June 2023 Monthly Running Challenge

Teresa502

tarun_yadavA wrote: »

@Teresa502 ooohhh nice! Enjoy Portugal!

Make sure you get one of these in!!

Yes! Had a couple of those from the place that makes them with the recipe from the monks! The best!

AlphaHowls

6/1 16.23 miles, Running Partner A
6/2 16.3 miles
6/3 16.47 miles, 1860 days on the run, 1042 days HM+ Streak, Running Partner E+1 25wks, County line and back
6/4 17.42 miles County line and back
6/5 16.27 miles
6/6 17.64 miles, Running Partner A
6/7 16.28 miles
6/8 17.19 miles Running Partner A & E(+1 25.5wks), 1865 days on the run, 1047 days HM+ Streak
6/9 17.23 miles
6/10 17.36 miles, Running Partner A, Code Orange Air Quality, throats roughed
6/11 17.56 miles County line and back
6/12 17.5 miles
6/13 17.24 miles, 1870 days on the run, 1052 days HM+ Streak, Running Partner A
6/14 17.34 miles
6/15 17.35 miles, Running Partner A
6/16 17.62 miles, 2900 days MFP, County line and back
6/17 17.48 miles, Running Partner A
6/18 17.62 miles, 1875 days on the run, 1057 days HM+ Streak
6/19 17.33 miles
6/20 17.58 miles, Running Partner A
6/21 17.26 miles
6/22 17.45 miles, Running Partner A
6/23 17.22 miles, 1880 days on the run, 1062 days HM+ Streak, Running Partner A
6/24 17.51 miles, County line and back

Crossed over 412 miles this morning. Still on track to reach 500 for June. Stress and increasing anxiety continues as I realize my mother is on rapid decline, dementia is taking her from me and it saddens me and breaks me some days.

Laurz9191

I wanted to go out for a run yesterday, but it wouldn’t stop raining and I only had the thinnest of tank tops and some shorts with me. After all the heat these past days, I just couldn’t motivate myself to go out in that polar opposite weather.

Now that we’ve had a day of rain, the heat is back. I thought I’d acclimatise by finally getting a long run in… at lunch time. My motto of the run - life is good with snacks and water. I dunked my visor hat in the stream twice to cool down. I had a nice time and saw many cyclists, but only two runners who were out during the heat of the day. I ran 16.6km.

So far for June 90.2/150km.

martaindale

@AlphaHowls I’m so sorry to hear that your mom’s dementia is progressing so rapidly. Dementia is such a tough disease. I’m sure it’s been tough on you as her caregiver. Take care of yourself too. Having seen a few older relatives succumb to dementia, my heart goes out to you as you navigate the last period of your mom’s life.

martaindale

@Teresa502 Enjoy Lisbon! I have never been but have been trying to get my husband to go to Portugal for a bit. We probably won’t go until after the kid is out of the house. Looking forward to some more pics! I showed him the pastel de nata @tarun_yadavA mentioned and he very much wants to try those. He is very food motivated, especially baked goods!

Scott6255 wrote: »

97mph winds! That could have been a tornado 🌪️
I guess it could have been worse. Take care!

That’s what I was thinking. The degree of damage around the neighborhood is pretty variable. While there was no confirmed tornado, I definitely think we got some tornado-adjacent conditions.

kgirlhart

@martaindale That is some crazy wind! I'm glad your house is fine and I hope the knee and ankle are ok.

@quilteryoyo Sorry about the sinus issues. Hope you feel better soon.

@AlphaHowls Sorry your mom isn't doing well. Big hugs to you.

No run for me today or yesterday. Just scheduled rest days. I am going to have to get up really early tomorrow to run in the "cool" part of the day. And if I am lucky that will be about 82° feels like 87°, so not really cool.

TheMrWobbly

My mother passed away 3 years ago @AlphaHowls and worked at care home for many years. Nothing medically based here though she used to tell the visitors they were sad for themselves and needed to keep smiling. She insisted the patients thoughts were generally in a happy place even if it wasn't one they recognised.

Nice war wound @martaindale , how we suffer for our art!

I really do feel for you guys in the heat. Rather than an early morning run I did parkrun today at 9am and it peaked at 85°F. It totally did me in and I had to walk in the, all too rare, bit of shade to cool down.

It doesn't fully count though I am pleased to have done my first parkrun for 1,302 days!

I am not ready for the hills yet that is for sure. Not going to hit my mileage target which is fine.


Have a great weekend everyone.

martaindale

June total: 77.1/100 miles

6/1: 10 miles
6/2: 3.1 miles
6/3: 3.1 miles
6/4: 3.3 miles
6/5: 3 miles
6/7: 7 miles
6/8: 6 miles
6/9: 3 miles
6/10: 5.5 miles
6/17: 4.9 miles
6/18: 2.9 miles
6/19: 3.3 miles
6/20: 4 miles
6/22: 3 miles
6/23: 6 miles
6/24: 9 miles

Brutal. That is all.

I did all the things this morning. Frozen hydration pack, salt tabs, walk breaks, water over the head. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the salt tabs are a game changer. By far the thing that has made the biggest difference in how these summer long runs feel. Re: the VO2 max discussion, mine dropped another point after today’s run. I saw as high as 44 during the winter, recently it was hovering at 42, and today it ticked down to 41. It’s a good demonstration of the effect weather has on the metrics Garmin uses to estimate your VO2 max.

My road rash looks yucky and still hurts but not so much while I’m running unless some sweat hits it. Then it stings. My ankle is fine. My joints are rubber. Even when I’m not actively stretching I remain more flexible that most people my age. If I’m actually putting effort into stretching regularly, I can still do the splits. I have to do something extreme to actually injure my ankles. The only sprained ankle I ever had happened on a trampoline after a super weird landing. Just rolling it on the ground doesn’t do much.

chris_in_cal

AlphaHowls wrote: »

it saddens me and breaks me some days

This one seems very frustrating to watch. It's heartbreaking. I hope you are able to find some peace in all this.

SummerSkier

@AlphaHowls sending much strength from Austin. I went through this with my mother for many years. She was a brilliant concert pianist and even at her very worst mentally she still could sit down at the Steinway and play for us. We always encouraged her to practice. Perhaps there is something your mom enjoys you could work with. My mom also loved to sketch and we bought her pastels and sketch paper. Often times she would be absolutely HORRID to deal with but my brother and I learned to go with the flow when we became primary care takers after my Dad passed. 🥺😢

@martaindale it IS horrid out. 🫠🫠🫠 Even running before the sun is up I seem to melt esp after I get back in the house. My VO2max is dropping also. My AC is set to 80 during the day and maybe 77 at night right now to avoid it running constantly and honestly at almost 100 out or worse outside 80 feels pretty good. At work it is 68 and I freeze. Nothing like an indoor restaurant or office in Tx summertime to make you carry a sweater.

@chris_in_cal you look to be right on track for your goals to be exceeded this month. I think you are putting in more mileage than me.😳🔥

@tarun_yadavA so nice to see that your daily running is working out again for you! 👏👏👏👏

Perhaps it is an age thing but I seem to need an extra DAY of recovery right now where as in the past running every day was fine.

Scott6255

@AlphaHowls my heart goes out to you and your mom. It must be so painful to watch the person you have loved your whole life just fade away. We are in that same situation with my wife's aunt. We were her primary care givers after her husband died from Covid early 2020, but she just became too much for us to handle as we both worked. So my wife quit her job and was with her 24/7. That lasted about 6 months but we finally had to put her in a memory care facility (1 block away). So my wife visits her every other day and sometimes she knows her, other times not. I know it will be a crushing blow when she finally can't recognize her, but embracing the good days now.
Hope your Mom has many more good days! ❤️

quilteryoyo

June 1: Walk = 2.00 miles - trip to Hot Springs
June 2: Wun/Walk = 2.00 miles - also mowed mom's lawn
June 3: Walk = 2.00 miles - also mowed my lawn
June 4: Walk = 2.00 miles
June 5: Walk = 1.00 mile - Run = 2.25 miles - driveway laps
June 6: Walk = 2.50 miles - Run = 2.00 miles - treadmill intervals plus tree debris for almost an hour
June 7: Walk = 200 miles - treadmill
June 8: Walk = 1.45 miles - Run = 1.80 miles - driveway laps
June 9: Wun =2.25 miles - driveway laps
June 10: Walk = 2.00 miles - Run = 1.50 miles - treadmill intervals
June 11: Walk = 2.00 miles
June 12: Walk = 1.45 miles - Run = 1.80 miles - driveway laps
June 13: Walk - 1.58 miles - Run = 1.67 miles - around town during break at work
June 14: Walk = 2.50 miles - Around town during my break at work
June 15: Walk = 2.00 miles - Around town after work - doubles tennis for 2 hours
June 16: Walk = 2.00 miles - treadmill after push mowing for 51 minutes
June 17: Walk = 0.80 miles - Run = 0.45 miles - treadmill
June 18: Walk = 2.00 miles - driveway laps
June 19: Walk = 2.00 miles - treadmill - not feeling well
June 20: Walk = 2.25 miles - treadmill
June 21: Walk = 2.00 miles - Run = 1.50 miles - treadmill
June 22: Walk = 3.00 miles - treadmill
June 23: Wun/walk = 3.30 miles - treadmill
June 24: Walk=1.00 mile - Run = 2.50 miles - treadmill

62.80/80 mile goal

I felt better today, but was kind of lazy. I had to make myself take that first step of exercising.

One day last week, I found a training plan I used when I first started to run that takes 20 weeks to get you to run for 30 min straight. I loved that plan and am glad that I found it. It really helped me overcome my mental hurdle. So, I am doing an experiment to see if I can use the same plan to get to run 30 minutes at 5.5 mph at the end. I know that is still slow for lots of you, but I'd be happy to run 30 min at 5.5 mph. I'll be adding to the program, since it is a 3 day a week plan and I need to run more than it suggests most days. For grins, I tried 1/1 run/walk today, just to see what I could do and how it felt. I did 14 x 1/1 at 5.5/3.8 mph and then ran at 5.5 for 3:39 min at the end. The last min was a little hard, but not bad. Total run/walk was 2.50 miles. Avg pace was 12:40 min/mile (4.7 mph). Avg HR was 131 with a max of 159 bpm. I also walked a half mile each for warm up and cool down, so day total was 3.50 miles.

quilteryoyo

That looks really good @tarun_yadavA .

Big hugs @AlphaHowls . Dementia is so hard on the family to deal with. You're doing great with the running...I'm sure it helps to relieve all the stress you are under.

Great run @Laurz9191 . Love how you stayed as cool as possible with water from the stream.

You're doing great @TheMrWobbly .

Thanks @kgirlhart .

You're doing great @martaindale !

You're doing great too @SummerSkier . I agree, @AlphaHowls Music is one of the last things that seems to go in dementia patients. When I volunteered at the nursing home, sing-alongs, they could all remember the words to the songs...even it they didn't remember 2 min later that they sang. Someone said art/music is one of the few things that uses both sides of the brain and that is why it remains when other things are gone. Again, big hugs to you.

Teresa502

Good morning from Faro Portugal. It is so hot here and only air conditioning in the upstairs portion of the Airbnb. We got here by train around 2 yesterday and did a walking tour at 4. This morning I ran 4.6 miles. The first and last were on cobblestones so I was extra slow negotiating those.

Teresa502

Sending big hugs to you @AlphaHowls and all of you caring for aging parents. Mine are 82 and 83 and I can tell they are really declining.

Glad your road rash is healing @martaindale.

Teresa502

Show this to your hubby @martaindale

quilteryoyo

@Teresa502 Sounds like you are enjoying your vacation and being very active. No wonder it's hot. The sun looks like it's twice as big as it is here. The food looks delicious!

chris_in_cal

Teresa502 wrote: »

Mine are 82 and 83 and I can tell they are really declining.

My parent is 83 and just recently had finances and driving privileges taken away. It's painful. I struggle figuring out how to retain my humanity, love, and sense of respect, when the path forward seems so crushingly plain.

kgirlhart

June Goal: 105 Miles

6/1: 6.25 miles
6/3: 10.25 miles
6/6: 7.05 miles
6/7: 6.55 miles
6/8: 3.11 miles
6/11: 8.36 miles
6/13: 6.26 miles
6/14: 7.02 miles
6/15: 6.02 miles
6/19: 8.26 miles
6/20: 6.05 miles
6/21: 6.02 miles
6/22: 6.26 miles
6/2/: 13.15 miles

100.61/105 miles completed for June

I got up early so I could run before the heat became unbearable. I usually run at about 5:30 on weekday mornings, but it is so hard for me to get up that early on a weekend. I did manage to get up and out the door around 6:30 today. I knew if I wanted to run during the coolest part of the day that was going to be it. And I had a fantastic run. It was warm at 88°F feels like 90°, but it wasn't too humid, and there was some wind which helped keep me cool. Plus it was early enough that the sun was just coming up and I had plenty of shade. As I was running I was feeling really good and I decided to go for a half marathon today. The last two miles were pretty tough. It was 90° F feels like 95° when I got home, and I was dripping with sweat, but I felt really good about the run. I took it pretty easy, but still ended with an average pace of 11:38. Not a PR by any means, but I thought it was really good considering the conditions. I didn't see any skunks today, but I did see a big jackrabbit at the cemetery and a deer near the park, plus severalsquirrelsandcats. The only dogs I saw were with their ownerson leashes or in fenced yards. I stopped for water a couple of times and I also ran through a water sprinkler. I did some yoga to stretch when I got home and now I am just relaxing.

@teresa502 Your vacation looks awesome!

Scott6255

@Teresa502 looks like a great vacation! Have fun.

I haven't run since Thursday. Woke up Thursday morning with a bad headache but took a couple Tylenol before the run and felt ok. But as the morning progressed it came back along with my stomach felt queasy. That lasted all the way into Saturday night. But this morning feeling better, so eased back into it with 6 TM miles.