Running

[JCC]

I don't run at all and probably will never try again due to it always resulting in injuries for me. And, I have a knee that needs to be replaced once the pain becomes too great or I decide I have saved enough money to retire. (Definitely want the knee replacement on the work health insurance.)

But I set a new record for walking in 2024 and walked 1528 miles. My previous best was 1501 miles in 2022. Having almost all of December off helped since I was able to walk longer than my normal 7 miles in the mornings a lot in December. (Still stayed in the 7-9 mile range mostly with a few 7s and maybe one 10 mile walk.

In 2023 I had metatarsalgia (well I still have it but it's more tolerable now) and the start of the aforementioned knee trouble so that was a poor total. (571 miles). Happy I rebounded last year.

[raydude]

First 5k in 2025 today! 8:09 min/km. This is significant for me because I started getting pain in my right knee before Christmas. So I stopped running and did my usual PT exercises. These were exercises that I was given the first time several years ago by a physical therapist. They've helped a lot when the knee pain comes back. Anyway, I've limited myself to short walks and in place of running I was lifting weights. Last week I did some short treadmill runs and always backed off when my knee felt funny. Today is the first time my knee didn't feel funny and I made it all the way through 5k.

Gonna take it easy today and tomorrow to make sure I haven't short circuited my knee recovery, but man it felt good to run again.

[Zaxxon]

Awesome!

[EvilHomer3k]

Stessier, Nox makes a light that fits the vest. It works really well. That garmin really gives you a lot of information. Too bad they still use that awful proprietary port for charging.

Glad to see people making progress. My running miles are the lowest they've been since I started running again in 2020 but overall miles are only down 100 total. Much of that came last winter when I ran 0 miles from January-March and walked 100 compared to previous years were it was about 300. Then in march I got a shot of cortisone in my knee which helped. Ovarall walking/running is down quite a bit but biking (specifically outdoor) is up.

Code: Select all

	January	February	March	April	May	June	July	August	September	October	November	December	
Walk	3.03	27.15	86.59	85.64	59.99	53.02	62.07	75.3	75.5	110.33	66.5	57.64	762.76
Run	0	0	0	6.46	15.83	11.96	13.34	17.72	10.43	9.36	14.45	12.82	112.37
Bike	50.24	192.85	132.54	209.1	192.39	165.61	217.56	242.14	287.65	190.37	88.48	80.54	2049.47
Indoor Bike (hrs)	28.33	12.1	16	8.5	5.1	1.5	4	1	0	0.5	14.1	11.33	1229.52
													4154.12

[Skinypupy]

First 5k in 2025 today! 8:09 min/km. This is significant for me because I started getting pain in my right knee before Christmas. So I stopped running and did my usual PT exercises. These were exercises that I was given the first time several years ago by a physical therapist. They've helped a lot when the knee pain comes back. Anyway, I've limited myself to short walks and in place of running I was lifting weights. Last week I did some short treadmill runs and always backed off when my knee felt funny. Today is the first time my knee didn't feel funny and I made it all the way through 5k.

Gonna take it easy today and tomorrow to make sure I haven't short circuited my knee recovery, but man it felt good to run again.

Congrats, that's awesome!

[Skinypupy]

One thing I’ve really noticed this year that I haven’t in previous years is how much slower I am when it’s cold. Wind chill this morning was around 13 degrees (coldest of this winter) and my run was also the slowest this winter. Was barely a trudge.

As my hips grt worse, it gets more and more difficult to get them moving in the early mornings, no matter how much I stretch or warm up. And the cold just makes that whole process worse.

Stupid old, busted body…

[stessier]

Ran the Swamp Rabbit Half Marathon today. Billed as the fastest half marathon you'll run given the point-to-point, net downhill nature of the race, I was excited to see what I could do. In October last year, I ran an out-and-back half on what was basically the second half of this course and came in at 1:50:12. I've been running all winter, though, and ran a 1:47:20 during my morning run on an out-and-back course that had 643 ft of incline and an equal about of decline. Today's course had 210 ft of ascent and 364 ft of descent with the largest ascent being a gentle incline compared to what I run on.

It started at 7:30am with a temp of 25°F and sunny conditions. I did all my training runs before the sun comes up, so I wasn't sure how that would effect things. I dressed normally for the 25°F temps - two long sleeve running shirts, a quarter zip sweater, balaclava, and gloves - but carried a skull cap and lighter gloves in case I found myself getting too warm and needing to downgrade. I knew much of the Swamp Rabbit trail was lined with trees, but there are no leaves yet so I wasn't sure just how much sun there would be. I lined up with the 1:50 pace group figuring I was at least capable of keeping up with them. The start was staggered so I ended up standing in the crowd for about 15 very cold minutes. The true heroes were those in shorts and sports bras/tank tops - crazy people! I'm much too old for that.

I had tried to taper my training through the week and so was pretty pumped by the time our gun went off. I quickly realized the 1:50 pace group was going too slow for me and pulled ahead. The first 5 miles were very gentle rolling hills but even still I was warm enough to pull off the gloves and balaclava 2.5 miles in and left them off the rest of the race. Results looked like this:



My chip time was actually 1:43:28.9, but I'll allow the 2s differential. You might be able to see that uptick in speed at the very end of the race. As we were coming down the chute to the finish line, there was someone behind me yelling "push it, push it, pass him" - I'm pretty sure it was a coach and student trying to catch me. Or maybe they were chasing down someone else. All I know is that it motivated me too and no one passed me on the last 0.11 miles, so I was happy. I still don't know what is up with that heart rate drop my watch shows during the last 2 miles or so - that happened for longer time back in October too and I'm still not convinced it's real. If it is, I guess I need to up my conditioning enough to be able to sustain for another 15 minutes or so. I finished 563 out of 2502 overall and 19 out of 82 in my age group (50-54).

So if anyone ever wanted to run a fast half and is near or willing to travel to Greenville, SC, I can confirm the course is fast (if potentially frozen - it was only 32°F when I finished despite full sun the entire race)!

[Zaxxon]

Congrats!

[Skinypupy]

Nice work.

[disarm]

Sounds like a great race. Congrats!

[Torfish]

Nice comeback running. Amazing what you can do.

[Zaxxon]

Finished the year at 850 miles, or 2.33/day, at a 9:05 pace. Shorter than the 1,000 I planned to go for when doing the marathon over the summer, but my motivation for long runs really took a dive after the marathon was in the books. Still happy with the total I got.

Whelp, I started 2025 with a goal of 2.5/day, and promptly injured my calf in mid-January to the point that I had to stop running completely for about 10 days. Eased back into it from there thinking I was good only to have the pain recur. Another 2 weeks off. I’m easing back into again and so far so good, but January was 30 miles and Feb won’t be much more, putting me around 100 miles behind my goal with 300 days to go. So now it’s 2.8 miles/day.

Will take a lot for that to happen, but I’m gonna try. Next big race on the docket is the Slacker Half in late June. Going to keep taking things very easy until the 2nd week of March to hopefully put this injury behind me so I can ramp up again.

[YellowKing]

Nice job stessier, and sorry to hear about the injury Zaxxon.

I was talking to a mom of one of my daughter's friends at a lacrosse game Saturday and she still runs half marathons and did Spartans back in the day. She really got me inspired to want to get back into running. She's not competitive - she just does it for the fun and socializing, and that laid back approach is kind of what sparked me into thinking I should start back. I do miss the occasional 5Ks i'd do, and I've always wanted to do a half marathon or a relay.

Next week it's supposed to warm up considerably, and with the upcoming time change it's going to be a good time to get back in the habit.

[Zaxxon]

Perfect time to pick it up. Good luck!

[stessier]

Sorry to hear about the injury Zaxxon - hopefully this next rest takes care of it!

Hope you're able to start again YK - I'm looking forward to the warm up as well. Running in the cold is ok to fun, depending on how cold, but the act of getting started can be brutal. Would be nice to have a few days where we can get out and just feel comfortable and happy.

I'm surprised how wiped out the race made me. I'm used to running 13 miles every day - I didn't think pushing it hard on one run would have that much effect which just shows I'm pretty stupid. I took a 2 hour nap after the race, slept in on Sunday, could only manage 7.5 miles of running at 5 mph at the gym, and needed another nap. Then today, I'm still feeling the effects and only managed 11 miles at 6.5 mph - an improvement, but it was a struggle. Hopefully just another day or two until I'm back to normal.

[Baroquen]

Always fun catching up on the latest with the running crowd. Sorry to hear of your injury Zaxxon. Hopefully you're truly past it now. And congrats on your half stessier! Great job!

So I ran the Wilmington NC Marathon on Saturday. It was Marathon 35 and state #33. And cold. I haven't run a race in conditions that cold in years. Ultimately not a big deal, but I did have to plan differently.

Anyway, travel was smooth, the hotel was nice (Hilton Executive Suites), food was good (even at the hotel), and even Wilmington was nice. Overall a pleasant trip.

Only thing disappointing was my performance. I was doing a near training streak throughout January, with the exception of a couple days where I walked instead. I also intentionally broke the streak when I actually tapered, which I usually sort of ignore. So far, I'm up 180+ miles over last year's total at this point. So overall I was feeling pretty good. And I felt good for the first half. Steady 9 & 1/2 minute miles, and no problems. Gradual slowdown over the next 6 miles or so. Hit 'the wall' around 20, and actually rebounded back to 10 and 11 min miles after. And then was exhausted from miles 23 onward. I was hoping to break 4:30 and ended up with 4:47. Not awful, but just disappointing.

I'm pretty sure the problem wasn't going out too fast. Over the years, I've tried going slower early, but still get tired late which just makes for a slower overall time. I think the biggest difference was not getting outside enough during this cold winter. Too much treadmill contributed to the unexpectedly poor cardio.

Anyway, it's over and done with. Next up is Boise, Idaho in May. Oh - and I entered the lottery for NYC again. I don't usually run a marathon more than once (Marine Corps Marathon being the sole exception). But I would dig NYC especially knowing what to expect now. I'll know lottery results in about 2 weeks.

[Zaxxon]

Nice job. I can’t even fathom going for all 50 states for full marathons.

[stessier]

Congrats Baroquen - very impressive!

[Skinypupy]

Got new shoes yesterday (Saucony Guide 15) and ran my best time in 4 months this morning.

Thus proving the theory from when we were kids: cool new shoes DO make you run faster!