September 2018 Running Challenge

@travelling_lots: in order of your questions:

1. I’d give the race an 8 out of 10. I think it might have gone smoother towards the end if I’d managed to get my long run up to 12-12.5 miles as originally planned, but honestly, it was a great experience and it was good to push myself. I don’t do that often enough.
2. I feel good today! My knees are almost 100% (an occasional twinge on the R), my hips are completely fine, and although my quads hurt going downstairs and my calves feel a bit tight, it’s nothing too bad at all and about the same as I've felt after normal long or hard runs.
3. I had a lot of fun! I have heard from several people that I look really happy in my pre- and post- race pictures. I think it’s because running gets me out of my head so I can just be happy without all the anxiety and self-consciousness that’s usually weighing me down to one degree or another.
4. The next race is October 6th (I still haven’t decided if I want to do the 5K or pay another $30 for the 10K), and the next half is October 21st! After that I haven't figured out what I'm doing yet, although I've got my eye on the Polar Dash in January or the Hypothermic Half in February. I haven't run in the winter before, though, and don't want to commit to something until I've got a better idea what I'm getting into.

It only took two days for me to be proven wrong about the Apple Watch battery life, as it clearly didn’t last 5+ hours yesterday - it pooped out after 2.5 hours of music and workout function. Oops. That said, I did a little poking around and especially with the upgrades coming on the next OS, I’m not really finding an alternative that makes sense for me right now. I wasn’t being cautious with the battery yesterday, and wonder if I hadn’t been listening to music leading up to the start of the race if that might have been enough to get me across the finish line. At least for right now, 2.5 hours is about the outside of what I need.

@royalty819: Welcome!

@RunsOnEspresso: *hugs* There were people with glow-in-the-dark/blacklight paint at the night race last month - I sweat like bonkers and don’t like having stuff on my face (I don’t even wear makeup, although I have gotten good about sunscreen) but maybe that isn’t an issue for you, plus there are plenty of less-sweaty parts of the body.

Thank you for all the good wishes and big giant high-fives to everyone who raced this weekend! I was talking to my spouse a couple of days ago about whether it was really a good idea to do this half marathon. When I mentioned that I asked the group and got some positive feedback, he said “well then, you’re definitely ready - they know what they’re talking about.”

@biketheworld Thanks, and I WAS last in my age group when looking at the unofficial results posted periodically during the race. But then someone came in much later, so I was next-to-last in my age group to finish. So here is how my age group split out:

Winner of both race and age group - 2:43
Everyone else in my age group - from 3:04 to 3:50
Me - 4:44:57
last in age group - 5:28

hi all. I managed to do 8k this morning. Helps that I remembered my inhaler today haha. Now that I did 12k on the weekend, 8k felt relatively easy. is that normal? lol oh and finally had a bit of rain toward the end of the the run which was really nice.

6 slow miles

@Elise4270 Shorter would honestly seem counter-intuitive (to me), given that height usually means longer legs...but then again, Eliud Kipchoge is 5'7" and look at that guy fly!
@MarylanderX Welcome, and keeping up with this thread is usually the toughest challenge of the month!
@MegaMooseEsq Congrats on a great half! And at the rate you're going, you'll be preparing for a marathon before you know it!
@missevil Congrats on your 5K race!
@royalty819 Welcome!
@noblsheep I was going to say that I'm more in agreement with @MobyCarp, but then saw in a later post that you're planning something for next spring now. A wise choice, in my opinion!
@RunsOnEspresso Sorry to hear that your marathon goal has been set back...I say set back because you never know what the future holds.

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Today's run was nice and cool at 70F, and with the dew point down in the low 60s, it made for another comfortable run indeed. I did notice that afterwards that Garmin said my shoes had covered 456 miles; the same as it had said about a week ago. So I pulled up a spreadsheet and plugged the numbers in, to find that they've actually done 530 miles...tut tut Garmin, trying to get me injured. Time to pull out the next pair, just in time to get them soaked with all the rain that's predicted to come this week.

02 - 5.40
03 - 18.09
04 - 14.15
05 - 15.67
06 - 12.84
08 - 14.13
09 - 14.16
10 - 15.43

Total: 109.87 / 300 miles

Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
09/01/18 :::: 18.2 :::: 18.2
09/02/18 :::: 5.4 :::: 23.6
09/03/18 :::: 6.3 :::: 29.9
09/04/18 :::: 2.1 :::: 32.0
09/05/18 :::: 6.5 :::: 38.5
09/06/18 :::: 0.0 :::: 38.5
09/07/18 :::: 1.7 :::: 40.2
09/08/18 :::: 13.3 :::: 53.5
09/09/18 :::: 5.0 :::: 58.5
09/10/18 :::: 5.0 :::: 63.5

Treadmill before strength training today. I can't believe that this time I picked treadmill because of the weather being too cool (and rainy) outside rather than too hot. After I really warmed up I regretted that choice.

Strength/circuit training was kind of brutal tonight. The push/drag with the darn sled is one of my least favorites. Some high school kid was finishing up with that right as I got there and the trainer said I was going to be doing that too during my session. The kid said something it being hard, but I would probably not have as much weight on it and I about kicked him. I totally did as much weight (or a little more I think) so it's totally on next time I see him.

Legs are still sore from the marathon on Sat., but did 5.7 slow miles on the treadmill and then strength training (upper body). Legs feel a bit better now, but still not 100%