The Running Thread - 2019

[flav]

November totals
Distance: 183km (114 miles)
Average pace: 6’22”/km (10min/mile)

My longest distance ran in a month ever, which is where I want to be for Dopey training. I am proud of myself, especially given the early snow this year.

 

[xjillianpaige]

I sometimes have a bit exzema in winter if I am stressed and sweat in a rough fabric. Do you get itchy only on spots with a different fabric, like wool? It could be that the skin is dryer in winter due to heating. Or wool allergies. I know some people are allergic to cold as well. Good luck figuring it out.

It's always my thighs, stomach and lower back that get itchy. I definitely get dry in the winter, but I also wonder if this is some sort of combination of body temp vs. outside temp vs. clothing temp vs. where clothing moves (although my leggings are tight, so they don't move much...)

once I got into the run it was better, then I was sooo itchy in the car driving home, which makes me thing it's some sort of weird temperature change thing.

 

[RunDopey]

After getting released by my doctor, I had my best running month since May and also back on the bike. Still having a few issues and they were confirmed in a massage this evening. Grateful to be recovering and to be able to train for Dopey.

Run Bike
Nov 140 99
Oct 0 0
Sep 33 237
Aug 67 264
Jul 23 207
Jun 10 202
May 152 0
Apr 195 0
Mar 215 0
Feb 177 0
Jan 251 0

 

[garneska]

@camaker i know this is late and you might not see it till you are done, but good luck today. I hope that hamstring stays loose and you hit your goal.

 

[sky13]

I think I might have just found my perfect pair of running earphones!

Decided to try out the AirPods Pro. I was hesitating a lot because of the price, especially since I had the AirPods 2, but Apple started doing their holiday return policy which meant I have until January 8 to return them if I didn't like them so decided to try them out.

For reference, over the last few years I have tried out these bluetooth earphones for running:

BeatsX - horrible to run in due to the long cord connecting the two sides, sound quality OK and decent noise insulation. Used these mainly for commuting rather than running.

Plantronics BackBeat Fit - these were my go to running earphones for over 3 years, until they stopped being able to hold a decent charge and I noticed some rusting on a part where the coating had come off. Loved the secure fit, they were fairly comfortable to run in, and let in quite a bit of outdoor noise so was safe to run outdoors with. Downside was that they were terrible to run with in the gym as they didn't block out any ambient noise at all, so I could barely hear my music/videos if someone else in the gym was blasting music through the sound system.

AirPods 2 - got these earlier this year after both my BeatsX and BackBeat Fit died. Connectivity is great for me as I run with my iPhone. However these do not stay in my ears while running, so I had to get ear hooks to keep a secure fit while running - these actually work fairly well since I managed to run a half marathon in them last month without them falling out. They let in a lot of ambient noise, so like the BackBeat Fit, were safe to run with outdoors but terrible to run with in the gym.

Got the AirPods Pro a week or so ago and finally over this weekend managed to do a couple of longer runs with them (10k outdoors yesterday, and 8k on the treadmill in the gym today). They stayed put in my ears throughout the whole run, and never felt like they were slipping out.

I did my outdoors run yesterday mostly with transparency mode on (which lets in all ambient noise as if I wasn't wearing any earphones at all), but could turn on noise cancellation at "safe" parts of my route (this is well inside a park, only a few other walkers/joggers around on very wide footpaths, so nothing much to look out for while running) and actually listen to my music. Then switch back to transparency mode easily once I was in an area that required me to be more aware of my surroundings.

Today I did 8k on the treadmill in the gym, with noise cancellation on. This almost completely took away the droning noise of the treadmill. And took away most of the background gym noise too. It was amazing, I could actually properly listen to my stuff without having to turn it way up so I could hear it over the background gym noise!

So far for me they basically have all the pros of my previous earphones without any of the cons and I'm loving running with these now. Not to mention that they work really well for my commute too.

Will add though that I've never tried out the Aftershokz earphones (they were also on my to try list)... though I suspect given the lack of noise isolation that Aftershokz might be better for outdoor than indoor running?

 

[MissLiss279]

I think I might have just found my perfect pair of running earphones!

Decided to try out the AirPods Pro. I was hesitating a lot because of the price, especially since I had the AirPods 2, but Apple started doing their holiday return policy which meant I have until January 8 to return them if I didn't like them so decided to try them out.

For reference, over the last few years I have tried out these bluetooth earphones for running:

BeatsX - horrible to run in due to the long cord connecting the two sides, sound quality OK and decent noise insulation. Used these mainly for commuting rather than running.

Plantronics BackBeat Fit - these were my go to running earphones for over 3 years, until they stopped being able to hold a decent charge and I noticed some rusting on a part where the coating had come off. Loved the secure fit, they were fairly comfortable to run in, and let in quite a bit of outdoor noise so was safe to run outdoors with. Downside was that they were terrible to run with in the gym as they didn't block out any ambient noise at all, so I could barely hear my music/videos if someone else in the gym was blasting music through the sound system.

AirPods 2 - got these earlier this year after both my BeatsX and BackBeat Fit died. Connectivity is great for me as I run with my iPhone. However these do not stay in my ears while running, so I had to get ear hooks to keep a secure fit while running - these actually work fairly well since I managed to run a half marathon in them last month without them falling out. They let in a lot of ambient noise, so like the BackBeat Fit, were safe to run with outdoors but terrible to run with in the gym.

Got the AirPods Pro a week or so ago and finally over this weekend managed to do a couple of longer runs with them (10k outdoors yesterday, and 8k on the treadmill in the gym today). They stayed put in my ears throughout the whole run, and never felt like they were slipping out.

I did my outdoors run yesterday mostly with transparency mode on (which lets in all ambient noise as if I wasn't wearing any earphones at all), but could turn on noise cancellation at "safe" parts of my route (this is well inside a park, only a few other walkers/joggers around on very wide footpaths, so nothing much to look out for while running) and actually listen to my music. Then switch back to transparency mode easily once I was in an area that required me to be more aware of my surroundings.

Today I did 8k on the treadmill in the gym, with noise cancellation on. This almost completely took away the droning noise of the treadmill. And took away most of the background gym noise too. It was amazing, I could actually properly listen to my stuff without having to turn it way up so I could hear it over the background gym noise!

So far for me they basically have all the pros of my previous earphones without any of the cons and I'm loving running with these now. Not to mention that they work really well for my commute too.

Will add though that I've never tried out the Aftershokz earphones (they were also on my to try list)... though I suspect given the lack of noise isolation that Aftershokz might be better for outdoor than indoor running?

For me for the Aftershokz, I put in the foam earplugs for the indoor track or treadmill or the airplane, and they work well that way for blocking out ambient noise.

 

[DopeyBadger]

November Training Summary

Running duration = 18:21 hours
Running mileage = 136.9 miles
Average Pace = 8:03 min/mile (about 23% slower than estimated LT pace)
Average HR = 135 (70.4% HRR)
Indoor Cycling duration = 35:15 hours *PR
Indoor Cycling mileage = 544.1 miles
Indoor Cycling average power = 172 watts (65.6% FTP)
Indoor Cycling average Normalized Power = 184 watts (70% FTP)
80 Day Obsession = 11:04 hours
Total Training Time = 64:41 hours *PR

November was another good month. Ran a fitness test HM in the early part and came away with a 2 min PR of 1:28:40. On Thanksgiving, I had one of those runner high euphoric runs where it felt like I could do no wrong. I was able to maintain a grade adjusted pace of 6:35 at historical marathon HR and this came after a 135 min cycling activity earlier that morning. Hit a new PR in terms of time spent on the indoor bike trainer (35:15 hrs) and training overall (64:41 hrs). The training is adding up and my body is hanging in there. Seems like every day is a different little spot of concern. But nothing as of yet that has me overly concerned.

 

[cburnett11]

November Totals:

Total Miles - 165.49 mi
Total Time - 24:12:40
Average Pace - 8:47/mi
Avg HR - 126

Probably my best racing month in November. Early in the month I got my first BQ time at the Indy Monumental Marathon. On Thanksgiving, I somehow got caught up in my 10k Turkey Trot and ended up getting a 3+ minute PR. That was a big surprise because I didn't really intend to race it, but I started a little fast and just decided to see how long I could hold on.

 

[camaker]

Race Report - Marathon Space Coast

I write this race report with mixed emotions. The plan was for this to be my redemption marathon after a disappointing Chicago Marathon last year. My training was on point and it looked like I was on track for an easy PR and a sub-4:00 shot until I started having recurring issues with my hamstring about 3 weeks ago. I’ve documented those struggles so I won’t rehash them again here. Suffice to say I thought I was past them going into the race.

I’ll start the race specific details by saying this is an incredibly well run and consistently well themed race. The Expo was relatively small, but well organized and streamlined. There was a lot of high quality race specific merchandise in addition to the vendors’ more generic offerings. The buses from the host hotels to the race start were prompt and got the job done. It was nice not to have to worry about early morning parking in a strange place.

Race day came with the first hint of issues with a 65deg and humid start temp with temps projected to rise into the 80s. A variable breeze helped, though. We started and it was immediately obvious that 3 weeks of fighting the hamstring had taken some of the stuffing out of my legs. Sub-4:00 wasn’t in the cards. No matter, everything else felt good and I was running in the mid-9:00s/mile. Until mile 3(!) when the hamstring grabbed again. I was able to keep it down to a dull roar by dropping my pace into the mid-10:00s. I considered dropping, but unless it got significantly worse, I’m way too stubborn to quit, even for my own good.

Around mile 6-7, the discomfort eased off a bit though (I didn’t say it went away) and I felt confident enough to push my pacing back down into the 9:45-10:00 range and set about cruising along there. The sun came up and it started getting less and less comfortable during this period, which lasted until about mile 16 when the hamstring reasserted its displeasure. Back into the mid-10:00s I went until about mile 21.

That was decision time. It was obvious that a PR was off the table with the second grab and the heat and humidity were taking a toll. With no realistic chance of putting up a top 2 marathon time for myself and no real worry about dropping all the way to my 4th best time, I elected to shut it down and run/walk it in so that I could hopefully live to fight another day at Dopey in 6 weeks. I cruised to a 4:37:08 finish.

Oddly, I’m frustrated with the hamstring, obviously, but not all that disappointed with my performance in the marathon. I have to run the marathon the conditions allow and not get caught up in the ideal marathon that I wanted to run. With the hamstring, heat and humidity, I feel like I did as well as I could without worsening the injury, so I’m ok with that.

Thanks for reading another long race report!

Afterthoughts
DD21 ran the race with me again as redemption for her ankle injury-limited 1st marathon at WDW this year. Unfortunately, she waits tables and her holiday hour blitz left her with an iffy back. When we passed in the 1st half, I could tell she was slowing. When we passed in the 2nd half she told me she’d been in a medical tent for 30 minutes trying to loosen her back up. She ended up having to walk the last 6 miles in the heat. It was a tough 6:10 finish for her, but she finished! I guess stubborn runs in the family.

I missed seeing @avondale at the start. I hope her race went better than ours!

Kennedy Space Center was awesome. Definitely recommend it for anyone who hasn’t been yet.

The race bling was huge! It came with its own stand!

 

[Sleepy425]

November
51.51 miles
11:49 average pace

Jingle Bell Run
I did a 5k with the whole family today. It was a great course (despite the 26 degree weather) because it was along a boardwalk - no need to worry about traffic so I told all the kids to just go at whatever pace they wanted and find an adult they recognized if there was an issue. My 9 year old surprised me and did it in about 30 minutes (I’m regretting cheaping out and opting for the non-timed option for the kids). We think my 7 year old hid and people watched for a while (he’s an odd one), because my sister saw him jump out from behind a planter and join my husband at one point. He had been keeping up with the 9 year old, so I have no idea how long he was behind there. One 6 year old decided to bail with my sister after 2.5 miles. The other finished with my husband in 40 minutes.
I had my best 5k race time ever. Which is impressive considering I had to leave the course and take a detour to find a bathroom. Without that detour I think I would have finally gotten the under 30 min 5k I’ve been trying for.

 

[Novatrix]

Oddly, I’m frustrated with the hamstring, obviously, but not all that disappointed with my performance in the marathon. I have to run the marathon the conditions allow and not get caught up in the ideal marathon that I wanted to run. With the hamstring, heat and humidity, I feel like I did as well as I could without worsening the injury, so I’m ok with that.

Good for you for pulling through! It was miserable out there today, especially the back half of the southeast section which in the Florida sun has neither enough shade or enough water stops. At least you were feeling better than the poor fellow who was howling his head off just before mile 20! (I came in behind you at 4:44.)

 

[avondale]

Race Report - Marathon Space Coast

I write this race report with mixed emotions. The plan was for this to be my redemption marathon after a disappointing Chicago Marathon last year. My training was on point and it looked like I was on track for an easy PR and a sub-4:00 shot until I started having recurring issues with my hamstring about 3 weeks ago. I’ve documented those struggles so I won’t rehash them again here. Suffice to say I thought I was past them going into the race.

I’ll start the race specific details by saying this is an incredibly well run and consistently well themed race. The Expo was relatively small, but well organized and streamlined. There was a lot of high quality race specific merchandise in addition to the vendors’ more generic offerings. The buses from the host hotels to the race start were prompt and got the job done. It was nice not to have to worry about early morning parking in a strange place.

Race day came with the first hint of issues with a 65deg and humid start temp with temps projected to rise into the 80s. A variable breeze helped, though. We started and it was immediately obvious that 3 weeks of fighting the hamstring had taken some of the stuffing out of my legs. Sub-4:00 wasn’t in the cards. No matter, everything else felt good and I was running in the mid-9:00s/mile. Until mile 3(!) when the hamstring grabbed again. I was able to keep it down to a dull roar by dropping my pace into the mid-10:00s. I considered dropping, but unless it got significantly worse, I’m way too stubborn to quit, even for my own good.

Around mile 6-7, the discomfort eased off a bit though (I didn’t say it went away) and I felt confident enough to push my pacing back down into the 9:45-10:00 range and set about cruising along there. The sun came up and it started getting less and less comfortable during this period, which lasted until about mile 16 when the hamstring reasserted its displeasure. Back into the mid-10:00s I went until about mile 21.

That was decision time. It was obvious that a PR was off the table with the second grab and the heat and humidity were taking a toll. With no realistic chance of putting up a top 2 marathon time for myself and no real worry about dropping all the way to my 4th best time, I elected to shut it down and run/walk it in so that I could hopefully live to fight another day at Dopey in 6 weeks. I cruised to a 4:37:08 finish.

Oddly, I’m frustrated with the hamstring, obviously, but not all that disappointed with my performance in the marathon. I have to run the marathon the conditions allow and not get caught up in the ideal marathon that I wanted to run. With the hamstring, heat and humidity, I feel like I did as well as I could without worsening the injury, so I’m ok with that.

Thanks for reading another long race report!

Afterthoughts
DD21 ran the race with me again as redemption for her ankle injury-limited 1st marathon at WDW this year. Unfortunately, she waits tables and her holiday hour blitz left her with an iffy back. When we passed in the 1st half, I could tell she was slowing. When we passed in the 2nd half she told me she’d been in a medical tent for 30 minutes trying to loosen her back up. She ended up having to walk the last 6 miles in the heat. It was a tough 6:10 finish for her, but she finished! I guess stubborn runs in the family.

I missed seeing @avondale at the start. I hope her race went better than ours!

Kennedy Space Center was awesome. Definitely recommend it for anyone who hasn’t been yet.

The race bling was huge! It came with its own stand!
View attachment 455901

@camaker - sorry to have missed you! Just sent a PM.

I'll be working on my race report shortly. Sadly, my report mirrors yours in many respects, although not due to injury. It was way too hot and sunny!

 

[camaker]

Good for you for pulling through! It was miserable out there today, especially the back half of the southeast section which in the Florida sun has neither enough shade or enough water stops. At least you were feeling better than the poor fellow who was howling his head off just before mile 20! (I came in behind you at 4:44.)

That section was certainly exposed and late in the run so the sun has had a chance to emerge in its full glory. The howler sounds like an interesting story. Maybe. Sorry I didn’t realize you were going to be out there. I’d have looked for you to say hello. Congratulations to you, as well, for getting the job done out there!

 

[avondale]

My Space Coast Marathon race report on my training blog - warning that it is long. The short story is that the heat and Sun crushed me in short order. This is my third marathon, and my chip time of 5:11:53 puts it solidly as my second-fastest. But since I was hoping for around 4:30, this was a disappointment. Trying to keep it in perspective. A post-race visit to Kennedy Space Center was a pick-me-up.

 

[ChattaDIS]

November Miles 93.1. Fell short of my monthly goal of 100 per month, mostly due to traveling for the holiday but I did manage to get a HM PR going under 2 hours for the first time in a long time. After the training and running for Chicago, I seem to be able to keep up better paces especially for the shorter runs.

Avg Pace: 8:51

If I can do a 120 mile month, it would put me at 1400 for the year which would be good. Got off to a good start today with 7 miles but with all this months activities, it could get hard. Will need to do some weekend long runs.

 

[CDKG]

September Miles: 92.0
Average Pace: 11:26/mile

October Miles: 128.5
Average Pace: 11:49/mile

November Miles: 145.1
Average Pace: 11:37/mile

2019 Miles: 1,042.7

I got behind on the running thread and missed posting my September and October miles. I figured it was best to wait until my November running was done before posting, versus posting off topic in the middle of the month. Outside of a 10k, September mainly consisted of marathon training.

October began with more marathon training and ended with a trip to WDW for Wine & Dine. It was an amazing trip and just made me more excited for marathon “weekend”!!!

November consisted of some serious miles and...more marathon training! On Thanksgiving I participated in my local Turkey Trot 5k. It was the shortest run I have done in a long time! It was a cold and clear morning (my Garmin says 37, but I’m pretty sure it was colder at the start). Overall it felt good!

December will consist of two 20-milers with a Christmas themed half marathon in between. I can’t believe 2019 is almost over and Marathon Weekend is just around the corner!

 

[Waiting2goback]

Looks like everyone had a really good month of November. That’s great!

I took a step backwards unfortunately. My October mileage was 64.2. Last month I declined:

45.7
4 lbs lost


I started off the month great. Then I got sick and missed a couple of runs from that. Then I missed a run because of my hot water heater issue I mentioned before. I was trying to make up some mileage at the end of the month so I decided since everything was feeling so good I might as well finally try back to back runs. I did two days of running in a row and felt great after the second day. I was so excited. When it came time to run on Friday, after my day off on Thanksgiving, I got the pain in my ankle that sidelined me most of this year. I took Friday off and ran yesterday. I made it 4 miles and then the pain came back. I had to walk the last mile.

I was hoping to be around 75 miles for November and then make it to around 90 for December. Looks like I am back to taking it slow. Curious to see what happens on Tuesday, which is my next scheduled run.

I’m slightly jealous of all you running the marathon next month. I see the mileage totals there for the training and I am wishing I could run that much and that I was doing the race with you all.

 

[DerTobi75]

November Distance: 138.5 Miles
November Time: 25:11 Hours
November Pace: 10:51 Minutes

Being on the metric system, this month was my second month running more the 200km this year! Which is not bad for me and draws a little bit of attention. A lot of my Strava & Garmin friends have been asking, why I am running so much. Had to tell and explain them the Dopey Challenge. Most of them could not imagine doing the Challenge and thought, it would be crazy and not healthy

Anyways, I by myself cannot believe to run 4 races next January But feeling strong and looking forward for another peak month in training.

 

[AntimonyER]

First, the good:

November Totals:
Distance: 212.99mi
Pace = 7:52/mi avg

Best mileage ever, and a great pace as well.

And a Race Report:

Chase the Turkey 5K

Thanksgiving morning dawned with perfect weather for running, clear blue skies and temps in the upper 40s. My wife and daughter came with me, with my daughter running this race as her baseline run (she hasn't trained at all over the summer/fall), and my wife deciding the morning of to participate as well. The race is run in my usual training run park, so it can be called my true home field race. Picked up my race swag (TWO t-shirts and a bag of sports beans), and after a short warm up run, lined up for the start.

The route for the race is a 2 mile loop around the whole park with an extra out and back to complete the 3.1 miles. The race starts at the main intersection in the park, and the first 1/4 mile is downhill, great for getting a good start. I started off near the front, with nothing but teenagers in front of me by the bottom of the hill. The next 1/4 mile is up hill, with the first 2/3rds of that gradual, but a steep hill marks the end of the first half mile (you have to do this hill twice, it also marks the turnaround point for the out and back to finish the race). By the top of the hill, I had caught 3 of the eight teenagers who were ahead of me, and felt great. The next 1.5 miles I was just cruising, felt really good, just kind of pacing the group of teenage cross country boys at the front about 100 yards back.

As we pass the start/finish line to end the loop and begin the out and back portion, I decided to see if I could push to catch any of the runners ahead of me, who were starting to string out. By the second time up the hill, I had caught and passed the first of the lead pack, and set my sights on the next runner. Once we were going downhill, the progress slowed a bit, and I pretty much paced him until the last 10th, where it begins to go back uphill. I decided now was the best chance, and kicked it up a notch, very pleased I had some left to give. I ALMOST caught him, but once he heard me he picked it up as well, and finished a yard ahead of me.

But thrilled with the result, I crossed the finish at 18:52, a new PR by 44 seconds! I finished 5th overall and 1st in my age group. Here is me with my fun turkey trophy:





And now the bad:

Saturday marked two weeks till my marathon, and 3 miles into my run, I stopped for a drink of water at a fountain, and when I stepped to take off again, sharp pain shot through the back of my lower right leg. I tried to stretch it out and continue, but it only got worse. I shut it down and limped the 3 miles back to my car. Two days later, and I am still feeling it in my calf, its very tight and tender. I am very upset and nervous, both for making the race at all, and for attempting my BQ (as I watch my fitness score drop each day I can't run).

 

[TheHamm]

I am literally on a 6.5 mile run right now but I had to ask... does anyone else get really itchy when they run in the cold? It’s in the 30s today but sunny. I remember being itchy during cold runs even in high school over 10 years ago.

I find this is true particularly of the front of my thighs and my lower back. Winter skin is pretty testy and the shock of moving into the wind or being covered in sweat is not helpful.

November
45 miles at an average of 13:15

My target for the month was to run wine and dine (done!), total 60 miles over 14 runs. Neither of the last two occurred. I did not bounce back into a routine after W&D and missed 2 planned runs, and Thanksgiving chaos resulted in missing the other. I suppose I could count the kids turkey trot we ran and think I got 12/14 runs, but that seems like cheating as I did not plan on counting it when I set the target.

I am keeping the target of 60 miles over 14 runs for December, but anticipate it will look closer to November. I have no more races on my plan so that is not going to help motivate me to go out for weekend long runs.