The January 2016 Running Challenge

MobyCarp wrote: »

January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 - 10.17 warm up + 7.5 mile race
1/2 - 12.29 long slow run
1/3 - 5.16 easy with fast finish
1/4 - 6.01 easy
1/5 - 11.09 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/6 - 5.95 group run
1/7 - 8.04 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/8 - scheduled rest day
1/9 - 16.48 warm up + Winter Warrior Half

January to date total - 75.19
Goal - 51 to 62 miles per week, per training plan
expected January total - 245 to 251 miles

Sunday through Saturday training week came in at 52.73 miles, versus a target of 51 miles. My bad.

Today's notes: I knew I needed 15 miles to round out the week's target mileage, but I was running the Winter Warrior Half Marathon. This is a loop course, four loops of roughly 3.25 miles each. I had not seen the course before today, and decided it was worth being a mile and half past target this week to do my warm up as a loop of the course in daylight. Yes, it was worth it.

Gun time was at 4 PM. The weather was not winter-like; it was 42° at the gun, and no more than 10 mph wind. I ran in shorts, with a long sleeve tech shirt plus a singlet on top, and my lightest gloves. It was too warm for my lightest winter running hat, so I wore a summer running hat with a brim; the course had street lights, so it wasn't a big deal having the brim interfere with my headlamp after dark.

The first lap and about half of the second lap was like a normal race. Then I started lapping the walkers and slower runners. On laps 3 and 4 I couldn't run good tangents because of the crowds I had to pass; but I had expected this. It's part of the experience for a race organized in laps. It wasn't as bad as last year, on a course with 5 shorter laps.

For a while I thought I might have a shot at breaking 1:30 on a mostly flat course, but it was not to be. The combination of normal fatigue later in the race and having to deal with passing crowds in the last half of the race slowed me to a gun time of 1:30:59, which is 2 minutes faster than I ran Winter Warrior last year, under much better running conditions this year. My time was good enough for 22nd overall out of 958 finishing (974 registered and starting), and 1st of 12 in the male 60-64 age group.

I'm happy with this one. It was a lot of fun, and it wasn't necessary to set a PR or to break 1:30 today.

Upcoming races:
March 12, 2016 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY - need to register)
March 26, 2016 Spring Foward Distance Run 15K (Mendon, NY - need to register)
April 18, 2016 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

Elise4270 wrote: »

Virkati wrote: »

If it weren't for @Stoshew71 and @skippygirlsmom this group wouldn't be the resounding success that it is. Here's my idea...let us all pay for Stan's shirt because of all the legwork he did in putting the whole thing together and I'd also like us to pay for skippygirlsmom's shirt because the whole thing was her idea in the first place.

For those of you getting the shirts, whaddya say?

I'm down! If anyone wants to contribute a few bucks we can just split it between them. Of course, I don't want this to be misinterpreted as a "dig deep" message. Just an opportunity for a showing of appreciation. @Stoshew71, I understand seeing all our miles logged here is affirmation of your positive influence. I feel that a personal gesture is warranted, even if it is only 2$.

We really have become a family.