Kestrel Grey

Week 3 Summary Maybe at 50%? I'm not sure. My schedule was a little off this week, and then went completely off after Friday's race combined with odd working hours over the weekend. I can't even remember if I went to the gym at all. I did pick up a couple more kettlebell sizes and was playing around with them earlier in the week. My morning planning routine evaporated with the early morning shifts; now that they are over, the routine should fall back into place easily. The Friday race made me very happy. It was my only run this week but that's okay with me. The fact that I still haven't lost any weight is frustrating though. My meals need to be better. It is a prepping issue I think. Next week will have to start off easy as my right foot is still having a little bit of tendinitis from Friday's run. The shoes were getting old and probably should have been replaced already, so yesterday we picked out a pair of Hoka Torrent 2. Looking forward to breaking those in once my feet are up for it! The plan for Week 4: Take it easy until feeling fully healed, then start breaking in my new running shoes. Dentist on Wednesday to get those teeth pretty. Spend more time on meal prep. Take advantage of the extra downtime from exercise. Get back into my routines.

Sorry about the work troubles. Changing your climbing time to Friday sounds wise. It's easier to work with your existing habits than against them! That new drawing looks great. The shading is a little different than your previous ones, did you try something new?

If it was a 5 hour bike ride instead of run, you'd probably have no issues completing it. I also told a friend I would sign up for/pay dues to an abhorrent political organisation if I wussed out. Fear motivates. Thanks. I'm glad it was virtual, because if the race was in person the peer pressure would have kept me running until the injuries were more serious than a couple bloodied knees.

Lewiston Virtual Race Report The Lewiston race was originally a 29K out-and-back race over a mountain. Since it went virtual, we can choose any course we desire and "prizes" will be by a draw instead of being based on finishing times. I chose a 9.5K loop through the woods about 30 minutes away from my home. The loop is hilly enough that I didn't feel like I was cheating by making it too easy, but still not so steep that I couldn't run any of it. So, three 9.5K loops and a 500m finisher down the road. Easy-peasy. Last time I ran this loop was 2 years ago and it took me 90 minutes with hiking the hills. I set that as my target pace. Lap 1 - It was still cool for the first lap and I enjoyed it, finishing exactly at 1.5 hours. The wind had shifted from earlier in the week and we didn't have the smoke from the BC wildfires to contend with today so breathing was not a problem. I spent 5 minutes at the car filling up my water bladder and grabbing some food, then headed back out. Tip: forget gels, white chocolate passionfruit glazed scones are the best running food. Lap 2 - my legs felt heavy hiking up the hills at the start of lap 2. My overall energy still felt fine though, and I made good time, still on pace at 3/4 of the way around. Unfortunately my legs were not enjoying it and began stumbling over every tree root. And there were a lot of tree roots. Finally my luck ran out and my legs couldn't catch me when I tripped and I did the full superman dive into the dirt. Now with 2 bloody knees and a scraped up elbow, I realized it would only get worse until I fell badly and sprained a wrist or impaled myself on a branch. After not having run longer than 13K all summer, my legs just couldn't handle the distance over rough terrain. Which sucked because I was still on course for a decent finish time and had tons of energy. So I cleaned myself up, slapped on some bandaids, and resigned myself to hiking out the remainder of the course. Lap 3 - hiked it out, all the while looking at my watch and thinking, "if I started running now, I could still make sub-5 hours..." It was getting hot by this point though, so I just enjoyed the walk and finished without further incident. Total time: 5:31:19 Some things I did right: My hydration, fueling, and pacing were all perfect. I felt like I was pushing it but still had energy throughout, and did not get overheated, dehydrated or have gut bombs. I let a few people know I was out there so they could send me motivation by text through the day. I left early enough to have a cool start before the sun heated things up. I made a list of everything I might need the previous day so I wouldn't forget anything important. Some things I didn't get right: Slacking off on training, obviously. Some of that was unavoidable but some of it wasn't. Otherwise the only mistake was not packing the day before. It took me 30 minutes longer to get ready than I had planned. Bonus squirrel fight: Two little chubby fellows, I am guessing this year's newly grown batch, came tumbling down a tree trunk in a 2-squirrel cartwheel as I was coming around the corner. The victor then chased the loser down the path towards me, and the loser was more scared of the other squirrel than of me and ran directly by me and up a tree. The victor stopped short, decided it wasn't worth chasing the other guy that close to a human, and turned around and half-way back up the original tree. He proceeded to chitter as I passed - I'm not sure if it was aimed at the other squirrel still or at me for interrupting the fight.

Maybe I should clarify none of the blood belonged to squirrels?

Survived. Kind of. I'll write up a race report after I wash off the dirt/blood and have a nap. Squirrel fights were involved.

I seem to have missed my Week 2 update. Intentionally since I didn't want to face not having a run in 2 weeks. Can I still call myself a scout? Tomorrow will have to be my 29k run, which I will mostly hike since the summer wildfires have finally started and the air quality isn't great. The loop I chose is just under 10k and pretty hilly so, for me, hitting under 5 hours for 3 loops would be a win.

I'd say your first two sentences deserve a celebratory Minnie Mouse instead.

We are getting our first fires now, and it is putting a damper on running. Being close enough to be saturated in smoke must be downright miserable.

Very idyllic scene. Was most of the ride through scenery like that?

Any progress on the running plan?

Or crawling up your leg.

Heat does tend to mess training up more than cold does.

That's a little scary to know. That's a great idea, thanks! This winter I will have to try snow plyo.

Trying to be enthusiastic about my challenge. Settling for simply showing up with or without enthusiasm.

Must be a Canadian thing.

I'm looking at kettlebells to fill that roll. You still need the power and energy of a jump but you can control the amount of force and don't have an impact landing.

This week is still devoid of any training other than the couple shrugs and pushups throughout the day. Today I had grand plans for a long run, but couldn't get out of bed early enough. That's because last night I stayed up late watching the meteor shower. After work I drove 10 minutes out of town and parked on a quiet farm road, rolled down the windows and turned off the car, then just hung out the window watching the stars. Originally I had planned on sitting outside of the car but the coyotes were unnerving. Anyway, it was very peaceful and I nearly fell asleep watching the little sparks of cosmic dust catching fire. Is it just me, or do you expect the shooting stars in a meteor shower to all fall in the same direction? For some reason it seemed strange that they fell randomly in all directions across the sky.

Yay for hard evidence that you're getting faster! Is it the exact same program you did 6 weeks ago, or is it modified for the speed focus?

Always fun! That's how I dislocated my cuboid bone and started this two year adventure in messed up running form/cascading injuries, so plyometrics still scare me. They are awesome though and one day I'll start them again.

If only calf raises could get me her jumping skills too.

Especially lip chap.

Depends on how tight your spandex running tight are...

Week Two (and-a-half) microhabit: write down snack prep time when I am looking at my day planner in the mornings. The organiser just dropped off my swag bag for the now-virtual 30K trail race. So I already have the finishers medal and I sort of want to wear it now. The race t-shirt is Arcteryx. I am suitably impressed.