Personal site of Quenten Griffith covering running, my journey of half-marathon training, DevOps, DevSecOps, and sometimes gaming articles. 

Quenten Griffith Personal Site

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## New house, new car, new year

I have been away for awhile. Training for the half-marathon, work and such kept me very busy.  I'd like to say we made it to Disney and crushed our race. Sadly that wasn't in the cards.  We randomly went out to look at a new construction build in Sept. and feel in love. Ended up going down the journey to purchase it and with the closing date stated it was the week of the half-marathon, we decided we should not be traveling to Flordia.  However we did find a local half so all was not lost.....till it was.  My wife had to travel the week before the race and upon her return she brought the plague. We both where so sick that walking was out of the question let alone doing a run. So after 12 weeks of training we did not run the race. All is not bad because I did accomplish all my goals during training. I ran several half-marathons. I ran my fastest half, and my first half where I had to take no walking breaks. I was only one minute over my goal time on the last half I ran. So even though I didn't run an actual race and get a medal, I am still very happy with the work and the results.

Since then however running has taken a back burner to everything else. Buying a house, getting the old house ready to rent, packing, moving and un-packikng kept us pretty busy. I didn't have the energy to add running to the mix. We did make it into our new house the day before Thanksgiving and have been able to celeberate the holidays here.

![PXL_20221220_002522559.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1673128560/PXL_20221220_002522559_5e4eea9ff7.jpg)

I get to look at this view every day at lunch so all of it was worth it for this alone

![PXL_20221113_173034241.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1673128670/PXL_20221113_173034241_b39f95caea.jpg)

During all this fun I decided the Tesla no longer made sense, and traded it in for a new truck.

![PXL_20221206_135444281.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1673128592/PXL_20221206_135444281_45150b2d79.jpg)

It is taking a lot to get used to, mostly parking it, however I love it. It has come in so handy already.  It is comfy to drive and a great dog adventure car.

### Site News
I have upgraded the code that runs this site to the most recent versions. I hope to be back writing code for cool new features. I want to try to get my data from Strava reporting into the site using their API to auto build a page. That should be a fun winter project! 

Getting back tot he site after a very lengthy time away

Long time no post

![dig-deep.jpeg](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1660140141/dig_deep_108651a266.jpg)

## Trashed Canned
Today was hard, there is no getting around it.  I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to face another day in the swamp like weather we have here in NC.  I didn't want to lace up and rack up miles.  Today was a recovery day, easy 45 min run. Even though it was marked as an easy run, it was anything but.  Yesterday run drained everything I had. It was 3, 8 min sprints that I averaged 1.06 miles per. Plus 30 additional mins of easy pace running. It was the most humid and hottest run yet.  I was able to push myself out the door and get the run in. I kept telling myself that not every run is pretty, not every run can be well rested. The hard runs will teach you more, learning to run on fatigue prepares you for the last few miles of the half marathon when you have nothing left to give.  So far I have 15 miles this week, and with two runs left I think I will get an addtional 15. I hope with enough rest I will be able to slay tomorrows run of 4x5min pickups.  But right now all I want to do is nap, and eat.

Today was rough I wanted to quit but I kept going now I want to nap

Dig Deep and keep going

## 26.70 miles down

I finished the first week with 26.70 miles. A bit more than I had been running. For a month prior to training I had cut back on my running, and was doing more strength and cycle.  I did this knowing my life would be consumed with runs for the rest of the year. It gave me a mental break, as well as my body a bit of a rest. I was still running just not as often or as hard. I think during that time I averaged between 17-19 miles a week. To add 10 miles to that last week was a lot. Ideally would should only increase 2-4% weekly to avoid injury.  I felt it yesterday, in my legs. I took a day to stretch, foam roll, and massage gun.  I was a bit stiff this morning, the start of week 2, but I managed. It was also far more humid and muggy than it has been in awhile.  Fall can't come soon enough.  This week should end around 30 miles, with a 9.5 mile run on Saturday. I need to make sure I take the easy parts easy and some of the faster parts toward the lower end range. I am also adding strength training back this week. 

Strength is an important factor in running to help avoid injury and improving running.  It is something I will have to make sure I find time for. That and stretching.  Here is to another great week of running happy.

Finished the firs week of half-marathon training and on to week two!

One Week down, 13 to go

## The struggle is real

Today has been the fourth day in a row I have ran. The most ever being three days in a row previously. I usually do 2 on, one off with a total of four runs in a week.  Today was a challenge to get out of bed.  Mileage wise I am still under what I normally run. Physically I feel fine, I think it was more of a mental struggle. To have to get up early and rush out the door to get the miles in.  Having a break every two days is something I got used to and it let me mentally break up the week into segments. Once I got out there though I started to warm up and was ready to go.  It was only a 45 min run with less than four mins of it being a challenge. I hit two records today though. The first being the fastest I ever ran, beating my old record by 3mph.

![fast-af.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1659617389/fast_af_cc00cc3466.png)

It was only for ten seconds but, it felt great to give it my all during those ten seconds.  I also finally am 100% heat acclimated.  Meaning my body has adjusted to running in this swamp weather of 100% humidity and 75+ degrees at 5am. Just in time for Fall to start.....

![heat.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1659617861/heat_f6a5f20a7b.png)

For tomorrow though I finally get to sleep in and rest, to then finish the first week of training on Saturday with a long 1hr run.

Four Days in a Row

## Running slow

![running_zones.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1659444427/running_zones_27bdb07d52.png)

Today is day 2 of 5 of half-marathon training. The training plan called for a easy run between 70% and 80% for a short 45 mins. Usually in this time frame I can run darn near a 10k. Today I didn't get any where close to that.  Running slow has so many [benefits](https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/beginners/a26514237/running-pacing-easy-miles/).  it is where you strengthing your bones, and muscles, you avoid energy, and your blood learns to proccess the oxygen needed to maintain a run.  Running slow does indeed help you run fast.  Lots of professionals use the [80/20 plan](https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/training/motivation/a27718661/what-is-80-20-running/).  Running easy 80% of the time and hard 20%. This allows them to train more, increase mileage while reducing fatigue and chance of injury. With all that said it is still very hard to run slow when your body wants to take off.  During todays run my mind kept thinking **'this is too easy, you are not really doing anything, is this worth your time, people are passing you and judging you'** I had to keep saying shut-up mind this is worth it. Thankfully my Garmin watch yells at me anytime I went over the prescribed threshold and kept me in check. 

### Running long-term

I usually only run 3-4 days average, running two days and taking a day off before the next set. This new plan has me running 5 days a week with four days back to back. In order to keep this up for the next 14 weeks I need to make sure I stick to the plan, including running slow and easy on recovery run days.  Last year when I trained for a half, I went to hard to fast and over trained.  I was running a half or over that distance at least once a week every week for 2 months. The plan I was following was pace based and had me almost empting the tank with every run, leaving me fatigued.  There is an old saying _that what doesn't challenge you doesn't change you._. I do agree with this, however if you challenge yourself all the time you may find the change to be having the reverse effect. Towards the end of my training program last year, my pace dropped drastically. I was finding I had to take walk breaks even on shorter easier runs.  I over trained and under ate.  I had to take a break. Thankfully the only injury was to my pride.  This time I am going to be a lot smarter, embrace the easy days, get rest and keep up my nutrition.  Looking forward to tomorrows run which is a repeate of today!

Slow running is hard but so good for you.

Embrace the slow

## One down, so many more to go

Today is not on the first day of my new site, but the first day of half marathon training!

### Site

Over the past few weeks I have been wanting to create something. So I decided to re-do my site. It has been a pretty static site that got updated by manually uploading text files. I wanted to learn a lot more about back-end API driving sites with a dynamic front-end. So I did!  This site has been created in [strapi](https://strapi.io/) and [nextjs](https://nextjs.org/) So much morew I plan to do with this site that will keep me busy for a while to come.

### Running

![Screen Shot 2022-08-01 at 9.04.26 AM.png](https://res.cloudinary.com/qwoww/image/upload/v1659359140/Screen_Shot_2022_08_01_at_9_04_26_AM_7166a429e8.png)

In **14 weeks** I run 1 of 2 half-marathons this year. The first being a [disney](https://www.rundisney.com/events/disneyworld/wine-and-dine-half-marathon-weekend/) and the second a local [christmas](https://capstoneraces.com/race131/durham/details/) themed one, which is only a few short weeks after the Disney one.  I will be running 5 days a week for 14 weeks, training with [power](https://support.stryd.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003992194-How-Does-Stryd-Measure-Power-).  Power based running lets you keep the same exertion level no matter the terrian or weather. Paced based training assumes you will run the same pace no matter if you are going uphill and into the wind.  With power based running it determines your current level of effort based on the conditions in which you are running. All of this is done via the [Stryd](https://www.stryd.com/us/en) pod and a [Garmin](https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/735611) watch.  This week is all about getting your [Critical Power ](https://support.stryd.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039261314-Critical-Power) dialed in. CP is the unit of measurement that is your max threashold for running. That is then used to setup the range of 5 zones, much like heart rate zones.  Todays run was all about running at max for 10 mins with a warm up and cool down in-between.  After the end of this week I should have my CP dialed in for the rest of training. I then use that for the rest of my future runs. For example there may be a run that is based on 80% of my CP with a maxiumn of 100%. This is why it is critical to have your CP dialed in because it impacts the rest of the training program.  I am using a traning program that I purchased from [Final Surge](https://www.finalsurge.com/coach/StevePalladino/plan/30447) its great because I get a calender view, it syncs with both Garmin and Stryd.  Here is hoping for a successful week of training!

Today marks the first post as well as my first day of training for two half-marathons

All Articles

Long time no post

Dig Deep and keep going

One Week down, 13 to go

Four Days in a Row

Embrace the slow

First post and first run of training