130 Days to Go (And so it begins again...)
Date - Day - Scheduled Workout (Intervals within desired pace, Strength +/- 5 sec, everything else +/- 10 sec)
2/1/17 - W - 7 miles @ 9:01 or slower min/mile
2/2/17 - R - 6 miles @ 9:01 or slower min/mile
2/3/17 - F - 7 miles @ 9:01 or slower min/mile
2/4/17 - Sat - 6 miles @ 9:01 or slower min/mile
2/5/17 - Sun - 10 miles @ 8:04 min/mile (10/10!!!)
2/6/17 - M - OFF
2/7/17 - T - 6 miles @ 8:04-9:01 min/mile
Total (training) mileage = 42 miles
Number of SOS intervals within pace = 10/10 (100%)
This week would mark the end to the recovery protocol. It will make it 4 official weeks from the Dopey Challenge marathon until I restart actual training. In the time between, I've taken 2 weeks completely off from running and then proceeded that with two weeks of only easy running. With the sinus infection that was diagnosed on 1/27/17, this recovery period came at a good time for me. Although, I believe either a loss of fitness or the sinus medication has increased my HR to pace from December to now by about 10 beats per minute. Did the trend continue?
Wednesday was normal. It was cold with wind chill in the single digits. But manageable. The effort and run was solid. The right ankle is still giving me grief and I've been trying to adjust my side of the street to alleviate the issue. Although the HR continued to stay comparatively high at 137 (compared to matching pace at 124 in December).
Thursday was another easy day. It was cold again with wind chill near 0F. Again the effort and run was solid. HR continued to stay high at 133 (compared to 126).
Friday was another easy day. It was cold again with wind chill near 0F. Again the effort and run was solid. HR continued to stay high at 137 (compared to 129).
Saturday was the final easy recovery day. It was cold again with wind chill near 5F. Again the effort and run was solid. HR continued to stay high at 140 (compared to 132). After the run, we took G to a Winter Festival in Madison. They had ballet dancers, s'mores, face painters, ATV snow rides, mini hockey game, and ice skating on a small rink. It was fun, except that it was freakin' freezing out. I wasn't aware that most of the activities were outside so I didn't dress appropriately. So I was a frozen popsicle. I can run in 5F, but standing outside for several hours with little movement is much tougher. Anyways G had her first ice skating experience. She had a fun time! There was also a three time olympic speed skater there. He did a brief demonstration, but because of the small rink couldn't get up to speed. He said he was going about 15mph, but maxes out in a race at 40-45mph. He won gold for USA in Salt Lake City Winter Olympics (2002). He said that the Madison Speed Skating club as had a member on the olympic team every year since the 1970s. That's nuts!
Playing the ice hockey game. She eventually picked up the puck and threw it through the hole. If at first you don't succeed, just skirt the rules of the game and figure out a way... (Wait, what???)
All bundled up in the cold! Definitely more prepared than I was.
Ice Skating with mom and great uncle Bill.
Sunday was the beginning and the end. It was the end of the recovery phase and the beginning of the base building phase. The goal the next three weeks is to prepare myself for the rigors of the Daniels 10k training plan. I'm trying to get my weekly mileage/duration/pace back up to my normal level of about 50 mile per week. Which is where I'll bounce around (high 40s to high 50s) for the next few months. With this phase comes the reintroduction of the "long run" and "Marathon Tempo run". So, on Sunday I had my 10 mile long run scheduled at my new long run pace of an 8:04 min/mile (only a hair faster than Dopey training at 8:13). Weather was reasonable in the 20s. I wore my Zealot Iso which is the first time I've been in a pair of "fast" shoes. All of the recovery had been done in the Triumph Iso or Ride 8s. I was ready to roll. It was quite obvious I was ready to roll when I hit the water drop-off in a speedy 3:41 minutes (normally I'm around 4:00). Apparently I was ready to do some damage because I came in at 8:24 for the first mile. Within pace (+30 sec on first interval)! As the run progressed everything fell in line neither too fast or too slow. 8:00, 8:00, 8:07, 8:00, 8:14, 8:06, 8:02, 8:03, 8:06. Some solid splits given my goal pace of 8:04. The run felt comfortable, but how about the HR? Where would it fall? An average of 147 with matched long runs around 138. So still running high. However, I'm pretty stoked with a 10/10 long run as it's been quite some time since the last perfect long run (and since I've been tracking it on this journal since June 2016, I've never hit a perfect long run).
Monday morning marked the end of the sinus infection medication. I was hopeful that with the removal of the medication things would start to return to normal.
Tuesday morning I woke up with a very solid 50 beats per minute resting HR. Compared to the last few days of 60, 61, 60, 56, and 53, I'm clearly trending in the right direction (fingers crossed). So Tuesday marked another easy day. The big question, what would the HR be??? Daniels defines "easy" as slightly different than Hansons. He defines it as Long Run pace and up. Where Hansons define long run pace and other paces above it. So Daniels "easy" is 8:04 (long run) to 9:01 min/mile with no defined pace between. For me personally, I will attempt to stick closer to 9:01 than 8:04 from an effort standpoint. It was a successful easy run. Little to no discomfort in hip or ankle. So the balancing of cambered roads was good. I felt very comfortable and happy. The weather was solid too with a wind chill in the mid-20s. The HR though was 135 (still higher than the comparable 129, but getting closer maybe...)
So yes, it isn't where I was anymore, but for perspective I'm still in a good place. If anything the historical HR for the marathon (152) falls closely in line with Dopey marathon results (~7:35 min/mile) based on the current HR line.
Running wise, I'm pretty happy with the week. Everything went to plan running wise. However, other life issues have crept in and thrown a wrench in things. Too bad I didn't go to auto mechanic school because then I'd know what to do with this wrench... Maybe play dodgeball....
I feel like this...
Excited to inject some M Tempo on Thursday and see what I'm capable of. And so it begins again...
We've made some changes so hopefully that will help make the trip a better experience.
Planning everything for everyone else usually falls to me so I know how hard it is. :/
and not enough
everywhere else. It's the other 10% from the last trip that will stay unsaid. Although, it's probably going to end up just being me and my mom for this trip. 
