in droves and were screaming loud. I usually listen to music while running but ended up carrying my headphones with me the entire race and fed off of the cheering from the crowds instead of listening to one of my running playlists.
Mile 8 (8:22): Settling into the quieter part of the course. I’m still feeling suspiciously good. I grabbed nuun at every single aid station since it was so humid out. I couldn’t tell if my skin was wet because of the humidity in the air or the fact that I was sweating so profusely.
Mile 9 (8:27): My mind started wandering here but I did my best to stay focused and repeat various mantras. The spectators had great posters out there for inspiration!
Mile 10 (8:19): The steep hill in this mile as we turned onto Enfield Road was rough, but I was energized by how many people I passed on it.
Mile 11: (8:06): I enjoyed the rolling hills here. I started to pick up the pace because I knew I still had a lot left in the tank.
Mile 12: (7:59): Keeping calm and continuing to push the pace.
Mile 13: (7:33): Exhaustion finally begins to set in. The last hill was brutal. I did my best to push through.
.1 (7:16): Total exhaustion. I felt every muscle in my legs but finished as strong as I could.
Monday: Rest + 26.2 Athletes for Yoga
Tuesday: 5 miles (1 mile jog, 8 x 2 min uphill, 2 min jog recovery, 1.5 mile jog) + strength + core
Wednesday: 7.5 miles easy
Thursday: 5.8 miles (warmup, 3.5 miles brisk, cooldown)
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3 miles easy + core
Sunday: 15 miles slow - I ran through some pain/discomfort in the front of my left ankle (tibialis anterior tendon? which then flared up later in the afternoon)
Total Mileage: 37
Monday: Rest + yoga
Tuesday: 6 miles (1 mile warmup, 4 mile fartlek, 4 mile cooldown) + strength work
Wednesday: 7 miles easy
Thursday: 5 miles (hilly route) + core + 26.2 Athletes for Yoga
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3 miles easy run to Dempsey Indoor Track to watch the UW Invitational (watched Bowerman Track Club and Oiselle athletes race!)
Sunday: 13 miles easy
Total Mileage: 34.3
This week, I maintained the same intensity as last week but reduced my weekly mileage slightly to make sure I recover before I ramp up mileage next week. I felt surprisingly fresh on Sunday! Maybe it was the new running shoes. Perhaps the soft, dirt trails in Discovery Park did my legs some good on Saturday. I’m savoring the feeling now, because I don’t anticipate feeling the same way a week from now. Onwards and upwards.
Monday: Yoga + core - hip flexors brutally sore from skiing
Tuesday: 4.5 miles easy on the treadmill
Wednesday: 5.5 miles (1.5 mile warmup, 5 x 800 between 7 and 7:30 pace with 2 min rest, 1.5 mile cooldown) + strength work
Thursday: 7 miles easy + core
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 3.7 mile easy trail run with Oiselle at Discovery Park
Sunday: 7 miles (1 mile warmup, 5 miles hard at 7:40 - 7:45 pace, 1 mile cooldown) + core
Total Mileage: 27.8
I enjoy running and the process of setting goals and executing on training plans. I also love to write so I thought it might be enjoyable and worthwhile to document my progress while training for the 2020 Eugene Marathon. Though I have been running since middle school, I have only trained for and completed one marathon so far. My first was the Beat the Blerch Marathon in Carnation, WA in 2016. My primary goals with running Beat the Blerch were to get to the start line healthy and complete the race. Because I felt totally wiped out from the weekend long runs, I struggled to put in the weekly mileage I wanted to hit. I ran the race conservatively and finished in 4:20:31.
For the Eugene Marathon, my goals are more ambitious. I am incorporating more strength work into my routine and am doing my best to avoid making the mistake I made during my training for Beat the Blerch in which the percentage of my weekly mileage that I packed into my weekend long runs was way too high (sometimes as high as 60 - 75%).
Monday: 5 miles easy on the treadmill + strength work + core
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: 6 miles (1 mile warmup, 3 x 1 mile @ 7:30 pace, 1 x .5 mile @ 7:30 pace, 1.5 mile cooldown)
Thursday: 7 miles easy - slight twinge in my right quad - keeping up my glute exercises to keep this at bay
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 11 miles easy - felt great until about mile 8 when hips started to fall apart and my form started to break down
Sunday: XC ski ~5 miles!
Total Mileage: 29
Though I have not had this new toy for long, I decided to kick off my blog with a review of Teenage Engineering’s PO-35 Speak. Teenage Engineering added the PO-35, a vocal synthesizer designed with the method of linear predictive coding1 in mind, to their family of literally pocket-sized synthesizers this past spring.
From your own voice, your favorite line from your favorite movie, or even your lawnmower starting up – you can record any sound with the PO-35 using the built-in microphone or via line-in. Instead of storing this data as a plain sample, the PO-35 manipulates and synthesizes the data in real time.
The PO-35 has eight unique vocal options and eight different effects:
| Vocal Options | Effects |
|---|---|
| neutral | stutter sweep |
| autotune | trance gate |
| retro | half rate |
| noise | 16 bar build up |
| robot | 6/8 quantize |
| fifth | retrigger pattern |
| vocoder | reverse |
| synth | no effect |
There are two ways of putting together recorded sounds and drum samples to develop patterns and later arrive at a full-fledged song: recording notes in real time and inputting notes manually via the sequencer. Once you’re satisfied with the way your patterns sound, the PO-35 has an intuitive way to chain patterns together. Simply press and hold the pattern button and select the patterns (in order) that you want to include in your chain.
For me, watching the following two tutorial videos was more helpful in getting up to speed on the device’s controls than reading through the instruction manual on Teenage Engineering’s website:
While I hope this post serves as a place to start for those curious about the PO-35, this review is not a comprehensive overview of all the PO-35 Speak’s capabilities (details about additional sound and pattern modifications such as tempo, pitch, sample start, and scale, for example, can be found in the tutorial videos mentioned above).
Thus far, I’ve mainly been playing around with growing comfortable with the PO-35’s controls by experimenting with short and fast-paced patterns, but I would like to write more lush and slow-moving ambient pieces with this new instrument. This is going to take more dedicated time and patience on my part. :) While I continue experimenting, I am excited to see and hear what projects other people are up to with their pocket operators.
The following videos are my favorite demonstrations of the power of the pocket operator I have encountered so far:
1: The PO-35 Speak was designed around the concept of linear predictive coding. Paul Lansky’s 1994 composition “notjustmoreidlechatter” was created using this method. Paul Lansky is a pioneer in the world of computer music, and this seminal piece, composed of scraps of recorded speech meshed together to form a rich and swirling progression of just barely unintelligible voices, is one of my favorite electronic compositions and served as inspiration for this blog!