Road racing and training thread ending 3-18-17

I think my competitive marathon days may be over after Boston, but if I were to do a fourth competitive marathon, it would be Grandma's (having done NYC, Chicago and (hopefully) Boston already).

I've never heard anything but good things about Grandma's.

Smoove wrote:

I think my competitive marathon days may be over after Boston, but if I were to do a fourth competitive marathon, it would be Grandma's (having done NYC, Chicago and (hopefully) Boston already).

I've never heard anything but good things about Grandma's.

I fell in love with the race in 2012. I was there for the USATF Half Marathon champs and they treated us like kings. The only race I've been to that did a better job at hosting is Gate River Run in Jacksonville. I've been back to Grandma's twice. 2013 for the half champs again and 2015 for the full. Weather can be interesting, but I've lucked out and had good weather the years I've been there. Course is nice and the city gets into it from a cheering aspect once you're in town. Fun little town to hang out in for a few days as well.

Smoove- after boston whats next long term?

I never have any desire to go over half in a road race I dont think. I would rather run long on a trail than a marathon. But that may change (cause my mind changes a lot)

I am still trying to figure that out. At age 45, I really don't look forward to going back to doing the volume of hard vo2max interval work that would be necessary to race fairly competitively at the 5k. The only track I currently have access to is a paved track, so between the surface and the general intensity, those workouts tend to beat the hell out of my body at this point in my career.

So I am inclined to try to find as many races in the 15k through half marathon distance as possible and make those my focus since tempo paced work would be the biggest component of any training plan oriented toward those distances. I would have to come up with a race schedule that works, but I would probably go back to Gate River Run, would run Gasparilla 15k over in Tampa, and would probably go back up to the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. There is also a 10 miler in Chapel Hill, where I went to law school that would be fun to run. There is also a 10 miler in Austin that I would like to run. Most of those are in the late winter or spring, so it would make for a busy schedule that time of year, and I would fill out the year with a fall half and my local half in December, along with the local race series.

The one thing that I am toying with is seeing how fast I could run one last time on the track. The problem is that Boston will derail any effort to run fast this year, and next spring I will be 46 and time will probably start catching up more aggressively each year. So that may not happen, but I am keeping a mid-to-high 31 minute 10k in the back of my mind to see if it is viable (Kevin Castille's sub 30:00 this weekend is kind of what is driving that).

10 mile is a great distance, I wish it was as popular as half marathon. I am looking forward to building a big base this summer, I am not looking forward to 5k/10k training this late summer/fall ... NOOOOOOOO

Runrincerepeat wrote:

Slo- good race and another killer week! I hope to be sub 1:15 in a couple years. That's the long term goal

I am glad this thread has grown and been such a positive/helpful oasis in a sometimes very negative forum.

thanks. i think you will definitely run faster than 1:15. Less than 3 years ago i couldn't break 1:22 (even with a year back into running and 6 months actua training). Long term, I'd love to meet the American Development standards for Chicago (sub 1:11, but maybe there's a little leeway). i have a long way to go on that and it's getting harder to make big improvements

Birdwatcher- some very inspiring training this week. keep it up. thanks for the info on Grandma's- sounds like a great race. I wish it was about a month earlier, but I guess mid- June can still be ok up there

Slo- I hope so. with your training you should be able to hit 1:11! You are not afraid to bust it training. That is why I want to focus on shorter distances this fall as a buildup to running a couple half marathons spring 2018.

In 14 months I went from 40lbs over racing weight and having not having ran in 13 years to 19;08 in october 17;58 in november and a 36:11 10k in March. and HOPEFULLY a 1;19ish half. I will def take it last year this time I wouldnt have thought it at all.

Smoove - another super solid week. Can't wait to see you crush Boston.

RRR- that 2 mile jog rocks

runnergrl - tough times with the half but it sounds like some rest might really change that around.

Hereford - glad to see things progressing and glad to have you back posting.

R2D- great week! What's the goal for CK?

Think - awesome race! I knew you could cruise under 1:20

HTFXC- glad to have you on board and solid week. No thanks to that blood and guts workout.

Slo- Heck of a time on that half, and to post that after/during the flu? Beast!

Goal - Boston 2:45 ish

M - 15 miles moderate at 6,700'

T - 3

W - am 7 hilly, pm 5hilly

T - am 3, pm 13 as 3wu, 6xmile @110%MP w/400 jog, 2cd miles = 5:44,44,44,45,45,44

F- am 3 hilly, pm 6 hilly

S - 3

S - 22 as 10 miles @80%, 4x2miles @ 100% (3' easy), 3 miles easy

Total - 81 miles

Bit of a back and forth week for me. This week has seen daytime temps shoot into the low to mid 90s and I felt it.

Monday was run in Durango before coming back home. Went 15 miles out of town toward Silverton and ran back toward town. This provided the opportunity to hit a few miles of long descent at the start and then some rollers toward the finish of the run. Unfortunately, I was fighting an atrocious head wind the entire way back and coupled with the elevation it just beat me up. Wanted to run closer to 20 but called it a day when I got to the hotel.

Thursday was better than expected, especially after how I felt Tuesday. Sitting 8 hours in a car after Monday's run wasn't the best for my legs. Track was HOT, 84 degrees at the start, but the efforts came fairly easy even considering the heat.

Sunday was another scorcher. Had planned on 22 with a solid chunk of MP on the back end but it was 78 at the start and by the time I got 10 miles in it was already approaching 90 degrees. Rather than run the MP miles slower I decided to break them up into 2 mile reps to get a feel for the pace and then allow a short recovery to shed some heat. I was absolutely fried by the last rep which, according to my Garmin, was done at 94 degrees.

Looking for another good week this week and have a 20k hilly road race on Saturday that will be done all at MP after a solid 5-10 miles first.

We are almost there.

Another good week Working! Lots of good volume being put up these days. Going to be 84 here today.

smoove - solid! I've been trying to adopt cruise intervals more often as well, makes MP feels much more managable.

rrr - you're pretty fit now based on that 3x2mile workout. Quite a big drop from the same workout a week prior. How'd it feel compared to last week?

runn3rgirl - mentioned it earlier, but nice job on the race, with solid work throughout the week. Thursday's workout sounds like fun, I'd like to get back on the track and do some 300's, it's a fun distance to do reps at

hereford - is that the last turn before turning onto Boylston? If so, yea, that is a ton of fun

run2death - I'm having trail envy reading your weekly's! I actually started watching some ultra/trail videos on youtube this weekend and they were pretty inspiring

thinkaboutit: also said it earlier but heckuva race! I haven't been following your entire training cycle but it had seemed like you were much more fit than the initial goal of 1:21. What corral are you going to be starting at in Boston (forgive me if you had posted previously)

HTFXC - welcome to the thread. Nice progression run, something like that used to be a staple for me also

slo-twitch - to be at/that close to goal pace with the stomach flu is impressive as hell. Do you have a race distance you consider your main race? Sounds like maybe the half based on your long term goal of the Chicago standard?

birdwatcher - I have a few training buddies going up to grandma's also and I'm having some fear of missing out and am thinking about going up and running the half if I'm feeling up to it and find a bib transfer. Probably will go up either way to cheer the guys on so will be rooting for you as well!

working harder - nice MP miles this week + getting in hilly runs. I like hills but haven't been doing much of them this cycle since our routes are mostly flat. Some slight undulations but no real big climbs besides one maybe about 600m at the end of one of our long runs but I guess that's about a good a time as any. I also just got uncomfortable reading about the temps you're running in and I'm hoping we get good weather in Boston because I will probably not be ready for anything in the heat this year..

Nice job, all. Did anyone run New Bedford HM on the 19th? It was very windy, as usual. I can't tell if it was windier than normal or not. The times were not a lot slower than last year. But the waterfront part was brutal, and you really had to lean into it - the only 7:00 mile that's ever been harder for me was mile 26 of a full.

On the waterfront (around 9 miles) I was alone going into the 30 mph wind, and a pack of about 6 caught me quickly. They seemed to be helping along a woman, who was happy to draft them. When they caught me I was with another guy who for some reason didn't cling to the pack. Big mistake - he finished more than a minute back. It was worth it to push too hard for the time being to stay in the pack and share the wind breaking work.

Nealon 15k in 2 weeks. Boston in 4 weeks.

Learning - the 3x2s felt a lot better than the week before. Also the week before I did them in flats and this time I did them in trainers. I think I could have fairly easily went under 12 for a 4th set.

Working Harder wrote:R2D- great week! What's the goal for CK?

5 hours.

I think I'm gonna keep it fairly conservative. I've had REALLY mixed results on trail/ultra races that use primarily Jeep roads.

Well, looks like the 20k I was planning on running has been moved to the fall due to a scheduling issue. Thankfully I found a 13.1 to sign up for on Saturday.

Impressive run coming off an illness. Takes guts to get out there and run that hard feeling sub-par. Good run. Hope you're feeling better.

And totally agreed. The AA corral and pretty much the entire start was a mess. Between slow Sunday AM subways, pre-race security and crazy port-a-potty lines I didn't get to the corral until they were closing the gate. Was cooped in the way back with folks talking about getting under 1:30. Not enough room even to tie your shoes let alone take off sweats. Once they let it crash in on the start-line before the gun I was able to shift my way up so got out fine. The whole set up didn't lend itself to getting people in their space, warmed up and ready to go. It is what it is though.

learningcurve, what are your current P.Rs? With that mileage and the speed from Wednesday seems like 2:50 is a pretty conservative goal.

I'm in Wave 1 Corral 4 at Boston. What about you?

I think you should go for it! It would be awesome to see how fast you could hit a 10k.

He should! I would be majorly happy if i could break 16:45 and 35 this fall

The only race I have mastered this year has been 10k. 2 sub 35's yet I haven't broken 17 or 1:17 this year.

Thinkaboutit wrote:

learningcurve, what are your current P.Rs? With that mileage and the speed from Wednesday seems like 2:50 is a pretty conservative goal.

I'm in Wave 1 Corral 4 at Boston. What about you?

I'll be starting in Wave 1 Corral 5 so I might have my work cut out for me if I'm shooting for sub 2:50. I've had some really mixed results in the marathon. I ran 2:57 on my first one on a slightly hilly course, then ran on and off for a few years before running 2:56 on relatively minimal training when I started running again after a long layoff. Last year was the first time I put in some good marathon specific training and I think I was close to 2:45 shape but probably over trained and was pretty fried about a month out. I haven't really run any races over the years that were target races besides the marathon but I've run between 16:30-16:40 for the 5k twice on a flat, grass cross country course (that I knew VERY well). HM pr is 79:15, although I ran slightly faster on another one that had us run longer after being misdirected but I won't count it as a PR, that one came at the end of my 3rd week of what I think was my highest mileage 4 week block ever.

tl;dr - I'll be in W1C5. marathon pr is 2:56. I think I'm in much better shape than that. 2:50 might be conservative, but haven't had the best history in the marathon.