December 2015 Running Challenge
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December Running Totals (km)
12/1- 1.61
12/2- 1.61
12/3- 1.61
12/4- 1.61
12/5- 1.61
12/6- 8.21 (5k Red Nose Run)
12/7- 1.61
12/8- 1.61
12/9-
12/10-
12/11-
12/12-
12/13-
12/14-
12/15-
12/16-
12/17-
12/18-
12/19-
12/20-
12/21-
12/22-
12/23-
12/24-
12/25-
12/26-
12/27-
12/28-
12/29-
12/30-
12/31-
Total- 19.48
Goal- 530 -
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4.6 miles today longest run yet! Yay! I started out 9 months ago, 50lbs heavier and no exercise, completed the c25k program in may. Since I've run two 5ks and now I am working towards a 10k!0
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December Running Totals (miles)
12/1- 6.58 (warmup, speed work, cool down)
12/2- extra rest day
12/3- 6.40 easy
12/4- 8.12 easy
12/5-15.00 long slow run
12/6-9.15 easy with hills
12/7- planned rest day
12/8- 8.29 easy
Total- 53.54
Goal- none stated
Today's notes: Tuesday is speed work with the running club. I had got there late the last few times and not got as much of a warmup as I'd like, and thought that might have contributed to my glute/hamstring issue that surfaced after last week's speed work. Today I managed to get there early, and took a longer than normal warmup, 3.23 miles. The lap of drills was light because most of the club is tapering toward USATF championships in San Francisco next Sunday; but when that lap finished with a stride, I could feel my glute complaining even after that long warmup. So I wimped out and just added some easy distance. 5.05 more miles gets to my total of 8.29 for today. Maybe if it had been 20 degrees warmer (temp was near 40), the glute would have tolerated speed work; but right now, I'm taking things easy and waiting for that ache to clear up. I might not run hard again till a 5K on December 19.
Do you take extra rest days or cutback weeks?
Also, when you break down your weekly mileage, what percentage is easy/recovery miles and what percentage is workout grade? The percentage should be 80/20 where 80% of your weekly mileage is easy "conversational" or even a slower recovery pace. Only 20% should be workout grade (tempo, interval, repeat, elevation, stride, ect).0 -
11/23 7 miles - 158.9 << Week1 of RCM Taper
11/24 8.1 miles - 167
11/25 5 miles - 172 << Recovery Run
11/26 8 miles - 180
11/27 5 miles - 185 << Recovery Run
11/28 17 miles - 202 << Long Run - end of Week1 Taper
11/29 REST DAY
11/30 6.1 miles - 208.1<< Week2 of RCM Taper
12/1 5.5 miles - 5.5
12/2 4.1 miles - 9.6
12/3 5.5 miles - 15.1
12/4 4.1 miles - 19.2
12/5 12 miles - 31.2
12/6 REST DAY
12/7 4 miles - 35.2 << Last taper week going into RCM
12/8 5 miles - 40.2
12/9 REST DAY << First day of carb loading. 740 g of carbs. woo hoo.
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As a woman with PCOS (read: bound to low carb for life--minus the occasional pizzafest to keep me sane) 740g of carbs makes my brain hurt!
(Please don't take that as me trying to say don't carb load--I'm all for carbs for normal people. Carby carby carb load to your heart's content)
I have to wonder how carb loading would affect my race performance. I did two HMs last month in 2:10:54 and 2:10:58, respectively, on my normal low carb diet. I'm just not willing to try it due to the strong possibility of digestive upset...0 -
Usually for me, I don't have to worry about carb loading for a HM. It's all about glycogen preservation and depletion. I run a HM in about 1:40:xx -- so I don't have to worry about exhausting my glycogen stores.
http://runnersconnect.net/running-training-articles/cience-of-bonking-and-glycogen-depletion
http://www.runnersworld.com/fuel-school/how-to-fuel-for-a-half-marathon0 -
I'm way behind on this thread again, and a little behind on my running. I think I'm finally getting back to where I want to be though. My schedule seems to be about to calm down for at least the next month or so.
I went on a 7.7 mile run last night which was my longest since my half on Oct. 31st. It was a beautiful, balmy 42°F and I was able to maintain a 10:07 pace. I think my stamina is nearly where it was before I took the two weeks off.
Last Saturday I went on an honest to goodness trail run with Kody on a snowy wooded trail near my house. He had a fabulous time, as did I, but we had to end early due to family obligations and I only got in 5.3 miles
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@9voice9 like @stoshew71 I don't carb load for a HM and I'm more of a 2:11-2:17 finisher. I don't like the way carb loading makes me feel. I just cut down greasy food and drink extra water. I'm probably a terrible example of what is good. I don't carb load, I eat like 5 crackers before the race, I don't carry water or nutrition for the race. I did bring jelly beans to the half in Nov but never ate them. I also don't follow a training plan, I do what feels right.
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ceciliaslater wrote: »As a woman with PCOS (read: bound to low carb for life--minus the occasional pizzafest to keep me sane) 740g of carbs makes my brain hurt!
(Please don't take that as me trying to say don't carb load--I'm all for carbs for normal people. Carby carby carb load to your heart's content)
I have to wonder how carb loading would affect my race performance. I did two HMs last month in 2:10:54 and 2:10:58, respectively, on my normal low carb diet. I'm just not willing to try it due to the strong possibility of digestive upset...
Carb loading may help and there are so many factors that complicate on reasons to carb load and reasons to not carb load.
So it's all about your various energy systems.
So at the very basic level, it all comes down to ATP production to support muscle contraction.
So let's look at the basic muscle contraction. Stretch your arm out way in front of you then move your fist towards your shoulder to perform a basic arm curl. To perform this movement, your bicep muscle had to contract (shorten). The energy at the very basic molecular level is something called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The nucleoside adenosine has 3 phosphate molecules attached to it. The bond that these 3 phosphates have to the adenosine has lots of potential energy. When your bicep muscle is commanded by your brain to contract, there is a chemical reation between the ATP and the muscle fiber that pulls the rest of the muscle group to enable this contraction. Basically, lots of energy is released in this chemical reaction because one of the phosphate atoms in ATP breaks apart turning the ATP into ADP (adenosine di-phosphate) and a lone phosphate atom. As long as the muscle fiber has a constant flow of ATP going to it, muscle contractions can continue.
Your muscle only has a certain amount of ATP. Actually, it only has enough ATP to supply enough energy to support about 6 seconds of constant movement. So in order to fuel the muscle long term, your body has to recycle the ADP and P to reform ATP. This requires a different energy source.
For immediate conversion, your body uses something called the creatine phosphate system to reform that ATP. It's a relatively simple and quick process that does not require oxygen (so it's anaerobic). But this system can only support ATP production for about 20 seconds of constant movement.
When energy is needed for longer than 20 seconds, a different anaerobic system called Glycolysis takes over. This system is also relatively simple and quick. This system will take glucose (simple sugar) from the blood (or sugar stored locally in the muscle called glycogen) and convert it to make more ATP. Although it's a quick process, it only creates about 2 molecules of ATP. The glucose is transformed into something called pyruvate.
If oxygen is present in the mitochondria of the muscle cell that just performed Glycolysis, then that pyruvate will get shuttled to the mitichondria where the aerobic processes (Krebs Cycle and Electron Transport Chain (ETC)) will convert the pyruvate into 32 ATP atoms and H20 and CO2. You end of breathing out the H2O and CO2.
If oxygen is not immediately available, then Glycolysis will have to complete the process by fermentation. This fermintation is needed to restore some of the coenzymes that we used to make the 2 ATP. Normally ETC will restore those coenzymes. The fermentation process will convert pyruvate into lactate. When lactate is produced, there is also positive charged Hydrogen atoms that don't get consumed (normally in the ETC process). These hydrogen atoms (H+) linger in the muscle and get's transported out through the blood along with the lactate. Other muscle cells could use lactate as a fuel source for aerobic metabolism which will consume the lactate and H+ as long as enough oxygen is present in the mitochondria of that muscle cell. Otherwise, the lactate makes it way down to the liver where the lactate and H+ are used to reproduce liver glycogen.
If you create such an energy demand where glycolysis has to work extra hard, then lacate and H+ build up in the muscle before it can be transported down to the liver. The H+ ions build up and lowers the pH level of the muscle cell which makes it very acidic. This is what contributes to the temporary burning sensation in your muscle when you overwork your muscle.
The muscle cell will also use fatty acids (and sometimes if necessary amino acids from protein) to use as fuel in the Krebs Cycle and ETC when it wants to preserve glucose. The brain will prioritze glucose for the brain since your brain depends upon glucose.
But when energy demands are too great, the body will rely more heavily on glucose than fatty acids. Fatty acids are released into the blood by breaking down fat deposits in your andipose cells when blood glucose levels reach a low.
Your body also has a way to convert those fatty acids to reproduce glycogen in the liver or glycogen in the muscle cell.
While you are running, you are using stored energy to reconvert all that ADP and P into ATP. The body is concentrating hard to supply just enough energy in the various fuel systems (creatine phosphate, glycolysis, Krebs cycle, ETC, lipolysis, ect. ect.) During this phase, your body is in a catabolic state.
At rest, your body is working hard to reconstruct those energy sources and your body is in an anabolic state.
So while your body is in an anobolic state, it can convert any energy source (carb, fat, protein) into glycogen so that later on it can fuel activity. The body prefers carbs tho for this purpose. But your body can only store so much glycogen. Luckily there is normally enough glycogen to support moderate activity for about 90 minutes without worrying about "bonking". The more that you can train your body to also rely on fatty acid conversion, the better you can preserve that glycogen.
The more intense your workout, the more it has to rely on glycogen. The less intense your workout, the more it can depend on fatty acids.
So if you can boost your glycogen stores some how, you would be able to go more intense for a longer period of time. This is the idea behind the carb load. During carb loading (if you do it correctly) your body can store extra glycogen for a temporary amount of time then it normally would. I wrote about this before and shared it with the group a couple months back.
http://therunningstan.blogspot.com/2015/11/my-marathon-taper-and-carb-loading.html
So make this long story short, for normal every day activity and even mild intense workouts, you won't benefit from carb loading and you won't see anything hurt by a low carb diet.
However, as you get more intense in your workouts and you begin to run for longer periods of time, you will then notice that your ability to feel energized will become hampered by the low carb diet.
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Sometimes I swear I am the most uneducated, unsophisticated runner ever ... lol... I don't have a heart-monitor, I have never done speed work or run a fartlek, or a lactate threshhold run or a tempo interval run or a recovery run. I don't anything about carb loading or specialty foods for long runs and my sports drink is water. I have to confess that I am not sure what half of those things are. I have never had my gait analyzed and never bought any shoes from a running shoe store. Hell, I can't even figure out what course I want to run or how far I am going to run until I am actually out the door... lol.. I read all these high-tech posts and I feel like a plodding, ignorant red-neck runner...
But I DO really like running shoes....0 -
MorningGhost14 wrote: »Sometimes I swear I am the most uneducated, unsophisticated runner ever ... lol... I don't have a heart-monitor, I have never done speed work or run a fartlek, or a lactate threshhold run or a tempo interval run or a recovery run. I don't anything about carb loading or specialty foods for long runs and my sports drink is water. I have to confess that I am not sure what half of those things are. I have never had my gait analyzed and never bought any shoes from a running shoe store. Hell, I can't even figure out what course I want to run or how far I am going to run until I am actually out the door... lol.. I read all these high-tech posts and I feel like a plodding, ignorant red-neck runner...
But I DO really like running shoes.... almost to the point of it being a disturbing obsession...
That's why I write so much to explain it. In case anyone wants to be educated, I am willing to share my knowledge. About 2 years ago, I was in your shoes and met some nice people here on mfp that took some time out to explain some of this. Enough for me to go read more about it on my own. I studied the crap out of this stuff so that I can become a better runner. So now I am willing to share that knowledge with anyone else who is willing to listen and learn. :-)
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@Stoshew71 Yeah... you always had this stuff down... you and CodeMonkey78 were two of the smartest, best runners I met here... (I was on here previously as LoneWolfRunner)0
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MorningGhost14 wrote: »@Stoshew71 Yeah... you always had this stuff down... you and CodeMonkey78 were two of the smartest, best runners I met here... (I was on here previously as LoneWolfRunner)
Yes. Randall (CodeMonkey78) is a great friend. He is the one who sold me his FR 220 that I am wearing now.
There are other smart people on here like Carson, Dave Munger, Doug aka SonicDeathMonkey, and a few others that I looked up to.0 -
MorningGhost14 wrote: »@Stoshew71 Yeah... you always had this stuff down... you and CodeMonkey78 were two of the smartest, best runners I met here... (I was on here previously as LoneWolfRunner)
Well glad you didn't fall off the face of the Earth..
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Challenge Update: Only 3 miles for me today. It's a beautiful day outside (60+ degrees in Oklahoma in December--and set for 70s the next two days!). A little warmer than I would really prefer for running, but fine for a short run. It was supposed to be a slow day, so I ran without checking my watch except for at the mile markers (it vibrates to let me know). Ended up a little faster than I should have been--closer to race pace--whoops! We'll see how tomorrow's pace run goes.
I finally broke down and ordered: 1) new shoes--identical to my current ones (found this model on clearance! yay!) but a different color; and 2) a weather resistant running jacket/coat. Getting close to being geared out enough to withstand a winter that--at this rate--may not even end up showing its face!
Currently: 20/96 completed
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@Stoshew71 Not questioning the information presented, I may not be on track, and I haven't researched it at all.
Ive heard that lactic acid build up is not the reason for muscle soreness, muscle tears and inflammation are.. I grazed your post. I notice you attribute lactic acid to the burn.
Have you heard this? It still seems to be prevalent to believe the soreness is lactic acid, and eating bananas or milk will help. I even heard this the other week from my rehab specialist with a PhD.
Just pickin' your brain..
Btw- I run better with sugar (and caffeine). I'll carb load (my way) for races.0 -
ceciliaslater wrote: ». Getting close to being geared out enough to withstand a winter that--at this rate--may not even end up showing its face!
You know come February we'll have ice. I'd sure take a mild winter though!0 -
@Stoshew71 Not questioning the information presented, I may not be on track, and I haven't researched it at all.
Ive heard that lactic acid build up is not the reason for muscle soreness, muscle tears and inflammation are.. I grazed your post. I notice you attribute lactic acid to the burn.
Have you heard this? It still seems to be prevalent to believe the soreness is lactic acid, and eating bananas or milk will help. I even heard this the other week from my rehab specialist with a PhD.
Just pickin' your brain..
Btw- I run better with sugar (and caffeine). I'll carb load (my way) for races.
I think what @stoshew71 was talking about is the burning sensation while you're working the muscle being caused by lactic acid buildup, rather than the soreness after the fact. I think you're probably on track with the muscle tears/inflammation.0
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