Training During a Pandemic Lockdown
How I Increased My Solo Runs up 0.5% from 99.5%
The way I saw it there was really only 2 options when we were presented with a suggested lockdown situation in the county I live in here in South Texas. Option 1: continue training. Option 2: accept the situation as a loss and take the opportunity to jump into a recovery cycle. Obviously I chose the first option, which is the point of this blog post in case you haven't guessed or follow my STRAVA activities. I will lay out exactly what I have been doing in the past 6 months now and what I am hoping to gain and build on moving forward.
It was early spring and I had just completed Chattanooga 100 out in Tennessee/Georgia on March 6-7th. I drove home and returned to work knowing of the pandemic breaking out in the North East portion of the country. No one knew what as to come, I was still anticipating a nice build to some big racing this summer. That week I went to my usual Wednesday night group run with the Sugar Land Running Club (Mar 11th). Little did I know that would be the last SLRC group run for a long time. I believe it was that weekend that Texas strongly suggested full voluntary self-isolating lockdown & social distancing. I recall that very vividly as my parents had just finished their cruise and arrived back in Houston. They were supposed to stop by for a couple days before flying out at the end of the weekend. My wife & I made the hard decision to not see them in person for the safety of our kids since they had just from one of the worst possible scenarios....a floating ship of containment for over a week from people all over the world. Happy to say my parents were never sick and nothing came from that particular cruise. None the less it was a hard decision.
I can't recall exactly the sequence of events because it all seems like a blur now, but I remember 14 days being the self-quarantined period then everything would go back to normal. I took my work stuff home and started teleworking. Lucky I have recently transitioned to a new position that falls within the IT function of our company and thus remote working was not a super hard transition in terms of my daily role. I was naïve and thought that it was going to be a simple as this temporary quarantine and then things would transition back to normal. Like everyone else I did not foresee the mass chaos this COVID pandemic would cause in this country and how everything would shift. I still has my sights set on my A-goal July race of California Untamed. Surely this little lockdown period was only a bump in the road....right? How long could this actually persist? Oddly enough I think we are all seeking these answers today. Sad but true.
One of my next races to fall victim to cancellation was a backyard ultra event in April that I was targeting here is Texas. I thought it would be a great opportunity for another 100 mile effort on my part, and hopefully a lot more. So when Dave Proctor and friends put on the Quarantine Backyard Ultra (Apr 4-5th) as a free virtual online event I took the opportunity to hope in and use it for a long effort, as it nearly replaced my race perfectly in terms of timing. It was cool to run among so many elites and 2400+ other runners around the world. Full story on this effort here. It was fun to race and use my garage as my home base so my kids and wife could check up on my every hour, when they felt so inclined to do so.
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Pre-race photo all prepped for the Quarantine Backyard Ultra.
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Mid March the reality of the situation starting taking affect here in the Texas trail community. TROT had just announced they were going to cancel all these remaining spring schedule which was Mar-Apr-May. Not letting go of my line of sight, I still was training and working on building up for my July A-race. After Quarantine Backyard Ultra,, I devised my own training plan for the upcoming month to run a virtual 50 km ultra each weekend and continue training. I used TROTs virtual races to build my own block of training and providing motivation for myself during this time period. I won't go into all the detail here but I got it done (see prior detail blog post #MyMonthof5s project). I am not much of a planner in terms of my structured training plans so May was a nice step forward for me. I don't think I have ever had a nice long effort consistently like that before. Of course I do long runs, but I often don't stack then in every weekend, like your typical cookie cutter training plans. Honestly don't even do that many long runs in my training because I race so much that often my races are my long runs. Some call me crazy, but I just like the race setting and chance to get out on the trails. May was a good month for me averaging 75.5 mi per week which is far above my usual 40-60 training mileage.
Throughout the shutdown of the United States STRAVA stepped up and provided some other external motivation for me that has helped. On their app monthly challenges would come up, and the company smarty used the fact everyone was at home to devise and promote some different challenges from their standard ones they had been doing (I am happy that a lot of these have stuck around thus far). STRAVA introduced challenges such as walking, strength training, yoga challenges, and there was even a swimming one. Of course their staple challenges of running and biking remained the core. During the pandemic I have now incorporated some strength training into my workout routine, although not perfectly timed yet I try and get at least 1, if not 2, times a week to a session with weights in my garage. The same thing occurred with yoga. My wife has been bugging me for years for me to join here in her yoga, but it took STRAVA challenge to nudge me into trying it with her. I am happy to say I enjoy it more than I thought and am trying to do these sessions with my wife when I can. I often find myself doing some downward dogs and active hip opening routines while watching YouTube or Netflix even if only for 15-20 minutes.
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Photos from my Instagram (@trevormeding). Yoga, biking, and strength work.
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Examples of some of the STRAVA monthly badges I used myself for additional motivation.
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Related to the cross-training, I have taken a more purposeful approach to my training in an overall sense. I am now remember to keep my easy days super chill and I have been doing more run workouts, and intervals than I ever have before. As a endurance ultra runner we often neglect speed in our runs, so I am ensuring to do at least 1 speed workout each week and more often or not, just add in a few strides near the end of runs. Keep those muscles guessing but ensure hard efforts when doing the workouts! On the opposite end relax and stay slow and steady, even walk as needed during easy days. I don't have a coach so I often research what are some good interval workouts, but my staple is usually something simple like 1-3 min hard intervals (1:1 rest) to gain a total of at least 20 minutes of work. This is just an example. Other times I have been know to do actual distance intervals such as 800m repeats or even 400m to work on that faster turnover. In the end I hope to see pay off in my longer events when i am tired and just need to push for a certain section or am in the middle of trying to catch a fellow racer.
Another opportunity that came about due to the pandemic and the lack of travelling and races was now I could focus solely on my #EverySingleStreet project. I had started this last November and been slowly ticking away progress in my current city of Sugar Land. With the lockdown here I often found myself going to different parts of the city and neighborhood to continue my mapping progression. I would bike commute to the spot I needed to do, run a normal 60-90 minute run, and then hop on my bike to travel back home. My STRAVA log often consisted of my activities labelled "bike-run-bike (part i)". I would label all 3 like this because that is the extent of my activity naming for the most part. The continuation of this project gave me some purpose and another reason to focus on something other than the self-isolating culture we had become. I did enjoy seeing the new portions of the city and getting to know my area. I fully every single street of Sugar Land near the end of July which represented 8 months of persistent progress and work towards this goal. The resulting heatmap is probably the coolest piece of art I have ever created, and I am proud of that.
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#EverySingleStreet Sugar Land, TX
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By the time June had come around I am pretty sure I had resided myself to the fact that there would not be any racing till the fall at the very earliest. I was still following the news at this point and searching for races that were saying they were going to be held, but everyone kept saying that then eventually cancelling or postponing. However Silverheels 100 out in Colorado put on by Human Potential Running Series caught my attention. Not only was this a great venue and was on my to do list it appeared to be a contender for actually being held. I was able to sign up right before the race as the RD understood the current environment and knew people were waiting till last minute. Since this was a mountain race in a tiny town out in Colorado I took the chances and thought it was safe to do for me without putting my family at risk. I did travel solo and stuck completely to myself during the mini 4 days trip which included dirt bag sleeping in my car. The race was well done with a lot of extra mitigation procedures in place and as a runner I did not see an issue. Being a full blown introvert the post race party and gatherings usually aren't my thing so I was not too bothered those did not occur. It was just so cool to be able to run and explore some Rocky Mountains in a organized type setting while maintaining my own personally safety. The event was tough due to being at elevation but this might be one of the most rewarding 100s for me since it was able to happen under the circumstances. A more detailed story on my Silverheels 100 adventure is here.
I currently run with Team TROT and Trail Racing Over Texas had come up with a great virtual run challenge which appealed to me along with many others. The TransTexas Virtual Run was formed to provide some motivation and incentive for runners, walkers, and everyone in between. The distance of 879 mi across Texas was to be the cumulative goal for this virtual event. This presented itself to me as another opportunity to structure another nice block of 2 month training. With no known races in sight yet I figured I could dedicate large volume miles in July and August and aim to complete the TransTexas Virtual Run in 2 months. That is exactly what I did. In the end it took me a total of 68 days, finishing off just into September, but this resulted in a consistent weekly effort of 8 weeks in a row averaging above 85 mi. This is another great brick in my building up towards my large 2021 race goals.
My Pandemic Highlights
This has certainly been an interesting 7 months now as we are currently entering October. Looking back I am very grateful for a few things for sure in terms of what has occurred. I could be dwelling on what could of been, but I choose to focus on the good points:
- My job - Having a role that has allowed me to transition to full time teleworking. This has been a good benefit for my lifestyle and our family. We often get to do family walks or bike rides now in the middle of the day to break up the hours. I am simply thankful to have a job in this interesting time in our economy as I know so many industries, companies, and people have been impacted negatively. My work-life balance has tilted in my favor for sure, and I am grateful for this.
- May training block - a structed block of consistent training that has lead to some fitness gains. I think this was a good first stepping stone for me this year.
- EverySingleStreet - completing this project was a unique way to keep me motivated. It also provided some extra focus once the pandemic hit.
- Beer Mile PR - of all the virtual events I did participate in getting a big PR in my Beer Mile might be the best one of the summer.
- TransTexas Jul/Aug training block - as mentioned above, this is by far my most dedicated training block to date. I am currently on taper down from the back end of this block and looking forward.
- Consistency - ever since I started running I have believed in consistent over volume. I still believe this and the fact I run daily reflects this philosophy. As I write this I am a couple days away from 6 full months (180 days) of a #RunStreak of at least 5 km per day.
- Walking miles - I've added a lot of walking over the past few months. Thanks in part to the STRAVA badges, and also just trying to get out with the family at home to get outside. This adds low aerobic intensity to my training while doing time on feet
- Family health - truly thankful for me, my wife, and our kids in all being healthy thus far throughout the pandemic. We are facing many changes and challenges with the current environment but we all have our health.
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The Medings. Masks made are by rabbit with a portion of each purchased going towards World Central Kitchen.
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So what is next?
My local running club, Sugar Land Running Club has just held its first live group run back last week, however, we are still recommending solo runs. This is the only time I did ever really run with people during my training so eventually this should be able to occur as the situation in Texas allows. More exciting is the fact that trail racing is coming back! I am super stoked to have lined up some big events for the Q4 into the end of the year. As I write this I am 6 days away from the next in person race out on a ranch about an hour outside of Houston. Looking forward to getting back on the trails with my trail community, even if it is in a different capacity for now.
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My upcoming race schedule for remaining of 2020:
1. The Remix Trail Racing Over Texas - 50 km
2. Cactus Rose 150 Tejas Trails - 150 mi
3. Jalapeno Hundred Trail Racing Over Texas - 100 mi
4. Brazos Bend 100 Trail Racing Over Texas - 100 mi |
The last quarter of the year is a purpose heavy load to not only build of my last summer block, but a step forward into 2021. My goals for next year include some big races such as:
- Tour de los Tejas Trail Racing Over Texas - 372 mi (600 km) | Feb - registered
- Cocodona 250 Aravipa Running - 250 mi (402 km) | May - current pending: I am on the list, just need to accept the entry once it officially opens.
- California Untamed 330 California Untamed Racing - 330 mi (531 km) | Jul - registered (roll over from 2020)
Thank you for following along. let me know how your pandemic training went. Did you let it get you down or use it like me and utilize it as motivation to build up for the future? Hope to see you on the trails soon. Most of all I hope you and your family are safe and healthy during these trying times.
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