Hello May!! Wow, May already. The countdown is on. My kids only have 4 more weeks of school left! Yikes! While April was a blur, May will be a time for me to refocus. I’ve thought of a few goals I have for May….
1) Fix the sore hamstring/glute issue. Sure, this one is a long shot. BUT, I have learned one thing – running is not the only thing that causes the my soreness. I have not run since my April 23rd half at Glass City. I took several days off prior to the race, and still haven’t run yet. Going into the race I was not feeling pain. In fact, I came out of that race feeling better than I had prior to it! FREAKY. I didn’t even feel my strained left hamstring which bothered me the most.
However, as soon as I started back with the lunges, squats and other challenging PT exercises, I was feeling the pain. So my thought is that if I continue with the exercises, the pain will eventually go away. I mean, it has to, right? As an example, the first time a person starts lifting weights, their arms will be really sore, but the more they do the weights, the body gets stronger and it doesn’t hurt anymore.
So that’s my plan – keep up with strengthening exercises and see where that takes me. I have a tracking sheet which I use everyday to make sure I keep up with at least part of the exercises on a daily basis.
2) Train for my first trail marathon! I’m running the Mohican Trail marathon on June 17th. That gives me about 6 weeks to prepare for the race. Normally I would say someone is out of their freaking mind thinking they can train for a marathon in 6 weeks, but my husband assures me that this is a totally different thing and I won’t need to run that far. I haven’t put my pen to paper yet, but I’m thinking I’d like to run a max of 16 miles as a long run before the race on some trails and I should be set. Famous last words. LOL!
3) Along that same line… training will be focused on quality trail work, and NOT speed. Speedwork has not been my friend for the last year, so I’m holding off on that for a few months. I’ll be back as a coach in the Dave’s Training PR5K program in June & July, so I’ll get plenty of speedwork as part of that job, and that will be enough for me!
4) And now for the random contradiction… I’d like to place in my age group at the May 20th 5K I’m running! I checked the times for last year and I could have easily taken 1st in my age group last year, so that’s what I’m shooting for. I’m not telling you the name of the race because if any of my speedy competition is reading this post, I don’t want them to show up! (hahaha! but true)
5) Chill out on my training. After talking to Matt Fitzgerald, and listening to several podcasts about training, I’m ready to just try something different and focus on running LESS. Cross training more – cycling and treadmill walking. Strength training more.
6) Burpees! Here’s another odd one. In my hiatus from running I decided to try 10 burpees one day. You know what? It was the most exhausting 5 mins that I’ve ever had!! I got to 3 burpees and I was full on panting. That made me think that it’s a great cardio challenge and I’d like to see if I could improve how I felt doing them. I’m going to try to bump it up past 10 burpees, but for right now, they are still exhausting and rewarding all in one.
So that wraps it up. How about you?
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Do you have any goals for May? Any big races you are training for? Personal goals?? Let’s hear them!
I can’t wait until school is out this month. The end of year activities wear me out and I’m DONE packing three lunches every morning. The summer will present its own challenges vis a vis the kids but I’m over this school year. Training for a marathon in September…
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Which marathon are you training for?
I know what you mean – our kids can buy lunch twice a week and I feel like I hit the lottery when they pick the same day!! 😉
I haven’t run a step in over three weeks but the calf strain is feeling much better and my PT says to give it a try this week, so that is my big goal for May. If this goes well, I will begin training for the Tunnel Marathon which is September 17. BAA announced yesterday that Boston registration will open on September 11, so if the trend continues from previous years, it will remain open through September 20 and the BQ window for 2019 will open on September 16 or 17. That would make the race good for two Bostons if I run well or just 2019 if I don’t. I will move up an age group before Boston 2019. So that is my big goal for the summer — get back to Boston one more time. Good luck with the hamstring/glute problem. I know chronic injuries are frustrating. Have you ever tried Graston? Technique used by some PTs that seems to help.
Hmmm, so Erie marathon on Sept 11th might be a two year qualifier also? It is too early to do this logic!
I have had some scraping done last summer when I was getting treatment. I guess it wasn’t the fix I needed, at least not permanently!
Burpees are the easiest way for me to feel completely out of shape. I was trying to get in a habit of doing some every day in April…and I think that lasted about a week.
I know you said this is your first trail marathon, but have you done other trail races before? I’ve run trails before, but never raced. I’m thinking about signing up for my first this summer. Basically, talk me into it.
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Burpees- I’m in good company! Haha!
I did a 50k trail race, and fell more than I expected I would. Tripping on roots covered in leaves! Alan sold me on this race because we could walk the hills and the food at the aid stations (lots of M&Ms!!) is the best!! So I’m guessing your race would be the same… you should totally do it!! Which race?
Tahqua Trail race. It is in the upper peninsula of Michigan in August near Tahquamenon Falls (ie my hometown). It’s only a 25k, so I’m not quite as crazy as you.
Heather [is probably running] recently posted…I’m back!! [plus 5k #19]
Tahquamenon Falls is your hometown? That would be a beautiful race!! You have to do it. And wasn’t that a challenge as a kid learning your address?? Ha! My family had camp around there. Beautiful indeed!!
WOW!! I think I would LOVE running a trail marathon. Maybe after I have several marathons accomplished I’d be able to do that.
My biggest goal for may is to get back on shape with running. The end of the school semester left me running only twice a week. I miss running and I miss having a decent weekly mileage (something I haven’t had since last year). I might be racing a 10K this month too which I feel very excited about.
My other May goal is to eat more homemade food. March and April were months for eating out almost the entire time. I can’t say I had unhealthy options but my body is certainly craving more nourishing foods.
I do enjoy going out to eat, because we don’t do it much, but even on a short trip like the 4 days in Boston, I couldn’t wait to have my standard salad for lunch again!!
Good luck on your running goals for May, and I hope you get to run that 10k too!
You are beautiful!
That Mohican Trail looks beautiful too! I am looking it up now… Aw it’s too bad they don’t have anything shorter, I’d come run it!
Well thanks Megan! You should come run it. You’re probably more fit and trained than I am at this point! Think of it as a nature run/walk.
YES burpees are so hard! I need to get back to the burpee challenge. I think I did it for two days before I got bronchitis and had to quit. I have no doubt that if someone does burpees everyday for a month they will improve their fitness because burpees are definitely the hardest exercise on the planet!
Sooooo hard! I was wondering how your burpees were going. Get back at it 😉
Whoa, big goals! Good luck on your trail marathon AND your 5K (talk about two extremes, lol). 6 weeks does sound like a short amount of time, but trail races are much more low-key and easier on the body (well, minus all the tripping, LOL), so you can get away with not training as intensely.
I know – I’m all over the board this month!! That’s what happens when I’m *not* running… my mind wanders 🙂
So jealous of your trail marathon! One day I’ll get to do one. Hopefully sooner rather than later. And burpees are nothing but death. I’ve been doing more bupress but modifying them because I can’t jump right now. They still kick my butt!
I am looking forward to the trail marathon! I just hope Alan and I are both in decent enough shape to enjoy it.
Mohican will be fun! Especially being all to cheer on all those 100 mile suckers who will be running for 24+ hours. ha!
Nice post and writing TC!
Mohican looks gorgeous! I would love to come down from Akron for a long run some weekend (I know that a local club makes the pre-dawn trek down there sometimes from up here). But I am seriously a fraidy cat on trails due to the fact that I trip a lot. I talked to a friend that has been doing trail runs and they said the same thing Alan said – trail races are a completely different feel.
I have to say, I am so impressed with your approach to healing your glute issue. I am so bad about PT – I don’t usually follow the instructions after the first week. And my thinking is completely opposite of yours, “This motion hurts me. It didn’t hurt before. I will stop doing this.” Right now, my left hip has been giving me fits and I know i should let it heal, but I just plugged in my program for Erie…and it starts TOMORROW!!!
Train well! Be careful with those midwest summer storms too! We’ve had a solid week of rain here and are getting more.
I am really trying on the PT exercises, but the more I do of them, and the more sore they are making me, I’m starting to think I might need to go back for a visit and figure something else out. All around no fun!
Woohoo on Erie!! It’s always exciting having a fresh new training cycle ahead of you. Good luck!
The trail run looks like a lot of fun, has to be better than just running on a road!
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