September (2016) Running Challenge

ddmom0811 wrote: »

@kristinegift - and other people who run in the dark... I've been using knuckle lights the past two years and love them. However, the past month or so they keep running through batteries so fast, it's ridiculous. It's like they won't turn off properly (you think it's off and then later realize it turned back on). And then they suddenly wouldn't turn on. I think it may be because I sweat on them so much, I guess. I saw they now sell them with rechargeable batteries but when I read reviews they weren't that great.

Anyway, I've been using this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEYYKLO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

for my back light (on flash mode). So I decided to order another one and just clip it on the front of my pants.
It worked GREAT this morning. It is rechargeable and the light is so bright you really can't look into it. It uses a magnet to attach and and I've never had it fall off my pants - but I wear tight capris to run. If you wear shorts that aren't tight fitting I don't know that it would stay on as good.

@ddmom0811 I have Nathan lights like that! I clip them to my vest. I like it. But I don't find them bright enough to illuminate the way. I just bought a Nathan Zephyr flashlight, so hopefully I don't mind holding it (it has a holster-y thing though so I don't have to grip it, which is nice).

September Running Totals (miles)
9/1 – 10.07 warmup + tempo intervals
9/2 – 7.76 partial course preview
9/3 – 3.80 easy 30 minutes
9/4 – 15.44 warmup + Oak Tree Half
9/5 – 4.52 easy 30 minutes + 4 strides
9/6 – 6.72 warmup + speed work
9/7 – 4.04 easy
9/8 – 7.18 warmup + intervals
9/9 – rest day
9/10 – 6.06 easy
9/11 – 11.04 partial course preview
9/12 – 3.77 easy
9/13 – 6.36 warmup, intervals, cool down
9/14 – extra rest day
9/15 – 2.07 warmup
9/16 – rest day
9/17 – rest day
9/18 – 25.39 DNF at Rochester Marathon
9/19 – rest day

September total to date – 114.22

Nominal Challenge Goal – 200 miles
Real Goals: Manage Rochester Marathon well as a race, recover quickly.

Today's notes – No surprise, the day after running most of a marathon is a rest day. Much of the morning, my calves bothered me where they had cramped up. Later, as that sensation lessened, the twinge on the left side that worried me before the race came forward to annoy me. Also a minor twinge in my left quad, where it had bothered me going down that last hill. It's still too early to say what's important, but the odd thing is that aside from the occasional twinge in the quad, all the aches and pains are below the knees. That might mean that I was in pretty decent physical shape, apart from hydration.

The calves being what they are, I'll get fewer than 5000 steps in today. It was nice lawn mowing weather, and the grass is about long enough to need mowing; but my calves didn't like the idea of that much effort pushing a mower. The left one complained quite a bit about grocery shopping. So give it another good night's sleep and see where I stand. The grass will still be there tomorrow, and there's no rain in tomorrow's forecast.

Oh, yeah. Did the usual stuff. Soak in a hot bath, stretch the calves afterward. Gentle walking, emphasis on "gentle". Not a lot of walking. Try to remember to take my ibuprofen on schedule. Stare at a computer screen for a while, do some research on investments, look at social media.

Retirement is great. I turned off the alarm last night and slept till I woke up this morning.

The running community is great. Falling down on the sidewalk 25.2 miles into a marathon feels like failure, and in the absence of support would likely continue to feel like failure for a very long time. But I've got a lot of support from other runners, in person, on Facebook, and here. A sample comment on Facebook: "I hope you are feeling better Kevin. You have a bigger goal race (Boston) in the future. Probably wise to pull out rather than continue and risk injury." This, from a buddy who hasn't been able to run at all since Boston . . . and optimistically registered for Boston 2017 based on his result at Wineglass 2015. Kind of puts my minor issues in perspective.

So, rest day today. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to distinguish between temporary aches and something that will take a while to get better. I'll go to the running club tomorrow to talk, but at this point I don't know whether I'll even do the 2 mile warmup. Depends on how my legs feel tomorrow evening. I know the club members will be in favor of my doing whatever it takes to be healthy enough to run a good 5K on October 2.

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) finished in 1:31:11
August 13, 2016 Bergen Road Race 5K (Bergen, NY) finished in 19:07 (5K PR)
September 4, 2016 Oak Tree Half Marathon (Geneseo, NY) finished in 1:31:37
September 18, 2016 Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY) DNF a mile from finish
October 2, 2016 USATF Masters 5K Championship (Syracuse, NY)
October 15, 2016 Finish Strong 15K (Hilton, NY)
October 22, 2016 Scare Brain Cancer Away 5K (East Rochester, NY)
November 24, 2016 Race with Grace 10K (Hilton, NY)

2017 races:
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

@MobyCarp re: Zephyr light - I thought about that, and then remembered I never start longs runs that early so the gels/water/light problem won't arise. I only need it for weekday runs when I have to start in the dark in order to get to work on time. re: marathon - It's hard, but don't let yourself get down about it. You DO still have Boston next year, and you've had a pretty amazing 2016 racing year so far. Mother Nature is a *kitten* and cramping calves are her little minions

@katharmonic Massages are wonderful things

9/1 6.3 miles
9/3 6.2 miles, split into two equal runs as I started out way too fast.
9/4 6.3 miles
9/6 6.2 miles (treadmill)
9/8 4.8 miles fartlek run on treadmill, felt sick after completing speed portions and had to stop.
9/9 6.4 miles easy run
9/10 3.1 miles (Pure Tap 5k)
9/11 6.5 miles
9/13 6.3 miles
9/15 6.3 miles
9/17 6.3 miles
9/18 4.4 miles
9/19 6.8 miles


Upcoming races:
9/10 - Louisville Pure Tap 5k 25:03
10/1 - Norton Sports Health Great Pumpkin 10k
10/22 - Urban Bourbon Half Marathon
11/24 - Hungry Turkey 5k

7.5 km slow stretch/recovery run after the 16.6 km of Obstacle Course Volunteer Photography on Saturday.
Now Taper / Rest until Friday Sept 23 - Roots and Ruts - 10km - Rough Bush Trail Race. Have talked 2 other from our club to come over for the event. There are some hidden surprise obstacles - all natural - Fallen Trees, Large Boulders to scramble over, and other unknowns.

09/01 – 0.0 km – 0.0 - 140 km – 842.7 km
09/04 – 8.0 km – 8.0 – 132.0 km
09/06 – 8.0 km – 16.0 – 124.0 km
09/08 – 8.0 km – 24.0 – 116.0 km
09/10 – 7.0 km – 31.0 – 109.0 km
09/11 – 10.0 km – 41.0 – 99.0 km
09/13 – 6.0 km – 47.0 – 93.0 km
09/16 –12.0 km – 59.0 – 81.0 km
09/17 –16.6 km – 75.6 – 64.4km
09/18 – 8.0 km – 83.6 – 56.4 km
09/19 – 7.5 km – 91.1 – 48.9 km – YTD - 933.8 km



@RespectTheKitty Always love to see the medals/bling from events. My favorite is still the Rubber Squeaky Toy Chicken

Took a rest day yesterday as I had done both a long run Friday, some faster running Saturday, and my bike/swim workouts were short but intense.

Ended up doing 6.5 miles outside tonight as it looks like Sundays Augusta Ironman 70.3 will finish up in moderately warm weather, so I might as well adapt to the heat.

Submitted my registration for Boston this AM, and the latest analysis on applications received vs slots is putting the cutoff somewhere between 30-60 seconds. As I'm sitting at 95 seconds, I'm feeling good about my chances. If there is a cutoff, I probably won't find out if I'm in for another 9 days, whereas if they don't receive enough applicants and have no cutoff, I'll find out by the weekend that I'm in as they'll re-open registration next week.

9/1 - 6 miles (treadmill)
9/2 - 10 miles
9/3 - 12 miles
9/4 - 16 miles
9/6 - 10.5 miles (w. HM pace running at end)
9/7 - 6 miles
9/9 - 6 miles
9/11 - 3 miles
9/12 - 8.5 miles
9/13 - 10 miles
9/14 - 12 miles
9/15 - 6.5 miles
9/16 - 20 miles
9/17 - 6 miles (w. MP in middle)
9/19 - 6.5 miles

Total: 139 miles, 3 MP+ faster session
Goal: 190 miles, 8 MP+ faster sessions
Remaining: 51 miles, 5 MP+ faster sessions

2016 Race Schedule:
Disney Marathon - Jan 6 - 3:29:09
Gasparilla 15K - Feb 20 - 1:01:59
Ironman 70.3 Florida - Apr 10 - 5:07:51
Pittsburgh Marathon - May 1 - 3:08:25
Ironman 70.3 Augusta - Sep 25
Chicago Marathon - Oct 9
Ironman Florida - Nov 5
Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas 10K - Nov 13

Date     Miles      MTD
------   -----    -------
Sep  1     0.0      0.0 
Sep  2     6.5      6.5 
Sep  3     4.3     10.8 
Sep  4     5.1     15.9
Sep  6     4.3     20.2
Sep  8     5.1     25.3
Sep 10     8.2     33.5
Sep 11     5.0     38.5
Sep 13     4.3     42.8
Sep 15     5.1     47.9
Sep 17    10.8     58.7
Sep 18     5.1     63.8
Sep 20     4.3     68.1

9/1: 4.3 miles
9/2: Rest day
9/3: 9.4 miles
9/4: 5.7 miles
9/5: 6 miles
9/6: 6 miles
9/7: 4 miles
9/8: 3.2 miles with the Thursday crew!
9/9: Rest day
9/10: 5.3 miles
9/11: 13.1 - Via HM
9/12: 3 miles with the Coffee Crew!
9/13: 7.9 miles
9/14: 4.3 miles run commute home
9/15: 7.3 miles run commute to work
........: 6.2 miles with the Thursday crew!
9/16: Rest day
9/17: 8.1 miles with the Saturday crew!
9/18: 11.3 miles (am) + 4.7 miles (pm)
9/19: 6.1 miles
9/20: 4 miles

65F and 98% humidity at 6 am today. It felt cool to run in but as soon as I stopped the sweat poured and poured, and I looked like I'd stepped out of a rain shower. Ran with my housemate who did a half-Iron on Sunday, so I got caught up on her race and we ran nice and slow.

Somehow I totally miscalculated my September miles when I made my goal, and obviously I won't be running 110 miles in the next 10 days, but I should definitely still be north of 200 miles for the month. See here, an example of why I am a humanities student, not a mathy one



Upcoming Races:
9/11 LVHN Via Half-Marathon DONE!
10/8: Coe College Homecoming 5k
10/16: Halloween Half-Marathon
11/20: Philadelphia Marathon

9/1- Rest
9/2- 4.13
9/3- 10.03
9/4- 3.02
9/5- Rest driving home from visiting family
9/6- 7.01
9/7- 7.01
9/8- 7.17
9/9- 4.06
9/10-12.01
9/11- Rest
9/12- 4.04
9/13- 7.06
9/14- 4.06
9/15- 8.88
9/16 REST
9/17- 11
9/18- REST
9/19- 3.0
9/20- 5.42

Total: 97.8/115

Today's notes: plan called for 5x1000m Cruise intervals with 2:00 rest in between. The Strava plan I'm using keeps this fast workout in the last week to help you "peak". This is a Greg McMillan thing, peaking rather than true tapering. Anyway, my splits for the 1000m intervals were:

5:07
5:05
5:09
5:17
5:03

Average pace for the intervals was something like 8:12/mile, which is pretty fast for me. The workout called for a 1 mile warm up and a 1 mile cool down, but I cut the cool down a little short, because I reached my block, and my body told me I needed to go find a bathroom. All in all a good run, and I actually feel like I have more energy than after yesterday's shorter, slower run.