Week Four of 2017, and My Comeback from this Whatever... It Was

So this week was a little tougher, I ended up running 5 days instead of 4 and 3 of them were consecutively in a row. This morning's run was my long run and was the longest I've ran since.......... the Run with the Yeti 15k trail race back in late November.

I rested on Monday and ran 5.1 miles on Tuesday with both dogs... wasn't nearly as chaotic as I expected although Jetta did try to dictate the pace and kept dictating Rocky's position. It was 41 degrees, with a breeze. We ran it in 50:52 with an average pace of 9:53 min/mile.

Laps/splits:

Mile 1 - 10:13 min/mile

Mile 2 - 10:11 min/mile

Mile 3 - 9:52 min/mile

Mile 4 - 9:51 min/mile

Mile 5 - 9:42 min/mile

Wednesday afternoon it 61 degrees... that's Southern Indiana for you... I took the dogs and Dorian (in the stroller) to the Newburgh river front and we ran 4 miles. It was busy out there, so I was a little irritated. We ran the 4 miles in 39:11 with an average pace of 9:47 min/mile.

Laps/splits were:

Mile 1 - 10:13 min/mile

Mile 2 - 9:40 min/mile

Mile 3 - 9:35 min/mile

Mile 4 - 9:41 min/mile

I rested on Thursday, then took the dogs out on the roads Friday morning. Jetta was being a bit more difficult this time, nearly dragging Rocky who was having a tough time (his short legs compared to her long legs.... he has to literally gallop while she just leisurely trots). To say I was irritated with her would be an understatement. It was 31 degrees with a feels like 25, winds at 8 mph WSW.... it was kind of cold. We ran 6.3 miles, the last..... .75 miles I let Rocky run loose so he didn't have to deal with Jetta's bossy behavior, she wasn't happy about it but I could tell Rocky was very happy. We ran it in 1:03:12 with an average pace of 10:02 min/mile.

Laps/splits were:

Mile 1 - 10:19 min/mile

Mile 2 - 10:08 min/mile

Mile 3 - 10:05 min/mile

Mile 4 - 10:11 min/mile

Mile 5 - 9:45 min/mile

Mile 6 - 9:51 min/mile

Mile 6.3 - 9:35 min/mile

Saturday morning it was 25 degrees with a feels like 19 and a breeze.... I miss summer dang it. I took the dogs again, we ran a different route - an out and back. Jetta wasn't nearly as bad as Friday morning. We ran 5.4 miles in 53:27 with an average pace 9:54 min/mile. 

Laps/splits:

Mile 1 - 10:38 min/mile

Mile 2 - 9:58 min/mile

Mile 3 - 9:44 min/mile

Mile 4 - 9:47 min/mile

Mile 5 - 9:32 min/mile

Mile 5.4 - 9:29 min/mile

This morning I got up at 7:30 AM, the plan was to run 10 miles with Jetta. I was not going to take Rocky because I just didn't want to deal with the insanity between the two of them. Starting off, I realized just how sore my legs were feeling, especially the left so I just told myself to try and get more than 7 miles done.

Just after mile 2, I finally experienced an aggressive dog (and I didn't have my pepper spray). This mutated Mastiff/Lab/Pit mix looking thing wasn't on a leash, no the stupid old man had his freaking Min-Pin or whatever on a leash but was letting this monster go loose. He charged us, and I pulled Jetta behind me and yelled at this dog. It stopped just 3 feet away and had it's eyes on Jetta, baring his teeth and barking in an aggressive way. I knew not to move, I wasn't about to turn our backs on it as it wasn't backing off. The old man was weakly yelling at him but to no avail. Finally after what felt like forever, I guess the old man's son came out yelling at the beast who finally turned around. The old man motioned us to go so we did, from now on I'll be carrying my pepper spray.

Other than that, everything went well. The real soreness started to ease up after mile 6 or so, but I was definitely feeling what I used to feel during my long runs. We ran 10 miles in 1:34:12 with an average pace of 9:25 min/mile, oh and it was 34 degrees.

Laps/splits were:

Mile 1 - 9:53 min/mile

Mile 2 - 9:42 min/mile

Mile 3 - 9:13 min/mile

Mile 4 - 9:34 min/mile

Mile 5 - 9:39 min/mile

Mile 6 - 9:47 min/mile

Mile 7 - 9:08 min/mile

Mile 8 - 9:17 min/mile

Mile 9 - 9:07 min/mile

Mile 1-  8:49 min/mile

I toughed it out, and although I am feeling a little sore, it's a soreness I remember and missed. I got in 30.8 miles this week, not bad. I've got a race on February 11, the Hearts on Fire 5k. Then I have a 10k on April 18, Spring into Fitness 10k. And I've signed up for the Harmonie Trail Marathon which is on May 18th. I've my training plan already made for that, starting this next week. Wish me luck.

Third Week of 2017, Success

  So this week has been great, some soreness as I increased some mileage and added my 4th day but other than that it was great. Friday and Saturday were gorgeous weather so I had taken Dorian for some hiking in Audubon, he loves that place and we might end up going again today.
Anyways, so here's what went down.
Monday morning Jetta and I went to the river front in Newburgh to run, we ran 4.2 miles in 40:52 with an average pace of 9:44 in/mile. It was 43 degrees.
Laps/splits
Mile 1 - 9:42 min/mile
Mile 2 - 9:44 min/mile
Mile 3 - 9:42 min/mile
Mile 4 - 9:48 min/mile
Mile 4.2 - 9:39 min/mile
Wednesday morning I took both Rocky and Jetta to the river front in Newburgh and we ran 5 miles. It was 41 degrees, we ran it in 48:59 with an average pace of 9:47 min/mile.
Laps/splits
Mile 1 - 10:12 min/mile
Mile 2 - 9:35 min/mile
Mile 3 - 9:42 min/mile
Mile 4 - 9:41 min/mile
Mile 5 - 9:47 min/mile
Friday morning it was 63 degrees out and I was wearing shorts and a tee shirts and still sweating, Jetta and I ran 5.2 miles out in the "neighborhood" in 51:08 with an average pace of 9:50 min/mile.
Laps/splits
Mile 1 - 10:16 min/mile
Mile 2 - 10:06 min/mile
Mile 3 - 9:54 min/mile
Mile 4 - 9:38 min/mile
Mile 5 - 9:23 min/mile
Mile 5.2 - 9:12 min/mile
Friday evening it was still warm out so I took Dorian for a run/hike at John James Audubon State Park, we ran/hiked 3 miles in 1:09:59, it was a bit muddy but not nearly as muddy as Angel Mounds would be.
Saturday, late in the morning I took Dorian for another run/hike. We ran/hiked 3.3 miles in 1:10:50, we ran a little more and had quite a bit of fun.
This morning, it was 48 degrees but I went ahead and wore shorts and a tee- shirt, it was pretty chilly at first. The plan was to run 5 with Jetta and 2 with Rocky.... but somehow during a bathroom break I must've hit the down button to "save" and then without knowing I did that, I hit what I assumed was "resume" but instead "save". That was at 3.64 miles, so a new run began from that point, 1.4 more miles to home with Jetta. I didn't save that run but kept it paused while I got Rocky ready and we headed out for the final 2 miles.
All in all, 7 miles in 1:09:48 with an average pace of 9:58 min/mile.  It was confusing so I am not going to post the stupid laps/splits. But overall, this week I managed to get in 27.7 miles and I'm feeling good :)

Second Week of 2017, Lookin' Good

 The second week of 2017 is over and done, and I could have ran this morning but chose to play it safe and keep it to 3 days. 
 Tuesday morning I took the dogs to the trails, it was 46 degrees and really windy, 16 mph S winds. I was a little concerned, the winds were really pushing on the trees but we survived. We ran 3.7 miles in exactly 40 minutes.
Between Tuesday afternoon and Thursday early morning it rained a lot so I decided to play it safe and took Jetta on the roads at the Bluegrass Fish & Wildlife area, it was sprinkling and windy at 12 mph SSW winds. It was really dark and windy, but extremely peaceful. Jetta and I ran 4.1 miles in 38:55 and feeling really good after mile 2.5. It was also freakishly 64 degrees and I wore shorts and a sports bra, it felt great!!!
Saturday morning I decided to run the roads around or near my house with Jetta, it was 37 degrees with a little bit of sprinkling but not bad, Jetta and I ran 5.1 miles in 50:24 and felt pretty damn good too.

Third week might just have a 4th day to it, I'll start Monday with 3-4 miles and then slowly see how things are going with hopefully ending Sunday with 6-7 miles.

First Week of 2017 Done

So the first week of 2017 is just about over and done, and I reached my goal for this week - to run 3 days/times and average 3 miles. Not only that, but I wasn't feeling any pain, soreness or or achey stiffness yesterday and barely any on Friday. What makes this really good news is I didn't even take any kind of pain killers yesterday or this morning.
Monday morning the dogs and I ran 3.2 miles with some achey stiffness, I was a bit sore Tuesday morning but not much. It was 46 degrees and foggy.
Thursday morning the dogs and I ran 3 miles with a little less achey stiffness, and not much afterwards. It was 25 degrees and snowing.
So this morning the dogs and I headed out on the trails, it was 12 degrees and that was freaking freezing. I've got some hand warmer which I stick in my gloves, but I think I'm going to get those adhesive warmer that I can stick to my butt cheeks and upper legs..... ugh I don't really care for this weather.
The plan was for 3, I didn't take any pain medication this morning and there was barely any soreness or even stiff aches, just a little in my quadricep which was a good sign. Even more, we ended up running 4.2 miles and I noticed at mile 3 that the soreness was fading away.
I managed to get in 10.4 miles this week, I know it isn't much compared to what I was doing all of 2016 but it's something after fearing I might have to end my running affair..... this injury really had me scared, especially not knowing where it came from or how it came about.
As it seems that this week has gone well, I think I am going to play it safe and run three times next week, Tuesday - Thursday and Saturday while possibly bumping up Saturday's run to 5 miles if the other two runs go well. 
I miss running 8 miles for my easy runs...... but hopefully I'll be back up there by the end of February.

Goodbye 2016.. 2017...... Please be Kind to Me

  So, first let me give 2016 a proper farewell....
"2016, you started me off on a great path and by summer I had two trail marathons under my belt with a plan to run a 50 miler by Fall. That fell through, there were some good runs after that and I was getting faster. Final race of 2016 was Run with the Yeti 15k, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. 
By the 2nd mile my left toes were burning, even the ball of my foot hurt was painful. It didn't go away at all and made the trek very tough and miserable. But I finished 2nd place female in the 15k distance and I believe 3rd place overall. The following week I dealt with tight calves so I took 2 days off, came back and could barely lift my left leg and was having quite a bit of pain in my left quadriceps. I made the decision to take 2 weeks off, and it ended up being 18 days before my next run. 
I ran 2.1 miles on Friday, December 30th. My quadriceps didn't complain much by my adductor muscle did feel tight.... I didn't want to hope too much but figured I'd just ease into 2017.

I finished 2016 with a total of 1,780 miles (according to strava), amounting to basically 300 hours.
I did two trail marathons, one half marathon and a few smaller distance races while winning 1st place in AG at the YMCA 10k race in August, 2nd place AG at the YMCA 15k in September. Then I blew my chance at placing well at the Evansville Half Marathon in October, by going out way too fast. I ran the Turkey Day 5k which was just chaotic, no race etiquette at all from people, almost 3,000 people total. I knocked like 42 seconds off of my PR or something like that, I didn't get below 24 minutes.
After the Thanksgiving Day race, I decided to register and run the Run with the Yeti 15k trail race. I wanted some redemption dang it.
I did well, except for the part I told you about above.... those shoes will never worn again. I did have to stop and use the bathroom which probably added 2-3 minutes so I ended up finishing around 1:20-1:21:00 or whatever.

So, goodbye 2016... 
Hello 2017...
The game plan of running the Land Between the Lakes Marathon (March) again this year is gone, there is no way I can train enough and prepare for it.... which is pretty disheartening as I really enjoyed those trails last year. But maybe I still have a chance to run the Harmonie Trail Marathon if they have it... so far they haven't posted anything about the 2017 event.... which would be really disappointing as I very much enjoy that one as well. I guess I'll have to keep bugging the RD.
At this point, other than hoping there might be a marathon somewhere in 2017, I'll be doing a few 5k's, trying to place well and get a few trophies to make myself feel better. First one won't be until February (next month), then I know there is one in March and another in April. The Harmonie Trail Marathon isn't until May so I should be good.
Then 40 LB Sledgehammer Productions has some 5 race series starting this summer, one for each month I think... they're only 5k but that's alright, I can still enjoy it.
As for the Fall of 2017, who knows.... of course I'll be participating in the Evansville Half Marathon as usual.

Farewell for now guys.