The Official Thread for Runners

[Eddie]

Leg is still good. I ran 3 miles tonight and am on pace for a 10 mile week. I need to get a good base under me in the next 3 months so I can start the Hal Higdon training program for the Ogden marathon.

Does anyone here use compression when they run? I wore a Zensa leg compression thing tonight on my left leg and it seemed to help a bit. I've been having some pains in the muscles/tendons (not sure which?) even with stretching so I thought I'd try it out. The leg felt great after the run so I'm considering using it all the time.

When recovering from pulling my calf I used compression sleeves on my legs for a good long time after, including when I ran the race.

I thought the added support was good for my muscle - but maybe even more importantly it gave me a little bit of extra confidence that I could run without hurting myself.

I probably ran with them for a good 6 months after recovering, and then eased off by just wearing them on my longer runs.

Even though I didn't wear them for the last marathon I ran, I did wear them on both legs that afternoon and the next day - and I think they helped with my muscle recovery. I was surprised how quickly my legs felt better.

Anyway - that has been my experience. Without knowing much about your injury, if it were me I would wear them all the time until I was pretty sure I was better. Then I would tapper off on their use (rather than stop all at once) in order to allow my muscles to get used to going without the added stability.

[OhioBlue]

Leg is still good. I ran 3 miles tonight and am on pace for a 10 mile week. I need to get a good base under me in the next 3 months so I can start the Hal Higdon training program for the Ogden marathon.

Does anyone here use compression when they run? I wore a Zensa leg compression thing tonight on my left leg and it seemed to help a bit. I've been having some pains in the muscles/tendons (not sure which?) even with stretching so I thought I'd try it out. The leg felt great after the run so I'm considering using it all the time.

Good to hear of your progress, Moliere. I know it's been a long road back from the SF. Continued good luck to you.

[SteelBlue]

Anyone see this story today?

http://espn.go.com/olympics/trackand...elder-marathon

Guy dropped out of his marathon at mile 20, grabbed a spectator bus then remerged from the bushes in the last mile to steal 3rd place. What a douche.

[bluegoose]

I had a good track workout this am. I've been trying to mix up my speed workouts to include some shorter intervals (200-400m) with some longer ones (800m).

Last week was 4x200, 2x400, 1x800, 2x400, 4x200. Very tough workout, especially that 800 stuck in the middle.

Today I did 10x400m at interval pace with 200m of walk/jog recovery. For me, the pace was supposed to be 94 seconds each. My first was really slow at 107 secs, but after that I got warmed up and was able to stay at or under goal pace. I was happy to be able to complete the workout at consistent speeds. Each rep was between 92-95 secs.

These are not blazing fast speeds by any means, and any high school sophomore track runner would laugh at this workout. But its been good to be able to fire up the old engine and be more comfortable picking up the pace quite a bit from my normal steady state speeds.

[Moliere]

I spoke too soon.

I played kickball on Wednesday night and after kicking the ball my left leg began hurting. I thought I might have just tweaked something. Then I went running Thursday morning and I could feel the pressure and slight pain in the shin bone. Same exact place as before.

My stress fracture is back.

I'm taking 6 months off from running. I'm not sure what the issue is but maybe I came back too early. I had 3 months off before but I must just be prone to this stuff. I never ran more than 10% per week more than the last week. I did some concrete running, but it was mostly on a treadmill. In any case, I'm taking at least a 6 month hiatus and will spend some quality time on the stationary bike. I'm not happy at all about this

[SteelBlue]

I spoke too soon.

I played kickball on Wednesday night and after kicking the ball my left leg began hurting. I thought I might have just tweaked something. Then I went running Thursday morning and I could feel the pressure and slight pain in the shin bone. Same exact place as before.

My stress fracture is back.

I'm taking 6 months off from running. I'm not sure what the issue is but maybe I came back too early. I had 3 months off before but I must just be prone to this stuff. I never ran more than 10% per week more than the last week. I did some concrete running, but it was mostly on a treadmill. In any case, I'm taking at least a 6 month hiatus and will spend some quality time on the stationary bike. I'm not happy at all about this

Was this confirmed by your MD? I think it's quite possible you've just got shin splints despite your best efforts to return in a smart manner. I've had shin splints many times over the years and most of the time if I stop right away then a week off with lots of ibuprofen is enough to put an end to it. Instead of 6 months take a week or two with lots of ice and ibuprofen and give it another shot. Instead of 10% a week, try 10% a month or something like that.

It's also probably time to figure out what it is that you do that stresses your tibia so much. I know it's not popular these days with the minimalist movement, but when I switched to a motion control shoe, shin splints disappeared completely (I've always had medial shin splints). You'll find people who say just the opposite, I can only speak for myself.

[Moliere]

Was this confirmed by your MD? I think it's quite possible you've just got shin splints despite your best efforts to return in a smart manner. I've had shin splints many times over the years and most of the time if I stop right away then a week off with lots of ibuprofen is enough to put an end to it. Instead of 6 months take a week or two with lots of ice and ibuprofen and give it another shot. Instead of 10% a week, try 10% a month or something like that.

It's also probably time to figure out what it is that you do that stresses your tibia so much. I know it's not popular these days with the minimalist movement, but when I switched to a motion control shoe, shin splints disappeared completely (I've always had medial shin splints). You'll find people who say just the opposite, I can only speak for myself.

Thanks, I actually considered taking a week or so off and then trying to run again. It hasn't been confirmed by a doc but I know what to look for. My bone is tender in one particular spot and it's the same spot as last time. I'm fairly sure it's the stress fracture again, which was confirmed the first time through a bone scan. I don't want to go through that process again so I'll try running on it next week (a small distance) and if it still hurts I'll take some time off.

I'm running in new shoes that I bought after the last stress fracture. They are the most cushioned shoes avaiable at the running store I went to. Maybe I do need to force a change in my stride so I guess I could consider some minimalist type shoe.

[OhioBlue]

I spoke too soon.

I played kickball on Wednesday night and after kicking the ball my left leg began hurting. I thought I might have just tweaked something. Then I went running Thursday morning and I could feel the pressure and slight pain in the shin bone. Same exact place as before.

My stress fracture is back.

I'm taking 6 months off from running. I'm not sure what the issue is but maybe I came back too early. I had 3 months off before but I must just be prone to this stuff. I never ran more than 10% per week more than the last week. I did some concrete running, but it was mostly on a treadmill. In any case, I'm taking at least a 6 month hiatus and will spend some quality time on the stationary bike. I'm not happy at all about this

You have got to be kidding me. That is seriously sucky, Moliere. I'm feeling frustrated for you right now. It's weird for a SF that you babied as carefully as you have to keep coming back. If running is something you want to keep doing, seems like at this point it might be time to seek out an expert and really get to the bottom of this. Good luck.

[happyone]

Sorry to hear about the SF Moliere Good luck with it and it sounds like OhioBlue has some good advice.

[Parrot Head]

A combination of being inspired by people on here and being strong-armed by almost an entire family of in-laws (minus fils), my wife and I ran our first half marathon yesterday and I have to say that it feels pretty dang awesome. I wasn't putting up numbers that would impress anyone outside of the Testudines Order, but I always thought I hated running and only started running in February and barely broke the 6-mile distance 6 weeks ago. I have realized there isn't too much to fear in running and I've found a lot of peace in it. I honestly don't like starting my day without a run now.

The run could have been much better. My wife was nervous about her heart rate (due to a VSD) so she wanted to take it easy and I figured I had no place to go in a hurry so I planned to tag along with her a bit. I was thinking for about 3 miles, but before I knew it, it had been 5.5 before I finally left her. We were enjoying the area and the great weather in the 50s. I also decided I had to leave because the pace was too slow and the change in pace and gait was resulting in a lot of pounding the pavement and my knees were hurting in a way they haven't before. As soon as I left her and returned to my stride, the pain went away. It did return around 11 - 11.5 but I figured that was the combination of the earlier pain and the distance, since I had only gone 10 miles once prior. I was also able to run alongside a blind guy running his third half and we chatted some. That guy was awesome.

Anyway, it felt great! I wondered if that would be the end of it, but I totally want to do more and shave off minutes. It was a hilly course (I thought) and I think that with some training and running at my own pace, I could take 15 minutes off my time pretty easily. I also need to keep an eye out for some of the coastal races to go for something more flat. And... oh, the chafing!!!

(BTW, I posted this here because the jerks in the marathon thread never responded to my pre-race question. Don't tell those elite punks I said that.)

[HBCoug]

A combination of being inspired by people on here and being strong-armed by almost an entire family of in-laws (minus fils), my wife and I ran our first half marathon yesterday and I have to say that it feels pretty dang awesome. I wasn't putting up numbers that would impress anyone outside of the Testudines Order, but I always thought I hated running and only started running in February and barely broke the 6-mile distance 6 weeks ago. I have realized there isn't too much to fear in running and I've found a lot of peace in it. I honestly don't like starting my day without a run now.

The run could have been much better. My wife was nervous about her heart rate (due to a VSD) so she wanted to take it easy and I figured I had no place to go in a hurry so I planned to tag along with her a bit. I was thinking for about 3 miles, but before I knew it, it had been 5.5 before I finally left her. We were enjoying the area and the great weather in the 50s. I also decided I had to leave because the pace was too slow and the change in pace and gait was resulting in a lot of pounding the pavement and my knees were hurting in a way they haven't before. As soon as I left her and returned to my stride, the pain went away. It did return around 11 - 11.5 but I figured that was the combination of the earlier pain and the distance, since I had only gone 10 miles once prior. I was also able to run alongside a blind guy running his third half and we chatted some. That guy was awesome.

Anyway, it felt great! I wondered if that would be the end of it, but I totally want to do more and shave off minutes. It was a hilly course (I thought) and I think that with some training and running at my own pace, I could take 15 minutes off my time pretty easily. I also need to keep an eye out for some of the coastal races to go for something more flat. And... oh, the chafing!!!

(BTW, I posted this here because the jerks in the marathon thread never responded to my pre-race question. Don't tell those elite punks I said that.)

Congrats on your accomplishment, Parrot Head. I find myself in a similar situation to what you recently went through preparing for my first half marathon out in Vegas in Dec. I'm a little nervous, but my runs have been going really well. Ideally I'd like to break the 2 hr mark, and I think it's attainable based on what I've been turning in on my longer prep runs (8-9 miles). Glad to see somebody else go through it for the first time and rekindle that motivation to keep chugging away.

[ERCougar]

Nice job, PH! I think the half is a great distance because you still get a deserved sense of accomplishment without beating the crap out of your body. Good to see a new convert! Did you trace in vff's?

[PaloAltoCougar]

A combination of being inspired by people on here and being strong-armed by almost an entire family of in-laws (minus fils), my wife and I ran our first half marathon yesterday...

We need to have some family nonproliferation treaty talks. Pretty much everyone in the family has done a half this year for the first time, and now the daughter in Manhattan is running the NYC Marathon in a couple of weeks. Stop the insanity!

Congrats, though, on a major accomplishment.

[bluegoose]

Congrats on the half, PH. Like ERC said, the half is a great race as it is tough enough that most people can do it and feel challenged by going as hard as you want, yet it doesn't beat you up nearly as much as marathon training does.

How are you guys feeling 2 days later?

[Dwight Schr-ute]

I started a thread about problems with my Garmin 405 in the cycling forum and was encouraged to post over here.

I started running for the first time in my life a few weeks ago as a 36 year old. I've been riding road bikes since I was in high school and went through the racing scene for a few years but settled on being content on just being recreational about it. My wife is a runner and has bugged me for years to give it a try. Due to fears of inherited bad knees and a distaste for the pounding, I didn't ever give it much thought, until recently.

I recently decided that if I ever hoped to exercise during the week, I would need to come up with something that I could do before the sun came up, for a shorter duration than riding. Running made the most sense.

I got me some shoes in July and started running in August after getting over a nasty cold with the goal to run the Snow Canyon half marathon the first week of November to keep me motivated.

About three weeks ago, a friend had to pull out of my wife's Las Vegas Ragnar team due to knee pain, so I decided to step into my first official running event. It helped that she had been given the easiest position and I felt confident of being able to do a decent job, despite only having been training for a couple of months. That changed about a week later when someone else on the team asked to trade out for that position since they hadn't been training, so I ended up being runner 8. (Maybe I'll post my Ragnar thoughts in the Ragnar thread even though it's not directly related.)

As I've gotten more adept in the sport, I've had a couple of questions come up that I wanted to get some feedback on.
1. I seem to run more at my heart rate than anything else meaning that my speed tends to fluctuate but my heart rate is typically within 3-5 bpm regardless of terrain. Which probably isn't too unusual. But what I think may be unusual is the fact that my average heart beat is 171 bpm. When on my bike, my average is down in the 150's. That seems to be a pretty significant difference. As I continue to train, I seem to be getting faster but my heart rate has stayed in the 170's. Is running at that rate theoretically sustainable? This should easily be in my anaerobic zone but for whatever reason, I am able to maintain that rate for well over an hour. As my distances continue to climb, should I be trying to run at a lower heart rate or just run at that rate as long as it's "comfortable?" My longest run to date has been 10 miles, an uphill out and back. As I make the final preparations for the half marathon, should I focus on running at a lower heart rate to ensure that I have enough in reserves to finish strongly?

2. My second question is setting time targets. I don't considered finishing a challenging goal but I also don't want to set the bar so high that I end up disappointed in my first run. I've been pushing low 8:00's on shorter runs ~3 miles that also include a little bit of climbing. My 10 miler averaged around 9:30 but also included 500 feet of climbing. I'd really like to break the 2 hour mark but the more I focus on that, I feel like I should be more aggressive. Is it best to just show up and run and see what happens or should I hyper focus on pace so much that I don't really appreciate my first half? This might all be moot since my Garmin seems to be on the fritz and unless I want to run with my phone, I won't be able to keep an eye on my pace.

Thanks for any insight.