Forums >Racing>Competitive Jerks Racing and Training - 2023
Cobra Commander Keen
Here's a fun topic for debate. Would you rather live in an area with frequent severe storms/tornadoes, an area which gets impacted by a hurricane once per year, or an area which has to deal with wildfires every year? I guess the area with hurricanes at least means you live near the beach... We had a supercell storm Sunday night which didn't have any tornado but sure unleashed hell on our neighborhood for an hour. We didn't have any damage but this house 8 doors down from us got literally cut in half by a massive tree. The old lady living there cannot get up the stairs so she was sleeping downstairs when it happened. This was the worst example but there were multiple houses within a short walk which had major damage from a tree falling on them. We lost power for 24 hours and had a ton of tree debris to clean up but we were lucky.
Here's a fun topic for debate. Would you rather live in an area with frequent severe storms/tornadoes, an area which gets impacted by a hurricane once per year, or an area which has to deal with wildfires every year? I guess the area with hurricanes at least means you live near the beach...
We had a supercell storm Sunday night which didn't have any tornado but sure unleashed hell on our neighborhood for an hour. We didn't have any damage but this house 8 doors down from us got literally cut in half by a massive tree. The old lady living there cannot get up the stairs so she was sleeping downstairs when it happened. This was the worst example but there were multiple houses within a short walk which had major damage from a tree falling on them. We lost power for 24 hours and had a ton of tree debris to clean up but we were lucky.
Despite having personally seen entire neighborhoods reduced to foundations with what looked like matchsticks strewn about when they were complete houses just an hour before, I'd still choose here over some place with wildfires or hurricanes.
Clarifying this: Fires and hurricanes can both have days or more worth of warning (compared to at most 15 minutes for a tornado), but they cover such huge swaths of territory compared to a tornado. Even a massive "you'll never see another like this in your lifetime" tornado is "only" a mile wide.
Getting away from a fire or hurricane requires evacuating the entire area - possibly needing to go hundreds of miles. To hide from a tornado I go to the shelter in my garage.
Flavio - Their sizing has been (with one odd exception) spot on for me. They have a good exchange/return policy, though. I kinda opted against the hyper-fast start, partially because it kinda scared me. I figured I'd do better with a bit of a pack and a pacer. In retrospect, I was almost certainly wrong.
WCR - You've got a solid point about my splits being better than the reverse. I did chat with my coach some during a cool-down, and after October I think we're going to focus on 5k (and possibly faster) stuff for a good, long while. 5:10-15 would be a good target. If I ever do target a mile I'll be sure to try picking up a pair of spikes beforehand.
5k: 17:58 11/22 │ 10k: 37:55 9/21 │ HM: 1:23:22 4/22 │ M: 2:56:05 12/22
Upcoming Races:
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Are we there, yet?
Unless you have money to burn or anticipate running a lot of track races, I don't think spikes are worth it. Even as many track races as I've run (300+), I found racing flats more than adequate at my level of competition.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K, 9:11:09 06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Mmmm Bop
Weather conditions are always pretty boring in the UK and we never have any real extreme conditions. But the MSM are trying to push the climate change narrative and always highlighting very hot or wet days. 🤡
Anyway, how is my buddy Milkman doing with the shockwave therapy? I’m really hoping you can join me and Cal at CIM 👍
5k - 17:53 (4/19) 10k - 37:53 (11/18) Half - 1:23:18 (4/19) Full - 2:50:43 (4/19)
Problem Child
AndyTN as my father said, ‘give me mountains, trees, and water.’ I have never been really impressed by beaches. Even Lake Tahoe which is in the mountains. I will gladly welcome hazardous air quality capable of ruining my running and providing life altering modifications to my breathing ability over hurricanes and beaches. Fuck that humidity bullshit. It can fuck RIGHT the fuck off. Proper.
My dad lives in Las Vegas and enjoys going to Hawaii. Go figure.
flavio upf FIFTY?!!?! Wow. That is maybe high enough for my wife to say it is safe. I have just the right amount of white trash in me to go outside without sunscreen and not get burned TOO BAD on my adventures. I DID actually put some on about 30 miles into my 50 miler last year. I’m a SPF 30 type of guy. Best part about the shirts is no oily hands.
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
Keen that mile race will have taught you alot. I'm sure you can go faster. This coming from someone who has never raced a mile....
Mikkey I think the UK is almost a perfect running climate. Fairly cool most of the time.
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 "
I’m a wimp and I’m only ever up for running outside if conditions are reasonable or perfect.
All my training that got me sub 3 marathons were roughly 40%/ treadmill and 60% road/trail. 🤷♂️
Keen - nice work on the mile! Sounds like a lot of fun.
Weather - when I used to play field hockey, the only reasons we would ever leave the field were thunderstorms (because 22 people running around an open field holding pieces of carbon fibre is not especially safe when there is lightning around), and flooding (which took pretty heavy rain as the turfs were artificial and designed to drain very quickly).
Probably that carried over to running for me, because in a moderate climate like we have in Auckland IMO the only reason for using a treadmill is if you have kids you can't leave unsupervised or if you have actual safety concerns e.g. a female solo runner after dark. After all, you never know what weather you're gonna get on race day.
Beyond that, in more extreme climates I get why people would use treadmills to avoid ice, wildfire smoke, blizzards, and extreme humidity. But for the most part, getting out in the fresh air is one of the best things about running.
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: Runway5 / National 5k Champs, 16:22, National Masters AG Champ!
Up next: Still working on that...
"CONSISTENCY IS KING"
I think somebody won a Moose Mug with a lot of treadmill runs.
Do you watch videos of yourself running that race while on the treadmill? Or have the original tapes deteriorated due to their age?
LOL. Showing your true colours now. 👍
I thought we were in favour of a bit of humour on this thread?
Not an 80%er
Keen - the mile is the one race where you can go out guns blazing, in fact if you watch one of these races you will see they all sprint out of the line the first 100m or so and then settle onto a more sustainable pace from there on. That said, you are absolutely right that it's better to negative split it, last year I've run that 1500m race and went out in 57 seconds for the first 300 and then paid for it.
Mark - 😂 your trolling game is top notch of late 👏 I'm not sure I ever mentioned this, but it's quite interesting to have people as fast as you, Darkwave and Jmac on this thread and see that you go through the same kinds of taper madness and worries as us sloths 🦥 , you just run faster. And even though you're much faster, there's a ton of people who are much faster than you, so maybe you don't feel fast at all.
RP - I swear I got zero natural protection from the sun, it's incredible to see everybody else just chilling in the sun and I'm burning hot and can't open my eyes properly cause it's too bright. 20 minutes uncovered during peak summer sun and I'll pay for it for hours on end later, feeling extra tired and will probably be red like a shrimp the next day. I guess I just lack those mediterranean genes 😁 Maybe I should go live in Svalbard 😂
Thankfully I found a hat that protects my head well, one of those peaky blinder (the tv show) hats.
PRs: 1500 4:54.1 2019 - 5K 17:53 2023 - 10K 37:55 2023 - HM 1:21:59 2021
Up next: some 800m race (or time trials)
Tool to generate Strava weekly
Absolutely! I’ll always admit that I’m a cunt when it comes to humour and I’m glad you’re the same!
Keep it coming. 👍
Complete with the razor blades?
Dave
I can count on one hand the number of TM runs I've done in the past couple years. For me it's unsafe temps (sub-0, -17c) or ice. Luckily the last couple winters have been favorable. I find it annoying that the ones at the gym turn themselves off when they decide you've done enough. I decide when I'm done not some machine!!!
I've been enjoying the rain/drizzle this summer quite a bit. Funny how in the fall/winter/spring rain SUCKS but in the summer I'm actually psyched when it comes down.
On the spf- My "farmers tan" is glorious right about now. When I take off my shirt it looks like I'm still wearing a white t-shirt
MMikey- will you and Cal be submitting samples for ped testing prior to the race? All of that treadmill training has me wondering
5K 18:36 (2023), 10K 39:40 (2022), 1/2 1:24:37 (2023), full 2:58:36 (2015)