Training in Montana

3 TM miles this morning before work. I ran the entire time, so big improvement from yesterday or the past 3 weeks, so that's exciting. Ran 1.5 or so at 10:00 pace, but that was boring so kept bumping it up and finished the last .75 at 8:30 or less.

20 pushups, 30 situps, 45 second plank, and my shoulder excercises.

A few miles outside in balmy temps: 33F with a slight West wind. Legs felt okay but not great, had to stop and walk a few times, but hills outside are tougher than TMs inside.

TM running in the afternoon. 7F outside with a windchill of -12F seemed a bit extreme.

4 miles outside today. Wasn't too bad, but snowy road so I wore the microspikes. 17F with not much wind, but snow flurries gently coming down the entire time. Kind of enjoyable actually. Legs don't feel great, this run which I've done 100s of times has been really challenging the past few times, but I guess this is the first time in nearly a month I've gotten all the way to 4 miles, so that's a win. It's just been such an automatic route and run that I have never thought about it. Getting back into shape is challenging, especially when it wasn't anything I did that got me out of shape.

4 morning miles, again wearing the microspikes. I expect most outdoor runs will include the spikes for a while. It is our youngest's 12 birthday today, so I got up extra early to run before we gave her breakfast in bed. I barely made it, and was super hot and sweaty, so I stood outside in only my running underwear in 24F temps until I cooled down. Didn't take too long... :) Colder weather and more snow is coming this weekend, so I may be hitting the TM more often.

Pace is coming back, but still way slower than normal. Hopefully no more seizures.

4 snowy cold miles. Frozen eyelids are fun. The winter clothes I've purchased over the years and the microspikes I recently got were essential on this run and I was not only not cold, I was hot and sweaty. Perfect on a -2F morning (thankfully no wind).

4 miles this morning outside. -4F, -23F with windchill. Sounds bad, but I have acquired lots of winter clothing over the years, and I was not only warm, I was sweating a lot at the middle and end. I wonder when my legs will come back. I stopped and walked for a bit at mile 1, at 1.5 and nearly turned around, but decided to keep going to do 4 miles. Glad I did. Felt much better on the way back, as it’s nearly all downhill. The wind was in my face going out so I had the mask over my face and hat pulled down nearly to my eyes on the way out. Hard to breathe with a frozen mask, but better than having a frozen nose. Pulled down the mask on the way back the pulled it up when I went back into the wind. Decent run, but had 3 layers on top and bottom, plus micro spikes on the shoes. Lots of equipment, heavy stuff.

4 TM miles at the Y at Noon. -5F in the morning and family had the day off school so I didn’t feel like getting up early and putting on all my warm clothes. TM running is much easier and shorts and a tank top are way better than 3 layers, hat, neck gaiter, gloves, and micro spikes. I’ve been doing 0 incline and did the same today - need to increase that in the future so it will better mimic the real world. Warmed up at 6 mph, and increased every 1/2 to 1 mile, ending at 12.4 mph, which was flying (4:45 mile), for the last 0.1 mile. Yikes. The world elites are amazing.

3 TM miles @ 2% incline during the Noon hour at the Y. 2% incline is much harder than 0%, so cut the run short. I still kept a solid pace, and pushed myself. Need to keep doing this as it will get my legs back quicker than just an easy 0% run.

Decided to sleep in this morning and forego my planned run to instead make pink pancakes for the family. A good idea. Ran a bit before noon, and continue to improve. Ran at 2% incline and was able to go 4 miles without stopping, and progressively got faster. Started at 10:00 for first 1/2 mile, then bumped to 8:57 next 1.5 miles, then next mile at 8:27, then 1/2 mile at 7:57, then dropped to 7:29, then 6:57, and last .25 at 6:29 or so. Felt good to go faster without the legs giving out or needing to stop. Onward and upward.

Woke up early as I had a Noon meeting, but didn't realize how much it had snowed and drifted until I got out the door. I had all the gear and microspikes, but it was a lot of snow in places and on most of the road. Turned around at mile 1 as I didn't want to be on an unplowed 50 mph road, just wasn't safe, and I knew I had quite a bit of shoveling work ahead of me. Finally got to work at 8:30 am. I need a plow on something next winter (which if it doesn't snow at all would be fine with me).

4 TM Miles, 2% incline. Slower but still very sweaty. I realize I need to go slow for a while and let me legs catch up.

6 miles! It was 20-25F out, so no worries about total cold, but still brought the gear and needed it into the wind, but was very warm with wind at my back. Glad to go so far, even though it wasn’t far for me. 

4 TM miles at the Y at Noon as it is currently 2F outside and I don't like bringing all my gear to work. I haven't decided what works better for me - run progessively faster each 1/2 or 1 mile until I'm moving, or go slower then end at a decent pace but not fast. Today my legs felt a bit rough so I walked a bit during mile 2, then ran the rest of the way.

Did 30 situps, 10 pushups, 10 stretch-things from my PT, and 10 pullups. Weighed myself after, and that's a number I've not seen in a while. Slowly slowly catch a monkey they say. Would like it to keep declining as my mileage ramps up.

4 miles from home this morning in what I thought were -2F temps, but turns out was -10F. There was no wind, so it honestly wasn't bad at all, and I was actually dripping sweat on the return trip. I did bad math on the run (I never can do math while running) so I raced back the last 2 miles to try and get my kid to the bus on time, and we still didn't make it. Not only was I not cold, I couldn't cool down for 30 minutes after my run, so I ended up bringing my dress shirt and tie with me in the truck. I drove my kid to school, and me to work in a short sleeve tech shirt, while continually wiping the sweat from my forehead and head with a hand towel, and once I finally cooled down I pulled into a parking lot, put on my white shirt, hopped outside and tucked it in and tied my tie, put on my v-neck sweater (it is -10F after all), and got to work with no sweat. I did bring my hair gel with me and headed to the bathroom to make myself look half decent. Oh the joys of an early morning run when time gets away from you.

AP: I have no idea. But the last 2 miles were 7:35. Legs felt pretty good, maybe I just need more motivation to run fast. Mind over body.

4 cold miles again this morning. Weather app said 2 degrees, so I only 2 layers vs 3 when it was colder, but when I got outside I could tell it was below zero. I was still never cold, and sweating profusely at the end even though my last 2 miles are nearly all downhill and the effort isn't huge. First 2 are of course mostly uphill and I guess it's harder than I think, especially with an extra pound or two of clothes and microspikes, and having to worry about slipping on the snow and ice. Overall was a good run, but dreaming of warmer days with shorts and singlet. Someday soon I'll be in those conditions and dreaming of colder days without so much heat....

4 more subzero miles this morning. Thought it was -2, but afterwards I turned on my truck and it said -8, so I'll go with that. Wore lighter layers today and it felt much better, and I also left my microspikes at home and I ran fine without them and much lighter. Much easier run, but still challenging. Maybe when it warms up I'll be running better, but had to stop and walk at 1.25 miles. Rest of the run went well, and was again sweating like crazy after, even with only 2 layers of clothes on. The body is certainly a furnace factory. This should be the last subzero run of the winter, but looking forward to the above freezing runs which should be coming soon.

I intended to go 6, but I got a bad side ache 1/2 mile into my run, and the SE wind was fierce, so I cut my outside run to 2 miles and hopped on the TM for another couple miles plus a bit. Turns out that eating a couple pancakes slathered in Nutella and Peanut Butter plus drinking a  Gatorade right before running midday is a bad idea. Who knew? 🧐

2 TM miles at the Y. I wasn't feeling it, not sure what's going on. Did some situps, pushups, and pullups after, then hit the steam room. Normally I'm sweating so hard after a workout I can barely cool down to get back to work, so it was nice to steam up and stretch sore shoulder muscles.

4 TM miles at lunchtime. Listened to Pandora instead of Netflix; Smashing Pumpkins station; and it was much better than watching Longmire. I think I focused better and the time went faster. I felt stronger, not sure if it was music or what, but I ran much better. I also switched incline to only 1% so that helped, vs 2% which better mimics outdoor running, but I don't seem to be up for it yet (no pun intended). 30 situps, 20 pushups, 10 pullups after.

Darn it, I tweaked my left calf muscle yesterday while running and thought little of it and continued on, and in fact ran faster and faster until I finished the last bit at a 6 minute mile. All on a tweaked calf. This morning I went out for a run and took it easy, but after 3/4 mile in I hit a low incline hill, and I couldn't even run. I walked/limped to the flat, then was able to run, so turned around at 1 mile and slowly ran back. Now I'm limping as I walk, even though I have it wrapped and have been icing it. Bummer. I'm reading articles about what to do, so I'll RICE and go from there. Hmph.