January 2017 Running Challenge

01/01/17 - 5 miles
01/02/17 - 5 miles
01/03/17 - 3 miles

01/05/17 - 6 miles

01/07/17 - 10 miles
01/08/17 - 3.25 miles

01/10/17 - 6 miles
01/11/17 - 5.5 miles
01/12/17 - 3.25 miles
01/13/17 - 6.5 miles
01/14/17 - 5 miles
01/15/17 - 4 miles

01/17/17 - 5 miles
01/18/17 - 5 miles
01/19/17 - 10 miles

January Miles Challenge:

1/3 3.25 miles
1/13 6 miles
1/16 4 miles
1/19 3 miles (16 of 45)

Hahahahahahahahahahaha PT session was just enough I can count it as my XT for the day..... I really wasn't wanting to drive back to the gym and now I don't have to!

@melaniefay82 sorry about the fall! I have done the sidewalk tripping thing too, but fortunately caught myself enough that it was fairly minor. Hope your bruises and scrapes heal up quickly.

Date :::: Miles:::: Jan MTD (goal = 70)
01/01/17 :::: 4.3 :::: 4.3
01/02/17 :::: 2.9 :::: 7.1
01/03/17 :::: 3.1 :::: 10.3
01/04/17 :::: 3.6 :::: 13.9
01/05/17 :::: 3.3 :::: 17.2
01/06/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 17.2
01/07/17 :::: 6.9 :::: 24.2
01/08/17 :::: 2.5 :::: 26.7
01/09/17 :::: 2.8 :::: 29.5
01/10/17 :::: 2.5 :::: 32.1
01/11/17 :::: 2.6 :::: 34.7
01/12/17 :::: 3.5 :::: 38.2
01/13/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 38.2
01/14/17 :::: 3.4 :::: 41.6
01/15/17 :::: 5.5 :::: 47.2
01/16/17 :::: 3.5 :::: 50.7
01/17/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 50.7
01/18/17 :::: 2.5 :::: 53.2
01/19/17 :::: 4.1 :::: 57.2

Decent treadmill run today. I went mid-day between working at home and going to the office and I think I needed the stress release. I finished up my audio book (which I've been listening to FOREVER in these short chunks and was a bit short of the time I wanted, so put on my running playlist. The first song really got me going again (Come on Eileen - 80s music fans) and then I did a few more songs because I liked them too. Before I knew it, I was well over my intended time and really had to stop so I could get to work. That pretty much never happens on the treadmill.

I did have some trouble with a side stitch about 15 minutes in. I also had it Monday night at our group workout. Today I had to slow to a walk for a few minutes and slow my breathing. And then I was fine again.

I just realized tonight that I have double-booked myself for this Sunday and I don't think I'll be able to do the 5k I've been planning on. I can't believe I didn't put this together in my head until now and I'm really bummed because it is a fun race with food and beer after! And it's supposed to be mild weather and dry conditions. Rats. I'm glad I signed up because it's for a good cause but I'm still pouting about it for a while.

Date     Miles      MTD
------   -----    -------
Jan 02     6.5        6.5
Jan 07     4.3       10.8
Jan 09     4.3T      15.1
Jan 12     6.1T      21.2
Jan 14     7.5       28.7
Jan 15     6.6       35.3
Jan 17     5.2T      40.5
Jan 19     5.4T      45.9

I am developing a mutant genius with the Treadmill, which I loathe, but I can leverage my latent OCD tendencies to countdown Just Two More Minutes an apparently Endless Number of Times. Whatever it takes to finish the distance.

Working from home tomorrow, which translates into an outside run during daylight.

@Virkati Nice going on the job!!

@louubelle16 We've all been next to That Person. I always treat Aggressively Unsolicited Advice like a birthday present. I appreciate the intention, but don't feel obliged to like the gift, which may or may not be something I want.

January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 – 10.39 warmup, 7.5 mile race, cool down
1/2 – 2.12 easy cross country
1/3 – 8.58 warmup, tempo intervals
1/4 – 5.01 easy
1/5 – 5.99 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/6 – rest day
1/7 – 16.59 warmup + Winter Warrior Half Marathon
1/8 – 7.62 easy on indoor track
1/9 – 6.51 easy
1/10 – 6.02 warmup + MP
1/11 – 6.20 mostly easy
1/12 – 9.01 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/13 – rest day
1/14 – 15.88 warm up, 5 mile race, post-race easy run
1/15 – 10.06 easy with hills
1/16 – 6.83 easy plus 4 strides
1/17 – 8.02 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/18 – 7.04 group run
1/19 – 7.67 warmup, speed work

January total to date – 139.54

Nominal Challenge Goal – 225 miles
Real Goals: Train toward Boston, working 3 Freezeroo races plus Winter Warrior Half into the training plan. Avoid injury.

Today's notes – Today's assignment was 3 miles at MP, 2 miles at T, and 4 laps of stride the straights. With intervals measured in miles, I thought about running this on the roads in daylight. But there were some other things I wanted to do during the day, and when I got out the first time we had a light drizzle. It wouldn't have kept me from running MP or T, but I made the decision to use the daylight for other things and go to the club practice on the indoor track in the evening.

A pleasant surprise was that the college filed team was absent. That meant we had a full track, instead of being restricted to lanes 1 and 2 by pole vault equipment set up in lanes 3 through 6 on one end. That's good news for intervals in miles, because lane 6 is 7 laps to the mile as opposed to 1600 m for 8 laps of lane 1. (Of course you all remember that one mile is 1609 meters, right?)

The mental game on the indoor track is to count laps to the mile, and manually lap the Garmin each mile to have a record or real time per mile. I do this because Garmin's distance estimate from cadence is not accurate enough to get a real pace. I set out to target a 7:30 mile for MP and a 6:32 mile for T. That's a faster T than I would expect on the roads, but it's easier to run on the track.

I brought the 3 miles of MP in at 7:11, 7:08, and 7:09. The 2 miles of T came in at 6:38 and 6:32. Then it wasn't as hard to run 4 laps of strides as I had expected after the long MP and T intervals.

I'm a bit concerned that I seem to have fallen into training at the same pace for MP that I used last year. 3 or 4 miles of this is okay. Even 13 miles of it was not a problem. But it's too fast for me for a full marathon. Never mind that the calculators say my MP should be 7:02 to 7:08; 7:10 to 7:15 was too fast for me at Boston 2016. I need to go out slower, run controlled down the drop at Lower Newton Falls, run strong in the hills of Newton. It would be OK to speed up after I pass Boston College, if I am still capable of speeding up at that point.

Told Coach I'd run the MP too fast, and he didn't seem very concerned. He says I'll slow it down when I get to longer mileage. I hope he's right, but I suspect that slowing things down will only happen if I work on it.

It's traditional to take a 2 mile cool down run after speed work. Today I walked 4 laps instead. I had my eye on my weekly mileage, and I want to save some miles for Saturday. The math works out so I can run 16 miles on Saturday, and I'd like to do that as a continual easy run. Recent Saturdays have been cut up with races in the middle, and mentally I need to show myself that I really can run for 16 miles, not just run three times for a total of 16 miles. Yes, I know it makes no difference physically; but an awful lot of training is mental.

2017 races:
January 1, 2017 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) Finished in 50:45
January 7, 2017 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) Finished in 1:32:40
January 14, 2017 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds Park 5 mile) (Spencerport, NY) Finished in 33:42
January 28, 2017 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY)
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship 8K (Bend, OR)
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY)
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY)
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

Thanks all for your support, I appreciate it. We head to the city for the wake tomorrow but the actual service won't be until the 27th. Me and my SIL are planning to attempt a few gym hours a day while we're there if all goes well. Run for your sanity and whatnot

January 1- Travel Day
January 2- 8.1km
January 3- 8.1km
January 4- 8.1km
January 5- Rest Day
January 6- 10km
January 7- 15.1km
January 8- 6km
January 9- HIIT Day
January 10- 10.1km
January 11- Rest Day
January 12- 10.1km
January 13- 7.1k
January 14- 21.1km
January 15&16- Off
January 17- 16km
January 18- 5.1km
January 19- 12.5km

137.4/160km

@juliet3455 That just sounds nasty!!! Take care.

1/11- 2.4..... 2.4
1/12- 3.4..... 5.8
1/13- 3.8..... 9.6
1/14- 2.7..... 12.3
1/15- 4.3..... 16.6
1/16- 3.3..... 19.9
1/17- 3.0..... 22.9
1/18- 4.0..... 27
1/19- 3.0..... 30