August 05, 2025 - Road to BM HM

If you’re wondering what this is about - One year ago I crawled through a 5K in 50 minutes—now I’m attempting the slightly unhinged goal of running a sub-2-hour half marathon, documented through daily brain dumps complete with training chaos, 5 AM existential crises, random tangents, and way too much heart rate data.

Disclaimer: Posts are lightly edited with LLMs for grammar and spelling, but the sleep-deprived thoughts and stubborn optimism are 100% human.

Sleep: 6h47m – Good
RHR: 55 bpm
HRV: 80 ms

Workout: Easy pace run - 11K

Pre-run brain dumps

I woke up a bit late at 4:45 AM. This leaves me with little time. I need to be out by 5:30 AM because a slow run takes time. Because of this, I usually end up not hitting the distance and losing mileage. I need to figure out a way around this.

Today’s workout is an 11K easy pace run, keeping heart rate in zone 2. My zone 2 is in the range of 140-160 bpm. Keeping it at 145-155 should be good enough. At this pace, I’m usually at 8-9.5 min/km—quite slow!

Also, not sure how the Magic Speed 4 will behave at an easy pace. At a slower pace yesterday, I did get some strain on my calves, but it could also be because I’ve dropped mileage recently.

It has been raining incessantly since last evening. I got stuck at the office because of the rain. I took an auto back home and even then got drenched :) According to predictions, it was supposed to rain this morning too—another reason I had decided to sleep in a bit. But now it looks like it has stopped raining.

Post-run thoughts

Did 8.6K out of the 11K, including warmup. Average HR was 150 bpm, pace 8:25 min/km, max HR 157 bpm.

Magic Speed 4 felt comfortable even at this slow pace. I could feel the cushioning. But I think it would be better to get another shoe for easy running—something entry-level, but comfortable for the feet.

Post-run at the box, we did 5 rounds of 10 pushups + 5 pullups (I mostly did partial reps after one or two reps, with breaks). 5×5 bench press, core work with tucks, hollow holds, superman holds, and ending with bent-over rows.

I’m worried about not hitting the mileage—already behind about 8K. Need to find a way to make sure I’m hitting the mileage. I need to save time in the morning and get out earlier.