Road Racing and Training Thread. Week Ending May 6 2018

Coach Jeff - Ha ha. Oh Ricky! Funny story, in my second race ever (20k) I had some friends running too. They had corrals set up based upon expected pace. So they move up to whatever corral they think is appropriate and I think I lined up in the front of the 9min pace corral. Yep, 9min pace. At somewhere around mile 10 I spot what looks like one of my friends. I slowly roll up on him and once I got beside him I could see that it is my friend. We run side by side with roughly 800m to go when he breaks away with his finishing kick. Hey you can do that? I respond late and he crosses the finish line in front of me but since I started so far back I beat him by a second or two in net time.

Race Report

Leading up to the race I carb loaded, hydrated, and felt like I was as ready as I could be. The morning of the race I woke up at 4am, had a big bowl of oatmeal, and drank 12 ounces of water and 12 ounces of endurolyte.

From 630-race time, I munched on some Belvita crackers, and sipped water. I also took two Hammer endurolyte extreme pills to prevent cramping.

The weather was warm. It was 60 at the start. The temp wasn't so bad, but the complete lack of clouds apparently ramped up what it felt like.

I started off conservatively. My two mile splits were:, 1220, 1215,1205, 1210. EARLY on, I was drenched in sweat, so I decided to drink at each aid station. so, at 2.5, 5, and 7.5 I had 2-3 ounces of gatorade and 2-3 ounces of water.

By mile 8, my stomach was full, I had to pee, and my toes were starting to cramp. I picked up the pace to see if my perception was reality, and it was. I thought of slowing down to 630/mile pace, but I knew with the wide open out and back second half, I still would have a death march. Then I thought of taking my singlet off to cooldown. At that point, I looked down and saw a giant red streak.

At that point, I just mentally lost it completely and decided to finish the half. For now, the race corroborated why I have avoided marathons for fifteen years. I enjoyed some of the training, but I just don't see another one in my future.

This is the first time in my recollection I've quit. While I know it was the smart/wise thing to do, it hasn't sat well with me. Hopefully I can find a short race soon to put this out of my memory.

Oh man, Bdubs, that is a bummer on the weather. Heat was the one thing I was praying not to get. You probably made the right call dropping down. If heat is hard for you (I hate it), recovering from long, hard efforts takes a really, really long time. Hopefully you can take it easy for a bit and then rally for some fun summer races.

Bdubs sorry to hear about the thon. Prob a very smart decision to keep your powder dry. I also suffer really bad in any kind of heat. Hope the recovery goes well.

Male, 33, 5’5” 148 lbs

PRs: 18:04 (2018); 38:24 (2017); 1:24:11 (2017); TBD (October 2018)

Recent: 18:04 (April 2018)

Goal: October Marathon in sub-3 hours

M: 14km easy

T: 19km medium-long w/ M, HM, 15k 3k tempo runs

W: 8km recovery

T: 14 km mountain run

F: 13km easy

Sa: 8km recovery

Su: 26km w/ 16km @ M Pace

This will be my first 100km week, wish me luck!

PutoMiudo wrote:

Smoove!!! How much time between both of them?

There was actually a fairly long gap between those two pictures, I think one was 2006 and the other 2014. But right after the 2006 picture, I decided to lose weight (for the first time) and it took me about 4 months to go from 182 to 150 or so. I really didn't keep up with running back then though, so I had a subsequent weight gain and weight loss, and then after I started running more consistently, I got injured and put on a fair amount of weight a third or fourth time and got back up to about 165 or so on New Year's Day 2013, and then lost 25 pounds to get down to 140 just in August of that year. Got back up to 155 when I had surgery for PF in the summer of 2016 but haven't really been above 155 on a consistent basis since 2013.

Bdubs, Sorry the race did not work out. Based on your description I'm guessing it was humid as well as warm. Not ideal. I'm still trying to get used to the warmer weather here and it was only in the 70's yesterday and not terribly humid. Any race half marathon or longer and bandaids are a part of the mandatory race uniform to avoid crossing the finish line with the dreaded red 11 painted on the front of my shirt.

Heat and humidity are just awful when it comes to racing. You all had to hear me complain about it all last summer (in fact, I always figured that was why too hot chose the name he did), and I am 100% adapted to it. For those who suffer a warm and humid day after a long winter and mild spring, it is simply not something that you can be expected to be prepared for.

hantph96 wrote:

One question: What were your previous PRs? The 10k in July 2017 isn't your PR, right?

5000m - 14:53 (2014)

10k XC - 31:31 (2011)

That 10k was by far the best race of my life.

I'm loving the before/after pics. Amazing how running transforms us. I was a little heavy in 2016, but my fat face isn't nearly as good.

jewbacca wrote:

That 10k was by far the best race of my life.

That 5k is definitely the relative faster time - was there something special about the 10k that makes you say it was the best race of your life (my fastest race is definitely not my favorite race, for the record)?

jewbacca wrote:

hantph96 wrote:

One question: What were your previous PRs? The 10k in July 2017 isn't your PR, right?

5000m - 14:53 (2014)

10k XC - 31:31 (2011)

That 10k was by far the best race of my life.

I'm loving the before/after pics. Amazing how running transforms us. I was a little heavy in 2016, but my fat face isn't nearly as good.

The pics are great. You guys should be commended for your efforts. My wife calls my pre-running days, when I was 135, my "fat days."

Buds - Sorry to hear this. The sun is a killer. Remember Bill Rodgers' ideal: 40 and cloudy. Both are important.

Just put this behind you.

Allow me to pile on with a bad pun : don’t sweat it.

I don’t even really look at my paces all summer long here in Taipei because they’re just so ridiculously slow compared to the effort that I’m putting out. I may race during the summer, but always with the weather as a factor, equally important to elevation and other things like that.

A quick true story

Wayback when I first started running, I ran a half marathon and suffered from the bloody nipples. I get home and my wife sees my singlet and asked what happened.

“When I pinned my number on before the race, I didn’t realize how deeply into my flesh I had pushed those pins.”

She was also gullible enough to marry me .

Smoove wrote:

jewbacca wrote:

That 10k was by far the best race of my life.

That 5k is definitely the relative faster time - was there something special about the 10k that makes you say it was the best race of your life (my fastest race is definitely not my favorite race, for the record)?

Shot in the dark here, but I'm guessing the fact that the 10k was an xc race had something to do with it. I would say the race of my life was my xc 10k, even though it's relatively slower than my 1500/mile PR's. Admittedly, part of that is just that I actually had a 10k go well...

RRR, Jeremy, and Smoove, those transformations are amazing! Also, you're all faster than me. Has me thinking I should maybe spend the rest of 2018 bulking up my arms and face, then in 2019 watch my times drop with my weight. Or maybe it doesn't work that way.

Tall dark roast, looks like the miles are continuing to pile up. I love that part of training.

Allen1959, you are killing these workouts. I bet in a few weeks you'll see that nice bump in LT pace you're looking for.

PutoMiudo, cool stuff on the 10k. I think I get a bit too rigid in my training/racing plans, and I should probably jump into things a little more. Seems like a fun way to mix it up.

Still Improving, your cruising around times are quick in relation to your goal time. Rest that foot up and I think you've got a solid marathon in you.

JamesTheAmateur, good call cutting out the race and resting. Training, having little ones and being a grad student probably adds a lot of extra stress on life. Hope you bounce back fast.

Jewbacca, thanks for sharing your spreadsheet. That is a year of really nice looking training. You definitely do a little more quality than I did in my build, but I'm going to try to model a few things after your plan. Probably should start with regular hill work.

above_average_joe, those are some solid workouts so close to the marathon. But they should translate well for that hilly half coming up.

pewow, hope that calf settles down before the fast track stuff.

Hans E., welcome, and nice mileage this week. I'm very curious to see how your marathon goes at the end of the month.

hantph96, congrats on the race. Way to go after the competition and still crush it in the wind.

A couple "then and now" photos at marathon finish lines. Older but faster, 1990 vs 2017.

October 1990 -- 3:32:29 (11.6 mpw 16-week training)

October 2017 -- 3:07:23 (39.2 mpw 16-week training)

https://imgur.com/a/dNjfTii

jewbacca wrote:

I recently finished putting my training from the last year into spreadsheet form. I ran a 35:0x 10k in mid-April 2017, took a week or two off, then started my long build to the marathon. I was about 10 lbs overweight at that point. I'd already dropped 10 lbs in the build to the 10k.

jewbacca -- thanks for posting that spreadsheet. Really helps to see it all laid out like that. I see much to emulate. A lot more short, fast repeats and hill sprints than I recalled from your weekly postings. Very cool. All well-planned and well-executed for that fantastic marathon!

Mine was taken in Dec 2015/April 2018. Changed diet and started running Feb 2016. Went from 215 to 165 in short order (4-5 months?) and then to 155 in another 5-6 months.

Before 10pcs of whole fruit per day fo sho.

Ah, that would make sense. As a former D3 guy, I only raced at the 8000m distance for cross country so I automatically assumed that the 10k was on the rack or roads.