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.
“Confusing…” by Tristan Schmurr is licensed under CC BY 2.0
So obviously, since I have a running blog that I occasionally update AND it is full of useless monthly reports of how much I’ve run AND I occasionally participate in the Twitter #runChat and #bibChat, I might be a runner.
My work decided to change health insurance companies, and one of the “features” of the new one is an optional activity that gives you money if you do activities:
6 brief walks, at least one hour apart, 300 steps
One brisk walk (3,000 steps within 30 minutes)
At least 10,000 steps total
So…
Goal #1 is a frequency thing. I imagine two of these are in the bag, minimum. My bathroom breaks may include a ‘detour’, which might put me up to the minimum.
With regards to Goal #2, I have never used a step tracker, but figured out that in each mile of running, I am around 1,450 steps per mile…
Weighted average steps per mile.
So, #2 is easy. I have never ran less than 2 miles when out to run, so that goal is as good as met 5 times a week. I’ll have to do something to get the other days, but shouldn’t be too difficult (mowing the lawn counts, and if I brew some beer, I might just make laps around the basement while in the mash or boil).
Goal #3 isn’t too bad. Using basic math, just under 7 miles of running gets me there. My shortest runs get me halfway there, and longer runs get me there. So I think I’m good there for at least 5 days a week. The other two may be different, but we’ll see.
This money goes into my Health Savings Account (HSA) account. What you can and cannot spend money on is controlled and “enforced” by the Internal Revenue Service. I’m (ideally) getting a lot of money because I’m a runner (and I’ve already started the jokes about what this thing would do during a marathon).
Unless I am incorrect, running shoes, race entry fees, running clothes, running accessories, or other items are not allowed unless prescribed by a doctor (and most of what I just typed would be unlikely to be prescribed).
Are you fucking kidding me? (Credit: https://sweartrek.tumblr.com/post/163648397528/11-days-11-days)
So yeah. I’m going to use my running activities to fund an account that won’t reward me for running. Great job, team!
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.
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
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.
It’s now past the end of March. I’m well into half marathon training.
102.31 mile goal for the month, 100.74 miles ran. I missed a few days, and general inaccuracies (4 miles + 6 strides > 4.5 miles, usually it’s 4.7 miles) caused the difference.
I mostly made my pace goals this month.
One race this month, the Bockfest 5k. My goals were:
A: 23:30
B: 5k PR (<24:15)
C: Course PR (<26:26)
I ran a 24:26. Beat my C goal, but that 5k PR… that’s going to be around for a while.
Here it is on the evening of January 19. January is a busy month for me – traditionally I take a week off around Christmas, and a week after getting back into the office I go to a yearly conference. So I have to cram in a month’s worth of work in two weeks, and those two weeks are separated by a week.
I flaked out at the end of December. I planned to run 100 miles and only made it to 88. No races, just running.
I finished the year with a goal of running 1,077 miles. I ran 1,083. I spent over 165 hours running.
The plan for 2017 includes a few “stand-bys”, the Bockfest 5k, Little King’s Mile, and Hudepohl 14k.
I’m highly considering the Flying Pig Half Marathon again, and possibly also the Honor Run Half again. If NKU does it’s summer XC series, I’m in.
I’m going to get into the cross training I need to. This is the second phase of me implementing what I’ve learned in Meb For Mortals. The first phase was to begin doing his form and mobility drills, which I do twice a week. This would put me in a good position to start into full marathon training to run my first full in 2018.
In other related news, I purchased a pair of Brooks shoes. These are not made for my feet. I also purchased a new wristband for my RoadID. The one I currently have is quite bad looking. I was also able to get a beer glass, because after all… running on beer!
I intended to run 93.4 miles, I ran 97.4 miles. That’s a little bit of a mis-interpretation of the month, though, because a large part of the 4 mile difference was caused by tempo runs where my planned distance was a guess… a very low guess. I was up to 995 miles for the year at the end of November.
The rest of the month was without anything notable. I took two days off after the half, and slowly worked back into a normal routine.
Planned For December
Running. The plan is running.
I broke a thousand miles on the year on December 2, and I plan on running around 104 miles (23 miles per week) through the month.
Upcoming
The next planned race is Bockfest 5k. I’m using one of Hal Higdon’s plans for this, something I’ve never done for a 5k. His 5k Advanced plan is very interesting – it has short intervals (200m and 400m), tempo runs, and a good long run each week. I start on the plan on the second week of January.
Looking forward to next year, I only have three events on the calendar: the Bockfest 5k, Little King’s Mile, and the Hudepohl 14k. I haven’t decided what else I’m doing. Beyond next year, I figure I’m a year-and-a-season from my first full marathon (which might be the 20th Flying Pig). That means that at this time next year I’ll be preparing to get onto a marathon training plan.
I intended to run 112 miles, I ran 114.53. This brings the yearly total up to 897.3.
With the weather getting better, my pace fell to 9:07. That has been nice.
The new GPS watch has been nice. It did flake out on me once, but it only lost 0.08 miles of GPS points and did NOT lose the run. I’m good with that!
Month Notes
I volunteered with the Queen Bee Half Marathon as a ham radio operator (I’m 3 for 3 there). Fortunately the weather was great for running, so there were few drop reports.
I got to party with the Brew Hogs. It was nice NOT missing it this year – last year I had to miss because of a cortisone shot that turned out to be extremely painful and extremely useless.
I had a Saturday meeting in Raleigh, and I flew in on Friday and went running. Running there was interesting, as I had to run 11 miles in the sun. It felt like uphill all ways. But I got the run in.
The weather locally has changed, and it conveniently waited until after the only race I scheduled for this month to do it.
September Stats
Intended: 110.95
Ran: 110.67
Meh, close enough. I did skip one day – Labor Day. Rounding (well, not) has caused me to make up most of it. My average pace increased – from 9:28 min/mile to 9:12 min/mile.
One race in September: the Hudepohl 14k (yes, it was a 14k; yes, there was Hudepohl 14K beer at the finish line). There is more in a longer report, but I did PR.
Planned For October
Preparation for a half marathon. This will be the first time breaking 10 miles since May of 2015, which was the half marathon I ran while injured.
I also want to phase in a second group of conditioning from the Meb for Mortals book – the strength training.
