Road Racing and Training Thread Week Ending 12/14

qrkid-rest on the cruise intervals was a 400m jog. Nice week and way to close out the run today. Make sure to take it easy for the next day or two:) What marathon are you thinking about in March?

Hereford-I often think I dont race hard enough because I can pick up the mileage after a marathon basically where I left off--albeit all easy running. Looks like you are picking right back up as well. To answer your question, probably run a half in March and try to find some local 5 & 10ks to jump into as well.

Winter training girl-

Distance Fan-Nice week and tempo on Thursday. I like your plan of just maintaining through the holidays.

back into it-Tokyo is crazy--you better get over there like a week early to fend off jet lag:)

Piano_Man87-I'm the wrong person to ask about improving 5k times as I struggled in this area. I do think 18 to 17 in a year is definitely doable if you bump the mileage a bit more like you plan and add in specific 5k workouts.

Oedipus Rexing-Awesome tempo workout Monday--your goals on the 5 and 10k align with several posters here

JSrun-Congrats on the new mileage week--lots of good quality in your week...I really need to start doing strides as much as you and some other posters!

HardLoper-22 races is a lot. I think I was around 10-15! Mustve felt great passing all those runners over the last 1.5 miles

cmm268 just going to be a half marathon in March. Tobacco Road in Cary/Raleigh, North Carolina. If I can get there in one piece and run well then I want to try a marathon next Oct/Nov. I am already thinking Monumental in Indy for the marathon debut.

First things first. Get to March in 1 piece and have a decent half marathon.

Hello everyone!

I didn't post for a couple of weeks but I'm back! Goal for this month is to get back to 50mpw or more precisely 7h/week as now I'm starting to count in time rather than miles for general purpose runs.

this is my last week in time/miles format

M 60 7.10 6 Strides

T 60 7.19 7 Strides

W 55 7.48 10:00 x 2 + 3:00 @ T (6:24, 6:41, 6:20) 1:30 Hard @ 5:15

T 60 5.96 Very tired / sore

F 60 6.99 Still recovery / sore

S 60 7.00 4 Strides No Gps

S 30 3.53 (5 x 200 32.6 30.9 32.2 31.5 33.5) Tired but better

T 6:25 45.25 miles

Back into minimal shoes and my lower legs/feet are not adapted 100%, so I took it easy on the workouts. I feel I'll be much better in another week or so.

hope everyone had a awesome week!

Slartzio

qrkid - IMM is a good choice for a full. Usually the weather is good and the course is great (mostly). They do it nice there for sure. We had cruddy weather this year (cold + wind), but an "average year" would be perfect.

I was thinking about the Tobacco Road half myself. It seems like it might be less flat than I'm hoping for though. I also started thinking about the Pro Football Hall of Fame half in Canton in April.

Mon- 6 at 7:11 + 2 strides

Tue- 6 at 6:50

Wed- 8 at 7:13 + 4 strides

Thur- 7 at 6:32 w/8x 2:00 on 2:00 off

Fri- 6 at 7:01 + 4 strides

Sat- 7 at 7:13 + 2 strides

Sun- 10 at 6:57 w/5:01 last mile + weights

Total: 50 miles

The weather was all over the place in the northeast this week, but none the less I still got good training in. On Mon-Tue there was snow/heavy rain, but by Saturday-Sunday it was perfect.

While I was warming up for my run on Thursday I really felt in the mood for a fartlek run, so that's what I ddid. I just did a simple 2 min on 2 min off in the middle of my run. I averaged 6:32 pace for the whole run so I probably ran the "on" part around mid-upper 5s pace. I kept the workout fairly mellow/easy.

I started off my 10 mile run around 7:15-20 pace and naturally picked it up to 6:50-7:00 pace by the latter miles. I was feeling super easy so I decided to have some fun and run the last mile fast, but in control. The flat road I ran the last mile on has quarter mile markers that my coach made when some of the non-varsity runners had to do a time trial while the varsity was at an invitational, so I knew it was precise. I eased into the last mile with an 81 first quarter. I decided to pick up the pace and ran 76 for my next quarter. After that I just got in the zone. I felt really good/smooth so I kept picking up the pace while staying just below the point in which I would be building up lactic acid. I forgot to look at the 1200 split but I ran the last mile in 5:01, which means I ran a 2:24 last 800. I knew I was going quick, but that split surprised me. I guess I was just feeling really good on Sunday. I felt like if I kept going at a 2:24-30 800 pace it would have felt like I was racing after another half mile. This run definitely gave me confidence and also shows me that I could break 10 in the 2 mile this spring.

I hope everyone else had a great week!

Thanks for all the nice comments after my race report last week. I will return the gesture this week.

As for me, I felt no residual effects from my marathon. I still took Sunday and Monday off. However, I have a quick turnaround before my next race and need to keep things going as best I can.

My Week:

M: Off

T: 5.5 miles @ 7:45/ mi

W: 8.4 miles @ 6:50/ mi. Last 5.5 @ 6:30/ mi

T: 6.7 miles @ 8:00/ mi.

F: 8.2 miles @ 7:12/ mi.

S: 9.1 miles @ 8:22/ mi. Ran with a friend.

S: 14.1 miles @ 6:56/ mi. w/ 6 @ MP.

52 miles

It finally caught up to me on mile 12 today. I had nothing on those last 3 miles today.

Prior to signing up for Memphis, I had committed to doing the "Goofy Challenge" at the Disney Marathon as a corporate fundraising gesture. The "Goofy Challenge" consists of running the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. The races are on 1/10 &1/11.

I should learn this week if I'm in the front corral or the back "charity" corral.

My corral placement will dictate my performance goal.

Distance Fan wrote:

I was thinking about the Tobacco Road half myself. It seems like it might be less flat than I'm hoping for though. I also started thinking about the Pro Football Hall of Fame half in Canton in April.

Distance Fan

Tobacco road is pretty flat. Most of it is on the American Tobacco trail which used to be an old railway, I think, so there are gentle grades but nothing big at all.

I saw that you had considered Myrtle Beach so would be willing to travel to the coast. Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington where I live is also around mid March and that is dead flat.

I love having these sub 2:20 types here. Lets me know the kind of work involved to get to that next level.

My goals:

9:50 steeplechase

15:20 5000m

4:09 1500m

M 10 easy

T 10 with 20min fartlek

W 7 easy

Th 7 recovery

F 5.6 easy

Sa 8 easy

Su 13 in 1:52 on hilly trails, muddy too.

Total 60, 7:17/mi avg

Had finals this week so it was tough to get in mileage. Today's trail run was fun, 8:38/mi though so although it was just 13mi it still felt like 15+

Now I have three weeks of no school! But I'm going camping tomorrow so might not run much for a few days

Alright, with NP1112 sidelined I guess somebody has to run some miles around here, or I just lost my mind this week.

Week 11 of 16

Goal Race - Houston Marathon (2:25 / 2:22 / 2:20)

Total miles - 150.

Monday - 16 (10 easy AM, 6 easy PM)

Tuesday - 19 (12 easy AM, 7 easy PM)

Wednesday - 19 (12 easy AM, 7 easy PM)

Thursday - 21 (13 moderate AM with 3-1.5-0.5mi intervals thrown in at 5:36-5:37 pace, 8 easy PM)

Friday - 27.5 (5 easy early AM, 10 easy about 3 hours later, 12.5 very easy PM)

Saturday - 19.5 (12.5 easy AM, 7 easy PM)

Sunday - 28 (23+ in 2:45 with 5 miles @ about MP effort from 17-22 at 5:43 pace, then 5 easy PM)

Something just sort of "clicked" for me this week, and my planned 10-11 mile AM runs turned into 12. (and my usual 5-6 mile PM runs turned into 7-8). Friday's triple happened sort of by accident, I already knew I was going to run 6-7 with my wife after work but one of my friends just got home and wanted to run and catch up so the planned 6-miler turned into 12.5.

Fairly happy with today's long run. The pace as steady the first 12 miles but the weather was terrible. (I ran the first 12 miles or so with swift23r so he can back me up on this). The 5 miles hard from mile 17-22 was controlled and probably worth 10-15s/mi faster or so at sea level, so definitely happy with being able to close a long run in those conditions.

Matthias- I think it's a good idea that you're taking some easier weeks now and just doing some "easy" workouts and focusing on the miles. I would still keep the easy days/miles easy since I think that will be really good for you physically and mentally to have an "easy training"/base phase.

Runnersfix- I think it's a great sign that you're still closing your workouts at sub-4:50 while the mileage has been as high as it's ever been for you. I am really interested to see how your coach ramps up your workouts over the next few weeks.

Pikachu- Congrats on the win man, and especially with two workouts earlier in the week (even if they were medium efforts). I think the craziest part is you held on that well after going out in 2:43 (27:10 pace?!!) for the first 1km.

Back into it- I am seeing more and more of those "alternating pace" workouts in the last year or two, don't know if it's just a coincidence or that they're becoming more popular, but I am definitely interested in trying one of these out at some point. Very solid week overall btw. Do you have any tuneup / fitness check races coming up?

Forcerunner- Very nice week with the volume and strong workouts. If I'm not mistaken that's a weekly mileage PR for you too isn't it?

Pewow- That speaks volumes that you can have a breakthrough progression run so much faster than a few weeks ago while not cutting back on weekly mileage. Hope the improvements keep coming for you.

CMM268- Liking the balance between increasing mileage back into your comfort level and inserting just the right amount of quality work. Hope that sore knee clears up for you soon as well. Also, can't help notice you're right on pace to squeak past the 5000 mile mark for the year. That's awesome man.

Qrkid- That's awesome to have a run like that to close out the week, definitely bods well for being about 3 months out from your goal HM. Keep up the nice work.

Hereford- Good to hear you're recovering well. I don't think the lack of soreness means you didn't run well, I find that in general I have felt better after each of my marathons than the ones before. (unless I hit the wall and/or cramp up), so it may just be a matter of your body getting used to 26.2 miles of pounding.

Winter training girl- Welcome to the thread. That's smart of you to cross train as you're building the miles back up, especially if you can handle it well. A couple of years ago I was doing 300 minutes or so a week and I think it was a good way to transition my body into double daily workouts and and overall cardiovascular activity volume.

Distance Fan- Good sign that you're back to doing some quality sessions this week. (i.e the tempo on Thursday). Good luck on the 5-miler this weekend!

Piano_Man87- I think those goals are realistic, but just out of curiosity, would those be PRs? I might have you mixed up with someone else but I thought you have run much faster during your HS/college days? Regardless from the limited amount of posts I have seen in your training I think the room for improvement is definitely there.

Oediupus Rexing- That's a very solid tempo this week man. Just out of curiosity, what are your current PRs if you don't mind sharing?

JSRun- Very nice week of training. Do you have time goals for your race distances? Or are you going for place?

Hardloper- Nice base week man. I am a sucker for free races myself as well. I am at 33 races for the year, and didn't pay for 11 of them.

Slartzio- Good to see you around again, solid workouts/tempos as usual. Keep up the nice work man.

KBXC- Nice week and that's awesome how you can close a run that fast just on a whim.

Printer- Man, you're not messing around, 6 miles @ MP that quickly after running a quality marathon the week before is no joke. Sounds like you're not much worse for the wear though. Hope you get into the front corral for Disney.

Reed- Nice goals for the upcoming season and definitely think they're doable for you. Sounds like it's as good a time right now for you to take a break as any.

Garbage - 150, sweet Jesus, man! Well done. I did 140 once just for fun but it was all pretty easy.

Matthias- Nice week of base. Awesome set of 400s. On your easy pace question, I always start out with 2 very easy miles, then I just go with whatever feels good after that.

RunnersFix- Incredible week. Looks like you nailed your long run and workouts. You should be ready to roll at Houston.

Pikachu- Awesome race, congrats on the win! That first k was insane!

back into it- Great run Saturday! I have just started doing more strides recently and my turnover feels alot smoother.

Forcrunner- Nice pickup in the middle of your long run!

Pewow- Solid progression run. 45 seconds per mile faster than 10 weeks ago is awesome!

cmm268- Great week of base. Those hills sound brutal to me being a Kansas guy, I don't think we even have hills that long!

qrkid- Nice pickup to end your long run! You are looking strong for only 7 weeks back running.

Hereford- That's good that you don't feel trashed after your marathon. Glad you enjoyed your down week.

Winter trainer girl- Yeah that is a lot of cross training. I suppose if it keeps you from getting injured it's worth it.

Distance Fan- Looks like you had a pretty solid week. I've started doing strides after most of my easy runs and before my workouts. They are really helping improve my speed, and help me feel ready to go for my workouts.

Piano_Man87- I think those a definitely realistic goals for the next year. Just keep the mileage consistent and stay in touch with your speed. Good luck on 50 miles this week.

Oedipus Rexing- Nice tempo run, and great fartlek. You look like you're setting yourself up well to hit your goals.

HardLoper- Nice 2 mile. That is a lot of races this year. I think I have ran 11 (was out for about 3 months this year with injuries)

Slartzio- Looks like a pretty solid week of running for just getting back into minimal shoes.

KBXC- Nice week of base. That last mile today was smokin'! I would definitely feel ready for a sub-10 after that.

printer- My quads tighten up just hearing about that "Goofy Challenge". 39.3 miles in 2 days sounds painful.

reed- Finals week sucks. Nice job putting in the miles though. Have fun camping!

TheGarbageDisposal- 150 miles blows my mind! That's freaking crazy! Making the elite cut would require me to run around 4:35, and sub-10 for 3200(fairly slow, but Kansas is more XC oriented.) It's really just the top 16 guys that go to the meet.

Back into it: Respect for always folling your tempos with a long run – really strong... And Tokyo marathon? Wow. That for sure will be a great experience! :-)

Forcerunner: Judging by your consistency and long run you could very well become a great marathoner.

Pewow: Yor training really heads into the right direction it seems...

cmm268: The course was hilly, not really brutal, but still... Not flat :D The early pace put me out of my comfort zone right from the gun as I haven't done such fast sustained running in training. Definitely showed me my weaker areas for now :-)

qrkid: Yeah thanks. I felt it's better to hit it and recover than to come up with excuses and let him go – so I'm happy how it all went, even if I ran faster than planned. Yout training looks solid – still plenty of time till March :-)

Hereford: Enjoy the downtime! I have narrowed it down and am toying with some really excitng options. But it's hard with my modest PR to get into the BIG fields... My dream would be London, but we'll see. Have no confirmation till now and I really think that's no good sign for me. After all I'm no 2:02 runner – at least till now :D :D :D :D I'll just run where I think I'll have the best opportunity :-)

Winter trainer girl: Uh. A girl on letsrun. Must be trollin' :D No, just kidding. Nice consistent week!

Distance Fan: In a couple weeks you really will see benefits :-)

Piano_Man: Thanx. And props for your week! Running after drinking really can be hard :D

Oedipus_Rexing: Yeah, I like it, too, when you hace really exciting competition :-) Good week – and some nice goals.

Jsrun: Congrats on the volume PR!

Hardloper: I like that SoM approach. If you do this I really believe it sets you well up to make the next step!

Slartzio: Nice to have you back :-)

KBXC: Good consistency!

Printer: Yeah, don't jump to fast into hard workouts... Even if you don't feel it – a marathon is hard on your body.

Reed: Yeah, trail runs really feel longer than they are!

Garbage Disposal: Are you kidding me... 150 miles, triples, great workouts. I'd say for sure that it „klicked“ for you :D And yeah, no typo here: 27:10-pace for the first k. Like I said, slightly downhill, but still uncomfortable (and brainless...) fast for the first k. But as Pikachu-Pokemon-fighting-machine you have to go with the pace, no matter what, I guess xD

hi,

long-time reader, first-time poster. These weekly updates are by far my favourite posts.

So here's mine (in metric):

M - 16k easy (4:32)

T - 16k with 8'/6'/4'/3'/3'/2'/2', 2' ez between (5:00), tempo descending from 3:50 to 3:25

W - 19k easy (4:35)

T - 16k descending from 4:45 to 4:10

F - off

Sa - 19.5k with 15 (4:03)

Su - 19k with 10k race in 34:36 and new PB

I'll comment later.

Hello all,

Well 2 goals for this year were hit this last week.

1. Hit 4000 miles for the second year in a row, accomplished Monday.

2. Win 20 races, accomplished Saturday.

The week was good, not great, but I was pretty tired all week. I teach physical education, and we never have enough players in my classes, so I end up playing. While I was a basketball player for many, many years I find that now when I play the cutting movements, and jumping movements really wreck the legs, so that meant me having to not run as hard this week.

Sunday 12/7, 12 miles no time. Easy run.

Monday 12/8, 10 miles high 60's for time, then 3.1 later in the day 16:38. Just a little effort to hit the miles and speed up just a little.

Tuesday 12/9, 13.2, 1:23. Nothing crazy, felt fine.

Wednesday 12/10, 13 miles 1:26, felt tired, so I did not push the run at all.

Thursday 12/11, 12.5, 80 minutes.

Friday 7 miles, 40:40, was nice out so I ended up running too fast, but that's ok.

Saturday 5k, 3.2 miles 15:58. Well I hate to say this race was over by the first block of the race. I ran alone from that point on and won by about 2:07. Mix of road, and trails, up down and over rocks, etc. Overall I was happy with the result, but deep down I was disappointed as I always want to improve and run faster. Win #20 for the year out of 26 races.

80.2 on the week, 4033.72 on the year.

TheGarbageDisposal wrote:

Oediupus Rexing- That's a very solid tempo this week man. Just out of curiosity, what are your current PRs if you don't mind sharing?

PR's are from a while back:

800 - 2:02

1500 - 4:06

3000 - 8:43

5000 - 15:59, in route to 8k 15:56 though

8k XC - 25:53 - first 8k I ran, definitely faster on a good course

10k - road race from 4.5 years ago 35:59

800 - 3000 are from may, 8k is from early october.

FWIW I run 400 in 57.9

pewow - nice progression run. the burger and shake sounds great too!

cmm268 - back to the 100 mile weeks again! haha. nice double workout on friday too :)

qrkid - nice finish to your long run. looks like you're coming back into running nicely. as for your hill sprints question, they're about 60 metres :)

hereford - nice down week. well earned :)

winter trainer girl - welcome :) any upcoming races/goals coming up?

distance fan - awesome to hear you may be getting involved with a coach :)

piano_man87 - i guess finding out your current fitness over the distances would be a help in knowing if your goals are achievable. but if you set your mind to it and believe in your training, anything is possible :)

oedipus rexing - good luck with your goals. those are some serious times!

jsrun - solid week. i take it the shin pain died off towards the end of the week?

hardloper - nice 2 mile race off the back of your half. good luck in your quest for sub 11 :)

slartzio - welcome back! some fast 200s there :)

kbxc - crazy last mile after running 9 beforehand! must be in top shape :)

printer - nice post-marathon week. surprised to see some sharpish running in there. to me, that challenge sounds crazy, but anything charity related is a tick in my book :)

reed - nice mileage despite the limited time you had this week :)

garbage disposal - don't know what to say except... wow haha. that was a surprise! great job :)

hantph96 - welcome :) nice week with some good quality thrown in there and congrats on the 10K PB!

Just kind of rolling back into it after the prior week's half mary. Seemed to have shelled me a bit more than I expected.

M-off

T- 8pm

W- 5am/5pm

R- 5am/10pm (tempo)

F- off

S- 10.5

S- 11 (2 mile wu, 5k race (18 flat, zero go in legs), 6 mile run)

I'm not nearly at the level to comment intelligently on everyone else's posts but there's some amazing work in this thread!

Hey guys. Club Nationals was fun. I ran 23:25 (PR is 23:18 from three weeks ago). So consistent, but not quite the second breakthrough I wanted :). I still can't complain.

I felt strong the whole time, but had trouble really picking it up and making a move. In particular, the 1K long uphill on that course was about where I normally make a move, and I kept trying but my body was like "uh, no." So I just stayed consistent. I'm also not sure if the cold contributed, but I felt like it was hard to really pick it up the whole time. Maybe I should have dressed a little warmer, at least for the beginning.

I finished 208th out of 343, and my team was 9th out of 43. Everyone ran well.

Highlight might have been when my coach introduced me to Pete Magill at the afterparty when I was several drinks deep.

Time to rest before Eugene