March Madness

March 2023 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 371.1

• Feb. 27-March 5: 102.3
• March 6-12: 95.1
• March 13-19: 85.6
• March 20-26: 70.5
• March 27-April 2: 70.5

Races:

• March 25: Prairie Spirit 50k in 3:46:46 for 1st overall female and the second fastest women's 50k ever run in Kansas, behind 2022 me. I also negative split, which I could not be more proud of!

#marchmadness

Workouts:

• March 1: 4 x (1200 m threshold, 400 m hard, 400 m jog) in 13.3 miles total. This was the Feb. 9 workout without recovery between the threshold and hard portions. In theory the goal was to match the times from my Feb. 9 workout, which I didn't look at until after I completed this workout, but I pretty much annihilated them (the bar was set very low!). Better weather and running with Casey this time helped a lot. I did both workouts on the track. My splits were: 4:48, 1:26, 4:48, 1:26, 4:46, 1:28, 4:49, 1:29. I loved the threshold portions, and the hards were hard but over quickly! It was a good training stimulus for me. I wish I could have finished the final 400 a little quicker, but I was happy to keep it under 1:30.
• March 4: Long run workout of 6 easy, 9 x (1 MP, 1 easy). This was a fun one and Casey and I worked together almost the whole way (she did 22 miles), which was super nice! The route we ran had 1089 ft of elevation gain, so it wasn't a fast one, but she is training for the Go St. Louis marathon, which also is not flat. My MP mile splits were: 6:38, 6:35, 6:47, 6:37, 6:41, 6:37, 6:26, 6:38, 6:45 (variations due to elevation) and I finished feeling great.
• March 8: 6 x (0.5 MP-ish, 0.5 threshold-ish) continuously, which amounted to 6 miles at 6:12 pace per my Garmin. Half mile splits were: 3:14, 3:05, 3:17, 3:06, 3:17, 3:03, 3:17, 3:03, 3:16, 3:01, 3:15, 2:57. It was all a little quicker than MP/threshold, but I felt really strong and it's also amazing how easy 6:30ish feels after running 6:10 or under! Casey and I ran side-by-side this entire workout, which was very helpful.
• March 11: 20 miles via 5 easy, 2 incline threshold (6:30, 6:21), 9 easy, 2 incline threshold (7:19, 6:21), 2 easy. The 7:19 is not a typo - that mile was into a 30 mph wind and once we turned out it it about 0.2 into the final hard mile I was suddenly running a minute faster at the same effort! Yet again I worked with Casey on this one and we had rough patches at different times, but pulled each other through so we were better together as usual. The inclines were very gradual but long and on gravel (rails to trails). The wind was sure a character builder - we ran into it for 9 miles straight!
• March 14: 2 miles MP, 2 miles HMP, 2 miles threshold, 2 miles MP, which you math whizzes out there will see amounts to 8 miles of continuous work! The goal was for the first 2 to be "beginning of marathon pace" and the last 2 to be "end of marathon pace", so goal paces for the 4 different segments were 6:45, 6:30, 6:20, 6:35. It was another one with Casey, and we ran this on rolling hills so my splits weren't super even on the HMP and threshold miles - they were perfectly even on the MP miles but I'm not exactly sure how, lol! Splits were 6:42, 6:42 |, 6:28, 6:36 | 6:26, 6:15 | 6:27, 6:27. I had a rough patch during the first mile of the threshold, but then was able to come back strong. 8 miles straight at 6:30 average on rollers was really great for me right now, especially considering my bad day at Run with the Wind not long ago.
• March 21: 2 x 2 mile progressive tempo in 6:21, 6:11 | 6:03, 6:04. Should have pushed the last mile a little more, or the second to last a little less! This felt peppy and strong, and it's always nice when a race week workout feels that way. Casey and Sierra did 3 x 2 miles and it was difficult to finish when they had another rep left, but I was on a really tight time schedule that morning that made me adhere to my taper.
• Strides: March 3, 7, 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 31.
• Doubles: March 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 18, 22.
• Favorite workout: March 8 and 14 tie for this! I'm loving pace shifting workouts lately (March 1 was great for the same reason, but it didn't win because it was too short for my taste).

#marchmadness

Some days we don't even have to act
crazy to look mad

Long & Medium Long Runs:

• March 2: 13.2 miles (8:20), because Abby had to do her 18 miler on a Thursday morning and I enjoyed joining for most of it.
• March 4: 24 miles (7:28) with a workout, described above.
• March 5: 16.3 miles (8:05) for my last 40+ mile weekend for bit!
• March 8: 14.8 miles total, with the wave tempo workout described above. I also doubled on March 8, giving me a 19 mile Wednesday.
• March 11: 20 miles (7:46), with a split tempo workout, described above.
• March 12: 12.3 miles (8:27) that I was tired for.
• March 14: 13.4 miles (7:09) with a workout described above. I doubled for an 18 mile Tuesday.
• March 18: 12.6 miles (7:27), including a 2 mile pick up (6:31, 6:27), and doubled for 17 on the day
• March 25: 31.1 miles (7:15), which has to be good over-distance marathon training, right? 
• March 30: 14 miles (7:50), for Sierra's last pre-Boston long run, that also showed me I recovered really well from March 25.
• Favorite long run: March 4, because, 24!

Matching March (this was not planned)

Casey looking awfully happy to be mad

Running Highlights:

• A triple digit mileage week.
• A long race that I did not bomb, hurray!

#marchmadness

Life Highlights:

• Slightly running-related since I went with Casey, but we saw the Broadway musical Hamilton on March 5!

Matching March again, at Hamilton

Pre-Run Routines

Books:

• Just two 5-star reads this month (in bold), but most of the others I gave 4!
• Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
• All the Dangerous Things but Stacy Willingham
• Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
• Verity by Colleen Hoover
• Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
• The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica
• Rivals Unto Death: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr by Rick Beyer
• The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self
• Never Never: The Complete Series by Colleen Hoover
• Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World by Lauren Fleshman
• We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman

Theme for the month:

• Playing it by ear. I'm doing whatever races seem appealing and workouts with my running buddies, instead of aiming for the perfect planned and calculated build. There are certainly advantages both ways, and I'm sure I'll return to the other way, but it's good for me to be less obsessive right now!