Hi Folks

 

Thought I would start the May thread off.

I am in India this week so I missed my long run on weekend due to travel and will be on the treadmill all this week.

 Where in India Matt? My son is moving to Hyderabad in August... with three of my grandchildren in tow! Dang him. They'll be there for the school year. Am not sure about a 2nd year, hope not.

I got in a 6.7mi, 96 min long run in this morning. Taking advantage of some cooler weather and being retired and not needing to get to an office. did have to get to DD2's house tho to help watch the twins while she went to Dr appt.

Matt-

hopefully your training doesn't get too messed up by traveling. 

Meg-

when's your half?

Bob-

any other plans before November?

Mandy-

nice job on your race this weekend despite the timing mishap. I don't understand how what happened can happen (having to add to minutes to everyone's times).

My May is off to a decent start. I did my spring 'A' race on Sunday and did pretty well. I took 3.5 mins off my February HM time, but still far from PR condition. I love the OC course and will continue to run this race whenever possible. If anyone is looking to travel to a nice HM/Full in May, I recommend this one. I also did this race with a group of five friends, which is a first for me. It's fun to have a big group at a race. I'm reevaluating racing plans-I'll probably add a 10k this month and another HM (Los Angeles) in late October-I really like running the half. I also doubt I'll be able to run the HM in Germany in December, so will do something in California or Las Vegas on that same day. Other than the 10k (which is run on my normal running route), I'm officially in triathlon season until late September.

I just realised I posted last night on the April thread- eejit!

Anyway, I am finally running again, hope to keep my motivation up and become as consistent as you guys.

A guy I know just ran a really great 10k last Sunday- 41:43 at the age of 63! That is a lot faster than me although I am only 60, so I have to try to work on my fitness and get a bit closer, who knows what might be possible if we try!

Let us know what it is like in India, Matt, most of us will not get a chance to go there ourselves.

Good progress Meg and Red, and weel done on the consistent training Frances, work is a major obstacle for me, too.

My half isn't until 9-11-12. This year, it sold out in mid-April; so glad I registered in February. My goal right now is to get my mileage up to the 15+ miles per week this month and hopefully in June, slide that up to 20-25 miles per week and stay there for a while. I ran a 5.2 mile run this morning and it was tough, but I'm going to blame that on the 80% humidity which I'm not used to since we've hardly had any spring yet. (The trees aren't leafed out yet. That's a good measure of how warm the ground isn't yet.)

Nice to hear that consistency is happening for others as well.

 Where in India Matt?

Delhi. I have been many times before but this one was a little different. Like your son, Dawn (the missus) and I were over there on what they call a “look-see” visit to see if Delhi was somewhere we could spend the next 3 years living.

Let us know what it is like in India, Matt, most of us will not get a chance to go there ourselves.

Would that I could! Adequate words fail me but I will try. I don’t mean that in a negative way, Delhi is just so different from what those of us in the US (and I guess down under) are used to. For a start it’s summer over there; that means days on end over 110F (43C) – that’s hot. It’s also busy. Did you know that every seventh person on the planet is Indian… apparently they were all in Delhi while we were there! To the outsider it’s also chaos – cars, trucks, auto rickshaws, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrians, cows, camels, dogs, elephants all trying to occupy the same piece of road at the same time. You have not had an interesting commute until you have driven (been driven) to work in Delhi. That said, there is also the incredible side too. The culture, the cricket, the history, the hospitality and the food mmmmm 

Those of you who have been kicking around this group for a while will know that we moved from DFW to DC last October. The project up here has not worked out for the company and I find my position a casualty of the messed up industry of Telecoms. I am fortunate in that my company still wants me so the choice is back to DFW or onwards to Delhi. Long story short (too late?!) Delhi is a fantastic opportunity in some ways but just a step too far for us as a family in others. I’ve got a few more days until I have to decide but right now it’s likely that we’re heading back to DFW.

Good luck to your boy & his family bobev, it’s an incredible place!

Matt-

hopefully your training doesn't get too messed up by traveling. 

I was doing well until I was ravaged by Delhi-Belly on Wednesday. I will spare you the details (and my flushes blushes ) save to say that my 7 miler this morning was the first time I have felt "comfortable" and confident enough to hit the pavement since then. It’s knocked my plans for the HM in a few weeks time to be honest, but will see how we go until then.

I did run that 10k with Dawn the day before we went to India though, and that was great. The course was a little short (about 0.2). It was 2 loops of a 5k and there was a little 0.1 mile spur that we were supposed to run as part of the second loop to make up for bypassing the start/finish segment but everyone was being directed straight past it by the volunteers. NBD – it was just great to run with the missus. Dawn had hoped to get in under an hour and we just dipped out on that by a minute, there’s always next time.

Looking at the rest of your progress though is great inspiration. Some great races already run this month.

Barb – what race are you running next weekend? Stick to your plan. You’ll rock it!

Keep sharing folks, great to hear from you all.

Cheers MattJ

Thanks for the report Matt!

I grew up in Africa but it was not nearly as hot because of the elevation, my daughter lives there still, but out in the country in an area with lots of game, elephant, lions, cheetah etc.

It is hard for someone who has only lived in one country to comprehend how different life may be somewhere else- I enjoyed learning a bit about India.

...why did you stop your run/walk? 

 

Was it hard to change to sustained running?

 

I initially did Run/Walk (RW) as insurance to avoid injury.  (and coming off 10+ years sedentary)

I only "ran" every other day (rest, recovery)

And I of course did the intermittent walk in my Runs (mini-rest, mini-recovery)

And my goal was to cover distance in a short time, as I was entering my first HM with some friends and

frankly I didn't want to be on the course for 3+ hours, etc.

And it worked.   I was very fast (for me)

I know I would have been overall Slower with sustained running.

This time around, I wanted to fun Faster with Less Effort

Emphasis on the Less Effort, Easier  

Also burns fat as fuel.

No, it was not hard to change to sustained running because I was Run/Walk'ing at first to stay under HR<135

Eventually I walked less, and less frequently, until I didn't have to walk at all to keep my HR<135

But I did have to jog r-e-a-l-l-y slowly at first,

but I am getting incrementally and consistently faster as the weeks go by.

That transition is easy because it's at my body's own pace.

I use a Garmin heart monitor.  It beeps at HR too low, and HR too high, so I adjust my pace to keep the beeping to a minimum.

Also, after I complete a few more HMs, I'd like to run a Full Marathon using

http://feelrace.com/fr.pl?th=MARCO 

I'm thinking of adapting the Marco Marathon pace (HR actually) calculator to HM distance for my next few HMs