Take care of yourself

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

BYH, sounds like you should just run in place in a soundproof room. One with padded walls, perhaps.

I'm only kidding, of course! Haha.
(Seriously, a little padding could be a great investment for your, um, peace of mind.)

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Haha, just for a clarification...

I'd want the running group more for motivation and pushing myself than for talking. My runs are usually too hard to carry on any semblance of a conversation, anyway. However, like I said before, I could use some people running with me to push me, make me do some hills and other stuff when I'd otherwise not go at it as hard.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I've always ran better if I find someone who's a little faster than I am. When I was in the Army, I'd make sure and get with someone who outran me (but not by much) for the PT tests. It helped me consistently improve my times and the guys I ran with were pretty good about helping me stay motivated the last quarter mile or so when I'd start to think about dropping back from them.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Some people train better running alone; others need the outside motivation. The key to maintaining a training regimen is to find what it is that motivates you and makes that activity enjoyable. The elite athlete in all of us is nutured when we love what we do in the gym , on the roads or on the court. Without that passion, the training becomes a burden.

As always, the joy of any sport is in the journey.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

In spite of my tongue-in-cheek response to BYH earlier, I run by myself 99 percent of the time and I've learned to push myself hard with a stopwatch two or three times a week and just have a relaxing run or two as well.
But it's true, running hard by yourself requires constant mind games _ "What, is your name 'Born to Jog Slowly', you lazy idiot?" _ but man, that makes it rewarding.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I like running with other people once or twice a week, but the rest of the time I prefer to be alone so that I go where I want and for as long as I want.

The nice thing about running with other people is that the miles seem to pass quicker because there's some chit-chat going on. On the days when I don't feel like being out there, having someone else there is a big help.

Regarding organized running groups: If you are in a college town there are probably several around, including a bunch of former cross-country guys. A group called Hash House Harriers has clubs all over the country. It's a running/party group that can sometimes be a fun change of pace.

http://half-mind.com/Contacts/usa_hash.htm

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

When I was in college, there was a group of guys that dubbed themselves "A drinking club with a running problem." Basically, they would run all over town, running a mile and chugging a beer, running a mile and chugging a beer.

Hey, whatever works.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

The Hash House Harriers?

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

I'm finding out running alone is best for me. But the guy I'm running this marathon with hates running and says he needs all distractions possible to take his mind off running. He's training with big groups that run through his city.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

For what it's worth -- and it's less than it could have been considering the 12-day delay -- when I was doing serious training for things and not a slug, I did a lot of great work with groups. I had one group of really high-level people I ran with out of the Y in my town every noontime (weekdays) and it was great, anywhere from 4-6 miles every day.

Yes, sometimes it got a little faster than it should have been because of the competitive aspect -- especially as we headed into the last half mile -- and sometimes we hammered the end of workouts more than we should have on "easy" days, but I found the distraction of running with others far outweighed the "concentration" aspect.

If you're doing like 6 miles easy, you can converse and run at the pace you're supposed to. In fact, that's recommended, that you run at "conversational" pace.

On the rare occasions we wanted to do something hard together, well, we didn't talk as much.

I never did intervals and speed workouts in groups, though, except on the rare occasions where somebody else wanted to do exactly what I did.

But for the LD base work, and particularly for things like long Sunday runs if you're preparing for a marathon, I highly recommend the group things for all but a few such as BYH who just don't like it that way.

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

i'm up to 13 miles, and i'm 13 weeks away from the marathon, may have bitten off a bit more than my body can handle

my buddy has already finished an 18-mile run; he's killing me

i think i just want to finish the thing now

he wants to beat 4hrs (his first marathon, too)

don't think i'll be finishing with him

 

Re: Take care of yourself (LiveSTRONG)

Don't kill yourself with your training and run your own race. I'm training for a half-marathon in early May and I did my 13.1 miles on Monday, a little below my goal pace for the race. Now it's a matter of whittling off some of the time. Make a reasonable goal for yourself ... 13 weeks is plenty of time, but try not to add more than 10 to 15 percent onto your weekly mileage or you might risk injury.