March 2016 Running Challenge

AdrianChr92 wrote: »

Guys what do you think of raisins as nutrition during long runs? I don't want to buy gels just for training. I am starting to run on empty after around 1 hour and 15 minutes or so.Also I've been reading about electrolytes and I noticed after an hour or so I start getting salty. I don't want to buy Gatorade for long run either. Any alternatives? Apparently water isn't enough this days. Also how do you carry water?

@AdrianChr92 Raisins would be alright, but you'd have to eat a lot of them to get enough calories to make a difference. I'd go for larger fruits (dried pineapple, dates, apricots) or just buy gels/chews. If you are going to use any gels/chews/food in a race in the future, you'll want to start trying them out during training anyway.

As for water, I've been adding nuun tablets to mine; I buy tubes of it at my local running store. You can also buy it online (pricey though) or at some grocery stores. It has sodium in it (350-360 mg per tab) and you just put it in water. As for carrying said water, I use either a 10 oz Nathan handheld or an 18 oz one, depending on distance and heat. I carry them in races too to avoid water stops and to carry gels and dried fruit because you can only fit so many in a pocket.

3/6 2.5miles

AdrianChr92 wrote: »

Guys what do you think of raisins as nutrition during long runs? I don't want to buy gels just for training. I am starting to run on empty after around 1 hour and 15 minutes or so.Also I've been reading about electrolytes and I noticed after an hour or so I start getting salty. I don't want to buy Gatorade for long run either. Any alternatives? Apparently water isn't enough this days. Also how do you carry water?

I use a camelbak for my water. I used to use a water belt, but it sometimes upset my digestive system (weight and bouncing water on the abdomen is not ideal for me). The camelbak also lets me carry my keys, phone, body glide, etc. And I added a pouch to the front strap to carry my food, which in my case is Gatorade chews.

ccnagain wrote: »

Not sure if this is where I post this or not.
My goal for March will be to run 3 miles per week so starting this week that would be 12 miles for the month. I haven't ran much lately and I know that isn't a big goal but everyone has to start somewhere right. I just started weight lifting last week so I don't want to go big and then not be able to do it and feel like I failed. Last year I got up to running 4-5 miles 3x a week and then after about 5 months I got bored because I couldn't get past 6 miles no matter what I did and just gave up and quit all together, but I loved running and miss it now.

You're in the right place. You'll get that 7th mile before long!

After taking a rest day to let my calf heal (as my biking mileage this past week was a bit insane), I decided to just do 11 easy miles today with a neighbor, then I'll get in my first marathon cycle 20 miler tomorrow. Debating between doing it in the AM, or late tomorrow night, but I'll let the weather decide.

3/1 - 3.5 miles
3/2 - 10 miles
3/3 - 5 miles
3/4 - 3 miles
3/6 - 11 miles

Total: 32.5 miles
Goal: 200 miles
Remaining: 167.5 miles

Upcoming Races:
Half Ironman - Florida 70.3 - Apr 10
Marathon - Pittsburgh - May 1
Half Ironman - Augusta 70.3 - Sep 25
Marathon - Chicago - Oct 9 (if accepted)
Ironman - Florida - Nov 5

@stoshew71 - Big congrads on the AG award. Definitely nice to get recognized for your hard work, especially in a race with a bigger field! Keep it up and next thing you know, you'll be eying the overall awards in smaller field races.

@AdrianChr92 - For nutrition during training runs over an hour and a half, I'll usually just bring a gu or two/three, and ingest every 40-60 minutes, and make sure to take them alongside a water fountain break. Otherwise, if I know there is a convenience store mid-route, I'll just bring a few bucks and pop in for a gatorade/powerade fountain drink. For marathons, I'll take them more often (every 4 miles/30 minutes), and for halfs, I'll just take one pre-race, and halfway/45 minutes through. For watches, I'm a bit on the fence with my forerunner 225. I love heart rate data coming from my wrist (over a strap), but seldom find myself in cold weather climates, and it only seems to work for me 80% of the time, and is pretty bad during the first mile or two. If I had to do it over again, I'd have waited for the 235 as it supports bike workouts and gives phone text message alerts, but I haven't seen much online about its heart rate accuracy. I don't care as much about the running metrics for the price premium on the 630.

Goal 60
Week 1: 8.2 miles.

7-Mar: 3.9m 2/3 run 1/3 walk.

Plan was run/walk 5 miles a day 5 days a week. It's more likely I'll do 4 miles x 4 and add a long run on Saturday. I never manage to go beyond 7 miles. I have whole week to find a buddy to make it easier. Small pain on left knee to monitor

@Elise4270 Good to know everyone will be over here. saw that when I logged in today, 200+ unread messages. that's awesome. I did join the starva group. Still finding a way to upload data over there. Soon I will be alive there
@Ch1psNQueso Thanks for the link. by the way nice DP that is my expression on finding out way to import data from Adidas miCoach to Strava.
@rune1990 I do agree with you, this is the chattiest thread in MFP at least from what I have been associated with. This thread is the one inspiring beginners like me. I love this

This weekend I went exploring a new route totally believing the Google maps and this route was good. bit hilly though, but was good.
what Google maps didn't tell me is the number of stray dogs I would have to evade... Some were just staring, some were barking their *** out (luckily they were on leash), some were with that Grrrr, some wagging tail and joining me on run.... and finally when I had to pass past a Garbage bin, there was an Army of stray dogs assembled for breakfast . seeing them staring, growling, barking at me I had to switch to other end of the road But totally awesome and somehow I ended up with best pace till now.

Date.................KM...................Total
3/2..................04.13.................04.13 (Walk)
3/3..................02.62.................6.75 (Walk / Run)
3/4..................03.40.................10.15 (Walk / Run)
3/5..................04.37.................14.52 (Run - Walk)
3/6..................01.52.................16.04 (Run)

March goal—can I make 120 km?
second half on 3/27—Dongguan Songshan First Annual
3/1—3.31 km having trouble getting my butt out of bed.
3/3—5.09 km
3/4—7.01 km—dear self, remember if you’re going to run to use your inhaler, mmkay?
3/5—3.9 km would have run more but yeah…excuses

03/07 1.53 miles -and it went so much quicker then I thought it would YAY me for a Monday start

2.5 miles this morning, 8.7 in total. My first (and last!) run without music. I forgot to charge my iPod so I went without. It was so boring and I was really aware of how noisy my breathing was. My iPod's already on charge ready for Wed morning, I won't be making that mistake again lol.

So I guess we're a week into March now (no idea how that happened...) but I've just really started running at the beginning of this month. I've been doing ~30 min runs (walking rests interspersed) and I do a little over 2 miles each time. I guess I'll take into account the way I hope to increase the length of my runs throughout the month and say I'll set a goal to get in three or four runs a week (I also have a spinning class twice a week) for a total of 25 miles this month. Seems like such a low goal for me, not sure how I feel about it, but I guess I'm much more used to seeing cycling miles (20-30+ miles to a ride x 5 times a week) and running and I haven't really gotten on too well in the past, so starting too slowly would definitely be preferable to doing to much and hating myself later for it.

week one: 1.87 + 1.94 + 2.30 = 6.11mi

@AdrianChr92 - Raisins were my initial choice for simplicity, but found I needed more sodium so I wound up settling on gels. The only downside I have heard about dried fruits is possible stomach or even bowel issues from the fiber content, and I imagine they will absorb some of the water you put in. At the same time though, ultra runners eat some real food like raisins, cookies, potato chips, etc and I don't hear them complaining. Then again, they plan on pooping in the woods...

@9voice9 - I suspect that somewhere in the 39 resposes I am wading through that this may have been suggested, but under your settings in the Strava mobile app you can set your measurements to Imperial or Metric.

@ccnagain - Welcome! That is a good starting point in my opinion. You might try running slower. If you were having trouble getting further than 6 miles that sounds like a classic case of running too fast for long distance. As your HR approaches or exceeds your lactate threshold (changeover from aerobic to anaerobic basically) your muscles feed purely off of glycogen, oxygen is unable to be delivered quickly enough to utilize alternative energy systems, and the muscles build up lactate faster that it can clear it. The end result is that around an hour (give or take 20 minutes) your muscles are no longer able to keep running and no amount of willpower will overcome that. If you slow down though, you will be in an aerobic state and the body will use both fat and the lactate produced in your muscles as part of the energy it uses allowing you to go on and on.

@joinn68 - Where at on the knee is the pain? Only asking in case it might be IT band related instead of an actual knee issue.

@rohanivan - I can see why you had such a good pace!

@kgj4105 - Welcome! It is far better to succeed at reasonable goals starting out than to fail at unreasonable ones. Happy running!