Week 6: Day 5 - 08 February 2019

• morning ride = 25.10 miles; time = 2:05:01; average speed @ 12mph
• walked dogs = 2.6 miles total

I've been making up excuses to avoid doing a ride all week. It's cold. It's windy. I'm tired. It's raining. Mainly "It's windy" because it was windier than it seemed and I don't like wind. It's harder to do a ride alone because you have no one expecting you to show up when it's time to ride. I'm doing a ride with a group on Sunday morning, but it may potentially be canceled because of rain, even though it would be light.

Week 6: Day 4 - 07 February 2019

• morning run = 6.19 miles; time = 1:15:22; average pace @ 12:10
• walked dogs = 2.6 miles total

Normally, I don't complain about cold weather or running in it because I actually enjoy it. It's too bad that I'm still missing one glove because I dropped one during a run awhile ago and I never found it. My hands and arms are normally okay with gloves on in extremely cold weather, but they were cold and frozen this morning. I think I did something really weird with my right arm because I got a muscle cramp near my elbow. Maybe because I didn't drink enough water yesterday? This was the first time that I ever got a muscle cramp in my arm for any reason. Yesterday morning was 35 F degrees. This morning was 37 degrees and felt colder than yesterday.

Week 6: Day 3 - 06 February 2019

• morning trail run = 3.55 miles; time = 52:24; average pace @ 14:45
• walked dogs = 2.6 miles total

Ten years ago, I used to not have the tolerance to run in really cold weather. After some thinking, I've now wondered why! Since I was already a morning runner, I noticed that I wanted to watch the sunrise during my runs. This meant that I had to deal with cold weather at 7am in December and January. The sunrise was more exciting to look at and was always different every morning during the cooler/cold months while it was not really so exciting during the summer months. The sunrise was the same every morning in the summer. So I learned to tolerate cold weather. Ten years ago, I was able to tolerate 60 and 70-something degree weather. I can't tolerate runs when it's 60 or 70-something degree weather anymore. If I start a half marathon in 50-something degree weather and finish in 70 something degree weather, the temperature increase is slow and gradual so I don't notice it until I'm at the finish line when I'm hot/sweaty, sore and covered in salt crystals. I don't mind 60 and 70-something degree weather when I'm walking or not doing vigorous exercises though.

Week 6: Day 1 - 04 February 2019

• morning run = 5.01 miles; time = 1:03:22; average pace @ 12:38
• walked dogs - 2.7 miles total

I didn't get rained on during my run. I took my dogs out for a walk right after my run and it started to pour during the last few minutes. Yay for that too.

It'll be raining on and off for the next two weeks. While we do need the rain, I'm a little tired of it. Not that it will stop me from running, but it's just so dangerous to do a ride in the rain. I'm debating about doing a hike in it, although I don't have shoes meant for walking in mud. I guess the good thing is that I don't have to worry about getting static when I touch something metal like my car door. This always happens in the winter months because it's so dry here and then it's all okay when it rains.

Week 5: Day 7 - 03 February 2019

• walked dogs = 2 miles total

Running: 

Total Weekly Mileage: 20.48

Total Monthly (January) Mileage: 90.41

Total Monthly (February) Mileage: 6.74
Total Yearly Mileage: 97.15

Cycling:

Total Weekly Mileage: 15.26

Total Monthly (January) Mileage: 132.88

Total Monthly (February) Mileage: 0

Total Yearly Mileage: 132.88

Updating for the mileage. I was originally going to do a ride with a group/some friends this morning, but the ride was canceled due to rain. If I knew that it was going to rain lightly this morning, I would have done my run this morning instead of in the pouring rain of yesterday.

Week 5: Day 6 - 02 February 2019

• morning run = 6.74 miles; time = 1:25:50; average pace @ 12:44
• walked dogs = 1/2 mile

First world problems: I can't turn off the rain when I'm training for a running event (I have a 10k event in two weeks). It wasn't that bad at the beginning of my run even though I picked up my pace so I could get out of the rain sooner, but it didn't help or matter when the rain got heavier during the last three miles. So much rain today. I was only able to take my dogs out for a few minutes because it had stopped raining (light drizzle) after my run. I was originally going to do a ride with a group tomorrow, but it looks like more rain is in the forecast for the next few days. I guess it didn't matter if I did my run this morning or tomorrow. Rain either way. I won't be doing much tomorrow.

Week 5: Day 5 - 01 February 2019

• walked dogs = 2.6 miles total
• hike = 4.25 miles; time = 1:58:03

I updated my blog post from yesterday. After I posted/shared, I took my dogs out for a 1/2 mile walk. Then did the photo walk with a photography group. Normally, when we do photo walks, we typically walk two to three miles in two hours (we stop a lot to take photos of whatever interest us). It seemed like we walked a lot (4.6 miles is a lot for us) and didn't stop long enough or frequently for photos.

Anyway, did a hike close to home today. I didn't feel like actually driving somewhere for a hike. I'm going to try a new hike this month. Next week maybe? Between alltrails.com and a hiking book that I have, I found 11 hikes that I'm interested in. Since it's a new month, it's time for a new hike.