I won't give in till I reach the end... and then I'll start again (comments welcome)

[azrivest]

Oh and forgot to mention that on Friday I did my first run with my son: half a mile of 30:30 run/walk intervals. It's a start! He's super motivated to beat me in the 5k.

Billy, do you write training plans for kids? (j/k)

 

[lookingforsunshine]

And no, I am not pushing my daughter unduly. We'll take 2 hours if need be to slowly walk it. It'll be a good motivation for them to be a little more active, cause my kids can be lazy.

Good for you! I have been slowly working my way through 10 Rules for Resilience by Joe de Sena which is about raising resilient kids (and developing it yourself). I’m finding it helpful in a lot of ways. He is a bit extreme and can be unorthodox but I’d recommend it so far— has some bits that might help you with motivating your daughter in training!

 

[azrivest]

Good for you! I have been slowly working my way through 10 Rules for Resilience by Joe de Sena which is about raising resilient kids (and developing it yourself). I’m finding it helpful in a lot of ways. He is a bit extreme and can be unorthodox but I’d recommend it so far— has some bits that might help you with motivating your daughter in training!

Thanks I'll look into it!

If I let them, my kids would spend their entire days on their tablets watching stupid junk on YouTube

 

[lookingforsunshine]

If I let them, my kids would spend their entire days on their tablets watching stupid junk on YouTube

Yeah this is what my stepson (14) does. Sadly he is not here enough to really make an impact on it.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Billy, do you write training plans for kids? (j/k)

Although it wasn't serious, the actual answer is no. I think it's best to keep kids training unstructured as much as possible with the goal on fun and keeping them motivated. Something they want to do instead of have to do. Personally, I ask my daughter once if she wants to go running, and if she says "no" then I don't push the subject anymore. But when we do run together I try to make it something that she's going to want to do again, so the next time I ask, the answer will almost always be "yes". For us though, this isn't a new habit forming activity since we've been running together for a few years now.

 

[azrivest]

keep kids training unstructured as much as possible with the goal on fun and keeping them motivated

That was exactly how I was aiming to approach it. If J wants to go running, great. If not, I won't push him.

 

[azrivest]

Week 3 of 16 of my first-ever marathon training plan! My only goal is to finish, but the marathon does have a 5:30 time limit


TLDR: 5 runs, 3 strength sessions and 1h yoga. Summer is here. And I don't feel like running right now.



Running was really hard this week. I didn't hit my paces once and just felt sluggish and out of breath. Feeling pretty disheartened and unmotivated.

Monday

• Off

Tuesday

• 30-45 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 35:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 5.43 km ~ 39:45 (7:19 min/km)
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program A
  • Completed: 10:00

Wednesday

• Recovery Day (Off, Cross-Train or Optional Run)
• Planned: 30:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 5.01 km ~ 36:53 (7:21 min/km)

Thursday

• Did my 1 hour yoga class during lunch. Alot of stretching of my hips to try to get rid of that irritated sciatic.
• 50-60 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 55:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 7.42 km ~ 54:35 (7:21 min/km)
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program B
  • Completed: 8:07

Friday

• Off

Saturday

• 30-45 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 35:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 5.7 km ~ 43:52 (7:42 min/km)
• Planned: Running Form Drills
  • Completed: Yep.

Sunday

• 70-90 minute Long Run
• Planned: 1:20:00 @ 6:40-7:25 min/km
  • Completed: 11.59 km ~ 1:30:03 (7:46 min/km)

Hope y'all are more motivated than am I. Have a nice week.

 

[azrivest]

I also experienced that glitch on Thursday where my GPS was off. Seems today too. Thanks Garmin for thinking I'm so fast I can run on water, but i really can't:

 

[GollyGadget]

Good on you for completing all your runs! I honestly wouldn't worry about the paces too much. I run pretty much all of my easy runs slower than prescribed, especially in the summer. I've found it to be way more important to do the running than get psyched out over the paces. Plus, it's a lot more enjoyable .

 

[azrivest]

Week 4 of 16 of my first-ever marathon training plan! My only goal is to finish, but the marathon does have a 5:30 time limit


I'm back baby! Running this week felt so much better. Maybe my body is starting to get acclimated to the heat. My motivation is back up there. It helped that this week was a recovery week, with only 4 runs planned. It was the last week of the base phase of my plan. Next week, I start more marathon-specific workouts.

I stuck to doing the absolute minimum that my plan prescribed, as I over-indulged in alcohol. I had some colleagues visiting us from France for the week, and on Friday the company invited all its employees to an outdoor retreat. I'm still struggling to find a balance between having fun + partying, and knowing I'll be feeling icky the next day, vs sticking to my training plan and maintaining my best physical shape possible for my workouts. I tried to enjoy my social activities moderately, knowing that marathon training will soon take over most aspects of my life in the coming weeks.

In non-running news, we've switched our summer plans a bit. We're going to UO for a week in August, and instead of flying down, we're taking the Autotrain. The kids and I are super excited, watching YT videos showing the rooms and all. It's going to be an adventure to drive the 10 hours down to Lorton and back with my 2 ADHD kids! We pushed our August flights out to Feb/March for Princess, so that means our flights for Princess Weekend are officially booked And that also means I have no more money.


Monday

• Off
• Spent the day at the hospital with my son who was getting surgery under GA. He was back to his usual overexcited self the next morning with absolutely zero side effects.

Tuesday

• 40-50 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 45:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 6.02 km ~ 43:28 (7:13 min/km)
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program A
  • Completed: 9:38

Wednesday

• Recovery Day (NO Optional Run)
• Went out for Happy Hour with my French colleagues

Thursday

• Skipped yoga, since my activity during outdoor retreat was yoga.
• 40-50 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 45:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 5.66 km ~ 39:59 (7:04 min/km)
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program B
  • Completed: 9:56
• Slept at the hotel before the retreat and imbibed some wine with my friends from work

Friday

• My activity was 1h electric bike + 1h yoga.
  • Completed: 13.85 km ~ 59:00 (14.1 kph) (cycling)
  • Completed: 1:03:40 (yoga)
• I hate cycling as much as ever, even though the electric bike basically did everything for me. Zero effort involved, my HR never even went into zone 1. I'm still convinced I'll never get into triathlons. I could never put up with the cycling workouts.
• More wine imbibing in the evening + went to bed at 1am

Saturday

• 30-45 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 35:00 @ 6:38-7:09 min/km
  • Completed: 4.24 km ~ 30:35 (7:13 min/km)
• Planned: Running Form Drills
  • Completed: Nope.
• I'm pretty proud of myself. I was tired from the really late night the day before, but I still went out. And who knows why, my vo2max went up. So slightly hungover and in sleep deficit, and my vo2max goes up! Guess I need to drink more wine! (j/k)

Sunday

• 70-90 minute Long Run with Downhill Focus
• Planned: 1:20:00 @ 6:40-7:25 min/km
  • Completed: 11.11 km ~ 1:22:16 (7:24 min/km)
• I'm going to give up on my running group for awhile. Today, I was in the middle of an accordeon with speedy runners in front and slower runners in back, and me in the middle with no one to talk to. I did not have fun at all. If I have to run alone, I might as well do it at my pace with my podcasts.

Happy running!

 

[azrivest]

Oh oh I have more to say

We started doing some recipes from the Eat Slow Run Fast cookbook. So yum. That chicken wrapped in bacon... Mmm, bacon... But completely the opposite of other cookbooks. No calorie counting and pounds of butter.

And I got my Mirabel inspired tanktop from RunTheImpossible to go with my Encanto Dottie skirt:

So my costumes for W&D are all set, considering I'm re-using the Soldier Mulan costume I didn't wear during PW2022.

 

[striker1064]

We're going to UO for a week in August, and instead of flying down, we're taking the Autotrain.

Although I've never ridden the Auto Train, I ride Amtrak a lot because I hate flying, and it's a relatively easy jaunt down the East Coast to WDW. I'm intrigued by the AT but they don't let you ride it without a car! I guess that makes sense. We don't own a car, so alas.

The AT is an interesting pre-Amtrak relic that was popular with the snowbirds and continues to have high ridership. It's the longest passenger train in the country (in terms of length of the train itself); at full capacity it's somewhere between 3/4 mile and 1 mile. I've been on a stopped Amtrak that was passed by the AT and that thing just goes and goes.

I am sure that you know this already but be aware that the train does experience frequent delays. The state of passenger rail in this country is sad at best; the host railroad (CSX, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific, etc) owns most of the rails, not Amtrak. So you are subject to delays based on how cooperative the host railroad is being that particular day. Plan for delays and count it as a surprise if you actually arrive at the time printed on your ticket. If you're ever curious, check out https://asm.transitdocs.com for a very cool live map of the Amtrak system to see where the train is at any given time (trains 52/53 I think). You can also use this website to play around with date ranges to see when the train has actually arrived. The AT is unique in that Amtrak has a specific set of equipment it uses for the AT and only the AT; what that means is sometimes the train gets so late day after day that they cancel the train one day to get it back on schedule.

I don't mean to make you nervous by saying all this! All in all the train is a fun, relaxing way to travel. Hope you enjoy it!

 

[azrivest]

Plan for delays and count it as a surprise if you actually arrive at the time printed on your ticket.

Sounds like VIA Rail.

Very cool that map I'm a public transit geek. Your second link doesn't seem to work though?

We're not nervous at all. Our arrival day was a pool day anyway. Just hope we make it to our Toothsome reservation by 5:30 And it's a nice way to extend the trip, since we're only in Orlando for 4 nights.

 

[striker1064]

Your second link doesn't seem to work though?

Sorry! Not sure what happened. Updated my post, here's the full link: https://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/history.php

Train number is 53, pick any start date you want, and pick "Scheduled AR." Scheduled DP is not that useful unless you're curious about how often it leaves on time. My understanding is the AT is unique in that it can leave early if they get all the cars loaded early.

 

[HangWithMerida]

Way to go sticking to your plan this week. And I love your costume! The tank goes perfectly with that skirt!

 

[azrivest]

I tried a batch of superhero muffins for the first time tonight. So yum! I'm excited for my early morning run tomorrow, just to try em out before my run

You were right @HangWithMerida I'm really happy with her recipes so far!

 

[azrivest]

Did a Downhill Hill Repeats run today. The engineer in me can never figure out how I'm supposed to go down for 30 seconds at 9:40/mi then up for 60 seconds at 12:00/mi. One's not the half of the other!

My run also planned a 15-20 minute WU + CD, but programmed 25 minute WU + CD in Garmin. So now FinalSurge is telling me I didn't run enough I'm so confused...

At least I saw a cute hare!


I know Naomeri doesn't like them, but I prefer them to the nasty squirrels that destroy everything everywhere and empty birdfeeders

 

[Naomeri]

I like bunnies just fine, as long as they stay out of the gardens. We have lots of nice space for them to run around in, and leave plenty of wild plants they can eat to their fuzzy hearts’ content.

 

[azrivest]

Week 5 of 16 of my first-ever marathon training plan! My only goal is to finish, but the marathon does have a 5:30 time limit


This week went really well. I hit almost 5 hours of running. I'm especially proud of yesterday's long run.

Monday

• Off

Tuesday

• 30-45 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 35:00 @ 6:34-7:05 min/km
  • Completed: 5.39 km ~ 37:30 (6:57 min/km)
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program A
  • Completed: 9:34

Wednesday

• Recovery Day (Off, Cross-Train or Optional Run)
• Planned: 30:00 @ 6:34-7:05 min/km
  • Completed: 4.33 km ~ 31:26 (7:16 min/km)

Thursday

• Skipped yoga, since my activity during outdoor retreat was yoga.
• Hill Strides
• Planned: 1:05:00
  • 15-20 min WU
  • Downhill Strides: 6 to 8 times 15-30 seconds on a moderately sloped downhill (1-2% downhill grade) at half-marathon effort with the jog back up the hill as recovery
  • 15-20 min CD
  • Completed: 6.78 km ~ 51:45 (7:38 min/km)
  • I have no idea how I did on this workout. This is what it gave me in the end: I was faster on the downhill and slower on the uphill. Is that okay? It's hard with a 30-second interval to hit a specific pace.
• Planned: Strength in Stride Phase 1 - Stability Program B
  • Completed: 12:22
• 1 hour lunch yoga

Friday

• Off

Saturday

• 30-45 minute Easy Run
• Planned: 35:00 @ 6:34-7:05 min/km
  • Completed: 5.36 km ~ 40:27 (7:32 min/km)
• Planned: Running Form Drills
  • Completed: Yup!
• Another funny run. I felt fine, but I could feel my HR creep up. Either My HR on my watch did not seem to correlate with how I was feeling. So okay, cardiac drift. I tested out what happens when I take off my watch. My HR monitoring did not stop. If that isn't a sign of cadence lock, I don't know what it is. It took a full minute for my watch to stop monitoring my heart rate after I took it off. That dip in my pace (grey zone) is when I stopped running to take off my watch and that smaller dip is when I put it back on:
  
• Really makes me wonder if I should invest in a chest strap, or just stop looking at my HR completely and go with RPE. Makes me feel that what's on my watch is useless.

Sunday

• 10-12 mile (16-19 km) Long Run
• Planned: 11 mi @ 6:36-7:21 min/km
  • Completed: 18.01 km ~ 2:08:35 (7:08 min/km)
• I am so proud of myself for this run. I was a little worried, cause this was a steep increase from last week's 1:20 long run. I was out of town and the area I was in had more uphills and downhills. I left early in the morning to get my run in before the sun was fully up, put on the Rise and Run podcast, got in my zone and had a blast. I felt great the whole time.
• Garmin tells me my total ascent was 406 ft.
• Probably helped that I put on my RC Elite v2. Wow what a difference those shoes make compared to my regular daily trainers.

I'm getting anxious about the rest of the summer tho. I have many more long runs coming, including some pretty long ones. My longest planned run is 19 miles, which at my training pace would take me well over 3 hours. 19 miles * ~11 min/mile = 3h30. Do I respect the plan? Do I respect the 3 hour rule? (And seriously, how would this work for slower runners?)

Also, it being summer, we're often busy on the weekends which makes it hard to get those long runs in. I'm actually going to be working all weekend this coming Saturday and Sunday. I'm volunteering at the local track for a track&field competition, which will keep me on my feet for 10-hour days. And I've got a 13-mile run planned for Sunday morning, which based on yesterday's run should take me about 2h30. I'm really nervous how it's going to go. I hope I don't keel over on Sunday from exhaustion. I'm only half kidding...


Happy running!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I was faster on the downhill and slower on the uphill. Is that okay?

Based on it being downhill at HM Tempo and an uphill recovery jog, isn't that what you would expect? To be faster on the downhill and slower uphill? Or do you mean, "is it okay to do a downhill HM Tempo workout?" Which the answer to that is, yes.

Another funny run. I felt fine, but I could feel my HR creep up. Either My HR on my watch did not seem to correlate with how I was feeling. So okay, cardiac drift. I tested out what happens when I take off my watch. My HR monitoring did not stop. If that isn't a sign of cadence lock, I don't know what it is. It took a full minute for my watch to stop monitoring my heart rate after I took it off. That dip in my pace (grey zone) is when I stopped running to take off my watch and that smaller dip is when I put it back on:

So the wrist based HR data lags. It's not instantaneous. So because it's still giving you values after taking the watch off your wrist doesn't surprise me a ton. Same thing happens if you're using the watch for 24/7 HR monitoring and you take it off your wrist while sitting still. It'll continue to give you a value for a period of time before it "realizes" you aren't there anymore. That's why wrist-based HR monitors aren't as good for HIIT where there are short periods of high activity and low activity. It doesn't catch everything, but it'll give a good general average.

I'm getting anxious about the rest of the summer tho. I have many more long runs coming, including some pretty long ones. My longest planned run is 19 miles, which at my training pace would take me well over 3 hours. 19 miles * ~11 min/mile = 3h30. Do I respect the plan? Do I respect the 3 hour rule? (And seriously, how would this work for slower runners?)

Straight from McMillan's mouth:

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/longest-long-run-marathon/

Having a shorter distance (but equal duration to others) long run for slower runners works when you realize that it's not the long run solely that prepares you for the marathon distance. It's the totality of the training plan. And secondly when you realize that time/duration matters more than mileage does. A runner who does 8 hours per week and does 25 weekly miles of training vs a runner who does 8 hours per week and does 50 weekly miles of training are both going to be decently prepared for the marathon. The race itself is about proper pacing after you've done proper training.