ILX running running thread

& congrats!

Thank you and all the best to you, esp. that extra km :)
My experience of races is also very limited, but essentially the other people are both a distraction and a motivation. I would say focus not too much on time but on your feelings and looking ahead.

Nice job!

Looking at my old races, the last time I ran a half and my PR was all the way back in 2017, 1:35 and change. A very depressing thing about running and aging is before you know it, you have years fly by since your last PR.

I guess I need to do more races and start counting "over 40" PR's.

I’m back to running 3-4 miles at a time recently, may try another 5k in a few months. Any tips for dealing with low/flat arches? The main problem I seem to have running is tightness in the outer calf and thigh (hip flexors) and it feels like it might be related to flat feet but maybe not.

Congrats Nabozo!

Oh yes, I had a question too. My problem is my nipples get inflamed in longer races. I threw away an old running shirt thinking the cotton (or whatever) had become rough, and I applied cream the morning of the race, but I can still feel them. Do people apply tape or what ? Or I have more shirts to throw away.

Or forget the cream and put vaseline maybe

I used waterproof bandages. Basically can’t run any distance without them.

My half marathon went well, apart from having to use the loo at the three mile mark. It was warm and sunny and I'd drunk a whole bottle of lucozade sport pre race, went for a piss twice but started to need to go again while waiting 20 minutes in the crowd for the race to start, and spent the first three miles looking for a loo.

Aside from that interruption I was hitting my target pace for the first few miles but started to drop and by half way I was two minutes down. I tried to up it a bit but didn't want to overdo it, I just didn't know how much I would have left in the tank. But with two miles to go I pushed a bit more and really tried to go for it in the last mile - my splits in the last 4k were 4:53, 4:52, 4:45 and 4:42. Overall average pace 4:59 / total time a fraction over 1h 45 (ignoring toilet break). So just like you said Nabozo, perhaps I could have pushed more at the beginning and had a faster but much more punishing race! I prefer my more comfortable(*) style.

(*) not literally comfortable

Anyone wear recovery slides or something else around the house for support? I am always barefoot at home but have advised to be in some sort of support footwear all the time. Looking at Hokas and Vionics. Both terribly ugly but then so is my surgical scar and puffy cankle

I wear my oofos slides all the time.

Always barefoot at home and wear Birkenstocks 90% of the time outside of the house. I have EHL tendon and nerve problems in both feet and the birks seem to do the trick. Dress shoes or any kind of stiff shoes are 100% painful.

What’s the benefit of those recovery sandals over bare feet?

They relieve 40% of your wallet weight

Lots of support/stability without having to move your orthotics around ten times a day, plus the easy on/off factor. Or so I’m told. It is going to be a major change for me not to be barefoot in the house and patio

I can’t stand being barefoot and they are comfortable.

My calves had been hurting or tense every time I run, so I decided it was time to abandon my stubbornness about low cushioning shoes and get a pair of Brooks Glycerin. No calf pain at all in my first 5k run with them. The fact is that I’m 44 and 200lbs and I need some cushion. I still prefer the feeling of thinner shoes in some ways and I hope to go back to them if I drop some weight.

I’m 44 too! It sucks but it is what we are.

Jeff what is the longest you’ve been sidelined from running due to injury

I got my first sub-22min parkrun since 2017 this weekend. Woo!

Jeff what is the longest you’ve been sidelined from running due to injury

My major injuries have been stress fractures, first in 2016 where I missed 66 days of running and then again in 2017/2018 when i missed 156 days. Not an acute injury, but I missed 101 days in 2021/2022 due to being anemic.

Only 66 for a stress fracture? Damn!

Today is the 4 month mark since the break/surgery. Walking unassisted, but not for much distance and only on flat, even surfaces. One-legging steps. Jumping horses with one stirrups, which lol falls! Including one in the middle of a pond :(

I didn’t think I would miss running, but I do—or at least I miss having it as an option

I caught the 66 day one early enough. Still missed the marathon I was training for that year. Came back strong the next year and was crushing my runs, and ended up getting another one in a different place in the same leg. Missed another marathon. That was the two years I learned that I cannot sustain 70+ mile weeks.

Is there anyone on this earth who can

Yes definitely but genetics must be a huge part of it right? I’m having dinner rn with a friend who ran the Gobi Desert 155-miler. Nuts.