During July I ran 162 kilometres. This brought my total for 2020 to 1138 kilometres. That’s an average of 162 kilometres every month so far, which is weird synchronicity with the distance I ran in July.
I have a spreadsheet I keep track of this stuff which you can view online. I also use Strava to gather my data.
After 257 kilometres in June I felt positive about July. I planned for another good month! I didn’t plan to feel so drained in the first week through. Just devoid of energy, my legs so stiff and tired. I had three days of rest — no running and also making sure I was eating well — and felt better for it. Longer working days and fam needs also penned in the time I could run some days, which also hit my overall distance. I took what I could and enjoyed it while I did.
Highlights
- Towards the end of the month I felt I was starting to have some good pace going again and over distance too, which this Sunday run felt the culmination of. Felt reassuring after the knock the leg injury caused
- A weekday lunchtime run out along the canal and back along the Aire
- Heading out through Wrose and Eccleshill
- Just the one session running round the school pitches this month, but early morning and listening to Chris Hawkins was a good combo. Chris played a couple of stompers leading up to 7am which spurred me on
- Listening to music a bit more on my runs. On days when I’ve felt sapped, usually when I’ve been flicking from one thing to the next with work, it helped. Share with me your playlists!
- Got back on the bike towards their end of the month. It helped when I was recovering from injury. Going to try and do it two or three times a week
- Bought a copy of Trail and Fell Running in the Yorkshire Dales and eyed up a couple of treks for next month
Socks
In May the pins and needles in my feet later in my runs were starting to get extremely painful. There were points when I was running and couldn’t feel my feet, wondered if my feet might give way. I loosened the laces on my runnings shoes more and more, before the runs and during the runs. But I started to spot a pattern: When I wore thinner running socks very rarely did I suffer from pins and needles.My theory: My thicker, even slightly thicker, running socks were the cause. I tested this theory throughout July, relying completely on thinner running sock. I bought more thinner runnings socks, Rockay (who do a nice line in socks made from recycled materials) and Soar ones to help with this. I didn’t suffer from pins and needles once.
Retiring running shoes
My Hoka One One Clifton 6s reached the end of the line. Retiring shoes is harder than it should be. A shoe that helps you along on an enjoyable run plays a part in that. The more difficult runs you endure and get through, the shoes helped. (As long as they weren’t the reason for the difficulties!) I weirdly develop an attachment to the shoes.
I am loathe to just sling any sports shoes straight into the bin, but also loathe to pass them onto a charity shop. As a running shoe their performance has dropped. If I am retiring them because they could play a part in injuring me if I did pass them they’d need some warning. “My stompy running style has battered the soles! Don’t use these for running!” In theory I could retire three pairs of running shoes in 2020, and I don’t want them to be contributing to waste tips, I’d like them to be recycled. This is proving way harder than I thought. I must be missing something obvious but I can’t find anything. I’ll keep my blue Hokas to one side until I do.
Looking onwards
I have 862 kilometres still to run before the end of 2020. That is an average of 172 kilometres for the remaining five months of the year.
I want to average at least 6 kilometres a day in August, totalling 186 kilometres for the month. My hope is with some time away from work, assuming It being August there will be some decent weather, and lots of good run options from my front door, 186 kilometres will be at least.
Make sure I have four rest days and some slower runs in there though.
This post tagged with:
running,
run notes,
run notes 2020,
month note