Road racing and training thread - week ending 4.28

pikachu: nice 10k for the conditions

dave: glad you are feeling recovered. good luck on the short road to your next marathon

numbers: congrats on the PR and great overall race experience. those are hard to come by! haha

cmm: glad to know you feel a difference in keeping at the core/stretching. Just never motivated after running so many miles.

VF: the tightness has been getting less and less each day. But I will def keep a good eye on it and hope it is gone soon!

Printer: hope the Dr. appt gets things figured out. enjoy some time off and get recovered. hope you come back ready to go!

Bartowski: Good luck getting back into things and feeling normal

Goal Race - track 10k in June

M - 6.5

T - 7.5

W - 9.5

T - 8.5

F - 6.5

S - Off (planned)

S - 9.5

Total - 48 miles

has been: strike while the iron is hot

cmm: solid week, im a fan of shorter doubles

vf: what is an un-taper?

rushed: love that 2x5k workout. barring injury/overtraining you'll break 32 come the fall

yuri: congrats man, crushing pb's is always nice, and somewhat unexpectedly doing it is icing on the cake.

slartzio: nice race, keep at it.

gmuze: appears to be quality over quantity

pika: how are you planning on planning your tempos out for this 2:18? are you going to add mileage to them or get faster as the year goes on?

np: solid week, sort of curious about why you ran 2 aerobic three mile efforts in such quick succession

edgemont: get out there and surprise yourself

numbersguy: congrats man, just looked up the plan, and am extremely interested in possibly trying it out.

printer: get healthy. a stitch in time saves nine

bartowski: also get healthy

nick: congrats on the races man

renewed marathoner: diggin the long run

nj: keep up the mileage.

VF runner – I’m glad to see that your un-taper is going well. I’m impressed with the 4x800 session. I wasn’t planning anything remotely fast until this week. Gonna start with some tempo mile repeats.

Yuri – Congrats on the 5k, that’s awesome!

Slartzio – Excellent splits on your half! Nice and even.

NP – You more than doubled my mileage this week! Glad to see you’ve recovered well from Boston.

Edgemont Dave – Best of luck with the Vermont marathon! I’m eager to see how you do despite the short turn around period. Be sure to tell your teammate M.S. hello for me!

Numbersguy – AWESOME. Awesome, awesome, awesome! Congrats on the PR and hitting your GOLD goal! That’s great! Did you win anything for the 4th place finish?

Printer – Feel better friend. Gonna keep my fingers crossed that this week gets better for you.

this week didn't at all help with the lethargy that the shingles brought upon my body

recent budget allocations at the law school i'm going to will not allow me to run on the team, which is probably better for my education

motivation to get in shape quick has now escaped me

considering running a marathon in the fall, or something. not really sure.

need some advice on what to do, and planning to run a race always gets me excited to start back running

so

here's a sparknotes of my running history that i think will definitely translate to marathoning:

longest run: 19 miles in 1:58:40 (done as a long 3 years ago)

fastest 10 mile tempo: 56:40 (last two in 10:11, 1.5 years ago

fastest 4 mile tempo: 20:27 (1.5 years ago)

i've been intermittently running since october

i built up to an hour a day 4-5 days a week with a bunch of core stuff.

obviously, i think it would take some time to get back to the shape i was in and i'll probably alter my training to be more time effective since i'll be trying to succeed at law school and not cranking out 100 mile weeks like i could when i literally did nothing besides run and take online classes during my undergrad summers

but what might be a reasonable goal for a marathon or 1/2? I'm planning to start doing stuff at mp pace but, what should that pace be? or how can i determine this? i know i could use the daniels calculator, but i figured i'd ask you guys for some input

*i've also been out at least ten days with illness, so i'll basically be starting from scratch

This is going to be relatively brief because I'm still away from home, but I might post a full race report later this week (elsewhere) and I can link to it if anyone's interested.

Goal race: Eugene Half (this morning)

Goal time: A - 85, B - 86, C - PR (89:31)

Tapered for Eugene this week. Was extremely anxious.

Monday: 6.5 at about 8:00 pace. Tribute run to Boston with a group. Felt OK.

Tuesday: Off (first time in a month)

Wednesday: Took the morning off. PM practice, 8.25 total with a 4 mile tempo at half pace (6:34). Ended up being more like 6:30 / 6:34 / 6:34 / 6:34. I ran this with two women who were doing part of this as their tune-up for the full at Eugene, which would prove pretty important today. This made me kind of anxious because even though it didn't feel terrible, half pace never feels too hot outside of a race. Was literally shaking from anxiety later. Abridged strength training after.

Thursday: 6.25 at 7:50 pace. Felt really good. Did some strides at the end.

Friday: 5 at 7:50, also felt good, also did strides.

Saturday: 3.25 at 7:45 pace. Just a sanity run around Eugene so I could sleep at night.

Sunday: 1.5 up and then the Eugene half. 85:48. HUGE PR down from 89:31. Went out a little fast but felt comfortable so I hung on behind the marathoners I'd run with on Wednesday. Just kept them in sight. Worked pretty well until they split from us around mile 9. Would have been the perfect 12 mile race, last mile was rough, but really I can't be upset with such a big PR. I am pretty elated honestly. 17th woman, 3rd in the 20-24 AG.

Obviously happy with my half. Afterward I partied with Lauren Fleshman, Ian Dobson, and Andrew Wheating at Ninkasi Brewery. Actually I just kind of awkwardly stalked them and asked them for photos. I was a babbling idiot around Andrew Wheating but it's all good.

Sister qualified for Boston (her goal), boyfriend ran a marathon debut of 2:34:49 (goal 2:35). Good day for all of us. Now lots of food and beer in Portland. Life is good.

Nick83 - Some nice races in there. With luck, taking it a little easy because of your foot will leave you super fresh for the big races coming up. Good luck.

Printer - Hang in there. Unlike a few of us, you are doing the smart thing to take some time off and re-charge after Boston.

NJ Truth - I really wasn't sure what to expect that day. I did go into it thinking it might be easier to fake my way through an in between distance. I actually fel more sore the day after the 3 MP miles.

JohnBerryman - "Un-taper" was kind of reversing the last couple of weeks before Boston since I'm doing another marathon in 5 (now 3 remaining) weeks. As for your goals, if the long term goal is the marathon, maybe focus on a really good half this fall to get back into the swing of hard training, then use the result to plan for a spring full.

Xenon - Excellent race! All that hard and consistant work obviously paid off. And some good celebrating afterwords.

VF Runner - Nice week to end the reverse taper. Are you going to jump back up to 80+ miles for the next few weeks, or just hang a little lower?

Rushed - That Saturday run looks pretty rough...if not physically, then definitely mentally.

Yuri_G - You didn't just break 18...you absolutely destroyed it! That fade does suggest that you have a little faster time in you with better pacing, but with such a huge PR, I wouldn't worry about it.

Slartzio - Very nice half! It may not be what you were looking for, but a PR is a PR, so no complaints allowed. Nice job finishing in the top 5 as well.

Gmuze - FWIW, I always feel that workouts at MP are more difficult than hitting a slightly faster pace for shorter workouts. The fact that you were still able to hit pace despite feeling off is a great sign.

Pikachu - Nice 10k. With the way your training has been recently, I wouldn't expect you to have that 'final kick' type gear just yet. Regardless, still a great effort on what sounds like a difficult course.

NP1112 - Holy crap, you barely missed a beat since Boston!

Edgemont Dave - That's what I like to hear! Although I will say that this should just be one of those races where you make that decision (to try for sub-3) that day. If you feel good, go for it...if not, just relax.

Numbersguy - CONGRATS! I've run a couple marathons where I felt the exact same way you describe...like I didn't wake up until 10 miles into the race. There may be something to the taper you and cyhawk did. It looks insane, but in the sample size of 2...you guys are batting 1.000!

printer - Smart to take it easy until you're sure that you feel 100% healthy.

xenonscreams - Yes!! That's a big chunk of time to take off all at once. I think the cross training you did when you weren't running helped you a ton. You're still young and have plenty of years to take that time down even farther. Oh yeah, and awesome work partying (even if you did stalk them) with some cool runner folk. I can't imagine Fleshman doing much "partying" though...isn't she pregnant?

As for my week...

I don't have my running log on me, but I ran 34 uneventful miles with Sunday as an off day. I'm actually taking today and tomorrow off as well. My right achillles/soleus has been VERY stiff for the first 3-4 miles of every run over the last week, almost to the point of being painful. I go through something similar to this every once in a while, and it never really amounts to anything serious. That said, I have no need to run on a potential injury. Three days off usually knocks out anything nagging me anyway. This week will likely be very similar to last week, and next week will hopefully be the start of normalcy.

2013 Goal- Break 1:25 in a Half Marathon- Met April 27th in OC

Mon- 8.25 miles (6:50/mile)

Tues- 8 miles (7:11/mile)

Wed- Off

Thur- 8 miles (7:20/mile)

Fri- 4 miles (7:20/mile)

Sat AM- Ocean City Half Marathon 1 hr 20 min 28 sec PR 5th Overall

Sat PM- 3.25 mile shakeout run (7:30ish mile?)

Sun- 8.25 miles (7:13/mile)

52.85 miles Total

I had a very good race in OC and my last 5K was my fastest of the day. I really need to rethink what I want to do going forward as I'm not sure how much faster I can get @ 195+ lbs no matter how hard I work. At the same time you have to enjoy life a bit and getting to lets say 185 would be a major sacrifice and I need to decide how important that is to me.

Thanks to everyone in this thread, I love how we help push each other.

2013 Goal- Break 1:25 in a Half Marathon- Met April 27th in OC

Mon- 8.25 miles (6:50/mile)

Tues- 8 miles (7:11/mile)

Wed- Off

Thur- 8 miles (7:20/mile)

Fri- 4 miles (7:20/mile)

Sat AM- Ocean City Half Marathon 1 hr 20 min 28 sec PR 5th Overall

Sat PM- 3.25 mile shakeout run (7:30ish mile?)

Sun- 8.25 miles (7:13/mile)

52.85 miles Total

I had a very good race in OC and my last 5K was my fastest of the day. I really need to rethink what I want to do going forward as I'm not sure how much faster I can get @ 195+ lbs no matter how hard I work. At the same time you have to enjoy life a bit and getting to lets say 185 would be a major sacrifice and I need to decide how important that is to me.

Thanks to everyone in this thread, I love how we help push each other.

Berrryman-

Sorry to hear that running with the team will not work out. I doubt that you will have much difficulty in crafting a running schedule that works during law School. I found it quite easy to set aside a block to run/ lift/ play soccer each afternoon. the most difficult part of the first year of Law School is not knowing how you will do with exams. There are not many intermediate points to tell how you are doing and the approach they try to get you to follow is likely foreign to how you have done things before. The best advice I got going in was to treat it as a 9 to 5 job. (I did 8 to 4 with running at 4 and extra work at night). Otherwise I just tried to remind myself not to think for myself, just give the professors what they want, and study as works best for me and not as the other students do.

Wow, nice week NP1112!! I guess no break after Boston, right back to the grind for you.

pablo I've had that same achilles/soleus flareup every now and then as well. The first time it happened about three years ago when I started running in the Nike Fress after using motion control shoes for three years. It takes 3-4 days of rest for me then its back to normal.

As for my training. Nothing remarkable on my end. 37 miles for the week with one workout of 6 x 800m @ marathon pace on Wednesday where I averaged 3:09 with 45 seconds rest.

Just got back from my longest run of the year of 14 miles. Not sure what got into me, but I felt so much better running in the morning than my normal nightowl routine. Might need to make it a more regular thing. Congrats to xenomscreams on the half-marathon!

@ Regfields wow! congratulations! I was sure you would go considerably faster than 85 pace!

Nice job Numbers and RegFields

My week was a typical crapfest post-marathon slog.

M: Off

T: 5.03 @ 9:12 AHR 120

W: Off

R: 6.12 @ 8:58 AHR 130

F: Off

S: 8.04 @ 8:55 AHR 132 (Yard Work)

S: Off (Move 10 yards of mulch)

Tot: 19.19

I think my running after Boston always suffer due to marathon recovery + catching up on yard work. My next race probably isn't until June 1st (5k). Been trying to start some core work + leg strengthening exercises + pushups. Let's see how long I keep up with that (Usually its not long).

I have only 22 on the schedule this week....

Looks like I'll also be doing Hood To Coast in August. Should be fun.

Zero (0, nada) running since Boston..... and loving it.

I think i will take another week off. Why not?

I wasn't going to post today but i checked in and saw that there were some great performances this week (and i am jealous) so posting to congrat:

Slartzio - 1:26 great

Numbersguy - 2:55 wow! I followed your training cycle. You didn't follow Hanson's directly. From what i recall, you did weekly MP session but did you do a weekly strength session? I also recall you ran your 15-16 milers quite fast.

Xenon - 1:25 is great work especially since i remember you struggling to go at that pace in 5Ks!!! Congrats!

RegFields - 1:20???? I guess with your regular easy training runs at 7:00-7:15 pace, it makes sense that your HM pace is 6:09. Fabulous work.

NumbersGuy- That is amazing that you negative split the marathon on a hilly course like that, congrats. And Philly is a really fast course so I would imagine that any course with a decent amount of hills would have to be 2-3 min slower.