Highlight of the Week: Completing the completely arbitrarily set goal (decided on Monday this week) of running 200 miles for the month of March.

Monday | March 25, 2019: 12.2 m run + teaching strength class
Run location: Kilbourne/DPRT Loop, Temp: 37°, Time: 2:06:51, Pace: 10:24 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: great
Strength: kettlebells and cones, Felt: good
Tuesday | March 26, 2019: 8 m run
Run location: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 20°/20°, Time: 1:27:12, Pace: 10:54 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: fine, but irritated
Wednesday | March 27, 2019: rest
Thursday | March 28, 2019: 6.3 m run (incl. 4×800, 6×1:00)
Run location: hood, Temp: 61°/62°, Time: 1:01:47, Pace: 9:48  avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: good, but hot and thirsty
Friday | March 29, 2019: teaching strength class + 4 m run
Strength: kettlebells and cones, Felt: good, just sleepy! class went by so fast!
Run location: hood, Temp: 44°/44°, Time: 39:53, Pace: 9:58, Difficulty: easy, Felt: good, gassy (ha), cold
Saturday | March 30, 2019: 10 m run + teaching strength class
Run location: Trumpet/VP Woods Loop, Temp: 37°/37°, Time: 1:50:26, Pace: 11:02 avg, Difficulty: medium, Felt: decent, but kind of gassed
Strength: whole body exercises with step, boxing, Felt: good, flustered
Sunday | March 31, 2019: 7 m run
Run location: VP Woods Loop, Temp: 30°, Time: 1:12:40, Pace: 10:22 avg, Difficulty: easy, Felt: so irritated by the wind

Notes:

• On Monday I decided to see if I could run enough miles (46.2) to get to 200 for the month. My weekly mileage has been in the mid 40s the past few weeks so it wasn’t much of a stretch. Some runs were too close together (Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning), but I did it! I ended the month with 201.3 miles. I’m not training for anything long distance, but I like running that much and it helps with work stress.
• I got to run in a tank when I did speedwork on Thursday! The sun made the workout more difficult, but it was nice to wear so few layers. I looked at my heart rate after the run, to see if it was higher because of the heat, and it showed the run as mostly in zone 3. I was expecting mostly zone 4 (and 3) with spikes of 5, which is what most of my runs are. So this leads me to believe my heart rate monitor was NOT working for that run. OR, my body was just really happy for the 48+ hour break from running I had before I did my speedwork?! (I don’t do heart rate based training, but I do look at it from time to time while running and after.)
• There are train tracks right by where I teach in Grayslake and I often get stopped, and every once in a while, a train is stopped there for a long time. That happened Saturday on my way to class. I would have arrived fifteen minutes before class started but I had to turn around and take an alternate route because the train stopped on the tracks for so long (~35 minutes). My boss and the students set up for me, but I felt extremely anxious about being late TO TEACH (and I had seen some news that upset me while waiting on the tracks, so that didn’t help). I hope it didn’t affect my mood too much, and the students still had fun. (Almost half of my class was late due to the train, too, and they all definitely understood. I JUST HATE BEING LATE. EVER.)
• Monthly recap! In March I ran 201.3 miles (26 runs). I did 4 speed sessions. My coldest run was 17°F and my warmest was 62°F. I taught 9 strength classes, and 4 fitness boxing classes. Having five weekends in March was really awesome for running more and teaching. My numbers will be lower next month!

Link to Training Week 492