January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

Kimtrooper · January 2019

@dewit it’s definitely not movie magic lol. I live in a rural area and roos are everywhere. I start singing (badly) so they know I’m coming and aren’t a threat to their little joeys and the big ones know I’m not looking for a fight!
@Avidkeo is correct. I’m typing from the future wooooooooooo!! 😀
I hope I’ve tagged you peeps correctly, bit of a tech Luddite here!

garygse · January 2019

PastorVincent wrote: »

If you want to ACCURATELY know your heart zones, you will need a lab and like $100 or $200 dollars, something like that. There are sports medicine places that will give you a full workup, including VOMax and so on. I am skeptical at the use case, but if I wanted to know accurately I would do that.

Use case: A VO2 Max test can give you a much more accurate view of how many calories you can expect to burn at given heart rates (both carb calories and fat calories).

The fat calories I couldn't give two kittens about (unless I'm trying to reduce body fat percentage), but the carb calories is extremely useful for endurance events. If you know approximately how many carb calories you expect to burn per hour, you can then figure out theoretically how long you should be able to maintain a given level of effort before burning through 2000 carb calories (and start hitting "the wall"). To me, that's valuable info to have for setting realistic expectations for a marathon or beyond.

jele30 · January 2019

Yesterday I did a treadmill run at the Y and enjoyed a soak afterwards as legs were a bit heavy. I took my clothes with me to work with plans to run at the Y again today. I was pleasantly surprised when I got done that it was close to 40F out, so drove home and changed and ran outside. It was so nice to run outside and there was a little bit of sun in the beginning. It did drop off, but used that as motivation to keep going.

1/1 - Zumba (XT)
1/2- rest
1/3- 3.16 miles
1/4- 3.13 miles

6.29 miles/40 goal

garygse · January 2019

Excited to see so many new members (welcome all), and also several returning members (looking at you @skippygirlsmom, @kristinegift, @louubelle16, and @lporter229)!

Today's long run had to be cut short...it was cold with a biting wind, I was soaked, and my running gear felt heavy; I found it hard to maintain pace towards the end. I had planned on running 22 miles, with 2 miles of warm-up, 14 miles withing 20% of MP, and then a final 6 miles within 10% of MP. By the time it came to the last six miles, I was already miserable, and decided to call it a day after just two miles of running into a headwind. I don't usually quit so readily, but yesterday's run was a freezing soak-fest as well, and I was just plain fed up...I may have hurled one or two kittens at the weather, along with some single-digit gesticulations.

Of course, later in the morning, it was all bright blue skies and sunshine, lol.

01 - 11.28
02 - 15.66
03 - 15.76
04 - 18.35

Total: 61.05 / 250 miles

Orphia · January 2019

Wait, what, do we actually have another Australian in here after all these years?

(I'm 25 pages behind!!!)

Jan 01 – 10.8 km inc parkrun 29:23
Jan 05 – 05.0 km parkrun 29:08

Upcoming:
Jan 06 – Surf to Surf 10 km

Jan Goal:
Ease out of my downtime and run a HM, or a 30 km would be nice (Last HM was Dec 2, last 30ish was 11 Nov).

msarobix · January 2019

January Totals: Goal 35 Miles
1/1/19: 4.55 Miles: Total Miles to Date: 4.55 Miles
1/3/19: 3.985 Miles: Total Miles to Date: 8.535 Miles

Thanks everyone for all the info on heart rate and HR Zones. I guess I will just keep on keeping on until I have a concern to re-evaluate. For me when I see that my heart rate recovers as quickly as it does I don’t think there is a problem, I just think I am pushing my body further to improve it.

Today, I just walked, but did some hill work. On a 12% incline my heart rate climbed to over 160, but as soon as I was back on the flat surface, my heart rate plummeted back to under 130 within a minute or two, sometimes as low as 122.

Tomorrow is my next run day. I am going to try to keep the mileage lower than I have been because I feel like I have been doing a little too much. I had original estimated 35 miles for the month because I was expecting to run 2-3 miles a day, but have been doing 4 or more. I have noticed a little twinge in my left shin when I stand for a long period while at my desk, so I am going to back off on the run mileage. That is not to say I won’t still try to get in a lengthy walking workout after my 2-3 mile run tomorrow.

RunsOnEspresso · January 2019

Day January
1 2.3
2 0
3 2.6
4 2.85

Total: 7.75
Goal: 115

Today was my tempo run. Had a goal of 800m x 4 at 9:30 pace. I think I got fairly close. Tomorrow I let my SIL talk me into a small resolution run (my SIL works for a tribe and they put them on for different occasions). In February I placed 2nd in my age group. Maybe I'll do that again! LOL They are super low tech. You are handed a piece of paper with a number on it and you fill in your name and age and that's how they determine placement.

Then Sunday I have a more competitive Resolution Run 5K. I once was 4th in my age group but it has grown in the few years since I did that one.

martaindale · January 2019

I am new to Strava, so I was messing around with the route builder function to try out some new loops in my neighborhood. I built a 6 mile route and when I ran it, I was almost a mile short! I had to do some doubling back to finish out the last mile. I tracked the run in Strava too, and when I went back and checked the GPS map, I did the run as planned, so I'm not sure why there is such a discrepancy. A tenth or two wouldn't have surprised me, but a mile on a total distance of only 6 miles? Has anyone else had this happen with the Strava route planner?

Otherwise the run was fine. Weather was good. Went nice and slow since 6 miles is a long run for me. It felt long, but I think that was mostly because I had a finish line in mind and it moved on me!

Jan miles: 8.7 miles
Jan goal: 45 miles

2019 Races:

Piney Woods Trailfest 5k - 2/2/2019 registered
Rodeo Run 10k - 2/23/2019 registered
Run Houston! Minute Maid Park 10k - 3/23/2019 registered
Brazos Bend 50 10k - 4/6/2019 registered
Galveston Island Wine Festival Champagne Fun Run 5k - 4/27/2019
Women's Quarter Marathon - 5/2019
El Chupacabra de Houston 10k (night trail run) - 8/2019
TWRC Run WIld Run Free 5k - 9/2019
10 for Texas 10 Miler - 10/2019 registration opens Jan 2019
Wine and Dine half marathon - 11/3/2019

Also doing the team challenge for Run the Year 2019 - Team Five for Nineteen

kgirlhart · January 2019

January goal: 75 miles

1/1: 3.11 miles
1/4: 4.6 miles

7.71/75 miles completed

I had a great run today! 4.6 miles in perfect running weather! I didn't run yesterday or Wednesday because of the weather. I did run on Tuesday when it was 30F feels like 22F, but Wednesday and Thursday were even colder and wet/wintry mix so I didn't even try to run. Today started out pretty chilly, but by afternoon it was 62F, sunny and very little wind. It was so much better running in shorts and a tank top today than Tuesday's run when I wore 2 pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves and my feet and especially my hands were still like blocks of ice. The weather should be nice tomorrow and Sunday too so I am looking forward to it. I'm not sure if I will get to run tomorrow. Saturdays are usually rest days and we have tentative plans with friends, but Sunday is my usual long run day and I am really looking forward to it. If I have an opportunity to run tomorrow I may take advantage of the nice weather, but if not that is ok. At least I got a good run in today.

hoshaugh73 · January 2019

01 - 4
02 - 1.25
03 - 4.25, slow, but it was one of those runs that just felt good.
04 - 2

January Total: 11.5 miles
January Goal: 60 miles

Upcoming Races:
Rhody Run 12k (5/19)

garygse · January 2019

@martaindale I don't plan routes through Strava, but if it's anything like Garmin, then you may find the issue is with routing. Sometimes when I click on the map to create the next waypoint, the route will double back on itself as it backtracks a trail to get to a road for instance, and if I don't catch it, I end up with added distance that I'm not actually going to run. One way to check this is to switch on the mile markers, and eyeball the route to make sure that the mile markers look somewhat evenly placed. If one or more looks short, the route has probably doubled back over itself.

rheddmobile · January 2019

@martaindale Do you have auto pause turned on? I don't use Strava but have heard others say that it tends to pause sometimes when it shouldn't.

Kimtrooper · January 2019

Orphia wrote: »

Wait, what, do we actually have another Australian in here after all these years?

(I'm 25 pages behind!!!)

Jan 01 – 10.8 km inc parkrun 29:23
Jan 05 – 05.0 km parkrun 29:08

Upcoming:
Jan 06 – Surf to Surf 10 km

Jan Goal:
Ease out of my downtime and run a HM, or a 30 km would be nice (Last HM was Dec 2, last 30ish was 11 Nov).

@Orphia you sure do 😀. One older female introverted slow turtle runner from the Barossa Valley at your service!

Lazy_Bones_1985 · January 2019

1.1.19: 10.5 @ 9:31/M (10.5) Long Run
1.3.19: 4.5 @ 8:39/M (15) Pace Run
1.4.19: 5.0 @ 9:18/M (20) Easy Run

Goal is: 112.5 miles and a 5.5M run in 46:45 (8:30 Pace).

Flew an 11 hour flight last night so my run today was only on 3 hours of interrupted sleep. The gym felt like it was 100 degrees so my Easy Run was not really that easy. I’ve been also running a calorie deficit to drop some weight and I’m feeling that in my Pace Runs. I don’t think it’s an over training issue but an under fueling issue which I assume will go away once I come out of a deficit. And I have a lot going on personally right now so I’m nauseas a lot and anxious.

I did however figure out that I need to tighten my FitBit when running to get a more accurate heart rate. It has been registering over 200bpm at times and when I tighten it, it’s reading closer to 160-170 which is probably more accurate.

I am looking forward to tomorrow’s scheduled rest day.

noblsheep · January 2019

0105-10.4k total-15.9k, goal-100k

Great day for a run. It was -4C (24F), cloudy and dry. First double digit run in a while. Felt good enough to pick up the pace from 5-8km.

Ever since I started training with a coach to fix my form, I've become conscious of changes happening when I'm running. At first, it was a strong feeling that it did not feel much more tiring to go fast than to go slow. Recently during tempo runs, it feels like I'm constantly pushing against the upward threshold of my cardio fitness, if that makes any sense.

A year or so ago, a guest coach at our run club told me, if you can fix your form, you could probably break 4 hours easily. Hmmm.

Upcoming races:
04.15 Beijing International Running Festival (HM) (registration not open yet)
05.13 Beijing Tongzhou Half Marathon (registration not open yet)

7lenny7 · January 2019

garygse wrote: »

PastorVincent wrote: »

If you want to ACCURATELY know your heart zones, you will need a lab and like $100 or $200 dollars, something like that. There are sports medicine places that will give you a full workup, including VOMax and so on. I am skeptical at the use case, but if I wanted to know accurately I would do that.

Use case: A VO2 Max test can give you a much more accurate view of how many calories you can expect to burn at given heart rates (both carb calories and fat calories).

The fat calories I couldn't give two kittens about (unless I'm trying to reduce body fat percentage), but the carb calories is extremely useful for endurance events. If you know approximately how many carb calories you expect to burn per hour, you can then figure out theoretically how long you should be able to maintain a given level of effort before burning through 2000 carb calories (and start hitting "the wall"). To me, that's valuable info to have for setting realistic expectations for a marathon or beyond.

@garygse I agree with what you're saying, and I'm an avid HR watcher, but let me present a different perspective.

When I ran my marathon I spent quite some time figuring out energy expenditures, and how much would come from glycogen and how much from fat, then using my estimated pace and burn and all that I figured how how much carb calories I needed during my run.

It was only afterwards, while planning ahead for my first 50k that I realized I had no need to calculate all that. I know through training that I can put down 300 carb calories per hour. If I do that during a marathon, I'm replacing glycogen at the highest rate possible anyway.

And to @PastorVincent point, there is not always a direct correlation between HR and perceived effort. Perceived effort for a given pace, or HR, can change due to sickness, fatigue, and even temperature. For a long run I'll usually go with perceived effort (conversational pace) with HR as a check, but for tempo runs and races I want my HR data. Yes, HR is reactive so it's not going to help for sprints, hill repeats or intervals but it's a great for runs of even somewhat consistent effort such as tempo runs, long runs and any race from 5k on up. There are many ways to skin that cat.

You certainly don't need to track HR data to run but it sure is a great tool if one wants to use it.

Today was my tempo run. Had a goal of 800m x 4 at 9:30 pace.

@runsonespresso aren't tempo runs done at a consist pace throughout the run? 800m x 4 to me looks like intervals.

shanaber · January 2019

@msarobix - you might consider tracking (after the fact) your avg and max HR during your runs on your spreadsheet. As your fitness improves you will likely see changes there and it helps to see where your HR goes up when you know you are fatigued, etc...

shanaber · January 2019

Ha @7lenny7!
Ias I read your post after I posted mine you reminded me about how much heat can impact your HR (mine is much higher when it is hot out) and I have used it successfully in races where I have not looked at pace but run to keep my HR in a specific range for xx miles and then allowed it to go higher as I headed for the last few miles into the finish.

7lenny7 · January 2019

shanaber wrote: »

Ha @7lenny7!
Ias I read your post after I posted mine you reminded me about how much heat can impact your HR (mine is much higher when it is hot out) and I have used it successfully in races where I have not looked at pace but run to keep my HR in a specific range for xx miles and then allowed it to go higher as I headed for the last few miles into the finish.

@shanaber that's exactly what I do. When I was a new runner none of the HR data meant much to me but over time I was able to understand what I was looking at and how my HR reacted to different paces and conditions. I now know what HR to target for different races. 172 for a 5k, 162 to 165 for an HM, 145 or under for a 50k. If I were to race these distances more often I probably wouldn't need to rely on HR data as much but it works very well for me.

Your advice to track HR now to look for trends later is spot on.

HonuNui · January 2019

January Goal: Do more than last month

1/1 1.25
1/2 2.20
1/3 rest
1/4 carb loading dinner ....with @elise4270 and Eric! (and the rest of our team which will run the Hilo to Volcano Ultra Relay tomorrow to remember Dennis (@keeprunningfatboy).....which is the name of our team: Keep Running Fat Boy! (I promise pics tomorrow.....)

Total: 3.45

Upcoming races:

January 4, 2019 Hilo to Volcano Ultra 50k Relay. In memory of @keeprunningfatboy

Ticker is my goal for 2019 and progress to date:

January 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

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