No Fear February | Frosting February | February in Review

February 2019 in Review

Total mileage for the month:  245.0

• Jan. 28-Feb. 3: 3 (2:06 strength training, 12:52 cross-training)
  
• Feb. 4-10:  30.3 (2:00 strength training, 8:10 cross-training)
• Feb. 11-17:  73.4 (1:57 strength training, 2:00 cross-training)
• Feb. 18-24: 85.6 (2:35 strength training)
• Feb. 25-March 3: 90.3 (2:40 strength training)
• It's important to look at these totals within the bigger picture; before the off/light weeks from Jan. 28-Feb. 10 I'd been running mileage in the 70s-80s for 2 months straight, and I have a history of that kind of mileage for about a year now.  Normally one should never go from 3 to 30 to 73 and beyond!

 Frosting February!

 Races:

• Nope

Workouts:

• Feb. 22 - 1 mile at tempo (6:16) within a 5 mile run...since workouts are what get me, I am either not running them or doing baby workouts for awhile!
• Feb. 26 - 3 mile at tempo in 6:20 via 6:24, 6:25, 6:12 (3.5 warm up, 3.8 cool down).  Baby workout #2 down, and I never thought I'd be so happy to run 3 miles at 6:20 pace!  This was actually the best workout I've run since my injury in September, and it was the first workout I felt good during since September also.  When I attempted workouts in January, I was dying on every one, but I felt strong on this one even with 92 miles on my legs.  While the pace isn't where I want to be, I am feeling a lot better about working to get back to where I want to be.  This was only my fifth workout since September, and my first one in 5 weeks, so I think it could have been much worse!
• Doubles on Feb. 12, 13, 19, 21, 25, 26, 28.
• Strides on Feb. 14, 18, 20, 25.
• Favorite workout:  I grew to really like strides this month, hah!  But I was happy enough with the one workout I did on Feb. 26.

Monthly KC meet up with Jessi

Long Runs:

• Feb. 9 - 12 miles (8:08) solo with a 10:45 a.m. start.  I'm done with negative and single digit temperatures so I waited until the windchill was "only" 10 degrees to start.  When I left I told Jon I might run 3, I might run 6, or I might run 12.  I ran 12.  It was nice to be out in the sunshine but it also felt like I hadn't run double digits for 16 days (perhaps because I hadn't).  My pace was slower than usual but miles are miles!
• Feb. 15 - 15 miles (7:41) for another episode of "running long a day early due to impending winter weather" -- I've done this a lot this winter.  Ice was supposed to start coming down about 2 hours after I finished this run, and it was expected to be so bad that school canceled on Friday before there was even anything on the ground.  Jack, a high schooler who has been training with our group, joined me for 5 miles in the middle, and the other 10 were by myself.  I felt MUCH better than the previous week's long run, and was thankful for that!  I started the run with the goal of going at least 12, so it was really nice to feel so good that I wanted to extend the distance.  I probably would have gone farther if I hadn't had to get to work!  I was able to run outside the weekend after this, but both days had to go in the afternoons because the roads were ice covered in the mornings (I ended up running 12.2 miles on Feb. 17, which we will call a medium long run).
• Feb. 23 - 20.2 miles (7:33).  To make a long story short, once I began feeling good running again and was racking up mileage, I thought maybe I could run the Chisholm Trail Marathon after all (for about a month I'd decided I was definitely not running it).  I figured if I felt good I could run 18 on this day, then a 20 and 22, then taper.  I felt fantastic on this run and Rebecca was running a 20, so I went for it!  Certainly not a standard marathon build, but I'd run an 18 in January so it wasn't that crazy.
• Favorite long run:  The 20 obviously - because it was 20 and I felt amazing!
  
• Much like with my weekly mileage, it's important to look at my long runs within the bigger picture; a progression from 12 to 15 to 20 isn't ideal, but I'd done an 18 in January before I had to back off.  This marathon build certainly has been bumpy, but I think my history with marathons, long runs, and mileage has helped...ask me again after I attempt to run a marathon off of this crazy build, haha!

More #frostingfebruary

Amy & I had on matching shoes & headbands
on this day, & it is daylight when we finish now!

 Highlights/thoughts/randomness:

• Check out my athlete page on the nuun website here!
• I took 8 days total off (plus another light week), between the end of January and beginning of February, for a tendon that scared me.  While it was completely fine after those days, my confidence was not.  I was suddenly terrified of running!  My October-November calf injury was hard on me, but this little scare changed my outlook more.  I had quite the difficult time trusting running for a bit, and kept worrying that it would hurt me.  But at the same time I will always love it and I know that when it's good it's the best!  A fellow runner said, "It's like an abusive relationship!", and you know, it kind of is...  
• After that my resolution was to run for enjoyment/stress relief and not for training.  I decided not to target any spring races, although that doesn't mean I won't jump in some for fun (e.g., the Chisholm Trail Marathon).  I love to chase PRs, but I also want to run consistently and I am just not sure I can do both right now, based on my recent experience. Putting goal races on the schedule means I will train hard no matter what, and I don't think that's the best thing for me at the moment.  I'm confident that taking those 8 days off recently saved me from needing 8 weeks off later, but during serious race focus mode I don't know if I'd have taken them.
• Not worrying about mileage and workouts on bad weather days definitely reduced my stress level!  I didn't realize how anxious it was making me until I stopped following a training schedule and it was no longer an issue.  I was also getting worried about how I'd feel on each run and whether I could run what I was "supposed" to in January, especially because I was feeling like crap.  This month I just went into each day knowing that if the roads were bad I just wouldn't run, or if I felt like stopping after a few miles I'd just stop.  Then I ended up running an awful lot of miles during the second half of the month, but it was because I felt like it, not because I "needed" to.
• On a related note, I set several rolling 7-day mileage PRs!  Between Feb. 21-27, I ran 93.1 miles!  On Feb. 19 my rolling 7 day total was 92.4, which was my first time over 90.  Prior to that, on Feb. 17 my rolling 7 was 88.7, and on Feb. 15 it was 88.3 (both PRs at the time), so I'd been creeping up on 90 for a bit.  I was really pumped about this milestone!  It was actually a lot easier than most of the weeks I've done in the 80s because I didn't run any significant workouts, but my goal is to get comfortable with the mileage now and add true workouts starting in April (in March I will do a few more baby workouts).

Whoop whoop!

Bandit was skeptical about frosting February

Life events:

• We dreamed of moving south!
• Albani did some fun Valentines crafting, and gave her "Valentine" at school a gift.  She even asked me to curl her hair for school on Valentines day!
• We played a lot of Uno and read a lot indoors.
• I binge-watched Fuller House with my friend Amy while we put in hours of cross-training in her basement.  It is as cheesy as expected but very addicting, especially if you watched the original Full House as a kid.
• I had a CARF survey at work, and my department did amazing, as did our whole company.
• Albani had some fun events - an Awana talent show, a Valentine's tea party with some friends, and a field trip to try out different band instruments (she is interested in the clarinet).
• Albani won 3rd place in our running club's 2018 Runners of the Year competition, and I won overall female.  We picked up our awards this month.

Valentines construction

Finished product

Jon jokingly locked her out in the (little) snow

We love our running club!

Honored

Post-20 miler - Rebecca is running her first marathon in April!

Books this month:

• Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
• The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer
• Something Like Happy by Eva Woods
• A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer
• Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
• Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand
• Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
• Three Things About Elise by Joanna Cannon
• The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
• Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella

Theme of the month:

Recovering.  I had the tendon scare, but I also had to dig myself out of a hole that started with a rainy 33* (22* windchill) 18 miler on Jan. 12 (advice:  do not run 18 miles in cold rain).  A sleet/rain/wind 10 miler the following week made it worse, and then a workout in feels like 2* on Jan. 21 really put the icing on the cake (#frostingfebruary, hah).  I pretty much felt like death from Jan. 22 through Feb. 12, but after that the pep in my step started returning, and the end of the month went pretty well.  I didn't realize quite how terrible I'd felt until I started feeling good again.  I was SO thankful for each good run after that.  While I hope to someday return to PR fitness, I've also made peace with the possibility that I won't, and I'm just really enjoying the miles.  How blessed am I that I get to do this!