March 2017 Running Challenge

For those of you who wanted a photo - the top of the head was hitting the ceiling when he was fully inflated, so I'm thinking my hubby was a little early taking the picture... That's why I can't test running on the treadmill. I should just suck it up and give the neighbors something to talk about. I do have a race coming up on Sunday.

@autumnblade75 Wow, that is so much more awesome than I would have imagined. Love it!!!


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Spring is definitely here:

Three in a day! That's enough for the rest of the year, thank you very much.
Two of those were on the bike this afternoon, one during my run tonight... It's a good thing that somebody entered "random insect" into the database, since I can never identify what crawly critter I swallow/breath in during exercise

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
3/22 – 5.58 easy
3/23 – 9.16 warm up, speed work, cool down
3/24 – rest day
3/25 – 21.70 paced run + solo miles
3/26 – 3.86 easy
3/27 – rest day
3/28 – 12.10 warm up, Yasso 800s, cool down
3/29 – 7.05 easy

March total to date – 205.50

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 – There is a group run this evening that will come in between 6.5 and 7 miles. I thought about that. If it comes in short, I could easily add a half mile to get my 7. Then I thought about the conversation with @lporter229 and the fact that this group tends to accellerate and finish the run around my MP. Decided to run solo from home and keep it easy. This decision was made easier by nice weather this afternoon, 48º F (9º C) with 8 mph NNW wind and bright sunshine.

Set out to run a standard 7.2 mile route with some interesting hills. A couple miles in, I thought about the conversation with @lporter229 again. The hay is in the barn. I'm not going to get any more fit to run hills than I already am. So after the second hill, I took the turn to go home early, and ran some extra distance around my neighborhood in a relatively flat area.

It turned out to be pretty natural to just run easy by feel. Aside from a slower first mile, I ran fairly even splits: 8:12, 7:52, 7:49, 7:50, 7:46, 7:52, and 7:54. Total distance of 7.05 miles in 55:36 was an average pace of 7:53, close enough to each of the mile splits from mile 2 through 7. Didn't even run a stride from the Garmin 7 mile tick to my driveway.

Look at the data. 3:29 in HR Zone 2, apparently on those 2 hills. 47:54 in HR Zone 1. That leave 4:13 in Zone Zero. I spent a lot of time just enjoying the day and reminding myself that tomorrow's workout will be hard enough that I don't need to work hard today.

I will not hit my nominal mileage target for March. I will run 15 miles tomorrow, and close out the month around 220 miles out of a 225 goal. That's closer than I thought I'd be when I saw that I'd lost 16 to 18 miles to the snow a couple weeks ago; but I didn't lose as many as I expected to travel. Yes, I could easily run 20 miles in the next 2 days; but it's more important to honor the rest day on Friday and have the miles left for Saturday.

I really appreciate all the recent discussion around not doing too much. Thinking out the "why" and writing some of it down has helped me be smarter about my own training and not push harder. The way easy running felt really good today is an indicator that I'm perhaps a bit more beat up by training than I thought. That's okay. I don't have very much hard work left in the training plan, and the mileage steps down quite a bit next week. I'm sure holding discipline of not going out too fast will be more of a challenge in Hopkinton than feeling beat up will be.

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)

Welcome back @MNLittleFinn!

@_nikkiwolf_ I now feel like I should be tracking every bug, lick and taste

Loving all the Boston conversations! Meanwhile I ran just under 19k with a forty of rum in my pack tonight because my husband asked me to stop at the liquor store and who doesn't love resistance on hills? Haha! Made goal by the skin of my teeth this month, gotta pump up the jam in April.

March 1- 15km
March 2- 18km
March 3- 15km
March 4- 22km
March 5- 13km
March 6- Rest
March 7- 16km
March 8- 13.7km
March 9- 1.6km (RIP Treadmill )
March 10 & 11 - Snowing/Most Depressing Days Ever
March 12- 11.1km
March 13- 11.1km
March 14 to 17- Husband OOT
March 18- 7km
March 19- 9km
March 20- 7km
March 21- 11.1km
March 22- 18.4km
March 23- 6km
March 26- 14km
March 27- 13.4km
March 28- 9km
March 29- 18.7

250.1/250km