TT Running Club

“"I want to do another half marathon. A Spring race is the perfect thing to put on the calendar to remain active these last few cold months. Who wants to train for it? I am eyeing the Running Crab 1/2 marathon in Hampton, VA. It is on April 26th (which gives us plenty of time for training). This will be fun! Who wants to join me? I'll set you up with a sample training program if you are interested. I'd love to have a trail talk training partner."

running girl
09:53:06 AM
01/13/03


I nominate running girl President of the TT Running Club.

I second.

Motion carries.

(Who needs rules of order? This is TT!)”

“I run twice a day now. 3 miles in the morning, and what ever coach prescribes for the afternoon.”

“Great idea Fritz!!”

“Can I join? I ran for a whole 10 minutes yesterday! :)”

“Yes, smiley girl, you qualify. :)

I was thinking - it might be good motivation for us to post our training here, on some level which would vary from one person to another. Some people like to keep detailed logs, others need to avoid that. I would think at a minimum, we TTRC members could post each week how many days we ran that week. Next step up would be minutes, e.g. 20 mins on Tuesday, or whatever. Some of us would post miles and maybe pace but that of course is not expected of everyone.

Would that be a good thing, running girl, posting our training here?”

“Woohoo! Great idea! Sign me up!”

“so funny!! i made the thread about the running crab half marathon and then spent 5 days sitting in front of the woodstove with a beer in my hand. i am afraid of a smear campaign if i should choose to seek election. i am still signing up for the race. i just haven't "officially" started training yet. maybe being president will make me lace up those shoes. this cold weather is awesome for running and i should be taking advantage of it. a TTRC sounds great to me.”

“I'm in! You gotta build that base over the winter!”

“I dunno, aero...you might not qualify for this running club...too young, too fast. I'll have to take this up with the committee. :)”

“i ran my mouth a bunch over the weekend! that totally counts.

yeah, aero's too good...he'll kick everyone's asses. no fair!
;-)”

“lyra, quit running your mouth and start reading!”

“hee hee? :-) i know, i know...”

“We could be the Trail Talk Hashers: a Drinking Club with a Running Problem.”

“what kind of salary does the president draw?”

“Totally up to you. Grab your crayons and have at it.”

“C'mon, running girl- running is it's own reward! :D”

“i second Aero's name! too funny. the only running i'll be doing will be on an elliptical machine, but whatnever. hey running girl, you should demand that your title be "Queen"! "President" is so...diplomatic. ick.

:-D”

“oh, aero...it's own reward. i'll have to ponder that one..”

“I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use for a training log that I will post on my family web site when I get it updated for 2003. I will give y'all a link to download it and use it if you want. As you might expect, it has lots of totally useless calculations, but some good stuff, too, like how many miles you have on your shoes, graphs of your weight, etc.”

“i ran for 42:38 yesterday. i'd say it was about 4 and a half miles. i wasn't focused on distance as much as time. it was a really good run.
im not even gonna pay attention to distance until i get up to running for an hour comfortably.”

“Is everyone running on pavement? I moved to a new house in town at the end of last year. While walking my dog I stumbled across some nice trails in a wooded area on the edge of town. (Only five minutes from my house!)

Since my discovery I've taken up trail-running and love it. Several nice sized hills and a couple creek crossings. Anyone else trail run? Anyone have any advice as far as safety etc. for trail-running?”

“I "competed" in a trail-run two years ago at this time. It was called the Sweetheart 8 miler. I would have finished LAST had I not pushed down the elderly couple at mile 7. It was HARD! I was picturing old fire roads--but there were rock slides, creek crossings, 7245 foot climbs (well, maybe not that high)--hard. It was a lesson in humility. But I had a large plate of pancakes later that day that soothed all wounds.”

“I do about 60% on roads and the rest on trails. Right now it's 100% on snow so it really dosen't matter. Yesterday I did 8 miles in the morning and then ran another 7 later in the afternoon with the college guys. We got hit with a snowstorm on the afternoon run and the temp. dropped from about 35 to 17 degrees making thins pretty icy! Today I'm going to slog through the snow for 8-10 miles.”

“running girl, you're a crackhead!! LOL!”

“On the trails you just have to pay attention more and maybe take shorter, quicker steps. It's good for your lower legs and ankles to keep from getting over-use injuries. We have some trails right above town on solid sandstone. It's pretty bumpy and you really have to stay awake, but there are a few spots where it's mostly dirt (or sand).”

“running girl- You pushed down an elderly couple? good to see you're competitive!”

“doesn't the cold air hurt your lungs, Superman, i mean Aero?
;-)

but for real, i last about 10 minutes in weather like that! 17 degrees, ouch.”

“You're quitting too soon lyra, It stops hurting after about the first 10 minutes. Just take it a little slower and let your lungs adjust.”

“The cold air thing is a myth! It's almost body tempurature by the time it hits the back of your mouth. The dryness is what makes people uncomfortable. We go out in below zero and it's OK; the biggest danger is to exposed skin. I like it when the snow is squeaky!”

“yea, i took them both out with one swift shove! no retired couple with matching warm-up suits and "sneakers" is going to beat me!!”

“Just wait til the endorphines kick in and you won't feel a thing! 8o”

“gotcha, dudes.

that's the spirit, running girl!
:-D”

“lyra, I'd rather run in 20 degree below weather than in downtown DC!”

“ugh, that would suck. you'd be running in place half the time, waiting for the crosswalk light to change, and you'd get run over about 5 times by idiots driving in the crosswalks. they try to hit us, i swear! in Boston, there's have some law that if your car is even two inches into a crosswalk at the same time as a pedestrian, you get fined a lot of money (i don't remember how much). it's nice walking around there!

i live in Maryland, but it sucks there, too...too much traffic, and no sidewalks in some places. good thing i have a gym. but too bad i haven't been in 4 days! hee hee.”

“I was afraid of getting mugged!”

“the only time i've ever been afraid of getting mugged is near some clubs in Southeast. when you park your car, there are always neighborhood guys waiting on the corners, demanding $5 for them to "watch your car" while you're in the club. yikes! what's supposed to happen to my car if i don't give them $5?? so i always have.”

“Aero --
8 miles in the snow???? w t capital FFFFFF????


HOly moly batman.


My regular 4.5-5 mile route along the Connecticut river in Hartford has one section (we're talking 100 yards) that isn't maintained (SHOVELED). I was doing my usual staggering along, hit the 12 inch deep snow, made it up the short incline, down the short incline . . .and then STOPPED. And WALKED. Until I hit pavement 50 yards later.

With temps in the teens, and no melting in sight, I haven't beeen back there since (although I supposed its packed down by now).

Aero . . .do you run on packed trails? If so, do you drill machine screws through your runnning shoes for extra purchase??



Generally I have been running 3x week about 3 and 3/4 miles (it is a 5k (3.1miles) plus the distance to and from the start (about 6 minutes for me, round trip. So I figure about 3 and 3/4 miles total). It takes me between 35 and 38 minutes depending on the day.

Since I resumed running after my achilles tendon thing, I seem to have settled into a barely sub 10 minute pace.

Sometime I do a fire road trail system out in the state forest. 6.5 miles. 2/3 hills. you are either going up or down. Pretty tortureous. But fun.”

“I don't run can I still join?”

“Lee--- when it gets really cold, close to 0, the snow and ice are less slippery than temps closer to freezing. When the temp. gets up in the 20s, 3/8" hex-head, sheet metal screws come in handy. You screw them in (I use a vice grip) UP from the bottom. The hex heads are sharp enough to grip the ice. You put them in a pattern around the outer edge of the forefoot similar to a track spike and in the thicker parts of the tread. The slippage problem mainly occurs when you turn a sharp corner or hit a sudden slant, like a driveway approach and the screws give you that little edge between staying upright and falling on your ass! They don't do much in deep snow, so you just plow through it.

The snow around here is a mixed bag; packed, ice, powder and even bare spots. The screw shoes work well on all that because you still strike with the middle part of the sole.

I haven't missed a day (other than backpacking trips) since mid-June. In a big mileage year I get in about 4,000 miles, but more recently I log about 3,500-3,600. Since Labor Day I've averaged about 75 miles/week. It's pretty easy to run here because you don't have to drive anywhere to get to some decent trails; the city isn't that big. Plus, I run with the college cross country team.”

“holy chit! 75 miles a week is a lot of miles a week!”

“OOPS! That was me--I was the one saying holy chit.”

“Aero dude, you're hardcore. That's awesome! I've been wussing out on runs because of the really icy roads/sidewalks this winter. I would just drive to a track to run, but I have to coordinate parking with my neighbors at my house, and that's enough trouble as it is.

Ice is pretty much gone now, but there is some bitter cold going on. I'm going to have to run with my balaclava.”

“Run with a balaclava???? I don't even wear a hat!

I have my fleece headband/earwarmer/whatchamacallit and that doesn't usually stay on for the whole run. Gloves come off, too. Stoke that furnace, baby!”

“So Artex, Pennsy, wanna come to Allentown and run a 10k this Sunday morning?”

“I would Fritz, but I'll be in the Catskills.. I think Pennsy Hiker will be coming with me. Do you know of any races the following weekend?”

“I try to run every day - it doesn't always happen, but I average close to 5 days/week. I'm not really sure how far we (my 13 yr old son is my running partner) run, but it takes us about 40 minutes during the week and about an hour on the weekends. The coldest we've run in this year was -3 F. It really sux here when the wind is howling though.

Aero - do you put the machine screws in your good running shoes? Do you take them out when the trails are dry?

I wish we had a trail handy to run on - mostly we are just on the streets. There are a few trails that cut through some parks on our usual path. We have to run before work/school in the morning so there's not much time to drive to a trail - best for us to just walk out the front door. No flat areas near by either so there is plenty of up and down to keep it intresting.”

“I usually put the screws in my "newest" old shoes so I don't have to keep taking them out when it clears up. it really works and makes it a lot easier to get out there.
Here's my actual log from last week in case anyone's interested (ZZZZZZZZZZZZ......)
Mon- noon- 4 easy
pm- 5 easy
Tues am- 3 easy, snowing
pm- 5 slow, heavy snow
Wed- noon- 4 icy, 19 degrees
pm- 8 (2 mi easy, 4 hard on trail loop, 2 easy)
Thurs-noon- 4 easy
pm- 7, hilly course, trails
Fri- noon- 4 easy
pm- 6, mod.
Sat- am- 11 mod/fast (part on trails and hills)
pm- 4 easy, warmer
Sun- am- 10 easy part on trails
Total 75 miles
not much quality, mostly putting in miles”

“Aero --

How old are you???

I am not old (am I???) at age 37, but I would feel my knees and ankles saying a big hearty "F-U" to me if I ran 2x/ day!!!

I alternate days running,in part o reduce the wear and tear, and in part becuase I like to lift.

Holy moly.”

“What aero said about the cold air and lungs. It's warm and toasty long before it hits your lungs.

You won't need a balaclava Artex. And what do you mean I MIGHT be joining you in the 'Skills this weekend? OF course I'm there!

I love trail running. I don't run on anything harsh like the rocky AT, but running on trails is more interesting and takes away some of that pavement pounding.”

“I ran xc and track a bit in high school... then I slacked for years. Last year, I got back on the bandwagon for about 3 months and pooped out again. I'm starting again, tomorrow.

A few of us Mich folks are planning to run 5ks this spring.”