October 2017 Running Challenge

Final October tally

October goal of 120 with a stretch of 150

Week 1: 39.2
Week 2: 43
Week 3: 36.6
Week 4: 20.8
10/31 : 7.2 (Final total 146.8)

Was a good month of running overall hitting close to my stretch goal while also completing 3 medium length races of 10K, 12K and 15K. Happy Halloween to everyone!

10/31 - took a rest day today

Ended with 111 of 100 miles

@WandaVaughn glad your friend is on the mend.
@JessicaMcB the girls are adorable!

When I set my Oct goal I didn't really look ahead to my training schedule, so I used the same as Sept since I hadn't quite made my goal that month... well, I made it this month!

October goal: 95 miles

10/01 - 5.0 miles, 7:57 m/m, 163 AHR (8K race)
10/03 - 5.2 miles, 9:20 m/m, 145 AHR (3x1 Intervals)
10/04 - 3.5 miles, 9:16 m/m, 143 AHR
10/05 - 5.1 miles, 8:48 m/m, 148 AHR
10/07 - 3.1 miles, 7:29 m/m, 167 AHR (5K race)
10/08 - 9.0 miles, 9:36 m/m, 140 AHR
10/10 - 3.7 miles, 9:26 m/m, 141 AHR (6x.5 Intervals)
10/11 - 5.0 miles, 9:07 m/m, 138 AHR
10/12 - 6.0 miles, 9:30 m/m, 139 AHR
10/14 - 5.1 miles, 9:08 m/m, 146 AHR (1mi WU/CD+5K Virtual)
10/15 - 10. miles, 9:10 m/m, 144 AHR
10/17 - 3.7 miles, 9:08 m/m, 140 AHR (6x.5 Intervals)
10/18 - 4.0 miles, 8:38 m/m, 148 AHR
10/19 - 7.1 miles, 9:10 m/m, 143 AHR
10/21 - 3.0 miles, 8:58 m/m, 140 AHR
10/22 - 6.1 miles, 9:13 m/m, 139 AHR
10/24 - 4.7 miles, 8:57 m/m, 142 AHR (4x1 Intervals)
10/25 - 6.0 miles, 8:36 m/m, 149 AHR
10/26 - 7.0 miles, 8:34 m/m, 152 AHR
10/28 - 6.0 miles, 9:15 m/m, 141 AHR
10/29 - 12. miles, 9:13 m/m, 146 AHR
10/31 - 6.0 miles, 9:15 m/m, 143 AHR

Total: 126.3/95


2017 Races
02/25/17 - 26:06 - 5K Mardi Gras (not official course)
04/01 - 53:23 - 10K Jadon's Hope Bug Run (1st)
04/22 - 1:58:24 HM Garmin Oz Run (1st and PR)
06/18 - 54:04 - 10K Father's Day Run (gun time)
08/05 - 24:02 - 5K Spencer Duncan
09/16 - 52:01 - 10K Kade Meyer Celebration Run (PR)
10/01 - 40:24 - 8K WWI Museum Double run (5K-25:53/3K-15:01)
10/07 - 23:37 - 5K Jared Coons Pumpkin Run (PR)
10/14 - 28:00 - 5K AIM Melanoma Virtual
11/19 - HM Pilgrim Pacer
11/23 - 8K STL Turkey Trot[/quote]

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

PastorVincent wrote: »

No run today, so finishing October at 209.8 miles.

For Halloween, we set up tables and give out coffee and hot cocoa to all the parents as they herd their little monsters around the neighborhood. Started it a couple years ago and it has become a very popular stop along the candy gathering routes.

So that is what I will be doing instead of running. Catch y'all in November.

@PastorVincent great idea, give out beer and I'll stop by.

We do not have beer, but we do have dog treats too.

So my goal for the month is 45 miles. I have a lot going on this month, including visiting my mom and my brother this month, and going to a few concerts.

10/2...4. miles
10/10..6 miles
10/13..6 miles
10/18..6 miles
10/21..6 miles
10/22..5 miles
10/26...8 miles...not sure if it is a personal best but ran it 11 minutes faster than the last time I ran 8 miles. Some intermittent sprints. The temperature was perfect, in the high 60's...mild head wind in the beginning.

10/30....5 miles.

My goal was to try to run it under an hour. The weather was cold, approximately 38 degrees. I wore my mittens for the first time under mile 3 when I got too hot. It started to rain at 2.5 miles. (I hate running in the rain because my feet get wet.)I am trying to overcome running in adverse weather. Also had fasted 13 hours for blood work and was really hungry during myself run. I finished in 1:00:44....pretty proud even though missed goal slightly. I still reached goal for the month.



Total..48 miles
Goal...45 miles




























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@rusgolden I'm pretty sure Garmin elevation is cumulative evelation gain.

For example: Gain 10 ft., drop 20 ft., then gain 30 ft. - Elevation is 40 ft. gain. If you started at 0 ft. elevation, you ended at 20 ft. So you might think it is a 20 ft. gain; but Garmin would calculate as 40 ft.

Unless I'm misunderstanding... does anyone else know?

skippygirlsmom wrote: »

PastorVincent wrote: »

No run today, so finishing October at 209.8 miles.

For Halloween, we set up tables and give out coffee and hot cocoa to all the parents as they herd their little monsters around the neighborhood. Started it a couple years ago and it has become a very popular stop along the candy gathering routes.

So that is what I will be doing instead of running. Catch y'all in November.

@PastorVincent great idea, give out beer and I'll stop by.

Haha! @skippygirlsmom Beer-O-Treat! Tequila-O-Treat? Omg, Halloween pub crawl! Let's go!!!

rusgolden wrote: »

Quick question on elevation... for my Half that I am doing next month, I am doing a course that my son did a few years ago and he has warned me about the hills although he didn't really do any sort of hill training beforehand, and I haven't had a chance to scout the trail out yet. So, here is the elevation map for the course (it is an out and back)... and while the map looks like it has some steep hills, when I calculated the grade on the last hill, I'm only coming up with a 2.5% grade (approx 200 ft elevation rise over about 1.5 miles). Am I calculating that correctly?

Yes, assuming 200 feet over 1.5 miles is 2.5% grade. But that is an AVERAGE over 1.5 miles. There could be places where it is 10% or .5%. The problem with that graph is that it is compressing 13 miles into a few inches of screen space. So it is hard to tell how bad the hills really are.

@rusgolden I think @MobyCarp covered it very well.

When I'm looking at the "hillyness" of a route or a race I take the overall elevation gain in feet divided by the distance in miles (let's call this EGF for Elevation Gain Factor). When I look for trails to train on, I like 100' of gain per mile so if a 7 mile has 700' of elevation gain, I'm happy. It's not unusual for me to do hill repeats when I find good hills to get to that factor, or make that factor bigger.

That's not the whole story, of course. A long gradual incline of 700' is a completely different animal than a 700' climb in the first mile, and flat the rest of the course. You have to look at the elevation chart to get a sense of where the elevation comes from.

The total distance is a factor too. A given EGF is more tolerable over shorter distances, just as a given pace is easier to maintain over shorter distances.

In my head I've come up with the following (in terms of overall elevation gain per total distance)

300 < EGF - Very challenging hills! (if I lived somewhere like Colorado, or if I were @JessicaMcB this would be much higher)
200 < EGF < 300 - Hell of a workout. If the distance is long enough, my quads will be sore! I need more of this.
100 < EGF < 200 - Excellent gain for a solid workout, or enough gain for a challenging race.
50 < EGF < 100 - Enough gain for a solid workout, but nothing super tough.
25 < EGF < 50 - Enough gain that I may notice a hill here or there, but nothing I need to think about.
0 < EGF < 25 - Am I in North Dakota!?!?!

Looking at your chart, the course has an overall EGF of 75 (980/13 miles). This course happens to be fairly easy to breakdown:

The first 1.5 miles has some good downhill, maybe an -150 EGF?. That's actually harder on your quads than uphill in the long run because it's an eccentric contraction. It's harder on your joints because you have farther to "fall" so there's a greater impact. Take shorter, quicker strides to combat the increased impact, and let your body flow down the hill.

From 1.5 to the turn around I'd guess an EGF of 35. Nearly all runnable.

The reverse of this section is the opposite so mostly downhill. It will be easy running, but by the time you get to the lowest elevation, you may feel it in your quads & knees. Use the downhill slope to your advantage, but again, a short, quick stride will help you avoid soreness in the last couple of miles.

Back to the big hill for the last 1.5 miles at 150 EGF. Try to maintain constant effort, not constant pace. I do this mostly by using a shorter stride. If you have a goal time in mind, you'll want to get ahead of the game before this section because that hill will slow you down!

Another thing you'll really want to do on this section (and on any uphill) is to engage your glutes as much as possible. These are the biggest muscles in your body and to be an efficient runner you have to get as much as possible out of them. On your training runs, run up hill and focus on using your glutes to propel you up. On every run I try to remember to spend time consciously firing those glutes so it becomes second nature, particularly when I'm tired.