SEPTEMBER 2023 Monthly Running Challenge

polskagirl01

@TheMrWobbly I like the competition in races, and you can usually find someone to challenge you at any ability level.

@chris_in_cal ducks would be great! I need to find some. Hedgehogs also eat them, but they're really good at hiding.

I finished my painting and am not super happy with it. Not dissatisfied enough to try to fix it though. It kinda looks like it was done by a little kid 🤣

My inspiration was this picture I took last Fall.

polskagirl01

shanaber wrote: »

@polskagirl01 - it would be interesting to tour those bunkers now that you know what you need to have to do it. Is it a far drive? How did your kids feel after completing the hard zipline course? I hope they felt like they had really accomplished something because that is pretty cool even if they were frightened at times because they overcame it!

It was about 40 minutes away, and they definitely seem to be open on weekends this season.
The kids seemed proud of themselves. Once my daughter figured out she could do it, she got determined to finish.

Scott6255

@polskagirl01 your painting is very good! Don't be so hard on yourself 😉

AlphaHowls

9/1 17.18 miles, 1950 days on the run, 1132 days HM+ Streak
9/2 18.31 miles, Running Partner A, County Line to Red Barn and back

What 1000+ miles look like. I retired them today.

Took a little time and got my next shoes ready

Saucony Cohesion 14 Black
Saucony Grid Cohesion 10 Red

martaindale

Sept total: 8/100 miles

9/2: 8 miles

I went to the Greenway trail today. I had decent morning temps today. My legs were tired after a hard Pilates class yesterday evening. It reminded me of when I was marathon training, I used a plan that focused on cumulative fatigue. So your long runs were always on tired legs, to simulate the last miles of the race rather than the first. These 8 miles definitely felt more like the last 8 of something than the first 8!

Also, I got home last night and my watch magically had turned back on after almost 2 days. I used it today and the GPS map looked better than it has in months. It's like it totally reset. So weird. Anyway. My new watch was delivered this afternoon. My birthday is Monday so we are saying this is my husband's gift to me. I was planning on asking for one for Christmas anyway.

quilteryoyo

Great job on the HM @Scott6255 !

@polskagirl01 I'm glad that your family had a fun outing, even if you didn't get to see inside the bunkers. I hope you can get the slugs under control. If you have egg shells, break them up and spread them around your squash. They shouldn't crawl over the sharp things. We appreciate you being in our cheerleading section. I like your painting. I don't think it looks like a kid painted it at all! You are very talented.

@kgirlhart I'm glad your glasses worked out. I got progressive lenses once and HATED them. So, now I have glasses just for distance and look underneath or take them off to read. LOL

Great run @7lenny7 ! I hope the race went well. Love the pictures!

@shanaber Glad you got some rain and it stopped in time for you and Hobbes to get in a nice walk.

@AlphaHowls I must say that those shoes don't look like they have 1000 miles on them. Mine look a lot worse than that and I am no where close to 1000 miles - not sure how many I have put on them, because I haven't kept track, but I'm pretty sure it isn't than many...even though now that I think about it, I have worn them a lot for probably 2 years. I'll try to take a picture and post later. I'm trying to phase them out, but still wear them when I'm walking with no plan to run at all....or just run a little. Love the look of the new shoes.

@martaindale Sorry your run was tough. Glad your old watch magically started working again and that you got a new one for your birthday. Now you have a backup, if needed. Happy Early birthday, in case I forget before Monday.

quilteryoyo

September 1: Walk 2.50 miles - treadmill wun
September 2: Walk 2.00 miles - treadmill - weed eat for almost 2 hours

4.50/80 mile goal

Today my mom and I decided to surprise my neighbor that helps mow her lawn by weed eating the bank in front of his mom's house (where he stays when he's in town). He has been making sure that mom's and his elderly uncle's lawns are done before his and with all the rain, he just hasn't been able to do it for over a month. It was looking pretty bad. He wasn't getting back from Nashville (his official residence) until this afternoon, so we went out about 11:30 and worked until 2. I weed eat and mom raked the grass up and put it in his hayfield across the road. It was hard work and I'm not sure I'll be able to move my arms tomorrow, but it was worth it. He was really surprise and very appreciative when he got home about an hour after we finished. I came home and did a 2 mile walk on the treadmill. I just didn't have the energy for a run today.

tarun_yadavA

Morning all

Got in a 6K today (09"55)... forgot to post here yday 🙈 (did a 6K too yday but a bit quicker!)

@TheMrWobbly - cheers mate!

Happy Sunday.

polskagirl01

@AlphaHowls nice shoes!

@martaindale what a nice surprise with your watch!

@quilteryoyo 2 hours of weed-eating sounds like a workout all by itself! Good job!

Squash Army Update! We are at war!

I took the coffee grounds after church to spread around my Squash Army. I'd previously put out coffee grounds (before we had all this rain) and a perimeter of crushed egg shells as well. I spent about 5 minutes gathering a bunch of the yucky invaders up in a little bucket. The bucket sat out in the sun while I tried to decide what to do with them, and then I finally held my breath and dumped them all into the "bio" trash can, which is really gross (mostly rotting food scraps and a fruit fly colony, only gets collected twice a month and it's been hot out). I also made a trap, as recommended by a friend, by putting the bottom of a plastic bottle into a hole and filling it with beer. Later when I checked on it, I was amazed to see how quickly slugs were coming out of the squash plant and straight to the trap, where they'd stick their head in and start drinking or whatever, and then they'd just fall in. Ok, so "quickly" is relative, but it was top-slug-speed and they were coming out of the shade into full sunlight to get to it. I may have sat there for half an hour just watching it like it was a football game or something. Now that I see it works, I've read about it and have some ideas on how to improve on my design.

Don't click if a bucket of slugs will gross you out.

Definitely butternut squash.

Casualties include some smaller squash and lots of flowers, vines and leaves.

yirara

01.09 Fri 23°C 5.0km 47min 9:20/km
03.09 Sun 23°C 3.0km 26min 8:46/km

8.01km/80.5km

In my holiday home for the next two weeks now, in Croatia. A village some 7.5km from the sea. Yeah, on a hill. I ran the road in front of my holiday home down and up twice, which gave me 3km. I guess this is the least sloping road in the whole area, but still far too steep for me. I ran down twice without walking and up I managed about 150-300m and then had to walk again. But hey, maybe I will get a bit better in due time. Oh, and I forgot my compression socks again and blood pooling did happen again. Sigh. Maybe I think of them next time.

Laurz9191

Hi everyone!

Yesterday‘s race day was really fun but also very busy. I ran the first race which was the family edition with my two oldest, which was a little shy of 3km. I gave permission to my 8 year old to go full speed out of the gate and he finished 4th in our heat - not that we were even timed but he thought it was really cool! My 6 year old daughter spent the first 2 km telling me I never should have signed her up and the last km thanking me for signing her up for the race . She also asked some interesting questions before entering the first water section of the race: a. Should she take her shoes and socks off? And b. Is the water heated? She did great and it was a fun activity to do together.

My 12 km race also went really well, but I have to admit that I am really very sore today - and not from the running. All the monkey bars, carrying heavy objects (like people) and climbing over walls really used all the muscles I don’t need while running . The only thing that I wished hadn’t happened was that I put my hand right into some animal (probably dog) you-know-what when I was crawling under one of the obstacles. I wiped it off in the grass, but it was still so disgusting! We had transponders on and I way 9th place out of 120 for all the women in the 12km. It’s not really a race where time is important- it’s more about managing to overcome all the obstacles successfully, but I still think it’s cool .

Starting the maybe-I-will-run-a-marathon-on-the-17th taper tomorrow;). So far for September I have 23.3km.

AlphaHowls

9/1 17.18 miles, 1950 days on the run, 1132 days HM+ Streak
9/2 18.31 miles, Running Partner A, County Line to Red Barn and back
9/3 17.33 miles, County Line and back

I was picking up sticks with my mom and got a giggle. She wanted to know what I found funny.
Warning! If you are easily offended, do not look!

Me: Hahahahha! We have a boy tree!
Mom: a what?
Me: Come here, we have a boy tree!
Mom: well, he certainly isn't getting any.

yirara

LOL! A boy tree! Wonderful. Exactly my childish kind of humour
Btw, how do you manage to run this much!

Oh, and that reminds me: I found an interesting fossil here in Croatia, on a church wall nonetheless and of course had to take a photo of it. Not sure I use the right code for spoiler, mind. edit: it's the right code.

[\spoiler]

Scott6255

@Laurz9191 fantastic race(s)!! Hope you have a great taper!

@AlphaHowls boy tree 🤣😂

shanaber

@polskagirl01 - love your description of the slugs, especially the 'top-slug-speed' 😂
@yirara - If you keep running that hill it will get easier, even running down and running just a bit up, you will be able to run up more and more over time. Make sure on the up to keep your form and keep your eyes looking up just above level.
@Laurz9191 - that is gross about what was in the mud but glad you all had fun. I did read about a Tough Mudder in No California where somewhere around 300+ participants got terrible rashes/infection and ended up in the emergency room.
@AlphaHowls - that is hilarious and I love your mom's response! 😂

I got out for another neighborhood walk and this time we went up the overpass hill just to have a bit more of a challenge for my legs. It was so nice out - just barely 70F, overcast with a lovely breeze. Hobbes did some serious sniffing and has rediscovered his walk/run manners and now he is wiped out.

Teresa502

September 1 – 5.17 miles
September 2 – 8.03 miles

No running today. A friend is visiting from SC and he wanted to bike so three of us hit the road for a little over 30 miles.

Thanks for the NYT article on Courtney @shanaber. She is such an amazing yet humble athlete. I need to checkout the Salomon longer running shorts. Glad you and Hobbes have had some great walking weather.

I think the painting is good @polskagirl01! Especially like the mountains in the distance. Top slug speed? Sounds like me!

Way to go on your races @Laurz9191!

AlphaHowls

y@irara wrote: »

LOL! A boy tree! Wonderful. Exactly my childish kind of humour
Btw, how do you manage to run this much!

Slow pace, even, not a racer, and 8 years of slow building distance. My interest is in distance and endurance.

polskagirl01

More great photography, @AlphaHowls ! I'm referring to the barn picture... but for those who aren't highly offended, here's a route some of the guys in run club do frequently. It seems to be completely intentional, as they also frequently give their runs on this route "creative" titles.

So this counts as me posting something about running for once, right?

There's a lake around here with a similarly shaped path around it. I didn't realize it until after I ran it one time and it was so bad, I was embarrassed to post it to Strava 🤣 I was afraid they'd think I did it on purpose.

@yirara holiday home in Croatia sounds lovely!

Great race! @Laurz9191 So sorry about the poop though! Eww.

@shanaber Hobbes is so sweet 🥰

kgirlhart

September Goal: 130 Miles

9/1: 3.30 miles
9/2: 1.51 miles
9/3: 11.12 miles

15.93/130 miles completed for September

I stayed up too late last night and didn't want to get up this morning. It was almost 8:00 by the time I got out. It was 81°F. I did find some shade and there was some wind so that helped some. It was 90°F by the time I finished, but I managed to run 11 miles. The last half mile was tough because of the heat, but all in all it was a good run. I didn't run by the mean dog's house, but I did see several loose dogs. I spotted them from a distance though so I didn't have any problem adjusting my route.

@laurz9191 Sounds like you and the kiddos had a great race. And 9th of 120 in your race is awesome! Especially with dog poop on your hand!

@alphahowls I've never seen a boy tree before, but when I was growing up we had a "mother tree". That tree had the biggest rack you ever saw.

@shanaber Hobbes definitely looks like you had a great walk.

quilteryoyo

Thanks @polskagirl01 ! I love that the slug trap that you set is working so well. You're slugs are bit more gross looking than the ones we have around here. I hope the squash survives. Sometimes, I think I run at maybe top slug speed. LOL That totally counts as a running post.

Enjoy your holiday @yirara ! Hill running will make you faster once you get back to flat land.

@Laurz9191 Congratulations to you and your son on your excellent finishes. I'm glad your daughter enjoyed it once she got into it. Yuck on the dog poo!

@AlphaHowls I love that barn, as I have said before. I love the tree and your mom's comment. Sounds like something my mom would say. Also glad your mom felt like getting out and picking up limbs with you.

@yirara That is interesting.

Nice walking @shanaber . Hobbes is such a cute little feller.

Nice biking @Teresa502 !

Great running @kgirlhart ! Esp in that heat. I hope it starts cooling down for you a little soon.