10 weeks out from marathon. Not going to do the parenthesis for plan this week because Friday and Sunday were the only days I actually followed it literally. I'll post what the book says at the bottom in case anyone cares.
M - about a quarter mile jog before deciding some tweakiness I felt in my left leg on Sunday was now barking and needed a real day off. It's the same root cause as what I dealt with earlier this year and at the end of my last marathon build when my glutes get too lazy and my lower legs over compensate. I think taking the day off was the smartest training decision I've made in awhile because previously this would take weeks to figure out and heal and this time...
T - 8 @ 6:45, 11 total. Leg felt fine during run, a little tight after
W - 8 @ 8:59
T - Off, work travel from 5:30 AM to 1:30 AM. Didn't have Sub 6:00's drive from last week to wake up at 3:30 for the run.
F - 7 @ 8:39. Felt like I might be getting a head cold from Jr. again. Daycare is the worst. Leg symptoms gone.
S - First 5k in over a year. Temp 75, Dew point 68. Ran 18:17 for 2nd place (5:49,5:54,6:03, 0:31). 7.3 total
S - 15 @ 7:28. First 5mi avg 7:45, then 7:28 middle 5, 7:13 last 5.
Total 48.3miles @ 7:52 average
Race Report: Wanted to try to run 17:59 which I've never done before. Went out at just the right pace, had people (~10) that went out too fast to chase from quarter mile to 2 miles, then I hit no mans land. First place guy was 30 seconds ahead, no one passed me after the first quarter mile. I could pick several excuses this week for the fade but I think in reality I was just unwilling to make it hurt when it no longer mattered, as evidenced by the fact that a guy started to approach me in the last tenth of a mile and I split 5:09 pace for that last tenth. On the bright side: it's better than the 18:40 I ran last year as 5:30/6:00/6:30, I turned $25 of entry fee cash into $20 in running store gift cards, and it's still in line with goal of sub 3 marathon capability. If I make it through the marathon unscathed I'll likely make 17:xx my next race target. Probably no more 5ks until after the marathon, we're getting close to crunch time.
Scheduled...
M - 8 easy
T - 6x800 @5k-10k pace, 400jogs + Wu/CD
W - off
T - 8 @ GMP + Wu/CD
F - 7 easy
S - 8 easy
S - 15 long run (slightly faster than really easy if you'd like)
So ended up basically squeezing in all of the necessary elements except one 8 miler. Had hoped to replace Monday on Thursday after I got home but no luck. Happy with how it all turned out anyway since I contended with injury-ish, illness-ish, travel-ish, and racing-ish all in the same week. Any one of those can make a canned plan tricky.
Leaderboard
Smoove 91.9% (15K...49:17)
statfanatic 89.08% (1 mi...4:10)
Bdubs 85.21% (8K...25:45)
Jewbacca 84.2% (HM...1:10:19)
outsiderunner 83.55% (10K...36:27)
Allen 83.17% (15K...59:59)
pewow 82.14% (1 mi...4:31)
HHH 80.04% (5K...15:53)
Sub 6:00 79.4% (10 miles...55:31)
Stone Cutter 79.12% (5K...17:11)
hantph96 78.56% (5K...16:33)
Still Improving 77.6% (5K...19:00)
Tall dark roast 76.21% (5K...17:10)
RunnerSam 76.01% (5K...17:04)
Runrincerepeat 74.9% (5K...17:12)
Coach Jeff 72.41% (5K...20:22)
*If you want to be included on this list, submit your age and best performance at any distance within the last year.
Male, 33, 5’10” 160 lbs
PRs: 16:03 (2011) 2:56:47 (2016) 4:42 mile (2011)
Recent: 17:19 ( June 2018)
Goal: Continue Mileage Ramp / November 5K
Su: 10 miles 7:51avg
M: 3 miles 8:06avg
T: 7 miles 7:37avg
W: 7 miles 7:57avg
R: 7 miles 7:11avg designed to speed up as we ran, first half at 7:45 pace, second half at 6:45 pace.
F: 7 miles 7:53avg
Sa: 7 miles 7:56avg
I ran with a buddy of mine on Thursday with the goal of keeping things in check at first and then closing in on marathon pace. We have similar 5K results but at 21 years of age he does it with more raw speed. I’ve taken him under my wing, trying to get him comfortable with more strength-based workouts and it has served us well this summer. One week left!
Gordon: It was a good week and a great race. It's all about building towards that goal-race crescendo.
TDR: Thank you so much for keeping the age group list. I absolutely LOVE seeing my name on the bottom every week. As a Gen Xer, it's a motivation for me rather than a lawsuit against you. I'm working hard to relinquish my title as the AG Caboose on the RRT Train!
Male, 50 yo, 5’7”, 127 lbs
Goals: sub-40 10k, sub-90 HM
Upcomingish Races: 8/23 5k TT event, 10/06 10k, 11/04 HM
M: 11.5k including 3x10sec hill sprints
T: 12k high-aerobic fartlek 8x20sec with 1000ft elevation gain
W: 9k easy
T: 11k including 3x10sec hill sprints
F: 13k high-aerobic
S: 11km commute with Mac on my back and it sucked
S: 20k Progressive (13k easy, 6k high-aerobic uphill, 1km cool down)
Total: 8:15 - 55 miles - 3,500 feet
Highlights: Tuesday’s high-aerobic hilly fartlek. That was a bona-fide workout.
Lowlights: Saturday commute sucked. Felt kinda dizzy at one point and considered bagging it. Did one of those: “If I still feel this way after 5 more minutes...” But it passed. Sunday’s long run felt strong... no after-effects.
Week 3 HM Training: This plan that I’ve put together adds intensity pretty slowly compared to other programs I have tried to follow. I’m starting to feel fatigue on post-workout days, but it feels like the right amount of fatigue. Friday’s high-aerobic average pace (168bpm) was only :12/mile off my December marathon PR pace (181bpm), even in the heat and humidity. I'm proud of the way I've melded the Hadd into the Hudson.
M34
Goals
???
Recent
10 miles: 55:31 (Cherry Blossom, April)
Marathon: 2:37 (D.C., March)
Mo: AM - 8 very easy. PM - 8 quite easy.
Tu: AM - Easy 10. PM - Easy 5 home from work.
We: 16 @ 6:37 before work. More even and less progressive. Having problems w/ insoles slipping in the Zantes.
Th: AM - 10 very easy, slog. PM - 5 @ 7:00 on treadmill
Fr: 8 slow.
Sa: 0
Su: 0
Total: 70
Having some inflammation of my posterior tibial tendon. Hoping that a little RICE will get things back to normal, but we’ll see. If I’m out for a week, no big deal. If it’s a couple months, then I’m looking forward to Boston 2019.
My left lower calf muscles have been tight in the morning and the first few miles of each run the last few weeks. Thursday morning I felt a slight burning sensation after 9 miles, and then after 7 on Friday.
Saturday morning was planned as a 22 mile long run, but after getting up I decided to back off and jog 6 with my wife. Then when I was doing some pre-run yard work, she moved the run to today, so I decided to take the day off. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I didn’t keep going until I was totally hobbled, so I’m hoping that I only pushed it to the edge without doing real damage, but it’s too soon to tell.
32, chasing sub-3
10k yesterday, half 10/6, Grand Rapids Marathon 10/21
PRs: 39:54 (yesterday), 1:25:54 (2014), 3:04:00 (2014)
M - 9.5 @ 7:48
T - 7.5 total - 4*1200 w/400 easy btwn. 434, 433, 432, 431
W - 5 @ 8:45
T - 8.5 @ 825
F - 4 @ 830 w/ 4 strides
Sa- 13 total, 10k in 39:54, 1st place
Su- likely off
47.5 total in 6:18
Race report:
Hot, mid 70s, no idea of dew point. Went out controlled, hitting the first K right at 4 minutes, catching a group that went out ahead of me. There's a split at the 2k point for those running the 5k. Everybody ahead of me and with me turned left while I went straight. Completely alone for 8k on a hot, sunny road. Kept the splits relatively even throughout, and crossed ahead of my goal of sub 40 for a 7 second PR and second ever road race victory.
Small race, slow winning time, but 2nd and 3rd were nearly 2 minutes behind, so I didn't get the chance to test my response to competition. Daniels equates it to a 1:28:xx half and 3:04:xx full, obviously taken with a grain of salt. I've made progress, but long way to go in the next 11 weeks. Got an awesome sleeveless tech t-shirt for winning.
Gordon: you have to EARN that 17:59!
Jeff: you aren't triggered by that list?
Sub 6:00: is the left leg the one with the PTT? It sounds like a whole complex of things in that lower leg that might be tied to a root cause.
My week:
M - 33:00 on elliptical followed by 6 miles easy
Tu - 3 x 3200 by heart rate - high 160s to low 170s (10:48, 10:53, 11:05): 10 total
W - 12 easy
Th - 10.5 easy
F - 6.5 easy
Sa - 3 up; 5 miles at 5:50 average: 5:00 recovery; 1 mile at 6:01; finish to 15.25 miles
Su - anticipate 6-10 miles for 67-71 total miles and 72-76 TAUs (total aerobic units)
Tuesday was a decent effort. Was going to do 4 x 3200, but I cut it short to save a little for yesterday..
Last night was a disaster. Got out too fast (5:46) but felt good. By 3 miles I was working, by 4 I was taxed and by 5 I was struggling. No big deal. 5:00 break,then regroup for 3 mile and 2 mile portions, right? First mile of 3 mile portion had me huffing and puffing with my heart rate in the low 170s just like during my tempo workout earlier in the week - and my split was 6:01. I shut it down and struggled to make it home, stopping a couple of times and averaging over 8:00 for the last 4 miles.
Off days happen, and the temp and dew point were still over 160 when I went out after dark last night. Add on to that the fact that I've been cutting weight some (down to 145 from 150). And honestly, off days happen. Based on my heart rate data, it was obviously an off day more than a lack of fitness.
Still, that's 0-2 on key long workouts that I wanted to emphasize for this cycle. It's hard to put things in context at my age in this weather, but I have work to do if I'm going to attack that Chicago course in 9 weeks. I may double back on the 5/3/2 this week. Last night was esssnetially an extended tempo effort, and I did get a good 20-25 minutes with my heart rate and effort up in the tempo range, so it wasn't a lost night and it want a true long run workout. So while I normally leave aborted workouts behind me, I may change that practice this time around since my emphasis this cycle was to get at least 4 good long run workouts in.
Oh Coach Jeff, I have oodles andpoodles of data. I actually went back earlier this week through my spreadsheets to create a comparison chart of similar workouts at similar times in different marathon cycles. Two of three of those cycles were summer training cycles, so it makes them fairly useful for comparison purposes.
Looking back, many of the workouts during those other cycles were very similar to the workouts that I am doing now, with some of the workouts being five to eight seconds per mile faster and other workouts just been horrific in comparison.
In fact, I went back and looked at my training cycle for this past aborted Boston to see what I did there and I had a 4 x 2 mile workout that I cut down to a 3 x 2 mile workout which was much slower than the one I did this week. I then followed that up with my best race as a masters runner at the Gate River Run about 10 days later. So none of the individual workouts in and of themselves are of a concern to me.
The problems in my mind are: (1) that in those other cycles I also had some great workouts for mile repeats that were 10-15 seconds faster and (2) that I've been unsuccessful in putting together any meaningfully good long run workouts specifically. And that is what I think I need to feel confident going into race day. So that, along with the lack of A+ workouts is what has me a little more concerned than I otherwise might be.
But, I have 7 weeks and I realized last night that my calves have been holding up much better this cycle - no locking up (although I had some normal post-hard effort cramps last night).
So still some work to be done and improvement needed, but I'm not hitting the panic button.
I'll gladly take the bottom of this elite list. 33/m hm 1:25:57.
M38.
Upcoming: Chicago, Houston Half, London.
Recent: 16:40 5k, 2:41 Boston
Goal: sub 240
M: 8 x 1k - 3:21, 3:22, 3:21, 3:23, 3:25, 3:28, 3:28, 2:51/36 (800/200). 10 total.
T: 10 easy
W: 10 easy
Th: 2 x 3 Miles at T. Averaged 6:00 and 6:03. 10 total.
F: 10.2 easy
S: 14 easy
S: 15.8 w 3, 2, 1 at T (5:53, 5:54, 6:00 — 5:55, 5:54 — 5:55)
80 miles total (if I don’t double today)
Solid week. The heat and humidity returned.
As you can see from the splits Monday was rough. I ended up waving the white flag a mere 200 meters short. Just didn’t have anything left and didn’t want to push it. Calves were totally blown and remained sore until Friday.
Thursday was a good solo effort. 6:00 minute pace is about all I can muster in the summer for a road tempo.
Today was better. Had some company which always helps, and was able to do a little better than 6:00 during the pickups.
Smoove - It’s the left one. When I have had lower leg and foot problems (PF, Achilles, bursitis, etc.) it’s almost always the left.
I think I put too much pressure on the outside of my left foot, almost like I’m running clockwise on a track or on the left side of a cambered road.
Doing some of the PT exercises for hips/balance has helped line that up better in the past, and I’ll do those along with some of the theraband stuff this week. (Went down the rabbit hole a little bit Friday—I think R4F has been dealing with this problem?)
Maybe some of the changes I’ve made to take pressure off the hamstrings has reintroduced the lower leg problems, so I’ll be conscious of that if I try jogging in a few days.
And just pushing it with mileage has been a stressor. If this is a short problem, I’ll be in good shape.
Gordo - nothing wrong w a positive split 5k..it does get tough in no mans land.
AJ - really nice workouts my man. Looking fit.
My week -
32.5 miles ran
100 bike
2xlifting 3x core
Highlight was pacing my buddy thru a 5x1000 on his upcoming (this Saturday) PR 5k training. Lowlight was DNFing that 5k.
Did get up this morning and started running easy no GPS. Felt good so kept going. Hamstring while started a bit sore loosened up. Ended up running into said buddy at mile 6 so ran w him a bit opposite direction of my house. By the time I turned around and ran home I got in a solid 11.5 easy miles. Felt goodd to just go run easy sans watch. More of that this week upcoming. It is fine w E miles just not hard running at the moment. Gonna get my mind/body/confidence back to 100%.
Tall dark roast wrote:
Leaderboard
Smoove 91.9% (15K...49:17)
statfanatic 89.08% (1 mi...4:10)
Bdubs 85.21% (8K...25:45)
Jewbacca 84.2% (HM...1:10:19)
outsiderunner 83.55% (10K...36:27)
Allen 83.17% (15K...59:59)
pewow 82.14% (1 mi...4:31)
HHH 80.04% (5K...15:53)
Sub 6:00 79.4% (10 miles...55:31)
Stone Cutter 79.12% (5K...17:11)
hantph96 78.56% (5K...16:33)
Still Improving 77.6% (5K...19:00)
Tall dark roast 76.21% (5K...17:10)
RunnerSam 76.01% (5K...17:04)
Runrincerepeat 74.9% (5K...17:12)
Coach Jeff 72.41% (5K...20:22)
*If you want to be included on this list, submit your age and best performance at any distance within the last year.
Coach - Gen-Xers can be 50 now?? Where has the time gone.
I'm not going to share my age until I run 17:53 or better so I can beat Coach Jeff, because I'm a precious snowflake.
I'm 31.
If I'm on the right calculator this 18:17 was was better than my 1:24:3x half from March, and those are the only two races I've done in the last 12 months.
Comments another day, but I'm waiting for Allen's race report to come in.
M: 9.5
T: 8.5 w/ 4x5" hill accels, 4x10" hill sprints, also did some barefoot drills, strength after (MB throw, power snatch, front squat, DB incline bench/1A DB row/1L RDL, multi-lunge)
W: 40min swimming
T: 6 w/ 3x5" hill A skips, 3x5" hill A runs, 3x10" hill bounds, also barefoot drills
F: 9 w/ 40' cruise and a 90" surge at 5k-10k effort every 10', strength after (jumps/wall handstand, clean/jerk, lunges/pull ups, 1A DB press/rotate squat, rows/TRX 1L squat)
S: paddleboarding in the morning then 12 in the afternoon. 90 degF but fortunately there was a nice breeze and not too humid. Calf cramped up ~1hr in, went away and then cramped again at the end.
S: biking & yoga
I don't mean this in any way to diminish your running, but if we had one of those old school Superstars competitions, you'd probably be the first guy I'd pick for my team - always a lot of diversity in your weeks. Consistent weightlifting, lots of short sprint and hill work, etc.
68 miles for me.
Easy 6x800 workout with a training partner, 2k 6x400, 2k
13 mile long run.
RRR, Take something positive out of the DNF. You got a feel for taking a race out slightly too slow (or just right). That will serve you well when you're ready to run 1650.
Smoove wrote:
I don't mean this in any way to diminish your running, but if we had one of those old school Superstars competitions, you'd probably be the first guy I'd pick for my team - always a lot of diversity in your weeks. Consistent weightlifting, lots of short sprint and hill work, etc.
This. Always kind of had pewow in the back of my mind when doing all the different things these last few weeks. You are Very diverse pewow which I have found makes it fun! And will def benefit your career longevity
BDubs - Yes sir. I was happy w the opening mile. It wasn't a big deal just had me down and out/frustrated ... but I def never lose my motivation by set backs.. it sharpens it. Luckily it felt good today. Thanks for the support. Your mileage is looking good!
runrincerepeat wrote:
Lowlight was DNFing that 5k.
I’m not trying to be negative, RRR, just trying to help and sometimes that means dishing out what you might not want to hear.
The shortcomings of a group like this is that people will avoid speaking their mind. But a real friend or coach has to tell you what’s up from time to time. Don’t get excited, this doesn’t mean I’m your friend, especially after you flipped the bird at me last night, but it does mean I have nothing to lose by being completely honest with you.
The issue is not so much that you opened with a 2:46, the real concern for me is that in your post-race analysis both you and your coach (Pappy?) believe that was perfectly reasonable given your current fitness and comeback from injury.
You remind me of many high schoolers I used to coach. They would always start too hard and claim they felt good in the first mile. Well, no surprise there. You are not going to struggle aerobically in the first half of a 5K race. The best way to learn pace is to make mistakes on both ends. I would rather you go out in 3:00 and run a big negative split at this stage in your development than go out hard and fade. Again and again as you seem to be doing. You’ll win more races stalking your prey and hunting them from behind than by trying to be the hero. Sprinters get a real kick out of beating runners off the line but this is 5000m and your presence in the lead pack is not intimidating anyone.
On the bright side, this does have a solution. We could be having a different conversation if say you were a person lacking the basic speed to even take a shot at 17:00.
You need to force yourself to run the second half faster than the first until you have a good grip (interpretation) on how that feels. You could reach out to faster runners in your neighborhood and ask them to pace you on a few 5Ks. And you have to accept that time off will inevitably erode your fitness. I am worried that Smoove is also in denial about this.
I’m a D2 female runner. Our coach explicitly told us not to visit LetsRun forums.
Great interview with Steve Cram - says Jakob has no chance of WRs this year
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
adizero Road to Records with Yomif Kejelcha, Agnes Ngetich, Hobbs Kessler & many more is Saturday