Running

[YellowKing]

I gave up a long time ago running long distances. The recent jaunt into a 10K was fun to accomplish, but I have no desire to run for an hour consistently. My "maintenance" is going to be running 30 minutes 3-4 times a week, and walking at least 30 mins on the off days.

[Skinypupy]

I seem to have hit a running plateau.

April will be my first month where my average page is slower than the previous month. March was 9:27, April is 9:35. So not a massive dropoff, but enough of one that I've really noticed how much slower I feel. Every day feels like I'm dragging lead weights behind me (especially for the first 1/2 to 3/4 mile), and I just can't seem to get back the energy that I've had prior to March.

I've tried looking at some of the obvious things (such as diet), but it doesn't really matter what I eat, I always feel like I'm overly sluggish and slow in the morning these days. Even tried switching up to afternoon runs...and those were even worse.

I'm still dragging my ass out there 5 days/week, but the past 4 weeks have probably been the most difficult I've had since I started running 13 months ago. Frustrating, as I really can't put my finger on why.

[JCC]

Could it be warmer temps?

[Skinypupy]

Could it be warmer temps?

Doubt it. It’s still only been in the 20s and 30s most of the mornings.

This week is the first week I’ve run without my jacket on

[EvilHomer3k]

It's 90 degrees in Iowa now. I hate the weather here. The last month it's been windy and cold. We get one nice day and now it's 90 effing degrees.

[Kurth]

Ran in the "Foot Traffic Flat 2022 4th of July Race" yesterday. Ran the half, despite recurring pain in my right foot. Ran it with a buddy, and I figured I'd go out for a mile or so and see how it felt. If it was feeling bad, I figured that wasn't too far to just walk back to the start in shame, and if it felt ok, I'd go for it and gut it out. After a mile, it actually felt pretty good, and with each passing mile, it felt better and better. Finished the half feeling pretty good, but when I went home . . . another story.

I've been periodically icing it ever since, but it feels terrible. Really strong aching feeling under the ball and toward the outside (lateral) side of my foot.

Any thoughts? The strange thing is that it feels fine when I run on it and get warmed up, but then really hurts after I stop. Maybe a nerve thing?

Very annoying.

[Baroquen]

Any thoughts? The strange thing is that it feels fine when I run on it and get warmed up, but then really hurts after I stop. Maybe a nerve thing?

Very annoying.

Yeah that sounds annoying. Not sure what's going on, as I've never been in your situation before. I've had a number of aches and pains that act up when I start running, but then settle down after a few miles. But, those are usually fine when not running, so I don't worry about them. Generally, for me, if something hurts when I'm just walking (or sitting) around, I get anxious.

Do you have a doctor who "gets" running? I have one who used to run himself, but unfortunately, tends to shrug/downplay a lot of things like this.

[EvilHomer3k]

Ran in the "Foot Traffic Flat 2022 4th of July Race" yesterday. Ran the half, despite recurring pain in my right foot. Ran it with a buddy, and I figured I'd go out for a mile or so and see how it felt. If it was feeling bad, I figured that wasn't too far to just walk back to the start in shame, and if it felt ok, I'd go for it and gut it out. After a mile, it actually felt pretty good, and with each passing mile, it felt better and better. Finished the half feeling pretty good, but when I went home . . . another story.

I've been periodically icing it ever since, but it feels terrible. Really strong aching feeling under the ball and toward the outside (lateral) side of my foot.

Any thoughts? The strange thing is that it feels fine when I run on it and get warmed up, but then really hurts after I stop. Maybe a nerve thing?

Very annoying.

Could be a plantar fascitis tear. Wife had it last year and it never went away until she took a few weeks off (which was just recently). Ice and massage. She did a lot of massage with the butt end of a butter knife. I got her some socks that helped as well.

[Kurth]

Ran in the "Foot Traffic Flat 2022 4th of July Race" yesterday. Ran the half, despite recurring pain in my right foot. Ran it with a buddy, and I figured I'd go out for a mile or so and see how it felt. If it was feeling bad, I figured that wasn't too far to just walk back to the start in shame, and if it felt ok, I'd go for it and gut it out. After a mile, it actually felt pretty good, and with each passing mile, it felt better and better. Finished the half feeling pretty good, but when I went home . . . another story.

I've been periodically icing it ever since, but it feels terrible. Really strong aching feeling under the ball and toward the outside (lateral) side of my foot.

Any thoughts? The strange thing is that it feels fine when I run on it and get warmed up, but then really hurts after I stop. Maybe a nerve thing?

Very annoying.

Could be a plantar fascitis tear. Wife had it last year and it never went away until she took a few weeks off (which was just recently). Ice and massage. She did a lot of massage with the butt end of a butter knife. I got her some socks that helped as well.

Thanks for the plantar fasciitis suggestion. Wikipedia tells me there are definitely parts of that diagnosis that make sense, especially the part about the pain being worse after periods of rest (especially bad right when I get up in the morning) and getting better after walking (or running) on it for a little while.

The thing that doesn’t seem to fit as well is that the pain in an overwhelming number of patients is in the heel area, and it’s described as acute or stabbing. Very different from what I have, which is in the front of my foot under the pad toward the outside (lateral, pinky toe side) of my foot and is more of a dull ache than an acute stab.

May be time to see a specialist.

[Skinypupy]

I know that Kuru makes shoes specifically for people with plantar fasciitis. I have a few friends who swear by them for everyday use, but I’m not sure how their running shoes are. Might want to give them a look.

I’ve been very consistent over the last few months, which is probably a good thing. I decided to quit being frustrated about hitting a time plateau and just focus on consistency. Of my last 75 runs, all but 5 were between 9:25-9:40 min/mile, which seems to be about average for my age (48 next month). I’ve been really good about getting out 5 days/week, doing between 2.5-3 miles. I’m on pace to hit 550 miles for the year (currently at 305), which is what I was shooting for.

I’m mostly just keeping my fingers crossed I don’t run into any weird injuries.

[Baroquen]

So I'm getting ready for marathon #27/state #25 in October. I've stuck to the training plan for the first four weeks and that's good considering I only hit the weekly goal 2 out of 16 times last time. Really hoping to stick with things this time around because my last result was really really bad. (The time before that was very encouraging). Also hoping injuries don't derail me over the next couple months.

I just did a long run tonight, and that's puts me just below 500 miles on the year thus far. Hoping to hit 1000, which I did from 2015-2020 but missed last year by a significant margin.

[YellowKing]

I did something fun a couple of weekends ago. A buddy of mine needed volunteers for a short film he's producing/starring in based on his personal experience of being a gay member of the running community, and how it changed his life. He needed a scene of a 5K, so he just created his own impromptu 5K out at the park and invited people to run it for free.

There was around 20 of us running it, so we did some scenes of stretching, walking around and talking, etc. Then when it was time for the 5K we just ran it normally while they did drone shots of the race. From time to time the director would find us on the trail and do some close up shots of us running towards the camera. The most fun part was having to fake some sequences where they didn't get it on the first pass, so we'd back up and re-run the same 100 feet over and over.

I have no idea when it's coming out, but I'll be sure to post a link when it's completed.

As far as my personal running, I'm going back through the Zombies, Run 5K right now just for something to do. It's a little different format than the traditional Couch to 5Ks, so it's nice to change it up a bit. I feel like overall since hitting the 10k mark a couple of months back my "baseline" has improved significantly and I'm no longer struggling as much even after a week or two off. Hitting the rower a few times a week has probably helped in that regard as well.

[Skinypupy]

Finished my 150 mile run through The Shire this morning. Took just under 3 months, averaging 2.5 miles per run over 58 runs.



I may actually sign up for the rest of the LOTR path. While it's not a huge motivator, it is quite fun to see it progress as I go. Gives just enough of a dopamine hit to keep doing it for another 515 miles.

[EvilHomer3k]

I haven't been running in about a month. Went to Kentucky, got Covid. While I had Covid I got Gout and that lasted 4 weeks. All told it's been about 6 weeks since I ran with any consistency. Just started running again last week. Feels like I'm starting from 0 again. I did get a 4 mile run in yesterday. Unfortunately, it was 85 and 90% humidity. Can't wait for actually cooler temps.

[YellowKing]

I quit for a bit as well due to the heat. Though I've been hitting the rower to keep the cardio up. I just started back last week on my 3x a week routine. Only real goal right now is to run a 5K I signed up for near the end of October, so I'm taking it fairly easy.

[Skinypupy]

I haven't been running in about a month. Went to Kentucky, got Covid. While I had Covid I got Gout and that lasted 4 weeks.

I had prostatitis (TMI, I know) for most of August. Finally got over it and was able to run for 5 days...then got COVID at my work conference last week and am now out of commission again.

[EvilHomer3k]

I quit for a bit as well due to the heat. Though I've been hitting the rower to keep the cardio up. I just started back last week on my 3x a week routine. Only real goal right now is to run a 5K I signed up for near the end of October, so I'm taking it fairly easy.

I was able to bike most of that time so I was keeping cardio up with that. It gave me more time to mountain bike which I love doing but don't have much time for. Most of my exercise is with my wife and she just doesn't care for mountain biking. Mostly because she gets hurt pretty much every time.

I haven't been running in about a month. Went to Kentucky, got Covid. While I had Covid I got Gout and that lasted 4 weeks.

I had prostatitis (TMI, I know) for most of August. Finally got over it and was able to run for 5 days...then got COVID at my work conference last week and am now out of commission again.

That may be worse than being out the whole time. Just get over it and you're out again. Good luck with COVID. Hopefully there aren't any bad side effects.

[Skinypupy]

Today was my first day running again since COVID about a month ago. While it wasn't as awful as I feared, it certainly wasn't great. I was only able to do 2.5 miles and my pace was around what I was averaging at the beginning of this year.

Frustrating that I lost 9 months of progress after being sick for a few weeks. Hoping it comes back quickly, but have to be a little careful not to push myself too hard. Found that I got out of breath very quickly this morning and have been coughing more than normal afterwards.

Could have been worse though...at least I can still get out and run. COVID sucks.

[EvilHomer3k]

Running my last half of the year this weekend in Waukesha, WI. Forcast has a high of 37 and shouldn't be windy. I hope that's accurate. We were doing quite well with training but really dropped off last week over Thanksgiving and this week so far. Only ran twice since the 17th. Prior to that we were running 4 time per week with one long weekend run. So I guess I can consider this a long taper.

Also time to evaluate my progress for the year.

2022 Goals:
Running: 720 (60 per month)
Walking: 500
OB: 1500
IB: 1000

2022 So Far:
Run: 476.22
Walk: 459.53
Hike: 135.75
Run/Walk Miles:1071.5
Outdoor Bike: 1280.52 (160 hours biking at roughly 12MPH so (160*60)*.2)
Indoor Bike: 1903.2
Bike Miles 3183.72
Total: 4255.22

2021 Totals:
Running:562
Walking:503
Outdoor Biking:1168
Indoor Biking: 2093
Total: 4326

Overall I'm going to surpass my 2021 totals as I still have a full month left (minus the 3 miles I biked to work today) by a few hundred miles but I won't hit my run, walk, or outdoor bike goals but easily hit the indoor bike goals (I had wanted to do more outdoor bike and less indoor). Hoping to do a little better next year.

[Skinypupy]

I take the exact same route every run. I start at the exact same place, I end at the exact same place, I even cross the street in the exact same place every single time. There is absolutely no deviation at all. Part of this is because I'm very much a creature of habit, and part of it is because I want to keep consistency to measure if/how I am improving.

Problem is, Runkeeper gives me completely different distances every single time. Sometimes it's 2.48 miles. Sometimes it's 2.51 miles. Sometimes it's 2.41 miles. This morning it was 2.55 miles. It's never a huge difference, but the exact same route can differ by 2/10 of a mile in the app (which can represent 1-2 minutes of actual running time) depending on how my GPS decides it's feeling that day.

It's really gorram annoying.

[Isgrimnur]

0.03 miles = 158 feet

[EvilHomer3k]

I take the exact same route every run. I start at the exact same place, I end at the exact same place, I even cross the street in the exact same place every single time. There is absolutely no deviation at all. Part of this is because I'm very much a creature of habit, and part of it is because I want to keep consistency to measure if/how I am improving.

Problem is, Runkeeper gives me completely different distances every single time. Sometimes it's 2.48 miles. Sometimes it's 2.51 miles. Sometimes it's 2.41 miles. This morning it was 2.55 miles. It's never a huge difference, but the exact same route can differ by 2/10 of a mile in the app (which can represent 1-2 minutes of actual running time) depending on how my GPS decides it's feeling that day.

It's really gorram annoying.

I have a similar issue but it shows in a slightly different way. My wife doesn't like to run the same routes and also never wants to just run from the house. That can be annoying when we don't have time to run. But the issue is that her watch (my old Apple Watch 4) ALWAYS has her going further than me. Every single time. Sometimes it's significantly off. If I use Workoutdoors or Apple fitness it can be off by .05-.1 per mile. If we run 6 miles I have to end up going at least 1/4 mile further than she does. I've stopped using those and use Nike's app but it's still off by a little bit every time. It can be pretty annoying as well.

[Skinypupy]

I take the exact same route every run. I start at the exact same place, I end at the exact same place, I even cross the street in the exact same place every single time. There is absolutely no deviation at all. Part of this is because I'm very much a creature of habit, and part of it is because I want to keep consistency to measure if/how I am improving.

Problem is, Runkeeper gives me completely different distances every single time. Sometimes it's 2.48 miles. Sometimes it's 2.51 miles. Sometimes it's 2.41 miles. This morning it was 2.55 miles. It's never a huge difference, but the exact same route can differ by 2/10 of a mile in the app (which can represent 1-2 minutes of actual running time) depending on how my GPS decides it's feeling that day.

It's really gorram annoying.

I have a similar issue but it shows in a slightly different way. My wife doesn't like to run the same routes and also never wants to just run from the house. That can be annoying when we don't have time to run. But the issue is that her watch (my old Apple Watch 4) ALWAYS has her going further than me. Every single time. Sometimes it's significantly off. If I use Workoutdoors or Apple fitness it can be off by .05-.1 per mile. If we run 6 miles I have to end up going at least 1/4 mile further than she does. I've stopped using those and use Nike's app but it's still off by a little bit every time. It can be pretty annoying as well.

When I was in Tennessee with my brother over the summer, we ran together a few times. My Runkeeper showed significantly less distance that his app (Nike, I think) while we were running side by side. His showed a 5K, mine was at 2.8 miles.

My last 5 runs over the past week, all were the exact same route:
- 2.47 miles
- 2.55 miles
- 2.45 miles
- 2.46 miles
- 2.57 miles

Someone suggested paying attention to cloud cover and see if that has something to do with it, since GPS is less accurate in bad weather.

[Skinypupy]

If I run a 5K every day for the next 7 days, it will get me to 500 miles on the year. Currently at 480 miles, as of this morning.

I'm off work all next week.

Tempting to give it a go as a year-end push...

[stessier]

If I run a 5K every day for the next 7 days, it will get me to 500 miles on the year. Currently at 480 miles, as of this morning.

I'm off work all next week.

Tempting to give it a go as a year-end push...

Do it. It'll suck in the moment at times, but you'll be happy when you look back at it.

[JCC]

I didn't run much at all this year. But today I did pass 1500 miles of walking (a tiny bit of that was running) for the year.

[Zaxxon]

My stats are a litle harder to report on since I moved to Fitbit, but my total run/walk numbers for 2022 so far:

2,508 miles
5,347,664 steps

By volume most of that is walking since I have a treadmill desk in my office.

[JCC]

Wow, that's an amazing total! All of my miles were outside.

[Skinypupy]

Incredible totals from both of you.

[Zaxxon]

Incredible totals from both of you.

Mine are less impressive than they seem--a large majority of that is walking.

[Skinypupy]

Incredible totals from both of you.

Mine are less impressive than they seem--a large majority of that is walking.

Still crazy impressive. For reference, my total steps on the year (includes all running and walking) is only around 2,500,000. That’s easily the highest I’ve had in 20+ years…and you more than doubled it.

[YellowKing]

I came out at 300 miles for the year. That's only Runkeeper miles, so that's not counting steps and walks that I didn't log.

If I had kept up the pace for November/December I'd have probably hit 350, but I ran into a case of plantar fascitis that has stopped me in my tracks. This is the first time I've had it, but my mom and brother said it's pretty common for them as we're all flat-footed.

I'm still walking 2-2.5 miles a day with the pup, but I really want to get back to running for the weight loss. I've done nothing but pack on pounds since Thanksgiving.

[Skinypupy]

I had a good start in trying to get through 20 miles in a week (to hit 500 on the year), but it looks like that effort will get derailed by the weather. Did 10 miles between Sun-Tues, but woke up to 4" of snow this morning. Good for the kid's sledding, bad for running.

Maybe the Planet Fitness down the road will do one-time drop ins...

EDIT: Scratch that. By 1:30 most people had cleared their sidewalks and it stopped snowing. Had to hurdle a few snowbanks, but got in my 5k. Was my first time running 4 days straight (much less 3+ miles), so it definitely wasn’t my best time ever. Still, slow still counts.

[Skinypupy]

And...done. This morning's 5K gave me 21 miles this week (my previous max was 14) to hit 500 miles on the year.



Now I'm going to take a couple days to recover because my entire body hurts.

[stessier]

Congrats - well done!

I started the year recovering from an ankle injury from the previous Thanksgiving. I was in physical therapy through March and wasn't able to even think about doing a run until the end of February. Once I did start running, I had to work off the 25 lbs I had added while being unable to work out. It was a rough start but I ended up only 3 lbs from last Thanksgiving which I'm counting as a win. I was hoping to get a few more miles in, but Nov and Dec were unusually rainy which greatly curtailed the available days.

[Skinypupy]

Finished the third leg (of 5) of the LOTR virtual challenge and got the medal today. Mines of Moria was the shortest leg (only 40 miles), but it has the coolest medal.







It's solid metal, feels really hefty. I kinda love these things.

I have now started Eye of Sauron (95 miles) and will finish with Mordor (282 miles).

[stessier]

Had a really good run today - broke 9:00/mile! I averaged 8:55/mile for my 7.01 mile run. First time since 11/21/21 that I've broken 9:00 according to my tracker (less than a week later, I'd wreck my ankle and not be able to run for 3 months). Took a good long while to get back to this place - now onward and upward!

[Skinypupy]

New low temp for a run this morning, as it was a balmy 4 degrees when I left the house (previous low was 8). Skin on my face actually started stinging about midway through and it's the first time I've thought "you know...this probably isn't the best idea".

Still, it ended up as a top 10% run time so...success!

[stessier]

I told my wife last week that there should be bonus health benefits for exercise when a) you really don't want to but do anyway or b) when the elements are severe and it's a real question about how wise the activity is. Congrats on still going out there even when it's a bit crazy.

My month ended on a short run because I had to help with trigonometry homework this morning and it cut into my run time. The rest of the week is supposed to be a wash out, so at least I got something in today.

[Skinypupy]

Even after a couple years, I'm still in awe of how much you guys run. You do as much mileage in some weeks as I'm able to do in an entire month. That's amazing!