“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…

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.

Woo hoo! Money! (source: https://giphy.com/gifs/m7FO0p9hTc59e)

There’s a rub

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!

I’m my own coach, and this is about my process of getting and adjusting training plans. It’s loosely based on the process described in You (Only Faster)*, although I’ve started with Hal Higdon plans as opposed to the 5 day/week plans in You.

My main adjustments are:

My long run day is Friday
I’ve found that I have no motivation after working the week and waking up in a house that I don’t have to leave at the buttcrack of dawn. I have a wife, I have kids, and Saturday and Sunday mornings are spent with them. This usually means moving the Saturday long run to a Friday rest day, sometimes it means moving more stuff around.
Taper Week adjustments
Since not all races happen on Sunday and since I usually have 1-2 days extra, I have to adjust taper week. I stick to the same idea of the plan, usually adding to Monday and Tuesday
Adjusting for things to avoid
With my history of injuries and because I’m old and overweight, I do not schedule hard days adjacent to long days or other hard days. My normal “excersizing” progression is hills**, easy, speedwork, easy, distance (usually long-slow, but sometimes I mix in a fast-finish week). I generally try to keep to this, even if it isn’t specifically called for in the plan.

Notes:

* one of these days, I am going to use Greg McMillan’s half-marathon plan. The first long runs in the plan are 14-16 miles, though, and I’m just not ready for that!

** I don’t do hills the same way as what most coaches indicate. I use a route that is largely uphill for the first half. I work in downtown Cincinnati, so my ‘hill run’ is northbound up Eggleston Avenue to Gilbert to Eden Park Drive and then crossing over from Eden Park Drive/Victory Parkway to Gilbert Avenue . Starting and ending at Pete Rose Way and Eggleston Avenue, I’ve found that crossing over Kemper Road is 4.5 miles, crossing at McMillan Road is around 5.5 miles, crossing over Taft Road is around 6 miles, and crossing over MLK Drive is 7 miles.

Recordkeeping

My main planning record is a Google Spreadsheet that looks something like this:

Running Planning and Tracking Spreadsheet

This gives me some places to make notes (the bright cyan box is when I got new shoes!) and it holds notes (which I can also leave as comments). I also use colors – the snot green is completed weeks, and I tend to use yellow for important things as well, like in the below.

This is it in a nutshell, and it isn’t perfect (for example, I haven’t figured out what to do on those days where I want to run the NKU XC series but also run 4, 5, or 6 miles).

Stats So Far

450 miles run this year
69 hours, 44 minutes spent running
Average pace of 9:18 minutes per mile

Tag: tracking

Got a Health Tracker That Pays Me! Wait…

Training Plan Approach

Recordkeeping

Stats So Far