January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge
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10 easy miles this afternoon. Was a short 'long run'. Last one before marathon. Felt a little rough the first 4 miles, but was trying to find the right fueling intervals. Think I will go with 1/2 GU at 4 miles, then 1/2 every 3 miles. Seemed to work pretty well. Ahhhhhh, one week away!!
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Jan 2 (3.1mi run) (4.1mi walk)
Jan 6 (3.8mi run) (1.2mi walk)
Jan 7 (1mi run) (.5mi walk)
Jan 8 (3.1mi run) (.5mi walk)
Jan 10 (3.1mi run)
Jan 12 (3.1mi run)
(17.2mi/30mi) (6.3mi walk)
I bought an exercise bike and my husband set it up yesterday and I did an hour on it last night. It definitely got my heart rate up and I was sweating like crazy, but I’m not really sure how much of a workout it was. The resistance I used most of the time was a little less challenge than I wanted, but the next highest was at a point that I could really only push about 5 minutes at a time before having to set it back down. Hopefully it’s hitting different muscles from the running though because that was my main goal with it. I definitely felt it in the tops of my thighs. Today’s run was nice and relaxed, earlier than I would have liked to be out and pre-breakfast, but I needed to get it done and run errands before the snow starts again.
I use mine for tabata intervals. It's great when my knee needs a break, the weather is apocalyptic, or I don't have much time. Tabata on stationary bike helped me hang on to my fitness level when I was forced to take a break from running. Do two minutes warm up, crank it to that higher level and pedal all out for twenty seconds, then catch your breath for ten seconds at the lower level. For true tabata you are aiming for 100% effort. Repeat intervals for a total of eight times. Then two minutes cool down. In only eight minutes, you have blasted your cardiovascular system, in a way which raises vo2 max as effectively as much longer sessions of steady state cardio. (Although it doesn't improve endurance, can't have everything!) Done properly you will be begging for mercy long before you finish.
Slower intervals are also great - just embrace the fact that you can't keep it up at that higher setting for more than five minutes, do it for only a couple, then drop the setting down, repeat as desired.5 -
Hi! I can't find my last post, but my small medical issue has resolved and I hit the pavement again today: 5 km in the minus 27 with the windchill sunshine
So that makes me...
15/60 km goal (3 x 5 km runs)11 -
January
2.3
0
2.6
2.85
3.1
3.1
11
2.5
1.9
2.5
4
8.15
Total: 44
Goal: 115
Today was not my day. I didn't want to run so I did the bare minimum. A go-getter I am not.8 -
@rheddmobile - Maximum effort is not very much my style. (I feel that Deadpool is glaring at me from one of my comic books. -nerd joke) I tried a tabata workout before and I wanted to die and was gasping on the floor as soon as it finished. Totally a great workout, but not something I ever want to do again unless zombies are chasing me and it’s do or die. I will try doing some of those lighter intervals though. Maybe I could watch a movie instead of reading because all my effort was going to just pushing the pedals and i couldn’t even hold my book through those parts.7
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1/1 - 0
1/2 - 4
1/3 - 0
1/4 - 4
1/5 - 4
1/6 - 5
1/7 - 0
1/8 - 4
1/9 - 0
1/10 - 3
1/11 - 0
1/12 - 4
28 of 60 miles.
Going to try and catch up on the thread. Work has been so busy I don’t ha e time to breathe.
Congratulations @Orphia or should I say Coach 😀11 -
@eleanorhawkins and @shanaber
Just been. And yeah I didn't really enjoy it. I wore shoes, the phantoms were a good choice in one respect, no sand got into them (very tight weave with high sides). But the camber on the beach was not good, I was feeling it in my problem ankle. I was also little earlier out than I thought I'd be so was a very narrow strip of the hard packed sand. And there was a long stretch of rocks that was almost worse than loose sand! But I did it, and confirmed that running on the beach actually sux, as I suspected and kept telling my hubby (who keeps saying run on the beach). moan moan BUT
What a morning. It was beautiful and calm out there. I took my shoes off after 3k and walked half a km in the surf which was wonderful. This is the beach across the road from my home. Paradise.
Tomorrow is my first day at work and a good test to see how my resolve is. For the next 4 weeks I'm running Mon, wed, Fri and Sat. With strength training at lunch time. Will see. Its a test to see how it works.15 -
Last summer I ran three miles on the beach and while I enjoyed it, it's not something I feel compelled to repeat.
I was barefoot and ended up with incredibly smooth feet.11 -
At the gym today. 95 minutes on the elliptical and 25 on the LateralX. All while listening to a Dean Koontz audio book.
I think 2 hours is the limit for me on cardio machines.
After that I hit the hip abductor and adductor machine until it hurt.
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Got out for a shortish run today. Really had to push myself to go as feeling meh but I went. Can’t say I enjoyed it, but it’s another 3 miles done, slowly but done. Went swimming with the family after and haven’t really warmed up since.
@Avidkeo I love walking on the beach barefoot, especially in the surf, but cannot run on it! It’s winter here, I’m missing the sea. We normally go the south of France in May, gorgeous warm sea, but we can’t go this year and I’m so sad.
Miles this month - 14.58 -
Slept 10 hours last night. Oh how I needed that. Walked 4.22 miles with the dogs, then took an hour nap. What a great morning.
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January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 – 10.09 warmup + 7.5 mile race
1/2 – 6.28 easy w/fast finish
1/3 – 6.76 warmup, intervals, cool down
1/4 – rest day
1/5 – 16.65 warmup, Winter Warrior Half
1/6 – 8.09 easy
1/7 – rest day
1/8 – 8.64 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/9 – 11.08 easy
1/10 – 8.25 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/11 – rest day
1/12 – 15.94 warmup, 5 mile race, post-race easy run
January running total to date – 91.78
Nominal January mileage goal: 200 miles
Real Goals: Train well toward Boston. Work the January races into the training plan smoothly. Remain uninjured, even if it means cutting back on planned mileage or races.
Today's notes – Forecast for gun time was upper teens with minimal wind. What I got, according to Garmin, was 21° F (-6° C) and 3 mph N wind. Sure felt like a W wind, though.
Got to the race site early to execute my plan: Run a course preview as a warmup, run the race, run the course in reverse later to get my planned 15 miles in. Wore 2 long sleeve tech shirts and the Syracuse Half jacket for the warmup. That was okay, but it was clear that, given minimal wind, it would be too warm for the race. So I swapped the jacket out for a lighter weight jacket I'd brought. Saw spots of packed snow, ice, and slush on the course that I needed to be aware of; but they were not so common that I couldn't run in road shoes. So the trail shoes I had brought remained in the car.
Freezeroo #3 is not a key race, but I did want to win my age group. The closest competition is a guy who just aged up. I don't have to run a killer time to beat him, but I can't just assume that running a 7 minute mile will get the job done. So the plan was to run the race at threshold level of effort, target 6:40 per mile on roads. Hold that for 5 miles, win the age group, don't kill myself.
After the first mile, there were 6 runners in front of me. 2 more passed me before the 2 mile mark. After that, I traded places with one of them a couple times, ending ahead of him; and one other guy passed me. I sometimes finish ahead of that guy, but today he was having a better day than I was. After that, I only noticed passing early start runners; so I assumed I was in 9th place. From mile 2 to mile 3, from time to time I would hear footsteps behind me. That stopped with the minor hill leading up to the 3 mile mark; apparently whoever was making those footsteps thought a long gentle incline was a reason to slow down.
Ran mile 4 to maintain my pace. At the mile 4 marker, it's gut check time: Do I pick it up, or just try to maintain? My gut said No Way to picking it up, so I maintained a steady pace up the last little hill on the course, actually more of an overpass; then I put a bit more effort into the down side, because that's the kind of terrain where people pass me. No one did. After the next to last turn, when it was a straight stretch to the last turn, I picked it up to interval level of effort. Make the last turn, give it what I have for a finish line kick. It was enough to hold my place, not enough to catch the guy ahead of me.
Garmin had my less than perfect tangents come out ot 5.07 miles. Garmin splits were 6:26, 6:36, 6:34, 6:38, 6:31, and a 6:04 pace for the tag end that was all the finish line kick. Official time was 33:10.4xx. 6:32 per mile average per Garmin, 6:38 per mile average on race distance. Close enough to a 6:40 target.
Turned out I was 8th overall (of 151) instead of 9th. There was one guy who had a problem with his shoe in mile 3; when I passed him, I thought he was an early start. In hindsight, he was probably the regular start runner that I didn't notice passing in real time. Finished first in my age group, and I now comfortably lead the age group for the series with 3 of 6 races in the books. Scoring is best 4, but it's complex. If I skip 2 races, it's theoretically possible for the next guy to outscore me in his best 4. So Plan A is to run all 6 races, win the age group in all 6, and moot the calculation of points.
Had hot soup, half a bagel, half a banana, and some nice conversation with other runners after the race. Then I went out to run the course in reverse. It was quite pleasant. Only thing was, for both the warmup and the post-race run I started before the start line and had to run past the finish line some distance to get back to the shelter or my car, as the case may be. So it added up closer to 16 miles than 15. Oh, well. Target mileage for the week was 51 miles; 52 won't be enough to hurt me.
2019 Races:
January 1, 2019 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) finished in 50:55
January 5, 2019 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) finished in 1:30:48
January 12, 2019 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds 5 Mile) (Spencerport, NY) finished in 33:10
January 26, 2019 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY)
February 2, 2019 USATF XC Championship, Masters 8K (Tallahassee, FL)
February 9, 2019 Freezeroo #5 (Tom Brannon 8 mile) (Greece, NY)
February 23, 2019 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
April 15, 2019 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA)14 -
@polskagirl01 Sounds like a nice spot to run. Glad you had fun at your race!
We don’t have a lot of trails near here so short of driving an hour or so to a race, it’s road for me. I signed up for a couple of trail races this year mostly as a way to get me out to a trail. Seems fun. We’ll see, I guess.2 -
Kimtrooper wrote: »Another 5km park run today and it sucked. Hot windy and dusty and I reminded myself to just do the distance. So I did a run/walk/run and felt better for it. Still beaten by older runners but at least I passed the guy with a walking stick 👍
January challenge 50km
26/50 in the turtle bank 🏃🏼♀️🐢
Hey that guy with the walking stick was me,lol
ETA: Congrats @Orphia on the certification!
@greyparks206 YAY! Knew you had it in you!
@louubelle16 WTG! The 15 mile mark is my next hurdle to cross.
And for me 1.9 miles of intervals with warmup and cool down this morning, bringin monthly total to 59.6 miles and 12 days on the run.6 -
A while ago our Running Club President approved me to do this, and today I did the Athletics Victoria nationally-accredited Run Leader Level 1 Coach course.
I'm now a coach!!
I'm not yet qualified to create training plans for people (that's the other levels 2 or 3) but I can now lead club training sessions.
CONGRATS!!!1 -
louubelle16 wrote: »Today I was a run leader for one of the running groups im a member of, and lead a pace group on a long run. I do it once a month with the group and absolutely love it! It was supposed to be a 13 mile route, but one of the group said she was scared of her marathon training plan for next week because she had to go over a HM distance for the first time, so we all agreed to run on to 13.5 to get over the mental barrier together. She cried when she did it, it was so lovely. I adore run-leading
You’ll love it @Orphia, I have the equivalent qualification from UK Athletics and I love doing it.
AWESOME!!!2 -
greyparks206 wrote: »I did it!! Five full miles in the bag! Yipee! The first 3/4 mile felt like torture; I was afraid that I was going to suffer through the entire thing. But, after that, all of a sudden I felt...light and relaxed. It was amazing! The skies were threatening rain, so I wore a rain coat, which left me feeling like I was wearing one of those 90s-style trash bag get-ups, but I didn't even mind. Can't wait to step on the scale in a minute and see how much water weight I lost, though, because I was drenched with sweat by the end, despite the upper 40s temperatures. My average pace was 11:29, with splits of 12:18, 11:42, 11:22, 11:25, and 10:43. For once, I was actually reasonably consistent, if you ignore the first iffy mile and the last mile, when I got a bit excited by how good I was feeling. Lol. I'm tentatively planning a 5k on February 9th, and I'm starting to think that a sub-11 minute/mile pace might be possible for that one now. We'll see.
21.0/45.0 miles for January so far
W00T!!! CONGRATS!!!1 -
I bought an exercise bike and my husband set it up yesterday and I did an hour on it last night. It definitely got my heart rate up and I was sweating like crazy, but I’m not really sure how much of a workout it was. The resistance I used most of the time was a little less challenge than I wanted, but the next highest was at a point that I could really only push about 5 minutes at a time before having to set it back down. Hopefully it’s hitting different muscles from the running though because that was my main goal with it. I definitely felt it in the tops of my thighs. Today’s run was nice and relaxed, earlier than I would have liked to be out and pre-breakfast, but I needed to get it done and run errands before the snow starts again.
Bike riding CAN hinder your running if you do not keep running at the same time you are you using the bike - or do a special exercise to help.
So this happened to me when I ran in HS. What happens when you bike is there is a tiny muscle behind your knee that is only used to move the leg the last degree or so of movement. This muscle DOES NOT get used when you bike So the rest of your legs get strong, but that muscle atrophies.
If you keep running, it is not a problem cause running uses that muscle and it will keep up fine.
If you do not, then you will want to do an exercise that will target that muscle. Sit on a chair and raise your leg, all the way so that you use that muscle, like this:
Do each leg obviously. Using a resistance band, or other weight would be best.4 -
1/01/2019 - 10.5 miles
1/02/2019 - 10.5 miles
1/03/2019 - 5 miles @ 7mph w/ 5% incline
1/04/2019 - Planned Rest day
1/05/2019 - 15 miles
1/06/2019 - 0KM
1/07/2019 - 0KM
1/08/2019 - 8 miles
1/09/2019 - 9.4 miles
1/10/2019 - 6.5mph for 1 hour @ 5% grade
1/11/2019 - 0KM
1/12/2019 - 10 miles
Upcoming Races
Steel Challange 5k - May 2019
Pittsburgh Marathon - May 2019
Glacier Ridge 50k Trail Race - May 2019
2021 - Disney World Dopey! (if can raise funds)
2019 GOAL: Knock a full hour off my 50k time at Glacier Ridge.4 -
@PastorVincent Thank you for that. I don’t plan to stop running, but I will have to take a steep cutback in February through March (as in maybe I will be able to run once a week if I’m lucky) so I’ll use it then to minimize muscle atrophy.2
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