The Running Thread - 2016

[*DisneyDreamer]

I registered for my first big race of 2017 on Monday. The event had a Cyber Monday deal for 10% off registrations, so I pulled the trigger like I did last year. The event is the same half marathon I did back in June this year for my redemption half after not completing what should have been my first at Wine and Dine 2015. I usually don't set time goals for races since I don't want to feel disappointed, but I may for this one. My ultimate goal for 2017 is going to be to improve my half marathon time.

 

[Miranda]

Tomorrow is my first registration (May 7), then Monday for the second (June 4). The first one sells out in a few days and last year the second one sold out in 8 minutes, so fingers crossed!

 

[JeffW]

Womp Womp, it was too good to be true. Well I guess I'll give it a shot just to see how off or not it is and to at least remind myself I ran that day. Maybe a footpod is eventually a better idea (and a good Christmas wishlist item.) I wonder if I'll be hyper aware of my arm movements though. I think I may use my arms differently on the treadmill just logistically with all the bars and everything in front of me. I guess something "fun" to think about next time.

I find the accelerometer in my 920XT to vary 10-20 sec/mile on pace compared to the treadmill when I'm running. It is highly dependent on your arm motion (when I grab my phone to change music, the pace goes all over the place). When I wear the HRM-Run belt, it takes over from the watch and is much more accurate and not susceptible to arm swing variations. But the HRM-Run is only compatible with the 620 and up. The footpod, as mentioned, would likely get you this type of accuracy

 

[dis_or_dat]

November:
159.2 miles
8.57 avg pace

Only missed 1 run so far! But with the holidays and ski trips, I'll be missing more.

Trying to decrease my cadence. I've noticed my form is a little less "glider" when I tell myself to land with my foot under me. Still very high cadence, but not super duper high.

My garmin 235 doesn't record treadmill running accurately either even on 'run indoors' setting. I guess my gait is different on the treadmill and it reads much slower especially when I'm running at a higher pace. Sometimes I try to offset it by moving my arm more.

 

[croach]

Ah well. I haven't actually used mine in that mode for running (I quite often use it with GPS off to record my spin class so that it will auto-sync to Strava for me), but I didn't think that it would be that far off. I thought I had remembered DC Rainmaker's review saying that it was ok, not great, not terrible, but maybe I was misremembering. Sounds like the foot pod might be better, though.

I've used a foot pod with my 220 and it does pretty well. Helps if calibrate before hand.

 

[cavepig]

Trying to decrease my cadence. I've noticed my form is a little less "glider" when I tell myself to land with my foot under me. Still very high cadence, but not super duper high.

Maybe I missed it by why try to decrease your cadence? I always thought if you overstride, your cadence is lower, so you should try to have your feet land under you to increase your cadence. Sorry, I'm just confused and trying to understand.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Maybe I missed it by why try to decrease your cadence? I always thought if you overstride, your cadence is lower, so you should try to have your feet land under you to increase your cadence. Sorry, I'm just confused and trying to understand.

My cadence is in the 190s on my easy runs and 200-210 for all my other speeds. I look like I'm speed walking! I think it's a pretty inefficient way of running once I get to higher paces, so I'm trying to fix it. Any recs appreciated!

 

[LSUfan4444]

Hello my fellow LSU friend. Are you running Baton Rouge Beach this weekend?

No, unfortunately not. That was my first 1/2 marathon. I'll be back in January for the La Marathon though.

I Love running the lakes!

 

[keahgirl8]

I used Galloway in 2015 for both my rD races, then this year I used Higdon, and I would agree with most of what was said about his plans. Maybe Higdon or something like that will work better for me if I get to a point where I am running more, but trying to do a Higdon plan while still run/walking did not work out so well for me in 2016. I did not feel like I had the stamina to finish my races only going out to 10 miles for the long run. I hated going that long when I was doing Galloway (I went out to 13 for both my training cycles in the last 2 long runs, instead of the 13 then 14 he called for on the longest one), and I am sure I would have hated it if I did it again, but I felt more prepared to tackle the whole race distance last year than I did this year.

We'll see what happens next year, as I would like to move away from doing such short intervals (currently I do 90/30 ones).

I HATE running long distance. Hate it. I love running Disney, so I put up with the training. Even though I hate the 14 miler, I really feel less anxious knowing I ran past the half distance.

I just want to piggy back on this and say that the reverse is true, too: if you train to run or to run/walk and then decide to only walk (or even mostly walk) the race, it HURTS! BT/DT. Didn't have a choice, since ITBS nailed me early in my first long distance race, but I have never been more sore after a race than I was after walking most of that one, since I'd trained to run/walk. Found muscles I never knew I had lol!

ATTQOTD: 90ish miles here for November

Fast walking is hard, y'all! I don't know how people do it 100% of the time!

 

[croach]

My cadence is in the 190s on my easy runs and 200-210 for all my other speeds. I look like I'm speed walking! I think it's a pretty inefficient way of running once I get to higher paces, so I'm trying to fix it. Any recs appreciated!

So I shy away from giving advice bc not close to being an expert but I've been reading up on cadence a bit. Sounds like maybe you want lengthen your stride length a bit? If you're going to try to bring it down don't lengthen your stride to the front or overstride. From my reading, that is acting as a brake to your running and therefore putting more load and stress on your body. This is an old but pretty good article and I like that it shows that three guys has three different cadences but we're all pretty much going the same speed.

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/the-great-cadence-debate

Sorry if you knew all this already.

 

[Ariel484]

Fast walking is hard, y'all! I don't know how people do it 100% of the time!

Seriously!! I don't know how people walk the runDisney races at 16:00/mile. I totally cannot do that!

 

[Slogger]

QOTD: It's the end of the month. What is your monthly mileage for November?

100.1 miles for November even with almost 2 weeks vacation from running.
Topped 1000 miles for the year for the first time too!

 

[ebradley23]

ATTQOTD: Despite running a marathon and continuing training for the 50k, November was one of my lowest mileage months. I ended with 104.8 miles. Down from the 182 I had in Oct That's what a taper followed by a reverse taper will do. I'm still nursing my IT band. Ready to get in with the ortho and demand a quick fix (cortisone shot) to supplement my rolling, stretching and strengthening.

 

[keahgirl8]

Seriously!! I don't know how people walk the runDisney races at 16:00/mile. I totally cannot do that!

Some people do it even faster than that! I run/walk and I have been passed by walkers whether I am running or walking.

 

[dis_or_dat]

So I shy away from giving advice bc not close to being an expert but I've been reading up on cadence a bit. Sounds like maybe you want lengthen your stride length a bit? If you're going to try to bring it down don't lengthen your stride to the front or overstride. From my reading, that is acting as a brake to your running and therefore putting more load and stress on your body. This is an old but pretty good article and I like that it shows that three guys has three different cadences but we're all pretty much going the same speed.

http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/the-great-cadence-debate

Sorry if you knew all this already.

Thank you so much @croach! I welcome all advice! You should see how often I pepper @DopeyBadger with questions and give @LSUlakes QOTD suggestions that are really questions I'm too shy to ask. Looking at my last 5k, my stride length was 1.16, but I think the data was all wacky because it said my HR was 150-160s and my HR is typically high 180s-200s at that pace (my HR is another matter). I think my stride is closer to 0.98. Thanks to the linked article, I realized I should have been looking into how to lengthen stride vs how to decrease cadence as I couldn't find anything to help in that regard. I'll definitely try out some of the pylometrics and drills.

ATTQOTD: Despite running a marathon and continuing training for the 50k, November was one of my lowest mileage months. I ended with 104.8 miles. Down from the 182 I had in Oct That's what a taper followed by a reverse taper will do. I'm still nursing my IT band. Ready to get in with the ortho and demand a quick fix (cortisone shot) to supplement my rolling, stretching and strengthening.

Woah, ultra?! I haven't even attempted marathon yet.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

Womp Womp, it was too good to be true. Well I guess I'll give it a shot just to see how off or not it is and to at least remind myself I ran that day. Maybe a footpod is eventually a better idea (and a good Christmas wishlist item.) I wonder if I'll be hyper aware of my arm movements though. I think I may use my arms differently on the treadmill just logistically with all the bars and everything in front of me. I guess something "fun" to think about next time.

Not to be all contrarian are anything, but my Garmin 235 is actually pretty close to what my treadmill says I have run. It took a couple of weeks to get that way, but now it's almost the same.

Some people do it even faster than that! I run/walk and I have been passed by walkers whether I am running or walking.

Yup, my MIL walks a bit faster than 12:30/mile!

 

[FFigawi]

Do you find that what the Garmin says you are at for pace/speed equals closely to your treadmill? I've always wondered about that with the gym treadmills.

I find the foot pod is quite accurate. Not as good as the GPS when outside, but it's within 5-10 seconds per mile. That's close enough for most of my training.

I'm in total 2017 goal-making mode right now...to go with my newly purchased daily planner...I just purchased a motivational water bottle with how much I need to drink each hour and some backup silicon ice trays to go with it. It's like I'm nesting, but instead of having a baby...I'm having a half marathon.

Amazing how much gear we accumulate, isn't it? It never seems to stop, either. There's always one more gadget or piece of gear we just have to have.

 

[cavepig]

My cadence is in the 190s on my easy runs and 200-210 for all my other speeds. I look like I'm speed walking! I think it's a pretty inefficient way of running once I get to higher paces, so I'm trying to fix it. Any recs appreciated!

Yeah no expert here either, as said above to slow your cadence you want to lengthen your stride, which be careful as stepping farther ahead of your body can cause knee/other joint pain (best form is landing under you as far as I've read). Personally I think your times are already really fast so I wouldn't say right now you are inefficient at all. I know other fast runners that look almost like they are walking that have fast turnovers/cadence. Also, I think height comes into play too, like shorter legs usually are quicker turnovers, which to me isn't a bad thing and can be a good thing for fast times. Are you wanting to slow your pace then? Again I'm no expert so take my ramblings with a grain of salt, just trying to wrap my head around wanting to do this I guess.

Seriously!! I don't know how people walk the runDisney races at 16:00/mile. I totally cannot do that!

Yes, IT. IS. HARD! I did the WDW marathon 2016 in 6:50, so under 16:00 barely (I had to have that goal or I would have just curled up & quit), but that included a little jogging/shuffling here and there too. So, when people say "Oh I'll just walk it", I'm like it's not easy, get the muscles ready now. I wanted to just run so bad during it to switch muscles, but that just was not happening. Like my quads/hamstrings weren't sore at all like they usually are from running.

 

[croach]

Yes, IT. IS. HARD! I did the WDW marathon 2016 in 6:50, so under 16:00 barely (I had to have that goal or I would have just curled up & quit), but that included a little jogging/shuffling here and there too. So, when people say "Oh I'll just walk it", I'm like it's not easy, get the muscles ready now. I wanted to just run so bad during it to switch muscles, but that just was not happening. Like my quads/hamstrings weren't sore at all like they usually are from running.

I hope nothing I say here offends anyone but I've always had a special admiration for back of the pack runners/walkers. Yes we are all amazed at the elites and anyone who finishes any race is awesome. But I always admire people who have the dedication to be out there for say 6 hours for a marathon. That's a long time to be doing one thing continuously, especially one athletic event. I honestly don't know if I could do it. It's always great to see those folks cross the finish line.

 

[LSUlakes]

QOTD: Before we know it Christmas will be here. For those shopping for a gift for you and they want to get you something for running what items do you suggest for them to purchase? What are some odd running gifts you have received?

ATTQOTD: I ask for things that are fairly simple in regards to running, for example the type of GU I like, or a subscription to Runners World. I've also asked for someone to register me for a race or a gift card to my local running store. As for as odd things I would say some coconut milk may be the strangest. Apparently its great for hydration, but I couldn't make myself drink it. Another year someone gave me running shorts. Not that shorts are odd, but they ended up being a size to small and way to short. I was unable to exchange them as well . I think having someone else buying a running gift for a runner is a difficult thing to do, as we each have very specific things we are looking for with our running gear.

No, unfortunately not. That was my first 1/2 marathon. I'll be back in January for the La Marathon though.

I Love running the lakes!

The lakes are great and I enjoy the races that take place around them. If I read correctly you are from the Mandeville area... maybe I read that incorrectly. I ran the Gulf Coast half a few months ago for my second time. That ~3 mile stretch on the trail on the way back seems like it last forever. Its the toughest mental part of the whole race. Anyway, good luck at Louisiana Marathon and GEAUX TIGERS!