We’re still getting plenty of rain — it rained almost every day this week (except today) but boy with the arrival of Summer it sure warmed up in a hurry. Another good week of running, and even a short trail race thrown in today for fun. The first time in many years that I headed out to knowing no one, but I still managed to find someone I knew slightly and chat with a variety of people at this family friendly race — finally got to try out Dodge the Deer.
Joining Kim @ Kimrunsonthefly and Deborah @ Confessionsofamotherrunner and just sharing running, “training”, and staying active.
And linking up with Jenn @ Runswithpugs, Brandi @ Funnerrunner, Anna Louise @ Graciouswarriorprincess, Briana @ Matsmilesmedals, Meghan @ Meghanonthemove, and Elizabeth @ Trainwithbainfor RIOTS(running is our therapy)
Workouts update
- Monday: Back Yoga (30 min), 4 Miles Easy, PB Toning (20 min)
- Tuesday: Yoga (30 min), took mom to dr’s tests
- Wednesday: 3 miles easy with 7 x 20 sec strides, Yoga (40 min)
- Thursday: Dogwalk, Yoga (45 min), PB ST (10 min)
- Friday: 5 mile long-ish run
- Saturday: Dogwalk, Yoga (45 min)
- Sunday: Dodge the Deer 5k, Yoga (30 min), hopefully some ST, I need it . . .
Mileage: 15.1 (-3.1)
JY = Jasyoga
PB = Killer B
TM = Treadmill
YFR = Yoga for Runners*
WU = warmup
CD = cooldown
SB = Stationary Bike
YFPR = Yoga for Pain Relief
YTU = Yoga Tune Up Lower Body*
*Disclaimer: Amazon affiliate links; I will make a small amount of money if you buy through these links
Running Updates
Monday
Another beautiful Monday! What’s up with that? Don’t get too jealous, it poured on Sunday, and Tuesday is supposed to be rainy and I have a long day in the car. Tackled the long hill near my neighborhood again. Downhill going out, uphill coming back. There were multiple stops for crossing the road, traffic lights, and trying to get photos of the hill. All in all a nice strong run though.
Wednesday
Tuesday was predictably exhausting, so I’d already decided to give myself grace and not run if I didn’t feel like it. Except I did! And so, so happy that I did. I was trying to decide whether or not to do hill repeats, or 400s, but didn’t really feel like pushing hard.
I decided instead to do an easy run through my neighborhood, tackling multiple small hills, then end with strides. It was a really strong run for me and happy for the cloud cover that kept things relatively cool (and a nice little compliment I share below).
Friday
In an effort to miss the cool rain, I waited to long to get out there. The first 3 miles were still overcast and strong and consistent. The last 2 miles were consistent, too, actually — but a lot slower. The humidity had risen and the sun was trying to peak out. Happy that I had decided on just 5 because I was ready to be done. Shoulda gotten out earlier & gotten wet!
Sunday
I tried to convince friends to come to this trail race with me, but many were traveling or had prior plans. I’ll recap it in a while, but suffice it to say that it was a beautiful day to race (if a tad late start at 10 am on a warm day), and even though I went knowing no one, I still found people to chat with. Runners are the best!
Favorites of the week
So I’m doing my strides in front of my house, which is at the top of a small hill — it may be cheating but I enjoy it. A woman was walking by, and she was like “didn’t you just run by me?”.
So I said yes, and we got to chatting. Talking about running (which she doesn’t although she wants to, my guess is she’s quite a few years older than me), dogs, cats, etc. As we parted she told me how great I looked and that I didn’t look a day over 40 — I happen to be 57. I guess she couldn’t see the gray hair under the visor!
But wait, there’s more! Later when I was walking the dogs, I saw what I believe to be her house — I asked which house she came from. That’s the house that, many years ago, I’d been walking the dogs when someone drove away, then backed up . . . and asked me not to let my dogs go on his lawn in the future; although they actually hadn’t done anything.
Apparently they’d had a dog at one time, but he doesn’t want another one. She was so nice . . . he so wasn’t!
Do you go to races alone a lot, or do you always go in a group?
Would you do hill repeats and speed work if you weren’t seriously training for something?
Last compliment you got: and go __________?
Chocolaterunsjudy 
I almost always go solo, but recently Darlene introduced me to a local Skirt Ambassador and we’ve met up before/after the last three races. We ran two of them together but had different goals for the Mini.
Last compliment — also probably last time I spoke to anyone outside the sushi chef last night – “you did it!” from run group coach yesterday. Can you tell I love my solitary time?
Chair pose is my crack, tree too
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Chair pose is hard. Definitely not my crack! But oh so good for you.
That’s a great compliment from your coach.
Most of the time I’m going to races with someone.
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Would I do hill and speed work if I weren’t training for something? At this point in my life, no. I’m learning not to push myself quite so hard. I end up paying for it!
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For me I still do it because I know that the races I’ll be doing will have hills. If they were flat races, I wouldn’t be doing it!
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I think that doing hill repeats is good even if you aren’t training for a race. They will help build endurance, that’s for sure! I really need to do them more often to be honest.
That was such a nice compliment from that woman! Running makes you look younger 🙂
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I’m not sure she would have said that if she could have seen the gray hair, but hey, it made my day!
I do kind of like the challenge of hill repeats. Nothing super crazy if I’m not training, though.
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Well, I live on a hill and in a somewhat hilly area of town. I do a lot of hill repeats by default. Honestly, they are probably my preferred form of speed training 😉 Thanks for linking, Judy!!
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My neighborhood has some flat, but there are a lot of hills, too. It’s much harder to find flat around here than hills! I would never have thought of IA as hilly, though! Just goes to show ya.
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I’m sure you know my answers.
I race a lot and I don’t care if I go alone. I always make friends at a race. Though it is more fun with others.
I never ever do speed work or hill repeats even if I have a race. The race is my practice lol.
Glad you enjoyed the race. No FOMO at all. I like trails but I would wanted and award and a faster time. Though I looked and the times were pretty speedy so I guess it wasn’t too technical. Maybe next year.
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It wasn’t super technical, but there were still plenty of roots. Used to be in April, which is probably why I never did it before. I wouldn’t have gone if it were raining, either, so happy it was a nice day.
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It was a beautiful day.
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It definitely was — Sunday, too.
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Perhaps you have inspired your neighbor to start running! I never go to races alone I don’t know why. I am loving doing some yoga outside as well. It’s a nice change. Most recent compliment was just from you about my nice photos 🙂 Thanks for linking up
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Glad you enjoyed your compliment!
It’s always fun to go with friends. When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone, so I went to a lot of races on my own.
It was such a nice day though that it was great to be able to just chill out & enjoy the morning.
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I almost always go to races solo. It’s nice to find people to talk to one I get there though. I don’t do hill repeats unless I’m training for a race, but sometimes I get forced into treadmill versions at Orange Theory. We have a popular hill repeat hill in my neighborhood, so sometimes I see others doing them!
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We have a lot of runners in my neighborhood, but I don’t think I ever see anyone else doing repeats. Or maybe I’m just not out early enough.
The track team from the school close to me does come out & run in the neighborhood sometimes, and they actually do some repeats on the hill I live on — where I never do (I do it on some other hills that are steeper).
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Interesting about your neighbor and how she likes animals and her husband doesn’t! How sad for her! They bring such joy to us…
I definitely race plenty alone. I don’t mind it!
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The husband likes cats, apparently; they have a cat. But he doesn’t want another dog. I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t like them, or no longer enjoys the work — because let’s face it, dogs are more work than cats.
I enjoy going with friends, but I almost always chat someone up if I don’t know anyone.
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I usually go to races with someone. I can’t recall doing one solo. Good for you!!! No hills for me unless I’m training. And the last compliment I got, was my upper management believing in me.
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Upper management believing in you is awesome (rarely happens!).
It’s hard to find hills in FL (other than the bridges, you know I’d be running those bridges . . . last time I was in FL I did).
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It sure is rare, and so welcomed!!! I did a 5k on the bridge once. So fun!!
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That’s a very nice compliment! I go to races by myself quite a bit, but with friends a lot too. Either way works for me. I do speedwork when I’m not training for anything (like now) because I truly love it. Hills, not so much. Plus I’m hard pressed to even find a hill around here.
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It’s not hard to find hills here. I can’t say as I love hill repeats, but in some ways I think they’re easier than speed work.
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The trail in your neighborhood looks so pretty. Too bad it was humid. The trail race sounds exciting. can’t wait to read your recap. I almost never go to races by myself anymore since Hubby began racing, but I used to go by myself all the time. It’s an emotional cushion to go with someone you know.
Last compliment I got from a former student at a race I did on Saturday. I passed her at mile 1.5 of a 5K. She told me she tried to catch up to me for the rest of the race, but couldn’t. She said, “You’re amazing.” How nice!!! Thanks for giving me the chance to share, Judy! 🙂
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I think your student is right — you are definitely speedy. That’s a nice compliment, for sure!
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I go to races alone generally, but usually see at least one person I know. Dodge the Deer…hopefully no deer dodging was actually necessary!
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Oddly enough, one person posted that she did literally have to dodge a deer on here way to Dodge the Deer! I did not. Definitely don’t want to hit one.
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Here, in middle Italy, the heat rules, please send us a bit of rain!
Lately, I go to races alone because my “old friends” don’t race anymore and my running group is in Rome (70 km far from here) and they usually run in the Capital while I prefer the towns around my city.
Now I am too old for speed works and hill repeats: only some short tempo runs and a “light” fartlek on ondulate paths.
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10am is definitely a late start for a Summer race! And that sounds like a nice conversation with that lady in your neighborhood 🙂 I don’t really do speed work if I’m not training for something but I live in a hilly area so I always have hills by default.
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Nice compliment! I do speed or hills sometimes when I’m not training just for fun. I feel like I want to be training ready so prefer than than just running around the park for the 10th time. Great going on doing the race solo; I rarely do any race solo because it kind of goes like this in our house “Hey did you see xyz has a 10K and a Half, feel like running Sunday?” and then I say “OK”. hahaha! I did do RnR Chicago alone and that was the part I didn’t like about race weekend. I find it tough to just start chatting (for a long time now – has a lot to do with the culture here) with people but am very ok if people chat with me! I even wanted to go to a meet up but I didn’t know anyone and felt really dumb walking into the venue so I walked out…
Last compliment was my friend Rachel who said she was inspired by my long term commitment to running and that it helped her go out and train even when she didn’t want to. That made me smile 🙂
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Judy,
I ran Dodge the Deer too. And I just started blogging. Maybe we need to find each other! In real life! LOL!
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You have to share your blog with us!
I looked at the results, and there was only one Melanie, so I’m guessing that’s you. If it is, looks like we’re the same age (and a similar pace).
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Ever since I started having hamstring issues a few years ago, I now avoid hills and limit my speedwork for the most part! I’ve added in some speedwork for my marathon training, but the hills aren’t my friends 😦 Hopefully one of these days I’ll get back to the hills!
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I hope that you can get that hamstring to cooperate with hills someday! It’s so frustrating when our body doesn’t do what we want it to do.
As a beginning runner I really struggled with my IT, almost to the point of having to stop running (but thankfully I’ve learned a few things since then), and hills were definitely not my friend then either.
I’m not sure they’re really my friend now, but at least so far, knock on wood, they no longer cause pain.
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Do you go to races alone a lot, or do you always go in a group? Alone
Would you do hill repeats and speed work if you weren’t seriously training for something? No.
I do not remember the last compliment I got. Guess I don’t get many! 🙂
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Awww, you need some compliments then! You’re running — and doing it on your own — that’s not easy & it’s pretty darn awesome. There ya go.
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I got a big yay from my running companion after I’d managed to not-walk down quite a steep hill on GRASS! That’s my latest compliment, I think. I like a downward facing dog to stretch out my shoulders and the backs of my legs.
I go to races on my own OR in a group OR in a pair … but I usually run them on my own and make friends along the way.
And yes, I’d do stuff when I wasn’t training for a race – I follow advice I had years ago to make at least one in five runs something with effort in it!
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Ooo, nice compliment! Grass is definitely slippery.
I think that’s great advice that you got. Most runners don’t seem to understand that doing the same thing every.single.time just won’t promote growth (and not to mention it’s boring!).
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So did you tell that woman what her husband told you years ago? 🙂 That was a very nice compliment she told/give you.
I travel alone to almost all of my races but end up seeing other people that I know, many times unexpectedly like that time I saw Wendy and Marcia in a race with 30,000 people.
No I wouldn’t be doing hill repeats nor speed work if I weren’t training for anything.
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I didn’t know that it was that house until after our chat, but no, I wouldn’t have brought that up.
When I did Montreal RnR I had a friend going, but she grew up there & was staying with family outside the city.
We still ran into each other — totally unplanned — at the start (with about 20,000 people).
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