March, what a month!   I get my first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and run a bunch of miles.

Monthly totals:

Miles run: 259.2 miles (48.96  miles more miles than February)

Weekly average: 58.53 miles

Days run: 31 out of 31 (it’s a run streak!  Currently at 244 days)

Calories burned during run: 37,000 kcal (that’s 10.6 lb if 3500 kcal = 1 lb)

Run time: 49 hr 52 min (96.5 min per day average)

Monthly averages and superlatives:

Average speed per mile: 11:32 per mile (11 sec faster than February)

Average stride rate: 161 steps per minute (same as February)

Average heart rate during run: 141 beats per minute (7 bpm fewer than February)

Longest run: March 5 and 26 – 16 miles (I guess I’m back to 16 mile runs with no marathon on the scheduled. This is definitely late 2017, early 2018 vibes for me. So far no random 18 milers yet.)

Shortest run: 15 out of 31 runs this month were 7-7.2 miles. 

Fastest run: March 1 and 15 – 9:45/mile, 8 miles and 9.1 miles (both tempo runs)

Slowest run (not counting hill runs): March 19 – 12:39/mile.

Fastest mile: March 15  – Mile 4 at 8:56.

Fastest strides: March 15 – strides: 169 per min

Slowest strides (not counting hill repeats):  March 19 and 26 – 156 per minute.

Total ascent: 11,735 ft. (up 2,647 from February)

Non-run monthly stats:

Total distance (running + walking): 323.6 miles (up 62.8 from February) 

Average distance per day: 10.44 miles (up 1.13 from February)

Total steps: 611,100 steps

Average steps per day: 19,713  (up 1,665 from February) 

Average resting heart rate: 59 bpm (same as February)

Lowest resting heart rate: March 2 and 28 – 53 bpm (up 1 bpm from lowest in February)

Highest resting heart rate:  March 13 – 65 bpm (same as February)

March monthly thoughts:

1.)  It’s warmed up, so my mileage and speed are both up this month (Februrary was extremely cold).

259 miles for the month seems like a lot, but apparently I also ran 259 miles in January.  I’m still enjoying running though, and really like getting in at least 7 miles every day.  It seems to be working so far for me right now.

2.)  After not doing any speed work for most of February, I’ve got back into doing weekly tempo runs (and some less intense speedwork as well). 

I’ve had trouble getting up to my normal “tempo pace” ever since my first Covid vaccine dose on March 16^th, so this is clearly a work in progress, but I am working at it.  I haven’t given up on improving my speed.

3.)  On March 16^th, I found out I would be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine starting March 19^th.  I then found out my county was giving the vaccine out to people in my group starting immediately, so in a surprise to me, I was able to get the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on March 16^th, two hours after finding out I could.  (I wrote about this more in the weekly post).

As for how the vaccine affected my running… I had some mild side effects after the first dose (I’m a younger woman, so my risk is already elevated for side effects – I also have an autoimmune disease, which hasn’t been shown to increase the risk for side effects but also has not been studied.  It is possible Hashimoto’s and/or my year round seasonal allergies caused me to have a more intense immune response to the vaccine, it’s also possible it just randomly happened to me.)

These side effects were all mild and mostly involved a headache and mild (first couple of days), followed by nausea which started 24 hours after the shot and intensified up to 48-72 hours after, and lasted about 10 days.  The nausea probably had an impact on my running since I wasn’t eating as much (it was mild, I was still eating meals, I just lost all interest in snacking – and 60 mile weeks demand a certain amount of food intake). 

I’m hoping the second dose does not involve the nausea, at least not as long lasting.  I have a feeling nausea is one of my body’s favorite ways of responding to acute stress, since when I have had bouts of extreme anxiety, I’ve also had a lot of nausea.

(I’m writing this post-second vaccine.  I had more chills/feverish feeling the second and third day after  second dose vaccine, but less nausea overall and not nearly as long lasting compared to the first dose.  Also, headaches both doses.  So, there were side effects, but different side effects from the first vaccine, and shorter lasting.  It sounds like my brother had much more severe fever/chills/headache after the second vaccine, I hope he feels better soon.)

4.)  My weight is finally down from the beginning of the month – this is the first time this has happened in 2021, and the first time it is down from the previous month’s end of month weekly average since September! 

I haven’t changed eating habits or exercising since the beginning of January (well except the nausea portion of the month).  My weight was already dropping early in March, before the Covid-19 vaccine, so I think end of February/beginning of March I reached a point where I reached a pivot point.  I’ve finally gained enough muscle to raise my BMR above what I calculated my BMR to be. 

I have a history of a slow metabolism and despite being told my thyroid hormone levels are fine, I suspect that it is still probably lower than “normal”.  There is not much I can do about it right now, but I’m adapting to life without thyroid and have mostly overcome/learned to tolerate the mild hypothyroidism symptoms that remain, which involves drinking a ton of caffeine early afternoon and just trying to ignore the fact that my hair is falling out at a high level still, 2.5 years later.

Anyway, the strength training is starting to pay off and the weight is slowly but surely starting to come down.  (Massive dip two and three days after the covid-19 vaccine is due to nausea and not eating as much, but even back to normal eating my weight is coming down.)

I’m at a normal BMI, I can afford to lose this weight slowly, but I need to take pressure off my knees especially while running and need to get rid of visceral fat I gained last year while on estrogen suppressing drugs.  So it is good to see the numbers go down, even a little bit, because it indicates  I’m on the right track.

Checking in with my New Year, New Running Goals.

1.)  I got my first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine on March 16^th, woo hoo!  I’m making progress with getting fully vaccinated against Covid-19 this month.  (I had not planned on being able to get vaccinated so early but I am thrilled.)

2.)  I haven’t signed up for any races yet, so I guess I’m doing good on waiting until I’m vaccinated!  I was very tempted to sign up for a virtual marathon for $30 in early April, but I did not, and I’m glad I didn’t.  I haven’t felt “normal” since receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and I think my body is going to take some time to recover after the second dose.  So I’m looking forward to feeling 100% and ready to run far and run fast this year, but not yet.

3.)  I ran with zero other people this month.  Once I am fully vaccinated, maybe I can convince someone to run with me?  I have no plans right now and not sure what this might look like. 

4.)  I have not started swimming again. 

5.)  I have continued to be consistent with my strength training!  This is one of the best things I have done for myself in 2021.

I have almost cried about how much my right knee has improved with the strength training.  Last year, it would flare-up with soreness following a lot of walking down stairs, and it was clearly weak and since my family has a history of osteoarthritis in the knees, I am concerned mostly about the stress I put on that joint with all my running, and also maintaining a higher weight than what is ideal for me and my running. I need to maintain a lower body weight to keep stress off my right knee – that’s why I’m working on losing the weight I gained in 2020.

I started the year out with doing just a few chair squats (squat down to where my butt touches a chair and stand up). 12 chair squats was hard and my weaker right knee would be sore afterwards. This was three months ago. I started with about 12 chair squats and maybe 12 lunges during the “big strength training session” in January. I’ve now progressed by the end of March (after one big strength training session every 3-4 days) to: 60-80 chair squats, 24 deep squats, 24 regular squats, 20 sumo squats, 20 jump squats, and 36 goblet squats (20 pound kettlebell with goblet squats).  Oh, and 24 split squats per leg.  I’m so happy with how strong my legs have become the past three months. (Yes, I ran 2600+ miles last year, and yes, I thought my legs were already strong, but there is clearly room to grow with leg strength.)

I started the year out with doing just a few lunges, and have progressed to: 48 walking lunges, 24 reverse lunges, 24 side lunges (per leg), 24 curtsy lunges. Lunges are slowly getting easier for me as well.

Consistent strength training is by far the best thing I have done for my body this year.

6.) I stretched for 28 days in March, which is 20 days more than I did in February.  I feel like I’ve reached a breakthrough and am making this a part of my routine.  I also did my shoulder stretches/strengthening to unfreeze my frozen left shoulder.  It seems to be working, at least range of motion in some directions is improving (and not so much in others).

Is the stretching helping?  I don’t think my flexibility has improved all that much yet, but I keep at it.

I am going to attempt to get myself to do some yoga in April. There used to be a time in my life when I would do yoga everyday, or at least a few times a week. There has also been 5-7 years where I’ve done little to no yoga, and it has not been easy to try to get myself back to doing yoga.

7.) I don’t think I did any cross training in March.

(Update: I did jump rope for 5 minutes after finishing my run sometime in the last two months. I’m pretty sure this was in March, but can’t find evidence of it in my jog log, so maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. I guess that is cross training, and this reminds me that jumping rope after a run is fun and I should do it more often!)

Audiobook round-up, March 2021

I used to be one of those people that didn’t think listening to an Audiobook counted as “reading” the book, and that I wouldn’t absorb the information as well if I wasn’t reading it.  Starting in February 2021, I’ve started listening to audiobooks on my runs and I’ve come to realize that a.) I’m just as focused on the book while running as I am sitting in my bed reading and b.) I can knock out my TBR list much, much faster listening while I run, since I spend 10+ hours a week running and have much less leisure reading time available (I listen at 1.4x speed, I don’t know what that says about me.)

I thought I’d share the books I’ve listened to each month, and the majority of the listening is done while running (I will sometimes listen while doing chores or strength training, too).  I have not given up on podcasts, but I’m definitely becoming more selective.

I think I’ve listened to more non-fiction books in February and March 2021 alone than what I read non-fiction in all of 2020.  Listening to audiobooks on runs is one of the best decisions I have made so far in 2021 (the other, consistent strength training).

Here is the list of audiobooks I finished in March 2021:

Fiction:

The Lost Colony – A. G. Riddle

Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie

And then there were none – Agatha Christie

Deathless Divide – Justina Ireland

The Lost Apothecary – Sarah Penner

Belgravia – Julian Fellowes

Non-fiction:

The Big Ones – Lucy Jones

The Demon in the Freezer – Richard Preston

Crisis in the Red Zone – Richard Preston

Weight, weight fluctuate

Current thyroid medication: 137.5 mcg levothyroxine (T4) daily, 10 mcg liothyronine (T3) split up into 5 mcg twice a day (started August 11, 2020). 

Current weight:  162.3 lb  (down 1.5 lb from end of February) 

Weight January 1, 2021: 163.3  lb

Weight change since Jan 1, 2021: -1.0 lb

Previous month: February 2021

Next month: April 2021