May 2016 Running Challenge

Thanks for the kind words @ROBOTFOOD @louubelle16 @Orphia @ariceroni @MLS1582 @Elise4270

@MNLittleFinn Great race for you and your mother, what a lovely way to spend mothers day together.

@Ch1psNQueso That sounds like a really bad accident. Glad to hear you are feeling better, welcome back!

@louubelle16 Oh no, I just read your race report, how horrible was that? I think we got hit by the same heat wave, seems like was all over Europe this weekend. It was quite unexpected here too - I think neither London nor Geneva are supposed to be warmer than Madrid this time of the year (or ever). I saw quite a few runners being treated as well during the second half of the course.
Before the weekend, I was annoyed that the full marathoners started at 11am and could sleep in, while I had to be there at 8:30am for the half - now I'm really glad, this way at least the first 45 minutes or so where fine, until I started noticing the rising temperatures. And no craziness like car drivers on the course - as if the heat wasn't already enough to deal with!
I'm really sorry for you that you had such a bad time! That you finished in such a great time despite everything is impressive, you can be really proud of yourself!

@ROBOTFOOD - Everyone talks about Heartbreak Hill in Boston, but it's really the downhills that beat you up. But wow! 5200 feet of drop is way more than Boston, where I found it easier to run gentle inclines than gentle declines after the first 20 miles.

@louubelle16 - That's brutal weather to run in. I ran a half in temperature like that last July, and it was the most miserable half I've ever done. It's a true accomplishment just to finish under those conditions.

@_nikkiwolf_ - Nice race report! Good planning, and good adjusting the plan to circumstances! And yes, starting earlier is better on a day when the temperature starts out reasonable and rises.

To everyone running and racing...Cheers!

DATE...............MILES.............TOTAL
5/1....................3.00..................3.00...laChocolat Run 5K 34:28
5/2....................3.00................. 6.00
5/3.....................Cycle/Abs.........6.00
5/4.....................2.00..................8.00
5/5......................Rest..................8.00
5/6......................4.50.................12.5
5/7......................Abs..................12.5
5/8......................5.00.................17.5

May 6 - 2 miles
May 7 - 6 miles
May 8 - 2 miles

@louubelle16 - people call me crazy for signing up for races in the winter where it's really cold. But honestly, I can handle cold, heat no so much. I'm super sensitive to high temperatures, especially sudden increases (I got lightheaded dealing with a sudden increase to 74 F the other day). I'll still do races in the summer but usually shorter ones that start early in the morning, haha. Congrats on finishing!

(oh and as a former EMT, those kinds of races can be tough just making sure everyone that's laying down is okay enough for now and not having heat stroke. Hopefully they called in some reinforcements).

@louubelle16 and @_nikkiwolf_ Congratulations on your fabulous HMs!

Sadly, in spite of my best intentions, I did not get to go for a run on this beautiful day. My kids had need of me, and I guess even on Mother's Day, the Mom gig deal is that you still need to take care of them first. That's ok...they're cool kids.

My plan for this week is a 4-5 miles and strength training two days in a row on Monday and Tuesday, and as long a run as I can stand on Wednesday (I'm hoping for 6-8 miles, but a lot will depend on the weather). Thursday I'm busy and then Friday is surgery. Can I say that one of my biggest fears of being out of commission for a week or more is that I won't go back to running when it's over? I have failed so many times at sticking with my "lifestyle" changes, and this is the first time I've really had any serious challenge to my new way of living in two years (if you don't count holiday food and such). I keep telling myself that I find such joy in running now, and I have all sorts of fun races to keep me motivated...but that niggling fear is there in the back of my mind. So I'm asking you, my running friends, to pray for me or wish me good mojo-jojo or whatever positive thing you might do, that I would come back and keep going.

---

5/1...Rest
5/2...4.25 @ 12:22 on the hilly lake trail
5/3...3.0 @ 13:00 (this is really 2.0 @ 12:00 and 1.0 walking) on the treadmill and strength training day
5/4...4.25 @ 11:51 (most of it was around 11:30, but mile 4 is a brutal hill) on the neighborhood rail trail
5/5...2 miles walking. I'm not counting it, but thought I'd throw it in here as my "active rest" day
5/6...5.0 @ 11:21 on the treadmill, since it's raining pairs of cats and dogs straight onto the ark...
5/7-8 Rest/life days

Completed races:
1/18 MLK 8K, Burke, VA 56:14
2/22 Princess Half, Orlando FL, 2:49:33
4/23 Healthy Strides Community 10K, Burke, VA 1:14:29
4/30 Run for the Children 8K, Fairfax, VA 56:35

Upcoming races:
5/21 RunFitKidz 5K, Springfield, VA (maybe--if recovered enough from surgery)
6/12 Celebrate Fairfax 5K, Fairfax, VA
7/4 Freedom 5K, Fairfax VA
9/5 Great American 5K, Fairfax, VA
Either Hemlock Half or Divas Half in September
10/30 MCM 10K, Washington, DC
11/6 The Parks 10K, Washington, DC
11/19 Potomac River Half, Carderock, MD

30th annual Brian Harms Memorial Race. 274 Runners Total. 66 in 16km, 85 in 8km, 123 in 5km.
Probably had that number of walkers also, plus its an open course through River Valley Parkland Trails and you would come across other people walking/running etc who weren't in the event.

Got up at 5:30 for the 2 Hour drive to pick up my Bib and Race package. Building opened at 8:00am.
Scheduled 9:00 am start pushed back to 9:30 due to Weather concerns.

8km Results.
Remember when races were in Miles? That's why we had the Funky distance of 8 and 16km.

25/85 BIB 8197 B Johnson M5059 ( 3rd in AG ) 44:25 5:34/Km 8:57/Mile PB pace .

I have been a 6.00 min/km rock for the last year.
A fellow racer would look at their GPS watch and ##***## because it failed, would look at me with that desperation/confusion. I would look at my old watch - Not GPS ( my GPS Running Watch had a failure when I tripped on a Root and Fell last fall ) - and say were 27 mins in so we are at km 4.7 etc. Give me a time and I would give you the approximate distance we were at. 3 HM's in 2016 and all around 6:00/km, So I don't know where this new PB Pace came from. But I like It.

So we went out in Brutal Conditions - From Gov't of Canada Weather Report - Showers ending this evening then partly cloudy. Local smoke.
Wind west 30 km/h (18.6mph) gusting to 50km/h ( 31.1mph ) becoming light near midnight.
High plus 7C ( 45F ) Low plus 2C ( 36F ) .
The race directors were thinking about cancelling the event but we had a Participant discussion and it was unanimous and as one runner said we had all signed the waiver, the volunteers were ready to go so off we went.

Started with the Wind at our back for the first km and then turned into the trees. Just past the 2 km sign there was a tree blown down across the course, skirt around the branch's and jumped over the trunk then looked at my watch and seen that I was at 10:40. OH OH going out to fast SLOW DOWN - is what I thought - that's not what I did. It was feeling good so I just went with it. Had a group of about 8 with me all fairly close in pace so we fed off each other. At 3km we had a long slow down hill. Just before the 4 km turn we had a short steep uphill - what goes down must go up. Lost half the group. 21:30ish minutes? not possible kept on keeping on. Back down the Short Steep hill. Got back to the Long Slow Hill and lost the rest of the group. Could just see the outlines of 3 people ahead of me through the trees - what the heck lets go catch them. I don't really understand it yet but Dang it was working today and I caught them. Hurdled the tree again, went around the corner and there was another New Tree laying across the trail.

Remember we started with the Wind at our Backs - What do you think the Finish was like?
Came out of the Trees and turned straight into the Wind. Brutal - felt like I was dragging a Parachute. Head Down point it into the wind and keep moving. Might sound strange but we had a short 200 m section exposed to the cross wind and it was harder than the head wind - kept pushing you off the trail with the gusts.
Crossed the line - Stopped my watch It said 44:42 - My chip Time 44:25. I was shocked and still on the runners PB High. As you can tell by my long winded post.


05/01 – 0.0 Km – 0.0 - 140 km
05/01 – 10.0 Km – 10.0 - 130 km
05/05 – 14.0 Km – 24.0 - 116 km
05/08 – 8.0 Km – 32.0 - 108 km – YTD 546.8 km

4 members of our club were out and all 4 of us had Top 3 Finish's AG or Overall. + 2 Honouary Member's ( former residents ) also got hardware. One Girl got New shoes and we all Howled with laughter - if you looked at her shoes closely she has worn through the Tread Layer on the Toe/Pushoff point right through to the next layer.

Next event in 2 weeks. Basically the same course ran from the other end with a 2 km loop around a water reservoir. Due to Road Construction - Bridge Work the Trails are cut in Half resulting in Multiple Short Loops rather than the normal Out and Back.

Quick update just to post my miles; work and life are crazy right now... heading back to Dallas in the morning for most of this week again. Than I hope to get back to a more regular schedule for running, working, living, etc..
I did have a fabulous run on Saturday - the kind where you just want to keep going and going - so I did. Went out to go 4-5 and ended up with 10 and it felt great during and afterwards. This base building business seems to be working!

Date..........Miles.........Total
05/01.......0.00..........0.00
05/02.......5.16..........5.16 - + Agility
05/03.......0.00..........5.16 - Dallas
05/04.......4.25..........9.41
05/05.......0.00..........9.41 - Home
05/06.......0.00..........9.41
05/07.....10.03........19.44
05/08.......2.50........21.94 - Dog beach run



Upcoming Races - Let me know if you will be running too!
06/25/16 - SHEPower Virtual Half Marathon
07/31/16 - San Francisco 2nd Half Marathon
09/xx/16 - Beat the Blerch Half Marathon, Seattle
11/19/16 - USA Invitational Half Marathon (Yay, I qualified again!)
xx/xx/xx - Nike Women's Half Marathon, Los Angeles
12/18/16 - San Diego Holiday Half Marathon

Ankle hurts a little after this morning's run - I hope that'll clear up by itself.

My heart rate is also still pretty high (167 avg on today's run) although I'm learning to run slowly and not get out of breath. It has been always been volatile though and my last ECG was fine. The HR discussion a few pages back makes me wonder if that's maybe just my normal running HR. I guess I'll find out in the long run, no pun intended.

Have an awesome day, everyone!

Did 5.8 km yesterday and my watch says I walked 30 km in total. I might over did it a bit.

After 3 days of constant raining I managed to do some running again. Huray.

Noticed a lot of people got injured lately. That sucks. I know that feel. Just find something to replace running with for the time being. It feels like hell but you will manage

..Date.....Distance
May 01 - rest
May 02 - 4.1 km
May 03 - rest
May 04 - rest
May 05 - 5 km
May 06 - rest
May 07 - 4.1 km
May 08 - 5.8 km




03/04: Bucharest 10k and Family run 48:28
16/04: Color Run Bucharest
17/04: Forest Run 5k 22:05
??/??: VeterRUN 6.7k