That was utterly terrifying and I regret having joined you (comments welcome)

[NYC_MW]

Congrats on a great race and trip (and glad you were able to get your card holder back)!

Thanks! Definitely glad to get it back

Congrats!! Awesome race.

Thank you!

Well done!

Thank you!

Wooooo hoooooo!! CONGRATS!!! That's amazing and so awesome!!

Thanks! I'm happy

What a great recap and congrats on your race! My recap will not be nearly as thorough because I emotionally blacked out around mile 3 and went into survival mode. I am no good in the heat!

Enjoy your well deserved rest!

Thanks, you too! Still think it's hilarious that we both lost our wallets at the afterparty.

 

[NYC_MW]

Weirdly, I now don't really know what to run most days. No races on the horizon (til we hear about London lottery, but low hopes for that).
Loosely planning to maintain the scheduling of last couple weeks but not push anything. But we'll see how long before I get bored.
Also am moving cross country in ~two months, so there's that...

 

[NYC_MW]

Managed to catch the cold that's been making the rounds so taking it pretty easy recently. But starting to get better so back to routine.

One question for y'all. The constant bashing against shoes has taken a toll on my toenails. It used to be just a purple one here and there after races, but now they're just perpetually gnarly (won't go into detail as that's TMI). Has anyone been to a podiatrist (I'm assuming it's a pretty common problem)? Or is there some super niche specialty provider? Or do I just live with it and switch to running sandals?

 

[Herding_Cats]

One question for y'all. The constant bashing against shoes has taken a toll on my toenails. It used to be just a purple one here and there after races, but now they're just perpetually gnarly (won't go into detail as that's TMI). Has anyone been to a podiatrist (I'm assuming it's a pretty common problem)? Or is there some super niche specialty provider? Or do I just live with it and switch to running sandals?

Go up half a size? Lace with a "heel lock" if you aren't? Try your shoe in a wide if it's usually big/pinky toes? My running shoes seem so much bigger than my "normal" shoes, but I've only had one nail issue in almost 3 years.

 

[azrivest]

One question for y'all. The constant bashing against shoes has taken a toll on my toenails. It used to be just a purple one here and there after races, but now they're just perpetually gnarly (won't go into detail as that's TMI). Has anyone been to a podiatrist (I'm assuming it's a pretty common problem)? Or is there some super niche specialty provider? Or do I just live with it and switch to running sandals?

Agree with @Herding_Cats about maybe trying a half-size up? It seems drastic to switch to running sandals.

What shoes do you run in? For the fit, I've found it also depends on the brand. For some brands (ASICS, Brooks, HOKA) I wear my regular size 9s. For New Balance and Saucony, I always buy a half-size up 9.5. So "true to size" really depends. I've never run in Mizuno.

 

[NYC_MW]

Go up half a size? Lace with a "heel lock" if you aren't? Try your shoe in a wide if it's usually big/pinky toes? My running shoes seem so much bigger than my "normal" shoes, but I've only had one nail issue in almost 3 years.

Agree with @Herding_Cats about maybe trying a half-size up? It seems drastic to switch to running sandals.

What shoes do you run in? For the fit, I've found it also depends on the brand. For some brands (ASICS, Brooks, HOKA) I wear my regular size 9s. For New Balance and Saucony, I always buy a half-size up 9.5. So "true to size" really depends. I've never run in Mizuno.

Gotcha, thank you! Seems appropriate that this week's SAFD is about running shoes. I've been running in Saucony and usually do size up half a shoe (normally 6 and running in 6.5) but maybe I should try a full size up. Will also look into heel locks.

Should also clarify that the question is also more about: is there any way to salvage the toenails now. A friend said something about removing them, and that seems .

 

[WillRunForPizza]

One question for y'all. The constant bashing against shoes has taken a toll on my toenails. It used to be just a purple one here and there after races, but now they're just perpetually gnarly (won't go into detail as that's TMI). Has anyone been to a podiatrist (I'm assuming it's a pretty common problem)? Or is there some super niche specialty provider? Or do I just live with it and switch to running sandals?

This happens to me too. I do use a heel lock that helped some, And I tried going up half a size, but now I just have a pair of shoes that's a little too loose so I can only wear them with thick socks. At this point, since they don't actually hurt I have kind of just accepted that my toenails will always look like a disaster. So I am no help whatsoever but I can commiserate!

 

[GollyGadget]

Agree with others. Gnarly toes are not normal. I’ve had one slightly purple toenail in my decade of running. I used to have issues with my toenails cutting into neighboring toes but once I actually got fitted for shoes and went the half size up, this hasn’t been a problem.

 

[striker1064]

I will note based on my experience with Saucony shoes is they have gotten both shorter and more narrow in each year recently - I used to reliably wear a 10 wide but my foot will not even fit into an 11.5 wide from them anymore.

Saucony is clearly trying to step up in their running shoe technology, as evidenced by the very impressive results they're getting with the Speed/Pro lines. The current trend on racing shoes like that is to make them as light as possible, with thick, springy cushion. Given most shoe weights are standardized somewhere around a men's size 9 regular width so you can compare different brands, my hunch is Saucony is actually changing the sizes of their shoes little by little over a large timeframe, so what was once a size 9 is now a size 10 and thus the size 10 is lighter than it used to be. But that's just a guess.

All of this to say, I once had a toenail turn purple and fall off, and I thought I was gonna die. It was due to poor-fitting shoes.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Should also clarify that the question is also more about: is there any way to salvage the toenails now. A friend said something about removing them, and that seems .

I had a purple toenail when I first started running, second toe. I thought for sure it was going to fall off but it never did. Once I got proper fitting shoes I just took good care of it. Kept it trimmed, didn’t mess with it too much. It eventually grew out, I mean it took forever, but it did sort itself out.

 

[NYC_MW]

Got to cheer the women's mini 10k last weekend and realized this journal is ~1 year old. Don't think I've ever been that consistent about running HBD Running Sox.

 

[NYC_MW]

Ugh, summer humidity has hit in full force; T/D @ 6am this morning was 73/70. Still nothing compared to others, but bleaaaarrrgh.

 

[NYC_MW]

Made the mistake of casually looking up next year's LA Marathon and realized it'll be on my birthday. Since HM PR was my bday in 2019, OCD brain would love to also have a full PR on that day 5 years later.
Then saw that there are also extra challenge medals for more races and am seriously thinking about doing them all.


What is wrong with me? (This might be the wrong place to ask that question)

 

[Naomeri]

Made the mistake of casually looking up next year's LA Marathon and realized it'll be on my birthday. Since HM PR was my bday in 2019, OCD brain would love to also have a full PR on that day 5 years later.
Then saw that there are also extra challenge medals for more races and am seriously thinking about doing them all.
View attachment 774515

What is wrong with me? (This might be the wrong place to ask that question)

Disney has ruined us all for getting sucked in by challenges (says the person planning to attempt a PR in 3 races in 2 days this fall)

 

[NYC_MW]

Didn't get into London, which I'm okay with because now there are all these new races. And yes, @Naomeri, I am fully embracing getting sucked in by challenges and signing up for all 4 . What better way to explore your new city than to run all over it?

Also partially thanks to @GollyGadget's training journal, going to aim to PR (previous best = 55:49) the Santa Monica 10k coming up in 9 weeks. I've never trained for a 10k before, so this'll be interesting, especially since half of the training will be in the dreaded NY humidity, and the other half in lovely dry CA.

Has anyone every run any of them (Santa Monica Classic, Rose Bowl Half, LA Big 5K, LA Marathon)?

 

[GollyGadget]

Yay! I think you’ll enjoy training for something new.

 

[NYC_MW]

Last two weeks of unplanned running in gross gross humidity. 8 week 10k training plan started this Monday! Let's goooo.

 

[NYC_MW]

Week 1 of 10k plan! Since Strava started a membership preview on me, decided to go with their 8week plan (based on McMillan). Thankfully, summer humidity decided to let up for this week.

Wednesday: 1mile repeats were long compared to Higdon's 400m. It was super helpful to do it with someone else cuz otherwise I would definitely have slowed much more, though we went too fast on the tempos and just ended up walking the recoveries since I was dead.

Saturday: so fun since I got to check off my bucket list of running across the GWB into NJ and back. The newly renovated Northwalk is really nice, and 4 friends graciously came along at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. Then usually scheduled Saturday group run turned into jog/walk.

 

[NYC_MW]

Back! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks: trying to finish up at work, get everything out of the apartment (thank goodness most things were shipped in the POD 3 weeks ago), and meet up with as many friends as possible before heading out. Nothing got done properly, but hopefully good enough. Still figuring out new digs (luckily can stay w/ sis temporarily) and new job has crazy schedule, but training is still semi-on track! Sadly am no longer NYC_MW, but hey, LA_MW is now closer to Disneyland and the weather is MUCH better here.


swapped Wed/Thu/Fri and had to walk the last two recovery intervals for Thursday's workout




swapped Tue/Wed again; doing better at keeping up recovery paces in workout

 

[NYC_MW]

Late update from last week. New work schedule has running schedule all wonky--I don't even know what day of the week it is half the time.


Wednesday: Brought phone on run just to document running past the LACMA lights and the tar pits. The terror in that mama elephant's eyes always gets me.


Thursday: Did not want to do this. Speed work is never fun and those paces are scary. But got out there and told myself, just do 6 repeats, then I thought, I can do 2 more, then that kept going til I hit 12, then I was DONE. Still not fun (and there are more scary ones ahead), but okay, fine, I can do them.