May 2022 Monthly Running Challenge

Hi all! I totally got left behind again, so busy I can't keep up!
Nice to see some old names showing up again, and some new ones coming on board :-)

So, umm, April. April was a tough month, I raced a mountain HM on the 16th (omg part of it was literally rock-climbing!) and then a flat (slightly downhill actually) HM on the 1st of May. Combined with some way too long, hard training sessions courtesy of Evil Coach number 3, I'm feeling pretty wiped out right now so have decided to skip club training this month for a number of reasons. Our trail club was great to start with, Evil Coaches 1 and 2 are great guys and I learned so, so much from them. BUT Evil Coach 1 got head-hunted for the provincial mountain running team, and Evil Coach 2 got a big promotion at work. One guy is running a 100k new weekend so has been following his own plan for a few months, another had a baby (well, his wife did, obviously) so has had a few months off, others had other excuses, but all in all group training has turned into EC3, a triathlon athlete they know who obviously pulled the short straw, babysitting me twice a week. And his entire training focus is "let's go as far as we can, as fast as we can, for a couple of hours". Story short, I'm exhausted. No matter how many times I suggested we should go slow, do some easy runs, etc. etc. he just ignored me. Then the penny dropped after the last of these episodes that I don't actually have to go and endure that, especially when I am paying for it (albeit a token 10€ per month). So I announced in the group chat that I'll be doing my own thing and training in the mornings this month. Actually feel quite relieved!

Fact is I'm signed up for a 17k trail race at the end of this month around the village where my mother lives, and it starts at 10am so it's going to be HOT. Meaning I will be training at that time of day all month in the hopes of somewhat preparing myself for that, rather than sticking my head in the sand and suffering on the day. (I seem to be getting old and wise or something).
I'm also signed up for the same mountain HM I ran last October, which made me cry the first time I ran the course. I've decided these things are like child-birth, they hurt like hell but you forget the pain lol.
But... and here comes the really exciting part, then I did a thing and signed up for a 35km race 3 weeks later. From what I can see, it will basically be just like the one before it for elevation but with a relatively flat 15km warm-up. I'm excitified (excited and terrified) already! I've tweaked Hal's Novice 1 marathon plan, so the mileage is as low as reasonably possible, but will be making a conscious effort to get as much elevation into my training as I possibly can. We'll see how that goes!

So that's pretty much me running wise. With the low mileage as I recover from the last couple of races and save my legs for the next, this month will look pretty conservative on paper, probably around 110km, but at this point, my legs are telling me they need quality over quantity.

02.05: 3.20km in 26min 10 stride repeats
04.05: 6.45km in 57mins

Well, that went completely wrong! In total I ran about 5.1km, and much slower than usual. Decided as running was going so well lately to do a bigger loop without possibility to return home should things go wrong. Yeah, furthest away from home my leg muscles gave up and I started to get dizzy and could not see sharp anymore. Cue many, many alternations between running and walking. Also was a wee bit more terrain that I thought there was. Oh well... can't get much worse than this. On to the next run

@eleanorhawkins You’ve been busy! With all of the races and training you have done, I think you will do amazing at your upcoming races.

@Scott6255 Hubby and I went to Barcelona a few years ago. I will try to look back at some of the places we visited and give you some suggestions.

@7lenny7 Your map is crazy! That is awesome that you have explored so much of your town.

I ran before work again yesterday. It was a Foundation Run - 5 min Z1, 35 min Z2, 5 min Z1. 2.51 miles total.

I’m supposed to run intervals again tonight, pending the storms passing through before I get home from work.

I think @7lenny7 makes some good points about the 6 year old. Personally I think it's too much, but I don't know the kid or his normal activity level. A kid who runs around playing all day can probably cover the marathon distance, walking with breaks over an 8.5 hr period. Would I recommend that parents encourage that? Not really. There are plenty of better ways to encourage an active lifestyle.

I actually really tried to discourage my 11 year old from the hike. He insisted on going on a group hike once in winter when he was around 4, and it was a disaster. And I've had a complaining 7-year old ruin another group hike once, and was not looking for a repeat of that either. I was pretty clear on expectations, then let him decide. He did great, and had fun.

I decided to count that hike on my training plan as a shorter easy run AND a cross-training day, which gave me an extra rest day today.

Last night we picked up a car about 15 minutes from one of my mountain start points. So I took the extra car and went for a quick fast hike up "little goat mountain", took a picture of the incoming storm, noted that it was getting dark and both my phone and watch batteries were dying (oops), and promptly double-checked that the "green trail" indeed went all the way back to my start point, and ran back down following the trail markings (and very odd and excessive amounts of cement that had been brought in to "improve" the trail). Drove through the storm on my way home.