Dola.. crossposted from facebook, my July Stats.. (a few days late, just got back in the country last night)

A few days late, I just got back in the country yesterday. Here are my July Running stats:

Total Miles: 186.48 (most ever) 50 more than last July, 41 more than last month
Ascending: 4515 ft
Duration: 32:42:11
Avg Pace: 10:31 min/mile (last July 11:24)
Calories: 22,449


I beat my goal for running for the month, and this was the first time that I have ever run 300 Km in a single month. I am pretty proud that the tail end of this came during Vacation in South America, that I kept dedicated to running on my schedule, only missing one day (my last day before leaving I was just too worn out).

For August, I am going to try to step it up another notch and aim for my first 200 mile month ever. Looking at averaging around 50 miles per week for the month and somewhere around 225 miles total. By September I will either be dead or super fit! :)

You and Steve are crazy runners! In a good way.

Thanks Alan. I have some tenderness in my soleus/upper Achilles area that
I want to rest a bit. I may take it easy this week and then ramp back up.

I'm going to use Hanson's for my training plan. Their beginning level plan looks a bit light to me so I'm going to give the Advanced plan a try. It starts out around 37 miles the first full week so right where I've been for the most part.

Congrats on the great month. 186+ miles is just awesome.

Oh, that is different then. I get really nervous about achilles tenderness/soreness so am usually very careful if those ever show up.

I kept trying zero drop shoes and never could get past excessive achilles soreness from them, even with a gradual transition to them, so eventually gave up on them and went back full time to my tried and true shoes.

At least on your easier runs/dialed back running, if you avoid hills that also hopefully will help the achilles recover quicker. (Even though I guess in Dallas, hills aren't that difficult to avoid. )

IT has been kind of gross out so I have been running at the YMCA lately I can't seem to find where to manualy enter it in.

I saw the fitbit wristband at Cosco this weekend. Anyone have any input on it?

Lathum, on the strava webpage, if you click the upload button it goes to a new screen and on the left side it has the options: Device, File, Manual, Mobile.

To manually enter one, click on manual and it will let you enter that information.

For the fitbit, I have a few family members with one. They tend to do better for people who walk regularly for fitness than those that run. It will tell you how many "steps" you take based on your arm swing and the forward movement that it detects from its accelerometer that is built in. When you run, it throws it off a little bit, but not a bunch. It won't be 100% accurate, but a decent guesstimate probably.

On the fitbit website once the number of steps is uploaded they have a method of trying to equate those number of steps into miles walked based on average stride lengths for people, but this also is an approximate value and not as accurate as GPS or people who use footpods that are calibrated to their normal stride length.

My personal recommendation: if you want an activity tracker to keep track of steps in a day, or sleep quality at night, fitbits are pretty good at that. If you want something to provide more data in a run, especially in doors, I personally think you are better off just getting the information from the treadmill that you are on.

A better compromise for someone who wants a fitness tracker but also is a runner, might be the new Garmin FR15 which tries to combine a fitness tracker like a fitbit with a low end GPS watch. I haven't tried it myself, but DC Rainmaker reviews seemed to indicate that it did both functions decently.

My personal recommendation for someone who simply wants more accurate data or a way to automatically record indoor runs on treadmills would be to go with a higher end running watch that supports a footpod that can be calibrated to your running stride.

Yeah, I just want to be cautious and ready to go once September rolls around. I'm pretty excited to get started.

Do you have any races planned?

I have my old Nike+ GPS watch just sitting in my desk drawer collecting dust. I can send it over if you have any interest. I don't have foot pods for use indoors though. They probably run $20 or so.

I am running the Hartford Marathon in October. Other than that, I have three slots before then that I want to try to find for pre-races or tune-up races, but not sure what or when yet.

My mother had a really bad fall a few months back and unfortunately just is at the age she can't watch the kids anymore when my wife and I both want to run a race. So we've decided unless we arrange something else to just run different races now. So one of the half marathons I had planned to do in September, I'm going to let her run and I'll cheer her on and find something else.

Heh. I was thinking about running the Hartford Half Marathon...

My wife is running that one. My mother in law is flying in to town and will have the kids with her, so this one we both will be running (her running the half and I the full). I don't know much about the half marathon course, but the Hartford Marathon Foundation has done a great job in the races I have run put on by them. So I suspect it would be a quality experience.

Marred only by my non-quality running. :D

Actually, looks like I will be out of town that weekend. Alas.

Boo! :)

Some day we'll have to get in a race together. So you can go to the lead of the FOFC head to head race leaderboard :)

Agreed. I was pretty happy with running 124 in June and 131 in July. But those were kilometers, and you guys are posting mile totals that leave those numbers in the dust.

Or at least claim the silver! :)

thanks, appreciate the kind words :)

July was a big month for me, as expected...
Miles: 174.09 (most ever, by far. Previous best was 142.62)
Time: 24:13:58 (again most ever, by far. previous best was 20:24:09)
Ascending: 1061m (3480 feet)
Avg Pace: 8:21
Calories burned: 17,661 C (most ever)

That was a big month and also the month where my vacations started so I was less restricted to running very early but also especially not blocked from extending my runs during the last two weeks (you know, not having to get to work on time and all ;)).

It has taken a toll on my body though and I find myself with some pain around the lower left calf area. Not really the achilles per se, more like just above it. Been icing and foam rolling it for the last few days but I was stupid last weekend and did my long run, all 2 hours 15 minutes for 24.9 km, through the pain. Had a hard time walking yesterday and felt like a frigging idiot. Good news is that with my schedule and all, that was the last really long run until my half marathon on August 23rd. I got a 10K race this coming Saturday (9th) so mostly a recovery run on Sunday and will be tapering the following weekend.

I skipped my usual Monday recovery run yesterday and did that recovery run today in place of my usual intervals session. The beginning of today's run was definitely rough this morning but after a couple miles I could almost make abstraction of the pain, or at least it wasn't getting worse so that's kind of telling me it's more muscular than tendon related... Pulling and tugging on the achilles doesn't hurt. It's really when I start massaging the lower calf area that it's painful. I feel it getting somewhat better as the day goes on. Been icing and foam rolling it for the last couple days.

As I said, last Sunday's long run was my last really long run before my half. Plenty of time to tweak the training schedule and get the legs rested. I've trained hard and I feel ready already. I doubt resting a bit over three weeks will really hurt me all that much...

Another lesson learned though. Respect your body. :)

FM

I had one week with 80 km during July but that was almost silliness. I usually never get myself worked up with monthly or weekly milestones but was too close to 80 km, and 50 miles, not to add a couple kilometers to my long run that week. Was also the start of my calf woes, heh...

Calf woes that I made worse by doing my annual crazy hill workout. :D

FM

speaking of that hill workout, I have fallen in love with the 3D/2D view of Veloviewer. Take a look at that workout elevation, spread out :D

FM

Congrats on the big month. That is outstanding.

This sounds very similar to the soreness that I have. Mine is more medial and I'm guessing maybe it is the soleus muscle.

This will be my third day off and it's feeling a lot better already. I'm going a little stir crazy but this is a good time for some rest and recovery.

Thanks and yeah, when you posted about your hurting, it made me check and it's definitely in the same area. As I said, not so much achilles but more like lower part of the calf.

It already felt better during the afternoon yesterday, walking around the backyard barefoot and in the evening too. Also felt okay if a bit stiff this morning. First mile of my easy 8 km run felt a bit rough this morning then it eased up and I was able to settle into a nice 8:00/mile pace at a very easy HR (around 125 BPM). Not feeling any after effect of the run right now and I went to work on trimming the hedge right after running so it's not like I went right to sit down and baby it.

Definitely will keep a good eye on it. Ice & foam roll later on today, then another easy run tomorrow and rest on Friday. I'm thinking I should be all right for my 10K on Saturday. I'd be worried if my HM was this Saturday because it would mean a longer punishment on the legs but 10K shouldn't be much longer than 41-42 minutes...

FM

So for the folks who are doing the longer runs ... I'm starting to drift past the hour mark on my Sunday runs and it feels like I should be thinking about hydration and food sometime as the mileage/time heads north. So what do you use for accessories to carry water bottle or any food for during your runs?

I've got a pseudo-belt right now that I have for ID, phone, credit card, key ... but would swap that out for something that will scale a little better for long distance runs.

Depends alot on a few factors for me. Generally if I am running over 90 minutes, I try to plan for some kind of hydration. I don't usually worry about nutrition/food during a run until more than 2 hours.

For hydration, if I know for sure I'll be out 2+ hours, I use a nathan hydration pack which has 2 bottles that I can fill up with gatorade/water and that usually does fine unless it is super hot out.

Amazon.com : Nathan Trail Mix Hydration Belt : Sports & Outdoors

If I am not sure that I'll need anything to drink and am closer to the 90 minute mark, I'll sometimes just plan a route to take me by a convenience store and if I need to, will stop in real quick and buy a 99 cent small bottle of water to carry with me. I generally don't like to carry anything in my hands though, it really bugs me.

I know other people who actually will plan running routes through parks with water fountains, or some people who hide/stash bottles ahead of time in bushes along their route so they can stop and get a drink without having to carry anything. (I'm not so sure that I am trusting enough for that myself) :)

For nutrition, if I'm going to be out more than 2 hours, I'll usually carry Gu packets with me to have a few during the run. I say usually because sometimes like this morning I was a genius and didn't bring anything at all. If I am going on even longer runs (16+ miles), my stomach just can't simply take that many gus, so I will usually swap in some energy shoes in between gus to try to keep my belly happy. Even though the chews are not as effective as the Gus, there are only so many of those you can take before you hate life.

I have become a big fan of fueling every run I do, almost no matter how small or easy it is. I learned this from a triathlete who was on the Lose It forums. The guy was training hardcore and completed a couple complete IronMan, the last one finishing with his marahton run in 3:30 while cramping, i.e. running only at recovery pace, heh... He said that adding carbs before runs will help your muscles recover and will also alleviate the need to binge once done with your run.

For shorter runs like my 7 km easy or recovery run, up to my usual long run, I will drink something like half a cup of Gatorade and eat a pouch of those candy like fruit juice chews they sell for kids. They are fairly cheap. For harder workout, I will often drink more Gatorade before my run, rarely after.

For long runs, since I always run before breakfast, I will have a Clif Bar and a cup of Gatorade about 30 minutes before heading out, then for the run itself will bring water, chews and gels. I have the exact same hydration belt as Alan and it does the trick. For chews, I like Clif Shot bloks and Honey Stingers. The bloks are bigger than the stingers so I will usually take one of them eveyr 10 minutes during the run while I usually take to stingers at the same interval. For runs around 90 minutes, I'll substitute the chews with a gel around the middle of the run. For runs of 2 hours or more, I will take two gels with me, spacing them evenly during the run.

Eating chews or gels while running takes some getting used to. Your stomach needs to get them down and process them. Ever since my HM DNF, I made it a priority to get used to downing gels or something during my longer runs. Also, my wife insists on it ;) That episode kinda scared her, heh...

FM

Humidity running close to the beach on my summer house is killing me. I'm used to run at under 15% humidity and here it's over 85% always.

Two days ago I went running at 8 in the morning, it was cloudy after some rain during the night and the temp armature seemed fresh... Until I started to run. The smartass of me decided to not to carry any bottle of water or food as I forgot my running belt at home, just drinking a coffe without sugar before running to lose fat.

When I came back home, wet like if i jumped into a pool with the clothes on, took a shower and got ready for breakfast with wife and kids, still sweating a lot. Then I started to feel dizzy and so hot, had to go outside to take some fresh air and felt really bad for 30 minutes.

I guess it was either dehydratation or lack of sugar so yesterday I went out to buy a new running belt with two bottles attached like the one I have at home to see of it helps on my run today.

The PT I've been going to has done wonders for my knee. After only a couple of weeks, the difference is night and day. Still not enough to let me jog or bike, but hopefully I'll be cleared for that by the end of the month. My goal is to be able to participate in this event in December: HITS Running - Austin

I'm looking at the Sprint Duathlon. It starts with a 2.25 mile run, then you ride 3 laps (14 miles) of the Formula 1 track at the Circuit of the Americas, then finish with another 2.25 mile run.

Yeah, the humidity can be tough because it is not as easy to notice initially as pure heat. On the east coast U.S. we pretty much have to get used to running in 85-95% humidity every morning, it can get pretty brutal. Having hydration likely will help you out there. The killer about humidity is that it forces your body to work harder to reduce the heat since the sweat does not evaporate as quickly (creating a cooling effect). You can also take it a bit slower pace when really humid to help your body out too.



That looks pretty cool, riding a bike on the formula 1 track. Do you also do the run part on the track, or do they have you go on a different path for that? Hope your knee heals in time for it!

Has anyone else ever weighed themself before and after a run to see how much liquid they lost? I dropped over 3 pounds on a 5 mile run the other night when it was humid out. It all came back within 24 hours but it's kind of neat to see how much I can sweat :)

Yeah, getting to ride a bicycle on the track is what I'm really looking forward to. The start/finish line is the same one for the cars, and the running is also all on the track. It is an out and back route. The track starts immediately with a big hill up to Turn 1. Looks like the run goes to Turn 8 or Turn 9 then loops back. The other races look like some parts of them are not on the track.

This was me last week. The temperature was between 80* and 90* with 98 or 99% humidity. It was rough.


I'm a big sweaty guy but I'll lose 6 pounds on longer, hot runs. I enjoy seeing the gallons of sweat that I lose too.

6 pounds, nice! :D

You aren't far off. A gallon of water weighs just over 8 pounds!

I used to weigh myself after every run, until that scale in my downstairs bathroom ended up with a dead battery. It was pretty normal to lose about 6-7 pounds on my longer mid-day runs. I always called weighing myself post runs as "cheating" when I was recording my weight loss every day :)

Before and after just about every morning run. Usually in the 1-1.5 pound range, but 10k and beyond has been >2 pounds a couple of times.

I can't recall dropping 3+ from any run over the past year, although that certainly happened in my younger days after all-afternoon basketball or high school wrestling practices. I guess I'm not normally running long enough, hard enough, on hot enough days for that to take place anymore.

Had a good race this morning on a kinda special course of... 9.74 km. Yup, my watch tells me that this race course didn't have the full 10 km needed for a 10K race, bah, who cares. I was shooting for a time of 40:50 which is a pace of 4:05/km (6:34/mile) and that is exactly what my finish time of 39:38 over 9.74 km gives me. I'm happy with that. I placed 14th out of 271 finishers (top 5.2%) and 3rd out of 28 in my category, M40-49. A top 3 finish is always great in that category because it's usually a pretty strong category with many experienced runners... Even though that picture says 16th overall, there were two wheelchair competitor that I don't think I should count. They finished their 10K in 22 and 25 minutes. ;)

FM

Wow, incredible job Steve!

Was it a certified course? if so, the 9.74km is within gps error range that you may very well have run a full 10k and the watch is just showing gps error.

I don't think it's a certified course, no. Other oddity from my Garmin, NO elevation data whatsoever. And it's not only from mine but from some other guy that strava told me ran the same 10K course. His watch, a forerunner 10, tracked 9.8 km and he also didn't have any elevation data at all. And I can tell you, there were some tiny rolling hills, and one good incline to start the race. After about 500m I thought I was gonna hyperventilate. That climb wasn't really hard but combined with the excitement of the start of the race, I felt it was a very rough start...

There was also a guy who shot off the start as if he was gonna run a 400m race. He sprinted like crazy and held that pace for just a little while. I eventually passed him after a couple miles or so and never let him back in front. He finished in 40:50...

FM

oh and thanks. :)

No need to say I'm pretty happy with how it went, especially with how the calf felt this week. It held up pretty well and is just a bit stiff right now. I'm iceing it now before we go watch Gardians of the Galaxy with the family :)

FM

Congrats on the run and glad to hear that your calf woes seem to be in the rear view mirror.

In a fit of apparent insanity, I signed up for the Pixie Dust Challenge at Disneyland next May.

10K one morning, half-marathon next morning

Awesome :) I kind of want to do one of the disney marathons at some point. It just costs way more than I can afford for the trip there right now.

Yeah it's crazy expensive, but I've been saving as much as humanly possible anyway, so I'm able to make it work :)

Had the same conversation recently with my wife ... basically, trying to figure out if there is a run going on when we'll be in Orlando this December and that it would be fun to do a Disney run if it was an option. But no marathons for me!

Cross posted from facebook:


Today the flash flood warnings and crazy strong winds couldn't keep me from running. It was my 1000th mile for the year today! Last year I ran a total of 1257 miles for the entire year, so should be able to easily pass that hopefully some point around the time of the Hartford Marathon in October.

I saw a couple of guys running this morning during the downpour and thought "crazy bastards". ;)

good job!

Been kinda sidelined and stuck at 977 miles myself. Yeah, not running for two days in the middle of the week for me is because I'm sidelined for some reason. Had a rough bout of diarhea in the night from Monday to Tuesday, enough so that I ended up almost passing out from dehydration at around 3 am on Tuesday morning. Actually kinda half way blacked out, shit on the floor and all :(

Stayed home from work yesterday, drinking pedialyte all day and only went back to solid foods around 3 pm and even then, that was only a slice of white bread.

Feeling much better today and will go back to do an easy run tomorrow morning. The heaviest of the running load is behind with my half marathon in only 11 days but still, wouldn't to screw it up so close to it.

Bright side of it is that it really allowed my left calf some off time I probably would not have taken by myself, heh...

FM

Yuck, get feeling better soon FM

thanks, feeling much better, although still some 2-3 lbs under my usual weight of just a week ago...

Ran an easy 5 km on the treadmill this morning since it was a heavy rain out there and I'm not sure I felt like doing much more than that. Should be all right over the weekend. 10 days until my half...

FM

FrogMan, good to get the "bonk" out of the way ahead of the race this time ;)
In all seriousness, hope you are well rested and recovered in time to put together the half marathon you expect to achieve.

So there is this Strava bike segment that leads literally to the road my house is on. It runs from the entrance ramp from the local interstate and is a little more than a mile long. As I've gotten better at cycling, I've been slowly moving up the leaderboards on that segment but finally cracked the top 10 last night, getting slot #8. :)

Went on a ride with my wife, but picked a pretty poor route without realizing it was rush hour so had to deal with tons of cars, so took it pretty easy. I was fairly rested at the end of the ride (about 18 miles in), so decided to push it on the segment and managed to average a little more than 25 mph for it.

Not quite Subby numbers, but I'm happy with it :)

A question for the more serious bike folks here.. How often should I be doing chain cleaning/lubing? Is it once every x number of days, or once every x number of miles or what? I'm thinking that i haven't been doing it often enough, but not sure since I have only been riding about 30-50ish miles a week.