New month, still going

A late push to get to 100 miles in September left me a bit flat.  I missed my step goal on September 30 and wound up taking Oct 1 with minimal activity.  

I felt fairly refreshed this morning and executed a 5 miler at 8:10 pace.  At this pace, it felt relatively easy, and I had a strong finish with the last 2 miles at 7:52 and 7:43.  5 miles is still longer than average for me right now but I'm working towards that being my base run.  Of course, it's getting darker and colder in the mornings, so we'll see how that effects things.  

Nothing exceptional about todays run except for the fact that I felt good and pushed a little but not too hard.  HR averaged 143 for the run and Garmin boosted by VO2 from 48 (which it's been at since early September) to 49.  The weight is still slowly coming down and I've been consistently at or under 188 for the last week.  

No real goals on the horizon except to remain consistent on the running for the rest of the year and hopefully the fitness gains and weight loss will gradually follow along with it.

100 miles and runnin'

I completed a 5K today to wrap up my first 100+ mile month since June of 2022.  I finished September with 101.16 miles at an 8:30 average pace.  I ran 23 out of the 30 days.  Longest runs were a pair of 8 miles.  I ran ab 8 miler at 7:54 pace and a 7 miler at 7:47 pace as my "hardest" workouts and a handful of fast finish progression runs but mostly just easy running.  Legs are tired but no pain.

Between June 2022 And September 2024 I logged slightly over 1000 miles, sort of treading water miles with some starts and stops.  I'm certainly the most motivated I've been in quite a while.  Hope I can carry this motivation into winter.  

Why not post?

 I can't say I've been exactly interested in maintaining or publishing a running blog lately but I got a bit of time to kill and am not motivated to do anything else so, why not post?

Speaking of motivation...  Motivation is like a fire; Hard to start but once it gets going hard to put out.  I haven't been truly motivated in a couple years.  The embers are there but I just haven't quite been able to get that fire back going.  But the fire hasn't been completely quenched either...  I ran 370 miles in 2023.  That averages to more than 1 mile a day.  It's not a lot and not enough to be in shape but its not zero.

This year I'm up to 436 miles.  That's progress!  And I won't be sure for another few days but I might even break 100 miles this month which would be my first 100 mile month since June of 2022.

I've actually had a reason to be motivated though (besides exercise induced endorphins, feeling fit, and my own personal health).  My 12 year old twin daughters are well into their 7th grade XC season and they are doing amazing.  My daughter Maya is in her 3rd season and she ran a PR in her first race of the year and is only getting faster from there.  Just in the last 10 days she ran the following PRs for 2  miles:  15:15...  15:03 (2 days later),  14:45 (2 days later), and 14:32 (2 days after that).  Then 14:50 the next day at practice and 22:30 for 3 miles the day after that...  Her PR from last year was 16:18 for 2 miles... I'm like "where the heck did this kid come from".  For the first time, when I pick her up from basketball practice, she tells me what she did at XC practice before telling me all the great things she did at basketball practice.

But back to me (it's my blog that I write primarily for my future self to read after all)...  I might hit 100 miles in September!  and then if I can follow that up with 100 miles in October, November, and December then I might be on to something.   

And while most of the miles have been relatively slow (I've averaged 8:30 pace this month), I did run 8 miles at 7:54 pace last Sunday which is a sign that maybe I'm starting to build some fitness.  And also I've lost maybe 7 pounds in the last few months which means I'm trending in the right direction.  I've never been that concerned about my weight (not enough to stop eating delicious food anyway) but It definitely helps my running when i'm closer to the 160s than the 200s.  

Still coming back

80 miles in January with 18 total runs  (4.444 miles per run).

81 miles in February with 18 total runs (4.5 miles per run).

85 miles in March with 19 total runs (4.5 miles per run).

I'd say my knee is just about completely healed.   There's still a phantom twinge now and then but at this point I don't feel like there's much opportunity for reinjury.  

I've been relatively consistent so far this year, albeit at a reduced load.  I've struggled to find the motivation from day to day but I've still been able to keep myself going enough that I haven't completely lost all my fitness.

On the negative side, running hasn't been very pleasant.  My pace has been reduced but my heart rate is high.  I've had a ton of sinus issues and feel like I'm constantly running with a head cold to the point where I've questioned if maybe this is somehow post Covid related... or maybe I'm just getting older or maybe I'm just worn too thin from work, family, and life responsibilities and stress.

It's not all negative though.  For the last few months I haven't felt much of any improvement in terms of building endurance or fitness.  I've struggled though most of my miles and just felt overall out of shape.  The last couple weekends that's finally seemed to be changing.  

2 Saturday's ago I hit the track with my girls and did some short sprints.  Not a lot of mileage but way more intensity than I've been accustomed to for a while.  I followed that up with a 8 mile run on Sunday... legs were tired from the sprints but it felt good.  I finished up the weekend feeling fatigued and sore, but in a good way.  

Similar this weekend.  Hard treadmill run on Saturday, 6 miles, 1 mile at 9 mph, and then more 9 mph 1/2 and 1/4 mile.  It was faster than I've been running, and it was hard, but it hurt in a good way.  Followed that up with another 8 mile run... a little faster and a little easier than the previous weekend.

I think it's going to be a while before I start getting to sub 19 minute 5K fit but I'm finally feeling like maybe I'm at least starting down the path towards it, after pretty much jogging in place since last June.

The slow road back

 It's been over 5 months since I hurt my right knee moving furniture.  Still not sure what I even hurt exactly but it's been healing extremely slow.  

It's still not 100% but at this point it seems that I can more or less run without it bothering me.

The bad part is that I'm completely out of shape.  From the end of August when I hurt myself to the end of December, I ran a total of 165 miles.  The positive side was that I never truly quit and still got a couple short runs in a week as my body allowed.  

2023 has been better, I'm at almost 100 miles for the year, and last week I finally felt like I was making some progress, logging a total of 24 miles

I ended the week with a Sunday "long" run of 7 miles and was able to average a 7:27 pace for the run and actually felt pretty good.  Solid effort but not overly painful and I only had to force myself not to stop and walk a couple times.  

Still haven't totally found my motivation yet but hoping I can get my fitness up enough so that by spring I'm ready to nail it.

Still plugging along

 It has been a rough summer and frankly a rough 2022.  Just haven't had the consistency to maintain the level of fitness I would like.  I was either too busy or hurt or having breathing issues... definitely not what I had hoped for coming into the year but at this point I'm feeling more upbeat.

I've been dealing with breathing issues for months but I think I finally got those under control and with the use of an additional Advair inhaler will hopefully keep it under control.  

My other immediate struggle is with my right leg.  I royally strained something while moving furniture for my mother.  That was maybe 6 weeks ago at this point and it's still not at 100%.  At this point I'm not even exactly sure what the problem is... it's either Sciatica or some strained tendons or a strained hamstring or maybe all of the above.  The good news is that I never really felt anything pop or tear and it seems to be healing... just extremely slowly.  I'm able to run on it but it will then get stiff and tired and will bother me for the rest of the day.  

So for now, I'm just trying to get out there and get mileage in where I can.  Hopefully I can stay active enough so that when I eventually heal, I won't be starting from scratch.  

Burned down but not burned out

The last month has not been kind to my running.  I've battled through a 2 week bout of bronchitis that pretty much prevented me from running at all, I've overwhelmed with life obligations (family vacation, moving my mom, other household tasks) I've been exhausted, and I've been a bit burnt out.  Most of all, I just haven't felt good running.  I've had a weird tightness/pinched nerve feeling in my back and shoulders on and off dating back to March.  I'm not quite sure what is going on... not sure if it's something with my form or some kind of injury?  If it is an injury I don't think it's caused by running but has made running more unpleasant than it should be.  

All this has resulted in my running 12 times in the last month for a total of 37 miles.  Better than doing nothing I suppose.

Today I ran 5 miles at 8:20 pace and for this first time in a month I actually felt pretty good during the run.  The pace was easy, my cadence was good, and I didn't feel like I was suffering and forcing myself to take each step.  That's promising at least.

Definitely not in top fitness right now but I don't need to be.  I'm hoping that today was a sign that I'm getting back in the groove and will be able to build on this moving forward.