The Runner's Thread

[OilerPensfan97]

Ran my first ever marathon this season as well, back in May. I'll probably run that one again next year (Red Deer Marathon, which I doubt anyone has heard of that's not from Alberta). I'd like to qualify for Boston next year, but it's going to be tough, especially with the qualifying time dropping to 3 hours flat for my age group. My time last year was just under 3:10, so I think I have a chance if everything goes right.

I did a 15k and a 10k as well. Very happy with the result from the 15k, the 10k was kinda meh as far as my time, but the course was incredibly hilly so I guess that's going to prevent great times.

Congrats on your marathon. Definitely a feeling of accomplishment to cross that finish line. How did you feel at the end? For me those last 3 km were a grueling slog. It's funny how I was still worried about my time at the 35km mark and by the 40km mark it was like "holy crap am I even going to make it to the finish line?"

A runner out west we knew has done the Red Deer Marathon .

Definitely felt better than expected, but the last 5k were super hard. I was shooting for under 3:30, so I knew in the final 2-3k that I had it, so basically just had to hold on at that point, haha. I gave a little sprint after the last turn after I realized I had a chance at under 3:25, but I was just a touch too late! Very happy with how it turned out, though. Recovered pretty fast too, which I wasn't expecting; it's back to business already .

Best of luck going for the BQ! It's certainly gotten tougher, but guess it's just incentive to train even harder . So much expectations on us younger people! lol

 

[Kyle McMahon]

A runner out west we knew has done the Red Deer Marathon .

Definitely felt better than expected, but the last 5k were super hard. I was shooting for under 3:30, so I knew in the final 2-3k that I had it, so basically just had to hold on at that point, haha. I gave a little sprint after the last turn after I realized I had a chance at under 3:25, but I was just a touch too late! Very happy with how it turned out, though. Recovered pretty fast too, which I wasn't expecting; it's back to business already .

Best of luck going for the BQ! It's certainly gotten tougher, but guess it's just incentive to train even harder . So much expectations on us younger people! lol

That's nice you still had a little juice at the end. My race ended with a significant downhill for maybe 300 meters or so as you come to the finish line. Let's just say I was tempted to lay down and roll the rest of the way...

Managing my pace will definitely be on my mind next time out. Not that I was oblivious to it or anything, but knowing I had an outside chance at running a Boston Qualifier (it was still 3:05) led me to push a little too hard in the first half. I wore a heart-rate monitor and told myself not to cross the 165 bpm threshold in the first half of the race...but I also knew I needed to come in around 1:33 for the first half to have a chance. I started pushing it by about 18 or 19 km to achieve that; I think I was over 170 bpm at the halfway mark. In retrospect, I paid for this in the last 5 km and probably finished a couple minutes slower than I would have if I'd just taken it a little easier mid-race and accepted that I wasn't quite gonna run a qualifier...but it's a race, damn it! Don't hold back!

 

[RayP]

Have to drop out of the 50K.

3 of the last 4 weekends I’ve been sick and only able to muster up one 10M run, the one weekend I was not sick I was out of town and couldn’t run because I was so busy.

Pretty pissed. First 8 weeks of training couldn’t have gone any better.

 

[OilerPensfan97]

That's nice you still had a little juice at the end. My race ended with a significant downhill for maybe 300 meters or so as you come to the finish line. Let's just say I was tempted to lay down and roll the rest of the way...

Managing my pace will definitely be on my mind next time out. Not that I was oblivious to it or anything, but knowing I had an outside chance at running a Boston Qualifier (it was still 3:05) led me to push a little too hard in the first half. I wore a heart-rate monitor and told myself not to cross the 165 bpm threshold in the first half of the race...but I also knew I needed to come in around 1:33 for the first half to have a chance. I started pushing it by about 18 or 19 km to achieve that; I think I was over 170 bpm at the halfway mark. In retrospect, I paid for this in the last 5 km and probably finished a couple minutes slower than I would have if I'd just taken it a little easier mid-race and accepted that I wasn't quite gonna run a qualifier...but it's a race, damn it! Don't hold back!

Haha, that's nice that it was downhill at the end. Mine was actually the opposite; it had a slight hill just before the final turn!

Pacing is extremely hard in the full, that's for sure. I'm super glad with how I paced mine, but I was definitely nervous at the start that I wasn't going to be able to maintain my pace, and I put on the brakes a few times to make sure I wasn't running too over-exuberant . I did, however, push the pace around the middle up until the last 5-7k, and I'm glad I did, despite the pace dip at the end. My stomach gave up on me before my legs did, so I think I was going to slow down anyway at that point. Ended up running the second half just over 3 minutes slower than the first half, so I'm very happy with that !

How many gels did you take? I was going to take 3, but I didn't take the last one due to my stomach problems.

Have to drop out of the 50K.

3 of the last 4 weekends I’ve been sick and only able to muster up one 10M run, the one weekend I was not sick I was out of town and couldn’t run because I was so busy.

Pretty pissed. First 8 weeks of training couldn’t have gone any better.

Damn, that really blows! Sorry to hear about that. That would be pretty upsetting with all that training under your belt. Any other race plans this year, or is that it?

 

[RayP]

Haha, that's nice that it was downhill at the end. Mine was actually the opposite; it had a slight hill just before the final turn!

Pacing is extremely hard in the full, that's for sure. I'm super glad with how I paced mine, but I was definitely nervous at the start that I wasn't going to be able to maintain my pace, and I put on the brakes a few times to make sure I wasn't running too over-exuberant . I did, however, push the pace around the middle up until the last 5-7k, and I'm glad I did, despite the pace dip at the end. My stomach gave up on me before my legs did, so I think I was going to slow down anyway at that point. Ended up running the second half just over 3 minutes slower than the first half, so I'm very happy with that !

How many gels did you take? I was going to take 3, but I didn't take the last one due to my stomach problems.



Damn, that really blows! Sorry to hear about that. That would be pretty upsetting with all that training under your belt. Any other race plans this year, or is that it?

Nah this was just another race to do since I had such a good cardio base from training for Ironman Whistler. I’ve always wanted to do a 50K trail race so figured this would be an easy transition after recovering from Whistler. Apparently it just wasn’t meant to be.

I’m about to get heavy into triathlon training again this week actually so not point is risking an injury trying to finish a 50K when my running mileage the last 4-5 weeks has been really low.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Haha, that's nice that it was downhill at the end. Mine was actually the opposite; it had a slight hill just before the final turn!

Pacing is extremely hard in the full, that's for sure. I'm super glad with how I paced mine, but I was definitely nervous at the start that I wasn't going to be able to maintain my pace, and I put on the brakes a few times to make sure I wasn't running too over-exuberant . I did, however, push the pace around the middle up until the last 5-7k, and I'm glad I did, despite the pace dip at the end. My stomach gave up on me before my legs did, so I think I was going to slow down anyway at that point. Ended up running the second half just over 3 minutes slower than the first half, so I'm very happy with that !

How many gels did you take? I was going to take 3, but I didn't take the last one due to my stomach problems.



Damn, that really blows! Sorry to hear about that. That would be pretty upsetting with all that training under your belt. Any other race plans this year, or is that it?

Didn't end up taking any gels during the race. I hadn't taken any in training, so didn't want to risk a bad reaction to them in the race. Took some gatorade-esque sports drink at some of the aid stations though. That's another aspect I need to manage better next time around. I think I was almost too worried about intake during the early parts of the race and had too much fluid sloshing around in my stomach at times. Which led to probably not taking in enough in the last half of the race. I'll try out some gels in this training cycle though and probably integrate them into my race next time out.

 

[valeriammm]

Just started "running" for the first time in my life and havent done more than 1.5mi, my goal is to do a 5k by the end of this year, I know it doesnt seem like much but gd running is more brutal than I expected

 

[Elysian]

New to this thread, but been working hard this year to get back to running again, haven't run regularly since I was in the Navy (got out in 2004). I was pretty overweight (5'9" and 260lbs) so started with diet, vegetarian keto melted a ton of weight off, but I was also in physical therapy for my knee, as I had lots of knee pain with physical activity. I decided while I was in physical therapy that I would use that to get back into running, and followed their "return to run" program, now I'm running up to 5mi, 3 times per week and have lost over 60lbs.

The only issue I'm still having is recovery time, especially on the calf of the leg I was in physical therapy for. I've been working on stretching it out more, foam rolling it, and heating pads, and I think I've finally been able to tame that issue, so hopefully can start running more than 3 times a week soon. Anyone have recommendations for recovery?

The craziest thing for me is that I actually enjoy running now, I loathed it when I was in the military.

 

[Davegarri]

Just started running more often and for longer distances than I used to. I previously focused mostly on lifting and sprinting and hadn't ever run further than a 5k before this year.

Today I just did a 10k and my legs and lungs felt pretty good and could've kept going, but I keep getting plagued by severe shoulder pain halfway through. This keeps causing me to slow down my pace until it goes away. Today I had to stop completely for about 10 minutes before I could finish out my run.

Has anyone here experienced that? If so, how did you prevent it?

I'm want to work toward completing a standard duathlon this year and worry this will hurt those chances (I don't have anywhere to train swimming unfortunately or I'd do a triathlon )

 

[Eco]

Just started running more often and for longer distances than I used to. I previously focused mostly on lifting and sprinting and hadn't ever run further than a 5k before this year.

Today I just did a 10k and my legs and lungs felt pretty good and could've kept going, but I keep getting plagued by severe shoulder pain halfway through. This keeps causing me to slow down my pace until it goes away. Today I had to stop completely for about 10 minutes before I could finish out my run.

Has anyone here experienced that? If so, how did you prevent it?

I'm want to work toward completing a standard duathlon this year and worry this will hurt those chances (I don't have anywhere to train swimming unfortunately or I'd do a triathlon )

To the shoulder pain? No.

But I have learned that the key to really being a decent runner is learning your body. I have completed a few Ultras, and I've gotten better as long as I prepare and I focus on learning how y body reacts

 

[Davegarri]

To the shoulder pain? No.

But I have learned that the key to really being a decent runner is learning your body. I have completed a few Ultras, and I've gotten better as long as I prepare and I focus on learning how y body reacts

Yeah, that's a solid point. I am trying to figure out what could be causing my body to react that way, but haven't been able to pinpoint it just yet. My thought is something with my form. Maybe I'm too stiff with my shoulders? Not sure yet.

 

[Eco]

Yeah, that's a solid point. I am trying to figure out what could be causing my body to react that way, but haven't been able to pinpoint it just yet. My thought is something with my form. Maybe I'm too stiff with my shoulders? Not sure yet.

Certainly could be.

Learning to relax, controlling your breath, and good form are essential to pain free running.

 

[ClasslessGuy]

Wife won the 10k in Tremblant over the weekend, it was a great moment for the kids to see her on the podium. 34 but she’s def entering the running zone right now (runners tend to peak late anyway)