Keep Moving Forward: A Training Log (Comments Welcome)

The taper continues...

Tuesday
4 miles @ EA. Actual run was 10.5 miles @ 8:27/mile. Knowing I had a long run scheduled for Wednesday, but the day off on Tuesday, I flipped these two runs to cut down on running in the dark after work. I don't recall much of this run, so it must have been non-eventful.

Wednesday
1 mile WU + 8.5 miles @ Tempo + 1 mile. Actual run was 4 miles @ 9:19/mile. Not exactly the EA I was supposed to do, but it really was a nice and easy run. Caught a gorgeous sunset that evening, too.

Friday
4 miles @ EA. Actual run was 4 miles @ 9:25/mile. Another nice and easy run. Weather was decent, too.

Saturday
Off day, but it was gorgeous out (50+ and sunny), so I played some basketball and kickball with my girls.

Sunday
5 miles @ EB. Actual run was 5 miles @ 9:11/mile. Chillier today than yesterday. Probably about 36-38 when I went out. Pretty routine run.

Well, that's just about it. I have four easy miles tomorrow after work, then we head to Disney on Tuesday. I have two miles scheduled for Wednesday, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not.

I'm not sure if it's overconfident, delusion or some weird self-preservation mind trick my brain is playing on me, but I'm surprisingly chill about the prospect of running 50+ miles in the next seven days. I feel like I should be nervous or anxious. Maybe it hasn't fully sunk in yet and will when I show up at the Expo on Wednesday or wake up for that first race Thursday morning. I definitely don't know what to expect from four subsequent mornings of getting up at 3 a.m. or running four days in a row for one of the few times ever.

Maybe it's because this will be my fourth marathon or that a 5K, 10K and a half on their own are a piece of cake. Maybe it's the fact that I feel as good, physically, as I ever have before a marathon. Maybe the stakes are just really low and I'm ready to have a good time. I don't know, but I'm ready to go and have a ball.

Miles This Week: 23.5
Year To Date: 23.5
 




Man, I have been terrible about getting an update here. I have every intention of this being a "Dopey and beyond" training log, I just need to figure out how to change the title again and we'll be back in business.

So, I was going to do a training log-specific post on each of the four Dopey races, but honestly, that just sounds like a lot of work. You can read about the races and my other Disney escapades here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/dig-a-little-deeper-dopey-2019.3729973/

All in all, Dopey went extremely well. It was a little cold the first few mornings, I battled a little upset stomach and fatigue here and there and the heat and exhaustion from commando touring caught up to me a bit in the last eight miles or so of the marathon, but I would still call my first Dopey Challenge a hugely successful experience. I didn't set any hard and fast time goals, but the 5K and 10K went well, the half was tremendous fun (including two character stops) and 18 miles of the full also went well (with a sub-4 pace). Even though I hit the wall hard in the full, I still turned in a course PR and my second fastest marathon time by 14 minutes. Huge shout out to @DopeyBadger for a training plan that allowed me to succeed, stay fresh and have a great time, despite my efforts at self-sabotage through long days at the parks, big meals and a relatively late night before the marathon.

So, what's next?

For a brief time, I actually entertained doing a full at the end of April. However, weather and life got in the way a little bit. When we got back to Iowa the Wednesday after the full, my lower back was in really, really bad shape. Not so much from running, but more from not running, getting tight, being on my feet for eight days, sleeping in hotel beds and lugging around kids, camera gear, etc. I actually ended up going to the doctor and getting some muscle relaxers for a little relief.

By Sunday or Monday (MLK day) my back was feeling better and I was more than ready to run again. I four easy miles on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it was snowy and a little slick, causing me to tighten up a bit when I ran and it aggravated my back again a bit. Between that and the weather, I didn't get another run in that week.

This week has been no better. As you're probably all aware, Iowa is in the middle of a polar vortex and it's pretty dang cold. I couldn't even start my car today. This weekend calls for much, much warmer temperatures, but ...

I'm having surgery Friday afternoon. Nothing serious, just a vasectomy (TMI? Sorry!). So, that's going to prevent me from running until at least *next* Friday or Saturday.

I don't know how much stamina and conditioning I'll have lost by then, but I don't know if a marathon 10-12 weeks later is feasible. I'm also entertaining the idea of doing the half, but I'd really like to knock out another full. (I'm open to any feedback!)

Regardless of what happens with the marathon at the end of April, I am 100 percent committed to running the Lakefront Marathon again at the beginning of October. I have a friend who wants to run it, she has some friends who may join us and we might turn it into a long weekend in Milwaukee. I had my worst marathon time (but still a really fun race) at Lakefront in 2017, so I want to give it another go, but properly trained.

Beyond that, I don't really know. I could do the Bix again in July, but getting up early to drive to Davenport, run 7 miles, drink to Michelob Ultras in the finish area and drive back isn't as appealing anymore. The Iowa City Run for the Schools is in October, as well, but my participation in that will be largely contingent on how close it is to Lakefront.

I need to talk with my wife about this, but I'm also leaning heavily toward entering the lottery for the 2020 Chicago Marathon. If I get that, I'll see about getting up to Duluth in June 2020 for Grandma's Marathon.

A lot to think about and train for in the coming year. Fortunately/unfortunately, I'll have plenty of time to sit and ponder things in the coming week...
 
I definitely think you could run the marathon at the end of April if you wanted. You're going to lose some fitness by taking a month off, but not so much you couldn't bounce right back. The question you need to answer is if you just want to cover the distance or set a new PR. If you're looking for significant time improvement, something in May could be a better choice. But maybe not. I think @DopeyBadger usually writes plans in 4 week segments.

I've got Lakefront on my radar but I'm waiting to see how my April marathon shakes out. My husband went to that high school at the start so it's a convenient excuse to visit the in laws. Plus, I've heard lots of good things about it.
 
I definitely think you could run the marathon at the end of April if you wanted. You're going to lose some fitness by taking a month off, but not so much you couldn't bounce right back. The question you need to answer is if you just want to cover the distance or set a new PR. If you're looking for significant time improvement, something in May could be a better choice. But maybe not. I think @DopeyBadger usually writes plans in 4 week segments.

I've got Lakefront on my radar but I'm waiting to see how my April marathon shakes out. My husband went to that high school at the start so it's a convenient excuse to visit the in laws. Plus, I've heard lots of good things about it.

Thanks for the feedback. I’m not interested in time, just knocking out another 26.2. The plan would probably be a test week finishing with an 8-10 mile long run, then dive back in to the last 9-10 weeks of a prior marathon plan. We’ll see.

As for Lakefront, I highly recommend it. I thought it was well-organized and I really enjoyed the route.
 
I don't know how much stamina and conditioning I'll have lost by then,

You're looking at about 26 days off. Per Daniels, you would lose about 6.5% of VO2max fitness. Your estimated VO2max was 42.6 based on the 1:45 fitness assessment, then a 6.5% decrease would be 39.8. This would be your estimated race equivalency chart upon returning:

Screen Shot 2019-01-31 at 6.48.37 AM.png

With 26 days off, you're looking at about 26-52 days to return to fitness (which would be estimated at 3/6 to 4/1).

The other thing to keep in mind is that as you know the later you move into summer the warmer the race will be (and more different than Spring training weather). So if the sole goal is a best possible time, then you might have a disadvantage of waiting as much as doing it sooner. It's a tough choice if the sole goal is PR performance.

I think @DopeyBadger usually writes plans in 4 week segments.

Yes, the mileage is usually in 4 week cycles. The training pace scheme is usually in 6-8 week cycles.

As for Lakefront, I highly recommend it. I thought it was well-organized and I really enjoyed the route.

I concur that Lakefront is a really well run race.
 
Solid information, @DopeyBadger. I appreciate it. Since I’m not going for time, it sounds like a decent race experience is still feasible.

Since hitting my sub-4 goal, my priorities have largely switched to maintaining my fitness, continuing to check off marathons, experience new courses and improve on past times for old courses. I don’t know if that’s the wisest approach, but I suppose that’s where I am mentally right now.
 
Since hitting my sub-4 goal, my priorities have largely switched to maintaining my fitness, continuing to check off marathons, experience new courses and improve on past times for old courses. I don’t know if that’s the wisest approach, but I suppose that’s where I am mentally right now.

Absolutely nothing wrong with that priority. We all get the freedom to choose our own goals and the path we want to choose to get to them.
 
Since hitting my sub-4 goal, my priorities have largely switched to maintaining my fitness, continuing to check off marathons, experience new courses and improve on past times for old courses. I don’t know if that’s the wisest approach, but I suppose that’s where I am mentally right now.
I think this is actually a good approach. It means that you control your running and your goals which allows you to get the most benefit in terms of enjoying running for what it does for you.
 
Surgery went well on Friday and I've been in recovery mode ever since. It warmed up a bunch this weekend and, mentally, I was ready to go. Five more days until I can get back out there.

I did get signed up for the 2019 Lakefront Marathon, so I'm psyched about that. Still considering Run CRANDIC at the end of April, but I won't make any decisions on that for at least two weeks.
 
Reporting for Spring Training!

As of about 3 p.m., last Friday it had been a week since my surgery and I was cleared to resume regular physical activity. So, by 4 p.m. or so Friday, I was out for my first run since Jan. 23.

Friday
4 miles @ 9:37/mile. My plan was to ease back into training with some short, low effort runs. While I could control my pace, I couldn't control the weather, however. Thursday afternoon we got freezing rain that hung around all through the weekend, making every run a challenge. Friday's run was especially interesting because I had to try not to slip on the ice, but also gauge how I felt after the surgery AND gauge how I felt after more than two weeks off from running (really, one run since Jan. 13).

For the ice, I tried to avoid it as much as possible. When I could, I ran in the street. When that wasn't an option, I tried to run in the grass (which was actually just ice-glazed snow, but it had a little more traction). If that didn't work out, then I just looked for the roughest spots of ice in the sidewalk and tried to run on that. It was a bit treacherous and ill-advised, but I survived. Because I was running so tight and gingerly, I didn't feel 100 percent physically and I had lingering tightness over the right of the weekend, but nothing debilitating.

Saturday
5 miles @ 9:47/mile. A little warmer on Saturday (mid-20s, compared to single digits on Friday), but the ice was just as slick. I almost ate it a couple of times and definitely grabbed on to some trees, fences, etc. to catch myself from falling. I'm sure passersby thought I was crazy. They're probably not wrong. More or less similar results from Friday.

Sunday
4 miles @ 9:47/mile. I debated this run until Sunday afternoon. At first, I was on board with going for a run. Then it snowed a couple inches, I said forget about it and figured lugging a bunch of stuff out of my basement (which flooded last Sunday, hooray!) was enough of a workout. But then I noticed how warm it felt Sunday afternoon compared to the rest of the weekend and figured I better just go (stepping on the scale after a big meal the night before motivated me a bit too, tbh). More slipping. More sliding. But this time, with the added bonus of fresh powder on top of the sidewalks, so I *really* didn't know what I was stepping on. Still managed to not wipe out, so go me.

So after three fairly easy (and icy) runs, I feel confident that I'm fine physically. I feel like I've lost some speed/endurance, but that's tough to gauge on a sheet of ice. The plan for this coming week is to jump into the training plan DopeyBadger wrote for me last year for the CRANDIC Marathon, which is at the end of April. If I can more or less knock out the last 11 weeks of that, I should be in good shape. Fortunately, I'm not trying to PR anything this time around.

The only issue? As I write this, snow is piling up outside with eight inches expected by morning. Weather is definitely going to be an issue this week (with more snow on the way Wednesday-Thursday), so hitting paces could be tough. Still, I dealt with the weather last winter when training for CRANDIC, so I should be able to do it again this year.

I'll decide next Sunday whether or not I'm signing up for CRANDIC.

Miles This Week: 13
Year To Date: 93
 

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