The Running Thread - 2016

[camaker]

I think you might find that these two points are tied very closely to each other...very likely that if you are doing one, you are also doing the other. I run very upright and my cadence is in the 190+ range (over 200 if I'm racing)...short choppy steps.

I recently tried to up my cadence to the 180 range (I naturally run in the 167-170 range) and started having pain in my "bad" knee so I had to back off.

 

[PrincessV]

A big THANKS to everyone who had suggestions about sunglasses! I'm super lazy (and cheap) so I'm going to hold off for now unless I find the bugs unbearable. I also can't stand wearing glasses on a sweaty face. I don't know if running sunglasses are better at staying on than regular glasses.

My cheap sports sunglasses from Target (Ironman brand - less than $20) do.not.budge. At all. The nose part is rubber, so it doesn't slide at all.

Side-question: Does anyone have any good suggestions or videos online that highlight or teach good running form? I'd like to watch/study some this week to give myself some new things to think about. @DopeyBadger gave me a great idea to have someone film me during a tempo run so I check in with my form and although the self-conscious part of me (and the ego part, let's be honest) don't like the idea a ton, the part that wants to prevent injury and get better really likes the idea.
Any good video/book suggestions and any good tips for form?

I'm a big fan of Chi Running... but that's pretty much how I run naturally, so that may influence my feeling, lol!

But what may be proper form for most might actually cause problems for you...

^THIS!^ And I'll add that unless you can watch yourself running in a mirror, what you think you're doing to present good form isn't necessarily what you are doing. I'll give a real-life example... I feel like I run weird. I'm a total forefoot runner, to start - I mean I land on the balls of my toes, lower my heel to just slightly touch the ground, then lift back off for each step. I'm also petite and slow: - 5'1" tall - which results in a pretty short stride length: my cadence at an easy pace is right about 182-186 not because I'm super fast, but because my short legs turn over twice as much as someone much taller to go the same speed. And I have a spinal curve that effectively makes one hip higher than the other, which makes my hips move up and down more than the average runner. So, I'm running along one day at the park when I see the local high school cross country team go by. Long, lean, lanky teens who seem to glide effortlessly down the path, right? The effect of this makes me do something or other to try to lessen the up and down of my hips and lengthen my stride. It feels right! I feel like I'm a long, lean, gliding runner! I run by the team's coach (looong after the team has passed him natch lol!) and he says to me, "What are you doing???" I stop, look confused... He says, "I see you run here all the time - you have great form! So what on earth were you doing just now?!" Me: "Oh, um, trying to fix my wonky form so I , you know... look like those kids who are 30 years my junior." Coach: "Well, stop that. You run perfectly fine - if it ain't broke, don't mess with it!" Okey-dokey!

 

[PrincessV]

Who posted the link to Ian's Eleventy-Million Different Ways to Lace a Shoe?! I am in DEEP, I'll have you know, lol! I may try every one of them, in addition to learning how to tie nautical LINE knots...

 

[opusone]

...in addition to learning how to tie nautical LINE knots...

But now, what are you going to do with all that rope you bought?

 

[CheapRunnerMike]

So, I'm running along one day at the park when I see the local high school cross country team go by. Long, lean, lanky teens who seem to glide effortlessly down the path, right? The effect of this makes me do something or other to try to lessen the up and down of my hips and lengthen my stride. It feels right! I feel like I'm a long, lean, gliding runner! I run by the team's coach (looong after the team has passed him natch lol!) and he says to me, "What are you doing???" I stop, look confused... He says, "I see you run here all the time - you have great form! So what on earth were you doing just now?!" Me: "Oh, um, trying to fix my wonky form so I , you know... look like those kids who are 30 years my junior." Coach: "Well, stop that. You run perfectly fine - if it ain't broke, don't mess with it!" Okey-dokey!

LOVE this

 

[DopeyBadger]

FYI, the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships start today through Saturday.

They will be aired on ESPNU, ESPN2, and ESPN throughout the event. Super excited because it should be some highly competitive races. Here are a few preview articles from letsrun.com

Mens 1500, 800, and Steeplechase
Womens 1500, 800 and Steeplechase
Mens 5K and 10K
Womens 5K and 10K

If you watch one event, watch the Mens 10K final with Edward Cheserek (King Ches) from Oregon. He is a phenomenal athlete. It's on tonight on ESPN2 at 9:08 pm Central.

 

[Chasing Dopey]

Who posted the link to Ian's Eleventy-Million Different Ways to Lace a Shoe?! I am in DEEP, I'll have you know, lol! I may try every one of them, in addition to learning how to tie nautical LINE knots...

We actually have Mrs. Dopey to thank for that. She luuuuuvs that site.

 

[Kathymford]

Loving this form conversation! I think this is why my speed workouts with the MOOV is exhausting me so much. The device straps around your ankle and measures cadence instead of a certain pace. And I have a very hard time getting into the 160s. I'm starting to think that it's the lack of strength in my quads (like, are there any muscles in them? lol). The good part about it measuring cadence is I can definitely feel a difference in my running and my quads are burning and get tired very quickly. I'm not sure yet if it's translating to the days that I'm not doing the MOOV workouts, but I imagine eventually it will.

The MOOV also measures forward-back leg swing and foot strike impact. I haven't really focused on those, but I was curious if any of you think that really matters. My strike impact is usually always high and I just don't think I should try to change that. The couple of times I did try to change it, I was sore for a week. Just seems like a bad idea.

Oh this is so me too, glad to know I'm not the only one with the love/hate with lacing. I used heel-lock for awhile, but yeah found it too tight sometimes on the top of my foot so now don't anymore. I do skip the first holes at the toe area, but for awhile skipped another set up higher. My shoe tongue slips a lot so I'm doing some double back with the tongue loop now and some days it's good and some it still bugs me and feels like it's pulling/tight. Anything too tight at all on the lacing and everything gets off, mostly my right shoe/shin or my knees will hurt and it usually is from the lace too tight somewhere. But then go too loose and the foot slides.

So. Much. This. I feel like it's different by the day.

 

[LSUlakes]

I've been struggling with whole-foot numbness on hills. My shoes are two years old

Have you been running/walking/using these shoes for two years? If so, there is a high chance that your shoes are the problem. Once you get a new pair I recommend using either garmin connect or similar site to track miles or a journal to track miles. Depending on your weight, and type of shoe, you should get somewhere between 300-500 miles on a pair. Even if the shoes appears perfect after 500 miles, the odds of injury are increased because the interior parts of the shoe are not performing as designed anymore.

This thread moves so fast that it kind of intimidates me, but I am going to try and join in and keep up!

Welcome to the thread and I love oysters! Raw, fried, in pasta, chargrilled!!!

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

Now the local weather forecast for the day of my half marathon is mentioning thunderstorms around in the morning. If it's just rain and no storms I'll take that over blazing sun, but it's starting to get so frustrating, especially since this week has been cool. Today would have been an ideal morning for a race. I'm beginning to think the universe doesn't want me to do a half, since the same type of weather happened during Wine and Dine last year and we all know what happened with that race (this race is supposed to be my do-over).

 

[LSUlakes]

Edit*
QOTD: What is your next goal race?

ATTQOTD: Not sure which race, but 4th of July weekend I will run a 5k and hope to come close to PR despite warmer temps.

 

[LSUlakes]

This week we have the following folks with races:

09 - @SueInBoston - JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k (NG / N/A)
10 - @opusone - La Grange Rocks 5k (22:00 / N/A)
11 - @Chaitali - Lawyers Have Heart 10k (Sub 01:20:00 / N/A)
11 - @Baloo in MI - Kona Run 10 Miler (NG / N/A)
11 - @*DisneyDreamer - Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon (NG / NA)
11 - @Miranda - Market Square Day 10K (1:15:00 / N/A)
11 - @Krynn - Shawshank Hustle 7k (NG / N/A)
11 - @Diskidatheart - Daily American 10k (48:00 / N/A)
11 - @CheapRunnerMike - Woodstock Sprint Triathlon (1:10:00 / N/A)
11 - @michigandergirl - Brian Diemer 5K (28:00 / N/A)
12 - @Nole95 - Hotlanta Half Marathon (N/A / N/A)

Good luck to you all! If you would like to revise your goal or will not be able to make the race this weekend, please let me know so I can update. Again, best of luck and enjoy the race!

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

This week we have the following folks with races:

09 - @SueInBoston - JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k (NG / N/A)
10 - @opusone - La Grange Rocks 5k (22:00 / N/A)
11 - @Chaitali - Lawyers Have Heart 10k (Sub 01:20:00 / N/A)
11 - @Baloo in MI - Kona Run 10 Miler (NG / N/A)
11 - @*DisneyDreamer - Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon (NG / NA)
11 - @Miranda - Market Square Day 10K (NG / N/A)
11 - @Krynn - Shawshank Hustle 7k (NG / N/A)
11 - @Diskidatheart - Daily American 10k (48:00 / N/A)
11 - @CheapRunnerMike - Woodstock Sprint Triathlon (1:10:00 / N/A)
11 - @michigandergirl - Brian Diemer 5K (28:00 / N/A)
12 - @Nole95 - Hotlanta Half Marathon (N/A / N/A)

Good luck to you all! If you would like to revise your goal or will not be able to make the race this weekend, please let me know so I can update. Again, best of luck and enjoy the race!

Didn't have a time goal to start, and definitely don't have one now with the forecast of hot and humid weather. Just hoping to be able to go and finish in one piece at this point.

 

[opusone]

This week we have the following folks with races:

09 - @SueInBoston - JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k (NG / N/A)
10 - @opusone - La Grange Rocks 5k (22:00 / N/A)
11 - @Chaitali - Lawyers Have Heart 10k (Sub 01:20:00 / N/A)
11 - @Baloo in MI - Kona Run 10 Miler (NG / N/A)
11 - @*DisneyDreamer - Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon (NG / NA)
11 - @Miranda - Market Square Day 10K (NG / N/A)
11 - @Krynn - Shawshank Hustle 7k (NG / N/A)
11 - @Diskidatheart - Daily American 10k (48:00 / N/A)
11 - @CheapRunnerMike - Woodstock Sprint Triathlon (1:10:00 / N/A)
11 - @michigandergirl - Brian Diemer 5K (28:00 / N/A)
12 - @Nole95 - Hotlanta Half Marathon (N/A / N/A)

Good luck to you all! If you would like to revise your goal or will not be able to make the race this weekend, please let me know so I can update. Again, best of luck and enjoy the race!

Thanks @LSUlakes! I will keep my goal time, but given that it's currently predicted to be 87° when the race starts at 7:00pm on Friday evening, I may have to slow it down a bit. For a 5k, I am hoping that the heat won't be as big of an issue as it would be for a 10k, half or full. We'll see.

 

[Miranda]

This week we have the following folks with races:

09 - @SueInBoston - JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5k (NG / N/A)
10 - @opusone - La Grange Rocks 5k (22:00 / N/A)
11 - @Chaitali - Lawyers Have Heart 10k (Sub 01:20:00 / N/A)
11 - @Baloo in MI - Kona Run 10 Miler (NG / N/A)
11 - @*DisneyDreamer - Rock 'n Sole Half Marathon (NG / NA)
11 - @Miranda - Market Square Day 10K (NG / N/A)
11 - @Krynn - Shawshank Hustle 7k (NG / N/A)
11 - @Diskidatheart - Daily American 10k (48:00 / N/A)
11 - @CheapRunnerMike - Woodstock Sprint Triathlon (1:10:00 / N/A)
11 - @michigandergirl - Brian Diemer 5K (28:00 / N/A)
12 - @Nole95 - Hotlanta Half Marathon (N/A / N/A)

Good luck to you all! If you would like to revise your goal or will not be able to make the race this weekend, please let me know so I can update. Again, best of luck and enjoy the race!

I'm going to say 1:15. I would like to PR (1:13:41), but only 6 days out from my HM, I dunno. My legs are still feeling sluggish. I should definitely be able to race PR, though (1:18:49).

 

[Kathymford]

I forgot to mention that I was pretty bummed this morning that it looks like all of the Nike Women U.S. events have been pulled off the schedule. At first I thought it was just Los Angeles, but it appears to be all of the U.S. locations. Bummer!

 

[huggybuff]

ATTQOTD: I've got a 5K - the Davis (CA) Moo-nlight Run on 7/9. My goal is sub 44:00. Yes I'm a turtle, lol.

 

[LSUlakes]

At work this afternoon they starts a ~5 week challenge. Its to see who can gain lean body mass. I see two ways of doing this, lose fat to get my fat/muscle ratio higher or to gain muscle. Since its nearly impossible to do both at the same time, I would go with diet being the easiest way to do this. To measure in I was required to get on a scale with no shoe or socks. It stats its a Tanita Body Composition Analyzer. You give them some basic info like height and age and it gives the following: BMI-25.1 (I find this to be high for me) Weight 211.5, BMR - 2152kcal(Calories I burn at rest?) Fat 16.6%, Fat mass 35lbs. It says my desired range for fat% is 8-20 and fat mass is 15.5-44lbs. So looks like I am in the acceptable range there but have some room to improve.

Anyone with any experience on these metrics, could you tell me more about what it means or suggest?

 

[dis_or_dat]

I forgot to mention that I was pretty bummed this morning that it looks like all of the Nike Women U.S. events have been pulled off the schedule. At first I thought it was just Los Angeles, but it appears to be all of the U.S. locations. Bummer!

Hmmmm, I wonder why.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

ATTQOTD - I have no goal races planned for 2016. I have not decided what I will run next year after the Dopey (I will reach 50 years old), but it will likely be a challenging race. Maybe Pike's Peak.

As for the body fat percentage - I am a weight lifter so standard methods for measuring my body fat percentage are almost useless. I know that the scales that are supposed to measure this don't work for me, either. No help from me, but I am also interested in what others have to say.