June 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

I've missed so many posts.

The last few days have been a bit crazy. I was sick, then hubby came down with the same cold, then a couple of days later our 5yo got it, and last night miss 3 showed symptoms. So that's been fun.

Had my last day of work, that was emotional. They all put in to give me a gift card towards new running shoes!! Wooo hooo! And my shoes arrived from amazon, a week early! And i didn't have to pay duty. Only thing is they are in our new city and we are still in our old one haha.

This weekend is all about packing. But with hubbies cold turning into man flu (I've been up and about about 2 days after getting it, it's been 4 and he's still too sick to do much. WTH.) the packing process is a bit slow. And today we are supposed to have another open home. Sigh. It all happens at once.

Its going to be a few days before I run again, I've got a horrible chesty cough. And someone packed my running gear.

What ever happens this week, it will all be over by Friday. I can't wait!

I did 5.1 miles for my 51 birthday run. Weather was absolutely perfect for a slow run - just about 70 with a nice soft wind and no humidity, sun was out but not direct, just felt like a kindly day.

In fact I felt a little bit like a Disney princess all day, or maybe Saint Francis! It started when I was doing my morning stretching routine on the back patio and six cardinals lined up in a row on our fence, about ten yards away, to watch me. We have a nest in the tree right outside our kitchen window, and this cardinal family watches me eat breakfast every morning, and then I fill the feeder and watch them eat breakfast. If there wasn’t a window, I could reach out and touch them, so they have gotten very accustomed to me. Well, on my birthday, for the first time ever, the children were old enough that the parents brought them to the feeder!

Then we went for a run and on our warm up walk, this happened:
This guy didn’t even seem bothered by us, just kept nibbling. And then when we walked away, we noticed there was a second one just a few feet further down the path. There are scads of bunnies at this park, but we almost never see them on the trails, they mostly hang about in the open meadows.

So then we noticed this tree had some unusual ornamentation:

And while we were standing there, this happened:
At one point, according to my husband, I had six on my hat and two on my shoulder, but they didn’t like him trying to get a picture and most of them flew away.

After our nature encounters we started our run. I was a little concerned because five miles is longer than I’ve gone since my tendon injury, and it was honestly a little sore towards the end of the run, although it never got to the point of what I would call pain. We sprinted the last tenth of a mile and got up to a six minute pace, which is really really fast for me, even sprinting. My leg muscles tired quickly, I think mostly because of lifting the day before, but cardio-wise the run felt really good. And the ankle turns out to be fine afterwards, yay!

I always set six month goals on my birthday. This year’s running goal was to run a sub 60 10k before my birthday, which I did before I was injured. Now my goal is to rehab this ankle solidly while keeping as much fitness as possible.

Also on my birthday, does anyone remember the Sally push-up challenge from a few months back? I have been slowly but steadily chugging along, increasing my time and decreasing my elevation, and I finished the challenge yesterday. Doing proper good form toe pushups on the floor. This has been a long time coming, and it wasn’t easy - every other day I did as much as I could before collapsing, then gave myself a one minute break, then did more. Initially it took me three one minute rest breaks to get through the whole song, then I got it down to two, then one, then a thirty second break, and yesterday I finally managed the whole thing. My arms felt like noodles!

My birthday challenge last year was to do a ten second handstand. Which I am still working on. I have done it a couple of times, but can’t do it consistently.

Looking forward at new goals, I think I want to switch things up a bit. I have a habit of being enthusiastic about new things for a couple of years and then losing interest. So my goal now is to work on having as much fun as possible while keeping up my running and strength goals. To focus on enjoying doing it, and to make it an enriching part of my whole life, so that I keep doing it because I love it.

HI everyone!

I am in for 55 miles again this month.

6/1....4.19 miles (Monon trail)
6/4...6.63 miles ( Monon trail)
6/6...4.24 miles (Monon trail)
6/7...4.24 miles (Monon trail)
6/11...7.76 miles (Monon trail)
6/13....2.02 miles (treadmill)
6/14....4.19 miles (Monon trail)

Total....33.26 miles
Goal....55 miles.

Say, it's tough keeping up with this thread.

I have to work a stretch of days due to having to reconfigure my schedule. So trying to get a short run on the treadmill on those consecutive days that I have to work.

It was cool on Friday and just a pleasure to run on the trail. However I had to quicken my pace quite a bit due to needing to go to the bathroom after running 2.5 miles. Oh well. I am using the 10% rule. I would have run much farther this week, but I like this tool. I think that it is easier to recover if you can build up to longer and longer distances.

As you know, I am a huge horse racing fan. I just read an interesting article about Afleet Alex (2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner). This horse loved working out so much that the trainer used to work him 2 x per day. Pretty interesting. He had almost been knocked to his knees during the Preakness and had so much athleticism that he not only recovered but won the race.

So I am considering 2 a days when I get a stretch of days off, which won't be until the end of June.

I hope everyone is well, and good luck to those racing this weekend.

Goal: 100
June 1: 7 miles
June 2: 7 miles
June 4: 14.58 miles
June 5: 7.8 miles
June 8: 2.3 Miles
June 9: 9.86 Miles
June 11 14.89 miles
June 12 7.6 miles
June 15 6.98 miles (wish Id known i was that close)
Total: 77.98 Miles
Remaining: 22.2 miles

Cruising through June. Going to breeze past 100 miles in the next week

Wow, I'm away from the house for one day and I miss pretty much a million posts here. You guys are THE BEST, and yes I would love to see you all in Spain (but don't come in August, it gets freakin' hot and you can't run without tripping over tourists).
First, a few responses:
@Scott6255 I went through something similar 3 years ago. I had landed what on paper was a really great job on a local newspaper and was quickly promoted to editor. Nobody told me beforehand the only reason was nobody else was naive enough to take it... it involved working about 17-18 hours a day and enduring endless abuse from the owners. I still have nightmares about them now. We needed the money, but I eventually realised that my mental health was far more important, so I quit. Best thing I ever did, I now freelance from home for various different clients. Sure, financially things are a lot tighter, but I'm happy and my daughter is happy and that's what is important to me right now.
@noblsheep @MegaMooseEsq @Elise4270 I'm speechless at your generosity. But we must investigate shipping costs!
@shanaber my mother and I have had weirdo magnets for as long as I can remember. Seriously, if there is a weirdo in the house, he will gravitate towards us within seconds! I am relieved to report that the race was big enough for weirdo to not find me last night (or he wasn't there, probably more likely actually!) :-)

Now for a quick race report. As you all know cause I've been going on about it a lot, I was worried about the 1hr15min cut off time for the 10km race as it was my first time racing that distance (I went from 5km to HM last year with nothing in between). I even considered swapping for the 5km (which had a cut off of 45 min, wth? How does that compute?) but my invisible friends on MFP helped me realise that even if I didn't make it nobody would shoot me and life would go on.
I was also worried because I usually run first thing in the morning on coffee and a banana and this had a 9.30pm start and we had a family member's daughter's first communion celebration during the day which involved a lot of junk food and cake and candy. I am a nervous driver and the race was in the big city about half an hour from home, which I don't know well, and husband and daughter didn't want to come up and hang about waiting for me that late in the day so I had to drive myself.
I left the party at 7pm, came home, changed, sat down for a while then left just before 8pm. Traffic was ok, only one queue to get into the city, I missed my turning but managed to find my way back from the next one and parked in a gap among a bunch of vehicles full of people wearing race shirts. The ugly bright orange race shirt we were asked to wear had its uses!
Found the way into the stadium where the races started and finished in time to watch the kids races on the track and look for the bathroom. Another first for the list.... I was directed towards a line of porta-potties. Is that a runner's baptism of sorts? Thank God I was wearing my ridiculous looking but absolutely awesome trail running belt with a million pockets and space for 2 water bottles, which had a packet of tissues in one pocket :-)
Still had about half an hour to kill and people were jogging on the track to warm up so I decided to join in. I'd never run on a track before, aren't they nice and bouncy!
When they called us to start lining up I made sure I was close to the back, then moved back again when I saw the 60 minute pacer flag even further behind me. Then we were off (surprisingly on time!) and running down towards the beach. It was comfortably cool and pleasant. I ran for 1km, then started my run-walk intervals which I kept up (except I think I missed a few whistles somewhere along the way and ran through a couple of intervals) until I got back to the turn into the stadium at the end of the second loop. There were probably 5 or 6 people who I kept passing when running and then being passed by when walking for most of the first loop, then once I passed the turn off for the 5km finish things spaced out, but I could still see the 60 min pacer flag not far ahead of me so knew I was doing ok. The beautiful sunset behind the city to my left and the sea to my right had kept me distracted during the first loop but by the second it was dark and the views were getting old, at which point I really appreciated my music to pace myself with. There were guys on bikes checking people were ok, and the same one asked me 3 times during walk intervals how I was doing... "awesome!" I kept replying. The 4th time he passed me he yelled over his shoulder "not asking you anymore, you're awesome, if you stop being awesome flag me down!"
Passed the 9km marker and I was feeling tired but still going strong. I thought about running from there but made myself do a couple more 30 second walk intervals, passed a few people who had pretty much run out of steam. At the corner to turn into the stadium and make a lap of the track to the finish line I turned the timer off and went for it. Passed 3 people on that track which really made my competitive streak happy. Crossed the line all on my own, clock showed 1hr4min50secs as I approached, think I got over before it passed 1.05. Strave made it 9.62km not 10km, but it gave me a ton of PRs so I don't care lol.
I have a terrible habit of not cooling down or stretching properly after races and my legs pay the price. So I left the crowded stadium after grabbing a bottle of water and made myself walk around outside for 10 minutes, then went to my car and did a little stretching before getting in and coming home. The journey was ok, but once I got into our street I realised how tired I was when I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put the garage door remote or my house keys... Eventually found them in the glove compartment. Got home, showered, went to bed, couldn't get to sleep for ages because I was still buzzing!
Still buzzing this morning :-) Legs feel tired but don't actually hurt, but will be resting them today anyway.
I do love racing, even if I'll never win anything. When can I do it again?

ETA... sorry, it ended up not being quick!

Skipped two runs last week because I didn't feel well at all. Never got sick, but I was tired, my legs felt heavy, and had no desire to go out and run. So I gave myself a pass for a few days and will pick up where I left off this week. I have a 5K race on Saturday and a 10K on July 4th. I'm hoping whatever funk I'm in passes quickly. Heading out for 5.5Ms once I finish typing this then leaving for another work trip this afternoon. Is it normal to sometimes just get to a point where you need a few days off despite not being injured or sick?

Played golf with my Dad yesterday for Father's Day since I have to leave this afternoon. Happy Father's Day to all the Daddies out there. Enjoy your day!

Elise4270 wrote: »

Scott6255 wrote: »

16.25 miles this morning. Felt easy for about two hours, but the last 37 or so minutes were pretty brutal. 77F, 85% humidity, 20mph. Only had 12 oz of water on me. Tried to ration it, but when it ran out, and the sun came out, that was pretty much the end.
And felt weighted down with soul crushing guilt and regret, because I quit my '2nd job' software development contract. I tried to put up with it for 3 weeks, but each day was worse than the last. The knot in my stomach grew bigger every day, and I just couldn't take the stress any longer. I feel like I committed career suicide 😭. But if I would have stayed, it might have been the other kind. Maybe Home Depot is hiring....

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Spain is hiring. Perhaps we could look at a running commune of sorts.

There’s a shift in our house regarding career changes too, I can’t elaborate just yet. Life’s to short to sell out for corporate America. I know it’s cliche, but I have met people that gladly stepped back and out of certain careers that were just a horrible fit, and they are much happier. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing.

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

noblsheep wrote: »

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

@shanaber It's all about training. And owner attitude. Some dogs, like children, are more sociable/outgoing/boisterous or whatever than others. Not an excuse. Trouble is some people don't care, or are just plain clueless. This guy was walking a dog that is of a size that requires a muzzle to be loose in public here without even a collar on. Also, this was on a trail with massive signs at each banning dogs from being allowed to run loose on it as it's a nesting area. So no respect for the rest of the human race or nature either.

@MegaMooseEsq my situation is similar to yours (work from home, very long hours at the desk) and I find pilates/yoga-type stuff essential for my back. As long as I keep that up I'm fine, but as soon as I miss a couple of days, I find I can't turn over in bed at night without squealing. Well done on resisting the trying to run and see urge, that isn't easy even when you know it makes sense!
@Avidkeo how are you feeling?

About the Garmin. Firstly, @Elise4270 you have a heart that is bigger than you but no way could I accept that! I currently have a fitbit (he doesn't know how much that cost either! gotta love marriage sometimes) that is about a year old. When it dies, I will replace it with a Garmin. To this end, I am saving up every bit of loose change he leaves in his pockets, change from groceries, etc etc. I could have afforded to get myself one with a little bit of money my great-aunt left me when she died. But I spent it on tickets to the Bon Jovi concert in Madrid next month. And a hotel room there, and train tickets to get there. I've been waiting 25 years to see Bon Jovi in concert. And it's almost here! 3 weeks and 2 days to go!!!! Not that I'm counting!!!! Can you tell I'm excited, much? lol

No run for me today. Friday is my rest day. Plus I have to get to the city to pick up my T-shirt and number for tomorrow night's race. Feeling a little more confident I can finish under the cutoff time now, not sure my legs will approve of me doing so though. Oh well.

Hey, I've got an old Garmin 620, totally functional, lying around gathering dust. It's yours if you want it, just pm me an address.

Send me a PM and I’ll chip in on shipping! No sense letting a perfectly functional Garmin gather dust when it could have a loving home. Think of the poor, lonely Garmin, @eleanorhawkins!

I’ve got a paypal account, I could chip in too if I can remember how it works... “help! I need a teenager!” Haha.

I love this group. Everyone gets a Garmin and we all move to Spain. Make room @eleanorhawkins , mfp is coming over. 😉 dh has been wanting to really buckle down on his Spanish. He speaks to me in Spanish, I reply in German. Haha!

If we are chipping in to send @eleanorhawkins a garmin, let me know! I've received some incredible generosity from people here and I want to pay it forward! Won't be much but every little helps.

I love the idea of a commune in Spain, I visited Malaga and Seville about 10 years ago and LOVED it. And I can do everyone's xrays! Haha

Everyone is still recovering. We've changed our moving schedule slightly, doesn't look like we are leaving till Wednesday now. That's OK, can handle that. I think its finally hit hubby, he kept breaking down crying yesterday while packing. I get that. This was our first home. Our kids learned to crawl, walk etc here. So many memories. It still hasn't really hit me yet. I think it will as we leave.

So it's Monday, more packing, moving of big furniture into storage, fridge is being sold today, fortunately we don't have to clean much as we did that for the open homes!

June Running Totals (miles)
6/1 – 5.08 group run
6/2 – 6.30 easy
6/3 – rest day
6/4 – 6.13 easy
6/5 – extra rest day
6/6 – extra rest day
6/7 – scheduled rest day/precautionary DNS
6/8 – 6.30 easy
6/9 – 5.03 warm and humid
6/10 – rest day
6/11 – 5.40 warmup, speed work
6/12 – 4.43 group run
6/13 – extra rest day
6/14 – scheduled rest day
6/15 – 2.17 aborted group run
6/16 – 6.10 warmup + 5K race

June running total to date – 46.94

Nominal June mileage goal: 100

Real Goals: Get back to running regularly without injuring myself.

Today's [and this week's] notes – Today has been a good day, after a frustrating week. I let go of tracking this thread (missed 128 messages) in a funk of wondering if I'd ever be able to run like I used to. What happened:

Wednesday evening I went to a 3 mile group run. I wanted 5 miles, so I added a mile out and back along the Genesee Riverway trail. Right at 3 miles, I notice the river was quite pretty, so I stopped to take upstream and downstream pictures to show you guys. Pictures didn't get posted till now:

So I'm running along, having a wonderful time wrapping up the run and congratulating myself on having the discipline to do an out and back holding the route to 5 miles instead of running to the next bridge that turned out would push the distance to over 6 miles, maybe close to 7. And at 4.4 miles, I get an ache in a part of my thigh that I've never injured before (and thus don't know the correct anatomical term for). No, not really an ache. More of a "Stop Running NOW!" pain. So I slowed to a walk. Picked up to a jog to get across the next intersection when traffic paused for me, and it hurt. Bad. Oh, *kitten*.

I think the hurt part is part of the groin. It was very odd. Didn't bother me at all walking. None of my routine stretches hit that part directly, though a couple seemed to touch it if I was sloppy about them. Next morning, I couldn't even jog the hallway while my eggs cooked. So the extra rest day would have been mandatory even if I didn't decide on it before I walked out the rest of the Wednesday route.

Friday I honored the normal rest day. The hurt spot let me do the egg-timing jog, but I could still feel it.

Saturday morning I went to a group run. It had loops of 5, 3, and 3 miles. The plan was to run 5 miles and call it good. A bit over 2 miles in, that same spot twinged. I stopped running immediately and walked back to base, crossing paths with slower pace groups as they headed out, and being passed by faster pace groups as I got close. The only good news was that I was able to run across intersections with no pain. So I got as much sleep as I could last night, and hoped for the best.

This morning I could feel the spot as I jogged the hall while my eggs cooked. It wasn't bad; but it seemed like the kind of thing that could go out on me in the middle of a run, without warning. So I drove off to the race site, thinking to limit my warmup so as to delay the possible injury. Got there, and had another thought. Decided to do a course preview warmup, as I would if I were healthy. Then if the groin went out, I'd be okay walking back to start and taking a DNS.

Turned out I could run 3 easy miles without a problem. Didn't get a full 5K in the warmup, because I mis-remembered the course and cut some distance; but it was close enough to line up and start. And there's a racing story here.

My club has a new member in my age group. I'd been working on getting him to join since I met him at this race 2 years ago, and he joined this week. He asked what I'd run; I said I didn't think I had a sub-20 5K in me, I might struggle to break 21 minutes, and I could end up walking at any point due to injury. He's trying to break 21 minutes, so he said he'd pace off me. I coached him to line up forward, since it's gun time. Make sure that everyone he's behind is someone he knows is faster than he is.

And the gun goes off. He leaves me behind instead of pacing off me. I take a few paces of trying to keep up, feel the groin, and back off to what my body will tolerate. Lose sight of him for a while. At the one mile flag, I hear the announcer call out 6:30 when I'm one step from his position. That's a slow first mile of a 5K for me, but right about where I should be with the pre-injury plan of running the race at T pace or a little faster. And I see our new club member in the distance. I pass him perhaps 1.5 miles into the race, and tell him now it's all endurance. Hold a fairly steady pace most of the rest of the way, and manage a bit of a kick late.

I end up running the race in 20:19. If I were in true racing condition, I'd expect to be below 20 minutes for this course in good weather. For the condition I'm really in, this is 30 to 40 seconds faster than the best I had thought possible today. And the worst would have been walking more than a mile to finish the race.

The groin faded into obscurity somewhere between a half mile and a mile out. From there on, it was simply managing pace and cardio. I wasn't wiped out like I would be from running a hard race, but it felt like I put forth reasonable effort. Call it running about 10K race pace for most of the 5K, with a modest kick at the end.

And nothing hurt. Did my stretches anyway. Went to my car, dried off, put on a dry shirt and hat, warmup pants, and a jacket. That felt better for standing around than shorts and singlet did. Turned out I won my age group. My new team mate came in second, at 20:58, and was delighted to break 21 minutes for a 5K for the first time. He ran the first mile in 6:15, which was too fast for him to go out; but he hung on enough to break 21 anyway. Third in the age group was another team mate.

No medal, but I got a $20 gift certificate to Medved, which I will probably use to defray part of the cost of a pair of running shorts.

And after the race, I feel great physically and much more optimistic about being able to return to regular running. Optimism notwithstanding, I will still honor the planned rest day tomorrow. Just because I'm optimistic doesn't mean I should be stupid.

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) finished in 32:02
March 17, 2019 Shamrock Half Marathon (Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 1:34:21
April 13, 2019 BAA 5K (Boston, MA) DNS - injury
April 15, 2019 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA) DNS - injury
April 28, 2019 USATF Masters 10K (James Joyce Ramble) (Dedham, MA) canceled registration - injury
May 19, 2019 Lilac Run 5K (Rochester, NY) DNS - injury
May 19, 2019 Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY) DNS - injury
May 25, 2019 Sunset House 5K (Rochester, NY) DNS - injury
June 7, 2019 Charlie McMullen Mile (Pittsford, NY) DNS - precautionary
June 16, 2019 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) finished in 20:19
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)

Yesterday I had a nice time running around a lake a couple times. It was a little bit shorter than I wanted, so I added some out and backs on side trails to end up with an even 20k. Stopped a couple times to check in with my family as they were out on a paddle boat or swimming.
Then we had a birthday party at the campsite and went to the speedway for some races. Fun stuff.

I feel better about next week's race, as I hadn't had a run this long in a while. Slow but steady and I should be fine

June goal 100 miles



Upcoming races:
June 22: Rockwood Rotary HM (rail trail between Rockwood & Garrett, PA)

June goal: 90 miles

6/2: 8.51 miles
6/4: 5.52 miles
6/5: 5.26 miles
6/6: 5.51 miles
6/9: 10.05 miles
6/11: 6.25 miles
6/12: 6.10 miles
6/13: 6.22 miles
6/16: 10.03 miles

63.45/90 miles completed

I had a really nice 10 mile run today. It was a little warmer than it was earlier in the week, but not as hot as I expected it to be. I got up early so I could beat the heat and I'm glad I got the run done early. I've never been a morning person, but I really like getting my run done early. We had some thunderstorms this afternoon too, so I was especially glad I ran earlier.

I hope all of you dad's had a Happy Father's Day!

@rheddmobile Happy belated birthday. Sounds like you had a great!


Congrats to all of you who raced this weekend!






2019 races:
2/2/19: Catch the Groundhog Half Marathon - PR 2:15:17
5/18/19: Run for 57th AHC Half Marathon - Cancelled due to weather