Gertrude- I’m sorry you had that happen, but it’s interesting you wrote that. I had a couple of runs like that early last summer and I was thinking about it while I was running this morning. On those runs (which were short weekday runs) I flat got to where I couldn’t run. My HR was really high, too. I had to walk. I don’t know if I was dehydrated or what. It does happen sometimes, though!
It happened to me too, Gertrude. The body simply would not listen to the brain telling it to keep moving. It is so frustrating but it will pass.
Yardwork is in the plans for today. Mr. is anxious to fill the yard waste bin with whatever weeds grew while we were gone. I think I need to attack the ivy that outgrew its boundaries.
Good to feel strong,pg. Congrats!
Gert - I’m sure that was just an “off” day.
It was hot this AM, but I managed a walk of just under 5 miles. Hoping to get to yoga later.
Tomorrow should be cooler and less humid. I plan a training run before work.
My husband brought home these little chicken salad cups from COSTCO. They are made with yogurt and not mayo. I had one on a sandwich round yesterday and it was really good! So- 240 calories! I could eat 2 of them and nothing else and have a 500 calorie day.
Gertrude, we’ve all had days like that. You at least made the effort. It could be so many things. Not fully recovered from the half (what was your recovery plan - nutrition, sleep hydration; how did you spend your week after the half- back to normal training or some active recovery to allow your body to be replenished), hydration, electrolyte levels, sleep cycles, maybe even a low grade bug. Don’t dwell on it and make yourself nuts :). At least you had a great day with your family afterwards!
Did a 51 mile ride with my Sturdy Girls training partners. Some hills, some flats, lots of 20+ mph head and side winds! Can never seem to get a tail wind when you want one ;). Sunshine and blue skies but 98 degree heat! It was a tough ride but so enjoyable doing it with training partners who are so damn accomplished with their bike handling and group riding skills. Wordlessly falling into pace lines and double pace lines with seamless rotations. Magical.
Here’s an interesting tidbit though. According to MyFitnessPal, I burned off about 2300 calories. According to my Garmin (which I know is accurate based on comparisons to kilojoules), I burned off 1524 calories. This kind of variance occurs routinely. Points out the pitfalls of using MyFitnessPal and similar programs as activity trackers. They’re great for nutrition tracking but if you increase your caloric intake based on tracked exercise, you could quickly undermine your weight management plan.
I gave the dogs a bath in their pool! I figure that’s about 2500 calories! 
Nice ride, Michael. MOWC - do those chicken salad cups have dried cranberries in them? If so, I have bought them and they are indeed delicious.
It’s been an shocking, sickening, just incredibly sad morning here.
H and I loaded up our bikes and went up to the bike trail. The paved trail is built through old agricultural towns along a former freight train rail line used to transport freight, citrus, celery, and other produce grown in central Florida. We rode 21 miles, over some of the foothills of the Florida mountain, Sugarloaf (lol, our mountains with elevations up to 312 feet, the highest points in peninsular Florida, are ancient sand ridges formed millions of years ago). Temps were 88 at the end of our ride. Total elevation gain for the ride: 512 ft. Max speed:27.2 mph. Whee. Love the new bike, Bikey McBikeface, and I easy rode farther and faster than I ever have before.
“I gave the dogs a bath in their pool! I figure that’s about 2500 calories!”
That’s sounds about right, sabaray. Washing one cat is about 2,000 calories plus 5,000 steps (while running around the house looking for the wet escapee under every piece of furniture). A dog should be about half of that trouble… 
PlantMom, hugs. Your bike ride sounds wonderful.
As the owner of 4 cats, I can only nod my head and lol.
I’m so sorry for your community (and our world), PlantMom.
sabaray- Yes! They are cranberry almond chicken salad cups. SO good.
We washed the big dog yesterday and I wanted to wash the other one today, but H got busy with other chores, so she stays dirty.
The new from Orlando is just horrific. I don’t want to get into a side bar on any of the issues raised but we all can be united in support of the families impacted by this nightmare.
@ohiopublic — I’m amused by your going back to what you did in high school. My all-girls high school (class of '72) had no running options for us, although I loved running in elementary school, when we had sprint races all the time (or so it seemed). I was the fastest person (male or female) in my sixth grade class in the 100-yard dash. Got to high school and … field hockey, swimming, lacrosse, or basketball. I swam. Got to college: swam. No options for runners for girls at my (then mostly male) college (MIT). Joined a club cross country team–open to graduate students and staff–later and ran long-distance road races with the Greater Boston Track Club too–until I joined a high-tech startup and stopped doing any kind of sports until I found dog agility about twelve years ago.
Anyway, I have found a June all-comers track series here in Portland (OR) and did that last year (they have a “predict mile”) and enjoyed it. But it’s mostly aimed at elementary school kids, as far as I can tell; I was the oldest person running by a long shot. (I was older than some of the spectating grandparents!) That was the event where I was lapped by the entire field last year… and by the first person to finish TWICE. My goal this year (the series starts next week) is to not be lapped by everyone and to be lapped only once by the first person to finish.
I hope to find the will to overcome my shyness about approaching people and see if I can find a group to train with near to home. There’s one group that does a regular interval session I could go to (and a good friend’s daughter is part of it, so I wouldn’t be completely a stranger)–but it’s twenty miles away, across town, and starts just as rush hour ends. It would take me an hour and a half to get there—and about 20 minutes to get home.
@Pizzagirl – wow! that sounds hard. You must be thrilled with your performance.
Mr. got 16 floors on his Fitbit by climbing on the roof and washing all skylights! My exercise was mostly upper body - ivy pulls.
Dmd - Title IX unfortunately came a little too late. I am amazed how far women’s athletics has come.
You need to get yourself to a track and decide or it’ll be eating at you forever!
You can’t get discouraged the first month. Running fast at our age is a HUGE adjustment. My first track session over 5 years ago when I started running again was a big ego adjustment. I could barely get under 95 seconds for 400 meters and I was running a 22 plus 5k. I could barely eke out 2 400s. Running anaerobically again at our age takes time. DON’T GET DISCOURAGED. Trust me it is not indicative of your ability. If you were beating the boys in 6th grade then you have speed.
Don’t let the group thing stop you. In fact it might be good to run by yourself the first couple of months. I would get yourself to a track and get comfortable to the idea of going fast again even if you have been running/biking. You need to start out slow. The first week only go 1-2x and only do 5-100 meter strides @ 60% effort. Think like a sprinter but at a dramatically reduced effort thinking about form, higher knee lift, higher cadence. Gradually increase your intensity 5-10% week. Resist the urge to try any 200s/400s until your legs get used to the idea of running fast.
After 1 month start mixing in 200s/400s.
I know the general consensus today is that active stretching is preferred over static stretching, but my unscientific mind says that our age you need both. Maybe Michael can weigh in on this. I stretch and warmup at least a mile before any track work starts. I’m relatively healthy and I think it is due to to proper warm ups.
IMHO you have more opportunity and less competition to move up to the top in women’s masters track than in 5k/10k/marathon events. Make no mistake, the top level are good but in a short time you could see yourself challenging for top spots and more importantly medals!
Do it.
The whole question of stretching before an event is kind of interesting. When I last looked at the science based literature about a year ago, most of the literature concluded that pre-event static stretching did not prevent injuries. Instead, dynamic stretching, particularly involving movement patterns similar to those in the event, was suggested as the most effective way to get your muscles and tendons prepared for performing. In fact, the studies indicated that pre-event static stretching would degrade performance because the increased muscle fiber elasticity would inhibit the force of muscle contraction in events requiring speed or power. So for runners, maybe you start out with walking lunges and emphasize thrusting the hips forward when in the down position to fully engage the hip flexors through the entire range of motion. Maybe you do some legs only bird dogs to hit your hip extensors.Then continue the warm up with some 50% or less effort running for a few hundred yards alternating slow and fast or if you are doing a sprint event warm up coming out of the blocks at 50% or less and running a few yards to dissipate the energy of coming out of the blocks. Continue doing this, increasing intensity but staying below 60-70 percent, until you feel warmed up. If you throw in a static stretch or two as part of the dynamic flow, it certainly won’t hurt but just don’t do a series of extended static holds. By analogy, all my bike racer friends warm up for a race by riding in a trainer for up to 30 minutes alternating slow and fast cadences at light resistance gearing to get everything warmed up and ready to go. Hope this provides some food for thought.
Did a yoga class today and then met a girlfriend to walk at a forest preserve for a gabfest. Exercised our mouths as well as our legs
Plantmom, prayers for your part of the world. <3
I’ve seen those chicken salad cups - probably much better for you than the bulk chicken salad in the prepared food section - which is also very good but not likely using yogurt!!!
Everyone seems to have had a pretty successful exercise weekend - especially in the heat! Congrats PG on that track mile - not the easiest mile to do!
Gertrude, I’ll bet that will be an isolated incident. Next run will be better.
Today’s exercise was limited to “movement” - two long dog walks and cut an elderly neighbor’s grass + some of our own. Will end the day with 17,000 active movement steps!
@ohiopublic — thank you for the ideas and encouragement… I have been doing some uphill (not track) sprints for about a year now. Keep in mind that sprint speed is crucial for dog agility, which lasts less than 40 seconds if your dog is fast… so I do some sprint work already. But more is definitely needed.
Ran 3.6 this AM at my training intervals. I already miss my training program though.
I’m interested in the Costco chicken salad cups- where can you find those? Frozen?