Pandemic Running Thoughts (Comments Welcome)

[mankle30]

Another update - The plan is to run a short run (maybe 2 miles) tomorrow. I'm hitting the elliptical today although I've had days when I go on the elliptical and just feel like my legs have no energy. I find it much harder to push through when on a machine than outside. Now that the weather is (finally) turning into spring, I'm going to try to get back running.

The foot is definitely feeling better but there's still some soreness in the foot from my 1.2 mile walk yesterday. That said, I won't run the 10k in early May but will try to build back up again towards a half marathon in the late summer/early fall.

 

[mankle30]

And I've scratched the return to running thanks to the soreness returning in my foot. Blerg.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Hoping things work out for you!

 

[Princess KP]

Did you go see a doctor yet?

 

[mankle30]

Hoping things work out for you!

Thanks!

Did you go see a doctor yet?

No. The last time my foot was injured (other foot), I went to my doctor and after a number of tests, the results were . . . nothing that they could do anything about. I think I had several chronic issues like plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, bursitis and, I think, one more ailment, but really, aside from getting orthotics (which I did), there was nothing medical that could have been done.

So here's my update: This issue has been less chronic and less debilitating than what I was dealing with before and has completely gone away. My plan is to return to running on Monday, starting with a mile on Monday, two miles on Wednesday and two miles on Thursday (I'm going to be spending all day in the car driving to New Hampshire on Friday).

I've been testing the foot out little by little over the past week or two. On Tuesday, I was forced into running to catch my bus (for about a minute with at least 20 pounds of gear) and felt nothing. My foot was fine the next day.

On Wednesday, I did 40 minutes on the elliptical, some weights for legs and upper body and then umpired two softball games (about 4 hours on my feet with no rest). My foot was fine the next day.

On Thursday, I walked maybe 3 miles total and got proto-blisters (likely from my socks) but the injured area was fine.

On Friday, I was still feeling the effects of the blisters as well as the residual soreness from the first day back at umpiring (imagine the toll on your legs if you do about 150 half squats, hold for a second or two and then get back up), so I took the day off.

Today (Saturday) I plan to do 40-45 minutes on the elliptical at the gym and more weights. If I have the time tomorrow (Sunday), I plan to try to get some swimming in before doing my first run on Monday.

So, to sum up -- the pain I was experiencing over the last month is gone completely. I've just been delaying the return to running to be sure that I won't re-aggravate the injury by doing so. After having cleared the hurdles of this past week without any pain returning, I believe that I should be fine going forward.

 

[mankle30]

So the injury bug has subsided and I've run a few times over the past week. No more than 2 miles mainly because the legs are not happy these days. Today's a day of rest (after umpiring a couple of softball games last night in addition to the 2.26 miles I ran earlier in the day), but I have to walk a little ways to pick up my mom's car.

But the big news is that the wife and I have booked our Disney vacation for Marathon Weekend! We've booked four nights at the Pop Century Resort (a year and a half of saving and we still can't afford anything more upscale) and we're also going to stay four nights out of the world. Three of those are HEAVILY discounted because my wife had three free nights from Hotels.com (at varying price-points) that were expiring on January 9 (which is the first night that we'll be in the world). Then we'll stay Sunday night at another hotel off site and start heading for home on Monday.

We still haven't bought tickets, mainly because we're waiting to see if they come up with another discount for Canadian residents. The past few years, they've had 25% off of four-day-or-more tickets for Canadian residents but they haven't extended that deal into 2019 yet (in fact, they haven't released 2019 tickets yet). If they don't announce the deal in the next couple of months, we'll just buy the 2018 tickets at the current prices (which can be used until the end of 2019).

So we're excited! And hopefully the registration will open in a few days for the races!

 

[sylkai]

So the injury bug has subsided and I've run a few times over the past week. No more than 2 miles mainly because the legs are not happy these days. Today's a day of rest (after umpiring a couple of softball games last night in addition to the 2.26 miles I ran earlier in the day), but I have to walk a little ways to pick up my mom's car.

But the big news is that the wife and I have booked our Disney vacation for Marathon Weekend! We've booked four nights at the Pop Century Resort (a year and a half of saving and we still can't afford anything more upscale) and we're also going to stay four nights out of the world. Three of those are HEAVILY discounted because my wife had three free nights from Hotels.com (at varying price-points) that were expiring on January 9 (which is the first night that we'll be in the world). Then we'll stay Sunday night at another hotel off site and start heading for home on Monday.

We still haven't bought tickets, mainly because we're waiting to see if they come up with another discount for Canadian residents. The past few years, they've had 25% off of four-day-or-more tickets for Canadian residents but they haven't extended that deal into 2019 yet (in fact, they haven't released 2019 tickets yet). If they don't announce the deal in the next couple of months, we'll just buy the 2018 tickets at the current prices (which can be used until the end of 2019).

So we're excited! And hopefully the registration will open in a few days for the races!

The wait for registration is killing me! But hooray for getting out to run again!

 

[mankle30]

The wait for registration is killing me! But hooray for getting out to run again!

Thanks! It's way easier now that the weather is actually good! Early April was killing me (before the injury) and we had a full-out snow/ice storm on April 15! But things are back to a normal late-May weather (starting to get warm and humid) and it's easier to get out of the house to run when you don't have to weather three layers and spend every waking second before the run bracing yourself for the discomfort!

Here's a little addendum to the booking news: We were getting a little Disney mad the other day and rewatched the live-action Beauty and the Beast on Netflix. My 2 cents: Better than the original. The original had way more cartoony aspects, particularly with LeFou, and I really liked the gravitas and kind of goofiness that Dan Stevens lent to Beast.

 

[sylkai]

Thanks! It's way easier now that the weather is actually good! Early April was killing me (before the injury) and we had a full-out snow/ice storm on April 15! But things are back to a normal late-May weather (starting to get warm and humid) and it's easier to get out of the house to run when you don't have to weather three layers and spend every waking second before the run bracing yourself for the discomfort!

Here's a little addendum to the booking news: We were getting a little Disney mad the other day and rewatched the live-action Beauty and the Beast on Netflix. My 2 cents: Better than the original. The original had way more cartoony aspects, particularly with LeFou, and I really liked the gravitas and kind of goofiness that Dan Stevens lent to Beast.

I am lucky(?) enough to live somewhere where the worst to run in weather-wise is cold rain in the "winter" and heat (but very little humidity) in the summer. So weather is never an excuse to skip a run, with the one exception of the single thunderclap that cut a morning run short back in April. (I was willing to run through the hail, but I draw the line at lightning. Which promptly didn't happen again, but...)

I'm not ready for the heat to ramp up, but it's supposed to be in the 80s for Monday's long run so my next attempt at a hydration pack is on its way to the door tomorrow. Maybe this one won't chafe.

I haven't seen the live-action Beauty and the Beast yet. I should fix that. And rewatch Cinderella. And Tangled. I am on a Disney kick right now, with all the planning that I've been doing for Dopey. (My whole family is coming and I am playing travel agent, whee.)

 

[mankle30]

I am lucky(?) enough to live somewhere where the worst to run in weather-wise is cold rain in the "winter" and heat (but very little humidity) in the summer. So weather is never an excuse to skip a run, with the one exception of the single thunderclap that cut a morning run short back in April. (I was willing to run through the hail, but I draw the line at lightning. Which promptly didn't happen again, but...)

I'm not ready for the heat to ramp up, but it's supposed to be in the 80s for Monday's long run so my next attempt at a hydration pack is on its way to the door tomorrow. Maybe this one won't chafe.

I haven't seen the live-action Beauty and the Beast yet. I should fix that. And rewatch Cinderella. And Tangled. I am on a Disney kick right now, with all the planning that I've been doing for Dopey. (My whole family is coming and I am playing travel agent, whee.)

Lucky to live somewhere the weather doesn't get really bad!

The heat was really bad yesterday in Toronto. I did 2.5 miles and thought I'd do a little more, just to get from the top of the hill that my route ends with to the parking lot of my gym. Then I looked at my heart rate monitor and noticed my heart rate was up to 161 (when I'm generally trying to keep it at or below 135 for these runs). Oops. So that was it for my run. But that's fine. 2.5 miles was what I had planned for anyway. It's supposed to cool off a bit for Sunday which is my next scheduled run for which i'll do 3 miles.

It's funny you mentioned Tangled. My wife tutors some kids, and the 8 year old girl was drawing a picture of a chameleon like the one from Tangled, so my wife had the urge to watch that too!

 

[mankle30]

Yay! Back up to 3.1 miles! And I didn't feel bad afterwards at all. I took it easy and still finished under 13:00 min/mile with an average HR of 124 (although I did push the last 0.15 mile a bit).

Looking forward to getting back up to the double-digit weekly mileage this week!

 

[mankle30]

It would seem that my title is going to be a bit obsolete soon. Due to my financial situation, I'm looking at downgrading my races for 2019 Marathon weekend. I'm still going. My wife and I have already booked our hotels for most of our trip but I'm finding it harder and harder to justify $585 for Dopey. Since my wife will run the 5k, I'll join her for that and just add the marathon, focusing on being fresh for the marathon to run a recent personal best and beat my 2017 race time by a significant amount.

The pros:

I'll save over $300 US (more like $385 CDN)
SLEEP in on the days of the 10k and half marathon
We'll be able to make it to rope drop on the day of the 10k and get a full day at the park without killing me for the marathon

The cons:

Less bling
I'll have to wait to really test myself with Dopey for another time

So i think, when the registration opens, it'll "just" be 5k and the marathon.

Otherwise, running is going well despite hotter and humid weather. This week I'll run four times for the first time since the injury and I'm on pace for about 11 miles this week. I'm running pain free and though I still need to drop some weight (ok, a lot of weight), I'm finally feeling like I'm able to get in the groove.

 

[mankle30]

It's been a while since I've updated! Still running. But some travel and extreme heat/humidity (plus sloth) have put a dent in my regularity.

Also, I've chosen a goal race that will give me a PoT for the Disney Marathon! It'll be the Oakville HM, just west of Toronto, on September 30.

Since my last update was May 31, here's how June has shaped up:

June 2 - 2.01 miles, 13:20 min/mile
June 5 - 3.15 miles - 13:45 min/mile
June 7 - 3.33 miles - 12:52/mile
June 10 - 4.51 miles - 13:19/mile - Ran in Regina, Saskatchewan! Very pretty city (and capital of Saskatchewan)
June 12 - 3.13 miles - 12:49/mile - Regina, pt 2!
June 16 - 1.83 miles - 13:09/mile - This was not a good run. I hadn't run since the 12th because my schedule had been a little rough with travel in the evening of the 12th to Winnipeg, then a completely booked solid Wednesday (13th). I had a busy day on the 14th, flying back to Toronto and I rested on the 15th. On the 16th, I attempted a 3-mile run and the legs just had nothing in them and I stopped after 1.83 miles.
June 19 - 3.20 miles - 12:54/mile - I skipped Sunday and Monday because the heat was over 30+ degrees celsius with humidex approaching (and exceeding 40 degrees celsius -- over 100 fahrenheit). i really didn't feel like running. I was being lazy and said to myself that I'd feel better about myself if I ran. So I ran. Proud of the fact that I got out and ran even when I wasn't into it.
June 21 (today) - 3.19 miles - 13:10/mile. Today felt ok, but not the best. I umpired last night and the legs were not the happiest. I set out telling myself that I'd slog 3 miles out. And slog, I did.

So that's my month so far. About 23 miles or so for the month so far, but now that I'm back for the next little while, I'm going to try to be more diligent and add a fourth day per week.

So, we're building up to a half-marathon on September 30. Woo.

 

[Princess KP]

I'm registered for the Oakville HM as well!

 

[mankle30]

I'm registered for the Oakville HM as well!

Awesome! I haven't registered yet. After missing the Montreal Rock n' Roll Marathon last year and failing to get any refund (despite the fact that they promised a refund because the race was cancelled due to heat/humidity), I'm a little gun shy on registering early but things are going well in the recovery from the latest annoyance/injury, so here's hoping!

 

[Princess KP]

That's terrible! They should at least offer a credit or something.
Glad to hear you are on the mend! There's also another HM early September in Toronto organized by MEC. A no frills race but you can't beat the price at $20 - banana included!

 

[mankle30]

That's terrible! They should at least offer a credit or something.
Glad to hear you are on the mend! There's also another HM early September in Toronto organized by MEC. A no frills race but you can't beat the price at $20 - banana included!

Well, they offered a refund in their initial correspondence but whenever I sent emails to them, no one ever got back to me on multiple occasions. So, never a Rock n' Roll Marathon.

I know the MEC series but the whole "no frills" means "no medal" which makes me sad.

 

[mankle30]

Happy Canada Day, everybody!

Because of heat and not being a morning person, I'm postponing my 6 mile run until tonight after it's cooled down a tiny bit. 3 miles at 6pm on Friday wasn't so bad but 6 miles (taking about 1h 20m) will be tough.

 

[mankle30]

Update since June 21:

June 23 - 2.01 miles, 13:20 min/mile. This was the scheduled run that was supposed to be before Sunday but Sunday's run happened on Monday.
June 25 - 5.01 miles, 13:24 min/mile. This wasn't a bad run. I had a long day of stuff going on on Sunday and had to move the run to Monday.
June 27 - 3.11 miles, 12:42 min/mile. I finished this run strongly at a faster pace (for the last .33 miles or so) and it felt pretty good. Things are finally starting to come back and I think this upcoming week (after July 2), I'll be able to incorporate some faster running for 1-mile stretches.
June 29 - 3.18 miles, 13:24 min/mile. Let the heat wave begin. I ran this one after about 6pm and the heat was a lot to deal with but, with a lot of water and a slower pace than I would have done normally, it was actually pretty tolerable.
July 1 - Happy Canada Day! 6.01 miles, 13:20 min/mile. I was pretty impressed with this one. With 85 degree (fahrenheit) heat and a lot of humidity, I was ready to cut this short if I had to but, again, it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. In fact, my paces per mile didn't fade as I ran 13:32, 12:55 (then I pulled back), 13:27, 13:23, 13:18, 13:23 for each mile split. When the last four are within 10 seconds of each other, I think we're good.

This week, I'll go for four runs (including July 1).

July 1 - 6 miles
July 3 - 4 miles
July 5 - 4 miles
July 7 - 2 miles

Total - going for 16 miles this week.

 

[Princess KP]

Awesome!
I think it's forecast to "cool down" towards the end of the week!