Road racing and training thread - week ending 4.28

xenon - great PR! Congrats, hope you enjoyed the well-earned beers.

Reg Fields - mad props on that race. Wow, 195 pounds and you threw down a 1:20 half? Beyond impressive. I'm guessing you're a pretty tall guy. Awesome feat nonetheless. Maybe you're on to something with those quick training runs.

Bonham wrote:

Hello everyone,

Is this group accepting new runners? I'm a enthusiastic amateur Canadian runner, and I'm blown away by the positivity and mutual support in this thread, and I'd love to post my own training and race results, but I don't want to break protocol.

By way of background, I started running about five years ago after quitting basketball in university. I've become progressively more addicted with time. I ran a 3:05 marathon in my debut two summers ago, and a 2:54 in August. This summer I'm concentrating on my 10k, and clocked a 34:20 on Sunday. Since my goal for the whole season was to get under 35, I'm now wondering what a realistic update to that would be.

As far as I know, anyone's welcome to join at any time. At least, I haven't been shown the door yet. Welcome to the thread!

(Post and comments coming probably this afternoon. Been kind of busy recently. Big congrats to those who've achieved their goals in races this past weekend!)

I suppose I qualify as one of the regulars (haha) and I think I can safely say anyone is welcome.

As far as your running, I'd say sub 34 is the obvious next 10K step. Next marathon ... 2:45? I think you have way faster in you, but that's possibly a good progression to aim for.

You are enough faster than I am that I'd say take some goal advice from the 2:30-:45 crowd on here as far as goals.

Edgemont Dave wrote:

Shires of Vermont Marathon 5/19, might just try for sub-3 (5 weeks post-Boston bonk)

.

FWIW only 4 broke 3 at the race last year and just one went faster than 2:58.

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/12/vt/May20_Shires_set1.shtml

This year's Shires race is letting people who didn't finish Boston enter for free.

Looks like a nice 5 mile uphill stretch with the 2nd half of the race downhill.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2393121

went back and double checked the time for that ten miler, it was instead 5540. So hopefully that explains the 'weaker' time. it was from two years ago and mentally i may have had my best tempo from the fall stuck in my head which was in the mid-lo 56 min range.

i'm probably going to start doing mp stuff in 6 weeks at something between 6-6:15 pace and just gradually build up.

Next race: Indoor triathlon relay 4 mile run with a bunch of the other club runners. "Racing" on a treadmill will be interesting (especially if the treadmills were on a track, and it were a marathon, and somebody got virtually lapped... sorry xenonscreams).

Alright. This week I had a little injury scare (related to the calf strain last week), but otherwise was pretty OK. This did mean me not racing this weekend, which sucked, especially since one of the other club runners hit 4:03 in the 1500 and it would have been great to have seen that.

M AM - 6

M PM - 6.5

T - Off. Swelling in a "collar" around my lower leg an inch or so above the top of the ankle, which was weird. Disappeared, though.

W - 11, trails

Th AM - 6

Th PM - 8+, 3 mile tempo in 5:35, 5:28, 5:23, 16:26 total.

F - 11.5, another workout (sorta 30/40s)

Sa AM - 6

Sa PM - 8

Su - 9 aborted long run. GI.

Total: 72

Friday workout: Did the back to back workouts so I'd have a day to recover before the long run, but since the long run didn't really happen, it looks kind of pointless now. Anyways, first did ~4k of 200 on, 200 off in roughly 36/48 (really averaged 35.5, 48.9), jogged a couple of laps, then did another ~4k of the same, only trying to increase the pace of the on segments a bit and increase the rest as well. Think I probably averaged 34.high while keeping the rests below about 55, but my watch doesn't remember enough splits so I'll never know for sure.

Before moving on to comments, thanks for everyone who congratulated me last week (I know there were a few of you, and I never got around to responding). I think someone also asked about it being a Sunday track meet. Basically, the varsity team had a home meet, then our club team had a home meet the next day. The club also enters some college meets.

Rushed: Impressive week! That Saturday workout is awesome, and it's good to hear you felt great while doing it (at least for the first!).

Yuri_G: That's one way to break 18! Congratulations on running a tough race!

Slartzio: You pick up any money with that? Congrats on the PR!

Pikachu: Sounds like a tough race, but good to hear that you were close to some impressive runners. Keep up the good work!

NP1112: Way to get me excited for my treadmill race tomorrow. Nice workouts, though!

Numbersguy: Sounds like you ran an awesome race! Great to hear that it went so well! And since I asked Slartzio: did you get any cash with that?

Team Bartowski: Hope you feel better, and that the transition to morning running serves you well!

nick83: Tough luck with the injury. Hope you can manage it well enough to get through the important races healthy!

NJ truth: Is this a local track 10k? I can't imagine June weather being conducive to fast times, but if so, good luck!

xenonscreams: Congrats on the race! Also, the after party sounds like good fun, even if you feel like you were a fool!

pablo: Good to hear you're dealing with the injury intelligently. It's definitely hard to balance our short term impulsiveness with what's best for us in the long term, but it sounds like you're doing the right thing.

Reg Fields: Well, it looks like people were right in predicting a big breakthrough! Congratulations! Since you mentioned your weight, you've made me curious. How tall are you?

grizz: My treadmill 4 mile time will crush yours. I'm just going to have to work a lot harder for it! Great week, also with a very impressive weekend!

Pablo- Thanks! I think the surest sign of increasing fitness isn't necessarily a good workout, but rather the ability to "shrug off" 100min of good aerobic running or to run for two hours fairly quickly without really noticing the first hour going by. Having good company helps, of course. On Sunday I was running with two clubmates who were also college teammates who I've also known since we were all 15 or 16. It's always easy to get into a good rhythm with them!

VFRunner- I'll keep my fingers crossed for that lottery, then. I buy a scratch ticket every so often on payday and am "up" 3 bucks lifetime (that is, my winnings exceed my wasted dollars by 3 dollars). I'm thinking of retiring from play while I'm ahead of the curve. I'm looking forward to seeing how your untaper and subsequent race goes. What's Ragnar?

NP1112- In college, we would do a lot of 4mi treadmill tempos with increasing incline during the winter months. It's a way to cap the pace, but still leave room to do something more if you feel really good. I'm not sure if I buy the % incline to flat ground equivalency charts, but if you can run the last half mile of your tempo at 3% without having your HR go haywire, you're f***ing fit! I admit I'm totally spoiled; I've lived about a mile from some point on the marathon course for the last 4 years. I've done many a long run (and hill workout!) on Heartbreak and the Newton hills.

Bonham- Welcome! You can submit your $50.00 application fee to Grizz's Apt at...I kid, I kid.

StevenJ- The treadmill is your domain for the taking. I hate those things! Nice double 4k workout, I love alternating like that.

SteveInAlaska – It’s still bothering me some, but it’s very infrequent and not really anything too serious. It’s the thought of knowing that it’s still lingering that bothers me most. How’s your knee been? Hope I was helpful.

NP – It’s hard to say, a lot will have to do with the temperature/humidity as the race is in late June. I think I would be very happy with something sub-32. I’d be extremely pleased with anything under 31:45. If I run sub 31:30 I’ll be eating multiple pints of ice cream that night to celebrate!

StevenJ – I got a good chuckle when I saw the simplicity of how you recapped your Sunday long run. Very well put. When it comes to GI, less is more. To answer your question, the meet is in NYC. It’s the USATF Club TF Championships. So placement is more important than time, but something fast would be nice.

OK, maybe I'm more of a running nerd than I realized. I thought knowing of the Ragnar series was pretty common among most serious runners. National series of Hood to Coast style relays. 200 miles, 12 team members and a van, or something like that.

Here's the link

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/

If you're more of a running nerd than you thought, I'm more of a regular nerd than you thought. I couldn't shake the impression that it had something to do with the Ragnarok from the Poetic Edda...

I did a long relay like that a couple summers ago with some friends. I'd be done, with the usual caveats of time off work and the rest.

Thanks for all the congrats, guys. I love this virtual community and the support from everyone here really does help!

StevenJ: The treadmill runs usually aren't that bad. I did a lot over winter. I got to the gym 10 minutes after they opened. I am pretty sure the air hadn't kicked on yet, or they were being cheap haha.

grizz: Glad to know others did/do treamill runs. Some days I just feel like going to the gym. I usually add some sort of incline (boredom usually) to workouts. I might try more the next time.

NJ: haha thats great. Ice cream is my weakness too! good luck and enjoy your ice cream

Here's a long race report if anyone feels like reading it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/1dgm5n/eugene_halfmarathon_race_report/

Shoutouts to the LetsRun guy who actually recognized me and said hi. I think it was the clarifier.

xenonscreams wrote:

Here's a long race report if anyone feels like reading it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/1dgm5n/eugene_halfmarathon_race_report/

Shoutouts to the LetsRun guy who actually recognized me and said hi. I think it was the clarifier.

Awesome report...thanks for sharing! I too have been spotted at out of town races. It really does make us a little more accountable of our own training (as well as what we post here).

Bonham - Newbies are always welcome!

StevenJ - Interesting to see workouts on back to back days. Any particular reason why you didn't do the Thursday workout on Monday...or Wednesday? Good luck with the treadmill "race". Sounds like torture to me, lol!

VF Runner - A relay team would be a great idea! After doing one last year (and already booked for one this year), I'm hooked. Although, I personally probably wouldn't do another one this year...I'm already over budget on my traveling for the year...and it's only May.

@StevenJ nope, there was something for top 3 but I'm not sure if was a money price...

Edgemont Dave/Steven J- I am around 195 pounds, I'm pretty confident with the late (9PM) dinner I had on Friday night (3 hr drive to the race after work, packet pickup and a quick 4 miler) and all of the pre race fluids I took in the morning before the race that I toed the line at about or slightly over 200 lbs (Clydesdale).

I am 6'2" to answer the height question that several of you have asked. I'd say that I have more of a power type of stride than an endurance type which is probably why I run my distance runs faster than I should, my natural stride puts me at about 7:00-7:15 per mile.

That being said my legs are shot now and I'm cancelling my speed workout for today and instead am going to run intentionally slow without my GPS watch to prepare for my 6K on Sunday.

I love this thread, everyone is so positive, I know the lets run message boards can be filled with negativity and trolls but our thread more than makes up for it IMO. I can't wait to see everyone's race results as race season seems to be in full gear now.

BTW, I know a few of you already took me up on my offer but anyone in this thread that wants to add me on Facebook my real name is Mitch Feldman. I try to spread the positivity from this thread to FB as well.

pablo: Last Sunday was a race, so Monday was out. Wednesday I still wasn't sure I was over the injury, so I didn't want to do a workout quite yet (but running 11 miles is obviously fine!). Figured the tempo workout was light enough that doing something the next day wasn't crazy.

NJ truth: There are some days where you can salvage something when the GI system isn't optimal, but last Sunday was definitely not one of those days. I guess the good news is that I was planning on doing it as multiple loops so I wasn't too far away from my apartment when things went south.

Should be cool to run at Icahn for the club nats 10k! (then again, there was actually a club meet at Penn, but it was before I was really ready to race). Also, I noticed the entry standards for the steeple and 10k seemed to be a lot more lenient than the others (i.e. I think I could hit those times, but basically nothing else, except maybe the 3k qualifier for the 5k or 3k steeple). I guess they must have trouble getting enough people to sign up for those events. I hope there is enough competition to spur you on to a great time!

Reg Fields - That is a very impressive time, and I'd be curious what others weigh in this group. I'm 5'11'' and usually check in around 152-154lb. Although I know I can lose a few lbs I just havent been able to change my diet enough to drop the extra lbs. Smart move to cancel the speed session and rest for the 6k this Sunday. I'm with you on the positive vibes in this thread, definitely enjoy coming back and reading everyones posts/comments and results!