January 2012 Running - Snow, stay away!

[SadieKate]

So my best 5 k on the road is barely under 30 minutes. I did this 5k in 33:44. Now my Garmin said 2.85 miles but it was supposed to be a 3.1 mile course. So if it was really 3.1 miles I think I did really good. Could it be my Garmin was not accurate due to all the switch backs?? Anyways I had a blast. I should do more trail runs!!!

K

Congratulations! Trail runs are going to be somewhat to way more slower than a road race.

If your Garmin is set to smart recording (some have this option), a singletrack course could easily measure short. It's easiy for the recording point of your GPS to not record every single link twist and turn of a singletrack anyway, but smart recording makes it worse.

[limewave]

9 miles for me on Sunday afternoon. Not so bad! Slipped on the ice only once. My hips were sore the rest of the afternoon. It was a strangely comforting feeling. They always get a bit weary when I start increasing my mileage again.

[indysteel]

Great job, LW!

I am tentatively excited. I ran Saturday and today. Three miles each at a 6 mph pace. I haven't gotten my roller or massage ball yet, but for the past few days I've been using a tennis ball to roll out the worst of the areas of my hamstring.

Wow! What a difference. The pain is substantially less so long as I do it several times a day. I imagine the roller is really going to help. I'm really excited!

[Selkie]

Going through a frustrating time at work, so it was easy for me to run longer Monday morning. It was a nice 4.7 miles on the trail at work. Cold (35 degrees) and sunny with a brisk wind--I am going to miss cold weather running when spring arrives. Felt good and reluctantly dragged myself back inside.

[skhill]

The snow did a remarkable job of staying away this January-- we've had a few flurries, but I haven't had to break out the shovel yet.

I wrapped up the month with some speedwork. Intervals this time. I didn't actually go much faster for them, I just tried to maintain my speed going into a 20 mph headwind. Yuck. Just 4.5 miles, and I'm feeling it (as well as yesterday's hip-intensive yoga class).

[OakLeaf]

Thanks all!

V., way to go with your mileage goal. Kat, great work (and +1 on the one-second recording for twisty trail runs, if they're not so long that your battery might go down too quickly). Selkie, you're very welcome - glad my Chi Running evangelism is helping you (although everything I know about trigger points I learned from the wise women on TE before me ) Indy, glad you're starting to feel better. That foam roller masochism does pay off, doesn't it? Yellow - just wow.

And now back to my regularly scheduled marathon training. Well, sorta - I really need to start pushing the mileage again, it feels like forever, and I'm less than three months out now. But other commitments have been getting in the way early this week - so I did not quite 8 on Sunday and 14.5 today. Hopefully I'll be able to get a longer one in this weekend.

[7rider]

I haven't gotten my roller or massage ball yet, but for the past few days I've been using a tennis ball to roll out the worst of the areas of my hamstring.

If you have a rolling pin, try that until the roller arrives.
DivingBiker clued me in to that one. We wrapped it with an old towel and secured it with rubber bands...makes it more uneven and gives a deeper massage on the cheap.

Glad it's all working for you.

I just agreed to buy a slot to transfer into the D.C.'s Cherry Blossom 10-miler on April 1st. My first ever 10 mile race, I'll use it as training for my ultimate goal of hitting 13 before my June Duathlon. Early start....alone (no peeps that I'll know by my side) in a field of 20,000 complete strangers, loooong porta-potty lines. Everything to get my anxiety level ramped up to stratospheric levels. And I'll do this for fun! Yee-HA!

[GLC1968]

I just agreed to buy a slot to transfer into the D.C.'s Cherry Blossom 10-miler on April 1st. My first ever 10 mile race, I'll use it as training for my ultimate goal of hitting 13 before my June Duathlon. Early start....alone (no peeps that I'll know by my side) in a field of 20,000 complete strangers, loooong porta-potty lines. Everything to get my anxiety level ramped up to stratospheric levels. And I'll do this for fun! Yee-HA!

LOL, just reading this got MY anxiety levels up for you!

I've been MIA lately due to a very weird infection of some sort in my throat. I was without a voice for over a week and super phlegm-y now that I'm vocal again. Oy.

My first of two half marathons is 16 weeks away with a 15K at about the half-way mark, so I was able to put a good training plan together today. Well, RunnersWorld's Smart Coach was able to with my tweaking. I'd played with a couple of other plans but they were making me nervous and not even the least bit excited. This one is WAY better and I'm psyched to start running again!

Tonight will be 3 miles. Looking forward to it!

[indysteel]

Thanks for the suggestion, 7!

And good luck at your race. You have really come a long way in the handful of months that you started training for your December 5-miler! Awesome job!
I keep wanting to bite off an ambitious goal, but my hamstring injury has reminded me that I'm better off--at least for the time being--sticking with pretty modest goals.

[limewave]

4 easy-peasy miles.

[GLC1968]

Woohoo! First run in more than two weeks last night and it felt pretty good. I had no coughing while running, but I was about to hack up a lung a couple of times last night. It seems to have quieted down today though, so I think I'm good to keep going.

3 very easy miles on the treadmill. Let the 2012 training season begin!

[limewave]

GLC--that is awesome! Yay!

6.5 miles for me today. Felt pretty decent.

[skhill]

Well, I've done it. Signed up for a pair of March races, just before the rates went up. A 3k, then 2 weeks later a half-marathon. Funny thing is that the race I'm excited about is the 3k-- 2 years ago I was 4th AG, last year 2nd (by chip, but 3rd by gun). I really, really want to win it this year. Of course, the winner was about 50 seconds ahead, and that's a lot in a 3k. It's not like I was slow, either, she's just crazy fast. If she's running, I probably won't win, but a much closer second place would be pretty good too!