Finally got my down week! Flew down to Florida to see my aunt and uncle and run the Sarasota Music Half Marathon, race report to follow! My legs feel pretty beat up, but I’m back up to high mileage, so I need to see about just taking it slow and recovering this week as I can.

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 6 miles. Tiny loops around my neighborhood.
• Wednesday: 6 miles.
• Thursday: 4 miles. More tiny loops.
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: Rest/travel day.
• Sunday: 13.1 miles. Sarasota Music Half Marathon. Racing a half beat up my legs more than I expected, but I had fun.
• Long run fuel: Just a Gu packet for the half.
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice this week. Making slow progress, but happy with what I’me maintaining and building.
• Stretching: Did not get as much stretching in due to travel, need to work on that.
• Race report owed: Sarasota Music Half Marathon.

This was my last week before a lower mileage week and I’m very much looking forward to the break. I’m off to Florida to run the Sarasota Metro Diner Music Half Marathon, race report to follow!

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 7 miles. Tiny loops around my neighborhood.
• Wednesday: 7 miles, speed work. VO2 max: 2x1200m, 2x1000m, 1x800m at 5K pace (9:05)
• Thursday: 4 miles .
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 18 miles. I headed down to the jail trail to do loops, and joined the Frontrunners on their modified Saturday loop before running a bunch more miles on my own. I also ventured a bit into downtown just for something different, which was a nice treat.
• Sunday: 12 miles. Ended up splitting this into two 6’s due to timing as well as an upset stomach. Not ideal, but still glad I got the miles in.
• Long run fuel: Tailwind, jelly beans. I’m not really a fan of jelly beans for long run fuel, but it was Lunar New Year, so I was attempting to celebrate correctly!
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice this week, so still on track!
• Stretching: Doing better, but always room for improvement.

Week 4 was supposed to be a step down week, but due to going to Florida to run the Sarasota Half, I’m delaying that two weeks. I’ll be anxiously awaiting that lower mileage week!

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 8 miles. Ran the Frontrunners course twice, the second time I timed it right to run with friends from the group! We also ran through the trailers for something that was filming down there.
• Wednesday: 8 miles, speedwork. VO2 max: 2 sets of 2x1200m, 1x800m at 5K pace (9:05).
• Thursday: 5 miles. Added an extra mile (and some change) and then joined the Frontrunners for the loop.
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 18 miles. I wanted to run this outside, but due to ice and road conditions, I opted for the treadmill. Not ideal, but for safety, it’s the right call.
• Sunday: 6 miles. Back at the gym, this time so I could then go volunteer and go to the symphony and make my schedule work.
• Long run fuel: Tailwind, Bobo’s Bar.
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine once this week, so I’ll be adding an extra one tonight (partially because I really do like it, and I want to keep seeing improvement!)
• Stretching: Still room for improvement, but getting back into the habit of doing my stretching routine after every run.

Week 3 is in the books! Everythign is going well, and I feel like I’m getting back into the groove of ultra training. I’m running the Sarasota Music Half Marathon in a few weeks, so Might shuffle some weeks around to accommodate that, I need to decide before tomorrow…

• Monday: Rest.
• Tuesday: 7 miles. The Frontrunners headed to Cinderlands Warehouse to food and drninks after, so I headed down a bit early to get 3 in, before running the 4 mile route with Joe.
• Wednesday: 7 miles, speedwork. VO2 max: 2 sets of 2x1200m, 1x800m at 5K pace (9:05).
• Thursday: 5 miles. Return of the tiny loops (1/3 mile) around my neighborhood.
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 16 miles. Return of the jail trail loops! Met Steve and Liz from my Ultra Team, had a new Oreo flavor (coconut caramel) and enjoyed the company and 40 degree temperature swing to run in 70 degree weather (I’m kidding, I was not ready for that swing and it was humid. Warm and humid in January, ugh).
• Sunday: 6 miles.
• Long run fuel: Tailwind, Bobo’s Bar.
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice this week, still on target!
• Stretching: Still room for improvement, but getting back into the habit of doing my stretching routine after every run.

Had to do some shuffling again this week due to New Year’s, but got everything in.

• Monday: 7 miles. Was scheduled as a rest day, but due to the holiday, I moved things around.
• Tuesday: Rest (New year’s Eve).
• Wednesday: 7 miles, speedwork. VO2 max: 6x1000m at 5K pace (9:15).
• Thursday: 5 miles. Timed my run to finish as the Frontrunners were taking off, so it was nice to (albeit briefly) see everyone.
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 5 miles. Was supposed to be my long run, but ran into some GI distress and called it early.
• Sunday: 14 miles. Still a bit of GI distress, but was near a bathroom. I think the Nuun energy I was trying to use up from last year may have been making me sick, either that or I’m just getting over something. Still got the miles done though.
• Long run fuel: Aforementioned Nuun Energy before I switched to just water. Bobo’s bar.
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice this week, still on target!
• Stretching: Still room for improvement, but getting back into the habit of doing my stretching routine after every run.

And we’re off (much like a herd of turtles as my high school biology teacher would say). Week 1 is in the books!

• Monday: 7 miles. Was scheduled as a rest day, but due to the holiday, I moved things around.
• Tuesday: 4 miles. Hit up the Westmoreland Heritage Trail with a friend, found a janky looking rope swing and ended at the ice cream parlor where the trail currently ends.
• Wednesday: Rest day (Christmas)
• Thursday: 8 miles. Thought I’d get down to Schenley early enough to beat the rush, but the crowd from Phipps is bonkers (and worse each year). A good run doing two Frontrunner loops, but I hated the crowds. I also restarted listening to Critical Role on my runs, and that’s been a lot of fun so far!
• Friday: Rest day.
• Saturday: 12 miles. Out on the Westmoreland Heritage Trail again, more Critical Role.
• Sunday: 5 miles.
• BWF/Core work: Did the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice this week, which is the goal. In the spirit of keeping hard days hard, and fully recovering on rest days, I did this on Thursday and Saturday. I’ll be adjusting as I add in speedwork, but felt good to get back into this!
• Stretching: I did decent at stretching after each run, did the full routine every time except for one. So room for improvement, but I’m still happy with it!

All in all, I’m really happy with this week, a great start to my training!

Well, it’s the Christmas season, so that means training for Eagle Up has started!

For 2020, my goal is to run the 50/50: 50K and 50Mi, for a total of 81 miles. It’s the next bump up from 100K, this is the only race that I know of that does it, and being able to say I did 5050 in 2020 was too perfect to pass up.

Now, that may change, we’ll see how training goes and how I feel on race day, but I’m once again running an RFP plan. I took both the 100mi on 50 miles per week and 100mi on 70 MPW and split the difference. I’m finalizing the speedwork portions of it, but that starts in week 2.

When I trained for Eagle Up last year, I topped out with one week of 60 MPW, and this will give me (if I remember,) 3 weeks at 60 miles (or a hair over), so a steady increase without a huge jump.

I have my tune up races scheduled: Get Lucky 50K and O24 (where I’m supposed to run either 50M or 100K), as well as a race that I did last year and will once again use as a supported long run: the Spring Thaw (they’re giving away blankets this year!).

Current plan is to do the BodyWeightFitness Recommended Routine twice a week, and while I’ve never kept up with that, I’ve gotten more consistent and stuck with it longer each subsequent training cycle, so here’s hoping. I’ll also be doing my stretching routine to hopefully not repeat the four injured weeks I had last year.

I’m excited for this, and glad I’m back on an ultra plan. The Pfitz plan I did for Philly really increased my speed, but it also took a big toll on me mentally and physically, so I’m excited to get back to some loops and just long steady miles for a bit.

I’ve also started to use my runs as a time to catch up on Critical Role. Last year, I listened to a bunch of audio books, but in my first experiment, I really enjoyed listening to CR, and since I’m so far behind in campaign 2, this will be a good help!

And of course, there’s a good contingent from PRorER heading to Eagle Up, so I’ll have plenty of support, we’ll start planning that as we get closer to it, it will be nice to see some familiar faces and share some miles!