Thanks, rundogrun. So far the schedule has been working out fine in any case. I might be aiming for a 10K in July first to get some race experience.
I’m torn on the issue of running alone. While I’d rather stick to my own pace and time, sometimes I get really bored while running. And I hate having something on my head while I run, hence no walkman for me. Having somebody run with me just makes running time less tedious sometimes. But all in all I agree with Chata, I guess.
I wish I could run with headphones on. Working out with the right music makes it all so pleasant and painless.
But the paranoid part of me relies upon my sense of hearing to detect traffic, moose, dogs, cops, fights, road surface and so much more. I enjoy the sense of living. Only before I had kids could I enjoy headphones.
Fortunately, I’m never bored. There’s always a few dozen schemes and scams I’m workin’ on.
To steer this thread in a different direction, I’d like to ask everyone about Advil, aspirin, Tylenol and other analgesics. How do they incorporate in your running, and do you consider it cheating?
Myself, I usuallly take either a 200mg Advil or 650 mg aspirin about 45 minutes before running along with about a liter of water.
It doesn’t ever seem to make the run faster or easier to endure, but seems to make recovery a lot less painful.
Any thoughts?
Advil cheating? Nah…it goes with the program.
I did a triathlon relay with a buddy last summer. At that point I was having achilles and back problems so we actually considered changing our name to “Team Advil”. Actually, just to be able to race, my doctor put me on massive doses of ibuprofin…it was fine for that week, but not something to be continued. I could barely walk after the race and ended up taking the next two months off.
Which leads to a good point. Advil, et al are fine for training and recovery. But if you are taking them to deal with an acute problem, rest/re-evaluating training/etc. are always much better options.
Admittedly, I didn’t really run from labor day until late january (I did do some walking at the beginning of the year)
but I’ve been good and on the treadmill since late january - and I can’t get any speed, well, not for any length of time…
I’ve never been fast, but I’m slower than anything, and at any speed above walk, my heartrate shoots up. (90-something%) so of course, I need to slow down.
I don’t know how to start over again (all other times, I’ve needed to start over again, it hasn’t been this bad, or this long)… any ideas?
amarinth -
Just run. There’s really no way to make things easier. After about a year of running, I’m just now getting to the “comfortable” part. Where I can go out and run 3 or 4 miles, and think of it as a ‘light’ day. If you’re on a treadmill, see if it has pre-programed workouts. I know when I was first starting, they helped me keep on track. I didn’t have to think about making myself go faster, or up the incline, the program did it for me…I just had to try to finish. And at the beginning, I couldn’t always finish them. I’d have to slow it down, so my goal became to finish a workout, without slowing down. Don’t be discouraged, you’ll get there.
For those that were asking about the Timex GPS watch, I have one, and love it. I hated running outside, because I’m anal about knowing how far/fast I’ve run. The watch let’s me do that, and get some road work in. I still use the treadmill for intervals, tempo, and repetitions, but I do at least 2 days a week outside. A great place to order one is Al’s gift shop. I ordered mine there, and got it in 3 days. Also, look into the 100 lap one, not because of the 50 more laps it stores, but because you can set it to alarm whenever you drop below a certain speed, or go above one.
I’m currently working on a program given to me here and it’s helping me a lot. I’m working on getting my long runs up there. Right now, I’m only at a little over 7 miles. I’m shooting for 10 as a good place for me right now. About the longest distance I’ll ever want to run.
And personally? I hate running. I hate almost every minute of it. But, I know that there’s no reason to be 30, 50lbs. overweight, and not able to run a mile. And once I got past the first 4 months, then the improvments became my motivation. How good can I get if I try? How fast can I run? It also has the benifit that the faster I run, the quicker I’m done…
Good luck to all of us, and keep the feet moving.
Next weekend, daylight savings time starts, and I can run after work again. Yay! Plus the weather is reasonable, so that’s a nice bonus. I’m such a slug all winter.
I’m just starting (again!) - I go through this every year. I’ve got all the cold weather gear to run (down to about 0 degrees F) but I hate running in the dark after work. But it’s starting to warm up, the days are longer… I’m goin’ tonight!
Unfortunately, the road is washed out on my usual route, so I have to find a new way to go.
I’m going to try and run, jog, walk, crawl my way through the 10km event in the Ottawa marathon on the May tenth weekend.
I’m pretty much a beginner but I’m starting to get a little encouraged. I had serious shin splints last night, so I changed my stride, and was able to jog more. Now I’m pretty sure that I have a chance of doing the 10k.
Sometimes I hum the song from the movie Rocky when I run for motivation, or the Chariots of Fire theme.
amarinth - Keep going with the treadmill. Start alternating between running and walking…how long does it take to get your heartrate up 90% (not sure where your heart rate is starting or what that 90% works out to - figure your max heart rate is 220 minus your age, but you shouldn’t be anywhere near that number at this point)? Before it gets to that point where you have to slow down…slow down. Even if it means just running 30 seconds at a time a few times each walk. By gradually increasing the amount of time you run, your body will acclimate itself. Great thing about running is that your body really does adjust fairly quickly and it’s easy to see improvement.
That’s the thing, I’ve been running off and on for about 4 years now. I have an idea of how it should work - as I’ve been through it before.
In the past, my body has adjusted really quickly. I’d take an ill-conceived break from running, but after a 2 or so weeks of light 3-4 mile runs and run/walks - I’d be fine. (plus, the hardest thing about those few weeks wouldn’t be the running, it would be the convincing myself to run part.) I’d be back at the slow end of my speed range, but I could do that comfortably - at an appropriate heartrate.
This time, it’s been about 2 months, and still, even running way slower (really, I can walk almost as fast) than what I’d consider the slow end of my speed range, my heartrate is still up in the 90% range. And there seems to be no sign of a return to normalcy.
Do you have a heart rate monitor?
If you do, figure your 60% - 70% range. Run until you hit this number, and run as long as you don’t exceed it. Switch to walking when it gets too high. Try to stay in this range for 5 minutes at a time.
Somewhere there’s a level between resting rate and 90%. If walking is already putting you in this 60% - 70% range, keep at it and try again in a month.
Sometimes it takes longer to get back then others…been there, done that!
I just came back from jogging and my shins are killing me!!!
WHY?
How do I make the pain stop from happening?
As a former sufferer, I have some advice for you, Phelan.
Stretch and ice and time. Shin splints are due to overuse (after not using them in this manner for a while) and take some time to get over.
Stretch several times a day. Put your hands against a wall and push one knee toward the wall. You want to feel a stretch in the front of your shin (duh).
Doing the alphabet with your big toe helps, too.
Walking backwards several yards during your cooldown can help.
Ice after every run. 20 minutes on each shin. 20 minutes off. 20 minutes on each shin again. (If you can’t do two rounds, that’s okay. Do at least one.)
Consider seeing a physical therapist. That’s where I got all this advice and mine are finally gone. Good luck, sweetie.
Wish me luck; I’ve got a mother of a long run tomorrow. Between 15 and 18 miles (the coach will tell me) on the Mississippi River Road.
How dangerous is it to get a heartrate over the 80% zone? Are you at risk for a heart attack?
Shin splits: Really take the time to stretch out the FRONT and Back calf muscles BEFORE a workout. Afterwards cool them down with ice. Run on GOOD surfaces - the ideal being one of the spongy track surfaces. Perhaps buy some extra cushion inserts for your running shoes.
Sometimes, if I’m in the right groove, I enjoy running. But mostly I just really enjoy the moments AFTER an run. The sense of accomplishment, endorphins, etc. Sometimes MUCH later I get happy again at looking at my killer legs!
Thanks for the help Gazelle from Hell and Chata. I’ll give it another shot tomorrow and hopefully with better results.
Good luck tomorrow Gazelle from Hell.
Chata The 80% is merely a training zone (a high level at that)…not an indication of a potential heart attack. The idea is to train in different zones to accomplish different training goals. Some days you want your body to work harder, other days you don’t.
Anytime you’re sprinting hard over an extended distance, say 1/4 mile, you’ll be at 100% of your heartrate (maximum rate).
Glad to know rundogrun. I notice my heartrate is OFTEN higher that the “zone” recommended on the charts for my age group. I don’t feel particularly overworked during those times either…
Thanks for the shin splint advice- I was going to start running tomorrow, but I dreaded the pain. I had been doing really well, then suddenly they hit me after a few weeks of running- to the point that it was hard to walk- so I haven’t done any running in a while; just bicycling.
In fact, I came over here to ask a GQ about the subject, but this thread answered my question. 
Shin pain is a fact of life in running. Even once you get your body used to it, so that you don’t develope shin splints, they’ll still be days when they ache after a run. At least I still have those. I just take it a little easier the next day. And I’ve found that sometimes running faster can help. Just before I was able to keep at a quick pace for a long time, I thought that I could just go slow, and that as long as I was going a certain distance, it didn’t matter on the time. The problem (for me) was that the slower I ran, the more up and down motion I had…which made my shins hurt worse. Even though I couldn’t run for nearly as long at the faster pace, it hurt a lot less in the long run. So maybe try picking up your pace some. It may take a while to get to the point that you’re able to run non-stop at that pace, but it might not hurt as much.
Ahh…but that’s the way zone training works. Sometimes you have to slow down to stay within the zone (I’m assuming your looking at 60% to 70% here). It feels like you’re going ridiculously slow, but the idea is to go based on how your heart is working vs. how your body feels. Overtime, your body will adjust.
This is all assuming, of course, that you want to train with a heart rate monitor. There’s nothing wrong with just hitting the roads and just running either!