Sports 🥌 Run, Forrest, Run....

[SW MI Planner]

I've got the Crim 10 mile run in Flint next month, a very hilly 30k in the western part of the county Labor Day weekend, the Air Force Marathon in Dayton in September, a pretty hilly local half marathon at the start of October (my office was the original organizer of this half marathon but we have since handed it over to an outside group), and the Marine Corps Marathon in NOVA/DC at the end of October. After that I usually run a handful of local 10k runs in November and December but nothing noteworthy.

So..... just a few Have fun!

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I won a free entry into the 2015 Düsseldorf Marathon. Unfortunately it didn't come with free airfare and hotel accommodations.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Some runner motivation, Appalachian style!

[youtube]x4xLolOI9Po[/youtube]

The best parts occur when the shirtless overall wearing man first re-emerges at 1:38 and then the antics at around 4:20. The entire video is definitely worth watching.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I had a meeting at one of our parks yesterday afternoon and luckily I had my running gear in my Jeep so I could go do a thorough site visit and trail survey after the meeting was over:

There really aren't many significant hills in SE Michigan so it's always nice when you get a chance to gain some elevation of any sort.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

My daughter did her first run this weekend. Maybe I have a new running partner?

 

[dandy_warhol]

Doing the Niagara Falls Ragnar in June. I haven't run consistently in over a year. This is going to be painful.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I've been using RunKeeper to track and map my runs for years now but they've slowly been removing features from their free version and it's hard to find established running routes on there for times I am out of town. I'm headed to ATL in a few weeks so I decided to download Strava and give that a try since it's supposed to be better for finding local routes.

Though RunKeeper and Strava essentially do the same exact thing, I'm irrationally connected to RunKeeper just from using it for so long.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Last week I set a goal of running 30 miles for the week (I hit 38.7 miles). This week I've set a goal of 31 miles and am already up to almost 20 with a few miles planned for Saturday and 10+ for Sunday (my app measures the week as Monday through Sunday).

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I met my goal of 31 miles by about 0.2 miles last week and set a goal of 32 miles for this week. I started out with 10k on Monday morning for Memorial Day.

I carried the Marine Corps flag the entire route and on my back had a tribute to Sergeant Major Ellis who was KIA in Iraq.

 

[Maister]

and on my back had a tribute to Sergeant Major Ellis who was KIA in Iraq.

I was stationed with him at MCAGCC 29 Palms back in '84. I recall he was a PFC at the time. Sorry to hear of his passing.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I was stationed with him at MCAGCC 29 Palms back in '84. I recall he was a PFC at the time. Sorry to hear of his passing.

He was the 1st Sergeant when I worked at SOI East. I was a dirty IRR reservist who got sent to work at SOI as a liaison to HQMC and the IG's office and all the permanent personnel hated me at first (because I was there basically to police their work) but 1stSgt Ellis was great. He was one of the most badass Marines I ever knew but he was also one of the nicest and he made sure I was able to go where I needed and do what I was supposed to do when I was at SOI. When I was due for promotion to Staff Sergeant there were some huge delays in the authorization because I was on IRR but I was activated and was supposed to be on the active duty list so my stuff was getting lost in the shuffle. The unit I reported to was in Quantico and I was a few hundred miles away basically by myself and I never met my actual chain of command, except via telephone and email. Even though I didn't work for him or report to him, 1stSgt Ellis went to bat for me and was calling the proper office daily to make sure I got my promotion with the correct dates. When the promotion did come through, I made sure he was one of the people who pinned it on me.

During my time at SOI I also had a minor surgery that put me out of work for a couple weeks. I was living in the barracks and he stopped by nearly everyday to make sure I was recovering as I was supposed to be; probably also to make sure I wasn't screwing around and malingering, but still....

I worked with a handful of Marines and a couple of sailors who didn't come home from Iraq or Afghanistan but his death hits me the hardest. Last year I met a Marine who was in 2/4 when Ellis was killed and was in the same blast and took a bit of shrapnel to his legs. They were out on a patrol and the Sergeant Major wasn't originally supposed to be out there with them but he had come along so that they could stop at a checkpoint to quickly do a reenlistment ceremony for one of the NCOs in one of the Recon companies and that's when the explosion occurred.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Growing up and working out in the barns and hot fields putting up straw or hay my dad would always come home and have a big glass of water (or lemonade if we had it) with some vinegar, salt, and ginger mixed in. Years later I learned this is an actual thing called "switchel" or "haymaker's punch" but back then we just referred to it as "dad being weird again". These days, it seems like every summer, folks in the various running groups I belong to recycle the ole pickle-juice-as-running-recovery-drink conversation. The switchel drink is basically the fancy version of just drinking the dregs out of bottom of a jar of pickles... something I actively do because I enjoy the taste but also because I like the reaction it gets from my wife and daughter.

Well, today I decided to go to Sonic for lunch because I remembered they had a pickle juice slush this summer and I wanted to give it a try. I have no idea if this has any of the salts or electrolytes you get from actual pickle juice but it definitely tastes like somebody just dumped some ice and the liquid from a jar of Vlasic pickles into a blender, but I mean that in the best possible way! :awesome:

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I've been a runner for years and I've been working out regularly for years as well. However, I just recently started running to the gym.

It's about 2.5 to 3.0 miles to my gym from my front door (depending on the route) so I run there, work out for 30-40 minutes and then run home. I've done this now 6 times over the past two weeks and it's killing me... in a good way. I've never been opposed to doing a few miles on the treadmill at the gym but my limit was generally 3 miles and more often than not I just did a single mile (but fast). Besides the extra soreness from this new routine, the biggest downside is that since I don't have a change of clothes with me and am not showering there, I no longer get to spend 15 minutes relaxing in the steam room after working out.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

In the political thread I posted about destroying a pair of Nikes. It wasn't really an act of political protest though.

anyway, a friend in a local running group sarcastically suggested I call Nike and try to get a free pair. I didn't call but I did fill out a warranty claim through their online form. I had to pay a few dollars postage ($6 and some change) to send them in to be inspected and figured it was worth the cost in case they did actually approve the claim.

Lo and behold, today I received an email response that, "based upon the amount of outsole wear (they have) determined the the internal airbag deflated prematurely" and they sent me a coupon code for a free pair of shoes.

+1 for Nike customer service.

:thumbsup:

 

[Michele Zone]

Trifecta of Thread Topics

In the political thread I posted about destroying a pair of Nikes. It wasn't really an act of political protest though.

anyway, a friend in a local running group sarcastically suggested I call Nike and try to get a free pair. I didn't call but I did fill out a warranty claim through their online form. I had to pay a few dollars postage ($6 and some change) to send them in to be inspected and figured it was worth the cost in case they did actually approve the claim.

Lo and behold, today I received an email response that, "based upon the amount of outsole wear (they have) determined the the internal airbag deflated prematurely" and they sent me a coupon code for a free pair of shoes.

+1 for Nike customer service.

:thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

You could cross post this to the clothing thread to make a perfect trifecta.

 

[Hink]

I am running the Air Force Half Marathon on Saturday. Not really racing it, just running it. My brother-in-law wanted to do it, so I agreed. Here's to hoping the weather is nice for my Saturday morning.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I am running the Air Force Half Marathon on Saturday. Not really racing it, just running it. My brother-in-law wanted to do it, so I agreed. Here's to hoping the weather is nice for my Saturday morning.

I know you're from that area so you are used to it, but that was a much tougher course than I had pictured going into it. There are a lot more hills down there than I realized. Even worse than the hills though was the backside of the runway areas and back behind all the aircraft hangers where there were long, boring straightaways with no shade and almost no spectators at all (it was a sweltering hot day the year I ran it). Looking at the course maps it looks like the half marathon thankfully avoids all of that. It looks like Saturday will be another hot one down there, hopefully the heat and humidity holds off until the afternoon for you.

Have fun!

 

[Hink]

I know you're from that area so you are used to it, but that was a much tougher course than I had pictured going into it. There are a lot more hills down there than I realized. Even worse than the hills though was the backside of the runway areas and back behind all the aircraft hangers where there were long, boring straightaways with no shade and almost no spectators at all (it was a sweltering hot day the year I ran it). Looking at the course maps it looks like the half marathon thankfully avoids all of that. It looks like Saturday will be another hot one down there, hopefully the heat and humidity holds off until the afternoon for you.

Have fun!

So you might as well have been clairvoyant.... it was hot, humid, and the last 2 miles were painful. The hill at 9 going up the on ramp sucked, but I was fine until I got back on the base and had to run on the runways for a mile or so with no protection. The guys handing out beers at mile 12 weren't super helpful either... as water would have been nice there...

Lots of people were in the medical tent, and they put both races on a black flag (which means people have to walk) after like 5 hours of the marathon and 4 hours of the half.

I was fine and ran under 2 hours for the half, which is all I really was trying to do.

On to the next race!

 

[WSU MUP Student]

So you might as well have been clairvoyant.... it was hot, humid, and the last 2 miles were painful. The hill at 9 going up the on ramp sucked, but I was fine until I got back on the base and had to run on the runways for a mile or so with no protection. The guys handing out beers at mile 12 weren't super helpful either... as water would have been nice there...

Lots of people were in the medical tent, and they put both races on a black flag (which means people have to walk) after like 5 hours of the marathon and 4 hours of the half.

I was fine and ran under 2 hours for the half, which is all I really was trying to do.

On to the next race!

Glad to read that you met your goal of sub-2 hours.

We had similar weather here in Metro Detroit this weekend. I wasn't out on any sort of organized race but I was planning on running about 12 Sunday morning. Originally I was going to get up around 7:00 a.m. and go but I happened to wake up just after 5:00 so I decided to lace up and head out early and I'm glad I did. I was all done before 7:30 a.m. and by 8:00 a.m. I think the temperature was already around 80º with probably 80% humidity and no breeze to speak of. I wasn't out running today but it was even muggier this morning. I think it's supposed to be like this throughout the week. I'm ready for some consistently good fall running weather.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

This happened about five miles south of me: Oh Deer! Man Runs Through Oak Park with Three Deer

I've seen plenty of deer in our area and they are often tame enough that I can get pretty close but I've never had them following me down the middle of the street.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I've been logging some extra miles running during the WFH/self-isolation period. My goal has been to run more weeks each week than the week before. The first week of WFH, I only ran 4.5 miles and followed that up with 20.4 miles in week number two.

Week	Miles
1	4.5
2	20.4
3	22.0
4	26.1
5	37.4
6	66.2

I may have screwed things up by running 66 miles last week as I don't know if I'll have the energy to run more than that this week... but I did manage to get 12.6 miles this morning for day 1 of running week 7. Really though, I'll be happy with at least 50 miles a week for now.

I used to average 50+ miles a week through the spring and summer months but my work schedule and having two kids caught up with me and, while I did keep running, I really scaled back my weekly miles maybe 4 years ago. Getting these extra miles has been great for my mental health - I can get out there and plug in my headphones and just clear my mind of any thoughts other than what songs are on my playlist. The combination of all the extra miles plus not having access to Starbucks and other fast food places has really helped with my waistline as well - I'm down 13 pounds from the last time I weighed myself at the gym in early March or late February.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

9.6 miles again this morning. I've decided to start exploring neighborhoods I rarely go through (running or otherwise). Today I checked out an area of new-urbanist live/work condos on the far edge of town. These are a bunch of 3-5 story apartments and townhouses with work space on the first floor on the side of town bordered by the railroad tracks. This is also the one side of town that still has any industrial uses left in it. When these condos and apartments were first built about a decade ago that sat empty for quite a while thanks to them being really expensive and coming to market right at the worst possible time. The work spaces on the lower levels seemed to sit empty for a really long time and I always had a feeling that the residential space was being used primarily for temporary corporate housing. Going through there this morning though, it looked like most of the commercial space has finally been filled and the cars parked on the street largely had Michigan plates instead of all the out-of-state plates that used to be in there.

I run through here maybe once or twice a year and I always thought it was just one little loop and a handful of cul de sacs with no actual through roads but this morning I found two pedestrian alleys I could cut through and a service drive that connected back out to the main road.

 

[MD Planner]

Pretty sure I didn't drive 66 miles last week. Props to you!

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Pretty sure I didn't drive 66 miles last week. Props to you!

I was thinking about that the other day too. I've driven 43.3 miles since I filled up my gas tank back on March 13th! We'll probably double that up this weekend though since today is my mom's birthday. I think I'm going to take my kids out to their farm Saturday morning to give her some socially distant birthday cheer.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I managed 70.3 miles last week so I'm still successful at getting in more miles than each of the previous weeks.

I got in 11.7 miles this morning.

This is a relatively dense suburban area but early yesterday morning a police officer found a horse standing in the middle of a (normally) busy intersection not too far west of me. So of course this morning I had to head west instead of my typical north or east to see if I too could catch an escaped horse, but no such luck. Not that I was really expecting to find the horse escaped again, but it would have been pretty funny.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I've avoided running on the trails in the area during the pandemic because I don't want to wear a mask when running and I also don't want to deal with having to maneuver around other people but this morning I decided I had had enough of running through our typical neighborhoods and through our downtown. I needed a break so this morning I was up early enough and it was rainy enough that I didn't think the trails would be busy so I packed my mask up and headed to the closest trailhead.

I didn't run far (only about 8 miles) but it was nice being out there. I saw about 70 deer (I don't think that is an exaggeration) and only one other runner and that runner was at the very end of my run when it was already nearly 8:00 a.m. The change of scenery was definitely nice. I'm going to try and make it out there at least once a week.

One of the many herds of deer I came across:

I wasn't fast, but at least I didn't get passed by this guy:

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I'm still at it with more miles each week than the week before:

Week	Miles
1	4.5
2	20.4
3	22.0
4	26.1
5	37.4
6	66.2
7	70.3
8	71.7
9	73.9

I'm currently at 54.6 miles for this week so I should be able to hit 74 miles before the 1st. My big running news is that this morning I hit 300 miles for the month of May. It's the most I've ever run in a month. My previous record was 225.0 miles in June 2013 so I've blown that out of the water. It's starting to get hotter and more humid here in the mornings so I'm setting a lighter goal of 250 miles for June and abandoning the "more miles than the week before" mantra.

I also recently got a new toy to play with while I run: The Casio G-Shock GBH-1000. I've had watches with GPS or HR monitoring (or some combination of the two) from Polar, Suunto and Garmin but never really cared for them. The Suunto ones were probably the best but they relied on a chest strap to measure the HR and I sweat so much that the straps would chafe me really badly, plus they would get all gross and begin to fail in short order (the Polar watches were hideous and felt cheaply made and the Garmins were just mediocre at best, though I've heard they've really improved their stuff in the past few years). This Casio has an optical HR reader on the wrist which seems to be pretty accurate, the GPS locks on and measures spot on with what my phone measures, has barometer, thermometer, altimeter, a very easy to read compass, and (most importantly for me) immediately uploads my run to Strava after I complete it. It's also got a very crisp and easy to read display which is especially nice when I'm running.

I always enjoy when I get to combine my favorite things like running + watches.
There are a ton of training features included in the app that and on the watch that I'm still learning about, but so far I'm loving it.

 

[Hink]

I'm still at it with more miles each week than the week before:

Week	Miles
1	4.5
2	20.4
3	22.0
4	26.1
5	37.4
6	66.2
7	70.3
8	71.7
9	73.9

I'm currently at 54.6 miles for this week so I should be able to hit 74 miles before the 1st. My big running news is that this morning I hit 300 miles for the month of May. It's the most I've ever run in a month. My previous record was 225.0 miles in June 2013 so I've blown that out of the water. It's starting to get hotter and more humid here in the mornings so I'm setting a lighter goal of 250 miles for June and abandoning the "more miles than the week before" mantra.

I also recently got a new toy to play with while I run: The Casio G-Shock GBH-1000. I've had watches with GPS or HR monitoring (or some combination of the two) from Polar, Suunto and Garmin but never really cared for them. The Suunto ones were probably the best but they relied on a chest strap to measure the HR and I sweat so much that the straps would chafe me really badly, plus they would get all gross and begin to fail in short order (the Polar watches were hideous and felt cheaply made and the Garmins were just mediocre at best, though I've heard they've really improved their stuff in the past few years). This Casio has an optical HR reader on the wrist which seems to be pretty accurate, the GPS locks on and measures spot on with what my phone measures, has barometer, thermometer, altimeter, a very easy to read compass, and (most importantly for me) immediately uploads my run to Strava after I complete it. It's also got a very crisp and easy to read display which is especially nice when I'm running.

I always enjoy when I get to combine my favorite things like running + watches.
There are a ton of training features included in the app that and on the watch that I'm still learning about, but so far I'm loving it.

That is seriously awesome. At all levels.

Also, the watch is very cool.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

The running has continued.

The high school tracks finally opened back up to the public this week so I was able to make it out to my local track for some a set of ten 800 meter repeats this morning. It was nice to be back out there and see a few other runners and people working out. I plan to make it back out there for track workouts twice a week through the summer and try to improve my overall speed.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I ran 908 miles through June 30th, my highest total for the first half of the year by about 150 miles. 762 of my miles were in April, May, and June.

After 74 consecutive days of running, I took the day off yesterday (and now that we're in the hottest part of the summer, I plan to keep taking a day off through the next six or seven weeks) and then got back to it this morning. I don't know if it was the day off or me coming out faster from the start than I normally do, but I managed to set new PRs for my 5k and 10k distance this morning. I shaved 30 seconds off of my previous 5k PR and 1:06 off of my 10k PR. My previous 5k and 10k PRs were set two weeks ago on the same route.

I haven't run in an organized run in a long time (I've gotten to cheap to bother paying for them over the past couple of years) but now that I've shaved a lot of weight off of my body and some time off of my pace, I'm itching to get back out there for an actual 10k if I can find one.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

This morning I hit 1,000.3 miles for the year. This is the earliest in the year I've ever hit 1,000 miles.

 

[Tranplanner]

Forgot to check the weather radar before heading out this morning and of course it started raining once I was at the farthest point from home...absolutely soaked by the time I made it back.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

Forgot to check the weather radar before heading out this morning and of course it started raining once I was at the farthest point from home...absolutely soaked by the time I made it back.

It rained on me during my run today, but only for the first 10 minutes or so and not all that hard. I was hoping the rain would push out some of the humidity but no dice - it just made it worse and it felt like a steam room. So I was soaked too, but with sweat.

What's worse? Being soaked from the rain or soaked from sweat?

I'd probably vote for the rain soaking to be worse since that might come on all at once and it will soak everything, down to your toes while the sweat soaking usually occurs more gradually.

 

[Tranplanner]

It rained on me during my run today, but only for the first 10 minutes or so and not all that hard. I was hoping the rain would push out some of the humidity but no dice - it just made it worse and it felt like a steam room. So I was soaked too, but with sweat.

What's worse? Being soaked from the rain or soaked from sweat?

I'd probably vote for the rain soaking to be worse since that might come on all at once and it will soak everything, down to your toes while the sweat soaking usually occurs more gradually.

I actually don't mind running in a cool rain when it's warm-ish out, other than my feet getting soaked and worrying about my phone.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

We don't have many hills here in SE Michigan so I decided to go run to our downtown this morning and up to the top of our 5 parking garages. Each garage is only 4 or 5 levels, but I did manage to amass about 500' of elevation on this morning's run. I may have to do this run more often...

 

[dandy_warhol]

I miss running. My knee started bothering me last year so I took a few weeks off which turned into the pandemic which turned into no PT which turned into me being afraid to run. I want to get back to it but not enough to do anything about it. Yet.

 

[Doohickie]

I miss running. My knee started bothering me last year so I took a few weeks off which turned into the pandemic which turned into no PT which turned into me being afraid to run. I want to get back to it but not enough to do anything about it. Yet.

Have you considered cycling?

 

[dandy_warhol]

Have you considered cycling?

I have but thanks for the reminder. I need a new bike but you can't nget one around there until the spring. Shakes fist at pandemic.

 

[Doohickie]

Try local FB selling groups. There's a healthy trade in used bikes going on around here.

 

[WSU MUP Student]

I ramped up the running shortly after #WFH started last year and have kept it up for over a year now. I've been a runner for a long time now but my annual mileage dropped quite a bit between '16 and '19. For the years leading up to '16, I was averaging about 1,500 miles a year but then slacked off and don't think I got above 1,000 miles starting in '16, although I did increase my weight lifting.

Anyway... since I couldn't get into the gym for most of last year I decided to crank out the miles. I totaled 2,380 miles last year, with 95% of those miles coming after the start of the #WFH, so I was definitely slacking the first ~10 weeks of the year. After a couple weeks I decided to run the same 10k route every Monday morning (when the weather is nice and I have time I actually run it 2x: once in my normal counter-clockwise direction and then I turn around and run it again clockwise) in order to more easily measure my progress.

I got bored and decided to chart out all of those 50+ 10k runs from the past year:

The dotted line is the recent 4-week average pace and you can see where that pace really slowed down starting in November, once the weather began getting colder and I had to layer up and then the average pace has started to speed up around the start of March... when it began to warm up. This past Monday's run was a bit slower, but the temp was also back down around 16º that morning!