The Running Thread - 2018

[braycon]

On the fall question, I've not fallen, but on a training run just a week before the Disney marathon several years ago, I did an unexpected power slide on a wooden bridge...and nearly dumped myself into the river. You know how they say that bridges freeze before everything else? Well, that is true apparently. Luckily, there was a sturdy wooden fence to catch and bruise me, but it was better than a late-December swim.

Regarding training runs, I typically just move on. If I'm not training for an event, I just don't care that much and, if I am training for an event, then I'm probably already running six times a week. Moving stuff around is difficult. I will flip-flop the rest day, if I can pull that off. (The day I miss becomes the rest day for the week). Otherwise, as Jimmy Buffett sings: breathe in, breathe out, move on.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

Sometimes alcohol happens and I can't get out there.

Not that I have any experience with this, but I see it as a chance to train for race conditions.

 

[Bree]

ATTQOTD: If I miss a run I try to move things around, but with only 1 rest day it’s hard. So that means sometimes I just miss them. I missed quite a few runs at the beginning of July due to a hip issue.

Back to yesterday’s question. I did not fall this morning. I did manage to run into to a truck’s trailer hitch TWICE! I also banged my elbow on the back of someone’s SUV. I will blame them for not pulling into the driveway far enough thus blocking half the sidewalk instead of my own lack of spatial awareness.

 

[KaitlynJ]

ATTQOTD: If it's a long run, I do it a different day. If it's a short run I usually try to squeeze it in a different day, but sometimes I end up skipping it. I typically only run 3-4 days a week and don't cross-train nearly as much as I should, so I have more flexibility than others with more intense training schedules.

 

[run.minnie.miles]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

 

[Sleepless Knight]

QOTD: If you have to miss a run for whatever reason, what do you do? Do you move everything back a day, make it up on a rest day, run a double, or just move forward with your plan?

It all depends on the type of run. If illness sidelines me for a training run, I'll move on and not worry about it. If illness is going to sideline me for a long run, I usually try to get the long run after returning to action and then adjust the schedule accordingly.

Stuff happens and a missed day is a missed day. I differentiate between 'work/life made me miss a day' and 'I was too lazy to run'. The former happens; the latter is a fail on my part. Either way, I feel that 'making it up' is a bad thing.

I think it's important to learn the distinction between valid reasons for skipping a run and lazy reasons for missing a run. From there we can stop beating ourselves up for valid reasons and improve on reducing the laziness reasons. Much easier said than done though.

The older I get, the more important it is for me to listen to my body. A skipped run for the right reasons improves your chances of success.

This is so true. Sometimes our bodies really just need rest. And sometimes what we can really just reduce our mileage or pace, but still get a run in.

Any one individual workout from the dozens or hundreds which make up a training cycle is not usually critical in the grand scheme of things.

I wish I had learned this lesson sooner. I did not finally learn it until my second multi race challenge. About a month before the race, I caught a nasty bug that sidelined me much longer than I wanted and life wound up forcing me to adjust my schedule including having to drop the last 2 back to back runs and cut the last long run short a little bit because my still recovering body couldn't take it any more. Well on race day, I ran my then fastest character stop race ever.

From this I discovered that consistent, diligent training over months gives you some flexibility when life gets in the way. But I wish I had learned it earlier because there were times when I was stressing out over skipped training runs due to late in the game illness that I simply didn't need to stress over. I also learned that it's okay to take a long run slower if you need to.

I will blame them for not pulling into the driveway far enough thus blocking half the sidewalk instead of my own lack of spatial awareness.

I read this as spatula awareness and envisioned hundreds of even thousands of spatulas all over the sidewalk wreaking havoc. Not sure why, but I found people trying to dodge spatulas while running funny.

 

[FFigawi]

Not that I have any experience with this, but I see it as a chance to train for race conditions.

Yes! My 10k PR came when I was somewhere on the spectrum between still drunk and hungover.

 

[roxymama]

ATTQOTD: This training plan has been so incredibly hard for me to stick to. Sometimes life happens and I can't get out there. Sometimes alcohol happens and I can't get out there. So what do I do? I get let my anxiety and guilt eat at me for a day or two and try to figure out if I can reschedule them, I feel like a failure, I let every negative thing get into my head that I can, and I usually don't find time to re-schedule it. So then I also don't tell Coach about it and just carry on my training. So far I feel like I have missed quite a few important runs but there isn't anything I can do about it now. I might see about next training plan not having my long runs scheduled for Sunday when I am most likely to have partied too hard the night before, and maybe that would help me out a bit. But I have 26 days until my "A" Goal race and that is 19 more workouts before race day. Fingers crossed I don't fudge it up.

My spring Half training i got bogged down and couldn't do the 5 days a week and couldn't get all the runs in so I told Da Coach and we changed my goal and blew up the back half of the plan and redid it. And instead of hurting myself trying to catch up or only do a few runs, I PRd by accident...probably bc I stuck to the new plan
I think it's better to tell him. No one else on here even has to know. Shhhh

 

[avondale]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

Hopefully someone will answer you who actually had LASIK. In case they don't... my eyes are far too myopic for the LASIK procedure. Instead, I got the "next level" of surgery, which is implantable contact lenses. They sound like exactly what they are. This surgery was out-patient and just a bit more involved than cataract surgery. I had this done in 2011. At the time, I didn't run, but I played tennis. I was back on the courts as soon as allowed - maybe a week? I would suspect there would be more post-op danger with tennis than running, what with tennis possibly having balls flying at your face. Anyway, even my surgery was very easy recovery. Just had to wear the goggles at night for awhile (so that you don't accidentally rub your eyes or bury your face in your pillow and whatnot).

I can't imagine you'd have to sit out from running for very long.

 

[FFigawi]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

When I had mine done, the surgery was in mid-November and I was running again within two weeks.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

Yes! My 10k PR came when I was somewhere on the spectrum between still drunk and hungover.

Mine too.

That is the very small window you are shooting for.

Who am I kidding? All my PRs were done that way. Well, maybe not 5K.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

I had Lasik about 16 years ago.

It is a 3-way tie with the best procedures I've ever had done:
LASIK
Braces, at 40+ years old
Ankle surgery to fix a chronic sprained ankle

I wasn't actively running at the time, so can't answer directly. But down-time was minimal. I wore safety goggle for a day or two. Other than that, I don't remember any restrictions. 3-4 days? A week at most? Those are just guesses, consult a professional.

Do it, no matter what the down-time, it's worth it.

My recommendation is not to spend too much time googling it. Only the people who had bad experiences take the time to document it. The gazillion people who had no issues don't bother.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Because I usually only have enough time for short runs, I try to run every day but I did an 8 mile run Saturday and ended up with body aches and chills 2 hours later. I guess it meant I had pushed myself too hard. So skipped 2 days in a row.

Anyways, today I did my first 10 mile run in over a year and it was glorious! I think I could have done 12, but didn't want to push it after what happened Saturday.

It was perfect run weather - overcast and cool. I even ran behind a juvenile mountain lion (or cub?) for a while. I was actually really scared because I didn't know where its mama was. So I paced myself to not catch up to it but also didn't want to stop and be attacked. I tried to make myself look bigger as I ran by flailing my arms and looked behind me constantly until the mountain lion finally disappeared into the forest. In retrospect, I think you're not suppose to run at all. It's a highly trafficked paved trail and it was mid morning, so I was surprised to see it. I stopped to tell a park ranger and he was like "cool!" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[MissLiss279]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

I had it done 2 and a half years ago. I tried going back and looking at my running log...

I think they told me just a few days, like 3, maybe?? Pretty much you can’t rub your eyes for several weeks, so you don’t want to be rubbing sweat out of your eyes.
It looks like I ran Friday morning before the surgery and then OrangeTheory on Monday. And then ran on Tuesday. Pretty much not much time off at all.
For a while I thought my astigmatism was too bad for LASIK, but it wasn’t. One of the best decisions/things I had done.

 

[opusone]

Has anyone had Lasik? How soon after were you back to running?

Yes… about 10 years ago. I agree with others that it was minimal (a few days max).

 

[ZellyB]

@run.minnie.miles i had Lasik 17 years ago but I wasn't running at the time. I don't remember any real restrictions though for more than a couple of days. As others have said, one of the best things I've ever done.

 

[flav]

ATTQOTD: On a four days per week training plan, I try to reshuffle my runs to not miss any. I am not so good with cross-training though and often skip it.

If life happens (sickness, injuries, travel), I reassess, accept that I missed some runs and ajust the next week plan to make sure it incorporates the key elements of what I missed (ex speed intervals). If I need to take it slow, I do, because I want to be able to run and enjoy life for many decades.

And on that note, the knee that hurts from last week fall still hurts. I went for a run yesterday, felt my knee the entire time, could not do any speed work and had to cut the run short. I went out again later with DD for a one miler and was so sore. I do not know if I should rest more or keep trying to resume training. My HM race is in a month.

 

[Waiting2goback]

QOTD: If you have to miss a run for whatever reason, what do you do? Do you move everything back a day, make it up on a rest day, run a double, or just move forward with your plan?

ATTQOTD: I missed my run yesterday. I was up to late Sunday for a early morning wake up on Monday, so I figured I would just get the miles in that afternoon. Well, DD is having some adjustment issues so we are trying to show her a little extra attention (This may or may not be the right call, but thats a different discussion). While Momma was painting her nails and playing with her I took care of DS and by the time I put him to sleep and get everything else organized it was already 7:45PM. So plan C kicks in, which is to go to my office and use the treadmill there. Well I get to the office and all of the power to the treadmills is out. So it's almost 9PM and I am out of options for a run. I work out and go home but cant fall asleep till 1AM this morning, which means 4:30 AM wake up is not going to happen either! Going to have to run this afternoon come hell or high water! I am thinking of making up the run by running a double tomorrow.

As others have said, if it is a long run I make adjustments. If it is a 4-5 mile easy run I don't worry about it. I may add a 1/2 mile to my other easy runs that week to try and make up some of the mileage.

ATTQOTD: As a mom of 3, stuff happens and sometimes I miss runs. If I can fit it in later I will, but if not, I just have to move on. I really hate missing runs when I'm training for an "A" race though...it eats at me.

I have 4 and this was giving me problems all summer missing runs because things kept coming up. Once I decided to commit to being more consistent I decided running in the morning before the kids woke up was my only way to ensure I got my runs in. It has worked but with school starting next week it will mean night runs on the weeks I have the kids, which has me concerned I will be missing runs again.

 

[LSUlakes]

QOTD: How do you determine what your goal is for a race? How far out do you make your decision?

ATTQOTD: I go with a combination of recent race results and my fitness level. I usually make my initial goal for a race once I register for it, and then will adjust it if needed based on how training has gone the week of the race.

 

[LSUlakes]

This week we have the following folks with races:

24 - @Disney at Heart - Midnight Flight 10k (NG / N/A)
25 - @flav - Montreal Color Run 5k (NG / N/A)
25 - @PaDisneyCouple - ARC of York Rail Trail 10 Miler (1:32:00 / N/A)
25 - LSUlakes - Q50 Races Bleau Moon 10 Mi Trail Run (1:35:00 / N/A)

Best of luck to each of you this weekend! If you would like to revise your goal or if someone else would like to add a race to the weekend list, just let me know! We look forward to hearing how your race goes!