• HEALTH & RECOVERY
    Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules Thread Directory 1 Thread Directory 2
    Mindfulness Links Addiction & Mind
    Sober Living Partner Program (SLiPP)
  • H&R Moderators: VerbalTruist

Running Nerds Unite

3:58 is a very good time, I was only a little bit quicker my first time round, 3:51 and probably under more favourable conditions.

It's quite common to feel compelled to run. Its also part of your routine I imagine so a break from routine can cause a bit of an upset.

It's been very hard for me to not run the last few months and I can totally understand your attitude towards the 'addiction', can be very tough indeed.

Runners seem to have a very different mentality towards excercise than other sports people, in particular, long distance runners.
 
Does anyone follow pro running at all? Anyone see the finish to the Chicago Marathon where the race winner Cheruiyot slipped on a promotional decal that was setup before the finish line, fell backwards (fortunately having his chest cross the finish line), and slammed his head on the pavement? I couldn't imagine how much that must have hurt factoring in the exhaustion of finishing a marathon! You could probably find a video on youtube or elsewhere pretty easily.


Anyways, just felt like bumping up this thread. I went back to heroin for a while and my lungs got all messed up again, coughing up mucus/sputum and having a general hard time breathing, but I've been clean for bit more than 3 weeks now and today is my 21 day on suboxone. Been running again for about 2 weeks yesterday, it's going ok I guess. It's hard to fit everything in now with all the school work I have though.

How's everyone else been running? Do any races? Set any new personal records?

I'm *hopefully* doing my first 5k race in over 2 years on Nov. 4, I'm not expecting much. If I show up and finish I'd be glad.
 
mindbodysOul said:
i want to run the steps + trail....that one may take a while though cause some of those tracks are up to 18km.
Click to expand...
Got any advice on running steps? Where I live, there are sets of steps that descend from the River Parkway running trails down the river bank 100 ft or so to shore of the river.
Do you only run UP them or can you run DOWN as well? Would running down be a lot harder on the knees, hips, etc?
The other day, for the first time, I ran up the steps 4 times and walked down each time while I caught my breath. Calves have never been more sore. THen I ran a couple of miles on the river bank trail. Since going up steps is much more intense than flat trails, I would think that you could squeeze the same work out as you get running flats for 1 hour into about 15 minutes of running up steps. I mostly do cycling, but I"m switching to running to keep up fitness over the winter.
 
How's everyone else been running? Do any races? Set any new personal records?
Click to expand...

I just started running again this week after a 4 week hiatus due to major knee trauma. Clocked 25km this week already and feeling good, will just take it easy though.

Will look to do a 10km race shortly I think, perhaps in 4-6 weeks (maybe in Johannesburg when I visit in December).

I was hit by a car on my bike last week, but clearly not damaged enough to stop me running! Just some road rash, bruising and my bike is damaged (the car ran over my right arm and didn't do any damage!).

Do you only run UP them or can you run DOWN as well? Would running down be a lot harder on the knees, hips, etc?
Click to expand...

Running down or downhill is generally a lot harder on your knees, hips and legs overall, but you can minimise the impact by strengthening your legs with resistance exercise and ensuring you stretch well.


Famously some runners cut the front of their shoes off in the Comrades Ultra Marathon because the pounding on the front of their feet is severe if they do the 'Down' Comrades race.

I would think that you could squeeze the same work out as you get running flats for 1 hour into about 15 minutes of running up steps. I mostly do cycling, but I"m switching to running to keep up fitness over the winter.
Click to expand...

Although the intensity of running steps is higher simply knocking your workout from 60 minutes to 15 minutes isn't going to maintain the same endurance fitness as if you ran for the full hour.

I suggest you maintain the 60 minute workout and perhaps work in part of that doing steps, it may be difficult at first but you can work some days running steps and running trails together and some where you just do recovery or easy runs.

It is better to do some hard training and some easy training but always try to maximise your duration. Your fitness will not increase nor be maintained by doing high impact, high intensity short duration work outs. All this will do is increase your anaerobic threshold and burn some energy.

As for not cycling in the winter! Pah. Get some tights, gloves, shoe covers and a beanie and get the hell back on the road.
 
Wow, marathons are intense. I run all the time since I got out of the Army; but every time I try to increase my distance to over 10 miles while maintaining a decent pace (8 min mile or faster), my body just can't deal with it. I'll be way too sore afterwards and feel pain in my joints, even if I try to break that barrier slowly. This is actually the reason that I didn't get into a specific SF unit while enlisted.

Any suggestions on how to get my body to deal with this, or is it just that my body type isn't designed for longer runs?
 
Thanks for the info ruski - I'm going to do what you said about keeping the longer workouts for running.
I'm in a cold climate and do plan to bike every day this winter for my commute --don't own a car. My commute is short enough where cold weather isn't a problem. But I cant' figure out how stay warm enough to enjoy the long endurance/workout rides when the temp is below 0 degrees Farhenheit (about -20? Celcius). When I get up to speed on a road bike, the wind chill is brutal, even with thermal underwear, balaclava, goggles and heavy gloves. To make things worse, the city puts corrosive salts on the roads during the winter. The salts won't disperse until it rains in the Spring. So within weeks of riding in the winter, the salts will destroy the drive train of my bike, no matter how hard I try to keep it clean and lubed. So I mostly just ride my old beater bike this time of year. Also, it's much easier to stay warm running than cycling when it's that cold.
 
Last edited:
hyperboreasghost said:
Wow, marathons are intense. I run all the time since I got out of the Army; but every time I try to increase my distance to over 10 miles while maintaining a decent pace (8 min mile or faster), my body just can't deal with it. I'll be way too sore afterwards and feel pain in my joints, even if I try to break that barrier slowly. This is actually the reason that I didn't get into a specific SF unit while enlisted.

Any suggestions on how to get my body to deal with this, or is it just that my body type isn't designed for longer runs?
Click to expand...

Train for distance, then for speed. Drop your pace if you feel you can't make it past 16km (10 miles).

10 miles is a decent run.

What pain, specifically, are you getting? Where in your legs? Is it localised to one particular area or is it just general fatigue that you're perhaps not hardened to yet? (btw this isn't around about way of calling you a pussy I'm just asking).

I suggest you try the following:

* Drop your pace and increase your distance gradually, no more than 10% of your weekly total extra per week.

* After a hard run, do a VERY slow and VERY easy recovery run the next day

ie. Hard Monday, Recovery Tuesday, Hard Wednesday, Recovery Thursday, Hard Friday, Recovery Saturday, Sunday Cross Train with cycling or swimming.

* Get correct shoes fitted, I can't stress this enough. Go to a running podiatrist and get him to recommend a pair of shoes for you or orthotics if you need them. (see my earlier posts in this thread about this)

* Stretch. At least 10-15 mins of stretching before a run, search google for some good stretching.

Running distance takes time and patience. If you try and jump the gun you'll find yourself injured, disheartened and discouraged. Slow and steady initially then you can hone your pace later on. There is NOTHING wrong with starting out slow, in fact, it's generally essential!
 
socko said:
Thanks for the info ruski - I'm going to do what you said about keeping the longer workouts for running.
I'm in a cold climate and do plan to bike every day this winter for my commute --don't own a car. My commute is short enough where cold weather isn't a problem. But I cant' figure out how stay warm enough to enjoy the long endurance/workout rides when the temp is below 0 degrees Farhenheit (about -20? Celcius). When I get up to speed on a road bike, the wind chill is brutal, even with thermal underwear, balaclava, goggles and heavy gloves. To make things worse, the city puts corrosive salts on the roads during the winter. The salts won't disperse until it rains in the Spring. So within weeks of riding in the winter, the salts will destroy the drive train of my bike, no matter how hard I try to keep it clean and lubed. So I mostly just ride my old beater bike this time of year. Also, it's much easier to stay warm running than cycling when it's that cold.
Click to expand...

-20 is VERY cold. I've never experienced cold temperatures that bad, however, there are brands of cycling gear that cater for that sort of stuff.

It's all about layering, your base layer your external layer then your weather layer. Check out http://www.assos.com/en/ or http://www.pearlizumi.com they should have some good weathered cycling clothes that will suit. The most I ever need is a pair of gloves and long jersey even when its freezing here.

Corrosive salts blow though :(
 
Thanks for the links. I've already got most of that stuff, but I'll look around and see if they've got anything I haven't thought of.
 
Ruski: I get muscular aches that feel bad and take a few days to go away; they don't feel healthy like muscular aches from working out a particular muscle group in the gym. My knees will sometimes swell a bit. Also, at the end of a long run sometimes I will feel numbness in my feet as if I lost circulation

Its almost as if at 10 miles my body just starts to fall apart. Thanks for any suggestions you may have, as this is something that always bothered me; while my body can handle many different types of stress this long-distance business has always given me trouble.
 
hyperboreasghost said:
Ruski: I get muscular aches that feel bad and take a few days to go away; they don't feel healthy like muscular aches from working out a particular muscle group in the gym. My knees will sometimes swell a bit. Also, at the end of a long run sometimes I will feel numbness in my feet as if I lost circulation

Its almost as if at 10 miles my body just starts to fall apart. Thanks for any suggestions you may have, as this is something that always bothered me; while my body can handle many different types of stress this long-distance business has always given me trouble.
Click to expand...

It might also be advisable to speak to a specialist running physiotherapist or sports GP and have a chat to them about those symptoms.

It may just be incorrect technique, muscle imbalances or something I'm not perhaps savvy with that could be causing your problems.
 
Well ever since I posted, I've slightly strained a hamstring muscle and I've been battling this extreme fatigue for over a week now. I think after all that has gone on the past year and the stress of going through school now and I'm also moving into a new house after living here for 13 years, my system is weak...getting tired easily/needing a lot of rest at night (8-10 hours!). I did get blood drawn for a thyroid test, so hopefully those results will come out alright.

I'm still going to try out that race on Saturday, but now I'm really not expecting much.

On a good note, I got new running shoes. My old ones were really beat up and I could really feel a difference running in the other shoes.
 
Carl, what shoes are you running in now?

Good luck with the race, hope you go well :)

I'm clocking up the K's on this end as well. At the moment sitting at around the 30km a week mark, hopefully have it up to some 50km weeks within the next few.
 
I guess it would be as depending on the treadmill the machine would absorb some of the impact. The treadmill also does some running for you.

Basically, if you keep your muscle strength up, don't run through injury, get your shoes fitted correctly, go for maintenance massage to keep your muscles supple and don't over do it you shouldn't run any risk of badly damaging your knees in the long term. There are plenty of 80 year olds in marathons these days that have been running all their life, its just a matter of listening to your body.

I know this kind of tangents from your original question but really, if you're worried about damaging your knees then don't run. But with any exercise comes with a certain level of repetetive stress injury, you just need to make sure you manage your body so it doesn't effect you negatively.

Treadmill running is easy running. It's about 70% of the same effort you have to put in for the same distance and speed as you would on the road.
 
ruski said:
Carl, what shoes are you running in now?

Good luck with the race, hope you go well :)

I'm clocking up the K's on this end as well. At the moment sitting at around the 30km a week mark, hopefully have it up to some 50km weeks within the next few.
Click to expand...


The shoes I used to have are Aasics and the new ones are Aasics. They say Duomax on the side and GT-2110 elsewhere also. The new shoes are giving me blisters on my arch, what can I do for this? Just wear band-aids? Will continuing to run in them help break them in so they don't cause my feet to blister anymore?

As for the race, I figured I was somewhere between 21:30-22:00 minute shape and I ran 21:45. The course wasn't marked at all and I didn't know it at all, so that would have helped, but I was still happy that I even showed up and ran. The course had a good number of hills, and there weren't too many faster people so I ended up getting 5th somehow, which was still exciting even though I ran more than 2 minutes faster in high school. :)
 
Asics (which is an acronym for Anima Sana In Capore Sano, Healthy Mind Healthy Body) have a few diff shoe models, they should have a model name, perhaps at the store or on your receipt. Check their website.

It was just a matter of interest anyway, I'm not sure of your foot type and even if I was I'm no shoe specialist who can match it to the correct model hehe.

As for the poor fit of the shoes, did you go to a special running store? I strongly recommend getting a shoe fit done by someone who is a podiatrist or a store that is at least run by sports professionals who have worked with proper shoe fitment and gait management.

Sometimes, however, new shoes can take a bit of wearing in before they stop giving you blisters.

Good idea is to run low mileage in your new shoes for a while (couple of K's or miles every few days) for a week or two, just to wear them in, then you can start picking up the K's. Alternate between your new and old pair until the former is worn in.

Never run a race in new shoes, or as you've found out, nasty things like blisters can occur :(

Shoes should last around 600KM (360 miles) then replace them. When they are getting to the 600KM mark, buy a new pair and alternate as above.

Don't be fooled by your current pair. The upper can look new and/or totally but the heel and midsole can be quite compressed. This is where most of your support comes from, do not fuck with me on this, shoe maintenance is very important!

There is a pinch test you can do on the mid sole as well as inspect the hell and wear areas for excessive compression or collapse. I only have an article in a hard copy book about how to do this, but give google a go and paste here if you're successful.

Nice one on the race! Unless I missed it, what was the distance? Good to see some of us are using our fitness to kick some arse :)
 
ruski said:
Nice one on the race! Unless I missed it, what was the distance? Good to see some of us are using our fitness to kick some arse :)
Click to expand...


Haha, whoops. That would be important huh? It was just a 5k, so I was right around 7:00 pace, if you go by the mile. I'm doing a 5 mile race right in my town on the 19th. Except for one long hill in the second mile, it's basically flat and I know the course well, so I'm hoping to be at 7:00 minute pace for 5 miles this time.


As far as the shoes, never knew that's what Asics stood for. I didn't get them specially fitted or anything, they're basically the same kind as my previous shoe, my mom got them for me as a present. :) Like you had suggested, I've basically been switching back and forth between the new and old shoes, and I haven't been doing too many longer runs lately, so I'm slowly getting myself adjusted to them. I did run the race in my old ones fortunately; it would have been much more painful if I had ran in the new ones.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top