March 2016 Running Challenge

03/01 3.23
03/02 3.19
03/03 3.17
03/04 3.27
03/05 6.83
03/06 8.15
03/07 3.17
03/08 3.43
03/09 3.59
03/10 6.25
03/11 2.70
03/12 0.00 (16 mile bike ride)
03/13 7.01
03/14 3.09
03/15 3.28
03/17 3.34
03/18 5.21
03/19 4.90
03/20 7.01
03/21 2.79

TOTAL 85.5
GOAL 100

3/1: Rest day
3/2: 12 miles (am), 5 miles (pm)
3/3: 7 miles speedwork (am), 6 miles with Thursday crew (pm)
3/4: Rest day
3/5: 7.3 miles
3/6: 15.2 miles
3/7: 6 miles with Joe to Go crew
3/8: Rest day
3/9: 12 miles (am), 5 miles (pm)
3/10: 8 miles (am), 6 miles with Thursday crew (pm)
3/11: Rest day
3/12: 5.6 miles (2.5 mile warm up and 5k race)
3/13: 18 miles
3/14: Impromptu rest day
3/15: 6 miles (am), 8 miles (pm)
3/16: 10 miles (am), 7 miles with Wednesday crew (pm)
3/17: DC mini-vacation
3/18: DC mini-vacation
3/19: 7.2 miles
3/20: 20 birthday miles!
3/21: 6 miles with Joe to Go crew

Good run with the coffee crew today! Nice recovery run. Plus the sun started to come up halfway through the run so we finished in daylight. Not many stayed for coffee, but I got a free bday latte courtesy of my honorary Running Mom I wasn't really sore at all from running long yesterday, and my calf feels even better than it did this weekend. Hopefully with a rest day scheduled tomorrow I'll be good as new by Wednesday!

And birthday celebrations last night were great. I ate enough to feed a small family at Cheesecake Factory, and my friends sneakily let it slip to the waitress that it was my birthday, so I got a song and a candle with my cheesecake. And two of the girls from my Oiselle team got me a fun running goodie bag filled with gummy bears (my carb load candy of choice!), picky bars, and a Nike running shirt (I had sent the link to one of them asking if I should buy it, and she said "No, save your money!" and then they bought it for me: so clever!). All in all, a great runtastic birthday!





Upcoming Races:
3/12: Run O' The Mill 5K: New PR! 21:55
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM (Wilmington, DE)
4/16: River Horse 6K (Ewing, NJ)
5/1: New Jersey Marathon (Lots of towns, NJ)

freakymistkd wrote: »

After having a busy weekend I've been unable to go for a walk for a couple of days. Tonight I was feeling like I needed to go for a walk but the last couple of times I walked alone at night I really spooked myself and now I just don't feel like it's a nice walk instead I'm tense for the whole hour. Anyway still wanting to "move" I have just finished walking on the spot for an hour and a half and the app on my phone "lifelog" has recorded my steps but also estimates that I have walked 7.6km. My question is, should I count it towards my goal of walking 50km this month? Or would that be cheating?
Thanks

As @Virkati pointed out nobody here is going to discourage people from being active. I started by walking and later when walking no longer seemed all that challenging I started adding a little running for short bursts on my walks. Over time I started running instead.

There are people here who walk in addition to running. Some track their walking mileage and some don't.

There is also a March 2016 Walking Challenge thread in the Challenge forums as another option.

It is up to you what you track, and how. I have seen people track their time spent running instead of distance. The idea is to set your goal and work at it. There is no shame in missing a goal, just try again the next month.

@jringer1 When is your half? Hope you feel better this week

@meganridenour Great pic!

@07KatieP13 Yippee!

@MNLittleFinn Enjoy the rest day :-D I'm building base miles also.

My plan today is 3 trail miles. It's a 1.5 mile loop that I'll do twice. This section always kicks my butt so I'm anxious to see how it goes today. It doesn't SEEM hilly but I'm always surprised how many "floors" my fitbit registers here compared to when I'm doing what I consider hills. LOL

@greenolivetree Base building is a pain, but I know it's getting better. The we miles over the weekend was 3/4 of what I do in a normal week. Going to be upping my weekday runs in another week or so....That will be real fun....

brian_gunther wrote: »

W7D3 in the books! 25 minutes straight again, no stopping. That's 3 sessions in a row! Next stop: Week 8 and 28 minutes straight!

Feeling good about this! (knocks on wood)

You got this.

@MNLittleFinn I first started running summer of 2014 and couldn't run a mile. I kinda did everything wrong, ran very few miles, 2-3 days a week, and ran 5k at 8:08 pace. I had inury after injury. LOL Nothing major but so much time off. So after 8 weeks off Nov/Dec, I tried to start over Jan 1 and do it right this time. Before, it was like every run had to be faster than the one before. Big mistake.

@brian_gunther Great work!

@rohanivan Sorry about the exhaustion. Are you sleeping well?

ddmom0811 wrote: »

rohanivan wrote: »

Last week was one to forget, it was a miserable one. Planned for at least an 8K long run and had to return after 1K. Still not able to understand why do I get exhausted so soon, at the end of 1K, I was getting all exhausted like I have been running for hours. Need to get this nourishment thing correct, I was out of energy.
Don't know if I will be able to finish the monthly target, next is the Easter week donno how much will I be able to run. need some long run to pull the spirits back.

Bad run.. bad run...

Date.................KM...................Total
3/2..................04.13.................04.13 (Walk)
3/3..................02.62.................06.75 (Walk / Run)
3/4..................03.40.................10.15 (Walk / Run)
3/5..................04.37.................14.52 (Walk / Run)
3/6..................01.52.................16.04 (Run)
3/10.................01.58.................17.62 (Walk)
3/12.................05.16.................22.78 (Run / Walk)
3/15.................05.65.................28.43 (Run / Walk)
3/19.................01.31.................29.74 (Run / Walk)


Upcoming Races: 10 April (5K) - Technically the first 5K

We all have days like that. For me the first mile is always the worst one, and once I push through that I am okay.
But it sounds like you are more than just exhausted, so maybe just a little under the weather. Although that first mile issue seems to be getting better and better for me, the more I run.

Maybe a cut back week is in order? I hit that often when I wasnt pacing properly and was training too fast. Might sleep a little more, eat a little better, like you said, and drop your running miles. I usually trade 1 or 2 run days for walks. The monthly goal is just a best guess. It's not horrible to miss it. It's just learning to train smart.

I'm not sure the sale is still on. There's free shipping on the Believe Journal. I love mine.
www.believeiam.com/products

Promo code proudtobeirish, they are ~20USD. The free shipping is to the US and Ireland.

I'm so glad to be off today! Not horribly sore, today. Last HM my hip flexors had me down a week. This time it's my calves/soleus. Hot bath, lots of food and a RR planned for the day. I left 2 girls at home while I was gone. My daughter said " I'm so glad you bought food cuz Kat eats" (her cousin). A grocery store trip may be in order. Maybe. I really hate Walmart.

I'd really need to catch up on the posts! There are so many great efforts! I love having running company here. Under Armour (owner of MFP) should hold an annual convention and offer free travel for those in this thread. Cuz we are ALL awesome.

Virkati wrote: »

@WhatMeRunning ...first of all, I read "beer notes" instead of "Beet Roots"...dunno, just don't know where my brain was going with that! And second...what's the deal with beet roots that you'd run four miles round trip to get them? Sounds like I missed an important memo!!

Oh, nothing that big really. They definitely have loads of iron and help in transport of oxygen through the blood. There are some indications that taking beet juice before a 2 to 4 hour run has a measurable performane gain of 1% to 2% reduction in time due to the nitrates in the beets, but that's not necessarily why I wanted to get some. I'm more interested in having the added nutrients in them that are lacking in basically everything else...and maybe out of curiosity to see if it has an impact on endurance. I had a 4 mile run planned and I know from one of my routes that I hit the 2 mile mark right in front of a grocery store. So I did not have to add it to a shopping list for later, I just picked them up while on my run today!

@ariceroni - I am impressed with that 10 miler. In the races I've been in, the people who run in costume have typically been middle to back of the pack runners; but a sub-8 mile pace should put you well ahead of middle of the pack, and not just in your age group! Speed plus a nice theme costume is something I don't see very often.

@HonuNui - Wow, tough race, with a tough Life Happening backdrop. Good for you, gutting it out and achieving your goals. Sometimes you just have to remember that Dead Last Finish beats Did Not Finish, which beats Did Not Start. And you didn't even finish dead last. Some people might say, why do the race when you have son who has just been diagnosed with cancer? I say, it's a form of taking care of yourself so you'll be able to do what you need to do for your son. Good job!

@Elise4270 - Great bling picture, and I love Where's the Finish as the expansion of WTF! I think I'd eat in a revolving tower too, if I ran in a city that has one.

@zmcgrandles - Congrats on completing your first race, and on meeting your goals! I remember my first race was a 5K, and my goal was to be able to run the entire way. I made it, but just barely. Same old classic rookie mistake, going out too fast and trying to keep up with people who were faster than me.

Ok, full race report time. My sister flew in to Tulsa at about 9am Saturday, and we drove directly from the airport to Ardmore (exactly 3 hours). After checking into the hotel, we decided to spend the afternoon at Turner Falls. Our training plan called for a 2 mile run, but we decided to just hike around instead. Climbed lots of stairs and steep paths to look at the castle and the big waterfall, then scaled some rocks to go into a cave. Unfortunately, when we got all the way up, there was a family with a bazillion young kids hanging out on the cliff, running around and yelling at each other. They wouldn't get out of the way, so we decided to turn back. Really shocked that none of them ended up taking a dive off that cliff--so not a place to take little kids, especially badly behaved ones. Anyway, the trip to the falls was fun, and a good way to work out the traveling stiffness. Plus, it let us drive most of the race route to get a feel for what to expect.

The marathon itself was a point to point course, and we had to ride a school bus to the start line at Turner Falls overlook. The bus left at 6:40am for the 7:30 start time. At the start, it was about 34 degrees. We opted for long sleeves and shorts. Wish I'd had a cheap blanket or something that I could just dump after the start, as it was a tad chilly. I made good time on the first half of the race, relying on my camelbak and running past all the water stops. All of my first half miles were mid 9s to mid 10s. Definitely took advantage of the largely downhill first half to boost my time without wearing myself down too much.

After I hit the halfway mark, I started using the water stops--walking through them, alternating Gatorade and water, and taking half a banana at one. The second half of my race was all low 11s to high 12s. This part was much hillier. Nothing steep, but several long and sloping ones. I started feeling some aching in my quads at around mile 18 (keep in mind, my longest training run was 17 miles, and that was before a 4 week hiatus due to injury). The aching died down at around mile 20 and I got a second wind around the time I hit mile 21 (I think that one was 10:50 pace). About mile 22, we headed north into the wind, and I felt like I was barely moving. I walked several times from then until the end of the race, but managed to keep under 13 minute miles throughout. The finish was 1 lap around the high school track.

My gun time ended up being 4:52:02, and chip time was 4:51:56. I came in 4/4 in my age group. The person who came in 3rd finished in 4:08, so I didn't have a snowball's chance of beating any of them! Tough competition this year.

Overall, I'm happy-ish with my time. I know it would have been better if I hadn't injured myself, which is a bit disappointing. I had originally hoped for 4:30, but had to let that go due to reduced training. But I still finished in under 5 hours, which was my new post-injury stretch goal.

I just can't believe it's over. I finally ran the race I've been training for for months. Now what do I do with myself? I'll have to think on that over the next week as I rest up. Considering adding some speed work and trying to improve times for upcoming shorter distance races (half, quarter, 5k)...

@ariceroni love the outfits, well done!
@meganridenour lovely pic, tho that looks like the water is realllllly high?
@skippygirlsmom my husband used to do long haul, gone for about 3 weeks at a time. Not quite as long as yours, but I know how ya feel. Kinda sucks eh!
@Elise4270 Wow that is a lot of bling, lol. My race that i signed up for is expecting about 4k runners. Kinda freaking me out. I try to avoid high pop encounters...
@freakymistkd count it if it counts to you! The only ones we're accountable to here is ourselves And I don't blame you, outside alone at night freaks me out.

Ok apparently I'm having an higher anxiety day today. It's thinking about my stupid hip that's doing it. Shouldn't run on it I don't think, biking will probably aggravate it (hell, driving did today). I mean technically I should probably do NOTHING! Bursitis, arthritis, something along those lines I'm thinking.