February 2020 Monthly Running Challenge

@bearly63 thank you!

@katharmonic a for sale sign on my
Butt lmao i laughed right out loud

I got my twelve miles in !!! It actually felt pretty good for the four miles in the gym, then lifting. I could feel myself wearing out, though. At some point i remembered that I forgot to eat anything this morning.

By the time i got to the trail for the other eight, i ate a couple of gels and that certainly helped but i think i had already burned through so much that at that point, I was just trying to catch up.

Today’s run, per the schedule, really should have been eighteen miles but since I only ran a few miles last Saturday and nursed my IT band all week, I thought it would be wise to just do twelve and not risk hurting myself more. My legs definitely felt stronger, but i was TIRED. After just a week off, my endurance didn’t seem to be quite up to par. It was harder than it should have been but i just kept telling myself - It’s okay! You’re recovering from an injury! You’ve been off a week! Just do what you CAN!

Turns out I’m really glad i didn’t push for eighteen because on the loop back I could feel the pain returning. It was so frustrating but I kept my negative self talk at bay. Pushing myself too hard is likely how this happened in the first place and I really REALLY do not want a repeat of that.

So here I am, Netflixing on the couch, one hour til i pick up my kids. I have showered and foam rolled and now i am TIRED!

The procrastination was strong with me today.... between general weekend laziness... and the fact my current regroup has progressed far enough that I was on the dreaded C25K - W5D3..... you would think I have regrouped enough times at this point... and lived thru that particular workout enough times.... and lived thru a half marathon.... that that particular workout would not still be able to intimidate me like that....

but... brain worms are weird. So, I remembered to bring a towel to cover the dreadmill screen, dropped the pace a bit.... and lived through it again.

I then proceeded to mostly walk, but did add a small bit of running, to bring my total miles to 2.9, for a nice leap day mileage.
So, 2.1 yesterday, and 2.9 today = 30.3 / 25 mile goal like number.

20 miles, 3.5 donuts and 2 beers for the day.

That gives me 133 miles for February and the most monthly miles since October. The crazy thing is they were nearly all weekend miles. I only had 13 miles over 2 runs during the week. That's not good.

Late posting my 9.25 miles for yesterday. I thought we were done on Friday - I had forgotten all about leap year.

Took the dog for a walk/run for a HUMUNGOUS BIG 1.75 miles yesterday. Looks like I ended around 41 miles for the month. HAHA

@bearly63 Thanks for posting that article, it’s inspiring reading about so many different women and their paths to greatness!

I finished February up with a leap day run which was planned to be 10k easy at WC Johnson Park in Collierville - but as we pulled onto the highway we were met by a stream of cars driving the wrong way back towards us down the on ramp! So we turned around and got off, which was wise because as it transpired a fatal Jeep rollover on the highway led to the road being closed for the next three hours. Not only that, but Winchester road and North Germantown, the two closest ways of getting around the highway blockage, were also closed for the investigation, making the nearest route to Collierville several miles out of the way, an hour long drive through the middle of town. It would have been dark by the time we got where we were going, so we ended up backtracking to Shelby Farms instead. By the time we got to Shelby Farms it was too late to get 10k in, especially at an easy pace, so we did 5k and then fartleked around for two miles instead of our usual cool down walk.

I’m glad we did manage to get a run in because it was truly glorious springtime weather.

Sunday was the awards ceremony and afterparty for the Winter Off-Road series. The venue is a bar with a stage, pool room, and a bunch of restored antique pinball machines. After the winners were announced there was live music.

A tiny bit of drama leading up to the awards ceremony - remember how I thought I was tied for third, but actually fourth because of coming in slower in the longer race, then discovered I had forgotten the bonus point for doing all the races in the series and was third after all? Well, a couple of days ago I happened to check the results again (because I am a little tiny bit obsessive compulsive) and instead of being third, I was listed in fourth, with no bonus point. Although I would have been fine with being fourth in the first place, finding out I didn’t get an award after being told I was going to get one was disappointing. The language about the bonus point on the race site is confusing and I figured I had just read the rules wrong, whoever had totaled the scores originally had done the same, then someone else had caught the error and fixed it. But just in case I wrote and asked why the total had changed.

The next morning I got a message saying the series totals had all been recalculated due to an error which had nothing to do with me, and they had failed to notice that I had the bonus point, so I was back in third! Yay. But also, whiplash! Glad I pointed it out!

So after that I didn’t feel at ease until they called my name and I had my medal in my hot little hands!

We had a good time talking to people outside of a race setting. Got to know the people at our table, introduced myself to the lady who was fastest in my AG (she took second master so was ineligible for AG awards) and congratulated her, went for a walk in the park, then had a nice supper at a midtown bar which serves Cajun food. Altogether a pretty good day!