Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 8/17

bonham - i forgot to comment on your week after your question! great volume and solid tempo run :)

blackfly - really solid looking week. liking the quality you have got going there.

hereford - nice week. enjoy the vacation :)

renewed - some pretty fast running this week, definitely try and keep tabs on the hamstring in the near future :)

johnny - welcome :) nice looking week. hopefully you can keep it up for XC

np1112 - holy cow. averaging nearly a marathon a day in your week! i don't know how you manage it, especially the triple!

scanman - solid looking week. do you have any goal races coming up?

once and future - great 5K time! i haven't ran on a treadmill personally so i can't share any words of wisdom.

kendo - nice quality :) definitely getting faster throughout your program if you are finding your rep pace easier.

@xenonscreams: 1:09:40 debut back in 2008. Training has been up and down for years. Current fitness maybe 1:17?. 30-40mpw "maintenance" over the past couple months. Would love to take a stab at the OT (half) standard. Sub-5:00/mile, although a stretch to say the least, might be in the cards for me given the right training/race/conditions, however it is almost 2015, time is not slowing down, and I'm not getting any younger. Taking it day-by-day. We shall see. Congrats on the PB btw.

@NP1112: Half marathon goal races from Oct thru Mar. Might throw in a couple 5k/10k's. 175 miles?!?! DAMN!

NP1112: Thanks. A couple of questions, is it really that crowded for quite at the start? Of course you probably are out in front of the mess. Just some reviews seem to make it out to be congested.

Also, the "hill" at mile 15, probably looks worse on the profile than reality? I run my 12+ mile runs with 600+ feet of elevation change (per garmin with elevation correction) so I'm not really concerned, probably more concerned about the long stretches of pancake flat (muscle fatigue I can't replicate here, at least outdoors).

I forgot to mention this in my week, I was traveling this weekend and got terribly lost on my long run. I went into some singletrack and when I came out I thought I was headed back towards my hotel but I actually ended up 6 miles away. Fortunately I was able to call for a ride.

Stone Cutter - Solid week. Nice job on the 13 miler at MP.

jwil - Given that your 23 mile long run was easy I bet you can go faster for your goal time.

ksrunner - Nice week. You seem close to your 5k and 10k goals.

xenonscreams - Awesome race, especially with your prior sickness.

GNR1 - Good job with the tempo, first hard effort is always a doozy for me.

Distance Fan - Nice week and good long run.

cmm268 - I like your tempo intervals. The shoes I got were Saucony Guide

Netwerk Error- I wouldn't worry about it, you shouldn't be able to run a fast 10k during the middle of marathon training if you are doing it right.

KBXC - Great week, doesn't seem like altitude slowed you down too much. Can't wait to see how your XC season goes.

Mathias - Looks like you are rounding back into shape quickly judging by your mile repeats. Looks like crosstraining during your injury is paying off for you.

Bonham - Great week, really solid job toughing it out on the LT after going out too fast and also killer long run.

Blackfly - Good week, 93 miles in singles is impressive and seems like you have a solid nutrition plan for you which might be even more impressive.

Hereford - I really like your combo tempo, 400's workout.

renewed marathoner - try to stay on top of your hamstring. easier said than done though as most of us know

Johnny Applesauce - welcome, nice to have another 8k XC guy on the thread.

NP1112 - Wow, I don't know what to say about a 170 mile week. Keep up the great work. What is the terrain going to be like for your 50 miler>

scanman - good week. Training for naything in particular?

Once and Future - Congrats on the 5k, keep in mind that most of them won't feel as good as this one did.

Kendo- Nice mixed pace workout with the 200's and miles.

Thanks NP, still a long way from my PR, but green shoots.

I just use my garmin and the strap I have with that, I just kept the HR visible on the screen and had to keep it from going to sleep every so often due to the lack of movement on the treadmill.

Matthias: it was not quite as bad as I anticipated. I ran with more people this week than ever. Had company for 2:40 of that long run too. If not I would have gone crazy for sure.

Distance fan: I wouldn't say it is that crowded. But the race is getting bigger each year. The first couple miles can be crowded but you have both sides of the road to get around people. That "hill" around 16 is nothing. I would be willing to bet you will barely notice it.

Pewow: it is all roads. USA 50 mile road champs.

Once: okay good to know. I've thought about getting a HR unit to make sure I keep my easy days easy.

Goal: get healthy

M: 3.5 mi easy (7:48/mi)

T: 5.25 mi easy (7:35/mi)

W: 6 mi easy (7:36/mi)

T: 4 mi Tempo (6:15/mi) w/warmup/cool down 6 mi total

F: AM 4 mi easy (8:19/mi) PM 8 mi easy (7:40/mi)

S: off/injured

S: off/injured

Weekly Total: 32.75 mi

YTD: 1427 mi

After friday's PM run I was limping. My left arch decided to explode on me. Saturday I was still limping around, but luckily I had an out of town wedding 5 hours away so I didn't have to move around much. Today I can walk with minimal pain (just feels like there is a rock in my shoe). Going to take a few more days off just to be safe.

Sorry for my lack of comments lately. I think everybody who posts knows how much respect I have for everyone on this board. But due to time restrictions, I think I am going to have to revert back to my habit of singling out a few each week. If I didn't get you this week, maybe next time. :)

xenonscreams - Great performance! I won't lie, I had some doubts when you kept updating us on your sore peroneals each week, but way to pull out a great run when you wanted to most. You have definitely put in the work this year. Glad you have the result now to really back it up.

Matthias and NP1112 - a MAJOR welcome back to both of you! One of our resident "speed" focused runners and our greatest "strength" focused runner - seems fitting you both came back together. And I will say it one more time, 175 miles, WTF?!? I am pretty sure you topped two of my months this year with that week, haha.

ksrunner21 - I have broken both 17:00 and 36:00 before. There's no way I could complete that week you just did on a week-to-week basis. You will destroy both of those times this season.

S - 16 @ 6:30

M - 11 @ 6:34

T - AM: 4.07 @ 6:59, PM: Track workout of 3x400, 4x1000, 4x400 in 67, 66, 65, 3:04, 2:58, 2:55, 2:54, 68, 67, 62. 10 total. Recovery was 75 seconds on the 400s, 2.5 minutes on the 1000s.

W - AM: 6 @ 7:15, PM: 10 @ 6:54

T - AM: 7 @ 7:06, PM: 9 @ 6:29

F - 6.45 @ 6:58

S - 3 @ 6:47

Total - 82.5

The workout on Tuesday went pretty well but I felt like complete shit Friday/Saturday, which kind of sucks since I was on track for a really solid week. I think I gotta make my easier days easier when I'm trying to do 2 workouts a week otherwise everything starts to suffer and I have to make sacrifices. Feeling better this week after taking it easy this past Sunday so I think I caught the overtraining bug early before it really got me.

It's worked wonders for me in terms of helping me recover from being over-trained, it's incredible how slow my recovery pace should be compared to how fast I used to run it when I use my heartrate to determine it.

It's really interesting to see how you're feeling on a certain day as well, I was tired from over-doing it a bit last night and I just couldn't get my heartrate down below about 80% no matter how slowly I ran!

I wear mine for most every run. I use it retrospectively to see if I'm seeing improvement (similar pace, same route, lower heat rate = getting more fit). However, cumulative fatigue can mess up the numbers, humidity, how well you slept, phase of the moon,...

Usually if I struggle for some reason the numbers don't lie. Either my pace is off at a given HR or if my pace is OK the HR is higher. Then the trick is figure out why.

I can't really train by it. I run at o'dark thirty everyday and I can't see my watch except under the occasional street light. I'll illuminate it after about 3 miles to see if I'm the right expected range for pace. Otherwise I'm just running by feel.

I'm still not sure about recovery runs. I don't think I have hard enough workouts yet to drive a need for recovery runs. I have a pretty tough tempo and a long run. Last week, the day following the long run was slow for the first 3 miles, but it picked up OK by the end. I guess it was quasi recovery. Maybe as the long run gets longer I'll be more recovery (or as I add more MP to the long runs).

Here's mah week:

M - 5 easy

T - 8 easy

W - Rest

T - 2 w-up, 4 tempo in 24:13, 2 c-d

F - 5 easy

S - 8 easy

S - 8 easy

42 total

Took my tempo too fast, so I got burnt out after that. Just starting to come around now.

No races planned. Might do a 10K in late Sep, but my ex is on the race committee and I'm not sure I should show my face :/

Distance Fan wrote:

Last week, the day following the long run was slow for the first 3 miles, but it picked up OK by the end. I guess it was quasi recovery. Maybe as the long run gets longer I'll be more recovery (or as I add more MP to the long runs).

Seems like you have the concept nailed down. Unless you are doubling there isn't really a need to schedule a run where the sole purpose is recovery.

The day after a workout just start out running slower than usual and as you start to loosen up pick up the pace to your normal easy day pace.

Yep, just going on how you feel is a good idea. I didn't need to run my 'recovery' runs slow last cycle but the cycle went really well and I felt good throughout.

I do need actual recovery runs this time round as the whole cycle has been such a mess and I've felt like crap whenever I push hard. Either run super easy or I'd have to take the days off and I'd rather not do that.

Not sure my experience is relevant to anyone though as I think I really should be taking an extended break (which I'm going to do straight after the marathon).