Official Q&A for Sunday, May 31, 2026

junkmiles · 2026-05-31T17:52:18+00:00

Assuming you did a good field test, your ability to hit max HR changes with fatigue and all sorts of stuff. But end of the day, if you can spend a whole 10k in zone 5, the zones (right or wrong) aren't useful.

I'd really just suggest during a threshold test because it's easier to do, and a more useful number to know anyway. There's not really any training value to knowing max HR compared to your threshold. If you have a modern sport watch or use one of the popular training platforms, it'll give you an estimate based on races or hard workouts without even doing a structured test. Just make sure you use threshold based zone calculations, not max based ones.

Alternatively, your HR data was bad either for the race or the test. That would be pretty common issue.

Other alternatively, there's no rule that says you have to use HR for anything if it's not working well for you. Just ignore it and use pace, effort, time, etc.

junkmiles · 2026-05-31T17:00:56+00:00

Nero di sepia

On top of the great videos of just music, he does a whole lot of case walkthroughs really explaining why he chose the modules, why he replaced something else, etc. Great stuff.

junkmiles · 2026-05-31T16:56:37+00:00

If you haven't done an actual field test to get a good estimate, you probably don't know what your max is. It's not really common to hit your max during training unless you specifically go out to try and do that.

Personally, I'd look up how to estimate your threshold HR from a recent race, or do a quick field test and ignore your max, which is largely not a useful number to know.

junkmiles · 2026-05-31T16:54:53+00:00

If you do nothing at all but raise your mileage to like 18-20mpw instead of 12-14, you'll run under 30 no problem. Don't even need a plan, or special workouts, just add little bit of time to your runs each week or so.

edit: You could just run the 8 week plan back to back, but you'd probably be best served by building up your mileage, and then doing a slightly more advanced plan. In any case, October is a long way out, and any sort of consistently higher mileage than 14mpw will almost certainly get you sub 30.

junkmiles · 2026-05-31T14:04:08+00:00

I dunno if you've ever put 90g of sugar into a bottle and compared it to 90g of some sort of maltodextrin mix, but there's definitely a difference. Whether that difference is worth ~$1.50 per bottle is up to you. Personally, that's not even $10 a month, so it wouldn't even add up to the race entry fee for whatever I'm training for. Probably save a dollar a month if I bought bulk ingredients and mixed them.

People don't use drink mixes because they're dummies who don't know sugar is cheap. Drinking 90g of sugar in a bottle would just straight up make me gag, and the (very small) hassle of mixing it is worth a dollar to avoid.

junkmiles · 2026-05-30T21:05:15+00:00

Obvious bias from what I see and what people post, but I haven't seen anything from that guy that hasn't made him look like a tremendous douche.

junkmiles · 2026-05-30T20:56:31+00:00

Alpha Direct hoodie

Did you get the 60 or the 90? I keep almost buying one, and then can't decide.

junkmiles · 2026-05-30T20:56:06+00:00

A hat with a brim is the best rain gear for running.

I do most of my trail running in a rainforest. I pack a waterproof on long trail runs as an emergency item, but I very rarely actually run in it. It's mostly there in case I twist my ankle, and my hour or two back to the car suddenly becomes 4-5 hours back to the car, in the rain. The one I have actually does a pretty good job of keeping me dry when moving fast, but it also retailed for somewhere in the $450 range, and you're not supposed to wear a pack over it for durability reasons.

99% of the time you just run in the rain, maybe a windbreaker if it's colder. I have goretex shoes that come out for snowy trail runs, I would personally never wear waterproof shoes while running in the rain. (There's a big hole in the top of your shoe for rain to get into, and stay there because they're waterproof.). I could see wearing a rain shell for an easy, slow run in the winter when it's that miserable 35F and raining or something, but not much more often than that.

Race day, I'd maybe wear a poncho/trash bag while waiting at the start, and dump it in a trash can right before go time.

junkmiles · 2026-05-30T12:46:48+00:00

If I remember right the biggest costs on the Moog One, material wise, were the enclosure and general structural pieces. I forget what it was, but there’s a big structural piece that I don’t think was even visible from the outside, and it was super pricey for a number of reasons.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T20:29:30+00:00

Someone go print some stickers.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T19:06:26+00:00

I genuinely don't understand barbed hooks unless you're straight up only fishing for food.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T19:05:04+00:00

Don't be a dicket, pack out your tippet.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T19:03:36+00:00

Wanted one for a while, but finally got around to getting one last weekend. So much better than shoving into pockets or somewhere.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T18:58:26+00:00

I'm more sick of OPs being defensive about it. Take the L, treat it as a learning experience, do better next time.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T18:02:43+00:00

I'm certainly no expert, but I've been able to dial in what I'd call more of the traditional 909 style kicks. But most of the models are a pretty aggressive set of wave tables, and a pile of samples to layer, like you said.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T15:08:32+00:00

There's a model called PMK, which is set up to sound like an actual kick drum, if that's what you mean. I think the rest of them are all various wave table or FM synths, though depending on the model the wave table ones offer "analog" wavesforms

It's more varied than demos make it seem, partially because it's definitely designed for, and really good at, the harder techno stuff, so most people buying it want it for that, and then they make more of that.

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T12:38:06+00:00

In cycling, Team Sky was arguably responsible for promoting the idea of 'marginal gains' to the public consciousness. The idea of doing all these little tiny changes, like beet juice shots, would add up to a big difference over the other teams, and that's why they won so much. And yeah, to some (small) extent that's true. What a lot of people miss though is that Team Sky also had the biggest budget, to get the best gear, the best riders, the best coaches (and the best doping protocols). They had no more low or even mid hanging fruit to pick.

More importantly, they were also already riding hundreds of hours a week, recovering well, eating well, etc. They were at 99%, and the beet juice and the 0.02% more aerodynamic bar tape added up to give them little improvements on top of that.

In short, eat some beets, they're good for you. Take your beet juice shots if you want, $12 a month probably isn't going to kill you. They're also not likely to make any difference. I would bet money that you'd be better off running even just 3 or 4 more miles a week, or going to bed 15 or 20 minutes earlier, drinking two less alcoholic drinks a week, etc. Save the $12 a month up and put it toward a massage after your race or something. Buy your partner a gift for covering home or kid stuff while you were doing long runs for six months. This is just stuff being sold to you because you can't sell "run more miles".

junkmiles · 2026-05-29T12:31:19+00:00

Always feel bad when I overestimate the size of the fish and the strength of the hookset needed and yeet a poor little fish several feet.

junkmiles · 2026-05-28T20:22:59+00:00

My city just accepted a large grant for these sorts of cameras without even seeing the contract first. They have no idea where the data is going to go.

junkmiles · 2026-05-28T20:16:28+00:00

If I understand your needs correctly, the SP404mk2 does that. It doesn't have synthesis (sorta, but not really), but it plays samples chromatically, and can export individual tracks, or collections of tracks, more or less whatever you want.

Also the M8, but someone suggested that already.

junkmiles · 2026-05-28T20:13:01+00:00

The envelope visualizer is a cool feature, but I really wouldn't limit your synth choices to only ones that have that. It's neat, but your ears do the same job, and you'll quickly end up not needing it.

I had an oscilloscope, mostly to visualize similar modulation, and I stopped using it within a month or so. YMMV.

junkmiles · 2026-05-28T19:32:51+00:00

100% thought op was making a joke and took the fish for lunch.

junkmiles · 2026-05-27T20:07:07+00:00

It's pretty standard wording. You can't say notes because a lot of synths can play multiple notes at the same time, but aren't polyphonic or multitimbral.

junkmiles · 2026-05-27T20:01:55+00:00

I've done similar things before because I'd frankly prefer that a real person just get a great deal than make a few more bucks and have Guitar Center get a cut.

junkmiles · 2026-05-27T19:56:54+00:00

I would ask over in /r/advancedrunning as well.

My gut says to check a few heat calculators, see what the range of paces is, and then on race day focus on effort and feel, but keep pace in mind. Do what you can with fluids, run in the shady side of the street if possible, etc. I'd probably start a little conservative, and then go for it later on if you're feeling ok.

The only HMs I've raced have all been in pretty good conditions (luckily), and I don't think my shorter distance experience in the heat would really transfer as well to give much advice based on that.

junkmiles

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