March 2017 Running Challenge

Even though my calf feeling a lot better this morning, it's definitely not 100% and I now have slight discomfort in the shin. I imagine that's probably just from overcompensating whilst limping around yesterday! Anyway, I'm not going to even try running on it today to give it every chance to recover, and have put on compression sleeves for the day as will probably involve a fair amount of walking. Not sure whether I'll attempt a 10k tomorrow just to hit my target - any continuing discomfort and I'll leave it even though it's annoying to be so close!

After sleeping on it I've come to the decision I'm going to DNS my May marathon, (hopefully can defer - will write to organiser later). This is as much, if not more, for my mental health as my physical health. With such a short time to finish training and a few (minor) layoffs recently, I am left with no slack in my plan. As such I'm going to be constantly stressing/worrying about getting the runs in and how prepared I am. I obviously also run the risk of more serious injury. Given my history of anxiety and depression, all of above not worth the risk given I'm finally getting to a decent place after 3 years of struggle. If I did end up pushing on and then having a worse injury and being forced to cancel my marathon last minute I suspect that would tip me back into a dark place.

In addition to all that, I *really* enjoyed my first HM recently, so would definitely like to try a few more of those. I know I can do the distance, and would like to see how much I can improve if I focus on it. It's obviously also much more manageable from a time point of view.

I still like the idea of doing a marathon, so will continue to try increasing my long runs, but at least I can do it slowly. I may look at an autumn marathon, but more likely spring 2018. In addition, I've just started doing some work for a small charity who have guaranteed places for the London Marathon each year, which I think would be amazing to do so sure I could use them to get in next year!

I've enjoyed reading race reports, seeing dinosaur costumes, and hearing about shadow kangaroos. Sorry to those who are still working through injuries.

I've been in a bit of a slump, and buried under work stress, but decided to take a time out and get a run in this morning with Stella. It wasn't our best run but she did pretty well keeping on task and I felt really good getting out there. I even jogged (with a soft j) up my nemesis trail hill instead of walking it so got my heart rate up there for an extra burn. I think I'm going to come in a bit short of my goal of 95 miles for March. I hit 90 today but I don't see making 5 more tomorrow. I'm closer than I thought though, given the last couple of weeks.

Date :::: Miles :::: March MTD (goal = 95)
03/01/17 :::: 2.3 :::: 2.3
03/02/17 :::: 6.7 :::: 9.0
03/03/17 :::: 5.1 :::: 14.1
03/04/17 :::: 3.1 :::: 17.2
03/05/17 :::: 2.6 :::: 19.9
03/06/17 :::: 4.4 :::: 24.2
03/07/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 24.2
03/08/17 :::: 2.7 :::: 26.9
03/09/17 :::: 2.6 :::: 29.5
03/10/17 :::: 3.5 :::: 33.0
03/11/17 :::: 2.7 :::: 35.7
03/12/17 :::: 7.7 :::: 43.4
03/13/17 :::: 2.6 :::: 46.0
03/14/17 :::: 5.0 :::: 51.0
03/15/17 :::: 3.5 :::: 54.4
03/16/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 54.4
03/17/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 54.4
03/18/17 :::: 7.4 :::: 61.8
03/19/17 :::: 4.0 :::: 65.9
03/20/17 :::: 2.8 :::: 68.6
03/21/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 68.6
03/22/17 :::: 2.6 :::: 71.2
03/23/17 :::: 2.7 :::: 73.9
03/24/17 :::: 2.7 :::: 76.5
03/25/17 :::: 6.5 :::: 83.0
03/26/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 83.0
03/27/17 :::: 3.9 :::: 86.9
03/28/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 86.9
03/29/17 :::: 0.0 :::: 86.9
03/30/17 :::: 3.4 :::: 90.2

I bailed out on my run last night. I hate excuses, but after working through the list of why I shouldn't run the 8 miles I was planning, it seemed the smart thing to do.

Reasons not to run yesterday:

• Raining, 40F and falling
• It would have been my 5th day in a row running (normally I run 3 days in a row, max)
• I averaged less than 6 hours sleep for the last few nights (I suck at sleep)
• I ate too much when I got home and had a full stomach (normally I don't give myself any slack for that dumb move, but hey...I'm making a list)
• I had felt a dull ache in both Achilles during the day so they probably needed rest
• My main impetus for running is a silly goal of getting my first 200 mile month.

After about an hour of struggling with the decision I made the smart move of not running. I immediately felt better. I followed that up with a dumb move and overate the rest of the night, not even bothering to log anything.

I'm still going after that 200 mile month. I need 13.6 more miles and I'm going to try to get it all tonight...6 miles during my son's soccer practice, and the rest I drive him home.

In 9 days I have a 16.7 mile trail race. It's a loop with a 4,700 elevation change. That's twice the elevation change per mile than the trails I've been training on. I had considered entering the 50 mile event (3 loops) but as the day gets closer, I'm glad I didn't. I talked to an experienced ultrarunner who has run this a few times and he says the 17 mile loop runs like a marathon and the 50 mile race runs like a 100K. My intent is to run it as a training run, keeping my HR in the middle of Zone 2 as much as possible.

What a difference a year makes!

I was comparing long runs from this year, last year, and the year before and found the most identical runs from each year I could. 2015 is just over 18 miles, and 2016 and 2017 are just over 20 miles. All on pavement, and relatively flat.

2015: 10:32 pace -> 147 bpm Average HR
2016: 9:26 pace -> 151 bpm Average HR
2017: 9:26 pace -> 139 bpm Average HR


This makes me wonder what my pace would be if I were to push it to 151 bpm this year. Daniel's tables, which have been VERY accurate for me once I built up a good base, predicts a 9:00 pace at 150bpm. After my ultra and recovery, I think I'm going to find out if that's right.

ETA: Added 2015 info