Women's training thread - week of 4/13/08

Monday morning bump.

good morning Humbled, I'll join in.

I am not getting much mileage! It is hard to believe I am that busy or that lazy, but I just can't seem to find time to get it to stay over 50, and most of the time I am falling short. I think once there is a consistent warming trend here in Ohio, I'll be able to manage more miles.

One long run this week (not that long!), 2 speed sessions that went very well. I can easily hold repeats at 35-36 for 200, so my next goal is to drop that by a second this week- fast but relaxed. My sprint partner is so fast, if I can just hang onto her.

The ultimate goals will be to run very comfortable 33-34 seconds per 200 for 800 meters.

humbled, sounds like you're back on track toward feeling good, moving well, and keeping positive. awesome. and, 16x, i can't even imagine having that kind of speed! i might give an outdoor road mile a try in june, and will therefore dissect my legs in a week or two to start to see if there are any fast-twitch fibers in there at all, but for now i'm sticking with long distance.

my 50 miler on saturday was an interesting journey, as anything that long is bound to be. at dawn it was already 66 degrees, which is warmer than i've felt outside since last fall, and there had been thunderstorms overnight that created messy conditions on a relatively few miles of the trail. not a good portent. in the end, it all worked out okay. although i was over an hour slower than last year's perfect conditions allowed and an extended low period during the second third of the race, i still finished fourth woman (of 69). so (at age 48) i can't complain, and i was even 20 minutes ahead of last year's winner when it was all said and done, although i imagine she was just on a training run for something yet longer.

the course has an early out-and-back section with a turnaround 9.4 miles into the race, which provides a glimpse of the very talented front runners (anne and mark lundblad both took top honors, with anne finishing with a course record of 7:31, although i bet in last year's conditions she would have easily been sub-7), as well as everyone behind. this of course creates the opportunity to cheer on new (new, as of the prerace dinner) and old friends, since ultras are very cooperative affairs, even though there are surely races within the race (mine was being virtually pushed by last year's female winner, who i kept expecting to catch me, and i even hallucinated her approach with just half a mile (uphill!) to go).

for you masters women, here's some inspiration: three of the top four women were masters, including anne, as were five of the top six men (all but mark).

anyway, it was a good, albeit long and hot day, my quads are nearly back to normal after just two days, and i have no other maladies to speak of. of course, this will necessarily be a week of only easy runs, but yesterday's gentle hour felt just fine.

Nice to see another 800m runner. Our workout last night was 3 X 300, 200, 100 with 100m jog between. Goal pace: 300s under 60, 200s under 38, 100s under 17. One lap jog between sets.

Thursday's workout: 2 sets of : 10 X 40m shuttles (back and forth w/o stopping, one min rest 2 X 200 one min rest (33-34)

Saturday: Repeat 1,000s at 4:00 pace. 4 or 5

No longer stressed: congrats on your race performance. I'm fascinated by the idea of trail marathons/ultras, but I'm not sure I'll ever move beyond fascination to actually try one. Maybe a trail half some day . . .

16x and 800m: I'm abysmally ignorant about 800m training (heck, I know precious little about long distance training, and that's what I'm into!), so it's really interesting to read your posts. 16x, you mentioned your frustration with being unable to keep your mileage consistently above 50 mpw. Can you enlighten the ignorant about the role of mileage for middle distance runners? I mean, do you think your 800m performance would improve if you were putting in, say, 60 mpw? Or is that more about keeping yourself in shape for longer races?

Mileage has slowed down as I rest for Boston.....now if only my appetite would follow!

I still can't beleive I need to get to a start line as early as I seem to need to in order to stand around until 10:30.....I think this will be my one and only time to run a race of this size......too many logistics!

Hello ladies.. Enjoying some milder temps here in Utah, what a snowy winter. Being cautious about coming out of the woods after a long hiatus. Excellent Neuromuscular therapy has helped along with a massage technique called Muscle Release Therapy ( alot like Active Release Therapy ART, for those of you familiar with that).... I now use this technique in my massage therapy practise as does my husband. Great speed 16x, I look forward to adding that as my body shows I am able. As Grete Waitz once said I need to "hurry slowly." Have a great week one and all....

Hi Humbled! Good to hear from you...I'll send you an email shortly :)

Last week before Boston and my confidence is going up and down. My current goal is only to run 3:35 mind you, but considering my training it's not going to be easy. 3:38 would give me an automatic entry to NY so if I make it, I promise myself to run more miles this summer, ah!

If not, well my next goal will be to work on my speed and try to improve my mile time.

Very inspired by 16x speed on the track!

Can I join in on this thread?

I'm a young 5k runner doing about 35-45 miles a week.

This past week was 40 miles for me including 2 quality days and a long run.

Quality days were:

Tue: 2 x 2 mile in 12:18 and 12:27 with a 400 jog between them. This was done on a wheel measured rolling road loop.

Fri: 6 x 800 @ 2:53 w 400 jog on the track, wind was pretty tough making this one a bear.

Long run was 9 miles on trails at a 7:30 pace.

In all a pretty good week for me. I'm looking forward to racing in 2 weeks and seeing where I am at.

Hi Ladies,

No Longer Stressed -- wow, a 50 miler! I couldn't imagine doing that much mileage in a week. Your experience sounds really neat.

16x -- wish we could train together. I am trying to hold 33-34 per 200 for 800, too. I have the first 600 down, but the last 200 is where it gets difficult for me.

I did sets of 300m rep's last week with short recovery (1 minute). Ran them all between 800 and mile pace -- about 55-56 seconds.

Have a great week ladies. Enjoy the spring weather!