December 2021 Monthly Running Challenge

All good here! Feeling terrible for the poor people in Kentucky though.

At one point last night our house was in the projected cone of four different tornadoes at one time. But they all fizzled without touching down and miraculously our power even stayed on. Knock on wood because a lot of folks here are without power since a tornado was on the ground near TO Fuller, which is where we run Chuckalissa, and that whole area of the outage map is red. Another was on the ground to the north of us, but apparently neither did any major damage. So the only hardship we suffered was losing sleep from listening to sirens and staring at alert maps until near dawn.

Edit: just read on the news someone was killed in the one to the north of us.

We were originally planning on running today but just don’t feel like it on zero sleep so we are putting the tree up instead and running tomorrow. Wish us luck because putting the tree up is fraught with tension at the best of times.

I do have a funny tornado related story though! I stuck my nose outside about 6 am when the bad weather had passed to see what it felt like. Still light rain, very foggy, with a chance of raccoons! Apparently all of them were rushing outside to check on their friends and celebrate not being blown away. Raccoons are most active at dusk and dawn anyway, we just rarely see them. Anyway, there is a family of five that I know live in my yard, plus the white one and his relatives, plus another lot that live on the far side of the drainage ditch that runs behind me, and they were all outside frolicking, chasing each other, chittering, racing up and down trees, jumping in puddles, and generally having a high old time. I stood out there in the dark and watched them for a long time.

@Tramboman Congrats to your daughter! I think green herons may be my favorite. We used to know one that lived near a pond infested with giant released goldfish and we would throw cat food in the water to lure the goldfish to the surface for him. He got to recognize us and would come running over!

December Goal: 100 Miles

12/1: 5.11 miles
12/2: 5.11 miles
12/5: 10.03 miles
12/7: 5.31 miles
12/8: 5.52 miles
12/9: 5.51 miles
12/11: 5.26 miles

41.85/100 miles completed for December
  
I never did post my run on Thursday. It was a really busy day at work and then my husband and I took our moms out to eat at the lake at a place that does a lot of Christmas decorations.  But I did get out Thursday morning and ran 5.5 miles.  It was really nice too at 60°F. That is much more pleasant to me than 27°F or 32°F like it was on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Today at the last minute I decided to run a local 5K.  I didn't sign up for it before because I thought we might go out of town this weekend.  But we didn't and when I got up this morning I decided I would go ahead and do it. So I went online and registered and then ran to the park for the race.  The park is only 1K from my house. So I ran to the registration table and got my bib. I  wasn't sure I would get a t-shirt since I registered late, but they still had some but I did have to get a medium instead of a small. Then I ran around a little more warming up and ended up with 1.25 miles as a warm up. It was cold and windy this morning at 42°F feels like 37°F at race time.

We lined up at the start. There is a woman who is in my age group that always beat me when I first ran against her. But a couple of years ago I finally beat her. She was running today, so my main goal was to beat her. I hadn't really trained for this race, and I stayed up way too late last night. But the race was at 9 so I did get some sleep.  Plus it was windy so I wasn't expecting too much, but I did want to try to beat Peggy.  She lined up in front of me, but I passed her pretty quickly.  The course has a hill right at the start, but it is also very close to my house and almost every time I run I run through the park on my way home so I am used to runnung up that hill. I think it slows some people down being right at the start. I  was a little annoyed because my headphones didn't connect even though I was listening to them on the way up to the park. But it really wasn't bad running without music. There were only 2 women ahead of me and about halfway through I passed one of them. I felt really good during the race and even though I knew I wasn't going to get a PR I was OK with that. Especially since everyone seemed to be a little slower than usual. I blame the wind. About the halfway point I noticed that Peggy was starting to gain on me a little and that gave me the motivation to pick up the pace a bit and I as got back to the park and headed into the finish I knew that she wasn't going to catch me. I ended up beating her by 10 seconds. 

I didn't get a PR this time, but I did end up 1st on my Age Group and 2nd overall female.  And I finished with a time if 29:02 so under 30 minutes and I had negative splits. So I was pretty happy with that.

After the awards I ran back home. That was .75 miles. The course is a little long at 3.25 miles,  so I ended up with 5.25 miles today. 

@quilteryoyo So sorry to hear about your back. I hope it is better soon.

You too @Orphia.  Back pain is no fun. And congrats on the Parkrun.

@polskagirl I love hearing about your polar bear adventures,  but honestly that doesn't sound fun at all to me. I am a total wimp with the cold.

@Tramboman Congratulations to your daughter! That is an awesome accomplishment.

@skippygirlsmom It's always nice to have the kids home. But it is funny how you do get used to not sharing your space with them. One minute they live with you and the next thing you know they are "company".



2021 Races:
4/24/21: Run For The Children - 10K PR 55:46:28.
11/6/21: Run For 57th AHC Half Marathon - PR 2:07:11 and 1st in AG

Great job, @kgirlhart, on beating Peggy!

@Tramboman = yes bummer about the ARMY/NAVY game but we still have the commander's trophy I believe. They were the better team yesterday. At least in the 2nd half. I was laughing at my friend the Crazy COL being on the back of the hostage's tshirt. He' s a classmate.




@rheddmobile so happy to hear you avoided those horrific tornados!!! OH MY GAWD

@kgirlhart congratulations on your race yesterday. So fun. And does Jenny know she is your rabbit?

Today's run 5 miles and it was very cold. 30 ish. But it was so still and dry that even tho I ran with mittons and a hand warmer I did not need them by the end. It was MUCH more enjoyable to me that 50 with a 30 mph North wind and humid. 34.1 left to go for run the year and working to time it so that I finish on Christmas day which seems appropros?

Congrats @kgirlhart on your impromptu 5K race and AG win!

Congratulations on your 5k @kgirlhart! Great job! I love signing up for a race last minute because no pressure and it all feels like a win - and you had a good one on top of that!

Glad you were safe and your families safe @rheddmobile and @AlphaHowls. Very scary and tragic that people were killed. I was texting with a friend who was in Louisville that night and it was very worrisome.

Welcome @Aprilstar480! I don't have any different suggestions from what was already mentioned, but what have you been running for mileage leading up to this? If not the treadmill, could it be overtraining, or jumping up in mileage in a week? Just thoughts, but I hope your hip feels better soon .

Glad your back is doing better @quilteryoyo!



Date :::: Miles :::: Cumulative
12/01/21 :::: 0.0 :::: 0.0
12/02/21 :::: 2.2 :::: 2.2
12/03/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 5.3
12/04/21 :::: 10.1 :::: 15.3
12/05/21 :::: 4.0 :::: 19.4
12/06/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 22.5
12/07/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 25.5
12/08/21 :::: 3.1 :::: 28.6
12/09/21 :::: 1.7 :::: 30.3
12/10/21 :::: 3.3 :::: 33.6
12/11/21 :::: 4.5 :::: 38.1
12/12/21 :::: 4.1 :::: 42.2

My running friends and I have been doing a regular Sunday run with added bonus of brunch or at least coffee after - Sunday Runday Funday, we call it . Today we met downtown for a change and did 4 miles on a path called the Creek Walk that leads to the lake. When we got to the end of the path at the lake, we saw several guys with big fancy cameras all focused out on the water. They were eagle watching and there was a juvenile eagle perched out on a post in the water. One guy let us look through the viewfinder of his very long lensed camera and it was so cool to see the eagle super close up. Its head was not white yet. We ran back and then went for coffee, and a lot of laughing and talking. Very fun morning. Oh and it was much cooler than yesterday but the sun was out and that felt fabulous. Lots of debris from high winds everywhere here too.

Later I took Stella for a long walk so she could enjoy the sun
And then I also went to the rock climbing gym. I think I mentioned I rejoined last week so I am trying to go at least 1-2 x week, even if it's just for 30 minutes or so. It gets tiring so fast, especially as I haven't done it in so long, so that seems plenty. Or I need a lot of breaks. They have a huge expansion from when I was there before and they now have auto-belay systems so I can do top-rope climbing without a partner. I had them show it to me tonight and tried it and it was so fun! I really like it better than bouldering but without someone to do it with very often I didn't get much chance. I'm excited about this.

December Totals: 40/100 miles

12/3: 3.1 miles
12/4: 6 miles
12/6: 4.6 miles
12/7: 4.7 miles
12/8: 3 miles
12/9: 5.1 miles
12/11: 9 miles
12/12: 4.5 miles

Did my long run yesterday. I am doing a better job not racing my long runs and the slower pace is helping a lot with keeping my HR down and I don't feel so wiped after. Today my husband and I ran together. Nice and easy as his pace for 4.5 miles. Great for a recovery run and we had the most beautiful weather!!

martaindale wrote: »

@katharmonic Yay, you're back to rock climbing! I really prefer sport to bouldering but my husband isn't there to belay me often so I spend a lot of time on the autobelays. I saw that some company recently created an autobelay that can hold you up if you fall rather than lowering you automatically so you can actually project a route. I think that sounds great because I find it so frustrating to be stuck on a move high in the route and then falling and having to do the whole climb again just for that 1 move. On harder routes that really limits the number of tries I have in me.

@martaindale that would be excellent, I agree! I have to admit I found it a little nerve-wracking to let go at the top and just drop down. That first tiny bit seems like you're going to free fall. But it's really fun the rest of the way. I did all of the available routes for the auto-belays - except one was way too hard. I'm curious to see how often they rotate them around. I didn't have a chance to ask.

Have a good week everyone!