"What am I even doing with my life?" Comments Welcome!

StacyStrong

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 8, 2018
Hello!

First, let me introduce myself. I am a 30 year old from Chicago (born and raised!) who very recently moved about 30 minutes outside of Chicago (sad face).
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(Pictured: Myself and my boyfriend, Jose, of ~7.5 years)
Last year, I was reflecting on the fact that I would be turning 30 in January 2019 and had a minor freak out. Basically, I realized that I worked from home and spent way too much time doing...nothing. Basically, I sat around a lot and was gaining weight. I realized that something needed to change. I desperately needed to get moving and get healthier. I seriously asked myself "WHAT AM I EVEN DOING WITH MY LIFE???"

A friend of mine runs Disney races almost yearly and asked me to join her at the 2019 Star Wars race weekend and I decided that this was as good of a reason as any to motivate myself to start MOVING more. I began my journey at the end of March 2018.

I realize that it's WAY TOO LATE to start a training journal for the 10k this April, but I plan on registering for the Hot Chocolate 15k in November and the Princess Half (maybe challenge???) in February 2020. I still have a LOT to learn about running, my fitness, and what I'm capable of, so I figured I might as well start this!

One reason why I wanted to start this is because I am still VERY self conscious of how...slow... I am. From the age of 4-17, I played soccer and was often on more than one traveling team at a time. After high school, I stopped playing and with it, stopped working out and running. I'm hoping that this will show me just how much progress I am making, even if it's slow.

In my next post, I hope to document where I started and my most recent runs. I hope you all (anyone there???) will join me in this journey!!
 
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Following! Hope you find the pre-race meet for the 10k, wherever it is lol! I hope to be there too.
 
I started back in March 2018 with the C25K app. I hated it. I never got past week four. I either skipped runs or kept repeating weeks. It's hard for me to find my "earliest" run because at this time I was also trying to decide on a tracking app I liked. I had an Apple Watch, but it was generation 1 and I needed my phone in order to use the GPS. I used Nike Run Club, but it was awful on my watch (and I also needed my phone), and then I just tried to use Apple's tracking. It was all a mess. Eventually I settled on RunKeeper and upgraded to the latest model of Apple Watch.

Anywho, these are the earliest runs I can find. As you can see, it was...not great. People WALK faster than I was running. Just..bad all around. Slow. Bad. I'm only 30. I'm not significantly overweight (though I am by no means at a good weight and do need to lose weight so it's actually incredibly embarrassing for me.

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I continued running through mid-October and slowly (emphasis on slow) made progress. It was at this point that I got pretty sick with a cold/flu. I intended to just take a couple days off, but that cold turned into Bronchitis and I ended up not returning to running until mid-January 2019. When I started back up, it was pretty rough, but definitely not as bad as when I began last year.

Recently, I've been doing 3.5min run/2min walks. However, I tried to change it up to a 2.5min run/45 second walk and didn't love it (though my pace did). My most recent run was a 2.5min run/1 min walk and I thought that seemed sustainable. Maybe?

Below are some recent runs (oldest first)-

March 14th - 3.5min run/2min walk- Longest Run completed to date
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Splits: 14:06, 14:51, 14:30, 14:17, 14:27, 14:30, 14:21

March 19th -2.5min run/45sec walk - I feel like I could eventually do a 45sec walk, but not before my race. I think?? It felt rushed.
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Splits: 13:45, 13:44, 13:43, 14:04

March 21st - 2.5min run/1min walk - Probably the interval I will go with for the 10k. I think???
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Splits: 14:19, 14:21, 13:49, 13:49


So there it is. That's where I am at. I will say that I think my warm up walk on 3/21 was probably too quick. My calves felt a bit sore going into the first interval, so it could have gone better.

I also want to point out that going into running, I knew NOTHING. This means that these runs were probably at 90-95% of my max speed, which I recently learned you should not do for training runs. Ah well, a little too late for the 10k, good to know in the future.

Plan Moving Forward (comments? suggestions?):
March 23rd - 6-7 miles
March 25th - 5k
March 27th - 5k
March 29th - 4-5 miles
April 1st: 30 minutes
April 3rd: 30 minutes
April 6th - 10k Race Day!!!

I plan on doing these all at 2.5min/1min intervals.

All this to say that I definitely made a lot of progress since last year, but still "What am I even doing with my life?" I have so much more work to do and so much more to learn. My pace does still discourage me, but I know that I've made a lot of improvement already.
 


Following! Hope you find the pre-race meet for the 10k, wherever it is lol! I hope to be there too.

Thanks for joining! I won't be ale to fo a pre-race meet. I'm going down with a bunch of pepole and they are all weirdos who don't trust the internet. I don't have that same issue, lol, but I'm staying with them in a 2bedroom BWV for all of $50 from the 5th-10th, so I don't think I can ditch them. Very grateful for their DVC contract :)

I'm here. I know I've had that same thought before too.

Thank you so much for joining!!!!
 
Hi there! :wave:

Don't fret too much about pace. Everyone has to start somewhere. You are out there doing it and that's all that matters. Stick with it and you will improve over time.

Have fun at Star Wars weekend!
 
Ugh. My “long” run only lasted 1.9 miles before I started feeling pretty awful and stopped. I'm really hoping today was just a bad day because that does not bode well at all.

ETA - I guess I'll move my long run day to Monday to give my body a little time to rest and then just do 30 minute runs until the race. I hope that's enough, but also feel like I might have been pushing too hard which caused my bad run today? I'm not sure.

Ah. Maybe I should have pushed past it.
 
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Hello :wave2: I'm another slower runner. I hit thirty-one last year, but I have never been athletic so I was late to the running game. It's great stress relief! I look forward to reading about your progress!
 
Hi! Is there anywhere I can go to look for running lingo? I'm looking at some training journals and I just feel so lost. "EA" "WU" etc etc.

I want to get this first 10k under my belt and then do some real training and find a training plan. Lots to figure out.
 
Congrats for starting a training journal. Excited to follow along and see how it goes for you! Be patient with the journey. Endurance sports are a long term journey and the gains sometimes come slowly so it's hard to see the forest through the trees.

"EA" "WU" etc etc.

EA = Easy A. A pace designated by the Hansons training plan to be roughly 20% slower than marathon tempo pace.
EB = Easy B. A pace designated by the Hansons training plan to be roughly 12% slower than marathon tempo pace.
LR = Long Run. Long run pace is variable defined by whatever training plan you're following. Galloway run/walk interval long run pace is usually 2 min slower than marathon tempo pace. Hansons prescribe about 9% slower than marathon tempo pace.
WU = Warm up
CD = Cool down
Daniels R = Mile pace.
Daniels I = Daniels VO2max pace (or about 9-11 min race pace).
Daniels LT = Daniels Lactate Threshold pace (or 60 min race pace)

Here are some old posts that explain some of these concepts:

How I write a custom training plan
Eureka! The Quintessential Running Post
Train slow to race fast: Why running more slowly and capping the long run at 2.5 hours may dramatically improve your performance
Why am I doing this run? The question every runner should be asking themselves.
Two kinds of impressive: The person who finishes first may not be the most impressive, it could be who finished last.

Any other acronyms you've come across?
 
Congrats for starting a training journal. Excited to follow along and see how it goes for you! Be patient with the journey. Endurance sports are a long term journey and the gains sometimes come slowly so it's hard to see the forest through the trees.



EA = Easy A. A pace designated by the Hansons training plan to be roughly 20% slower than marathon tempo pace.
EB = Easy B. A pace designated by the Hansons training plan to be roughly 12% slower than marathon tempo pace.
LR = Long Run. Long run pace is variable defined by whatever training plan you're following. Galloway run/walk interval long run pace is usually 2 min slower than marathon tempo pace. Hansons prescribe about 9% slower than marathon tempo pace.
WU = Warm up
CD = Cool down
Daniels R = Mile pace.
Daniels I = Daniels VO2max pace (or about 9-11 min race pace).
Daniels LT = Daniels Lactate Threshold pace (or 60 min race pace)

Here are some old posts that explain some of these concepts:

How I write a custom training plan
Eureka! The Quintessential Running Post
Train slow to race fast: Why running more slowly and capping the long run at 2.5 hours may dramatically improve your performance
Why am I doing this run? The question every runner should be asking themselves.
Two kinds of impressive: The person who finishes first may not be the most impressive, it could be who finished last.

Any other acronyms you've come across?

That was helpful, thanks! Nothing jumps out at me immediately that I've seen, but I'll be sure to ask.

Also, I read this in one of your posts and it was hugely meaningful to me. Thank you!

"Hopefully this helps make sense of my idea. So when someone says I ran a 15:00 min/mile for a half marathon, but I gave it everything I got. I come away impressed. That person's perception of effort was the same as mine, but yet they maintained that effort for significantly longer than me."
 
I have started a bucket list. It has only two things on it so far.

1. I want to finish a marathon by 35.

2. I want to complete the Dopey Challenge the year following a marathon.

TBD if I get anywhere close to this happening.

I clearly have a very long way to go, but doesn't hurt to have goals!
 
I just want to say how glad I am to have found my way to this sections of these boards. I'm learning so much.

My goal is to run 4-5 miles tomorrow. Based on @DopeyBadger info, I'm going to actively try to slow down my pace by about a minute per mile and not try to feel bad about it. Hopefully doing that on what I consider my long runs will yield me some results!
 
@DopeyBadger I really really hate to take up your time, but I saw one of your posts about heart rate. I don't mind doing the calcs myself and trying not to bug you too much, but I just want to make sure I understand correctly so that I'm not bugging you so much in the future.

I have seen my heart rate top 190 several time - getting as high as 194 (mostly last year, I haven't seen it that high since I started running, thankfully). My runs are typically in a 170ish average. My resting HR for this year has been between 59-65.

Assuming a max HR of 190 (am I being too generous with my max?) and a resting of 62, I calculated (based off the HRR formula you posted) my LR HR should be between 152.88-160.56 and my 10k HR between 179.76-182.32. Am I understanding that correctly? If so, I think I have been doing my training LRs at a marathon tempo....woops.
 
@DopeyBadger I really really hate to take up your time, but I saw one of your posts about heart rate. I don't mind doing the calcs myself and trying not to bug you too much, but I just want to make sure I understand correctly so that I'm not bugging you so much in the future.

Bug away! I'm here to help however I can.

I have seen my heart rate top 190 several time - getting as high as 194 (mostly last year, I haven't seen it that high since I started running, thankfully). My runs are typically in a 170ish average. My resting HR for this year has been between 59-65.

Assuming a max HR of 190 and a resting of 62, I calculated (based off the HRR formula you predicated) my LR HR should be between 152.88-160.56 and my 10k HR between 179.76-182.32. Am I understanding that correctly? If so, I think I have been doing my training LRs at a marathon tempo....woops.

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So this is what I would get from a maxHR of 190 and restHR of 62. I'd say it's not terribly uncommon to find people in the M to HM tempo area for a self-selected training pace. But the idea would be to get about 50% of your training in the 130-148 HR zone (easy), 25-30% of your training in the 153-161 HR zone (long run), and the remainder is mixed in the higher HR zones based on the goal race distance (specificity of training). But from experience, if you're using an optical HR monitor, it lags. So while you may be doing 3k, 5k, or 10k paces, the HR data may not reflect that completely in the moment. So I'd be wary of using HR data for judging any type of paces above HM/Lactate Threshold pace.

Just an extra addendum I try to include whenever I discuss this topic. And as I'm sure you read in the other thread, my preference is to view HR data as a secondary measure. So something I look at post-run to evaluate trends in the data set in the long term. But on the smaller/micro level (and my primary measure), I'm more focused on pace and effort.
 
Thank you! I definitely don't feel like I'm about to collapse (anymore) after my training runs (except this past Saturday-but that was just bad all around). In fact, on my longest run to date, I felt like I could have gone longer if I needed to, but it still felt very hard.

I remember when I first started, I would literally lay on my floor breathing hard after a short 30 minutes of C25K. It's so crazy to think that even if I'm very far from my goals, I've made a lot of progress.
 
In fact, on my longest run to date, I felt like I could have gone longer if I needed to, but it still felt very hard.

That's good. I call it the rule of "One More". I want to finish every run believing I could have done "one more". Whether that be one more interval, one more mile, one more of something else. In training, I never give everything I have. I "save it for race day".

I remember when I first started, I would literally lay on my floor breathing hard after a short 30 minutes of C25K.

I can totally remember those days. And as you continue to progress on this journey each and every milestone will add up to a similar feeling. Where a 3 mile used to make you useless for the day, then a 5 miler, then a 10 miler, then a 15 miler, then a 20 miler, etc (if you choose to personally take the journey that far is up to you and by no means do you have to do any certain distance, but this was more of just an example). And eventually, once the training gets to a certain place, a lot of what you've done in the past becomes just another day and your body adapts to the training and becomes that much stronger.

It's so crazy to think that even if I'm very far from my goals, I've made a lot of progress.

And keep that perspective on Day 72 and Day 7200. Because it's always an important reminder to ourselves during the days we're deep in a training plan.
 
Hi Stacy! Congrats on starting your running journey. I'm also about 30 min away from downtown Chicago, but right across the street from the very edge of Chicago limits on the southside. I definitely identify with your reason for starting running as I was in that same kind of spot about 4-5 years ago when I started couch 2 5k.
This year will be my 5th Hot Chocolate (my first one I did a 10k in spring to build up to it too!) so if you need a resource or have questions about the course, logistics, etc just let me know. I'd be happy to help where I can. It's probably my favorite non-disney race! If you are already running 6.74 miles at 14+ pace now and you keep training you'll finish that 15k no problem in the Fall.
 
Hi Stacy! Congrats on starting your running journey. I'm also about 30 min away from downtown Chicago, but right across the street from the very edge of Chicago limits on the southside. I definitely identify with your reason for starting running as I was in that same kind of spot about 4-5 years ago when I started couch 2 5k.
This year will be my 5th Hot Chocolate (my first one I did a 10k in spring to build up to it too!) so if you need a resource or have questions about the course, logistics, etc just let me know. I'd be happy to help where I can. It's probably my favorite non-disney race! If you are already running 6.74 miles at 14+ pace now and you keep training you'll finish that 15k no problem in the Fall.
Hey neighbor! I moved to Northwest Indiana so I'm technically not even in Illinois anymore! Boooo!

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm excited for the Hot Chocolate and I'm sure I'll have loads of questions as it approaches!

Doing any races over the summer? I'm looking to do a fun run and maybe another 10k.
 

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