Training for my spring races is heading in the right direction. The first week was a little rough, but last week was an improvement.
This week will, hopefully, continue that trend.
Although it’s shaping up to be the kind of week where I’m more focused on mileage than on quality work. But if I can get that mileage in, recover well, and feel good at the end … I’ll take that as a win.
We’re down in West Palm Beach visiting family for the beginning of the week, and that means several days of running in the heat and humidity. The first day was rough, and the next day was better. So hopefully the rest of the week won’t be so bad.
The weather looks the best on Monday, so I’m shifting my long run from Sunday to Monday to take advantage of that.
And then, the first day we get home, we’re due to get a lot of snow. The forecast is going back and forth between a couple inches and double digits on Thursday morning. Unless the storm totally fizzles out, I’ll likely be inside on the Peloton again.
Ah well. Such is life. Gotta bend the marathon training to life’s curveballs.
The Plan for the Week
The primary goal for this week is to hit my mileage goal – 75 miles – for the second time in a row. Due to the weather, my long run will just be at an easy effort. And due to the snow, my workout later in the week will likely be on the Peloton.
Here’s how things broke down:
- Sunday: 10 miles easy
- Monday: 16 miles easy
- Tuesday: 10 miles easy
- Wednesday: 10 miles easy
- Thursday: 5.5 miles AM treadmill, 5 miles PM treadmill
- Friday: 5 miles AM treadmill, 8 mile I workout PM
- Saturday: 6 miles easy
And here’s how things went.
Sunday: Ten Miles to the Beach and Back
This is our third day in Florida, and I’m getting back in the routine. Woke up at 6:30, had my coffee, and hit the road by 7:15.
The dew point was in the mid to high 60’s – so humid but not terrible. When I left the house, it was kind of cloudy and there was a decent breeze. All told, the weather wasn’t half bad.
My ten mile easy route takes me through downtown West Palm Beach, across the bridge to Palm Beach Island, across the island to the beach, and then back again across a different bridge. It’s a nice loop.
The first mile was a little slow, but by the time I was 2-3 miles in I felt pretty good. My legs felt fine, my breathing was easy, and the heat wasn’t taking its toll (yet). The wind came and went, and it felt nice.
At mile four, I took a left across the Royal Park Bridge and meandered across the island to the beach. There was plenty of shade along the way. But as soon as I emerged along the beach, the sun came out blazing. Eugh.
Luckily, it didn’t last too long, and the clouds came back to save me. Six miles in, and I was feeling much better than yesterday. At mile 7, when I got to the Flagler Memorial Bridge, the bridge was up. It’s usually not up long, but I must have gotten there just as it went up, because I stood around for a good five minutes waiting to continue.
Since I had some time to kill, I stopped and did a few leg swings. While doing that, I realized that my right hamstring is still quite tight – something that I noticed a couple weeks ago. I’m going to have to pay attention to that over the next few weeks and try to work it out.
On the plus side, this gave my heart rate a chance to go back down and for me to rest before I finished up the run. I don’t know if it was that or if it’s that I’m getting more acclimated to the weather, but the last three miles felt much better than the last two days.
Got back home, drank some icewater, and took a shower. Then collapsed in bed for a nice nap before starting the day. Ah, the benefits of vacation.
Monday: An Easy Long Run
Monday morning, the weather was (relatively) nice. It was cloudy, windy, and the temperature was in the high 60’s. It was about as good as I was going to get.
We had been out late the night before, so I got up a little later than usual. I finally hit the road a little after 8AM. But given the fact that the temperature wasn’t going to rise much, I wasn’t too worried about it.
I eased into a slow jog, and the two or three miles were rough while I warmed up. But once I loosened up, I felt fine. At the five mile mark, I got to the other side of Palm Beach Island, and I had to stop the use the bathroom.
The bathroom by the beach was open, but the lights were on a motion sensor. They turned off while I was in there … but Garmin fenix LED flashlight to the rescue! Remember this little detail.
I continued on towards home, but when I got to the Flagler Memorial Bridge, I turned right to go up the Lake Trail. I had been going back and forth about my distance goal, and at this point I settled in on 16 miles. I went up the Lake Trail three miles, and at the ten mile mark I was ready to turn around for home.
At this point, I was feeling pretty good. My pace was a little slow, given the weather, but I was down to ~8:30-8:45. After I turned around, I pushed the pace down a bit, and I hit 8:15 and 8:05 for the next two miles.
Then, as I ran across the bridge, I glanced down at my watch … and noticed that it was blank. Huh?
It eventually dawned on me that my watch died mid-run. It had plenty of charge when I left, so the only thing I can think is that I left the LED flashlight on when I left the bathroom. Not cool.
I had still been pushing the pace a bit, and I planned on taking it home around 8:00-8:15/mi. But after my watch dying, I lost some mental motivation, and I eventually slowed down to an easier jog. The last couple miles were probably closer to 9:00/mi, and I estimate that I hit the full 16 miles when I got home.
Tuesday: Ten Miles, Getting Easier
I felt pretty good after the previous day’s long run, and I went about life. But when I woke up Tuesday morning and left for my run, my legs were tight.
The weather was a little warmer than the previous day – back to the 70’s and partly sunny. But nowhere near as bad as the first day.
The first mile was dreadfully slow – 10:39. The next one was better, but still slow – 9:42.
At that point, I finally settled in, though. The heat was having less impact on me, and I felt pretty comfortable at the five mile mark.
I enjoyed the view of the beach as I turned for home, and the next couple miles were ~8:50/mi. I picked up the pace for the last three miles after I got over the bridge, and I finished in 8:24, 8:13, and 8:11.
Not super fast by any means. But For Florida weather … that’s a pretty decent finish.
Wednesday: Ten Miles, Even Easier
I woke up Wednesday morning, stepped outside, and breathed a sigh of relief knowing this was my last run in Florida. I just needed to survive one more warm day, and then I’d be back in the colder climes of New Jersey.
The weather was similar to the previous day – 70’s and partly cloudy. But trending towards sunny. I set off at a slow jog, a little better than the previous day but still slow to warm up.
By mile three, my pace was under 9:00/mi. I got stuck at a traffic light heading across the bridge the first time, and my overall time was a little slow when I got out to the beach at the five mile mark. But I felt great.
I looped towards home and stopped by the park for a swig of water from the water fountain. Then, as I crossed the bridge, I pushed the pace in the final three miles like yesterday – 8:09, 8:09, 8:17.
Again, nothing crazy. But a nice little tempo in the heat. A good progression for an aerobic run – especially given the fact that I felt pretty good when I finished.
Thursday: Back Home In the Cold
Initially, I planned on doing a treadmill workout Thursday morning. It was frigid outside – less than 20F – and I wasn’t ready for that kind of cold.
But I also overslept a little bit. So I decided to push the workout to Friday and do a shorter treadmill run Thursday morning.
I got in the groove pretty quickly and knocked out ~5.5 miles. My heart rate was in the 130’s consistently. Nice, easy jog.
In the evening, I got back on the treadmill for an easy double. This time, I fired up Netflix and turned on Umbrella Academy. I didn’t realize I was on the final episode – but the timing worked out well that the episode ended just when I was finishing up.
Nice, easy day. Mission accomplished.
Friday: An Afternoon Workout
I had an early morning Friday, and it was still pretty cold out. I was also going to a conference for work in the evening, so I could carve out a little time in the afternoon for a run. By then, it’d be warm(er), so I decided to do a short treadmill run in the morning and a decent workout in the afternoon.
The morning miles were uneventful. Watched a couple episodes of Bad Batch and started the third (final?) season.
Around 3:00, I set out for my afternoon workout. The weather seemed fine – ~30F and sunny. How bad could it be?
I had neglected to look at the wind, though. It was windy. I got the Reservoir, and the wind chill was so biting I thought about turning around and doing the workout on the Peloton after all. But I really wanted to run outside.
After a loop to warm up, I broke into 7 x 3 minute intervals at I pace. The first one went ok. But instead of speeding up as I warmed up, I was a little slower through most of the other reps.
I counted off the reps, hitting around 6:20-6:30/mi for the pace. But with the heavy wind – which always seemed to be in my fact – I wasn’t expecting to hit my real target (~6:00/mi) anyway.
I pushed it a little bit in the final rep and got the pace back down to 6:15/mi for that rep. So minor victories.
Hopefully next week will have better conditions for a workout.
Saturday: Some Boring, Easy Miles
Friday night into Saturday I was at a work conference in Parsippany. That meant waking up early in a hotel, and jogging through a quiet, boring office park before turning into a residential neighborhood.
I drank my coffee, and then I hit the road. It was chilly out – in the 20’s – but yesterday’s wind had receded. So it wasn’t to bad out.
I turned out of the parking lot, and then turned up the long road through the office park. Passed by a few nondescript buildings, and eventually got to a busy road that wound through a residential neighborhood.
My legs were waking up at this point, and I kept going until the 2.75 mile mark – my turn around. After a week of ten mile singles, this seemed so short!
On the way back, I picked up the pace just a bit. Felt good. Got back to the hotel, showered, and went downstairs for breakfast.
Reflections and Looking Ahead
With the weather in Florida, I knew this week was going to be challenging. I wasn’t going to be able to get in a good workout down there, and just getting in a decent long run would be hard.
The fact that I managed to hit my mileage goal – 75 miles – is a big win. I couldn’t do any doubles while I was in Florida, so that meant a bunch of 10 mile singles.
It was also a confidence builder to put in double digits so many days in a row and feel good about it. After capping most of my runs at 6 miles through the winter, I’m getting my marathon legs back. And just in time.
The workout was disappointing, but given the wind I didn’t expect anything from it. I’m sure I was also beat down a bit by the travel, and I need a few days to sleep it off and fully recover. I’m really hoping that next week I get a better chance at a workout, because I need a confidence builder when it comes to running at pace.
From here, I’ve got three weeks left until the NYC Half. I’ll hopefully be able to get in a couple good long runs and a couple good workouts before then. From here on out, the weather looks good – the worst of winter is over – and I don’t have any scheduling issues that are going to jam up runs.
Hopefully, it’s smooth sailing.