December 2018 Monthly Running Challenge

Elise4270 wrote: »

Run the Year team

Yay! Let's do this! Looks like we sign up as individuals, choose an awesome team name and go from there.

I hope y'all have fun with this. I just can't do it as a formal challenge, for a variety of reasons. I expect some of these won't matter to a lot of people, but they matter to me.

1. If I have a committed goal out there, I'm going to go for that committed goal. But I have a history of injury, where the best thing is to back off, stop pushing, and live to run another day. Having an aggressive goal gives me the wrong incentive when the most important goal is to avoid injury or recover from injury, depending on my current status.
2. I didn't look as far as the cost, which I'm sure wouldn't be a big deal. I got as far as medals and a shirt; I don't need a medal and a shirt to motivate me to run. I have a closet full of tech shirts, and in another few weeks I'll box up a year's worth of non-marathon medals and start over on the "current year" medal rack.
3. If I was on a team, it would be very hard for me to think about only running my assigned part of the 2019 miles. Run the year looks very attainable for me as an individual . . . if I stay healthy. Gotta remember what the most important goal is.
4. I think it was late 2015 when I first showed up here; I was concerned about setting monthly mileage goals and making the goal at the cost of making injuries worse. That hasn't happened, because I've managed to think of the mileage goal as simply an estimate of how much I'll run if everything goes well. In good months, I've been within 2 or 3 miles of my goal. In bad months, I've been well under the goal. In mediocre months, I've blown the goal away . . . which just means I did a bad job of estimating how much I'd run. I don't know if I could translate that mindset to an annual mileage goal, and the down side of failure is pretty extreme.

OTOH . . . I did sign up for a run/walk a mile every day challenge from December 1 to Christmas Eve, donating $1 to charity for each day. This came through my local FF training group, and it's a slam dunk because walking counts and I only need to walk a mile on my rest day to keep the streak alive. I don't even think of that one as a challenge; it's an excuse to haul $25 to the Egg Nog Jog social run the morning of Christmas Eve and chat with some running friends.

And in totally unrelated news, today I ordered another pair of shoes. Saucony Peregrine 7 ice+ from Amazon. My current pair of Peregrines went over 500 miles on last Saturday's run. They look like they still have a lot of life left, but the long range forecast is for a cold winter. Don't want to be without trail shoes if the time to retire my current Peregrines comes before we're done with winter snow. In theory, a pair of running shoes is supposed to have a time limit as well as a mileage limit; I channel @PastorVincent on the time limit. I put the current Peregrines into service in March 2015, and they only have 500 miles because the last 3 years haven't had all that much snow and I haven't done all that much trail running.

I might join in on a run the year team. There is no way I could run the year in miles by myself. I might be able to run the year in kilometers, but that would still be a challenge for me. So far this year I'm at 1010 miles.

I don't know what my goal for 2019 is yet. I'v been thinking about it, but not sure yet. I do know that I definitely want to be coming here in Dec. 2019 and setting a running goal.

So far:
1/12 - 5.5
2/12 /- Rest
3/12 - 4.1 (1 mile warmup & 5k temp)

Total - 9.6/90 Miles

I found todays run really hard mentally. I have struggled a lot in teh past mentally with running, thinking I cant do it, which then of course leads to me not being able to do it! The plan today was a tempo 5k at about 8:35 minute miles. I did a 10K at 8:26 minute miles recently so clearly I can do it but even on the way to my run I was having negative thoughts about it and so it translated into the worst run I have had in a long time....need to get these demons out of my head

I already posted this to the Facebook group, but look what I get to run in today! I'm definitely running in my Goretex trail shoes! (The new ones.)

Gonna try to push distance a bit.

12/1 = sick
12/2 = sick
12/3 = sick / 3 miles

I attempted to do a short easy run this morning but ended up walking some of it. I started wheezing halfway through. At least I got outside and moved. It felt good not to be laying around feeling like death.

December goal miles = 150 / 3 miles to date

Upcoming Races:
12/15 = Stars at Night Half
1/26/19 = Miami Tropical 5K
1/27/19 = Miami Marathon
3/10/19 = ZOOMA half
5/4/19 = Wisconsin Marathon (mittens challenge part 1)
5/5/19 = Kalamazoo Marathon (mittens challenge part 2)

Charlene____ wrote: »

12.2: 4.5 @ 9:10/M (4.5) Easy Run

Goal is 120.5M. 117 to go.

Apparently I was too tired this morning after my flight to Germany to do math.

12.2: 4.5 @ 9:10/M (4.5) Easy Run
12.3: 4.0 @ 9:05/M (8.5) Easy Run

8.5 of 120.5 complete.

Was supposed to do some speed work but I’m getting a lot of discomfort on my right hip bone that extends up my side, especially when I lean or twist left. I can’t massage it our stretch it out so I ran an easy run today. Could a tight IT band give me pain above my hip bone? I feel it’s inflamed and it feels like little knots around my hip bone. Weight doesn’t bother it but it stiffens up even after a few minutes of sitting.