Runs in the rain
There was also James Fixx, author of "The Complete Book Of Running" who died of a heart attack during his daily run. He was genetically predisposed and was formerly overweight and a smoker before he took up running. His heart arteries were almost completely blocked. Debate is still on whether running prolonged or ended his life. Note that my father passed away of a heart condition at the age of 57, so I have reason to be concerned. I do think that overall running does help and prolongs life.
Long distance runner, what you standin' there for?Get up, get out, get out of the door!
not bad for mile 25
Wow that is really sad about Kevin Clinefelter's sudden passing. I listened to a podcast episode (I think it was the RW podcast not long before they stopped producing them) that talked about the cardiac risks of running. For *most* of us the benefits of running outweigh the risk of being sedentary (leading to overweight, poor health, etc.). But some people have underlying conditions that only become evident after maximum exertion. Which is why we hear of runners collapsing at finish lines.
Yes, and in the back of our minds, don't we all wonder if maybe we have some underlying condition? Clinefelter had a ton of running experience. We never know.
His sister apparently is a local (my locale) woman.
Well on a lighter note...yes you should all try Pickleball! I've had 3 group lessons and I'm really having fun with it. When I tried tennis and racquetball in school decades ago, I was quite terrible. And so far I'm not great at pickleball. When we are doing drills I can hit the ball but the minute we go to free play I can't connect. Meanwhile it's good exercise (chasing the ball that got past me) and fun.
Led, yes the Revel races have a pretty big elevation drop. The one at Big Bear drops 5000 ft for the marathon and 3200 for the half (I'm doing the half). I know I get an assist from the elevation drop, but I not as much as I should because I think I put on the brakes too much. I need to do more downhill training.
NH, interesting tryke; I'll look forward to seeing yours. As far as my screen name goes...I must have been feeling positively Brilliant the day I came up with it.
Altair, I'm glad your run turned out OK and how nice that some good samaritans checked on you.
Got out the door at 7 am to beat the heat. My thermometer said 64 degrees, but I passed a bank that said 68 and my Garmin said 72. Anyway, it was cool, but very, very humid. Sky was overcast with like a uniform slate grey. The course had a 90 foot climb. My legs slightly sore from Tuesday, but did well, for me at this stage, finishing the 4.15 miles in 56 minutes. Despite the cool air I was uncomfortably sweaty when done because of the oppressive humidity. High Temperatures and humidity are predicted though the weekend and it should get cooler and drier next week. Must plan my runs wisely to not be overcome by the heat index.
Brilliant - That is a steep drop for those Revel races, like over 200 feet per mile! Running downhill can be more stressful than uphills and "putting on the brakes" can be very jarring. I suggest practicing to smoothly glide the downhill, it takes a quick cadance and if it gets too fast you may still have to use the "brakes", but can give a fast time if you can manage it!
I don't generally expect 83F at 6:00 am, but that's what I was dealing with this morning. Generated half a bucket of sweat. Yesterday, it was buckets of sweat at 76F, but that's because it was an intervals workout as opposed to an easy run. Peeling off the shirt afterward can be a challenge. (Why did I wear a shirt, come to think of it?)
Thursday, 5/18... decided to try back to back runs so ran 6 on the trail yesterday in oppressive heat and humidity and 5 today in cooler, drier air. Yesterday's run involved a half minute walk to start each mile as a way to deal with conditions.
Brilliant... hopefully there's a couple of pictures of the tryke to follow. The flag 'pole' is a repurposed fishing pole and the red flag, a piece of DW's less than favorite hand towel. Last year, the local rec. center director decided to try a 'fast' 5k race that involved a mile and a half downhill run before the course straightened, then went into a quick uphill climb. When I hit the climb after all that downhill running, my legs balked and I ended up having to walk. So much for a 'fast' time for me...Lol Hitting the ball like you're supposed to in pickleball drills, then unable hit it when play starts, sound like golf. Great shots on the driving range, but can't hit the fairway when play starts...Lol
Altair5... our weather's been tough for running lately, eh? It's why I decided on back to back runs yesterday and today, I'll ride the bike and tryke when things heat up this weekend.
Led... good deal on the interval workout, how often do you one? I think Altair5's got the answer for excess sweating after a run, our body keeps directing blood to the skin to help cool us down. I seem to recall runners sweating more than the average person as well, something to do with more sweat glands?
Led - If you got out any earlier you would be running in the dark! That's some heat wave, I imagine your temperatures will be killer by the afternoon.
Rich - I had thought your tryke was powered by hand cranks and would have one wheel in front and two at the back, but now I understand the design better. I'm just not sure how the steering functions. It's very colorful and light looking, although I don't see the bell. Your yard looks great with the rocks and decorations.
Rich - Your tryke looks fun and intriguing, and nicely made. Sort of an Elliptigo version of a rowing machine, perhaps. Do you steer with your feet? Sadly, the only upper body work I get is a few pushups each day. If I had easy access to a chin-up bar, I could at least make my biceps a bit less wimpy. A tryke would be a whole new realm.
I just started doing weekly intervals this June, after 11 years of, um, not doing intervals. Everyone says they are required for serious runners, so I'm now officially pretending to be serious. Not doing them on a track, but one of our trails has a nice straight 450m section with four fire hydrants spaced out pretty evenly. I'm doing 4 x 450 or 6 x 450, depending on how much time I have.
I'm kinda proud of my fire hydrant sweat glands. Funny, DW doesn't seem as thrilled!
Altair5 - The forecast is for 102 this afternoon, and the next couple of days. I kinda like it, at least for a while. Coming out of my air conditioned building, it's like a warm hug. Midsummer at 5:30 am, it's light enough, sunrise being around 6:00, but as the days get shorter, I'll be doing a lot of running in the dark. The quiet city is another thing I like.
There's a roadside farm market on my bike commute home. I stopped and bought tomatoes, a cantaloupe that smells amazing, and some ears of corn, so we had a very summery dinner of BLTs, corn on the cob, and melon. Yum!
A little more info on the tryke. It consists mostly of parts scavenged from a couple of kids' 20" bikes. You do steer it with your feet and I've stiffened the steering so it takes a little pressure to turn the thing. Otherwise, any little bump would tend to knock off course. When riding on the side of a highway you're sharing with semis, you really want control over when it's going to make a turn...Lol
A rowing motion is what propels it and I alternate between palms up and palms down when I row, each position works different arm, shoulder and back muscles. I can relate to Led's "only a few push-ups each day", that was me 'til I saw my first Irish Mail and thought, "I can make one of those using bicycle parts"! Lol
The only drawback is it doesn't climb well. I can wrestle it over a short, slight incline, but anything beyond that I get off and push. I tried to make it shift like a 10 speed bike, thinking it would help it climb, but it ended up a lot more difficult than I envisioned and I gave up on the idea.
It works really well as an upper body workout, fun to ride and some of the reactions I get from people who see me rowing it are hilarious.
So wonderful to read all the postings
Each one of us is dealing with the heat and/or humidity the best way we can.
Brilliant: I had to laugh about your DHs comment ........... one of my DHs favorite is when he tells others that he doesn't run but "if you see me running, you better start running too!" This was a small race and I love those too.......especially when it's out in 'nowhere' ........ they don't mind the 'roughing' of camping and being close to nature on the trails. The 7500+ elevation at the start didn't bother me since I live at that but I'm not sure what the gain/loss was, I'm guessing 500-1500. I'm 59......can't wait for 60 to be in the next AG, when I'll be kicking butt, LOL!! I've heard pickelball can be fun and as tense as you want it to be. I took tennis in college and seemed to do well but just didn't get into it. I played basketball, volleyball and some soccer ...... picked up snowboarding but I don't do any of those anymore, my knee won't survive the quick turns and torquing, ouch!
Altair: sad to hear of any runner who dies from heart/health related problems. I think about that alot. You just don't know nowadays with all the unhealthy foods out there. I agree that running and/or any consistent exercise can help to prolong life, keep some health issues at bay. Nice to hear that people stopped to make sure you were okay. The heat wave is certainly critical in many of the regions of the midwest and east coast and south. Glad you made it back and lucky you to just plunge into a pool to cool off. I was never an early morning runner, and yes, I HEAR about all the good reasons why........I just like to chill and drink coffee, embrace the early morning quiet (until DH gets up and turns on both TVs, ugh ). But I'm finding myself out on the trail around 5:30 now because it does get too hot after 9 am!
NH: forgot how colorful your tryke is.......and you gave it a name, didn't you? Glad the 2 runs back to back went well. And your "walking buddies" didn't get spooked this time, LOL!! Talking about heart attacks (and not to make light of the subject) but when another runner comes up behind me on some of these remote trails, my heart feels like it will stop. I'm so zoned out that I don't hear some of them, and very focused on my next step, and I don't listen to music at all when I run/race.
Led: I don't like intervals but I do them too. I tend to do the same as you do, finding an object, usually a tree stump or rocks along the trail. I have been doing more of the 20-40 seconds of them during some part of a mile. I rely on hills for my strength and stamina but I really need to work on my speed. I sweat buckets too but I read an article in a running magazines on how to train your body to cool itself more efficiently .......which I needed when I live/run in MN. Takes alot of patience. It has helped alot when I race.
I ran 4.2 miles on Sunday for my recovery run. Then my knee started to complain and my achilles got very achy from being on my feet on Monday morning in brand new shoes (regular). So lots of foam rolling and stretching and weights Mon, Tues.
Wed: short easy 3 miles.
Today: drove to mt eldon this morning at 5:30 am!! hiked/ran 6 miles, added 2 extra at the top on a different trail that connects to this hike (about 9300 ft), then another 2 miles on a different trail when I got back down. WHEW!! Feeling so much better.
Stay cool everyone!!
Hey folks, back from Boston. Had several days of running in real heat and humidity and it won't be missed. I don't mind heat but, man, adding humidity, well Altair and Rich, I'm glad you're still running. Actually ran with DW a couple of the days for first half of the run, been a while - it was a nice break. First day we did first 3 miles together and then I did almost 5 by myself at a slightly accelerated rate. 2nd run just by myself the next morning and didn't have much energy. 3rd day we went for morning run and it was just ick. Barely did over 5 miles and the entire run was just a struggle.
Altair - we were in Boston to celebrate the 50th year anniversary of the internet/arpanet. One of the members of the "Internet Hall of Fame" is DW's former boss. She included my wife as one of the internet pioneers. DW and I worked at SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute) for close to 20 years. SRI was node 2 on the network. We were young "Pups" back when the network transitioned to TCP/IP. IIRC, the transitioned happened in March of 1983, but there had been an earlier attempt in the year that was a failure. Our boss at the time told us to roll back to arpanet standards if things didn't work again, but the second time was "hard" cut over and DARPA had decried there wouldn't be a roll back. Our boss didn't seem to understand that once everyone switched to the new protocol we wouldn't be able to talk to anyone and the network would still be down...Fortunately, things worked well enough the second time.
Brilliant - DW and I love Revel's series races! We both love running downhill and it is a special art. DS1 has run SF Marathon in under 3.5 hours, but he hasn't learned to run downhill. He's ran canyon city marathon (Mammoth replaced it) twice and both times were over 4 hours for him. DW and I used the Mt Lemmon Half to qualify for NY Marathon 2 years ago (only a 2000' drop). I try to keep a 90 degree angle to the slope and just keep turning the legs over w/o braking. Legs do much better that way, but I do think it takes a bit of practice. I like to use the "Dish" at Stanford to practice, but for Mt Lemmon used Black Mountain. There's a 5 mile up and then reversing it for 5 miles down. Some parts are a bit too steep and rocky, but a lot of it is similar to what Revel likes to do, except it is on trails.
Az - nice report and congrats on the AG win!!!
Rich - the Tryke looks pretty cool! Not sure what I imagined it looked like, but not that.
Led - Your heatwave with humidity, I bow down to you. I would probably have stopped running if I had to deal with that as much as you.
Art - I apologize I can't remember any more what I wanted to say. At least we don't have to deal with the humidity!
I'll have to post a picture later when I have time to figure things out...
Ray
Happy Friday Everyone!
Altair - I have had some rough long runs in heat. I'd get to mile 16 or whatever, and just have to stop several times in the last couple of miles to recover. I must have looked pretty bad the time a couple of people on bikes stopped to help and I waved them off, but they wouldn't go until I drank some of the water they offered. The kind lady said she didn't want to be reading about me in the paper the next day.
Ray - How cool, being in on the embryonic stages of the Internet (right around Apollo 11 time, too)! And how pure Arpanet was before they let all the riffraff like us in!
az2mn - Intervals themselves feel a bit painful, but afterward, for a whole day or so, I feel like I've done something that's making me stronger. Bonus: The intervals graphs are interesting to look at:
On my schedule for tomorrow morning is a 9 mile tempo run. Considering the low will again be around 80, my tempo may be something like adagio. I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, 7/19... 9 mile mtn bike trail ride today. I should be riding the tryke, but am sore from mowing the 1/2 acre field across the street from my place yesterday using a 70 year old sickle bar mower. The thing's a beast and a good reminder of what it must have been like putting in a vegetable garden in the 1950's when people were more inclined to can their own vegetables, etc. The machine's got multiple attachments for doing just that, as well as cut firewood, plow snow, put air in your tire and more.
Altair5... the bike bell has a quick release to enable the user to use it on different machines and why it wasn't on the tryke when I took the picture, it was on my bike. When I rode today, I came up behind 2 younger women, rung the bell and as usual, they didn't hear it. So I waited 'til I got a little closer, rung it again and they both reacted as if a bomb had gone off... One ran to the left, the other to the right as they both turned to see what was making all the racket. I bought the bell as a way to stop scaring people, but it just ain't workin'... We all had a good laugh, but there's got to be a better way. And speaking of decorations in my yard, in the upper picture there's a green frog out by the road that weighs 70 pounds. It's something my brother molded using cement and the pelican was made using the same process. The owl's supposed to be guarding the vegetable garden, but gets ignored by everyone...Lol
Az... I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember the name of the runner here who named the tryke, or the name she gave it. She was a nurse dealing with Sciatica that apparently stopped her from running, you actually traveled to cheer her on in a race. I miss her as a member here. And yeah, it's easy enough to get caught up in your own world enough to be startled by someone coming up behind you, an opportunity to clear your mind is one of the benefits we have as runners, eh?...Lol I've been foam rolling, my legs were so knotted from the lay-off it's unbelievable...
Ray... I was going to offer to let you take the humidity back to California with you, but no dice, eh? Lol And lest you forget, we'll also get to run in the snow before long...Lol Anyway, time spent running with DW must be fun, even if the weather didn't cooperate. I love the internet BTW, what a great source for knowledge and for shopping, just for starters...
Led... you remind of the kind of training I used to do, weekly tempo runs, long runs, I had courses to run with lots of hills, weekly speed sessions that included VO2Max workouts, etc. Anyway, keep up the good work, you're obviously in great shape...
I said I would report on my tempo run this morning. I got up at 6:00, ran my dog for a mile (that's about all she's good for), and managed to start my run before 7:00. It was indeed 80F and muggy, but it wasn't too bad. The course I chose has four drinking fountains along it, which helped. I even managed to maintain close to my goal pace.
I'm flirting with an idea being promoted by a random person on the Internet, which is that for marathon training, you're better off not doing the brutal slow, long runs each week. She says nine milers at marathon pace will get you in shape, and avoid the accumulated fatigue that comes with those three-hour runs. I'm not ready to adopt her method in toto, but thought I'd see how I feel after one of these runs. Conclusion so far: I sure don't feel as wasted as I would had I done 16 miles today. I might end up alternating weeks on long runs with these half-distance tempo runs.
Sunday, 7/21... passed on a workout yesterday, temp was 96 and heat index 101. Got out early today and ran 5 on the trail, but Art's "Too hot to trot" was spot on for today's weather, but happy to get this one in just the same...
Led... that's an interesting concept, doing 9 mile runs at marathon pace and forego the 3 hour slog. I recall doing long runs where you pick it up to marathon pace late in the run, but still ran the full distance. It'll be interesting to see how you fare even with a modified training schedule, when is your marathon?