Thursday, 9/24... 5 mile trail run today. Other obligations kept me from getting out 'til 12:00 noon, so the heat was on, but I just dialed it back a notch and ran at a comfortable pace.
Az... what a treat to have you drop in! All in all you seem to be holding up pretty well, and catching up on projects you've been putting off for a while, eh? Lol We need a vaccine for the virus, after that happens, life will slowly return to normal. In the meantime, we maintain. And I agree, 2020 can't get out of here soon enough!! Lol
Altair5... I looked at a couple of half marathons coming up soon, but to be honest, I need a different approach to training than what I just tried. A gradual build-up in mileage is what it'll take for me to run a respectable half marathon, so no, I'm not looking to run a half before the end of the year. I don't even know what my body's capable of at this point, but I'll probably pick a training plan to follow next Spring and give it a whirl. As far as getting injured, that shouldn't be a problem, it's recovering after a workout I seem to struggle with these days, but we'll see. I enjoyed the pictures, you live in some really nice country! And nice job on the 9.23 miler, I'm curious how long it'll take for your legs to recover...
Friday, 9/25... 6 mile mtn bike ride on the trail this morning. One thing I'm noticing is the early Fall colors, some leaves are already a bright red, with a week still left in September! Seems like it's awful early. We're in a drought, so maybe the lack of water is what's to blame.
Runs in the rain
Rich - A comfortable 5 miles and 6 on the bike seem enjoyable, good way to see the fall colors.We also have had little water, but should get rain next Tuesday. I'm not sure about recovery time. If I just stop running after a hard workout my legs start to feel stiff a couple days later and perhaps it may take a week to disappear entirely. If on the other hand I do another run a day or two later my knees and tendons feel weak at first and I try to be careful not to injure them and I may not feel good about running for several miles, then I warm up and feel fine and may be increasing my speed by mile 8. I also noticed I may actually feel feverish and warm after a long run, reminds me of what you said about the immune system.
I had to go into Rochester Thursday, no time for a run, just rested. Today it was sunny and at 2 pm around 80 degrees, summer ain't over yet baby! Again I planned a route of roads I've never been on. I should have checked the elevation chart because between mile 2.6 and 3 the elevation goes up 165 feet and I had to stop and pause several times. That was the steepest hill, but it was a whole series of them throughout the run and I was struggling. Strava says "Elevation 511ft" and I'm not sure, but maybe that is the total amount of climbing I did. I just kept thinking how it would build strength in the legs. A lot of it was in the direct sun but I took advantage of tree shade when I saw it often resting and cooling off a bit before resuming my run. Fortunately the last mile and a half was mostly in the shade. I finished 7.66 miles giving a week total of about 23 miles, not bad. Took some pictures again. The first two show some distant hills, perhaps similar to the ones I was climbing.
And here is an interesting old barn with the bushes starting to turn red
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
Saturday, 9/26... 7 mile run today that actually went pretty well. Just down the road from my place the town's repairing a bridge, so I had to detour around that by running the railtrail for half a mile, then run pavement for another half before getting on track to run the covered bridge and hill climb route. There's a local 5K being run on Oct. 4th that includes the same covered bridge and hill in the first mile and I'm trying to get ready. There's a second hill in the actual race course that'll make it a challenge to break 30 minutes, but that's my goal. We haven't had any new Covid cases locally in months, so maybe this race will be like old times...Lol
Altair5... sounds like we have similar challenges with recovery, but it could be worse, eh? I'm thankful to be able to get out in the fresh air and run, no matter what the pace...Lol That was quite a run you had yesterday, I could feel the quad burn from running that steep hill all the way over here in NH...Lol That was a good workout! Enjoyed the pictures, that old barn especially. It looks like it hasn't had cows in it for 30 years! As a kid, I had a friend who lived on a dairy farm and the smell of the barn with the hay, cows and manure, is something you never forget. There's still a few farms left, but most have disappeared. Simpler times, that's for sure...
Been riding my bike and getting in my exercise. Knee still feels sore. One day is fine, the next I can feel it. Doesn't matter what I do the day before. Just a lingering feeling. I'll do one test squat and it feels OK. The next day do another squat and it complains. So still doing what I can to give it a rest. At least the weather is starting to cool a little in the morning.
Saturday did a little in the garden and then worked on the car finishing a lot of small items. Sunday so far was a 7.4 bike ride, time in the garden and more small items in the garage. I'm trying to figure out what's up with the green beans I plant. They get to about 3" tall and then slowly die. And this is in 2 different sections. So to test further, I transferred a couple of lettuce plants there to see how they do. The carrots and radishes seem to be fine so far.
Altair - Nice pictures. Reminds me of where I grew up before all the subdivisions started going in. Slowly but surely the building kept moving farther out from Chicago to fuel the growth. Last time I was back a couple of years ago hardly any open land is left. Mom tells me the different villages are trying to preserve what land is left. Good runs increasing your distance there.
AZ - Nice to hear from you also. Glad that things are good with everyone and you are keeping busy.
Rich - Good mix-up you have been doing. With you talking about the leaves changing makes me want to go for a ride up north to see the fall colors there. I think the vast majority of people can't wait for this year to be over. But I think the first half of 2021 will be similar to what we have now. Until a vaccine gets approved and widely dispersed I think most people wouldn't want to take a chance. For those people that have a cold winter I don't think that would make much difference.
Art in AZ
Mesa, AZ
Sunday, 9/27... 6 mile mtn bike trail ride, plan is to ride easy to help my legs recover from yesterday's run...
Monday, 9/28... 3 mile easy paced recovery run. Yesterday's bike ride was a dud, legs are still sore...
Edited: to see if I can add a link to the local covered bridge I run through so much in all its Fall glory... Covered Bridge
Art... that knee of yours is being a royal pain, eh? There aren't many things as frustrating as an injury that keeps you from running, hang in there with yours!. Odd what's going on with the green beans in your garden, with me and most others I talked to, this was the year of stunted and low numbers of cucumbers here. I normally have a surplus I give away, but not this year. Vibrant Fall colors this morning running the trail, lots of leaves are already falling...
Rich - Good 7 mile run! The unexpected detour must have been an unexpected challenge. I liked the picture of the covered bridge. So the bike ride did not help the legs recover, well I look at it as a sign you did a strong workout on the 7 miles. The 5k is not far off so I hope you are ready to try for the 30 minute goal! My mom came from North Carolina and I have fond memories of visiting my uncle's dairy farm. We used to run around barefoot never minding the cowpies!
Art - The continued unexplained knee issue must be a concern, but at least you still exercise and do the biking. Hopefully one day it will vanish and you can concentrate on your running. I just have two green bean plants that came up from my old seeds, need to pick the beans soon. I don't know why yours grew big and died off, maybe the heat? Once I get away from the village it is farm country here, lots of cows, corn and what looks like soybeans. The development becomes denser as I travel north towards the city of Rochester.
As usual I did mo runs this weekend since I have to work early in the morning. It remained rather warm during the day through Monday where it got to the low 80s, but I had some things to do before work and never got out to run. Later that night a bit of needed rain as the cold front came through. Just felt stressed out Tuesday and so just rested for the 4th day in a row. Finally got out for a small run today, everything damp from rains Tuesday evening and 57 degrees, partly cloudy and windy at times. Little golden leaves rained down from trees along the road when the wind was strong. I just did a short 3 mile run on a dirt road that started with a hill climb and then an easy downhill on the return. Seeing more fall color now, but most trees are still green.
A view looking downhill on the road I ran. One tree is a brilliant red!
At the bottom of the hill there is this stone structure, I think maybe the remains of an old railroad bridge!
not bad for mile 25
I've just been plugging away since my race at about 5 miles per day. I gave blood last Friday, then did an eight mile on Saturday. That felt good until the last couple of miles, when I was pretty darned depleted. Not surprising. Sometimes just for grins, I check my BP an hour or so after returning from a tough run. Systolic is in the low 90s, and I'm pretty lightheaded for a while. Weight is down a couple of pounds as well. No doubt I was pretty dehydrated. This is why I need recovery time!
Since Saturday, I had one run in a rainstorm and nice, cool, dark morning runs. Sky has been nice and clear for the most part. It was 40F yesterday! Did a little intervals workout today.
Altair - You've had some nice runs. Thanks for all the pics - they're lovely.
Art - You're keeping plenty busy, in spite of having to baby your knee. I don't get to do pull-ups much, but I try to do push-ups several times per day. I actually think strengthening other parts of my body has improved my running. I was fastest when I worked out at the gym several times per week.
Rich - Nice you're got a race to look forward to! I really enjoyed mine last weekend.
az - You sound so organized - how about spending a week or so at our house? 9 gallons of honey is truly impressive - worth some money, too! New dog for DH, eh? Nice.
Wednesday, 9/30... I've been doing things to help with recovery, but my legs are still f sore from the 7 miler I ran last Saturday. I picked up the pace the last few miles, but think something else might be at fault for the slow recovery. I don't know about anyone else, but every now and then my body will throw a form change at me with no warning and it happened again a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I started running, I noticed I was up on the balls of my feet. Something I used to do, but apparently got away from without realizing it. I suppose a lay-off to recover from an injury might be one reason. Anyway, it's a more efficient way to run, so I've stayed with it, but it also puts a lot of stress on your quads when you land. Which is why I think it's taking forever for my legs to recover lately. I took today completely off, so we'll see what tomorrow brings...
Altair5... cowpies, eh? I remember 'em well! Lol You must have had more than a few glasses of raw milk when you were a kid then, what a difference when it's straight from the cow! We're supposed to have good weather for this weekend's 5K. Hopefully I'll be ready, but this will be more about the experience than my time, so one way or the other, I'll be there. More nice pictures, thanks for sharing! And good for you to get out for the 3 miler!
Led... I had a similar experience when I checked my BP shortly after a run, so low it shocked me! Lol Then I looked it up and found out it's normal...Lol You do a good job of maintaining, plenty of miles and enough up tempo stuff to stay sharp. Good stuff!
Hello my fellow runners!
This week, I ran Monday and Tuesday evenings, and this morning before it got too warm. NICE! Just taking it slow and easy on the trails near home, I throw in some hills and intervals now and then. A couple of campsites along the way after getting on top of the hill. But no one in sight.
Temps are still in the 70s but overnight temps are in the 30s and 40s! So I've been putting the veggies in the containers in the garage. The veggie bed gets covered ........ seems to be working so far. I didn't plant alot of veggies but the zucchinis and grape tomatoes have been doing well. I have about 4 NM peppers that are to be picked soon. The yellow squash and cucumbers are hanging in there, though I'm disappointed that I didn't get as many as I thought.
So as NH pointed out, guess the low numbers of veggies got me too.
I have a meeting on zoom this evening again so I'm back in town at the county building. Hardly anyone around, most of the employees work from home and the offices are upstairs. I sit away from the stairs so I don't get to see (or be seen) by people going in and out. It's after hours now so it's quiet.
Altair: thank you for sharing the gorgeous photos. Do you run from your house to those areas? The one where you said you lived about a mile farther than the University building, that seemed quite aways. The hill looks amazing, love that! I have a couple of SLRs, had a couple of smaller ones but those didn't last too long. I took photography classes over the years. Including a lot of hands-on developing in dark rooms. Not sure what it entails now but I'm sure it's all digital with photoshop editing now.
NH: I was thinking the same thing about the changing of the colors ........ the monsoons have really decreased here this year especially. One of our trees was already losing its leaves at end of August!! Been raking and bagging them. Not my favorite chore. Sounds like you are being cautious with the training for the upcoming 5k ......... I would do the same. What is your recovery run? My recovery runs are about 1-2 minutes slower, the day after a longer run, it's slow and easy and short (my guide is half or a quarter the distance that I ran the day before), mainly to loosen muscles and stiffness. And the rest is spent on stretching, or other exercises. I tend to run on ball of my feet on trails but I find that I have to concentrate of that when I run on roads (thank goodness, it's not that often ..... it's tiring to think too much, LOL!)
Led: Yes, the amount of honey that DH got was a huge surprise. He gave some to our neighbor already. She is our 'security' so she deserves a few. It's weird that I'm not a big HONEY fan. Never have been. Guess it's another reason why I don't have a sweet tooth like DH. I donate blood too ...... and I'm also in the low BP spectrum....... so I have to schedule my running accordingly. I don't run the next day which seems to help with my feeling 'weak' ...... I eat a good meal after.
Art: We are cooling off up here, it's just so nice! The temps in the 40s are the best to run in IMO ......so I'm doing some morning runs now. Sunny days though but I'm sure we will be getting some cloudy days soon. DD keeps asking when I will be going to Phoenix but it's still to darn HOT there! I'm not running any virtural races ......... there has been some scheduled but it's just not my thing........ but I'm willing to try anything once, haha!
gotta go, take care!!