Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 11/16

Good work Matthias. You were much quicker than the goal you set yourself before the race. It was good to meet you. 32:03 for me which I was happy with given that I've had a cold this week and couldn't walk without pain until Tuesday because of my heel flare up. Hopefully we'll both be quicker at Telford.

Matthias and brum – Good on both of you!

reed and StevenJ – let it loose!

Garbage – What happens in Vegas is hopefully a PR!

Kendo – crossing my fingers you got that sub-1:30 yesterday?

Goal: STAY HEALTHY and run with joy

Goal Race: Philadelphia Marathon (11/23)

Goal Time: a) 2:48, b) 2:50, c) 2:52

Age: 36, h/w: 5’11”, 166 lbs.

Location: New Jersey, just across the bridge from Philadelphia

Marathon Training Week 17 of 18

M – 6mi (8:08)

T – Off (unplanned)

W – Off (unplanned)

Th – Off (unplanned)

F – AM: 2mi test run, including .25mi@7:00/mi, .25mi@6:17/mi

PM: 4mi (7:54)

Sa – 8mi (7:43)

Su – 11.5mi (7:34)

Weekly Total: 31.5 miles

YTD Total: 2,287.5 miles

I could make this REALLY long but I’ll try to keep it short as I can. After 16 weeks of no hiccups, no illness, no injury, no setbacks; after the ultimate high of last week feeling like I nailed everything and was ready for taper time…

Bam! Sudden onset of peroneal tendinitis in my right ankle about 4 miles into Monday’s easy run. I initially freaked thinking HOW could this possibly happen? But then I snapped out of it, said what’s done is done, there’s plenty of time to get this right again. Took three days off, saw my massage therapist Wednesday night and Friday morning, stretched, prayed, rolled, prayed, stretched some more, prayed…

And then Friday all was right with the world again. Those who know me best know I am an eternal optimist at heart. I always look for that silver lining. I will forever believe that this minor setback was meant to be; that in some alternate universe I would have run in the cold rain this week and gotten sick; or I would have tried to run through the warning signs and blew my ankle; or that at the time that I normally would have been running Tuesday-Thursday a crazy driver would have been out on the road. I just wasn’t meant to run for three days, that’s all.

I nailed 16 out of 17 weeks of training. I feel healthy again. One week to go! Not much else to do now but lace up and see what I got…I have faith. :)

Hope everybody else had a great week.

Matthias - Nice PR! Very solid and looking forward to the report

Brum - Nice job as well! So close to that sub 32!

StoneCutter - Good to remind yourself of your number one goal of staying healthy! Hay is in the barn my friend.

Here is my week:

M - 4.3 / 7.8

T - 8.25 / 3.75 w/ 5 x Hill Sprint

W - AM: 4.2. PM: 3mi w/u, 7x.84 Hill Loop 31:07 (5:17/mile avg), 3mi c/d. 3 Mile Shakeout.

R - 9.4 / 4.5

F - 8.25 / 4

S - AM: 2mi w/u, 14 x 250m Hill (49s avg), 4.2 c/d. PM: 4 miles.

S - AM: 13 in 84:00. PM:???

Total: 97.5+

Another solid week down for me. I added one more loop on Wednesday from last week and averaged right around the same pace, but started slower and finished quicker. Laps were 5:25/mile -> 5:08/mile. Saturday was a frigid 6:00am workout before working the whole day. I added 2 more reps than last time and averaged a bit quicker, and closed the last quicker as well. I think the hill is pretty equivalent time wise to 300m on the track. I did a Medium Long Run this morning starting at ~7:10/mile and progressed the whole way down to ~6:05 avg the last 4. I'll probably do a short run after working today. Hope everyone has a great week!

Matthias and Brum: Great races!! Congrats :)

Stone Cutter: Those couple of days won't hurt you - so you will feel fresh come raceday!

Force: Consistent as ever :)

My week was pretty cool - I even jumped in a CC race :-)

M - 9.5 (7:07) / 5.5 incl. 4 x 30 meters hill sprints (felt my hammy so bailed and didn't do the planned 8)

T - 5 x 1k (3:04, 3:03, 3:03, 3:03, 2:58) w/ 600j. Pretty relaxed. (11)

W - 12+ (7:32). Pretty late. Pouring rain & cold. Kept it nice and easy.

T - 4 (7:43) / 5 x 400 (70.1'') w/ 400j. Just to get the legs moving (8+)

F - 5 (7:09) / 8 (7:01)

S - 5+ (7:07)

S - 2 shakeout (7:48) / CC race. A little bit short of six miles, ran 5:04-pace (29flat). Pretty muddy and a couple small hills. Won and beat a couple 30:30/1:07/2:22ish guys pretty easily (40+ seconds). I really thought I might get my a$$ kicked. Nice confidence booster. Now back to the grind of training! :-) 10 miles icl. w-up, c-down.

This week wasn't heavy mileage and intensity as we decided to see where I stand right now. Things are definitely getting better in terms of shape and feeling!

Pikachu

Goal: Rest

M: 1.5 mi warm up. 1 mi club TT in 4:52.5 (809 in 2:28 4:54 pace, last 800 in 2:24 4:49 pace), 1/2 mi cool down

T: Off

W: Off

Th: 2.5 mi jog, 10 min exercise bike. Strength

F: Off

Sa: 1 mi jog. 20 min exercise bike, strength

Total - 6.5

Happy with the time trial after running a hilly 6k two days before. 1st time on an indoor track since I injured my hamstring last February. Had a friend in much better shape than I am pace me through 809m.

Rested the last part of the week. Next week I will start training for indoor track. Hoping to take 15 seconds or so off of that mile.

Matthias and Brum - solid races guys! (I believe it wasn't a PR for brum though but a stellar time nonetheles, especially given what you were dealing with)

stone - great attitude and that's what I always try to do with my races do. Everything happens for a reason and the 3 extra days of rest will just mean your legs are that much more fresh come race day.

forcevery nice week and quality in addition to most likely going over 100. Just out of curiosity, how much rest do you take when you do the midweek cruise intervals like the 7x.84 workout?

pikachuawesome race to cap a very solid week of training!

pewowvery nice time trial to see where you are at. It's always a nice feeling to be able to negative split like that. Enjoy the well-earned down time.

Nov 10/ Nov 16

M 4 Easy

T 5 Easy + circuit

W 5.6 10 x 400 Relaxed w/200m Jog (~1:15) (1:24,24,24,23,23,22,20,21,21,15)

T 4 Easy + circuit

F 6.5 15:00 x 2 @ tempo (6:21 / 6:12)

S 3 Very easy + circuit

S 10 Easy (7:4x)

Another fun week, after doing 400s for 4/5 weeks I feel much more comfortable at moving my legs at 5:40/20 pace. The tempo was very good as well, with the second 15:00 easier than the first, but with some pushing at the end. Today I did not do any of MP section within the long run because I felt a bit fatigued from squats and lunges that I did on Saturday. Next week I'll move to 5x800 at the same pace (2:50 working down to 2:40), same 30 min tempo.

Hope everyone had a great week!

brum - a great race despite you having trouble with your heel this week. It was good to meet you too :) i was much quicker, you're right! i really surprised myself today. I think you finished alongside a teammate of mine. all the best and see you at telford!

stonecutter - the injury came at a crucial time but at least you are fit and raring to go next week :) you should smash it given your consistency for the last 4 months!

forcerunner - solid week of mileage and good speedwork :).

pikachu - rapid 1ks on tuesday and a solid performance over XC today! great work :)

pewow - nice one mile TT! neg split too! impressive :)

slartzio - nice quality once again this week :)

My week:

M - 6 miles easy

T - rest day

W - 5 miles. 6 x 1:00 on/1:00 off. on segments @Tempo (5:35ish)

Th - 5 miles easy

F - 4 miles easy + 5 x ~100m

Sa - 3 miles easy

Su - am 8 miles. Leeds Abbey Dash 10K - 119th (32:16 PB)... pm 3.5 miles very easy

race report:

perfect conditions in Leeds. a very cool morning with a slight breeze which soon trailed off before the start. It had rained but that was long gone. Made our way to the start and the 'sub 35' pen which was a decent sized block with plenty of room to jog up and down and get a few strides in. The elite runners (last years winner and the odd UK representatives) were introduced then we were off! The course itself is almost all flat with a small downhill/uphill just before 4K and a short sharp climb at around 9K as you head towards the finishing straight.

3:04 - as always, everybody wants to fly out of the blocks and make a quick start... i unfortunately got dragged into that.

3:20 (6:24) - a slower k settling into a group as we approached a car park loop.

3:24 (9:48) - getting slower which was a little concerning but i went through 3k at 32:40ish pace feeling comfortable. back on the main strip of road.

3:17 (13:05) - approached the little climb still feeling really good. Already overtaking people who had clearly gone out too hard. Their heavy breathing was a nasty sound! Got to see the leaders pass us on the other side of the road as they passed half-way. There was a lead group of about 12!

3:15 (16:20 first 5K) - got to half-way and the course turns back on itself. The corner can slow you down by the odd second but its not that much. Still feeling really strong.

3:09 (19:29) - put the gas on a little bit. The depth of the race is fantastic and you don't realise how fast you're moving. passed around 8 between 5 & 6K

3:12 (22:41) - the field was pretty spaced out at this point. I had overtaken about 3 again but was worried i was gonna end up on my own. had my sights set on a group of about 5 in front of me. Legs and breathing still effortless

3:10 (25:51) - first time i'd broke 26 minutes for 8K/5 miles. It was getting ridiculous, i could not believe how great i was feeling. not meaning to sound big-headed but i was confident at this point! Still overtaking reasonably sized groups of runners.

3:08 (28:59) - By the time i had got to 9K i realised only a complete and barbaric disaster was going to stop me from getting a PB. Body was feeling top as the hard part was approaching. passed more runners, only a couple though.

3:17 (32:16) (15:56 last 5K) - got over the short, sharp hill at about 9.5K and i decided to take the downhill easy and go for it with about 200m to go. At this point i knew i was going to smash my PB. I overtook the winning female and UK international Steph Twell (google her if you don't know her) on the finishing straight and crossed the line in absolute disbelief haha. 33 second PB and a very happy chap at the end of it all.

This 10K is definitely the best i've ever raced in and is certainly fast! i came 119th and ran low 32! first 13 were under 30 and 31:50 would've got you 100th place. about 9500 finished the race.

Managed to bump into an old poster on this forum brumrunner before and after the race, i told him before we started that i would be lucky to break 33 today... 25 of us from our club ran and 11 got PBs! we were all chuffed on the coach ride home :)

Thanks for letting me share my race story with you guys and hope you all have had great weeks! :)

Good luck GarbageDisposal I'll be following!

Matthias-Congrats on the huge PR! Thanks for the race report, you definitely raced very strong and turned in a high quality effort! You closed very well

brumrunner-Awesome job as well, almost a sub 32!

The Stone Cutter-I happened to go out to blogspot this week for the first time in months and saw your diary with the injury. It's great that it seems to be at bay after yesterday and todays run and I'm with GarbageDisposal here, those extra 3 days rest may turn out to be a blessing in disguise. You've nailed your training, take it easy this week and get ready for a great race next weekend:)

Forcerunner-another very solid week. That Weds run is impressive!

Pikachu-Very impressive CC race today!

pewow-nice mile race--sub 5 with a negative split!

Slartzio-another solid week. I wouldnt worry too much about your MP segment today as you build

Goal: TBD

Weekly: 100.2

YTD: 4,412

Mon: 7 E AM, 7 E PM - 10 minutes of planks

Tues: 11 total am Interval: 6x800 (2:39,2:32,2:33,2:33,2:34,2:32) recoveries were 2:55-3:00 range. 3 wu, 3.5 cd. 3.1 treadmill PM descending ending at MP - 10 minute planks, foam rolling and legs at the gym

Weds: 10.5 E, 4 E PM - 10 minutes of planks

Thurs: 10 E , 4 E treadmill PM

Fri: 8.5 E, 5 with 3 tempo (5:54,5:45,5:42) PM on treadmill - 4 sets of core x3 at gym

Sat: 11 E AM

Sun: 19 mile loop with final 5 mostly uphill averaged 7:15 for run. 10 minutes of planks

Another week of base although I started to sprinkle some faster stuff in on Tuesday and Friday. Wanted to do just a longer-ish run today but no MP miles. Will probably try to jump in a shorter race next weeked if there is one close by.

brumrunner

congrats on a solid looking 10k. Very nice.

I have an old buddy who runs for Birmingham Running athletics Team???? Do you run for them?. Do you know Mark Ince?

Goal Race: Marathon Recovery

Next Race: Santa Special Human Mile (11/22)

M: 3.1 easy(8:39)

T: 6.3 easy (08:18)

W: 6.3 easy (8:34)

T: 6.1 easy (8:08)

F: Off

S: 12.3 (8:07)

S: 5.2 kind of a MP tempo (7:48)

Total for week: ~39.4

In my second week of marathon recovery I feel like I’m doing ok. I do feel more tired, muscularly, but not aerobically if that makes any sense. I’m going to jump in a mile road race next weekend just to see how much of my speed is gone. It’d be nice if all the extra volume (for me) helped on the shorter distances I run.

I’m still hunting a flattish half marathon in the winter/spring (after the New Year, before the end of April) within about 5-6 hours of northeast TN. So far, in no particular order, the candidates are:

Tom King Classic – Nashville

Charleston

Virginia Beach

Myrtle Beach

Greer Earth Day (I can’t figure out if it is flat or not) – this one is the closest by far

Palmetto Dunes (this one looks kind of neat, but there isn’t much information floating around)

TheGarbageDisposal: I hope you knock it out of the park tonight!

Matthias: That’s a great race and report. Awesome! I’ve never been in a race that is that deep with amazing athletes. Around here if you’re under 40 min you’re usually top 5, unless there is prize money ;)

The Stone Cutter: Good way to look at the turn of events. Obviously, you just needed 3 more rest days that you weren’t going to take unless forced. Good luck this week! You’ll nail it.

Distance Fan

You might then consider both Wrightsville Beach and The Tobacco Road in Cary/Raleigh, NC. Both are on March 15th and both are flat.

Matthias and Brum - great results! You guys are an inspiration! Congrats.

Force - awesome weak (again!). Your consistency is impressive.

Cutter - I really admire your optimism. The mental part of endurance running is so important and, ultimately, that's the X factor that will carry you to your goal. The work is done now and I think that extra rest will do you good. Just keep the legs sharp this week and dial in the nutrition. You'll do great!

Goal: CIM 12/7 @ sub-2:50

44 yo, 6'0", 148 lbs

This was a tough week. But taking StoneCutter's lead, I'll try to keep a positive outlook and make lemonade out of these lemons.... Developed another sore calf - the opposite one from two weeks ago. Not sure where these calf issues are coming from, but whatever. Anyway, it handicapped my week a bit. On the bright side, I did get a little extra rest with more easy running, and I still managed a couple of quality-oriented sessions.

M - 8m easy

T - 8m easy (started feeling the calf after this run)

W - 15.5m (hilly) @6:43 avg, with 10m @6:22

T - 8m easy

F - 10.3m easy

S - 7.5m easy

S - 13.2m (yes, .1m extra) final tune-up HM @6:14 avg. Calf still very tender. I debated for a long time whether or not to even get out of bed. Not sure exactly how much the calf affected my speed but I it was a factor. Also, I had to make a porta potty stop at mile 5 (got to the start late and didn't have time to empty the tank).

70m total

Overall, I'm still not feeling confident of sub-2:50. Normally my MP is ~20 sec/mi > my HM pace. So with the 6:14 HM pace today I'm looking more like 6:34/2:52. Although, I was not quite 100% healthy today and I had no taper and multiple big sessions last week. With a good taper maybe I can get sharp enough to hit 2:49:59 in 3 weeks :).

Goal: 1:20 HM 11/30, sub-17 5k 11/23

Last "training" week before I start a mini-taper

M: 6 miles easy, tired

Tu: 8 miles with 35 minutes of 1 min fast (under HM pace maybe) / 1 min slow

W: 8 miles easy

Th: 12 miles with 12 x 1/2 mile road with 90 seconds rest. Cold. On a good day this might be a 10k pace workout but I just wanted to progress to goal HM pace and go faster if it felt good which is what I did. Averaged 3:02, last 4 average under 3. In control the whole time and didn't feel oxygen debt, the only hard part was not freezing during the rests.

F: 8 miles very easy

Sa: 12 miles - 9 easy + 3 hard. Was too dark to see how fast I was going, probably not terribly quick.

Su: most likely off, first day off in a while

Total 54

Looking forward to seeing what I can do on flatter road courses the next two weeks

Forcerunner - As others have said, you have got to be our most consistent poster. You're amazing. Keep up the great work, your upside is unlimited.

Pikachu - With all due respect to Runnersfix, right now you are definitely our most talented poster. 5:04/mi pace for ~6mi XC course off relatively limited training? I sure hope you stay healthy and shoot for that 2:15 this spring - I can't wait to see what the weeks ahead hold in store. :)

pewow - Nice TT mile! Hard race to negative split, so you did an awesome job pacing. I am sure with the much more specific work for indoors, you'll bring that time down appreciably.

Slartzio - I like the way you keep extending your workouts. You are progressing very nicely with your current format.

cmm268 - Haha, there's a page counter that I can see whenever I update the blog, and I noticed that there were more web hits than usual this week. I was wondering who the concerned follower was. :)

Thanks for the positive words. In the past, I would have panicked and really screwed things up. But I think even by training the way I do (taking the first reps easy in workouts before working into pace, working my way into long runs and MP tempo runs) I have learned not to panic and that there is always time to find the right groove again. I am still optimistic for next week. I feel even better if I can get a couple miles MP in comfortably this week during the taper.

And a really solid first week of quality for you this week. You had no problem it looks like rattling off those 800s.

Distance Fan - My experience with racing short races like a mile a few weeks after a marathon is that pace will seem like a shock to your system that first 1/4mi, but your strength will be greater than usual and you'll be able to sustain it much longer than you might initially think. Good luck, should be a fun change of pace!

And thanks, too, for the vote of confidence. Everyone in this thread is so supportive.

Hereford - Ah man, I was counting on you to carry our two man sub-2:50 group! That's unfortunate about your calf situation. I know how easy it is to start losing confidence when you aren't 100% sure of your physical durability.

But for what it's worth, I have total faith in your ability. You may know your body based on past performances, but I am pretty good human calculator when it comes to analyzing training systems (I formerly posted under the handle Numbersguy) and I think your ability is much closer to 2:47-:48 than it is to 2:52. You have speed, you have LT/AT endurance, you have gotten in very quality long runs. And if I recall, you are naturally a Type II/intermediate fast twitch guy, which means as long as you train those slow twitch fibers properly, you have many muscles to recruit/call-on that last 10k of a marathon.

Don't overcompensate for not feeling 100% by thinking you need to kill workouts at this point to hit some magical "indicator." Take care of the calves, first. Recover and get healthy first. You have done plenty of work to indicate sub-2:50 is already there. You admit that the "mental part of endurance running is so important." You have to believe in yourself. You have to have faith.

To paraphrase Henry Ford: "If you have a realistic goal and you believe you can achieve it, you are right. And if you have a realistic goal and you believe you cannot achieve it, you are still right."

2014 goals: get back in shape, PR in something

Mon- 5.7 miles (7:10)

Tues- 5.8 miles (7:18) 8x150m hill sprints avg 29 seconds. Jog down recovery

Wed- 4.5 miles (7:02)

Thurs- 2.5 mile warmup, 2 mile tempo in 11:58 splits were 6:08, 5:50. 0.5 mile cool down

Fri- 4.5 miles (6:46) + 8 strides

Sat- off

Sun- 8 mile "long" run (7:22)

Total: 33 miles

A cold front came in Monday, and it has barely gotten above freezing since then. Felt really good all week, the hills on Tuesday felt controlled and light. Thursday I ran the tempo on a 0.4 mile loop, I was hoping for 12:40 or better. Once I got going I felt really smooth and pretty relaxed the 4 laps so I went ahead and picked it up a bit on the last one to break 12 minutes. Friday I was just doing my easy run, about 7 minute pace for the first 3.5 miles. Then I saw another runner up ahead, picked it up some to go catch him, when I got close he started picking it up. I couldn't let him have the misconception that he was faster than me so I picked it up to about 6:15 pace to start tiring him. As I neared the end of my run I started cranking the pace down, and he couldn't hope to match my kick over the last quarter mile. Finished the last mile in 6:02. Got about 3 inches of snow last night so that wasn't much fun to do my "long" run in. But I felt pretty good overall, I figure the snowed slowed me down 20 seconds or so per mile, so maybe could've averaged around 7 flat today. Wow I just realized how long my weekly recap was. Sorry to bore you, I'll try to do comments tonight