Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 11/17

Always behind! But it is great seeing everyone post!

Stone: Great week. Love all the pacing duties today!

DC: Congrats on the PR!

Force: Nice workouts and that sat run looks great. very consistent.

cmm: solid post marathon week again. How was running in denver? Looks like your pace was quick for the altitude.

reed: with workouts like that tuesday session how could you not have a good race?!

Raman: just jump into a 5k to see what kind of shape youre in. no other way to judge, i think.

perkunas: way to bring it home that last mile!

qr: good call on the off days.

runfix: man that wed progression is awesome! How hard would you say you are working that last mile to get sub 5?

slart: good call on the rest. better to do it now then to pay for it later.

printer: haha nice race report. very nice week! 630s half and a competative 5k showing the young guys how its done!

Garbage: getting close to race time, good luck!

Portland: Ummmm yes I think you should lower your goal. Sub 240 doesnt seem out of the question with those workouts!

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Goal: Lookout Mountain 50 miler 12/14/13

Mon: 6 + 5.5 (11.5)

Tues: 10.5 + 6 (16.5)

Wed: 10 + 15(14x800 Hills) (25)

Thurs: 6 + 6 (12)

Fri: 10.25 + 6.25 (16.5)

Sat: 6.5(failed WO) + 10)

Sun: OFF:

Total: 97

Wed: 14x800 Hills at the gym. 1-7@6%, 8-12@6.5%, 13-14@7%. Felt pretty good until the last one. Planned to take a gel or some sports drink but ended up not feeling like it. Probably should have.

Sat: Was still sore all week from last week and the hills. Prob should have not even attempted a long run or workout. But of course I tried anyways. Called it early and ran an easy 10@835 with a buddy in the evening. Took today off to be ready for my last big week coming up.

qrkid: i usually run about 8:20 pace to recover, so not a total survivor shuffle, as my coach used to say! nice workout. that 800 looks solid, and it must have been tough hitting those quarters after. way to get after it.

reed: nice, my club is running pausatf xc champs too. good luck, and just have fun out there!

cmm: nice week. keep rolling that shin! icing may be a good bet too!

perkunas: nice last repeat on those 5 x miles! you're looking good for your goal race.

xenonscreams: nice week. it'd say maybe drop it a little (55-60) and go off of feel. if you start to feel too tired, then take a little more off.

runnersfix: nice big mileage this week, always love to see that!

slartzio: make this week count! sorry to hear about the fatigue, hope you're feeling better now.

printer: nice job on the strava segments and way to hit that 13.1 on tuesday! you're in great shape.

dcrunner0910- Thanks man. Just typical issues that everyone goes through. But my goal for Houston in January is 1:05. Overall, I want that sub 1:05 for the trials. Just not trying to set goals to high.

np1112- The tempo was pretty solid overall. But finishing like that is just something I've become accustomed to. I live by the whole negative split thing. But it wasn't that bad. My last half mile was probably around 2:25. I also have that issue with the start of workouts feeling really hard but once getting used to the pace is becomes much easier.

reed-Great week and good luck next weekend in your race. Sorry to hear your disappointment in your season. I chuckled at your 100% roads comment since I run so much on asphalt that I find it hard to run on crushed gravel and/or trails. I guess it's all perception.

Ramanujan-awesome work on that 4 mile tempo Thursday! You have been crushing the training so seeing that improvement isnt surprising to me.

Perkunas-Good luck next weekend in your 10k. I think you look good for your target pace since you were able to add an additional interval onto your Thursday workout and a much lower pace than your target time.

qrkid-great job on that 800! You are smart to dial it back now than later and keep things at bay. Looks like you were successful in recovering those cavs.

xenonscreams-Another outstanding week. Given your volume lately, I would tend to agree that you'll benefit from a few days of cutback before your races and would error on the side of caution (too much rest versus overdoing it). I hope whatever you are going through emotionally outside of running is OK. Personal and family items take priority over running.

RunnersFix-That 9 mile tempo is ridiculous. Awesome week.

StoneCutter-I agree with your approach and I just need to mentally commit to taking some time off. Hopefully I can do it this week and run every other day (unless I feel good of course:)) I'm definitely going to test out the 5 gear workout over the next month or two.

printer-I agree with GarbageDisposalthats a fantastic result in the 5k given the week you had in the workouts.

Slartzio-Sorry to hear you are sick, hopefully it's a speedy recovery! I wouldnt beat yourself up too much over that Weds workout, looks pretty solid to me.

GarbageDisposal-I'm giving some thought to driving over and jogging the Rehoboth Marathon in Delware:) Still TBD but did scope out flights For Charleston in Jan but havent booked anything yet...

Portland-Wowza, awesome run today! I think you are definitely faster than 2:45 given the paces you ran today. Keep up the great training!

NP1112-The run felt hard (out of breath hard) but I did send a screen shot to my buddy of the Garmin elevation profile and say how sweet would it be to train like this everyday (I know GarbageDisposal is now enjoying it.

Goals - no ITband syndrome

sub 17 5k (January of February, won't be able to do the indoor 5k I wanted to in December)

M - 6 at 8:20ish pace

T - 7, 10X400 in 77-80 with near equal 200m jog rest

W - 12, 9 in am at 7:14 average, started 7:30ish ended 6:42, 3 in afternoon at 7:40 pace breaking in new flats

T - 6 at 8:45 pace, sometimes you just gotta trot

F - off, starting to feel kinda sick

S - off

S - off

total - 31

Well the week started pretty decent, still having a hard time with the faster workouts but it felt good to get in 10X400 on Tuesday and the following 9 miler the next morning was a confidence booster. Was going to use my new flats on Friday and do a tempo but started feeling sick Thursday night and called it off. I figure it'd be better to take time to try to get over the mild cold instead of forcing some workouts, especially because I'm doing a 5k next weekend and then will take a bit of time off from racing until January. Been popping airborne and zicam like they're candy.

Won't be able to do the indoor 5k I wanted to in December, have drill that weekend. I think I'll build up after the Turkey trot this weekend and try to peak out for a February meet but still try to break 17 in January, we'll see how it goes. I'll consider being sick later in this week as forcing me to taper for the 5k. Will probably do a 5k pace workout on Tuesday then take it easy until Saturday.

dcrunner, my mile repeats had 3min rec, jogging.

thanks for the votes of confidence guys. i know i'm in shape, i've just learned this season that i'm not an xc guy. i'm a rhythm runner i suppose, good for long distances on flat surfaces.

Looks like a great result in Vegas GarbageDisposal! Looking forward to your recap, congrats!

Last Couple of Races - 5k on T-day and 10k XC Club Nationals in December

M – 16 easy

T – 13 - Threshold workout

W – 12.5

T – 14 - Mixed workout

F – 7

S – 10 - 5k race

S – 18 @ 5:55 Weather felt great and there was a nice mist/light rain the whole time. I realized I was cruising about halfway though and decided to just go with it.

Total Mileage – 90.5

Tuesday's threshold workout:

3 mile warm-up/3 mile cool down

3 x 3200m with 400m active recovery (~2:05) - 10:13, 10:08, 10:08

I came to the fun realization during my cool down that my PR up until I was 20 yrs old was 10:12 and that I almost broke that three times in a row. I knows its trivial but its always cool to look back at how easy it is to do certain things now that I couldn't accomplish to save my life back then.

Thursday's mixed workout:

3 mile warm-up/3 mile cool down

4 x 1600 @ HM w/200m active recovery - 5:08, 5:10, 5:10, 5:08

2 x 1000m @ 5K w/600m active recovery - 2:57, 2:56

4 x 200m @ Mile w/200m active recovery - 32, 32, 31, 32

Saturday's 5K race:

4 mile warm-up/3 mile cool down

5K - 15:19

Technically a PR, but still not what I was looking for. One of the things I feel I need most to be successful in a 5k is good competition. This was a time-trial start to finish. My next 5k is on a more difficult course, but should have a small handful of other sub 16 guys. So I'm hopeful that the better competition will make the difference. If not, I guess I'll have to wait until track season to really get after it.

Congratulations to Reg on an awesome back-to-back marathon effort and Garbage on the PR!!! Excellent job, gentlemen.

Thanks stonecutter. I took his advice and ran with the 3:05 group. Things went fine the first 22 miles but then the legs started cramping and miles 23 and 24 were around 7:30ish. Then the cramps got much worse and I had to stop a few times and stretch it out.

Mile 25 was an 8:15, then mile 26 was an 8:20... With a few hundred meters left I realized I'd have to pick it up to grab a PR so I started shuffling quicker and finished in 3:08, beat my NYC PR by one min. Legs def weren't fresh and the humidity got me a bit today but overall I'm extremely happy and have no regrets about running the full.

I will say the Stone cutter has a bright future in coaching and it was great meeting up with you today!

Hope everyone else had solid races today!

NJ Truth- a PR is a PR man, congrats and good luck with your next 5K!

Some more comments:

Slartzio - hope the foot feels better soon.

printer - another great week of training for you. I like the effort of the 5K, still hanging/out-running the young pups. :)

Portland - I will concur with the others that you are a notch above 2:45 Marathon fitness. Maybe go out at 1:21-:22 for the first half and then try to negative split and get as close to (or even under) 2:40 as you can.

np1112 - what, 6 days and only one real workout? Slacker. :)

I am afraid to see what your "big" week coming up is going to look like, haha.

Logan Decker - hope you feel better. Good luck next weekend!

NJ truth - another week with TONS of quality including a helluva 5K time trial.

Reg Fields - again it was nice to meet you yesterday. You were really digging deep that last .2 miles man! Enjoy some time off after a pretty remarkable season.

Portland- I had the same thought last week, but am more convinced that you have a sub-2:40 in you after that week. A couple of years ago I did a very similar run to your Sunday run except I split 72/62 and then went on to run 2:42 a couple of months later. (after going through the half in 1:17-low, so probably had a 2:40 if I went out more conservatively)

NP1112- Hey man, still think it's a good call to shut down that workout early, especially given how you were feeling and you decided on the workout just a couple of hours before. Just gotta nail your last couple of long runs before the taper man.

CMM268- Sounds good man. Or if you want another option NP and I are heading down to New Orleans the first weekend of February to run the RnR there. The race is the day after Boston's "improve your time" window so you won't be able to use it to get a lower bib number, but there's no way you're not already in the 1st corral.

Logan Decker- Smart call on not pushing it when you are feeling sick. I saw your goal was "No ITBS" but you didn't really mention any issues during the week, is it something you are slowly getting over?

NJ Truth- Congrats on the PR man and I agree with you that it definitely doesn't reflect your level of fitness. I doubt you're actually anywhere near being fresh/rested for it either with those quality workouts you put in during the week as well. Good luck next weekend!

Goal: Sub 3:20 Marathon

Goal Race: London 2014

M - 12mi slow (9:07, rolled this over from Sunday due to a massive hangover and was still feeling it)

T - 8.75mi with 6x800m @ 5:56 pace

W - 5 mi recovery, as slow as I could physically manage (9:42)

Th - 9.75mi with 2x2mi @ 6:33 pace progressing

F - Rest

Sa - New 5k PB of 19:50 at Darlington parkrun with 1 mile cooldown.

Su - 13.5 miles @ 7:51 pace, too fast really but felt good.

Weekly Total: 53 miles

YTD Total: 1070 miles

This was my highest mileage week ever and only the 2nd time I've ever gone over 50 miles. October was my highest mileage month as well and November is going to blow that out of the water if I stay fit. 5k PB was very pleasing as I've been dealing with a cold and an upset stomach most of the week so I'm hoping to go quicker again in a couple of weeks.

My week:

Goal Races - Houston Half-Marathon (USA half champs???) (1/19)

RnR New Orleans Marathon (2/2)

Week 11 of 22 - 65 (820 for cycle)

Monday - 8 easy AM / 4.5 easy PM

Tuesday - 5 easy AM / 7.5 PM (with 3 mi tempo)

Wednesday - 8 easy AM / 4.5 easy PM

Thursday - 4 easy

Friday - 6.5 easy

Saturday - 2 easy

Sunday - 1.5 easy AM / 14+ with 13.1m in 70:45 (6th place)

I think the Tuesday tempo was the only workout I've had in the last month that qualified as going well. Ran 5:33-5:29-5:21 for 16:23 and felt fairly relaxed. After that I started fighting what I felt was the beginnings of a cold, but could've very well just been taper side effects. I definitely spent the days leading up to the race hoping I would feel better, but my legs felt heavy every other run and during my short warmup as well.

The race:

The gun goes off and a the leaders take off along with about a dozen clowns that managed to force their way to the front ahead of the runners with elite bibs on. I try to run nice and steady and found myself in 8th place shortly before the mile. I eventually worked my way up to the runner ahead of me and we ran together, taking turns fighting the wind until mile 9-10 when I pulled away after we picked off another runner that went out too hard.

In the last 2 miles I saw the 5th place runner and managed to close the gap a little, I also knew I still had a shot at taking down my PR, but I just couldn't hang on well enough after the aggressive early pace. I didn't hit any of my goals (A - sub69, B - sub70, C - PR/70:34) but still felt pretty good about my effort as I went after my A/B goals pretty hard and still almost ran a PR given how lousy I felt heading in.

Splits: 5:22 - 5:16 - 5:14 (16:26 5K)

5:16 - 5:17 - 5:26 (33:01 10K. 2nd fastest 10K ever)

5:18 - 5:22 - 5:26 - 5:30 (53:27 10-mile. First PR of 2013!)

5:31 - 5:38 - 5:39 - 34 (70:49 on my watch, 70:45 officially)

I am running another half in 3 weeks to take a shot at sub-69 qualifier for the USA half champs, or at least come away with a PR. (feel kinda dirty since it's one of those net downhill @ altitude course, but my wife wanted to do it so it, and since I am going to I might as well race right?)

Thanks for the support and advice everyone, it got rough for awhile during the race but I really didn't want to post another stinker of a race report. Like I said I didn't hit my goals but was very happy given the circumstances and the fact that 3 months ago I couldn't even hold that pace for more than 1.5 miles. Definitely feel like I am picking up where I left off this spring after the summer of hell with ITBS!

Forcerunner- Nice Saturday workout! Looks like my type of workout. I also noticed you doubled up on the fartlek. Different type of fartleks though. What's your theory on doing this type of training?

cmm268- Hope you're recovering well. Sucks about the shin. Hope you heal up before things get going again. What types of distances you trying to race soon? And have you picked a goal race yet?