Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 10/27

Hi All,

Shortly after my half marathon in Durham, NC last Sunday, I got a text from my brother saying that my Dad's condition had worsened and that my Mom needed help caring for him at their home down in Florida. I immediately booked a flight and arrived later that evening.

My sister drove straight thru from New Jersey and arrived around noon on Monday. The 2 of us took shifts caring for him. I spent most of the week caring for my Dad, managing my work and sneaking in runs as best I could.

I got in 4 runs totaling 40 miles during the week, including one 16 miler @ 7:09/mi on Thursday.

Shortly after my last sibling arrived on Friday night, my Dad passed. As sad as that is, it was a special thing to have everyone make it there in time to say goodbye.

Be well everyone and thank you for letting me use this thread once in a while to express some of my less run centric activities.

Late to the game this week. First week back into running, didn't do too much.

Next race(s) Bonfield express 5k thanksgiving morning

Christie Clinic illinois marathon April 26

Goals for this cycle and the rest of 2013 -

1) sub 3 marathon 2) sub 17:30 5k 3) complete a core workout at least 1 time each week

Mon - 3 miles in 24 minutes

Tues - 3 miles in 24 minutes

Wed - 4 miles @ 8:08

Thurs - 4 miles @ 8:15

Fri - 4 miles building to slightly slower than mp, overall average 7:16

Sat - off. Tired and hungover.

Sun - 4 @ 7:24

My goal in getting back into running is to have a negative split every time I go out for a run or workout. I realized that my race went exactly like all of my long runs and long tempos - Go out too hard, crash and burn at the end and have to walk. I'm trying to build some restraint and control over my pace. I plan to start a daniels style marathon buildup of 24 weeks sometime next week.

printer: my condolences are with you.

Hi Folks,

Poor week for me. Biked 12 miles 6 days this week. I also ran 4 miles monday and 3 miles sunday. Calf feels ok today, but I'd be foolish to push it with my race only 3 weeks away. If I feel up to it ill get one last long run this weekend.

I'm going to shoot for 3:14:00 (just under my PR) and see how it goes.

RunnersFix, I am really impressed with your control on most aerobic days. Have you always hovered around 7:00+ pace on non workout days? Thnx

Printer- My condolences. I am glad you were all there with your father when he passed though, sometimes having that closure means a lot.

King Hobbyjogger- Nice week back and good to see that (I assume) you listened to your body and scrapped that speed workout you were contemplating last week. No need to rush back into it.

Renewed marathoner- Seems like at this point the best thing you can do for yourself is getting healthy, and that's exactly what you're doing.

Next race: 11.2 CC race #4 - 6K

Hey all - started to post this morning and then got called in @ work. Good week for me - 52 miles. My all time high as a master and one of my highest totals ever (my college log says 57 was my high, but I had to have gone 60+ a few times during CC season). All of you studs who do this much on a single Sunday long run can stop laughing now. Notables . . .

Mon: 5 mile pseudo-tempo @ 6:20 pace. Very controlled - never even close to red-lining

Wed: 12 x 400 (actually 1/4 mile) on grass @ 4:55 pace. 3 sets of 4, 60-90 seconds rest between each effort, no more than 2 mins rest in between each set. Added another 160 meters or so on the last one to make it an even 5K. 3 mile split: 14:45; 5K total 15:16. Either my Garmin malfunctioned or I was feeling good for this one. Was tempted to do another set b/c I felt so good, but at my age . . . less usually better.

Saturday: 10k run (not a race - solo run) in 41:00 with an uphill (about 300' up) 3 mile tempo in about 18:00 during miles 3-5 - 6:27, 6:12, 5:33 for splits although a good portion of the last mile was downhill and recouped at least 1/2 of that 300' climb.

The Wednesday workout caught me totally off guard. Expected to run the 1/4s a few ticks under 5K road rp (maybe 5:15s), but looked at my watch after the 1st 1/4, saw I was running sub 5:00 pace and figured I could hold it all the way through. Not only did I hold it, I got faster (4:59, 4:53, 4:52). I even made the last one a 560 meter effort to get to 5K. All on very little rest -close to a minute. I am usually awful @ solo speed workouts and can barely hold RP so I'm hoping this is a sign that I'm ready to let one rip. We shall see Saturday. 1 more decent week of trainig for me and then I start to taper for mid-November championships.

Cheers everyone.

Printer Obviously there are no words to fill the void of such a loss. I'm glad you were all able to come together. It does make a difference. You have all of our deepest sympathies.

Run on my friend.

Once: nice week. Is the london marathon hard to get into?

Garbage: we are both back, almost to our normal selfes. That makes sense. I know its hard to get out there on the evenings some days. Especially if aomething comes up.

Printer: very sorry to hear. But i am glad most all? Of your family got to be there and spend time together. Ill pray for your family.

King: sounds like a solid plan to reach your goals

Renewed: dont push it if you arent feeling it. Most all of the work is done now

Cash: solid week and mileage. Looks like things are going great for ya. Keep it up.

VF: here is a link to the course map elevation profile.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0BxctcagoYHWhNTlhNGRmMDgtOWZiNy00NDg4LTljNmItYmNiMzQyOWNkODYw&hl=en

My thing with training, which is pretty simple, I take my easy days easy and hard days hard (to a certain extent that is). I used to go around 6:15-6:30 but I wasn't recovering, or I eventually over trained. I was a 1:08 guy then switched this only thing up and eventually ran 1:06 in Philly. The sad part is I used to always tell runners they're running to slow on there runs. You just have figure out what's most comfortable, most likely you're going to fast just my opinion.

RunnersFix, I am really impressed with your control on most aerobic days. Have you always hovered around 7:00+ pace on non workout days? Thnx[/quote]

My thing with training, which is pretty simple, I take my easy days easy and hard days hard (to a certain extent that is). I used to go around 6:15-6:30 but I wasn't recovering, or I eventually over trained. I was a 1:08 guy then switched this only thing up and eventually ran 1:06 in Philly. The sad part is I used to always tell runners they're running to slow on there runs. You just have figure out what's most comfortable, most likely you're going to fast just my opinion.[/quote]

Thank you for the reply. Valuable advice, especially as I get older. But a good lesson for runners of all ages!

The Stone Cutter- Great to see the plan you and your coach worked out. I'm looking forward to seeing you crush some PRs at all distances:) Congrats on going over the 2k mark for the year, huge accomplishment.

Forcerunne- Congrats on the PR in the 5k! I wish I could sniff those times, especially a sub 5 mile in an interval workout

Flying Kilt- awesome 5k. what place did the time end up being? Regarding your comments, those are all miles in my easy range--nothing was exerted or even felt hard so I just rolled with it. When I do speed work I definitely mix in true recovery runs because I physically cant run but for now just keeping it easy paced miles.

Ramanujan- Nice week! Thanks for the foam rolling tip, I even travel with the "travel stick"

Portland- what is CIM? That 8 mile set is impressive.

Slartzio- Welcome back, for that 13 mile workout when do you do your 4x1 mile sets? At the end or beginning?

Ghola- Sorry to hear about your ankle--unfortunately (or fortunately?) this is one area where I havent had an injury.

xenonscreams- Nice week--with your volume of training you should not be worried about weight gain at all

reed- good luck at Regionals next week. Your yearly totals and workouts,especially the 4 mile race are very impressive

TheGarbageDisposal- Completely throwing down the gauntlet this week with your 100+. Awesome to see and nice job on that Saturday run. I apologize if I've missed this but what plan are you following for Houston or is it a hybird/make your own? Re: your comment. Funny you mention this. I've always read how you "cant run in Vegas" and did the gym the past few years on a treadmill and been miserable. This week I learned that is not the case at all and the runs are very enjoyable and scenic (as long as you look into the distance:). Exiting the Venetian I would take a right on Sands, then go R on Koval, L on Flamingo and R Swenson and end up in UNLV track and Swenson and Harmon. If I woke up at 5am, I could run down to Tropicana over to Eastern and then make my way down to Sunset park. In the AM this was very lit and easily runnable although I never made it to the park itself.

Perkunas- Great to see you posting, what does your speed plan hold over the next few weeks for the 10k?

RunnersFix-My running goals will be complete if I can use the phrase "Shut it down without enough time for 2nd to catch me" Awesome week! For me, we'll see how this week goes with the shin and I may do 1-2 more track workouts before running Savannah in 1.5 weeks although we'll see;)

Logan Decker- I dont have good advice for you because I never ran competitively but can tell you when I have long runs dialed in I cannot nail short distance runs (or at least my pace charts dont have me nailing them). Crazy to see the race get cancelled

NJ truth- As usual, I dont have much but wow. your workouts are very impressive and inspire me.

NP112- Run a 30 miler and win a 5k in the same day. Sounds about right for a normal person...I think that has to be huge confidence boost running a 5k race like that after your body tightens up for several hours after a 30miler.

VF Runner-nice week with some interval and fast finish runs. I hear you on my legs telling me to dial it back a bit but that is what Thanksgiving and Christmas are for right?:)

Muebele- great to hear about the ankle! which spring marathon are you looking for in NJ? I did the Long Branch one last year.

Diesel-It's amazing how the weight can come on in a hurry. Even while running this week I put on a few given my work conference and the sweets available at my sister-in-law's house who just had a new born.

Green Bank- Nice wek with that Thursday run

Once and Future- Nice progression run and Tues/Thurs workouts

My condolences to you and your family.

Np1112 wrote:

Once: nice week. Is the london marathon hard to get into?

Yeah reasonably, it's a bit like Boston in that if you've ran a decent time you can get into the Championship with sub 2:45 or a garuanteed good for age slot with sub 3:05 (for my age, 31). If you haven't ran these times (like me) you have to enter a ballot, it was only open for a few hours and got 125,000 applications. You have a 1 in 7 chance at that point.

I didn't get in through the ballot but luckily our club got 4 entries (this is based on the number of members in your club, ours has just over 300) and I got one of these, again in a ballot!

So in summary, if you are slow and not in a club yes it's hard! Otherwise it's do-able. There's always the charity option but you need to commit to raising about £2000.

@printer Sorry for your loss, my condolences to you and your family.

@cmm268 I do it in the middle, it takes me 4.5 mile to get from my house to the "workout park"

Printer - I'm terribly sorry to hear about your loss.

-

Thanks all for the welcome.

Forcrunner / GarbageDisposal: the mountain running time trial was 1.4 miles with an ascent of nearly 1000'. I did it about 6 weeks ago in 15:30 on a perfect day. This past weekend there was ~4" of snow which had a major affect yet I still did it in 16:01 which I'd say is an improvement based on conditions.

NP112 / Ramanujan: Rollerskiing is my cross training. I am a nordic ski coach and sometimes I will exercise a bit with my athletes.

VFRunner: I have a lab/pitbull mix that I run with. She is pretty good on leash. If I want to get a high quality workout, I leave the dog at home. While she can run way longer and way faster than I can, I think it is tedious on her to run at a steady pace for more than a couple miles.

CMM268: Speed work. I did a bunch of speed and some intervals in Aug/Sept while trying to expedite my return to being semi-fit. Now I'm trying to do more endurance work. I'll add a few tempo runs and continuous fartlek before the 10km.

Cheers