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My 12-year-old son's best friend (also 12) finished 7th this weekend in his neighborhood's annual 5K race. He ran a 19:19.We had been talking about doing the race as a family, but didn't when the weather got too hot. Thank goodness. I would have been like
after getting smoked by the little dude who I've known since he was 5.
I'm 100% certain that I never would've toed the line under those conditions, so congrats on starting, and congrats on finishing what you started.
Great race report and I like this last post even more! I had similar thoughts on Saturday. Last week my son had to do a coat of arms for social studies that included a motto. The motto he came up with was "If You Don't Quit, it Will Always Pay Off Later". (Maybe I should back off the HTFU lifestyle just a bit). As I was getting destroyed in the swim Saturday I had thoughts of this and figured I'd either drown or finish, DNF was not an option. Hopefully he'll bring the coat of arms home in one piece, I think I'll make it my new avatar.
Great job, meeka!
October 17th
Question. If you could run 1 in 2011 would you run Chicago or Green Bay?
Wow. They're both awesome, awesome races. I guess it depends upon what you like. If you enjoy the smaller, less expensive, more "intimate" races, then I'd go with Green Bay. If you want to try the whole "megathon" experience, I'd go with Chicago. Both are flat, fast, PR-friendly courses, but Chicago might be tough if you're not qualified for one of the Start Corrals. Crowd support is definitely better in Chicago, if that's something you want/need. Green Bay is obviously a lot less expensive, both in terms of the entry fee and lodging. Believe it or not, the post-race atmosphere is probably better in Green Bay with free brats and microbrew beer for all finishers.I'm planning on running Boston again next year, but I'll probably still be in Green Bay doing the half. I'm planning on doing Twin Cities next fall. So perhaps the opportunity to meet me might sway your decision one way or the other.
Cool - I forgot to look at this at the end of the month.Bike: 7h 37m 12s - 144.35 Mi (475 on the year)Run: 6h 37m 01s - 45.93 Mi (350 on the year)Swim: 14h 17m 21s - 44640 Yd (175k yards on the year)Strength: 1h 05m If I had known I was a slow 400yds away from 45k yards for the month I definitely would have done it. Biggest swim month ever, by a long way. I now have time to do organized road rides, and frankly I have gotten to hate my trainer, so that yardage is certainly going up. Definitely will get more running in. Definitely less swimming - I didn't drown, so no need to keep up that volume. I will make up with intensity there what I will lose in volume. I have seen distinct improvements there, so now is the time, I think, to hit the dryland part hard, as well as sprint work to work on raw speed and power.
You should check in more often. Nice race. I look forward to hearing about your training for your marathon.
Run: 53.17 mi - 8.0 hoursBike: 297 mile - 19.3 hours
I don't think that's a good idea, since they both have a distinct purpose. Whereas tempo runs will help improve your lactate threshold, intervals help improve your VO2 max. Here's a helpful link from Pete Pfitzinger talking about the various types of workouts in his training plans.
Actually this is the second event this year where my age group competition was usually light and the top competitiors placed overall which cleared them out of the category.
Sounds like a good time. I need to look at getting into some of these events, I enjoy triathlons and will try some off road ones when I see one.Race Report - French Broad ChallengeResults17th of 42 overall, 1st in age group. For better or worse, that's 1st out of two. I guess rumors of my appearance is scaring away the competition.Actually this is the second event this year where my age group competition was usually light and the top competitiors placed overall which cleared them out of the category.Run 1, 1.5 miles: Race management had me at a 7:15 pace good for 19th overall. My gps had 7:20 over 1.6 miles. Average heart rate was 166 which means I was pegged at all out for the duration. Funniest part was looking at my watch at the 1/2 mile mark and seeing that I was on a 6:30 pace.T1: As expected, it was mass choas at the kayak put in as 50+ people were trying to launch in a spot that accomodated two boats. Not much to do but wait for an opening to hop in and get paddling.Paddle, 2.5 miles: 17th overall. I didn't pass anyone and one person and a two person relay passed me. My overall time was around 27 min. The top time was 21 min, the next best (race winner) was in the 24 min range. The caliber of your vessel was pretty much the over riding factor here.T2: I crashed into someone getting out. Other than that, pulling the boat up the hill and getting on the bike went well.Bike, 11 miles: Race managment had me at 27:57 which including some transition time (transition times weren't recorded separately. I had 27:27 on my watch which was good for just a hair over 24 mph. Good for 3rd overall. I didn't pass anyone in the first third of the course and picked off 5 to 6 late in the ride. Really backed it down at the end to try and attack the run.Run 2, 2.9 miles: Race mgmt had me at an 8:48 pace good for 20th overall. I was passed by 4 people and passed no one. I had my pace recorded at 8:58. Never felt right during the run. I had drank 24 oz of water during the bike with my new aero bottle and felt it during the run. Race temps were in the 80's in the sun. No cramping issues, but I blew chunks and spewed water 200 yards from the finish in front of a pile of people right on the stadium track. Didn't matter as I wasn't catching the last guy who passed me.Overall it a was a fun event but pretty uneventful. The kayak launch and equipment quality pretty much spread folks out and locked them into position. The bike wasn't long enough to make up any significant time as. Even the second place finisher who's a pro only managed to put a minute into me on the bike. The guy in front of me beat me by 30 sec and then it was a jump of 2 minutes to the next person. The finisher after me was about 2 minutes behind. Won a wooden coaster for my efforts...second coaster this year.
Very interesting read. From the research I've done, it sounds like the Pfitz plans are the ones to follow for runners who are truly seeking maximum performance. If and when I ever make it to a second marathon, I will look at doing one of his plans (probably the 18/55) -- though the long runs during the week might make it impossible to fit in my schedule. But for now, my goal is to stay healthy while running significantly more miles than ever before, and blend in as much pursuit of "maximum performance" as my body will allow.Looking back at my running log over the last year, whenever I get so banged up that it affects my training, it's always as a result of doing intervals. Maybe now that school is over, I can get to a high school track one night and run laps on the infield grass or something. But until I can find a way to run intervals without injuring myself, I'm just going to play it safe, even if it's not optimal for training.
Thanks for reminding me. I saw this over the weekend. I guess no slacking today for me either.Oh, yeah. Happy National Running Day!!!
Today was supposed to be my first rest day since 5/21, but it just wouldn't feel right to not run on National Running Day, so I'll do a super easy 3-4 miles after work.
Hope you all have a great day!
That is interesting on the VO2max training. I need to read more, as I have read differing opinions here. VO2max is a pretty static, genetically determined number. Why concentrate on something that moves only very marginally?
gruecd said:
The_Man - if your interval training is causing injuries, I'd guess it's either that 1) you're doing them too fast, 2) you're changing something in your form that is causing the injuries, or 3) you aren't properly warming up / cooling down. I love irony.
I think I may have just taken Race Stalking to a whole new (and quite frankly, creepy) level.Turns Out Her Body Marking on Her Calf Was 186 Looking at the photos, I waseta, Memo to self, race stalk #86 from the Sprint. She was in a sun dress by the time I finished the Oly &
because I KNOW WHAT I SAW. Questioning my stalking abilities, I noticed she was part of the Infinite Multi-Sport Team, so I Googled up their team page and this is what she looked like in the sun dress.
I also discovered we have a common friend on Athlinks & that she teaches in the school district my kids attend. 
What I find a little bit interesting is that Pfitzinger has you doing intervals at much higher intensity than the bike guys (like Chris Carmichael) do. He has you at 94-8% of max heart rate while Carmichael basically has you at 92-94% steady state max (which corresponds to something like 88-91% of max heart rate). That's a pretty decent difference. Maybe it has to do with the activity (I find it very hard to get to and stay at 94% of my max HR for any length of time on the bike, but I'm not a runner so I can't really compare). The other slight difference is that besides for pure speed workouts, Carmichael has basically stopped all short interval work for longer intervals especially for longer ultimate goals (i.e longer road races, Half/Full Ironman's etc.). Net-net though, they both agree that you do it to increase mitochondrial density which increases the muscles ability to use the oxygen in your blood. Supposedly you can increase this 15-20% over time, but who really knows.
I jumped on the pedals a bit, and averaged 22.4 the rest of the way in (including one 4 way stop I almost came to a stop at; and a cool down mile), to get the overall average up to 20.6. It wasn't blazing, but sure felt good to have a bit more in my legs than I expected.
Awesome ride, man.I am really starting to like the group rides I have started going on. Unlike last Tuesday (when I had to bridge a big gap to a group), this week on that same stretch of road (about a constant -1.5% grade) we were pacelining at an aggressive pace. Right when we hit that downstretch it came my turn to pull. I didn't use the aerobars since folks were right on my wheel (stayed on the hoods), but for that mile I managed to pull the group at a constant 30.5mph. Tons of fun. I really wish I had the moola to spring for a nice powermeter so I knew what kind of power those kind of efforts come to.BTW, yesterday I had to go to the running store. Same day as they have their weekly run, so I decided to run over there. The 5 miler I did was absolutely brutal (heat and humidity). That is beside the point, though. The scenery was2Young: not your best work. Yet, I firmly believe that talent is greatly increased during a race (i.e., a 6 becomes a 7, just bc she's racing!). This just means you'll have to try harder for us all next time. Nice 18 mile bike ride this morning. I went out a bit slow (had troubles averaging 20 MPH), and just thought my legs weren't up for it due to the humidity. The initial stretch is usually at a slight down wind = I was a bit disappointed. I made it to mile 6 averaging just 19.8, where my course gets pretty hilly (Texas hilly), and was able to keep it at 19.7 through mile 12. the rest is virtually a straight shot home (generally into the wind, and I assumed it was into the wind), so my thought process was to try to get it up to 20.0 into the wind the rest of the way. Happily it took just a quarter of a mile for me to realize that the wind was surprisingly at my backI jumped on the pedals a bit, and averaged 22.4 the rest of the way in (including one 4 way stop I almost came to a stop at; and a cool down mile), to get the overall average up to 20.6. It wasn't blazing, but sure felt good to have a bit more in my legs than I expected.
. UNREAL. I think I found my Wednesday afternoon activity...
[facebook] "like" [/facebook]
when little sis is around, which means I'll have to suck it up and at least make it 'til midnight. Ugh.
Are you drinking a lot of water? Dehydration is the #1 cause of headaches.Headaches right after running.....what could be the cause? Am I overdoing it during my workout? Am I not eating enough complex carbs beforehand (I know they say to eat simple carbs after a run)?
First guess? Dehydration. Are you drinking enough water?Headaches right after running.....what could be the cause?
Thanks, but believe me, I would've much rather slept another 2 hours. That being said, unless I'm injured, I don't miss workouts, so I guess you do what you've gotta do. Lazy is never an excuse.
Actually, your legs were normal from the start (although, not so sure about the cracking). Floppo did a great job of explaining the shuffle type run here a couple years ago. I use this shuffle to get going until my legs feel like I can use my normal gait. Your legs "coming in" at about a mile is typically about where I see them improve too, and your speed shouldn't suffer all than much (and you might just look at the Garmin and see you are killing it, even with a modified gait). One thing you can try to get the legs going sooner is to shift gears so that you increase your cadence and spin your legs to loosen them up a bit coming in to T2. Did you practice transition? If so, how'd it go? Have you added some type of speed lace to your running shoes?
Get a higher cadence/easier-gear going the last couple miles on the bike- spin the legs out.Get a higher cadence/shorter-stride going the first mile or so (until you feel your legs coming back) to shake the bike out at the beginning of your run.Like Baldy says- will feel kinda like shuffling, and a little awkward at first. Once you get the hang of it, you won't lose any speed at all- I actually PRed all my runs using the Tri-shuffle.The thinking behind it is similar to Lance's high cadence on the bike... less stress on the legs, more on the cardio. When your legs are heavy from the bike, you want less stress on them.
Cool, man. I did 2500 in the pool tonight. My tri next weekend is a 400yd swim, so I am making sure to pack 500yd sets in there.Running a 5k tomorrow morning, so no running/biking today.
Way to stay after it, wraith. Looking forward to seeing all that dedication pay off for you!I'll head out for an easy 4-5 miles sometime this morning. Might run a local 10K tomorrow morning, might not. Just depends on how I feel.
I don't get it. You can either run at the hot, stuffy gym and get drenched in sweat, or you can go for a nice, refreshing run out in the rain. Either way, you get wet.
For me, at least, there are few things more peaceful than running in a nice, warm rain.
Probably your piriformis. Try self-massage by putting a tennis ball under your butt and rolling around on it.I've noticed over the past few weeks that I've developed some pain in my, well, butt. Originally I thought it was my office chair, but now I'm pretty sure it's something running related. When I sit down for a while -- and it sort of depends on what I'm sitting in -- I get a dull ache in the exact same spot under my left buttcheek, where it feels like the muscle connects to the bone. It doesn't hurt at all while I'm running or waking around or standing up, but it's gotten to the point where it's really irritating when I'm at work because I can't sit at my desk for more than an hour at a time without getting up for a while. I'm not sure that this is anything to be concerned about, but I thought I'd toss it out there because I can't find anything like this described on WebMD so I figured I'd try to tap the collective wisdom of the FFA running community. Besides, talking about butts is fun, right?
Do you keep your wallet in that back pocket? I injured my piriformis playing adult kickball. It still give me problems 2+ years later. I found, though, that getting rid of a back pocket wallet and moving it to the front helped a bunch during the day to day sitting described. My chiro also gave me a great stretch that I use post workout. I lay on my back and cross one leg over the other at the knee and pull the hamstring area of the crossed over knee towards me. It give a perfect stretch to that area.Probably your piriformis. Try self-massage by putting a tennis ball under your butt and rolling around on it.I've noticed over the past few weeks that I've developed some pain in my, well, butt. Originally I thought it was my office chair, but now I'm pretty sure it's something running related. When I sit down for a while -- and it sort of depends on what I'm sitting in -- I get a dull ache in the exact same spot under my left buttcheek, where it feels like the muscle connects to the bone. It doesn't hurt at all while I'm running or waking around or standing up, but it's gotten to the point where it's really irritating when I'm at work because I can't sit at my desk for more than an hour at a time without getting up for a while. I'm not sure that this is anything to be concerned about, but I thought I'd toss it out there because I can't find anything like this described on WebMD so I figured I'd try to tap the collective wisdom of the FFA running community. Besides, talking about butts is fun, right?
