Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 2/10

Great job everyone!

Monday: off as I had run 7 consecutive days prior

Tuesday: 4 averaging 9:08, starting about 10:00 pace and ending about 8:00 pace. Had weird cramp under left big toe.

Wed swam 20 minutes but did not run

Thursday: 5 total including 1 warmup and4 mile group time trial at 7:26 per mile. Felt mediocre. Heavy quads but controlled breathing. This course features several hills, the largest climbs 120 feet.

Friday : 3 easy as the snow had just started coating the ground at an unknown, very slow pace. Legs very heavy from hard hilly run 14 hrs before. This easy run also included several hills.

Saturday: I am planning on doing a few triathlons this summer so started with a 48 minute stationary bike ride followed by a 3 mile treadmill run on a very badly calibrated treadmill. Effort and heartrate (130) indicated about 9 minute pace.

Sunday: 5 total including 4 at 8:28 and then a bunch of 50ish meter sprints averaging 4:50 pace totalling .5 miles, then .5 warmdown at 9:16. Main run mildly dissapointing as first half was at 8:15 pace then faded. Very happy with the sprints though, got faster as time progressed, breathing controlled. Would have struggled even maintaining 6:00 pace a couple months back for a similar workout.

Goals ahead are to pr at hyannis half marathon: 1:39:05 in 2 weeks and to go sub 21 (stretch goal pr 20:39) at a 5k in mid march. The good thing about this week is that my easier miles were at 830 or 9 instead of 10 or 11 and I got a good bike workout in. Bad thing is my lack of long runs, my recent 5ks in the low 21s indicate a potential pr but have only squeezed in one 85 minute long run week before. Planning on getting in a 100 minute long run this week, then 10 mile race this weekend.

Training for Boston, goal sub 2:58

M 8+ @7:31

T 5 tempo @6:23 (9 total) Pumped how bearable it was!

W 8+ @7:35

Th 8+ @7:30

F 8+ @7:37

Sa 8 @7:41

Su off (planned)

Total 51, year total 300

Great weeks out there, guys. Will try to look over more closely tomorrow. Winter ain't the off-season on this thread!

Races: New Bedford 1/2 and Boston

Ok, I'm sorry I never got back on here last week and posted comments. This tread has really taken off, just like some of you folks on here. I love reading all your posts, especially the new people. You got to start somewhere.

A special shout out to Alf Tupper for his return to racing. Hope this is the beginning of some great things for you. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing how you do at Hyannis, Runner Girl. You've put in some good weeks these last couple of months.

My week (all on the treadmill, ugh!):

M: Rest

T: 9.5 (1:07:30). Last 8.5 @7:03

W: 8.0 (60:00) Easy pace

T: 6.25 (45:44). Pulled out an old pair of shoes, a mistake, had to stop.

F: 12.0 (1:27:10). Progression run to 8.9mph during miles 4-9.

S: 8.25 (1:02:52). Easy pace

S: 17.0 (2:03:35). Hour 1 @7:19/mi. Tried to speed it up during hour 2. It only lasted only 3 miles before I went back to 7:19 pace.

Total: 62 miles

Still not getting enough marathon pace mileage yet. However, I'm heading down to Orlando and Boca in 2 weeks. Hope to get in some good efforts outside during those days. Until then, more treadmill fun.

2013 Goal: Sub 1:25 Half-Marathon

Mon- Ran 6.25 miles (7:17 pace) treadmill

Tues- Ran 7 miles (7:00 pace)

Wed- Off

Thur- Ran 8.5 miles (7:20 pace)

Fri- Ran 7.5 miles (6:59 pace)

Sat- Ran 12.5 miles (7:25 pace)

Sun- Ran 8.5 miles (7:09 pace)

50.25 miles

Aim: 2:45 late April.

Mon.—10mi.

Tues.—am. 5mi./ pm. 5mi.

Wed.—pm. 8mi./ pm. late 7mi.

Thurs.—12mi. on hilly trails (7:22)

Fri.—11mi.

Sat.—10mi.

Sun.—20mi. in hills (2:42).

Week: 88 miles (ytd 436). I let high blustery winds stop me from doing a planned tempo yesterday. Otherwise the week was pretty good. Like Pablo’s, my 20 miler tonight was a progression run. In my case though after doing the first 10mi. at a 7:30 pace, I was moving progressively slower over the last 10mi.. Big climbs in the last few mile account for only some of that.

Hi y'all.

Not much from me this week, other than to say that there is some very impressive training and racing going on.

alf tupper - a very impressive return to racing after 21 years away from it! Congrats!!! Still sorting stuff out in terms of races, etc, but Barry thinks it would be good if I still done the London Marathon, but not sure of the rest of his plans yet. It should all be sorted in the next few days. I think he and I are probably thinking in terms of the same thing - my condition is in need of serious rebuilding, and a marathon fits with that quite nicely.

Barry works in %-ages rather than Lydiard fractions, but it's %-ages of effort rather than pace, so 80% = 1/2 effort, 90% = 3/4 effort, 95% = 7/8 effort (aka a Lydiard style time-trial). To check my condition he had me do 10m @ 85% last week (which was the only prescribed run), which indicates, by my calculations, that my current marathon shape is about 6:06-6:11m/m. Disappointing to see it like that, but it's about what I expected at the moment as I felt my condition had degraded quite badly over the last few weeks. I have actually felt things getting generally harder - similar feeling to when a car starts running out of fuel I guess (i.e. you notice a major drop-off in performance as the needle inclines to zero).

I suspect what has happened is that the lay off of a best part of a year with my knee, plus years of short build-ups to races, interspersed with long periods of haphazard training (primarily jogging, and really not much of it), has seen my underlying condition erode, so hopefully this means I've hit the bottom and will start moving back up now. At the same time, as far as bottoming out goes, it could be worse, and having not done consistent (and sensible) training since mid-2009 I have probably outperformed off the training I have done. I also suspect just missing the sub-2:30 @ Berlin off of so little training last year was probably responsible for tipping me towards where I am now.

On the plus side, my wife found out on Friday that she passed her final exam (ACCA - accountancy), so she is now fully qualified after 3+ years of study, which, aside from being obviously brilliant, also means I won't be 'losing' 2 months+ of training twice a year. Win win! :-)

Run well all. I shall try get back to reporting proper training next week.

Another good solid week:

Mon - 45 easy inc. 6x~150m strides

Tue - 60 easy

Wed - 30 easy

Thu - 60 easy

fri - Rest

Sat - 60 (inc 5K @16.58)

Sun - 90 easy

Just keeping the ball rolling and trying to gradually increase the length of a couple of runs per week, while keeping the easy days really easy. In the past I've ended up just running an hour per day which seems to wear me down and doesnt get such good results as alternating a few longer runs with a few very short days. 'Effort' run was good this week, felt very well controlled. May jump into a local 5m road race if I can be bothered next Saturday but just run it as a steady tempo rather than hammering myself. At this point I'm more interested in continuing to lay down a good base prior to introducing a few hills in late March / April.

Good work everyone!

dcrunner - well done on the XC race. I run for Birmingham Running Athletics and Triathlon Club but I'm not a triathlete.

pablo - a good week of training. Glad your achilles is OK.

marmite - hope the 30k goes well. It'll be interesting to see what you can run, as your training has been really good recently.

hbwnw - I set a target pace before the run. If I can't run that pace I make it shorter; if the pace is too easy I allow myself to pick it up the 2nd half.

np1112 - a lot of volume at the moment. Very impressive. Don't ignore speed work though. The league races are usually around 10k (most people measured it as exactly 10k on Saturday) but don't read too much into the times, as most British XC courses are just mudbaths. I never really look at time; it's all about position and scoring points for the team.

bad as - good luck this weekend. You've certainly got a sub-2 in you based on current training.

numbersguy - yes, and it was the best run of the week.

alf tupper - that's a great run. Well done! Another block of training like that and you'll be breaking age-category records for sure.

Steve in Alaska - if you can run (just outside) 70 min pace for your tempo run that's a good sign. I'm going to try 10-12k at that pace this weekend to see what kind of shape I'm in.

letsrunit2013,ATSS - welcome.

kr - sounds like a very sensible plan. It'll be interesting to see what you can do at London anyway even without a full build up.

Ugh. I'm working from home today as it seems that some/most of the roads are still not 100% fit for travel around here. It seems my town was one of the target spots for this feckin storm. 20-33+" of wet/heavy snow that basically fell in the span of 8 hours. I was lucky to make it home from work on Friday. Plows were getting stuck, most roads were littered with cars that were stuck. They just opened the Long Island Expressway this morning.

Needless to say, I am officially sick of winter. Things I've learned this week:

1. Quinoa and me don't agree. We started using it as a replacement for rice, but I find it gives me nasty GI problems which unfortunately happened the night before my MP workout this week, which made the workout a little bit of a fail.

2. 6 hours of shoveling heavy snow is good corework

3. 22 miles on a treadmill tests your sanity.

M: 8.04 @ 8:27 AHR 129

T: 9.22 @ 8:06 (TM) AHR 138. 5 x 200m @ 11.3mph, then 2 x14min hills at 8% in between 7:41-7:44/mile pace.

W: 10 @ 8:25 AHR 130

R: 10 @ 7:28 AHR 149 (6@6:45, AHR 160)

F: 8 @ 8:14 AHR 124 (TM)

S: 22 @ 7:38 AHR 137 (TM)

S: 9 @ 8:17 AHR 125 (TM) + 6 hours of shoveling heavy snow.

Tot: 76.3

I am taking a rest day today. Luckily, my coach is using this as a down week before we get into the last 8 weeks of heavy training. I didn't want to schedule a vacation this winter to get uninterrupted training, however I wish I was going somewhere warm.

A shortened week.

M- 3.5

T- 6

Wed >Sun- ) Do to heel/ foot issue.

Total: 9.5

I was planning to have a reduced week this week coming up but moved it up due to a pain in the foot that I wanted to nip in the bud. My biggest fear about it was that it was a stress reaction issue but I don't think that was it. It feels pretty good right now so I may head out later. I have been telling myself all week that I would rather miss four days in February than four months in the Spring and Summer. (Actually I was saying January but my sense of time just isn't what it used to be.)

Brum: What would you consider speed work for a marathoner? The building runs right now are 3 fast/comfortable, 3 MGP, 3 10-20 sec faster MGP. Ive never done much faster stuff really, some 3 and 6 mile building runs.

I think I will start doing more marathon specific long runs here soon. So maybe my mid week run will be shorter and faster. Have no clue what the coach has planned yet.

Goal Race: Boston (hoping sub 2:30)

Next Race: 10k (3/1)

M: 14 miles (ugh, rough run. Sore from skiing the previous day)

T: 21 Miles (Slow, still sore)

W: AM: 3 miles PM: 14 Miles

Th: 3 mile warm up, 6 steady state @ 5:40 pace, 3xMile w400m jog in between, (5:21, 5:19, 5:14), 4x200m sprints w/200m jog (did not time them), 3 mile cool down.

F: AM 3 miles PM 13 Miles

Sat: 4 miles PM 15.5 Miles

Sun: 3 mile warm up, 4x2 mile w/400m jog shooting for 5:30 pace(10:59, 11:00, 10:59, 10:54), 3 mile cool down.

Total: 119.5 miles

I figured I should start doing workouts this week. Only a little over 2 months until the big show!

Angel of Death, you're a beast, man. 4x2mile with 400 rest, wow! Looking forward to your 10k.

alftupper: Congrats on the comeback race and the age group win! Really awesome to see your training pay off.

To all, good to see the injuries mending and the training going well!

Stuck in the airport today with just a little time to post but not enough time to read and comment yet.

M - 6 (45 mins - moderate @7:28), 1 mile at 6:40

T - 6.6 (48 mins - moderate @7:19), middle mile 6:40

W - 4.2 (35 mins - easy @8:17) – final Flagstaff run

Th - 13 (94 mins - moderate @7:12, negative splits with 45:40 out and 41:27 back + short warmdown, last mile 6:44)

F - OFF (rest to be conservative after what ended up a pretty good hard run the day before)

S - 6.5 (50 mins - easy @7:40-ish)

S OFF (unplanned, stuck in airport all day)

Week total: 36

YTD: 176

I’m struggling to find a good time to run every day with so much happening. Sunday was a wasted day because I ended up at the airport all day and then didn’t even fly (or run). Now I have to track down my lost bag (which DID fly yesterday) and travel today. I’m hoping I will be able to get in a good run when I land on the other end. I have the greatest respect for all of you that get in quality runs around your travel.

Regardless, I was pretty stoked about my run on Thursday. I was hoping to run 90 minutes and wasn't sure how fast I was running on my first run down from altitude. I felt great and pushed a bit towards the end. I took the next day off as a precaution because every time I've had a great run the last few months I've had the knee injury bug pop up the next day so I'm just trying to stay conservative. I still have the 10-miler in a couple weeks and am going to put together a plan for a marathon the first weekend in April (8 weeks!). Cheers!

Hey folks-

I got over my little bout with tendinitis just in time to get snowed in by Nemo. My week was a paltry 5mi on Monday and 4mi on Sunday, but my foot feels better and I'm not necessary begrudging of two easy weeks post-marathon. I'll check with some responses later- my office was closed on Friday so I'm still playing catchup.

brumrunner - killer session on Tuesday and a cracking XC on Saturday mixed into a great week, looking very good.

has been who never was - sounds like the training is going in the right direction, good to hear. Out of the 3 options for tempo runs, I couldn't even consider blasting the first mile then trying to hang on, can only manage that in a race situation. Think I would try to mix-up options 1 and 2. Find if I do a few strides before starting a tempo run I can get into target pace more or less from the off so that might be worth a go.

CTA - you're too kind. I'm stunned that you are getting the amount of running done that you are given all the flights, impressed with your dedication.

VF Runner - excellent quality and volume in there, solid week.

NP1112 - Immense week, damn that's serious mileage with some great sessions sprinkled into the mix. I'm planning to do the 30k as a progression run, so was thinking to set out around 6:30m/m and take it from there.

cmm268 - quality 20 on Sunday and excellent training through the week.

dcrunner0910 - the Friday session is lifted directly from Canova's book, from the "special" phase, in between the general running and marathon-specific stuff he has listed.

alf tupper - incredible return to racing, congrats on the age group victory. Brilliant. Think you were asking about Spen 20, I've never done it but heard good things, I'll have to put it on the list.

Yuri_G - well run at the 5k.

des - think you'll have gotten an excellent training stimulus from your Sunday run so eventhough you didn't get to do it they way you'd planned I've no doubt it'll have done you plenty of good. Great week overall.

kr - delighted to hear about your other half nailing her exams, that's great news. Will be watching the training Barry has you doing with interest.

dcrunner0910- Congrats on an awesome finish to your XC season.

Numbersguy- Some impressive looking workouts this week.

Pablo- An all-around great week it seems; miles, solid workouts, and most of all shook the achilles injury. I really like those in-and-out-quarters.

Marmite- Solid week of training. Do you have a goal for the race?

Brumrunner- That's an awesome workout on Tuesday, and congrats on your race. I think we have very similar views on using 6-8 mile (9.6-12.8K) runs as predictors for half-marathon paces. I used to run them too hard, but would like to think I am running them at a more controlled and honest effort now. We shall see.

Tiger_runner- Sorry to hear about the setbacks, hang in there man.

Darwinian- Looks like you should be rested and ready to go. Good luck this weekend.

CTA- The two rest days are probably better for you than forcing it. It looks like it probably paid off since you closed the week with two pretty solid long runs.

VF Runner- Great week. Your training is looking really good.

NP1112- WOW. Awesome week man, you have really been bringing it week after week.

themack- 5 days of running still ain't bad. Just keep building and you'll be back on track.

Renewed Marathoner- Life/work get to us all sometimes, and like you said the break might have come at a good time too. Just gotta get back on track slowly. Good luck with your race this weekend.

bad as naomi russell- Your training has been going really well lately. Hope the 800 time trial goes well this week.

Alf Tupper- Congrats on the win!!! I remember wanting to puke when I got out there again after a 4 year break, so I can't even imagine what 21 years would be like. Very inspirational to see!

Muebele- Good week of miles and workouts.

xenonscreams- Welcome. (my apologies if you're not new). That's a really solid week of training, hope the achilles issue goes away soon too.

cmm268- Another solid week of training as usual.

NJ Truth- Good news on the knee! That's also the highest mileage you've posted in awhile right? Good luck on that tempo.

Yuri_G- Nice week and congrats on the race!

cyhawk- Your string of solid training weeks continues. I am sure it will pay dividends next month and again in April.

letsrunit2013- welcome, and nice week!

Des- You just keep on piling on the miles and quality workouts, really looking forward to your race in VB next month. Also, it's a few months away but like I said last week I would love to get in some runs together once I am settled in. I am sure we'll chat more about it as the time comes.

ATSS- Welcome! and 40 mpw is a very solid starting point.

running girl 79- Nice quality runs this week and it looks like you got in some good cross-training too.

Edgemont Dave- Congrats on the tempo. Another good week of training.

Printer- Good week and it looks like you are rebuilding very nicely after some issues a few weeks ago.

Reg Fields- Consistency is the name of the game and you're doing it very well.

Hans E.- Another high mileage week as usual.

kr- Congrats on the wife's good news! I have to say I am impressed that you were able to keep an honest effort during your 85% time trial last week. I am sure most people (myself included) would have a hard time not overestimating our fitness,or try to convince ourselves that we were going easier than we actually were. Also impressed that you are taking a patient and long-term approach to your current situation and I hope it pays off with a huge PR this fall.

Renfree- Sounds like you have a good plan of attack and building very nicely.

Another- I sympathize with your 22-miler on the treadmill, but kudos on getting it done. Any way you can get a TV or video to watch while you're on the treadmill? I've heard that passes the time. (I can usually get by with music)

Stephen J bartowski- Glad you are being smart with the heel and hope it goes away soon.

The Angel of Death- Awesome week, and your workouts are just as impressive as your mile totals.

aaryno- I hate airport snafus like that, but kudos on a nice Thursday run.

Oops, epic fail with messing up the "bold"-ing above, will have to preview next time.