August 2017 Running Challenge

RespectTheKitty wrote: »

Well, Sunday didn't happen.

I had a great time with my son most of the day, but then I had to take him home for the week. That got my depression going, and I just felt too down and exhausted to do anything but hang out in bed and listen to the radio. It happens. I still feel somewhat guilty about it, primarily because so many people were running huge distances this weekend and I was just like, meh, too lazy.

My anxiety and depression have been really bad this month, and it's definitely affected my running. It's also made my IBS act up big time, which also affects my running. So it's just not been a good month for mileage, which sucks because the weather has been mostly good for getting outside.

I probably won't be here for September's challenge. I want to take a month off and concentrate on my mental and physical health. I'll still run, I'm sure, but I don't want to feel pressured or guilty about it, which I frequently do when I follow what other people are doing.

I may look into other forms of exercise for a while. Maybe I'll get a bike. Maybe I'll walk more. Maybe I'll take up yoga for relaxation. Who knows. I just know that I need to do this for myself and not to try to impress others.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the month, and best of luck to everyone in September. I'll be back.

Sorry to hear this. You take care of you and get back to us when you can. Even if you do not run, an update on how you are doing in this (or September's thread) will be welcome.

August Goal - 120 Miles

8/1/17 - 4.02 Easy
8/2/17 - 4.15 Easy
8/3/17 - 4.0 Easy
8/4/17 - 4.5 Easy
8/5/17 - 6.0 Easy
8/6/17 - 3.0 Easy - 28.71 Week
8/8/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/9/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/10/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/11/17 - 5.0 Easy
8/12/17 - 7.5 Easy
8/13/17 - 2.51 Easy - 30.04 Week
8/15/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/16/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/17/17 - 5.01 Easy
8/18/17 - 5.02 Easy
8/20/17 - 7.0 Easy - 27.06 Week
8/21/17 - 4.71 Easy
8/22/17 - 6.01 Easy
8/23/17 - 6.04 Easy
8/24/17 - 6.04 Easy
8/25/17 - 4.02 Easy
8/26/17 - 9.56 Easy - 36.38 Week
8/28/17 - 6.2 Easy

Total 125.36 of 120 Miles

Got to my monthly goal this morning with a cool morning run. With essentially 3 more days I'll probably get to about 145 miles this month. HR stayed about as low (142 Average) as I've seen it since getting back in to things 4 weeks ago. With cooler weather hopefully setting in for my morning runs for the foreseeable future, I think the low temps are to only get to 67 degrees all week, I'm going to start pushing my pace/cadence a bit more. I've been working hard at running a lot slower than I can to build my mileage back up and I need to start adding back some speed work. I'll probably only add in some 10x:20 sec strides for the next 3-4 weeks and see how that plays out before adding in anything more aggressive like a tempo run or intervals.

@Orphia Great work on the marathon. I ran 3 before I had what I consider a successful one of not having to stop and walk portions. Having a realistic game plan and sticking to it is harder than most people think. I'm sure you are feeling much like this video but take a few days off and things will bounce back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-hCuYjvw2I

My first day back to work after vacation, and once again, I am unable to keep up with the insanity of this thread! Congrats to all who made personal accomplishments over the past week. I did manage to page through and see the major milestone of @orphia on her first marathon. Way to go!!! So happy for you...amazing job!

My vacation was to Isle of Palms, SC (off the coast of Charleston). My in-laws have a vacation home there, so it is sort of a home away from home for us. I love going here every year because it's familiar territory and ends up being a very active week. In addition to running, biking, ocean swimming and jet skiing, there were a few highlights of the week. The first was the eclipse. Holy cow that was cool! Seeing it in totality from the beach with thousands of other people was definitely a once in a lifetime experience! I will try to post some pictures when my hubby finally sends me the link.

Second highlight was my sunrise paddle board yoga class on Friday. It was beyond words. We met at the marina at 7:30 AM, just after sunrise and paddled for about 30 minutes out through the creeks to a quiet and isolated spot on the marsh. There we had a 45 minute yoga session on the boards. The sun was sparkling off the water, the oyster beds were popping and the birds were flying overhead. I felt like I was in a yoga video. Yoga on the board was just challenging enough. My 23 yo niece and my nephew's 25yo girlfriend were the only other people in the class, so it was very intimate. Also happy to report that nobody fell off.

Although it was hot and humid, the running was good. I don't like running on the beach very much, but I did stop on the beach and do some stretching while I watched the sunrise a few times. We also did a couple of leisurely bike rides. We take my FIL along, so it's a nice slow go. He is 83 and it just impresses the hell out of me that he can still get up and go for 8-10 miles in 90F heat. I hope I can still do it at that age!

No I am home and back at work. I have my first evening half-marathon coming up this Saturday. I am not sure how I will do in an evening race, but I am looking forward to it. It's a local hometown race in its second year. The owner of the running store where my run club is based is the race director this year, so I know it will be a great event. It's called the Hamilton Night Glow Marathon, HM and 10K and the medals glow in the dark

8/1 - 6 mile hot lunch run/2 mile dreadmill run before lifting
8/2 - 11 mile run w/RRR track workout: 1600/1200/800/400/400m ladder w/800/600/400/200/200m recovery jogs
8/3 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/4 - 9 mile LT tempo run: miles 5-8 @ ~LTHR
8/5 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/6 - 16 mile long run - another distance PR!
8/7 - wonderful rainy REST day!
8/8 - 8 mile general aerobic run
8/9 - 9.5 mile run w/RRR track workout: 2x2400m (times - 12:02 & 11:42)
8/10 - 5 mile slow recovery run
8/11 - 11.5 mile general aerobic run
8/12 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/13 - 18 mile long run - distance PR & passed 1k miles for the year!
8/14 - rest day
8/15 - 8 mile LT tempo run: 4.5 miles @ ~LTHR / 1 mile warmup to lifting
8/16 - 12 mile midweek medium-long run
8/17 - 5 mile slow recovery run
8/18 - 6.7 mile general aerobic run (cut 2.3 miles short by stupid lightning)
8/19 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/20 - 18 mile long run
8/21 - rest day
8/22 - 7 mile general aerobic run
8/23 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/24 - 9.3 mile general aerobic run
8/25 - 6 mile general aerobic run
8/26 - 4 mile slow recovery run
8/27 - rest day (toooooo sore from Saturday’s workout challenge at the gym!)
8/28 - 14 mile (5am!!!) long run

August Total: 207/225
1116.6 miles/2,017 miles - goal for the year

So I know I've been MIA on the thread lately, work has just been getting the best of me and I had a busy weekend. I did read all the posts though!

@Orphia AMAZING JOB on the marathon!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, Saturday I went a little bit crazy, which ended up affecting my run schedule. Myself and a few friends from the Saturday morning zumba class I take agreed to sign up for a workout challenge that one of the gym's personal trainers had set up, where, if you completed it in under 15 minutes you'd get a free personal training session (obviously trying to drum up business, but whatever, and he's the husband of one of the girls in my running group, so I wanted to be supportive). The challenge ended up being something like this: 100 jumping jacks, 90 high knees, 80 mountain climbers, 70 burpees (the devil's workout!), 60 switching jumps w/overhead presses w/dumbbells, 50 box jumps, 40 ball slams, 30 jumping lunges, 20 jumping squats, and 10 more burpees. I did it in 14:24, so yay for winning a free training session! But then I went to zumba, and then I did my 4 mile recovery run. Actually felt fine the rest of the day, but woke up on Sunday, took my first few steps out of bed and was like, NOOOOO WAYYYY is a long run happening today! Pretty much everything was sore and tired, lol. So, I took Sunday as a rest day instead of my usual Monday.

This means I needed to do my long run on Monday. Needed 15 miles, but ended up doing 14 since I got out 5 min later than planned and got paranoid about having enough time to get ready for work. I am NOT a morning person, and especially NOT a morning exerciser. But I really didn't want to do all those miles after work, and I wanted to cook dinner for my fam so I sucked it up, set my alarm for 4:40, and was out the door at 5:05am. Brought a few chews/beans with me just in case, but my goal was to do this as a totally fasted workout and it actually went really well. Didn't even have coffee before I headed out and did no mid-run fueling, just water. However, 5 hours of sleep + 14 miles of running is not a habit I have any interest in getting into. I'm really feeling it at work and just want to take a nap!!! Lol