May 2022 Monthly Running Challenge

@shanaber Interesting that you had a fox drinking from your pool. They are such a pretty animal. Love the pictures of the birds and flowers. You have a beautiful place to run. And Jeep is so cute. Great mileage this month and so glad to see that you are able to run again without hurting your shoulder.

@eleanorhawkins No, I'm pretty sure we don't have sweepers like that, but I love it! At least I have never seen one. Love your picture too. I don't think you look like a drunk duck. More like superwoman. Great mileage for the month! You're awesome.

@marisap2010 Meal prep works so well for me. Makes the rest of the week so much simpler.

@Scott6255 Thanks for setting us up.

@quilteryoyo That’s a lot of work and a lot of sweat!

@eleanorhawkins That picture is great! Definitely more superwoman than drunk duck!

Well I smashed my goal this month with 177 miles ran and a 140 mile goal. In fact, this was the second highest monthly total ever for me and over 70 miles more than my previous May high. The key for me was consistency. Typically I'll skip several of the planned runs, particularly in May through September, but with a big September race I can't afford to do that.

May 27 - 15 miles on the trail. These were slow but fun miles in the State Forest on the way to the lake. I had to drop Kody off at the sitter by 8:30am so that gave my plenty of time to run before my wife got to the lake. Again I allowed myself plenty of distractions such as birding, looking for rocks, chatting with the horseback riders I met on the trail (and petting their horses), and looking for edible mushrooms. I did find a pheasant tail mushroom and planned to harvest on Monday on the way home but that didn't happen. I also explored two trails north of the State Forest which is on some church-owned land. I contacted the church ahead of time and they gave me permission to enjoy their trails as much as I wanted. There was one trail on a high ridge which was magnificent, but there were 2 miles of church land trail which were mostly misery. Really loose sand like mash potatoes and most of it was on a steep hill. I won't be "running" that section again. In the end my overall pace was 19:09/mile, but my moving pace was 13:39/mile, which shows how much I was distracted on the run.
May 28 - I was going to run 4 or 5 but was just wiped out from staying up late. I also realized that I had put 5 days of running in a row, with this being the third, so I decided it best to skip this one. I should have run this day and skipped the 29th since this day was way to windy to sail. Here it was a holiday weekend and there were only 2 boats on the lake and they were in the weekly race. Normally they have 8 to 10 racers.

May 29 - It started off cool and rainy and I got 7 miles in, running along the lake shore to the a nearby local campground, through the woods at the campground, then back to the boat.

May 30 - I had planned 10 miles in the state forest on the way home but had to pick Kody up from the sitter early instead. He had been throwing up all day the day before. I picked him up and he looked like he had a tough day, so I hung out with him the rest of the day but it he's been fine ever since I picked him up.

May 31 - This was going to be a rest day but with the skipped day on the 30th, I decided to run, and with the 2nd highest monthly total in reach did just enough for that. Though I felt like a slug and didn't have a good pace, Garmin increased my VO2 max to match the highest number I've ever seen on it. It took a full 5 miles before the running actually felt comfortable. During the run I found two geocaches and got up close and personal with a young buck with antlers in velvet. He was just 10 yards away. He looked at me for a while then went right back to eating.

7lenny7 wrote: »

@Scott6255 if you like thinner gels look for SiS gels (Science in Sports). It's all I buy now. They're isotonic, which means they're at the right concentration for your stomach to absorb the carbs without needing to drink any water. Even on a hot day I don't feel the need to wash them down like I would a Gu. Of course, the flipside of that is the packets are larger than a Gu. Some flavors have caffeine, some have electrolytes. I subscribe to their emails and they often have 40% off, including a discount on their clearance items. Their clearance items usually include gels which will expire soon. I ignore the expiration so those are what I buy. Thanks for setting up the June thread.


@eleanorhawkins that quite an attrition rate on that race and sounds a bit brutal. You did well! That's hilarious about your race sweepers actually carrying a broom, LOL. That's a cool photo of you in flight. I've never had the soles of my running shoes replaced and since I usually buy my shoes on clearance, I doubt that I ever would, particularly if it made them heavier. I've never heard of such a thing for running shoes. If I had such uneven wear I'd bring it up to the manufacturer. Twice I've had replacement shoes sent to me for premature wear. Once with Altra, once with ASICS.

I agree about SiS gels, they're the only ones I don't end up wanting to puke straight back up again after a few hours of trails, and I particularly love the ones with electrolytes because they remove the need for separate electrolyte solutions. After a few miserable races with horrific cramps, I learned that what works for me (especially in the summer) is to alternate their normal isotonic and electrolyte gels and then pop a salt cap an hour. So far, so good!

Race cutoffs are generally very tight here in Spain for some reason. Like the most lenient marathons have a 6 hour limit, most HMs are 2:45. There's a 14k trail I wanted to run next month but the cutoff for that is an hour and a half, and it's hilly and IN THE DARK (10pm start!!!). Nope, don't think so lol.

I did actually contact Hoka One One about the shoes, sent them photos. They replied that if the fault was in the shoes then the wear would be the same on both shoes because they were made at the same time. So I'm back to wondering whether I only run with one leg. I contacted the online store I bought them from, and they have sent me a UPS label to send them to them, but I'm not sure whether language is getting in the way (the website is a French one) because they're saying I must make sure they're in perfect condition. Umm if they were in perfect condition I wouldn't be complaining about them, d'oh!

martaindale wrote: »

@7lenny7 and @kgirlhart You both absolutely crushed your goals! Awesome work!

@7lenny7 and @eleanorhawkins I’ll have to try the SiS gels. I tried the Maureen isotonic gel - wasn’t my favorite. But it’s also completely unflavored, and that really put me off. Maybe these will hit the sweet spot. I like the idea of not having to time my gels to water stops.

@martaindale there are lots of flavours, my favourites are orange and blackcurrant, and raspberry with electrolytes. They sent me a free pack of limited edition salted caramel ones... can't decide whether I love them or hate them!

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

martaindale wrote: »

@7lenny7 and @kgirlhart You both absolutely crushed your goals! Awesome work!

@7lenny7 and @eleanorhawkins I’ll have to try the SiS gels. I tried the Maureen isotonic gel - wasn’t my favorite. But it’s also completely unflavored, and that really put me off. Maybe these will hit the sweet spot. I like the idea of not having to time my gels to water stops.

@martaindale there are lots of flavours, my favourites are orange and blackcurrant, and raspberry with electrolytes. They sent me a free pack of limited edition salted caramel ones... can't decide whether I love them or hate them!

@eleanorhawkins @martaindale I don't think there's an SiS flavor I've tried that I didn't like. The fact that it's isotonic makes all the difference in world. I can't stand fruit flavors of the concentrated gels like Gu or Hammer, but love the fruit flavors of SiS. Another benefit to isotonic gels is that if you get some of the gel on your fingers your not fighting that honey-like stickiness for the next several miles, nor are you gagging on the paste-like consistency until you wash it down with water.