Sad September

September 2024 in review

Total mileage for the month: 354.9

• Sep. 2-8: 87.3
• Sep. 9-15: 91.0
• Sep. 16-22: 71.3
• Sep. 23-29: 85.1

Wave tempo Wednesday

Races:

• Sep. 14: One Sole Purpose 10k in 42:35 for 1st overall female. I have always avoided this race because the course is ridiculously challenging (including a 2 mile hill), but I won a free entry to the event this year so gave it a go. My main goals were to win OAF and get in 20 miles for the morning, both of which I accomplished.

Elise's birthday long run

Workouts:

• Sep. 3: 6 x 1 mile progressive with 1:00 recoveries, with the goal of starting slower than threshold and finishing faster, averaging threshold. My splits were 6:35, 6:23, 6:21, 6:10, 5:57, 5:55 (6:13 average) and I got in 14 miles which is a good Tuesday morning!
• Sep. 7: 20 miles via 10 easy + 10 moderate. I averaged 7:24 for the moderate and finished with my fastest mile uphill, but more importantly finished feeling great. That hadn't happened on a long run for awhile. I think I'm getting more sensitive to heat every year. 
• Sep. 10: 6 x 400 m w/ 200 m jogs, 5 miles steady, 4 x 0.25ish w/ 0.12ish jogs. The last part was supposed to be another 6 x 400 m but I didn't calculate the amount of time this workout would take very well and ran too long of a warm-up (4 miles), so had to run back to my car for that portion of the workout in lieu of a cool down. The 400s were 1:31, 1:27, 1:29, 1:29, 1:28, 1:27 (targeting 1:28-1:29), the steady on hills was 7:15, 7:13, 7:39, 7:21, 6:57 (targeting 7:20-7:30), and the final 0.25ish were also on hills so paces varied but were 6:00, 6:26, 6:00, 6:07 (would have been targeting 1:28-1:29 on the track but instead it was just "hard"). 
• Sep. 14: 20.4 miles via 4.1 easy, One Sole Purpose 10k, 10.1 easy. This was warm and very humid morning so I was thankful I got it done.
• Sep. 18: 6 mile wave tempo targeting 0.5 at MP/0.5 at 10k pace. I had a conundrum on what paces to target and settled on 7:00/6:30. My MP segments were 3:27, 3:30, 3:24, 3:27, 3:22, 3:25 and 10k segments were 3:02, 3:03, 3:05, 3:04, 3:05, 3:01. On flat ground and in decent weather I averaged 6:29 pace for 6 miles the hard way (uneven pacing), quite a bit faster than my hot and hilly 10k race a few days prior, and I also felt far better.
• Sep. 21: 16 miles via 3 easy, 2 threshold effort, 7.2 easy, 2 threshold effort, 1.8 easy. Threshold effort only got me 7:02, 6:51, 7:02, 6:44, which was disappointing. I had an exhausting week and kind of feared this one wouldn't go well, then it was in the 70s with 100% humidity this morning. The first 2 were more uphill and the second 2 had more downhill but I was more tired too. I ended up getting a sore throat and congestion this evening so suspect that heavily contributed to failing this workout.
• Sep. 25: 7 x (0.75 threshold, 0.25 hard, 1:30 jog). I had low expectations for this workout since I was getting over a cold, and didn't look at my watch during it. I ended up running pretty even with splits of: 4:57, 1:31, 5:02, 1:32, 5:02, 1:33, 5:02, 1:31, 5:03, 1:33, 5:05, 1:25, 5:03, 1:33. This wasn't wonderful but it wasn't as bad as I expected!
• Favorite workout: September 3 because it felt great and I executed the progression so well.

Sweaty September

Long Runs:

• Sep. 7: 20 miles (7:55)
• Sep. 14: 20.4 miles
• Sep. 21: 16 miles (7:51)
• Sep. 28: 22.1 miles (7:51), which I was shocked to complete after 2.5 days of crying and not sleeping. I had a workout scheduled but did not do it, and I gave myself possible outs around 13 when Lisa finished and 16 when Paul finished, but I ended up running the final 6 miles my fastest by some miracle.
• Favorite long run: September 7 felt the best!

Something September

Smiling September

Smiling & sweaty September

Running Highlights:

• For some reason it doesn't really feel like I'm marathon training even with having done 4 x 20+ milers, but at this point I only have 3 more big long runs. 

Smiling & sweaty

More smiling & sweaty

Life Stuff:

• We lost our cat Nugget on September 25, one of the worst experiences of my life. He survived saddle thrombus in July and had recovered well and was doing great on his meds. I knew that the chances of reoccurrence were high and that cats with his heart condition can be fine one minute and pass the next, but that didn't prepare me. He went to the vet around noon for another saddle thrombus, but it was less severe than his first, he began treatment very quickly, and he was recovering well at 2:45. Around 3:20 he threw another clot that went into his lungs and the vet was unable to save him. From all of the veterinary articles I've read on Nugget's conditions, I know the vet used the current recommended course of treatment, and I am grateful he called us when Nugget started declining. Jon, Albani, and I rushed to the vet and were able to be with him when he passed around 4:00. I was thankful he had pain medication and oxygen, and that we did not have to make the decision to euthanize him. He was a fighter and I know if he could have possibly survived he would have! I am thankful we got almost 11 more weeks with him after his first clot, as only 10% of cats survive them. I don't know if really any cats survive a second clot, though I think he would have survived his second had he not had the third clot go into his lungs. I just feel like I'm walking around in a numb haze right now. I wrote a very long post about it all here.
• September was busy with something big almost every weekend:
• Girls dinner in Webb City
• Lauren's wedding and Amelia Earhart touring in Atchinson
• Silver Dollar City with 4 teenagers
• We celebrated Albani's birthday and Jon and my wedding anniversary.

Junior picture

Girls' night

Nugget's fall pose

Bandit's fall pose

Lauren's wedding

Beautiful Kansas scenery

17!

Jon tried to get me an anniversary cake, lol

Silver Dollar City birthday celebration

Books:

• She's Not Sorry by Mary Cubica
• The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
• The Housemaid is Watching (The Housemaid #3) by Freida McFadden
• Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen
• A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story by Linda Sue Park
• Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear by Jinger Duggar Vuolo
• Bad Graces by Kyrie McCauley

Theme for the month:

• It's hard for me to call it anything but Sad September now. Earlier in the month we did smiling, sweaty, speedy, and smelly September. I also had most of this post written in advance.