January 2023 Monthly Running Challenge

shanaber

Scott6255 wrote: »

@shanaber (and anyone else in CA) wondering how you are doing with the terrible storms? Hope you are OK!

Thanks @Scott6255 for checking on me. We are doing ok, a couple of leaks in a window mostly when the wind blows the rain into it. Lots of water and mud in the planters and backyard and our patios (front and back) flooded when it was coming down so fast. All things considered we are just fine and many have it much worse. I haven't been over to the river where I normally run but I am sure it is rushing now. They were diverting most of the water into reservoirs and settlement ponds/lakes but they are all full now. The rain is gone now for the most part and we have a couple days before it starts again.

I also have a doctor in the family but all I get when I ask medical related questions is 'I don't do adults, mom' 😂😂 no help whatsoever!

kgirlhart

January Goal: 100 Miles

1/1: 10.50 miles
1/3: 6.01 miles
1/4: 5.11 miles
1/5: 5.60 miles
1/8: 11.03 miles
1/10: 6.02 miles

44.27/100 miles completed for January

It was a lovely 59°F this morning. I ran 6 miles. It was mostly an uneventful run. I did see a skunk, but not much else. I just enjoyed the quiet morning with myself. Tomorrow should be about the same. I need to go to bed a little earlier. I was dragging a bit this morning.

@martaindale Great picture! I can't wait to read the full report.

tarun_yadavA

Morning everyone.
Better. Still not 100% (I've said that a lot, haven't I?).
But got a short-ish one in today

spl8

A joyful, if slow and short, run in the woods yesterday.

Love reading everyone's reports and all of the positivity in this group.

quilteryoyo

@Scott6255 Great run in the "heat." I'm not used to using that word in Jan. I hope you enjoy your trip to Austin.

Glad you aren't affected too much by the floods @shanaber .

Great run @kgirlhart . I'm glad the skunks don't bother you.

@tarun_yadavA I'm glad you were able to get out for a short run. Hope you feel back to normal soon!

@spl8 A joyful run is a great run, regardless of the distance or pace.

martaindale

January total: 59.1/80 miles run
3.9/20 miles walk
63/100 miles total

1/1: 5 miles
1/2: 4.2 miles
1/5: 3.2 miles
1/6: 6.4 miles
1/7: 13.3 miles
1/8: 27 miles
1/11: 3.9 mile walk

I am back home now, and brought a cold with me. Luckily not covid - tested negative. Anyhoo, it’s taken me a bit to sit down and really process this last weekend.
The last day, fourth run, was the marathon. By the time you wake up at 2:15 am for 4 days in a row there just aren't any nerves left. I'm usually pretty nervous right before a race so it felt weird to be so calm. We had lovely early morning weather (low 50’s) and I finished before it got too warm. I was in corral B so there wasn’t a huge wait before our wave crossed the starting line. I stuck to the 1 mile run, 0.5 mile walk that I used while rehabbing my Achilles to make sure I didn’t push too much early on and cause it to flare up during the race. This worked really well though I'm pretty sure I post count at some point and skipped a walk break. I used my usual fueling plan of every 3.5 miles with a mixture of Maurten, gu, and Muir, walked the aid stations to make sure I got enough water.
The course is roadways punctuated by running through each of the 4 parks and around the Boardwalk area behind Epcot. This race felt different from others I've done here because 3 of the 4 parks were actually open as we were running through. There were so many more spectators and the park guests would cheer as we ran by. My training plan capped the long run at 16 miles so I had done that distance 3 times, but once I got above that, every mile was something new. I was really surprised by how good I felt on the back end. I never hit the dreaded wall. Mentally I felt strong and I never felt the doubts of whether I would be able to finish. Yes, the bottoms of my feet were stinging and my knees and hips complained a little. But, none of it was truly painful and I ran my fastest mile at mile 25. I definitely got emotional as I crossed the finish line and it hit me that not only had I run my first marathon, but I had also finished the Dopey challenge upright and with a smile on my face, which was my main goal. I also hopped off the course in Animal Kingdom and rode a roller coaster (Expedition Everest)! That is one of those things you could only do at a Disney run. This section of my strava map is the roller coaster ride!

I’m glad I committed to training well for this challenge because I really got to enjoy it. It truly felt like a victory lap after months of long runs and little time off but I stand by my previous statement of one and done for the marathon and Dopey. The time commitment for marathon training is tough with a kid at home. If I were to consider doing another, it would at least be several years, after my kid graduates from high school. The race itself was fine. It wasn’t as physically or mentally hard as I thought it might be but the training took a toll. So for now, I’ll stick to the HM distance but I am going to up my base mileage. I ran a lot in 2022 and found that my body adapted well to the higher mileage. I felt totally fine after the HM and was only a little sore following the marathon. I could even walk stairs basically normally the next day. The higher weekly mileage is 100% to credit for that. An almost 50 mile race weekend was basically the same distance I had been running for the last 1-2 months. The story would probably be different if I had actually raced any of the distances, but since I kept things easy, the whole thing was so much fun!
I am taking this week completely off from running and will pick up some very short runs next week probably. I went out for a walk with my husband today just to get out of the house and move around. I can tell my legs are still tired, but the soreness is totally gone.
@quilteryoyo asked about times. The 5k was 37:54 (11:48/mi). 10k was 1:16:15 (11:58/mi). The HM was 2:28:32 (11:13/mi) and the marathon was 5:21:50 (11:55/mi). My overall place was 3227-3389 of about 16,000 runners, with about 12,700 finishers for the marathon. Not sure about the number of finishers for the other distances. I’m pretty proud about that.
And here is the medal collection!

spl8

@martaindale, I am profoundly impressed. My daughter's special needs running club goes to Disney for the marathon weekend every other year (we haven't done it because my daughter has difficulty with crowds), and several club members have talked about doing the Dopey challenge, but I don't know anyone who actually has done it. That's an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations!

Scott6255

Very nice race report @martaindale! You trained well and even with you recovering from your Achilles, you managed those races really well. Congrats 👏🎉

Did 8 miles on the treadmill this evening due to high winds and 80+ temps.

quilteryoyo

Amazing @martaindale ! I love that you even hopped off the course to ride a rollercoaster. The strava map is fun! Love all the medals. You are a rock star!

I worked at daycare today. I was only home for a little over an hour before I needed to leave to pick up mom for church, so I did a two mile walk on the treadmill. I didn't want to have to sweat.

kgirlhart

January Goal: 100 Miles

1/1: 10.50 miles
1/3: 6.01 miles
1/4: 5.11 miles
1/5: 5.60 miles
1/8: 11.03 miles
1/10: 6.02 miles
1/11: 6.26 miles

50.53/100 miles completed for January

It was another lovely morning. 60°F when I got up. It dipped down to 57° as I ran, but was really nice. My hands did get kind of cold which I was surprised about. But overall it was good and I ran 6.25 miles.

@martaindale Fantastic race report. I'm so glad you had such a great time. The medal collection is awesome.

Laurz9191

Good morning everyone!

Just a short update about my HM training so far. I printed out 3 of the Hal Higdon plans, but have also been befriending my watch, which also has been making training suggestions and even gave me a couple of compliments recently . I decided I wanted to start with listening to some of its training suggestions and see how that goes (it is also pretty much aligned with the Hal Higdon plans). So my watch has me doing a lot of Z2 running, which I am not used to, but I am really trying to give it a try and run slower. On Saturday I have my first scheduled Tempo run and I am excited to see how that goes after all of the slow and easy running this week.

The weather here has been quite depressing - rainy, windy, grey, and muddy, so I have been sliding around a bit, but there is still some leaf cover down on the trails I like to run on, which makes the mud a bit less slippery. Today, it was raining enough for me to get my muddy shoes cleaned off in the puddles before getting back to the car, so that was a positive .



@martiandale Thanks for the race report. I was eagerly awaiting to hear how the marathon went. That is so cool that you went on a roller coaster ride during the marathon. It sounds like overall it was a really fun compilation of races to take part in.

SummerSkier

So when you go off course to ride a rollercoaster do they "pause" your race time? Sounds like fun! Great report and super BLING!!!

tarun_yadavA

Morning all.
I am my own worst enemy. I thought I was on the mend. Trying to 'go for it' this morning. Now feel awful. 🤧🤢
Getting an earful from the wife too. Joy.

Definitely not running tomorrow.

😢

tarun_yadavA

Oh... Forgot to add. Tried eating before this morning's run.
10g of Oats, 30ml of Oat Milk. Then set timer for 20 mins before starting warm-up.

Doesn't look appetizing (Baby vomit??).

Can't tell if it helped or not!?! 🤷
Still coughing and honking nose. So brain was focused on that.
(Not as bad as last Sat [when I did 13.13 with running buddy] But still not 100%).

quilteryoyo

Great running @kgirlhart ! It is interesting that your hands got cold. I guess you were so speedy you were creating your own wind chill.

@Laurz9191 Sounds like you are doing great with your training. I hope your weekend run goes well.

@tarun_yadavA Ok. Ignore my comment on the newsfeed. So sorry you still aren't feeling well. I hope a couple of days rest will do the trick for you. That's such a tiny amount of oats. At least it stayed down.

tarun_yadavA

@quilteryoyo Thank you! It's odd this one. I feel, there are times when I have 'pockets' of energy. And I want to do stuff. Like this morning - chai, then go Run... Aaaannnd.... then theres the rest of the day where I am just constantly coughing, honking nose into toilet paper, sucking on cough sweets and just plain smelling of Vicks Vaporub.
I'm soooo over this. It's been over a week.
Youngest is now sick (same thing) and off from school too. Fantastic. 😭

Resting tomorrow.

tarun_yadavA

The oats stayed down, yes! Lol.

Stayed down for 7.

So I think anything double-digits, will eat a small amount of oats in oat milk. An oat 'double-down', if you will! Lol

Teresa502

Jan 1 – 7.02 miles
Jan 2 – 3
Jan 3 – 5.1
Jan 5 – 3.02
Jan 7 – 8.01
Jan 9 – 5.48
Jan 10 – 4.21
Jan 12 – 5.16

I drove back from Richmond yesterday (5 hour drive) and went straight to the hospital. My mom had taken my dad to the ER on Tuesday. I only found out because I have access to their medical records and received a notification of his test results. They always “don’t want to bother me.” He has a build up of scar tissue on his intestines and every now and then something that he has eaten blocks everything up. He has finally agreed to let the doctor do surgery which is scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully it will just be laproscopically (sp?) but if that doesn’t work will be more invasive. Anyway, no exercise for me yesterday. This morning I met a friend for a run before heading back to the hospital to sit with my dad. It was a nice 49F. We’re supposed to get the wind and rain this evening and a chance of snow tomorrow.

Great race report @martaindale! All your training and hard work certainly paid off.

If I didn’t like you, I would really hate you for your 8:33 pace while feeling like death warmed over @tarun_yadavA :-)

martaindale

@Teresa502 Sorry to hear your dad is in the hospital. My parents do the same thing. I often find out about stuff after the fact.

@SummerSkier They do not pause your time. Luckily there wasn't really a line as the park had only been open 30 minutes or so and the cast members were pushing us through the single Rider line. They were loading about half of each car with runners so we moved through pretty quickly. That's also part of why I ended with 27 miles.

@tarun_yadavA Sorry to hear you're still feeling sick. That bug sounds brutal.

martaindale

January total: 59.1/80 miles run
8.7/20 miles walk
71.7/100 miles total

1/1: 5 miles
1/2: 4.2 miles
1/5: 3.2 miles
1/6: 6.4 miles
1/7: 13.3 miles
1/8: 27 miles
1/11: 3.9 mile walk
1/12: 4.8 mile walk

It was beautiful this morning! I had plenty of time for a nice walk since I don't have to be at work until 10am. I'm enjoying the easier pace of this week and the little break from running. My legs basically feel normal, so I'll probably try some short runs next week.

JennieMaeK

Another run yesterday in the dark. I'm so looking forward to the sun being out past 5pm, lol. It was snowing lightly as well, but very peaceful.

@martaindale amazing runs. The weekend sounded great. So impressed with your marathon, I've only done a couple halfs and the last one was just over 2 years ago. I think I might start training again for one after my 10k at the end of May.

tarun_yadavA

@Teresa502 hahahahaha. Awww thanks ☺️

PS: sorry to hear about your Dad 😞
Hope he recovers properly soon.

@martaindale - thank you!

PS: wondered about the 27....
"She kept going? She wanted her PB to be a whole number and not something with a decimal? *" Lol

PPS: *These people exist. lol

spl8

@tarun_yadavA, I've been reading your posts about running while ill; you are a seriously dedicated runner. Hope you are able to rest and recover. Feel better.

I didn't have much time so I did a run on the neighborhood streets yesterday, which I find so much less satisfying than doing trails. On the other hand, I dislike having to drive somewhere to run. Alas. Tomorrow I will try to do a long (for me) slow trail run. As I try to get back into running, my age is very much showing. I have not been able to ramp it up very much, and I feel tired and stiff a lot. The daily yoga has helped.

tarun_yadavA

@spl8 thanks for the kind words!
Nice to meet you, btw.
I'm Tarun. 42. London.

Scott6255

@tarun_yadavA sorry you are still fighting that bug! But also, not super smart to increase both distance and pace. Come on, you know better than that Also, those oats don't look very appetizing 🤢
Hope your youngest doesn't have the bug as bad as you. Both get better soon!

@Teresa502 sorry about your dad. Glad you will be there with him though.

@martaindale glad your legs are already feeling normal!

eleanorhawkins

@Teresa502 oh no, sorry about your dad! Same here, mine only ever tell me stuff afterwards. I think a lot of parents are the same.
@martaindale I'm both amazed and over the moon at how well you're recovering!
@tarun_yadavA what Scott said about pushing it... you need to be kind to your body while it's under the weather! About the oats... throw a bit of cocoa or something in there to make it taste nice. I prefer to make overnight oats with some milk and low fat Greek yoghurt, they soak it up overnight and you end up with a mushy mess but less liquid so less danger of it sloshing in the stomach on the run. I add a banana and cinnamon too, so it's yummy.

I'm trying to have an easy week in preparation for race on Sunday. Bad news is, I eat too much on days off and I need to drop the extra lbs gained from carb load, recovery, can't be arsed to care, too busy to care, then xmas. D'oh!

spl8

@tarun_yadavA
Nice to meet you, too. I'm Sue. 59. Long Island, NY.
Hoping to do a half marathon in the fall after I turn 60.

tarun_yadavA

@Scott6255 @eleanorhawkins yeah you guys are right. I felt better in the morning, thought I'd turned the corner... But alas.
I am my own worst enemy. 🤦
Ego just got the better of me. Stupid.

Noted RE: Oats. Lol.
Couple of teaspoons - as a start!

@spl8 nice to meet you! ☺️Good luck with the Half later in the year.

Avidkeo

I ran a 6k sprint session today and it felt amazing. And I think my VO2 max is finally on the upward trend - it was 48 in April when I got covid.

I'm feeling fantastic. Its such a good feeling to be on the improvement. Tomorrow is a long run. And I'm really looking forward to it. I'm finding the joy of running again.

Mari33a

I’ve not got out for a run yet this week. We r getting really stormy windy wet weather since Monday with lots of flooding now. Some places have lost power & I thought we were going to too this afternoon the wind was so bad. I kept saving my work every few minutes incase the computer went off. It’s to ease off a bit by 2moro so there’s still few days before week is over. I only need a calm half hour😅 . I’ve been using my spin bike in the morning instead but want to get outside

@martaindale Congrats on ur races & fast recovery.
@Teresa502 Hope ur Dad gets on ok