Official Strava/Runkeeper Thread

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by Subby

Just checking in for my end of January report.

Going to end up with around 1,025 miles biked this month, plus I have lost 11 pounds since the beginning of the year.

Looking forward to February!

You have been a crazy beast this month on the bike...

1025 miles is a ton for a month, but you've been doing it in this cold weather is just insanely awesome.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Subby

Just checking in for my end of January report.

Going to end up with around 1,025 miles biked this month, plus I have lost 11 pounds since the beginning of the year.

Looking forward to February!

You are a beast.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Surf City Half Marathon coming up on the morning of Superbowl Sunday.

Expecting about 15,000 half marathoners and 2,000 full.

Partly cloudy with a high of 60F... Perfect running conditions!

Chief Rum and I are both signed up for this event. Cheer us on!!!

Thanks everyone, and good luck ABC! I'm looking forward to a good run and setting the standard which I will then attempt to beat in multiple races ever afterwards!

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Thanks everyone, and good luck ABC! I'm looking forward to a good run and setting the standard which I will then attempt to beat in multiple races ever afterwards!

Good luck to you too Chief! And if you happened to see a Filipino guy wearing a light blue UCLA visor (like the one on the bottom of page 23 of this thread) along the course - or at the beer garden - wave and say hi.

[Chief Rum]

Cool deal! I'll keep an eye out for you. I haven't decided what I am wearing just yet, but when I do, I'll post it here and you can look for me, too.

I am in the 8:03 a.m. wave, which is for predicted finishers 2:20-2:30.

Mind you, I have no idea how long I will take. I put that time in because they asked me at registration to put in a time, so I just threw out a guess.

[AnalBumCover]

I'll be in the 3:00+ wave.

[Alan T]

Several people have asked me before how to keep track of your top X number of PR for a distance. Strava only shows your best, but if you wanted to know your top 3 best 5K or such.

I've always used sporttracks to keep that for myself, but now there is a free way to do it for those interested. Veloviewer which pulls your data from strava has a page now that will show your top X number of runs at any of the typical distances.

So if you want to know what your third fastest 10k was, you can find it there now.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Several people have asked me before how to keep track of your top X number of PR for a distance. Strava only shows your best, but if you wanted to know your top 3 best 5K or such.

I've always used sporttracks to keep that for myself, but now there is a free way to do it for those interested. Veloviewer which pulls your data from strava has a page now that will show your top X number of runs at any of the typical distances.

So if you want to know what your third fastest 10k was, you can find it there now.

ok, went to the site and it pulled all my data but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to view my best performances... Any helps?

FM

[FrogMan]

ok, figured it out, needed to see all my runs with the "runs" configuration and then sort by distances...

FM

[AnalBumCover]

Half Marathon post is up on Strava. Full report to follow.

[Ben E Lou]

I did a 20-miler in under 3 hours around 6 weeks ago, got sick a few days later, and haven't been strictly on the marathon training program since then. Issues with injury, illness, holiday travel, and lack of focus aside, I can also say that based on the marathon training I've done, I think I can state pretty conclusively that at this stage of my kids' life, at least, marathons (and probably even halfs) just aren't for me. The bottom line is that despite my wife's support and encouraging me to do it, I simply don't like leaving all the burden on her and leaving my family for that long on a weekend. Maybe in a couple of years when early weekend mornings aren't such a burden I'll give it another shot.

I'm still running regularly (3-4 days most weeks, about to push that to 4-5 most likely), but in the short-term I'm swearing off of race-specific training and just focusing on fitness, body fat control, etc. I might do a 5K or 10K here and there. (There's a very popular 10K in Charleston in April that I'm eyeing.) But I think the right call for now is to stay away from trying to train for any long races until my youngest's sleeping patterns change again--or until she's old enough to play on her own or with her sister for a while in the mornings.

[Chief Rum]

I had a more successful run at the Surf City half-marathon than I thought. I went in figuring I would be at 2 hours, 20 minutes, and hoping I could push it to within shouting distance of 2 hours.

It turns out I ran it in 1 hr 50 mins!

So, pretty stoked about that.

[Alan T]

Great job both ABC and Chief!

I had my wife log on to the Surf City webpage on her ipad while we were getting ready to go to a super bowl party to track and see how you both were doing.

We followed you both for a while!

[HerRealName]

Good job Rob and CR.

Ben, it was rough for me when my two oldest were really young too. Now the older two watch the youngest when needed and it is so much easier. You'll get that BQ when the time is right.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I had a more successful run at the Surf City half-marathon than I thought. I went in figuring I would be at 2 hours, 20 minutes, and hoping I could push it to within shouting distance of 2 hours.

It turns out I ran it in 1 hr 50 mins!

So, pretty stoked about that.

Wow! Congrats Chief! That headwind at the turnaround didn't slow you down one bit, eh?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Wow! Congrats Chief! That headwind at the turnaround didn't slow you down one bit, eh?

Thanks, everyone!

Haha ABC, that sucked. Made it cold lol.

I guess it didn't slow me down, but it sure as heck didn't feel great. That last long stretch, I was pretty much just focusing on finishing and ending the pain.

How do you feel about how you did? Congratulations on finishing!

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

How do you feel about how you did? Congratulations on finishing!

Training for this event was non-existent, so my primary goal was to traverse the entire 13.1 mile long course and cross the finish line on two working legs. And I succeeded.

I used the first couple of miles as my warm-up, I adopted a 2/1 pace where I would slowly run for two minutes and walk for one. I programmed this into my Garmin so it would alert me of my intervals. This discipline is the one thing that kept me sane throughout the course. Otherwise I probably would have over done it early on and not have the gas to finish.

The course itself was long and flat. After about two and a half miles we detoured off the main beach highway for three miles for a small climb, but it wasn't very difficult. Back on the main highway, we continued on north until about mile 8 where we would turn around for the five mile home stretch.

I wasn't expecting the strong headwind at the turnaround. It made the last few miles difficult, but also made me want to finish more urgently. I dropped my head and pushed through.

Mile 9. My hamstrings started to go out. My pace slowed down by a minute.

Mile 10. Just a 5k distance to go. I tried to run the remaining 5k, but my legs were just on fire. I just maintained the 2/1 pace.

Mile 11. I turned around and saw a school bus following about 200 meters back. Thinking it was a sweeper bus picking up the slow folks to reopen the streets, I picked up my pace for fear of possibly not finishing the race. I looked at my new Road ID bracelet and read out the last line. "DLF > DNF >> DNS" Damn it. I WILL FINISH THIS RACE!

Turns out it wasn't a sweeper bus, but just parking shuttle bus just passing through.

Mile 12. I could see the finish line. I tested my legs, and with about 3/4 mile left, and fueled by what little spectator crowd that remained, I was able to kick it into high gear all the way to the finish line, arms raised for the photographers.

Finish: 3:51:05
Pace: 17:38
Overall: 15140 out of 15447
Men: 5992 out of 6066
M 40-44: 954 out of 960

{edited to add the pivotal Mile 11}

[Alan T]

One of my favorite geeky things to do lately with my running is to measure my running efficiency between runs. Since I constantly run different paths, the elevation is different and comparing those runs are not necessarily always effective, but when I run the same course multiple times I can compare a previous run with current runs to see if via my training I am becoming more efficient.

Setting PRs are great, but I've gotten to the point where I am not really setting a ton of PRs in every training run anymore as I am not necessarily racing them and depending on the day's workout may only be running at 40-60% effort. So what I am looking for is to see the amount of effort it takes to move x pace via heart rate.

Doing this has helped me find that I've been continuing to make slow and steady improvements as I go. Here is a chart I put together of my 12+ mile run that I did today on the same course that I did back on December 21st as well. The workouts were almost identical in intended pace and distance, so a perfect place for me to see how things have progressed in about 5-6 weeks.




This uses the formula:

Total Beats = (Average Heart Rate – Resting Heart Rate) * Time in Minutes
Work Per Mile = Total Beats / Distance in Miles
Efficiency = 1 / Work Per Mile * 100,000

I already knew before putting this together that today's run was better than the one in December. I ran it 9 seconds per mile faster and did it with a Heart rate that averaged 4bpm lower. The graph shows that my downhills back then as well as today are both close to the same. My limiting factor on those seem to be how fast I can run down the hill without tripping on my feet and going tumbling. Where the big improvements are is that I am getting better at the elevation increases and overall more efficient.

Anyways, like I said, pretty geeky but fun stuff for me to look at. I did the same thing to measure all of my long runs that I did the past several weeks. Was interesting to see the one that I completely fell apart during (19 mile run) vs the 20 and 21 mile runs that I did that felt much stronger.

[FrogMan]

Alan, you know that's the kind of geekery I love! Will have to find a way to work that into my spreadsheet. I currently love looking at the training load screen in Sporttracks which I then export and save to my spreadsheet. I also love the SPI index from Smashrun to have an idea of how good one run is compared to another, but I never thought about comparing it mile by mile (or probably in my case, km by km). Interesting thinking...

FM

[FrogMan]

As for me, I'm a little excited right now because tomorrow is the day I officially start my 12 weeks training plan that will get me to my first half marathon and which will be followed by 16 more weeks to get me to my first full marathon! Sure, I kept running all through winter, usually 5 times a week but now this is for real, toward a fixed objective. I'd circled that February 10th date on my calendar a while ago and there we are. Woah, these two training plans will have me running close to a thousand miles (1548 km to be exact or 962 miles) over 28 weeks with three 20 milers in July and August. It's gonna be crazy, but amazing!

If you're curious, here's the training plan I have modified to get to the half marathon. Goal pace is 4:30/km or about 7:14/mile for a finish time under 1h35min... Most training runs will happen in the morning, around 5:15 before going to work, until the runs are too long, then I'll work something out after work...

It's not all set in stone and still big chunks of the first few weeks will be done on the treadmill, but this should give me a good baseline.

FM

[Alan T]

FM, with all of the running that you have been doing through the winter, you are in a really good position for the start of your training. I have a feeling that you're going to do great!

On a different note, my wife got me an early Valentine's day present, the Garmin 620 watch that I've been wanting for a while. I took it for a quick 1/4th mile run on the treadmill last night just to play with the data points that it provides for running analytics. I think this watch is going to be quite a good bit of fun for me to over-analyze the data Plenty of reports that the GPS functionality on it is a little less consistent than my 210 that I have been using, but I'm thinking with all of the new features, that won't be a huge deal with how I usually run (No real curvy paths or runs through cities with tall buildings) so I think it will be fine.

Also on yet another unrelated note.. Anyone else watching the NBC coverage of the olympics throughout the day.. I've become addicted to that Reebok commercial for their new running shoe (the one with the underdog theme song). Every time it comes on, I stop what I am doing to watch it. All I know is that I need to go somewhere with a subway train like that commercial so I can do whatever they are doing in that spot. Some kind of 3 team race between subway stops looked really fun in that commercial!

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Alan T

FM, with all of the running that you have been doing through the winter, you are in a really good position for the start of your training. I have a feeling that you're going to do great!

Thanks for the vote of confidence I'm quite confident for at least the half marathon that I'll be able to perform well. It's after that that I'm a bit more nervous. I mean, I have done the distance, the 13.1 in training, now it's a matter of pushing harder. But I've never done much more than that, them three 20 milers I see on my marathon plan (which I'll share here in due time) that I'm worried about, but hey, we'll cross the bridge when we get to the river, as any good hockey player would say

FM

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

Thanks for the vote of confidence I'm quite confident for at least the half marathon that I'll be able to perform well. It's after that that I'm a bit more nervous. I mean, I have done the distance, the 13.1 in training, now it's a matter of pushing harder. But I've never done much more than that, them three 20 milers I see on my marathon plan (which I'll share here in due time) that I'm worried about, but hey, we'll cross the bridge when we get to the river, as any good hockey player would say

FM

I totally can relate. I have 11 days till my Marathon. My nerves haven't started setting in yet, but the date is coming really fast for me!

[Alan T]

Did my first run with my new Garmin 620. I must have spent 30 minutes just analyzing the data. What fun!

So at first glance, my running form according to the watch looks pretty good. I already felt my form was alright, but Cadence is almost always right around 180, and the vertical oscillation is measured around 7.4-7.9cm range which seems to be in the sweet spot area as well. Obviously that can be improved on still, but I am pretty happy with the progress that I have made there.

The one thing I'm not so sure on is the ground contact time measurement. I'm right around the 240-260 range. I know most elite runners are below 220, and by no means do I consider myself elite. I know increasing cadence reduces ground contact time, and some elite runners have cadence get even higher, close to 190-200 range even. I wonder if I should look at increasing cadence even more to reduce ground contact time or what. Something that I'll have to research more and ask others that know far more than I do about running mechanics I guess.

Anyways, I love more data, and this watch definitely gives more data!

Edit: Strava doesn't support any of these new measurements though yet. so I have to view it from Sporttracks or the Garmin Connect site for now.

[Kodos]

Been struggling a bit recently. Need some of this...

[Kodos]

I am playing these things on a loop until I get back into the right frame of mind.

[Kodos]

[FrogMan]

here's my favorite for your viewing pleasure


FM

[Kodos]

Awesome. Thanks!

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Alan T

I totally can relate. I have 11 days till my Marathon. My nerves haven't started setting in yet, but the date is coming really fast for me!

Good luck on your Marathon this weekend, Alan.

I'm addicted to this racing thing, as I have a 5K this weekend. I was invited to join the running club/team at work, and had my registration fee reimbursed.

It's the Chinatown Firecracker 5k/10k run around Dodger Stadium. It's a hilly course, something I don't typically train for. But my run today gave me a bit of confidence that my old form is returning. I'm aiming to finish in under 45 minutes.

[Kodos]

Good luck in your races, boys. When the winter clears here, I will try to enter some races too.

[HerRealName]

Good luck Alan. How is the weather looking this weekend for the race?

[FrogMan]

yes, good luck for your marathon Alan, and great to see you really involved Rob! Looking forward to read them race reports!

FM

[Alan T]

Thanks guys. I'm really excited, only two more days.

Looks like we lucked out for the weather for this. It is warming up to 47 + rainy today and then over the weekend looks to be dry but getting a little cooler. Still should be 40-45 degrees I think on race day and the next storm is waiting until Monday to come in.

So really really lucking out with weather. Going to be great looking at race pictures of me running in shorts in front of 2 feet snow piles Looks like it might be pretty windy (usually is on the cape), but otherwise can't really ask for much more.

Not really getting nervous yet.. just wish it was already Sunday. I'm ready to do this! Main goal is obviously to finish the thing.. not sure that I am really going in with a time goal for my first marathon. I just want to see how well I do and enjoy it.

[AnalBumCover]

Alan, not sure if you've figured it out yet, but your Garmin 620 should sync nicely with the Garmin Connect app for Android... though I believe your Android device needs to be running KitKat OS (v4.4).

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Izulde

38:32 5K
98th of 150 overall
44th of 54 men
15th of 19 men 30-39

12:25 min/mile pace

Did the Color Run 5K today. Although not officially timed and designed to be a fun run, I decided to see what time I could get out of.

Not sure of the distance on the previous one because I didn't have MapMyRun going then, but according to this one 2.94 miles - 36:38 - 12:27 min/mile pace which :02 difference I'll take into account as it being a Color Run and the bottlenecks that ensue because of that. So essentially about the same.

[Kodos]

Very curious to hear how Alan and ABC's races went today.

[AnalBumCover]

Hills killed me but I finished very strong. Finished under goal time of 45mins. Full report to follow when I get home and upload my Garmin.

[Kodos]

Nice!

[HerRealName]

Good job ABC. I did some stalker work this morning and it looks like Alan started at 9:30 or 10:00 so he should be finishing soon. I hope it's going well.

[Chief Rum]

Congrats ABC!

Today I ran in 8K in Brea. I wasn't intending to do this run, but my brother wanted to do it, and I want to encourage him. He did really good, finishing in 47 minutes, a little over 9 mins/mile.

And then there's me. I figured out if I ran my half marathon pace, I would finish in about 41 minutes, so my goal was to beat that and hopefully get under 40 mins.

My unofficial time? 39:12 mins! Good for 7:53 miles. I did not expect to beat 8 minute miles. So I'm thrilled.

[FrogMan]

great job guys! Very ncie to see you beat your goals!

FM

[Alan T]

Great job ABC and Chief!

For me, I wrote this on Facebook:

I finished my marathon! The time was not as good as I had hoped, I had a very rough final 8 miles. No matter how much I read ahead of time, it never prepared me for how physically and mentally tough the race was. I still am very proud that I can call myself a marathoner and will use this as a stepping stone for the next one!

My net time ended up 4:45, I ran the first half in just under 2 hours but the back half of the race did me in.

I uploaded the run to strava so you all can see how epically I melted down My suffer score was 769.. My TRIMP was 693, which is a new record by almost 200. I pretty much did everything that you aren't supposed to do in a marathon. Started too fast, Cadence too low and did not realize how it was spiraling out of control until it was too late.

The last three miles I really had a hard time putting one foot in front of another. In fact, my last two miles took me 33 minutes.

[Kodos]

You're still way ahead of all the non-marathoners! Great job finishing. That is a great accomplishment in itself. I hope you're not too sore in the coming days.

[FrogMan]

as I said on your FB, that is pure awesomeness! You're an amazing source of inspiration and have now officially instilled fear in me. If I wasn't afraid of myself going for that crazy distance before today, I now am... Training, training, training... Even then, I'm not sure anything will ever prepare me for it really...

FM

[AnalBumCover]

At the LA Chinatown Firecracker 5K/10K, it was a clear 57F degrees just before the gun. The opening ceremonies consisted of dancing dragons, a performance by the Clippers girls, and the lighting of 100,000 firecrackers. It was a party, no doubt.

With 2,500 runners in the 5K event, it was a crowded street. With so much noise, loud speakers, and no one really paying attention, I had no idea the race actually started until we started inching forward.

I had mapped and studied the course, planning a strategy on those three inclines. But when it came to actually running the race, I did not expect how steep or long they really were. Having never trained on hills, I couldn't maintain a run and had to walk most of it.

At mile 1, my watched reported 15:58 much slower than my planned 45 minute goal. I still had a half mile of a long incline to tackle. By the turnaround at mile 1.5, I was at 24:24. Still behind. I needed to really kick it up if I wanted to beat my goal.

But just like I never trained for inclines, I never trained to run downhill. To avoid injury, I kept my knees bent and stride short. But my pace was at 11-12 min/mi. I am definitely making up what I had lost earlier in the race.

At mile 2, my time was at 30:21. So I've returned to my goal average pace, but I have another slight incline at the end before I hit the final homestretch. I took that hill slowly, but once that was over, I picked it up.

I kept looking at my watch to see where I was at and what my time was. It's now or never. At the final quarter mile, and with the finish line in sight, I kicked into 5th gear. I could almost feel my stomach come up at times, but I would not be denied my goal time.

My Garmin showed the course was a tad short of a full 5K, coming in at 3.06 miles and a 43:44 unofficial time.

Official race results:
Time: 43:36
Pace: 14:01/M
Overall Place: 1551/2739
Age Group Place: 70/111

[digamma]

Alan,

Nice work. It's a great accomplishment, particularly considering where you started. I remember the last 5-K of my first marathon being an almost out of body experience. You really can't prepare for that experience no matter how much you've read or trained. The good news is if you have the desire to do it again (I suspect you might), you know what it feels like now and can learn from the experience.

Congrats!

[AnalBumCover]

Another great race weekend. Congrats Alan on your first Full Marathon! And to Chief Rum, I did a little cyber stalking on your race results as I was curious about this 8K race (I might sign up for this next year). Have you seen your "official" time online yet? Very impressive!

[Kodos]

Nice run, ABC. You battled through the adversity nicely.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by AnalBumCover

Another great race weekend. Congrats Alan on your first Full Marathon! And to Chief Rum, I did a little cyber stalking on your race results as I was curious about this 8K race (I might sign up for this next year). Have you seen your "official" time online yet? Very impressive!

I did see it actually! And, yes, I was even more stoked! My time dropped even further than I thought with that. That puts me at about 7:48 miles (quick math in my head). I finished 21st in the men aged 40-44 group.

It was fun. I would love to see you up there next year. Yours sounds like fun, too. I know my brother would have loved running through Dodger Stadium.