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02-06-2013, 08:52 PM
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#1 | ||
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Couch to ??k (A RL running dynasty)
Welcome to my running log. I do not know how many will read along, but a quick summary, I will be turning 38 in a few months, other than playing softball and occasional activity have been a stationary IT guy for most of my life. I've recently started running for both entertainment as well as healthy exercise. I've lost approximately 60 pounds and want to share with everyone else my experiences as I continue this journey. This is an interactive thread, so feel free to jump in and make comments, suggestions or ask questions as I go!
Personal Stats: Starting Weight: (Jan 14, 2009) 263 pounds Current Weight: (As of August 9, 2013) 188.2 pounds Total Weight loss: (As of August 9, 2013) 74.8 pounds Personal Goals: Weight below 230 pounds: Achieved 3/31/09 - 229.2 pounds Weight below 220 pounds: Achieved 9/30/10 - 217.5 pounds Weight below 210 pounds: Achieved 3/11/13 - 207.8 pounds Weight below 200 pounds: Achieved 5/29/13 - 199.9 pounds Weight below 190 pounds: Achieved 8/3/13 - 189.1 pounds Weight below 184 pounds: Not achieved Yet Walk/Jog more than 1 mile: Achieved 9/11/12 - 2.4 miles in 30 minutes (treadmill) 9/16/12 - 2.6 miles in 33 minutes Walk/Jog a 5k: Achieved 10/9/12 - 3.1 miles in 39:27 Run 5k without walking: Achieved 10/18/12 - 3.2 miles in 39:33 Run a 5k race: Achieved 10/21/12 - 3.2 miles in 44:30 (trail race) Achieved 11/3/12 - 3.1 miles in 33:36 Run 5k in under 35 minutes: Achieved 11/3/12 - 3.1 miles in 33:36 Run 4 miles: Achieved 11/5/12 - 4 miles in 50:13 Run 10k: Achieved 2/12/13 - 6.2 miles in 1:17:19 Run 5k in under 30 minutes: Achieved 3/24/13 - 3.1 miles in 29:16 Run a 5 Mile Race: Achieved 5/4/13 - 5.0 miles in 46:09 Run a 10k Race: Achieved 6/1/13 - 10k in 1:03:41 Run 5k in under 25 minutes: Achieved 9/21/13 - 5k in 24:29 Run 10k in under 1 hour: Achieved 6/15/13 - 10k in 56:19 Run 13.1 miles: Achieved 7/28/13 - 13.5 miles in 2:32:37 Run a Half Marathon Race: Achieved 9/15/13 - Surftown Half Marathon in 1:55:11 Bike 25 miles: Achieved 8/13/13 - 25.5 miles in 1:43:43 Run 10k in under 55 minutes: Achieved 9/15/13 - 10k in 53:53 Run a 10k in under 50 minutes: Not Achieved Yet Run 26.2 miles: Not Achieved Yet Run a Marathon Race: Not Achieved Yet Run a Marathon in under 4 hours: Not Achieved Yet Personal Bests: Best 1k: 4:38 (9/21/13) Best 1 Mile: 7:33 (9/28/13) Best 5k: 24:29 (9/21/13) Best 10k: 53:53 (9/15/13) Best 15k: 1:21:28 (9/15/13) Best 10 mile: 1:27:36 (9/15/13) Best 20k: 1:48:58 (9/15/13) Best Half Marathon: 1:55:11 (9/15/13) Longest Run: 14.0 miles (8/25/13) VDOT History: 9/16/12: VDOT 21 2.59 - 33:12 10/18/12: VDOT 23 3.22 - 39:33 11/3/12: VDOT 27 3.11 - 33:36 11/16/12: VDOT 28 3.11 - 32:28 11/18/12: VDOT 29 3.18 - 31:50 2/23/13: VDOT 31 3.12 - 30:29 3/2/13: VDOT 32 3.13 - 29:16 5/4/13: VDOT 33 4.99 - 46:09 6/8/13: VDOT 35 3.08 - 26:57 6/21/13: VDOT 37 3.12 - 26:08 9/15/13: VDOT 38 13.24 - 1:57:14 9/21/13: VDOT 39 3.12 - 24:38 9/28/13: VDOT 40 3.05 - 23:28 Weekly Stats: Last edited by Alan T : 09-28-2013 at 11:37 AM. |
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02-06-2013, 09:04 PM
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#2 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Like many around here, I was pretty active when I was younger, through my 20s I was in Softball leagues, played tennis, went biking, etc. As I hit a little past 30, my body changed to where I was gaining weight from my eating habits and I couldn't just eat what I wanted to any longer. As the years went by, especially when various problems occurred, my weight sky rocketed to the point where I was over 260 pounds.
For the most part, the past two years I have gotten the weight mostly under control, at least to where it is not as much of a priority. Currently I am around 217 and could bear to lose another 10-15 pounds, but it not the focus of what I am doing in this dynasty. Better eating and better exercise goes hand in hand, and simply playing softball does not do enough to keep in shape. Last August, my wife made it clear to me that I was spending way too much time working, playing on the computer, participating in sim leagues, etc. So it was a good time for me to take a reflection on some aspects of my life. I never really enjoyed running too much as being overweight, it really hurt my knees.. but having lost a bunch of weight it no longer was as big of a deal.. so I started last August in a Couch to 5k program. It took a few weeks to be able to run consistantly more than 5 minutes without having to walk for a bit, but I finally was able to run a full 5k and actually ran in 4 different 5k races last year. My times were nothing spectacular, ranging from 40 minutes for a 5k to my best time in December of a little over 31 minutes. That is when I hit the wall, physically. I had to have minor surgery on my back, had an upper ankle sprain and it pretty much sidelined me for 6 weeks. That brings me to the last 10 days and picking up year 2 of my running journey. Since I have healed up, I am back to running 4-5 days a week and gotten back to roughly 35-37 minute 5k time. My current goals are to primarily work out a running plan that includes one Long run day, 1 easy run day, and 1 tougher speed/interval running day a week. Then 4 Cross training/rest days, where I bike, weight work out/tone, light run or just plain rest. I have my next 5k race March 9th, and plan on running in many 5ks this year, but I also plan on doing at least one 10k race with a goal to be able to run a half-marathon at least in practice for this year. I'll let those who are interested follow along or give suggestions or ask questions in this Running dynasty ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2/6: Speed/Interval training day Today's Run Today's plan was to run: 1 mile light/easy warm up 1/2 Mile at a faster pace (for me) in 5:23 1/4 mile recovery at light/easy pace 1/2 mile at 5:23 1/4 mile recovery 1/2 mile @ 5:23 1 mile light/easy cool-down Since the roads were pretty icy from snow last night, I decided to run at the high school track today. I do have a treadmill at home, but really hate running on it if I don't have to. Even though it is in the 20s most of the time here, I have been trying to run outside when it is not dangerous from ice. The warm up was easy, even though it was super windy today which is annoying when it is cold. When I got to the interval though after the first mile, I think I was feeling too good. It was really the first time I have opened up since last year, and a flat track means no hills to slow me down. I ended up running my first interval in under 5 minutes, which is a little faster than I was supposed to. The second interval I slowed down a little, and by the third interval I was closer to 10:20 or 10:30/min pace which was only a few seconds off. I didn't really feel winded the first two intervals, but the third one I was starting to feel it a bit, and was thankful for when I got to my recovery stretch. Overall, it says that i ran my second fastest 5k time ever of around 35 minutes, even with the slow downs in there, so that looks like a sign of progress for me. Up the next few days, Thursday I have bowling and will do weight training/toning in the evening. Friday with the huge storm coming, I do not know. Maybe a light run at lunch of no more than 2 miles. Saturday I am supposed to run 5 miles, but really dread the idea of doing that on a treadmill. I might push that off to Sunday to try to do it outside. Last edited by Alan T : 04-11-2013 at 01:22 PM. |
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02-07-2013, 10:28 PM
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#3 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Today was a rest/cross training day for me, so no planned run. I had bowling tonight and then when I got home, I decided to do a quick warm up run at a slow pace on my treadmill.
17 minutes - 1.2 miles After the warm up, I just did light weight and toning exercises for about 45 minutes, and then finished with about 10 minutes of stretching. For the week, I am up to 8 miles so far, with a 5 mile run planned for Saturday, but with the storm, I dread the thought of having to do it on my treadmill. I guess I will see how things work out, if we lose power, that may not be an option either. |
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02-08-2013, 01:04 PM
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#4 |
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College Starter
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: CT via PA via CA via PA
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I hated treadmill running, too, but I got over it. Eventually, I got up to ten miles on the treadmill. Unfortunately, plantar fascitis has ruined my running, so I've been biking a lot. Since I have to start prepping for baseball season, I'll be running a lot more coming up (I hope).
I wish you the best of luck. It was this time last year that I started training for my first 5K (Run For Your Lives in Boston). I ended up finishing in the top 1% of all runners, which really gave me a love of running. I miss it, and will be using your dynasty as motivation to get going again. |
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02-08-2013, 01:24 PM
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#5 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
I did the Six Flags new England Zombie Run last Fall with my wife and had a blast. Been looking at the Run for your lives New England this year, but not sure if I want to do it or not just yet. It is not in Boston this year, is in Connecticut, but not too far from my place. It is a bit pricey though for most of the races I have been doing. |
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02-09-2013, 07:02 AM
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#6 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Yesterday was supposed to be a rest day with a long run today, but with the storm I changed it up a little bit and decided to do my long run yesterday on the treadmill instead since I assume most of this afternoon will be spent trying to clear snow. I was supposed to run 5 miles, which I see as doable outside, but have never run that far on a treadmill before.
1 hour - 4.0 miles I set the treadmill to 2.0 incline as I have read that is a decent starting point for most endurance runs on treadmills and usually use that setting for shorter runs on it. I still have a problem determining the difference in reading on the treadmill vs my footpod and watch though. I know that treadmills generally are not very accurate in their distance reading, but I also think my stride is off on the treadmill. I think I take shorter strides when I run outside, but for whatever reason take longer strides on the treadmill. Instead of me setting the pace, on the treadmill it feels like I am trying to just keep up. After 2 1/2 miles, I already was starting to feel worn out legs, where just the previous week I went 4 miles outside without any problems at all. I ended up changing the plan and ran only 4 miles instead of the planned 5. Including the warm up and cool down period, I went about 4.5 miles in total, but still a little disappointed in not going the entire 5. |
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02-11-2013, 07:57 AM
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#7 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I spent the last two days "cross-training" ie: I spent 2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday shoveling and snow removal.
 I did not want to go the entire weekend without a run though, so I moved my run schedule around a little and did my easy 2 mile run last night. I took it at an easy pace, so finished at roughly 14:30-15:00 minute/mile, but when done wasn't tired at all and felt good, which is what I am aiming for in an "easy run" right now. Run data That put me at right around 14 miles run last week. My goal is to try to get that over 20 miles per week in the next few weeks as I increase the mileage. Today will be a full rest day as I haven't taken a rest day in a while as I plan on doing a long run day on Tuesday. I have less than 1 month now till the first races of the year for me, starting off with two 5k races in March, but plan on adding a tough (ie: cat 5 hill climb) 5 mile in May, and a 10k (not sure which one yet) at some point this summer too. I seriously need to start working on more hill training before May though. |
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02-11-2013, 10:10 PM
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#8 |
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Go Reds
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Bloodbuzz Ohio
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Very impressive stuff, Alan. Keep it up
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02-12-2013, 05:28 PM
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#9 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Today is my "long" run day, so I took advantage of the warm (39 degree) weather mid-day and went for a lunch run. The snow banks are still unmanageable, and most of the sidewalks have not been shoveled/snow-blown so pretty much was street-running only.
I picked a new running course for me mostly due to the highway being plowed better than my normal places I run. There were one or two corners where I feared for an inattentive driver taking the curve and splattering me, but ended up not having any problems other than the occasional ice puddle that I had to run around. This route I took today was far hillier than where I normally run. That probably is a good thing since I really do need to incorporate more hills into my weekly runs over the next month. I think my watch ended up saying I climbed about 268 feet on the run, which is not really anything huge, but combined with my longest run that I have ever done could be an issue. I took a pretty easy pace and maintained it pretty much the entire run, even up hills and didn't have any real problems at all. Around mile 5.5 I started feeling a slight twinge in my left glut, but luckily was close to finishing my run so it did not hinder me any at all. My first 10k distance run in training! So it was nice to make it a full 10k even though the time was nothing great, it at least tells me I'm good for trying one or two 10k races this year, but more importantly will help increase my base and improve my 5k performances on those runs for this year. Up next, Thursday I plan a nice, easy 3-4 mile run with my wife on Valentine's day and then Saturday have interval training followed by another easy run on Sunday. Right now I am aiming for about 16-17 miles for the week which is close to my preliminary goal of getting my miles run per week over 20. |
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02-14-2013, 07:26 PM
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#10 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Yesterday was supposed to be a rest/cross training day for me, but my wife told me one of her friends were coming over to run and asked if I wanted to go with them, so of course i said yes. The snow and ice still is everywhere, so we took a pretty easy pace and basically ran 5k
easy 5k run I started feeling a discomfort on the outside of my knees though which is a little concerning. It seems like a fairly common injury for runners that could be attributed to so many different things.. Possibly too much running too soon, or my quads are too strong for my hamstrings and I need to work on that some, or I need to strengthen my core better, or my stride is having issues, or various things. So the smart thing to do would have been to rest today and let my legs rest up a little bit.. so of course I did not do that. My wife wanted to run again with me, just her and I so I leaped for that chance. It was her day to do some "speed work", but she is a little behind me in training so I felt I could keep a fairly comfortable pace while helping her with that today. The run was fun and the weather was not bad (about 40 degrees or so), but my legs are pretty fatigued now and I think I have pushed a little too much this week. 3.4 miles with my wife today I am already at close to 13 miles for the week with another 2 runs still planned for this weekend. I have speed run on Saturday and an easy 2 miler on Sunday. Depending on how I feel though, I may take off tomorrow and Saturday and try my speed training on Sunday instead. The only complication may be the weather where we may get some snow on Saturday. Also my 12 year old daughter wants to probably run with me some, so I may end up just running both days.. who knows! 23 days til my first 5k race for the season! |
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02-17-2013, 02:11 PM
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#11 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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So I rested Friday and by the end of the day felt great, and Saturday felt fully rested again, so my soreness probably was just overtaxing as I build my base up. I was supposed to do interval training on Saturday and an easy run on Sunday, but my 12 year old wanted to do the run with me, so I swapped my days around.
She is going to be doing the first 5k in March, so I wanted to see how she was able to handle the hills and the full 5k distance. I know alot of parents that have kids run with them in 5k races let the kids run on their own, but I am a little too over-protective and not really ready for that myself. So my wife and I discussed it and I'm going to end up pacing with her during the race and let my wife run her race at her pace. So Saturday I pretty much pushed the pace a bit on my daughter just to see how she could do. When she struggled a little bit, I backed off just a little but she did great, ran the full 3.1 miles and didn't stop once. 3.1 miles - 36:10 So that left my interval training for Sunday, and the weather was a beast today. It snowed about 3-4 inches around here, but the temperature dropped a decent amount and the winds were howling (20-30mph). So my choice was either to do interval training on the treadmill or go out and brave the weather... I decided to do the run outside. As I told my wife, I still think a wind chill of 5 degrees, dodging snow plows and slopping through ice puddles is better than the treadmill!  Probably was the worst weather I have ever run in yet to this day. I've read of people who live in Canada or Alaska or Minnesota or such that deal with this every day, but I'm a southern boy at heart and anything below 50 degrees is a bit offputting to me. My interval training was scheduled as: 1 mile easy warm-up jog 1/2 mile at a pace of better than 10:44min/mile 1/4 mile of recovery jog pace 1/2 mile at 10:44min/mile 1/4 mile of recovery jog pace 1/2 mile at 10:44min/mile 1 mile easy cool-down jog For a total of 4 miles. I decided to take the path that I don't necessarily enjoy on the highway mainly because the sideroads were in worst condition than the highway. This meant that I hit the first hill on the run right in time for my interval. I tend to push my intervals a bit faster than I should, adding that to a hill just means death for my lungs and legs. I didn't necessarily do as well as I wanted, but I made it. I set a new personal record on the climb, not a steep one but I'm not a superstar runner by any means. 56 feet elevation gain over 1/2 mile. The steepest part is only a 5-6% grade but I did it in 5:03 for a pace of 10:01min/mile, which is better than my interval goal. The overall run was: 4miles - 45:43 This also finishes my week (Monday through Sunday) where I reached my goal for both miles and time spent For the week: 20.0 miles in 3 hours, 58 minutes and a total of 480 feet of elevation climbed. I set my 2nd best 5k time 3 days ago, and then broke it again this morning in the horrible weather  Taking a rest day tomorrow, and then Tuesday is my long run day. Going to try to increase it to 7 miles this week. |
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02-19-2013, 02:28 PM
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#12 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Hills suck
Yesterday was an off day, where I rested completely for today's long run. The weather was warming up nicely with a rain front moving in this afternoon, so was about 35 degrees when I set out to run. I don't know what came over me though, on my long run the goal is to run the distance, go slower than race pace, take it fairly easy just to do the distance. But instead I decided to try a loop around town that I didn't remember being so hilly. Now I know that it sucks I went 7.55 miles in about an hour and a half (average of 12:45 minutes per mile for the entire run). The climb was 320 ft of elevation, including 150ft of that over the course of 3/4 of a mile straight up hill during the 3rd mile of the run.  I had a semi-funny event occur during the run today. For the first time, shortly after the largest hill there, I had run close to 4 miles, I saw another runner coming down from a side street, a woman who looked pretty fit and probably about 5-8 years younger than me. She had an envelope in her hand as if going by the post office during her run, but she was really booking it. At that point I was struggling a little bit after that hill and she blew by me. My initial macho instinct was to speed up some so I didn't look completely inept out there, but I just was too tired and ended up just sticking to my recovery pace. Didn't take her long to blow past me out of my sight. I felt rather slow at that point 7:55 miles long run day Once I got home, i did my cooldown, and for the first time tried out the foam roller that I had gotten for my wife and I to use. No idea how it will do, but seems that alot of people say they help keep the legs fresh. Tomorrrow I plan on doing cross training, no running and then Thursday is an easy run day. |
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02-22-2013, 06:09 AM
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#13 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I took Wednesday off from running and did some crosstraining. I still was having some issues with soreness on the outside of my knees after the long run, so decided to focus alot more on core exercises, abs, glutes and legs. It may still be an issue of my body getting used to the additional miles, but I want to make sure that it is not a case of my quads out-developing faster and causing my leg to perform oddly.
Yesterday, I went on a nice and easy jog at a slow pace. Basically just scheduled to get out there and run some easy miles. Nothing overly tough. 2 miles easy jog Today is another off day for me on the running to rest or cross train. I may just give the legs a little more rest time and take a full day off, depending on how I feel later. Tomorrow I am scheduled for a tempo run. 5 miles total, 1 mile warmup and 1 mile cooldown and then 3 miles in the middle at a fast but sustainable pace. Tempo runs as far as I understand it are supposed to be the fastest pace that I can keep up for 1 hour (even though I'll cover 3 miles in about half of that time). The 8 min/mile or 9 min/mile paces I sometimes reach on my intervals are way too fast for me to sustain for an hour, I am not in that good of shape yet. I'll probably find the time somewhere around 10:30 min/mile or so I am guessing. My wife and I were talking and considering taking part in a weekly 5k race tomorrow morning that one of the large local running clubs do every Saturday. 5k would be right about perfect for my 3 mile tempo run, and I would just simply not treat it like a race (go all out). I'd just pace myself appropriately, but it might be fun to check this out and meet some other runners in the area too. Alot of this probably depends on the weather though as we're supposed to get another 14-15 inches of snow this weekend. |
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02-23-2013, 07:05 PM
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#14 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Race Result ... kinda...
So I rested completely on Friday, no cross training or anything (actually ate way too much out at dinner at Longhorns with my in-laws.. oops). However I felt very well rested this morning for my tempo run day. On tempo runs, the way I understand it, you are supposed to run at a pace that you can uncomfortably go for an hour. Not a 400m sprint that you then run out of gas on, but not an easy pace that doesn't work you. You should feel like you are tip-toeing the line between potential collapse and sustainability. My wife talked me into doing a local 5k weekly race that the local racing club does every week. They don't do shirts or prizes or anything, just a group of 20-50 of people come out and pay $3-$5 to run a timed 5k road race. So I decided I would try to do this for my tempo run today. I ran an almost 1 mile warmup before we started at a pretty easy pace, just to get going since it was once again cold out.. 1 mile - warmup jog Then, at 9am it was race time! Of course, I am doing this with a bunch of marathoners and people talking about their various times of 18-20 minutes for a 5k. Before this my best 5k ever was a 31:30 or so last December in the snow, so clearly I am in a different class than most of these people, but it was fun to get out and run anyways! I started at the back of the group to start, no sense getting in their way when they would all pass me anyways, but I wanted to try to keep my pace at about 10:00 per mile. The adrenaline and race type environment though got the best of me and I actually ran the first mile waaaaay too fast (for me), at a 9:16. Then I hit the hilly part, (There really wasn't much hills on this track, it was a pretty easy course, but most of the uphill was the second mile where we climbed around 60 feet or so .. not a huge amount but enough to slow me down some). I still kept pretty much on target for my pace though, right at 10:06 for my second mile, even with the hills in there. I realized at the start of my third mile that I was actually making really good time (for myself). I wasn't even to 20:00 in yet, and only had about a mile to go. I was struggling a little bit, but I kept pushing to keep my pace going. Luckily for me, the third mile was relatively flat, a little up hill and a little down hill but was easy enough for me to push through. My heart rate actually got about the highest I have seen it while running during this stretch though, I was right at 180bpm heart rate through this. Not sure if that is a bad thing or not, but one of my goals with running is to try to improve my health and hopefully the more I run, the less it will take for me to do something at this pace. By the time I got to about 2.60 miles in, I was struggling, I was checking my watch like every 1/10th of a mile, but once I saw the finish line, I dug into my reserve and pushed the rest of the way... One of my big goals is to finish a 5k in under 30 minutes... and this one I finished in...... CMS Weekly 5k - 30:15 So close, yet so far. My 3rd mile I ended up running in 9:54, which was right around my tempo goal pace.. but if you look at it by Grade Adjusted Pace (adjusting the pace for the elevation gain or lost), my third mile was easily my worst)  Overall, I am pretty happy with my run today, and I did end up setting two new personal records for myself!  That was my fastest 2 mile run and fastest 5k (3.11 miles) run that I have ever done. So a good sign I suppose that the work is helping me improve! Hopefully I will break the 30 minute mark in the upcoming few weeks at some point! Tomorrow I am scheduled for an easy 2 mile run and going to try to get in some cross training if I can. I have to take the in-laws to the airport, likely have to shovel snow and have to drive myself to New York for work for the week all tomorrow, so the schedule is all up in the air! I am traveling for work all next week, which means my running schedule could be all messed up. I am going to try to do my best to stick to it though! |
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03-04-2013, 02:49 PM
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#15 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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So I was traveling all last week for work and it made it tough to keep my routine going, but I still managed to meet most of my goals... I left out of town on last Sunday night, so wanted to do a run before I left. To make things worse, it started snowing and I had to drive my in-laws to the airport for their trip home. That meant in heavy snow I had to drive 4 1/2 hours of the total 6 hours that I drove. With the bad weather, I just resorted to doing the treadmill and pulled off a very un-inspiring result.
Treadmill - 2 miles in 28 minutes Monday was an off day for me, so it came to my Tuesday long day. Since I was traveling, it really limited my options for how I could do a long run. I had a morning meeting at 8am and had a dinner commitment for work that evening. I looked at the sunrise time for the next day (6:14am) and decided to set my alarm for 5:30am. I ended up waking up before my alarm, way before my alarm but that is a different story... So I got dressed and out to warm up before the sun rose, and started my run at 6:00am. It wasn't sunrise just yet, but enough light to keep me from fearing getting run over my some morning commuter in a car. I was fairly unfamiliar with the area, so checked out google maps before I ran, and found a loop that was 7+ miles. I recently changed some of my pace times for various runs including my long runs that I upped my pace to trying to maintain a 11:01 pace. (Previously I had been doing long runs closer to 12:00 minutes per mile instead). I found that I was able to keep the pace up fairly well for the first three miles until i hit a general upwards slant for the next three miles, including 1 full mile between mile 4.5 and 5.5 where I climbed about 150 feet (which is alot for me still). I ended up slowing down for most of those three miles back to my old 12:00 pace, but then rebounded for my next two miles and finished pretty well. Looking at my GAP, virtually the entire thing was all below 11:30, so I feel I have some work to do, but am pretty happy with the end result: 7.1 miles in 1 hour 23 minutes (11:41 min/mile pace) This was only the third time that I had run past a 10k distance, but I was able to break my old 10k personal best record by over 3 minutes thanks to my increased pace!  Wednesday was another off day for me, and Thursday thanks to all day rain in Long Island, I had to do another treadmill run, which was a super slow pace for some reason  2 miles treadmill - 32 minutes Friday, I ended up taking advantage of the hotel gym and using a stationary bike for 20 minutes (4.6 miles) for an off day training and then finally got out of town later that day. |
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03-04-2013, 03:04 PM
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#16 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I had runs scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, and was finally home for those. The weather did not magically improve for me while I was gone, it was still cold and miserable, but evidently some of the snow had melted in places the previous week to make one of the nearby bike trails at least half-usable (some snow mounds I had to jump over or run around, and only half the trail was usable, but still better than nothing).
Saturday was my interval day. basically warm up for a mile and then run at a fast pace (for myself) for 1 mile. Then a recover jog for 1/2 mile and then another mile of the fast pace, then cool down for a mile and all done. Sounds easy right? Based on the trainer that I am using, based on my previous 5k results, my goal for these intervals would be to try to aim at a 9:20 min/mile pace during my fast part of the interval. I tend to have problems getting carried away and running faster than I should though and it causes me issues. In my first interval, I was about 1/2 mile in and realized I was closer to 8:30 min/mile pace and was wishing I was done. I mentally forced myself to finish the mile, but I wasn't happy at the end.  The mile I ended up doing in 9 minutes and 2 seconds, which sets a new personal record for myself, but boy it beat me up a good bit. By the end of that mile, my heart rate was up to 176, which is about as high as I have seen it go since getting a heart rate monitor while I run. I had 1/2 of a mile to recover, and used all of it before starting my next interval. This time I only made it 1/2 of the way through before stopping for a quarter mile then I ran for another 1/4th of a mile at a fast pace before shutting that down for the day. I cooled down for a mile and ended up running 4.3 miles in total, but only 1.75 of the 2 miles worth of intervals. If I had run closer to the 9:20 instead of the 8:40 or whatever it was, I probably could have made it the entire 2 miles of intervals. That is what my over-eagerness to run fast and not stick to the plan got me. 4.3 miles - 49 minutes The next day was just an easy run, 2 miles was scheduled but I wanted to get to my weekly goal and ended up doing 3.2 miles at a pretty easy pace (12:21 minutes per mile). Sunday run That got me over my 16 mile goal for the week even with traveling. It was a mixed set of results for the week, best 10k personal record, best mile personal record, but a few pretty cruddy runs out there too.  Including the time on the stationary bike, I put in almost 4 hours last week, including 16.6 miles of that running. Coming up this next week, I have my long run day tomorrow, I am planning on trying to increase my run to 8 miles, which would be a personal best for me. I have easy run day planned on Thursday and Sunday. Saturday I am running a 5k with my family, but not going to try to set a personal best in this one. Going to spend the time pacing my wife and my 12 year old daughter in the race to try to help them get below a 35:00 5k for the first time. (This is my daughter's first 5k ever, so I am excited about that!) My next target race is march 24th, a 5k that I am trying to aim at breaking a 30 minute 5k time for myself, something that I got close on but have not managed to do yet! |
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03-05-2013, 05:55 PM
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#17 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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So my body this morning felt like crud and it was long run day for me. I think i overdid my light weight exercises on Sunday night, too many reps and my adductor muscles were still sore/fatigued even today from that. I have been trying to do more workouts to strengthen my core, and parts of my legs that get neglected in running, but it gets tough some times balancing when I plan on doing all of that.
I did a bunch of stretching before running today. I generally don't stretch before running, but instead take it easy to start with a walk, then light jog into my pace that I am going for. I decided to go ahead and stretch since I as not sure if I was even going to be able to do my long run with the way I was feeling. I am cautious if my body is not responding well, to just reschedule for another day. Even after stretching, i still felt those specific muscles, but they wern't hurting or anything, they just felt fatigued. I decided to give it a go and if after a mile or two I was struggling, I would just call it there and come back in. Well, I won't say the first two miles were easy, but it didn't hurt, my legs just felt a little dead. I've read that in a solid training plan, you will have some days where you just don't feel great, and unless there is pain or risk of injury, you just have to suck it up and do it. So I just kept going. My goal pace for my run was a 11:20 minutes per mile, but since I was a little tired, I decided to back it off a little and aimed for closer to 12:04 instead. I managed to run almost exactly that for my full run today, and for the most part I was able to keep my pace pretty even. I did find at times that my mind wandered, thinking about other things and I lost focus on my pace and fell closer to 13:00 minutes per mile, but I resolved that quickly each time and kept chugging away. In the end, I made it the entire route that I had planned, a new route that included roads that I had never seen before. I actually enjoyed the route and will likely run it again next week. I just didn't feel that great during it. Still my performance was solid enough that I was happy with it. So, I did have some notable results from today's run.. to start with the biggest one..  Today's run was the longest that I have done. I actually am now getting to the point where my long run is too much of my weekly totals that I need to change things up a little bit. I have read that you want your long run to be roughly 35% of your weekly total and with an 8.5 mile long run that would put me at roughly 24 miles per week. I do want to get to 20-25 miles per week, but I am a little short right now still. So I need to be careful to not push that total any higher on the long run days for now. Instead in upcoming weeks I will have to work in a way to make my easy runs longer runs as well. If I bump them up each 1-2 miles then I will have everything in a good proportion I feel.  I also achieved my second best 10k time during today's run. A 10k is roughly 6.2 miles of the 8.5 that I ran and I came in with 1 hour, 13 minutes and 46 seconds for my 10k today. My personal record is just 29 seconds faster, so even feeling not myself, I pretty much kept pace with my best previous 10k, so that is a good sign as well. So the total run was.. 8.5 miles - 1 hour 42 minutes That ends up being a 12:01 minutes per mile pace for the full run, and as I mentioned above, I pretty much kept it around that for the entire time and didn't fall off too badly halfway this week. (Mile 7 for me was @12:00) One other achievement that I may be the proudest of is actually my weight after the run. Now granted, I am sure it will go up a bit due to water weight, but at least for a brief period of time today I weighed 209 pounds. As I mentioned above, in 2012 I weighed as much as 264 pounds so in roughly 6-8 months I have lost 55 pounds. In the last 7 weeks I have lost 24 pounds. BMI says for a 6 foot male my age I should be around 170-180 range, but my doctor in my last physical said that getting 200-210 seemed to be a good reasonable goal to try to reach and be happy with. So while weight loss right now is not the focus of my running, it has been a very pleasant benefit from it! Up next... Thursday easy run and then Saturday running a 5k with my family (actually running with them, not trying to set a new personal record). I can't wait! |
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03-25-2013, 01:14 PM
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#18 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Alan,
I've been following this from nearly the beginning... I'm just curious: how did you get started? Just go run and see if you die in less than five minutes? |
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03-25-2013, 01:33 PM
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#19 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
Kind of something like that. My wife had to do regular cardiovascular exercise for her lungs due to almost dying a few years ago. So I started to try to run with her. I found at the beginning that, being overweight and out of shape that I just couldn't run more than a little bit at a time without just dying. So I started a Couch to 5k plan that you can find all kinds of variations of on the internet. It actually did a good job of making it easy for me to just push myself a little longer each time until I finally got to the point where I could run an entire 5k without stopping for air. Speaking of which, I haven't updated this in 2 weeks as I've been busy with travel and other stuff, but I actually had a very happy or positive race result this past weekend that I do want to share, so I need to find some time later today to provide updates on where I am and what is next for me! |
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03-25-2013, 02:15 PM
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#20 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Trying to catch up a little bit on the stuff that I missed...
After my last entry of my longest long run 8.5 miles on March 5th, we got hit with another bad snow storm that week. This winter has been pretty brutal for snow which makes running outside pretty rough. I decided that I did not want to be trapped on the treadmill, so actually went out at the beginning of the snowfall and ran an easy run just as the snow started.. 2.5 mile easy run |
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03-25-2013, 02:22 PM
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#21 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Fridays are almost always rest days for me on my training plan, so my next run was scheduled for March 9th, and it was actually to be a 5k road race to benefit cancer research. When we pick races to run, we usually try to meet a few criteria in some level of importance:
1) Has a worthwhile or decent charity that we are running for 2) Has a shirt that is given to runners that run the race 3) Interesting area or run, or good scenery or some place we would like to run If a race has all three, we try to go for it, but at least 2 of the 3 is our goal usually. This particular 5k, I was not planning on going all out and trying for a new personal record though. Part of my running is to be able to have an activity that I do with my family. If I always just run off ahead on my own, it defeats that purpose. So my plan on this race was to run at my wife's pace and try to help her beat her goal of 35:00 5k. I was just going to treat it like a normal easy run for myself. I think my wife made a few mistakes though for this race. I think she started psyching herself out a bit too much, plus she did some things that she normally does not do (like drink or eat too much that morning before the race). The general rule of thumb is that you should not do anything new on a race day that you have not already been doing many times before. No new shirts, or shoes or trying a new technique for the first time. So we started off well, but once we hit some of the hills, she started getting a little bit of a side stitch while running which caused her to have to slow down a little bit. In hind sight, I think what she needs is not to have me there egging her on as it seemed to create even more pressure on her to perform. Next time I run with her on a race, I'll let her set the pace and I'll just keep up with her. We ended up finishing the race in under 35 minutes, but according to our GPS watches, the race was not technically a full 5k and was about 1/10th of a mile short. We took it as a morale victory for her though and she would have been really close to her goal even with having to slow down. I was very proud of her! Sub 35 minute 3-mile Race |
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03-25-2013, 02:32 PM
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#22 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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On the 10th, I needed a few more miles to reach my goal for 17 miles for the week. My ultimate short term goal with training was to try to get consistently up to 20 miles or more per week running as I have read that is a pretty good level to be at for optimal growth or improvement. You can't just simply go from 0 miles a week to 20 miles a week without risk of injury though so I have gradually been working my way up to 20.
I had a chance for another run with my wife and it was scheduled for an easy run day so I took advantage of it. The roads were still icy/slushy from the snowstorm we had that week, so we just took it easy and ran 4 miles at a comfortable pace. 4 miles in 52 minutes That was more than enough to reach my goal for 17 miles on the week and actually got me really close to 20 miles.  For the week I ran almost 4 hours and totaled 19.5 miles, climbing 342 feet in altitude during my runs. So I was getting pretty close to where I wanted to be on a week in and week out basis. |
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03-25-2013, 03:34 PM
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#23 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Quote:
Didn't mean to completely resurrect your thread as just need to get started. I am looking at the c25k app. And need to get started somehow since i am way overweight. I can do hour long walks pretty well, I have a 3+ mile track that I use around the neighborhood, through the mall for the AC break, sometimes pushing my son in his stroller, sometimes just me walking. I am thinking of alternating the 3x runs with 3x swims... What's the best way to find good shoes to do the training? Sports Authority? Skechers outlet store? Foot locker? Obviously need to find someone with some knowledge of feet and measurement (no offense to any skechers or foot locker people)... thanks in advance, tim ps (live in riverside, CA, essentially) |
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03-25-2013, 06:30 PM
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#24 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
The best way to get started is to just get started. The toughest part for someone who is not used to daily exercise is just the motivation to get started. I always have excuses why I can't exercise, too much work, family stuff, no time, too tired, whatever. You just have to want to do it enough to carve the time for it. Most Couch to 5k plans just require a 20-30 minute time three days a week and they do a good job of taking someone who can't run much at all and get you to the point of being able to run for 30 minutes consecutively. An example of the start of a Couch to 5k plan the first week would be: Brisk 5 minute warm up walk Alternate 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for total of 20 minutes. So after the entire workout you would have walked for something like 17 minutes and jogged for 8 minutes. You would repeat this workout each of the three days during week one and then the next week you run a little longer (not much). The progression goes week by week for I believe 9 weeks? If you ever get to a point that feels tough to make it through, you can simply repeat that week again the following week. Before you know it a few months later your cardiovascular has improved enough to where your 20-30 minute exercise is doing alot of good. At that point you can choose to continue going further, or faster or keep it at 20-30 minutes if that is what you want to set aside time for. You say you want to do 3x running and 3x swimming, that is probably a good plan for alot of people as you want to give your body time to recover from your walk/run program on off days and you can swim on those if you want. I wish I had an easy way to fit in swimming at least one day a week where I lived. Just I would suggest not trying to jump in and do everything all at once and burn yourself out though. Take it gradually and progress as your body feels comfortable with it. As for the shoes... in a couch to 5k plan, as long as you have decent tennis shoes they probably should be fine. What I found as I ran more though, I eventually started getting shin pains and leg pains from not enough support on my tennis shoes. Part of that was me being overweight, I put more impact on my knees and legs than someone a little more in shape would have. If you get to that point, you can get specific running shoes. As soon as I switched to a good pair of running shoes, almost all of my leg pains went away. The catch though is there are many different types of shoes and what is good for one person may not be for another. It depends on the type of arch you have, the type of running stride you take and other details. My recommendation if you get to that point where you want to get a good pair of running shoes would be to go to an actual running store in your area. Not just a foot locker or sports authority, you want a running store where they can analyze your stride and help you find a good shoe for your foot type. Generally going this route is a bit more costly, I think my running shoes cost about $150, my wife's were $90, but getting the wrong type of running shoes for your foot type and stride type can actually cause other pains in places that you did not have before. As I mentioned before though to just get started where most of your time would be walking, this probably is not as important a thing to worry about and I used normal tennis shoes for a while in my Couch to 5k. The other thing that I did was find a local running club in the area where people here are very helpful and gave me good pointers on where to go to get fitted by experts. There may be some in your area that you could talk to as well if you want to find local resources for good stores, places to walk/run or even a community to help encourage you to keep consistent in your exercise. I know that was probably far more of an answer than you were looking for.. to summarize my best advice would be to just get started with the C25K. The toughest part is motivating yourself to do it. If you can get past that, the rest becomes easy. |
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03-26-2013, 08:25 AM
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#25 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Trying to catch up a bit more on the running log.. I took off March 11th (Monday), but had to travel for the rest of the week. When I travel, especially to different time zones it gets tougher for me to keep to my exercise schedule. Just because I was 3 hours later in time, I still had my normal meetings and conference calls with the team in India each morning. So my upcoming trip to Las Vegas was going to be problematic when I had to wake up at 3am and generally go to bed late at night due to conferences...
I wanted to get a long run in before I left. I did not know if I would find the time or a good place to run for 7-8 miles while in Las Vegas, so literally 4 hours before my plane flight I decided to go for a long run, and ended up doing my second longest run that I have ever done up to this point... 8.1 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes My goal on the run was to try to keep roughly a 11:20 minute per mile pace going through the entire run. I haven't yet been able to keep my long pace for my entire long runs and usually start wearing out a little bit about mile 4 or 5 on my pace when trying to keep that pace going. This was the closest that I have gotten so far though.. plus I set a new personal record for my fastest 10k time up to this point!  That ended up being about 1 1/2 minutes faster than my previous best 10k time! The run was not necessarily that easy for me. I did not have many really huge hills, but after the fact I found that pretty much the first half of my run was consistently up hill.  The total climb for my run was 255 feet, which is not the most that I have ever done, but the problem I found here was that I pretty much ran up hill for 4 straight miles. I have gotten better at being able to keep my pace running up hills, but what I find is once I reach the top, I have to recover my breathing a bit to continue at my pace. With the consistent up hill, I never had any recovery time and pretty much the entire work out ended up being harder on me than a normal run at this pace. Overall though, probably the best long run that I have had so far.. The downside though was it did make it a bit uncomfortable during my 6 hours of flying almost immediately afterwards I probably should have planned the timing of things a little better somehow. |
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03-26-2013, 11:09 AM
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#26 |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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good job, alan!
I'm starting c25k tomorrow with 2 days of week 1 (WF) and then a whole week 1 next week (MWF). |
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03-26-2013, 11:40 AM
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#27 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
Awesome! Hopefully it goes easy for you. Stick to it! |
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03-28-2013, 07:17 AM
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#28 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Traveling to Las Vegas for work is a little rough on the workout schedule, I had to find time to get my runs in. I ran a bunch right before my flight and honestly was a bit sore most of the day on Wednesday, so took the day off from running. Thursday and Friday I was back in the swing of things though. I was waking up at 3am local time in Las vegas for some conference calls that I had to have with India, but finished most of those by 6 or 7am, but my conference did not start until 9am each morning. So that gave me the perfect chance to fit in a run or two during the week right when the Strip was not too crowded...
Thursday: 3.1 miles in 41:23 Friday: 3.2 miles in 40:24 For those that have not been to Vegas, one thing that I had to get used to was when running right down the strip, when you get to busy intersections, they do not actually have crosswalks for foot traffic, and you have to take overhead foot bridges over the street. They have escalators and elevators up to the foot bridges, but I did not want to mess up my run, so I actually took the stairs up and down each time. This caused a tougher run than I normally would have done since I had 8 different places where I had to run up and down stairs during my 3 mile runs. I guess it helps build fitness, but not something I necessarily enjoy doing One of the good things about running in Las Vegas though was the weather this time of year. Having been stuck running in the snow and ice and cold for the past few months, this was a very nice change of pace for me.  It makes it even more painful waiting for the weather here to get nicer, and I can't wait for the snow to finally melt away at home. |
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03-28-2013, 07:22 AM
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#29 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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One other note about Vegas, going out to run at 6am was kind of fun from a people watching point of view...
Walking through the casino in the hotel that I was staying at (The Bellagio), you saw two different groups of people.. you could tell the ones that had just woken up and went to gamble, they were freshly dressed and drinking coffee at the tables.. then you could figure out the ones that had been up all night at the tables. They were still drinking alcohol , had day old stubble and usually were pretty disheveled. At one point in my run I had to weave my way around two women that had found themselves out on the strip and they barely seemed able to stand up much less walk to where they were trying to get to. The bad thing with running so early though was I couldn't easily play the fun running game of counting how many Elvis impersonators I could pass in a period of time |
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03-28-2013, 09:15 AM
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#30 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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I got back from Vegas at something like 1am Saturday morning and had to drive an hour home, so was pretty wiped most of the day Saturday. I still managed to find time to put in my tempo run for the week though and it ended up pretty good for me.
The idea behind the tempo run is to run at a comfortably fast pace for the set duration. It is faster than my easy runs, but not completely exhausting as a race. I read some place a good idea is it is a pace that I should be able to hold for an hour uncomfortably. I used a VDOT Calculator to try to determine what my pace should be and that gave me a 10:18 minute per mile pace that I wanted to set for my tempo run. Here is the Wikipedia entry on the threshold run that I was going to do: Quote:
So I ran for four miles, including roughly a 3/4th mile warm up at slower pace, then 3 mile tempo run and then 1/4 mile cool down at the end. 4 miles - 42:22  For the "tempo run" part of my workout, the 3 miles ended up resulting in the third fastest 5k that I had run before. 5k = 3.11 miles, so it was a little part of the tail end of my warm up plus my tempo run to combine for that 5k time of just under 32 minutes. I was able to keep my pace at 10:15 for that time which is pretty close to what my goal was, and hopefully would set me up well to try to beat my goal later in the month of finally running a 5k race under 30 minutes. |
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03-29-2013, 11:44 AM
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#31 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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The next day, I had another easy run scheduled. Need time in between the long runs and fast runs to try and let the body recover.
Quote:
I made a mistake though in an attempt to not run the same ole path that I usually do for my easy runs and I took a different road instead. I had biked it before, but forgot exactly how hilly it was. I don't think running up hills the entire time was the idea for an "easy run" I found it slightly humorous at one point when running up the hill, someone flew past me running nearly twice as fast as me up the hill. I wasn't necessarily going my fastest possible, but it was a reminder how far I still have left to go to be able to become a better runner.  Pretty much the entire second mile was up hill, 122 feet, and the entire third mile was pretty much downhill a total of a 225 foot drop. My heart rate didn't jump up into zone four, but I doubt I'll take this path again for an "easy run" and save it for more hill training type of runs instead. 4 miles : 46:21  This put me above 20 miles running for the week for the first time ever. I had several weeks where I did more than 20 miles, but that included bike time. This 22.3 miles was entirely running during this week. My goal was to try to at least start getting to 20 miles per week running and I finally hit it after several weeks working on increasing my running. Last edited by Alan T : 03-29-2013 at 11:48 AM. |
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03-29-2013, 07:32 PM
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#32 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Last week was a pretty boring week from a training standpoint until Sunday at least. Even though I had run several 5k distances in practice as well as a few 5k races, my target race was last Sunday. One thing that I have learned is generally when people are targeting a specific race, they will start backing off on the amount that they are running to help their legs be fresh or rested on race day. From what I read, people doing marathons usually start tapering off a few weeks ahead of time. Since this is just a short distance 5k, my backing off will all come in just one week.
I still had 3 runs planned for the week, but was then going to take off the three days before the 5k so I would be rested up for it. So without much fanfare, I did the following two runs on the treadmill: Monday: 3 miles in 43 minutes Not only do I dislike using the treadmill, but for whatever reason, our cat decided to be extremely annoying during my workout. To give an illustration, the below picture is my work at home office, where I work every day, but it also serves as my home gym/ wii/xbox/whatever game room as well in the evenings.  So when I work out, I usually watch the tv on the wall in the right corner of the picture. (Not the one actually on in this picture). The two sides of the room operate on different wall outlets and circuits in the house. Well the cat decided he would hop behind the entertainment center on the side that I was watching and repeatedly turn on and off that side of the room with the power strip button. It was causing the tv/amp/cable box and all of the lights in the room to go on and off every few seconds. I finally got annoyed with it enough that I went and shooed him off.. only for him to come back again a few minutes later and do it again. I think I ended up having to move him 3 different times during my workout which was annoying. No idea why he was doing that, he never had before and hasn't since then. Just guess it was one of those nights that he wanted to completely annoy me. So.. then... Tuesday: 3 miles in 38 minutes Pretty much the exact same run on the treadmill, but finished 4-5 minutes faster thanks to no cat annoyances. |
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03-29-2013, 07:45 PM
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#33 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Last Wednesday was also a treadmill day, but it was my final run for the week before I took off several days to rest. Instead of an easy day, this was going to be an interval run day for me, but a bit shorter of a distance than my normal interval runs...
A little bit about what interval runs are trying to accomplish: Quote:
So my goal last Wednesday was to run an easy paced 1 mile warm up at roughly 12:15 minutes/mile pace, then run 800 meters (1/2 mile) at 9:05 minutes/mile pace, 400 meters (1/4 mile) at 12:15 minutes/mile pace then another 800 meters at 9:05 min/mile pace and then my cooldown for roughly 3/4 of a mile. The interval pace of 9:05 min/mile is faster than my goal 5k pace and as the quote above mentions is a pace that I theoretically can not keep up for longer than a few minutes. Ideally I should push my heart rate near peak during the interval run and then allow time to recover between intervals. This interval pace over an entire 5k would be exactly 2 minutes faster than the fastest that I have ever completed a 5k before. Since I was on a treadmill, setting the speed in is pretty easy, and perhaps intervals is the only thing that I don't actually despise on a treadmill, even though I still prefer running them on a track perhaps.  So I met the pace that I was aiming for since it was just a speed setting on the treadmill, but my heart rate didn't get into the threshold range. Highest my Heart rate got to was 164 on this run, where I have had 5ks where by the end I was up in the 180s. So I am not sure if this is a sign that I should push even faster on these or what. I likely need to research it more, but I do know that after a 1/2 mile at that pace I was starting to look forward to being able to recover, so not sure how much faster I could go. I ended up running: Wednesday: 3 miles in 34 minutes This was my last run of the week until Sunday's 5k race that I had been targeting since early in the winter. My goal still is to run a 5k below 30 minutes, so hopefully 3 rest days would give me fresh legs for the run... |
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03-30-2013, 10:13 AM
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#34 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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So after three days off, race day was finally here last Sunday. I had been working well over a month to try to improve my time and try to beat my goal of a sub-30 minute 5k. My wife and I were running a 5k race out in Lynn, MA which for those not familiar with the area is a suburb of Boston somewhat near the Airport, right along the coast.
Since it is so close to the coast, the elevation of the run was fairly low and all things considered was a fairly flat race.  Just looking at the elevation map, it looks like there is a monster hill less than a mile in, but it honestly was not too bad. Only about 50 feet climb and although it got a little steep at a point, it was pretty easy compared to the hills that I had been running. So this race, while not being a super fast speed-burner was well set up to give me a good chance at reaching my goal. After the small amount of climb in the first half, I should be in good position to book the last half of the race as long as I had anything left in the tank... The start of the race was a little disappointing for me though, and not really my fault. There was quite a decent number of runners (about 800) in the race, but the starting line and first street were really small for that number of runners. They did not have any system of separating runners out by expected performance, so everyone pretty much crammed in to a small area, with people pushing jogging strollers and babys, dogs on leashes, walkers or whatever all together. Unless you were right in the front, you pretty much ended up being herded like sheep at the start until it thinned out some.  I am not in the above picture, I am a bit further in the back, but this is pretty much what the start looked like.  You can see here what effect that it had on my run though, for the first two minutes, my pace was close to 14:00min/mile instead of my desired 9:40 min/mile. Finally after I made it through the mass of people the first two minutes in and got into a long straight away, I was able to weave through people enough to pick up my pace, just in time for the only up-hill of any note in the race. So my plan going in was to try to run what is called negative splits. Here is a small excerpt from a web page on what negative splits are: Quote:
I had determined that I needed to run at a 9:39 min/mile pace through the entire race to meet my goal of 30:00 in the 5k. So my goal was to start off at a 9:40 pace and then try to gradually speed up over the next two miles to finish the race with a little buffer and meet my goal. Immediately with the horrible start, that somewhat went out the window, and I had gone only .15 of a mile in the first two minutes (or a very very very bad pace). So I somewhat threw caution out the window as soon as I got a chance to try to get clear of most of the crowd, I sped up much faster than I had intended to run. I wanted to not be stuck in the crowd the entire way, but it also meant I was working much harder than I wanted to on the only up-hill segment of the race...  I ended up running once I got clear at between an 8:20 and 8:40 pace for most of the first mile, which realistically had been faster than most of my interval training had been the previous month. I somehow pulled off the first mile though in 9:33 even with the horrible start and was back on my track for the race, albeit with using much more energy than I had planned. Once I got through the main uphill, I purposely chose to slow down a little bit and try to find a fast-comfortable pace that wasn't causing me to nearly explode and took it for the gradual up-hill that was a small incline for the next mile. I settled in around a 9:20-9:30 pace and just tried to keep it consistent.  I did pretty well at keeping the pace consistant in mile 2, a few jumps, likely as I was passing people or trying to not get stuck behind people who were slowing down and getting pinned in. I do have to admit that it felt good catching up to people and passing them as they were running out of steam, but I wasn't necessarily feeling on top of the world at this point though. I did manage to finish the second mile in 9:28, 5 seconds faster than my first mile, but more importantly I was 2 miles down and under 20 minutes still. I had a pretty good shot at meeting my goal, but I was starting to run out of gas in the tank just a little bit thanks to the crazy start.... After I finished the gradual up-hill and knew that it was mostly all down hill the rest of the way, something in my head clicked off for a minute or so and my entire body started just kind of going through the motions for a minute I think... I looked at my watch, and saw that my pace was down to 10:04 min/mile and dropping slowly. While not the end of the world, I knew that I had no room to spare that it was going to be close for my goal and I couldn't stop there... So I turned it on with the goal of finishing the third mile with my fastest split of the race...  After my momentary lapse, I pushed strong, and did manage to finish the third mile in 9:10, which was pretty much my interval pace. I was having another issue though as you can see from the red line in the graph, my heart rate was going through the roof. At the end of the 3rd mile, my heart rate was 183, easily in Anaerobic. I was pretty close to running out of steam. With 3 miles down though in a 5k, that is a sign that the race is almost finished. Only 1/10th of a mile left, or less than a minute. I was over 28 minutes at this point, so there was no time at all to slow down. Anything that I had left in the tank was going to be spent at this point. So I pretty much turned the last 1/10th into a full on sprint (or as best I could muster at that point)...  You can see from the blue line that my sprint got me to my fastest pace of the race a 6:44min/mile, which I can not keep up for even an entire lap around a track I would guess. The end result though was:  I finished my 5k with a time below 30:00 for the first time ever! My watch recorded a time of 29:18, but it went into the books about 13 seconds slower only due to the difference between when the start horn went off and I started my watch.  My official time: 29:31.4 I finished 300th out of 746 runners and for males ages 30-39, I finished 52nd out of 78. All of which I will happily take!  I ended up setting a personal best for 5k obviously as well as a personal best for 2 mile distance in 18:29. I had my third best 1 mile ever in this race with a 9:11, only 10 seconds slower than my best mile that I have recorded. I feel that I pushed myself pretty hard in the race, but proved to myself that I was capable of running a sub-30 minute 5k. I was a good 4 minutes faster than the first road 5k that I ran last November, and 15 minutes faster than the offroad 5k that I ran last September. So what goals are next for me? I don't want to stop here happily, even though it was fast for me, plenty of people easily run much faster than I do. Perhaps go further? 5k is pretty much the entry level race, there are all kinds of further distances that people can run, and with all of the boston marathon talk around here right now I kind of have an itch to some day say that I ran it perhaps... One thing is clear though, that while I have been working very hard on my running the past few months, I have neglected other types of exercise. I enjoy going out for a run now, but I don't enjoy doing weight exercises. Also my cross training has suffered as it has been too cold for me to have a desire to ride a bike, and I hate using my elliptical trainer as much as the treadmill. My next goals are the following: Move from a 4 day a week schedule of running only to 6 days a week, 5 running, 1 cross training and fitting in there 2 days of weight work a week as well. That gives me 1 off day during each week. I plan on running a 10k race in June, and while I want to continue working on my base and thus improving my 5k time, I want to now get my 10k time under 1 hour. I have planned a 5 mile race in May as an intermediate step between 5k (3.11 miles) and 10k (6.2 miles), and will see how I do on that. |
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03-31-2013, 11:46 PM
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#35 |
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College Benchwarmer
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Whoah did I see that right? An 80 year old did a sub-30 minute 5k? (the name above yours)
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04-01-2013, 05:13 AM
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#36 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
Hah, that is what it says... I don't recall seeing him, but another fun thing listed there is that he was 4th in his age group (60+ year old men). To be honest, since I started running more, I have seen more and more people in great shape at late age. I do recall a race a while back reading where an 80 year old had a 21 minute 5k which is simply amazing to me to think about. I ran about 5-6 weeks ago a 5k where I was huffing and puffing the entire time, and two guys 55+ year old Boston Marathoners were running behind me at the same pace and having a casual conversation talking about their kids as if they were walking |
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04-01-2013, 11:54 AM
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#37 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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What about the 8 year old just above that? sorry.. i just hope to finish one in the summer. Last edited by finketr : 04-01-2013 at 11:55 AM. |
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04-01-2013, 12:42 PM
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#38 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
Kids beat me all the time in 5ks. Especially ones that have parents who run or stay active and encourage the kids to do so, they are so lighter and their legs are fresher, so if they have done any kind of running routinely, they usually fly pretty well through the races from what I have seen. (4 other boys age 12 or younger finished ahead of him even) I have felt a little guilty that for a long time I have encouraged my kids to be couch potato video gamers, so been trying to get them into soccer or running or whatever they find interest in to get them more active. My oldest (12 year old) plays field hockey in school and has started running some with me. My middle child (8) likes to do dance and has recently mentioned she wants to try a 1 mile race this summer. My youngest (6) is the tough one. She reluctantly has been playing soccer, but would be just as happy playing wii or on the computer all day. Last edited by Alan T : 04-01-2013 at 12:43 PM. |
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04-01-2013, 12:44 PM
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#39 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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How has your first week of C25K going for you? The toughest part always is getting going with it to make it a routine. I bet you can do one this summer, once you get going it will get pretty easy! |
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04-01-2013, 02:14 PM
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#40 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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 So the previous week, I only ran 13.3 miles total because of taking off 3 days before the 5k race. Plus I did not do a long run at all, it basically was 4 days of 3 mile runs and change. So as mentioned previously, time to dig back in and start working on my next race. May 4th I have a local 5 mile race that I will be doing. It is 2 miles longer than any race that I have previously done. I have run over 5 miles many times now though, just never at a race pace. My goal however is the 10k race that I plan on running in June, and that is what I am setting my training plan to try to prepare for. My hope is in the process of doing that, I'll also prepare myself for this 5 mile race. I likely will also throw in a few 5k races in some fashion, likely easy running over the next few months too. So my new training schedule that I am planning on working is: Monday - Cross training day. 1 Hour of some sort of cross training (likely bike preferred or eliptical as a fall back) Tuesday - Long run day. Will ease back into things with a 5 or 6 mile long run this first week and then progressively increase it back to the 8 mile runs that I had been doing once I get used to the new workout schedule. Wednesday - An easy run day of just 3 miles, plus 30-40 minutes of weight workouts. Focusing on Glutes, abs, legs, back, core. Thursday - Easy run day, starting with 3 mile runs, but once I get used to the new schedule I'll progressively increase this to a secondary long run day, not going 8 miles, but more like 5-6 miles. Friday - Off day, recovery day, rest day Saturday - Speed day or Race day. I will alternate each week running intervals and tempo runs. I likely will try to schedule a few races to run as a tempo run (not full race pace) just for a change. Sunday - Easy 3 - 4 mile run day plus a second round of weight workouts. ---------------------------------------------------------- So starting with the new schedule, last Monday was a cross training day. It was too cold for me to brave pulling a bike out, so I sucked it up and did the elliptical trainer. I like the elliptical as much or less than the treadmill, so doing an hour on it was rather painfully boring for me. Never the less... 1 hour elliptical : 7.0 miles |
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04-02-2013, 09:18 AM
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#41 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Last Tuesday was my first long run in two weeks, and I didn't want to jump right back in at 8.5+ miles as I had been doing. Since I was adding extra run days plus extra workouts to the schedule, I didn't want to kill myself in all aspects at the same time. So I planned a pretty easy 10k run (6.2 miles) on a path that I knew did not have too many horrible hills for me.
Up til this point, my best 10k time was roughly 1 hour and 11 minutes, but my goal is to try to reduce that time down to under 1 hour. I can run at a pace for a 10k under 1 hour run, but can only do it for half the distance or at best 4 miles right now. So my problem as always is not necessarily that I need more speed, but instead I need more endurance. So I get that by just running more, running longer and putting in more miles every week. My long run pace that I was setting out for was approximately 12:00 minutes per mile. That would put my 10k at somewhere around 1 hour 14 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Not race pace here, just wanted to get miles back under my feet again.  I actually was feeling pretty fresh and pushed the pace quite a bit faster, closer to 10:30 or 11:00 minute miles which I kept up for the majority of the run. I fatigued a little bit in the 6th mile, slowing down to 11:30, but I kept my pace faster than my goal for the entire run with the exception of one traffic light that I got stuck at.  My pace ended up being quick enough to break my old 10k record by a bit more than 3 minutes. Still a long way away from my goal though, I have a ton of work to do. Long run: 6.2 miles : 1 hour 8 minutes Last edited by Alan T : 04-02-2013 at 09:18 AM. |
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04-02-2013, 09:22 AM
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#42 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Nothing super spectacular on my Wednesday or Thursday workouts. Both days were just easy 3 mile runs at an easy 12:00 minute/mile pace.
Wednesday is one of my new weight workout days that I am trying to include in, so I added that to the end of my workout by adding weights for 30-40 minutes. Wednesday: 3.3 miles in 41 minutes Thursday: 3.1 miles in 37 minutes |
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04-02-2013, 09:41 AM
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#43 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Friday was an off day for me, and my wife went out of town until Sunday, so since I had kid duty, my Saturday run was stuck on the treadmill.
Saturday I was planning a tempo run of 35 minutes. My plan is to roughly every other week increase my tempo run time by 5 minutes until I get to approximately 55 minutes - 1 hour around race day for the 10k race. I would run the tempo runs at the uncomfortably comfortable fast pace for me of approximately 9:47 minutes/mile, which is just a hair slower than my best 5k time, so while this is not race pace, it would be a pretty strenuous workout for me and only getting tougher each week. Since I was stuck on the treadmill this time, setting the speed is pretty easy to lock into for the tempo run. I warmed up for about 1/2 a mile at a pretty slow pace and then set in for the 35 minute tempo run followed by a slow pace cool down at the end. Including warmup and cooldown, I did the following run: 4.0 miles: 41 minute (treadmill)  If you take the best 5k during my tempo run it ended up coming in at right around 31 minutes which had been my previous best ever 5k up until the one the previous Sunday, and I then ran another 4 minutes at that pace beyond that. I think the real challenge will come this next Saturday when I have to keep that pace up for 40 minutes, that is when my heart rate will start showing me exactly how not in shape I am just yet From this run alone, my max HR got up to 160, which is not too bad but we will see where we are this coming week. |
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04-02-2013, 10:33 AM
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#44 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Started last night. I'm doing c25k week 0... as in: i did the first two jogs, walked the rest of the time except for the last jog. So it was 27 minutes of brisk walking and 3 minutes of jogging. most important thing I learned: I am old. |
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04-02-2013, 10:50 AM
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#45 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Sunday my wife flew back in town and I picked her up at the airport around lunch time. It was a beautiful day outside though, and roughly an hour after we got home I managed to sneak out for an easy run.
3.2 miles in 37 minutes Sunday is also supposed to be a weight workout day for me, but I was bad and just did not feel like doing that. I think that is going to be a struggle for me forcing myself to do the weight exercises. For whatever reason running has become more fun for me now that I feel that i can do it better. Weights just feel like a chore for me. My next Weight workout is Wednesday and I'll have to force myself to do it... Also this closes the month of March for me , and from a cardiovascular standpoint, I think it went pretty well!  94 miles (combined all activities, not just running, but 84 of those were running miles) is a pretty good jump from the previous month for me.  Keeping in mind that most of January I was out due to back surgery, but looking at Feb to March I jumped from 65 miles to 90 miles which I am happy to see. From a weight standpoint, while that has become less of a focus for me to just trying to be more in shape or more fit, it is still one of my driving factors to my exercise.  For the most part I was weighing weekly for a while, but am trying to get back into more regular weigh-ins. I find my weight goes up and down during the week (as I assume it does for most people). At the start of the month I was around 216 pounds and now I am at 208 pounds. According to this graph I lost 7 pounds this last month and will get to my current goal of 200 some point in a few months or so. One other thing that I was looking at which I felt was pretty cool was:  Looking back since Jan 2009 when I started trying to lose weight (and was 260-263 or so pounds), I've gone from Obese in the BMI scale to 1/3rd of the way down through Overweight. I can now see the line for "Normal" and maybe would like to try to make it there some point later this year or early next year. |
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04-02-2013, 10:52 AM
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#46 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Have to start somewhere, and just getting out there and doing it is the toughest part. Keep up the good work! |
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04-02-2013, 03:25 PM
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#47 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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Oh yeah.. I also need some better headphones that don't fall out while running/jogging like my iphone5 standard ones do... or maybe actually get an ipod.. |
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04-02-2013, 03:32 PM
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#48 | |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Quote:
My wife and I both actually got bluetooth wireless headphones to use with running because we got annoyed at the wire being pulled out while running. I got a little bulkier pair of headphones that I feel has better sound quality for me. Amazon.com: Motorola S11-Flex HD Wireless Stereo Bluetooth Headset - Retail Packaging - Black/White: Cell Phones & Accessories Kind of funny since when I am running, I keep the sound down pretty low to listen for traffic and only wear them when running.. but whatever! My wife got these: Amazon.com: JayBird BlueBuds X Sport Bluetooth Headphones - Midnight Black: Cell Phones & Accessories A little more lightweight but she says they sound find and are pretty easy for her to wear while running. She says she loves them. |
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04-02-2013, 04:22 PM
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#49 | |
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College Prospect
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Inland Empire, PRC
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are your headphones "over the ear" in that they rest on the ear as opposed to the free-earbud of your wife's type? also, if you wear glasses while running how do they feel? |
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04-02-2013, 05:00 PM
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#50 |
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Hall Of Famer
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Mass.
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Yes mine are over the ear which I prefer so they don't move or call off at all. I do not know how they are with glasses though, I actually don't like wearing any sunglasses when I run and I don't wear prescription glasses. I can imagine it might get a little uncomfortable over the ear with glasses.
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