April Showers bring May Flowers

April in review!

Total mileage for the month:  219 -- in comparison, my 2017 thus far has been:  January - 261, February - 212, and March - 203

• April 3-9:  48.8 -- this was The Tired Week (the Wash U 10,000 m and subsequent family weekend in St. Louis exhausted me, and then I rolled into another weekend with travel and the Rock the Parkway half)
• April 10-16:  51.2 -- this was The Lonely Week (my weekday runs were all solo, a rarity)
• April 17-23:  54.5 -- this was the Sickly Week (bronchitis, ugh)
• April 24-30: 52.3 -- this was the Recovering/Continuing Antibiotics Week ("ain't nobody got time for that!" re: bronchitis)

Races:

• March 31:  Wash U Invite Distance Carnival 10,000 m in a PR of 37:09 -- technically not April, but when I finished it was less than 2 hours away from being April 1 and the event heavily impacted what I ran during the first weekend of the month, so I'm including it!
• April 8:  Rock the Parkway Half  Marathon in 1:23:15 for 3rd overall female -- one very windy race, which meant my time wasn't what I wanted, but I was mostly happy with 3rd overall.
• April 15:  Easter Sun Run "10K" in 39:48 -- course was off, average pace of 6:16 for a solid long tempo and 2nd overall female.
• April 15:  Easter Sun Run "2 mile" in 12:39 -- course was off, average pace of 6:02 for a solid short tempo and 2nd overall female.
• April 22:  I missed the Junior League Charity Run 4 mile (a local race slated as a workout) due to bronchitis.
• April 28:  I missed the MSSU Williams/Laptad 5,000 m because I was still taking antibiotics and a bit weak.  The only reason for running it was to go for a 5K PR, and I'm just not quite dumb enough to try that while not at 100%.  I'm running a local road 5K on May 6, and although it's certified it's powerfully hilly (I'm also not quite dumb enough to try to PR on that course), so I'm not sure exactly when I'll get a crack at my 5K PR, alas.

Workouts:

• April 5:  2 mile tune-up tempo in 12:11 (6:10/6:01).  I don't think I've ever felt great on a race week 2 mile tempo, and this one was no different!  However, I am also not sure I've felt super great during the first 2 miles of any tempo (I typically hit my stride as the miles go on), so no worries over that.  I did worry that I wasn't recovering the best from my 10,000 m race, which was a legitimate concern since I barely slept the night following the 9:30 p.m. race.  This run was short with a 2 mile warm-up and 2.2 mile cool-down.
• April 12:   Fartlek of 2 x 4/3/2/1 minute pushes with recoveries equal to next push, with 2 mile warm-up and a cool-down of about 1.6 miles, to 9.2 miles total.  I ran the best splits I ever have on this workout, with the pushes at 5:50, 5:45, 5:36, 5:43, 5:50, 5:48, 5:28, 5:40.  I've been generally keeping all of my fartlek pushes sub-6:00, but have typically had at least one that is barely sub-6:00 in the mix (or barely over 6:00, like the last time I did this exact workout here).
• April 18:  8 x 0.25 hill repeats, jogging back down the hill for recoveries, with warm-up and cool-down (8.6 miles total).  My splits were super even on these, miraculously because I can't monitor pace at all during this workout so it's all effort-based -- all 1:48-1:49, which seemed super slow for a quarter mile, but when I looked at the last time I ran this workout on the same hill back in November, I found that I'd averaged 1:54 that day, so this was a huge improvement!  It's just a brutal hill -- and I will also note that a quarter mile seems much longer running up a steep hill (only partially because it takes much longer).  I was also a bit sick (the beginning of the bronchitis situation), so I was pleased with this workout.
• April 27:  3 fast finish miles at the end of an 8 miler (6:24, 6:19, 6:04).  This was during an easier week; originally scheduled that way due to the 5K I was going to race on April 28, but kept easy to ensure I was getting healthy.  When I asked my coach about doing a workout since I wasn't racing, the fast finish miles on this run were his compromise.  Whether or not I felt good or bad on these miles varied by the moment, and they confirmed that my decision not to race was the correct one, as I didn't feel 100% recovered from bronchitis.  We also started the run a bit faster than usual (5 miles at 7:0X), so I think I didn't have as much pep to pick up the final miles as if we'd have run the beginning at 7:15-7:30.
• Doubles on April 4, 12, 18, and 25 (every Tuesday).
• Strides on April 7, 20, and 25, and also as part of my warm-up for every race.

Long runs:

• March 31:  Between my morning shake-out 2 miler, my warm-up, my 10,000 m race, and my cool-down, I did 13.1 miles for the day and that was all I got for a long run the first weekend of the month. 
• April 8:  The Rock the Parkway half marathon with warm-up and cool-down served as this week's long run, and I ended the day with 17.2 miles.  I also ran 13.2 miles on April 4 (split 9.1 in the morning and 4.1 at lunch).
• April 15:  The Easter Sun Run 10K, 2 mile, warm-up, recovery jog, and cool-down served as this week's long run, coming in at 14.4 total miles.
• April 23:  14.5 miles base pace (6:52).  This was the "What??!!" long run.  I was coming off being sick, and had felt weak and puny on my Friday and Saturday runs, so was really just hoping to get the distance in at 7:30-7:45 pace.  I ran with a group for the first 7, and we came through the first mile just under 7:00, and that felt so easy.  Then I pretty much repeated that 14 times, along with Zach who also did the 14, with the exception of a few uphill/up incline miles that were 7:0X; then a couple of 6:4X's towards the end, and the final mile was 6:34 but still felt so easy.  I have no idea how this happened, but I guess I was super well-rested -- I ran short/easy on Friday and Saturday but did not do much of anything else those two days (I finished 3 novels if that tells you anything about my activity level on those days).  I was so thankful for this run and my restored health!
• April 30:  13.1 miles (7:26) with Missy...cut-back Turn Around Don't Drown long run.  It was actually supposed to be 12 miles, but we encountered a lot of flooding on our route and in the end it was a miracle I made it back to my car only running 1.1 miles over the plan -- at one point I thought I was going to have to do about 16+ miles to get back!  This run was kind of meh -- not bad but not great -- and I'm mostly blaming the rain that felt never-ending!  I also did 13.3 on April 25 (split 10 in the morning and 3.3 in the evening). 

Thoughts and randomness:

• This was a month of racing!  I had a race scheduled every weekend, albeit some were planned as workouts, but my bout with bronchitis cramped those plans.
• Four out-of-town races (and other travel-related activities) in three weeks was probably a bit too much, and probably why I got bronchitis.  When I get a little run down, my immune system is the first to go!  I'm taking this as a learning experience and will not schedule that much again -- just as I learned that I need a day off work to recover after big trips to races from the last time I got bronchitis (and stayed healthy using that strategy after my subsequent big race trip).  I think I could do several races in a row just fine (with some as workouts, as was the plan with these) if they were local, but since they all required traveling and entailed a lot of family activities during the trips, that put the nail in the coffin.  I am also blaming the lack of sleep after my night race for the beginning of my downfall!  Plus the last two weekends in March were power-packed with extended family in town and spring break activities, on top of some hard/long training efforts.   Just a bit too much for 5 weekends in a row!
• Due to all of the races and that darn bronchitis, I only went to bootcamp on April 3, 10, 24, and 28 (I don't go on Fridays when I have weekend races).  I did short strength sessions on my own on April 19 and 22, and also 5-10 minutes of core work here and there, so I don't think I lost anything.
• Our little training group has exploded recently, and we've had some group runs with 7-8 people!  It's amazing having others to run with, and several men have started coming to what started as the "competitive women's group", and they help me run faster.  One male ran his debut marathon at Bass Pro 2016 in 2:50, which is like a 2:45 on a good course, so I am currently trying to talk him (and, well, everyone else) into training for a December marathon with me.
• My weekly mileage was a bit lighter this month, but as my coach pointed out I also don't have any marathons for over 7 months (oy!).  This is also relative, though, because less than 18 months ago I peaked at 50 mpw in my training cycle for the Dallas Marathon.  Funny how perspective changes!
• Many of my base pace runs were a little faster this month, which I think is related to the previous two bullet points.  I don't fall into running 6:5X pace for easy pace on my own, but I realized that when I'm running with someone who does, it's still a very relaxed pace for me most days, especially with lower overall mileage.  However, it's very important to run easy runs truly easy so I need to ensure I don't get caught up in running faster!  Per my coach, my base pace is 7:10-8:00, and most of my running should be between 7:10-7:30.  But I also figure that if I am going to try to run a marathon at 6:17 pace, then 6:50 pace should feel easy.
• We bought a new scale this month that does body fat and water/hydration measurements.  It turns out it weighs me a bit lighter than our old scale, but the hydration is way off (as in, I wouldn't be alive if it were correct) and I am sure hoping the body fat is also off!  I had high hopes about monitoring body fat percentage for performance reasons (did I really just type that?!), but I guess I need to get the calipers done.
• It rained A LOT this month.

Excitement:

• I was officially accepted as a sub-elite at the 2017 California International Marathon, which is where I hope to chase the dream!

This arrived in April -- a pleasant surprise because I'd forgotten about it!

I pulled out my last pair of stored Clifton 1 shoes in April,
& decided I need a Hoka sponsorship to keep up my shoe rotation

Then there was that one group run that everyone showed up to
wearing Cliftons - but it was too early in the morning to stand
in a good photo formation, apparently!

I have never cropped every single professional race photo
until now (full story in my Rock the Parkway post if you
missed it) - see elbow behind me

Not the worst

Not as crop-able - but at least she looks
like she is working too