Road Racing and Training Thread- Week Ending July 23, 2017

Yes, my lack of experience was key. In any case, I should have gone for two 19:30s.

I intend to employ the go out hard and die strategery in my next race.. PR or bust

RRR- I respect your willingness to accept the consequences. That half sounds like it probably turned out pretty unpleasantly tho...

Slo -- best of luck heading into the meat of your training. That's a strong 10k tempo to cap off a very solid week. i think you have set up well for all the big workouts coming

Laughlin -- I was a bit of a late bloomer. I ran 4:31/9:47 in high school my senior year, but was literally running 20-25 miles a week and was never interested in running. Never ran on the weekends and coach had us do lots of intervals (which admittedly, was fun, but didn't help me much). Went to college and all my buddies were joining frats, I wasn't big on that idea, so I joined the club running group just for the heck of it-- mainly a social thing. So freshman year I didn't do any racing at all, but ended up starting to run like 40-50 miles a week and loved having something to keep me healthy and refreshed. Sophomore year I ran some road races in the fall and was running way better than I ever did in HS. Then I started running more workouts, more mileage etc... running with the club team at some meets. When all was said and done I was down to 3'54 for 1500 as a senior and I think i ran 8:3x indoor 3000 that year also after building up to 75mpw consistently.. After school I sporadically trained a bit while I was moving a lot and figuring out where I was going to live and work etc. Last few years have been pretty consistent training for me. This has actually been probably the best 6 month stretch I have ever had at 28 years old, with a PR for 10k back in April on the road, chopping my 5k PR from 15:10 down to 14:45, and nearly breaking 3'50 for 1500 last month. I have never focused much on longer stuff, but I think that time has come.

Smoove-- I find it's only useful to compare a couple key workouts that I have that I always run around the same time in race prep. One set of 1200s in a build-back-up-phase doesn't mean too much in the long run. DOn't sweat the small stuff. You're building up really nicely

Runrincerepeat -- Definitely smart to stay on the careful side in this heat. Should be fun to get a race effort in that 5k though!

outside runner -- real consistent week, with some nice progression. the effort in the heat of that thirsday run is worth a lot quicker than the actual splits. that's nice running

paleale-- nice mileage this week. Sometimes races just feel crappy, but that's a great stimulus that will help your fitness and help you for next time out there when you race again. Still a great effort going through 2 miles

slower_than_molasses -- it's the boring stuff that matters in the long run! hope the buildup continues to go smoothly

Good work everyone. Fascinating reading.

I had my highest mileage since fracturing my fib on 1st March, which is a positive but still desperately struggling mentally with the idea of getting in enough work before Chicago.

I went

M - 8 @ 7:00

T - Grass session of 8min - 2 x 2min - 2 x 60s all off 60s - 5m total inc WU/WD

W - Had a 1500m (4:38) and a 3000m 25 minutes later (9:57?) which I wasn't going all out but certainly felt it. Only my second ever 1500m and went out in 76, 76 for some bizarre reason, royally messed that one up. 6m total

Th - 8 @ 6:55

F - Off

Sat - 3000m again, felt so nauseous I wanted to step off the track for most of it, ran 9:52. Really disappointing as I felt I put more of a race effort in but I don't have the ability to go all out at the moment. 5m total

Sun - 12 @ 6:45 (longest run since March)

44 total. I guess the positive is just getting back to the mileage I was running last summer when I hit 4:24/16:34 and ran 1:16/2:46 in the longer stuff. But those feel impossible right now. Literally impossible.

David S. Pumpkins wrote:

RRR- I respect your willingness to accept the consequences. That half sounds like it probably turned out pretty unpleasantly tho...

Yes Yes it did. There is a race photo of me chumming up stomach acid on the side of the road at mile 11.5

slo-twitch - Keep up the consistency man.

Smoove - probably not the worst thing ever to have a block of training with only 1 hard day per week. Maybe it will let you go a little bit harder on that one workout or cruise a little bit more on your easy days.

RRR - Excited for your upcoming 5k.

outsiderunner- I don't know how you do 7 mile runs on a track. I like the track, but not that much.

paleale - 16:40 isn't jogging in the last mile. Maybe more like tempoing

molasses - Congrats on the 800 PR last week

HHH - my 0.02 is that getting to the Chicago starting line healthy will let you run the fastest time. Nice week

Runrincerepeat wrote:

I intend to employ the go out hard and die strategery in my next race.. PR or bust

I am with you, RRR. That is kind of how I felt in the 10k. It was mostly flat, lower elevation, and I wanted to see what I could do. Sometimes you just feel like going for it. I wish you all the best and hope you get it.

Good comment, pewow...I figured some might wonder about my 7-milers at the track. The track is about the only flat place around here, as I live in a hilly area. Also, the track offers some decent shade in the evening. So, with the sore knee and the heat, the track makes a lot of sense. It can get monotonous, though. I run on the lane1/lane2 line, and get true miles. I also do a turnaround (run in the opposite direction) after the first three miles, to try to keep things even...28 times around is about the most I can take.

All the best to you...

Darko - Thanks very much for the feedback. I respect you and your running. Glad to read your little biographical summary in regard to being a late bloomer. It sounds like that running club was the turning point for you...where things started to develop. I enjoy hearing people's stories. Would enjoy hearing everyone's story here. I am sure we all have interesting backgrounds.

With regard to Thursday's run, I came home that evening with a nice feeling. Runs like that are special, and we should savor them. They are great blessings.

All the best to you and have great week. I must say that I enjoy watching your progress and am rooting for you big time.

Hey Everyone! I'm a little late this week.

Slow- Nice tempo! It's tough to do tempos alone!

Laughlin- Rest up, Cross train and heal fast!

Smoove- Killer 1200's. 1200's I think are one of the toughest workouts and can't figure out why.

RRR- Great progression run. It's awesome to see you back hitting the miles and of course the beer.

O.R- Great consistency. Looks like you are still keeping great pace in the heat. You're getting in a lot of aerobic work to prepare for Richmond, eh?

Paleale- Great 5k! You really killed the first 2 miles. Hold that pace for another mile you'll be right at 16:00.

HHH- Great double! That doesn't sound easy!

Here's my week

Sunday- 12 miles

Monday- 4 miles

Tuesday- 3 mile warm up, 2x800s (2:29, 2:31) (1 mile 5:22) 2x800s (2:32, 2:30) 3 cool down. (The mile was rough sandwiched in there. I think I started a little fast on the 2 800's. It was really hot and I felt like I didn't have a lot on the tank mid workout)

Wednesday- am- 6 miles, pm-3 miles

Thursday- lunch run- 4miles,

pm- warm up- mowed the front lawn, 3 miles including 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1, no cool down. Too tired. haha

Friday- am- 6 easy, pm- 3 easy

Saturday- 3 mile warm up 10x30sec Sprint/ 30 second jog, 3 minute sprint x2, 1 mile cool down.

Boring, lazy, enjoyable recovery week for me.

Mon- 20mins jog

Tue- 20min jog

Wed - off

Thurs- 25min jog

Fri- 35min jog

Sat- off

Sun-- 60mins easy

Will start building back up for some road races and/or cross country in the fall. I expect August to just be base building, so probably won't be as fit for the 15k as I would like.

Tentatively:

9/6: 15k roads

10/15: 10k roads

10/28: Cross Country (i believe it's 10k or 12k).

Will maybe see if there's a 5k somewhere if I am getting pretty fit. Then think about a HM in the winter or early spring if it makes sense. But doing some long road races I haven't done before will be a nice stepping stone.

Runn3rGirl - Thanks...yes, that is my aim--lots of aerobic work for Richmond...and, of course, to survive summer. All the best to you.

M - off

T - am 10.5 w/ 5xmile 90 sec static (5:53, 52, 59, 57, 44), pm 4

W - 8

T - am 6 trail w/ 1500' vert, pm 7

F - am 3, pm 6.5

S- 20 trail w/ 3k vert

S - am 7 trail w/ 2k vert, pm 3

Total = 75

Decent week. I've decided to be a little more flexible with my mileage goal because running trail just takes so dang much longer. Rather than spending two hours to hit a flattish 20 miler I find it's taking 5+ to do the same with trail running (taking into account driving to the trails also).

Tuesday was a bit of a surprise considering it was so hot and the humid monsoon moisture has snuck its way into the valley now. Figure the next 9 weeks will see one to two tempo sessions a week with a bigger focus on climbing from here on out. From Sunday to Sunday I managed around 10k total in vert which is huge for me. More miles and more up this week.

Nice Week, W.H. That 20 is impressive.

Smoove - do you coach people remotely?

You gave me some really good direction a few months ago. I printed it out was set to pretty much follow what you laid out. But I shut it down for a month for various reasons. Now I'm on my 5th week of 20-30 mpw with strides. Looking for direction as to how to periodize my training for a goal 5k in November

I do. I'm about to launch my company officially - Brooklyn Born Running - but I've got half a dozen athletes that I'm coaching aside from my YMCA group that I coach (and aside from my day job as a real estate lawyer).

Shoot me an email at

ymca_runner@hotmail.com

. Happy to answer general questions and give suggestions here or by email. But also happy to come up with a full blown training plan tailored to your goals if you wanted to go a more formal route too.

Also, with the amount of time you have, you can pretty much do whatever you want in terms of a training plan. You have enough time for a bit more of a base period and you would still have a good 12 week chunk or maybe more before your race (depending on when in November it is). I'd probably advocate base work until 12 weeks out, then 2-4 weeks of rep work (depends on your personal past experience), then a big block of vo2max, working up and then back down the interval lengths (from 800 to 1600 depending on your current fitness, past practices, etc), then a 3 week block of speed and race modeling.

Darko - interesting. That is some serious talent based off of your high school times. Cool to hear someone else's running story. Did you just not want to race for your school? Cause those times would be competitive at some D1 schools.

Runn3rgirl - thanks for the kind wishes. I've tried cross training, but felt some soreness whenever I would swing my leg down, so that got nixed pretty quickly. I feel like I'm over the hump, but the ache has been coming and going for a few days now. Strange. Solid week by the way.