You might as well sign up for the OC Half in May, then if you're up for it, the Long Beach Half in October to complete your Beach Cities Challenge and earn a special medal.

I am guessing I will for sure on the OC, because I have heard that is a fun one to do (more fun than Surf City). And while I don't have a particular pull towards doing the Long Beach, if it is connected to the first two like you say, then it makes sense for me to do that one as well.

Then I guess I can aim for the 2015 LA Marathon.

So I'm curious. I could see myself doing a half-marathon some day, but at least for now, I don't really see a reason to aim for a marathon. Honestly, marathons sound a bit brutal. What's the draw with them? Is it just the challenge?

(Also, I feel like I may have asked this question or something very similar in the past...)

For me it really is the challenge. I've done the half marathon distance in training. Next up is trying to do it as fast as I can, not simply to "do it". Then after that, training for a full and see that I can do it, that I can put in the work to get it done. That's about it...

FM

If you watch "Spirit of the Marathon" you might get a glimpse of the kind of draw with a marathon, at least in the amateur runners' eyes.

I would believe most people run for the personal challenge, others run to benefit some charity, while others might run just for the free T-shirt and the medal.

For me, it's about the challenge first, and then, down the line, hopefully to run in both the NYC and Boston marathons.

Same for me. To be able to say that I did it. The bonus is that training for a marathon the correct way will also naturally improve your 5k/10k/half times and overall running fitness as well. So it is a win-win pretty much!

Odd fact of the day.. I just noticed that my past two weeks of activities were both exactly 5 hours and 56 minutes. Not sure that I could have planned that if I had wanted to.

On a different note, someone stage an intervention for Ben. Need to get him away from FOF7 long enough to get out running some! :)

It's not FOF7. I've had a nasty head cold since Friday. It has kept me from dong any real exercise. I went to the gym on Friday to try to do some cycling and left after about 10 minutes. I'm hoping to try an easy run and some lifting today, but I'm still nowhere near 100%.

Oh yuck! Get better soon!

Ugh. Did a 30-minute run today. Definitely still feeling the effects of this thing. I feel a little worse after the run than I did before I ran. :(

As my Sunday long runs start to exceed 1 1/2 hours, I'm going to need to experiment with energy supplements. I probably wont get into Gu gels, as my gag reflex tends to kick in when I eat any gooey textures.

Looking into Sports beans as a good alternative. Or Shot Blocks. Any other products out there that I'm unaware of?

I'm sick too. Tough time of year.

First time I tried refuelling during a long run last Summer, I tried a local brand of gel, sold under the name of Louis Garneau. Didn't suit me too well. The gellish nature of it had me close to gagging and caused some kind of acid reflux during a long, kinda harder, run. I tried some fruit candies after that, Sunkist brand, and they worked quite well.

We don't have a good running store closeby but when I went to the closest general sports for some hockey stuff three weeks ago, I bought three varieties of Honey Stinger energy chews to try them out and maybe purchase online later. Tried one of the packs on a Sunday treadmill run last week and they were quite okay, actually good to the taste and not gooey at all.

Was at my alma mater last weekend for my son's swimming meet and went to their sports store which has tons of running stuff and I bought some more different things to try. Some cliff Shot Bloks and another type of gel a bit more liquid (X4 by Procircuit, not sure it's well known) to try over the next few weeks before I really get into the training for my half marathon. I will settle for a brand/flavour or two and will then order some more online for cheaper...

FM

Pro Circuit High Tech Nutrition — ENDURANCE | X4 – Carbs Gel

That's the X4 gel that I wanna try out, mostly because I know that's what they give out on the Marathon (and prossibly the half marathon) course I'm going to run next Summer... Would make it easier to be used to it and take some given to me instead of carrying them on my belt...

What tells me it's probably not too well known in the US is the fact that their website is still only a .CA...

FM

I ran my 15k Sunday. 22 degrees outside. I wasn't overly thrilled with my time. 12:30 or so pace, I finished in just under 2 hours.

The road running wore me out. I've been almost all treadmill since I hurt my foot in October. I just couldn't simulate the hills. Mile 6, Russell Blvd, was all uphill. I saw more people walking than running. Two people puked.

I never stopped, I never puked. I finished 3rd to last among guys in my age group. I've got to run more outside, and not just in my neighborhood. I need some things that are going to kick my butt over long runs on the weekend.

I signed up for what should be a relatively easy 5k next month, Frozen Buns Run. I'm hoping to sub 30 minutes on that run.

One of my goals for next year is to run a half, hopefully in April. Another is to run a race of some sort every month. So far I've logged 180 miles this year. I'm going to try and hit 200 before the end.

who cares what rank you finished man, YOU FINISHED! That is pure awesomeness, period! Well done! :)

FM

I'm still very motivated to run. I have times to beat now. I'm ready for another 15k so I can beat this time.

that's one thing I never thought would get me going as much as it has, to have times/paces to beat over specific distances. Even a simple Strava 10K challenge was a good reason to train for that specific distance and then to get it done in 43:11, by myself a Thursday morning at 5:30 am, I felt so supremely awesome and proud, yet had only my wife to tell to. Really, life is good...

:)

FM

Absolutely, the only person I ever feel that I am competing against is myself.

If I go out there trying to compare against others that have been running longer than me, or even those who haven't been running as long but may be more gifted genetically, then I would get discouraged very fast.

Instead, I look at where I was 3 months, 6 months, a year ago and compare to now and see what a huge improvement there has been.

I keep my workouts as workouts, but when I go to race, I always have in mind my previous best that I am looking to beat. If I surpass my personal goals, then that is what I am looking for. If I fall short, then I have something to double my efforts on for the next time.

Great job on your race! And for not puking! :)

Out of curiosity, can anyone explain why I wouldn't have set a number of personal bests according to Strava for that run on Sunday?

I didn't get a single trophy, despite logging nearly twice the distance of my last outdoor run. I thought for sure I'd have some 10k/15k awards.

It is the first time that you have run those distances. Strava doesn't give you an award the first time you set that distance. It only updates in the future if you beat that time in that distance later.

If you go to your profile page, you will see your 10k personal best was from that race. (the strava profile page doesn't show 15k as one of the distances on the profile page though, but next time you run a 15k, it will show up as your new best or 2nd best depending on how you do).

Dola, on your profile page you can manually add your personal PR if you want to by clicking on the Add PR button, and it does have an option for 15k there.

Thanks Alan!

One last Q: Is it worth becoming a premium member?

Most of the premium only content eventually comes for free to everyone else at some point. The only exceptions are the extra analysis from Heart rate monitors, or for cyclist with power meters. Otherwise there is not a bunch of other data that you get extra there.

I personally don't use strava for analytics these days, I use a software program called sporttracks instead. Strava is more my social running hangout so to speak, where you can get encouragement from friends and encourage others. That said, I'll probably renew my premium membership when it is up next year just due to the amount of enjoyment I get from the site.

I would love to get back on the streets, but the weather here has been terrible all month, and does not look like it will improve any time soon. The temperature is above average for the time of year, but I hate dealing with the wind and the rain. Maybe it is time for a treadmill?

Exactly. To think I ran my first 10K in 50 something which was fast for a first timer at 10K but then trained for a real race and did 46:09 and then trained some more and did 43:11. Always amazed at looking at my own improvements.

Then, with the whole virtual community of runners, to see other runners, either faster or slower than me, improve their own time, it's empowering. Makes me want to beat my own times even more!

Oh, of course, I sometimes look at the reference times of previous editions of the races I'm entered into and try to see where I could place in my age group, but that is so not the point. I just wanna be a better me than I was last week or last month...

FM

I second SportTracks. $35 and it's yours forever. Tons of nice analytics such as monitoring your trainaing load and pace and all. Plugins developed by users, some for a fee, but some available for free.

As for Strava, I'm still paying by the month and it's not really for the extra features but more for the same reason as Alan, to give back for what I'm getting as support.

I bit the bullet on a becoming a lifelong runner on Smashrun yesterday. Paid $129 to get lifetime access to their pro features and it'll be only $1 per year to renew as long as I run 400 km in the year. Regular price of Pro is 59$ but there are only 100 lifelong spots, at least for now. The analytics are pretty impressive with promises of new developments that pro users can vote on and such. I rationalized the $129 that it'll be paid back once I renew in a year...

FM

http://smashrun.com/pro

if you're interested to see what it is about...

FM

My opinion is whatever you need to have the motivation to get the run in sounds like a good idea to me. I have a treadmill and actually prefer to run in bad weather than the treadmill, but my wife is the opposite and likes the treadmill over huge wind/rain/cold.

The treadmill that I have is a fairly affordable one, that also folds up to not take up too much room when not being used, but I know several others on here (like FM) have more expensive ones that have some really nice features.

I knew running in our kind of winter would probably put an halt to my running so that's why I got myself a treadmill. I also thought I would be able to handle the boring aspect of it and so far, it's been quite ok, I actually like if not love to run on the treadmill.

This is my model:
Commercial 1750 | NordicTrack

although the 2013 version had an iPad holder on top. Don't know why they took it off as I often watch streamed shows on it and it makes the running time go faster. But I also often just run with music...

FM

Had my highest TRIMP score ever during today's run with a 306. I'm guessing it was the elevation that did it. Was about 3 times more feet climbed than in my Half-marathon I ran in September.

Love having the 50 degree weather today though. I know it only lasts this weekend, but was nice to have it while it lasted!

That's a pretty high TRIMP there. My highest was 260 on my 18K race that had something like 250m of elevation gain...

FM

TRIMP?

It is a way to measure the amount of effort put in to a workout to determine level of overtraining or undertraining. A quick definition I found for it:

Little Christmas 5k action for me around the neighborhood. 3rd best times for the mile and 5k since I've used Strava.

Outside chance of completing the Rapha Festive 500 Challenge on Strava. Starting Christmas Eve and ending at 11:59p on New Year's Eve, ride 500 km. I knocked out 80km the first two days (despite a bad flat on Christmas Eve), but I will probably need a double metric on one of the next 6 days to realistically complete this thing.

Rapha Festive 500

dang, that's a lot of mileage for a week! :eek:

For me, after not doing one single run outside since December 5th, I decided to enter the 20+13 challenge, to run 20+13=33 miles between Dec. 22 and Dec 31, so in 10 days. Treadmill runs don't count for that challenge, so that meant taking things outside... First day, Sunday, we had a snowstorm with real crazy winds. Seriously, it was dangerous out there. So much so that when I mentioned that challenge to my wife, she looked really worried, asked me "aren't there other challenges you can accept?", like she understood the will to challenge myself but didn't want me to be outside on them narrower streets.

Wind had died down by Monday but streets were still kinda narrow, then they cleaned up over night and yesterday was better. I've now run outside for three days in a row and plan on doing so tomorrow again. Weather website said it was something like 9F that felt like -9F today but I felt great outside. Quiet and calm, not a sound other than my footsteps as I ran without music for a rare occasion.

17.2 miles into the challenge after 4 days, this is more than doable :)

FM

The hardest part of running in the cold is that first mile. Once you get going and your body heats up it's not too bad as long as you have the gear for it. When the roads are dangerous though it is a bit more problematic. Good job getting out there fm!

Subby, I got a garmin edge 810 for Christmas that I really wanted to try out yesterday but I talked myself out of it. I just couldn't will myself to go biking with a -4f wind chill. Do you bike all winter? I assume not on your road bike? If so, what do you do for your gear to fight the cold/wind at high speeds in the winter?

I didn't run yesterday due to some calf and quad soreness from that Christmas run. Surprised me a 5k run could do that to me at this point.

Both pains are still lingering this morning.

Thanks, and I agree. And even to some extent, simply cracking the door open before you gear up can be the toughest part. :p


Any run can do that to you, depending on how hard you push ;)

FM

PR 1 mile: 8:47. Still some soreness in my right calf and twitching in my right quad. I haven't ran in two days because of that. I didn't want three days off.

52 degrees, slight wind.

Feeling awesome!!

http://www.downanddirtymudrun.com/

Has anyone done one of these? My brother challenged me to join him in doing the one in Hartford this June. I like that it emphasizes full body strength with all the climbing obstacles.

Hit my goal of breaking into the 180s by the end of the year. Yay me!

awesome!

Awesome!! great job!

gonna third the "awesome" comment, really, well done!

As for me, my OCD is kicking in VERY hard right now. After doing what I felt was my last run of 2013 this morning, an 8 km treadmill run, I looked at my monthly and yearly totals on smashrun and I'm coming up to 198 km for December and 1049 km on the year... sigh, feel like hoping on the belt for a silly 2 km and make it an even 200 km on the month and 1050+ on the year, but I won't. Or will I? ;)

FM

Fantastic!