The February 2016 Running Challenge

moyer566 wrote: »

...
9-i was on the way to the gym. because it was icy i didn't want to run outside. so icy, i hit a parked jeep with my 2 day all new to me car. no gym for me

Wow, I'm so sorry, that sucks so much!

AdrianChr92 wrote: »

I have a question. I talked to an unltramaratoner and he told me that if I want to get my distance up I need to learn to run real slow. Like slow slow so my muscles get used to burning fuel for longer time. Is this good advice?

My personal experience says yes, and there is a lot of info out there supporting this. I did this all of last summer and by the fall I felt I could run an ultra. The only thing that kept me from doing one was cutoff times (I am slow to begin with). I ran my first ever 3 full marathons though in that one fall season to give an idea of the kind of endurance that training provided a new marathoner.

I've been working on improving my pace this year meaning I am not solely focused on high mileage at easy pace like I was last year (I do a lot of speedwork now). It shows on my long runs. I feel dead trying to pull off 12 milers, while last summer/fall a 12 miler was just an easy medium-distance run.

everyone is fine and it does suck a bit but i figured it out with the insurance and i'll be dropping it off at their service center and picking up a rental for free. deductible will hurt but it could be worse

3.3 miles tonight. I wanted to get a longer run in but I'm feeling pretty sore from an hour of football (soccer to the yanks out there) and I've got to get through 2 hours of softball training later this evening too! Will be struggling to fit running in this week, especially longer runs. Might just have to sneak a few 5k jogs in where I can.

29/76.

moyer566 wrote: »

everyone is fine and it does suck a bit but i figured it out with the insurance and i'll be dropping it off at their service center and picking up a rental for free. deductible will hurt but it could be worse

Last time I was in an accident, a woman pulled out in front of me as I was cruising down the highway at 55mph (~90KPH). I hit the brakes, which led to me rear-ending her instead of broadsiding/t-boning her. No damage to her SUV, but smashed the heck out of my poor car. She proceeded to get out and berate me for "going too fast" and said I had to slow down because she was turning (she had a stop sign, I did not, and I wasn't speeding). Long story short, her crappy insurance company refused to even open a claim when I called to report it (illegal). So, I had to go through my insurance and pay the deductible to get my car fixed. Then, we fought her insurance for 16 months, getting ready to go to court to get my money (and my insurance company's) back. They ended up settling a week before the first court date, after the other driver got irate with my lawyer during her deposition. I keep telling myself that it all would have been so much easier if I just hadn't hit the brakes...

Soooo....At least you don't have to deal with someone else's insurance.

ETA: The small-town cops took over a month to even get the police report released, and, when they did, it made no sense. The form is just a bunch of boxes with possible choices. You fill in the number of the option that corresponds to each car (Car 1 did X; Car 2 did Y). The cop had filled out the boxes poorly and had written a mostly incoherent description of the accident. It was generally a nightmarish experience all around.

rohanivan wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

This is Rohan, I am new to running. I have just ran a 3K with freinds for fun and was just able to crawl past the finish line. I am planning to run my first 5K this year, I am training with Endomondo app and C25K Windows Phone Apps.
Hope I finish my 5K with a smiling face.
My Goal for February is 20 KM.

Feb 25 - First 5K

I'm new to the group too. Welcome!!
You ran a 5k without training for it? That sounds awesome. Talk about doing it for the fun of it.
What was your race time?

Stoshew71 wrote: »

@pansamanchada No worry about pace or distance. Start slow and low mileage and build it slowly. I have been preaching to keep your pace at a conversational pace. If you can't sing or talk out loud without having to worry about your breathing, then you are going to fast. Walk/Run intervals are a great way to build that conditioning up without overdoing it. Consistency is key. Just keep at it and you will be able to run further and faster in time without much effort.

100% agree. There's a 5k in my area I'd like to sign up for. It's about 10 weeks away. Hopefully I can build up to running it in <30 mins. Thanks for the support.

AdrianChr92 wrote: »

I have a question. I talked to an unltramaratoner and he told me that if I want to get my distance up I need to learn to run real slow. Like slow slow so my muscles get used to burning fuel for longer time. Is this good advice?

@AdrianChr92 - That is very, very good advice. It's applicable well before you get to the ultramarathon distance.

I ran myself into injury twice trying to get to my first half marathon. On the advice of my PT, I entered into a group training program on the third attempt. I learned a lot from the coaches, and probably more from the marathon runners I ran with; but the most important thing I learned was to *slow down* for most miles and all of the long runs.

It turned out I wasn't as healthy as I thought during that first training program. I got to the half, completed it, and came down with a stress fracture in my left foot a couple weeks later. Came back, and remembered to run the long miles slow. Fast forward 2 years, and I'm running more miles than I ever have in my life while training for Boston. I'm running 6 days a week, and not even feeling beat up. And a vital component of getting here was, *LEARNING TO RUN SLOW.*

Granted, my "slow" doesn't look all that slow to a lot of recreational runners; but what's important is that my slow is not what I would run in a race, not what I would run in a tempo workout, and nowhere close to what I would run in speed work designed to train for a 5K or mile race.

Most new runners have a natural tendency to gravitate toward aerobic threshold pace. There is a place for aerobic threshold in training, but it's not all the miles and definitely not the long steady runs. My target for long steady runs is between a minute and two minutes per mile slower than my aerobic threshold pace, depending on what pace I believe for easy and what pace I believe for aerobic threshold. It was hard to learn to run that slow, but the results were well worth the effort.

(edited - grammar)

@MobyCarp Yea I've been trying to run faster and faster now cause I have the same mentality like in the gym. Lift hard to get stronger but I see it's not the case. I'll slow down a lot now and try to build my distance.

Here's a funny pic I just came across