Thursday, 12 January 2012 - Written by Mury[profile]
We've had the best winter here ever... up until today. It was 55 degrees two days ago, and today it's a minus 10 windchill. 65 degrees in two days is a bit hard to swallow.
So anyway, I got sidetracked today, now it's late, and I'm staring at my screen instead of getting up and just getting out there. I figured even just logging in over here might be the trick.
christinacampins says:
Well, I must say that was an impressive run today. I went to my basement for a BORING 4 mile run on the treadmill instead of going out in the 23 degree weather advisory with blowing snow. I admire you for getting out there and enduring and loving every moment of it. It makes me think that I WILL go out tomorrow no matter what. Well, I am not good on ice. If roads are clear, I will go. Thanks for the motivation.
Mury says:
Hey, hey...
Just trying to get a basic level of fitness back. Sick of looking at my gut, want to be able to tear up the slopes later in the spring, and I haven't been to a doctor in about 8 years and when I go in I don't want to be a poster child for some issue.
I do hope to have some sort of race goal, but haven't come close to picking anything out. It's the National Half Marathon Championship in Duluth this year, so it would be pretty cool to run in the same race as them, but getting in isn't a sure bet... nor is my training :)
As far as the run today it was treacherous but a blast. I went for a hilly off-road trail and it was pretty icy and it got dark on me. My face went numb and started cracking. I wouldn't have traded it for anything!
adigerati says:
Hey Mury! Long time no see. Are you training for anything right now?
Not a bad month. Could have been better, but I think I toe'd the line pretty good considering the Achilles issue and the ankle impingement. I didn't let the terrible weather hold me back much, if at all.
As far as goals go, I pretty much hit all of them with the small issue of not quite hitting my mileage goal. Even so I ramped up the mileage significantly over the last four months. I'm not going to sweat that one.
Nov - 0
Dec - 10
Jan - 31
Feb - 47
Mar - 85
My ave training pace was much better this year over last year, and my ave HR was lower. I could use a bit of work on the weight, my buffer is running out fast.
I easily hit my goal of doing long runs of 5,6,7 and 8 for the month. Did 8.25 today to finish off the month.
April goals will be to do at least 100 miles and long runs of 9,10, and 11 miles. In addition, all the other standing yearly goals, ie weight, pace, distance, etc.
I'm hoping for decent weather finally. I really only have one option stil...
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chrissy1 says:
Great month! Congrats on hitting the majority of your goals. Sometimes we hafta tweek our origional gameplan. But it no biggie. Looking foward to seeing aprils progess. Forgive me for not remembering but u r waiting for ur paths to de-snow, where r u again? Its still pretty cold here too but there hasn't been snow for awhile now.
Mury says:
Hi Chrissy :)
Good ol Minnesota. Just checked the 10 day forecast. At least it doesn't look like there are any days with a high below freezing, even though we have more snow forecast for tomorrow. Hopefully in a week most of the snowpack will be gone. I'm sure the state park trails will be messy for awhile, but the Gateway Trail is paved, and just being able to add that route would make me happy for awhile.
MidwesternWoman says:
Your month-to-month progree is amazing. You should give yourself a big ol' pat on the back!
I, too am really looking for an end to ice, snow, sleet. My work travels take me all over during the work week, and while it has been nice to squeeze in small runs where the weather is mild - - it sure would be nice to that same weather for the longer runs on the weekend.
I had a pretty nice week last week. We had decent weather, so I got 5 nice outdoor runs in. My ankle impingement is back, but it's not really holding me back at all.
This week will probably be a different story. Monday was a rest day. I already hit the TM yesterday due to weather and today we got around 10 inches of wet heavy snow around my house. I didn't get any sleep last night either, so today was an unscheduled rest day.
With all the snow and rain and then cold temps the roads are pretty treacherous. It's going to be the TM or nothing and I just can't see myself doing more than 3 TM workouts in a week, if that.
I've ramped up my mileage pretty good over the last couple months, so an unscheduled down week probably isn't such a bad thing anyway.
I'm most likely going to miss my mileage goal of 100 for the month, but things are progressing decently despite that. My April mileage was only 86 last year, so I should have no problems topping that this year. I'll proba...
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chrissy1 says:
U had a good month nonetheless. Keep it up. I recently read somewhere that every 3-4 weeks we should cut back our mileage, so u did what u should have without planning for it. Don't stress yourself trying to make it up in april and push urslef so hard that u get hurt or feel burnt out. Enjoy!
As I've said a hundred times I hate that thing. However, today I actually had a semi-enjoyable run on it. I'm going to try to run tomorrow so I wanted to keep the run a bit shorter than normal. It was a nice mental boost to think I'm going X miles, instead of the normal 45 or 60 minutes. I decided to push it a bit to and get the legs churning for a change of pace from last week.
I kept bumping up the speed and finished with a very nice time and not feeling spent at all. Over the last 2 months I've dropped 3mm off my pace on the treadmill. It's wonderful to see that kind of progress.
It's supposed to be a good week weather wise, so hopefully that's the only treadmill workout for the week. After today's workout I think I'm cool with using it once a week for a shorter run and a faster pace.
I'm having a pretty decent week. It's not quite how I laid it out, but I'll take it. One of my goals was to ramp up my long runs this month... get in a 5,6,7, and finally an 8 mile run.
I did a 5 mile run on Wed and only had to walk 3 minutes of it. Today I did a 6 miler and only walked a few paces after a nasty uphill stretch into the wind.
I was hoping to do more back to back days, but my body hasn't felt right on those 2nd days, so I'll take the every other day but longer runs instead.
The 6 miler today is significant because it feels like I'm running again, having crossed that threshold of feeling comfortable on a moderate distance run. The rough starting out phase feels like it's finally in the past.
I'm going to chill out tomorrow and hopefully finish the week with something like an easy four mile run on Sunday with the hopes of being able to start next week with a run on Monday.
Hoping my Achilles will cooperate going forward. While I'm not disappointed wit...
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chrissy1 says:
Listening to your body is so important. I think as long as your keep listening as u r, ur achilles should b fine. Good job with your longer runs.
adigerati says:
I had myself a nasty uphill stretch into the wind today. It was tough, my heart rate was climbing faster than me and I thought I was going to die. I just told myself that this was the strength training I needed and somehow that made it better.
I did however get a little disheartened when my shadow passed me because I was going to slow.
I was really hoping to get 20 miles in this week, but only managed 16. I tweaked my Achilles after a workout and took a couple days off. The first day there was no way I could run. The second day after it felt fine, but I figured better safe than sorry. I had a really nice workout on the treadmill today after the two days off. I've come a long ways in my two months back at it, even with very limited miles.
The highlight of the week was getting two very fun back to back workouts in outside. However, I think the snowpack I was running on is what stressed my Achilles.
We have some nice 30+ degree days forecasted for the week, but a chance of snow every day. After my Achilles incident this week, I'm leery of trying to run on anything but dry asphalt until my body is back into things more. It is going to be a rough week if I have to treadmill it for every workout.
So far it's been easy to beat my easy goal for the year, which was to do more mileage, faster pace, better weight etc., for each month compared to last year. I didn't run at all last Jan, and my Feb mileage was only 20. It's been a gimme so far.
However, last March I logged 100 miles. That's going to be quite a jump. The paces were very slow last year, so that's not an issue. It's just getting out around 5 days a week for a workout that is going to be tough. We just got 15 inches of more snow at my house, so needless to say finding decent roads/trails is going to be a bit difficult for awhile yet. There is no way I can log 100 miles on a treadmill in a month. Anyway, I said I'd do it, so I have to find a way, unless of course there is a physical reason I have to back down.
Specific March goals also include making sure I work up to 8 mile runs. Not a big deal. I just have to get it done. Assuming I get into the half (I did find new friends to enter the lottery with), m...
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sciguy59 says:
Good luck, at least you have kept track of what you did last year and have set goals for this year. My running is so damn spur-attic its not funny. I have my moments where I know if I do not get a run in I will explode. These moments make me run regardless of the weather or life situations.
I know it will be a tough month for me to log many miles because March is the start of our baseball season and coaching will take up lots of time, but publicly I think I will challenge myself here to hit 3/4 of what you do. 75 miles here I come.
Thanks for the motivation and opportunity to set a goal.
