[mountainmilers] April Progress Report
- From: Terri Rashid <terri@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <mountainmilers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "nowdead@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <nowdead@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 17:03:32 +0000
April, like March, was another decent month of running. My allergies seem to
have settled down a bit as the month has gone on, so that certainly helped. I
had four goals for April and I managed to meet two of them.
The first was to increase the number and diversity of my trail runs and I have
done that. I have been enjoying running on some new trails, and while my paces
are slower, especially on rocky or steep trails, I am staying in a good working
HR range and I believe it's helping to strengthen my lower legs and reduce the
risk of repetitive stress injuries compared to running on just pavement since
each footfall requires a slightly different motion.
My second goal was to average around 35 miles per week (as tracked by the 21
day moving average in my running log). I both hit and missed this one. I got
the average up to 35 right around April 25th, but then picked up a cold from my
son and I've cut mileage to help me recover from that, plus I decided I would
let that mileage drop be a bit of a taper before this weekend's Whiskey Row
half marathon on Saturday.
My third goal was to increase my long run from 10.5 to 16.5 and I made that
one. I did a 16.5 mile run on Tuesday, April 23rd, allowing me a week and a
half recovery before Whiskey Row.
My fourth goal was to stay healthy and injury free. I managed only half of
this goal. No new injuries this month (yea! - though my left PF is still not
100%) but I do have a cold right now. I seem to be past the really bad sore
throat part, but unfortunately I have a cough and chest congestion. I think
it's a little better today than yesterday, but I would be surprised if it's
completely clear by the weekend.
I have continued to run every day (although I've done a few "minimum" mileage
runs of one mile while I've been sick) and I now have 500 miles for the year as
of the end of April! (OK, I know that would be too much of a coincidence - I
actually have 499.7 miles, but I am talking round numbers here. ;)) The great
news is that I am solidly on-track to hit my "dream goal" of 1000 miles for the
year.
Aside from specific goals, I've continued to work on my form. I probably
should do some core body strengthening, but I hate cross-training, so for now I
am just going to be mindful off my posture while I run. After 4 months of
pretty consistent running, I am also starting to see a trend of slight pace
increases for identical HRs. It is not that every run is faster than my runs
early this year, but many of them are. The intermittent problems like
allergies and colds make it hard to see an "across the board" improvement, but
in general I am pretty reliably 30-40 seconds faster per mile for long run
pace, and probably 10-15 seconds faster per mile for tempo pace (eg threshold
HR range). Of course right now with my cold that doesn't apply! But I know
that's temporary.
I also ran my first "event" of the year. It was a ~5K fundraiser run on trails
- about half of which was hilly. Because it was more of a social thing than a
"race", no one was really warming up ahead of time, we were just standing
around chatting. Tieran and Kylan also ran/walked the 5K, but Rick was out of
town so he couldn't join us. I was planning to have my first portion of this
ease me into a hard pace, but when we started the course immediately headed
down a long hill. I knew that meant there was going to be a bunch of uphill
later, and since downhill running is the ONLY thing I do decently, I decided to
open up my stride a bit and go. Of course that can be tricky at the start of a
run since there really isn't much passing room, so I didn't go down the hill
quite as fast as I might otherwise have done. (Probably good anyway.) Once to
the bottom I was feeling the lack of warmup, so just tried to push as best I
could. The day was warming up quickly, so at the two aid stations I drank some
(stopped since in an informal event like this I wanted to leave the cup right
there, not up the trail) and then poured the rest on my head. I did walk on a
number of the slight uphills, and in the last part of the run power walked the
majority of the longer climb back to the start. (The middle section of the run
was pretty flat.) I heard the race organizer say the distance was more like
3.27, so that's what I logged in my training log. I had a time of 33:51 (by my
watch) which gave me an average pace of about 10:21. With the hills, no
warmup, heat and stopping at the aid stations, I was happy with that. The boys
finished quite a bit later, but that was mostly because Kylan had woken up sick
that morning, but still wanted to go. Tieran stayed with him through the run
but they were both pretty hot by the time they finished.
One of the really fun things about this run was that since many of my Mountain
Miler friends were really socializing more than racing, I finished *ahead* of
several folks that I normally finish behind. Yes, I was pushing and not
chatting like they were, but I'll take it any way I can get it! (OK, in
fairness, I only finished ahead of my friend Cindy R. because she was pacing
her VERY young son for the run! She could SING songs while skipping and still
finish in front of me otherwise. ;) Steve O. was closing the gap on me at the
end (I had seen him chatting earlier in the run) but I managed to stay ahead of
him to the finish. I know I would have taken the last long uphill a LOT slower
if I he were not right there behind me! :)
Other April news - I decided to go ahead and add the Missoula Marathon to my
running schedule. St. George in October is still my "target" marathon, but I
will use Missoula as a supported long training run. I like the course and the
town, plus I persuaded my friend Cheri (from Washington state) to come run it
as well so that's an added bonus. I don't get to see her as often as I like!
She's going to come back to Big Sky with me after the marathon and visit for a
little while. (Rick will be taking the boys to the Johns Hopkins CTY summer
camp that weekend, so he can't run with us.)
I also added the Wulfman Continental Divide Trail 14K in Butte, Montana to both
Rick's and my schedules in June! This will only be the first trail race I've
done in several years. I did a couple of "off-road" 10Ks in the coastal
mountains of California several years ago but they were more dirt roads than
trails and the elevation was fairly low. This is true single track - they
start one runner every 10 seconds since there is no room for a mass start. The
majority of the course is over 6500' with a high point of around 7400'. I am
estimating based on this profile:
http://www.buttespissandmoanrunners.com/Butte%20Races/CDT-14K/Maps/SNOddYearMaps/SNProfile.pdf
For the curious you can read more about the race here:
http://www.buttespissandmoanrunners.com/Butte%20Races/CDT-14K/race_details.htm
I am also in the very tentative stages of planning to run my first 50 mile
ultra. I've actually said it to several people now, and I've even tentatively
picked a target - Rocky Raccoon in Feb 2014. But I will continue to be
flexible with this particular goal. I'm going to keep building my mileage and
my base, but if injury starts to loom or I have issues then I will back off and
push that goal further out on my timeline.
Goals for May:
1. Get & stay healthy and injury free. I am putting this one FIRST this
month. (Though honestly I am not sure there is much I can do to prevent colds
like the one I have right now. I am pretty sure I got it from Tieran, and not
because I was overtraining. Even when I am not training I often will get sick
shortly after the boys.)
2. Increase my average mileage to 35 mpw. This is a repeat goal from
April.
3. Increase my long run from 16.5 to 20.5.
4. Continue to include trail runs every week and increase the distance of
those runs. My longest trail run this month was just over 5 miles. I'd like
to get that up to the 8 mile range by the end of May. The Wulfman's CDT run is
just under 9 miles, so I want to be prepared for that.
5. Continue my running streak of running (where that means my normal
run/walk routine) at least one mile every day. (I didn't say that one last
month, but it's been kind of a sub-goal for the year.)
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