Sunday, February 25, 2018

Zumbro training 2/19-2/25 Recap


Monday: REST

Tuesday:  Not a real fun day for me, my quads were still sore from my runs on the SHT over the weekend. We got 3 inches of snow overnight and the plows had not yet been out when I went for my run.  
     Assignment was 7 miles at 7:45-7:50 pace along with ten minutes of warmup and ten minutes of cool down.  Warm up was fine but, I could tell that the snow and wind were going to slow me down.  The Pace Run portion was just as unenjoyable as I thought it would be.  Garmin and Strava say that  I averaged around 7:48, but the truth is that I was actually about 17 seconds per mile slower.  Between coughing, stopping to dry heave once and stopping a couple times for major coughs because I just couldn't breathe enough, I added about 2 unrecorded minutes to my time.  Run made me feel weak, and I really don't like that!

Wednesday: Plain vanilla, Wednesday was an easy pace road run. Except, I pushed it too hard. 8:44 pace was too fast, especially after yesterday's killer pace run. Epsom salt bath plus tart cherry juice are the order of the day for the evening to help my quads feel better

Thursday:  REST  Not a bad thing, with 5-8 inches of snow coming tonight and my quads still a little grumpy.

Friday: Well, we definitely got at least 5 inches of fresh powder, with the temp going up, the snow under the powder was softer too, and my running suffered because of it.  Where I normally get 5+ miles during my hour trail runs, this one was only 4.  Still felt like a solid workout though.  

Saturday: Assignment was an Out/Back trail run.  Easy run for 90 minutes then turn around and try to make it back to the start in 80 minutes.  Run did not go entirely to plan.  The new trail I was planning on trying was not groomed at all, and trying even easy pace on it was a no go, so I turned around after only 0.2 miles so I could continue on a trail with some grooming.  Other than that, the first 90 minutes weren't bad, decent amount of walking, in respect of the conditions.  I made it 6.17 miles before my turn around alert.
--Second half, after the turn around was not so pleasant.  The first two miles were uphill on "somewhat groomed" trail, meaning it had been gone over once, but still was VERY soft and I was sliding.  Those first 2 miles took about 17 minutes each, REALLY slowing me down.  After that, I was able to kale up time on the more groomed trail, sticking to the sides so I wouldn't disrupt the Nordic ski tracks.  When I got back to the totally ungroomed trail, I played nice and did that 0.4 miles again, suffering through it.  I ended up taking 1:25:45 to get back, so I missed my goal, but still managed to get back in less time than I spent going out.  Mixed feelings on the run.  I know I put a good effort in, and that was the point, but I missed the goal time, so that's a disappointment.  Snow Storm tonight, so tomorrow's run should be "fun"

Sunday: One hour of shoveling the 8in of snow off the driveway made for a tired day today.  With permission from Coach Jake, today's run was on the road, instead of trail.  Pretty happy for that, running in fresh, untouched snow, after clearing the driveway, would have been torture.
--As it turns out, running on somewhat plowed roads was not all that great either.  I got in 18.2 miles during mt 3 hour run, but it was a suffer fest.  A lot of the road was covered wit snow the consistency of lightly packed sand, and my legs reminded me, loudly, that I had shoveled for an hour this morning.... ugh... at least I got it done.

Total Distance: 50.6
Total Time on Feet: 9:11:09

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Zumbro training 2/5-2/18 Recap

Between work and training it's been a crazy beginning to February, so here's 2 weeks worth of training log!

Week 1


Monday: REST

Tuesday:  Assignment was 2x3mile Cruise intervalls at 7:40 pace (23:00min) with 3 minute recovery jog. It was a brisk -20F (-28.8C) this morning. Ran my 2o minute warm up and got down to business. First rep I got done in just about 22:50, so pretty good, but I could feel the effort in it, that's for sure! 3 minute recovery ended up being a little longer because my watch froze and it took like 30 seconds or so to get it working again.... just glad I didn't have to do a soft reset on it!

Second set I was pretty tired. These Cruise intervals are supposed to be a "comfortably hard" pace... not sure what that means, but rep 2 was pretty painful Anyway, I did what I had to do and got it done in almost exactly 23:00, I was like 0.2 seconds off according to my Garmin, but as we all know, that's WAY within margin of error given tracking ability of GPS watches.

Wednesday: Officially assigned a road run.  Got in 6.7 miles in the 1:00:00 assigned to run.  Run felt good

Thursday: REST

Friday: Trail Run.  Assignment was 1:00:00 on trail.  I got in 5.5 miles and it was -14F, not much more to add.

Saturday: Out/back day.  Assignment was 1 hour easy run and get back in 55min.  Went out running with my Buddy Andy and got in 10 miles because I got back in less than 55min!

Sunday:  9.8 trail miles at the ridge.  Fun running

Total Distance: 41.2 miles
Total Time on Feet: 7:16:31

Week 2

Monday:  Normal REST day

Tuesday:  Hill repeat day.  Assignment was 10x2min hill repeats.  Decided to switch it up a bit and did the repeats on trail with double the grade of my normal road repeats.  My legs felt it, but I loved it.... After taking to coach.... I wanted to find an easier hill, but he said to use that one...

Wednesday: Officially assigned a road run.  Got in 6.9 miles in the 1:00:00 assigned to run.  Run felt good

Thursday: REST

Friday: 1:00:00 Trail run Got in 5.85 miles before work in the cold weather.

Saturday: Was in Duluth and hit the course for Wild Duluth... Ah, my first ultra, such foggy but good memories.  Got in 14.47 miles.... So close to 13.5 but didn't notice that.... gggrrrr.....

Sunday:  2 hour trail run day.  With heavy legs from yesterday, and again hitting the WD100k course, I was feeling pretty tired.  Got in exactly 9 miles though, so good day!

Total Distance: 42 miles
Total Time on Feet: 8:19:17

So, there you have it, two weeks worth of Zumbro training.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Zumbro training 1/29-2/4 Recap

Monday: REST

Tuesday:  Trail Fartlek.  This one actually went fairly well.  I hit a flatter.easier section of trail, as instructed, and managed decent (sub-7) paces during the fast parts of the run.  Running on the XC trails meant that I could jog during the recovery between sprints, so it was a nice FAST Fartlek for me.

Wednesday: Another Easy Pace Road Run for 1:00:00.  Pace ended up being "a bit" faster than easy, as I got in 6.6 miles.

Thursday: REST

Friday: Assignment was 1:00:00 easy pace trail run.  I went to Giant's ridge and hit up the trails, running ahead of the groomer, so my tracks would get erased, so as to not be in the way for the skiers.  Got in a solid 5.5 miles

Up the hill after AS3
Finally on top
Saturday: Long Run.   This was more of a slog than a run.  I went south and previewed the Zumbro course, Joining a group from the Upper Midwest Trail Runners.  With the snow on the ground, the uphills were killer,  There were a few runnable miles, but a lot of it was post holing and sloging through snow.  I was able to see the four big climbs on the loop and take their measure.  I've gone on bigger climbs and steeper, so the only issue I foresee is the fact that I will be hitting each hill SIX times.  All in all, it was a good, if long, experience.


Sunday:  After a slower Saturday, I punished myself with a slow Sunday.  4.2 miles going up, over, down, and back, at the Ridge.

Total Distance: 39.4 miles
Total Time on Feet: 9:23:52