Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 3/20/22

When the going gets tough ...

Excellent effort. You have once again reinforced a mental image of overcoming adversity. More ammunition for the Battle of Marathon!

I hope to emulate you tomorrow. Forecast is sunny 50°, but my left knee is in rough shape. Very painful, inflamed, can't bend it more than a few degrees. Right knee not much better. Meds yesterday didn't help.

It's been increasingly difficult to push through this pain, as each week it's worse. Gotta BA tough though. Marathon in nine weeks. Unfortunately, 3:30 goal is off the table. Reset to 3:45.

Nice work OR.

Allen/hhw - Thanks very much guys. I wanted a concentrated effort in the last two runs (about 16 hours apart) before the “fitness cutoff” begins…24.11 miles combined at a nice clip, and on short rest this morning. Bring on the nine-day taper!

Smoove - I’m sorry to hear about the arthritis. You’re a top-tier poster, a RRTT legend, and your quality posts ~4 years ago were one of the reasons I started logging on here each week. Periodically I wonder “how’s Smoove doing?” (along with some other posters), and I wish you had better news, but thanks for dropping by.

Thanks Sub 6 (and GNR, OR, Allen, And Stone).

Other than the e d of my running career, everything else in life is great. Love the career change to in-house, I’m otherwise happy and healthy, and my 6th grade daughter just made her middle school track team running an untrained 6:5x mile.

So definitely no complaints here!

AFF - Nice job toughing it out at the end even once your goal was out of reach.

beers - Congrats on the PR.

I'll also echo Allen's "thank you" for the detailed race reports. It's very fun to read about what's happening and what people are thinking as a race plays out.

The man the myth and the legend. The old days of going back and forth with “Too Hot” (RIP?). We started posting I think the same month on this thread or thereabouts of October 2016. Glad I can call you a friend.
Great career and a (Male) Masters win in Chicago!

OR this is very impressive stuff. You are ready!

I've gained even more respect for your ability to nail the progressions, as I've incorporated a consistent 3.4 mile fast finish into my long runs. I've often failed at it and had to cut short at 3 having gone too hard. Last week I hit it perfectly, dropping from 6:40s to 6:30s but that was after a couple weeks of misjudging my efforts. Being a little fair to myself it is on a hilly Central Park section, so holding back on the rolling hills of the first 2 miles is the key to success before it flattens out a little bit. I am hoping this along with hill workouts every couple of weeks helps prep me somewhat for the Boston course. I really want to keep the early downhill miles feeling "slow" and as you say in full control. I might try to run with a person targeting sub-3 as their goal, though I think I am possibly capable of faster. Happy to come through in 1:29:xx and feel fresh on the hills I'm really familiar with.

TL - Thank you for the kind words. So glad to hear from you and so glad to hear about your progressions and hills...indeed, they will build you. For years now, I have run this same general route that I call "in the hills" (rather than "hilly," which pertains to other stuff) and I credit that route with being the basis of my strength. Over the last several weeks, I have done it over and over again, including yesterday's LR in the rain. I have also interspersed a flat run here and there, as my marathon route will be flat with some lil' rollers, and the difference is noticeable, especially in terms of being able to control the pace...much easier on flatter routes.

And run the race the same way, my friend...be patient early on, discern what you are being given on that day (this is very important), and then pick it up, with an eye toward an all-out finish.

And, yes, in full control...you control the pace, not the other way around.

Echo what the other posters have said. I was mostly a lurker but a lot of your training posts got me to start posting in this thread.

Happy to hear that life outside of running is great!

FIFY