March 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

March Goal: Shut up and move

3/1 Went to my first ever St. David's Day Party
3/2 3.13
3/3 stuff
3/4 4.00
3/5 rest
3/6 3.00
3/7 snorkel 3.5 hours
3/8 3.35
3/9 3.00
3/10 rest
3/11 3.00
3/12 3.50
3/13 rest
3/14 funk
3/15 3.00
3/16 2.00
3/17 6.50
3/18 rest
3/19 2.20
3/20 rest
3/21 3.30
3/22 zip
3/23 3.60
3/24 sometimes
3/25 life stinks (two years ago my son died. Last night my best friend from medical school reported that her stepdaughter (of 30 years) died suddenly. We are now sisters in a sorority no one wants to pledge....)
3/26 4.00

Total: 47.58

Races:
BIIMA 10k 3/17/19 6.50

Ticker is my goal for 2019 and progress to date:

Rest day yesterday, then back to 4.5 miles on a beautiful evening tonight. I tossed in some fartleks, which were fun. As far as I can tell, the first Hal Higdon novice HM plan seems to call for most miles being easy conversational pace, but I figured a few fartleks on the least taxing run of the week might be ok. It feels easier to run “easy” when I occasionally do other things like fartleks (otherwise the “easy” starts to feel tedious, particularly when I can ruminate about work challenges at the same time, which I am incapable of doing when running faster intermittently) My hope is to keep my base high enough after the HM to incorporate some speedwork.

March goal: 60 miles

3/2 6 mi
3/3 cross (easy bike ~10 mi)
3/5 4 mi
3/7 4 mi TM
3/9 6 mi
3/10 cross (bike 25 mi w/kids)
3/12 4 mi
3/14 4 mi
3/16 3.1 mi (5K PR!)
3/17 3 mi + cross (snowboarding)
3/19 4.5 mi
3/20 3.1 mi
3/21 4.5 mi
3/23 7 mi
3/24 cross (bike 14 mi w/kids)
3/26 4.5 mi

March total: 58.3 mi

Races:
3/16 Kirkland Shamrock Run 5K
4/13 Mud & Chocolate 4.5 mi trail run
5/6 Vancouver BMO Half Marathon
5/18 Your Canyon for a Day 35 mi Bike Tour, Yakima
8/11 Lake Union 10K?

Been struggling to get out in the mornings for runs, that phase of my life might be over for now. I cancelled my Crossfit membership, as I'm not going enough (the thyroid issues I'm slowly getting better on are making it a real struggle to do evening stuff) but I'm thinking of a MoveGB membership instead. Basically what that is is a membership of every single gym and activity you can think of. So one payment, and I can do yoga, swing dancing, climbing, crossfit, all without having to be a specific member of a specific location. There are some restrictions on classes, but nothing too onerous.

That aside, we've entered Spring here in the UK, definitely and completely (this week certainly). The weather was so nice there's no way I could contemplate a crossfit class (see?) so I pulled out the gear I am cunningly storing in my car, and went for a run on a cycle track near work.

Now it's a guesstimate as to how far I went, but seriously - can I only manage 4 miles in under an hour? hmm. MUST. RUN. MORE.

@HonuNui i'm sorry you belong to that club. and i'm sorry for your friend. i can only imagine

i get to belong to the young widows club. another friend committed suicide this weekend so we have a new member. haven't been sleeping so haven't been able to garner enough energy for a run

@simcon11 fartlek means speed play and i do find a good session can be nice indeed

@Avidkeo yay!

3/1 = 10.5 miles (Friday morning trail run @ Brushy Creek: Deception Trail)
3/2 = 12 miles
3/3 = rest day
3/4 = 4 miles
3/5 = rest day
3/6 = 7.5 miles
3/7 = rest day
3/8 = 7.5 miles (Friday morning trail run @ McKinney Roughs Natural Area)
3/9 = 13 miles
3/10 = 10 miles
3/11 = rest day
3/12 = 3 miles
3/13 = family emergency
3/14 = family emergency
3/15 = 6.5 miles (Friday morning trail run @ Bastrop SP)
3/16 = 16 miles
3/17 = 16 miles
3/18 = rest day
3/19 = 6 miles
3/21 = walked my neurotic dog for 4.5 miles
3/20 = rest day
3/22 = 8.3 miles running Goodwater trail / 6.5 miles hiking Goodwater trail
3/23 = rest day
3/24 = 7.5 miles
3/25 = stupid old lady foot / ankle
3/26 = 3 miles
3/27 = 3 miles

You know how Facebook ads seem to creepily know what you have been talking about or internet searching for....

Well, the creepy internet Facebook marketing bots must have been reading my texts last night. I was in a group chat and we were planning a double 18 weekend group run.

This was recommended to me in my Facebook feed this morning. How did Facebook advertising know I need a gigantic carb pillow?!?? 😂




March Goal Miles 150 (& add in trail runs on Friday mornings)/ Miles to Date = 128 miles

Upcoming Races:
4/6 = Wanderlust Half
5/4 = Wisconsin Marathon (Mittens Challenge Part 1)
5/5 = Kalamazoo Marathon (Mittens Challenge Part 2)
6/15 = Fit Foodie 5k

lporter229 wrote: »

The month of highs and lows continues. After a weekend of two solid races then a solo 20 miler with sub race pace finish, I was feeling pretty good about where things were standing as I crested the training peak for Boston. Then this past weekend, bam, I had to go and have a really crappy run to fill my head back up with doubt. Saturday was a warm day compared to the weather we have been having, so I decided to wait until mid afternoon to head out for my run to take advantage of potential race day conditions since I have a 10:50 start time. The sun was hot and my legs were tired and I struggled through the whole back half of what should have been an easy 16 miles. I am the first person to throw out the "Trust your Training" mantra when people ask me for advice heading into the taper phase of their training. But, man, this training cycle has been so full of highs and lows, I'm not sure which part of it I should trust!

Everyone has those kind of 💩 running days. No worries. I have every confidence in the world that you will kick Boston Marathon’s butt!

@mbaker566 I'm a member of the young widows club too. I guess I qualify. I was 46 when my husband passed away. That's been almost 13 years ago. It's hard. You have my sympathies.

Hugs @lazy_bones_85 its so hard not knowing. I hope its nothing serious.

Well been out and did 6 wet km. Yay

25/03 3.24 miles
26/03 3.21 miles

March goals: Run 100+ miles, stay healthy & keep up with marathon training plan

3/25 - 8 km dirt track run (350x2,4,6,4,2@5kP +recovery/warmup/cooldown)
3/26 - 10.1 km run
3/27 - 19.1 km trail run

So I had a plan. But when I got to the bottom of the hill I got the idea to go up into this "natural area" that's basically a bunch of serious hills covered in a mix of forest, tall grass, remains of a couple old bunker-style buildings, a soldier's grave, with dirt bike ramps and paths everywhere. There's actually a big dispute right now as it's been zoned for years as a green area as part of the city's plan for reducing air pollution, but now a developer purchased the land (who approved THAT sale?) and now wants to change the zoning so they can build housing. They're advertising it as an opportunity to build a park. I'd prefer they leave it alone. Anyway, there's some "land art" up on one of the hills, kind of like a big crop circle, and I wanted to run it for the Strava art. It went pretty slowly as it was hard getting through the brush for most of it, but turned out pretty cool. The circles actually took about 5.5 km! Ok, now direct your attention to that little out-and-back on that map above the circles. I left the path as there was a steep downhill, and there was a path to the right that I thought would lead me to another main path. But it didn't, and was actually pretty confusing, like it really looked like a traveled path, but didn't make sense and there were similar paths splitting off of it and I kept going, because "the main path has to be just up ahead". But there wasn't a path, just a steep overgrown slope down. Then a grouse flew up in front of me and I saw a wild boar take off away from me. Cool. But they're dangerous animals, and this was his territory. Decided to change direction slightly, but ran into thick brush and turned back. Just past where the first boar was, I came around a corner and startled a whole GROUP of boars. I didn't stick around to count them, but saw at least 3-4 and one in particular was huge. There was basically a lot of movement in the brush, really deep pig grunting, and I immediately turned and ran back the way I came. They clearly weren't happy but fortunately none of them came after me. It was terrifying, but awesome at the same time. I quickly put my watch on the navigation screen and followed my previous track right back to the main path, sat down to get down the steep drop, and stayed on the people paths from then on. I might've been a little jumpy. Spent most of the run off-road, so the pace was extremely slow, but I enjoyed it.


Edit to add: I still think the area should be left as it is - even more so knowing that there really are boars living in there (not to mention the deer and borderline-endangered European hampsters, etc). I believe we can do stupid things and be in danger ANYWHERE, so the presence of dangerous animals in the brushy areas doesn't change my mind. Just STAY ON THE PATH!