August 2017 Running Challenge
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Hi all!
8/4: 15.2k -Slow LR-
8/6: 12k -w/u, 8k negative splits, c/d-
8/7: 9.4k -Steady+strides, c/d-
8/10: 10.6k -w/u+intervals-
8/12: 10.2k -Trail run easy-
Goal: 57.4k/150k
Bad luck continues. Yesterday night a 32 y.o. guy from my neighborhood died from overdose. As a result I stayed awake up until 4:30 am to discuss the situation with the guys from the hood and our wives. Smoked 6 burners and drunk 2,5 pints of beer. Today's running was awful, I can feel my cardiovascular system is failing. NO MORE! I will be back on track from NOW!
Take care and stay hydrated!5 -
@PastorVincent that was some challenge. Glad you were able to find your way. Better luck at the next race.0
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For my monthly 5K in for August, was a really fun one.
Goals, one mile test each Sunday.
Last month, 11:30.
Today 11:20.
EOM Goal: 11:00 mile.
Shooting for 10 miles per week.7 -
August 1 – 0.0 miles XT Water Aerobics & P90X3 Agility X
August 2 – 7.25 miles Long Run & P90X3 Yoga
August 3 – 0.0 miles XT P90X3 The Challenge and a 4-mile walk
August 4 – 6.0 miles Fartlek Run & P90X3 CVX
August 5 – 4.0 miles Great Brain Wash 5K Obstacle Run plus warm-up
August 6 – 0.0 miles P90X3 The Warrior and Dynamix
August 7 – 5.25 miles Hill Sprints and P90X3 Total Synergistics
August 8 – 0.0 XT Water Aerobics
August 9 – 10.0 miles & P90X3 Yoga
August 10 – 2.5 miles & P90X3 Agility X & The Challenge (6/15)
August 11 – 0.0 miles P90X3 CVX
August 12 – 4.25 miles Interval run and P90X3 The Warrior
Total: 39.25/100 miles
Upcoming Races:
August 18 - St. Pete Beach Series, Race #3, 5K
September 16 – Samoa Challenge (Thin Mint Sprint 5K and a Tagalong Trot 1 mile), Safety Harbor, FL
October 1 – Ft. DeSoto 5K, Race #1 of the Triple Crown
October 29 – Ft. DeSoto Halloween 5K, Race #2 of the Triple Crown
November 18 – Insane Inflatable 5K Obstacle Run, Tampa, FL
November 19 – St. Pete Runfest Half Marathon
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PastorVincent wrote: »So for my rest day I got to spend hours with my a flat tire on my truck, side wall blew out. No two ways about it, have to change it.
Okay pull in to a parking lot, and start to get out the jack and etc - but the owner of the parking lot came out saying this was their "prime time" and I was taking up valuable space. *sigh* drive the truck a little farther on the flat, now at a place where getting at the tire is much harder, but at least the owner goes away.
Set the parking brake and get out the spare. It is, of course, flat and of course, the pump I carry in my truck is broken. But the spare is less flat than the tire on the truck, so I decided to try it. Next, I get out the lug wrench and attempt to get the lug nuts loose. The will not budge. Great.
Just then a fellow pastor pulls up and asks if I need help. I brief him and he takes the spare tire and heads off to get it filled with air and comes back with a bigger wrench.
Lug nuts still will not budge. Call the tire place that put them on and they offer to let us borrow an even bigger wrench. Pastor buddy goes and gets it, comes back with a wrench that is about FIVE FEET long. That is finally enough leverage that can break the nuts free - still was a struggle, but we got them off.
Okay lift the truck the rest of the way... but wait! there is more! The stupid scissor jack can not get the truck up high enough to get the tire off. Pastor buddy gets the jack out of his car and we use it to compress the shock and get the few more inches we need. So we get the spare on... and then lower the truck on it... and it s low on air, again. Of course. And it is starting to rain.
BUT the spare has SOME air, and it is only a mile to the tire place, so I throw everything into the truck and head to the tire store. I sit and wait while they fix the spare tire and take the main tire back into the shop. It is, of course, unfixable so they will have to replace the original tire, which of course is not in stock. Thankfully I have road hazard insurance on the tires so it is covered, but ugh. Sometime next week I will get the tire, until then I am on the patched spare.
If I put this in a book, y'all would tell me that it was too many coincidences in a row and unrealistic. heh. Shows what you know.
Ughhh, that sucks! The most inconvenient flat I ever had was when I got home from vacation. Had been out and about all day in SF on Saturday, and took a red eye home to NY Saturday night. I CANNOT sleep on planes so I finally land at Newark, catch the shuttle to the off-site lot where my car was, get in my car around 8am Sunday on zero sleep, start driving and realize my tire is pancake flat with a nail in it. I didn't even contemplate trying to change it myself at that point, I was so tired I would have dropped the car on myself, lol. Called Geico roadside, and by some kind of miracle their estimated one hour wait ended up being 15 min, cause the guy was literally down the street from where I was. Then I just spent an enjoyable almost hour drive nursing my spare tire home on the Garden State Parkway, lol4 -
OH! Forgot to mention the good highlight...
I won a MilestonePod in the raffle. Started looking at it. It does not seem to sync with ANYTHING, just its own app. Might goof around with it some just to see what the hype is all about.4 -
@pastorvincent WTH what a disaster of a race. Glad it all worked out but honestly here's a map find your way for 15K. Just insane.
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Hi guys, hope your're all having a good weekend.
Me, I am feeling better stomach-wise, but still not a lot of energy. Was able to do a 5-mile walk with my boyfriend and that didn't kill me, so tomorrow I think I'll try running again. Maybe 5k or so to see how I do.
In addition to the stomach flu I'd also been experiencing bouts of severe anxiety, dizziness, and shakiness. This all started happening before I got sick and is still going on to a degree, even though my psychiatrist is having me take a half tablet of lorazepam four times a day (!). The anxiety is mostly better but the physical symptoms really aren't, still feel shaky, dizzy, etc., so I made an appointment with my GP to check for stuff like blood sugar changes, vitamin deficiencies, etc. We'll see how that goes. One medication in particular that I take, Abilify, has the possibility to cause changes in blood sugar, so I definitely need to get that checked out.
So, possible run tomorrow... I'll let you know how that goes.
Have a great Saturday!5 -
Runningmischka wrote: »@MobyCarp Your race schedule is impressive! Love it! Do you keep your bibs and medals in some super organized way that will totally put mine to shame? It won't be hard, since I just drop mine in one drawer and call it a day. In any case, I do hope your leg feels better soon and you return to feeling normal. On a slightly different note, what does one have to do to become a pacer?
@Runningmischka -
My bibs are a chaotic mess in a folder in a file cabinet. Organizing them has never risen to the top of my priority list.
Some medals are just in a drawer, but I found a nice medal rack at the expo in Boston last April:
On the left are my marathon medals: Buffalo 2015, Boston 2016, and Boston 2017. On the right, working from the right side toward the center, are medals form 2017 races: Half marathon finisher's medals, age group medals, USATF Team medals, and USATF Age Grade medals. The idea is that at the end of the year, the 2017 non-marathon medals will go into a box and I'll start again from right to left with 2018 medals.
My daughter has suggested I put medals and other awards in boxes by year. This would help her sort out what she thinks is worth keeping when she goes through my estate. God willing, there could be a lot of boxes of medals by then.
Becoming a pacer: Requirement will be set by whatever organization is sponsoring pacers. I pace for the local Fleet Feet Half and Full Marathon training program. The requirements for this are a GPS watch and an ability to hold a steady pace, plus some implied commitments to support Fleet Feet marketing. I got that position when the program needed another 8:30 pacer, and the existing pacer suggested me as someone who can hold the pace. Other pacers came in from submitting applications and being approved.
Official pacers for races will be selected by the race organizer. This year, Fleet Feet Rochester implemented a policy that first choice of pacing for their races would go to the people who pace for their training program. That's how I got the position to pace of Shoreline Half, and I could have taken a position to pace 1:45 for the Rochester Half, or the second half of the Rochester Marathon, or (if I were confident enough) to pace 3:30 for the full Rochester Marathon. I didn't become a pacer for Rochester, because I want to treat it as a race and I'm not confident I could bring in a 3:30 at even splits on that course.
In general, to be a good pacer for a half marathon or a marathon you must be able to run fast enough that pacing to the target pace is a given. This essentially means that you don't pace to the time you would race, you pace to something slower and treat the race as a training run at a pace slower than your race pace. In the case of Shoreline, my target was just a shade slower than my goal marathon pace; so it was partly an exercise in practicing pace control (i.e., not running too fast) in a race environment. The other part was being a reference point for any runners with a goal time near my pacing goal.
Different race organizers will have different systems for selecting pacers, and you would need to know the race organizer to know how they handle things. Fleet Feet Rochester prefers pacers to run even splits. Other organizers may be less structured and just want the pacer to finish close to target time. Still others may have a schedule that calls for pacers to run negative splits. And it is possible that some race organizers may sanction pacers selected by a different organization, e.g. a local running store that doesn't actually produce the race is question.
I ran a half marathon in 2015 that had pacers with a so-called "smart pacing" system. This was a plan that called for slower early miles and faster later miles. I looked at the time targets, and they didn't make sense to me for what that course was; so I didn't follow those pacers. I have no idea how the race organizer found people who could hold variable target paces by mile following a plan that seemed to be designed for a flat course.5 -
@respectthekitty hang in there - hugs1
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@PastorVincent - Wow, what an organizational disaster. He!! to live through, but you'll have great stories forever. No, I wouldn't repeat that one either; but I suppose it beats having a hard to change flat tire.2
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August Running Totals (miles)
8/1 – 9.06 warm up + speed work
8/2 – unplanned rest day
8/3 – 15.02 easy
8/4 – rest day
8/5 – 14.07 pacers' run
8/6 – 7.85 easy 60 minutes
8/7 – rest day
8/8 – 16.00 with hills
8/9 – 9.61 warmup + 10K race
8/10 – extra rest day
8/11 – planned rest day
8/12 – 6.30 warmup + 5K race
August total to date – 77.91
Nominal challenge goal: 260 miles
Real goals: Stay healthy. Train well toward the Rochester Marathon. Win my age group at Pound the Ground 10K on August 9. [Done, 41:26 4th overall] Run a respectable sub-20 5K at Bergen on August 12. Run the USATF Masters Mile (road) in under 6 minutes on August 25.
Today's notes – So, I went to packet pickup yesterday on speculation that I might be healthy enough to be race-worthy this morning:
Pre-race communication was a bit iffy. I'd read that they were omitting the "Jenny Kuzma Memorial" phrase from the race title, though the race would still be run in Jenny's memory for the same charitable benefit; but the online results still show it as the Jenny Kuzma Memorial Bergen 5K. It is still the USATF Niagara Region 5K Championship, which is why I was running it. I wanted to support the GVH Men's 60+ team. Peer pressure, and all that.
Got up this morning, and the leg felt good enough to risk a 5K. Made the trip to Bergen, arriving in plenty of time for a course preview as a warmup. Forecast had been partly cloudy and ridiculous humidity; for my warmup it was sunny, 66º F (19º C), and 88% relative humidity. At that temperature, the humidity didn't seem so bad. I thought to take pictures of the finish line and the USATF tent before I started:
Then the sunlight and the empty rural road viewed from the starting line looked pretty:
Unlike last year, I ran the course accurately for my preview. Did my thing to refresh my memory of inclines and declines and scope out the good tangents. The leg was fine with a warmup at an average pace of 7:30 per mile or so, which is a bit faster than I really ought to warm up; but I had plenty of recovery time before the race started.
Looked around, and didn't see any other GVH members over 60. Maybe I don't have a team to run for? If I'd known that, taking a DNS in favor of a 19 mile easy run this morning would have been a good strategy. But I was in Bergen, I'd paid my $17 entry fee, I was going to run the race. By gun time it was 72º F (22º C) with 78% relative humidity. Again, it didn't feel like the humidity was as bad as Garmin claims. This might be a benefit from being out training it the humidity all July.
Set out in a crowd, as always. USATF events draw a tough field, and there were a lot more people ahead of me early than there are in a typical local race. I passed some of the surge and fade crowed a few hundred meters in, and a cluster of different surge and fade types about a mile in. Then I just ran, trying to make my self-imposed goal of a sub-20 5K. I passed 2 or 3 other people who were fading about 2 miles in, and maybe a couple more in the third mile. The last person I passed was just before the 3 mile mark. Other than that, I held my position. I don't recall anyone passing me. This is a marked change from races a couple years ago; I've gotten better at race management. (It's also possible that some of the people fading around 2 miles didn't train as much in the weather as I did.)
As beat up and tired as I was from the marathon training cycle in general and Wednesday's 10K in particular, I didn't expect a great time. And I didn't get one. I ran a very respectable 19:47, not the fastest I've run but enough to meet my goal. I expected a guy from Syracuse would win the age group and I'd finish second. Turned out the guy I expected to run faster than that didn't show, but a team mate of mine who aged up recently and is much faster did show, and ran 18:03. So I finished second in my age group.
Surprises at the awards ceremony: Age groups were in 10 year intervals, not 5 year like last year. And my age group was wider; it was 60+. I finished 88th of 200 overall, and 2nd of 11 in the M 60+ age group. Results specific to USATF runners were also published; I finished 51st of 65 USATF Niagara Region members. Tough field. I age graded 21st of those 65, at 81.38. USATF considers an age grade above 80 to be national level competition. I'll take it.
Bling was no great shakes. There was a plastic pint glass, and a sweat band visor with no top that is useless to an old bald guy like me. There was also a $15 gift certificate to a local running store, that I will use; so at least the day was cheap entertainment. Age group winners also got a lightweight bag/backpack, but I have one of those from last year.
Then they did the team awards. GVH Men placed 4th. GVH Women A team was 1st, GVH Women B team was 2nd. There were no age group team awards, an organizational change I hadn't been aware of. If I had known that, I would have taken the DNS in favor of a long slow run this morning. Oh, well. Done is done.
Got home, and thought maybe I'd run an easy 3 to 5 miles just to loosen up, because I'd missed a cool down run on site. Got 15 seconds along, and noticed I was stiff enough to have an abnormal gait. Sigh. Stop that, go take a nap, hope I'm better tomorrow. On general principal, I think I'll skip next Tuesday's speed work assignment. It's pretty tough, and healthy legs are more important than better cardiovascular stamina at this point.
I don't think I want to make scheduling 2 races in one week a regular practice. That was pretty aggressive, and it remains to be seen how well I'll deal with the beating my legs took this morning.
2017 races:
January 1, 2017 Freezeroo #2 (Resolution Run 7.5 mile) (Mendon, NY) Finished in 50:45
January 7, 2017 Winter Warrior Half Marathon (Gates, NY) Finished in 1:32:40
January 14, 2017 Freezeroo #3 (Pineway Ponds Park 5 mile) (Spencerport, NY) Finished in 33:42
January 28, 2017 Freezeroo #4 (Hearnish 5 mile) (Victor, NY) short course, finished 4.88 miles in 32:50
February 4, 2017 USATF Cross Country National Championship Masters 8K (Bend, OR) Finished in 35:39, team won the 60+ Men's cross country championship
February 11, 2017 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) sat out due to training schedule
February 25, 2017 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) short course, finished 4.34 miles in 27:51
March 11, 2017 Johnny's Runnin' of the Green 5 mile (Rochester, NY) finished in 33:25
March 18, 2017 USATF Masters 8K Championship (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 30:59, PR for 8K
April 17, 2017 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA) finished in 3:49:42
April 30, 2017 USATF Masters 10K Championship (James Joyce Ramble, Dedham, MA) finished in 39:54, PR for 10K
May 21, 2017 Lilac Run 10K (Rochester, NY) finished in 40:04
May 27, 2017 Canandaigua Classic Half Marathon (Canandaigua, NY) finished in 1:33:06
June 9, 2017 Charlie McMullen Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 5:44.90, PR for mile
June 18, 2017 Medved 5K to Cure ALS (Rochester, NY) finished in 19:32
July 4, 2017 Firecracker Four Mile (Fairport, NY) finished in 25:42
July 15, 2017 Shoreline Half Marathon [1:40 pacer] (Hamlin, NY) finished in 1:39:05
July 28, 2017 Karknocker 5K (East Rochester, NY) finished in 19:28
August 9, 2017 Pound the Ground 10K (Mendon, NY) finished in 41:26
August 12, 2017 Bergen Road Race 5K (Bergen, NY) finished in 19:47
August 25, 2017 USATF Masters Mile (Hap Crim Michigan Mile, Flint, MI)
September 3, 2017 Oak Tree Half Marathon (Geneseo, NY)
September 17, 2017 MVP Rochester Marathon (Rochester, NY)
November 23, 2017 Race with Grace 10K (Hilton, NY)
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@PastorVincent wow! That must have been one helluva race. I did a half where they ran out of water at the final water-stop and at another half, one of the marshals was standing in the wrong spot so everyone ended up with a a new PR because the course was shorter by a quarter of a mile, but your race has to be one of the worst organizational eff ups I've ever read about. Kudos to you and your wife for finishing it. But yeah, you've definitely got a story that will get plenty of retellings.3
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Heh, I sent them a suggestion "Maybe next year, maybe charge a bit more and use the profit to buy some signs"
I will be surprised if I even hear back on that... 5 -
This video has me in awe. I can't imagine how it must feel to move that fast and gracefully
http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/08/11/emma-coburn-steeplechase-world-championship-video
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@MobyCarp thanks for your reply. That rack is awesome, I might put it on my birthday/Christmas wish so other people can get it for me. Lots of good info about becoming a pacer, so thanks for that too! It is something I was always wondering about and thinking I could do it, half-marathon pacing for sure. Few days ago I got certified in CPR, so now I would feel a lot more comfortable "leading a pack" to the finish line. For now, becoming a pacer is going on my bucket list
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@PastorVincent seems like missing it was a good call... Lol
I guess they should have done what I thought they would do and just done an out and back on the trail heading towards Millvale. That would have cut down on the confusion.
Overall, maybe the $10 I donated will help2 -
amymoreorless wrote: »This video has me in awe. I can't imagine how it must feel to move that fast and gracefully
http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2017/08/11/emma-coburn-steeplechase-world-championship-video
@amymoreorless I follow Emma, she is amazing.
@mobycarp great job on the race - sorry you aren't feeling 100%
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More biking tomorrow unless it rains... then a run!
8/1 - 4.1
8/2 - 5.00
8/3 - 5.00
8/4 - rest day
8/5 - 44 miles biking
8/6 - 28 miles biking
8/7 - 5 miles
8/8 - 5 miles
8/9 - 5 miles
8/10 - rest day
8/11 - 5 miles
8/12 - 53 miles biking
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dudasd1973 wrote: »@PastorVincent seems like missing it was a good call... Lol
I guess they should have done what I thought they would do and just done an out and back on the trail heading towards Millvale. That would have cut down on the confusion.
Overall, maybe the $10 I donated will help
I do not know that we were on the actual trail that much unless it has traffic lights and cars on it!
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