ILX running running thread

Are you chalking those fast times up to your coach? Very cool either way.

Not yet, since its only been 3 weeks now. He's had me do a lot more speed work though, so my confidence that I can maintain those speeds is going up. So far so good.

Took the last 8 days off due to travels and it just seemed like a good idea to rest my legs, then went out this morn at about 6. It was super dark due to fog, and I'm running thru rock creek park in DC. All of a sudden i feel a sudden and solid scratch on my head, thru my baseball hat. Turn around and a big-ass owl (I think, i really only saw a silhouette) is flying away. It came back and got me again about 1 min later, then I was completely spooked and ran like heck to get away. Birds creep me out.

Owls will do that. Fuckers. In Chicago we have Red-winged Black Birds that attack during their nesting season, all along the lakefront path.

hah owl awesome

Did I post this pic her yet? New kicks.

http://media.dailymile.com/photos/581515/72650364cf0b1232b8e9caa30deeee3c.jpg

Brooks PureFlow 2 and Asics Gel Lyte 33's.

man i havent bought new shoes in so long

well new running shoes

have mostly been avoiding this thread of late due to a bad conscience. didn't really get much running done during november and december, somehow i managed to keep up my peak biscuit intake though, so i'm not feeling as trim as i could be. need to get back into RIGHT NOW, have long been planning on doing the brighton marathon in mid april. amazing how these things creep up on you, cos the last time i really thought about it i still had ages to prepare. plan is to clock up as many 40-60 mile weeks as possible, be nice to do 8 or 9 of those. focus will be on the long sunday run, but what i also really want to manage to do this time is get in a regular midweek 8-12 mile run and run it at about 30 secs per mile faster than my marathon pace. i think it's really my speed endurance that is holding me back, cos i can plod on and on for ages or otoh run relatively fast over shorter distances, but i'm really out of practice at keeping a good speed up over a sustained period. other priority is MORE SLEEP, but getting to bed early is something i find almost impossible to do

new shoes here too btw, picked up a couple of different pairs of asics 33 range things, can't remember what, but they were in the sales and looking at them you can see why they were reduced cos they're both absolutely hideous to look at, very fluorescent, bright greeny yellow, and i sort of love them. previous shoes were also asics 33 something-or-other which i found to work really well for me in terms of both comfort and injury-free running. have been really concentrating on good forefoot striking running form and its been gratifying to see that all the wear on the tread was on the front portion of the shoe. my one gripe with them is that they didn't really last very long - my big toes wore through the upper and the soles have started to become unglued and they now flop about. had them for about six months so they prob needed changing anyway, but normally my shoes go on forever without actually physically disintegrating.

What's your goal marathon pace?

I have 6 pairs of shoes I'm rotating now. Four PureFlows, the Ascics and some Merrell trail shoes that I rarely use. Need to retire a couple of them. When you do get up to 40-60 miles a week, you can go through them quickly.

Here's my workout for tonight. Warm up for about 2.5/3 miles then 5 x 1200m @ 6:30-6:40 per interval with 60 seconds rest in between intervals. Full recovery for about 3 minutes. Then, run 6 x 200 at a pretty hard effort with 90 seconds rest in between intervals. Cool down for about 2 miles.

I think it will be a fun workout, if the weather was better, but it is going to be around 25 degrees. The worst is the recovery/rest intervals, because I'm covered in sweat and suddenly not moving or jogging. Freezing.

Goal marathon pace at the moment is 7'15" per mile though not sure how grounded in reality this actually is. PB is 3 hrs 14 mins and I would love to beat that. Got a half marathon in Feb so that should tell me how I'm doing...

Are you running your intervals on a track or with a group or what Jeff?

I program them into my Garmin. Really makes it where I barely even have to think about it. It just vibrates and I run within the pace range it tells me. I rest when it tells me to rest.

Here's how I set up tonight's. I give myself a wide pace range, otherwise it keeps barking at me to speed up or slow down. I just make a mental note that I should be in between 6:30-6:40.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8047/8383959654_ffce1c73de_b.jpg

7:15 pace, ha. That's my 10K pace. If only I could hold it for 20 more miles. I think if I have good training up until the fall, I can realistically get close to a 3:30 for a full. And I don't get injured and I figure out nutrition on long runs.

oh that's handy! only way i've been able to make myself do fast intervals in the past is on the track with someone yelling at me every lap

got a smartphone? the runkeeper app also allows workout programming, although a bit less elaborate than garmin's i think.

xp - lol!

i haven't run in a while and kinda feel like i'll know when i want to start again. that time is not today.

i'm planning on starting up the running again soon. but not this week. i'm starting to learn how to cook this week, and i can only do one good thing a week

My run tonight put me over 100 miles for the year. You know when I went over 100 miles in 2012? April 6th!

ur a machine

i'm going to do another 5k program starting next week. of course the store that puts it on only sent an email about it today and i haven't run in months (i go to gym to lift, which i much prefer over running, and it's dark when i get home from work). so i ran today for one mile and my lungs are burning. oops.

im basically like hills only now, no incline im just not inclined to run on that, in min im gonna do ~7mi thats m/l out and back over a big hill

harbl u should do lifting and running, theyre v complimentary, even just like hop on the treadmill for 20mins after u lift

i do pull ups and a lil core stuff after i run is my vers, pull ups are kinda like lifting weights except youre lifting yrself think abt it

yeah. i'm too weak to do pull-ups! bc i'm a girl. i'm working on it though. the schedule just says this week 20 min run during the week and 25 min on saturday so i can def handle that.

ha yeah not everyone can be as ripped as me, and if you were it might shake yr flimsy gender constructs to their core, anyway you could always do assisted pull up if you want

how do you all run when the pavements are icy? it's got to the point where walking is a bit of a calf workout even on gritted pavements. just wait til conditions are good again?

just keep yr head above yr feet dawg

take little steps

^this. I actually find it easy to run on ice if I go slow. Problem is stopping at stop lights. I slip almost every time.

I ran on Saturday in v icy conditions, use sidestreets and run on the road, assuming your area is fairly quiet or it's a quiet time. And get into a park area for as long as you can, I found on Saturday the grass in the park where I run was firmer and generally more pleasant to run on than usual.

Running in my city sucks right now, esp when it's dark. Went ice skating in the weekend, hope some lakes have frozen over next weekend so I can make some longer trips

So I seem to have hurt my back. No, not running or working out in anyway. I was changing clothes. I just bent over slightly and got a shocking pain in my lower back. I couldn't move and sat on the couch most of yesterday. Seems to be better today, but everything is tight as hell. Not good timing since my half marathon is on Saturday. I've already skipped two days worth of running and I'm going through withdraw HARD. It's the first time in weeks I've gone more than 1 day without running or some sort of workout.

yarg, sorry man. Chiropractor? I hurt my back a few weeks and was amazed at how quickly I improved after seeing a chiropractor.

The last time I went to a chiropractor I nearly got into fight with her. Never again.

haha, why?

My recent visit was my first ever chiropractor experience, and I was very happy with the results.

I exaggerate, but she was doing lots of quick and sudden movements that in hindsight were incredibly dangerous (yes, whip my neck to the side as hard as you can!) I ended the session early and told her I was never coming back. This was many years ago before I had a more skeptical outlook on such medical practices.

today was the first day of running group. i was thinking of skipping it because it was 21º and it was at 8 am but i did it and i'm glad. it was pretty fun. i don't think everyone showed up but i was second fastest.

Half marathon today. 1:38. PR by 17 minutes. Exhausting.

wow! that's a huge margin of improvement!

I hadn't ran a half in nearly 2 years. Amazing the improvements you can make if you just keep at it consistently.

that's great, job well done!

Signed up for the Grand Rapids Marathon in October. Here I go again.

I'm back up to 50 mile weeks. Not totally acclimated to it yet, I'm tired all the time. I'll keep it up though, this is going to become my new base mileage. Surprisingly, I remain uninjured, except for a few aches here and there. It has really taken about 3 years of running to get my body used to this kind of mileage.

Any one ever run a Ragnar relay? Looks like I'm officially on a team now for Madison to Chicago Ragnar.

It has really taken about 3 years of running to get my body used to this kind of mileage.

Weird huh? I feel like its taken me about 5 yrs to get to where I am now: three or four 6 milers and a 10-12 miler per week. Seems like it shouldn't take that long for someone in pretty decent shape to begin with. I only recently got over the hurdle of running 2 or 3 consecutive days.

I think it just less so about being physically fit, but just getting your body used to the abuse of pounding the pavement for so many miles.

Agree-- and I can't see any reason for me to put myself through that. I always stop long before my body becomes acclimated to any kind of abuse. That doesn't even sound like fun! I'm just in it for the fresh air and the opportunity to move quickly, listen to music, and be by myself in nature.

I guess I have probably said that like 1000x but it's always worth mentioning that not all people who run are goal-oriented.

Sure, I know tons of them. Even run with them.

My Ragnar team is going to be non-competitive, we're just doing it to finish and have fun.

I am worn out! I've run 193 miles over the last 30 days, I think I need to cut back for a couple of weeks.

i'm not looking forward to this 5k in 2 weeks. i can run slowly for a pretty long time but i remember how hard the last one was (although it was 90 degrees) and i just barely broke 30 min.