February Recap

Today is the last day of February. I have come to really enjoy looking back at my training at the end of the month to really get a good picture of where I am in my training.  I didn't have much going on this month which explains the lack of blog posts. For the month of February I had only really planned for 62 total miles and to increase my hill training. This is how it turned out.

February Stats

Total Miles - 80
Longest Run - 8
Total Time - 13:01:36 (hrs:mins:secs)
Elevation Gain - 3,841 ft

January Stats

February Things of Note

Mrs. Speedypants got her first job as an RN. I am extremely proud of her. It was her dream to become a nurse since before I met her and she finally achieved it.

Family walks have ended, mainly because of Mrs. Speedypants' work schedule. I'll just have to think of something else to keep everyone healthy and fit.

I have consistently done runs on consecutive days. Woo-hoo!

I have successfully worked in some cross training with my 20/20/20 routine which I talk about (here)

Summary

February was a very good month of training. My mileage increased more than I planned but a lot of those extra miles were at an easy pace. My hill workouts and my speed work have not been as often as I hoped but the few I have fit in have been quality workouts. I am still injury free and overall my running is feeling good and strong. I did start feeling an increase in exhaustion and fatigue the last couple of weeks but I took a couple days off from all training early this week and have recovered nicely. Sometimes the body just needs a break I guess.

March

I do have one race planned for March. It is the Sheriff's Trail Run 10k located in San Bernardino, CA. It is a tough course that goes through the Sheriff's Department Training Center. Last year I placed 4th in my age group and feel that I have a good chance at placing in the top 3 of my age group this year.

Sheriff's 10k course

Tomorrow I will go on the, still unnamed Quest of Quests with my coworker. Is it bad luck to start a journey without a proper name? I probably haven't been planning as much as I should have for this walk but feel that it will go well. It is along a paved road, and has decent cell phone coverage. I have calculated how many calories I will need to consume along the way and have figured out how much water that I will need to carry. Now I just need to hope that the weather cooperates and I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Desert needs the rain, but I hope tomorrow is dry.

Tell me about your February.

Workout Recap Last Couple Weeks

As promised, here is the workout/run routine for the last couple of weeks. My running has been going really well and I have been able to reincorporate some spinning in the week.

This was my plan:

Mondays: Speed work
Tuesdays: Strength train / Stationary bike
Wednesday: Medium distance run
Thursday: Short distance run or Hill repeats
Friday: Strength train / Stationary bike (easy)
Saturday: Long distance run
Sunday: Short distance (easy)

This is how it went:

Week of 10th - 16th

Monday - Did an interval pyramid speed workout. It includes alternating from sprinting and than walking of equal time.
1 minute sprint / 1 minute walk
2 min / 2 min
3 min / 3 min
4 min / 4 min
5 min / 5 min
4 min / 4 min
3 min / 3 min
2 min / 2 min
1 min / 1 min

Tuesday - Did 5 total sets of 20 push ups / 20 sit ups / 20 minutes on stationary bike. In that order.

Wednesday - 6.2 miles in 57:45. Ran at a harder effort than I wanted to.

Thursday - 1.75 miles in 16:06. Was planning on 2 but was still tired from previous day, so I cut it short.

Friday - Rested

Saturday - Ran 4.25 in 45:48. My running partner for my long run wanted to do it Sunday. So I ran a real easy effort medium run.

Sunday - 7 miles in 1:11:44. I know many don't consider this a long run but I am still (really) slowly building up my mileage. One mile at a time.

Week of 17th - 21st (today)

Monday - Did 4 sets of 15 push ups / 15 sit ups / 15 minutes on stationary bike.

Tuesday - Rested

Wednesday - 6.2 miles in 59:39. Was a little slower than previous week but I felt better during the run.

Thursday - 6.75 miles in 1:03:20. I didn't want or plan on running this far. I couldn't roll out of bed to run so I ran in the afternoon during my Son's Little League practice. I didn't run with any goals or expectations, only with a steady level of effort. I really surprised myself with the consistency of pace of my miles.

Friday (today) - I plan on doing my 20/20/20 this afternoon.

Saturday - My running partner again wants to push back our run. So not sure what or if I do anything.

Sunday - 8 miles.

I have noticed that it has been harder and harder to wake up to workout. So this means that I have been pushing myself too hard and will cut back. I do realize my plan didn't include any dedicated rest days but as you can see I do take rest days if I have a lack of energy or time.

Random funny for no particular reason.

Any workout suggestions? 
Any information or data you would like me to include in these periodical recaps?

Upcoming Quest of Quests

Things have been crazy these last couple of weeks. I have been busy, busy, busy. Although I have been short on time I still have been able to do some quality running. I have gone three weeks in a row of doing a day of speed work, which is a record for me. I have also been consistently running on back to back days which is something that my fear of getting injured has prevented me from doing before. So my running has been going really well. In other fitness news is that I have been getting a couple days of stationary bike in as well. At the end of this week I'll do a recap of my weekly routines.

Get used to pics of my messy hair, I barely roll out of bed and am lucky if I have matching socks when I run.

Lots of prickly friends if you stray too far from roads or trails.

Wild Flowers are blooming. Must be spring already.

Some good news in the Speedypants household is that Mrs. Speedypants has gotten her first RN job. This would be much better news if she hadn't already declared that the extra income isn't an unlimited Run Fund for me. I was already dreaming of shoes, race entries, and new gadgets. I am still confident that I will get these things, but it just will be a little harder than I initially thought.  I just may have to employ some less than moral tactics, I have already started practicing my muscle flexing in the mirror (who doesn't?). I still have some sculpting to do on this piece of art but if I continue with some strength training for the next couple of weeks I don't think she will be able to resist me. :) I think I will go ahead and start creating wishlists at some of my favorite online sites.

Maybe She will make an exception for this shirt from Tees-O-Rama

I have plans to do a 23.5 mile walk/hike for the fun of it on March 1st. It came about when a coworker, who has been doing daily walks for health stated that he wanted to do a 40 mile walk. The rational thing of course would have been to tell him that it may be a little too ambitious and the smart thing would be to wait until he has gotten some more miles and time logged. But because I am just as crazy as he is, I told him I would do it with him. We picked a random Saturday and March 1st sounded like a good day. Than I measured out a point to point route and it measured 23.5 miles. It could have been longer but at 23.5 miles our route will end at a cemetery, and I figured that would be a fitting finish. It also would give our quest a cool name, such as Death March in March, or Walk to the Dead. OK, the name needs more work.

(source)

Any name suggestions for my Quest of Quests?

January Recap

I wanted to start doing monthly recaps so I can see where I am in my yearly goals. I want to make sure that I am on track and hopefully not over training. I do hope to run 1000 miles this year and I have to make sure I am doing it smart and safely.

January Stats

Total miles - 48
Longest run - 13 miles
Total time - 8:02:52
Elevation Gain - 4,090 ft

January Races

January 12 - Xterra Boney Mountain Trail Race 21k (recap)

My fabulous Family and I before the Boney Mountain Race

January 26 - Volunteered at Calico Trail Run 30k/50k (recap)

Entrance into Calico Ghost Town

Summary

Even though I had less miles than what I would have liked, I feel that my January went really well. I am injury free, and I also ran on consecutive days for the first time in a long time. I ran my very first half marathon in January. I also had a great time volunteering, and if everything goes well I would like the Calico 50k to be my first ultra-marathon next year. Which means I would like to have my very first marathon at the end of this year. So maybe my January went too well and now I have overly ambitious plans for the future.

Family walks - The streak ended before the two week mark. Our walks have gotten less and less frequent since. I hope to get everyone motivated again and start a new streak soon.

February

No race plans for February. I should get in 62 miles and include more hill climbs if all goes well.

How did your January go for you?