Weekly Recap - 2/8 - 2/14

Monday -  (0) After a bit of debate, I took a Zero.   The snow was bad and while I love running in the snow and the cold I do not want to get picked out of a snow plow or a vehicle grill to be laid to rest.   I brought my bike gear to do a Tabata Protocol on the bike, lunch happened instead. I left work about 2, I thought I might find the screw shoes and run the neighborhood hills after reviewing one document. 

Best laid plans.  Review completed and an eMail popped up about an unreported expense to be resolved immediately.   Got the data guru gal on that one, 14 phone calls later, no kidding, it really was 14 calls for one line of data.  She finally figured out what needed to be done, in between all the chewing, she is good at her job but wow, she eats more than I do, got all the back up data and the line for me to review and submit. Then I decided Gizmo looked like he needed to nap, so we took Monday afternoon nap.  My mood, which I hadn't realized was so surly, became slightly more jocund.  Funny what naps can do.

Tuesday - (7.1) Back on track?  Ran at lunch it was beautifully sunny and I could skip around most of the slushy bits so that was ok.  I landed in a few puddle, either that or become a hood ornament.  After the morning chaos it was a nice break.  Still crabby.

The rest of the week, really....

Wednesday - (7.3) Wasn't feeling the run all that much, got through mile 2 and things perked up quite a bit, guess this is how it's going to be for a while, I'll go with it.  

I read an article on base building and thought, oh maybe that's what I'm doing now base building, running and not putting any pressure on myself in terms of speedwork.  Then I took a gander at the weekly mileage the author was talking about (60 - 70 miles a week) and though, woah, no not me.   Well what ever it is I'm doing I'm happy and I can't say that I've been happy about running for the last year.  

Spin was an easy interval class, I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or right, I sweat and stay in Zone 2 for the most part so I'm gaining something, probably not anything that will transfer to the road well other than a little bit less of me come summer time.  And that frankly would be nice.  I can't out run or bike my fork or my beer glass, we stay pretty much neck in neck of late.  Homeostasis?

Gus and I got out for his constitutional I cut it short at 2 miles, he doesn't seem any worse off.  It is icy outside and I don't really need to injure myself walking the dog of all things!!

Thursday - (3.2) My usual rest day, I knit at lunch.  Knitting was on, and of course the weather looked perfect and with the pending cold weather I was a little ticked and still glad for my time to work on my latest project.  

Dave wasn't going to be riding on Thursday night and I threw my reflective vest and head lamp in my bag (I never know if Rory is going to be swamped and cancel knitting so I'm prepared for both).  I decided I'd do 5 laps of hill work, it's about a mile loop, figured getting there and getting back to Sneekers and doing the loop 5 times would get me close to my minimum of 5.  Holy christ was it windy, from the West and the hill is NorthWest climbing.  Holy crap did that suck.  By the third time up I couldn't feel my face and had a searing pain through my left temple.  I've never gotten a headache from the cold and I think that is what happened.  I went back to Sneekers, warmed up in my car for 15 minutes until I braved the weather to get out of my sweaty clothes and then back in the car to re-warm up.  I never felt warmed up until an hour after I crawled in bed and covered myself in down comforters and flannel.  

Friday (5.5)  Seeking some redemption from wimping out on Thursday I packed appropriate clothes to go for a run in the predicted 20 F at lunch time.  I got to the gym started pulling out my gear and opened up my shoe compartment to find the shoes I wore to work yesterday.  Oh crap.  Well I did have bike shoes at my desk.  As I stormed out of the women's locker room I ran smack dab in to Mikey B and he questioned why I didn't have a spare pair of sneeks in the Gym Cubbies.  LIGHT BULB  I did have a pair of old crappy Brooks that just never felt right on my feet at my desk, or at least I thought I did.  I scrambled the 1/4 mile back to my desk to find that yes I did have the crappy shoes I wore in the ill fated MCM '13 and scrambled back to the gym to change, noting I had to be back for 1:30 to dial into my performance review. 

The run was ok, the shoes suck and my feet and legs hate them and were rebelling about mile 4.  I need to find a soon to be retired pair to keep at work.

I got back to my desk with a HUGE lunch, the cafe guy was all "well that only comes with two sides but for you you can have three and well that is usually a side but it's late and I'll give it to you"  um ok I'm freaking starving right now, load it up!!

Got to my desk to find out that my review was at 1 and it was now 1:05.  Brilliant there Lazor, brilliant...  I stared at my HUGE lunch listening and watching another meeting notice pop up.  Crap was I ever going to get to eat???

Saturday (0) Screw it, this is a step back week anyhow. I'm going to sleep and relax and I did.  Baked and cooked and cleaned and knitted.  It takes me too long to warm back up and feel normal after a cold run, three days in a row of that is not going to happen. Super kudos to all the nuts who got out there and got in their miles. 

I took some time to review ultra training plans and kept landing back on Byron Powell "Relentless Forward Progress" I re-looked at his plans, far more reasonable total mileage per week wise.  I mean really some of those weeks had me at 60 and 70 mile weeks.  I know a 100K is a big deal I can't realistically swing those miles working full time.  I'm not in it to win it I'm in it to finish (or with the race I have in mind, get as far as I can) and be able to walk afterwards. 

One thing I have come to grips with is we all have different goals and things that motivate us.  I'm fine with those who's goal is winning or placing in their age group, that is just not where it is at for me, I hope those folks are fine with my goals.    I enjoy running immensely; it puts me at peace with myself (same with biking).  If it ever strikes my fancy to work on my speed, I'll do that.  Honestly I'd rather do hill work, it has some speed benefit and there is something so satisfying to me to get to the top to be able to bomb back down.

Sunday (0)  This response to a post inquiring if anyone was interested in a ride later on in the day (note the wind chill is -20F and climbing):   "What exactly is wrong with you? Clearly today was created to sit at home and drink?"  

I hadn't planned on running or leaving the house any longer than it took for Gizmo to do his business.  Let the Arctic Vortex do it's thing and I'll do my thing.

Mileage:

Feet:  Week:  23.1 (19 run 4.1 walk)  Total: 259.9 against a straight line of 247.9
Seat:  60 against 247.9

Sincerely,
Beth, snuggled up with Gizmo, knitting, beer, and Grimm noting it will be 30F tomorrow, perfect running weather!

Weekly Recap: 2/1 - 2/7

Monday – (8.4) February 1st, ugh.  February isn’t a favorite month of mine and I was putting in a real effort to not think about it and I’ve mostly succeeded except when its horror slaps me across the face, and yippiee we have an extra day of it!  

“We are February is not the same persons month this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue try to love a changed person challenged month.” -- W. Somerset Maugham

And so I will move forward with February, one day at a time.   Just think that extra day will get me closer to my mileage goals!  Sorry Mom, for mutilating a favorite authors words.

Got the Strava 10K out of the way, actually was a pretty nice run, warm, not too sunny.  

Weight work at the Y in the evening followed up by walking Jax.  He’s got the attention span for 2 miles and we did that and both of us were happier at the end of the walk.   I didn’t want to strangle him and he didn’t want to bite me, a win all the way around.  Plus he curled up in the chair and dozed off after only a few rounds of “the dumb game”.  

Walk me now.

Tuesday – (5.4) So nice to be able to wear shorts in February, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go, but it was Nicole's birthday and she turned 44 so she asked us to run 4.4 for her, that motivated me to get down to the gym and out the door.  I did three laps on the Meech hill and then down to Eastern Point beach for three more laps and headed back to campus.  My day was going in circles, guess that’s appropriate for Ground Hog Day right?

Yoga in the evening was welcome; I really need to find another class.

My Great Aunt Gert at 89, she is 95 now and rehabbing from breaking her tibia in December.

Wednesday – (5.1) Again wasn’t sure I even wanted to run.  I did.  Got in my minimum for miles and even had negative splits, ok so the last mile was hill assisted but it was into the wind…  this marked my longest running streak of 10 days.  My knees feel it for the first mile, and no I don’t need new shoes, the pair I’ve been running in has less than 100 miles on them.

Speaking of shoes, I found an interesting article (http://www.runnersworld.com/ask-coach-jenny/got-calf-achilles-or-foot-pain-this-may-be-why) calf, Achilles or foot pain sneaking up out of nowhere, no changing in routine or shoes or anything.  My take away was the difference in the heel drop.  I rotate between three different shoes, trying different styles with in the manufacturer I like best.  Well, the heel drop in the second favorite pair is the same as the heel drop in the third favorite pair and both are 3 mm lower than the favorite pair.  Wonder if this is part of my knee pain or the return of the dreaded PF?  Do I even really run enough for all that to make a difference?   I honestly don’t know.  Maybe that is part of the achiness in my right hip and the PF re-occurrence I’ve been plagued with lately?  Feh probably not, I don’t run long enough or fast enough to have such problems.  

Kayano  13mm drop
GT1000 10 mm drop – this is my second pair of GT100s
Noosa  10 mm drop

I’ll keep running along, in my three different shoes.  Considering this seems to be a new problem and I've been running in similar shoes for over a year.  


Thursday –  Weights at the Y after work.  Lots of excellent people watching!!

I didn’t even meet my minimum FitBit step goal (15,000)!!!  What a lazy day!!!  I slept like a rock on Thursday night, I think we all did, when my alarm went off at 6:45 no one was stirring.  Not even Jax wanting to be let out to go get his ball. Usually I’m up by 6:30 with no alarm. Curiouser still was I had no foot pain and my left hip felt fine.  Can we say, maybe you needed a bit of a rest there Beth?

This is what Gus thinks of not going for a walk.

Friday – (6) Oh happy happy joy joy the possibility of a snow globe run!  Well, not so much, it was heavy and sloppy and really not safe.  I struggled through 6 miles on the treadmill.  Upping the speed by 2/10 for every song and when I hit my max I downed the speed by 2/10 for every song.  It really did break the run up a bit and for a whole song I managed to get out of my own head.  That was kind of nice.  My legs ached the rest of the day.

The texts started from the 'Gansett Girls late in the afternoon.  I begged off because I had a race at 10 and while I could get in a few miles with them at 8, probably not a good idea....

Saturday about noon - very pretty and still pretty socked in with snow.  Poor trees!

Then Jenn piped in that the race was cancelled because of all the wet heavy snow taking down trees.  Jenn who rarely ever looks at her texts was in the know!!  I checked FB and yep, it was postponed due to bad conditions (heavy wet snow taking down lots of trees), and the parking lot not being plowed or the porta potties not being able to be delivered.  That is unfortunate, however I do enjoy my Narragansett runs!

Saturday - (12)  Met up in the parking lot.  Jackie bailed because her car was frozen shut, well that sucks.  Mary's was also frozen shut however she was 3/4 of a mile from the beach so she would run down to meet us for the run.  Nicole was a bit late because her husband's car was frozen shut and he had a challenge getting into it at the airport.  Patti was there waiting for all of us to appear in the icy parking lot!  So we had four which is great for a run.  US 1 was in decent enough shape, not great, slippery in spots.  It was still cold enough the snow wasn't falling from the trees and wires to smack us in the head.

There were surfers out there in the Narragansett Bay - brrrrrrr

Mary, Me, Nicole, Patti

Fun run.  We all switch up taking turns pairing up to talk.  I didn't know much about Patti before this run so I asked all the questions and she had all the answers.  Nicole and I ran an extra two so we got a chance to catch up!

I hobbled around, probably residual treadmill disgust, there is no reason for them to feel like I've run a marathon...

After a round of dog pancakes (the extra one I couldn't eat) Giz settled in for a snooze and Gus and I went out to explore!

Dave took Jax out for an experimental adventure in the woods, letting Jax run along while he road the Fat Bike.  It woked well!  An encounter with a hiker and a German Shephard proved Jax is very much learning how to pay attention and while he wants to go get into trouble he eventually decides it's not worth it.  Yippiee!

Sunday - (8.3) After slogging around in the a.m. I finally got out for a run at quarter of 11.  Well that is about when I run during the week so it sort of felt normal?  I figured 4 do half of what I did yesterday.  I meandered around on and off sidewalks and then said screw it and stayed in road till I absolutely had to use the sidewalk.  Felt pretty good at 3 so decided for 5 and a run up Oak Street, get some sort of hill in my run.  Legs felt much better!

Gizmo - enjoying some sun and giving me the stink eye -
dunno why, afterall he stole my chair and has the best seat in the house!!

Took Gus out in the afternoon, Jax is still recovering from chasing Dave on the fat bike Saturday, and Gizmo gets exhausted walking around the block; as a result the bi-peds could peacefully enjoy our Beer'd growlers (mine:  Midnight Oil; Dave's: Frank & Berry) while watching the Superbowl and the commercials.  

Week:  45.2  Run: 36.2  Walk: 9 (Gus got robbed, clearly)

Feet:  236.8 against a straight line target of 209.4  
Saddle:  60 against a straight line target of 209.4

Sincerely, 
Beth, flummoxed.

Three Things Thursday

“Data mining ...is nothing else than torturing the data until it confesses…and if you torture it enough, you can get it to confess to anything.”  -- Fred Menger

FitBit – I’ve had one since June 2013, I’ve been through about 8 of them!  They die after about 6 months, not sure why.  The latest version I have, the Charge, seems to soak up moisture from my skin and cloud over then freak out.  A quick chat with a Fit Bit rep and I get a new one, I’m without it for a few days and that kind of sucks.

I had a banner month in January!



January 2016

Garmin – I remember questioning why anyone would need a watch.  The reply was, well some people like to track how far they’ve gone and how fast they’ve gone.  I can’t remember exactly why I bought my first Garmin, it was in July of 2011, and I remember it being a big deal.  My first Garmin run, with my 110 and when I used to get up early to run, so no one could see my slow fat ass lumber along!

I’ve been through a 110, 410, 610, and now a 220.  I’m quite happy with my 220, it does the basics and uploads with Bluetooth so I can then see my Strava Kudos right away!

Strava – I started with Strava starting with my first Marathon in 2012 to record the mileage on my shoes and then slowly started seeing the social networking of it all. 

I back loaded data to Strava from the first use of a new pair of shoes, and some races from the past to see the trend.

So what to do with all this data?  

I don’t do much, when I’m having a tough time I look back and notice I’ve come a long way in the 6 years since I started running. 

Sincerely,
Beth, who likes having the data it makes her feel warm and fuzzy.