To Infinity and Beyond - Becoming a Better DopeyBadger (Comments Welcome)

[dobball23]

Is this how much water people consume while running/racing???? I take like 2 of the little cups every 40 minutes or so in a race. How is this even possible? Teach me Billy!

I am well below that, too, at least in training. I generally don't plan water stops in unless I am at 10+ miles.

I try to take two cups at each aid station during races, but I'm sure a lot of the water ends up on the ground (or on my shirt!).

 

[DopeyBadger]

Is this how much water people consume while running/racing???? I take like 2 of the little cups every 40 minutes or so in a race. How is this even possible? Teach me Billy!

I'm probably on one end of the extreme when it comes to liquid consumption when running. But I've found that's what keeps me well hydrated such that when I return home I tend to have to use the bathroom no long after returning.

In training, I use 24oz water bottles and just spray the water into my mouth. My looped course has a 0.5 mile loop around the house while I consume the water.

In races, I do the pinched cup method, but it's a less surefire method compared to just spraying the water into my mouth.

I rarely have to use the bathroom when racing because I don't consume any liquids 2 hrs within the start of the training run or race. This allows me to evacuate my bladder, and then the water I do consume doesn't seem to make it to my bladder forcing an urge to use the bathroom. In comparison, I consumed water at a similar rate when I used to do indoor cycling. I found that need to use the bathroom was higher on the indoor cycle, and I attribute that to the different stresses your body is under during those two exercises. I do know when I run much much slower than normal (like with G) I'm more likely to have bathroom urges then when I'm racing/training at my normal paces.

 

[dis_or_dat]

Looks like there's a higher proportion of BQs for the Non-Cancelled marathon and avg good weather based off the findmymarathon website. I'm also a big believer in flat (ie fast!) courses.

I thought you made your predictions off of the longer Canova runs (eg 120) and corresponding VDOTs. It's so hard to convert short races to marathon times even with all the different formulas out there, but your Non-Cancelled HM (which you ran really well), predicts a 3:12:41. Not sure what your goal for Disneyland HM will be, but assume it won't be for time with costumes, photos, crowded course, etc.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Looks like there's a higher proportion of BQs for the Non-Cancelled marathon and avg good weather based off the findmymarathon website. I'm also a big believer in flat (ie fast!) courses.

Yea, higher proportion likely because it's a small race overall. Generally only has 50-100 marathon finishers, and there's generally some speedy people at the Silver Circle races.

Weather wise, 80% of the time the T+D is 80-100, and 20% of the time T+D is 100-130. So more often than not, the weather is good.

I thought you made your predictions off of the longer Canova runs (eg 120) and corresponding VDOTs. It's so hard to convert short races to marathon times even with all the different formulas out there, but your Non-Cancelled HM (which you ran really well), predicts a 3:12:41. Not sure what your goal for Disneyland HM will be, but assume it won't be for time with costumes, photos, crowded course, etc.

I based my prediction on the relationship between my HR and my pace, but yea I thought I was in a good place fitness wise based on training runs.

My Prediction

In general, that has been a solid method for making predictions for me. But it didn't play out that way for me. At some point you've got to put the theoretical behind and actually look at the real race results. If I'm not throwing down 1:28-1:30 HMs on multiple attempts, then regardless of HRvPace data, I'm not where I think I might be. So given my recent M performances, I think it's better to undershoot the pace goal this time around, start "slower" and if I missed the mark and my fitness was actually better than there's the ability to pick up the pace late. But until I actually show a 3:07 equivalent, I need to stop hitting pacing around that.

At this moment in time I have three planned races in the Winter for more attempts at racing other than a M. I'm planning on doing the Madison Marathon HM (Nov), Last Call HM (Dec), and Disneyland HM. Given the historically good weather for Disneyland, I'm planning on racing that hard (as well as the 10k). I'll pivot the goals if the weather isn't agreeable. Since I start at the front, the course won't be crowded for me.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Initial reactions on LIIFT4 vs LIIFT More

Alright, one week down on BODI's LIIFT More, and I can say unequivocally it is much harder than LIIFT4. As was clear in the scheduling process, the workouts are more in the 40-45 min range instead of the 30-40 min range, and LIIFT4 is 4 days per week vs LIIFT More being 5 days per week. But that doesn't really tell the whole story.

LIIFT4 followed a pattern of:
1 Quad Set day (2 blocks of 4 lifts at 10 reps in 3 sets = 240 moves + 2 burnout moves)
1 50/50 or Intervals (3 blocks of 2 lifts at 10 reps in 3 sets = 180 moves + HIIT which was usually 30s move or 60/45/30 moves). HIIT is about 405s per workout.

2 core moves per workout at 30s per move.

In a single week, you'd see 1 Quad set day, and 3 50/50 or intervals or pure HIIT. So like 600-780 lifting moves per week + 1 set of burnouts. Add in 1080s of HIIT on average.

LIIFT More has followed a pattern of (through one week):
3 Quad Set day (2 blocks of 4 lifts at 12 reps in 3 sets = 288 moves + 2 burnout moves)
2 50/50 days (4 blocks of 2 lifts at 12 reps in 3 sets = 288 moves + HIIT which has been 45s move). HIIT is about 270s per workout.

2 core moves per workout at 45s per move.

In a single week, I've seen 3 Quad set days and 2 50/50. So 1440 lifting moves in Week 1 + 3 sets of burnouts. HIIT is about 540s in Week 1.

So the lifting in Week 1 has doubled from 600-780 moves (LIIFT4) to 1440 moves (LIIFT More). The HIIT has been cut in half from 1080s (LIIFT4) to 540s (LIIFT More). Core has nearly doubled from 12 min per week (LIIFT4) to 22.5 min per week (LIIFT More). All of that extra LIIFT More activity comes in a small increased average of 2.5 hrs to 3.5 hrs per week.

During LIIFT4 I rarely broke a sweat, and found the end of the 8 weeks relatively easy. I was considering needing to buy some heavier dumbbells. But LIIFT More has kicked my rear end hard. I've been sweating during workouts, I'm exhausted, and I've been doing less weight then I was previously because the workouts are just plain harder. LIIFT More is literally more lifting. I wasn't sore for the last seven weeks of LIIFT4. I've been sore all over this week from LIIFT More despite having no break in lifting since LIIFT4.

 

[Herding_Cats]

LIIFT More is literally more lifting.

I never managed to get through more than week 1 with it, but this is what I liked about it more than L4. I don't like HIIT. I prefer to lift longer and jump around less (which I think is why I liked 80DO so much.)


I've been eyeing up Caroline Girvan's Iron series on youtube as a possible alternative (30min of just lifting, 5 days per week, 30 day program.) She gets a lot of positive commentary on reddit, and I guess she has an app now? But everything that has been free (on YT, and there are several programs) will continue to be free. There's no music, she's not there to chatter and tell you to breathe and that you can do it. It's just the workout.

BOD jacked up their price this year quite a bit. Thankfully it was right after my renewal went through, so I paid the "old" price, but I'm not excited to pay a bunch more when I'm currently barely using it, and it seems like most of the new stuff is part of the Bodi add-on-for-more-money portion of the website.

 

[avondale]

During a normal training run (hit the house every 4 miles), I consume about 40-48oz of water per hour. During a normal long training run on my hilly course (hit the house every 5 miles), I consume about 35-40oz of water per hour.

I'm probably on one end of the extreme when it comes to liquid consumption when running. But I've found that's what keeps me well hydrated such that when I return home I tend to have to use the bathroom no long after returning.

In training, I use 24oz water bottles and just spray the water into my mouth. My looped course has a 0.5 mile loop around the house while I consume the water.

In races, I do the pinched cup method, but it's a less surefire method compared to just spraying the water into my mouth.

I rarely have to use the bathroom when racing because I don't consume any liquids 2 hrs within the start of the training run or race. This allows me to evacuate my bladder, and then the water I do consume doesn't seem to make it to my bladder forcing an urge to use the bathroom. In comparison, I consumed water at a similar rate when I used to do indoor cycling. I found that need to use the bathroom was higher on the indoor cycle, and I attribute that to the different stresses your body is under during those two exercises. I do know when I run much much slower than normal (like with G) I'm more likely to have bathroom urges then when I'm racing/training at my normal paces.

I was thinking the same thing about this as @SheHulk . That's a lot of water! 48 oz is about 1.5 L. If I drank at the same rate on my recent 6-hr trail marathon, I would've needed 9 L! I also think I would have been constantly drinking. I don't know that I don't need more water, but the logistics of the matter have set some limits. I do tend to sweat buckets.

 

[DopeyBadger]

I never managed to get through more than week 1 with it, but this is what I liked about it more than L4. I don't like HIIT. I prefer to lift longer and jump around less (which I think is why I liked 80DO so much.)


I've been eyeing up Caroline Girvan's Iron series on youtube as a possible alternative (30min of just lifting, 5 days per week, 30 day program.) She gets a lot of positive commentary on reddit, and I guess she has an app now? But everything that has been free (on YT, and there are several programs) will continue to be free. There's no music, she's not there to chatter and tell you to breathe and that you can do it. It's just the workout.

BOD jacked up their price this year quite a bit. Thankfully it was right after my renewal went through, so I paid the "old" price, but I'm not excited to pay a bunch more when I'm currently barely using it, and it seems like most of the new stuff is part of the Bodi add-on-for-more-money portion of the website.

I'm with you. I get plenty of HIIT like exercises with running, but it might become a "be careful what you wish for type of scenario" with the more lifting.

I was thinking the same thing about this as @SheHulk . That's a lot of water! 48 oz is about 1.5 L. If I drank at the same rate on my recent 6-hr trail marathon, I would've needed 9 L! I also think I would have been constantly drinking. I don't know that I don't need more water, but the logistics of the matter have set some limits. I do tend to sweat buckets.

Yea, when I did my 6 hr bike rides and drank a similar amount of liquid I was definitely getting liquid fatigue. Definitely don't think if I was running for 6 hrs that drinking at the same rate would be sustainable.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Thanks to Prime Days, I was able to secure 5 pairs of Saucony Ride 14s for $39 a piece. So that should last me a good 1-2 years for the bulk of easy days . Additionally, I got myself a 45 pound dumbbell for half off.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Just checking in. Life continues to move on around here. Staying consistent as I can with the training. I have to say, LIIFT More really is "more lifting". That comparison after Week 1 has continued to hold up. And I can really tell a difference in these four short weeks. The addition of the 45 lb dumbbell has been useful. Some of my old weights (15s and occasionally the 20s) practically feel like paper weights depending on the move. It really is shocking how relative things feel. I even almost accomplished a pull-up when I was at the playground with G. Like for me, that's other worldly. I've never been able to move my body at all. Not a single inch. And now I got myself about halfway there on a single pull-up. Goes to show something's happening.

G had her debut lead role in the Beauty and the Beast stage play. She absolutely crushed it. Never missed a line in four shows, and never looked like she didn't know exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Very proud of her. The costume itself was a resounding success. We received lots of compliments on the quality of the build, and the practical use of the straps/handles. We got to keep it, so maybe it'll become an outdoor planter, or possibly a table. It's on the back-burner for now.














G made it to the second round of auditions for the Christmas Carol again at the main stage of the actual real theater here in Madison (Overture Center).



So fingers crossed. That audition is mid-August.

I've mostly written my training plan for Fall/Winter/Spring (Disneyland Dumbo through Non-Cancelled M in April). Just putting some final touches on it and allowing it to ruminate before finalizing the first edition. It's Canova, but more volume. We'll see how life plays out, and whether I even attempt it.

 

[SheHulk]

Those pics are amazing. And I'd be very psyched to do a half-pull-up!

 

[azrivest]

You're going to turn that masterpiece into a coffee table??
Congrats again, it looked amazing

 

[jmasgat]

I feel for whoever played Mrs Potts. Can't imagine having to keep my arms in those positions all show!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Those pics are amazing. And I'd be very psyched to do a half-pull-up!

Thanks, and agreed!

You're going to turn that masterpiece into a coffee table??
Congrats again, it looked amazing

LOL, that was what G wanted. A Chip table for her play room. Remains to be seen what we end up doing though. I thought it would look nice as an outdoor planter.

I feel for whoever played Mrs Potts. Can't imagine having to keep my arms in those positions all show!

No kidding. She did that for practically the entire play with a few exceptions for hand gestures and such.

 

[kps7795]

Just checking in. Life continues to move on around here. Staying consistent as I can with the training. I have to say, LIIFT More really is "more lifting". That comparison after Week 1 has continued to hold up. And I can really tell a difference in these four short weeks. The addition of the 45 lb dumbbell has been useful. Some of my old weights (15s and occasionally the 20s) practically feel like paper weights depending on the move. It really is shocking how relative things feel. I even almost accomplished a pull-up when I was at the playground with G. Like for me, that's other worldly. I've never been able to move my body at all. Not a single inch. And now I got myself about halfway there on a single pull-up. Goes to show something's happening.

G had her debut lead role in the Beauty and the Beast stage play. She absolutely crushed it. Never missed a line in four shows, and never looked like she didn't know exactly what she was supposed to be doing. Very proud of her. The costume itself was a resounding success. We received lots of compliments on the quality of the build, and the practical use of the straps/handles. We got to keep it, so maybe it'll become an outdoor planter, or possibly a table. It's on the back-burner for now.

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G made it to the second round of auditions for the Christmas Carol again at the main stage of the actual real theater here in Madison (Overture Center).

View attachment 781892

So fingers crossed. That audition is mid-August.

I've mostly written my training plan for Fall/Winter/Spring (Disneyland Dumbo through Non-Cancelled M in April). Just putting some final touches on it and allowing it to ruminate before finalizing the first edition. It's Canova, but more volume. We'll see how life plays out, and whether I even attempt it.

Congratulations to G on her performance. Those are some really great pictures, Billy!

 

[disneygpa]

Way to go G!! She's gotten so big since we saw her at Epcot! You guys did a great job on the costume!!

 

[DopeyBadger]

Way to go G!! She's gotten so big since we saw her at Epcot! You guys did a great job on the costume!!

Thanks! These days she's growing like a weed!

 

[kps7795]

Thanks to Prime Days, I was able to secure 5 pairs of Saucony Ride 14s for $39 a piece. So that should last me a good 1-2 years for the bulk of easy days . Additionally, I got myself a 45 pound dumbbell for half off.

You really can't beat the price that you got your Rides for, but I wanted to let you know that I saw that the Ride 15 is around 50% off now on Amazon at $58. Have you tried the Saucony Triumph? If so, I'm curious what makes you prefer the Ride over the Triumph? Both shoes are priced really low now at Amazon.

 

[DopeyBadger]

You really can't beat the price that you got your Rides for, but I wanted to let you know that I saw that the Ride 15 is around 50% off now on Amazon at $58. Have you tried the Saucony Triumph? If so, I'm curious what makes you prefer the Ride over the Triumph? Both shoes are priced really low now at Amazon.

I ordered a single pair of Ride 15s before ordering the 14s. I was developing a hot spot on the back of my right heel, and so I shied away from ordering more of them since the 14s didn't cause that issue. So I ordered a bunch of 14s, and then the new 14 was causing the same issue. So it may not have been an exclusively 15s issue, and just a matter of making sure I tie them a little differently. But now that I've got the 14s in bulk, I'll stick with them. That being said, I liked the 15s and did find them to be a step quicker than the 14s. More bounce in the step.

I used to run in the Triumphs in addition to Kinvara and Rides some time ago. The Triumphs when I ran in them were a bulkier shoe. When I mixed in the Next% I dropped the Triumphs. The Ride and Next% are more versatile than I got from the Triumphs. I can do recovery/easy/long run in the Rides. The Next% take care of Long run or faster. Rides would get me about 350 miles and Triumphs about 400-500 miles. The Next% were good for hard stuff through 500 miles, and good for long runs/moderate through 1000 miles. So, the Triumphs needed to justify their price, and they didn't for my use.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Marty and Mike Wazowski - Costumes: Part 1
Alright, time is counting down to getting these costumes finished. We potentially have a local Halloween fundraiser with G's theater group at the beginning of October. So realistically we have about 1.5 months to finish everything up. Let's not leave it to the last minute as there's still plenty to do. At this point, we have four occasions planned for the costumes: Halloween fundraiser, WDW Halloween Party, Halloween, and Disneyland 5k. So we're getting our money's worth. Which is good because... $$$.

Anyways, let's recap what's happened thus far. As a reminder, I'll write this as more of a "this is what happened" than a "here is the exact step-by-step you should follow with no errors", because in my mind seeing what went wrong is just as important as what went right.

As a reminder, this is what we were aiming for:



-Fully body colored suit.
-Fabric costume that goes past waist line
-Googly eye
-3-D mouth
-Sock on back
-Must be transportable via airplane

So, to start we found our fully body suits without anything covering the head. The goal was to get as close to Marty (orange) and Mike (green) as we could using the body suits, and then color match the remainder of the costumes to them. We ended up getting:

(link)
(link)




In person, the green is more limey and the orange is more bright orange, but we felt the colors were good enough.

We're somewhat following the instructions from the Simplicity 7415 (link)



Specifically going for "View 2" but without the hoods or neck piece.

We then took a trip to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up some supplies.

-6.5 yards Kona Tangerine Cotton Fabric for Marty (link)
-7.0 yards Symphony Kelly Green Polyester Blend Fabric for Mike (link)
-Coats and Clark Dual Duty XP General Purpose Thread - x2 Emerald Green, x2 Orange, x1 White, and x1 Black (link)
-Dritz 1/2 inch 4 yard non-roll - white (link)
-Dritz 1/2 inch 4.5 yard braided - white (link)
-Wrights Double Fold Quilt Binding 1/2 inch x 3 yard - x3 Kiwi and x3 Orange (link)
-Premium Felt 72 inch wide - 1 yard Black and 1 yard White (link)
-1.5 yard twisted cord - Grass Green and Antique
-9x12 Gold Felt
-Fairfield Ultraweight Bonded 100% Polyester Batting (link)

It took a bit of searching, but we felt like the two fabrics we got were close in color to the body suits.

The first step was laying out the pattern. For G, we are making the size medium (which is for a 4-5 foot person) and for me the size large (for 5-6 foot person). We started with the Marty costume first because it was smaller and thus if we needed to make changes then we would waste less material.

Here's some of how the instructions are laid out:



I won't show the whole instructions because that isn't fair to the company. But from the instructions you can see it told us how much material to buy, and of what, for each size and such. It then lays out based on which view (we're #2) you'll be doing what in terms of cutting out material. In addition to the instructions, you have the pattern:



For our use, we're only really going for the wedge pattern and the collars. Otherwise, we aren't really using the other patterns available in this kit.

We cut out the size medium wedge and then we laid out the orange fabric in a doubled over layer. This way, when we cut out one pattern it will make it in duplicate. Per the instructions, for a 44 inch wide piece of fabric we were able to lay three patterns side by side. It was important to note which side of the fabric was the selvages and then the pattern told us which way to lay. This apparently has to do with the stretch of the fabric.



We went through and pinned the pattern to the fabric, and then we cut it out.



We used fabric scissors for the cutting which are specifically made for this task.

The instructions call for 6 wedges to make the costume, but we diverged here. We wanted the costume to look really full. So there's a lot of debate as to how to make that happen. Additionally, G has a thing about weird fabrics touching her. So we knew that we needed a layer of something in between G's body suit and the batting. So we decided to double up on the wedges, each have a 1 inch batting, and then sandwich them together. Instead of 6 wedges, we would then need 12 wedges. After cutting out 12 fabric wedges, we cut out 12 batting wedges. The batting didn't have as much rigidity as I was hoping for. I toyed with the idea of using an egg foam mattress instead based on this youtube video (link), but I was voted down since we already had the batting to try out first.





We used regular scissors to cut out the batting. We traced the pattern with a black marker, but this turned out to be a bad idea because the marker didn't really dry all to much and thus it was getting all over our hands and some of the orange fabric. We lesson learned there.

Next Post - Marty and Mike Wazowski - Costumes: Part 2