May 2016 Running Challenge

@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.

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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

I finally have time to decently read over posts from the weekend and reply.

@9voice9 - That race sounded less organized than a small group run!

@michable - Way to go cranking out 30k!!

@skippygirlsmom - Congrats to skip on winning AG! That sounds like a great event. Way to tell that knee who's in charge! AND free soda for a year??? Holy hell what a day!!

@MobyCarp - I hope you get that leg back to 100% soon.

@PoppetsMaster - Good luck next week!

@heatherdonovan3 and @realalize - Welcome and congrats on the start to C25K! You'll find plenty of support and advice here.

@MLS1582 - Way to go on your 10k! I'm pretty sure you are faster than I am! Sorry the event folks sucked *kitten*.

Congrats @Anabbee on your first 5k! That's faster than my first 5k time.

@ROBOTFOOD - Holy shitballs that sounds insane!! I can't imagine surviving a race like that! Hope you are more mobile today!

Congrats @Orphia on the 5k PR!!

Way to go @MNLittleFinn and MamaFinn!!

Great run @EvgeniZyntx!

@louubelle16 - OMG that sounds awful! I have had some great May races, but there is a better chance of a hot run like that.

Congrats on the insanely awesome HM @_nikkiwolf_ that report made my day!!

@07KatieP13 - Sorry to laugh about the heat, but I know I am going to feel the same soon enough!

@Ch1psNQueso - Great to see you are back and able to run again!

Way to go @pearlica winning your age group!!

@juliet3455 - Way to power through and have a great race in adverse conditions!!

Ok, I have to go...congrats to everyone I didn't get to in the last dozen or so posts!!

Rest day here today. Glad of it. After running 8.4 miles on Sat (nre distance PR) and then the 5k yesterday, then helping my mom get 60 cubic feet of cedar mulch, and driving 3.5 hours home, I'm really tired. Going to rest up today, eat back the calorie deficit from the weekend and get myself ready for getting back into it tomorrow.

5/1-4.12 miles
5/2- Rest
5/3- 5.01 miles
5/4- 3.12 miles
5/5- 5.1
5/6- rest
5/7- 8.44
4/8-3.11
4/9-REST much needed REST

Total: 28.86/100

I'm late to the party! Hope everyone is well this month - can't wait to catch up (22 pages by the 9th!)!

I'm in for 85 this month - 3 this morning.

5/1……Rest Day
5/2……2.13 miles
5/3……Rest Day
5/4……2.11 miles
5/5……1.5 miles
5/6……Rest Day (yoga)
5/7……1.26 miles
5/8……Rest Day

5/1 - 2.66 mi walk
5/2 - 30 min indoor cardio, 12 min lower body pilates
5/3 - 3.1 mi run
5/4 - rest day
5/5 - 30 min indoor cardio, 15 min lower body pilates
5/6 - .5 mi walk/4 mi run/1 mi walk
5/7 - 3 mi run, 40 min strength&pilates, 2.3 mi walk
5/8 - 3 mi run

Run goal: 13.1 of 45 miles

@moyer566 Congrats on your HM!

@kristinegift Beautiful pic

@pearlica Cold meds give me bad dry mouth too, especially if they include antihistamine/sleepy med. If I run while taking any meds like that, I keep a Ludens throat drop in my mouth. It really helps a lot.

I scanned everything over the weekend but I won't try to go back and comment on everything, so great job to all the racers!

Yesterday I shut off the alerts on my HR and ran as I would as usual if I weren't trying super hard to slow down (experimenting). Mile 1 was 9:49 with average HR of 166. Mile 2 was 9:28 with average HR of 176. Mile 3 was 8:37 with average HR of 184. Max HR peaked at 191 the last few seconds before I stopped to cool down. My supposed max HR is 186. Average HR was 177.

Friday I kept all 4 miles between 10 and 10:45 and I still averaged 173. So tomorrow my plan is 2 easy little miles and try to keep that HR down. If I didn't have the new HR monitor and I went off "feel", I would've said Friday was an easy run and Sun was moderate, but I totally could've run faster Sun if I were trying to because I wasn't pushing myself until the last .25 mi.

I know this probably sounds totally crazy that my HR is this high. I've been running almost 2 years (with breaks) and I've always run on average at a 9:30 pace and I've run as long as just over an hour like this but I've also done shorter runs much faster, like my best 5k pace was 8:08 last May. I have no reason to believe my HR has ever been any lower during any of this time. But my whole goal this year has been to slow down and I've definitely put in more 10+ min miles than ever before, so I'm a work in progress

Congrats @moyer566! You have now run a distance most people would never consider!!

A great 6 mile easy run today! I was not too stiff despite the back to back 10.5 mile days and was limber about a quarter mile in. My pace was a lot faster than expected for the effort. I'll take it.

5/1 - 13.1 miles
5/2 - 6 miles
5/3 - 6 miles
5/4 - 9 miles
5/5 - 6 miles
5/6 - Rest
5/7 - 10.5 miles
5/8 - 10.5 miles
5/9 - 6 miles

67.1/200 miles



2016 races:
4/9 - Rock the Parkway half marathon (Kansas City, MO) 2:30:17.6 new PR
4/16 - Garmin Wickedly Fast half marathon (Olathe, KS) 2:28:39.52 new PR
4/23 - Heroes for Hope half marathon (North Kansas City, MO) 2:19:14 new PR
5/1 - Buffalo Bell Stampede half marathon (Leavenworth, KS) 2:25:06
5/14 - Running with the Cows half marathon (Bucyrus, KS)
6/2 - Hospital Hill 5k 7pm PRE-RUN (Kansas City, MO)
6/3 - Hospital Hill half marathon 7am RE-RUN (Kansas City, MO)
9/25 - Broadway Bridge half marathon (Kansas City, MO)
10/15 - Kansas City Marathon 26.2 (Kansas City, MO)
11/5 - Jenks half marathon (Jenks, OK)
11/6 - Kansas half marathon (Lawrence, KS)
11/12 - Longview half marathon (Kansas City, MO)
11/13 - Gobbler Grind half marathon (Overland Park, KS)
11/19 - White River half marathon (Cotter, AR)
11/20 - Pilgrim Pacer half marathon (Lenexa, KS)

juliet3455 wrote: »

@5BeautifulDays I will be Calling up all the Mo-Jo I have and making Sure to Harass You - in the Most Politically Correct way - in the Running Group and the Swimming Group!!!!! To get back out here and get back in the routine.

Thanks so much...I'm counting on this!

And congrats on your race!

Congrats to you, too, @moyer566 on your half! It really is a huge accomplishment!

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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
5/9...5.5 @ 12:40, nice and easy on the lake trail. My trainer bailed on me, so I got to get a run in outdoors before it started raining. Again. I really wanted to do another mile or two, but ran out of time.

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