Running • Page 60

I made the decision two weekends ago that yo celebrate my 30th birthday, I’m going to run a marathon before I turn 31. Slowly ramping up my running after about a year off. My body just doesn’t bounce back like it used to.

 

Highly recommend the stationary bike along with swimming and rowing. Biking and rowing add an element of leg strength that helps dramatically with hills. The biggest change for my running after picking up triathlon training was that my legs were way better equipped to take on hills faster.

I love swimming as it's basically zero impact high HR cardio.

 

I'm your age as well. It definitely takes longer to get back on track than it did 5-10 years ago, but you'll get there! Not sure what your current level of fitness is, but after a long period of not running, I start with 1-2 miles 1-2x a week and then increase slowly from there. Cross training with biking or the eliptical and some light weight work can help reduce the likelihood of injury as well.

Lots of great resources out there for training plans and you have plenty of time! Good luck.

 

thanks for the advice!

i used to have a rowing machine, but it broke about a year or so ago. may get a new one, but my gym has a couple so i should probably try those out first. interesting that you felt rowing added to length strength. i feel like it's mostly an upper body / core workout, but maybe i just always did it wrong lol

as for swimming, i'd love to swim but the only place near me is expensive as shit to do it. i have a Y nearby, but my past comes back to haunt me in that an old relationship that did not end well (great job self!) works at the Y and i believe is placed right by the pools and / or is in charge of them or something. if i could swim around her schedule that would be great but not sure i want to test my luck that much lol

 

dumb question:

for half and full marathons, the groupings to start are organized by finish time right? like 3 hour / 4 hour / 4:30 hour?

i ask because Saturday is my first official race half-marathon and the only other official race i've done was a 10K and that they had to group together by minute speed not overall time (which makes sense for a short race like a 10K but i went in expecting to see total times not minutes)

 

Can't say for *every* race, but typically if they're starting at the same time, you'll self seed based on estimated mile pace for the race you're doing. So if you're a 2 hour half marathoner, you'll be grouped among 4 hour marathoners as well. You'll likely also see the pacers with their signs up so if you're lost find the pacer that is carrying the sign for the time you want.

With rowing, you very well could be doing it with incorrect form. I'd say 90% of the people I see at the gym are doing it as an arm workout (which it definitely still is), but proper rowing form generates a lot of power from the quads.

Edit: Sorry I think I misread your question about seeding. Yes, they typically seed based on expected finish time but sometimes it'll be expected mile time. I wouldn't worry about it -- most people seed themselves incorrectly anyway because they somehow think it'll help to be closer to the front so if you've seeded appropriately you'll be passing a few folks in the beginning.

 

welp, the NYC Marathon is next Sunday and I am nowhere near where I want to be. the IT band has begun flaring up again despite doing everything my PT said to and being relatively healthy throughout most of my very abbreviated training schedule of about 7 weeks. I had to defer last year and there's no way I'm losing the entry at this point so I'm going to give it my all and hope for the best. the original goal was to break 4 hours for my first marathon, now the goal is to finish and hopefully not be limping by the end. it's been a weird/rough year personally and I need to finish this damn race for the cathartic release.

 

yup. I did three runs last week and I’m doing four this week, but none very long at all. I greatly enjoy spin classes, so that’s helped keep some strength in my legs. Also do daily lifting as a way to stay sane after work. Definitely doing a lot of research. Hoping to start a 32 week plan once I choose the actual marathon I want to run.

 

bought the Osprey euro 6 hydration pack / vest. love the way it feels and all the pockets. not a huge fan of reservoir packs, but they stay in place for me better than the bottles in front on the two that i've tried. best part though is i can get soft flasks for the front if i want.

which leads to ask maybe a dumb question - people use hydration belts / packs / vests for marathons right? because i'd love to use mine ( and 1) have it be allowed and 2) not be the only one, but if i need to be, i definitely will) so i don't have to stop at aid stations and can just keep cruising if i want to.

testing this out on the few runs i have before 11/10 marathon to get used to it since you know, nothing new on race day.

 

Just finished my first official half marathon!

Finished in 1:48:52 which was well within my goal of finishing under 2 hours. I stuck nearby the 8:24 pacer, who was of course dressed as a banana for Halloween, but went ahead of him / the group for the second half of the race. Even had negative splits for maybe the first time ever lol

Unexpected cool thing I learned: the hypnotic trance-like ability of having music on low and only really hearing the breathing and footfalls of the group around you. That was really cool. As someone who runs exclusively alone this was a fun change of pace.

Also, having hot apple cider after a half marathon on a 30 degree day is the best.

 

Hell yeah! Congrats! Solid PR for your first one! When is your marathon?

 

Thanks!

Marathon is two weeks from tomorrow, 11/10. So the rest of my (few remaining) runs until then are gonna be super slow / easy. Most of today felt light and easy, but I don’t think I’ll be able to sustain an 8:18 pace for the marathon, so I think I’m going to aim for 8:45 at best, 9 as a back up plan.

Small world, before the race I found 4 other people who are also running Madison (my marathon). They’ve done the half and know people who have done the full and shed light that it’s “hillier and steeper than the elevation map gives it credit for” and that “there’s a beast of a hill at mile 23”. I don’t believe they were fucking with me so I’m going to focus on hills the next two weeks to get more acclimated.

I also have to focus on hip exercises as I felt like my left hip started to tighten up / have a pinpoint of pressure digging into me. Do not want that to come back again when I still have 13-14 miles to go.

Lastly, I also totally have my outfit down perfectly. Aside from socks... still debating between low and tall/thicker but if it’s colder than it was today then I might go with the tall socks. Today for the first half I feel like I could barely feel my feet / toes (which maybe was a good thing lol)

 

That sounds like a good plan. You'll probably be tapering leading into your race. Perfect time for some mild strengthening exercises.

 

i generally run with music, but i always race without it. the sounds of racing gets me so jacked, hearing people cheer, hearing the other runners heave with you, it makes me go.

did a 5k this morning at 19:07 ended up first in my age group and 6th overall. ran with some fast little high school fuckers!

 

I also train with headphones and race without. Although in my 100k I started hallucinating and threw my headphones on to distract me. Once I pulled my shit together I took them off. I get hardcore ear fatigue.

 

Jesus that’s fast as shit. Very impressive and congrats!

Looking back, I ended up keeping my music super low and I think I can definitely remember maybe 4 songs that played over that entire time. I also enjoyed that while in the “pack” no one was really talking so there were no annoyances.

Not sure if others have this happen, but i thought it was kind of weird that no one really passed me / the 8:24 group, and we didn’t really pass anyone until the last mile. Basically everyone started in the appropriate time slot and ended there. Very cool for a half-marathon with 424 people in it! When I did the 10K people were dropping like flies or speeding up which made it a bit of a hazard to run.

 

Running Into the Night — and Traffic

 

Excited to watch the NY marathon on Sunday (from my couch, not in person)

 

I’m running it! first marathon, let’s do the damn thing.

 

That’s awesome! Best of luck!

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about it and watching videos from previous years and it seems like it has a handful of tough stretches to prepare for but also seems like a lot of fun.

 

Last “long” run before my marathon next Sunday. Got 7 miles in under an hour - so that would be 28 miles in 4 hours at that pace. And my pace today felt good but still a bit slow since I don’t want to wreck anything this close to race day. Getting excited and ready for another week of carb loading.

 

ended at 4:18:27 yesterday for my first marathon. hit such a profound wall around mile 21! I knew it was going to be a struggle considering this time last year I was deep into physical therapy and I started officially "training" only about 8 weeks out. super pumped I was just able to finish where I was and boy am I feeling it today.

will probably get a bunch of half's under my belt before doing another one.

 

awesome work! congrats!

how was the atmosphere? favorite moment / worst moment?

i'd always heard how the marathon starts on a steep incline, but TV did a great job yesterday of showing how brutal that first mile is. and then knowing that the end of the race has a brutal incline as well makes the NYC marathon one that i'm not sure i'd want to do haha (along with dealing with 50K people and all the travel components as someone who isn't a resident / lives close)

 

I’m in Madison and all set for the marathon tomorrow.

luckily it’s not supposed to be too cold, unlike what it’s been all week. Forecast says 35 at the 7 am start which I’ll gladly take over the 15-20 it has been the last few days.

hoping to be asleep by 8 and then up by 4 to start eating and overthinking lol

 

First marathon complete!

finished in 4:09:14 and I am not ashamed of that at all. I had to walk some hills, my legs were dead at times and I wanted to survive which I did. Goal time was 4 hours, but I’ll gladly take 4:09 and the experience of running a marathon. Incredible experience, incredible day.