February 2020 Monthly Running Challenge

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  • bearly63
    bearly63 Posts: 734 Member
    @Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    I think i have been trading pain in the IT band for pain in other areas - today it's a knot behind my right scapula (shoulder blade + I think I spelled scapula wrong). Getting old is dumb. It's a new thing every other day. That's what my elders say and it's frustrating because I think it's so preventable and I must not be doing something right.

    This!!! You summed up exactly how I feel. It's like squeezing a balloon!

    @Tramboman
    I am guessing chronilogically 68, but feeling like a 28 year old! You are impressive! Happy Birthday to you! I hope to feel as spry when I am 68....🎂

  • Tramboman
    Tramboman Posts: 2,482 Member
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    Tramboman wrote: »
    2-1 7k easy + yoga
    2-2 11k slow
    2-3 7k easy + resistance bands
    2-4 rest + yoga
    2-5 7k slow + resistance bands
    2-6 7k slow + yoga
    2-7 rest + resistance bands
    2-8 7k easy + yoga
    2-9 8.2k moderate
    2-10 7k moderate + resistance bands
    2-11 rest + yoga
    2-12 7k moderate + resistance bands
    2-13 7k slow + yoga
    2-14 7k slow + resistance bands
    2-15 7k easy + yoga
    2-16 11k slow
    2-17 7k easy + resistance bands
    2-18 rest + yoga
    2-19 7k easy + resistance bands
    2-20 7k moderate + yoga
    2-21 rest
    2-22 7k moderate + yoga
    2-23 7k threshold
    2-24 11k slow + resistance bands
    2-25 rest + yoga
    2-26 7k moderate
    2-27 7k snowy + yoga
    2-28 6.8k easy + resistance bands


    February Total: 167k
    February Goal: 140k

    January Total: 161k

    Mostly cloudy with occasional snowflakes, windy, and low 20s F this morning. Footing was better than yesterday, but not by a lot. Had one significant slip, but caught myself and didn't do any structural damage. Today's run was in honor of my birthday; the first person to correctly guess my chronological age will get a big MFP hug (provided I can figure out how to do emojis).

    Next year when you pop in here claiming your December 2020 mileage, what accomplishments will you have made?

    Return to a good running weight of 175 lbs
    Run at least 4 5k races
    Get a 5k PR
    Average at least 138k per month, to meet my Run the Year pledge of 1,020 miles

    Run the Year Team: Pavement Pounders

    2020 races:
    4-25 Shine the Light 5k, Twinsburg, OH
    5-23 Race for the Parks 5k, Hudson OH
    6-20 Freedom Run 5k, Aurora, OH



    HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, @Tramboman !!!!! i AM SO GLAD YOU WERE BORN! YOUR LIFE MAKES AN IMPACT ON US AND WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOU!

    Also, for the sake of it.

    67

    Close...
  • Tramboman
    Tramboman Posts: 2,482 Member
    Teresa502 wrote: »
    Tramboman wrote: »

    Mostly cloudy with occasional snowflakes, windy, and low 20s F this morning. Footing was better than yesterday, but not by a lot. Had one significant slip, but caught myself and didn't do any structural damage. Today's run was in honor of my birthday; the first person to correctly guess my chronological age will get a big MFP hug (provided I can figure out how to do emojis).

    Happy Birthday! I'm guessing 63!

    Good effort, but...
  • LoveyChar
    LoveyChar Posts: 4,336 Member
    @Tramboman Happy birthday! I hope you get to celebrate all weekend long!

    @bearly63 Don't get discouraged. A break might help the healing or unknotting process.
  • Tramboman
    Tramboman Posts: 2,482 Member
    bearly63 wrote: »
    @Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    I think i have been trading pain in the IT band for pain in other areas - today it's a knot behind my right scapula (shoulder blade + I think I spelled scapula wrong). Getting old is dumb. It's a new thing every other day. That's what my elders say and it's frustrating because I think it's so preventable and I must not be doing something right.

    This!!! You summed up exactly how I feel. It's like squeezing a balloon!

    @Tramboman
    I am guessing chronilogically 68, but feeling like a 28 year old! You are impressive! Happy Birthday to you! I hope to feel as spry when I am 68....🎂

    Thank you.
  • Tramboman
    Tramboman Posts: 2,482 Member
    PastorVincent wrote: »
    Tramboman wrote: »
    shanaber wrote: »
    @Tramboman - Happy Happy Birthday! 🥳
    Seeing as how no one else has guessed yet I will give it a try... I was going to say 64 but then I saw your mileage so will say 68?

    Not only did you do all the March work, you win the hug, too.🤗!!!

    I definitely do not want a hug, but I am going to guess 16. :)

    That's why I threw the "chronologically" in there, so my "acts like" age would not come into play.
  • Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 Posts: 711 Member
    @Tramboman 66 or 69
  • Scott6255
    Scott6255 Posts: 2,556 Member
    Happy Birthday @Tramboman!
  • hamsterwheel6
    hamsterwheel6 Posts: 544 Member
    Happy Birthday @Tramboman ! You are an inspiration, I wish to still be running at 68!
  • hamsterwheel6
    hamsterwheel6 Posts: 544 Member
    @polskagirl01 Wow. those look awesome!
  • Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 Posts: 711 Member
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    Happy birthday, @Tramboman !! I was going to say 63.

    I skipped my Wednesday run since I felt I hadn't recovered enough yet from my 50K last Saturday. Last night was supposed to be a 5 mile but I talked myself out of it on the way home using the @MobyCarp theory that when you finally feel good enough to run after injury, take another day off. This wasn't injury, but I feel it fits the situation anyway.

    I have 18-20 miles planned tomorrow and I'm torn on where to run it. I have a three possibilities:

    A: a network of gravel roads nearby like a spider, a series of out and backs.
    B: Thirty-five minutes away I could run on a packed gravel rail trail, well wooded, for a single out & back for the entire distance (and I can park such that I'm next to a brewery for a bit of hydration after the run).
    C: Finally, there's a great 20 mile paved loop around Minneapolis, along the Mississippi River, along a creek, and around two of the famed lakes of Minneapolis.

    A gives me an easy bail-out if I'm not as recovered from my race as I thought and it's only an 8 minute drive, but it's not very interesting.
    B is on a trail I love and let's me get lost in my thoughts because there's literally no turns, other than the turn-arounds. If I park in the middle I can do an out & back in both direction so I'm never more than 5 miles from my truck and I can resupply in the middle of the run. And beer.
    C gives me an beautiful urban run with plenty of people watching but if I have to bail out it's an Uber ride back to my truck. I also have the option of parking near a brewery, donut shop, or both. And I'm fairly certain that the trail will be ice free

    I think I'll eliminate A unless I wake up late and don't have the time to drive anywhere else. So it's between B or C. Leaning towards B, for beer.

    B for Beer is my vote, if you're asking. ;)
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,661 Member
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    @autumnblade75 I'm late to the race nutrition discussion but here are my thoughts. When I ran my first marathon I was all into calculating my calorie burn, glycogen burn, required carb intake, and all that. It finally occurred to me that the only thing that I needed to know was the maximum calorie intake my body could handle per hour. In a marathon you simply cannot replace all the glycogen you burn. Thus, if you can determine your maximum calorie intake per hour, just hit that number. Through trial and error I've determined that I can take in 300 calories per hour without getting an upset stomach, so that's the number I go for. The range I've heard is 200 to 300 calories, depending on the individual and the ambient temperature (hotter temps = less calories/hour because more blood is at the skin to help cool off). The way you find this out is to try to overdo it during a long run. Plan on 200 calories/hour and see if that works. The next time 250, then 300, and so on. If at some point your stomach gets upset, you know you've gone to far. For me, once I got to 300 calories, I felt that was enough and stopped there. I have an iron stomach when racing.

    As far as how to get those calories, I'm also cheap. I generally rely on aid station food during ultras but road marathons are different. I used a combination of the Gatorade they served at the water stops (if you can find out how big the cups are, figure half that amount is what you'll actually get since they don't fill them up all the way and you'll likely spill some) and some honeywater I brought myself. I tried the gels, and they work fine, but were too expensive so I took honey, mixed honey 50/50 with water and filled a soft flask to carry with me. Not only did that allow me to take smaller portions, but more often, it was much neater than using sticky gel packets. I also carried a water bottle to wash down the honey water. You could add salt if you think that's needed.

    The equation becomes (expected number of hours racing) x (calories/hour) = Total Calorie Intake. Then figure out the number of water stops with Gatorade x the calories in the amount you plan to drink (this is where it's good to know the cup size...if not, eyeball it) and subtract that from the Total Calorie Intake

    Don't run all your long runs fully fueled. It's good to run some fasted or low fueled so your body can learn to burn more fat and less glycogen. Those runs may not feel the best, but it helps in the long run and saves more calories for real food after the run. It's quite rare that I run a long run fully fueled but my goal is to maximize my fat burn for ultras. The furthest I've gone without food, or water, is 19 miles, but that was in the winter.

    One of the many reasons I started ultrarunning is the aid station fare. During races I've eaten pizza, cheeseburgers, bacon, pancakes, quesadillas, grilled cheese, M&Ms, potato chips, and even sushi. Then there's the beer and Fireball.

    9.6 of 20 today. I took all of this into consideration, and calculated that last time, my Kool-Aid came out to 215 calories per hour, and didn't cause any trouble. Today's Kool-Aid was 248 calories per hour, and I bombed out early. It seems odd to me that I got almost to the halfway point before my guts started sloshing, but I don't know how over-fueling is supposed to feel, either. I'm feeling like it's probably wiser to err on the side of caution and stick with 215 calories per hour.

    I'll try again tomorrow, I guess, or maybe put it off until Monday so I don't disrupt any weekend plans. I'll run about half-fueled, with the rest of today's batch of Kool-Aid, and a bit more water to thin it out. I was pretty comfortable with running most runs fasted, until I ran into the widely-held opinion that the reason I was having trouble completing my long runs was because I wasn't fueling enough in the first place - so that totally clears everything right up, I guess. :confounded:

    exercise.png

  • Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 Posts: 711 Member
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    B for Beer is my vote, if you're asking. ;)

    @Camaramandy648 Unfortunately I just found out that the trail in option B is solid ice right now. It looks like I'm going with C. Still should be good. Maybe I'll stop at a donut shop or two for my nutrition so I don't have to carry as much.

    @7lenny7 you can always, always stop for a doughnut!

    I wanted a doughnut so bad this morning, but I have noticed that what I consume HUGELY affects how I feel, so no doughnut for me. :(
  • Camaramandy648
    Camaramandy648 Posts: 711 Member
    @autumnblade75 I have had the same problem. I was ALWAYS running all of my runs fasted, including the saturday long run.

    Until it stopped working - I think around the time I hit twelve or thirteen miles for a long run and it was brutal. I experimented with a few things but I landed on these gels that I really like. I splurged and bought a bunch of them in bulk. Now, I have a closet full of gels. They have the exact amount of water, glucose, and sodium needed for refueling every ninety or so minutes. They seem to work well for me, but at the end of my eighteen mile run, there was nothing like plain, pure WATER.

    In any event - you should be proud of yourself for being so committed.
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,498 Member
    autumnblade75 wrote: »
    9.6 of 20 today. I took all of this into consideration, and calculated that last time, my Kool-Aid came out to 215 calories per hour, and didn't cause any trouble. Today's Kool-Aid was 248 calories per hour, and I bombed out early. It seems odd to me that I got almost to the halfway point before my guts started sloshing, but I don't know how over-fueling is supposed to feel, either. I'm feeling like it's probably wiser to err on the side of caution and stick with 215 calories per hour.

    I'll try again tomorrow, I guess, or maybe put it off until Monday so I don't disrupt any weekend plans. I'll run about half-fueled, with the rest of today's batch of Kool-Aid, and a bit more water to thin it out. I was pretty comfortable with running most runs fasted, until I ran into the widely-held opinion that the reason I was having trouble completing my long runs was because I wasn't fueling enough in the first place - so that totally clears everything right up, I guess. :confounded:

    exercise.png

    @autumnblade75 it sounds like you're dialing in your limit, which is good. Did you have calories from anything other than Kool-Aid?
    When you ingest more carbs in your gut than your body can process, it sits there and waits. Eat more carbs, more volume in your stomach waiting. You start feeling full, upset stomach, and uncomfortable. In some cases you get stomach cramps or want to vomit. It's different for each runner, but that's generally how it goes.
    Yes, you definitely want to err on the side of caution.

    Because you generally run slower during your long training runs, you don't burn as much glycogen as you do during the actual race. The only time I want to run "fully fueled" in a training run is when I'm testing my nutrition strategy. otherwise, fasted or half fueled (or half-assed...I usually don't plan it out) is fine with me. The less fuel I use during a training run, the better, because it trains my body to burn more fat, and more importantly, it saves the calorie burn for beer and real food after the run. I'll bring gels or energy bars with me on a long run, but I only eat them if I'm really slogging it.

    One thing I forgot to mention earlier. During the race, because you'll never be able to take in enough carbs to replenish the glycogen you burn, start taking it in before the race. The number I've seen is the quickest your body can use the carbs is 30 minutes from when you eat. For that reason, for a race I start my carb intake about 15 minutes before the race and stop about 45 to 60 minutes before the end of the race.
  • Tramboman
    Tramboman Posts: 2,482 Member
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    @Tramboman 66 or 69

    Sorry...
  • LoveyChar
    LoveyChar Posts: 4,336 Member
    edited February 2020
    Trail Marathon or road Marathon, which would you pick?
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,498 Member
    LoveyChar wrote: »
    Trail Marathon or road Marathon, which would you pick?

    It's not even close for me. Trail.
  • Teresa502
    Teresa502 Posts: 1,861 Member
    shanaber wrote: »
    March Challenge has been posted here. Come and join us for a another great month of running and fun!
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10787092/march-2020-monthly-running-challenge/p1?new=1

    Thanks @shanaber!
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,661 Member
    7lenny7 wrote: »
    @autumnblade75 it sounds like you're dialing in your limit, which is good. Did you have calories from anything other than Kool-Aid?
    When you ingest more carbs in your gut than your body can process, it sits there and waits. Eat more carbs, more volume in your stomach waiting. You start feeling full, upset stomach, and uncomfortable. In some cases you get stomach cramps or want to vomit. It's different for each runner, but that's generally how it goes.
    Yes, you definitely want to err on the side of caution.

    Because you generally run slower during your long training runs, you don't burn as much glycogen as you do during the actual race. The only time I want to run "fully fueled" in a training run is when I'm testing my nutrition strategy. otherwise, fasted or half fueled (or half-assed...I usually don't plan it out) is fine with me. The less fuel I use during a training run, the better, because it trains my body to burn more fat, and more importantly, it saves the calorie burn for beer and real food after the run. I'll bring gels or energy bars with me on a long run, but I only eat them if I'm really slogging it.

    One thing I forgot to mention earlier. During the race, because you'll never be able to take in enough carbs to replenish the glycogen you burn, start taking it in before the race. The number I've seen is the quickest your body can use the carbs is 30 minutes from when you eat. For that reason, for a race I start my carb intake about 15 minutes before the race and stop about 45 to 60 minutes before the end of the race.

    I don't really like to eat while running, so it was just the Kool-Aid.

    I know I'm *supposed* to run slower on my long training runs than I intend to do in the race, but I'm not sure I've ever carried it out in practice.

    I wasn't really planning on taking water for the last 45 minutes of the race, but today's run was certainly an indication that I'll want hydration without fuel Just In Case I overload the system with sugar. No point in extra dehydration for failing to plan ahead. I'm already concerned that maybe I'm not replacing enough fluids. The race is likely to be cooler than my living room, though, so I *should* sweat less...

  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,661 Member
    Camaramandy648 wrote: »
    @autumnblade75 I have had the same problem. I was ALWAYS running all of my runs fasted, including the saturday long run.

    Until it stopped working - I think around the time I hit twelve or thirteen miles for a long run and it was brutal. I experimented with a few things but I landed on these gels that I really like. I splurged and bought a bunch of them in bulk. Now, I have a closet full of gels. They have the exact amount of water, glucose, and sodium needed for refueling every ninety or so minutes. They seem to work well for me, but at the end of my eighteen mile run, there was nothing like plain, pure WATER.

    In any event - you should be proud of yourself for being so committed.

    I have never had an issue with running half marathons fasted before. I can't swear my memory is 100% correct to say that up to 18 miles was ok without paying any attention to fuel, the last time I was involved in training for 26.2, but that's what sticks in my brain.

    Committed, huh? I should probably be committed, all right...
  • bearly63
    bearly63 Posts: 734 Member
    @LoveyChar
    Ok.....she is adorable! She is built to run for sure! The winning part - just showing up. It's a sport you can pursue for life so tell her to keep going.....I am thinking there may be a family marathon in your future!!

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