Odd October

October 2023 in review

Total mileage for the month: 258.4

• October 2-8: 66.6
• October 9-15: 21.4 (marathon recovery + COVID recovery, oof)
• October 16-22: 74.8
• October 23-29: 71.2
• October 30-Nov. 5: projected at 65ish

Races:

• Oct. 8: Chicago Marathon in 3:07:38 for an experience.

Running club book club

Workouts:

• Oct. 4: 4 x 1 mile progressive with 1:00 jogs in 6:40, 6:36, 6:33, 6:20. I guess you know you've been marathon training when 4 miles of work feels really short, and I guess you know you're tapering when 6:30s feel easy. I was initially going to run these at marathon pace but we see how that worked out. Even though I know in theory that any pace is harder when you have 90+ miles on your legs vs. 65, I always forget that until I have a good taper workout (and often I don't have a good taper workout so reminders are not guaranteed!).
• Oct. 18: Surprise workout that was 6 miles threshold-ish with a random 0:30 surge each mile in 6:41, 6:41, 6:22, 6:30, 6:24, 6:27. I was coming back from COVID and Chicago, and decided to stick on the 6:30-6:40 workout group as long as I could, not sure if I'd even make it a mile and certainly sure I would not complete the whole workout. I ran the whole workout and called it a huge success because there was no way I could have run anything close to this right after the first time I had COVID. I was coughing some but felt strong - very surprising because the day before on an easy run I was dying when we dropped to 8:00 pace.
• Oct. 21: Long run workout of 6 easy + 12 x 0:25 push/0/75 easy. I felt good for about 14 miles of this 18 miler, then slowly ran out of gas, but for all I had stacked against me I think it went alright (1 week post-COVID, 2 days post-car accident, 2 days of limited eating due to dental issues from the accident).
• Oct. 25: 2 x (1 MP, 1:00 jog, 1 HMP, 2:00 jog, 1 at 10k, 3:00 jog) plus 1 more MP (13.1 miles total). My splits were 6:54, 6:34, 6:13 | 6:49, 6:40, 6:15 | 6:53. The MP and HMP felt fairly easy and smooth, but the 10k felt terrible, though I executed it. I was pleased with my pace shifts for each section, but I felt really weak and depleted when running 6:15 pace (different than the normal "this is hard" feeling). I blamed COVID recovery and was thankful my next race would not be at that pace.
• Oct. 28: Miles 11-12 of the Bass Pro half course at MPish in 6:47, 6:51.
• Doubles: none this month
• Favorite workout: Oct. 18 because it was a really nice surprise!

I believe we were going for #oddoctober

Long Runs:

• Oct. 8: 27ish total with the Chicago Marathon and a little warm up
• Oct. 21: 18.1 (7:33) with a light workout, described above. I think this was better than my long run a week off of COVID last time, but in case it wasn't I'm not going to look back to compare.
• Oct. 28: 13.3 (7:45) with 2 miles picked up.
• Favorite long run: I guess I have to pick October 8 because it was a marathon!

Post-long run cake in cold rain!

Running Highlights:

• My second marathon major, even though I never planned to run any of the majors.
• With everything that went wrong this month, I think running much at all was a success.

Casey made this & I loved it

Life Highlights:

• Lowlight 1: I came back from Chicago with COVID. My symptoms followed the exact same progression of the other time I had it, in November 2022, so although I was pretty miserable for several days, at least I knew what to expect. It is possible I picked it up before the marathon and that was why my lungs burned during the race and I felt so tired, but I am still at least partially blaming the pollution and city of Chicago. ;-)
• Lowlight 2: On October 19, another car plowed into me and totaled my Chevy Volt. I had only been in fender benders before, and a more serious accident was terrifying! All of my air bags deployed and my car went off the road. I chipped four of my front teeth and had temporary pain in my bottom teeth, but otherwise walked away with just muscle soreness. Based on the severity of the accident I am very thankful I wasn't hurt badly (the other driver left the scene in an ambulance). The medics at the scene and every provider I saw at Urgent Care told me I would be extremely sore the next day. The doctor said something like, "You're going to hurt, but make sure you keep moving around or it will be worse". I replied, "I'm going to run 10 miles tomorrow morning"; Jon clarified "She is serious"; the doctor said that was fine if I felt okay since I am used to it, and I did (just to clarify, if I'd have felt bad I wouldn't have!). I do have some lingering pain in my pectoralis muscle, but it doesn't affect my running or really anything except my ability to do push ups.

Fall homecoming

COVID snuggles

More COVID snuggles

My poor car

Books (bold = 5-stars):

• Everything All at Once by Stephanie Catudal
• The Sober Diaries: How One Woman Stopped Drinking and Started Living by Clare Pooley
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Good Bad Girl by Alice Feeney
• Go as a River by Shelley Read
• The Pact by Jodi Picoult
• Jane and Edward: A Modern Reimagining of Jane Eyre by Melodie Edwards
• The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
• Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes by Christine Yu
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
• Let Him In by William Friend

Theme for the month:

• Not my month...onto the next!