April was quite the month for me! Between wrapping up my heaviest training for the Glass City Marathon and heading into taper time, recuperating from an injury and then racing my third marathon… there was a lot going on! I really felt like after coming to terms with the injury (tendinitis on the top of my foot) and recovering, I made huge improvements overall in my training. My eating has been much better (not perfect, but who the heck is?) and I have incorporated cross training again. This month the only cross training I did was yoga, stretching and balance exercises because I did not want to cause any other potential injuries before the marathon by doing anything drastically different. Those exercises really seemed to help, both before and after the marathon while recovering. Anyway, let’s take a look at April, shall we?!
- Total Miles: 70.75 miles
Here’s where I stand with my “Banking the Miles” challenge for 2018:
- January 2017: 73.83 miles / January 2018: 66.50 miles
- February 2017: 33.39 miles / February 2018: 74.53 miles
- March 2017: 51.51 miles / March 2018: 89.00 miles
- April 2017: 68.68 miles / April 2018: 70.75 miles
- May 2017: 61.50 miles /
- June 2017: 51.62 miles /
- July 2017: 70.38 miles /
- August 2017: 104.54 miles /
- September 2017: 136.86 miles /
- October 2017: 72.28 miles /
- November 2017: 52.86 miles /
- December 2017: 57.54 miles /
- TOTAL 2017: 835 miles / TOTAL 2018: 294.54 miles / GOAL: 1000 miles, 29%
What was I training for? Glass City Marathon.
What races did I run? Glass City Marathon and I Ran the D 5k
Best performances: I had some really great moments in both of the races that I ran. The first 20 miles of Glass City Marathon went really well. We stuck to our 3/1 intervals and maintained a pace slightly faster than our training pace. I hit my goal of a sub 6 hour marathon despite having to stop for a porta potty break that gave me a 22 minute mile. And during the I Ran the D 5k I hit paces of sub 9 minutes per mile during the running intervals. I haven’t done that in quite some time!
Opportunities for improvement: I need to keep going with the momentum that I had leading into Glass City. I want to continue to do yoga workouts and now add in some strength training and cross training for cardio. The weather is so much nicer and I definitely think it is time to get out the bike! I also want to keep my mileage up or else it is going to be tough to reach that goal of 1000 miles by the end of this year. I have signed up for a challenge that should help me with that though – the “Still I Run” run streak challenge in May. May is mental health awareness month, so I will be running and/or walking at least 1 mile every day during the month of May, dedicating my miles to those with mental health issues and especially to those that we have lost to suicide.
What’s ahead: I’ve got 2-3 races planned for May. Next weekend is the MOM (Mind Over Matter) 5k in Royal Oak. No real plans of getting a 5k PR at the race but definitely plan to get a course PR. It’s going to be another fun race versus a really competitive one. Then after that I might be doing another 5k on May 19th that benefits the treatment center where my mom goes for chemotherapy and radiation. And the last weekend of the month will be the Bayshore Half Marathon! I am really looking forward to that weekend of running and fun with some of my best running girlfriends!
RD on the Run 