Looking back at July 2019, there is no doubt in my mind that any running that I got done during it, was bonus mileage/running. Back on June 5th, I suffered some kind of a stress fracture/reaction to my left Tibia and the Doc told me that I wouldn’t be running for 6-8 weeks and that the probability would be longer before I would be running comfortably.

Okay me being me, I started running again a little before July 1st. No, it was not always pain-free and definitely not comfortable, but by the end of July, I had put over 140 miles on the legs and had a good double workout on July 31st that was a huge confidence builder.

My favorite photo from July was:

Running unfortunately, was not the focus of July.

Nope, we have been doing some serious upgrades/repairs to the house and the daily schedule was dominated by the needs of the contractor, not my need to get out and run around or eat decently. Not having a real kitchen puts a huge kink in eating well. Instead you go more for what is easiest to fix and then clean-up – definitely not always the healthiest.

By far the major piece of the puzzle was the kitchen/dining room repair/remodel. The old cabinets were beginning to fall apart and was cramped. Now we have a completely different look and more open design the kitchen/dining room areas.

On the outside we made more major repairs and in this case a huge addition. For as long as I have lived here Mary and I have talked about getting a deck for out back. Well this year we finally stopped yapping about it and actually took action.

Two windows gone, one moved and a door to our new deck. We have already spent some quality time out there. Oh yeah, those cement steps were sledgehammered into submission and have been replaced by a nice set of fiberglass steps. We don’t use the back door very often now, instead we step out onto our fine, new deck.

We still have a bit of work to go, but that won’t start for a couple of weeks – thank goodness. It gives us enough time to do the little touches that we can do ourselves and save some decent money (more running shoes for me 😉 ), like add a storm/screen door to the deck, paint, change out light fixtures – you know all the fun stuff.

Running

Okay let’s get back to what I did accomplish on the running side of the coin during July.

First and most importantly instead of taking the doctor predicted goose egg for July, I got in over 140 miles for the month. Which surprised me a LOT and during this time I got to think a lot more about what I want from my running. The answer I came up with is to enjoy it more, not sweat the small stuff and yeah, just run.

One thing is that I focused a LOT more on enjoying my running and am starting to take the advice that Sam W keeps telling me, that I need to slow down. I was getting a bit quicker each month and I have a feeling that it was part of the problem back in June. So I am purposely working on running my easy runs…well easy. 🙂

I also updated my RunLog spreadsheet to focus on things that I want to track versus all the extraneous stuff that I was worrying about before. One thing that I did add in is course records for different distances/courses, as a quick reference of where I am in comparison to where I was.

I know that I will slow down a bit each year, but I still want to slow down the slow down hehehehe.

A quick summary of July’s runs, a lot better month than I had any reason to expect, so I am happy with how well I am running at this point.

Did you notice something – no whining about how hot/muggy it has been. I am still able to run in shorts/t-shirt and not worry too much about footing. A good thing, because the cold weather is going to be here way too soon, so I will enjoy the warm weather while I can.

Running Shoes

I have found my daily trainers – finally and have a pretty good idea on how I will use my go faster shoes. About halfway through July I got tired of my right foot being uncomfortable and dug my old Beacon v1s out of the lawn shoe hole they were in and wonders of wonders, they felt great even with all the miles and lawn work they had seen.

At that point, Bennie ordered a pair of the Beacon v2 as my birthday present and I thought that I could nurse the v1s to that point. As much as I wanted to the Beacon v1 were not quite up to the challenge and I got the v2 out of the box a little earlier than I expected.

New Balance Beacon 2 – These have just gone over the 50 mile mark and I do believe that I have found my daily trainers. They are comfortable, quiet and allow me to forget about my shoes while running. So far so good I will be putting together a 50 mile review on them sometime over the next week.

Nike Zoom Fly SP – They fit well and I run well in them. I still need to get more time in them, but that hot track workout that I did last Tuesday, these were by far the fastest feeling shoes that I wore that day. The jury is out on them, but they have made an early favorable impression.

Reebok RunFast – I had forgotten why I loved them so much last year until that hot track workout and they were very, very close to the ZF SP in how they felt. However, I still remember too well how much discomfort I had to endure on the flex point on the inside of my right forefoot. I gotta get a longer workout in them to see if that still bother or not. However, if the weather is nasty, these are the shoes I would choose to go faster in.

Salomon RA Max v1 – I love the feel, but the right forefoot just doesn’t work for me and my bunionette. Otherwise it was a pair of running shoes that I felt helped me get beyond the stress fracture/reaction quicker with their Vibe technology and how it reduces the tibial vibration.

Salomon Sense Ride – My trail/hiking shoes and they do great whenever I use them. Unfortunately, I just haven’t done a lot of trail running or hiking this summer. I am planning to do more, but it seems that something always gets in the way lately. Hopefully that changes as I move into August and beyond.

If this rotation doesn’t work, I still have a pair of the Zoom Fly v1, Adidas Tempo 9, Brooks Green Silence, Nike Wildhorse 5 (NIB), plus a few others that I have squirreled away.

Racing

I am still none for 2019 and I really am fine with it. Even if I don’t race, I still enjoy running fast in training, it is a part of my personality. Although, I am planning on doing a few races in August and September and might be looking at running, not racing the Maine Marathon Half Marathon. We will see.

The reality is that

July 2019 was a LOT better month of running than I expected on the 1st. The old body healed up enough that I was able to run a pretty good number of miles and not do further damage while doing it.

My running shoe rotation is getting smaller and hopefully more consistent, but New Balance shoes have always fit my feet the best, until the Beacon line came out, it was more that I didn’t like the feel underfoot that kept me away. The Beacons are a light-weight daily trainer that I could probably race in without too many issues at this point in my running.

However, with the Zoom Fly, I know that I run differently in them and I do not work as hard to run faster, so I will use the SP version as my “go faster” for me shoes. Although in crappy weather, the Reebok RunFasts will run circles around those other two, as long as they don’t bother my right foot anymore. If they do, they will go away and I will find a pair of NB 1400s for that purpose. After all living in Maine, I know that I will get to run fast at many points in crappy weather.

I do have to get my eating back under control and with the kitchen remodel complete, it should be a bit easier than it was during July.

July was a pretty good month, but it was stressful with all the remodeling and everything that goes along with it. The worst of it is over and now there are just a couple of things left that will need to get it done.