Ethan Cannon

Went on a run with my wife biking next to me this morning. We switched and I biked for a brief time which is why I'm writing 9.5 instead of 10 miles. I joked that it was a fartlek because some of the time I was going faster than I'd like and other times I was going slow. It was nice to have the company for sure but I think that going slow at times was also nice. I should do that more often lol. 

Just under 7 flat pace, east on W&OD. Wind made it nippy. I did a couple strides near the end. 

7:08 pace to Morven park today. I intended to go slow for multiple reasons. Unfortunately my achilles is feeling a little loose today. 

Ran east on W&OD the shortcut way. I think I'll do that more often in the future when I go east. 

Didn't sleep after 3 am the previous night (rough parenting stuff) but felt good enough to at least run short. I ran my old short run and added on so I wouldn't have to go up the hill. 

Today was not the highlight of all my runs. With a sick kid, I didn't get to go till late in the evening and ran on the treadmill for safety purposes besides that of ice. So idk whether to count this as a treadmill run or not. I would've liked to at least hit 60 miles this week but it was hot in there and late and I just wanted to be done. 

Benvenuto, inverno. 6:45 pace on east River road. Some yucky smells near my apartment. I think they are worse during the winter. Tired today. 

6:48 pace, boom island 

Ran around campus as I had to stop at the (really cool) student wellness center for the first time. Tired from helping a sick kid but the run was fine. I ran on east river flats for part of it, and there was a little snow but was doable. 

7:02 pace. Was going to get a locker but a safety incident caused me to run essentially west river north instead as a precaution. Very sad. By the end of the run, the sun was out and with my winter gear on it felt much warmer than feels like 0 degrees. 

Apparently 6:46 pace. I actually beleive that, it was very cold. Campus loops as I finally got my locker. 

Proud of myself for running outside. 6 degrees, -10 windchill. Wind definitely coming from the west, so it made my run from Como park back along the transitway a bruiser. 6:25 pace, equal going out and coming back. I did one hard lap around the stadium on the way back. Other than that, everything kind of felt hard because of the weather. Snow wasn't too big of an issue as we didn't actually get that much. 

Treadmill miles. -7 outside with windchill somewhere in the negative 20s I think. Maybe I'm just getting soft but I wasn't really up for something outdoors today. 

Ran on the treadmill this evening due to scheduling stuff, but it was frigid outside and I would've done that no matter what. 

6:51 pace, east river road. I really dislike running on the treadmill and was grateful to be able to go outside again. 

6:32 pace on east river road from the rec center (so, all the way to the bridge near the new development). This included 3x2 minutes hard. 

6:52 pace, west river road. It may have been my coldest run of the year that started around -1, but by the end I felt more comfortable than I did at the beginning in my home which has been having heat issues and was <60 degrees this morning.

I had a choice, to minimize elevation change and do my one Medford LR on the bike path, or to enjoy myself and do Roxy. I did the latter. It was a really nice, cloudy day. I even took my gloves off, though it was windy at some places which made it a little cooler. I felt super priveleged to be able to enjoy such a nice run. I only did 2 loops. Not super fast either. around 6:51 pace. 

Aerial Heights to Hillcrest. 7 flat pace. That's not bad given how hilly it is. 

Coal mine. Just under 7 minute pace. 

7:13 pace on another RoxyAnn run (not that pace really matters up there). I hope my achilles tendon will forgive me; I couldn't resist another nice morning up on the mountain. 

Apparently 7:18 pace. I was running slow for my achilles tendons but I didn't think that slow. I was also feeling hypo based on breakfast. Misty run along east river flats and east river road. 

6:53 pace, Como classic. 

I was surprised to see recently (and replicate) that I've seemingly put on some weight. I'm up to low 160s at best. This has been tough because I don't have any (good) reason why this should have happened. It certainly lowers my confidence that I can compete as a good runner still. So even though I was still recovering from the strain I put on my achilles this week, I ran the first half of this run out to the end of Minnehaha park hard. I decided to chill on the way back. And I got the confidence boost I needed, hitting 5:37 pace on the way out. 6:11s on the way back. With the easy end fresh in mind, that was the easiest 5:54 LR I've done in a while. Feeling good about things again!

Somehow I got 6:45 pace on farmers fields despite plenty of mud. Probably a bad choice of route today. It was so warm, I was ready to call it for spring. 

6:52 pace, east river road from the rec center. Was able to run on the side paths cuz there was no snow. 

6:45 pace, boom island. Didn't feel very good- achilles pain, tired. 

6:58 pace, rec center to west river road. It was warm and sunny today and was quiet in the late morning. I also felt a little better, so all in all it was a very enjoyable run. 

6:41 pace on a crisp morning where the air felt fresh and clean. The pace looks fast for Como classic, but I ran further than I normally do and did it very quickly, so I beleive it. Didn't mean to go fast. 

6:05 pace, Resevoir woods to chain of lakes. Got kind of cold with the wind on the way out. Averaged 5:58s on the way back, which actually isn't too impressive considering that I did about 12 minutes of hard. I was trying to do 3 on, 1:30 off, but that was modified somewhat due to stoplights. I think this route tends to run slow, so I guess it's ok. Congrats to Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, olympians!!!!

6:51 pace, east river flats. 

6:48 pace, east river road from rec center. Did two strides near the end. 

Decided to do a workout today because why not? It's not every year you can do a track workout in early February. Within the past couple days, I have signed up for Get in Gear as well as Grandma's Half. Did 1.5 miles on the greenway and near the stadium in 7:44. Then after 7 minutes of break, I did 4 by 800 with 90 seconds rest in 2:23, 2:23, 2:24, 2:22. Original goals were 5 minute pace tempo and 2:25 800s. So I did ok at meeting my very meager goal? Haha. Gotta start somewhere- you have to work for your speed! Feels good to do something hard. Pretty windy this morning. 

6:57 pace, west river road from rec center. 

6:45 pace, Como classic. Wind blowing due east made it cold on the way back, but I was surprised it didn't slow me down- I still came back faster. 

A cold and windy day on the gateway trail (to Stillwater) but it was a day on the gateway trail nonetheless, so that's something to be grateful for. Averaged 5:57 overall, including 5:51 on the way back, which included a 5:09 last measured mile even though I felt crummy by that point. After last season I made a goal to do stuff like that more often; in essense, to push hard when my glycogen reserves are low to simulate a race (mosty physically but also psychologically). 

I felt kind of tired during it but I was cooking 6:50 pace on east river flats. 

6:43 pace, rec center to east river road. 2 strides at end.

Somehow, I actually ran 6:39 pace to Boom island this morning despite a terrible sleep last night because of upset kids. The only casualty was a tight hip; my achilles tendons which were sensitive yesterday didn't even hurt, nor did I feel fatigued. It was a really nice morning. I had hoped to work out but between my achilles and then how I felt this morning it was a non starter. 

Treadmill at rec center. It was warm but I appreciated a fan and some lanscape videos. I even changed the slope of the treadmill (which can go not only up but down) to match the video terrain for a while to shake things up. Did one mile at 5:00, the rest were around 6:40 average. 

7:02 pace, down to river flats then to west river road. Surfaces were surprisingly clean of snow, though Talmage ave was as bad as expected. Cold but sunny.

6:10 pace, west river road. 6:03 pace on the way back, including a 4 by 3 min on, 1 minute off that went well but I'm not bothering to try to calculate the pace for. 

6:45 pace, Como classic winter route. Was like 20 degrees and cloudy at the start but I never felt cold. 

6:45 pace, rec center to east river road. Nice cloudless day. Three strides at the end. 

8 by 1/2 mile on north campus with 90 seconds rest. As opposed to my 1K routes, I liked this one because I could go straight and never have to turn. One way has the slight incline which probably does more mentally than physically. It wasn't easy but had the weird experience on rep 6 of feeling like it got easier, as if I were finally getting loose. Let's hope that's the case because I wasn't going very fast for the effort! 2:31, 2:28, 2:29, 2:26, 2:30, 2:26, 2:29, 2:24. 

6:46 pace, rec center to west river road. I did my exercises on the grass afterwards which was pretty great. 

6:52 pace, Como classic, despite slowing down for some ice on the path.

Como park route then bent north to McCarrons lake and Villa park. 5:52 pace overall. 5:45 pace on way back, including 1.05 miles (slightly downhill, from Snelling to past CTC) @ 5:00 pace. And that was hard. Yikes. I am worried about my fitness I have to say.

6:43 pace. Boom island instead of east river flats because I bumped into a friend. For all of my concerns, my easy runs have been pretty fast recently.

6:43 pace, rec center to east river road. Strides on the way back, but by then it was getting very windy and I had a hard time getting up to speed. 

Treadmill run. It was like 4 degrees, windy, and sunny. I feel like a year ago I would've gone outside, but I am a bit more of a wimp this year since I haven't had to run indoors much. One positive thing about running inside is that it allowed me to do a mini workout. I ran 1.5 miles @ 5 minute pace (the max this treadmill allows). I have previously hypothesized that at fast speeds, the treadmill becomes more innacurate. Maybe that is not true and I am just getting more fit. But you definitely can't gauge fitness off of a treadmill. I am reminded of running (apparently) 4:50 per mile on my aunt's treadmill in Portland and feeling great. 

Rec center to west river. It was gradually warming up but there was a cold wind that I felt the whole time. Technically right on 7:00 pace, but I did lots of off-roading- not quite everything available on Winchell, but just about. Felt tired today. 

Wow, I blitzed my fastest ever split (I believe) on east river flats- 62:30 for 6:40 pace, including just two strides on the way back, on a warm, windy morning. Not sure why my pace is so fast recently but I'm not complaining. Now, I definitely felt fatigued. I probably feel about as tired as I ever have, but recently the same effort gets me a faster pace. 

5:57 pace on a nice warm morning on east river road. 6:09 pace on the way out. For 4.19 miles coming back, I ran 5:33 pace as a workout- 2 minutes on, 2 minutes somewhere between "easy" and "float". That's a pretty easy workout so honestly that was pretty good- probably 5 minute pace at least on the hard stuff since I was for sure slower than 6 minute pace on the easy. At times I felt really fast and good. I really am becoming a fan of doing long run workouts. It allowed me to really chill on the way out. Then you become kind of focused on the workout during it, and by the time thats done, its cool down time. And its probably better for my fitness. Work smarter not harder. 

6:52 pace, como classic. Felt tired today. 

6:42 pace, boom island

By the time I got home the wind was apparently 10 mph, but I have to say, I thought to myself during the workout that it was relatively calm for being March! I did 2x(1600, 800, 800) with 2 min between reps and 3 min between sets. Turned out to be 3 min after one rep b/c I saw my old coach and 3:30 between sets as I took my tights off. It's really interesting how doing something like that will actually make your next rep, or at least the start of it, slower. I wonder if my body kind of just forgets it is a workout and loses some of its sharpness. Goal pace was 5:00 and 2:25. I ran 4:57, 2:24, 2:23, 4:54, 2:25, 2:18. The last one I did normal first lap then 66 for the second lap. So yes I have a long way to go but I feel like I'm making progress. 

Weird. Felt pretty darn tired today, but I still ran 6:39 pace on east river road, which I don't think is a record but is getting close to it. Recently my body seems to have forgotten how to chill. 

6:44 pace, east river flats. Wind made it cold on the way back. 

6:13 pace on the way out, but I did almost all of the detours. On the way back I did 6x2 minute on, 1 minute off again. It was either 5:39 pace or 5:20 pace overall. Honestly, with a cold headwind going that direction, it was a good way to pass the time. 6:04 pace overall on the way back. Felt slow as a sloth after the workout but I think at some parts I was going a decent pace. West river road to lake Hiawatha. 

First day with the new shoes. They were certainly underwhelming from the expectation I had that they would be soft like Hokas Clifton 7s. Hopefully they will end up being worth the $80 each. On the bright side, I ran 6:40 pace for Como classic so while I'm not sure I would use them on workouts, it's clearly not like I'm tying bricks to my feet as some seemed to suggest online.  

6:47 pace coming back from east river road to rec center. 3 strides. Didn't count pace going out because I tried to run on the path that goes down from St Thomas jut. It's not the best. 

4x1600 at the track. Not as windy as last week. Here are my splits, not because I am proud of the splits, but because I am proud that for some reason I can remember them a few hours later without looking at my watch (I only recorded splits at the end of each mile anyway):

 4:57 (74, 2:28, 3:42); 4:55 (72, 2:25, 3:40); 4:51 (71, 2:23, 3:37); 4:49 (72, 2:25, 3:38).

About 3 minutes of rest for each. Even though it wasn't great, it feels good to do something hard. 

7:02 pace but I took every longcut on rec center to west river. Felt tired though. 

Tied record of 6:40 pace on east river flats, while wearing my Nimbus'. Not bad for a pair of clunkers!

5:54 pace on the gateway trail. 

Splits: 6:18, 6:05, 5:53, 5:59, 6:03, 5:57, 6:02, 6:06, 5:53, 6:07, 6:17, 6:02, 6:17, 5:25, 5:20, 5:17. 4:06 and 4:03 for the first and last chunk, 2:43 and 2:51 in the middle. The goal was to keep it nice and easy during the body of the run to conserve energy for a 3 mile tempo at the end. I was feeling kind of fatigued and it ended up being a battle. On the one hand, the last three measured miles are downhill (50 feet but you feel it), but it was also allegedly 17 mph winds going southeast and of course at that speed my shoes did end up feeling pretty slow. Not great still but I wanted to get in a workout since I won't next Wednesday in Chicago. Nice, quiet day on the trail.

6:47 pace, Como classic. For being 20 degrees out it didn't feel that cold.

First run in Chicago. On the bright side, running here doesn't have the issues of it being literally impossible because your house is on a mountain (Tennessee) or having to wear a bear bell so you don't get eaten (Montana), but it is also very windy with only one running option where I am, which is by the lake, but also next to a highway for part of it. I think I might get more tired of the wind than the cold.  

Chicago

Chicago

Surprisingly, it is cold here and snowed last night. Honestly it's been so sunny that any kind of precipitation is probably good. But it did mean I ran inside. 

After running a lot in the Nimbus', it felt good to throw on the light Triumphs again. It was like 17 degrees when I started out on east river road but sunny, not very windy, and I was going fast so I never felt cold. 6:11 pace on the way out. 5:57 pace on the way back, including 2.5 miles at 5:09 pace from the distal side of St Thomas jut to Franklin ave bridge. 

Treadmill. Slushy morning today.

I thought the rec center treadmills were super high tec but the one I was on today really seemed off. It felt slow and uphill. So the 9 miles is just an estimate, I ran for 63 minutes. 

Another treadmill run, hopefully my last of the year due to winter weather. We've had 15 inches of snow the past few days so it's not like I'm being too much of a wimp. I wasn't planning on working out but decided to. 15 minutes at 5 minute pace. Something just seems wrong about the way I felt after that. I don't feel like I should feel after running that pace. After yesterday too, I just have really low trust in the accuracy of treadmills. At least I can say there's nothing I could do about it- I was maxing out the treadmill's speed. 

6:52 pace, rec center to east river road. Felt good to be back outside.

I ran into a teammate I hadn't seen in about two years while doing west river north, so I don't care to estimate exactly how far I ran in the 64.3 minutes. 

5:58 pace on west river road. I felt pretty compfortable the whole way, including 6:03 pace on the way out, as well as the last couple miles after the workout. On the way back I did 5-4-3-2-1 into the wind with 4-3-2-1 rest. I later mapped the 5 minute part as being 5:12 pace. That's ok- I felt extra slow on that one as I was also getting warmed up at the time. The workout generally went by quick.

6:53 pace, east river flats. 

6:43 pace, rec center to east river road with a few short strides at the end. A pleasant run where wet snow turned to rain and then stopped. First non treadmill day back under 160 lbs (159.0). Trying not to focus too much on that but I have been focusing on eating only when hungry. 

6:50 pace. Felt tired again. I was supposed to work out today but I decided not to. Wind was 17 mph and I was sick. Of course my throat didn't bother me during the run, but I think the general fatigue did. Hopefully I'll feel better by Friday. Race is coming up. 

Just over 7 minute pace. I took most of the off-routes. Felt tired. Still windy out, so glad again that I didn't workout. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow. Yesterday was an extremely odd day, I just wasn't hungry so I didn't eat from like 10 to 5 and I also never had dinner. Sickness? Still, its a little weird. Today I weighed 156.8. 

All week I've been kind of dreading this workout as it has continued to be postponed. I try to believe that a slow workout is better than none at all, but I felt that to do the Michigan justice, I couldn't aim for less than a 4:45 opening mile, which intimidated me based on my work this year. Even as I warmed up, I felt tired once again and didn't have any idea how it would go. In my experience, the first lap can tell you a lot about how your workout will go. My first lap was 67, which was a very, very good sign. 4:38 for the opening 1600. Then 3:32 and 2:17 for the 1200 and 800. The "mile" reps were around the athletic complex in 5:18, 5:07, and 5:12, and were about 4 seconds too far. They felt very easy. Amazingly, my legs felt great during that- the biggest issue was that I scorched my lungs on the first rep, which is to be expected when you do faster track work than you have in a while. It was in the low 30s when I ran and hardly windy (a huge upgrade from prior workouts and even previous days this week), but I really think I see an obvious difference maker, in that I'm a little lighter than before. I may still have a couple more pounds to go, too. Rest ended up being ~1:45. This workout is similar to the Ethan classic that I like in that both workouts require you to "recover" while still running relatively fast. 

6:18 pace. The goal was to keep it slow with having worked out yesterday. TBH this still felt hard, just fatigued I guess. By extending the route in some reasonable ways, I was able to get in all this mileage before reaching the normal turnaround point of my reservoir woods loop. The normal loop and even more so the extension are not suited for a fast LR, but it's good when pace isn't a concern. Happy conference! 6 months ago I was running a marathon and a year ago I had to do my conference LR on the treadmill due to snow. 

6:47 pace, east river flats on a warm, damp morning. Kind of tired.

6:36 pace, rec center to east river road. Nice weather. Small strides at end. 156.6.

6:49 pace, boom island. 

4 mile tempo on west river road, starting at rec center. I am a little dissapointed with 5:07 pace as there wasn't really any good reason why I couldn't have gone faster. 155.

6:45 pace, Como classic. Felt tired. 

Probably should call it quits on these shoes but they keep doing fine. Was in the 50s and 60s when I ran today which made me sweat a lot. Looks like 5:57 pace overall. Splits of complete miles were: 6:21, 6:08, 5:51, 5:54, 6:33, 5:54, 5:52, 5:52, 5:57, 6:10, 4:55, 6:39, 5:15, 6:26, 6:06, 5:58. The two slowest splits were when I transitioned to Browns Creek trail, so probably just over a mile. As you can see, I threw in two hard miles. The first was uphill but with wind at my back. The second was overall probably flat but wind at my face, which is surprising since I hadn't changed directions or anything. I think especially for the first one the gel I took helped. 

6:36 pace (fast!) farmers fields. I haven't done that route in quite some time. It's a nice spring route, as it is something you really can't do during the winter. 

Light rain turned into a deluge on east river road from rec center. The workout came with a free shower! Other people don't seem to love this weather as much as me. 6:40 pace. 

6xK w/ 1 minute rest at the track, my last significant workout before my race. 3:04, 3:04, 3:04, 3:04, 3:06, 3:01. I noticed right away that the pace I started out at felt harder than it did about a year ago when I did 10 reps. In fairness, the track was more slippery than I ever remember it and there was a nasty wind on the backstretch. 

7 minute pace, including some side trails on west river road. 

6:40 pace on east river flats despite some wind (62:30), I believe that again ties my record. Not that I'm trying for that!

I hit 1000 miles in 2024 today!

Woke up to a dusting of snow this morning. Yikes. My tolerance for cold wanes in the spring so I decided to delay my MLR (race next week) until around noon. 6:07 pace was surprisingly fast, especially for Resevoir woods. I wasn't trying that hard, especially on the way out. Coming back I had the wind against me so that was a little more difficult. 

Started with family (first time this year!) then ran boom island. 6:40 pace for the parts I ran alone.

6:46 pace, east river road from rec center. I tried running on the ERR equivalent of Winchell trail on the way back for a bit, but it wasn't great for running. Couple strides. A little leg pain. 155.2

I felt tired today. Stopped by the track on the way home from west river road north to do a little something that would get my legs moving more than strides, but wouldn't tire me out like a workout. 3x400 in 75, 72, 67. You expect the 75 to feel like a jog which it doesn't haha. Hopefully I will be ready to go saturday. 

Last run from the rec center. Also last run I plan to do in Peg 39s. I've very much enjoyed doing my Tuesday/Thursday runs this semester. 2 strides at the end. I wanted to go slow and was able to keep myself in check long enough that it stuck. Probably 7:10-20 pace. Really nice day outside. I stopped and smelled the flowers. 

Started with family, then finished my pre-race. Started raining at the end. Strides.

The pros:
-It was amazing weather. Warm, muggy, overcast- my favorite.
-I got to warm up and run most of the race with an old teammate from UMN
-I got to enjoy running down to the lowlands by fort snelling for my long cooldown. The trees are blooming early this year so it was lots of fun.

The cons:
-the race itself. I still finished 2nd like last year so that’s ok I guess but my time was awful, 45 seconds slower than last year. There are pretty much no excuses. The wind wasn’t as bad as it was supposed to be, I had new shoes (which didn’t seem as springy as I hoped even early), and there have been no other issues to write about. So I hope it’s just a bad day or some residual extra weight I need to shed. My workouts will need to start coming along a lot or hopefully I run much better in Duluth (at least sub 67) so I can still plan on my marathon this fall.

Not very excited to share splits. I could tell I was going a smart pace at the first mile, so I knew it was going to be a bad day time-wise when I saw the time. 4:59. 5:01, 10:07, 5:03, 6:00 (last 1.2). Its a good thing there are more important things in my life than running because today was not a good one in that department. Still, it's a tough pill to swallow.