Monday, November 27, 2023

Thanksgiving Week - one year Run Streak anniversary!

Monday
Did: 3.3 mi ruck @ 15:21/mi avg + 1.5 mi @ 8:38/mi run
Got out at lunch for a ruck on the 5k course followed by a run loop of the Wellness Trail. Started out cool and cloudy but the sun came out and it was quite nice!

Tuesday
Did: 6.8 mi @ 8:50/mi 
Early morning cold rain run! Was not feeling a track workout today so opted for an out-and-back run to TR on the trail instead. A few instances of rain blowing into my face but otherwise it really wasn't too bad of a run.

Wednesday
Did: 2.62 mi @ 9:06/mi + 1.5 mi pup walk
Got out in the middle of a WFH day for a quick run, then did an after-dinner pup walk around the neighborhood.

Thursday
Did: 2.2 mi warm-up + 5.0 mi @ 7:18/mi Turkey Day 8k race
Got downtown and got my bib from my parents who had picked it up the day before. Headed out for a short warm-up before the race, ran down to the zoo and back up the Washington Street hill with about 10 mins to spare before race time. Didn't have any goals or expectations for the race but I figured I'd finish in about 37 minutes. Weather was absolutely perfect - clear, sunny, chilly. 
Ran into a couple of neighbors at the start

Sunshine and start lines!

Not much to say with the race play-by-play... just ran a solid, consistent effort, didn't push super had but gave it a respectable amount of input. Ended up with 36:26 chip time, good enough for 4th age group (sadly only 7 seconds behind 3rd... if only I had known!).




Friday - 365th Day of consecutive running! πŸŽ‰
Did: 4.16 mi @ 9:17/mi
Went to Conestee Nature Preserve in the late afternoon and did a solo loop to complete 365 days of consecutive running at least 1 mile every day! Pretty excited to reach this milestone. 




Caught up with the fam as they were finishing a short walk

I still need to do a social media post on this but I just hadn't had the time to sit and think of the right words. 

Saturday
Did: 8.05 mi @ 9:26/mi
Got out early to run before a busy day with the family. Ran from the house over to the trail, headed north into TR, looped back on some non-trail roads, then back home. Got to the neighborhood with about 7.3 miles done and decided I wanted 8, so I looped around til I finished it. Happy for some good morning miles!

Sunday
Did: 5.13 mi pup ruck hike + 1.56 mi run @ 9:06/mi
Spent the morning busy with lots of domestic chores at the house, so by afternoon I was ready to get out with the fam for some outdoor time. Unfortunately, the grey weather made everyone else want to stay in... so I took the pup and headed up to the Chimneytop Gap Access on the Foothills Trail and we rucked (20# plate + water) up to the top of Sassafras Mountain. 
Happy to be in the woods πŸ’š


"Why you stop to take so many pics?? Let's goooo!"


Little Miss Adventure Pup did amazing - practically pulled me up the mountain, and we kept a pace of under 25 min/mi (faster than we do a neighborhood walk sometimes!). I was huffing and puffing on the steeper parts of the climb, especially the steps. We got to the top in just under an hour right as some thick clouds/fog rolled in. 


We took obligatory state line photos at the observation tower, gazed out at the 360-degree views of the cloud we were inside, then started our descent. I'd been a little worried about running out of daylight, but we started descending right about 4pm so I knew we had sufficient time remaining. That made me breathe a bit easier. 





We made great time on the way back down, and it even started raining (turns out that cloud was a rain cloud). Thankfully the thick tree cover made it so we didn't get too wet. We only saw 1 other couple of hikers who were making their way up as we went down. Other than that we had the whole trail to ourselves!



Finished just shy of 2 hours total moving time and made our way home!
Ran a quick loop around the neighborhood when we got back.

Monday, November 20, 2023

(Mostly) Solo Week #2

Scott gets home Thursday afternoon... so just a partial solo week this week!

Monday
Did: 1.6 mi @ 8:51/mi avg + 3.3 mi ruck (~25#) @ 15:54/mi
Had to be in the office today, so did a quick perimeter loop run on the XC trails then rucked the 5k course. 

Tuesday
Did: 7.18 mi @ 9:35/mi avg
Ran again with the Rockers Run Club after work! First half was on the rail trail before meeting up with the group for a run in the dark through the Converse Heights neighborhood. Took the first 5k a bit faster and then ran a chill pace with the group for the second part. Great time as always!


Wednesday
Did: 1.54 mi @ 9:14/mi run + 1.6 mi pup ruck
Quick little out and back between errand running early this morning. 
In the afternoon, got out for a little ruck with the pupper before getting kid from school. 

She loves bounding through the tall grasses.

Thursday
Did: 5.06 mi @ 7:55/mi 
Hilariously, definitely declared before this run that I was "definitely not going to run sub-8s today". Welp. Can't help that the temps felt nice and legs wanted to move!

Friday
Did: 1.1 mi @ 8:32/mi run + 15.9 mi bike ride
Got in a quick mile at the end of the day before heading out for an evening bike event in TR: the Upstate Cranksgiving Alley Cat ride! This kind of ride is a bit like a scavenger hunt... you have checkpoints and silly tasks to do at each checkpoint, and with this ride you get a playing card at each of the 5 stops - best poker hand wins. 
We signed up as a family and I rode up from the house to meet D & S at the start. It was dark and sprinkling rain when we all rode out from Sunrift, and continued to get rained on through most of the ride. First checkpoint was up at the Sonoco on the north end of the Swamp Rabbit Trail. We had to do a dizzy bat run to get our card at that stop. Checkpoint 2 was at the Furman belltower, so quite a bit of a ride from the first stop. There we had to roll dice until we got 3 of a kind. We were heading to Checkpoint 3 at the Community Tap TR, but got a helpful hint that Checkpoint 4 was also on the Furman campus, not far from the belltower, so we opted to shorten the overall ride by getting there first. Checkpoint 4 involved tossing a ping pong ball into a solo cup, and once we got that done, we headed back up to downtown TR. The task at the Tap TR checkpoint was to play blackjack hands until you beat the dealer...only took me 2 tries to get 21! After that, it was on to the finish line at Chicora Alley. Right about the time we got to Chicora, the rain started to absolutely dump on us so we huddled under the tent they had up and waited out the rain before going to get food and hang out at Chicora. Fun time overall, and really proud of D who won 2nd in his age group and happily rode in the rain without a single complaint!




Saturday
Did: 2.3 mi @ 9:12/mi + Zoom through the Zoo 5k
Was at the zoo for the Zoom through the Zoo 5k - the final Corporate Shield race of the 2023 season! Got in a short warmup on the trail with some friends before the race started. I didn't have any specific goals for this race and knew I hadn't been doing speedwork recently, so didn't have high expectations either. The only plan was to run hard and see what would happen! I felt pretty good while running, the temps were amazing (low 50s) but I just did not have that little extra boost that I can usually find during a race. I run enough of these races that I know other people and where I usually fall compared to their paces, and I was slower than usual today. Guess that track work really does pay off when I'm consistent about it! Still was happy with the end result even if it wasn't a PR. Was sort of hoping for sub-22 but sub 23 seems alright, too. ;)

Good enough for 1st Age Group though! :)

Sunday
Did: 2.9 mi pup walk + 2.66 mi run @ 8:51/mi + 60 min yoga
Such a nice day outside! Took a nice long walk with the pup and meant to grab the ruck too but walked out without it... oh well. 
Headed down to the Commons and ran a loop around Unity Park/on the Swamp Rabbit Trail before afternoon Vinyasa class at Soul Yoga. Such a lovely afternoon!

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Solo Week #1

Going off-plan for a bit to regroup for the new ruck plan and other things I want to accomplish. Still going to be doing ruck workouts, running every day, keeping the #10kTuesday streak, and trying to enjoy the beautiful fall weather! Also going to have almost 2 weeks of solo parenting while Scott travels for work, so the workout schedule will be a bit skewed from normal!

Monday
Did: 2 mi run @ 8:18/mi + GORUCK BFF Test
Got in a couple of quick miles after dropping off D at school in the morning. 

Around midday I completed the GORUCK BFF Test. This test will be part of the event in February, and our team decided we'd all complete the test sometime this week then not do it again before the event to see how much we can improve. I always love a challenge, so I went for it! 


The mile carrying 60lbs was tough, but I didn't have to stop and take a break. I shuffled around the neighborhood as best I could, and man my back and glutes were feeling it by the end!
Sandbag burpees were a new kind of beast. The demo video has this guy just casually tossing the sandbag overhead, whereas I had to clean & press the thing just to get it over. Gonna have to add these to a regular workout regimen because WOW that got my heartrate up.
200m suitcase carry was a hard test of grip strength. I think carrying something with a more rigid handle would be better (like a kettlebell) but I did it with the sandbag as instructed. Whew.
2 mins of pushups felt amazing just to not have to have any extra weight on me! I was on a pretty strong cadence for the first minute, but slowed way down on the second minute. Was hoping I could get 60 done but was a few shy. 

Tuesday
Did: 6.32 mi @ 8:35/mi moving avg
Ran with the Rockers Run Club after work - first dark run of the season! Started off with a 5k right at sunset, then ran the second part of #10kTuesday with the run club group. Thought about running longer, but decided getting to the beer & pizza sooner was the better option. Always a fun time!

Wednesday
Did: 2.2 mi run @ 8:53/mi + 2.5 mi pup ruck
Couple of morning miles in TR after drop-off at school. 
Midday ruck @ ~25lbs with the pup - did lots of leaf peeping in the nearby horse park trails. Beautiful if not unseasonably warm day!






Thursday
Did: 3.84 mi @ 9:14/mi avg run
Ran a loop on the cross country trails at work, no particular goals just getting outside. Felt quite drained for not very fast pace. My Garmin has been telling me my training status is "strained" for about a week now, so maybe it's right... some accumulated fatigue is getting to me. 

Friday
Did: 30 min strength + 1 mi @ 9:20/mi
Got to the gym at work today for the first time in a long while to do something other than ruck strength training. Felt good to lift! Then took a loop outside to get in one easy mile. 

Saturday
Did: 60 min hot power Vinyasa + 3.13 mi @ 8:59/mi
Took D with me to Soul Yoga, he did the kid's class while I did a Power Vinyasa class. Whew it was tough but felt good to sweat and work hard. Nice compared to the cold rain outside, too!

When it stopped raining in the afternoon I took a little run around the neighborhood. 

Sunday
Did: 8.11 mi @ 9:19/mi avg
Got in a nice long run in the morning before church, taking an old route that was mostly through the Green Valley race loop. I created it in early pandemic days when I was trying to run long and avoid the Swamp Rabbit Trail as much as possible. It was fun to revisit the loop! 



Monday, November 6, 2023

New ruck plan!

After eyeballing the target event of GORUCK Tough in Charleston on Dec. 2-3, our group noticed there was not much activity on the event page. When John reached out to the organizers to try to get an idea of more exact location so we could book hotels, the response was they were "still working on permits and didn't have those details nailed down yet". Umm... it's 1 month away. Yikes. 

So after a brief team huddle, we decided to scrap plans for Charleston and instead sign up for a multi-event series in February in Savannah. Similar level of difficulty overall (ish) but it's a combo of 4 events instead of 1 long one which means FOUR PATCHES and also, it's not an overnight event so we'll at least get to sleep at night. 


The event(s) will consist of:

Friday Night Light @ 1900
- 3 hours
- 10lb pack
- 5-8 miles total

Saturday BFF Test @ 0800
- 1 hour
- 4 exercises for time/reps:
    - 1 mile ruck + sandbag
    - 2 min sandbag burpees
    - 200 m suitcase carry 
    - 2 min hand release pushups

Saturday Star Course @ 0900
- 12 miles
- 10lb pack

Saturday GORUCK Basic @ 1430
- 5-6 hours
- 20lb pack
- 7-10 miles total

Gonna be a lot of work and hard weekend but I'm super excited about this!!

GORUCK Tough Training: Week 7 of 10

Monday
Planned: 2 mi sandbag ruck
Did: 2 mi sandbag ruck + 1.06 mi run @ 8:50/mi
Took the 40# sandbag for a walk on the trail after dropping D off at school. Avoided eye contact with everyone I passed because I'm sure I was getting some looks. 
Took a quick loop in the neighborhood in the late afternoon... had hopes of getting in an easy trail run but work demands overran that hope.

Golden leaves

Tuesday
Planned: PT + 2 mi ruck
Did: 6.77 mi @ 8:02/mi + 8 min PT + 2.3 mi ruck
Track Tuesday downtown in the morning! Got 6x800m complete, felt strong and kept them good and consistent 3:24-3:28 per repeat. 
PT during lunch hour was 5 ruck-on pushups, 10 4-count flutter kicks, and 25 ruck squats - all 4x through. That surprisingly only took about 8 minutes, then I headed out for a perimeter loop with the 20# pack and got in about 2.3 miles total.

Wednesday
Planned: 7 mi ruck
Did: 1.5 mi run @ 7:54/mi
Only had time for a quick lunchtime loop on the cross-country course due to an all-day meeting and unplanned day in the office.

Also... there are some Ruck event plan changes potentially afoot. More to come...

Thursday
Planned: rest
Did: 4.3 mi @ 8:51/mi run
Did an early run and OMG it was 29F! Had a terrible headache so took it fairly easy around Furman. First sub-freezing run of the season... such a change from the recent temps in the 80s!
Brrrr πŸ₯Ά

Friday
Planned: ??
Did: 1.1 mi @ 8:51/mi run + 60 min Vinyasa @ SoulYoga
Aimless day and needed something to recharge, so I got my 1 mile done around the neighborhood and went to a Vinyasa class at Soul Yoga. 

Saturday
Did: Lake Summit 10 Mile Race

Sunday
Did: 3.5 mi ruck hike + 1 mi run
Got a crew together to do a hike at Chestnut Heritage Preserve near Landrum. What a beautiful place, and none of us had ever been before! I opted to ruck this one, with a 20# plate and 3L hydration bladder, all adding up to something around 27# total (plus snacks and other random gear). The hike itself didn't have any views or waterfalls but was a beautiful walk through the woods with nice trails and enough elevation to make it feel like a challenge, but not too bad. 

Crew! 4 humans + 3 pups

Lunch break on a boulder




The colors against the blue sky were perfect!




Trail buddies πŸΎπŸ’™

Overall a great week and excited for some time on trail, racing, and fall weather!