Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 5/12

Hey everyone,

Hopefully all of you are doing well. I missed last week but didn't skip on the running. I keep on having more fun in Hamburg as weeks pass by, but it tends to get bussy. Which has lead to 1 or 2 runs on a hangover.

Anyway: last week total was 40km.

Back to this week:

Goal: Stay healthy

Next race: Maybe a 7.5km race in June

Target: sub 27

M: 13 recovery

T: off

W: off

T: 13 with 3x2km at MP (felt good)

F: off

S: 21 moderate (felt good, never ran this fast)

S: off

Total: 46 km

Plan for this cycle is to get my average pace during my regular runs up which has been going very well. But, I may have been overdoing it so I'll be a little more careful next weeks to prevent any injuries.

I'll save the commenting for later.

Nothing special week here. Decent runs and I think I've done as much getting ready for Pocono as I can. This week will be pretty light and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for a tailwind.

Goal: 2:4x

Race: Pocono in a week.

Mon - Off (planned)

Tues - 7.5 (Included 5x800 400/rec. 2:51,:50,:49,:48,:43. Very windy. Pretty even effort. Not quite sure where the 2:43 came from.)

Wed - 5 (7:16 Flat and easy)

Turs - Off (Too busy)

Fri - Off (Too busy, but lots of running around and some biking)

Sat - 6 (7:24 Easy)

Sun - 11.1 (7:10 Avg. Another pre-marathon acceleration run. 7:38,7:24 then kind of cruised a bit 7:17,:13,:14,:16,:08. Picked it up from 7-9 6:35,:25 and finished with 7:17,:18.)

29.6 total

Thursday and Friday were spent chaotically getting ready for and race directing a 5K with a major party afterwords. Great time and I don't consider those two off days as "rest" days. Feeling good, I just have no idea what I'm going to be able to expect from my legs come Sunday. I have this thought in the back of my head that it is going to be an "either/or" day with no middle ground. Like I'm either going to nail it an set a 2 minute PR or fall apart and maybe not even finish. One way or another, I'll know before too long.

Going out to diner after work with the Moms in my life, so I may end up doing my commenting tomorrow. Hope everyone had a good week.

Good lukc VF Runner for Pocono!

Goal race: Marathon PR in fall (sub 2:18)

My week was ok and the best in my build up so far. Finally I started to feel that my shape's going upwards for a good bit...

Monday: AM 12,5 easy

Tuesday: AM 6 easy; PM 5 x 2000 a little harder than marathon effort on track (6:26') with 600 jog. It was ok, but not as easy as I would have liked it to be. Still a bit tired from the hilly fartlek last Sunday... (14,5 miles)

Wednesday: AM 12,5 easy

Thursday: PM 10 + 5 x 100 hillsprints (rest: jog down) (10,5 miles)

Friday: AM 2 x 5 K on the roads in pouring rain. 16:23, 16:08. 800 jog rest. Then 2 x 200 with 200 jog rest on track in 29 and 28''. This was the first time I felt completely relaxed at 5:10-pace since I've restarted my training after my sickness. GREAT!!! Held back the entire way up to the last mile (5:05) :) (13,5 miles); PM 6,5 miles

Saturday: AM 20,5 miles pretty hilly. Started easy and worked it down to high 5:50s in the last couple of miles. Felt very relaxed and strong.

Sunday: 15,5 miles including VERY hilly 10 mile fartlek (uphill fast, straight/downhill moderate). The non-hilly passages wre right around 5:35-pace. Satisfied with it!

(total: 112 miles)

Hope you all had good weeks, too :)

Pikachu

nice weeks from our posters so far, lets hope the others keep up the trend!

Next Race: 5K parkrun (1/6)

Goal Time: sub 16:30

On tuesday i was invited to tag along with another clubs weekly sessions. The club is my current clubs 'arch-rivals' (purely because all of the top runners from my club left for this one) and to be fair i can see why... the majority of the so-called 'higher' group are 31-33 minute 10K runners which means i am training with others at a level that i could do with being alongside. The session was 18*400m w/ 40sec recovery. Averaged around 75 for each rep and i felt like i couldve done more. This one session has already persuaded me that this club and this level of training is exactly the motivation i need.Not bad of a session two days after a 10K PR... Transfer forms at the ready :D

Back to normal next week hopefully. Going to be doing a few specific sessions for 5K over the next 3 weeks or so, try and sharpen up for the race 1st June. Also the XC presentations are this week so i will be collecting my '2nd male' prize :) won 4th last season so i'm hoping for a bigger trophy this year!

Goals: Finish recovering from Eugene, enter some summer all-comers meets, work on speed

Second week recovering. Kept the mileage down and didn't do any crazy workouts.

Monday: 6.5 miles including a scavenger hunt! Actual running was around 8:03 pace but with lots of stops. Stopped my watch during the stops.

Tuesday: Off, played lots of DDR (I own a machine).

Wednesday: Practice, 8.5 total with a 4 mile tempo. Had a pacing mishap, ran 6:42 / 6:43, then we tried to pick it up a bit and ran 6:22 (whoops), backed off a little and finished in 6:39. Felt pretty good, still a bit tired but the 85:48 kind of provided me with a new benchmark that makes any pace slower than 6:33 mentally a lot easier than it used to be. Strength after.

Thursday: 5 easy at 7:46 pace. Pretty much means I'm ready to train again.

Friday: Hilly, easy 5 at 7:50 pace. Felt great again.

Saturday: Practice. 10 miles total with a 4 mile tempo at 6:40 pace, pretty even. 5:00 rest into 3 x 800 with 2:00 rest. 800s were 3:06 / 3:05 / 3:06. A little faster than we intended, pacing not so hot, kind of all over the place. My butt was sore from the hilly run the day before. Strength after.

Sunday: 11.1 just under 8:00 pace. Pretty relaxed, some big hills. A little tired at the end since I hadn't run that much since Eugene.

Total 46. Next week will be my normal 70 I think. I feel ready. Looking at a 1600 in two and a half weeks, a 3000 three weeks after that, and a 5000 three weeks after that. I've done one track race in my life, so this should be exciting. I think I can make very big gains from working on speed this summer.

cmm: very nice base/easy week!

gmuze: I forget you are in k and not mi. I ready your week thinking that long run was 21 mi haha. I couldnt do a hangover run. I get such little sleep as is it may feel like the same haha.

VF: tailwind! Looks like training went well and those unplanned off days may have helped you get rested up. I think you will nail it!

Pikachu: Another awesome mileage week. lots of quality that week! I wish I could push out that many days!

dcrunner: hell of a 400 workout. looks like this new group is what you need.

xenon: nice recovery week. Still got some good tempos and quality in there.

Goal: Grandmas marathon 6/22 maybe, not feeling it right now

Tune up 5k 5/18

Mon: 7 + 3.75 (10.75)

Tues: 10.25 + 8 (18.25)

Wed: 8 + 4 (12)

Thurs: 7 + 6 (13)

Fri: 6 + 4 accels (10)

Sat: 9(5k race) + 7 (16)

Sun: 20

Total: 100

Lots of easy running this week. Work has been so busy lately I have not been getting much sleep if any those days. Wednesday was a very short 4mi progression from 820-600 because I was at work.

Sat: 5k race in PR of 1640 (they had me at 1636.8?) 514, 524, 530, 31. Was into the wind from 1.25mi on which sucked. Felt like I could have held 515s on a calm day. Got 3rd overall and won $50. Top 2 were 1429 and 1525 haha. first is a 356 and 1340s guy and 2nd has ran 63 and 28s on the road. They were GONE from the start haha

Sun: another rough long run. felt really good until ~18 and like junk at 19. still avg. 719, 20sec/mi faster than my last long run.

Talked to my coach and I will be taking a slight down week this coming week, mostly easy running and another 5k on Saturday.

Work is slow so I may as well comment a bit now.

Gmuze From time to time I'll go into a Sunday long run that way. Can make for a tough run

Pikachu Thanks. And as usual, excellent week at your end.

dc That's a pretty solid 400 session and I'd say that 16:30 isn't too far off.

xenon Welcome back to training. Solid week. Oh, and if you go eventually ... make sure you have internet access over there.

NP Thanks! Besides tailwind, I was just printing up and comparing course maps. Pocono makes Boston look flat. From max to min, Boston is 459 down to 10. Pocono is 1945 down to 424 - 1521 foot drop! As far as your week, I think a down week is certainly in order. Sub par or not, you got back to it pretty hard, pretty quickly after Boston. Take care.

Happy Mothers' Day to all! Will comment later in the week - getting ready to head off for a family dinner soon.

Week 2 of 2 of rest after Gettysburg.

Monday-Saturday - Rest.

Today - 1.62 miles (12:16): 20 minute random fartlek run with my wife and her girlfriend. "On" paces ~10:00/mi, "Off" paces ~15:00/mi walking.

Weekly Total: 1.62 miles

YTD: ~990 miles

My wife has lost more than 25 lbs so far this year and is now setting a goal of finishing the Philly half-marathon in November. Today was day two of running for her. I got to push my two girls in our double jogging stroller - quite a sight to behold today. :)

My legs feel great. This is the first time I have taken a full two weeks off after a marathon and I am glad I did. Not only does my body feel recovered, but my mind is starting to feel hungry again also. I am even more amazed at the fact that I have gained only 2 lbs since race day despite my best efforts at devouring everything in sight. Life is good. :)

Hope everyone else had a great week.

@VFrunner Good luck!

M 0 some core + stretching

T 5 400x4 around 76 + 200x6 around 33

W 2 I'm an idiot and over stretched my hamstrings, on the edge of cramping after 2 miles, so I quit my run early

T 3.5 Same thing, still sore

F 9 4 @ 7:19, 2 @ 6:15, 3 @ 7:17

S 6 8:10 tired

S 6 8:00 foot/calf tight, quit early to avoid shin pain.

Not really happy with how I feel since I can't get rid of some pain in my right shin. It is definitely something wrong with my foot strike, tried compression, icing, minimal footwear, stretching, Superfeet, but nothing seems to help. Next week I will try to introduce new stretches and re-introduce insoles and see if I see improvements.

Hope everyone had a great week!

Hey y'all, thought I'd start posting here again. I've been dealing with tendinitis in my foot for the past couple of months, so my training's been pretty light/nonexistent.

Current shape: ~17:30 5k.

Goal: sub-4:30 mile, sub-16:00 5k this summer using Roger Bannister style training. Figured I can't run much mileage until this tendon heals, so I might as well experiment. Quality doesn't bother it, only time on my feet.

M: 4 miles easy

T: 3.5 mi - 7 min w/u, 8x400 w/60s walk (77,74,75,73,74,73,69,66), 5 min c/d

W: Rest (~15 mi bike)

Th: 3.5 easy

F: Rest (~10 mi bike)

Sa: 4 easy

Su: 5 min w/u, 4x800 w/2min walk (2:36,2:35,2:32,2:35), 3 min walk, 4x200 off 200 walk (33,32,30,29). 5 min c/d, followed by weight session.

Total: 19 miles

I'm going to do a mile time trial next week, but based on those 800s it isn't going to be pretty.

Well, I tried to get into the Swarthmore meet (and as you'll see, I did a great job of tapering for it), but it seems it had enough attention that they didn't want to let slower "unattached" runners in. Shucks. Guess I'm just going to have to skip over the 15s. It's also probably a sign it is time to join one of the real running clubs, though (and in the process add NJ truth as a training partner). Also, glad that it's finally rained so that I can go outside without my body trying to kill me.

Anyways, this week was:

M AM - 6

M PM - 13.5

T - 12 Failed tempo (pollen)

W - 10

Th AM - 7

Th PM - 11. Core.

F - 11 2k-16-12-8-4-2 cutdown workout

Sa - 12

Su - 6

Total: 88.5. Kind of surprised I did that with only two doubles and no real long runs. Right achilles bothering me a little bit the last couple of days, but I think I've got it under control.

Tuesday workout: Worst allergy day this year so far, as it not only made me sneeze, eyes water, and so forth, but had an obvious effect on my breathing. Started on an easy run with the other guys and planned to do tempo once we got to the canal. Went out a ways (almost 2 miles? where have all the half mile markers gone?), rested a bit as I skirted around some angry geese with goslings, then back to tempo for the next (it looks like) 2.5 miles or so (was it that much?). Returned to the land of occasional markers, so splits were 2:47 and 5:40 for the half-mile ending that section. Took a pee break, tried to start up again, but could tell from my pollen-affected breathing I wasn't going to be able to hold it. Sucks, but looking back I guess this workout wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was.

Friday workout: Based off of a Canova workout. First two rests were 3 minutes, then the others were longer (closer to 5 minutes, so the faster stuff would feel more comfortable). Splits were 6:18, 5:01, 3:41, 2:19, 61.5, 28.2. Kept one of my training partners company on the last couple, so they were a bit faster than planned. Definitely very happy with this one, especially considering that it was a pretty hot day!

cmm268: Nice mileage.

Gmuze: Congrats on breaking through with your pace! Be ever vigilant with injuries, though.

VF Runner: Cool to hear that you're doing some work as a RD. Best of luck next week!

Pikachu: Seems like the heavy rains always come for you when you're doing 10k hard in one form or another. Good thing you're training for a marathon! Awesome week overall, too!

dcrunner0910: Good to hear that you've found a good group! Workout looks pretty good as well.

xenonscreams: Good to see that you're getting back into the swing of things and hitting good times after the half!

Also, re: last week. Shame that I won't get a chance to (seems you can't get strikethrough text on the message board) [strikethrough]meet you[/strikethrough] medal in international competition this year. But to be honest I wouldn't feel right taking someone else's spot for something like that.

NP1112: Congrats on the PR and taking home the cash! The other guys sound pretty legit, though. Were the first and second place prizes big enough to warrant that type of talent moving in?

Numbersguy: Glad to hear that you're mentally ready to get back at it! Also, congrats to your wife, and best of luck to her in training for Philly!

Slartzio: How did you manage to overstretch your hamstrings (or any muscle)? I don't think this is something I've really heard of happening before. Anyways, best of luck in dealing with the shin pain!

Ghola: Sorry to hear about the persistent injury trouble. It will be interesting to see how your training experiment goes!

Looking forward to hearing from the rest of you.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I just took a GRE practice test and misread four out of the six math questions I got wrong. I'm really mad at myself and kind of stressed out so I'll comment on your weeks once I suck it up, get over it, figure out how to avoid doing it on the actual test, and get some goddamn ice cream because I'm a woman and that's what we do when we're stressed out. Peace.

@StevenJ I think I did too much bending down with straight legs, and swinging my leg up and touching with the opposite hands (I have not better way to explain). The day after the hamstrings felt sore to touch and "off", even when I was contracting them. Weird sensation, never felt it before, but it fixed itself after a couple of days..

Shires of Vermont Marathon, one week from today, 5 weeks after Boston bonk, goal sub-3

M 8+ @7:36

T 12+ tempo @6:48, 15 total

W 8+ @8:14 (pouring rain throughout, with friend recovering from 50K Bear Mountain race 4 days earlier)

Th 8+ @7:50

F 8+ @7:33

Sa 5 @7:41

Su Mother's Day

Week: 53, 2013: 929

Tuesday's workout was two loops of Central Park, felt good, took the uphills easy and let gravity take me on the downhills. Now it's taper time.

***

VF Runner - good taper week, kill it at Pocono!

Pikachu - can't wait to track your training. Way to set a goal for yourself!

DcRunner, Numbersguy - nice well-earned recovery weeks

xenonscreams - belated congrats on the Maccabee thing!

NP1112 - sorry you're not feeling Grandma's but still, 100 miles is one hell of a week

StevenJ - nice week, sorry about the unattached runner thing.

Hullo, all.

Next race: 12k road race, 5/18

Goal: ??? (don't know the course at all)

Goal race: Fall marathon?

M- Lunch 4mi easy PM- 7mi easy

T- 10mi including 4mi tempo on the track (21:05- 5:15, 5:15, 5:12, 5:09 + add-on to go from 6400m to 4mi)

W- 13 easy

Th- 7mi easy (final exam for night class right after work)

F- Lunch- 3mi easy PM- 10mi w/workout: 5mi of (800 hard, 800 steady) in 27:16 (2:26/3:04, 2:26/2:59, 2:25/2:58, 2:25/3:00, 2:24/2:54 + 12 seconds for 8k -> 5mi add-on).

Sat- 3PM 9mi super easy ~7:40s 8PM- 3mi jog w/GF

Sun- 6:30PM- 2 hrs with the first 90min easy, last 30min at a fairly strong effort, safe 18mi

Tot- 86

On Tuesday it was a little warmer and more humid than I'm used to (Pablo and other runners from hot climes will laugh, but for me, 75 and a 60 deg dewpoint is kind of tough to adjust the first time it happens!) and the wind was whipping pretty good. It was certainly a better effort than last week's tempo at the same pace, but I probably should have let the wind slow me down a few more seconds a mile. Friday's workout was just plain surprising- I had penciled in 2:32 and 3:03. I made sure to go extra easy on Saturday to avoid digging myself into a hole.

Comments to follow post-shower, I just finished the run and was having a malty recovery beverage when the thought occurred to me to post.

I feel like such a fraud. My mileage totaled 84, not 86. I swear it was an accident!

VF Runner- Good luck next weekend! Obviously, you dont need me to tell you but the off days wont hurt you and will probably help come next Sunday. Stay positive and you'll nail that PR!

Pikachu- That Friday workout is awesome and your weekly total is great! Glad to hear you are on the mend and feeling good.

dcrunner- Good luck with your new team..based on your post it sounds like you've found the team you need to be training with! I recently joined a local club and hope to start doing some runs with these guys as opposed to logging all these solo miles:)

xenonscreams- nice week--I cant believe you are already tossing in tempos after Eugene.

NP112-Outstanding 5k time, congrats on the new PR. But --nother 100 mile week, really? :)

Numbersguy-Awesome to hear that your wife is targeting the Philly half. Also glad to hear that you took some downtime and are rejuvenated! I'm pretty sure I would have gained 15 pounds in your scenario.

Slartzio- Good luck with your shin---if you havent tried KT Tape, I'd definitely test it out and see if it works for you

Ghola- I hope your tendinitis starts to heal and nice to have you posting. Good week back for you.

StevenJ-Be careful with that Achilles--that's what has done me in for the past 6 weeks. Nice job on that Friday workout. Sorry to hear about your allergies, I assume you are already taking medication?

My Week:

M: 7 miles @ 7:20 pace

T: 8 miles @ 7:20 pace

W: 1/2 mile, the phhht.

T: 0

F: 0

S: 1 mile @ 7:20 pace

S: 0

16.5 miles

I tried to get back into a regular running routine this week. In fact, I even signed up for the B.A.A. 10k scheduled for 6/23.

Unfortunately, my right calf tightened up on Wednesday afternoon. I tried to run again on Saturday, but shut it down after 1 mile.

We'll try again tomorrow. Heck, I might even get back in the pool too.

Nice PR, Nick.

Kick a$$ in Vermont, Dave.

Xenon, Congrats on the alternate spot.