April 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

10k more or less, too darned hot!

Running on the same trails where our 10k race is going to be next weekend, wanted to get through it without a break since my husband has been sick every time we ran it. Well... that did not happen today. I forgot how much I hate running in the heat! The weather seemed so beautiful, running felt so good and easy, and then two miles in we were both wiped, I was brick red, and he was talking about throwing up. 85 degrees, no breeze to speak of, high humidity. I swear I lose a minute off my pace for every ten degrees over 70. Anyway we went out way too fast, mile pace for the first two miles was 8:40 which is slightly faster than my PR pace for a 5k. But it felt so easy —seems like I might finally be over my cold, which has been making my recent runs feel harder than usual, so I have temporarily lost the knack of pacing myself by effort. My husband agrees it didn’t feel like we were going that pace. We were all good until the heat caught up with us! Three days ago the weather at night was below freezing!

We took a couple of long walk breaks, stopped to pet a buffalo, and finished the 10k course at average 11 minute pace overall. Then ran a mile back to the parking lot to make up for the distance we walked, and took a nice long walk around the pretty lake. Met a very sweet little doggy which rolled around on my foot and wanted to go home with us.

By the way the AC repair guys did finally come back yesterday - at 8 pm at night after I had given up hope of ever seeing them again. Considering the weather today they were just in time!

This is what I look like after thinking it would be okay to run in a racerback with no sunscreen, which I did day before yesterday, no problem. Spring has officially sprung.
Friendly buffalo:

Balls. Migraine happened. Did not run.

I finally broke down and ordered new running shoes today. Turns out the ones I am running in are almost 4 years old! Yikes! I'm getting the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 19's. My current shoes are the 15 version. I hope they are close to the same shoe. From reading posts on here, there are chances that they are drastically different. At least they have a decent return policy if they are. I also bought new tennis from New Balance. There goes my tax refund.

No dog on run today as I was worried she wouldn't be able to concentrate for whole run. It started to rain heavily for the last 5 minutes of the run but other than that run was great. I decided to start listening to a book on my run and it helped with making the time go by.

4/1--2.5 miles
4/3--2 miles
4/6--3 miles

Races:
3/24--Mercer Island 5k 46:11
6/8--Fall City Day Run 10k
7/6--Bellingham Road Race

7.5/33 miles

Congrats on your race @martaindale and for not getting eaten by an alligator.

I have skimmed through posts over the last few days but haven't kept up, so sorry if I missed any races or news. i saw a snake photo and some discussion of other scary critters and plants. I've encountered coyotes a few times and a skunk but not much of the poisonous or venomous variety.

Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
04/01/19 :::: 3.8 :::: 3.8
04/02/19 :::: 2.7 :::: 6.5
04/03/19 :::: 1.6 :::: 8.1
04/04/19 :::: 0.0 :::: 8.1
04/05/19 :::: 0.0 :::: 8.1
04/06/19 :::: 5.7 :::: 13.8

I'm hanging in there but missed a couple of days of running this week due to the craziness. Interviewing job candidates went pretty smoothly, but took up a lot of time. I ran for just a tiny run before circuit training and yoga on Wednesday. Thursday I was just too exhausted and sore to contemplate a run, and yesterday I ended up stuck at work much later than planned. I debated a short run but decided that it would do me more good just to relax a bit and get to bed early. Plus, it snowed again yesterday and then turned to cold rain. Enough already!

This morning was the first in a series of four training runs for the Mountain Goat 10 mile race, which gives you a preview of sections of the course. Today's loop included the first part of the course, which featured a pretty long uphill climb - or at least it seemed long, it was probably just over a mile of uphill grade. It wasn't as bad as I was fearing, which was a relief to more sore legs and lack of sleep. I got to run with some fun friends who kept up a steady stream of conversation, even though I barely had energy to contribute it was entertaining.

I had a delicious bagel sandwich after with a friend who introduced me to the best bagel place in town (she seems to know from bagels, and it was excellent). The rest of the day was spent at work. I made some good progress, including adding some things I wrote when I woke up at 4 am and my mind wouldn't shut up about it, so I jotted them down. Turns out they were still decent ideas even in the light of day.

Tomorrow looks to be basically a repeat of today. There is another Mountain Goat run - this time you can run to 4 different parks to become a SuperGoat (15+ miles) or two parks to become a NannyGoat (7.5 miles). I don't have time or energy to do the SuperGoat, but I'm going to try for the Nanny. Then back to work for another full day. The end is in sight. The project is due on Friday but I leave for San Diego on Wednesday so it *really* should be done by then. That would make me very happy and I will celebrate with all the margaritas and Mexican food that San Diego has to offer.

Hope everyone had great runs or races today, and good luck with any tomorrow.

@martaindale Awesome race, congrats!

@PastorVincent Heh! This coming week will see reduced mileage as I have a race next weekend...plenty of opportunity to seize that full sweep!