May 2017 Running Challenge

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Replies

  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
    edited May 2017
    Although I'm a little confused how you can heel strike with an underbody foot fall.

    Ask Meb.

    http://runforefoot.com/meb-keflezighi-wins-boston-marathon-ditching-heel-strike-helped/
    https://runnersconnect.net/heelstriking-running-cadence/


    Actually the picture in the second link shows a really bad over stride combined with a heel strike. Yikes, how did he win the Boston Marathon running like that? LOL
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
    I am eagerly awaiting the publishing of the book @Stoshew71 is going to write someday on running. :smile: Maybe us MFPeeps can get a signed copy? I've learned a lot from that blog. Not to mention this forum!

    I agree. oh, and I'm going to need to get some pictures of myself running, to see what my stride actually looks like, as I have no clue. My run cadence is pretty high (185 average according to my Forerunner, including walking during strides) so I'm curious to what my form looks like now.
  • BeeerRunner
    BeeerRunner Posts: 728 Member
    May Running Challenge

    5/1: 8.69 miles biking, Strength training
    5/2: 4.1 mile run
    5/3: 5.2 mile run
    5/4: Strength, 6.4 mile trail run
    5/5: Tex Mex and a rest day
    5/6: 6.2 mile super late night run
    5/7: 12 mile super hot run
    5/8: 10.24 miles on the bike
    5/9: 4 mile run
    5/10: 6.3 mile run, 6.87 miles cycling
    5/11: 4 mile run, 6.98 miles cycling
    5/12: 2.2 mile dog walk
    5/13: 14 mile run
    5/14: 6 mile run, 6.94 mile bike ride
    5/15: 10.33 mile bike ride, strength, 2.2 mile dog walk
    5/16: 4 mile run

    Goals:
    Running: 72.2 / 100
    Cycling: 50.05 / 60

    Upcoming Races:

    Chicago Spring Half Marathon: May 21 (Registered)
    Run the Rails 5K June 3 (Tentative)
    XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run (HM at night) Jul 8 (Tentative)
    La Sportiva Vail Half Marathon: Jul 22 (Tentative)
    Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon: Oct 1 (Tentative)
    POOP Trail Run (HM) Dec 2

    Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day weekend. I've enjoyed reading about your races.

    My runs and cycling have been going well lately. Still not doing speed work yet since my calf is still tight, and Im getting more comfortable on the new bike. I'm getting better at scratching itches although it's still very scary to me.

    New shoes arrived today!! Yay!!! The new Altra Escalantes have been getting awesome reviews, so I had to buy them. So far, they worked really well in the house. I don't think I can wait until tomorrow morning to try them so Spotty McSpotterson gets to go on a short run with me tonight. ;) I also am trying injinji socks since I'm still getting blisters on my toes.
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
    A slow 8km - recovery run. Was feeling my legs more than I expected after my 10km Race on Sunday.
    Definitely tells me that I put out max effort or close to it.
    Had a hard time to get down to sub 6:00min/km tonight - no juice left in the legs.

    exercise.png

    05/01 0 km – 160 km - 0 km – YTD 420.15
    05/01 11.5 km – 148.5 km - 11.5km
    05/02 5.5 km – 143.0 km - 17.0km
    05/03 10.0 km – 133.0 km - 27.0km
    05/04 7.5 km – 125.5 km - 34.50km
    05/07 7.0 km – 118.5 km - 41.50km
    05/08 11.5 km – 107.0 km - 53.0km
    05/09 6.0 km – 101.0 km - 59.0km
    05/08 7.7 km – 93.3 km - 66.7km
    05/14 9.9 km – 83.4 km - 76.6km
    05/14 8.0 km – 75.4 km - 84.6km – YTD 504.75 Riverbank Recovery Run
  • KeepRunningFatboy
    KeepRunningFatboy Posts: 3,055 Member
    WK 5.15.17 - 5.21.17

    M - Rest
    T - 10 @ 9:50
    W -
    T -
    F -
    S -
    S - * Cleveland Marathon 4:55 Pacer
    Total - ## Miles
  • juliet3455
    juliet3455 Posts: 3,015 Member
    edited May 2017
    JessicaMcB wrote: »
    Gearing up for RDM had taught me that taper is not for my temperament- pray for my husband, haha! Not 100% if I will be able to check in again until after the marathon as we are tenting out that way for the long weekend with the kids.
    @JessicaMcB Hope the weather holds for you. Considering that May Long weekend is the traditional Heavy Spring Snowfall Weekend when it comes to weather. Just seen the weather Report 10-20 cm of snow along the foothills, should miss you in RD by a whisker. Either way have fun at RD with your Family.
    I have 2 FamDamly events about 200km apart so Travel-Travel for me.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,169 Member
    May goal: 50 miles

    5/1/17: 4 miles
    5/3/17: 3.5 miles
    5/4/17: 3.1miles
    5/6/17: 3.1 miles
    5/7/17: 3.5 miles
    5/9/17: 4.1 miles
    5/10/17: 3.5 miles
    5/12/17: 2.5 miles
    5/14/17: 3.5 miles
    5/16/17: 3.8 miles

    34.6/50 miles

    I had a good run tonight. I did sign up for a 5k on Saturday. I'm a little worried because there are thunderstorms in the forecast, I'm just hoping the weather will be ok. I'm planning to run unless they cancel it, but I have never really run in real rain. I've had a little bit of light rain, but we tend to either have drought or thunderstorms with hail etc so I don't have a lot of experience with rain. I did run without music today. It was different, but not unbearable. If this race, or any future races, don't allow music I think I will be ok. I'm looking forward to Saturday's race. It will be at Possum Kingdom lake which is a really nice lake that isn't too far from home. I will have to get up pretty early though for a Saturday but surprisingly I don't mind.


    exercise.png

  • hanlonsk
    hanlonsk Posts: 762 Member
    edited May 2017
    5/16 - 8 miles in 3 separate runs

    42.9/100

    traveling for work, but a coworker is running the same half as me and usual run buddy. So, ran to meeting point, ran with her, and ran home. May or may not have have detoured route home to go past the wine store- but it made run home longer- balance, right?

    I am game for joining facebook group whoever was heading that up. Might make me more likely to post pics, I understand that bit better at this point.

    @MNLittleFinn - my usual running buddy is a nurse for the OR at the hospital. At least once a month we have to plan our long runs (and frequently our weekday runs)to a loop that allows her to not only get back to her car, but to the hospital in 30 minutes or less, as she is on call. So, we do loops, a lot. Our original loop was .9 miles around the lake at a park- I kept telling her I felt like a race car. Someone luckily taught us a new option about the time we passed 8 miles that is a 2.5 mile figure 8. So, to answer your original question - BOTH!! But in terms of logistics, we are not always good pedestrians, often break the with vs against traffic rules, and will cross the street away from the light if we happen to observe a break in traffic. But we also live in Wyoming - a city in Wyoming, but it's not like we are jaywalking on horribly busy roads.

    Edited because I can't type and needed to fix at least some of it.
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
    2---3.11
    4---5.16
    6---6.62
    7---2.4 walk
    9---4.64

    10th-15th in Georgia- lots of walking and ghost tours.

    14---5.23 beach run
    16---4.22

    31.38/60+

    UPCOMING RACES

    July 8- XTERRA Jurassic Trail Run, 5K.  Glen Rose,TX
    Dec 2- POOP trail run, Hoping for a half! Norman OK.
  • HonuNui
    HonuNui Posts: 1,464 Member
    May goal: wear sunblock

    5/1: sat on my okole. All. Day. Long.
    5/2: 3.13
    5/3: 6.06
    5/4: 4.08
    5/5 rest
    5/6: 4.15
    5/7 3.56
    5/8 snorkel 3.5 hours
    5/9 4.58
    5/10 3.38
    5/11 rest
    5/12 3.25
    5/13 life
    5/14 6.40
    5/15 4.13
    5/16 3.30


    Total: 46.02


    Ticker is my goal for 2017 and progress to date:
    exercise.png

    upcoming races:
    Volcano Rainforest Runs 10k 8/19
    BlockThe Sun Run 5k Oct 14 (https://walk.aimatmelanoma.org/Hilo2017) (physical and virtual options available)
  • PinkamenaD8
    PinkamenaD8 Posts: 99 Member
    @MobyCarp @WhatMeRunning @ctlaws44 @Stoshew71 your post were very insightful any novice runner like me can learn a lot from you thanks!

    @NikolaosKey also, thanks, I only knew about recovery runs

    I ran at 8.5 mph in the less deteriorated threadmill my gym has. I was happy keeping the pace but the machine couldn't reach the goal speed after 15mins and was slowly reducing some digits until I ended running at 7.5, it was annoying. When the payment expires I want to buy an activity tracker and run outdoors instead.

    Also I felt a lot happier after running, like felling the endorphins flowing throught my body, does that has happened to some of you? is it a runner high?
  • Orphia
    Orphia Posts: 7,097 Member
    Oh! I forgot to mention... I'm going to be starting up bowling again. I was a pretty serious bowler for a long time, but I took last year off for various reasons (I just needed a break, basically). Well now it's time to get back to it. I'm starting a summer league tonight. Bowling is actually pretty good exercise for me. It has a lot of strength elements to it (albeit only on one side of the body).

    The only trouble is, I will be out late tonight, and therefore getting to bed late, which means getting up at 5:30 might be extremely difficult tomorrow. Therefore, I have decided to designate Wednesdays as a cross training day, so I can wake up a little later and do yoga or strength training before work. And of course all the walking I do during the work day.

    If I use the Hal Higdon HM plan, I will have to adjust the schedule to account for various life aspects such as the aforementioned bowling. The program has the LR on Sunday, but I would much prefer to do it on Saturday and take Sunday as a rest day. I don't know, maybe Hal Higdon isn't the right program for me. I may have to research other plans.

    @RespectTheKitty Yay on the bowling!

    You can so do a HM!

    Free plug for @Stoshew71 's blog!

    http://therunningstan.blogspot.com.au/2016/02/my-gripes-on-training-plans.html


    For my first HM, I read Stan's blog and loosely based my training on a Hal Higdon plan, plus a Strava Premium training plan, and on how I'd been doing at the time.

    Even training plans written specifically for an individual still need tweaking as time passes. Am I right, @MNLittleFinn ?
  • amc2509
    amc2509 Posts: 219 Member
    Really hoping on building on this total this week!!


    3/5/17 4.7K
    6/5/17 5K
    9/5/17 2.7K
    10/5/17 5.1K
    13/5/17 5K
    15/5/17 3K
    16/5/17 4K (TOTAL for May 29.5K)

    exercise.png






  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
    edited May 2017
    @Bakins929 Your new shoes look great! The well-known "red is faster" was also why I bought a red bicycle last year :wink:

    @BeeerRunner Also yay for your new shoes! I tried toe socks in hiking boots, since that's when I get blisters, but they didn't help me. I hope you have more success.

    @RespectTheKitty Bowling is fun, but I always fail horribly at making the ball go where I want it to go :tongue:
    Hal Higdon also has the "HM3" plan which includes two crosstraining days, three running days and has the long run on Saturday. Maybe that fits what you are looking for?

    @MNLittleFinn I never thought about clockwise or counter-clockwise for loops. On long runs I usually (i.e. almost always, unless I feel particularly crazy that day ^^) plan the run so that the majority of the uphills is in the first half. That usually means running north first; and then it depends on whether I want to go west or east if that ends up being clockwise or not. And on short runs it doesn't matter where the hills are anyway, so I sometimes go in one direction and sometimes in the other, to have a bit more variety.

    @MobyCarp Thanks for sharing all the photos, it's always great to see where other people run!

    @Orphia LOL on the "I like it" :mrgreen:
    I just switched to a new phone last week, and the last two runs I had a man's voice saying random numbers or things like "fantastic" between music clips, so weird! I just figured out after coming home yesterday after my run that it imported all sound files it found on my old phone as "music" on the new phone, including the sound files from the "Wings for Life Worldrun" app that I used for their virtual race two weeks ago.

    ---

    I didn't run a lot in the last week and a half, even less than in the Hal Higdon marathon recovery plan, because I want to make sure my knee has a chance to recover. Only 20km in 10 days! I did sneak in a few bike rides of ~25km each on four of those days, so at least I got a bit fresh air and exercise anyway. And I'm dreading the day the DVDs I ordered get here and I have to start doing some kind of strength training again...

  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
    @Orphia that's right. Even custom plans may need tweaking. I was told to try to follow the plan 80%+ of the time, but that still allows for some changes. He told me no plan is a silver bullet, but a tool to guide training.
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
    5/1- 8.1
    5/2- 4.6
    5/3-9
    5/4- REST
    5/5- 5.7
    5/6-20.1
    5/7- 5
    5/8- 8.2
    5/9- 4.7
    5/10- 10
    5/11- REST
    5/12- 5.7
    5/13- 20
    5/14- 5
    5/15- 8.2
    5/16- 4.6
    5/17- 10.1

    Total: 129.0

    May Goal: Get through most of the last 5 weeks before taper healthy
    Nominal mileage goal: 220 Miles.

    Today's notes: Today's assignment was to run 10 miles, with miles 3-7 at Tempo pace.

    Miles 1-2: Ran these part by feel, part by pace. Result was a 9:11 mile 1 and a 9:01 mile 2 with an average HR around 154

    Miles 3-7 got interesting. For some reason, my pace alert on my Garmin (to keep me in nominal T range) was not alerting, and boy did it show. Splits were 8:16, 8:14, 8:14, 8:08, 8:08, when normal Tempo range is 8:20-8:35. That said, my average HR over the tempo miles was 167.6, so decently in the HR range I want for a tempo run, with a max HR of 176.

    Miles 8-10 brought me back to more normal E pace, with splits of 9:30, 9:20, 9:21, and HR 164, 156, 158, so a little high, but not bad.

    This was a great run and, according to Strava, I broke the 52 minute mark for 10k... by one second.... still, I feel pretty good after the run, not as tired as I would have thought.

    Have a Runderful day all!

    2017 Races
    6/16- William A Irvin 5k
    6/17- Grandma's Marathon (Full!)
    8/19- Rampage at the Ridge 5k OCR
    9/23- Ely Marathon (full)
    10/21 Wild Duluth 50k
    11/23- TBD 5k Turkey Trot
  • karllundy
    karllundy Posts: 1,490 Member
    5/1 - 5.1 miles. Fizzled a bit at the end of April, but good start to May.
    5/2 - 4.1 miles of track/speed work. Then quick upper body weights.
    5/3 - 5 miles. Nice, comfortable run.
    5/4 - Rest day.
    5/5 - 5 miles. Beautiful morning!
    5/6 - 10 miles with a ridiculous amount of incline/decline. My *kitten* hurts!
    5/7 - Rest day. See yesterday.
    5/8 - 4.8 miles. Perfect weather at 4:30 a.m.
    5/9 - 5 miles of track / speed work. Then upper body weights / abs.
    5/10 - 3.5 miles. Overslept, so had to cut it short.
    5/11 - 2.8 miles. Girls on the Run practice 5k with my daughter.
    5/12 - Pre-race rest day.
    5/13 - Market to Market Relay! So much fun! ~75 miles over 17 "legs" with a team of 6 other running friends. 5.3 miles (Leg 3), 5.1 miles (Leg 10) and 4.0 miles (Leg 17 + team finish). Total of 14.4 miles. Most I have ever run in one day. After the 5th leg, it was HOT! 80° F and sunny.
    5/14 - Rest day.
    5/15 - 4.8 miles.
    5/16 - Unplanned rest day. A/C died and sleeping in 85-90° house did not go well for kids and dog.
    5/17 - 4.0 'mill miles and upper body weights.

    exercise.png
  • MNLittleFinn
    MNLittleFinn Posts: 4,271 Member
    @karllundy great running this month. Looks like you're well on your way to meeting/exceeding your goal!
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    All this talk about stride length and injury has me thinking. I know it's common sense that speed work should is the first thing to cut out when you are injured. Is this because of stride length? I guess what I am getting at is this: I am convinced that, in addition to inadequate rest this winter, my current hamstring injury situation is most likely the result of a 10K race that I ran in 16F temps in early February. It was cold and I did not have an adequate warm up prior to the race. My normal stats for easy pace are 8:45-8:55, 0.93m stride length and 195 spm cadence. My stats for this race were 7:15 pace, 1.06m stride length and 205 spm cadence. That is about a 14% increase in stride length. But I do not know if this is normal or not. Obviously, both cadence and stride length are going to increase with speed, but by how much?

    So my question is, when you run faster, do you see a higher increase in cadence or stride length? What are your statistics for pace, cadence and stride length for easy runs vs, say, 10K? Just curious, as I am wondering if this is something I might need to work on in the future.
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    @ddmom0811 - That's just awesome. It must be great to know that you have made such an impact on so many young lives!
  • skippygirlsmom
    skippygirlsmom Posts: 4,433 Member
    @ddmom0811 that's so awesome. Skip will buy Hersey kisses for her favorite teachers and give them a thank you card and a kiss good bye at the end of the year.

    @mobycarp I laughed out loud when I got the track picture. Awesome pictures of where you run.

    Took an unscheduled rest day today, I had a huge headache that kept me up half the night and it still hurt at 5:00 when I got up. I got dressed started up the street and got really sick to my stomach. Decided to go home and get Macy and take her for a walk instead.
  • MobyCarp
    MobyCarp Posts: 2,927 Member
    lporter229 wrote: »
    All this talk about stride length and injury has me thinking. I know it's common sense that speed work should is the first thing to cut out when you are injured. Is this because of stride length? I guess what I am getting at is this: I am convinced that, in addition to inadequate rest this winter, my current hamstring injury situation is most likely the result of a 10K race that I ran in 16F temps in early February. It was cold and I did not have an adequate warm up prior to the race. My normal stats for easy pace are 8:45-8:55, 0.93m stride length and 195 spm cadence. My stats for this race were 7:15 pace, 1.06m stride length and 205 spm cadence. That is about a 14% increase in stride length. But I do not know if this is normal or not. Obviously, both cadence and stride length are going to increase with speed, but by how much?

    So my question is, when you run faster, do you see a higher increase in cadence or stride length? What are your statistics for pace, cadence and stride length for easy runs vs, say, 10K? Just curious, as I am wondering if this is something I might need to work on in the future.

    @lporter229 - When I run faster, I do indeed have both a higher cadence and a longer stride length. But I don't think the increased stride length is particularly relevant for injuries. Most of it will be because when I run faster, there will be more airborne distance in the stride than when I run slower. The cadence might make some difference, as I'm hitting the ground more frequently.

    But the biggest thing about running faster and injury is simple physics. Force is proportional to velocity squared, and when I run faster I'm hitting the ground harder. If we take the force I hit with at an 8:00 pace to be standard, at a 6:00 pace I will hit the ground with 178% of the standard force. (8:00 = 7.5 mph, 6:00 = 10 mph, (10/7.5)^2 = 1.7777777)

    Between hitting the ground with increased force, and having something in the running chain weak from injury, there's a good chance of both aggravating an existing injury and injuring something else because I compensate for the injury to use other muscles differently and harder than I normally do.

    Another consideration is that at a faster pace, I may have less control of my form; but I think the less control thing is bigger from injury than from pace. My first trip into physical therapy, the sound track was that I probably hurt my feet because I had weak hip abductors and couldn't properly control my foot strike. Fixed the weak hip abductors, and that particular type of foot problem didn't come back.

    The stats? You made me look. Recent 15 mile paced run, 8:02 average pace, 179 average cadence, 1.12 m average stride length. Recent 7 mile solo easy run, 7:49 average pace, 180 average cadence, 1.15 m average stride length. PR 10K, 6:25 average pace, 186 average cadence, 1.36 m average stride length. PR 8K, 6:13 average pace, 191 average cadence, 1.36 m average stride length. I would have thought the cadence would vary more than that, but the stride length is about what I expected before I looked. (do the math) 18%-21% longer stride in a race than on an easy run, in line with your results or a little higher.
  • shanaber
    shanaber Posts: 6,423 Member
    6 pages behind again! Today is a rest day so instead of running I will go back and get caught up here in between my meetings at work :)
    Date........Miles.......Total
    05/01......0.00........0.00 - Agility trial
    05/02......0.00........0.00 - Rally/Obedience trial
    05/03......4.78........4.78 - Del Mar run
    05/04......4.14........8.92
    05/05......0.00........8.92 - Spin class
    05/06......0.00........8.92 - Spin class followed by Barre class
    05/07......0.00........8.92 - Much needed rest!
    05/08......5.68......14.60 - + Agility Class
    05/09......6.22......20.82 - + Strength Training
    05/10......0.00......20.82
    05/11......0.00......20.82 - + Strength Training
    05/12......5.63......26.45
    05/13......8.64......35.09
    05/14......2.00......37.09 - Dog Beach Mother's Day
    05/15......5.28......42.37
    05/16......5.28......47.65 - + Strength Training
    05/17......0.00......47.65

    exercise.png

    My completed and upcoming Races - Let me know if you will be running too!
    02/05/17 - Surf City Half Marathon
    07/23/17 - San Francisco 1st Half Marathon
    12/16/17 - San Diego Holiday Half Marathon
  • lporter229
    lporter229 Posts: 4,907 Member
    MobyCarp wrote: »

    But the biggest thing about running faster and injury is simple physics. Force is proportional to velocity squared, and when I run faster I'm hitting the ground harder. If we take the force I hit with at an 8:00 pace to be standard, at a 6:00 pace I will hit the ground with 178% of the standard force. (8:00 = 7.5 mph, 6:00 = 10 mph, (10/7.5)^2 = 1.7777777)

    Very interesting point. The difference is huge!
    MobyCarp wrote: »

    Another consideration is that at a faster pace, I may have less control of my form; but I think the less control thing is bigger from injury than from pace. My first trip into physical therapy, the sound track was that I probably hurt my feet because I had weak hip abductors and couldn't properly control my foot strike. Fixed the weak hip abductors, and that particular type of foot problem didn't come back.

    I am also wondering if there are additional things (not related to my hamstrings) that I can do to loosen up my hamstrings. Both my PT and his associate said that my hamstrings were among the tightest they have ever seen (yay me!). I am constantly doing the stretches and strengthening exercises he has given me, but my range of motion just doesn't seem to be budging very much.
  • Azercord
    Azercord Posts: 573 Member
    So looking at cadence and all these articles I need to pick mine up. From the looks of my runs I do a 158-160 spm and that should be faster from what I'm reading. The articles suggest using a metronome to work you pace and that should work well since I don't usually listen to music and can cue it up. Does anyone else have any other suggestions for picking up spm? I don't ever race so it's not a huge worry but I do like stay uninjured so it might be a good thing to look into.
  • _nikkiwolf_
    _nikkiwolf_ Posts: 1,380 Member
    edited May 2017
    Azercord wrote: »
    So looking at cadence and all these articles I need to pick mine up. From the looks of my runs I do a 158-160 spm and that should be faster from what I'm reading. The articles suggest using a metronome to work you pace and that should work well since I don't usually listen to music and can cue it up. Does anyone else have any other suggestions for picking up spm? I don't ever race so it's not a huge worry but I do like stay uninjured so it might be a good thing to look into.
    @Azercord
    I think the "magic 180" spm came from an observation on elite runners in races. At least for me, my cadence changes with speed - it might be 160 in a slow easy run but will go to 180+ in a 5k race.
    Here are some articles on running cadence I found interesting:
    Running Speed: Human Variability ... and Stride rate and what it means.
    My personal conclusion was to watch my running form (don't overstride), but don't obsess about the cadence reported by my watch. YMMV, of course.
This discussion has been closed.