Ouch glad to read you are fine Frogman!

Add me to list that are relieved to hear FrogMan is recovering well.
And sounds like Subby won the weekend ... glad to hear someone had the event they wanted to after a string of posts the last few days about what went wrong with different races/events.

thanks for the concerns guys, really appreciate. Really, I will be fine :)

FM

sorry about the fall/wall at the end of the race. It certainly sounds nutrition/hydration related. Lesson learned--glad you're ok and you'll get 'em next time.

looks like yes. While I didn't really have fun waiting on a bed in a gown at the ER, I did appreciate that the ER doc wanted to rule out anything wrong with my heart. I love running but if they would or could find anything wrong, I'd appreciate knowing it now rather than later.

Looks like a fairly simple case of overexertion. I'll be back later with a race report for you all...

FM

Race Report: OC Half Marathon, May 4th 2014
 

It was yet another beautiful morning in Southern California, in the low-mid 50s F by gun time. Clear and breezy.

An unusually early start time for the Half, 6:15am, while the Full Marathoners started even earlier. 5:30am. I believe it was because they wanted to reopen certain streets by 10:00. Anyways, I embraced the early start time. It was nice, cool morning.

I came into this race somewhat better prepared than my first half marathon in February - where I had battled sickness and the overall holiday laziness - but not quite fully trained for the distance. I figured I'd probably be okay for the first 8 miles, then see where my body takes me for the final 5. Knowing that, I didn't give myself a time goal again, but to at least give myself a chance to better the time from the first race.

So for the first 7 miles, I was running a nice, easy pace.. enjoying the sights, the beautiful coastal homes of Corona Del Mar, and a great views of the Pacific Ocean.

After crossing the bridge to Newport Beach, we turned inland where I faced a short climb. This is where everything fell apart. I took a break to stretch out some tighness in my calfs and quads. But I couldn't get back into the groove. Finishing off mile 7, we turned into a local park and ran a paved bike trail. It was a short hilly path, but it did a number on my legs. By mile 8, my legs were done. I couldn't maintain a run for longer than a couple of minutes at a time.

At mile 9, I looked down and noticed a small red streak running down the left side of my breast.

Great. A bloody nipple.

I took an empty package of Sports Beans I had just finished off, tucked it under my heart rate monitor and used the wrapper to shield my nipple from further chafing. Took a second empty package that I had left in my pocket and did the same to the right side. Major disaster averted.

As the later miles passed, I looked at my watch and saw my hopes for a PR diminish quickly. At the final mile, I tried to muster up enough strength to get to the finish line, with little avail.

At the final stretch, and the finish line in sights, I went for it. I looked at my watch and saw I was still about 2 minutes under my previous HM time. But then my left calf seized up, big time.

My left calf betrayed me and prevented me from getting a PR. I figuratively crawled across the finish line, 33 seconds slower than my previous time.

But I crossed it with a huge smile, and thumbs up to all the cheering spectators.

Official Race Results:
Finish: 3:51:38
Pace: 17:41
Overall: 10092 out of 10345
Men: 4033 out of 4084
M 40-44: 629 out of 637

I'm pretty sure you are allowed to deduct 5 minutes for a chafed, bloody nipple. So in fact you set your personal best by 4 minutes 27 seconds. Congrats!

Great job ABC on the race! Sounds like you weathered a few storms in that one!

Just found this thread... Love the posts by all. I just started training (4 weeks ago) in hopes to complete a 10 miler in October. I have started slowly by using run/walk intervals and last week completed a 3 mile run with no walking. I will certainly be following everyone's posts and may even create an account to track my progress. One question.... I enjoy running without placing any expectations on my performance so far, would you continue just running for the sake of running? Eventually I may start to track stats and such but I definately would if it will help in my goal of going all 10 miles in October. Thanks all!

I think it really depends on the type of person you are. I love the data and the stats from running and it has actually increased my desire to go for runs. My wife on the other hand really can do with out it and in fact it usually lessens her enjoyment of running when she pressures herself for the data point of view, so I've been trying to get her to do more runs without even worrying about the tracking.

For newer runners, the best thing you can do for improvement is just run more. Not worry about speed work or other types of exercises. Just nice and easy pace, just more of it will give newer runners the most improvement. Until you are running more than 20+ miles every week, I would say it doesn't really matter too much and just do what you enjoy the most.

There are many different reasons to track runs though, many of which can just be social uploading to a site like Strava to get encouragement from others or to ask questions from others about your runs if any come up though. For now though, glad to have you in the thread!

timmae, what Alan said. I'm much like him, fairly analytical so I love crunching numbers. Borderline OCD to be honest ;)

But yeah, the best you can do is simply to run, and not always fast, simply run when your body says it's ok to run. Don't force things, it'll come with time.

Glad to have you on board!

Oh, and don't get scared by dudes who go out too hard and end up passing up and faceplanting out of exaustion ;)

FM

and ABC, dude! Beast mode on! I mean, you had all happen in that race but you ran through it. Even though I didn't finish, I had it easier than you, you fought through it all while my body didn't allow me a chance to fight through.

Well done, seriously! :)

FM

Wow, sorry to hear about some of the struggles.

FM, I'm sorry if I missed it but did you collapse while running or were you able to stop before it came to that?

Way to fight through ABC, that's some nice MacGyver level medic work there.

Subby, do your legs feel like jelly today? That's one impressive ride.

Frogman, I'm happy to hear everything is okay!

And ABC, way to go, man! I should have been out there with you. I just kept putting off the training, and then decided in the end, I didn't have enough time to properly train. Useless excuses! I suck.

I'm still intending to run the half in Long Beach, and maybe one sooner, if I find one I like. There is one in Santa Monica on June 1, and that could be fun, but I am not sure if I can get ready for that one in time.

To add what Alan and FM said, for beginners, just run easy paces, and not worry about your times at this point.

I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum of runners than Alan and FM and others in this forum. I don't run the speeds that these guys do, far from it. But I enjoy the activity, and even more, the event races that give me that added challenge. Not from a speed aspect, but the distance. I still consider myself a beginner, even though I've been doing this about a year. I would like to think that after another year of this, and a few more pounds lost, I will see my pace improve.

In the meantime, I'll keep all the data now, so I can see how much I have improved over the years. That, and the social aspect of Strava will keep me encouraged.

As for data tracking for my own personal use, there was a point in time as recently as a few weeks ago where I was focusing too much at my performance numbers and metrics that I nearly lost the enjoyment of running. I had to take a step back and go out on a run without looking at my Garmin, not worry about my form and cadence, and just enjoy the outdoors in order to regain my love for running. It could have been a disaster, considering I was in the middle of training for the Half Marathon this past weekend.

This early in your running "career", just go out and run. And post your accomplishments here, even the little ones that may seem small to you, they are HUGE to the rest of us, even to the seasoned runners in this thread. We've all been where you are now, so seeing one of our own going through the same journey, we will applaud you and cheer you on.

Yeah, I was pretty impressed with myself at that. I just didn't want a bad situation to get worse (or more embarassing, what with two huge red streaks going down my shirt and event photographers scattered all over the course) considering I still had four miles to go.

Luckily I had the right resources in my hands and pockets to get the job done.

disclaimer, this might run long. I can get wordy, sorry but it'll help me exorcise the whole thing ;)

Race Report Demi marathon Internation Oasis Lévis, May 4th 2014

Weather was pretty rainy when I got up on Saturday, with gusts of winds swirling around our house. According to the local weather website, some northeast wind was to be expected. Northeast meant we'd have a headwind on the long downhill and some tailwind on our way back when the course would be flatter. Temperature was around 5C with a windchill around 2C which is kinda weird for a May 4th... It was cold to warm up but once we had about 8 or 9 km done, the skies kinda cleared and while there wasn't much sun, there was never any rain until much later in the day.

I picked up my bib on Saturday and with it came a nice long sleeve tech shirt.


Later on in the day, I devised some sort of pacing strategy that I thought would be sustainable given the elevation of the course. To do that, I sorta split the 21.1 km in 5 sections.

Section one, start with climb, 2 km, projected pace: 4:30/km (7:14/mile)
This was the start section. I expected to see pacers but never could find any. I was kind of overwhelmed in the middle of the crowd knowing absolutely nobody but looking around and seeing everybody in mini crowds. I positioned myself in a spot where I thought I'd be around the top 25% of racers but found myself kinda jammed there and realized that many out of shape, or simply slower runners, had placed themselves close to just behind the elite.

The first 250m were very slow and with an awkward gait trying to maneuver behind people. I found myself working up to my projected pace and passing people all the time until we headed East, then facing a good headwind but still climbing a little.

I thought I did ok in that section, especially with the crowded start, averaging 4:33/km over the first 2 km.

Section two, going downhill, 6 km, projected pace: 4:10/km (6:42/mile)
I had planned a kind of aggressive pace for that section based on my long run done a couple weeks ago. I that run, I was hitting about 4:20 without pushing too hard and I figured that until we start heading back, I could push it harder and be ok the rest of the way. Maybe that was the start of my mistakes but I don't think that was the worst. My HR stayed in check there and I was hitting my pace splits quite well or at least within range.

KM#3: 4:14
KM#4: 3:58 (!)
KM#5: 4:15
KM#6: 4:13
KM#7: 4:15
KM#8: 4:05

Not everything was bad in that race. Here's a pic my 17yo son took of me from the parking lot of our dojo. I even saw a young girl student of mine who stood there in the windy cold weather with nher mother to cheer us runners on. :)


I tried chewing a Powerbar raspberry smart blast around km #8 but ended up chewing on it for maybe a minute and had trouble swallowing it. Took some water from my belt.

Section three, flatter on the way back, 7 km, projected pace: 4:22/km (7:02/mile)
I thought this section would be flat, thinking back to my last long run that had gone through the downhill but when I did that run, I circled back earlier and didn't really do the same route. The pace I had projected for this section was based on my 15K pace test in which I averaged 4:24 over 15km on a flat course. I figured that if I pushed a tiny bit more, I'd be able to hit 4:22. I crushed the split time for the first 5 km of that section of the course mostly because it kept going downhill along the river. Not always by much, but always a bit of a negative elevation and we got hit in the back by a sometimes steady tailwind.

KM#9: 4:03
KM#10: 4:09
KM#11: 4:11
KM#12: 4:16
KM#13: 4:18
KM#14: 4:25
KM#15: 4:25

Time after 15km: 1:03:55, pace 4:15/km (6:51/mile)

Around km 13 or 14, I tried my luck with a Clif Shot bloks this time and seriously almost gagged when I choked on it. That was the end of my trying to swallow these things when going at those paces. I did take some water but apparently not enough. Heart rate was still quite in check, steadily averaging 160 or so which is about what I'd expect for me on long hard runs.

Section four, cruise back, 4.5 km, projected pace: 4:30/km (7:14/mile)
When I started the training cycle leading to this half, 4:30/km was the pace I had as a goal. It evolved over the course of the 12 weeks to a point that I thought I could push more and do better. I still think I had it in me to do better than that pace for the early part of the race. I'd want to say that I got greedy here but I don't think the pace I was doing were that much faster than what I wanted to do...

KM#16: 4:26
KM#17: 4:28
KM#18: 4:33
KM#19: 4:45

around the middle of km #19 was supposed to start my last kick push. I wanted or stupidly thought I'd be able to will my legs to go for 1.5 km at 4:10 but as you can see the beginning of the end was coming in that 19th km. I just didn't see it coming, then boom...

KM#20: 6:06

Now that one is a blur. I remember seeing 6:00 as an average pace for the first 500m of that kilometer (I set my watch to give me splits every half km) but not too sure about the second half, then I remember not so much running anymore but walking wobly and having someone grab me by my right arm and then it kinda blacked out... Next thing I knew, I was on a stretcher with two EMTs asking me questions but within minutes I was back to myself and fairly conscious, not stupid enough to say "hey coach, let me back in the game, I'm all right!" but pretty conscious. They asked me my birthdate, address and such and I was able to coherently answer.

They pricked me on the finger to take my blood glucose level and told me I was at 3.9 and that under 4, I was getting hypoglycemic. They gave me a gel type thing, similar to those runners take. After taking it, they tested me again but now I was even lower, 2.4. They gave me another gel. Glucose level would eventually level up at about 4.4 by the time we got to the ER.

Before we left, they asked me if I had anybody waiting for me by the finishing line and I went "oh crap, yes, my wife and oldest son are waiting there, and I told them when to expect me, they'll get worried!" One EMT asked me if my wife had a cell phone and if they could call her. I said yeah, dial this number but let me talk to her. Later on, she told me it was a good thing she got to talk to me or else she would have seriously freaked out to simply talk to an EMT.

Funny thing #1 happened when we got to the ER. I'm a stretcher, all sweaty, still wearing my running shoes and the nurse is entering my data, barely looking at me and she goes "were you doing any kind of physical activity when the incident happened?" I'm like huhuh, pointing my bib, "err, it's the half marathon today, I did 20 of the 21 km" She simply went "oh"...

Funny thing #2 happened when talking with the ER doc. She wanted me to see the cardiologist to rule out anything bad that could do with my heart. She said he might want to test me out on what of those cardiac stress test they do on a treadmil later on in the day. I went "huh? today? Can't that wait a day or two?" ;) They ended up not testing anything other that drawing blood twice. They said nothing looked wrong with my heart and the blood tests revealed mostly stuff that dehydrated people go through which was a relief.

That was a long day sitting idly around with too little to eat. I got to the ER at about 11:45 and they didn't have me on their list for a lunch. They got me some small chicken sandwich with some cheese, some apple juice.

I did many little things wrong in that race. Not the least of which was not drinking enough, but also not fuelling properly, and especially not testing fuelling under race conditions. Another thing I probably did wrong was put my watch with race time as the principal number instead of the HR. My HR spiked to 168 around km 17. Maybe it'd have been too late but maybe I could have been reasonable then and walk some of drink some. But it wasn't that big a spike, nothing like 190 or something that out of the ordinary.

Still, that's a good old DNF but one I can learn from I think.

After 19km, I had a time of 1:22:08 or an average pace of 4:19 per km (6:57 per mile). That was quite a run...

And to end this report, here's that ER selfie that I posted on FB. Yeah, I know, but I still smiled! :)


I also have a bruised left thumb, just on the inside and some scratches on my left knee, indicating that I was grabbed on my right and tried to brace myself to the ground on my left but then bounced back to the right and hit my chin to the ground, rubbing it on the pavement.

This was a humility lesson. Respect your body man, respect the distance. Train hard but know your limits.

The season ticket I have signed up for allows me to change future events if I want to. I have decided to opt out of the full marathon I was supposed to do in August and will do a half then. I will not try a full until I have succesfully done a half. If it only happens next Summer, then so be it. I will also change the staircase challenge I'm signed up for on June 15 from a 19km to a 13km.

Thanks to you all who expressed concerns. That touched me.

If you're still reading, thanks. Now go run, run happy! :)

As I said in my race report, I was kinda walking when I dropped but I honestly am not too sure. It really is a blur in my mind... :(

FM

That is a great race report FM. Too bad about the finish obviously, but the times you were posting leading up to it are fantastic! And you'll always have a great tale to tell from here on out as well :)

Huh. I just realized something about my last race. Aside from slowing down at each water station, I ran the entire first 7 miles. That's a record.

Huge amount of respect for everyone in this thread that went out and did something this weekend. Glad we all made it through relatively unscathed.

I spent yesterday in a golf cart with a few beers, back on the bike today. Other than a bad right hamstring, I feel pretty good...stretched out my commute to 16 miles just...because. :)

Exactly - in the end it's all about the stories. It would be boring if you finished EVERY race in tip top form. :D

wow incredible stuff. that pace was insane. now you won't wonder if you could have pushed yourself harder.

in that case, yeah, it really was the opposite of boring ;)

FM

thanks, I wanted to push myself, I did, pretty much to the last limit. But I still believe I'm capable of these times, and will eventually be back to do these paces again. Probably not at the next half where I'll go with a different mindset but eventually I will. :)

It's all a work in progress...

FM

I think you absolutely are capable of that pace. Just have to try a few new things with nutrition and hydration to keep yourself ahead of the wall. Your body definitely appears to be capable of handling that pace though otherwise.

The temperature jumped from the mid-70s last week to 95 yesterday, and we're at 91 right now and probably heading up from there. This is coinciding with a time that I can't run in the mornings, either, so I've gone back to the ol' high-incline treadmill that I leaned on in the aftermath of the hernia surgery last fall. (I get bored running on the treadmill, but if I walk, I can watch a movie on the iPad.) Not counting warmup time, I did 75 minutes on Saturday at a long run heart rate, 30 on Monday at tempo heart rate (160-165 for me), and 30 today in the 150-155 range. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy this way of doing cardio. I really need to figure out how much I can get away with doing this while still running some as well. I think I want to do another HM this fall, so I need to get my mileage up, but I think I'm going to experiment with 2-3 days of high-incline walking and just 2 days of running, including one long run, and see if that will work for me.

Wow FrogMan, what a great run up until you were practically in the shadow of the finish line. Great job, you'll no doubt get this one back.

So a friend talked me into running a fairly hilly (for me) half marathon this weekend. looks like close to 650-700 ft of elevation. It is no mountain climbing or anything, but pretty much constantly rolling hills.

I've already told her that I'm not going to "race" it though, just going to use it for a nice long run. Will be my longest run since my marathon in February though!

Frogman's run has really gotten me thinking. I've been trying hard over the last couple months to get into shape after a terrible winter where I basically went into hibernation and put on at least 5 pounds of fat (probably more since I'm sure I lost muscle). My running started off sporadic but is getting more consistent now that the weather is improving, and I've been supplementing it with some at-home workouts. Still, the running is my passion, the workouts are a chore.

Dealing with my loss of performance from a mental standpoint has been tough. My competitive streak had me run over 8 miles a few weeks ago at way top fast a pace for my current shape and I was a wreck physically for 10 days afterwards and still feel some knee pain now from an old injury I tweaked.

I want to run the Manitoba Half Marathon in June but there is almost no way I will be able to match last years time (1:32). I had a good tempo run today but there is a huge difference between 4 miles and 13 and I just can't see myself making enough progress in the next month to be able to handle those extra miles. In the 5 or 6 years I've been running I have always consistently improved so I'm really struggling with wrapping my head around a step back, actually to the point of considering not running the race just to avoid the disappointment, which is pretty cowardly.

But after reading FM's experience I'm wondering if actually running it might be dangerous. I've always pushed myself to the point of near exhaustion during races. Two years ago I ran so hard that for the next 2 or 3 hours I was constantly in the bathroom, as my body decided it needed to get rid of everything inside it (apparently this is a sign of over exertion). Last year I needed volunteers to help guide me to the water tent because I was basically a walking zombie once I crossed the line. And that was with me being in much better shape. I'm now concerned that I wont be able to prevent myself from trying to match that time, and pushing myself into a similar or worse situation to what FM just experienced.

thanks Todd. I'm slowly getting over the disappointment. For all the nice words I'm spouting, that DNF still stings. I know I will another shot. It won't be this fast course until next spring, but still, I'll take another shot at 13.1. Probably going at it more conservative, but using the same 12 weeks training plan, I'm sure I can build and improve even more.

FM

I think you need to assess your fitness level as of now and fix different goals and forget a bit about last year's race. You're not the Fidatelo of a year ago, for many little reasons, but you can work on improving the Fidatelo of 2014.

I decided on the goals I wanted to hit for my race based on my analysis of my last 12 weeks of training. What I didn't take into account were the little newbie mistakes, like fueling and hydration, even nutrition going back a few days before race day. Probably all things you already know more about than I do. It also was my first half marathon whereas it's not for you. Yeah, you might be tempted to go for a PR, but not all races are goal races and you could simply use it as a stepping stone to improve and jump forward...

I will not shoot for the same kind of time in my half in August, unless my training goes SOOOOO well. I will pull back and try to finish with a reasonable time and build from there.

FM

I don't think running the half is dangerous by itself. People run/walk halfs in all kind of shape. I think its dangerous to push yourself beyond your current capabilities though.

Jack Daniels belief is that you should train based on your current fitness and not train based upon your goal fitness. Setting your pace times for your runs based upon your current fitness will in result improve your fitness of course but also be the most effective method for training. If you try to train based on old levels of fitness or your goal fitness, you aren't improving your fitness any faster and you also increase the chance of injury or overtraining.

So as Frogman said, just re-evaluate where you are currently, be honest with yourself and set your current goals. Your fitness will return faster the second time around and it will also help keep things more fun by having realistic and reachable expectations.

Alan and FM, everything you guys say makes perfect sense. It's all extremely logical. I'm just not sure if I can trust myself to stick to that plan during the actual race. When I went for that 8 miler I mentioned, I went out telling myself "this is a long slow day. 9 min miles, keep it comfortable, enjoy the run". Within the first mile I was running <8 minute miles and by the end I was a train wreck.

It's interesting, in team sports or head-to-head competition I am not a competitive person at all. I know that there are always going to be people that are faster/stronger/better than me and I just have fun doing what I can do and getting some exercise. And with running it's not about the other runners either. I know I'll never be the fastest runner in a field, and I'm ok with that. But I find it extremely hard to turn off the part of my brain that says I can be better than the me that ran yesterday.

Perhaps if I had suffered an injury it would be easier to accept slowing down, rather than just because I wasn't committed the last 6 months. Maybe its an issue of maturity. I don't know, but as much as I need to be realistic about my own fitness levels I also need to be realistic about my own, I don't know, 'mental issues' for lack of a better term at the moment.

This is something I liked so much from using that Hal Higdon's advanced half marathon plan, the fact that it had a race/pace test every 3 weeks, and of increasing distance. One could say it didn't serve me, but I made the conscious decision to go with the different sections and paces given what I had tested.

While it's frustrating not to have finished, I'm trying to convince myself that I really pushed as hard as I could and really left it out on the course.

FM

My training is kind of in a funk for the next fours weeks and posting about it on the Lose It's weekly runners thread helped me figure it out but they start a new thread every week so I figure I'd keep a running story of my experiences and thoughts here, here's a new dynasty for you :)
The real life story of a running frog... - Front Office Football Central

It's mostly to keep my training log as well as my race reports online in one spot. You're all welcome to stop by and post comments or questions.

FM

I have to wake up in 90 minutes to drive down to Rhode Island and run that half-marathon with a friend.. of course I have been awake for over an hour thanks to a work emergency.

I have a feeling this will be a pretty yucky run today :)

One thing i have changed in my way of running after the 4 months stop i did for the winter is to forget about the heard rate monitor or any kind of measuring my runs while I'm running (i do afterwards) to avoid the frustration of not being able to run at the same pace i did 5 months ago.

As fidatelo, i did nothing for the winter, between the bad weather, unusually cold and specially raining for Spain (yeah the Nordic guys can have a laugh at Spanish "cold and rainy") and lots of travels across Europe, Canada and USA that messed with my schedule and routine, i always found an excuse, real or not, to not to run.

Then just when i started i had some health issues like doubled vision/dizziness and ended being tested for Multiple Sclerosis, that has not been yet discarded while waiting for more tests, but in any case I'm totally fine now and the fast recovery would indicate by the neurologist, that in case I have multiple sclerosis, won't be the quickly lethal one as in that one you degenerate really fast without recoveries in between.

So slowly i have come back to more constant running since April, and now i have reintroduced mountain biking as cross training to give a rest to my knees from time to time.

The bad news is that I have badly realised how fast you can lose your form. By the end of October i was running 14Km, now after 4 i start to feel my legs really tired, some days i stop, some i can run a little more to 5 or 6km.

I have found what i was doing wrong. While i started with shorter distances, i still wanted to keep my old pace of under 6min per k, and my legs can't cope with it. It was frustrating me, and my brain was telling me to stop almost since k2.

The problem is on my legs, not the lungs/heart, probably because the 8 pounds i gained this winter but i hope the biking will help with it.

Now i have decided to just come back to enjoying running, no more hear rate monitor, no looking at my phone (iSmootrun) and deactivating the sound clues.

I have also discovered audiobooks, that help a lot to not to think about the pain on my legs.

Since then i have started to enjoy again, my pace is so slow, 7min per k, but i'm increasing the distances and the most important thing i'm enjoying again.

On the other hand, i feel really well in the bike, yesterday was the first day, I rode for 20km for first time since Sept and when i checked the time at the end, to my surprise it was my fastest average ever for that route.

It proves nothing is wrong on my legs, so i guess it's more of a psychological issue that i need to get by.

Today is a rest day for me and i'm really missing running, this is a good sign :)

I think that is a great attitude icy, while I really enjoy the data , honestly the best thing anyone can do is just run more. So whatever helps you enjoy it more is the best thing to do!

So for me, I ran that impromptu half marathon today and boy was that rough. It was like three times the elevation of my last half marathon and even double of my marathon.

I just took it easy for the most part but by mile 10 I was a bit wiped out by the hills and had to walk two or three times. I know it was a tougher course but I still ran about a minute per mile slower. I think that I took a little too much easy time off after my marathon and now I am having doubts about setting a new personal record in my half next month. I think my fitness is a bit further behind where I would like it to be right now.

Icy, I agree with Alan, great attitude. Run just for the fun of running. Have fun, listen to an audiobook (in my case it's my music that I like a lot).

Take care, your fitness will get back to you in due time...

As for you Alan, that looked like a rough HM course but you did what I couldn't do last week, i.e. walk when you had to instead of driving yourself to the ground...

FM

My wife ran with several of her girlfriends in a local 5K this weekend that also had a "family fun day," so all of the families took the young 'uns. My 5-year-old was fascinated with the whole thing and wants to do a race herself. After doing some reading, I'm thinking I don't want her to try a 5K for at least a couple more years, but we found a local one-mile race for kids that I think she'll enjoy. She is *extremely* excited to do it. Went out and did her first "training" run/walk this morning after I got back from my run. I'm thinking that at her age above all else I want it to be fun, so I just let her set the intervals by feel after explaining to her about running for as long as she felt like it, then recovering with a walk, etc. I pushed her a hair at the end to do one final short sprint to get to the 3/4-mile mark. (Well, and because I had my footpod on and was curious how fast she can sprint. ;)) When we came inside, she excitedly told my wife "That was SO much fun, Mommy! I can't wait to practice my race again!" Fun times.

Has anyone else discovered a local runner through Strava who impresses the hell out of you? There's a woman in town who ran 7:01 pace for 15 miles today. That's pretty incredible in my book. I noticed her because there were a couple of local overlapping hill segments for us. She would absolutely crush me in a race.

Pretty cool Ben! I've tried to get my daughters more into running, and they have done some kids runs at a few of my races, but they don't really show a huge desire to do it that much so I haven't pushed them any. I wish they had more interest though!



I joke with my wife about 3-4 local guys here that dominate most of the strava segments in town. On the occasional few that I manage to snipe some, I make a huge deal as a joke with my wife. (like one segment I beat one of them on, they evidently ran it as a warmup on a day they were sick, lol). The guys here are ultra runners with like 16 minute 5k times.. So I pretty much just sit and enjoy 5-6th place on most of the local segments :)

I do admit though that lately my favorite thing to do after every run is check out the strava activity playback to see who I came across during my runs if they might have been on strava. Yesterday I passed two runners twice on my run, and my wife said she also passed them on her run, and we ran in completely different locations! So I checked it out and sure enough, the two of them were on strava (well one of them was) and I see where they ran 9.5 miles at an average 6:20 pace (lol)

Some people are just in another league. I have made up some ground on her on the segments we have in common, so I'm holding out hope that I can take the crown someday.

My 5K PR from high school is better than her PR, but I have to wonder if all of our cross-country courses were legitimately 5 kilometers. She definitely would have been stiff competition for me even at my peak.

This is really cool. My wife and I used to run with our oldest son (now 5) in a stroller all the time, and we tried a bit with both after the second but the littler one was never as good about being in the stroller and as the other one got a bit older he was less tolerant of it as well. So that ended about 2-3 years ago.

Every year we take them out to our local Running Room's "20 minute challenge", which is basically a free event that gets everyone to run 20 minutes, distance doesn't matter. Our kids get all excited, run for about a block and then make us carry them for the next 18 minutes. Every once in awhile they get us to put them down, sprint for 30 seconds, and then make us carry them.

I really hope one day we an get them to actually run a bit more, I guess we'll see. Your story makes me a bit jealous :)

On a personal running note, we had a 'play date' at a park across town today so my wife made a great suggestion: I run there, she drives the kids, then after she runs home and I take them home. It was 11 miles, so if we could do it and feel ok we'd both feel pretty confident about signing up for the half marathon next month (this winter hit us both hard mentally and physically).

So this morning I hit the bricks and did my 11 miles. I got there feeling pretty strong and very confident another 2 miles would not have been an issue. The knees are a bit sore (mostly due to me still carrying around too much weight), but otherwise I feel great. My pace was not fantastic, but better than what I had been bracing myself for. I still don't think I can match my time from last year, and likely not even the one from the year before, but that one is at least in play now. If nothing else, if I ran the same pace as yesterday I'd be 'ok' with it. Not really happy or satisfied, but mentally I could accept it.

I think the best part though is how decent my body feels. I'm sure I'll feel a bit worse tomorrow, but when I destroyed myself running 8.7 miles a couple months back I knew things were bad within about an hour. This feels very different and I'm no longer as concerned with killing myself on Father's Day.

Personally I'm blooming impressed by anyone who can do sub-10 minute miles, I can jog 5 miles without too much hassle but hecked if I can get to those sorts of speeds on any kind of distance ... heck I reckon my full sprint speed is slower than half of the mile speeds I see people posting generally ;)

Just signed up for my first race in 20 years. It's a 4-mile event called the Delaney Dash in Old Saybrook. Should be interesting to see what I can do.

Oh awesome! I was looking at that race this last weekend when I was checking out local races. It is actually surprising that memorial day weekend there is not that many races around me, where there are usually tons every other weekend.

Come on down! :)

I still haven't decided what I want to do. For a while I was considering driving out to the cape. There just is not much good within an hour drive for me next weekend. (Tons of 5ks and not much else). Right now I'm leaning on just heading down to Rhode Island and doing a simulated 15k race pace run by myself. Still looking to see if I can find maybe a 10k somewhere nearby and I can do a 3 mile warmup prior to racing the 10k.

FWIW, I wouldn't want to drive more than an hour for a race either. My main criteria in selecting races is convenience. This one is about 15 minutes away.

My wife will be out of town on business Wed-Fri this week, which was going to force me to miss my first scheduled tempo run on Thursday for my half-marathon training program. Now, I can just move my Saturday cross-training to Thursday and do a nice fast run on Saturday. Schedule problem solved!

Do you guys run with your phones and also have a watch?

I listen to podcasts so keep my phone on me and am trying to justify the cost of buying a GPS watch and am having trouble doing so.

I carry my phone in a pouch for most of my runs, just for safety reasons. As I get further out in miles, I don't want to be stranded with no way to get home in case of an emergency or accident. I don't really use it for much anything on my runs though as I prefer to run without music/podcasts/etc though.

I use my watch to track my runs instead of phones because of the better accuracy with them plus more features.

I like how my phone announces my pace, time, and mileage.

I had a watch but it broke almost a year ago and I've just used my phone since. I don't really miss it, and its way easier to use a site like Strava with my phone than it was with the watch.

I'll be back with some race report later but here's a quick update on my trail race that was this morning.

8K distance in 42:16
10th overall out of 481 finishers!
10th in men out of 167
3rd in M40-49 out of 67!!!

On any other race of that distance, that pace would have been a disappointment to me but that was a rough course, lots of tree roots, rocks to hop, muddy spots with steep uphills and crazy technical downhills in which we couldn't really let go and fly or else you would fly off course. ;) Sooooooooo very out of my comfort zone but very happy I got it done.

Race report with pictures will be posted in my dynasty thread at some point tomorrow...

As for watch vs phone, I love the splits and precision I get from my Garmin more than what I was getting from a phone app. Also the ability to preprogram intervals is really useful, that is if you get serious enough to do that kind of stuff...

FM

dola, and you don't need to waterproof your watch in case of rain out there...

FM

Nice work, FrogMan.
Interesting that 2/3 of people signing up for that race were women ... kind of information that might have gotten me more motivated to run a couple of decades ago :)

I'll be doing this 3.5 mile race on Thursday - Chicago JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge

This was my first race last year; hoping to see my time this year a couple of minutes faster than what I ran last year. I don't have any Strava stuff on it since I did not have my watch yet at this time. But I know I had to stop and walk a couple of times before finishing it, which would certainly be a big disappointment this year.

Finally, I'm very much in the "watch" category. I've found the phone apps to be frustrating for pulling up pace info while running, especially with my phone having a 5 digit PIN that comes up after 30 seconds of inactivity. I haven't gotten into a habit of listening to music while running, and I sometimes will program intervals with the watch. So I can't really imagine changing back to phone apps after having the watch for the past ten months.

I think maybe for now I'll stick with the phone apps and then if I see something discounted on craigslist or fatwallet, maybe get a watch.

hoopsguy,

I realized on Strava recently that you generally run just a couple miles away from my house. Small world.

I was working in Naperville (Winfield/Diehl) for most of the past 9 months ... now in Deerfield and off to Schaumburg next month. But I'm guessing that I was working even closer to your house.

If you are looking for areas to run and get bored of the stuff close to your house, an area that I liked an awful lot was the trails at County Farm/Geneva Road that weave through Wheaton. I've been meaning to get out there again some weekend and explore a bit more.
Run Profile | New forest preserve Easy Run - 83/63%/72DP near West Chicago | Times and Records | Strava

Bah.. I broke down and ended up signing my wife and I up for the half marathon out on the cape this weekend.

5am drive for 90 minutes and then run for 13 miles. Sounds like a fun day! :)

Have fun!

Since this happens so rarely...wheeee!

Haha awesome! I saw that segment yesterday or the day before I think and saw you were one second behind. I was wondering if you were going to notice that and give it a huge push :)

Heh of course I immediately noticed. :D

of course, we all simply go out like that and sign up for a half marathon, just like that ;)

Enjoy! :D

FM

Any good running shirt recommendations? All I have are cotton shirts. Not the ideal option, I'm sure.

Anything but cotton?

I wear 'technical' shirts, I don't really know if there is a more proper name for them or a difference or whatever. Many of them I received for joining Running Room clinics or signing up for races. I've also received a couple as birthday gifts. I have some I like more than others, but I couldn't tell you what it is about them (no specific brands or styles or anything).

So, yeah... sorry.

yeah, same for me. I go to a place called Winners that sell end of line stuff. They are about the same as TJ Maxx. For some unknown reasons, my three "technical shirts" I first had on rotation were all Fila brand, just because they were the ones they had in stock. But I have bought a couple Adidas for my son as well as a Nike I think. Whatever works. And yeah, I now have one from a race, but it's from that DNF HM so I'm only wearing it in training. ;) I figure to collect another three shirts this Summer.

And yeah, anything but cotton. Can't stand working out in cotton anymore...

FM

And Fidatelo, Running Room is a nice chain, isn't it? Took me a while to realize they're mostly only in Canada though... With my season ticket I get 15% off everything but electronics.

FM

Same here. I avoid cotton at all costs when running. (especially when it is raining/humid).

In the states, you can get stuff from Nike/Reebok/Under Armor/Adidas/etc pretty easily from Sports Authority or Dick's Sporting Goods or similar places. You can also get some cheaper synthetic/technical shirts made by Champion from Target. I also have a selection of 5-6 tech shirts that I received from races too.

The key places I avoid cotton are the places that touch my body: Socks, shirt and underwear. It has virtually eliminated chafing for me other than in extreme conditions.

Amazon.com: Soffe Men's Running Short: Clothing

God, the reviews for these running shorts are hilarious. I guess they are big with the Marines.

Ran my first race since 1991 or so. Went pretty well for where I am at in my attempt to get in shape.

Run Profile | Delaney Dash - Old Saybrook, CT near Old Saybrook | Times and Records | Strava

1 6:59
2 7:28
3 7:25
4 7:28

It was cold when I first got to the race site. I was worried that might be a problem as I had only a short sleeve shirt and shorts on, but after my warmup run, I was fine.

Got out fast, then settled into a good race pace. A few times at the end a girl was trying to pass me, which helped spur me on a bit. I ended up beating everyone in my pack. A good return to competitive running.

The girl I follow on Strava won the women's side. So now I know what she looks like in person. She of course destroyed me. :)

Great job! Pretty consistent miles for your last three there too.

OK, I am getting a 5/10K team together for a race in September. It will be my first race, am pretty excited.

I need FOFC to help me come up with a clever team name, I am recruiting some people from work for the team so it has to be clean.

Sole Train
Heart and Sole
Scrambled Legs (and Achin)
Team (whatever departments you're recruiting)
Not So Fast but Furious
Bless our Soles
Victorious Secret
Agony of Da Feet
Run Like the Winded
Rapid Thigh Movement

Great job Kodos! Way to get back into the competitive game ;)

FM

So it turned out to be beautiful weather for the run which made this terrible idea not as horrible as it could have been I suppose :) The 4:45am wake up call made it feel like I did not sleep at all, but once there the adrenaline ended up waking me up enough.

My goal for the weekend was to run a 15k race, but since I could not find one of those anywhere closer than Maryland, half-marathon it would be. I had only run 13 miles 1 times since last February (2 weeks ago), and it hurt really bad when I did it. So I wasn't sure how my body would feel this time around.

I was keeping my wife company at the start line (which normally I don't do since we run different pace), so it meant my first mile, I spent half of it trying to dodge runners much slower than me. That ended up being ok since I just treated it as a warmup.. once I got clear enough though (near 3/4th of a mile in), I wanted to sit in with a pace close to what I should be able to handle for the entire 13.1 miles (right around a 8:50min/mile pace).

The first several miles were pretty easy, and keeping that pace was no problem. I backed off a bit once I hit some hills and accelerated on the downhill, and pretty much it all felt really good. I hit a mental wall right before mile 12, likely just due to not having run this far many times in quite a while and ended up taking a quick 1 minute breather, but then finished really strong the final 1.5 miles or so at about an 8:40 pace, so likely the quick walk break didn't cost me more than 5-15 seconds at most.

I ended up at 1:57:29 for the race, which I think is pretty respectable for my fitness level. Was not my personal record, but the Half marathon I am training for is still three weeks away.



My Heart rate did exactly what I wanted it to. The slow climb through zone 4 for most of the race. It did not look like I was in danger of red-lining until the very last 500 meters or so when I picked up the pace to finish strong at the line.

So this tells me that I should absolutely be able to maintain at least an 8:50 pace or faster for my Half in 3 weeks and hopefully break my Personal record. It will be a slightly hillier course, so might be close.. but I still have at least 1 more week of hard work to put in for it.

Check this out. Talk about having heart...

Those are great splits, Kodos.

Not sure if I accidentally shut it off but Strava didn't record my run this morning. That was frustrating.

Thanks. I was pleased with the results. That said, I hope I can get significantly faster. :)

Been having knee reactions after running in the last couple of months, so although I usually run 8-10 miles, after 2-3 weeks no running (still cycling though as no reaction after that) I've stared at 1 and increasing a mile every run to see if there's a trigger point.

Just did a 5k and while I normally run at a pace that is at the upper end of comfortable for me, I did put pretty much max effort into it today to try and put in a decent time (only timed myself once over 5k - seem to have missed out that particular distance for some reason)

Very pleased I did: it was tough, and it probably took me nearly 10 minutes to get over it, but 20:54 is a time I am very pleased with. And it's a time that I have no intention of trying to beat tbh as I'm not actually sure I enjoyed it!

Effort 5k run on 05/28/2014 | CYCLING Training Log Entry | MapMyRide

Grumble grumble.... 2.3 kms short of the 120 kms for May badge on Strava...

You still have half a day left...

Not annoyed enough to do something about it. Just annoyed enough to complain.

come on, you know you're OCD enough to squeeze in a run this evening! :p

FM

If I hadn't done my longest run this morning, I'd have done it. As it is, I'm pretty sore. OCD loses to practicality this time.

We're on vacation in some hilly terrain. Rather than trying to fool around with my tempo and intervals runs this week, I'm thinking that I should just take advantage of the uncommon opportunity for me to do hill repeats. For those of you who do these, what sort of workouts do you do?

Hill repeats are basically like your speed intervals except using hills instead of a faster pace. You want to organize them the same way you do intervals:

1) Hill climb at pace
2) Walk (or slow jog) down hill back to start.

The goal of the walk period is the same as intervals, that you want to lower your heart rate back down to prepare for the climb part which is the meat of the workout.

Generally the most common type of hill workouts would be either:

1) Short hills which would be roughly 1/10th or slightly more of a mile. maybe about .12 or so that you would run at 5k pace
or 2) Long hills which would be roughly 3/10th or 1/3 of a mile that you would take somewhat closer to a 10k pace.

Just like intervals, you would start the first week at about 6 short hill repetitions or 4 long hills and then the next week increase 1 or 2 repeats depending on your level of success previously.

Had a poor time of it today. Meant to try and run a steady 4 miler, went off a little faster for the first mile than I planned, but not a million miles off, but then went way too fast for the next two miles. Then got a stitch that i couldn't run through, and had to call it quits after 3.5 miles

Took me about 5 minutes walking before I could slow jog the last three quarters of a mile back, but then when i got home i was sweating like mad and skin was absolutely roasting on arms and legs for a couple of minutes at least. After shower began to cool down but then felt cold for bit.

Think i under-hydrated in the day, and combined with going faster than I should have for that distance it didn't work very well. Still feel tired a couple of hours later, but after a fair amount of liquid and a large salad temperatures have settled down at least.

Not fun, but fortunately not too serious.

Same here - the heat really got to me today and I just slogged through the last couple of miles. No worries though, bad days are inevitable and tomorrow will be better.

:+1:

This time of year was brutal for me last year and is brutal once again this year. The first few days running with temps around 90F when I'm not acclimated to it just are always really rough.

I've been making sure to adjust my paces down for the heat as I get going here, and it still ends up being brutal! :)

The one thing I am good at though is staying hydrated all week. I try to make an effort of doing that well.

I broke in the bike with Strava over the weekend. I picked up a Wahoo Fitness RFLKT to preserve battery life on the iPhone. I had planned to do a one hour ride, but had to bail after 20-25 minutes due to knee pain. The knee I hurt back at Easter still is giving me issues. I tried out a new brace, but it didn't work well. If I was just spinning, the knee felt fine, but anytime I had to apply torque to the pedals, I got a sharp pain in the knee. Need to figure out something to deal with it.

Not sure if this will help any, but I had to take a bit of a break from biking for a while because of knee pains. I was mashing too hard down on the up hills and it was causing my knees issue.

I have tried to make of an effort to watch my cadence now on hills and take it in a lower gear and just keep my cadence higher and it seems to have helped a bunch. I also noticed less knee pains once I got clipless pedals and can use a full circular motion rather than just pushing down too.

I believe Alan posted the link to athlinks.com in FrogMan's dynasty thread in order to make me feel bad about myself. Just about every 0-2 result has someone burying me by 4+ minutes on 5k runs.

With that out of the way, is there a better way to sort runners? Ideally, I could look for people within 2 miles or 5 miles of home rather than 25 miles. Or something that finds "top 50 comparable runners" based on 2+ races where our results were close rather than something where I'm seeing people annihilate me 2x and know that I'm not catching them for years, barring something involving a loss of limbs on their part.

You can sort it based on wins instead and see people who you have beaten if that helps, might also find people closer to you that way? I don't know if it has the other sorting options that you are looking for though. Keep in mind that those matches depend on the other people signing up for that site too though, so many of the people you likely do better than might not even have signed up on the site. More likely to see the more hard core people who have signed up is my guess.

A couple of big things for me this week...

Right now it looks like on my Wednesday easy run, I should pass 2000 miles recorded on Strava. It depends on how much I end up running during today's track workout though. I could end up actually passing 2000 miles on my Thursday tempo run instead though.

Also this weekend is my goal Half-marathon that I've been training for this spring. I'm wanting to break my Personal record from last fall for a half but right now am not feeling super confident about that. My last two week long runs have been a little short of horrible. I'm suffering a bit with the sudden heat change the last few weeks here. Running in 85-90 degree heat with direct sunlight and 90+% humidity has been rough for me to get re-acclimated to so far. Luckily the Half marathon is at 7am, so it might only be in the 70s at that time I hope..

The other issue is this course is about 4 times more hilly than my previous half personal record course was:



There seriously is very little flat parts in the entire course, and the hill at mile 3 is about a 5% overall grade, but the first half of it is closer to 7-9% grade climb.

I'll have all of three of my kids there to cheer me on for Father's day though, the first time that all of them have been there to watch me in a half before.