The Running Thread -- 2022

[jmasgat]

I am interrupting your running discussion with the newest family member. Dad saw pics and agreed with my name for her, Whisky. We talked about her a few times because I was trying to distract him.

she is not settled in. We got her today so she is a bit nervous. It is very weird having a mobile dog. she is pretty good on the leash but DH and I need to also work those leash skills.

What a beauty. Love the touch of gray in her face.

 

[azrivest]

Has anybody happened to have bookmarked one of DopeyBadger's posts about adapting your pace/effort to heat?

The heat is already killer today, and it's only 7:45

 

[Herding_Cats]

@azrivest
I have my chart (13:30-14:00 for EA/EB pace) and I think I have the one for my SIL which is more like 10-11:00 for EA/EB.

 

[MissLiss279]

Has anybody happened to have bookmarked one of DopeyBadger's posts about adapting your pace/effort to heat?

The heat is already killer today, and it's only 7:45

I can’t remember if this is a webpage that he has linked in the past, but I have used its percentages to adjust my pace.

http://maximumperformancerunning.blogspot.com/2013/07/temperature-dew-point.html?m=1

 

[azrivest]

@azrivest
I have my chart (13:30-14:00 for EA/EB pace) and I think I have the one for my SIL which is more like 10-11:00 for EA/EB.

Could you send it to me please?

 

[camaker]

I can’t remember if this is a webpage that he has linked in the past, but I have used its percentages to adjust my pace.

http://maximumperformancerunning.blogspot.com/2013/07/temperature-dew-point.html?m=1

This is the one I use.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

I am interrupting your running discussion with the newest family member. Dad saw pics and agreed with my name for her, Whisky.

Congrats! She's beautiful. Think she'll be a running companion some day?

 

[garneska]

Congrats! She's beautiful. Think she'll be a running companion some day?

I am not sure. She is not over active right now, but I just got her and she is nervous. Though I think doing great for only day 1. I am hoping she will enjoy hiking. she has adapted to the elevator. Need to work on car rides next.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Has anybody happened to have bookmarked one of DopeyBadger's posts about adapting your pace/effort to heat?

The heat is already killer today, and it's only 7:45

I can’t remember if this is a webpage that he has linked in the past, but I have used its percentages to adjust my pace.

http://maximumperformancerunning.blogspot.com/2013/07/temperature-dew-point.html?m=1

Yes, that's the one. I gave it a little more nuance in the ranges with this set of adjustments:



In my view, these adjustments should be seen as caps rather than goals per se. As in, I want you to aim for no faster than the adjusted pace, but you can absolutely go slower if the effort warrants it. As you move from a cooler T+D into the warmer T+Ds of summer you won't be as heat acclimated yet. So your bodies response is likely to be more severe than this chart suggests. We've been bouncing around in T+D here in WI, so I'm not close to heat acclimated yet. So earlier this week when I had a T+D 167 run, I should have adjusted by at least 8% to get the effort in range. But in reality, I adjusted by 15% to keep myself at the right effort level and HR response (8:36 pace became 9:53 pace).

 

[avondale]

Yes, that's the one. I gave it a little more nuance in the ranges with this set of adjustments:

View attachment 679425

In my view, these adjustments should be seen as caps rather than goals per se. As in, I want you to aim for no faster than the adjusted pace, but you can absolutely go slower if the effort warrants it. As you move from a cooler T+D into the warmer T+Ds of summer you won't be as heat acclimated yet. So your bodies response is likely to be more severe than this chart suggests. We've been bouncing around in T+D here in WI, so I'm not close to heat acclimated yet. So earlier this week when I had a T+D 167 run, I should have adjusted by at least 8% to get the effort in range. But in reality, I adjusted by 15% to keep myself at the right effort level and HR response (8:36 pace became 9:53 pace).

So I've pretty much memorized this chart through a T+D ~ 145, and I've converted my non-runner husband to talking about the T+D instead of referring to how hot (or how humid) it is. This chart is everything in the summer.

 

[garneska]

@avondale same for my DH. We speak in T+D

 

[dis_or_dat]

Congrats @garneska ! She'll have such a lovely home

 

[DopeyBadger]

QOTD: Let's get nostalgic. Today is my personal 10 year anniversary for the first time I went for a run. So show me the data, or tell me about the first time you went for a run.

My first run was on 6/27/2012. Keep in mind that the app I used (Runtastic) was off by about 5%. So the total mileage was more likely 2.56 miles with a pace of an 11:36 min/mile average (10:13, 11:30, 13:16). This was an all-out effort. And judging by the pace graph, I had to take a walking break about 15-20 times during it.

Over the last ten years, running went from something I did everything in my power to not do, into something I do everything in my power to continue to do. Tell me about your first run.

 

[SheHulk]

ATTQOTD: I always had to run for sports, but it was typically as a warm-up in practice for another sport. So I don't count that.
The first time I ran just for the sake of running, I don't remember the year, but I'm going to say it was probably summer of 1988 or thereabouts. I was definitely still in high school I know that. I started under the worst conditions to develop a love of something: My dad was trying to quit smoking and he was putting on some weight, so he decided to try jogging (he is an avid walker to this day, and had been prior to this). I asked if I could come with, being a weight-conscious high school girl in the 1980's. We drove somewhere that had minimal hills and little traffic: an industrial park after work hours. But it was still the summer and we decided to drive to basically an asphalt desert on a summer late afternoon (think Future World in Epcot on the hottest day). It was crazy hot and I had no idea how far to run or how fast, but I put a mixtape in my Sony Walkman and set off. I remember that run so distinctly, because, even though I was dying of the heat, and I'm sure I couldn't run more than a quarter mile at a time besides being a high school athlete, probably due to trying to run too fast, somehow I didn't hate it? And the fact that I was bad at it didn't turn me off?
I have no idea how that developed into a habit over the years. My dad gave up pretty quickly because he just went back to smoking and his weight dropped off. I think college is when I really started running for anxiety management and that's when I really got into it. I never thought about racing or anything but I became a hobby jogger from college onward.

 

[Naomeri]

ATTQOTD: what a timely question! I’m about to hit my 1 year running anniversary.

I had signed up for the 2021 runDisney Summer Virtual series, planning to walk the distances because I had discovered the joys of bling-motivated exercise. But just for the heck of it, I decided to try run/walking the first one on then treadmill. Shockingly (to me), I didn’t die!! And I felt good afterward, no soreness or anything! We went to a baseball game afterward and the home team won (which was also shocking )

I was going by the treadmill mileage instead of my watch, which is why the Apple workout data doesn’t say 3.1 miles, but I’ve since discovered that my treadmill is cheap and not great at measuring anything, so I no longer use its mileage when I have to do treadmill runs.


ETA: when I started running on 7/8/21, I had no plans to ever do any in-person races, and certainly not start basing my Disney trips around race weekends. And I never imagined I could ever do a half marathon. But now I’ve done 23 virtual 5Ks and 4 live 5Ks, 1 live 5 miler, 3 virtual 10Ks and 3 live 10Ks, 3 virtual 10 milers and 2 live 10 milers, and 2 virtual half marathons and 2 live half marathons.

 

[camaker]

QOTD: Let's get nostalgic. Today is my personal 10 year anniversary for the first time I went for a run. So show me the data, or tell me about the first time you went for a run.

My first run was on 6/27/2012. Keep in mind that the app I used (Runtastic) was off by about 5%. So the total mileage was more likely 2.56 miles with a pace of an 11:36 min/mile average (10:13, 11:30, 13:16). This was an all-out effort. And judging by the pace graph, I had to take a walking break about 15-20 times during it.

Over the last ten years, running went from something I did everything in my power to not do, into something I do everything in my power to continue to do. Tell me about your first run.

ATTQOTD: It's really hard to pinpoint when my first "run" was because of the path to fitness I took. In January 2013 I weighed 335 lbs and decided "enough was enough". Something had to change, so I started counting calories and walking.

I started out by walking 1 mile. I had to stop and rest halfway through it, but I kept going out for that 1-mile walk every day. When I was able to walk that distance semi-comfortably I started adding a half mile more and kept that pattern up for several months until I was walking 5-7 miles a day. As the weight came off, I started adding a 1/4 mile of light jogging a few times per walk.

By September I was able to return to playing Ultimate Frisbee, my real love. I kept up the walking with light jogging intervals along with more intense sessions of pick up and league Ultimate through all of 2014, losing a total of >155 lbs through that and calorie control.

In January 2015 my PT asked me to run the W&D half with him. I thought I was stupid crazy to even consider it because in addition to the ridiculous distance running without chasing a ball or frisbee was incredibly boring. Wasn't it?

I started training for a PoT 10k to be run in April, 2015, and was immediately hooked on distance running. That's probably when my first true "runs" happened. I went from my first 10k in April to my first half in June to my first marathon as part of Goofy at Marathon Weekend 2016. We weren't able to get registered for W&D 2015.

The rest, as they say, is history. My only regret is taking so long to find this joy in my life.

 

[RuntheMouse]

ATTQOTD: My first “run” was on a trail last year. The runDisney Wine and Dine announcement was my inspiration. DH went with me and we talked the whole time about runDisney and whether or not we could beat the balloon ladies. Nope…..we would have been swept, 17:00 pace on an 8 mile ”run”! Constant walking breaks! I was determined though and am in love with it now.

 

[jpeterson]

ATTQOTD my wife and I walked the Princess 5K in 2020. I mused to her that it would be awesome to come back and run it one year. Well, the pandemic hit and I decided to worn on myself during it. Lost a bunch of weight and decided to walk on my wife's treadmill. Got hooked on an intro to 5k series on IFIT. I think it was a 1 minute "run" in a 3 minute workout. But I kept at it. When they reopened runDisney I decided to sign up for the 5k and the 10k. I was terrified of being swept during the 10k.

I did just fine. Now I'm looking to do a "perfect" for the next run season. Only springtime surprise left to sign up for.

Sometimes I'm amazed when I look back even 2 years ago at how far I've come. Frankly I'm proud of myself.

 

[avondale]

ATTQOTD: Great question!

I am not sure about the exact date of my first run. It was in April or May 2013. I was in great shape, honestly, due to lots of cardio, strength training, tennis, and boxing. I had never really wanted to run. But, one of my secret life goals was to run a marathon because it seemed like something very challenging, yet do-able with work. A tennis friend asked me to do a 5K Diva Dash with her team and I was going to turn 40 toward the end of that year, so I figured if I wanted to get that marathon done, I should get to work.

The Diva Dash was in late September 2013, so I did in fact start running several months ahead of that to build up. In the first run, I am pretty sure I did run-walk intervals of some kind but of course I ran all-out for all the running segments. It didn't seem terrible, but I remember that my hamstrings were SO SORE for about a week afterward. I did keep up with some kind of training and it turns out that I was one of only two of us on the Diva Dash team that did any kind of training. I was able to run it straight through with an approximately 30-minute time.

From there, I started training for a HM with a 10K prep race in that plan. Both the HM and 10K (in spring 2014) are still my personal bests. Ha. I did my first marathon in fall 2017 and now I've completed five of them!

 

[striker1064]

ATTQOTD: Oh that's a fun trip down memory lane.

My first memories of running are not happy ones. When I was in high school, we moved into a new, larger house. My parents bought a treadmill for one of the rooms. I was always the heavy kid growing up, and that continued through my teenage years. A combination of an insatiable appetite brought on by anti-anxiety and anti-depression meds coupled with the typical bottomless pit of a growing teenage boy meant my waistline continued to expand. I don't really know how much I weighed back then, but not only could I not stop eating, I also was a sedentary person. I liked reading and video games. I liked school. I hated PE and sports, never even watched them on TV. Friends came over and we'd play video games or watch movies or TV. Lots of inside activities - also because it was the deep south and high temperatures regularly broke 90.

At some point, my mom took notice of my weight, and forced me to exercise as a condition of seeing friends - I had to do a mile on the treadmill. It didn't matter how slow or fast I did it, walk, run or both - it had to be a mile. I quickly ran as much of it as I could to get it over with. I remember figuring out if I set the speed setting to 5 (whatever that meant), that was the jogging speed I could maintain for most of the mile to get it over with the fastest.

On top of that, as a junior in high school, we had a PE period with the football coach. One part of the class involved walking and running, and the big "test" was to complete a mile on the track (4 laps). Mind you, again, this is the deep south, temperatures are regularly pushing 90, and this class was mid-morning, well enough into the day that temperatures were already soaring. When it came time to do the test run, I knew nothing about pacing myself. All I knew was that treadmill. But being on a track with other people - my peers - my friends, bullies, all of them - is far different than a treadmill. I went out way too fast and burned out by the second lap. I fell all the way to the back. I remember the guy in last place was very out of shape. He was both taller and heavier than I was, and he was clearly struggling. And I was doing even worse. I was determined not to finish after him. I had to walk most of the last lap, but I had enough for a last ditch burst of speed to finish just ahead of him. I don't remember my time, it was probably in the 18:00 range.

So, needless to say, I was rather turned off from running for a while. And exercise in general.

When I hit my 20s, I was again rather overweight, and decided to do something about it before it was too late. For good this time. My hometown had a nice paved walking path in front of the hospital, so I started walking. Then, gradually, I started running, because I'm the kind of person that always seeks efficiency and in my mind running was better than walking. (Let's face it, I probably was also exercising some past demons. Heck, I still exercise those demons almost every time I run today.) I don't remember exactly when this was, but based on what I remember in my life, I was probably 24, so sometime in 2011. A couple of years later, I downloaded RunDouble, one of a growing number of couch-to-5k apps in the Android app store. And I just re-downloaded it today for this post, and wouldn't you know it still has the same 10-year-old Android style!

It appears my first go-around with RunDouble has been lost to history. Syncing data back then was always a little weird and I recall losing my progress more than once when I switched phones. Syncing today reveals my earliest surviving recorded run is week 9, the week where you run a full 5k for 3 days, separated by a rest day. This was on August 28, 2017, and yeah, my pace was all over the place - not a surprise. I finished the run in 30:49, an average of 9:54/mile. There was a 5 minute warm up and cool down on either side of every run as well, something I think RunDouble got very right. Anyway, here's my earliest surviving graph: