June Running Wrap-Up: A goal achieved and plenty of fun runs

Posted on by Vanessa Junkin (She Runs by the Seashore)
Photo of a road with trees to the left and a field to the right that says "June - 77.84"

June was my lowest-mileage month of the year so far, but it was also a super successful one when it came to my running.

  1. I finally ran my sub-8:00 mile. After two-and-a-half years, I finally ran my sub-8:00 1600-meter run with a time of 7:52. This was a big goal of mine, and you can read more here. I’d done this before, but not for several years.
  2. I ran 77.84 miles. As I mentioned, this was my lowest-mileage month this year, but it allowed me more time for other types of exercise, along with rest. There were also a few bad air quality days that kept me from running.
  3. I did one race. This was the Ben Layton Memorial 5K, and I was happy with how it went. Read my recap here.
  4. I ran a lot of Tour de Salisbury runs. My Tour de Salisbury recap will be coming after the end of July, but this year, I got more than half of my Tour de Salisbury legs completed in June — Assateague, Princess Anne, Salisburian, Glen Avenue, Chincoteague, Vienna and Fruitland. Four of these I did by myself, and I ran with friends for the others.
  5. I also got in some other fun group runs. In addition to my regular Eastern Shore Running Club runs and a fun postponed Global Running Day celebration, I did a waffle-shaped run with Delmarva She Runs This Town and a run with the 11:30 club. Delmarva She Runs This Town also did a fun challenge in which we wore a specific color for each day’s workouts.
  6. I ran my fastest two-miler since February 2020. I was able to run 18:14 for two miles. I did surpass this during a 5K in early July, but I was pleased to be able to lower my time.
  7. I did my 10×1-minute fast workout again and averaged a fast pace time of 7:59. This was my third attempt at this workout, which makes speed intervals more bearable in the heat, since they are only one-minute long. I alternate one-minute of going pretty much all-out with two minutes of very easy recovery, which can include walking.
  8. I’ve been doing more strength work. I completed seven DribbleUp classes during June with my six-pound ball, and four yoga classes (one of which was a class on the beach). I also got in a barre class for the first time in a long time.

July has been tough so far because of the heat, but there have definitely been some high points. Stay tuned!