Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 2/13/22

M33, 5'10"/160LBs PB: 2:56:53 Marathon Goal Race: Boston '22 Another week of managing the knee. Some days better than others, but I'm able to get the miles in and a quality long run. M: 6 @ 8:29R (Central Park outer loop easy after last week's LR) TU: 5.9 @ 7:57M (on Central Park res) W: 6.2 @ 8:53E (Res- early miles slower with fiancee) TH: 5.9 @7:33M ( Central Park Outer loop) FR: Planned Day Off SAT: 16.37 @ 7:17 (Res, Park Outer Loop, West Side Highway which was windy...upon re-entering the park I ran 3 miles in 19:45 pretty hard. Little shorter than my usual pickup, but I was feeling it) SUN: 6 @ 8:39R (East River Run and some Randall's Island, snowing with some questionable footing/winds that kept this slow) TOTALS: 46.4 miles. Solid. Hoping to put this Runner's Knee in the past soon!

Numbersguy must have really cracked the whip back in the day.

hhw - Nice medium LR/workout 
Mrs Stone - two solid workouts and another high mileage week, looking good! 
Allen - great job with the 10 miler, im sure its nice to be out there competing again! 
darkwave - Sorry about the shot wearing off, nice job on the 5k for the W 
RRR - nice job with the 8k, you'll be missed, gl with the marathon 
jmar227 - good job getting three efforts in 

Male, 26, 5’9", 132lbs
PRs: Half Marathon: 1:17:53 (2021), Marathon: 2:47:57 (2021)
Next Races: NYRR Half Marathon, Boston Marathon 2022
Future Goals: Sub 1:16 HM, Sub 2:40 Marathon, Sub 17:30 5k

Reflection
Felt very good this week with a lot of mental clarity and headspace. Just another big aerobic week before sprinkling some workouts coming this next week.
107 Miles

Monday
Rest
Tuesday
AM Run: 12 Miles - 7:17
Wednesday
:AM Midweek Medium-Long Run: 16 Miles - 6:53 = 10 Oz of Gatorate, Cutting from 7:30 (8 mph) to 6:27 (9.3 mph) every mile until 6:27 pace. Held and played with incline once at that pace. Felt moderately comfortable.
PM Run: 4 Miles - 8:08
Thursday
AM Run: AM Run: 12 Miles - 7:10 PM Run:
PM Run: 5 Miles - 8:09, 1 Mile - 8:29
Friday
PM Run: 11.2 Miles - 7:24
Saturday
AM Long Run: 24 Miles - 6:53 = 1-12 Easy, 13-24 moderate effort (6:42, 6:35, 6:34, 6:37, 6:33, 6:33, 6:29, 6:36, 6:30, 6:31, 6:31, 6:21) 4 Gels, 1 every 30 minutes after 45 minutes, 40f out at the start and finishing at 60-70; no water.
Sunday
AM Run: 16 Miles - 7:28 = Going from 8-7min miles, 10 minutes flat 5 minutes incline progressing from 1-4%

Male, 29, 6', 130 lbs.
PRs: 5K: 15:18 (indoors) (2021), 8K: 25:16 (2021), Half Marathon: 69:38 (2021), Marathon: 2:30:25 (2019)
Goal races: NYC Half, Boston Marathon,
Goal: NYC Half: PR, Boston Marathon: 2:20 mid/finally break 2:30

M: Off
T: Strength Training, 8.01 miles @ 7:40 avg
W: 2 mile warmup. 2x (2x400) w/ 200 jog recovery and 800 jog recovery between sets, 2 mile cooldown
TH: 6 miles easy @ 7:46 avg
F: 5 miles easy @ 7:41 avg
S: Race Day, 2 mile warmup, 1 Mile Race: 4:26.54, 2 miles easy, 4 mile progression (5:28, 5:22, 5:15, 5:08), 2 miles easy.
Sun: 12.5 miles @ 7:50
Total: 48.3 Miles

Notes:
Wednesday:
Roads were an absolute disaster. Still a ton of snow packed and icy roads everywhere. Wanted to hit this workout on a track but it didn't happen. I found a random clear street to just run back and forth on. Each section was just shy of 400 meters (4:23, 4:26, 4:32, 4:29). Was really tough to gauge this but I was happy to get something done.

Saturday:
Absolutely one of the worst tactical races I've ever run.
I got out in last and immediately the pack started to string out. I thought this meant a good thing for me as a lot of the pack was sub 4:30 guys with the leader being a 4:19 guy. We go through 200 and it’s over 35 seconds (4:40 pace) and immediately I dart out to lane 2-3 to tag onto the lead pack that has already broken off. I think I ran like a 32 for that split even with being in lane 2-3. I stayed mostly in lane 2 and got aggressive around the turns. Got to three guys to go on the last lap and I got dusted and was just really soft. The racing was fun as heck but I basically did everything you shouldn’t do in an indoor race. Regardless, the conversion puts me at just under 4:24 so that's a PR. Caught my breath a bit and went out to one of the country roads outside of town to knock out my workout. Workout was definitely tougher than the race. Really held hard to close in a 5:08. Recovered quickly and even clipped off a 6:20 last mile of the cooldown.

Body needed a down week after 75 last week. But I'm definitely more sore/beat up from this weekend. My spikes got locked into the track when I finished and I took a hard tumble.

3K in CA this weekend then it's time to get really ready for NYC.

AverageForFun - I think you need a new nickname. You are way above average. Nice treadmill workout on Wednesday and monster long run. Sub 2:40 seems like a very reasonable goal for you!

Looks like a lot of us had trouble copying our running logs over to here with the new format :D

I took most of the week off. I was getting so tired of trying to run through slush, snow, and/or single-digit temperatures, so it was nice to give myself permission to not care about running for a few days. I'll be back at this week.

I also weighed in at 144.4 this morning (down from 152.4 on 12/20), so that's 8 extra pounds that I don't have to haul around the track this summer.

Th - 3.8 @ 9:44

F - 4.4 @ 7:53

Sa - 8.4 @ 6:59

Weekly total: 16 miles

YTD total: 238 miles

GNR1 - Nice week. That's a lot of quality work.

Allen - Congrats on the age-group win!

Sub 6:00 - It sucks that your race was canceled. At least your training won't totally go to waste since you have other events on your calendar.

darkwave - Congrats on the win. Hopefully you're closer to figuring out the coordination issues.

RunnerSam - Nice workouts. Good luck at your 5 miler.

beerandmiles - Sounds like a fun mile race. Nice workout afterward!

---------

Another stellar week of training. As a low-mileage guy, 100+ miles is incomprehensible to me -- and a 24-mile training run at those paces, wow, just incredible. Does "future" mean Boston? Sure seems you could be threatening 2:40 right now. Regarding your 5K goal, I'm curious what you've run in the past; your other recent race times certainly suggest sub-17. 

-----

Great to see you run conservatively at the start, and finishing strong. Very solid result, too. Best wishes with your training -- looking forward seeing your progress going forward.

@BHViking - The treadmill workouts are always a good time. Let’s me practice drinking water which I’m horrible at. Don’t really know if I’ll ever go buy something other than average. It’s all for fun and it started off just for fun.

@Allen - a 30 mph headwind is nothing to laugh at and you seemed to really gut it out for 10 miles. That takes some serious effort! Congrats on 1st! Yes, Boston is the goal and I’m hoping I can have a great first experience with the help of my coach and great friends who will also be there. I’ve never actually raced a 5k, I’ve only TT’d but all my PRs except for the Half were set in the last 10km of my marathons. I’m not really sure if I could break 17, I’m more of the ‘hold on for forever’ kind of guy. 100 mile weeks are a lot of fun, I get to run all paces with all kinds of people.

I miss the old boards, the formatting threw me off lol

Solid week, final race before our conference meet. 800 went poorly but 3k went okay. Ready to race and get some dubs.

Mon - 8.75 @ 7:27

Tues - 2.3 WU/CD, 6 x 1200 (avg 3:29) + 2 x 300 (45)

Wed - off (achilles)

Thurs - 4 Miles @ 7:50

Fri - 4.5 WU/CD, 800m race in 1:58 (28.1-27.8-30.3-32.4)

Sat - 2.6 WU/CD, 3000m race in 8:48 (2:55-2:55-2:58)

Sun - off

Miles: 35

800 race on friday just felt poor the whole time, think the workout tuesday was still in my legs when I raced. The 3k saturday felt much better, just sat in second the whole time and ended up tying up the last 600 or probably would have run closer to 8:40. Think the Mile/3k double might be the goal for conference but still haven't decided yet.

Hey Average,

I've been running quite a bit of treadmill lately myself. It does make taking gels and drinking much easier. In the cold months, I'm have a very, very difficult time just getting the gels out of my belt. Once they are out, I can't open them. If I have them pre-opened slightly, they tend to leak all over inside the belt. These are all problems I would not be fighting with in a race. I end up stopping in the long runs just to get the gel out and opened. Grrrr. However, on the treadmill I still have fully functioning fingers since they aren't frozen inside of gloves.

One thing I have tried recently for drinking is using a very easy to hold water bottle. I got a Nathan's Speeddraw Plus Insulated Flask. It's very easy to hold and sip out of. It's so easy that I'm considering just carrying it the whole way in my April marathon and filling it with Maurten 320. At marathon effort, I usually get more of the water / gatorade on my chest than I do down my throat but using the flask I don't waste a drop.

A mid-week update, for everyone but mostly for Allen.

Reintroduced the long run this morning…15.26 at 7:20 overall…in the hills. Not happy with the pace or how I felt…but it is start…

Still a good update OR. My mid-week update is I did my first fast work since the knee stuff all started. Nothing crazy - 7 x 2’ on, 1’ off averaging 6:05ish. Knee feels OK definitely not completely gone but my stride felt normal. I’ll take it.

Great to get out there for a longer effort! But not happy with pace? Too fast? Or the progression not what you'd like?

Midweek update:

I misread the forecast yesterday, and thought Thursday was good weather. Oops, that was today. Thursday is heavy rain all day, and windy. Had a 15-miler planned, but won't do that in the rain.

So, I broke my rule against running on consecutive days, and logged 7.7 in 50° weather. Windy. Knees care killing me now. There's a reason for my consecutive day rule.

Good question, my friend. In short—too slow and it felt too hard…and no progression at all to speak of. Started at about 7:40, went over the big hill with a 7:41 mile (at about the 5 mark) and the pace just never came. For my “normal” self, the 7:20 should have felt like a joke, but for the post-injury, post-covid alter-OR, it was no joke. Normally, the pace gets faster mile by mile without me even trying, but it has not been that way. Mostly crummy-feeling 7:10s and 7:20s today and my only sub-7:00 was in my last mile (6:56) mostly downhill with the wind mostly at my back. It was a breezy morning…

Allen - congrats on a great run against gusty winds! I love that you've found a way to train that works for you. For me, I get irritable if I don't run / have some time of movement that gets the ticker up and would rather do 4 miles 7 days a week than get 30 miles over three runs. Different training goals, of course. 

OR - I've come to really enjoy the way you train. It's not conventional, but you clearly enjoy it. I think there's more to be said for the enjoyment of training than following a structured block you don't enjoy, getting to a race one day, executing perfectly, and then falling back into not training. Your paces won't be sustainable forever, but the method may work. In any event, there will be clunkers along the way. Progress isn't linear.

Last week was a shade under 49 miles in just over 6 hours. Long run was just over 10, and I ran at sea level on Sunday, cranking out a 25 minute tempo in around 7 min pace. Felt good to be able to turn on the engine.

5M race on Saturday, any guesses on what I should aim for? 5:36 pace is 28:00, I was thinking of trying for 5:30 pace (27:30) by going out hard and trying to hold on. Two best times are 28:01 and 28:03 from 2015/2012. Have been pretty consistent on the high mileage and have hit some solid workouts so I am in uncharted territory.

-RS