"What am I even doing with my life?" Comments Welcome!

[StacyStrong]

I finished up last week and started this week. Both my Saturday run and my run this morning were way too fast. I don't really have an excuse for the Saturday run. It was a run walk that was supposed to be 14:08/18:00 to come to a 14:56 average pace. Clearly, I was way off that. All I can really say is that it felt easy? It didn't SEEM harder than it should have been? Today, it was crazy windy and it's kind of hard, in my opinion, to feel how fast you're going when you're battling against the wind.

Anyway, I really think transitioning to continuous running has made me a stronger runner. I know I have a long way to go, but my run/walks feel infinitely more easy than they used to. Granted, these are still all "easy" paced runs, but I can definitely tell the difference between how they used to feel and how they feel now. I'm liking it. It's crazy to think that just a month or two ago, I didn't think I would be able to do 10 minutes straight let alone several miles!

@DopeyBadger - I have 2 weeks left on this plan. I also have my spring race schedule pretty set. When should I reach out to you for setting up the new plan? Did you want me taking time off between? Or no since these are all easy base runs? I'm cool with whatever you think is best!

 

[StacyStrong]

Oh! Also, I got my booster Saturday too!

 

[DopeyBadger]

@DopeyBadger - I have 2 weeks left on this plan. I also have my spring race schedule pretty set. When should I reach out to you for setting up the new plan? Did you want me taking time off between? Or no since these are all easy base runs? I'm cool with whatever you think is best!

There won't be any time off, but let's wrap this one up before planning for the next.

 

[StacyStrong]

4 miles is now my longest continuous run to date! The run was supposed to be 14:00 so a bit fast. The splits were a bit all over the place at 13:39, 14:02, 13:49, and 13:32.

One week left on this plan!

 

[StacyStrong]

Woooooweeeee did it get cold this week! Honestly, the cold isn't even so bothersome. It's that WIND! Monday was insane. That wind just cut through every layer of clothing. My face was SO wind burned and my ears felt like I was on a plane (where they felt full and like they wanted to pop). It was crazy out there. I'm just regularly going faster than I should at this point and I need to get a handle on it.

 

[GollyGadget]

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Woooooweeeee did it get cold this week! Honestly, the cold isn't even so bothersome. It's that WIND! Monday was insane. That wind just cut through every layer of clothing. My face was SO wind burned and my ears felt like I was on a plane (where they felt full and like they wanted to pop). It was crazy out there. I'm just regularly going faster than I should at this point and I need to get a handle on it.

Great job getting out there in the cold conditions! When it gets really cold, I often wear a baklava. The only problem is that if it's sunny, my sunglasses will fog up.
I'm also guilty of running a smidge faster when it's cold, mostly because I'm trying to warm up or get finished quicker.

I'm currently on vacation where it's 70 F so I'm fortunately missing the cold snap. We were telling our guide how the temperature can be so cold it will hurt your skin. He did not seem to want to experience that . He was also very baffled that we lived somewhere that it would regularly be below 0 C for most of winter.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I remember when i was in the last few weeks leading up to my full in October that every run I had to force myself to slow down because my body was like "I FEEL SO AMAZING! I WANNA GO FAST!"

 

[StacyStrong]

Hahaha. All I can do is laugh at how TERRIBLE my “blind” run was yesterday. I was supposed to be doing 3 miles at a 14:30 pace. Well, I actively tried to slow down because I’ve been running faster than intended lately. At around the two mile mark, I peeked at my watch because I was convinced it wasn’t actually running. There was NO way I was still on mile 2. Welp. I was. I slowed down SO MUCH that I was doing a 15:43 pace. Hahahaha. I didn’t even know I could “run” that slow. No wonder why it felt like it was going on forever. I mean it was obviously feeling incredibly easy lol. But I definitely sped up the last mile. I ended up at a 14:55 pace overall after speeding up but GEEZ moral of the story is that I have NO concept of pacing.

Very very unsuccessful blind run

 

[DopeyBadger]

but GEEZ moral of the story is that I have NO concept of pacing.

Yet.

It just means it'll be something we continue to try and work on.

 

[GollyGadget]

Sounds at least somewhat successful to me. You learned that you can run slower AND should have a better idea next time if you're going too slow.

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Yet.

It just means it'll be something we continue to try and work on.

love that growth mindset!

 

[lookingforsunshine]

Oh! Also, I got my booster Saturday too!

Did you have any side effects? I need to get mine ASAP but I’m a professor and don’t want to miss my last classes of the semester.

 

[StacyStrong]

Did you have any side effects? I need to get mine ASAP but I’m a professor and don’t want to miss my last classes of the semester.

I felt pretty run down the next day. Just general lethargy. I didn’t have a fever or chills or anything like that. Oh and a sore arm, but less than my first shot. I did Pfizer for all three.

 

[StacyStrong]

The final 5 miles of the plan went much better than that Blind Run. The goal pace of the 5 miles was 14:00. I altered the screens on my Garmin to assist me with pacing. Previously, I had the screen set to show average pace. I changed it to average lap pace. The problem before was that I would see a higher (or lower) than desired average pace so I would speed up or slow down to get the overall average somewhere more reasonable. This caused issues because I would speed up (or slow down) too much for that individual mile in order to get the overall pace more in line. Not very effective.

With the change, my splits were as follows:
Mile 1: 14:01
Mile 2: 14:07
Mile 3: 14:01
Mile 4: 14:03
Mile 5: 14:00
Average: 14:02

MUCH more consistent. Though, despite getting pretty close to my pacing goals, in retrospect I probably should have slowed down some. Has the wind been crazy by all of you as well? Because the path I take is pretty winding, it seemed no matter what, I was constantly running into the wind. I know that when T+D is above a certain threshold, you should alter your pace accordingly. Is there something similar for wind? Obviously, I can go by effort, but I was just curious if there was ever a point BEFORE starting where any of you look at the wind and say 'you know, I'm going to change my goal to xx:xx'.

Anywho, it looks like I have transitioned to being a continuous runner? Crazy!!! I got my new plan from @DopeyBadger and it's all continuous running! So wild to me. I never thought I would get to this point. This plan prepares me for two races. The first is a 'B' race in March - the Shamrock Shuffle (8k). The second is a Women's Half Marathon in April. It starts with an easy two miles today!

 

[DopeyBadger]

I altered the screens on my Garmin to assist me with pacing. Previously, I had the screen set to show average pace. I changed it to average lap pace.

Try "lap pace" as well. That's my preferred setting because I care more about each individual mile than I do the totality of each mile. And sometimes it's appropriate based on the hills to be slower/faster than scheduled. And based on the route, you may not make up for all the uphills with the downhills.

Is there something similar for wind? Obviously, I can go by effort, but I was just curious if there was ever a point BEFORE starting where any of you look at the wind and say 'you know, I'm going to change my goal to xx:xx'.

There is, but there are a lot more factors that don't make it worth trying to calculate an adjusted pace. Effort is the gold standard. But if it's super windy, I just expect that I'll be slower sometimes and faster others. Like uphill/downhill though, a tailwind (going with you) doesn't help you as much as a headwind (running into) hurts you. So don't expect a balancing of the two directions.

 

[StacyStrong]

Try "lap pace" as well. That's my preferred setting because I care more about each individual mile than I do the totality of each mile. And sometimes it's appropriate based on the hills to be slower/faster than scheduled. And based on the route, you may not make up for all the uphills with the downhills.

That's what I set it to! I might not have been clear. Is 'lap pace' not what your average pace is for the lap (aka mile)? I'm super new to Garmin still.

There is, but there are a lot more factors that don't make it worth trying to calculate an adjusted pace. Effort is the gold standard. But if it's super windy, I just expect that I'll be slower sometimes and faster others. Like uphill/downhill though, a tailwind (going with you) doesn't help you as much as a headwind (running into) hurts you. So don't expect a balancing of the two directions.

That makes a lot of sense, but very displeasing to hear that tailwind is not as helpful as a headwind hurts you. Nature is against me. Hey, random question. Whenever I see you posting GAP from Strava - is that a premium feature? Or does it come with the free version?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Average pace = Time/ Distance
Lap pace = Your pace for your current lap

But average lap pace can get tricky if you have uneven lap distances. As I understand it, whenever a lap occurs it takes the average of those paces. So average lap pace is the same as average pace if the laps are all equal (like a mile). If you do a speed interval workout with laps less than a mile, things would get more jumbaly. But average lap pace does not display your current pace for the current lap you’re in.

GAP is a Strava premium perk (it used to be a free perk). It is the only reason I pay for Strava premium and personally find the data worth it to me.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I use lap pace as well and I don’t look at it until I’m at least 1/3mi into the mile and then adjust faster or slower (or same?!) after that.

 

[StacyStrong]

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate! Hope ya'll had a fantastic holiday. It's been a very busy two weeks here, but I've been running and sticking to the plan! My new plan incorporates Strides and it's the first time I've ever done them. The first time I did it, I was manually pressing the lap button on my watch to see the pacing afterwards. It was a little frustrating to do. So on my last run with strides, I created a custom workout. @DopeyBadger, when you have time, does it look like I'm doing these right? I incorporated the strides into the 2 mile run. Or should it be 2 miles AND whatever distance the strides end up being?

Essentially, I ran 1.5 miles, then started to do the strides with 45 second intervals between each one. Once I finished the Strides, I continued running until I hit 2 miles. I'm not sure if I got to a good speed during the stride either? I was trying to gradually speed up rather than suddenly. I also can see that during the 'recovery' time periods, I did slow down, but not to my normal easy pace. It's a work in progress.



In other running news, I got new running shoes and Noxgear for Christmas! Already wore the shoes on my 5 mile Christmas run yesterday. Excited to try out the Noxgear tomorrow.

 

[DopeyBadger]

So on my last run with strides, I created a custom workout. @DopeyBadger, when you have time, does it look like I'm doing these right? I incorporated the strides into the 2 mile run. Or should it be 2 miles AND whatever distance the strides end up being?

Yes, do the strides within the scheduled mileage. There is no pace scheduled for strides. Gradual increase and gradual decrease. The strides are mainly to teach good running form. Upright, eyes up, etc.