Season twilight
The running season seems to be over for me, at least for races, with temperatures falling below freezing this week.
I skipped a lot of good adventures since my June blog. I ran a record 19:01 5k in July, and kept pushing myself, and finally slowed by an injury.
It was on my upper left leg, somewhere around the muscle used to lift my leg, apparently a muscle underused by biking, but not necessarily greatly used running. The trigger might have been a foolish sprint up and down 27 floors to a friend's apartment, without any warm up. It was strange with running, since even at its worst, a 15-20 minute "warmup" run would allow me to run as fast as ever, but the next day running was impossible and walking uncomfortable. So I fought that through August and into September. I ran a 10k and 5k "double-header" in the same day, both starting slow and ending fast, but skipped a 25k "City of Lakes" run the next week with a new pain in my hip the night before, and rested a full 10 days after that before running again, and that apparently allowed it to heal.
My triumph was the 10-miler Twin Cities Marathon "Short cut" on October 1. After my rest, I worked up into a 25 mile week, with a 4, 8, and 6 mile practice and a 10k race. Then a 4 mile hill-training and a 10 mile practice. My practice duplicated my June 10 mile effort, following a 7 minute mile, starting a bit slower, and making up 90 seconds in the second half. And on the actual 10 mile race, I took an extra minute off my time, from the first half, and survived the second half - not as much fun as the negative split practice.
This week I just ran 5 miles with a coworker, in 35F temperature and crazy winds. I wore lots of layers and kept comfortably warm, but biggest problem is runny nose and moisure gets sucked into my lungs while breathing harder, and it takes hours to cough/clear my throat before its comfortable again, so just not worth running outside regularly when its below 45F or so.
I'm still very glad to not aspire to do a marathon. My body just doesn't seem to be up to the challenge. I mean I'm sure I COULD survive it, especially with reasonable training, but I don't expect to enjoy it.
Even the 10 mile race, my legs were uncomfortable at the end, so my normal stretches just wouldn't do. I mean I can run crazy 5k races, and I don't actually like running so fast as needed on 5k, but I CAN do this, and be REALLY tired for 2-3 minutes at the end to catch my breath, but then I'm pretty well fine, no leg discomfort at all. There's some "cost" to longer running that isn't measured in the pace calculators.
mcmillanrunning.com
The calculator SAYS I could do a 10-mile run at a 6:45 pace, and in terms of aerobic limit, I think I can, but there's another limit that starts maybe around 45 minutes and gets harder beyond 60-90 minutes, and my leg muscles degenerate. You can say lactic acid, or glucose limit, or whatever, but it exists.
Maybe it is related to my legs being trained for biking over running. Even in my "high training" months, I'd average around 2.5 hours of running a week, and 5 hours biking just for commuting! So I should expect my biking muscles much better prepared for endurance than running.
Anyway, I think there is a general truth that running more than 30-45 minutes/day has minimal health benefits, and ever increasing "costs" to health if pushed further. SURE a person who trains can probably handle longer runs with fewer "costs", but for me at least, I don't think I'd ever train enough to "comfortably" run a marathon at any pace. Maybe it's boredom as well.
I would still like to try some longer distances, like 16 miles again, at a "comfortable" pace, and see how I feel at the end.
Okay, here's my best paces versus distance over my 6 months of running, obviously under tested on longer distances, but prety much best up to 11 miles. Also graphs of various scales of the running pace calculator and slightly funny interpolations.
Now onward, unsure what I'll do this fall/winter for running. I've still procrastinated from trying some yoga which would seem better for me anyway. I'd also heard there's some running times in the metrodome - see some starting on Nov 21 at least:
http://www.runmdra.org/programs.html
I can't tell my commitment, and recognize how easy it is to be pulled away to other things. Running is "hard" in the sense of really needing 10 minutes of warmup to feel comfortable, and best for another 10 minutes at the end for stretching. I think twice a week, like 45 minute commitment may be ideal. I think less than that makes running harder, and unsure if more is necessary, at least with "cross-training"/commuting as well!
We'll see, but a very happy experiment!
I skipped a lot of good adventures since my June blog. I ran a record 19:01 5k in July, and kept pushing myself, and finally slowed by an injury.
It was on my upper left leg, somewhere around the muscle used to lift my leg, apparently a muscle underused by biking, but not necessarily greatly used running. The trigger might have been a foolish sprint up and down 27 floors to a friend's apartment, without any warm up. It was strange with running, since even at its worst, a 15-20 minute "warmup" run would allow me to run as fast as ever, but the next day running was impossible and walking uncomfortable. So I fought that through August and into September. I ran a 10k and 5k "double-header" in the same day, both starting slow and ending fast, but skipped a 25k "City of Lakes" run the next week with a new pain in my hip the night before, and rested a full 10 days after that before running again, and that apparently allowed it to heal.
My triumph was the 10-miler Twin Cities Marathon "Short cut" on October 1. After my rest, I worked up into a 25 mile week, with a 4, 8, and 6 mile practice and a 10k race. Then a 4 mile hill-training and a 10 mile practice. My practice duplicated my June 10 mile effort, following a 7 minute mile, starting a bit slower, and making up 90 seconds in the second half. And on the actual 10 mile race, I took an extra minute off my time, from the first half, and survived the second half - not as much fun as the negative split practice.
This week I just ran 5 miles with a coworker, in 35F temperature and crazy winds. I wore lots of layers and kept comfortably warm, but biggest problem is runny nose and moisure gets sucked into my lungs while breathing harder, and it takes hours to cough/clear my throat before its comfortable again, so just not worth running outside regularly when its below 45F or so.
I'm still very glad to not aspire to do a marathon. My body just doesn't seem to be up to the challenge. I mean I'm sure I COULD survive it, especially with reasonable training, but I don't expect to enjoy it.
Even the 10 mile race, my legs were uncomfortable at the end, so my normal stretches just wouldn't do. I mean I can run crazy 5k races, and I don't actually like running so fast as needed on 5k, but I CAN do this, and be REALLY tired for 2-3 minutes at the end to catch my breath, but then I'm pretty well fine, no leg discomfort at all. There's some "cost" to longer running that isn't measured in the pace calculators.
mcmillanrunning.com
The calculator SAYS I could do a 10-mile run at a 6:45 pace, and in terms of aerobic limit, I think I can, but there's another limit that starts maybe around 45 minutes and gets harder beyond 60-90 minutes, and my leg muscles degenerate. You can say lactic acid, or glucose limit, or whatever, but it exists.
Maybe it is related to my legs being trained for biking over running. Even in my "high training" months, I'd average around 2.5 hours of running a week, and 5 hours biking just for commuting! So I should expect my biking muscles much better prepared for endurance than running.
Anyway, I think there is a general truth that running more than 30-45 minutes/day has minimal health benefits, and ever increasing "costs" to health if pushed further. SURE a person who trains can probably handle longer runs with fewer "costs", but for me at least, I don't think I'd ever train enough to "comfortably" run a marathon at any pace. Maybe it's boredom as well.
I would still like to try some longer distances, like 16 miles again, at a "comfortable" pace, and see how I feel at the end.
Okay, here's my best paces versus distance over my 6 months of running, obviously under tested on longer distances, but prety much best up to 11 miles. Also graphs of various scales of the running pace calculator and slightly funny interpolations.
Now onward, unsure what I'll do this fall/winter for running. I've still procrastinated from trying some yoga which would seem better for me anyway. I'd also heard there's some running times in the metrodome - see some starting on Nov 21 at least:
http://www.runmdra.org/programs.html
I can't tell my commitment, and recognize how easy it is to be pulled away to other things. Running is "hard" in the sense of really needing 10 minutes of warmup to feel comfortable, and best for another 10 minutes at the end for stretching. I think twice a week, like 45 minute commitment may be ideal. I think less than that makes running harder, and unsure if more is necessary, at least with "cross-training"/commuting as well!
We'll see, but a very happy experiment!
posted by Ares Olympus at 5:02 PM
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