January 2017 Running Challenge

January Running Challenge:

1/1: 19 miles
1/2: 5 miles
1/3: BodyPump and 30 minutes of stair stepper
1/4: 5.8 miles of a 10 mile planned run. Cut short due to knee pain
1/5 Unplanned rest day
1/6 2.2 mile walk, 30 minutes elliptical, Strength: upper body and core
1/7 8.2 miles
1/8 20 miles
1/9 45 minutes light strength and 45 minute walk
1/10 15 minutes of stationary bike, 20 minutes of Elliptical, 45 minutes strength
1/11 57 minutes of walking (3.5 miles), 52 minutes of strength
1/12 48 minutes of stationary bike, 30 minutes of strength
1/13 Planned rest day
1/14 6 mile run, knee felt so much better
1/15 12 mile run
1/16 5 mile run
1/17 40 minutes / 11 miles on stationary bike
1/18 5 mile run
1/19 10 mile run
1/20 Rest Day
1/21 10 mile run and runner’s yoga
1/22 20 mile run and runner’s yoga
1/23 30 minutes of stationary bike and strength
1/24 2 runs in 1 day! Short 2.3 mile run at lunch to test my new Altra Torins, 4 mile run after work
1/25 6.1 miles

Goal: 138.4 of 170

Upcoming Races:

Cowtown Marathon (Full) Feb 26 (Registered)
XTERRA ATX Trail Run (21K) Apr 23 (Tentative)
XTERRA Rock Dallas Trail Run (HM at night) May 27 (Tentative)
XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)

Thanks for the birthday wishes guys. With some of the money I got from my In-Laws, I got the shoes I really want, I ordered a pair of New Balance 1500. They are lighter than my other road shoes and have the same 4mm drop of my trail shoes so I can get some more minimalism starting with some shorter runs.

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
1/20 – rest day
1/21 – 16.16 easy
1/22 – 7.63 one hour easy
1/23 – 6.50 easy
1/24 – 8.23 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/25 – impromptu rest day
1/26 – 5.17 easy with fast finish (morning)
1/26 - TBD (evening)

January total to date – 183.23

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 This morning's notes – If I thought I felt OK yesterday afternoon when I was forcing myself not to run, I feel great this morning! The rest day yesterday was absolutely the best thing to do. Now, on to adjusting the training plan to account for yesterday's rest day.

Got to thinking last night. Today's speed work assignment is 1 x 800 at T, 3 x 2000 at T, and 4 laps of striding the straights. That's too much for me right now. It would probably be about right if I were just marathon training, without all the minor races on weekends thrown in. I'll need to tone it down. But I have options. Today is the time trial for the FF Half and Full Marathon training program, for which I will pace long runs. I can go to the time trial, and just run the 2 miles at T pace instead of all out. My T will probably be fast enough for me to be a rabbit for the field of beginners that the FF program will draw. The warmup and cool down will only be about a mile each, so that's only about 4 miles total. Hmm. Maybe a 5 mile easy run in the morning, to get the miles in for my training plan?

Felt good enough this morning that the daily double still sounded like a good idea. Got out about 9, ran a very familiar route with an early 1.5 miles into a strong WSW wind; but at 40º F, I didn't much care that the wind was strong. Started out with heavy legs, but that improved as I ran and my pace naturally accelerated a bit. Then I felt good enough when the Garmin ticked over 5 miles to pick up the pace, and then pick it up again 100 m from my driveway.

So far, so good. I might not find the time to post after running this evening, but I'll see how the daily double thing goes. Then tomorrow I'll see how I feel, and either take an extra rest day or run something easy and not terribly long. I'll have to think about how I want to get the weekly miles in around a busy schedule tomorrow and Saturday.

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)

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

01/21/17 - 6 miles
01/22/17 - 5 miles
01/23/17 - 5 miles
01/24/17 - 4.5 miles

01/26/17 - 6 miles

@MNLittleFinn _Happy belated b-day!!! Somehow that point in your post went right of my head! Hope it was a happy one!

BeeerRunner wrote: »

@MNLittleFinn Happy birthday! Go ahead and get yourself some birthday shoes!! Just make sure you ease into the 0mm drop.

That's my plan. Shoes IU'm getting have a 4mm drop, like my trail shoes, so I should be ok. plan is to test them with one of my shorter Friday or Sunday runs, once they arrive.

BeeerRunner wrote: »

Elise4270 wrote: »

RespectTheKitty wrote: »

louubelle16 wrote: »

@RespectTheKitty I took a similar medication for a while that had a sedative effect, and to get out there and do any exercise, coffee will be your new BFF!

I used to be super addicted to coffee. I managed to quit drinking it in favor of tea, but I have a feeling I'll be downing a latte or two in the first few weeks of this new med.

Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee......COFFEE!!!!!!


I like coffee

I LOVE coffee. If my husband ever left me, I'd marry coffee. Of course, I'd have the occasional side fun with beer, tequila, vodka, whiskey, and wine.

Gah, do you all have to praise coffee today? I just agreed to some stupid "no coffein for two weeks" challenge, so as of tomorrow no espresso, green tea, hot chocolate, Coca Cola, ... for a while. I already stocked up on chamomile and lime blossom tea, but I have the feeling that won't be the same.


@MNLittleFinn Happy Birthday from me too! Running shoes are always a nice birthday gift
And maybe you can score a deal on the Merrells some other time. I think I paied ~50$ for my Merrell Road Gloves - which I actually wore today. Although I'm not really sure if this minimalist thing is doing anything for me. After I bought those, I increased the distance I ran in them from 1.2km to 6km with the first three weeks, (much faster than the Merrell website suggested), and never felt any muscle soreness or anything. I almost felt cheated ^^
I honestly still can't tell any difference in my running form whether I wear those or any of my other, mostly 4mm drop, shoes, but it's interesting how much more you feel of the ground texture when the soles are so thin.

@skippygirlsmom I hope the hip feels better! Getting up at 3am sounds crazy, I could never do that. I went to bed around 2am yesterday (after dinner with some friends in honor of Chinese new year week); getting up at 7:30 was already tough enough.

@ddmom0811 I hope your knee is feeling better today. Two rest days in a week are not the end of the world, take care!

---

It's supposed to warm up a little on the week-end, just above freezing. Finally! I hope that it will be enough to melt all the ice that's still left in spots on sidewalks and smaller roads. Today was hill repeats day, and even the 400m part of the hill with the least ice that I used had two places were I had to walk carefully, and two other spots where I had to zig-zag between smaller patches of ice.
My goal pace for the repeats was 6:07min/km; my four repeats turned out to be 5:45, 6:03, 6:05 and 6:20 min/km - so at least on average it wasn't too bad, but next time I'll have to try harder to keep some gas in the tank for the last repeat!

1/25 - 4.5
1/26 - 3.1
86.2/90 - Jan total

Looks like I'm gonna make my goal. Yay! Good job everyone...we're almost to the end of this endless month!!

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
Jan 20     6.2       52.1
Jan 21     5.1       57.2
Jan 22     5.3       62.5
Jan 25     5.4T      67.9
Jan 26     4.5T      72.4

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
1/20 – rest day
1/21 – 16.16 easy
1/22 – 7.63 one hour easy
1/23 – 6.50 easy
1/24 – 8.23 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/25 – impromptu rest day
1/26 – 5.17 easy (AM)
1/26 – 5.04 slow jog, time trial, easy run, slow jog

January total to date – 188.27

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 This evening's notes – The back half of the daily double went pretty much as planned. Saw the new group of trainees. The warmup run to the office park loop was short, so I ran around a parking lot while waiting for the group to arrive, got a bit over a mile at an average pace of 10:10. Meant to hold a 6:40 pace for the 2 mile trial, instead of running it all out; ended up with at time of 13:05. Went out too fast, but it didn't average all that far off what I wanted. That still felt good, so I ran the loop backwards once cheering the runners, then another partial. Return to the store averaged a 9:46 pace because I found a less slow guy to run with. Pleasant conversation and cookies afterward. I passed on the pretzel sticks and beer.

I heard footsteps behind me for most of the first loop of the time trial, so I'm hopeful at least one of the trainees is fast enough to be assigned to the 8:00 pace group.

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)