February 2021 Monthly Running Challenge

My husband and I ran our 8k road race yesterday for our private Winter Series. We did it on the Greenline which is flatter than our usual railroad access road.

The weather was absolutely perfect for PRs - bright run, no wind, hardly any humidity, and just a little too chilly to walk comfortably.

I don’t have much experience with running 8k as a road race, although I was mistaken when I said I had never done it before - I did it last May as part of a series. At the time I was out of shape, and our time was pretty poor - 49:42 or just barely under 10 minute mile pace. So I knew we could do better than that! I just didn’t know how much better. Had no clue about pacing!

I didn’t want to go out too slow and then regret it later so I decided to aim for about 15-30 seconds per mile slower than our 5k pace, which is about 8:45. So, between 9 and 9:15. Decided to start at the fast end of that because the first mile on the Greenline is downhill and we could bank some time for the uphill later. Felt great, and a cyclist we usually see when running passed us and yelled, “You guys are killing it!” which gave us a nice morale boost.

I noticed that Strava was calling later than expected - just one of those days - but otherwise felt pretty good and managed to stay on pace for the first 3.5 miles to the turnaround. Then felt unexpectedly wiped for the last couple miles and even had to take a couple brisk walk breaks. Strava still calling well after our usual landmarks. Oh well! Managed 45:51 which is a 9:13 pace, even with the walk breaks, so overall right what I was expecting. Pretty good!

We passed right under a big fat hawk on our run, then again on our walk back. He didn’t even move, just looked at us.

When I got home I checked the Strava run and noticed something - although Strava did give me a 3rd best 5k, 27 something - the marked 3.11 mile segment on the first half of the run (which really is 3.11, we have run it many times and it’s accurate) was even faster: 26:23. Which is more than 30 seconds faster than my all time 5k PR! Looking closely at the data and comparing it to previous runs on the same road, Strava seems to have been calling about six percent longer than it was supposed to. Which adds up to almost a third of a mile extra, over five miles! So.... yeah, we ran three 8:30 miles in a row when we thought we were running 9 minute miles! Oops, no wonder we felt trashed on the last couple of miles!

So, double PR day, a new PR for 8k and an unexpected one for 5k!

Hello February! Very late to this party but it’s taken about two days trying to read and just catch up!😉

So January wasn’t great for me, Covid definitely kicked my behind and running has felt super hard since. But I was delighted to have got back to some regularity and to be back outside rather than treadmill bound.

This month I’ve had a slow start due to work and my younger daughter’s 10th birthday on Wednesday. Trying to make it special even though London is in full lockdown is hard. Went out for runs three days in a row and was feeling great about doing little and often to chip away at things, but Friday afternoon I twisted my ankle on a gentle walk!! So frustrated, so sad, and then so annoyed with myself about feeling like that when things could be so much worse. Resting this weekend and trying to give myself a stern talking to.

Assuming I’m ok to run again by tomorrow or Tuesday, I will try to get back to daily short runs. Going to keep my goal numbers-free for this month though. Let’s see...

Belated birthday wishes @marisap2010, congrats on the 15k @Avidkeo, brilliant job on the 8k and 5k PRs @rheddmobile. @quilteryoyo I’m glad you have Tippy back. And your 2.02m tribute to your dad made me emotional. You are a special person. Too many other amazing runners and runs to namecheck. But you are all brilliant! Xx

Feb goal: regular runs, build up fitness

Feb mileage:
3/2: 3.8m
4/2: 3.8m
5/2: 3.8m

I greatly enjoy reading this thread and I learn something new every day! @Scott6255 Gatorade chews. Never heard of them but great idea. Might have to try some. Esp in the summer here when we tend to melt even before sunup on our runs.

@Faebert I was wondering where you were!! thank you for the update and many hugs on the ankle. My # one goal this year as always is to stay injury free. (and Covid free!)

@quilteryoyo so happy to hear you are reunited with your pup! I can't imagine being separated from days much less weeks but I know you had to. When is your next Dr visit? Seems like you have a lot of progress going on!

Yesterday was quite the interesting day for me. Having done 8 speedy (for me) miles on Friday I was intending to keep my pace slower (11 min miles) and just do 5 with maybe 2 later on at speed when it warmed up. I ended up sticking to the pace quite well but doing 8 again. LOL. Not sure what is up with that. I am proud that I could actually control my pace to some extent even if it was slowing it down. I have never been one to be able to do that.

Then I decided that it was time to break in the next pair of shoes with a 2 mile run afternoon. Well they were FAST and I ended up doing 3 and meeting my pace goal with a new mile split record of 8:41. My previous best was 8:52 and this was actually the last mile which is uphill so quite chuffed with that new accomplishment. Apple watch told me my avg HR was 190 but the reason I wear a fitbit is to get a better HR # and that was 177 which I find more believable. LOL.

This morning my legs feel fine so it looks like my ever increasing mileage since last fall has led to greater stamina for longer runs. It's a bit chilly this morning so not sure what the plan will be. I guess I will figure it out when I get into it. Someone offered me a "training" plan but I am never one to stick to a program as I tend to rebel against organization in that manner for my running.

@martaindale that is wonderful that your family is progressing so well on the C25K. I loved and still do love that program. Whoever thought of it was truly a genius! Congrats on the 10 miler too!

Summer

@142jmh - where are you located? That is really, really cold!
@kirstymn - Interesting that you have the Waitangi Day festival. There was a Bob Marley festival in Los Angeles yesterday in celebration of his 75th birthday. I am not sure how they actually had it given that most everything is shut down still. I am sure there was lots of reggae and pot being smoked in his honor though!
@polskagirl01 - I am loving that your son wanted to run the trails with you, pushed his effort and enjoyed it! I suspect it won't be long before he is keeping up with you at least!
@Scott6255 - I hope your shin is still feeling ok. I have that sometimes with my knee where it doesn't hurt when I get running but does at the beginning and sometimes afterwards.
@ContraryMaryMary - maybe your HR zones need to be adjusted too? As I got more fit and along with the low HR I had anyway, it became impossible for me to ever get to the expected HR zones no matter how hard I pushed the pace.
@rheddmobile - you guys are awesome! Congrats on your PBs!!
@faebert - I hope your ankle is ok! Once it is feeling better you might try taping it to give it a little extra support when you run. I also hope the Covid after affects go away soon! Happy 10th birthday to your daughter!
@HonuNui - How are you enjoying your world travels?
@martaindale - I have had the honey stingers and honestly they tasted ok but I didn't like the mess. I seem to have a pretty sensitive stomach when I run and used the Bloks for a while until I realized they were the cause of my issues. I switched to using Gummy Bears for a while until I found Skratch Labs energy chews (matcha green tea and lemon is my favorite). Like @scott6255 with the Gatorade chews, I suck on them, letting them dissolve slowly in my mouth. They also have hydration mixes that I have used in the summer in my vest instead of just water. I have not tried the recovery mixes but I have heard they are also good.
@summerskier - you are doing great! I hope you are taking some time to rest too and let your body recover! Also I don't think it is allowed to talk about new shoes without some shoe porn to go along with it...

Took a very short, under 2 mile, walk yesterday to hopefully get my knee feeling better and it is (yay) feeling much better this morning. Taking a 'rest' day maybe today and may do some strength training. I need to get the ladder out and get up and harvest tangerines before they start to rot on the tree or the critters and wild parrots get them all.

@shanaber I'm in Canada There's beautiful bright blue skies here today, and the sun is shining, the snow is blindingly bright... and when you stand in the sunlight of a window its so warm and lovely. But then you step outside and the breath is robbed from your lungs. Its a frigid one for sure. Forecast for tonight is -40C. Fun fact, -40 is the point that Celsius and Fahrenheit overlap! Tangerines and wild parrots?! That sounds awesome! Where are you located?
@quilteryoyo Tippy sounds like sweetie, glad you have been reunited!

3.5 / 20 hours done!

142jmh wrote: »

@shanaber I'm in Canada There's beautiful bright blue skies here today, and the sun is shining, the snow is blindingly bright... and when you stand in the sunlight of a window its so warm and lovely. But then you step outside and the breath is robbed from your lungs. Its a frigid one for sure. Forecast for tonight is -40C. Fun fact, -40 is the point that Celsius and Fahrenheit overlap! Tangerines and wild parrots?! That sounds awesome! Where are you located?
@quilteryoyo Tippy sounds like sweetie, glad you have been reunited!

3.5 / 20 hours done!

@142jmh - I am in So California, not far from Disneyland. We have flocks of wild parrots that have grown over the years with no real predators here. Last year I was out in the back yard and heard a noise in the tangerine tree and about when I realized it was a parrot a whole flock of them flew out of the tree many with bites of tangerine still in their beaks.

I spent about an hour up on the ladder picking tangerines today. I filled 2 huge bags and the tree still looks like nothing was done to it. I have distributed tangerines to all our neighbors and will take some to agility class tomorrow night but I am not sure what we will do with all of them. I hate to see them go to waste.

Tangerine tree earlier in November when the tangerines were not yet ripe and some you can't see because they are still small and green. You can see generally though how covered it is.