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.

7 comments:

duchossois said...

Have a good Martian, stay healthy, and you'll be fine in Boston. I predict a new PR.

Brian said...

285? dang. i haven't run that much in a full year

solarsquirrel said...

You'll be awesome at Boston! Just listen to your body and don't go crazy these last few weeks.

Thomas said...

The extra rest you got may yet end up in you having a very good Boston. All will be revealed, I guess.

Last year I stubbornly ran through a cold, and eventually ended up in hospital with pneumonia. That was a very painful lesson that I'm unlikely to forget ever again. Be careful.

Brian said...

Your numbers look great! I can't imagine running that much on a consistent basis nowadays! Take it easy these last few weeks.

IHateToast said...

i hope you'll get better. just because you're a zombie now, doesn't mean you are one forever. that's only in the movies. same with the brain thing. some don't even eat brains. that's a myth. they love skittles.

Black Knight said...

How can you run while getting antibiotics? You are a very strong runner.