August 2018 Running Challenge

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  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
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    Has someone who grew up in a rural setting ( no street lights ) you were constantly getting wildlife crossing in front of you out of the shadows. Made me realize how little the vehicle headlights do for secondary illumination outside the main beams. Also our eyes naturally focus into the bright light and we lose peripheral vision.

    Ultimately has a runner/pedestrian we have to realize that just because we can clearly see the lights of the vehicle that doesn't mean the driver can see us. I would rather lose a few seconds than be hit.
    Just because we are supposed to have the Right of Way doesn't mean we should dash out like a deer.
    Last night on my run it was pitch dark in the final 2 km. I met a lady and she was in full black outfit, could only see the reflection from the phone on her armband when she swung her arms.

    I remember talking with my friend - the S/Sgt from the RCMP who was the senior Collision Analyst in the north and they had done experiments with mannequins and vehicles for pedestrian visibility at dusk. Wearing any type of reflective clothing doubled the distance the pedestrian was visible at but it still put the pedestrian in the extreme danger zone as they were still within the minimum breaking distance for vehicles in good mechanical repair with good road conditions and alert drivers. Poor vehicle maintenance, poor road conditions, tired driver after a long work day, crying child, distracted driver all add to the risk.
    The thing that always weigh's heavily on my S/Sgt friend was having to go to someone's house with a victims service advocate/minister and tell them that there loved one won't be coming home again.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    MobyCarp wrote: »
    Rest day today. Ridiculous humidity, weather app says dew point 74º F right now, temp 86º F. It was okay out walking, but not one of those just enjoy the day walks.

    Running funk: I'm not sure I understand "funk" the same way everyone else does. I get in a real downer of a funk when I'm too injured to run, and force myself to concentrate on rehab and actually getting in the exercises that will help me get better.

    When I'm healthy enough to run, the feelings probably aren't strong enough to be called "funk". Maybe, "lack of motivation." When I have an unexplained lack of motivation, that can be an indication that I'm overtraining and need to back off a bit. Sound familiar?

    Maybe it gets strong enough to be called funk when we have weeks and weeks of oppressive humidity; but if I get out there and run, eventually I acclimate to it and it's just running. Then when the humidity comes back down, it's heavenly running.

    I frequently experience that lack of motivation for doing my morning supporting (cross training?) exercises. Sometimes I give in and skip some of them for a day. Most of the time, I tell myself, 3 sets of pull ups before the banana. Work in 3 sets of push ups. Okay, do that second set of pushups and the balance exercises after I eat the eggs. Take a break, danger point to miss the rest. Start the steel cut oats in the microwave, and force myself to do the monster walk up and down the hallway with the resistance band. And from that point, even when I'm telling myself I'm just doing this one more thing, habit usually carries me through the swiss ball bridges, the one-leg weighted calf raises, the cone touches, the walking lunges, and that 3rd set of push ups.

    I've let injury/lack of motivation/lack of comfortable time in the morning routine squeeze out all the kettlebell work for quite a while. That showed up as a lower back ache after long runs recently. Yep, need to add back those kettlebell swings and snatches to work the erector spinae. Wouldn't hurt to add back the Turkish get ups, too. Probably don't need to add back the squats; I'm likely getting enough quad work from the walking lunges and the cone touches.

    So one day last week I did the kettlebell swings. Today I did the kettlebell swings and one set of snatches. Baby steps. Still need to find a time slot that makes this stuff routine. I know from experience that if I load too much of it into my morning/breakfast routine I'll crash and burn. But there's no longer any *physical* reason to avoid the kettlebell work; it's just that I've filled the time with other stuff. The cone touches are important, and I'm doing more walking lunges than I did the last time I was consistently doing kettlebell work.

    And I struggle to overcome the funk/lack of motivation on all this non-running stuff, because doing it consistently helps me stay uninjured and keep running consistently. If it weren't for the fact that it helps me stay uninjured while running, I doubt I'd give a flying f*** in a rolling donut about walking lunges or calf raises.

    I have been more consistent since I started giving myself a planned break on weekends. Saturdays and Sundays I'm up early, have a compressed time frame, and eat oatmeal instead of steel cut oats to save time. I let myself get by with just the pull ups and push ups those two days, and it helps with the motivation during the week. Possibly the two days off helps physically as well, but it really helps mentally.

    I don't talk about the supporting stuff much, because it isn't as fun as talking about running. But it's important to be consistent with the supporting stuff, and that's where I struggle with motivation most often.
    Your morning routine reminds me of me, except I do the steel cut oats four days at a time, using a instant pot. When I discover something small that needs work I add it to the morning routine until it's up to snuff. For a while I was doing hip hitches to strengthen my mid glutes. Right now it's calf raises, side to side lunges, explosive bodyweight squats, one legged deadlifts, Paleo chair (squatting on heels for five minutes) and some stretching. If I do literally nothing else with my day I at least get my morning stuff in.

    Now if I could only motivate myself to start doing my ab roller again. I am excellent at talking myself out of needing to do the ab roller. I know it works, but I also it's going to give me doms of my entire torso every time.
  • RespectTheKitty
    RespectTheKitty Posts: 1,667 Member
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    midwesterner85 wrote: »
    On cars / pedestrians: Where I live, drivers don't care about pedestrians whether they see us or not. I was in Omaha (nearest major city) last weekend and had several drivers try to hit me when I was crossing in a crosswalk with a walk signal. In 3 cases, I tapped on their vehicle (not hard enough to dent, but hard enough for them to notice) as they were in my space.

    Heh, I've done that on several occasions too (I'm in Illinois where it's pretty much every man for himself out there). I enjoy watching the looks on their faces when they think they hit something.
  • shanaber
    shanaber Posts: 6,388 Member
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    I followed this on Twitter as it was unfolding and thought it was pretty amazing to happen in this day and age when women's running has come so far. Then for the race official to later admit that 70% of the participants are women left me just shaking my head. Elite women runners who follow the racing team members were saying in their replies on Twitter that they were taking the race off their list. I suspect, apology or no, the race will lose participants in the coming years...
    https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a22833785/hood-to-coast-relay-snafu/?utm_content=2018-08-27&utm_campaign=Rundown&utm_source=runnersworld.com&utm_medium=newsletter&smartcode=YN_0005790937_0001678631&sha1hashlower=6d6a15668106c8b60720ce28e7603710ffd29ce3&md5hash=1e7b1cb15a50278dbe13f37403986656
  • sarahthes
    sarahthes Posts: 3,252 Member
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    Re: pedestrians vs cars

    My philosophy as a pedestrian is that it honestly doesn't matter who has the right of way. In a battle between vehicle and person, the vehicle will almost always win.

    Therefore the onus is on me as pedestrian to make sure that cars can see me and know my intentions (cross or don't cross), and that they're going to stop, before I start to cross. So that means reflective clothing, headlamp, flashing arm bands, and as few street crossings as possible when it is dark. And I wait for them to stop before I cross, especially if it's wet and icy.

    Re: funk.

    I'm inherently lazy so the rewards have to outweigh the annoyance of getting off the couch. I tend to fall in a funk when I'm either overdoing it or mildly depressed. Not always overdoing it with my running - other areas of my life can stack against me too.

    Being excited about a future goal and new things can help propel me off that couch though.
  • sarahthes
    sarahthes Posts: 3,252 Member
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    @shanaber I saw that floating around my Facebook feed yesterday. It's amazing (in a bad way) that the top team(s) in each category aren't recognized. Especially when, as you said, the majority of the participants are women.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited August 2018
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    It looks like both of "my" states have laws against pedestrians suddenly entering the road when a car can't reasonably stop, and that makes sense to me. I agree that everyone needs to be responsible for their own safety and of course a pedestrian is going to lose to a car no matter who has the right-of-way. That said, I think it IS important to know the law and assert your rights as often and loudly as safely practicable. The only way that things change for the better is if people insist that they change, you know?

    I have friends in the biking advocacy movement who say that being really obnoxious about their rights actually makes the roads safer for them, because even if a driver is irritated at you for taking up a full lane (as bikes are allowed to in many places here), you're safer than you would be if they didn't realize you were there because you were riding more conservatively. If I've started crossing and am not sure someone has seen me, I will sometimes stop a few steps into the crosswalk and prepare to jump out of the way if the car doesn't come to a full stop. I've gotten honked at for doing that, more than once by a driver who was looking at their phone until they were way closer to me than they should have been. Sorry dudes, I'm not going to sprint across the street so that you can cruise through the crosswalk right on my heels while playing Angry Birds.
  • cburke8909
    cburke8909 Posts: 990 Member
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    sarahthes wrote: »
    Re: pedestrians vs cars

    My philosophy as a pedestrian is that it honestly doesn't matter who has the right of way. In a battle between vehicle and person, the vehicle will almost always win.

    Therefore the onus is on me as pedestrian to make sure that cars can see me and know my intentions (cross or don't cross), and that they're going to stop, before I start to cross. So that means reflective clothing, headlamp, flashing arm bands, and as few street crossings as possible when it is dark. And I wait for them to stop before I cross, especially if it's wet and icy.

    Re: funk.

    I'm inherently lazy so the rewards have to outweigh the annoyance of getting off the couch. I tend to fall in a funk when I'm either overdoing it or mildly depressed. Not always overdoing it with my running - other areas of my life can stack against me too.

    Being excited about a future goal and new things can help propel me off that couch though.

    I always prefer to pass behind the car. if it is stopped, I will go around the car. I figure there are very few accidents were the car backed-up over a runner.
    On the funk - I have considered at times that allowing the funk to have a day or two might be good. It could be you need to back off and rest. I set a time frame say 2 days or 1 week and have a reminder that when time is up, its time to get back. A new goal like a PR for a set distance, along with a training plan to match can be a big help.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
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    re: pedestrians
    i assume as a runner, no one sees me. i often wear reflective or lighted items. my dogs leashes are also reflective. but still. i also acknowledge a person when they let me go. i do the same when i'm merging onto the free. thank you for not being a turd.
    as a driver, i assume no one sees me. i assume everyone is in their own little world. some people are jerk drivers, some have brain farts, some have not had enough coffee
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
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    As many of you can probably tell, I'm pretty passionate about the subject of pedestrian/biker rights. Please don't take that as a criticism of anyone, especially you, @kcs76. I am an extremely cautious driver and I've still been surprised by people walking/running/biking at night without reflective clothing. It's absolutely terrifying and infuriating. For all my big bad I'm-walking-here bravado, I've almost entirely stopped running in places with cross-traffic because I just don't feel safe interacting with cars that frequently and because I'm lucky enough to have the option to do so without much hassle. The last half mile of many of my routes crosses through an affluent residential neighborhood and I almost always walk because of too many close calls with inattentive early AM drivers. I'd rather be alive and unhurt than right, you know?
  • sarahthes
    sarahthes Posts: 3,252 Member
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    @MegaMooseEsq I assert my rights as well. Defensive-Proactive Pedestrian-ing? I don't ride a bike. I also have been known to get ragey and make rude gestures at drivers who blow right through crosswalks etc. Many of the spaces with the worst drivers are near playgrounds and schools, and around here kids are likely to be leaving in the dark most of the winter if they attend any extracurricular activities. So frightening!

    I had a friend in high school who jumped up and walked across the hood of a vehicle that stopped in the middle of a crosswalk since it was blocking her way. I don't recommend her technique but just about anything else is fair game as long as the pedestrian ensures their own safety first.
  • PastorVincent
    PastorVincent Posts: 6,668 Member
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    mbaker566 wrote: »
    re: pedestrians
    i assume as a runner, no one sees me. i often wear reflective or lighted items. my dogs leashes are also reflective. but still. i also acknowledge a person when they let me go. i do the same when i'm merging onto the free. thank you for not being a turd.
    as a driver, i assume no one sees me. i assume everyone is in their own little world. some people are jerk drivers, some have brain farts, some have not had enough coffee

    This is great wisdom.
  • LaDispute57
    LaDispute57 Posts: 371 Member
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    August goal: 180 miles

    Date................Miles............Total/Remaining
    8/1...................Rest.............. 000.00/180.00
    8/2...................Rest.............. 000.00/180.00
    8/3...................Rest.............. 000.00/180.00
    8/4...................20.00............... 20.00/160.00
    8/5.....................5.00............... 25.00/155.00
    8/6...................Rest................. 25.00/155.00
    8/7.....................9.00............... 34.00/146.00
    8/8.....................5.50............... 39.50/140.50
    8/9.....................5.00............... 44.50/135.50
    8/10.................Rest................. 44.50/135.50
    8/11..................24.00............... 68.50/111.50
    8/12.................Rest.................. 68.50/111.50
    8/13.................Rest.................. 68.50/111.50
    8/14..................10.00............... 78.50/101.50
    8/15.................. 5.75................ 84.25/ 95.75
    8/16.................. 7.00................ 91.25/ 88.75
    8/17.................Rest.................. 91.25/ 88.75
    8/18....................2.00............... 93.25/ 86.75
    8/19....................8.00............... 101.25/ 78.75
    8/20.................Rest.................. 101.25/ 78.75
    8/21.................Rest.................. 101.25/ 78.75
    8/22....................6.00................ 107.25/ 72.75
    8/23....................6.00................ 113.25/ 66.75
    8/24................ Rest.................. 113.25/ 66.75
    8/25....................3.00................ 116.25/ 63.75
    8/26.................Rest.................... 116.25/ 63.75
    8/27.................Rest.................... 116.25/ 63.75
    8/28.................Rest................... 116.25/ 63.75

    Upcoming Races:

    October 20, 2018 Sinnemahone Ultra Marathon Trail Run 50K (Emporium, PA)

    A lousy 15 miles in the last 8 days... What inexcusable lazy-*kitten* bullshlt is this?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVaNjTbiqh8

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