Question for experienced runners

Parent Cafe
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<p>Riverrunner, that is awesome of you to check in!</p>

<p>I did run, and you guys were so right. I did a 10/2, 10/2, and 5/3 run walk (well, the last walk was 20 because I wandered out of my neighborhood). I started out at what seemed a snail’s pace and it worked. I felt really good throughout the whole thing. Blood pumping through muscles and lungs, but never out of breath, never thought about quitting. I could easily have kept going after the last running cycle.</p>

<p>Differences:</p>

<p>slower pace
healthy dinner last night, no wine
had a couple of small slices of melon about 30 mins. prior.
it was a little cooler this time
I took a different route into a neighborhood with enormous mansions on estate grounds, so I had something else to focus on besides the stopwatch;</p>

<p>This run gives me confidence that I can do this as long as I keep to a reasonable pace. I actually enjoyed myself! I’m sure I would have been “geezered,” though, lol.</p>

42

<p>That’s great news! It sounds like you’re getting more comfortable with the whole idea of running for this length of time/distance. This is partly a physical change, but mainly mental. Once your mind commits to this, your body will follow. As long as you take it easy and avoid injury, you’ll be just fine. Does your distance/time increase soon? Do you switch over to “just running”? Is this a Jeff Galloway plan? If you don’t know of his ideas about running, you might google him and read a bit about how he helps people run further by mixing in walking. There are people who “run” marathons with this method. It’s right along the lines of what you’re doing.</p>

<p>Best wishes for your next run!</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Well, for Mother’s Day, I got tickets for Michael Buble (yay!). But I do have $200 in Amazon gift cards I haven’t used from Christmas. I saw there are several models of Garmins for sale. Any recommendations?</p>

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<p>305 (with heart rate monitor) or 205 (without HR monitor). There are some deals to be had if you shop around. I, personally, (and many agree with me) prefer the 205/305 to the newer 405. The 405 has a touch bezel which can be difficult to use. There is a new 310 out, but I still think the advantages over the 305 aren’t enough to spend the bucks for it. (My name is MOWC and I am a Garmin-holic.)</p>

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<p>MOWC-</p>

<p>Thank you! I would like a heart rate monitor (cardiology nurse would HAVE to have one, right?), so that is very helpful.</p>

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<p>It’s been years since I ran regularly (although I walk very fast and do about 20 miles a week) but…</p>

<p>if you get a side stitch, try running or walking with your hands on your head. It usually only takes half a minute or so for it to go away.</p>

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<p>^^^^Seriously? You wouldn’t pull my leg, would you? I have this image of people driving by as I jog along with hands on head, bending over with laughter, saying, “Look, Look! dmd77 got another one!!!”</p>

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<p>Nrdsb4 - Thanks to the advice of my dear “virtual” friends, I bought the 305 for DH for xmas. I was tempted by the smaller version - I was a little worried that the bigger one would be cumbersome on the wrist. That is NOT the case. The 305 is so well balanced. You really forget you have it on AND it is very easy to read. Without their suggestions I might have gone with the smaller (405?) one and it would not have been as easy to read. </p>

<p>DH just loves it. It is so much fun to chart progress, to see where there is elevation, etc. He can use to make sure he keeps his heart in the range that he wants - with the defib he doesn’t want to go over 150. </p>

<p>As for the side stitches - make sure you are breathing naturally going downhill, that’s what seems to set them off. Also - if you feel one coming on, just make sure you are exhaling completely. </p>

<p>And if you think people might chuckle when they see you - I am just happy when someone doesn’t actually yell out the window at me or imitate me as I go by. </p>

<p>One day, during a race, I was walking (at about a 10:00/mile pace) thru a neighborhood and this little guy, about 3 years old, saw me go by with the other runners, and he turned to his mom and said, “Hey mama, what’s DAT lady doin’?”</p>

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<p>worknprogress reminds me to advise that your first view of the Garmin will be shocking. It seems as though you are about to strap a laptop to your wrist. It “runs” much smaller, though, and plenty of serious runners have them, so you won’t look like an idiot. I promise.</p>

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<p>NRDSB4: no, I’m quite serious. If you stand still and put your hands on your head, you’ll see that it opens the chest, stretches the chest muscles, and makes breathing easier. People hunch over when they have a stitch and it doesn’t help. Putting your hands on your head also helps if you’ve got something caught in your throat–when the kids were little I used to grab their hands and pull them up over their head…</p>

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<p>^^^^Thank you. That makes a lot of sense.</p>

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<p>dmd77,</p>

<p>I tried your trick today. It worked in about 15 seconds!!</p>

<p>I’m posting here today and then will move over to the fitness thread so as not to hog a whole thread to myself.</p>

<p>Today I did a 9/1 run to walk ratio. I did 3 miles and finished in 33.50. I had to sprint the last tenth in order to finish under 34 minutes.</p>

<p>It was tough, but I’ve got over just under 4 weeks left to train. I would love to finish with a 10 minute mile, but right now my goal is just to run it with no stops for walking.</p>

<p>My D1 sent me a timex iron man watch. I was able to set my two intervals-it beeps when you’ve completed each interval, so no more focusing obsessively on the stopwatch. You can just go and not have to worry about it. It also helped in that, instead of wishing the interval would hurry up and be over with, I didn’t want it to go off too soon, before I reached what I estimated to be a good distance. That’s a total change in POV.</p>

<p>See you guys on the wellness thread. Thanks for all your help.</p>

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<p>I haven’t read the entire thread, but as a small piece of advice:</p>

<ol>
<li>Make sure you have the right shoes for you. </li>
</ol>

<p>You aren’t fit properly in a big store. Go to a runner’s store if one is around you. They should ask you to walk for them so they can see how your gait works and how your foot hits and moves on the ground. </p>

<ol>
<li>Change your shoes more often than you would like.</li>
</ol>

<p>The cushioning wears out pretty quickly. You can see the standard advice on line but it happens faster if you’re heavy. Some people have a couple of pair and rotate them. </p>

<ol>
<li>Run as often as possible on level ground. </li>
</ol>

<p>Sidewalks and roads have camber and as you pick up speed and distance you could start to experience a number of ills from having one leg hit slightly lower than the other. E.g., pain in the hip, back, knee, foot. Level = good. </p>

<p>Finally, a small bit of form advice:</p>

<ol>
<li>Relax your arms and hands. </li>
</ol>

<p>Let them fall and rise as naturally as possible. You aren’t racing so there’s no need to hold your arms up. Lift them a little when you run uphill and drop them when running down - rather than clenching them to your chest.</p>

<ol>
<li>Develop a sense of stride rate and stride length. </li>
</ol>

<p>There are 3 components to speed: rate, length and time foot stays on ground (essentially foot friction). You will very quickly hit your natural stride length. If you try to push that longer, especially if you’re heavy, you will be running inefficiently, literally jamming your leg into the ground and likely hurting yourself. Run at your natural stride length but turn it over faster, both by reducing the friction and increasing the frequency. You’ll find this transfers some of the effort from your muscles, which have limited capacity and which become heavy with lactic acid, to your lungs, which can have nearly unlimited capacity. Life gets easier. You can increase your stride length over time, but only with care.</p>

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<p>^^^Wow, thank you. I did try to lengthen my stride today in order to not have to run “faster.” I won’t make that mistake again.</p>

<p>I did get fit for shoes at a running place. They watch you run and go from there. I got shoes that supposedly will keep me from turning my foot inward (always forget pronating vs. supinating).</p>

<p>It is hard to find level ground unless doing the treadmill or a track. Since my 5K will be in a hot climate (Austin in June), I’m trying to avoid the treadmill for now. Staying off sidewalks is a must as they are old and very slanted in my neighborhood. I’d die of boredom if I ran on a track. I try to run in the middle of the street when I can. I would be bummed if I got hurt.</p>

<p>Thanks again for the great advice.</p>

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<p>Years ago, I was a runner. Unfortunately, I overdid the high impact stuff and had a total hip replacement at age 54. Don’t run through joint pain. Had I listened to my hip years ago, I might not have needed the replacement. </p>

<p>I never liked the beginning of a run so maybe I always started off too fast. I always knew that I would hit that point that I would love it and feel like I could run forever so I plowed through the beginnings. It really helped me to establish a rhythm and music always helped with that. If I didn’t have music, I sort of chanted to myself.</p>

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<p>Lergnom gave you good advice; I’d add one thing. Relax your shoulders too.</p>

<p>You can also avoid the problems of non-level surfaces by not always running in the same direction. If you run on the right side of the road today, run on the left side tomorrow. Ditto if you run on a track.</p>

<p>Sidewalks are also a problem because they are mostly concrete, which is much harder than asphalt. </p>

<p>I used to run a lot. Developed plantar fasciitis. Now I walk a lot. But I am very careful to walk long distances only on dirt. I have difficulty walking the next day if I walk more than a mile on concrete.</p>

<p>In addition to good padding in your shoes, socks with built-in padding can help a lot. </p>

<p>(I measured my walking speed today for the first time in about a year. I’ve gone from walking at 3 mph to about 4.3 mph (over a three-mile walk). That was nice to see.)</p>

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<p>^^^Yes, that’s a really good pace. When I do 4.5 on a treadmill, it’s almost more difficult than actually going into a jog.</p>

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<p>DMD77 - oooh, I see a potential recruit for racewalking! ;)</p>

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<p>worknprogress–I actually have done some racewalking. I used to date a racewalker (a zillion years ago) and my great-grandfather once held the record for racewalking across England (in the late 1800s). Many years ago I had a stress fracture in my foot (too much running) and the doctor told me to stop running for a while… so I did my races walking ;-)</p>

<p>(I just checked, and the moves are still there.)</p>

<p>My sister and I were commenting last week (as we went for a walk) that we know very few people who walk as fast as we do. She’s 5’1" and I’m 5’2"–I know six-foot-tall people that we leave in the dust.</p>