The Running Thread - 2016

[Barca33Runner]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

-Sports
-Cracks in the sidewalk
-Cars blocking the sidewalk
-Why did I just listen to that song I didn't want to listen to when I have fingers and the ability to change the song?
-What am I going to eat when I'm done
-How is my dog is doing in the house while I am out running
-Whether I should mow the lawn when I get back
-Whether I am going as fast as I hope I am going for my effort level
-Whether I should pick tomatoes and blackberries tonight or leave that for tomorrow

I started this list, got busy at work, and came back to it and saw similar answers. I think about pretty much any and everything I have going on.

 

[whaler8]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

I depends sometimes on how my day is going. Sometimes I use the time to figure out a problem at work or new strategy. Other times I am thinking about an upcoming race or trip. But if I am having a "bad" run I am using the time to think about just making it to the next stop sign!

 

[jhorstma]

ATTQOTD: OK, I math too. When I start getting tired and my pacing slows, I hearken back to my college math class (linear algebra maybe? it was so long ago...) that touched on the Race Course paradox, where to reach your goal first you have to get halfway there. But before you get halfway you have to get a quarter way there. And so on, until there's an infinite number of interim distances to go before I reach that intersection down the road, which is why it's taking me forever to get there...

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I love all of the math answers! I am a numbers gal, so when I'm either struggling running (or falling asleep) I'll count by odd multiples (like 7) or list the prime numbers.... Total geek

 

[CheapRunnerMike]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

I try to come up with a clever Strava title. I usually think of something really good and witty only to forget when I'm finished and it's time to upload.

Also, maths. The whole "if I run this pace over this race distance that should get me a finish time of xx:xx" sorta maths.

 

[RunDisneyDad]

ATTQOTD: Haha, some great answers to today's question. I'm generally thinking about all kinds of random stuff, but i think for the most part I'm calculating what route I should take to meet the miles for that particular day's run. I seldom know my route before I leave so I'm sort of working through my route as I go.

 

[cavepig]

I think about random stuff and of course not getting hit or tripping. I used to plan out my papers for college when I ran. If I'm running a tempo or speed workout than I don't really think about anything but running in that moment.

 

[surfde22]

ATTQOTD: Haha, some great answers to today's question. I'm generally thinking about all kinds of random stuff, but i think for the most part I'm calculating what route I should take to meet the miles for that particular day's run. I seldom know my route before I leave so I'm sort of working through my route as I go.

I'm exactly like this. I have a rough idea of a route I will take, as in a general direction I will run, but don't know the exact route I will take until my feet take me there. At some point I have to start figuring out how far I've run, where I am in respect to home, and what way to get the distance I need to finish near my house.

 

[DVCFan1994]

ATTQOTD: My mind tends to wander all over during training runs, jumping from one thing to another. As someone whose parents occupied long car rides with math quizzing, I now find it calming (crazy but true). I do math in my head if I can't sleep as well. So if I am trying to regain focus on a run, I will start doing run related math, figuring out finish times for various paces and distances. I'll come up with both realistic and wild dream race times and figure out what it would take. All my of my PHM halves I was injured or had been recently and spent a lot of time doing the cushion math: "well I started in D, probably 30 minutes before the last person, got my first mile done in 10:25, so now I have an additional 5:35 on top of the 30" and kept repeating as I finished each mile from there. Then I'd divide the resulting cushion by the remaining miles, and figure out how much extra per mile I had over then normal 16 minutes. Usually I realize when the cushion gets reassuringly large that I also felt fine and my injury was holding up, and I didn't need to worry about it. But the math distracts me and does its job.

Thanks for the replies for my questions about the WDW full yesterday. Miserable was probably too strong a word for doing "just" the full, regretful at seeing all the challengers might have been more appropriate. I have been there for the announcers asking all there questions, and hear the grumbling about the "just the x race" questions. I think I'd be ok, but was curious about others thoughts who had done it. With my history of overtraining and injuries, I promised myself the first full I did would not be part of a challenge, which is why I originally did not pick WDW. Hopefully it stays open long enough for me to consider it, and it sounds like it might In other news I got in a hard workout on the step mill today and felt so much better after. Really working hard on the new rehab routine and hoping to be cleared to try running short slow distances again soon!

 

[derekleigh]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

On a different running forum, somebody asked the same question around Christmas of last year.

Some various thoughts on the run during the first few miles:

- Damn, it's cold!
- I hate starting this late (5:00 am), should have woken up earlier
- Yup, should have worn my thermal hood
- Its surprisingly not bad for wearing shorts (20 degrees)
- I have a lot to do this week before we leave for FL (lists off the stuff I need to do...)
- I think there is a bear right behind me!
- On second thought I think it's an xenomorph (from Aliens)
- I need to buy something for dinner tonight, unless I eat a frozen pizza.
- I have to return a bunch of stuff this afternoon
- I hope I can find a pair of yellow shorts so I can break them in on a few runs before my half in a few weeks.
- I have no clue what shoes I'm wearing for that half, maybe these ones.
- SLOW DOWN SPEEDRACER (car drives by)
- I miss my boys and wife (they're staying at in-laws for Christmas break until we all leave for FL)
- ICE!
- The Cowboys need to hire a new coach, RG3 as a backup QB and draft a QB or work with Moore.
- Happy for Matt the Vikings made the playoffs
- If I had gotten up 15 minutes earlier, I could have squeezed in another mile.
- Why the hell is there a lone poodle wondering the neighborhood?!
- Hope the owner is nearby
- Nope, these shoes are the ones I'm wearing for my half!


...and this will keep going for another 3 miles or so you get the idea.

Vaguely, I think about just about everything and anything and sometimes nothing. Running is a great way for me to just clear my mind and let it open up to whatever flows in or out.

 

[Kathymford]

I started out doing too long of a run back when I first started doing Galloway 1.5 years ago. I started out at 5/1, then 4/1, then 3/1, then 2:00/0:30, and now finally have been at 1:30/0:30 for a little over a year.

I have never actually done the MM, to be honest. I picked the fastest mile out of my fastest 5K and chose the interval from that. My fastest mile in a 5K is around 10:15 (although it was closer to 10:45 when I originally picked the interval), so I picked the 90/30 interval from the 9:30-10:45 range.

Edit: I should add that I picked all those decreasing intervals early on out of a hat, before actually looking at the chart.

I'm in the picking intervals out of a hat camp! lol. When you picked your fasted mile from your 5k, was that 5k done using random intervals? I was a 1:1 (minuter) interval person. And then when I discovered I could run for longer I switched to .25 mile intervals (maybe too fast a jump lol). My fasted timed 5k was using the .25 miles and would put me at 60:30. Maybe I should just try doing the MM. lol

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

It depends on the kind of run. Lately, all I think about is my leg. Does it hurt? Where does it hurt? Does it hurt too much? Should I stop running? What if I change my running form, does it hurt more now? Have I not been running right all this time? Is it my shoes? Something's wrong with my shoes. *sigh* I obviously need to get out of my head.

I try to come up with a clever Strava title. I usually think of something really good and witty only to forget when I'm finished and it's time to upload.

THIS. I hate when this happens EVERY SINGLE TIME. lol.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Thanks @Miranda, @DopeyBadger, and @opusone! I'm still new to races and corral placement etc.

ATTQOTD:
Almost always:
-it's cold, I wish I wore more than a jacket ... (0.75 miles later) ... It's hot, I wish I hadn't worn this jacket!

Depending on where I'm running:
-(road) I hope this car doesn't run me over! Why is it so close to the side of the road?!
-(trail) I hope I see deer! There you are, you can't hide from me!
-(track) I hope I don't get kicked off! I hope that kid doesn't dribble his soccer ball in front of me. I just need to get past this (curve, straight away, etc) and I'm done with this speed session ... just 10 more to go!
-(treadmill) I've only been running for how long?!?! Even with Netflix. Sigh.

Otherwise I just pay attention to the podcasts I'm listening to and laugh like a dork. Sometimes I'll zone out, which causes my pace to suffer. Also, I try to figure out the best way to get around a group of people when there's another group coming the other way, real mental gymnastics!

 

[gjramsey]

ATTQOTD: Almost anything and everything. Sometimes counting animals in the pre-dawn hours. Are there more cats or skunks today? More animals than cars? Some math when working on pace and how much longer can I run before I need to be back home and shower to get ready for work. Wonder why some cars are out and about that early in the morning. Sometimes a song will get stuck in my head and I keep repeating that over and over again.....then try to change songs to get it gone!

I changed a run last week because of a car sitting near the entrance to the neighborhood, and realized later that they were probably trying to capture the Pokemon go gym they were sitting next to, but at 4:30 in the morning, it was audible time for the run.

 

[ZellyB]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

ATTQOTD: I rarely run alone, so it's not so much what I'm thinking about but rather what I'm talking about with the people I'm running with. It's lovely to run with someone who is really talkative or has some specific problem they may be working through because they do all the talking and I get to just zone out and listen. Like others, I also love running through neighborhoods and looking at houses and thinking about ideas for my own house. And at the end of a long and difficult run when conversation has run dry, I also do math. So funny that a lot of people do that. Mostly I do calculations on how much time left in the run or how many more run intervals I have to get to the end etc.

I read an article somewhere about what runners think about while running and interestingly it said that a lot of runners think about how much they hate running. HA! Not so much hate running, but just rather that in that moment they are hot or tired or sore or whatever and they question why they are out here doing this. The article went on to say, of course, so then why do people keep running? And the answer was...because of how they feel after the run. For me, at least, that rang pretty true.

 

[camaker]

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

ATTQOTD: I really have two answers to this, depending on the run:

1. Training run - I focus on what's happening in the audiobook I am listening to. It's akin to when your parents told you to read a book in the car and it will make the trip go faster. I can let my mind get lost in the story and let my body take care of the run. Sometimes my mind will wander onto random topics from work and life, but I try to put them away and get back to the book.

2. Race - I run races without headphones so it's just me and the five other voices in my head to have a conversation with. I'm typically focusing on making sure I'm on my goal pace and constantly evaluating the way my legs are feeling. I'm paranoid about them since my hamstring injury so I monitor them constantly at race pace for signs of impending doom. Occasionally, topics from outside the race will work their way in, but I try to keep that to a minimum as the emotions that they evoke can negatively impact my pacing (both high and low).

 

[Miranda]

I'm in the picking intervals out of a hat camp! lol. When you picked your fasted mile from your 5k, was that 5k done using random intervals? I was a 1:1 (minuter) interval person.

Well... technically when I picked the 90/30 interval, around late May 2015, at the time, I was more of a "11:45 is probably about my best" runner, and that was running 2:00/0:30. So, I still picked it out of the wrong range, but at least it was an intentional pick. So in that time I have improved enough that now I'm actually in the range my interval says I should pick from.

The reason that I had picked 2:00/0:30 last year for Tink, after doing a few rounds of other X/1 attempts, was that at the time I was still using RunKeeper on my cell phone as my timer, and I wasn't sure if I'd have my headphones in at Tink, so I needed to be able to know what interval I was in if I missed the alert. 2.5 minutes for each round of run/walk seemed like an easy amount to keep track of for whatever reason.

 

[Kathymford]

Well... technically when I picked the 90/30 interval, around late May 2015, at the time, I was more of a "11:45 is probably about my best" runner, and that was running 2:00/0:30. So, I still picked it out of the wrong range, but at least it was an intentional pick. So in that time I have improved enough that now I'm actually in the range my interval says I should pick from.

The reason that I had picked 2:00/0:30 last year for Tink, after doing a few rounds of other X/1 attempts, was that at the time I was still using RunKeeper on my cell phone as my timer, and I wasn't sure if I'd have my headphones in at Tink, so I needed to be able to know what interval I was in if I missed the alert. 2.5 minutes for each round of run/walk seemed like an easy amount to keep track of for whatever reason.

Thanks! I just looked through all of my "best" races, which includes a wide range of intervals. And according to Galloway's chart, since it's a wide spread (10:45-12:15), I should be at 60:30. So once my leg is stronger I think I will try that. Thanks for your insight. At least for the upcoming Dumbo. I really liked running for longer spreads, but I think I may have tried to increase too quickly.

 

[keahgirl8]

Hopefully this is the right place to ask for advice here.
After ready many recommendations on the Jeff Galloway run walk run strategy, I downloaded the app and gave it a try. I think it took me a while to remove the thought that running could incorporate walking and still be considered running. First try with the program, I loved it! Had been running 32 minute 5ks, and the best I could do at any point was 30. First 5k using the program was 27:45, and it was a breeze. I could also feel I was working my body harder, which I liked.

Now though, even on the maintenance runs, I am struggling to recover in time for the next run. I am constantly stretching and rolling trying to loosen back up. So my question is this: I had to guess at what intervals I wanted. I chose 5 minutes of running to 30 seconds of walking. I am very comfortable with it while running, but I really do not know what I am doing and get the feeling I may be off track in one way or another. What are you guys thoughts on these intervals? I wasnt sure if I should adjust the running and walking times.. .and I dont even know which direction I should move them. Any advice or thoughts would be great!

I know it makes no logical sense from everything we think we know, but it really works! I am faster the shorter my intervals are.

Which brings me to the next thing. I am by no means an expert, but I've been doing the Galloway method for a few years now. In my experience, I'd say you need to back way off on the run intervals. Also, check your pace and see how fast you're going.

I just had to comment on this. When I was first contemplating doing Goofy, people on here would say, "If you can do a marathon - you can do Goofy. It's really only marginally harder to do Goofy than a marathon." I thought they were all big liars. Turns out, they were right. If you are doing a good training plan for a marathon and add in a few back to back training runs so you get a feel for running on tired legs, you'd be surprised to find it's really not that much more difficult than the marathon alone. It's just those early morning wake-ups!!




Just wanted to chime in on the already good responses you have. My biggest advice is to play with the intervals. I firmly believe that everyone has a "sweet spot" on their intervals where their pace is the best and they feel the best running it. The Magic Mile is a great way to get an idea where you should be, but don't be afraid to mix it up. I found that when I decreased my intervals, my overall pace actually got faster. Seemed counter-intuitive, but I was getting too fatigued on the run portion and then not recovering enough on the walk, so I would walk slower and slower as the miles added up and that drove down my overall pace.

1. I've never done Goofy and I've certainly never run a marathon, but I have done the Glass Slipper Challenge (10K + half). I don't think it's really that much harder than if I had just done the half if I train properly for it.

2. This. Totally agree!

QOTD: What do you often think about when you are out for a run?

ATTQOTD: I often think about what task I have left to accomplish during the week and devise a plan to try to do so. I like having things planned out, and so figuring out how to accomplish my to do list in the best way possible helps relax me. I am kind of strange...

Everything and/or nothing. Literally, sometimes I am not thinking at all really. That is the best really, because I am an overthinker.

I try to just focus on what I'm listening to (most often a podcast) or watching (if I am on the treadmill) instead of how the run is going. Some people recommend running without music, etc but I can't focus and my mind wanders too much. I do try and think through stuff I have to get done but I mostly try and get out of my own head and get in a "zone."

This. I usually think about EVERYTHING. When I can get in the zone, it is the best.

I found the same result as soon as I started incorporating the walks. Instead of running a fatigued 11:30 pace toward the end of my runs, I was actually getting faster than my starting miles. I have come to accept how that works, and why it works. Now I have to figure out why adding even more walks would improve this for me. In theory, I feel like I could do 3 minute runs all day long... so that part makes sense. But I also dont want to slow down my times considerably. Watch me run faster than ever tonight and confuse myself even more. Ill try it, and then toy with it and see! Hopefully next week when I get to a Magical Mile and have a time to input for that, I will get some more clarification from the program on that link above.

I run faster the shorter my intervals are. My favorite is :15/:15.

ATTQOTD: All of the things. Everything. Who needs therapy when I have running. I'm a "shower-thinker" too so it's a lot like that. Coming up with random great ideas, playing weird scenarios that could happen in life and how I'd react, grocery lists, gift-ideas, etc etc.
Also love stalking other people's houses for front door type or garden type or what cars they drive. It's like window shopping. I pick out my faves.
I also will zone out completely for long stretches with zero thoughts in my head too.
The weirdest thing I do to get me past my final miles is do pretend scenarios.
Like I'm in a team relay and everyone is waiting for me at the end of the street...and OMG they see me...and they can't believe I'm in the lead...and someone is coming up behind me....
Lots of weird stuff like that...Once pretended I was being filmed for a running commercial just to keep my head up.

Guys, I'm totally a normal person.

I'm shower thinker too! lol

On a different running forum, somebody asked the same question around Christmas of last year.

Some various thoughts on the run during the first few miles:

- Damn, it's cold!
- I hate starting this late (5:00 am), should have woken up earlier
- Yup, should have worn my thermal hood
- Its surprisingly not bad for wearing shorts (20 degrees)
- I have a lot to do this week before we leave for FL (lists off the stuff I need to do...)
- I think there is a bear right behind me!
- On second thought I think it's an xenomorph (from Aliens)
- I need to buy something for dinner tonight, unless I eat a frozen pizza.
- I have to return a bunch of stuff this afternoon
- I hope I can find a pair of yellow shorts so I can break them in on a few runs before my half in a few weeks.
- I have no clue what shoes I'm wearing for that half, maybe these ones.
- SLOW DOWN SPEEDRACER (car drives by)
- I miss my boys and wife (they're staying at in-laws for Christmas break until we all leave for FL)
- ICE!
- The Cowboys need to hire a new coach, RG3 as a backup QB and draft a QB or work with Moore.
- Happy for Matt the Vikings made the playoffs
- If I had gotten up 15 minutes earlier, I could have squeezed in another mile.
- Why the hell is there a lone poodle wondering the neighborhood?!
- Hope the owner is nearby
- Nope, these shoes are the ones I'm wearing for my half!


...and this will keep going for another 3 miles or so you get the idea.

Vaguely, I think about just about everything and anything and sometimes nothing. Running is a great way for me to just clear my mind and let it open up to whatever flows in or out.

Just had to say...Man...the Cowboys need to do something.

 

[croach]

ATTQOTD: I probably think about a lot of thinks but damn if I remember what any of them are. Definitely think about pace too much though. When I run in the evenings I'll think about what I'm having for dinner like 20 times.

I do the math thing during longer races, trying to figure out what my finish time will be based on 10 different factors. Usually wrong.

 

[SueInBoston]

@LSUlakes
I finished my race schedule for the remaining year, please add these when you next update, Thank you!!

September
17 - SueInBoston - Salem Wicked Half - (NG/ N/A)

October
09 - SueInBoston - BAA Half - (NG/ N/A)

November
12 - SueInBoston - Super Heroes 10k (NG / N/A) Gauntlet
13 - SueInBoston - Avengers Half (NG/ N/A) Gauntlet

December
17 - SueInBoston - Jingle Bell 5K (NG/ N/A)

Late last year when I set a goal to run a race each month, it seemed so daunting. Here I am half way done and I have to say that I enjoyed every single one!

I think I will set same goal for 2017