2 Months in Review: February and March by the Numbers

February
Swim: 30,300yards
Bike: 496.9miles
Run: 85.4miles + 11.8miles walking
Weights: 8 short 15-20min sessions TRX/bosu/core

To be honest, I can't even remember February at this point. I know that I continued to be diligent about getting to the pool for short (2000-2500yard) swims and even got in a few longer swims. Biking all on the trainer (despite the mild winter) and one day a week at FastSplits on the computrainer. I continue to LOVE the computrainer. After replacing my new (Lake) cycling shoes with a second new pair (Shimano) the foot trouble I was having subsided enough to be manageable. I still get some numbness if I ride hard or long but nothing debilitating and nothing that kept me from running. I returned to running in my heavy trainers (Adidas Supernova Sequence 3) which was fine given the slow steady miles I put in. Endurance started returning on the run which was good to feel, despite the slow paces.

March
Swim: 32150yards
Bike: 538.8miles
Run: 138.4miles + 19miles walking
Weights: 5 TRX/core sessions

March was a pretty great month. A breakthrough run month!

I took a week of vacation the second full week of the month and just trained to my heart's content. It was blissful. 3 swims (2k, 3.5k, 4k), 5 rides (1hr OUTDOORS, 1h10m, 1h30m, 1h40m, 2h30m) with two 3+mile t-runs and one longer 1hr run off the bike. I moved my long run (usually Saturday) to Thursday so I could hammer that longer ride/run on Sunday. Long run was alright, nothing to write home about. Friday was a 90/30 brick, also good not great. Saturday I had speed work on the plan. I was thinking 6x400. I jogged easy to the track and then settled into the planned work. As I came toward the fifth interval I realized that my pace (including rest intervals) was pretty darn close to my current 5k PR time so I gunned it through the last interval. I came in just 1 second off my PR. I slowed to a jog to recover and realized I was feeling quite good. I decided to pick it up to mile 4. Then mile 5. Set a new 5mile PR (by a longshot). Decided to go for 10k. Came through 10k with the second 5k faster than the first 5k, and a PR by over 30 seconds!!! (21:54)   At this point I am on cloud nine, pretty psyched with all that frustrating slow running I did all winter. With basically no speedwork I found myself with speed. I ran another lap or so and was still feeling awesome. At this point my total distance was around 8.5miles. Something clicked in my head and I decided to just keep going. Miles ticked by one after another. At some point I decided I was going for 13.1. Why not? Its my vacation, I can do what I want!  The last mile was a 7:10. 7:10! That's my (former) 5k pace. I don't know where this came from. I ran through 13.1 and my watch read 1:39:59. Admittedly this is not a true time. I stopped my watch twice for ~30 seconds (at the end of that first 5k of trackwork (5.1miles) and then after the 10k of trackwork (8.2miles). Even if I were to call it 2 minutes of stopped watch we're talking many minutes faster than my HM PR set in November. (If you recall I was gunning for a 1:45 that day and then blew up at mile 10 and shuffled home in 1:48:xx.) REDEMPTION was mine!

During the month I rode my bike outside twice. I feel good about that. One on quiet roads to shake off some of the lingering fear I have from last year's witnessed accident. The second in traffic to really get myself used to my new road pedals and all the stresses of riding with cars and traffic lights. Both were slow, nothing like the confidence I have on the trainer. To close out the month I did my second FTP test of the season. My FTP came up more than 10% and my W/kg increased from 3.3 to just over 3.75 thanks to more watts and fewer kilos! All in all, a great month!!

Hot and Sweaty

So after yesterday's exceedingly painful run my faith faltered. I went back and forth and back and forth and finally decided to head back to Rapid Transit to talk to the shoe guy. My shoe guy (ok we only met once) wasn't there but another shoe guy was more than happy to help. We tried on a bunch of other pairs of shoes, some better and some worse than the Saucony Omni 8's I already had. In the end he felt that I shouldn't keep running in shoes that were giving me pain at a level 8, so I made a switch. I am now the proud (actually, more like cautious) owner of a pair of Adidas Supernova Sequence 2s. I haven't worn Adidas in more than a decade, but they felt good in the store, even on my aching feet. The other thing that I took away from this anxiety driven visit to the store was that all these running guys think I need to be running more often than I am. In some ways this runs counter (no pun intended) to everything Jeff Galloway and other coaches seem to be saying about only running 3-4 days a week. These shoe guys seem pretty confident though. Shoe guy #2 even said that it was better that I go out for a 1.5 mile run every day with only one longer run each week, than to do 3 4-6 mile runs per week. He also felt like I shouldn't be running such a large proportion of my weekly distance on any one run -- that is, that my long run is too long given my total mileage. So blah-dee-blah-blah, here we are at Wednesday. I went to the gym this morning and had a quick 30 minute rendezvous with the Arc trainer followed by a 25 minute weight circuit. Not a great workout by any means. Feeling hesitant on my feet and again worrying about my shoes and whether I shouldn't have kept the Saucony's in the first place. Then it rained all afternoon. At 5pm the rain stopped, just long enough for me to take shoe guy #2 up on his suggestion of a quick run around the block (even on a non-running day). It was hot and humid (my least favorite combo) and my legs felt a little leaden from my squats and deadlifts, but this was meant to be just a jog, so I had no excuse. 12 minutes later, back at the house, feet feeling ok. Phew. Shoes are definitely not as cushy as the Saucony's but no pain for now. We'll see how they do tomorrow with a few more miles. Now, I need a shower.

Who else has shoe/feet issues? Am I doomed as a runner, or can the story have a happy ending?