I'm very excited to start the August running thread! Did my usual 3.4 mile loop at a pace I can tolerate given the conditions (and my condition). Still glad I'm back in my running shoes!:)
K
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I'm very excited to start the August running thread! Did my usual 3.4 mile loop at a pace I can tolerate given the conditions (and my condition). Still glad I'm back in my running shoes!:)
K
Took an unscheduled rest day on Aug 1; my poor dog had tummy issues and I thought it prudent to spend that time outside with her, waiting for everything to pass. It did.
Today I woke up short of sleep-- there was a fire overnight at a house across the street, everyone got out OK pets included but there was too much noise and excitement to sleep well. But I ran anyway. 7 miles at a good 8:40 clip, and I saw what I think was a pedestrian equivalent of a ghost bike; it was a walker, painted white and chained to a utility pole.
When I started out on the run, there was a smell of smoke in the air. I thought it was just lingering from overnight, but no. When I got home, there was a robust fire department presence again; evidently the fire wasn't all the way out and had flared back up. My neighbor saw smoke when she stepped outside to get her newspaper right around dawn, and called it in. From what I hear they're still on site...
skhill, nice run. Glad you doggie is better and hope that fire gets put out for good!
Just another little slow 3 miler, then about 3 mile bike ride to bike shop and then back again. Busy (but good) start to a busy day.
K
skhill, nice pace! And kat, happy to have you running with us again!
I've decided it's kind of nice to have no races planned for the rest of the year. Now I can just run if I want to or go for a bike ride or a hike instead. Normally I need a goal but after doing substantial events in March, April, May, June, and July, I think I am ready for a break from the spreadsheet. This morning I went on one of my favorite runs up a mountain, just for fun, not "training"!
I am so lucky I have places like this to run. I saw tons and tons and tons of flowers, a badger, some mountain goats, the requisite squirrels, and lots of busy pikas. It was a gorgeous morning. Here are a couple of pictures. I continue to be mesmerized by the 2nd one.
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Wow, yellow. That's incredible.
I saw a weasel crossing the road into a cornfield today, does that count? :p
Hi all,
we are on vaca in Maine. We got in a couple good trail runs this week, a decent road ride and some amazing paddling. That makes up for the butter, butter, butter and lobster. At least that is the story I am sticking to:)
Long drive home tomorrow, and then back to the regular running schedule. I still have a bit of work to do before my race in Sept.
Yellow, thanks for the pics....amazing. My hubby and I are heading west next summer, I cannot wait to be above treeline!!!!!!
Oh and I saw a lobster...not while I was running, but right by my feet while pulling up my kayak. That has to count for something.
I saw a groundhog while I was running, does that count? After what one did to my garden last year I hate those things...
I didn't set out to run an alcohol route today, but at 4 miles I realized I had passed 4 active breweries and one scheduled to open this fall, plus 2 distilleries, only one of which has released any bourbon yet. It takes a while to mature, of course. It's a part of town that had a lot of old unused warehouse and light industrial space. 7 miles again, but the weather was more typical for this time of year so it felt like more. And now it looks like it's about to start raining so there goes the planned bike ride...
I got two of my wishes this morning: race in the rain, and practice running hard downhill. It was just a little 5K in the arboretum down the road, 274 feet of climbing by my watch, and most of it pretty steep. Won my AG ... I'm starting to feel a little guilty, like I'm cherry picking races or something :rolleyes:, but I'm just staying local right now. On the one hand, there's only so far I'm willing to drive for a non-goal race, and on the other hand, doing these short races is the best way I know to get some tempo runs in and stay sharp before I start training in earnest. So it is what it is. I thought about doing a 10-miler in the "big city" tomorrow, but between the fact that it would've been another 35 miles each way, AND being a point-to-point race where the last bus from the start leaves at 6:15 a.m., it just wasn't happening.
It really poured down rain today. I had some errands to run afterwards and I was REALLY glad I brought a dry bra. :p
Yellow, I'm jealous, of course the climbing and altitude would kill me!
Glad everyone is seeing some nature!
Skhill, I afraid I would have to stop and try out those breweries!
Work this AM so no running for me....maybe tomorrow.
K
Nice job, Oak! If I am going to travel very far for a race, it better be special for some reason. But then I don't really do many races near me because I think I'd rather take myself for a ramble and not pay $$. I know so many great routes; I just need to find the time and motivation to get out there.
RnR, I have never seen a live lobster outside of a tank at a restaurant (I have seen a crawdad--mini lobster?!). Oak,I love seeing weasels and minks when I do, mostly in the winter here. skhill, I think our groundhog equivalent is the marmot. I saw some baby marmots on the run as well (to me, they fall into the "squirrel" category). They don't do much harm in the mountains but I'm sure the ones down in the lowlands give the farmers headaches.
skhill, are you going to invite us for a beer and whiskey trot?? :p
I ran with hubby this AM, just an easy ramble before it got hot. We had our hottest July on record, and August doesn't seem to be letting up.
I saw a little snake crossing the trail today, does that count?
:eek:
Snakes..YIKES...that counts....
So a non running story. We are driving home from Maine to NJ today. It is traditionally a hellish ride becuse of the traffic. Today is no different. About 7 hours in we are sitting in bumper to bumper traffic trying to cross the Tappen Zee bridge, and I went into the cooler for a peach, but the first thing I encountered was the rest of the strawberry rubarb pie from last night's dinner.
I looked at the traffic, looked at my hubs, pulled out a fork and the two of us polished it off with no guilt at all. Take that Tappen Zee bridge.
I would soooo have done that. :D Guilt? What guilt? I am impressed that you had a fork nearby!Quote:
Originally Posted by rocknrollgirl
Tempo Tuesday
Just got in from a tempo session with my hubby. It is nice and cool out this morning, so it was not too bad in that department. I did not see any critters because we were right here on my street, but we did see some very weird piles of scat. Fox or maybe coyote...not sure. If we were further north, I would say bear. Odd plies of poo.... ( so says the biologist)
And Yellow...I always have a fork nearby:)
Tempo Wednesday doesn't have as much of a ring to it... It was not cool here this morning, a very humid 75F. Yuck. Roughly 4 miles at tempo, then some intervals on the track, and a slow jog on home. I was drenched in sweat, but I've done my speed work for this week.
Yesterday was Long Trail Run Thursday. It was a balmy 80 degrees with 90% humidity. Nice crisp running weather:) My goal was to work on pacing ad nutrition. I knew the weather would be a factor so I went in with the plan to walk the bigger hills right from the start. In the end, that turned out to be a good plan. We ran 11 miles, hilly in 2:10. Well, I should not say we, my husband was done 20 mins ahead of me and did not walk a thing.
I think I did pretty well fueling. I probably could have used a gel at about 1:45, but I could not get one past my lips. I sure hope on race day that we have less humid weather.
That sounds tough. Good luck with the race.
This morning, my DH challenged me to "run around the circle" as a little exercise to start the day. This means run one mile around the loop of my street, which is alternatively up a 13% grade (my driveway), down a 10% grade, up a couple 5-6% grades, and down an 8%, back to the driveway.
It was 5:45 AM, drizzly (thankfully), but I did it. My hips are just now recovering.
Holy cow, that is one heck of a mile! good job.
It would be better if I didn't know the elevation, but I do, from having to do at least half of this every time I come home from a ride!
I live exactly in the middle.
I'm fine. DH did this yesterday, and he can't walk. I imagine he ran really fast and I knew better.
Crankin, no way could I do the roads around your house AS my warmup! :eek: I'd need a more or less flat half mile anyway, to start. Good on ya that your hips were sore, though. That's what should be sore! I was proud of myself after last weekend's hilly 5K that my hips were sore for a couple of days afterward. Shows we weren't overusing our quads.
rnrgirl, nice job. Boo for hot weather. When's your race?
Today was the third time this month I've run in the rain on purpose. Don't know what's got into me. :cool: Whatever it is, it's good. (whoops... reminder to go downstairs and turn off the fan on my shoes... Back.) Anyway. Motivation to get out there when the weather isn't perfect. Getting over my terror of blisters - which so far my longest wet run has been 8.5, and obviously a wet marathon would be an entirely different animal, but it's good to know that Friction Block and wool socks do their job for that long, anyway, even if the socks do hold entirely too much water. I wrung them out on the porch before even going into the house. :p I've been seeing the letter carrier on my runs a lot lately. Pretty sure she thinks I'm nuts.
I've been bumping mileage too, not completely intentionally since I'm not on any kind of a plan for the time being, but I do want to make sure I'm more or less ready for Columbus half, even though it's not a goal race this year. Thirty-seven miles this week (and I'm probably going to ride tomorrow, probably would take the day off running regardless, so 37 is it for this week). Right at 30 the week before. Feeling good.
skhill, you made a decision about Columbus yet?
Hey Oak,
My race is Sept 28th. It is 16.7 trail race called Mountain Madness. Small race. I am usng it as a stepping stone/ deciding factor to see if I want to bump up to the full trail marathon next spring.
Oak, normally, if I run from the house, I walk for 1/3 mile, so I don't start running until I am going down the hill. I am totally fine today. I think the interval running at boot camp helped me. DH is still sore, but says he's going to keep doing this on days he doesn't have time to ride. I really don't want to do any running until it cools down and I can get back on the trails.
Oak, I've decided to pass on Columbus this year-- it looks like I have a bunch of stuff piling up for right around that date, so taking off for the weekend may not be possible. Maybe next year!
It's been raining the past 2 mornings so I was a lazy slug and didn't run. Today it was not raining, at least when I started out. The rain came later, about 2 miles in. Not much more than a drizzle but it was enough to make it hard to see through my glasses. As I'm doing a 5k this evening, I only went 7 miles, at a long-run pace. Obviously I'm not expecting to be running fast tonight!
And I really don't like running in the evening, but this is the biggest 5k of the year here. I wasn't going to do it, but I stopped by the LRS this week and an acquaintance of mine was working the sign-up station so here I am all signed up. Oh well. I'll approach it as a very large group run, and hope the weather isn't beastly-- past few days it's either been raining or horribly humid, but never comfortable.
I ran a 10K this morning with a friend. It amazed us that they managed to make the loop uphill both ways. It was a nice one, part of it was in the Mt Hood National Forest. It was only in the mid-60s so it was quite comfortable.
Terrible Run Tuesday
yep, that about says it all, body did not want to move, weather is disgusting, chalking it up to a bad run day...
I knew it would be a "terrible run Tuesday" so I didn't even try. Woke up feeling stiff and creaky (the cats slept with me due to a thunderstorm and it was awkward) and it was rainy. So I had an extra cup of coffee, sitting on the porch watching the rain.
Ended up not doing the race Sat night. I was going to bike down to it, but found that my headlight was dead and couldn't find spare batteries. So I hopped in the car to drive there, but parking was dreadful and I gave up and went home. Thought about running to the start line, but by then I'd have to pour on the speed to be on time, so no race for me.
But I did have a very pleasant run Monday morning, so it's not all been aborted runs of late. And the weather looks splendid for the rest of the week; school starts tomorrow so I'll be dodging busses but I'm looking forward to the predicted mid-50s temps.
Heh, my Tuesday run was painful, too. WTF??? My legs felt like lead. Of course, the fact that it was 94 might have had something to do with that.
Every. day. over. 90. for. the. last. month. at. least. DONE.
I'm going to try to go run in the mountains this weekend to get away from the damn heat. I separated my shoulder last week BUT! I have found a way to keep it from moving too much. I need to be very careful in the mountains since the trails can be a bit technical! :p
Oh yikes yellow!!! Be careful with that shoulder.
I had to get a run in today but various things scr*wed my schedule all up. I wound up running halfway into town on the way to my allergy shot, and got DH to pick me up and drive me the rest of the way. :p Not quite 7 miles. It was a beautiful day for running, bummed that I had to do it on the highway, but better than nothing! It was nice to get that kind of a run though just to see how much faster I go with the same effort as my usual loops. It wasn't flat, just basically one long hill, about 2-1/2 miles at maybe a 5% grade and back down the other side, but none of the steep stuff and gravel footing that normally slow me down so much.
Ow, Yellow! Both on the shoulder and the heat!
I'm 1 week in to my first garmin (a forerunner 10) and I'm liking it. It's been enlightening-- my first mile every day is much slower than the rest of the run. I intentionally start out slow to warm up a bit, but had no idea how dramatic the difference was. Heading west or south from my house, it's been about a 9:15- 9:30 pace; heading east it's around 10:00 pace (that mile is mostly uphill). I also now know that my house is at an elevation of 999 ft!
So today I went 6 miles, starting east. First mile was 10:00, and after that it ranged from 8:22 to 8:47. It's a beautiful, record-cool morning at 51F, and I wished I had dug out a pair of mittens but it's August in Kentucky. Also got a scare when the sirens started up when I was right in front of the fire station-- sprinted clear so they could head out to wherever they were going.
Thursday Trail Run
Same route as last week, 11 miles. This week was 14 mins faster. 14mins! Just goes to show you what a difference the weather makes. Last week was super humid.Today...perfection. 14 mins..no walking...no trudging...actual running. Yee Ha!
Hey Yellow, what happened, did you wipe out? DH went down today, says his wrist hurts.
Everyone that is in the cool...enjoy it while it lasts!
Fast and Fartlek Friday. And it's great that GPS means I don't have to count laps on the track; did 3.2 miles of urban fartlek, using things like garbage trucks and school buses and stoplights to determine when to sprint and slow. That took me to the ancient track, where I did a mile in 7:31. Then I jogged home, about .75 mile, except my legs were sped up and it was an 8:30 pace for a jog. Now I'm very hungry...
I started keeping my running log online on Jan 1, 2010, and today passed 5000 miles logged. Hard to believe!
skhill, that's awesome! At the end of the year last year, I tried to figure out where I could have run to if I'd done all the yearly miles in one shot. I would have made it to somewhere on the coast of BC (I picked that direction because I was having this conversation with a friend who lives in Victoria). Where would your 5000 take you?
RnR, I love days like that. Makes you think "Huh. Maybe it's not all that bad!"
Yes, I wiped out. I have been falling a lot this year, enough that I am wondering if my proprioception is off somehow. My shoulder is mostly OK; it's just sore now (and I can't lie on that side). No backpacking for a while, I'm afraid.
I had a frustrating but good run in the mountains yesterday (I was going to go today but the weather forecast for today was 50% chance of rain and lightning--uh, no). I didn't choose the best trail: I chose one that is really, really rocky and tough to run with any steadiness--this was the frustrating part. I ended up hiking a lot, but that's OK. It was a good adventure in the wilderness and I had good weather. High point was a pass called Rocky Sea at ~11,300' and low point was 9,810', so it was all pretty high. Bonus was that there were lots of friendly folks out and I saw lots of pikas and pine grosbeaks. I had no idea how far my planned route would be, but I figured between 20 and 30 miles. It ended up being about 27.5 miles. Most of my photos didn't turn out well because the air is kind of smoky from all the fires in the region, but I've attached a few. The rocky photo (the first one) is what I would call "average" rockiness for this trail. Some parts were better and some were much worse. The other photos are the pass from the east side as I was headed back up (I went up and over and then ran around the basin on that side and then back over again), a bridge through a meadow (see all our beetle-killed trees? :( ), and the pass in the distance, from the highway as I was leaving. I did fall once (well, of course!), but it wasn't too bad. No blood and I managed to avoid hitting my bad shoulder.
I ran about 7.5 miles this AM with DH. The first mile or so was tough (skyrocketing heartrate!) but then I felt pretty good. It helps that we were going realllllllly slow :)
Happy running, everyone!
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Wow yellow, nice pictures. I am envious of your running terrain, rocks and all! Nothing that exciting for us yesterday. Just a short quick loop with some pick-ups. I am doing a long road ride with my husband and his band of VERY fast merry men today and I wanted to conserve as much energy as I could. It probably won't help but I had to try.
I'd love to have some company. Come to Utah!
I run alone most of the time, which is fine. But I'd also love to have a consistent, low-drama running buddy. :)
I'd run with you Sue, but you're too fast! Oh ... and a little too far away.
I'm still trying to figure out how to use my glutes and hamstrings when I run. Everything I do is very short now.
Veronica
I saw a river otter on my run at the park this morning. He was on the edge of the path around the reservoir "doing business". I also watched some duckies. :D
Veronica
Yellow
be careful,I might just take you up on that. I know you are faster than I am, BÚT, I am drama free, AND, my own running partner (not my hubs, my friend) has flaked out on me......so.....maybe I will head west...hmmmm.
Over the weekend, I did my first 6 mile run since my surgery. I was dreading it but I made myself go anyway (I'm on a 1/2M training plan). Shockingly, it was the first enjoyable run since my injury! I actually was able to think about how nice it was to be out and about instead of using every spare thought to talk myself into putting one foot in front of the other (like all of my runs this year). I think I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the long dark tunnel of recovery!
That's great news GLC!
Veronica
Good to see you back at it GLC. I read your blogs. That was a long recovery with your foot. It must have been very difficult.
Yesterday we did tempo intervals. I let my husband pick how long they would be, and he wanted looooong. OY. But is was a good workout. We are heading north to the mountains for a long w/e before school starts, so we are swapping a day of hiking for our long run this week.