JoeG : Weekly Running Report: February 14, 2021

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well!

How's training going? Any races (IRL or virtual)?

How's the weather in your area? Affecting your training? Still getting it done or adding other cross training to make up for it? We had one small snow storm this week, cool temps most of the week, snow from 1-2 weeks ago not going anywhere! Another possible storm on the way.. :(

Reminder, if you're just skimming my blog, lol.. reminder that I also have gear and race discount tabs/pages on my blog site to check out as well. :) #BibRavePro

This was Week 10 of 20 marathon training for Gettysburg North-South Marathon for me.

My Week in Training:

Monday: 8 miles. Sunday recovery, Epsom bath, was sure to foam roll, massage gun, and hydrate very well before any Super Bowl Shenanigans. Had a few beverages, stayed up past my bed time. Day off from work Monday, plans to sleep in. Up right at my normal time. Tried for a while to go back to sleep, not happening. Coffee, workout (core, arms/shoulders/chest), and eventually out the door by 8:30. Scheduled for 6 today, 8 tomorrow, flipping it since I have more time today. Legs still feeling Sat long run and tired, going with a comfortable pace, felt decent at first, but tired, and then the hills added up. Pretty much a tired, through the motions kinda day. Definitely not a fan of my hills today. Would of gone to my flatish trail since I'm off today, but too much snow on the ground.

Tuesday: 6 miles. Monday recovery, hydrated very well, foam roll, massage gun. In bed on time, up several times, but still a much better night's rest than the day before. lol.. Up before my alarm, decent workout in and out the door by 6. Legs were pretty tired yesterday, but slightly better today. Pace much more comfortable. Sub 8 for about 4, fading through my hills. Maintaining rest of the way. Watch sync issues after my run, grrr. At least I figured out how to take a screen shot of my watch, Still mad that my hills wont be counted towards the strava monthly hill challenge. lol..

Wednesday: 3.11 miles. Tuesday recovery, hydrated well, foam roll, and stretch. Decent night's rest, but up a few times with funky dreams. Up before my alarm, but comfy, resisted until the alarm went off. Coffee, workout, and out the door around 6:15. usually do 5k on what should be "non-running" day on Wed/Sun. I have been invited to do a virtual 5k this week. Please be sure to check out the cause and donate if possible. Run4Beigel.

Legs not fresh, but when are they on these days. lol.. Hoping for a respectable outing. Temps around 20. A little ice melt yesterday for possible black ice in the morning. (for the foreseeable future.) Mostly around intersections, etc, but middle of the street is mostly ok. Assuming there's no traffic. lol.. My 5k route is also closed due to snow/ice. (sidewalk only/busy road) Keeping today's route to the first four (short) streets in my hood. First couple streets are flat! Off to a good start. breathing took a few minutes to adjust with the cold air and increased speed. Hill connecting the streets, felt it! Next couple streets have inclines on their returns. Pace fading. My last street, got stuck behind the trash truck! Wasn't going to pause or slowly go around. Instead, kept going up to it and back, several times. .1-.2 and slowly going further. Only had .5 to go. Done! Pace was close to my goal. Don't think I could do much better without rest and/or flattening out my route even more.

Thursday: 7 miles. Wed recovery, hydrated well, foam roll, and in bed on time. Decent rest. Up at least once, and then slept till the alarm, a rarity! On my way to grab coffee, looks out window, yup, more snow! Forecast was 2-4 inches. Coffee, short workout. Had my gear ready, but got ready early just in case had to gather a few more things. Out the door a few min early, also in case my run goes over my est time. Few inches of snow on my stoop/driveway/sidewalk. but... road looking good! Heard the plow go by at least once in the past hour, they must have gone by more than that! Pretty clear with some slush! Temp below freezing, they must of used a decent amount of salt/brine. I'll take it! Still going with my yak trax. First couple streets weren't that bad. But then I started to hit the secondary streets, not as clear. Every other street was either clear/wet/ some slush or wet/slush. Pace started out better than expected, but as the inclines and effort from snow added up, started to fade. Pace was right on target for 7mph. I'll take it! Expected much worse when I head out the door! Round of shoveling done, only 5 min late to work. Not too shabby!

Friday: 5 miles. TGIF, am I right? lol.. Thu recovery, hydrated well, foam roll, and decent rest. Did have a couple beverages, but well behaved. Slept until the alarm again. Maybe a little tired. Coffee, got going with my workout, and out the door a few min after 6. Brisk! 20 degrees. Not seeing much black ice when I was starting out, this could be good sign. Took a few min o warm up, but able to bring my pace down. Pacing 7:40. Have been seeing plenty black ice in spots and at my end of street turnarounds, few streets in, still not seeing much today! A hill early, a couple inclines, but my worst set of hills is around mi 3-4. Still enjoying my pace before I got there. Trying to keep focus, maintain breathing, etc. Faded slightly but still sub 8 (7:50) post hills. A little rough through the hills and after to maintain, but was fun!

Saturday: 12 miles. Fri recovery, hydrated well, foam roll (didn't feel like it, but could tell I may need it), decent rest. Up slightly late for a Fri night (10pm), and slept until my alarm. Still too much snow to do a trail run. Temps just aren't going up for it to melt anytime soon. And when it does, it refreezes overnight for an ice morning. And there may be more snow on the way early next week, blah! Really hope not, scheduled for 18 miler next week! But I digress... Coffee, 30 min core workout, and out the door by 7. Basically doing my 8 mi route x2. Plan similar to last week. Patient and comfortable through round 1 to survive a second dose of hills in round 2. Started out slightly fast and pulled back. Feeling pretty comfortable at 8:15-8:20 (although planned on doing closer to 8:30ish). Maintained through round 1 and faded slightly in round 2. Round 2 skipping a few streets (doing 4 mi of 8 mi route), went straight for the hills that are on the opposite end to make sure I got them in for the second round. Got 2 hills in 4x, 2 hills in 2x, plus 1 big one in mi 8 turnaround. Started the year trying to do a few extra hills, the snow forcing me to do them! lol.. My trail run is mostly flat unless I choose to add hills off the main route. Don't have that option here. My neighborhood route already has a portion closed due to snow. (sidewalk only on busy rd). Took a quick peak at that sidewalk, way too much ice! Keeping it street only is much safer! Overall happy with today's run. Better than expected. Just bored with neighborhood, miss my trail.

Sunday: 5 miles. Saturday recovery, Epsom bath (very relaxing and defrosting!), hydrated, foam roll. Plenty of chores, but made time to relax after. Did have a couple beverages with dinner/after, but hydrated along. up past my bed time, the one night a week I don't force myself to adhere to it. Slept in 'till 7! Coffee, 30 min core workout, taking my time getting ready, out the door after 9. "Rest" day, usually do 1-3.11 mi, I guess since i felt decent and having off work tomorrow I cant take my time getting tomorrow done, added a little more. Temped to do more, but knowing towards the end of next week will be rough, tried not to over dot it. Hopefully it doesn't make Mon/Tues any more rough than it will be. Out the door after 9. Freezing rain last night, coating of ice on the stoop, driveway, and sidewalk. Slowly ice skated down. Rethinking my intentions.. But roads were very well treated! Started out a bit slow, but got into my groove. 8:10-15ish. Maintained through the hills and added a rough one at the end. Roads were fine throughout except at maybe 1-2 turnarounds and at the bottom of a hill. Cautious and paying attention, no issues. Will be sure to focus on recovery to be somewhat ready to take on the week! Also.. possible snow storm Mon/Tues, praying for higher temps to wash it away!

Outside of Running:

What did I do besides run, workout, work, and chores this week? What shows/movies did I watch this week? The Office, South Park, Family Guy, Vanishing at the Cecil, WandsVision, maybe some other Marvel movies, and a little bit of basketball. One outing to The Metropolitan.

Q: How about you? Anything exciting outside of running? Any adventures? Or binge watching anything?

Weekly Summary:

Miles: 46.3 miles running completed

Year to date: 306.9 miles running

Strength Training: Goal 180 minutes, 298 minutes completed. What type of strength training do I do? Core: crunches, planks, leg raises. Weights: biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest.

Hydration Goal: 7 days

Foam Roll: 7 days

Training Plan: Week 10 of 20 using the below training plan. Plan titled "Advanced", please note, I in no way consider myself advanced. I have used the intermediate plan for four seasons, and want to try the next level. We shall see if I survive! lol..