My JND Running Log

[jamesndawson]

Novermber, 2015. 8 runs, all 4.1 miles. Minute-Mile Range: 12.4 to 13.7.
I'm not sure at all why I've slowed down so much. As usual, there doesn't seem to be a clear correlation between how I've felt I've run and the actual measured time.
Lots of snow is in the forecast. I've bought the sheet-metal screws to put on my running shoes, but it makes me a little nervous to think about it. Will it ruin them. They were about $35, which isn't cheap to me. Also, now will they feel on the non-slippery surfaces. I got a small piece of gravel in my shoe once, and found it pretty distracting. Will these studs? But I'd better experiment anyway. It's better than slipping and falling on ice.

[jamesndawson]

December, 2015. 7 runs. 2 x 3.3 miles. 4 x 4.1. 1 x 4.0. Min-Mile Range: 11.5 to 15.1.
So, it's brutally cold this winter. December was in about the 25 to 30 F range, but recently mornings have been down to 5. The sheet metal screw studs I've put on my shoes have worked quite well in the stretches of packed ice and snow I've been encountering. Just one or two little front foot slips, barely anything to mention.
I'm going to try to keep up, but running in this frigid weather is very uninviting. A balaclava was recommended on one site. I have one, but I don't like it. I know it may be almost essential to keep my breath and face warm, but it feels so stuffy and scratchy.
I don't know why my times have been so much slower. Subjectively I feel I'm running along at a pretty good clip for good distances. Maybe the snow hills are slowing me down more than I realize.

[jamesndawson]

January, 2016. 10 runs. 9 measured, 4.1 miles each. 13.7 to 15.1 minute-mile. 1 unmeasured, 2-3 miles.
February, 2016. 10 runs. 2 measure, 4.1 miles each. 14.1 minute-mile. 8 mostly unmeasured and/or untimed, range from 2 to 6 miles each,.

Last January I joined a running group, which is why so many of my runs have been unmeasured. The group organizer has been quesstimating the distances, but he's not as concerned as I generally am about accuracy, and doesn't feel a need to log in his speeds. (I may be a bit more obsessive about this than I should be.)
But IF his distance guesstimates are accurate, I MIGHT be running faster than the times I've been recording for my 4.1 solo runs. For instance, on one "5 to 6" mile run he scheduled, I timed myself in the 9.6 to 11.6 minute-mile range. On another recent one he gave as "about 5 miles", I'm at a 10.8. So as I suspected in the past, maybe what I've measured with a cheap pedometer as 4.1 may be a fair amount longer. But it all remains uncertain.
On the run I went on a few days ago with a couple members, I roughly calculated at 10.8, it felt pretty slow, quite a bit slower than my solo runs. (I'm not sure if I'm running slower to accommodate my running partners, or they're running slower out of consideration for me.)
There's another on-line distance calculator our organizer uses similar to daft logic's but I haven't tried it. I tried daft logic many times, but I just don't seem to have the hand-eye coordination to get it to work. The cursor races all over the place uncontrollably. It's too mercurial. But I could not be understanding something.

[jamesndawson]

Wow. I didn't realize it's been four months since I last posted (February through May). I'm much too tired at the moment to transfer all my entire handwritten log to this electronic one, but I'll try to note some highlights.
One distance I'd been running and listing as 4-5 to miles I ran with a Spokane Runners member and asked her to measure it with her smart phone (or whatever they're called) and she said it was about 4.25. Using that, the fastest time I got on that has been 44 minutes, which is a 10.4 minute-mile. Not very impressive, I know. If it's been better, not by much in the last three years.
Today I ran a six-mile in 66 minutes, that's an 11 minute mile. Again, disappointing.
The thing about it, on many of the runs with disappointing times, I FEEL like I'm running faster and stronger than I ever have been. I'm picking up my feet and really moving along. But why am I not getting lower times?
Is it because I'm short? I've read on-line discussions where that's scoffed at as an excuse, but it makes sense to me biomechanically. (I'm too self-conscious and insecure to actually give my height, though everybody in real life can see it, I can't hide it. Maybe I'll get the courage some day...) Is it my age? Is it just unnatural for someone my age to expect to run under an 8 minute mile?
I suppose I should be realistic and content with my present speed and be glad I can run at all.
My left achilles tendon's been a bit stiff lately.

[silver]

Running with a club is good. Talk to people and make use of their experience.
height is less a factor than you expect, because overall bodyweight is a huge factor for overall speed.
A running partner of mine is 5 years older, 5" shorter (he's 5'5or6) and a good chunk quicker than I am. He's at least 25lbs lighter. And the number of 5'2 ladies that leave me standing on race day...

10 miles a week is OK, but you could see what gently increasing the distance does (recommended 10% weekly increase)
Also stretching. lots of stretching. and strength work; squats and lunges. and core work; planks and the like.

[jamesndawson]

Thanks silver. I'm just seeing this. I don't remember getting a notice for it in my Inbox.
I'm 57 and do a very physical job mowing lawns and may walk miles a day sometimes. A lot of my running is for mental health. Though some time improvement would be nice, I'm not looking to be elite. I think I'm doing pretty well just by running at all.
In America the summers are hot, so that slows me down a little. Yes, I run in the morning when I can, but they can be hot too. Low, upper 90's sometimes.
I do try to stretch and am occasionally trying new ones. I admit they're not my forte. For some reason I find it hard to concentrate on stretching. It's "boring". Probably an ADHD thing. The people who're more dedicated and younger than I am are always talking about their injuries, so I wonder if it's par for the course for runners.

[jamesndawson]

Running Log for June & July.

June, 8 runs.
Distances 4.1, 4.25, 5.5. Best time: 10.8 min/mile.
July, 7 runs.
Distances 6, 5.5, 4.25, 4.1. Best time: 11 min/mile

The running club seems to be more or less dormant at this point, and is probably heading to close down because the Meetup fees are coming up. I don't intend to take over. If everybody wants to chip in a dollar for the year, that'd be great, but I don't think there's much interest in making it work. The organizer who started it has dropped out of sight and can't be reached. That's okay. Life may be happening for him and he may have a full plate right now. Not mad or disappointed, just reporting.
I've co-organized and run with a couple people. Part of the idea for me is finding one or a few people I click with, INTJ's, that I can have a conversation with. I think this speeds me up and keeps me going, and just makes the run a little more interesting. But I click with very few people, and they with me. So I expect I'll be running solo for most of the time.
I've got a slightly stiff left achille's heal off and on. I don't feel it much while running, mostly afterward. Yes, I know, I should do some stretching research and try to fix it. Don't worry, I'll bet around to it.

[jamesndawson]

August through November, 2016
30 runs
4.1+ to 6.0 miles. Best recorded time: 11 min/mile

The "4.1+" route which I do most of my runs on is probably much further than that. I have a vehicle-odometer-measured route of 5.5 I've done in 65 minutes, while this arbitrarily guesstimated "4.1+" I've done from 66 to 74. Sometimes the slower time is due to significant knee pain, other times it's a mystery, as I feel I'm running just as fast and strong on my slower times as I am on my faster. But since I'm just checking a digital clock that changes every minute before I go out the door, there is as much as a 2 minute margin of error (I think).

In a recent post on the Injuries sub-forum I speculated I may have turf toe. At the time I wasn't quite sure, but now I obviously do have it. About a week ago I had my studded tires put on and had to wait about 3 or 4 hours (which is usual in these parts, there's a rush every winter to beat the snow), and did a lot of walking around town to fill the time. I wasn't feeling much toe pain at all, if any, while I was tramping around, but the next day I couldn't even walk the half or 2/3 mile down to the post office to pick up my mail, the pain was so bad, and it was definitely turf toe by the symptoms. I had to ride my bike down. A few days later it's much better and I'm walking where and when I need to, but I can still feel it enough to know I'm going to have to be very easy on it. Running is out, and I don't even know for how long. I read somewhere it takes a week to three to heal. I'm pretty sure it will, but what concerns me is how it happened in the first place and whether I'm now prone to it. Twice a week runs at the distances I do don't seem like that much. I suppose it could be my shoes, it could be anything. I've bought some orthotics and hope they'll work.

Anyway, my running plans at this point are pretty indefinite. I hope I can get back to it soon, but I think a break would be wise.

[makira]

Well my husband and i run at night after our daily duties. It was in the beginning really discouraging because both him and i wear glasses, so running was quite stressful. We did not give up, instead my husband got a coupon from a colleague as a birthday present where we ended up getting a portable light that was super bright, and now problem solved and we couldn't be any happier to be back running!

[jamesndawson]

Thanks Makira, but it's a ligament problem, not an eye problem.

[jamesndawson]

I knew I was behind in posting on this log, but I didn't realize it'd been ten months!

Nothing much has changed really. The same one to two runs a week. I took a break in January due to sickness and bruised ribs. The course I'd been logging in as "4.1+", I'm PRETTY sure has to be six miles. On courses that are pretty clearly marked off as six miles, I'm very consistent in running in them in 66 minutes. I run this "4.1+", which I measured with a cheap pedometer, in between 65 to 70, so I'm sure it has to be longer than that. But I'll keep recording it as 4.1+, just for consistency, till I'm more sure of the distance.

I put an ad on Craigslist and picked up a couple running partners, but only one's ran with me more than one time. The one I ran with once challenged me to go 7.3 miles. It was a hard run, but it didn't kill me. Since both my brothers were in Cross Country, I was kind of attracted to the sense of camaraderie in group or partner running. I mentioned being a vegan and INTJ in my ad, and I thought it'd be nice to get in some good intellectual friendship time along with my exercise time, but as usual, it seems to have fizzled. I'm a little disappointed about the this, but I'm sort of leaning toward just giving this aspect of it up. I think my running is good for my depression, so that's enough reason to continue with it for the foreseeable future.

I'm trying to stretch more consistently and have been watching YouTube videos on how to do that. One position I've learned is supposed to have good benefits is the flat-footed squat, which I try to do every day. Even if it's just 30 seconds. That may see not enough to help, but actually, I think even my unsystematic stretching HAS helped quite a bit. My hip and knee pain have almost disappeared. I don't know why stretching is so hard to make a habit of. Maybe it's my ADHD. But perseverance is the key, even if it is just sporadic.

Same with my self-massage. I posted a video on this forum of a video that helps stiff Achilles heels. The method used was to lie on your back and prop yourself up by your elbows, while you roll a rolling pin under the calf with the stiff heel. Well, I found out it seems to work just as well sitting on the bed and using both hands to roll the pin, and there's much less strain on the arms and back. So I used this method now. And I also tried rolling it on my thighs, mainly my left one, and found it had plenty of painful knots. So these discoveries have yielded some benefits.

[jamesndawson]

My Bloomsday 12K results:

http://www.bloomsdayrun.org/results/all-finishers?yr=2019&bn=26811