Ran a 5K today

AnimeJ wrote:

Time was not so great, but I paid zero attention to the course and train for the fact that nearly 80% of first mile was uphill. That hill and I, we did not get along at all. But I did have a blast, and was planning on running the half this year, but well..

<---*points over at the line under the avatar*

That didn't happen.

What, they don't have running in Asia?

But seriously, that's cool. Congratulations, and if I haven't said it before, thanks for your service!

If you're ever at the base in Jacksonville, AR, send me a PM. That's where my in-laws live, and I can show you a good place or two to run.

There's plenty of running, 5ks and 10ks are run monthly, but my schedule is not conducive to particpation. Thanks much, btw.

I gave Runkeeper another shot at that 1.5 mile route this morning, and am happy to report that it clocked it almost dead on. Not sure what caused it to drop 0.3 miles last time, hopefully it was a fluke that won't happen all that often.

Even better, I brought my pace down to sub 8:00. Nothing like what I could do 20 years ago, but it's a start! Another week or two at this distance and I'll bump it up to 2.0 or 2.5. With 13 weeks until the Warrior Dash I should have plenty of time to get ready for it.

Oof, I can't imagine running an under 8-minute mile pace at this point. I'm quite pleased if I break 10 min/mi.

Good job!

AnimeJ wrote:

If you're truly going from Couch to 5k, then I'd do the full 5k program, then the 8k, then the 10k.

If you're talking about the programs found on coolrunning or podrunner I can't agree with that. The 8K and 10K programs have way too much overlap to do them back to back and see good progress. While cutting back mileage by 20% one week every couple of months is recommended, this would have you going back much farther than that when you transitioned programs.

The key is just to make certain that you aren't struggling as you advance through your program. If you finish a week and feel "barely alive" then repeat the week before you move on. Probably the most important thing to remember is to slow down! Speed comes with time, but if you're running these beginner programs at a pace where you can't hold a conversation with a partner while you're running then you're going too fast. You'll actually progress both your speed and endurance far more quickly if you keep to a conversational pace.

Ghostship wrote:

Thank you Elycion. I hadn't even considered that sort of shoe fitting.
I was thinking about getting in touch with the surgeon who worked on me, and my physiotherapist. Thanks for the encouragement to get off my butt and do it.

You might also consider the Running Room. They have some decent shoe fitters there. (Not sure if they have the gizmo mentioned above though.)

5k 34:05 last night. Was taking it easy after the 8k on the weekend. Still not on pace to do 10k under an hour, but time will tell.
I think my 8k race time was 53:29. Of course we prepared by drinking beer the night before. That didn't make the hill any easier.

Ghostship wrote:

5k 34:05 last night. Was taking it easy after the 8k on the weekend. Still not on pace to do 10k under an hour, but time will tell.
I think my 8k race time was 53:29. Of course we prepared by drinking beer the night before. That didn't make the hill any easier.

Your comment made me think of a funny anecdote my wife told me during her 8-mile race.

Next to the people giving cups of water out on the course, a young guy was offering racers a beer.

An older man accepted the beer while running and said "Liquid Magic!!" before chugging.

He threw up and dropped the bottle like 2 steps later!

I was cracking up when I heard that.

Was able to run again today after catching a nasty roundhouse kick in the shin a few days ago. I'm up to just over 2 miles at just under an 8 minute mile pace. I even tried a bit of that heel-toe running style today. I have no idea if my form was correct or not, but it was interesting.

I was about to post my Runkeeper log to Facebook when I realized none of my friends are runners or care about running. Little motivation there. Anybody here want to join a Runkeeper street team for mutual motivation, or perhaps a Facebook group where we could all post our runs from whatever tracking app we use?

Teneman wrote:

I even tried a bit of that heel-toe running style today. I have no idea if my form was correct or not, but it was interesting.

(If we're talking about the same thing) I've been trying this the last few runs and while it has been a little strange, I've seen some huge gains. My running style before could be called "plodding" with very heavy footfalls. I've also been plagued by Achilles' tendon pain, especially in the mornings. Since making a conscious effort to land softly on my heel and roll my foot forward, I've noticed I can run much farther much easier and experienced a lot less pain in my heel. My knees are complaining a little bit based on the changes, but they're getting better. A running friend of mine (Ultra Marathoner) told me that you shouldn't hear your shoe strike the ground, and I've been focusing on that.

Michael wrote:
Teneman wrote:

I even tried a bit of that heel-toe running style today. I have no idea if my form was correct or not, but it was interesting.

(If we're talking about the same thing) I've been trying this the last few runs and while it has been a little strange, I've seen some huge gains. My running style before could be called "plodding" with very heavy footfalls. I've also been plagued by Achilles' tendon pain, especially in the mornings. Since making a conscious effort to land softly on my heel and roll my foot forward, I've noticed I can run much farther much easier and experienced a lot less pain in my heel. My knees are complaining a little bit based on the changes, but they're getting better. A running friend of mine (Ultra Marathoner) told me that you shouldn't hear your shoe strike the ground, and I've been focusing on that.

Sounds like we're talking about roughly the same thing, yeah. There's a thread over here about it as well. I saw some immediate gains while doing it as well, though I wasn't able to maintain the posture through the entire run. They say you should start with a 1/4 mile or so at a time, and that's about what I was able to hit. I'll continue experimenting, hopefully I can see the claimed reduction in knee pain once I get the form down, that's been something that's plagued me for years.

I hadn't run since May 24 since I bruised my heel shortly thereafter. Last night was my first run since and I was worried that I had lost any fitness I had built up previously.

I ended up running 2 miles at a 10:20 pace, which pleased me. I'd like to get back under a 10:00 pace again, but that will come. I just need to be able to run 5K by the 4th of July since we're signed up for a fun run then.

Teneman wrote:

I was about to post my Runkeeper log to Facebook when I realized none of my friends are runners or care about running. Little motivation there. Anybody here want to join a Runkeeper street team for mutual motivation, or perhaps a Facebook group where we could all post our runs from whatever tracking app we use?

I'm game. I haven't entered any of my workouts, but I will when I get at my Garmin. I could use some mutual motivation :). Ramping up to my official start date of June 28th for training for this year's Marine Corps Marathon. I'm ColdForged on RunKeeper.

On Wednesday, I swam for 40 minutes in a lake, then got out, stripped off the wetsuit and ran 5.6 miles in 48 minutes. I'm super pleased with that pace - a little over 8:34 per mile. I had no idea I was going that quick, working out the numbers is a huge confidence boost.

3 weeks to go 'til race day!

Jonman wrote:

On Wednesday, I swam for 40 minutes in a lake, then got out, stripped off the wetsuit and ran 5.6 miles in 48 minutes. I'm super pleased with that pace - a little over 8:34 per mile. I had no idea I was going that quick, working out the numbers is a huge confidence boost.

That's awesome Jonman! I'm just under 8:00 a mile at the moment, but it's a struggle to sustain that rate for two miles, let alone nearly 6. Good luck in the race!

ColdForged wrote:
Teneman wrote:

I was about to post my Runkeeper log to Facebook when I realized none of my friends are runners or care about running. Little motivation there. Anybody here want to join a Runkeeper street team for mutual motivation, or perhaps a Facebook group where we could all post our runs from whatever tracking app we use?

I'm game. I haven't entered any of my workouts, but I will when I get at my Garmin. I could use some mutual motivation :). Ramping up to my official start date of June 28th for training for this year's Marine Corps Marathon. I'm ColdForged on RunKeeper.

Great, I'll kick you a RunKeeper street team invite. I'm reedjam there. Anyone else want in for mutual motivation?

I usually run 2 miles a day at about 7:30 a mile and then do a quick 10 mins of either lifting/situps/whatever. But I need to get in better shape, so I decided about a week ago to kick it up to 3-4 miles a day and at least 30 minutes of muscular strength stuff (various core and arms/shoulder exercises). I'm also trying to cut back on how much food I eat since I could go with losing 10-15 lbs.

Teneman wrote:
Jonman wrote:

On Wednesday, I swam for 40 minutes in a lake, then got out, stripped off the wetsuit and ran 5.6 miles in 48 minutes. I'm super pleased with that pace - a little over 8:34 per mile. I had no idea I was going that quick, working out the numbers is a huge confidence boost.

That's awesome Jonman! I'm just under 8:00 a mile at the moment, but it's a struggle to sustain that rate for two miles, let alone nearly 6. Good luck in the race!

I was similarly surprised when I went out for a proper long run a couple of weeks ago and did a little over 12 miles in exactly 2 hours. It made me question how accurate Google Maps is at calculating distance, because I sure didn't feel like I was doing 10 minute miles the whole way.

I'm not sure how accurate Google Maps is, but Runkeeper's maps - which I assume are based on Google Maps - are damn near spot on.

I'm planning on kicking my distance up a bit in the next week, either to 2.5m or 3m a day. I doubt I'll be able to get back to my high school pace of 6 minute miles for 5Ks and 6:30 for 10Ks, but I'd like to get close. Just started running again a few weeks ago after nearly 20 years off and am making steady improvement, so it's possible.

ColdForged wrote:

I haven't entered any of my workouts, but I will when I get at my Garmin.

Wait, can you upload from a Garmin HR monitor straight to runkeeper? I use a forerunner 305. If that's the case I'll set up an account and join your merry band of runners.

Runkeeper looks interesting, but I don't think it works with my Nike/iPod Nano setup. But, run on brothers!

fleabagmatt wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

I haven't entered any of my workouts, but I will when I get at my Garmin.

Wait, can you upload from a Garmin HR monitor straight to runkeeper? I use a forerunner 305. If that's the case I'll set up an account and join your merry band of runners.

Appears so, yes. They support the Garmin browser plugin as well so it'll directly import from the device rather than just importing GPX files. That was the clincher for me, frankly: if it's a pain to get my Garmin data in, I guarantee I won't use it :).

lostlobster wrote:

Runkeeper looks interesting, but I don't think it works with my Nike/iPod Nano setup. But, run on brothers!

If you're just looking for mutual motivation, you can always manually enter your runs into Runkeeper. Pain in the butt, yes, but it's an option.

I'm a big fan of Runkeeper. Started using it last August and it has been a key part of reaching some major weight-loss and fitness goals. It (& several doses of C25k) helped me go from completely sedentary to under 30 minutes for a 5k and then breaking through to much faster race times and added distance on top of that.

Currently I'm using one of the Runkeeper's Fitness Classes (Jeff Gaudette's Half-marathon in under 2 hours) to guide my training and help me prepare for the Hood to Coast relay in August. For me, as I approach 40, a huge key has been to be consistent and steady while avoiding overdoing it. I try to always be able to run more. As an aging GWJer, this is more important and has allowed me to enjoy training and get further with it than trying to re-live my athletic glory days. This lead to being frustrated with all success and always ending up in pain. Actually learning to enjoy running and avoiding unnecessary or unwanted pain has been a HUGE change from other fitness attempts.

I'm Koppenberg on RunKeeper and look forward to seeing y'all there.

I'll check out the Runkeeper program/site (I hadn't heard about it before). You all just inspired me to run today! Go GWJ Run Club!!

airicc8 wrote:

I'll check out the Runkeeper program/site (I hadn't heard about it before). You all just inspired me to run today! Go GWJ Run Club!!

Our evil plan, it's working already! Mwuahahaha.

I figured out how to upload from my garmin and set up a runkeeper account. Invites sent to ColdForged and Tenemen.

Fleabagmatt

Ran a mile in minimal shoes and a half mile completely barefoot today, on an indoor track. Amazing how good that felt. Hell on the calves, but good nonetheless!

ColdForged wrote:
fleabagmatt wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

I haven't entered any of my workouts, but I will when I get at my Garmin.

Wait, can you upload from a Garmin HR monitor straight to runkeeper? I use a forerunner 305. If that's the case I'll set up an account and join your merry band of runners.

Appears so, yes. They support the Garmin browser plugin as well so it'll directly import from the device rather than just importing GPX files. That was the clincher for me, frankly: if it's a pain to get my Garmin data in, I guarantee I won't use it :).

Well, it works. But it will only pull in one workout at a time. There's 195 on my Garmin, and I'll be damned if I'll be doing each one individually. I'm going to get maybe June workouts in and then plan to import new ones as I run them. I'm a bit disappointed, but oh well.

That's exactly what I did. Just starting from June.

Today's Ct5k had me running 2 miles with no walking for the first time. I'm pretty proud of myself for pulling it off without too much trouble. The first quarter mile was (as usual) the hardest, but once I pushed past that, there was only one other trouble spot at around mile 1.5, which I was also able to work through. None of it was muscular, and I suspect it was partly due to being out too late last night and getting really crappy sleep. I'm going to repeat that run on Friday before the Warrior Dash on Saturday really tests my endurance. I'm optimistic, since I finished today's run tired but not dead, and I felt like I could've kept going. I think I was going at about a 9:30/mile pace.

About a week into the program, when it started increasing the length of run intervals, I started noticing what I'm assuming are minor shin splints a few times throughout the run. I've apparently naturally adopted a more mid-foot strike stride now, which seems to have taken care of it. I know I'm flat footed and I'm planning to go to a running store to get fitted with better shoes to address that in a few weeks. Is that likely to eliminate the possibility of me destroying my shins, or is there something else I should be doing? I'm running on sidewalks if that matters.