September (2016) Running Challenge

9voice9 wrote: »

Got a question: I'm a programmer, so I love data. I have data from all the races I've ever run (chipped/not, GPS length/advertised length, time, etc.). I don't have whether a particular race was USATF-certified (I know some are, but not all of the ones that are).

How do I come up with a REAL PR number? Do I calculate based on the actual distance or the advertised distance (which means effectively running the tangents will shorten the actual distance), as compared with the chip-based timing? I know that I'm going to more heavily-weight chip-based timing.

That's more of a philosophical question than a programming question. You need to determine exactly what the time is supposed to measure when you consider it for a PR. You could end up with different flavors of PR - PR gun time, PR net time, PR training distance, for example.

Having said that it is a philosophical choice, I would be inclined to count net time for marathons, and gun time for most shorter events. My reasoning is that many of the shorter events I run do not record net time, so gun time is the only thing I have to compare. But gun time doesn't exist for Boston, because of the wave start; and for sure I'm going to compare Boston to my other marathons. Practically all certified marathons will record net time, if only to advertise that they give you a fair chance to qualify for Boston.

On the distance front, I don't really want to compare training distance to race distance. My training distances are all measured by Garmin, and the Garmin measurement for races is usually a little longer than the stated race distance. Tangents, GPS error, course margin of safety on official measurement, and maybe something else I don't know about; but the race distance is not the same thing as a training run distance. Close, but not exact.

The other argument for gun time goes like this: In most USATF events, and many non-USATF races, gun time is the official placement for finishing. That makes for a large difference between gun time and net time for middle of the pack, non-competitive runners; but for competitive runners, gun time measures race performance including how well the runner lined up at the start line and how good a jump the runner got at the gun as well as how well the runner covered the legal course, including good or poor tangent running.

FWIW: I don't pay attention to PRs for training runs. I could find PRs for races, though I don't keep close track. I suppose I ought to keep both gun time and net time PRs, though in some cases (e.g., 10K) the same race is a PR in both and in other cases (e.g., 5K), the PR race only had gun time but would obviously have still been a PR on net time.

@mbaker566 when the time is right you'll get those shoes on, just take care of yourself and do what you need to do for yourself. I'm sure the pictures are very bittersweet. Just know you are in my thoughts and prayers
@juliet3455 thanks for asking. Mom is in rehab and like any other 83 year old who has been so sick it's going to take some time. The doctors assure me medically she is on the mend and will continue to do so. Physically it's going to take a while. It tore me up to leave her Sunday, I just laid on the bed with her. Skip had a hurt hamstring and just ran her first meet this past weekend. No where near a PR, but I think her mind needed to know what the hamstring already knew, that it's healed. She was happy with her time, though Coach let her know he was not. She just lets that roll off her back. She was about 2 mins behind her PR. My other half is home on R&R and he sent me a text of her finishing and she falling to the ground, honestly man what were you thinking! She said she was hot and more stumbled over the finish line and fell, but after 5 minutes she was okay. My friend is a nurse and jumped right into action to take care of her. thanks again for asking
@adrianchr92 I was telling Skip about the race, she just looked at me and I said "I can't stand running a 2 mile on the track, oh no way" LOL You would definitely need something to keep you entertained.

@9voice9 The only way to be sure you ran, let's say a 5k it's to run it on a track in lane 1. Even on certified coursed you need to run perfect tangets or you run more than the distance. I'd say that you shouldn't bother much and just go with the fastest one that is certified. Non certified courses can sometimes be 100-200 meters off

@juliet3455 haha! Budgie smugglin'! Sounds criminal! I'll have to hit Google for that one. Haha! Oh I love Google!

@9voice9 I agree with the masses on the PR. The sanctioned races I've run are not, by my path, 10.0 k, or 13.1 miles, even the 5k isnt 5.0. I'm sloppy on the tangents I guess. But, I just roll with it. 5k, 10k, half pr counts as long as I ran the minimum distance of the race and it's chip timed. I have a 5k that stellar, but was way short. So I don't count it. I do count training runs as PR's. Or maybe just call it a PB, rather than a record, more a best effort thing. Either eyether sort of thing.
If Garmin got it- it happened.

As an example:
So my HM chipped PR is (was) 2:20:47 for 13.4 miles. I don't adjust it. It might motivate me to think more on staging, crowds and tangents though.

My Garmin has a different take on my PR's. 2:17:28 for 13.1.

Totally sell your PR as you see it. We're diggin' your accomplishments either way. *Knuckles*

Although I lost a Strava course record to someone on a damn bike... So as long as it's run, were good.

Thanks, @Elise4270. Now it got me thinking, maybe the mysterious headaches I get occasionally has something to do with it too....

Thanks @RunRachelleRun and @ceciliaslater I didn't know magnesium (or had to be magnesium citrate?) has something to do with it. I thought potassium was the issue. I had lots of leg cramps at night as a kid and then again during pregnancy. I don't know if my stomach would react to magnesium citrate but I saw that the Nuun that Elise talked about has magnesium in it, maybe I would try that out first.

@MobyCarp @AdrianChr92 Thank you both for your input. Would you say that just drinking water alone may not help hydration as much when drinking with electrolytes (at least for some people)?

Omg, I think the mag citrate I'm thinking of is that stuff in the litre bottle they make you drink before a colonoscopy! Haha! Ya, magnesium tablets could be citrate, I always thought they were carbonates.

I see the tablets would be fine!

@mom3over40 nuts, tyramine foods (aged/packaged), nitrates, sulfates, and soy cause headaches for me. I'm being punished I think.... Heat will also get me if I'm not careful.

Some new research had been put out on muscle cramps claiming that it's a nerve issue. But nerves rely heavily on ions (electrolytes) anyhow. I think the suggestion was something acidic with electrolytes for exercise cramps. But then I kinda felt like someone was trying to make a buck....

@9voice9 I tend to use chip time PR if I am sharing the information with friends. But I would use the "best effort" time from Strava as the PR for running calculators to find the pace that I was able to handle and to see if my goal finish time totally unrealistic. Since you are a programmer, would you be able to use the data from the TCX files to do the time, distance calculations?

Okay a little bit of Google. Magnesium citrate is a saline laxative. Bleh! I have magnesium supplements that are mag oxide.

Neither here nor there, they all provide magnesium. And diarrhea. Nah JK.

@RunRachelleRun I can see ginger and tumeric doing muscles good. They are both antiinflammatories. Great idea adding them to your sports drink!

@RunRachelleRun Thanks a lot for the info! There is still so much to learn. I think I have learned/read so much more about health/diet since I started running, much more than when I was just trying to lose weight!