Road racing and training thread June 20-26 2016

pewow wrote:

Just getting the thread started. I'll post my week later.

Won a 5k by 30 seconds but I ended up tempoing it. Tough to push when it was 90 degF and ran the whole race by myself. 18:50 assuming the course was accurate. Not pleased with time.

New to the thread (I know this is a "new thread", but you get my gist). I have recently signed up for the Detroit Marathon which is in 16 weeks and am also participating in the Great Lakes Relay in 3 weeks time.

Some background - 28 years old, male. 16:09 5k PR set in April. I have been running ~60mpw since January after taking most of 2014/2015 off. I ran 1:13/2:39 for HM/marathon in 2013. Goal is 2:30 in Detroit. Currently in the process of bumping my miles up to get back into the 90s.

Monday, 6/20 - 9 mile morning loop startin at 7:15 working down to 6:20s. 6:39 average. PM - 3 mile "uptempo" with the team I coach. Paced my top boy to 16:48. 1 mile warmup and cooldown.

Tuesday, 6/21 - 9 miles on trails. 7:08 average. Felt good. PM - easy 7 at 6:53 avg.

Wednesday, 6/22 - 9 mile morning loop, 6:44 average. PM - none

Thursday, 6/23 - 7.5 miles on trails, 6:52 avg. PM - 4 mile progressive run on the track. 6:01-5:48-5:39-5:20. Felt very good. Pushed the last 400 harder than necessary (73 seconds) and ended up regretting it.

Friday, 6/24 - 8 mile morning loop 7:02 avg. Pain in lower left leg. Possible shin splint. PM - easy 4 mile with the girls team. 8:46 average.

Saturday, 6/25 - 9 mile morning loop 7:21 average. Shin feeling better. PM - rest.

Sunday, 6/26 - 7 mile at 7:03 avg. PM - heading to the trails for an easy 7.

Week total - 85 miles

Another non-week for me due to lingering plantar issues. I ran 3 times for a total of 10 miles, with 7 of them this morning. This is really starting to get old. Hopefully I'm about to turn a corner. The 7 miles this morning felt pretty pain-free, but my heel is moderately sore now. I'm still day-to-day.

Pewow - nice win, even if you weren't happy with the time. The conditions sound pretty bad. You were probably better off not killing yourself for a better time.

Hey guys! Here was my post from last week with background:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7397286#7398706

I'm also going to start recording here from Sunday to Saturday, because I often run in the evenings and that's how I've been tallying weekly mileage on my chart anyways.

Sun Jun 19: 100 minutes EZ @ home park, ~11 mi

Mon Jun 20: 38min @ graveyard AM, 51min @ graveyard PM, ~10 mi

Tue Jun 21: 71min @ graveyard AM, 5K "race" @ all-comers track meet PM (16min warmup, 6min cooldown), ~14 mi

Wed Jun 22: 10min @ streets AM, 73min fast w/ group @ park PM, ~11 mi

Thu Jun 23: 68min @ city & treadmill fastish, ~9 mi

Fri Jun 24: 76min @ graveyard, ~8 mi

Sat Jun 25: 85min @ treadmill & franklin field, ~10 mi.

Total: 601 minutes = 10:01:43 total, ~73 mi

Details on the race: This was my first ever all-comers track meet and it was a great experience. I love racing 5K on the track, though as you can see from the mileage and doubling in the morning, I didn't want to taper at all for this one. Goal going in was just to practice tactics and get some sort of effort in but not care at all about time -- it was my first time on a track this summer. The race strung out early and I made the mistake of getting out in the mid-to-back pack (~90, 87 first two laps) and had to push by myself to catch the leader who broke away early. Had him by like a mile in (5:35 well clear of the rest), then I just sat on him feeling like I was running hard but comfortable. He slowed down a lot with a mile to go, then from 1200m to go it was just a gradual acceleration over the next two laps. With one lap to go, he made a sharp acceleration and I went right with him with every intention of winning this race. We were going all-out on the backstretch and I lapped my friend there, and in trying to pat her on the back I sort of lost my acceleration for a second which might have screwed me. Anyways, my plan all along was to make my move with 200m to go, but as we got to 200m left I was going all-out and was barely making any progress. I ended up using everything I had to pass him clear with 175m to go on the turn, then I moved to the outside on the home stretch hoping to block him from passing again. Unfortunately it wasn't enough as he passed me back on the outside and won it in 17:40, with me easing up to get 17:43. I really wish I knew my final lap split, but I'm guessing it was well under 70. Overall a solid effort and much closer to my PB (17:13) than I expected given the double in the morning and the tactical nature of the race. The same school is also hosting an all-comers meet in two weeks with a 3K which I'll probably end up doing -- I really hope I'll see this guy again there so I can get revenge!

I watched a teammate run the 5K at the USATF National Club Champs which happened to be held at my college on the 25th. It was a super fun experience and I got to meet Robby Andrews (who ran an even-split 1:46 there) and his sister which was nice!

Overall, not too happy with this week but nothing to be worried about. Though my average pace was a lot faster than the three weeks before, my mileage went down by a few and even more importantly I was ~70 minutes short of where I wanted to be.

Pewow - nice win, any taper for the race? I look forward to seeing your week.

Hereford - sucks to be injured. I started 2014 with an injury and it led to a couple years off (more or less). I just lost the desire. It doesn't seem like you are doing that and 7 miles this morning sounds like a good sign!

Habs - I have never done an all-comers track meet but have always wanted to. It sounds like it was a big success! I do not think that that slow opening 800 was a bad idea, but you shouldn't have made up all of the ground so fast. 2:57-2:38 is a tough way to get to 5:35. I think had you picked it up a bit more gradually, you may have had that extra gear with 200m to go like you wanted. Overall, a very good run though especially with the big week.

Looks like a lot of decent but not great weeks, which I'll follow in the same manner with mine.

PB's: 4:53 (1600), 10:15 (3200), 16:58 (5K XC-converted for 20:27 6K XC last year)

Monday: 4 easy, 4 strides-very hot

Tuesday: Off-tennis

Wednesday: 4 easy in conservation area, felt good

Thursday: 5.25 easy (7:45), hills-2 steep, 4 moderate

Friday: 5 easy/moderate at parts (7:04-picked it up to a 6:47 on last mile)

Saturday: tennis tournament, 3 easy after (awful run, ate too close before and cramped horribly)

Sunday: tennis tournament, 5.5 easy (7:46)-probably the most humidity I've ever run in

The hills are something I'm trying to make a regular thing to build strength/speed for XC, there's 3 options all in the same place: a shorter steeper hill, a longer more moderate one, and an even longer gradual one. I'll mix up how many and which ones I do each week.

Also planned my biggest road race of the summer- a 10 mile in late july. I''l try to do some longer runs with periods at faster paces to prepare for that, although I'm not changing my plans too much as the focus remains on XC season

I didn't post last week, but it was just base mileage and a tempo.

Male, junior, 16.

Goal: 16:17 5k, state medal (top 15)

M: 4.5 easy/Lifting

T: 2 warmup + 5x80m hill sprints, full speed, full recovery + 2.25 cooldown

W: 5 easy

T: 1.5 warmup + 3.15 mile tempo (6:40 average. last weeks was 6:20, but this route was hillier and had it was really hot and humid) + 4x100 strides+ 0.85 jog home

F: 5 easy

S: 4 easy

S: 8 mile long run. Really hot and extremely hilly. About 80 degrees, 85% humidity. I started off low 8 minute pace and then dropped it to 7:35-7:45 naturally after a few miles. Then I bonked hard (if you can "bonk" on an 8 mile run haha) and ran a 7:50 and an 8:30. My legs just had no energy. Some of the worst pain I've felt on a run.

37 miles total. A good week overall I'd say.

Pewow- thanks for getting the thread going. Sorry the race wasn't what you wanted but keep building man

Hereford- hope that you are on the up and up soon man

Only smart one- welcome to thread, I look forward to following your buildup for Detroit. Looks like a solid week of mileage. My marathon training for Chicago starts tomorrow. Not in your sub 2:30 league, but hopefully 6:00-6:05 marathon pace. best so far is a 2:41 from last November

Habs- tough race. yeah I guess probably if you ran your own race you might have been well ahead of him, maybe 17:30

Training-

Goal- Chicago marathon

Prs- 5k-16:27, 20k- 1:10:48, marathon-2:41

34 years old

Not much training to report- I was tapering and trying to run a fast 5k today, but the race didn't go that well. Was hot (85F) and my legs didn't have it. For me I think I'm learning that doing fast 200s and 400s the week of a race fries them. Went 16:33 for 3rd place, so 6 seconds slower than last week (and I felt like i had a lot more in the tank last week but ran too conservatively). I thought I could go 16:15 Today, and I did run all out, but just wasn't a good day for me. Last week felt easy, today just felt hard and was really a struggle. My friend who ran 16:02 last week went 16:20 today, so maybe the heat was a little tough. Splits were 5:15 (flat), 5:27 ( hills), 5:20 (pretty flat) and :31 from 3 miles to the finish.

Whatever- At least I got a one second PR last weekend. And I got $50 for 3rd place. Next spring I'm going to skip the marathon training and just run a few half marathons, 10ks and really try to break 16 in the 5k.

Male, 15, incoming Sophomore

PRs- 4:43 1600m, 10:06 3200m

M: 6

T: 5 mile tempo on XC trails in 31:12 (6:14/mi) + 2 w/u and 2 c/d. Not sure how much the hills and longer grass affected me, but I felt like it was still a good tempo effort.

W: 7

Th: 10

F: 10 x 30m sprints w/ 3:00 jog rest + 2 w/u and 3.5 c/d. Got dusted on every one by my more speed-oriented teammates.

Sat: 7

Sun: 8

Total: 55

Hope everybody has a great week.

Incoming sophomore training for NXN

After taking a week off from track:

Monday- 45min easy, strides

Tuesday- 45min w/ 14min fartlek in between (1min easy, 1 min hard), strides

Wednesday- 35min easy

Thursday- 20min easy, 6x170m @ 30sec, 20min easy, strides

Friday- 35min easy

Saturday- 20min easy + 4x250m hills, 20min easy

Sunday- rest day

Repeat + up mileage 10%

OnlySmartOneHere- Welcome. Solid week of training. How many weeks until detroit?

Hereford - Good to hear you are feeling better. Keep building slowly.

habs - nice 5k. Sounds like a competitive all comers meet.

CanadianRunning - I like the hills for XC, are you doing them as a hard workout or as more of a medium effort?

OklahomaGuy- Consistency is key for XC and you seem to have that in spades.

slo-twitch - tough luck with the weather for the 5k not being great. Can't complain with a PR this cycle though.

IllinoisRunner - I'm a big fan of doing tempos and longer interval workouts on XC type trails, especially when it's muddy after raining.

runner! - nice week. I don't think i have ever seen someone do 170s but I don't see why not.

My week

Goal 5k Week 5/9

Next Race: 3 mi on July 4th

M: 6

T: 5 w/ 2 mi warmup plus strides, 1200m "TT" in 3:55, 2 mile cooldown, strength after *

W: 20 min rowing plus core

Th: 6 w/ 6x10 sec sprints, strength after **

F: 6 w/ 6x10 sec sprints

S: 6 w/ 2 mi warmup, 5k in 18:50, 1 mi cooldown ***

Su: 2.5 hours canoeing

Total - 29

* All comers track meet was cancelled do to thunderstorms so I ran a 1200m time trial on a relatively straight stretch of bike path. Went out too slowly but didn't realize it do to not having splits. Had a ton left at the end. Was shooting for about 3:30 as I ran a 4:50 road mile back in May.

** Experimenting with doing strength training before races as I've read that it can help plus the 400-800 guys on my high school team insisted on lifting on premeet days which at the time I thought was dumb but now I'm thinking it might help.

I did my normal strength workout but with fewer reps for my work sets.

Power Clean - 2x1@105 (normally 3)

Squat - 2x5@135 (normally 10)

Deadlift - 1x1@195 (normally 5)

Pull ups - 4x2 (normally 5)

DB Bench - 2x5x80 (normally 10)

Rows - 3x5x75 (normally 10)

Felt good doing my strides on Friday the day after but flat on saturday. I think I'll try decreasing weight too next time around.

*** Race Report: Was in the lead from 100m in. Hot and humid, couldn't find the will power to push the pace by myself. No idea on splits. Seems like the "race" was more competitive last year as results show ~10 guys sub 18 and was recommended by a friend. Didn't even keep results this year and forgot to turn on the finish clock until I was coming into the finishing straight.

Raised money for a good cause but had I known the race would be more of a fun run this year I would have passed.

Thanks for reading my thoughts.

Hey everyone, sorry I'm late (again). It's late here and I"m on vacation, so I'll just cut right to the chase and say I ran 1:12:01 at the half on Sunday. I'm pretty happy to take 56 seconds off my PB, but a little choked I missed breaking 1:12 by two measly seconds.

Anyway, the stage is now set for the big build to Chicago. I'm camping in the mountains with ~10k of easy running a day for the rest of this week, then getting back to the grind the week after. I'll pop back in the thread when I start doing workouts in July. Good to see some solid weeks posted here. Keep the miles happy y'all!

Hi all,

my week went as follows:

M - off

T - 15k w/ 2x6k (4:10/k>>3:40/k)

W - 15k

T - 14k w/ 12 @4:05/k, foot hurt afterwards

F - off (foot)

S - off (foot)

S - off (foot)

T - 44k

Bummer, did not see that coming. Can't even tell what the injury is. My guess is, that my plantar fascia is inflamed and as a result my midfoot area and my heel hurts. Walking is a pain. Don't know what to do. No running for me the coming days...

slo-twitch - Was really rooting for you. Too bad the weather did not cooperate.

Bonham- nice race, and look forward to following your buildup to Chicago

Hantph- sorry to hear about the injury. Hopefully it won't require a great deal of time away from running. Your fitness is good now so maybe you can do some biking etc in the meantime? Good luck

Always glad to see this thread every week. Enjoy following everyone's training.

M-6 easy

T-6 easy with a few quick 400s thrown in for turnover

W-11 at ~7:30 pace

T-4 miles easy

F-15 miles 7:30 pace working down to 7 flat

Went out of town for the weekend so did long run Fri and took Sat and Sun off. 42 miles on the week. 10 weeks to marathon. Last 4 weeks 51, 46, 40, 42 miles. Hopefully 55 this week but headed for vacation on Wed this week. Doing long run of 17 on Wed morning before leaving. Travel is making my schedule is sporadic. Not sure if that's a bad thing. Trying to leave ample recovery time between long runs.

Got in 12 yesterday with miles 1-4 easy, 5-8 tempo, and 9-12 easy. Tempo was 6:22, 6:21, 6:20, 6:13. Effort felt much harder than I was hoping. HR was around 165-172 during. Was wishing it felt more controlled akin to HM pace. As 37 min 10K runner though I guess that's about the rate it should be. Running a 10k in three weeks hoping to hit sub 36:30. 5 easy this morning.