This thread shall be THE RUNNING THREAD!!!

2manband

2manband

Kick Henry Jackassowski
There are a number of running related threads lately, so I thought I would start a comprehensive running thread.

So tell us about your running, training, racing, etc. etc.


I did another hot lap of my 5k route this morning, getting ready for the next race on 7/27. I can tell that I'm getting faster, but I really need to get to the track and get some times to see how I'm doing. I've also done some research, and it seems that I ought to be working some sprints, 400m, and hills into my routine to build speed, so I gotta get on that. Which means I'll be hitting the local track once or twice per week. Sucks - I hate running on the track. :(

In other news, I did one of those lung volume tests at the Doctor's office and I maxed the fucker out. Woop woop!!!!!
 
* subscribed *

I'm not a very good runner. I'd like to restart the couch to 5k program again though.


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My wife and I started Couch to 5k this week and are loving it. It works out that we will be on track to run our first official 5k on our wedding anniversary September 14th. Pretty cool.

I've been reading a bit about form and it scares me some. Anyone got some reference links/books/anything that I need to be reading?
We are brand new to running (and exercise in general, sadly) and want to avoid injuries and potential set backs where possible.
 
MonkeyZero said:
My wife and I started Couch to 5k this week and are loving it. It works out that we will be on track to run our first official 5k on our wedding anniversary September 14th. Pretty cool.

I've been reading a bit about form and it scares me some. Anyone got some reference links/books/anything that I need to be reading?
We are brand new to running (and exercise in general, sadly) and want to avoid injuries and potential set backs where possible.
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From my foggy memory of my track and field days:
There are a number of exercises that are supposed to improve form - most of them involve exaggerated strides. There's one where you kick your knee up as far as you can, one where you take super long strides, etc. etc.

I've never found them to be particularly helpful. Just mainly try to run comfortably. Do what comes naturally. The biggest injury avoidance technique is simply not over-doing it, but if you're on a program like couch to 5k, that's probably built in already.
 
June was a suck ass month as far as running went for me....which is not good because I have a 1/2 marathon in just over 5 weeks and the longest run I have done in over a month is 5 miles (and that was today). I'm going to have to do 8 miles on Sunday to get the program back on track. I generally do one 'long' run (7 miles or more) a week and when I am building up for a race I add one mile per week to the long run. So if I start at 8 miles this weekend I work up to 12 miles by the Saturday before the race.

2Man - you don't have to do speed work on a track - I rarely do. If I am doing 1/4 mile intervals I will find some nice soccer fields, or just a decent trail and use my GPS watch to mark off 1/4 mile and use that and just run back and forth. Another good bit of interval work I have been doing is to do a nice warmup run (1 - 1.5 miles). Then run 7 to ten intervals of one minute at or slightly faster than your 5K race pace followed by one minute in a recovery jog (or walk). You can also do 2.5 minutes slightly slower than your 5K race pace followed by a 2 minute slow jog. It helps to have a watch to do the timing on those. Follow with a one mile cool down jog. Speed work will do wonders for your race times. So will hill intervals - but those are not fun at all. Helpful - but not fun.
 
Denverdave said:
2Man - you don't have to do speed work on a track - I rarely do. If I am doing 1/4 mile intervals I will find some nice soccer fields, or just a decent trail and use my GPS watch to mark off 1/4 mile and use that and just run back and forth. Another good bit of interval work I have been doing is to do a nice warmup run (1 - 1.5 miles). Then run 7 to ten intervals of one minute at or slightly faster than your 5K race pace followed by one minute in a recovery jog (or walk). You can also do 2.5 minutes slightly slower than your 5K race pace followed by a 2 minute slow jog. It helps to have a watch to do the timing on those. Follow with a one mile cool down jog. Speed work will do wonders for your race times. So will hill intervals - but those are not fun at all. Helpful - but not fun.
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Nice Dave, thanks. Good luck on your race. Look for the yellow tape. :embarrassed:
 
I'm getting pretty close to my goal. I did a training run yesterday and was right about on target.

It's a little hard to tell exactly how long my route is tho; I checked it with google maps and with the odometer in my car, and bot of those in right around 3.1 miles.

I think race courses are usually a bit shorter because they're measured with the "walk along wheel" thingy that measures every itty bitty bump - and it's impossible to keep perfectly straight. I measured my previous "certified" race course in google maps and it came out to 2.9 miles, not 3.1.

So if I have about 0.2 miles of "fluff" then I'm right on target with my race time of 21:42. If not, then I'm right around where I was last time. I don't think that's the case because I feel considerably faster, but who knows. At some point I'm gonna go run 5,000m on the track to get a good time.
 
I had the unfortunately pleasure this weekend of running in humidity. Both my Saturday morning run at 7:30 (4 miles) and my Sunday morning run at 5:30 (9 miles) were in very high humidity for the Denver area. Saturday morning was about 70% and Sunday morning around 60 - 65%. It reminded me of my runs in West Virginia over the past couple of summers (except I managed not to get lost this time). It was not quite as humid here as it is there, but I don't remember humidity on this level in Denver in a long time. After my Sunday morning run my entire shirt was drenched - front and back. WE had 'monsoons' blow through and we have gotten some rain for four afternoon/evenings in a row. Friday and Saturday nights were both pretty significant rain for here.
 
Here's an interesting update on my c25k. I had to quit. Hurt both of my knees so bad I could barely walk for 2 days. It's been over a week since I ran and they still hurt. I have no idea what happened other than I'm an old, out of shape man and my body just couldn't take it.
Went back to riding my bike with no pain whatsoever. Really strange.
Looking for a new 29er hardtail now.
I guess this is my bowing out of this thread. Lol.
 
Damn that sucks monkeyzero.

Cycling is great because there's no shocks to the joints whereas running is essentially hopping with your full weight from foot to foot thousands of times non-stop which isn't great for the knees.

It's been really hot (as in Scotland hot) over here this week. I went out on Saturday around mid-day for an hour / 10k run and the heat beat the shit out of me. My body was feeling OK but my head was getting fuzzy and spaced out.
 
MonkeyZero said:
Here's an interesting update on my c25k. I had to quit. Hurt both of my knees so bad I could barely walk for 2 days. It's been over a week since I ran and they still hurt. I have no idea what happened other than I'm an old, out of shape man and my body just couldn't take it.
Went back to riding my bike with no pain whatsoever. Really strange.
Looking for a new 29er hardtail now.
I guess this is my bowing out of this thread. Lol.
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If cycling works better for you - go for it! It could have been your shoes were not the right fit/type, but really the important thing is to be active doing something rather than nothing.
 
MonkeyZero said:
Here's an interesting update on my c25k. I had to quit. Hurt both of my knees so bad I could barely walk for 2 days. It's been over a week since I ran and they still hurt. I have no idea what happened other than I'm an old, out of shape man and my body just couldn't take it.
Went back to riding my bike with no pain whatsoever. Really strange.
Looking for a new 29er hardtail now.
I guess this is my bowing out of this thread. Lol.
Click to expand...



I have found running on pavement just kills my knees, but if I run trails I experience no knee pain. As Dave said shoes make a huge difference. Last year when I started running, I got a pair of Northface trail shoes. They were very comfortable and I liked them. Then I replaced them with a pair of Brooks Cascadia 8's. The difference was night and day. I also had the fitted at a place that specializes in running shoes, so I'm sure that made a difference too.
 
MonkeyZero said:
Here's an interesting update on my c25k. I had to quit. Hurt both of my knees so bad I could barely walk for 2 days. It's been over a week since I ran and they still hurt. I have no idea what happened other than I'm an old, out of shape man and my body just couldn't take it.
Went back to riding my bike with no pain whatsoever. Really strange.
Looking for a new 29er hardtail now.
I guess this is my bowing out of this thread. Lol.
Click to expand...

Running is one of the worse thing you can do for knees. While it is an easy (in terms of equipment) way to exercise if you have bad knees you are asking for more trouble down the road. I've had 4 orthopedic surgeons ask me if I run and when I told them no they all said "good, don't" If you can more power to you but if you are having trouble stick to biking or swimming both much better.
 
I got fitted for shoes and bought them so I think I was ok there but who knows. I haven't exactly been a very active person over the last 15 years. Im not overweight at all, just not fit. I think it's a combination of getting older and then dropping the high impact on unused joints very quickly.
I've always loved cycling anyway. I rode from age 14 to about 22 daily. Used to ride centuries on the weekends.
The reason I chose running was because I sold off all my bikes long ago and don't have the cash for a decent one currently.
So I'm riding the one bike I have left until I can afford a good one. It's a huffy. Lmao. It's a cross between a beach cruiser and a mountain bike but it gets me outside for now.
At least I held on to all my clothes and shoes and gloves. That shit is more expensive than a bike.
 
Have another 5k coming up on Saturday, and today was my best training time yet. A few seconds under my goal even. Woot!

I've found that the key is to keep my tempo going in the second half of the run. I've been unconsciously slowing my tempo and lengthening my stride about midway through. Since I breathe in rhythym with my footsteps, this slows my breathing. And less air = less speed.

If I keep pushing the tempo and take shorter strides, I breathe more and finish stronger.

Doing some work at the track really did seem to pay off.
 
nuke_diver said:
Running is one of the worse thing you can do for knees. While it is an easy (in terms of equipment) way to exercise if you have bad knees you are asking for more trouble down the road. I've had 4 orthopedic surgeons ask me if I run and when I told them no they all said "good, don't" If you can more power to you but if you are having trouble stick to biking or swimming both much better.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of it has to do with the volume of miles you run. I've been injury prone in the past when trying to get up to marathon-distance. But lately I've been pushing for fast, short runs, and haven't had any trouble at all. So for the forseeable future, running good times in 5k - 10k races is going to be more of a goal for me than simply trying to finish a marathon.
 
2manband said:
I think a lot of it has to do with the volume of miles you run. I've been injury prone in the past when trying to get up to marathon-distance. But lately I've been pushing for fast, short runs, and haven't had any trouble at all. So for the forseeable future, running good times in 5k - 10k races is going to be more of a goal for me than simply trying to finish a marathon.
Click to expand...

Another factor w/r/t knee injuries, in many cases, is people running to lose weight. It's a lot easier on the joints when you're already fit.
 
Flamencology said:
Another factor w/r/t knee injuries, in many cases, is people running to lose weight. It's a lot easier on the joints when you're already fit.
Click to expand...

Good point. I'd imagine that's true for all areas of the undercarriage - knees, feet, ankles, shins, etc.
 
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