November 2015 Running Challenge
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A Formal Break-Up Letter To Your Running Shoes
Dear First Shoe Love,
We’ve been together for more than 2 years now. You entered my life at the right time and place. I was having a rough patch, some pain, and needed support. A few people suggested that I give you a chance. You weren’t really my type, so I was skeptical. I was assured that your looks can be deceiving, so I resolved to keep an open mind—and you ended up being the exact support that I needed to usher me through the variable terrain of my life.
You helped me run through sadness, happiness, frustration and stress. You carried me over the hills of San Francisco and accompanied me through Hyde Park in London, where I laughed as we ran by old English men in Speedos at 6 a.m. You got me through 13.1 miles of stomach cramps and cursing in Huntington Beach, Calif. You’ve helped me detox from one too many margaritas, raise money for ovarian cancer, discover answers and a-ha moments and cover miles and hours of listening to Adnan Syed’s story. You’ve been dragged through rain and mud and never complained.
I remember the first time we met. I walked into a running store a little intimidated and still feeling like an imposter for calling myself a runner.
“Can I help you?” the salesperson asked.
“I’d like to try a minimalist shoe,” I responded with hesitation.
“You know that is not a regular running shoe; it’s supposed to simulate running barefoot. Are you a runner? It takes a little getting used to.”
Sure I am.
I slipped you on and you were a snug, warm hug for my foot—a perfect fit.
It was love at first run. I could feel the pavement beneath me as you cradled my feet. Our first shared experience was completely pain-free. We had been inseparable since. I thought that we would be together forever, and I swore that I’d never let my feet nestle in another shoe. But lately I’ve been thinking about changing our relationship status from married to consciously uncoupled—or since that’s not an actual option, in an open relationship.
Really–it’s not you, it’s me. I’ve been getting some pain in my shins again, so I think it may be time to move on. I’ll give you the courtesy of being honest and admit that part of me just wants to feel a different shoe on my foot and have a different run. It may just be curiosity and temptation.
I browse lists of the newest running shoes in magazines, which make promises like providing “durability, stability and stride-guidance” while “gripping wet surfaces.” Shoes with a “padded tongue” and a “sleek package” are “forgiving and responsive” at the same time. My heart quickens as I walk by window displays of running stores and see the models in different colors and styles—but I never risk going inside. I daydream and ponder, What if this ride could be even better with another?
If the grass isn’t greener on the other side, if the pain in my shins remain, then I’ll definitely know that it is me and not you. I’ll take a little time off to rest and heal, then come right back to you. I’ll slip you on and feel the comfort you give me once again. We’ll go for a makeup run, and it will be fast, furious, free, familiar—and it will leave me breathless.
Regardless of what happens, know that you’ll always be my first shoe love, and for that, you will always hold a special place in my heart. The experience that we shared, the terrain that you have guided me through, no other ride will take that away from us.
Sincerely,
Your Selfish Runner
Read more at http://womensrunning.competitor.com/2015/06/just-for-fun/a-formal-break-up-letter-to-your-running-shoes_41059#h5tk5WDdmiX5ozZh.99
ALSO, 20 Thoughts Runners Have When Buying New Shoes
http://womensrunning.competitor.com/2015/10/just-for-fun/20-thoughts-runners-have-when-buying-new-shoes_48170#V0sSA1LKs1bfPdRb.990 -
ShanazAsiya wrote: »At least were you live you have a little more then just raccoons I mean I don't want a bear walking around my house but I am getting bored with all these little rodents the usual ones
. Well to come to think of it I do have deer's.Were do you live 
Central Florida. I see raccoons, armadillos, and opossums (BLEH!!!). The last two gross me out but at least they run away. Racoons scare me just because they don't seem scared at all. They just sit there staring at me like "you looking at me?!" No, in fact, I'm just going the other way.0 -
November goal - 2 marathons (Madison & Philly), 200 miles, and running every 26 out of the 30 days.
11.01.15 - 5.1 m.
11.02.15 - 0
11.03.15 - 9.5 m.
11.04.15 - 8 m.
11.05.15 - 8 m.
11.06.15 - 3 m.
11.07.15 - 4 m.
11.08.15 - 26.2 m.
11.09.15 - 0 - Pain in leg.
November Races:
11.08.15 - Madison Marathon
11.22.15 - Philadelphia Marathon0 -
Late to the ticker game, but here I go! I'm aiming for 75 this month as I'm really just getting back into it and having family come into town for the Thanksgiving week. I used to run my current monthly goal weekly (yeah, usually more than 300 miles/month).... Anyways, hello y'all from McKinney, TX!
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Slow start this month... I'm an early morning runner and the cold and dark isn't helping my motivation! Then wearing cute shoes all day at work doesn't help my afternoon motivation since my feet hurt! Going to have to figure out how to afford a treadmill so I can run in the morning. My goal is to not repeat my pattern of not running all winter and then having to start over in the spring!
11/9/15- 5k
Goal- 20k0 -
November goal 75 miles
11/1 4.42
11/2 rest
11/3 3.18
11/4 9.47
11/5 rest
11/6 3.25
11/7 6.25: 1st (and last
) in my age group!
11/8 redeye to mainland (but 5+ miles walking on the Strip....)
11/9 travel vegas to phoenix.....jetlagged
11/10 5 in the desert: I ain't in the rainforest anymore, Toto! (as I wipe my bloody nose and wet my dry lips...)
Total 31.57
Upcoming races:
11/15 Las Vegas RocknRoll 1/2 marathon
3/20 Big Island International 1/2 marathon
Ticker is my goal for 2015 and accumulation to date:
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Nov 1 - rest
Nov 2 - 3.2
Nov 3 - 4.3
Nov 4 - strength training
Nov 5 - rest
Nov 6 - 5.0 Had to loop in front of house to hit 5 exactly.
Nov 7 - 5.0 in daylight!
Nov 8 - 6.0 in daylight, but too darn hot and humid.
Nov 9 - rest day.
Nov 10 - 4.7 miles - hot and humid; slow and sweaty. If I should complain about the cold (if we ever get it), just tell me to shut up.
@karef- six weeks will fly by. Glad you have a person you trust to help you!
@dharwood68 - definitely love to run in the rain, unless it's lightning and then I'm a chicken.
Here is the bear my neighbor filmed with this security cameras. http://screencast.com/t/iBFd2108W
Neighbor went out to get the mail close to midnight and the bear ran away but then a few seconds later turns back. Bear has been seen just about every morning and night but is afraid of people (thank goodness), so I try to be noisy while running so bear knows I'm coming. I realized this morning my singing probably sounds like a wounded animal so I had to adjust the tone.
I think maybe we are neighbors!! We have bear sightings almost daily too. Last week it was two houses down at 4:00 p.m.
And the bear(s) always comes out on Wednesday. Always -- since it is garbage day. So now I call Wednesdays "BearDay"
I bought a little can of pepper spray that comes with a hand strap for running. -- probably won't do much good against a bear, but might help with the smaller wild life. -- I always carry it with me when I run on BearDays.
It has been unearthly hot lately and super humid -- like swimming backwards in hot water. But I stopped running at night after my Great Gator Encounter -- but my speed running back home that night was remarkable!!!!
Anyway, I was supposed to run C25K Week 7 Day 1 today --but I woke up feeling like I got double throat punched! (grrrr, kids got me sick) so I taking a forced rest day ...and I guess that means I will have to run on BearDay 0 -
@kareF - That's good news - hope you start to feeling better soon and that the 6 weeks fly by!
@shanaber - Love that picture!
@ceckhardt369 - I know what you mean. It's already dark when I get off work so I run outdoors on the weekends and then use the treadmill at my work during the week. I've seen some pretty good treadmill deals on Craigslist in the past.
@kristinegift - Yoga always makes me feel so much better, too. My work offers basically free ($2) yoga classes Tuesdays and Thursdays and every week I tell myself I'm going to make it part of my routine and never do. Need to get back to it!0 -
@Stoshew71 - I'm out of the game temporarily because I'm having minor surgery through the abdominal region on 11/24. Yesterday the doc told me no running until 12/15 but said that walking, stationary bike, and elliptical were great to do after the first week of healing. So I'm focusing on doing well and increasing distance up to the time of surgery so that hopping back in on 12/16 I won't lose too much ground.
I will say that with running (something I never noticed with any other exercise) that the time keeps going faster. Sounds strange, but when I first started out I was looking at my distance and time at short intervals. My last two runs I didn't even check my distance until after I had run a full mile and both times, when I checked, I was sure that I hadn't yet hit the mile mark. I'm enjoying surprising myself and turning the things I thought I couldn't do into things that I ENJOY doing! I never thought I would actually enjoy running. Ok, I still hate the first 3-5 minutes, but after that point it gets fun! I'm looking forward to doing running after I heal up and those Christmas lights start going up 0 -
@ddmom Bears? No way! I saw an item in Runner's World on the gift page for runner. It was a noise maker for keeping bears away. Yikes! I'll take tornados, snakes and wild pigs any day over bears! You are crazy brave! @beachhouse758 too!0
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Took a rest day today since I was feeling tired. Need to taper anyway ha ha!
Got a scary text from a friend last night, his daughter (Skip's friend so the same age) was almost abducted by a guy in their neighborhood while she was running. He was very aggressive to the point of even turning the car directly in front of her forcing her to change her running direction. She hid in some bushes and he waited for her to come out. He actually followed her all the way home and sat outside her house while she ran to get inside. Way too aggressive! Her Dad sent me a text as soon as she was safe in the house and the police were gone to give me a description of the car and him. We only live about a mile apart. I hate to scare Skip, but of course I told her no running without someone or take take the mace and Macy with her. People are just crazy. One thing about Skip she wouldn't hesitate to walk right into someone else's house if she thought someone was following her.
I can do without bears too thank you!0 -
@ddmom Bears? No way! I saw an item in Runner's World on the gift page for runner. It was a noise maker for keeping bears away. Yikes! I'll take tornados, snakes and wild pigs any day over bears! You are crazy brave! @beachhouse758 too!
@Elise4270 except here we get hurricanes, snakes, wild boars, panthers and gators too... I do love it here, but sometimes I feel like we are in the jungle.
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skippygirlsmom wrote: »Took a rest day today since I was feeling tired. Need to taper anyway ha ha!
Got a scary text from a friend last night, his daughter (Skip's friend so the same age) was almost abducted by a guy in their neighborhood while she was running. He was very aggressive to the point of even turning the car directly in front of her forcing her to change her running direction. She hid in some bushes and he waited for her to come out. He actually followed her all the way home and sat outside her house while she ran to get inside. Way too aggressive! Her Dad sent me a text as soon as she was safe in the house and the police were gone to give me a description of the car and him. We only live about a mile apart. I hate to scare Skip, but of course I told her no running without someone or take take the mace and Macy with her. People are just crazy. One thing about Skip she wouldn't hesitate to walk right into someone else's house if she thought someone was following her.
I can do without bears too thank you!
How terrifying! I'm so glad to hear she is safe, though.
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11/1 - 3.81 C25k W1D3 (.73 + 2.32 + .76)
11/2 - 5.78 walking lunch break + evening walk (3.3 + 2.48)
11/3 - 2.99 C25k W2D1 + continuation of lunch break (2.09 + .9)
11/4 - 1.78 nice, easy, comfortable lunch walk.
11/5 - 3.13 C25k W2D2 + 180 spm practice (2.23 + .9)
11/6 - 4.61 walking lunch break + evening walk (2.36 + 2.25)
11/7 - 2.16 C25k W2D3 (2.16)
11/8 - Full rest/recovery day. Was my 1 yr anniversary for starting to lose weight so I went SHOPPING!!
11/9 - Full rest/recovery day.
11/10 - C25k W3D1 + 180 spm practice (2.24 + .7)
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beachhouse758 wrote: »skippygirlsmom wrote: »Took a rest day today since I was feeling tired. Need to taper anyway ha ha!
Got a scary text from a friend last night, his daughter (Skip's friend so the same age) was almost abducted by a guy in their neighborhood while she was running. He was very aggressive to the point of even turning the car directly in front of her forcing her to change her running direction. She hid in some bushes and he waited for her to come out. He actually followed her all the way home and sat outside her house while she ran to get inside. Way too aggressive! Her Dad sent me a text as soon as she was safe in the house and the police were gone to give me a description of the car and him. We only live about a mile apart. I hate to scare Skip, but of course I told her no running without someone or take take the mace and Macy with her. People are just crazy. One thing about Skip she wouldn't hesitate to walk right into someone else's house if she thought someone was following her.
I can do without bears too thank you!
How terrifying! I'm so glad to hear she is safe, though.
Thanks! You always think you are safe in your own neighborhood0 -
gaelicstorm26 wrote: »@Stoshew71 - I'm out of the game temporarily because I'm having minor surgery through the abdominal region on 11/24. Yesterday the doc told me no running until 12/15 but said that walking, stationary bike, and elliptical were great to do after the first week of healing. So I'm focusing on doing well and increasing distance up to the time of surgery so that hopping back in on 12/16 I won't lose too much ground.
I will say that with running (something I never noticed with any other exercise) that the time keeps going faster. Sounds strange, but when I first started out I was looking at my distance and time at short intervals. My last two runs I didn't even check my distance until after I had run a full mile and both times, when I checked, I was sure that I hadn't yet hit the mile mark. I'm enjoying surprising myself and turning the things I thought I couldn't do into things that I ENJOY doing! I never thought I would actually enjoy running. Ok, I still hate the first 3-5 minutes, but after that point it gets fun! I'm looking forward to doing running after I heal up and those Christmas lights start going up
I hope you heal up fast and that is wonderful how your thoughts of running has changed over time. What a great testiment to some of our newer runners.0 -
skippygirlsmom wrote: »Took a rest day today since I was feeling tired. Need to taper anyway ha ha!
Got a scary text from a friend last night, his daughter (Skip's friend so the same age) was almost abducted by a guy in their neighborhood while she was running. He was very aggressive to the point of even turning the car directly in front of her forcing her to change her running direction. She hid in some bushes and he waited for her to come out. He actually followed her all the way home and sat outside her house while she ran to get inside. Way too aggressive! Her Dad sent me a text as soon as she was safe in the house and the police were gone to give me a description of the car and him. We only live about a mile apart. I hate to scare Skip, but of course I told her no running without someone or take take the mace and Macy with her. People are just crazy. One thing about Skip she wouldn't hesitate to walk right into someone else's house if she thought someone was following her.
I can do without bears too thank you!
Oh my that is very scary.0 -
beachhouse758 wrote: »@ddmom Bears? No way! I saw an item in Runner's World on the gift page for runner. It was a noise maker for keeping bears away. Yikes! I'll take tornados, snakes and wild pigs any day over bears! You are crazy brave! @beachhouse758 too!
@Elise4270 except here we get hurricanes, snakes, wild boars, panthers and gators too... I do love it here, but sometimes I feel like we are in the jungle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXRintPmGQ#t=218
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skippygirlsmom wrote: »Took a rest day today since I was feeling tired. Need to taper anyway ha ha!
Got a scary text from a friend last night, his daughter (Skip's friend so the same age) was almost abducted by a guy in their neighborhood while she was running. He was very aggressive to the point of even turning the car directly in front of her forcing her to change her running direction. She hid in some bushes and he waited for her to come out. He actually followed her all the way home and sat outside her house while she ran to get inside. Way too aggressive! Her Dad sent me a text as soon as she was safe in the house and the police were gone to give me a description of the car and him. We only live about a mile apart. I hate to scare Skip, but of course I told her no running without someone or take take the mace and Macy with her. People are just crazy. One thing about Skip she wouldn't hesitate to walk right into someone else's house if she thought someone was following her.
I can do without bears too thank you!
That is terrifying. I'll take most bears over evil people, though. A bear can be scared away fairly easily.
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11/1 3.1 @ 11:15 outside in the neighborhood in the rain
11/2 rest
11/3 5.0 @ 10:59 on the treadmill (plus a 1 mile walk and strength training)
11/4 8.2 @ really really slow (16:04) riking (run-hiking, steep, covered with inches of leaves and treacherous fun)
11/5 4.0 @ 12:30 recovery run plus .5 walk on the park trail
11/6 3.25 @ 10:53 on the treadmill (really 3.0 at 10:28, plus .25 at a walk) plus strength training.
11/7 Rest/Life Day
11/8 Rest/Life Day
11/9 5.5 @ 12:30 on the park trail with the doggy--who really enjoyed rolling around in the leaves!
11/10 2.5 @ 11:38 (really 2.25 at 11:07 and a .25 walk) around the neighborhood in the rain.
11/11
11/12
11/13
11/14
It is going to be a challenge to get in all my miles this month at the rate I'm going!
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