FEBRUARY 2024 Monthly Running Challenge

yirara · February 5

No running today. It's storming again. Like crazy. And I just realized I should have parked my car in the yard and not on the street underneath a tree. Though.. give the state of the roof here the street might be the better choice.

polskagirl01 · February 5

eleanorhawkins wrote: »

Wow, I'm so far behind it's crazy. Tried to speed read but so tired most isn't registering. Having said that, @quilteryoyo so sorry to hear about Gary.

I ran my Backyard ultra on Saturday. It wasn't my day but I learned a lot and decided to stop at 7 loops rather than risk wearing myself out or ending up injured. Pro-tip everyone probably knows but I forgot... don't eat a tonne of roast veggies and chickpeas the day before a race. My watch claims I did 51km but it was really only 47 - 150 people inside a sports hall once an hour upset all our watches.
We still won a prize though, so that was cool.

Great job being smart and stopping when you needed to! That's still a whole lotta km 😉

polskagirl01 · February 5

Cleaning with kids went better today. We finished the list. I made tacos [yummy!] and completed grocery shopping (with a pre-teen helper) without thinking I'd fall over. Something has given me slight DOMS in my arms 😆. Healthier eating continues, and the scale finally started a slow downward trend, but the plan is to attempt making macarons tomorrow with daughter, so we'll see if it continues, haha. I'm thinking slow and with occasional higher calorie days sprinkled in is a good thing.

AlphaHowls · February 5

Sometimes you have to laugh!

ContraryMaryMary · February 6

Love it @AlphaHowls, so me. I was doing this juggle in my head today to see if I should enter a half for next weekend.

Back out into the forest for another 12k. Pace and heart rate matched the same run in November (was a bit faster in December) so can confirm I’m fully recovered.

Was a stunning morning to be out - beautifully sunny but a smidge cooler than usual. Probably early 20s (sorry, no idea what that is in Fahrenheit) and not the usual humidity, although that’s all changed now and it’s sweltering - they’re predicting we’ll hit 30 today. Glad to have finished by 10:30am.

quilteryoyo · February 6

1 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 2.00 miles - treadmill intervals
2 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - treadmill
3 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps
4 Feb - Walked 2.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps wun
5 Feb - Walked 2.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps wun

9.00/85.00 miles

Today was a busy day. I had a dermatology appointment where they froze off a little bitty spot on my nose, not cancer. Then mom and I ran a bunch of errands, including paying our land taxes, before going to the funeral home to make arrangements for Gary. Most were made already, but you still have to do the obit, decide times, etc. Took us about an hour.

After I got home, I made a couple of needed phone calls and then went out for a 2 mile wun on the driveway. My HR was closer to normal today. It didn't reach 120 bpm until about 8 min in and was only above 135 bpm for about 2 min during the last running I did. Avg HR was 126 with a max of 140 bpm. My avg pace was 14:36 min/mile, so faster than yesterday with better HR. My sleep score was 68 even though my sleep stress was pretty high at 23. Still not too bad overall.

quilteryoyo · February 6

@Laurz9191 That sounds like a tough run. I'm sure that wind added to your workout and made you stronger - sort of like running hills.

Thanks @eleanorhawkins . It looks like you made sound decisions. You don't want to be injured for sure. Glad you won a prize.

Thanks @Mari33a .

Nice running @Teresa502 . It was very nice weather today.

I hope you don't get any damage from the storms @yirara . It's hard to know where "safe" is when you have bad weather.

Glad you and the kids got the list completed today @polskagirl01 . And you weren't totally worn out. That is the BEST news.

@AlphaHowls

Yeah for being completely recovered @ContraryMaryMary ! Glad you had a beautiful day for a run.

Another great run @tarun_yadavA . How long are you planning to keep the streak going?

chris_in_cal · February 6

quilteryoyo wrote: »

I had a dermatology appointment where they froze off a little bitty spot on my nose, not cancer.

I wasn't so lucky, last week pathology identified a basal cell on my shoulder, I am going in to get it excised and stitched up on Wednesday.

kgirlhart · February 6

February Goal: 130 Miles

2/1: 6.02 miles
2/2: 3.25 miles
2/4: 11.11 miles
2/5: 3.12 miles

23.50/130 miles completed for February

A few months ago I decided to add a 5th day of running and run one shorter run per week. I can't decide if I want that day to be Monday or Friday. Sometimes I let the weather decide for me. It was nice this morning and there is a chance of rain later in the week, so I ran a 5K today. It was a great run. I had negative splits and ran a little faster than my usual easy run pace. We probably won't get rain later in the week, but it was still a good way to start the week.

tarun_yadavA · February 6

Morning all.
Got in 4.52 (at 09"29).

@quilteryoyo hi! Thank you! How are you doing?

Ummmm... On 37. Aiming for 50.
Feel ok so far 🤞🏽🙏🏽

polskagirl01 · February 6

PS. I declined the Strava member request. If it's someone who is actually here with us, speak up in this thread, and send another request!

Macarons are not going well. 🤣 I'll update with complete results later. I managed a walk to the store (package pickup) and am making lunch, but need a nap really soon...

polskagirl01 · February 6

chris_in_cal wrote: »

quilteryoyo wrote: »

I had a dermatology appointment where they froze off a little bitty spot on my nose, not cancer.

I wasn't so lucky, last week pathology identified a basal cell on my shoulder, I am going in to get it excised and stitched up on Wednesday.

Hope it goes smoothly and effectively!

TheMrWobbly · February 6

Thank you @shanaber , my son is moving to Canada Water and will be pretty close to Tarun. We could go for a run together, for about 10 yards and then I would be watching him disappear into the distance. I should get down to 10 minute mile pace and that would be a good time to join up.

Got this stupid cough an cold that everyone seems to be passing around.

Just keep going...

eleanorhawkins · February 6

Teresa502 wrote: »

Congratulations on your backyard ultra @eleanorhawkins! The real question - would you do it again (minus the roasted veggies and chickpeas the day prior)?

@Teresa502 I'm kind of surprised you have to ask LOL. Umm... we're definitely going back to that one next year. And I'm definitely going along to the next edition of one my friend went to a couple of weeks ago (but am praying they manage to change it to December cause two in a month could be painful for me). Right now I'm also toying with one on the 20th of April that's about a three hour drive from home. So far there are only 30 people signed up for it. It would be a good training run for the 60k I'm doing in May, except it has a lot less vert, so I'm not sure.

Scott6255 · February 6

Quite a streak you have going @tarun_yadavA! Glad you are feeling ok so far. Hope it stays that way!
@quilteryoyo glad your procedure was 'tiny' and not 'C'. @chris_in_cal hope your procedure goes well! I've had that done a few times on my face and shoulder.
I know I've said this before, but have to say it again... @eleanorhawkins you are a BEAST!!! Smart to cut is 'short' though to prevent major injury!

I got my new shoes yesterday. I wore the Saucony Endophin Speed 3s for a short-ish, slightly faster than tempo run last night. They felt good, and I didn't feel as tired or sore as I normally would have at that pace. Most of all they were quieter than my Speed 2s. Lately people hundreds of feet in front of me would turn around to see where all the noise was coming from. I guess it sounded like cardboard slapping the pavement

Hopefully today will take out the Puma Deviate Nitro2s for a spin.
Shoe p0rn below:

Laurz9191 · February 6

Hi everyone!

I was planning a longer run for today but enroute for my run I got a call from my son’s school that he needed to be picked up with a bad headache. After making sure he was ok and feeling a bit better, I decided not to bail completely on my running plans but just to do a shorter recovery run. I ran 7.5km. So far 38.1/200km for February.

martaindale · February 6

@Scott6255 Pretty shoes! I’ve wanted to try the pumas but haven’t found time to go try them on and see if i even like them. I like the styling a lot.

@PrestonHaywood I also have a Garmin watch. If you’re not quite ready to take that plunge, almost any smart watch has basic tracking functionality. Or you could try an app like strava, which I have my watch linked to as a central storage location. It has internal functionality to track a run as a part of the free functions.

@eleanorhawkins Awesome work! Lesson learned about the veggies. I’m kind of surprised it bothered you. You seem to have an iron stomach!

martaindale · February 6

Feb total: 23.7 miles
YTD: 126.9/1200 miles

2/1: 4 miles
2/3: 10.2 miles
2/6: 9.5 miles

It was a really pretty morning. Upper 40’s, clear, not too humid.

I recycled a longish interval workout from my last HM plan to get a little speed work in. 4 x 1.5 mile with 0.5 mi recovery. It went pretty well. It’s been about a month since I’ve done any significant speed work so it took a little longer for my legs to find the pace, but we got there. 3 of the 4 were right where I wanted with only 1 a few seconds slow.

eleanorhawkins · February 6

Thanks @Scott6255 and hey, nice shoes!
And thanks, too, @martaindale I was pretty surprised as well, it serves me right for getting complacent I guess. Being vegetarian and used to eating a lot of veggies and legumes I just assumed it would be fine and that the fibre thing only affected people who don't generally eat that much—dumb mistake.
I'm flattered you think I have an iron stomach but I really don't, especially not since I hit perimenopause. What I do have but probably have never talked about that much here is an extremely tried and tested fuelling system for my long runs and races which has been worked on over a lot of miles and a lot of time spent training my stomach to tolerate it. Plus of course, we crazy trail/mountain runners do a lot of power hiking which gives us more of a chance of first swallowing and then digesting stuff. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to get away with the way I fuel in a road race.

yirara · February 6

Again no running today. The still raging, rooftile lifting storm was blowing my legs away. Sigh. I might still get my running goal for this week by doing an 8km run, 2x6km and 1x5km or something like that. Lets see. The weather is supposed to be better again from tomorrow.

polskagirl01 · February 6

Sigh... kitchen experiment...

Blueish batch got overbeat.
Pinkish batch came together better but had mixed results when baked. I split trays up between 2 different ovens, hoping one would work for us. I also feel like the standard sugar here (beet rather than cane) behaves differently in many cookie recipes. Looks like the smaller circles came out better. The rest... either "not so great" or "hilarious disaster". Buttercream on top helped. Kids are eating them, I had enough sweets. Back to low/no-sugar.

martaindale · February 6

@polskagirl01 I have heard that macarons are technically a bit of a challenge. I've never been brave enough to make them. Some of your pink ones don't look too bad!

polskagirl01 · February 6

martaindale wrote: »

@polskagirl01 I have heard that macarons are technically a bit of a challenge. I've never been brave enough to make them. Some of your pink ones don't look too bad!

From what I can tell, it only takes one tiny thing to mess them up, and I suspect the pros go through a lot of ingredients getting their systems down with their particular ingredients and ovens. I have almost a kilogram of almond flour now, so will probably look for something else to use it in, preferably without sugar. Daughter is happy, so I guess it was worth trying once 😊

SummerSkier · February 6

@scott6255 you are the only other person I know who has tried Puma's!!!! Love them. Quite the shoe porn .. Hope they are speedy like my tiger ones.

emptydog · February 6

Checking in. I haven't run for 2 days.
Hopefully, tomorrow is a running day. The weather looks great here for the next several days.

Other stuff:

I did get my car back from the garage and am thrilled with that. It is a 2002 PT Cruiser with 123000 miles. It isn't restored or a classic type of thing. It is old but it runs great and I love to drive it.

About a year ago I had a pacemaker put in. I have a box on my nightstand that monitors it and automatically sends the information to my doctor. It has a little blinking blue light that is lit all the time. Yesterday morning, while I was making the bed, the little blinking blue light turned into a little blinking red light. That alarmed me and I called the doctor's office. It was before the office opened and got the overnight person. Who was no help at all. I was disgusted and angry and hung up the phone on her. I felt fine but didn't dare run. Later in the day my blue light was back on and has been on all day today. So I think I will run tomorrow.

2/1 - Neighborhood. 2.9 miles. 39F, Cloudy.
2/2 - Neighborhood. 1.26 miles. 34F, Cloudy.
2/3 - Neighborhood. 1.33 miles. 36F, Sunny.
2/4 - Neighborhood. 1.09 miles. 41F, Sunny. Nice Day.

Scott6255 · February 6

Really wanted to love these Puma shoes. Started off a little awkward, then started feeling some sharp pain in my left inner shin. After about 3.5 miles my right shin started feeling that same pain. So shut it down after 4. Hoping it was just too much after a fairly hard workout yesterday. Will give it a day or two of rest/recovery and try again.

kgirlhart · February 6

February Goal: 130 Miles

2/1: 6.02 miles
2/2: 3.25 miles
2/4: 11.11 miles
2/5: 3.12 miles
2/6: 6.02 miles

29.52/130 miles completed for February

Today's run was another great run. It was kind of chilly, but the sky was bright and there was no wind. The moon was a lovely crescent on the horizon. I ran my usual 6 miles. It wasn't an eventful run, but it was just a lovely morning and I felt really good so that made it a great run.

I love the new shoes @scott6255. I've got 405 miles on my shoes and my feet are starting to get kind of achy, so I ordered some new shoes. They should be here Friday.

@polskagirl At least the kids enjoyed the macaroons. I'm told my mom makes fantastic coconut macaroons, but I hate coconut so I have never eaten one.

quilteryoyo · February 7

1 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 2.00 miles - treadmill intervals
2 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - treadmill
3 Feb - Walked 1.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps
4 Feb - Walked 2.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps wun
5 Feb - Walked 2.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps wun
6 Feb - Walked 2.00 miles - Ran 0.00 miles - driveway laps wun

11.00/85.00 miles

I did another 2 mile driveway wun today. I wasn't very motivated after spending most of the day waiting for people to return phone calls. I didn't want to be away from the phone for too long either. But there was sunshine I needed to absorb.

My avg pace today was 14:50 min/mile. Avg HR was 136 with a max of 152 bpm. That high was for about 2 seconds.

quilteryoyo · February 7

@chris_in_cal I hope your "surgery" goes well tomorrow. It's good that they can find those early and get rid of it before it becomes a huge problem.

Sounds like a really nice couple of runs @kgirlhart !

@tarun_yadavA Great running and you are doing great with the streak. Over half way there. I'm doing okay. Thanks for asking. The funeral is tomorrow.

@polskagirl01 Sounds like you are up and about a bit more than you were. I hope that means things are looking up a bit anyway. I'm sure the macaroons taste good, even if they weren't pretty.

@TheMrWobbly Sorry you have the crud. I hope you can get rid of it soon. I would be doing the same if I ran with @tarun_yadavA.

Thanks @Scott6255 . Love the shoe porn! Well, shoot. I hope the Pumas do better on the second run.

@Laurz9191 You did great getting out for a run given the circumstances. I hope your son feels better and he doesn't share his germs.

Sounds like a great run @martaindale !

@yirara I hope the weather does get better for you tomorrow.

@emptydog Oh my. That sounds scary. I would have called back when they were in, just to be sure. I hope you are okay and have a good run tomorrow.

shanaber · February 7

@Scott6255 - love the shoe porn. Those Pumas are beautiful. I hope they workout and aren't the cause to the pain in your shins. I have not tried Pumas in years but they were too narrow of my wide feet the last time I tried them.
@emptydog - I also have a pacemaker but not the monitor. I would be petty upset if the doctor didn't address the issue and/or call you back when the regular staff was in that morning. I would still follow up with them just to get peace of mind that everything is ok. Glad you got your PT Cruiser back and working well!
@polskagirl01 - I have also read that making macarons is very difficult. Honestly I think making anything that requires stiff egg whites that you don't deflate when mixing in the remaining ingredients, is difficult.
I am sure even the ugly ones tasted great though!
@TheMrWobbly - I too would have a problem keeping up with @tarun_yadavA but maybe he would slow down to run with us for a little bit before he runs off into the distance.
@kgirlhart - it took me a long time to figure this out - I think what your mom probably makes are coconut macaroons vs macarons which don't have coconut in them. I am not a huge fan of macarons but I love macaroons especially when they are dipped in dark chocolate.
From BonApetite:
A macaron is a sandwich-like cookie that's filled with jam, ganache, or buttercream. A macaroon is a drop cookie made using shredded coconut.

I got out for a walk on Sunday before the big storm hit but it has been pouring ever since. I am hoping maybe I can get out again tomorrow if it isn't raining still in the morning. We have Flash Flood warnings until tomorrow afternoon so we'll see. So far we have gotten around 8-9 inches total since Sunday night, more than we would normally get for an entire normal rainy season. The good news is we have flooded planters and backyard but no damage.
I have 7.84miles so far this month.

FEBRUARY 2024 Monthly Running Challenge

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