Week in review April 20-26: Running is coming along -- thanks, PT and weights

Good running volume and a nice variety of other stuff.

It was a really good week for training. I had good runs, I had decent bike rides, I did a bunch of PT, and I worked in a smattering of Other Stuff.

The week started off slowly with an easy run on Monday and an easy ride on Tuesday. These past few weeks, I have noticed that I'm carrying over some residual fatigue and stress into the new week, so easy workouts on Monday and Tuesday have been working OK for me. Wednesday was my first furlough day, and I did a long run with few people and too many snowflakes around. I felt good about it and it was nice to break up the work with with a nice training day.

I was able to rally, kind of, for a hard trainer ride Thursday, easy run Friday, and weights and a speed run Saturday. I was skeptical that a speed run after weights was a good idea but I have set a new Garmin 10K record two weeks running (ha), so something has to be working. I rounded out the week with a long-ish but not too hard trainer ride.

I can't complain about this week at all. It worked out to be:

Run: Four times, all on the road, for 31.75 miles in about 5:11. Two easy runs, a great speed run, and a do-able long run is going to be my ideal running week for at least the time being. I am happy that the weather and my body are holding out.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 53.3 fake trainer miles in about 3:33. Less excitement here: I have been doing an easy ride, a harder ride, and a longer ride weekly. Since I'm probably not racing any time soon I backed the longer ride down to 1.5 hours and that's about all I can handle right now, and that's OK.

PT: Three rounds of my homework for about 1:45. I am definitely noticing a difference here. It's no coincidence that I'm working in more PT at the same time I'm running a bit more and feeling good.

Weights: One round of my heavy/body routine for about 1:15. I should have squeezed in another video or online barre class, but this still felt pretty good.

Dryland: I found a video online and hung on for 15 minutes as a warmup to Saturday's weights routine.

Yoga: 15 minutes of self-guided practice. Again, I could have done more, but even this one night helped.

Total: 13 sessions in about 12:14.

Of course there could have been some fine-tuning but I feel I got all the low-hanging fruit this past week. Plus, I had some easy days, some downtime, and some fun time mixed in with all the pandemic anxiety. All in all, not a bad little week.

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy!

More Garmin records and a new schedule

This past week was my first with Wednesday as my furlough day. I rearranged my running schedule to do my long run on that day, with the hopes that the trails would be less crowded. It was chilly and it even snowed a bit, which kept the crowds away, and I was able to avoid getting too close to anyone.

I was NOT happy to be snowed on, but seeing a low snow cloud over the river was cool.

So far, the week has been easy run Monday, long run Wednesday, easy run Friday, and speed run Saturday. I would say my first attempt went pretty well. The easy runs felt easy, I was able to keep a decent pace on my long run, and my speed run was great.

I thought about a time trial 5K but decided that was too sadistic and landed on descending miles instead. I split the first two at 9:25 and 9:11 and then thought, "OK, time to get to work." I knocked out miles at 8:47, 8:35, 8:16, and 7:50, each getting progressively harder and more difficult to keep down my brunch. I hit the end of the block with the end of the last fast mile, also at the same time my song ended, so I took that as a sign. I wrapped up with a cooldown mile of 9:19 and headed home feeling pretty pleased with myself.

And there was this:

Aw yeah!

I'm under no illusions that I'm a "fast" runner but I was pretty proud of myself for setting two new records since I got my Garmin 2.5 or so years ago. The previous 54:40 10K was from last week, so to take another 42 seconds off is pretty darn cool. And my previous fast mile was about a year and a half ago, so I was pretty happy to take 6 seconds off there.

I may not have any races to train for, but I still enjoy pushing myself — within reason, of course. Even the tiniest improvements are what keep me motivated and getting out the door these days.

Happy and safe, and speedy, running to all of you.

Week in review April 13-19: Winter's last hurrah, hopefully

Not a bad week.

I spent most of last week complaining about the cold and snow, yes, the snow. I saw a few snowflakes on my runs Tuesday and Thursday, and it legitimately flurried all day Friday. There was no way I had the mental fortitude to run in that, so Friday became my first rest day in three weeks. I was long overdue.

Other than that, it was a pretty normal-ish week. I rode some, I ran some — including my fastest 10K in a while — and I even squeezed in some dryland, weights, and PT, and ended the week with a little yoga. Overall, it was a good variety, and I definitely used muscles I haven't in a while.

One thing I did not do was my weekend long run. I learned late last week that I'm on 20% furlough starting this week, meaning I have one furlough day per week and a 20% pay cut. I am OK with this for a couple reasons: I still have a job, which I am grateful for. I'm not sad about having another scheduled day off, even if it is unpaid. We recently paid off some big bills and refinanced some loans, so we should be able to absorb the pay cut without too much trouble.

Anyway, I didn't do a weekend long run because I'm going to try to make lemonade out of lemons and move my long run to my furlough day. It'll be a nice break in the week, and hopefully there will be fewer people out. Plus, I lazed around significantly more over this past weekend, and I can't lie and say it wasn't nice. I am almost always rushing off to the farmer's market, or a long run, or a family get-together on the weekends, and it was almost luxurious to have nothing to do other than drink my coffee and pet my dogs.

I did do a bunch of training last week, too. It was:

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 54.5 fake trainer miles for about 3:33. I'm still doing two, one-hour rides during the week and a 1.5-ish-hour ride on the weekend, but I kind of don't see the point to do anything longer than that since I probably won't be racing anything on two wheels soon.

Run: Three times, all on the road, for 18.5 miles in about 3:01. This was two easy runs and a speed run of alternating moderate and hard miles in the wind, during which I almost lost my lunch, but also during which my Garmin told me I set a new 10K PR by about 25 seconds. Yay!

Weights: One online barre class and one heavy/body session for about 2:05 total. I did pullups and chinups for the first time in forever AND tried a new lunge move on Saturday, and I am still sore two days later.

PT: Two homework sessions plus rolling for about 1:10. Eh, not bad, but I should be fitting in a few more during the week.

Yoga: One 20-minute Down Dog app session. Again, not bad, but I should be fitting in a few more sessions.

Dryland: I did some dryland this week! 15 minutes of a cycle of swimming-esque moves to warm up for a weights workout.

Total: 12 sessions for about 10:24.

Not an amazing week but pretty good, and a pretty good variety, AND a rest day. I'll take it. It wasn't an easy week with work, life, and pandemic stress, but I managed to get through it. Training is keeping me sane and I'm going to try to keep going as long as I can.

Stay safe and healthy out there.

Another fast 10K but nowhere to race

All the extra PT and weights workouts are paying off. I logged another fast 10K yesterday, the fastest since I bought this new Garmin two and a half years ago. I clocked a 54:40, 25 seconds faster than the previous fastest I clocked during my speed workout two weeks ago.

Not too shabby.

I've never "raced" an open 10K, but the fastest 10K I've run that I know about is a 52:03 at the end of an Olympic triathlon many moons ago, in August of 2013. Now that I'm, ahem, a master's runner, I probably won't see that time again, but that's OK. It happens to the best of us.

I'm in the same boat for my 5K PR: I've never "raced" an open 5K, but I know I've run a 25:04 at the end of sprint triathlon in 2012. Since I bought this Garmin my fastest is a 25:24 from a virtual 5K, I think, in December of 2018.

Even though there probably won't be races for months, I do still like doing a speed run once a week or so. I've had a casual goal of a 24:59 5K for a while, but I think I can work on getting that 10K time down, too. Maybe 53:59 would be attainable if I kept working at this over spring and into summer.

I really wanted to race, like actually RACE, a 5K this summer to see what I could do, but who knows what the situation will be. Maybe I need another virtual race to motivate myself to do some hard miles.

I hope you are all are running quickly and safely, even if you don't have a race to train for.

Week in review April 6-12: A more normal training week amidst non-normal times

Great running, OK biking, a smattering of other stuff.

I saw a meme or whatever the other day that said something to the effect of, "This is a pandemic, not a productivity contest." I definitely needed to hear that, because I was starting to fall into the trap of getting frustrated with myself for not accomplishing everything on my very long to-do list.

Last week was normal training volume under most circumstances. Although I've had a few very good weeks in a row, I just couldn't keep it going. The stress and uncertainty got to me and I had trouble sleeping most of the week. Also,  I had a few fun things in there, like trying a new recipe and a virtual happy hour. I had high hopes that I would knock out a laundry list of tasks on Friday, since I had the day off work, but getting groceries took most of the morning and part of the afternoon. Ugh.

All in all, it wasn't a terrible week. I had some good runs, did some baking, made an easy Easter dinner, hung out with my husband and the dogs, enjoyed some good weather, etc. We even witnessed an Easter miracle, as my mom figured out how to use Google Hangouts (lol) and the entire family video chatted for an hour or so. We couldn't be together, but we made the most of what we could do.

By the numbers, it was:

Run: Four times, all on the road, for 31.75 miles in about 5:16. This was two easy runs, a speed run of half-mile pickups, and a long run. The pickups were on a very windy day and felt amazingly hard; my half-mile pace never got below what I knocked out for a whole mile the week before. My long run ended up as 12.5 running, 2 hours then rounded up to the next quarter mile. I am hopeful that I will still be able to do a half marathon later this year, plus running long once a week helps with my sanity.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 55.5 fake trainer "miles" in about 3:36. I have backed off the two-hour Saturday rides because I probably won't be doing any multisport any time soon. But I'm OK with keeping up a bike base as I focus on running for a bit.

PT: Once for about 35 minutes. Not a great week.

Yoga: One 20-minute session on the Down Dog app. At least I did something.

Total: 9 sessions in about 9:47. Not spectacular, not bad.

Nope, I didn't do any weights or dryland swim drills. I had to let something go for my own peace of mind. I really want to have amazing training weeks every week I'm on lockdown but it probably just isn't going to happen. At least running is going well and I'm squeezing in a bit of fun, right?

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy, and running and biking ALONE if you're going outside.

Week in review March 30-April 5: Training to stay sane and healthy

Overall, still a really good training week.

I didn't have quite as good a week training-wise as I did the week before, but I still got a good amount in. I was more tired this week, probably from the cumulative stress of everything going on in the world.

I did shake it up a little bit. I tried adding an easy run during the week for four total runs, something I haven't done in a while. I'm using part of my extra time from not commuting and putting that toward weights and PT, so I feel good about my body taking on the extra mileage.

I didn't do any dryland this week and I didn't do as much yoga or weights as I would have liked. I got super tired about an hour into my Saturday long ride, and I'd be lying if I didn't admit to thinking "That's it, I have the virus, this is the fatigue hitting me." I ate something and re-hydrated, and skipped my planned weights workout, and felt a lot better afterward. I also managed a 12-mile run the next day, so I think it's safe to say that wasn't it.

I kept Monday as an easy day and moved my speed run back to Friday, which I liked. (Although it probably contributed to the leg zapped-ness of Saturday's ride.) I'll try to keep that routine for a few weeks and see how it goes.

Anyway, numbers-wise, it was:

Run: Four times, all on the road, for 31 miles (50K!) in about 5:08. Easily my biggest-volume week for running in a long, long time. And, it all felt good! My easy runs were pretty uneventful, I varied my speed on my fast run and logged my fastest 10K with my new Garmin, and my long run was a 12-miler in the beautiful weather. I'm not going to do anything longer than that for the time being, but it was nice to get out and challenge myself.

Bike: Three times, all on the trainer, for 53.5 fake trainer miles in about 3:37. This was an easy ride Monday, a hard interval ride Thursday, and the longer ride that I turned into a soft pedal after about an hour.

PT: Three homework sessions followed by rolling out my quads and calves for about 1:45.

Weights: One virtual barre class followed by chinup and pullup practice for about an hour.

Yoga: One self-guided session for about 15 minutes.

Total: 12 sessions in about 11:44. Still a darn good week.

I'm living in a state of limbo right now where I'm taking everything one day at a time. Detroit's and Michigan's COVID numbers aren't getting any better and I saw a LOT of people not social distancing on my run Sunday, which makes me angry that people aren't taking this seriously. I'm going to continue to go out, ALONE, as long as I am feeling good. I definitely need the mental distraction as much as the physical exercise.

I hope you also had a good and healthy week.

March in review: In like a lamb and out like a dumpster fire

What a month. I don't even know where to begin. The beginning of March seems like a year ago.

I started March negotiating a major life change. I slowly built up my long runs from 7 miles on the 1st to 11 miles on the 29th, faithfully going out every Sunday. Daylight Saving Time gave me an extra hour for running in the sunlight after work. I voted.

COVID-19 threw a huge monkey wrench in my training and life, as it did for everyone, but I tried to make the most of my extra time at home with extra training, lots of walking the dogs, and almost every single meal cooked at home. In addition to consistently rebuilding my run, I also added in some dryland swimming drills a few times, did more yoga than I have in years, and tried an online barre class to replace my canceled in-person classes.

It feels kind of ridiculous to be reviewing my training during this time when people are literally dying, but assuming I get out of this in one piece, I'll be happy to have these reviews to look back on.

A good variety of training this month.

March was:

Bike: 13 times, all on the trainer, for 268 fake trainer miles in about 17.5 hours. This was consistent riding three days per week, two 1-hour rides during the week and a 2-hour ride on Saturdays. Even though I'm not training for anything specific, I do enjoy (mostly) a longer and slower weekend ride for maintenance.

I will say that my bike has been stagnant for a while. Over the last year or so, I notice that rides start getting a bit easier, I re-test my FTP, and I end up with a higher power target. I haven't done an FTP test in a while and rides haven't felt easy in a while. I'm not sure if this is because I'm making progress on the run and I can only do one thing at a time, or if I'm just in a plateau, or if I need to shake it up, or what. Honestly, it's not my biggest concern at the moment, and I probably will keep on this routine for a while yet.

Some really good run mileage last month.

Run: 13 times, all on the road, for 86.75 miles in a bit less than 15 hours. This was easily the best discipline of the month. Except for one week when I only ran twice, I kept a steady three-times-weekly schedule and slowly built up my long runs. I also started working in speed work for one run per week.

It is not a coincidence that I have increased my running mileage at the same time I am adding more PT and weights. Everything feels pretty good, knock on wood, and I know it's because of the supplemental stuff that goes along with running. Strong glutes, strong quads, strong hips, strong runs.

I haven't broken 90 miles for a month in a long time (I was one mile off in December) and I had to go WAY back to find the last time I broke 100 — October of 2017. I'm hopeful there is another 100-mile month in my future. Maybe that will be something good to come out of this stay-at-home order.

PT: 9 times, all homework sessions, for about 5.25 hours. 2-3 times per week is by far the most PT I have done in a while and there is no question it is helping my running. I'd like to say I can feel my glutes getting stronger.

Weights: 4 times — 2 barre classes, 1 video, and 1 heavy/body session — for about 4.5 hours total. Not great, but decent. I'll take it. Plus, I have been working on my pullups and chinups. My back is getting ripped!

Yoga: 6 times, 4 self-guided and 2 trying out a new-to-me app, for about 1.5 hours. Again, this is by far the most yoga I have done in a while and there is no question it is helping my overall fitness. Plus, it helps me relax a tiny bit before bed.

Swim/Dryland: 3 times of 15 minutes each for 45 minutes total. I found some videos online, dug out some old stretch bands, and made it work as best as I could.

Total: 48 sessions in about 44.5 hours. This was my highest-volume month in at least a year.

The COVID pandemic is only going to get worse, and I'm scared. I'm lucky that I can do almost all of my workouts at home or alone on the roads, that I'm in good health, that I still have a paying job, that I have my dogs and husband to watch over me should something happen.

In the great scheme of things, it's only training. But I am going to keep training as long as I can. It's a little bit of sanity for me, and being in good shape can't hurt if I do get sick.

Please stay healthy, stay safe, and stay home when you can.