TT Running Club

“I didn't track miles last year, or even bag nights really (but i can come up with those pretty close after the fact)... maybe this year i should track mileage..... hmmmmm

I'll give that a shot.

A lot of the races here locally give technical shirts, and some give the option of a reduced registration fee if you skip the shirt. Either way makes for a bit better value.”

“Bowlderman, I havent tallied my miles yet but it was my worst year in a decade. Patellar tendonitis sucks bigtime. I was able to do 1/2 mile today. I am cycling like crazy but miss the runs. I am going to start building back up again.

Nice deal on the race cost, thats dirt cheap.”

“My mileage was around my lowest in forever, too, birch, but I missed over a month of running because we were on a great vacation, then 2+ weeks on the JMT, AND I started biking with the local club on weekends, so I don't feel too bad about it.”

“Dang, boulder that is cheap but then again I live about 200 miles away from any city over 100 thousand people and the only races here are one that are fundraisers for our local community college and cost at least $25

Maybe I'll start tracking my miles too but I'm hinking about forest fire fighting for the summer so probably won't get too many in.”

“Dang, boulder that is cheap but then again I live about 200 miles away from any city over 100 thousand people and the only races here are one that are fundraisers for our local community college and cost at least $25

Maybe I'll start tracking my miles too but I'm thinking about forest fire fighting for the summer so probably won't get too many in.”

“I wasn't a very good year running for me, either, after being diagnosed with cancer in Jan '07. The chemo and Stem Cell Transplants put a real crimp in my running. Still, in spite of the cancer, I ran as much as possible. It was/is really the only thing I can do to fight this...

I managed 5) 5k's, 2) 10k's, and a half marathon just before my 2nd transplant. Of course I ran them all much slower than I would have before.

In 2008, my favorite marathon, the Bayshore in Traverse City, Mi, just happens to be on my 50th birthday. I signed up as soon as registration opened.

I hope you all have a good year this year.

"Race as if it's your last"”

“LeSubtil, its motivating as all get out to see how you have been fighting so hard and how running has been a help for you. Keep it up and enjoy that 26.2 on your birthday!

My doc (who is a runner) says something very similar to your quote. Very cool.

I have toyed with the idea of another marathon, we shall see....

My total for 07 was 642.9 miles. 8wks of home remodeling kept me from doing much else, and other that the .5 yesterday I havent run since Nov 12th. My knees however are feeling stronger than ever and I am hoping for another great year of ground pounding.
last edited: 1/05/08 6:29:02 AM”

“Its been a super week.

After a nearly 2 month break my knee is 95% healed. I was able to do 4 easy runs this week of 4-5 miles each though VERY slowly. I had two great one hour spins sessions to.

I am certain that the 4-5 one hour long rides per week are what have made the transition back to running as easy as it been. I dont feel like I lost much cardio wise.

The stretching and bosu ball knee excercises worked wonders.

This was my first and hopefully last overuse injury and frankly it sucked big time. I am just glad it wasnt too severe.

Its good to be back.
last edited: 1/13/08 5:04:20 PM”

“How are the runners doing?

Figgin cold here, with the wind it was 15 when I went out this afternoon. I normally dont run outside when its like this but I cant bear the treadmill quite yet.

Another good week, gaining back some speed. The knee feels near perfect.”

“After I run my slightly less than 8 mile run today, I will have 37 miles over the past 7 days, which is 5 more than any 7-day period all last year. I will also reach 77 miles for the month so far, which is more than 11 of last year's months. It's been nice to get into more consistent routine!”

“Daaaannng, Boulder. I am happy right now getting in 3 3-mile runs on MWF. I will get back on track to run 3 a day, hopefully, in the next week.”

“OK, I did my usual 7.8-mile run yesterday - in the freakin' pouring rain! That was OK, though, haven't done that in a while. I surpassed my highest mileage month from '07 in the process, so I'm now at 107 miles for January, with 5 days left in the month. Next month I'll mix in some intensity so maybe I can get into decent enough shape to do a race.”

“Excellent bowlderman, that is a great month! I am gunning to break 100 for a few months if I can, still taking it slow but I got 20 in this week so far. Plus 2 days of riding (If I make it tonite).

What kind of speedwork do you do?”

“You guys are great. Way to go!”

“Hey any of you ever do an Ultra? 50 miler. I'm thinking about doing one at the end of this year and would love to get any training advice.”

“chowdahead, I dont know of any ultrarunners here. I am looking at doing one (if everything works right) this sept.

What run are you looking at doing?

The book "A Step Beyond: A definitive guide to ultrarunning" By Don Allison is a great read and covers training nutrition etc very well.”

“Hey birch,
I will do tempo runs - 15-20 minutes at around 80-85% max HR - or go to the track and do a variety of speedwork there. I'll do anything from repeat 200's to repeat miles to all kinds of weird pyramid things. My current thinking is combining tempo runs on the road with really short stuff, like the 200s. Sometimes it seems like all I need for good racing is to get my legs to remember how to go faster, and the 200s will do that....”

“Sounds good, not fun though. Speed work is so darn uncomfortable. It does work though.

Tempo runs arent bad, nor is doing fartleks but 200 sprints kill me.

I hope it works for ya. I skipped my ride and ran another 4 tonite. 24 for the week, not too shabby....”

“I'm a long way from doing an ultra, but I have my first half-marathon in 2 weeks. Yesterday I did 11.6 miles with 2300 feet elevation gain - had to walk on the steep sections. I'm hoping I'm ready for the half-marathon course with 1200 feet gain course. I'd like to be able to run the whole course even if if it's a really slow pace.”

“wingding0, sounds like you are ready for your 13.1m. you will love it, Its far enough to be challenging but short enough to remain fun. Your elevation gain would kill me. Walking the steep sections is very common. Let us know how it goes for sure.”

“birch - the hills are killers - my legs hurt yesterday after Saturday's run.

I'm going to try to train hard this week and then take the week before the half marthon easy so that my legs are rested.”

“sounds like a good approach to your training wingding, I made the mistake of running a hard 8 miler 4 days before my first 1/2, I paid for it.”

“I just signed up for a 50K in Hell, Michigan in Sept. danceswithdirt.com. If you go to youtube and search you'll see some great footage - looks like a freakin blast. If you can't run fast, run long - that's my new philosophy on running. I'm doing a trail marathon in the UP mid-July to see where I am physically. I just like to finish my races having enjoyed the experience, so I don't put a lot of pressure on myself time-wise. You should run the Sept one with me. Let me know.
last edited: 1/28/08 8:10:02 PM”

“don't be afraid to walk the hills if they are pretty steep - you won't lose much time and will feel much better at the end of the race. In fact, many swear they run the race faster b/c they can run faster at the end.”

“chowdahead, thats the run I have been wanting to do for a few years. I have run two half marathons there and a full, it was a mutherscratcher.

If I can I will do this half....

http://www.trailmarathon.com/

I will definitely think about running with ya, what kind of pace are you thinking? I know that I am slow when it comes to distance on trails. The marathon I did took 4:52. Having a partner would help big time, thanks!!!!
last edited: 1/29/08 3:16:49 AM”

“drop me an email chowdahead, That untra is an hour from my place...”

“Birch - I just dropped you an email. That would be GREAT if you wanted to join in on the ultra 'fun' in Sept. Looks like a ball breaker, but I'm sure we could hobble our way to the finish. The April trail marathon you mentioned looks great too - I did the Rock n Roll Half in AZ this past January and I'm running the Hampton Beach Half Feb 10th in NH. Another the end of April (on a trail) would be a great test. Are you doing it for sure?”

“Got the emails chowda, we lost service due to high winds for a while.

I am not 100% but am very close. Having someone to run it with is huge cause ya know misery loves company. The big if is my knee. I am in my fourth week of running after a 2mon break from an overuse injury. I feel great and am steadilym getting my distance and speed back (did 7 last night). I will wait maybe a month before I decide for sure that will allow time to really gauge my knee and some scheduling stuff....

About 90% yes right now.”

“Excellent Birch! Up to 7 miles, only like 24 more miles to go till you hit 50K! Too funny. Misery does love company, so I hope you can make it. I just got some new Solomon trail shoes I can't wait to beat up.

See you in Hell”

“Sounds good to me!”

“I set a new PR today, not for speed or distance but for lowest temp. With the wind it is -21. I didnt go far (3miles) or fast (24:35) but am happy that I went. Suprisingly I didnt get too cold, but am glad its done....

Best week in months 31miles. That ultra is looking more and more possible.”

“it's fun to run in those conditions. builds mental toughness. i find with a light bala and a little vaseline on exposed parts of my face and i have no problems. i am eager to hear about your ultra plans but i don't envy you the experience. those things are brutal.”

“It's a lot easier for me to run in the cold than in the heat.”

“Yogi, I wore a lite baklava and rubbed vaseline on my naughty parts.... My sunglasses fogged, gonna have to work on that monday when I head out. And yep, the mental training is my fav part of running.

The ultra I am looking into is the dances with dirt, its local and I have been toying with the idea for 3-4 yrs. Chowdahead is already signed up and invited me along so unless I have any reoccuring knee issues in the next two weeks I am signing up.

Nimble, I agree with you 100% running in the heat and humidity sux.”

“Birch, there's an anti-fog spray for glasses that works pretty well. It should be at most optical places or even, maybe, a gun/hunting store.”

“I have seen that stuff before nimble, good idea. Today was spur of the moment I usually run the hamster wheel when its cold.”

“I gotta get back to running. It's been 60's here for the highs, so no excuses. The Mercedes Marathon was in B'ham this morning. Made me want to train and signup for a 10k.”

“Well I was just about to go get dressed and head out for a run....then I hear thunder, I look outside and it is raining...damnit...I REALLY need to get my treadmill out of storage..”

“I ran a 5k yesterday, for the first time in almost 5 years! What little racing I've done over the past few years just hasn't been 5k's, so I just hadn't done one. Before I went, I looked back at my most recent ones, and found that I had only run that one in '03 since I turned 40 in '01. My time then was around 21½ minutes. That was about what I thought I could run yesterday if I felt good, so I figured I had a chance for a PR-for-after-turning-40. Still, I had done zero speed work for at least a year, so even that didn't seem likely.

So the race started, and I was committed to starting out slowly. I was aiming for 7-minute pace as a best-case scenario, which meant I should run the first quarter mile (if I could tell how far that was) in around 2 minutes (8-minute pace) - in other words, be sure to go pretty slow for the first 2 or 3 minutes. So I did. Then I thought it would be OK to veeerrrrrry gradually speed up if I felt good enough to do that. So I maybe did, but maybe just stayed the same. As I approached the 1-mile mark, I could here the guy calling out "mmmphph:20, mmmphgh:22, mmphphg:24,..." - great! I must've held back to around 7½ minutes! Then I got there and found it was "6:35" for the first mile - oops!

Oh well, so much for pacing. But I still felt good, so tried to just keep it up. I was staying about even with the people around me, passing some, some passing me. Got to 2 miles: "13:15" - Hey, that was a 6:40; I didn't really slow down (there was a little uphill during that mile.

So now I thought, what the heck, I'll bring this baby home as fast as I can manage. I thought I pushed pretty well, but several people did pass me. The 3rd mile came up: "20:20" - well, 7:05 is still decent. I sprinted to the finish (passing a guy who turned out to be in my age group - score!), and came across in 21:08, a new PR-since-turning-40!!

Now, it is also true that, at age 42, I ran the first 5k of my marathon in '04 in about 20:30, but since it wasn't an official 5k time, I'm counting this one as my new old guy PR. Woo hoo!

Turns out I was 18th in the 40-49 age group out of about 100, so it was pretty competitive. I was 64th overall out of around 1500 or so.

BowlderMan is back!”

“12 miles today, pretty easy but slower running and it was cool to cold outside. i had not run anything longer than 6 miles in about a year so i was pleased to see i could crank out 12 with only a slight drop in pace.”

“dang Yogi, that rocks. I thought about a long run today, but it never left the thought. Another 5 for me.”

“good deal - my knee is finally feeling normal again every day so I'll crank back into my routine this week - been missing my lunch time runs!”

“glad to hear your knee is doing better doof. Them injuries are a bugger for sure, be easy starting back in.

I am pretty happy with this year so far. I missed most of Jan but have averaged about 25m per wk since then, I think I am 268 miles for the year. Feeling really good. My speed is coming back . gonna through in an LSD day once a week pretty soon.”

“I only ran about 10 miles total last week, but I biked over 100! Back to running more this week.”

“i don't do this often, but i want to say that polar is a great company and i hope everyone recognizes this and does business with them.

i have always believed in their products. i have an accurex plus that i have used for almost 10 years. great hrm. i recently got a 625 running computer a few years ago. an equally GREAT product.

well i lost the little rubber/plastic fork that holds the foot pod onto the shoe. i was really upset but emailed polar about them selling me a replacement part.

they looked up my address based on my registration (using my email address i guess) and shipped me the part on the spot... for free! they then replied telling me the part was in the mail.

not a lot of vendors understand that the support and the product are tightly linked. polar really gets it. i don't know when i'll purchase another hrm (the 625 is GREAT) but if i do it will be a polar. if you are shopping for a hrm i encourage you to really think about this when you make this investment.”

“Cranked out a quick 10 today. Spring is here! Sunny and warm... Such a joy.”

“I ran a Jan half, Feb half, and have my first Marathon on the calendar for May in Green Bay. I'm pretty psyched - going to take it slow and try to enjoy it. I haven't looked too much into a heart rate monitor, trying to stay away from making my training too technical, but have recently started to reconsider. How beneficial is it Yogi? Simple to incorporate into your training? Learning curve?”

“started out to do a long run this morning, 10 miles, but as i got out the door i put "the offspring - greatest hits" on the iPod... and it turned into a temo run. started out cranking mod 7's then low 8's and finished in them mid 8's. it started to rain a little, which felt good. i sprinted the last block and pulled into my driveway gasping for breath... almost puked.

it was great!

...going to get cleaned up and spend the rest of the day at the rock gym. :)”

“Its good to see that you all are still logging the miles.

Chowda, I am still waiting for my schedule to see about that ultra, I am supposed to know this month...

I had a superb run tonite. I have been doing 5 miles 5x per wk (mon-fri) but decided it was time to add asome distance. I did 7 tonite (54:36) anbd it felt great. The weather was ideal, 60's, sunny and a stiff breeze. The best part was all the flowering trees and lilacs, so many wonderful smells ( a raraity here in the city). Nows its beer time.”

“10 tonight in 1:30. not fast but i am getting too old for this sh1t. i'll pull 40 this week. the air was cool, the sun was out, all the running chicks were out, and the air was fragrant with the smell of blooming stuff (no lilacs... i do love that smell... grew up with a lilac busy in the front of my grandmas house).”