Road Racing and Training Thread - Week Ending 7/26

Tried to cross-train while I was injured, but it was hard to motivate myself.

M: 45 min. pool running (only day I had access to a pool that was deep enough)

T: 16 mi. biking

W: 20 min. swimming broken up into intervals

Th: nothing. Foot stopped hurting but I decided to give it another day to heal

F: 5 (7:42). Extremely sore afterwards from not being used to the pounding of running.

Sat: 5.5 at practice including 1 mile in 6:08. The workout was 4 x mile on a portion of our XC course, and the senior captain told me to hit 5:45-5:50. Stopped the workout after a 6:08 first mile and jogged 2.5 easy. Basically, my legs were too sore after Friday and I had zero pop in my step.

Sun: Planned 6 easy but had to stop after 1.5 due to an extremely painful side cramp. Starting to feel some pain in my foot again, so decided to play it safe and not try to run again.

Total: 12

Goal Race- San Jose RnR

Date- 9/27

Mon- 10 miles at 7:25 / 4 miles at 7:28. Strides.

Tue- 12 miles. 2x3miles with 5 min active rest. Bombed this workout. 15:21 (5:08, 5:06, 5:06) and 16:58 (5:45, 5:42, 5:31). Just did a steady state on the second rep.

Wed- 10 miles at 7:18. Weights.

Thur- 10 miles at 7:15 / 4 miles at 7:12. Strides.

Fri- 13 miles. 10x1k with 90 sec active rest. 3:01 avg. (3:08, 3:07, 3:05, 3:04, 3:02, 3:01, 2:59, 2:57, 2:55, 2:53).

Sat- 10 miles at 7:01. Weights.

Sun- 10 miles at 7:12 / 4 miles at 7:10. Strides.

Total- 87

My week was up and down. Started off feeling really worn out. I bombed the 2x3mile workout. The original pace planned for that was 4:55 but I knew that wasn't going to happen prior, even with this decrease in pace I was still feeling crap. I just did a steady state the last rep. Then for Friday's 1k session I started conservative because of the way I was feeling but the pace just came to me and i ran the second half of the workout at a solid pace. Overall, I'm just happy that this was only a small slump. I seem to be good now. Hope everyone's week went good.

Hi all,

M - 15k ez

T - 17k workout*

W - 30k with 2000ft. Elevation gain

T - 1h swim

F - 17k ez

S - 12.5k workout** + 1h swim

S - 20.5k w/ 1h @4:30/k, 20' @3:50/k 10' cd + 1h swim

T - 112k +3h swim

* 10' @4:10/k, 10'@3:50, 10'@4:10/k, 10'@3:50/k, 5'@3:35/k

** 10*(400-200 w/ 100jog rest). 400 in 78/79, 200 in 37/38. 100jog rest in 35-40".

Pretty happy with the week. The last two weeks were super hot here and the training really suffered. Today was the first day with cooler temps. Amazing how mich easier everything felt.

Goal: Sub 17:30 5k XC, top 30 at XC state (last week of October)

15 male, incoming sophomore. Track PRs- 10:59, 5:07, 2:21

M: 5 recovery/ weights (chest and back exercises)

T: 2 w/u + 8x200 at 800 pace, recovery was jogging the curve and walking the straight. Splits went 35-36-35-35-35-34-33-30, last one was all out sprint. +4 cooldown= 7 total.

W: 2 w/u+ 4.1 tempo at 6:36 pace + 1.6 c/d. =7.7. weights shoulders and arms

T: 2.5 w/u + 0.4 miles of hill reps at a hard but relaxed pace. Probably a bit faster than mile pace+ 4.35 c/d. =7.25. then did weights, leg exercises

F: 45 minute recovery run = 4.9 miles

S: 100 minute long run, 12.1 miles

S: 45 minute recovery, 4.8 miles

48.75 total.

Had an okay week. Didn't like having to do 3 workouts in a row but that's how my teams practice schedule works. I moved my long run to Saturday to re-arrange the week so I go Monday/Tuesday with a tempo and track workout, easy day Wednesday, then hills thursday.

Towards the end of the week I experimented with running based on time rather than distance. Not sure if I like it. I have a question about recovery runs. I've heard from some that you should limit true recovery days to 45 minutes or less of running, and since that was similar length to what I have been doing, I just went with it. Now I feel as if I'm ready to maybe move up a bit more on mileage, but don't want to negate the recovery on those days. What do you guys think? I would ask my coach but he doesn't really have us take any "recovery" days. Most guys on my team just go out and hammer every distance run except for once a week when they will do a slightly longer, slightly slower run.

Half Marathon Week 4/8

M: 9

T: 10 w/ 3 warmup, 4 mi tempo @ 6:20 pace on ~1350m loop (1st loop 6:43 pace, 2nd 6:24, 3rd 6:18, 4th 6:11 last 1k 6:07), 3 mi cooldown w/ strength

W: 8

Th: 8 w/ 8x200 @ 3k=>1500 effort & strength

F: 7

S: 12.5 w/ 3 mi warmup, 7 mi high end aerobic (6:55, 6:52, 6:49, 6:55, 6:59, 7:04, 7:09), 2.5 cooldown, back soreness limited run

Total - 54.5

This is most I've run in a week by 1.5 miles. I was feeling sluggish all week though so next week will be a down week.

Tuesday I started out way too slow which killed my average pace even though I ran the last 2.5-3 miles at about the pace I wanted to.

Thursday was just to try and get some pop in my legs which worked until I was at the gym and feeling good so I decided to up my weights from what I've been doing this summer to what I was doing back in track season.

I definitely felt the added weight on Saturday as my legs and and back felt fatigued the whole run. I wanted to try and average in the 6:30s or low 6:40s so this was frustrating.

Stone Cutter: appreciate the comments. Good call on your training to go conservative, 17 weeks is a long time to train for one race. I think a 16 week plan is about my limit.

Goal: Top of Utah Marathon 9/19, Plan: Pfitzinger 18 week 55-70

This week for me was a cutback:

Monday: 9 aerobic

Tuesday: VO2 max 8 with 6X800 at 5K pace. Made the mistake of doing this in the hot afternoon.

Wednesday: Recovery 6

Thursday: MLR 11

Friday: 7 with 10X100 strides

Saturday: MLR 15

Sunday: Rest

Total: 56

Good week overall, legs felt a lot less tired on the Saturday run and with the cooler temps was able to run about 30 seconds a mile faster at the same heartrate as last week.

Next week is the toughest week of the entire plan; peak miles (70), a 7 mile LT, and a 22 miler on Saturday.

Good luck to all this week!

Matthias - Nice race last week and great K+200 session.

SDP - Consistency is key and you seem to be doing well with that. Those early wakeups sound rough.

BackIntoIt - Super run on Saturday. Did you take any nutrition during the run?

StoneCutter - I'm still loving the 400m hill reps! How did the 4/3/2/1 workout feel? I'm thinking of doing that one soon.

OklahomaGuy - I'm thinking I'd go up to 16. I know the Hansons does a 26.2K marathon simulation so I might do that which will be right around 16 miles. Pretty quick last 200!

IncomingFreshman - Looks like an up and down week, but smart to play it safe.

RunnersFix - Good first rep, smart to adjust halfway through. Looks like you came back very well on the 1k reps!

Hantph96 - Nice volume! Great interval session on Saturday.

Pewow - Nice tempo on Tuesday. Congrats on the mileage as well.

Here is my week:

M - AM: 3 x 1k/400/200 with splits of 3:02/70/33, 3:01/70/33, 3:00/72/34 + 4 x 150. PM: 49'

T - 75' / 4.33

W - 9 / 5 with 4x150

R - AM: 1 mile threshold in 5:14 + 8 x 300 on, 200 off, 200 on, 300 off. Averages of 54/52/35/75. PM: 6 miles.

F - 7.75 / 4.5

S - 8.8 with hill sprints / 3.3 miles

S - AM: 5k race in 15:13. 4 miles in 24:30 after. PM: 6 miles.

Total: 110

Higher volume again this week with three quality days. Track sessions on Monday and Thursday both went like I was hoping. 5k race this AM. Placed 8th behind 4 Kenyans and 3 other guys I know. Lots of competition which is always a good thing. Hope everyone has a good week!

forcerunner - nice week and solid race. As for the nutrition, I didn't take any during the long run, partially because I forgot to buy the gels I normally take and then partially (mostly just justified it to myself before the workout) running without fuel on purpose. Need to start incorporating those into my workouts though as I've always found it important to practice taking gels (dealing with stomach issues, etc)

left some comments earlier and just updating with my training for this week

Also forgot to mention that "working harder"- I'm looking forward to following your training and buildup as we have the same goal time at the same race!

And Forcerunner- thanks for the recommendations regarding the special block

My training goal- sub 2:40 at chicago marathon

m- 13.5 (easy double-8.5/5)

t- (11.5) workout: goal was 8 miles continuous alternating goal mp (6:05) and goal hmp (5:45). I folded at 7.5- very hot/humid, and i didn't have it. On a track in trainers.

Splits- 6:04/5:45/6:02/5:45/6:05/5:47/6:11/2:55 for 800

w- easy 9.5

th- easy 8.5

f- (26) Special block: workout goal was Am- 5 miles at 93-94%mp (6:25-6:30), 3 min rec, 5 miles at mp (6:05). Pm- 5 miles at 93-94% mp, 3 min rec, 8x1000~3:32 (~102%hmp), 2:15 jog rec btwn reps. splits: (was able to run quite a bit faster than planned in afternoon)-

am- 6:28,6:26,6:27,6:24,6:27 ; 6:01,6:05,5:57,6:04,6:04

Pm- 6:20,6:04,6:13,6:08,6:02; 1000s- 3:30,3:30,3:29,3:29,3:28,3:29,3:28,3:26

s- very easy 7

su- very easy 10

-86 miles for the week. I was pleased that the special block (my first) went well. Thanks everyone for great thread and training inspiration

Forcerunner- just saw this...great race yesterday and quality interval sessions this week. Respect for hammering a 5k like that in the midst of an intense 110 mile week! What marathon are you training for?

I'm always late to this thing. haha

Goals: Sub 4:24 inddor mile

sub 27 fall 8k (cross country)

Week ending in 7/25

Sunday: 13.1 miles @ 6:33 pace

Monday: AM 3 miles easy (8:00)

PM 10 miles easy (7:45)

Tuesday: AM 4.7 miles easy (7:31)

PM 5.1 miles easy (7:27)

Wednesday: AM 3 miles easy (7:44)

PM 10 mile fartlek. 4X1 mile (3min jogging recovery) 5:49, 5:35, 5:24, 5:39

Thursday: AM 6.9 miles (7:30)

PM 4.25 miles (7:02)

Friday: AM 2 miles easy (7:45)

PM 5 miles tempo (5:40) 5:53, 5:30, 5:38, 5:39, 5:40

Saturday: AM 3.8 miles easy (8:00)

PM 8 miles easy (7:30)

Week total: 79 miles

Very happy with this week, especially since the weeks leading up to this were sub par. Feeling better now that I'm doing a lot of doubling again. The Fartlek on Wednesday didn't feel very good, just glad I got out there and out the effort in. The tempo Friday I ran after work and I'm extremely happy with it. I actually tied my 8k PR from last cross season. So my endurance is finally getting decent I think.

Goal race - September marathon in 3:10

Sun - Rest

Mon - 7 easy (8:30)

Tue - 13 easy, w/3 at goal MP 7:15

Wed - 6 easy (8:00)

Thu - 10 w/7 at threshold pace 7:00

Fri - 5 easy (8:15)

Sat - 21 (first 13 at 8:30, last 8 at 7:30)

Total - 62

Nice weeks everyone, good luck!

Forcerunner wrote:

StoneCutter - I'm still loving the 400m hill reps! How did the 4/3/2/1 workout feel? I'm thinking of doing that one soon.

As I am sure you know, that .25mi hill workout is my favorite year-round workout. I feel like you get the most bang for your buck with a session like that, and you can always decide exactly how hard you want to push the "up" segments. I am just lucky enough to have a hill within a mile and a half of my house that perfectly fits the bill, so easy to warmup-workout-cooldown without too much thought.

As for the 4/3/2/1 workout, I felt that at 85-90% MP it was very controlled and manageable. Aside from a couple of uphill segments (I did it on a nice undulating 4-5mi loop with 3 significant uphills/downhills), I never felt labored or like I was pushing too hard, even 15 miles in. In fact, that last 1mi segment felt by far the smoothest, like I had a good amount of running left in me. I would think that doing the workout at 100% MP with maybe 100% MP+45secs for the recovery miles would be the real way to go. Probably best to do that type of workout maybe two weeks before doing say 12-13mi in a row at 100% MP.

Definitely still very beneficial though at the moderate effort - it was a confidence booster at this stage in the game for me.

5k PR- approximately 17:25

Goal: 10 runs w/ 53 miles

-M: AM- 4.25 mile fartlek @ 7:17 pace + 1.5 mile warm up, and 1.5 mile cool down

PM- 3.51 mile recovery run @ 8:10 pace

-T: 3.2 mile recovery run @ 8:11 pace

-W: AM- 3 sets of hill sprints (1:30, 2:00, 1:30) = .70 miles + 1 mile warm up, and 1 mile cool down

PM- 1 mile track race (5:05) + 1 mile warm up, and 1 mile cool down

-Th: 6.25 miles easy @ 7:35 pace

-F: AM- 4 mile shakeout @ 7:53 pace

PM- 3 sets of (300-53, 400-1:18, 500-1:40) w/ 100m, 200m, and 300m recovery jogs + 1.5 mile warm up and 1.5 mile cool down

-S: 9.15 mile long run @ 7:45 pace

-Su: 3.05 mile recovery run

Total: 48.4 miles

Monday- Woke up, and ate before practice. About an hour before my stomach completely turned and started hurting like hell. I had to take numerous trips to the bathroom, and couldn't even move around without a ton of pain.

Tuesday- My stomach hurt worse than the day before. I can't describe the pain, and why I had it either.

Wednesday- My stomach felt better, but still pretty bad. I knew I wasn't gonna run well in my race due to this. In the race I almost went to the bathroom numerous times, and I couldn't go any faster other wise I's be risking it. Negative split the race, and didn't feel any fatigue what so ever, after wards I got very sick.

Thursday- I didn't feel good, but I felt better than I had all week, could actually run more than 100m without a world of pain.

Friday- My stomach felt awful on my morning run, but it completely turned and felt great at night for my speed session. Quite weird, but I'm not complaining!

Saturday- Felt really well, didn't show any signs of stomach issues through the whole run.

Sunday- No stomach issues at all. I think the unexpected stomach bug is gone.

As you can see, my week didn't go as planned. I would have loved to hit 53 miles, but when the unexpected stomach bug came around, I figured I'd cu that down to 45. I my first goal of 10 runs, and my second mileage goal for the week. I am kinda bummed, yet there is nothing I could've done about it.

Just finished a great week on vacation.

M - 8 and circuits

T - 9

W - 10 and circuits, light weights

Tr - 8

F - 9

Sa - 10

Su - 0 b/c of travel issues

Total - 54 miles

Very good week both running and otherwise. Felt great on all of my runs and I think the pace was good for most of them. Got to run with my cousin who is starting to get serious about running and looks to be going in the right direction. At a slight elevation but couldn't really feel it. No doubles this week as I am trying to increase length of my daily runs. Also did a lot of swimming and hiking this week. Would've liked to get some strides in, so next week may be a bit rusty. Stuck in a coffee shop right now until I can get back, so no run today :(.

Matthias - Nice week! Those 1k's were very good

sdp - Solid week. Putting a lot of thought into your weeks while enjoying every day is great.

Stone cutter - really great week. Digging that hill workout and Canova thing as well.

incoming freshman - Too bad about the injury. Looks like you have a pretty good cross training setup though. Heal up soon!

Runnersfix - Even though Tuesday looked rough Thursday became a great cutdown it looks like.

hantph96 - Both workouts look really good. 400-200 especially. Keep it up

Oklahoma Guy - Nice week w/ back-to-back-to-back workouts. To answer your Q I think that as long as you are not tapering recovery runs can be as long as you want if they dont wear you down. Just increase slowly and be careful. Sounds rough with the coach not having recovery days.

pewow- great cutdown tempo and 200s. Upping the weight will probably be a good idea in the long run, even though it impacted you negatively on Sat

jwil - nice looking week. Good luck with yout peak week.

forcerunner - good looking week with a lot of intensity. (and volume)

thatAverageRunner - another solid week, especially with the tempo. Looks like you may "upgrade" your username before long.

Week 16 for me. Trying to get back into running 4-5x per week after 7/4 calf strain.

Age: 33

6'1" / 172#

Goals: Eventually break my lifetime PRs in 5km (17:00) and mile (4:36) and beer mile (7:43).

Next races: Nothing planned in the next several weeks.

M= 3 miles (7:39) cut-down testing calf.

Tu= cross train ~20 minutes

W= 4.2 (7:49) finished with 5x 10" hill sprints.

Th= cross train ~30 minutes

F= 2.4 (7:52)

Sa= 5.3 (7:22) including 8x400m. Calf survived.

Su= 2 (8:16) with my dog. Calf sore.

Total = 17 miles

16 week total = ~475 miles.

Legs have come around after all the rest in late June and early July. Calf is still a bit grumpy if I run fast so I really need to be careful.

Saturday: 8x400m alternating 90" and 80" with 200m jog. Felt like I've lost some fitness and speed over last several weeks. Pushed a bit.

Hope everyone else had a great week!

Cheers.

Mon- 8 at 6:47 (8:15 first mile, ran progression style) + 6 strides

Tue- 3 at 7:15 + hurdle drills/core // 8 at 6:45

Wed- 10 at 6:13 (last 5 sub 6 pace) // hurdle drills/core

Thur- 2.75 up, Fartleck run + 4 strides (5on/4off, 4on/3off, 3on/2off, 2on/1off, 1on)--> averaged 5:45-6:00 for the whole thing, about 4:50-5:30 for the on, roughly 1.5 down --> 8.5 total

Fri- 4 at 6:56 + 6 strides // 4 at 6:56

Sat- 6 at 6:26

Sun- 7 at 6:53 // 7 at 6:41

Total: 65.5 miles

New weekly mileage high, although I did three doubles instead of two. I went to a running camp the first few days, and had a good time. I had a nice 10 miler there and I felt effortless going sub 6 pace (talking/no increased breathing). I decided to split up the mileage on Friday to serve as a recovery day, and only 6 on Saturday. I felt a little tired/sluggish Sunday morning, but felt really good in the afternoon so I went longer. I'm pretty happy with where I am right now. The goal is to try and run 60 mpw in singles consistently.

I know I am a bit late, but I'll post anyway.

Goals: Sub 17 5k, team title at a number of XC races.

Monday: 1 mile w/u+9 mile long run in 1:05:53 (7:19/mi). Absolutely brutal heat 90+ and very humid, couldn't finish the 11 I had planned.

Tuesday: 1.5 w/u+5x200 with 200 recovery (and 2 minutes rest time)+2 c/d barefoot. Split: 31.0, 30.9, 31.3, 31.9, 31.5.

Wednesday: 7 miles trails easy, strides+15 mile bike ride

Thursday: AM: 1 w/u+4 mile Tempo+2 mile c/d. Ran a 23:31 (5:52/mi), split 5:46 (felt slow for some reason), 5:56, 5:55, 5:54. PM: 2 miles easy

Friday: 7 miles easy

Saturday: 8 miles moderate pace (not exactly sure, probably around 6:50) with the last 2 miles ~6:30.

Sunday: ~11.4 miles of trails in 1:18:20+gym later in the day+13 miles easy biking.

Total Miles: 57

Very good week, the tempo on thursday was faster than a 4 mile race I ran in the spring and felt fairly relaxed, so I know I'm in good shape. Overall things are looking pretty good and I'm looking to hit 60+ miles next week.

Hey man, I see you need some advice with your recovery days. I'd say to keep one day at 45 minutes, like it has been. The second recovery day could go something like this (AM- 25 min, PM- 40 min) If you're running true recovery pace, this won't put very much extra stress on your body, and you'll still be recovering almost the same amount.