Official Strava/Runkeeper Thread

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Ben, tomorrow is the big day right? When do we get to find out if you are cleared to start running again?

Yes, tomorrow at 2:00 PM is the appointment. However, I will not be able to run tomorrow. The wife has to travel for work and the youngest one is sick and will be with me. I don't really want to take her in her jogging stroller. The wife gets back eatly Wednesday evening and I should be able to run then, assuming I have been cleared.

[johnnyshaka]

Good luck, Ben, hope all goes well.

Looks like my quest to start running will be put on hiatus for at least a few weeks, maybe even a month. My best buddy is a chiropractor (although, we're two time zones apart) and I spoke to him tonight and he said about 75% of the people he sees are people in my position...people who have been sedentary for too long and jump right back into things as if they haven't been sitting on their asses for 10 years. Essentially breaks down to doing too much, too soon...and that makes sense.

So, he suggested a few exercises and to use a foam roller to see how that goes for a few weeks but stop running in the meantime. Walking is fine so long as there is no pain so I'll hopefully keep doing that...we'll see.

[FrogMan]

take it easy, work your leg muscles slowly back into shape and you'll be with us all in no time.

[Subby]

Everyone probably saw this already, but this past Sunday I completed my second century ride. This one was a little different in that it was supported (rest stops with lots of good food, bike maintenance tents) and there were probably a couple thousand other folks doing it.

Right off the bat my buddy and I missed a turn and ended up not realizing it until about mile 13. We were on the back 50 of the 100 mile course. Some other riders that were behind us had missed the same turn and decided to keep going. We decided that we were doing this the right way, so we backtracked 11 miles to the turn we missed. As a bonus we met up with a bunch of friends at the first rest stop, friends that we thought we would never see because of our error. They had been really late and we rode with them the rest of the time. The weather was perfect and there is just nothing better than country roads for a long ride. At the end of the day we clocked in at just over 122 miles.

Just a great day all around.

[Ben E Lou]

Nice, Subby!

Just finished hopefully my final incline treadmill walk for a while, but went out with a bang, slightly eclipsing my heart rate for my last pre-surgery Tempo Run.

I really hope I'm fully healed, because it's going to be extremely difficult to take it easy when I feel like I can improve on my times fairly dramatically. I'm roughly 10 pounds lighter than I was pre-surgery. the weather is *much* cooler, (at least this week,) my legs are stronger from all the hill work, and I've pushed my heart rate harder the last week and a half than I have...ever. I assume the reason for not running is the pounding/jiggling of the healing area, so I don't want to jeopardize my recovery, but I suspect it's not going to be easy to hold back.

[Ben E Lou]

Doc gave me the all-clear for running, and actually said I can resume lighter (15-rep) lifting at the beginning of next week, too.

[Alan T]

Great news!

[FrogMan]

woot!

FM

[johnnyshaka]

Atta boy, Ben!

Take that, hernia!!!!

[Kodos]

Great to hear, Ben!

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonably-priced treadmill?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Can anyone recommend a good, reasonably-priced treadmill?

Not sure what for you is reasonably price. The one I have is the Merit 725t plus:

Amazon.com: Merit Fitness 725T Plus Treadmill: Sports & Outdoors

It was only like $350-$400 or so I think, but the main reason I got it was that it folds up when not being used (my wife and I almost exclusively prefer to run outside so it hasn't been used in a few months, but she will use it more in the winter time).

It has held up fine for us and no real complaints here about it. I think there are cheaper treadmills out there or more expensive/better ones depending on what you are looking for though.

[AnalBumCover]

Nice!

[FrogMan]

I splurged a bit and got myself this baby:
NordicTrack® Commercial 1750 Treadmill- Best Buy Award- HD Treadmills Video Workouts

Yeah, $1500 is probably not "reasonably priced" by all means, but I will be using the thing probably for 5 months so I wanted something a bit tougher, and it had nice features...

For now, it's still in parts on our living room floor. Still need to make room for it in as basement bedroom that's currently used for box storage and my son's drum set. Once done, the boxes will be moved out and the drum set will be rearranged so that both my son and I will use the room as our little spot...

FM

[johnnyshaka]

Holy shit, foam rollers are pure EVIL!!!!!

OOOOOOUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

[AnalBumCover]

Haha. Yeah I just got a foam roller a couple of days ago. I agree. Pure EVIL.

[Ben E Lou]

First run back complete. Since I have no real idea where I am speed-wise, I'm going to use heart rates for paces for the next couple of weeks or so, I think. Today I did 3 miles easy, with heart rate at or below 140. (Roughly 133-145 is the "easy" range for me.) Picked it up to 160 for the last mile, which still felt good. Completed that one in 8:09. Upon first look at previous paces vs. heart rates, it appears that I'm going to be a decent bit faster than before the surgery.

No pain or discomfort at all during the run or immediately afterward. Assuming I still feel good, I'll do another easier run tomorrow, take it up a notch on Friday (probably a Tempo Run,) rest Saturday, then do 10ish on Sunday. Monday is my normal rest day. If I do all of that and still feel good on Tuesday morning, I'll pretty much resume a normal running schedule for the rest of the week.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

I splurged a bit and got myself this baby:
NordicTrack® Commercial 1750 Treadmill- Best Buy Award- HD Treadmills Video Workouts

Yeah, $1500 is probably not "reasonably priced" by all means, but I will be using the thing probably for 5 months so I wanted something a bit tougher, and it had nice features...

For now, it's still in parts on our living room floor. Still need to make room for it in as basement bedroom that's currently used for box storage and my son's drum set. Once done, the boxes will be moved out and the drum set will be rearranged so that both my son and I will use the room as our little spot...

FM

That one does look great, but not exactly "reasonable." Maybe I'll go for a cheapish one, and if it turns out I do use it regularly (like I believe I would), then I can upgrade.

[Ben E Lou]

My inner Subby came out this morning--hopefully just the "do too much too fast" part and not the "get injured" part. I went out intending to do 4 to 6 decent-not-pushing-it-too-much intervals. The first few went so well that I ended up doing my normal 880x8 interval workout a good bit faster than I've ever done it.

1-mile warmup @ 9:26
Interval 1: 3:53
Interval 2: 3:36
Interval 3: 3:31
Interval 4: 3:41
Interval 5: 3:35
Interval 6: 3:29
Interval 7: 3:33
Interval 8: 3:24
1-mile cooldown @ 8:10

Jogged all of the recovery times, not even close to needing to walk. Overall pace was way faster than any of my interval workouts to date. What's interesting is that my stride is significantly shorter and faster now just naturally. I'm guessing all the incline treadmill work is playing into that. I had been trying to shorten it up pre-hernia, using a metronome on some runs to force myself to run at 90 strides per minute. Turning on the metronome *always* meant that I would be shortening and quickening my stride. However, today I turned the metronome on during the first interval, but quickly turned it back off because 90 was too slow. I was in the mid-90s on my own during the intervals.

[digamma]

Ben, this is really crazy, insane, impressive work. 3:24 on an 8th interval is ridiculous.

[Subby]

Awesome.

Hill/incline work is so good for you. Nothing bad can come of it. The best way to crush a hill is to significantly shorten your stride. Not surprised this is happening to you.

Fuck. Now I have to start running again.

[FrogMan]

That is awesome Ben, and quite conclusive regarding incline walking. I will definitely have to dabble in it once my treadmill is functional. I got tons of TV series waiting to be watched and I could knock out a few episodes simply walking at a good incline.

FM

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Subby

The best way to crush a hill is to significantly shorten your stride.

Right. That part I knew. But I was *walking* all the time. I'm just really surprised that evidently it has translated over to running. Granted, I was always pumping my arms and trying to simulate a running motion as much as I could when I was walking, but still...

And yeah, the incline treadmill seems to make a ton of sense for the lower-impact workout you can get. The fact that I was able to get the heart rate as I high as I was makes it well worth the time in that I could get the same or higher calorie burns as my runs (and I was moving slowly enough to watch movies on Netflix!) Now at some point, I would think I'd have to run to get that same benefit, so I'd lose the "low-impact" piece, but that's still a good bit away. I was holding a 150-155 HR walking in the 3.4ish mph range, 160-165 at 3.6-3.7. I did some increases in speed at times, and up to around 4.3 or 4.4 is still a walk for me at 15% incline, so that seems to be a pretty long way off.

I just wish I'd thought of it as an option during the times when the wife traveled in the summer and the only time I could run was during the hot day. Clearly I would have been able to get better workouts in this way than those 35-minute nothing runs in 100+ heat-index weather I was doing.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola...

But I have no idea where it fits in to a workout schedule in terms of recovery/rest and all of that. My working theory is to make it purely heart-rate based: if I do an incline walk on a "recovery" day, then keep the HR in the 130-140 range, but if it's on day when I'm rested, push it up into the 150s or 160s and run slowly the next day.

[Ben E Lou]

Double dola...

Hmmm....maybe a two-week rotation where one week you run on the hard days and do incline walks on the easier days, then the next week do incline walks for the hard days and runs for the easier days. Sounds good in theory. I might do that after I get past this HM...

[AnalBumCover]

I decided to push up my recovery week to this week. I've been steadily increasing my my mileage each week for the past 5 weeks, except for race weekend on 9/8, all within the "10% rule".

This week I've been feeling the strain of the increased miles on my legs, especially during my Tuesday workout. They were still bit wobbly on my slow recovery run the next day. So I decided to cut the week short and turn it into my recovery week (originally scheduled for next week).

With fresh legs on Sunday, I may do a 5K time trial on the same race course I did in June and update my McMillan pace chart.

[Alan T]

I finally put together my winter running goals after talking them through with my wife some. Getting to the point of 4 hour long runs means some buying in from her before I jump down that rabbit hole. I posted the long version over in my running thread for those who want to read it. Here is the short verions of my winter goals:

Originally Posted by Alan T

Once again for those who don't want to read the entire thing, here is my winter running goals listed out:

- Run a 10k in under 50 minutes
- Run 26.2 miles
- Run a Marathon Race
- Run a Marathon in under 4 hours

[Chief Rum]

I don't do Runkeeper or Strava, but I use Runtastic to track how much I am walking around at my serving job. I usually run treadmills at the gym.

So why am I posting? Because this almost seems like a runners thread as much as a specific app/running thread.

I am intending to run three half-marathons between now and January, in preparation for attempting to run the LA Marathon. So wish me luck.

I'm also looking to participate in at least one Ragnar next year.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Dola...

But I have no idea where it fits in to a workout schedule in terms of recovery/rest and all of that. My working theory is to make it purely heart-rate based: if I do an incline walk on a "recovery" day, then keep the HR in the 130-140 range, but if it's on day when I'm rested, push it up into the 150s or 160s and run slowly the next day.

some of Hal Higdon's plan have a day that is either "rest" or "cross-training" and for him, cross-training can be either swim, bike or even walking. I'd think that a high incline walk would be a nice switch from running on those rest days. So yeah, purely heart rate with no to low impact...

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I don't do Runkeeper or Strava, but I use Runtastic to track how much I am walking around at my serving job. I usually run treadmills at the gym.

So why am I posting? Because this almost seems like a runners thread as much as a specific app/running thread.

I am intending to run three half-marathons between now and January, in preparation for attempting to run the LA Marathon. So wish me luck.

I'm also looking to participate in at least one Ragnar next year.

hey, welcome to the fold! Yeah, we're mostly runners that happen to use Strava but I don't see why you wouldn't fit in... Good luck with your goals!

FM

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I finally put together my winter running goals after talking them through with my wife some. Getting to the point of 4 hour long runs means some buying in from her before I jump down that rabbit hole. I posted the long version over in my running thread for those who want to read it. Here is the short verions of my winter goals:

yeah, you are crazy

So you plan on running a marathon, then racing in one? yeah, crazy

Good luck, but I know it's not luck, you got the drive to make all those happen. Go!

FM

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

hey, welcome to the fold! Yeah, we're mostly runners that happen to use Strava but I don't see why you wouldn't fit in... Good luck with your goals!

FM

Maybe we should update the title?

[Alan T]

Welcome to the group chief! You can friend me on runtastic, even though I am like three weeks behind in uploading to runtastic.

Eventually we will convince you to start using strava with us though! I would love to keep track of your marathon progression, good luck with it!

[AnalBumCover]

Which halfs are you running chief? I'm guessing Long Beach in October to start?

[Subby]

Umm yeah, hi...can we step it up, people?

UC League Details | Fit Leagues

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Umm yeah, hi...can we step it up, people?

UC League Details | Fit Leagues

Challenge accepted!

[AnalBumCover]

Anyone else having issues with Strava's export to GPX function?

[Subby]

Does anyone use MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper? If so, can I set it up so that my exercises automatically flow into MyFitnessPal?

Signed,

Eating 5K Calories Per Day

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Does anyone use MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper? If so, can I set it up so that my exercises automatically flow into MyFitnessPal?

Signed,

Eating 5K Calories Per Day

I have a myfitnesspal account that I neglect (since I used LoseIt and liked it more), but in myfitnesspal, it is pulling my running data from endomodo currently but it does show runkeeper as an option, so I assume you can do that as well.

In LoseIt, I have it coming over from Runkeeper which I know works.

[johnnyshaka]

Originally Posted by Subby

Does anyone use MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper? If so, can I set it up so that my exercises automatically flow into MyFitnessPal?

Signed,

Eating 5K Calories Per Day

Yup, I'm using both apps and they work very well together...stuff from RunKeeper dumps into MFP automagically.

[Subby]

Very happy so far with the RunKeeper/MyFitnessPal integration.

I also used tapiriik.com to save a copy of my GPX files to my dropbox. Kind of cool, so you always have your data if you want to do something else with it. I did, and was able to upload all of my rides to Ridewithgps.com. That site does a much better job with spreadsheet view of my workouts and it also improves the elevation numbers (strava and runkeeper always seem to cheat you on distance climbed).

[Subby]

Coming from Key Bridge yesterday afternoon into Virginia, crossed into Marriott parking lot and caught an edge on a sidewalk seam and went over the handlebars. Just happened out of nowhere. Thanks to the folks who checked on me as I waited to get picked up by my wife.

Posting this his from my hospital bed. I have internal bleeding from a bruised kidney and a broken scapula-on the other side of my body fortunately. Finally hit 10 on the pain scale and they have me cranked up on morphine. So bummed. I guess my bike is cursed.

The dark comedy level irony is that my orthopedic doctor just yesterday morning told me that I was 100% healed now. At least I was artful enough to crash on my other side. GAHHHH.

[AnalBumCover]

Wow, that's a bummer.

I agree, your bike is cursed.

[edit to add] Oh yeah, hope you recover quickly!

[Kodos]

Ugh. So sorry to hear that, Subby.

[FrogMan]

ish, that sucks big time

Get better soon!

FM

[digamma]

You've got to be kidding me, Subby. Really bummed for you.

[digamma]

Does anyone know if Strava will clean up a segment leaderboard if someone is obviously on a bike based on their time?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Subby

Coming from Key Bridge yesterday afternoon into Virginia, crossed into Marriott parking lot and caught an edge on a sidewalk seam and went over the handlebars. Just happened out of nowhere. Thanks to the folks who checked on me as I waited to get picked up by my wife.

Posting this his from my hospital bed. I have internal bleeding from a bruised kidney and a broken scapula-on the other side of my body fortunately. Finally hit 10 on the pain scale and they have me cranked up on morphine. So bummed. I guess my bike is cursed.

The dark comedy level irony is that my orthopedic doctor just yesterday morning told me that I was 100% healed now. At least I was artful enough to crash on my other side. GAHHHH.

Dude... I'm sorry. This sucks. I get worried when I ride my bike, I don't even ride in my neighborhood anymore because people are so terrible at driving. I take my bike to local paths and ride instead. Wishing you another quick recovery.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Coming from Key Bridge yesterday afternoon into Virginia, crossed into Marriott parking lot and caught an edge on a sidewalk seam and went over the handlebars. Just happened out of nowhere. Thanks to the folks who checked on me as I waited to get picked up by my wife.

Posting this his from my hospital bed. I have internal bleeding from a bruised kidney and a broken scapula-on the other side of my body fortunately. Finally hit 10 on the pain scale and they have me cranked up on morphine. So bummed. I guess my bike is cursed.

The dark comedy level irony is that my orthopedic doctor just yesterday morning told me that I was 100% healed now. At least I was artful enough to crash on my other side. GAHHHH.

Ugh.. that sucks.. you were just starting to tear things up again with your century rides too. Get re-better again soon man!

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by digamma

Does anyone know if Strava will clean up a segment leaderboard if someone is obviously on a bike based on their time?

You need to flag the ride for Strava to know to look at it. Once they get alerted to it, they'll usually fix it if it is obvious

[vex]

Originally Posted by digamma

Does anyone know if Strava will clean up a segment leaderboard if someone is obviously on a bike based on their time?

Do you mean the #1 person who "ran" at around 1:30/mi at times? Yeah, that's possible..