July 2021 Monthly Running Challenge

So far the shoes, ibuprofen and golf ball are helping tremendously. I had no pain in my foot after waking up this morning, although I don't think it is 100% yet either.

I am wondering if being homebound so much since COVID is partly to blame as I spend the vast majority of daily hours wearing only socks in a house with hardwood floors and my office downstairs with a concrete floor. It really felt like just wearing my old running shoes throughout yesterday and the afternoon prior made a huge improvement. And the golf ball felt like a dream, of course.

Since tomorrow is a normally scheduled rest day, I took today off of running as well and will test things out on Sunday so long as things don't regress. It won't be the originally planned 2.5 hour long run, but will be something to test things out. Maybe just 30-45 minutes, maybe longer if it feels fine. I have no idea right now, but will update when it happens!

7/1 – 3.02
7/2 – 5.02
7/2 - .50 cool down
7/3 – 4.02
7/4 – 1.05 with pups
7/4 – 1.44 hiking down and back up from swim basin
7/5 – 4.67 trails
7/5 - .41 cool down to get to 5 miles
7/6 – rest day walked the dogs
7/7 – 4.03
7/8 – 4.04
7/9 – 5.19 miles of cross training – bike (not counted in miles)
7/10 – 13.11 July Half Marathon Monthly challenge
7/11 – rest day
7/12 – 3.02
7/13 – 6.1 miles of biking (not counted in miles)
7/14 – 4.05
7/16 – 5.01

53.39 of 65 miles

@Teresa502 thanks for letting me know, I was set up with Strava but I removed and readded it maybe because I had nothing since 1/1 it was confused. I’m all set up now. Skip has joined also.

I finally got out for a run today (a full week later). Monday was the let's make sure I'm not sick day, and I felt back to normal so I was going to go out Tuesday morning. I woke up and felt like I hadn't slept. So then I was like I will go out Wednesday. Woke up to thunder an hour before my alarm. Still going to go out until it started lightning a lot and very close (a house about two blocks away caught fire when it was struck by lightning). I would have went once it let up but I had an appraisal person coming. Until he canceled. So I ended up doing 20 minutes on the bike before work. Thursday I had to go into the office so I don't run.

It was a week. LOL I did 3 miles this morning. 6 was scheduled but I was like I'll do 3-4. I took a few walk breaks. 86 degrees and 60% humidity at 5 am

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I'm in for 100 miles this month. I had injured my toe on Monday and was waiting to see how it felt before committing to a distance. I ran this morning without pain, so I think taking the last two days off was a good thing.

July 1- 3.5 miles
July Goal - 100 miles
Miles to go - 96.5 miles

July 3 - 4.60 miles
July 4 - 3.13 miles
Total for July - 11.23 miles
Miles to go - 88.77 miles

July 7 - 5 miles
July 8 - 3.11 miles
Total for July - 19.34 miles
Miles to go - 80.66 miles

Have my half on Saturday, we'll see how this goes!

Not feeling much up for a race report...I got it done.

July 10 - 13.03 miles (course was a bit short)
July 12 -3.13 miles
Total for July - 35.50 miles
July Goal - 100 miles
Miles to go - 64.50 miles

5 really solid miles today. Felt good to shake more cobwebs off from the half.

July 13 - 5 miles
Total for July - 40.50 miles
July Goal - 100 miles
Miles to go - 59.50 miles

July 14 - 3.2 miles
Total for July - 43.7 miles
July Goal - 100 miles
Miles to go - 56.3 miles

July 16 - 6.22 miles
Total for July - 49.92 miles
Miles to go - 50.08 miles

I was all fired up to do a good run this morning but it was raining and I used up all my esprit de run on braving the weather so my run had lots of walking.



@WhatMeRunning Great to hear your heel feels a lot better. Yes, I find walking on hard floors barefoot painful.

I had to do three, 2km threshold efforts today - 10km race pace - with a 5 mins easy between, and while efforts were made, I didn’t hit 10km race pace. Didn’t even hit half marathon pace. I guess this is why the call it build up - I been working hard and getting slower and slower 😂. However, it should meanI get a bit of a taper before my 10k next Sunday. But knowing my coach it’ll be a one- day taper (he’s a bit of a sadist methinks).

Three hours of ice skating yesterday probably didn’t help. It was only my third time on ice so I was working way too hard. Loved it though and managed to stay on my feet so no broken bones or bruises!

July total: 22 miles

7/3: 3 miles
7/5: 2.7 miles
7/7: 3 miles
7/9: 2.6 miles
7/12: 3.2 miles
7/13: 3.5 miles
7/16: 4 miles

I managed 4 miles yesterday morning at a pace that wasn’t too shabby given the weather. I Read this post by a runner/coach that talked about it taking about three weeks for people to start noticing real improvements and how they feel when they start running. And this is my third week. It’s not so much that it feels easy because with the weather conditions runs will never feel easy. Rather, the challenge is now dealing with the weather and not my own physical conditioning.I am definitely feeling stronger and more able to actually finish the runs, whereas the first couple of weeks I routinely doubted whether or not I would be able to do it.
It’s amazing to me how much fitness I lost over the course of a month. I’ve seen people on this thread and other runners that I follow say That you don’t lose a lot fitness if you take some time off but that really hasn’t been my experience. It’s not as if I was being stationary during my time off, with several difficult hikes and a lot of general physical activity but getting back to running was definitely hard and has been a significant ramp up to get back to the condition that I was in before I took time off. For those of you that are rejoining us and those who have had significant injuries and are starting back running after months of not being able to, I really applaud you. This is the first real break from running that I’ve had since starting about three years ago probably.

7-1 4k tempo
7-2 7k tempo
7-3 7k measy (between moderate and easy)
7-4 7k measy
7-5 rest
7-6 7k measy
7-7 6k measy (but a lot closer to easy than moderate)
7-8 rest
7-9 7k temperate
7-10 7k measy
7-11 7k moderate
7-12 rest
7-13 6k measy
7-14 6k moderate
7-15 rest
7-16 4k tempo
7-17 5k race

July Total: 80k
July Goal: 150k

Cloudy, rainy, upper 60s F, and a little breezy for the race. A lot of downhill in kilometer 2, which meant a lot of uphill in kilometer 4. Faded pretty badly in the uphill, which was also into the wind, but overall ran about as well as I was capable of today. Satisfied with my performance.
Checked my rain gauge when I got home; we had 4.3 inches of rain overnight. If I have to start building an ark, I'm not taking any snakes, scorpions, or spiders with me. They can build their own ark.

When you pop in here claiming your December 2021 mileage, what accomplishments will you have made?

PUT THE FUN BACK IN THE RUN!
Return to a good running weight of 175 lbs (second attempt)

2021 Races:

6/26 Direction Up 5k, Solon, OH 31:48 chip; 31:59 Garmin; 2d male 65 and over
7/17 Run of the Ox 5k, Mantua, OH 32:19 Garmin; 44th overall; 3d place male 60 and over
9/18 5k Run and Roll, Aurora, OH

@Tramboman good job on your race! Glad you were satisfied with your performance, so I assume you made some of your goals at least! A lot of uphill late in the race is tough for sure - with wind! Congrats!

@WhatMeRunning I mentioned I bought Oofos recovery sandals and I've been wearing those to stand around in the kitchen while cleaning and cooking and I think it makes a big difference in how my legs feel.

@martaindale I had a hard time coming back from my back injury earlier this year, which was only about 3 weeks off but it felt like a long hard climb back. Honestly I still feel like I'm not where I was at all but there are other factors than just the time off. Hang in there, you are making a lot of progress I'm sure.

@quilteryoyo that's a lot of activity in one day, and in that heat! Hope you got some good rest and I certainly wouldn't blame you for not doing long run today.

Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
07/01/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 0.0
07/02/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 0.0
07/03/21 :::: 3.4 :::: 3.4
07/04/21 :::: 6.4 :::: 9.8
07/05/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 12.9
07/06/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 12.9
07/07/21 :::: 5.1 :::: 18.0
07/08/21 :::: 1.8 :::: 19.8
07/09/21 :::: 3.3 :::: 23.1
07/10/21 :::: 13.1 :::: 36.2
07/11/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 36.2
07/12/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 36.2
07/13/21 :::: 2.0 :::: 38.2
07/14/21 :::: 5.7 :::: 43.9
07/15/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 47.0
07/16/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 50.1
07/17/21 :::: 6.1 :::: 56.2

Not exactly a long run by distance today but it felt very long and it was extra hilly. Many of you will understand this because you have crazy runner friends or you are the crazy runner friend, but it was my friend's birthday today and she has an annual tradition of doing hill repeats on her birthday to prove to herself she's older but not old. The hill she does them on though is ridiculous, it's known as "Hernia Hill" and is a narrow single-track trail that is not maintained and is washed out and overgrown and just horrible. When she proposed this yesterday she said she totally understood if no one wanted to join her - oh and the forecast was for rain all day too. I said "that sounds demented and miserable, I'll think about it". Well, I needed the run anyway and didn't want to leave her alone in her masochism, so I headed out this morning in the light drizzle and met up with her and two other committed friends. I ran from my house so I did one trip up the hill just to get to them at the top. Then we did 4 more. Basically walk/hiking it because it was terrible trail conditions and very steep. But I also looped around some nicer trails in the trip there and back and got to 6.1 miles eventually. My verdict for the morning was that it was less miserable than expected, due to the good company. But still demented.