March 2019 Monthly Running Challenge
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@katharmonic Awesome race report! You did well, and you reinforced my opinion that I don't really want to do any Spartan events.5
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March Running Totals (miles)
3/1 – rest day
3/2 – 20.05 paced run + solo miles
3/3 – 8.28 easy
3/4 – rest day
3/5 – 10.27 warmup, speed work, cool down
3/6 – 8.75 easy
3/7 – 8.41 warmup, MP run, cool down
3/8 – rest day
3/9 – 15.59 Around the Bay (Irondequoit)
3/10 – 12.47 easy shading to MP
March running total to date – 83.82
Nominal March mileage goal: 200 miles
Real Goals: Train well toward Boston. Cut back before St. Patrick’s Day weekend, run the 8K hard, use the half as a training race. Remain uninjured, even if it means cutting back on planned mileage.
Today's notes – (fixed wrong dates from last report)
Busy day planned. Short night for the stupid time change, up early for church, planned dinner with my daughter in the evening, have to fit the run in during the afternoon. Wanted 11 or 12 miles, and afternoon isn't the best time for me biologically to do that. So I did the best I could.
Came home from church, ate my normal mid-morning snack. Waited for normal gut elimination, start empty. Set out on a familiar 12.5-ish mile route that I use to train hills for Boston.
Temperature was 41° F (5°C) when I started. Forecast was for showers off and on all day, chance increasing later. Temperature was supposed to slowly rise, wind was supposed to be noticeable. No precipitation when I started dressing to run, but raining lightly when I stepped out the door. Had a brief thought that this was similar temperature to the start of Boston 2018, but I was dressed lighter: shorts instead of tights, short sleeve shirt under light jacket instead of long sleeve. Oh, well. The rain isn't supposed to be so hard. I start out.
The first 2 miles, I'm congratulating myself on pace control. Stayed in the easy range, and it felt natural. Then I turned south, a bit into the wind. At least it wasn't raining enough to notice, but wind + cooler temperature encourages me to speed up. I run by heart rate up the series of hills that are the best I've got near home to prepare for Newton. Just past 5 miles, I turn west onto the easy part of the route.
Today, that part wasn't easy. The wind was from the west, the rain picked up, the jacket got soaked and then blown on, and my thighs told me I should have worn tights. Oh, well. It's only 3 miles of this, and I ran 26 miles into the wind and rain last April. By mile 8, I'm having fantasies of how to quit and still get home. No dice; the most reasonable way to get home is to just keep running.
Turn north just past 8 miles. Now it's uphill, but it's a crosswind and I'm mostly sheltered from it. That makes this part easy today. Get up the gentle hill, on to the rolling hills with a couple of steeper downhills to practice for Lower Newton Falls. That turned out to be reasonable. I'm tired, but I know I'm tired because I've been running marathon pace since about 2 miles in, and haven't been able to slow down enough. My body knows slower = colder, and it wants the warmth.
Mile 10, and I just want to run the rest of the way home. I kind of did that, except for a port-a-pot stop late in mile 11. With less than 2 miles to go, you'd think I could just finish; but there you have it. It's the wrong time of day for me to be running that far. Take care of business, put my wet clothes in order, pull my wet gloves on, and run home. Amazingly enough, the stop didn't seem to affect my pace. The last mile plus to get home went about as fast as the miles before the stop.
Heart rate data says I ran easy enough. I'm not so sure I trust it. Splits say I ran 2 miles easy and the rest more or less around marathon pace. On the plus side, I didn't have any issues with cold fingers post-run, in spite of running the last segment in cold wet gloves. I was smart enough to come into the heated house first, before doing anything else in the way of post-run recovery.
I got more rain than forecast. Instead of rising, the temperature managed to fall to 40° F by the time I got home. So I was actually running in colder weather than I did at Boston, and some of the rain in the hard part felt a little like sleet on my thighs.
Got the Sunday tired legs workout done. The workout is supposed to help prepare for races; today, a race helped prepare me for the workout. If I hadn't run Boston in the nor'easter, I don't know whether I would have been mentally tough enough to run the full route today. But how could I wimp out, when I know I've run twice as far in worse conditions when I wasn't as fit physically?
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) finished in 1:30:48
January 12, 2019 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds 5 Mile) (Spencerport, NY) finished in 33:10
January 26, 2019 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY) 4.9 miles, finished in 32:28
February 2, 2019 USATF XC Championship, Masters 8K (Tallahassee, FL) finished in 32:53
February 9, 2019 Freezeroo #5 (Tom Brannon 8 mile) (Greece, NY) finished in 55:55
February 23, 2019 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) finished in 28:34
March 16, 2019 USATF Masters 8K Championship (Shamrock 8K) (Virginia Beach, VA)
March 17, 2019 Shamrock Half Marathon (Virginia Beach, VA)
April 13, 2019 BAA 5K (Boston, MA)
April 15, 2019 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA)
April 28, 2019 USATF Masters 10K (James Joyce Ramble) (Dedham, MA)
May 19, 2019 Lilac Run 5K (Rochester, NY)
May 19, 2019 Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY)
May 25, 2019 Sunset House 5K (Rochester, NY)
June 7, 2019 Charlie McMullen Mile (Pittsford, NY)
June 16, 2019 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY)
June 29, 2019 A Country Mile at Ganondagan (5-ish mile trail) (Victor, NY)
November 3, 2019 TCS New York City Marathon (New York, NY)11 -
With this week over, it's now been 8 weeks since I've been able to run after surgery and to say I was thrilled with my progress is an understatement. I'm way ahead of where I expected to be.
Saturday:
18.6 trail miles for Kody & I at my favorite metro area park. I went out with the intention of getting 20 miles but after 4 hours I think both Kody & I were done. I was going to do a 1.4 O&B just to get to 20 but I had to remind myself that I'm still in post-surgery rebuilding mode and pushing it isn't in my best interest. Even with a short distance I was very happy with the run. The percentage of walking I do on these trail runs continues to decrease and the amount of hills I'm able to run continue to increase. The trail conditions were really good. The trail was mostly packed snow with some sections of irregular ankle twisting snow. My pace was 10:44, which I'm VERY happy with. The forecast originally called for 12+ inches of snow starting late morning and I was hoping to out on the trail when it started but the front shifted, came through later in the day, and it was warmer. End result is that it started sprinkling about 3 miles away from the end and started pouring as I was doing my post-run stretches. Yes, it was a good time to finish.
Sunday:
Today's run was pretty *kitten*. Literally.
28F and sunny, but with 20mph winds. Depending on the wind direction, or if I was sheltered from the wind, it was either really warm or biting cold. After our 6 inches of wet, heavy snow, the sidewalks were mostly slushy slop and the roads were either clean and dry, or ankle deep puddles of snow melt. Even though it was below freezing, the road salt created super-cold slushy puddles. For the first few miles I tried to avoid the slush but after that I like the kid in me out and intentional splashed through every puddle I came across. My feet were cold and wet, but I was happy. I ended up with 9.2 slow, easy recovery miles.
And that *kitten* run...about half way through the run Kody stopped to poop. I picked it up and with no garbage can around, was carrying the bag. Soon I decided to tie up the bag to the side of my running belt, which I've done many times before. About 2 blocks from my house I'm at a red light, waiting. A car pulls up and the passenger gives me an odd look. I look down and...OMG...the bag burst! I had dog crap dripping down my tights. I cleaned up what I could with handfuls of snow and continued home. In the garage I stripped naked and put everything in the washing machine. Other than that, it was a good but tough, slow run.
Those two runs give me 43.2 miles for the week, my highest non-race weekly total in nearly TWO YEARS. Yes, I'm happy with how rebuilding is going.
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That wet heavy snow we got last night sure made things beautiful. This was our backyard today
Unfortunately we're running out of places to put the snow. My snowblower is having a hard time getting snow over the pile at the end of our driveway.
Mid 40's and 1.5 inches of rain in the forecast this weeks means lots more cold puddles to run through.
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@kgirlhart Yes! I have seen Stranger Things. I may re-watch it too! I keep calling this kitten we have “Dart”, he’s like the pet devil dog!
ETA wow @7lenny7 that sure is pretty!2 -
u]March Running[/u]
03/01: 11.07 mile long run
03/02: 3.50 mile recovery run
03/03: 4.50 mile easy run
03/05: 5.01 mile easy run
03/06: 4.01 mile easy run
03/07: 7.03 miles - 5 tempo
03/09: 4.01 mile easy run
03/10: 9.05 mile long run - 4x1M repeats
Total: 48.18 miles
Run notes:
Have a few days of running to catch up on here. Thursday was my last "workout" run before my 10 mile race - 7 miles total with 5 around goal race pace. I was supposed to start tapering then, and just do my long run today nice and easy. Buuut then I realized my thesis defense is exactly one month away from today
, which reeeeeeally stressed me out lol so I kind of took things a little harder/faster than I should have 
- ended up throwing in 4x1 mile repeats at a comfortably hard pace. From here on out, I really DO need to take it easy and attempt some sort of a taper if I'm going to have any hopes of hitting my goal at the Excalibur 10 Miler next weekend.
Registered races:
- Excalibur 10 Miler (3/17)
- Wintrust Lakefront 5K (4/13)
- Ravenswood Run 5K (4/28)
- Space Coast Half Marathon (12/01)7 -
@katharmonic Way to go! Sounds like you did yourself proud!
@ContraryMaryMary Nice team award!
@amymoreorless Great job despite the challenging weather!
8 miles easy on the Greenway for me and my husband. Today has been a day. My mom called and woke me up way too early this morning with computer problems, flipped on my iPad while waiting for her to call back, iPad wouldn't power on and my backup doesn't work, so basically the past three years of my life are gone, including almost all my photos and my diabetes data. Appointment tomorrow with the Apple dudes but not hopeful. Spent so much time fiddling with problems that I ended up getting about four hours sleep. My husband, who is a great guy mostly but also an epic whiner, says, "Surely you're not going to run today! No one expects you to run the same day your house burns down!" And I say, "It's even more necessary to run when your house burns down." Which, yeah, I sound like Yoda to myself, but it's true, the run was a thousand times more helpful than anything else we could have done.
Absolutely glorious day. Stepped outside to do my morning stretches, took a breath and said to myself, what is that smell... it's... springtime! Ran in a racerback. Light wind, partial clouds just enough to keep everything comfortable, just one of those days when it feels like the air is caressing you. We haven't run this far on pavement in a while and my feet and knees feel a little beat up after the fact, but pace felt good and flowing at the time. I had something happen that has never happened to me before, a guy asked if he could use me as a pacer. I told him we were probably going too slow for him and he said he was trying to learn to slow down while adding mileage. So we ran partway with some dude! Who is hoping to do better on his upcoming half than his previous one where he went out too fast and ended up walking. I have been there, dude. He normally does about 9 minute miles and was looking for something slower, we have been doing a shade under 10 on our easy road runs. It made me feel cool to have a guy approach me and ask what my mile pace was, as if I looked like I knew what I was doing or something!8 -
girlinahat wrote: »@avidkeo if you haven’t made your mind up yet - buy the mixer.
My Kenwood A700D. Dates from the 1950’s bought off eBay. Still going (probably could do with a new motor and certainly the cable rubber is melting)
And it’s beautiful
Its BEAUTIFUL!!!0 -
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Afternoon. Been a hectic day for me.
This morning I went for 5.5k easy run, that I actually took easy! My HR never went above 165 I was only just in zone 4, I even spend 10 minutes in zone 3! I felt like I could run for a lot longer, but as I'm easing in after my injury I'm sticking to the 10% rule. Last week I did all 5k runs, this week, I'll do 5.5. Ill throw in a longer run on Wednesday and Friday - 6 and 7, as long as my leg holds out.
Talking about the leg - no, I'm not complaining for a change hahaha - I came across this video of a guy saying "this will solve your shin splints", so I watched, with a firmly skeptical mind. Basically he did a myofascial release, I think. he took an object like a scraper, and scraped the muscle. I thought well I'm trying massage and stretching and its not really improving things. what do I have to lose. So I got some oil, and a cake server (the only scraper like object I owned lol) and tried it. I was almost pain free the next day. so I did it again morning and night. and that's it. pain free. And no pain at all on or after my run today (definitely not my shoes then, thank god) I googled a bit more and found the myofascial release thingy - chiropractors use it apparently. I think its more like a deep tissue massage using an implement rather than hands.
Now I'm a sckeptic. It may be a co-incidence. I was still stretching, rolling and had a couple of days rest. that may have been it. but maybe not. Unsure. Anyone else done anything like this? tried something that looks or sounds unlikely and turned out to maybe be of benefit?4 -
No running over the weekend. Air quality was *kitten* and I spent all Saturday night sitting with drunk S.O. to keep her from drowning in puke, and then all Sunday trying to catch up on sleep. Good times.
Tried to get up at 6am this morning for a run, but decided I needed the extra sleep more. I'll try to run tonight, but as things are at work (I didn't get out of the office until 11pm half last week) I guess I just have to take what I can get.
Re: epic falls. I was tripped by some guy during the first 200 meters of my last 10km race. He was nice enough to pull me up and ask if I was OK before he sprinted off. All during the rest of the race, it seemed that every single runner that pulled past me would try to inform me I was bleeding. (Yes, I know, thank you for your concern.) Helpful bunch we are.9 -
Hmm… Might need to adjust my goals?! Only hitting about 20km a week… unless I do a long run or 2?!
Everyone else in the house has kindly shared their cold with me so my nose is running and I'm coughing my lungs up, just hope it doesn't get any worse!
01/03 - rest
02/03 - rest
03/03 - rest
04/03 - rest
05/03 - 3.87km/96.13km
06/03 - 4.23km/91.90km
07/03 - 3.87km/88.03km
08/03 - 4.50km/83.53km
09/03 - Rest
10/03 - Spinning
11/03 - 4.23km/79.30km
So myself and a friend have decided to join a 1000km in 2019 challenge now! So I guess given there's 10 months left I'll have to average 100km a month for the rest of the year!
Have decided that I will start training towards a marathon in October! They release more spots in July so I'm thinking I'll just start working towards it and see where I'm at by the end of June. If all is going well I'll sign up!
So, long story short, I'm in for 100km
Planned races
11/05 - Kungsholmens runt, Stockholm
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@Avidkeo regarding myofacial release, yes it a thing, it does help. I've had 2 pt's use it and was always left bruised. But in better shape. They have speciality torture devices for getting those extra special knotted up places. Its a love hate thing.
Thanks for thinking I'm big hearted. I really don't like people, but love the ones i know. I'm a truly a dog. (Chinese zodiac).
________
Its almost 3 am. I hear thunder. @garygse that thwart todays run?3 -
Afternoon. Been a hectic day for me.
This morning I went for 5.5k easy run, that I actually took easy! My HR never went above 165 I was only just in zone 4, I even spend 10 minutes in zone 3! I felt like I could run for a lot longer, but as I'm easing in after my injury I'm sticking to the 10% rule. Last week I did all 5k runs, this week, I'll do 5.5. Ill throw in a longer run on Wednesday and Friday - 6 and 7, as long as my leg holds out.
Talking about the leg - no, I'm not complaining for a change hahaha - I came across this video of a guy saying "this will solve your shin splints", so I watched, with a firmly skeptical mind. Basically he did a myofascial release, I think. he took an object like a scraper, and scraped the muscle. I thought well I'm trying massage and stretching and its not really improving things. what do I have to lose. So I got some oil, and a cake server (the only scraper like object I owned lol) and tried it. I was almost pain free the next day. so I did it again morning and night. and that's it. pain free. And no pain at all on or after my run today (definitely not my shoes then, thank god) I googled a bit more and found the myofascial release thingy - chiropractors use it apparently. I think its more like a deep tissue massage using an implement rather than hands.
Now I'm a sckeptic. It may be a co-incidence. I was still stretching, rolling and had a couple of days rest. that may have been it. but maybe not. Unsure. Anyone else done anything like this? tried something that looks or sounds unlikely and turned out to maybe be of benefit?
This sounds suspiciously like Gua Sha. I'll look up some info once I find a computer.1 -
@Avidkeo Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about Chinese medicine, but here goes.
First, a question: was there any bruising on your shins? Gua Sha often causes horrible looking bruises on the skin, and when your body fixes it by upping the blood flow to the region, it seems to help fix whatever problems there were.
If not, then it was probably working more like a highly localized foam roll.
I'm not going to go into "cold wind" and acupuncture points here because it will sound like woo-woo. I personally don't do gua sha myself, unless I have no other choice, and then I suspend my disbelief and look for a few days like I got jumped in an alley and was beaten black and blue. This is the first time I've heard it being used for shin splints, although a fellow runner and medical professional I know likes to use acupuncture and whatnot.5 -
@ContraryMaryMary congrats on the team win. Nice bling!0
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So I've been struck down with a head cold... Do I a) run it off or b) Rest and try to get rid of it sooner? I'm more in camp a at the moment...4
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3/2 - 2.85 miles
3.9 - 2.25 miles
3/10 - 2.0 miles
Glad to be back running after being down for nearly a week with the flu.
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