February 2022 in review!
Total mileage for the month: 402.6
- Jan. 31-Feb. 6: 101.6
- Feb. 7-13: 86.5
- Feb. 14-20: 104.2
- Feb. 21-27: 109.5
- Feb. 28-March 6: 110.3
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| S'no problem! |
Races:- Feb. 12: Cabin Fever Reliever 20k in 1:20:08 for 1st overall female, a new 20k state record for age 41, a PR for the coldest I've raced in (5 degree wind chill), and a decent rust-buster.
- Feb. 19: Run With the Wind 25k as a workout targeting 50k goal pace, in 1:45:37 for 1st overall female, a new 25k state record for age 41, and a lot of humbling in regards to the difficulty of running half the race distance at goal pace during a 104 mile week.
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This was Feb. 1 but we really
wanted to do one more jumping
photo - & we are so in sync! |
Workouts:- Feb. 1: 2 x 0.25 hill reps, 4 mile threshold (6:09, 6:10, 6:10, 6:04), 2 x 0.25 hill reps, with about 0.25 jog recoveries in a 13 mile run. I planned to run this workout Feb. 2 but due to 6-12" of snow in the forecast, everyone in my running group worked out a day early. I only had 1 easy day between a huge weekend (20 mile workout Saturday + 18 mile Sunday) so I wasn't sure how it would go, but I ended up feeling strong. The weather was ideal at 45 degrees, which definitely helped. My threshold miles were almost exactly the same as the previous week's, on the same course, but I was solo on them for this workout whereas I had Spencer pulling me along the previous week (plus I was more fatigued for this one), so I was pleased. My hills rep paces were 6:15, 6:12, 6:27, 6:33 (the 2 after the threshold really hurt!), which was the fastest I've run quarter miles on that specific hill by 11 seconds/mile pace, which also made me happy.
- Feb. 8: 6 x 0.25 hills + 2 mile tempo (6:17, 6:00) straight off hill rep #6. The goals for the hill reps were "hard", to keep them even, and not to ease up on #6. Those splits were all 1:32-1:35 (paces of 6:11-6:24, which Strava grade adjusted to about 5:11-5:24, though that seems awfully generous), and #6 was consistent with my other splits - which I haven't been able to do on this type of workout before. The first mile of the tempo had more incline and the second mile more decline, so the average pace of 6:08 was probably consistent with my effort across the board. The first half mile of the tempo on workouts like this is always spent trying to get my breathing down to tempo mode from hill rep mode, and does not feel the greatest. I know these workouts are beneficial for me!
- Feb. 16: 6 mile wave tempo alternating 0.5 at threshold/0.5 at 50k pace; half mile paces were: 6:40, 5:56, 6:33, 6:14, 6:38, 6:05, 6:35, 6:08, 6:46, 5:57, 6:38, 5:53. I was aiming for 6:45/6:05 so got a couple of them right, haha! The south wind was 19 mph so it made pace control very challenging on the loop course we did - though the loop course split up the wind so I was never running more than about 0.4 straight into it, which was nice. I'd be running 6:15 pace into the wind, then turn out of it and be running 5:55 at the same effort. It felt good to nail this workout even in those conditions though, and oddly my overall mile splits were pretty even at 6:17, 6:23, 6:21, 6:21, 6:21, 6:16.
- Feb. 19: Run with the Wind 25k at 50k goal pace - target of 6:45, actual average pace 6:44. This hilly race wasn't the most confidence-inspiring (i.e., 50k pace felt much harder than I expected towards the end and I couldn't have gone much farther at it), but then I remembered that I typically max out at 12-13 miles at MP in training, often with a little break (e.g., 2 x 6 miles at MP), and it always feels exponentially harder than the first 12-13 miles of the actual marathon. I can now confirm that the same is true of running a 25k at 50k goal pace during a 104 mile week!
- Feb. 23: 2 miles threshold (6:06, 6:09), 4 x 0.5 (3:05, 2:54, 2:57, 3:02), 2 miles threshold (6:08, 6:09), and a new PR for my coldest "feels like" workout, at 0 degrees (14 degrees air temp + bitter north wind). Overall this went better than I expected based on the temperature and residual fatigue from the weekend. My first 0.5 was against the wind, so that is why it was slow (not sure on #4). I was aiming for 2:55 on those, so I wasn't successful, but my threshold was right on. It's harder for me to shift gears during heavy mileage, plus the cold makes it harder to run fast! I kind of felt like just attempting this workout was a victory. I covered my face in Vaseline so I could take my neoprene mask off for the hard running.
- Feb. 26: 26 miles via 10 easy then 16 with 0:45 pick ups at the beginning of each. The pick ups were planned to be about tempo effort, and ranged anywhere from 5:40 to 7:02 because we were a hilly course (1365 feet of gain), but most were 6:00-6:15.
- Doubles: Feb. 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28.
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| Winter running vibes |
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| #freezingfebruary |
Long Runs:- Feb. 5: 22.3 easy (7:45) that felt fantastic with fabulous company! We had a lot of great conversations on this run, including how our running group would team up during the apocalypse. Colin did all 22 with me, Casey and Spencer did 18, and we had David, Abby, Claudio, and Christian for various distances too!
- Feb. 6: 15 easy (7:57) that felt surprisingly fantastic. I lifted the previous evening (after the 22 miler) and woke up a bit sore from that, but ended up feeling great. Last year the back-to-back long runs were intimidating, but now they have become normalized.
- Feb. 12: 20.3 miles, including the Cabin Fever Reliever 20k.
- Feb. 13: 12 miles (8:10), with some fatigue from Cabin Fever and the low-glycogen cool down that followed it!
- Feb. 19: 23.2 miles with 2.5 jog, Run with the Wind 25k, 5 jog. We are getting better at death marching after long races, maybe?
- Feb. 20: 15 miles (8:22) that was one of my least favorite runs of the month, because I had zero pep in my step! Great company made it possible.
- Feb. 26: 26 miles (7:37) with pick ups described above. I was planning to do 25, as was Colin, but he was a little late to the group run and we did a mile before he arrived, so I decided if I felt good I'd finish with him. Conveniently enough, I'd already been considering doing 26 if I felt good as this run approached, so it all worked out and I felt great! We had 11 people at this group run doing anywhere from 13 to 26.
- Feb. 27: 16 miles (8:26) for my biggest weekend ever! We kept this one easy enough that I think it could be considered a true recovery run, even though it was 2:15 on feet. I felt immensely better than I did on the Feb. 20 Sunday long run, I think mostly because my during and after run fueling on 2/26 was far superior to on 2/19 (due to the awards ceremony taking a really long time and there being no restaurants in Sarcoxie, I didn't get a full meal until several hours after Run with the Wind).
- My workout days were 13.2, 11.3, 13.6, and 14.3 so I guess those could also be considered long runs.
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| Boston training |
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| 10 on Tuesday |
Running Highlights:- My first two races of 2022 yielded two overall female titles and two state records...nowhere to go but down from here, bahaha!
- A new weekly mileage PR of 109.5, which improved upon my previous of 106 (I don't remember the tenths). I would have run a monthly mileage PR if February had been 31 days! I was most proud of this mileage because I did it during a crap weather week with my workout in "feels like" 0 and with 4 runs on sleet.
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| Snow. |
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Rebecca trying to make a snow
angel in ice cover |
Life Highlights:- We had quite the winter storm hit on February 2-3! By being flexible and running 1.25 runs on the treadmill, I didn't miss anything except some strides. I do okay with easy running in the snow but strides on it don't really work (nor do they work on the treadmill for me!).
- We then had crazy sleet on February 23-24, but I it was almost like sand so it was fine to run on wearing screw shoes, but made for some slow miles, and a few more missed strides.
- Albani participated in Science Olympiad which is a pretty great after school activity. She had a competition at MSU on February 26.
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| Morning routines |
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| Albani's JROTC uniform |
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| Valentines |
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| Twosday! |
Books:
- The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell
- The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell
- Interference by Brad Parks
- Daniel's Running Formula by Jack Daniels
- Wish You Were Here by Jodi Picoult
- People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
- Angel Falls by Kristin Hannah
- No Exit by Taylor Adams
- Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
- The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews
Theme for the month:
"The world will never know who is holding this cake." That made me giggle.
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