Last night was a 5 mile run and tonight will be a workout at the gym with my trainer. There was an update put out yesterday on the RAGNAR relay that we are doing in September. I’m really annoyed because they changed the route a bit and one of my legs is now significantly shorter so my total mileage has gone down a lot. I am trying to figure out how to increase it back to what it was previously and I may end up pacing H on one of his legs or one of the other runners. But maybe I should just be happy with the shorter distance because there are a lot of hills in this race, much more than what I’m used to running on. Since it comes at a critical time for training for my marathon in November I want to make sure that the mileage and runs will help with my training rather than get me sidetracked. I am probably way overthinking the whole thing.
BB - I’m glad you’re seeing some improvement, but it sounds as if you haven’t fixed the problem. I sure hope your doctor can come up with a next step(s) that lets you get back to your regular routine. You have been remarkably patient throughout this ordeal.
FallGirl - I hope you have a great time in Illinois and have a good time with the hikes. Hopefully your H will join all of you and I hope you don’t get rained on. This time of year, anything goes for the weather.
MOWC - I hope your running at altitude went OK this morning! Enjoy your time in CO, it sounds gorgeous.
Hi all. Was traveling (visiting my grandmother who turned 97 - I do have good genes as my other grandmother made it into her 90s!). Then spent the last two days helping D move into her new place - which is a third floor walk up. The movers did the actual furniture and heavy boxes but my S and I did lighter boxes and miscellaneous small things so I wound up with something like 60 flights of stairs and am sore! Did weights this morning but just not in the mood to do anything else.
Sabaray- someone on Facebook (who knows better)actually asked me if I was doing the 100. It’s SO difficult. I have a friend who does it and he’s an extremely good ultra runner and it took him a couple of tries to make it through.
6 miles done! That’s a lot for my first day. I kept it relatively flat, took breaks to stare at the scenery and walked a stretch over some scary wooden boards that were too far apart for me to run on. 42 degrees! I was chilly. Wore a light washable wool Oiselle top and capris.
Went for a nice walk last night. One of the local cats nibbled on the ono and totally ignored the filet mignon we brought him. Pfft!! Spoiled brat! The calico kitty we met further down the path ate everything we brought.
The book Born to Run has a great description of Leadville. Not a race for beginner ultra runners!
I am glad to hear MOfWC got some relief from the heat.
That article ^^^ I get it - and yes, the best time is when you get it done! But man, to get up so early means to go to bed early too - something that also feels like punishment! I like my evenings - I get a lot done. Depending on the time of year I probably average going to bed about 10:30 (then read some) - I don’t know if I can fall asleep earlier! And I already get up and to work by 7:30am - so it’s not like I’m sleeping in till 9!
Getting up at a consistent time is also a good one - I love mornings when I’m up and there’s nothing on the schedule!
Headed to the gym this afternoon - 20 minutes of warmup to a steady run, then 15 minutes of pace running, then 10 minutes of jogging to cooldown. I’ve come to the realization it’s too difficult to run before Pilates - because then Pilates suffers - and most mornings I don’t have enough time to run after Pilates and before work. I thought of Michael’s planks in Pilates this morning - there’s an exercise called the upstretch, or elephant, on the Reformer and the final sequence has you moving into a plank. Really hard as you’re using your core to move in and out of position.
I almost feel like I cheated by using the treadmill, but it was almost 90 degrees again and I am not tolerating the heat well. Oh well, it’s done!
Speaking of NOT running early in the morning…I just returned from a full moon 5K with my son! Talk about different!
At our local Metroparks, this was an untimed (but they had a clock so you could see your starting time and then when you ended) and wow, it was kind of scary! At least half of the race was on rough grass trail - literally running on grass through fields with high brush around us - the only light being an occasional glow stick dropped on the trail (think Hansel and Gretel and the bread crumbs!), the glow sticks we decorated ourselves with and some little flashlights. A couple spots were kind of muddy/puddle-y - I was really thankful that my son stayed with me the whole time - it was a little freaky! At one point we ran under a major highway and the trucks were beeping - surely they could see the hundreds of glowing runners running below. The last mile or so was paved trail. I managed to run the 3.2 miles (on my GPS) without stopping - probably out of fear of the dark! A pretty good feat over that terrain.
I had had this event on my calendar all summer and looked forward to it. Then I realized it was on the same day I had to take my D2 back to college. I was determined to come home and make the race. S texted me a couple hours before and said, “can I come?” - heck yeah!! It was fun.
Wow, abasket! That is a freaky-scary 5k! Congrats on finishing and running non-stop! I almost missed the part about moving your kid in… Wow, that is a whole lot for one day!
My day was much less eventful. Snorkeled for 40 minutes and made my 10,000 steps. Will probably go for a walk after dinner to feed the calico kitty.
Interesting articles on the best time of day to workout and how to incentivize early morning workouts. I can particularly identify with the suggestion that you should drink a lot of water before you go to bed to cause you to get up early, as I type this at 4:30 a.m. as the result of drinking a 24 oz water bottle at 10:30 last night! But more seriously, the time of day of my workouts has always been a juggling and balancing act for me. Historically, during the work week, I have found it very difficult to get high quality workouts in early in the morning before work because my focus gets distracted by the anticipated events of the workday and the need to rush the workout to be finished by a certain time. This seems to apply more to strength training than cardio workouts. But also, as the first article suggests, I seem to perform better with strength training workouts in the late afternoon or evening than early in the morning. I had always attributed this to the distraction factor but upon further reflection tend to also think there’s a physiological reason as posited by the first article.
abasket, that moonlight run must have been quite an experience! Everything is so different at night. Between the different sounds you can hear, the loss of visibility and vision and your imagination about things that go bump in the night, it can be both eerie and exhilarating. Glad you enjoyed it!
Bunsen, how many of those 10,000 steps were from your legs kicking while snorkeling ?
abasket- sounds fun but scary on the rough grass. I would fall! Really fun event, though!
Gorgeous 42 degree run this morning. Sunnier with mist over the lake I ran past. I had a hillier route and my chest was pounding. Had to take some breaks, which was fine. I was mainly on dirt road/trails. 5.5 done. I had this idea I might do 10 tomorrow but that might not happen.
Walking today (4 miles)–got out before the heat and humidity. I ended up getting an unexpected workout last night–my daughter recently moved to Providence (about an hour from me) and I’m giving her some furniture (end table, coffee table, and a bench). Drove the furniture down after dinner and the two of us were going to move it. It’s not heavy and D has an elevator. Turns out the elevator was out of order so we ended up carrying the furniture up 6 flights of stairs. Yikes! Definitely a cardio workout.
Abasket–nice race.
Ohio–I don’t know if I’ll have a scar. I’ve been using a cream to help prevent it. Hope it works.
Sabaray–congrats on your half. I’d do the TRX training. I think you’ll enjoy the TRX it’s a challenging workout. I’m thinking of signing up for a small group TRX class at my gym, which starts in September.
“Bunsen, how many of those 10,000 steps were from your legs kicking while snorkeling?”
Thank goodness, none! My Fitbit got to live another day! But you almost guessed it - Mr. drowned his yesterday! Lol, it even worked for a while because Mr. said he was looking at it mid-swim to check the time… Now Mr. will have to count his steps vicariously through my walking. Mr. can’t wait to get back home to take his dead Fitbit apart.
I can’t even fathom that is is 42 today ANYWHERE in the U.S.!!! This has to be one of the most humid summers ever!
My H actually works for the park system that held my race last night but he was not working. I am real curious to hear from him after he talks to his co-workers to see if anyone experienced an injury last night. It was fun, but I have to say, seemed quite risky! We didn’t start till 9:30pm so it was DARK. We definitely ran slower because you had no idea what the ground below you held - mud, ruts, etc. - I mean, surely it was likely in pretty good shape - they are no fools - but they did announce “watch out for cones placed - there are some puddles on the route” - you couldn’t see the cones till you were right on top of them - they should have put glow rings around them!!!
One of the most exciting things at a fun “race” like this is to see all the people that come out and willing to get in some exercise. People of ALL ages, dogs on leashes, kids of all ages, strollers (don’t know how they faired on the grass!" - but I’ll say the freebies were fun! They provided lots of bendable glow sticks, glow in the dark frisbees, hand “crank” flashlights, etc. ! $5 entry fee which was actually not “required” - I’m sure people just showed up.
When my daughter and I ran Looney’s Midnight Marathon in 2013 the course was really well lit. It was 5 5 mile loops, basically. There were only a couple of short stretches where I could have used a headlamp. It was really fun and unique, but we were SO tired a couple of hours after we finished!
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