100 in 100, Done and DONE!

Woo-Hoo! Yes! I got in a run today at lunch (7 miles in 1:06), and it was the 100th run in the past 100 days.

With it, I have successfully completed the "100 in 100 Challenge". That was fun, and it made me run much more than I would have otherwise. Will be fun to take a few days off from running without feeling guilty though! Will post a more complete story later.

100 runs/100 days!!!

Day 98

A very un-fun 8 mile run today. Was very humid, and I started out with a stomach full of Junior Mints and a banana. Apprently that doesn't make for a good run, because this run SUCKED.

But, I'm done and only 1 run "behind" with 2 days to go in the 100 in 100 challenge. At the risk of jinxing myself, I think I have a good shot at completing it!

97 runs/98 days

Day 93

Well, this is it...home stretch now. After today, only 1 week left. I got in 2 runs today, one of 4.8 miles on the road in the AM. Was a bit humid and my legs took a while to get into it. They're still sore from the weights the other day!

Then, after a "bag lunch" with G at daycare and getting my haircut, I went out on the un-improved section of the American Tobacco Trail for another 4.5 miles of mud and rain. That felt awesome! Need to do that more often.

91 runs/93 days

Day 92

Did a very nice run of 7 miles today in just under an hour. My right knee was giving me issues out of the blue! Go figure. Had planned on sneaking in another quick 4 miles between a seminar and going to get the kids, but got stuck in the lab. Oh well, maybe tomorrow to make up a run.

89 runs/92 days

Day 87a

Short run this morning. Left foot really starting again. It's been fine for over a week, and now this! Grrr.....

Anyway, ran 4.11 miles (according to my old Garmin Forerunner 201 watch), and I plan on getting out for another 5 later today. That's right, 9.11 miles on 9/11. Just my own little tribute to what happened 8 years ago.

84 runs/87 days

Up to day 83

Crazy week, sorry for lack of updates! Last Monday (Aug 31st) was Day 76, so through yesterday (Monday, Sep 8) makes 83 days down. Not a good week overall, here's the recap:

Tuesday (D77) - A good 8 mile run in 1:07 with some short steep hills. Only minor foot aches. Temp was cooler, which helped a lot.

Wednesday (D78) - 6.6 miles total in 1:03. I did ~4 miles of speedwork on the treadmill: 2 intervals each of 1, 2, and 4 min at 7:00 pace, with a 1 min rest at 9:00 pace. Legs were cooked.

Thursday (D79) - 7.2 miles, 2 on trail, in 1:08. Left foot hurt on trail sections (Grrr). Left work early to go to Wake County Animal Shelter...adopted a 5-6 year old Golden/Chow mix, will pick up on Saturday. Named Buddy. Took the kids in the bike trailer for ~40 minutes after work.

Friday (D80) - A very easy 5 miles, 3 on trail. That is to say, I took it very easy.

Saturday (D81) - No run. Exhausted from a long day with kids and new dog. Had a good walk with Buddy in the evening, though.

Sunday (D82) - 11 miles in Umstead State Park, the first 5.5 pushing the kids in the double wide. Difficult run, no energy in legs whatsoever. Was supposed to go further, but just couldn't fathom anything more than making it back to the car! Took another good walk in the evening with Buddy though.

Monday (D83) - Was planning on a long-ish run, but life conspired first to cut it short, then to prevent it from happening at all! I did do a lot of chasing G and 2 of her friends around the yard during their playdate. And D was all about wrestling and playing today (cross-training?).

79 runs/83 days

Days 63-65

Tuesday through Thursday. Days 63-65. Let's see...

Tuesday, Day 63: Another morning run with D-Mac in the stroller, on the American Tobacco Trail. He fell asleep this time. Humid but you can't beat spending time with your kids!

Wednesday, Day 64: Super-looper-dooper busy day at work, so no run. ☹

Thursday, Day 65: Four (4) mile morning run with D-Mac on the American Tobacco Trail. Once again, he was in an awesome mood and had a blast. I struggled, tired legs. After lunch, at about 1:15 PM, I headed out from work and ran to the gym, did 2 miles on the indoor track, then ran back to work. 4.6 miles total. I did the track miles in ~15 minutes, alternating fast strides on the long stretches, and recovery on the short stretches.

64 runs/65 days

Days 59-61

Day 59 = Friday. Run cut short because of major foot pain. Stepped on a rock less than a mile in and my whole foot started hurting...a lot! I even changed to a new pair of kicks with more cushioning to no avail. My guess is either deep bruise or nerve thingy.

Day 60 = Saturday = No run. Foot still a little sore, but the day just became too hectic to fit one in.

Day 61 = Sunday = Awesome longer run (16.3 miles)! Ran the 1st 5.5 pushing the little darlings in the stroller, up the corkscrew and cemetery hill in Umstead State Park. That was the final 5.5 miles of J's 17 miler. It was very oppressive, with the occasional blast of what felt like 50F air. Weird. That took us ~1 hour, then I got to run solo and did another 10.8 in ~1:47, including 3.3 miles of single track (Sal's Branch trail), some good hills (Group Camp road, Reedy Creek Lake road), and 3 stops to refill my water bottle and take a gel. I continue to be amazed at how good I feel running uphill these days. It still hurts, but I don't feel like I need to stop or slow down as much, and when I get to the top I can just keep going to recover. Even with ~70 ounces of water, 8 ounces of chocolate milk, 12 ounces of Coke, a small french fry and McChicken sandwich from McD's afterwards, I was 4 pounds lighter after the run! I feel good though. Ankles a bit stiff, but I past 700 miles in these shoes with today's run, so...

59 runs/61 days

Day 57-58

Missed out on a run yesterday, but had a very productive day at work. Thought about going out after the kids went to bed, but...yeah, didn't happen.

Thursday = Day 58 = 2 runs by 1 PM!!! Started out with a 5 mile, 45 minute session around NC State campus adjacent route. Humid but cooler (70's). Went to an academic coach training session from 10-12, then hit the dreamill for 3 miles in 36 minutes. Did 15 minutes at 15% incline and most of the rest at 5-10% incline.

57 runs/58 days

Day 50 - Halfway done

Day 50, the halfway point. I'm actually surprised it's come this seemingly fast.

Today I snuck in an early run of 3.2 miles in 30 minutes at ~11:15 AM. I had a chunk of downtime in the protein purification I'm doing in the lab (after co-opting my graduate student to do a step for me!).

Then during a longer step, I went to the gym for some weights and 5 miles on the indoor track, in 39:30. Three consecutive days of double runs is a record for me, by 2 days! Unless I get out early tomorrow morning (like 5 AM early), the streak will end. But, I'm now "caught up" and am on pace to complete the 100 in 100 challenge. If I can keep this up...

50 runs/50 days

Day 48

Monday, Day 48, almost halfway done with this 100 in 100 challenge, and still well within the realms of possibility..only 3 runs behind schedule.

Today was a fun run. Fresh legs from no run yesterday, but fairly warm. I ran a total of 4.5 miles, but also threw in about 40 flights of stairs. Whenever I saw a good set of stairs, I ran up then down them and continued on. This included some parking structures and a few buildings around NC State campus. The tallest was 6 flights, the shortest a single, albeit longer than normal flight. Felt pretty good.

45 runs/48 days

Day 32 & 33

Day 33, Sunday July 19th. Yesterday got in a 4 mile run with the kids, had to power-walk some of the hills as my legs just didn't have any oomph. The rest of the day was...taxing. But a fun day.

Today...whoa...J went for her long run (13 miles) in Umstead State park. I met her at mile ~8 and ran the last 5 with her, again pushing the little ones in the double wide. Mostly was OK, but the last hill nearly killed me. She flew up it, I was severely struggling to not get dropped off the back! That section gave me 5.5 miles and it took 1 hour, including a short break when she stretched.

I then got an awesome surprise by getting to run solo back to the car. I ran ~2 miles of single track and then dirt road for ~5K, for a grand total of 10.6 today. The last 5.1 was in 49 minutes. Spent the rest of the day at the pool, so my legs are a but tired (about 30 trips up the slide stairs)! After logging my miles, I saw that I am...0.2 miles short of 1000 for the year! Oh well.

So...almost a third done with this 100 in 100 challenge, and only 1 run down. I'll take it!

32 runs/33 days

Day 31

Wow, that was tougher than I expected. After taking D to his 18 month checkup (3 shots, but that stud did awesome!) and dropping the kids at daycare, I stopped off at Umstead State Park for a run. Down Reedy Creek Lake road, up the Corskscrew, then Cedar Ridge Trail, returning on South Turkey Creek and then the Loblolly trail (~2.75 miles of single track).

Maybe the humidity and 70F+ dew point did me in. I covered ~7 miles in ~70 minutes. That was with walking some of the early uphills for practice and the later ones because I had to. I had 20 ounces of lemon-lime Nuun, but it was gone in ~40 minutes. I drank another 12 ounces of water when I finished and then another 20 ounces of Nuun on the drive into work. Safe to say I was a bit dehydrated.

Need to finish up some work now and enjoy my last caffeine binge day. Starting tomorrow I begin cutting back and will hopefully be caffeine free by next Wednesday or Thursday. Plan to stay that way for 1-2 weeks, just to spice life up a little bit!

30 runs/31 days

Day 30

Yet another maintenance day. Nothing special, just logging the miles. Dreadmill run at the gym. Ranged from 2 to 8.5 MPH (30 to 7 minutes per mile pace) and 0-15% incline. Did a total of 4.5 miles in ~45 minutes. I think it said ~800 feet of climb, too.

Details

Started at 6 MPH (10 mpm) and increased 0.1 MPH every minutes for 25 minutes (final was 8.4 MPH (7:09 mpm). Covered about 3 miles, all at 0% incline. Then did 5 minutes at 5% incline/6 MPH, then 5 minutes at 10% incline/5 MPH, and finally 15% incline starting at 2 MPH, increasing 0.1 MPH every 30 seconds until 4 MPH, staying until 4.5 reached.

29 runs/30 days

Day 20

Day 20...20% done with my 100 in 100 challenge. So far I've logged 19 runs, so I'm one down. This morning I did 7.2 miles of rolling hills in Umstead State Park. Out in 30:27 and back in 28:20, putting my overall pace at ~8:15/mile. That's pretty good for me, considering I went out a little too fast, and did the forst mile easy as a warmup. The nagative split is likely because there are two good hills that go up on the out, and only 1 significant uphill on the back. I was probably at 85% effort during this run. I definitely could have run faster had it been a race, but I also wasn't lolligagging.

19 runs/20 days

Days 17/18/19

OK, so no run on Day 17 (Friday). Today (The 4th of July) I got in a cool 5.5 miles pushing the double-wide and both kids on the American Tobacco Trail. I got to run with J for the first time in a while. It was, as always, immensely better than running alone (and I LOVE to run alone!).

The rest of the 4th was good, if not exhausting. 5 hours at the pool with the kids. G got the nerve to do all three play areas (bouncy slide, bouncing cage, obstacle course) and is finally jumping into the pool, but just barely. D is a maniac and just walks off the deck, assuming we'll catch him. He also just face-plants into the water when we hold him. Comes up laughing. The force is strong in this one, for sure!

Today I just didn't get out for a run. I could have, just didn't. Had other things that took precedence. So that puts me minus 1 on the days/runs tally. I'll need to find some time for a few doubles this week to get back even (preferably ahead)! May try a moderately hilly 9.5 run tomorrow morning (Umstead state park) and see how fast I can go. I'm tentatively scheduled to do the run leg on a half-Ironman triathlon relay in late September. The distance is no problem, but the cycling leg guy, and I'm fairly certain the swim leg guy also, are...shall we say, much closer to elite status than I am. I want to do well, so will be working on my mid-distance speed in addition to training for the hills and distance of Mountain Masochist (and possibly Hellgate...)

18 runs/19 days

Day 15

Dropped the kids off at daycare, then stopped by Umstead State Park on the way in to work for what was supposed to be a quick morning run. Turned out to be 9.5 miles in 1:29! Not bad (for me) considering the hills and 3 x 1 minute walk breaks I took.

I ran the Loblolly trail (~2.1 miles), then turned right onto the Bike & Bridle trail. For some reason I thought that if I ran the South Turkey Creek & North Turkey Creek trails, then ran down Gralyn (Powerline Hill) and down the corkscrew, finishing with a push up Reedy Creek Lake Road, it would be ~5.5-6 miles. Oh well. It was a fantastic run and a good workout. I even passed some casual cyclists on the final hill!

Legs feel good, but I did have some right leg IT band tightness in the middle of last night (DMC was up several times again!). It's coming back now so I may need some new shoes. My current pair (Saucony Ride) have ~600 miles on them but still feel great.

16 runs/15 days

Day 14

Fun day. Ran later than usual, but still got in 4 miles on the indoor track in 32:44. Followed that up with 10 minutes (1 mile) on the Stairmill at 75-80 steps/min.

Threw in a few sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups for good measure. Then walked up the steps to the water slide about 50 times at the pool carrying Daniel and/or Grace!

15 runs/14 days

Day 13

A good maintenance run today. 6 miles in ~53 minutes. It was fairly warm, but I was able to stay in some shade for about half the time. This challenge has helped get my projected yearly mileage consistently above 1800! I was hovering at about 1750 for a while, occasionally getting up to 1800 after long runs. Now it's ~1830 and has been for over a week. Still, that's just projected mileage. Anything can happen. Another 6 months of the year to go.

Which reminds me, I broke 900 miles for the year today. Cool!

14 runs/13 days

Day 10 of 100

4.9 miles today, in 45:39. Very hot (93F, heat index of 97), dew point of 68. Lost a lot of water that I'm still replacing. Felt pretty good overall though. Legs a bit sore from yesterday's double but not too bad.

12 runs/10 days