Didn't notice this earlier, very cool FM!

thanks :)

I keep surprising myself. This is all new stuff to me. Looking at the heart rate data I'm thinking I could have (or should have) pushed myself harder. Then again, I was venturing in the unknown. A bit more than two weeks ago, I had never really run and went out for some 5k of run and walk which I've been steadily increasing since then. My longest run prior to today was 7.2 km done just last Thursday. I'm still very much testing my limits... Today was a good test.

FM

10k at 5min per k, is a very good time, specially since you recently started to run and looking at your heart rate, you can do it way better. In my attempt yesterday, where i did my best time with 6:38 per k, my heart rate average was over 170, and in the last K i reached my top of 192bpm and sustained it until the end, so it means basically that i gave all that i had. You did a great time and still had a lot in your tank, you are in way better shape than you thought, congrats!

As for me, i expected to do yesterday 10k at just under 7m per k (my best was 7:12 per k) but felt good towards the end and did 6:38 as i said before.

Before that, I had planned to start a 12 weeks training plan to run the 10k in under 6:30, but seeing how close i was, i'm going to take the next level and start a 10k under 6 minutes per k 12 weeks training plan.

Ben, Here is Strava's support information on the subject:

https://strava.zendesk.com/entries/2...ts-for-Running


In your run, you had your second mile split at 7:54, but Strava recorded your PR for a mile at 7:55, so it wasn't considering that entire mile, but instead likely took enough of the uphill climb before that mile or perhaps enough after to find the fastest time that was not more than a .25% elevation loss I suppose.

For instance from .5 mile to 1.5 mile it was pretty even distance and that was close to a neutral elevation, which you ran a little over 8 minutes from eyeballing it. So I am guessing somewhere in there Strava found enough of your run to fit under its elevation requirements.

I had a similar run on May 4th where I had a mile that i ran right at 8:01, but lost close to 200 ft in elevation and strava didn't find any piece of that that was flat enough for me to get credit for it. So I would say don't just discount it, you ran it.. you did good there :)

For the cyclists here, there are a couple new Ride challenges on Strava:

PowerBar Take on the Tour
Ride 1,680 kilometers in 33 days
06/29/2013 — 07/31/2013

Rapha Rising: La Centième
Climb 7,235 meters in 8 days
07/14/2013 — 07/21/2013

Had my second follow up with my orthopedist today. He said that I can resume running in July and cycling in August. I feel terrible starting this and then disappearing for two months, but I love seeing all of the success it has helped engender.

Looking forward to joining Team FOFC in July!

Awesome, keep up the good recovery!

I have a Strava question: How does the Any way 10k work? I ran 21k yesterday but did not get credit. Did I have to literally run just 10k to get the badge?

Don't feel bad at all. I think it is great that so many people have joined in. Plus I love talking about running with others.

Should be 10k or more. Yours should have counted.. Send a message to their support probably to see what they can do to check it out

Looking forward to seeing you back at it, Subby!

ALL: I'm leaning heavily toward training for a half-marathon. The RunKeeper "Half Marathon Under 2:00" seems to start off close to where I am right now as a runner and I like that it's 5 days per week. I'd love to hear any of your thoughts on it.

http://runkeeper.com/fitness-class/r...6/23/13&page=0

I'm open to a "better" one. My main preference is that it's something that starts close to where I am now in terms of volume (30-35 miles per week).

Awesome news!

Thanks for the 411, Alan! I'll probably just let it slide, though, I was just curious if I was misunderstanding the requirements.

Glad to see you are on the mend, Subby.

The fine print says there is a 90 minute time limit to complete the 10K. Maybe it looked at your entire run and saw you exceeded that time (by 4 minutes!).

there's a max of 90 minutes for your run to be counted in their challenge, even if it's 10k or more. Your run is 4 minutes too long I'm afraid :(

FM

edit: ABC beat me to it

lookng forward to see you back on the run! :)

FM

Doh!

from what i understand, you can delete your run from strava, then trim the gpx file by removing some of your run, then reimport into strava. this will get you under 90min. might work.

I use a Garmin, and realised over the weekend that it has a 5k PB on my front page set when I was rehabbing at 3.5minute walks and 1.5 minute walks. Turns out my 5k PB was only a minute or so slower than my 4 mile time as the continuous 5k run kinda got skipped in my programme.

So decided to drop distance down to 5k today just to erase this anomaly: 21:41 later I'm very happy.

Was thinking that I can get back to increasing distance a mile or so a month (I usually only run an average of 1.5 times a week, biking at least that on average), but reading stuff on here by people who clearly have looked into this, it appears I should vary distance and speed a bit more rather than just increasing distance every now and again for maximum benefit?

Yay, great news! This thread was the inspiration to get me off the couch and running again, glad you started it!

Me too. It definitely kickstarted my exercise habits.

it is fairly similar to the one that I am starting up next Monday. The only thing that I do not like on this runkeeper one is that on a few weeks it has the long runs as close to 40-50% of the weekly total miles which I have read can be a risk of injury. That miles per week is as important as miles on the long run and you don't want your long run to be more than 30-33% of your weekly miles to be safe from injury.

I think your training plan here has a little more speed work, while mine has a bit more base/mileage is the main difference. The bulk of it is roughly the same though.

From what I have seen, most of the half marathon plans are fairly similar in nature, so you'd probably be fine with most of them. The difference in what types of speed work or how you do it probably matter more for people who've run alot more than either of us is my guess.

I despise that about Garmin connect. It does not do what some of the others (such as strava) do by looking for the best 5k in your run. It just says, was your run more than 5k and what was the total time. I pretty much ignore the Personal records page on Garmin Connect.

As for your question on running plan.. Probably something better for a coach, as your situation is clearly not the same as mine. Running a 21:41 5k indicates you clearly have a good aerobic base from whatever activities (your biking or whatever). Most people if they are running only once a week and are newer runners, they should just run an aerobic pace "easy run", but you obviously have a base.

As example, I was pretty sedentary before I started running, and way overweight. I have had to spend months working on my aerobic base just to get under a 30 minute 5k. (When I started, i couldn't even run 1 minute without running out of breath). Frogman has been pretty active with his martial arts and other stuff longer, and he conquered his weight loss issues before me, so it has taken him much less to get to a better performance thanks to already having a good base.

So, hard to say since I am no running coach, my guess though is if you are running only once a week, you probably would do well with an easy run of whatever distance that you end with strides to work in some speed work which is usually fun. I honestly don't know in your case if throwing in a tempo run would also be as beneficial or more. Maybe one of our more experienced runners such as digamma or those who have run longer might have some better suggestions based on experience.

Where is the plan that you're starting up?

I heard some good things about the Cool Runnings Half Marathon plans.

Half Marathon Training Plan & Schedule

The one I am doing is the Intermediate Half-Marathon plan. It says for people who expect to run the half in 1:45 or less, but I am likely going to be 2:00 to 2:15 myself, but I like the mileage and build of it for me better.

I have also heard good things about the Higdon half-marathon plans, but since I did a Higdon 10k plan, I wanted to try something different just to try to see which I like better.

So basically it's speed work on Tuesday and easy runs all other days, or am I missing something with regard to pacing on days other than Tuesdays?

(After having a convo with digamma, I'm leaning away from the RunKeeper plan, so I'm actively looking for something else. The week of June 24th is the time I have targeted to start.

Yes, pretty much easy pacing every day other than Tuesday. At least for me, I find that I can run fairly fast around the track. My problem is that I just can't keep the pace going long enough before my Heart rate spikes. So I am trying to mainly focus on continuing to build my aerobic base as my priority.

To be honest, I want to say that I ran a half marathon, but I'm even more so just using this to up my aerobic base in hopes that I can continue to improve on my 5k and 10k times right now. My Aerobic base really stunk when I started running (when I finally could run a 5k, it was over 40 minutes), so I've had to do alot of work with it.

Yeah, Ben sent me a note separately, and my feedback was that I thought the RunKeeper plan he posted was too much running.

Subby and I have "talked" a lot about running over the years and he would probably argue that I fall more into the "run less" camp anyway, but it goes back to what I wrote earlier. Training is cumulative, but it does take time. I don't think launching into a 40+ mile plan (there were some hidden miles in the RK plan) is necessarily the way to jump into a half marathon.

I've used Hal Higdon's plans a decent amount. They are less mileage, particularly on non-hard days. The long days are fairly comparable.

The structure of those plans are pretty similar with a long run on the weekend, speed work, hills or tempo during the week, a run at race pace (shorter distance (say a 10-K if you are training for a half marathon)) and a couple of easy runs.

What are you trying to get out of it? A sub-22 5-K is no joke, so are you looking to really get faster or just stay in shape?

Can you elaborate more on where your feelings fall? Run less in regards to the amount of miles per week, or number of days run or both? What is your thoughts behind it, injury prevention, or the diminishing returns from increased mileage beyond a point? Or something else?

I realize that it is a pretty healthy debate on the subject, most of my friends that have run for years seem to side with the belief of more miles so I would love to hear a little more on your thoughts to balance those out in my head.

I've tried to read quite a bit on the two sides, and from what I best understand, the proponents of running less feel that beyond 30 miles per week, you increase injury risk proportional to the amount of diminishing benefit you gain from actually running those miles. I also have read that the feeling is with too much running, you do not properly give your body recovery time and the recovery time is where your body improvement actually occurs. Generally this side seems to term easy miles as "junk miles" and instead running less during the week but more focused on specific purposes (long Run, Tempo Run, interval run, hills, etc) is of more benefit.

I don't want to misrepresent it any, and this is actually something that interests me greatly so am very curious to hear more of this line of thought. So far I've been planning my running around the other side of the debate, primarily due to the influences of people I talk to often that have far more experience than me on the subject.

I hit a major achievement in my C25K training last night: I ran for 20 minutes straight. I hadn't run that long in over 15 years.

Then after a 5 minute break, the workout called for two additional 5 minute runs separated by a 3 minute stretch break. Well, I ran the first 5, straight through the 3 minute break and continued into the final 5 minute run, giving me a total 13 minutes of straight running to close out my workout!

Awesome progress!

That's great!

A combination of circumstances (short run Sunday, no run Monday, no lower body weight work since last Wednesday) made me suspect that both the legs and lungs would be particularly fresh today. It was scheduled to be a moderate run for 60 minutes. I decided to split it up into two runs: 30 minutes fast and 30 minutes slow, with a 3ish-minute walk to let the heart rate recover a bit in between. Even though I went in expecting faster times and possible PRs, I was not expecting the 16:47 2-mile and 26:19 5K I saw today.

Good stuff. Those "x minutes straight running" times are very, very satisfying.

Thanks! I was dreading this workout as it's got the longest running section (20 minutes) of all the workouts in the program. I had only recently been able to run the 10 minute runs in previous workouts, so having to suddenly double that time scared the shit out of me.

But my biggest fear was that if I couldn't run the 20 minutes, I would have huge doubts on being able to run the entire 5K race this coming Saturday. So I used that to motivate me to complete the 20 minutes, and then the 13 minutes at the end.

Not sure if this helps any or not, but I ended up walking part of three of my first four official 5k races that I did.

You are making great progress, just go out this Saturday and enjoy the atmosphere. It is alot more fun when you aren't pressuring yourself or forcing yourself to meet a goal.

Thanks. I have to remind myself that there are many other 5Ks out there every month to attempt a full run if I don't get it the first time. But it sure would be sweet if I could. :)

I'm only really running because the physio told me I had to to help rebuild ankle leg strength from an Achilles rupture.

My initial target was to runs two half hour runs a week instead of one of my three bike rides, but I find I don't have time to do four sessions a week (my job has irregular start/finish hours). Three I can usually manage, but not four. So I'm having to give up a bit of cycling to do 3 runs and three rides every fortnight.

Once I'd got there i decided I may as well try and get the running up to an hour so it was close to my short bike ride in terms of time, as i felt I was doing less by running instead of cycling, and plan is to increase runs a mile a month at the moment. However i now think that running and cycling is beneficial - different muscles, seemingly different aerobic capacities (I jump off my bike after a 40k bike ride over a couple of decent hills round here and although sweaty and tired, I'm not catching my breath at all. Fair to say it's a different picture after a run!)

Yesterday was the first time since school 22 years ago that I have consciously set out to run any distance at something approaching as quick as I thought I could, and I was surprised at the difference between a few months ago thinking 3 miles was a long way to run without stopping, and yesterday realising how short 5k is compared to 5miles!

The end goal will basically be to stay in shape: I only cycle for fun and fitness, have no real intention to enter any crits or anything, and my guess is that's all the running will be. I'll probably end up next year entering my local 10k event as it starts 5 minutes walk from my house (didn't even realise it existed until two weeks ago!) but that's about it.

I've got a flat run which is down the canal towpath, and mapped out a run that takes in a couple of steepish hills which I guess will help, for variety at least, and from how I felt yesterday I can see now the logic of running longer and slower to help shorter distance pace

But I guess my question is 'is the reverse true: will running the occasional shorter distance more all-out help me in the longer runs?' I'm guessing even if it doesn't physically help, variety might be the reason to throw the occasional one inevy now and again.

that is great progress, well done! :)

FM

Congrats, that's a huge accomplishment!

Today was the first time I can honestly say that I had "fun" on a run. We're at my in-laws' condo in the Western NC mountains for a long weekend away with another couple and their two kids. The hubby decided to go out on the run with me without knowing how hilly it was. We ran together for a mile at a slow pace, which made for a nice warm-up. There's a really rough hill near the end of the first mile, and he decided to walk after that. I ran the next section a little faster, but still at an easy pace for me. After 30 minutes total, I did 11 short uphill sprints: 15-second all-out sprints to the top, 45-second recovery walking down. Repeat. Really enjoyed that, and it seemed like a good substitute for my scheduled 3 miles + intervals run for today.

As I approach the end of my Couch-to-5K training (I'm technically done with training, I just need to run the final 5K as a formality), I wonder what's next for me and I would like your opinions on this.

I'll be out of the country (in the Philippines) for three weeks in July, and by looking at my itinerary, my running will be pretty limited during this time. And when I return, I may suffer a slight setback but probably not too much.

So here I will be, back from vacation and ready to pound the pavement once again. But which way? Train for 10K? Improve my 5K time? First build my mileage to 20/wk, then work on speed/distance?

Currently, I expect my first 5K to be completed in about 45 minutes. I would definitely like to improve on that, but what I hear from you guys is that this will be accomplished on its own as I continue to do the miles.

I have a lot of short term goals in my head. I just don't know which order I can achieve them, or whether I can tackle more than one with one type of training regimen.

My initial thought would be to just work on building my mileage first with no speed-work at this time. Once I maintain 20 miles/week, then I can branch out to a more specific goal.

What do you think FOFC?

That is pretty much what I did. Almost every single one of my friends told me that the two easiest ways to improve my running at the start was:

1) Run more
2) Lose weight

You are pretty close to where I was when I finished C25k both time wise and endurance wise. My suggestion is not to worry about any of the other speed work or such for a while. Just work on your aerobic base so you can get to the point that you can run without the walk breaks (even at a slower pace if needed). Just by running more, you'll get faster automatically as your fitness improves.

Obviously I don't mean go out and run 6 miles tomorrow or anything. Just take it gradual so you don't increase your risk of injury. Remember that running is a long term achievement and not something you can improve quickly.

What was suggested to me was to keep my 3 runs a week schedule and start turning one of the three into my "long run" for the week. Increase it by 1/2 a mile or 1 mile the next week and then run that distance the next 2-3 weeks to let my body get used to it. Then increase it again by a mile or so a few weeks later.

What I did while working on improving my fitness was mix in a few more 5k races over the course of a few months. it helped provide myself benchmarks and help me see my slight improvement as i went.

I did a C25K program last summer/fall and managed to complete one 5k with no walk breaks. I thought that was a pretty good accomplishment and jumped into the 5k2-10k program. Winter wasn't good for my routine and I am now back to not being able to run a full 5k without walk breaks. My new goal is to get back to 5k shape, then get to where I can run a 5k easily without thinking I am about to die, then work for the 10k. Basically, don't push too far too fast. The 5k is a great accomplishment, but there are many more accomplishments available before hitting the 10k mark.

So how do you upload pics on Strava?

You do it via instagram. If you have an instagram account, you can link your strava account to it. Then when you take and upload a picture to instagram, if it is in the same location/time as one of your runs on Strava, it will populate it into your run to show off

For ABC (or others getting to the end of C25K and looking at where to go next).. here is a blog post from a running coach that talks about the 10% rule in running (or the fallacy of the rule) and gives some suggestions on how to add miles to start. He stresses once again that it is a long term thing, and pushing too high too fast can lead to injury risks.

How to Increase Mileage Safely: Forget the 10% Rule

Thanks for the article. This helps me plan out the next phase (or "season" as you put it) in my training, which is to increase my mileage to 20 per week. Originally I had planned on making this a 12 week plan, increasing about 5-8% per week with a paring week every 3 or 4 weeks. I thought this was a conservative enough plan, but after reading this article, I will likely stretch this out through the rest of the calendar year. This gives me a half a year to just focus on miles and be able to adjust as my body allows. 20 miles/week may come sooner than that, but as long as it will minimize risk of injury, I'll be happy with this plan.

Will be joining the group next week. I've gotten about 20 miles in over the past couple of weeks, after running a 5K (2nd one ever, first was in May of this year) and deciding that I wanted better times for the two I'm planning to run in July.

Thanks to all who participate here, and especially Alan T for sharing a ton of lessons learned between this thread and his dynasty.

I'm thinking about buying a weight scale to replace my current one.

The cheap one i have seems to be accurate enough with the weight, but the body fat sensor it has is totally random, when i take weight it can go anywhere from 15% to 45% body fat.

Besides controlling my weight, that i don't find that important as you also gain muscle when you train, i want to control my body fat. Is the Withings one good enough?

I have read about the Withings scale and find it too expensive at like 150€, mainly because it has wifi and even air condition sensors but... i can live entering my weight once per week in runkeeper manually, don't need it to be exported by wifi.

Is there any good alternative just for weight and body fat % or is that Withings really worth it?

I like the withings because of the integration it has with so many things that I use as apps, and it is a very polished user experience.

That said, I don't think you're going to find any scale with an accurate body fat % reading. My withings scale doesn't have as much a range of error as your scale does based on what you said, but it is definitely not as accurate as doing a real body fat composition test.

For Scales, here was DC Rainmaker's recommendations from last year, as far as I know it has not changed that much (I'm not aware of much new out there at least):


My 2012 Sports Gadget Recommendations | DC Rainmaker

went out for a fourth run with my 16yo son yesterday. Every time we've gone out together, I've been pushing him a little more, in distance for now.

#1: 3.2 km at a pace of 5:29 per km
#2: 4.2 km at a pace of 5:36 per km
#3: 5.0 km at a pace of 5:57 per km
#4: 5.4 km at a pace of 5:43 per km

I've come to realize that he can run at 5:30 per km for about 3 km, then he starts to slow down and I'm working on keeping him on pace.

First run, we didn't do more than 3k.
Second run, he slowed down a little.
Third run, I knew I wanted us to do a 5k so I didn't push him much in the middle.
Fourth run, I knew we were taking a route that would challenge us in the middle and I knew we'd do at least 5k. First 3 to 3.5, we were doing 5:30 sharp, then we hit a tougher tiny uphill patch and he really slowed down.

I want him to keep on running with me but I know he's not that fond of it. I think he understands that he will benefit from it in the upcoming hockey season and I want him to keep on running with me every once in a while so I'm taking it easy on him. ;) For me, these runs are fairly easy ones. In yesterday's run, my heartbeat never once went over 149. But I was with my son and that was cool. :)

FM

j
 

*Very* encouraging run at the mountain condo tonight. Here's why:

May 31: Run Profile | 4-Mile Mountain Run (2 Big Hills) | Times and Records | Strava (4 miles, 11:55 per mile, 146 HR)

June 22: Run Profile | Five-Mile Mountain Run | Times and Records | Strava (5.1 miles, 10:52 per mile, 151 HR)

In a little over three weeks, I'm knocked a full minute off my time in these crazy mountains without working much harder. Still got a long way to go, but those numbers feel very gratifying.

Yesterday i was invited by a friend to go this morning to do a short mtb ride with his group. Even when they said it would be just 25k, I was so scared as i have been biking for only a month, so i woke up early, had a monster healthy breakfast and got ready.

It ended being way softer of what i thought, we started doing the same route i usually do, totally flat, slower than my average speed for that route, but i was thinking, let's go slow because i'll die in the climbs later. Then we reached the climb, the first time i did it, so i was not sure if it was so long and started slow, just following the pack. The group started to break and i followed the top ones, ending the climb with them, so satisfied as they all talked about how in shape i looked for a newbie into mountain biking, i guess the months running helped a lot with my conditioning.

I'm going to go out with them every sunday from now, they have some 40k to 50k routes planned, will be a good test for me.

Cool! I used to going mountain biking on some pretty steep trails when I lived in Turkey (a decade ago now...good grief)...and it was a blast...if not a killer workout. We would drop down into this canyon on a single-track trail that was about 10 blocks from my apartment and just go...then we'd have to climb back up (which would be the workout)...the goal was to get to the Fresh Orange Juice street vendor at the top. :)

For those who use Garmin, what model, HRM, footpod, etc. might you recommend? My Polar is having some issues and that might be a good excuse to switch over.

Can't recommend between any two models but I own the Forerunner 210. It does the job, I love it. I have the model without a footpod but with the HRM strap. I got it mostly because it was the cheapest of their more complete models and there is currently a 50$ off mail rebate thing for students so I entered on my son's name...

FM

I have a 405 (no HRM or footpod or anything), I like it but a word of warning: the touch controls are probably more of a detriment than a feature. I find when it rains they stop registering properly, and in the winter I can't use them with gloves on. I do like the looks over the older rectangle models, though. And overall the thing is fantastic and I will use it until the day it or I dies.

I have the 210 with Garmin HRM (Soft Strap) and footpod. I love the 210 and have had no problems with either the footpod or HRM.

Dola... My June play month is over now, had my race this weekend and had a blast. Back on new training schedule starting tomorrow for the next 12 weeks. Should be really interesting to see how this ends up going for me. I'm hoping it will prepare me well for running a half marathon but also double to keep improving my 5k and 10k times as well.

Just got mine today, can post impressions of it this week but I won't have a point of comparison as this will be my first running watch.

Do these sync directly to your apps or do you have to do anything manually?

If you mean the footpod and HRM, once paired with the watch, you don't have to do anything special with them. If you mean the activities saved on the watch, you have to connect it up to the computer and sync over USB to whatever app(s) you want to upload the data to.

There are some higher end versions of the garmin that you can set up to auto-sync with garmin connect without connecting through the computer, but I don't know which models exactly that is off the top of my head. For most of the watches, not only the garmin but the other brands too, you have to at least do a manual sync via the computer to something. (unless you just want to keep the data on the watch and not use any online apps I guess)

To follow up on some comments I'd made over the course of my last few runs on Strava, I had my followup with my podiatrist yesterday, he gave me an extra round of anti-inflammatory pills and i'm going to use the exercise bike for the next two weeks, no running to try to let it fully heal. This is to try to knock out a problem I've been dealing with since April with sesamoiditis (inflammation in the bones near the big toe/ball of the foot). I've been using shoe inserts that the doctor gave me back in April, and using an anti-inflammatory cream, and icing it every day whether it hurts or not (except when it doesn't hurt I only remember to do it every 2nd or 3rd day). Doing all of that starting back in April allowed me to keep running while it was healing and the doc says it looks much better now than it did when I first saw him, but its obviously not completely gone. I want it completely gone if that's possible and staying off it for a time is the best way to do that.

We have an exercise bike in our garage that my dad used some for physical therapy a number of years ago, I spent 25 minutes on it tonight, its the most boring thing in the world, so hopefully it won't take more than 2 weeks of rest to get back to where I can run without having to worry about this.

Get that foot better Radii. It is great that you have a non-impacting exercise like the bike that you can do to try to keep your momentum going.

here's a good guide to the different Garmin watches
athleti.ca | Garmin Comparison Guide

FM

For anyone looking for their training paces for long runs, tempo runs, speed runs, etc., I found a pace calculator online that gives it all to you.

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/

Enter a recent race distance and time, and enter your goal race distance and time, and it will calculate the paces that will match your current abilities and maximize your training.

Yup. I've been referencing that one and this one to plan my workouts lately.

Heh. Made it to the first page (#50 out of 1,938) in the over-200-pound category of the Junedoggle. The Junedoggle

very well done! :)

FM

Nice!!

Good job. That is a cool feature except now I'm going to have to go premium and take a look. I'm guessing that we're close in miles. It seems like when one of us hits a milestone, the other (along with Thomas) hit the milestone soon after.

So I just noticed that there's a 5K/10K race at the beach on Saturday morning. If I decide to do the 10K and go all-out, how would I structure the rest of the week's workouts? Lower body strength training was scheduled for Friday, but I can always just push that to Saturday some time after the race. What about any running on Friday? After the hard intervals today, I was planning on going rather light. Should I run at all?

For a 10k race, I usually take off 1 or 2 days before. So with a Saturday race, you can take off tomorrow to rest up and give your legs a chance to be fresh.

10k is short enough of a distance that most of the taper guidelines for half-marathon or marathon or further distances aren't necessarily followed for it. The basic rule of thumb is anything that you do tomorrow won't help you for the 10k race and will likely hurt you by adding fatigue in. If you're just doing the 10k for fun and don't care about the performance, then you can stick to a training plan and run tomorrow if you want. Since you said before that you are in between training plans for a few weeks, I would just take it as a rest day tomorrow myself.

Cool. What about Sunday? That is supposed to be a long/slow day. Do I go shorter since I'll likely go all-out on Saturday?

Most things that I have read suggest your most rest prior to your hard workouts and long workouts. The day after those workouts I commonly see an easy pace low mile recovery day if you are running 4 or more times a week or a rest day if 3 or less runs a week.

So in your case I would run a short recovery run at easy pace just to aid with recovery. For me that is usually an easy 3 mile run

Strava has the July challenges posted to be joined. Same thing as May and June, distance based challenges. This time they are encouraging people to find dirt trails to run, but they say the challenge is still just based on kilometers run, they dont distinguish between dirt or road in the challenge.

Played a friendly indoor soccer (or futsal) game yesterday invited by some friends in a team that plays in an amateur local league, i'm probably going to join them in the next league in september after my 7 a side soccer team decided to stop playing a year ago.

I had not played any soccer for a year, and indoor soccer is more demanding due to the constant movement and sprinting along the court. Yesterday we were just 5 players per side, so no reserves, having to play the full game. I felt really great despite the heat, running and biking is really helping my conditioning and specially endurance, just need to train some speed before the season starts.

I thought May was less than ideal but my Junedoggle ended up a boondoggle. I've hardly run at all aside from the half marathon, it's crazy how busy my weeks have been. I certainly hope I can get back into a routine in July.

This will begin my off-season from running as I will be vacationing in the Philippines for three weeks beginning July 4. I'll hopefully be able to get a couple of runs while there. But they'll probably be really short distances due to the heat and humidity there, as well as the lack of familiarity of the locations I'll be staying.

Who is Chirs Prewitt?

Hoopsguy on these forums.

So I have been trying to get more biking in, but absolutely never can find the time to do it. I didn't want to mess up my scheduled Sunday long run and only have a 3 mile easy-recovery run scheduled for tomorrow.. so decided to do a bike ride today..

18 miles later (on top of the 6 miles I ran this morning), my legs really hate me right now. I also feel like I want to eat absolutely everything in the house.

Hmmmm...and who was getting on ME about overtraining a while ago??? :D

Yeah.. my wife has been getting on to me a little about it. I couldn't help myself, I plead insanity.

Hi!

Been following this thread for about 3-4 weeks now, finally pulled the trigger on joining this week. Looking forward to being part of the July competitions, as well as seeing if I can make some gradual improvements on my performance+times between now and my late-July (25th and 27th) 5K runs.

:thumbsup:

Ben did you end up doing the beach race? If so, how did it go?

Seeing how he ran for an hour yesterday, then did some strength work, I figured he had decided not to do it but I could be wrong...

FM

and he was up at 4:41 this morning ;)

FM

SWEET!

and yes, welcome to the group! :)

Did my first full hour of running today. Went out with my son and set a nice pace that he could follow but he gets sorta bored around the 5 K mark so I arrange the route to do a stop close by our house and let him walk it off back home and went on my own from there. Had my eyes set on going for 60 minutes, no distance, just time. Had never done this before but got it done today and was pretty happy with it.

Pace went from maybe 6:20 or so with my son to about 5:25 or 5:30 on my own, without really pushing it too hard. Looking at the splits, I see our 5th km, the last with him, we had our fastest of this run at 5:50.

My next goal, that I'd like to reach before the end of Summer, is to be able to run from our home to the dojo and back. According to Garmin Connect, it's 7.1 km one way, so about 14.2 or so. Thing is, I know there will be a bit of a hill right smack at about the 8th km or so... Still a bit of work to do ;)

FM

This is the kind of stuff that gets me fired up. I love it.

The Frog is correct. I had a plan that I really liked and was looking forward to, and decided in the end to stick to it. I did six easy Friday morning and did lower body weight work, then took Saturday off as planned. In a bit this morning I'm planning to run 10+. It's a little over 10 miles from my house to a particular location and back, and I just want to be able to say "I ran all the way to Park Circle and back without stopping." ;) Plus that run will put me at a record for miles in a week, and put me almost exactly 10% over last week.

So July will be the first month that I've got all my workouts in Strava. But I started recording runs in MapMyRun on 6/8 and compiled just over 40 miles for the month. That is the most outdoor running I've ever done since graduating high school.

I figure that 50 miles is a very achievable goal for July, given that I hit 40 while missing a week in June. Just set up a training plan for the month that calls for 5 days/week, which would be more than the 3-4 a month I've been running up to this point. If I hold to the training plan, I've got my 50 miles in the first three weeks.

big heat wave in Southern California this weekend, so I'm done for June with only the 80k badge.

USTA Tennis match at high noon will be fun today in 90 plus weather.

One-day freebie for iSmoothRun. I strongly recommend this app. It's normally 5 or 6 bucks.

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— iSmoothRun (@iSmoothRun) July 2, 2013