Becky!!! So happy to hear from you! Keeping my fingers crossed for your ongoing recovery. I wonder why your knee is wonky? Hopefully that is just from not using it as much? I am not sure about a Thanksgiving race - I think we are going to my parent's house and if so, I won't be doing anything where there are crowds. I do enjoy the one there that is the day after Thanksgiving so I am sad I will miss it. If for some strange reason we end up staying home, I will do the race here. I've got a LOT of races coming up in the next few months.

Jenny, well done on your pace, you are really getting faster! If you are going by feel and it feels good, then why not!

Sharon, you are just amazing you know? I love your big smile at the end, even after falling. I love that half fanatics hoodie and it matches your cool tights perfectly! Hope everything is going as planned with your husband too....

I did my last run before my race on Sunday. I beat the rain! It was supposed to be a very slow pace (13:12 - 14:12 min/mile) but it was faster than that and I felt fine with it. I know that my race isn't going to be fast at all because the hills out there are insane. And it's going to be much colder - and I don't do well with cold. I am looking forward to it though, it is a beautiful park, one of my favorite places to be. After my run I did lower body strength and the yoga. I will do some light activity tomorrow and Saturday and I am trying to be very attentive to my eating and hydration.

Glad to hear from everyone! Run happy!

Good Morning! Run day for me today but I might hold off until tomorrow. In general everything feels find but my upper right quad is still tender when I touch it. It is almost like it is bruised or something???? Not sure if it is tight muscles or not, doesn't quite feel like DOMS or soreness from running, and I don't think I want to take a chance on it so I will stretch a bit and use my massage gun. It's kind of strange because I usually don't have a lot of pain or soreness after my runs and races. Maybe later if it feels better I will go out but for now I think I will stick with some gentle yoga. Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

Oh Sharon, I will be thinking of you and your DH. I hope that your son can stay longer to offer support and comfort. I am glad that he will be there for Thanksgiving and your DH's birthday. Christmas would be awesome too! Does he have a flexible job? Or one where he can work anywhere? I am so glad you will be able to do your race, that will be fun for you, and some stress relief too.

I have a hard time in the cold too. I don't know why breathing is so much more difficult - maybe because the air is a lot drier? But I am sure you will do great on your race. Your time for the other one was amazing, and that was even with a hard fall - very impressive and very inspiring.

I did go out this morning! Got up and everything was feeling very good. My new training plan called for five minutes walking, then seven miles running, then five minutes cooldown. Throw me to the wolves! LOL. It ended up to be about 7.5 miles with the warmup and cooldown. I was very conservative, trying to go slowly, and I did run/walk/run intervals (4:1), because I don't want to push too hard and mess myself up. So now that is is a few hours later, I have to say that I still feel great, no pain anywhere, except my toes hurt - I think I cut my nails too short. The only other issue I might have at this point is UTI - that is another area that flares up from time to time, kidneys and UTIs. I seem to be plagued with the most ridiculous things but honestly, I just have to laugh and keep going because what else am I going to do? Just sit here like a couch potato? No thanks, that is even worse, lol. I haven't done my yoga or strength yet.

So here is a funny thing about the "cold". I don't know why I am so sensitive to the cold but today it wasn't even really cold out! It was probably near 60, sunny and it's windy, but I decided on capris and a long sleeved shirt. I was so worried that I would be too hot. Nope, I was not too hot and when I got home and was ready to shower, I noticed my backside (hamstrings and glutes) were like ice! Cold to the touch. And it wasn't even cold out! That is why I will sometimes put a running skirt over my capris or shorts!

Hi Becky! So great to hear from you and it sounds like you are doing very well! I know how happy you will be to drive and get back to your walks at the lake. What are you doing for Thanksgiving? How is your mom, and the boys? Is DH working at the office again?

I don't know about the weather up in Michigan, I did notice it looks like it will be snowing on Monday, which is the day I really need to get the food for Thursday, and you know, I really am not good about driving in snow. Maybe it won't stick but it looks like it is going to be very very cold there. I am planning to run while I am there if it is not slippery there, but will take clothes for the treadmill.

Last night I was doing a core workout and my back (on the left side, pain is in the right side) just crunched so loud that it scared me. No pain though, but my joints are definitely super crunchy right now. Maybe I need to see the chiropractor. Haven't been in two or three years.

I will likely put off today's run and do it tomorrow (or maybe later this afternoon, we will see). I have 800 meter repeats today (Yassos). It was 40 and raining this morning. I know they say to run in all kinds of weather in order to prep for races where it might be bad weather but for years I trained in cold wet weather and I just don't feel the need anymore, especially since the wet roads tend to be slick. So this morning I did a full body strength workout, and then I did yoga. Now that I think about it, even if I don't run today, I should probably go for at least a short walk.

Hello!!!!

Sharon, it sure has been hard the past couple of years hasn't it? The virus and everything being shut down, including races, was just a hard thing but to lose your mom, a heartbreaker for sure. But now you are doing so great on your running, you are so inspiring. My goal was to do a 2:15 half, and I think I could have had my body not started to fall apart. And then the training group that I was doing when Covid hit had to cancel, and the races were canceled, it did take the spark out of things didn't it? When it all started, I was posting a motivational video on Facebook of me and sometimes my BFF every day, either running or walking. We did a couple of virtual things to keep us going, but it was truly not the same. It seems like we are very slowly moving back to more of normal state, so I hope that includes races. It looks like Nashville Rock 'n Roll will happen tomorrow - I have done the half a few times and the full once, and I won't be doing it this year but I have a trail race coming up in December (which of course I might not run a whole lot but it will be fun).

I have the same issue with my Garmin, my mile PR is probably just around nine minutes (9:04 I think but I would have to go back a few years to find it) but every time I do something fast now it says that it is a record. I think it is because I have had to reset my watch when it crashed and so even though all the data is still there in my history, the watch thinks it is new for some reason. My DH asked me today if I had looked at Garmins since mine has been acting up, but I am going to try to stick with this one for a while.

Sometimes my body just HURTS - like last night I would have sworn that someone had a voodoo doll of me and was poking me all over. I mean it was so random, just in weird places, like my toes, my hips, my neck, etc. I slept terribly but woke up feeling GREAT! I went out and did my run - it would have been better to go to the track but pretty much have to be done with the track by 6:15 am due to the cross country kids being out there. It is still dark then, so nope, though I do know some people around here who do go there at 5 am. I ended up going to a park that has a one (or so) mile loop and it is relatively flat. I had to do Yassos, at a certain pace. Once again my Garmin messed up, or maybe that was user error as I had to hit the lap button and I either didn't, or didn't do it on time, so something, so some of my laps are actually quite a bit longer and include the recovery portion. There was also some cadence drills and strides at the beginning, and again, the numbers are mixed up. Pretty sure that was me not hitting the lap button in a timely manner. It's okay but sort of frustrating as I need to see how well I did on the 800s - it was five 800s and four of them look great (faster than the training plan suggested), the first one is the one that was too far.

It was cold but I was dressed for it - but the wind took me by surprise. It was probably around 33 when I started and was around 10 mph and I was running straight into it at first. I had a really hard time warming up. It's a paved trail but I had to be careful of leaves and nuts (and goose poop, of course) and it made me think of Becky - don't want to fall!

Sharon, yes, this a LONG half marathon training, twenty weeks. I have never trained that long before, usually only about 12 weeks or maybe 16 and most of the time I try to stay half marathon ready by running long runs of six, eight and ten miles every three weeks. But obviously I am not in that place right now so I am going to try this and see how it goes. I've been super happy with my runs this week, feeling very good.

Okay I have a TON to do today, cleaning bathrooms, getting ready to go to my mom's, and I haven't done my strength training yet - I was going to do legs today but I've been so busy - we actually went out to do some errands this morning after my run and I have more things I need to run out and do later.

Later!!!

Walked this morning but my watch messed up so I don’t know how long or how far. My BFF said it was three miles. It was very leisurely, we went and visited some neighborhood horses!!!