My Journey to 50 miles (2nd attempt)... (comments welcome)

[disneygpa]

I’m sorry the race didn’t go well. You had nice even miles up until the pain threw you for a loop. I hope you can find a solution for the future.

Sorry you didn't have the day you were hoping for. Injury aside, it sounds like you were heading in the right direction all race. I think it's worth another shot when the time comes.

Sorry you succumbed to the dreaded IT Band issue. Heat and humidity combine to really wreak havoc with bodies. I think the older we get, the less bandwidth we have to cope. Hope you recover well,

Sorry you had to DNF. You should definitely be proud of your training. The weather this weekend was brutal. :/

Well, that sucks. Hope you're feeling better now and find a solution.

I'm also in the camp of needing to spend time doing ALL the things and not just running to keep my body healthy.

Thanks everyone!

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna give it another shot next year. But I think I'm going to train for the Forgotten Florida 50 miler. It's on actual trails and would probably be easier on my joints. It is also close enough that I can practice on the actual trail. We'll see.

Donna is thinking about giving a marathon a try. If she decides to go with that, I'm going to need another complicated running plan!

 

[azrivest]

Hope your right leg is feeling better after a few days. Congratulations on making the decision you needed to do to keep yourself healthy, it's never an easy decision.

 

[disneygpa]

Been awhile since I updated. I took a couple of weeks off from pretty much everything except walks with my lovely wife.

I spent that time contemplating whether I should try another 50-mile run. And as you can see from the title change, I think I've decided to give it another go.

I'm leaning toward the Forgotten Florida 50 miler. They just ran it weekend before last, so I'll have an entire year to prepare for it. It is an actual trail run which might be easier on my old body. Also, it's another race that I can go run chunks of for training. I'm not sure where all I can drop in on the trail. But I'll figure that out as I get closer.

Donna and I went up and walked the first couple of miles of the trail and it really put the bug back into me to give it another go.

I really miss trail running. It's just better for my soul to be out on the trail. Having said that, trail running in FL is SOOOOOOO much different than in WA. The lack of elevation gain here is surely to be made up for with the variety of the surfaces I'll be running on. Pictures from the last race show spots of ankle/shin deep mud as well as sugar sand, board walks over swampy areas and hard pack trails. Looks like fun!

Donna and I have started working out every morning. Except Saturday. It's our rest day. We have been alternating doing dumbbell workouts and walking/running. I'm getting the itch to add running for myself back into the mix. Maybe by doing just a couple of miles before my dumbbell workouts. We'll see though. I don't want to go crazy and hurt myself or flare up that stupid IT band.

Anyways. I'm looking forward to seeing if the added weight training and stretching help with the IT band issues and seeing if I can have a better showing next year!

 

[disneygpa]

Greetings everyone old and new! I hope everyone is doing well with life! Been awhile since I updated this. Without a specific training plan, I guess I'm just not good at updates.

What have I been up to? I recently finished a book by Dr Peter Attia titled "Outlive" In it he outlines four pillars of fitness, stability, strength, aerobic and anaerobic. He also talks about getting plenty of sleep, eating right, and dealing with your stress. Great book by the way! Especially for us that are a bit older. I've been trying to get to a point where I'm getting a little of this every day in one way or the other.

Training wise, it's been a hodge podge of lifting, stationary biking and walks mostly. Lately I've been throwing in some run/walks a couple times a week. Over the last month or so I've been really consistent with getting my workouts and cardio in 6 days a week.

One of the Son-in-laws has asked me to run a marathon in February. I need to commit to this pretty soon and start building on my existing miles. I wasn't really planning on running any specific distances. But now that he has brought it up, I'm kind of getting the itch to try.

I got myself a new HR chest strap (Morpheus) and I've been using it for my training. It measures my HRV every morning and gives me HR zones to stay in on a daily basis. On Monday's it gives me weekly goal minutes for the three different training zones. So, what I've been doing is walking with Donna S, M, W & Th. This pretty much gets all of my zone 1 out of the way. HR for that usually ranges between 90-135 ish. This morning, I barely broke 90 for most of our 3 miles. I'll need to start wearing my weighted vest to get my HR up a little on those walks.

On Tuesday and Friday, I work on getting my HR up. I've been getting into zone 2 (usually 136-150 ish) and then doing intervals into zone 3 of one minute each. So far this seems to be working for me. I like it because I can really see what an easy day is vs a harder day. So instead of using any particular pace, I just watch my HR and try to stay in each zone. As the temps "cool" down here in FL I suspect I'll be able to run a little more and walk a little less in each zone.

On a personal note, we went to Disneyland back in June. It was a great time! We hadn't been there since we moved to FL. Also, we spent a week on Douglas Lake in TN. Fantastic time there! I think everyone agreed it was one of our best family vacations! Last but not in any way least..... We are welcoming grandchild number 6 to the family in Dec/Jan!!!! We are so excited about this! It's going to be a girl and now we'll have 3 of each! Woot woot! I highly recommend getting yourself some grandkids! Way more fun than raising your own kids!

 

[col1]

Greetings everyone old and new! I hope everyone is doing well with life! Been awhile since I updated this. Without a specific training plan, I guess I'm just not good at updates.

What have I been up to? I recently finished a book by Dr Peter Attia titled "Outlive" In it he outlines four pillars of fitness, stability, strength, aerobic and anaerobic. He also talks about getting plenty of sleep, eating right, and dealing with your stress. Great book by the way! Especially for us that are a bit older. I've been trying to get to a point where I'm getting a little of this every day in one way or the other.

Training wise, it's been a hodge podge of lifting, stationary biking and walks mostly. Lately I've been throwing in some run/walks a couple times a week. Over the last month or so I've been really consistent with getting my workouts and cardio in 6 days a week.

One of the Son-in-laws has asked me to run a marathon in February. I need to commit to this pretty soon and start building on my existing miles. I wasn't really planning on running any specific distances. But now that he has brought it up, I'm kind of getting the itch to try.

I got myself a new HR chest strap (Morpheus) and I've been using it for my training. It measures my HRV every morning and gives me HR zones to stay in on a daily basis. On Monday's it gives me weekly goal minutes for the three different training zones. So, what I've been doing is walking with Donna S, M, W & Th. This pretty much gets all of my zone 1 out of the way. HR for that usually ranges between 90-135 ish. This morning, I barely broke 90 for most of our 3 miles. I'll need to start wearing my weighted vest to get my HR up a little on those walks.

On Tuesday and Friday, I work on getting my HR up. I've been getting into zone 2 (usually 136-150 ish) and then doing intervals into zone 3 of one minute each. So far this seems to be working for me. I like it because I can really see what an easy day is vs a harder day. So instead of using any particular pace, I just watch my HR and try to stay in each zone. As the temps "cool" down here in FL I suspect I'll be able to run a little more and walk a little less in each zone.

On a personal note, we went to Disneyland back in June. It was a great time! We hadn't been there since we moved to FL. Also, we spent a week on Douglas Lake in TN. Fantastic time there! I think everyone agreed it was one of our best family vacations! Last but not in any way least..... We are welcoming grandchild number 6 to the family in Dec/Jan!!!! We are so excited about this! It's going to be a girl and now we'll have 3 of each! Woot woot! I highly recommend getting yourself some grandkids! Way more fun than raising your own kids!

Congratulations on the new Granchild

That book sounds like something I should read I’m going to check it out

 

[Sleepless Knight]

I'm also questioning if I have the ability to run 50 miles. Maybe I don't. I'm going to take a couple of weeks off for now and see how I feel.

I know I'm very late to this, but you said something here that really spoke to me.

I signed up for my first Half Marathon because I wanted the medal. Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle on medal with the classic Disneyland D. I had never run any sort of organized race before, not even a 5K. I did not sign up for any sort of race once registered for the half because I was pretty sure I would fail and concluded that if I was to fail, I would rather fail at the goal race instead of learning beforehand that I was a hopeless cause. My training was haphazard and lazy for the first 6 weeks or so of the plan, improved from there on out, getting in all the long runs and almost all the shorter during the week runs, but since I was so terrified that I would not finish, I barely told anyone outside of a few family members and very close friends. In essence, I didn't want to have to explain to anyone how badly I had failed.

Race day came. I was a mixture of nervous energy, a tiny amount of hope that since I had made it to 14 miles in my last long run on the treadmill that would be good enough come the race itself, a whole lot of fear that I was going to fail, and tried to cope with gallows humor. I had literally spent the weekend thinking that everyone telling me I was going to finish was really just being nice. The race started, and I let nerves and fear get the better of me and I started running way too fast the second the crowds opened up enough.

Suffice it to say in a manner of minutes, I had a sharp shooting pain in my shins that felt an awful lot like shin splints. Honestly, I was ready to stop right then and there. I had tried this, it clearly wasn't for me, so I may as well go back to my hotel room and go back to bed. Stubbornness got the better of me and I decided that if I was going to fail, I was at least going to fail at a sustainable pace and only after race officials removed me from the course because I wasn't good enough.

So I slowed down. At mile 1, I heard that I was 90 seconds ahead of the balloon ladies and just kept going. To my surprise, I continued to gain time on them and eventually finish just fine.

With the benefit of many races run since then, including a few things I never imagined I could do in running, I'm grateful I somehow figured out where my sweet spot is in all of this. I'm still not very fast. I respect ultra runners immensely. That's something I have no desire to do.

Whatever you decide to do, remember that the real strength is in getting out there and trying to be better, whether that be finishing a 50 miler or deciding that you're happy with shorter distances, including the marathon.

 

[disneygpa]

I know I'm very late to this, but you said something here that really spoke to me.

I signed up for my first Half Marathon because I wanted the medal. Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle on medal with the classic Disneyland D. I had never run any sort of organized race before, not even a 5K. I did not sign up for any sort of race once registered for the half because I was pretty sure I would fail and concluded that if I was to fail, I would rather fail at the goal race instead of learning beforehand that I was a hopeless cause. My training was haphazard and lazy for the first 6 weeks or so of the plan, improved from there on out, getting in all the long runs and almost all the shorter during the week runs, but since I was so terrified that I would not finish, I barely told anyone outside of a few family members and very close friends. In essence, I didn't want to have to explain to anyone how badly I had failed.

Race day came. I was a mixture of nervous energy, a tiny amount of hope that since I had made it to 14 miles in my last long run on the treadmill that would be good enough come the race itself, a whole lot of fear that I was going to fail, and tried to cope with gallows humor. I had literally spent the weekend thinking that everyone telling me I was going to finish was really just being nice. The race started, and I let nerves and fear get the better of me and I started running way too fast the second the crowds opened up enough.

Suffice it to say in a manner of minutes, I had a sharp shooting pain in my shins that felt an awful lot like shin splints. Honestly, I was ready to stop right then and there. I had tried this, it clearly wasn't for me, so I may as well go back to my hotel room and go back to bed. Stubbornness got the better of me and I decided that if I was going to fail, I was at least going to fail at a sustainable pace and only after race officials removed me from the course because I wasn't good enough.

So I slowed down. At mile 1, I heard that I was 90 seconds ahead of the balloon ladies and just kept going. To my surprise, I continued to gain time on them and eventually finish just fine.

With the benefit of many races run since then, including a few things I never imagined I could do in running, I'm grateful I somehow figured out where my sweet spot is in all of this. I'm still not very fast. I respect ultra runners immensely. That's something I have no desire to do.

Whatever you decide to do, remember that the real strength is in getting out there and trying to be better, whether that be finishing a 50 miler or deciding that you're happy with shorter distances, including the marathon.

Thanks so much for the encouraging note!

I'm definitely not giving up on my fitness goals. But I'm not sure I'm committed to a 50-miler training plan. As I approach the big 6-0, I'm really starting to think more about my longevity. Is running ultras or even marathons the best thing I should be doing for my body? I still have the desire to do it! I'm just not sure it's the best thing for my overall fitness. (though I may still run another marathon or more)

 

[Sleepless Knight]

Thanks so much for the encouraging note!

I'm definitely not giving up on my fitness goals. But I'm not sure I'm committed to a 50-miler training plan. As I approach the big 6-0, I'm really starting to think more about my longevity. Is running ultras or even marathons the best thing I should be doing for my body? I still have the desire to do it! I'm just not sure it's the best thing for my overall fitness. (though I may still run another marathon or more)

You're welcome.

I love your comment about determining what is best for your fitness overall. Sometimes it's not a matter of whether or not we can do something, It's a matter of whether or not we should. The wear and tear can be too much and sometimes switching to shorter distances will bring the fitness we desire without the impact.