Last Week in Running: March 8, 2020. The Battle of March Begins.

We see our hero having left the drinking festivities of Bockfest and continuing to the battles of March.

Monday: 9 miles. March started with warm weather that soon turned to rain. I got out in the park and put 9 miles down in the park and the subdivision next to it, making a pitstop after 3 miles. 😬. Kept it mostly easy and only dealt with a drizzle during the final mile or so and my post-run stretching. 9.25 in 1:21:32 (8:49/mile pace).

Tuesday: 6 x Hill Repeats. Because of potential storms in the morning, I ran these in the afternoon up at East Fork. My watch was messed up, so I had to track manually. 😡. The hill repeats were at paces of 7:20, 7:44, 7:53, 8:05, 7:53, 8:03… might work on trying to make those a little more consistent. OVerall, 5.68 miles in 49:01 (8:38/mile pace).

Wednesday: 4 miles Recovery. Ran these in the park entirely, since it’s just three laps. 4.07 miles in 35:09 (8:38/mile pace).

Thursday: 9 miles @ M pace. This is where the toughness of the week starts. It was chilly (I was wearing short sleeves on Monday and Tuesday) and I was on the tired side. I couldn’t keep the M pace portion in the goal range, I had it at 8:05/mile, the goal is 7:33 – 7:53/mile. I did hydrate with Gatorade Endurance. Overall, 11 miles including the warm-up and cool-down in 1:30:58 (8:16/mile pace).

Friday: 19 miles. This put the slow in long-slow-distance. I was out late the night before and got up early for this run. Ran around the park and subdivision a few times taking Gatorade Energy Gels at 6 and 12 miles and taking swigs of Gatorade Endurance every few miles. It was a windy morning with temps that felt a lot colder than the thermometer says, and I was being pelted by rain and snow and occasional ice throughout. 19.01 miles in 2:53:43 (9:08/mile pace).

Saturday: planned 4 miles, ran 0. I was up early to judge beer at a competition, and really didn’t have the time to run.

That ended the week with 49 miles. Not bad, although the 19 mile run was a bit of a killer. On to the next battle…