March 2017 Running Challenge

45k ride this morning, took wrong roads and ended up on very busy road, wanted to to the usual 50km but i took it as a sign.
I'm feeling extremely drowsy, I can not sleep and then i pay.yhe price of it during the day. Also i manage to be in standby mode trying to save any drop of energy for Sunday, but the combination of the 2 makes me a zoombie.

Tomorrow I'll run final 9 miles super cautiously, then prob ride a bit on Saturday morning, finally my summer cycling kit has harrived and i want to try it, so a quick ride in the morning before catching my train seems ok

I also think I'm going to bake a fruit cake tonight, I'm very bored.

3.2 miles this morning, came home with a new running partner. This little lady decided halfway through my run she wanted to be with me. She ran home with me, I took her to the vet no chip, drove around to ask all the kids at the bus stops if they knew this dog. So now I'm truly hoping the police don't come knocking on my dog to ask why I was doing the "missing dog" routine at the all the bus stops this morning ha ha. I posted her precious face online everywhere and finally had to break down and call animal control. She become like instant attached, she wouldn't go more than 1 foot from my side and decided to sleep on my feet. Ah!

I hope her owners comes go to get her, she's a gem. In the second picture she was sound asleep, I just stood there for 20 mins until she woke up. Dang why is she sideways. You'll just have to turn your monitor screen ha ha

@skippygirlsmom that dog is awesome! It sounds like she's already got you wrapped around her little paw. It will be hard to give her up.

ROBOTFOOD wrote: »

@7lenny7 That sounds like a fun race! 16 with 4700ft vert NIIIIIIIICE! I'd be all over that! Might be a good idea to use poles for those climbs. I've been thinking about getting some.

I've got poles but I don't if they'd hold up to that abuse and I don't have time to try them out before then.

I misread the vertical...I thought it was 4700 gain/4700 drop, but that's total, so *just* 2350' each.

They also hold a 50 mile and 100 mile race next weekend on the same loop. Next year I'll sign up for the 50, which has a midnight start. After the race I'm volunteering to help clean up, pack up, and haul out. I think I'm looking forward to that as much as the race.

Here's how it looks on paper:

Managed a pretty good run this morning. I started out with tight calves despite foam rolling. I stopped after the first mile or so to stretch and then felt a bit better. All was good until the list 0.5 mile when my hip flexors tightened up. More stretching and foam rolling are in order before I head to the gym for strength training. I am hoping tonight will be more upper body focused since we had such a tough leg workout on Tuesday. I should easily make my stretch goal (120 miles) tomorrow. I haven't run that many miles since last July!

@skippygirlsmom - love your new friend and clearly she loves you! What does Macy think of her?
@midwesterner85 - I hope your knee feels better for your race this weekend!
@7lenny7 - OMG those hills!!!!! Glad it is you running and not me
@jessicalferrara - How do you like OrangeTheory? I see them popping up all around here.


Date........Miles.......Total
03/01......0.00........0.00
03/02......5.20........5.20 - Treadmill/Home from St. Louis
03/03......6.02......11.22
03/04......9.40......20.62
03/05......2.68......23.30
03/06......5.23......28.53 - + Agility class
03/07......4.17......32.70 - + Strength Training
03/08......0.00......32.70
03/09......5.36......38.06 - + Strength Training and Rally class
03/10......4.17......42.23
03/11....10.28......52.51
03/12......3.18......55.69
03/13......4.49......60.18 - + Agility class
03/14......5.46......65.64 - + Strength Training
03/15......0.00......65.64
03/16......5.48......71.12 - + Rally class
03/17......0.00......71.12 - Crazy life and work day
03/18......8.70......79.82
03/19......0.00......79.82
03/20......5.27......85.09 - + Agility class
03/21......5.44......90.53 - + Strength Training
03/22......0.00......90.53
03/23......5.27......95.80 - + Strength Training and Rally class
03/24......0.00......95.80
03/25......4.23....100.03
03/26......0.00....100.03
03/27......6.63....106.66 - + Agility class
03/28......5.65....112.31 - + Strength Training
03/29......0.00....112.31
03/30......5.69....118.00 - + Strength Training and Rally class



My completed and upcoming Races - Let me know if you will be running too!
02/05/17 - Surf City Half Marathon
07/23/17 - San Francisco 1st Half Marathon

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
3/30 – 15.01 tempo intervals
3/31 – rest day

March total – 220.51

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 – Final report for March, a day early because the last day of the month is a scheduled rest day. I am 4.5 miles short of nominal goal. I could run 5 miles tomorrow, but Friday as a rest day has worked out well in my training so I will honor it. That, and if I ran 5 miles tomorrow I'd only be allowed to run 13 miles on Saturday and I want to pace 18 miles.

Today's assignment was a long continual interval run: 3 miles at E, 2 x (4 miles at MP, 1 mile at T), 2 miles at E. Temp was 42º F (6º CJ) this morning with 9 mph ESE wind. Looked at the weather forecast, and it called for increasing chances of rain from mid-afternoon through evening. A decision was made. I'd go run about 11, and just have a late lunch.

Last year when this workout came up, I tried to run it around the block (~3 miles) at Cobb's Hill Park. I was more beat up then than I am now, and I did not appreciate the impact of the hills around that block would have on running MP and T paces. I ended up crapping out after the first T interval, talking to Coach, and being told to start taper early. That was a week further out, due to differences in scheduling between last year and this year.

This year, I chose to run in the daylight from my home, and do the MP and T intervals around the campus of RIT. That has one small hill on a 3 to 3.5 mile loop, which is in no way comparable to the elevation change around the block at Cobb's Hill. I have my target paces: E, anywhere between 7:45 and 8:15. MP, 7:30. T, 6:30. I expected the E at the end of the run to be slower than the E at the start of the run, and that's OK. Actual pace came in as:

E: 8:08, 7:56, 7:48
MP: 7:23, 7:22, 7:24, 7:20
T: 6:20
MP: 7:15, 7:29, 7:14, 7:14
T: 6:17
E: 7:55, 7:54

I haven't been perfect with pace control at MP, but I'm getting better at slowing myself down again when I notice I'm going too fast. Part of running MP too fast in the second interval was that I got tired enough to lose some pace control but not so tired that I was compelled to slow down. The second T interval started out right on pace, but there was heavier traffic in the last half mile and I unconsciously speeded up to get it over. Still, it's a big confidence booster to be able to run a 6:17 mile at mile 13. It's an even bigger confidence booster to complete this workout, which I have failed to complete more than once in the past.

The plan has a slightly easier variant on the schedule for Saturday: 2 miles E, 2 x (4 miles MP, 1 mile T), 1 mile E. If I were planning to do that 13 mile workout, I'd run my 5 miles tomorrow and meet goal for the month. But I decided at the beginning of the training cycle that I would skip the tough interval workouts on the weekend in favor of long easy runs. So I'll pace 18 miles at 8:00 per mile on Saturday, get my target miles in for the week, and live with being 4.5 miles short of goal for the month of March. There are more important things on my plate than hitting that arbitrary number. Goal #1 is avoid injury, and one of the things I need to do for that is tone down the quality workouts from the marathon training plan. This week's portion of tone down is skip the Saturday intervals in favor of easy running.

Monthly goal assessment: As noted above, short of nominal goal mileage by less than I expected since the mid-month snow storm canceled 16 to 18 miles of running. Stay healthy, check. I'm in much better shape than I was at the end of March last year. Train well toward Boston, check. I'm right about where I want to be. Run well at the USATF Masters 8K, A+. I thought breaking 32 minutes for an 8K would be a fabulous result, and I broke 31. I'm quite pleased with my running results for the month of March.

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)

@7lenny7 and @ROBOTFOOD I just looked at a race with an elevation profile you guys might like
Looking at the registration page for a different race in Lausanne (mostly flat urban 20k), I got the hint that I'll save 5 CHF if I sign up at the same time for a race in Montreux with this lovely elevation profile:


=5250ft in 11.7mi . But none of those evil leg-destroying downhills, so should be a piece of cake, right? ^^

It's three days after my summer vacation, so I'd be jet-lagged and out of shape, so I'll pass on that savings opportunity. There's plenty of races like that around here though. And I haven't dared sign up for one last year; maybe I'll have to courage to do it this summer...

"THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A SEVERE DUST STORM WARNING FOR YOUR AREA. AVOID ALL OUTDOOR TRAVEL!" Just popped up during my trail run up a mtn. 65mph winds, super sandy. Actually wore snowboard goggles. Blew me around alot. Forward lean lvl 99 lol. 7.5mi with 2,362ft climb. Now up to 45.9mi and 10,338ft so far this week!

3/22 - (10.1mi) 5k TM hill tempo @ 3%inc, 7mi E
3/24 - (6mi) Slow/easy + heat tolerance, 8:40/mi
3/25 - (10mi) 3,074ft vert, 14:34/mi
3/26 - (13.6mi) LSD 8:49/mi
3/27 - (7.2mi) 2,162ft vert, 14:41/mi
3/28 - (5.5mi) 4mi @ 7:33, 1.5mi C @ 8:44
3/28 - (13.1mi) 4,068ft vert (Daily T: 18.6mi)
3/29 - (3.5mi) 1,220ft vert
3/29 - (9mi) easy w surges. 8:28/mi, 311ft
3/30 - (7.5mi) 2,362ft vert (65mph wind)
Total: 140.2/150mi

@7lenny7 That looks like a nice but challenging course! @_nikkiwolf_ That would be awesome! I'd def run it if I was in the area!

Started out and noticed after 10 blocks that I forgot to put on my knee brace. Continued on, but still made it shorter than it would have been otherwise. Just 2 miles tonight. No running tomorrow, so this wraps up Mar. for me.

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!
23---4.02 run
25---2.92 walk
29---3.45 Runish
30---2.81walk

39.96/31

RACES!!!

XTERRA Rock Dallas Trail Run (HM at night) May 27 (Tentative)
XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)

@Orphia @JessicaMcB It was interesting! Haha. My depth perception was a little off with the big goggles on so I was clipping rocks alot. Thankfully only a couple scrapes. Still ended up with sand inside the goggles! The wind whistling on the cactus and rocks was awesome! But I blew over constantly. lol. Only saw 1 group of girls and they looked pretty mad and ready to get out of there. I said "hello!" No response. Eventually the sun got blocked and I thought I was on Mars. I had a great time!

And last night I was running/drafting behind this dude In a beach cruiser and he had no idea I was there. I eventually coughed and he shouted "whoa! man hey!" I kept pace as long as I could before him speeding up past 6:30/mi.