Happy July 4th. to all the Americans in our group....
Sorry I am a bit late getting started this month, I hope we can keep things going.
Hot weather is here ( a bit north of Toronto) with no relief in sight. I have been watching the US Olympic trials and the Tour de France, this is a great time of year for spectating!
I plan to run a 5k on August 18th and have taken time off work to make this possible, but have not really got going on my training- too many distractions.
PBs since age 60: 5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.
10 miles (unofficial) 1:16:44.
#artbydmcbride
Happy 4th of July to you too, SimonR! Try not to think about all those back tea taxes ya'll could have collected by now!
I have two goals I am training for this month; a half marathon I want to PR at on July 29th, and a mile race (gulp, a mile!) that I want to get speedy for by August 26th!
So long runs, hill sprints and 200m pain fests is my recipe.
Runners run
I've got a half marathon coming up too in July. It starts in the North Carolina mountains and has about 9 or 10 miles of downhill so it's a pretty fast one. Other than that I've just got some small 5k races lined up for Saturday mornings.
I started out running an evening 5k on July 3rd and dropped out after about a half mile. I had eaten a bunch of junk for lunch and dinner and pretty much just hit the wall. It was the first time I ever just decided to drop out of a race in what would have been my 183rd race in four years. I was okay just jogging through it and went back and ran with somebody who had an injured ankle. We got to the finish line in 46+ minutes and I decided to just go off to the side and take a DNF instead of crossing the finish line. Apparently they've improved the technology so now you just need to be within about 20 feet of the finish line and it caught me anyway.
Anyway, after all of the uncontrolled eating first thing I did on Wednesday morning (the 4th of July) was join WeightWatchers Online for Men for three months. I'm 15 pounds heavier than I was last fall when I ran my best times. I definitely need to get my diet under control.
Good luck to everybody with your upcoming races!
Richard Hefner Past Race Results (Athlinks)
That's a lot of racing, Richard!
I don't have much problem maintaining my weight in a reasonable range, just lucky to have that kind of metabolism I suppose!
What I am trying to do is to drink less coffee - this in order to lower my resting heart rate. Before I started running it was around 72bpm, which came down to 60bpm after I got in shape. After a few weeks of cutting back on coffee it seems to be about 52bpm, though I need a few more checks to see if this is consistent. I suppose 60 bpm is safe enough but it just seems to me that a bit lower would be better.
Good luck with the speedwork, Ilene!
Yes well, losing some weight will be a help to me in that department also.
Ran 16kms or just less than 10 miles this morning, cooler than it has been, around 78 degrees F. Flat 8k loop, stopped for a drink I had hidden in a tree after the first loop.
Better than the 5k I ran yesterday, but it is hard getting back into a routine after a long period of laziness>
Ran 8k on Wednesday, 5k on Thursday and 17k yesterday.
I drank plenty of water in the hour before I ran, took water with me, took several walk breaks and went slowly (not even timing the run), but still had a tough time.
Had a banana and strawberry smoothie and more water afterwards then lay down for two hours.
My normal rule is that a run must be 20kms to be a "long" run, but this one qualified on time and effort!
For me a "long" run is whatever my longest run of the week is. It's usually my longer weekend run. If I'm building up and it's 8 or 10 miles, I still call it a long run. At 40 miles a week, it's a high enough percentage of my weekly mileage to be called a long run.
Out there running since dinosaurs roamed the earth
Yes, whatever feels "long" to me that week can be my long run!
Raced a 15k on Saturday. Very small race with a 5k, 10k, 15k and half marathon. I came in 2nd overall in the 15k, so that goes to show you how slow everyone was.
Wow... 2nd overall... that's great even it was a small race (unless there were just 2 runners... LOL).
I ran my 10th half marathon of 2012 this weekend. Won the 60-64 age group (1:36:22) in a race with a lot of downhill but was kind of disappointed that I was 4 minutes slower than last year, and two days later I'm still aching. I didn't train for the downhill part so maybe that's why I'm so sore.
Other than that, I'm having a hard time working my way up to 40 miles per week with my training. I seem to be stuck between 30-35 most weeks lately.
1:36:22 is an awesome time!! Congratulations on the hardware.
Congratulations to you both!
Ilene, your pace is within 2 seconds per kilometre of 3 years ago on the same course, well done!
Richard that is faster than I have ever run a half- good job!
Sorry to hear Frank Schleck is out of the Tour de France after an "adverse analytical finding" for a diuretic (banned as it can be used as a masking agent.
Cooler evening, 10k tempo run.
Haha... I love that... "adverse analytical finding."
I'm a medical transcriptionist. Just did a report on a lady this morning who works at Subway. Under occupation she put "Sandwich Artist."
I must admit I am a fan of "plain speech" rather than euphemisms. It is one of the things I admire about Australia, people seem to be very direct and straight forward about things. (The Aussies I have met also seemed to swear a lot, which I don't like...) A country I would love to visit one day.
I read an interesting article by Earl Fee, a famous Canadian sprinter, hurdler and middle distance runner who is now about 80 years old and still competes actively. (I am not good at links but it is easy to find with a search engine.)
He recommended weight lifting as a way of slowing down the loss of strength that accelerates as we age, and for running specifically said that squats should be done with only a slight knee bend, not a deep squat, as that more closely resembles the motion used in running. Another point was that the speed of the motion should be rapid, again to mimic running, not slow. This would ensure the neurons are firing quickly, as when running.
That seems to make sense to me. What do you guys think?
That's interesting about Earl Fee and I'd bet it's true that we should be doing at least some light weight training. I keep meaning to do it but I don't usually get around to it. I'd like to do it about 3 times a week but I end up doing it about once a month. Guess I need a system. I looked up Earl Fee on Athlinks and he can definitely still burn up the track. I wonder about those old-timers though who consider themselves "middle distance." I think back in the day middle distance was considered more like 880 yards than a half marathon! Here are his results I found...
http://athlinks.com/claimworksheet.aspx?search=Athlete&term=earl%20fee&showmembers=true
I had a good 5k today... a PR since being in the 60-64 age group with a time of 20:55. I've lost about 8 pounds in the past two weeks on Weight Watchers and that always makes a difference. Hoping to lose about 8 more and I'll be down to my best running weight ever!