february: out like a lion!
Let's look at how February went!
February Goals
Cycle outside. Find a way. Many fantastic outside rides - thanks, early Spring!
Get back in the pool. Yup, and the workouts are getting longer.
Buy one of those darn spaghetti squashes and try to cook it. Crap. I did have spaghetti for dinner last night?
Suck it up and just go to Costco already. Take a Valium first? $212 later, I have enough TP for at least 3 months.
PR the stupid 5K so I can stop running them for a while. Bittersweet, but I did it!
February was amazing. There were ups and downs, but I crossed over so many milestones that I can actually kind of appreciate the downs. Looking back at my January recap, I can actually see how far I've come. I'm completely healed from my pulled intercostal, and while my swim workouts are still hovering around the 2000yd-mark, it's enough for right now. Quite a few spring-type days let me get in quite a bit of cycling, and while I'm displeased with the strength I've lost by essentially taking 8 weeks off from cycling, I'm happy to just be getting in easy volume on the bike at this point. And I'm sore after running, but it's a tired kind of happy sore, and almost all of the little cranky twinges I was feeling last month have cleared up. I'm still trying to be really good about foam rolling, stretching, and icing, and I am confident that this is helping to keep me healthy.
Confidence, in general, got a huge boost this month. I've been following the pace chart, and almost all of my track workouts are dead-on for my half marathon goal. I had a fantastic 12-mile long run followed a week later by a 14-mile run that wasn't happy, but showed me that I've got the mental toughness I need to get through this race. I feel like I've been doing a decent job of nailing key workouts, whatever they may be. But like I said yesterday, I'm tired. February ended up being an entire month of increasing mileage and intensity, and I feel strong but ready to heal. I'm grateful that this week is a step back week, and I'm going to leave out lifting and anything else that I'm feeling too tired to do. I want to be ready to smash every workout next week, the last high mileage week of this training cycle, and then coast downhill to the half. I do recognize that I'm probably going to be slightly under-trained for the 70.3 that I'm doing in May, especially on the bike, but that's not an A race, that's a "where am I?" race. The National Half is my spring A race, and my training has been very definitely geared towards that. After the half is over, I'll adjust my training a bit to make sure that I have key workouts in swimming, biking and running, and plenty of recovery.
I'm also firmly inside the time window where, during the last 3 half marathon training cycles, I've been on the receiving end of a devastating injury. So from here on out, nothing new, nothing scary, nothing ridiculous. My training cycle has been a hugely different animal this time around, but I can't ignore the past.
January
Miles run: 143, 42 of those in the pool.
Miles cycled: 131, but 100% outside
Rest days: 3
Cupcakes consumed: huge, overlarge number.
Cupcakes transported on a bicycle: 2
PRs set: 1
New pairs of 2150s purchased on sale: 2. I have a problem.
March Goals
National Half. Get there healthy & run it down.
February Goals
Cycle outside. Find a way. Many fantastic outside rides - thanks, early Spring!
Get back in the pool. Yup, and the workouts are getting longer.
Buy one of those darn spaghetti squashes and try to cook it. Crap. I did have spaghetti for dinner last night?
Suck it up and just go to Costco already. Take a Valium first? $212 later, I have enough TP for at least 3 months.
PR the stupid 5K so I can stop running them for a while. Bittersweet, but I did it!
February was amazing. There were ups and downs, but I crossed over so many milestones that I can actually kind of appreciate the downs. Looking back at my January recap, I can actually see how far I've come. I'm completely healed from my pulled intercostal, and while my swim workouts are still hovering around the 2000yd-mark, it's enough for right now. Quite a few spring-type days let me get in quite a bit of cycling, and while I'm displeased with the strength I've lost by essentially taking 8 weeks off from cycling, I'm happy to just be getting in easy volume on the bike at this point. And I'm sore after running, but it's a tired kind of happy sore, and almost all of the little cranky twinges I was feeling last month have cleared up. I'm still trying to be really good about foam rolling, stretching, and icing, and I am confident that this is helping to keep me healthy.
Confidence, in general, got a huge boost this month. I've been following the pace chart, and almost all of my track workouts are dead-on for my half marathon goal. I had a fantastic 12-mile long run followed a week later by a 14-mile run that wasn't happy, but showed me that I've got the mental toughness I need to get through this race. I feel like I've been doing a decent job of nailing key workouts, whatever they may be. But like I said yesterday, I'm tired. February ended up being an entire month of increasing mileage and intensity, and I feel strong but ready to heal. I'm grateful that this week is a step back week, and I'm going to leave out lifting and anything else that I'm feeling too tired to do. I want to be ready to smash every workout next week, the last high mileage week of this training cycle, and then coast downhill to the half. I do recognize that I'm probably going to be slightly under-trained for the 70.3 that I'm doing in May, especially on the bike, but that's not an A race, that's a "where am I?" race. The National Half is my spring A race, and my training has been very definitely geared towards that. After the half is over, I'll adjust my training a bit to make sure that I have key workouts in swimming, biking and running, and plenty of recovery.
I'm also firmly inside the time window where, during the last 3 half marathon training cycles, I've been on the receiving end of a devastating injury. So from here on out, nothing new, nothing scary, nothing ridiculous. My training cycle has been a hugely different animal this time around, but I can't ignore the past.
January
Miles run: 143, 42 of those in the pool.
Miles cycled: 131, but 100% outside
Rest days: 3
Cupcakes consumed: huge, overlarge number.
Cupcakes transported on a bicycle: 2
PRs set: 1
New pairs of 2150s purchased on sale: 2. I have a problem.
March Goals
National Half. Get there healthy & run it down.