The Running Thread --2025

[Fischstick]

ATTQOTD:

I have the DL half next weekend—suckered by the coast to coast medal because UGH all the half courses out there have NOT been fun. But I have family in SoCal, so it’s easy enough to visit and grab the C2C.

I’m also going to enter the Broad strreet 10 miler lottery (thanks @Novatrix ) ! We can have a dis meetup there too! @Disney at Heart please keep us posted about the dam run. Would love to run it if it’s allowed to go.

Other than that, I haven’t committed to anything. Maybe a fall half to use as a training run for Dopey 26.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

ATTQOTD: I have Disneyland Half races this coming weekend and all 3 Disneyland Halloween races in September. I have not ruled out some more local races and might decide to try for Wine & Dine since I really like the C2C medal this year. But we'll see.

And I will be running my own "virtual" Princess Half since Sleeping Beauty is my favorite animated film and Aurora is on the half medal this year, but I may run it in May instead.

 

[gosalyn_mallard]

ATTQOTD: I'm registered for the Indianapolis Mini Greatest Spectacle challenge. It's a 3 miler in February, 6 miler in March, 10 miler in April, and then on the big day in May it's a 5k, followed immediately by a half. I've never done a 5k and half race on the same day. Its a lot of bling and I'm excited that the dates finally worked out to do it!

Also, my 12 yr old is trying to convince me to do a Muddy Princess run. I can't say I'm very excited about it, but think it's a good thing to step out of my comfort zone and do it!

 

[nancipants]

Is anyone having trouble with their Garmin? It’s been crashing on me all morning and I’ve had to reset it like five times.

 

[nancipants]

Apparently it’s not just me!

 

[Zaranthenia]

Is anyone having trouble with their Garmin? It’s been crashing on me all morning and I’ve had to reset it like five times.

Yes it is an official issue from Garmin! This is currently displaying on their website. My work run group was just discussing this! Hope this works for you, mine has not shown issues yet but I'm not currently using GPS.

 

[GollyGadget]

Apparently it’s not just me!

Glad I went out before 7. Does your run even count if Garmin doesn't track it???

 

[nancipants]

Glad I went out before 7. Does your run even count if Garmin doesn't track it???

My walk didn't track, but I was able to track my run, thankfully. I'm doing a step challenge at work so I'm mad I didn't get credit for my walk.

I checked Reddit and the front page of the subreddit is all about this issue... my husband in IT is very grateful he does not work for Garmin right now.

 

[PrincessV]

QOTD for my fellow Masters: if you are an older runner, how have you changed your approach to training?

ATTQOTD: Up until now I basically haven’t changed anything, even though everything about running nosedived off a steep cliff shortly after hitting 50. Four years later I’m finally looking at what needs to change to go forward - I’ve been analyzing my last few years of training and I see a pattern…

1. I need less mileage. I used to do two hour-long short runs mid-week and it’s just too much: I’ve cut those back to 40-45 minutes each and have lost no fitness but gained energy and better recovery.

2. Longer training cycles. For many years, a 2-week training cycle of 2 short runs, a very short hill or sprint speed run, 2 ST days, a rest day, and an increasingly long alternating long run/cut-back run served me well. Not any more. In his book Meb for Mortals, Meb championed a 3-week cycle for aging runners, and anecdotally I’ve found that when life got in the way and resulted in some unexpected 3-week cycles, I felt SO much healthier, stronger, less fatigued, and more energetic. The 3-week cycle means a half or full training program takes more weeks, but I’m going to try it - I think it will really help.

3. More walking for long distances. I just have to let go of wanting a higher ratio of running to walking because the fact is, when I increase the overall amount of walking and reduce the overall amount of running… I hurt less. You’d think less pain would make this an easy choice, but it’s the hardest one for me, mentally! There’s this lingering feeling that if I’m doing more walking than running, I’m not really a “runner.” Which is dumb, I know - but it’s the hardest dumb thing to drop.

 

[SheHulk]

ATTQOTD: Boy is this relevant. I just messaged Billy because I feel like it's been a long slide this past year, despite my still training almost constantly for something or other.
I'll see what he has to say, but my self-diagnosis is that I need:

1. More strength training. I started getting injured more and I think it's just muscle loss. I started doing a little bit this past marathon cycle and it was the first time in a long time that I had no hip/ITB issues that were bad enough to put me out of commission at all.
2. More intensity actually. Just long, slow miles aren't doing it for me. I feel better when I have more intensity too. Hopefully increasing strength training will allow me to push up my intensity a bit. Also, I like speedwork!

I still haven't learned my lesson about prehab or stretching. I wake up, have some coffee, then a quick quad stretch on each leg by grabbing each foot once, and I'm out the door. No stretching afterward. I do use my TheraGun sometimes but that's about it.

Different strokes as they say, I'm almost the opposite of you!

 

[kleph]

i got rid of garmin after that worldwide crash a few years ago that turned out to be a huge security breach. when i started back in training last december, i broke down and got another one. turns out that was a mistake. this is the second worldwide outage from their stupidity since i put the damned thing back on my wrist.

garmin is straight up trash. they simply cannot hit the minimum standard of reliability with their products. sending this piece of junk back and finding something that isn't useless on a monthly basis.

 

[nancipants]

ATTQOTD: This is one benefit of starting running at 42. I was already a master to begin with.

 

[PrincessV]

2. More intensity actually. Just long, slow miles aren't doing it for me. I feel better when I have more intensity too. Hopefully increasing strength training will allow me to push up my intensity a bit. Also, I like speedwork!

Same here! I need more walking than running, but also need the running parts to be higher intensity: slow jogging kills my joints. So overall I’m doing less in terms of time and mileage, but at a higher intensity - and it feels so much better.

I’ve never wavered from doing ST regularly, but was getting bored with my routine lately, so I went on a YouTube search for inspiration - I stumbled onto a 20-minute Prehab for Runners from Run Better with Ash and I REALLY like it! Throwing it out there in case you want to take a look.

 

[RuntheMouse]

ATTQOTD: Ahhh the joys of middle age! I’ve really had to make time to do strength training. It has helped tremendously in keeping little aches from becoming something larger….for the most part I had a struggle this past fall but know it would have been worse if I wasn’t strength training. I’ve also learned to ease up on myself a bit. I was treating every race as a PR attempt and it was sucking the joy out of running for me. So I’m focused on running for the love of it and I’m more particular about the races I’m going to enter. My main goal is to continue running as late into life as I can so it needs to keep being something I love to do!

 

[SheHulk]

ATTQOTD: This is one benefit of starting running at 42. I was already a master to begin with.

Just a warning: I wasn't much younger than that, actually, and it does get worse!

 

[jmasgat]

ATTQOTD: I am beyond Masters (I mean, really, 40?) and into GrandMaster (with no flash). I didn't start running til I turned 50, and was clueless as to what I "should" do or "could" do. So for the first 8-10 years, I ran a variety of plans. Started with 3x/week--and yes, it worked for me as I BQ'ed using that technique. Have also done Hansen's 6x/week, which is a lot, and others in between. I hate strength training, but do yoga. I have always had injuries, starting with the mundane (ITB) to the more serious (various stress fractures).

Hitting 60 was probably my cliff edge/mind melt. While I could beat myself up to try and chase my old glory times, it just wasn't really going to happen, so I have basically backed off racing. And Covid era didn't help--when you're in your 60's there's not necessarily a big window of racing left!

So where am I now (age 66): I decided even before my miserable NYC marathon in 2023, that I was done with the distance. I think it's just too much. I still follow "race plans" because I like structure--but just not necessarily racing. I run 4 days/week. And most importantly, I am trying to be very realistic about what race times I am actually capable of running at this moment in time so that the training I do is realistic--this is the ball buster.

As for the other stuff--I still do yoga. I constantly struggle with adding more weight training, and even a little Pilates (honestly, who dreams up "wrap your abs around your core"!) On the plus side--I was uninjured in 2024--no small feat.

Take all this with a grain of salt. Right now I am letting Garmin be my coach (it's a "why not" experiment) and every time my projected race time improves, my brain goes "well, maybe I should race xx". So it's not like this is a linear progression. I fully expect to relapse to bad behavior!.

Sorry for the tome.

 

[rick1zoo2]

ATTQOTD: funny, my wife and I were just talking about all of this while on our walk today. We are both in mid, upper 50's and started running (she made me do it...) about a year and a half ago when we found out about runDisney and signed up for the Springtime Surprise challenge. Something I learned from many years of weight training is that I needed to find what worked for me and not try everyone else's training routines as they always ended up be way to much, too often. So we are applying that philosophy to running. We have been walkers for years, really got into daily walks or hikes during COVID so I think that gave us a decent fitness base to work with. When we started out running, I was of the mindset that I needed to improve speed and distance constantly, and we tried running every other day, but I think that all caught up with me as I felt I wasn't recovering enough, then a few issues with ankle and knee pain.

We completed the Springtime Surprise Challenge ok, then the Wine and Dine Challenge. We learned a lot about doing the longer distances, such as the run-walk intervals.

Now we are running every third day, doing two regular runs of an hour (about 5 miles), then a long run of 2 hours (maybe 8-10 miles), then walking about 4 miles on the days between. Learning to slow down has been a little difficult for me, but I do think it is paying off. This seemed to work ok to prepare for the Dopey Challenge, but we do know that we need more training to tackle the Dopey again next year.

Also, need to get back to more weight training

 

[Erika10021]

ATTQOTD: Who knew I was a master (or grand master) runner!?! I only started running in retirement 18 months ago so I can't really say my training changed as I got older. I am also in the category of vast improvement over the last year and a half but terrified of running injuries. We run three times a week or less (except during the challenge races) but walk 3-4 miles every day we are not running. Everything I read (including 100's of DopeyBadger's posts) leads me to believe I should run more often to increase my performance. However, as long as I continue to improve and enjoy the running more and more, I feel like I must be on the right track. Right? I love this question and can't wait to see all the responses.

Edit to add: I honestly did not realize that Rick1Zoo2 would be posting the same thing! Now it feels too awkward to delete mine.

 

[rick1zoo2]

ATTQOTD: Who knew I was a master (or grand master) runner!?! I only started running in retirement 18 months ago so I can't really say my training changed as I got older. I am also in the category of vast improvement over the last year and a half but terrified of running injuries. We run three times a week or less (except during the challenge races) but walk 3-4 miles every day we are not running. Everything I read (including 100's of DopeyBadger's posts) leads me to believe I should run more often to increase my performance. However, as long as I continue to improve and enjoy the running more and more, I feel like I must be on the right track. Right? I love this question and can't wait to see all the responses.

Edit to add: I honestly did not realize that Rick1Zoo2 would be posting the same thing! Now it feels too awkward to delete mine.

I wondered what you were furiously typing away at....

 

[flav]

ATTQOTD: Its is a combination of turning 50 and having completed most of my dream races or challenges (Dopey, Lumberjack, NYC marathon).

I took six months off racing and went on maintenance mode. I can probably quote @SheHulk for the rest of my answer.

I am trying to focus on increasing intensity and adding a minimal amount of strength training for the next few weeks. I will see how I need to readjust my training after the current cycle which will conclude with a HM with speed objectives in April.

ETA: Excellent question, thank you. Now, I need to find my answer.