Happy Friday! Oh wow Jenny, the Netherlands, yes, I am sure you get cold weather, a lot of precipitation (snow?) and of course, darkness! Okay to give you some idea, today it was about 15 degrees C, which is about 60 degrees F, when I did my hike. Like Sharon, I live in a mild climate where it isn't too cold but a normal morning run for me during the winter could be 25 degrees F, give or take a few degrees, which is about -4 degrees C. The coldest I have done is probably about -12 degrees C, which is certainly not my preference! Summers here are very hot and humid, so like last week it would probably have been about 80 degrees F, which is about 27 degrees C, for an early morning run. Fortunately right now it is much cooler and more pleasant.

I was supposed to do a training run this morning but instead I went and hiked with my BFF. We went to a big park in Nashville, which is the location of my next half marathon in November. There are roads to run there, as well as trails. We have a trail 10K coming up as well - I will most likely walk most of that race. So today we hiked, some roads and some trails. It was very nice and we saw a few turkeys and deer. We were able to go to a coffee shop afterwards and sit outside to enjoy it, such a lovely day!

Well for those of us in the US, it is a three day weekend!!! Hope everyone has (or has had) a lovely Friday!!!! Run Happy!!

Oh Sharon, I just saw that your race is canceled! That is so sad. I am sorry. I think a lot of races and other events are about to be canceled. Tons of people I know are signed up for the Rock 'n Roll Nashville race that is in November and our Covid cases are the worst right now. Maybe in November things will be better but I just don't see how they can do a big race like that or any other large events. I have a small trail race next weekend (10K) and then a half in November - I really don't think either of those will be canceled because they are so small.

Jenny, great job on pushing through on your run! Great pace and even not getting the rest that you wanted this week, you rocked it!! Well done!

I did my run this morning, training plan called for 30 minutes of running at a slow pace. It tells me how fast/slow to go, and I try to stay in the range. It was five minutes walking, 20 minutes of running and then ten more minutes if I felt up to it. Then five minutes walking. I did changed up my route a bit and had to cross some streets which required waiting for cars, but otherwise I did the 30 minutes. The last ten minutes were faster than the required 13:12 - 14:12 min/mile. I have such a hard time with that slow pace but I am trying to stay in that range because it helps me build my endurance so I don't have to stop and walk. Overall running pace was in that range. I forgot my heart rate strap this morning and the optical HRM on my Garmin is never right, so it has my heart rate super high, way higher than it ever is. So either it is wrong as usual, or I was having a heart attack. I hate that I forgot the strap because having it read so high messes up my statistics.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!! Run Happy!

Good Morning and HAPPY MONDAY!!! My favorite day!!! For those of you in the US, happy Labor Day. I hope everyone has a terrific day regardless. It looks like it is going to be a lovely day here. DH is off today of course, but we have no plans. Just rest and enjoy the day. I might do some cleaning or some shopping but nothing is set in stone. It is my rest day today, no running or anything, I am going to try to have two FULL rest days and that even includes not walking. I feel like I probably need the extra recovery time. Take care and Run Happy!!!

Good Morning!!! Sharon, I hear you about the gym, there is a fitness center nearby that I would go to if I felt it was safe. They have a lot of classes that I would enjoy but nope, not gonna risk that right now. I am now resigned to the fact that this will probably never go away because people just ain't gonna do what they ain't gonna do, if you get my drift. It's a shame. My DH and I want to travel, we want to go out to eat, we want to go to concerts. But right now it all seems off limits.

Anyway, did my run this morning. There is no school today (can you guess why? Too many Covid cases, SMH) and so I felt like I might have a bit of reprieve from the traffic issues and I need to change up my route from time to time to challenge my body. So I did this route which in my mind was quite hilly - maybe that was just mental, I don't know, lol. It's a beautiful morning, mid-60s and low humidity, perfect weather for me! I started out with my five minute walk and then the first quarter mile of running was up a hill - ha! My workout was 20 minutes of running and then 10 more minutes after that if I wanted too (of course I wanted to) but yikes, at the 17 minute mark a hill really got me and I walked for about a minute. I am trying so hard not to let these hills get me but ugh! Interestingly I can look at the elevation graphic on my Garmin and see exactly where that was!!! Then I did the second ten minutes and coming back of course I was coming back downhill so I was able to push hard on that section and that made the last ten minutes my fastest!!! Then I walked the five minute cool down. So I think it went well. I have been reading a lot of running books lately, some of them are so humorous. One talked about mantras and positive self talk, and I have always tried to do that, sometimes I get caught talking to myself out loud as other runners go by! Lol, but anyway, one I read was an elite runner (now I can't remember who) that always said, "I'm Fine" or "it's fine" or "everything is fine" so today I kept saying "I'm fine" to myself!!!!

My training plan is on my Garmin and it only tells me my workouts one week ahead so I know what I will be doing on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. Nothing more than that, and so far it hasn't integrated in any speedwork. It hasn't even had me doing anything like strides, but I try to do those anyway. All runs so far are "easy runs." I have mixed feelings about this. I know if I don't start doing speedwork, I am not going to be able to get my pace up. But on the other hand, my primary goal at this point is building endurance and I most assuredly am doing that. The half marathon in November has brutal hills so I need to be persistent and keep working on these hills. One step at a time!!!!

Run happy everyone!!!!

Happy Friday everyone! It's rest day today. I will be busy around the house and stuff, but no running. I am not doing any strength or anything either. My race is tomorrow, my arms are still sore from yesterday and I want my legs to be well rested. I am sure that I will be doing mostly hiking rather than trail running tomorrow. We will see. Depends on how technical the trail is. I am trying to figure out what to wear because it will be very cool in the morning but will warm up. If I am hiking rather than running, I will be chilly early on. If I run, a t-shirt or singlet will be best. I don't do well when it is chilly, and my definition of chilly isn't the same as anyone else's lol. The race is a couple of hours away so it will be later tomorrow before I get back but I will post an update when I can. I hope everyone is having a lovely Friday!!!! Run Happy!

Love the graphic Sharon, runners ARE awesome for sure!!!!

I need to get my run in today, I am tired from yesterday, just getting up so early, traveling, etc. I guess I am procrastinating a little. I have a bit of a headache, a short run might help. But I just ate breakfast (my DH and I always have breakfast together on Sunday so I didn't want to make him wait on me) so I am waiting for a little while to give things time to settle.

My trail race went about as I expected to. Since I have issues with falling I am not as nimble on the trails as I used to be and I end up walking a lot. This course wasn't too technical and there were some areas with asphalt so I just ran as I wanted but mostly stayed near a bunch of friends. One of the "highlights" was that many many runners were stung by yellowjackets at about 4.5 miles, and some people were stung multiple times. I was stung once. There were grilled burgers and hotdogs at the end, trail runs do all kinds of crazy food. It was in a state park, really pretty, and the weather was perfect! By the start it was warm enough for just a shirt so I didn't have to fool around with tying a jacket around my waist. There were a lot of bridges and we hiked back to one of them after the race was over since it was so pretty out there.

Have a great day, and run happy!

Good Morning and Happy Happy Monday!!!

Jenny, I am sorry your run was so tough. I think next week you will find things to be much better! Difficult runs happen to everyone. Could be any number of reasons, maybe you were just extra tired this week or maybe your nutrition was just a bit off, or maybe it was the weather. Sometimes going further is slower until you build up more endurance. Don't worry! Just go out and do your 5K tomorrow and just relax and enjoy it! And I hear you about the ab exercises - that is a weakness for me as well. I need to just work on that more so that eventually my abs will be stronger. You did well to modify - modification is key - you will get stronger and stronger! Keep up the good work, you are amazing!

Today is a full rest day for me. As of right now I am doing two FULL rest days (as opposed to active rest days). I really don't like it! I was doing just one full rest day and was feeling a bit worn out at the end of each week, so I decided to try this for two weeks. But today I feel so restless. I will probably change it up next week, get back to walking on non-running days like I was before. It's so hard for me to balance this with my rheumatoid arthritis and Ehler's Danlos!

Take care everyone, have a lovely Monday and Run Happy!!!

Greetings!!! Em, always so happy to see you here! I always enjoy your posts, especially with you being vegan and stuff. I am not doing vegan right now, but that is always how I lean.

Becky, thinking of you!

For hydration I used to be hypervigilant about that, but after reading Waterlogged, I am not so diligent. I should probably revisit that and work on hydrating more. I used to use a lot of coconut water and Pedialyte (Jen, don't know if you have Pedialyte there, but if not, it is an infant/child's electrolyte drink). For my dysautonomia the cardiologist has me salting my food liberally but as of late I haven't even been doing that. I have salt stick tablets as well - haven't been using those either. Some of the ultra races, they weigh the runners frequently and if they lose too much weight they are pulled from the course. But overhydrating is a thing too, it's a fine balance!

Did my short run this morning, it is hot and humid again. Today's run was the warm up and cool down and then a 10 minute run and an optional additional 10 minutes which of course I did. I am wondering where the speedwork and tempo runs are in this plan, I am already on week 5 and there has been none of that. My pace isn't getting any faster and I don't think it will if I don't do some speedwork. At my current pace it will probably take way more than three hours to do this particular half as it is super hilly. I can't remember for sure but I think the elevation gain is over 1,000 feet.

Well, I am going to head out to the pool. Everyone take care and Run Happy!!!