Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 5/12

Goal Race - track 10K last weekend in June

M - 10.5

T - Threshold workout (12.5)

W - 11

T - Off (planned)

F - 7 easy

S - 10K road race (10)

S - Half marathon (16)

Total - 67 miles

Tuesday's threshold workout:

5 mile warm-up/3 mile cool down

3200m with 400m active recover (~2:00) - 10:24

1600m with 400m active recover (~2:00) - 5:11

4 x 200m with 200m active recover (~66) - 33, 31, 31, 30

Saturday's 10K road race:

2 mile warm-up/2 mile cool down

10K - 32:46 (~16:10/16:36 ... 5:16 avg)

This race was the main focus of the weekend. Not as fast as I had hoped, but I was still happy to get under 33. I feel like I'm still missing that "pop" in my legs since I ran Boston.

Sunday's half marathon:

13.1 - 1:13:10 (~5:35 avg)

This race was just for fun. I decided to run the half because the start/finish was right around the corner from my parents' house and I wanted to long run around 13 to 15 anyway. I wasn't planning on going as fast as my marathon pace, but I had a challenger and of course my racing instincts took over!

@NP1112 I tried that, I tried Asic stability shoes (returned) and a pair of old Glycerine, no luck. At this point I'm pretty sure is not a shoe thing, I feel a slightly different foot strike in the always-injured leg. That foot is less stable and the leg is more tight (probably the two things are related?).

Next experiment will be trying some barefoot running on grass and comparing the form I have on grass with the form I have with shoes on, and see what the difference are. Also, if I won't have any pain barefoot I think it would be a major step ahead...

@NP1112 I tried that, I tried Asic stability shoes (returned) and a pair of old Glycerine, no luck. At this point I'm pretty sure is not a shoe thing, I feel a slightly different foot strike in the always-injured leg. That foot is less stable and the leg is more tight (probably the two things are related?).

Next experiment will be trying some barefoot running on grass and comparing the form I have on grass with the form I have with shoes on, and see what the difference are. Also, if I won't have any pain barefoot I think it would be a major step ahead...

Some of the runners in this thread totally blow my mind. Pikachu, NP112, and pablo – you guys all run like total bosses. Inspiring! Also: slightly intimidating.

VF Runner – Good luck at Pocono! I always hate tapering, especially for a marathon, since you can't do anything more to meet your goal and there's nothing to do but wait. I hope your discipline and strategy pan out. Looking forward to hear you crushed it.

Ghola, – those 400s look pretty impressive to me. Really curious to see how your training strategy pans out. Good luck!

Reg Fields – good job at the race. 9th place is nothing to sneeze at, and a 1:25 in difficult conditions speaks well about your chances of making 1:18 under better circumstances.

About to go out and amble around for 15k while people-watching in the glorious sunshine. Again, have a great week everybody!

Forgot to add NJ Truth to my list of monsters. Awesome work, man.

How do you add that there fancy formatting to your posts on these boards? My attempts at HTML seem to just get stripped.

Bonham wrote:How do you add that there fancy formatting to your posts on these boards? My attempts at HTML seem to just get stripped.

You should be able to see how it works if you reply to a post with the formatting and quote it. But in short, use square brackets [] instead of round ones () and you get the following:

(u)underlined text(/u)

(b)bold text(/b)

(i)italic text(/i)

First-timer on this thread, although I've been a regular (mostly lurker) on LetsRun for close to 10 years. I enjoy reading about the different training / ability levels and goals from all of you. Keep up the good work - you are all motivating me and many others, I am sure.

Background: Started running in 2000, at age 32, after quitting a 15+ year smoking habit coupled with sedentary lifestyle. Built up to 50-60 miles/week and received some coaching guidance, and got down to 17:0x / 35:2x / 1:19:0x by 2002... and never really got any faster, despite trying to increase mileage and improve training. Because of this, I became a little burned-out and disillusioned. Skip forward about a decade. (!)

Training went downhill over the past two years. I am now 44, and my goal is simply to get close to, or at where I was a scant 24 months after I ran my first step. The challenge is whether I somehow maxed out so early, or simply merged with the realities of aging. I intend to find out this summer.

First week running in months:

M - 13km easy hills

T - off

W - 13km easy hills

T - off

F - off

S - 24km easy trails

S - 15km easy

Total: 65km

This would have been a disastrous week for me at any time in the past, but I have lost aerobic base and need to start somewhere. I surprised myself on Saturday - I didn't think I could still casually run that long with a terribly eroded base. I ran a 5k in October, almost (but not quite) as de-trained as I am now. Result was 18:20, almost 75 seconds off my best. I doubt I could even run 18:40 or so, right now. But perhaps there is still hope.

I'm trying to slow down my easy runs, as I am not even close to the runner I was, but 4:20 - 4:40/km seems to be ingrained in my legs as my easy pace, no matter what.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the introductory book-sized post.

Thanks!

Goal Races: Portland Half (10/6), Seattle Marathon (12/1)

Next Race: Midsummer's Night Run 10k (6/15)

Monday: AM: 7.5 PM 6

Tuesday: 9 miles

Wednesday: AM: 9 Miles PM: 6 miles

Thursday: PM: 8.5 Miles

Friday: Day Off

Sautrday: 6 Miles

Sunday: 12 Miles

Total: 64 Miles

This was supposed to be my first week gearing up for the fall season after Boston. Didn'tquite hit what I wanted to (stuff on Friday and Saturday got in the way), but not a terrible first week.

@VF - good luck next weekend, rooting for you

@np112 - congrats on the new 5k PR, good luck resetting it lower next week

@Numbersguy - wish I could say I only gained 2lbs

@Edgemont - good luck at Vermont

@grizz - you're suspect

@printer - also signed up for baa, hope you can get back to regular training soon

@Steve - glad to hear than your knee is starting to feel better

@Reg Field - i have the same goal for the same race, seems like a lot of people here doing that race

@pablo - congrats on the win in any case.

@King - congrats on meeting your goal, but yeah, you could work on your pacing a bit!

@NJ Truth - wow, that was a busy weekend of racing. look like good times to me!

Goal: Philadelphia Half Marathon (9/15) in 1:17.xx

Mon - Off

Tue - 7mi w/ 4mi mod ~6:45 + plyo

Wed - 12mi easy

Thu - 6mi easy

Fri - 8mi w/ last two "to the barn" in 6:30s

Sat - 5mi easy + plyo + 8x~15s hill sprints

Sun - 10mi w/ 10x600 @ Goal HMP, 400 recov (2:09-2:11 except for the last in 2:07)

Total: 48mi

My week didn't end up like I planned, but I guess it was fine. Still building mileage and intensity post-Boston. Hard to believe I ran a full marathon in the 6:20s, doing a couple miles in the 6:30s is hard right now!

cmm: how high are you building?

gmuze: do you live near hamburg or are you on a vacation or what?

vf: good luck at pocono

pikachu: solid week man, you given any thought to which marathon you want to do?

dcrunner: what club is it? a couple guys on my team were from the uk, and i know a couple others that are all on different clubs over there.

xenon: enjoy the recovery weeks, i think the mental side of break for me is always better than anything else

np: you'll crush your 5k pr if you keep crankin out 100 mile weeks

numbersguy: i wanted to make a pun with weight/wait, but i'm unable to think of something at this moment

slartzio: maybe try some nsaids like tylenol for the pain, if you havent.

ghola: interested to see how this works. there was a kid on our team that walked on and was like a genius, currently studying nuclear engineering at cambridge, but he set his 1500m pr (4:01) only training three days a week doing lydiard hill bounding/repeats every day.

stevenj: we'd always do a similar workout to that canova one, but with half rest and instead of the last rep being a 200 it was a 2k. it was a bitch of a workout.

edgemont: good luck at shires

grizz: solid week. why do you go out of your way to make sure everything ends in exactly a mile?

printer: get healthy

steveinalaska: solid week of cross training, stay with it

renewedmarathoner: it is an easy philosophy to adapt once you start doing so much mileage it is difficult to go faster, but dont do that for too long. some friends and i coined the term "grind city" for those difficult weeks of training that are usually at the end of base where you're just running a ton, usually 20 mpw more than during the season.

reg fields: it got humid last week here as well although it's unseasonably cool it was terrible running in that humidity.

bonham: solid week, especially considering that you're going to peak for a race in sept/oct. keep with it

rushed: ya, running on vacations usually is just terrible.

themack: keep with the mileage

pablo: you'll be fine man, just keep puttin in the mileage and it will come together

hobbyjogger: i've come to reckon with the fact that i'll never run even splits.

njtruth: those are two solid back to back days on the weekend, you'll break 32 in the 10 if you keep puttin in that quality, be sure to recover though.

easy weeks: welcome, i suppose. put in the training and i don't doubt you won't be able to run faster. apparently you can only run your best times in the 5k-10k-1/2-full after you have done a certain amount of miles. so keep with it.

angel of death: i never understood people that could juts drop 60 + miles their first week back.

cyhawk: that's a really solid sunday workout, keep with it and it'll come back

decent week

i did 5xruns on the same 4.1 mile loop

mon-28:14

tus-27:41

wed-27:47

thurs- 28:16

fri-28:20

solid week, on saturday i worked outside for 6 hours and on sunday and thursday i played at least an hour of soccer.

feeling good, starting to go quicker.

still have a ways to go.

goal for this next week is to run 5-ish miles a day, although i'm doing a huge move on friday, so i doubt i'll be able to run then.

anyway, cheers.

Goal: Lehigh Valley Marathon 9/8

Goal: 3:00 to 3:05

Mon: 0 (planned)

Tue: 7

Wed: 8

thur: 10

Fri: 6

Sat: 0 (unplanned)

Sun: 0 (unplanned)

Nothing much to speak about It has gotten better when I run, but it will be sore throughout the day. I found out it is more a lack of flexibility then a strength issue and it is just going to take time to build up.

My parents brought up on mother's day how they are looking forward to going back to boston next year to watch me run... no pressure!!!!

Good Luck to VF Runner and Edgemond Dave

A couple great races this week from Pablo, Reg Fields, NP112 and King Hobbyjogger.

Ghola - welcome back

Grizz - my faith in humanity is shaken because of the deception in your weekly total!!!!

John Berryman- My logic is that if you're going to do a 4mi tempo, don't stop 30-odd yards early. Likewise, if I'm going to do 10x1000 on the track, I wouldn't do 10x990m and say it was close enough. For nonquality runs, I just round down to the nearest mile.

fair enough. you could always call it a 6400m/16 lap tempo or ideally, you could run on a 440yd track

John Berryman: Since I come from Europe, I'm wanting to run one of the big one's over here... Perhaps Berlin?

Pablo: Thanks, I loved zhe workout, too. Got the idea from Alberto Salazar's group (I saw them train in Europe a cuople of times). They'll do it even harder, but since I am a marathoner I don't want to overdo it. They'll do something like 3 - 5 miles tempo, then a HUGE break (e.g. 20 minutes) to be fresh again. And then blast through 5 or 6 200s. Since I saw that workout MY MYSELF I always laugh, when I hear "XY can't go blabla for 100 or 200 or 400 meters". That's all bullsh*t. There aren't many distance runners, who are crazy fast, but there are some. And a little hint: G.R. is unbelieveable fast ;-)

Pikachu

john berryman- this is probably it for me in terms of running without a purpose. I hope to get into the 90s this week and then add some structure back in. Mentally I figured I needed about 4 weeks after Boston to just kind of run for the enjoyment and not worry about hitting target paces. Hopefully the miles in the tank will form a solid base for some speed work and I hope the motivation for tempos and intervals come back soon:)

cmm268- nice base week.

gmuze- good MP workout. what pace were you hitting for each rep?

vf- good luck at pocono next week! rooting for you

pikachu- excellent quality this week. looking in great shape already

xenonscreams- nice tempos this week.

np1112- congrats on the 5k PR. just pipped mine of 16:41 ;D

numbers- hopefully a good summer of racing is in order now after a few weeks rest? also props to your wife on the weight loss, she could take a few training pointers from you :)

slartzio- hope the injury heals soon

ghola- welcome back. good luck with your goals :)

stevenj- nice friday workout.

edgemont dave- good luck in the marathon next week!

grizz- solid 4 mile tempo yet again and a great week overall.

printer- damn. hard luck on the injury front :(

steveinalaska- fingers crossed on the knee. least you are still keeping active :)

renewed- nice week. i experience the same problem. i once did a run at 10 minute mile pace and it hurt badly compared to a run at my normal 7 minute pace... strange

regfields- nice half marathon.

bonham- interesting workouts. looks like you judged the pace pretty well.

themack- good effort.

bartowski- best of luck thursday!

pablo- congrats on the win. keep training hard and hopefully 1:08 will be achievable

hobbyjogger- nice 5k. with better pacing, you would've definitely gone sub 17:50 maybe even sub 17:45??? take lessons from this race and develop on them for next time!

njtruth- two stunning races this weekend. congrats!

easyrunner- welcome to the thread. you have a good running history, all the best in the future.

angelofdeath- good week. lets hope you build back up to your boston training, was awesome seeing you pound out the miles!

johnberryman- nice runs this week. the club is called 'heanor running club' they're not the biggest club in the country but they have a good standard of male and female athletes, two of the females running for england at XC very recently!

muebele- patience is a virtue :)