what part of denver do you live in?? That might make a difference too!! Im in the North/Northwestern burbs

Good afternoon everyone! Only have a few minutes then I gotta SPLIT! I got me a spinning class!

MK, your salad sounds interesting and yummy!

Blue, I am *SO* committed to this half marathon now! I've been telling everyone. Excitement!

Skinny Jeans, That is awesome! Congrats on your success so far with CLX! I am really excited to get it now!

Nada, your friend had a good idea!

Dancer, I absolutely LOVE Ross! I've found 6 nike dri/fit sports bras there and an AWESOME bright green Nike long sleeve pullover. I am thinking of making a trip out there soon. And as far as reflective vests, If I do run outside when it is dark I am required to wear a reflective belt (I live on a military base) but right now since it is cold I've been running on the indoor track so I haven't had to wear one.

Well, I gotta go work out! Have a nice afternoon everyone!

eve - now you've got me inspired - I will be hitting the discount stores regularly looking for steals! Love the sound of your pullover.

mk - Your neighborhood sounds pretty safe - glad to hear it! I live in central Denver and do most of my running near cheeseman park. Definitely the odd sketchy character around at times but mostly okay and lots of nice-seeming people out walking their dogs or pushing kids in strollers. Let's hope the drunks are home sleeping it off by the time you get out there! I'm lucky to have a flexible work schedule a few days a week so I can get most of my runs in at lunch or late afternoon and don't have to worry about the dark.

Happy running....

Ok, I am back and in need of some serious butt-kicking. I just looked at my calendar and realized that I AM RUNNING A 10K IN LESS THAN 2 WEEKS! O crap!! I have been making every excuse under the sun to not work out - too tired, feeling a little sick, too busy. Sheesh! This race just crept up on me. I am going to a conference this week BUT I just checked and the hotel does have a pretty decent-looking fitness room (thank goodness, cos it's in Minnesota and I have NO cold weather running gear since I live in Arizona!).

Iris! Get your butt running missy!

You can totally do this 10k!

MBN - Thanks for the advice about carrying water during longer runs. At what distance did you start using gels/beans/etc?

Mk - Sorry you had a crappy run! But like you say, it happens to everyone and I'm sure your next run will be great and you'll forget all about it!

FatPants - Glad to hear you got rid of that halloween candy! It's still haunting me...haha. Sounds like that workout video has done wonders for you. That's awesome!

Bablou - Your 6 miles times are awesome! How often do you run and how long are you distances usually? Sounds like you're doing great!

Eve - That's fantastic!!! When is the race? I'm registered for my first half in February and can't wait! What's your training plan? I'm starting to get into longer runs these days (over 6 miles) and am gonna experiment with water/food so I have it all down for race day. You should hopefully know by then if you should bring anything with you or if the fuel station at mile 6 will be enough to get you through. Practice makes perfect!

Iris - RUN!!!

I got in a really short run today (2 miles) because I was planning on going to boot camp tonight, but now that it gets dark at a freakishly early hour, I couldn't drag my butt there. Oh well, I'll make it up tomorrow. But I think I'll make up the low mileage with the other runs this week, maybe go for 2 4 milers and then attempt 8 miles on Sat or Sun. Yikes! Everytime I think about running farther than I have before, it scares the s**t out of me! But what's the worst that can happen? I'll walk!

I don't bother with gels and such unless I'm doing more than 10 miles. It depends on your overall fueling and timing though. I run first thing in the morning, and I really don't like to eat RIGHT before I run. It just doesn't sit well. So, for runs of less than 10 miles, I just get up and go. More than 10 and I start to poop out with no fuel, so I've started popping one cliff block (30 calories) before I start, and another about 3/4 of the way through. I'll add another block for every additional 3-4 miles. And that seems to work fine. I like the shot blocks because I can portion it out better, a full gel at 100 calories of sugar is way too much for me at once. My stomach doesn't like it. And trying to shoot half a gel and carry the rest for later gets messy. If I ran with gatorade, I wouldn't need shots at all, but I prefer water.

Everyone is different though -- you have to experiment and see what works. That's the beauty of training, you have time to try different things and work it out before the race. You don't want to do anything new/different on race day!! (maybe it will work, but if not .... can make for a rather miserable time)

I'm so glad I don't have to run in the cold ....

its 3 30am!!! Wahoos!!
Headin' out the door for my 7 mile LA Threshold RUn (aka, tempo). Will do one mile warm up, 2 miles @ 7 :12 1 mi easy @ 8:45 2 mi hard @ 7:12 1 mi cooldown.

I wonder why MBN is online at 3 am also?

I had a pretty good run this morning. I started off really cold, but after about 10 minutes I started to warm up a bit. The last kilometre and a half were a little rough but that's likely because I haven't done the full 5k circuit since I caught a cold about 10 days ago. But I did it again and I'm rather proud of myself.

MBN - Thanks for the info! I'll definitely do some experimenting.

Mk - Hope you had a good early morning run!

Sylvied - Good job getting back out there!

I went to boot camp this morning so no run for me. The time change totally sucks in the evenings, but it makes for beautiful work out weather in the am! On a more unfortunate note, I'm having some hip pain after my 7 mile run on Saturday. It actually doesn't hurt when I run, but even after running about a mile at boot camp, I was having trouble walking back to my car without a sharp, stabbing pain every time I took a step. I might try to go to yoga today and stretch it out and just hope for the best I guess! Have a good day everyone!

Hi Everyone. Just had my first run in years last night. I ran for about 20 minutes at a fairly decent pace (not super fast/not super slow), I'm pretty proud of me Anyways, I'm just hopping into this thread and I hope that's ok! Thanks everyone~!

Welcome Sporty!!! Of COURSE its ok!! Glad you decided to start running again!! What made you decide to pick it up again? How much running did you do in your past?

TC- Take care of that hip!! Just watch it, alright? Sometimes i get weird hip/bursitis pains and they go away after a day or 2 on their own..... Its possible it might be temp. inflamed from the increase in mileage or from something you did in bootcamp!

Sylvied--- i love my cold early morning runs....sometimes its hard to get my butt out the door, but i always warmup so fast, and i find the cold air is so refreshing to run in!! Glad you had a good run!!

So, im following this specific training program for that 10k i want to compete at, and the tempo runs im supposed to do should be "comfortably hard"(to quote the book).well, since im really stepping up the speeds and trying to maximize my improvement in just 6 weeks, "comfortably hard" has begun to mean UNCOMFORTABLY Hard!! Both Yesterdays 800's interval workout, and then todays 7 mi Lactic acid threshold were REALLY HARD. UNCOMFORTABLY hard. I struggled trying to maintain the 7:12 pace, and sometimes was NOT able to maintain it. But this is good. This is GOOD for me! I was getting very complacent and content with my running ability. Its time to remember how to handle being "uncomfortable" again. This is where i/we/runners find improvement!!
So, when im complaining about how hard my runs feel in the next few weeks, its a good thing, not a running funk, bad run kinda thing!

Not me lately that's for sure. sick kids, sick dad,sick mom : relapse repeat. Over TWO LAME #@!%&**@@$ weeks of nonsense. On the plus side today is beautiful out my kids are finally back in school, and I can almost fully breath thru my nose. Go me.

A short but utterly blissful mile and a half on the TM after spin class today. Wish I would have had more gas, but didn't. It felt great while it lasted though. Is it weird that I still feel better running after I bike? I trained that transition really hard for my tri, but now I still feel the most free when I run after the bike. I feel discombobulated, and stiff when I run alone.

I have that 10 k trail run in less that two weeks and I'm WORRIED. I feel really weak......