Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 5/19

Hello Everyone!

Goal: getting rid of shin pain (almost there?) and going back to 50mpw.

M 3 Barefoot Slow / 1 Shoes (8:00)

T 7 7:30

W 3 Barefoot 8:15 / 5 Shoes (7:20)

T 2 Blisters!

F 8 7:23

S 12?

Still trying to get rid of residuals of shin pain. Went to the podiatrist, who confirmed that I have VERY tight calf/hamstrings and an unstable foot. Numbersguy, I think I'll get a massage too, it is long overdue for me.

Have you guys ever heard about "Rolfing"? That's what my doctor suggested, is supposed to be a body manipulation therapy. Still don't know if I'll go with that or a sport massage tough.

Hey guys. Just coming off of an 'off' week, which for me is never all the way off. My foot has been feeling better, and I lived life on the edge and ran almost 5 miles on a hilly route this morning. What's odd, though, is the top of my foot hurts now, whereas the original injury was on the outside of my foot just in front of the heel. Weird. But maybe it's because I was walking differently when they injury hurt, and they're getting used to being used again. Who knows. Anyways, here's how my week looked.

Goal: sub 10 3000m at AAU track meet in Myrtle Beach (5/31-6/2)

Goal: sub 16 5k

(7.3 mi) M: 7.3 mi easy run

(5.05) T: 5.05 mi elliptical at moderate pace

gym: boxing, benching, rows

W: OFF

(3.0 mi) Th: 2 mile easy run on treadmill (15 min) (8.0 mph), 15 min on bike

gym: shoulder press, lat pulldown, cleans

(2.0 mi) F: 2 mile moderately easy run on treadmill (15 min) (8.5-9.0 mph)

gym: bi’s/tri’s, abs, core

Sa: OFF

Su: 4.8 mile tempo run with hills (7:05/mile pace)

I really hope to not have any problems with my foot after I start building mileage, after this week off. I mean, taking another whole week off with this thing would not only ruin my chances in Myrtle but make it even harder to come back at a somewhat good shape without having to start from scratch.

Goal Race: Magnificent Mile 9/15

Next Race: 400, 800, or mile in June

Mon: 4 easy

Tue: off

Wed: 4 easy

Thu: 4 easy

Fri: off

Sat: 4 easy

Sun: off

Total: 16

Finally back at it! These runs have felt harder than usual. I attribute it to the heat, but it feels good to start back after a couple of weeks off. The summer goal is to work on speed and hopefully run 4:45 or under in the mile this September.

Goal Race: Fall marathon PR (sub 2:18:00)

Hi everyone!

I am done with my sunday run - so the week is finished. A good week for me :-)

M - AM 10+ easy (little tired from the hill fartlek on Sunday)

T - AM 6 easy; PM 20 x 400 (71,8 avg., 73,5 >`` 69,3") with 400 active jogg rest (16)

W - AM 12,5 easy - moderate; PM 10 easy

T - AM 9,5 easy + 5 x 100 hill sprints (jog back) (10)

F - AM 10 x 800 on the road in 2:24 (2:27 %%< 2:20) with 600 active jogg rest + 2 x 200 on track in 28,7 and 27,8" with 200 jogg rest (15); PM 5 shakeout

S - AM 19 easy - moderate. Closed in around 5:50-pace.

S - 16+ incl. 10,5 very hilly fartlek (uphill fast and straights/downhill moderate). Fast sections were around 5:10 - 5:20 pace/effort, slow ones at 5:45 - 6:30.

(total: 120 miles)

I was very satisfied, as my speed is back where it has to be and my longer moderate efforts are comin' around without having to push it too much. I tend to overdo it in terms of tempo stuff, so I held back in all workouts and didn't "go for it". I just hope to get a little faster in the next couple of weeks in my intervall stuff and then I'll start to ramp up the long runs... See what happens :-)

Hope everyone had a good week, too!

Now it's time to relax and enjoy a good beer :-)

Goal: Chicago sub230

Others in the meantime

M: 8

T: 10

W: 12

Th: 11

F: 4/11

S: 11/5

Su: 12

~83

Numbersguy - That actually sounds like a really fun thing to do this summer! I only wish we had something like that. It'll definitely be one of those things where you'll race yourself into shape...and I've had good success with that. Good luck!

Slartzio - My problem area(s) have always been the lower leg (calves, ankle, feet, etc.), and I've learned that everything is connected down there so I totally agree with the podiatrist that your tight calves could be the cause of your shin pain. Getting a massage should definitely help in the short term, but I recommend getting on a stretching/strengthening regimen for the lower legs.

nick83 - You could've been compensating with the foot and aggravated an entirely different area...or it could just be your body re-adjusting to running again. Either way, keep an eye on it and don't let it get out of control.

Yuri_G - I hear you on the heat...it's arrived in full force here in the Sunshine State! Adjust your paces, but not the effort.

Damn, more posts to respond while I gave my earlier post!

Pikachu - Holy crap...awesome week! That looks like a lot of quality efforts in a short time frame (particularly that Fri-Sun trifecta). Any more races coming up for you?

themack - Way to make an 80 mile week look uneventful :)...kidding of course, b/c it's those kind of weeks that will set the precedent for the next few months.

Goal Race: US Half Champs (06/22)

Goal Time: sub-1:08

Another good week for me, my body is starting to get re-adjusted to the quality efforts and long(ish) runs.

M: 6 easy (7:34)

Tu: am - 10 easy w/ random fartlek (6:29) / pm - 4 easy (7:52)

W: am - 6 easy (7:47) / pm - 4 easy (7:48)

Th: 10 easy (7:31)

F: am - 10 total w/ 4 miles of in/out 400's (72.7/89.6 avg - 21:42 total time) / pm - 4 easy (7:50)

Sa: 8 easy (7:36)

Su: 16 easy (7:51)

Weekly Total - 78 miles

YTD - 1,404 miles

Pleased with both workouts this week, particularly the 400's. I didn't feel all that great, but surprisingly, this is one of the faster sessions I've done of that workout, so I suppose that's a good sign. Despite what the pace might suggest for the long run, I actually felt great. I ran with our local fast woman, so I ran her pace. I was just happy to have company for once on a long run...and the pace wasn't much slower than my typical pace anyway :)

Numbersguy - I'm sure the week felt great mentally. Taking off the watch and just racing hard sounds like a great goal. I really like your summer plans and in addition to marathon training I hope to jump in and mix it up with several 5ks and also run with the club I just joined.

Slartzio - Glad to hear the shin is almost healed. What kind of exercises are you doing for your shin? I assume the stretching where you stand against the wall and pick your toes up?

Pikachu - Great week! Nice run today after the week you had just completed.

themack - Nice week--are you doing all base miles at this point?

pable - Do you do your 400s on the track or the road? Great week and glad to hear that your body is ready for longish and quality runs. I wish I could say the same:)

YTD: 1444.1

Weekly: 56.4

MON: 12.5 E (7:07)

TUE: 13.1 E am (7:05), 4 Recovery 7:52 PM

WEDS: 8.5 E AM (7:19), 6 E PM 7:16

THU: 6 Recovery

FRI: 6 E 7:40

SAT: No running (went to gym)

SUN: 35 min elliptical, 1 hour biking in trainer

I entered the week ready to start adding some quality runs back to my routine. Even entered a 5k on Saturday. However, around Weds evening my shin started to have some acute pain. It's my right shin and the pain is near the bottom and on the outside. It bothered me Thursday and really hurt Friday. Hurts to even walk so I'm not sure what it is. I bagged the 5k and didnt run yesterday or today. I dont want to chance anything so may have to do a few days of cross training so we'll see how this goes. It figures as soon as the motivation comes back I get sidelined :(.

PABLO

when/what was your last race?

just wondering about your progression and how you space out goal races

CMM, sorry missed your question while posting

yes-just getting in the distance, no structured workouts for awhile

very brief from me this week, been very busy at work and now i just want to go to bed! Peoples training is looking great so far!

6 days of running this week. ran to work and back today and yesterday around 5km each (oh and just so you know, i'm reverting to km when my new cycle starts). Running to work and back is going to become a daily thing now!

I've also being doing a lot of research into Renato Canova's way of training this week. he seems to have a good idea on how to do it all (if you are kenyan that is) and i may base my training around his beliefs such as long, fast runs and running at 80%, 90% etc. sorry to bore you (zzz)... either that or i just train with no structure and get in quality days when the time is right such as days off work (seen as i get 4...)

Hope everyone has had a good week!

Tough day.

Tougher course.

Everyone I know told me I was crazy. They were right.

I'll give a more full report later (probably tomorrow). Numbersguy - at least for my race that should have been run "into" the wind. 10 marathons in the books and the sub 3 streak is alive. 2:58:22 I believe. Brutal uphills in the course. Brutal down hills in the course. The one new bright spot is that I can say I've placed in my age group in a marathon. 2nd to be specific, also 14th overall. Only 4 of the two person relay teams beat me.

Oh, and a golf ball missed me by about 3 feet just after mile 24.

Sorry I didn't get to do comments last week. Work has been really crazy. It should settle down in another week or so.

Goal races: Mile, 3000, and 5000 at all-comers meets

Goal times: Still working on this one, 18:30 for the 5000 would be nice

I did a full week because I felt like I'd bounced back from Eugene really well.

Monday: 8.5 miles at 7:35 pace. I guess I was really well-rested. This was ridiculous.

Tuesday: 6 at 7:55 pace. A little tired (sleepy). Strides after.

Wednesday AM: 5 at 7:55 pace. A little sore, which didn't really make sense to me.

Wednesday PM: Practice, 8.75 total with 5 x 1200 with 3:00 rest. Ran 4:29 / 4:31 / 4:30 / 4:28 / 4:29. A little under pace. Felt pretty good. Most trackwork I'd done in a while, but lots of rest. Strength after.

Thursday: 8.5 at 8:00 pace with a teammate, as a break during an early and long workday. It was nice to run with someone and also to take a break from work.

Friday: 7.5 hungover as f*ck. Couldn't find my watch. No idea what the pace was. Didn't really care. Strides after.

Saturday: Practice, 10 total with a 5 mile tempo a little over 6:30 pace. Was supposed to do 4 at 6:30 pace but we were a little slow and I felt good so I hung on for longer. Hip flexors really sore for some reason.

Sunday: 16 at 7:55 pace, solo. 7:50 on the flats, but included three hilly loops. Felt pretty good, but a little tired and sore.

Total was a bit over 71 (counting strides, so basically 70). Felt a little tired and sore but running super strong. Need to keep the achilles from relapsing while I do these high-mileage weeks again, so I'm not sure how often I should ice and do heel drops.

For the all-comers meet I just bought a season pass so I can race whenever I feel like it without feeling like I need to spend more money or register. I have no idea how long it's going to take me to bounce back from short track races, so I'll have to play it by ear. I'm trying to figure out reasonable goals for shorter distances too. My coach lent me a book of VDOT tables (the thing is ancient, I'm talking a printed copy from 1979) which I might use to form some expectations, but I don't know how accurate they'll be for, say, the mile. Who knows, maybe I'll be good at it!

Oh and the latest edition of Northwest Runner came out and I guess I'm the fastest 20-24 year old female half-marathoner in WA so far this year. I thought that was neat. The 25-29 age group would kick my butt though.

@pickachu wow!

@pablo stretching is really helping, doing it 3x a day, as the podiatrist recommended, focus on hamstrings and calves.

@cmm268 the shin pain is a long story, and after investigating for months I think I'm at the end of it. I try to make a long story short.

The problem is in the right foot. My foot over pronates, but that's not what is causing the instability, I have the same pronation angle on my good foot (on the gait analysis they had the same angle), and I've never had injuries there.

The problem is my big toe. The metatarsal bone doesn't make contact to the ground as the other metatarsals, so my weight is on the outside of the foot. Tight calves make this even worse.

This makes forefoot strike not good, because I'm landing and pushing off with the outside of the foot, putting a lot of pressure on my other smaller metatarsals. I'm sure that is the cause of the shin pain too, probably because my shin muscle is constantly working to keep the foot aligned, while the ball of the foot is not.

So I set aside my low heel shoes and I put back a pair of precisions, and I'm striking more on my heel, NOT slamming the heel to the ground, but looking for a roll from the back to the front.

That was the style of running I had in the beginning of 2012, when I had Metatarsalgia and started striking on purpose more on the back of my foot with big heeled shoes. At that time I didn't know that heel strike was bad and something to avoid.

In the first 8 months of 2012 I had no injury and was the first year I was training more seriously (from 20 to 50mpw), so probably a dangerous time.

Since fall 2012 I wanted to improve my form and started using low heeled shoes and striking more with the ball of my foot, the problems started very slowly, so I didn't make the connection, and I thought that forefoot was definitely the way to go, especially for someone that was developing shin pain.

It is the third run that I'm doing in high heeled Mizunos and I know that it may be an unpopular thought on this board, but it feels like I'm absorbing shock much better. My legs/feet feel awesome so far. Did a 8 miles yesterday and 9 today and the pain is fading away, like I took 2 days off. Let's see in a week from now.

wow that was long.

my week went okay until today at about 11am.

M 9 easy

T 13 w/10k tempo in 35:10, 169 bpm (86%HRR)

W 7 easy

Th 8 easy

F 9 w/ 12x300m (51.5 avg)

Sa 5 easy

Su 14.5 in serious trails and HURT MYSELF!!! D'OH

Total 65

did a lot of downhill today. about 2000 ft. got to the bottom and was just taking it pretty easy the last 4 miles home because this had been my first real long run in months (would have been 16-17 mi) when my left hip flexor (i think?) started crying. jogged 1-1.5 miles then hitched a ride the next couple miles back.

guess this means a couple days off at least. i think it was just caused by the rough downhill. my half marathon is in one week, so i will definitely be tryint o get over this quickly. if i have to take another week off after the half, i will. i just really want to do this race.

numbers: finally back to it, bet it feels great. I like the idea of those fun runs/races with no watch. Wish there were some no thrills events around here.

Slartzio: I would stick to sports massage or someone that know what they are doing. Maybe some PT just to get an idea of what you need to work on. And then you can do self therapy after.

nick: hope the foot pain goes away. Tough when you dont want to stop training, I know how that goes.

yuri: good luck getting into the speed work. I have always wanted to try that.

pikachu: great week. How do you feel on your long farlek days being after the long run?

mack: all easy running?

pablo: almost back to it. Those long runs take a while to come back after a marathon or so it seems.

cmm: hope the shin pain goes away soon. are you doing anything besides rest?

VF: congrats on the sub 3 and dodging a golf ball haha. looking forward to the full report. rest up!

xenon: nice week.

reed: hope the hip gets back to normal and you are healthy for the half.

Goal: Grandmas Marathon 6/22

Easy Recovery week for me. Was sick and sleep deprived last week.

Mon: 6+4 (10)

Tues: 4.75(Time trials) + 4.5 (9.25)

Wed: OFF

Thus: 6+4 (10)

Fri: 4

Sat: 8 (5k race + hills)

Sun: 18

Total: 60

Tues: Tried to do some time trials. Not a good idea. Still feeling bad, 2 days after a 20 miler and it was damn windy. mile: 457, 800: 215 and 400: 67. Felt like junk.

Sat: 5k race. They had me at 1647. But that is with a 46 sec last 0.1 haha. So I am saying around 1631 ish. 522, 523, 515.

Their clocks were off, slow and messed me up during the race. Thought I was going slower than I was. I would say I was only 90-95%. Few good hills, 180' gain.

Did some hills afterwards. 14x20-25 sec hills. 1.25mi avg pace of 430.

Sun: 18mi working from 750s to last 2 @ MGP. 207

Ready to get a few weeks of marathon specific in and then taper again!

cmm268 - I do any intervals less than a mile/1600 on the track. Anything mile or greater I'll do on the roads. Probably smart to bag the 5k, no sense in pushing anything right now.

themack - My last race, or my last BIG race? I ran a 5k last weekend, but my last big race was Boston. I ended up tanking pretty bad in Boston (setting a PW in the process). This is definitely a crunched cycle going into the US half, but I didn't really lose much fitness after Boston, so it's not like I'm starting from scratch. I don't really have a system for spacing out goal races...I just run the races I want. Some races I'll put a little more emphasis on, but if I show up to a race, you can bet I'll put forth my best effort...meaning I won't ever "tempo" a race.

dcrunner - Commuting to work via running is something that I've considered in the past...good to see someone trying it out.

VF Runner - Hey, you gave it a shot, and now you know your limits...no harm in that. Congrats on the age group placing, and 2:58 still aint too shabby for it being a "tough day". Looking forward to the report.

xenonscreams - Nice Friday run...we've all been there! FWIW, I have a problem achilles/calves and I do heel drops once a day, and only ice when something feels out of the ordinary. Congrats on being the fastest half marathon-ing youngin in WA!

reed - Wow, I'm sorry to hear about the hip flexor. That sounds very strange, I'm wondering if you had some underlying issue that decided to finally give way...or if it was just a freak happening. Either way, hope the day off (or two) will do the trick and you'll be able to nail the half.

NP1112 - Just based on your splits in the 5k, I'm wondering if the 3 mile marker was just a little short...making the final 0.1 a little long. Still a quality effort regardless, hope the down week helped prepare you for the final push before Grandmas.

numbersguy: i'm diggin those races, now i'm going to look it up and see if they're doing anything like that where i'm at

slartzio: what is rolfing?

nick83: why not just run more instead of doing the gym stuff?

yuri: ya man, it's getting to that point of the year man, in my case, i'm hopin heat will melt weight off though.

pikachu: a damn solid week. i'd have at least a few beers.

themack: i like the no nonsense approach, looking forward to more things to come.

pablo: just curious but how would u compare that in/out 4 miler to a plain 4 mile tempo?

cmm: a stitch in time saves nine, stay positive

dc: cannova's philosophy about long hard tempo type stuff works well. it even allows guys to run faster for shorter distance as long as they do some speed maintenance type stuff. I knew a guy who did 140 a week and just did some 200's at race pace once a week and a short tempo and a long tempo and he broke 4 first meet of the year. with those types of programs you tend to stagnate the longer you do it though.

vf: sorry to hear about that, age group placing is always a decent consolation tho. keep your head up

xenon: that's awesome about being the fastest female marathoner in washington, i'd claim that all day if i were a girl and in washington, and the fastest. I am none of those things though. Solid week.

reed: damn man, hope you get better in time for your race.

also, out of curiosity, how much does everyone on here drink and how frequently?