In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

15 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Today’s run was 1000% better than yesterday’s! I got to run outside, it was sunny (and still a bit windy, but whatever). I was so ready to get out of the house too—we’d been trying to watch a Facebook livestream of my cousin’s play and it was plagued with technical issues. Whoever set up the livestream forgot to make sure the phone filming it switched out of portrait mode, so it was sideways, which meant we couldn’t mirror it to the TV. I managed to get my iPad to display it correctly, but the sound quality was pretty terrible, so we couldn’t really follow the story. Then the audio cut out entirely for the last 10-15 minutes. All in all, a complete technological failure.

Anyway, after all that, I got changed and got out on the road. I decided to go out the west end of the neighborhood first because the hills help me manage my first mile speediness. The whole run went smoothly, and I had almost perfect negative splits.
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Sadly, our tech woes continued into the evening. We were going to stream the second Fantastic Beasts movie, but it kept starting and stopping, and we gave up after about 15 minutes.


2022 workout data to date: 98h 45m 47s of exercise; 42,423 active calories burned; 51,829 total calories burned
 
14 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Happy Easter!! My grandparents gave me a bunch of candy, and this adorable card:
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We also made these super tasty sugar cookie bars (with buttercream icing!)
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I did my 45 minutes on the stationary bike before we left for Easter dinner. I used my 30/30 running intervals and managed to almost 15 seconds off my average pace from last week. I decided to watch the Disney Broadway concert from Royal Albert Hall on Disney+ while I was on the bike. How was I unaware that John Barrowman could sing?! You learn something new every day, I suppose.

This is what we came home to—what idiot ordered this kind of weather?? 🤬🤬
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2022 workout data to date: 99h 31m 56s of exercise; 42,687 active calories burned; 52,172 total calories burned
 

13 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

High winds be damned! After Friday’s disastrous run, I wasn’t about to deal with that stupid treadmill again, so I went outside and did my 30 minutes. And it was fine, but you can totally tell which miles had the headwind. I wore the shoes that gave me trouble on Friday, and had no trouble (other than the left lace coming untied, but that’s typical of ASICS laces for me—I need to switch them out).
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The weather is looking good for tomorrow’s 45 minute run, and Thursday’s 60 minute run. Saturday’s 10 miler might have some thunderstorm issues, but I won’t worry until we’re a bit closer.

My big project of the day was to hang one of my poured painting’s on the wall in my family room. I had a different painting in this spot for a long time, but it didn’t really coordinate with anything—it was just the only sizable piece I had.
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Oh, I also hit 100 hours of workouts for 2022 already! I only had 237 hours for all of 2021, so I’m on track to destroy that record with all my scheduled running hours this summer and fall.


2022 workout data to date: 100h 4m 14s of exercise; 42,969 active calories burned; 52,509 total calories burned
 
12 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

I’m so glad that I didn’t have to deal with all the stress you Marathon Weekend folks did this morning! That was awful to follow along with!

My run after work was tough. Tuesdays are hard days, with my intervals increased to 60/30. I managed to do it without skipping any running, but I was definitely feeling the effort. Also, there was a south wind, and a surprising amount of my route goes south. A midday run would’ve been more pleasant, but, alas, the world requires money and money requires a job.
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The shirt and medal design for the half I’m running in the beginning of June was released today. I think it’s really pretty, but last year’s medal was shaped like a mermaid, which would be cooler than a circle.
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In chipmunk news, the handsome and charismatic (as long as you don’t ask Duchess’ opinion) Ein Chipmunk emerged from hibernation. He got right back into the swing of things and ran up to me for food. Duchess was still eating her food, so there was a quite an argument, involving much chasing, wrestling, and squeaking, until I could get food into both my hands so they could both eat at the same time. I also had to use this trick to keep Sweetie and Patch from killing each other (because Sweetie heard me outside and crossed about 8 chipmunk territories to get to me, instead of waiting for me to come to him).
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After my run, just as I had finished my dinner, I saw the neighbor’s cat walking through our yard, and I went out on the patio to yell at him. He headed down the hill, and I saw him enter stalk mode near Fern’s hole. Despite being in my stocking feet, I ran over there just in time to see that rotten ginger catch my little Fern Chipmunk!! Between my yelling and Fern’s fighting, he was able to escape back down his hole and I proceeded to chase the cat through our woods away from all my chipmunks. My socks were quite muddy and my feet were cold, and sore from stepping on mulch.

That cat is such a sweetheart to humans (even when I’m yelling at him, he’ll stop and roll over to get me to pet his belly and purr at me), I don’t know why his humans don’t just keep him inside and cuddle him all the time, instead of letting him cause chaos with my critters.


2022 workout data to date: 100h 54m 25s of exercise; 43,444 active calories burned; 53,070 total calories burned
 
11 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Not much to report today. It was raining most of the day, so no chipmunk feeding. I had my monthly 1:1 with my boss and it sounds like I probably won’t get the position I interviewed for, which is okay with me, but I’m sort of annoyed that he suggested I apply for it and go through all the hassles and rigamarole associated with interviewing (three separate times!) when it turns out I don’t really have the base knowledge they’re looking for.

I did a short dumbbell workout tonight, and had some muscle pain in my right arm. It’s happened before, and I think it has to do with the way I sleep. So after my workout, I decided to try to do something about it and switched my chargers to the other side of my bed so I can switch sides of the bed and sleep in my usual position, but on my left side instead of my right.


2022 workout data to date: 101h 17m 53s of exercise; 43,634 active calories burned; 53,277 total calories burned
 
10 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

It was a beautiful day today, and my grandma suggested that I go do my run on the lop trail a few miles away (she drove past it on her errands today and it reminded her that it exists 😆). It’s a 6.75 mile loop, and my run was only supposed to be a hour. I decided I would do the hour and see how I felt, and then choose whether to run or walk the rest of the loop. I was feeling good after the hour was up, so I kept running.
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Just for fun, I did a segment at the 10K mark, and I technically have a new fastest 10K time. But I wasn’t doing a virtual 10K race today, so it doesn’t count. But it was totally 4 minutes faster than my last virtual 10K.
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It really was a very pretty day, even though not much has greened up yet.
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I spent a decent amount of my work day screwing around with one of my personal spreadsheets on my iPad (because I didn’t have much actual work to do). I have a spreadsheet with a list of all the races (virtual and in-person) that I’ve done, or have signed up to do. I wanted to add a little “Current PR” table to the spreadsheet, and I didn’t want to have to update it myself. So I had to figure out how to make the Numbers iOS formulas work for what I wanted. Then I decided that I wanted the PR race data to be highlighted in the list, also automatically. This involved adding A LOT of hidden columns, all because Numbers doesn’t let you conditionally format based on a formula. But I got it done, and it’s pretty, and color-coded, and I’m an absolutely massive nerd 🤓😂🤓
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Last, but not least, a chipmunk report! I fed Duchess, Sweetie, Ace, Gus, and an unnamed chipmunk today. All the rain yesterday must have flooded a part of one of Ace’s tunnels, because he was clean and dry the first time I fed him, but when he came back for seconds, this is what he looked like:
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2022 workout data to date: 102h 43m 1s of exercise; 44,353 active calories burned; 54,142 total calories burned
 
I have a spreadsheet with a list of all the races (virtual and in-person) that I’ve done, or have signed up to do.
Cool! I want to do this. I don’t think I will have data for some races though since many were long ago.
this is what he looked like:
Ah, so just like my dogs whenever they come in from the mud pit that is my backyard 😆
 
9 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

I got registered for the virtual Marathon Weekend 10K, and then because it was such as moot quick process, and because I’m impulsive, I also registered for the half. It’ll be nice to have some blingy motivation for those midwinter runs.

Not much else to report today, just some yoga to close my rings and earn the Earth Day 2022 badge on my watch. It looks like the storms tomorrow will be scattered enough to give me a big midday window to do my 10 mile virtual Gopher Run. It’ll be windy, but 70 degrees or so; which is better, in my opinion, than windy and 45 degrees, which would be my weather if I switched to Sunday. Also, my grandma and I are going shopping on Sunday, so switching would be a pain.

It was cold and damp today, so the chipmunks mostly stayed in their homes. The one time I went out, I didn’t see any of them, but I did spend some time tossing nuts to Ulysses the Squirrel. Yes, he’s named after the squirrel in Flora & Ulysses, even though he’s a grey squirrel, instead of a red squirrel. He won’t come all the way up to me, but he will get within a few feet and then pounce on the nut once I throw it to him.
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2022 workout data to date: 103h 15m 1s of exercise; 44,578 active calories burned; 54,394 total calories burned
 
8 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Today’s run, despite being a new PR for the 10 Miler, was not my best run. But it was only like, 50% my fault, I swear!

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(I grabbed a selfie shortly before the halfway point)

I will fully admit to being under-hydrated beforehand, and being stupid enough not to bring my water bottle. I also should have eaten a little more I left the house. And my legs were a little tired from Thursday’s longer-than-scheduled run, but that was really minor. But the biggest problem with today’s run was something out my control: the wicked witch of a wind. It didn’t matter what direction I was running, the stupid 20+ mph wind was in my face.
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On my run, I saw 2 turtles, one of whom needed moving off the path, so I picked it up and moved it just off the edge of the path in the direction it had been heading. There were a lot of cyclists on this path, and I didn’t want anyone hitting a turtle and wiping out.

This is the medal I earned with today’s run. As of now, I’m 23/26 virtual runners who have submitted their times.
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I also got the medal today for my virtual 10K from St Patrick’s Day.
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And I got the medal for the Earth Day (well, really Earth Month) challenge I’m participating in. The little bees are pins that can be separated from the medal and leave empty honeycomb holes. Between everyone who’s submitted miles, we’re 76.1% done with a week to go in April.
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2022 workout data to date: 105h 31m 28s of exercise; 45,760 active calories burned; 55,809 total calories burned
 
Congrats on the new PR! You ran for over 2 hours without water?! I would die, literally die and fall over.
 
7 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Ugh! I didn’t get my cycling workout done until quarter of 10 tonight! Luckily, I only had a half hour scheduled after yesterday’s long run. I got 8.14 miles in.

The weather was just awful today, cold, windy, and rainy. My grandma and I got our shopping trip done, and we were successful. I even got a cute pair of sandals. That should have been the end of the day’s activities, leaving me plenty of time for my workout, but my cousin and his family came over for dinner and to show us their vacation pictures from Ecuador.


2022 workout data to date: 106h 1m 33s of exercise; 45,932 active calories burned; 56,033 total calories burned
 
The wind in Iowa has been absolutely brutal! It's barely 6am and I can already hear the gusts.

Is it normally windy where you live in the spring? I heard a coworker make a comment about how this was normal spring weather but having not grown up in Iowa, it's very new to me and not a pleasant surprise.
 
The wind in Iowa has been absolutely brutal! It's barely 6am and I can already hear the gusts.

Is it normally windy where you live in the spring? I heard a coworker make a comment about how this was normal spring weather but having not grown up in Iowa, it's very new to me and not a pleasant surprise.
It’s frequently windy, spring or not, but it has seemed worse lately.
 
6 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

It was cold outside today! And windy! It’s almost May, for Mickey’s sake—where is my nice spring weather?!

Okay, whining is over with (for today) I went out for my run after work, and it was a good run. I was just slightly faster than I should have been, I made it back to my house 45 seconds before my 30 minutes were up, and I chose not to run circles around the cul-de-sac to fill time.
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I have just a tiny bit of chipmunk news today. I went out to see if anyone was out and about, and they weren’t (can’t blame them, see the whining at the beginning of this post), so I went around picking up some sticks and branches since I was out there. I heard some rustling noises coming from the tree behind me, and I turned around to see Cherry sticking her face out of her hole (the rustling was her climbing up through all the leaves she’s lined her nest with). I, of course, went over to offer her some food, but she wouldn’t come out and I had to just shove it into her nest for her. Spoiled little brat 😆😆


2022 workout data to date: 106h 30m 47s of exercise; 46,187 active calories burned; 56,338 total calories burned
 
5 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

Today was terrible. I woke up more than an hour before my alarm with a sore throat from post-nasal drip (sorry for the TMI). I gradually felt worse as the day went on and my temperature rose. My body reacts badly to fevers, even mild ones (I’m only up to 100.6°F, so hardly worth worrying about, as fevers go); everything aches and I get horrid chills. I took a nice hot bath to relax the chills and aches, and managed to complete a seated dumbbell workout before everything got icky again. I’m hoping this passes quickly, because I don’t want to skip any runs, but I will if it means I can get better in time for the 5K this Sunday.


2022 workout data to date: 107h 13m 27s of exercise; 46,493 active calories burned; 56,694 total calories burned
 
4 Days Until: Arboretum Bud Break 5K

I’m feeling much better than yesterday because my fever is gone, but my head was still too wonky for running. Also, I was getting winded more easily, so I stuck to yoga. It’s going to rain tomorrow, so if there is running to be done, it will be on the treadmill 😣😣 My grandma and I did get out of the house to go see Secrets of Dumbledore, which was good.

BTW, I did take a Covid test yesterday, and it was negative, so this is just the normal sinus thing that seems to happen to me every once in a while. I think I will be fine to run my 5K on Sunday.


2022 workout data to date: 107h 58m 15s of exercise; 46,816 active calories burned; 57,054 total calories burned
 














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