Comments on: A Busy Saturday

By: Matt Ball

Matt Ball — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:57:13 +0000

I think my back problems are mostly genetic — many of my siblings and other relatives have lower back issues of some kind. Also, sitting in chairs all day doesn’t help.

More recently, I had lower back problems related to bike riding. I’ve mostly been off the bike the last year, and I think it’s helped.

Mike ran a different marathon and did it at about a 10 min/mile pace (around 4.5 hours). I recall that he ran most or all of it with Claire, so it’s hard to say what Mike’s fastest time would have been.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:12:02 +0000

Matt, that was a pretty good run! At my current weight of 215lbs, I’m not sure I could run much of a marathon even if I did build up my long run over the next three months. Did the marathon have anything to do with the back problems?

Also Ducky told me he ran a marathon a few years back. Were you two in the same one by any chance?

By: Matt Ball

Matt Ball — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:16:54 +0000

I still think in American, so to translate, you ran about 10 miles in 1 hour 26 minutes, for an average rate of 8.6 minute miles. When I ran my marathon several years ago at about the same pace (3 hours 45 minutes). I do some running now, but haven’t been competitive ever since my lower back had problems. I’ll go for 50 minute runs now, probably for between 5-6 miles. With 2 kids and a heavy work load, it’s been hard to find the time I used to have.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 05:59:25 +0000

Range, I used to be on a cross-country team as a teenager, so it’s probably a lot easier to start up again than it would be if I didn’t have that background.

As I got more competitive, one of the things my coach emphasized most was the value of a long run. He said that doing a long run at a pace slow enough to allow talking comfortably was one of the pillars of aerobic conditioning. The body adapts to longer distances as long as you do one every couple of weeks. Even for people just racing a 5k, he recommended 15k long runs. The thing is, it’s important not to go fast on the distance day. Speed training can be done on other days. If you do too fast on the long day, as I just did, it takes much longer to recover and messes up your next several runs.

I don’t really have any running goals at this point, though. I’ve just realized how much I enjoyed it over the last month.

By: 維特利

維特利 — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 19:31:34 +0000

One and a half hour run. Wow! I ran three times a week about 20 minutes each time.I think it’s about 4 km. Half a year ago when I started it took me 22 min to run the same distance.

By: range

range — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:44:40 +0000

Wow, I’m impressed by your run time. I’ve started getting into shape as well and will run over the summer in Taipei as well. Though I don’t think that I’ll be able to run 16K, my goal is to be able to run about 8-10K. Before I used to run 4K a day.