Mileage Reporting 51th Week of 2012

[Bare Lee]

between 6 and 7 cootie miles. Came down with nasty cooties over the weekend, nasty attitude from mental exhaustion of the end of semester beginning of holiday pressure cooker, nasty emotional regulation from above issues. Attitude improved but cooties got worse.
Ran anyways so that my brain could get cleaned up. Body wasn't into it but tolerated the run, not the ST I had the hubris to try after that (pretty sight i was at the gym hacking up a lung trying to pick up free weights in between coughs and sneezes).

Found a way to motivate myself to run even with sick chilled body (38 degrees felt cold and it never does anymore so fever).
Told myself this was a 'loose rules' run; i could stop any time i wanted to (and needed to every mile or so to blow nose, but otherwise not), go any pace i wanted to, take walking breaks if i wanted, and could turn back at any time. It worked, got me going slowly, slowly, until I got used to the idea.

As long as you don't have a fever, I think exercise can often help a cold. Especially if you're like me and need exercise in order to sleep well, which of course, helps you get well faster.

And I'm loving loose rules. At first I too felt bad about talking walking breaks, but Abide and that thread on ITBS helped convince me the best thing to do was to get my pace up sooner rather than later. Now I love it. If I feel like going a bit faster, I go. If I feel a little tired, I stop. Basically it's fartleks. It's kept me running more or less without ITBS these last two weeks, and my conditioning is improving. Still, I do look forward to the day I can run a decent distance without stopping and without feeling any strain on the ITB band. In the meantime: loose rules!

 

[NickW]

No running today after all. The snow turned slushy and I know slush is no fun so I just went about my planned schedule and went to the gym and rode the recumbent for 30 minutes doing 5 varying intervals during that time. Two or three of the intervals were not as high intense effort but were twice as long and the other 2 or 3 were extremely high effort but half as long. I also did about 45 min of ST (shoulders, abs, and biceps today). Pretty sore today from yesterdays workout, but the good kind of sore. I did have a mild IT band pain in the last 5 minutes of the bike, but I think that was just from pushing too hard during the intervals when I haven't ridden much in quite a long time. I also managed to mostly keep my cadence above 90 except near the end of the high intensity intervals where it would drop to close to 70 as my legs fatigued. Felt pretty good overall. Oh, and I was looking at side effects of my heartburn stuff the VA has me taking to control my stomach acid issues and I noticed there were 3 things that stood out to me, gas, headaches, and weight gain. I'm trying to find a full list of side effects as this is only from partial lists, but it could explain why I have been having such a hard time losing weight despite working out like a crazed man (that's what my wife says anyhow) and all my headaches and how gassy I am (seems no matter what I eat I get gassy).

 

[happysongbird]

I just ran 11.23 miles (in Moc3s). I forgot my watch, so don't know my pace, but it wasn't super speedy.... Got an awesome blood blister on the side of one toe from the adjacent toenail. It doesn't hurt, just looks creepy.

 

[Sid]

Oh, and I was looking at side effects of my heartburn stuff the VA has me taking to control my stomach acid issues and I noticed there were 3 things that stood out to me, gas, headaches, and weight gain.

Hmm... I stopped Prilosec OTC when I read this article below. I wasn't taking it under a doctor's supervision, but you certainly might want to talk to your doc about your med.
Combating Acid Reflux May Bring Host of Ills

I've been able to manage my heartburn with dietary modifications. Apparently my stomach doesn't agree well with cottage cheese, eggs, and soy products. I think that I can manage those things when they are in baked goods, ice cream, and such. I'll take Tums for the occasional heartburn, when I overdo it, or indulge. But of course some people need meds, too.

 

[NickW]

Hmm... I stopped Prilosec OTC when I read this article below. I wasn't taking it under a doctor's supervision, but you certainly might want to talk to your doc about your med.
Combating Acid Reflux May Bring Host of Ills

I've been able to manage my heartburn with dietary modifications. Apparently my stomach doesn't agree well with cottage cheese, eggs, and soy products. I think that I can manage those things when they are in baked goods, ice cream, and such. I'll take Tums for the occasional heartburn, when I overdo it, or indulge. But of course some people need meds, too.

Ya, I've tried completely and radically changing my diet and within a couple days off the medication my stomach is on fire and I'm not sleeping because of it and then I start having, um, well I'll just say other complications from it. I wonder if when I was younger and drank soda like I now drink water if I had ruined my stomach. It sucks. I used to drink 2-3 liters a day of soda. Now I may have a soda once a month or so, if that. My stomach doesn't handle it well and in fact, I can't even touch red wine even while on the omeprazole. Sends me into massive pain and the complications that I am not going to discuss on here. I will sometimes taste my wifes wine and just one sip can make my stomach go into a tizzy. Anyhow, I will read that article, thanks.

 

[Sid]

Ya, I've tried completely and radically changing my diet and within a couple days off the medication my stomach is on fire and I'm not sleeping because of it and then I start having, um, well I'll just say other complications from it.

Yeah, it took me about a month to fully adjust. I tried acidophilus, mastic gum, and apple cider vinegar. Maybe they helped, hard to say. Maybe it's like BFR, and just takes time to adjust. I don't know.

 

[scedastic]

awful horrible nasty cooties, including fever.

hardly got up today, had the family waiting on me (that's how you know i'm sick; usually i keep moving no matter what, this time i'm all "could you get me a glass of water please? would you make me tea? i'd love another blanket....')

so my nose has some serious mileage on it today. me,not so much.

 

[Sid]

Body wasn't into it but tolerated the run, not the ST I had the hubris to try after that (pretty sight i was at the gym hacking up a lung trying to pick up free weights in between coughs and sneezes).

No offense. Cooties are one of many reasons why I avoid the gym. I'm with Bare Lee and the home gym on this one.

awful horrible nasty cooties, including fever.

Hope you feel better soon!

 

[Barefooting Bob]

I just ran 11.23 miles (in Moc3s). I forgot my watch, so don't know my pace, but it wasn't super speedy.... Got an awesome blood blister on the side of one toe from the adjacent toenail. It doesn't hurt, just looks creepy.

Pictures please.

 

[Barefooting Bob]

20.0 miles today pacing my wife on the back half of her 40.0 mile Birthday Run. Great times definitely. It's awesome having a partner in life as well as running.

 

[happysongbird]

awful horrible nasty cooties, including fever.

hardly got up today, had the family waiting on me (that's how you know i'm sick; usually i keep moving no matter what, this time i'm all "could you get me a glass of water please? would you make me tea? i'd love another blanket....')

so my nose has some serious mileage on it today. me,not so much.

Get well!

 

[RunningPirate]

21.56 cycle commute. We're having bone-chilling cold in The Bay Area these days; that coupled with a 20 kt headwind made for a brisk, yet slow, ride home...

 

[Bare Lee]

7.37 miles total.
6.73 mi / 11 km running.
26 F / - 3.3 C.
9.27 overall pace / 9.03 loop pace.

Today the temps got up to around 28 or 29 F for the high, with little or no wind. The salting was mostly gone from the pavement, and about half of the streets were dry, the other half wet with very little slush. Without windchill, slush, ice, or salt, I was able to do the whole thing bare again, and added almost a mile to my running mileage, and took off about 10 seconds from both my overall pace as well as my loops (about 4.8 miles). I felt good and strong while running but my feet and legs feel a little beat-up now post run. I think I've reached the limit of my current stamina, muscular-skeletal, and thermal conditioning. I'll try to hold the mileage here for a week or so and try to consolidate my rehab gains, then begin to expand the Saturday run a mile a month once 2013 begins. It felt good to run for about 45 mins at 9 mm pace. I think that's what I used to do in Chicago. Even if I never improve from this, it feels like it could be enough if it had to be.

Yesterday I had a nice chest and upper arms ST workout. Tomorrow I'll be working the lower back, hips, glutes, and upper leg. My revamped strength training routine is starting to settle down into a comfortable rhythm. I tend to push one or two exercises a bit and then just go through the motions with the rest. Progress is slow but steady, and I'm going back to accepting that approach with my running too. Overall, I really love the anaerobic-aerobic alternation. Lift stuff and run--it must be in the DNA.

 

[dutchie53]

2 miles at 5 am. this morning. Again 1/2 mile backwards for a cool down stretch run. Slow pace, making sure my form is good in min shoes. I noticed when I checked my footprint in the fresh snow that there was no sign of of push off. Also wore the garmin for checking my backwards running today just for giggles. It turns out that is what I should be doing for my MAF run. Pace was 18 mm and my heartrate was right in my MAF zone.

 

[NickW]

Today only 1.59 miles on the treadmill in the gym in my Adams. This morning I had a major time crunch as I had an appointment at the drs so I wasn't able to run as long as I wanted. I was able to get my ST (back and legs) workout in too, but I had to cut corners on that as well. I changed a couple of the workouts so that they were not single leg workouts and were double leg (cut down on amount of time) and then I was very strict about my break time between sets and would only allow myself 1 minute exactly between sets. Cutting corners like this allowed me to get my full back and legs workout in about 23 minutes with 20 minutes on the treadmill counting my walking warm up and cool down. Have a migraine that I am battling today which is making everything just that much more difficult, but over all my body seems to really be responding well to going back to this old workout that I used to do for years. Seems all the muscle soreness is very short lived and I am recovering much better and sleeping like a log. My legs are feeling much better too. It's a great feeling to actually be tired when my wife is ready to go to bed. Usually I'm wired for another hour or two after she goes to bed.

 

[Spiderweb62]

Intervals today, a total of 11km for 10x400m at about 4'20"/km, speed improving ! Lee, another confirmation on your theory about cadence vs stride, my slowest interval was the one with the highest cadence (and most likely shortest stride), so in essence, you cannot go faster if you do not lengthen your stride !

I noticed that the recovery sessions were getting slower over time, I guess this means my heart recovery rate is not fast enough (having 3' recovery between intervals)

I managed to beat my PR on one 400m interval with 1'38" or 4'/km ! Yay !

 

[Bare Lee]

Intervals today, a total of 11km for 10x400m at about 4'20"/km, speed improving ! Lee, another confirmation on your theory about cadence vs stride, my slowest interval was the one with the highest cadence (and most likely shortest stride), so in essence, you cannot go faster if you do not lengthen your stride !

I noticed that the recovery sessions were getting slower over time, I guess this means my heart recovery rate is not fast enough (having 3' recovery between intervals)

I managed to beat my PR on one 400m interval with 1'38" or 4'/km ! Yay !

Nice work Andy! But actually, I think cadence and stride length normally covary with respect to velocity. The ratio may differ for different runners, but both should increase at higher velocities. I've basically stopped thinking about this stuff. I've got my stamina pace down to about 9mm, which is where my form starts to feel good, and my cadence begins to approach 180. Once I'm at 8mm pace or so, it's 180 or above. The whole 180 cadence thing is based on elite runners running around 5 mm pace, so I think for us, folks who are willing to do speed work and enjoy it, the main thing is focus on improving our times and let cadence, form, and stride fall into place on their own. At least for me, I prefer the mental effort of pushing the pace a bit to the mental effort of thinking about form, cadence, and stride all the time.

 

[Bare Lee]

Today only 1.59 miles on the treadmill in the gym in my Adams. This morning I had a major time crunch as I had an appointment at the drs so I wasn't able to run as long as I wanted. I was able to get my ST (back and legs) workout in too, but I had to cut corners on that as well. I changed a couple of the workouts so that they were not single leg workouts and were double leg (cut down on amount of time) and then I was very strict about my break time between sets and would only allow myself 1 minute exactly between sets. Cutting corners like this allowed me to get my full back and legs workout in about 23 minutes with 20 minutes on the treadmill counting my walking warm up and cool down. Have a migraine that I am battling today which is making everything just that much more difficult, but over all my body seems to really be responding well to going back to this old workout that I used to do for years. Seems all the muscle soreness is very short lived and I am recovering much better and sleeping like a log. My legs are feeling much better too. It's a great feeling to actually be tired when my wife is ready to go to bed. Usually I'm wired for another hour or two after she goes to bed.

Sorry to hear about the migrane. But I think cutting corners is perfectly fine. My ST workouts were designed so that I do the main exercises first, so that if I'm pressed for time I can at least get those in. Once again, our parallels continue, insofar as you've also returned to something that worked for you in the past after experiment with some novel approaches. I'm back stuck on the one day weights, one day running routine and I love it. It suits me to a T (whatever that means).

 

[NickW]

Sorry to hear about the migrane. But I think cutting corners is perfectly fine. My ST workouts were designed so that I do the main exercises first, so that if I'm pressed for time I can at least get those in. Once again, our parallels continue, insofar as you've also returned to something that worked for you in the past after experiment with some novel approaches. I'm back stuck on the one day weights, one day running routine and I love it. It suits me to a T (whatever that means).

Ya know, I don't know why I sometimes question myself and try new ideas. I know what works for me, I've done it for years and years. I do still incorporate some new exercises into this workout now, but I am keeping the main points from my old workout. I did try to do some of the inverted leg presses today but after a couple reps my knee had a twinge so I immediately changed to a different workout. I was doing that instead of the squats because it is easier to control with lighter weight than body weight and is an easy way for me to test and see if I was ready for squats. Apparently not. Oh, and also last night I got that book you recommended, Run Less Run Faster. Haven't gotten to start reading it yet but I am hoping to start today. I also hope I didn't sound too cranky on your tech post. My head was really bothering me bad at that point and I know what I wrote sounds like I am grumpy or a prick. Ah well, most people on here I think know that I'm not.

 

[Spiderweb62]

Nice work Andy! But actually, I think cadence and stride length normally covary with respect to velocity. The ratio may differ for different runners, but both should increase at higher velocities. I've basically stopped thinking about this stuff. I've got my stamina pace down to about 9mm, which is where my form starts to feel good, and my cadence begins to approach 180. Once I'm at 8mm pace or so, it's 180 or above. The whole 180 cadence thing is based on elite runners running around 5 mm pace, so I think for us, folks who are willing to do speed work and enjoy it, the main thing is focus on improving our times and let cadence, form, and stride fall into place on their own. At least for me, I prefer the mental effort of pushing the pace a bit to the mental effort of thinking about form, cadence, and stride all the time.

Thanks mate ! I agree about the mental effort, and to be honest, I am not really thinking about it during my run, I try to analyse once I come home