Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 9-29-19

Huge congrats to AJ on the PR!!

Had a pretty solid race today at the Bronx 10 Mile... long report ahead:

M25, 128lbs, 5'7"

PRs: 4:38 mile, 16:50 5K, 56:24 10 mile, 1:16:39 HM, 2:46:07 M

2019 Goals: NYCM, CIM (alternative/backup), sub 2:40

=== 9/23/19 - 9/29/19: 101.7 miles ===

> Mon - 19.33 miles

#1 (5:42): 13.11 miles @7:51

#2 (10:52): 6.22 miles @7:31, w/ 1mi @5:54

> Tue - 15.25 miles

#1 (5:49): 10.25 miles @7:57

#2 (10:07): 5.00 miles @7:53

> Wed - 16.62 miles

#1 (5:50): 11.60 miles @6:33, 2x3mi, 3’ jog recovery

5:37 avg

16:58 (5:42, 5:41, 5:35), 16:45 (5:37, 5:36, 5:32)

#2 (11:00): 5.02 miles @7:51

> Thu - 15.23 miles

#1 (5:49): 10.21 miles @8:25

#2 (10:58): 5.02 miles @7:54

> Fri - 15.25 miles

#1 (5:52): 10.23 miles @8:00, w/ 3x90” surges (5:40 -> 5:05)

#2 (10:35): 5.02 miles @7:56

> Sat - 6.38 miles

#1 (6:23): 6.38 miles @8:08, w/ 4 strides

> Sun - 13.66 miles

#1 (8:00): 13.66 miles, New Balance Bronx 10 Mile Race

> New Balance Bronx 10 Mile - 56:24 (5:38/mi)

Official 5mi splits: 28:37, 27:47

Mile splits: 5:41, 5:48, 5:51, 5:42, 5:34, 5:48, 5:34, 5:37, 5:35, 5:14

First 10 miler with a bonus 10K en route - 34:35 from Strava which would be a 23 second 10K PR! Very happy with the performance and execution and feel like it was a great fitness check-in. No real taper racing in the middle of multiple 100 mile weeks.

Course was actually surprisingly tough. Day was on the hot/humid side, with non-trivial headwinds the whole first half, but it was mostly an out and back so tailwind on the way back. Hardest part was probably rolling hills the whole way -- about 300 ft gain so keeping a rhythm was a bit tough. Goal was to go out by feel around HM effort, and then try to pick it up in the second half. Was thinking I would be somewhere between 56:00-58:00.

Onto the race! Miles 1-3 were pretty uneventful, ran with a pretty big group of guys and started to get a feel for the rollers and the heat. As splits were clicking off they were a bit slower than goal HM pace (5:41, 5:48, 5:51) but I still stayed conservative, understanding that it was on the hot/humid side and just sticking in the pack for now would be smart. At the end of mile 3 I grabbed a cup of water and tried to pour it on my hat but maybe missed half of it... oops.

Miles 3-5 to the big loop into the turnaround started to break up the pack. I held steady and started to click down some faster miles (5:42, 5:34). By mile 5 the pack was decimated with just me and maybe 1-2 other guys nearby. I also went for another water cup at mile 5 and this time got it all on my hat, nice.

Mile 6 probably had the most total uphill inside the rollers so it was a grind (5:48), but I was feeling pretty solid at that point so I started to put my sights on people ahead of me, aiming to pick them off one by one.

Miles 7-8 were great, I had picked off a few folks and was now trading leads with one Central Park Track Club guy, picking it up (5:34, 5:37).

By mile 9, I took the lead once again but it looks like the CPTC guy didn’t have the gas to follow so he dropped. I held steady and caught up to the 3rd place female (5:35) and then started to bring it home. I was certainly starting to heat up now but it felt awesome flying down the last mile (5:14). Looks like in the last half/quarter I was starting to break into low 5:00s/sub 5:00 pace. Crossed the line and felt great/happy!

> Notes

Pleased with the race, and thinking that it bodes well for the Staten Island Half in 2 weeks. The mileage is definitely starting to catch up with me though so need to carefully work the next few weeks. Still deciding if I want to jump in a fast 5K with Slo next weekend -- it would seriously be nice to race something flat for once haha. The half in two weeks is supposedly quite flat aside from one big hill in the middle, and if the weather plays nice I think cracking 1:15 is definitely in the cards. 5 weeks to NYC! Very inspired by all the Berlin racers.

Gordon Tremeshko wrote:

some lurpy jabroni

If I have another kid, or a pet, or a tumor... definitely gonna name it Lurpy Jabroni.

Woooohooo jot quill!!!! Loved the report! I keep trying to go to bed... You guys keep piling on the good news...

Awesome reports guys!!

AJ - Brilliant job. Gotta keep that mental KM to Mile conversion up to date!! Some of my mates found it a little tricky out there today, only one negative split, so excellent work. Get some god damned beers in you.

JQ - Top running, I think that bodes nicely for a sub-75. Can't gain much more fitness so just go in rested.

First post in a little while, so my last 3 weeks were -

WC 9/9/2019

Light jogging then 2 races.

5000m track race in 15:36 on the Thursday

Copenhagen Half in 73:43 on the Sunday

Probably went into the 5000 undercooked if I'm honest with myself, not totally recovered from the illness 10 days prior and just a little relaxed. Didn't make any major mistakes but didn't have the legs (3:08 3rd KM was where it started to go wrong). Finished well in sub-70 though and can't be mad at 6 seconds slower than my PR.

Copenhagen Half I was still on battered legs from the Thursday night, travelling, drinking and touristing. 34:20 through 10k, then 17:25, 18:10 for the next 10k showed that I just hadn't done enough miles (50mpw average for the prior 6 weeks or so) or tempo work. Still, 73 is a decent run.

WC 16/9/2019

Zero running. Decided on a week off after track season, spent in Denmark walking around castles and islands and beaches. Lovely but holy cow it's expensive. About $14 for 400ml of a decent beer. I kid you not.

WC 23/9/2019

First week back has been ok. 57miles, one vague workout (20mins at 5:40 in an 11 miler) and entered a local XC race as a tempo/fun thing to do. That wasn't a great idea, suffered and my knee is super sore today. Taking a week off blew my fitness but another 14 days until a proper race so I think I'll be back and sharp for that.

Keep rolling people.

AJ - Love the race report. Man, it sounds like you did everything right, and by your splits, you should have been under 2:40:00. Very few “bum” splits in there. That race sounds mis-measured (long). I know about the tangents and thus the “extra” at the end of a race, esp. a marathon, but man it still sounds “off.” Great running, my friend! Enjoy it. Eat some German food for me, as I doubt I will ever visit Europe.

GT - That is a heck of a race! Nuff said.

JQ - You are running a fever again this week. No surprise.

angryjohnny wrote:

... I refuse to let it reach 2:40:32, running the last .5 mile in 5:30 pace. Final time was 2:40:28, split 1:21:04, 1:19:24. A four second Pr.

As I told OR the other day, a PR is a PR. You can’t ever be disappointed with those. Thanks to everyone here for their support. I may have some more thoughts later. I gotta go get something to eat.

Stepping out of RR&T retirement for a moment to say "congrats and we'll done!" A great result for one of my favorite LRC personalities since first "meeting" you on OR's dissapointed/double-back thread three years ago. I'm happy to see my PR fall another spot on the thread marathon rankings -- 2 seconds, ha!

Hey, OR, hope you can bump me down another spot, too. Heal that hammy!

M, 22, 5'8"/168#

Nothing complicated for me this week - more miles than last week but didn't really think much about a mileage goal or anything, just went out and ran a lot (for me). Some travel at the tail end of the week.

M: 10.3ez on dirt road/82min with 6x20sec strides

T: 10.7ez trails/90min + 20min of pushups/pullups/flutter kicks

W: 90min bike with some short intervals + 20min of hard weights

TH: 10.3ez trails/90min

F: 10.1 with 8x30sec pretty hard up a very steep hill, 80min total, 20min of pushups/pullups/flutter kicks afterwards

S: 10.2mi/79min with a little progression towards/at HMP (6:10-6:20) at the end, felt really smooth/easy

S: 7mi slow recovery jog/61min + 30min of hard weights (traveling, otherwise I'd squeeze in some time on the bike tonight)

Total: 58.6mi/8h running on 6 days, 1.5h biking, 1.5h weights/strength

To be honest, I felt like death on Tuesday and Thursday. My legs were really whacked tired and I was thinking about not running on Friday, then went out and had my best run of the prior 7 days. I didn't push the pace at all this week on my easy stuff, only pushed it on the strides, hill sprints, and the little progression on Saturday. Everything else was 8-9min/mi.

I don't plan to do much hard running outside of strides, hill sprints, and a little bit of HM/HMP running 1-2 days per week when it feels good - just going to get used to running the miles for a while. After the Friday breakthrough, Saturday and Sunday were similarly much better than the prior week - hoping that I'm beginning to adjust to the higher volume (for me). There was definitely a lot of fatigue in my calves/quads prior, which would take 15-40min to loosen up at the beginning of each run and I'd be barely moving until I felt better.

F42, 5'6", at ~111lb

Goal races:

Des Moines half-marathon 10/20

Philadelphia marathon 11/24

Had a pretty good week taking it down a little bit after last week's mileage PR.

M: rest day

Tu: 7.4 mi, had an early meeting so ran just the hour-ish easy

We: 10.7 mi as 1 E + 8 MP + 1.7 E. Nice and cool in the morning. The MP miles felt very good, averaged 7:40 with the slowest being 7:43 and the fastest 7:35. These are really encouraging workouts for me.

Th: 8.5mi E

Fr: another early meeting so another 7.4 mi E. (I can get up only so early.)

Sa: quarter-marathon race + 3.4mi cooldown. Race report! There was a small local running festival with most runners doing the half-marathon, but I decided a couple weeks ago to jump into the quarter marathon they offered. I thought I'd run it the way I ran that 8K two weeks ago. Just run it as felt hard and race-y and see what happened. It wasn't perfect out -- 66 and kind of humid, I felt like I was pouring sweat in the middle of it. It's a flat course and I ran early miles in 7:03, 7:03, 6:59, then 6:54 (Garmin splits were pretty much right on with mile markers here). I was passing a handful of runners ahead of me, they were all half-marathoners, and then I came up on the shoulder of and slightly passed a teenage kid in a blue t-shirt who I knew was running the quarter. He didn't care for me to pass him so he hung with me, quite close on my arm which annoyed me as we had the entire freaking neighborhood road to ourselves and it was really unnecessary for him to crowd me. I almost told him to back off, and tried to run ahead of him a little to get him away from me. But he ran out ahead of me instead, and then we were at the turnaround. He went around the cone just a second or two ahead of me. Evidently, I was in 2nd place overall and 3rd place was way, way back. I didn't even really see when the next woman went by.

That was kind of exciting, though I know that if I'm in 2nd overall in a race it's because no one is running it! It was fun to have the lead woman's bike escort ride with me for 3.5 miles after the turnaround. I kept racing at the hardest pace I could. I knew I was pushing the line because I was flirting with the "I might be sick" feeling, where I knew if I ran harder I wouldn't be running harder for very long. After that 6:54 mile I did 7:07 and 7:10, and closed the last ~0.6 at 7:04 pace. I finished the quarter marathon in 46:42 as 2nd overall and 1st overall female, behind that 18 year old kid by about 45 seconds. 3rd place was 2 mins behind me and the next woman to finish was 6 mins behind.

I got $50 cash for my win. These small local races make me feel like a star running 7:0X average pace. I know when I run in Des Moines next month, and in Philadelphia in November, I will be brought back down to earth!

Sunday: It's not nice out. Warm and very humid. My legs were OK to start the long run, but dragged as the miles wore on. I did 18 for the easy long run, very glad when I was done. I drank almost 50oz of water during the run and wished I'd had more but that's all I took. It's like all that broiling summer running experience has dissipated after the stretch of cooler weekday mornings, and I feel unprepared for the heat and humidity the last two weekends have thrown at me.

Total miles: 62. During that race, I set a Garmin PB over 10K (43:43) but my actual 10K PR happened during my pre-Garmin years (42:58) so not as exciting as it could have been. Still, it was a 4.5-year old Garmin PB that fell.

Watching a couple marathons this weekend has been inspiring. Those ladies toughing it out in the middle of the night in Doha and then not looking at the internet until I could watch the Berlin marathon myself this morning, Bekele's run was shockingly exciting. Glad to hear that AJ had a great run too this morning and I am also fired up by other race reports though all of you race way, way faster than me!

Looking forward to my upcoming week's work. Have good weeks too, everyone!

Female, 45, 5'4", 105

PRs 5:25/18:51/38:56/1:02:28/1:24:22/2:57:42

Goal races: Columbus Half-Marathon, Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

Goal times: 18:30 for 5K, 1:23:xx for half, sub-2:55 for full

"I lack a pithy quote" - me.

60 miles, 5 hours of pool-running, and 1000 yards of swimming

M: Upper body weights/core, and 2 hours of pool-running.

T: 7.5 miles very easy (8:58), yoga, and then 5 miles very easy (8:41) plus drills/strides

W: 14 miles, including an 8K tempo on the track in 32:02, with 1600 splits of 6:28/6:24/6:29/6:25/6:16). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.

Th: Upper body weights/core, and 2 hours of pool-running.

F: 8 miles very easy (9:01), yoga, then 4.5 miles very easy (8:26) plus drills and strides.

Sa: 21 miles progressive, split as first 7 averaging 8:44, next 7 averaging 7:36, last 7 averaging 6:51. Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.

Su: yoga and 1 hour pool-running.

6 weeks out from Indy Monumental; 3 weeks out from Columbus. Just two workouts this week - the 8K tempo on Wednesday and the long run on Saturday. I was pretty happy with both workouts. It was a bit warm and humid on Saturday, so the paces ended up a bit slower than goal, but the effort was right.

Despite initial appearances, this was a pretty big mileage week for me. The 60 miles was in 4 days of running, so that's an average of 15 miles for each of those 4 days. And 5 hours of pool-running, counting each 10 minutes as one "pool-running mile" means an additional 30 "miles." Obviously not the same as 90 miles on land, but still a good deal of aerobic work. As for why I did 3 days in the pool this week? It just felt like what my body needed. Monday and Thursday are normal pool-running days for me, and then I wanted a very easy day after Saturday's 21 milers, so I did a third day in the pool.

Not quite sure how I'm going to structure next week. I have 17 miles with 2x5 at marathon effort on tap. Not sure whether I'm going to do that on Saturday or Sunday of next weekend. Whatever day I do my long run will determine what the rest of the week looks like.

darkwave - Big week. Love the 4-day, 15-mile avg. Love it. Mine was 13.6 with this week’s 4-day week. You are rounding out nicely (not getting fat, of course).

AJ - Big time running! Well done, overcoming the lack of mile markers and your expectations.

GT - Nice racing, that's a really solid 8k. Hoping to take down as many lurpy jabroni's as I can in two weeks.

JQ - Closing in 5:14 on that 10 miler and crossing the triple digit threshold yet again are quite impressive. HAMMERING!

Dr. C - nice racing! Second overall and first female is fun stuff - enjoy it! I hear you on being brought back to Earth in the larger scale runs though.

OR -54 miles on 4 runs is quite impressive, as is yesterday's 16.5 miler. Hope you're able to let loose come October.

Stone - You seem to be coming along quite nicely. Really nice workouts M-T-S. Full recovery in two weeks would bode well for Mrs. Stone. Love the family dedication.

RRR - That's a helluva week. 93 miles in those conditions is no joke. You may want to take in more than 20 oz next long run - down 8 pounds, that's pretty crazy.

Sub 6 - Glad to see progress. Looking forward to Chicago.

Slo - dropping 100+ mile weeks like nothing. Week after week. Incredible.

Coach Jeff - that's a solid week. That lottery sees so late. I laughed at your confession.

Darkwave - Really solid workouts on Wednesday and Saturday. You're following through on not getting greedy, I like it, and look forward to following your next 6 weeks.

Allen - Great to see you here. I realized AJ’s two-second edge earlier, but you beat me to posting about it. Thank you for the encouragement. Trying my best to rest and heal the hammy.

Just cant help it. The MFing ROCK is RRRs favorite of all time. The ultimate smack talker.

Coach Jeff ROC wrote:

Gordon Tremeshko wrote:

some lurpy jabroni

If I have another kid, or a pet, or a tumor... definitely gonna name it Lurpy Jabroni.

...and I'm 6'2" so you know this jabroni was lurpy.

33/5-6/152

"Run me like a racehorse. Pull me like a ripcord. Break me down and build me up..... Whatever It Takes" - Imagine Dragons

PR's: 2:59:15 (2018), 1:25:54 (2014), 39:54 (2018)

Windy City Wind Up in 14 days

Goals: PR (2:56:59), have fun

M - 7 @ 8:37

T - 9 AM @ 7:26 overall - 20 minutes of fartleking at 6 minute pace, 5 @ 8:36 PM

W - 5.5 @ 8:32 - 7AM meeting + dinner scheduled = REALLY early run and no time to double

T - 8 @ 7:22 - 31 minute T run - just over 4.5mi - 6:51 pace - traveling for work and running on treadmill - effort felt more like 6:20 - 6:30 pace, and I didn't feel it was prudent to push. I feel I got what I needed from the workout.

F - 9 @ 7:58

Sa - 20 @ 7:14 overall - 9 easy, 10.25 approaching race pace (6:50), about 1 easy

Su - 7.5 @ 8:26

71 in 9:16.

292 miles thus far in September, which crushes my previous monthly high of 276 set in August 2019. Barring disaster, will do 8 tomorrow for my first 300 mile month.

Taper time!

M - masters/senior division, 60+

Goal - masters 15K in a month, beyond that less than certain

M - 5.4 easy recovery

T - easy double 4.4 and 5.9

W - threshold reps (3X 1.1 mile) AM (5.9 miles total) and easy 4.1 PM

Th - 8.8 hilly trail run AM, 3.4 on treadmill PM

F - easy 7.1

S - 11.2 with Michigan workout (1 mile at 10K, 1200 at 8K, 800 at 5K and 400 at mile effort; interspersed with 1 mile at threshold)/1 min recovery between each. Worked out pretty well

Su - 13.1 mile semi mountain run on a mesa.

68.8 for the week. It's all good.

Have a good week everyone! I'll try to drop in a few times!

Well I'm back in full-on recovery mode with the ankle. Aggravated it running 6 miles on Tuesday, real dumb. Finally got it checked out on Saturday and confirmed no broken bones. So that's good, but its still just gotta heal up, however long that takes. It really only hurts when I run, but I do not have a good enough reason to run through that much pain.

Funny coincidence: my running injury was evaluated by a Doctor Salazar. I expect to be unstoppable when I return to action.

AJ: Congrats on the PR! Great write up of a gnarly race.

rrr: Daaaaaaang big week.

Stone: Very solid week. RAtM is the best for putting the hammer down; big riffs, lyrics with grunting, etc. Big races should play that after the anthem if they really want people to throw down.

Mrs Stone: I like a powerwalk for minor tweaks. Best of luck.

Sub6: Hope the knee comes along, no pain seems like progress.

Slo: "The possibility of physical and mental breakdown is now very real. No sympathy for the devil, keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride."

-Raoul Duke

OR: Hope the hammy's coming along. I applaud your relative restraint.

Niceguy: I had something like that going on with my lungs in high school. It kind of just went away in the middle of a season. Don't remember anything particularly good or bad happening after it went away.

Coach Jeff: Good luck in the lottery and the 10k. I love that your plan for the 10k is either a controlled, scientifically-derived effort or just blasting off for the joy of it.

JQ: Between the workout, race, and total miles, that week is just absurd. Crushing it.

HHH: Great races, especially so close to each other. Heck of a half on 50 miles.

rucker: Great all-around week. Definitely a good sign that you felt better while still doing some 10 mile days.

drcrusher: Great race, sounds like you were pushing it perfectly. And a win's a win, that's a great experience.

darkwave: Very nice long run and total aerobic "mileage." Real big week.

RGMW: Top two mileage months in a row says you're going to crush it in two weeks.

CM: Bravo on completing the Michigan, read all about it last week and that thing looks nuts.

GB - Exactly right—relative restraint. Get well soon, my friend.

RRR - looking good. Keep upping the volume on those tempos. Don’t get to worried about splits in the summer.

Jq - right where you want to be for sub 2:40 based on the 2x3 and 10 miler. NY is tough course though.

Stone - very good week indeed. Lots of quality. Sorry to hear about Mrs stone’s hammy.

Sub 6 - take care of that knee.

Slo - two really solid workouts during a 110 mile week. One of my buddies wants to try and hang with you at Indy. He better be ready for 2:28.

OR - good to see you mixing it up with some tough tempo miles. I agree the course was long. Bekele should claim the WR and I should claim the 2:38:50 that Strava is telling me. That’s seems fair?

Nice guy - solid work. I love the Daniels plans. If you can up your mileage from 60 to say 90 you will see big gainz.

Aj - I don’t care what the LRC front page says about that jabroni Bekele. You are the GOAT.

GT - nice race and report. You are getting fit quick.

Coach Jeff - what does giraffe taste like?

HHH - solid racing man.

Allen - thanks for stopping by. Good to hear from you.

Rucker - nice week.

Drcrusher - congrats on the win.

Darkwave - 5 hours of pool running = serious dedication. Good work.

RGM - hay is in the barn. Enjoy the taper.

Coyote - you’ve got more guts than me to try the Michigan.

Guy - sorry about the ankle. I hear Dr. Salazar gives out TUEs like candy.