June (2016) Running Challenge

I still have three more pages to read through, but I'll post now because I am inspired by @skippygirlsmom 's horrible toenail. I think I'd be trying to help it off if it's waking me up in the middle of the night hurting. My middle toenail has turned black and I'll probably lose it (again--twice in one year!) but at least it doesn't hurt.

I rested yesterday when I went to chemo with my friend. We had a good talk about her plans for the future and it came up that she'll probably be doing reconstruction surgery at about the same time next year as her mastectomy this year--which means that even *if* Disney offered me a deferment for my half marathon (which wasn't looking likely), she couldn't go with me next year, either. So my husband and I decided that rather than waste the $$$ I have wrapped up in entrance fees and party tickets and such, that he and I would turn it into a weekend getaway as our Christmas/25th anniversary gift to each other. Hopefully no one *else* will decide to go and get diabetes or something while we're gone and my older daughters will be able to hold down the fort with some remote assistance from Nana if needed.

Today was the first day of no school and I was thrilled to start my run a little earlier than I do when I have to be the "mom bus". I did 5 miles on the rail trail/neighborhood streets. The sunny bits were...warm. But the run overall was really good and my knees hurt way less than Wednesday. It looks like I'm going to make that 75 miles I was afraid might be impossible this month, too.

PoppetsMaster wrote: »

@5BeautifulDays..... send this link to your friend... this guy is awesome...

http://www.allentattoo.com/mastectomy/

Wow. That is really quite beautiful work.

Last night, I finally gave up waiting for the rain to arrive and cool things down and went for a run anyway. Much shorter than planned, I could only take it for 40 minutes - guess I should have known what would happen if I run through a forest by the lakeside on a hot summer evening:
Moskitos! I have one bite on my back, one on the arm, 5 on my right leg and 12 on the left leg. If I'd stayed out any longer , they would have eaten me alive!


@MNLittleFinn if you have to weight the shoes to figure out which ones are heavier, the differences are probably not that large. I have one pair of shoes which have me thinking "holy cow, those are HEAVY" every time I put them on, those I'd never wear for a long run (or HM ). For all others, I figure the difference is probably in the same range as carrying my keys and an extra gel packet around, don't think that bit of weight makes a huge difference.

6/1: 5 miles
6/2: 6.4 miles
6/3: Rest
6/4: Lazy
6/5: 9 miles
6/6: 5 miles
6/7: 4 miles
6/8: 6.5 miles << Wednesday group run
6/9: 6.4 miles << Thursday PUB RUN!
6/10: Rest day finally
6/11: 13.1 << Halfway Half (unofficial)
6/12: 10 miles
6/13: 6 miles with Joe2Go crew
6/14: 6.2 miles << Group runner send off!
6/15: 5 miles
6/16: 7 miles
.......: 6.4 miles << Thursday group run!
6/17: Long awaited rest day
6/18: 10.2 miles
6/19: 16 miles
6/20: 6 miles
6/21: Rest day
6/22: 8 miles
6/23: 7 miles << Buddy-up'd tempo run
........: 6.3 miles << Thursday crew run!
6/24: Rest day!
6/25: 18 miles!!

I decided to switch up my LR days this week. My running group was doing this 10.5 mile loop this morning that is hilly and gorgeous and shaded almost the entire way, and I couldn't resist. I tacked 2 miles onto the front and 7.5 onto the end and got my long run in a day early! It was humid and foggy to start, but then the temperatures rose about 10F and the humidity burned away a bit. My allergies have finally (mostly) gone away, so other than 90% humidity, my breathing is finally good, which has made these long runs much more enjoyable.

Weird shin thing was weird for the first few miles. I purposefully made zero stops until the weirdness went away, and then it stayed gone and my leg felt perfectly normal for the bulk of the run. That tells me its definitely muscular, and probably just something that's tired or firing weird. I'm just going to keep running through it since it's something that does go away eventually during a run, on its own.

Now for Gatorade, a protein bar, a shower, then a massive pizza because USPS delivered some coupons in our mailbox yesterday.



Upcoming Races:
7/4: A 4th of July race somewhere!
9/11: Lehigh Valley Via Marathon (Allentown, PA)
11/20: Philadelphia Marathon (Philly, PA)

Spent an hour cleaning out the garage yesterday and then more time outside cleaning my car. Not sure if it was the heat or the dirty garage but I ended up with asthma issues for hours and a stuffy nose. Took benadryl which knocked me out from 8:30 last night until 7:30 this morning. So I'm taking some mucinex now today to clear my lungs and I'm planning to do an 8pm run tonight. I think I'll be fine. Good news is we have some cooler weather coming next week! Below 90 some days and overnights back into upper 60s.

6/1 - 3 miles
6/2 - zip
6/3 - 5 miles
6/4 - 5 miles (I did 2 miles of intervals with my friend then walked 2 miles with her) after that I ran 3 miles with Skip so I'm going to count 5 miles
6/5 - 5 miles
6/6 - rest
6/7 - 7 miles
6/8 - 5 miles another perfect morning to run!
6/9 - 4 miles loving the weather woohoo!!!
6/10 - rest day rest day I hate rest days but I need to do a long(est) run tomorrow so it's rest day rest day
6/11 - 6 miles 80F at start of run almost 90F when we were done...hot hot hot
6/12 - 5 miles by myself and then 5 miles of intervals with my friend so I'm going to call it 8 miles - another way hot one
6/13 - rest day after running and working over the weekend for 10 hours scrubbing the liner of my pool and shop vac'ing all the water out of the bottom, my body said *kitten* no we are not moving when the alarm went off.
6/14 - 5 miles with Skip this morning
6/15 - 3 miles with the girl
6/16 - 5 miles
6/17 - rest day
6/18 - 4 miles - 5K and mile warm up
6/19 - too much to do to run day
6/20 - 4 miles
6/21 - 3 miles
6/22 - 5 miles
6/23 - 4 miles - Skip had 4 on her plan, I had 5 on mine, but she was afraid to run home past the pit bull house alone so I went with her, once my legs saw the house they said "yippe"
6/24 - rest day
6/25 - 7 miles with Skip

88 of 100 miles




Way hot this morning 75 with 70% humidity when we left and 85 with 65% humidity with feel like 92 when we got back. I had the sprinkler on the front lawn while we ran and we got back we just stood in it. LOL I was too hot to take my shoes and watch off to jump in the pool.

@5beautifuldays it's not quite the the point I could pull it off without screaming and crying like a baby. Your friend is very lucky to have you. My best friend went through double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery because she has the braca gene. I thought she was (and still do) think she's the bravest person to go through this major surgery as a precaution. She did great. She said she's thinking about having nipples tattooed on so she looks more natural. Though she did say she's so used to what she looks like now she's not sure.

8mi turned into 13.1 because I was feeling really good. 8:05/avg pace. 1:45.54

I just got in a short run this morning while my son was at his gymnastics class. I'll probably try to walk a few miles with pup and hubby later today.

Date.....Distance..Avg hr/Pace/km
June 1 - 6.1 km - 156/5:47
June 2 - 5.5 km - 154/6:00
June 3 - 5.0 km - 153/6:12
June 4 - 7.0 km - 184/4:25
June 5 - 6.0 km - 143/6:27
June 6 - rest
June 7 - 6.0 km - 143/6:13
June 8 - 6.8 km - 148/6:11 (Hot)
June 9 - 5.8 km - 150/5:58
June 10 - rest
June 11 - 5.0 km - 184/4:26
June 12 - 6.0 km - 149/6:05
June 13 - rest
June 14 - 7.6 km - 149/6:08
June 15 - 6.0 km - 150/6:03
June 16 - 6.0 km - 150/6:12
June 17 - 7.0 km - 152/6:21 (Hell)
June 18 - 5.8 km - 150/Slow, I didn't care
June 19 - 11.0km - 155/6:06 (Easy hell)
June 20 - rest
June 21 - 7.0 km - 178/4.37 (tempo)
June 22 - 6.0 km - 155/6:06
June 23 - 6.6 km - 152/6:06
June 24 - 7.0 km - 155/5:54
June 25 - 6.0 km - 137/8:30



03/04: Bucharest 10k and Family run 48:28
16/04: Color Run Bucharest
17/04: Forest Run 5k 22:05
04/06: Happy Run 5k 21:57

ereck44 wrote: »

Plan is for a long run today.....9 miles.
I still have 1.4 more pounds until goal weight. Anyone on here still trying to lose weight????

Yup! I have 9-10 to lose. I'd be happy with 5 though.

I need to re-lose 10-20lbs. 10 would suffice. 15 would be better. 20 I'd never hold it. I've been at a healthy bmi over 5 years now but end to end of my healthy range. Running doesn't help at all. It's totally my diet.

June Running Totals (miles)
6/1 – rest day
6/2 – 6.11 easy
6/3 – rest day
6/4 – 7.21 easy with hills
6/5 – 7.42 easy
6/6 – rest day
6/7 – 8.56 easy
6/8 – rest day
6/9 – 8.01 easy
6/10 – rest day
6/11 – 10.09 with hills and humidity
6/12 – 6.21 easy with 1 stride
6/13 – rest day
6/14 – run squeezed out of schedule
6/15 – rest day 7.00 group run
6/16 – 4.02 in 3 pieces
6/17 – rest day
6/18 – 4.83 aborted pace run
6/19 – 8.27 hot and humid
6/20 – rest day
6/21 – 7.18 warmup, speed work, cool down
6/22 – rest day
6/23 – 9.46 easy
6/24 – rest day
6/25 – 10.22 pace group run

June total to date – 94.37

Nominal Challenge Goal – 100 miles
Real Goals: Recover from injury to the point where running feels normal again. Stretch goal, recover to the point where I can run at race pace.

Today's notes – Today's assignment was to pace the 8:30 group through 10 miles of rolling hills. No one showed up for the 8:00 group, so the 8:00 pacer joined our group. That made 4 of us - myself, the girl who was assigned to pace 8:00, my friend Young Jeff, and a younger girl I've run with a few times. We had a nice conversation as we ran, and I had to slow us down several times. I regard it as a good sign (for my health, anyway) that I unconsciously pushed the pace to 7:45 on a gentle uphill stretch. After mile 9, the group smelled finish line and I let them push closer to 8:00. Ended up with an 8:20 average per Garmin, but an 8:12 average per Strava. Apparently Strava stripped out the time we spent at the water stop, where I didn't pause my Garmin.

Afterward, I realized that today I ran 10 miles with three other people who also ran Boston this year. I don't feel very bad about letting a group that's entirely composed of people who have BQ'd more than once push the pace faster than the assignment. They're all adults, and they have the experience to say something if it's too fast for them.

My recovering right leg ached some, but the ache was usually at a level that I wouldn't notice unless I paid attention. In a group run with conversation, that means I didn't notice the leg for most of the run. During the last mile, it notified me that 10 miles would be enough for today; so I didn't even consider adding more miles after the assigned pace route.

61° F when we started, didn't get what it rose to, humid enough to work up a good sweat but not humid enough to be miserable. Had my phone in a baggie for timing post race stretches, but cool down dried off the sweat so I didn't really need the baggie.

After several other pace groups finished, it hit home how many people there I know. There were a lot of folks asking how I recovered from last week's ugly face plant (very well, thank you) and offering congratulations on my impending retirement (which I announced on Facebook yesterday evening.)

Work issues mean that July and August will be a bit busy for me. I'll find time to run, but I might not find as much time as I'd like. That changes as of September 1, when I will be retired. I haven't yet decided how that will affect running, other than making me less time crunched during Boston training early next year. I'm sure that won't be the only running thing that changes in retirement, but right now I can wait to see what sort of things make sense in retirement that didn't while working.

2016 races:
January 1, 2016 Resolution Run 7.5 mile (Mendon, NY) finished in 53:58
January 9, 2016 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) finished in 1:30:59
March 12, 2016 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 32:32
March 26, 2016 Spring Forward Distance Run 15K (Mendon, NY) finished in 1:05:24
April 18, 2016 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA) finished in 3:23:01
April 24, 2016 Flower City Challenge Half Marathon (Rochester, NY) finished in 1:36:50, targeting MP
May 15, 2016 Highland Hospital Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY) DNS - injury
June 19, 2016 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) DNS - recovering from face plant
July 16, 2016 Shoreline Half Marathon (Hamlin, NY)
September 18, 2016 Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY)
November 24, 2016 Race with Grace 10K (Hilton, NY)

@MobyCarp Nice Run! Also, it's good to see that recovery is going well for you!

@katharmonic cool. I asked because I am using a plan from Greg McMillan"s book and he bases a lot of his training runs on time except for a few long runs

ROBOTFOOD wrote: »

Don't burn yourself out before the race! It's tempting to run 2 a days, but I'd save it.

Yup, I'm gonna just chill. Temps are almost up to cool day for you (86f) so I'm just enjoying the A/C watching movies and eating