Training in Montana

16 total miles today. Did 12.2 outside on 5-6" of fresh snow. In lots of spots it felt like running on sand. 14F for the high today, bright sun, no clouds, no wind. It wasn't too bad. Brought hand warmers for the gloves and that was a really good idea. Wore ice spikes and that helped a little bit but not much. I think it affected my gait a bit as my feet and toes felt weird afterwards. Needed my neck gaiter in a big way and kept it on my chin most of the run but a few times in the last few miles my nose needed some heat so I took off the sunglasses and pulled up the gaiter to my nose and breathed through it. Heated up the nose quickly.

Got home and quickly changed into shorts and a singlet, different shoes, and did the last bit on the treadmill at 1% incline. Most of it at 7 mph, but last mile did 8.3 (7:15 mph). That was hard but only because it was uncomfortable, not because my legs were tired. That's a good sign. I need to run more miles in that uncomfortable 7:15-25 zone so that I get used to it.

AP for the long run was 8:42. I had lots of problems with my music so that slowed me by a few minutes. Also, the snow slowed the pace a bit but I think it ultimately gave me a better workout than I would have had on normal roads. 

8 TM miles at home. Finished Clash of the Titans. Good flick to run to. Lots of action, not so much dialogue.

1% incline, started at 6 mph for a bit then 6.5 for a stretch, then 7.0 for a couple miles, then needed to get finished so 7.5 for the last 4 1/2 miles. Gray shirts are fun to wear when TM running as you get to see your sweat afterwards. I had full back sweat, some belly sweat, and front & back neck sweat. And the headband was a 4 wringer after.

Legs are feeling appropriately sore. Not overly tired, but well used. I'm getting excited about April.

4 TM miles this morning. Warmed up a bit at 6 mph, then to 7, then 7.5, and ended at 8.1. Lots of sweat while outside it was -2 plus windchill. Fun times this winter. Sure am grateful we got a home treadmill a couple years ago.

Didn't feel like getting out of bed so I swapped my rest days. Will run on Thursday.

40 minute tempo run at 1% incline at home. Not exactly sure of mileage but I started at 6 then worked my way up. At 15 minutes I cranked it to 9.3 and held that for 10 minutes then dropped down to 8.5, 8.0, etc. Good run.

Youngest daughter's 8th birthday today so I woke up a bit earlier than normal to squeeze in my miles. We make breakfast in bed on birthdays so at 6:30 my wife was up to make breakfast and I had guilt about not helping so I did the right thing and skipped the last 2 miles and hopped off to help. I didn't end up helping much, but at least the effort was there and appreciated.

Morning: 10 miles outside. 5 degrees with probably a 20 mph East wind and blowing snow, so wind chill about -15 or so. It wasn't too bad until I turned around at the 5 mile mark. The wind was directly into the right side of my face. The only part uncovered was my eyes and the snow was stinging that right eye. It was awesome. On top of that I had my neck gaiter covering my mouth and nose and it was tough to breathe through that thing. Each breath brought the cloth into my mouth as I sucked in. Quite a few times I held the gaiter away from my mouth so I could breathe easily, then the cloth on the right side would freeze and for a bit I could breathe easy. It was a good run but I was glad to get home. Total time 1:34 or so, but didn't get a great read on time or splits. 

Late Morning: 7 TM miles. After coaching & refereeing a 1-2nd grade girls basketball game I came home to finish my miles. I ate too much for breakfast and after the game, so I had a nice side ache the first 2 miles. Slowed and walked a couple times and it eventually went away. Ended the last mile at 7:21 pace. 1% incline. 

I'm not sure how sustainable my current training plan is. It's 2 months out from the marathon and the mileage is feeling burdensome. I'll do my best and we'll see how I can modify it. I modified today's run as the plan called for 9 but I needed more sleep than that. I considered ditching the run entirely but finally rolled out of bed to do 6.

6 TM miles while watching women's figure skating and snowboarding slopestyle. That 15 year old Russian figure skater was amazing. If you get a chance to watch her, it's worth it. Her style, expression, and athleticism were very moving. And the slopestyle is just a blast to watch.

4 TM miles at the gym at lunch. Got a TM next to a fan, so I had a nice breeze on me the entire time. Progressive 6, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0. Amazed at how much my leg speed has improved over the past couple months. I wasn't breathing very hard at 8.0 and a while back that would have been a stretch workout.

After 2 straight weeks of sub-freezing temperatures, and most of the time having below zero windchill, we finally hit above 32 and the 10 day forecast is all above freezing during the day. Looking forward to this snow melting and doing more outdoor running.

Yassooooooo!!!!! I ran on the TM at the Y so I couldn't yell that out loud this morning. Did 6 X 800s this morning in a Yasso-prescribed pace of 6:30, but actually 6:27 on the TM at 9.3 mph. They were much easier than the last ones I did, the first half of which were uphill. Not sure how well TM Yassos prepare one for a road race, but it will have to do. Warmed up 1 mile, then started the 800s, .25 cool down in between (walked for .10, then jogged at 10:00 pace for .15). Cooled down with 3/4 of a mile.

The schedule called for a half marathon today, so planned rest days on Thursday and Friday. I got up this morning planning on running a half marathon effort, headed down to the Y after dropping off my son for a Boy Scout merit badge day, and I did not feel it. I was so tired. My work is one block away, so I went to my work and laid down on the couch and took a 90 minute nap before I needed to head off to coach a basketball game. I was not feeling well and it felt so good to lay down. After the little girl's basketball game I headed back to the Y to shower, then went back to my work to lay down again before my 9th grade son's basketball game. The long & short is that it was a wise move to not run as I felt worse all day.

Schedule called for 9 miles today but I did not feel like running. Legs felt like lead, I was tired and in general didn't feel well. Took a 2 hour nap at Noon and was still tired most of the day. Later I started feeling better, thank goodness. I was happy that it was a bank holiday and I work at a bank as I likely would have taken a sick day anyhow.

4 TM miles after a 5 day layoff. Kept it fairly light, running at 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, and last mile 7.5 mph. Felt pretty good afterwards.

6 X hills and with wind and crud outside I ran on the TM at my house. First 3 were 7% incline, 7 mph. Next 2 8% incline, 7 mph, last 1 9% incline, 7 mph. I should've gone with 9% for the hills as that most simulated doing hills outside (when I was gasping for air).

Legs were a bit sore before running, which is so odd that only 4 miles did that.

1 warmup mile, 9 MP miles on the TM at home. It was tough as I clearly lost some fitness by not running for 5 days. At the 5 mile mark of the pace run I decided I needed to walk. Set the pace to 4 mph and walked for a stretch. I thought about quitting entirely at that point but decided to try it out and go for the finish. The pace felt much easier after the break and I was able to get through the run with no problems.

14 outside, 5 on the TM. 15-20 degrees outside, 3" of fresh snow. Thankfully someone had driven on the road so i had a path to follow. It's no fun running in deepish snow so that made the run nice. It was cold enough that I figured 2 hours outside was enough so I turned around at the 7 mile mark. Headed home and changed and ran on the treadmill while watching The Wolverine. Good flick. Weird to watch people running and chasing while I was running.

6 TM miles at the Y this morning. Schedule calls for 10, will try and do 4 at lunch. Lots of snow yesterday and today so my wife didn't want our eldest to drive to school so that ate up a bunch of my morning. Legs felt pretty sluggish today after Saturday's long run. After 3 miles I walked for a quarter mile then got back to running. That helped quite a bit.

5 TM miles at the Y after work. My legs are pretty sore after the weekend run so I again walked 1/4 mile halfway through. That did the trick and i finished strong.

25 pushups and sit-ups.

45 tempo minutes on the home TM this morning. I nearly skipped this workout as I was tired and thought I'd be too tired to run after last evening's five. Turns out I was wrong so I'm glad I woke up.

Started at 6 mph, then bumped up to 6.5, 7.0, 7.5. At 17:00 I went up to 9.3 mph for a 10 minute fast run. It was hard but not impossible. After those minutes I was happy to bump down to 8.0 for a couple minutes, then 7.5 for the remainder.

Rest day for me, and a realization day. I need the help of my fellow bloggers. I am trying to do too much with my life right now, and I need to simplify my marathon training. I'm following the Advanced 1 Hal Higdon plan  (days of the week modified to have Sunday a rest day) and I'm on week 11. I need to reduce my weekly mileage.

I'm leaning towards keeping my Wednesday workouts and my Saturday long runs the same distance and just reducing the other days. How much can I reduce the M, Tu, F mileage without seeing a massive loss in training?

I realize this will likely impact my marathon time, but that's okay. I'm investing too much of my energy (physical and mental) into the marathon and I need to diversify. :(

9 TM miles at home this morning as more snow piled up outside. Ugh. Having a record-breaking snow year the winter that I'm training for a Spring marathon has been interesting. Without a home treadmill I could not do it.

Ran to 1 episode of Criminal Minds and the start of Prince of Persia.

I've been pondering the advice received yesterday about scaling back my running. Thanks to my blog friends for their help. I will ponder on it some more. I will likely play it week-to-week and even day-by-day so the advice given helps me feel at peace when I do scale back some workouts.