2019 3:20, And Beyond (Read 444 times)

Running Problem


Problem Child

    I like me some donuts. It might be the only breakfast people here agree on until someone comes in and says "bagel." Maple Bar. I don't mess around with donuts. Go big or go home.

    Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.

    VDOT 53.37 

    5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22

    rlk_117


    Resident Millennial

      stopping by to say...

       

      Lauren! Congrats on Baystate!!!!! That's an awesome time.

      Reading your RR now. Love that your little pack introduced each other around the halfway point and prepared to work together! Also I definitely subscribe to your "turn off the brain" MO. I read a Peter Bromka piece before CIM last year and the part that really stuck with me was how he repeats "make it boring", and I've taken to saying that to myself. Most of the durations of our marathons should be boring, shouldn't feel heroic or lightning fast. Just let the miles click by, stay in control. Then, yeah, once mile 20-22 happen, it's not boring anymore and the grind starts.

      Also, yeah, curves/camber changes/wet leaves/etc should really be banned from the last few miles of a marathon. I remember thinking at CIM last year with a couple miles left "if I slip on these wet leaves I will literally not be able to pick myself back up".

       

      and kudos to Darkwave whose half marathon PR i saw on strava. awesome awesome. things looking great for Indy. That's soon!

      - I'm reading your RR now and see now you weren't so happy with your PR. I really want  you to be! A PR is a PR and you never know when that'll be it for you (that's a version of a Gabe Grunewald quote. Definitely a bit sobering, but she told a story of what ended up being her 1500m  PR in Monaco a few years ago, and she said she had to be happy with it for that reason even though her race execution admittedly could have been better. It ended up being her final 1500m PR, so... yeah.)

      - Also love love love your comments about the Columbus bus system. Obviously a public transit nerd too (we may have different reasons, but that's ok!), so I love to learn when things are actually simple and intuitive in a new city. That's usually the biggest barrier. Also, for some reason I am trying to understand/debunk, lots of upper-middle class people really hate buses. Happy to ride subways/metro all day long, but there is some stigma against buses. It's funny because in SF most of our "subway" comes above ground outside of the NE quadrant of the city, so then is effectively a bus on rails, so what's the difference?
      Related, I am thinking of Amtraking to Sacramento if I run CIM and I'm pretty stoked about it.

      - Inhaler question: you said per USADA you are limited to 8 puffs in 12 hours. Is that a bodyweight-based dose? Or blanket allowance for all?

      - PS: I worked on Xolair Smile (the version that is freeze-dried in a small vial, which is then reconstituted and injected). My former boss also takes Xolair, and she worked heavily on it (the recently approved pre-filled syringe, liquid version). And am currently working on something for UC. I forget if we've talked about this before.

       

      kcam- i also will do SVTT as a pre-CIM tuneup, though I also am on the fence about CIM. I'm gonna do the 5k USATF heat to finish out my short circuit points, and I am actively recruiting teammates so I don't finish alone 4 minutes behind the elite leaders....

      Love running 17mi drive Smile though last time I was there I did it from Carmel and there were too many drivers, wasn't very pleasant. Why is there no sidewalk?

      it sounds like we are in a similar boat. I'm  sure I could finish CIM and be fine, but I am not in great shape right now and I'm not sure I see the point of running the convenient, local marathon just to say I did it. I might rather support my friends who are chasing some pretty big unicorns that day.

       

      To clarify for rovatti (?) and maybe others, I did participate in a HM on .. let's see, 10/6. I didn't race it, so no it wasn't a PR. I was in a strange funk from like late September til recently (I'm currently convincing myself that I'm out of it?), just legs being sluggish all the time, missed some training because honestly it felt harder than it should and wasn't fun. So anyway, I had registered for this half awhile back but wasn't ready to race. I started it thinking "maybe I'll run ez pace the whole time, maybe I'll drop out because I feel like shit, maybe I'll do a workout". Started at 7:20 and actually felt good so I proceeded to run the most beautiful progression run of my life (iirc, something like 2x7:20, 5x7:15, 2x7:10, 2x7:00, 6:45) and felt beautifully in control. It was actually pretty fun. Also makes me wonder if I had tried to PR (6:59 pace would do it) if I actually could have, but eh, that's fine. I paced with some of Jim's teammates during it and then I saw Jim afterwards.

       

      brew I appreciate you providing the updates from me :P  You could take over my posting duties! Jk. Yes I did an XC race this past weekend. Definitely ripped the bandaid and wasn't fast (~6:40 pace for 4.2mi on flat hardpacked dirt/gravel), but I executed well for XC and ended up passing several women in the last mile. That's rare for me (usually I go out too hard and am hanging on for dear life), so  I'm pleased about that.

      PS. looks like you're training for sub3?

       

      sclever, I'm glad I read this. I also hate the Zoom Fly Flyknit! I get those same hotspots on the bottom of my feet,  super uncomfortable and honestly distracting. Makes me want to stop and loosen them, which I've tried, but it doesn't help. I stopped wearing them and found some original Zoom Flys from the depths of the internet (in hideous colors) and have gone back to those.

       

      Speaking of shoes, I am still Team No Vaporflys. Amby Burfoot wrote a piece in the NY Times which I found myself agreeing a lot with (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/18/sports/marathon-running-nike-vaporfly-shoes.html). This doesn't mean I begrudge any of you who choose to wear them, for the record.

       

      This post was a lot, sorry, but you can find some updates on me/running in the rovatti and brew responses above...

      Regarding the too-long sluggish phase I've been in, I do feel like I'm kicking it now. Have been paying a lot of attention to drills/stretching and adding in some strength. Seems to be helping. I am signed up (again, registered awhile ago) for a HM which is on Nov 3, and the plans thus far are to "race" that one. Given that I averaged 7:10s for a "workout" HM a few weeks ago and I'm doing better now, I will probably try to just run 6:52s (1:30 pace) and hopefully finally execute that. Or... blow up and then definitely not want to run CIM. Who knows 

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      mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58

      Running Problem


      Problem Child

        rlk I'm training to get what I think will be enough of a cushion for Boston 2021. If a sub 3 is there I'll go for it. If a 3:02 or 3:01 is what I get I'll take those. I'd rather have a race time that guarantees me entry to Boston 2021 than a Sub 3. I'd be very grateful of everything and everyone helping me if I'm able to run a sub 3 at CIM this year and get a BQ-5. I'm sure the "magic of CIM" will come into play along with some suffering along the way. Checkers or wreckers baby. Checkers or wreckers.

        If you want to know the way out of the funk, for my it was "stop feeling sorry for yourself and stop blaming everyone else." Yeah, running is hard or else everyone would do it. I just ran 7:20s chatting with my RB telling her how it was currently Marathon PR pace and I'd come up on people chatting during CIM (used your teammate to go 3:13) at this pace which was my race pace. Was 3:19 easy? Getting through the hard parts are what make the easy parts so enjoyable.

         

        Bus vs subway is just like natural gas being good and oil being bad.  Driving an electric car saves the world, but we'll ignore the batteries being hazardous waste and ripping non-renewable resources from earth using diesel burning machinery. To get natural gas out of the ground you need to remove it the same way you remove oil. #firstworldproblems

        Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.

        VDOT 53.37 

        5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22

        berylrunner


        Rick

          Lauren -  Congrats.   Great marathon,  great time.  Nice you found some other runners to work with.  Mine was so serious. no one was talking.  I like your schedule.   I think you can easily knock out a fast half.

           

          Darkwave - well done.  I can't imagine going that fast.

           

          I am headed to the Grand Canyon for a little jaunt.  Will be interesting to see if I am recovered.  Looking forward to starting another training block.  Thinking the Sun Marathon (S. Utah) in February.

          12-22   Last One Standing  - dnf 37 miles

          1-23  Sun Marathon - 3:53

          3-4-23  Red Mountain 55k - 7:02

          4-15-23  Zion 100 - 27:59

           

           

          rlk_117


          Resident Millennial

            brew - a) EVs will definitely not save the world. they enable sprawl and have particulate pollution of their own. b) i'm not sure i fully follow your comparison (i wasn't referring to the energy that runs the vehicle) but it sounds like we agree that bus prejudice is weird and bad.

            - it wasn't a mental/motivation funk, it was a "my body is laboring too hard for 8:45 (or whatever) pace, something is wrong".

            - i forget what your BQ time is (idk how old you are, they keep changing things?, etc.). 3:05?

             

            beryl- little jaunt, eh?

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            mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58

            kcam


              Rlk - if you start from the Pacific Grove side of 17 Mile drive there are beautiful trails for the first 5 or 6 miles.  At that point it seemed like you would be mostly running on the road which is why I turned around there.  I think the key is to start from the North and start very early before the tourist vehicles and crowds take over.  Kinda like running across the GG bridge - great run if you get out early enough to beat the tourists.


              Speed Surplus

                "Also, for some reason I am trying to understand/debunk, lots of upper-middle class people really hate buses."

                 

                I can tell you that it really depends who's on the bus. There's a line that runs near my house that is notoriously slow and crowded and often has homeless/mentally ill/troubled people riding. A dude near me stood up one time and his pants were below his ass, and he had left a sh*t stain on the seat. He was clearly drunk and had been lightly harassing people in his general vicinity.

                 

                By contrast, I used to ride a line in a different part of town that was 99% full of Microsoft commuters on phones and laptops.

                 

                My wife commutes pretty much exclusively by public transit and is as bleeding-heart as you can be, but she can hardly bring herself to take the former line, even if it's a much longer walk to other options - she's had similar experiences with people being harassed, foul smells, and toxic, borderline unsafe conditions. It's not hard to see why people hate that bus.

                5:27 / 18:49 / 40:32 / 88:12 / 3:12

                rlk_117


                Resident Millennial

                  @sclever yeah, I definitely understand that. But as you aptly pointed out, that's not a blanket situation, yet I have some friends who blanket-ly(?) refuse to get on a bus even when it would very likely not be the experience you described

                  and here the "subway"/light rail we have comes above ground outside of downtown, and unsavory stuff can sometimes be found on those vehicles as well. so i don't quite understand the discrimination in that sense. anyway...

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                  mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58

                  Running Problem


                  Problem Child

                    rlk yeah 3:05 but who knows...maybe the BAA will increase times again for 2021. I was fortunate to be on the receiving end of a qualifying time change once already. It's a unique feeling going into a marathon with a 1 week notification the time qualifier is now 5 minutes faster.

                    The closest bus stop to my house is 2.5 miles away. It only takes me 5 miles before I need to ride another bus, but I have to wait 30 minutes to get on the bus. The bus (system here) sucks. Especially as sc pointed out, it is associated with a lower income class of people. I'd rather ride an E bike. 

                    Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.

                    VDOT 53.37 

                    5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22

                    darkwave


                    Mother of Cats

                      - Inhaler question: you said per USADA you are limited to 8 puffs in 12 hours. Is that a bodyweight-based dose? Or blanket allowance for all?

                      It's a blanket allowance, according to the rules.   It's by dose not by amount found in your body.

                       

                      The limit per 12 hours is a cumulative dose of 800 micrograms.  Each puff of the rescue inhaler has 90 micrograms.  So...8 puffs gives you 720 micrograms, assuming you puff correctly.

                       

                      And 8 puffs is a lot. I've hit that limit, but on memorably awful days that involved multiple mid-race walk-and-puff breaks.

                       

                      Thanks for the comments about the race.  While I was annoyed with the time, what really bothered me most was the feeling that it was a struggle just to finish 13, and how drained I felt in the final third.  Very different from normal end-of-half-marathon suck.  It felt like just covering 13 miles was challenging.  And that's what really dug a bit at my confidence, more than the time.  I just have to remind myself that I ran 21 miles very recently with no issue.

                       

                      And, FWIW, I use (or...my doctor uses) the pre-loaded Xolair syringes, so no more wait for the medication to be ready because they're running behind schedule and forgot to mix it.

                       

                      [for the rest of you - Xolair used to have to be mixed ahead of time, and then allowed to settle before it could be used.  And then once it was mixed, it was only good for something like 4 hours. And it's a very expensive drug, so you do NOT want to mix it and not use it.]  So I would have to call the doctor's office the morning of my appointment to confirm that I was coming in and the time, to minimize the risk of it being wasted.]

                       

                      Buses - I think in DC there is some stigma to the bus, but mostly in the burbs.  In the city (which in my definition includes both DC and Arlington), the bus is many times more convenient then the metro.  For example, if I want to get to Georgetown from where I live, by public transportation, I need to either take the bus or walk about 20 minutes from the nearest metro stop.

                       

                      They actually advertise the bus I use the most as "the Orange line with a view" - because it follows mostly the same path as the Metro Orange line, but is obviously above ground.

                       

                      I think a lot of the reasons people don't use buses in my area are a) waiting in a sheltered metro stop is far more appealing than being out in the elements or the dark at a bus stop; b) our metro stops have signs indicating the next train; you have to use your phone for the bus; and c) the bus system is a bit harder to figure out than metro.

                      Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.

                       

                      And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.

                      rlk_117


                      Resident Millennial

                        brew i mean yeah you live in an extremely low population density place, so i'd assume the bus system sucks by design/density and therefore only people who can't afford their own private transportation take it. definitely diff than seattle or sf. unfortunately.

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                        mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58

                        darkwave


                        Mother of Cats

                          and here the "subway"/light rail we have comes above ground outside of downtown, and unsavory stuff can sometimes be found on those vehicles as well. so i don't quite understand the discrimination in that sense. anyway...

                           

                          So...the Orange line train (which is the one I take most often), terminates in the Virginia suburbs (well-to-do).  It then runs east through first Arlington, then downtown DC, then a part of north east DC that has some fairly bad areas, before terminating in the eastern suburbs in Maryland ("New Carrollton").  Takes about an hour to go one way end to end.  The train has had some crime on the eastern end, including violent crime.

                           

                          When I come back from New York or Philly, I usually get off the Amtrak one stop early in Maryland, at New Carrollton.  Then I can swap to the Orange line there and take that all the way home.  (If I take the Amtrak all the way into DC's Union Station, then I have to switch first to the Red line and then the Orange or Silver line to get home, and it's a pain).

                           

                          It is very interesting how the feel/zeitgeist of the train shifts as it travels.  Passengers are definitely more on their guard on the eastern end than the western end.

                          Everyone's gotta running blog; I'm the only one with a POOL-RUNNING blog.

                           

                          And...if you want a running Instagram where all the pictures are of cats, I've got you covered.

                          kcam


                            San Jose traffic and parking just isn't bad enough to take a bus.  It takes longer to get anywhere in the South Bay on public transit than to just drive.  I used to take light rail to work back in the early 2000's but it took over 20 mins longer than driving.  The last straw was seeing a mother and her toddler get off the train and the next person gets on and sits in that same seat.  She freaked out and jumped up immediately.  The kid had pissed the seat.  Poor lady, I felt so bad for her but didn't know hat the kid had done.  The seats were those cushioned ones rather than hard plastic.  The woman's skirt was piss soaked.  No thanks, my car isn't piss soaked.

                            rlk_117


                            Resident Millennial

                                

                              It is very interesting how the feel/zeitgeist of the train shifts as it travels.  Passengers are definitely more on their guard on the eastern end than the western end.

                               

                              Sooo interesting. I went to a wedding in the Oakland hills a few Fridays ago (just to clarify the ~oakland hills~ vibe, median home price in that neighborhood is like $2.2M) and took a transbay bus to get there. It's sorta an "express" bus in that it starts at the SF transit center and then doesn't make any stops until it gets to this specific neighborhood of Oakland. I was wearing a dress and heels and all that and felt extremely at ease sitting next to a bunch of clean-cut commuters. But I'm sure one bus bay over, where the bus stops in oakland proper and doesn't go in hill, could definitely be a different vibe.

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                              mile, 5:26 /5k, 19:34 /10k, 41:00 /13.1, 1:31:49 /26.2, 3:12:58

                                ....lots of upper-middle class people really hate buses. ...some stigma against buses. 

                                I guess it's been a while since you've taken a cross-town bus in Manhattan?  ... not much faster than walking.

                                Citibike is the way to go.  (I've logged 3,314 miles to date)