You know those runs that are just absolute perfection in every way? That happened on Wednesday.
This was an interesting week, running wise. The original plan earlier in June was to take this week off as I had a feeling I’d be slightly burned out from all of the June races. In some ways, being sick last week and taking it easy cleared that and come Tuesday I was antsy to run. Antsy in the sense that I was sitting in a meeting and wanted to be outside. The mid 70s, zero humidity weather certainly helped with that, and I was glad to feel restored.
I realized in June that I really liked training for something, which I’d been doing in some form since October of last year. I want to take advantage of this window with no double digit races on the calendar, although I might do a ten mile in September. One challenge I really enjoyed last year was Run the Year’s 4x5K challenge when during June you were meant to run a baseline 5K and then three more to see if you improved. I did! Since one of my goals is to eventually get to sub 30 5K, I decided July would be perfect for it since heat would very likely mean a lot of indoor treadmill runs. I don’t have a final 5K planned as checkout, although this NYRR 5K is a possibility. More on the “check in” race below.
Weekly Wrap with Wendy and Holly.
- Monday, planned off day from running and the gym. My legs were tired and slightly sore from the weekend’s races and while I’d have loved a date with the foam roller, I had a work event that culminated in this phenomenal sunset. Mother Nature truly is pure magic.
- Tuesday, I had an end of day meeting near Blink NoHo, which I’ve come to quite like. I don’t go there often as it’s not convenient, but I thought I would. And then I realized I’d forgotten my watch and my headphones. As much as I don’t mind the treadmill, I mostly cannot do it without music or another distraction. Luckily, it was beautiful outside and I decided to hit my favorite part of Central Park. It was initially tough going as the bridle path had seen a lot of traffic that day and the dust & gravel was pretty stirred up. None of that helped the lingering cough so I walked the final hill and headed to the reservoir where I knew there was a water fountain. Wetting my lungs helped as I turned southeast and headed back to the start. Mileage is iffy as I was running Strava on my phone and it had some signal issues. But comfortable calling it just shy of 3.5 miles. A wonderful run. Sometimes it’s nice to be relatively electronics free.
- Wednesday I wanted to run outside again but when I left the office it was threatening rain so I decided to head to the gym. I didn’t really have a plan in mind and hadn’t settled on the speed work I mentioned above yet, so just turned the treadmill on at 5.7 and went. It felt really, really good. I ended up a second off the 5K PR but what was awesome was that it felt almost easy aside from the residual coughing. While I said I’d realized I wasn’t regressing, it was nice to see that in results. I could have gone longer, but decided to give my lungs a break. I followed it up with some strength training. At 32:41 that is my July baseline 5K
- Thursday, planned off day due to medical appointment. That’s a good thing as the flooding was kind of crazy. Oddly I’d planned for the worst after this appointment (nothing super serious, but like many I’m paying for prior skin damage: love how Deb put it. And follow her advice too.) I love my dermatologist and ahead of taking off this mole she gave me a bunch of surgical consent forms and aftercare warnings. Guess it wasn’t getting frozen off. I planned to have Wednesday be my last run in case. It was relatively painless, with the only bothersome thing being the snipping sound so close to my ear and of course trying to keep a bandaid stuck in sweaty area with hair complicating matters. Better safe than sorry, and I’ll know whether it was something to worry about when I go back in two weeks. Curious about what the scar is going to look like, though I doubt it will be more prominent than the mole.
- By Friday I felt completely fine so after work I headed to the gym. The speed plan was firmly in my brain, coupled with reading the intervals chapter in Amby Burfoot’s Run Foreverand I decided to start there. After a .25 mile warmup (I have no patience), I alternated 6.2 and 5.5 with a less than .1 mile recovery break at 3.3mph after each 6.2. I made a game of it to use as little of that .1 mile as needed and got it as low as .07. The splits looked pretty funny as the walk recovery ate into the 5.5mph intervals. Totaled 3.25 miles of intervals and 3.51 overall. Math much? 6.2 was random, it’s my usual closeout speed of workouts but I wasn’t sure I could sustain repeat intervals at .25, so I decided I’d start there and drop to 6.0 if needed. Nope. I’m not sure yet whether my goal is to eliminate the walk intervals or raise base/fast speeds by month’s end. Thinking through that now. On the heels of a successful run, I hit the beach with a book or three. Summer Friday goals indeed
- Saturday, completely off day. Too hot and I needed a mental health day. Still trying to kick the last of this cold, and although it was too hot to sleep in, I got some lovely rest.
- Sunday, maybe run* (see below), probably row. Definitely play in a splashpad
GoTheDist
I cannot believe we’re at the mid-year point of #GoTheDist/Run the Year. Where has 2018 gone?
June
- 479,755 Steps
- 59.82 Miles Run
- 210.39 Miles Run/Walked
Runfession, I saw the running mileage Saturday morning when I entered Friday’s run into my spreadsheet. I actually thought I was closer to 58. Why did I let it go? I’m having a (minor and hope to keep it that way) PF flare and decided it was going to be a rest day. Could I have gotten .18 miles without hurting? Probably. Would I have stopped at .18? Probably not. I also could have picked that up had I run home from one of the two races where I opted to walk. The PF said hello when I walked barefoot on the beach. I know better, but sometimes you just have to. I went to JackRabbit and got a new roller ball and will be better at my stretches. I also think I need to lay off the planks a bit as those don’t feel so good in the foot. Determined not to let this be a major flare and will ease into July as needed.
210 is just above what I need to hit my stretch Run the Year goal, so that’s perfect.
Q2
- 1,467,553 Steps
- 174.99 Miles Run
- 642.22 Miles Run/Walked
OK, that running one is way more annoying than 59.82. But as I predicted at the end of Q1 when I was slightly off pace, spring/summer would be better.
2018 to Date
- 2,825,182 Steps
- 344.32 Miles Run
- 1236.75 Miles Run/Walked
overall, I’m thrilled. I’m slightly off pace on the running, and 2,500 miles run/walked but I knew both to be stretch goals and they’re still in play. I’m 100% confident I’ll get 700 miles run on the year even though I won’t have the half marathon training I had in the first part of the year. This is insane compared with the midway point last year, and I really love the progress I’m making. 2018 goals are well in sight, although I switched to running mileage only for RTY so the team ones don’t quite make sense. Oh and a year into Amerithon, I’m in Missouri! I didn’t enjoy that as much as RTY, and I really dislike that RTY went to their tracker as I forever need to re-sync.
Gym Visits:
38 for the March – August window I was trying to get ahead this month while also catch up from May’s time away as I know I’ll be away in August. I need 50 overall so should be in good shape. There’s been a lot of outdoor running followed by gym to stretch
Reading:
I’ve read 61 books on the year and will likely finish 62 today, which would mark Book 5 in #20BooksOfSummer. Overall, 17 ahead of schedule. WOW. Maybe 100 will happen?
Hah! I never check my monthly/yearly mileage until it’s too late to hit that next round number. It’s pretty arbitrary anyway, right? Hope you nip that PF in the bud.
That’s usually me too, I was lucky in that the penultimate day fell on a weekend and I was looking at spreadsheet early. I agree, not like .18 makes a huge difference in the long run-I’m sure there’s some short distance mileage I didn’t log somewhere. OTOH, if I come up at 699.82 miles on the year…Well then I might be rounding 😉
Me too! It’s feeling better with two days off so I think/hope I caught it on time
Sounds like you’re doing great! I like how you break down your stats by month, quarter, and year. Also, fantastic job on your books read for the year!
Thank you! This stems from a twitter challenge that used to be monthly and is now annual. Super motivating to keep moving. I find it easier to look at it on a monthly level as it keeps me from worrying about a day that’s off par.
I have to runfess that I never check my monthly numbers until the month is over–so no round numbers on the calendar. Altho I do round for the blog reporting. I’m not cheating, it’s just easier. LOL
I don’t count my books either. What kind of blogger am I? I just finished a good one–She Rides Shotgun. Got it as a kindle daily deal last week. Could.not.put.it.down.
I’ll look for that one, and I just commented on your Goodreads update re: North. So many good books, not enough time. I’ve tracked books going back to my childhood in a summer reading game. Goodreads luckily makes it a lot easier.
I track my numbers daily-ish in a spreadsheet, so I always have an at a glance. The reason behind this shortage was clearly that I hadn’t looked at it before going to the gym. Oh well, round is much easier.
61 books? I thought I like to read 🙂 I didn’t see any books I wanted to read between April and mid May, and I’m reading again now. Just gotta wait for all the new books to come out.
I pretty much always have a book going. Excited for a new release from one of my favorite authors in a couple of weeks, but generally working through a backlog now.
One of my summer goals is to get back to more reading of books! Thanks for the reminder
Besides her weekly wraps, where I think I’ve seen you comment, Liz is a great influence for reading ideas. Here’s her July one https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/state-of-the-tbr-july-2018/.
Summer & reading go hand in hand for me too
Thats alot of books that you’ve read this year! All your stats for the year are great. That .18 mile would probably drive me a little crazy too:)
I had a little nothing run today that I wouldn’t normally log since it was just a warmup for cross train, today that got logged to avoid another .18 issue!
Great job on the baseline 5k! I once ran a lot of 5ks, especially during the summer. It seems they don’t have as many as they used to, at least near my small city. The “not round” numbers bother me. But, I’m better than I used to be. It doesn’t have to be a whole number any longer. I will accept 20.1 for example. 🙂 You are doing awesome with your 2018 goals! Thanks for linking.
Not many 5Ks here either. There’s one hosted by Road Runners that I’m doing in a couple of weeks, and NYCRuns has a handful throughout the year, but otherwise they’re either charity or fun runs like the one I do at Yankee Stadium. 5K is my favorite treadmill distance and can be great in the heat to just do something.
Thank you!
I hope you get good news from your dermatologist when you go back for your follow-up! I’m also glad that my skin cancer posts have been helpful to you.
I love how you count trips to the gym and steps in addition to your miles run. And 61 books read already this year? Wow, that’s impressive!
Me too! The only other prior facial spot I had was frozen off, so handling wound care on my face is interesting. I’ve basically only covered it at the gym to protect it from sweat and when sleeping — otherwise the bandaid just doesn’t stay on. Doc’s gut was that it was fine, but it had changed in texture so we both thought it better to be safe than sorry.
Steps started from a twitter challenge when I first got a tracker and it’s so helpful to see the trends. The primary reason I track gym visits is because I get reimbursed by my insurance if I go fifty times in six months. It saves me counting all the time.
I really don’t worry about my monthly/yearly mileage at all, I’m more about where I need to be for my race. I hope your PF flare goes away soon!
And I would just be happy with a 31 minute 5k, LOL, but it continues to elude me.
Me too! Foot is feeling a lot better so I think a total rest and two cross train days were what was needed.
I want to break 32 for sure. I think 30 is a very long term goal, but one I’d love.
Wow…61 books! That’s amazing! I have battled PF in the past…not fun! Hope your foot is feeling better.
Thank you! It is. I ended up taking two full days off running and practically three with yesterday’s just a half mile test before cross training. It was good for three miles today. Ice, stretching and my roller ball helped, along with knowing signs & (hopefully) catching it early.
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