October 2020 Monthly Running Challange

10/1 15.02 miles, 885 Days on the run, 67 days HM+ streak
10/2 15.34 miles
10/3 16.41 miles
10/4 16.6 miles, 70 days HM+ streak
10/5 13.48 miles
10/6 14.23 miles, 890 Days on the run
10/7 13.54 miles
10/8 17.3 miles
10/9 13.27 miles, 75 days HM+ streak
10/10 13.17 miles
10/11 18.16 miles, 895 Days on the run
10/12 18.26 miles NEW SHOES!
10/13 13.55 miles NEW SHOES!
10/14 13.43 miles, 80 days HM+ streak
10/15 15.18 miles
10/16 15.16 miles, 900 Days on the run
10/17 18.3 miles
10/18 15.05 miles
10/19 15.13 miles, 85 days HM+ streak
10/20 15.3 miles
10/21 15.21 miles, 905 Days on the run
10/22 17.24 miles
10/23 17.06 miles
10/24 20.3 miles, 90 days HM+ streak

Part of my mileage today was:
Gourdy's Pumpkin Run: Virtual Run

Hey we’re back up!

@Scott6255 Glad you had a great run! We had almost the same weather, except JUST on the other side of that sweet spot - 49 degrees, 11 mph wind, and it started to drizzle right as we arrived at the park! I was all set to run in my brand new sleeves but the rain just pushed it over the limit for me.

Off came the sleeves, and on went my light rain jacket. I hate being wet in a strong wind. Love my jacket though, although it was really too warm for a jacket it has zippers and vents all over so it gets a ton of airflow. Today reminded me why I have never bothered to buy sleeves before - here it is rarely the right temperature for them unless it’s also raining. These ones were such a great color though, highlighter yellow shading into celery green. Hopefully I will get to try them out soon!

Despite the gloomy weather we had a good run. Today is our day for faster running, not really organized enough to be called speedwork. I wanted to do a nice 5k time just in case our Halloween costumes turn out to be a terrible idea, so we have a backup time for the virtual race. Ended up with 28:54 which is a solid time for us right now.

Ran the first half mile really hard so we could compare it to the probably fictional half mile PR Strava gave me for my last saunter behind the grocery store. I think it’s official, there is something weird about how my gps handles that stretch of road behind Kroger. Today’s fast half (which was downhill, and we really ran it hard) was 4:08, which is in line with my expectations given my current level of fitness - the fastest single mile I’m capable of right now is about 8:45 so I would expect a fast half to be maybe fifteen seconds faster than 4:22. The 4:08 from today turns out to be my THIRD fastest half mile time on Strava - behind the most recent two runs I did behind Kroger, which were both done pretty easy. Yeah.... Something is definitely fishy.

We saw several hawks sitting on poles with their feathers fluffed out. I guess they dislike the chilly rain too!

54.4/70 miles

10/2: 3.1 miles
10/3: 6.2 miles
10/5: 5.2 miles
10/7: 3 miles
10/8: 4.7 miles
10/13: 3.5 miles
10/14: 3.5 miles
10/16: 5 miles
10/17: 4 miles
10/20: 3.9 miles
10/21: 3 miles
10/22: 3.1 miles
10/24: 6.2 miles

I got to run a real life race today on easy trails through a wildflower farm.

Race Report: One of my goals for the year was to get my 10k under an hour. My prior fastest was 1:01:40 so I really felt I could get there. A cold front blew in last night and it was quite a bit colder than it was forecasted for when I packed. It was 47F this morning. Luckily I brought a warmer outfit option. Light Capri leggings and a wool blend long sleeve. Turned out to be perfect.
They gave the option to defer when they initially rescheduled and I think quite a few people did. It turned out to be a small group even though both a 5k and 10k were running. The 5k was 1 loop and the 10k was 2.
They started in rough waves to keep people spread out and the first wave was the 10:00 a mile and under group. When I finished the first loop, I was on pace to make my goal. The second loop was harder for sure. I hadn't pushed this hard for this many miles in a while. Coming around the back of the second loop I started lapping the 5k walkers and that really kept me pushing because it gave me people to pick off. Even if they were walking, it helped.
The course turned out to be a hair short, so my official finish time was 58:44 but I had to run another 45 secs or so until my watch agreed I was done, so my Garmin time was 59:20. Either way, I made it in under an hour. I even won 2nd in my age group!

@rheddmobile - I had to laugh at your description of the European hamster in the video!
I have had the same frustration with Target online ordering. Same deal - make you order a bunch of stuff to see the requirements and then it all gets shipped separately anyways. When I can I do order pickup or I go elsewhere (Amazon usually).
@HonuNui - so cool that you got the 2 triggerfish to show off both their appearances! I love watching the octopi change colors too!
@Camaramandy648 - been there done that teenage girl thing - this too shall pass! Hang in there.
@Tramboman - I reserve the right to complain about warm weather in October/November. I finally had a cooler run (low 70's on Monday) and today was downright lovely after the 90+ weather last week. We are supposed to get hot and windy again though this coming week, back into the mid to high 80's . I guess that is better than 90+ though.
@Teresa502 - I love all the support you are getting for your MCM! That retired Marine sounds so sweet!
@katharmonic - the hiking pictures are beautiful! Hope you had a better evening and day!
@RunsOnEspresso - glad your foot is better and you were able to get your 11 miles in!
@martaindale - awesome job on your IRL 10K!!

I headed out for my run this morning wanting to do a tempo run but my hip was so stiff I almost called and went home. I am so glad I didn't. It was cloudy, overcast with a light breeze and mid-60's and maybe even a little drizzly. Almost perfect running weather. I made it over to the trail and decided to use an app workout for motivation. I don't have the Peloton app any longer so I used the Gold's Gym equivalent and did an endurance build with a 5 min run/1 min recovery, 6 min run/1 min recovery, 8 min run/1 min recovery. The 8 min run was not successful but the others were great so coming back I tried to do just 5-6 min runs with a minute or so recovery. It worked fairly well but my legs were tired I think from all the lunges and squats in my HIIT class yesterday. Also I realized I really don't like the Gold's Gym app much and wouldn't pay for it (I have it for free right now). It wasn't very motivating. Just the 'trainer' telling you when the intervals were starting and not much else. I didn't like the music either which was pretty much the entire workout. Before I turned around for home I came across all the birds... There must have been fish or some other reason they were all together in one area, pelicans, egrets, a heron, cormorants, and ducks. I also crossed paths with a coyote. It was ahead of me, came up from the river and ran across the trail through a break in the fence and into the settling pond area. I took a picture but it was pretty far away at that point. Funny I had been noticing some large paw prints in the dirt and thinking there might have been a large cat prowling around. They definitely weren't from the coyote though. Date..........Miles........Total
10/01.......5.26..........5.26
10/02.......0.00..........5.26
10/03.......4.08..........9.34
10/04.......5.66........15.00
10/05.......4.54........19.54 - + Agility Class
10/06.......0.00........19.54
10/07.......5.19........24.73
10/08.......0.00........24.73
10/09.......4.95........29.68
10/10.......6.26........35.94
10/11.......4.44........40.38
10/12.......4.71........45.09 - + Agility Class
10/13.......0.00........45.09
10/14.......0.00........45.09 - Aerobics w/PNW Ballet
10/15.......0.00........45.09
10/16.......4.92........50.01
10/17.......6.88........56.89
10/18.......3.69........60.58
10/19.......5.29........65.87
10/20.......0.00........65.87 - + Agility Class
10/21.......5.62........71.49
10/22.......3.23........74.72
10/23.......0.00........74.72 - HIIT and Stretch & Roll Class
10/24.......7.66........82.38

2020 Run the Year Team - 2020 R.I.O.T. (Running Is Our Therapy) 1379.25/1000 miles (running and walking)

2020 Planned and Completed Races
02/02/20 - Surf City Half Marathon
07/31/20 - ISS Virtual 10K (Late)
08/15-09/30 - eRace Racism (200 miles) 200+ miles completed.
09/21-09/27 - Womxn Run the Vote - 680 mile virtual relay
09/26/20 - Beat the Blerch 10K Virtual
10/03-11/03 - Race to the Polls - 80 miles
10/01-11/18 - Fit Witch Challenge - 100 miles
11/11/20 - ASICS World Ekiden 2020 (Team 2)

Yesterday’s plan was a short 5 minutes warmup, 20 at 10:11-11:11 pace, 5 minutes cool down. I had guests coming after lunch, so the short run worked out well.

My friend group had our annual pumpkin carving party. We have done it for most of the last 15 years. Three of us have always done it, and then spouses and a couple of others were added. I ate a lot of food and sangria, so I am going to try to be good today. I have a long run planned, but I have missed Fedex a couple of times (they came during the party and didn’t knock, just left a door tag), so I am trying to stick around until the truck comes. I just hope they come earlier rather than later so I can get the run completed.