March Training

Here's the monthly training recap for March. We capped off the "winter" season on a high note at the Antelope Island races... now we're recovering and making the transition towards running some fast times in shorter races, and skiing some steep lines on a stable spring snowpack in the Wasatch!

Running

Jake
Feb 28 - Mar 6: 140 miles
Mar 7 - Mar 13: 139 miles
Mar 14 - Mar 20: 109 miles
Mar 21 - Mar 27: 102 miles (Antelope Island 50K, 3:38:02, 1st place, Course Record)

Total Miles for March (31 days, 57 runs): 516 miles
Average Miles a Day: 16.6 miles (last 2 months were ~18.5/day)
Total Perfect Pushups: 1450 (missed 3 days... otherwise did 50/day)
Days I drove my car to work: 11 days

March capped off the best winter training I have ever done... and running a course record at the Buffalo Run 50K was a somewhat unexpected (at least to get it by 10 minutes) but still very nice surprise. I was able to keep my mileage up at a relatively high level right up to the 50K, so that should bode well for the coming months in terms of maintaining strength. Right now the speed is lacking, but I think that will come along... I need to make sure I don't rush into it too quick and get hurt, though. The plan now is to run a half-marathon in early May and then a marathon on June 11th (Utah Valley), with a few 5K/10K rust-busters mixed in there to start getting the spring back in my legs.

Andrea
Feb 28 - Mar 6: 61 miles
Mar 7 - Mar 13: 63 miles
Mar 14 - Mar 20: 51 miles
Mar 21 - Mar 27: 63 miles (Antelope Island 25K, 1:59:50, 2nd place, beat old course record)

Total Miles for March (31 days, 44 runs): 259 miles
Average Miles a Day: 8.4 miles (last month was 8.6 mi/day)
Hours of Cross Training (exercise bike, elliptical, and weights): 5 hours

Since November, I have been using cross training to get myself used to two-a-day workouts while not doing too much too soon with running. It has really worked out well. I'm at the point now where I can run twice a day and feel great. So this month I have cut back on cross training and been focusing on my runs (with a few strength training classes thrown in to mix it up). I had about a week early in the month when my shins were aching, but I think I prevented them from becoming a major problem by icing a lot and running on softer surfaces. The Buffalo Run 25k this past week was very tough and mentally challenging, but I'm hoping it makes the half marathon in 5 weeks seem easy! I'm excited for April's warmer temperatures and springtime conditions. It should make training much more enjoyable. Highlights of the month were getting to see my family (they came to SLC for a ski trip) and winning the triathlon at work - consisting of 2 miles on the treadmill, 1 mile on the elliptical, and 4 miles on the recumbent bike. Good times :o)

Skiing

Total Vertical Climbed: ~13K feet (Jake), ~10K feet (Andrea). We only skied 2 backcountry days this month!
Inbounds ski days: 6 (Lots of visitors!)

Next up...

Races: SLC Running Company 5K (April 30), Provo Half-Marathon (May 7)
Visitors: Jenna Krong in town April 7-10 for powder skiing and sunshine!
Skiing: There are more ski descents I want to do in that next month than I can list. Hopefully we pull off some big ones and some classics... the mountains are COATED with snow (566" to date) so we should have a great spring of corn harvesting and chute skiing!