Marathon thread

[NancysSummerSip]

Thanks, WVU! I'll miss you guys for the days of the surgeries - no computer work allowed on either day.

OTOH - you will look mahvelous when my eyes are fixed. I will see every detail. Maybe even what's under Ratchet's kilt. Oh wait.....I don't think X-ray vision is part of the package.

[NancysSummerSip]

OMG, Ratchets, that sounds incredible. I'm not into the adventure-style races. But I am happy to watch someone else.

My surgery does include light anesthesia, since it is not LASIK. Which is fine with me. I don't really want to see the new corneas coming at me on the end of the tweezers.

[NancysSummerSip]

The surgery is scheduled for Aug 22 (left eye) and Aug 29 (right eye). That's the earliest I can do both eyes within a seven-day period, since my doctor is away for all of July and some of August. I'll be out of the pool from Aug 23-Sept 6, but I can run and bike the entire recovery time.

I have swim practice tomorrow (later in the morning), so I will run tonight as normal. I am buying a new bike this weekend - finally.

I may have to wait later than Sept 6 to attempt any open-water swimming, due to the level of contamination in the ocean. Doctor thinks all will be well with me in two weeks.

[NancysSummerSip]

Thames 250 - that's 250 miles of running? All by one person? Are these people completely and utterly bonkers?

[Artemis Windsong]

I don't have a link for the story but DH read to me off the internet that some people were overcome from the heat during an half marathon and taken to a mental hospital for treatment.

[NancysSummerSip]

Ratchets, I am tired just reading (and thinking) about a race like that. I have to sit down when I consider the possibility of doing such a thing.

Did my run last night (part of it in a light rain), and it went well. I did not want to leave it until this morning, hoping I was going to sleep in. Sleep in? Never happens with me. I did go to swim practice this morning, mostly block diving and stroke (non-freestyle) practice.

[NancysSummerSip]

How (and where) on earth does he sleep, Ratchets? Standing up? I'd have to, because if I were to lay down, I'd never get up. Ever.

[steph08]

I can't even imagine running 250 miles at one time. That is almost 10 marathons in a row! Eek!

It's a step-back week for me so I only had to do 9 miles today. I was up and at the trail at 6:45, could have gotten there earlier but messed around on the computer when I got up. I was still done in an hour and a half - it rained lightly twice but nothing crazy. It was getting humid by the time I was done - glad I got it over with so early!

Next weekend is 16 miles and I am going to have to get to the trail around 6 in order to beat the humidity. It is just terrible here lately. Hot and humid and it has rained every day for the past two weeks.

[NancysSummerSip]

Ratchets, if your friend ever comes to Florida for a visit, let me know. I'd like to meet him, congratulate him and slap some sense into him for doing this!



Today was Day one of taper down to my next swim meet 9July 20-21). Not to be confused with being an easier workout, a taper down in swimming terms means you taper off the extraneous stuff and concentrate on what you'll be doing in the meet itself. Still did 2,500 meters today; and that's on top of a four mile run.

My bike will be coming in next weekend. Not sure if I will do any riding before the meet. The bike will need some work (new seat and pedals, along with other adjustments). The fun part will be getting it home. We no longer own our Ford Explorer, so I'm not sure if it will fit in my Versa or DH's Mini. It's a 15-inch frame (I know, go ahead and laugh at my short little self) and even with the front wheel removed, it could be an issue. I could always ride it home.

[NancysSummerSip]

Motivational? Um, OK. That's down the line somewhere from insane, crazy, loony....

"Off" day for me; just a long walk. Tomorrow's a medium run, with the usual speedwork Wednesday night.

I plan to run medium on Saturday, one week before the swim meet, and go back to long runs on July 27.

[NancysSummerSip]

Sooo...I thought I had my running strategy planned out for the fall/winter. Now there's another half-marathon in the mix in November that looks interesting in Fort Lauderdale. Crap. What to do, what to do...

[NancysSummerSip]

The ten-miler is in October, one week after a major swim meet. I think the early November half-marathon is too close, really, because it comes up a week after yet another swim meet. I had planned for early December (Space Coast) and Daytona (mid-February) for my half-marathons.

Cripes. I need to quit working to keep up with all of this.

[NancysSummerSip]

I plan to take a hard look at what's next running-wise this weekend, while I am at my swim meet. I'll have down time Saturday night; I'll print out all the info for all the races I'm looking at and try and decide what's next.

I'll also see my Disney half-marathoner friend this weekend, since my meet is in his town. I have no idea where he is training-wise, but there's only six months left, so he needs to be hoofing and huffing at this point.

[NancysSummerSip]

Ratchets, I hope he's made progress. He has yet to do an actual race, though.

And I hear it's very hot there, at least by your standards. We don't often get people passing out/dying in the heat while training here, because people know they have to get used to it. I've seen out of towners come here for races in the so-called fall and winter months, thinking it was cool enough to race and not worry about the heat, only to drop like rocks in the first mile or so.

[NancysSummerSip]

Aw Ratchets, why be good when you can be really good?

So, I have a swim meet this weekend. My friend the half-marathon trainee has offered me a place to stay at his place, which helps save me some money, thank goodness. No more running until Monday. I do have a final taper-down swimming workout tomorrow morning.

My friend will be working Saturday evening, at least part of the evening, which will give me time to look at all the upcoming races on the schedule and figure out what's next. I also pick up my new bike Sunday afternoon, after I get back from the meet.

[NancysSummerSip]

This is a long course meet, using a fifty meter pool (like they did at the Olympics). I have six events (four Saturday and two Sunday) and picked a variety of things. My shortest is the 50 Butterfly and the longest (and first event) is the 400 Freestyle. The psych sheets came out this morning (listing who's coming, from what team, their ages, their submitted times and what events they are doing). The others are 200 IM, 100 Backstroke, 200 Backstroke and 100 Butterfly.

I don't have a lot of competition in my age group, other than in the freestyle event. Everyone picks freestyle, which is why I picked just the 400. There is nothing longer than the 400 meters in the individual events, at least not at this level, for a long course event. At the Olympic level, there is the 1,500 and the mile. We do those on short course (yard) events.
 

[steph08]

Did a 5k race yesterday and hit a new PR of 25:52. I wanted to be closer to 25, but the hills were tough. I also came in first in my age group! Woohoo! Glad all the fast people stayed home

I have a trail 25k next Sunday - thankfully it is supposed to be in the low 70s and not that 90s crap that we have been dealing with.

I was planning on doing a Veteran's Day marathon but may move up and do the Akron Marathon at the end of September. We'll see how training goes. It's supposed to be a really good race.

[NancysSummerSip]

Think a lady from the run club and myself have decided to both enter a half-marathon on September 1st, so that's where the long run came from. Going to add a mile or so each week to prepare for that, maybe a bit more. There still could be the possibility of doing a marathon late this year, but would really have to devote myself to it or commit, otherwise my desire to train like you would need to just isn't there...

Ratchets, I think that plan is a good one, and you should be fine. But Steph might have better training ideas, since she's been there and done this a whole lot more.

I was planning on doing a Veteran's Day marathon but may move up and do the Akron Marathon at the end of September. We'll see how training goes. It's supposed to be a really good race.

Say hi to the city of Akron for me, if you go. I've been there a few times, and have a spot in my heart for the place.

Swim meet went well: three firsts, a third, a fourth and a sixth (the sixth was in freestyle, so it did not surprise me, since everyone does it. It's not my best stroke). Picked up my new bike today, so it's been a long, long weekend. I have not been overly thirsty all day, but now it's hitting me and I'm polishing off 20 ounces of Gatorade mixed with water.

[Deleted]

just did a half marathon about a month ago.  My firstest one ever, but I did pretty well.  It was quite a experience with tieing the chip to your shoe, lining up in mob, having free beer at the finish line (who knew?  they also had water, bananas, and stuff but that was pretty lame )........... Since then I took 2 and half weeks off of all training ad now am trying to ease back into it.  Wish me luck. 

Best of luck to everyone, if I continue my training I may post more

[NancysSummerSip]

I think Sir Mix-A-Lot just did that half marathon to get a lot of looking done at women in running shorts, but I'm just guessing.

[Deleted]

well hey, I like big butts and I cannot lie, so the race was like a win-win...I got to see big butts and I raced

and some of you may find this sexist but the ladies in the race were a motivation, because I was in my mind like aint no way a chick is gonna beat me in a race .......and there were some fit honeys.....so I always locked in on one in front of me and made sure I made it past them....unfortunately a few of the honeys did beat me in, but my run time definitely improved w/ that motivation

[NancysSummerSip]

Nothing wrong with that kind of motivation. I use it too, except I target old dudes. I figure they are the easiest ones to push down, if I have to.

[Deleted]

tomorrow I plan a 3 mile run....hopefully I can get my a$$ up in the morning

[NancysSummerSip]

Wednesday night is my speedwork night - I'm up to 2.75 in 30 minutes (started at 2.5 miles). If the weather is decent tonight, I will try Round 2 on my new bike. I just got it, and it's a racing bike, with clip pedals and cleated shoes. Not what I am accustomed to using, so I am practicing getting on and off and riding it on my street.

I need to get my long runs restarted, after a two-week break due to the swim meet.

[Deleted]

I made my 3 miles yesterday, also made 3 miles today (originally I planned to rest today)

I may try 4 miles tomorrow (I have some aggression from work to get out of my system)

[steph08]

Jul 25, 2013 12:52:16 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

Jul 21, 2013 12:50:04 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Did a 5k race yesterday and hit a new PR of 25:52. I wanted to be closer to 25, but the hills were tough. I also came in first in my age group! Woohoo! Glad all the fast people stayed home

I have a trail 25k next Sunday - thankfully it is supposed to be in the low 70s and not that 90s crap that we have been dealing with.

I was planning on doing a Veteran's Day marathon but may move up and do the Akron Marathon at the end of September. We'll see how training goes. It's supposed to be a really good race.

Congrats on your new PB  !!  That's great...almost 8:00 minute miling too!!

That trail 25k sounds pretty fun (and very challenging!)...will it be shady to help with the heat even more? 

The trail 25k is going to be very challenging - I did the 15k last year. It is very shaded though - basically in the woods the entire time. And actually, our weather right now isn't bad. Last week was in the 90s and very high humidity - this week, low 70s! Should be perfect for the race.

[NancysSummerSip]

Jul 25, 2013 13:10:05 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

Jul 23, 2013 14:57:15 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Wednesday night is my speedwork night - I'm up to 2.75 in 30 minutes (started at 2.5 miles). If the weather is decent tonight, I will try Round 2 on my new bike. I just got it, and it's a racing bike, with clip pedals and cleated shoes. Not what I am accustomed to using, so I am practicing getting on and off and riding it on my street.

I need to get my long runs restarted, after a two-week break due to the swim meet.

You're really improving on your speed runs, Nancy!  That's a big deal too, adding a quarter of a mile into a half hour timed run.  I bet you'll notice a big difference on your next 5k...

Have you ever tried effort sessions, or do you have any interest in them?  They really help a LOT for speed, and they as a side effect also burn a lot more calories than steady runs or tempo runs...which is definitely a plus in my book LoL!!

I just read an article yesterday about biking, that was talking about cleated shoes being very helpful.  The idea behind them is you can spend more time pushing the pedal during each revolution with cleats than without...without cleats you can only push down on the pedals but with cleats can push a little on the more horizontal parts of the revolution too...if that makes sense...


I did a 10-mile run last night, and it was pretty tough.  Went with a lady from the run club who is a much better runner than me, and she was struggling too...the heat just saps my energy.  It didn't seem too bad when we started running, but we don't have A/C at work and the windows don't open so it's really warm in the office...makes you pretty lethargic by the end of the day.  We both forgot water too...big "DUH!" for that one.  Anyway, it wasn't pretty but got it done LoL, that was the first time I'd done 10+ miles since last December so pretty happy about it.  Guess I forgot to turn the phone app off on the drive back to her house, so the final stats were 14.57 miles at a 8:14 pace...I WISH LoL  !!  It was more like mid 10:00 pace looking at the breakdown of each mile.

That's sort of what the Wednesday sessions are, I think. I keep calling them speedwork sessions. We might be using two different names to refer to the same thing. I use the same time (30 minutes) and the same strategy (15 minutes outbound, 15 minutes inbound) and keep trying to run faster and increase the mileage in the same time period, using the same path each time.

I'm getting used to the bike cleats. My neighbors think I might benefit from training wheels. They might be right. I am heading out for a practice session tonight.

[NancysSummerSip]

Jul 25, 2013 14:13:39 GMT -5 Ratchets said:

I was thinking more along the lines of a couple minutes sprinting, then a minute walking or jogging, like intervals I guess...although your way works too.

Steff - that sounds like decent weather especially if it's pretty shady.  It sounds like a great run, I really enjoy paths like that, and especially getting off the roads so you don't have to worry about cars.

Here's a link to this half-marathon I'm thinking of doing on September 1st.  I ran it with a camera on... .  It's a really flat course which I guess is good...but also looks a bit boring for scenery and hope it's not a hot day because there doesn't seem to be any shade.

Wissey half-marathon

We would call that interval training. Never tried it, but I certainly could see giving it a shot.

The Wissey half-marathon? Named for the place it occurs, as opposed to describing the people doing it, right? Because anyone running a half-marathon is not wissey (or wussy, in American slang terms).

[NancysSummerSip]

Wissey Power! would make a great T-shirt.

Something like: We Run Like Wisseys

or

Wissey Runners Get It Halfway Done



On a good note, my half-marathoner friend is doing well. Lost more weight and got himself an 11-mile running circuit. I sent him a 10K race he might like, which is coming up in October, just before his Nov. 1 deadline. A fast, flat course, on a Sunday (he has college football tickets, and those are Saturday games) and there is free beer after the race.

[steph08]

I did my 25k trail run on Sunday. Let's just say that I am sticking to the 15k from now on. I think it might have been tougher than my marathon. The first 15k has hills and streams/rocks/tree roots that you have to navigate, it is on a single track trail in the middle of nowhere. But the last 10k was pretty hellish. You know it's bad when the "hills" you are climbing are so steep that you have to grab onto trees to pull yourself up! Then you have to cross a spillway twice - and it was up to mid-calf, so you get to run the last 5 miles with soaking wet shoes and socks. My feet were not happpy with me! I was slow - really, really slow. I was like 18 minutes ahead of my desired pace/finish time at the 15k mark and I blew that and a lot more and finished 25 minutes past my goal. I think I came in third to last! It was really quite terrible - I knew it was going to be hard, I just didn't know it was going to be that hard. Definitely a one and down on that! I like running the trails, but I am definitely more of a road/rail-to-trail runner.

I took yesterday off, and my quads are still sore today but I hope to get in my 4 miles at lunchtime.