The Running Thread - 2016

[NurseRunner]

Good morning folks! Let me start off by wishing the best of luck to @Keels @NurseRunner , and @Baloo in MI on your upcoming races this weekend. How is the forecast looking for yalls race? Are you ready for the distance you are running? If you would like to adjust your goal let me know! @Keels your race budget is impressive!
.

Well it is supposed to be near 90 by noon but I hope to be long done by then. Haven't really trained as well for this one as I should, we have had massive staff exodus the past month and lots of overtime because of it. I am still conditioned to finish though! Advantage to having an active job with not much sitting I suppose.

 

[LSUlakes]

Good morning and happy Friday to everyone. Todays QOTD feeds a little bit off of yesterdays question and suggested by a fellow poster. Thanks for the suggestion!

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

ATTQOTD: I have a reflective vest with lights for runs in the dark, but I still don't trust drivers on the road because everyone is playing with their phones. Some routes I can only run alone because the roads are to busy and to small to push the running stroller on. I don't listen to music anymore while I run, but when I did I put only one ear piece in on my left side and kept them volume low. I always run going against the flow traffic for a few reasons. The first is I believe legally I am supposed to and secondly I can see the car coming at me that's going to hit me, and have a better chance of getting out of the way while they are playing on their phone.

Hope everyone has a good run this weekend and stay safe running and any other activities you might engage in.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I wear a nathan xinglet vest. The lights on it don't work anymore so I have attached a head lamp to the back and a strobe light to the front. Both lights are relatively bright. I always run in the road and against traffic. There are too many people walking dogs, strollers, or unshoveled snow/ice on the sidewalks for me to use them. All the roads I run on are 15 mph or less and wide 4 car streets so there is always enough room for the cars and me. My music is never loud enough that I can't hear pretty much everything around me at all times. It is hard to run during the night though because you can't see the road as well as during the day. So if there are obstructions it's harder to see them in advance. I like to keep my eyes up while running, but at night I'm a little more flexible by trying to look down and up every once in a while.

 

[Diskidatheart]

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

I am lit up like a Christmas tree. If someone can't see me, then they've got big issues. I wear reflective clothing. I use knuckle lights. Most importantly, I wear a Tracer 360 vest, which lights up all around the upper body, changes colors, and (as my wife says) makes me look like Tron. It may be overkill, but I don't hesitate running in the dark.

 

[ZellyB]

Thanks! Really looking forward to this one - it's our big race weekend here in my city. I volunteer all year raising money and helping with the C.A.L.F. initiative (it gets brand new sneakers for kids in low-income schools) and we get to participate in the races as a "Thanks!" for our volunteer time. Looks like the weather is going to be beautiful! It's always such a great, spirited weekend in FW when the Cowtown rolls around. Also, after I finish this race, I'll be submitting my registration for Half Fanatics membership - so I'm SUPER excited about that. AND @mbwhitti is coming in for the weekend to run and hang out! Couldn't ask for much more!

Sounds like a really great race and cause.

Good luck to all the racers this weekend!!

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

ATTQOTD: We run pretty much exclusively before sunrise on our shorter maintenance runs. I recently got a new headlamp that I really like. Before that we would sometimes have a small flashlight we carried but overall we weren't always good about making ourselves as visible as we should. We have some pretty specific routes we run that are very safe. Lots of sidewalks or wide, lightly traveled roads (at least at the time we run) or trails. We do avoid routes that aren't as safe. When we are on the street, we run against the flow of traffic. We don't listen to music much, but when I do, I only keep one earbud in so I can still hear my surroundings. I don't worry a lot about safety honestly. I almost never run alone, so having a running partner or group helps me feel more secure.

 

[camaker]

Good morning and happy Friday to everyone. Todays QOTD feeds a little bit off of yesterdays question and suggested by a fellow poster. Thanks for the suggestion!

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

Good questions! If I am running in the dark, I wear light clothing and recently added a Tracer360 "vest" to my outfit to further enhance my visibility. I try to stick to sidewalks with street lighting as much as possible and avoid unlit running trails. If my path is going to take me through an unlit portion of sidewalk/path I will carry a Black Diamond headlamp with me and use it handheld through the dark area. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about running in the road. The audiobooks I listen to during running are not overwhelming loud, so I can maintain awareness of the environment. Also, after reading some of the discussions on here about ID while running a while back, I invested in a RoadID bracelet. It makes both my wife and me feel a little more comfortable having basic name, contact and medical info right there in case of emergency.

 

[DopeyBadger]

@Diskidatheart @camaker How do you like the tracer 360? I thought it would be a nice addition. Does it bother you when you run?

 

[Anisum]

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

I have a reflective vest, Nathan lights clipped on both sides and a headlamp. I also try to wear more colorful clothes if I know I'm going to be running. In the mornings I stick to sidewalks and often won't listen to music.

 

[rteetz]

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

I run in my neighborhood which I feel is relatively safe. I also usually run after school so it's still daylight which means I don't have to wear anything reflective. If I did run while dark I would definitely wear something reflective. It always baffles me when people walk or run at night and don't there have been plenty of times where I barely saw the person while driving and had to avoid them.

 

[Miranda]

QOTD: Right now I don't usually run when it's dark, just due to the time of year. It's too cold to run early in the morning when it's dark. I'm more likely to run in the dark when it's warmer, or in November/December when it might not be quite "winter cold" yet, but the days are shorter. For fall/spring I do have some neon green/yellow tops to wear (a long sleeve shirt and a half zip, so they're not really winter appropriate). I did get a new cold weather jacket (New Balance Windblocker) with some reflective patches on it for this winter and I picked up a hot pink Amphipod Xinglet recently, although I haven't used that one yet. I also got some of these cool headlights for my shoes for Christmas, although I haven't used them yet, Night Runner 270.

As far as music goes, I do listen to music or podcasts all the time. I have some Jaybird wireless earbuds that I use, and while you can get some foam tips for them for more noise cancellation, I just use the silicone tips that come with them so that I don't have total isolation. I can still hear the cars. Plus I usually run on sidewalks, and when I am not on the sidewalk, I run facing the traffic, unless it's a really short distance that I need to be without the sidewalk.

I don't really have any other concerns about safety when I'm out running. I live in a well populated area... for NH. I always have my phone with me, and my SO will track me with either Find my Friends or Life360 (he has an iPad for FmF, but has an Android phone, so we have the other app for tracking each other by phone), or for longer runs, I will send him the Live Tracking link from my Garmin.

 

[IamTrike]

Good morning and happy Friday to everyone. Todays QOTD feeds a little bit off of yesterdays question and suggested by a fellow poster. Thanks for the suggestion!

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

ATTQOTD: I have a reflective vest with lights for runs in the dark, but I still don't trust drivers on the road because everyone is playing with their phones. Some routes I can only run alone because the roads are to busy and to small to push the running stroller on. I don't listen to music anymore while I run, but when I did I put only one ear piece in on my left side and kept them volume low. I always run going against the flow traffic for a few reasons. The first is I believe legally I am supposed to and secondly I can see the car coming at me that's going to hit me, and have a better chance of getting out of the way while they are playing on their phone.

Hope everyone has a good run this weekend and stay safe running and any other activities you might engage in.

I usually run on greenway or sidewalks if I am running before the sun comes up. I usualy try and wear either a fluorescent orange or yellow shirt when I am running on the sidewalk and will have road crossings. I'm usually running with friends in those scenarios, so I don't have any music. If I'm by myself I'll run with only one headphone in and the other in my shirt so that I can be aware of my surroundings.

 

[camaker]

@Diskidatheart @camaker How do you like the tracer 360? I thought it would be a nice addition. Does it bother you when you run?

I find the Tracer360 to be very comfortable and unobtrusive when I run. I also like that the chest strap rides higher up on my body and doesn't get in the way of or overlap the Amphipod belt that I carry my phone in. The glow is highly visible (I got mine after seeing other folks in the neighborhood running in theirs) and has not been distracting (to me) at all. That being said, I have only used it in single color mode and haven't tried out any of the flashing, color-changing modes.

 

[surfde22]

QOTD: Lets discuss safety while out for a run. If you run before sunrise or after sunset do you wear reflective clothing, lights, or anything else to make yourself noticeable? Do you have routes you avoid for your safety? If you are listening to music while running, how do you stay aware of your surroundings? If a sidewalk or running path is not available, do you run with the flow of traffic or against it? Any other concerns about safety while out running?

I am often running in the dark. The sun doesn't come up so early in the great white north, and and goes into hiding pretty early as well. My runs are usually in the morning. I run in bright clothes, almost exclusively, both for safety and my extreme obsession with neon colors. I have a head lamp I run with in the dark as well. Any runs over about 4 miles inevitably include me running on the side of the road, some with shoulders, many without. I always run against traffic, as that is the legal way to do it, and it allows me to see whats coming at me. The good thing is the roads I run on are far from busy. It can be a little dicey at times, but I don't feel overly concerned most of the time. I do listen to music when I run. I'd go insane without it. I do keep the volume low enough to hear what's going on around with me.

 

[Miranda]

I know it's the legal way to do it, but sometimes I do run on the "wrong" side of the road if it's very un-busy because of the road camber... it bothers my right leg to be on the "up" side for so long. Or maybe it's my left one to be on the down side... I forget. It's been a while since I went sidewalk-less. Or I might run closer to the middle of the lane making SUPER SURE that I am always watching up ahead to be back off to the side before any cars get near me.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Other than races, I have not run at night in over 10 years. I have a great reflective vest from when I used to run at 4am every day, but it sits unused. When running on the streets, I run into traffic. The biggest risk, when running into traffic, is at intersections or driveways. People look left when turning right, and more than half simply never look in my direction. Even when they do look right, they are only looking for cars and never notice the runner on the side of the road coming up on them. I cannot count the number of times that I have been either hit or almost hit because of these idiots. Look in both directions, folks, and look for pedestrians.

As for music - I always run with music. It has never been a problem on the streets, and I will continue to take my chances because the traffic noise drives me nuts. It can be a bit more of a problem on the trail that I run, as it is a trail shared by horses and bikes (and bears). I have never been passed by a horse, but if you can't hear the bikes coming up behind you it is easy to cause an accident. So, on trails, I turn the volume down.

 

[roxymama]

ATTQOTD:
I do not run if it is dark. I am a woman (and not a very strong one) on the south-side of Chicago. Simple as that. I get scared enough with my husband out there and he's a big tall dude. And it's not just being overly cautious...there have been incidents in my area.
It severly limits when I can run outside and I spend a lot of time on treadmills until we hit the months were it stays lighter longer. But oh how I love running on summer nights and chasing the sun home
When I do run, I keep an expired liscense on me just in case. I also have reflective material in my running hat and will wear bright colors when I am running at dusk. I also avoid a few streets that have A LOT of traffic turning on and off of it. And I do not keep my music too high.

 

[Diskidatheart]

@Diskidatheart @camaker How do you like the tracer 360? I thought it would be a nice addition. Does it bother you when you run?

I love it...it does not get in the way at all and to be honest, I don't even know it is on. There must be an adjustment period of a week or so until you get the fitting exactly right, but other than that, it's never been an issue. I highly recommend it! It really increases your visibility to others, which is obviously the most important thing.

My wife teases me because I use the multi color flashing option so that when people are driving down the road, they sit and wonder what the heck it is that they are approaching.

 

[cavepig]

ATTQOTD:I never run when it's dark, too scary. I usually run the same roads every day, but if see a an odd car I will turn back early and/or adjust my run for the day. I've had my heart pumping a few times for creepy cars, probably nothing, but I didn't stick around to find out. (once a guy got out of his car up ahead as I ran but he looked fishy, so I high tailed back home, locked the door, and was paranoid for a month) I run with pepper spray and my phone and never too terribly far from home & someone always know I'm out running. I could run way out into the country but that would leave me too vulnerable so I like keeping near civilization for the most part. I do live in a good town for the most par, but you can never be too safe I say.

I run without sidewalks mostly and usually run against traffic, except sometimes on hills or if giant farm equipment is coming at me (I seriously fear some spikey thing will fly off and get me). If I do run into town I don't always stay on the sidewalks, I prefer the road since it's more even and run against any traffic.

No music anymore. I did for a few years, but I like staying alert for cars and especially creepy cars. I don't have a person that runs my pace to always train with, but sometimes I'll run with someone else which is nice to have for safety reasons too.

 

[MeridaAndAngus]

Such a fun thread. Thanks to everyone who has been so active; lots of great responses to read.

ATTQOTD: I rarely run in the dark, primary due to safety concerns (usually my concerns are about vehicles rather than other people). I generally only run on a local running trail that is in a wide-open area, well traveled, and is next to a neighborhood road that is frequently patrolled by police. I do run with music and podcasts, but I only keep one headphone in so I can hear approaching bicycles, faster runners, and (heaven forbid) any errant vehicles.

I always run in some sort of brightly colored clothing or socks to make myself conspicuous, even though I'm only running alongside the road. I've spent a number of years conducting research in the field of transportation safety and crashes, so I am extremely cautious on the rare occasions when I am running through a neighborhood where there isn't a safe sidewalk or trail for running. I aim for having reflective gear and lights not only on my torso, but on my legs/ankles and arms/wrists. There are studies regarding the effectiveness of conspicuity gear (such as reflective and lighted vests); it is generally recommended that a person have something reflective not only on the torso but also on the legs/arms because the movement of reflective strips on your legs/arms will help drivers realize you are a person, not just a reflective barrel or cone alongside the road.

I actually decided to no longer join the winter/fall social runs at a local running store because they tend to run in neighborhood streets, cross several busy streets that don't have pedestrian crosswalks, and when the days are shorter the runs are in the dark which is just too much of a safety risk for me.

 

[Miranda]

Looking for some advice for my training plan that I'm putting together for my 5/14 half. What are people's thoughts on splitting up a run? I have a couple long run days in April that fall on race days. One is a 10 mile race on 4/24 which pretty much works out great, because then I'd do probably ~11.5 on 4/30, and cut back to 5-6 on 5/7 the week before the race. But the other ones are a 5 miler on 4/10, which is a day I'd probably want to do more like 8, and a 5K on 4/30, the day I should really be doing ~11.5.

Both races are about 3 miles from my house... I could run home from the 5 miler, and for the 5K run to it, do the race, and then run a longer route home. Will I still get enough benefit even if there's some stopping time in between the segments? There will probably be more down time on the day of the 5K... the 5 miler I'd just have a little bit of post-race downtime if I just refill my water bottle and head out, but the 5K I'd have some pre- and post-race downtime. (And would have to skip all the free food )