2016 Running Thread

So the DL Half was a nice outing. Couldn't have had nicer weather. After feeling a bit of pain in the 10K in the glute, I also was being careful not to do bigger damage, so I figured I would walk more so I wouldn't be injured for Paris. My feet were killing me by the end, and my legs were so tired. I had two bars of shot blox but dropped one before the start - so much for planning. By the finish line, I was delirious. Felt like I'd had 4 glasses of wine. Having given up on a time goal (I started with the 2:30 pacer and the 2:45 passed me about 10 miles in) I was okay with my time but I will now need another good run for future proof of time. I had a great night's sleep afterwards, though and I am now back home and feel a perfectly reasonable amount of stiffness, and have physio and massage already booked for later this week, so I think we're under control!

Hope panthrah and cupcaker had good trips too!

yay, and welcome back Unbreakable01. Good strategy to work out the dog. Sadly I can't blame MY pace on anybody

If you can share any more about your Nov. event, we could put the race name and date in the calendar.

(Would be nice to be in the single digit rank by age but it's not in the cards for me unless I outlive everybody!)

Unbreakable, did I get the date correct? I googled Lexus Lace Up Riverside and got December 4.

lifelover, I am a big believer in running your own pace, so I certainly envy the 7-minute miles, but settle for 7-minute km on a good day. I am not 25, I am often not properly trained, I am clumsy and fall and get injured but run anyway, etc. I like to say I am not good at running, but running has been good to me. My asthma is much better controlled, the running events give me something to look forward to, and some shiny recognition just for following through. I have learned so much anatomy from the physiotherapy - every time they repair what I wreck, I learn another body part I didn't know I had. The long runs like the half and 15K give me time with my thoughts that I rarely have in the course of normal living, yet relieve me of making any decisions - just follow the ladies in front of me for 2+ hours.

Panthrah, sorry you had the out-of-sorts run at DL. I found the course, er, interesting - like, where are we now?? In and out of the parks instead of continuously in one then the other. But then once we got out into Anaheim, I found I knew what was coming, knew where Mouseplanet would be and had my camera ready (see the "Damn you autocorrect, R-U-M" fingerspelling?) and got my red vines to make up for the Shot Blox, and I was able to run the tangents more efficiently because I knew the turns. Oh temp-wise, at the expo, I had bought a new Dr. Cool hat and neck tube. Boy, those are great products. I poured water on the neck tube and just turned it around every few minutes, and I had new coolness on my neck. My new favourite running gear.

I had my post-Disneyland leg massage today. Holy mother of pearl, that hurt. They were so full of tightness. I am going to do another 30-minute before I head to Spain (on the way to Paris) then have one booked the day after I get back from there.

lifelover, are you using a running watch with pace data? I find my enthusiasm sometimes gets me going faster than I can sustain, and I have to walk. The very first Nike fitness band I ever had was a revelation, because I realized if I used it as a speed LIMIT, I could run much longer and build endurance (and then increase pace as I built up conditioning over time.) Now, I have a better feel for my pace, but sometimes in a race, I find myself excited and going too fast, and I check the watch and hold back. Sometimes I have to walk a bit to get myself out of the rhythm and then start running at a slower pace (usually keep the high cadence but shorten my stride). But glad you celebrated your constructive use of run-walk!

Unbreakable01, that explanation totally works for me My whole brain was wonky for ages after all my surgery, particularly the long DIEP sleep. It was the best sleep I've ever had, but man, my head and stuff like my oxygen uptake in running did not work right for a lonnnnng time. Multiple years, easily!

Let's poll everyone - what watch(es) do you use? Weigh in here!

I use a Garmin 620 for running and a Garmin vivoactive for everyday (steps and sleep). Both will connect to the same heart rate band and will upload to the Garmin website via the Garmin Connect app. The vivoactive will do GPS and analysis as well, but I already had the 620. The 620 does not do step counting, but it does more running analysis like vertical oscillation and so forth. Vivoactive has apps that can be downloaded to it from the Garmin platform so you can modify the watch faces and additional data fields. When I run, I wear both, so I get the steps on the vivoactive, and collect my running stats on the 620. If I just go out for a walk, I use the vivoactive GPS, with or without the HR band. If I am just doing a light run and don't care about the deeper analytics, I may use the vivoactive in running mode. I like that I do not HAVE to take my phone to have a GPS in it. (Though now I may take it to catch Pokémon and hatch eggs!)

The Garmin website will "talk" to My Fitness Pal (MFP) for calorie intake and MFP will "talk" to the Withings wifi scale, so I have weight and food connected to it through that. I am a data geek so I enjoy having all the information and I do pore over it afterwards. I don't run with my sound processor on, so I am as deaf as it gets when I run, and coaching is basically unavailable to me, so the data is my "coach". Not everyone likes that kind of thing but my Garmin, it gets me.

What about everyone else?

So, tomorrow is the Disneyland Paris Half - cupcaker, you here?

I'm impressed with the start time a leisurely 7:00 and the hotel rooms are very close to the start - no buses. Aside from being at the far end of the corridor from the elevator, it's closer than any room I have had at WDW or Anaheim. Combined with the late start, it's a pretty sweet deal.

Unfortunately, I have acquired a virus in my throat, sinuses, ears, and thereabouts, probably just a plain old rhinovirus that unfortunately I have not already had, from one of the thousands of people I encountered in the train stations, train, metro on the way here from Spain.

Forecast is a little cooler than I'd like, at 12C at dawn, so opting for plan B long sleeve shirt. Unless I recover overnight, all bets are off as to pace, but I've been looking forward to this a long time!