Going the Distance

..the social distance, that is. More specifically, the Happy Trails Racing "Going the (Social) Distance" challenge.

Nothing to do with Cake - I'm definitely not going for speed.

The first part of the challenge was just trying to pick a distance. Things had been intense in my professional life through January and February due to payroll year-end, but that was expected and I had a couple of races through those months that helped keep my mileage up around the 250k mark (244km & 267km respectively). March is when I usually get some breathing space...but not this year. Due to the pandemic, I was inundated with extra tasks on top of my always-punishing workload as I tried to keep up with the constantly-changing relief measures for both companies and individuals, while life outside the office became increasingly complicated: our farmers' market (source of most of our weekly groceries) closed down, regular stores required lineups and extra precautions, bank opening hours dwindled, and my job was listed as essential. My boss seems to think it's still 1983, so I'm not permitted to work from home...because HE doesn't.

The way ahead seemed rather bleak and dark.

All told, I only got in 206km in March, so I set my sights on 200k for the April challenge. At the time it seemed manageable, if a bit soft; I really should be up over 300k/month for the races I had planned this coming summer, though as they slowly began to disappear in a wave of postponements, deferrals, and virtual races, I felt less like I was slacking off. It was partly out of self-preservation: with even more hours spent at the office - furiously issuing records of employment and trying to advise clients how to access relief programmes while maintaining all of the weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly work within the strict government deadlines - that meant even less time for sleep than usual, particularly as it now took twice as long just to pick up food for the week.

I was exhausted.
Still am, really.

I faced some other challenges when it came to racking up the miles as well. First, the closure of all trail tracts nearby that are suitable for multi-hour runs: there are still trails available to me (for which I'm very grateful), but in order to put together a loop of more than a handful of kilometers I have to do a fair bit of road mileage that beats me up pretty badly. I also know that I suffer from immune system suppression if I run for longer than 3 hours at a time, and right now I'm definitely interested in keeping my immunity as strong as possible to prevent any kind of illness - even a mild cold could compromise my ability to fight off infection by the novel coronavirus, and I'm at risk for exposure every day at the work as I have no confidence in the hygiene habits of my coworkers or the clients who are still in and out of our offices daily. 

I really, REALLY wish my boss would pick up the heckin' plot.

I did complete a couple of sub-challenges during the month of April, though: when hundreds of people around the world were taking part in the Quarantine Backyard Ultra on April 4th, I did my own Quarant-Evil Backyard Challenge with 3 x 6.66km laps around my neighbourhood at the top of each hour between 9am and noon.

Yeah, I should have stopped a bit short on the last one..

I was grateful that the new race directors of Pick Your Poison - which was cancelled, but offered a virtual race - allowed us to re-select our poison of choice to still receive finisher's socks and be entered to win a jar of the coveted (and heckin' delicious!) Orillia honey.  With trail tracts closed and no desire to increase my infection risk by trying to run 50km without support, I dropped down to a 25k loop of town that allowed me to hit most of the open bits of trail, starting and finishing at my own front door.

If I were smarter I'd have started at least an hour earlier so I didn't finish after dark, but we both know there was no chance of me getting any brighter.

I actually took the day after that off, and just went for a hike with Tanker instead of running...but other than that, I was pretty consistent, and the running I put in was largely made up of 5-6km lunch runs and a few 8-12km runs on trails I can reach on foot from my house. I've respected all trail closures, and have seldom gone against the pleas of the authorities to refrain from driving to trailheads.

I will admit that the hike I took with Tank after my PYP run involved driving to a trailhead to check out a new-to-us trail which was just a bit too far away to walk.

While the Going the (Social) Distance challenge did allow you to include walks or hikes as well as running mileage, I haven't added those in to my total, though I do usually walk on my lunch on Fridays (which I also took off running, as usual), and there were a couple of other days on which I did both a run and a hike with Tanker.

There are some beautiful places right in our own backyard.

I will admit there were a couple of times that it was just the challenge that pushed me out the door - the weather has been miserable, I've been so very tired, and my right ankle decided to play up again, so I've had plenty of excuses - but this was mostly just my usual grind, with nothing spectacular thrown in to bring up my total. I even allowed myself to run a bit shorter on weekends, as I've already written off most of my race season; even if the longest race that I had planned does happen (it's in late August), I know I won't be attempting my original goal with the step-down in training I've taken lately.

Still, I did manage that 200k - plus a bonus 3.33km - by April 29th.

I ran 24 out of 30 days / 26 times in the month.
I even rode a bike once, too!

With being unable to run on my lunch on Thursdays and a nasty forecast of rain for the day, I decided to allow myself the grace of an extra day off yesterday. My ankle had been getting worse since Saturday, so I was going to give it some time to recover...then I did some therapeutic work on it during the day yesterday that almost immediately brought it back to nearly 100%. Still, the rain in the evening and the prospect of an upcoming challenge this weekend persuaded me to stick to taking the extra rest day; I'd met my goal, and felt no need to push.

That'll do.

The wonderful folks at Happy Trails Racing have posted a new challenge for May 2020, that allows you to choose your distance again, or to set an "other" goal - whether that's elevation, frequency, or a speed benchmark you'd like to reach. There's also a wonderfully supportive facebook group that began with the April challenge and will continue to be available for everyone to share their stories. The challenge is free to join, and open to anyone, anywhere in the world.

Honestly, though, I don't think I'll be joining. I have some ideas for running-related things I'd like to do in May, but holding myself to an arbitrary mileage goal is not among them. It's not like I need any real persuasion to go out and enjoy a good romp on the trails; I'm more likely to need an impetus to take time off to allow myself to heal and rest. So, I'll let all of you go out there and chase your goals, while I just see what my makes my body and mind happy this month.

I'll be over here cheering for all of you, though!