FG Fitness Challenge

Speaking of running, genuine question, what's the limiting factor when you are talking about extending the running distance?

For me at least, at some point the muscles in my legs start to tighten up and at some point hurt, specifically my thighs. That may be due to my running in barefoot shoes on the balls of my feet (try running on tiptoe to get the idea). Depending on pace this gets really noticeable after 15-20 km.
At some point it feels like my legs are really only running on muscle memory from the 90 or so minutes before. If I really stretch my run out I start to struggle with running tight corners and coming to a stop - honestly at some point I feel I’m going to topple over into a bush and giggle myself silly ?
 
My knees and legs in general.
At some point they just...quit.
 
Right, ok.

I run in barefoot shoes as well, my knees can't take more than 15-20min of heeled shoes. Also the reason I prefer running on forest routes/ paths. I'll wear myself out faster, with less stress on joints.
 
Strava-5k.png


Not a bad improvement in two weeks, if I say so myself... I'm especially happy with how constant I managed to be.
 
good stuff!

i'll have to reduce my running a bit for the next weeks... already the past week i've quite drastically reduced the distance i go, but that doesn't seem to help.
I've developed a rather weird strain on my right achilles tendon. the connection at the heel seems to be irritated, possibly a little inflamed. weird situation about this: as long as i actually strain the tendon (i.e. running, walking, biking) this doesn't hurt. but any extended period of rest means the whole situation will go slightly inflexible and hurt like crazy if i do end up moving it. getting out of bed in the morning is a b***** because of this and it just gradually gets better over the day.
this seems to be a fairly common runners thing, sometimes goes chronic (no bueno). i've already had 4 pages of tips and exercises sent over by a friend from the "runners bible" (it says to keep doing those for at least 12 weeks) and will be trying those to see if it goes away with the combination of maybe not running for a few weeks.
 
Strava-5k.png


Not a bad improvement in two weeks, if I say so myself... I'm especially happy with how constant I managed to be.

I just came back from my longest non-stop run, 6km, and I was surprised how constant (constantly slow :) ) I was.

I was even more surprises that I managed to beat my previous 5k record.

Screenshot_20210928-125728.jpg
 
Just did my longest run ever, 8k (2 more than my previous best non-stop), and first time running for 1h straight.

What I didn't expect was to beat my previous 5k best time.

I had a strong headwind, so after the first km I thought the best I would be able to do would be 3k, but once I got the tail wind it gave me the confidence to keep pushing for 5, than 7 with an option on 8.

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Probably my most constant pace so far.

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Bonus picture taken at km 2:

IMG_20211019_155508.jpg
 
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Nice work, improvements are coming step by step!

[...] it gave me the confidence to keep pushing for 5, than 7 with an option on 8.
haha, this is how it goes... set off for an easy run and then keep thinking "maybe extend it a little bit" at points along the way because the legs don't feel tired at that stage, yet. then, when the fatigue does set in, you're too far away from home because it was all such a breeze up until that point and you have to force out the last 3 km all wobbly because your dumb brain thought it was smart to keep extending the run to a half marathon :| that has clearly never happened to me ever, no sir.

I've developed a rather weird strain on my right achilles tendon. the connection at the heel seems to be irritated, possibly a little inflamed. weird situation about this: as long as i actually strain the tendon (i.e. running, walking, biking) this doesn't hurt. but any extended period of rest means the whole situation will go slightly inflexible and hurt like crazy if i do end up moving it. getting out of bed in the morning is a b***** because of this and it just gradually gets better over the day.
this seems to be a fairly common runners thing, sometimes goes chronic (no bueno). i've already had 4 pages of tips and exercises sent over by a friend from the "runners bible" (it says to keep doing those for at least 12 weeks) and will be trying those to see if it goes away with the combination of maybe not running for a few weeks.
update on this: still doing the excercises (which basically consists of standing one-legged on a step, dipping the heel down (i.e. stretching the achilles out) then going up as far as it'll go. repeat 15 times, 6 times a day. my calves are slowly turning to bricks.
anyway: had a very nice improvement, although the discomfort is still there, especially after getting up in the morning. it is much improved though. when i posted about it originally, i would wobble and stumble about for the first half hour of every day, while now everything at least works as usual. cycling doesn't seem to have any adverse effects at all, so I'm doing a lot more of than instead of running. running... i tried for a 10k some time last week, and that wasn't great. at the end (last 2km) and for the following day, the bloody heel hurt, so that wasn't good. interestingly enough, that irritation went away much quicker than i expected, next day i was basically back to where i was before the run.
anyway: I'll keep an eye on things... not running for now.
 
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Good job @RdKetchup
Don't expect me to one-up you anytime soon.
@eizbaer I cut back on running for similar reasons. I started feeling pain on the base of my heel, so I kept running of course.
This lead to the aforementioned wobble and stumble in the morning. I switched running for walking/jumping rope and things improved, but it still hurts occasionally.
 
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anyway: I'll keep an eye on things... not running for now.
THAT WORKED OUT NICELY DIDN'T IT!? one week later, this idiot is out for a run again... and I'll be out again this weekend. also I registered for a nice 16k on the first weekend of december and intend to finish sub 80min... so, errrr... yeah.

anyway, regarding this weird situation: the day after the run isn't great, but the next day after that it's all back to the way it was before. not even a little bit worse. annoying, and I don't get it. also still biking doesn't seem to have any ill effects at all.
 
I can barely walk if I play squash the day before.
But no, I am not running...why do I fool myself like this?
 
I can barely walk if I play squash the day before.
But no, I am not running...why do I fool myself like this?
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say if you can play squash then you can probably also go for a run lol... I remember playing squash myself and having the most sore BUTT the day after. damn. lot's of high intensity bursts and such, rather demanding on joints and ligaments i'd say.

anyway, regarding my running: I just discovered I only have 3 weeks left to that 16k I signed up for. The week before (so in two weeks) we'll do a trial run (probably very slowly, so no idea how useful that's going to be), so I guess I'll have to increase my distance a little, after basically doing zero running over the past weeks. Ugh... this week 12k, next week 14k, just to find a pacing strategy for myself... or something.

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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say if you can play squash then you can probably also go for a run lol
My point exactly hahahaha
I was just fooling myself
 
Congratulations, @Redliner - That is an enviable goal!

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It's well past time for me to do something about getting in shape. I knew I'd been gaining weight since I slowed down on the cycling, but I didn't realize the extent of the problem until I stepped in the scale this morning.

282.8 pounds or 128ish kilograms

That's the heaviest I've ever been by a coupe pounds. I don't like this...

I'm going to start keeping log of my calories eaten, ride every day that I can, etc. This has worked in the past, but for one reason or another I always fall off the wagon and put those pounds back on.
 
Thanks.

It's certainly a pain in the ass to lose weight (ask my how I know), so good luck @CraigB
 
In the past month, since I've been in Seattle, a combination of working 6 days a week and the awesome </sarcasm> weather means I've only went running once.

Combined with eating restaurant every day, I'm not looking forward to stepping on the scale again next week.
 
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