March Running Recap & April Goals

Hey! We are officially back in action, after a minor hiatus from running. We had a couple of distractions which quickly led to a 2 week break from our running schedule. It’s amazing how fast training can get away from you. You think you’re just taking a couple of days off, or something interrupts your groove, and WHAM! Next thing you know, it’s several weeks later and you’ve been sitting around like a bum. I once tried P90X. Made it just past 30 days, was feeling pretty good, and then went on a week long trip to Cancun with my sister. And that was that. The extent of my days with Tony.

Anyway, this time we had a bit of an excuse, with Jesse’s foot being out of commission for a week – we weren’t sure at first if he had a sprain, or worse. (Ok Jesse had an excuse… I took a sympathy break). The good news is, he is feeling fully healed up! (Josh’ face is healing up nicely too in case you’re wondering – although his jaw is probably several weeks from being able to eat any solid food. Poor guy). We’re just in time to jump back in too, because this past weekend, I was like “Holy shit! It’s April! Our half marathon is only 10 weeks away!” Where does the time go? SO, before I post my official 10 week Half Marathon training plan, I figured I better do a quick recap of my March progress. Here’s how I did:

March Goals

• Get 11 runs in – Big fail here. I don’t even know what happened the last week of the Month, but I only got one run in that week. Total of 8 runs for the month. 

• Run a speed workout, once a week – I almost completed this one. I got in 3 speed workouts (and a race). 
  • 4×400 interval:
    • 1.5 mile warmup.
    • 4 x 1/4 miles at 8:00 pace with 1/4 mile rest (around 9:13 pace) in between.
    • 1 mile cool down.
  • 3×800 interval:
    • 1 mile warmup.
    • 3 x 1/2 mile at 8:00 pace with 1/4 mile rest (9:30 pace) in between.
    • 2 mile cool down.
  • Ladder interval (I did this one on the treadmill on a particularly cold day):
    • 10 minute warmup.
    • 5 minutes on, 3 min off – My “on” pace for this workout was 8:27/mile. “Off” was at 9:05 pace.
    • 4 min on, 2 min off
    • 3 min on, 1 min off
    • 2 min on, 30 sec off
    • 1 min on
    • Cool down

• Log a 7 mile long run – Check! We had some really great weather this month, and enjoyed a nice easy Saturday run. It felt good to get that mileage in.

• Beat my time from last year at the Sharin’ o’ the Green 5k. – Check! Last year I finished in 24:43. My time this year was 23:35.

• Run 45 miles total – Didn’t make this one either (hard to do in 8 runs). My total mileage was 36.2.

March Stats:
8 runs total
36.2 miles (4% decrease from last month)
Longest Distance: 7.1 miles
3 speed workouts
1 race – Sharin’ O’ the Green 5K – 23:35, 7:31/mi avg pace
Average training pace range: 9:36 to 8:50/mi

And now for April Goals:

• Get 10 runs in – I would say 11 since I didn’t hit this last month, but I’m already getting a late start. I seriously do want to stick to my 3 run/week training plan as closely as possible!
• Run a hill workout – I realized I have not run actual hill repetitions, probably since high school. It might be fun (if torture is fun) to incorporate some hills into a speed workout this month.
• Log an 8 mile long run
• Run 50 miles total – This is actually less than my 10 week training plan shows for this month. It ramps up fairly aggressively compared to what I have been logging, so we’ll see how it goes!