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Running as a hobby


Cashmere
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Your daughter may be right about you being the biggest bad ass ever! Although my wife is pretty bad ass, too.

 

I'm just a regular ass.

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Yeah good job! Sounds like you smashed it!

 

As for the food thing, I'm with you! There really is no need to massively alter diet at all for long distance running. Just eating normally with a bit more emphasis on carbs for energy is fine...maybe slightly larger portion sizes than when you're not training. I don't understand why people would chow down on protein bars at the expense of actual food, especially as protein is the most beneficial for recovery and muscle growth. Not energy. As for hydration gels... They are totally unnecessary. Unless your looking at doing full marathon/ultra marathon distance...then you may need the electrolytes. But they're basically a needless consumer product neatly marketed at fitness people.

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I'm big on eating "whole foods" whenever possible. I'm not paleo, I'm not whole 30 or anything, just eat real food as much as possible. I had a few bars and protein shakes with me for snacks and recovery, but I had anticipated getting food along the way. I was one of two people to eat a light lunch before we started, and then the two of also got breakfast (sausage patty, eggs, and a muffin) at one of the exchanges. Just very odd. It was very hot so maybe that surpressed their appetites, but I would have been falling over exhausted without fuel (and come to think of it, they napped a lot more than I did).

 

There was at least one control freak in the van, too, so I had a few concerns about possible eating disorders, but really, I don't like to speculate on that stuff much. They do run in my husband's family, though, so I tend to notice the warning signs.

 

Otherwise, I did get along with everyone very well. The others have all said this was the best van experience they ever had, and I will say that no one had weird dirty habits, no loud music, or anything like that, so I probably did pretty well if getting hangry was my only annoyance. The unofficial results say that we finished right at about the 50%ile, so very happy with that.

 

Thinking about a 1k or Beat the Blerch with my daughter. She's a little competitive like mom, so if we do a 5k, she's going to get pissed if she gets tired and has to walk.

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I had never heard of this thing until seeing your posts on Strava (or maybe it was FB... or both?). Sounds awesome!

 

I'm getting my fat ass back into it. It's been a rough summer, as I've only run about 3 times since late May. But if I'm gonna do the Monumental in early November I should probably start to ramp up...

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Yeah I haven't been running since doing the 1/2 marathon back in May (unless you count warm up runs before weight training on the treadmill at the gym running).

 

Need to get back on it. This summer has been really warm though and I can't stand running in heat.

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  • 1 year later...

I had never heard of this thing until seeing your posts on Strava (or maybe it was FB... or both?). Sounds awesome!

 

I'm getting my fat ass back into it. It's been a rough summer, as I've only run about 3 times since late May. But if I'm gonna do the Monumental in early November I should probably start to ramp up...

So I was a year off. I ended up running the Monumental half last November and did pretty well considering I trained for about 6 weeks (1:45:15ish).

 

I took my May half marathon training relatively seriously this year and wanted to break 1:40. Despite running in a monsoon I ended up finishing in 1:38:38 which was like a 6 minute PR for me so I was really pleased with that.

 

I found myself with nothing better to do this summer so I kept running and eventually signed up for the Monumental Full Marathon, which is, uh, Saturday!

 

During my training I ran another half and ended up running it in like 1:34 (7:05ish pace).

 

I've got a couple 20 milers under my belt at 7:55 and 7:30 pace respectively. My goal for Saturday is 3:20 (7:38 pace), I was feeling really good about it but I have struggled with my taper, and I am just getting over a cold. Oh and kickoff temperature on Saturday is 26 degrees lmao. So whatever, we'll see.

 

Yay running.

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I had never heard of this thing until seeing your posts on Strava (or maybe it was FB... or both?). Sounds awesome!

 

I'm getting my fat ass back into it. It's been a rough summer, as I've only run about 3 times since late May. But if I'm gonna do the Monumental in early November I should probably start to ramp up...

So I was a year off. I ended up running the Monumental half last November and did pretty well considering I trained for about 6 weeks (1:45:15ish).

 

I took my May half marathon training relatively seriously this year and wanted to break 1:40. Despite running in a monsoon I ended up finishing in 1:38:38 which was like a 6 minute PR for me so I was really pleased with that.

 

I found myself with nothing better to do this summer so I kept running and eventually signed up for the Monumental Full Marathon, which is, uh, Saturday!

 

During my training I ran another half and ended up running it in like 1:34 (7:05ish pace).

 

I've got a couple 20 milers under my belt at 7:55 and 7:30 pace respectively. My goal for Saturday is 3:20 (7:38 pace), I was feeling really good about it but I have struggled with my taper, and I am just getting over a cold. Oh and kickoff temperature on Saturday is 26 degrees lmao. So whatever, we'll see.

 

Yay running.

 

You're my inspiration and I'm not even joking. I've set a goal that I am going to run the 2021 Jacksonville Gate River Run. I've never done one before and I'll need to upgrade from walking to running, so I'm giving myself time. It's a 15k marathon that is pretty much now Jacksonville's most popular event. I've got a long ways to go but at least I have a goal.

 

Garr: Any tips on going from an inactive person to training for a major marathon run?

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I had never heard of this thing until seeing your posts on Strava (or maybe it was FB... or both?). Sounds awesome!

 

I'm getting my fat ass back into it. It's been a rough summer, as I've only run about 3 times since late May. But if I'm gonna do the Monumental in early November I should probably start to ramp up...

So I was a year off. I ended up running the Monumental half last November and did pretty well considering I trained for about 6 weeks (1:45:15ish).

 

I took my May half marathon training relatively seriously this year and wanted to break 1:40. Despite running in a monsoon I ended up finishing in 1:38:38 which was like a 6 minute PR for me so I was really pleased with that.

 

I found myself with nothing better to do this summer so I kept running and eventually signed up for the Monumental Full Marathon, which is, uh, Saturday!

 

During my training I ran another half and ended up running it in like 1:34 (7:05ish pace).

 

I've got a couple 20 milers under my belt at 7:55 and 7:30 pace respectively. My goal for Saturday is 3:20 (7:38 pace), I was feeling really good about it but I have struggled with my taper, and I am just getting over a cold. Oh and kickoff temperature on Saturday is 26 degrees lmao. So whatever, we'll see.

 

Yay running.

You're my inspiration and I'm not even joking. I've set a goal that I am going to run the 2021 Jacksonville Gate River Run. I've never done one before and I'll need to upgrade from walking to running, so I'm giving myself time. It's a 15k marathon that is pretty much now Jacksonville's most popular event. I've got a long ways to go but at least I have a goal.

 

Garr: Any tips on going from an inactive person to training for a major marathon run?

Short distances and often. Don't push to do anything too fast too quick. Just do a few streets at first and slowly increase distance as it becomes easier. Try build to a 5k over the course of a month or more, depending on your starting level of fitness I reckon.

 

If it's a struggle to run a couple hundred meters without running out of breath I'd say you need to ease into it. Maybe 2 months of regular running before you could do 5k. But I'm no professional trainer.

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Rock-

 

My first piece of advice for all new runners is to invest in some good running shoes. Even if the price point is higher than you want. Even if you're not a """"serious""" runner. You need good shoes. If you don't, you will end up injured, sooner or later.

 

Second, go ahead and sign up for something! Get yourself committed. Even if it's "only" a 5K. Even if you're not sure if you can do it (you can!). Get something on the calendar and something to look forward to. It's a lot easier to back out of a nebulous "Oh I'd like to run more" goal than it is knowing "Ahhh crap I spent money on this race/event/thing, I really need to prep for it."

 

Third, and this was a big thing for me, realize that "running" doesn't have to mean all out max effort the entire time. Jogging is running. Jog a little walk a little is running. Walk a little jog a little is running. It made a big difference for me when I realized that oh hey, this doesn't have to be an ordeal every time I do it, I don't have to feel like I'm on death's doorstep when I'm done. You can always slow down! You can always walk! You're still out there.

 

Lastly, as far as actually getting started, download one of the "couch to 5K" apps. They really ease you into it from what I understand. And they give you a detailed roadmap to follow, which for someone just starting out is pretty ideal. I just had a friend who completed her first ever 5k this past weekend, and she signed up for the Indianapolis half marathon this May. So, you can definitely build from nothing!

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As for my race, the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, it went... okay. As I mentioned above, I was coming down from a cold (coughed up the occasional phlegm during the race, but I don't think it limited me), I have some tendonitis in my foot (it was in excruciating pain for like 8 straight miles from 13-21 until I either numbed up or forgot about it), and I tapered a little too hard because of the foot thing. But I really don't think any of that impacted me because I was having no issues keeping up with my race plan until I hit the wall.

 

I went into it with A-goal of being under 3:30 (8:00 pace), and a stretch goal of being under 3:20 (~7:40 pace). I was on pace through 21 miles when I started to slow. Once I realized I was on my way to bonking and 3:20 was no longer realistic, I was able to re-assess and turn my attention towards just making it across the finish line. I knew I had almost 10 whole minutes to play with to stay under my 3:30 goal so I knew that even if the last 5 miles sucked (spoiler alert, they did) that I would still accomplish that.

 

My legs got progressively heavier and heavier before finally, after completing my 25th mile in what felt like 15:00 pace I decided I was going to walk for 60 seconds to mentally regroup (in retrospect, this mile was "only" 8:55 and I reality didn't match my mentality, I probably would have tried to tough it out). So I walked through a water stop. Once I got going again there was part of me that thought "holy ****, I am not going to make it." So I ended up for walking for 2 more minutes before finally summoning the courage required to finish the remaining eight tenths of a mile or whatever.

 

It wasn't a function of fitness. I was running 7:35s right until I wasn't. My heartrate never spiked, my breathing never got super heavy. It was purely a function of running out of glycogen and my body not being able to burn the energy from fat stores as quickly or efficiently. This is "the wall." I had only trained on taking in Gatorade during my long runs (up to 20 miles) and I really thought that was going to be enough to get me through on race day. I grabbed a sip of gatorade at every stop - but even so, that probably only amounted to like 150-200 calories. So my lesson learned is to start training with some different nutrition strategies and probably to eat a slightly bigger breakfast on race day (I only had about 300 cals pre-race).

 

Overall I am very happy with the effort, considering it was my first marathon. I also "only" ran about 30-35mpw on this plan, which is pretty low as far as marathon training goes. I think my peak week was only like 45 miles. I will likely do another one, to apply the lessons learned from this race and training cycle. If I do any subsequent marathons will be dependent on how that second one goes. We'll see!

 

Me with mom and dad after the race

IMG_7780.jpg

 

I'm pretty tired. I think I'll go home now.

20191112_091829.jpg

 

Getting ready to smash a burger and beer

IMG_7782.jpg

 

Mile splits

Screenshot_20191109-154819_Strava.jpg

 

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Thanks! I've said it a couple times this week, and it sounds so... silly but - It was harder than I thought it would be lol. Like, I was not expecting how challenging it would become mentally. I think it would not have been that "hard" had I not bonked, but in a way I'm kind of glad I got that experience. To push your body to the limit of what it can physically do, and to need it to keep going, is so... strange.

 

Anyway, it was fun. Looking at running another on in April lol.

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I thought of you a couple of nights ago. We had super bad weather with icing and mixed sleet which closes down the deep south like us and people up north laugh at us but it was a windchill of 16 degrees and blowing sleet near my house while I was coming home from work and some guy was out in his shorts running. Gotta train.

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