The January 2016 Running Challenge
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5BeautifulDays wrote: »@Virkati that Raptor dog is a beauty! I hope you have fun taking him on a trial buddy-run. I know what you mean about the lifestyle changes, though. Having a dog has meant adding in one more layer of complexity to an already complicated life, especially when it comes to travel. And because our dog is a rescue with a dicey past, we've also had to learn to deal with some *really* challenging behaviors as well.
Try having seven! We started out with just a pekingese and a mini german shepherd/husky mix. Rescued a second peke and another GSD (this one full blood and full sized). Lost our first rescue peke (she was about 15 when we rescued her and had heartworms) and rescued another to replace her.
Four was a little much, but doable. Over the past 2 years, we've added on three strays--a dachshund, a pit mix, and a malamute. Part of the joy of living in a rural area is that everyone dumps their unwanted dogs, and it's pretty much impossible to get them rehomed quickly. We always end up spending too much time trying to find the owners, then are too attached to give them away to a stranger.
They all get along, and we can afford to feed them and enjoy snuggling on the couch with them in the evenings. It just makes travel impossible, because I can't afford $200/day in boarding.
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1/1: 6.2 miles
1/2: 11.6 miles
1/3: Rest/Travel day
1/4: 10 miles
1/5: Rest day
1/6: 4 miles (am), 8 miles tempo (pm)
1/7: 4 miles (am), 6 miles with the Thursday crew (pm)
1/8: Rest day
1/9: 12.2 miles with the Saturday crew
1/10: 5 miles
1/11: 5.8 miles with "Joe-to-Go" crew
1/12: Rest day
1/13: 4 miles treadmill (am)
Got some new Saucony hydralite tops (that actually fit, since I shrunk outta the other ones!) and wanted to treadmill run just because I like these tops so much for treadmill running. I used my Garmin to track distance, because I had done this at home on my parents' treadmill, and it only was off by about .02 per mile. But OH BOY, was there a discrepancy today at my apartment gym!! Garmin was off by about .1 per mile, so I either paced 8:07 for 4 miles according to the treadmill or 8:56 according to my watch. My watch definitely was not keeping up though because I changed the mph from 8.0 to 8.5 and got almost the same quarter mile split... which is impossible. I think the treadmill time is definitely more accurate than the Garmin time; there's no way my last mile was 8:30 when I spent 3 mins between 8.0 and 9.0 mph (7:30 and 6:40 mile pace), and only went back down to 7.0 for a quarter mile (8:34 pace). I think really I paced somewhere in between and ran something a little over 4. Oh well. More motivation to keep on truckin' outside!
Joining the Wednesday night group run tonight with my Thursday night running store. They always do the Wednesday runs, but I've never gone since I usually run Wed mornings. But now that I'm doing 2 runs on Wednesdays, I can make it to the evening run! Hooray!
Upcoming races:
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM
5/1: New Jersey Marathon
6/12: Race and Ride Cedar Point HM (maybe)
@shanaber That view is amazing. I'll be booking a ticket ASAP
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kateparry84 wrote: »3.4 miles today, my longest distance yet! 16.9 miles so far this month. My pace is really slow, usually around 12.10 minute miles. I'm new to running so don't really know much about it. Is now a good time to do shorter distances and try to increase my pace? Any advice would be much appreciated
Congrats on the distance PR. To answer your question, no, you do not want to worry about trying to increase your pace. Right now you are trying to build an aerobic base and the best way to do this is to run more miles. Just keep running at a nice, easy pace and your speed will automatically get faster.0 -
kristinegift wrote: »1/1: 6.2 miles
1/2: 11.6 miles
1/3: Rest/Travel day
1/4: 10 miles
1/5: Rest day
1/6: 4 miles (am), 8 miles tempo (pm)
1/7: 4 miles (am), 6 miles with the Thursday crew (pm)
1/8: Rest day
1/9: 12.2 miles with the Saturday crew
1/10: 5 miles
1/11: 5.8 miles with "Joe-to-Go" crew
1/12: Rest day
1/13: 4 miles treadmill (am)
Got some new Saucony hydralite tops (that actually fit, since I shrunk outta the other ones!) and wanted to treadmill run just because I like these tops so much for treadmill running. I used my Garmin to track distance, because I had done this at home on my parents' treadmill, and it only was off by about .02 per mile. But OH BOY, was there a discrepancy today at my apartment gym!! Garmin was off by about .1 per mile, so I either paced 8:07 for 4 miles according to the treadmill or 8:56 according to my watch. My watch definitely was not keeping up though because I changed the mph from 8.0 to 8.5 and got almost the same quarter mile split... which is impossible. I think the treadmill time is definitely more accurate than the Garmin time; there's no way my last mile was 8:30 when I spent 3 mins between 8.0 and 9.0 mph (7:30 and 6:40 mile pace), and only went back down to 7.0 for a quarter mile (8:34 pace). I think really I paced somewhere in between and ran something a little over 4. Oh well. More motivation to keep on truckin' outside!
Joining the Wednesday night group run tonight with my Thursday night running store. They always do the Wednesday runs, but I've never gone since I usually run Wed mornings. But now that I'm doing 2 runs on Wednesdays, I can make it to the evening run! Hooray!
Upcoming races:
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM
5/1: New Jersey Marathon
6/12: Race and Ride Cedar Point HM (maybe)
@shanaber That view is amazing. I'll be booking a ticket ASAP
@kristinegift - I've decided I need to stop reading your posts or I'll be broke. You make me want to shop. Haha.0 -
1/1-1/9-zero miles- respiratory infection
1/10-5.9 miles
1/11-4.0 miles
1/12-4.0 miles plus strength training
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3dogsrunning wrote: »kristinegift wrote: »1/1: 6.2 miles
1/2: 11.6 miles
1/3: Rest/Travel day
1/4: 10 miles
1/5: Rest day
1/6: 4 miles (am), 8 miles tempo (pm)
1/7: 4 miles (am), 6 miles with the Thursday crew (pm)
1/8: Rest day
1/9: 12.2 miles with the Saturday crew
1/10: 5 miles
1/11: 5.8 miles with "Joe-to-Go" crew
1/12: Rest day
1/13: 4 miles treadmill (am)
Got some new Saucony hydralite tops (that actually fit, since I shrunk outta the other ones!) and wanted to treadmill run just because I like these tops so much for treadmill running. I used my Garmin to track distance, because I had done this at home on my parents' treadmill, and it only was off by about .02 per mile. But OH BOY, was there a discrepancy today at my apartment gym!! Garmin was off by about .1 per mile, so I either paced 8:07 for 4 miles according to the treadmill or 8:56 according to my watch. My watch definitely was not keeping up though because I changed the mph from 8.0 to 8.5 and got almost the same quarter mile split... which is impossible. I think the treadmill time is definitely more accurate than the Garmin time; there's no way my last mile was 8:30 when I spent 3 mins between 8.0 and 9.0 mph (7:30 and 6:40 mile pace), and only went back down to 7.0 for a quarter mile (8:34 pace). I think really I paced somewhere in between and ran something a little over 4. Oh well. More motivation to keep on truckin' outside!
Joining the Wednesday night group run tonight with my Thursday night running store. They always do the Wednesday runs, but I've never gone since I usually run Wed mornings. But now that I'm doing 2 runs on Wednesdays, I can make it to the evening run! Hooray!
Upcoming races:
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM
5/1: New Jersey Marathon
6/12: Race and Ride Cedar Point HM (maybe)
@shanaber That view is amazing. I'll be booking a ticket ASAP
@kristinegift - I've decided I need to stop reading your posts or I'll be broke. You make me want to shop. Haha.
Trust me, I'm a grad student, so I'm broke as all get out. But the Hydralite tanks and short sleeves are super on sale in certain sizes/colors. I got the tank for like $4 and the shirt for I think $5 or $6. I spend bottom dollar for my running apparel these days!0 -
kristinegift wrote: »3dogsrunning wrote: »kristinegift wrote: »1/1: 6.2 miles
1/2: 11.6 miles
1/3: Rest/Travel day
1/4: 10 miles
1/5: Rest day
1/6: 4 miles (am), 8 miles tempo (pm)
1/7: 4 miles (am), 6 miles with the Thursday crew (pm)
1/8: Rest day
1/9: 12.2 miles with the Saturday crew
1/10: 5 miles
1/11: 5.8 miles with "Joe-to-Go" crew
1/12: Rest day
1/13: 4 miles treadmill (am)
Got some new Saucony hydralite tops (that actually fit, since I shrunk outta the other ones!) and wanted to treadmill run just because I like these tops so much for treadmill running. I used my Garmin to track distance, because I had done this at home on my parents' treadmill, and it only was off by about .02 per mile. But OH BOY, was there a discrepancy today at my apartment gym!! Garmin was off by about .1 per mile, so I either paced 8:07 for 4 miles according to the treadmill or 8:56 according to my watch. My watch definitely was not keeping up though because I changed the mph from 8.0 to 8.5 and got almost the same quarter mile split... which is impossible. I think the treadmill time is definitely more accurate than the Garmin time; there's no way my last mile was 8:30 when I spent 3 mins between 8.0 and 9.0 mph (7:30 and 6:40 mile pace), and only went back down to 7.0 for a quarter mile (8:34 pace). I think really I paced somewhere in between and ran something a little over 4. Oh well. More motivation to keep on truckin' outside!
Joining the Wednesday night group run tonight with my Thursday night running store. They always do the Wednesday runs, but I've never gone since I usually run Wed mornings. But now that I'm doing 2 runs on Wednesdays, I can make it to the evening run! Hooray!
Upcoming races:
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM
5/1: New Jersey Marathon
6/12: Race and Ride Cedar Point HM (maybe)
@shanaber That view is amazing. I'll be booking a ticket ASAP
@kristinegift - I've decided I need to stop reading your posts or I'll be broke. You make me want to shop. Haha.
Trust me, I'm a grad student, so I'm broke as all get out. But the Hydralite tanks and short sleeves are super on sale in certain sizes/colors. I got the tank for like $4 and the shirt for I think $5 or $6. I spend bottom dollar for my running apparel these days!
That's awesome. I just mean I just want to buy stuff but don't get the same deals.
I still want to buy it.0 -
3dogsrunning wrote: »kristinegift wrote: »3dogsrunning wrote: »kristinegift wrote: »1/1: 6.2 miles
1/2: 11.6 miles
1/3: Rest/Travel day
1/4: 10 miles
1/5: Rest day
1/6: 4 miles (am), 8 miles tempo (pm)
1/7: 4 miles (am), 6 miles with the Thursday crew (pm)
1/8: Rest day
1/9: 12.2 miles with the Saturday crew
1/10: 5 miles
1/11: 5.8 miles with "Joe-to-Go" crew
1/12: Rest day
1/13: 4 miles treadmill (am)
Got some new Saucony hydralite tops (that actually fit, since I shrunk outta the other ones!) and wanted to treadmill run just because I like these tops so much for treadmill running. I used my Garmin to track distance, because I had done this at home on my parents' treadmill, and it only was off by about .02 per mile. But OH BOY, was there a discrepancy today at my apartment gym!! Garmin was off by about .1 per mile, so I either paced 8:07 for 4 miles according to the treadmill or 8:56 according to my watch. My watch definitely was not keeping up though because I changed the mph from 8.0 to 8.5 and got almost the same quarter mile split... which is impossible. I think the treadmill time is definitely more accurate than the Garmin time; there's no way my last mile was 8:30 when I spent 3 mins between 8.0 and 9.0 mph (7:30 and 6:40 mile pace), and only went back down to 7.0 for a quarter mile (8:34 pace). I think really I paced somewhere in between and ran something a little over 4. Oh well. More motivation to keep on truckin' outside!
Joining the Wednesday night group run tonight with my Thursday night running store. They always do the Wednesday runs, but I've never gone since I usually run Wed mornings. But now that I'm doing 2 runs on Wednesdays, I can make it to the evening run! Hooray!
Upcoming races:
4/3: Caesar Rodney HM
5/1: New Jersey Marathon
6/12: Race and Ride Cedar Point HM (maybe)
@shanaber That view is amazing. I'll be booking a ticket ASAP
@kristinegift - I've decided I need to stop reading your posts or I'll be broke. You make me want to shop. Haha.
Trust me, I'm a grad student, so I'm broke as all get out. But the Hydralite tanks and short sleeves are super on sale in certain sizes/colors. I got the tank for like $4 and the shirt for I think $5 or $6. I spend bottom dollar for my running apparel these days!
That's awesome. I just mean I just want to buy stuff but don't get the same deals.
I still want to buy it.
I get roped in by deals and the excitement of finding bargains. When I got my shoes super on sale I then thought, "Hmm. What other shoes can I find at outrageous prices?" I almost bought another pair of shoes (different model) for $70 before I remembered: "YOU HAVE VERY LITTLE MONEY. STOP IT." So I deleted them from my cart. Sometimes I forget that online shopping isn't a game, and it costs me real dollars. Oops.0 -
@Stoshew71, @7lenny7, @WhatMeRunning, @Elise4270, @kristinegift, @juliet3455 - Thanks for the input about cleats / screw shoes. Still trying to decide what to do...quickly getting frustrated with treadmill and the indoor track I like may be less of a weekday option soon.
@kristinegift - Wow! Rides are my favorite shoe...I couldn't snag the deal you did though
@7lenny7 - That group sounds fantastic! Enjoy! And, you did something very wrong...or maybe so wrong it's right!
I loves my running shoes! I might screw them, but I would never consider nailing them! They deserve better than that.
1/1 - 3.5 miles on treadmill
1/2 - Nada
1/3 - 3.75 miles on treadmill + weights
1/4 - First day back to office / school...had to stay home to get kids moving and ready.
1/5 - 4 miles on treadmill + 4.65 miles on stationary bike
1/6 - 4.5 miles on indoor track followed by an extended stretching session.
1/7 - Sick / rest day - not sick enough to stay home for the day, but didn't want to push it for a run
1/8 - Another sick / rest day.
1/9 - 4.1 miles on treadmill
1/10 - 4 miles on indoor track + weights
1/11 - 4 miles on treadmill
1/12 - Life got in the way - sick children, work issues, etc. - Ick!
1/13 - Woke up with a head like concrete...stupid sinuses! Hoping to feel better enough to squeeze in a rare late afternoon run today.
Way to kill it everyone!
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Almost halfway there!
Does anyone else here use a fitbit (specifically the surge)? I am feeling a little discouraged because of how inaccurate it is. I've been comparing it to the treadmills mileage and it can be as far as half a mile off. This morning I did a tempo run, so I started off at a gentle jog at 6.0mph for about 5 minutes and maxed out at 7.0mph for 15 minutes then ran until I hit 3.2 miles at 6.0mph. This pace was much faster than yesterdays (I only maxed out at 6.3mph for a few minutes, most of the run was 5.5mph) but the fitbit actually shows my pace decreasing from yesterday. When I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I don't reach the mile marker on my fitbit until 11-12minutes and it seems the faster I run, the slower my pace gets?!
Does anyone else have this problem?0 -
KatEmmaMarie wrote: »Almost halfway there!
Does anyone else here use a fitbit (specifically the surge)? I am feeling a little discouraged because of how inaccurate it is. I've been comparing it to the treadmills mileage and it can be as far as half a mile off. This morning I did a tempo run, so I started off at a gentle jog at 6.0mph for about 5 minutes and maxed out at 7.0mph for 15 minutes then ran until I hit 3.2 miles at 6.0mph. This pace was much faster than yesterdays (I only maxed out at 6.3mph for a few minutes, most of the run was 5.5mph) but the fitbit actually shows my pace decreasing from yesterday. When I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I don't reach the mile marker on my fitbit until 11-12minutes and it seems the faster I run, the slower my pace gets?!
Does anyone else have this problem?
@KatEmmaMarie I actually had this problem doing cadence-only with my Garmin today! No change in pace on the watch despite increasing the speed on the treadmill from 7.0 mph to 8.5 mph. ALSO: this summer when I used a Jawbone Up Move in addition to my Garmin when I ran outside, that also had a big discrepancy (the Move tracked way less distance than the Garmin did, and I trust that thing with my life!). I think the Fitbits and other trackers are designed to track walking much more accurately than running, especially if you use it more frequently as a step tracker, so it doesn't keep up as well when you change the pace due to cadence, frequency of footfalls, etc. (I'm sort of guessing here, btw.)0 -
@KatEmmaMarie I don't have a fitbit, but I'm guessing it gets the distance by counting steps and multiplying them by a certain step length?
In that case I could imagine that if you keep the same cadence (steps per minute), but make longer steps, the fitbit won't notice the difference. If you want to check that, you could try counting the number of steps per minute for two or three different speeds, and use that to calculate your step length and see if it changes.
@runner4life08 Welcome to this group!
I'm curious - when you say you "completed" the cross country skiing point on your bucket list, does that mean you went and learned it this month? I tried it for the first time last Saturday, and I will need much, much more practice until I learn how to break properly and able to spend more time on the skis than on the ground ;-p
@kateparry84 congrats on the distance PR! I agree with what everyone else said: when you increase the distances you run, you magically get faster. I didn't believe that at first, but when I look back at my "distance per month" and "average pace vs month"-plots, I can now confirm that it definitely worked that way for me.
@shanaber beautiful photo! Makes me want to sneak out early from work and drive to the mountains for a run. No blue skies here today, but still... I actually do happen to have my running clothes in the car and already looked up when the sun will set today... ;-)
Just a short treadmill run at the gym yesterday (2.2km). It was completely overcrowded! I was planning to do one indoor tempo run per week when I'm at the gym to strength train anyway; I thought that might allow me to focus more on what I'm doing compared to running on dark and hilly streets. But I might have to rethink that for a while.
After waiting 10 minutes for a free 'mill, I decided to warm up with a few stretches and do the weights before the run. Afterwards (40 minutes later) I was able to catch a TM after a few more minutes waiting, but there were so many people waiting around to use one that I decided to be nice and cut my run short after 15 minutes... Is it very evil to hope that they'll all fail on their good intentions and stop coming to the gym as soon as possible?0 -
01/02 3.5miles
01/04 3miles
01/06 4miles
01/09 3.5miles
01/13 3miles
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KatEmmaMarie wrote: »Almost halfway there!
Does anyone else here use a fitbit (specifically the surge)? I am feeling a little discouraged because of how inaccurate it is. I've been comparing it to the treadmills mileage and it can be as far as half a mile off. This morning I did a tempo run, so I started off at a gentle jog at 6.0mph for about 5 minutes and maxed out at 7.0mph for 15 minutes then ran until I hit 3.2 miles at 6.0mph. This pace was much faster than yesterdays (I only maxed out at 6.3mph for a few minutes, most of the run was 5.5mph) but the fitbit actually shows my pace decreasing from yesterday. When I run at 6.0mph on the treadmill, I don't reach the mile marker on my fitbit until 11-12minutes and it seems the faster I run, the slower my pace gets?!
Does anyone else have this problem?
I have the Surge. It will not be accurate on the treadmill unless you set your step length accurately for the speed you're running on the treadmill.
You can update your stride length in the account settings. However, your Surge doesn't know if you're running at 5 mph or 7mph. It just knows how many steps you've taken and calculates a distance based on the stride length you have set. Since your stride length differs depending on your speed, it will likely overestimate distance when you are running slower and underestimate distance when you're running faster.
ETA: The GPS accuracy on the Surge is good. Run outside! 0 -
@ceciliaslater @kristinegift @_nikkiwolf_ Thanks! It makes sense that it's just tracking based off of stride/steps and wont pick up an increase in speed. I'm definitely running outside more often! Today was just one of those days where I couldn't get myself outside haha.0
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_nikkiwolf_ wrote: »Is it very evil to hope that they'll all fail on their good intentions and stop coming to the gym as soon as possible?
I feel the same way. My gym always gets super crowded in the first few weeks of January. Usually it's a bunch of new people, most of whom stop coming after about 3 weeks.
It's so frustrating for the regulars to not be able to use the equipment or squeeze into the classes. I know the gym can't afford to expand in order to accommodate the January rush, since it'll just fall back to the normal low attendance by February. It'd be great if they could rent some additional space (cargo boxes to house extra rented equipment for the season--sort of like Wal-Mart does for layaway before Christmas time? lol).
Oddly, I haven't seen many new people this year. The gym is still super crowded, but it's all people who have been members for at least a year--they're just all showing up at once. That'll trail off as the year proceeds, too.0 -
@shanaber, great photo! That right there is some fantastic motivation to get out and run.
@kateparry84 a 12:10 pace for a new runner is excellent. Keep the pace slow enough so you could carry on a conversation without running out of breath. You'll be able to run longer and with less chance of injury. When I started running I spent 4 months just running at such a pace to build up my base. As your body adapts to running, you will naturally get faster. I saw HUGE improvements in my speed by running slow. Seems counter-intuitive but it works. After 8 months of running my conversational pace is now about 10:15 and I've done almost no speedwork.
@kristinegift, I get sucked into buying deals as well. In addition to the shoes I just bought I ordered a New Balance High Visability jacket with glow-in-the-dark screen print graphics for $44. It's currently selling on Amazon for $155. I didn't need it, but the force was too strong.
@KatEmmaMarie I have a Fitbit Charge. There's no way for a fitbit to accurately measure you distance. It can only count strides. There's a setting either on the app or on the online dashboard which will you allow you to input your stride length (otherwise it uses a default value). First you have to decide if it's more important to you to get it more accurate for running or walking. Then walk or run a known distance, such as the length of a football field, then calculate your stride lenght by dividing the distance by the steps. Then you have to realize that your stride length can change depending on terrain, or if you're going up or down hill so the calibrating it that way will just give you a good estimate of distance. I love my FitBit, but I never rely on it for measuring distance. I just saw you're using it on a treadmill...I don't know how accurate treadmills are, but you could probably calibrate your FB to that by running a mile on the treadmill and calculating stride length with that.
@Miffylou I think this group should be a pretty good match for me. If they're crazy enough to run in the sub-zero temps like I am, we should get along just fine.
@virkati, I have no idea how well your daughter's dog is trained to run with people, but if it turns out not to be a great experience, don't write it off yet. Kody, my lab, is an awesome running partner but he certainly would not have been at first. Getting a dog to focus on running with you and not chasing squirrels, bikes, or other dogs takes a lot of training, but it's definitely worth it. How old is the dog? They say that dogs under a year shouldn't be taken running because it could damage the growth plates. I don't know if that's true or not but it's worth checking with a vet if the dog is a pup.
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@7lenny7 That's an amazing deal! What, over 66% off?! And a really enviable jacket!0
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A late evening run of 5.6 miles in -6ºF temp, -16ºF wind chill.
I almost skipped the run. I was going to go indoor track running while my wife walked it but she bailed out on me. Then something popped up I had to attend to and it was too late to go to the track. I actually wasn't in the mood to run in the cold as I had felt chilled all day, but then in a moment of, "Dangit, I can do this!", I got my butt out there and was so glad I did.
I dressed up the same as I did for Sunday's tundra run but since it was dark I couldn't pull my buff up over my face to block the wind (too dark without the sun) so I put a neck gaiter on my head and pulled it down as much as I could and still see the road, gangsta-style!.
The runs for the next couple of days will be downright balmy with highs from 22F to 31F, but then it takes a big dip for the weekend again. Unfortunately I'll be out of town, taking my daughter back to college in Kansas. If I were to do my usually Sunday morning run I'd be doing it in -15ºF temp, -33ºF wind chill.
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@kristinegift Thanks for the heads up on the Amazon sale. I just ordered two Saucony shirts, 6 pairs of socks, a pair of shorts and a pair of leggings for $46. I should be ordering chemical standards for work, but, you know, priorities.0
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