March Madness

And no I am not talking about basket ball!

The month started off strong with a great race at Youngstown but a week later at Malachi the start of a sinus infection brought me way down. I struggled to train (stubbornly) through it for a week before finally caving, going to ER, and getting some antibiotics. The runny nose and clogged sinuses were really nothing to the energy drain everything caused. I felt like a complete zombie at home, at work, and on the run for two weeks straight.

Two weeks later I am starting to come around (Thankfully!) but I am disappointed that what looked to be a promising month really was more of a struggle leaving me feeling lackluster about my build up to Boston since I am now moving onto my taper. I had really hoped to have 12 consistent weeks leading up to Boston and my mileage took a bit of a nosedive the past two weeks. Not awful, but just not where I wanted it to be.

Obviously I needed to back it down to get better, and should have backed it off sooner. Between the sinus infection and being stubborn I was definitely showing signs of over training, hopefully I have learned my lesson.

I had a semi promising 21 miler Saturday and a nice 3 mile tempo run yesterday that have me feeling a bit better about my fitness level. Hopefully this Saturday will go well at the Martian Meteor 10k. I would like to run a minute faster than last year to give my confidence about my fitness a bit of a boost before Boston.

Month Training Rundown:

March 2nd through the 8th- 69 miles

Monday- 6 miles AM, 4 miles PM
Tuesday-Indoor Track workout at Kent. Pace not consistent, lots of traffic on the track. 11 miles with 5*1200
Wednesday- Rest
Thursday- 15 miles
Friday-10 miles
Saturday-6 miles with 6*25 seconds strides
Sunday- 17 miles, 13.1 Raced at Youngstown, PR 1:32:31

March 9th through March 15th- 68 miles

Monday- Rest
Tuesday- Track 9 miles with 5*600 2:17, 2:16, 2:18, 2:17, 2:17
Wednesday- AM 12 miles, Lunch 3.5 miles ez
Thursday-7 miles
Friday-6 miles with 6*25 second strides
Saturday- 10 miles, 5 mile race at Malachi, PR 33:13
Sunday-20 miles easy (Really sick, nose running like crazy) 8:37 pace

March 16th through 22nd- 58 miles

Monday-Rest

Tuesday-Stubbornly went to track, runny nose trouble breathing, but workout actually went well, 8 miles total
warm up, 4*100 strides, 3*800, 3*400, 6*100 strides, 1 mile tempo, cool down
800s-2:58, 3:00, 3:04
400s-1:27, 1:26,1:31
mile- 6:57

Wednesday-14 miles, not feeling stellar

Thursday-5 miles trails easy, dead on the hills

Friday-Attempted tempo, felt off, tired, and stomach was queasy
12 miles, 4 at tempo effort, 1 mile easy then 1 more mile at tempo effort (supposed to run 7 miles at tempo), pace was not even close to where I wanted it to be

Saturday-6 miles trails easy, really dead on the hills

Sunday-13 miles 7:54 pace (supposed to run 21), felt pretty zombified and cut the run short to head to the doc and get on antibiotics

March 23rd through the 29th-59 miles

Monday-Rest
Tuesday- 8 mles with Fartlek, 4* 1 minute, 1 minute, 2 minute with half rests, ran with LP, pace felt fine, calfs cramped up pretty badly after second set though so I backed off the effort.
Wednesday-2.5 miles easy, pretty much an extra rest day for the week
Thursday-15 miles after work with GP, starting to feel better, 8:46 pace
Friday-8 miles lunch, still feeling pretty dead on the hills
Saturday-21 miles solo in Chagrin Falls, lots of hills. 8:19 pace, exactly the same pace as when I ran 22 miles on this route last fall. Still feeling dead on the hills but starting to come around

Sunday- Indoor Triathlon, 20 minute swim, 20 minute spin, 20 minute run

Just tried to have a consistent swim (successful) swimming 12 laps every 5 minutes with a small push for an extra lap at the end to get 49 (Oddly this is exactly the same number of laps I swam the first time I did an indoor tri in 2005, and about 1 lap more than what I did in December 2005, the pace was slightly slower than what I did in my last official tri way back in August 2006 (Steelhead HIM), so I guess I can't totally wing it with no training and expect to be where I left off, but I was pretty darn close!)

Tried not to kill myself on the bike (successful) although the "climbs" were definitely felt by my quads

Aimed to treat the run like a tempo, aimed for 25 laps which would have been 5k, came up just short at 24.25, just got a little complacent on the last two miles, very happy with the effort though, the pace felt good and I felt like I could have kept it up for at least another 3 miles. Odd how my only good tempo this build up to Boston came the day after a hilly 21 miler and during an indoor tri following a swim and bike neither of which I have done in forever. I'll still take it though!

Followed up the tri with a short cool down run and some light stretching.

Three weeks to Boston, and while I am not feeling nearly as prepared as I would like to be, I feel much better about this years prep than last years for Boston and I am hoping for a good day there. After tomorrow I should end up with around 285 miles for the month which will be my biggest month ever. Happy about that, just wish I would have felt a little better and gotten in a few better tempo runs.