(Road Racing and) Time Trialing and Training Thread - Week Ending 1/24/21

darkwave wrote:Stone - why the two somewhat hard runs back to back? Pacing your athletes? And good to see Mrs. Stone's continued progress.

Exactly. I have the luxury of coaching and training with a 2:55 talent, a guy chasing 3:10, two women in the 3:15-3:20 range (including Mrs. Stone), and a guy in the 3:20 range.

So it’s really easy for me to jump in their workouts as a pacer and still give myself a quality workout. It’s almost like doing moderate intensity on back to back days instead of singular intensity in my own workout. I’m really liking it thus far, not just for helping me get fit, but for the camaraderie as well.

M, 23, 5'8/165

M - Lift (hard)

T - 5 + pushups/core, very sore

W - 10.8 + strides, still sore

TH - 5.5 + lift

F - 10.5 + strides, sore

S - 10.3 + lift

S - 10.2, sore

Week - 52.3mi/7h13m + 3x lift

Uninspiring week. Almost every race I had tentatively planned is postponed to this fall, which has siphoned my desire to run fast. Did a lot of easy jogging at 8-8:30/mi this week, some strides, and hit the weights hard. Looks like it's back to base - ideally the Sub-6:00 style 10mi/day plan, with some elements of BHViking's approach with the 80-90min easy singles, gradually increasing intensity.

My legs definitely felt the reintroduction of hard lifting and the increase in time on my feet. Quads were pretty toasted all week.

Zm swift wrote:

BHViking, I hope you get healthy and back to training like you have been thinking about doing. Trust me, 90 min runs will not be an issue and as long as you just change up the routes slightly each day, you will be good to go.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Zm swift! I think where I screwed up these last few times was immediately jumping back to that time duration. This time, I'm going to start super short and then add on a little bit, day over day. Just to be safe! I do agree with you that the 90 minute daily runs are not out of my wheelhouse at all.

Great week by you, yet again! Very impressive. Colorado Springs must have some great routes. I've never run there before but have been there several times as I have several family members in the area. I have an uncle who lives right next to Garden of the Gods who does trails around that region every day. Very beautiful area.

S - Off

M - 10

T - 11 w/ 12 x 35s hill sprints

W - 12

Th - 10

F - 10 w/ 4 x 5:00 @ T (1:00 rest) + 1 x 35s sprint

S - 14

Total: 67 miles

My old injury reared its head for the first time in 6+ months on the last rep on Friday. Switching to a heel strike stopped the pain and I was able to finish the rep, but it puts a damper on an otherwise good week.

M35, 6'2, 172 lbs

Goal: Just wanna stay healthy

Mon - Elliptical & Strength Training

Tues - 2 mi WU, 30 min aerobic & 8 x 400, 2 mi CD

Wed - 5.63 mi @ 8:17/mi

Thurs - 10.00 mi @ 7:10/mi

Fri - 7.55 mi @ 8:14/mi

Sat - 2 mi WU, 1 mi aerobic, 5K @ 15:30.8, 2 mi CD

Sun - 14.00 mi @ 7:20/mi

Let's just skip to the good stuff...

Pre-Race

After I exchanged pleasantries with my teammates & some other folks, peed about four thousand times and pinned my bib to my jersey, I set out on a warm up unlike any other I had ever done, as assigned by my coach. I did 2 miles EZ (8:06/mi), followed by drills & strides, immediately followed by 1 mile at a steady state pace (6:07/mi) and more strides. I guess he wanted to make sure that my legs were ready to go. I also previewed most of the course, seeing several large puddles of standing water that spanned across the entire road and four raised wooden bridges that we'd have to cross.

Once I eventually got to the start line, I chatted with a collegiate runner who said that my plan of getting out between 5:00-5:05/mi would be right up his alley. I was excited to have someone to run with, as I thought it would be largely a solo mission (It turns out I was right about the second part after all).

The Race

The gun went off & I got out like I wanted.

I actually had to back off the pace a bit when I saw 4:4X.

The aforementioned collegiate runner had a few seconds on me by the time we crossed the first raised wooden bridge right around the first mile. I checked my watch when I felt it vibrate - 5:04.

Over the next 1/2 mile, I reeled in the collegiate runner and put a little bit of distance between me and him before we had to plow through a deep puddle that stretched across the road. There was no other way around it and I just hoped there wouldn't be a huge pothole in the middle of it.

I made the U-turn at the 1.5-mile mark and saw the collegiate runner further back than before, so I just settled into my race plan of taking the next half of the race at it came to me.

Those raised wooden bridges seemed to designate mile marks. I began to cross another and felt my watch vibrate - 5:01. In the millisecond that I checked my watch, I stepped on an old plank and felt it give way. I nearly tripped as my foot went through the bridge, but was able to regain my momentum without disaster.

A moderate headwind persisted over the next mile, but I powered through it the best I could, knowing that I didn't have much longer to go. I saw the 6 mile mark for the 10K & the 3 mile mark for the 5K right after it and knew I was close to being done. I felt my watch vibrate again - 4:55.

After that, I made one more turn & sprinted to the finish - 15:30.8.

As it turns out, I ended up winning by 56 seconds. I had no idea.

I will jump in on this one because I ran a PR (even if it doesn't count because there aren't official races at the moment) for the first time in 7 years!

M/30/177lbs

Week of 1-18 to 1-24-21:

M: Am 5mi 7:09 pace, Pm- Speed development w/u 2.5mi drills, short sprints (4x40m all out), 2.5 c/d, total -10mi

Tu: Am- Fartlek 4sets (90sec, 60sec, 30sec) w/ next interval recovery, total - 10.1mi

Wed: Am- 6.5 mi 7:18 pace, Pm- 4.5mi 7:22 pace, total - 11mi

Thurs: Pm- 10.4 mi 7:19 pace (hilly), total - 10.4 mi

Fri: Pm - 3.7 mi 7:30 pace + strides

Sat: Race Day w/u 4.2 mi, 10k race (31:18 PR!), c/d 5.2mi, total - 15.6mi (counted it as my long run)

Sun: Am - 6.2 mi 7:38 pace, Pm - 3.1 mi 7:20 pace, total - 9.3mi

Total: 70.1 miles

Race Recap:

I had planned to do a hard 10 mile effort with a teammate who wanted to get a 10 mile PR. The goal was to hit 52:00 which is 5:12 pace. We had another teammate offer to pace us for 3-5 miles depending on how it went. The course was a .4 mile cement loop so 25 laps to the 10 mile distance. We went out way to hard, I was sitting behind the other two guys early and it felt really comfortable but we hit the mile in 5:07 and then the next mile in 5:04. That made it decision time for me. I could either back off substantially and try to go the 10 miles or opt to do 10k instead. We were 5 laps in a this point and I did some quick math and realized that 10k would be 15.5 laps. I told my teammate and our pacer that I was going to go 10k and then we picked it up slightly. Mile 3 was a 5:00.x to hit 3 miles at 15:12 (5k was roughly 15:45) and I still felt very comfortable. The next two miles were both covered in 5:02 as my teammate dropped off the pace and my pacer dropped out. I still felt strong but my legs didn't want to respond to my efforts to pick it up. Mile 6 was 5:01 and then I closed the last .2ish miles (.22 on my watch) in just under 60 seconds to finish in 31:18. I really haven't done anything faster than 5:00 pace in training since November so it makes sense that I couldn't run much faster than I did at this point but I am very encouraged with the result! My target race is a 5,000 on the track in April and this made me optimistic about going for my lifetime best of 14:32.

darkwave wrote:

THICC MIKE - good luck on the drive - I can't imagine January is the best time for that one. Taking I-70? About 18 months ago I had to drive that from Kansas City to almost the Colorado border (my grandfather was buried in the ghost town of Collyer - just off of I-70 in western Kansas).

Darkwave - your weeks are amazingly consistent. That probably means more time in plateau land before the next break. We're taking 80 out. We spent 6 weeks working from a Flagstaff VRBO this Fall - took 70 home. Either way, not the most exciting drive.

ZMSwift - we were actually hoping to move to the Springs (and may at some point), but my organization asked us to go to Denver instead. Looking forward to the running scene!

Tyler - your races continue to impress. Especially solo.

M/37/146/6'0"

PRs (2020) - 4:43 (mile); 16:16 (5k); 1:15:36 (1/2)

M - 7 @ 7:10 on grass

Tu - 4 @ 7:21(AM); 2 WU, 5x1mile (5:32, 5:28, 5:22, 5:20, 5:18, 60 sec rest), 2 down

W - 8 @ 7:19 (SO WINDY)

Th - 11 @ 7:15

F - 4@7:31(AM); 2WU, 4x800 (2:34, 2:32, 2:30, 2:28 (400 jog RI)), 4x200 (32.7, 33.0, 33.0, 32.7 (200 jog RI)), 2 CD

Sa - 10 @ 7:51

Su - 16 @ 6:26.. solid progression (6:59, 6:50, 6:43, 6:38, 6:34, 6:33, 6:28, 6:20, 6:16, 6:12, 6:02, 6:04, 5:56, 5:52... 2 CD in 6:50, 6:38)

Total - 78 miles

Really solid week. Two good workouts, the Friday workout had significant wind and still hit the paces I wanted, so really happy about that. The Tuesday workout was solid and felt pretty easy until the last rep, so I was happy with that one as well. Starting to feel a shade of fitness again. If only I could stop drinking all the beer...

Tyler..... DAMN. I haven't even ran like that in my dreams.

The part with the water (gee I hope there is nothing under there!) and the bridge then actually breaking is pretty epic. You'll never forget this one.

Great work!

Tyler - Nice race. Congrats on the win and glad you survived the bridges.

@outsiderunner - If I'm not mistaken, didn't you do one of those staggered races in Harrisburg? I am looking at possibly doing their 10K on March 21 and wondered if you could shed any light on that course or race-day stuff.

Tyler_Runs_Lifts wrote:

@outsiderunner - If I'm not mistaken, didn't you do one of those staggered races in Harrisburg? I am looking at possibly doing their 10K on March 21 and wondered if you could shed any light on that course or race-day stuff.

It's a very flat course that should be reasonably quick. There are several 180 degree turnarounds which will cost you a little momentum but it shouldn't be too bad. The bike path is a little bit narrow so the multiple waves thing could make your trip back to the start/finish island a bit tricky. As long as people are aware that shouldn't be a huge deal either though.

Logistically Harrisburg is super easy to travel in and out of, and there should be more than enough parking on the island for a race capped at 250.

statfanatic wrote:

Tyler_Runs_Lifts wrote:

@outsiderunner - If I'm not mistaken, didn't you do one of those staggered races in Harrisburg? I am looking at possibly doing their 10K on March 21 and wondered if you could shed any light on that course or race-day stuff.

It's a very flat course that should be reasonably quick. There are several 180 degree turnarounds which will cost you a little momentum but it shouldn't be too bad. The bike path is a little bit narrow so the multiple waves thing could make your trip back to the start/finish island a bit tricky. As long as people are aware that shouldn't be a huge deal either though.

Logistically Harrisburg is super easy to travel in and out of, and there should be more than enough parking on the island for a race capped at 250.

Thank you so much for the intel!

I'm a little bit cautious now knowing that the bike path is a bit narrow. I doubt that we'd have a lead bike to usher people to the side of the path since it starts in waves.

Harrisburg seems like an easy enough place to travel in and out of. I would probably fly into Philadelphia and drive over as I have some JetBlue points to use.

If anybody knows of any other mid-to-late March 10Ks, I'm all ears!

There is an upper and lower bike path. I'm not sure if they are using both since the lower one occasionally floods in the spring but if they are there would be much less potential for crowding. They do have elite corrals (at least for the 5k) so they might actually have a lead bike for that. I can't say for sure either way though.

Guessing you have already looked but the drive from Philly to Harrisburg is going to be around 2-2.5 hours just fyi.

@statfanatic - I just reached out to the RD asking about an elite corral for the 10K. They only have 50 spots or so left for the race, so I want to act fast if it's a good opportunity.

Tyler - Yes, I ran the Harrisburg Marathon, which featured a staggered start--a runner released every 15 seconds. I thought that the organizers did a great job with the race...plenty of volunteers and course marshals. No real ability to run with anybody with that type of race design, but they did the best they could with what they had. The course along the river (on paths) was flat, and there were some sharp turns, which were unavoidable given the circumstances.

Boston Marathon just announced its hopeful date of Monday, October 11.

That's one day after the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 10.

Tyler - I ran the Harrisburg mile on City Island back in August. At that point, they were doing solo starts rather than 25 at a time. 25 at a time sounds much better.

I did get misdirected and go off course, but I think that's much less likely to happen with a small wave start. Additionally, the Harrisburg Mile was their first Covid race, so I think they were still working out some details.

I think if you can do the race, go for it. For myself, it's tempting but a) they don't have race day bib pick-up so I'd have to get a hotel; and b) Pennsylvania requires all out of state visitors to have a negative Covid test within 72 hours. Covid tests can be expensive, and it's hard to get a 72 hour turnaround here.

@darkwave - Sounds like they ironed out the details by the time outsiderunner toed the starting line for the half marathon.

I just contacted the RD and he told me that the 5K actually has 4-5 people trying to go between 14:45-15:30. That's good intel for anybody looking to run the 5K. It's 10K or bust, for me, since I'd be traveling to get to this race.