Odd October

October 2022 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 338.4

• Sep. 25-Oct. 2: 67.4
• Oct. 3-9: 52.8
• Oct. 10-16: 76.3
• Oct. 17-23: 83.1
• Oct. 24-30: 84.4
• Oct. 31-Nov. 6: 74.4

Birthday bRUNch!

Races:

• Oct. 2: Twin Cities Marathon in 3:06:50 for 3rd masters female and my second disappointing marathon of 2022.

Workouts:

• Oct. 12: Wild card workout of 4 x 1:00 on/1:00 off (on paces 5:28, 5:29, 5:58, 6:02), 1.1 mile push (5:57), 3 x 0.5 mile hard (paces of 5:42, 5:46, 5:48), 4 x 0:20 hill sprints (paces of 5:25, 5:29, 5:28, 5:45, which were really good for me). I started Spencer's mixed system workout with him, with plans of jumping in and out of his threshold portion, but he had to stop a little over a mile into his threshold with a hamstring cramp. I decided to do some half miles since I'd been planning on doing a half to a mile with him at a time before recovering a bit and jumping back onto his pace. Everything was mediocre - but it was one of the best mediocre workouts ever after I'd felt so off/uncoordinated/clumsy at Twin Cities and afterward!
• Oct. 15: Another wild card workout, this time long run edition. I went in and out of Spencer's workout as I was able and ended up with: 1.0 at 6:07, 0.25 at 6:08, 0.5 at 6:09, 1.0 at 6:04, 0.5 at 5:58, 0.3 at 6:18, 0.6 at 6:20 (couldn't stay with him on the last 2 pushes) in a 16 miler.
• Oct. 19: 9 x 1k with 1:30-2:00 recoveries in paces of: 5:41, 5:45, 5:38, 5:41, 5:38, 5:45, 5:45, 5:50, 5:42 (5:43 average). I started out too fast on these and paid for it a little, but less than I'd have expected. I gave myself the option of 8-10 reps, decided I was finished at 8, then jogged while Spencer and Casey were running their 9th and 8th (Casey missed one with a bathroom stop), and felt better so did their last one with them. I was glad I ended up tacking that back on because I was able to finish strong - probably because I had a 7+ minute recovery, but you know... It was 19* for this workout, and I ran them way faster than 10k pace, so I think I did well.
• Oct. 22: 5 easy, 2 tempo, 3 x 0.5 easy/1 tempo, each to 17.6. My tempo miles were very consistent at 6:32, 6:31, 6:31, 6:29, 6:31 but felt much harder! We ran the faster parts of the workout on the Bass Pro race course and it felt a lot hillier than it does during the race.
• Oct. 26: Fartlek of 4 x (3:00 on, 1:30 off, 2:00 on, 1:00 off, 1:00 on, 0:30 off) and 12.3 miles total. I ran this on hills so my paces were inconsistent (5:38-6:22), but I covered 4.02 miles total in the 24:00 of work this included (5:58 average) and remembered how very short a 30 second jog is!
• Strides/hill strides: Oct. 10, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25, 28.
• Doubles: Oct. 12, 17, 19, 26 (4.2 miles for 42 years).
• Strength Training: I picked this back up twice a week starting Oct. 9, along with 2-3 core workouts a week.
• Favorite workout: The 1ks on 10/19 were the best, though I regret not doing 10 reps, hah!

Fall colors

Long Runs:

• Oct. 2: Twin Cities Marathon (about 27.5 total, with a little warm up).
• Oct. 8: 14.2 miles (7:59). I just went by how I felt on this day, figuring I'd do about 12.
• Oct. 15: 16 miles (7:23), including the random workout described above!
• Oct. 22: 17.6 miles (7:36), with a workout described above - followed by birthday breakfast with my running group!
• Oct. 29: 18.8 miles (7:38) that included the Bass Pro half marathon course and the Bass Pro 5k course. If I'd looked at my distance before I saved this run, I'd have done 20.
• Favorite long run: 10/29 was fun!

#oddoctober

Crashing an OMRR Bass Pro training run

Running Highlights:

• My running group did a little birthday bRUNch for me on Oct. 22.
• We dressed in 90s attire for our Oct. 31 morning run, but the photos didn't turn out at all since it was so dark out.

After the cold 1k workout

Life Highlights:

• Albani's first high school homecoming dance.
• My birthday...I hope new single age state records await, though I am not feeling at all fast at the moment!

Homecoming dance prep

Happy Halloween from Bandit!

Halloween costume party

Books:

• Without Merit by Colleen Hoover
• The Dinner List by Rebeccal Serle
• The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner
• Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Pretty Little Liars #2: Flawless by Sarah Shepard
• One of Us Is Next by Karen M. McManus
• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
• As Good As Dead by Holly Jackson

Theme for the month:

• Odd. My dizziness was up and down (definitely trending better though!), and I am waiting on an ENT appointment on Dec. 5. Everything points to it being an inner ear thing, and the Epley Maneuver helped but didn't completely resolve it. ENTs have specialized equipment to examine the inner ear.