Miscellaneous: A Series of Updates
I have a few small things going on, and rather than post many small updates, I figured I’d just throw them all together.
Lack of Race Suspense: Wine & Dine
So .. Wine & Dine. I really wanted to do this race, for a few reasons:
- Even though I don’t eat the food or drink the drinks, I happen to like Food & Wine. I just think it’s a fun new thing in the parks.
- A return to runDisney in 2018!
- Doing my first runDisney half before my first runDisney marathon!
All good reasons to go, right? But then … why is Wine & Dine no longer listed on the front page of this thread as a race I want to run?
Life.
I really want to do
Disneyland with Beth in May. I’m planning a long trip for marathon weekend (like, over a week). Between those two and a personal day I’m already planning to take next month … I’m going to be running low on vacation days.
I could make Wine & Dine happen. If I didn’t do the 5K & 10K marathon weekend, I could come down on Friday (thus saving myself two vacation days which I could use for Wine & Dine). If I just did the W&D half and didn’t to the 5K, the only vacation day I’d have to take for W&D would be Friday (since I can't fly Saturday, I'd still have to come down Friday). But I really don’t want to compromise. My focus right now is marathon weekend. I’d rather do the trip I want to do for marathon weekend, then come back a different year to do the trip I want to do for Wine & Dine. It’s tough, because I really wanted to do W&D, but I need to be practical.
#BuySomeOfTheThings
So … a few weeks ago I expressed my intentions to buy all of the things. I have not yet done that. I did buy some of the things. Here’s what we’ve got so far:
Running Skirts Red Dot Golf Skirt
(sorry about the dirty mirror)
I have two other Running Skirts golf skirts, so this wasn’t really anything new for me. What was new was the size – they didn’t have it in my size (the danger of buying things on sale), so I went down a size. It fits, but I can’t really wear it the way I wear my other skirts (they’re meant to be worn on the waist, but I wear them on my hips). It does work, though, and I can run in it, so it’s good to go for the marathon (which will be its race debut … it’s training-only until then).
Nokia Body WiFi Smart Scale
(picture taken from the internet because taking a picture of a reflective surface isn’t easy)
I spent some time trying to decide what scale to get. I’ve been thinking about the Fitbit Aria for a few years now, but I wasn’t in love with the price tag. I also considered the Garmin Index, and discarded it for the same reason. Ultimately, I decided that I wanted to pay something in the $50-$60 range, so I started looking at reviews for scales in that range. I narrowed it down to a few options, but ultimately decided on the Nokia Body for two reasons:
- It syncs over WiFi. Most smart scales sync over Bluetooth, which means I have to remember to turn on the Bluetooth on my phone and open the app … that’s way too much work for me.
- From what I had seen, it seems to work with all of the various apps I use, which means I can weigh in once, not have to type that weight anywhere, and have it show up everywhere I want it (more on this later).
I also like the fact that the scale gives you weight, BMI, weight trend over time, and that’s it. The only thing I need from the scale is a number … but I like the idea of the trend too.
Once the scale arrived, it was pretty easy to set it up – all I had to do was turn on the scale and the Bluetooth on my phone, and once the phone found the scale, I set up an account and then the app did all the work. At the end it asked me to put in my WiFi information, and now it syncs over WiFi.
In terms of connecting with apps … they say it works with over 100 partner apps. What I discovered they actually mean is … it can sync with like 5 apps, and those can sync with many other apps. Right now I have it synced with MyFitnessPal, which is what I’m using as my single source of truth until I can figure out how to get the weight to transfer over to Garmin (it hasn’t been syncing automatically, weirdly), which is what I prefer to use as my single source of truth (mostly because I like the mobile app a lot).
So far I’m definitely happy with the scale, and I think it was a good purchase. Other than the app syncing situation, it’s exactly what I wanted – a scale I can step on for a few seconds and then check what it said on my phone a few hours later.
INKnBURN Kaze Tech Shirt
(sorry, I’m terrible at selfies and couldn’t get the whole shirt in … also, sorry about the mess.)
A lot of people here on the DIS are all about the INKnBURN, and I do like a lot of their designs, so I’ve been thinking of buying for a while. On Sunday, for reasons I can’t quite explain, I decided to pull the trigger. Since I’m between sizes, the general consensus was that I should size up (good call, ladies … the large is small enough that there’s no way a medium would have fit, but large enough that I can fit a layer underneath), and the tech shirt I wanted wasn’t available in my size directly from InB, so
@Ariel484 shared a link to Ultra Running Company, who did have it in stock.
Ultra Running Company is the best, and I would definitely consider them for any potential future InB needs (and if I’m ever in Charlotte, NC, I might go visit). I ordered the shirt on Sunday and it arrived on Wednesday. It was in a tiny little box, but that’s just because there wasn’t any unnecessary package filling (unlike my scale, which was in a giant box). The best part, though, was this …
A personalized note! I thought that was a really nice touch and I really appreciated it.
I ran in the shirt on Wednesday night. I didn’t hate it, but … I didn’t think it was the most comfortable shirt ever. The seam on the sleeve bothered me a bit, but it wasn’t terrible. Beyond that, it was just as comfortable as any other shirt I own. I didn’t seem to overheat, which I’ve been doing on the treadmill lately, so that was good. I may fall in love with it during the summer when heat is more of an issue.
I don’t think I’d pay $50 for a tech shirt again, but I might buy something on sale. Obviously YMMV, but for me, it’s not worth what they charge for it.
Next Purchase: Sports Bra
That’ll be next week’s project, probably. I realized yesterday that I really need to invest in a better sports bra. This will not be fun.
Why Long Run?
This is something that Coach
@DopeyBadger and I spent some time discussing last week. Basically, I was struggling a lot on my long runs, and I didn’t really understand why I had to concentrate on maintaining a specific pace (which was stopping me from zoning out and using my long run as “Sarah Time”).
After some back and forth and a little required reading, here are some “facts” about the long run that I discovered:
1. The point of the long run is to get acclimated to long distances
2. The long run is done slower than race pace to allow for proper recovery
3. (I’m not 100% sure on this one, but I think I’m close because I’ve done some research) Long runs are good for working on your running efficiency, which relates to your lactate threshold. Lactate threshold is a pace at which you can run for 1 hour without feeling fatigue. During this hour, your body is producing lactic acid, but it is also able to convert that all of that lactic acid to energy.
If your lactate threshold is 10:00/mile, you should be able to run forever at 10:15/mile. The problem is … your lactate threshold won’t stay at the same pace for the duration of your run. When you’re running at your lactate threshold, there comes a point where your body can no longer convert all of the lactic acid being produced, and that’s when fatigue sets in. You can get to a point where your body will once again be able to convert all of the lactic acid being produced … but that means slowing down. The less efficiently you’re running (eg, if you’re expending extra energy by having your center of gravity be in the wrong place), the sooner you will hit the point where your lactate threshold gets slower. An inefficient runner’s lactate threshold may move from 10:00/mile to 10:10/mile after 45 minutes, whereas the more efficient runner can maintain the 10:00/mile lactate threshold for an hour and fifteen minutes, which means they can run a 10K at lactate threshold.
As for why lactate threshold matters … the longer it takes for your lactate threshold to move, the longer you can maintain a faster pace. Also (and this is really just a Sarah theory, not sure if it’s accurate), I’m thinking that if you want to consistently run a “slower than lactate threshold” pace throughout the race, the more efficient of a runner you are, the faster that pace can be (because your lactate threshold won’t move as much because it’s not moving as quickly).
tl;dr – Long runs are good for correcting bad running habits and making your body more efficient.
4. Running slower gives you the biological tools to increase blood/oxygen flow to the muscles, which will increase power later
5. Fat is a more efficient energy source than carbs. When you run faster than a particular pace (which varies by person), your body burns carbs. Running slower teaches your body to burn fat and the pace at which your body starts to burn carbs will slowly get faster (so that you can gradually start to run faster and still burn fat)
With these facts in mind, I proposed a new idea for my long run. I had been using the long run as a chance for my brain to take it easy, and I needed to learn to use it as a time for my body to take it easy too. I’m not going to worry about pace, but I will check my pace at the end of each mile, and if I’m not in the 12:30-13:30 range, I’ll take a few seconds to zone back in and evaluate whether or not I really am taking it easy. I ran this idea by Coach Billy and he was okay with it.
Of course, I haven’t had a chance to test it out yet because last week was a half treadmill half outside rain-soaked non-adventure, and this week’s long run has tempo in it, but … I will test it out next week. AKA the last long run on my plan.
This kind of leads to a general thought about my Coach DB plan. It’s been really hard for me to give up control of my plan. Coach has been great about answering all of my (probably very annoying) questions and working with my changing schedule and helping me understand when I struggle, but … I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that at the end of the day, I’m not doing each run because it’s what I want to do, I’m doing it because someone else told me it was the best thing to do that day. Yes, this is all because I wanted Coach to make me a plan, but … I didn’t expect to feel like I couldn’t make my own decisions (and I also know that the plan is not intended to make me feel that way (heck, I just made up my own way of doing the long runs, which clearly means that I can take some control), which makes it even harder).
I mean, the plan seems to be going well (at least it feels like it’s going well), but … it’s just tough to not be fully in control of my own plans. Even though I know it’s better that way because every run has a purpose. It just bothers me more than I’d like it to some days.
(Yeah, I know, I'm weird)
Life Update
I went to a minor league hockey game last week. Yes, such a thing exists. It was actually princess night. This is what princess night looks like at a minor league hockey game:
I think that's Merida, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Belle, and Elsa ... but I'm not entirely sure.
In case anyone was wondering … the Baby Rangers are just as terrible as the Adult Rangers. It was not a fun game to watch.
Hmm … what else is going on. Work is fine. Not great. I haven’t been assigned to a project yet, and its hard showing up every day when you don’t really know why you’re there. But I am working on something small in the meantime, and I’m hoping that things will pick up soon. Whatever.
Oh, for those of you who didn’t see – I got my corral placement for the United Airlines NYC Half. Corral J, which is better than I expected. I’m in the second wave, which means I don’t start until 8 (maybe 8:15, I can’t remember), which means an extra 20-30 minutes of sleep. Yay!
And ... that's all I got for right now. Sunday is my last 10-miler of the plan, and then I'm in Sarah-taper (I don't know when the official taper starts, but I've always thought of taper as after my longest long run). Hopefully next week I'll find a few minutes to write a race update, including outfit choice and basically nothing else.