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Turtles Love the Rain #PolandSpringKickOff

Marathon welcome signage on Central Park West
Marathon Pavilion

well love might be the wrong word. I didn’t sleep a lick last night worrying about whether I was prepared if the race went on, and whether the race would. With no text message when I woke, I checked FB to see all systems go and I… hit snooze. With the rain I knew I was going to Via to the start anyway, so I wasn’t in a huge rush. I also wasn’t in a rush to stand in the damp for the suggested 30-45m, so I was willing to wing it.

I was glad I had a second look at the race info last night because the course was slightly different to the prior 5 mile NYRR run I’d done. As a result, those of us toward the back crossed the finish before we crossed the start. I was amazed how quickly they put up the finish line once we were all off. While waiting for the opening ceremonies to wrap, I enjoyed the fussier than normal festivities due to marathon prep. The pavilion is deceptively large and was a nice place to dry off after our miles were done. Luckily the rain held off while we were waiting.

Back of the pack masses

For a while it felt as if we’d never get to run, but we actually crossed the start faster than in the NYRR races earlier this summer. I was watching my footing due to the wet leaves, but it was also because I couldn’t obsess over the watch. With the rain on tap I decided not to wear my glasses and that was the perfect decision. No fog, no wet lenses, no glasses sliding all over. I admit, it’s a tempting decision going forward. Only possible issue was post-race coffee, but I really don’t need the menu to order at Starbucks.

Runkeeper splits

My pace felt good and steady throughout. I felt that I got into a rhythm fairly quickly, which made sense once I saw my splits. Mile 2? Combo of Cat Hill and taking my windbreaker off as I warmed up, plus some water station congestion as I stayed with the pack! Mile 4 is the rolling hills on the west side of the reservoir. I’m impressed with that consistency int he wild and amazed that my last mile was the fastest, but it makes sense because I was feeling strong. I have no idea what that final .1 was. Probably fidding with the watch, so I’m not worrying. Really the only moment of concern was on the last water station –  I carried a bottle but never opened it until post race – when I aimed for my mouth and got my nose instead. Whoops. I really need to learn to run or at least walk and drink.

I felt as if I was darting around people a lot, but just like June I ran close to the prescribed distance (5.14 to June’s 5.13 miles). I seem to be better at that than I am when running 10K. At the second water station I was happy to see Thomas Panek and Gus who I’d read about earlier this week. I also saw them after the race and it looked like they had a good run. They were certainly having fun by Engineers’ Gate.

 

NYRR Place details

I’m still sticking with my watch over NYRR since it’s how I’ve measured all my time, but like June, they’re off.  5.14 in 57:32 for 11:12 average pace vs. 5.0 in 57:43 for 11:33. I’d also say the watch is more accurate since it is what I ran, not what the course was measured at. Some thoughts:

  • Top 79% gender. That’s pretty cool. About same (top 80) as age group.
  • Top 85% overall
  • I really love NYRR’s data. Even if I don’t know how to interpret all of it.

What I also am amazed by and appreciate is the progress I can see at a glance from NYRR and Strava.

5 Miles throughout my running history

This doesn’t include the Retro, for some reason, but it was nice to see progress over time. Strava also gave me a whole bunch of personal rankings, which really just told me that people name a lot of segments throughout the park.

Strava PRs

 

Last week was a good test but that time included some pause and stretch breaks as my hip was still not 100%. I thought it was a good indicator of what was possible and it’s where I pulled my goal time from. I really wanted to break one hour, and I was fairly sure it was doable.

NYRR runs database

It is equal parts insane and awesome to realize that I finished five miles only slightly slower than I previously finished four. Much like my feeling at finishing that four, it was lovely to realize I was up and done for the day before I’m normally up on a Sunday. All said and done, it’s about an 8 minute PR over June and I definitely hit my goal of finishing strong and smiling.

Smile and say silly

Yep! Can’t lose me in a rain storm. This love of pink is new, and while I was sad not to be able to wear Boo (although I am as I write this), I’m happy with my outfit. The windbreaker was great for post race walking around and wasn’t too warm to run the first mile in. I didn’t bother trying to tie it and just carried it as I ran. I forgot my dry socks but covering my feet in knock off glide worked a charm as no blisters despite feeling a hot spot.

I met up with a friend who I met fifteen years who and we spent some time in the Pavilion before heading to the Run Center to pick up his stuff for next weekend’s 5K and then Starbucks. It was so wonderful not to feel completely trashed after this race. Had the monsoon not picked up, I probably would have even walked home. As a result, my steps on the day are low, but I’ll take it.

Current running mileage on the year for Joyful Heart: 349.39! (Doh!)

On to the next.

Post-race goodies from the NYC Marathon Pavilion
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Review: Run the World

I can’t remember when Becky Wade’s Run The World  first crossed my radar, but it made a visit to Mt. TBR prior to this reading as when I downloaded it from the library, I was 4% in. I didn’t recall any of it, so re-started and finished it this week. If I had any quality reading time this week I probably would have finished it in two days-it’s just that compelling and readable.

Becky is a 2012 Rice University graduate who took advantage of a Watson Fellowship to travel the world and visit with runners in a number of countries. As I mentioned on the Runners’ Bookshelf, what I loved about this book was that it’s a gap year travelogue at its core.  Although she didn’t officially turn pro until a race in her second country when she won 50 Euro at a race in Ireland, I consider this the first memoir I’ve read by an elite pro. She certainly came across wiser than her age.

Wade’s adventures began in London where she was able to be a spectator for the Olympic Marathon before nearly getting run over when she met her first group of Parkrunners in a Teddington park in which she frequently trained. (I subsequently learned it was the park where Parkrun was born. Also, that sentence is my running TBR in a nutshell: Michael McEwan’s Running the Smoke and Debra Bourne’s parkrun are both stalking me.) In between those extremes she trained with and learned from a number of elite Kenyan runners and had the chance to meet Usain Bolt via one of her flatmates. The kindness and network of strangers was a theme throughout, with Wade spending far less on accommodation than anticipated as someone always seemed to know someone in her next destination.

After England, the other countries that Wade visited were: Ireland, Switzerland, Italy, Ethiopia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Sweden and Finland. She wasn’t able to visit Kenya due to the Watson Foundation’s policies with respect to travel advisories.

Each was an interesting stop in its own right but the two I enjoyed the most were Ethiopia and Japan. At the outset of the Ethiopia chapter I thought two months here? and wondered if it would start to drag as I had no particular interest in Ethiopia, but I couldn’t have been more wrong once I met the “Yaya Girls”, with whom she lived and trained. It wasn’t just the runners she met that I enjoyed, her writing really brought the secondary characters such as the woman in the market who watched their bags to life. I enjoyed their interactions with her as much as I did their party at Haile Gebrselassie’s after the Great Ethiopian Run.

Japan intrigued me because, well, everything about that wonderful country does.  The second time I was living there one flatmate was a runner but I never thought much about Japan’s running culture. Wade got the best of both worlds with time spent with expats and locals as she explored a thoroughly foreign world  and foreign running landscapes with concrete far outnumbering trails, especially in Tokyo. And of course, the ekiden. I haven’t run The Way of the Runner but now I feel it joining the the others in glaring at me.

I really didn’t want this book to end. I enjoyed Wade’s travel and running experiences, and watching her grow. Although her volume isn’t anything I can even comprehend, I enjoyed that she had some of the same struggles when approaching the start of a race. It really brought to light the differences between distance and track specialists. On the distance front, the coda of her first marathon really brought the book and lessons she learned over the year together nicely.  I hope she writes again.

On an unrelated note, they’re calling for a major storm tomorrow, the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Guess Poland Spring won’t be the only water on the course. Alas, rain means no adoraboo shirt as it’s a cotton tee. So alternate flat me is ready to go if all NYRR systems are go. More on that tomorrow afternoon.

 

Original shirt
Rain outfit
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Transformation Thursday

yeah, that’s supposed to be a tag for Tuesdays, but who am I to ever play by all the rules? Tonight was remarkably like that Tuesday. I had the best laid plans of ducking out early and going for a run in the park, but I blinked and it was 7:30. So I headed to the gym with a plan to do three-ish miles.

Treadmill PR, October 26

It’s not a PR, but it’s a treadmill PR with my prior best, 36:16, on the day I lost my old gym. It was a mostly flat 5.5 pace with a 6.0 on the last .07 or so. Whee!

Back to feeling good about Sunday’s run, which I wasn’t after Tuesday. It’s ridiculous, Sunday is a 5m. I’ve done one on this course and I ran five miles this Saturday. SO weird what bad runs do to the brain.

I’ve been reading through some run blogs I’ve come across and this from Race Pace Jess is what I’ve decided to use for Sunday:

“Finish feeling strong instead of depleted.”

I have a time in mind that I think is reasonable. But my official goal? Finish smiling.

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Running shirts and cross training Tuesday

Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff T-Shirt

When we were running the Squirrel Stampede, I commented to Beth that one of the runners in front of us had a race shirt that looked different in color to mine. It was only then that I realized the women’s shirts were more of a pink than the red of the men’s shirt I selected. And I love pink.

Women’s shirt sizing drives me bananas. It’s partially that I don’t want to get a larger size, but partially because I don’t like the cut. The only race shirt I’ve never worn is the singlet from the Women’s mini because I don’t like running in singlets (chafing, not batwings) and because the largest size they had didn’t fit right. I’m lucky in that many NYRR shirts are t-shirts and I began to think that I should get over my hangups with women’s sizing because I like and want to run in some of these shirts and men’s small are sometimes too big 😮

When I went to pickup my bib and shirt for Sunday’s 5 miler I realized a desire to keep it wasn’t going to be an issue. I really do not love this shirt.  Just not a fan of green (although I realize it’s a Poland Spring color) and blue seems to be a better choice for the water drop. It seems a missed opportunity for some Halloween fun. I wasn’t going to run in it anyway as I have an adorable Halloween shirt from Gone For a Run that I’d already planned to wear even if I liked the race shirt (I’m Team Don’t Wear it Until You’ve Earned it (although the sea of coral in the Retro 5 Miler was awesome)).

I’d say I’m not even going to keep it (I’m still on a pretty big Spark Joy kick), but I probably will. My shirt from the Run to Breathe was white and hasn’t washed/worn well. It’s also too large as I was a medium then. So we’ll see if I like this enough to keep it in rotation.

After bib/shirt pickup it was too gross to run outside so I headed across town to the gym. I have to say, the choice of Blink was perfect. If I find myself somewhat short on steps I’ll head to the one at 54th & 2nd which has the dual benefit of giving me a walking warmup. If the weather is bad or I’m short on time, I’ll hop on the train two stops from the office. I love that both have rowers and today was the first time I ever had to wait for a machine. Hi August in October.

Warm Up

Today was supposed to be a 4×400 interval day, but I realized in warmup that I really didn’t have enough in the tank for intervals so I treated the 2×400 and warmup as a warmup in its entirety and then went upstairs to the rower. If I can get enough steps in tomorrow, it may be an off day. I ran 5 miles on Saturday (as I thought, Run Less’ starting point was too much for me), 1.95 on Sunday to the gym where I stretched, rowed 3K yesterday and had my combo today. I need a day so I can run Thursday and then be ready for Sunday. We’ll see.

I’ve been doing 3K rows of late but was disappointed to learn those can’t be ranked/verified. I wasn’t sure if the PM5 at the 54th St. location would auto log a non standard length workout either so I decided to drop down to 2K tonight since I don’t often run & row together.

Concept 2 app display

I have to say, the autolog is a thing of beauty. Way better than photos of the displays and button mashing to get the verification code, although Bryant Park only has the old models so this is an east side thing of luxury. Lots of numbers, although I’m too far removed from regular rowing for those to be meaningful. I’m really loving this as a cross training and have all but given up the bike and look forward to seeing how these numbers progress. And yes, rowing gives me Fitbit “steps” but I miss the bike’s reading time.

Speaking of reading, started Becky Wade’s Run the World over the weekend and I’m really loving it. Although it’s a great exploration of running communities and their habits (she and I are currently in Switzerland), the travel bug in me loves it for the destinations she’s exploring. Review TK.

 

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Review: Run Less, Run Faster

FIRST’s Run Less, Run Faster

 

I’m not sure exactly when I added this to my wishlist, likely in either June or July when I realized I couldn’t run daily due to hip/foot. It came off the library waiting list yesterday and I quickly posted about it to a runners’ reading group that I have come to love. Between people’s comments and someone else reading it simultaneously I decided to move it to the top of Mt. TBR despite my having library books expiring sooner.

I was hoping to finish it over this weekend due to size (aka it didn’t fit well in my purse) and took it with me today due to some extended commute time, but I didn’t expect to finish it in one day. Part of the quick read is that a significant number of the book’s ~300 pages are dedicated to charts and diagrams and for that reason I was very glad to be reading this in print v. on my Kindle.

Thoughts? This book is simultaneously an amazing reference/training tool and probably not the right book for me right now where I am in my running. The authors focus a lot on optimizing performance and that’s not for me right now. I want to improve, of course, and am slightly obsessed with my 5K PRs but I’m not yet to the point where I think I want to use the extensive data here in my training. Unlike in the past, I’m pretty sure I truly mean it.

I want to enjoy my runs, I don’t want to obsess over pace and time. As they said in the book, running with your wrist in front of your face isn’t good for form. I also think their novice plan is at a higher level of novice than I am. Their week one long run is probably doable, but seems awful high compared to other plans I’ve been reading up on. I might give it a go tomorrow though as it’s not far off my prior longest run.

What I really loved about this book?

  • the pace tables. I find it very hard to know what my pace can/should be at a new to me distance/course. I still feel like I’m running blind so have definitely saved these charts.
  • This book scales, it has goal pace/workout time/pace info for times from a :16:00-:40:00 5K. It’s definitely a reference book that can and should be revisited
  • the precise workouts-what you should do and for how long. I’m definitely guilty of unfocused runs, and trying to change that.
  • Their cross training workouts. Since I found that both of my Blink locations have rowing machines I’ve been doing that and I think the time/pace guidelines there are helpful.
  • The explanations that running less isn’t working out less and how to use cross training to reduce injury risk and balance muscles worked.
  • It’s not too science heavy. There’s a ton of useful data and explanations but they don’t overburden the reader with details on lactate threshold. This is a layrunner’s guide.

I didn’t really care for their argument that “If you’re more than 30 pounds overweight, walking rather than running is advisable until you have reduced your excess weight.” What does that even mean? Reduced it to normal? Reduced it to 29 lbs over? It’s not particularly helpful guidance, nor do I think your success in running is predicated on the scale. But they’re health educators so I see where they’re coming from.

I think this book is a great tool for someone who has run a half/full and wants to improve on that. It’s also amazing if you want a hands on, how to for Boston including a physical assessment test to see if a BQ is possible. I don’t think it’s for the novice runner trying those distances for the first time without a stronger base than is typical for beginning a plan for those distances. I look forward to revisiting this book in a year or so when I’m more experienced to see if the workouts work for me then.

Speed wise for me, for now I may go back to the ASICS Pace Academy, or I may do the intervals like I did earlier this week. (Actually, I look back and realized I’ve been doing a version of those all along. Weird! I’ve also more or less tossed the junk miles when I threw out the 30m goal) I am going to use their 3plus2 model in my training because I think that will be the best for me in keeping foot/hip/knee happy. It won’t work exactly as they’ve designed, but I think it may well work perfectly for me. It also looks like it will work with some of the training plans I am leaning toward.

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Food logs can talk

I wanted to run yesterday but as I was at the office until nearly 9 PM, that didn’t happen. Walking home also didn’t happen so my fitbit goal streak ended at 41 days (longest, I think). I was OK with that. Truly. I needed a day off after barely scraping by to goal a few times the last week. I’m at nearly 17K steps today so calling that a rebound.

So I was happy today to duck out in time to hit Central Park before dark fell. It was warmer than this morning so I was able to go out in capris and a tee shirt and I headed to my usual starting point in the southwest corner of Central Park. I had a thought of doing last week’s loop or possible cutting over through the south end of the bridle path to make it a longer loop, but as I ran north east up along the Mall my legs just felt dead. My lower calves/ankles were sore – and not just the one I turned two weeks ago. I went past the 72nd street transverse and my slightly longer loop turn, but as I approached Cat Hill I thought it was probably not smart to do that and turned southwest leading to this.

Pointy Loop!
Consistency!

Not bad.

But I wondered why I just fell flat. As I described it on Strava (ignore the b0rked time, it & TomTom don’t play well together):

Everything clicked, unclicked, clicked and fell apart.

I wondered later if the answer might have been in what I are and then wondered

Bet my food log tells me why.

I’ve logged my food pretty much consistently for the last six and a half years. First it was on Weight Watchers, then Spark, LoseIt and finally MyFitnessPal for the last ~three years. I’ve found that with all the reinventions of Weight Watchers, basic calories is just easier for me and MFP’s interface is nicest. I’m not always 100% in my logging but I’m consistent enough that i can turn to it when I have a question. So I went there.

Thursday October 12
Wednesday, October 18

Yep!

I’m not particularly carb sensitive, nor do I particularly try to avoid or cut back on them but I realized pretty early on today that I was too high on the caffeine. And lunch was almost entirely carbs save for a splash of olive oil. Oops. Last Thursday? Tuna sandwich, aka protein. So much like March and June, lesson learned for after work runs. Oddly,this isn’t an issue when I run on an empty stomach on the weekends.

Conclusion? Bodies are weird.

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Harlem Hills

There’s a race I’m contemplating for 2018 and the first thing I saw when I looked at the course map (always look!) was the damn Harlem Hills. They’re a little mythical to me at this stage as I’ve only done them twice and the first time was also my first ever 10K-a very bad combo.I decided that if I wanted to do the run I’m thinking of, and/or not dread every single Central Park 10K I needed to face my nemesis.

I was feeling particularly strong about this after Thursday’s run wherein Cat Hill was no big thing. I also knew they’d be relatively less crowded than the southern parts of Central Park three weeks out from the marathon. My warmup was my usual brisk walk from 1st to 5th Ave and I ducked into the park at 85th street and headed north. Rather than my usual left turn at 102nd, I took a deep breath and continued north.

Elevation Profile – Strava

I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t the immediate uphill I remembered in my brain, in fact it was actually downhill behind the rink? Much like when I finally tackled Cat Hill earlier in June I finished thinking “that’s it?” It’s a long stretch and certainly strains the lungs, but it was nowhere near as bad as I remembered when I did that first 10K. That was just a week or two before the women’s half and I remember thinking I’d never do that — it would mean I’d have to do the hills twice! Don’t get me wrong, I think running thirteen miles and doing the hills twice would be brutal, but it’s not the monster it seems. Note to future newbies from this newbie, don’t make a Central Park 10K your first.

I have to give it more thought and another run clockwise like the Women’s Mini, but I think I like running counter clockwise better. I hit the hills at just past mile one, similar to June on relatively fresh legs and it may be a case of being better trained, but today felt better. Plus side of also not seeing the runners coming up the hill behind the rink the way you do when running clockwise.

March 24, 2017 splits
October 14 splits

Yep, definitely faster. I also didn’t walk at all although I slowed to drink since I still can’t multi task!

PRs all over the place
I’ll bet that 1K record wasn’t on hill

Yes, I’m very happy with how today’s run went. Like Thursday, it made me feel good about some plans I have.

I didn’t have an exact distance in mind today so I decided to listen to my body especially after doing the hills. The northern loop is also the one where my achilles has occasionally played up. Lungs and brain (aka mental game) were good. Somewhere I after I crossed 102 heading south though, my hip started to whine. I knew if I zigged around the soccer fields I could get back to start without much issue so I decided to do that. Just north of Engineers’ Gate my hip turned up the whine so I stopped the watch and made my cool down longer.

Final run picture according to Strava

Yep, starting to do more with Strava even though its distance is off. The maps can be good and their segment tracking is amazing. We’ll see how this tracks as I continue to tackle the Hills.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s run. As I look at actual training plans I realize I need to do some more training reads. They speak a language I don’t.

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OctoPR

so I finally Facebook outed my year of running for this week’s #TransformationTuesday. I’ve posted running photos but haven’t really talked about it since I ran the Frozen Penguin. It’s kind of crazy to see the progress I’ve made in just 9.5 months.

Since my PR run to close September I’ve had some weird runs. It was partially due to trying to cram runs in before work during a busy window and partially the changing weather wherein we’ve had August in October. The pre-work runs are exacerbated by the East River path being completely torn up. It’s a longer course from 78th to 59th, but it’s such a waste of time to go all the way to the overpass at 78th so I think I’ve settled on going north and hoping the 81st St. overpass is eventually completed.

I wasn’t too worried as I know good and bad runs are a thing, especially with the humidity. So I was very happy for this week’s weather turn. Monday and Tuesday had me at the gym but today I escaped the desk while it was still light out and it was a gorgeous, crisp fall afternoon. After stashing my stuff at NYRR, I headed into the Park with some vague plans of doing two laps of the lower loop to get in three miles. I really don’t like doing laps though, so instead of turning west at 72nd I decided to go up Cat Hill and turn further north at Belvedere Castle. End result?

New CP lower route

Yep, still a little wiggling at the bottom to get over three miles. Actually felt as if I could have gone farther/longer, but I’d run out of daylight. Park still plenty crowded especially with marathon training, but not enough to do another loop, even of my usual. I was curious how it shook out timing wise as I really couldn’t read my watch in fading light.

Runkeeper, before today’s run
Runkeeper after today’s run

Um, WOW!

That’s fifteen seconds off that September run. By far my fastest Central Park run, and my first time staying below 11ish on a longer run, and really only the second time ever. CP is mostly 4x5K on the lower loop and run group on the northern end, but this was my first hybrid of the two since July. I didn’t feel like I was going this fast or this hard, but I think the GPS was pretty accurate.

That makes me feel good for my upcoming 5m and some longer long runs I’d like to do with the cooler weather hopefully here.

Remarkably consistent splits

Can you spot Cat Hill? Definitely a PR on that leg, though Strava didn’t pick it up

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Review: The Courage to Start

I really identify with John Bingham. His No Need for Speed was among the first running books I read when I got into all of this.  Although this is a short intro to some of the topics he covered at length in his other books, I felt like I learned a lot.

I also felt like he was talking directly to me in so many ways. I described this to the aforementioned friends today as feeling like I was talking to a friend vs. just reading an author’s words on a page. It’s almost as if I hired a coach for the price of this book off BookOutlet.

“I realized that the images used to describe runners didn’t fit me. I wasn’t a rabbit. I wasn’t a gazelle or a cheetah or any of the other animals that run fast and free. But I wasn’t a turtle or a snail either. I wasn’t content anymore to move slowly through life and hide in my shell when I was scared.”

I really like his take on Turtle v. Penguin. I’m OK with calling myself a turtle as it accurately represents the speed at which I run. I don’t think it means I’m hiding, but I like his take. I just had a conversation with friends over lunch about how running freed me up to wear hot pink. I don’t think it’s a weight loss thing — I think it’s an OK showing my colorful feathers. And I certainly chose my first 5K in part due to it being the Frozen Penguin.

I completely loved his take on the dichotomy between run faster and run further. I can comfortably push myself to run 5K on my own but never past that point save for that day in July. It’s not to say I don’t push myself when running on my own – I try to go faster or at least have some “speed” intervals and beat my own time. That’s one of my favorite games. It’s not that I don’t want to go further – I just don’t have the motivation to do it without folks around me. Tells me that if I do ultimately want to do longer distance I’m going to have to find a dedicated training partner. I’d like to get to the place though where my weekend long run is closer to 10K. I know I can. It’s just whether I will.

My favorite part? The internal dilemma as to when you can call yourself a runner. I know I am a runner because I go out and run 3/4 times a week. I run. But when people ask if I’m a runner? I can’t say yes because I don’t feel like a runner. Impostor syndrome is a thing – glad to know through reading a published author that I’m not on my own.

This book is short — and I’m glad I found it on closeout. I’m not sure I’d say you have to read this first, but there’s definitely some overlap with his other titles similar to Hal Higdon’s titles. I’d definitely recommend it – especially for beginning or back of the pack runners.

64/91 books. I had a catchup blitz since last post.

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Steptember: #GoTheDist 2017 Q3

September was many kinds of weird. Vacation to start the month and I was injured yet again. Still, I closed out the month with a 27 day (and counting) step goal streak.

Stat time.

September:

  • 444,689 steps
  • 190.7 miles run/walked
  • 34.47 miles run. (Pace: 11:38. Run time: :25:11)

Yep, I’m very happy with that.  Overall I hit some of my stretch goals, but not all. I think that’s a good month marker. I only had two days without goal.

Q3:

  • 1,386,041 steps
  • 595.34 miles run/walked
  • 108.86 miles run

That’s a nice increase above Q2’s totals and I hit two of the three Q3 goals and one of the subsequent stretch goals. I’m OK with not hitting the run one as I’m listening to my body and practicing smart healing. Only five days total below goal.

Year to Date:

  • 3,775,858 steps
  • 1628.48 miles run/walked
  • 314.33 miles run

Wow. That’s better than 2015’s totals and I still have a full quarter to go!

October goals:

  • 400,000 steps
  • 166 miles run/walked
  • 50 miles run
  • 2 days below goal

Yeah, that feels/looks like deja vu. But I think it’s a good baseline. I hope to more than exceed the first two and don’t expect to hit the third. It’s a goal to keep working toward as I heal and train. I am setting my time goal to 11:30. Doable? I think maybe? October’s 5m will probably be somewhere near September’s 10K, although much cooler I hope. But I had a 14:50 to start the month that I hopefully won’t have to work off in October

I’m not sure about Q4 goals yet. I mean bare bones is 1,200,000 as I really want to hit 400K each month. I think, as I did for Q3, I’ll probably set them one month in.

Maybe by then I’ll actually look at how far off I am on my reading goals. 60/91 read.