March in Review

March is pretty much over, and it's been another successful month on the running front for me. Although I've done less stationary biking than in either January or February my mileage continues to climb as planned. In fact, I am a bit ahead of schedule.

Today I ran home at lunch because Malks was sick with a fever. I took it nice and slow and went along Queen Street until the Valley and then dropped down and ran along the trails up to Beechwood Avenue, where I climbed out that big hill and made it home. The total was 10.5km and my heart rate averaged out to 137bpm even with that hill. I was overheating a bit and had to take off my jacket just before the 5k mark. In fact I found it really tough to keep the heart rate under 140bpm today and really slowed down to a crawl for the second half of the run. Also of note, I got passed by a guy running at a pretty good clip in those Vibram Five Fingers shoes. They made a funny slapping sound with every step and I wondered if that was a factor of the footwear or of the running form.

The data for March goes like this:

• Ran 177km (Goal was 155km)
• Averaged 39.96km per week (planned 35km/week) (Just missed 40 and didn't even know it.)
• Weighed in at 188.3lbs (started the month off at 192.5lbs) (Better keep a close eye on this one since I really don't want to be much lighter at 6'4" tall.)

Since Malks is sick I haven't made it to the gym for an upper body workout. I am planning to do something at home this evening, or maybe sneak out to the gym later. I suspect I'll be content to do a bunch of push ups, chin ups, crunches, and the like at home. No big deal...

The legs continue to get stronger, and I am now at the point where I am squatting as much as I am bench pressing. The amount is still pathetic (plates), but I see progress and that's a good thing. My right knee is still sore, though it hasn't stopped me from running. I really have to pay close attention to my form and make sure to roll and stretch every night. Seems like whenever I slack off a bit on the rolling and stretching I have a setback. I am still hoping that stronger legs will lead to a full recovery, but it's very frustrating that after three months I am still no further ahead than when I started.

Also, I've discovered the "joy" of low heart rate training. I could get into all the physiological reasons to train this way, but in the end the most important part for me is that keeping an eye on my HR keeps me from pushing myself too hard. I have a tendency, when left unchecked, to train at heart rates that are in the lactic threshold range. This also leads to more injury as I do not recover very well when every workout leaves me gassed. My only concern is how training at pretty slow paces will translate to racing. Will I be able to go faster when called upon to do so over the Half Marathon distance in late May? If the knee starts to improve I will be able to sprinkle in some tempo and interval speed type workouts, but until then I have to be satisfied with slow and steady while at the same time moving the mileage up every week.

Here's hoping April is a good month as well!