June 2017 Running Challenge

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  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    @Whatmerunning- I agree with you that at a certain point, the gains in speed made from base building start to level off. I think that is when speed work really comes into play, and then all of those base miles in between are more about the recovery. I have never been one who believed that it is necessary to run very high mileage. I have been able to achieve all of my goals and only ran over 60 miles in a week once in my life. But I did put the hammer down on the speed drills. I think maybe that is why it is harder to see gains as we age. Our base is already there, and our bodies are less capable of handling the wear and tear of the additional work needed to progress.

    @MobyCarp - Interesting comparison between you and your fellow runners. I have also heard that about the 10 year thing. I am really not sure how that would apply in my situation. I have been running pretty regularly for nearly 20 years, barring a few extended breaks due to issues with Crohn's disease. However, for the first 6-7 years, I only ran 3-5 miles at a time and always at the same pace. I didn't do my first 5K until 2002 and my first half marathon until 2003. Both of them were run at roughly the same pace. In fact, I ran 3 half marathons between 2003 and 2012 and all three of them were 2:05 and change. I was just a consistent, casual runner. In 2013, a friend convinced me to run a marathon with her. She was a much slower runner than I was, but we trained together and ran the entire race together. Towards the end of the race, her pace dropped considerably. I remember thinking how hard it was for me to run at that pace. I was tired too, and I just wanted to get done. When we finally finished in just under 5 hours, I remember thinking that I could have done that much faster on my own, and that's when it all began ( well, that's the abbreviated version anyway). I started working on getting faster, and the rest is history.

    So technically, I have been running for a long time, but only working on getting faster for a short while. Of course, all those years of easy running definitely contributed to my relatively quick progress in gaining speed. Up until my recent hamstring injury in Feb, I was still setting PRs. I think I kind of got used to it to the point that the idea of not running a race faster than before is a bit discouraging. Boston was the first race that I could not put in my max effort and that was a bit of a difficult pill to swallow. However, I was still happy with the results under the circumstances, so maybe going forward none of this will really matter. At times getting caught up in all of the PR hype has made me lose sight of why I fell in love with running in the first place. Maybe getting back to those days of being a consistent, casual runner won't be such a bad thing. But even if I slow down, I still intend to be a fast old lady!
  • cburke8909
    cburke8909 Posts: 990 Member
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    @KatieJane83 for those trying to get their HDL numbers up I will tell them of my success with fish oil supplements. My doctor suggested that my HDL should be at least 40 but I struggled to get them there after a month of fish oil supplements I was at 50 and with no significant increase in my bad cholesterol numbers.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    @KatieJane83- Great photo. That dude is totally checking you out! LOL

    @PastorVincent (wait, you changed your name!) I think that sounds like a great plan. It appears to me that you are in a very similar spot to me when I started using the 80/20 plan. Our age, LT HR and 10K pace ( estimated for me because I had never actually ran one) were pretty close. I spent about 6 weeks practicing pacing in the proper zones before starting the intermediate plan. I ran that marathon in 3:52 something, FWIW.
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
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    WhatMeRunning wrote: »
    @MNLittleFinn - It is 100% normal to suddenly develop a debilitating injury somewhere that has never bothered you before on just the day before your marathon. Chalk it up to the recovery process during the taper, so, yeah, it's taper related.

    Thank you for saying that. Marathon freak out is bad enough without random pain.
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
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    garygse wrote: »
    @Elise4270 Darn, I would have totally met up with you for lunch, but it's a colleagues last day here so we're all going to Mi Cocina on the company credit card.

    I don't mind eating on the companies dime :wink:

    No prob. I'll back August 8th. Think I'll buy a mountain bike and just trick myself in to cross training/tri training. Either that or a tattoo.... think I should just do the bike.

    @Ohhim @ddmom0811 road biking​ is hard... should I suck it up? Or go with the trail bike as a transition? I'm thinking I'm more likely to do trails. Love my trails. And they tend to be a bit cooler than the road. And I'm not super confident on the real road with traffic. Probably no matter, as I sit outside the bike store about to go get a used MTN bike. Then I gotta ride it... *Sigh* I'm ride the kitten outta that bike.
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
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    lporter229 wrote: »
    @PastorVincent (wait, you changed your name!) I think that sounds like a great plan. It appears to me that you are in a very similar spot to me when I started using the 80/20 plan. Our age, LT HR and 10K pace ( estimated for me because I had never actually ran one) were pretty close. I spent about 6 weeks practicing pacing in the proper zones before starting the intermediate plan. I ran that marathon in 3:52 something, FWIW.

    Yeah, got tired of typing it in every post. :smiley: Been using MFP for a while, but only recently discovered his thread so wanted a "name" not a "user account" for the forums.

    Sub 4 is my goal before I am too old to do it. :)
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
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    @Elise4270 - I expect pics of that mountain bike! :smile: Also, should you get the urge to ride on the roads, you can still take mountain bikes on the road. If anyone looks at you funny just remind them that you are on the road right now and can go off road at any time, unlike them.
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
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    @KatieJane83 Lol, those 2 pics perfectly describe my current pre-race feelings.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
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    MNLittleFinn wrote: »
    WhatMeRunning wrote: »
    @MNLittleFinn - It is 100% normal to suddenly develop a debilitating injury somewhere that has never bothered you before on just the day before your marathon. Chalk it up to the recovery process during the taper, so, yeah, it's taper related.

    Thank you for saying that. Marathon freak out is bad enough without random pain.

    Random pain is a subset of marathon freak out. It's all part of that magical experience that keeps us alternating between "Why in the world do i do this?" and "Damn, I can't wait to do it again!". Enjoy every minute of it!!!
  • WhatMeRunning
    WhatMeRunning Posts: 3,538 Member
    edited June 2017
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    I have never experienced pain or discomfort in quite the manner of my first full. Actually, all 3 were quite brutal, really. But that first one in particular. It's not the intensity of the pain...it's the distribution of it.

    I remember sitting in a particular chair and being particularly careful to stay seated because I was afraid I would break if I stood up. Someone asked what part of me. My feet? Legs? I remember saying, "All of it".

    Honestly, the look on that guy in @KatieJane83's top photo pretty much says how it felt the rest of that day.

    It even hurt to lay down and go to sleep. Not that I had any trouble sleeping. But it hurt just laying there too.
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
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    Good luck @MNLittleFinn You're gonna do great.

    @VydorScope I'm not too shabby on the hills now. :wink:

    @skippygirlsmom I got a 13.

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