Eight miles with my sister in perfect May weather. We’ve been choosing the same loop most days which means we see the same people along the way out running/walking which makes it fun.
A riveting game of charades.
Our chicks are getting huge.
My niece came over to hang out which was the highlight of the afternoon.
Along with fresh bread from the bread machine.
Never enough tie-dye.
Went for a walk.
Another instant pot winner meal done in 12 minutes total—> Ground Turkey Tacos.
Kid approved.
Bringing back an old favorite (please combine grapes and cottage cheese for me and let me know what you think).
Somehow we always see my sister around town.
New running socks and flowers… Andrew knows the way to my heart.
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Tell me three things you have going on today?!
28 comments
Alexander Q
Good Saturday morning!!! Well, I ended up finishing the 600K ultra that I was doing. I finished yesterday at about 5 pm. I finished 2nd overall, and I ended with 43 miles yesterday. I will give a quick breakdown of mileage/day and potentially some insight on my thought process through the runs. I will say though, this race started last Thursday, May 7th. I signed up for on May 6th, and kind of signed up as a after thought since I just ran a marathon on April 26th. If I had a running coach, they would probably be yelling at me right now for running such a big race and not letting my legs recover. I came out injury free though (I am very lucky). Sorry for the rambling I’ll break down mileage/days now.
Thursday 7th- 38 miles. I ran 4 miles that morning at 7:35 pace. At this point I didn’t know how seriously I was taking the competition, but then ran/walked 34 miles for the rest of the day.
Friday 8th – 29 miles. It was raining and the rain killed my phone :( I spent half the day replacing my dead phone :(
Saturday 9th – 60 miles. I had to get back into the competition. I was behind 16 miles starting this morning, ran 15, then was up for about 15 hours straight running and walking the last 44 miles.
Sunday 10th – 35 miles. I woke up this morning 15 miles behind, and my motivation was just killed. I felt utterly defeated and sorry for myself this entire day. I was in second and I didn’t think I could catch up.
Monday 11th – 43 miles. I snapped out of being a sad angry version of myself, and decided I was going to give this race my absolute all even if I didn’t win.
Tuesday 12th – 43 miles.
Wednesday 13th – 40 miles.
Thursday 14th – 50 miles. THIS DAY WAS TERRIBLE IT WAS 85 DEGREES OUTSIDE AND NO CLOUDS AGHHHHHHHH!!!!
Friday 15th – 43 miles. Also it was 85 again, but all I could think about was finishing.
Prior to this race, the longest I had ever run in a day was a marathon. My general strategy was to run about 8 miles, some days it was 15 miles, and these were my normal morning training runs. My pace was generally between 7:40 to 8:30 minutes/mile. The rest of the day I genuinely had no clue what I was doing. I would run walk for the majority of the miles, but I have never done that type of running before so I was truly winging it. I had watched youtube videos of people doing ultras before though and knew they ate a lot of candy so that is what I did. I have a serious sweet tooth so eating a full bag of gummy bears or a full bag of bite sized chocolate was so easy for me hahaha. I had never fueled like that before and running while eating solid food was so weird! Fortunately, I never had a day of stomach issues or anything like that. I really never had any issues with my legs too, and my feet were fine except for the blisters. I think the best thing that came out of this though is that the guy who won and I are friends now. He is an extremely nice person and I am so honored/ glad to have met him, even though he beat me hahaha.
Sorry for the extremely long post, I just thought I would give anyone interested an overview/recap. I ran 4 miles this morning just to make sure I still had some energy left in me. I ran 4 miles at 7:27 pace so I guess I got faster from doing all of this (??????). Its been a wild journey since I started running in June of last year. I started losing weight May 28th of last year, and so this is like a big send off from being over 300 pounds.
I hope you have a wonderful day, and I hope everyone stays safe out there!!! (Sorry if this incoherent, I don’t have the energy to proofread.)
Lee
What race was this? Was there a course? That IS really cool and crazy but WOW!!!! Congratulations!!! Great job!!!
Alex Q
It was the Florida Alabama 600k. It was a virtual race so I ran it all on asphalt/concrete. Thank you so much :D
Wendy
You are AMAZING!!! What race! I cannot believe the mileage you covered each day for a week! Congratulations!! And thank you so much for sharing part of your adventure with us. It really was fun to read your post each day.
The Hungry Runner Girl
ALEXANDER! I am just so incredibly impressed by you. 2nd place and getting faster as you go with this? You have accomplished so much in less than a YEAR. So cool that you built a friendship with your competitor! Your daily mileage is my weekly mileage ha! Seriously thank you for keeping me in the loop with this because I have looked forward to reading your journey each day! I’d love to post this summary or something on my blog, let me know. And next time I’m hot during a run I will remind myself to stop complaining because you did 50 miles in 85 degrees. WOW. Thanks again Alex and have a relaxing rest of your weekend.
Alex Q
You absolutely can post this if you want!!! Also it’s been a really fun year. I think I am going back to focusing on the marathon for a long time. This ultra was a great distraction during covid, but soon it’ll be back to business!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Thank you SO much!! I can’t wait (it will be going up on Tuesday wahoo)! If you have a picture that I can share with it let me know! Hope you are getting some amazing rest and thanks for inspiring us all.
Alex Q
Sure I have a photo from the last few steps that my wife took. I will upload it to imgur and post the link here: https://imgur.com/gallery/lF2vGVe
If that link doesn’t work, just let me know. That was taken on Friday afternoon at the very end of the race! I am so excited thank you so much!!
The Hungry Runner Girl
This is PERFECT! Thank you so much!!
Michelle
CONGRATS Alex!! That is amazing. I’m curious if you changed up the route/trails you took, or stuck to a route on repeat? How much sleep do you think you got each night? Would you switch up your clothes or shoes during the day between miles? So many questions, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a race like this. Thanks for sharing about it. And did I really see that you only started running last JUNE? I would say you’ve found a passion!!
Alex Q
I took pretty similar routes on a normal mile to mile basis. I have a pretty large neighborhood so it isn’t too bad to keep things fresh. I got about 5 to 7 hours. My legs and feet hurt so bad every night that sleeping was so difficult! It is almost impossible to go from run -> bed. It would take me at least an hour to unwind after long runs. I switched clothes about 3 times a day, always my same hat, sunglasses, and buff though. Yep last May I was 300 pounds, June I was just starting to do Couch 2 5k. I ran my first 5k in August. I ran my first 10k in September, then my first half in October. I then ran my first marathon in December! I just finished up training for my second marathon and ran that on April 26th. I hope you have a wonderful day!
eve
That is amazing Alex! Thanks for sharing the breakdown and a bit of your story! Truly inspirational!
Kel
Awesome job on the ultra!!! Are you going to do anything more to celebrate this weekend? I am sure right now you are just exhausted.
Today I am going to go on a long bike ride with my husband because I suspect I might have a tibial stress fracture and won’t be running for a little while. Unfortunately with the doctor’s office around here following new protocols I can’t to in to get an mri or anything like that. Has anyone had one who can share their experience? It’s weird because mine hurts in a very localized spot I can press down on but it goes away during a run and comes back later in the day. I just don’t want to take weeks off if I’m wrong! Maybe it‘a just not a full blown stress fracture yet, I have no idea.
The Hungry Runner Girl
Hey Kel! I am truly so so sorry about your current injury. I really hope that it is something that goes away quickly. I have had a few stress fractures in the past and they really are so hard to diagnosis on our own, I hope that you can get in soon. I would take it a day at a time and see how it feels and please keep me updated, I hope you are back to yourself in no time! Glad you are going on a long bike ride with your husband, enjoy!
Amanda
Hey! I love cottage cheese and grapes :) And you were the one to make me try grapes in cereals-the best.
Promise me you try oatmeal (plain, not flavored) topped with cottage cheese. Sounds weird, but so so so good. The sweet oatmeal with the salty cottage cheese is perfect.
The Hungry Runner Girl
Oh this makes me so happy and I will 100% be trying this! Thanks Amanda for something I have a feeling I’m going to love. Have a beautiful weekend.
Wendy
I almost asked you about your chickens yesterday. They are getting so big! How fun.
I woke up this morning with a tweaked neck/back. Not sure why, but maybe I just slept weird? I was planning on getting in about 8 miles, but we’ll see how I’m feeling in a little bit. Strange…
But the rest of the weekend will involve lots of time outside, yard work, grilling… It really is feeling like summer!
Hope your weekend is great ?
The Hungry Runner Girl
Perfect timing that I posted about it then:). BUMMER about your neck/back and I really hope it is able to feel better and better as the day goes on. Keep me updated and enjoy your day of summer. Thanks Wendy!
Mariah
Had a virtual half today, it was hot and humid and brutal. But I did it!
Now I am taking the rest of the day to chill. I had my last final for this school term last night, so now two weeks off no school! After that and the half, I am excited to nap and read and watch tv all day!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Mariah, huge congrats! To get out and do this on a hot and humid day by yourself… you are amazing and so so strong! Enjoy the next two weeks of doing things you love to do after so much hard work!
Amy S
Hi Janae! Love seeing your chicks! When do you get eggs? Today I’m going to work really hard so hopefully I don’t have to work tomorrow! Work had been crazy for the past two weeks. Happy weekend!!
The Hungry Runner Girl
Hey Amy! Thank you:) We will probably get them in about 6 months and we can’t wait. I really hope you were able to get enough work done yesterday that you have today off to relax!
Lora
Where are your adorable pineapple plates from??
The Hungry Runner Girl
Hey Lora! They are from Target!
Karen
I’m only doing one thing today: running 3.21 miles every 3 hours from 0300 to 2100 to honor my two kids with Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). I’ve done 6 legs already and only 1 left in less than an hour. So excited to complete this challenge. It’s the longest distance I’ve run in a day since doing the St George marathon in 2016.
The Hungry Runner Girl
Wow. Absolutely amazing. Your accomplishment brought tears to my eyes. Do you mind if I share this? Huge congrats!
Karen
Thank you. No problem about sharing.
Lindsay
Today was a kind of crummy day … It has been raining since saturday night. It made for GREAT sleeping weather but it also meant that I overslept! :( Then I was late getting in my workout which threw everything else off for the day. I did get to hit up whole foods AND trader joes today so that were my highlights before spending the afternoon working. I do have to ask … don’t your neighbors mind that you guys have loud chickens in the back yard??