I think I know more about NZ geography at this point than any other country in the world except the US.

You and me, both.

Thanks all.  She is fine and back at home now but this is about the 10th episode like this, 2 of which have been bad enough to go to ED.  They did an EEG and hopefully that will find something.  She makes it much harder by complaining about doctors and basically everything, and then got angry at me for refusing to take her home until she was discharged.  Then to a find a serious leak through her ceiling one day when I checked in on the cat was just what I needed.

 

I agree that it's hard to say whether it's worse being close or far away - when I lived overseas it was very stressful, spending hours in meeting rooms at work trying to sort things out.  Being close is really only problematic because of the way she behaves.  If she was nice and grateful for the help it might be different.  Any time I visit I'm met with a list of chores but she then gets very offended when I say perhaps if she can't take her bins out by herself it may be time to think about moving into a retirement village...

Steve - I'm sorry you're dealing with this.  It's so hard, and must be incredibly draining.

Watson - good luck tomorrow!

As for me, I ran a race yesterday - a mile.  Well...attempted to until I made a wrong turn.  I guess this is why miles are normally raced on the track - harder to get lost there.

Race report is here.

Darkwave nice race report, bugger it had that ending !

My garmin told me I ran a mile PR today  was only sub 6

and part of an interval workout.

Marco - Good to hear from you.  If you can't handle hard efforts right now, just keep up with the easy ones while you try to figure out what's going on.

Lakebottom Junior League 5K RR:

Had an unpleasant pre-race surprise on Tuesday when I weighed myself for the first time in several weeks and was 5-6 lbs heavier than I had expected, and almost 10 lbs over my usual racing weight.  That’s the heaviest I’ve been in 5+ years, perhaps b/c I’ve been drinking lots of sports drinks after longer-than-usual runs in this summer’s hotter-than-usual temperatures, and I wonder how much the extra weight has contributed to my recent workouts being so slow.  I cut back on meal portions and sports drinks for a few days and shed 4 lbs by race day, which I'm sure helped some.

This race, which I’d never run before, starts and ends at the park where I do 90+% of my miles.  Waves of 25 started every 5 minutes from 7 to 7:55am.  The early start was partly because of traffic control - the last finishers weren’t done until an hour after the last start, and some of the streets get pretty busy later in the morning - and partly because it can get hot later in the morning this time of year, though it was only in the 70s/low 20s this morning.  I was in the 7:05 start wave with most of the other competitive people.  Arrived about 6:15 to do a longer-than-usual warmup in the dark because of the early start.  My wave put on our masks and gathered on our socially distanced dots at the starting line to be checked in just after the first wave started at 7.  I took off my mask just before the start and put it in my back pocket.  There were a dozen or so high schoolers, which is unusual for races here.  School cross country races have started despite the pandemic, so it’s not like they don’t have team competitions, but I was glad to see them because it’s good to have people to run with or to chase.  I recognized several of the adults in my wave, because there aren’t that many sub-20 grownups in town and several of them show up at most of the races.

It was getting light as we started, but the sun hadn’t risen over the trees yet.  The first half mile was on the flat street on the outside edge of the park.  I started in the back half of the pack at a steady pace.  Then we went around a traffic circle and into a tree-lined residential neighborhood with a long gradual uphill, passing a white pre-Civil War mansion (imagine a smaller version of Tara in Gone with the Wind).  I moved past a couple of people who slowed, but everyone else ahead of me had strung out at steady paces.  After the first half-mile, we were passing walkers and then slow runners from the 7:00 start every minute or so.  When we had finished about a mile, we turned left and went up a short hill before taking a sharp right onto a bicycle path. I spent most of the race several seconds behind a stocky, muscular man in his 40s.  I kept expecting him to fade because he wasn’t built like my idea of a distance runner, but he never did.  

The bike path was about half a mile long with a gradual uphill near the end; after that we made a U-turn right onto a residential street and headed back towards the park along a broader road that also had lots of trees, passing a country club and the city’s flagship high school.  Most of the way back was flat or gently downhill.  I passed one teenager from my wave but otherwise only people from the 7:00 wave.  I was surprised not to see mile markers, and the only time I checked my watch was a little after where I remembered the map had said was the two-mile point.  It read 13 minutes flat, so I figured I was a little under 20-minute pace.  At the end we turned right into the park and finished in a parking lot.  I was pretty tired but not exhausted.  My time was 19:54; a month ago I thought I would be faster by now with the increased miles I’ve been running (and because I had run 20:15-16 5K splits on a couple of 3.5-mile tempo runs), but given my slow recent workout times, it seems in line with my current fitness.  I guess breaking 20 was a B goal, or maybe a B-minus goal.  Finished 18th/274, but 8th among those old enough to drink.  Had fun, anyway, and I’d like to do this race again next year.  DW showed up with our dog to cheer and take pictures, as did my sister, her husband, and their dog, who all like to walk in the park.  Our son had the good sense to sleep in.  

Sun - off

Mon - 5 miles, mostly on roads of Saturday’s race, then 18 minutes swimming

Tues - 6.5 easy

Weds - 1.5 easy

Thurs - 3.1 including 100-100-200-200 sprints

Fri - off

Sat - 9.9 including 5K race in 19:54 and almost 5 miles cooldown

Total - about 26 miles

12/26/52-week averages - 43/42/38 mpw

Darkwave - doh! I really wonder what those marshals at the missed turn were actually doing.  You would have expected them to say something!

James - good that could get a race in!

Marco - hope you are feeling better soon, sounds like a frustrating one.

Piwi - nice job and hopefully you can build a bit more towards the end of November!

Me- another record week, and 16 days straight running.  I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking forward to a day off tomorrow!  If my coach sticks with her usual approach, from next week, the mileage will drop a bit and the workouts will really start to ramp, probably allowing for a bit of recovery too.  Tuesday's workout went pretty well, but I had a crazy stressful week of work (including videoconferences almost 12 hours straight on Wednesday) and Thursday's MP workout consequently suffered a bit.  I'm actually pretty excited to see how the legs feel after a bit of recovery, hopefully I can start smashing out some really good workouts.  This is all hoping the marathon goes ahead in 5 weeks, of course (!).

Weekly for period: From: 17/08/2020 To 23/08/2020

Total distance: 120.08km

Mark great week. You are looking like a marathon runner now.

12 hours of video conferencing?

James that's a fast field. I think it's common to see the 20 somethings missing in running events.

I will be more than happy to be sub 20 at 57.

Marco - thank you for checking in - I have been thinking of you. I forget - did you ever see a doctor over this? If not, it might be worth doing.

JamesD - good report - I enjoyed reading it. I am surprised that you consider 7 am an early start for a race. Around here, that's not unusual.

Piwi - not sure why 1K recovery for 2K repeats woudn't be OK? It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the workout, I think.

Marky-Mark - that was a big week, both in miles and videoconferences (wow).

Flavio - that's a good solid week. That ladder looks very interesting.

My week:

48 miles, 2000 yards of swimming, 1:50 of pool-running.
M: 8 miles, including a short tune-up workout of 4x400 conservative with 30 second jog (1:39, 1:37, 1:37, 1:38) and then 4x200 with 80 second recovery (43, 42, 41, 41). 1500 yards swimming after.
T: 8 miles very easy (9:17) plus strides.
W: In the evening, 4 mile warm-up and then raced the Harrisburg mile - officially running 6:55 after taking a wrong turn. 1 mile cooldown after.
Th: 55 minutes of pool-running and streaming yoga
F: 10 miles very easy (9:42) followed by upper body weights/core
Sa: 16 miles (9:02) - intended to be progressive but struggled in the heat/humidity. Followed with lotsa water/electrolytes, leg injury prevention work, and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Su: streaming yoga and 55 minutes of pool-running.

Not a great week.  I'm really out of shape, and frustrated.  Saturday was hot and humid, but I've handled similar conditions in the past well simply by pulling back on the paces and still doing the planned workout.  Not this weekend - I crashed and burned.  And my stride just doesn't feel as powerful as it used to.  And...as I wrote in the other thread, while some of it is undoubtedly due to the hamstring and time off from that, I think it's also that I've had to deviate from the formula that worked for me in the past - blending running with a lot of aquatic exercise and gym time.  And that's making it harder for me to rebuild.

It is what it is, though, and all I can do is train where I am.

A pretty good week for me when it comes to running - not great for everything else but I've covered that already.  Apologies for still being behind on the thread and breaking one of the rules ("don't just drop your weeklies") but I'm hoping to get back to normal.

On Saturday I ran down in Dunedin and I'm not sure if it was the stressful week, 5 hour drive with a couple of stops on Friday or breaking my "no alcohol on Friday night" rule but the long run with workout was a bit of a grind.  I guess it was a combination of everything.

It was a reasonably big workout but I had to work harder than expected and was completely spent at the end.  The most likely cause is the several long gradual inclines in Dunedin - mostly so gradual that you don't notice until coming back the other way.  I did 4x2km of race pace on the bike path - the first 2 were into a sea breeze and on one of these inclines.  At the end of the second 2km I was shattered and thought I'd struggle to complete the workout but then I turned around and discovered I'd been on an incline so the second 2 blocks were still achievable although I had to work hard given I'd already used a lot of energy.

I have an adventure race on Saturday so this will be a lighter week - another session with the coach on Tuesday so hopefully he can plan around that race - the next potential half-marathon is 3 weeks away so this is usually the week with the hardest workouts, although I have a big base so can probably get away with doing a bit less.  I spoke to a mate down south and he asked about my confidence and fitness levels.  I thought about it and my response was I'm 100% sure I'm in sub 1:30 shape but only about 50% sure I can execute it in a race given recent failures.  I need to execute for my confidence if nothing else.

Weekly for period: From: 17/08/2020 To 23/08/2020

Total distance: 77.53km