Running, Anyone...?

[carpathian]

Well, today's focus was running in this 1 Hour Run Challenge held in indoor track dome thing. Pretty nice to get out of 10deg into shorts and tank top . Kids playing baseball and soccer in the middle of winter in Alaska...? Whodathunkit?

I knew the race would be painful. There were about 150 ppl of all shapes and sizes.

At the start I can pretty much count the UAA track jerseys and predict my placing .

I did 3 half marathons last summer and cruised by 10 mile mark within 30 seconds of 1 hr each time. 40 laps should be easy enough. But I really should be able to bump up to 42-44 range if I don't have another 3 mile...

Main problem: I took 2 months off from running until 2 weeks ago when I heard about race. Squeaked in 5 runs over the 14 days, on top of 60 hour work weeks trying to reach substantial completion on this building project I have been running for 8 months straight.

On top of new obsessive Zwift hobby in which the last month I raced 9 Stage Tour Du Zwift online epic... That is in another thread but is related. My quads are all bulked out for bike power and not running grace.

As predicted the fast 22 year olds smoked me by several laps. My quads seized up and were unhappy by lap 30 but I pushed on to 36 laps and 4th.

Couldn't walk getting out of truck or up and down stairs this evening. But a nice 30 min on Zwift sure felt good.

Oh yeah how could I forget ? I got one of those $30 Zwift foot pods and set up regular tread mill next to bike station and can now run on the Internet ! Rediculous, I know but also awesome

[Viva]

Love your stories, Carp!

[carpathian]

Love your stories, Carp!

This one time at band camp...

[carpathian]

A question for the experienced runners. What do you do to combat those sluggish runs?

Running is new to me. I've been very slowly and consistently working in to it over the last 6 months or so. I'm shooting to run a pretty tough half marathon trail run in May. I ran my "long run" on Sunday morning. Followed it up with a short run Monday night that felt surprisingly good. Then I took a couple rest days and last night set out to run another short run. Everything just felt off. Sometimes it starts like that and by the time I'm a mile or so in things click but last night it just felt like my muscles just weren't firing and it never really got better. I know this is fairly normal and there are a ton of things that can cause it, like over training, not resting enough, not eating right, not being well hydrated, etc. Last night it seemed like all of those things were right and I can't really pin the problem to one of the normal causes.

Any general tips to avoiding the sluggish run? I don't have a good sense yet for when it's something I need to push through and when I need to just listen to my body and take a pass...

At risk of oversimplifying and assuming you have half decent diet, I find that there are 3 'ways to feel sluggish'

1) right now my legs are superficially sore and I can barely walk and if I tried to go run it would be horrible for a while but things will loosen up and probably feel better in the long run (pun intended?)

2) Lack of sleep or general fatigue from life ie long work hours then trying to get kids to bed and now it is 10 o'clock at night and I am ducking tired for reasons outside training. More often then not you can push through and feel good in the end.

3) overtraining can be harder to detect through the mess of variables. In my case I have been triathlon training steady for a couple years now at age 38. When legs are sore from running , jump on bike or vice versa , the two muscle groups are similar but different in terms of pounding pavement vs producing power but also somewhat complementary.

Swimming is the ultimate low impact and really teaches core engine to function on specific oxygen intake.

That being said, it is easier to over train because the specific muscle fatigue is spread out and you can avoid pain in one place or another. ive learned decipher when my 'engine is tired.' Lungs and heart are over it and despite my ambitions they will not pick up the pace. Time to rest a few days.

[The SnowShow]

Do you all do weights a couple of days a week along with your typical running schedules?

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Yeah. 1 to 3 times a week. Intensity varies inversely with intensity of running. Lifting = less injuries for me.

[sruffian]

Buke -

Some of the best advice I've ever heard - "The first mile is a liar". Also some days you're just not feeling it. If you feel acute pain, stop. If you are sluggish / your body isn't feeling it, either push through or cut it short and make up the mileage later. I take an unexpected half week off every now and then - if I'm training I just make up the mileage in subsequent weeks.


Groomer - just buy altras. Your forefeet will thank you. Also I was in my LRS and they were slinging altra casual shoes (neutral colored presentable boot looking things). Spendy but sound like what you're looking for

[bodywhomper]

Interesting and relevant detail about the Fort Collins lion killer and not running with earbuds.

[The SnowShow]

Interesting and relevant detail about the Fort Collins lion killer and not running with earbuds.

Did he hear the lion before it attacked?

[Dantheman]

Interesting and relevant detail about the Fort Collins lion killer and not running with earbuds.

And that cop that was run over by a train recently

[bodywhomper]

Did he hear the lion before it attacked?

That’s what he claims.

[Buke]

With all of the snow in the Seattle area, I took a couple weeks off except for a "long run" on the weekends. Then I went to France for 2 weeks, including a week of skiing in La Grave.

I wasn't sure how all of this not running would affect my training but overall I think it was a good thing. I'm starting to realize that sometimes just giving your body a rest and doing something else is actually the best thing you can do. After 7 days of skiing I had a rest day travelling to Paris The next day I did an 8.5 mile run around Paris. Granted it was a very slow run but it felt great. Too bad Paris is so flat! At least the architecture is cool.

[SkiCougar]

Buke -

Some of the best advice I've ever heard - "The first mile is a liar". Also some days you're just not feeling it. If you feel acute pain, stop. If you are sluggish / your body isn't feeling it, either push through or cut it short and make up the mileage later. I take an unexpected half week off every now and then - if I'm training I just make up the mileage in subsequent weeks.


Groomer - just buy altras. Your forefeet will thank you. Also I was in my LRS and they were slinging altra casual shoes (neutral colored presentable boot looking things). Spendy but sound like what you're looking for

I agree with this but do not push thru it if you're running multiple days a week unless its some run you paid to run the course. whenever I run for time, if I feel twinges on my warmup mile or i'm just not able to pick them up and lay them down at top speed before my time laps, I lay off. it's never worth a 2 week setback over one run day.

[Cruiser]

With all of the snow in the Seattle area, I took a couple weeks off except for a "long run" on the weekends. Then I went to France for 2 weeks, including a week of skiing in La Grave.

I wasn't sure how all of this not running would affect my training but overall I think it was a good thing. I'm starting to realize that sometimes just giving your body a rest and doing something else is actually the best thing you can do. After 7 days of skiing I had a rest day travelling to Paris The next day I did an 8.5 mile run around Paris. Granted it was a very slow run but it felt great. Too bad Paris is so flat! At least the architecture is cool.

I approve of this message!

Been trying to really my milage back up a bit as the days begin to get appreciably longer. If I could get back to running 3 days a week consistently instead of just 2 that would be more than swell. But life...

[hutash]

I love running in a foreign country, especially early in the morning before everybody else is out and about.

[phatty]

I love running in a foreign country, especially early in the morning before everybody else is out and about.

It's the best way to get a feel for a new city.

[Dantheman]

A friend that I did R2R2R, Speedgoat, Kings Peak and some other ultra stuff with, and who like me hasn't done any serious long-distance running in years, wants to do Trans Zion in the fall. Guess I'd better start running....

[carpathian]

A friend that I did R2R2R, Speedgoat, Kings Peak and some other ultra stuff with, and who like me hasn't done any serious long-distance running in years, wants to do Trans Zion in the fall. Guess I'd better start running....

How long is that?

[Dantheman]

How long is that?

About 48 miles and 10k vert.

[Cruiser]

That's a long day. What's the average elevation, more or less?

[Dantheman]

Not particularly high. Min/max range is about 3,500' to 7,500', but I think most of the route is between 5,000' and 7,000'.

[carpathian]

^^ sounds painfull, good luck!

Yesterday I bought my first GPS watch, Garmin Forerunner 35.

Super cool to actually see run distance and pace. I'm slow to catch on technology ... I see why these things handy.

[2bjenny]

ugh. Starting my training for the 55k in mid-July. We still have 3 feet of snow on the ground here. That leaves one boring stretch of road, out and back to run any distance on at this time. I think at least once a week I will grab my snowshoes or xc skis to get some uphill training in the mountains about 15 min from my house. It's either snow, slush, mud, or ice everywhere else right now.

[nutmegchoi]

So excited!!
I will run forever, Meb!!!

[carpathian]

I just did this Mac-A-Thon 10k race for the second time held down there in Kealakekua.

Last year I got 2nd with time of 38:45. This year I got 2nd again with time of 39:30.

This year the event was held a month later than last year and there was a blazing hot sun in the sky, unlike last year.

I had high hopes of getting PR. My 5k split last year was 18:30 and this year 18:00 even. Wheels fell off a bit on the return with long hills and sun in face cooking.

Monitored HR for first time in race setting. I'm 39, max HR should be around 181.
I held avg. 180 for duration with spike to 195. My question is how does max HR relate to heat induced stress environment? NO way my max is 181 and held for 40 min.

Is heat induced max HR analogous to max HR in general?