December 2021 Monthly Running Challenge

Glad to see you back @noblsheep ! I knew you hadn't posted in a while, but didn't realize it has been that long since you ran. Glad you aren't sore.

@ContraryMaryMary Glad you got moved and got in a good run in your new neighborhood. Maybe you will inspire other to start running.

Happy Birthday @shanaber and @Scott6255 !

@katharmonic Sounds like a nice run and free hot chocolate - yumm.

Nice run @marisap2010 !

Very speedy @SummerSkier ! You are doing great.

@mshawski I hope rest is all your IT band needs to feel better and you are able to race on Saturday.

Nice shoes and even better that they helped you go fast @Scott6255 ! Hahaha about the distance.

@Teresa502 That looks like a great place for a run. I hope they keep it maintained better.

@shanaber At least you got out and did what you could.

I was able to walk today - no pain when I got out of bed, as I had feared. So, I did do a treadmill run this morning between church and lunch with mom. I walked a total of 1.0 mile for warm up and cool down. I started out the run doing 3 min each at 5.5/4.5/5.0 mph. My back was getting tight, so decided to pull back a bit. I walked 1 min at 3.8 mph and then finished my run doing run/walk for 4/1minutes at 4.5/3.8 mph. I could still feel my back being tight, but it didn't get worse and no real pain. I'll call that a win.

My chiropractor had told me to do my back strengthening exercises everyday. But, I was thinking last night that I since everyone says that your muscles repair when you take a break that maybe I should take at least one day a week off from them. Since my back was tight anyway, I didn't do them today, but did do some stretches. I see him again on Tuesday and will see what he thinks about that.

I didn't set a goal for this month. I will at least walk one fast mile everyday and run when I can. My main goal is to get my back better so I can pick up my running distance again in January.

shanaber wrote: »

@whatmerunning - I don't think there was any offense taken. I don't think many of us spend as much time looking at articles or analyzing running information like the original creator of the challenge did and like @RunsOnEspresso said so many of the sites are now behind paywalls so even if we could post a link most would not be able to get to it. I do tend to go back to some of the older links, videos and articles as I think there is real value there but I also try to see if there are updates or new information or analysis.

Re: paywalls and running advice - hope no one minds me posting this here, but I really like six minute mile, which is a newsletter for runners. You do have to give them your email and they have ads, but no paywall, and they collect a lot of different articles including news, gear, and advice.
https://www.sixminutemile.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA47GNBhDrARIsAKfZ2rBzC7D_D8fcQiu-p40OviAu_yw_95eHDiYQ17f_4DyAyh6AP3FvYSQaAtpnEALw_wcB

Walked my kiddo to school then ran a 5+km loop back home. It was snowing and for most of the run, it felt like I was in a snow globe. I enjoyed it.

December Totals: 13.7/100 miles

12/3: 3.1 miles
12/4: 6 miles
12/6: 4.6 miles

I met my parents for camping this weekend at a state park a couple hours from where I live. I ended up having to run 3 loops of one trail because the longer trail I had scoped out was closed with a bridge washout and some of the shorter ones didn’t connect into each other well. As a last resort, I will run some road to connect trails but generally prefer not to do that as the roads in state parks are usually quite narrow and so many of the cars are large vehicles pulling campers. The trail was a nice one with good rolling hills and some pretty lake views.
I also did some hikes with my dad. He has gotten interested in hiking as they have started camping more and it was nice to share that time with him. We got a little over 2.5 miles each day and explored some portions of a different trail that ran around the fence line of the park.

That last picture needs a little explanation. My daughter tried camping in the hammock this weekend, was she found to be very comfortable for sleeping. However, the first night we saw several raccoons and that kind of freaked her out a little bit, with her thinking that they might try to climb in the hammock. So, she took a rake and created a leaf moat around the hammock as an alert system in case a raccoon trying to come share her bed!

Today, I waited until a cold front blew through to head out. It was like a summer morning (mid 70’s and 93% humidity) this morning but once the front blew in, it rained a little and the temps dropped 15 degrees along with the humidity. By the time I got out it was in the mid 60’s and still dropping a bit and there was a nice breeze. I’m so glad I was working from home today so I could adjust my run.

1204-3km 27:05 aHR 144
1206-3.24km 30:00 aHR 146

Yeehaw. Felt a bit more like my body knew what it was doing on this run. It was weirdly not cold for this time of year, I forgot my gloves and turned out I didn't really need them.

The plan is to run three times a week / every other day, building to 5km by the end of the month, and then jumping into some sort of extended HM plan in January. And I need to remember to stretch