Road Racing and Training Thread, Week Ending 4/15/2018

Stone - Thanks for the Whitman passage. Have not read Leaves of Grass in a great while, and so it was nice to contemplate those flowing words.

Good luck to all running Boston tomorrow!

Gordon, what foot issue are you having? I recently bought a callus remover and it has reduced the pain I sometimes get at my metatarsals.

Congrats to above average Joe on the PR

Above Aberage Joe - congrats on a solid PR on what sounds like a difficult course!

Training and race execution question for the posters. My next goal Marathon has an elevation profile that sees around 500' of gain from miles 7-12 and then a gradual downhill from 13 through the finish. I think this equates out to a grade around 2% both ways. On top of that the race takes place between 5000 and 5500 feet while I live at 1200 feet. How would you go about training for the gradual incline in those 12 miles and what about the race elevation? Do you find the online pace adjustment elevation calculators to be accurate?

I have a solid stretch or road that hovers around 2-3% grade that I am thinking I could spend some time on during training, maybe a couple times a week including long runs? I also have the option of training up as high as 8000 feet (Flagstaff) but would not have the ability to spend more than weekend at elevation. Any benefit if I were to do a solid chunk of weekend work between 500 and 8000 feet?

a.a. joe - I enjoyed reading your race report—thanks. Congrats on the PR!

Jeremy - it's not an acute pain and it's not a pinpoint pain. more of a general ache in my forefoot that is nearly always absent until I've been running for at least 10minutes. The only thing I can point to is general inflammation from pounding through my half marathon and a workout or 2 since then in a pair of Boston's that may have worn a little thin and probably should have already been retired. Finished those runs with a little bit more dull ache in the forefoot than usual, then this a couple days later on a medium length easy run. if I squeeze in some ways i can find the ache too, but it's really nebulous.

Great report. Congrats on the PR. Hope to see you in Hopkinton next year.

GT that is exactly how mine started out

Working Harder wrote:

GT that is exactly how mine started out

Yep. Packing it up for a week now instead of being forced into taking off a month later. Thanks for the perspective. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

AAJoe - great race. Congrats on the PR.

outsiderunner wrote:

a.a. joe - I enjoyed reading your race report—thanks. Congrats on the PR!

Same here. Well done and congrats.

Goal: 2:27-2:29

Race: April 28

Sun - 8 recovery

Mon - 12 w/ 8 x 200m hills

Tues - 12 easy

Wed - 10 w/ 4 x mile @ HM pace (5:23 avg)

Thur - 12 easy

Fri - 12 easy

Sat - 13.1 @ 5:49 avg in the AM; 4 easy PM

Total: 88 miles

Work kicked my butt this week. I felt tired Wednesday and cut it down from the planned 6 x mile. Saturday was windy, warm, and humid. I parked my car at the end of a 2-mile stretch and set up cups of Powerade on the trunk. I practiced taking GUs at miles 3 and 10 and Powerade at miles 4, 8, and 12. I suck at drinking on the run. The wind was brutal, so this was a solid effort even though it was slower than goal pace.

I'm trying very hard to avoid ending up on the thread's injured reserve list. The last 2 weeks a couple of my long-term aches & pains have intensified.

JewBacca - Take it easy if feeling it.. the RRT thread IR list is getting long.

Scale my week back by 4 miles. Was doing 10 easy and did 6 this AM, came in to work for a bit and was gonna go 4 home but just not feeling it.. weather sucks, legs tired.. Tomorrow is going to be 59 at lunch with light breeze so will save the legs and do a pre 5k light workout tomorrow like 400m repeats at 5k with long rest.

thanks guys. I always enjoy reading some detailed race reports myself.

37M

Marathon 4/29, goal sub 3, but it's my first one, so we'll see.

M, 8 easy (7:50)

T, 15.7 including The Stone Cutter Special 2 x 4 mile (but I did 1 mile rest)

5 mile warmup~7:45 (6:46, 6:26, 6:20, 6:25) 7:24 (6:27, 6:46, 6:37, 6:23) did these on a big loop with one large hill (the slow miles) and a decent amount of spring wind thrown in

W, 6.3 really easy (8:27)

Th, 10 pretty easy with a slight progression the last two miles (7:33 overall, last mile 6:33)

F, off

Sa, 5.6 easy in the rain (7:48)

Su, 16 moderately quick in the snow (7:07). Didn't really have a plan but around mile 5 I was just cruising and so kept things rolling down into the 6:40s and 30s through mile 14 then cooled down home. Felt great

61.7 miles

Really excited about this week. Now just 2 to go. I might do the next step Stone Cutter Special (2x5 mile) mid-week, or I might just 15-20 x 1/1 a little quicker and a little slower than MP. We'll see. I didn't really expect to hit so many miles quicker than MP today, so I'm just going to feel things out. But I've also spent almost no time running actual goal pace of 6:50, so maybe practice that?

AAJ - meant to mention great race and great report. Did you have a wise ass comment when you sucked up sandals dude? My problem is I talk to much when racing.. me and this other guy had a convo during the HM which was prob ill advised.

runrincerepeat wrote:

My problem is I talk to much when racing.. me and this other guy had a convo during the HM which was prob ill advised.

I have the same problem. Our showdown in H-town could come down to who shuts up and runs.

The longer the race, the more I talk. 15k or more is a long way to go without boredom setting in. Even 10k is a stretch for me.

5'6", male, father of two, 160-something pounds (scale broke so I haven't weighed myself in about two weeks)

Monday: Off

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: 6 x ½ mile w/ ¼ jog rest.

I was super nervous about doing another interval workout since the last time I did one, I got injured. But this time I was smarter and worked into it instead of trying to hit the paces from the first one. The goal pace was 4 minutes per interval, but I went:

1 2 3 4 5 6 Avg.

Interval 3:52.8 3:57.9 3:55.3 3:52.4 3:50.4 3:46.3 3:52.5

Rest 2:33 2:32.9 2:29.9 2:37.9 2:33.7 2:33.5

My heart rate hovered between 90 – 94% of my max for the first five and got to 98% on the last one because I purposefully tried to finish strong. Was overall super pleased with this session since my heart rate was below what Daniels’ recommended and went faster than the goal, but I didn’t feel strained at all. While I do feel like I’ve lost a step from taking off roughly a week to recover from my shin splints, I don’t think it will take much to get it back. 2 mile warm up and cooldown for 8.25 for the day.

Thursday: 5 x 1 mile @ T pace w/ 1 min. rest.

Starting my warm up, I felt super clunky and tight. I could definitely feel the intervals in my legs. Even after the warm up, I was still kind of tight so I debated about pulling the plug and simply running back home. I did the first mile as an evaluation of what I should do on the slightly hilly 0.52 mile loop I found near my apartment. Ended up crushing it. The goal T pace was 8:45. I ran 8:22.7, 8:07.8, 8:05.9, 7:56.4, 7:46.8; 8:04 average. Similar to the intervals, my heart rate was controlled and under Daniels’ range except for the last mile where I purposefully tried to finish strong and pushed a bit. Not sure how much stock to vest in it, but according to Strava, my GAP average is 7:52. And yeah, looking at my I pace to T pace, they are really similar. But I did keep the intervals on the easier side and they were done on the indoor gym track, so it was a lot warmer for those. 2 mile warm up and cooldown for 9 for the day.

Friday: Off

Saturday: 4 easy miles, averaged 10:40 pace. Glad for the day off yesterday since my legs were tired and still not 100% today. But I can definitely see how back to back Q days builds a lot of strength. Plus I was tired from the jerks waking up early.

Sunday: Took next week’s long run, moved it to today since I have a 10k next Saturday that I’m slightly tapering for, and cut it down a little bit. Workout: 1 mile easy, 4 miles at marathon pace, 1 mile easy, 4 miles at marathon pace. I ran 10:30s for the easy miles and ~8:30 for the marathon miles. It didn’t feel too bad, but I was definitely tired at the end.

Total: 31.25 miles

Also, before anyone asks, I haven’t run a race in a little over the month so I’m using slightly increased VDOT paces. Hence why my T pace was so damn slow compared to what I could actually do. If I didn’t try to match it during the first one, I’m sure I would have a much faster average.

I have said some things here and there in races, but for the most part I am running on my own have have no one to speak to.

Good luck to all those racing Boston, including Angry Johnny #stoprupp

Sad to see the injuries. More comments later...

Backloading last week and front loading this week's workouts due to work and weather really put a hurting on me in the middle of this week. Wed.-Fri. I was in recovery mode and Saturday's second 2mi at threshold was shortened to 1.5mi. I'm debating on what to do with next week's scheduled mid week VO2max workout. I'm 5 weeks out from the race and I don't think it is critical to hit this workout and the last VO2max workout left my legs feeling really rough. I may do some of it but reduce the volume by 1/3 or so.

Mon. 7mi Easy 7:46avg

Tues. 13mi as 3 Easy + 3x2 (2min jog) + 1 Easy + 1x1 + 1.5 Easy (6:53UH, 6:55UH, 6:56UH, 6:18DH, 6:12DH, 6:18DH, 6:27slightDH)

Wed. 6mi 8:11avg

Thurs. 7.1mi 8:15avg

Fri. 7mi 8:05avg

Sat. 16.5 as 6 Easy + 2T + 6 Easy + 1.5T + 1 Easy (6:24DH, 6:12DH, 6:39, ?:??)

Sun. Chores and Rest. Skipped my usual core and hip work.

Total 57mi.