Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

I'd say it's definitely ITB @paulF having a rest week this week, no Wednesday run, I'll jump on the stationary bike tonight for a stretch out.

Seiza position looks good, I also love the Pigeon Yoga pose and there's a pose (can't recall the name), where you sit on the floor half lotus (or just cross legged if you can't get lotus) and fold forward, fabulous stretch for the glutes and hips.

My new runners came today, Altra Superior 3's, they feel sooo nice..... Next few runs will be back on soft trail and wearing these bad boys. Can't wait.

 

What influenced you to get thesr shoes? The reason I ask is Altra's are zero drop shoes. They are conducive to fore or mid foot striking, but not so much for heel strikers, as there is no additional support in the heel. From what I can gather, you are a heel striker (reflective of your low cadence.... And subsequent knee injury).

 

@mrdobalina Long story....

I did some bike-packing last year (mountain biked the Goldfields track from Ballaratt to Bendigo over a few days) and wanted a pair of travel shoes that could roll up as small as possible for carrying on the bike for going to the pub on a night etc (I'm not a thing guy)

I came across LEMS - Lems Shoes All Products Lems Shoes

I ordered them primary for the trip, but whilst waiting for them I got intrigued by the whole minimalist shoe thing so did a heap of reading.

I have VERY flat feet and always had back issues., so I figured after the trip I'd get some "Correct Toes" and give the minimal shoes a red hot go.

Fast forward a few months, my feet got so much stronger, I developed arches for the first time in my life and most of my niggling back issues disappeared. I was completely sold on zero drop shoes since and have a bunch of different LEMS in the collection now.

When I started running in January I started in the LEMS Primals as I'd just read Born to Run and was intrigued by the barefoot concept, as my distance got up and the terrain got more harsh I moved to Merrill Trail Gloves, still zero drop and minimal but a bit more rubber than the the LEMS.

Once I was happy with my mid-foot form and as the distances got longer and rockier and winter set in I wanted something just a little more forgiving on the sole, the best I could find at the time were Under Armour Speed Tire Ascent which have about a 4-6mm drop from memory but a thicker sole that the Trail Gloves.

Now that I've put 600k onto those the soles are giving out, so I opted for the Altra for the zero drop and also a slightly thicker, softer sole than the Under Armour to help out a little on the concrete sections.

I'll never go back to a runner or any shoe with a "heel" now that my feet have adjusted properly and my calves and achilles have adopted to zero drops. When I have to wear my old dress shoes with a pointy front and a heal they feel dreadful now, I can hardly walk in them!

I pretty much walk barefoot whenever possible at home and work now, which I could never really do before without getting sore feet from such flat footedness....

 

On further review, maybe I need to take more joy in my running as a motivator to keep me going.

I have some inov8 flite 195's (3mm drop) which I got for mud/obstacle running, they have been hidden away as I haven't been muddy in awhile. First time I ran in those I realised how heavy my feet were! After reading your post I realised it was shortly after that I worked on lighter foot strikes and my running improved a lot. Pulled them out this morning, not sure if they will be good on hard surfaces, definitely had me working on been lighter. Think my arches improved with the 195's too so hoping for good things

 

How was everyone's holidays? Plenty of k's logged?

We went up to Bright for a week, the digs were at the foot of Mystic Mountain so I did an 8k hill run, straight up & down again each morning. Loved it. Hard going but fantastic views. Did that about 3 times and ran a 14k trail run along the Canyon Trail along the Ovens River, from Bright to Porepunkeh and back. I found that very hard and slow, it was warm though and stiffing down between the river banks. Had my first decent stack on that run, tripped over something and went flying! Lost a bit of bark and jarred my neck.

I think I've been coasting a bit too much lately, ran a half marathon last week and blew up at 19k. Felt OK just not eaten enough I think, came in at 2:01 for 21.1k.

Had a crack at a 5k time yesterday, interestingly it was slower than my first 5k about 10 months ago! The difference being I wasn't sore afterward and the heart rate came straight back down but I am feeling a bit disappointed with my times just now. No one to blame but myself, I'm putting in the k's but just not pushing hard I think. I've been running more with my mates who are slightly slower than me, not a bad thing, we're having great social runs but as I'm running that little tiny bit slower I'm not making the gains on my own speed. That's my excuse anyway.

Topped out at just over 1000k's for 2017. That's my first year of ruining, I basically started from zero with my first "run" being a walk/jog/collapse 4k to work after Christmas holidays last January.

Only 3 weeks away from a marathon attempt now and I am suddenly getting very anxious about it. The Half the other day felt long and hard. I was quietly confident about pulling off a 42k by February but I'm not so sure now.

We took on another dog just after Christmas, an 8 month old rescued Great Dane. She joins our 4 year old Rescued Great Dane, (long story but even though they both came through rescue they both have the same mum!). Shes full of beans and he's still a bit of a basket case so we can't leave them alone together yet, that's really buggered up my training trying to shuffle dog sitting between Emma and I as well as work, getting the Yoga sessions in and then getting out to run. Hopefully a couple of months and we can star leaving them alone together. They get on brilliant, they just get a bit excited when they play too long and he's got about 20kg on her at the moment, so whilst she's still growing and her bones are soft we just have be to around to halt the play when it starts to get too rough.

Anyway, hope everyone had some epic runs over the break and you're all looking forward to logging some k's in 2018.

 

Getting a bit time-poor just now, I'm house bound a fair bit due to taking on another rescue dog. Can't leave her alone with our current dog for a little while yet, so struggling to juggle training.

Contemplating a Treadmill for the back deck, @Ace in the Hole did you deal in Treadmills when you had the business? Is there a particular stand out you can recommend for home use? I don't want to pay massive dollars for a commercial grade/top end unit but likewise I don't want some bag of crap flimsy foldy thing that will be horrible to run on. I know nothing about them other than using them in the passed in gyms but I've never given thought to a home grade one.

Am I wasting my time unless I fork out big dollars for a pro model?

 

Propagate
I bought a Johnson Treadmill from a local gym when they were updating their equipment
It's industrial and is brilliant - got it for a song
Maybe ask if the Gyms nearby are getting rid of one

 

Thanks @RS Gumby I thought of looking for an ex-gym one. There's a couple on Gumtree just now (can't remember the brand). I thought it a good idea at first but I guess it would depend on the use it;s had. Like if from a small gym that only had a couple it could have potentially been running (no pun instended) for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'm keeping an eye on the second hand sites though, there's bound to be folk out there that always "buy the best" whatever it is they buy and with exercise equipment most users end up with them stuck gathering dust in the back bedroom I'd guess.

If I end up buying new there's so many brands out there at so many price points, I don't even know where to start when it comes to narrowing down to the better end of the home market/light commercial.

Cheers.

 

Yeah the bigger the gym usually the better Equipment
Depends how long you'll use it for too
I only use it if it's hailing or absolutely ******* down when I'm about to go on a run.
Probably 3 or 4 times a year but is nice to know it's there if I need it
Tried to get the wife to use it but to little avail - you never know!!!

 

Emma, much to my amazement, took up running earlier this year. She really started to enjoy it but has buggered up her ankle on her first trail run a few months back. It;s only just coming good but it's driving her nuts not being bale to get out & run. A treadmill would be a good way to ease her back into it without trashing her ankle.

I enjoy running in any type of weather, the tready is for times (like the next few months), where I'm completely tied to the house. Beats sitting watching Desperate Loser Kitchen Housewives.

 

I don't know much about traditional treadmills, it was only a very small part of the business.
However, I'm still involved with the business in a minor way and will be importing curved treadmills soon, similar to the Woodway:
Curve | Woodway
There is no power required as they are motorless, and speed is unlimited unlike powered treadmills.
My wife has a good treadmill but I don't use it, it's unnatural and too slow.
I would get a curved treadmill though for training purposes.
Good to use when the weather is bad outside.

 

Cheers @Ace in the Hole saw a curved in in the running mag the other night. Will do a bit more research.

 

I'll most likely be in the market at some point as I am often tied to home and unable to get out for longer runs. All the cheaper ones I have run on I don't like for various reasons, most of the ones in gyms (when I had a membership years ago) I liked. Will see what I find.

Ace that curve one looks interesting, surprised at the expense of them however! Had a sneaky suspicion they wouldn't be cheap and was still shocked. Would want to have a good run on one before even considering.

 

Yeah, was a bit surprised at the price too @Hodor I'll be watching the classifieds closely the next few weeks, see what brands and models pop up locally.

 

When large flat screen plasma T.V's came onto the market about 15 years ago they were selling for about 30k.
Now you can buy much better panels for a few hundred dollars.
I have a feeling these curved treadmills will be popular and the price will drop considerably as more vendors get on board.
The only problem is that if you want one now, there are not many options to get a good deal.

 

How'd the marathon go? You any running outside with the dogs? I've found they can be great training partners and usually sympathetic to my property conversations

 

Haven’t attempted it yet. A week on Sunday is the plan (4th Feb being my 42nd birthday).

Will be weather dependent though, it’s fierce out there today! ☀️

Can’t really run our dogs, (Great Danes), bit hard on them. The boy has a calcified shoulder, CT scan next week and biopsy to see if it is cancer then look at if we can surgically remove the calcifications). The girl is only 8 months, a walk round the block is enough for her just now.

 

Did it!!!!

So, yesterday was my 42nd birthday and the weather looked good for my first marathon attempt.

I was a bit low Saturday, tired and a bad head but figured I'd get all my stuff together for Sunday morning and just head out and give it a red hot go.

I wanted to run from home to my favorite cafe and meet friends there, unfortunately home is on one side of the Peninsula and the cafe is the other so there's no way to do it without crossing the hills in the middle.

I also wanted to do 75% or more trails and dirt roads to save my joints.

I settled on a route that was 43k, 80% dirt & trail, tending upward the whole way and just over 400 meters of climbing, most of which was one massive hill in the middle.

I left at 6:45am. The first 20k were great, relatively cruisey, nice and cool and just a very slight upward trend.

I hit the start of the hill about 22k and that was tough! I walked most of it, a very long slog. No better coming down the other side, too steep and on-road so tough on the knees and quads. By the time I got back down off the hill I was really feeling it.

From there it was a flat and windy loop of Mt Martha Marina. That was soul destroying. Bland as around the back side.

I met a mate at Safety Beach to give me some encouragement for the last 10k. I was VERY spent by the time we got on the Bay Trail toward Dromana.

I'd gone through all my water and made the school boy error of downing gallons at the next water fountain, that buggered me up as I was too sloshy to run. Every time I set off again I wanted to spew after 20-30 steps so was reduced to a walk. This went on for about 5k, it was also getting very hot by now and I was feeling fairly ordinary.

As we tuned off the trail and up into Dromana it cooled off a bit and I was able to run most of the last 3-4k. Emma met me just before the end with my mates little boy and the three of us jogged into the finish at the cafe.

I felt not too bad at the end, just very hot and bothered. Took half an hour or so before I felt like eating. I turned the air blue a couple of times in there as my hammies cramped sitting on the cafe seat.... people must have wondered what the hell was going on.

I'd cooled off nicely after an hour or so, went home and had a 90 minute Thai massage then spent the arvo and evening drinking beer in the garden with mates

Seem pretty good thins morning, a little tight in the calves, a little heavy in the quads but nothing hurts which I am very surprised at given my history of knee and hip issues throughout last year.

I'm a bit tired, very hungry and have a very short fuse today though ;-)

The worst bit is my watch packed up half way through, I ran 43k but Strava shows me only 40.2 so I don't get a marathon badge :-(

Lessons learned for next time - pick a flat course and do it on a cooler day!

43k - 402 vertical meters, 70-80% trail and dirt roads and a finish time of 4 hours 43 minutes. I'd like to think I could get 30-45 minutes off that time on a flat course with some more training.

Definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done.

 

A great read- all the best in running and investing!

 

Great job Propagate
Welcome to the Marathon club!!!