Funkadelic Happening

Those are some very nice splits, Ounce. Are you satisfied with how it went?

Shooting for a 4:45 or so sounds quite reasonable for next year's event. Just keep at it and stay healthy.

I attained the objective of an official finish, so yes.  I was disappointed that I bled so much time at the end, but it was a conscious decision on my part to slow down at mile 23 in order to make it to the end due to my foot hurting so much.  Of course, I never was hurting so much that I had to pull up lame (thank the Lord) and I imagine there would have been more pain for such.

For the race, I decided to use 12:45 as the target pace instead of 12:50 and 12:50 became a medium grade alarm to quicken a bit.

So for the first 20 miles (and dropping mile 8 to 12:40), here is how I split the splits
12:56-13:01  1
12:51-12:55  2
12:46-12:50  4
12:41-12:45  5
12:36-12:40  5
12:31-12:35  1
12:26-12:30  2
< 12:25        0

14 miles of the first 20 were between 12:36 and 12:50.  7 were between 12:40 and 12:50.  The minimal ups and down in the first 20 miles were nothing more than 18 feet in height for each of the 4 changes in grade.

I don't see why people think CIM is so conducive to a fast time with as many ups and downs as that course has, even if it's a net downhill because you have to go up, too.  But Chicago is flatter than Houston.

One other note about the race.  Y'all may remember that I do LC/HF way of eating, which means that I don't need to eat during a race.  So, I didn't have anything other than water and 4 S!Caps during the race, except at mile 23 when this guy had Oreos.  I ate two because Oreos are a very favorite cookie of mine.  Very tasty.  And no Gatorade.

Very low carb eating can be done and race, too, even for 5 hours and 49 minutes.  I'll let you know how it goes running sub-5, next year.

Separately, stiffness is pretty much gone, although my feet have swollen up as if I was late in pregnancy.  This too shall pass.  Thanks for stopping by.

Double Stuff are one of my favorites!!

It sure tasted good, too.

Separately, some of the reactions to my 'Naked' bib were predictable..."Go Naked" etc.  But the best one was this guy who said, "Hey look at him!  He's Naked!!!"

Overall, the spectators were more inhibited than in prior years.  Somebody yelled "Go Naked!" from 20 feet away, so I knew those close could very clearly read it, but chose to stay quiet.  I was able to pry it out of some people, though.

Most of the swelling in my feet has disappeared, although it's still around my ankles and lower leg.  I'll work on running, tomorrow, because it was raining this morning.

My right hamstring hasn't bugged me at all and I continue to apply the TENS to it.

ounce wrote:I don't see why people think CIM is so conducive to a fast time with as many ups and downs as that course has, even if it's a net downhill because you have to go up, too.  But Chicago is flatter than Houston.

I think one of the reasons CIM (my favorite marathon) gets a reputation for fast times is at least partly because of all those ups and downs early in the course. It forces wise runners to not go out too fast, too soon, and then rewards them with a relatively flat last third of the course. Those who went out a little easier find they still have in in them to push for a negative split.

Just checking in to see how the recovery is going?

And I've never run CIM, but I prefer a course with some ups/downs and looking at the CIM profile, I can see why it is labelled as "fast".  I would prefer to run it over Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, etc. any day as I like to use other muscles once in a while.

Good to hear you were satisfied with your race and are recovering OK.  Congrats.

Sounds like you had fun running Naked.  Not sure I'll try it.

On a separate note...I have a new respect for your running in the heat and humidity.  I struggled to find time to run on our trip but managed to squeeze in time for a 3 mile jog along the ocean in Hilo, HI.  It was miserable and I'm glad I only had time for 3 miles!!

Mark B wrote:

ounce wrote:I don't see why people think CIM is so conducive to a fast time with as many ups and downs as that course has, even if it's a net downhill because you have to go up, too.  But Chicago is flatter than Houston.

I think one of the reasons CIM (my favorite marathon) gets a reputation for fast times is at least partly because of all those ups and downs early in the course. It forces wise runners to not go out too fast, too soon, and then rewards them with a relatively flat last third of the course. Those who went out a little easier find they still have in in them to push for a negative split.

Well, I base my knowledge from Reina, who ran both Houston and CIM (many times). 

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Just checking in to see how the recovery is going?

And I've never run CIM, but I prefer a course with some ups/downs and looking at the CIM profile, I can see why it is labelled as "fast".  I would prefer to run it over Chicago, Cleveland, New Orleans, etc. any day as I like to use other muscles once in a while.

And I can see why you'd prefer to run the hills at CIM, Miche1e.  Recovery of all non-running engaged muscles is just fine.  The report on the running muscles is next.

nkrichards wrote:Good to hear you were satisfied with your race and are recovering OK.  Congrats.

Sounds like you had fun running Naked.  Not sure I'll try it.

On a separate note...I have a new respect for your running in the heat and humidity.  I struggled to find time to run on our trip but managed to squeeze in time for a 3 mile jog along the ocean in Hilo, HI.  It was miserable and I'm glad I only had time for 3 miles!!

Thanks, Nancy.  I recommend running 'Naked' for any woman!  In fact, anyone that comes to run Houston can take the name 'Naked" and I'll be 'Naked, too'!

So this morning, I ran for the first time since Sunday.  Just doing pedestrian stuff has caused no pain since Monday.  I was figuring to do 9 miles, but I could reduce it to 8 or 7 or even 5 if necessary.  I also decided to increase the cadence by 1 to 168 steps per minute. Might as well start the increase, now.  It was 40 degrees with a north breeze from 5-10. & we had a inch of rain yesterday.

8.79 miles, 1:52:43, 12:50 pace, 146 avg bpm, 155 max bpm during mile 4, 167 avg cadence, 0.75 m avg stride length, 1st half 12:58, 2nd half pace 12:42
1.  12:46, 138 bpm, 167 spm, 76 sl
2.  13:06, 144 bpm, 168 spm, 73 sl
3.  13:09, 147 bpm, 167 spm, 73 sl
4.  12:58, 148 bpm, 168 spm, 74 sl
5.  12:41, 146 bpm, 166 spm, 75 sl
6.  12:37, 146 bpm, 168 spm, 76 sl
7.  12:49, 148 bpm, 167 spm, 76 sl
8.  12:34, 148 bpm, 166 spm, 77 sl
9., 12:49 pace, 148 bpm, 168 spm, 75 sl

I was starting to get a little achy at 4.5 miles, but I kept going.  Muscles settled down and I started to think about lengthening my stride.  After all, I could start tinkering again.  During the last mile, I messed with it and the hamstring started complaining.  Therefore, it's not healed.

But it got me to wondering...maybe my hamstring is too tight or too short.  Hmmm.  Maybe I need to work on lengthening it. Doing stretching, weights, but stretching...hmmm.  Work the muscle by lengthening it, then maybe it won't whine as much?  Opinions?

Nice run. Consistent pace and little HR creep. Doing well.

My opinion is that the hamstring might not actually be the problem. It may be whining because you're working it too much due to what somebody around here called Lazy Ass Syndrome. How's your butt? If it's flat and underpowered, it forces your body to work the hamstrings more to keep your body upright and moving forward.

You may want to look up some exercises specifically for the gluteus maximus (the glute med and glute min, also known as the "side butt" by some, are often neglected in runners). Mine was so out of it at one point that my PT had to find specific exercises to get it to fire up.

Mark B wrote:Nice run. Consistent pace and little HR creep. Doing well.

My opinion is that the hamstring might not actually be the problem. It may be whining because you're working it too much due to what somebody around here called Lazy Ass Syndrome. How's your butt? If it's flat and underpowered, it forces your body to work the hamstrings more to keep your body upright and moving forward.

You may want to look up some exercises specifically for the gluteus maximus (the glute med and glute min, also known as the "side butt" by some, are often neglected in runners). Mine was so out of it at one point that my PT had to find specific exercises to get it to fire up.

Yes, Reina said about the same thing, but not as eloquently.

I thank you very much, Mark.  I'll be kicking my ass soon, in addition to consistent stretching.

Yesterday, I went to lift weights and spent almost an hour there. 

This morning when I ran, I sure didn't have any pain, except for some soreness in the fanny and hamstring, which I can live with and probably is good.  I ran 8.77 miles, this morning, the same distance as last Friday.  The cadence was 168 again and the temperature was 47 degrees.

8.77 miles, 1:52.21, 12:49 pace, 139 avg bpm, 149 max bpm during mile 3, 167 avg spm, 0.75 m avg stride length, 1st half pace 12:45, 2nd half pace 12:53.
1.  12:59, 132 bpm, 168 spm, 74 sl
2.  12:45, 136 bpm, 168 spm, 75 sl
3.  12:31, 139 bpm, 165 spm, 78 sl
4.  12:41, 141 bpm, 166 spm, 76 sl
5.  12:50, 138 bpm, 166 spm, 76 sl
6.  12:42, 139 bpm, 168 spm, 76 sl
7.  12:47, 140 bpm, 167 spm, 75 sl
8.  13:10, 141 bpm, 167 spm, 73 sl
9.  12:53 pace, 143 bpm, 166 spm, 75 sl

The run went well, but like mentioned earlier, the glutes and the right hamstring moaned a bit during the last 2 miles.  I surmise that the stride length is down a bit from other earlier runs because my stride is getting use to the 168 cadence.  Once that happens, the stride should increase back to almost 80 across all splits.

The HR is sure settling down from Friday's average of 146 bpm.  Thanks.

Good to see that you are bouncing back from the race. You may want to take it a little easy until your hammy and butt recover, too. Don't want to end up with an injury that prevents you from running at all.

Nick Morris wrote:Good to see that you are bouncing back from the race.  You may want to take it a little easy until your hammy and butt recover, too.  Don't want to end up with an injury that prevents you from running at all.

I to am impressed by the mileage and paces you're running so soon after your marathon!  Listen to your body and don't be afraid to back off if needed...and if not...woohoo...you're on your way to another great training cycle.

nkrichards wrote:

Nick Morris wrote:Good to see that you are bouncing back from the race.  You may want to take it a little easy until your hammy and butt recover, too.  Don't want to end up with an injury that prevents you from running at all.

I to am impressed by the mileage and paces you're running so soon after your marathon!  Listen to your body and don't be afraid to back off if needed...and if not...woohoo...you're on your way to another great training cycle.

Thanks, you two!  I ran 9 miles once last week and 9 miles once, this week.  That had better be coddling to my legs.  This week, I brought my yoga mat inside from the car and started doing some poses to loosen up the whole lower body.  I've never mentioned it, but I'm not able to sit my fanny on my heels.  There's about a 3-4 finger gap in between.  Now, after 2 days of sitting in that position for a few minutes, I have a 1 finger gap.  So, I'm working on the entire chain, forward and aft, plus lifting weights.  Next week, the core gets its turn to join the party.

And since I'm not training for a marathon, I'm not doing LC/HF at the present.  I'm just watching what I eat, eating whole foods and only eating until full so I can lose some weight.  Not many sweets at all, just when I'm making something for somebody as quality control.

I'm not abandoning LC/HF because I know I can do a 12 mile run regardless of eating method.  Maybe come May, I'll get back to LC/HF, so I'm ready for training for 2016 Houston.  For me, LC/HF (or using ketones as my body's energy source instead of glycogen) works for me and it works very well.  Without sounding pompous, losing weight and having a healed hamstring should make a time improvement of 60-90 minutes over my 5:49:xx time back on the 18th very doable.  Very doable.

Thanks for stopping by.

So, this week has been lazily working along.  I did yoga on Wednesday and Thursday morning, then ran Thursday and Friday.  I think I did too much twisting at yoga because Thursday's intended run of 6.66 miles ended up being 5 because my sciatica became too much of a bother to run more than 5.  The pain doesn't go past my hip. 

It was 43 degrees and the cadence was 168

5.00 miles, 1:04:41, 12:56 pace, 150 avg bpm, 162 max bpm during mile 5, 167 avg cadence, 0.75 m avg stride length
1.  12:24, 141 bpm, 166 spm, 78 sl
2.  13:02, 149 bpm, 168 spm, 74 sl
3.  13:15, 150 bpm, 167 spm, 73 sl
4.  13:08, 154 bpm, 168 spm, 73 sl
5.  12:51, 155 bpm, 167 spm, 75 sl

150 bpm is more than last week's average, but I think it was the stretching and posing at yoga that didn't get my muscles enough rest and it also evidently pissed off the part of the spine where the sciatica rolls from.

So this morning, I was hoping to be rested enough to run the 6.66 out 'n back route without any hiccups.  It was 41 degrees.  As a side note, our weather will be right nice beginning tomorrow until Wednesday with temps in the 70's! 

6.72 miles, 1:30:02, 13:25 pace, 140 avg bpm, 150 max bpm during miles 4 & 5, 166 avg spm, 0.72 m avg stride length.
1.  13:09, 133 bpm, 167 spm, 73 sl
2.  13:14, 139 bpm, 168 spm, 73 sl
3.  13:16, 141 bpm, 168 spm, 72 sl
4.  13:21, 142 bpm, 167 spm, 72 sl
5.  13:53, 140 bpm, 164 spm, 71 sl
6.  13:38, 141 bpm, 165 spm, 72 sl
7.  13:28 pace, 142 bpm, 163 spm, 73 sl

The sciatica pain was much reduced during the run.  But if you note the decrease in cadence during the second half of the run would seem to indicate that my legs were tired much like they were last summer when I was running four days a week learning that running at a new cadence was really tiring, as evidenced by the reduced cadence.

It's something that I will monitor.

I've been working on not running much, partially based on Nick's comment a week or two for letting my legs, specifically my right hamstring heal.  I really didn't think running 2-8 or 9 mile runs would hold me back, but lowering or spreading the mileage over more days would be easier on the legs.

But I've been working on the weights, including leg presses (which happens to work the glutes).  I haven't done leg presses since before SNL started.  Mark suggested that I work on my glutes.

And I've backed off of LC/HF, so I can work on losing weight, which was the 2nd reason why I started LC/HF in May, 2013.  When I figure out when I'll start training for the next Houston, I'll re-start LC/HF about 2 months prior.  My body has enough energy in it to do the weekly mileage and weights that my food intake doesn't matter to a large degree.

Okay, so much for the blah, blah, blah.

February 10, Tuesday.  47 degrees

6.69 miles, 1:24:35, 12:38 pace, 141 avg bpm, 153 max bpm during mile 5, 167 avg cadence, 0.76 m avg stride length
1.  13:03, 132 bpm, 167 spm, 74 sl
2.  12:48, 136 bpm, 167 spm, 75 sl
3.  12:28, 142 bpm, 168 spm, 77 sl
4.  12:27, 144 bpm, 167 spm, 77 sl
5.  12:41, 143 bpm, 167 spm, 76 sl
6.  12:41, 145 bpm, 168 spm, 76 sl
7.  12:15 pace, 147 bpm, 168 spm, 78 sl

Good to hear you took Nick's advice and scaled back a bit to give the legs a rest.  Looks like you've managed to keep busy with training even with the reduced miles.  Good plan...I think variety is essential to progressing.

Looks like progress! Glad you're doing some strength work. It should help.

nkrichards wrote:Good to hear you took Nick's advice and scaled back a bit to give the legs a rest.  Looks like you've managed to keep busy with training even with the reduced miles.  Good plan...I think variety is essential to progressing.

Thanks, Nancy, although I could increase on the variety.

Mark B wrote:Looks like progress! Glad you're doing some strength work. It should help.

Yes, strength work is good, although I'm not doing HIIT at CrossFit.  I'm using a leg press machine to work the glutes, not the only machine for that, but it's rather fun punching 220 pounds 20 times.  My fanny can sure feel it.

I'll post more, if y'all keep commenting.  Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday, February 14.  47 degrees, that morning. 168 cadence.

8 miles, 1:41:03, 12:38 pace, 146 avg bpm, 158 max bpm during mile 7, 167 avg cadence, 0.76 m stride length
1.  13:04, 130 bpm, 167 spm, 74 sl
2.  13:03, 140 bpm, 167 spm, 74 sl
3.  13:14, 144 bpm, 167 spm, 73 sl
4.  12:33, 151 bpm, 168 spm, 76 sl
5.  12:22, 150 bpm, 167 spm, 78 sl
6.  12:22, 150 bpm, 167 spm, 78 sl
7.  12:12, 152 bpm, 167 spm, 79 sl
8.  12:12, 153 bpm, 167 spm, 79 sl

This was a big run for my hamstring.  I decided to test out my hamstring on a longer stride.  It had been 3 weeks since Houston and I had been lightly working on leg curl machines, air squats, leg press machines to try to build up the surrounding muscles and glutes.

So, I leaned a bit forward at the ankles for the 7th mile and began rotating my hips, so the end of the stride was further behind me than before.  No pain.  I kept my attention on the extending and the right hamstring.  Everything was working flawlessly.  After the 7th mile, I worked on trying to cool down for the last mile.  I FELT like I was slowing down and shortening the stride, but the splits for mile 7 and 8 were exactly the same.  I don't know why, but I was running differently.  Oh, well.  The bottom line is that my hamstring didn't hurt during the run, nor after.

Progress is being made.  PROGRESS!!  This is really cool.  It really is.