January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Today’s planned long run was 13 miles, but mapmyrun is a liar and said today’s 14.5 mile route was 13. Unfortunately, stopping at 13 miles would have meant walking 1.5 miles to meet my other half at the shopping mall I was heading to for coffee, and by then it was raining and I was starting to feel cold anyway, so I decided to run the last bit. Fortunately, it was downhill after a 4 mile uphill, otherwise I’m not sure I would have bothered

Glad it’s done now though, and I’m pleased my average pace was bang on what I was aiming for. My legs will be glad for a cutback week though...

January Running Challenge
2nd - 4 miles
5th - 7 miles (0.8WU + 10km race)
6th - 5 miles
7th - 4 miles
8th - 7 miles
10th - 5 miles
11th - 3 miles (Orangetheory)
12th - 13.5 miles
14th - 3.5 miles
15th - 4 miles + 2 miles (Orangetheory)
17th - 3 miles
18th - 7 miles
20th - 13.1 miles Race 1:47:44 PB
22nd - 3.5 miles
23rd - 6 miles
24th - 6 miles
25th - 3 miles (Orangetheory)
26th - 14.5 miles

Goal: 114.1/125 miles

Race Calendar
10th March - Grizzly 20mile
7th April - Manchester Marathon

Wasn't really planning on running this soon after the marathon, but the weather was so nice (55° F and only 5mph wind), I just couldn't pass it up. I am not hurting at all, and HR for the 4 mile run averaged only 114. So I think I am fully recovered. Was nice not to fret about any time or distance.
Hmm, that actually makes my monthly goal.

Day January
1 2.3
2 0
3 2.6
4 2.85
5 3.1
6 3.1
7 11
8 2.5
9 1.9
10 2.5
11 4
12 8.15
13 0
14 4
15 4.5
16 0
17 0
18 2.75
19 3.15
20 13.18
21 3.25
22 3
23 3.8
24 2.5
25 0
26 6.3

Total: 90.43
Goal: 115

3 bad nights of sleep, tried to go out for my long run but everything was tired by 5.5 miles. So I said I would head home and try again tomorrow. If I run at least 11.15 tomorrow I will make my weekly goal still so the goal is 12 tomorrow. I'll see what I can do. I would love to just bust out the miles but listening to your body is important too.

I am sure I have run in colder - and been miserable - but since I started tracking (err... yesterday 😉 ) this is my coldest run yet. With the Heat Factory Gloves, it was easy peasy. Was overheated most of the run really. Light snowfall throughout the run and maybe 1/4" on the ground. Wore my Alta Lone Peak 3.5 trail shoes, big improvement in traction over my Saucony Ride 8 Street Shoe. Tomorrow supposed to be about the same, with 2" of snow and I have a long run planned. Should be interesting...



11 miles, almost 1300 feet of elevation. Tomorrow will be more of both.

My January goal was to:
"Ease out of my downtime and run a HM, or even a 30 km (Last HM was Dec 2, last 30ish was 11 Nov)."

On Jan 20 I did a HM.

Today I did 30 km. Happy!

5.5M Treadmill tonight with intervals

January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 – 10.09 warmup + 7.5 mile race
1/2 – 6.28 easy w/fast finish
1/3 – 6.76 warmup, intervals, cool down
1/4 – rest day
1/5 – 16.65 warmup, Winter Warrior Half
1/6 – 8.09 easy
1/7 – rest day
1/8 – 8.64 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/9 – 11.08 easy
1/10 – 8.25 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/11 – rest day
1/12 – 15.94 warmup, 5 mile race, post-race easy run
1/13 – 12.46 easy with hills
1/14 – rest day
1/15 – 8.19 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/16 – 10.01 easy to MP
1/17 – 9.82 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/18 – rest day
1/19 – 15.12 with snow and wind
1/20 – 8.10 indoor track
1/21 – rest day
1/22 – 8.19 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/23 – 13.16 easy with hills
1/24 – 3.81 warmup, aborted speed work
1/25 – rest day
1/26 – 8.59 warmup + 4.9 mile race

January running total to date – 189.23

Nominal January mileage goal: 200 miles

Real Goals: Train well toward Boston. Work the January races into the training plan smoothly. Remain uninjured, even if it means cutting back on planned mileage or races.

Today's Yesterday's notes – Freezeroo #4, the Hearnish 5-mile, is a tribute to Bill Hearne. The Hearne mile was reputed to never be precisely a standard mile, ranging randomly between a metric mile of 1500 meters and a nautical mile. So the Hearnish race is never precisely the nominal distance. Its current incarnation is about 4.9 standard miles long.

It was 14° F (-10°C) with 9-12 mph SSW wind at gun time. I ran about a 3.7 mile warmup on the first part of the race course, rather than my customary course preview, because I was cutting back as Coach had advised. The warmup was predictably challenging, but I felt better by the time I got back to the shelter. And the race went pretty much as planned.

The ideal was to run at about T pace, win my age group, and cement my age group lead in the Freezeroo series. Set out in my new-ish Peregrine 7 Ice+ shoes for the uncertain surface, and in 600m there were only 3 runners ahead of me. Huh? That didn't last. By the time we got to a mile, there were 5 ahead of me. Then 6. By 2 miles, 7. And I heard footsteps. For the last 3 miles of the race, positions shifted between the extremes of 9 people ahead of me with 2 I might catch, to 7 people ahead of me with 2 who might catch me. Got to the last half mile with only 7 ahead of me, but youth and downhill running skills triumphed. I finished 10th overall, out of 129 runners. I was 1st of 9 in the M 60-64 group, but winning the age group was expected.

Mile 2 of the course is a soul-crusher if you don't know what's coming. It's all uphill, but not so steep as to be obvious all the time. The first time I ran this course, I looked at my watch about mile 2 and thought I just didn't have it. Mile 2 was slow! This year, someone posted on the GRTC FB group about negative splits. So I looked. Yes, it was that kind of day, that kind of course, and that kind of challenge in the last 3 miles. Mile 2 was slower than mile 1, but otherwise I ran negative splits:

Finished healthy, skipped the cool down. I'm happy with this one. Then yesterday evening was the GRTC awards banquet. Lots of fun, talk to other runners, new inductees into the GRTC Hall of Fame, get awards from the 2018 RROY series. Pint glass for finishing at least 6 of the 12 Runner of the Year race, mug for finishing in the top 5 of my age group, shirt for winning my age group in the 2018 RROY series, patch for racing over 200 miles in 2018:

This is the gold patch. They come in bronze (50 mile), silver (100 mile), gold (200 mile), and platinum (300 mile). Highest mileage for this year was 608.9 miles of races. This is the first year I've got the gold patch; I won't be challenging for the platinum level any time soon.

2019 Races:
January 1, 2019 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) finished in 50:55
January 5, 2019 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) finished in 1:30:48
January 12, 2019 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds 5 Mile) (Spencerport, NY) finished in 33:10
January 26, 2019 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY) 4.9 miles, finished in 32:28
February 2, 2019 USATF XC Championship, Masters 8K (Tallahassee, FL)
February 9, 2019 Freezeroo #5 (Tom Brannon 8 mile) (Greece, NY)
February 23, 2019 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
April 13, 2019 BAA 5K (Boston, MA)
April 15, 2019 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA)
November 3, 2019 TCS New York City Marathon (New York, NY)

Welcome back to the group @simcon1. Looks like you've been busy traveling from A to Z - Alaska to Zanzibar. How cool! Good luck on your goals. Maybe signing up for a half marathon in the fall would be a great motivator and give you plenty of time to build up to it?

@orphia congrats on your 30k!

@Fitatelo great job getting to 5k and reaching your monthly goal. Well done.

@MobyCarp - always enjoy reading your detailed reports and getting into your mindset for these races. Congratulations on your race and the runner of the year awards. Hope you are feeling on track with your Boston training.

@Elise4270 I ordered some new socks last night - supposed to be waterproof, I got them in preparation for the winter spartan race. I will report back with photos now that we have a new rule!

I'm also going to use you all as my accountability (whether you want to be or not) for my new goal of being able to do a real, actual, unassisted, non jumping pull-up 31 days from now. By the end of February (well that's 32 days from now but I'll take the cushion). That's also about 10 days before my Spartan race. Must survive! I may have ordered a pull-up bar along with those new socks (and gloves too if I'm being honest). Late night Amazon is a dangerous thing.

I'm going to use this plan as a rough guide - may vary depending on what my trainer has me doing (just in case anyone wants to join me):

2019 races:
1/13/2019 Chilly Chili 5k, Cazenovia, NY 33:00 on very tired legs
2/24/2019 Lake Effect Half Marathon, Syracuse NY
3/10/2019 Greek Peak Winter Sprint Spartan Race, Cortland NY
5/5/2019 Mountain Goat Run (10 mile), Syracuse NY
6/2/2019 Niagara Falls Women's Half Marathon, Niagara Falls, ON