July 2018 Running Challenge

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  • girlinahat
    girlinahat Posts: 2,956 Member
    RunsOnEspresso wrote: »

    I have officially started marathon training as of today!

    woohoo!!!!!!! B)
  • workaholic_nurse
    workaholic_nurse Posts: 727 Member
    First the distance updates, then the topic of the day "race food/hydration stations". 7/8/18 was a rest day and today a lift day so 1 treadmill mile and an upper body workout, totals so far 8.7 outdoor and now 2.6 treadmill miles. For volunteer stations at races I've run my favorite snack has been peanut M&Ms, and my favorite drink lemonade...never could do the salty stuff mid-race. The race planners should have the trash cans a suitable distance(or multiple trash cans at different distances). The best idea I have seen for a container at the stations was the paper funnel cups like you find on a water cooler. Just my $.02

    @AprilRN10 In general I don't think nurses have a TMI switch. After 10 years of nursing in many different environments, I know that I can go from enema to lunch to vomiting patient to snack to wounds that smell so awful they curl your nose hair. Just another day at the office....and don't get me started on some of the conversations I have walked in on my (mostly) female colleagues having at times in the break room :D
  • workaholic_nurse
    workaholic_nurse Posts: 727 Member
    RunsOnEspresso wrote: »

    I have officially started marathon training as of today!

    YAY! so happy to see someone training for longer distances, gives me something to aspire to. :'(
  • LaDispute57
    LaDispute57 Posts: 371 Member
    July goal is 150 miles

    7/1 5.00............ 5.00/145.00
    7/2 Rest............ 5.00/145.00
    7/3 7.00............12.00/138.00
    7/4 5.00............17.00/133.00
    7/5 7.00............24.00/126.00
    7/6 5.00............29.00/121.00
    7/7 Rest............29.00/121.00
    7/8 16.00..........45.00/105.00
    7/9 Rest............45.00/105.00


    Upcoming races:

    October 20: Sinnemahone Ultra Marathon Trail Race (50K)
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    LaDispute57 wrote: »
    mbaker566 wrote: »
    LaDispute57 wrote: »
    My favorite aid station food is grilled cheese.... I also like mashed potato balls

    what are these potato balls you speak of? i think i must become familiar with them

    They are mashed potatoes made a little thicker than normal then rolled into about 2 inch balls... often set next to a plate of salt if you want to roll them in it... a couple of those and a half of a melty grilled cheese in a fall or early spring race makes me so happy... lol

    i want to sear them and eat them as work snacks with garlic maybe first press parmesean

    paper cups is what people are switching to by me. trail runners are just as messy here as the road runners come race time.

    stations: i want something easy to go down, so melons, gummy bears, worms. bready things at the end

    i have sweaty hands. i need a grip aid when working aerial stuff in the summer
    o3q07kydhh60.png
  • workaholic_nurse
    workaholic_nurse Posts: 727 Member
    LaDispute57 wrote: »
    July goal is 150 miles

    7/1 5.00............ 5.00/145.00
    7/2 Rest............ 5.00/145.00
    7/3 7.00............12.00/138.00
    7/4 5.00............17.00/133.00
    7/5 7.00............24.00/126.00
    7/6 5.00............29.00/121.00
    7/7 Rest............29.00/121.00
    7/8 16.00..........45.00/105.00
    7/9 Rest............45.00/105.00


    Upcoming races:

    October 20: Sinnemahone Ultra Marathon Trail Race (50K)

    W O W! Longest race I have run thus far is 13.1...awesome.
  • workaholic_nurse
    workaholic_nurse Posts: 727 Member
    edited July 2018
    amymoreorless wrote: »

    (Runs off to cook a baked potato for lunch with a side of pineapple for dessert)

    Hehe B)
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
    PastorVincent wrote: »
    _nikkiwolf_ wrote: »
    PastorVincent wrote: »
    Paper cups would be far more sanitary and could be composted. Just an option.

    If I saw 100s of sweaty people dipping hands in a blow of candy, I would pass it by and think bad thoughts. No thanks. :)
    yeah, but it won't be 100s of people touching your candy before you eat it. If everyone just grabs something from the top , it will be a handful of peole (no pun intended :D ) whose hands might brush the candy piece you get for a fraction of a second. (( and how much is anyone actually sweating on the -hands- while running?) Wouldn't bother me at all.
    Spread it out on a tray rather than in a bowl, even less problems.
    What about the fact that the hands of one or more people touched the orange slice that you grab, is that also an issue?
    I'd rather worry about touching the locking mechanism of the porta-potty doors if I wanted to start freaking out about unsanitary things in a race >:)

    Your hands do not sweat? Odd. Mine get so bad I can not use the phone screen after a while. Dripping wet. Would not want to be the poor shmuck that came after me. :lol:

    As far as the volunteers go... you are talking about 1 or 2 people, vs 100 sweaty drippy messes. I rather take my chances with the smaller risk vector.

    I care about recycling, cleaning up the mess we have made of this planet, and more. But I just think there are better solutions than communal sweat sharing :D
    Nope, they don't. I started going to a rock climbing gym last autumn. Bought a chalk bag and chalk when I started since everyone had them. People told me I need it to get better grip with sweaty hands... I diligently used some chalk before each route the first couple of times I went. Until I forget it at home and didn't see any difference. I realised my hands were never sweaty in the first place, so I have long since stopped dragging it around. Maybe the sweat glands on my hands there are broken :lol:
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,267 Member
    @MegaMooseEsq 50 mile club is going well. I took a couple days off and I'm back at it tomorrow. 9 miles down so far. :)
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
    edited July 2018
    Completely different question to those of you that combine running and strength training: how do you fit everything into one week?
    I've basically found two different approaches:
    a) save strength training, especially lower body workouts, for days on which you don't run or do easy runs
    b) "keep your hard days hard and your easy days easy" (e.g. do your strength training later in the same day where you did long runs or speed training, so that you can recover better on easy/rest days)

    I'm currently trying to combine a 5-day running plan (rest, short, mid, short, rest, mid/tempo, long) with a 5-day-per-week strength programme (lower, upper, core, lower, upper, stretching, rest).
    Last week I started out by something like approach a: did a long run on Sunday, lower body strength on Monday evening (and no running, then easy run & arms on Tuesday), but then the main leg&glutes soreness from the Monday evening workout hit between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, so the mid-week mid-long run really sucked.

    So I'm thinking about trying option b this week. So far I did my long run Sunday (too-dang-early) morning, and then the lower-body workout in the evening before bed. That went surprisingly well, and today my legs can rest completely :)
    On the other hand, this long run was only 17.6km / 11 mi, and I would like to gradually increase that distance in the next month. I'm wondering if I could still do any meaningful strength training after, say, a 30km run, or if my legs would be too trashed and I would risk injury?
  • RunsOnEspresso
    RunsOnEspresso Posts: 3,218 Member
    Completely different question to those of you that combine running and strength training: how do you fit everything into one week?

    I currently do my runs in the morning and strength after work. I was doing 3 days now I am moving into 4 days of my strength plan. I do all my strength during the week so my legs get a break the day before and day of my long run. I've done strength on Saturdays but I prefer not to since I run long on Sundays.

    When I've done strength focused cycles, I do that in the AM and run after work (usually winter when I can do that).
  • Scott6255
    Scott6255 Posts: 2,547 Member
    @_nikkiwolf_ "keep your hard days hard and your easy days easy" is exact quote Jason Fitzgerald at strengthrunning.com preaches all the time. I think that makes the most sense. Your body does all the repair and muscle building during rest days.
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
    PastorVincent wrote: »
    _nikkiwolf_ wrote: »
    girlinahat wrote: »
    Just a comment about putting handfuls in individual cups. No. there's enough plastic waste in the environment without making it worse. hands dipped in bowls, deal with it. (that's you and me @_nikkiwolf_ maybe a European thing?)
    @girlinahat Whew, glad I'm not the only one thinking that. I didn't want to come across as that crazy tree-hugging lady lecturing the masses... :mrgreen:
    At the Paris marathon they introduced specific bin types for banana/orange skins and plastic bottles (which they use instead of cups), in a really well-organised way (see here). The food waste is turned into compost, the bottles are recycled (into car seats for the BMW i3). I didn't run the race, but I read about it in a running magazine last year, and I thought it was awesome. I wish more race organisers would do things like that.

    Paper cups would be far more sanitary and could be composted. Just an option.

    If I saw 100s of sweaty people dipping hands in a blow of candy, I would pass it by and think bad thoughts. No thanks. :)

    Same here. How many runners have had their fingers in their noses, mouth, butt, arm pits, or come on, crotch. I guarantee by mile 3, mine have been in all of those places. My husband sweats and is soaked. Its. So. Gross. Flipping sweat off everywhere. And the snot blow? Nuh uh. Y'all just nasty.
    Paper and Plastic can be recycled. Think all those little cup that would have gone home with someone else are going to be recycled in this case.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    @_nikkiwolf_ i have found myself more motivated to go longer after a hard aerial class. less motivated on a day without class. however, lately, i've been mostly unmotivated altogether.
    but mostly
    hard days are hard and easy days are easy. but i do long run on days without aerial classes to have the muscle energy. one day my garmin read class as 27 flights of stairs. long running after that is stuff
  • weat0043
    weat0043 Posts: 172 Member
    I have never been to a race but I second the cups...I know how much I sweat and I'd rather not stick my hand into a bowl of something(not just for me but for others) and in regards to the clean up... that's what you get volunteers for if the race directors think it will be an issue. Around here kids need volunteer hours to graduate high school so that would be something easy for them to do. I also like the idea of volunteers handing it out with scoops and bringing your own cup.
  • cburke8909
    cburke8909 Posts: 990 Member
    I somehow missed 122 posts!!!??? There's no way I can catch up with that.
    7 easy miles this am

    exercise.png
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    Here are my thoughts on waste and such at aid stations, and I know there are many runners who will disagree (which is a big reason why I asked):

    The race I'm talking about will provide the cups and the aid station sponsors will provide trash cans / cleanup. I love to see cup-less races, but have only seen this once. At that particular race, it was a half-marathon (so no BQ's anyway) and they gave out refillable cups at packet pickup. The cups clipped onto a waistband and you squeezed it to open. You could opt out of this and save $2.00 off the race fee (I did this) and bring your own bottle. But there were no cups given out. You filled your own at the aid stations. They had quick-pour spouts (seriously, these would fill my 20 oz. in about 2 seconds, no joke). This was just outside a national park and done as a destination race. There was an important "No trash" policy. Aid stations did have snacks with wrappers and trash cans (mostly Honey Stinger as they were a sponsor). It was very clearly stated in the rules that you would be DQ'ed and banned from future races by this organization if you were caught littering. When I see pictures of cups everywhere on the street around aid stations at the big city races, I cringe because I know this can work. Yet I always get a lot of runners telling me there is just no way. At my last road race, I did what everyone else did (just threw the cups on the ground), but only because there were no trash cans provided at many of the aid stations. Of course it isn't possible then! But yea... I hate littering and waste.

    This particular race is a "trail run" on a rails-to-trails trail. It gets much of the road runner crowd and not technical trails crowd, but the trail is only around maybe 10-15 feet wide and crushed limestone. They estimate 400 runners, so this is a pretty small crowd. I've run smaller (smallest had 19 total runners for the marathon and probably 3-4 times that for the half marathon race starting half-way along as both were point-to-point), but 400 is still a pretty small race.

    I really like the reusable cup idea for drinks but I can imagine at a major race like the Pittsburgh Marathon, the condition at the water stops might get very complex when you have 100s of runners all at once - must of which appear to be dumb-dumbs. (meant in the best possible way of course).

    When I did my 50k trail race, I brought my own bottles (the set that matched my belt) and topped off at each station. No waste that way. Worked very well in that environment but massively fewer people in that race, and I imagine only more serious runners show up for a 50k. So that probably helps a lot.
  • RespectTheKitty
    RespectTheKitty Posts: 1,667 Member
    Miss a day, miss 115 posts!

    I'll have to catch up later. Yesterday was a rest day and today is back to work. :neutral: I plan to have a run when I get home as waking up this morning was pretty difficult.

    I had a total of 19 miles last week, which is almost 20 so I'm pleased.
  • LaDispute57
    LaDispute57 Posts: 371 Member
    @_nikkiwolf_ I run five days a week T, W, TH, SA, SU, with SA being my long run day... I do weights three days a week M, W, F. I lift and run on W because W is typically my shortest run of the week. I follow the training plans in Bryon Powell's "Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons." By far the best book on long distance running I have read... covers training plans for 50k to 100 miles, nutrition, trail gear, recovery, speed work, tips on efficient trail running, etc. His website irunfar.com is excellent as well.
  • T1DCarnivoreRunner
    T1DCarnivoreRunner Posts: 11,502 Member
    PastorVincent wrote: »
    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    Here are my thoughts on waste and such at aid stations, and I know there are many runners who will disagree (which is a big reason why I asked):

    The race I'm talking about will provide the cups and the aid station sponsors will provide trash cans / cleanup. I love to see cup-less races, but have only seen this once. At that particular race, it was a half-marathon (so no BQ's anyway) and they gave out refillable cups at packet pickup. The cups clipped onto a waistband and you squeezed it to open. You could opt out of this and save $2.00 off the race fee (I did this) and bring your own bottle. But there were no cups given out. You filled your own at the aid stations. They had quick-pour spouts (seriously, these would fill my 20 oz. in about 2 seconds, no joke). This was just outside a national park and done as a destination race. There was an important "No trash" policy. Aid stations did have snacks with wrappers and trash cans (mostly Honey Stinger as they were a sponsor). It was very clearly stated in the rules that you would be DQ'ed and banned from future races by this organization if you were caught littering. When I see pictures of cups everywhere on the street around aid stations at the big city races, I cringe because I know this can work. Yet I always get a lot of runners telling me there is just no way. At my last road race, I did what everyone else did (just threw the cups on the ground), but only because there were no trash cans provided at many of the aid stations. Of course it isn't possible then! But yea... I hate littering and waste.

    This particular race is a "trail run" on a rails-to-trails trail. It gets much of the road runner crowd and not technical trails crowd, but the trail is only around maybe 10-15 feet wide and crushed limestone. They estimate 400 runners, so this is a pretty small crowd. I've run smaller (smallest had 19 total runners for the marathon and probably 3-4 times that for the half marathon race starting half-way along as both were point-to-point), but 400 is still a pretty small race.

    I really like the reusable cup idea for drinks but I can imagine at a major race like the Pittsburgh Marathon, the condition at the water stops might get very complex when you have 100s of runners all at once - must of which appear to be dumb-dumbs. (meant in the best possible way of course).

    When I did my 50k trail race, I brought my own bottles (the set that matched my belt) and topped off at each station. No waste that way. Worked very well in that environment but massively fewer people in that race, and I imagine only more serious runners show up for a 50k. So that probably helps a lot.

    I've heard that, but I'm not convinced. The race where I saw this had probably around 5K participants, more or less, and the concept just scales to a larger number. There would just be more Quick-Fill spigots / color-coded dispensers as the quantity of runners increases.

    At the race expo / packet pickup, they had these spigots available for practice even... so everyone knew how to use it (not like it was terribly complicated.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited July 2018
    _nikkiwolf_ wrote: »
    Completely different question to those of you that combine running and strength training: how do you fit everything into one week?
    I've basically found two different approaches:
    a) save strength training, especially lower body workouts, for days on which you don't run or do easy runs
    b) "keep your hard days hard and your easy days easy" (e.g. do your strength training later in the same day where you did long runs or speed training, so that you can recover better on easy/rest days)

    I'm currently trying to combine a 5-day running plan (rest, short, mid, short, rest, mid/tempo, long) with a 5-day-per-week strength programme (lower, upper, core, lower, upper, stretching, rest).
    Last week I started out by something like approach a: did a long run on Sunday, lower body strength on Monday evening (and no running, then easy run & arms on Tuesday), but then the main leg&glutes soreness from the Monday evening workout hit between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, so the mid-week mid-long run really sucked.

    So I'm thinking about trying option b this week. So far I did my long run Sunday (too-dang-early) morning, and then the lower-body workout in the evening before bed. That went surprisingly well, and today my legs can rest completely :)
    On the other hand, this long run was only 17.6km / 11 mi, and I would like to gradually increase that distance in the next month. I'm wondering if I could still do any meaningful strength training after, say, a 30km run, or if my legs would be too trashed and I would risk injury?

    I'm doing approach a at the moment: four days of running, two days of full-body lifting, and one day of rest. I've experimented with running an easy mile or two before one of the lifting days, but four days a week is plenty of running for me right now. I like doing some sort of workout every day but I like to keep it to an hour max - doing running and lifting sounds like too much of a time commitment. But I'm mainly just maintaining my strength training right now - I realized when I started running regularly again that I don't have the time or energy to go all out with both running and lifting, so I decided to split them seasonally and wait for winter to really amp up lifting again.

    ETA: Also, I get super sweaty running no matter how "easy" the run and am not crazy about lifting while drenched in rapidly cooling sweat (for whatever reason I don't sweat much while lifting, bodies are weird!). I guess I could run in the AM and lift in the PM, but if I don't get my workouts done first thing, they don't always get done.
  • Teresa502
    Teresa502 Posts: 1,846 Member
    PastorVincent wrote: »

    I really like the reusable cup idea for drinks but I can imagine at a major race like the Pittsburgh Marathon, the condition at the water stops might get very complex when you have 100s of runners all at once - must of which appear to be dumb-dumbs. (meant in the best possible way of course).

    You should have just done the Pittsburgh Half - there were some sharp looking people there!
  • KeepRunningFatboy
    KeepRunningFatboy Posts: 3,055 Member
    edited July 2018
    .
    July Goals: 200 running miles.

    July Running:
    07.02.18 - 07.08.18: Running Miles 48 / Weekly TSS 585 / Fitness: 76 CTL
    07.09.18 - 07.15.19: Running Miles / Weekly TSS / Fitness: CTL
    07.16.18 - 07.22.18: Running Miles / Weekly TSS / Fitness: CTL
    07.23.18 - 07.29.18: Running Miles / Weekly TSS / Fitness: CTL

    Goals 07.09.18 - 07.15.18:
    Run: 6 Days, plus a LR of 15 on Wknd. No wussing out this weekend.

    Base 1 : Week 1 of 4
    07.09.18 - AM - 2.5 m. PM -

    Upcoming Events:
    08.25.18 - Tour de Donut Bike Ride

    And @AlphaHowls is like my hero :)
    .

  • LaDispute57
    LaDispute57 Posts: 371 Member
    polskagirl01 wrote: »
    That grilled cheese sounds wonderful, but might be a bit difficult logistically unless a local restaurant is your sponsor.
    I have only done trail races and the people manning the aid stations had camping grills fired up and were pumping out those sandwiches like Willy Wonka machines.
  • LaDispute57
    LaDispute57 Posts: 371 Member
    @workaholic_nurse 13 miles is a solid distance to run. I remember how I felt after after my first one and wasn't sure I would ever be able to run much more than that. After I ran my second one, I ditched road races and went to trail races and moved up to the 30k distance then jumped to 50k. I really like that 50k distance even though every time I cross the finish the line, I swear I will never do it again. I hope to successfully complete a 50 mile race next year, but I told myself I have to get at least three more 50ks under my belt before I attempt it again. I have a couple of friends that really want me to do a 100 miler with them, but that is daunting, demands a huge amount of time and I am not sure my 60 year old (probably 62 year old by that time) body would hold up to the wear and tear of a 100 mile training program. But if you have already done some halfs, you could definitely be ready to do a 50k relatively soon.

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