Back to the Blog - What Happened To March? (part one)

Author's Note:  I started writing this post on March 31; here it is April 14th!  I'm determined to finish this post today, and to both run and blog more consistently between now and race day!

Still here, still training (so to speak) for the Mastodon Challenge 15K!  I went on vacation at the end of February and came home on March 2.  After a week in the Florida Keys, it was a month-long struggle to overcome post-tropic depression and get back into the routine.  Now that I think I've gotten back in the training groove, it's time to catch up with the blog.

A Hobby Runner on Vacation

I left for vacation feeling fit, if not skinny.  Of 12 scheduled runs between February 1 and February 19, I had only totally missed two or three of the "easy" runs.  I had completed all the hill workouts (inside and outside), long runs and one speed workout, either as scheduled or in combination.  I had also completed the 30-day beach body challenge, although this picture taken of me on vacation shows that I unfortunately did not also follow a beach body diet:

I'm the one with the snorkel, while everyone else has a beer!  What's up with that?

Everyone else wore a wet suit for snorkeling in the 72-degree water (not sure if it was the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean).  I originally attributed my "toughness" to being used to water aerobics and lap swimming in a cold pool, and swimming in the North Atlantic off New England where we're lucky if the ocean temperature reaches 70 degrees in July.  But looking at the above picture, I think it was just an extra layer of built-in insulation! 

I haven't yet written the post to explain my nom de plume, but one sign that I am a Hobby Runner is that I did not take my running shoes on vacation.  Actually, at first I did pack them, but ended up leaving them home when my suitcase was too heavy and too full.  I brought my walking sandals and all of our lodgings had swimming pools, so I figured I would focus on walking and swimming as cross-training.  I even brought my resistance bands, but they never left the suitcase.  I only did one early morning exercise walk, and although I enjoyed a couple of swimming pools, I can't really claim to have done any exercise swimming.

Pool in South Beach,  Miami

Nice morning for an exercise walk - Islamorada



Someone else out enjoying the early morning sunshine in Islamorada; it's surprising how fast they move when they are startled!

Kayaked twice, and did a fair amount of walking.  And we even bicycled uphill to the highest point on Key West - elevation 18 feet above sea level!  Here is a picture of another location on the bicycle tour, where we stopped to share some fresh coconut:

Oh, and did I mention the daily dose of conch fritters, key lime pie and margaritas?  To summarize, I left home feeling fit and returned feeling full! It was one of the best vacations ever.

Back to Reality

So not only was it still cold when we got home (as in single-digit mornings), we had to "spring ahead" just to make sure it was nice and dark at run time, too!  It had been kind of fun, in a twisted way, in the fall when the mornings got dark to put on the reflective vest and headlamp and get out before sunrise. But it got old when it got cold and stayed cold for so long this year.  The gym is nearby and I've taught myself plenty of satisfying interval workouts for the treadmill, but it was even hard to go out in the mornings to drive there.  So, the so-called routine that was kind of mushy even before vacation was that much more so afterwards.

What it boils down to is this: I had 18 runs scheduled in March, but only ran 8 times and only half of those outside.  Four out of 8 runs were combos, where I incorporated either a missed speed workout or a missed hill workout into my long run.  The 6 runs that I missed were "easy runs" of various durations, from 40-50 minutes up to 80-90 minutes (although, for me, "easy" is an oxymoron once the duration exceeds 45 minutes).  On the positive side, by doing combos, I managed to check off all the long runs, hill workouts and speed workouts in my plan, so maybe I can still legitimately call it "training," imperfect Hobby-Runner style!

March's Combos

Each of these was supposed to be two separate workouts.  I'm sure some of the purpose is defeated by combining them, but at least I did them and affirmed that I can do some semblance of running (with walk breaks) for the length of time it took me to complete the 15K race last year!

Long Run w/ Leg Speed (treadmill)

I was back from vacation for a week before I finally put my running shoes on.  The scheduled run was a 90 to 105-minute long run and I had missed a "leg speed" workout.  Here is how I did it (all at 0% incline), to the best of my recollection:

5-minute walking warm-up, increasing speed each minute from 2.5 to 3.5 mph 

13:45 minutes at 5.3 mph (equal to about an 11:49 min/mile pace according to the conversion chart at hillrunner.com)

15 sets:   alternating intervals of 30 seconds at 8 mph (7:49) and 60 seconds at 5.3 mph (original settings*)

50 minutes at 5.3 mph 

5-minute walking cool-down, decreasing speed each minute from 3.5 to 2.5 mph 

*I hadn't run in two weeks, and by incorporating speed intervals I was making my long run harder than it was supposed to be.  As I recall, I managed the first five speed intervals at the original run/jog settings, then slowed it down to jog/walk for the middle five and sped back up for the final five - or something like that.   

Long Run With Long Hill Repeats (treadmill)

After completing the above workout on a weekday morning I thought I was back in the groove, but it stayed cold and dark and my slump resumed for another 10 days.  Then I went to the gym on a Sunday and tried to do this, all at 5.3 mph (preceded and followed by the same walking warm-up and cool down as above):

10 sets:  alternating intervals of 3 minutes at 3% incline and 3 minutes at 0% incline (which, according to the hillrunner.com chart linked above, is like alternating 10 min/mile and 11:49 min/mile without having to change the speed setting)

45 minutes at 0% incline (to achieve the scheduled 105-minute long run) 

A few sets into the hill repeats, I started taking some walk breaks during the 0% incline.  This reminded me of last year's Mastodon Challenge, where my timed running intervals consistently (but not on purpose) included the uphills and my walk breaks were on the flats or downhills.   (I'll write more about that when I recap the 2013 race, which I hope to do before race day 2014!)

Easy Run with Fartleks (finally OUTSIDE!)

"Fartlek" is my favorite new word learned since I started all this so-called running.  Even so, when I see "FR" in my training plan, I can never remember if it's "Fartlek Run" or "Farklet Run" and I usually end up thinking of "Farkle," the dice game!

Runner's World explains fartleks here.  My training plan said this:

FR:  8-10 X 1 min on, 1 min off

According to the calculator mentioned above, my FR "on" pace should be 9:30-10:00/mile and the "off" pace about a minute and a half slower.  This workout would take just 20 minutes, and I had missed a 50-60 minute "easy run."   It was actually nice enough, and light enough, to run OUTSIDE after work before dinner!   Woo hoo!!!!! First outdoor run in several weeks!  I did a 45 minute run, with the FR's in about the middle.  From what I read at Runner's World, I think the fartleks are supposed to be more random, but I do what I can with my interval timer app.  I modified my route in-progress and never got around to mapping the distance to figure out if I made the target paces.  But any time I exercise I can consult the perceived exertion chart permanently tattooed on my brain (from my years of carrying it around as a Jazzercise instructor) and I know the fartlek "on" intervals were "hard" while I tried to keep the "off" and "easy run" intervals between fairly light and somewhat hard.  I don't know if that's exactly how it should be, but it's good enough for a Hobby Runner!


Jazzercise Perceived Exertion Chart

With the addition of an unremarkable 50-minute Hill/Easy Run treadmill combo, those were all the combos I did in March.  There was also a "cruise interval" work out and there were a couple of long runs, and there are some things I want to say about cross-training.  I'll save all that for part two!

Happy running!  Hope you are getting outside and enjoying Spring as much as I hope to for the rest of this month!