Biggest Loser Run/Walker Thread 2012/13--Everyone Welcome! :)

[tiki23]

Originally Posted by lisah0711

Sounds like a great birthday, Alice!

That looked like a fun race! Hope you stayed dry! I see there is a half in August where you run across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. I may have to try one of those races some day as my Mom lives in Gig Harbor in the summer months.

Thanks - it was a good day! If you get over this way for a race or just want to meet up for a run/jog/trot shoot me a PM. I ran/walked this last 5K in under 39 minutes so I'm still working on improving.

Originally Posted by Rose&Mike

Good Morning! As promised:

Question of the Week:

B. It looks like a lot of people have goals for this year or races they would like to complete. As runners (mostly women in this group) I think we hear a lot of "CAN'TS". For instance, we have a friend who is in her 20s and can run a half in under 1:50. She developed itbs this spring and the doctor she went to told her women are not designed to run and she should find a new sport. What "Can't" or "No" messages are you hearing or are you telling yourself that could be a roadblock to your training?

I guess the big thing is I still just feel a little insecure about this whole "I am a runner" thing. So my biggest "can't" sometimes, still remains me.

Oh I think most people's biggest "can't" is in their heads...I've read that our self-talk is often negative. I know I will always work to overcome that.

I haven't had anyone else tell me "no" yet but then I don't hang out with any fast runners or running trainers. My family and friends think I am amazing just for getting off the couch!

My "no" is interior too, Rose. "Better not do that, I might hurt myself." "Seriously? I'm not trying that, those people are half my age." What I'm finding out though is that I CAN do some of that, and I can train for the rest of what interests me. Now I am working on not cheating myself, not giving in instead of giving up.

I don't need to run those 7-8mm. but I would like to get to a 10mm. I want to be continually challenging myself and to me, that's what makes me a runner.

[myweegirls]

Hi everyone!

On the "can't" question...I think I've struggled with that my whole life in some areas. They're usually weight and health related. I was always a good student, and I'm good at what I do. I love tackling new music (I sing as a major extracurricular), and I love being a mom. And yet, I always second-guessed myself when it came to my weight and my body image, and I always felt like exercise was something I couldn't do. But as I started seeing successes in weight loss, I started gaining confidence in the exercise area, too. I think they had to build on each other for me to achieve real success in either area.

My post-broken-toe return to the C25K continues! I'm just a few workouts away from where I had to leave off when I broke my toe, and my pace is just as good. I'll be out tonight on Week 5/Day 2 as long as we don't have thunderstorms (gotta draw the line somewhere), and tomorrow is an off day, as I'll be out of the house from about 6am-9pm. It's all feeling really good, though, even though I'm still nervous about how my current 3 miles will expand to 10 by the end of September and 13.1 by mid-January!

It does look like my first official 5K will be on Castaway Cay in a couple of weeks, though, and I'm pretty psyched about that. Bring it on - I'm definitely making room in my suitcase for my Brooks!

XO
Liz

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Originally Posted by myweegirls

Hi everyone!

On the "can't" question...I think I've struggled with that my whole life in some areas. They're usually weight and health related. I was always a good student, and I'm good at what I do. I love tackling new music (I sing as a major extracurricular), and I love being a mom. And yet, I always second-guessed myself when it came to my weight and my body image, and I always felt like exercise was something I couldn't do. But as I started seeing successes in weight loss, I started gaining confidence in the exercise area, too. I think they had to build on each other for me to achieve real success in either area.

My post-broken-toe return to the C25K continues! I'm just a few workouts away from where I had to leave off when I broke my toe, and my pace is just as good. I'll be out tonight on Week 5/Day 2 as long as we don't have thunderstorms (gotta draw the line somewhere), and tomorrow is an off day, as I'll be out of the house from about 6am-9pm. It's all feeling really good, though, even though I'm still nervous about how my current 3 miles will expand to 10 by the end of September and 13.1 by mid-January!

It does look like my first official 5K will be on Castaway Cay in a couple of weeks, though, and I'm pretty psyched about that. Bring it on - I'm definitely making room in my suitcase for my Brooks!

XO
Liz

Liz, you will Love running on Castaway Cay- very very flat- it is not an "offical race" but they do give you bib numbers to wear, and there is a clock at the finish and they give out finisher medals. There is only one area where they give out water and although the course is flat it is not very shaded -at one point you are running down the old air strip - I reccomend bringing your water with you. I ran this in Jan and it was still quite a warm run but I did post my best ever 5k time- My husband ran it back in 2009 in July and nearly had heat stroke.. Enjoy your cruise!

[dumbo_buddy]

My training has been practically zero lately. Having a tough time finding time to get my runs in. I am going to really need to prioritize! I am going to sign up for some more local races to keep me motivated. The Bronx half is turning out to actually be a Bronx ten miler. I think will domit anyway. I need to get up my mileage AND keep up the short runs.

What kind of water container do you all like? Handheld? Those bottle things that attach to your belt?

[JacksLilWench]

Originally Posted by Rose&Mike

Good Morning! As promised:

Question of the Week:

A. If you are still lurking and haven't introduced yourself (or you are just new) please do. On the first page there are some questions to make it easy.

B. It looks like a lot of people have goals for this year or races they would like to complete. As runners (mostly women in this group) I think we hear a lot of "CAN'TS". For instance, we have a friend who is in her 20s and can run a half in under 1:50. She developed itbs this spring and the doctor she went to told her women are not designed to run and she should find a new sport. What "Can't" or "No" messages are you hearing or are you telling yourself that could be a roadblock to your training?

All of my Can't messages are coming from myself. However, I like to think of my inner monologue as six-year-old Ellie from "Up"...which means no one can tell me I can't anything. So whenever a small part of my subconscious says I can't finish this race or this training run or whatever, my buck-toothed inner voice says "Yes You Can!!" and then I rip it out

*********
This needs an answer bad, because I can't take it too much longer. Whenever I run, my right calf gets so tight, I can hardly jog. What can I do to stretch it out and make it more tolerable when I do run/jog, so I don't feel like I want to give up?

[Flossbolna]

Originally Posted by dumbo_buddy

What kind of water container do you all like? Handheld? Those bottle things that attach to your belt?

Oh, I am really interested in answer to this question as well! As my runs get longer I realise that I need to take some water with me. Just unsure on how to do it.

[Rose&Mike]

I have enjoyed reading everyone's replies to the question of the week. I will be back later with replies.

Kaiti--I would work on preventing it. Here is my favorite calf stretch. I call it the towel stretch. Lay on your back. One leg flat. One leg straight up in the air. Hook a long towel or strap around your foot and pull your leg towards you. You should feel it in your entire leg. What I like about this stretch--you can rotate your foot to get stretch throughout your foot and ankle. You can pull your leg towards you and feel the stretch in your hamstrings. I did it for 30 sec at a time. 4 times a session, 3-4 times a day. There are lots and lots of calf stretches, just be aware that while it is important to stretch your achilles tendon, you don't want to over do it. No bouncing on calf stretches. Too much too fast is not a good thing. Again, not a doctor, this is just what has worked for me. If you google it you should be able to find lots of other calf stretches.

Nancy--Mike has an amphipod hydration belt with 4 water bottles. If I run alone I will just carry a 16 ounce water bottle. Drink it until it's empty and then either refill at water fountains if I'm in the park or take water from water stations at races. I do have a belt, but for my cell phone, etc. Stuff around my waist bugs me, so I try to avoid it. My running skirt has 3 pockets so that comes in handy.

I got glutened over the weekend (my own fault--I was hoping the nachos I had when we were out wouldn't have too much cross contamination but I lost that bet) so I have not been feeling so great the last couple of days. Hoping to be back to normal tomorrow. Have a great Tuesday!

[CRUIZEN MAMMA]

Originally Posted by dumbo_buddy

My training has been practically zero lately. Having a tough time finding time to get my runs in. I am going to really need to prioritize! I am going to sign up for some more local races to keep me motivated. The Bronx half is turning out to actually be a Bronx ten miler. I think will domit anyway. I need to get up my mileage AND keep up the short runs.

What kind of water container do you all like? Handheld? Those bottle things that attach to your belt?

Nancy, I use a Nathan hand held, it has a zipper pouch big enough for keys and a energy gel and I hardly realize I'm running with soemthing in my hand.

Ran 2 1/2 miles on the treadmill last night- right leg a little tight and twingy but after streching felt pretty good.

[sissy_ib]

B. It looks like a lot of people have goals for this year or races they would like to complete. As runners (mostly women in this group) I think we hear a lot of "CAN'TS". For instance, we have a friend who is in her 20s and can run a half in under 1:50. She developed itbs this spring and the doctor she went to told her women are not designed to run and she should find a new sport. What "Can't" or "No" messages are you hearing or are you telling yourself that could be a roadblock to your training?

I'm trying to fight the "I cants" right now.
I have been all or nothing with running a 5K. I guess to prove to myself that I can. Well, I also have the symptoms of exertional compartment syndrome. My doctor told me he believed I do have it but he and I decided not to do the pressure test as it is invasive and I would not elect to have the surgery anyhow as it is very invasive and I have no problems walking or even power walking. Plus at the time I was in the military getting ready to get out and had no plans to continue running once I was out. I am in week 7 of C25K and the runs are 25 minutes. The symptoms have been starting around 20-22 minutes. As soon as it starts I have been breaking down telling myself I cant do it. I need to accept the fact that I may not be able to run the entire 5K and I need to understand that walking is not the same a quitting.
I am going to finish C25K but I will have to modify my runs. When we do the 5K next week I plan on running for 20 minutes then walking for 2. My symptoms are not to severe so just those 2 minutes walking will give me enough rest to be able to keep going

[BernardandMissBianca]

Question for those that do intervals for 1/2's and fulls.
How do you know when your 1/1 or 2/1 interval is done? Do you count? Do you have an app that says walk/run?
My Jeff Galloway app(5K) will not work on my phone at all. I've taken it off my phone and reloaded it, done the updates, everything. Nothing works, it always crashes!

I need to figure out how to gauge my intervals.
Trying RunKeeper again, but it's not the best either.

I also downloaded Jeff Galloway's 1/2 and full training schedules to see which one I'd rather do. However the full is over 1/2 filled so I need to decide soon.

[Rose&Mike]

Buffy--Mike has runkeeper on his phone. But we have a garmin which we mostly use. Runkeeper works ok, but has been off on some of the distances.

Amanda--I am sorry about the injuries. I think a lot of people have more trouble switching over to some form of walk breaks mentally than anything else. It's especially frustrating cause so much of the running community still sees it as a fail if you walk. I have had tons of conversations with folks about this. The lightbulb often comes on for some people when they realize I am faster than they are and I take walk breaks. (Not that it matters how fast one is, it is just often an aha moment.)

I did not start off with walk breaks and I think I told the story of my first half where I ran the entire thing without walking a single step. This was before I was diagnosed with gluten issues. Since then my body has basically told me you have to either do something different or stop running. So now I run short distances without breaks, but for longer distances I do run/walk and have finally settled on 2 run 30 sec walk as my favorite interval. I have tried longer, shorter, run a mile walk a minute, run 5 min walk 1 min, etc. This works best for where I am at right now.

Mike actually ran a 1:54 half with walk breaks. And it was a HUGE shift for him. He ran cross country in hs and worked out with the cc team in college. He has no problems with it now, but it took a lot of research on his part to decide it was a good idea.

Mentally it was a big shift for me and I still get very anxious at the start of a race. It is very strange to walk after just a couple minutes of running. BUT when I stick to the intervals I finish strong. I have kept up some pretty decent times even though I have spent a ton on time in physical therapy in the past 7 months. Take some time and think about it. I totally understand your frustration.

I hope you are able to avoid surgery and work something out so that you are feeling better and feeling positive about your effort.

[Rose&Mike]

article: Are you ready to run a marathon?

http://www.rivercityraces.com/files/...a_Marathon.pdf

[BernardandMissBianca]

Originally Posted by Rose&Mike

article: Are you ready to run a marathon?

http://www.rivercityraces.com/files/...a_Marathon.pdf

Uh, no.

But I really want to try.

[JacksLilWench]

Originally Posted by Rose&Mike

Kaiti--I would work on preventing it. Here is my favorite calf stretch. I call it the towel stretch. Lay on your back. One leg flat. One leg straight up in the air. Hook a long towel or strap around your foot and pull your leg towards you. You should feel it in your entire leg. What I like about this stretch--you can rotate your foot to get stretch throughout your foot and ankle. You can pull your leg towards you and feel the stretch in your hamstrings. I did it for 30 sec at a time. 4 times a session, 3-4 times a day. There are lots and lots of calf stretches, just be aware that while it is important to stretch your achilles tendon, you don't want to over do it. No bouncing on calf stretches. Too much too fast is not a good thing. Again, not a doctor, this is just what has worked for me. If you google it you should be able to find lots of other calf stretches.

Thanks Rose! I will try that tomorrow before my run. And I'll google some other stretches too....how sad is it I never even thought to search for it? It's like if it doesn't deal with Disney, I have no clue where to start looking for it

*******
I have another question too: how bad is it if you miss a Galloway training run? For two weeks now, I've missed my Tuesday 30 min run, but always made sure to do my Thursday 30 and my Saturday long run. What's the worst that could happen?

[BernardandMissBianca]

Good question!! I don't have the answer but I would gather that you will probably be ok. Just try not to miss to many more. Are you doing any cross training?


My concern is that I will miss a magic mile, the 26 mile practice run (Or 14 mile 1/2 marathon run), and another 6 mile run in the taper when we go to Disney for Xmas. I'm concerned.