The Running Thread - 2018

[SarahDisney]

No, we need to tell Buzz and Woody to tell @roxymama that she is running Dopey!

But she's going to see them before I do...
Anyone at WDW or DL now who can pass the message to Buzz and Woody so that they can pass it along to @roxymama?

 

[JBinORL]

ATTQOTD: For some reason, only on Saturdays, even though my runs tend to start around the same time. I'm French/Irish so I burn, and I'm good about wearing it to the pool or beach or parks normally, but for some reason during my weekday runs I just can't seem to be bothered. I know it's terrible.

 

[TheHamm]

Something I've done in the past is compare percentile finishes from year to year.

Now look through the 2017 results for the runner who finished in 917th place. What time did they finish in?

Let's say your time was 2:20 in 2018 at a 47% finish and the 917th place runner in 2017 was a 2:16 finish. This would lead me to believe that this year's course was about 4 min (or 2.9% (4 min/140 min) more difficult than last year. Do the last 3-4 years and you get a general idea at the baseline time for the percentile finish and the ebbs and flows to more challenging weather condition years from others.

Using this method has a few assumptions:

1) The race course is the same.
2) We assume that the population of runners from 2017 to 2018 is roughly equal. No real good way to prove this one way or another, but as long as there was nothing special differentiating the 2017 pool of runners from the 2018 pool of runners, then in most cases this is a safe assumption.
3) No extenuating circumstances influenced the pools time other than weather. Example, no train crossed the course forcing people to stop or it wasn't black flagged and many entries weren't recorded, etc.

Doing this helps isolate the actual race day conditions as a variable for how difficult the course was from one year to the next.

I have been thinking on this for the last day as I had not considered this use of numbers previously. Since someone at work asked how to do a MINIF statement in excel, but my running log was the only file I know has the function without some silly sort of marco as well. Since it was up, I thought I would look more closely at races, as opposed to just training. I was surprised to see (1) my daily runs are faster over the last year, but my race times while improved, are not as improved as my daily runs. I am really stumped on this. (2) While my mile times have improved, my age group percentile is all over the place. I see no pattern to my finish and wonder if this data requires running the same race/route multiple times to be useful, or if there is too much variation as to the kind of entrants between races to make any sort of useful comparison. Thoughts?

 

[LSUlakes]

Do you get notifications when someone searches a term in your thread? I was just yesterday looking back at this topic from previous posts!

I do not, just good timing I guess. I usually think of the days topic when i get to work around 7:30. I first catch up on the late afternoon, night post, and then think of something, and a response and then start work lol.

 

[huskies90]

HI TWIN. I am only 1/2 Italian (I'll let you know the exact numbers for sure when I get my 23 and Me back, lol), but I rarely burn and it turns into a great tan and I love my skin so much for that.

I am 1/2 also. I got a 23 and Me for Xmas and I have yet to send it in. I will do it eventually, I guess, but I am not all that interested in the results. My parents got it for me and my siblings to see how consistent the results are but both my brothers have high levels of identity-theft-phobia (if that is even a thing) and refuse to share their DNA with anyone. I guess they are afraid someone with clone them?

 

[DopeyBadger]

Is this the bobble-head fireman race?

Good memory!



2016 - Went back and forth for the last 3 miles with a guy in the 10k. Thought I had dropped the hammer on him, only for him to pass me in the last 30m. I got the "official" 3rd place because his bib didn't register. So I gave him the trophy after the awards ceremony because he beat me fair and square.
2017 - Got one of my own with my own sprint to the finish barely beating out a small group of other runners.

This year is the first HM for them and the field has increased in size from 50 to 110. From a cursory view of the other runners, there appears to be only one other runner significantly better than me (1:20 HM PR recently). Otherwise, it's fair game for 2nd place.

(1) my daily runs are faster over the last year, but my race times while improved, are not as improved as my daily runs. I am really stumped on this.

Depends on the relationship of the pacing to your racing in a ways.

1) You could be training too fast and thus not reaping the benefits of said training. My average training pace in a week is about 29% slower than my 5k current fitness pace. So as an example, someone with a 10:00 min/mile 5k time would average on a weekly training basis around a 12:54 min/mile.
2) Or you could not be diversifying your pacing enough (i.e. working the whole spectrum of pacing from Anaerobic/VO2max to Pure Aerobic and everything in between).
3) Or you could be racing too much and not training enough.
4) Or too much fatigue from training carrying over into race day which isn't allowing you to race to your full potential.

Lots of possible explantations. But without digging into your individual data, it would be hard for me to say exactly what is going on for you.

I could run faster most every easy day, and thus my daily training pace would get faster. But my guess is my race performances might actually suffer because of it. "Don't survive the training, thrive because of it." and "Save it for race day." are two phrases I use often in my training.

(2) While my mile times have improved, my age group percentile is all over the place. I see no pattern to my finish and wonder if this data requires running the same race/route multiple times to be useful, or if there is too much variation as to the kind of entrants between races to make any sort of useful comparison.

I'd have to see it to know better. If there are races with very few runners, then a single data point will influence the % by a much larger margin. So the size of race does matter. Also, look at the general trends. There will certainly be some variation and that'll come from days you did well individually and days you just didn't have your best stuff (like my 5/24/15 Marathon which sticks out like a sore thumb). Here's mine, and even though I've steadily improved year over year there is still some variation based on a myriad of reasons. But the general trend still holds. In a big picture view, the races/routes don't have to be the same for this type of analysis to be a useful measure of improvement.

 

[jennamfeo]

I am 1/2 also. I got a 23 and Me for Xmas and I have yet to send it in. I will do it eventually, I guess, but I am not all that interested in the results. My parents got it for me and my siblings to see how consistent the results are but both my brothers have high levels of identity-theft-phobia (if that is even a thing) and refuse to share their DNA with anyone. I guess they are afraid someone with clone them?

Hahaha. I never knew my biological father but my mom claims he was Italian, so I am interested to know what it says. My husband also got me the one that does the health analysis, which I think is really nice because I have no clue what kind of things run in my family.

 

[Bree]

People who wear actual, dedicated running sunglasses: (I know people have recently mentioned both Goodr and Knockaround, but I'm open to other affordable options)
How's the visibility when the sun is directly in your eyes?
I'm perfectly happy with my sunglasses, except that I run basically directly into the sun on a semi-busy very winding road, and it's hard to see if there are cars coming at me. So while I'm not particularly looking for new sunglasses, if I can find ones that solve the visibility issue, it might be worth it.

I have a pair of Oakley glasses with polarized lenses. Not the most stylish, but they are comfy and my lenses are pink!

.


HI TWIN. I am only 1/2 Italian (I'll let you know the exact numbers for sure when I get my 23 and Me back, lol), but I rarely burn and it turns into a great tan and I love my skin so much for that.

My DH, MIL, FIL and I did the Ancestry.com tests and the results really surprised us! I’m nothing close to what I was always told growing up (Swedish, Finnish, Italian & Irish). I’m 37% Russian. My DH grew up thinking he was half French because his mom thought she was 100% French. He’s less than 3% French and he gets it from his dad’s side of the family.

ATYQOTD: summer cold because I don’t have to parent as much since there is no school and we are on break from sports.

ATTQOTD: I don’t wear sunscreen as much as I should when running. I wear it for just about every other occasion though like yard work, beach, Disney, soccer.

 

[OldSlowGoofyGuy]

Good memory!

It's easy to remember: I was on my own quest. Took me 2 years too.

 

[DopeyBadger]

It's easy to remember: I was on my own quest. Took me 2 years too.

View attachment 329034

Nice!

 

[cavepig]

I don't use sunscreen when I run, probably should, except I've put it on my nose x2 this summer which is more than ever before as I felt my nose was looking like Dale's. I haven't burned running since like middle school track and that was from sitting around forever.

 

[Keels]

I wear sunscreen every time I leave the house - I’m talking SPF 70 to go get in the car to run errands. I like being pasty white though, so there’s that ...

 

[LdyStormy76]

The only thing that I find difficult with sunscreen is to properly remove it at the end of the day. It ends up clogging my pores when I wear some for extended period of time (ex a week beach vacation).

.

If hot water and a good scrub aren’t working, have you tried using with a different soap or makeup remover? I have found that my normal facial soap does not work with most sunscreens, but that a Burt’s Bees soap I picked up typically does. It sounds odd to suggest makeup remover, but it might be worth a shot. I have also found that zinc based sun screens are a challenge to get off and require lots of scrubbing.

 

[jennamfeo]

I wear sunscreen every time I leave the house - I’m talking SPF 70 to go get in the car to run errands. I like being pasty white though, so there’s that ...

This would be me and you standing next to each other in the summer.

 

[FFigawi]

QOTD: Summer running topic: Do you use sunscreen to protect your skin during your runs in the summer?

I wear sunscreen on all my rides during the year. I only wear it running if I will be out past 8am, which is not very often.

I am 1/2 also. I got a 23 and Me for Xmas and I have yet to send it in. I will do it eventually, I guess, but I am not all that interested in the results. My parents got it for me and my siblings to see how consistent the results are but both my brothers have high levels of identity-theft-phobia (if that is even a thing) and refuse to share their DNA with anyone. I guess they are afraid someone with clone them?

Welcome to Westworld

 

[Keels]

This would be me and you standing next to each other in the summer.
View attachment 329038

If being translucent is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

 

[roxymama]

If being translucent is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Nurses love me when they have to draw my blood. Since you can basically see through my arms.
#fairestofthemall

 

[SarahDisney]

You can add me to the see-thru skin group...

 

[LSUlakes]

This would be me and you standing next to each other in the summer.
View attachment 329038

I just wanted to say that this is my favorite ice cream EVER! Blue Bell is the GOAT ice cream!!!*

*Disclaimer, this could start another one of those wine/beer/coffee, ect type discussions lol.

 

[jennamfeo]

I just wanted to say that this is my favorite ice cream EVER! Blue Bell is the GOAT ice cream!!!*

*Disclaimer, this could start another one of those wine/beer/coffee, ect type discussions lol.

Blue Bell is in fact the best ice cream ever. When they got recalled I cried actual tears and had to sub down to Tillamook, who is a very close second. I am happy to have both of these ice cream brands back in my life now.