April 2017 Running Challenge

@girlinahat I am a little late in commenting - but I agree with everyone else - Your pictures are breathtaking and an example of why we love running trails. Hope the migraine go's away and lets you get back out on the trails.

@7lenny7 Yes the Emperor's Challenge area can get quite windy and wet, which is why there is a Wind Turbine farm on an adjacent ridge. Buts it just so much fun. Between the Trail Race and your evening run with Kody Smiling I am a little envious.

The ice finally broke on the river and our trails were just starting to dry out from the Winter Snow and today got hit with 8" of Heavy wet slush so no trail running for a while longer.

@dpwellman I'm tempted to try out the Frees, but I really do like the Vomero, especially for the cushioning with the distances that I tend to do, that I'll probably give the 12s a shot first.

@_nikkiwolf_ Nope, not weird; as I said previously, I don't care what Strava says, as I get all the metrics I care about from Garmin Connect anyway. Strava, to me, is a nice way of showing support for friends and their activities.

@MNLittleFinn Good luck with the 17-miler today!

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Today's run was a small one intended to keep the legs fresh ready for tomorrow's race. For some reason, my HR was up (average 153, high of 172, for a slow run???), but I suspect that was because I wore the Scosche on the outer of my forearm and not the inside like I normally do. Or it could be just one of those days. Who knows. *shrug*

03 - 13.37
04 - 9.59
05 - 13.39
06 - 10.75
07 - 13.36
10 - 10.73
11 - 9.27
12 - 8.16
13 - 8.89
14 - 2.33

Total: 99.84 / 175 miles

@_nikkiwolf_ - While I am a data nerd and probably obsess over my training plans and data at least as much as most of us here, I'm also not bothered by the final reported difference of a run in an app if it comes up a little short. For me I have a target distance to hit on my run and run until I got that distance on my Garmin (plus about .01 by the time I stop it). At that point I got my goal no matter what any app says, so it doesn't bother me. Like you I have had races come up short and if I don't get to record a PR that irritates me, but I also have other places where I can enter my PR. Strava lets you enter your PR manually, Garmin does not. So unless Garmin comes up short I can fix it. Case in point, according to Garmin my longest ever run was 14 miles, yet I have run 3 full marathons and numerous runs over 14 miles. So no point in depending on Garmin (or any other app) to know everything.

As for Runalyze, I'm tempted but I already use several apps. I am using Sport Tracks currently for seemingly similar data and LOVE it! I have even been building my training plan from the data and loving that my actuals are matching up closely to the forecasts. I designed this last base building phase I just finished using it and am very happy now that I completed it to be where I planned to be. I also tweaked my next base building cycle upwards a bit as my original plan might have been too easy and the final week would not have improved my fitness but remained flattish. The mileage is a couple miles higher than I would have ever thought to do before, but I also know that my past mileage increases were based on "general advice" and not data like this. Runalyze is something I'll probably check out also and see if it can either add more, or even just as a check against Sport Tracks.

Well, I already set up my Runalyze account. Looks like I have to import activities manually (which is a time suck) but they are going to allow for auto-synch with certain apps at a later date. I'm looking forward to that. I'll probably import my last months activities during some free time soon to get a decent look at the tool, but I will admit I am not fond of having to take time to pick a tool to export from then import here when all of my other apps already auto-sync with each other. I guess I'm lazy! Knowing me, I'll probably make the time to do this, and I'll probably love yet another new tool.

Looks like I have a race to add to my schedule due to a discount offer through a deal my employer just sent out to the company. I won't be "racing" it though.

This spring is shaping up to be rather interesting at work.

Firstly they offer a "Healthy Living Discount" on insurance costs if you meet criteria for doing healthy activities, one of which is a "Get Fit" program that records activity minutes over a 6 week period during which anyone who records over 900 minutes of activity earns half of the points needed to get the full discount for next years insurance. I tend to get the remaining points over the rest of the year through race events, but even without racing the difference could be filled by getting physicals, dental and eye exams, etc.

Secondly, they sent an email company wide about a week ago announcing a "Half Marathon Training Program" with the goal being a target HM possibly some time in June (and bi-weekly training runs on campus for employees to run together). Naturally I signed up for that. They also sent a discount for a 10k/HM event that weekend but I had a 10 miler planned for that day and was not willing to change it to either a 10k or HM so I passed on that discount offer.

Then today an email was sent to the folks signed up on that HM program offering a 25% discount to next weekends Garmin Oz Runs here in Kansas (Olathe to be exact), which is a 10k/HM/Full event. They were mostly talking about the 10k as a training run, but I have a scheduled 12 mile run planned for that day so I decided to go ahead and sign up for the HM. I will need to run it nice and slow though as that is the first long run of a new base building cycle with increased mileage. Still though, I'm a bit stoked as I had not planned on running any events at all for a couple more months (at least).

If they keep sending offers like this, with the option to run with fellow coworkers, it could turn into a much busier race season than I expected!

_nikkiwolf_ wrote: »

Am I weird for not worrying about the exact distance shown after uploading my runs?
Wednesday's run showed up as 14.67km on my watch when I finished, and now it reads as 14.7km on runningahead, and 14.6km on Strava.

It only bothers me if I run a race and Strava chops off enough that I don't get credit for a PR for that distance.

Nope. Cuz ya gotta figure it's only so accurate to begin with (unless it's sanctioned).

April goal: Stay healthy, get my runs in and increase my long run distance
Nominal mileage goal: 191 miles

4/1- 15.23
4/2- 3.14
4/3- 7.07
4/4- 3.69
4/5- 9
3/6- REST
4/7- 5.12
4/8- 17.58
4/9- 4.05
4/10- 7.13
4/11- 3.79
4/12- 9
4/13- REST
4/14- 17

Total: 101.8

Today's notes: I swapped my scheduled 5 miler for tomorrow's long run due to the potential of thunderstorms tomorrow.....That said, I almost would have rather run in a thunderstorm than today's run. Temp was great, at about 45F, with clouds overhead. The problem was the sustained 10-15mph ESE winds. I had a tail wind for, perhaps 2.5 miles of my run, and that was great. The rest of the run, the wind was either trying to blow me off the road (it was successful a handful of times), or in my face, trying to blow me backward (not successful at that).

At first (for the first 11 miles) I thought I had a handle on the wind, averaging 9:36 pace, including the first big uphill, which was right into the wind.


Boy, was I wrong. 11.5 miles in, I took my first walk break. Over the next 5.5 miles, I saw my pace slip slowly from that amazing 9:36 to a final average of 10:09. As walk breaks continued, a right calf cramp and left, lower quad cramp killed off any hope of getting momentum going again. After mile 12 (10:17), my fastest split was mile 17 (10:21) Miles 13-16 were all in the 11-12/mile range.

To say that I had to embrace the suck today is an understatement....the suck took me out back and whooped me today (that's the most polite way I can think of to put it)....

That said....I can still be Okay with my run, I managed to keep my pace faster than 4:30 marathon pace, despite the nastiness....So I guess there's still some hope for a 4:20-4:25 marathon yet.

2017 Races
6/16- William A Irvin 5k
6/17- Grandma's Marathon (Full!)
8/19- Rampage at the Ridge 5k OCR
9/23- Ely Marathon (full)
10/21 Wild Duluth 50k??????
11/23- TBD 5k Turkey Trot