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.

tonyhorton I hate it, but I love it

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!

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7 Comments

    1. Hi Sheila, I actually am fairly new to blogging and still haven’t gotten social media accounts setup for my blog yet, other than Pinterest. As we all know, there is always more to do in the world of blogging, and I am slowly but surely researching and trying to find the best way to get my content out there! This is a great reminder though, I need to make it a priority so that people can follow me on other media. Thanks for stopping by, and for the tip – feedback is always helpful!!

    1. Diatta – yes, it always helps to see what other people are doing to help mixup workouts and stay motivated! Thanks for hosting your linkup, and for stopping by my blog. I’ll be posting my 10 week training plan in the next week, and am happy to share resources!

  1. ooh!! I’ve been looking for good running workouts/sprint workouts/anything – this is super helpful! Even though just SEEING “interval run” made me feel like I was going to throw up- ghosts of cross country past !

    1. Oh good! I have to come up with variations on workouts, otherwise I go crazy. I’ve also got a pretty sweet pace calculator that I’ll be posting with my 10 week training plan… stay tuned.

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