January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

lisaloumn2 wrote: »

so week one was a bust - I would say about a total of 3 miles - all intervals during my regular workout classes. I need to figure out the best way to working running in to what I am already doing.

Right now I am doing bootcamp classes 4-5 days a week and two yoga classes (all mornings 5:30 weekdays and 7:30 weekend). I was thinking I could run evenings of the yoga classes but that just did not happen this week. I think in another week it will be easier once my daughter goes back to her afternoon training program, then I will have some time between coming home and having to start dinner right away. My issue then will be trying to go slow so I can build up and not burn out.

I have enjoyed reading everyone's posts and reports - reminds me of the old Training Peaks forum I as part of years ago training for my first Chicago marathon.

Serious question: are you sure about trying to add running on top of 4-5 days of bootcamp and 2 yoga classes? You're probably getting a lot of cardio out of bootcamp already and that just seems like a recipe for burnout.

Today my husband and I ran our first trail race! And also our first race which was part of a series. The Memphis Winter Off-Road series starts with 3k, then 5k, 8k, and finally 10k, at four different venues in the Memphis area, making it a perfect way to ease into trail racing.

This was also the first time I've used a timing chip that had to be tied to my shoe. The organizers explain that you use the same chip for the entire series, and then return it - or else pay 30 bucks for it. Since my trail shoes are Salomons with quicklaces that can't be threaded through the chip, the chip is zip-tied on.

There are no medals or awards for individual races, just for the whole series, which is scored by points accumulated during the different races. There is also a shirt for the series, which I quite like - choice of tech or cotton long-sleeved shirt, and the tech shirt is a nice bright safety yellow.

Fortunately we had an incredibly beautiful day for it - the temperature was in the mid 60s, so warm that I actually dug one of my summer racerbacks out of the stash of clothes I had put away for winter! Also fortunately, my husband and I had gone down to Overton Park, and explored the course to see what conditions were like. It was bright and sunny today, but a couple of days earlier, it had poured down rain for three days straight.

This race consists of about a half mile out and back on grass, some gravel, more grass, then about a mile of what I like to call the slip-and-slide: a convoluted dirt single track through the Old Forest, thickly carpeted with wet leaves, muddy in the low spots, with plenty of huge roots to jump up and down. Then a final sprint on grass. Since 3k isn't really enough to get properly warmed up, we trotted around the park for a while before the race, as did most of the "serious runner" crowd - mostly people wearing Fleet Feet gear, and local track teams. It was fun to people watch - there were all levels of runners there, and the dress of choice was a running event t-shirt. But you could really tell who had done this before from their shoes. There were a lot of very nice pristine road shoes. I run roads in Brooks Adrenalines, and lemme tell you, they are not a good shoe in wet conditions, and we saw a lot of them on ladies' feet. One guy was wearing massive Hokas with essentially smooth tread. "I would not want to run this in those shoes," my husband remarked. "I think some first time trail runners are about to get a rude awakening."

This was also the first race I've been at where the organizers were serious about corrals and pacing. Since much of the race is single track, they had a staggered start, with actual pace signs for the different corrals. I've been in big, little, and medium sized races locally and never encountered this before - fancy! What was more the announcer explained the purpose of the corrals and even told off some walkers with small kids who had put themselves in front and made them move back. "If you are less than three feet tall you do not belong on the starting line. We don't want anyone to be flattened."

Having run this course before easy, we knew we could do 10:30 pace easy, and we knew we could do better than 9:00 race pace over the same distance on roads. But we had no idea what pace we could manage going fast on trails. We put ourselves midway back in the 8 - 10 corral and hoped for the best. That turned out to be just about perfect. The first sprint on a wide expanse of grass spread the crowd out nicely. Then everyone hit the first soggy, wet patch. My husband was not mistaken about rude awakenings! There were audible squeals. Some runners completely stopped and others slid. I was wearing Salomon Speedcross 4s which are sort of like big rubber cleats, so I just scooted to the inside and plowed on by.

At the entrance to the woods, a race official was making people stop and go single file into the woods. Although it's possible to pass back in there, it's tricky. My husband and I had discussed tactics before the race and decided that since it was difficult to pass in the woods, we should blast all out at the beginning, then allow ourselves to recover on the slower going. Anyone who wanted to pass us could work for it. As it turned out, very few people even tried to pass us. We had seeded ourselves just about right. In fact we found ourselves going faster than the people in front of us.

Usually I lead when we run together - I'm slower, but my husband has exercise-induced asthma which likes to strike when he runs fast, so moderating himself to my pace works for both of us. I had warned him that I didn't know how well rushing through technical bits would work with my wonky knee, which does not like shocks and twists, and that I might be slower than he would like. However he saw an opportunity to get past some folks and took it and ended up in front of me. Then he slowed down to wait. "I'm good," I said, "Go go go." So off we charged. I stayed upright. He slipped and went down on one hand and one knee in the mud, but bounced right up.

Final finish - 18:08 which is about 9:43 pace. Placed 5th of 25 in AG. The first 6 AG places get extra points so yay! My husband ended up 18 of 33, so respectable for a man despite pacing me. We had no idea what to expect being total newbies at trail and are delighted to have finished so well. Next race in the series is the 5k, on our home turf at WC Johnson where we run trails all the time, January 20.

After finishing we went out for a cool down run to get a couple more miles in (can't really go out for a celebration lunch on less than two miles) then headed over to the newly gentrified Crosstown building for a meal. This giant Art Deco building - monstrosity or masterpiece depending on how you feel about Deco - was once upon a time the area headquarters for Sears. When I was a child you could buy literally anything there. I bought my first saddle, bridle, boots, and riding jacket there. On a slightly later day I bought grain and a bucket. I bought my first formal dress there. It was like a strange magical paradise to a child. Then it closed, and sat unused for decades, with hobos living in it. No one wanted to tear it down but it was a public danger and would cost too much to restore for anyone to went to take it on. Fast forward to today, when it has been transformed into... a Model Urban Village. What that means is artsy apartments, artsy shops, a doctor, credit union, nail salon, etc. I hadn't been down there before today, and honestly it's cool. We ate at a lunchroom which has stalls manned by women from different countries, so under the same roof you can get Syrian, Nepalese, and Sudanese food. My husband had Syrian food, and I had Sudanese beef stew, lentil wraps, and Nepalese tea, which tasted mainly like turmeric and milk I think? It was delicious and we're going back. Also, my blood glucose when I got home was 81! Gotta love running.

The filthy shoes of victory:

Lunch:

January Goal: Do more than last month

1/1 1.25
1/2 2.20
1/3 rest
1/4 carb loading dinner pre relay to remember @keeprunningfatboy
1/5 7.75
1/6 1.35

Total: 12.60

It occurred to me this morning that we had the perfect relay team for yesterdays ultramarathon:
1. a doctor in case anyone was injured
2. a lawyer to sue whoever injured us
3. a chemist to concoct some elixir to soothe injury pain
4. a therapist to help us thru the emotional part of the injury
5. a coffee farmer to offer us a nice cuppa while we recover. Fortunately, none of our services were needed!

Ticker is my goal for 2019 and progress to date:

01 - 4
02 - 1.25
03 - 4.25, slow, but it was one of those runs that just felt good.
04 - 2
05 - 4.5 plus a five minute plank today & two hours of roller skating!
06 - 1.75 plus a five and a half minute plank!


January Total: 17.75 miles
January Goal: 60 miles

Not running related but wanted to share the beautiful view from our agility trial venue this weekend. We had rain here and snow in the mountains so it made for a beautiful morning! An hour or so later the mountains were covered in clouds again.

Orphia wrote: »

jesspen91 wrote: »

Hi everyone. I want to prioritise running a bit more this year. I started running about 3 years ago with C25K. I completed the program and was still running regularly but without really any goal in mind. Usually I'd do about 3-4K round the block in the morning 2-3 times a week.

My friend then got me in to Parkrun (a free weekly timed 5K at the local park on a Saturday morning) and I decided to focus more on time. I really wanted to achieve at sub 30 minute 5K (probably quite slow for a lot of you but a real challenge for me) so I upped my running frequency and distance. I also signed up for a 10K last February where I astounded myself by completing it in 1:04. Spurred on by this I finally got my sub 30 minute 5K the following week. However, I have not been able to achieve this since and during the latter half of the year I was running less frequently and my time was creeping up until I was regularly coming in at around 33 minutes. Parkrun was becoming the only time I was running, and I found it really hard to motivate myself to run during the week.

I am determined to get back to sub 30 minutes so I will be upping my frequency to 3 times a week (2 weekdays plus Parkrun). I am also looking at doing another 10K later in the year because having a goal to work towards motivated me to run more regularly. I might also join a local running group because running with other people is what motivates me to do parkrun every week so I would love a chance to do this during the week. I just need to find one with slow people like me! So I want to use this group for accountability for my weekly runs and also to record my parkrun times and hopefully get a bit faster.

This is my January so far:
01/01/18 – New Year Parkrun – 5K – Time 32:19 – Pace 6:33/km
05/01/18 – Parkrun – 5K – Time 32:04 – Pace 6:24/km

@jesspen91 Welcome back!! I really love your plan, it's excellent! What country are you in?

LOL, don't get me started about how awesome parkrun is!!!

#loveparkrun #DFYB (don't forget your barcode) #smallpalloneword #itsarunnotarace

I've only missed going on 4 Saturdays in 169 weeks.

I'm in London so out Parkruns are supqr busy. We had a record turn out of 625 people last week!

I'm very impressed with your dedication. I've been doing parkrun for over a year but have missed a few due to being away/hangovers/random circumstances (a few weeks ago i forgot to put my phone on to charge and I didn't feel comfortable leaving the flat without it). On weekends I know I will be hungover I usually try to volunteer. I'm on 34 runs so well on track to get my 50 t-shirt this year.