February was a difficult month for me. All of the struggles of 2020 seemed to come to a head and it effected every aspect of my life… including running. Towards the end of the month, however, I got back on track and I started March strong. I owe some of this to the wonderfully motivating badges that Garmin puts out each month! In March the big one for me was the 15k badge. I hadn’t been doing long runs at all in February, so that badge was a push for me to get back into running longer distances.
- January 2020: 50.0 miles / January 2021: 77.7 miles
- February 2020: 78.6 miles / February 2021: 26.0 miles
- March 2020: 84.3 miles / March 2021: 55.2 miles
- April 2020: 96.4 miles
- May 2020: 83.3 miles
- June 2020: 72.5 miles
- July 2020: 84.0 miles
- August 2020: 94.7 miles
- September 2020: 50.1 miles
- October 2020: 53.7 miles
- November 2020: 69.3 miles
- December 2020: 86.0 miles
- TOTAL 2020: 902.9 miles / TOTAL 2021: 158.9 miles
March 2021 Marathon in a Month: 5:19:11, 12:11 min/mile average pace. I started “Marathon in a Month” back in November. So far, the months rank:
- November 2020: 5:09:37, 11:49 min/mile
- March 2021: 5:19:11, 12:11 min/mile
- December 2020: 5:25:24, 12:25 min/mile
- January 2021: 5:28:39, 12:33 min/mile
- February 2021: 6:02:29, 13:50 min/mile
I started this off because of a Marathon in a Month race put on by Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November 2020 and then kept doing it. I am now genuinely curious if this might help predict my marathon time for October! Only time will tell, right?
What was I training for? Nothing, really. Like I mentioned before, the 15k Garmin Badge inspired me to actually increase my mileage each week. I ended the month doing three 3 mile runs during the week and my 15k on the weekend. Currently I have only signed up for virtual 5ks here and there. My next planned big race is not until October – the Detroit Free Press Marathon – so I am doing an easy build up plan to start marathon training in June.
Any races? My hubby signed up for America’s Shamrock Run and we walked it together on 313 day. In a way earning the 15k badge was sort of like a race, although I didn’t run it that way.
How is it going? I finished up the #MBF Beachbody On Demand program the first week of March and immediately hopped into the advanced version, #MBFA. I approached it the same way I did the first program – I didn’t do the workouts every day like the program has planned. I am still working through the program. Last week I wrapped up week 2, which I did every day. This morning I woke up and still felt sore, so I decided to do yoga instead of starting up week 3 and following it every day as it is designed. (Plus doing yoga helped me earn another Garmin Badge, WOOT!) I’ll definitely be finishing the program up soon, though, and my plan is to start the new program 30 Day Breakaway on Beachbody On Demand. It is Beachbody’s first running program and I am excited to see how it works for me. I think it is a good time to try it during my base building plan.
What Do I Hope to Improve on in April? I started off April strong with a balanced eating plan to get myself back on track. I have been using MyFitnessPal again, mostly just to track and see where I can make adjustments on macro- and micronutrients versus calorie counting. It has really helped me to feel better overall and it also seems to be helping with my training, too!
RD on the Run 