September 2017 Running Challenge

9/1 - rest day
9/2 - 7.2km
9/3 - rest day (walk)
9/4 - rest day
9/5 - 5.5km
9/6 - rest day
9/7 - 7.1km
9/8 - rest day (walk)
9/9 - 8.4km
9/10 - rest day (walk)
9/11 - rest day (walk with kids - adventure!)
9/12 - 8.6km
9/13 - rest day (walk)
9/14 - 8.6km
9/15 - rest day
9/16 - 8.9km

Total 54.4/100 km

Very windy today despite the sun. I had originally planned a morning run but then it was freezing (frost warning) so I pushed it to later in the day. Finished B210K so I'll be looking for some sort of new training program starting in a week or two as I am much better at sticking with a thing when I have a plan. I'm just not sure what kind of plan I want yet...

Upcoming Races:
9/24 Heartbeat Run 10K
1/1/18 Resolution Run 5K
8/18/18 Edmonton Marathon 10K

Thanks all for the race congrats!!

And I just read through 100+ posts and hey! Donuts were trending before I even got here! How lucky is that?

9/1 - 5.15 9/5 - 3.04
9/7 - 2.2
9/9 - 6.2 (10k race day!)
9/11 - 3.36
9/12 - 2.87 (this is what my phone calculated, the hotel treadmill had it at just over 2m)
9/13 - 3.0
9/14 - REST
9/15 - 30 minutes of cross train/core exercise DVD plus I'll do walking later.
9/16 - 4 (great pace for me today!)

Since I enjoy reading you guys so much and, I learn from them, here’s my stab at a race report. Bear with me, I’m not much of a writer and my thoughts tend to tangent and twist.

The Mulberry Island Half has been going on for 36 years. It’s a flat fast course (course record 1:06:50) that takes place on Fort Eustis Army base. It’s a Super Grand Prix event so some of the better runners from the seven cities along with various military personnel stationed here run in it. The temperature at the start of the race (7:45a EST) was 70F/ 21C with humidity at 85%. In an hour it was 80F/ 29C at 91% humidity.

For this race my goal was to finish it un-injured. I knew I didn’t stand a chance of placing in my age group. I used it as my long distance run for marathon training. Technically I should have run 17 miles but, I rationalized to myself since I’m running 13 at a faster pace, I was alright with that.
I decided to bike up to the race since it wasn’t that far (6 miles). Also, from past experience the line to get your car checked before going on base can get backed up. It helps I have a CAC card too. When I got up to the base at 6:30, I was right about the car check line. They ended up starting the race 15 minutes later (7:45) because there were so many cars being checked. I get up to pre-registration around 7:00 and all goes good. I warm up doing dynamic stretches (thanks @Stoshew71 for the video you posted before). I didn’t do any warm-up running. I decided to use the first 3 miles as a warm-up.

So the race starts and I’m comfortable in the middle of the pack (219 runners). The first 2 miles my buddy Winston ran with me. Then before leaving me he got I Want it that Way by The Backstreet Boys stuck in my head (the whole damn race!). It’s a long story. I think this was his mental tactic to throw me off. Lol. After 5 miles of keeping my pace easy and, various renditions of said song, I started to increase my pace. It was getting hot and I was sweating a lot. I stopped to get water around mile 6 and dump another on my head, ahh. All was going pretty good. I was slowly catching other runners and those that the weather was really affecting/ injured. Right at the mile 9 sign, I get a sharp pain in the top of my left foot and lower outside shin. I take a couple of hops and ease my pace. After several steps it feels a little better. I start doing an exaggerated flippy back kick to get it to fully release. I was 95% sure this was a muscle cramp due to the dehydration and, I knew there was a Gatorade stop at 10. So I get to 10 and drink 4 cups of the weakest “Gatorade” aka orange water. I start feeling better around mile 12 and decide I want to get this over with. I finished pretty strong but still felt my left foot a little when I would stand for a bit. I ended up finishing 1:45:56, 35/187 OA, 8/18 AG. I was happy because my previous HM PR was 2:03:45 and I woke up this morning feeling good. I’m going to go for a little recovery run later today to see how everything feels. An additional note to this race was that I forgot to apply Vaseline to my sensitive areas. I didn’t feel the chaffing until after the race when the sweat was starting to dry (salt) and especially during the shower.

Sidenote: my friend Winston finished 1:43:41, 30 OA, 5 same AG after being out till 2a drinking and singing karaoke that morning. That made me feel like I could’ve pushed myself a little more, oh well. Sorry, I forgot to take any pics.

Like most of us crazies, I signed up for a few more HM and a marathon for next year, right after. I hope everyone’s having good runs and healing fast! Come on Fall, I know you’re out there!!