McFuzz's Mentor Group 2011 - CLOSED (Page 68)

So sorry Scott.

I'm sorry for your loss but glad to hear they found out who did it so quickly.  It must be really hard for your students.

This must be very difficult for everyone affected.  My thoughts and prayers are with your community.

Corncub,

Congrats on a double-digit run!  Not sure what it takes as far as leg strength, but make sure any strength is balanced. 

Hi Corncub, there's a lot of variety in how people experience pain and one persons experience may not be the same as another persons. However, with that being said, my personal experience with pain and running is that it will happen. Sometimes it will go away during the run, sometimes it won't.  Sometimes I tough it out and finish my run through the pain, sometimes I don't.  My personal belief (through experience) is that if I progress slowly through a "smart", conservative training program there's little risk of permanent injury.  However, there will be pain, especially when pushing boundaries of distance and pace.   I have been running long enough to recognize "normal" pain and "abnormal" pain.  One particular run of mine back on Nov 21 of 2010 was a very tough run.  You can check out my log that day and get a sense of what it was like. I had some pain that I ended up running through and it was largely gone by the end of the run.

Again, this is my experience. Yours and others might be completely different. 

Good morning McFuzzies!  This post is simply a rant post - hoping venting will be a bit cathartic

This morning was my first day back running in 15 days.  I took this time after my last race to heal my various knee aches and pains.  Well, the time off did absolutely nothing!  I'll spare you the dirty details, but I experienced the same pain as I did during my 1/2 marathon.  So, I guess I have to accept the fact that whatever is causing my issues is more significant than I've been willing to believe.  Looks like a trip to the ortho is in my future.

Rant off.

Ann-Marie

Congrats on your double digit run.  Careful.  From my own experience, watch sharp pains.  They can mean an injury that needs attention and trying to run through them can cause more harm than a few more miles can do  good.   Rest, ice, compress, elevate.   Some people take ice baths when they are done with every run.  Good luck with that.  I will ice problem areas and I ALWAYS stretch, do yoga (same thing) and use foam rollers.

I am religious about the yoga and foam rollers these days.  Can't tell you what a difference they make in how my legs feel.  They are strong - my threshold power is back to within 2% of peak last year and it's only March.  Yet, my legs feel relaxed and supple when I'm not working out. I'm using the Triggerpoint Grid and bought the new Rumble Roller.  Look it up.  It looks like a Dark Ages torture device and it really gets down into the muscle like a good massage therapist.  But seems to work well. 

The run is going well.  I'm at 14 miles a week in three sessions, two speed workouts and one long run at an easier tempo pace.  Bought different shoes...I use Brooks Addictions but bought a pair of Brooks Adrenalines.  Used them for the first time last night.  They seem fine - less support, - so they are gong to be for short runs for now and the Addictions for longer.  If I develop any problems, I'll stay with Addictions. 

The swim - the masters coach is great and keeps tweaking stuff.  This time it was pulling my legs together to eliminate body twist and drag.   Really helped.  Times are down.  Effort is down.

The bike - my Vision Quest coach is really good.  Working on strength exercises over winter really helped.  Low cadence, high power.  Shifted to two lactate threshold drills last week.  They are 10-20 min. efforts near threshold power, then a short recovery and more LTs.   Just for fun, they toss in some VO2 max in the middle of it, 30-90 secs.  I feel really strong when I'm done.   Also one long base ride of 3 hours/wk.

Overdoing is always my issue.  I'm sticking right to the plan I'm given.  I add one short run because I need to get that speed up so my endurance cruising speed will be respectable.  If anything goes, it will be that 3rd short run.  But the reason I got hurt last fall was I peaked, did the HIM in 6 hours and 9 mins and then just kept right on training.  They told me to take it easy without firm direction and let me drift so I cut from like 17-18 hours a week to 10 and thought that was "easy."  Not.   After I was hurt they said I was supposed to do nearly nothing.  Now they tell me. I just kept at it because I love this stuff now.  I didn't know.  Now I do.  So I am relying on the massage therapy, the rollers, the yoga, the rest day (strictly obeyed) and working on workout nutrition before during and after to insure recovery. Using Hammer Recoverite and Whey Protein on major workout days. 

Thank you guys for the advice, and the inspires in my log MUCH APPRECIATEDand I'm doing all of it, rolling/ice/stretching/heat, I swear running could easily be a full time job.

I feel good today (a little tired) but I think I need to get used to this idea that its going to hurt when you're training your body for endurance and upping the millage. Hopefully after doing it some more my body will start getting used to doing longer distances and it wont be such a GRIND!

If you want to feel good training for a half-marathon, do it after training for a marathon!  Maria40nc was complainging about how long it takes to recover from long runs.  I pointed out that her long runs this spring are 18-20 miles, not 10-12 and she feels much better after "just" a 12-mile run than she did last year. 

Yes, you'll get used to the longer distances. 

The good news is the amount of stretching shouldn't grow significantly with run distance (if you're stretching properly already). 

Welcome back!  I want to hear all about it. 

DON'T THINK THAT!!!  It simply isn't true.  Your training doesn't have to look like an Ironman-in-training because you were smart enough to not sign up for an Ironman race!  The 28-year-old me and the 38-year-old me couldn't find time to do a 20 minute run.  We spent a few summers at the baseball field 6 days a week watching little league or at the soccer fields. 

Yes it makes sense.   Since most of us aren't doing this for a living, we're doing it either 1) because it's fun or 2) so we can commit other lifestyle sins.  If it isn't fun, find something that is.  What that means is you might choose to DNS some of those races if you're training for other things instead.  I did ZERO triathlons in 2008 and 2010.  I had to paint my house and took my youngest two boys on a 2-week backpacking trip instead of doing triathlon training.  2010, I got an infection 3 days before the race. 

My wife likes Zumba too, and is also struggling with finding time for her workouts with work and family demands (she is a very devoted grandma).  Don't regret the things you do for yourself, whatever they are! 

I agree it is ALL ABOUT FUN! Ways to find fitness, yes, but they have to be fun.  For me it's swim (most days/ bike (every time I ride)/ and run (most of the time.)  But hell that's just me.  I am 59. No kids at home. Yes, I hold a fulltime newspaper job, I write freelance articles and I hang with my wife.  I attend AA every day for an hour.  But after that, my time is my own. Kathy encourages me. 

I have been on a mission to lose weight since 2005, to show former fat folks and cancer survivors they can be healthy, baby boomers they can stay active into the next third of their lives.  They told me that if I want to keep cancer away, stay active.  Those are motivators.  But the bottom line is I really really like this stuff. The IM stuff sort of evolved.  I thought if I could do a half IM then I would wonder forever if I could do the whole thing.  Going to find out.

People ask how to get thinner, get healthier.  The very first thing I tell them is find something active they enjoy so they will keep on doing it.  If you don't enjoy it, you wont stick with it. I often mention bikes because they are so low impact.  A good way to exercise and have fun every day.  I also mention short-course triathlons.  They are really really fun for some folks.  They give undisciplined people a goal.  Swim bike run means they are less likely to get bored. But  that is just what worked for me.  A myriad of sports are out there.  Everyone can find one they enjoy if they just keep looking.  I have friends who ride, run, swim but I have others who kayak, hike, curl, play baseball, soccer, ski, etc. 

Enjoy yourself.   Never beat yourself up for being you.  You are fine just the way you are.

I've been feeling a lot of the same things lately.  My workout schedule is usually the same every week, doing basically the same things, etc.  It gets old.  So now that I'm done with my HM and the weather should be improving soon (at least I hope so), I'm going to switch things up a bit.  A little less running, more time on the bike but some of it as just fun rides.  Also, my DH wants to take a kayaking class so I think we might do that this spring. Since I only plan to do 2 sprints this year, I'm not going to worry too much about hard training - just some things to keep active but a little less structured. 

It looks like your races are mostly biking so I dont see why you couldnt easily fit a weekly Zumba class into your workout schedule, and if you're not training for a tri, theres no reason to do swim workouts unless you are doing them for enjoyment. Maybe do something like Bike 3 days a week, run 2 days a week and zumba once a week?

and clear up this issue, you are SO NOT a lazy cow!