January 2017 Running Challenge

@zipsterj -Awesome night run! My run this morning was nothing in comparison, but I did get a great view of the sliver of the moon right before the sun peaked over the horizon. It was cool and I wish I had my phone to take a photo.

@dkabambe - I'll bet the Cypress marathon would be amazing. I would definitely look into getting a deferral. I think most marathons will do that for you.

@patrikc333- Welcome home! Sounds like you had quite an adventure. I love running in new and interesting places, especially in foreign countries!

1/1 - 4 miles
1/2 - 1.5 miles
1/3 - 0 miles
1/4 - 3.5 miles
1/5 - 3 miles
1/6 - 4 miles
1/7 - 2 miles with Skip and Macy
1/8 - rest day
1/9 - 0 miles
1/10 - 4 miles
1/11 - 2 miles
1/12 - 3 miles
1/13 - 0 miles
1/14 - 5 miles some with Skip
1/15 - 3 miles
1/16 - 0 miles meet
1/17 - 0 miles lazy
1/18 - 0 miles early doc appt with Skip and I hate the cable man I waited for all day LOL
1/19 - 4 miles
1/20 - 4 miles
1/21 - 0 miles
1/22 - 6 miles
1/23 - 0 miles lazy
1/24 - 4 miles
1/25 - 4 miles

57 of 100 miles




@lporter229 great run, love your comparison on the two runs. I was thinking the same thing about the moon this morning, I wished I had my phone it looked so pretty.
@MNlittlefinn glad you are keeping in touch with PT and that during your run you weren't feeling any pain
@stoshew71 it's funny I saw your DD run and I thought wow it's been a while and then your comments said not since RCM. How did the legs feel today after the gym and DD?
@OSUBuckeye906 the PT sounds awesome! Skip did aqua running in our pool. It was funny, she took a boating life vest and put her legs in the arm holes by stepping into the vest and fastened it around her butt/hips so she would stay afloat with her feet off the bottom and just did the running motion like she was on the street. She did this when her achilles was injured for 6 weeks 4 times a week and a swore it helped with recovery and a shorter time back to her mileage when she started to run on land.
@greenolivetree 10:34 is an awesome pace
@louubelle16 fantastic increase in mileage over a year
@ddmom0811 the local Fleet Feet has that normate recovery machine. It's very cool. I had to laugh at 47 and gloves, it was 44 here this morning and I wore gloves I hate cold hands. I did take them off around 2 miles in.
@zipsterj great pictures

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

@MNlittlefinn glad you are keeping in touch with PT and that during your run you weren't feeling any pain

Thanks! I figure if I have access to message a PT, I might as well do that. That and, as long as he doesn't tell me not to run, I feel OK keeping going. It helps to keep my hypochondria at bay....LOL. It's just so weird that it's only when I'm NOT running that I have any issues.

@MNLittleFinn For me, this is kind of how I distinguish injury from plain old fatigue. I am always sore in one place or another when I am not running. It kind of goes with the territory of being 44 years old and running relatively high mileage. It's when I am running that I have pain that doesn't go away or increases as I run that alerts me of a possible injury. I don't know if others also find this to be true, but that has been my experience through the years.

ETA: To be clear, I am talking about general nagging soreness and achiness that I can live with. If it's severe pain, by all means, take a break from running.

lporter229 wrote: »

MNLittleFinn wrote: »

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

@MNlittlefinn glad you are keeping in touch with PT and that during your run you weren't feeling any pain

Thanks! I figure if I have access to message a PT, I might as well do that. That and, as long as he doesn't tell me not to run, I feel OK keeping going. It helps to keep my hypochondria at bay....LOL. It's just so weird that it's only when I'm NOT running that I have any issues.

@MNLittleFinn For me, this is kind of how I distinguish injury from plain old fatigue. I am always sore in one place or another when I am not running. It kind of goes with the territory of being 44 years old and running relatively high mileage. It's when I am running that I have pain that doesn't go away or increases as I run that alerts me of a possible injury. I don't know if others also find this to be true, but that has been my experience through the years.

ETA: To be clear, I am talking about general nagging soreness and achiness that I can live with. If it's severe pain, by all means, take a break from running.

Thanks. I'm about 10 years behind you (34 as of today), but have taken a lot of abuse from soccer. It's never severe pain, just nagging a lot.

7lenny7 wrote: »

I can across an interesting alternative to heel drops for treating Achilles injury (or injury prevention) I had been doing eccentric heel drops but twice in the past week I've come across recommendations for a better exercise. Running backwards. You land on the ball of your foot and the shock of landing is absorbed by your calf muscles, not unlike the eccentric heel drops, but you get more loading into your Achilles and soleus, as well as helping with foot and ankle strength. Another benefit for me is that I enjoy running backwards much more than the heel drops. When conditions permit, I'm going to start doing these before my run as part of my warmup.

Before Skip was allowed to run forwards, she had to run backwards around the track for her Achilles. When she feels it talking to her after a hard workout she will at least walk or fast walk the track backwards for a couple of laps.

@dkabambe The area looks beautiful. It's one of my dreams to take a runcation.

Running is gradually getting better for me. I have to remind myself that I'm carrying an extra 30 pounds that I didn't have the last time I did this but I'm feeling the breakthrough mentally. Today, I didn't just want to stop and sit on the curb. I'm still working on my basics and making sure that I'm taking care of myself after every run and not rushing back to my desk to work.

1/4-2.48 miles
1/5-2.39 miles & Pilates
1/6-Pilates
1/7-Rest day
1/8-Pilates
1/9-Pilates & 2.5 miles on the treadmill
1/10-Pilates
1/11-Pilates & 2.87 miles outside(no knee pain but it was a challenge. I burn so bad)
1/12-Pilates
1/13-unintended rest day
1/14-Rest
1/15-Rest
1/16-2.6 miles outside
1/17-2 Pilates workouts (what was I thinking...I hurt)
1/18-2.7 miles on treadmill and 7.5 on the bike
1/19-1.32 miles on treadmill and Pilates workout
1/20-2.89 miles and hopefully Pilates tonight
1/21-3.07 miles
1/22-Rest day
1/23-2.06 miles running & Pilates
1/24-1 hour of Pilates
1/25-3.11 miles





Upcoming Races(Not complete-still waiting on MRTC)
FedEx St. Jude Classic Fairway 5K - 4/8/2017
Bluff City 10k - 5/13/2017

Aim: 100k

8/1: 5.7K
12/1: 2.6k
14/1: 10.4k
15/1: 1.6k
16/1: 5k
18/1: 3.3k.
19/1: 15k
20/1: 2.6k (warmup for strength training)
21/1: 10.3k various surfaces: asphalt-beach-gravel
23/1: 3k (warmup for strength training)
24/1: 13.8k (w/u-intervals-c/d)
25/1: 2k (warmup for strength training)

75.3/100k

Stay free of injuries!

January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 – 10.39 warmup, 7.5 mile race, cool down
1/2 – 2.12 easy cross country
1/3 – 8.58 warmup, tempo intervals
1/4 – 5.01 easy
1/5 – 5.99 warmup, speed work, cool down
1/6 – rest day
1/7 – 16.59 warmup + Winter Warrior Half Marathon
1/8 – 7.62 easy on indoor track
1/9 – 6.51 easy
1/10 – 6.02 warmup + MP
1/11 – 6.20 mostly easy
1/12 – 9.01 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/13 – rest day
1/14 – 15.88 warm up, 5 mile race, post-race easy run
1/15 – 10.06 easy with hills
1/16 – 6.83 easy plus 4 strides
1/17 – 8.02 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/18 – 7.04 group run
1/19 – 7.67 warmup, speed work
1/20 – rest day
1/21 – 16.16 easy
1/22 – 7.63 one hour easy
1/23 – 6.50 easy
1/24 – 8.23 warm up, speed work, cool down
1/25 – impromptu rest day

January total to date – 178.06

Nominal Challenge Goal – 225 miles
Real Goals: Train toward Boston, working 3 Freezeroo races plus Winter Warrior Half into the training plan. Avoid injury.

Today's notes – Checking in for accountability. Today is the toughest training day of the marathon training cycle so far. I'm not running.

After yesterday's failure to run the assigned speed intervals, this morning I felt pretty beat up. Might have felt better if I'd slept another hour, but I had to be up to make it to my scheduled podiatrist visit. Got through my morning routine, skipping the KB work and the calf raises in favor of shoveling the driveway. Made the executive decision that this feels like training too hard, and it's time for a rest day.

I am not injured. I got the hour of sleep back with a nap this afternoon. I feel pretty good right now. The porch thermometer says it's 41º F (5º C) outside. The snow has melted off the roads. The wind is reasonable. I could go run in the daylight. I could wait a couple hours, and go to the social run in the evening for 6 or 7 miles. I feel good enough. I am not injured.

But . . . I want to remain uninjured. I really did feel beat up this morning, and I've had a couple days of not feeling the run well mentally. It's time. The training plan allows rest days on any day assigned as "easy." There is no hard rule that my rest day always has to be Friday, that just works out well administratively most of the time.

So . . . rest day today. I'll see how I feel tomorrow, and adjust the weekly training plan accordingly.

Dang, sitting and *not running* when I'm not hurt is hard.

2017 races:
January 1, 2017 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) Finished in 50:45
January 7, 2017 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) Finished in 1:32:40
January 14, 2017 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds Park 5 mile) (Spencerport, NY) Finished in 33:42
January 28, 2017 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY)
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship 8K (Bend, OR)
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY)
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY)
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

Interesting article on people who cheat in marathons. This last part gave me chills

But you can also believe Yang will be running in Boston, not because of a business analyst in Cincinnati, but because of herself. She's running in Boston because, at the IMT Des Moines Marathon, there were 49 turns, six loops, and 175 feet in elevation change. If she had run a single second slower—slowed up to avoid a crowd before pushing through, taken the long angle around a turn, an extra half-beat when grabbing a water at the water station—she wouldn't be going to Boston, Marathon Investigation or not.

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/to-catch-a-marathon-cheat

If I live to be 1,000 years old I'll never understand why people cheat. What are you proving? What satisfaction do you get by lying not only to everyone but yourself.

1/1: 5 miles
1/2: 2.4 miles
1/3: Busy day
1/4: 4.5 miles (am), 4.5 miles (pm) + lifting
1/5: 6 miles
1/6: 4 miles + lifting
1/7: 4.2 miles trails
1/8: 10 miles +0.6 (Cocoa Classic 10 miler)
1/9: Sick day
1/10: Sick day
1/11: 4.5 miles
1/12: 6 miles
1/13: 5 miles + lifting
1/14: Lazy day
1/15: Lazy day
1/16: 4 miles + lifting
1/17: 8 miles
1/18: 4.5 miles + 4.5 miles
1/19: 2.6 miles + lifting + 6 miles
1/20: Rest day
1/21: Women's March / Lazy Day
1/22: 8 miles of trails
1/23: 6 miles
1/24: Impromptu rest day
1/25: 4.2 miles + 7.8 miles

Speed work Wednesday!! I was really looking forward to this run all day. It was going to be outside, in some warmer weather and in the SUNSHINE! Seriously, central NJ hasn't seen the sun since last Monday. It's been really depressing. So I got home, gleefully donned my running gear, and joyfully headed out into the bright but not-so-warm sunshine. However once I got to the track I found that my legs were not on board with this workout, likely because I've done no strength or core since last Friday. I could really feel it in my glutes. I was not feeling strong or fast today unfortunately.

Workout was warm up ~1 mile, then 8 x 600 at a 2:29-2:33 target (splits: 2:23 (oops), 2:32, 2:31, 2:31, 2:34, 2:33, 2:34, 2:32 with 400m recovery in between (which I did about 50m walking after each 600 because I felt awful). Even though I hit the splits pretty much right on every time, my legs felt so sluggish and un-peppy whereas last week I had an amazing, strong workout. And so to make up for being a baby and starting all my recoveries with walk breaks --and to add an extra mile because I was short on distance --, I did 2 x 400 (splits: 1:41, 1:40). Then I ran home as the sun was going down and just managed to get my entire run in during daylight hours

Lesson learned today: GO DO YOUR LIFTING SO THAT YOUR GLUTES WORK, DUMMY.




Winter/Spring 2017 Races:
1/8: NYCRUNS Cocoa Classic 10 mile 1:21:37 (10th AG)
2/18: FebApple Frozen 50 - 10 mile (trail)
3/12: E. Murray Todd HM
3/18: Looney Leprechaun 10k (trail)
3/26: Philly Love Run HM
5/14: Delaware Marathon Running Festival HM
5/21 or 5/28: Cleveland or Vermont City Marathons (maybe)
7/1: Finger Lakes Fifties 50k (trail)

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

Interesting article on people who cheat in marathons. This last part gave me chills

But you can also believe Yang will be running in Boston, not because of a business analyst in Cincinnati, but because of herself. She's running in Boston because, at the IMT Des Moines Marathon, there were 49 turns, six loops, and 175 feet in elevation change. If she had run a single second slower—slowed up to avoid a crowd before pushing through, taken the long angle around a turn, an extra half-beat when grabbing a water at the water station—she wouldn't be going to Boston, Marathon Investigation or not.

https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/to-catch-a-marathon-cheat

If I live to be 1,000 years old I'll never understand why people cheat. What are you proving? What satisfaction do you get by lying not only to everyone but yourself.

@skippygirlsmom Great article! I browse Marathon Investigation's site from time to time for kicks. It boggles my mind that people would cheat when instead they could just work hard and earn it themselves (or, you know, be content with their actual abilities)!

1/1-1/3 - sick
1/4 - 3.1 miles and yoga
1/5 - circuit training and yoga
1/6 - 3.5 miles
1/7 - rest
1/8 - yoga
1/9 - 3.2 miles and yoga
1/10 - 40 min stationary bike, weight machines
1/11 - 3.2 miles and yoga
1/12 - 35 min stationary bike, full body weight machines
1/13 - yoga
1/14 - yoga
1/15 - yoga
1/16 - 4.31 miles
1/17-1/22 - sickness everywhere
1/23 - 2 miles
1/24 - 30 min stationary bike
1/25 - 3.2 miles

22.52 miles / 40 miles (56% of goal)

My in-laws gave me a $50 check for my birthday, There's a pair of shoes I'm tempted to try that I found on roadrunner sports: http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/01081/mens-merrell-bare-access-4/
I'm a VIP member, so I have 90 days to try them out, and with the discounts I have, the price is like $73, minus my B-day money, so I end up paying like 23.... I haven't run 0 drop before, but I have run in 4mm, and I do like the lower drop.......ARGH.... not an easy choice!