December! And Swamp Rabbit Half Training (Week 1 of 12)

December and winter have arrived in full force this week - temps in the mid-20s most mornings! BRR!! 🥶

This week also kicks off 12 weeks of training for Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon where I've got some big goals... been a while since I've tackled something like this, and I'm excited about it! My plan is based on Hal Higdon's Advanced half marathon training plan, which has been successful for me in the past. (Link)

Week 1 plan

Monday

2 mi pup run

Honestly hadn't looked at the plan for the week yet so I only did 2 miles.

Tuesday

6.25 mi @ 9:15/mi avg - 6x hill repeats

Ran super early due to chaotic day. Got in about 1.5 miles warm-up before repeating a ~60ft hill that took 62-66 seconds per repeat. Felt good and only pushed about 60-70% effort knowing I've got a pretty big race this weekend. Finished out the 10k Tuesday miles on nearby roads and was back before 6:15am!

Wednesday

2.98 mi @ 9:48/mi moving avg

Easy run with the doggo. She stopped just short of 3 miles and refused to run more (probably tired from doggy daycare yesterday) so we called it good enough. Beautiful lunch run though!

Thursday

40 mins tempo run

Plan said 40 min tempo run, which according to Hal Higdon is really more like a progression run in his plans. In my mind, there's 2 kinds of runs that fit in this category: sustained moderate-hard effort over time, or progression (get faster in a step-wise manner over the course of the run). Hal's "tempo" runs also include warmup/cooldown time

For this run, I decided to do a 10 minute warmup, 20 min hold at tempo pace (7:33-7:49/mi per the MacMillan pace calculator), then 10 minute cooldown. Did an out-and-back route towards USC Upstate, knowing there would be some hills but at least they'd be balanced out and the worst ones would be during warmup/cooldown. 

I'd call that successful! 🎉

Friday

rest

Returning to 5-6 days/wk of running is going to mean rest days are even more important. 

Saturday

Paris Mountain Road Race 20k

12.5 mi @ 8:25/mi avg, 1,700 ft elevation

Ran my third PMRR today, but first one in over a decade (previous 2 times were in 2012 and 2013). I've become familiar with this route, including Altamont climbs in many training runs (there was a time where I was running it weekly, but have not done that in a couple of years). I'm not sure whether familiarity with the route is a good or bad things, but it might have helped with pacing because I was pretty consistent today. I didn't have any particular goals, though I did look up my 2 previous finish times (1:50 in 2012 and 1:48 in 2013), however those routes were different - slightly longer (half marathons) but about 600 ft less climbing. Happy to say that I was able to get in a 1:45 finish today, good enough for 1st in Age Group!!

Coffee mug prize 😍

The hills were just as relentless as ever, and I definitely was feeling it in the quads and hamstrings by the last couple of miles. Still really happy with my performance overall!

Biggest hill, and lots of other big hills

3 year comparison - yes it was cold today!

Sunday

60 min yoga + 2 mile walk

Did not do the planned 3 mile easy run since legs are quite sore from Saturday's hard effort. Got in a nice hot yoga session in the evening with a couple miles walk around Unity park beforehand. 

Turkey Week

Monday

1.5 mi walk + 60 min candlelight vinyasa

Booked myself an evening candlelight hot yoga class and got to the park for a nice walk beforehand. Beautiful evening.

Tuesday

6.26 mi XC run

10k Tuesday on the cross-country course at work, did one full 5k course then perimeter loop to get the mileage. Another beautiful day where the morning started off rainy but by lunchtime was lovely!

Wednesday

rest

Thursday

4.2 mi warmup + Turkey Day 8k race

Got out for a few warm-up miles before the race, made it to the start line about 15 minutes before race start time. 

Spent the first mile of the race bobbing and weaving around folks - started way too far back, apparently. Passed the 9:00 pace group (???) about half a mile into the race. Even so, my first mile was still within the mid-range of my overall mile splits (7:35).

Second mile was through Cleveland park, third mile was a good climb out of Cleveland park.

Fourth mile was pancake flat around Unity park but was hard to keep pushing.

Final mile had a couple of decent climbs that were real kickers that close to the end, but was able to finish strong with my fastest mile split (7:25) despite second-most elevation gain per mile. 

Overall 7th out of 100+ in my age group, definitely not a PR but happy with the 37:32.

Heading to the finish

Run friends!

Friday

2 mi pup ruck 30#

Got in a little lunchtime ruck with the doggo once the sun warmed things up a bit. 

Saturday

5.3 mi hike

Took the pup up to the Blue Wall Preserve and hiked part of the Palmetto Trail Blue Wall passage. I'd hiked a portion with Dargan before, so Ivy and I did that plus a bit extra on the out-and-back section towards Vaughn's Gap. It was chilly but clear fall day, not too many people out but definitely passed folks here and there on the trail. Hopefully I'll get the ambition to go all the way to Vaughn's Gap and back someday - I've been told there's quite a climb in the last ~1mi before the turnaround!

Sunday

2 mi run w/ D

Got out for a run with SuperD at sunset - we ran a loop around the Furman lake, and it was perfect! He ran almost the entire time except for a bathroom stop, didn't complain once, and kept a good steady pace. He told me knock-knock jokes as we ran to keep us entertained. 😄

Golden hour

We did it!

Low-mileage week, but next week begins 12-week training for the Greenville Half on 2/22! 💚

New Routines

Monday

2 mi pup run

Morning run with Ivy was chilly and lovely 😍

1 mi pup walk

Midday walk just to stretch the legs while working remote.

Tuesday

6.3 mi @ 8:18/mi

10k Tuesday with the USC Upstate loop, and threw in a few miles in the middle of tempo work on a hilly section. Whew! Spicy but felt good. 

Wednesday

30# pup ruck 2.1 miles

Took pup out for a nice long ruck walk at lunch, explored some neighborhood roads and got in a nice loop with the 30# pack.

Thursday

5 miles with 8x hill sprint repeats

Decided to get a little aggressive with a workout today... headed over to the hill leading into USC Upstate and did 8x sprints trying to keep a hard but repeatable effort and going all-out on the last one to try to be the first lap time. Success!

Each lap was about 60 feet of elevation

Friday

1.6 mi pup run

Just a short run with Ivy after school drop-off.

Saturday

1.8 mi kiddo + pup run

Wanted to run more but neither child was cooperating. 😂

Sunday

8 mi @ 9:30/mi

Hilly loop in the foothills of Paris Mtn. Climbed nearly 1000 ft through this run! Definitely felt it but the weather was absolutely perfection. 

2 mi walk

Was in Charlotte for the afternoon with the family and took a walk in Independence Park with Mom. So pretty!

Too many office days

Weird week this week being in the office at least part of every single day. I do not know how I used to go to the office 5 days a week! 😵

Monday

1.6 mi ruck 30#

Wanted to do a longer ruck for Vet's day but only had enough time to squeeze in about 30 mins at lunch while at the office.

Tuesday

1.6 mi pup walk

Worked remote for a few hours in the morning since I didn't have in-person meetings. Morning walk with pupper after some cute firetruck howls in the car.

1 mi Wellness Walk

Headed into the office late morning and joined the corporate wellness walk lead by our CFO.

6.3 mi @ 9:53/mi avg 

Ran with the Rockers Run Club group after work. Took it nice and easy, enjoyed chatting with everyone!

Wednesday

nada

Thursday

30 min strength sesh

Friday

7.07 mi @ 9:37/mi

Early Friday long run was a challenge due to a late work dinner the night before but happy to log some good easy miles.

Saturday

2 mi warm-up + 3.1 mi @ 7:12/mi Zoom through the Zoo 5k

Warm-up miles easy on the trail followed by a good but not great 5k race. Felt really strong during the race but just didn't quite have the speed to push a sub-22 time (my half-hearted goal for the race). Still happy with the race overall and managed a 1st AG finish!

Sunday

a few walks

No real workouts just some walks here and there with kiddo and pup. 

Fall running

Monday

2 mi run/walk with pup & D

Midday took the kiddo and pup out to the swamp rabbit trail behind Furman to do our first official training run together for the Tacky Sweater 5k coming up in December. D has said he wanted to run with me, so I signed us up last week and we went for a run today while he was off from school. Ran 1 mile, walked a bit, ran a half mile, walked some more, then finished out 2 miles. He did great!

Tuesday

6.34 mi @ 8:24/mi 

10k Tuesday in the rain at lunch... ran the hills over in USC Upstate campus but felt surprisingly good with a little bit of speediness!

Wednesday

2.2 mi pup run + 2.2 mi pup ruck 30#

Morning run with Ivy along the foggy Swamp Rabbit Trail north of TR. 

Took her out for a lunch walk while I rucked with 30# and covered another ~2+ miles. 

Thursday

8.1 mi @ 9:16/mi 

Post run jump pic

Met up with a couple of ladies for some early miles around downtown Greenville. Haven't done long-ish mid-week miles in quite some time, so it felt amazing to knock out 8 before work! Was pretty tried by the end of the day though (that 4:20 a.m. alarm is 😴). Still really happy with this one especially considering I got hit hard with some allergies Wednesday afternoon and was not feeling 100%.

Friday

2.5 mi pup ruck 30#

Rucked around the 'hood with the pup and kept in the extra weight. Gonna try to keep it at 30# for now!

Saturday

9 mi @ 10:11/mi pace

Decided on a Paris Mtn Altamont Rd climb from the house this morning and man what a lovely fall-ish day. Breeze, leaves rustling all along the road, just perfect.

Sunrise

Sunday

rest

No activities but lots of movement. Tired from the weekend and a rainy drizzly day.

Halloween week, hello November!

Monday

2 mi pup walk

Finally got some movement in the legs after sitting most of the day... actually felt good to move them but definitely sore and tired from the 100k+ weekend!

Tuesday

6.22 mi @ 10:03/mi 10kTuesday

Ran solo at Furman in the early hours. Had a bit of a GI distress issue and sought out an un-padlocked port-a-john during the first half of the run. Much happier second half of the run. 😄

Salvation!

Pretty belltower

Wednesday

1.6 mi evening pup walk

Thursday

1 mi trick-or-treating walk

Friday

3.17 mi @ 10:25/mi avg

Ran a 5k with Ivy this morning! She started to be stubborn in the first half mile or so, but I was determined to do at least 2 miles with her so she finally got the message and kept moving. Once we got going, she did great and trotted along happily for a little over 3 miles! Proud of her!

Saturday

9.5 mi @ 8:26/mi avg

Started with the Unity Park crew and planned to run their "warm-up" miles before turning back... ended up with more of a tempo pace for me than warm-up, but it felt good to clock miles with the group!

4 mi 20# ruck

After the run, met up with the Swamp Fox Ruck Club for what was planned as a 5k ruck but ended up doing a little extra to get 4 miles. Also earned my ruck club patch today! Excited to see this group grow!

Sunday

rest

Race Report: Sadlers Creek Stumble 36-hour Ultra

Well, I can say being overly ambitious was not a great idea for this event. Compared to last year I was much slower and felt a lot more destroyed at the end of this year's event. That being said, I also was less trained this year and not even sure I could achieve the 100k distance again so I'm not beating myself up over it! Plus due to small course changes, the overall distance was about 2 miles longer (~1/4 mi per lap) than last year so I was able to get a personal distance PR for a single event!

Lots of lessons learned, lots of things to improve, but overall another great time by Lake Hartwell for about 30 hours and of course fantastic times with ultrarunning friends. 😁

Some comparison charts from Garmin below... left side is this year, right side is last year. 

Interesting that the start temp was exactly the same, but I'm pretty sure it didn't get into the mid-80s last year. That heat was really a killer during the afternoon on Saturday and drastically impacted the pace.

More moving/elapsed time this year, but the added distance looks like it increased elevation gain overall too.

More running last year = slightly higher HR data overall.

Lap splits comparison. Had a good number of powerwalk laps this year which shows... a lot more in the ~17-min pace range vs. last year was definitely either a run lap or a walk lap. Not so sure the power walk helped this year, but was an interesting experiment. And again... the impact of the heat after the first 3 laps was evident this year.