Ran a 10k in June (5 Viewers)

[2Young2BBald]

I am now the VERY PROUD father of two triathletes! Cutting to the chase, my cello playing, non-athletic, book-worm honor student daughter WON her age group (she is 13, AG was 13-15) by almost 2-minutes and was the second girl overall. My son pulled a me just missing the podium finishing 4th in his AG. Almost all the kids entered were swimmers, except for my kids. Since this was a pool swim, they lined up one by one to swim with about 15-seconds in between. My kids were the last 2 in the pool as they went in on predicted swim time and thiers were the slowest. I told both of them before they raced to just get through the swim and then start picking kids off on the bike and the run. I would have never guessed they'd have been so successful. On top of this, my daughter KILLED both transtions (yep, we practiced T1 & T2).

A LOT of great running and race updates (congrats, gruecd!) ...but gosh, I love reading about the kids nailing their tri's!!! at the tank tops to show off their markings (I do that too!). The broader implications for family relationships and the kids' self-awareness, self-discipline, and mental toughness are almost overwhelming. I know liquors' girls have done real little mini-tri's too ...I'm sooo happy for you guys.

Overwhelming is the perfect word. In October of 2004 my daughter told me she was done with sports forever and just wanted to do dance and begged me not to be mad at her. I told her I wasn't mad at all, just sad because I loved coaching both kids and dance was something I had no chance of helping with (honestly, I was devastated). Having the chance to help her learn over the last month plus has been a blast. She is trying to put together a sprint relay team for an event in mid-September where she'll do the bike leg. I'll have to have the race director sign off as all 3 girls are under the minimum age of 15. She is recruiting a girl I coached on my Little League team last year. She is a great athlete and has already won her AG in a couple of 5Ks. She has a swimmer in mind, so we'll see where this goes. If they are in, I'll be racing in the same event which would be so cool.

 

[prosopis]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet.

I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me.

I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

 

[gruecd]

At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me.

Damn, dude. Glad to hear you're OK.Today was supposed to be a rest day, but it's so nice outside (low 70's, light breeze, low humidity) that I ended up going for a slow, easy 4-mile recovery run instead. Tough workout tomorrow with 10 miles including 5 at HMP. Planning on getting to bed early tonight so that I can get up and run before work tomorrow. Always hard getting any kind of turnover in the morning, so we'll see how it goes.

 

[2Young2BBald]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet. I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me. I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

Glad you are OK. Have you had a check up lately? If not, it might not be a bad idea to see your Dr. You've had a lifestyle change with the whole running thing, so it might be a good time to be sure you can continue to ramp up miles and time spent exercising.

 

[prosopis]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet. I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me. I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

Glad you are OK. Have you had a check up lately? If not, it might not be a bad idea to see your Dr. You've had a lifestyle change with the whole running thing, so it might be a good time to be sure you can continue to ramp up miles and time spent exercising.

Thanks, I have an appt scheduled in a few weeks. It was actually for a different thing but I will bring this up as well. I still dont feel right. I feel weak and I get waves of nausea. I also have a pretty good headache going on.

 

[prosopis]

I am thinking about signing up for this race.

http://www.azroadrunners.org/events/saguaro.html

Looks like I should start getting in some hill work. Was once the race of the month in Runners World.

 

[gruecd]

Tough workout tomorrow with 10 miles including 5 at HMP. Planning on getting to bed early tonight so that I can get up and run before work tomorrow. Always hard getting any kind of turnover in the morning, so we'll see how it goes.

Got to bed nice and early, and yet I still couldn't drag my butt out of bed this morning. I don't know if it's my head or my body, but there's some part of me that clearly wants nothing to do with running that fast, that early in the morning. So now I've gotta do my tempo run this afternoon with temps in the upper 70's instead. Great.

 

[Poppa]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet. I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me. I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

Be well!

 

[meeka]

I ran!

My wife returned from 4 days in Texas on Saturday night so I was finally free to go for a run on Sunday. The training schedule called for 12 miles this weekend, but I only ran 3. I just wanted to get a run in and see how my body responded. It was the first activity I have had since my 10 miles on the 5th. My legs felt a bit wobbly at the start, but they got better quickly. It was so nice to be out running again, and I am really looking forward to my 3 mid-week runs this week.

I am shuffling my training schedule to make up for how far behind I currently am. My schedule calls for 13, 10 and 15 the next 3 weekends for my long run, but I will shuffle that and run 10, 13, and 15 the next 3 weekends. I just hope that this is my last set back until the marathon. I am already a little nervous about the time I have missed, but we will just go from here and see how things go.

Also....take care of yourself Prosopis. That is freaky stuff that happened to you. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet. I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me. I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

Woah. I gave blood a few years ago and it was surprisingly painful/uncomfortable. But nothing like this. Ouch.

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I am now the VERY PROUD father of two triathletes! Cutting to the chase, my cello playing, non-athletic, book-worm honor student daughter WON her age group (she is 13, AG was 13-15) by almost 2-minutes and was the second girl overall. My son pulled a me just missing the podium finishing 4th in his AG. Almost all the kids entered were swimmers, except for my kids. Since this was a pool swim, they lined up one by one to swim with about 15-seconds in between. My kids were the last 2 in the pool as they went in on predicted swim time and thiers were the slowest. I told both of them before they raced to just get through the swim and then start picking kids off on the bike and the run. I would have never guessed they'd have been so successful. On top of this, my daughter KILLED both transtions (yep, we practiced T1 & T2).

Pretty impressive genetics here.

 

[wraith5]

I went to donate blood today at the Red Cross. They set up a van outside of church and I had an appt. I fast prior to Mass and then I went to give blood. I have done this in the past without issue. The girl stuck the needle in my arm and it hurt like hell. I told her it hurt and she asked if I wanted it redone. I said no I can deal with it. I then notice there is no blood coming out and they had a bp cuff on my arm. It really hurt when they tightened the cuff. I could tell the girl was having trouble and I did not want to hurt her feelings so I just dealt with it. She ends up getting another girl who plays with the needle in my arm and all of a sudden blood starts coming out. It was still really painfull but I just hung in there. A few minutes in I started feeling funny and I knew I was going to pass out. I told the girl this. Next thing I know I am talking to people who I cant see. I dont remember what we were talking about but I was getting pissed that someone was yelling my name. It was sort of like when one of your kids is saying dad dad dad dad repeatedly while you are trying to talk to someone. I then come to and I see three people yelling at me. I did not know where I was or why I was there. I was also soaking wet. I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me. I dont know if this was due to my 6.22 miles yesterday combined with a few beers last night and then fasting this AM but I am pretty sure it was. I will never do that again. The worst part of it is I awesomely did this at church with a buddy in the Red Cross van watching the show. I may never hear the end of it.

Glad you are OK. Have you had a check up lately? If not, it might not be a bad idea to see your Dr. You've had a lifestyle change with the whole running thing, so it might be a good time to be sure you can continue to ramp up miles and time spent exercising.

Thanks, I have an appt scheduled in a few weeks. It was actually for a different thing but I will bring this up as well. I still dont feel right. I feel weak and I get waves of nausea. I also have a pretty good headache going on.

This story is all kinds of "not good." I'm glad it wasn't any worse than you described!! FWIW, I don't know that I'd wait a few weeks to check in with the doc - it can't hurt to get in there and make sure nothing goofy is going on. Seriously. Even if it turns out you were (and may still be) just still a little dehydrated. And speaking of hydration - "throwing water on you?" This is the best the crack team of blood drawers could come up with?

 

[IvanKaramazov]

I was then told I had passed out and I was wet because they were throwing water on me. It took me a while to get my barings. They were asking me if I knew where I was and I could not answer them. It was a horrible feeling. I could not stand up and I felt very nauseous. I ended up staying there for 1.5 hrs. My pulse had dropped below 50 and my BP was low to. They had me tilted back and doing cycling motions with my legs in the air trying to raise my pulse. I finally got it to 70 and left. It was a very scary experience. At one point I felt I may die and I had them find my wife for me.

So basically, you got waterboarded by the American Red Cross.

 

[The_Man]

Hey, runners.

I just posted this in its own thread, but Ivan Karamazov suggested I post it here as well:

I'm 40, started running regularly about 2 months ago. Did 6 miles yesterday (my longest run) but now have pain in my Achilles. It's a tiny bit swollen just above the ball of my ankle joint, but the weird thing is that I can feel some fluid in there. Every time I take a step it's kind of like taking a step while wearing a rubber boot that's got a tiny bit of water in the bottom -- except that the water is inside my Achilles region, instead of outside.

Any thoughts? It doesn't hurt too much and I can stretch it out fine, though that doesn't seem to either increase or decrease the pain. I'm really on a roll with my running and want to keep going -- the pain as it currently exists doesn't seem like it would stop me from going as scheduled tomorrow -- but I don't want to do something that's going to lead to a full-on ruptured tendon either.

Achilles pain aside, I've been having a great time running. Ran distance in high school and kind of hated it (as the one former teammate who I've run into here at FBG can attest) but am loving it now. Don't really want to do a marathon, but am very interested in taking part in some competitive 4-milers or 10K races (I don't think I'm fast enough to do a 5K). Ran 4 miles on Saturday in 34 minutes; Sunday was supposed to be my long slow-run -- 6 miles at 10:00 pace, but I felt great and ended up doing it in just under 57 minutes. I've also dropped about 6 pounds.

Now I'm totally worried that I'm going to have to quit running again for a while. Like I said, the pain isn't that bad -- it's the squishiness inside that's got me a little freaked, wondering what kind of fluid that is sloshing around my Achilles.

 

[Keggers]

Great updates everyone!!! I've been plugging along and following my 1/2 marathon traing guide with no setbacks...and even doing better on most training runs. Quick question: Yesterday I did my scheduled long run (9 miles) and had one Gu packet at mile 5. This is the first time I've taken anything other than water during a run. I liked it! The question is, does Gu help with recovery? I mean, I ran 9 miles (8:36/mile...a fast pace for me) and feel no soreness today. I did my normal routine, other than taking the Gu.

 

[wraith5]

DolphinsPhan – Congrats on your international race! I hope the 14 miler went just as well! Righetti – Nice 10 miler. 1:30 is a perfectly respectable time (even in this thread) if you ask me! Meeka – Good job getting back on the horse!! Looking forward to seeing your distances ramp back up. 2Bald – Awesome stuff and congratulations! I can’t imagine the feeling of pride you experienced. I really hope my kids continue to love athletics as they get older.

I got up early to beat the heat. I got 6.22 miles in. I did it in 78 mins which is 2 mins faster then the last time I did this. I did quite a bit of fast walking towards the end. Does this mean I may not be pacing myself properly? I felt like I did the first 3 miles pretty well but struggled with the second 3 miles.

First, good job on the run! Walking at the end could certainly mean you came out too fast, but it could also be that you need to work on “finishing” runs. This has been a huge struggle for me in my running, so I don’t mean to project on you, but I became notorious (you know, with myself…) for struggling through the back ½ of runs. My body started EXPECTING me to walk with a mile or so to go. I have worked hard to re-train my body to push through the fatigue until I get to the finishline. Either way, my advice (FWIW) is to slow your front ½ down for now and focus entirely on the back ½ of the run, especially the last mile or ½ mile. I time my first and last mile separately from the rest of my run, and try to keep them close to identical or ideally finish faster (which I failed to do this weekend, but I'll relate that in another post). Keggers - nice run for you as well!! I don't know if Gu specifically helps with recovery - maybe your body is just adjusting well to your activity level.

 

[MAC_32]

I got up early to beat the heat. I got 6.22 miles in. I did it in 78 mins which is 2 mins faster then the last time I did this. I did quite a bit of fast walking towards the end. Does this mean I may not be pacing myself properly? I felt like I did the first 3 miles pretty well but struggled with the second 3 miles.

First, good job on the run! Walking at the end could certainly mean you came out too fast, but it could also be that you need to work on “finishing” runs. This has been a huge struggle for me in my running, so I don’t mean to project on you, but I became notorious (you know, with myself…) for struggling through the back ½ of runs. My body started EXPECTING me to walk with a mile or so to go. I have worked hard to re-train my body to push through the fatigue until I get to the finishline. Either way, my advice (FWIW) is to slow your front ½ down for now and focus entirely on the back ½ of the run, especially the last mile or ½ mile. I time my first and last mile separately from the rest of my run, and try to keep them close to identical or ideally finish faster (which I failed to do this weekend, but I'll relate that in another post).

If I can offer a note of caution, your real objective shouldn't be to slow down the first half of the run as much as it is improve the second half, trying to ease up the 1st half too much can cause this. I've been a competitive runner since I was 13, now 26, and this has always been an issue for me too. These days I run shorter distances (10K max, 5K's are the norm, I'm going to train for some triatholon's next summer), but it's still evident. How every runner gets through it varies, what works for me is music. I have play lists that range from 20 mins to 50 mins in length, depending on my run that day, for the most part I run 30 mins which ~ about 4 miles. The music towards the end of the play list, while not metal, is definitely more intense in nature, it gets my blood flowing and helps me maintain that intensity through the last stretch of the run. I also usually run HIIT sprint workouts, 20 or 30 mins max, so I'm fluctuating between walking and sprinting. Those periods of rest offer time for me to re collect myself and get that additional intensity needed to get the most out of the sprint portions, it's not the same for distance running as you really don't want to lose that pace, you just have to find what works for you.On that note, I look forward to tracking this thread going forward, and I'm off to the gym. Doing 30-40 mins of chest and back today then doing a 30 minute HIIT run in the sun afterward, going to try to do more of my sprints uphill today to make it a little bit harder on me. I need to punish myself for some questionable eating habits this weekend.

 

[wraith5]

OK - now I can get to my run report:

I did my 14 miler on Saturday and actually pushed to 14.5 to work on my finishing effort. 2:09:40 for an 8:56/mile average. I finished a little slower than ideal (9:14/mile for the last 1.25) but my HR was hovering at about 184 and I was more concerned with maintaining my stride for an extra .5 miles vs. picking up 25 seconds.

This run was very similar to my effort 4 weeks ago, except that this time I started faster and finished slower – overall :02/mile “improvement” (so really identical from that perspective) but more consistent pace throughout. My overall HR was faster (172 vs. 167) and I'm guessing that's a factor of the weather more than anything else.

On a related note, I drank about a liter of water on this run and I don't think it was enough - my shirt smelled awful when I was done (amonia-like). I'm going to need to switch to my backpack for my long run next week, then decide what I want to do for the RnR Chicago. I always carry water during races and I like to run though the water stops and pass people there (makes me feel like I'm HTFU).

 

[Keggers]

Keggers - nice run for you as well!! I don't know if Gu specifically helps with recovery - maybe your body is just adjusting well to your activity level.

Good point! I was just expecting some soreness after the long run. Let's just say I'm pleasantly surprised that it's not here. On a related note, last week I logged over 26 miles....my highest weekly total since, well, ever!

 

[gruecd]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Keggers -- Sounds like you had a great run, but be careful about doing your long run too fast. Based on your Bellin time (and according to the McMillan Running Calculator), your long run pace should be somewhere between 9:14 and 10:14. Granted, this is another case of "do as I say and not as I do," since the calculator also says that I should be doing my recovery jogs at 8:44 to 9:14, and I had a hard time doing 8:30's yesterday. It's just that I hear a lot of guys talking about how fast they were able to do their long runs, and while it's great that you guys are getting stronger, you've gotta remember that the purpose of the long run is to build endurance. You want to use your midweek speed workouts to condition your muscles for race pace, and if you run too hard on your long runs and/or recovery jogs, you'll be selling yourself short on your speedwork.

 

[The_Man]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Thanks! I was a decent runner in high school, but just hated it. Of course as a teenager, I hated everything I "had" to do and at my high school, we had to play a sport each season. So I never trained seriously, slid by adequately on natural ability, and was your basic total underachiever (hey, at least I was the same outside the classroom as well as inside).25 years later, now that I don't have to do it, I've suddenly been having a great time over the last 4-6 weeks since I rediscovered running. Couldn't believe I could do 6 miles in under an hour yesterday -- went out nice and slow, took advantage of the 2nd and 3rd mile being significantly downhill, just had to grind out the miles from 3.5 through 5 (going back up the hills I had come down), and then did the last mile in 8:45 for a total time of 56:56.

My speed is still non-existent, but the endurance is building back up. When I started, I was hard pressed to do two miles in 17 minutes. Now I can run my 6th mile at almost that pace. I haven't read the whole thread -- any advice on web sites for putting together a good training plan?

Of course all of this is contingent on my Achilles not being really messed up. I never got hurt when I didn't care about running -- we are too soon old, and too late wise.

 

[wraith5]

The_Man - you didn't go to HS in Wisconsin, did you? Where I went to school we were required to participate in sports, too (I'm sure there are many places that do that, but thought I'd ask).

I thought about your achilles question and decided I'm definitely not qualified to offer up an answer of any kind. That said, I remember at some point I had some similar problems and ended up having an ultrasound on it - they found some scar tissue (from what I have no idea!) but no tendon damage. Heat/stretching/time seemed to do the trick eventually... but you gotta be careful with that sort of thing!!

 

[prosopis]

Thanks for the advice in here. I ended up calling my cardiologist today and seeing him. EKG was normal and he did not here anything funny with the stethescope. He thinks I am fine but recommended I schedule a stress test and echocardiogram which I have done. I last saw this doctor three years ago and he was impressed with the weight I lost. At first he seemed concerned about my weight loss until he found out how I did it.

My BP was still low as is my pulse but no one seems concerned about it. He told me to drink more and maybe cut back on the street running when it is so hot out. I certainly feel more at ease now. I was starting to freak out a little. I really should get a will together.

I came home after the appt and I am skipping my work out today as I still dont feel quite right. Hopefully I will get to feeling better mentally now that i have seen a doctor and put at ease.

 

[wraith5]

Thanks for the advice in here. I ended up calling my cardiologist today and seeing him. EKG was normal and he did not here anything funny with the stethescope. He thinks I am fine but recommended I schedule a stress test and echocardiogram which I have done. I last saw this doctor three years ago and he was impressed with the weight I lost. At first he seemed concerned about my weight loss until he found out how I did it. My BP was still low as is my pulse but no one seems concerned about it. He told me to drink more and maybe cut back on the street running when it is so hot out. I certainly feel more at ease now. I was starting to freak out a little. I really should get a will together. I came home after the appt and I am skipping my work out today as I still dont feel quite right. Hopefully I will get to feeling better mentally now that i have seen a doctor and put at ease.

I'm glad you got checked out. Always better to know. Drink up (water) and enjoy a well deserved rest day.

 

[Bull Dozier]

Well, I've been occasionally lurking this thread for a while, so I figured I might as well jump into the thick of it. I have started running again, as I have done off an on for a few years. I never got up to big distances, the longest I went before was probably 5 miles, and the longest race I ever did before was a 5k. Well, after watching my wife run a half marathon earlier this year, and being utterly uncomfortable with the fact that she could do anything athletic better than me, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half marathon this fall. I have been following a training program from a Men's Health magazine article, and I am on pace so far. I did 6 miles for my long run last week, but my long run this week is only 5. I have a crazy schedule, so I don't always get my run in on the day intended, so I hope that doesn't do me any harm. I did miss my maintanence run which should have been on Friday, and my long run I needed to do yesterday will be done today. I assume this will tell me how much harm missing a run is going to do to me.

When I was younger (HS), distance running came easy to me. I was quite fast at the shorter distances, but being 36, I have no speed anymore. At my 4-6 mile runs (so far), I am running somewhere between a 9:30 and 10 minute pace. I do not have a gps or anything, so I have no way of monitoring my speed, which makes it difficult. I usually try to find someone running the same lake I am running and pace myself with them. I'm not sure of a way to keep myself on pace otherwise.

 

[The_Man]

The_Man - you didn't go to HS in Wisconsin, did you? Where I went to school we were required to participate in sports, too (I'm sure there are many places that do that, but thought I'd ask). I thought about your achilles question and decided I'm definitely not qualified to offer up an answer of any kind. That said, I remember at some point I had some similar problems and ended up having an ultrasound on it - they found some scar tissue (from what I have no idea!) but no tendon damage. Heat/stretching/time seemed to do the trick eventually... but you gotta be careful with that sort of thing!!

No, I went to a private school in central Virginia. But a few years ago, another poster here at FBG made a comment about a guy he went to high school with and I realized we went to the same school. Turned out to be a guy from the year after me who also ran cross country.Going to ice and elevate the foot tonight, then stretch it out real well tomorrow a.m. before going out to run. Will probably do 3 miles at a slow/moderate pace for me and see how it responds. The fact that it hurt more later than it did when I was warmed up and actually running makes me think (hope) that it might just be a little tendonitis/tightness and won't be a big deal as long as I take care of it.

 

[Keggers]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Keggers -- Sounds like you had a great run, but be careful about doing your long run too fast. Based on your Bellin time (and according to the McMillan Running Calculator), your long run pace should be somewhere between 9:14 and 10:14. Granted, this is another case of "do as I say and not as I do," since the calculator also says that I should be doing my recovery jogs at 8:44 to 9:14, and I had a hard time doing 8:30's yesterday. It's just that I hear a lot of guys talking about how fast they were able to do their long runs, and while it's great that you guys are getting stronger, you've gotta remember that the purpose of the long run is to build endurance. You want to use your midweek speed workouts to condition your muscles for race pace, and if you run too hard on your long runs and/or recovery jogs, you'll be selling yourself short on your speedwork.

Duly noted. That being said, if the long run is meant to build endurance...what if you feel there's some gas left in the tank? Run a few more miles or run the last few miles faster? I just want to feel like I've given it my all in every workout (other than "recovery" or "easy" days) and don't want to just stop because that's what the program says. This is week 5 five of the training program and, despite killing the long runs, I've haven't compromised the midweek speedwork or tempo runs (I've been following these parts of the program exactly). Maybe I need to change my mindset and just do what the program calls for...even for the long run?

 

[BassNBrew]

Thanks, I have an appt scheduled in a few weeks. It was actually for a different thing but I will bring this up as well. I still dont feel right. I feel weak and I get waves of nausea. I also have a pretty good headache going on.

Lay off the viagra Woz.

 

[MAC_32]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Thanks! I wander over to the FFA from time to time, but never past page 1, surprised I hadn't seen this thread before.

I was a regional qualifier in both track (4x800, 1600) and cross country in high school, let college get the best of me for a bit, then got back into shape and ran a marathon, then let college get the best of me again, now that I've been out for two years I'm back in great shape again. I lift 5-6 times/week, run at least 3 times/week, play several rec sports, and am starting the process to attain certificates to allow me to teach fitness/health classes and personal train. The last timed 5k I ran was 17:43 in May, right now I'm training for a bench and run competition in late August so my 5k time's going to suffer a bit but at the expense of more bench reps, which lowers your 'time,' so I'm ok with that.

Good stuff here, look forward to following this!

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Well, after watching my wife run a half marathon earlier this year, and being utterly uncomfortable with the fact that she could do anything athletic better than me, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half marathon this fall.

I think this is pretty much how this thread got started, only with a 10K instead of a half.

 

[tri-man 47]

to the new contributors! Good to have you around.

The_Man, be cautious with that Achilles issue. I had some problems a couple of years ago due to classic overtraining and it can linger a long time. It will help if you keep it loose - sit on the edge of the bed in the morning and take some time to roll the ankle and bend the foot down and up and in and out (even 'flex'/stretch the toes) ..and/or spend some time standing on a stair and dipping the heel down slowly. Don't know quite what that is with the fluid thing, though.

MAC - 17:43, eh? Is that the thread's 5K PR, now? Maybe!

Bull Dozier, a number of us have used the Hal Higdon free on-line training programs. A way to monitor your pace is just the old perceived exertion. If you're at a pace that you could converse, you're running easy. Even without getting exact pacing, you can always just work in some accelerations (e.g., push the pace and the stride up to the next landmark). I feel a key to getting faster is getting a longer, fuller stride ...combined with the aerobic ability to maintain the pace, of course.

Keggers - I'd say if you feel you can comfortably go longer, do so! Don't throw the upcoming training in jeopardy, but if you're coming along strong, go ahead and push onward.

Prosopis, I'd expect the blood donation problem was workouts + lack of hydration/food. I regularly donate, and I notice it's harder to do when I'm tired. Their needle problems sound alarming, and I'm sure that didn't help matters. But be careful.

Regarding hydration (back on the Badger's recent question) ...another good way to monitor the sufficiency of your hydration is to check your pee. If it's too yellow (esp a couple/few hours after a workout), you're not drinking enough. Light yellow or almost clear is OK. Otherwise, drink more!

---

Great bike workout Saturday for 90 minutes, but I was way off my game on Sunday. Did some late yard work, then tried a run, but ended up cutting a long run down to about 6 miles ...tummy was off, legs were shot ...ptts.

 

[gruecd]

Great bike workout Saturday for 90 minutes, but I was way off my game on Sunday. Did some late yard work, then tried a run, but ended up cutting a long run down to about 6 miles ...tummy was off, legs were shot ...ptts.

Don't feel bad, same crap happened to me tonight. 10 miles w/5 tempo turned into 8 miles w/1.5 tempo and a couple of short walk breaks. I attributed it to the heat and the wind, along with the fact that I've been very lax lately with my rest and hydration. Like you said, . It happens.

 

[gruecd]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Thanks! I wander over to the FFA from time to time, but never past page 1, surprised I hadn't seen this thread before.

I was a regional qualifier in both track (4x800, 1600) and cross country in high school, let college get the best of me for a bit, then got back into shape and ran a marathon, then let college get the best of me again, now that I've been out for two years I'm back in great shape again. I lift 5-6 times/week, run at least 3 times/week, play several rec sports, and am starting the process to attain certificates to allow me to teach fitness/health classes and personal train. The last timed 5k I ran was 17:43 in May, right now I'm training for a bench and run competition in late August so my 5k time's going to suffer a bit but at the expense of more bench reps, which lowers your 'time,' so I'm ok with that.

Good stuff here, look forward to following this!

Damn, dude. 17:53? What was your marathon time? At least tell me your marathon time wasn't faster than 3:10.....please.....

 

[2Young2BBald]

OK - now I can get to my run report: I did my 14 miler on Saturday and actually pushed to 14.5 to work on my finishing effort. 2:09:40 for an 8:56/mile average. I finished a little slower than ideal (9:14/mile for the last 1.25) but my HR was hovering at about 184 and I was more concerned with maintaining my stride for an extra .5 miles vs. picking up 25 seconds. This run was very similar to my effort 4 weeks ago, except that this time I started faster and finished slower – overall :02/mile "improvement" (so really identical from that perspective) but more consistent pace throughout. My overall HR was faster (172 vs. 167) and I'm guessing that's a factor of the weather more than anything else. On a related note, I drank about a liter of water on this run and I don't think it was enough - my shirt smelled awful when I was done (amonia-like). I'm going to need to switch to my backpack for my long run next week, then decide what I want to do for the RnR Chicago. I always carry water during races and I like to run though the water stops and pass people there (makes me feel like I'm HTFU).

I had started typing something to the effect of "don't worry about carrying water for RNR Chicago, I'm sure there will be plenty of stops......". Then I grabbed a copy of the course map. The water stops don't make a hell of a lot of sense. There is one just before mile one, another just after two, then it is dry until almost mile 7, one more at about 8.5 and that is it (oops, there is a token one just after mile 12). WTF, a race in August with no water in the middle 5 miles of the race? Unless a new map comes out with more stops, I'd stick with carrying your own water. I really don't want to wear the Amphipod belt and this mucks up any plan for eating Sports Beans, but if the map is accurate I'll have to wear water. I like to bean around miles 4 & 7 with water to wash'em down. Dang, I was so relax about Chicago until now.....

 

[2Young2BBald]

to the new contributors! Good to have you around.

This site is blocked at work (and its probably a good thing or I'd get nothing done). I was amazed to see the number of posts and the new runners and it was exciting to see both today.

 

[MAC_32]

The_Man and MAC_32 --

Thanks! I wander over to the FFA from time to time, but never past page 1, surprised I hadn't seen this thread before.

I was a regional qualifier in both track (4x800, 1600) and cross country in high school, let college get the best of me for a bit, then got back into shape and ran a marathon, then let college get the best of me again, now that I've been out for two years I'm back in great shape again. I lift 5-6 times/week, run at least 3 times/week, play several rec sports, and am starting the process to attain certificates to allow me to teach fitness/health classes and personal train. The last timed 5k I ran was 17:43 in May, right now I'm training for a bench and run competition in late August so my 5k time's going to suffer a bit but at the expense of more bench reps, which lowers your 'time,' so I'm ok with that.

Good stuff here, look forward to following this!

Damn, dude. 17:53? What was your marathon time? At least tell me your marathon time wasn't faster than 3:10.....please.....

Good God, no. I'm a shorter distance runner, I just ran the marathon to say I finished one! My goal was 3:45, but shin splints three weeks before the race derailed that. I was on an even 4 hour pace, which was my goal after the issue with shin splints limited my training towards the end, until mile 21-22 when everything came crashing down. Sputtered my way to a 4:17. I haven't ruled out another one sometime down the line, but my body's still able to handle the shorter, high intensity workouts so I'm going to stick to those until my body tells me otherwise.Good, but not great workout today. I was able to up the weight on my back exercises, but not on any chest ones. Fatigue really caught up to me the 2nd half of my HIIT workout, just didn't have it today, seems to be a common theme with others. Going to take tomorrow and Wednesday off running, playing volleyball over lunch and am going to work legs and core at night but not doing any leg work Wednesday, probably just do arms and core on Wednesday, we'll see how tomorrow goes.

 

[wraith5]

OK - now I can get to my run report:

I did my 14 miler on Saturday and actually pushed to 14.5 to work on my finishing effort. 2:09:40 for an 8:56/mile average. I finished a little slower than ideal (9:14/mile for the last 1.25) but my HR was hovering at about 184 and I was more concerned with maintaining my stride for an extra .5 miles vs. picking up 25 seconds.

This run was very similar to my effort 4 weeks ago, except that this time I started faster and finished slower – overall :02/mile "improvement" (so really identical from that perspective) but more consistent pace throughout. My overall HR was faster (172 vs. 167) and I'm guessing that's a factor of the weather more than anything else.

On a related note, I drank about a liter of water on this run and I don't think it was enough - my shirt smelled awful when I was done (amonia-like). I'm going to need to switch to my backpack for my long run next week, then decide what I want to do for the RnR Chicago. I always carry water during races and I like to run though the water stops and pass people there (makes me feel like I'm HTFU).

I had started typing something to the effect of "don't worry about carrying water for RNR Chicago, I'm sure there will be plenty of stops......". Then I grabbed a copy of the course map. The water stops don't make a hell of a lot of sense. There is one just before mile one, another just after two, then it is dry until almost mile 7, one more at about 8.5 and that is it (oops, there is a token one just after mile 12). WTF, a race in August with no water in the middle 5 miles of the race? Unless a new map comes out with more stops, I'd stick with carrying your own water. I really don't want to wear the Amphipod belt and this mucks up any plan for eating Sports Beans, but if the map is accurate I'll have to wear water. I like to bean around miles 4 & 7 with water to wash'em down. Dang, I was so relax about Chicago until now.....

According to the RnR Chicago Facebook page:

The 8 course water stations have water and Cytomax. There is one Gu station at mile 9.7. If you'd like anything other than this, definitely bring your own.

Sidenote: Mile 9.7?!?? WTF is that about?

Anyway, after the Chicago marathon nightmare a couple of years ago, I can't imagine any race (especially in Chicago) not having ample water.

That said, I always wear a Camelback when I race - even if it's my Flashflow 45oz pack, I always have something with me. I carry music, my asthma inhaler, and on longer runs some Gu and my phone. I've done a couple races where I could have really used more water between water stops, so now I don't bother trying to not bring it.

 

[2Young2BBald]

OK - now I can get to my run report:

I did my 14 miler on Saturday and actually pushed to 14.5 to work on my finishing effort. 2:09:40 for an 8:56/mile average. I finished a little slower than ideal (9:14/mile for the last 1.25) but my HR was hovering at about 184 and I was more concerned with maintaining my stride for an extra .5 miles vs. picking up 25 seconds.

This run was very similar to my effort 4 weeks ago, except that this time I started faster and finished slower – overall :02/mile "improvement" (so really identical from that perspective) but more consistent pace throughout. My overall HR was faster (172 vs. 167) and I'm guessing that's a factor of the weather more than anything else.

On a related note, I drank about a liter of water on this run and I don't think it was enough - my shirt smelled awful when I was done (amonia-like). I'm going to need to switch to my backpack for my long run next week, then decide what I want to do for the RnR Chicago. I always carry water during races and I like to run though the water stops and pass people there (makes me feel like I'm HTFU).

I had started typing something to the effect of "don't worry about carrying water for RNR Chicago, I'm sure there will be plenty of stops......". Then I grabbed a copy of the course map. The water stops don't make a hell of a lot of sense. There is one just before mile one, another just after two, then it is dry until almost mile 7, one more at about 8.5 and that is it (oops, there is a token one just after mile 12). WTF, a race in August with no water in the middle 5 miles of the race? Unless a new map comes out with more stops, I'd stick with carrying your own water. I really don't want to wear the Amphipod belt and this mucks up any plan for eating Sports Beans, but if the map is accurate I'll have to wear water. I like to bean around miles 4 & 7 with water to wash'em down. Dang, I was so relax about Chicago until now.....

According to the RnR Chicago Facebook page:

The 8 course water stations have water and Cytomax. There is one Gu station at mile 9.7. If you'd like anything other than this, definitely bring your own.

Sidenote: Mile 9.7?!?? WTF is that about?

Anyway, after the Chicago marathon nightmare a couple of years ago, I can't imagine any race (especially in Chicago) not having ample water.

That said, I always wear a Camelback when I race - even if it's my Flashflow 45oz pack, I always have something with me. I carry music, my asthma inhaler, and on longer runs some Gu and my phone. I've done a couple races where I could have really used more water between water stops, so now I don't bother trying to not bring it.

Huh, the overall planning stinks. (Oh, and since no one will actully be taking the GU, my wife asks that everyone grab one for her so she has extra to use on future runs & race, chocolate if you all could be so kind). I'll spare you the long lecture on not wearing music for a 1/2. Short lecture is, I have skipped the iPod for my last 4 1/2s and have found I enjoy hearing the people (and music, etc) and the race goes by at much more comfortable pace & have enjoyed the runs much more in general. This woud be the perfect event to give it a try.

 

[pigskinliquors]

Hey All!

Gruecd: Great race! Missing a PR by such a small margin should be great motivation for the next one. You probably didn't take in enough "carbs" the night before, and got waaaay too much sleep

2Young: Just AWESOME to hear the race report from your kids. One of my proudest moments was watching my 2 daughters during their first tri's.

Prospsis: Great to hear that all is ok, but jeez dude that was pretty scary.

Meeka: If I can ask, how old are you? There is some pretty good research that shows that prior to 35, fitness levels can be retained for a full 2 weeks without workouts. Post 35 fitness levels are lost much more quickly. I wouldn't worry too much about being a bit behind. Do NOT over train to catch up. Increases in mileage should not be greater than 10% of total total weekly mileage (i.e., in week 1 if you run 20 total miles, week 2 should not be greater than 22). It's a rule of thumb that can be broken a bit, but be cautious with any greater gains.

Mac_32 & The_Man: Welcome to the thread! Post your progress and tribulations in here, and as a group we'll do what we can to keep you honest with your workouts, and on track.

BullDozier: I usually don't like to tell people that it's "good to beat your wife", but in this case, train hard and beat her!

Keggers: Gu shouldn't give you much benefit regarding recovery. Protein is generally the key to recovery. 20 oz. of milk is a great way to do it (20'ish grams).

Wraith5: Great run! Keeping up with hydration in the heat is certainly difficult, but important. Tri-Man's "pee-test" is a great way to check. You can also weigh both pre and post a run, to see how much you are losing. Losing a couple pounds during a long run = ok. Losing more is not.

______________________________________________________

My Update:

I'm back from being "Mr. Mom!". Mrs. Liquors went on a cruise with her girlfriends, and I've been playing house-daddy since last Thursday. I got good swims in on Thursday and Saturday; ran on the #######' treadmill on Friday (I can't stand the treadmill); and yesterday had an awesome 6 mile run while pushing my 4 year old in the jogging stroller. I hadn't pushed her in the stroller in quite awhile, and this experience was much different than those in the past. Two large variables have changed: a) she now weighs quite a bit more; and b) she talks sooooooooooooooooooooooo much more (I don't think she stopped during the entire run!). It was also a bit windy, and pushing her weight into the wind while she's riding on a tiny-little-parachute-like-stroller was a great workout. Amazingly she wanted to go longer, but I didn't have much in me (especially with it 84 degrees with 94% humidity). Today was a nice bike ride into work (11 mile TT: averaged 22.2 MPH, downwind). I'll make the ride home approximately 17 miles.

 

[Bull Dozier]

Well, after watching my wife run a half marathon earlier this year, and being utterly uncomfortable with the fact that she could do anything athletic better than me, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half marathon this fall.

I think this is pretty much how this thread got started, only with a 10K instead of a half.

Nothing like a little male ego to get one back into shape.Question for the long time runners. What amount of knee pain is normal, and what amount should you be able to put up with? When I run, inevitably at some point my knees start to hurt. It is not a serious pain, more of just a discomfort. It doesn't make me feel like I need to stop, it is more of just a dull pain that I always know is there. The reason I ask is that my dad, brother, and sister have all had knee surgery over the past couple of years (dad and bro were cartilage tears, and my sister was a little more serious). I really don't want to have to go through knee surgery, so I'm hoping some amount of knee pain while running is normal.

 

[pigskinliquors]

Well, after watching my wife run a half marathon earlier this year, and being utterly uncomfortable with the fact that she could do anything athletic better than me, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half marathon this fall.

I think this is pretty much how this thread got started, only with a 10K instead of a half.

Nothing like a little male ego to get one back into shape.Question for the long time runners. What amount of knee pain is normal, and what amount should you be able to put up with? When I run, inevitably at some point my knees start to hurt. It is not a serious pain, more of just a discomfort. It doesn't make me feel like I need to stop, it is more of just a dull pain that I always know is there. The reason I ask is that my dad, brother, and sister have all had knee surgery over the past couple of years (dad and bro were cartilage tears, and my sister was a little more serious). I really don't want to have to go through knee surgery, so I'm hoping some amount of knee pain while running is normal.

Most likely, you have a minor case of chondromalacia (runner's knee). If this is the case, Glucosamine and Chondroitin should be your best friends. They'll help you to keep the cartilage in your knees, which is breaking down.

 

[Bull Dozier]

Well, after watching my wife run a half marathon earlier this year, and being utterly uncomfortable with the fact that she could do anything athletic better than me, I shot my mouth off and said I'd do a half marathon this fall.

I think this is pretty much how this thread got started, only with a 10K instead of a half.

Nothing like a little male ego to get one back into shape.Question for the long time runners. What amount of knee pain is normal, and what amount should you be able to put up with? When I run, inevitably at some point my knees start to hurt. It is not a serious pain, more of just a discomfort. It doesn't make me feel like I need to stop, it is more of just a dull pain that I always know is there. The reason I ask is that my dad, brother, and sister have all had knee surgery over the past couple of years (dad and bro were cartilage tears, and my sister was a little more serious). I really don't want to have to go through knee surgery, so I'm hoping some amount of knee pain while running is normal.

Most likely, you have a minor case of chondromalacia (runner's knee). If this is the case, Glucosamine and Chondroitin should be your best friends. They'll help you to keep the cartilage in your knees, which is breaking down.

Love this board. Thanks for the info, I'll give them a try.

 

[gruecd]

What amount of knee pain is normal, and what amount should you be able to put up with?

Um, I wouldn't say that ANY amount of knee pain is "normal." Where specifically does it hurt? How many miles do you have on your shoes? Were you fitted for shoes at a specialty running store (and not someplace like ****'s where half the people don't know WTF they're talking about)?

I see that you live in the Cities. My sister lives up there. She lives in Uptown pretty close to this place. Seems pretty decent from the couple of times I've been in there.

 

[gruecd]

Followed up last night's craptastically awful run with an easy 6-mile recovery run this morning at 5 AM. Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day, and I'm doing Thursday's 11-miler at 7 PM with a friend, so while I'm technically only taking one day off, I'll actually have about 2-1/2 days between runs.

Gonna need it, as Thursday's 11-miler is followed up by 7 w/strides on Friday and 18 on Saturday.

 

[The_Man]

Iced and elevated my Achilles last night, then got back out there to do a brisk (for me) 5K this morning. Felt great while I was running (Achilles included) but now it's getting a little sore again. The only thing that keeps me from dismissing it as just a regular strain is the weird fluid-y sensation in the area. Oh well -- think I'm just going to keep stretching, icing and elevating and hope for the best.

When I started running a couple of months ago, I felt like I had a four-cylinder engine inside an SUV body. Engine is still underpowered, but I now have a mini-van body and am not too far from full-sized sedan status.

 

[Bull Dozier]

What amount of knee pain is normal, and what amount should you be able to put up with?

Um, I wouldn't say that ANY amount of knee pain is "normal." Where specifically does it hurt? How many miles do you have on your shoes? Were you fitted for shoes at a specialty running store (and not someplace like ****'s where half the people don't know WTF they're talking about)?

I see that you live in the Cities. My sister lives up there. She lives in Uptown pretty close to this place. Seems pretty decent from the couple of times I've been in there.

The knee pain is on the outside of the knee. If I'm sitting down, and feel between where the two bones come together to the outside of the knee cap, that is where it gets sore.I did go to a Running Room store, but I did not bother to get fitted. I got my shoes last summer when I was just running 3 miles a few days a week. The knee pain came this summer when I went over the 3 mile mark (I think, I can't remember having the same pain last year). They are decent shoes, but I just got a comfortable pair that was on clearance.

 

[SFBayDuck]

Wow, a lot going on in here while I was away the past few days!

Welcome to the new additions to the thread, and love seeing someone faster than gruecd (at least at the 5K). Not like he needs anyone to push him or anything, being the HTFU master and all.

Great runs by a few, a scary day by another, and a proud poppa (no, not you poppa) in another post. Good stuff, run hard, and stay well.

T-minus 5 days and counting to my first marathon. This taper thing sucks, I'm having a hard time with it and almost cost myself.....went out on Sunday with the intention of 8-9 primarily slow, flat miles. Next thing I know, I'm up on the singletrack again! (For those of you that are new, I'm happiest on trails like this and this and this and this). It was just such a nice day out, and it was pretty warm so I justified it a bit with "well, it's more shade up here than out on the roads". My usual trail was really crowded, and at one point I'm passing a couple hiking and planted my foot basically on the side of the trail and my ankle totally rolled. Now I've been blessed with really strong ankles, I think a combo of genetics, growing up playing soccer and basketball, and now running trails for a couple years, and my ankles will roll a bit here and it's no big deal. But I felt this one. The ligament on the outside of my left ankle is a little sore the past couple of days, but no swelling or anything so I think I just strained it a bit. Yesterday ran a very quick (all I had time for) 2 miles on a nice, flat paved bike path, and iced it a bit last night.

Needless to say, I'll be staying off the singletrack the rest of the week, even though I really want to get up there again tomorrow for my 5 miler. But I'll play it smart and stay down on the bike paths or flat, easy trails out by the bay. Same for 3 miles on Friday, and then it's hydrate, eat right, try to sleep Friday night at least, and get ready for Sunday morning.

 

[gruecd]

I did go to a Running Room store, but I did not bother to get fitted. I got my shoes last summer when I was just running 3 miles a few days a week. The knee pain came this summer when I went over the 3 mile mark (I think, I can't remember having the same pain last year). They are decent shoes, but I just got a comfortable pair that was on clearance.

Go back there and have them go a gait analysis. Do you pronate? Supinate? Do you need a cushioned shoe? A stability shoe? A neutral shoe? I'd bet the farm that your knee pain is being caused by improper shoes.

Welcome to the new additions to the thread, and love seeing someone faster than gruecd (at least at the 5K). Not like he needs anyone to push him or anything, being the HTFU master and all.

Meh. That short stuff is for sissies. We've already established that I'm far superior in the marathon. ETA: Duck, you're a bonehead for running on singletrack, technical trails during your taper. Now cut it out and get healthy for your race!!!

 

[tri-man 47]

Followed up last night's craptastically awful run with an easy 6-mile recovery run this morning at 5 AM. Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day, and I'm doing Thursday's 11-miler at 7 PM with a friend, so while I'm technically only taking one day off, I'll actually have about 2-1/2 days between runs.Gonna need it, as Thursday's 11-miler is followed up by 7 w/strides on Friday and 18 on Saturday.

I followed up my crappy Sunday run with a good 8 miler today - mile warm-up, then 7 miles at 7:40/mi (hoping to do the 1/2 at 7:50/mi pace).eta:The_Man - neat to hear that the chassis is slimming down!Bull Dozier - that knee pain could just be runner's knee, as mentioned, but use the opportunity to check your gait. Are you a hard heel striker, which 'brakes' each step and pounds the leg? Or do you land quietly and roll through the step? If you have some family history of knee problems, do you have the opportunity to train on a track or trails?SF Duck ...very excited for you, bud!!! Drink steady; eat like an elk (graze throughout the day); get the final big meals 24-36 hours before the race.

 

[gruecd]

Followed up last night's craptastically awful run with an easy 6-mile recovery run this morning at 5 AM. Tomorrow's a scheduled rest day, and I'm doing Thursday's 11-miler at 7 PM with a friend, so while I'm technically only taking one day off, I'll actually have about 2-1/2 days between runs.Gonna need it, as Thursday's 11-miler is followed up by 7 w/strides on Friday and 18 on Saturday.

I followed up my crappy Sunday run with a good 8 miler today - mile warm-up, then 7 miles at 7:40/mi (hoping to do the 1/2 at 7:50/mi pace).

Nice work. I'm hoping my 11-miler on Thursday night will be similarly un-crappy.I've gotta take a closer look at the water station situation for the RNR Half. Spacing just seems weird. Like I said before, I'm planning on doing a couple mile warm-up beforehand and then doing the actual race as a marathon-pace training run. That's assuming I can keep my competitiveness in check and stay focused on the bigger goal....