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Comment on Runners - please help me with tempo runs! in ~health
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Comment on Runners - please help me with tempo runs! in ~health
Hooked Link ParentExcellent explanation! Thank you for bringing in the technical explanation to the conversation. Your comment is pretty much exactly what my runner friend has explained to me several times, and my...Excellent explanation! Thank you for bringing in the technical explanation to the conversation. Your comment is pretty much exactly what my runner friend has explained to me several times, and my comment is basically my "how do I apply this knowledge" version of it (plus, I don't want to share info that I'm not completely certain of).
As a small sidenote, this is why a lot of couch to 5k programs start out with a lot of walking and short burts of jogging. They are training your aerobic respiratory system so that you can eventually maintain a jogging pace without stopping. A lot of people start out running thinking they have to, well, run the entire time and that they'll eventually get better. Unfortunately, two things happen: First, they are only training their anaerobic system and not their aerobic system (which from my understanding is kind of the foundation of the two). Second, since they're only running anaerobically, they are constantly in pain since they're well last the lactic threshold, leading to people having a bad experience with running and thinking that they are not meant for running (which is a shame!).
So for all new runners out there, start slow! Make sure that during your running workouts you're not constantly gasping for air (even if that means not running a whole lot). A good saying I've heard to determine whether you're aerobic goes like this: "If you can't talk you're going too fast. If you can sing, you're going too slow."
Again, thanks for sharing the science behind it. Maybe at some point we can chat about the glucose in the blood and muscle cells, plus how nutrition during the race helps with all of that, cause learning about that was a total game changer for me in my long runs.
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Comment on Runners - please help me with tempo runs! in ~health
Hooked Link ParentAgreed on this point as well. If you're looking for a great book to learn the different components of training, I recommend the book Faster Road Racing by Pete Fitzgerald and Philip Latter. It's...Agreed on this point as well.
If you're looking for a great book to learn the different components of training, I recommend the book Faster Road Racing by Pete Fitzgerald and Philip Latter. It's got lots of good info about what different work outs are for. It's got tips for training and non-running workouts. It gives information about nutrition before, during, and after the race as well as recovery. And most importantly, it's got training schedules for different distances and different weekly mileage.
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Comment on Runners - please help me with tempo runs! in ~health
Hooked LinkThe way tempo runs have been explained to me is to basically get your body used to running at your goal pace. Your training program probably has easy runs, long runs, speed workouts, and tempo...The way tempo runs have been explained to me is to basically get your body used to running at your goal pace. Your training program probably has easy runs, long runs, speed workouts, and tempo runs. Tempo runs are supposed to incorporate all 3. You're usually running a longer distance than normal, but not quite a long run. You're running pretty hard, but you're not out of breath. You're running smoothly and relaxed, but keeping an eye on your pace.
Since this is your first tempo run, I would recommend running about half of just over half of the distance of your race, at your goal pace +5 or 10 sec/km. Make sure you have a warm up and cool down Km just to make sure you are ready to go.
Good luck! Feel free to ask me any follow up questions.
Edit: Quick couple of things I wanted to add. First, your first tempo run is gonna feel tough. You might feel like you're goal pace is too fast and that you can't do it. That's fine for now, depending on when your race is, you'll have time to get the adaptaions from your training and you'll get better. Second, as you do more tempo runs, check in with how you're feeling. Are you sticking to the pace? Do they still feel very hard? Are you improving? The tempo runs are a great way to see how the race might go. It's similar to. how a teacher does quizzes on the material to get an idea of what the students struggle with as the exam date approaches. The tempo runs are a way to see how you're doing, tracking your fitness, and build some mental toughness as well.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
Hooked Link ParentThe "Criticisms" part of it pretty succinctly expressed how I felt about the point that OP was making. "No statistical estimates are possible for some of the parameters, where only one example is...The "Criticisms" part of it pretty succinctly expressed how I felt about the point that OP was making.
"No statistical estimates are possible for some of the parameters, where only one example is known."
You can't say that other life in the universe is "almost certain" when your sample size is 1.
I want there to be other life in the universe, but I can't make a claim on whether there is or not.
The data that we've gathered about extra terrestrial life (all the habitable planets we've looked at, all the potential solar systems, and all the galaxies in the observable universe) isn't telling us the odds of life in other planets, but it's instead highlighting how rare we are to exist at all.
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Comment on Fellow climbers, boulderers, and other goatlike people: how do you improve? in ~hobbies
Hooked Link ParentOh man, I can't tell you how many times I've gone way too hard and have had to take a break from doing what I like, although I usually have to break due to injuries, not a mental block. I can...Oh man, I can't tell you how many times I've gone way too hard and have had to take a break from doing what I like, although I usually have to break due to injuries, not a mental block. I can totally relate to that though.
One thing that isn't clear to me yet is "why do you climb?" and second "what is it that you're trying to accomplish?".
You can use the answers to these two questions as a North star to guide you on your next moves in the future.
I'll give you two different examples from hobbies where asking myself these questions led to me optimizing my actions to cater to them.
First is disc golf, I got really into disc golf a few years ago. I played in tournaments, I practiced my throws in a field, I spent hours practicing my putts and I got pretty decent. But along the way I realized that I didn't really care about my rating or winning tournaments, and that the true joy that I got from disc golf was playing with my buddies on the weekend and after work, barely keeping score. So I stopped practicing, and just played. There was no need to ruin this beautiful game by sucking the joy out of it with a training regimen or playing it strictly competitively.
The second is running. A coworker introduced me to running and convinced me to train with him for a marathon (which was something that I always wanted to do as a bucket list item). I half assed the training and didn't really push myself, after all I didn't have a particular goal in mind, I just wanted to finish it. The day of the marathon came and even though I wasn't nearly as prepared for it as I should've been, I still got a pretty decent time. And I vowed to myself to find out what my best time could be if I poured everything I had into it. Fast forward a year and I have a new marathon to run and a new goal. The goal wasn't unreachable, but it was definitely going to be a challenge, but during that time I was all in for running. I would wake up at 5am to go for a run, I would eat well, and go to bed early [Quick side note: I injured myself from trying too hard and missed my first marathon, so make sure you listen to your body. Skipping workouts because you're in pain is taking it seriously]. I wasn't necessarily enjoying running (I found it pretty boring), but I knew that every run I went to represented seconds shaved off from the final time, and I wanted to go as low as possible. The day of the race came and I smashed my goal and felt incredible (I cried when crossing the finish line lol), and all the effort was worthwhile.
The point is that I started off doing both hobbies wrong from what I ultimately wanted out of them. With disc golf, I just wanted to have fun and hang out with my friends. And with running, I had a goal that I was working towards. I think you should ask yourself what it is that you want out of climbing and what actions are required of you to get there.
Finally, in regards to your last section about wanting to be the kind of person that does pushups and meditates in the morning, I'll give you a little secret about it. The kind of person that does pushups and meditates in the morning, is a person that does pushups and meditates in the morning. It doesn't take a particular mindset to start something, you start doing it and the mindset emerges naturally.
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Comment on Fellow climbers, boulderers, and other goatlike people: how do you improve? in ~hobbies
Hooked LinkJust like with a lot of different hobbies, if you feel like you're stuck or not enjoying yourself as much, I feel like there are a couple of options. The first is to take a break for a little bit....Just like with a lot of different hobbies, if you feel like you're stuck or not enjoying yourself as much, I feel like there are a couple of options.
The first is to take a break for a little bit. I can't tell you how many times I've been in a rut and taken a break, only to come back a week or two later and being absolutely on fire after shaking the rust off. Taking a break gives your body the rest that it needs if you've been climbing non-stop for a while, and also helps your body commit some of the movements and actions you take into muscle memory, meaning that the next time you go climbing you feel fresh and the movements feel natural.
The second option is to continue to climb, but not in the same way you were before. Take a break from pushing your grades and finding any ounce of improvement from your normal climbing style and work on something that you're not necessarily good at. For example, if you boulder a lot, but feel stuck on a particularly grade, try top rope and with on your endurance, or if you really love crimpy problems, try working on a slab or slopers. The point is to work on something different and new, this gives you a renewed sense of wonder and possibility of learning that you're currently missing while also helping you work on areas that you might be weaker at, making you a better climber overall.
If you have any specific areas that you want to discuss, let me know and we can discuss them. I tried to keep this post pretty generic for anyone who is facing this issue with climbing or anywhere physically demanding hobby, as this has helped me with every physical hobby I've gotten into.
The short of it is that your body needs glucose to activate your muscles. This energy is stored in your blood (and is replenished by eating) and in the muscle cells themselves (and is replenished by sleeping). While you run, your muscles are using energy from both of these stores, but once the glucose from your muscles is out, your done, you will start locking up, your muscles won't fire, and you'll be in a world of hurt. This is known as hitting the wall, and after enough running you'll hit it, the goal is to push that off until AFTER you've finished the race.
One way to slow down the depletion of the energy stores in your cells is to replenish the glucose in your blood. This is why you see runners taking those little packets during their long runs, those packates contain basically pure sugar in a gel, and the runners have trained their gut to be able to absorb that energy while running (you train this by basically doing it a bunch lol, your body will figure it out). The body has a natural rate at which it can absorb nutrition, most people can absorb about 60g of glucose per hour, while the elite athletes are close to 90g per hour! The higher absorption rate means that they can basically keep their levels of sugar in the blood high and thus push off the hitting the wall for longer.
The energy packets I used while training had about 28g of glucose in them, I assumed an average absorption rate of 60g, which means about 2 packets per hour, at the rste I was going that was more or less one packet every 4 miles.
But yeah! that's basically my understanding of it. I'm not exactly clear on how the body decides where to draw its energy from, but all I know is that keeping your blood sugar at normal levels (as if you had just started running) as opposed to depleted (like when you're in the middle of a long run), means that you can last longer and feel fresh for longer. If I got anything else wrong, please correct me!