Misinformation Officer
Happy New Year!
Let's hop to it!
Runs like a dj mixing songs while wearing festive outfits.5k PR 5/31/21 24:21
10k PR 5/23 54:43
HM PR 1/2024 1:59:10
Off and running.
Time to reset and get back on track. Knee is feeling mostly better, just a few twinges here and there. Was able to do 3ish hilly miles this morning with no real problems so I'm hoping that by the end of January I can build back up and be on some sort of normal running schedule.
Still setting my goal to 1500 for this year as that's just under 30 miles a week and that seems doable.
Happy New Year everyone.
Jeff
How's your knee, Jeff? I see you're able to keep up with a few miles a day, hope that allows your knee to recover.
I've taken a new tact in trying to keep my miles rolling. Instead of a yearly goal I've dropped back to a month by month strategy. I will eval at the beginning of each month and set that months goal. This month I've set 200 miles. Making progress, but it's only halfway through January!
Knee is definitely doing better. I still get some pain when it twists in certain ways or I sit for too long at my desk (or when I have to spend 12 hours in the car driving my son back to college). Most of the time it feels okay though.
I was able to get in a 5 miler this morning. I've started working in walk breaks into my running (Galloway style). Typically about 45 seconds every mile, though today I went with the GAlloway recommendation of 4.5 minutes of running with 30 seconds of walking but that seemed like a lot to me by the end of the 50 minute run. But I think I'll stick with doing that for a while to see if it helps with the knee.
Got about 20 miles in this week which I am happy with. I'm still keeping my goal at 1500 for the year, but I expect I'll still be falling behind for another month or so and then I hope to get above 30 miles a week to help me catch up later in the year. I am still planning on a 10 mile race (though I wont be racing it too hard) in April so my goal is to get my long run up to 9-10 miles by March so I can get a few 10 milers in before the race.
Keep doing what's working. I've come back to running from injury doing run/walk.
Coincidentally, my first race of the year is a 10miler coming up on 1/28. I think I've said it before but 10mile is my favorite race distance and I'm lucky to have 4 in my area (plus one I have to drive about 200 miles for but I do it most years anyway). The one coming up is in it's 39th year and is put on by the Rotary Club of Hollister (CA). Small town feel and super nice folks that organize it. For many years it was only a 10mile race and had some elite runners and a premier SF Bay Area event but attendance kind of sagged at some point so they added a 5K and a half marathon to race day. I still will only run the 10miler and about 1/2 of the runners do the 10mile distance.
I've been getting in some runs >10 so I should be able to do OK there.
I used to do a 10 miler near my home every year in March, but then one year they had a huge snowstorm and canceled, then Covid so I haven't done that one in a while. But in October my wife and I were driving through Stowe, VT and passed some runners and when I looked it up it was a 10 miler. Knowing that I liked the distance I looked deeper and it was part of a 10 miler race series in New England - three races, three states so I signed up to give myself a goal for this year.
I do remember liking the distance a lot from years ago. Back when I was faster and uninjured I think my best was around 1:08 and I was really proud of that.
The good ole days! 1:08's a very 'respectable' time, as my club president likes to say. The times I run my 10mile 'races' in nowadays have slipped a good bit as well. I'll probably run ~1:15 - 1:16. Last year I ran 1:18:49 at this race. I use to run it ~1:03 back at my best. It's all good. Keep on keepin' on!
Was able to get in 24 miles last week - not quite up to the 1,500 for the year level yet.
What really got me was how tired my legs were after a 6 miler yesterday for my long run. Hits hard when I remember that there were times when I would have completed 24 miles by Wednesday of the week and still have a lot more to go.
Baby steps though. The knee is doing okay. My daughter moved out and into her own place this weekend so I literally spent 5+ hours kneeling on the floor putting together her IKEA bedroom set, so that probably didnt help it. But overall, I dont get much pain except when laying the wrong way in bed and when I wake up in the morning. Wish I could figure out how to get past this last little hump in the pain.
Hope you're all doing well.
Closing out January with my 10mile race this morning. Ran 1:17:56. Hmm. At least I beat last year's time of 1:18:14.
I had zero left at the end of this one but I feel good now that it's over, just pleasantly tired in my legs with no pains or niggles. Yeah!!
Have another 10mile race in April which is a flat course so I should be able to gain a couple minutes just from that (so long as I don't slack off on the training or get some injury).
Finished off January at 93.5 miles, so definitely building up. I'm trying to figure out the best way to build up my mileage but still leave a few rest/short days in there.