Running Down the Dream: July 2024

June 2024 in review!

Total mileage for the month: 230.4

May 27-June 2: 71.8
June 3-9: 68.9
June 10-16: 64.7
June 17-23: 51.4
June 24-30: 22.2

Send off for the Grandma's crew

Races:

June 15: Clinton Historic Half Marathon in 1:34:12 in the heat for 2nd overall female and 1st masters female.

Summer sunrise

Workouts:

June 1: Fast finish 2 miles by effort in 6:58, 6:56 at the end of a 15 mile long run.
June 8: 10 easy + 6 at Lisa's marathon pace (7:25, 7:17, 7:22, 7:08, 7:10, 6:48 - average 7:12).
June 11: 3 x (4 x 200m with 200 m jogs), 400 m jogs between sets, 2.5 x 1 mile threshold-ish with 1:00 recoveries. This was a random one! I did the 200s on the track with the Summer of Speed group, then joined the Grandma's Marathon group on the road loop for the end of their workout, helping a different person each rep. In the moment I purposefully set it up so I'd get faster each rep, and I did at 6:28, 6:15, 2:57. I couldn't hang onto Casey for her full sub-6 last mile so I stopped halfway. My 200s went well with the first 4 at 0:40-0:41 and 5-12 at 0:38-0:39. Any day I break 40 in a 200 is a good day, and in this workout I did it 8 times! I suspect I am a little faster due to having less mileage on my legs right now (e.g., can't break 40 during a 90+ mile week). Also, it was 58* out! 6:30 pace felt easier than 7:00 pace has been feeling in the heat.
June 17: 4 x 300 m with 1:00 recoveries, because my right hamstring called it at the end of rep 4 (I was scheduled for 10). My goal was 1:00-1:02 and I was right on, and was disappointed I had to call the workout early but going in I knew it was a possibility because my hammy was bothering me after the June 11 200s plus June 15 race, also likely due to my lack of strength training while traveling in May and June and several other factors (details below).
Favorite workout: June 11, in spite of or maybe because of the randomness.

Long Runs:

June 1: 15.1 miles (7:54) that flew by and felt great!
June 8: 16.3 miles (7:55).
June 15: 16 miles (7:19), mostly the Clinton Historic Half.
June 22: 10.1 miles
June 30: 10 miles
Favorite long run: 3-way tie for June 1, 8, and 15!

Jogging June

Jubilant June

Running Highlight/Lowlight:

I'm at 1693.5 miles total for 2024 at halfway through, so I should get over 3000 for the year if things stay consistent.
My right hamstring started bothering me mid-month. A lot of things contributed: running 200s, racing a half, trying 300s, slacking on strength training/no strength while traveling, running 240 miles in shoes I didn't particularly like for 6 weeks as a shoe tester, and several months of working long hours and associated stress. I've been skirting the line for months with pushing so much at work, then add in 2 trips in late May to early June, and eventually it got to be too much, even with the decreases in mileage I did to try to balance it all out. I took some days off and cut back mileage and intensity, and by the first week in July I was back to 55 miles and expect to be back to mostly normal during the second week. I cut back on other things too in an effort to reduce my stress levels: social media, Strava, blogging (hence this post being late even though it was mostly written).