April 2017 Running Challenge

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  • Skipper111
    Skipper111 Posts: 392 Member
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    This guys, this is all so so helpful!

    @WhatMeRunning and @ddmom0811 I will look into a drink to have ready for after each run. At the moment I am going about 40 minutes after my run before I eat anything or drink anything other than water.


    Stoshew71 wrote: »


    One last point with regard to your long run. A lot of people talk about increasing their mileage and usually focus only on their long run. When you increase mileage, think in terms of weekly mileage. How many miles are you doing throughout the entire week, not just your longest run of the week. You want to spread out your mileage throughout the week and make sure you give enough time for recovery in between runs. Your longest run of the week should represent only 25-35% of your entire weekly mileage. This will help you build your base slowly and evenly. it's very stressful on the body when your mileage is lopsided and without the proper recovery before your next workout, it takes a big toll on the body. Sleep is important too.

    This is really useful, I do not really look at my weekly mileage, I just take it sort of day-to-day. I also don't really plan how far I intend to go, I just sort of see what my body is going to let me do that day. Maybe I should try and stick to more of a schedule and have better structure.

    @MobyCarp
    really useful information about helping to go further. I definitely need to slow down by outdoor pace as I just seem to ware out far too soon. Fab idea about slowing down rather than stopping or walking, break my run down into a slower longer pace than trying to improve my last time.

    Thank you so much guys, all amazing feedback!
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
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    Date Miles today - Miles for April
    4/1 20 miles - 20
    4/2 10 miles - 30
    4/3 REST DAY
    4/4 10 miles - 40
    4/4 4 miles - 44 << Daily Double
    4/5 6.2 miles - 50.2
    4/6 6.2 miles - 56.4
    4/6 4 miles - 60.4 << Daily Double
    4/7 REST DAY
    4/8 16 miles - 76.4
    4/9 REST DAY
    4/10 7 miles - 83.4
    4/11 7.5 miles - 90.9


    exercise.png

    Upcoming races:
    UAH 8K - 3/6 <<< 34:33 3 in AG
    Oak Barrel HM - 4/2 <<<< 1:38:00 3 in AG
    Bridge Street HM - 4/10 <<< 1:36:33 3 in AG
    PEO-AVN Team Day 5K - 5/4 <<< 19:10 (2.9 mi) 1 in AG 5 OA
    Cotton Row Run 10K - 5/30 << 44:57 PR
    Firecracker Chase 10.2 miler 6/25 << 1:20:22 1 in AG & 15 OA
    Huntsville Half Marathon - 11/12 << 1:35:55 2 in AG & 25 OA
    Rocket City Marathon - 12/10 << 2:44:41
    Elkmont Hound Dog Half (unofficial) - 1/21 << 1:46:48 2 OA
    Elkmont Hound Dog Half (rescheduled) - 2/18 << 1:41:04 1 in AG & 24 OA
    Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon - 4/29



  • karllundy
    karllundy Posts: 1,490 Member
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    4/1 - 7.7 miles in sunny San Diego
    4/2 - Travel day
    4/3 - Rest day
    4/4 - 5 comfortable miles.
    4/5 - 4.4 miles.
    4/6 - 5.05 miles.
    4/7 - Unplanned rest day.
    4/8 - 6.31 super hilly miles.
    4/9 - Too many hills :-(
    4/10 - 5 miles.
    4/11 - 4.93 miles of track/speed work. Then upper body weights.

    exercise.png
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
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    April goal: Stay healthy, get my runs in and increase my long run distance
    Nominal mileage goal: 191 miles

    4/1- 15.23
    4/2- 3.14
    4/3- 7.07
    4/4- 3.69
    4/5- 9
    3/6- REST
    4/7- 5.12
    4/8- 17.58
    4/9- 4.05
    4/10- 7.13
    4/11- 3.79

    Total: 75.8

    Today's notes: 3 mile easy run at 9:40 pace. Followed that up with 4 strides. Strides were 4x0.1mi with 1min recovery. Strides felt good, I've really been focusing on good posture, since I tend to hunch when I run, and I need to work on that still.

    The 9:35-9:45 pace range seems to be where Ii'm falling into a lot. I don't know if it's just comfortable or what, but my average pace over my last 10 runs (excluding tempo runs) has been 9:40. Average HR for those runs was 155, which is high Z2. The average would have been lower, but my long run HR tends to be higher (I know, that's wrong), averaging in the 160's over the last few LRs.

    2017 Races
    6/16- William A Irvin 5k
    6/17- Grandma's Marathon (Full!)
    8/19- Rampage at the Ridge 5k OCR
    9/23- Ely Marathon (full)
    10/21 Wild Duluth 50k??????
    11/23- TBD 5k Turkey Trot
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    @MNLittleFinn- It is quite normal to experience cardiac drift on a long run. Your heart rate will slowly climb as you run longer. Most people will have a higher average HR on their longer runs because of this.
  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
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    @Skipper111

    I recently came across a method of calculating long runs called something like the 1,2,3 method. It involves 6 days a week, usually done as short, medium, short, medium, short, long, rest.

    The medium runs are twice as long as the short runs, and the long runs three times as long. The rationale is that the long run can never be more than 30% or the weekly total.

    Alternatively, you could take the distance for your long run, and base your other runs round it ensuring the total is 100% and the long run is no more than 30% of that. For me sometimes this means I am running twice in one day to ensure I am covering the mileage during the rest of the week. I'm hoping this will help me as lately I have been overtraining (as pointed out to me from the lovely folks here) and so far I'm feeling a lot better for it.
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
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    lporter229 wrote: »
    @MNLittleFinn- It is quite normal to experience cardiac drift on a long run. Your heart rate will slowly climb as you run longer. Most people will have a higher average HR on their longer runs because of this.

    I keep forgetting that! I always just think that I pushed too hard. I think I need to remind myself that a 15+ mile run is going to give a different HR than day to day 3-7 mile runs........
  • BeeerRunner
    BeeerRunner Posts: 728 Member
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    Skipper111 wrote: »
    Hi guys,

    As a newbie runner I wondered if I could ask 2 questions...

    1. What food is good to eat as you are starting to run further? I am upping to 10K (which I know is very small to many of the runs on here :-( ) and find my legs are feeling it a lot the next day. Any tips diet wise?

    2. How do you improve your mind over mater. As I am going further, I feel like I psychically can do it but my brain is my devil and trying to tell me to stop and that I am done. Is this a standard thing when you first start pushing your comfort zone?

    Thank you in advance, you guys are AMAZING and so inspiring!

    @Skipper111 Great questions, and just remember, we all started somewhere. While I ran in the park this morning, I was remembering the 1st time I did a 5 mile run, and I was so amazed and so happy that I could run that far. :smiley:

    1. It depends on the time of day when I finish my run and if it's a weekday or weekend. During the week, if I run before work, I have a protein shake afterwards. If it's later in the day, I'll have a Greek yogurt. On the weekends, I'll either have eggs and toast or protein pancakes...yum!! Last weekend, I had a super delicious breakfast burrito. This is usually after a long run of 10 miles or more. And it's usually brunch or lunch for me. If your legs are sore, runner's yoga helps me along with some foam rolling...much more helpful with soreness than diet.
    2. I use running mantras. Just little sayings I created that are kind of like giving myself a little pep talk. Sometimes I change the words in the chorus of songs to make them apply to running and sing them. Ok, I'm probably a dork, but it works for me. Lol! Like others said, also go slow on your long runs when you are increasing your distance. If you have a Garmin and know your average pace on an easy shorter run, you can try slowing it down by 30 to 45 seconds or so and adjust from there. If that pace felt easy, pick it up a little next time. If it still felt too fast, slow it down more. There is no hard rule about this, but it might give you a target to start with.

    Hope that helps.

  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,493 Member
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    @Skipper111 there's nothing wrong with running without a plan, so long as you don't go out one day and decide to run twice as far as you've ever run before.

    Most of us here have a goal race and will find or create a training plan to get us to our peak performance for that race, but that's certainly not a requirement to be here. I've got my big race of the year at the end of this month and while I have been training for it since November, for the month after, I've decided not to plan any runs...just run when I can and for as long and as fast I feel like it. Free running is good for the soul.

    It all depends on what you want to get out of running. I want to keep increasing my race distances so I go through periodic training phases to reach that goal, but that goal is no more worthy than your goal of taking it day by day. If that's what you want out of it, don't let anyone tell you it's wrong or you should be following a plan (not that anyone here is). It your run, run it your way.
  • jessicalferrara
    jessicalferrara Posts: 59 Member
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    Ran a mile at Orangetheory yesterday. I didn't get in any miles over the weekend, which isn't good, but I'm only 9 miles short of my goal, so I'm doing okay. I have 16 miles in for the month so far. This week is going to be tough as I have no time to run Tuesday and Thursday which is when I get my usual runs in. Tomorrow I go to Orangetheory so I will get another mile in, but Friday is my birthday, and I was planning on not doing anything, but I think for a nice relaxing part of my day, I can go for a run. Hopefully 34 brings some exciting new things in my life, like more running!
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
    edited April 2017
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    Skipper111 wrote: »
    2. How do you improve your mind over mater. As I am going further, I feel like I psychically can do it but my brain is my devil and trying to tell me to stop and that I am done. Is this a standard thing when you first start pushing your comfort zone?
    @Skipper111 There's actually different strategies I've used in the past.
    • One is the "I still have to get home" approach : instead of running in small circles near your home, plan an out-and-back run. If I'm on a 16km route, and I loose motivation after 10km, tough luck - unless I want to spend the night sitting by the road side, it's either walk or run the last 6km home; and especially in winter walking quickly gets cold if you are dressed for a run.
    • Like @MNLittleFinn wrote, split the run in different parts. I was a little scared of my first 30km run. So I ran 21km first, then took a one-minute break in which I walked and ate/drank a little, and restarted the running watch on my phone. I just pretended that the next bit was a second, independent run, and that was "only" 9km, which wasn't scary at all for me anymore by that point in the training.
    • If you find yourself walking, ask yourself why you stopped to run. Legs, breathing, something else? If you can't figure out why you slowed down, you can probably keep on running. When I (re-)started running, I often made the deal with myself in those situations that I would run one more minute. That much was usually doable, and by the time I ran another minute, I had proven to myself that there was no reason to walk in the first place and I might as well keep running.
    • The last one probably only works for people who are huge "Zombies Run!" fans like me: I tell myself that the zombies don't care if I'm tired or not, and runner five doesn't give up! Might sound stupid, but that's what got me through the hardest part of my marathon last year. :smiley:
  • BeeerRunner
    BeeerRunner Posts: 728 Member
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    pril Running Challenge

    4/1 Eagle Mt cleanup: picked up trash with the family for 2 hours, filled 6 trash bags between the 3 of us.
    4/2 13.1 mile run.
    4/3 Strength, 12.3 miles stationary bike, yoga
    4/4 9.8 miles stationary bike
    4/5 12.35 miles stationary bike
    4/6 40 minutes elliptical, 20 minutes stationary bike
    4/7 40 minute slow dog walk
    4/8 95 minutes of elliptical
    4/9 1.1 mile run, 3.4 mile dog walk
    4/10 40 minutes elliptical
    4/11 3 mile run...yay!!!

    Goal: 17.2 of 150

    Completed Races:
    Cowtown Marathon (Full) Feb 26 (Registered): 3:54:06 / 8:56 min/mile

    Upcoming Races:


    Chicago Spring Half Marathon: May 21 (Registered)
    Run the Rails 5K June 3 (Tentative)
    XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)
    La Sportiva Vail Half Marathon: Jul 22 (Tentative)
    Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: Oct 1 (Tentative)

    Did the elliptical last night and decided to try reading a book on my Kindle while listening to music. I really like listening to music while I run, and it gave my eyes something to do other than watch the news stations that I completely disagree with that are right in front of the ellipticals. The time flew by, so I'll keep doing that on XT day. But I'm also working on a slideshow on Photobucket.

    Ran 3 miles today, and it felt great to run again without pain. I did wear a calf compression sleeve on my left leg, so I'm not sure if that helped or if my calf was just well rested. Maybe both… I went a little too fast with a 9:09 average pace, but it just felt so good to run pain free I couldn't help it. I'll slow down tomorrow. ;) It was tight and a tad sore after my run so I stretched, foam rolled, used the hockey ball, and ice rolled it. It's feeling fine now. Anyway, I'm a happy runner today. :smiley:

    @OSUBuckeye906...yes, you need to get on Strava!! Lol! Btw, I'm Lisa Mac on there, but I'm already in the MFP running group.
  • BeeerRunner
    BeeerRunner Posts: 728 Member
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    Great tips from @_nikkiwolf_ regarding "chunking" the long run, essentially breaking it up in smaller pieces. I'll often break a long run up into quarters or thirds. If you're going 6 miles, after 1.5, you only have 1.5 miles until the halfway point...piece of cake! At the halfway point, you just have 3 miles left, that's less thsn a 5k, and you're not even running fast...easy peasy. At the 3/4 mark, just 1.5 miles left, that's only 4 or 5 songs left...no problem!! Anyway, those are the things I'd say to myself. Lol! I guess I give myself a lot of pep talks. ;)

    "Chunking" also works on big hills. Instead of thinking about getting all the way to the top, I find a spot to focus on...maybe a rock, crack, post, mailbox, etc... that isn't far away, and I just focus on getting to that point. When I reach it, I find another, and so on and so forth until I reach the top.

    @_nikkiwolf_ How is the ZombiesRun app? It sounds fun, but I thought it was more of a walk/run type program?
  • greenolivetree
    greenolivetree Posts: 1,282 Member
    edited April 2017
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    Yesterday after work I did 2.5 miles which was .25 walk warm up and .25 walk cool down and the other 2 miles was mostly running but a few walk breaks. I don't know why I only walked .25 to warm up because I KNOW BETTER. I paid for it with burning shins and calves. It took the whole 2 miles to get past the pain and then I was out of time. So today I will probably walk a mile after work and then try to run 2. I don't know why I'm just suddenly overwhelmed. I keep telling myself I ran a couple 7 mile runs last month - I am perfectly capable of running. I get into these weird slumps after a couple bad runs where I just think I can't do it anymore. I need to rebuild my confidence apparently because when I feel overwhelmed that I "have" to go run 4 or 5 or 6 miles, I wind up not doing it at all. So just a couple short runs this week then maybe Friday I'll feel up to 5.
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
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    @girlinahat - Your pictures looks like really amazing trails! What a great place to run.

    @ariceroni I hope the pain in your foot goes away quickly! Taking a few days off sounds like a good idea.
    A few weeks ago I had a bit of pain in my left knee, but after three days of no running, including a skipped long run, it went away (although now I'm paranoid and have worn KT tape on that knee for all long runs since "just in case"). I hope that for you a few days of rest will also be enough to heal everything - better a few days rest now than a few weeks later.

    @Orphia Great race, congratulations on the impressive pace :)

    @7lenny7 You too, great race! I saw your posts on the feed and on Strava. The 50mi there next year will surely be a challenge!

    @BeeerRunner I love the ZombiesRun app! They have a run/walk program too, that's called "Zombies Run 5k", which is an 8-week-C25K program. But the main app you can use for all your runs.
    The regular app has "story missions". You can say how long or how far you want to run, and then it will play the sound clips of that particular "mission" at different points during your run. You can listen to your standard playlist in between if you like. Each mission is usually a run you do for Abel township, trying to get supplies, rescue people, learn more about the origin of the zombie apocalypse, ... Some missions are really funny, others are heartbreaking or scary, most are somewhere in-between.
    And then there's a few other features - e.g. you can switch on "zombie chases" if you want to do a few random intervals; then you will from time to time get a warning that zombies are chasing you, and you have to run faster than before for the next minute to escape them. And in addition to the story missions, you can also do interval training, listen to "Radio Abel", ... - but for me the main reason for using the app is the story.

    At least on Android, the basic version of the app is free. With the free version, you only get one story mission per week (instead of unlimited access to all existing missions), and some options are missing - e.g. with the zombie chases, with the premium version you can decide how many on average per hour you want to do, and how much you have to speed up; with the free version you can just switch them on with the default settings or off completely. But for testing it that should be enough, if you want to try it out.


    --

    I felt better Sunday afternoon and went for a short run. Not too long, since it was one of the hottest days of the year so far (24C/75F), and I'm not used to that anymore. Plus, I wasn't feeling 100% well, just mostly okay - but the sunshine was too nice to miss it completly.
    And then I signed up for another race to console myself about not running the 10k: a 20k race, in a little less than two weeks from now. It's also just 2 weeks before the marathon (eeek! it's less than 4 weeks to the marathon!), so I won't be racing it. I'm planning to follow the 2:10 pacer, which will mean running slower than my planned marathon pace, so that should be okay.
    I wasn't going to run that race at all because of the timing, I didn't want to travel and spend money if I wasn't going to race it. But I had been seriously tempted, since it's one of only three races in this area where you get a medal for finishing. So finally, I'm glad I found an excuse to go!

  • mustb60
    mustb60 Posts: 1,090 Member
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    April Running challenge
    Goal: 100 km
    Ran: 44.6/100 km
    11/4/17 Rest day walk 3 km
    10/4/17 Run 11 km 89 min
    9/4/17 walk 7 km
    8/4/17 Run 3.8 km walk 2 km
    7/4/17 Run 7.4 km walk 3 km
    6/4/17 Run 8.4 km walk 9 km
    5/4/17 walk 9 km
    4/4/17 Run 7 km
    3/4/17 Run 7 km walk 6 km
    2/4/17 walk 3 km
    1/4/17 walk 7 km

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