Well.....Feb has been interesting. It certainly hasn't been the huge transformation that January was, but that said, it was always going to be a hard one to beat.
1st - Setmurthy Trail Run - 9.1km - 200m ascent - Hit it hard, felt amazing. Rating - A
2nd - Whinlatter Trail Run - 10km - 200m ascent - Hit it hard again, still great! Rating - A
3rd - Lower Coledale Fell Run - 9.6km - 400m ascent - Kept it easy, but gave one Strava segment a bit of a smash! Got a 48 second pb! Rating - A.
5th - All body Circuit Session (1 Hour) followed by a 10 minute interval session on the spin bike. Rating - B
6th - Blencathra Hike (with 8.5kg pack) - Rating - B
7th - (AM) Trail Run with the Pram - 7.1km - 290m ascent - Rating - C
7th - (PM) Circuit Session - 1 Hour - Rating B
8th - Setmurthy Trail Run - 6.4km - 140m ascent - Did the short loop and hit it hard. Finished off with 3 x 30 second hill sprints. Rating - A
9th - Work Day on the Langdale Pikes - 7km - 700m ascent - 8.5kg Pack. Rating - B
10th - Work Day Hiking in Borrowdale - 10km - 600m ascent - 8.5kg pack. Rating - B
11th - Work day on Helvellyn - 14km - 870m ascent - 10kg pack - Rating - B
12th - Gym based workout - 10mins Row (with 5 x 30 second intervals), 10 Mins Stair Master (60 Floors), 10 Mins Cross Trainer followed by a series of machine / free weight exercises for the entire body. Rating - A
13th - Spin Bike - 17km - 40 minutes. Followed by a 20 minute core workout. Rating - A.
14th - Fell / Trail Run - 10km - 650m ascent - Rating - B
15th - Helvellyn Winter Skills day - 9km - 600m ascent - with 9.5kg pack. Rating - A
16th - Via Ferrata - 6km - 200m ascent - Rating A.
17th - Gym Session - 1 hour 45 total- (as the weather was meant to be poor). Completed a 30 minute treadmill session, followed by some exercises for upper body, lower body and core. Including Squats and Deadlifts. Finished with 10 minutes on the rower. Rating - A
18th- Road Run - 6km - A super windy day and admin to do kept me stuck in. Got out for this super easy jog. Rating - A
19th - Helvellyn winter skills work day - 14km - 930m ascent - An 8 hour day on the hill in big boots and a heavy pack (10kg). Rating - B
21st - (AM) Trail run with the Pram - 7.1km - 300m ascent - Rating - A
21st - (PM) Upper Body workout - Rating - A
22nd - Buttermere Trail Run - 7km - Rating - B
23rd - Work Walk - 10km - 300m ascent - Rating C
24th - Whinlatter Trail Run - 13.5km - 400m ascent - Plodded around the trails. Really struggled to get out the door, and then I started the run and felt pretty grotty. Nearly threw in the towel but persevered. In the end I felt pretty good. Rating went from a D to a B at the end.
25th - Upper Body workout - Quick conditioning session. Rating - B
26th - Helvellyn Winter Skills Day - 13.6km - 750m ascent - 10.5kg pack - Rating - B
27th - Helvellyn Winter Skills Day - 8.5km - 600m ascent - 9.5kg pack - Rating - C
28th - (AM) 10km Spin Bike session including some Pyramid Intervals. Followed by upper body and core workout. Rating - A
28th (PM) Circuit Session - All body conditioning. Rating - A.
My home training area
Personal Stats at the start of February
Weight: 83.75kg Muscle Mass: 66.4kg Body Fat: 16.6%
Estimated VO2 Max - 47.3
Personal Stats at the end of February
Weight: 82.05kg Muscle Mass: 65.3kg Body Fat: 16.2%
Estimated VO2 Max - 46.0 - But went as high as 50.7 earlier in the month. A lack of shorter, faster runs in the latter stages of the month meant this dropped.
January's Totals
Running: 35.5 Hours, 196km
Hiking: 35 Hours, 79.5km
Workouts (Circuits or Home Workouts): 7.5 Hours, 10 Sessions
Indoor Cycling: 45 Mins, 18km.
Total ascent: 13,121m
Total Hours: 78.5 Hours
Total Calories: 41,125
February's Totals
Running: 11.5 Hours, 92.5km
Hiking: 52 Hours, 102km
Workouts (Circuits or Home Workouts): 7.1 Hours, 9 Sessions
Indoor Cycling: 1 Hour 20 mins, 31km.
Total ascent: 8,335m
Total Hours: 71.5 Hours
Total Calories: 35,373
My Summary of my Training Month
Well, it's plain to see that my running has nosedived this month (over 50% less than Jan!) This lack of running any reasonable distances has occurred as a result of a number of reasons. Firstly, I quite possibly hit it a bit too hard in January. At the start of Feb I felt good, but then my motivation and willingness by my body to do anything long had diminished. Second up is work. Feb has been rather quite busy in comparison both on the hill and off the hill. When I've had some child free days midweek I've not been able to pop in the long runs as I've needed to utilise the time to do the admin and have even had meetings. And when I've not been working, the chances are I have had a stint of Daddy Day Care to do in the daytime which leaves just a couple of hours before the bedtime routine to get something done.
Finally the weather has been pretty awful! We had three named storms in February, and a few others which weren't all that different. I don't mind a bit of weather, but 90mph winds does somewhat restrict where you can go and what you can do. This has meant I've stayed lower and maybe just done a 10km loop of Whinlatter or a spin on the bike at home instead.
I can hear people saying 'excuses, excuses'. These aren't excuses, it's just an explanation of how my life is set up and how that can restrict serious training. I have friends who will manage their 10km run every day in the morning, or head out at night, but for me right now that isn't possible. Two reasons - 1, the age of my kids doesn't allow this kind of routine too easily without getting up super early or unfairly leaving my wife to pick up the slack 2- My body probably wouldn't withstand that level of training volume right now anyway. By my rating system you can see I've got a lot of A's and B's. I'd say this is because when I have exercised I've felt rested and really up for it. Probably indicating that the amount if training I'm doing for my body is about right, even if my mind disagrees based on the goal I have.
On the upside, I've been out on the hill a bit more for work carrying my 10kg (ish pack) wearing my winter boots. There is no doubt that this is excellent training. All these hours will be helping to rebuild my aerobic capacity, as well as building some good leg strength and core stability too. A week ago I was feeling a bit down about how rubbish my month had been on the running side of things, but then I forced myself to remember how good this type of stuff is for training. The main positive is that overall my fitness has continued to improve (96-106 CTL). As you can see from the graph to the right I managed to maintain myself in the 'productive training' zone for most of Feb, unlike January when I was 'Going to Hard'. As mentioned above, I think this came back to bite me on the bum a bit.
My main aim for March will be to keep this cruising on upward, by whatever means I can do. Ideally, I will get some more miles in on the legs. I'm pleased with my running consistency, but if I am going to make this BG dream a reality I need to up the single run distance - 10km runs just won't cut it.
So, overall, nothing too impressive, just a good training month! Thanks for the continued support folks. Let's see what March brings!
