Not sure about the beer tent. Probably do, but I'm not much of a drinker, and I'm rushing to get out of there and get to work, plus stressing about my $98 parking tab. lol Last year I was 7:05 average pace. This year I'm shooting for something in the 6s. Not sure that will happen, but I'm going for it.

Yeah...slightly different league there. I'm more in the 10:20ish range. I would like to think I can go sub-10min for the full thing, but I have some work to do over the next 3 1/2 weeks.

I remember it taking about 25 minutes to get to the start line from where we lined up last time, so like the comment from VCook, you will probably be across the finish line before I even start.

Are you using a plan? I'm just following the Hal Higdon advanced 8K as best I can. Worked pretty well last time I used it for the Hot Chocolate 15K race a few years ago. I surprised myself with my pace in that, and felt really good the whole race.

I'm just going to run and see what happens.

Or that. Just make sure you taper for your races. At least for me, that is the most important part.

I run so slow, the taper is parallel to my training runs.... LOL

my 13th year in a row running/shuffling/walking this. Best: 47:07, Worst: 56:24.

Shooting to break 50 minutes this year; we'll see!

Hahaha taper runs are at race pace. Out of curiosity, do you guys keep track of cadence? I know when I was trying to improve my running, for longer distances especially, that a fast cadence really helped. It's not something you can just implement and have it help right away, but over the course of a training block or season you can work on speeding up your cadence and that should help with turnover and speed.

cadence? I'm just trying not to trip on a pothole!

survival > speed.

OK well then you keep on keeping on. haha

My only "plan" for this so far is my wife tapping me on the shoulder a week ago to ask for a favor (didn't end up being what I was hoping for...)
Her friend she was going to run with backed out and she doesn't like going down to the city by herself.

I've been trying to get down to the basement and get on the treadmill fairly regularly. I will have to look up Mr Higdon and see what he has to say.

I did a 53 something back in '03. I can run faster now for shorter distances (1-1.5 mi) than I did back then, but haven't tried to push anything past 3 miles yet as I wasn't planning to do this until recently.

In the end though, I too will be satisfied if I make it through without tripping on a pothole!

Check out his plans. Do the beginner plan and it should give you some good results.

I looked it up, and we are going to give it a shot. I'm not sure if it's a great idea to jump into an 8 wk program midway through week 5, but what's the worst that can happen...

So, along with MC and bicycle parts at your shop, do you happen to also stock any Treadmill parts? It seems that I have smoked the belt on my wife's treadmill. (Another hint that I should be dropping some pounds...)

If not, do you guys know of anywhere local I can pick something up today. I'm finding stuff on the web on treadmilldr and searsparts direct, but want to see if I can get it locally. There are a couple phone numbers on there, just wondering if you guys have any experience with anyone around here.

I got nothing to help you fix that 'mill. Good luck with that.

On the plans, yeah you can jump into a plan midway as long as it fits into your regular running experience/workload. If you are running 10 miles a week you sure don't want to go to 30 in the advanced plans or anything. If you aren't doing speedwork or race pace miles then prepare for those to hurt a little and make sure you have adequate rest/recovery. I can run 10 miles every day probably, but the race pace stuff and intervals hurt a little bit. The next day I feel wasted.

Got put in corral B wave 1. Guess I'm not 5 minute per mile fast yet for the A corral.

Studs like me are in corral A but the chicks with the best tailpipes are in B. So you got that going for you.

What's the scouting report on Corral H, Wave 3?


So, I'm trying to jump into this Hal Higdon beginner thing, did a pretty good 2 mi run last thursday with no problem other than breaking my wife's treadmill in the last 1/4 mi or so of the run. She's pissed, but I have parts on order.

Nice weather Sunday, so I decided to do the 4 mi run outdoors, cut it a little short at 3.5 mi, but overall I thought a fairly successful run, was able to keep the 10 min/mi pace I was hoping for without feeling like I over did it too much. However, I clearly need to work on my stretching as my calves are toast! Anytime I sit still for more than 20 min, I look like a complete cripple when I get up and try to walk.

I'm supposed to do 3 mi today, which I know I won't be able to make, and I don't want to actually injure myself (right not it's just soreness I think, not injury), so any thoughts on how to loosen these things up and keep going? Should I just do elliptical or bike training for a couple days and keep stretching until they loosen up, or should I just suck it up and run through the pain hoping that they will loosen up?

Your scouting report will amount to chicks being roughly 200-300 pounds, and the hottest ones will run the first quarter mile then walk the rest. You might want to watch the Corral B bitches start off to see what a decent looking chick looks like before your horror show in back.

On your training, I say HTFU! If you are just sore, then keep running and make sure you stretch. I've found that is what I feel is just tight muscles rather than injury or overtraining. I ran 8 miles on sunday at 8:30 pace, then rode 30 miles on the bike, and rode another 30 miles yesterday at 19 mph, and it felt like my legs were gonna fall off, but my HR was pretty low and steady as it should be. That tells me just my muscles are sore and tired but I'm not overtrained because my HR was normal. Definitely stretch. Calves especially, but also quads and hip flexors and hamstrings. When my calves get tight, I feel it, and they hurt. When my hammies get tight, my back starts hurting. Now that I've been doing yoga, everything feels much better and I can train hard just about every day. I would try the run, and if you need to, cut it short. It takes a while to adjust to more frequent training. At least it did for me.

Did a 2.6 mi run yesterday afternoon. It was painful, and I wasn't able to keep it under 10 min/mi the whole way, but I attempted to HTFU and get it done. My legs already feel better today than they did Monday or Tuesday, so hopefully, I'm past the worst of it.

Being fat and out of shape really sucks when you try to start not being fat and out of shape!

I may have to throw on my GoPro Chesty mount for the Shuffle as I try to weave through the corral J walkers after the first half mile or so.

For me, soreness goes away when I exercise again at an easy pace versus just doing nothing. Yeah the transition from fat to fit is not a pleasant one I've heard. Just takes motivation and determination and you will be past it.

The first year I did this race I was lined up in the back, thinking it didn't really matter where I started because it is timed anyways. I think we started in the last corral, and there were mostly walkers right from the start, and a shitton of people just crowding the street. Me and my buddy were duking it out the whole race, and blasting by people walking while we were going 8 minute miles was interesting. We made quite a few friends. Pretty sure I ran 9 miles with all the zig zagging I did. lol

I"m in corral H and am not looking forward to slamming into the backs of the 'suddenly walking 1/2 mile into the race' idiots.

Ideally I'm a 10 minute mile guy, but my recent performances at 11minute mile puts me back with the heifers.

the good news is, at 50 years old, I'm doing alright.
the bad news is, guys and gals who run at 50 are fucking whippets and all up in B or A corral.

donut, anyone?

Trying to keep up with the lifelong runners is pretty much futile I've found. I try pretty damn hard at this, and despite all my cross training/cycling I do OK, but nowhere near 5 minute miles. Even if I was a pure runner, I would guess at 47 years old the best pace I could ever run a 5 mile race is 6:30, having picked up running at 40 years old. My best pace so far in this was last year at 7:05, my best pace in a 5K was 6:59, and my best pace in the hot chocolate 15K was 7:20. I don't think I'll get much faster no matter how much I train for running at this point. It is what it is. Still want to get a PR in this at under 7.

Crash, maybe sneak up a corral or two and run with the faster people. As long as you're running it's not a big deal, but having to dodge the fatties walking right out of the gate is not gonna help your time. I've seen a lot of people sneak up past the fences every year. Hell, there were corral D and E runners in B last year.

Damn, a bounce of OLD peeps up in here....

I'm picking up running at 37, so maybe someday I can run a 7...

no, probably not.

Feeling a lot better though for this race, thanks for the verbal butt kick earlier this week. Yesterday's run was supposed to be 2 mi and I ended up doing 2.3 at a 9:05 pace and the legs keep feeling better. I have a 4 mile run Sunday continuing the HH schedule. We will see hot that goes, but I'm thinking that I'm going to solidly be shooting for a 9:30-9:45 pace for this thing.

My wife has been hearing rumors that they will be a lot stricter about moving around in corrals after the Boston marathon thing, but I also wouldn't mind moving up a slot or two. If not, it will just be a nice agility drill.

Just 4 days to go and I think I might be able to pull this thing off after a late jump into the whole training plan. Following the Hall Higdon thing probably saved us a lot of pain as I would have just run everyday until I was totally burnt out and not been able to do anything. The spacing with the cross training and rest days has been perfect. Even starting 5 wks into an 8 wk program!

Did a 5 mi run Sunday at a 9:48 pace, and a 3 mi run today at 9:15.

It looks like the weather is going to be about perfect Sunday!

My plan has been pretty sporadic, but I'll make the best of it regardless. Leaving for a 2 day mountain bike trip right after the Shuffle, so maybe I'll take it easy in the race. Yeah right. Glad to hear your training is going well. Good luck!

Had a perfect race. Went out a little hard, but managed to keep a strong pace until the end. Last mile hurt a bit though. 6:52 pace, and better than I thought I would do. Pretty happy with that result. 178 average HR, 190 max. First 3 miles were good, then it was a mental game to keep those legs moving. High cadence helped quite a bit.

I had a pretty good run too. I started backin Corral J, just so I could hang out with the wife right up until the start. Ran with her for a couple hundred yards, then decided to up the pace and try to get through some of the crowd.

I latched on behind some big dude that was going a little faster than I initially felt comfortable, but figured if he could make it at that pace, I should be able to. From there on, it was literally a 5 mile slalom course. I almost bit it hard once in a big pothole about 1.5 miles from the end, but managed to save it!

I ended up "officially" with a 47:43 which gives me a 9:36 pace. I was aiming for 9:30, so not bad considering the traffic and where I started from. According to my phone, I ran 5.38 miles at a 8:55 pace, though I'm not sure I believe it as it was giving me some really goofy splits in the middle.

Now I can be done with this running stuff and start getting ready for Moto. This definitely helped get my cardio ready though!

Smoked it with a 57:02 (mostly 50/50 walking running). Average HR was 169, Max was 183. considering I'm 50 years old and haven't trained for anything more than 2 miles in over 6 weeks, I'll take it.

Next year, will shoot for 45:00 finish. That's my goal and I'm sticking to it.

Lotta cuties on the course though. that helped ease my pain.

Nice. Yeah the sights were plentiful, no doubt about that. I'm still wondering how these slugs get into corral A. I screamed past a bunch of them that left a few minutes before me since I was in corral B. A few of them were stopping to drink water on mile 1.5. Who the hell can't make this grueling race without drinking water? But no, they won't let me into corral A. Yeah, I'm pissed. haha