March 2016 Running Challenge

8.3 miles tonight, 54/75 for the month.

@MobyCarp Thanks for the input. I look at the plan as a general outline, something to keep me focussed, and if I need to, I can slow it down, and keep steady for longer before upping. I have a LONG time until my half marathon, and until July for the 5 mile I'm registered for, so the April/May running is all just base building and cementing routine for me.

By the end of it, I'll be about 3 miles per week more than I am right now. Last week and this week were both 16 miles (Assuming tomorrow's 6 mile run goes full distance), so I feel ready for it, but I definitely will listen to what my body says about taking it easy if I need to.

Got my new rain jacket

March Running Totals (miles)
[2/28 – 7.78 easy]
[2/29 – 7.22 easy + 4 strides]
3/1 – 9.31 warm up + 8 x Yasso 800s
3/2 – 6.02 easy
3/3 – 15.05 easy
3/4 – scheduled rest day
3/5 – 17.01 2 easy, 13 MP, 2 easy
Weekly total 62.39 vs. target 62

3/6 – 7.70 easy
3/7 – 8.17 easy + 4 strides
3/8 – 11.67 warm up, speed work, cool down
3/9 – 11.03 easy
3/10 – 8.92 warm up, speed work, cool down
3/11 – scheduled rest day
3/12 – 15.10 easy 2 solo, pace 8, race 5
Weekly total 62.59 vs. target 62

3/13 – 11.00 – 4 easy, 3 MP, 4 easy
3/14 – 5.74 easy + 4 strides
3/15 – 7.96 easy
3/16 – 9.41 easy
3/17 – 9.79 easy
3/18 – scheduled rest day 2.38 easy
3/19 –
Weekly total TBD vs. target 68

March total to date – 156.26

Goal – 56, 62, or 68 miles per week, per training plan
Expected March total - ~282 miles

Today's notes – It's a week of adjustments. The training plan calls for 68 miles, but it also called for some very challenging speed work that I didn't do. Not doing the challenging speed work dropped 8 miles from what I had planned to run. I made up 5 miles of it on Wednesday, and about another mile yesterday. So I looked at the totals, and doing the maximum long run assignment on Saturday would leave me 2 miles short of the weekly target.

I thought about that. Today's assignment was "Off or 30 min. run". I had originally scheduled this as a rest day, but those 2 miles bugged me. I realized I have a mostly flat 5K route from my home, got home with daylight left, and set out to run 5K. That would put me a mile over the weekly target, but that's close enough, right? About 1.2 miles in, I realized I had an option to cut the route short. I didn't know how much distance it would cut out, but it seemed like it should be a mile or a little less. Got to thinking about the marathon runners I know.

Marathon runners are disciplined. If a marathon runner needs 15 miles on a long run day, he runs 15 miles. He doesn't run 16, because running too much can come back to bite him in the butt. So I took the shorter way home, and ended up with 2.38 miles instead of 3.1. If I run exactly 22 miles tomorrow, that will bring the week in at 68.28, compared to the target 68. Since I'm pacing 14 miles for the local training program, and the routes are structured as 8 + 6 miles, 22 should be straightforward enough. Just repeat the 8 mile route after I drop off all the trainees.

There is still the chance that my iffy ankle may ask me to quit earlier. If it happens, it happens. The ankle felt a little better this morning than yesterday morning, and I could have run considerably farther than 2 miles today; but there's that training discipline thing. It's not always better to run more miles, just as it's not always better to run faster.

So I didn't take today off, and I didn't run 30 minutes. I ran a bit under 19 minutes, and I ran easy. I even have a report from Garmin that says my heart rate spent 95% of the time in Zone 2. (It was in Zone 1 for 47 seconds at the beginning of the run.)

I'm really liking the new HRM that came with my 630, and I'm doing better with caring for it than I did with the HRM that came with my 620. As a result of better hardware and better user compliance with the instructions, I'm not seeing the fake heart rate spikes at the beginning of the run any more. This makes the heart rate data more meaningful. For those of you who ask what heart rate to run easy, today's maximum heart rate was 125 and the average was 118. Given how low in Zone 2 the average was, I'm not going to worry about the average pace of 7:56 per mile. The ankle was fine with it, the heart rate stayed in Zone 2, the run was easy enough.

Upcoming races:
March 26, 2016 Spring Forward Distance Run 15K (Mendon, NY)
April 18, 2016 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)
April 24, 2016 Flower City Challenge Half Marathon (Rochester, NY)

ceciliaslater wrote: »

Elise4270 wrote: »

ceciliaslater wrote: »

Good luck in your races this weekend, @HonuNui , @Elise4270 , @zmcgrandles , @louubelle16 . Those are the only names I saw with races posted. Did I miss anyone?

Good luck to you! Weather has cooled off and we've had some rain.

Yeah, looks like the weather Sunday is going to be about as perfect as it can be, barring any changes. Morning low around 33, high around 55, mostly sunny, light breeze. I was a little worried earlier in the week when it was 85, but it looks like it's all going to work out in my favor!

My sister comes in early tomorrow morning (should land in Tulsa around 9am), then we're heading for Ardmore!

Have a safe trip. My husband said okc is under a freeze warning.

We (I) have has a hellova day. Phone died. Won't charge. Find out that I can't get a new one without my husband, I'm not an authorized user on the account. So waiting for him put us way behind schedule. So I am behind on food, hydration and have to figure out how to get my new phone setup with the criticals, i.e. Garmin, MFP.

We have only valet parking, so inconvenient when you forget something. Especially at 30$ a day... ouch! On top of the 500+ on the phone.

I bought a Brooks hat at the expo, and it is too big... I'll stitch it or something since I dropped the receipt.

But love the new phone. Made it safe. Downtown Dallas hotel. Pretty cool. Looking out the window there is a 50 ft giant eyeball in a grassy area.. so weird. And we're are on the 10th floor, directly across is a pool that hangs outside the structure of a building like on the 5th floor. The end of it is glass. I doubt if wanna swim 5 stories up with a glass wall. I remember it being there ages ago, but it didn't seem odd when I was 15.

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

Got my new rain jacket

Nice!

3.18.16 - 7 miles. Friday night Hansons Marathon Method​ plan calls for 6 miles at an easy pace. My target pace was a 9:41 which I approx hit 4 of the 7 miles. I ran on a TM, and set program to rolling hills in order to prepare for my next 2 marathons. On the flat segments of the program, I ran a 9:16, 9:12 and I finished with a 7:55 mile.

Upcoming Runs:
4.3.16 - Knoxville Marathon
5.1.16 - Flying Pig Marathon
5.29.16 - Buffalo Marathon
6.18.16 - Grandma's Marathon

@HonuNui What gorgeous colours on that fish!