May 2016 Running Challenge

Yesterday I used Strava for the first time. I'm liking it. My splits are a little wonky due to the fact that I was doing c25k week 7 day 1 and so there was some walking at the beginning and at the end of the route. Miles 2 and 3 were pretty much all running... LOL I am a slow little bunny. It says 4.6 miles but I really did more like 5 miles as Strava for some reason stopped recording at 4.6 miles (I may have hit the button when I looked at it).

I ran for two miles... that's a new best for me. My knees were a little stiff afterwards, because I run on a treadmill during the week, so I only get to run outside on Sundays and I don't think my knees were very appreciative of the pavement. Knees feel okay today though.

Rest day for me. I'm still trying to stay with the 2 days on 1 day off until I'm sure my ITB is happy for good.

@greenolivetree glad it's a bit better, definitely take that rest until it's 100%.
@7lenny7 I loved your race report, even the TMI LOL, hey we have ALL been there. I ran back and forth to the bathroom so many times before the 5K Saturday Skip asked if I was trying to add mileage to the day Of course I had the post race bathroom run too ha ha You should be so proud, that is a fantastic time for any marathon let alone your first. I love the honey water idea.
@respectthekitty great job on the 2 miles of running, you are doing great!
@run4me2day you are doing great - keep it up!

5/1 - rest
5/2 - 4m
5/3 - 5m
5/4 - 6m
5/5 - rest
5/6 - 5m
5/7 - 10m
5/8 - rest
5/9 - 3.8m
5/10 - 3.5m
5/11 - 7m
5/12 - rest
5/13 - 3m
5/14 - 6.2m
5/16 - 4m


Distance to date: 57.5m
Goal: 126m (45.6% complete)

This week will be the most difficult. According to my half marathon training plan, I'm covering 35 miles; 12 of those are Saturday! Eeeek! Only thing to do it put my head down, earphones in and do 'em!

Training Plan (in case anyone is interested)
coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/134.shtml

I broke in the new Glycerin 14's on today's 6 mile easy run. They felt super comfy and familiar like the 13's so I had no issues with fit/feel. Today's run was a bit harder than expected, like my feet felt slow and heavy. Could just be additional recovery from the Saturday race, or it could be the shoes. Or maybe @PoppetsMaster was right and they were so comfy my feet fell asleep! Time will tell. I will run with the second pair tomorrow and after a couple more runs I should be able to make a fair assessment of them.

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
5/10 - 6 miles
5/11 - 10 miles
5/12 - 6 miles
5/13 - Rest
5/14 - 13.1 miles
5/15 - 4 miles

112.2/200 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 but was only 12.5 miles
5/1 - Buffalo Bell Stampede half marathon (Leavenworth, KS) 2:25:06
5/14 - Running with the Cows half marathon (Bucyrus, KS) 2:17:38.4 new PR
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)

Haha! @instantmartian ! Love the cat story. Im a crazy cat lady too. They are so much easier to deal with than humans, unless they are sticky.

realalize wrote: »

instantmartian wrote: »

Funny little kind-of-running-related story:
Saturday afternoon, as I was sitting on my butt in front of the TV, my male cat came over, and plopped himself on my lap. His right ear looked like it was wet. I took my thumb and rubbed it, and it was not wet, but actually coated in some sort of sticky substance that smelled sweet and almost a little fruity. I had absolutely no idea what it could have possibly been, but I noticed it was on his right cheek, too. I got a wet paper towel and wiped his ear and face off, which he was not at all happy about. I was still very confused as to what was all over his head. A little while later, I decided to clean up the house a little, when I noticed a fruit-flavored Honey Stinger gel in front of the couch. The darned cat had one tiny hole punctured in the back of the thing. All I can figure is that he stole it from somewhere (I'm not sure where it was - either on the kitchen counter or in a gym bag/backpack somewhere) and was playing with it when he ended up putting a hole in the packaging and decided to rub his face all over the honey that oozed out. I rinsed off the Honey Stinger, inspected it, and realized it didn't lose much of its contents, and it was only a very small puncture on the "a" in "Nutrition Facts," so I dried it off, cut a small square of clear packing tape, and covered the hole. Judge me if you'd like, but I am totally consuming this thing the next time I need a gel. Damn cat.

I sure got a chuckle out of this cat story, @instantmartian. (I'm a crazy cat lady.) Good luck with your motivation dip and getting back on track for your upcoming 10K. I went through that earlier this year and once I got it back, I twisted my ankle very badly running after the bus. After two months of doing little exercise, but walking and some strength training, I had zero motivation and no interest in my usual cardio routine (Les Mills Combat). So I decided to start running again. Sorry for rambling on about myself. How long have you been running for?

I'm glad to provide some entertainment! If you haven't been able to figure out from my profile photo, I might be a bit of a cat lady, myself. (My boy is the cat in the front. He is quite the handful, to say the least!) I seem to always go into a slump around this time of year, though I can't tell you why. Thankfully, I have managed to remain injury free for over a year, now. I've been running for about six years. That time has been riddled by a few injuries and some outright laziness, but I've participated in some races each of those years. I'm glad you were able to overcome your injuries and lack of motivation! How long have you been at this running thing?

Oops! Duplicate post.

7lenny7 wrote: »

I don't know about you folks but running makes me fart more than normal and this feeling was making me afraid to fart, further compounding the discomfort. I know, in normal circles this is TMI, but we're not normal, we're runners.

@7lenny7 Great race for a First Marathon - especially slow close to that niggly Achilles issue. If I'm not releasing the gas it's going to be a very bad run. I tend to spend the first 2 km Burping like a sailor on leave with a few farts. 90% Top side gas. Does make you wonder about the facial expressions on the people just a little bit behind you when you are Releasing the Pressure. Yea maybe TMI.

@taadaalaa as a newbie on MFP I suggest you go to the Most Helpful Posts and read all the Logging Accurately posts. At the Top of most of the message boards you will see some stickied posts and they are pretty good information.

@7lenny7 Wow, thanks for the detailed race report, I love reading race reports! And of course, congratulations on finishing your first marathon! It's really too bad your Achilles & quads conspired against you, otherwise I am sure you would have crushed your 4h goal. Although making it in uder 4:10 with all those obstacles is probably even more impressive! Now I hope you enjoy a few well-earned rest days, take care of that Achilles, and have a few celebratory IPAs
Oh, and if you figure out a way to learn how to drink while running, please let me know how. I always walk at aid stations (or whe drinking out of my own bottle during long runs), trying to drink while running has a high probability to leave me choking and coughing by the road side, I figure that costs me as much time as simply walking...

@greenolivetree Don't worry too much if you fall behind on your goal, getting the knee rested and healed is more important now. I hope you'll be better soon!

@Lord007 Wow, your HM training plan has you running a lot this weekend. After that, the half will probably feel like a vacation :-)

@respectthekitty Great run, kudos on completing c25k week 7 - that's a lot of running you did today!

@WhatMeRunning Slow and heavy with new shoes - that's exactly how I felt today too!
I took out my new Saucony Xodus for a run today - no trails planned, but they were new and waiting to be used, so I gave them a road trial. I will have to look up the stats online to confirm, but just by feel, they are a lot heavier than any of my other shoes. I felt like I had extra weights strapped to my feet and was really slow today.
Although I didn't really check my pace during the run - the optical HR measurement of my watch has had some dropouts recently, and one of the support suggestions to "fix" that is trying to wear it on the other wrist. Apart from that fact that it didn't really help with the HR measurement, I kept glancing at the wrong wrist when I wanted to check my pace, and gave up on it altogether in the end. Back home, I realised that I averaged below 7min/km, which is fast for me. I guess the Xodus' didn't slow me down after all, so they are forgiven

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Forgot to post last weeks summary, with the holiday today, it took me another day to realise the week was over ^^
Mon, 9.05.2016 - rest day
Tue, 10.05.2016 - easy run, 6.0 km
Wed, 11.05.2016 - "hill" run, 12.6 km
Thu, 12.05.2016 - 9.8 km
Fri, 13.05.2016 - YAYOG W1D4 (the only strength training that week. Need to do better this week!)
Sat, 14.05.2016 - long-ish run, 14.5 km (shorter than I might have liked, but I wanted to do a recovery week after the HM, so I set myself a "less than 15km" limit)
Sun, 15.05.2016 - 26.4km bike ride. Because I had already used up all the running milage I'd allowed myself for my "recovery week"...

With todays run, that puts me at 130.5km for May, well on track for my goal. Even if I might not do a long run next weekend - I spontaneously signed up for a nearby 10k next Saturday; I want to take another shot at a sub-60 time!

2/5....6k
4/5....6k
6/5....6k
13/5..6k
16/5..6k......30k for the month. Need to get some motivation .

May 11-2.1 miles
May 13-2.1 miles
Total this month-8.2/25 miles

It's not quite where I wanted to be but considering I had bronchitis a couple of weeks ago & still sometimes have trouble breathing, I'll take it.

May Goal: Run just a scootch more than last month...

5/1 deep mucking of the chicken coop and environs
5/2 4.0
5/3 life day
5/4 7.54
5/5 snorkel 3.5hours
5/6 3.21
5/7 4.05
5/8 rest
5/9 4.05
5/10 meh
5/11 4.54
5/12 3.26
5/13 6.05
5/14 rest
5/15 4.02
5/16 3.16

Total 43.88

Upcoming races:
6/26 SHEPower Virtual 1/2 marathon
11/13 Las Vegas Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon

Ticker is my goal for 2016 and accumulation to date:

@4leighbee Lol, that could have been me having those thoughts! I remember doing something similarly smart when I was using a step counting app for a while - put the phone on the TM ledge as usual and run 10 min as gym warmup. Afterwards, as I picked the phone back up, I decided to check how many steps that warmup contributed towards the 10,000-a-day goal - I was a little disappointed by the result ^^