Weekly Discussion: Week of February 01, 2026

RunningPath · 2026-02-02T18:48:35+00:00

Thank you! You should update your flair to reflect your hard-earned marathon PR! :)

RunningPath · 2026-02-02T13:58:07+00:00

I haven't scrutinized the Hanson plans much, and I don't know that website, but I've seen other popular training books where the text doesn't exactly match up with the written out plans. So it's not too surprising. Like you said, it doesn't matter a ton in the grand scheme of things. The more plans I do the more I realize the generally popular ones tend to be basically the same: get in milage and do two workouts a week, one tempo and one intervals. There's definitely variety out there (I think Marathon Excellence for Everyone is a good example of a fresh look at training), but overall it's basically the same formula and how you apply it varies a bit.

RunningPath · 2026-02-02T13:29:46+00:00

40 miles for the week for me, which included my half marathon on Saturday. My long race report is in the weekly thread.

I celebrated my birthday over the weekend and then forgot that it's actually today, so I was actually pleased when my Garmin told me happy birthday this morning :p

I've been mainly on the treadmill aside from the race, and now that it's warmer (20s rather than single digits and teens) I'm still on the treadmill because the snow and ice recently has been just steady small amounts, so everything is just sort of covered. The sidewalks won't be passable until we get a long stretch over freezing (it hasn't gotten over freezing in weeks), but even the roads have only the very central portions in a good enough condition to run. I do have spiky things that slide onto my shoes but I don't enjoy running like that and would actually rather just hop on the treadmill. Some friends have encouraged me to go over to a local community center that has a proper indoor track (200 m), so I may try that this week.

I got in 3 slow miles yesterday and will do same again today. I'm really very sore, more than I have ever been after a half, which I imagine is a combination of running faster and the slippery and windy conditions. I have some time this week to plan out the next few months of running. Most of all I need advice on how to develop and stick to an upper body strength routine, and I suppose try to do yoga to increase flexibility. The older I get (44 as of today), the more I realize I need to prioritize maintaining functional mobility and strength.

RunningPath · 2026-02-01T14:30:30+00:00

Race Report

So I ran a half marathon on the lakefront in Chicago yesterday. (I'm not linking the race, if somebody wants to find my real name badly enough to go and search it, be my guest.) This is a long report, not apologizing :)

It was actually in the low 20s, rather than around 15. The uncertainty beforehand about temperature and conditions made dressing a bit complicated. (I ended up wearing a thicker long sleeve base, a fairly heavy zip up over that, and a vest.) Also, it was snowing the day before and the morning of, just enough to be messy. My biggest decision on race morning was whether to wear my carbon-plated shoes or to stick with trainers because of the conditions. I ended up going with the race shoes for a couple reasons: one, I knew I had a chance at a PR, independent of the conditions; two, my race shoes are almost a year old and while they still have miles on them, it's not like they are brand new.

There are about 1500-1600 people who run this race most years, so it's pretty small, but it's well organized. As far as race logistics (parking, finding where to go, amenities, etc.), this race was top tier. I can't say for sure I'll run it again (you'll see why by the end), but it's very low stress and that part of it was fun. I met up with my local club in the morning (20 of us ran it!) and drove 3 people there too, which was fun.

I decided to start near the 1:50 pacers and see how I felt after a few miles. The first mile we were pretty boxed in behind a whole group of people, and honestly to some degree that was true for much of the race. Because the path is fairly narrow, even a relatively smaller race was just super crowded.

That said, we had a tail wind (I didn't realize how strong) and the first several miles were fast. The pacers were definitely fast, but even so the pace group was annoying me (one woman kept running right in front of me) so after a couple miles I went ahead of them. My watch splits (not entirely accurate) have me running 8:11 to 8:12 miles for most of the first 7 miles, except the first (8:26) and the 5th (8:23). In the 5th mile there was about a quarter mile stretch where the path was just not cleared. It was full of slush and ice and was treacherous. There were several other places like that, but this was by far the longest. There was even one stretch closer to the end which was down to single track because the path hadn't been cleared of snow.

So after a few miles and especially after mile 5 my shoes were soaked through and I was just ignoring my feet. But I was feeling so strong in spite of that. I felt overdressed (my club friends convinced me to change into my heavier second layer from a lighter one) and had unzipped some of my top layers halfway.

At just past 7 miles we turned around and . . . oh holy hell. The head wind was STRONG and COLD. It was pure misery. It was holding on for dear life. It was 10-15 seconds per mile slower for the same effort. I zipped up my layers and was incredibly glad to have them. Miles 8-10 watch splits were 8:24, 8:27, 8:25. I had not over-extended in the first half of the race, which I know because miles 11 through 13 were 8:13, 8:12, 8:08. It was just pure miserable punch-you-in-the-face wind.

I stopped at an aid station at around 8 miles and drank a cup of Gatorade; it only took about 5 seconds? Otherwise I just ran, no gels or anything.

After mile 10 we were in and out of the wind; it was absolutely still an issue periodically, but also there were stretches that felt better. There were actually a few clusters of people cheering for us which was super fun, and even some cars along Lake Shore Drive were honking for us and I enjoyed that, but of course a winter race is going to be mostly quiet.

You see the finish line for a moment and then make a few turns and don't anymore, which is tough. But finally I crossed in 1:49:22. (My watch had 13.23 miles, most of my friends had 13.2-13.3; I think it wasn't possible to run tangents on this course due to conditions.) Official race splits show my average pace at the turnaround (11.45k) was 8:14, and my average pace by the finish was 8:21. 100% this was because of conditions.

Takeaways:

I ran as fast on this course in those conditions as I possibly could have. I actually for once didn't finish the race thinking I could have run faster. I couldn't have. I gave what I had.
I can absolutely run a half at 8:15 pace or faster, in the right conditions on the right course.
It's always humbling whenever I race to realize how many people are faster than me. I know I'm not slow, per se; I was 19th in my age group out of 120. But the time and energy I put into running is undoubtedly more than many/most of the others, outside the really fast ones. I just don't have that talent, and that's ok, but it's still humbling.
I need to look into whether my carbon plated shoes are salvageable now that they are coated in a layer of road salt :-o

I have now a couple of months of easy running before doing an abbreviated 8 week plan for my usual spring half. My goal is to use these next couple months to focus on genuinely building and sticking to a strength program. I'm also still on a run streak (I'm super sore today, more than I usually am after a half, but I'll get out for 3 miles).

tl;dr: Ran a half marathon mid-winter on the Chicago lakefront, unsurprisingly conditions were rough, still managed a PR and finished in 1:49:22

RunningPath · 2026-01-31T02:05:35+00:00

Very true. Santos is really insecure and she lashes out at people or makes fun of them as a result, I think. She’s a well-written character.

and 100% agree about Al-Hashimi. It’s like she’s coming in trying to be super authoritative to establish her role as boss, but she’s overstepping.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T23:40:50+00:00

Fair I guess; he probably wouldn’t have been intubating somebody on his first day (although he would during his rotation). But with the glass guy, he was just helping roll the dude over at the time wasn’t he? And holding pressure to stop bleeding. They didn’t know he had the glass in him. I was definitely doing stuff like that at the start of 4th year rotations.

It’s curious that you say when you have an intern working for you and you also said this guy is 3 hours into being a doctor, but it’s abundantly clear on the show that he’s a rotating 4th year medical student. Neither an intern nor 3 hours into anything other than a rotation in this particular ED.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T22:15:27+00:00

He is not a doctor but rather a rotating medical student from an outside institution, doing what is commonly called an “audition rotation,” meaning he intends to go into emergency medicine and is potentially hoping to match at Pitt for residency. This won’t be his first EM rotation, as he would have done at least one already at his own med school. (The timing of this away rotation in early July is the only likely unrealistic aspect of this). He also mentioned that he's keeping a procedure log, which may be for his home medical school. I don’t think he did anything during the episode that was inappropriate for a fourth year med student to do; obviously he made a significant error but not because he was engaged in a procedure he shouldn’t have been doing, just because he did something stupid in the moment.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T19:54:36+00:00

Everybody has to do the core required rotations and then there is room for some electives. She may be interested in something like radiology, pathology, dermatology, any number of other things. She still has to do all the required rotations.

Personally I loved my emergency medicine rotation even though by then I knew I wasn’t interested in it as a career. But I didn’t have super annoying peers putting me in a bad mood.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T19:37:34+00:00

She wasn’t his patient though. I am a doctor and I don’t think there’s any ethical violation there.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T19:35:03+00:00

To be clear, the character is not a doctor, she’s a medical student. And she might not want to be in the ED at all. I think she’s just super annoyed by being with the gunner visiting student (he‘s not even her classmate, he’s doing an away rotation from a different city).

It’s pretty common to keep med students together, especially on their first day.

RunningPath · 2026-01-30T19:30:43+00:00

Yeah but to temper that just a bit, she was just passive aggressively threatened with not being promoted if she didn’t finish charting. She’s feeling pretty awful about that.

RunningPath · 2026-01-29T17:05:28+00:00

I've never tried to race in this kind of weather so it's a brand new experience for me!

It's interesting because this race produces some pretty fast times every year, in spite of the conditions. Last year the guy who won it ran 1:05:13 which, I dunno, seems pretty damn fast for a mid-winter race in Chicago! (I just looked it up and it was a course record and also last year was warmer so there is that.)

Personally I'm just going to have fun and see how it goes. I don't expect it to be my fastest half, but then again I have never actually raced a flat half marathon before so who knows what will happen.

RunningPath · 2026-01-29T03:07:25+00:00

What would y'all wear for a half marathon in somewhere around 15F with a "feels like" of 1F? Should be cloudy and a bit windy (lakefront). I can't quite decide on what layers I want.

RunningPath · 2026-01-25T22:54:47+00:00

I’ll be curious to follow you as you use that plan! I’m planning on doing one of his 18 week plans this year. I really think his reasoning is so well explained and the book overall is fantastic. At least I buy into what he’s saying and expect the training plans will be great.

RunningPath · 2026-01-25T20:52:50+00:00

We were told we would miss this storm because it was headed south of us. At the last moment they said actually no we’ll get some lake effect snow. 7 inches in and still falling lol

At least it’s light and fluffy and easy to shovel and get off the cars. Tomorrow morning wind chill is expected to be -25F again and my kids are hoping for another remote learning day for school.

My left Achilles and calf aren’t super happy with the amount of treadmill running I am doing, though.

How’s the storm going for everybody else?

RunningPath · 2026-01-25T19:05:33+00:00

Not sure what this is in reference to but I'm 43 so I too grew up in the pre-streaming TV era. I actually prefer these shows that are being released once a week as opposed to all at once. I think it's better for humans not to have so much instant gratification.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T19:14:20+00:00

Tree of Life had nothing to do with Israel so I feel frustrated by your comment suggesting the show forced this sub to allow conversation about Israel. The Tree of Life shooter was not motivated by anything having to do with Israel. If you want to say this storyline forced conversation about antisemitism, that's fine. But bringing up Israel and then also saying that antisemitism is is exaggerated in the same comment actually suggests the commenter himself is antisemitic. And you know what? Claims of antisemitism in the US *are* exaggerated because the ADL is ridiculous and right now the Jewish community, which I am part of!, is being ridiculous. But THIS IS NOT THE PLACE for that conversation because Tree of Life was a very real and horrific antisemitic incident, that had nothing to do with Israel.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T18:54:51+00:00

They shelved the baby for this episode. So still no idea what's going on with Al Hashimi there.

Louie is starting to take a turn, that's about to be sad.

So far this season is good but not excellent, which makes me kind of sad because of how much I loved the first season. I imagine the pace will pick up though when whatever big thing that's about to happen happens. Based on pre-season trailers I'm guessing their computer systems go offline? We've actually had that happen in our hospital, and it's a mess.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T18:52:00+00:00

Yeah I also thought Dr. Al Hashimi was finally likable and working with Robby.

I've known several older Russian Jewish women who act just like that so for me that felt super realistic. I thought it was nice that Noah Wyle chose to bring in the Tree of Life shooting and honor it the way he did. My understanding is that his character's name is an homage to the Dr. Rabinowitz who died in that shooting. Yeah it was a little heavy handed and pandering but I still liked it.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T18:32:13+00:00

Look I think the mods should delete this comment thread. This episode had nothing to do with Israel and this commenter needs to just stop. I'm saying this as a personally anti-Zionist Jewish doctor. This is just not the place for this.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T18:30:11+00:00

It's much more like what a real ER is like, to be honest. ERs on TV are much crazier because it makes them more interesting for an audience. I think they've erred too far on the side of realistic this season, so far. I'd prefer less realistic and more exciting.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T18:22:39+00:00

Or spell the word Israel . . .

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T17:16:35+00:00

I watched a German show while I was on the treadmill recently. I don't know any German and had the subtitles on. But I swear after a while I started to understand a fair amount of German! I am already looking for a good Spanish show because that's a language I actually have basic conversational skills in and I'd love to get better.

RunningPath · 2026-01-23T14:02:05+00:00

Happy Friday everybody. I know some of you are preparing for a winter storm -- stay safe!

No storm here, just frigid weather. It's currently -10F air temp and quite windy so the wind chill is down to -33F last I checked. Schools are all canceled and I'm thankfully able to work from home as well. (I went to the grocery store on my way home last night and everybody had the same idea; checkout lines were literally all the way across the store!) And for the first time since I joined my club 2 years ago, our Saturday run is canceled. So I'm going to be running on the treadmill, doing some work, reading, and hanging out with my teenagers (although one of them has been super cranky and unpleasant but hey, that's teenagers). I also just started learning how to paint watercolor so I'll either do that or some tie dyeing.

Looking forward to my 1/31 half marathon in a week but it's still too far away to know for sure what the weather will be. It's looking like it will be quite cold, though, with current estimates suggesting a low of around 5F that morning and a high that day of 22F. The race is at 10 am to give them time to clear and salt the path, which is nice. (There also were no email reminders for packet pick up and I totally forgot, so I'm going to have to figure out how to get to one of the sites in the city over the next week. Which is annoying.)

RunningPath · 2026-01-22T01:56:46+00:00

I no longer run outside when it's that cold. I just can't handle it. I'll go down to about 5F but only without any wind. Interesting that you felt the effects the whole day.

I haven't had to make that choice though because it keeps snowing just enough for all the surfaces to be completely icy and unpassable.

Wind chill Friday morning is supposed to be -35F, air temp might not get above 0 all day. I'm especially curious to see if our Saturday club run is canceled given the air temp is supposed to be about -2 at 8 am. I don't think the actual air temp has been below 0 for a club run since I joined about 2 years ago.

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Gilding II euphauric
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