The Running Thread - 2019

[Professor_Cookie]

Does anyone run in Hokas? I went from the arahi 2 to the 3 and noticed way less "rock" in the shoe (I always likened the "rock" to the blade of an ice skate). These seem way flatter. I'm curious if anyone else noticed this or if it's just me.

I wear stinson’s as my main trail shoe. I notice less actual rocks.

 

[avondale]

Golden Gate Double 8k Race Recap
with emphasis on running with a tween

We choose this race a long time ago, in the early stage of our trip planning, because it was the only one that could fit the schedule and had a theme/medal/shirt.

We landed in San Francisco at noon on Saturday and visited all afternoon. I did not know what effect the jet-lag and all the walking would do on 11y.o DD, my running partner. It was a good test for Marathon Weekend.

I woke up at 3:15AM, just because. But DD woke up at 5AM, a minute before the alarm. She was excited and in a super racing mood.

She took in well that we had not found the groceries the night before so we had to leave earlier. We found a Starbucks opened at 5:30AM in the Financial District . We then went for the bus, which was not the right one for our Muni passes. Time passed, excitation went up but we were finally dropped at the Presidio around 7AM, a bit more than a mile from the race site. DD was a trooper and I believe that this walk turned out to be a great warmup.

The fog was present all morning and we could hear the horn. Temperature was cool. Crissy Field is flat and by the water. Good conditions overall except for taking pictures with the bridge.

There is about 500 participants split on three distances : 10k, 5k and Double 8k (5k+3k). The organizers were ready and things went smoothly. The Double is their speciality and DD had been looking at registrations to see if she could place in her age group. She correctly identified a 12yo, a 15yo but not the three 18yo. Knowing her as her coach, I knew she was going to push that race because of it. We had agreed on a coaching strategy: I would tell her “Breathe”, “Smile” and “You can do this”. I would answer on distance and pace only on request. I would not engage in her complaints. I would let her finish in front of me.

There was no chip for time so after our warmup, we placed ourselves in the first few rows for the 5k with a 8AM start. DD ran her best 5k ever in 25:03, no pain, smiling, talking to a fellow runner (hello Lori) and sprinting the last 500m.

We stretched, snacked, put a sweatshirt on and mostly sat until we had to warmup again. DD could feel that her legs were tired.

For the 3k departure at 9:15AM, we put ourselves right behind the line, close to the other young ladies and went too fast at the beginning. Also DD lace came untied 500m into the race. That broke her spirit and rythme. Although she did complain, cried and got mad at me, she still ran this portion in 15:47! Part of the frustration was knowing she was not catching up that 12yo... It turns out that nobody did either... She was the overall female winner (impressive, congratulations!). And the 15yo was the sister of the overall male winner, wearing the same college competition team shirt. That was a great lesson for DD.

The race medal was beautiful and, after we calmed down and ate some of the post race snacks, we waited for the awards. And the race organizers really came nice on this one (maybe on my suggestion ): DD got a medal for being 2/2 in the newly created 12 and under age group! As for myself, I came 4th in my age group with a total 8k time of 41:00 (thanks for posting @LSUlakes)

We celebrated by walking all around San Francisco (with our medals on Sunday) for the three following days... As DD said, it was a very active recovery!

And I can now add California to the list of States I ran in @jennamfeo

What an great set of races for your daughter and you! A fun experience!

 

[PaDisneyCouple]

The generosity of runners

Mrs. PADC here

I had a great run today on our local rail trail. During the second mile I saw a deer cross the trail, then the railroad tracks, then proceed down the steep bank to road below. I kept to that side of the trail so I could watch the deer. This road has practically no shoulder so when a car approached the deer quickly came back up the embankment, crossed the tracks, then the trail, then effortlessly ran up the hill on the other side. It is not unusual to see deer around here; we recently saw one in our neighbor's back yard, but it adds to the running experience. The rail trail is adjacent to a local college so I ran onto the campus to see if the track was open. It was not, they are still doing renovations, so I did about 1 mile on the campus and returned to the rail trail.

Everyone who uses the trail is very friendly, whether running, biking, elliptigo, walking, horseback riding, etc. There was a guy today doing cross country roller skiing. I was listening to music, but I only use one ear bud so I can hear bikes approaching and people talking to me. I was at mile 9.5 out of 10 and feeling good when a woman running toward me seemed to be approaching me and slowing down, so I slowed down also. When we stopped, she pointed to my knee brace and said "can I pay for your knee so you no longer need to wear that?" As you can imagine I was quite taken aback. There are always people encouraging me and wishing me well when I am running, but this was quite unexpected. So I replied, "no that's ok, it's really not as bad as it looks." By this time I had turned off my music. She asked me what happened and I told her... torn meniscus, surgery, ultimatum from Doctor to never run again. She repeated her offer. Except this time I heard what she said. "Can I PRAY for your knee so you don't need to wear the knee brace?" Of course I told her what I thought she said the first time and we laughed. We introduced ourselves and found out we're doing the same race in 2 weeks. I accepted her offer and she carried it out. I did not feel that she was forcing a belief system. I accepted it as a step above someone saying that they hope my knee gets better. And it definitely meant more to me than any monetary offer. I finished my 10 miles feeling great physically and mentally.

 

[garneska]

@PaDisneyCouple , mrs. PADC, as I know you are a dog lover, we have had that happen a few times with Mallory. It was very cute there was a group of children out walking as we were too with Mallory and yeti, the kids in the age range of 8 to 10, all put their hands on her and prayed for. I thought it was really sweet.

 

[Sleepless Knight]

We celebrated by walking all around San Francisco (with our medals on Sunday) for the three following days... As DD said, it was a very active recovery!

Running by the Golden Gate Bridge really is beautiful. It's one of the reasons I chose to run the Giant Race Half Marathon this year instead of the 10K.

I hope your active recovery included the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. Such an incredible museum about the life of Walt Disney and all he accomplished.

I've found that active recovery always works better than doing very little. I was less sore 3 days after the marathon where recovery involved the theme parks than after a local half marathon where recovery involved laziness.

but when you consider the new parking costs, increased food costs, and people who think they HAVE to stay on property, it's not a competitively priced vacation.

I realize that staying off property is cheaper, but for me I choose to stay on property at Disney World because that experience helps make Disney World an equally enjoyable, yet different experience from Disneyland. I stay on property in Florida because that helps make it different from the west coast. In other words, staying off property at Disney World is much more expensive than just going to Disneyland and staying off property.

 

[opusone]

Very happy with my run today, so I thought I would stop by and share my excitement. It's been three months back running consistently since my extended time off due to burn-out, and although I have been feeling very good about running again, I have been somewhat down on my lost fitness (a full minute or more per mile slower at all pace levels).

In any case, today's run was a five-minute full effort benchmark run which I also did about three months ago. The good news and why I am so excited: my pace three months ago was 7:30 per mile pace with 163 average HR, and today I ran a 6:38 per mile pace with 165 average HR. Still have a ways to go to get back to the shape I was in two years ago, but I am trending in the right direction!

Just thought I would share my good news with people who understand.

 

[IamTrike]

Very happy with my run today, so I thought I would stop by and share my excitement. It's been three months back running consistently since my extended time off due to burn-out, and although I have been feeling very good about running again, I have been somewhat down on my lost fitness (a full minute or more per mile slower at all pace levels).

In any case, today's run was a five-minute full effort benchmark run which I also did about three months ago. The good news and why I am so excited: my pace three months ago was 7:30 per mile pace with 163 average HR, and today I ran a 6:38 per mile pace with 165 average HR. Still have a ways to go to get back to the shape I was in two years ago, but I am trending in the right direction!

Just thought I would share my good news with people who understand.

Wow having your max effort pace drop almost a minute in 3 months is really exciting. It's always hard when you come back and realize that you've lost fitness, but regaining it is fun. It's also still pretty hot here as move into fall and temps drop your pace should improve even more.

 

[dis_or_dat]

@PaDisneyCouple interesting I saw 2 cross country roller skiers recently and they had a huge crew helping them, literally 2 SUVs full of guys. One guy biked behind them and when they got close to the SUVs, their crew jumped out to help them with their gear and they'd do more laps and repeated. Well oiled extremely efficient machine!

I miss my old trail - I'd see a lot of animals and regulars. Seems like you have a really nice trail!

 

[Slogger]

Hmmmmm.....very quiet this week.

Big t-storm and rain last night but I ran anyway. Later my dogs decided to chase a skunk out of our yard, through the neighborhood, and across the highway. My dogs are usually well-behaved but for some reason they were naughty last night and stinky today.

My kids are officially back to school this week (college, high school) and I hope that opens up my schedule for more running opportunities this fall.
Is it "Back to School Time" for you yet and how does that alter your running schedule?

 

[JulieODC]

School starts in 3 weeks, so still operating on summer schedule. Love summer, but sort of craving the routine that comes with school!

We may have talked about this before, but anyone have any favorite running or runDisney related Instagram accounts??

 

[Chaitali]

No kids here so not too much of a difference in my routine. The big change about this time of year is the sun rises later and later. So it's going to get to the point where I won't have enough light to run before work. Probably will hit that point in September or so. I'll then switch back over to trying to run after work.

 

[Neon Cactus]

Hmmmmm.....very quiet this week.

Big t-storm and rain last night but I ran anyway. Later my dogs decided to chase a skunk out of our yard, through the neighborhood, and across the highway. My dogs are usually well-behaved but for some reason they were naughty last night and stinky today.

My kids are officially back to school this week (college, high school) and I hope that opens up my schedule for more running opportunities this fall.
Is it "Back to School Time" for you yet and how does that alter your running schedule?

My youngest starts school on Monday and my oldest goes back to Chicago tonight and her university starts classes the week after next, but they have auditions for this semester's shows next week. My youngest was in Boston for 3 weeks and just got home last Saturday and we had three days with highs in the mid 80s, so I took full advantage, but I'll be able to have more consistency in running with them on the regular schedule.

 

[Disney at Heart]

Hmmmmm.....very quiet this week.

Big t-storm and rain last night but I ran anyway. Later my dogs decided to chase a skunk out of our yard, through the neighborhood, and across the highway. My dogs are usually well-behaved but for some reason they were naughty last night and stinky today.

My kids are officially back to school this week (college, high school) and I hope that opens up my schedule for more running opportunities this fall.
Is it "Back to School Time" for you yet and how does that alter your running schedule?

No change in my schedule. Public school started in my Georgia county on Aug. 1 (even earlier for teachers), and as a RETIRED high school teacher, I see the buses as I leave for my early morning runs and SMILE!
I have to get up early to run right now because the heat and humidity would be unbearable otherwise. I did Monday's 6.5 miles at daybreak starting at 77*, Tuesday was recorded as Atlanta's hottest day in the past three years, reaching 100* (about my temp too) and was, thankfully, my rest day. And this morning was a cool 72* at daybreak, but I had 96% humidity to go with it. I know it's only the middle of summer, but I could use a few degrees lower! As the sun comes up later and later, I can get a little more sleep before I get up and run!

 

[garneska]

I have to get up early to run right now because the heat and humidity would be unbearable otherwise. I did Monday's 6.5 miles at daybreak starting at 77*, Tuesday was recorded as Atlanta's hottest day in the past three years, reaching 100* (about my temp too) and was, thankfully, my rest day. And this morning was a cool 72* at daybreak, but I had 96% humidity to go with it. I know it's only the middle of summer, but I could use a few degrees lower! As the sun comes up later and later, I can get a little more sleep before I get up and run!

I was so glad yesterday was a cross training day in the air conditioning. I did go out this morning it was miserable, tomorrow is speed work, but it might not be so speedy when the T +D is 150 at 6 am.

 

[PrincessV]

My son is homeschooled and doesn't follow the district's calendar, so no changes for me due to school starting, other than it taking twice as long to get to work and back thanks to more traffic.

This week begins Dopey training for me, so I'm feeling motivated and excited! It's also August in FL, though, so the heat and storms are tampering that excitement a bit.

 

[DopeyBadger]

Is it "Back to School Time" for you yet and how does that alter your running schedule?

G starts Kindergarten just after Labor Day. It'll make my Thursday off day workouts easier because I can just wait until she goes to school and then work out for 2+ hours without having to worry who will come watch her. But I anticipate school will make most other mornings a bit more hectic given I've been doing double workouts per day almost everyday since December. So I need to allocate more time in the mornings to help prepare her for school as well now. It'll be a new learning curve for us all as she starts school.

 

[Princess KP]

My daughter stayed at school in Montreal for the summer but she's coming back home for a couple of weeks before classes start in September. We have some outings planned so my running schedule will have to be altered. Then it's back to marathon training, which seems like it will never end.

 

[rteetz]

My busy work week is over so now it’s just football until school starts which isn’t until after Labor Day.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

I did Monday's 6.5 miles at daybreak starting at 77*, Tuesday was recorded as Atlanta's hottest day in the past three years, reaching 100* (about my temp too)

Tuesday was awful. I was scheduled to do 6, but declared 'Black Flag' conditions and called it quits after 3.5

I was so glad yesterday was a cross training day in the air conditioning. I did go out this morning it was miserable, tomorrow is speed work, but it might not be so speedy when the T +D is 150 at 6 am.

I did half marathon tempo intervals this morning (2 x 2.25). It was miserable. My DW drove by and stopped to tell me something, but I was too stupid to understand.

But just remember: what doesn't kill you...

...makes you wish you were dead.

 

[garneska]

But just remember: what doesn't kill you...

...makes you wish you were dead.

I will do my speedwork at the park. This way when I collapse DH can get me easily