Regarding the Couch to 5K (C25K) Program, it's pretty well designed for the beginning runner to build endurance and minimize injury. so I wouldn't veer too off from the prescribed workouts, even if it seems easier for you. And make sure you do not run on those rest days.

As for the pain, it is said that you can outrun muscle soreness, but not joint pain.

Finally, I find that the Zombies, Run! 5K training app (ZR5K) is a better alternative to the traditional C25K program because it incorporates leg strengthening exercises into the workouts, and those really prepare your legs for the longer runs.

Good luck, and I'll be following!

Dola.

I wanted to add regarding C25K and pace. Because the program is designed to build endurance, your pace is less of a focus than completing running and walking times. When it asks you to run two minutes then walk one minute, go at a pace where you know you can complete that two minutes of running. If it means you need to slow down to a shuffle in order to complete the running segment, then do so.

As you progress through the program, your pace may remain slow, but once you're able to run longer distances, it will improve. For now, focus on completing the running intervals at a comfortable pace.

There is no reason why you need to run both of them at once. You can just use the one that you like better for during your run and when you upload it to the website, there are then options to download the gpx file from that and then upload to the other site.

What some people do to save time and effort though is use other apps that will then upload to both sites at the same time (plus other sites if so desired). A very commonly recommended iphone app that many people like is called ismoothrun but that one costs a few dollars to buy though.

Pain in the knees/ankles is usual specially if you are overweight, today i extended my run to 12k (10k was my max until today) and was also feeling it towards the end, specially in the vertical tendon under the knee.

One thing that helps is to put ice on your knees just after the run, or at least to put the shower as cold as possible and keep it on your knees and ankles for a few minutes after every run.

Welcome! I was wondering who was the new guy adding me to Strava today :)

Weight is definitely an issue and I'm working on that and primarily why I chose to lay off the running for the first 3 weeks or so of my life style change. And, Icy, yes, ice (or bag of frozen peas/beans) is my best friend for several ailing limbs after hockey. :)

ABC, I appreciate the advice on the training programs...might be worth re-visiting those.

Didn't go for a morning walk today but my knees seem to feel better today (I have to walk up and down a flight of stairs at the office every time I want to go to the washroom or get some water...so at least a dozen times a day...and my knees have felt fine going down, something that has been uncomfortable the last few days) so I think I'll go for one tonight despite temperatures in the 40's...yikes!

I just did a little digging into some numbers. The week of May 20-26 I ran 6 consecutive days, and on that 6th day recorded my first-ever sub-60 minute 10K. I lost 5.6 pounds during those six days, dropping from 225.1 to 219.5. It's therefore no shock that that week would be the one with my highest average heart rate since I bought a HRM in February. It was 153 that week.

So far this week, my average heart rate from my 3 inclined treadmill walks is 154. I'm definitely adjusting my goals to top that 153 mark and give two big, fat middle fingers to hernia surgery! :D

Actually, those middle fingers aren't that fat anymore.

:p

LOL...my wedding ring has been sliding off of my finger way too easily the last week or so...it's making my wife nervous. :D

My wife is about to have a melt down the next time my ring slides off while I am doing chores around the house. Between that and the fact I have absolutely 0 khaki shorts that fit me, there are some down sides to losing weight I suppose :)

At this point, this should come as a shock to no one, but it's worth noting that I'm fairly sure that incline treadmill work is going to be in the mix at least once a week for me long-term, at least until I get to the point where I have to run to elevate my heart rate enough to make it worth it.

Today's workout was fantastic. Watched much of the classic 80s movie "War Games" while I did 75 minutes mostly in the 155-160 heart rate range. Started out at 4.2mph/15% incline to get up into the 150s. Once there (in about 2 minutes,) I lowered the speed to 3.6mph. Dropped it by .1 mph every 5ish minutes to stay in the 155-160 range, then with 10 minutes to go started bringing the speed up. Ended workout at 4.4mph with heart rate at 178. (I think my max is 185.) Average heart rate for workout was 159. Feeling very encouraged.

Workout Profile | 75-Min Incline Treadmill. GoalHR=155-160. Actual HRAvg=159. | Times and Records | Strava
polarpersonaltrainer.com

Dola:

My ring is currently in the top drawer to my desk. We're going to try to get it re-sized. It just slides right off at any moment these days.

Hill workouts are an important part of many of the people's run training plans that I read and follow. In cases where there is very little elevation such as where you live, I've seen some of them will do incline workouts on the treadmill like you have been but with running instead of walking.

I know plenty of the people who train for ultra marathons that have a large amount of elevation climb but they live in the city do these type of incline treadmill runs all of the time.

I mentioned veloviewer before a few times before as a pretty neat third party Strava add-on site. They added something new last night that I thouht was pretty cool. A Strava trophy cabinet for Strava challenges that you take part in or complete

My treadmill was delivered a couple days ago. It now sits in many parts on our living room floor, waiting for me to make room for it in the basement :D Will be quite the task to get it down the flight of stairs...

Having read all your experiments with inclines, I'm looking forward to do some incline running with it over the winter months...

As for the ring, mine makes myself nervous too now. Been loose for a while now. Had been at maintenance after hitting my goal weight of 168 lbs back in March, I have dropped some weight since but was kind stable at 165 until maybe three weeks ago when I started losing some more weight without really trying, so much so that I hit a number never seen before this morning, under 163 at 162.5. I weighed 203 a year ago (Sept. 13 2012) so this means I have now lost 40 lbs since I decided to become a better me.

:party:

FM

Congrats, Frogman...that's awesome!

Accidentally deleted my most recent run (tonight's). Sent an email to Strava to help restore it. Let's see how fast their service is.

Posted this on my facebook, but crossposting it here too. My 1 year anniversary of finishing C25K was actually earlier this week and I just didn't realize it.

Happy Anniversary! So, a year ago today, did you ever imagine that you would be able to run a half marathon race within one year?

A year ago I still was telling my wife i was only running to have something to Do with her and I preferred to bike and probably wouldn't run too much. I had told her that I would do a 5k race with her (was scheduled for beginning of November) so the c25k was only to prepare myself so I could run that race. Something happened during that race though that got me hooked and changed my outlook.

Nice stuff, Alan...congrats!

I'm probably in a similar mindset now than you were a year ago...I don't see myself running 1000 miles over the next year, but you never know.

So cool. Very proud to be associated with this crew.

That is very cool Alan. A year ago, give or take a week, I decided to change. September 13, 2012 is when I stepped on the scale at 203 lbs. Counting calories and making the proverbial lifestyle change, I would go on to lose 35+ lbs over the following 6 months to go on maintenance at 168 lbs by mid-March. I did my first walk-run on May 30th, 5 days after testing for my 3rd dan in karate and have been running at least 3 times a week ever since. I have now logged some 480 km or so since that first walk-run and yesterday, I weighed in at 162.5 lbs, my first time under 163 giving me a 40 lbs loss over that year, or 20% of my initial weight. :)

FM

Nice!

Alright, I joined Strava and the FOFC group. Now, to start running again as it's been a while. Love the social aspect of Strava as well as the record keeping.

welcome aboard vex, saw this morning you started following me, will go and follow you as well, have fun! :)

FM

Welcome! I have a feeling that Todd is going to have some competition for who can make the most box looking runs based on your map! :)

I just looked and it all looked very familiar until I zoomed out. Looks like vex has a lake!

Welcome to the group, vex.

Ran my first 5k in some 25 years or so today. I was really nervous as I hadn't been able to run like I'd wanted to this last two weeks before the race.

I recorded personal bests (recording from the past two months) in the mile, 2 mile, and 5k today. My first sub 9 mile in probably 7 years...it's not blazing by any means but the fastest I've done in the past two months since I started running again.

I wasn't looking to hit a hard pace from the start but I realized at the mile that I was on pace for 27 minutes and I wasn't going to keep that up. I forced myself to slow down a bit and then a few hills helped with that as well.

Good time. I can't believe I did it. Surprisingly a little fatigued but happy.

I dedicated this run to my main man Brooks Russell. A 5 year old little boy that has successfully fought cancer. He still has some work to do, but this kid is my hero.

One of these days I will get to meet him.

That's awesome, very nice cause too! :)

FM

Congrats, Poli...well done!

Yeah, the country roads can be a little uninspiring at times. I got about .3 miles down the road when I got cornered by a Pitbull and an English Bulldog. "Oh, they won't bite" the people said. Sorry if I don't believe you.

Thanks!

Congrats on the run!

Great job!

Good job, AE.

Well, I managed to do the 2-hour incline treadmill walk this morning. My goal was to average a 150 heart rate. I was averaging around 152 at the 90-minute mark and feeling great, so I took it up a notch, increasing speed by .1mph every 5 minutes. At 1:55 the heart rate was around 165, still manageble, so I decided to simulate a closing kick. Increased speed every 45 seconds until it was at 4.5mph and starting the blur the boundaries of "no running until 9/24 at the earliest." ;) Closed out at 176. Averaged 156 for the workout and 156 for the week, my highest ever. Go figure.

Like I said, sophisticated robot sent from the future. :p

posted this on FB but here goes, look at what my wife framed for me, the bib I wore on my first (and for now only) race, that 10k back in August.

I love my wife, so supportive, I'm very blessed. :)

FM

That's awesome!

I've been wondering what I want to do with my bibs, medals and t-shirts. I saw on reddit that someone turned their medals into magnets. Pretty cool idea.

Medals as magnets to hold up your bibs on the fridge...sweet!!

Pretty cool, FM :)

...that rare moment when I have more FitLeague points than Ben E Lou and FrogMan. :D

yeah, it looks like it has stopped synching with Garmin Connect for some reason. My last activity is dated back September 12 yet I have run on September 15, 17, 18, 19, 21 and 2 since then ;)

FM

ahh, ok, it actually is synced to Runkeeper and Runkeeper has not been able to connect to Garmin lately...

How were you having runkeeper sync with Garmin? If you were using Garminsync then yeah they are working on a solution but it might be a while it sounded like. I switched over to using tapiriik instead, which has the added benefit of also syncing with endomodo for me automatically too.

Aww shucks. I knew it was too good to be true. :p

yeah, I was using garminsync. Will have to look into tapiriik, thanks!

FM

Ben, tomorrow is the big day right? When do we get to find out if you are cleared to start running again?

Yes, tomorrow at 2:00 PM is the appointment. However, I will not be able to run tomorrow. The wife has to travel for work and the youngest one is sick and will be with me. I don't really want to take her in her jogging stroller. The wife gets back eatly Wednesday evening and I should be able to run then, assuming I have been cleared.

Good luck, Ben, hope all goes well.

Looks like my quest to start running will be put on hiatus for at least a few weeks, maybe even a month. My best buddy is a chiropractor (although, we're two time zones apart) and I spoke to him tonight and he said about 75% of the people he sees are people in my position...people who have been sedentary for too long and jump right back into things as if they haven't been sitting on their asses for 10 years. Essentially breaks down to doing too much, too soon...and that makes sense.

So, he suggested a few exercises and to use a foam roller to see how that goes for a few weeks but stop running in the meantime. Walking is fine so long as there is no pain so I'll hopefully keep doing that...we'll see.

take it easy, work your leg muscles slowly back into shape and you'll be with us all in no time.

Everyone probably saw this already, but this past Sunday I completed my second century ride. This one was a little different in that it was supported (rest stops with lots of good food, bike maintenance tents) and there were probably a couple thousand other folks doing it.

Right off the bat my buddy and I missed a turn and ended up not realizing it until about mile 13. We were on the back 50 of the 100 mile course. Some other riders that were behind us had missed the same turn and decided to keep going. We decided that we were doing this the right way, so we backtracked 11 miles to the turn we missed. As a bonus we met up with a bunch of friends at the first rest stop, friends that we thought we would never see because of our error. They had been really late and we rode with them the rest of the time. The weather was perfect and there is just nothing better than country roads for a long ride. At the end of the day we clocked in at just over 122 miles.

Just a great day all around.

Nice, Subby!

Just finished hopefully my final incline treadmill walk for a while, but went out with a bang, slightly eclipsing my heart rate for my last pre-surgery Tempo Run.

I really hope I'm fully healed, because it's going to be extremely difficult to take it easy when I feel like I can improve on my times fairly dramatically. I'm roughly 10 pounds lighter than I was pre-surgery. the weather is *much* cooler, (at least this week,) my legs are stronger from all the hill work, and I've pushed my heart rate harder the last week and a half than I have...ever. I assume the reason for not running is the pounding/jiggling of the healing area, so I don't want to jeopardize my recovery, but I suspect it's not going to be easy to hold back.

Doc gave me the all-clear for running, and actually said I can resume lighter (15-rep) lifting at the beginning of next week, too. :party:

Great news!

woot!

FM

Atta boy, Ben!

Take that, hernia!!!!

Great to hear, Ben!

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonably-priced treadmill?

Not sure what for you is reasonably price. The one I have is the Merit 725t plus:

Amazon.com: Merit Fitness 725T Plus Treadmill: Sports & Outdoors

It was only like $350-$400 or so I think, but the main reason I got it was that it folds up when not being used (my wife and I almost exclusively prefer to run outside so it hasn't been used in a few months, but she will use it more in the winter time).

It has held up fine for us and no real complaints here about it. I think there are cheaper treadmills out there or more expensive/better ones depending on what you are looking for though.

Nice!

I splurged a bit and got myself this baby:
NordicTrack® Commercial 1750 Treadmill- Best Buy Award- HD Treadmills Video Workouts

Yeah, $1500 is probably not "reasonably priced" by all means, but I will be using the thing probably for 5 months so I wanted something a bit tougher, and it had nice features...

For now, it's still in parts on our living room floor. :eek: Still need to make room for it in as basement bedroom that's currently used for box storage and my son's drum set. Once done, the boxes will be moved out and the drum set will be rearranged so that both my son and I will use the room as our little spot...

FM

Holy shit, foam rollers are pure EVIL!!!!!

OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Haha. Yeah I just got a foam roller a couple of days ago. I agree. Pure EVIL.

First run back complete. Since I have no real idea where I am speed-wise, I'm going to use heart rates for paces for the next couple of weeks or so, I think. Today I did 3 miles easy, with heart rate at or below 140. (Roughly 133-145 is the "easy" range for me.) Picked it up to 160 for the last mile, which still felt good. Completed that one in 8:09. Upon first look at previous paces vs. heart rates, it appears that I'm going to be a decent bit faster than before the surgery.

No pain or discomfort at all during the run or immediately afterward. Assuming I still feel good, I'll do another easier run tomorrow, take it up a notch on Friday (probably a Tempo Run,) rest Saturday, then do 10ish on Sunday. Monday is my normal rest day. If I do all of that and still feel good on Tuesday morning, I'll pretty much resume a normal running schedule for the rest of the week.

That one does look great, but not exactly "reasonable." Maybe I'll go for a cheapish one, and if it turns out I do use it regularly (like I believe I would), then I can upgrade.

My inner Subby came out this morning--hopefully just the "do too much too fast" part and not the "get injured" part. ;) I went out intending to do 4 to 6 decent-not-pushing-it-too-much intervals. The first few went so well that I ended up doing my normal 880x8 interval workout a good bit faster than I've ever done it.

1-mile warmup @ 9:26
Interval 1: 3:53
Interval 2: 3:36
Interval 3: 3:31
Interval 4: 3:41
Interval 5: 3:35
Interval 6: 3:29
Interval 7: 3:33
Interval 8: 3:24
1-mile cooldown @ 8:10

Jogged all of the recovery times, not even close to needing to walk. Overall pace was way faster than any of my interval workouts to date. What's interesting is that my stride is significantly shorter and faster now just naturally. I'm guessing all the incline treadmill work is playing into that. I had been trying to shorten it up pre-hernia, using a metronome on some runs to force myself to run at 90 strides per minute. Turning on the metronome *always* meant that I would be shortening and quickening my stride. However, today I turned the metronome on during the first interval, but quickly turned it back off because 90 was too slow. I was in the mid-90s on my own during the intervals.

Ben, this is really crazy, insane, impressive work. 3:24 on an 8th interval is ridiculous.

Awesome.

Hill/incline work is so good for you. Nothing bad can come of it. The best way to crush a hill is to significantly shorten your stride. Not surprised this is happening to you.

Fuck. Now I have to start running again.

That is awesome Ben, and quite conclusive regarding incline walking. I will definitely have to dabble in it once my treadmill is functional. I got tons of TV series waiting to be watched and I could knock out a few episodes simply walking at a good incline. :)

FM

Right. That part I knew. But I was *walking* all the time. I'm just really surprised that evidently it has translated over to running. Granted, I was always pumping my arms and trying to simulate a running motion as much as I could when I was walking, but still...

And yeah, the incline treadmill seems to make a ton of sense for the lower-impact workout you can get. The fact that I was able to get the heart rate as I high as I was makes it well worth the time in that I could get the same or higher calorie burns as my runs (and I was moving slowly enough to watch movies on Netflix!) Now at some point, I would think I'd have to run to get that same benefit, so I'd lose the "low-impact" piece, but that's still a good bit away. I was holding a 150-155 HR walking in the 3.4ish mph range, 160-165 at 3.6-3.7. I did some increases in speed at times, and up to around 4.3 or 4.4 is still a walk for me at 15% incline, so that seems to be a pretty long way off.

I just wish I'd thought of it as an option during the times when the wife traveled in the summer and the only time I could run was during the hot day. Clearly I would have been able to get better workouts in this way than those 35-minute nothing runs in 100+ heat-index weather I was doing.

Dola...

But I have no idea where it fits in to a workout schedule in terms of recovery/rest and all of that. My working theory is to make it purely heart-rate based: if I do an incline walk on a "recovery" day, then keep the HR in the 130-140 range, but if it's on day when I'm rested, push it up into the 150s or 160s and run slowly the next day.

Double dola...

Hmmm....maybe a two-week rotation where one week you run on the hard days and do incline walks on the easier days, then the next week do incline walks for the hard days and runs for the easier days. Sounds good in theory. I might do that after I get past this HM...

I decided to push up my recovery week to this week. I've been steadily increasing my my mileage each week for the past 5 weeks, except for race weekend on 9/8, all within the "10% rule".

This week I've been feeling the strain of the increased miles on my legs, especially during my Tuesday workout. They were still bit wobbly on my slow recovery run the next day. So I decided to cut the week short and turn it into my recovery week (originally scheduled for next week).

With fresh legs on Sunday, I may do a 5K time trial on the same race course I did in June and update my McMillan pace chart.

I finally put together my winter running goals after talking them through with my wife some. Getting to the point of 4 hour long runs means some buying in from her before I jump down that rabbit hole. I posted the long version over in my running thread for those who want to read it. Here is the short verions of my winter goals:

I don't do Runkeeper or Strava, but I use Runtastic to track how much I am walking around at my serving job. I usually run treadmills at the gym.

So why am I posting? Because this almost seems like a runners thread as much as a specific app/running thread.

I am intending to run three half-marathons between now and January, in preparation for attempting to run the LA Marathon. So wish me luck.

I'm also looking to participate in at least one Ragnar next year.

some of Hal Higdon's plan have a day that is either "rest" or "cross-training" and for him, cross-training can be either swim, bike or even walking. I'd think that a high incline walk would be a nice switch from running on those rest days. So yeah, purely heart rate with no to low impact...

FM

hey, welcome to the fold! Yeah, we're mostly runners that happen to use Strava but I don't see why you wouldn't fit in... :) Good luck with your goals!

FM

yeah, you are crazy ;)

So you plan on running a marathon, then racing in one? yeah, crazy ;)

Good luck, but I know it's not luck, you got the drive to make all those happen. Go!

FM

Maybe we should update the title?

Welcome to the group chief! You can friend me on runtastic, even though I am like three weeks behind in uploading to runtastic.

Eventually we will convince you to start using strava with us though! I would love to keep track of your marathon progression, good luck with it!

Which halfs are you running chief? I'm guessing Long Beach in October to start?

Umm yeah, hi...can we step it up, people?

UC League Details | Fit Leagues

Challenge accepted!

Anyone else having issues with Strava's export to GPX function?

Does anyone use MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper? If so, can I set it up so that my exercises automatically flow into MyFitnessPal?

Signed,

Eating 5K Calories Per Day

I have a myfitnesspal account that I neglect (since I used LoseIt and liked it more), but in myfitnesspal, it is pulling my running data from endomodo currently but it does show runkeeper as an option, so I assume you can do that as well.

In LoseIt, I have it coming over from Runkeeper which I know works.

Yup, I'm using both apps and they work very well together...stuff from RunKeeper dumps into MFP automagically.

Very happy so far with the RunKeeper/MyFitnessPal integration.

I also used tapiriik.com to save a copy of my GPX files to my dropbox. Kind of cool, so you always have your data if you want to do something else with it. I did, and was able to upload all of my rides to Ridewithgps.com. That site does a much better job with spreadsheet view of my workouts and it also improves the elevation numbers (strava and runkeeper always seem to cheat you on distance climbed).

Coming from Key Bridge yesterday afternoon into Virginia, crossed into Marriott parking lot and caught an edge on a sidewalk seam and went over the handlebars. Just happened out of nowhere. Thanks to the folks who checked on me as I waited to get picked up by my wife.

Posting this his from my hospital bed. I have internal bleeding from a bruised kidney and a broken scapula-on the other side of my body fortunately. Finally hit 10 on the pain scale and they have me cranked up on morphine. So bummed. I guess my bike is cursed.

The dark comedy level irony is that my orthopedic doctor just yesterday morning told me that I was 100% healed now. At least I was artful enough to crash on my other side. GAHHHH.

Wow, that's a bummer.

I agree, your bike is cursed.

[edit to add] Oh yeah, hope you recover quickly!

Ugh. So sorry to hear that, Subby.

ish, that sucks big time :(

Get better soon!

FM

You've got to be kidding me, Subby. Really bummed for you.

Does anyone know if Strava will clean up a segment leaderboard if someone is obviously on a bike based on their time?

Dude... I'm sorry. This sucks. I get worried when I ride my bike, I don't even ride in my neighborhood anymore because people are so terrible at driving. I take my bike to local paths and ride instead. Wishing you another quick recovery.

Ugh.. that sucks.. you were just starting to tear things up again with your century rides too. Get re-better again soon man!

You need to flag the ride for Strava to know to look at it. Once they get alerted to it, they'll usually fix it if it is obvious

Do you mean the #1 person who "ran" at around 1:30/mi at times? Yeah, that's possible..