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Jon’s musing about running and things about running while running and after running and probably before running too

global_dev

global_dev

Shave Enthusiast
i am not a typical runners’ runner, not a natural at endurance level running. Just trying to balance enjoying exercise, getting fresh air, not injuring myself in the quest to be healthy and find a sustainable lifestyle. These will be my musings as I make my way as a beginner who finds it still overwhelming and frustrating to a balanced easy and enjoyable experience with a different set of goals.
 
i’ll probably touch upon this in some way, maybe equipment, maybe the way i feel, just wanted to put this out there as a reference

Mid 40s, 5 foot 11, 210lbs. - not the ideal frame for endurance running.
BMI 29.4 (BMI - it is what it is regardless of controversy)
40 VO2
135 MAF
85 cadence
155 avg HR
Avg speed is 10 min/miles over a 10K and 13 for a half marathon.

my route is not flat, track-like, and i would suspect it would be considered more HIIT like in power needs.

my target goals right now
10K at 9min miles at 135HR
5k in 21mins
2miles in 12mins
1mile in 5mins

my target date is june 2021.
 
Neutral stance, sz 12-13 wide
Currently wear Brooks and rotating pairs.
Levitate 2,3 and tempo.. i decided to buy many of these to delay issues i found with too many miles on one causing me leg issues. Once i found i liked the brooks and available for a great price, it was a no brainer to not stock up. And was slightly motivational in that i couldnt place blame on the shoes.

Shoes that fit well have always been an issue. Some shoes i cant even try because they are so narrow i cant get my foot in even halfway without going to too long a shoe. 😢

Worn asics kayanos, adidas rbl boost, nike kiger 5s, and some others over the years only to have then unavailable and the next version a gamble on size and fit.

clothing - fit and purpose built multi season gear is difficult to get right and then no longer available once i find what works. The weather went from warm to cold really quick here

socks- omg.. why are socks so great and expensive. Right now using 5-6 different types to see what i like. Not different companies of the same style of sock, but different types of sock. Over the calf compression, over the ankle, tabs, wool/silk blends of prev two, injiji midweight & classic weight. I found no shows are not good to me.

using a polar vantage m watch with polar flow. Have a OH1 monitor as a standalone HR monitor with polarbeat app or runkeeper.

using asics runkeeper on ios since June 2020 and paid $30 for the annual paid version which has some interesting training, i have zero to no experience with other apps outside polars and runkeeper.

i use a pair of older jaybird freedom2s headphones. Phone is in an great waist pouch i got unintentionally through a subscription box iirc.

at night when i run i wear a very reflective vest and blinking arm lights.
 
I have no current intentions of running a marathon, I just wanted to lose weight and spent the last 8 months working up from walking 5 miles in 90 mins to running it at a PR of 45mins, but it was hard. Both. I slowed my pace down significantly and found i could easily do a 10K in an hour and change and that changed everything. Then i went really offroad and it was a blast and ended up doing a half marathon distance in under 3 hours.

it was unreal, never in a million years i thought i would run a distance of 5k let alone a 10k. Thats just not what i saw in my future.
 
My pre-pandemic lifestyle did not afford the free time i am currently using to do this. I am hoping once the post-pandemic transition happens i can figure out a positive way to continue to incorporate this into my life. That will be tough.

Right now, i go for a run whenever i feel like it, within normal wfh constraints. From 7am to 9pm. Sometimes i’ll do a walk with my wife and then a run with my kids. Thats currently a lot of miles and stress on me and I subscribe to the not injure yourself lifestyle as much as possible.

I was worried about incoming cold weather which in my area is near freezing, which means mostly cold rain during the day and slippery ice everywhere. I thought about a treadmill but i belong to an HOA that has a gym facility usually open, but i kind of want to stay outside if i can.

I’m finding with my layering i am fine, maybe a bit too warm 😂. I am wearing a base layer pant with a trainer pant, a long sleeve training shirt, a lightweight jacket, face/neck gaiter, light winter hat and basic medium weight gloves. And at times sunglasses. Most of this from costco, with 2 or 3 exceptions which my wife bought me from tjmaxx or so 4-5 years ago. What a wife! Sadly i couldnt wear either for intended purposes back then for various reasons.
 
I’m currently reading a book about endurance running. Its hard to read. Ive had to renew it out from the library 3x so far. I’m on page 150 of 500+ 😭

I’ve only bought 2 sports training books back in the day when i was 20. Jack Daniels Running Formula and Arnold Schwarzeneggers encyclopedia of bodybuilding. Needless to say, i had the same hard time reading jack daniels book, i still have it, but the encyclopedia got some use back then. Maybe its time to dust off more than the bottle, i mean book.
 
more on shoes -

TLDR I was walking for a couple of months, i got injured, thought it was overuse but it turned out to be the shoes. i literally recovered the next day.

long story short is that for lifestyle changes these things matter.. so see a running store that can analyze what you need on a treadmill or special footbed and recommend appropriate gear. it's worth it, even though i didn't take my own advice.. i should..

i'm a big guy, i am apparently rough on the midsoles of sneakers with the constant pavement pounding. the adidas rbl boost i walked a bit in, maybe 2 months or 3, look almost new in regards to upper and sole wear, and one day my right lower leg was killing me, i could barely walk. i think i had just started to jog then but not much. after a quick stretch, i could walk the rest of the way, but anytime i tried to pick up the pace, my leg was shot, i hobbled up the stairs but i could walk with some effort.. so i thought it was from too much too soon aka overuse. i walked a couple of days, and then tried to jog again, and same thing, this went on for 2 weeks almost, until i decided to try an older shoe i had lying around, and it was crazy, no issue with my leg at all. upon inspection of the adidas, it looked like a side of the heel compression/rebound was compromised on both shoes, same areas. found the brooks and wore them with no issue, tried the adidas last month on a walk to see if i wasn't crazy and i could feel the issue resurfacing.. months later on the brooks, and my legs feel fine..

so TLDR equipment matters, especially if you have issues with pronation, supination, or just heavyweight. when people talk about how long a shoe lasts, its very general.. no way i could have survived on that particular adidas that looks like it has tons of mileage left on the rubber sole and upper. i don't know if that was specific to the model, but there are so many things to think about when you are running, where does your foot strike forefoot, mid foot or heel, does your biomechanical form need improvement, do you overstride, do you like feeling the road or lots of cushion, do you need gait support, how long should they last, the list goes on and on..

i normally only have 1 pair of running shoes at a time. i thought i would go for 2 identical pairs to trade off so shoes can dry and lengthen the time of ownership by sharing usage.

I don't know how runners do it, maybe they are buying new shoes every 3 months based on mileage, but it also sounds like from what i read that runnners wear their shoes for a year who also do high mileage. I don't know, i haven't asked, i think i'd get 5 different answers if i asked 3 different people.

since i was so motivated by my experience of successful running, i decided to get a couple pairs. I was putting 30-40 miles a week on shoes, so i figured between my weight and usage and the guidance to change out shoes every couple of months or around 300 miles, no big deal to expand the footwear options i had. as long as i liked the shoes, no biggie. i was also expecting that i would start to increase the distance to about 50 - 60 miles a week. almost double the usage, so any injury due to shoe failure would be catastrophic and i don't know that i would be able to find the same model again or similar.

but i couldn't help think if i had a different model perhaps i would see a preference or difference..
 
Wow, that’s a lot of musings. My musings are usually much more linear, something like “oh god, I’m gonna die”. I think that right when I see the big bad thing jump out of the bushes, then I think it again as I take off running. I think “oh god, I’m gonna die” again as I continue sprinting as fast as my short, little legs can carry my fat body away from whatever that big bad thing chasing me is. About that time I remember “I’m not built for running, my heart is beating out of my chest...I’m having a heart attack...oh god, i’m gonna die”. You’d be surprised how quickly, even while suffering from hypoxia your brain can perform complex analysis. ...should I continue to run and die from a massive coronary heart attack OR stop running and only RISK being mauled by what is probably chasing me (because I wouldn’t be running if nothing were chasing me).
Now you have me thinking, maybe if I had better shoes...
 
It is a lot, and there is more 😂 my battery was dying 😛

you so right though, even in fun, there is an element to truth. I have fox, deer, raccoons and coyote in my path recently and while i was recovering in a short plateau from one hill section to the next, something caught my eye. Had my headphones on and A slightly chonky cat was bearing down on me and then it stopped dead in its tracks when i saw it 5 feet away, turned my head and jumped halfway outta my skin. My Heart skipped a beat. His pupils completely dilated in apex predator mode, completely still but muscles flexed ready to pounce.

but in all fairness, i was thinking and discussing with my kids how much nicer to be able to not be wheezing while trying to outrun them. I can even think about my next step instead of feeling like i am wearing my heartbeat next to my head.

btw, i’ve seen that cat since, and he is always looking to chase. Never saw that before with other cats against people. Idk
 
i’m trying not to overdo “it” right now, the last thing i want is to get overuse injury or be exhausted all the time. I’m not 100% sure i couldn’t push further or harder, but i’m trying to listen to my brain and body and get some rest or active recovery. For “runners”, their rest and recovery seems to be actually what i am doing on my hard days 😢. I am still gonna take it slow and steady, but try to make incremental progress towards my goals as much as possible. I want hitting my goal to be easy, not just survived it once.
 
i try to mix up something about the running when i feel a change is needed.

As I’m not going too much out of my neighborhood, that means often small changes, like adding a short jug handle, changing pace, going at different times of day, listening to music or not at all, looking at scenery i may not have noticed before, think about things, etc.

To be honest, it seems like pace affects most of it, when i lower my pace i feel like i can do most of the above and when i push myself a bit too much, all that falls away not everytime but it’s noticeable.

As most of my running has self imposed HR constraint of ~145, the pace is pretty slow right now. Like 13 min/mile compared to my current fast pace of 9 min/mile. My walking pace is 15-17min/miles so its not too far off a walk as my kids constantly remind me.
 
today was planned to be a slow pace day.

Wanted to see if i could start the run at 0600. Started the run at 0900, Usually its warmest around noon - 4pm. Its 30°F here at 0900 and i dropped a base layer shirt to see how if i could reduce the warmth and maybe sweating a bit. When i hit mile 5, i saw a teenager in a t-shirt and adidas track pants. Its maybe 40° at this point with wind so feels mid30°s. i was sweaty at the end. My jacket doesnt really breathe. I took off my winter bat and gloves for last mile when i saw the kid and felt some sweat on my scalp, ya know that feeling?

i noticed that cars definitely dont like to stop at stop signs or crosswalks for me and feel put out to wait the 3-5 seconds it takes for me to transition across. I dont think its paranoia.

breaking in running shoes - totaly different depending on the shoe.
 
I’ll talk more on shoes later and breaking them in

i’m trying to get more edumacated on all aspects of running, but not falling into the lifestyle of running as life, just as an activity. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos on “dos and don’ts”, “things i wish i knew when i started”, “form & technique”, etc. also being reading articles in online journals and its been like a firehose to say the least.

I went out today in the cold overcast day without a great plan of what i was gonna do and didn't think i would need sunglasses so inleft them home. I realized that the glasses are super helpful in keeping wind off that area. It was cold and windy on my face. I had last month already discovered they also do a better job of keeping rain out your eyes than not wearing them. The first couple of times I didn’t wear glasses in the rain, i could barely see.
 
Like i said i was watching some videos and cane across one that said do shoes make a difference and it was about the recent upsurge in carbon fiber plates in shoes. So they had this guy run a 5k route in a park in his regular sneakers and then a week later, same 5k, in some nikes next% (or something like that)shoes. While i was interested in that tech, i’m not trying to win a race, but good kit helps

what struck me the most was how this guy looked and ran. Typical guy, he didnt look super fit and it was a bit of a shock for me, for a “runner” type. He clearly wasnt an elite athlete and thats not the issue. The issue was when he said he runs the 5Ks in 30 mins and his PR was 28. I watched him run in the clip and he was dying the whole way. I thought , shoot! i barely run that quickly, do i look that bad 😂
 
Because of that guy in the video and aome his comments and results, today i spent the first mile as a warm up getting muscles “activated”, not trying to start the run right outside my door. I usually spent a third of a mile warming up, but today was a full mile, stretching, swinging limbs, etc and then i figured i’d out some effort into a 30 min training of 90s/30s run/recover for 15 intervals. I pushed the first 90s pretty hard, remembering my form and breathing, it was definitely uncomfortable but doable and i managed to keep up a good tempo for the rest of the intervals. Really good pace for the 90s but the 30s recovery of a “fast” walk killed any gains i made in the speed portion as far as i can tell from average pace results. sad but true... last mile was a fast walk. 60mins total for the 5 miles. IIRC 10min/mile for the “speed” portion.

i did feel really really good as far as biomechanics and my stride when i was moving, but it wasnt sustainable for me comfortably. I felt the nice stretching out of muscles compared to my normal stride. Its a great feeling almost like the feeling after a great stretch, you know the one, whats it called. .. like downward facing dog.

went for a great 5 mile walk later kn with my wife and although she is in great shape, she cant hold a conversation on the hills. I take her on a lot of hills.
 
Its hard to keep to certain goals that arent about speed and finishing faster “today”.

I really tried to keep my HR in a certain zone and the HR monitor is truly amazing. I found myself battling the urge to go faster only to find it physically uncomfortable in one zone higher. I dont know if its psychosomatic but given my goal isnt to just get a fast time, its about building my aerobic base, i felt comfortable while working on my form and breathing.

Instead of going slower, I really tried to focus in better breathing to bring my HR down. it works but its a slow pace on these rolling hills.

I failed to mention yesterday that during my high tempo intervals, my face was clearly contorted 😆 trying to get through the interval, but today i wanted to make sure i am recovering nicely so tomorrow i can be better.
 
Yesterday’s activity reiterated how great sunglasses are, overcast but so much wind. as a beginner with no mentors/coaches, i spend a lot of time asking, researching, and answering my own questions and one of the best pieces of advice i keep seeing is to not compare yourself to others, listen to your body and plan, act, react, replan.

i did my first 5 miles in the AM alone at a fast walk tempo to prevent overtraining, and felt pretty good. I was breaking in a pair of new shoes, and while i am not feeling issues with blisters, its clear that any transition from one show to another model can be really big.. the drops, the cushioning, the hardness, the flex, the response... I’ve noticed that at higher speeds, the shoes i’ve chosen seem to do much better than at the slower speeds i typically run. They tend to feel more agile and comfortable at a pace thats sub 10 mins/mile than they do 11 plus.

i went for a second 5mile with my 2 kids, who are very athletic, we did a 1 mile warm up, a 34 min 5k that matched my goal HR, and a 1 mile wind down. It was a lot of fun and it shows how having a good partner can make the run feel so different.

i am also noticing with the more layers during the colder season, a lot of stuff needs to be dried (washed) compared to the nicer 3 seasons. Its not enough to have one spare of something. Its really nice to have a heated boot warmer/dryer (bought for my kids cleats as they were training/playing 5-6 days).

also noticed my vo2max is 39-40 at night when i was measuring at that time, but 43-44 in the AM when i get up. Also noticed my BMI appears to have gone a point or so down since i last measured, but not exactly sure how.
 
global_dev said:
I’ve noticed that at higher speeds, the shoes i’ve chosen seem to do much better than at the slower speeds i typically run. They tend to feel more agile and comfortable at a pace thats sub 10 mins/mile than they do 11 plus.
Click to expand...

Did a very fast walk this AM. definitely felt this on the flats vs the hills. The hills felt really comfortable with this specific shoe and the flats felt much hard on my feet. It must have something interesting to do with biomechanics/power and materials.

I also added a new upper base layer that supposedly wicks away moisture and keeps warmth, but the moisture gets trapped in my jacket. That kind of sucks.
 
Went for a 5miler run by feeling today in the PM. Chose a supposed running playlist, but it ended up being all over the place beatwise, didn’t like it at all.

by feel, not HR, and tried to push the stride a bit more open. Worked a bit, not my fastest by far which is really odd since it felt pretty fast, but it was very close. Under 10min/mile each mile starting at ~9 for the first and getting to 10 at the end.

i was talking to a colleague who runs and he mentioned many races share their elevation profiles so I need to search that up because i barreled up all the hills today and felt it hoping to recover on the otherside of them.

not sure i am feeling the runners high, i know i have before when i was much younger doing 3 mile flat roads, but the hills are tough mentally.

also noticed how its coincidental every time i pass something a car is always in the way, wither backing out, at a stop sign, passing to close to me and the only parked cars for a stretch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
Yesterday, Saturday, was a wild day. Upper 40sF windy but sunny. No plans and no one in my fam really wanted to go on a jog with me. They would go for a fast walk later on, so i told them i would be back and do that with them to as thats been the SOP for a couple weeks or so.

i figured I would add a loop that crosses a boardwak and since it was cold/windy I knew it would be pretty empty of people.

i ran the new route to the loop and at that moment decided to keep going without looking at my HR and just listen as the app tells me distance/time at every mile. Felt good to run like that but also you realize you may be dependent on some other transportation home. Thankfully that wasnt an issue, especially since half my route home was through a state park on trails inaccessible to vehicles for the most part. Lots of leaves and mud and hills.

incredibly, on this wild on and off road trail, i ended going a half-marathon distance in 2hrs 45 mins. I clearly was off WR pace by 8mins/mile bit i felt great the entire time. Feel a tiny bit sore in my calves today but that’ll work itself off in a bit.

i was thinking that most of this run was along a waterfront and how beautiful and peaceful it was during winter. I can see how people drive to a new location to run a route thats not accessible outside their homes.
 
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