The Running Thread - 2020

So my monthly totals for the last two months were a little different and I lost my 45 month streak of 100+ miles, but it was for a great reason. 😊

We welcomed Declan Charles on 10/12/2020 and have spent the last two months loving on him. I went into labor 3 hours after running 3 miles on the treadmill and those were my final miles of October. I am hoping to start running again soon, but have just been walking since he was born. Below he is sporting the medal he earned "running" the Snickers Marathon on 3/7/2020! I hope you are all doing well as we finish this crazy year!
View attachment 541456View attachment 541455

Best post of the year!! Congrats!!!
 


I did a recap of my last training plan in my journal if anyone would like to read it. Despite not actually being able to race, I did find it served its purpose as a proof of concept training plan.

Summer/Fall 2020 Training Plan in Review and Plans for the 2021 Milwaukee Marathon

I feel like these two graphs truly "tell the tale" of the plan:

541668

This graph shows my HR at a given pace when appropriately adjusted for T+D showed a steady decline from June to October. In simple terms, I could run the same pace at a lower effort level later in the plan. Pace is x-axis and HR is y-axis. The lines are line of best fits to data points in 1/2 month blocks. I've found a power curve line of best fit (instead of linear) best matches the HRvPace data sets I've personally generated.

541669

Additionally, this graph shows how I got there. Based on previous personal training plans, I had seen that my Garmin VO2max most often rose during periods of time when my running training load "form" was less than zero at least 5 days per week. So the goal and proof of concept was to see if I could follow a normal style plan for me (still balanced both pace wise and volume on a day to day basis wise) and keep the form value less than zero. The data bears out that the increase in Garmin VO2max coincided with me staying below a form value of 0.

For those that don't use training load concepts, essentially "form" is a mathematical representation of comparing what you've done in the long term in training compared to what you're doing currently in the short term. Too much difference and you overtrain. Too little difference and you don't tend to make as much gains. Stay with too little difference for too long, and you may actually start to decrease your fitness. So the goal for this training plan was to try and manipulate my training in such a manner that I stayed in the "sweet spot" for the longest duration I could maintain (ended up I probably stayed there for a bit too long). So what's the difference between a Garmin VO2max value of 49 and 59 in my performance history? Under ideal conditions that would be a 3:36 marathon vs a 3:01 marathon. So I think I made a good proof of concept and now need to make some adjustments in order to stay healthy.
 
QOTD: Are any of you doing a Challenge, Resolution Run or Advent Calendar this month or winter?

ATTQOTD: I am officially doing the CMTR Winter Scavenger Hunt. Because I use the JustMove App, I also use their Advent Calendar for inspiration/motivation. My Apple Watch seems to do a calendar thing by itself as well. I found out today that one of my colleagues is doing a progression: 1km on the 1st, 2km on the 2nd, 3km today... All the way the the 24th for him. I might keep that in mind one day and thought I would share.
 


QOTD: Are any of you doing a Challenge, Resolution Run or Advent Calendar this month or winter?

ATTQOTD: I am officially doing the CMTR Winter Scavenger Hunt. Because I use the JustMove App, I also use their Advent Calendar for inspiration/motivation. My Apple Watch seems to do a calendar thing by itself as well. I found out today that one of my colleagues is doing a progression: 1km on the 1st, 2km on the 2nd, 3km today... All the way the the 24th for him. I might keep that in mind one day and thought I would share.
I just discovered Garmin challenges somehow so I think I clicked on the app to sign up for one I would have covered anyway, just with my training plan. Like 50 miles in December or something. So I guess that counts as a challenge but a lame one since I was already doing it. In fact, I discovered these Garmin challenges on November 30 at like 9PM, and one challenge that was still available was to run 50 miles in November. I signed up on November 30 at 9PM, synched my watch, and immediately got the badge based on what I already did last month! Easiest challenge I ever took on!

As a more serious challenge I did sign up for the 2021 in 2021 Challenge again for next year, on runtheedge.com. I didn't come close to running 2020 miles in 2020, but I did with a team, and I'm going to try harder this year to make it at least to 2021 km running next year. Given that there won't be any races for a while it's something to go for and an actual stretch for me.
 
November: 19 miles. Does not include a whole lot of walking around Disney World masked up and loving every minute of it. It was much needed for me to completely get away from the office with no chance whatsoever of having to go into the office.

Year to Date miles: 373.2

ATTQOTD: My 10 year old nephew invited me to participate in his 5K, 10K, and Marathon challenge for December. It really amounts to running or walking 35.5 miles in the entire month of December. Of course he chose to do this in December, after I returned from Walt Disney World. :p

Then in January I'm registered for the virtual WDW Marathon and virtual Castaway Cay Challenge. Training has not materialized, so I think I'm going to set a goal to cover 26.2 in a yet to be determined number of consecutive days depending on where training is as I get closer. Injury free is better than chasing a virtual marathon although I may try to do some fun ideas like "virtual" character stops, etc.

Probably also doing the WDW virtual kids races with my nephews although that may wait until the medals arrive so they get the excitement of receiving the medals after the run.

Then in February, I'm running the virtual Princess 10K and Half although I did not sign up for the challenge because I wanted to give myself the flexibility of not having to run the races on back to back days if I don't want to given how busy my life gets in February. As of now, I still hold out hope of doing the Princess Half portion of that in one setting. And since I'm running Star Wars in April, I need to be able to do that if it happens live.
 
Race Recap: Space Coast Marathon 2020 11/29/20

Last Sunday I got to participate in one of the rarest events of 2020, an actual in-person marathon!

This year marked the 3rd year in a 4 year series of races, which will culminate in 2021 with both the 4th year of the series and the 50th anniversary of the race itself. Each year in the 4 year series represents a different space program, (2018 - Mercury, 2019 - Gemini, 2020 - Apollo, 2021 - Space Shuttle) Due to successfully completing the previous 2 years, this year I was also eligible for the 3 year moon walk challenge medal.

Mindful of Covid-19, the race had some changes to procedures this year compared to previous years.
1) The expo this year took place outside at Cocoa Riverfront Park where everyone could properly spread out.
2) Medals were handed out at the expo instead of the finish line. Considering they still handed the finisher towel at the finish line, I don't know how much less exposure was achieved, but it was nice to have the medals safely wrapped up for transport.
3) People were sorted into corrals based on which course they were completing (Marathon + North Half were A-D, South Half was E - H)

The in-person race this year still ended up being a surprisingly large event. 536 participants showed up for the marathon course and 2,520 showed up for the 2 half marathon courses. For the most part, people complied with the requirement to wear face masks until you crossed the starting line, but there was less compliance in putting masks back on once you crossed the finish line. Despite the corrals, the first couple of miles were still pretty crowded, before everyone started spreading out in the 3rd mile.

As we were warned in the e-mails leading up to the race that there would be less aid stations on course than in the past, I planned to be totally self-sufficient for the race with a 2.5L hydration pack and my own Gu and pretzels for nutrition. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they still had hydration stations every 2 miles, with individual bottles of water and I think Gatorade (or Powerade, I didn't really pay attention). They also had 2 stops with Gu along the marathon route. I actually took advantage of some of the water bottles to mix Tailwind into during the race. I did notice less unofficial stops set up by the locals along the course than in past years.

It was another hot race year, with temperatures at the end of the race getting into the 80s. Similar to last year, a cold wave started the next day, leaving a lot of runners silently cursing the running Gods. Fortunately for me, I am one of the few Northeasterners who prefers hot races to cold races, so it didn't really phase me. I did notice less people experiencing heat destress on the course this year than last year, which I attribute to having fewer non-Floridians participate in the race.

I got a PR of 4:22:03, beating my previous PR by 12 minutes! I also beat my virtual marathon time from a month ago by 33 minutes.

I was very pleasantly surprised that despite the temperature, wearing a loaded backpack which I don't wear during training and all of the general disruptions to training caused by Covid-19 that I was able to get the PR. Overall, I felt very strong throughout the race and didn't have my usual crash in the 20 mile range, a fact I attribute to ramping up slower at the beginning than in past years and having pretzels that I could eat every time I started to feel hungry (Gu does nothing for a gnawing stomach.)

Overall, I was just really grateful to be there, be able to participate in the race in person and to have the vacation time leftover to be able to quarantine once I got home from the race. Now here's hoping things improve in 2021 and we'll have settled into a new normal with less restrictions by race weekend 11/28/21.

541932
 
November stats:
Total Miles: 99.5
Avg. Pace: 9:36/mile
Avg. HR: 157 bpm

Included in these miles, besides the Space Coast marathon reported on above, was my own version of a Turkey Trot. Namely, on Thanksgiving, after Magic Kingdom closed for the day, I used the new Grand Floridian Bridge to run from MK to the TTC and back before the busses stopped running. It was fun, but never again after eating at Liberty Tree Tavern!
 
November Totals

Running
Miles: 56.09
Time: 11:33:59
Average HR: 151
Average Pace: 10:43

Body Beast
3 workouts
1:57

After my half marathon on November 1, I fell off the Body Beast wagon. Lots of excuses (holidays, lots of work, it is so hot in my basement now that the woodburner is going, building a new house is stressful, etc.), but it just seems like 8 weeks is my limit for a weightlifting program.

I really enjoyed Body Beast, and when I get some more motivation, I would like to continue doing the workouts 4-5 times/week because I can see the difference.

Right now, I'm trying to keep a run streak (at least 1 mile) going from Thanksgiving to Christmas. 8 days down so far!
 
QOTD: Are any of you doing a Challenge, Resolution Run or Advent Calendar this month or winter?

Not so much for this month in particular as much as ongoing challenges that will get me running through the winter and then some. Currently I’m running around the world with 9 more Disney fanatics, see CRAW below...
Next year is the run the year challenge to run/walk 2021 miles. Both of these will get a mileage boost in January with the WDW virtual marathon.
 
I go to Garmin Connect. Click on "Reports". Click on "Progress Summary". Change to the correct month, and then "Running". I then divide the total time spent running by the mileage in Excel. That will give me the min/mile average pace.
To save a step, you can customize the report to include "average pace" as one of the displayed statistics. The customize button is to the right of the filters.
 
November stats:
Running
Total miles: 285.19
Avg pace: 9:39
Avg HR: 136
YTD: 2367.52

Walking
Total miles: 11.67
YTD: 61.57

Cycling
Total miles: 37.58
Speed: 17.5
YTD: 708.70

Starting training for the Rocky Raccoon 100 today. Hoping it does not get cancelled. Enjoying the CRAW race and seeing the time to pass through each country. Loving the cooler weather over the last 2 weeks and even the rain.
 
Starting training for the Rocky Raccoon 100 today. Hoping it does not get cancelled. Enjoying the CRAW race and seeing the time to pass through each country. Loving the cooler weather over the last 2 weeks and even the rain.

I love Rocky! One of my all-time favorite races. With its limited entry (especially now that the 50 and 100 are on different weekends) and natural spacing out of people on the trails, the race has a high likelihood of being held.
 
An event recap. I call it an event as it was not a race but a group of people (the atlanta Tri club) getting together to run The Silver Comet Trail. first I am not part of the club but running friends R and J are. R is the person who ran the back half of my virtual this year and greatly needed. R decided he wanted to run the entire trail which is 60 miles long. J was ru 33 miles. The club had people doing varying distances, but most stopped at mile 33. J started at mile 15 and went to 48.

I was returning the favor for R. I started at mile 33. R was already struggling and J at 18 miles in was ok. We ran together but I was the least trained hoping to do 18 to 20 miles. I ran with them from 33 to 45. I saw a pink and purple horse, and thought I have not been running far enough to hallucinate. It was two horses with blankets and then cows. It was pretty flat and the weather was actually terrific. It was sunny but 49 when I started. my start time was 12:06.

at mile 45.5 I pulled off and got in the car. I was not feeling bad as it was only 12.5 miles and quite a bit slower than I trained. Since R was struggling and I did not think I could run 28 miles.I stopped with the intention to run the end. J stopped at 48. R had to run by himself, sort of club guy was on a bike) till 51. I had a chance to sit for 45 minutes eat a turkey sandwich (was incredibly tasty at that point). I changed my clothes because I knew it would be dark and get colder and R was going slower. I waited and at 4 pm at 51 I picked R back up and ran the last 10 miles with him. R struggled but got it done. We finished at 6:20.

i only did 22.5 miles total and was concerned about having the break that I would be stiff at 51 but since I was going slower than my usual it was ok. Ranger Relay here I come when they start again.

I definitely had a hard time sleeping since I ran late but it made my morning nice as R started at 6 am. Anyways thought I would share.
 
Garmin people - I have a 935 (got it earlier this year) with the wrist HR monitor. It seems to work most of the time when I am running (about 10% of the time it will say my HR is crazy high when I am not breathing that hard), but it only seems to read my HR accurately about 20% of the time when I am on the indoor trainer. Anyone else experience this? Recommendations for a better HR monitor? (I need to get a new one anyhow that has Bluetooth for Zwift purposes).
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top