February Training

Here's the monthly training recap for February. We are definitely in a high volume cycle right now! This post marks Andrea's debut in terms of writing for the blog, and not just skiing powder while I take pictures of her!

Running

Jake
Jan 31 - Feb 6: 121 miles (XTerra 15 mile Trail Race, 1st place, 1:28:19)
Feb 7 - Feb 13: 118 miles
Feb 14 - Feb 20: 145 miles
Feb 21 - Feb 27: 123 miles (SLC 15K, 3rd place, 50:29 PR)

Total Miles for February (28 days, 48 runs): 516 miles
Average Miles a Day: 18.4 miles (last month was 18.7 mi/day)
Total Perfect Pushups: 1575 (hey, that's over 50/day! Pretty good for my scrawny arms!)
Days I drove my car to work: 8 days

Another solid month. I'm healthy, running big miles, and somehow I managed to run 2 pretty good races without tapering. My 15 week average is 128 miles/week. I've never come close to doing anything like this before. The foundation is getting really strong right now. I knocked off 26 and 27 mile long runs in February as well. Definitely looking forward to start doing more road racing after the Antelope Island 50K. At this rate, I think I'm going to be able to pop a good half & full marathon.

Andrea
Jan 31 - Feb 6: 61 miles (XTerra 15 mile Trail Race, 1st place, 1:43:44 PR)
Feb 7 - Feb 13: 44 miles
Feb 14 - Feb 20: 60 miles
Feb 21 - Feb 27: 61 miles (SLC 15K, 1st place, 58:25 PR)

Total Miles for February (28 days, 30 runs): 225 miles
Average Miles a Day: 7.5 miles (last month was 8.3 mi/day)
Hours of Cross Training (exercise bike, elliptical, and weights): 5.25 hours

I am beginning to realize the benefits of higher mileage and longer runs. I've been quite thrilled (and surprised!) with my performance in the two races I ran this past month. I am running so much faster than I ever have, and that makes me excited. I think it is possible for me to make the Utah Elite Team here in SLC with a few more good races, so that should keep me motivated at least until summertime!

Skiing

Total Vertical Climbed (5 backcountry ski days): 26,180 feet
Inbounds ski days: 1 (we deserve ONE day of riding the lifts, right?)

The vast majority of running miles, for both of us, are done on Monday through Friday. On weekends, backcountry skiing still holds dibs, and we are getting more than our fair share of hill work with all that climbing! We're both convinced, for several reasons which I'll explain in a future blog, that backcountry skiing has helped us become better runners.

Sleep

Average amount of sleep: 8-9 hours (with Andrea winning this competition over Jake!)
Typical bedtime: 9pm (with the occasional 7:45-8PM lights out... not joking)

Next up...

Antelope Island, March 26th. 50K for Jake, 25K for Andrea. Its gonna be HARD! In between, we have family and friends visiting, so its going to be another busy month!