Winter Training 2018
I've decided to put a quick weekly updates here about how training went for the prior week. Did I follow it? How do I feel about things?
Week 1 Summary
I’ve decided to put a quick weekly update here about how training went for the prior week. Did I follow it? How do I feel about things. What did I listen to (if I listened to inspiring things etc).
First, the summary. I was supposed to hit 22 miles for the week and managed 17.5. One day was really cold and I did start my run only to come inside and switch to cycling indoors. I just wasn’t feeling it and figured I’d make it up later.
This week was rather easy because it was break week. There was no juggling of schedules, no pressure from daylight - just loads of time. Ironically fitness wasn’t a huge focus either. Sometimes I think that my family could live on a boat or in a small cottage together. This was our first year in a decade that we didn’t ski for the entire break - not even once. We spent almost the entire week in our house together. We played every game under the sun; Risk, Monopoly, Scrabble, Uno, Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, and Clue. In fact all the family activities were what made it hard to kick myself out the door to work out.
Long run podcast
My best run this week was my 8 miler on Saturday. I did a favorite out and back and popped in a Tim Ferriss podcast. It is titled, Terry Crews - How to have, do and be all that you want. It was exactly what I needed to listen to that day. It was so interesting that I came home and before I could even change my clothes I rewound it back to let the kids listen to an especially inspiring part. Later that night we were making polenta (think stirring for 50 minutes) so Scott popped his headphones in, volunteered to tend to the stirring and started the podcast. I highly recommend it for a long run or a car ride. I prefer the run because it is the type of podcast that will help your run just feel especially wonderful.
Things to ponder
There are a couple of things I’m considering at the end of this week. The first is a nutrition log partly for fun and partly to keep me focused on nutrition for winter. We had our annual homemade cheesecake for New Year’s Eve, too many Christmas cookies over the break etc. I know things will settle back into normal, but right now my nutrition feels like it has gone awry. I may give myself a week to consider this though as logging has never been a strong suit/high priority interest item for me.
Oh and the biggest reason for doing the summary this way? It is because I’m using ForScore to edit my plan and I think it is super cool. It is the same thing I’m using to make my iPad work nicely with a SmartBoard in school and it is super fun. It is A LOT more fun than just marking up a training plan in pencil!!
Week 2 Summary
This week we had a polar plunge in Central New York State and in the entire East coast pretty much. It was so cold that Scott thought ahead about how we could hit our weekly running and called our local key access fitness place to inquire about rates. At $30 per month for each of us we decided to sign up. We can cancel anytime and if we go just a few times it is better than paying the day rate at our old gym in Ithaca. I was grateful that he did this as I would certainly have subbed out my running workouts for the bike this week if we didn’t have the gym.
The week was pretty much as written with some shuffling. We had our 2nd week of MITHACAL Milers and that was a lot of fun but it made my day after “easy run” feel more challenging. Scott and I added a new Les Mills core workout on Sunday called CX Works. FLX Fit Club, our group fitness gym is starting to offer this so we thought, “let’s check it out” and now we wonder why we never tried it before. With its half hour format it was a really challenging but quick class. We need better resistance bands if we plan to do it with any regularity, but we’ll hold off for a bit on that.
In looking ahead at next week, I know things are going to be a little bit off. We had to cancel this weekend’s ski trip due to cold, but next weekend is a 3 day travel weekend. I know I have to bolt from school Friday to grab 6 miles before heading to Jay Peak. My plan is to fit in a 6 mile run on Saturday but I think it is unlikely based on the forecast (5 inches of snow and 17 degrees). Still, I will toss my yak traks in and hope for the best.
I’m pleased with how the first two weeks have gone. I hit my mileage and then some this week, and I hope I can come close this coming week!!
Week 3 Summary
In this third training week I started to feel like myself again. It is less challenging and feels more “normal” to just kick myself out the door to run. I’m glad I took the month off from running because it reminded me how it feels when you just start. I also got to enjoy an entire month with nice loose calves!!
Weekly highlights
This week we had our 2nd ski trip cancelled (well thankfully we are able to postpone this one) due to weather. We had an ice-storm/snow storm forecasted to come through on Friday night followed by sub zero temperatures. New York would get it, but in Vermont they were calling for widespread power outages. We all decided we’d rather be out the money than be trapped in Vermont in a hotel with no power for the weekend and/or skiing for the first time of the season with a forecasted high of -2. Luckily Jay Peak was willing to change the reservation dates for us, so we spent the entire weekend home.
What that meant for training was time to go to BodyPump on Friday, time for rpm on Saturday and a 6 mile run on Sunday. I should/could have done a long run but the way timing worked on Sunday I didn’t have an opportunity to get more than 6. I decided I could go back out and get another 4 later on, or just accept that I’d be one mile shy of my goal for the week and have no long run. I opted for the latter.
Racing and such
On Saturday Scott realized we’d be in town for an indoor mile racing opportunity. “Wanna do it?” He asked me. “Not especially.” I replied. “Why?” Well, I had a ton of baking to do for my business and I was spending my other free time working for my teaching job. I had a brainstorm for another use for my iPad in the classroom and was spending what even I recognize as an obscene amount of weekend time working on it. “No I don’t want to.” I said again. “I want to use the time that I am not working to get a longish run in and to play Risk with the kids.” He was ok with that, deciding to brave the race alone. It was better this way anyway because we wouldn’t have run anywhere near each other in the day, so it would have been a longer time commitment. He had a really interesting first mile race that made me super SCARED for the Hartshorne Mile next weekend. Check out his race report.
When he came home and reminded me that a mile is EIGHT times around the track I remembered just how HARD that mile time trial was. I also looked at my plan and realized that by running this I have no time to get a long run in AGAIN this weekend. So, by force this coming week is a fall back week in mileage. I’m also super worried for the race because I’ll be going in with very tired legs based on the week’s training plan. So, my focus for this coming week is to relax and try not to stress about Saturday!
Week 4 Summary
This week was a light week for running and really for exercise of any kind. It is challenging with daylight, cold and rain and just the crazy schedule I’ve been keeping. I felt happy that I could hit 17 miles for the week and manage to do some other things besides running as well.
One of the things that I knew when I wrote this plan up was that it would be a struggle to make every workout. A friend noted that there weren’t any real rest days allocated. I assured her that they would happen by necessity.
We took our first ski trip this week - a simple one day trip to Whiteface. The drive to ski ratio was all out of whack - 10 hours of driving over 2 days for 5 hours of skiing one day. While I really enjoyed the skiing, I probably wouldn’t make that choice again. We managed 20 miles of downhill and our quads were exhausted. I do so wish we lived just a bit closer to a large mountain. Our kids have raced for the past 9 years and this is their first year not ski racing. As such, it is our first year without season passes to a local mountain and our plan is to do a few bigger trips. I never used to understand why people without passes wouldn’t take at least one or two trips to a local mountain. Now I do - I’d rather just not ski than pay $74 a day for a small mountain. It is the same cost (or more) than going to a big mountain like Whiteface or Gore and just managing the drive part. Anyway, after all this ramble - my point is that while I was skiing all day and driving I wasn’t running this weekend!
I also participated in my first one mile race last week. It was an awesome experience that I’ll be writing about this week. It did contribute to my lower than usual mileage last week.
All in all this was a good week of activity, just a little light on the running miles.
… Training & Repeats
My grand winter training plan hasn’t gone as smoothly as I would like to have had it be. I knew it would happen. We had some trips planned, the winter was cold and rainy and just rather miserable a lot of the time and I was really busy with my job as a long term substitute math teacher and my job as a baker. Some days this winter I felt like I barely had time to sleep, no less work out!!
I stopped actually looking at my plan for awhile and that meant that I stopped marking things in regularly (to note changes or even know what I actually planned to do!). I owe a HUGE thank you to Strava for making it SO easy for me to look back and transfer my actual workouts to my chart!!
Training plan comments
I have been feeling really bad about not hitting my goals lately, but when I went to transfer things over, it was really only a couple of weeks that were way off base. I recently had a really great long run so that made me feel ok. All in all, everything is a balancing act and the training was the ball that fell this time.
I had a good solid long run on Saturday that reminded me that I am still capable of a happy, fun long run!
And then there are the repeats
Scott asked me to go with him to Barton Hall to do repeats this morning. I reluctantly agreed. We’ve barely had a chance to see each other lately and he wanted to have my company. I had my “I’m going to endure this” mentality for the way there, so I know he was thinking, “why did I ask her to come?” as we headed into Barton. Once there though, I quickly embraced the opportunity. After all, I had the experience from MITHACAL milers so I knew the drill. I talked with a woman who was standing there in a sweatshirt, dismayed. She had forgotten her shirt. I told her to run in her sports bra, “no one will care,” I said. She decided to give it a go and we smiled at each other each time we rounded the track in opposite directions we were working out.
I ran a 1 one mile warm-up and then began the intervals. Scott was doing 5x1000 per the plan that he’s following from the book, Run Less, Run Faster. I thought I’d do a 1000, then an 800, then 600, etc. However, after I ran the first 1000 at I pace, I remembered how much I enjoyed doing 1000s with my MITHACAL miles friends. I would try for 3 or 4 of them so I could finish with Scott.
I ran each 1000 at Interval (I) pace which for me is 55 seconds. I was typically between 52-55 for this, so I was pretty happy. I also learned that I am actually able to see the screen when I use the lap setting on my stopwatch (I thought it was too small so I hadn’t used it during training this winter). I ended up opting to do 3 sets of 1000 vs the 5 that Scott did so that we could end around the same time. I could have done 4 .. but I would have lost cool down time that while not actually necessary felt luscious and desirable!
Confidence restored
It was a good exercise to go up there, do some interval work and realize that falling off track for a couple of weeks of training isn’t the end of the world. I cut myself some slack, realizing that there are many bigger problems in the world and I let myself be grateful that I can run. I am grateful for whatever I have time for, all the positive choices I make and for the time to connect with my husband!