November 2020 Monthly Running Challenge

Thankful Turkey 5k today! The weather was perfect and we just ran like hell.

Strava 5k PR - not an official pr but my official PR was on a short course so this may be my actual fastest 5k over a full course. Today’s virtual race was 27:38 and 3.11 which is 8:53, and our previous in-person race PR was 27:04 over 3.04 miles, which is 8:54. The course we got the PR on is “officially certified” but I’ve run it probably two dozen times and never seen my gps data there anything close to 5k. In any case I’m very satisfied with our performance! I feel like I could have peeled off maybe 20 seconds in the last mile with the right sort of mental toughness, but it was close to my max effort.

Almost no one on the road while we were running which was a nice change. We had a couple cyclists go past and cheer for us and one guy we often see running out there. We did our final sprint near a walker who called out, “Did you win?” And my husband flings his arms out and says, “As far as I can see we finished first!” Then during our cool down walk we passed the train photo kids who all smiled and greeted us. We are friends now, that’s nice!

I hope all the Americans had a lovely Thanksgiving. Getting Pastor Vincent’s medal last night reminded me to be thankful for the things we often take for granted, and to always look for the things to be thankful for even in loss. If you lose something you should always be thankful for the time you got to have it! I am thankful for this crazy year and for getting to know all of you.

November Goal 63ish miles

11/1 off
11/2 lazy
11/3 4.12
11/4 4.08
11/5 snorkel 1 hour
11/6 2.85
11/7 3.68
11/8 off
11/9 off
11/10 3.57
11/11 3.39
11/12 off
11/13 4.00
11/14 off
11/15 heavy gardening
11/16 4.00
11/17 off
11/18 5.00
11/19 off
11/20 snorkel 1.5 hours-horrible conditions, no pics
11/21 3.36
11/22off
11/23 off
11/24 4.00
11/25 off
11/26 2.00 Total 44.05

Thank you to the medal fairy!





Upcoming and current races:

Asics World Ekiden Virtual Relay (5k leg) 11/11/20

Happy thanksgiving to all the Americans!

Im Thankful that after MONTHS of injury and rehab, I've officially been given the go ahead to start HM training! Its 12 weeks away, which works perfectly with Hals Novice 1 plan! Ive already signed up and have the weekend off work. And my physio is likely to come to the HM as well - i know him from parkrun before he was my physio lol.

And we have pretry much mapped out my next year. I have a HM in Feb, another one in June which is almost the exact same course so will hopefully PB the second race (winter run in June). Then will start pushing towards the Marathon in Auckland in November.

Woo hoo!

Oh and itsy birthday tomorrow. Going out for a santa parade at lunch time, then out to a restaurant for a late lunch /dinner.

Cant wait!

@rheddmobile Congratulations on your PR! That's an amazing pace and sounds like you had an enjoyable run and everyone was so supportive. I love that. You look awesome, btw.

@kgirlhart Glad your foot is all better and you were able to run.

@HonuNui What a great view!

@Avidkeo Yeah for being cleared for you HM training! Happy Birthday to your itsy.

@mbaker566 Poor Speed Demon! Glad your organization is making sure the right family gets the Doberman. They are not for everyone.

I guess I'm really out in the boonies since I haven't received my medal yet. Maybe it will be waiting for me when I get home tonight.

75/90 miles

11/2: 5 miles
11/3: 3.1 miles
11/6: 5 miles
11/7: 6.5 miles
11/10: 5.1 miles
11/11: 3 miles
11/12: 5.2 miles
11/14: 7.6 miles
11/16: 5.1 miles
11/17: 3.1 miles
11/19: 4.7 miles
11/21: 8.1 miles
11/23: 3.5 miles
11/24: 6.8 miles
11/27: 3.2 miles

Got out this morning for a short shake out run. I have my long run tomorrow and I haven't run in several days. So I thought it would probably be a good idea just to loosen my legs up a little bit before jumping into a long run. I thought I was going to get lucky and beat the rain, but it started sprinkling just as I left the house. Oh well, a little over 3 miles in a steady light rain isn't too bad. It's going to be raining pretty much all day here so I figured I might as well get it over with.
I might make my mile goal this month?!? Not totally sure yet, but if I don't make it, it'll be really, really close. This will definitely be the most miles ever run in a month.

Happy birthday @Avidkeo!! And happy clearance for HM training. Great things to celebrate!

I love Dobermans, they are so beautiful. But I'm partial to scruffy dogs as well. My Stella is a little scruffy as a Staffordshire terrier/min poodle mix, but her hair is softer than many wire-haired dogs (pic below under spoilers). I missed the dog show but found it funny that 3 different people told me 3 different names of the breed of dog that had won it. First Russian something, then Irish Wolfhound and finally I learned it was actually the Scottish Deerhound. Anyway, I knew it was big and scruffy!

Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
11/01/20 :::: 5.3 :::: 5.3
11/02/20 :::: 3.0 :::: 8.3
11/03/20 :::: 1.8 :::: 10.1
11/04/20 :::: 3.0 :::: 13.1
11/05/20 :::: 3.1 :::: 16.2
11/06/20 :::: 3.1 :::: 19.3
11/07/20 :::: 13.1 :::: 32.4
11/08/20 :::: 3.3 :::: 35.7
11/09/20 :::: 1.5 :::: 37.2
11/10/20 :::: 1.5 :::: 38.7
11/11/20 :::: 3.9 :::: 42.5
11/12/20 :::: 2.0 :::: 44.6
11/13/20 :::: 7.0 :::: 51.6
11/14/20 :::: 3.6 :::: 55.1
11/15/20 :::: 3.1 :::: 58.3
11/16/20 :::: 2.0 :::: 60.2
11/17/20 :::: 2.7 :::: 62.9
11/18/20 :::: 1.6 :::: 64.5
11/19/20 :::: 2.0 :::: 66.5
11/20/20 :::: 3.1 :::: 69.6
11/21/20 :::: 8.0 :::: 77.6
11/22/20 :::: 3.3 :::: 80.9
11/23/20 :::: 3.3 :::: 84.2
11/24/20 :::: 1.4 :::: 85.5
11/25/20 :::: 4.9 :::: 90.4
11/26/20 :::: 3.2 :::: 93.6
11/27/20 :::: 5.1 :::: 98.6

I went out with 2 friends this morning for a mid-morning run. We decided to try a new place, and our coach had been talking up this new trail that is an section of the NY Empire State Trail that is almost completed and will connect all the way across the state from Albany to Buffalo along the old Erie Canal route (for the most part) and also north and south from NYC to the Canadian border. This section recently opened and connects from the fairgrounds and park where we run every other week to an older section of the canalway trail to the west. Our review of this trail was pretty mixed. It starts out on a pedestrian bridge crossing the busy interstate exchange and then navigating past the fairgrounds and some really industrial/junk pile kind of scenery to the actual trail itself, which had very little visually to offer. The trail was wide and nice to run on, small crushed rock surface and they had built nice fencing along it. But yeah, not much to look at besides roads, grass, and the back of industrial buildings. I'm quite sure it eventually gets to nicer views of the canal but I don't think we'll rush to repeat this. The good part that I know our coach likes about it is that if you want to do a really long run from the parkway all the way to the canal extension it would allow you to get a lot of miles without doing loops. I don't ever intend to run that kind of mileage again so I'm good. But I do appreciate the great contiguous trail system and all the options. For biking especially it would be incredible. But running wise I'll pick better sections.

A few pics from today and yesterday, including my friend in her turkey-riding costume:

Cake pics for @PastorVincent i didnt make this, my Husband and Kids did! I asked for a cake for my birthday since I usually do my own and I wasnt making a cake for myself this year. I dont actually remember ever getting birthday cake before. Im sure I have, but I usually make my own.

Ive just realised my autocorrect has tuened off, so all my bad spelling mistakes are coming through!! Grrr typing is twice as long this way!

11/1 26.48 miles, 916 Days on the run, 98 days HM+ streak
11/2 26.45 miles
11/3 15.3 miles, 100 days HM+ streak
11/4 15.04 miles
11/5 18.2 miles, 920 Days on the run
11/6 17.24 miles
11/7 18.13 miles
11/8 17.24 miles, 105 days HM+ streak
11/9 18.41 miles
11/10 15.33 miles, 925 Days on the run
11/11 17.15 miles
11/12 13.3 miles
11/13 15.08 miles, 110 days HM+ streak
11/14 18.08 miles
11/15 13.29 miles, 930 Days on the run
11/16 13.32 miles
11/17 13.23 miles
11/18 13.47 miles, 115 days HM+ streak
11/19 14.01 miles
11/20 17.53 miles, 935 Days on the run
11/21 18.37 miles, so excited I kept up with a 6mth pregnant lady!
11/22 13.21 miles
11/23 17.35 miles, 120 days HM+ streak I AM 50 YEARS OLD!
11/24 13.65 miles
11/25 13.41 miles, 940 Days on the run, half OTR, half Crazy Laps
11/26 26.31 miles, Turkey! Turkey! Turkey!
11/27 13.28 miles

Happy birthday @avidkeo.

Thanks everyone for your kind words on my new PB! I'm still smiling about it.

I'm currently on recovery/taper this week as I have another half next Sunday - fortunately it's a 'C' race so basically just a training run. Nice location though, at the beach.

I went out for an hour's run yesterday - very humid here now so that made things hard. Otherwise, my legs have recovered well, which is great.

I was talking to my coach in a post-event debrief and he said, "When we met, you said you wouldn't run a marathon unless you could go sub-four hours. Well, you can. Do you want to run a full?" To that I replied, "No!"

Although there are a few hankerings to knock off a full, I don't want to do that much training - especially as we'll be building our new house for much of next year and that will take priority.

However, when he asked what my next goal was, I did say, "I'd like to go comfortably under 1:45, do you think I could do a 1:42 on a flat fast course?" He said, "We can try. The Waterfront Half in April is your best bet."

And now I have my next target to aim for!

Fortunately, build up for that doesn't start until January, so I get to have the next six weeks just enjoying myself.

Happy birthday @Avidkeo
Happy (late) Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it.

I'm still on auto-pilot, speed reading, liking and hugging but not much else.
I ran a HM distance this morning in accordance with my new random plan to run one on the last Saturday of every month. We're not allowed to cross any town boundaries, so it took a lot of stupid and annoying loops to get the distance in, and there were some little hills involved. Plus it was all roads as we've had some heavy rain and the river trail was likely to be muddy as well as busy, and I was wearing my relatively new white shoes so didn't want to trash them. My legs are telling me there's a big distance between 13.1 miles on dirt and 13.1 miles on pavements. Tomorrow might be.... interesting.
Next week will be a cutback week, it will be nice not to get out of bed at 6am next Saturday to go out in the dark.
I forget what I had set as my goal for this month, but I'm at 145.2km with another 5km planned on Monday, so it will be a nice round (ish) 150km.

ETA: I don't know why but apparently small dogs hate me today. A chihuahua and a yorkshire terrier tried to attack me today in two completely different times and places. The chihuahua (is that how you spell it?) almost sent me flying because it was loose in a park and literally ran straight into my ankles with its teeth bared. Luckily I was wearing thick socks and compression sleeves so it didn't get through, but it did trip me up and I almost hit the floor. Then an hour later I went to pass an elderly man with a yorkie on a leash and that decided it wanted to go for me too!