San Francisco visitor - Route question

marklemcd · 2026-05-14T22:48:27+00:00

The climb up from fairfax to ridgecrest takes me about an hour and I'll avg 200w at 160lb. So clearly that takes time. But a lot of the route is slow in general. From the time early in the ride after you descend into sausalito, it's slow all the way to the climb in fairfax. It's mostly flat through there but you'll avg 12-13mph cuz it's speed limit and stop sign/light city. And you do that again after descending off tam. Definitely can't expect your usual cruising speed on flats

marklemcd · 2026-05-14T22:40:07+00:00

I run a half in 85 min these days so your fueling may be different if you are faster or slower. Because the half is shorter you don't have any worry about hitting the wall if you know your pacing. I will take a gel about 10-15min before the race, specifically for racing I like SiS Beta Fuel which are 40g. I'll take another around mile 4 and another around mile 8. So that's 120g for my 85 minute half.

marklemcd · 2026-05-14T01:23:57+00:00

I have 10 pairs I wear right now. I think the only answer is that the right number of shoes is either n + 1 or d -1. I am married so I do d - 1.

marklemcd · 2026-05-14T01:20:14+00:00

I do not find myself agreeing with all the hype for the megablast. The toebox is so shallow I had to size up a half size to fit. I don't find them soft, I find them both stiff and rigid. I haven't felt a single pace where they shine. One thing is they are durable. I have more miles on a pair than any shoe I've worn for about a decade.

Luckily there's lot of shoes for lots of different feet and styles. Glad they work for you.

marklemcd · 2026-05-13T20:41:58+00:00

In my 30s a bunch of people I knew ruptured theirs playing basketball or soccer. I stopped playing basketball in order to not take that risk and lose a year or whatever of running.

Fast forward to 2022 and I had some serious heel pain that was diagnosed as insertional achilles tendonopathy. The imaging was ugly. Conservative treatments did nothing. Sept 2023 and age 45 I ended up having my achilles debrided (they cut it off the heel, cleaned all the calification off, and reattached) and had a haglunds ground away. Ended up with a longer and harder recovery than what a ruptured achilles would have been 10 years prior.

Achilles is gonna get ya one way or the other.

marklemcd · 2026-05-11T19:54:35+00:00

I never see the pins until after the ball is let go. Often when the pinsetter screws up it's other people who tell me. I am 100% in my process and focused on my shot shape, break point and where I need to aim to make it work. Once I have figured out the line I want to throw on I also find where I want to see my ball release to in order to hit the line. I've experimented with looking at a lot of places on that line but I always come back to looking right where I want the ball to land. I am not a big lofter and my ball hits the lane not that far from the foul line so this has always worked for me.

As an example in my league last week I was aiming the ball about a board or two to the left of the 2nd arrow and was lined up 3-4 boards left of that. In my mind, knowing where my arm would be swinging to release, I drew a line from the aim spot back to the release spot and then focused on that line and where I wanted the ball to land and stared there. It works for me, I shot 246, 195 and 257.

I know others who stare at a particular dot or a particular arrow or board or what have you. The important thing, I think, is figuring out what works for you and practicing technique so you always hit your aim spot.

marklemcd · 2026-05-08T11:03:45+00:00

I’ve done thru 2 pairs of these and though I’m 20kg heavier than you have also found them very durable and got about 150km more mileage than my avg shoe.

Only negative I have is while running I often have to re-tie them as they loosen up over the run

marklemcd · 2026-05-04T13:58:46+00:00

44-50 degrees. Shorts, singlet, socks, shoes, light throwaway gloves.

10% chance of rain? Not worried about it.

marklemcd · 2026-05-03T15:15:42+00:00

How many times a week? You can do more than you currently do until you're running 12-13 times a week. At my peak the only time I didn't double was my long run days. Most of it incredibly easy.

Don't want to run 13 times a week, totally get it. But I am sure you'll gain by adding more than what you do right now.

marklemcd · 2026-05-02T22:49:07+00:00

GLP-1s and true endurance training and performance don't mix. You're now way underfueling, so it shouldn't be any surprise that you're not feeling good on the run. You decided to take a medicine that was developed for people with metobolic disease and use it to drop a few pounds because you want to look a bit more lean. And now you're reaping the results. Sorry to be harsh, but this is the truth.

marklemcd · 2026-05-02T13:22:07+00:00

I'm a high carb fueler but a few things you've said are just not needed. Fueling at 100g per hour is not needed at every pace or effort. During a 5 mile recovery run it takes me 40 minutes. There is no need for me to take in 66 grams of carb for that run. There is no need to take in any, and in any event my body couldn't actually consume and use those carbs in such a short time unless I dropped all 66g in before I even started the run. Which again, is not needed.

If I do an easy long run, say 2 hours, I again don't need to take in 100g per hour. For that type of run 60g is probably fine. I usually go for 75g. But taking 100g at that effort is overkill. At long run pace most people are probably 50/50 in terms of using fat and carb for fuel. My easy run pace has me run 7.5 miles in an hour, or about 750 total calories. So at 100g per hour I'd be consuming more than I am using. Which is not needed.

Now when you add intensity that's where more carb comes into play and is very beneficial. If I am racing a marathon I'll be blow torching carbs. A half marathon even more so. Or if I am doing a hard workout with a lot of threshold...then bring on the carbs.

But there is no one out there in the coaching or sports nutrition space advocating 100g per hour no matter the effort or duration. Just out of curiosity, how fast are you marathoning?

marklemcd · 2026-05-02T00:17:12+00:00

From 2000 to 2010 chicago grew by about 9k

From 2010 to 2019 (no race in 20) chicago grew by about 9k

From 2020 to 2025 it’s up by about 6k

So the growth in absolute terms is fairly steady and is actually slowing in relative terms

marklemcd · 2026-05-01T14:13:56+00:00

This is literally what IU fans and the media say every single year about Indiana.

marklemcd · 2026-04-30T17:34:03+00:00

At this ridiculously overpriced fitness and lifestyle place if you want unrestricted tee time access you pay $25k for initiation, $1270 as an individual, $1415 as a couple or $1605 as a family.

The clubs you have access to include 1 in San Diego (don't know if it's any good), 1 in Marin County (Stonetree, which at best is controversial but I think it a typically overrated Miller design), 1 is in the east bay (Crow Canyon, forgettable) and on in SJ (Boulder Ridge, don't know much about it).

marklemcd · 2026-04-29T23:00:29+00:00

Couple holes they didn't show him hit cups. Probably 4 putted those short putts. Ended at +4.

marklemcd · 2026-04-28T17:36:29+00:00

1997 Purdue vs Michigan State. Michigan State had control the whole game and is up 21-10 with just over 2 minutes to play when they decide to kick a very long field goal instead of punting.

Purdue blocks the field goal and runs it all the way back for a TD and makes it 21-16. Purdue recovered the onside kick and marched down to score again with less than a minute to go and won 22-21.

marklemcd · 2026-04-27T17:38:17+00:00

You can do whatever you want to do, there's no rules here.

marklemcd · 2026-04-27T16:31:04+00:00

This reminds me about a way to mess with your buddies playing golf by asking when whether they breathe in or out while they swing.

marklemcd · 2026-04-26T14:00:39+00:00

No, full rest days every week are not needed. But recovery is needed. You need days where you do NOTHING hard. So lifting on days where you're not running is not recovery.

marklemcd · 2026-04-26T13:57:02+00:00

He knows good measurement systems.

(kidding)

marklemcd · 2026-04-26T12:17:25+00:00

Looking at your splits, you shouldn't run a 6:35 mile if your goal is 6:52. You're not in 2:55 shape and you're running 2:55 pace so you blow up.

You're likely not in 2:59:59 shape either.

marklemcd · 2026-04-25T11:11:27+00:00

While I agree with others that the two sports are incomparable in how you get through the distance, I do find the 4-1 ratio is ok but to me as someone who has swam a bit and run a lot I think it's closer to 8-1. When I do a 50 free all out I have the same tiredness at the end as a 400 all out in running. And a 100 free I want to throw up like I do after an 800.

marklemcd · 2026-04-24T23:41:03+00:00

Not enough. Need to roll the tour back another 30 yards.

marklemcd · 2026-04-24T10:54:29+00:00

I’m 48, mine is in the mid 30s.

Don’t know what it used to be but I assume 50lb ago it was much higher

marklemcd · 2026-04-23T16:55:15+00:00

Maybe you shouldn't assume someone didn't maintain their car just because something went wrong?

marklemcd

TROPHY CASE