The Running Thread - 2018

[TheHamm]

Detroit Free Press Marathon complete! It was 26 degrees at the start, cold for this southern girl. Still, I ditched my LS by mile 3, and just ran in short sleeve and skirt.

My 18th full and a PR by over 11 minutes! I hit my goal of 4:15! (4:15:15 official time). This race had great local support. It was cool running over ambassador bridge and through Windsor Canada. The tunnel back was super cool too (not literally - probably the only time I felt truly warm during the whole race, lol). Indian Hills had people cheering from parties on their lawns, and handing out beer (and a bloody mary). I took liberal use of this lol. Belle Isle was pretty but super windy. Highly recommend this race!

My friend and I also ran the 1 mile and 5k on Saturday as part of the Motor City Challenge, new this year. We both missed our 5k PRs by 7 seconds, oops. Had fun at these too though!

This was one of my 3 picks for my first half (Disney seemed warmer!), but I am terrified of the tunnel, I find it so creepy driving through it, I cannot imagine running it. My other fear is the bridge, leading me to ask- how windy was it up there? Did you feel safe/secure? My experience walking across the Mackinac Bridge as a kid has left me scarred forever. I suppose I could do the US only portion, but that seems less interesting than other local half options.

 

[SarahDisney]

ATTQOTD: sometimes I think about stopping to take a breather or a picture but I decide not to ... and I pause my watch anyway. I also pause for stoplights, water refills, pictures, and anything where my watch wouldn't be recording any distance changes. During races I don't pause at all, because it's super rare for me to not be at least moving a little during a race. Plus, I want my watch pace to be close to my official pace... which doesnt happen thanks to my inability to care about running the tangents.

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: sometimes I think about stopping to take a breather or a picture but I decide not to ... and I pause my watch anyway. I also pause for stoplights, water refills, pictures, and anything where my watch wouldn't be recording any distance changes. During races I don't pause at all, because it's super rare for me to not be at least moving a little during a race. Plus, I want my watch pace to be close to my official pace... which doesnt happen thanks to my inability to care about running the tangents.

Pictures! That's another reason I pause sometimes too. Gotta stop for the Instagram sometimes!

 

[Kazrak]

QOTD: Do you pause your watch during training runs? If so, what in an acceptable reason to pause? Drink stop? Restroom? Stoplight? Short rest?.

No. Maybe if I had to worry about a traffic light, but my main running routes don't have any, just a couple stop signs. I hate auto-pause because it's far, far too sensitive in my experience, and tends to give very inaccurate time estimates.

 

[PrincessV]

Someone mentioned Pink Floyd. My original Wine & Dine playlist began with Dark Side (in its entirety) for the long dark road from WWS to DAK. It was something I could get lost in as I found my pace.

LOVE this!!! I don't do it for races, but I love doing "Album Runs", when I'll cue up an entire album to play in its entirety, in the original, intended order. Daft Punk's soundtrack for "Tron Legacy" is fantastic for that, as is The Police "Synchronicity." And yep, I've done "The Wall" too - amazing

I am for no logical reason terrified of 10 miles. I have gone 8ish miles for the last 2 months and been fine, and taken my kids to the zoo afterwards so really fine. But the thought of 10 has me crawling back into bed telling myself I will never do it.
Has anyone else seen a distance as unconquerable? Did you find a way to get past it?

For me, it was the first time doing 15. It just seemed soooo long and scary! I mentally broke it up into chunks: 2 to the park, 2 in the park, 3 in a loop around the park, 3 down a new-to-me street, 3 more in the park, 2 to home. It helps me to think of long distances that way, instead of one big, scary number. It also helps me position myself to not wind up 10 miles from home with only 2 miles left to complete, lol! I have NO innate sense of distance.

“Fall” weather for Central Florida has arrived! T+D was 118 for my run this morning instead of 158.

I didn't need AC in my car this morning!!!!!!!

 

[PrincessV]

QOTD: Do you pause your watch during training runs? If so, what in an acceptable reason to pause? Drink stop? Restroom? Stoplight? Short rest?

ATTQOTD: I am ALL about the pausing. Here's why: 1. I need to go through multiple intersections that have 8+ minute cycles - no way am I adding 8 minutes of standing there, waiting for the light to turn, to my time! 2. I refill my water bottle form public fountains, and they run slow - it takes me much more time to refill on training runs than while racing, when I can refill without stopping at all. On a 20-miler, waiting for lights and refilling my bottle added a whopping FORTY minutes to my time! So pausing during training gives me a much more realistic look at my actual time/pace. In the past, I have not paused in rD races while taking pics, etc., but I might in the future. I figure race results will give me my official time, but it might be nice to know what I'd have run minus the stops.

 

[Dis5150]

ATTQOTD: I don't pause my Garmin for things that I would normally do in a race (water stop/bathroom stop), because I want to be as accurate as possible between training runs and races. But if something were to happen that would never happen on race day (like @Miranda trains) I would probably pause it.

 

[rteetz]

QOTD: Do you pause your watch during training runs? If so, what in an acceptable reason to pause? Drink stop? Restroom? Stoplight? Short rest?

No I don’t. An official time doesn’t stop for bathroom breaks and such so why should my Watch time?

Congrats to all the racers this weekend! Some incredible people out there!

 

[Miranda]

ATTQOTD: I am ALL about the pausing. Here's why: 1. I need to go through multiple intersections that have 8+ minute cycles - no way am I adding 8 minutes of standing there, waiting for the light to turn, to my time! 2. I refill my water bottle form public fountains, and they run slow - it takes me much more time to refill on training runs than while racing, when I can refill without stopping at all. On a 20-miler, waiting for lights and refilling my bottle added a whopping FORTY minutes to my time! So pausing during training gives me a much more realistic look at my actual time/pace.

This is why I always pause for every stop. While we don't have any 8 minute light cycles around here, all the stops in training add up. I have had up to like 20 minutes or more for a long run for the actual vs elapsed time in Strava. If I'm out there to run a specific amount of time, and I didn't pause for stops, I'd be cutting my running time on my feet short by that much and won't have hit the amount of time I was supposed to be training for. And like someone else previously said, I want a more accurate picture of my pace when I'm training by pace. It's not completely accurate, since I'm going to be a little rested after starting back up, but I'd rather that than be completely off in the other direction.

 

[michigandergirl]

This was one of my 3 picks for my first half (Disney seemed warmer!), but I am terrified of the tunnel, I find it so creepy driving through it, I cannot imagine running it. My other fear is the bridge, leading me to ask- how windy was it up there? Did you feel safe/secure? My experience walking across the Mackinac Bridge as a kid has left me scarred forever. I suppose I could do the US only portion, but that seems less interesting than other local half options.

I did the international half last year and I'm not going to lie, the tunnel totally freaked me out, BUT I'm claustrophobic, so take that into consideration. I've learned to manage well in those situations and just focused on running & breathing. I tried really hard to not think about the fact that not only was I running in an enclosed space, I was also running in an enclosed space under water. Needless to say, that was my fastest mile.

The bridge didn't bother me at all, well except for the killer hill, but it was really cool and very scenic!

 

[GollyGadget]

QOTD: Do you pause your watch during training runs? If so, what in an acceptable reason to pause? Drink stop? Restroom? Stoplight? Short rest?

No pausing here. My longest stops are always from my dog taking care of some business. Those stops can be long and somewhat annoying but I only take her out for easy runs when I'm not worried about time anyway.

 

[Slogger]

ATTQOTD-I don't pause my watch on training runs either. Talkative neighbors, dogs, and traffic are just part of the training process and gives me the mindset that I should be able run faster without those distractions.

 

[Disney at Heart]

I don’t usually pause Map My Run. It’s too much trouble. But there has been the occasional neighbor visit that lasted too long!

 

[gjramsey]

Good job all you racers this past weekend. I enjoy reading the recaps!

ATTQOTD: I will pause my watch for water breaks and longer stops during training runs. I don't stop the watch during races.

 

[roxymama]

congrats to all the racers from this weekend! @michigandergirl WOOOOOT!!!!! Nicely done!

ATTQOTD: Sometimes. But not all the time. If I'm focusing on a specific pace per mile then I will hit pause at a red light or water bottle refill, etc. However during this last training cycle I was hyper aware that taking too much time at water tables and taking too many walk breaks for gels, etc was hurting my overall race times. So I started carrying water in training and learning to drink as I was running, I would not pause for gels but learned to run and eat them. And for my longest long runs, I would do multiple 4 mile internal loops to avoid crossing busy intersections, eliminating the need to pause at the red lights.
But I'll go back to pausing at red lights again in training because I need variety in my routes or I get bored and the red lights near me can take several minutes.

Edited to add that I'm lucky to live in an area where there is a full mile between each major red light.

 

[tigger536]

This was one of my 3 picks for my first half (Disney seemed warmer!), but I am terrified of the tunnel, I find it so creepy driving through it, I cannot imagine running it. My other fear is the bridge, leading me to ask- how windy was it up there? Did you feel safe/secure? My experience walking across the Mackinac Bridge as a kid has left me scarred forever. I suppose I could do the US only portion, but that seems less interesting than other local half options.

The tunnel was really fun! Humid, but given how cold it was outside that was welcome. Also a little crowded, lots of weaving. Did not feel creepy at all.

The bridge was so pretty at sunrise! Not too windy - I actually shed a layer going up it. I never felt unsafe, but I have no fear of heights, so it never occurred to me to worry about it. Loved the nice downhill going into Canada too. Canada was a little windy, and Belle Isle was the worst in terms of wind. Definitely a very scenic race! You should do it. Crowd support was top notch.

 

[Professor_Cookie]

ATTQOTD: I never stop my watch in the middle of a run unless I pulling the plug on it, whether for finishing or for the rare instance where I have to abort the run for whatever reason.

 

[jennamfeo]

Congrats on all the races and PRs this weekend! Loved reading all the recaps!!

ATTQOTD: YUP. I pause during red lights and I pause during bathroom breaks. I get what you are all saying about the bathroom breaks being a good timing simulation for a real race, but I'm gonna be honest and say that I stretch out the bathroom breaks during long training runs because I can. So instead of just running in and out, I will refill my water, take some nutrition, text people.... It's not an accurate assessment of what I would do during a race.

 

[DustyWA]

ATTQOTD: I never pause it, but mostly out of a fear that I will forget to unpause it. I don't use the auto-pause function either, but that's because I've had short walk breaks show up as pauses and I don't want that.

 

[AntimonyER]

ATTQOTD: I started pausing for all water stops in the summer to encourage me to take them whenever I needed them, and not be tempted to push too far without one. The slower pace that comes with running in the southern heat is bad enough without counting water breaks I won't be taking in the cool fall/winter races.