The January 2016 Running Challenge

The asskicking meds are starting to kick some asss...3 days in. I *think* I'm on the mend finally and I expect to be out running at some point this week! When that happens I'll post my amended goal for this month and leave the terrible beginning of this year in the dust!!

@virkati - I'm with you! I've been sick just 4 days but it feels like forever. Still got a bad cough so debating a run tomorrow. Not sure what it will do to my goal, or my HM on 2/7.
@runner_girl83 - 1st Medal! WTG!
@MobyCarp -- wow! Awesome time even if it wasn't what you wanted and nice prize!
@juliet3455 - oh my gosh - that is unbelievably cold. No words....
@Ch1psNQueso - signing up for a race is a good idea. I love running even when I don't have one planned but I've discovered I like to have a race to look forward to.
@kristinegift - I love it when I have a run day like that. Usually just getting out the door makes it better!
@MorningGhost14 - lol on your new pic.

@ddmom0811 This thing started on New Years Day and it wasn't until TODAY that I don't feel mostly dead. The cough was the reason I never tried to push through it. It was hard enough to breathe after a coughing fit, and I knew that (*for me*, with my history of bronchitis, and now asthma) it was a bad idea. And I had to let go of any goals for this month. My half isn't until May so I have lots of time to make up for the time I've lost. If your half is next month, I'd be really really careful about this illness. You know you best...do what feels right. I truly hope you feel better soon.

With the weather at the start of today's Disney marathon at 68 degrees with 98% humidity, I knew it wouldn't be optimal for running a perfect race. Although I knew I was in good enough shape to try for a 7:15 pace (coming off a flat 7 pace for a half marathon 2 months back), when I went out in the humid weather I found my heart rate up around 170 at a 7:40 pace (a touch below my lactic threshold and 10BPM faster than when I ran even marathon splits in May) in the first few miles, and instead of further backing off due to the weather I decided to try to sustain it for the marathon.

I felt ok crossing the half marathon mark at 1:40:25, but around mile 18, my body started to give out as I just didn't have the juice to push my heart up to a 175-180 to sustain the pace, and I slipped up to an 8 for miles 19/20, then 8:40 for the last 6 miles giving me a 1:48:33 split for the second half. Although I crossed the finish line in 3:29:08, about 15 minutes faster than my May marathon, I definitely (and very painfully) learned my lesson and probably cost myself about 4-5 minutes with the wrong pacing strategy. Still, I suspect the weather cost me about 10 minutes, my pacing about 4, and having gone into the race about 10lb heavier than my goal, I think I'll still have a shot at a 3:10 at Pittsburgh in May, but will need to be a bit more careful and hope that the weather gods come through.

1/3 - 10 miles (5 speedwork, 5 slow)
1/4 - 7 miles
1/6 - 3 miles (@ MP)
1/9 - 2 miles (pre race tuneup)
1/10 - 26.5 miles (Disney marathon in 3:29:08)

Total: 48.5 miles
Goal: 180 miles
Remaining: 131.5 miles

@Ohhim Those are pretty challenging marathon conditions. I know a couple people from my running group who also ran the marathon today (one was completing the Dopey Challenge) and they were not excited about the forecast. But yours is still a really fantatsic time, and some more helpful weather and more training should put 3:10 within your sights for sure!

MorningGhost14 wrote: »

@kristinegift ... nice running this weekend... and great mileage for the month so far! But I have no idea how you can run with a group... I would be pi$$ed off and crabby the whole time...lol... I give you extra credit for doing the herd thing...

@MorningGhost14 Oh thanks! This is the highest mileage I've had since the first week of November, and it feels so good! And re: group runs: I actually didn't think I would like running with a group so much. Usually on Saturdays about 12-20 people meet up and we break off into groups naturally by pace, so it's less a herd and more a small cluster It's great for keeping me from running too fast though since I'm also talking almost the entire time. I'm usually in the fastest group and we only pace 8:40-9:00. BUT I do prefer to do my longest runs solo; everyone in my group thinks I'm nuts, but those 16-22 mile solo runs are such great mental preparation for a race.

@rune1990 So are you doing the Zombies virtual race? I signed up this week!
I've never done a virtual race before, but I heard about them in this challenge for the first time and have been curious ever since. Since I got hooked on the Zombies, run! app a few weeks ago, the combination was too good to pass up.

@kateparry84 Congrats on your longest ever run, well done

@Ohhim 98% humidity sounds like a killer! I hope you aren't upset about the way the race went - a marathon in less than 3:30 is impressive, and an improvement of 15 minutes in half a year no less!

I wore one pair of my new shoes (the Saucony Cortanas) for my long run today. I was debating if it wouldn't be safer to do a shorter test run first, but I just couldn't resist
The poor shoes got soaked abound km-7, where the road turned into a shallow river I had to wade through (it's been raining non-stop since last night...), but that's hardly their fault. Other than that, my feet (and me) were happy all the way. At one point the sun even came out for a bit.


Todays run leaves me with a little more than 30km for the week
- 04.01.2016 5.3 km
- 05.01.2016 rest day
- 06.01.2016 3.0 km treadmill + strength training
- 07.01.2016 6.0 km
- 08.01.2016 5.3 km - I'm going to call it a "hill training run", because I ran the "small evil hill" three times in a row.
- 09.01.2016 strength training + cross country skiing
- 10.01.2016 12.1 km rainy long run with new shoes

---

42.4 km of 110 km done

A little 5km Real Estate Run through the Misery Mountain Sub-Division with 6 members of the Herd.
Might be the last Km for these shoes ( or the Tongues weren't pulled up ) as I had hot spots on the Top of both Big Toes. Never had this happen on any of my previous shoes and it is the first time I have had any issues with my Mizuno's ( 5 pairs Km out 0 Shoe Caused Injuries ) Skin was rubbed off; so tomorrows planned 20 km could be a challenge. Maybe something failed in them yesterday in the cold? Will switch them out of rotation until warmer temps return and the skin is healed before trying them again on a short run. They only have 230 km on them so should be good for another 230-270km.

@MorningGhost14 I don't mind running with the club members in the Pack/Herd as it is a very small group and we have multiple pace groups so someone always match's your pace or you can cut out on your own.
When it comes to races my biggest event had a little over 300 runners with no pace corrals. So the first 3 km were frustrating catching people and passing. Especially the Sunday Runners and Stroller Pushers who were 3-5 wide across the trail and oblivious to the Traffic Jam they were causing. A few of the runners right behind them finally got tired of calling out for them to move over and give us a passing side so they just pushed - elbowed passed them which finally made them wake up and get into single file. Then the floodgates were opened and 20-30 runners blasted past them. They mumbled-grumbled and complained to each and every one of us who passed them.

01/01 –0.0 Km – 140 km – 0.0 Km
01/01 –6.0 Km – 134 km – 6.0 Km
01/02 –7.0 Km – 127 km – 13.0 Km
01/03 –5.0 Km – 122 km – 18.0 Km
01/04 –10.0 Km – 112 km – 28.0 Km
01/06 –7.0 Km – 105 km – 35.0 Km
01/09 –7.0 Km – 98 km – 42.0 Km
01/10 –5.0 Km – 93 km – 47.0 Km

Easy 6 km this morning. Av HR 125; max HR 134.

1 Jan 13.4 km
2 Jan Rest
3 Jan 6.3 km
4 Jan 5.4 km
5 Jan Rest
6 Jan 8.3 km
7 Jan 5.3 km
8 Jan Rest
9 Jan 15.3 km
10 Jan Rest
11 Jan 6.1 km

Total: 60/150 km

Doing all my training slow and easy to increase mileage for my first marathon in July and stay injury free.

01/01 - 10 miles
02/01 - 10.4 km
03/01 - 10.4 km
04/01 - 10.3 km
05/01 - 12.5 km
06/01 - 12.5 km
07/01 - 10.6 km
08/01 - 12.6 km
09/01 - 10.6 km
10/01 - 22.5 km

tot 134/500 km

good weekend, feeling better

thanks to everyone for the support and congratulations to all amazing runners for their achievements this week end

I did push a little this morning, I desperately needed to run a HM and I did it

then went to the sport centre for a visit and a sport massage

I was so so so happy to speak to a professional that deals with other people that run long distances everyday and understand why we do it, offering a good recovery plan where I don't have to stop but I just need to be sensible

the sport massage was the most painful thing I've done since I've broken my arm 30 years ago, ffs! but then I felt much much better,I feel like having 2 springs for legs, instead of 2 oak trunks. let's see tomorrow how I'll be

my hip probs are due to a combination among running, long commuting and office job. I might have a very tiny stress fracture on the foot that is healing. so quite good news. what I do need to do is to introduce weigh training.

today I was ok for 12k, so I decided to keep going, and felt some small discomfort at around 18-19k.

ok, I won't achieve this month goal, but I'll be out there tomorrow, and that's what matter.

(just need to hope though milk man won't run me over!)

@MorningGhost14 thanks, your post was inspirational for me as well

@MobyCarp you are amazing!

@ohhim, sorry about the humidity, but it is still an amazing marathon time. Congratulations!
@Virkati - the coughing is what worries me, it feels much better this afternoon, so I'll have to see how overnight goes. Thanks. Hope you get better quickly!

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
1/10 - 7.46 easy

January to date total - 82.65
Goal - 51 to 62 miles per week, per training plan
expected January total - 245 to 251 miles

Today's notes - The assignment today was an hour at E pace. I estimated that would be about 7.3 miles, and picked my route accordingly. We're supposed to get winter weather coming through this evening, and lasting through the week; but when I got out it was 49° F and intermittent rain showers. Can't beat that for January 10; a year ago was 2015 Winter Warrior Half in single digits with 25+ mph winds and water bottles freezing solid. In stark contrast, today I was able to run in shorts.

After yesterday's half marathon, it was no challenge to keep the pace in the easy range. Ended up running 7.46 miles in 1:01:02 by the Garmin, for an average pace of 8:11. Full mile splits ranged from 8:06 to 8:20, with an 8:00 pace for the last fractional mileage. Since my target easy pace is the 8:00 to 8:30 range, that's right where I wanted the pace to be.

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)

I have so much to catch up on. I scanned but I'll read later.

I'm good with contributing for Stan's shirt for sure.

1/9 - ran 4 miles

I need to update my mileage later...see a theme here of "later"

Skip's meet was crazy. Because of the amount of runners they decided it into 2 meets in one day based on Section. We are a large school so we were to start at 2:00. We got to the meet at 12:00 (90 min drive) and they were over an hour late from the morning meet. Complex was amazing. Look it up Birmingham Crossplex. Skip's first race was 1600 it was supposed to start at 6:30 pm, can you say 8:00 when it started. They ran this meet like the most well oiled machine. Heats were staged at one end divided with fences, while one heat was on the track, runners for the next heat were standing on the track in the outside lanes (when they could), next heat stood outside the fence etc. Fantastic. Anyway in the 1600 she ran 6:27 taking almost a minute off her PR (and qualifying for states), the 800 meter started close to 10:00 and she ran a 3:03 taking 11 seconds off her PR for that. I think she needs a 2:50 for states so she has another chance the end of the month for that. It was a lot of fun, saw some amazing runners. One team came from Washington DC, they (along with a local team) are in the top 10 of 4x200 relay team runners. I've never seen anything like it, I was like they are in freaking high school image them in college.

@skippygirlsmom Congrats to Skip for qualifying for State and for that 800m PR! That's amazing!