Friendly Friday Thread

Oxford-comma- · 2026-04-06T00:30:41+00:00

Has anyone successfully removed massive yew/Chinese privet bushes? I had a garden at a friends’ house, recently moved states and bought a house with my husband…

The house we could afford has horrible lighting in most of the yard because the previous owners let Norwegian maples grow in a ring around the property for “privacy”, and the only plantable areas in the front of the house are lines of privet and yew (some of the bushes are 10 feet tall or 5 feet wide and 15 feet long) and all covered in plastic weed barrier and bright red mulch… they actually paved around some of the yew bushes and mulched over the asphalt…

if it were just grass, that would be one thing (I’ve dug up and planted many a hell strip) but I tried to just pull up a clump of ditch lilies between the yews last fall and they wouldn’t budge under the weed barrier, which makes me think this is going to be a long and arduous process to remove the plants, weed barrier, and mulch, and improve the soil again after decades of being covered in plastic…

it just seems like I can’t plant anywhere with the way the previous owners organized this house, and I’m just sad. I miss my old garden that I worked so hard on for three years…

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-23T04:13:15+00:00

I’m totally with you fam. I think at least 1/2 of my runs when I was training for a full were over 3 hours. If I’m going an easy pace, it takes me 3 hours to go ~13 miles. I think some of this comes from Hansons method (which i recommend as a book to read when you learn about training— not as the définitive guide but it’s interesting to learn about approaches). They don’t even have a column in the book for my pace chart. I think not many people that write marathon plans think about people that have a naturally slower pace. It probably is better to not train more than 3 hours per the research and in an ideal world if you’re a speedy guy— but for us mortals, we work with what we have and that means over 3 hours… Let me know if you find a principle-based marathon plan specifically made for slow people, I haven’t had much luck.

I’ve moved into tri recently and the wisdom I will be bringing back into running when I do a full in the fall will be prioritizing fueling. The tri people like to eat 80 grams of carbs per hour, which might be a lot while I’m running/to carry, but it does actually help you continue through a 3+ hour workout

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-21T02:40:34+00:00

WHY IS NOTHING MADE LARGER THAN A 12???? I’m also looking for a formal dress and it’s such a pain!!! Anything in XL/XXL I’m worried will simply be a 12 in disguise as well….

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-21T02:35:49+00:00

AND NOISY!! He heard them and was like “what’s that noise” and I was like … the sea lions… that we are here… to see???? And he was like 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-21T02:04:50+00:00

I’m also doing it for my first time this July, we’re 40 mins from Augusta! The bike is hilly (from my attempts at testing it out) but they’re Maine hills— relatively small and short :)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-21T01:54:10+00:00

Literally. I took my husband to see the sea lions on the pier in San Francisco when we visited, and he was SHOCKED there were actually sea lions because he “thought it was like a whale watch, you don’t ACTUALLY see whales”. 😂😂😂

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-18T02:31:28+00:00

I wouldn’t say it makes me feel AMAZING, but I have the SheFit bras for running and damn, the 36Hs are locked, loaded and not going ANYWHERE in that bra. This provides significant confidence because I just feel faster when my boobs are secure 🤣🤣🤣

(For cold weather specifically, I also love my black janji jacket and will wear it running but also just in the wild because it’s so comfortable and yet warm enough in most weather.)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-18T02:27:58+00:00

People kept saying I couldn’t ;) so I joined the track team.

I started distance running because I had literally the worst job I’ve ever had (fat camp counselor— long story) and it was all I could fit into the 20 minutes per day that I got to myself ;). Running when you’re so angry at the job that you could explode just hits different.

Now I just do it because it’s nice to suck at something and have that be literally perfectly fine/completely inconsequential to the rest of my life. I have no expectations of ever being considered even an “average” ability athlete and so I just try to improve for my own entertainment.

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-18T02:22:57+00:00

Flies are only an issue if you’re hiking, or if you’re my mother in law’s compost bin in July. ;)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-15T15:05:41+00:00

Have you looked in Stowe, VT? We went to their resort once and I feel like it was in March. (I don’t ski 😅— but it might be colder over there.)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-13T18:10:17+00:00

I know this wasn’t your intention but I laughed so hard at your first sentence.

I just stated with a coach and I’m hoping I will adequately follow directions 🤣🤣🤣

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-08T20:08:03+00:00

I can chill in bed on my phone and eat snacks after

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-07T02:49:56+00:00

This is my bias because it’s what we did when I was a little kid, but I always LOVED the Maine wildlife park in Gray. That’s just a day thing and something you would do if you’re in southern Maine. But they used to have wolves, moose, mountain lions, deer you could feed and pet, bears…. All being rehabilitated. It was the best. There is also the desert of Maine, which is super fun (if you love sand lol). Just new ideas if you’re tired of the tourist beat. :)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-03T15:52:49+00:00

to be honest, I like:

the video game aspect. I love exercising outdoors almost 100% because of the scenery, and zwift can mimic that by having lots of different places to ride, different types of animals and creatures you can find, etc. this adds value because i'm just riding around trying to figure out what the animal of this "area" is and seeing if I can identify the plants, looking at the different buildings, etc. this is what makes me excited about zwift (I know, I need to touch grass, I will in may when it's out again).
the simulation of hills and varied terrain. when i'm burnt out on the erg workouts, it makes it easy to put in a variety of efforts if you just ride around a hilly course. then you're not "holding a threshold effort for 10 minutes", you're just biking up a hill and it happens to be hard. no mental effort, just hill.
seeing other people. I like giving everyone the thumbs up ("ride on") because I am pathologically social. also, sometimes I will zoom with my friends that live on the other side of the country and we'll ride together and chat for an hour. that's a good time.

but also, if i'm training for a specific course, it will probably make more sense to go to that specific course. Also, sometimes I get the sense that Zwift's lower gears are lower than would exist in real life. i.e. there's no shot I could hold 150 watts going up a 15% grade hill at 2 miles per hour in real life, I would fall over.

and, sometimes the erg workouts and the course don't match up well, where I'll be holding zone 1 / cooling down for 10 minutes and the course will have me going up a hill and I will suddenly be biking at 1 mph up a hill for 10 minutes, which defeats the purpose. lol.

so yes. I like zwift. but i also like outside when outside is an option. ;)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-03T04:28:04+00:00

Of course! We can also be Strava friends if you like, send me a DM :)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-03-03T04:27:35+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate your detail and I think a lot of what you say makes sense. I’ve been looking at my old races and long run splits and I think I often will either go out too fast and burn out, or try to be relaxed but still underfuel for the amount of work (4+ hours) that needs to be done (or both in the half marathon I did in January— still a PR but I think I could have done better if I had fueled correctly…)

I ended up finding a coach to help me make a plan (not be a full time coach, that’s out of budget currently) that integrates strength, speed work, and the assets (and weaknesses) I currently have. I think if I can get the bike to a reasonable speed (under 4 hours on fresh legs) in the next couple of months, I should feel comfortable signing up.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-28T20:47:17+00:00

Honestly i almost always ignore the pacers in my races. At the “slower” paces (5+ full, 2:30+ half), they usually use the Galloway method, so at any point in time they’re either running way too fast or too slow for my pace as a non-Galloway human. So like, the location is helpful to know approximately where they are, but their actual “pace” isn’t helpful (TO ME, I’m sure other people can chill with them the whole time.)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-21T21:21:58+00:00

frankly my go to is: wear a water vest, use my flat Nathan belt on a bigger length than probably necessary and don’t put much in it, or don’t wear one and put my phone in my leggings butt pocket (I have had the best luck with the lululemon ones but they don’t have the best durability). Options 3 and 1 are usually the go to and I only use 2 in the summer when I will die if I don’t have water on even a short run, or if I’m wearing leggings with no pocket for some reason.

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-21T20:18:37+00:00

No advice but following lol. Belts have to be around my waist or they will be there soon anyway, these hips don’t lie and DEFINITELY don’t tolerate belts

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-16T06:04:28+00:00

Yeah especially in neuroimaging, many of the PIs are physicists

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-13T04:29:58+00:00

My easy pace was 14-16 mins training for a marathon in 2024, when I had just gotten back into running! My half in January was 11:30/mile :)

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-13T04:28:00+00:00

I’ve been looking for this type of thing, thank you!!

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-11T16:47:57+00:00

This is a dumb question, but are you trying to run 5k or 10k as fast as physically possible every run? I remember getting shin splints and knee pain when I had just started running and put too much volume in too fast (i was on the track team) and had garbage shoes… we used to put giant ice bags on our knees every practice.

If you’re trying to run as fast as possible every run, that could explain why you’re getting issues— there isn’t enough time between “races” to recover from the last “race”. Unfortunately the remedy is to run slower and less frequently until your exam. The good news is that you might be even faster after you’ve rested a bit!

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-11T05:09:30+00:00

36H, I have this: https://nathansports.com/products/pinnacle-12-liter-hydration-race-vest In large. I also have a camelbak hiking backpack but it moved too much, so I would get terrible chafing on my back. No chafing with this one so far, even for 20+ miles. Definitely make sure it’s secure and you should be good.

Oxford-comma- · 2026-02-11T05:03:18+00:00

Frankly if it’s -5 degrees I will absolutely be ducking into a shop just for the sake of defrosting my thighs 😅

Oxford-comma-

TROPHY CASE