March 2018 Running Challenge

fitoverfortymom · March 2018

@AlphaHowls You're a beast! (in the best way)

carolineb81 · March 2018

1/3-13.1
2/3-rest
3/3-3.2
4/3-3.5
5/3-5.5
6/3-14.0
7/3-rest
8/3-4.2
9/3-strength
10/3-6.0
11/3-3.7
12/3-3.8
13/3-16.0
14/3-rest
15/3-strength
16/3-3.9
17/3-7.5
18/3-3.3
19/3-13.9
20/3-REST
21/3-2.7
22/3-6.5

Total so far......111.2/150 Miles

Slightly twingy knee today so taking tomorrow off as an additional rest day

Upcoming races:
15th April - Brighton 10k
22nd April - London Marathon

lporter229 · March 2018

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

@AlphaHowls You're a beast! (in the best way)

Agreed!

kevaasen · March 2018

lporter229 wrote: »

@kevaasen- Interesting! Thanks for taking the time to do the calculations. It's interesting to see the comparison between our cadence and strides at a similar pace. What do you think beats you up more, running a 10K race or a long training run? For me, it would definitely be the race, even compared to a 20 mile run.
/quote]

Great question! Likely the race as well but the endurance of running a 20 mile training run is not easily dismissed as for me that would be closer to a 3 hour event and that produces a lot of time to have a different type of impact on both the body and for the mind (easier if I’m farther from car or home to finish the distance if/when my thoughts start having me wanting to stop etc).

karllundy · March 2018

3/1 - Rest / sick
3/2 - Rest / sick
3/3 - 4.25 miles. Beautiful day to run!
3/4 - 4.5 miles. Wanted to do more, but ran out of gas.
3/5 - Rest.
3/6 - 4 treadmill miles. Trek class with a new instructor. She really likes inclines.
3/7 - 4 treadmill miles.
3/7 - Kids wanted to go to Y after dinner. So I did 30 minutes of weights and abs.
3/8 - 4.1 treadmill miles. Trek class. Fewer hills, lots of tempo...fun!
3/9 - Rest / travel day.
3/10 - 3.1 treadmill miles, then quick strength. Rickety hotel treadmill.
3/11 - Rest / travel day.
3/12 - 6.2 miles. Gorgeous afternoon to run.
3/13 - Unplanned rest day.
3/14 - 4 treadmill miles, then upper body weights and abs.
3/15 - 5 treadmill miles. Trek Class. Ouch! Does anyone really need to do tempo / sprint pace on incline 8?!?
3/16 - Housework, shopping, no run.
3/17 - 3.5 treadmill miles, then weights and abs.
3/18 - 8 miles. Cool, overcast and no wind = great day to run!
3/20 - 4.3 miles.
3/21 - 4 treadmill miles, then upper body weights and abs.
3/22 - 4 treadmill miles. Trek Class. Lots of tempo...it was enjoyable.

62.95/80

abutcher2122 · March 2018

RespectTheKitty · March 2018

I have been unable to run since starting yet another new medication about a month ago. Side effects of this medication include back and leg pain, and I have been experiencing both, as well as really bad pain in both hips. I feel stiff and sore all the time.

It's easier to fight through the pain when I'm walking, so I've been doing a lot of that. I'm looking into getting a bicycle for the warmer months, assuming I'm going to be staying on this drug. I have an appointment with my doctor this weekend where I plan to discuss my issues. We'll see what happens. In the meantime, it really stinks not being able to run like I want to. Not to mention all the weight I've gained in the last month. It's super depressing, the exact opposite of what this stupid drug is supposed to be doing for me.

I'm beginning to think there's not a medication out there that will work for me. I've tried seemingly everything in the past 20 years. Yet another thing to discuss with the doctor.

In the meantime, I cry every time I see someone running. I want to, so badly, but I just can't.

zdyb23456 · March 2018

3/1 6.86miles
3/2 rest
3/3 10miles
3/4 rest
3/5 6.57miles
3/6 5miles
3/7 6miles
3/8 5miles
3/9 10miles
3/10 4miles
3/11 rest
3/12 4miles
3/13 5.2miles
3/14 5.35miles
3/15 rest
3/16 3miles
3/17 rest
3/18 13.1miles!! Shamrock race!!!
3/19 rest
3/20 5.3miles
3/21 7miles
3/22 4miles

4 miles. Skipped doing strides since I ran with my husband and my 5 year old on her bike. It was chilly so she wasn’t too happy.

Took my not quite yet 7 year old son to the doctor for his yearly check up and discovered an eraser in his ear. Yes, you read that right. An eraser. I peeked in his ears while waiting for the doctor and noticed something in his ear. I thought it was a big chunk of wax, but it didn’t quite look like wax... when the doctor came I said I think there’s something in his ear. She looked and asked him what is pink in your ear, she couldn’t figure it out. He immediately said, oh an eraser. She looked again and started laughing and said that’s exactly what it is. It was a first for her. He was very reluctant to spill the beans about what or when it happened, but it’s been in there awhile.

Kids sure keep me on my toes!

3/18/2018 Shamrock half marathon
3/24/2018 Don't Sit on Colon Cancer 5K
10/7/2018 Crawlin Crab half marathon
10/13/2018 Joggin for Frogmen 5K
11/18/2018 Norfolk Harbor half marathon

PastorVincent · March 2018

03/01/18 - Rest
03/02/18 - 8 miles @ 8:51
03/03/18 - 9 miles @ 9:29
03/04/18 - Meetings instead of running
03/05/18 - 11 miles @ 9:11
03/06/18 - 11 miles @ 8:59
03/07/18 - 10 miles @ 9:04
03/08/18 - Planned rest
03/09/18 - 7.5mph for 10 Miles @ 4% grade
03/10/18 - Meetings
03/11/18 - 20 miles @ 9:51
03/12/18 - Bah.
03/13/18 - 7.5 MPH for 7.5 miles at 4% Grade
03/14/18 - 7.5 MPH for 7.5 miles at 4% Grade
03/15/18 - 7.5 MPH for 10 miles at 4% Grade
03/16/18 - Rest
03/17/18 - Shamrock Shuffle 17.3 miles in total
03/18/18 - Rest
03/19/18 - Rest
03/20/18 - 7 MPH for 7 Miles @ 4.5% grade
03/21/18 - 7.5 MPH for 7.5 miles @ 4 % grade
03/22/18 - 7.5 MPH for 10 miles @ 4% grade

Big Hairy Audacious Goal: Sub 4 hours in Pittsburgh 2018!

Official Marathon PR: 4:11:28

Next Races (more as I find them):

04/07/18 - Achilles 9.3 Challenge (10k and 5k back to back)
05/06/18 - Pittsburgh Marathon - aiming for sub four hours.
05/12/18 - Glacier Ridge 50k Trail Ultra (I must hate myself)

2020 - Disney World Dopey! (if can raise funds)

Did not have a lot of time, so just a short run on the dreadmill and then back to the rat race!

PastorVincent · March 2018

For @Stoshew71 and anyone else that cares.

OK I think I have figured this out. The Garmin footpod is set at the factory at a specific stride length. I do not know for sure what it is, but to make this easy we will call it 1 meter. This means if you do not calibrate it for your stride it will assume you cover 1 meter with every stride. It then simply counts your strides. Once you hit 5,000 strides you have completed a 5k race.

BUT not everyone has a 1 meter stride, so it helpfully has an auto calibrate mode where it checks your GPS measured distance against your stride measured distance and comes up with an adjustment. Let's just use 1.03 as an example for that. This means that if I ran 1000 strides it would take 1000m and times it by 1.03 to get 1030 meters. Bam!

Okay, the problem is that GPS, while great, is not sub-meter accurate. But if you do a bunch of fancy algebra you can get around that. I could do the math myself and get there, but we live in the age of Google, and I found the solved formula vai Google faster than I could ever do it myself. (here)

First, you need a known distance run. In my case 7.65 miles on the Dreadmill (fancy one at the gym that they keep tuned and etc). Then you use this formula

newCalibFactor = realDistance x oldCalibFactor / distanceMeasured

To find your real calibration number. In my case that works out to:

newCalibFactor = .9603

Next, you put that number into the watch and go run again. This time I ran 10 miles on the same fancy pants dreadmill.

Watch read: 10.01 miles.
Dreadmill: 10.01 miles

Bam!

Now in order for this to work you need to TURN OFF auto calibrate. But the mystery is solved! Yay!

__TMac__ · March 2018

I’m lurking on this thread, but wanted to contribute to the discussion about the psychology of endurance. The podcast “That Triathlon Show” is put out by ScientificTriathlon.com. Episode 17 is on this topic. He interviews a scientist who’s done studies on the affect of pre-workout mental and physical fatigue on perceived exertion. Interesting stuff.

garygse · March 2018

@AlphaHowls I'm with @lporter229...what's your recovery strategy, because that amount of running is darned impressive!
@__TMac__ I'll have to seek that podcast out; sounds interesting!

This mornings's run was an interesting one. About three miles in, I saw someone walking around calling out; initially I thought it was someone from the nearby apartments out looking for a pet that had escaped, but as I got nearer, she saw me and called out for help. It turned out this young girl had been released from a medical facility some five miles away at 11pm Wednesday night, and now at a little after 4am, her phone had died, she was lost and tired, and the poor girl just wanted to get home. When she told me the street where she lived, I pulled up Google maps to find that she was only about 1.5 miles away, and it was on my route, so I walked with her to make sure she got home safely. I have to say, for someone that was so tired, she sure was a little Miss Chatterbox, lol. Once we got to her apartment complex, she gave me the biggest hug and went off, leaving me to continue on for a few more miles before making my way to the group to run the final five.

I think today that girl learned that technology's fantastic right up to the point when you no longer have it.

02 - 27.37
05 - 15.59
07 - 11.93
08 - 12.05
09 - 30.21
12 - 14.57
13 - 13.02
14 - 15.22
15 - 12.96
16 - 30.17
19 - 15.54
20 - 11.36
21 - 15.15
22 - 11.01

Total: 236.15 / 250 miles

MNLittleFinn · March 2018

March goal: Run END-SURE well, stay healthy and enter the final stages of Zumbro training
Nominal mileage goal: Let's say 140? I really don't know. Real plan is to follow training and coach's advice well.

3/1- REST
3/2- 4.3
3/3- 13.3
3/4- 14.3
3/5- REST
3/6- 7.4
3/7- 6.7
3/8- REST
3/9- 4.2
3/10- 24.8
3/11- 11.4
3/12- REST
3/13- 9.3
3/14- 6.7
3/15- REST
3/16- 4.4
3/17- 19
3/18- 13.5
3/19- REST
3/20- 4.3
3/21- 6.9
3/22- 3.6

Total: 154.1

Today's notes: Waited until after work for my run. Took it easy, played around with my phone camera and had some fun. Got 3.6 trail miles in and got some decent photos, one of which was actually good enough for my instagram. All in all, a nice relaxing run to unwind.

2018 races
3/24- END-SURE 50k
4/13- Zumbro Endurance Race 100 Mile
7/28- Minnesota Voyageur 50
9/8- Superior Trail 50 mile
10/20- Wild Duluth 50k

MobyCarp · March 2018

@PastorVincent - I'm glad you solved the footpod vs. dreadmill mystery. I don't know that I would trust either one. The footpod has all the issues you identified. There is an economic incentive for dreadmill manufacturers to make users think they ran faster and further so I would expect any dreadmill measurement error to be biased in that direction.

A piece of anecdata for you: I've worn a Garmin 620 or 630 on indoor track workouts without GPS signal. It tracks cadence from an accelerometer in the watch, no footpod; a footpod should be more accurate. It does autocalibrate from my running with GPS. I've found that it under-records the known track distance at an easy pace, but over-records the known track distance when I'm running hard. A buddy who has a 610, with footpod, sees the same thing but with less error because the footpod is inherently more accurate than the watch-mounted accelerometer.

In any case, the error from footpod or wrist mounted watch wasn't big enough to worry about on the scale of how many training miles I ran. I didn't care much about the Garmin-reported pace for those workouts, as the important thing was typically timed intervals of known track distance.

MobyCarp · March 2018

March Running Totals (miles)
3/1 – 5.57 easy
3/2 – rest day
3/3 – 16.09 paced run
3/4 – 7.22 easy with hills
3/5 – rest day
3/6 – 6.21 easy with fast finish
3/7 – 6.60 group run
3/8 – 6.24 easy with fast finish
3/9 – rest day
3/10 – 18.07 paced run
3/11 – 6.54 easy
3/12 – rest day
3/13 – 6.51 warmup and group run
3/14 – 6.01 at marathon pace
3/15 – 6.23 easy
3/16 – travel day
3/17 – 6.99 warm up, 8K race, cool down
3/18 – travel day
3/19 – 6.11 easy shading to MP
3/20 – 5.29 easy with hard stop
3/21 – 6.62 group run
3/22 – 6.51 easy

March running total to date – 122.81

Nominal challenge goal: 180 miles

Real goals: Build base. Work toward being able to run 26.2 miles by Patriots' Day.

Today's notes – Went to club practice this evening, but in light of my fall Tuesday I opted to just run some easy miles after the warmup. It was good to see guys I knew, and some new arrivals; Coach had a new guy run easy miles with me. He is naturally faster than me, and we helped each other slow it down. Had a nice conversation about injury prevention and how to train; I was taking it easy with about 4 miles after the warmup, and he was all done at 3.7 miles. Had another one of those "oops" conversations; I asked what his target was, and he said, "800." Oh, I said, a sprinter. No, he is a mid-distance runner.

I can't help myself. To me, anything less than a mile looks like a sprint, and a 10K looks like a nice mid-distance race. But the accepted terminology for track running has "mid-distance" being shorter than a mile, and I'm not sure how long "sprint" goes. I guess I need to learn the vocabulary if I'm going to talk to different types of runners.

2018 races:
February 17, 2018 Freezeroo #5 (Valentines Run "In Memory of Tom Brannon" 8 Mile) (Greece, NY) finished in 54:48
February 24, 2018 Freezeroo #6 (White House Challenge 4.4 mile) (Webster, NY) finished in 28:46
March 17, 2018 USATF Masters 8K (Shamrock 8K, Virginia Beach, VA) finished in 31:55
March 24, 2018 Spring Forward 15K (Mendon, NY)
April 16, 2018 Boston Marathon (Hopkinton, MA)

AlphaHowls · March 2018

@lporter229 wrote: »

@AlphaHowls - Wow, you run a crap ton of miles with little rest. Do you have an injury prevention routine? Do you mind sharing? Thanks!

Not really anything too grand. I am not fast, I am just enjoying myself, there really is no race in me. I am not into being any faster. The only improvement I desire is to go farther. I have been injured, but not by running. It is just age and life. I do not look into my times so much, only how much further can I go. My job is sedentary and my escape is to run so I can process the junk in my head. My cross training so to speak is yard work on my off days...lots of yard work. Before I run, I stretch. I am trying to work through my hip flexor being too tight, but so far it has not stopped me. Chiropractor wishes I would not run so much, I just tell him to fix it when I am down.

TLDR: do not run fast, you could fall and get hurt...

sarahthes · March 2018

3/1 - 7.4km
3/2 - rest
3/3 - sick / snow day
3/4 - 10.0km
3/5 - rest
3/6 - 8.0km
3/7 - rest
3/8 - 8.0km
3/9 - rest
3/10 - 14.0km
3/11 - rest
3/12 - rest
3/13 - 8.0km
3/14 - walk
3/15 - 8.1km, first km with Spiderman
3/16 - rest
3/17 - rest/sick
3/18 - 10.0km
3/19 - rest
3/20 - 8.1km
3/21 - walk
3/22 - 8.2km

89.8/115km

Tonight's run felt pretty awful. Slow, sluggish, couldn't catch my breath. I had a bad day at work (there were layoffs and a friend was let go, plus the anxiety of not knowing when they were done). I didn't fuel well during the day and didn't sleep well last night. I did a lot of walking.

Got home and realized I'd been flat out sprinting for 8 km and the walking was when I got out of breath. Strava says I was periodically running at under 5 min/km. To put it in perspective my normal pace is around 7:35/km.

Guess I had some stress to burn off. I feel better now.

Upcoming Races:
1/1/18 Resolution Run 5K ~38:00 (no official times)
3/4/18 MEC Road Race #1 10K 1:30:57
3/17/28 St Patrick's Day race 10K 1:24:53
4/7/18 Jasper Half Marathon
4/22/18 MEC Trail Race #1 5K
5/20/18 MEC Trail Race #2 10K
6/24/18 MEC Trail Race #3 15K
8/18/18 Edmonton Marathon 10K
9/2/18 MEC Trail Race #4 10K
10/7/18 MEC Trail Race #5 15K

JulieS3103 · March 2018

March 1 - 3 mile Treadmill run
March 2 - Strength workout
March 4 - 8 mile run
March 6 - 3.5 mile Treadmill run
March 8 - 4 mile Treadmill run
March 10 - 6 mile run
March 14 - 3.14 mile Pi run
March 15 - 2 mile Treadmill run
March 17 - USO 10 miler Ft Campbell
March 20 - 3 mile Treadmill run
March 21 - Strength workout
March 22 - 4 mile run

46.64 miles so far/Goal 55 miles

Upcoming Races:
4/28/18 Brown Deer 10k
6/10/18 Manitowoc Half Marathon
8/18/18 Madison Mini Half Marathon
9/16/18 North Face Endurance 10k

lporter229 · March 2018

@alphahowls- Kudos to you. I love that philosophy. Please don't ever lose sight of it. As you may have noticed if you have read my recent posts, I am currently struggling with the dilemma of forgetting about speed in order to embrace the joy of running.

My story is kind of ironic actually because what you wrote above used to be me. For years and years I ran just to run and because I enjoyed it. I did not care about speed and I rarely ever ran in organized races. Somewhere along the way I ran a few races and then a friend of mine convinced me to run a marathon with her. After all of that training, I naturally got faster and the next time I ran a race I realized that, by virtue of getting older and being a long time runner, I was actually competitive in my age group.

Well, let me tell you, that adrenaline rush of giving it all you've got and finishing at the top of the pack is kind of addictive. So much so that I find it hard to not run all out in races, even if that is not what I had planned. But the truth is, I know that this is not what is best for me and that it actually hurts me as a runner. My goal is to be able to run, not win races or anything, just run, as long as I am able to walk. In order to do this, I know that I need to adapt that philosophy that I once had, your philosophy. I just need to run for the joy of running.

I am looking forward to doing more trail running because I know that trail running embodies everything I love about running, the serenity and peace it brings, along with the sense of community rather than competition. I really wish that running trails was as convenient as running on the roads, because that is what is holding me back. My commitment to myself this summer is not to let that hold me back. I just need to make it happen then same way I make a run happen when it doesn't fit neatly into my schedule.

Sorry for the rambles here. If you haven't noticed, I have been going through a bit of soul searching lately...

T1DCarnivoreRunner · March 2018

6 miles dreadmill. Normally don't like the dreadmill, especially on nice days like today, but trying to target a specific pace for a specific distance and I don't do so well with targeting a specific pace outside on my own.

March 2018 Running Challenge

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