Category: Last Week in Running

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Last Week in Running – Jan 12, 2018 Edition

It was an interesting week 2 of marathon training.

Monday started early with waking up in Washington DC at 5:15 to run 3 miles + 7 strides heading into the neighborhood north of Thomas Circle.

Tuesday also started early and in the same city, with 5 miles headed south towards the White House. That was a particularly difficult day to run because of slippery conditions and lots of disorienting fog. The run was a full minute per mile slower than my normal cruising pace. There was an additional challenge of needing to be at a breakfast meeting by 7 AM.

Wednesday started similarly early, 3 miles + 7 strides headed NW of Thomas Circle. It was a direction I’ve never run before, and got to see the Embassy of Tunisia and a Freemason Temple (seeing the Embassy of Tunisia put A Night In Tunisia in my head… not a complaint!).

Thursday was my flight home, and the weather broke, I ran 5 miles around my neighborhood, which was mostly because I didn’t want to potentially get soaked running in the park and then get back into my truck.

Friday was my long run, 9 miles around the Cincinnati/Covington/Newport riverfront area. It was raining, and while the temperature started nice at 51°F, it ended around 40°F and my fingers were starting to show signs of frostbite. To make matters worse, I twisted my ankle in Covington at the same buckled set of sidewalk they’ve ignored for the last 5 years.

Ran 27 miles over the week, 4 hours, 1 minute. 16 weeks to the Flying Pig Marathon.

Cheers!

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December Month + Year Recap

The Recap

The month of running is over. I set out to run 142 miles and I ran 147 miles. This was partly because I was so close to 1,400 miles for the year that I decided to do longer weekend runs (keeping up the #RWRunStreak) to hit just over 1,400 miles.

The Good Stuff

PR in the 1 mile (Little Kings Mile: 6:55), 3.2k (Brian Rohne XC Invitational: 15:31), 5k (Bulldog Blast 5k: 23:04), 14k (Hudepohl 14k: 1:10:19), and the Half (Flying Pig: 1:48:53). That leaves 4 races not listed. One was a personal course record (Bockfest 5k: 24:26), and two were PRs in a series and the following race of the series was also a PR (the NKU XC Series leading up to the Brian Rohne XC Invitational: 16:01 and 15:48). The odd race out is the Honor Run Half, where I ran easy with a strained back – the 1:52:01 is respectable given the situation.

I lost 15 pounds.

The Not So Good Stuff

Fucking back strain a week before a race…

Upcoming

On 1/1/2018, I start marathon training for my first. The first week seems easy, but it gets hard soon enough as I hit the first 14 mile long run in mid February and many 40+ mile weeks in March and April.

I’ve seen a lot in my reading about mindfulness and meditation. I don’t know if I’m going to try that or if I will stick with it. That remains to be seen.

Core strengthening! I know I need to.

Food! My eating could be a little better, and my wife agrees. Going to try a few things.

Cheers!

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November 2017 Month In Review

Planned: 121 miles, Ran 86.

I strained my back a week before the Honor Run Half Marathon, and it definitely showed up in a few places.  One is the nearly 40 mile difference between what I planned to run and what I actually ran. The other is in the Honor Run Half time. October was definitely the better month, and even as I write this, December is only a little better.

However, some good things did happen this month:

Also, my Thanksgiving + reduced running weight gain was less than a pound. I’d call that success!

Other Running Goings On:

#RunChatHunt

#RWRunStreak

These started in November, but are still going strong in December (when I’m finally writing this).

Cheers!

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October 2017 Month in Running

October has been a build month this year and last year. I had 140 miles planned – the most this year, and completed 146. My average pace has fallen, too, to 8:26 minutes per mile.

The reason October is a build month is because the Honor Run Half is in early November.

On to the next…

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September 2017 Recap

September is over.

127 mile goal, 133 miles ran. 1,022 for the year.  I broke 1,000 miles way early this year.

One race this past month – the Hudepohl 14k, which I haven’t done a race report for. Yet.

No races in October, and one in November to close the season.

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August 2017 Recap

140 miles planned, 144 miles ran.

Most of it was normal except for the beginning of the month where I had a large cheese-filled and salty lasagna before doing some 800s. They were all under an 8 min/mi pace, but not too far under.  Then, the following day I had intended to do an 11 mile long run but had to cut back to 10 because my alarm didn’t go off.

Two NKU XC series races were this month, but I’ve written about those already.

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June 2017 Month Recap

Ran 112 miles to bring my yearly total to 626 miles.  So far, I’m on track to run more this year than any other year.

No races this month. One notable training – I did my first trail run on June 30.  It was harsh.  703 feet elevation gain, which has been bested by only two workouts in the last many months – the two hill repeats I did.

Coming up in July is 2 races: the Bulldog Blast 5k and the first of three NKU XC Series races. I’m not doing any specific training for these.  Also, I will be starting into the training plan for the Hudepohl 14k.

Cheers!

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Oh Hai June – May 2017 End of Month Stuff

So May is over.

I ran two races (the Little King’s Mile and the Flying Pig Half).

I registered for three races – the Flying Pig FULL 2018 (I did this at the Expo, so I have a ton of time to question my choices… but hey, free T-shirt!), the Honor Run Half (in November), and the Bulldog Blast (local 5k).

Appropriate for that last one – it was <$17 after credit card processing fees:

“I’m not going to race during the summer” / “Oh look! A cheap 5k!”

Mileages:
Goal: 92
Ran: 83

Missed runs include a few where I was sick, in fact, the 9 miles belong almost solely to a day where I was very sick (possible food poisoning) and the following day.  Ends (e.g. running 3.14 to get back to where I was and having a goal of 3) not only reduced the amount missed, it made up for the first day back, where I wanted to run 8, but couldn’t stomach more than about 6.

Other than that, still no injuries! The addition of a lot of milk and vitamin D pills has helped!

ALSO: my weight has been hovering between just-below and just-above 200 pounds.  If I could stop eating like a fast-moving dumpster, I could probably cut my weight down more.

Next Up:
Nothing in June is planned.  In July, the NKU XC series is coming, as is the Bulldog Blast

Cheers!

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April Showers Bring a Month End Report

April has been a training and building month preparing for the Flying Pig Half Marathon.

During the weeks, I had two tempo runs offset with two interval runs. Of the tempo runs, one was slow (due to extreme wind), one was in the zone. Of the Interval runs, both were 400m intervals with goals of 1:55 – 1:58 per interval (that translates to a 7:43 – 7:55 pace). Out of 19 interval workbouts, 1 was above 1:58 (1:58.6… so close) and 16 were faster than 1:55. Also throughout the month, there were 3 half-marathon pace runs, which I was trying to keep to 7:58 – 8:13 (targeting a pace of 8:05) and all were within the range.

Month plan was 111.5 miles, I ran 117.5 miles.

Cheers!