I've been waiting for you to post about your results. Way to go!!!



That's a huge improvement, from the back of your category to top half... and even after having to delay training over surgery!



I can just imagine how much you'll have improved again before your next one.

I had the problem of my feet falling asleep when I started running. From my research at the time (internet, reading, talking to others) it seemed to be caused by shoes.



I ended up getting fit for proper running shoes and this helped immensely.



I'd suggest trying a few things first, although I always recommend getting properly fitted for shoes.



Try tying your shoes differently. It's quite possible that the shoes are too tight, and putting pressure on the blood flow, which can cause your foot to go to sleep. Also, the longer you exercise, your feet start to swell. For endurance runners, you usually buy a shoe that is half to a full size bigger for extra room. Should you have a lot of weight to lose, I'd imagine this could become a bigger problem with less time/distance.



A few of you have mentioned that you've tried different shoes. Where the shoes tied differently? Or different sizes? What was different about them?

I did my first half in August. It wasn't a total disaster, and I did slightly better than expected, but I learned a few things about myself and races along the way.



When I showed up, there was no pace bunny for 2:15, only 2:10 and 2:20. I should have gone with the 2:20 group, and then if I was feeling good, sped up halfway through. Instead, I went with the 2:10 group - who actually went out running around a 2:06 pace. Yikes! So about the time we made it to the 10k mark, I had fallen behind my group. I had gone out way to strong and hard and it killed me on the second half.



I was doing 10 and 1's (10 minutes running, 1 minute walking) for the race. But for the second half, it was often 5 and 1, or 5 and 2. At one point I walked for over 5 minutes. By not going out with the slower group, I didn't have the energy to keep up a strong second half. This also left me running by myself instead of in the company of others.



So while I finished, and was proud of myself for doing so (something I wasn't sure I could do only a few months earlier) I was still annoyed that I didn't have as perfect a race as I had hoped.



But since then, as I've had more time to think about it, I've realized that first experience gave me some awesome advice and experience for my next one.

1) go out slow, and if possible, speed up halfway through

2) if you can run with a buddy, go for it (if I hadn't had my ipod, I would've gone nuts)

3) set up multiple goals (mine were to finish upright, then finish in under 2:30 and the top goal of finishing in under 2:15)

But best of all, I now have a personal best finish time (and so do you) - which is also a time to beat.



So, my main advice for you would be the following.

Remember the best part of running, is running for yourself. Don't focus on what place you came in, focus on what you learned from the run - which is probably that it's best not to run at all if you're injured.



Just think, you've finished your first race and you have a new personal best. Now, when you're ready, you can run again and aim to beat that time. Based on your first race, assuming you don't injure yourself right before the next race, this will be easy.



Instead of signing up for a run right away, take the time to heal properly. You've probably re-injured yourself, or at least set you back a bit, from forcing the muscle through the entire run. Slowly ease back into running, and work yourself up to your next run.



And last but not least, someone always has to be last. And at least you DID finish. (I tried to find a stat of the approx. % of people who ever complete a half, but I couldn't. But I'm sure it's tiny.)

Link



Note, I didn't read the text on the site, I just scrolled down to check out the pictures. These all seem to be the stretches they showed us when I did my clinic.



I usually only remember to do 1, 4, and 5.

Awesome to here there are a few of us running/walking it.



Edmonton isn't one of the official sites either, but the Running Room here has partnered with Nike to host mini versions of the official run. So I'll still get to go out and run with a group of people on a course with markings.



Should be fun.

Very true Ara. The big thing to think about, is making it through each workout fully. There's nothing wrong with running slower so that you can run the entire run segments.

I would say get the cross trainers.



Reason: if you do want to have running shoes for running, it's best to keep that pair for only running. That means having a pair of shoes for running, and a different pair for using in the gym for everything else. Of course, you could get a pair of running shoes to use as gym shoes. Just find the pair that fits you best and is most comfortable.



And congratulations as well

Quick answer, take breaks, absolutely.



Unless you've been running for years, and have been slowly upping your mileage and days of running, don't run everyday.



The rule of thumb is that you can increase your weekly (not daily, but total mileage over a week) by 10% each week. However, if you do this, every three or four weeks you should cut back down a bit, and then slowly increase again. Of course, you really need to pay attention to yourself to see if you can even handle that much.



Below is probably more advice than you wanted/need... so take what you want and ignore the rest. If you have more questions, ask, and I'll let you know what I've learned so far - I've only been running for not quite a year and a half, but I started with the c25k program, and just ran a half marathon last weekend. I've had no injuries, so this advice has worked for me.



I would start by:

1) working your weekly mileage to about 10-15 km a week over 3 days a week before adding more days and/or really increasing your mileage.

2) dividing your mileage between these three runs such that two are shorter and one is longer (say 4, 4, and 7, or 3, 4 and 8...) and take a rest day after the long run day. The long run should be done SLOWLY - running yes, but slower than you run on the other two days. The point is to get through the mileage, not worry about speed. Where I run, for our long runs we use the 10 and 1 method - run 10 minutes, walk 1 for the entire run. Our short runs would be constant running. You should be able to hold a conversation during a long run.

3) when you start upping your mileage, either increase your long run that week or one of your short runs (but not more than that until you have a much higher weekly mileage) - and don't aim for all three to be the same

4) when you start having a weekly mileage of more like 25-30km or more, then start thinking about adding a fourth day, and look into different types of runs - keep a long run day, look into tempo and steady runs. You don't want to become a one speed runner, at least not if you want to get faster.



Of course, not all of the above our necessary, as it really depends on what your goals are when it comes to running. Do you want to run just for fitness (about 30 minutes at a time?), do you want to train to run endurance races - 1/2 or full marathons, ultras?), do you want to be a 5k or 10k runner? These would all slightly change the above suggestions.



I was a 1 speed runner for about my first year running until I trained for my half and they forced me to run at different speeds. I didn't really understand how useful it was until I did it and was amazed by the differences it produced.

They had a sale on running shoes right before my half marathon so I went to get a replacement pair just so I had them. My current pair had only about 300km on them, 400km if you count my walking to and from running in them as well. But the difference between them already was crazy. Trying on a new pair of the same style was like walking on air and I could feel everything through my old pair.



I think it's good to track mileage, but watching for injuries, and/or changes in how you run in them is just as important. I know some people who have more than one pair, so that they don't have to run in the same pair back to back to give the cushioning more time to bounce back.

Thanks Rachael, I was trying to think of how to put it, and you captured it exactly.





It's times like this when I wish we can close a thread to prevent more comments. I knew I shouldn't have posted at all in this one, but I did and now regret it.



It's unfortunate that traineo has slowly started to being taken over by a few posters who present a "I'm right and screw you" attitude. But, like life, you just gotta take the comments that help, and toss the rest aside.



For me, this topic is now closed.

True. I guess we can also extend that to what does it actually mean to be poor.



I don't make a lot of money (grad student here) but I often find I have more money to spend then my friends, even though I have a much higher rent where I live. I believe budgeting is crucial, but many people don't want to take the little time to do so. It's amazing to track your spending over a month or so to learn where you are really spending it. Always surprising.

I guess I'm a little late to chime in, but I'll make my post anyway. :P



For a mp3 player, just get one that has a flash drive not a hard drive. The only reason I would suggest an iPod nano is if you're interested in the nike+ system which I really like.



For clothing, get technical fabrics. More expensive then cotton, but shouldn't chaff. They also wick sweat away from the body which helps keep you cool. If you still find you have problems with various clothes (which does happen), then look into Body Glide, it's like Vaseline, but not oil based. You put it on where clothes rub and it prevents the friction.



Sounds like you already got shoes, I hope you got properly fitted. If not, see how they work out. Running shoes that have been fitted well shouldn't need an insole unless you have an orthopedic one.



Try and keep track of the miles/km you put on your shoes, and try and keep them only for running. It's best to have about 24 hours between runs so that the cushioning has a chance to bounce back. Shoes usually last about 500m or 800km. But this really depends on how hard you are on your shoes. If you run and push down really hard on the cushioning they may last less. If you're light on your feet then they could last longer. If you start getting shin pain, blisters, or any other change in feeling while running then it's time to replace.

Not completely true. In the territories, as well as tiny communities where access is not easy prices rise very fast. I know someone who is moving to Baffin Island (extreme example) to teach. He has been told to pack 7 (yes SEVEN) suitcases of food (that they will cover for him to take on the plane) because the prices up there are so high.



I just looked up chicken breast prices at the Real Canadian Superstore near me (which would be considered a lower quality place to shop). Chicken breasts are on sale for $2.98/lb. Food prices in Canada, even in the bigger cities, are quite a bit higher than in the states.





I think it's completely reasonable to not want to tell others the city you live in. Especially if you live in a city/town with a small population, where it would be easy to track you down from that information. It's not like information posted in the traineo forms is hidden from everyone else.





This was my favorite line in the posts because it made me laugh. To me, to have an income where you'd be considered poor would have to be more like under $30k, but that's just me.



Hmm... this talk about food prices makes me want to suggest that everyone goes to their grocery store and reports the price of 4 liters of milk, a dozen eggs, and 4 chicken breasts (hopefully in a value pack).

I've said the same thing every time someone asks this question. Go and get fitted by a running store. Nothing can replace being correctly fitted for shoes by someone who watches how you walk/run.



If price is a huge concern, then go to one of these stores, have them help you out, and then right down model/size and look around. I don't recommend this, because I feel we should support the stores that provide this service.



I can tell you what shoes I use, but the chance you need the same is very doubtful. Same for everyone else on this site.

Yikes... I'm speechless.



I completely agree that it can be more expensive to eat healthily than to eat crap. However, I totally disagree that you have to prioritize your spending to the point you spend more on your body than on your mortgage! That's insane. I think if you're the poorest of the poor, then you will probably have a really hard time eating healthy. However, with some creative spending, and looking around at things like farmers markets, you should be able to eat healthy at many incomes. You don't have to buy fresh vegetables. Yeah, fresh are going to make an awesome salad, but frozen make just as awesome a stirfry as fresh.



She also claims that fresh fruit and veggies last 2-3 days in the fridge? What temperature is she keeping her fridge at.





What a load of crap.



I'm also not one for personal trainers. I think they'd probably be really good while you have one, but I'd worry that you'd have a hard time self motivating yourself to workout as hard without one.



She has a point about money making it easier to manage your weight, but she seems to present it as if you don't have or are not willing to spend a lot of money you're going to be fat. That, I think, is a load of bs.

They stream everything on the CBC site. If you can't find an American channel worth watching, try http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/.



They have a general mismatch of sports they show, as well as separate channels that focus on more specific sports. I think you should be able to watch from the US. Then again, I always get the "not available in your area" when I try to watch US stuff in Canada.

Yeah, I saw the second sort of crash as well. The Canadian there had to lift her bike and dodge around the fallen bike, pushing it away by the tire.



I like being on a bike, but it does scare me a bit. When I was 16 I broke my left wrist in 2 places from a fall on a bike. We think I hit a pothole and the front tire got caught. Next thing I knew I was lying on my side against the ground. I didn't even realize my wrist had been broken until someone pointed it out. However, once you saw it, it was very obvious something was not right.



From the commentators last night, sounds like the men's triathlon should be even more exciting tonight as they think the front group on the bike will be much larger. However, that means more opportunities for accidents. I'll have to watch part of it.

The triathlon wasn't on TV in the states? Odd... we had it up here on CBC. Then again, we actually had people in that event, so it was nice to see it being broadcast versus the next US woman's beach volleyball game.

I watched part of the triathlon. I caught the end of the swim, random parts of the bike, and probably just over half of the run before I was too exhausted to stay up and went to bed.



Did you catch the bike crash? One of our three Canadians was involved and broke her left arm or wrist. Ouch.



The Australian was so far ahead in the run from the get go.

Here are a couple of pictures.



Lined up, waiting for the start:





My niece cheering me (and others) on:





Finishing:





Keelan (my niece) inspects my medal... I'm not sure what she thought it was, as she kept trying to feed it to me.

Well, this morning I ran my first half marathon. It went incredibly well, especially considering last weekend I came down with the flu, and a couple weekends before I had such a bad cold I missed one my long runs.



I was aiming to 1) finish, 2) be less than 2:30, and 3) (my main goal) be under 2:15.



I came in at 2:14:58 about on the clock. My chip time was 2:14:09!



There ended up being no pace group for 2:15. Instead, they had a 2:10 and 2:20. I started with the 2:10 group and then lost them at the base of the second hill (almost 10k in). They were going super fast, around a 2:06 pace and I just knew I couldn't keep up with them for the remainder of the race.



I ran mostly by myself, but a few runners from my clinic ran with me briefly before speeding ahead. I did a lot of walking in the second half, but thankfully I has such a fast first half it was okay.



It was super hot, as expected. But there were water stations about every 3k. They had water, Gatorade, gels and orange slices. I just stuck to the water, as I had Gatorade with me.



My entire family came out to watch, including my grandma and my niece, so that was cool. My sister had made my niece a little shirt that said "My Aunt just ran her 1st half marathon" on the front, and the half marathon and date on the back. She's only 20 months old, and it was very cute.



Anyway, I can hardly believe it's over. But it felt so good to do it. There were people out cheering along the route which was really nice. The police and volunteers did an awesome job of keeping the cars stopped for us through the various intersections.



The run was followed by a brunch. It tasted good, but I couldn't eat much. My stomach doesn't really like food after exercising.



Hm... now I need a new goal. :P



I'll post some pictures when I get a hold of them. Most are on my sisters camera.

Or get the SwitchEasy RunAway system. Makes it easy to switch between shoes, is waterproof and using the various hacks around don't always work. I used one that I found online and it would sometimes come out.



Anyway, just find what works best for you.

I love my nike+. I use to really really love it, but then I started having all these issues with trying to get one replaced... long story. So I now have a garmin too... Might as well keep using the Nike, since I have my ipod along for music.



Just a note, you really really really (can't stress this enough) really need to calibrate the nike+ or you will get very off results. If I run without calibrating it, it will often tell me I've run 5k when I've only run about 4.5. This then translates into having the wrong pace time being shown. Not a huge deal if you only ever want to run by yourself. However, if you ever plan on running any kind of race, it's nice to have a more accurate idea of distance when you're preparing.

Thought people might find this article interesting. It's nothing really new, but nicely presented in a "get up and get moving" sort of way. No excuses.

Sounds like you're having and awesome time and impressing everyone! Way to go. Keep us posted as the training/season continues.

I think it's Shawn W that keeps posting that diet is key and exercise just helps. I'm firmly in that boat with him. Exercise is awesome, it makes you feel good, it burns calories, you usually end up with more energy, etc, etc.



However, many people translate exercise into I can eat whatever I want because I exercised. However, most people have a huge lack of understanding as to how many calories activity x burns. If you only exercise, and don't look at your diet, your diet will probably easily grow and cancel out any gains in exercising. Think about it, you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes and probably burn around 300 calories. You eat a 4 oreos with an extra glass of milk (good for you, protein, calcium...) and have now easily eaten more calories then you burned (and this probably took less than 5 minutes). It also probably didn't feel like you ate any or much more than normal.



I think exercise and diet can work together. If your only goal is weight loss, then diet will help you take it off and keep it off. If your goal is to get into shape for some activity, then you have to add exercise into the equation, but you can't forget about diet.



Apparently the average American eats 3790 calories a day, even though the suggested daily amount is around 2000 for an adult. That's almost double. 30 minutes of exercise (even 1.5 hrs) with no change in diet isn't going to help. Sure you'll lose weight at the beginning, but not for long, as to maintain consuming that much means you have to start burning more and more per day. And yet, as you get more in shape you're going to burn less, so have to work harder... what a vicious cycle.



I think the main problem with these studies, is that too many are done looking at either calorie restriction or exercise, instead of combining them. You said it yourself (with my added emphasis) "I've gotten a lot healthier and stronger after adopting exercise and better nutrition."

Thanks for all the support guys.



I'm feeling 100% better now. I did go for my run yesterday morning. It was short (6k) and nice and slow and so it was a good run to get back into it. I did spend all Friday, Saturday (minus a quick trip to the farmers market for yummy fruit and a trip to the grocery store for bread and orange juice) in bed. And then relaxed all day Sunday after my run.



Tonight I will have swimming, where I will take it easy, and then tomorrow we have a 10k race pace run to get us pumped and motivated for next Sunday. I'll be posting sometime next Sunday/Monday as to how my run goes. I'm aiming for 2:15.

Four years??? But they're on every 2 years! Don't forget about the winter!



Then again, I one of the recent titles on an article on msnbc was along the lines of "who cares about the winter olympics." Obviously that person has never spent much time in Canada. Here's it's who cares about the summer. :P We still strongly support our athletes (just not really financially), but we have much better athletes in the winter and way more medal opportunities.



I've been watching the Canadian feed and still find it often focuses on the Americans. Although, we have been breaking lots of Canadian records over there, it's just not our fault that even after breaking those records we still come in 6 or 7.



Hmm... if I could compete... it'd been in swimming, long distance running, or cycling (or maybe a combination). :P

If you need to, slow down while running. There's nothing in the program that says you have to run at a certain speed. This is why it's broken into either running for distance or time, but not both.



Are you slightly out of breath, or really panting-can't-catch-your-breath? If it's the first, you're probably right where you should be. The second? I'd say you need to slow down. Try running the last day again slower, and see if that helps. If so, move on, otherwise repeat.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm finally feeling a bit better.



I slept pretty much all day yesterday, and then slept in this morning. I'm one of those weird people who is always awake by 7am, alarm or no alarm. But this morning it was closer to 10 by the time I woke up. Haven't slept that long/late in a very long time.



I've been sipping away at ginger ale and gatorade and seem to be able to handle actual food now.



Hopefully I can make my training run tomorrow morning. Only 6km, so should be doable if I get another good nights sleep.