January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

polskagirl01 wrote: »

Looking back at 2018 and @KeepRunningFatboy

polskagirl01 wrote: »

I've played around with some visualization apps, and haven't really come up with anything I'm crazy about. Worldwide maps make us look like tiny dots, Flyby with all the runs put together could be zoomed in, but you had to automatically follow the track (not easy when it jumped between continents). I also only have maps for some of the runs, meaning that a number of people are left out however I visualize it. So I'll just present this...
as a reminder of that thing we did to remember one of ours

Anyone see themself in there?

ContraryMaryMary wrote: »

somethingsoright wrote: »

Got in 1/3 of a mile today. Thinking that I'll work up to 3/4 of a mile by the last week of this month.

Anyone have experience with tightness pain at the front of the hip where the quad comes in? Had this pain at my left hip getting out of bed yesterday morning and then again getting out of the car later in the day. Made it hard to walk for a few minutes. Wondering if it's muscles getting used to running instead of just biking.

Yes, all the time. Foam roller hurts but helps hugely, and stretching.

Avidkeo wrote: »

polskagirl01 wrote: »

Looking back at 2018 and @KeepRunningFatboy

polskagirl01 wrote: »

I've played around with some visualization apps, and haven't really come up with anything I'm crazy about. Worldwide maps make us look like tiny dots, Flyby with all the runs put together could be zoomed in, but you had to automatically follow the track (not easy when it jumped between continents). I also only have maps for some of the runs, meaning that a number of people are left out however I visualize it. So I'll just present this...
as a reminder of that thing we did to remember one of ours

Anyone see themself in there?

I'm pretty sure I'm the 3rd one.

MobyCarp wrote: »

January Running Totals (miles)
1/1 – 10.09 warmup + 7.5 mile race

January running total to date – 10.09

Nominal January mileage goal: 200 miles

Real Goals: Train well toward Boston. Work the January races into the training plan smoothly. Remain uninjured, even if it means cutting back on planned mileage or races.

Today's notes – Went to bed at 10:30 on New Year's Eve. Set the alarm for 6:30 AM, woke up at 6:08. Got to the race site a few minutes before 9 (gun time 10 AM), right as planned. Temperature was dropping from 39° F (4° C), wind was 15-21 mph WNW. A few minutes walking from the car to the shelter convinced me to trade the brimmed hat I was wearing for the forecast of rain (which didn't show up) for a winter running hat. A 2.5 mile warmup convince me to trade the light/medium weight gloves I wanted to wear for medium weight gloves with a wind shield mitt. The first mile of the warmup was a lot of effort, and it seemed like it would be a bad day; then I actually, um, warmed up and things felt a whole lot better.

I think in the December thread someone asked why warm up, and @PastorVincent gave an excellent explanation of the physiological effects. My day today was a classic example of what he explained; I started out slow and feeling sub-par, but after the warmup I was ready to have a good race.

I estimated the temperature to be a few degrees colder than it had been at Boston last April, and the wind to be about as strong as it had been at Boston. I was not worried, because there was no rain in the wind, and I would only be running into the teeth of the wind on the westbound part of a loop course. (At Boston, it was into the teeth of the wind for 26 miles.)

Resolution Run is at Mendon Ponds Park, a location of beautiful rolling hills. I had run a preview of the entire route on Beethoven's birthday, and I ran my warmup as an out and back on the last mile of the course. It was familiar territory, which helped me manage the race well. The temperature was favorable for me, though it might have been a bit cooler than some runners prefer. (Later, Garmin said it was 30° F, which is -1°C. Doesn't matter, it felt good when I was moving.)

Set out fast with the pack on the net downhill start. Counted 10 people ahead of me. Passed two of them. Two passed me, and that's wehre it was after a mile. About 2 miles in, two more passed me including the girl who would end up being the first woman finisher. And that's where it shook out. Nobody else passed me for the rest of the course, and I only passed early start runners. At mile 7, I thought I was passing the girl who passed me at mile 2; it turned out I was actually passing the fastest of the early start runners. The girl who passed me at mile 2 finished a full minute ahead of me.

The hard part of this course is from mile 4 to mile 7. I knew that, and held up well mentally and physically. I had enough left to run the last half mile almost as fast as I ran the first mile, and ended up crossing the line at 50:56 per Garmin. Official time was 50:55.277. (What's with timing to the thousandth of a second when there's no start mat and it's gun time only?) That was a 6:47 per mile average pace on stated race distance of 7.5 miles, 6:45 per mile on Garmin distance of 7.55 miles.

I had tried to run good tangents, and the Garmin distance indicates I did reasonably well. There were several places I could not run great tangents because of automotive traffic on the roads during the open road race. Between 10 and 11 AM, on New Year's Day. WTF? Dont' those people know they're supposed to be in bed sleeping off a hangover?

In any event, I felt really good about how well I managed the race. It is not a PR for 7.5 miles, because I ran this race 10 seconds faster 2 years ago; but it was good for 13th out of 229 overall and 1st of 22 in the M 60-64 age group. And I got to see a lot of smiling, happy people without hangovers on New Year's Day morning. And there was hot soup, pasta, garlic bread, hot coffee, and cookies afterward.

Before I left for home, I noticed that the view from the deck at the shelter was pretty. This is one of the ponds in Mendon Ponds Park; I didn't see any of the ponds while running, because they are mostly not visible from the roads and where one is I was concentrating on running good tangents and managing my pace.

2019 Races:
January 1, 2019 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) finished in 50:55
January 5, 2019 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY)
January 12, 2019 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds 5 Mile) (Spencerport, NY)
January 26, 2019 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victory, NY)
February 2, 2019 USATF XC Championship, Masters 8K (Tallahassee, FL)
February 9, 2019 Freezeroo #5 (Tom Brannon 8 mile) (Greece, NY)
February 23, 2019 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY)
April 15, 2019 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA)