The Running thread

____no5 said:
Yesterday I run Shanghai marathon which turned to be the most difficult race of my life.
  • Early October I got injured and up until 2 weeks ago, I was doing my training while limping. That took a toll of my aerobic capacity, i.e., on 21 September I did 25km long run with a pace of 5:40/km and HR 138. And two weeks before the race 21km with a pace of 5:38/km and HR 145.
  • At 15km within the race, my socks got a fold underneath my feett and started to hit me hard, to the point that my feet started to numb. That went away at 21km but then...
  • At 23km I had a cramp! I could barely move in the start, but then I grabbed a salt stick from my reserves and started to run again, though while suffering for the next 19km of the race!
  • At 27km my left tailor-made insole started to hit me hard, which stayed until the end of the race resulting to a big blister.
  • At 30km I realized in terror that my watch was off by a lot!! This is a psychological torture at the end of the race, especially such a difficult one and it's hard not to break you. You are in a world of pain, you turn your wrist and read 37.7km thank god, I have just a little bit left and then you see the sign at the edge of the street with a big fat 37km, essentially a kilometre more.
I don't know how I managed not to quit, especially in the end when I was running blind, but in the end after having run 43km at a pace of 5.03/km my official time was 3:38:09 for 42.2km of course.

3:38:09 (5:10/km) gives a marathon PB of 11 minutes
PB 30k 2:32:19
2nd best Half Marathon 1:45:43 (5:01/km)
2nd best 20k 1:40:03
3rd best 10k 49:57 (5:00/km)
:cheers:
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Well done!

On a related note, the other day I met a local secondary school teacher who ran the London marathon last year in a time of 2h 35m 50s!!!
 
That is a seriously good time, especially for someone with a full time job, though working for school makes it easier. Impressive nonetheless!
A 35-year old woman from my team did a 20+ minutes improvement from 3:29 last January to 3:09 yesterday. Jaw dropping improvement.
 
It’s hugely remarkable and I don’t want to take anything from his achievement but truth is that it’s still a time that can be managed by mortals. Especially someone below 40 ~45 with a steady governmental job it’s ideal.
I think the real-deal threshold is 2:20:00 below which we are talking pre-elite level, with elite being sub 2:10:00.

I have a few people in my team working full time in private sector that are consistently doing below 2:45:00 in their late 50s and another in his early 60s managed a sub 2:30:00 last Sunday in Shanghai!
And I saw the video of a 75 year old that did a sub 2:45:00 in the same race! 75 years old! Those 2 cases are as far as it goes, other than elite and they show us where we could really reach.

When there is consistency, improvement is inevitable, if I continue like this and stay injured free I could manage a sub 3:00:00 in a few years time well inside my 50s.
 
The further one goes the more they realize that everything is possible. But those endless possibilities should not stop us from celebrating our victories in the present tense, which is the only thing that we really have.
 
Consistency really does seem to be the biggest factor. Seeing runners in their 50s, 60s, and even 70s post those kinds of marathon times shows that long-term training can make an incredible difference. At the same time, I think it's important not to downplay individual achievements. A sub-2:30 or even sub-3:00 marathon is still far beyond what most recreational runners will ever accomplish. It's inspiring to see what's possible with years of disciplined training, but everyone's starting point, genetics, and available training time are different.
 
I take my hat off to people who run marathons in those times.

On a different note, today I have clocked my personal best in 5km (19:46). Listening to Accept’s “Balls to the Wall” made me run fast as a shark.

Run if you can sang Udo. It seems I still can. :lol:

50 is the new 20!
 
Since there is no GENERAL EXERCISE thread I figured I'd post it here.

Back in April I started doing my push ups again. After my first surgery and during the pandemic I became VERY week. Due to our poor infrastructure we buy purified water in 20 liter jugs and most households have some sort of dispenser to put them in. For most of these dispensers you have to flip the jug over. Well, I wasn't able to do that. My GF would have to help your it took three steps for what should be one simple motion.

My manly man pride got hurt so I decided to do something about it. I bought a push-up board that works 4 muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders, triceps). The very first time I tried it out I couldn't even do ONE push up. My arms started shaking violently and it took a super human effort to complete it. I Pushed myself to do at least ten, one by one. Since then I've been doing them on and off for a host of reasons (another surgery, hurt shoulder, etc), so back in April I started again. I Started doing 5 per set (I do six sets, 3 per muscle, the chart tells you which two to do that day). It was too easy. The following week I up it to 8. BIG mistake lol. After that I only upped it 1 per week and I figured I could reach 20 reps by the time the semester started around mid August.

Everything was going fine until I got to 18. I hit a wall. I really struggled with it. I thought it might have been, because I took a week off due to a trip I went on, but whatever the reason I basically did 18 for like a month until they felt easy. I decided that from 19 onward I would stick to that rep number for two weeks rather than one. Well, I'm on my second week of 20! Finally got here LOL. While I saw benefits from the start, at this point I'm seeing and feeling massive changes. I have more energy, I've lost 4 kilos (down to 81 from 85), my love handles are finally gone, everyone notices the change too, not just my partners. My mom NEVER says anything good, well, she's been telling me I look good, my sister-in-law made a comment, Yesterday two different coworkers complimented my appearance as well and it feels.... weird.

I started this journey to be able to lift a 20 liter water jug and being able to wipe my own ass when I'm 80, yet it's had this cascading effect into my mental well being and overall health. I've never been a fan of exercise, but I've noticed I look forward to it, I want to continue to push and challenge myself. doing 20 reps per set has me doing 120 total. Never thought I'd do over 100, now I'm eyeing 150 and beyond.
 
Onhell said:
Since there is no GENERAL EXERCISE thread I figured I'd post it here.

Back in April I started doing my push ups again. After my first surgery and during the pandemic I became VERY week. Due to our poor infrastructure we buy purified water in 20 liter jugs and most households have some sort of dispenser to put them in. For most of these dispensers you have to flip the jug over. Well, I wasn't able to do that. My GF would have to help your it took three steps for what should be one simple motion.

My manly man pride got hurt so I decided to do something about it. I bought a push-up board that works 4 muscle groups (chest, back, shoulders, triceps). The very first time I tried it out I couldn't even do ONE push up. My arms started shaking violently and it took a super human effort to complete it. I Pushed myself to do at least ten, one by one. Since then I've been doing them on and off for a host of reasons (another surgery, hurt shoulder, etc), so back in April I started again. I Started doing 5 per set (I do six sets, 3 per muscle, the chart tells you which two to do that day). It was too easy. The following week I up it to 8. BIG mistake lol. After that I only upped it 1 per week and I figured I could reach 20 reps by the time the semester started around mid August.

Everything was going fine until I got to 18. I hit a wall. I really struggled with it. I thought it might have been, because I took a week off due to a trip I went on, but whatever the reason I basically did 18 for like a month until they felt easy. I decided that from 19 onward I would stick to that rep number for two weeks rather than one. Well, I'm on my second week of 20! Finally got here LOL. While I saw benefits from the start, at this point I'm seeing and feeling massive changes. I have more energy, I've lost 4 kilos (down to 81 from 85), my love handles are finally gone, everyone notices the change too, not just my partners. My mom NEVER says anything good, well, she's been telling me I look good, my sister-in-law made a comment, Yesterday two different coworkers complimented my appearance as well and it feels.... weird.

I started this journey to be able to lift a 20 liter water jug and being able to wipe my own ass when I'm 80, yet it's had this cascading effect into my mental well being and overall health. I've never been a fan of exercise, but I've noticed I look forward to it, I want to continue to push and challenge myself. doing 20 reps per set has me doing 120 total. Never thought I'd do over 100, now I'm eyeing 150 and beyond.
Click to expand...
What kind of push-up board, if you don't mind me asking? I've never been great at pushups, and though I've tried to get good at them a couple of times I always hit some kind of wall and gave up along the way.
 
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