August 2018 Running Challenge

I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments about the "running funk'. So far I haven't had a real funk yet. I still feel like I "get to run" on my run days and I "don't get to run" on rest days. But after I ran my HM in May I was getting tired from the training. After the HM I decided that for a while I was going to just run. So for a couple of weeks on all of my runs I just tried to run by how much time I had available to run and not worry about pace or distance. It didn't take long before I was looking at my pace and distance again because I just "need" to know how far and how fast I ran. But it was enough that I wasn't stressing about how far I "had" to run, I was just running. I also have spent the summer playing "Zombies Run" so I have been focusing more on fun and less on training but I do think my running has improved over the summer.

so I'm over 200 posts behind now. I hope I haven't missed too much.

I've kicked back into training mode after having most of the month off due to injury. The injury is better but still niggling but I'm now at the point of ignoring it and living with it. I think its always going to be low level and I can handle that.

so 12 weeks till my HM! I have done 2 training runs. fortunately the first 2 weeks are pretty much what i've been doing the last 8 weeks anyway so I should be able to get my fitness up again. yesterdays 5k was pathetic and I did 6.5 today - just. only running once every 4 days has really tanked my fitness!

@Orphia Congrats on the 35k!
@MegaMooseEsq Terrific run on your 5k, and to hit all three goals is awesome!
@katharmonic Great race and great race report...congrats on the mileage PR!
@marisap2010 Nice 20-miler! Hope the shin soreness disappears soon.
@Elise4270 "Thought one. Are we overlooking the importance of cut back weeks?" Most probably! I used to try and fit one in every fourth week or so, but since I'm on a shorter on-call rotation nowadays, I tend to leave my down week until then, which means every eight weeks or so. I have to say, I can certainly tell the difference...after about six weeks, I quickly start to feel tired vs when I've just finished a cutback week. It could also be the heat though (or a mix of both).

Elise4270 wrote: »

No one cares about your arm pit fat, your missing teeth, that your ugly, or dumb, or gimpy, or misunderstood...

They don't? But those are my best features.

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Normally Mondays see me running 15 miles, so with a 20% reduction or so for the cutback week, that leaves about 12 miles for today. In other news, August seems to have realized that it's been slacking off lately, and has returned with a vengeance. Thankfully, September is just around the corner...not that that's going to change anything temp-wise any time soon, but at least psychologically it'll make a difference.

01 - 15.66
02 - 14.15
03 - 21.05
05 - 5.75
06 - 15.62
07 - 14.41
08 - 15.62
09 - 14.45
10 - 26.39
13 - 15.64
14 - 15.32
15 - 15.59
16 - 14.03
17 - 26.21 for @KeepRunningFatboy
20 - 15.66
21 - 14.16
22 - 15.63
23 - 14.15
24 - 7.35
27 - 12.27

Total: 309.11 / 250 miles

Rest day today. Ridiculous humidity, weather app says dew point 74º F right now, temp 86º F. It was okay out walking, but not one of those just enjoy the day walks.

Running funk: I'm not sure I understand "funk" the same way everyone else does. I get in a real downer of a funk when I'm too injured to run, and force myself to concentrate on rehab and actually getting in the exercises that will help me get better.

When I'm healthy enough to run, the feelings probably aren't strong enough to be called "funk". Maybe, "lack of motivation." When I have an unexplained lack of motivation, that can be an indication that I'm overtraining and need to back off a bit. Sound familiar?

Maybe it gets strong enough to be called funk when we have weeks and weeks of oppressive humidity; but if I get out there and run, eventually I acclimate to it and it's just running. Then when the humidity comes back down, it's heavenly running.

I frequently experience that lack of motivation for doing my morning supporting (cross training?) exercises. Sometimes I give in and skip some of them for a day. Most of the time, I tell myself, 3 sets of pull ups before the banana. Work in 3 sets of push ups. Okay, do that second set of pushups and the balance exercises after I eat the eggs. Take a break, danger point to miss the rest. Start the steel cut oats in the microwave, and force myself to do the monster walk up and down the hallway with the resistance band. And from that point, even when I'm telling myself I'm just doing this one more thing, habit usually carries me through the swiss ball bridges, the one-leg weighted calf raises, the cone touches, the walking lunges, and that 3rd set of push ups.

I've let injury/lack of motivation/lack of comfortable time in the morning routine squeeze out all the kettlebell work for quite a while. That showed up as a lower back ache after long runs recently. Yep, need to add back those kettlebell swings and snatches to work the erector spinae. Wouldn't hurt to add back the Turkish get ups, too. Probably don't need to add back the squats; I'm likely getting enough quad work from the walking lunges and the cone touches.

So one day last week I did the kettlebell swings. Today I did the kettlebell swings and one set of snatches. Baby steps. Still need to find a time slot that makes this stuff routine. I know from experience that if I load too much of it into my morning/breakfast routine I'll crash and burn. But there's no longer any *physical* reason to avoid the kettlebell work; it's just that I've filled the time with other stuff. The cone touches are important, and I'm doing more walking lunges than I did the last time I was consistently doing kettlebell work.

And I struggle to overcome the funk/lack of motivation on all this non-running stuff, because doing it consistently helps me stay uninjured and keep running consistently. If it weren't for the fact that it helps me stay uninjured while running, I doubt I'd give a flying f*** in a rolling donut about walking lunges or calf raises.

I have been more consistent since I started giving myself a planned break on weekends. Saturdays and Sundays I'm up early, have a compressed time frame, and eat oatmeal instead of steel cut oats to save time. I let myself get by with just the pull ups and push ups those two days, and it helps with the motivation during the week. Possibly the two days off helps physically as well, but it really helps mentally.

I don't talk about the supporting stuff much, because it isn't as fun as talking about running. But it's important to be consistent with the supporting stuff, and that's where I struggle with motivation most often.