March 2018 Running Challenge

3/11 4 miles
3/16 1 mile

5/35 Total for March

1km Kilt run. Wore a kilt, got a medal. 8k tomorrow and I'll get two medals (I love 2-day challenges LOL).

Mar 16: easy 5k on roads - haven't had a true easy run in a while so I concentrated on really relaxing and going slow, which is hard for me! Unlike when I started, when it took all my breath just to run, I do now have a running pace at which I can hold a conversation. Spitting rain and just generally ick but got it done, and then ate a pound of mudbugs and some catfish - it's crawdaddy season!



Definitely an interesting article - mental illness runs in my family, the mother of my half sisters was involuntarily committed and several of my sisters have varying degrees of mental illness. My mom's genes seem to have given me a pass on the big stuff but I did have an episode of depression in college - only lasted a few months, never recurred, and seems to have been brought on by a severe physical illness I had just before it started.

Several things about the article were interesting to me on a personal level, such as the author's onset seemingly being triggered by a physical event, the low blood sugar. I wonder how many mental illnesses occur following a physical event like this? I also recognized myself in the author's description of suddenly feeling the urge to wreck the car because this also happened to me. Being severely depressed was kind of like being kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a weird alien clone - I could see that I wasn't thinking rationally but knowing that made no difference, and there was a period when I would just go through life looking at everything as a way out - hey, if I rammed the car into that telephone pole I might die! The only thing that kept me from doing it was the possibility that I might not die and then my father would kill me for wrecking the car.

I had no real problems, I had no reason to be particularly miserable, but my brain chemistry just wasn't doing what it should have been doing. And then one day after a couple of months, the lights came back on and I was fine again. I feel fortunate to have had such an experience, because without it, I don't think I could have appeciated how much mental illness has nothing to do with the personality or willpower of the person it's happening to. You can't just "get over it" with a brain that doesn't work, any more than you can walk on a broken leg. And of course I feel incredibly fortunate that my experience was temporary and hasn't recurred. Anyone with ongoing issues, you have my deepest sympathy.

@7lenny7 Thanks for posting that article—it was really interesting. I thought his list of tools for mental health challenges was excellent.

March goal: 60 miles

3/1/2018 5 mi
3/2/2018 rest
3/3/2018 6 mi
3/4/2018 snowboarding w/kids
3/5/2018 xtrain rowing machine
3/6/2018 3.1 mi
3/7/2018 rest
3/8/2018 3.1 mi
3/9/2018 3 mi
3/10/2018 biked 11 mi w/my dad and kids
3/11/2018 7 mi
3/12/2018 bike commute day 1 (9 mi)
3/13/2018 2.4 mi
3/14/2018 3.1 mi + bike commute
3/15/2018 rest
3/16/2018 3.1 mi + bike commute

March total: 35.8 mi

Upcoming races:
4/29/2018 5K Top Pot Donut Dash
7/8/2018 See Jane Run! HM?
8/12/2018 Lake Union 10K

So, adding the bike commute in was overall a success so far, and I could pretty much maintain the running (though I haven’t tried a weekend long run yet). And I’m really enjoying the light evenings of daylight savings, so that’s been fun, if a little harder to get to bed on time.

03/05
Ok! I'm in!
I've started the c25k a few times but always flail at week 5! I'm currently on week 4 so should have a 5 km completed by the end of the month. Have done 2 10km runs before so aiming to get back up to that by end of the year!

A local park does timed 5k every day so my goal for march will be 50km and to do a timed 5km on 31st march! ❤️


Goal 50km

03/06 - No run as husband was late home from work...
03/07 3.55km. 3.55
03/08 - 3.95km 7.5
03/09 - No run
03/10- rest
03/11- gym - spinning
03/12 -rest
03/13 - 3.5km 11 slowly getting there…
03/14 - 3.75km 14.75
03/15 - 3.5km 18.25
03/16 - 7.5km 25.75 Half way through the month and half way to my goal!

Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
03/01/18 :::: 2.6 :::: 2.6
03/02/18 :::: 0.0 :::: 2.6
03/03/18 :::: 5.0 :::: 7.6
03/04/18 :::: 0.0 :::: 7.6
03/05/18 :::: 3.9 :::: 11.5
03/06/18 :::: 3.1 :::: 14.6
03/07/18 :::: 4.0 :::: 18.6
03/08/18 :::: 0.0 :::: 18.6
03/09/18 :::: 3.2 :::: 21.8
03/10/18 :::: 7.7 :::: 29.5
03/11/18 :::: 3.2 :::: 32.7
03/12/18 :::: 3.8 :::: 36.5
03/13/18 :::: 2.0 :::: 38.5
03/14/18 :::: 2.5 :::: 41.0
03/15/18 :::: 0.0 :::: 41.0
03/16/18 :::: 2.4 :::: 43.5
03/17/18 :::: 9.0 :::: 52.5
Goal = 90

Long run this morning was not as bad as I feared. Cold but sunny and the roads were clear. I met a new person in our running group so it was fun to chat while we ran - her very easy pace was my pushing it a bit pace considering how hilly it was. I had to run up the same dreaded hill 3 times and was getting pretty sick of that thing.

I was not as sore today, despite doing my circuit training workout yesterday, so maybe I'm adapting a bit better or worked different muscles. Still, the pace of doing two workouts a week with the trainer and trying to fit in 6 days a week of running (even if it is only 15-30 minutes of running some days) is tough for me. Not sure how to balance it all in schedule-wise for the best result, but I'm trying to be less worried about the total miles for right now.

It was warm during last night's run, with the southerly wind putting temps in the 80s at the start, but it cooled down after a few hours until things were in the upper 60s. I'd bought some new Vomero 13s to do this run, as the Epic Reacts, while great for shorter runs, tend to hurt my knee on the long runs, and this time, the knee pain was nowhere near as apparent after 30 miles on tired legs. So now it's time for a couple of rest days before starting the whole weekly running cycle again!

And Happy St Patrick's Day to all the Irish folk out there!

02 - 27.37
05 - 15.59
07 - 11.93
08 - 12.05
09 - 30.21
12 - 14.57
13 - 13.02
14 - 15.22
15 - 12.96
16 - 30.17

Total: 183.09 / 250 miles

RACE REPORT:

So we scouted out the race location the night before and discovered there was only parking for 60 cars, and there were 100's of race bibs to be picked up. So after doing some highly complex mathematical calculations we decided that parking would be an issue. Thus race morning we left early and arrived at the race around 90 mins before, and got a good spot. Then sat in the warm truck until almost race time.

The air temp was 18 at race start and was predicted to climb all the way to 22 by the end of the festivities. I had clothing planed out for this, and happy to say the foot warmers + my darn tough socks kept my toes cozy all day.

Well the race got started and I set off at my planned 8 min pace. Looking at my splits I held pretty close to that for six miles. Mile seven was the end of me. Here, I think the elevation chart shows it better than I could describe:




As you can see, the hill at mile seven was no joke. My plans all fell apart as I smashed into it. From that point forward my pace was slipping and I finished with an average pace of 9:15 and a clock time of 2 hours 9 seconds. Later when I check my suffer score in Strava:



It became obvious I pushed to hard for how hilly the track was. Well I still had a 5k to run, so I went back to my truck, dropped off al my water bottles, took off my wet gloves and grabbed a second pair I had brought for this. My upper body was still producing enough heat that I decided against getting changed in 20F temps.

Big mistake with the gloves. I guess my hands were swollen or something. Once I took the wet pair off, I could
not get my hands back in any gloves. I did the best I could and then ran the HM course backwards to eat up the time to the 5k Since I was 15 mins later than I wanted to start, and lost time dealing with gloves, I only got 1 mile in between the two races.

Lined up with the 5k people and started feeling really bad. A smart person would have dropped out at this point, but being a certified genius, I did not. Instead I told myself to take the 5k easy. Well by 1/2 into it my hands were screaming in pain from being so cold and I was ready to puke. I am legendary for my stubbornness though so I pushed through and finished the 5k in about 29:13, which for me is on the easy run side - if ALL I was doing was a 5k. Looking at my numbers now, it was too fast also.

At this point I am ready to collapse and having a hard time keeping water down and I was so cold I could not stop the shivers. Brain functions were slowing too and that is why it took so long for me to recognize the signs. Had I not been alone (wife was still running somewhere) maybe someone else might of figured it out. I was going into hypoglycemic shock. When I finally realized it I grabbed some mandarin oranges and forced myself to eat one. Then another. It took a while to reverse the trend, but 2 oranges and a hot coco later I was feeling stronger.

The problem with hypoglycemia is that it impairs your ability to think AND suppresses your hunger. In fact you feel as if you could not eat anything with out puking, but that is exactly what you need to do break out of it.

At this point, I decided to take a DNS on the 1 mile race. I ran a mile between the HM and 5k so I still got a total of 17 in today. I just hung out in the warm staging area and eventually headed home for a hot shower.

I think I did pretty good all things considered. The course was MUCH tougher than I had planed for, and should have been drinking the 72oz of Tailwinds that I was carrying on my back. Instead of running the mile between races to stay warm, I should have go to where they had food, eaten and warmed up. But, eh, I am not dead and I have my first official HM under my belt.

New runner of the couch potato variety
I still run by time rather than distance or speed. I am building endurance with c25k. I use a treadmill at no incline to low incline and dread running outside with elevation and wind resistance. (Really admire the Florida woman who here who started c25k outside!) My goals are to persist and not get injured while I shift my walk to run ratio toward running.

3/17/18: I just finished Week 4 Run 3, jogging slowly.
Total March treadmill time: 270 minutes

One other note, I’m really learning a lot from this community. Running involves so much more than I previously imagined.