January 2022 Monthly Running Challenge

1/1 – 6.11
1/2 – 6.21
1/4 – 6.31
1/5 – 5.11
1/7 - 7.05
1/8 - 6.32
1/10 - 6.02
1/12 - 6.03
1/13 - 6.02
1/14 - 6.03

61.21 of 160 miles

@martaindale Sunday sounds like a great weather day. So glad you won’t have those winds, just no.

@Faebert I always take pictures of the pretty sunrises, I call them God’s reward for running early.

@eleanorhawkins my big concern would be getting too sweaty vs being a little colder. Skip has a coat similar to what @rheddmobile talked about and loves it. She can put it in her pack no problem and it is enough to cut any wind. My obvious answer is make sure you have moisture wicking underneath to keep the sweat off you. I’m a big fan of things that zip, I call zipped up heat and unzipped air conditioning. This way if I feel to start warm I can unzip and get some air without actually having to pull something off. I personally am not a sleeves girl they tend to annoy me for some reason, maybe I haven’t found the right pair. I agree with @Scott6255 the booze sound like a plan.

@martaindale and @eleanorhawkins your weather stalking and gear doubting are getting me excited about races I'm not even doing! I guess it's part of the fun.

@eleanorhawkins I like that you're the only girl brave enough to stick around. You can definitely handle that mountain. As for the cold, another thought is, how long are you actually going to be in the colder segment? Maybe it's not worth stressing about, beyond what fits comfortably in your pack. The calf sleeves might not even be recognizable as not-arm-sleeves if they fit, but that price isn't bad if you want to walk either.

I got myself out the door for my run. Uneventful 9.5km. The snow melted and now that charming path I found not long ago by the power plant looks like a dump. It was awful, trash everywhere. And a sad useless sign stands bravely at the beginning saying "mine property, no dumping". Ugggh.

But I'm putting together my training plan. I printed out 2 of Hal's plans ("Marathon 3", "Marathon Advanced1") and one mountain-marathon plan that I mostly rejected because it's time based and I'm slow, meaning I'd get less mileage than they probably intended, but it does have a good progression of hill workouts that may be helpful. So it's going to be a combo of 4 days running (1 long, 1 hill/speed, 1-2 medium), 1-2 cross training days and 1-2 rest days per week, with a cutback week every 3rd week (or every other week, once long run reaches 20 miles). And I'm dividing it into stages so I can start now and repeat a few weeks in a stage if I'm not feeling ready to bump up yet. The big race is in August, but that doesn't mean I won't do other things (big or small?) before then.

The Run The Year folks are awesome. My package arrived today, and the mailwoman demanded 5€ for customs fees, which never happened before. I emailed to let them know so they can warn other people in Spain when they place orders, assuming it was just a new thing, and Tim replied almost instantly that he didn't know what happened but it shouldn't have and refunded me 6$!

Well, I made it to all my cardio tests, now just gotta wait to hear back. I did get a run in yesterday because the imaging center is right next to a nice trail. I was stressed and mad and ran 5k without even trying to keep my heart in range, heart rate was a little higher than usual (but then it’s been a whole month now since I really ran as opposed to jogging) but didn’t flip out on me. I really hope we can find a solution because it felt so good to run out the mad. I don’t want to limit myself to only running easy!

My GPS is doing a thing again and gave me all new Strava personal bests because it was calling so short. So now I have to figure out how to reset it so it ignores that run and get my old PBs back, if that’s even possible.

So, why was I mad yesterday? Right now our county is at peak Omicron and I haven’t been going anywhere. Had to go to all these tests with face to face interaction with medical people, waiting rooms, etc which was already stressing me out. But at least the imaging center is being careful, right? I mean, their appointment confirmation email, plus a lady who phones to confirm, instructs you to wear a mask at all times and reschedule if you have any Covid symptoms. So I get there and sitting right next to the check in desk is a dude with a nice chesty cough and wheeze, with his mask pulled down to cough! And I know it’s infectious and not COPD or something because his wife has parked herself next to him (btw sign in lobby says no family only patients) and has the same thing! Literally five feet from the check in, in the closest chairs, in an otherwise empty waiting room the size of an airport. I say to the check in girl, Hey, that guy right there is not wearing his mask! She was reading a magazine in her own little world, does a double take. Guy gets embarrassed and puts mask back on, she says, Well he’s putting it back on now. I say, Well I don’t see what earthly good that’s going to do at this point after coughing on everything and filling up the air with germs!

So, hoping my KN95 is good enough to protect me from doofus who misunderstands the whole purpose of masks.

"Keepin' it sleasy since 1952"

1-1 7k sleasy
1-2 7k sleasy
1-3 rest
1-4 7k sleasy
1-5 4k slow
1-6 4k treadmill
1-7 7k sleasy
1-8 7k slow
1-9 7k sleasy
1-10 rest
1-11 7k slow
1-12 7k sleasy (but a lot closer to easy than slow)
1-13 rest
1-14 6k sleasy
1-15 7k sleasy

January Total: 77k
January Goal: 140k

Mostly cloudy, low 20s F, with that same mean wind from the northeast blowing a few snowflakes around. Much better run today.