Zombies, a New Year, & a little Rocky II

 It's the final week of 2020.  People have been begging for this week to come!  It's definitely been a different kind of year.  As for this blog, this is journal entry #9, but there were 24+ weeks of training that really changed my year.  I thought that this would be a perfect place to bring you up to speed.

As I mentioned in my first entry, after having ran about 30 miles total in 2019 I decided in October to race prep and crammed 200 miles in 8 weeks. I tore my meniscus.  It was a slight tear that didn't require surgery.  In April, I started the Run Arkansas Virtual Challenge with a friend.  It started with 1.5 miles 3 times per week.  Each week the distance increased slightly.  At the end of 4 weeks I would be at 4 miles.  More than anything it got me into a routine & back in the swing of running.  I finished the 4 mile in 47:47.  That's an 11:55 pace.

As that challenge was ending Frisco Running Club was starting their 24 week training program. There were Half Marathon & Marathon plans culminating in November & December.  I decided this was the perfect way to get my mojo back & train smart to prevent another injury.  I signed up and it was awesome!  The plan told you what to do each day.  There were run days, track days, XT days, & rest days.  There were tons of people participating, coaches guiding everyone, social media groups, & tons of fun!  As a reminder of what a great program it is here are my numbers again.

5k VDOT times: May 36.11, 11:39 pace.  September 26:35, 8:33 pace. 

Ft Worth Half times: 2019 - 2:40, 2020 - 2:10

Hope for the Holiday Half times: 2019 - 2:24, 2020 - 2:10

I'm really excited to start the plan again this year & see what I can achieve!

TUESDAY

 According to the training program today's workout was a track workout.  4x1000m.  BUT... I found out about this cool app that I wanted to try.  It seemed like it would be cooler not running loops on a track.

The app is Zombies, run!  It's a game & run tracking app in one.  I'll give you a rundown & you can try it for yourself.  Here's their description:  Run in the Real World. Become a Hero in Another.

Only a few have survived the zombie epidemic. You are a Runner en-route to one of humanity’s last remaining outposts. They need your help to gather supplies, rescue survivors, and defend their home.

And you have another mission — one they don’t know about...

There are hundreds of missions & from my first mission experience, a cool story to follow along with.  Before you begin you select a few options.  Tracking has different settings for outdoor runs, treadmill runs, & ellipticals, rowing machines, etc.  You can connect it to your phone music or streaming music service. A weird feature is you set the distance/time that your planning to run.  I guess that helps it create the story timing.  A super cool interactive feature that you can turn on is Chases.  It gives specific scenarios during your run where zombies are getting close & you actually have to speed up to out run them!

There several training plans & modifications to keep everything fresh.  The base camp that you are in is interactive as well.  As you're running you're collecting supplies that you come across.  You use those supplies to cultivate & build your base camp.  As you build it up more people come.  

Time to throw on the headphones and hit the road.  It starts out with an radio transmission explaining my situation.  Every few minutes I received another transmission from base camp guiding me to the camp with the needed supplies.  My music played the whole time & the volume lowered during transmissions. There were also zombie sounds as they got closer & the radio voice told me to speed up! Once finished, the recap screen gives you pertinent run details as well as details about the mission & supplies collected.

I enjoyed it!  I liked following the story line. It really broke up the monotony of the frequently ran neighborhood route.  One thing that I noticed as I was going back over it was it looks like it's only for short runs.  That may change with different missions.  I'm not sure at this point.  My next mission has a maximum mileage of 4.2 or a time of 58mins.  On the bright side once the mission is over you can still listen to your music.

Check it out if you get a chance!  I bet it would be wild on a solo night run!

WEDNESDAY

Today's hump day long run was programmed as 2(2T,2E),2E.  If you recall that's 10 mile with alternating paces every 2 miles.  We are all growing a little tired of this one.  It seems like we do it every week.  In defense of the program, it comes in toward the end & we are in our 3rd visit to the last 6-week section. So a lot of it is our own doing I suppose.

Three turtles strong we head out west on Main for our first 3 miles.  Barely a mile in & my right shin starts flaring up.  I didn't mention it yesterday, but it had flared up for a couple miles as well.  I'm not going to go back through the whole deal.  It's just aggravating.  Six months with no issues & now here it is again.  At least this time I can still run.  It just takes a lot of effort.  Anyway, enough griping...

We picked up the pace partially though mile 3 & then again for mile 4 as went entered the McCord Park trail.  The softer gravel my my shin feel a little better. Mile 5 we stopped for a photo op.  The moon was bright & the clouds were rolling.  We were expecting to get a downpour about an hour in according to the radar.

We picked up the pace again for 6 & 7.  Then I started slowing down.  Mile 8 brought us off the trail Trails Parkway neighborhood.  It was right about here that I realized that we were going to be over on mileage.  We took the shortest possible route & ended up back at the store right at 10.75 miles.  The best part was that the rain held off until I was driving back home.

On a side note... I pulled off my socks & shoes when I got home to find a bloody toe!  Apparently I didn’t do a good job trimming my toenails because toe #3 decided to cut toe #2.  

Pro Tip:  Make sure to take extra care when trimming your toenails.  Any sharp or jagged edges can cause an issue rubbing against a neighboring toe.

FRIDAY

Happy New Year!  I finished the year with 912.8 miles.  It was by far my best year of running ever!  Yet another testament to Frisco Running Club & the training program!  Here a look at my lifetime of running mileage.

I’ve always heard that whatever you are doing on January 1st you will do all year. So even though it was rest day, I decided to run.  I didn’t want to run a lot with the long run coming up tomorrow. Just a couple miles to satisfy my superstition. I didn't want to do an out & back. So I set out to plot a new course.  Zigzagging through the neighborhood, onto the trail, and around the clubhouse.  As I passed the rows of palm trees it felt like a perfect photo op. 

A little more zigzagging to the backside of the neighborhood.  I realize that I’m going to over my 2 mile target. So I cut through a yard & the church parking lot. Now I'm back on my normal return section. Then I hit 2 miles.  A quarter of a mile later I’m back to the start.  Not a bad little loop, but I need to figure out how to cut that quarter mile out next time.

SATURDAY

The plan called for 13 miles today. We started out at Frisco Running Company and headed East on Main St. We have travelled that section several times. It runs through old downtown Frisco. It’s also a gradual uphill climb. 

After about 2.5 miles we turn south running past Oak Brook Park down to Stonebrook and onto Caddo Trail around 3.5. That takes up by some pretty nice houses, but mile 6 takes us into Starwood and past the massive houses  It’s a gated community & the trail runs through the middle.  There a some nice rolling hills through there as well.

We make our way through and back to onto Stonebrook for a huge downhill. Then we cut behind Legacy Christian Academy to jump on Legacy Drive at mile 8.  We run through Beaver Bend Trail and pass a pair of MINI Coopers that we always see. 

We head north on 4th Army running by Ruff Range Dog Park at mile 10. There always people out there with their pooches running & jumping & playing when we run by.  I’ve actually felt like I was struggling most of the run, but knowing that we only have 5k to go, I look at my watch to see where we are time-wise. 1:40!  What?!? If I push this last 5k I can beat my best Half Marathon time of last year!  Leo starts encouraging us about Mile 11.  "Let's go!  Let's finish this!" That really perked us up!  At one point we even start mimicking "Gonna Fly Now" the Rocky theme song  from the Rocky II running scene. Click here to watch  

For all you running nerds out there, by analyzing landmarks along his route it has been calculated that in real life he would have ran 30.61 miles on that run!  There's also a yearly run of the course. It's a no frills, no swag run, but I imagine it's a good time!  Rocky 50k  There's also another race with a lot of swag, but not a 50k. Rocky Run A trip to Philly in November sounds like a lot of fun!

Anyway, once we cross Main into Kings Garden we really turn on the jets!  In the past it’s seemed like I struggled the last 5k of a Half, but not today!  

My last 3 miles were 9:38, 9:25, & 8:45!  Which gave me a final time 2:07!  3 mins faster than my best time in 2020 & my 4th fastest of all time! I’m loving 2021 already!

Remember these key points for 2021.  

• You can do it! 
• You won't get there overnight.  
• It won't be easy.  
• Consistency is the key.  
• Do some sort of cross training to help prevent injuries.
• Find someone to run with you. 
• Have fun!