Run2BFit

Good for you. It's good to get out and run some place different after running the same routes all the time, with our races being cancelled. From your past race summaries I believe this race has a pretty hilly course. Good luck and enjoy the change in scenery.

Pretty cool to be able just drive up to a trail head/spot and to backpack into a remote lake and fish.

I really miss the social interaction of my group runs, although my group has re-started group runs I am not comfortable participating yet. I have tried more focus on being mindful during my runs and focusing on the moment, enjoying the run, and being thankful that I am able to run. I am currently re-reading Mackenzie L. Harvey's book Mindful Running to better focus on my breathing, and environment during the run and not think about other things.

I have slowlyyyyyyyyyyyy started back running after recovering from my hip injury. I have been running 4 days a week for the last couple of weeks for 15 miles total each week, with my long now 5 miles. I running slow and easy to build up my strength averaging about 10 minute miles with my heart rate getting closer to my easy effort rate. The week of July 19th I was on vacation with my wife and 2 daughters, and we went to Grand Haven, MI to a place we have renting every summer for the last 15 years or so. This is one of my favorite places to go on vacation, as it has all the amenities of home, is in a quiet area, and best of all is across the street from beautiful Lake Michigan with beach access. Even though the Lake Michigan beach has literally disappeared in some areas do to rising lake levels and erosion, there are still areas to sit or layout without the crowds of a public beach. I love running there it has a quite road that goes to the Marina on the Grand River were I usually see some fellow runners and walkers. It also has some trails nearby to do some trail running. But the best part for me is after a run that leaves me hot and sweaty I can just go across the street, take my shirt, shoes and socks off and jump into the clear and refreshing water of Lake Michigan to cool off, ahhhh. I was also able to finish the Running with Sherman book by Christopher Mcdougall, which I really enjoyed with its many side stories and just how people of different values can work together for good. A good lesson for today.

Sounds like your training is going great, maybe eliminating the speed work was key to being able to run more days a week. Good luck at the St. George Marathon and a BQ.

My family has done a couple of escape rooms; one in Chicago, and one in Ferndale and enjoyed them. It is great that they both had way of getting you audio hints when you get stuck. I found that you really have to pay close attention to what the clues say when solving them.

My goal, and what I find some comfort in is to follow a consistent daily morning routine. When I get up in the morning I do a combination of stretching, mild strength, balance, and breathing exercises that takes me about 30 minutes, which I do mostly for injury prevention for plantar fasciitis and achilles tendinitis which I have had problems with multiple times . I guess that completing this routine daily adds something that is consistent in my life and that things will be alright today during these crazy times.

Thanks for mentioning the Running with Sherman book by Christopher McDougall. I have enjoyed reading two of his books; "Born to Run" and "Natural Born Hero's". I was able to reserve the Sherman book at my local library even though they are not admitting people, they are doing drive by pickups, which is pretty cool.

I hope you are feeling better. I had heard about Dr John's personal story of having heart problems resulting for excessive bicycling in a interview on the pod cast of the "The Natural Running Network". I was concerned enough that I ordered his book: " The Haywire Heart", but alas I have had a hard time finishing it as is hard read for me with all the technical detail that he goes into about how the heart is affected by excessive exercise and how the heart responds.

It's been almost 2 months since my last bloop where I was sidelined from running with my hip injury and had started bicycling. After bicycling for 2 weeks I tried to resume running and failed miserably with my hip soreness returning immediately when I started to run, back to bicycling. I continued bicycling for another 2 weeks averaging about 60 miles per week. I took a week off and finished a couple of planter boxes for my wife that I had been promising her for almost a year. I used left over decking materials from our deck we had built last year and it took me a month time wise with almost half of the time spend calculating how to use the left over decking to make the correct number and length of boards needed for the planter boxes. I had check and correct and re-check my numbers multiple times to finally feel confident enough to start cutting the left over decking materials. After the week off I tried run(5-7 min)/walking(3 min) my standard 3.4 running loop and was able to complete it successfully without a hip pain (Hooray!). I waited a few more days and completed another run/walk running loop, and then ran the whole 3.4 mile loop successfully without any hip pain although at what I thought was a very easy pace for me, though my heart rate was up at my previous tempo pace. rate I have continued running easy 3.4 mile loops 3-4 times a week, once feeling a little hip pain afterwards. I will continue to running slow (9:30 - 10 min pace) to build up my endurance. I really appreciate it to be able to be back running, I enjoy it so much more than bicycling.

I think it is good to change up your training schedule every once in awhile to keep fresh, and more miles I think is OK as long as your getting enough rest. This is probably more true as we get older.

Week of May 3 Total Miles: 3.4 This week I have decided to rest my hip and concentrate more on strength, stretching, and cross training. Mon: 13 minutes of yoga; hip flexor stretches. Although the stretches are challenging I am able to complete them with out any hip pain. Tue: 32.5 min of strength training Wed: 90 min of walking, some up and down stairs. My DW tripped and fell outside resulting in gash to her head. I will spare you the gory details but it required us to make a trip to the hospital emergency while she held a dish towel to her head to contain the bleeding. Once we reach hospital emergency room we find out (unsurprisingly) that now only patients are allowed in and the my DW will call me when she needs me. One thing with COVID-19 id sadly most people including the people that really need to go to emergency are avoid going to the hospital in fear of contracting the virus, so now and the emergency room is pretty much empty when we get there. So now while waiting and since it is a nice sunny day in the mid 60s I decide to walk around the Hospital including using a walking overpass that goes over the road in front of the Hospital. 90 minutes later I receive a call from DW, picked her up with some stitches and a sore head, but she is generally in good spirits. Since then she has been recuperating nicely, although a little black and blue. Thu: 13 minutes of yoga; hip flexor stretches. I can't seem to get myself to bike after I finishing working from home for the day, but do manage to do the hip flexor yoga stretches. At least I have checked out my bike and added air to the tires. Fri: 32.5 min of strength training. Sat: Upper 30s and partly sunny, 3.4 mi run/walk 35:22 10:28 min/mi, 109 avg HR. I was debating whether to bike or run, but with it being in the 30s I decide to do run/walk, running for 5 min followed by 1 min of walking. The first 5 minutes of running I am fine, but beginning with the next 5 minute running interval my hip starts feeling sore and I increase the time of my walking intervals to about 75 seconds. I finish my local running loop with my hip sore but I was still able to run without any sharp pain. Unfortunately my hip remained sore for the rest of the day. I probably should have applied ice to it. Thursday I received a book: Science of Running: Analyze Your Technique, Prevent Injury, Revolutionize Your Training by Chris Napier which was one of a new books for 2020 reviewed in an article at the Runners World web sit at: https://www.runnersworld.com/gear/a30282932/new-running-books-2020/ This book has many detailed anatomic illustrations, identifies atomically various running injuries, and exercises and stretches to prevent and correct those injuries. I also received my 2020 No. 3 Runners World magazine (now only published 6 times a year) which has an article devoted specifically to hip injuries. Between those two sources I was able to identify my hip injury as Gluteal Tendinopathy (pain felt in the side of the hip where the gluteal tendon attaches to the top of the femur). So I plenty of help for overcoming my injury status. Week of May 10th. Total Miles: 21 (bicyling) Celebrated Mother's Day and my son's birthday Sunday. For dinner I decided to order takeout dinner from Kruse & Muers one of my DW's favorite seafood restaurants near us that was still doing take out orders, but after 70 some calls and always getting a busy signal (go figure, it's mothers day) I decided to drive the mile to the restaurant and see if I could place an order at the restaurant. Sure enough I was able to park in the restaurant parking lot filled with others waiting for their orders, and from the inside of my car with my mask on flag down one of the restaurant employees to take my order. We had a nice mday and bday dinner and then afterwards picked up ice cream treats from Dairy Queen for desert. No running for the week, more yoga and strength training, and a Saturday 21 mile bike ride. It felt good during the ride to get some aerobic exercise and the weather was great being in the 60s. Saw many runners, walkers, and bikers, but it was mostly easy to navigate around people to maintain social distancing. My hip has started to fell better as part of my morning wake up ritual is to do some stretching exercises along with a exercise where I balance on one leg and and to do a small squat were I touch the heel of lifted leg in front me to the left, center, and right for a total of 24 times on each leg. I learned this exercise when I was going to physical therapy for PF, and it seemed to be a good one to help my balance, foot and ankle strength and flexibility. When my hip became sore I noticed performing this while standing on my leg with the sore hip that I would feel hip pain which got somewhat better as I completed the 24 reps. Now the pain is mostly gone, so hopefully I can resume running soon. Cheers.

Keep your streak going. Getting any regular exercise during these times is sure to pay dividends, mentally and physically.

Good for you. The hardest thing is to start training and do that first race after a long layoff.

Week of April 28 Total Miles: 26 This weeks weather was generally really nice, a lot warmer and sunnier, pretty much t-shirt and shorts weather for my runs. Decided to cut out any speed work for this week and just do easy pace runs, except for Wednesday. Mon: 63F and sunny; 60 min easy run; 6.56 miles, 9:09 min/mi, 124 avg HR. Tue: 66F and cloudy: 61 min easy run; 6.57 miles, 9:21 min/mi, 125 avg HR. Wed: 52F and cloudy; 60 min easy run; 6.56 miles, 8:51 min/mi, 124 avg HR. Good weather for running and generally felt really great and strong with my paces increasing each mile; 9:13/119, 9:02/118, 8:49/123, 8:46/128, 8:41/130, 8:34/129. I really enjoy it when my runs feel this good, unfortunately this did not carry into my Saturday run. My watch also died at 6.3 miles into the run. I consider this the first day of Spring where I live in southeastern Michigan. The last few years I have noticed that pretty much on one day everything changes from gray and blah to green and joy. Most of the tree buds open and turn into small green leaves filling the sky with green where I live. Fortunately we have lots of trees here. Maybe that is why this run felt so great. Thu: Rest, felt a little tired. Went for a walk after work with DW and on the way back saw a running friend riding bikes with his teenage daughter. They stopped and talked for a couple minutes. He had been recovering from a knee injury the last month, gradually increasing his mileage, but while running with another friend pushed it too much, re-injured his knee and is now bicycling. This may have been a warning for me an my hip. Fri: 32.5 min of strength training Sat: 48F and sunny: 6.3 mi run 9:04 min/mi, 123 avg HR. My intent was to run an easy 13.1 miles, or at least try and see how it goes. It was a good weather day, running in T-shirt and shorts with my hydration vest. I felt good during the early miles, but during mile six my hip began speaking to me again, but I was still able to maintain a easy pace until at 6.3 mi I experience a sharp pain in upper hip that said it was time to stop. Fortunately I had decide to break this run into two 6.5 mile loops and I was near home so I didn't have much of a walk and was able to walk home without a problem. The hip was pretty sore for most of the day and I iced it some, but I probably did too much outside work (mowing the grass, cutting off vines from my back fence, and taking down an old basketball backboard) with it being such I nice day. One of the first here where it has been in the 70s. I will now probably take a break from running, switching maybe to bicycling and doing the yoga for runners hip workout that ocrunnergirl recommend.