August 2018 Running Challenge

Happy to say legs were not too upset by Tuesday's long run, no shin pain at all. Something must be working at last, maybe the few minutes of enduring the foam roller before bed each night? Anyway nothing worse than tired feeling legs yesterday and they felt fine this morning. However, I am starting to feel a bit worn out probably due to this darned heat that won't go away and not enough sleep. Will be interesting to see how I feel during tomorrow evening's race, probably like death warmed up (literally). Not intending to actually try to race it at all, just treating it as tomorrow's usual training run but in the evening and in a different setting and with a few more people and a T-shirt all for a good cause :-)
My brain works in strange ways still when it comes to running (like no matter how much I yell at it it thinks walk breaks during runs are cheating, d'oh!) and for some reason one of these strange ways is that it reckons it's ok to not try to race at charity races. Thank gawd for that!


2/8: 5km
3/8: 5km
5/8: 4.5km
7/8: 6.5km
9/8: 5km
10/8: 4.5km
12/8: 5km
14/8: 7km
16/8: 5km
17/8: 5.5km
19/8: 4km
21/8: 7.5km
23/8: 5.5km
24/8: 5.5km
26/8: 3.5km
28/8: 8km
30/8: 5km
August goal: 97km, completed: 92km

Tomorrow's race is advertised as 'about 5km' (lol welcome to Spanish organisation and accuracy) but should be enough to complete my goal within 3 hours of the end of the month. Won't be able to report on it til I get home on Sunday though!

PastorVincent wrote: »

DANG. This 5k has a 37% grade!

Hell On Hills - Claims to be "the world's steepest 5k"
http://www.hellonhills.com

@PastorVincent I think @travelling_lots was referring to the Hellonhills link.

Skunks: Driving to a friends Cabin I could see a dog on the edge of the road flopping around, first though is he was hit by a car, as I got closer I could see that it was not injured but was rolling in something at the side of the road. Suddenly the smell hit me inside my vehicle - roadkill skunk. The dog was having a scent marking frenzy.
That's one dog that the owner was not going to be happy when he got home.

A short 6km riverbank jaunt last night before going to a wrap up meeting for our local triathlon, really just an excuse to sit at the Pub and have a Beer.

August Running Totals (miles)

8/1 – 2.97 IEXC 5K #1
8/2 – 7.28 MP and easy
8/3 – rest day
8/4 – 16.01 paced run
8/5 – 6.28 easy with fast finish
8/6 – rest day
8/7 – 5.35 warmup, soft tempo run
8/8 – 3.99 warmup + IEXC 5K #2
8/9 – 10.04 easy
8/10 – rest day
8/11 – 20.02 partly paced run
8/12 – rest day
8/13 – 5.01 easy
8/14 – 5.67 warmup, speed play, cool down
8/15 – 7.99 warmup, Pound the Ground 10K
8/16 – 7.65 warmup + easy
8/17 – rest day
8/18 – 20.03 partly paced run
8/19 – 8.13 easy with fast finish
8/20 – rest day
8/21 – 8.01 easy + a stride
8/22 – 4.58 warmup + IEXC 5K #3
8/23 – 8.03 easy + 2 strides
8/24 – rest day
8/25 – 18.44 easy with hills
8/26 – 8.10 easy
8/27 – rest day
8/28 – 7.90 warmup + XC workout
8/29 – 5.39 warmup + IEXC #4 + TDP

August running total to date – 186.87

Nominal August mileage goal: 180 miles

Real goals: Avoid injury. Continue to build base and train toward Oak Tree Half and Wineglass Marathon.

Today's Yesterday's notes – It was still hot when I marked the first mile of the 5K course. Got to chatting with other runners, and neglected my warmup until after the kids' races had started. Set off to run the first part of the course, and on the way back encountered Coach with an orange flag, escorting the lead kid in the mile race. I tagged along with them, and noticed it was comfortable. The kid was pushing Coach past his easy pace.

Coach's phone rang. He handed me the flag and told me to run her in. This turned out to be the 6th grade girl who kicked my *kitten* in the 5K last week, and she came in first in the kids' 1 mile this week. That was kind of fun.

Along about then, the clouds had gathered so it was more comfortable. It started sprinkling a bit just before the 5K start, but was okay for running. Garmin has the temperature then as 84º F; but it didn't feel all that bad. The actual race lasted longer this time. I wasn't quite able to catch one guy going up the grassy hill, but I could see he was working much harder than I was; I passed him on the road downhill, then passed 2 other guys on the road uphill. Those 2 passed me on a downhill stretch of trail, I went past them on the uphill, I missed a turn and let them past later in the trails, and that was that. Didn't matter; they were a couple decades younger than me and would have smoked me when we got out of the woods anyway. Finished the 5K in 22 minutes even, same Garmin time as last week but not as nice running weather. OTOH, I had better rabbits to chase this week.

The sprinkles had turned into light showers by the time we started the Tour de Pain mile. That goes up Reservoir Road on Cobb's Hill, around the reservoir, and back down to curve around and finish on the grass. The field took off faster than I did, but I've run this hill many times. I lost count of how many people I passed on the uphill, when I was focused on catching the 40-something guy who's a little faster than me. I caught him, passed him, and kept going; but as expected, he got me on the downhill. I'm better than I was, but I have room for improvement as a downhill runner. Finished the mile in 6:09 per Garmin, which also says it was a short course. If Garmin is right, it was closer to 1500m; but I'm happy with how I ran that one.

The 400m was supposed to be a gentle up across some grass, then turn and go up the steep grassy hill. This was changed late to be a loop of the flat grassy field, same as the kids' 400m. I couldn't work up any enthusiasm for the revised course, but the clouds had gathered enough that daylight was an issue, and the rain was steady by the time we ran the last piece. It got run in heats: under 30 years, 30-49 years, and 50+ years old. Sigh. I didn't get to chase that 40-something guy. Started out on that grassy loop without real conviction, behind 2 50-something guys. After the last turn, I ran the end more like you ought to run a 400. It wasn't enough to catch the guy ahead of me, but no one caught me. Finished in 1:14 per Garmin.

The distances were all probably short of the nominal course lengths. Garmin shows a nice pattern of average paces progressively faster: 8:20 for the warmup, 7:30 for the 5K, 6:27 for the mile, 6:17 for the 400m. Those make sense for how hard it felt like I was running and what the terrain was.

Official results aren't posted yet, so I don't know my official times or exact placement in the field as a whole. No ringers showed up, so I won my age group for all three races and the series. Prizes were modest; I took a gym bag for the series award and a string bag for the 5K award. But it was a fun event, and a little bit of rain wasn't all that big a deal.

Monthly goal assessment: I hit my nominal mileage goal on Wednesday, and will add to the total today. I've avoided injury, and built a decent 40-45 mile per week base. Haven't done any serious speed training, but I've run enough hills that I think I'm in good shape for Oak Tree on Sunday. I'm on track for where I want to be for running Wineglass at the end of September. I don't remember when was the last time I achieved all my goals in a month.

2018 races:
February 17, 2018 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) finished in 54:48
February 24, 2018 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) finished in 28:46
March 17, 2018 USATF Masters 8K (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 31:55
March 24, 2018 Spring Forward 15K (Mendon, NY) ran at MP, finished in 1:10:47
April 16, 2018 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA) finished in 3:28:43
April 29, 2018 USATF Masters 10K (James Joyce Ramble, Dedham, MA) finished in 41:33
May 20, 2018 Lilac 10K (Rochester, NY) finished in 42:21
May 26, 2018 Sunset House 5K (Rochester, NY) finished in 20:12
June 3, 2018 USATF Masters Half Marathon (Ann Arbor, MI) finished in 1:34:42
June 9, 2018 Ontario Summit Trail Half Marathon (Naples, NY) DNS - injury
June 17, 2018 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) short course, 18:04 for ~2.9 miles
June 30, 2018 Charlie's Old Goat Trail Run 5 mile (Victor, NY) 4.89 miles by Garmin, 43:15
July 14, 2018 Shoreline Half Marathon (Hamlin, NY) finished in 1:45:54
July 28, 2018 Battle at Bristol 10K (Naples, NY) survived in 1:28:33
August 1, 2018 IEXC 5K #1 (Rochester, NY) finished in 22:17
August 8, 2018 IEXC 5K #2 (Rochester, NY) finished in 22:10
August 15, 2018 Pound the Ground 10K (Mendon, NY) finished in 43:11
August 22, 2018 IEXC 5K #3 (Rochester, NY) finished in 21:59
August 29, 2018 IEXC 5K #4 (Rochester NY) finished in 22:00 (unofficial)
August 29, 2018 IEXC TDP 1 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 6:09 (unofficial)
August 29, 2018 IEXC TDP 400m (Rochester, NY) finished in 1:14 (unofficial)
September 2, 2018 Oak Tree Half Marathon (Geneseo, NY)
September 30, 2018 Wineglass Marathon (Bath, NY)
November 11, 2018 Syracuse Half Marathon (Syracuse, NY)

August goal: 75 miles

8/1: 4.5 miles
8/2: 5 miles
8/5: 6.5 miles
8/7: 4.3 miles
8/8: 4.6 miles
8/9: 5 miles
8/12: 8 miles
8/14: 5 miles
8/15: 4.7 miles
8/16: 4.5 miles
8/19: 6.3 miles dedicated to @KeepRunningFatboy
8/23: 3.7 miles
8/26: 7.8 miles
8/28: 4.8 miles
8/29: 4.7 miles
8/30: 4.3 miles

83.7/75 miles


When I walked outside this morning it felt like it was going to be a cooler run than the last few mornings. It was only 77F, but the humidity and the dew point made it feel pretty uncomfortable. But it was still a good run. I surpassed my goal for August. I did set it a little low since I had some stuff going on this month and knew I would miss a run or two. I'll have to think about my September goal.

I didn't see any skunks this morning. My biggest fear with skunks is that I will startle one and it will spray. And they can carry rabies. But typically if you see them at dusk or dawn they are just normal skunks and I have never seen one that I suspected of being rabid.







2018 races:
5/19/18: Run for 57th AHC Half Marathon - 2:43:59.7. - 2nd place AG
11/10/18: Wags & Whiskers 5K

8/1 = 15 miles
8/2 = 10.5 miles
8/3 = yoga flow class
8/4 = rest day
8/5 = 10.5 miles
8/6 = 3 miles & 30 minutes kettlebells
8/7 = 14 miles
8/8 = yoga flow class
8/9 = 10 miles
8/10 = 4 miles & 30 minutes kettlebells
8/11 = rest day
8/12 = 13 miles
8/13 = 3 miles
8/14 = 6 miles
8/15 = 13 miles
8/16 = rest day
8/17 = 15 miles
8/18 = rest day
8/19 = 3 miles
8/20 = 10 miles
8/21 = rest day
8/22 = 15 miles
8/23 = strength training 40 minutes
8/24 = 10 miles
8/25 = rest day
8/26 = 14.5 miles
8/27 = sick day
8/28 = sick day
8/29 = 3 miles & 30 minutes gentle yoga
8/30 = 3 mile walk with the dog

I am starting to feel human again. I hope this cold virus is gone tomorrow so I can get my normal long Friday run in.

August goal miles = 175 / 175.5 miles-to-date

Upcoming Races:
10/27 = Hill Country Halloween Half Marathon
1/26/19 = Miami Tropical 5K
1/27/19 = Miami Marathon

Morning everyone, Friday here so last day of the month. Congratulations to everyone who has achieved or close to achieving their goal. My goal was 130km but that got dropped early cause of this tendon strain in my ankle. I've managed 85km this month which I'm still really happy with.

Im kinda disappointed this morning in a weird way haha. I was getting ready to go out at 540am and I heard the skies open up. It started absolutely started pouring! So I got all syched up to actually run in the rain. I had @PastorVincent in my head telling me to get over myself. I did grab a cap as suggested (sorry can't remember who suggested it). Just as I opened the door miss 2 woke up so I put her back to bed. It only took a few minutes but the rain eased a bit. I headed out all ready to run in the rain, but it stopped! And never rained the whole run haha. So I prefer that but I was all ready to report I ran in the rain lol.

I feel like im back to form (mostly). I ran a good 5k, and got my 3rd best 5k time! So I no longer dislike my shoes, I think its just a mental state thing. The tendon is holding out as long as I don't push too fast, I could feel it a bit when I pushed the pace on my final km this morning so I eased up. Listening to the body and all that lol.