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

[Naomeri]

13 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

I definitely didn’t almost forget to do my workout today

All of a sudden, I looked at my phone, and it was quarter of 11 at night and I was like “bleeep! I’ve gotta get on the bike!” Luckily for me, it was only 3h minutes scheduled, so I was able to get it done and close the rings on my watch well before midnight.

In woodland news, spring birds are arriving in droves—we had 7 male grosbeaks today! We’ve never had that many before. We also had 3 pair of baltimore orioles arrive. We also had a new bird visit: Harris’s Sparrow.







2022 workout data to date: 118h 17m 58s of exercise; 51,047 active calories burned; 62,309 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

12 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

I did not run for 30 minutes tonight. I ran for 5 minutes and 11 seconds, and then stopped and walked the rest of my usual half hour route. I was having a weird twinge in my heel when I ran, but no problems while I was walking. Also, we had a sudden quick thunderstorm right as I was getting off work, so I had to wait for that to clear, and while I was waiting, I got hungry and ate dinner, so then I had to wait longer before my run. As it turned out, I really didn’t wait long enough (I waited over an hour) and it wasn’t sitting well even when I was just walking.

I’m not 100% sad that I had to walk instead of run, since it was over 80° and humid and super super windy. Also, because I was walking, I was able to see and rescue this little tiny turtle from the road.





2022 workout data to date: 119h 7m 33s of exercise; 51,338 active calories burned; 62,685 total calories burned

 

[sandam1]

I did not run for 30 minutes tonight. I ran for 5 minutes and 11 seconds, and then stopped and walked the rest of my usual half hour route. I was having a weird twinge in my heel when I ran, but no problems while I was walking.

Good for you to listen to your body! I also had a 30 minute run tonight and was on the struggle bus from the beginning. I wound up throwing is a bunch of extra walk intervals, but I should have followed your lead and just walked the whole thing. It would have felt better and probably wound up faster than what I did.

 

[Naomeri]

Good for you to listen to your body! I also had a 30 minute run tonight and was on the struggle bus from the beginning. I wound up throwing is a bunch of extra walk intervals, but I should have followed your lead and just walked the whole thing. It would have felt better and probably wound up faster than what I did.

It wasn’t bad enough to actually stop me running, but it was making me move weird, and I’ve read enough of everyone else’s stories to know that moving weird to solve one problem will probably cause a different problem, and I just don’t have time for that

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Turtle! So tiny!

 

[Naomeri]

11 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

I’m very annoyed that Mother Nature decided to just skip spring entirely this year. I was hoping to ease into running in heat, but…nope. 76° and sunny, with some wind. No foot problems at all today, but I stuck to an easy pace.



We had some exciting bird news again today: our hummingbird pair arrived, and we had a red-headed woodpecker!



Sorry the pictures are not great, the zoom on my phone can only do so much.


My grandparents were cleaning the garage and wanted to wash out the peanut bucket (my grandpa hangs a peanut feeder for the woodpeckers and blue jays) so they had me dump out what was left, and I put it in an old set of cat dishes and put it in the yard. Chipmunk Albert was the first one to show up, but he was soon followed by many furry friends, including red and grey squirrels. It’s getting harder to take pictures of the chipmunks while I’m feeding them, because I’m often having to put nuts in both hands and feed 2 at a time to avoid fights.



2022 workout data to date: 119h 57m 36s of exercise; 51,761 active calories burned; 63,193 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

10 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Well, we had some wild weather today! Around midday, we had a storm roll through that made it super dark out, and brought some wind, but didn’t really do much in the way of rain. Then it got all sunny for a few hours, followed by some nasty storms (with tornado warnings) around 7pm. Glad it wasn’t a running day!! I just had to do a couple rounds of an easy dumbbell workout.

During the sunny part of the day, I did manage to get out to visit my chipmunk friends, and they mostly didn’t gang up on me, so I could get some cute pictures.

Rocky was too impatient to wait for me to crouch down, so he came up to me.



Ace didn’t want to come out of his tree.



Patch is in a rush because there are other chipmunks nearby.



Albert prefers to hop into my hand so he doesn’t have to worry about the competition.





Ein also prefers in-the-hand feeding, and will also run up my leg if I’m not fast enough to get down to his level (or just for fun )





2022 workout data to date: 120h 21m 4s of exercise; 51,951 active calories burned; 63,403 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

9 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Since the temperature was forecasted to spike right after I got off work today, I decided to move my run to tomorrow, when it should be 10-15 degrees cooler, and hopefully less humid without storms in the area. Also, I was starving today and ended up eating dinner at about 3pm, so running on a full stomach would have been bad. So I did some yoga instead.

I got A LOT of activity in today, cleaning up sticks after all the wind last night, and getting our storage room back together. And then I got to move all the patio furniture under the porch because tonight’s round of storms started with high winds and I saw them moving.

I didn’t get any chipmunk pictures today, but I did visit all my friends and they made it through the storm just fine, despite the pouring rain carving ravines through the garden.


2022 workout data to date: 120h 40m 16s of exercise; 52,080 active calories burned; 63,565 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

8 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Well, this is my week for interrupted runs. Today wasn’t due to any kind of injury, just a reaction to a neighbor’s chemical lawn treatment. I got a little hit as I was going past on the “out” portion of the east side out-and-back, but it was on the way back that I really got a lungful and I just couldn’t breath well enough to keep going, so I ended up only getting a third of my run finished



But I did find and rescue another turtle crossing the road, much bigger than the tiny friend from Monday.








2022 workout data to date: 121h 0m 2s of exercise; 52,239 active calories burned; 63,757 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

7 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Well, I was supposed to run in the morning, but I slept wrong and woke up sore. So we went on with our plans for the day and I hoped I’d be able to run in the evening. This turned out to be the best plan ever! I waited until a little after 7 to get ready, and got over to the lake loop about 7:30. The loop was almost deserted, the weather was bleeping spectacular, and I had an amazing run.

Since I missed 2/3 of yesterday’s run, I figured I was ok to try to give a little extra effort, and it really worked out. I’ve joined Strava, so now I get a bit more pacing analysis compared to what Apple was giving me.







It was really pretty out there. And these flowering things (which my gardener grandma says are probably wild plum) smelled AMAZING! Like, I wanted to stop and just live in that scent for a while.













2022 workout data to date: 122h 21m 35s of exercise; 52,949 active calories burned; 64,606 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

6 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

I didn’t get my cycling workout started until 11pm tonight, and I cut it short at about 30 minutes. I had to help with yard work today (yay for tree-trimming ) and then I decided to finally go see Multiverse of Madness after dinner. I had been waiting to go with my grandma, but she finally told me to go ahead and go alone because whenever she has time, she doesn’t have energy, and vice versa because May is just a really busy month. I really enjoyed the movie, and look forward to seeing it again on streaming with my grandma.

The other thing that delayed my workout was checking out the eclipse after I got home from the movie. Here are my sort of terrible iPhone pictures:





2022 workout data to date: 122h 52m 49s of exercise; 53,116 active calories burned; 64,825 total calories burned

 

[jmasgat]

So neat you had clear skies for that. Here in SE MI we had clouds/rain. And amazingly, I would have been awake for it (was finishing a book and it got late)

 

[Naomeri]

5 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Since Saturday’s late evening run was so nice, I decided to do tonight’s run late too. It was definitely nicer than running in the full heat and wind of the afternoon. I did my best to keep the run easy. Tomorrow, I will reach 500 lifetime running miles, which seems pretty amazing, considering I only started last July. And before the week is out, I will hit 300 running miles for 2022 already.



In woodland news, I accidentally separated a mama red squirrel from her fresh-out-of-the-nest baby. The mama was in the bottom of one of the downspouts, and I startled her so she ran away, but her baby was hiding in a rock wall next to the downspout and was left behind. The poor little thing was really wedged in there. I convinced it to come out so it’s mama could find it, and she eventually did. She even brought it back to the patio so I could see that they’d been reunited (ok, that’s probably not why they came to patio, but it made me feel better)

I know it looks pretty grey, but I promise it’s a baby red squirrel.



Mama and baby reunited!



I also had to rescue Duchess, who had gotten stuck in a yard waste bucket, so I gave her a cherry and she seemed pretty happy.




2022 workout data to date: 123h 23m 10s of exercise; 53,390 active calories burned; 65,150 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

4 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Holy speediness, Batman!! I absolutely didn’t think I was going this fast today, but when I saw 11:40 for the first mile, I decided to see if I could keep it up. And I could!! I wasn’t even doing 60/30 intervals, just my normal 30/30. I even stopped in mile 3 and caught a little dog that decided he should run through his new invisible fence and chase me. This is my new fastest overall pace, and 11:09 is my new fastest mile.





The weather is looking really nice for my race on Saturday, mid 40s to low 50s, clouds, and a not-unreasonable amount of wind. I’ve been waiting for the organizers to update the parking info, and they finally did today. It turns out, there’s not much parking, so I’m going to have to drive to the Mall of America and use the free transit pass offered with registration.

I’m excited to have time after this race to enjoy the post-race activities. There’s a brunch bar! And a free make-your-own mini pollinator pot! And then I’ll go to my great-aunt’s house to help with pre-garage sale organization, since that’s a lot closer to the MoA than my house, and it would be a stupid waste of gas to drive home and then drive all the way back again.

Chipmunks are going crazy today, I had a chipmunk in each hand, and two more racing around my feet.

Hopper was being a picky pig and chasing other chipmunks away, but then only eating certain nuts (almonds and hazelnuts, throwing other things on the ground)



While other chipmunks are happy to jump in my hand and eat what they’re offered.



Duchess was chased off by Hopper, so I gave her a little pile of nuts all her own right by her burrow.



2022 workout data to date: 124h 11m 29s of exercise; 53,833 active calories burned; 65,674 total calories burned

 

[HangWithMerida]

Wooooo! Fastest mile!

 

[Naomeri]

3 Days Until: Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

Just a dumbbell workout after work today, and then we went to Moulin Rouge—which was amazing and wonderful!! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get tomorrow’s run in—I have a haircut after work, and I’m going to do a grocery run afterward because my grandma is really busy. I don’t think I want to move it to Friday since I’ve got the race on Saturday, so it might just get skipped.

The weather is still looking good for the race on Saturday.



My chipmunks were a little less crazy today and more cooperative with the camera.

King came down from his treetop throne to perch on my hand



Fern decided to perch on my fingertips instead



Gus took his food and climbed a hollow tree stump



Ein also chose the hand-perch today



This little friend doesn’t have a name yet, but is happy with both the hand-perch and ground feeding. He’s got an interesting marking on the top of his head.





2022 workout data to date: 125h 15m 29s of exercise; 54,384 active calories burned; 66,293 total calories burned

 

[HangWithMerida]

I hope your weather forecast holds up. Those would be great conditions!

 

[Naomeri]

Women Run The Cities 10 Miler

I skipped posting the last 2 days because I didn’t really do much of interest and I was tired. But I had my race today, so now I have things to talk about!

First off, it was a little too chilly to be standing around this morning. But it could’ve been worse—there could’ve been precipitation!



Anyway, I got out of the house of time, and caught the light rail when I meant to, and had no problem with race day bib pick-up. Because it was cold, I just kind of wandered around the park until it was time to check my gear bag (I delayed doing this because I had a sweatshirt on that needed to go in it). The 10 mile and the 10K started all together, so it was crowded on the course until the 10K ladies split off about a mile and half in.

At the first water stop, there was someone handing out Mardi Gras beads and there was a themed backdrop. Why? I have no idea. Did I take beads and grab a selfie? Of course I did. It’s a crappy selfie because two other women ran back and got in the way and I decided to grab whatever shot I could get, rather than waiting for them to figure out what they were doing.



There’s not a lot that’s remarkable about this course, it’s basically just on tree-lined residential streets. I grabbed another terrible selfie with the 5 mile marker. It was hard to figure out where to stand, because the wind kept rotating the flag, and I wanted it facing the right way.


Around mile 7, my left foot was getting sore, and I might’ve walked through a run break or two. But I think also ran through a walk break or two because I couldn’t always hear my alerts due to wind or traffic on the 2 bridges we had to cross over the river (that was the only time we had to share the road with traffic).

I was getting pretty hungry, and I finally finished the race, got my bag and switched shoes, only to find that the “brunch bar” consisted of some breakfast burritos, and yogurt and granola—none of which is food I eat. Presumably there were more options earlier, but it was really disappointing that they didn’t plan enough for the slower 10 mile runners. Since there was no food for me, I didn’t bother hanging around and went straight for the train back to MoA. I walked through the mall and grabbed lunch at Johnny Rocket’s because it was in the closest food court (I thought a food court was better than a sit down restaurant in all my post-race glory )

I did get an official PR for a 10 miler, though I’m not 100% sure by how much, since my virtual 10 milers were 10 miles exactly (according to my watch) and the race course was obviously longer (according to my watch). But either way, this took less time than any other 10 miler I’ve ever run, and that’s a good thing.

Here’s my Apple Fitness break down of the race:





Here’s the official race breakdown:



And here’s the Strava breakdown:



Strava gave me some achievements!



All in all, not a bad race, but I don’t think I’d do it again. The course was a little boring, and the whole post-race food thing was really irritating. Also, I didn’t like having to take the train there, because it just adds extra time on both ends; time I could’ve used afterward to get food a whole lot sooner, and beforehand to sleep a bit more.


2022 workout data to date: 128h 22m 21s of exercise; 55,947 active calories burned; 68,143 total calories burned

 

[GollyGadget]

Congrats on the new pr!

 

[HangWithMerida]

Congrats on your new PR! Great racing!