Running on Beer

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 12 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m through the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase and into the race prep phase. This phase has a lot more speed workouts.

Monday: 8 miles. I didn’t push this. My quads were sore from spending parts of the prior weekend painting (up and down off a step stool). Park and subdivision next door, occasionally cussing at the asshats that block sidewalks. It was cold for the week of spring starting. 8.15 miles in 1:12:37 (8:55 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 9 miles with 5 x 1k @ 5k pace. This was tough. It felt colder than yesterday, and I didn’t feel like I could get my pace where I wanted it (6:55 – 7:15), lack of sleep from working late yesterday didn’t help. I kept it in the park. The 1k sets were 7:23, 7:36, 7:40, 7:38, and 7:40, so I was missing my target pace range of 6:55 – 7:15. Overall, 9 miles in 1:17:35 (8:37 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 12 miles. Woke up late, but still went to East Fork. I pulled into the lot and went to turn on my watch and… I realize I forgot my watch. So I pulled up the Strava app and tracked it with that, which probably sped me up until my AfterShokz died just past mile 9. It was a cold 31 degrees out on this first day of spring. 12.05 miles in 1:46:01 (8:48 min/mile).

Thursday: 5 miles. It was drizzling out, so I didn’t feel like getting a wet car. So I ran in my neighborhood. Circling around the 0.9 mile loop. Past the ignorant asshat that blocked half the sidewalk with an obnoxiously-large trailer hitch while still having 10+ feet of clear space in front of their obnoxiously-large SUV. 5.18 miles in 45:21 (8:45 min/mile pace).

Friday: 18 miles with 14 at M pace. Decided to run in downtown where I had space and it is mostly flat. Parked at the airport trailhead, ran into downtown and across the Suspension Bridge and back across the Purple People Bridge, getting passed by a pair of runners on the floodwall. I did have to make a pitstop with about 2 miles remaining in the M pace portion, and the M pace portion clicked off at the parking lot where my car was, I ended up crossing over to the Lunken trail to run a mile out and back. 18 miles in 2:30:52 (8:23 min/mile pace). The M pace portion was 14 in 1:55:01 (8:13 min/mile pace).

That’s the end of another tough week. 52.4 miles. Only two double-digit runs this week, but I’ll be back to three next week.

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 11 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m through the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase and into the race prep phase. This phase has a lot more speed workouts.

Monday: 8 miles with 5 x 600m. Despite the weather being warm enough and being at the park, it seems like this run was going to make me shake my head. When interval 4 was beginning, my watch froze and I couldn’t get it to reboot in the field. I guess it had a case of the Mondays. I ran by feel the rest of the way knowing that I usually split the additional mileage between the warm-up and cool-down, so after the last recovery guesstimate, I ran a lap and a half or so, which would have put me beyond where my watch would have stopped me. However, I’m not 100% sure the workout in the watch was correct. After all that, I’m just bitching about it and leaving shit on Garmin Connect and Strava as is. So “officially” I ran 3.18 in 26:45 (8:25 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 12 miles. Ran in East Fork and thought that maybe I was running on the fast side. Nope. Out to Williamsburg and then to the lake and back, finding the slick mud in the park in Williamsburg yet again. 12.02 miles in 1:50:28 (9:11 min/mile pace). I’m blaming the slowness on the darkness!

Wednesday: 4 miles + 6 * 100m strides. Easy day, just circling the park. Came out to 5.14 in 45:22 (8:50 min/mile pace). Didn’t push it because of Thursday’s workout.

Thursday: 12 mile race test. Woke up early for this, and while getting ready to tell my wife that I was stepping out, there was a bright flash of lightning. So I waited for lunchtime and ran then. Kept in the park and the subdivision next to it. After about 3 miles, the wind kicked up SIGNIFICANTLY, which made it much more difficult to run. 12.01 miles in 1:41:39 (8:28 min/mile pace).

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Friday was supposed to be 17 miles, but I had a meeting in Columbus, which meant I had to run in the afternoon. As I was on my way to run, my stomach was growling and I realized I forgot my energy gels. Then I was detoured around a closed road. So I scrubbed the run and decided to do it the following day.

Saturday: 17 miles. Ran in the next subdivision down the road, making five laps around that subdivision. Fueled with Gatorade Gels and hydrated with Gatorade Endurance Melon. 17.02 in 2:34:42 (9:05 min/mile pace, although it felt faster).

That’s a wrap on this week – 49 miles overall, or so (see Monday). Or maybe closer to 54, who really knows. Still a tough week. Cheers!

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 10 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m a few weeks into the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase.

Monday: 7 miles + 6 strides. Since it was icy outside, I ran this on the dreadmill. For once, I actually believe what my watch was telling me in terms of pacing. Strides on my dreadmill meant that I could see how fast my dreadmill’s belt can go (6:16 min/mile over 100 meters). Hydrated with Nuun Lemon Lime. 8.01 miles in 1:09:15 (8:39 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 11 miles w/7 @ HM Pace. Tuesday was a travel day for work. The day started very early – I think my flight was the first passenger flight of the day from CVG. Flew to Manchester, NH via Baltimore, and then had to drive about 90 minutes to Hanover, NH. After I settled in to the hotel room, I went out for a run. Miraculously, I was able to keep in the pace range with a substantial elevation gain (625 feet overall, 344 feet within the HM pace portion). This was helped by the fact that a lot of the sidewalks have been cleared (there was around 6″ of snow on the grass). The HM portion was 55:53 (7:59 min/mile), overall 11 miles in 1:31:58 (8:22 min/mile).

Wednesday: 12 miles. Had to get out early-ish for this one, and it was COLD. Like -2F cold. I had issues with my glasses freezing, and my water froze. I did fuel with a Gatorade Endurance Gel. 12.04 miles in 1:48:55 (9:03 min/mile pace). As soon as I entered the hotel, I made a bee line to the free coffee!

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Thursday: 5 miles. Hotel dreadmill. Why is it that every hotel has heat in the exercise room? The dreadmill was nicer than mine, but at one point my watch started telling me I was going slower when I wasn’t. 5.01 miles in 43:58 (8:47 min/mile pace).

Friday: This was my last morning waking up on the New Hampshire-Vermont border, and I was traveling and had two morning conference calls. Of course, the travel here is the reverse of Tuesday, a 90 minute drive to Manchester, a flight to Baltimore, a flight to Cincinnati, and then my drive. This took all day and given the temperature in the early morning, I discussed with my wife letting me run 20 miles on a Saturday…

Saturday: 20 miles. I got up at 4:15 and went down to the ORT Trailhead at Lunken Airport. Ran into downtown, through the park (which was setting up for a race), around the Bengals Practice Field, across the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, then the Taylor-Southgate Bridge, then the Suspension Bridge, and finally the Purple People Bridge (where I saw the race’s finish line). On my way east, there were a bunch of training groups out running the opposite direction. And I was chased by a rooster (it smartly backed off when I yelled at it – I wouldn’t have minded throwing it on my grill had it persisted). I should have cut out something, though, as when my watch clicked 20 miles, I was still almost two miles from the parking lot. I certainly wasn’t going to walk the 2 miles, so I kept running and still felt good at the end. 21.59 miles in 3:11:01 (8:51 min/mile pace). This was a confidence builder, because I felt great despite it being the third double-digit run this week.

Overall, I ran 57.65 miles this week. I’m fairly certain that’s the most I’ve run in a week, since that’s the first time I’ve ever run three double-digit runs in one week. This plan is not for the faint of heart. On to the next!

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 9 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m a few weeks into the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase.

Monday: Recovery 8 miles. Not really sure what I’m supposed to be recovering from, but I’m building an office in my basement so I was recovering from sanding drywall. 8 cold miles in the park and subdivison next to it in 1:11:21 (8:54 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 8 miles with 5 x 800m @ 5k pace. They say if your goals don’t scare you, you’re doing it wrong. The goal pace for these kinda scared me – 6:55 – 7:15 min/mile. Ran at the park at lunch, nailed the paces (6:51, 7:01, 6:48, 7:11, 6:54 min/mile). Then, on the cool down, I tossed my gloves near a playground next to where I park for the last half-a-lap or so. By the time I returned, they were gone 😡🤬 . They weren’t great gloves, and I hope some do-gooder didn’t take them to the township building (I really don’t want some innocent person smelling those things). Overall, 8 miles in 1:05:01 (8:08 min/mile pace). And better replacement gloves ordered.

Wednesday: Recovery 5 miles. It was a clusterfuck of a day that started off with weather too cold for old gloves. I went running before lunch and stayed in the subdivision. Of course I didn’t give myself enough time to do what I needed around lunchtime, but that’s another story for another blog. It was warm and sunny, though, which was nice. 5 miles in 42:50 (8:33 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 8 miles + 8 strides. It was a little chillier, and gloves were a necessity. I waited as long as I could before ultimately taking my throwaway gloves and going up to the park. I ended up running in the ice rain, which starts to sting after a while. 9.12 miles in 1:16:26 (8:23 min/mile pace).

Friday: 14 miles. I had to pick up my Bockfest packet, so I went downtown and ran everyhwere I used to run – Friendship Park, Sawyer Point, Smale Park, Clay Wade Bailey Bridge, Covington Riverfront, Suspension Bridge, Purple People Bridge, and the Taylor-Southgate Bridge. 14.15 miles in 2:04:58 (8:50 min/mile pace).

Saturday: Bockfest 5k. Had to get to Bockfest early because of part of Wednesday’s clusterfuck – I had to drop off beers for a homebrew competition. After getting the bottles where they needed to be, I found a place in the tent to hang around and talk with a homebrewer from my club. The race went without a hitch (from my point of view, at least). No PR likely because of the long run yesterday. Alexandria Brewing Slayerator and Schoenling Bock for the after-race libations. 3.1 miles in 23:15 (7:30 min/mile pace).

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Overall, that’s 47 miles for the week, nothing to sneeze at. The year’s shortest month, February, came in at 179.2 miles, which is probably my longest ever. Next week will be an interesting one, culminating with a 20 mile run next Friday.

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 8 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m a few weeks into the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase. After going into the eye of the hurricane last week, we now have the backside.

Monday: 6 miles. Ran in the township park in very light snow, some wind, and cold temps – it was just above freezing according to my phone and the township sign… it was just below freezing according to the ice patches forming and how I felt. It was nice that the sun is rising earlier, though. 6.08 miles in 52:42 (8:40 min/mile pace).

Tuesday: 14 miles. Scrubbed because of some sort of GI distress or sickness. Not sure what it was, but it remained for a few days.

Wednesday: 6 recovery miles 14 miles. I know many coaches say to not try to make up for missed runs, but I saw little point in recovery miles with nothing really to recover from. I went up to East Fork to do this one, and it was in the afternoon. The forecast was for rain, and the forecast was correct. Mile 3.5 – 4.5 involved a torrential downpour, as did mile 7.5 – 9. The remainder involved a steady rain. Of course, the one thing I forgot to grab from the house was a towel. Fortunately, I had a Gatorade towel in my truck that slightly protected my truck’s driver’s seat. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime, did not fuel. 14.01 in 2:05:18 (8:57 min/mile pace).

Thursday: 6 miles + 6 strides 6 mile recovery + 6 strides. So to get me back on track, I ran the 6 miles at a recovery pace and did my 6 strides. Ran this one at the township park. It was chilly, and by mile 4 some of the remaining puddles from yesterday’s rain were starting to freeze. 6.72 miles in 59:50 (8:54 min/mile pace).

Friday: 16 miles w/12 at M pace. I got up early enough to eat a little something and drive down to a trailhead next to Lunken Airport and decided to run in my old stomping running grounds. Ran along the Ohio River Trail to Kellogg/Eastern Avenue and then followed Eastern to Friendship Park where I ducked into the park for the Friendship/Sawyer Point/Yeatman’s Cove/Smale Park loop I used to always do. A small part of Sawyer Point and another small part of Smale Park were closed due to high water. After diverting in Smale for the high water, I decided to cross the Suspension Bridge and then back across the Purple People Bridge before looping back into Sawyer Point to head back out to the airport. I noticed that the city still has the same arch below the Purple People Bridge closed, and they closed another (out of three)… at least they had signs of actual work on the newer closure. After crossing the Suspension Bridge and getting down to the riverfront below the Floodwall, I noticed the Army Corps (or perhaps a contractor for them) finished work on the floodwall east of the Purple People Bridge.

There were two slow miles in the M pace portion- one was when I was heading up to and across the Suspension bridge, which was the highest-elevation-gain portion of the run at 30 feet, and the second was the next mile, during which I had to stop and wait for some idiot in a trash truck attempt to turn around in a parking lot he didn’t even need to be in (the linked video is a mostly-accurate depiction). Fueled with my very last Gatorade Endurance Apple-Pear gel, hydrated with Gatorade Endurance Lemon-Lime.

Overall, the run was 16 miles in 2:14:33 (or it was 15.99 in 2:14:30 if you look on Strava) (8:24 min/mile pace). The M pace portion was 12 miles in 1:38:40 (8:13 min/mile pace, goal range was 7:50 – 8:15 min/mile, so within the range).

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That’s it for the week. About 43 miles this week. Next week holds some new things for this plan: speedwork and a race – the Bockfest 5k is approaching quickly! Cheers!

Bockfest 5k Preview

So I’ve done the Bockfest 5k a few times… okay, every year since it’s started. The course is the same this year as the past three years. The race starts in Over The Rhine, which is just north of Downtown Cincinnati. Within the first quarter of a mile, we head up Liberty Street Hill, and this is the most difficult portion of the race. The race then crosses over to Gilbert Ave, which is a long downhill slope into downtown. The race makes a few turns to get down to short Third Street where it makes a few left turns to start sending us back to Over The Rhine.

This is traditionally not a PR race for me – the first few years were, but in early 2015 I broke out with a 24:10 PR at the Cincinnati Cyclones Frozen 5k, finally breaking that in 2017 in the Batavia Bulldog Blast with a 23:04. The 2018 Bockfest 5k didn’t break that, and the 2018 Bulldog Blast was 21:46. This year is not looking to be anything different, since I’ll be running a 14 mile long run on the day prior and this season’s goal race is the Glass City Marathon.

Bockfest 5k Time History
2013: 0:33:23
2014: 0:28:08
2015: 0:26:28
2016: 0:26:26
2017: 0:24:26
2018: 0:23:13

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 7 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  I’m two weeks into the Lactate Threshold + Endurance Phase, and it feels like 💩 just got real… again.

Monday: 7 miles + 6 Strides. Ran in the township park, keeping mostly on the pavement. Since it’s one of the two shortest runs this week, I did my form drills (that I normally do on Tuesday and Thursday… which are normally the shortest days of the week) and skipped squats (I’ll do those tomorrow and Wednesday on the two longer-but-not-longest days). 7.71 miles in 1:07:16 (8:43 min/mi pace).

Tuesday: 12 miles. Like I said, shit got real. This felt more like a swim through East Fork Lake State Park than a run. There was a torrential downpour the entire time, and half of Williamsburg Community Park was underwater – that’s where I tend to turn around. I did see more wildlife than normal – a few deer and a rabbit. 12 miles in 1:47:00 (8:55 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 10 miles w/ 6 miles at HM pace. The rain finally went the 🤬 away, to be replaced with cold and wind. There was a tree across the path at the township park (and it was immobile – I tried to move it). Ran around the park and the subdivision next to it. 10.2 miles in 1:23:00 (8:08 min/mile pace). The 6 miles was at a 7:49 min/mile pace, which is the upper end of where I wanted it. The first 2 miles felt good, it did start feeling tough after that, but I wasn’t sprinting and it was manageable.

Thursday: 5 miles. Kept it in the subdivison, and ran at lunch. I got up to run in the morning but decided to hold off until it got warmer. It was warmer, but windy. I wasn’t trying to go fast knowing that tomorrow is a 20 mile run, but my watch kept clicking off mid-8 miles. 🤷‍♂️. 5.02 miles in 42:31 (8:28 min/mile pace).

Friday: 20 miles. With my truck being basically broke down, I ran in my subdivision, the neighboring two, and the park. The run started with 50-degree weather that got colder as I continued, down to maybe 45. Within the first few miles I started noticing a very strong wind that normally was pushing against me. It was not my fastest run, but it was largely good otherwise. The weird thing was clicking off an 8:25 mile 19, which may have been partially fueled by flipping off and yelling at some asshat in a Kia Soul that passed me very close. 20.1 miles in 3:03:55 (9:09 min/mile pace). I’m kinda disappointed in going slower than 2:57 for that 20 miles, but looking at Wednesday and Thursday, it’s fine.

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The week total is 55 miles. That’s A LOT of miles! In a few weeks, I’ll have another 55 mile week (that might hit 5 miles). After that week are a few miles in the low 50s, and then I start going down in volume for tapering. This is a tough plan! 🍻

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 6 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  This post-polar vortex week has been interesting, since it started with warm temperatures. I’ve also shifted from the endurance phase of the plan to the lactate threshold + endurance phase, so there’s going to be a lot more speed work, which will not just include pace portions and strides, but also some interval training.

Monday: 10 miles with 5 @ HM pace. I had intended to run this in the township park, but when I went to start my truck, I heard the starter solenoid click and… nothing. I then went out on my driveway and started the watch, which didn’t have the workout setup. So I knew the plan – I ran once around the subdivision and then down the main road to another subdivision and ran around it twice before returning back to my subdivision and doing 3 or 4 laps. Overall, 10.03 miles in 1:23:20 (8:19 min/mile pace). I don’t have a measurement for the HM portion, but in hindsight, I should have pressed the lap button at 2.5 to get that.

Tuesday: Recovery 4 miles. Despite my truck’s starter going out (after many tries, it will start), I drove down to the park and ran in the foggy mist and somewhat gusty conditions. The temperature was nice, mid-50s, so I was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. Since I made sure I synced the calendar on my watch, it crashed when I saved. 4 miles in 35:05 (8:46 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 11 miles. It was rainy and I kept it in the park and the two neighboring subdivisions. Hydrated using Gatorade Endurance. Other than the rain, it was a decent run. 11.09 miles in 1:37:50 (8:49 min/mile pace).

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Thursday: 7 + 8 strides. Ran in the park, again, and in dense fog. The problem with fog is it also fogs my glasses, and the inability to see slows me down. It was mostly uneventful until after the 6th stride – I looked at my watch and thought it said 6, so I was turning towards my truck when it alerted me for another stride. 8.01 miles in 1:11:07 (8:53 min/mile).

Friday: 18 miles. A long run after a long 8 mile run that was preceded by an 11 mile run? This plan is SERIOUS. I’m fairly certain I’m not going to be moving very fast on Saturday. I went up to East Fork using my wife’s car (she offered… yeah, she’s a keeper!) The area is hilly because it is a valley, and temps dropped from 55F on Thursday to 27F on Friday. Ran from the camping parking lot to Williamsburg where I was going to run around a park… but the park was flooded. Ran back past the parking lot and to a boat ramp before going down and back on the other side of the Batavia-Williamsburg Path. Fueled with Gatorade Gels at miles 6 and 12, hydrated with Gatorade Endurance. 18 miles in 2:48 (9:18 min/mile pace).

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That’s it for the week. FIFTY ONE MILES. I’m pretty sure my previous highest week was 47 miles and that included a 20 mile long run. This isn’t even the highest week. By April, I’ll be ready to crush this marathon.

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 5 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019.  This is a pull-back week in the plan, which couldn’t have come at a better time. The week is forecasted to have a polar vortex hit on Wednesday so I expect some dreadmill running this week.

Monday: 8 miles + 10 x 100m strides. Since it was cold in the morning but nice out at lunchtime, I ran at East Fork at lunch. It was much faster than I anticipated, despite some winds. The drawback for this route was that my strides were uphill… OTOH, I made a PR on that uphill stretch. Overall, 9.5 miles in 1:20:58 (8:31 min/mile pace).

Monday evening I finished Eat & Run, which is a nice introspective into the development of Scott Jurek.

Tuesday: Recovery 5 miles. Yeaahh, about that recovery, it was 16F/4F wind chill factor and I tried to go slow but also wanted to get done. Wore my heart rate monitor (I wish I wore it for Monday’s run too), I don’t know if it works with non-GPS mode, but I’m going to try it tomorrow when schools are closed due to -20+ (actually, that should be a ‘-‘ after that!). 5 miles in 41:44 (8:20 min/mile pace).

I ordered a Garmin footpod last week from some shitty Amazon reseller that will likely be getting a negative review, since the footpod won’t be here until after tomorrow’s planned dreadmill run. I would have rather had it earlier in the week since I think there’s some calibration that will need to be done.

Wednesday: 8 miles. Yeah, on the dreadmill. It was boring looking at the wall, and the footpod didn’t arrive until way later. 8.01 in 1:09:55 (8:44 min/mile pace).

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Thursday: Recovery 4 miles. It’s still cold, so I ran on the dreadmill again. I used the footpod, which was more of a curse than a blessing since it is uncalibrated. It said I went 4.01 in 38:37 for a 9:43 min/mile pace, but I felt like I was going faster. Of course. I’m going to calibrate it when I can.

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Friday/Saturday: I was supposed to run 12 miles, but instead I carried drywall into my basement. 16 sheets on Friday (with no help) and 14 sheets on Saturday (with help).

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Overall, that’s 26.5 miles for the week. January was 175 miles total of a planned 185 miles. February’s plan involved 197 miles, but I’m starting it missing a 12 mile run so there’s that.

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on week 4 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019. 

Monday: 9 miles with 5 @ HM Pace. It was stupid cold outside, I’m not sure what the actual wind chill factor was, but my winter gear does not go down to 1F anyway. Ran speedwork on the dreadmill, which made me feel slow. At one point, I sped up the ‘mill, but my watch slowed the pace it was telling me by a few seconds. 9 miles (give or take inaccuracies in a GPS watch tracking distance without a GPS satellite) in 1:22:41 (9:11 min/mi pace).

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Tuesday: Recovery 5 miles. Waited until after lunch, when the temperature went up to the upper 30s to run, and kept it in the park. The path was snow covered. I wore my trailrunning shoes, which worked well in the snow. 5.05 miles in 42:28 (8:24 min/mile pace).

Wednesday: 10 miles. I went to bed wondering where I could run 10 miles without getting dizzy (such as in the park). When I woke up and looked outside, I saw that most of the snow was gone because it was raining. So I thought maybe conditions in East Fork would be good. Nope. There was a lot of hard pack snow-ice that made it slippery, and it wasn’t in a consistent location. The Batavia-Williamsburg Bike Path was a sheet of ice. I started running camping loops and did what I could. 10.02 miles in 1:35:55 (9:34 min/mile pace).

Thursday: recovery 5 miles. I had to go to Indianapolis and back, so I ran in the afternoon. I stopped by the park (the township offices are there, and were fortunately open when I got there – I used the restroom and changed in the building. The path was icy. I spent a lot of time off the path and running where the pavement was dry… or at least not icy. For dealing with those conditions, the pace was not bad. 5.02 miles in 43:49 (8:44 min/mile pace).

Friday: 16 miles with 10 at M pace. Given yesterday’s ice and the fact that I really wanted to end this week right, I ran on the dreadmill. I ordered a foot pod earlier in the week, an it still hasn’t arrived. So the pace was a mess. My dreadmill claims I went 15.1 miles, my watch 16, I felt like I was at 17 and change, and my wife claimed I smelled like I ran 20 miles. 16 (ish) miles in 2:26:18 (9:09 min/mile… maybe).

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Overall, that’s 45 miles for the week. It’s been a week of extreme weather – ice on Monday, good Tuesday and Wednesday (weather-wise, the running was icy), cold Thursday and really cold and icy Friday.

Plank For Your Beer!

During #bibChat, a fellow runner named Michael from Nebraska brought up the idea of planking for our beer. It was the motivation I needed to move from thinking about doing planks to actually doing the planks.

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I’m not going to keep taking selfies of this, but I’m going to stick with the planks.

I’ve signed up for the Glass City Marathon in Toledo, Ohio, and I’m on weeks 2 and 3 of 18 in my slightly modified Pfitz 18/55 plan. The marathon is on April 28, 2019. I traveled to Washington, DC and back during the second week (blame that on why I missed posting half of this) for the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting (TRB).

Week 1 Monday: 10 Miles. I got a running vest based on a recommendation from a friend and used it today. It was dark (cloudy + predawn), and windy (cold front rolling in). I really wanted to crush this run since it seems like every time I run in this park – East Fork Lake State Park – it’s tough and my paces are slow. I kinda did this time, 10.01 miles in 1:28:59 (8:53 min/mile pace).

Week 1 Tuesday: 4 Miles. Started out with form drills in the park. It was warm – warm enough that my gloves were only my finger-less RunLites. It was raining on my way to the park (which is all of a 2 minute drive), but by the time I parked, got my podcast started, and got my gloves on, it stopped. 4.05 miles in 35:59 (8:53 min/mile pace).

Week 1 WINDSday: 8 miles with 4 at HM pace (7:30 – 7:50 min/mile). It was extremely windy. And it was cold – the temperature on Tuesday dropped from about 59 at 4:30 to 49 at 5:30, and it was 32 by the time I started running on WINDSday morning. Ran in the park and the subdivision next to it. Despite the wind, I kept the HM portion of the run within the goal at 7:49 min/mi… but the warm-up and cool-down were slow-ish (low 9s). Overall, 8 miles in 1:07:29 (8:26 min/mile pace).

Week 1 Thursday: 4 miles recovery. I didn’t want to go too far to run, so I ran in the subdivision in the morning. Ran five laps of the subdivision, 4.19 miles in 37:16 (8:54 min/mile pace).

Week 1 Friday/Saturday: I was supposed to do a long run of 14 miles, but sick on Friday and too much to do on Saturday mean I scrubbed it.

Week 2 Monday: 8 miles + 10 strides. Flew to Washington, DC Sunday. It was the trip from Hell because of many cancellations and delays. The snow was still around on Monday and made for a slow run to keep from slipping. 9.67 miles in 1:32:43 (9:35 min/mile pace).

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Week 2 Tuesday: 5 recovery miles. Ahh TRB, where going to bed past midnight is the norm. Ran this with a friend and colleague, so we were talking along the way. The sidewalks were better, but there were still plenty of slick spots. 5.27 miles in 50:15 (9:32 min/mile pace).

Week 2 Wednesday: 10 miles. I think I got to bed at 1 AM and got up at 5 AM, so this was not going to be a great run, and there were still slick spots around. Ran across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery (not into the cemetery, it appeared to be closed with several vehicles waiting for it to open). Then got kinda lost coming back across and ended up running up the Rock Creek Trail until it split at the Whitehurst Freeway. I went west under the freeway to 30th street and then south to the waterfront where I followed to the end before turning around and making my way back down to the National Mall. Overall, 10.36 in 1:37:13 (9:23 min/mile pace).

Week 2 Thursday: 4 Recovery Miles. Ran this one with the same friend and colleague that I ran with on Tuesday. We ran north, I was intending to go past a few places I saw last year, but I forgot where they were. We ran up 16th and crossed over to 14th too early for some (the Freemason building, the Warder Mansion, the Carnegie Institute, and the embassies of Lithuania, Cuba, Spain, Mexico, and Kazakhstan. After we split ways at his hotel, I continued running back to mine and put an additional mile on (because rounding). 5.07 miles in 47:54 (9:28 min/mile pace). Flew back home in the midday.

Week 2 Friday: 15 miles. Ran in East Fork, which is a difficult run in the dark (see Week 1 Monday), as well as in the light. I had intended to get a picture of the sun rising over the waters near the end of my run, but cloudy weather screwed that over. The new vest worked out again. Hydrated with Gatorade Endurance and fueled with one Gatorade Endurance Gel (Vanilla flavor) at around mile 7.5. 15.02 miles in 2:22:06 (9:28 min/mile pace). One good part is that despite “Audrey” (the AfterShokz voice) saying “charge me” a few times starting at around 11.5 miles, my Trekz Airs did not die. Of course, they went straight on the charger when I got home.

My weekend plans are generally to rest! TRB is tough because of early morning sessions and late night bar sessions. It doesn’t help that last weekend was on my feet 100% of Saturday and a lot of walking on Sunday and the rest of the week.