what. a. month.
Leading up to the Big Sur Marathon, road running pretty much dominated the mix at 89%, with trail running at 11%, and bicycling at 0%. I also had to travel to Virginia during my final taper week – read: sat in a conference for three days, got focused rest, and ran shorter distances. I even resisted running in Washington D.C. (which was tough!) since that leg was on a rest day.
As far as new equipment, a couple of things this month:
- Arm Sleeves. I wrote about this in two posts (one, two), but the gist of it was that I wanted to wear a short-sleeved shirt for Big Sur, just in case I got warm, and sleeves seemed the best option. I settled on Road Runner Sports’ Smart Sleeves. They worked and are keepers for my runs, rather than wearing long-sleeved shirts.
- Shoes. I picked up a pair of Hoka One One Stinson EVOs this month after reading and researching them. With Big Sur training at the forefront, I only got two runs in with them (one, two); but, based on those runs, I really like them. As I prepare to run my first 50K (May 19), I will be logging more time in them and will write a post about them once I have logged sufficient miles.
The biggest thing this month, as far as training, was the decision to go for it and run an ultra in May – specifically the Horseshoe Lake 50K on May 19. I’d been toying with the thought of running an ultra later in the year, but found a few blog posts and articles about leveraging marathon training (and the marathon itself) as preparation for an ultra. After some analysis of my training, how I anticipated Big Sur would go, and the calendar, I decided to register. We’ll see how it goes, but my goal is to have a blast and finish with a smile.
Anyway, here are the stats for the month that was April 2013:
Running [25 sessions]
Mileage:
- Total: 184.09 [-26.51 from March]
- Shortest run: 3.49 [+.06 from March]
- Longest run: 26.34 [+6.12 from March]
- YTD: 729.69
Pace:
- Overall Avg: 8:33 [-:01 from March]
- Slowest Avg: 11:28 [+0:54 from March]
- Fastest Avg: 7:43 [-:21 from March]
- YTD Avg: 8:30
Total Running Time:
- 26.8 hours or 1,608 minutes [-3:50:00 from March]
- YTD: 105.31 hours or 6,318.7 minutes
whitespace!
Cycling [0 sessions]
Mileage:
- No biking this month…
- YTD: 135.19
Pace:
- No biking this month…
- YTD Avg: 16.1 mph
Total Cycling Time:
- No biking this month…
- YTD: 8.3 hours or 500 minutes
whitespace!
Training Program(s):
- 18-week program for the Big Sur Marathon on April 28th. The program is basically Hal Higdon’s Intermediate 2 Marathon Training Guide with customization for planned travel and home life. Pacing for my plan is calculated using my half marathon PR, the McMillan Running Calculator, and selecting a pace in the middle of the resulting “Optimal Training Paces” for the various workouts. On the plan, Monday is a 60 to 80-minute cycling session to add some cross training, though I removed that as I am focused on more miles in preparation for my 50K in May.
whitespace!
Caloric Stats:
- Consumed: 105,338 [-7,476 from March]
- Burned: 22,875 [-4,331 from March]
- YTD: C: 4222,275 / B: 93,882
whitespace!
Races Completed:
- 4/7: Inaugural Rock ‘n’ Roll San Francisco Half Marathon [report]
- 4/28: Big Sur International Marathon [report]
- Race Count: Month: 2 / YTD: 5 / Lifetime: 32
- 5k: 0 / 0 / 7
- 10k: 0 / 0 / 2
- Half Marathon: 1 / 4 / 13
- Marathon: 1 / 1 / 2
- 50K: 0 / 0 / 0 [haha, got this ready to fill in the May post!]
- Other: 0 / 0 / 7
GIDDY-UP!
Training Journal – 5/3/13:
- Current plan: Big Sur Marathon Recovery Week / Horseshoe Lake 50K Training Plan
- Today’s session: 8 mile easy run
- Comments: I did 8.28 @ 8:24
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