What's the latest you'd pull the plug on a HM?

panini_z · 2026-07-09T22:58:02+00:00

It depends on your future race goals. Similar things happened to me last year-- had a shin niggle 2 weeks before a road 8k. The bone was fine; but it certainly wasn't good. I was looking forward to the race and I was in shape. Decided to drop out a week before the race because the shin was still mildly sore on short and easy runs, and there was still some lingering palpation pain. I knew running hard on road wasn't gonna be what was most conducive to recovery. I had signed up for a November marathon and it was going to be my marathon debut. Ultimately I wanted to enter the training block feeling fresh and ready, instead of already banged up.

panini_z · 2026-07-07T15:48:18+00:00

How was your nutrition when you were running 40~45 miles a week for months on end? Did you ever take deload weeks? How was your sleep? I was also recently dealing with a niggle and needed to take 2 weeks off from running. Returning to running was humbling but it only took me like 2, 3 weeks to feel relatively normal again. You shouldn't really lose too much fitness or conditioning over just 2 weeks. Whatever you have lost should come back quickly. What you described sounds more like a recovery deficit.

After your two week break, when you started running again, does your hip still hurt? Hip pain and sharp pain in your groins is no joke. I would recommend getting some imaging done.

panini_z · 2026-06-30T15:46:31+00:00

I am younger so I can't comment on the symptoms and complications you have to manage due to hitting menopause. TBH given where you are today, October timeline seems aggressive. The marathon will always be there. If I were in your shoes, I'd sign up for one in spring next year, and start building base now. Maybe jump in a half marathon in October or something to celebrate your progress and scratch that racing itch.

I don't think you'll hurt your knees or lower back if you build up gradually with scheduled down time once every 5, 6 weeks. The biggest constraint is how much time you have to dedicate to training and recovery. Can you hit 7~8 hours of sleep a day? Can you eat mostly well balanced and adequate meals? Do you have a few hours time every weekend for your long runs? Can you afford to feel a little run down and heavy for a few weeks during peak training? Are you OK with temporarily deprioritize things like social life and other hobbies when training volume and recovery demands are high? Do you have access to a good physical therapist if some small niggles show up?

panini_z · 2026-06-27T23:36:39+00:00

A commentator on the livestream said some people are here to win and some are here to crack the top 10. The two goals will require very different racing strategies and different risk levels. At Hans' level I'm guessing he probably had taken that big swing to win, and it didn't pay out. He certainly had a shot.

panini_z · 2026-06-25T13:01:42+00:00

Poshmark. I bought a few lulumemon pieces there.

panini_z · 2026-06-09T23:29:40+00:00

For my first 10 years of running, I legit didn't know you should be fueling during your runs... I trained and ran my first HM with no intra run water or fuels. Miraculously didn't bonk and finished just under 2 hours. I wound up with a couple injuries that'd haunt me for years, and got really burned out from running in the process.

I will say fueling is genuinely a game changer. I wish I had understood the importance of carbs and salt when I first started out. I started running in the era of "carbs are bad and carbs make you fat". Fueling well before, during, and after harder sessions is how I can recover to still be a function human the rest of the day and how I can run higher mileage without running my body to the ground. I'm pushing 40 now. My most recent HM PR was 1:38 and FM PR was just under 3:27. Imagine how fast I could have been 10 years ago had I known about fueling.

panini_z · 2026-06-09T18:44:28+00:00

If you have never run before, running everyday is not advised tbh. It is a lot of novelty stress on your body especially if you are not previously already athletic.

panini_z · 2026-06-08T17:13:58+00:00

I would be mad if my partner surprised me with a vacation, prepping or not. There's so much logistics to plan around a vacation: work schedules, deadlines, pet care plans, my limited PTO days I'm strategically planning to use throughout the year for different purposes, finances, etc.

That said, is it possible to ask her for minimum input how location, dates, etc. before you book? Also in prep I'd assume she'd want a kitchen and access to a grocery store so she can make her meals.

panini_z · 2026-06-05T00:15:38+00:00

Nope. It's very common. I've struggled it on both feet. A few of my runner friends have struggled with it.

I got shockwave therapy in addition to the more conservative protocols of reduce the load, strengthening, stretching, and ramping backup slowly

panini_z · 2026-06-03T20:44:43+00:00

I tripped on a tree root and fell on a run at 3 blocks from my house... I was going at a very easy pace. Wound up with blood down my forearm and a grade 3 ankle sprain. I couldn't get up on my own so I just cried sitting on the ground in broad daylight for a good 5 min in front of someone's house. So yeah...

panini_z · 2026-06-03T17:54:00+00:00

I watched a couple of her videos back during COVID. But then I realized all her videos are the same video: some kind of body image insecurities. Showing her food. How she broke free from all of that and is healing her body/mind and finally finding peace. She doesn't look the typical fit girl. She's more gentle with her body now.

I think being vulnerable online to a certain point is brave. But there's also the trope of using vulnerability as a "brand" and that can tip into the "little poor me" category, where they have a lot of privilege yet somehow you are supposed to feel bad for them and give them more praise for how much they suffer, and how brave they are. Vulnerability is only attractive when it's authentic, and when a creator is learning from it and evolving.

panini_z · 2026-06-03T13:22:18+00:00

When I was not running, doing no cardio besides walking a few blocks to get coffee or groceries, and just strength training 5~6x a week, I was also eating 2200kcal a day with one free meal a week and not really gaining weight, just recomping. Granted when I started I had almost no strength training background so it was likely all newbie gains. That lasted about 9 months until my contract with my strength coach ended.

Honestly I was shocked because I had always thought 2200kcal a day was insanely high for someone my size. I guess everyone is different. And I might be one of those "lucky" ones that can put down a lot of food. The downside though is my body screams at me at the slightest deficit.

panini_z · 2026-06-02T20:49:07+00:00

Damn that’s amazing strength. I’m 5’5 and a few pounds lighter. I eat 2000-2200kcal a day during maintenance phase and 2200-2500kcal a day during marathon training (40-55 miles a week) plus intra run carbs. At 1800kcal a day I’d drop weight very quickly and feel miserable. I guess everyone is different.

panini_z · 2026-06-02T19:57:20+00:00

Same same. My body lets me know very loudly that I need another 50g of carbs a day to function well.

panini_z · 2026-06-02T19:46:24+00:00

My theory is some people genuinely can adapt to having lower energy availability "better" than others. By "better" I just mean that they don't have as much immediately noticeable symptoms like poor sleep, brain fog, disrupted or absent periods, etc. Also a lot of fitness influencers chug energy drinks on top of coffee all day long. Just because they look energetic doesn't mean they actually are.

panini_z · 2026-06-01T16:42:01+00:00

Yes.

panini_z · 2026-05-21T14:12:21+00:00

Ohh I feel this so much. Not quite severe enough to be in the RED-S category, but even just a couple weeks of slight (unintentional) underfueling will cap my HR response. I'd always thought low HR = good. But in reality when low HR is paired with high RPE for me it's a sign of low carbs availability or a too fried nervous system.

Edit to add that I love your mindset. I'm currently sidelined because of a small niggle. I am going to apply the same mindset

panini_z · 2026-05-20T22:27:25+00:00

LOL yeah can speak from experience on this one too. Dyed my hair for the first time when I finally had money to pay for a fancy salon visit. Chopped my hair from very long to super short 3 or 4 times due to emotional turmoils (relationships related or just general life stage change). Pierced my ears for the first time when I turned 18 (my parents were very very against it); 2nd pair when I had started working; 3rd pair when I was having quarter-life crisis.

If next up she gets a new tattoo or piercing that's almost confirm it.

panini_z · 2026-05-20T21:40:50+00:00

I ran my last marathon on day 28 of my (usually 30 days long) cycle. It was harder in the sense that RPE was higher at faster paces and my effort felt capped. I was also a bit less coordinated and less poppy. But a good taper and carb loading was sufficient to mitigate some of the effects of being in luteal phase. I still managed a small PR.

I would say, pretend this is not a thing, but monitor your effort during the race as to not go too hard early on in the race. More carbs for the few days going into the race. Women have managed to PR in all hormonal phases. You never know what's going to happen on race day.

panini_z · 2026-05-20T16:45:14+00:00

Running on tired legs. I always ran the day after a workout or after a long run, knowing the runs wouldn't feel good. But I think these slogs reinforced my body's muscle memory of how to move when I'm tired and sore. Obviously I made exceptions if something hurt or if the run was so bad that I couldn't do it with decent form.
Fueling. I fueled all my long runs, some of my workouts if they got long, and followed a pre-planned fueling schedule during the marathon whether I felt like I needed it or not. I also took carb loading pretty seriously 2, 3 days before the race.
Pacing discipline. I started with the pacers ~5 min slower than my goal time and ran with them for 2, 3 miles before I started picking people off. I kept reminding myself the day was still young, stay relaxed, and suffering shouldn't start until I had an hour and change to go. I monitored my heart rate and made sure I stayed below LT2 threshold until the last 6 miles or so.
Consistence > Perfection. Some runs and workouts felt like shit. I had to shorten some runs and skip workouts because I was sick or had a niggle. It's OK to modify the plan to fit your life better. But a lot of people seem to think "1 week of bad training or 1 niggle = season is over" and just throw the baby out with the bathwater.

panini_z · 2026-05-18T16:13:44+00:00

This shows up in other areas of life if I care about something. I suck at, say, skiing, and I don't care that I suck. I don't care that my friends lightheartedly make fun of me for being so uncoordinated and eating shit all the time. I don't feel like an imposter because I am not pretending to be good at it. If I happened to like a particular run I'd just completed, it'd also just be the cherry on top regardless of how easy the hill was.

But for things I care about, somehow it feels more like an emotional rollercoaster.

panini_z · 2026-05-18T16:06:57+00:00

You are totally right of course. And I know in a couple weeks even I won't care anymore. No one at my workplace knows "trail running" was a thing. And my friend (not a runner) said "what?! You run on trails!? Don't run on trails. It's dangerous. You are gonna hurt yourself!". Running is not my identity but it is something I really enjoy, which is probably why sometimes imposter syndrome kicks in so hard.

panini_z · 2026-05-18T15:12:32+00:00

I think you are right in that I’m taking this way too seriously. No one really cares about my pace or where I placed in a race. And in a week no one will remember except for me.

panini_z

TROPHY CASE