March 2017 Running Challenge

Mean't to walk/jog two-ish yesterday. Ended up 5.6. It was freakin' 76°F. Can anyone blame me?

March Running Challenge

3/1 2 very slow miles and yoga
3/2 Rest
3/3 2.2 slow miles
3/4 3 mile trail run
3/5 5 mile trail run
3/6 3 mile trail run
3/7 3 mile run, strength
3/8 30 minutes of Lateral Elliptical, 15 minutes of stationary bike.
3/9 4 mile run
3/10 5 mile trail run
3/11 Rest Day
3/12 3.2 mile trail run with a lot of hiking due to about 1,000 foot of elevation gain
3/13 4 hours of skiing
3/14 5 hours of skiing
3/15 5 hours of skiing
3/16 Rest Day
3/17 4 mile run
3/18 6.2 miles
3/19 10.1 mile trail run
3/20 Zumba and strength training
3/21 4.5 miles: w/u, 3x1 mile intervals at 10K pace, c/d

Goal: 55.2 of 90

Completed Races:
Cowtown Marathon (Full) Feb 26 (Registered): 3:54:06 / 8:56 min/mile

Upcoming Races:

The Trail Run at Eagle Mt Park (5 miles) Apr 2 (Registered)
XTERRA ATX Trail Run (21K) Apr 23 (Tentative)
Chicago Spring Half Marathon: May 21 (Registered)
XTERRA Rock Dallas Trail Run (HM at night) May 27 (Tentative)
XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)
La Sportiva Vail Half Marathon: Jul 22 (Tentative)
Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: Oct 1 (Tentative)

Today was the 1st time in forever that I've done a speed workout. Since I was having Runner’s Knee issues, I stopped doing speed workouts leading up to my marathon. It was definitely tough, but both my knees felt great today!!

Today's assignment was 45 minutes easy. Even after a bath and three stretching sessions yesterday, my left calf was still tight (and my quads still tired) after Sunday's HM effort. Still, it was better than yesterday though so wasn't overly worried when I headed out.

Within 5 minutes the calf was fine and was actually the tightness in my right quad I was more mindful of. I soon outran that as well and even though I am feeling generally tired the run actually felt very easy apart from a short uphill headwind section. Actually surprised myself that my pace announcements were mostly coming in at sub 6-mins, (my revised easy range is 6:00-6:18/km). I even had one moment where I thought I could carry on at that pace to HM distance if I needed to, but at about 6k my left calf and my stomach/bowels soon put a stop to such stupid thoughts! Neither were bad enough to force me to stop early but there was definitely no way I was going to elongate my planned route either (which in the end took 50mins and average 5:57/km). My legs definitely feel a bit worse for wear but even at the end of the run feel better than they did yesterday. All in all a great run/mood lifter.

However, now the HM is out of the way, the reality of doing a full marathon in less than two months is starting to hit me. It feels like a huge leap from my current distance PR of 25.7k through to 42.2k. Last night I wanted to change to a later race to give me more time to prepare, and even started searching for suitable races but in the end decided to trust in my plan - after all my aim is just about finishing rather than about time. In the end I went the other way and booked my hotel for the night before the full so as to give myself another reason not to change my mind! So pleased I did as after todays run I'm actually looking forward to getting back into extending my distances in training whereas the last couple of weeks have been mostly focused on pace control and a little on outright speed.


2-Mar: 1k TM + 7.8k steady
3-Mar: 10.1k easy
5-Mar: 10k steady
6-Mar: 21.2k easy
7-Mar: 4.3k easy
8-Mar: 12.1k fartlek (long efforts)
9-Mar: 9.1k steady
10-Mar: 6.6k MP
13-Mar: 16.3k HM pace + cooldown = 17.4k
14-Mar: 8.8k HM pace
17-Mar: 5.3k easy
18-Mar: 3.9k very easy
19-Mar: 21.1k RACE [Richmond Half - 1:51:00 PR]
20-Mar: 2.8k easy
21-Mar: 8.4k easy

Upcoming Races:
14-Apr-2017: Victoria Park Easter Run - 10K [Unconfirmed]
14-May-2017: Bexhill Starfish Marathon
9-Jul-2017: Southend Half Marathon [Unconfirmed]
24-Sep-2017: Windsor Half Marathon [Unconfirmed]

1---Rest
2---3.07 run/walk
4---2.49 walk
7---3.25 walk
9---3.25 run/walk
10---7.0 miles on da bike
11---4.80 trails run
15---4.21trails run
17-20---Ft Benning, Georgia trip
21---4.69 walk, tried to run HOT! So outta shape.

25.76/31

RACES!!! Omg, what was I thinkin'?

March 26th 2017 A2A 5k Ardmore, OK (registered)

The Trail Run at Eagle Mt Park (2 mile trail hike) Apr 2 (registered)

Color Me Crazy 5k Run April 15th (registered)
 
XTERRA Rock Dallas Trail Run (HM at night) May 27 (Tentative)

XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)

01/03 3.52 miles
02/03 5.02 miles
04/03 4.5 miles
08/03 5.16 miles
09/03 3.54 miles
10/03 3.51 miles
12/03 3.01 miles
14/03 3.51 miles
15/03 4.02 miles
20/03 3.82 miles
21/03 4.04 miles - my calfs are really tight, I took 4 days rest over the weekend and yesterday's run was just ok but they felt very tight again this evening and I took it very easy. It's annoying as it's not like I'm doing big mileage.

Date     Miles      MTD
------   -----    -------
Mar 02     4.6T       4.6
Mar 04     6.5       11.1
Mar 06     4.4T      15.5
Mar 07     6.7T      22.2
Mar 09     5.3T      27.5
Mar 12    10.4       37.9
Mar 13     4.4T      42.3
Mar 15     4.7T      47.0
Mar 18     8.2       55.2
Mar 19     6.5       61.7
Mar 21     6.5       68.2

March Running Totals (miles)
3/1 – 7.32 easy with hills
3/2 – 13.10 long intervals
3/3 – rest day
3/4 – 16.09 paced run
3/5 – 12.67 easy with hills
3/6 – rest day
3/7 – 10.20 warm up, speed work, cool down
3/8 – 7.02 easy
3/9 – 14.25 easy with MP finish
3/10 – rest day
3/11 – 10.10 warm up + race
3/12 – 9.65 easy with hills
3/13 – 5.01 easy + 4 strides
3/14 – snow day
3/15 – snow day
3/16 – 8.05 easy
3/17 – travel day
3/18 – 6.40 commutes + race
3/19 – 11.18 MP interval
3/20 – rest day
3/21 – 15.01 tempo intervals

March total to date – 146.05

Nominal Challenge Goal – 225 miles
Real Goals: Stay healthy. Train well toward Boston. Run well at the USATF Masters 8K Championship in Virginia Beach.

Today's notes – Today's assignment was a 16 mile interval workout: 2 miles at E, 4 miles at T, 5 miles at E, 3 miles at T, 2 miles at E. For those not familiar with the Jack Daniels paces, that's "E" as in "easy" and "T" as in "threshold."

I wanted to hear what Coach would have to say about last Saturday's race, but I also wanted to do this run in daylight. So I drove off to Cobb's Hill Park early, and started the workout at 4 with the idea of making the club meeting at 6 for the pre-workout announcements and discussion.

The terrain around Cobb's Hill is a lot of up and down of varying degrees of steepness and length, but I found a residential section a bit to the south where I could run a loop of a bit over a mile on mostly flat roads that had partial shelter from the 16 mph wind. I ran some hills to get there in the first 2 miles, ran the first T interval on flat surfaces, then left that section for more variety in the 5 miles at E. I might have thrown too many hills into that 5 miles. Got back to the flat part for the next 3 miles at T, which were incredibly challenging. From a quarter mile into that interval till a quarter mile from being done, I wasn't sure I could keep the T level of effort up for 3 miles. Then I ran easy back to the club meeting, which happened to be my slowest E mile, and all uphill. It was a gut check to keep running for just one mile at E then, chopping the last mile off the workout and just ending with one mile at E. That last mile felt like a late marathon mile, when it's just plain hard to keep running even if you run slow.

Race results: Various club members won individual honors at Virginia Beach. Various club teams finished on the podium for their category, just not mine. The M 60+ A team was 4th, and the B team was 6th. So while we didn't dominate, we showed good depth.

For the marathon workout, Coach put what I had tried to run up on the board. Then he said if you aren't up to it, you can modify it: 1 mile E, 3 miles T, 3 miles E, 2 miles T, 1 mile E, total 10 miles. After I saw that, I felt okay about only making 15 miles of the 16 mile workout. Told Coach what I'd done, and he said stopping when I did was the smart thing to do.

This is the last peak week in the training schedule before Boston. I don't see any workouts on the remaining schedule as hard as the one I ran today. If I can stay healthy, I've got this.

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) short course, finished 4.88 miles in 32:50
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship Masters 8K (Bend, OR) Finished in 35:39, team won the 60+ Men's cross country championship
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) sat out due to training schedule
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) short course, finished 4.34 miles in 27:51
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 33:25
March 18, 2017 USATF Masters 8K Championship (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 30:59, PR for 8K
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

3/01-3.1 miles
3/02-1.44 miles
3/03-3.14 miles
3/04-3.85 miles
3/05-yoga
3/06-4.25 miles
3/07-1.44 miles
3/14-3.1 miles
3/15-3.62 miles
3/16-1.45 miles
3/17-3 miles
3/18-4.1 miles
3/21-3.1 miles







Races

• 5K - 7/16
• 5K - 7/30
• 5 miles - 8/13
• 5 miles - 8/27
• 10K - 9/10
• 10K - 9/24
• 10 miles - 10/8
• 10 miles - 10/22
• Half marathon - 11/5
• Half marathon - 11/19

March goal: lose (another)3lbs

3/1 2.54 + core/strength training 30m
3/2 3.20
3/3 5.25
3/4 yoga 45m
3/5 rest
3/6 4.17
3/7 3.55
3/8 4.00
3/9 rest
3/10 2.05 and yoga 30m
3/11 lazy
3/12 3.74
3/13 snorkel 4 hours
3/14 6.38
3/15 snorkel 2 hours
3/16 2.25 + yoga 30min
3/17 4.14
3/18 rest
3/19 3.10
3/20 rest
3/21 3.91

Total: 48.28
@dpwellman Love that video!

Ticker is my goal for 2017 and progress to date:


Completed and upcoming races:
Run through the solar system Virtual 10k: 3/14
Big Island International Marathon (---just doing the 5k) 3/19