February 2017 Running Challenge

@mustb60 Congrats on your first 10k! I remember my first 10k, it was SUCH a good feeling. I hope you're feeling the same.

Hi guys! What is everyone's threshold for running in the rain, in regards to temp? I actually really enjoy running in the rain, but I'm uncertain if there's a point where you find the rain, with too cold of a temp, is just too much? It looks like my lunch run today is going to be in the rain, and it'll be about 38ish degrees Fahrenheit. I have a rainproof jacket (still trying to figure out just how rainproof it is, as it's hard to tell if I'm just wet from sweat because it doesn't breath, lol) and a brimmed hat, so I'm thinking I should be fine. weather.com says it'll feel like 33, but Accuweather says it will feel like 42, so who knows.

Stoshew71 wrote: »

Now ice, darkness, and traffic are a deadly combination. I would run on ice if I made screw shoes and there's no traffic and in daylight. But running in the dark with crazy drivers (ice or no ice) is the bigger problem. That's the only reason I ended up on a hotel treadmill last month when I was up at Ft. Campbell.

Every runner has to do what they feel comfortable with but nearly every one of my weeknight runs in the winter are on the roads, in the dark, and sometimes with icy spots. The sidewalks are more dangerous around here because there's much more ice and snowpack whereas the streets are plowed, often salted, and get more traffic making them safer and more pleasant.

I make myself as visible as I can with a reflective vest, headlamp in front and flashing light in the back, running against traffic. My routes are low traffic residential areas, often with wide shoulders or parking lanes. As cars come towards me I give them a quick flash with my headlight to get their attention. One time I happen to cross paths with my wife when she was driving home and she told me I really stood out and she saw my light bobbing up and down two blocks away.

I'm definitely a defensive runner out there. I've had close calls but most have been during the day at one particular busy intersection. Since I've developed my bright and blinky strategy, and have learned what to watch out for, I've never felt any more at risk running at night than during the day. Actually I think it's easier to stick out in the dark because of the reflective material and lights.

I still prefer to run on trails though, day or night.

@KatieJane83 what I recommend when people run in conditions they're not familiar with is to plan to do multiple short loops so it's easy to either bail out if the conditions are too tough to stand, or to shed layers if you find you wore too much. On my coldest run ever I run four 2 mile loops to get my 8 miles in. It wasn't the most exciting run ever, but it was nice knowing I was never more than a half mile away from home if it got to be too much.

7lenny7 wrote: »

Stoshew71 wrote: »

Now ice, darkness, and traffic are a deadly combination. I would run on ice if I made screw shoes and there's no traffic and in daylight. But running in the dark with crazy drivers (ice or no ice) is the bigger problem. That's the only reason I ended up on a hotel treadmill last month when I was up at Ft. Campbell.

Every runner has to do what they feel comfortable with but nearly every one of my weeknight runs in the winter are on the roads, in the dark, and sometimes with icy spots. The sidewalks are more dangerous around here because there's much more ice and snowpack whereas the streets are plowed, often salted, and get more traffic making them safer and more pleasant.

I make myself as visible as I can with a reflective vest, headlamp in front and flashing light in the back, running against traffic. My routes are low traffic residential areas, often with wide shoulders or parking lanes. As cars come towards me I give them a quick flash with my headlight to get their attention. One time I happen to cross paths with my wife when she was driving home and she told me I really stood out and she saw my light bobbing up and down two blocks away.

I'm definitely a defensive runner out there. I've had close calls but most have been during the day at one particular busy intersection. Since I've developed my bright and blinky strategy, and have learned what to watch out for, I've never felt any more at risk running at night than during the day. Actually I think it's easier to stick out in the dark because of the reflective material and lights.

I still prefer to run on trails though, day or night.

@KatieJane83 what I recommend when people run in conditions they're not familiar with is to plan to do multiple short loops so it's easy to either bail out if the conditions are too tough to stand, or to shed layers if you find you wore too much. On my coldest run ever I run four 2 mile loops to get my 8 miles in. It wasn't the most exciting run ever, but it was nice knowing I was never more than a half mile away from home if it got to be too much.

Ha, I have the exact same nighttime running gear: reflective vest, headlamp, and blinky light on my back, and I do the same thing, sticking to less busy roads, always against traffic. Glad to hear you've gotten direct positive feedback on your visibility, makes me feel good about my setup!

And that's an excellent point about running in new conditions. That's my plan for when I do my first very cold run (if it ever happens this winter, so far my coldest run has been around 28F at night). If it's a shorter run I'll do the 2 mile loop from my front door on repeat, and if it's a long run I'll do the 3 mile loop around the lake on repeat, with my car right there.

7lenny7 wrote: »

Stoshew71 wrote: »

Now ice, darkness, and traffic are a deadly combination. I would run on ice if I made screw shoes and there's no traffic and in daylight. But running in the dark with crazy drivers (ice or no ice) is the bigger problem. That's the only reason I ended up on a hotel treadmill last month when I was up at Ft. Campbell.

Every runner has to do what they feel comfortable with but nearly every one of my weeknight runs in the winter are on the roads, in the dark, and sometimes with icy spots. The sidewalks are more dangerous around here because there's much more ice and snowpack whereas the streets are plowed, often salted, and get more traffic making them safer and more pleasant.

I make myself as visible as I can with a reflective vest, headlamp in front and flashing light in the back, running against traffic. My routes are low traffic residential areas, often with wide shoulders or parking lanes. As cars come towards me I give them a quick flash with my headlight to get their attention. One time I happen to cross paths with my wife when she was driving home and she told me I really stood out and she saw my light bobbing up and down two blocks away.

I'm definitely a defensive runner out there. I've had close calls but most have been during the day at one particular busy intersection. Since I've developed my bright and blinky strategy, and have learned what to watch out for, I've never felt any more at risk running at night than during the day. Actually I think it's easier to stick out in the dark because of the reflective material and lights.

Evening runner, so same here. I tend to work more one-way streets into my routes in the winter, since sidewalks are out in most cases (so I can run in the middle of the road for the most part where it is flat). I switched out the reflective vest for one with lights so it would be more visible to cyclists (I'm in a high pedestrian area, so drivers are pretty good about watching for runners, but cyclists have a tendency to blow through stop signs at full speed-I had a few close calls with them but none with cars in my neighborhood).

greenolivetree wrote: »

The current conversation about running on the street made me wonder, what is the speed limit where y'all are running? Most of the time I'm running neighborhood streets with 20mph limit. There's only a couple roads in the my town that have 30-35mph, besides the main highway which is 55mph. I've only run along the sidewalk of the big highway twice and that was very different, with cars blowing by at 55 I go on and off the sidewalk through town based on parked cars. Some people park on the street and some block the sidewalk because they have too many cars in their driveway, so I weave on and off the sidewalk as needed. My whole town is mainly residential though.

I stick to mostly residential streets, 25mph speed limit. On those roads, I will run in the street if the sidewalks are impassable. My routes do go along a few higher speed limit roads in spots (I think the highest get up to 35-40mph) and stay only on the sidewalks on those. Those streets tend to be busier than the residential streets. Residential streets I hardly ever see any cars.

@greenolivetree - The streets in my neighborhood are 25 mph and the ones around my work are up to 35 mph. I do run on some roads with speed limits up to 55 mph, but never in the dark and most of those roads have a pretty decent shoulder. I try to avoid 2 lane roads with no shoulder. There is a road that I need to take to get to the path closest to my house that is a county road with a steep camber and absolutely no shoulder, trenched on both sides. Speed limit is 45 mph, but people fly much faster than that. If I want to get to the path, I need to run on this road for about 0.75 mile stretch. I never do it in the dark and I always remove my right earbud so I know if traffic is coming in the other direction. Most cars will move over at least halfway to the other side of the road, but some people come by as if they are intentionally trying to make me jump off the road. I am always terrified during that stretch of my run and tend to pick up the pace a lot!

BTW, sorry your hubby is still having issues. I am sure that is rough on both of you. I hope things turn around for him soon.

@dkabambe -Sorry to hear about your marathon, but you probably made the right decision. Going into a marathon underprepared is a recipe for disaster. I am sure you will feel much better for the May race and have a great run!

@greenolivetree you bring up a good point. The nature of the road certainly influences runability.

Here are some screen captures of my typical road route

There are residential side streets, 30mph, no parking lane, but such low traffic it doesn't matter



Then there are residential collector streets, 30mph, busy but with a parking lane which I run in. Very few cars actually park in the parking lane.



Finally, there is a busy county road nearby, 50mph, with no parking lane and too busy to run on any time of day. I'll run on the sidewalk for a couple of blocks to get to where I need to be or in some parts there is an asphalt path I run on when they're not snow covered.



As far as running, I think you should. You need to look after your own well being. You'll be better able to care for your husband if you make sure you're also taking care of you. I hope things calm down soon!

greenolivetree wrote: »

The current conversation about running on the street made me wonder, what is the speed limit where y'all are running? Most of the time I'm running neighborhood streets with 20mph limit. There's only a couple roads in the my town that have 30-35mph, besides the main highway which is 55mph. I've only run along the sidewalk of the big highway twice and that was very different, with cars blowing by at 55 I go on and off the sidewalk through town based on parked cars. Some people park on the street and some block the sidewalk because they have too many cars in their driveway, so I weave on and off the sidewalk as needed. My whole town is mainly residential though.

I'm still trying to get back on schedule and it's not going well. Took hubby to ER after work yesterday and got home at 1am. Barely slept. So another run missed and at this point I haven't run since Friday. Which is stressing me out. LOL Now I'm so behind because nothing got done yesterday. Well, I started a load of laundry at 1:30 this morning. I just have so much to do. Maybe I should just go run for 15 min. Surely I can squeeze in 15 min, right?

My most common road route for weekdays is mostly 25 mph speed limit and mostly boulevards (i.e. median). I live in a small town with no uniform sidewalk plan. Some places have sidewalks while others do not. The places with sidewalks are not well kept and generally are much more hazardous than roads. They start and stop in odd places, and there are also vehicles blocking sidewalks here too. It is up to each individual homeowner to decide if they will put in a sidewalk and whether they will keep it up. Much of the city therefore does not have sidewalks at all. As a result, I usually am sticking to streets.

There are boulevard streets (grassy median with lamp posts in the median) in my town with extra wide roads (wide enough for 2 cars in either direction so people can park and drive past) in a square formation. It is 1.5 miles all the way around and crosses 2 major roads. One of those roads is only well used to a point in the middle of this square area, then jogs to another road outside of that area along one of the other major roads. So in truth, there are only 3 major intersections crossing this 1.5 mile square of boulevards. I stay on the road the entire time, even in those few areas with sidewalks. There are a lot of other pedestrians (both running and walking) along the road as well. I run against traffic and look left, right, and behind me as I come up on each intersection. I slow down significantly and almost always stop at the major intersections whether there is traffic or not. None of the drivers along those high-traffic streets have stop signs or stop lights at those intersections.

Only once have I had a close encounter with a vehicle. I had done a couple laps around the boulevards and was in the last 4 blocks returning home. At 1 block away from the boulevards, I heard a vehicle coming up behind me (this is now a 2-lane road with no divider at all; and I'm running against traffic). I heard the vehicle speed up as it approached, and then it came into view from behind me on my right as I approached the intersection. The vehicle then turned left as I entered the intersection. I slowed to avoid running into the back of the vehicle as it crossed my path. So basically, this driver sped up to make a turn in front of me, crossing my path so closely that I had to slow down rather than approaching the intersection at a more reasonable speed and possibly having to wait a second turn. I wasn't happy about that, and in hindsight, I wish I would have reached out and slapped the back side window of the vehicle. Not hard enough to break the window, but hard enough to get the attention of the driver so maybe she would think about how close she had been in her haste to make that turn.