Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 10/26

Ghola - I don't think CIM is particularly hilly. I've never run it. But if I recall the course profile from the website correctly, it's a net downhill with a few rollers.

I'm not running hills currently with any real purpose. It's just that my general area is pretty hilly. I can't go much more than a mile from home without a net gain or loss of 100+ feet. My typical 20-mile route has 5-6 big hills and a couple of them are around a mile long. And in between there are many shorter ups and downs. It definitely comes in handy when preparing for Boston!

Wait so what did np1112 do? Congrats anyways hehe

Goal...set a pr in 6months. (5k under 1849, mile under 457, half under 1:27) I'm going to run one of each this spring.

M-5 825

T- 5 810

W- 2mi wu/cd drills strides, 3 mi tempo 20:33. Legs are ok. Sciatic nerve is really unhappy though, not running related

Th-rest

Fri- 16 bike 5@754 very hilly felt meh...Hilly

Sat- 20 bike and farm work

Sun- hilly 10.5 @ 753 felt great

Overall happy. Getting my strength back.

Goal Race- Houston Marathon

Mon- 12 miles. Atl tempo of 5 miles. 5:03, 5:18, 5:02, 5:19, 4:57).

Tue- 14 miles. 10 miles 7:03 pace. 4 miles at 7:07 pace. Weights.

Wed- 10 miles at 7:04 pace. Strides.

Thur- 13 miles. 2x3mile with 3 min rest at goal pace. 15:46 (5:18, 5:15, 5:12) and 15:27 (5:14, 5:08, 5:04).

Fri- 14 miles. 10 miles at 7:01 pace. 4 miles at 7:06 pace. Weights.

Sat- 10 miles at 6:54 pace. Strides.

Sun- 20 mile long run. 6:05 avg. progressed slightly at the end. (5:54, 5:47, 5:39, 5:37, 5:32, 5:28, 5:20).

Total- 93 miles

Week went pretty good. I'm pretty much back into normal routine now with workouts. The mileage will still be building up a lot more though. Mondays alt tempo felt good. Just had a hard time finding the correct pace on the slow reps. Thursday 2x3m was just supposed to be goal pace but I just felt good so I picked it up. With the long run today I finally had some decent weather so it made the effort a lot less. Good week overall though. Ill comment this week.

Quick post and comment later this week.

Mon: 6(3@GP) + 4 (10)

Tues: 6 + 4 (10)

Wed: 4A

Thurs: 4

Fri: 3A

Sat: 51 (USA 50mi road champs)

Sun: OFF

Total: 82

Cliff notes: 6:18:26 for 8th overall. 6th in men's open race. Missed money by 1 spot. Beat by men's master and overall female. Wheels fell off around 32. The rest was a rough push to the finish hoping for a top 10. I will post more details this week.

It's been a while since I posted here, but I am healthy again and figured this is a good way to stay motivated (and track my training)

Marathon

Goal: 2:18

Current PR: 2:20

Monday: 5 AM / 12 PM

Tue: 5 easy

Wed: 12 mi total, 800 on/800 off for 6 miles, 33:05 total. "on" was ~2:30-35, "off" 2:55-3:00

Thu: 5 AM / 12 PM

Fri: 8

Sa: 12 moderate

Su: 20 mi

Total: 91

seems like everyone else is putting together some solid weeks.

Runnersfix those are some serious workouts.

80k of easy and easy-medium running for me, plus strides one day and a 1k TT on Saturday. 2:50 on a somewhat twisty road. Felt pretty OK with it--I know I can go faster, but this was a spur of the moment thing just done for fun and to get a modicum of speed into the week. Plus I took the course record on Strava by 17 seconds, which always makes me feel better than it should.

Wanted to run more than I did today, but someone tried to break into our condo window last night and dealing with the cops and the window repair guy took longer than I thought it would and I only managed 8k. How that guy got onto our patio I'll never know. We live on the third floor of a converted warehouse. Spiderman could probably get up here, but I would pay good money to see a normal human being give it a shot. Whoever tried should stop trying to steal things and get into some high jump competitions or something instead. I'm sure they could win some money.

It also snowed today, so it looks like winter running season is upon us, or at least upon me. I'll have to look into that dang gym membership pretty soon. Blech.

Quick comments:

Huge congrats to NP! A 50 mile race is such a crazy thing, and to finish 8th in a national championships is even crazier. You're a huge inspiration to me.

Stone: good to hear this week went well. Not too long until the taper! I think you're in a great space.

Matthias: You finally picked one! What made you select sub-33?

cmm: whoa, you've come back way quicker than I did from my fall marathon. How do your legs feel? I'm trying to wait the full five weeks Pftizinger recommends before doing any LT stuff or concentrated speed things or anything over 16k. Part of me thinks this is smart and the other part worries I am losing fitness. Also, I hope you enjoyed yourself in Vegas!

Reg Fields- I usually don't like stating my goals because I don't want to jinx it but let's just say 5:15 is my goal pace lol.

Back into it- Thanks for the good words. You seem to have the exact goal as me. It'll be nice comparing workouts with you. I like your alternate run Wednesday. Got some good speed work done along with the strength part.

Np1112- Nice race! 6:18 pace for 50 miles! I couldn't even imagine running that much lol. You placed very well too. Hope you recovery well.

Stonecutter- Great week. Hope the treadmill running wasn't too boring lol. Your paces are dead on. You will do great in Philly. I like the idea of going out slower then aiming for goal pace. It's the smartest move in my opinion. Keep up the great work. Good things are going to happen!

Forcerunner- Mr. Consistent! Great race! Hope you're happy with the result. Your very smart with training. You should even improve more on that PR. I second off lol. You never know know it could've been a PR day and that the course was just off. On a track you would run much faster. Keep it up.

Pewow- Solid week. Great job with the 1k's. Running them in negative split fashion. That's what I do. I feel great afterwards when doing it like that. Also, nice progression on Sunday. It builds so much strength when dropping it like that. Very impressive.

@ Netwerk Errer: Followed you throughout whilst at work. Hope things are ok and nothing went too seriously wrong!

Goal: Get healthy

Goal: 2014 miles for the year

M: 3 mi Easy 7:44/mi 134 aHR + strengthening

T: 5 mi Easy 7:53/mi 132 aHR

W: 3 mi Easy 7:52/mi 137 aHR + strengthening

T: 3 mi Easy no watch

F: 5 mi Easy 8:02/mi 138 aHR

S: 5.5 mi Easy 8:33/mi 138 aHR

S: 8 mi Easy 8:17/mi 137 aHR

Weekly: 32.5 mi

YTD: 1611 mi

Goal Race - Half Marathon (15th November)

Goal Time - Sub 1:30 (B: Sub 1:33 - DONE)

Other Goals (2014 or early 2015) - Sub 20min 5k, Sub 40min 10k

Plan - Daniel's Half Marathon Plan (3rd Edition)

Mon - 5.25 miles - steady (7:32)

Tue - 5.5 miles - easy (8:09)

Wed - 5.5 miles - 3x(1 mile T + 2min jg) + warm/cool (T-pace 6:43)

Thu - 5 miles - easy (8:13)

Fri - off, planned

Sat - 3.75 miles - easy (7:56)

Sun - 13.1 miles - Stroud Half Marathon Race - 1:32:52, 138th out of 1130

Total = 38 miles

Well, I managed 1:32:52, which was obviously short of my goal, but I'm not too down about it. (See long winded explanation below)

The splits for the race were as follows:

1 - 6:49 - dead on target pace, flat

2 - 6:49 - still right on target pace, flat

3 - 6:53 - slight uphill, still happy with pace

4 - 6:56 - slight uphill, still happy with pace

5 - 6:48 - 22m downhill, missed opportunity, should have made up a few seconds

6 - 6:50 - 13m downhill, missed opportunity, should have made up a few seconds

7 - 7:11 - 19m uphill mile in to headwind, reasonably happy with pace

8 - 6:54 - again a net downhill mile, should have made more of it

9 - 7:04 - slight uphill, pace starting to fall off, goal disappearing

10 - 7:01 - slight uphill, pace starting to fall off, goal disappearing

11 - 7:18 - this mile was downhill, wheels starting to come off

12 - 7:36 - was feeling destroyed by this point, doubted I'd finish at one point

13 - 7:32 - very very tired by now, legs just not playing ball

13.1 - 1:11 - very minor pick up in pace to finish

The course was certainly a lot more hilly (overall elevation gain was 83 meters) than that for my PB of 1:31:09 a month ago (Bristol), it was also quite exposed in some parts, with a bad headwind on the most uphill section. I ran the same race last year, so the terrain shouldn't have come as much of a surprise; the problem was that last year I'd only been running a matter of a few months, so I was still seeing the very rapid improvements that come with getting fit for the first time (Bristol 2013: 2:03, Stroud 2013: 1:55 a month later) - which I guess masked the fact that the course was actually more difficult than I perceived.

To make matters worse, I came down with a cold the day before the race. I thought I could fight through it, as I didn't really feel that bad the morning of the race, but I guess it had an effect, looking at those last two miles especially.

Looking at the above splits, I was pretty much on pace through 6 miles, although this wasn't really good enough, as I should have made more of those downhill miles 5 & 6, knowing there was more uphill to come. Mile 7 was slow (as expected), but I still felt 1:30 was in sight at this point. But as soon as those mile times started to creep in to the 7's, I knew it was beginning to get away from me!

The final 3 miles were pretty much hell to be honest; my legs just didn't want to know, as they began to feel like jelly. It felt like my body was just saying "no, I've had enough of this"; looking back, I do think that the cold I was carrying had had more of an effect than I'd realised, and that was really illustrated by those last 3 miles.

I mean, I felt like I could deal with it and just push on through - and I don't think it would have been a problem in a 5k or 10k - but I guess 13.1 miles at race pace was just too much to ask of my body at that particular moment.

It's odd though, as I've never experienced such a drop off in pace before - I literally felt like I was falling apart - and I can't for a minute believe it was just down to bad pacing on a hilly course; the drop off in pace seemed just too severe... Anyone experienced anything similar?

Come to think of it, I'm sure I've read somewhere that the general consensus is that it's much easier to push through a fast 5k with a cold, than it is for a half marathon (or marathon). I guess that's just common sense though!

In terms of other reasons; I'm not sure I ate especially well the day before, too much fatty food which can't have helped.

On a more positive note; I finished the race knowing I couldn't have run any faster on that particular day; so while I'm obviously disappointed not to PB, it isn't the end of the world.

One stat which made me feel a little better is that only around 47 of the top 250 finishers set PBs, which is a much smaller proportion than set PBs in Bristol (on the faster course) a month ago (around 98 out of top 250). Not exactly a scientific test, but it seems to back up the relative course difficulties.

Anyway... all is not lost... gotta keep trying right!? So I've entered another half, which is in 3 weeks time. There will be no excuses this time (at least relating to changes in elevation) as the course is a flat 4 lap course around an airfield!

This will be my last go at breaking 1:30 this year, if it doesn't happen this time, I will have to wait until next spring - but hey, it's going to happen at some stage anyway, so I'll just let the chips fall where they may!

Hope everyone had good weeks, thanks for the good luck messages last week by the way!

Christ, awful news. I worried something had gone badly wrong.

Best wishes for your recovery.

I had looked at the splits and was hoping for a timing error. Any chance the diagnosis is wrong and it's something more minor? I wish you a quick/good recovery no matter which way it goes.

Netwerk Errer wrote:

Once and future- Bad, bad day! Ruptured my medial knee ligament. 3-4 months of rehab needed. Tried to push through it but every time I opened my stride, my knee would collapse. Had to walk the last seven miles. 3.55 finish time.