Pavement Pounding - Week of August 27 to September 2

[Kimmyt]

Did a short 2 miler yesterday, just to meet my hundred mile goal for the summer (whew, barely). I was on track to finish about a month early but then I hurt the ankle. It's feeling better now, though sometimes still gets cranky when i do things that emphasize precise foot placement and pointed toes. (despite that I'm actually climbing stronger than I was before the injury, go figure....)

So I committed to doing a half-marathon next spring, and promised myself two Olympic tris hehehe. This winter my running is going to have a bit of a focus to it, which will be a change.

[alpinerabbit]

It's absolutely pouring here. I am not taking the tram to my running group and then back again to catch my death.
I'm also less than motivated to swim in my sneakers (i.e. run along the river on me own..).

ergo. no running in a week.

Alas...

the weather for the weekend looks worse by the hour and I am supposed to do the Stelvio again. NOT in rain. at 2700m that means snow.

[HappyAnika]

I ran for about 28 minutes yesterday morning. Felt really good so upped the pace the last 10 minutes. It was 59 degrees to start, 60 to finish. Although it rained the night before, so it was humid as all hell, but the nice cool temp took the edge off the humidity. I find it really odd that we are now, in August, getting all the rain we should have had in April and May.

Starfish, I think you can do it. I didn't really "used to run", but I have had some serious knee problems. ACL reconstruction in '99, then another scope to remove more torn cartilage in '00. I flirted with running for several years, but could never stick to it due to my knee acting up. This time there have been a few things that have enabled me to stick with it: 1) I only run on dirt except for races, 2) I eased my way into it slowly, and 3) I'm trying to learn Chi Running, but mostly I have modified my form to avoid heel striking (Heel striking = very bad, wish someone had told me that sooner). As far as no. 2 goes, it was hard for me to limit my run time since I felt, cardio-wise, that I could do more. However I obeyed the 5% rule (increase 5% a week), and I have been running (mostly) pain free since March. Icing after running helped a lot too, I think. Good luck with it, keep us posted on your progress.

Grog, your wedding happened already!?!? Congratulations!

[michelem]

Back to the gym last night for another date with the treadmill (it topped 100 degrees here yesterday, so, for now, I need to run indoors). Didn't do too well. I had gotten a sample gel and decided to try it. Downed the gel and a few gulps of water right before taking off. Launched into a 10 min. mile pace and started feeling nauseous from the get-go. Varied my pace between 6mph and 6.6 mph and percent grade between 0 and 3 and lasted about 5.75 miles. At that point I just couldn't keep going - I had horrendous side-stitches, I started passing gas, and still felt like I was going to puke! So, I ramped down the speed and grade and walked another 1/2 mile or so and called it quits for the night. Bleh. I HAVE to up my mileage and I'm getting worried. At least now I know that gels are not going to work for me. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out anything (even plain water) that works for me while running - the only thing that works is an empty stomach, but that isn't going to cut it once I get much over an hour . . . Any suggestions?

[Jolt]

I was in NJ visiting my family for the past 3 days, and before I left today I went for a run with my younger sister on a MUP in town. I don't know what my problem was today, but that run was awful! After about a mile, I started feeling like I could toss my cookies (turns out my sister was feeling the same way, but neither of us wanted to admit it) and this continued for the rest of the almost 3 miles we did. I also had a heart rate of 200 when I checked it at one point; hers was 190. Maybe it was the heat and humidity, or maybe because I haven't run as much lately (mostly because of the aforementioned heat and humidity--can we please have fall weather soon???). The weird thing was that the path is pretty flat and my usual running routes are not. At least neither of us actually hurled!

[Starfish]

but mostly I have modified my form to avoid heel striking (Heel striking = very bad, wish someone had told me that sooner).

Hey, thanks. I have a lot to learn. Probably before I start I need to (1) lose the excess weight, (2) get some great shoes from someone who can evaluate my stride/needs, (3) have a coach teach me how to run properly, even in a one-time session to get me off, well, on the right foot.

[KSH]

I'm really starting to love 6 mile runs! I rocked another one tonight. Second one in the 6 days!

1h 12m
6.30 miles
11m 26s /mile


Speed work was scheduled for today. That meant I would have to get on a treadmill.

Well, it rained at the temperature dropped to 88 degrees and I wasn't passing that up.

Plus, I figured hill running was better for me at this point since the HIM will probably have a hilly run.

So, I went to Arbor Hills (aka: LOTS OF HILLS!) and ran. I did a good job, although my times don't reflect it so much.

1-2 miles- 23:20
2-4 miles- 24:00
4-6 miles- 25:00

I only walked a total of 2 minutes during this run. Even the big hills didn't beat me!

I took a total of 3 minutes of breaks between the 3 loops.

All and all a very good run for me!

[tattiefritter]

Did 10.5 miles on the trails on Saturday with 1300ft of climbing then a hard 24 mile MTB ride on Sunday with 3500 ft of climbing and very tired legs (was also very rocky, very technical, lots of technical climbing too - absolutely great fun ) so rested Monday but legs not surprisingly were tired still on Tuesday. I totted up my running mileage and had done 57 miles for the month which is actually my second highest mileage month running ever - normally I'd be very chuffed and trying to make it my highest mileage month ever but I reminded myself I've just come back from an injury and had been building mileage a lot this month so I called an easy week and rested!

Did a short run today to push the mileage over 60 (still second highest though) so 3.7 miles at a reasonably frisky 8.10 mm, fun but not as good as the trails!

[Starfish]

chuffed

Could you explain this word and how it is normally used? I keep seeing it on the boards!!

[runner2]

It's been hhhot this summer here in NC, havn't run much at all, but I have a half coming up in Nov., so it is time for me to get out there and load up some miles.
I did just 3 miles 5:00 this morning, and also glad that this thread still here.

[yellow]

No pavement pounding for me...only dirt shuffling. It's been a light week after a big week. We're going camping in the Winds (in Wyoming) this weekend and I hope to do a long run or two while we're there. I'll run here tomorrow am before we leave, though, probably a mid-range distance. It's still pretty warm here in the afternoons (96F today), so I'm still not feeling as good as I'd like...

I'm really looking forward to real fall weather!

[limewave]

I got up REALLY early and did a 3 mile run. I've been slacking off this week. I'm going to try and get a good, long trail run in this weekend. And mountain bike, and kayak, and hike . . . How long is the holiday weekend?

[michelem]

Last night's run was MUCH better. On the treadmill again as it topped out at 105 here yesterday - UGH - I really thought that by moving away from AZ I'd get away from that kind of heat. Ha!

Took the advice from this thread on intake: http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=18378

Came home from work and approx. 5pm ate a bowl of brown rice farina with some blueberries and two omega-3 eggs mixed in. Drank about 48 oz. of water. Took a nap and woke up at 7pm and ate a banana. Left for the gym at 9pm. Ran at 6 mph - 6.6mph with a percent grade of 0 - 2.5 for approx. 85 minutes and then brought it down to 0% grade and went from 4.8 down to 3.0 mph over the course of another 10 min. or so. I started taking SMALL sips of water after about 45 min. and probably consumed a total of 8 oz. max during the course of my run. No gels, no gatorade-type drinks - just plain water. This is the best and longest run I have ever done.

Came home and ate dinner at about 11:30pm - 1 chicken breast, 1 cup (dry measurement) brown rice pasta, 1 onion, a bunch of spinach and about 1 cup (frozen measurement) mixed veggies (corn, peas, carrots, green beans), all sauteed in olive oil. Drank more water. Of course, I couldn't get to sleep 'til about 1:30am!

Lesson learned: Do not eat full dinner before running (I find that 4 hours prior is still too soon to eat more than something like cereal). Do not take in gels or gatorade-type drinks during runs of less than 2 hours. Take VERY small sips of water.

Thanks for the advice!

[Kimmyt]

Got a bit of a run in today. Did 3 some miles during lunch, decided to try not running at the same pace (treadmill) the whole time, so I did the first mile at my usual 6mph pace and then upped it to 6.3 for the next mile, then back down to 6. Not much, but I felt okay.

The avg for the run actually ended up being even slower than if I had ran the whole thing at 6, due to me doing a slower pace for the last 3/10 mile, but what the hey, I just needed to get some miles in before my fun weekend of camping and climbing and drinking beers around a fire.

K.

[michelem]

I did just 3 miles 5:00 this morning, and also glad that this thread still here.

Do you mean 5 minute miles or 5 mph? I can't imagine even running one 5 minute mile!