Soup to Nuts - Letsrun Train Me

8.5 miles in 70 minutes this evening. I'll take an easy run or off tomorrow.

Good luck in you quest. I'll be following to see how it turns out because I'd love to run a 5k PR post 40 too.

VF Runner wrote:

Good luck in you quest. I'll be following to see how it turns out because I'd love to run a 5k PR post 40 too.

Thanks VF Runner!

I took yesterday off from running.

This morning, got up and ran 2 hours covering 15.5 miles. Ran mostly on a soft bark chip trail. Felt pretty good. Not bad for an old, fat guy.

I don't want to give any premature hype to these shoes I got about a month ago, but they might just be a key to helping me stay injury free. I heavily over pronate and so I've always gotten some type of stability or motion control shoe and almost always I've had blister problems, etc. I just thought that was part of the game. I've been wearing Nike Free Run's and I haven't even had hot spots on my feet and I haven't been having any of the nagging injuries issues since starting to wear them that I've had all year prior.

A question for anyone that cares to opine. My marathon is in 3 weeks. I'm thinking I need a 20 miler next weekend (which will be 2 weeks prior to my "race") to just give me a feel of how to run when I'm pretty tired. Any thoughts on this? Too close to my event date or is it ok?

Not trying to freak either of us out here, but my run today was also 15.5(ish) about 1:50, mix of trails and paved path.

As for the 20 ... if you do it, I would just say make sure it is very easy overall. I'd also say to plan a more significant taper than usual to allow you body to quickly recover.

Good point on the taper VF. Thanks for the advice.

Funny coincidence, BTW. :)

After taking yesterday off to recuperate from the 2 hour run on Sunday, I completed a very easy run this evening. Totaled 6+ miles in around 55 minutes. Felt fine.

My quads were sore yesterday and still a bit sore today.

A little injury from my Sunday run, which I think occurred when I stumbled slightly on some uneven pavement was some swelling and pain in the lower muscles on the anterior of my left shin. Did not bother me when I ran tonight. I iced yesterday and today.

Injected a little more pace into tonights run, but every time I got a little too frisky, my left anterior shin started to feel a little tight. Totaled 8+ miles in 67+ minutes.

I'll ice the shin again tonight.

Felt a little fatigued, so I ran just 5 miles at 8:21 pace plus 6 x 30 sec strides with 30 sec jog in between.

Tonight I ran 8+ in 66 minutes. Felt fine.

Weighed in at 186 this morning.

I wanted to respond to your thread last week, but I have to be honest, was put off by your decision to ignore the advice NOT to run the Dec. marathon. Hey, to each his own. Now, I feel compelled to chime in. Here are my two cents, and you can take them or leave them. I am rooting for you, so this is all from a good place. Take it easy man ! You will get there, but I just get the sense from reading your posts that you are always pushing it, if even just a little. You mention your history of inconsistent training due to injuries and I can guess why. Steady running wins the day. That means consistency. Just take it down a notch and see what you can handle day in, day out for a month or two AND THEN bump it. The body takes time to adapt. I say all of this because I want you to succeed and I feel you might be just a little too impatient.

There it is. Good luck.

Well said armchair. I think I have suffered from the same mindset over the past many years - impatience. I'm finally learning that it really is true that to race faster you have to train slower, specifically slower on easy days so you are able to go faster on hard days.

My final three races this year are all the fastest time for each distance since before 2007. I attribute that largely to the fact that I've been running 'smarter' each and every day - even if it's only been for the last month or so.

Armchair,

I think you're 100% correct. In fact I've made this observation about myself over the years many times. I'll do my very best to temper my training with this thought in mind and I very much appreciate you taking the time to chime in.

I read some where in another thread where someone was writing about temperance in their training and made the observation that there was no problem in stressing the engine, in was the chasis that had to be taken care of. I think I fit this mold. In other words, I think the duration of my work outs is not a problem it's the pacing and resisting the urge to push the pace. Thoughts?

Anyhoo, this morning I put in a very easy 3.5 miles in 31 minutes. Total for the week was 45 mostly easy miles.

I am committed to the marathon in 2 weeks. I guess I don't need to be so cryptic in my reasoning as this is all anonymous anyway. I promised my good friend and teammate 20 years ago that when we turned 40 we would do a running event together (It was supposed to be the Western States, but I through that plan out the window for obvious reasons). Anyway, we established this plan in February. This friend of mine has been there for me over the years (went through divorce, etc...) and I'm not about to bail on my 20 year obligation.

Yes, it's the chassis that breaks down. Rule #1 - To run fast you have to be able to run often (and you can't do this if your body keeps breaking down). I specifically threw in that guideline of 8 weeks for this reason. Listening to your body obviously comes first and trumps anything planned ahead of time, but I like to keep that in the back of my mind because that's about how long it takes for the chassis to adapt to increasing workloads. At least when heading into unchartered running volume.

Also, I agree with you that it is the intensity that usually will do you in before the volume, but of course, there are practical limitations to this also.

I think the hardest concept for us runners (at least I know I've been guilty in the past) is to run without ego. We're in such a hurry to run this pace or hit this or that mileage that we begin running over our heads. Listen to your body, an I mean really listen, and you can't go wrong. Pete Magill has talked about this and I agree with him 100%. No stop watch, no hr monitor, no gps.... Your brain is a better computer IMO. Having said all that, I get the feeling a HR monitor might be a good thing for you, for a little while at least. You mentioned doing your "easy" runs at 7:15 -8:00 min/mile pace yet your 5k, albeit a hilly one, is 20 and change. Let's just say 19 to give you the benefit of the doubt. That makes the faster part of your easy zone a mere one minute a mile slower than your 5k pace. Too hard IMO. That's closer to what should be a tempo effort. Keep the easy stuff easy and if you can't, strap on the hrm to keep you honest for a while.

Whew ! Sorry if that was all written rather randomly, but I am a terrible typist and my fingers can't keep up with my brain.

Completed 20 miles in 2 hr 42 m 30 s this morning. Ran on the treadmill because we woke up to a foot of snow on the ground.

My treadmill has a feature where you can program a route from google maps, so I ran the first 20 of the Vegas marathon.

All things considered, I felt fantastic. This run gives me a lot of confidence for December 5. Hay is in the barn so to speak.

Anyone got any tips on the final 2 weeks befor a marathon? Presumably lots of rest, good food and easy runs. I'll be adding in a few strides every other day as well.

PS - Armchair, I'll find some time and type up a response to your post above. In the meantime, my driveway is calling. :(

Despite the lack of responses, I'm still following your story with interest. Keep it up. Listen to AC. Sounds like good advice.

Just run.

,

I'll follow this...

So my advice is, since you have to run the marathon, is not to race it--but just aim to complete it. If you race it your legs are going to be shot, and then comes at least a week off as well as a lot more fatigue and risk of injury.

But let's move past the marathon, once you are back, you should have one goal, and one goal only--get down to 160 lbs.

If you keep on trying to run hard while you are over weight, then you will keep getting hurt. So if you want to get back in your old racing shape days, you have to get into old form. My advice is to just run easy for some months (however long it takes to get down to 160). Look at this as just base work, but in reality, you are doing it to get your mileage up, and to not get hurt (which will happen when you are running too fast for your mass). During this time, do whatever you can to accelerate the weight loss (eating right, weights, x training).

When you are finally at 160, slowly start adding some more quality, like some steady runs, tempos, races. You will have to keep losing weight to hopefully get down a little bit more, but at least now your body can handle the weight you are asking to carry around. Then pursue a normal training program that is realistic and will be addressed [presumably on here] once you are at that point.

Good luck.

Impossible Dream wrote:

I heavily over pronate

So does Gebreselassie, it's no big deal, you don't need special shoes to correct this.

You can reach your goals if you get the weight down and train right.