Keep Moving Forward: A Training Log (Comments Welcome)

Just when we got a taste of some decent fall weather, BAM! Winter punches me right in the mouth. We got snow overnight Thursday into Friday and it was bitterly cold Friday and Saturday. Sunday rebounded a bit and later this week looks a little more autumn-like, so we might be okay for a bit longer.

Moving on...

Tuesday
6 miles @ EA. Actual time 6 miles @ 9:51/mile. Pretty standard 6 mile run. The biggest difference is with Daylight Saving Time, it was pitch black out when I finished up my run. That made things feel a little dicier - you could definitely tell which drivers were checking out their phones instead of the roads.

Wednesday
1 mile WU + 5 miles @ Tempo + 1 mile CD. I misjudged my route on this one and ended up cutting off my cool down mile. Tempo (8:20/mile) miles went pretty well. In fact, my only "miss" was one that came in at 8:36. Not sure how that happened, but the rest were in range. So, I'm happy. Dark again and it made me realize I need to get something reflective to wear - all of my running gear is black or gray and not at all reflective.

Friday
6 miles @ EA - Blind run. Woke up Friday morning to a blanket of snow. My biggest concern was that the snow would melt during the day and refreeze at night, creating some slick sidewalks. But, it stayed cold enough all day that it wasn't much of an issue. But boy, was it brisk. Came in a little fast and averaged 9:30/mile.

Saturday
9 miles @ EB. BRRRRR! Just bitterly cold and windy Saturday morning. I think the actual temperature was about 17 degrees when I went out. Not sure how it "felt" with the wind chill. But, once I got moving, I warmed up a bit and actual worked up a sweat. The nine miles felt pretty good, all in all.

Sunday
2 mile WU + 10 mile progression (9:30, 9:20, 9:10, 9:00, 8:50, 8:40, 8:30, 8:20, 8:10, 8:10) + 2 mile cool down + Practice nutrition strategy. I'm going to be real honest - I was dreading this run for a few weeks. It just sat there on my training plan, looming, plotting my demise. I really didn't think I'd make those last few splits, especially after a 9-mile run the day before. On top of that, I knew it was going to be cold.

My plan was to get up around 7, eat a Cliff bar and have a little Powerade, post to Disboards and then get ready to be out the door by 8. Well, I had my Cliff bar and then realized that all of my running stuff was still in the washer. So, that pushed everything back about an hour while my clothes dried. I also ate a leftover slice of pizza while I waited. Oops.

I ended up getting out the door around 9. The weather felt much better than the day before - about 28, sunny and no wind. My warm up miles were too fast - 9:23, 9:25 - considering my first progression mile was supposed to be 9:30. In fact, that one came in at 9:07, thanks in part to going downhill. Going forward, the splits were a little sporadic, but at least trending in the right direction.

As I moved my way past 9:00/mile and into the 8s, I kept waiting for what I thought was the inevitable wall, but also kept plugging. And ... the wall never came. I got tired, sure, but I kept chugging along. I did make a point to avoid one nasty hill toward the end, but otherwise, it was a fairly typical run. My final progression mile came in at 8:03, so I was really psyched about that. The cool down miles felt like they took forever, but it was a solid run. I got home and downed my chocolate milk in about 3 gulps, ha ha.

After going 6, 9 and 14 miles over consecutive days, I'm feeling really good as Dopey gets closer. Bring it on.

Miles This Week: 41.2
Year To Date: 1,223
 
Great job this week! It got cold here as well but I'm hoping it might warm up a bit going forward. Sunday was really nice and I also had to delay my run because I forgot to do laundry. Glad I'm not the only one!
 


Sounds like a solid weekend run. This was also the first cold weekend here. Although we had rain and not snow thankfully. No warm up in sight as tomorrow the low is 20*. I guess its not winter.
 
Sunday
2 mile WU + 10 mile progression (9:30, 9:20, 9:10, 9:00, 8:50, 8:40, 8:30, 8:20, 8:10, 8:10) + 2 mile cool down + Practice nutrition strategy. I'm going to be real honest - I was dreading this run for a few weeks. It just sat there on my training plan, looming, plotting my demise. I really didn't think I'd make those last few splits, especially after a 9-mile run the day before. On top of that, I knew it was going to be cold.

My plan was to get up around 7, eat a Cliff bar and have a little Powerade, post to Disboards and then get ready to be out the door by 8. Well, I had my Cliff bar and then realized that all of my running stuff was still in the washer. So, that pushed everything back about an hour while my clothes dried. I also ate a leftover slice of pizza while I waited. Oops.

I ended up getting out the door around 9. The weather felt much better than the day before - about 28, sunny and no wind. My warm up miles were too fast - 9:23, 9:25 - considering my first progression mile was supposed to be 9:30. In fact, that one came in at 9:07, thanks in part to going downhill. Going forward, the splits were a little sporadic, but at least trending in the right direction.

As I moved my way past 9:00/mile and into the 8s, I kept waiting for what I thought was the inevitable wall, but also kept plugging. And ... the wall never came. I got tired, sure, but I kept chugging along. I did make a point to avoid one nasty hill toward the end, but otherwise, it was a fairly typical run. My final progression mile came in at 8:03, so I was really psyched about that. The cool down miles felt like they took forever, but it was a solid run. I got home and downed my chocolate milk in about 3 gulps, ha ha.

After going 6, 9 and 14 miles over consecutive days, I'm feeling really good as Dopey gets closer. Bring it on.

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After a fairly strenuous progression run last Sunday - one that left my right angle feeling pretty tender - I was happy to scale things back a little bit this week. As of this Sunday morning, both ankles are feeling it a little bit, but nothing too terrible.

Tuesday
6 miles @ EA. Actual run was 4 miles @ 9:27/mile. My wife had an appointment to get to that evening, so I cut my run short. My ankle was definitely barking during this run, so I wasn't too upset about a shorter run.

Wednesday
1 mile WU + 6 miles @ Tempo + 1 mile cool down. Actual run was 8 miles @ 8:40/mile. Ankle felt slightly better. I was right in line with all of my tempo runs except the final tempo mile, but that segment always gets me, so I'm not too concerned about it.

Friday
6 miles @ EA. Actual run was 6 miles @ 9:22/mile. Little fast. I got out of work early on Friday and was actual able to run with the sun up. That alone was a nice change of pace. The weather was fairly decent, too. More winter-like than I'd prefer at this point in the year, but better than the frigid temps from last weekend.

Saturday
8 miles @ EB. Actual run was 8 miles @ 9:03/mile. Continuing my trend of being a little on the quick side with my splits. Woke up Saturday morning and there was fresh snow on the ground. I ran pretty gingerly throughout the workout, which I feel like is hard on my legs, but somehow managed to go faster than my paces. I was preparing myself for a slightly slower run. I'm going to tell myself that the snow lessened the impact on my ankle and legs and wear on my shoes.

Sunday
8 miles @ LR. Actual run was 8 miles @ 8:39. Too dang fast. But, my ankles felt good (the ibuprofen probably didn't hurt). It was pretty dang cold, but not so much that my water frozen, so I'll take it!

Miles This Week: 34.1
Year To Date: 1,257
 
Right on schedule. About 8-9 weeks into training is when the cardiovascular system starts to become maximized in a training cycle. The problem is the muscular/skeletal system is lagging behind at around 12 weeks to maximize. So the moral of this is you can run faster at the moment, but you shouldn't because your body isn't quite ready to handle it in the long term. So be wary of running too fast on these runs.
 
Right on schedule. About 8-9 weeks into training is when the cardiovascular system starts to become maximized in a training cycle. The problem is the muscular/skeletal system is lagging behind at around 12 weeks to maximize. So the moral of this is you can run faster at the moment, but you shouldn't because your body isn't quite ready to handle it in the long term. So be wary of running too fast on these runs.

Good to know. I’ll work on pumping the breaks a bit. I’m a little leery since this is about the time my knee gave up on me before the 2017 marathon.

Sounds like training is going really well! Great job.

So far, so good! Thanks!
 
Snow is piling up outside as I right this on Sunday. The next seven weeks could be very interesting in terms of training. I remember my last long run before my first was 20 miles in 2-3 inches of snow. Fingers crossed I don't have to mess with too much more snow, but I'm not holding my breath.

Tuesday
6 miles @ EA. Actual run was 6.4 miles @ 9:53/mile. I tried my best to take @DopeyBadger's advice and stick to my easy paces to mitigate the ankle pain I had been having. I think I also popped a couple ibuprofen before this run. Either way, nothing memorable. I must've tacked on the extra .4 miles to get home faster at the end of my run. I've been losing body heat FAST with these cold, night runs.

Wednesday
1 mi @ WU + 3 x 1 miles @ T w/ 1.5 min rest + 4 x 200 @ R w/ 200 RI @ WU + 1 mi @ CD. This run came in at 6 miles @ 8:01/mile. If I recall correctly, my T runs were just slightly on the fast side and I didn't time my intervals on the track, but everything felt good. The best part was getting out of work early and actually getting to run in the daylight.

Friday
6 miles @ EA. Actual run was 6 miles @ 9:26/mile. So much for sticking to my easy paces. I had the day off, got to run in the early afternoon and everything really good. Still need to slow things down, though.

Saturday
9 miles @ EB. Actual run was 9 miles @ 9:03/mile. More like a LR run, but again, things felt really good. The weather was GORGEOUS. About 48 degrees and sunny. I felt great.

Sunday
11 miles @ Long Run + 4 miles @ Tempo/ Actual run: an unmitigated mess. Hey, remember when I mentioned how great Saturday was? Well, THIS. IS. IOWA! A blizzard was forecast to roll in overnight and drop 6-8 inches of snow. When I got up it was just raining and raining pretty hard. I definitely didn't want to go out in the rain. However, I knew the temperature was going to drop and the rain would turn to snow, my plan was to try to hit that sweet spot between the rain solidifying, but the sidewalks not getting too messy.

I left my house just a bit before 9 as the rain was turning more to sleet than slow. The sidewalks were gritty with ice, but not too slick. Getting sleet in my face, especially as I ran north, was not fun at all. But, around mile 3, the sleet turned to snow and for the next 7 miles or so, everything was actually really pleasant. Miles 3-9 were also on the fast side from just a shade to a bit too much, but all and all it was okay.

Things went south around mile 10. The sidewalks started getting covered in snow and the going got tough. I gutted out mile 11, the last mile of my LR miles, but it was snowing hard and fast at that point. I had a long wait at a busy intersection followed up a lot of uphills and it just wrecked me. I started incorporating a few resting intervals (read: walking) at the beginning of each mile and was forced to do so on a couple of uphills. There was just no traction and my legs were on fire. I don't think it's a conditioning thing, but we'll see in a couple of weeks when I have another longer, challenging run.

So, not the best run to end my week on, but not the worse, either. I got the miles in and the weather wasn't favorable. I usually have one garbage run per training period and maybe this was it.

Now for some good news. First, there is just more than 6 weeks until marathon weekend kicks off, which is crazy. It also means there are only a handful of real training weeks left. Looking ahead, I have a 16 mile run in two weeks and 17 miles two weeks after that. That's it for really long stuff. Then, tapering down to Dopey. Wild.

Second, I hit 1,300 miles for 2018 today. 1,400 is definitely going too happen before the end of the year.

Miles This Week: 42.4
Year To Date: 1,300
 
Forgot to add ... twisted the heck out of my ankle on uneven sidewalk covered in snow. I really wrenched it and it's incredibly tender now (4 hours later). I'm hoping it's not an issue going forward.
 
The biggest difference is with Daylight Saving Time, it was pitch black out when I finished up my run. That made things feel a little dicier - you could definitely tell which drivers were checking out their phones instead of the roads.

Yeah, I've seen this too, especially since I do many of my runs on sidewalks next to major roads with driveways to businesses in and out. I've seen several drivers inching up to the sidewalk looking down at their phones. I slap their car, stop so I'm not in the direct line of fire and make the gesture that they're texting instead of driving. Hopefully the scare it invariably gives them is enough to get them to keep looking up and ignore their phones until they get home.

Forgot to add ... twisted the heck out of my ankle on uneven sidewalk covered in snow. I really wrenched it and it's incredibly tender now (4 hours later). I'm hoping it's not an issue going forward.

Rest that ankle! I had a minor twist (but fortunately no swelling and not too tender) about a month and a half back and gave it a day and it was fine the next day.
 
Yeah, I've seen this too, especially since I do many of my runs on sidewalks next to major roads with driveways to businesses in and out. I've seen several drivers inching up to the sidewalk looking down at their phones. I slap their car, stop so I'm not in the direct line of fire and make the gesture that they're texting instead of driving. Hopefully the scare it invariably gives them is enough to get them to keep looking up and ignore their phones until they get home.

I might have to try that. It’s so frustrating to see drivers not paying attention. I have to run very “defensively” to stay safe. At least I have a reflective vest now and feel more visible, but maybe I need an airhorn, too.

Rest that ankle! I had a minor twist (but fortunately no swelling and not too tender) about a month and a half back and gave it a day and it was fine the next day.

I took an unplanned day off Wednesday, but I’m glad I rested the ankle. It was still tender on Tuesday, but was feeling mostly better by Thursday evening.
 
I've seen several drivers inching up to the sidewalk looking down at their phones. I slap their car, stop so I'm not in the direct line of fire and make the gesture that they're texting instead of driving.

I might have to try that. It’s so frustrating to see drivers not paying attention. I have to run very “defensively” to stay safe. At least I have a reflective vest now and feel more visible, but maybe I need an airhorn, too.

When I first moved to Iowa about 7 years ago I slapped the bumper of a car that pulled out in front of me. The lady managed to turn around, threaten and yell profanities at me. I was terrified. Supposedly she was calling the police to report it. It would have been a welcomed sight to see the police show up and I wish I had called them myself. Instead, I ditched her between a few houses and snuck home. Took me a few weeks to go running in that part of town again.

Your mileage may vary with the car slapping... Maybe they're less crazy in your part of the world.
 
So, I ended last week with a pretty nasty rolled ankle. Unfortunately, that seemed to set the pace a little bit for this last week.

Tuesday
4 miles @ EA. Actual run was 4 miles @ 10:06/mile. Thank goodness for starting off the week at low mileage/pace. My ankle was still pretty darn tender. Not unbearable, but definitely not a pleasant feeling.

Wednesday
7 miles @ LR. Actual run - nada. My wife is a doula and had a client go into labor on Wednesday. She had to go to the hospital immediately after I got home. My oldest daughters were with their grandparents, leaving me with the 4 y/o. So, Wednesday's run got cancelled. And really, given how tender my ankle still felt, I think it was a good move.

Thursday
7 miles @ EA. Actual run - 6.3 miles @ 9:41/mile. I knew that I had a function after work on Friday that was going to interfere with running plans. Not wanting to miss two runs in a single week - especially back-to-back - I moved the Friday up to Thursday...and I now realize that I was supposed to do 7, but instead did 6. Also, it definitely wasn't a blind run. Screw ups all over the place. Other than that, it was fine. A little on the cold side, but my ankle felt better - maybe about 80 percent.

Saturday
6 miles @ EA. Actual run - MISERY. Pure misery. You guys, this run sucked so bad. So, I got up Saturday morning and it was raining with no end in sight. It was also only about 35 degrees. I contemplated waiting for a while to see if it would let up, but I had stuff I had to get in Saturday afternoon. I'm also a big proponent of "practice like you play" and since I won't be able to put off any Disney races next month if it's raining, I just decided to go for it.

I put on my normal cold weather running gear and my new shoes that I'm going to break in for the next month, but instead of my running hoodie, I put on my Columbia raincoat, figuring I'd sacrifice a little bit of warmth, but stay dry longer.

This run was awful pretty much right from the start. It wasn't raining too hard at first, but it was really windy and since I run on the outskirts of town, there was pretty much nothing stopping the wind. I stayed dry enough and did my best to avoid any big puddles in the streets or sidewalks, but when it's raining steadily, you're going to get wet. By mile 3, I had the wind to my back, but began to feel the rain soaking down through my layers. When I turned south around mile 4 to head back toward home, I had the wind whipping across from me. My shoes and feet were getting pretty wet by this point, too. On the bright side, my ankle was pretty much too dumb for me to feel any discomfort.

Around the beginning of mile 5, all hell broke loose. The wind and rain picked up significantly and I got drenched. I shouted at Mother Nature several times, but she just responded with more rain. I was soaked, but just kept my head down and plowed ahead. There was no point in quitting because I still had to get back home. Even after the 6 miles were up, I kept running a bit (into the wind) just to get home faster.

Actual run - 6.4 miles @ 9:19/mile

Sunday
7 miles @ EB. Actual run - 7 miles @ 9:11/mile. It was raining against Sunday morning, which was actually fine. I wasn't planning on running since we were taking off to take my youngest daughter to Frozen on Ice. I'll spare you all a trip report on that, but it was a lot of fun. Here's a pic:

ice.jpg

We got home around 2:30 and I was out for my run by 3. It was kind of spitting out, but nothing too miserable. My legs felt kind of dead-ish for most of the run, but I got through it. I was a little damp when I got home, but nothing unbearable.

So, what was supposed to be a nice and easy week was just kind of meh. I had the sore ankle, miserable weather and a really sore shoulder for most of the week (seems mostly better by now, but still a little tight). This has maybe been the only week of training I really haven't enjoyed since my second marathon when I was taking time off at regular intervals for a bum foot. It has nothing to do with the training and I'm still psyched for Dopey, but I'm definitely glad to put this week behind me.

Miles This Week: 23.8
Year To Date: 1,324
 
Great job this week! I totally used the rain as an excuse to stay indoors on Saturday. Be proud that you got out and braved the elements!
 
Great job this week! I totally used the rain as an excuse to stay indoors on Saturday. Be proud that you got out and braved the elements!

I'm not sure if proud is the right word. I'm thinking stubborn or stupid, ha ha! But thanks! I'm definitely glad it wasn't longer.
 

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