Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023 (Read 572 times)

darkwave


Mother of Cats

     

    Calbears/Mikkey - If I remember correctly you both have the *marathon moose mug*.

    But do you have the Half marathon moose mug? It's 1 hour + half your age.

    I intend to collect my half marathon moose mug by running 1:21:29 or faster in October in Riga/Latvia, at the tender age of 43.

     

    Is there a female variant?

     

    70 minutes+half one's age seems the logical option, since the Moose mug is 2 hours+ 20 minutes+age for females.

     

    Also, that's not a Moose Mug, but a Flavio Grail.

    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.

    dktrotter


    Dorothea

      Calbears - ...
      I must say I at least partially agree.
      The issues are that humans fail, and fail often, and that the system of financial incentives is not always optimally set up.

      There are a lot of diseases that are not well known by modern medicine. Take for instance high blood pressure, which is a symptom of many diseases. Does medicine know which diseases are there that cause high blood pressure? No. Does medicine know what exactly it is that causes high blood pressure? No. They only provide a pill that will artificially lower your blood pressure, but never fix the actual root cause.

      What if there was a pill that solved the root cause once and for all? I'm fairly sure if there was such a pill, the pharma conglomerates would kill thousands to ensure it never reached the market and threatened their profits.

       

      I wonder if we're entering dangerous conspiracy territory here, but I second Flavio's point that we're ignoring the financial interests, and I'd add that our perspective is limited to western medicine. Scientists and doctors do know/are working on finding out more about the relationship between disease/ illness and various symptoms, including high blood pressure. Will the doctor take the time to figure out each patient's individual cause if it's easier (and more financially lucrative) to just treat the symptoms? No. Cholesterol, same thing. So many people take Statin to treat their high cholesterol, when altering diet would provide the same effects. These people continue eating the same food that causes high cholesterol and take these pills that come with their own side effects that then have to be treated with more pills.

       

      At the same time, I don't think it's fair to all the people struggling with debilitating conditions to say "oh, sleep, exercise, and good diet will solve your problems." What about all the external stressors/factors like poor air/poor water? Or physical and neurological impediments that make difficult to do one or all three of those things? And I know you're talking about the pharmaceutical health care practice of giving pills, but one can create parallels to other kinds of health care, like surgery to reflect on these things.

       

      [side note, but how do you quote within a post? Like do multiple quotes?]

       

      I also agree with how you described it, darkwave, of course there are limits to what medicine can figure out, just because there are soooo many factors involved, and the body has limits. We're not machines that can be taken apart and put back together again. Being born with a cleft-lip and palate, I've had to face the fact that I will never look "normal." Some people may think I still have lots of surgeries ahead of me, but it's pretty much the end of that road for me. There's only so far surgery can go, since scar tissue is not the same as the original tissue --there's only so many times you can cut into it, and there's only so much that can be reconstructed that wasn't there to begin with.

       

      I definitely agree that western medicine has relied too much on pharmaceuticals, but I also think they have their place and generally think we have a lot to be grateful for in the developments of medicine.

      Qualifications: I like to run. In Florida. In the summer. At noon.  

      Last race: Community 5K, March 2nd. Speed test run with 2 walk breaks. Went pretty well.  

      dktrotter


      Dorothea

        Longboat, that sounds so painful! I'm sorry that happened to you. Hope it's as smooth a recovery as possible.

        Qualifications: I like to run. In Florida. In the summer. At noon.  

        Last race: Community 5K, March 2nd. Speed test run with 2 walk breaks. Went pretty well.  

        dktrotter


        Dorothea

           

          My PT has strongly recommended that I not run trails because a fall could by very serious at my age (and on a blood thinner as well). According to her and my doctor one's sense of balance decreases as one ages so falls are that much more likely.

           

          But do you do other kinds of exercises in a more controlled setting to keep balance and agility? Because I would think going on a trail and taking it however slowly, would be a good way to do that?

          Qualifications: I like to run. In Florida. In the summer. At noon.  

          Last race: Community 5K, March 2nd. Speed test run with 2 walk breaks. Went pretty well.  

          flavio80


          Intl. correspondent

             Is there a female variant?

             

            Yeah, 70' + half age makes sense. Half marathon Moose Mug is a much better name, even though it's obviously a lie since it's not rbbmoose who coined it 😁

             

            Dorothea - Sure thing, pills have their place. I do agree treating the symptoms until there's a cure is a valid course of action.

            I just think that modern medicine has multiple points of failure, due to the varied incentives and contexts.

            A Pharma company might cheat/bribe through a clinical trial, resulting in damage to users of the new medication.

            Doctors go through extensive training, but it's impossible for them to know everything about everything, their knowledge will by design be focused and limited. That means for instance that a heart doctor might unknowingly prescribe a pill that damages your stomach.

            A nurse might apply the wrong medicine or in incorrect dosage. The person taking the pill might forget to take it, or take too many/too few.

            To top it all, if you take more than one medicine, it's very likely that these 2 or 3 or 4 medicines have never been in a clinical trial to assert that them all together are safe.

             

            All that is to say that we should probably try to educate ourselves as much as possible, and try to stay as healthy as possible.

            Prevention is IMHO by far the best and cheapest approach.

            It's cheaper to do a blood test once a year and note it down on a spreadsheet, then finding out too late that you have osteoporosis due to a lifetime of low vitamin D or something like that.

            I regrettably have lots of people in my extended family who died in their 50's or 60's because their approach was to only go to doctors/do exams when something was really wrong.

            PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

            Up next: no idea

            Tool to generate Strava weekly


            You big Dosser

              Hello human beings…just a quick woof to say that I’m the fastest on this thread.  When my Dad shouts FLAVIO!!! I immediately run to the nearest person and bite their legs!  It’s a great game!

              wcrunner2


              Are we there, yet?

                 

                But do you do other kinds of exercises in a more controlled setting to keep balance and agility? Because I would think going on a trail and taking it however slowly, would be a good way to do that?

                 

                The balance issues aren't serious enough to affect normal activities.  The concern is really the consequences of a fall, and I fell often enough running trails before I started having these issues.  Linking this in with the discussion on western medicine and medical practices, living with a-fib creates it's own set of concerns, one of which is a heightened risk of blood clots and stroke.  I'm on a blood thinner to reduce that risk.  A fall on a trail could result in excessive bleeding which could be serious if I struck my head hard.  It doesn't keep me from hiking trails where the fall risk is minimal.  It does limit my choices for trail races to non-technical trails and races with generous enough cutoff times that I could still finish even with walking sections of the trail that pose more of a fall factor.  So far I have enough choices of non-trail races that I haven't looked extensively for trail races that I would be comfortable running.  I do have a few possibilities and I'm looking to see how they would fit my race schedule.

                 2024 Races:

                      03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

                      05/11 - D3 50K
                      05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

                      06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

                 

                 

                     

                flavio80


                Intl. correspondent

                  Hello human beings…just a quick woof to say that I’m the fastest on this thread.  When my Dad shouts FLAVIO!!! I immediately run to the nearest person and bite their legs!  It’s a great game!

                  😂😂😂😂😂

                   

                  Also if Cal has not run a Half Marathon Moose Mug ® I'll lose all my respect for him... 🤡

                  PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021

                  Up next: no idea

                  Tool to generate Strava weekly

                  Mikkey


                  Mmmm Bop

                    I think my boy Tyson is getting a bit of an attitude and I might have to restrict his access on the internet. 

                    5k - 17:53 (4/19)   10k - 37:53 (11/18)   Half - 1:23:18 (4/19)   Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)

                    Fishyone


                      Mikkey is obviously doing some serious training....Nothing but positivity and Dog pictures! Next he'll be telling me my pace goals are a little too aggressive and I should "slow down a bit and smell the roses along the way."

                      5K 18:36 (2023), 10K 39:40 (2022), 1/2 1:24:37 (2023), full 2:58:36 (2015) 

                      CalBears


                        😂😂😂😂😂

                         

                        Also if Cal has not run a Half Marathon Moose Mug ® I'll lose all my respect for him... 🤡

                         

                         

                        Multiple times my friend, MULTIPLE TIMES!!!

                        My 1:20 half PR was at 50.5 yo and I have 3 more HMs qualifying for Flavio Grail - all ran at age of 49 to 51 yo.

                        paces PRs - 5K - 5:48  /  10K - 6:05  /  HM - 6:14  /  FM - 6:26 per mile

                          Yeah the half moose mug seems a little easy.

                           

                          FLAVIO " And you also try to optimize exercise, so that you can do enough of it to keep your body healthy, but not way too much so that you can have life long damage. "

                          So this rules out marathon training 

                           

                          I try to not go to the doctors unless it's absolutely necessary. It would be nice if they were someone you totally trust but they are so busy and under pressure.

                          I get nervous when I go and so my blood pressure is really high. Then they give me a blood pressure machine to take home for a week which results in normal levels 🙄

                          55+ PBs 5k 18:36 June 3rd TT

                          " If you don't use it you lose it,  but if you use it, it wears out.

                          Somewhere in between is about right "      

                           

                          Mikkey


                          Mmmm Bop

                             

                             

                            Multiple times my friend, MULTIPLE TIMES!!!

                            My 1:20 half PR was at 50.5 yo and I have 3 more HMs qualifying for Flavio Grail - all ran at age of 49 to 51 yo.

                             

                            🫣

                            5k - 17:53 (4/19)   10k - 37:53 (11/18)   Half - 1:23:18 (4/19)   Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)


                            Resident Historian

                              I kinda like the "Flavio Grail" idea, but c'mon, those half-marathon times are not Moose Mug marathon equivalents. Piwi is right -- too easy.

                              Half-marathon times are about 48% of equivalent marathon times*, not 50%. So instead of 60+half your age for men, it should be ~57:30+48% of your age. But calculating 48% of your age is a pain, so maybe use 57 min + half your age for men**, 66+half your age for women?

                              Mark: Thanks for sharing your experience with patella tendon rupture. I agree, a broken patella (I have no bone damage) would complicate it. First orthopedic visit confirmed the diagnosis, but then they delayed the operation until next week to get an MRI to ensure there's no knee ligament damage. Reasonable, I guess... 
                              It's kind of a weird injury. Painful when it happened, and getting down the trail was painful, but once I got it into a leg immobilizer soft cast that keeps the leg straight, no more than a dull ache.
                              I have crutches, but after 2 days, I'm able to put some weight on the foot as long as the leg is straight. But if I want to lift the lower leg from the knee, nothing would happen, since there's no connection between quads and patella/knee. To lift the lower leg onto the couch to elevate it, I reverse the crutch and lift the foot with the handle. 

                              DW, Mikkey, Flavio, Dave, Fishy, DK, and Cal, thanks for the sympathies. I'll continue to post occasionally here and report on progress. I was so hoping to be able to rejoin with weekly reports.
                              WCRunner I've been doing one fairly difficult trail run (1000-1300' vertical) most weeks, so I'm used to rough terrain. It's a group run with beer after, so I'm reluctant to give it up. But I may have to consider it.

                              Anyone need an entry for Valencia (my unannounced goal race for 2023)? I have one that I won't be able to use!
                              Also a Missoula Half entry (June 25).

                              * Average of McMillan and Daniels tables 

                              PS: First thing Mikkey will do is check his 1:21 at age 45 against this!

                              Neil

                              --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                              “Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I'm here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. - Hunter S. Thompson

                              Marky_Mark_17


                                Mark: Thanks for sharing your experience with patella tendon rupture. I agree, a broken patella (I have no bone damage) would complicate it. First orthopedic visit confirmed the diagnosis, but then they delayed the operation until next week to get an MRI to ensure there's no knee ligament damage. Reasonable, I guess... 
                                It's kind of a weird injury. Painful when it happened, and getting down the trail was painful, but once I got it into a leg immobilizer soft cast that keeps the leg straight, no more than a dull ache.
                                I have crutches, but after 2 days, I'm able to put some weight on the foot as long as the leg is straight. But if I want to lift the lower leg from the knee, nothing would happen, since there's no connection between quads and patella/knee. To lift the lower leg onto the couch to elevate it, I reverse the crutch and lift the foot with the handle. 

                                 

                                That was how they diagnosed mine.  I was lying in the hospital bed after getting my kneecap smashed and the nurse asked if I could lift my leg.  When I couldn't I knew something was definitely a bit busted!

                                 

                                They will likely leave you in one of those soft casts after the operation and then progressively unlock the range of motion (from memory around 10-15 degrees per week).  While the cast was locked straight, I had to get my wife to put on my shoes for me which was somewhat humbling, although your hamstring flexibility may be better than mine was.

                                3,000m: 9:07.7 (Nov-21) | 5,000m: 15:39 (Dec-19) | 10,000m: 32:34 (Mar-20)  

                                10km: 33:15 (Sep-19) | HM: 1:09:41 (May-21)* | FM: 2:41:41 (Oct-20)

                                * Net downhill course

                                Last race: Maraetai HM, 10 Mar, DNF

                                Up next: Waterfront HM, 7 Apr

                                "CONSISTENCY IS KING"