July 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Well, I'm 5 days and 8 pages behind. Sorry I just can't seem to find the time to check in on a regular basis like I really want to. You guys are so great and I love reading about your accomplishments and even the struggles. Those give me hope and inspiration to keep going when I want to give up. I'm hoping that my schedule will calm down a little bit next week, but, then, I am going to go to Wisconsin for a wedding at the end of the month and have family coming in the day I get home from that. So, a hectic, but fun month.

Anyway, I am going to shoot for 30 miles this month. I managed to get 35 in last month.

And now for some exciting news. At least it is for me. I'm not sure why, but am practically giddy over the fact that I signed up for a virtual race this morning. I've been struggling to find a 10K race I can do on my 60th birthday - to repeat what I did on my 50th birthday (my first race ever). I had resigned myself to doing an 8K midnight run on August 3/4th, but hadn't signed up for it yet. Good thing, because my step-daughter has chosen that weekend to come for a visit. In fact, she will be here the day I get back from a wedding in Wisconsin. She told me to not change my plans, but I don't want to be away for an entire night when she and the granddaughters are here. So, today, I signed up for the Virtual Strides One Small Step 10K. It is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing on July 20th and part of the proceeds goes to the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. I do plan to run it on the 20th, weather permitting. The medal and bib are way to cool to pass up. Here is the link, if you want to see them. https://www.virtualstrides.com/product/one-small-step/. I think part of the reason I am so excited is that it just feels right since my deceased husband worked on the Apollo program and I worked at Cape Canaveral when I was in the Air Force. In fact, that is where we met. He passed away on July 22, 2006 - so that adds to the appropriateness for me. I just need to get in some runs between now and then. Lately, I've been doing a whole lot more walking that I am running. I know I can do that distance, even if I have to walk a lot of it, but would prefer to have a decent time. I think my original 10K was just a little under 1 hour and 15 minutes. I would love to beat that time, but will be happy if I am somewhere close to that.

Yeah today is looking like a rest day...

In case you were wondering... If you could look at the sun right now, it would look something like this. We are in a solar minimum right now, which means no sunspots or really much of anything to see. The couple of dark patches are dirt on the lens. The sun is currently featureless. Clouds moved in before I could clean and reshoot.
Shot with my Canon SL3 mounted on a Celestron 50mm solar telescope via an 8mm eyepiece giving an effective magnification of 44x
The image is in spoiler tags in case any of you are vampires...

Did a treadmill run today because it was rainy, humid, and hot outside. I did 3 miles in 37:23 minutes, for a 12:28 per mile pace. I know that is slow for a lot of you, but pretty good for me.

I journal. Everyday. So, I went back and found the journal entry for the race I did 10 years ago. I completed the 10K in 1 hour, 16 min, and 59.9 seconds. LOL I'm pretty sure I can match that in two weeks. I hope so anyway. BTW, 10 years ago I ran the race on August 2nd, two days before my 50th birthday; putting me in the 49 age group. I had noted that had it been after my birthday, I would have gotten a prize because there were no women over 49 in the race.

Thanks for the thoughts on those of us in So Cal. The earthquake on the 4th hit while I was putting on my sunscreen and I thought I was getting sick/dizzy until I saw the door swinging and realized what was going on. We are far enough away that it just felt like a slow roller and we pretty much immediately knew it was a bigger quake somewhere and were glad it wasn't in the urban areas along the San Andreas. We were at the Hollywood Bowl last night when the 7.1 hit and it was much stronger as you can imagine and we were also a bit closer to the epicenter. However that quake was also felt all the way to Reno and Phoenix! They are saying the 6.4 on the 4th was a 'pre-quake' to the 7.1. I don't know how they determine one from another other than the timing but to be and I am sure the folks right there, a quake is a quakes and the size is important. Unfortunately with the 7.1 there was considerable damage to homes and businesses and the hospital there had to be evacuated. On the other side I haven't heard of any serious injuries thank goodness.

@mbaker566 - love the pictures!
@katharmonic - marine layer is so common here I never thought about someone not knowing what it is... For us it is like thick clouds that come in off the ocean, typically at night and burning off in the morning. Depending on where you are it can last all day and may result in drizzle especially the closer you are to the beach. It also keeps it nice and cool into the morning so if you can get out early it is perfect for running. As soon as it starts to burn off though the temps go right up.
@Lazy_Bones_85 - congratulations on finishing well in such brutal conditions! Ugh - I just can't imagine running that hard in the heat and humidity!
@Avidkeo - congratulations on selling your house! Good luck with the house hunting!
@simcon1 - beautiful pictures! I really need to get down there... unfortunately not somewhere work would have sent me and we already have so many places we want to visit! Some day though!

So my run yesterday was supposed to be 30 mins of tempo + 1 mile WU and CD. I had my timer set for 10min easy, 15 min build and 5 min easy once I got to the trail. After the 10min easy I kept waiting for the midpoint of the build and never heard it so just kept trying to build. Never heard the end of that interval either and finally stopped to check it. Even with walking a bit during the build interval to get my HR down from the high 130's I thought, I pushed it way too hard... as evidenced by my very (too) high HR! Yes, I was running hard, knew my HR was up but it didn't really feel that bad. So I was shocked to see when I got home that it hit 193! Yikes! I have never seen it that high and 150 is supposed to be my max per the cardiologist. I did check the actual data from the HR monitor to see if it was something with the monitor losing connection and the watch misreading but there is HRM data at/near that level for about 2 minutes. I guess that means my cardiovascular system is not quite back to where I should be yet.

So today I had a 6 mile run on the plan but between that run yesterday and being out late at the concert last night I decided to pass on the run and give myself a recovery day. We leave on a road trip tomorrow morning so likely no run for me until Monday.
Date........Miles.......Total
07/01......4.55........4.55
07/02......0.00........4.55
07/03......0.00........4.55
07/04......5.52......10.07
07/05......4.86......14.93
07/06......0.00......14.93



2019 Planned and Completed Races
02/03/19 - Surf City Half Marathon Deferred to 2020
05/11/19 - Santa Barbara Wine Country HM
09/15/19 - Jack and Jill Downhill HM - Boise
11/23/19 - USA Women's HM
02/02/20 - Surf City Half Marathon

Hi I'm completely new to running and have no idea what distance I should be starting with or how many days a week I should be running. I'm not completely unfit but I'm also not a consistent exerciser. Any advice warmly welcome 😁 . Starting with my first run tomorrow

It’s been an enjoyable week so far. Last week saw a sign for a 4 mile race on the 4th. The day prior to it, my daughter who was going to do the 2 mile walk with her cousin and grandma, announced she would do the 4 mile with me if I walked. I couldn’t pass up that opportunity, so we had a great time walking and running using cones, electrical poles, and mailboxes. It was a cooler start to the day and we originally thought it was going to be a lake day, but realized it was a good day for a long run.

7/2 - 3 miles
7/4 - 4 miles
7/6 - 7 miles

Total - 14 miles/Goal - 60 miles