Starting Completely Over- Training Log

Wow! What an interesting read. I liked reading the progression - meeting your time and weight goals. Where do you want to stop with the weight? That's a big achievement. Good luck for any upcoming races.

Thanks! I'm really not sure about the weight. I'm at the very top of a healthy BMI at 145. I would be pretty happy at this weight if my baby pooch would just go away. I was 136 before the Rona, and I was 118 before kids. Somewhere between those two numbers?

At the moment, I'm finding these new workouts too challenging. Will I get used to them even if I'm unable to complete them? Theoretically I should be able to get through them but I can't. Either it's weakness of the mind or maybe I'm still not at 100%. I felt dizzy and lightheaded today.

Is it worth doing them if say I have to take long breaks? I assume it'll still build fitness just not the exact fitness if I had done the workouts without breaks?

Week 49: 10/29-11/4

Sunday-First HM race. (1:55:42)

Monday-7.3 miles easy (9:59)

Tuesday-8.6 miles. AM-10xhills (avg 25s) PM-2 up, 4x800 (4:02, 3:57, 3:49, 3:58) 4x400 (1:38, 1:58, 2:00, 2:01), 1 down. This was so hard. I think I hate 800s. Also lifted after the hills.

Wednesday- 4 miles easy. (10:01) Still not feeling great. VERY SORE from lifting yesterday.

Thursday-2.8 miles. 2 up, then 3 mins hard, then I was so dizzy the ground was spinning. Went to go lift. Still dizzy.

Friday-1.2 miles. Tried the workout from yesterday on the treadmill. Still dizzy. Can't do it.

Saturday- 7 miles easy. (10:02) Still not feeling good at all. Was sweating even though it was 40 degrees and I was dressed lightly. Took like 10 minutes to catch my breath afterwards.

Total miles 47.3

Weight: 144.9

Run streak day 342. Monthly mileage: 17. Yearly mileage: 1557.8. Streak mileage: 1642.4. Mileage left on goal: 465.20 lol

Week 50: 11/5-11/11

Sunday-5.3 miles "easy" (9:55) Was going to run much farther but still weak and dizzy.

Monday-4.1 miles "easy" (10:07) Took electrolytes yesterday. Feel very slightly better. Muscles feel sore? I don't know what from bc I haven't done anything to make them feel that way.

Tuesday-1.1 miles. 10 x hills. Fastest I've been on the hills to date. Avg 23s. Still not feeling great but seems to be improving slightly with each day now. More electrolytes. Checked BP after being told dizziness when standing could be BP related. 136/91. First time in my life I've had a high reading. Retook after resting. 129/86. 1 hour gym.

Wednesday-2.4 miles "easy". Getting better but still not ideal. Ended up just taking drinking electrolytes all day.

Thursday-7.5 miles. Woke up feeling great again!!! 2 up 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 hard with equal jog recovery. Supposed to be 7:40-7:50 pace. 2 down. I managed to be "close" to that pace but couldn't really find it overall. (paces-6:51, 7:23, 7:45, 8:03, 8:04, 7:53, 7:11)

Friday-8.5 miles easy. (9:30) Omg I feel good again. Why does it feel so permanent when I'm not feeling well?

Saturday. 1.6 miles running. 13 miles biking. Volunteered as bike lead at the race. Run for the streak.

Total miles: 30.5 (surprised it was that much considering how I felt most of the week)

Weight: 144.9 to 142.8!! Finally moving again.

I have a 5k this coming Saturday. No real goals this week except to stay healthy and run whatever feels good.

Run streak day 349. Monthly mileage 47.5. Yearly mileage: 1672.9. Mileage left on goal: 434.7. The 2023 miles in 2023 goal is getting more and more out of reach by the day. I might make a push at the end of the year if I think it is still within reach. I would need to avg almost 9 miles a day...

I feel this desire to get off the 145 needle. I've never been 118 (5'9") but I HAVE been 136 and that weight was perfect 'racing' weight for me. Also, I'm fricking 60 years old and the scale doesn't have much draw for me these days. It's more about the waistband tightness. Anyway -- keep up the good work!!

Thanks. In my head 120-125 is probably the right number but at the end of the day it's less about the number and more about where I feel good. I hope to be healthy enough to still have the option to run at 60!

Week 51: 11/12-11/18

Sunday-9.9 miles (9:28) Easy run except the group I was with did 2 half mile pickups on the 2nd loop.

Monday-3.7 miles easy (9:30)

Tuesday-Friday- 1 mile streak keepers. I was really busy all week and almost didn't get these in each day.

Saturday- 4.4 miles. 1 up. 3.1 race, .3 down.

Total miles: 22

Run streak day 356. Monthly mileage: 69.5. Yearly mileage: 1610.3. Streak mileage: 1694.9. Mileage left on goal: 412.7.

I'm so close to a year! I decided to make my minimum distance 1.1 next year. Why? Because if I choose 2 miles then that is going to escalate quickly. I feel like adding a tenth of a mile will be negligible on days when I don't feel like running.

Saturday race report: TLDR-5k 24:35

Negatives: Didn't PR when I feel like I should have been able to. Got drug out way too fast. Got progressively slower throughout the race.

Positives: Best mile of the year (7:10). 2nd fastest 5k ever. Didn't quit halfway in even though every thought in my mind involved it being acceptable to walk off the course RIGHT THERE. Best time on this course.

About this race: I was really busy this week with other stuff and hopefully over time I'll have proper race tapers and not just use taper week as a chance to get caught up on all my personal life that I've been putting off. I drove 10 hours the day prior to get to the race, but also dropped 3k ft in elevation.

I came out WAY TOO FAST. Everyone sprinted out and I immediately realized I was going to be in dead last if I didn't sprint and stay with the back of the race. I might have still been okay if I settled in there but for someone unknown reason I just tried to hold that pace. I remember a split second thinking, "Well you chose this pace so..." Bad idea. At about the halfway mark I had serious regret. The course itself was much harder than the road race where I had my PR. Mixed terrain, elevation changes (pr race was flat flat), and lots of turns several of which were sharp enough to make you lose your momentum. And although there were lots of people in this race, I was so far behind them (and in the woods) that it felt like I was running alone for most of the race. Temp-66F with 94% humidity. Road race was 54F with low humidity. My shirt was so soaked after just the warmup that my daughter asked what happened.

Splits:

Mile 1: 7:10 (1:38, 1:47, 1:51, 1:52)

Mile 2: 8:09 (2:01, 2:02, 2:08, 1:56)

Mile 3: 8:34 (2:18, 2:13, 2:07, 1:55)

.1 (46)

Left heel/arch was hurting all day after the race. Overall I had a lot of fun and saw running friends I haven't seen in years. I missed their faces so much.

Goal is to break 15 in the 2 mile Turkey Trot on Thursday.

400-87s(1:28.3)
800-3:20 (3:19.2)
Mile-6:58 (7:10.0) mid-race
2 mile-**15:11** race
5k-**23:57** race
10k-**53:39** mid-race
Half-**1:55:42** race

Lists of PRs. New bests in parenthesis. Asterisks means my new time beat my old time.

Hobby Jogger Turkey Trot Race Report: TLDR 16:02

This was the highest entries they've ever had at our Turkey Trot (1300). I've been starting at the back of the race the last few months bc it helps me to pace myself at the beginning but being behind a thousand people who were walking and oblivious to runners was a mistake. Next year I will definitely move to the front at this race bc the constant stopping and surging made me exhausted. I had a very slight 1 mile best 7:09.3. I was trying to aim for 7:30 but my watch was all over the place with the stop and go and I'm still not very good at running paces by feel. 2 mile time was 15:35 so didn't hit my only goal. Weather was 40F and hardly any wind. Should have been perfect conditions for a PR.

My kids decided they didn't want to travel to the race next weekend so I'm just going to start back to regular running/mileage. We might go to a local Christmas 5k in a week but we will just bandit it IF we go. And then Dec 9th is the next club race.

Week 52: 11/19-11/25

Sunday-6.7 miles easy (9:16) A stranger was behind me for a long time and I guess it kind of turned into a progressive run towards the end.

Monday-3.7 mile easy (9:46)

Tuesday-3.3 miles. 2 up. 3xquarters. (1:44.2, 1:48.8, 1:43.4) It was too dang windy.

Wednesday-1 mile streak keeper

Thursday-5 miles. 1 up. 2 mile Turkey Trot(16:02). 2 miles easy in the PM (9:28 pace)

Friday-7.4 miles easy (10:05)

Saturday-1 mile streak keeper.

Total miles: 28.1

Run streak day 363. Monthly mileage 97.6. Yearly mileage: 1638.4. Streak mileage: 1723. Mileage left on goal: 384.6.

The night after the Turkey Trot my left heel hurt so much it throbbed all night and continuously woke me up. I've noticed anytime I switch shoes it will feel better but then it'll start hurting in those shoes as well. My new plan is to rotate shoes throughout the week and take note of any changes in discomfort.

1 year post.

From Nov 28th, 2022 to Nov 28th, 2023:

I ran a 2 mile loop around the golf course last year so I decided to repeat that to see my improvement.

2022: 2 miles- 25:51 (pace 12:54)

2023: First at an easy pace: 19:02. Took a break and then ran it harder: 16:13.

Weight: 195.2 to 142.8

Mileage: 1727.4

I feel pretty good about the last year's improvement even though I know it could have been better. I beat my all time bests in the 2 mile, 5k, 10k, and ran my first HM.

Wow. What a year!! Good for you.

Week 53: 11/26-12/2

Sunday: 5.1 miles easy (10:15) Gave up bc my hands were too cold.

Monday-1 mile streak keeper. (8:20)

Tuesday-10.2 miles. 2 easy @ 9:30. 2 hard @ 8:06. PM-10k (9:49)

Wednesday-2.8 miles (10:13)

Thursday-8.6 miles. AM-2 up then 10x 1 min hard/1 min easy. 2 down. ( was supposed to be 7:40-7:50 pace on the runs, actual 7:23, 7:38, 7:14, 7:49, 7:34, 7:36, 8:03, 7:27, 6:43) I really don't know how y'all find exact paces. This is so hard. PM-3.1 easy (9:24)

Friday-2.3 miles easy (10:08)

Saturday-6.2 miles easy (9:45)

Total miles: 36.6. Still not great but the most I've done in a month.

Run streak day #367. Monthly mileage: 8.5. Yearly mileage: 1675. Streak mileage: 1759.6. Miles left on goal: 348. (I would need to avg 12 miles per day LOL)

On November 28th I decided to do my own version of 75 hard. A workout every day including core and pushups, some reading, and getting to bed on time. While it hasn't been perfect so far (I'm so bad at consistency) I've gotten in the workouts and the reading. While I haven't gotten to bed by 10 pm even once, I have been getting to bed much earlier than the last couple of months and that's helping my overall well-being tremendously. I'm going to skip a couple of days before each race but that should have my 75 hard ending a couple of weeks before my next HM in February. And my streak keeper days will be 1.1 miles this year.

I respect the hell out of these posts--why? This is a realistic journey for most non-collegiate/HS runners trying to improve. Going sub-2 is still hard and not achievable by most in the 1/2. Sub-24 5k and sub-55 10k is still solid too. Slow but steady improvement, known as kaizen (as the Japanese like to say).

Good stuff. Looks like you have the basics of training down and are making good leaps.

What are your immediate and long term goals?

November recap:

Running: 125.7 miles. My lowest month in a long time. This was a hard month for several reasons. Traveled quite a bit, struggled with back to back colds, have had trouble getting in mileage since that HM at the end of October, and several races, so tapers. I did bring my mile time down to 7:09.3.

Weight: 145.1 to 142.8

December goals:

Running: More miles. Lots more miles. Win the Challenge Series? 2023 miles for 2023- HAHA! After Saturday's race and my 18 year old's college classes end, I am going to join every group run I can find and just get help getting in miles.

Club Challenge Series Standings: :(
1st: 96
2nd: 94 (me)

December is the least popular race all year. The last few years there were only a handful of people in each age group and SHE won her age group each time. If I beat her in the race then I'll only catch up by 1 point. (she will win in a tie) There are only a few unlikely scenarios where I can still win. She skips this race. She volunteers instead of racing. At least two 40-44 year old women show up and beat her but not me. All I can do at this point is run and let the cards fall where they may.

Weight: 139.9.

Starting Dec 10th I'm just going to focus on fitness until the kids' classes and other commitments resume. The puppies I fostered will be 8 weeks on Dec 14th. It sounds like the rescue has found them all homes. Thank goodness bc they have been way more work than I predicted.

Other: Lifting. Cross training. Reading. More sleep. Stretching. Remodel my bedroom this month.