August 2017 Running Challenge

Back from vacation. I got to feel a little like @MNLittleFinn today. My family stopped at the Flume Gorge and did a 2.1mile hike with 400 plus feet of elevation.
@MNLittleFinn I'll add my vote of confidence in your training and ability.(please don't ask for a vote on your sanity as most of our group is questionable, including myself)
Kr30DC will have to wait until tomorrow. My 7 year old wants to do his first run tomorrow. We've laid out a flat 1.34 mile route and he will be taught it's ok to go slow and not do too much. Included a shot of us from the hike.

So for my rest day I got to spend hours with my a flat tire on my truck, side wall blew out. No two ways about it, have to change it.

Okay pull in to a parking lot, and start to get out the jack and etc - but the owner of the parking lot came out saying this was their "prime time" and I was taking up valuable space. *sigh* drive the truck a little farther on the flat, now at a place where getting at the tire is much harder, but at least the owner goes away.

Set the parking brake and get out the spare. It is, of course, flat and of course, the pump I carry in my truck is broken. But the spare is less flat than the tire on the truck, so I decided to try it. Next, I get out the lug wrench and attempt to get the lug nuts loose. The will not budge. Great.

Just then a fellow pastor pulls up and asks if I need help. I brief him and he takes the spare tire and heads off to get it filled with air and comes back with a bigger wrench.

Lug nuts still will not budge. Call the tire place that put them on and they offer to let us borrow an even bigger wrench. Pastor buddy goes and gets it, comes back with a wrench that is about FIVE FEET long. That is finally enough leverage that can break the nuts free - still was a struggle, but we got them off.

Okay lift the truck the rest of the way... but wait! there is more! The stupid scissor jack can not get the truck up high enough to get the tire off. Pastor buddy gets the jack out of his car and we use it to compress the shock and get the few more inches we need. So we get the spare on... and then lower the truck on it... and it s low on air, again. Of course. And it is starting to rain.

BUT the spare has SOME air, and it is only a mile to the tire place, so I throw everything into the truck and head to the tire store. I sit and wait while they fix the spare tire and take the main tire back into the shop. It is, of course, unfixable so they will have to replace the original tire, which of course is not in stock. Thankfully I have road hazard insurance on the tires so it is covered, but ugh. Sometime next week I will get the tire, until then I am on the patched spare.

If I put this in a book, y'all would tell me that it was too many coincidences in a row and unrealistic. heh. Shows what you know.

Hi, everybody! I have never been a runner before. I tried C25K a year or so ago and failed miserably at it, but in February of this year I put my mind in the right place and decided to drop some pounds. So here I am, 68 pounds later, just finishing up week 2 of C25K. My goal for this month is just to keep on with the program, so I'll check in here every time I finish a week, or fail to finish a week. Hoping to run the local 5K Turkey Trot in November.

August Running Totals (miles)
8/1 – 9.06 warm up + speed work
8/2 – unplanned rest day
8/3 – 15.02 easy
8/4 – rest day
8/5 – 14.07 pacers' run
8/6 – 7.85 easy 60 minutes
8/7 – rest day
8/8 – 16.00 with hills
8/9 – 9.61 warmup + 10K race
8/10 – extra rest day
8/11 – planned rest day

August total to date – 71.61

Nominal challenge goal: 260 miles

Real goals: Stay healthy. Train well toward the Rochester Marathon. Win my age group at Pound the Ground 10K on August 9. [Done, 41:26 4th overall] Run a respectable sub-20 5K at Bergen on August 12. Run the USATF Masters Mile (road) in under 6 minutes on August 25.

Today's notes – I was just going to do a non-running check in, but the discussions about how big a goal is unwise made me decide to put this in the context of what I've run lately.

My marathon training plan as designed, adjusted for not having as strong a base as I initially thought, called for 62 miles this week. I adjusted it down to 54 miles because I had two races, a 10K Wednesday evening and a 5K tomorrow morning. Life Happens stuff plus some odd body signals got me to take an extra rest day on Monday, losing 8 miles. I got 5 of them back on Tuesday, and ran a very good 10K on Wednesday.

Then the fun started. Thursday I had aches in my right leg big enough to affect my gait. No running. Check in at club practice, and Coach endorsed the extra rest day. Play it by ear on Friday, maybe take a rest day then, too.

Friday morning, the aches are much less. I could likely handle 3 or 4 miles in the range from recovery to easy, and I would have done that if I had a long run planned for Saturday morning. But I have a 5K with tough competition Saturday morning. I picked up the packet today, but won't decide whether I'm fit enough to risk running a 5K until tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I'm making the practical preparations to be up early and travel to the race site.

Contingency A: Another good night of sleep leave my legs fit enough to run a 5K as a race. I go to the site, do a course preview as a warmup, run the race, and see how much of a cool down run I need or feel up to. The week comes in somewhere in the 39 to 42 mile range.

Contingency B: Saturday morning my legs are iffy enough that I don't want to risk pounding them at 5K race pace. I run some easy miles, quantity to be determined by how I feel when running. The week comes in somewhere in the 38 to 44 mile range.

In either case, I make another judgment call on Sunday, when the plan calls for 11 miles (4 easy, 3 MP, 4 easy). I have some scheduling issues that could make an afternoon or evening run difficult, and I might not be recovered enough to run 11 miles Sunday morning.

So at this point, I'm playing it by how the legs feel, day to day. I am unlikely to make my nominal monthly mileage goal, but that's okay. The most important goal is staying healthy, or at least managing the aches and pains so that they don't grow into full-fledged injuries.

Looking further ahead, the importance of Oak Tree Half and Rochester Marathon have flip-flopped. I had originally thought that Oak Tree was my target race, and Rochester was a "finish healthy" race. Since clinching the age group for RROY on Wednesday, there is no pressure on Oak Tree. I can run the half to stay health and have fun. Staying healthy is still the top goal for Rochester, but I can put just a touch more emphasis on a reasonable (not killer fast) finishing time if I'm less beat up from Oak Tree.

And of course, neither Oak Tree nor Rochester will go well unless I manage to get to race day in good physical shape. You can't get to the finish line if you don't get to the start line. Hence, two consecutive rest days this week and a "day of" decision whether to DNS Bergen 5K.

If this sounds like I'm talking to myself, yes, I am. I'm better at doing the smart thing if I write it out, particularly somewhere that other people see my thoughts. I've been around in circles with the thought that recovering from a 10K shouldn't be this big a deal, but that's not a helpful thought. It is what it is, and I need to deal with it.

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) short course, finished 4.88 miles in 32:50
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship Masters 8K (Bend, OR) Finished in 35:39, team won the 60+ Men's cross country championship
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) sat out due to training schedule
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) short course, finished 4.34 miles in 27:51
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 33:25
March 18, 2017 USATF Masters 8K Championship (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 30:59, PR for 8K
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA) finished in 3:49:42
April 30, 2017 USATF Masters 10K Championship (James Joyce Ramble, Dedham, MA) finished in 39:54, PR for 10K
May 21, 2017 Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY) finished in 40:04
May 27, 2017 Canandaigua Classic Half Marathon (Canandaigua, NY) finished in 1:33:06
June 9, 2017 Charlie McMullen Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 5:44.90, PR for mile
June 18, 2017 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) finished in 19:32
July 4, 2017 Firecracker Four Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 25:42
July 15, 2017 Shoreline Half Marathon [1:40 pacer] (Hamlin, NY) finished in 1:39:05
July 28, 2017 Karknocker 5K (East Rochester, NY) finished in 19:28
August 9, 2017 Pound the Ground 10K (Mendon, NY) finished in 41:26
August 12, 2017 Bergen Road Race 5K (Bergen, NY)
August 25, 2017 USATF Masters Mile (Hap Crim Michigan Mile, Flint, MI)
September 3, 2017 Oak Tree Half Marathon (Geneseo, NY)
September 17, 2017 MVP Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY)
November 23, 2017 Race with Grace 10K (Hilton, NY)

@PastorVincent I love that race photo

@MNLittleFinn enjoy today, its building you up to slaying Duluth!

Ran trail around the lake we're visiting this morning (first time out with my new headlamp!)- can't say I hate running at 3:30 on holiday if the finale is this . Almost makes entering taper for Edmonton okay...but not really haha






August 1- 13.4
August 2- 17.3
August 3- 16.5
August 4- 17.3
August 5- 40
August 6- 20
August 7- Off
August 8- 24.5
August 9- 34.6
August 10- 15.3
August 11- 20
August 12- 21

239.9/420km

8/1: 7 miles of Track Tuesday
8/2: 7.1 miles easy
8/3: 8 miles "tempo run"
8/3: 6.3 miles group run
8/4: Rest day
8/5: 6 miles
8/6: 16 miles
8/7: 6 miles group run + lift/strength
8/8: 7 miles Track Tuesday
8/9: 5 miles + lift/strength
8/10: 6.8 miles
8/10: 6.1 mile
8/11: Rest day
8/12: 6.4 miles

87.7 miles of 250 goal miles

Today was an hour of group running time followed by coffee. I'd typically have done my long run with the group today but I didn't have time because I'm heading up to NYC later to see Great Comet of 1812 again before it closes on Sept 3. Going to be slogging through 18 miles tomorrow; this whole weekend is warmish and humid which isn't ideal but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?

Upcoming Races:
Oct 8: Steamtown Marathon
Oct 22: Perfect 10 (10 Miler)
Nov 5: Princeton Half Marathon (pacer)