Category: Daily Training

The Erie Marathon (was 09/13) is now cancelled. That was my qualifying time race. It’s run in Presque Isle State Park, which is pancake flat. You can put your head down and just go. Focus on a good, steady pace.

At this point I have no clue at all how the Boston Marathon is going to handle qualifying for the April, 2021 race. There’s nothing on the baa.org website (that I saw, although it might be there right in front of my nose). The best that I can find is on the faq page https://www.baa.org/races/postponementfaqs. If the Newport Marathon in October will be run, that might work but it’s a bit of a rolling hills route.

With all this uncertainty, I’ve been going back and forth with what to do: keep training, take a break, scale back, etc. I decided last night to keep going, and if anything push it up a few notches. Better to be ready. Focus on training and let everything else settle.

First day back was a 6.2 mile run on a rather flat route. Didn’t feel too bad and not really pushing at all.

Weight: target: 151.0, actual: 151.2. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:30.

Took yesterday off to give my sore leg a break. I think it’s simple inflammation. Ibuprofen, tight wraps and ice help greatly. I have a few exercise ideas to work on as well.

I was planning on a rather flat 10.26 mile run today, but since I took yesterday off I decided to switch to a 10.6 mile rolling hills route. It was a good workout. I look forward to getting long runs back up into the high teens and 20’s though. There’s no substitute for distance, especially the mental training to be patient and to deal with the grind.

Weight: target: 148.14, actual: 151.6. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:27. Weight is being stubborn. Fine — so am I.

Warmer and humid during today’s 6.2 mile run on a pretty flat route. It was about 55 degrees and it had rained a few hours earlier. Getting back into running every day feels as you’d expect: ugh, I’m tired already! Doesn’t matter. It’s what we do.

Weight: target: 148.43, actual: 149.6. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:32.

Good run this morning. A rolling hills 8.06 mile route. Sunny, cool (somewhere in the 30’s) and no real wind.

Running hills is so critical. I don’t see it mentioned enough in books and articles. There’s a paved trail at Blue Hills that’s over 400 feet of vertical in about 0.86 miles. That’s the kind of work you need in your training plan if you plan to run the Mad Marathon in VT.

Weight: target: 148.57, actual: 149.0. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:47.

Switched yesterday from running to yard work. Five hours of yard work. I could hardly lift my arms at the end.

I cut today’s run to one loop of my hills route around my house. Each loop is a bit over three miles and has about 263 feet of climb. Good run, but I was really feeling yesterday’s work. Training for a marathon is a marathon so it’s foolish to try to get it all back in a few days. Use time to get training without injury.

Weight target: 148..86, actual: 150.2. Pace target: 9:50, actual: 9:45.

Nice early morning run. Mostly sunny and around 45 degrees. A bit windy, but that just adds to the work (which is good).

Distance running is a good time to think. Plan, get new ideas, etc. Work out what all I want to get done today. And, it’s quite a bit.

Weight: target: 149.14, actual: 150.0. Running: target: 6.2 at 9:50, actual: 6.2 at 9:26.

First day back. Not too bad at all. A somewhat cold morning run: 38 degrees, 18 MPH winds, 26 degree wind chill and light snow flurries. This will probably be the last opportunity to get out in the snow for a while, so I’m glad I didn’t miss it.

Weight: target: 149.3, actual: 149.4

Decided to give my leg a two-week rest. Time to get back to training. The plan is updated and I’m all set. It’s been hard to ignore my running shoes whispering in my ear.

It looks like the earliest race that’s not been cancelled is the Triple Trouble (www.yukanrun.com), which is a 1-mile, 5K and a half marathon, in August. No updates on the Erie Marathon in September. No idea if I can get there or where to stay if it’ll be held. The Newport Marathon in October also has no updates beyond closing registration due to the uncertainty.

We’ll just play it by ear. Better to be ready.

Today is an off day. Rather then be strictly “off,” I was thinking about taking the racing bike out for a not-too-intense ride. Well, when I got up at 4:15AM it was 25 degrees. That’s just too cold. It’d probably be a real-feel (“wind chill”) of around 15 degrees.

I still think adding a bike cross-training day in once and a while is a good idea, but not until it gets a bit warmer.

Today was a speed day. Run the following with a 400m jog in between each: 400, 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800 and 400. I felt tired before the 2 mile warm-up and definitely spent after these. It was about 30 degrees and around 18 with the wind chill.

It was fun figuring out a route to run these! Fortunately, I have a nice, rather flat and wide road not too far away with plenty of side streets to use as start/end points.

Target pace: 7:50, average was 8:19. Weight target was 149.86, actual was 152.8. I think the weight issue is due to a lack of getting around (pretty much) during the day since we’re all stuck at home. I plan to try to do some stretching and things like that each hour to nudge the metabolism up.