April 2023 Monthly Running Challenge
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The Garmin Coach 5K plan bumped up the run time this week. It dropped down to two intervals, and 8 min walk/12 min run. It's nice to actually feel the run times stretching out a bit.
April Running Goal: 12 runs, 25 miles- April 2 - 2.49 miles
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Hi all, welcome to April. My goal is to walk every day. I will revisit whether to start tracking and increasing miles but for now, it's just getting out there every day.
Report so far is that yesterday I had a lovely walk with a few of my runner friends. The weather was an insane rollercoaster of thunderstorms in the early morning then when we walked at 11 am it was 65 degrees and sunny. We did a little over 3 miles. Then around 3:30 I walked again with Stella and my boyfriend for about 20 minutes. It was still pretty nice but you could feel the change coming. It then got really windy and then poured down around 5 pm and the temps started plummeting. This morning it was 24 degrees, which was nearly a 50 degree drop from the high the day before. It was really sunny though. I walked with a friend and Stella for a few miles, didn't track but we walk over an hour.
I'm doing well and heading back to Boston for a surgery follow-up appointment tomorrow. Other parts of life are not cooperating (poor Stella was sick and my car broke down to name a couple of things) but trying to keep moving forward one step at a time. I will look forward to a much calmer time sometime soon!
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April Goal: 110 Miles
4/2: 11.03 miles
11.02/110 miles completed for April
I started out April with a really nice 11 mile run. It was already pretty warm when I started out at 65°F and it was 72° by the end. But it was pleasant enough. I saw several dogs. A few ran out to meet me, but none seemed aggressive. I saw my neighbor. I first passed him at his house and he waved but was heading towards the door. I saw him again at the park and he had a jacket on. It was kind of windy, but it wasn't that cool. I also saw an older man walking an old dog. I see the dog a lot in the mornings and he always barks at me. The man said he wanted to come with me and commented that he always barks at me but he is real friendly. I also saw a couple of boys playing in their front yard. The younger one looked about 7 and he said high and held out his hand for a high 5 as I passed. Then he asked me what that was and pointed at my aftershocks. So I told him but then said I had to be on my way. He seemed like the kind of kid who could take all day.
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I'm going to aim for 40 miles and hopefully will get there. My sensible head says go 35 but I want to hit 40. Last month was probably my best month in years as I lost 4lbs and was either running or on my spinbike almost every day bar 3 days
02/04 3.26 miles
Total 3.26/40miles
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7 miles this morning. Two HR spikes... first coming around a corner and almost crashed into a fellow runner (without lights). Second one was half a mile from home. I see two glowing eyes coming toward me and loud growling. Turned out it was an escaping little terrier (terror!) on the loose. Out ran it by just moving to other side of street before he gave up. That's one way to wake up in the morning.
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Morning everyone. Got in a 6K
Been up since 4am... Now to stay awake till at least 9pm!
Because... Florida!
@Teresa502 @quilteryoyo thanks ladies! I think pistachio... Only if gelato. Otherwise, if it's an ice-cream - something else. But do tend to stick to nuts/caramel types.
@spl8 - not trolling. I promise. 😂
@Laurz9191 - thank you.... And ummm, ouch!7 -
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02/04 3.26 miles
03/06 3.24 miles
Total 6.5/40miles
@Scott6255 - Sorry Scott while that was a traumatic morning for you, it did make me laugh
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I got a small run in the morning - 5.3km. First 1.5 days of vacation down. I love the forest air smell! So refreshing and full of pine and moss. Not sure about the hills though… My leg is hurting from my fall. A friend thought I must have gotten into a bike crash- no, just running can also be dangerous
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15.3/175km for April down.
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Glad you are home and enjoyed Camino @eleanorhawkins ! LOL about the hike and just saying "don't look down." You did great!
@spl8 Sorry you had to pause your training due to and illness, but that stuff happens and it's great that you didn't push it and really hurt yourself. I hope you are back to running soon.
Sorry about your calf, and the snakes, @martaindale . I hope it felt better today.
Oh no @Laurz9191 ! I'm glad you weren't injured any worse. Enjoy the mountains. Great run today with a sore leg. I'll bet that water is awesome!
Beautiful pictures @AlphaHowls . Great running, even when you were cold.
You're doing great @chris_in_cal !
@katharmonic Walking every day is a great goal and you are doing fantastic. So glad you have friends that are walking with you. That makes it fun instead of long and boring. Sorry about Stella being sick and the car issues. I hope your follow-up went well today.
Nice running @kgirlhart ! Hahaha about the kid seeming like one that could "take" all day. I try to call that curiosity, which is a good thing. But, also good that you figured out how to not get too sucked in and keep going.
You are doing great @Mari33a ! Congrats on the weight loss and monthly mileage/consistency last month.
Great running @Scott6255 . Sorry about the HR spikes, but you survived to run another day.
Nice jet-lagged run @tarun_yadavA ! Those iguanas look terrifying. I don't think I have seen them when I am in FL. Aren't they invasive and "foreign?"
I didn't post yesterday, due to time constraints. I did do a 2 mile walk on the driveway in the evening.
Non exercise related Sunday activities and some pictures under the spoiler.Mom and I went to Sunday School, but skipped worship so we could go to my aunt's church and help with the meal they were doing for a fundraiser for the church. After we left there, we went to visit with my niece and her family, whom we haven't seen since Christmas. Mom (and I) enjoyed the great-granddaughters. The youngest - almost 2, took up with mom and played peek-a-boo and read books and the oldest, almost 4, took up with me and didn't want me to leave. Anyway, it was a great visit and fun. We didn't get home until after 6 pm, when I did the driveway walk.
Me and the youngest, Maislee.
The oldest, Mya. She said the playdough was so smooth.
Me, mom, and both girls.
Today, I got up early enough to get my run in before "starting" the day. I did a treadmill session. I was a little short on time, so decided to walk a mile total for warm up and cool down and run about 15 min faster than normal. I ran for 5.5/1.5/5.5/2.5/2:11 min at 5.5/3.8/5.5/5.2/5.0 mph. That made 1.50 miles in 17:11 min for an average pace of 11:27 min/mile. My avg HR was 135, with a max of 148 bpm. I was pleased with that and may be what I wind up doing when I am short on time, but want to get something done. Maybe it will improve my short distance pace.
The rest of my non-running related day is in the spoiler.After that, I made some phone calls trying to get some info for my Cousin, left and picked up mom for a GI appointment (They are a little concerned about dysmotility causing her to get stuff in her lungs, but that isn't an issue so far. Not really anything they can do for that, just something to look out for. The meds her primary care gave her for acid reflux seem to be helping.), and did a little shopping.
My check engine light was on, so made an unscheduled stop at the car dealership. He found the code - which took way too long because the computers weren't cooperating, but said it could be a lot of different things, some not too bad and some bad. He reset the light and said if it came back on the bring it in, but they would have to keep it in order to find the real culprit. I say, if you have to plug it in to find a code, it should pin-point the issue, not a general area and could be "a million things." Of course, on the way to the next stop, it came back on, but off again, but then on again. So, I'll probably wind up having to take it in later this week.
We drove to the new assisted living place I want my cousin to move to and gave them a deposit - which is refundable if he doesn't go there, ate lunch, did grocery shopping, and got home at 5:30. So glad I got my exercise done first.
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Sorry folks, I'm here to moan about my run this morning! It was one of those soul-destroying ones that I try and convince myself mean little but are great mental toughness training. I am trying to believe myself today.
My 1st marathon is on the 23rd of this month. My training has been far from conventional, I stopped relying on training plans for road running and as a slow trail runner, the time-based runs my coach prescribes end up being shorter in distance than you would typically see on a generic plan. My brain already struggles with that part, I'm having to force myself to have faith in the process etc and not let myself freak out about not having 'run all the miles'.
So, as I won't have time at the weekend and coach is happy for me to switch days around, I went out this morning for my last 'long' run. He said 2.5 hours but I decided to do 3 because again, the time thing is messing with my mind because I know this marathon's going to take me 5.5-6 hours.
My legs are tight and tired, I keep making the mistake of thinking that because I didn't run for 10 days my legs shouldn't be tired, then I remember that during that time we walked 118km in 6 days. So at least I have had a lot of time on feet.
My friend picked me up and drove us out of town, and we did a 12.5 loop through the hills together, then she left me and I ran back down on my own. She was having a bad day, so we walked a lot, and oh boy was it hard to say goodbye to her and keep going. I forgot to take my headphones to put some music on, and the negative talk started in my head, basically telling me I haven't trained enough and there's no way I can run a marathon because I was exhausted after a couple of hours. Actually I went into a run-walk-run pattern of letting myself walk for 30 seconds or so every 500 metres and probably could have gone on like that for a while longer, but not another 3 hours.
Then just to completely destroy my soul, I bumped into my ex who I hadn't seen for 27 years. When I stank and looked dead and trashed. ARGH! Lol.
So yeah, anyone want a place for Sherry Marathon? (I'm joking. I think.)9 -
@Laurz9191 I also love the smell of a forest! It immediately relaxes me. Your knee looks rough! Hopefully it didn’t look so bad once you washed the blood/mud mixture off!
@Scott6255 Your encounters made me laugh but I really hate that feeling of getting scared. It always happens in the dark morning hours when I’m just not ready to have my adrenaline pumping!
@tarun_yadavA Have fun in FL. Soak all that heat and humidity up! Maybe you can take it home with you when you go?2 -
@eleanorhawkins Those days are so hard! I’m sorry it happened on a long run. That somehow makes it worse. But, for what it’s worth, you’re probably in better shape for the marathon than you realize. It was just a bad day. Character-building as my kid’s climbing coach would say.2
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April total: 10/115 miles
4/1: 6 miles
4/3: 4 miles
First treadmill run of the year. Highs got up into the 90’s today. It’s getting hot. Booooo! I renewed my ifit subscription after sitting on a hold with the customer service chat for an hour! They only put the family plans online, and the individual plan is more than half the price. They do their best to make it so you don’t know that individual plan exists. Anyway, after that and dinner, I went for a run in the Azores. It was supposed to be a recovery run. The trainer kept the pace slow but there were so many climbs including one at the very beginning that maxed out the incline and was sustained for several minutes. Not my idea of recovery, so I stopped following her and just enjoyed the scenery at a more reasonable incline and pace.
My calf was fine today and it didn’t hurt during pilates yesterday even though I could feel the ache just walking around afterwards. Fingers crossed that doesn’t flare back up. Pilates and no run scheduled today, so it will have another day to recover.7 -
@martaindale thanks, I'll probably be fine I just get very anxious and have bad taper tantrums! I hope your calf doesn't get any worse, do you have a foam roller? Or maybe get a sports massage just in case...
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Morning everyone! Got in a 7K!@quilteryoyo hi! Lovely family pics! ... I think it's pythons that are the invasive species(from lots of late night Animal planet channel surfing!).
Speaking of snakes... @martaindale that's so cool. Shoulda got a pic!!
PS: yeah, it's hot here! Hopefully by the time I go back to the UK it's a bit warmer! ... Hope calf is better!5 -
4/1 15.27 miles, The wind is a bully!
4/2 15.56 miles, I am so cold! 37°F
4/3 15.29 miles 57°F and still lose fine motor skills/cold
4/4 15.3 miles, 1800 days on the run, 982 days HM+ Streak5 -
@eleanorhawkins I too think you are ready to tackle that marathon! You have put in a LOT of work so you just have to believe that is enough. Give yourself time for a good taper and you will make it.
@martaindale glad your calf is feeling better.
@AlphaHowls "1800 days on the run, 982 days HM+ Streak" JUST. BLOWS. MY. MIND. 😵🤯
Got out for 7 miles this morning. Did two more on the treadmill last night. Hope to do that again tonight. Not going to get any running in this weekend, so have to stack up the miles before then. 6 -
@Scott6255 I enjoyed reading about your run this morning. Glad you made it without a head on collision or getting caught by a dog! I always think things look scarier in the dark. Here most people have little Christmas light like collars for their dogs and you just see the lights bobbing up and down, but without street lights you have no indication of whether it a chihuahua or Great Dane coming, so my imagination always tends to get the best of me there imagining some fierce creature.
@quilteryoyo I also enjoyed your pictures. It seems like you are really busy! I hope you get you car troubles fixed. I know it must be annoying that they couldn’t give you an exact diagnosis, but hopefully they can find the root of the problem soon!
@eleanorhawkins I am sorry your run was so hard today! But you got through it! I am sure you are sore from the hiking too and, as you said it, being in your feet all day. Would you recommend the Camino walk, even though the section you did was mostly road? I am fully confident that you will succeed in your marathon! You have done so many long runs. You are definitely prepared for it!
@tarun_yadavA It must be quite a shock to go from London weather to Florida weather and with the time change!
I went on a slightly longer run than yesterday this morning 7km. I am glad that I can get some mountain running in, since I never run hills at home. It’s definitely more mentally challenging, but the views of the mountains and valleys, rivers, streams, and lakes are worth it!
After my run, I scarfed down breakfast and we went on a long hike. Long, because it was with kids and my parents who are currently visiting from Virginia and that is definitely a long way for both of those groups! It was a little over 10km, although I didn’t start “officially” tracking the distance until we had already walked several kilometres. The kids all did a great job keeping up, but I did have to carry my 3 year old about 2/3rds of the way on my shoulders. He is quite heavy, so we will see if my back has anything to say about that tomorrow… I am so happy that the kids enjoyed themselves in the forest so much and am looking forward to having more adventures with them.
So far for April I have completed 22.3/175km.5 -
@Laurz9191 glad you're enjoying the trail running, I find it so much more fun than roads!
There are actually several different Camino routes:
The one we did this year is the Camino Inglés ('English' because pilgrims from the UK would sail to Ferrol and walk from there) from Ferrol to Santiago.
A few years ago we did the last part of the Camino Portugués which starts in Lisbon I think. We started at the Spanish-Portguese border. We certainly preferred the Portugués route more, so I wouldn't recommend the Inglés over that, but if we didn't have anything to compare it with then we may have liked it more.
The best-known is the Camino Francés which starts at Saint Jean Pied de Port over the French border, then there are other routes from other parts of Spain. Those with plenty of time do the full routes, but many do the last 100-120km of one or another because 100 is the minimum distance you have to walk to be able to get your Compostela certficate from the pilgrim's office.
I hope to do the last stretches of all the different routes, and also longer ones when I win the lottery or can take long holidays. People also do them over various years... walk as far as they can then go home and pick up where they left off when they have time again, but my husband doesn't like that idea. I would also like to run one....
Oh, and my other bucket list long walk is the Via Francigena from Canterbury to Rome!8 -
So I'm sticking to walking until my knee feels less sore. Today's walk was quite nice.
My old Garmin 45s is not charging, so it may be time to get a new watch. What do y'all use/recommend?2 -
My old Garmin 45s is not charging, so it may be time to get a new watch. What do y'all use/recommend?
The bottom of the barrel Forerunner 265 is 10x than anything top of the line thing that was on the market 3 years ago.
The lowest end 265 now has an AMOLED screen, which has worked it's way down from the high end.
The less athletic focused Venu 2 Plus, has all the running/walking functions, and is a little less chunky.
I like the Venu 2 Plus, and used to have one. I gave it away and got a Forerunner.
Get either of those on sale and you can't go wrong.
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chris_in_cal wrote: »The lowest end 265 now has an AMOLED screen, which has worked it's way down from the high end.
Ray Maker is one of the goto reviewers.
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2023/03/garmin-forerunner-265-265s-review-amoled.html
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April Goal: 110 Miles
4/2: 11.03 miles
4/4: 6.02 miles
17.05/110 miles completed for April
It was 74°F at 5:30 thus morning. It definitely felt like a summer morning. I started out pretty slow and so decided to try for negative splits. I thought I got them too, but I missed it on the 3rd mile. I ended up with 11:45, 11:35, 11:40, 11:20, 11:12 and 10:12. I am still counting it though because my last mile was faster than the first, and I think that making the effort counts for something. I was especially pleased that mile 6 was a full minute faster than mile 5. 6 -
One last thing @spl8
A couple of times I've had schmutz build up in the charger cord end. I've cleaned them out with tweezers, qtips, alcohol etc And got them to work awhile longer. Worth a look.2 -
A lot of bugs at the reservoir. I gotta try running in the morning.
April Running Goal: 12 runs, 25 miles- April 2 - 2.49 miles
- April 4 - 3.58 miles
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@quilteryoyo you are having some busy and challenging times as well! Hope your car issues get resolved without too much expense. I will add a little to my offerings to the car gods for yours as well Cutie pie grandkids!
@eleanorhawkins your trail running is awesome and always full of adventure (whether it's fun adventure or not). You are strong and will be ready for your marathon. I think you showed your ex that you are killing it out there
I can't remember who said it was 90 degrees. I can't imagine already. But I do see 78 in our 10 day forecast which is pretty amazing for early April.
I managed some walking each day while I was in Boston. On Monday when we arrived we walked around the Harvard campus so that was cool to see. My friend bought her teen daughter a Harvard sweatshirt to motivate her
. On Tuesday we walked to breakfast before my appointment to a creperie that was fabulous. I think my crepe breakfast negated the walk, but it was worth it. I also took Stella for a walk that evening after I got home.
Non-walking/running updates you can skip:I am back home from Boston and my follow-up appointment went well. Two of my four drains removed so that was a relief even though I really wanted them all out. The other two should come out in a few days and I don't have to go back to Boston to do that. Everything else looks good and healing well. They want me to take this week and next off work yet.
Stella is doing much better, she seems to be back to normal. My car is still at the shop with unknown amount of tragedy there as of yet. It's not going to be good I fear and it's a 10 year old car that I do not want to pay $$$ for. I am probably going to have to buy a new car but I was hoping it would be this summer and not right this minute so I don't know what I'm going to do if it's an expensive repair and I can't drive it if I don't fix it. Also my boyfriend is in NYC having had another stent put in for heart blockage yesterday so hopefully he can come home today.
Hoping things progress positively on all fronts today! I'm going to try to walk this morning before it rains. Have a good day everyone.
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Morning all.
Got in a 7K
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April total: 15.1/115 miles
4/1: 6 miles
4/3: 4 miles
4/5: 5.1 miles
It was full on summer temps this morning. 76F before sunrise, 88% humidity. Blegh. I'm back to sports bra running and having to carry water for every run. But, on the plus side, no snakes!
I also went to pilates again yesterday. It was so hard! I can already tell the difference in my posture and a bit in my upper body, which is very motivating.
ETA: After seeing another comment about bugs, I remembered I left out part of my run story this morning. I almost died (little dramatic but that's what it feels like in the moment) after a gnat flew into the back of my throat. I hate those little bugs so much! There is all this space around me, and somehow they find my nose, my mouth, my eyes!5 -
Sorry for the car troubles @katharmonic and @quilteryoyo I know how aggravating that can be.
@tarun_yadavA yeah, welcome Florida!!! Just be thankful you aren't running there in July or August!
Got in a slow 6.2 miles this morning. It started off very warm, but by the end it had dropped over 10F just in the hour I was out. Cold front coming through 4
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