November 2015 Running Challenge

Virkati wrote: »

And what I don't understand is WHY?? I can go to the lake and jog over 5 miles. Make me try to actually run and it kicks my butt. I did W3D1 at lunch yesterday and didn't like my performance.

Or should I keep pushing thru to the end? Advice please. I'm frustrated right now.

9voice9 wrote: »

I believe that the point of C25K is to keep moving at something "more than a walk" for that length of time. If it's a REALLY slow jog, but it's still faster than a "walk," then it counts. The point is getting you moving a little more over time - the speed (moving from "jog" to "run" comes later, with experience).

I'm like @5BeautifulDays - my best time for a longer run now is ~11:00/mile. Last year, I thought that was a terrible failure - and was getting happy when I could do intervals and get down to a 9:30/mile rate, but could only sustain that for a minute, or less. I'm trying to learn to run slower, but longer - I still break down (even at my 11/mile rate) to walking a bit, but a whole lot less than I used to do.

Now @Stoshew71 is gonna tell me that I need to start including some tempo work...and he's prob right, dadgum it.

OK! You can either walk or run. Walking includes a point in your gait (that's a fancy way of saying your biomechanics or the way your legs move) where both feet are on the ground and weight is transferred from one foot to the other, and there is always at least one foot on the ground. Running is where there is a point in your gait where both feet are in the air and there is never a time when both feet are on the ground simultainously. There is actually speed walking competitions and they actually look for this stuff. If both feet are never on the ground at the same time (both are in the air) then you get points taken off. I swear. I don't make this stuff up. Google it.

So where does the word "jog" play in? I don't know. There is no official definition of jogging. Officially, you are either walking or running.

So the question I think you are asking is why is it if I "run" this XX slow pace that I can do it for many many miles. But if I go just a little bit faster, I can't make it past a half mile? The answer is between your aerobic and anaerobic system. Forget "jogging" and "running". At what point do you exhaust your aerobic system so much that you are now relying mostly on your anaerobic system? The point just before that happends is known as your threshold (short for lactate threshold or aerobic threshold). There is a pace (depends on your fitness level and other factors) that if you just stay at it, you will miss exhausting your aerobic system. Go just a small bit faster, and boom you will begin to feel the fatigue big time. That is known as our velocity for Lactate Threshold (vLT). If you could run exactly at that pace, you should be able to easily maintain that pace for 50-60 minutes before lactate accumulation becomes a problem. Usually your vLT is about 80-90% of your maximum heart rate.

@9voice9 mentioned tempo work, because tempo runs is what improves or stresses your vLT. Improve your vLT then you can run faster for longer periods of time. The reason we fatigue at vLT or running faster than vLT is because the biproduct of our anaerobic system working harder than our aerobic system is that more lactate and hydrogen ions are being produced. Lactate is normally used by muscle cells (and other cells such as heart, liver, kidneys, brain, ect) as fuel when enough oxygen is available to the cell. When there isn't enough oxygen, then that lactate cannot be consumed & it builds up slowly and it's actually the hydogen ions (chemestry nerdy stuff) makes our muscles very acidic. This causes a burning sensation in our muscles and it sends messages to our brain that we need to slow down. Through tempo and threshold training, we teach our bodies to make use of that lactate much better and our bodies develop the capability to buffer those hydrogen ions so our muscle cells are not as acidic.

However, before you can work on your threshold (which is only one key area of running) you need to build your aerobic base. In other words, how can we deliver more oxygen to the muscle cells and how do we get the muscles to actually use the oxygen better. If we can deliver more oxygen to the muscle cell and our muscles actually use more of it, then our aerobic system can actually keep up with our anaerobic system. We do that by running more easy miles. Conversational pace. The more miles we can run at a conversational pace (60-65% of our max HR) the more we stress our aerobic system to improve. Our aerobic system includes our heart. We breath in oxygen and it goes into our blood. Our heart is what is pumping the blood to our muscles. If we can make that stronger, more blood is being pushed every time it makes a beat, and therefore more oxygen is being pushed. In our blood, the oxygen molecules attach themselves to the hemoglobin in our red blood cells. The more hemoglobin in our blood, the more oxygen is transferred from our lungs into our blood and more concentrated with oxygen our blood becomes. The pathways from our main blood vessels to our muscle cells are called the capalleries. Through aerobic base building, those capallaries increase in number. (Just imagine a major insterstate where traffic gets backed up on certain exits. This is like building more side roads and exits near the existing exits.) Then inside our muscle cell itself, the place where fuel mixes with oxygen is called the mitochondria. Through aerobic base building, those mitochondria get larger and grow in number inside each muscle cell. So more aerobic energy is being produced to keep up with our demand. All these things get better the longer we can run at an aerobic level (conversational pace of 60-65% of our max heart rate). Go faster than that and you will not make any more improvements to this aerobic system. You are now stressing the threshold system which is a completely different workout.

I hope this makes sense. In a nutshell, run slower but for longer and more often and you will see big improvements. Over time, you will naturally be running faster.

Racewalking


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Racewalking, or race walking, is a long-distance discipline within the sport of athletics. Although it is a foot race, it is different from running in that one foot must appear to be in contact with the ground at all times. This is assessed by race judges, making it the most subjective of the disciplines in athletics. Typically held on either roads or on running tracks, common distances vary from 3000 metres (1.8 mi) up to 100 kilometres (62.1 mi).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racewalking



^^^^^ Just in case anyone was interested.

Virkati wrote: »

@Stoshew71 - Thank you!! That makes a lot of sense. Had to read it a couple of times to absorb it, but pretty sure I get it now. If I understand it correctly, the increase in speed I seek is (essentially) the end result of mileage done at the proper speed...as determined by the ability to hold a conversation *60-65 mhr. Endurance and stamina are built using the same base, but increase by being consistently able to hold a conversation regardless of pace. If I can maintain a conversation after increasing the pace, I'm still gaining improvements. If I can't, then to gain positive results I will have to reduce my speed.

So then, generally speaking, is it better to run more often, or more miles per run (without consideration to speed)? Currently I try to run every other day. I have a half marathon May 15 that I not only want to finish, I want to place in the top 25 of my age group. According to the stats from this year, I'd have to be able to finish in about 2:15. But currently I run about 13-14 mm. So is my goal for placement unreasonable?

I think you got it.

Whether to run more often or run more miles is actually determined by how much rest your physical system requires. In other words, when you are running, you are doing more than just making improvements in your heart and blood and muscles (your cardio vascular system). You are also stressing your physical body (the bones, the muscle tissue themselves, the tendons and ligaments). When you train, you stress and tear these down as well. You require rest to make sure these can get built back up and adaptions in those also take place. (For example, you don't lift weights everyday on the same muscle systems without expecting injury). The same goes for running. Until your physical body gets used to running more often, you start out by making sure you get enough rest in between work outs. So my suggestion is to first slowly increase miles per run until your physical body adapts enough so that you can take less rest days.

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

Everyone needs to read this....have the tissues handy.

http://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/woman-with-terminal-illness-runs-her-last-marathon?cid=soc_Runner's World - RunnersWorld_FBPAGE_Runner’s World__News_Motivation

That's awesome. You should make a post on WRH and ask if any of the RD's ever have any extra medals that were unclaimed and to maybe send them to this cause?