Marathon Maniac #957
Good Morning!
I got an e-mail from Timbo, who said that, while he is able to read RA, he is unable to post, due to his Webtv issues. Anyway, he wanted to say hello. If anyone wants to send him an e-mail, his address is biketm42 at webtv dot net.
5.3 miles outside in 37° and 20-30mph winds. Wind adds a whole new ingredient to the “how shall I dress” dilemma, but I got it pretty close today. Afterward I stripped down and hopped on the TM for these intervals:
(2 min. @ 8:20/1 min. @ 10:00/1 min. @ 7:30/1 min. @ 10:00) x 6
9 miles total.
What a joy it was to be able to go home and stay home after work last night. I baked cookies for DD's class and then watched Part I of the season finale of Monk, which I DVRed last week. Part II tonight. Shhh, don't tell me how it ends.
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
I've always been astounded that many of you can run in wintry conditions. I now have an even better appreciation of what you have to go through to stay on plan.
Suffice it to say I did not "Erika-up" with 2 feet of snow on the ground and a fair amount on the roads. Some of the roads were "possible". But the thought of running up and down those big hills with any snow on them was scary to me.
Instead I cross trained by shoveling snow and making a snowman with the grand kids. I don't think any of that canceled out the dozens of Christmas cookies I downed. (DD2 is a great cook)
So I did not run at all for three days. A record of sorts for the last 4.5 years I think. Today I ran 5 miles at an easy 9:15 not knowing what my legs would feel like. Tomorrow will tell for sure.
Bill
"Some are the strong, silent type. You can't put your finger on exactly what it is they bring to the table until you run without them and then you realize that their steadiness fills a hole that leaks energy in their absence." - Kristin Armstrong
Morning Holly and the rest of the gang to follow!
Holly - what time is dinner served?? Glad you had a nice evening at home.
SteveP - sorry you are going through this with your FIL. In my experiences I learned that no elderly person should be left in the hospital without some kind of advocate. The staff just doesn't pay enough quality attention to the hospitalized elderly.
dg - I'm right up there with you at 195.
It was a balmy 41 at home this morning, but I still wimped out. 6 miles on the TM @ 10:14 and 148 AHR.
Anybody see the video of the octopus putting two halves of a coconut shell together to use as a hiding place?? It was on the news this morning..... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_sc/as_australia_coconut_octopus
Sue Running is a mental sport...and we're all insane! Anonymous
Good morning good people. It's 13° with winds 20-25mph and the temps are headed down below zero tonight. Just the way I like it.
Holly - you'll like the season finale of Monk. I grew up with the Shalhoub boys - went to school with them and their 10 kids were good friends with our 6 kids. It was a great way to end a great show, but you'll have to watch it to find out. Nice workout this morning, and it sounds like you had a nice evening at home last night.
Hi Tim! Watcha training for lately?
Welcome back Bill! It doesn't sound like you're ready to move to the midwest any time soon. Glad you had a good time with your DD and grandkids.
Sue - saw that video on the internet this morning. That was pretty incredible.
Like Sue, I wimped out and did a dreadmill run at the Y again this morning. With a half marathon coming up next month, I don't want to make my foot problems any worse. 7 mile progression run starting with 10:00 miles ending up at 8:27. Then 5 minutes of Mary's famous inclined lunges and core work. I tried tying my left shoe as Perch suggested and that seemed to help. I'm also heading to my local running store after work to get a half size bigger shoe to see if that helps. How much do y'all add to your running shoe sizes? I wear a 7 1/2 street shoe and was wearing a size 8 running shoe but I guess I'll have to go up to 8 1/2. It just seems like that extra half size makes everything off in the arch, heel and toe box areas. Does anyone have a suggestion?
Jlynne, good luck with your shoes. I can't really help much... though I think mine might have usually been a size up. but I've worn Free's for a while now, & it's kind of different.
Sue, we're just high achievers. ;-). Sorry, I missed your question about this book/ method yesterday. The book was written in 2006... i've had it for a couple of years, but never really had the patience to work through it before. This time, it seems to tie together some threads that have been floating free for a while. I'll still use some of the ideas in Matt Fitzgerald's book, along with Brad Hudson's, but I think this should help a lot too. His logic (Joe Friel) is that using MHR to determine training zones,.. even if you test it accurately & don't use a formula, doesn't always work because the same % won't produce the same physiological benefit for everyone. Says LT varies from 70 - 90% of max. (more or less). So even people with the same hr could have vastly different workouts at a given percentage. He has suggestions for determing your LT, then has charts which go up & down from that hr to determine your zones. Then shows their places in training goals, & also how they line up with PRE, which helps check if they're accurate.
I've been pretty unsettled since I had a conversation with this really wonderful woman runner in town, she said she changed her running entirely using the low heart rate training (MAF, no less!!) ... and so I kept wondering what I should do. I'd finally felt running was starting to go well and didn't want to go that route, but thought I should do some easier runs.
Bill... you helped me a lot here too, seeing how running slowly sometimes but not exclusively does work. This book helps me determine my zones.
better get back to work! I came in early... our alpha (dec server) will not boot today & that is not a happy thing. I did walk Sadie before I came in & plan on a maiden RAW voyage. We will see! I usually am so tired by then. but really really need to get in a decent run today.
mta... cool video Sue. thanks!
Holly, so happy you had an evening at home! I'm supposed to have that wind this afternoon, & the temps are going to drop. I hope I still end up outside, but will be prepared to shift to the gym. Nice run this morning!
SteveP, how is your MIL and FIL doing today? Good luck with the dogs.
Peerch, how is the knee treating you buddy?
still wondering what went wrong with fattozzig's massage yesterday.
hallar great news about the go ahead from your doc for a spring marathon....yeeepieeee.
Woodslady, that is so nice that you had coffee with my MIL. She is a lovely lady. Hey, way to go with your progress with that huge tree on your running path.
{{{{Harriet's knees}}}} How is the Christmas sewing and baking coming along?
Holly, you are my hero. It is amazing how well organized you are.
Running alone on the fresh snow...
the usual sounds of morning hid.
Hush! Can you hear it?
Just barely, if you listen with intent.
I love the sound snow makes,
when it falls on woods and lawn,
not yet quite dawn,
not even chirp of birds,
no intrusion of words,
just me, my thoughts and the falling snow,
no footprints but my own.
What delight,
when snowflakes light
upon the ground.
17F @ 5am.
1:45 minutes of blizz.
Time to bake some cookies and to finish decorating the Christmas tree.
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
deez, nice going in the Jingle Bell Run. Sounds like fun. spareribs, nice half. I like the way you did the first part easy to see how things were going and then picked up the last half for big negative splits. I hope your calf doesn't think you did too much. wild, I'm sorry your daughter was disappointed over Stanford. She'll get in someplace where she will do well. I've always been a believer in the quality of an education has more to do with what you put into it than what school you went to. There are losers who went to prestigius schools and winners who went to schools that no one has heard about. evan, congrats on your more miles than degrees and especially that your foot was fine. CNY, congrats on your 5 mi race with 1s in AG. mariposai, congrats on the new job. jlynne, I hope that toe is getting better. Tramps, good finish to your GP series. haller, that's great news from your doctor.
mariposai, the other day you asked about my mother. She's 88 and, for the last 4 years has lived in a wonderful retirement apartment building where they supply meals and housekeeping. Even though she's been slipping a little, both physically and mentally, she seems to be coping well where she is. It's always nice to see her.
Nice long runs for fatozzig and sue (16 on the TM - wow). Good job on the speedwork for holly.
This morning, it was about 30, there was some wind, and the roads had areas of hard packed snow and others with a little ice, but it didn't seem slippery. There was not even a glimmer of sproink. I did 8 miles in about 1:22:40 for a 10:20 pace. A few hours later, when I drove into town for the paper, it was definitely slippery in a lot of spots.
A good day and good runs for all.
TomS
Carolyn
I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.
Mari - She was just really rough, vigorous. One of the weirdest massages I have ever had. She never, say, found a knot and then spent time working on it,. trying to kneed it away. It was a very vigorous meat tenderizing as opposed to a gentle one. I can take lots of pressure from a really good deep tissue massage, so that's not a problem. I have often use the cats little hard rubber toy balls up against the wall and really push into those. I'm just more into the slow deep pressure on the muscles as opposed to a constant vigorous approach manhandling. (Have I said "vigorous" too much?) And to top it off, she made my stiff neck worse. I know, boo hoo. Hopefully it's better by tomorrow.
Garmin crapped out on me this morning (even though when it said it was fully charged ), so I got in somewhere around 25+ min of cycling. Could've gone ahead and guessed on the rest of the time, but why push my brain that early in the morning? Then did approx 30 mins with my new TRX suspension training system. Wow! It's amazing how much more you work your core when you have to balance like it has you doing. I can't explain very well how it works, but if you're interested, you can check it out here.
The moves that really got me (besides all of them!) were for the triceps and any that had my feet in the straps and I was having to support myself with my forearms on the ground. I can't do anything where I support myself with my hands (like pushups) because of carpal tunnel-like issues, but even with my forearms on the ground, I could tell that my core, despite what I've been doing, is not very strong. I think this training system is going to surpass my weights and most definitely the Bowflex. I was able to do 2 sets of 10 the exercises I've been given, with the exception of the triceps moves. Those babies are weaker than I thought. Boo hoo!
Leslie Living and Running Behind the Redwood Curtain -------------
Trail Runner Nation
Sally McCrae-Choose Strong
Bare Performance
I am waiting in the Philly airport now for my connecting (delayed) flight to Dayton. I am looking forward to a mellow run with Holly tomorrow morning! I'll get there Holly if I have to walk!
Ran 8 miles today at 7 am---warmish as Marj and henrun know with the next arctic blast on the way. We still have plenty of snow in Western, MA and it ices over at night. I wore my Nike Storms (hi dg---I think you asked about my gription shoes as I call them). They have goretex uppers and awesome treads. Anyway----ran to Hospital Hill and did 6 hard hill repeats---up and overs---and then ran home with mailbox to mailbox strides in the last miles. Tired now, but happy with the workout.
The core work pays off on hills for sure.
Nice running tselbs---you are so good to all of us and I always love your summaries. Thank you.
Mariposai! Great news on the job front and thanks for the poetic prose
6 miles the first 3 into an 18-20 MPH 24 degree ice pellet type snowy wind. The last 3 with the wind at my back warm and pretty snow flakes all around. Its all good! 8:50 ish pace on very un-sproinky legs. I hope tomorrows intervals have better legs to work with. I may have to do them inside if the track is as icy as the roads are tonight.
Bill, Mustang Sally, Steve and ?????
I signed up For Bayshore last night so I guess I will be seeing you all there . Its gonna be a long winter in between though.
FWIW,
I always get a 1/2 size bigger and wider shoe for running than my street shoes. I was thinking of going up a full size because last training cycle after 15 miles or so my 3rd toe in was going numb. I am in the same shoe and this is a new thing but by the end of the 20 milers my toes where pretty cramed up in the toe box. I worry about heal slippage with to large a shoe though.
Chumbawamba: I get knocked down But I get up again You're never going to keep me down
The rain gauge spilling over
The wind howling
The treadmill calling
Yay Larry for signing up for Bayshore! Mustang Sally is doing that one?
I wear 10's for most of my shoes, and I was wearing 10.5 for running shoes (a VERY hard size to find), but now I'm in 11's and much happier.
23 minutes on the elliptical (2.5 miles) and about 25 minutes of weights. Got distracted talking to my friend who showed up just as I was getting done, so lost track of time. Oops. Will try a short run on the treadmill tonight.