re: Official Running Log/Marathon Training Thread

Having spent a lot of times on both sides I’d say that’s probably the thought held by many honestly. Somewhere in that 3:00-3:15 range seems to be when you’re thought of as being “really good”

Idk I'm kind of with ks on this one. Sub 3:00 is probably the defining line of "oh he's good." It's not sub elite, but it's Boston qualifying (or at least used to be) and you've probably got a couple of guys in every run group who can hit that mark.

quote:

---

Idk I'm kind of with ks on this one. Sub 3:00 is probably the defining line of "oh he's good." It's not sub elite, but it's Boston qualifying (or at least used to be) and you've probably got a couple of guys in every run group who can hit that mark.

---

I can see both sides - I personally would probably put "they are very good" runners in the sub-3 group myself. But when I look at the Birmingham Track Club (the biggest recreational running group in Alabama...) there is exactly 1 person who has sub3'd in the group, and it happened in Chicago last year - so before then I didn't know a single person personally that had sub-3'd.

If you are running with specialized groups (there are a few in the Birmingham area) there might be more, but even with those groups (1 is a PT who does his own coaching, 2 is an orthopedic surgeon who does his own run coaching, and 3 are the 20 something year olds who all help coach the high schools in the area (so basically Pedro lol)) I believe the number of people who have sub-3'd is still very very low, so much so that I personally have never met one.

So if I'm an average person joining a run club - especially here in Birmingham, the "very good runners" to me are probably going to be the guys that finish the long run on Saturday first. That group is who I run with on Saturdays - their PRs range from 3:05 to 3:26.

I would imagine 80-90+% of people who can run 26.2 miles at 7:26 pace could handle 3.1 miles at 6:26 pace?

I guess you're just a better natural runner than 99 percent of the population. That or you didn't have multiple kids.

Or maybe we just have different definitions of recreational runner

Not sure if this would be the best thread for this question, but does anyone have any coach recs in the BR area? I used to do long distance races up until about 4 or 5 years ago. Mostly fulls and halves with a couple Dopey challenges thrown in. I wasn’t fast but I got through them at a steady pace. 2:00 was my half record. TIA.

Varsity Sports Calendar of Events - Purple Box is for Baton Rouge

Happy's Running Club - Facebook Group
**You don't need FB access for it, but the routes will be posted 4pm-ish every Tuesday when the groups are getting together. Only time it's not officially going on is when there's a holiday like Christmas or New Year like this year**


I'm with Varsity at least every Wednesday, I try to show up for Mondays and Thursdays (but stroller jogging sucks) and I do my best to get to Happy's 5k on Tuesdays (will stop going as much once Baby BTB #2 shows up. Their calendar of events will show you where everything is going on. For Mondays & Thursdays there are currently 4:45pm and 5:30pm sessions to account for DST right now, since it gets pretty dark after 5:30pm. When we gain that hour, we will be running exclusively 5:30pm.

Mondays & Thursdays - different locations across BR, but nothing ever east of Kenilworth area and never goes east of College Drive/Government Street. We've run through Tara once starting from F45 near Towne Center as far as I can remember. Workouts vary and can be anywhere between fartlek to easy run to intervals. Usually doesn't go past 5 miles total.

Tuesdays - as mentioned, Happy's (now known as O'Hara's) 5k from the original Happy's location starts at 6:15pm every Tuesday. 2 for 1 beer specials (they give you a massive beer for the price of a standard cup) for runners, and that includes some beers like GITM and Jucifer. Fun times. There are several routes that are run and they usually have a themed event if it falls on a specific type of national or running event (Halloween dress up, Christmas dress up, etc.) The groups usually split up around a mile in and it's got a fairly large crowd size. Wide age range between recent college grads to retirement. Lots come to run and there are a bunch of walkers too.

Wednesdays - our "Wasted Wednesday" group gets together and does 5 miles from the store on a pre-determined posted route. We bring beer that we leave in the VSBR fridge in the back that usually gets consumed. I hope you love IPAs. There are probably 10 or so routes that are either right at 5 miles or just under. That group is mostly people running between 3:30-4:00 for marathon training.

Saturdays - VSBR meets at different places around where Monday and Thursday groups meet. Generally starts off at 8 miles for the start of marathon training but it will eventually ramp up to options of 10-12 miles. The calendar link I posted will explain and you can see some previous stuff if you look back.



There are lots of other groups out there. I know that Le Chien has a group once a week at least, Mid City has some type of club that I do not know is still as active as it used to be, and there's also Black Men Run group as well. I would say the easiest to stick with is Varsity since they never skip a day. Jenni Peters is almost always out there with us. She's able to take the group to places that provide either a discount or samples on wherever they're at. We got free margs up to $100 for the group one day at Barracuda and that was nice. At the same time there was a Mizuno rep letting us demo some shoes. There's a lot of benefits to being in the group and it's entirely free. If you are part of the club you can get a 15% discount at the store and a free singlet from VSBR to wear for the marathon. I think this year was Nike material, which is awesome.

I used to run with Varsity back in the day. I can’t make it to the lakes very often. What works best for me is a running plan where I’m accountable to someone who’s tailoring the workouts for my schedule, speed, and goals.

A lot of our Wednesday group starts at 6:30am or 7:00am right now for Saturdays. Come to a couple Wednesday runs and you can get added to the group chat at some point to follow along.